In the Gym today..

Gotten few personal email asking what's my typical routines in the gym.

I've actually posted some of gym routines in my previous post - catch it here:

Gym is a must?

Weekend Warrior

Yesterday Gym Session

Routines during Ramadhan

If you've been following my journey here, you'll know that I'm not much of a gym fan. Infact, I don't even have a gym membership whatsoever. The gym that I went on the weekend is a public gym that I pay for MYR2 per entry. It's at Kampung Pandan Sports Complex... simple stuff, nothing fancy. I tend to go to the gym on Saturdays is because on every (almost) saturday I would visit my sis-in-law (my ritual weekend family/relatives visits) where I would bring my little family (the wife & 3 kids) to visit them. While I'm there, in the evening, I needed to do my exercises, and found the sports complex seems to be the most convenience venue.

Anyway. Go and checkout the links above, and you'll get to see what have I been up to in the gym.

Oh.. today, this was my routine:

1. warm-up / stretching routines

2. incline push-up

3. chin-up

4. barbell deadlift 40kg

5. brench press 30kg

6. barbell front-squad 20kg
7. bunch of bodyweight routines like dumbell lunges, dumbell swings..

... and some more routine that I don't even know the official names of it - maybe I'll start posting my own personal youtube videos to share with you..

The trick is.. focus on multi-joint, multi-muscles routines. Forget the dumbell curl, or tricep curl, or even crunches. To melt the fat away, you need to increase your intensity level, focus on your routines to complete within 1hr max... i'm done within 45mins only (for strength)... half-dead already by then.

After the strength training - then go on and do interval cardio training - this is the key. Interval training will keep your mitochondrial level at it's maximum rate that will boost your metabolism at its peak for up to 24hours!

See my post on interval training:

No time, too busy to exercise (read about mitochondria here)

Cardio vs. weight revisited

why interval training is better

My exercise: interval & strength

Ok?..

well, you probably say - Sher, that's too much for me.. I'm just starting, a beginner. Well, trust me, I've been there. I've a sedentary lifestyle back then, and when I decided to get on this journey.. I've never look back. See how I started and figured this exercise thing here - My Exercise - Part 1.

So what have you been up to? drop me a comment.

Sher Khan.

Exercise? - Part III

...continuation from Part II...

I've talked about Interval Training earlier in the Part II - I'm a true believer of this type of exercise... especially if you're thinking to burn the excess fat in your body.. FAST!. You see, the LSD method is ok, but the problem with that exercise is - the moment you stop exercising, you practically stop burning calories (but still better than not exercising at all) per say... I mean.. not as effective as what Interval Training shall gives you (they called it the 'afterburner effect'). Doing Interval Training, especially the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), you shall only do 15-20mins max, however, the after effect of the exercise (that's another 23 hours or so), you shall still burning calories - yep, while you're resting, driving, or even sleeping... for the entire day!!!

There's too many references on the web can proof you that point. Go ahead and search Mr. Google. or click here to see Dr. Mercola's comment on it.

Why should you waste your time pounding on the pavement or threadmill or bicycle or rowing or stepper, etc etc for hours while you can do it at 30mins or less. Heck, personally, I only do my Interval Training exercises for exactly 16mins everytime... !!

So, you're wondering, what the heck is Interval Training?

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A simple definition of Interval Training is: short, high-intensity exercise periods alternated with periods of rest. These higher and lower intensity periods are repeated several times to form a complete workout . Here’s a basic example: walk for 5 minutes at 3.5 MPH, walk for 1 minute at 4.2 MPH and then repeat this sequence several times. Most people spend their workout time only performing continuous training exercises. These are exercises where the intensity level is basically constant throughout. An example of this is walking at 3.5 MPH, at 0% incline for 30 minutes.
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See this excellent YouTube video by one of my #1 personal trainer - Craig Ballantyne.(great trainer! love his bodyweight workouts and the circuits)

Sounds simple right? It is!

Go ahead and try it. This should be your main cardio exercise method - and boy, you shall see the fats melt away!

In my experience, as mentioned in the Part II, I've started with the traditional LSD method, and the result was too slow, and requires longer duration (these days, we don't have that luxury - especially on weekdays). Interval Training is the answer - and since I've started, I've never look back. To me these days, walking is not enough anymore - since I've lost 50+ kilos, I need to change my routine even harder, else I'll hit the plateau. I've experienced this myself, where my weight chart was almost flat for at least a month, until I've changed my routine for higher intensity, then I've broken the plateau. I now ran at 9.2mph for each minute, and doing active rest at 4.4mph. I did at least 5 burst...everytime.

So, what are you waiting for?

Sher Khan.

continue to Exercise? - Part IV

See also Exercise - Part I and Exercise - Part II