Cool title attempting to distinguish myself from everyone else introducing themselves

[PhilD]

Hey everyone,

My name is Phil and I am actually really excited to be here. I've a friend who talks about this board all the time (Tom Kenobi) but I've finally bit the bullet. I love the idea behind this community and it seems like a really great place, I'm pretty determined to get stuck in and involved.

I'm presently underweight in all the wrong places and overweight everywhere else I'm skin and bones from the soles of my feet to the top of my head with a bit of a gut. Of course that is a matter of perspective as am only a 34" waist, but given I weigh around 150lb and I'm 5'10" something doesn't add up

For as long as I remember I've had a problem putting weight on and because of that I've eaten and drank anything I want. However my health has definitely taken a bit of a hit because of that. Now that reality is starting to set in I've decided to get "get fit".

My goals aren't too huge, I simply want to have some healthy stamina (I'd get out of breath if I had to run up and down the stairs in my house), to tone down around my waist and to bulk up everywhere else.

My biggest enemy is food and I know that, I'm going to make some goals to work towards my diet becoming completely Paleo - but I know the key is manageable steps as I've tried the all or nothing approach about 5 times now always failing miserably!

I have pretty bad wrists - doing a pushup or two can leave me in a lot of pain for days. I'm not sure if that's something I can actively work on or not but I'm keen to do so if I can.

Another thing to note is I'm a travelling speaker and so I often find myself in other people's houses or hotels and so that can make both diet and working out a bit tricky so I really want to design something around that.

I'm scouring the forum and the blogs but any pointers would be great to get me started

[bigm141414]

Welcome Phil! Glad to have you around.

As for the wrists is it due to lack of flexibility or have you had issues? Sounds like you probably should check with a doc if it is putting you in pain for days. But in the meantime here are two things I like to do for the health of my wrists.

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2011/01/episode-145-wrist-flexibility.html

I like the baby steps approach to changing your diet. I did the same thing when I first started out and it makes it easier when you only have to forget about eating a few things at a time instead of everything at once.

As for your goals what are you most interested in? Moving a barbell? Body weight stuff? Running? What do you find most appealing?

For stamina stuff, I am going to point you in the direction of Tabata Drills (20 sec all out effort 10 second rest, for 8 rounds). This will help a lot even though you spend a total of 4 minutes doing it.

[PhilD]

Thanks for those video - I will definitely work a bit on my wrist flexibility.

I'm not sure what the issue is with the wrists, I will try get to a doctors in the next week or two to see what they think.

It's definitely not just flexibility as they are quite flexible, I think I might have done some damage to it at some point. I never used to have the problem and all of a sudden it was there. There was no noticeable incident that caused it (at least not that I can recall). I half think it could be muscle or tendon damage... although I can't do a single rotation of the wrist without a few clicks and pops, don't know if that is telling of anything haha

I'm not too keen on weights (as with travel I can't take them with me) but I've got some bands and plan to do some exercise with those, simulated rowing/pull-ups etc. I actually really enjoy all that stuff!

I'm not a big fan of running, in the past if I've wanted to do cardio I've done some plyometrics and really enjoyed them (in a throwing up into a bucket kinda way)

I started p90x a couple of times and liked the idea of having a program to work through that was relatively "all round" but they were too intense and also far too long (as much as 1-1.5hrs some days). I need to come up with a solution that is 30-45mins a day max. Tabata Drills sound like a good idea!

Thanks so much for your help!

[Tom Kenobi]

Welcome to the Rebellion Phil! Good to see you here.

[Elastigirl]

Welcome to the rebellion! First thing I recommend you doing toward going Paleo is cut out grains for 30 days. Grains can be a big inflammatory agent to your body. When I cut out wheat all my pain in my joings went away.

[Tom Kenobi]

P90x IS very time consuming...thats the only bad part about it! A friend of mine burned the entire set for me but I haven't touched it due to time constraints. I try to keep everything from warm up to cool down stretching to 45min. I occasionally go past the 50min mark and RARELY if ever do I hit the 1hr mark, but again, this includes warming up and cool down stretch time.

You'll definitely start getting some good tips, articles, videos, etc as you dig into the forums a bit - as already proven by BigM stepping to the plate for you.

For other info I would check out Al Kavadlo's website(alkavadlo.com) for body weight exercises & Mark Sisson's website (marksdailyapple.com) for food/diet & exercise.

Steve has written some good articles about working out in Hotel rooms, playgrounds, etc. found here, here and here for starters.

Since weights aren't in the picture right now, I would highly recommend going down the bodyweight route, you'll be surprised at the results you can get with just using your own body. I agree with BigM about Tabata, although I haven't incorporated that into my workouts...yet.

I started out with resistance bands on my pull up bar, but after starting from scratch again and digging in deep to the pulls this year, I don't recommend going that path. Rather, I recommend starting down the path of doing negatives first and building your foundation that way.

You'll get where you want to be, of that I am highly confident.

[PhilD]

OK so up today at 6am just about to jump into a workout, going to try a multitude of things I've read about yesterday and try figure out what would be some good goals to develop from there. I figure I have a few weeks till the next 6-week challenge so I can really figure out some great goals and be well on my way by the time I begin

Tom - the problem with Reverse Pull-ups is that I still need a bar or something. But with my travel schedule I'm really limited as I can't take one with me... that's why I figured I'd use the bands.

Thanks for the links - I will be checking them out today.

I will post back here later to let you guys know how I got on and maybe some ideas I have for some workout routines.

[Tom Kenobi]

Tom - the problem with Reverse Pull-ups is that I still need a bar or something. But with my travel schedule I'm really limited as I can't take one with me... that's why I figured I'd use the bands.

Thanks for the links - I will be checking them out today.

Gotcha. Not having a bar can be detrimental to doing a pull up. Haha. Definitely confident you will be finding a groove that will work and help you get where you want to be man. Hope the workout went well!

[PhilD]

Ok, so I tried out the Tabata drill method and I really liked it, despite almost dying yesterday! haha

Here is what I did.

"Rowing" using my two highest weight resistance bands combined attached to bottom of door.

Sit-ups

"Pull-ups" using my two highest weight resistance bands combined attached to top of door.

Squats

8 20second sets of each with 10 second breaks.

I'm contemplating finding something else to put in there in the mix but right now that's a killer exercise! I was out for at least 20minutes afterwards.

[Tom Kenobi]

I'm contemplating finding something else to put in there in the mix but right now that's a killer exercise! I was out for at least 20minutes afterwards.

First - awesome set man! Keep it up!

Second - Instead of traditional sit-ups, you may want to try reverse crunches & planks. Adding the planks would give you the extra 'something' you might be looking for.

Either way, keep it up man!