First I hope you meant 20-25 pounds overweight and not percentage which would put you in a very high health risk category. I hope you can shed some light on this for me. But for my part Bagger, your most obvious starting point is to get into regular exercise. Your existing level of cardiovascular - pulmonary health (heart, lungs, and vascular system) would establish how much and how rapidly you move your work up. For bare bones beginners, I always recommend starting with a two day a week full body strength training program that is followed by about 15-20 minutes of cardio. The first two weeks would include two more days of cardio/aerobics/walking for 20 and building to 40 minutes. At this point you would add two more days at the 20 minute mark and move up to 45 minutes on those days as well. It is a general rule of thumb that 3 days at low level cardio is heart smart and at higher levels is low level training. To change body composition; that is to say to reduce fat and increase muscle function you need 5-6 days a week. Remember the goal is to reach your goal in a short enough period that you would be able to maintain your weight and positive body composition with good diet and go back to 3 days a week cardio and incorporate more strength in the mix. Once you have your frequency of cardio set you can begin to worry about how fast your are going (pace) and increasing your time and mixing up the levels of intensity you use. Frequency is king in the beginning, duration is second and pace is third for maximal conditioning and long range results.
By having a strength workout, which you will remember burns calories like crazy, you will improve the capacity of your muscles to use oxygen, thereby improving your results from your cardio. As you become stronger you will feel your capacity to keep your aerobic program up become easier which is the catalyst to take your work to higher levels of intensity.
Since I do all in home training with mostly golfers that fit your profile I know the biggest challenge we have is creating a program that doesn't overwhelm mentally, scheduling and energy. I would approach this differently if you were already exercising regularly but only in terms of how quickly you exercise.
Don't forgo your strength training at the expense of the fat burn aerobic work. Muscle stimulation requires a lot of calories, in fact when you are working at a high strength level you can actually burn more calories than in a fat burn cardio level workout. The only difference is in the percentage of fat and carbs you burn. I have examples if you are interested but it's pretty confusing. The important point is that muscles are your metabolically active tissue and use up lots of calories and the better muscular health you have the better cardio system you have, the better posture you have and the more energy you will enjoy in your life.
So I certainly didn't answer your question. It is really all so relative to your present health, your diligence, and the energy you can bring to a program that can only be specified for each individual. There is no reason in one year that you could not methodically and safely loose 20 lbs (and it can happen sooner if you can bring yourself to the work).
Remember CALORIES IN - CALORIES OUT. If you really want to track a program then you need to find a personal trainer and let them help you put together the numbers. Make sure you get a trainer that passes your interview not only so you trust them but so that you are sure they understand your objectives. I often work with someone for six weeks to put together their program and then we touch base several more times, to tweek their program, throughout the year.
I'm so glad you started this thread. I can assure you that there are many opinions regarding the best way to approach your program. It is all subjective and should be based on mental and personality strengths and weakness in addition to more fitness based criteria. Take it all in and enjoy experimenting. Get to know your body thru your mind. And finally trust that the program you define is right for you. Less is not necessarily more and more is not necessarily better. It must be something that feels right and works in your life and finally provides some measurable, if somewhat slower than magic, results.
I would love to hear about some of your success stories.
Golfers that you have worked with who not only reached a new level of health and fitness, but whose game also improved as a result.
Go ahead, beat the drum!
For the past couple of months, I've been working with Vickie on rotator cuff, rhomboid and lat exercises, learning to isolate those muscles from the 'core'. In my last 36 holes, I've missed three fairways. Is there a 'connection'?
Ok Yoda, I hear your call. I am so delighted, for you, that you have benefited from the work we are doing together. And I mean together. As a fitness tutor I am downloading more information than a lot of people want, or think they want, to know. The approach I take is not as easy or mindless as most training protocols . . . but neither is the athletics of golf. All of my testimonials are on hard copy as my wonderful people send me letters. I need to retype them here and will then be able to provide some more examples of training the whole body for perfect performance on and off the golf course.
It is actually funny that most of the people I work with come to me because of a referral to help them deal with a specific pain, shoulder, neck, low back. The end result is that they write me a testimonial that refers more to the things in their life that are important and never remember the initial problem. This is as it should be. We should be able to keep our physiology in a superior state and have little symptoms that just keep us on track to have our best life possible.
You can go to my website www.thephysicalexperience.com and see one testimonial from a great man who forgot to tell you that his two neck surgeries didn't decrease his pain but our work did and his health improved and his distance increased. We laughed many times, and he offered to resubmit his testimonial but I rejected his offer. This is the great stuff of training. You just really get to experience a higher level of life. No need to revisit or recreate problems. Just live . . . and live well . . . and happily.
Hello rwh, Been under the weather this week so sorry for the delay. The real truth is that for all the workouts that could be available, as posted many times on various threads, Yoda's is pretty specific to his physical issues. If you look at some of the exercises I suggested to Martee for his shoulder pain you will find the basic starting point for all exercise programs with my golfers. The most important thing to remember is that your form should be as specific when you exercise as it is when you execute your best golf stroke.
