Not exactly new, but rededicated

[chaserchap]

So, I was around when the board started up, but I've been away for awhile.

Here's the short story:

I was here, I lost weight, I stopped working out, I got out of shape, I want to get back into shape.

Here's the long story:

A while back I was trying to get into the Navy NUPOC (Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate) program. Unfortunately I was overweight. At 6'4" I needed to weigh less than 221, I was around 230 (if memory serves me correctly). I was working out, eating right, etc. Right before I went for my physical (MEPS for those of you familiar with the military) I weighed myself and was right at 220. At MEPS they measured my height as 6'3" so I was sweating a bit when they went for my weight, I knew I was good for 6'4" but I didn't think I'd make at 6'3". Fortunately I weighed in at 216 (or was close enough that that's what the guy recorded it as) which is the maximum weight for 6'3". Needless to say I was very relieved. Unfortunately my blood pressure at the time was soaring (140+/95+) so I still had work to do.

Over the next two weeks I had to keep a close eye on my sodium and caffeine intake as I tried to get my blood pressure to an acceptable level. Finally I got it down, physically I was fine for the Navy. (However my PT test wasn't great, my pushups/situps were fine, but my runtime was terrible)

After that the next step in the process was technical interviews, which consisted of 2 interviews with Navy Nuclear Engineers giving primarily calculus and physics questions, and an interview with a 4 star admiral (the highest rank achievable when not in war, so kind of a big deal). It's fair to say I was a bit nervous (which might have contributed to the blood pressure). After getting the physical stuff taken care of, my focus turned toward studying and preparing for my interviews. I stopped watching what I ate, and stopped working out like I should.

My interviews went great and I was accepted into the program, so after that I celebrated. This was back in early October. At this time I also got engaged,and while that might motivate some to start working out, I was still celebrating getting in the Navy, that and school, and the fact that the wedding was bumped to December didn't help either.

Now, having just gotten back from my honeymoon (Hawaii is beautiful this time of year), it's time to start working on my body again, else I get my buttkicked at OCS (basic training for officers). I weighed in today at 233, I'd like to be down to 210 by June 5. I know that's a lot of weight to lose in 5 months, but that's when I go to OCS.

Outside of that, I'd like to be able to do 100 push ups in 2 mins, 100 sit ups in 2 minutes, and run 3 miles in 20 minutes. Steep goals, I suppose, but that's what I want nonetheless. I'm not too worried about my bench press and that sort of thing because the Navy isn't going to care. I just want to be in good enough shape that when I go to OCS I won't die.

I guess overall, I'm looking for a group to get started with accountability and that sort of thing, I noticed I missed the last 28 day challenge, but I suppose a new one will be starting soon.

If you have any questions about me or the NUPOC program (which is a really great program if you're interested in Nuclear Engineering at all) feel free to PM me.

[halftruths]

Heya Chaser -

You did it before, you can do it again, and you can make it permanent! Just because you missed the last 28 day challenge doesn't mean you can't pop in a couple of goals to get you started. Can you think of any goals you could work on over the next week that will help you in the long run, like planning a workout schedule, looking into new fitness activities, or working on your pushups for 10 minutes every day until the start of the next challenge? Those little things add up, and I've no doubt people will cheer you on. Then you'll be moving into the next 28 day challenge with a couple of victories already under your belt! You can post them in a Workout Battle Log and start tracking right away.

If you're looking for more focussed group to help with the accountability, what about checking out the both the 28 Day Challenge forum OMFG section, reading up on the different classes/professions, and joining the one that is most appealing to you in terms of fitness activities? You'll have an instant team of Rebels ready and waiting to watch your back, read about your battle logs, and dole out both high fives and tough love whenever you need it. I've been having a blast keeping up with my fellow Monks, and I know that the other groups are having a grand old time as well.

[Brometheus]

Welcome back, and good luck on losing the weight.

I read this a couple weeks ago, it might be of some interest to you: http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/496/

I might be a bit biased because kettlebells are all that I use to workout with, but to each their own

I hope that whatever exercise program you pursue that it will help with getting into whatever shape you desire [or in this case, need].

[Speedy]

Here are some websites that might help you to meet your specific goals:

www.hundredpushups.com

www.twohundredsitups.com

Runner's World, you can become a member and use their SmartCoach tool.

A couple years ago I needed to get my 3-mile runtime down significantly and I found that sticking to a specific pace on a treadmill worked well for me. So, if I wanted to finish in 25 minutes, I set the treadmill for 7.2 mph and ran as long as I could and the next day I would try to run a little bit longer. A lot of trainers advocate High Intensity Interval Training, so you might want to try that too.

[Cacophony]

Yeah, for specificity training the body's stupidly simple to figure out: You have to find a way to make it do as close to what you want it to do as you can. Interval/circuit training is best for power development and muscle hypertrophy. Endurance... well, I just finished my Strength and Resistance Training course and I'm a week into my Endurance course but looking at the physiology it'd be safe to say that your biggest hurdle is going to be the metabolism aspect and keeping the machine running for as long as you need it to. Running to exhaustion is going to work but you have to make sure you take 2-3 rest days in between a true run to exhaustion or you're not giving yourself any adaptation time. If you want to work out more often running up to about 80% of your max distance for a week or so to get into the groove and then upping the distance by a set amount would be a little more effective. The general ballpark for load progression is 10% increases a week so you're challenging yourself a little but not trashing the hell out of your system.

If your goal is running the 3 miles in 20, start walking 4 minutes and running 1 for two weeks for that distance and track your time. When that's starting to feel like it doesn't suck walk for 3:30 and run for 1:30 for a week or two - the trick is to keep moving to keep your heartrate up. Rinse and repeat until you have your distance and then you can start whittling down the time. Make sure you take at least one day a week completely off to recoup before recycling and pay attention to your diet and how much sleep you're getting. No food = no fuel. No sleep = no repair and adaptation.

Just an FYI for your training schedule: You can train metabolically for aerobic endurance and do some resistance training, strength training, etc. It doesn't work well the other way around, however. If you want to be an anaerobic machine adding distance endurance won't work mainly because you'll put on too much muscle to both move and supply for an endurance run. Less muscle bulk will make it easier to do those push ups and sit ups as well... so you'll want to focus your weights on 60-80% of your 1 repetition max instead of doing really heavy weights. You don't necessarily want BIGGER muscles, you just want the ones you have to work more efficiently. Make sense?

[chaserchap]

Makes perfect sense. I found a workout online that's all bodyweight (burpees, pushups, etc.) that I'm going to start doing soon. I just (re)started the Couch to 5k program, and it does basically what you're saying, only a little less walking in between running. I'm pushing myself during the running portions, and cutting back as necessary. I'm also doing about 20 mins of elliptical on my off days. I was going to lift a little more intensely but what you said makes sense, so I might go ahead and back off of the weight training and focus more on bodyweight, working on the hundred pushups and two hundred situps programs.