help build a leaner, meaner fu!

[sing fu]

With it being the new year and all, I've decided to take the discipline I use in class, and use it out of class in losing some serious excess baggage weight this year - around 33 pounds/15kg.

I'm 5 foot 8/176cm and have just gone over the 200 pound/90 kg mark - ugly stuff, beleive me. Anyway, for the past year or so I've neglected any aerobic training (and to a great extent diet), and want to focus this year on leaning up - my training is getting slower because of the excess, and my endurance has dropped because of little aerobic workout.

At the moment I do around 2 hours training a day alternating one day with fairly aerobic weapon-on-weapon training, the next day judo-type stuff. I also do 60 mins of kungfu stance and strike reps a night.

So.. I'm checking out more careful dietary measures at the moment, but I was wondering if I could ask some fellow KFOers about what kind of aerobic training or other things I can do on my own to lose the flab?

HELP BUILD A LEANER FU!!:)

[Kempo Guy]

Sing Fu,
A couple of basic things I'd suggest before looking at your training program. First off I'd suggest taking a look at your current eating habits and restricting your calorie intake. If you have a slow metabolism, it may be beneficial to increase the number of meals you consume throughout the day...

You may want to invest in a 'skinfold caliper' and take some basic measurements to see where your BF% is at. I wouldn't read too much into your scale weight either... Once you've calculated your BF%, I'd suggest finding what your BMR (base metabolic rate) is as it will give you a very basic guideline as to your calorie consumption per day. There are many BMR caluculators online, so just do a search.

As for exercises, I'd suggest doing HIIT (high intensity interval training) or using exercises using the Tabata protocol. Do a search on this forum on HIIT... I would not recommend doing HIIT more than three times a week (30 minutes or so per workout).
I would also include resistance training (weights) as it will aid in fatloss.

KG

[sing fu]

Kempo Guy,

Thank you for all your advice! I'm off to look into calorie intake, body fat/basic metabolism rate, and KFO's HIIT threads now. :)

With the weights, do strength conditioning excercises using body weight measure up to workouts using free weights?

Appreciate your advice!

[Kempo Guy]

No worries. I'm glad to help.

Although I'm a big fan of bodyweight exercises, I would suggest doing some 'weight training' to supplement your regular bodyweight routines to increase lean musculature. As you know, lean muscles burns more calories, and IMHO it's easier to gain more muscles with weights.

KG