Whew! Went through the whole thread.
I don't know how much I want to dive into the whole drama going on, but I did see some advice that I agree/disagree with.
First, addressing the original post, there is nothing wrong with any particular activity, so if you enjoy yoga and pilates, continue to do them.
Are they benefitting you? What is the reason you are doing them? Stability? Flexibility? Strength? Fat loss? Relaxation?
If you list relaxation, then Yoga is obviously good for that. Not so much on strength. Not bad on stability. Not effective for fat loss. If it's for flexibility, how flexible to you need to be?
Yoga mostly increases passive flexibility, which is fine, but if you are too passively flexible you are a lot more vulnerable to potential injuries.
You only want to be as flexible as you need to be. The difference between passive and active flexibility is your flexibility deficit. The greater the deficit, the more potential for injury.
Not only that, static stretching only increases tolerance to pain, deforms the muscle cells, and decreases force output if done prior to intense exercise. Weakness usually disguises itself as tightness, and when you have a weak muscle, the last thing in the world you need to do is stretch it out making it more lax.
Muscle does more than move us... It helps us maintain good posture and holds us together. Imbalances from weak muscles need to be addressed, and generally a massage or static stretch can have seriously negative effects.
I don't have as big a problem with Pilates, but philosophically I don't completely agree with it. I do use a lot of moves in my training programs that have seen in Pilates, but I don't think that by itself it is particularly effective. It is great to incorporate into a routine though.
I understand you not being interested in straight up power lifting, such as dead lift, snatch, and - god forbid - bench press. Personally I find those routines to be extremely boring (did enough of those in my twenties and part of my thirties). At my age, I finally realized (four shoulder surgeries too late) just how irrelevant a "big bench" is.
From what I can see based on your goals, you seem to want a mix of performance and fat loss, so things like yoga don't serve you well. Don't get me wrong... If you enjoy it, then by all means continue to do it. Just don't have any illusions that it is bringing you closer to your goal. As my good friend Dos says, "it's okay to break the rules, as long as you know you're breaking the rules."
You need to be prepared for "random acts of fitness" being in the military, not to mention having stamina and low body weight (since it just weighs you down). Nice little side effect, you'll look friggin' awesome!
I definitely tend to prefer free weights vs machines as fixed plane movements are actually more detrimental to you. Think about this: What do you do all day long? What do you do in a car? What do you do more than anything while you are at home? You sit, and your posterior chain gets really weak when you do. Your glutes and hams "forget" how to fire.
So why should you go to a gym and SIT? Not only that, some machines even have a seat belt on them just to make sure you don't actually activate any stabalizers whatsoever.
I prefer to use "ground-based" moves for people with your goal, vs straight free weights. Under NO circumstances do I ever recommend machine based movements, unless you are using FreeMotion equipment, which does not use fixed planes.
Your individual "parts" were never meant to function alone. Our bodies weren't designed that way. So why should be sit on a machine and try to isolate as much as possible?
I understand why the previous poster suggested them, but it's like suggesting an senior citizen do "super slow" training, just because it's safe, even though it is completely ineffective and only reinforces everything that goes wrong with our aging bodies.
If you know something actually sets your body up for injuries by increasing your strength imbalances, then don't do them. Take a little time to study up (like what you are doing by going to forums), figure out what moves you need to be doing, and then set out to learn to do them properly.
Think about the things you did in basic training. Obstacle courses for example. What movements do you need to do? You need to use all the basic movement patterns: lunge, deadlift, squat, push, pull, and twist. You also need to accelerate and decelerate quickly (locomotion).
Like the poster earlier suggested, most people want to look like athletes. Very few people actually want to look like bodybuilders. Why do people want to look like athletes without ever training like athletes?
So lets think about what kind of routine would really help you meet your goals. You don't need to do splits (frankly, even bodybuilders don't need to, but they don't know that, and they grow from all the chemical enhancement, so they think that they're doing it right). You don't need to get under a heavy bench either.
Try this for a few weeks and see if you like the way you feel:
Pick one exercise from each of the 6 following movements, and do them circuit-style with 30 seconds rest (time to get to the next station) between sets. Set a timer for 1 minute work intervals to 30 second rest intervals. Don't even count the reps. Get through 6 exercises and then rest for three minutes. Do this only a couple of rounds through the first week, but work up to doing this about 3 or 4 times, or perhaps at some point incorporate autoregulatory training once you really get conditioned.
(BR = band resisted, referring to use of jumpstretch bands)
Level Change
o Box Jumps
o Squats
o Single leg squats
o Lunges
o Deadlifts (standard and Romanian)
o KB Swings
o Power Cleans (Barbell, KB, orDB)
o Burpees
Locomotion
o Sprint drills
o Shuffle drills
o Band resisted run-outs
o Band-resisted back pedal
o Band resisted crawl towing
o Band-resisted shuffle
o Snake body crawling
o Tire flip (need a big ass tractor tire)
Push
o Push-ups
o Push-press
o One arm one leg push press
o Band resisted chest press
o BR step to chest press
o BR dowel press
o Car push (sounds crazy, but REALLY fun)
Pull
o Chin-ups
o Jump pull-ups
o Band resisted rows
o BR squat to rows
o Renegade Rows (with KB or DB)
o One arm rows
o Bent over rows
o Power cleans (barbell, DB or KB)
o Hang cleans (barbell, DB or KB)
o Snatch (BB, DB, or KB)
o Band-resisted fire hose pull
o Peg and pole body drag
o Rope climbing
o Peg board climing
Rotation
o BR Cross chop
o Med ball cross chop (athletic pos., lunge pos., etc)
o Band resisted punch
o Sledge hammer swings (need tire)
Bridging
o Plank
o Side plank
o Glute bridge
o Single leg glute bridge
Many exercises can be combined, such as lunges with a med ball twist. You may notice a lot of band resisted exercises in these suggested exercises. Bands are an excellent way to train your muscle functionally for greater explosiveness. Doing all of these movements is very metabolically expensive since they all incorporate your whole body, even if they are focusing on a specific area.
This is a good starting point, but I HIGHLY recommend you pick up a copy of "
New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler. It goes into a lot more detail about some of the stuff that I suggested. It will be released to the public on December 27th, but you can pre-order your copy from Amazon now.
It also addresses nutrition, and you might be surprised to find out why your diet is keeping your bodyfat on you. You are on track with several things, but I can see some things that you are eating that are preventing you from shedding fat, and it may not even be what you think.
Whew! I didn't mean to type a novel! Hope you're still with me at this point. I have been a bad father/husband for getting sucked into this instead of playing with my rowdy kids who're tearing my house apart behind me as I type. I will try to check back in on this thread later to see if you have any questions.
Linear Mode
