Exercise

[DGhost]

Originally posted by ZokesPro
Do you have a backpack? And heavy stuff to put in it? Try jogging a few miles witha backpack that weighs 30-40lbs, it makes all the difference.

good idea but it you have to be careful with it, it is really, really rough on the knees and doing it repeatedly for long lengths of time can lead to long term health problems.

like other people have said, pushups are good. start with your thumbs and fingers overlapping so they form a triangle or diamond between the thumbs/fingers and work your way until they are pretty much as far apart as you can get them. whenever you get to the point you cannot do any more, just widen the space between your hands a bit. you will work pretty much every muscle in your arms as well as your shoulders and pecks.

variations on situps and crunches that work your obliques as well as your upper and lower abs can be quite killer and great for getting your gut down. they also work the hip flexors which will help a bit.

flutterkicks and mountain climbers are good for working/strengthening your hips/knees/legs in general.

swimming is good. running is good - 30:60 or 60:120 sprints are great ways to improve run times.

if you have a bar you can do pull-ups/chin-ups from try doing things like heel hooks and body curls with them.

make sure you are using good breathing techniques when doing these - it will help you do more and thus get a better work out.

personally, one of the important things is to get into a habit/routine for doing them and stick to it. i do exercise in the morning before eating breakfast and alternate what kind of excercises i do... do cardio (running and swimming and that sort of thing) say... monday, wednesdays and fridays, and tuesdays/thursdays/saturdays do strengthening exercises (pushups/situps/flutterkicks/mountainclimbers/chinups/etc).

make sure you strech out and do warm up excercises. that will help a lot while trying to get into shape.

strength versus endurance - personally, i go for endurance over strength. more resistance and less repetitions will build strength, less resistance and more repetitions will build endurance. personally, i found its easier to get your body used to doing the excercise first (and doing it for a longer period of time) and then increase the resistance and work on strength than it is to go the other way around.

hmm, can't think of much else...

edit: OH yeah! make sure you are drinking water. everyone always says this and there is a damn good reason for it. if you are properly hydrated you will do better while excercising. MUCH better. no matter how in shape someone is they will do incredably shitty if you are not hydrated. water not only helps your muscles regenerate after excercising, but it also helps burn fat.

unfortunately, part of this means watching what you drink. caffinated beverages (soda/coffee) dehydrate you and also help you retain weight.