New Rebel in Switzerland

[NWK]

Hi everyone J

I’m new to Nerdfitness, but also relatively new to fitness
in general. I was overweight and really unfit for the past 10 years or so, (I’m
24 now), never really doing sports, eating badly, the works.

After a particularly nasty breakup last summer I decided to
get in shape. My sister, (who has always eaten well and done lots of
sports/fitness stuff), showed me a program which I’ve been able to stick to and
has worked well so far.

It was basically high intensity interval training for cardio
and body weight stuff for strength training. The muscle training was 3 sets of
20/20/10/10/5/5 reps of alternating arms/legs. So 20 lunges (10 left/10 right),
20 pushups (10 elbows out 10 elbows in), 10 squats, 10 incline pushups, 5 jump
squats, 5 plyometric pushups. Rest 30-45 sec, repeat. Tiring stuff, but I got
fairly good results. At the beginning I could only do pushups on my knees, now
I do full pushups.

For the cardio it was three sets of 5 minutes with 2 minute
breaks in between. For each of the minutes within the 5 minutes, it was broken
down as follows. 30 seconds 60% exertion, 20 seconds faster, 10 seconds flat
out. So 5 minutes of that, then 2 minutes rest. I did this on the elliptical
machine and once I could do more sets/faster I’d take the resistance up.

What I liked about this plan was that as a dude who didn’t
enjoy working out, I could be done in under an hour if I was fast. What I found
however was that as I got used to it, I really started enjoying the fitness
training. I enjoyed pushing myself and started adding more exercises to my
workout like bench press, leg press, etc.

I came across the Nerdfitness site about a week ago and have
been reading a whole bunch of the articles, it’s really great stuff. I’ve
learned a lot and want to make a couple changes to my workout in regards to
goals/exercises.

My main goal before was to get fit. Now,
more specifically my goal is to lose my lovehandles and moobs before the
summertime. I want to be able to take my shirt off and feel proud of my body.

I tried out the basic body weight workout yesterday. I was
able to do 3 circuits with
only a slight pause during the squats, (which I found to be the hardest part). I
then did some core stuff (squats, planks) and did another 2 circuits, then some
more weights, then one more circuit.

My problem
is that I’ve kindof built up a haphazard way of working out. I like the
bodyweight circuit and think I can do 4-5 circuits as the main part of my
workout. What I was wondering was, how should this circuit fit in with the rest
of my workout? Do it in addition to the cardio instead of the previous muscle
stuff? Do it instead of  the cardio and
the muscle stuff, just the circuits?

All feedback and assistance welcome J

tl;dr looking to add the basic body weight
circuit to my workout, how should I structure my workout around the circuits?

[Laureleye]

First - Hi & Welcome. I like doing body weight circuits as well; you're right they are a great workout with little time invested. If you click on the NERD FITNESS tab, and then go to the free resources, you find a number of body weight routines all set up for you - including the beginners body weight, advanced body weight and angry birds.

As for a workout plan, I'd recommend Strength circuits 3 days days a week, alternating with 3 days of cardio. 1 day/week off to rest all of your muscles.

I also recommend that you look at the guides to eating, also on the free resources page. (No, you don't have to give up chocolate). Glad you joined us.

[marybelle]

Welcome! I am new too, so I can't give much advise, but it sounds like you are off to a good start.Good luck with your goals!

[Yiscard]

Hey there.

 

i feel your pain. Your story and mine are some what similar  and i think your doing great. You have a plan which is to me one of the most important things, besides the desire to change. I'm a right of the bat noob so i can't really help but i'm pretty sure there are lots of people here that can help you improve. Lots of luck,but it looks like you don't need it :-). lol