Posts Tagged ‘abs’

After three continuous days of exercising, just about every part of my body hurts. I have to admit. I actually like it when I am sore after a work out. It makes me feel like I worked out hard enough.

So far I have kept my workouts relatively short. I haven’t done more than about 30 minutes per day, but they have been very intense workouts. If you choose exercises that work multiple parts of your body and really cause you to push yourself, then your body will adapt quickly. I also don’t stick with the same routine each day. The advantage is that since your body doesn’t know what to expect, it is forced to be better prepared. The one disadvantage I have noticed after three days, is that the workout is getting more difficult each day as my muscles are fatiguing. Luckily, I only have two more days before I can take two days off.

I took a picture of myself the day I started, and will take another after I have competed my workout on the 5 day so you can see a 5 day comparison. I will continue to do so at the end of each week until the 30 days is up.

To get an idea of the type of body you can get exercising with your own body weight,  check out the video below. The guy does 10 90 degree push-ups without his body ever touching the ground. In those 10 push-ups, I bet his body gets more of  work out than the average routine does in an hour.

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We have all seen the ads. Lose 10 pounds in 5 days, lose fat without changing your diet, get ripped in 15 minutes a day, get the body you have always been dreaming of with our new magic pill. The ads always tell us it can be so easy and  usually display a picture similar to the one at the top of this post. Let’s face it. We all want to be in good shape. People sped huge amounts of money each year on make up, clothes, food, tans, and exercise programs to make themselves look and feel better. The advantage of getting in shape over the other things, is that you not only look better, but you feel better. You have more energy, motivation, and confidence. So can the results that everyone talks about really be achieved? This is what I plan to find out.

The problem with most weight loss or body shaping programs is that most people stop doing them after only a few days or maybe a few weeks. The beginning is always the most difficult because you body is revolting against the changes. I plan to compete an entire 30 days of training and see if I can get the body they always show in the pictures. I am not trying to go for a body builder body, but I will try to gain definition and increase muscle size though out my body and try to gain the famous “6-pack” everyone always seems to be trying for.

Now the point of my test is two fold. One is to try and get in great shape. The other is to see if it is possible to get in shape within 30 days living within reasonable means. For instance, anyone can probably get in good shape in a month if they are training 4 hours a day 6 days a week. For obvious reasons, this isn’t possible for the majority of people and therefore realistic. It is also doubtful that anyone would stick with that plan for a very long time. To keep this program possible for anyone, I have come up with a list of requirements.

Requirements

1. Must not train more than 5 hours per week. This seems like reasonable amount for someone with a job.
2. Will not use any expensive machines. Any equipment used must be easily attainable and cheap.
3. Can not join a gym or receive any personal training
4. No significant changes to my diet. To be fair, I eat relatively balanced meals. However, I am not going to drastically change my diet for this workout.
5. No pills or supplements

The Plan

Lose fat weight and create a toned body in 30 days by using methods that require either no equipment at all (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc) or cheap equipment that can be purchased at just about any store (exercise ball, pull up bar, dumb bell weights, etc).

The Program

I will be using “The Truth About Abs” program in conjunction with some of my favorite exercise routines to try and achieve my results.  I will start the program on February 1 and stop on March 2 exercising no more than 1 hour per day 5 days a week. (I’ve never actually tried this abs program, but it is actually very well written and comes with a number of bonus books. I will do a full evaluation of the program in 30 days, but if you would like to check it out now, you can find it here.)

Documentation

I will be taking pictures of myself through out the process and may even do a few videos a long the way. I will also try and keep track of my basic diet. I will also keep track of the types of exercises and how my body is adapting to them. If you would like to get all the updates, and not just the ones I make post on the blog, please follow me on Twitter.

Final Notes

As I mentioned, the point of this challenge is to see if I can get a toned/muscular body in 30 days on a a schedule that anyone could accomplish. I would like to mention that I am someone who eats relatively well and am in decent shape. By no means could I run a marathon, but I could run a mile. During this challenge I will try to lose some of by body fat and put on enough muscle to have a six pack and a toned body.

Wish me good luck and please feel free to leave any comments you may have.