Weight Training Questions - Working Out After Hernia

Weight Training Question:
I'm 5'10' and weigh 210 pounds. I have been working out for about 5 months now. During this time I broke some ribs playing hockey and got an umbilical hernia at work. This has made working out sometimes difficult. I had to stay away from the gym for 5 weeks while my hernia healed after surgery but have started going back to the gym just to walk or ride the bike. My goal is to lose 10 to 15 pounds and I watch my diet very carefully and make sure to load up on protein every day. I'm just wondering if you might know a good workout that I could start next week that will give me the best results for fat burning. In the past when I worked out I did most body parts separate and then did 20 minutes of cardio at the end. I hope you can help.

Weight Training Answer:
Since your recovering from a hernia, you need to be very careful coming back to the gym and make sure you are 100% recovered before starting any intensive exercise plan. I highly recommend contacting your doctor and make sure he gives you 100% approval before starting back into a workout program. The last thing you want to do is get into the gym and start working out too hard too soon and then suffer the consequences if you are not 100% healed from your hernia. So, get checked out by your doctor first and then once you have the green light, you can start back on your fat loss workout plan.

After the doctor has approved you to get back in the gym, it's probably best to start with slow and steady cardio exercises that are low impact such as walking on the treadmill, riding the bike or doing the elliptical machine. These work well for overall fat burning and for getting your body back into the groove of being in the gym. The elliptical machine is a great choice for cardio since it is a very low impact exercise, yet it works your large muscles (legs, glutes, chest, back) which will burn a large amount of calories. The elliptical is probably the best machine to start with while getting back into the groove of exercising after your injury.

After you have fully recovered from your hernia and you have been checked out by your doctor, you can start using more high intensity cardio exercises to burn more overall calories and body fat. When you're 100% healthy and ready to get after it, I recommend jumping rope for a killer cardio workout. Jumping rope is an excellent exercise and will probably help you get the results you're looking for in the quickest amount of time. Shoot for 20-30 minutes of jump rope for each cardio workout and do this 4-5 times per week for the best results. If you can only do a few minutes of jump rope without getting tired, don't worry. Just do interval style training and do 1-2 minutes jumping rope and then take a 30-60 second rest. Do this for the entire session and you will have a great calorie burning workout.

Since I mentioned doing cardio exercise for burning calories, I need to focus on another major factor for losing body fat, and this is your diet. What you eat contributes to around 75% of your overall physique goals! Whether you want to bulk up and gain muscle or if you want to lean down and get ripped, your diet is absolutely critical for making real changes and it's the cornerstone when designing a fat loss program. No matter how much cardio you do, if your diet is slacking then you will not see the results you're truly looking for. Keep your diet clean and make sure to get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight each day. For example, if your current body weight is 200 pounds, then you should be eating a total of 200 grams of protein per day. Split up this total amount of protein over 5-6 meals which results in about 35-40 grams of protein per meal. Protein is absolutely crucial for building muscle so always make sure to include a protein source in every meal and eat every 2.5-3 hours throughout the day for the best results.

Specific protein supplements such as whey protein powder is very beneficial when taken post-workout in order to take advantage of the window of opportunity that exists right after your workouts when your muscles are screaming for nutrients. Whey protein is a very fast acting protein source that gets assimilated into your muscles very quickly. Choose a quality whey protein supplement which has very little carbs (less than 5-7 grams per serving) and very little fat (less than 2-3 grams).

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