STARTER HELP!!

[Boss Man]

I don't think it's any serious, but I would heed caution on the outcomes you just described, because you don't know for certain it will be either of those two things, so being acutely aware of other possibilities will help if it's not what you think, as it might make any other possibilities that might be mentioned easier to deal with.

[garethlello1979]

Right the verdict from the doctors is they arent sure.

She said it didnt seem to be tennis elbow due it being on the weaker side the left and that when she had a feel around the muscles and tendons did not feel sore.

Conundrum is that rest it for 2 weeks it goes awa but then go to workout and its back str8 away. It also seems to get to a level soreness but doesnt get any worse.

Now predicament is that i am well into the swing of things and starting to feel great even if body is playing catch up.

I've got a neoprene elbow pad so it covers the whole elbow area and provides support and compression.

But the questions i have now is how can i scale back without compromosing too much and risk seeing a halt in progress? Ab machine, russian twists, leg press and lower back pres are fine as no arm involvement in those, but i am making progress on the chest and dont want to have scale back so i am stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Im addition to this im am looking up tennis elbow exercises as a kind of rehab for whatever it and looking at maybe looking at some form of forearm exercise to build up the muscles which should hopefully mean at some point when it has gone the forearms will be stronger and it doesnt come back.

I've heard about these powerball things as well that spin at 1000's of revolutions per minute being excellent for builing up forearm muscles and rehab has anyone used on of those before.

It'd so annoying that i need to scale back and do something about this to stop it constantly coming back but i dont want to stay stagnant weight and progress wise.

Although the one good thing i can say is the 60min incline power walk programme i devised for myself is working well i burn 500 caories and quads and even in 2 shorts weeks are noticably different so im loving that.

only other idea was i was going to do mon,wed,fri weights with the cardio sat and sun but maybe i need to swap one other weights session for the cardio or say a spin class and then some form stripped back routine on the other 2 weights days?

Any advice as usual is greatly appreicated.

[Boss Man]

You can provide greater emphasis on the forearms when yo do bicep exercises, by doing things like hammer curls, reverse e-z bar curls, zottman curls etc.

In terms of scaling down you don't need to do much, just try using about 20% less and see how that goes for a while.

[garethlello1979]

Its time again already for second phase results (weeks 5-8) and its a weird one im afraid.

Week 5 i managed the gym 3 times but then had to rest 2 weeks again because of the elbow then on the final week i worked out 6 days in a row and did weights,cardio, weights,cardio, cardio, cardio.

Through this whole 8 weeks i have always followed the diet plan the only blip i have had was a wedding reception sat but that wasnt through food it was several glasses of wine. However that is only 1 blip in the last 8 weeks.

Therefore i know ive worked then has to stop but i thought after big push last week even though its beena lot of cardio the last week final push would knock me into more shapre. After the 6 days ina row i fel fantastic but results below are confusing.

Weight 193lb - gain 1lb
Waist 98.5cm - loss 0.5cm
Stomach 106cm - loss 1cm

Overall gained weight since the start lost 2 cm off the stomach and gained 0.5 on the waist compared to thestart.

What on earth is going on as im not making much progress and i seem to be static with weight even though im sticking to the diet and busting a hump in the gym.

The elbow is worse and im back at the doctors tonight but i will stick with at least the cardio incline walking as i still want to be doing 4 gym sessions a week and giving body a pounding im just annoyed with the slow results and hoping that the even with just the cardio that the next 4 week rsults will be more promising.

[Boss Man]

The extra cardio might be causing some muscle burn, which will be counterproductive towards weight loss.

Also your calories may be a bit low and as you say you have had some time off from exercise due to the elbow issue.

[garethlello1979]

Right deddo confirmed as tennis elbos but currently only mild so got to compeltely rest the arm.

If thats the case is it best to just stick to the cardio so im still doing something 4 times a week?

Or is there a programme i can follow with just leg back exercises that dont need to ise arms.

Or last option do the limited weights exercies i can do on legs back etc and finish it off with cardio so i still get a mix and can try and minimise the potential muscle loss?

[Boss Man]

If it's tennis elbow then try doing a boby weighted version of the workout and then keep any cardio you already do.

Doing more cardio to compensate for less weights wouldn't be the answer, as you'll potentially burn muscle and also you improve your cardiovascular state, in a way that wouldn't necessarily be maintained when you went back to weights again, making the added cardio a pretty pointless thing to do long-term.

[garethlello1979]

What would u suggest then bodyweight exercise wise for arms chest and shoulders?

[Boss Man]

What you were already doing. You just don't need to change anything.

[garethlello1979]

Glad u find it useful I'm a novice but the help and advice has helped me nail down a diet and routine. The only thing getting in the way now is this tennis elbow that I'm rehashing but I'm not letting it stop me I'm doing a spin class fri and sat evening for some.some.intense fat burning cardio.

[garethlello1979]

Well I've left off the weights since Monday and done the cardio on the treadmill the last 2 days and a spin class tonight with a final spin class tomorrow to finish. only issue is that I'm not losing any weight despite all the hard work. Plus stats haven't changed either.
Combined with the tennis elbow that could take 2 weeks or 2 months to heal stopping weights session it's getting a bit demoralising at the moment.

Any advise on anything I could do to try and kick start things as I have been told no weights complete restored the elbow. I was told it was mild and not to bother with the,stretches or exercises but I think I may to try and strengthen it and speed up the recovery

[Boss Man]

Whatever you were doing with weights just do it without weights and if needs be make one or two alterations regarding what exercises you do.

[garethlello1979]

well monday is weigh in for weeks 9-12 and what can i say im dreading it i dont feel any thinner or like ive made any progres but i guess stats will tell me otherwise.

I do look in the mirror and think nothing is happening and getting a little frustrated.

The diet for the last 4 weeks is as follows:

Breakfast - Cereal
Break - Banana
Lunch - Chicken/cous cous/sweetcorn/light buffalo mozarella/yoghurt
Break - Small portion of almonds
Tea - Pork stir fry/Mince rice mushrooms etc/steak sandwich

On workout days i am having a protein shake post workout and workouts thus far have been:

Week 9 - Mon weights/tues weights/weds incline treadmill/thurs incline treadmill/fri treadmill incline/sat treadmill

Week 10 - Thurs incline treadmill/sat incline treadmill

Week 11 - Wed Incline treadmill/thurs incline treadmill/fri spin class/sat spin class

Week 12 - Wed Incline treadmill/thurs incline treadmill/fri spin class/sat spin class

[Boss Man]

What might help you is to see the bigger picture.

A: you might be replacing fat with muscle.

B: You could be actually reducing your cholesterol, blood pressure and improving your bone density and connective tissue strength as well as possible bolstering your immune system and a few other things besides which would wouldn't be able to see or ascertain properly.

So there's more to your progress than just the cosmetic things and remembering to keep a more broader mind might be useful to you .

[garethlello1979]

That's true I guess it's just because I want to lose weight and get figure back but I get set backs like tennis elbow so the next few weeks wkout will be mainly cardio.
Also with the workouts I have been doing all being Cardio would I build any muscle?