Aquaman
Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2006
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi Shel,
Here's a weird question for you about your swimming pool. Is the water cold, cool, warm or hot?
I ask because about 3 or 4 years ago, research was done that proved that the colder the swimming water was, more calories were consumed afterwards. It has also been theorized (but never proved to my knowledge) that immersion in cold water causes the body to try to preserve it's body fat for insulation.
That's why you'll almost never see a "ripped" swimmer on the olympic team, but in all the other speed or endurance based sports, the athletes will be much leaner.
So unless your pool is hot or warm, I would suggest dropping the swimming if it won't bother you too much. Remember, the goal is be happy and have a good life. If dropping swimming just to help lose some fat is going to make you depressed, then don't do it. Keep on swimming.
Let's look at your goals and how we can accomplish them. I get the impression that you just want a good body back. Not just lose weight or gain muscle so we'll take the middle road here. I don't have any photos or stats to go by, so I'll go with some general assumptions.
Since you're a swimmer, you most likely have a well-developed upper torso, or at least one that will respond very quickly to any type of weight training. Your lower half of your body will probably not be as well developed.
The first thing I would want for you to do is to bring your legs up muscle-wise. Do squats, good mornings, leg extensions and lunges. Do not look at the scale. It is misleading since muscles retain a lot of water and weight. You may think you're not making enough progress when you are actually making good progress towards long-term weight loss. By bringing your legs (body's BIGGEST muscles) you will be raising your metabolism so you're burning more calories 24/7.
Work your whole body - break up your body parts worked with weights into 3-4 days. For example, you could do back on Monday, Chest on Tuesday, Legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Thursday. Take one or two days to rest. Then repeat. On leg days, pay extra strict attention to your form and feeling the muscles work instead of just moving some weight around. That's how you will bring your legs up to the rest of your body if you have the typical swimmers body.
Since you have already used a personal trainer, I will assume you already know what to do as far as the basic exercises and weights to use.
Let's look at what you will do instead of swimming. There's running (outdoor and treadmill), elliptical machines, and biking (stationary and outside). If you are heavier than your joints are used to, or have knee/hip problems then I suggest sticking with something low-impact so that you do not injure yourself. So no running. Do the others - pick your favorite or just mix them up to keep it interesting for yourself.
If you want to focus more on losing weight, then do your cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. You can have water. You can have some branched chain ammino acids if you want. You can also use caffeine in moderation (200 mg is plenty). NO Gatorade, NO Powerade, no sugar/energy drinks. These completely defeat the purpose here.
Start gradually. Do 10 minutes with your heart rate at about 125-150 depending on how you're feeling. Gradually increase the time by a few minutes every day until you're doing 30 minutes comfortably.
If you want to both gain muscle/tone and lose fat, then do your cardio after your workout instead of the first thing in the morning.
I think I've typed a bit too much so I'll try to keep the diet portion very brief although it is actually MORE important that the exercise portion above. I will be happy to go into more detail if you have more specific questions.
Diet: Insulin is a extremely powerful hormone in the body. It controls fat release, burning, storage and nutrition uptake. More and more recent research every month show how critical insulin control is. You will want to control yours in two ways. 1) By improving your body's overall sensitivity to insulin so your body will more readily and easily release fat stores when exercising, and 2) preventing any spikes in your insulin which will cause your body to start storing fat again.
The easiest way to control the average American's insulin is to eliminate refined sugar and flours. No more sodas, candy, white bread, bagels, chips, crackers, etc. The second most easy way is to watch and minimize any excessive carbohydrate intake, especially before bed. These things are what causes spikes in insulin levels, and when your insulin level spike, this makes your body more resistant to your own production of insulin in the future. When your body becomes too resistant to your own insulin production, that is when you have to start injecting insulin into your body. That is what Type II diabetics is and it is growing into a huge problem in this country right now.
Make sure you get enough protein, good fats and decent complex carbs in. Eat 6-8 small meals instead of large meals. Include fiber and fats in all of your portions. You should never allow yourself to go hungry, but you should never stuff yourself until you feel full either. The human body does not like drastic changes, nor does it like surprises. When you change something, do it gradually or your body will most likely go into a survival mode and hold on to it's fat as hard as possible.
Finally, don't over do it. Keep it simple, sweet and short.
Ask away if you want something cleared up or explained in more detail.
I'm rooting for you too.
