As you may have read previously, I am currently trying to reduce my bodyfat percentage prior to the steriod cycle. As of this morning I was 18.4% fat according to may electronic scales (it does tend to vary so the accuracy wouldn't be better than 0.4 I would estimate).
In order to help reduce my bodyfat I am aiming to have a calorie deficit of approximately 500 calories per day. This is done through reducing the amount of food (mainly fat and carbs) I eat and in addition burning off fat with low insensity cardo (too much high intensity and I'll burn off too much muscle, but I do like my martial arts once or twice a week - keeps the heart healthy and all that).
My low intensity cardo consists of warm ups for weights sessions on the treadmill at the gym of usually 5 or 12 minutes (not that many calories burnt to be honest but worth mentioning although when I do 12 minutes it's around 200 calories although when I decide to push it and this isn't really low intensity). When I'm nt at the gym (i.e. A day off) I use my Concept2 rowing machine (I usually row for 35 minutes and burn off 500 calories). I do rowing a couple of times per week. Ideally I would do this in the morning, but my regrime (i.e. work) doesn't easily permit for this (and I'm not a morning person!).
Low intensity means I don't run out of breath - in summary I should be capable of holding a conversation with somebody if needed. I guess you could also class using the Wii as some low intensity cardo but I suspect the calories used on most games are negligable.
The reasons for rwing as apposed to say runing are as follows:
# It's low impact on the joints
# It involves the back muscles (which is a weak point for me)
# It's a good whole-body work out
# It offers good reporting abilities (such as calories used, etc.)
As an aside, I might do an all out going for best rowing time of 2000 meters to see what I can achieve pre and post (or near the end of) my steroid cycle. To date my best rowing time is 6m53s for 2000m.
I am currently waiting for my replacement PM4 head unit upgrade for the rower which will allow me to log my usage (but so far they sent me the wrong PM3 head unit for it).
So there you have it, that pretty much summarizes my cardo efforts. I need to update my FitDay, and once I've done this I'll post a chart of calories used and calories expended over time and we'll see if there's any corelation with my body weight and fat percentage changes.
Until next time, "Come on! Let's get serious!".
