Need help designing my workout

[Rick Diesel]

Okay, here's the situation:

Poker winnings have provided an opportunity for my wife and I to go on a cruise with a bunch of our friends from May 21-28. I definitely need to lose some weight and tone up before then. I have already switched my dieting habits to more frequent smaller meals based mostly around fish and chicken, so ignore the diet for purposes of this post.

I am looking for a good workout for the next 6-7 weeks to get myself in the best condition possible. I am 6'2" and at the start of my working out (2.5 weeks ago) I weighed 220 lbs. I would like to get to 205 lbs before the cruise. For the last 2.5 weeks and the rest of this week, i perform the following workout:

Mon, Wed, and Sat, 20 minutes on the treadmill at a hard pace followed by 40 minutes of weight lifting.

Tues and Thurs, 45 minutes on the treadmill at a slow jog.

How would you taylor my workouts over the next 6-7 weeks to maximize weight loss/tone up. Keep in mind that I am much more concerned with the weight loss/toning than adding muscle, and assume that I have one hour per day (except Fridays, no time on Fridays) to work out.

Thank you,
Rick Diesel

[IndieMatty]

First thing, for optimal weight loss you want to lift before you do cardio. (From everything I have ever read)

[tworooks]

fold preflop

[Rick Diesel]

[ QUOTE ]
First thing, for optimal weight loss you want to lift before you do cardio. (From everything I have ever read)

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure about that? I thought that it was lift before cardio to maximize strength gain, cardio before lift to maximize weight loss?

[swede123]

Do you enjoy swimming? If so it's a good way to tone your body and lose weight. Other than that running is a damn good all around workout for what you want. Run for half an hour and lift for half an hour.

Good luck,

Swede

[Rick Diesel]

Please keep your poker related content out of OOT.

[chaas4747]

Really depends on what you want to change. Diet is the most important thing so you are headed in the right direction. Next thing if you just want to slim down I would do a ton of cardio, and a ton of cruches, etc. If you want to bulk, which will be hard in 6 weeks, you should start you routine off with free weights, focusing on the large muscle group, (ie chest,tris,shoulders,etc.), and finish with a quick, fast cardio session. Damn where is Sup Bro when you really need him?

[PoBoy321]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought that it was lift before cardio to maximize strength gain, cardio before lift to maximize weight loss?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure that this is correct. By running before weightlifting, you're depleting your store of simple carbohydrates, which will cause you to burn fat while you weightlift.

[ceyoung]

[ QUOTE ]
First thing, for optimal weight loss you want to lift before you do cardio. (From everything I have ever read)

[/ QUOTE ]

the best way to maximize your cardio, is to do it first thing in the morning before eating. then having a small meal i.e. protein shake and fruit. then 1.5-2 hours after that eat your full breakfast. then eat small meals every three hours to keep your metabolism up the rest of the day.

with that said. there is no substitute for a solid diet. if you can control your diet sufficiently cardio is not as important. some of the top body builders (stan mcquay, dexter jackson) dont do any cardio before their contests. they shred down to 4% body fat on diet alone.

[Rick Diesel]

The seventh reply before a mention of Sup Bro? I had the over/under at 2.5 on this one.

[turnipmonster]

my vote is swimming, swim for 45 minutes a day.

[chaas4747]

Had to be done. Sorry and have a great Vacation!

[PoBoy321]

What's your current weightlifting routine? If you're looking for tone, not bulk, make sure that you're doing more reps in less time with less weight. 5 sets of 10-12 reps with less than a 45 second break between sets at whichever exercise you're doing is usually good for what you're trying to achieve.

If you're really looking for a great workout routine, check this out. (http://www.oo-rah.com/Store/gen/pt.asp) It's a website dedicated to workout routines for marines, but has great guidelines for anyone trying to get in shape.

[JcTc]

If you are more concerned about losing weight, I would only lift twice a week, with a "push day" and a "pull day." The push day would include things like bench press and dips, and the pull day would be things like pull-ups and bicep curls. Since you are doing tons of jogging, I don't think you really need to do legs. If you are really serious about losing weight, then suck it up and work out 6 days a week and use Fridays as your rest day. Here's something you could do:

Monday: Push day, then 20 minutes cardio
Tuesday: 1 hour cardio
Wednesday: 1 hour cardio
Thursday: Pull day, then 20 minutes cardio
Friday: rest
Saturday: 1 hour cardio
Sunday: 1 hour cardio

It also wouldn't hurt to change up the type of cardio you are doing; for instance, do some biking or swimming once a week so you don't hate doing it.

[IndieMatty]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
First thing, for optimal weight loss you want to lift before you do cardio. (From everything I have ever read)

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure about that? I thought that it was lift before cardio to maximize strength gain, cardio before lift to maximize weight loss?

[/ QUOTE ]


No I'm not sure now!

Building muscle though is what you really want because building muscle will increase your resting metabolism, burning more calories, which will tone you up....

(That was my logic)

[ceyoung]

i know you said that you wanted to focus on work out. but you should count calories really close and start out this week at around 2000 cals/day.
follow that for 1 week then reduce your daily intake by 200 cals. so now you are taking in 1800 cals/day for the next week.

do this up until your trip. of course by the time your trip comes around your going to be around 1200 cals/day, which is low. but stepping down like this allows you to lower your daily intake without having your body slow down its metabolism. if you drastically reduce your caloric intake, your body will slow down becuase it thinks you are starving.
i did this last year after bulking up for 3 months. i lost 25 lbs in 10 weeks without stepping on a piece of cardio equipment once.

heres the plan that i followed. my cals were never as low. but my nutrient ratios were approximately the same. discipline is key, but its the most efficient way.

http://www.ast-ss.com/jeffwillet/RoadTo2003/DailyJournal.asp?display=topic&jid=95&week=15

[J.R.]

cardio is more effective when broken up into smaller sessions. IMO, I'd get up and take a walk or light jog each morning, boosting your metabolism for the day. Lift before cardio. 40 minutes of weight training is madness, up the reps and superset/lower your restign interval between sets. You should cut the lifitng time in half the days you do it and add 20 minutes of cardio.

[Rick Diesel]

Currently I was doing rotations, one set of bench, one set of lat pulldowns, one set of military press, one set of tricep pushdowns, one set of dumbell curls, one set of squats, and one set of calf raises.

I am doing 15 reps with a 30 second rest in between sets. I rest 2 minutes when I complete the cycle, and then start over again until I do 3 cycles.

My plan was basically to do this for the first three weeks to get over the initial soreness that comes with not having worked out in a while. I think that now I have my muscles conditioned to handle more, however I was not sure if I should change it up and what I should change it to.