Cardio and Weights conditioning advice

I am pre-surgery but I want to start lifting weights and doing my cardio so I can hit the ground running. I am currently doing some walking but not as much as I should be and now its time to get serious. I go in for surgery on 9/22 and I start 1200kcals /day on 9/8.

Here are my questions:

My first one is regarding weight training. I have a beautiful free weight set (olympic) and numerous dumb bells. I want to get into some serious weight lifting and I would like some advice about a good conditioning regime to get me started (I hope Bama reads this). I don't want to get back into power lifting but I do want to build size and strength.

My next question is my cardio portion. Since I have been walking I have been feeling great but I have a beautiful bicycle (Specialized hybrid with custom wheels) that keeps calling my name. I went for a short (approximately 2 mile) ride the other day and felt great after the ride. What is a good training routine for biking. My cycling goal is to ride the RAGRAI next summer (I hope boner reads this).

Any advice from anyone is appreciated.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice, but my one piece of advice is that whatever you do, start slowly and build slowly. Years of obesity can seriously strain and damage your joints, and you may not be aware of how delicate you are ...until you pull something or tear something. To go from inactivity to super amounts of activity is a ticket to major joint and back issues.

Any aerobic exercise is good.....but post op, walking will be your best friend. Most surgeons limit the amount of weight lifting you can do, and the amount of core work you can do immediately post op.

Good luck to you.

Scott

Clapton, since you are just a few weeks pre-op, I wouldn't worry about building muscle right now. I would do some conditioning type lifting and use a very LIGHT WEIGHT-HIGH REP rep routine, much like what is known as a "cutting cycle" workout by bodybuilders.

Pick 2 or 3 exercises per muscle group and perform 2-3 sets of 15 reps per exercise, with only 1 minute rest between sets.  I would also do a 3 day on - 1 day off routine, working a couple of muscle groups each day. That allows each muscle group 2 or 3 days to recover and to avoid overtraining them.

Here's a sample conditioning type workout routine I would do:

Day 1 - CHEST,SHOULDERS, & TRICEPS

Chest:         Bench press              2 sets X 15 reps
                  Dumbbell flyes         2 sets X 15 reps
Shoulders:  Seated DB presses     2 sets X 15 reps
                  DB front raises         2 sets X 15 reps
                  DB side raises           2 sets X 15 reps
Triceps:      Dumbbell Extensions  2 sets X 15 reps
                  Dumbbell kickbacks   2 sets X 15 reps

Day 2 - BACK & BICEPS

Back:     Bent over  rows           2 sets X 15 reps
             1-arm DB rows            2 sets X 15 reps
Biceps:   Barbell curls              2 sets X 15 reps
             DB curls                     2 sets x 15 reps

DAY 3  LEGS

            Squats          2 sets x 15 reps
            DB Lunges     2 sets x 15 reps 

DAY 4 - REST  (No weights - Cardio only)

REPEAT CYCLE

Once the 2 sets  of 15 reps become fairly easy to perform, add a third set for each exercise.

After your surgery when you get the OK from your Doc tp start weight training again, we can get you a size and strength routine to work with.  Hope this helps you some.   Now get busy my man!!

Hi Clapton,

The bike is great for cardio while you're still heavy because it's not only easy on the joints, there's some indication that it actually heals bad knees, although the research is not totally conclusive, so if you're still heavy I'd recommend it. Just get in a variety of intensities. You should have:

1. Your easy cruising speed - where you could if you wanted to, carry on a conversation.

2. Your aerobic speed - where a conversation would be labored

3. Your lactate threshold speed - where conversation would be labored or impossible.

And mix all three of those. Be careful with three and maybe even two. Follow your docs advice for sure.

As for the weights, the first few months you can do almost anything and make progress, so you can make your weights and cardio the same activity (high rep dumbell sets and leg work with no rest in between, for example) and still get strong. After that, your strength is likely to plateau, so you'll want to make the weights and cardio separate activities, using heavy weights and lower reps and maybe doing more interval work on cardio.

The first few weeks are important to keeping motivation:

Limit your self to maybe 30 minutes of upper body one day, 30 minutes of core the next day and 30 minutes of lower body the next. This will help prevent your system from going into shock and resisting the new activity. You'll be more inclined to really look forward to the workout if your first few weeks are like this and you build up gradually.

Hope This Helps,

Dave

Thanks to all of you. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Since I've lost all my weight, I've been lifting more weights and doing less cardio...I started out slow when I was preop.  I barely did 30 min a day of walking and increased it little by little.  Today, I love the gym and can go twice a day if I wanted (but I don't).

Check out bodybuilding.com  It might provide you with resources regarding lifting weights.