What can I accomplish in 4 months?

[Gotti]

OK so I'm goin to the Dominican Republic in May... But I've let myself go the last year. I'm 5' 8'' and weigh 160lbs, I got a little bit of a belly right now I want to get rid off. What do you guys suggest? I wanna get my body tight before the trip and not exactly sure how to go about it... basically i just want my stomach and chest tight the rest is cool


What do you guys suggest i do and how much do you think i can accomplish in 4 months?

[Gotti]

Nobody has any ideas how i should do this? Cause i dont really know too much about fitness, i used to just play sports and i stayed in shape.

I just want to know how much i could possibly do to change my body in 4 monthes. Its not bad, i just have a bit of a belly...

Help me out AF bretheren

[fredjacksonsan]

Run...it's simple. Run a couple miles three times a week.

For your chest, pushups will do the trick. You can either do a bunch on a schedule every 2-3 days, or just do as many pushups as you can while you're watching tv for 3 hours at night.

Crunches and sit ups will do for your stomach also, I alternate commercials for pushups and stomach stuff.

Ease up on beer and fatty crap, and sugar.

You'll be buffed when you go.

[Gotti]

cool.. i can handle that
Its gunna be hard to run tho cause we have snow right now

looks like i gotta invest in one of those fitness club memberships


how much push-ups and crunches do you think i have to do a day? So that i see good results in 4 months

[fredjacksonsan]

The snow's off the road, right? There you go, just watch out for ice.

Maybe start out at 50 crunches a day, and work up to 2 or 300.

Pushups? Do as many as you can, maybe 5 sets every other day.

[Ridenour]

For crunches I would recommend doing lift-leg crunches. Lie on your back and then lift your legs straight up into the air. Now do crunches like one set with your legs side by side, then another set with em crossed, then another with them crossed the other way. Doing it this way will work your abs and your pecks so it'll help you reach your goal easier.

Also, as well as doing pushups, when you're doing them try this: Do pushups like normal (flat handed) but cross your legs so that you're only on one foot. This will naturally flex your abs while you do pushups, suck them in and make them tight while doing it and it will make them super tight. Make sure you switch it up between which foot your resting on too.

Do these plus the running like fred said and you'll be ripped in 4 months no prob

[Oz]

Spend half the available time losing the gut. Pure aerobic excercise 3-4 times per week for at least an hour at a high intensity.

Then spend the latter half building muscle in the upper body.

[Gotti]

excellent tips guys... thanks


i guess after a little lighter work outs for the first week or 2 i'll start doing 300 crunches and a 100 pushups a day or every other day. Plus the running 3 times a week.

How does that sound?

[Oz]

Don't overdo it. Start doing 3 sets of 20 situps and the same for pushups. But make each expansion/contraction take a long time. Like 6 full seconds. Much more effective.

[sivic02]

Or you could just sit on your ass for 3 1/2 months and get fat as hell and pull a forrest gump, just start running and when you get tired of running, run some more....i just kept running and running and running....

But seriously, that sounds good. I highly reccomend starting out on lighter workouts and gradually work your way up because I was out for surgeries for a few months and one day just up and started running my pre surgery usual about 3 miles a day and it caught up with me a little too quickly. I got back one day and about collapsed. So work on it slowly.

[fredjacksonsan]

And if you do the leg lift crunches, watch your lower back....

[-Davo]

i read somewhere that situp's do nothing, so don't bother
i read somewhere also, onthat topic, it apparenly would take 7 years, doing 100 situps a day, 7 days aweek to burn 500g of fat. Hmm...

dunno if it's true, i read it in FHM.

[fredjacksonsan]

True, you can do a million situps and won't lose your gut. Takes more than that...the running will burn the fat, the situps will develop the abs, which will show through once the running works.

[Gotti]

Cool... so running is basically the key. Is 3 times a week enough? Cause I probably wont be running that long, maybe 20-30 minutes

And what do you do when you get too tired to run? Walk for a minute, then try running again?

[fredjacksonsan]

Hey if you're under 30 (I'm pretty sure you are) and lay off the beer a bit, it'll work great. 3x a week is good, lets your body repair a bit between runs. I'd definitely recommend a good pair of running shoes.

As far as getting tired, start easy. Plan to go a certain distance the first couple of times, and clock it in your car. Start with maybe 3/4 or 1 mile. If you feel like you can't go on, then slow down but don't stop and don't give up. Run in a flat area at first, and add hills later.

Gradually increase the distance you're running, and the pace at which you're running, but not both at the same time. So like try to run a bit farther first, then measure your time at that distance, then try to run faster to beat that time. Kinda like racing yourself.

You said run then walk. That works too; sometimes you can break up your workout where you run very fast for a minute then walk for a minute. You'd be surprised how good a workout you can get. (It's called interval training)