Keep it up. Great idea about ticking to 5k races. Marathons are just plain tough on the body!

Rusty

That is awesome! You could probably improve your performance a bit by doing a longer version of HIIT. Try going to a track and sprint one lap followed by jogging (not walking) one lap. Alternatively you could do a similar thing on a treadmill…run fast for one minute, then jog for two minutes.

This will build up your pain tolerance a bit and jogging a 5k will be a piece of cake!

Rusty

Don't know if you have jump rope, but for a $10 investment you have a great piece of cardio equipment. Here is a post I did on that:

Jump Rope Workout

Also…if you have a High school track near your house try this:

Sprint the straight aways and walk around the corner for 4 laps. It is just a mile and won't take you more than 10 minutes. Then walk one lap. After that…jog for 4 laps.

This is a little over two miles and can get accomplished in around 20 minutes. It is s great way to combine HIIT with steady state cardio for maximum fat burning effect.

Obviously I completely agree with the excessively muscular look. Some guys with bigger frames look alright with bigger muscles as long as they look lean for their build. Guys like The Rock (Duane Johnson), Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV), and Terrell Owens are all pretty large, but it suits their frame well. Guys like Beckham or Brad Pitt are have much smaller frames and would look stupid with this much muscle.

Lean and defined with functional athletic muscle is the way to go. The worst look is guys who just "mindlessly" try to gain mass and "train for the pump" for years. The worst look to shoot for is the typical "gym body"…that goes for guys as well as girls. The active, athletic type of look is much more attractive. I love it when people ask me if I'm a swimmer or an athlete. I don't like it when people ask if I work out every day.

Thanks for the compliment on the site. It is a lot of fun!

Rusty

You will probably just do fine to stop lifting weights for a while. Once Crossfit becomes easier, you can add a limited amount of strength training if you want, but probably won't need it.

3ller,

Those guys are nuts! Pretty cool to watch, but some of that stuff looks crazy.

Rusty

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WEeqHj3Nj2c

They make the marines look slow!

You are dialed in…sounds like an awesome home gym!

Trevor,

Yeah…I need to eventually get a power rack, once I get a bigger place with a garage.

BurritoKid,

I did that one time when unloading a bench when I was younger. I pulled two 45's off of one side and there was still two 45's on the other side. The bar slowly tipped up and then the weights came crashing down hard.

Eric,

You are very proficient at English and I know exactly what you are saying. I think low rep lifting will result in better muscle density and therefore better muscle definition, but if someone gets their body fat low enough…they can still look great with body weight exercises. Obviously I think lifting AND bodyweight exercises is the ideal combo.

ChuenSeng,

Thanks for the compliment & thanks for commenting. I hope your university gym gets one as well. I'm surprised they don't have one already.

Gary M,

You sound like you have figured out a great workout. I forgot to mention a good jump rope! It is a great way to do HIIT in a small space.

Jessica,

I carefully pick out the pictures for my site. I'm almost obsessed about this, because I think visuals really motivate people. The home gym I have pictured looks pretty sweet. I mainly like the room and the Plasma TV. I would set it up a bit differently. Also…I'm not totally against commercial gyms, I just think it would be great to save time by working out at home. With the price of gas on the rise, I think people are going to try do more things at home…instead of commuting back and forth to a gym.

Helder,

More and more people are getting away from commercial gyms. I just think that the "naturally slim and athletic look" doesn't require high volumes of heavy lifting, like bodybuilding requires. Take Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey for instance. They do a lot of exercise outside of a commercial gym and look great.

Rachel,

That is a creative way to get a gym in a tight space.

Nkem,

I haven't done very much work on a heavy bag, but I have heard of people using it like an HIIT exercise for the upper body. I may do a post on this as an alternative to running for people with a leg injury. I'm convinced this is a big reason that boxers look so ripped.

Anton,

I like intense HIIT and lower intensity steady state cardio. If you do higher intensity steady state cardio for too long for a period of time, you risk losing muscle (think marathon runner). I would recommend 10 minutes of HIIT and then 20 minutes of lower intensity steady state cardio.

