Totally new to working out! some dumb questions!

[ironspider]

Hello everyone! I just recently purchased the new crossbow by weider (the new revison one they are startign to call the "crossbar") and I have all the little pictures of the workouts and such but I have a great many questions that I hope you all can help me with to get me started down the road of exercise and fitness!

1. About me. I am 31 years old, 5'7 and about 170ish pounds. When I look at myself I don't think I am fat but there is no way in hell I am going to beach unles I lose some MAJOR belly. Also my face could definately be a little less "puffy" but my legs and arms are pretty skinny with a bit of good tone. I am not looking to bulk up -- just the opposite. I want to acheive a much more "toned" look and I don't want to buy XL t-shirts and only T-shirts when I should be buying medium shirts.

2. The exercises. Weider has all those little pictures of different exercises but do I do them all? Do I rotate on different days? For example, like the "chest press" do I do that every day? and how many reps? And as for weight do I want to do a ton of medium effort reps or like 2 extrememy ldifficult reps?

3. Aerobics. The crossbow says it has an aerobic exercise by way of its "rowing" feature. If I want to drop this gut should I do that rowing every day for lkike 30 minutes or are aerobics overrated?

4. Diet. I have absolutely no diet whatsoever. I rarely drink any water but I recently gave up caffeine. I assume I have to go with a ton of water but what about a more sensible diet? Again, I don't want to bulk up I want to shed and tone but I don't want anythign crazy like Atkins. Any links, diets/plans that are pretty decent?

5. Anything else you can think of!

Thank you guys so much. I have been putting off getting in shape for so long and I think it's really making my miserable. I am into gettting into shape and any help you all can provide with my billion questions above will really get me going!

Thanks!

[KetoManiac]

Originally Posted by ironspider

Hello everyone! I just recently purchased the new crossbow by weider (the new revison one they are startign to call the "crossbar") and I have all the little pictures of the workouts and such but I have a great many questions that I hope you all can help me with to get me started down the road of exercise and fitness!

1. About me. I am 31 years old, 5'7 and about 170ish pounds. When I look at myself I don't think I am fat but there is no way in hell I am going to beach unles I lose some MAJOR belly. Also my face could definately be a little less "puffy" but my legs and arms are pretty skinny with a bit of good tone. I am not looking to bulk up -- just the opposite. I want to acheive a much more "toned" look and I don't want to buy XL t-shirts and only T-shirts when I should be buying medium shirts.

2. The exercises. Weider has all those little pictures of different exercises but do I do them all? Do I rotate on different days? For example, like the "chest press" do I do that every day? and how many reps? And as for weight do I want to do a ton of medium effort reps or like 2 extrememy ldifficult reps?

3. Aerobics. The crossbow says it has an aerobic exercise by way of its "rowing" feature. If I want to drop this gut should I do that rowing every day for lkike 30 minutes or are aerobics overrated?

4. Diet. I have absolutely no diet whatsoever. I rarely drink any water but I recently gave up caffeine. I assume I have to go with a ton of water but what about a more sensible diet? Again, I don't want to bulk up I want to shed and tone but I don't want anythign crazy like Atkins. Any links, diets/plans that are pretty decent?

5. Anything else you can think of!

Thank you guys so much. I have been putting off getting in shape for so long and I think it's really making my miserable. I am into gettting into shape and any help you all can provide with my billion questions above will really get me going!

Thanks!

1) bodybuilders call what you want to do a cutting phase.
2)as you get more advancded, you want to train each muscle group once a week and split them into 1-2 muscle groups a day. For now, do a full body split 2-3x a week (around 3 sets per each muscle, obviously more or elss for bigger/smaller muscles, sticking with 6-8 reps. should last no longer then 55 minutes).
3)rowing is good cardio, but i prefer running way better. cardio 3-5 times a week is good. Be it running for 30-40 minutes or rowing. my favorite tpye of cardio is HIIT cardio (high intensity interval cardio). You do it by running in intervals (sprinting 30 seconds, jogging 10 seconds, repeat).
4)stick with low gi carbs (carbs like sweet potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat/grain bread, whole wheat pasta, etc), at least 1 gram of protein per lb, variety of fruits, and plenty of veggies. Fats should be coming from clean sources and healthy sources (essential fatty acids) like flax/fish oil, natural peanut butter, nuts, etc. You shoud be drinkning at least a gallon of water a day though.
5) a good supplemenet to buy would be whey protein. a scoop after workouts is a great thing and also a scoop mixed in some milk for a meal is good as well. A good multi vitamin never hurt.
Oh yeh, i would of reccomended saving your money to get free weights instead. Better off in the long run.

[groeneaj]

search the forums you will find heaps of stuff!

[Tuna Fish]

Hi Ironspider-

Welcome to DF.com! You'll get a lot of help here, and we all look forward to your transformation!!!

Tuna

[Wolfnatas]

I agree with alot of what's been said above. My 2 cents below.

Diet is 80% of what will get you where you want to be. 5 or 6 meals a day instead of 3, will up your metabolism and help you burn more fat. Drink lots of water. Eat lots of protein.

[Timbers]

Welcome, Ironspider!
You'll get lots of great info here and encouragement.
I'd like to hear more of your experience with the Cross Bow as I'm getting one in the near future.
There is another memeber here, Mustang, that just got a Cross Bow too.

[Seraphic]

Yes Free weights all the way! I love my steel plates. The satisfaction I get when I slap them on and the sweet clang sounds they make.

The only time I'll use machines is when I get really old or injured.

Thankfully I am neither for now.

[Octagon]

Hey there, fellow crossbow owner.

(How the hell did you get it up your stairs?)

Here's a little crossbow tip I found invaluable...go to the bowflex site and dl the pdf copy of their manual. I love the crossbow but the documentation and video are worse than useless. The bowflex manual, on the other hand, has tons of really good information about nutrition, lays out in pretty decent detail a variety of different exercise plans including the '20 minutes a day, three times a week' stuff to circuit training, strenght training and body building. They also include detailed descriptions of each individual exercise along with photos of proper form and little 'hey bonehead, DON'T do this' warnings and tips.

It doesn't all directly translate to the crossbow but 99% of it does and it's a really useful starting point.

[ironspider]

Wow thatnks for all the great replies so far and the tip on the bowflex manual hijack -- I had heard that the crossbow documentation sucked. I have also heard that assembling it is pretty harcore also--luckily I am really good at that kind of stuff (like I get all these weird calls from people I haven't talked to in years saying "hey, I just bough such and such, can you come over and put it together for me?"

I will definately be reading more posts to find out more good info and keeping everyone posted on my quest to, in the words of Edward Norton in Fight Club, "Change from a wad of cookie dough to being carved out of wood."

[mustang GT]

Originally Posted by Timbers

Welcome, Ironspider!
You'll get lots of great info here and encouragement.
I'd like to hear more of your experience with the Cross Bow as I'm getting one in the near future.
There is another memeber here, Mustang, that just got a Cross Bow too.

Yup I definetly got the Cross Bow, but unfortunetly I haven't worked out on it yet. I took a break after it was put together for various reasons. But I will be making up my Cross Bow routine and reworking my diet very soon.