-Aquaman
Here's a weird question for you about your swimming pool. Is the water cold, cool, warm or hot?
I ask because about 3 or 4 years ago, research was done that proved that the colder the swimming water was, more calories were consumed afterwards. It has also been theorized (but never proved to my knowledge) that immersion in cold water causes the body to try to preserve it's body fat for insulation.
That's why you'll almost never see a "ripped" swimmer on the olympic team, but in all the other speed or endurance based sports, the athletes will be much leaner.
So unless your pool is hot or warm, I would suggest dropping the swimming if it won't bother you too much. Remember, the goal is be happy and have a good life. If dropping swimming just to help lose some fat is going to make you depressed, then don't do it. Keep on swimming.
Let's look at your goals and how we can accomplish them. I get the impression that you just want a good body back. Not just lose weight or gain muscle so we'll take the middle road here. I don't have any photos or stats to go by, so I'll go with some general assumptions.
Since you're a swimmer, you most likely have a well-developed upper torso, or at least one that will respond very quickly to any type of weight training. Your lower half of your body will probably not be as well developed.
The first thing I would want for you to do is to bring your legs up muscle-wise. Do squats, good mornings, leg extensions and lunges. Do not look at the scale. It is misleading since muscles retain a lot of water and weight. You may think you're not making enough progress when you are actually making good progress towards long-term weight loss. By bringing your legs (body's BIGGEST muscles) you will be raising your metabolism so you're burning more calories 24/7.
Work your whole body - break up your body parts worked with weights into 3-4 days. For example, you could do back on Monday, Chest on Tuesday, Legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Thursday. Take one or two days to rest. Then repeat. On leg days, pay extra strict attention to your form and feeling the muscles work instead of just moving some weight around. That's how you will bring your legs up to the rest of your body if you have the typical swimmers body.
Since you have already used a personal trainer, I will assume you already know what to do as far as the basic exercises and weights to use.
Let's look at what you will do instead of swimming. There's running (outdoor and treadmill), elliptical machines, and biking (stationary and outside). If you are heavier than your joints are used to, or have knee/hip problems then I suggest sticking with something low-impact so that you do not injure yourself. So no running. Do the others - pick your favorite or just mix them up to keep it interesting for yourself.
If you want to focus more on losing weight, then do your cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. You can have water. You can have some branched chain ammino acids if you want. You can also use caffeine in moderation (200 mg is plenty). NO Gatorade, NO Powerade, no sugar/energy drinks. These completely defeat the purpose here.
Start gradually. Do 10 minutes with your heart rate at about 125-150 depending on how you're feeling. Gradually increase the time by a few minutes every day until you're doing 30 minutes comfortably.
If you want to both gain muscle/tone and lose fat, then do your cardio after your workout instead of the first thing in the morning.
I think I've typed a bit too much so I'll try to keep the diet portion very brief although it is actually MORE important that the exercise portion above. I will be happy to go into more detail if you have more specific questions.
Diet: Insulin is a extremely powerful hormone in the body. It controls fat release, burning, storage and nutrition uptake. More and more recent research every month show how critical insulin control is. You will want to control yours in two ways. 1) By improving your body's overall sensitivity to insulin so your body will more readily and easily release fat stores when exercising, and 2) preventing any spikes in your insulin which will cause your body to start storing fat again.
The easiest way to control the average American's insulin is to eliminate refined sugar and flours. No more sodas, candy, white bread, bagels, chips, crackers, etc. The second most easy way is to watch and minimize any excessive carbohydrate intake, especially before bed. These things are what causes spikes in insulin levels, and when your insulin level spike, this makes your body more resistant to your own production of insulin in the future. When your body becomes too resistant to your own insulin production, that is when you have to start injecting insulin into your body. That is what Type II diabetics is and it is growing into a huge problem in this country right now.
Make sure you get enough protein, good fats and decent complex carbs in. Eat 6-8 small meals instead of large meals. Include fiber and fats in all of your portions. You should never allow yourself to go hungry, but you should never stuff yourself until you feel full either. The human body does not like drastic changes, nor does it like surprises. When you change something, do it gradually or your body will most likely go into a survival mode and hold on to it's fat as hard as possible.
Finally, don't over do it. Keep it simple, sweet and short.
Ask away if you want something cleared up or explained in more detail.
I'm rooting for you too.
-Aquaman