Jeff,

Great point on having to have self-discipline. This is probably the biggest downfall of having a home gym. If you take the time to drive to a commercial gym, you will put in a decent amount of time and won't get distracted.

Brian,

That guy has a serious home gym. I wish I had a ceiling that high! It would be cool to gather a group of people in an area and divide the rent between those who wanted to take part. Then load it with basic, but great equipment.

BurritoKid,

Yeah…this stuff is expensive. I have actually seen home made benches out of wood as well as power racks. It doesn't sound like it would be a great idea, but some of the stuff I have seen looks really solid.

Raven,

I can do a lot of stuff in power racks. Something I haven't done in a long time is partial presses. I like to take 6-8 weeks each year and do partial presses in the power rack. Set the safety bars about 6-12 inches lower than the top of your bench press position. Put the olympic bar on the safety bars. Squeeze the bar off the rack and lock out the press. The range of motion is only 6-12 inches, but you can really load up some weight on the bar. After 6-8 weeks of doing this my triceps get shredded and dense as hell. This helps when you go back to full range presses for the rest of the year.

KM,

As you know, I'm a huge treadmill fan. I like the Precor brand the best, because some of them go up to pretty high speeds. The only reason I didn't list it here was that people can still run outside. No doubt that I would get a treadmill as soon as money would allow. Good call!

As far as comfortable weight. I know what you mean…still looking great at a slightly heavier weight. I completely agree with this philosophy. I get as heavy as 195 and still have nice abs and a lean face, but I look my best at 185. I am happy at either weight, but it is fun to get extra lean for special events. You sound like you look great at 145.

Sam,

I would recommend 10 minutes of interval cycling followed by 35 minutes of low intensity steady state cardio. You will get the "best of both worlds" by training this way. If you did this 5 times a week, you will dramatic changes within 8-12 weeks. It won't be steady…you may not see any thing the first two weeks and then the fat will fall off.

AFDerrick,

I like Crossfit a lot. At this point in my life I work so much and I'm so busy that a workout this brutal would probably zapp me too much. Crossfit is like a fat burning "bootcamp"…it is effective as well. I'm already lean so I don't need to do anything this drastic.

The approach I recommend on my site is a long-term strategy that won't hurt as much as Crossfit. You can get just as lean and strong following what I have outlined on my site. Crossfit is a great program and it helps achieve the lean athletic look I talk about on this site on a regular basis.

3ller,

Do your body weight exercises before cardio. Then just chose one specialization exercise you want to improve on and do 3-4 sets of just that exercise after cardio. This works well.

Brandon,

Yeah…you have to get the right type of collars to make sure this is safe. There are better things to use than those flimsy springs…you are right about those. It can get ugly with those springs.

Josh,

I am not really knowledgeable on the subject of healing foods. My buddy Scott over at Modern Forager might have a good answer. Hopefully someone else will see your question and have a good answer as well.

Nice Comments!

Rusty

speaking of lifting, I had a tangential question. For some reason, I dealt a minor injury to my thumb muscle and tendon, and it really hurts now to push or grab onto things with much force. This has largely prevented me from doing press and pushing workouts, though I can still do pulling exercises (like pull ups). My question is what do you or anybody else know about foods to eat or methods to apply to speed up the healing process?

sorry for the double Post

I reckon the exercises in Turbulence Training sounds great

Rusty, you may have written about this before but I was wondering if there exists such thing as a comfortable body weight for every individual? I'm still all about staying lean n' mean but over the course of the year I have found that in order to maintain an extremely lean state at 128 lbs (I'm 5'3") I have to keep a very clean diet, low in calories, very low in carbs, as well as keep up intense cardio. I am now 143 lbs, still almost as lean: I obviously eat more but my diet is still clean. Instead of doing an hour of cardio I do 40 mins per day before my resistance training. At this state I can enjoy my good carbs, and eat "as much as i want" — so to speak. Doing this, my weight doesn't exceed 145 lbs. So in other words, is it safe to say that 145 lbs is my comfort zone? What's your take?