Good Workout Plan for Summer

[crownsy]

So, with the summer coming up, Gonna try to drop a few pounds. I'm not to out of shape, but could always stand too be a little healthier.

I eat relatively healthy, my main question for you guys is does anyone have a decent work out plan that doesn't involve being at the gym constantly?

Things worth mentioning, I'd like to avoid just straight going running, because my knee hurts like hell after awhile. And i can't spend alot of money on equipment, just because the budget won't allow it.

Anyone got any good tips? any advice would be much appreciated!

[Moranis]

Swimming is the best overall cardio (plus toning and a bit of muscle addition) workout you can do and it shouldn't bother your knee.  Obviously it is more time consuming and you need a place to do it, but you will drop the pounds quickly if you swim for 30 minutes a day.

Ellipticals, rowing machines, and biking are also pretty solid cardio activities (and rowing machines add some muscle as well) and may or may not bother your knee (depending on what exactly you did to it and what movement bothers it).  


If you are looking for more than just cardio, there are plenty of pretty solid workouts.  Obviously p90x and p90x2 are very popular but there are plenty of others out there, like GSP Rush Fit which is pretty solid.  

Heck even the exercises on the Wii, Kinect, and PS3 Move are decent (and you may already have some of those).  

[Kwhit10]

It's 80% diet and 20% working out.

Calculate your maintenance level calories and then eat 10-20% percent that value.  You only need to go to the gym 3 hours a week (3 days is enough).  I personally think cardio does very minimal in terms of fat loss unless you do HIIT (high intensity interval training).  Other than HIIT stick to compound exercises squats, deadlifts, bench press, and overhead press.


For HIIT use a bike it's easier on the knees.  Bike as hard as you can for 1 minutes, then bike very casually for 1-1.5 minutes (rest period) then go as hard as you can for another minute followed by the easier rest period. 

[clover]

It's 80% diet and 20% working out.

Calculate your maintenance level calories and then eat 10-20% percent that value.  You only need to go to the gym 3 hours a week (3 days is enough).  I personally think cardio does very minimal in terms of fat loss unless you do HIIT (high intensity interval training).  Other than HIIT stick to compound exercises squats, deadlifts, bench press, and overhead press.

This, by far.

But I also think it helps if you see where you can add walking, especially instead of driving, into your daily routine.

[Moranis]

It's 80% diet and 20% working out.

Calculate your maintenance level calories and then eat 10-20% percent that value.  You only need to go to the gym 3 hours a week (3 days is enough).  I personally think cardio does very minimal in terms of fat loss unless you do HIIT (high intensity interval training).  Other than HIIT stick to compound exercises squats, deadlifts, bench press, and overhead press.


For HIIT use a bike it's easier on the knees.  Bike as hard as you can for 1 minutes, then bike very casually for 1-1.5 minutes (rest period) then go as hard as you can for another minute followed by the easier rest period. 

The 80/20 depends a great deal on what your current diet and exercise regime are.  If you eat like crap, then sure correcting your diet will be the most important thing, but if you eat fairly well now then exercise plays a much more important role especially if you aren't currently exercising.  There is a reason shows like the biggest loser focus on both diet and exercise and focus on them both fairly equally.  They are both critical to losing weight and get healthy.

[Kwhit10]

It's 80% diet and 20% working out.

Calculate your maintenance level calories and then eat 10-20% percent that value.  You only need to go to the gym 3 hours a week (3 days is enough).  I personally think cardio does very minimal in terms of fat loss unless you do HIIT (high intensity interval training).  Other than HIIT stick to compound exercises squats, deadlifts, bench press, and overhead press.


For HIIT use a bike it's easier on the knees.  Bike as hard as you can for 1 minutes, then bike very casually for 1-1.5 minutes (rest period) then go as hard as you can for another minute followed by the easier rest period. 

The 80/20 depends a great deal on what your current diet and exercise regime are.  If you eat like crap, then sure correcting your diet will be the most important thing, but if you eat fairly well now then exercise plays a much more important role especially if you aren't currently exercising.  There is a reason shows like the biggest loser focus on both diet and exercise and focus on them both fairly equally.  They are both critical to losing weight and get healthy.

Yea I guess I don't literally mean 80/20 just an expression saying it's mostly diet related.

My experience is if people don't actually calculate and track what they eat they  underestimate what they eat if the are overweight and overestimate what they eat if looking to bulk up. That's why my first suggestion was to track what you're eating for a month.  I was trying to gain weight earlier this year and though I was eating a lot more than I was actually eating.  Once I started tracking calories and amount of protein I could get an accurate feel of what I needed to eat to hit my daily caloric goal (it was 3200-3500 calories a day).

You can do also do ab exercises until the cows come home, but you'll never see them unless you have the proper diet.