Yoda and I don't do anything really new in his general program but we pay close attention to the misbehavior of his muscles as they agree to perform a movement. By isolating his mental attention to the mechanical function of the exercise at hand, we improve his ability to control his movements in every physical performance; exercise, golf, and regular life activities. The secret is in proper application of the geometry of movement. . . Sound familiar.
Just remember that you do reach a point (appropriate to your physical condition) that it is time to change both your exercises, their order, the resistance, and the application. Let me know if you don't find the exercises on the previous threads. I need to make a log of their locations anyway. I will try to post these generally recommended exercises tomorrow.
*********disclaimer: I do not advocate against diets for overweight. But I think that "getting in shape" is a more healthy and balanced approach than "losing weight" allthough the latter can be an important path towards the former.**********
I've always been a pretty slim and skinny person. But I've had the privilege of moving weight from around the body to the "love handle" belt surrounding my waist and then back again. In other words: Going from muscles to fat and back to muscles again.
Eating healthy is important. I will not argue about that. The weight of the norwegians is increasing as it is in most of the western world.
But the funny thing is, we are not eating more calories than previous. What has changed during the years are, we are not using our bodies as much as we used to. Our engines are getting weaker too. We burn less calories when we are using our bodies and we burn less calories when our bodies are "idling". We probably burn less calories when we are sleeping as well.
This trend nowdays goes from generation to generation, but it also happens to individuals like myself who were (more or less deservedly) pretty fit in the 20 and 30 - but who have lost muscle mass and aerobic capacity and endurance since. (The apetite tends to be pretty fit, however.)
For long and short term effects - get that engine back in shape. And if you do - be aware that muscles are a lot heavier than fat. As long as you are able to walk/run/swim/cycle faster and longer - or as long as you are increasing the strenght in your large muscles - you are probably on the right track even if the pounds don't drop that easy.
I did a lot of aerobic training in my youth - trying to become the best I could in a sport called orienteering. We read all the books and tried to follow "state of the art" training methods. In hindsight I think we were way to scientific about H2 get in good shape. Nowdays I have a more simple view of things (reflecting slightly lower/different ambitions I must admit - bot hopefully more wisdom as well):
1) Don't challenge any medical conditions if you have any.
2) Do something you enjoy or else you will quit.
3) You improve at what you practice. If you practice walking you get good at walking. If you bench press, that's where you will improve most. If you want to hit the little ball harder, throw in a few exersizes where you hit the ball as hard as you can. Etc.
Variation is required if you want to improve your general form, and specific exersices at the right intensity and duration is needed for improvement in specific areas.
4) Do it so hard and/or long that you get tired. You need to wear down (parts of) your body to recover to a higher level. (This is where we ordinary people have a big advantage over the fittest part of the population. They may have to do several workouts to get the same training effect as we can accomplish in 45 minutes.)
5) Rest at least long enough beween workouts so you are fully recovered in the parts needed for your next workout. In my experience it can be anything between 1 day and 8 days, depending on fitness and type of workouts.
6) Don't worry whether you are following the "right" exersize program. If you get the good-tired feeling afterwards, you've had a good workout.
7) For weight-training and technical training involving motoric skills: Worry about doing the exersises right. Get help if needed.
8 )Remember: One good exersise will improve your form for the rest of your life. If you stop exersising your form will decline on just about the same rate as before, but starting from a higher level. Moderate training doses during a short winter can have long lasting effects. So even if your workout regimen doesn't last forever, your very next workout will be good for you.
9) Start easy if you haven't exersized for some time. Full effort from day one is asking for injuries.
10) It's ok to compete with yourself from time to time, but if you do it every time, pretty soon you will not be looking forward to your next workout. It's a bit like trying to beat your handicap every time.
11) We are now heading for cristmas so remember: Every christmas meal tastes twice as good after a good workout!
Have fun, train, rest & eat healthy and enjoy it all!
Well folks, another genius has joined our ranks. Bernt wrote "Have fun, train, rest & eat healthy and enjoy it all". Taking command of you own physical capacity is a stroke of genius and Bernt stated as clearly as it gets. Glad to have you on the forum Bernt. Lot's of good information shared from many perspectives helps us all to find our way to our best day on the golf course. Vik
I'm very interested in types of exercise; moderate vs. intense and their effect on fat burning, cardiovascular health, and hormone response.
I'm of the belief that heavy intensity workouts; although anaerobic (without oxygen, hence reduced fat burning) promotes latent fat burning due to a higher post workout metabolic rate than lighter workouts. In addition, I've seen studies suggesting heavier intensity workouts for men promote a higher levels of Testosterone production which stimulates more rapid muscle development and an overall metabolic increase.
Lower intensity workouts help promote better cardiovascular health and burn fat more efficiently during the workout. Can you help me understand how the body reacts to each type of exercise; moderate vs. intense and how these exercise modes should be used to maximize fat burning and overall fitness?
Linear Mode
