Exercise & Nutrition Q&A - 10/7/2013

Questions about Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, or Cooking? Throw them out here!

Hi Keith,

Am planning to get a bike soon (a week or two), but at my age (60) and arthritis, only want regular plain ol' street riding...no racing, no mountain climbing, just nice flat riding on a comfortable bike - do you think that's going to give me enough of a workout, if I ride for 1-2 hours?

Thanks!

Sophie

Yep, anything you do to move is better than not, so yes for sure. Exercise does not have to be crazy to be effective. Some of the best fat burning exercise you can do is low intensity biking and walking. So yes I think you will see some good progress from even a 30-60 min bike ride.

Thanks Keith.....I'll update once I get the bike and start riding...hopefully in a week or so!

sophie

Is there something that I can do at home , without buying any extra equipment or joining a gym to help with my bat arms ?   My surgery is scheduled for  10/31/13 so I don't want to join a gym yet as I won't be able to do any abdominal stuff until  6 weeks after surgery. I have lost 40 lbs in  3 month on my medical weight management by using WWW.LOSEIT.COM .  I have been walking everyday and now take the  2 flights of stair to my office instead of the elevator.    Thanks

Sounds like you are off to a great start. So there are a number of arm exercises that will help to strengthen and build the muscles of your arms. Keep in mind that over the years as fat built up around your tricep that is pushes that skin out and that skin is not particularly elastic so do not be disappointed if you do not see great results from exercise alone. That skin retracts very slowly and sometimes it never does. That being said mine in particular have rebounded nicely so I am here to tell you that it is most certainly possible.

So the key strategy is to build your bicep and tricep primarily and your chest and back muscles secondarily. That will help to fill the skin that is currently occupied by fat (bicep and tricep) and to pull other skin tighter (chest and back). This is much easier for men than women because men have much more testosterone than women. So while men might see some great gains, women will see a lot more toning. Tone is good even if eventually you have to have plastics to fix it. So again do not be discouraged if you do not see great results quickly, they will come over time.

So here are some great exercises to help build the muscles to combat bat wings or lunch lady arms:

If you need specific details on any of these exercises, please let me know and I can get you a more detailed explanation. You can also do a YouTube Search and find most of these.

Bicep Curls, you can do these with either dumbbells or a barbell and you can work your arms together or individually. If you do not have this kind of equipment available to you, fill two gallon jugs with water or sand and hold them in each hand to do these. Do 4 sets of 10 repetitions. Increase the weight as you master the sets. If you are getting through 4 sets of 10 easily, then it is time to up the weight.

Tricep Dips - get a kitchen chair, put your feet out in front of it so that your but is hanging off the edge, put your hands behind you and grip the edge of the seat and lower your butt toward the floor, then bring your butt back up. Do 4 sets of 10 repetitions.When you can easily do all four sets, then increase the number of repetitions to 20 or add some weight to your lap.

Pushups - drop to your knees if you have to but make this challenging, this will help to build your back and chest muscles as well as your arms.

Door Frame Rows - stand in a door frame and hold on with both hands, lean back through the door frame and put your feet out in front of you so you are leaning back but holding your body weight, pull yourself back in through the door frame and don't move your feet, return to the starting positions.

Air Boxing - basically what it sounds like make a boxing or punching motion with your arms. Do this for 2 minutes, then rest for 30 seconds and repeat as long as you can handle. This will help to develop the fast twitch muscle fibers in your arms plus it is pretty good cardio and should make you sweat.

Smith Machine?

Waste of time or in a pinch acceptable way to bench press?  (Thinking of regular benches and then close grip bench presses for triceps?)  I guess would I be better off doing dumbbell presses and some other tricep exercise?  

The Smith Machine is good for a couple of reasons. For one you can go heavy without a spotter because you can just latch the bar whenever you might need to. I think the Smith Machine is good when you just want to push yourself and you don't have to worry about form, you can just push. The down side to Smith Machines is that you don't have to worry about form. So its a double edged sword. Form is very important in the long term, almost more important than being consistent and dedicated. Using free weights strengthens muscles in all directions and that is why form is so important to make sure you get the most out of a free weight exercise. But that being said the Smith Machine has its place in a gym. I use one for a couple of my exercises Military Press, standing row, and squats...not exclusively of course, I do them free weights too about 50% of the time.

For triceps I do bench dips and tricep pushdowns as well as tricep extensions.

Hi Keith,  as far as suggestions for the batwing arms, does the strength training machines at the gym count or just the free weights?