Ok guys!
Heres how it goes...in Feb. I set the following goals:
-Quit smoking pot
-Eat clean (didn't count anything, just switched to good foods)
-Make it to 90 workouts (took me 101 days!!)
In that time (a little over 3 months) I lost 25lbs and 5% body fat.

After that phase I decided I wanted to make my diet better. I started counting calories, protein, carbs, and fat. I put a real emphasis on changing my diet, and its worked wonders for me!! I lost another 5lbs and another 1% body fat in the last month (my goal was to make it to 6 weeks counting everything and then to continue from there..) I spent the last 5 weeks figuring out what foods to get rid of and which to add. I'm really happy with my diet and I think its a good way for me to progress.

So my first set were lifestyle changes, my second set were dietary changes, and now (in a week) when my second set of goals have been complete I want to change my excersize routine.

I've been doing sustained HR cardio for a while, and I've decided to switch to HIIT. Thats one part of my new set of goals (to begin in about a week). I'm really excited, but can someone give me some advice? I've read about how John does it, and I have an HR moniter. What steps should I take to prepare? Can anyone give me some pointers? I know the general idea...but I guess until I do it I just won't know how it feels.

Next I want to switch up my weight routine. Part of phase two was moving from circuit training (to build up all around strength) to free weights. I've made some BIG gains in the last 2 months (6 weeks ago I made the shift completely...except for a few machines at the gym, but they're 'freemotion' machines so its not exactly like the machines you're thinking of....) Right now my schedule looks a little like this:

2 days of the week I do upper body:
Biceps (ezcurl bar and hammer curls)
Triceps (extension, pushdowns, and bench dips)
chest (bench, incline flys, or occasionally some machines like PecDeck that kinda thing)
Shoudlers (military press...I've seen the most progress since I started doing just this one for my shoulders...good gawd!!!)

2 days of the week i do lower body:
Calf raises
leg lifts for my quads
seated pushdowns for my hamstring
and then I do about 100 crunches, 2 sets of each oblique on that dipping kind of thing, and then I do reverse crunches and/or weighted upward swings (whatever thats called)

I've seen some great gains from this stuff, but I'm ready to push myself even harder. In the past week I've been mildly injured (pulled a muscle in my lower back, but not too bad), and at first I was really bummed out..but I gave it some time and its almost all healed up...which makes me think this is the perfect time to start a new routine (gotta make something positive out of a bad situation, right?)! I'm antsy to get back in the gym (I'd say tomorrow or the next day I'll be back to 100%..I worked out today upper body, but didn't do as many sets as usual just to keep myself mentally in to it and not stress myself...and I'm almost back to normal now!)....I'm ready to get started, and I just need a little guidance. What kind of goals should I set? I've done the fundamentals, now I'm ready to spend the rest of the summer working as hard as possible!!! IM READY!!!

-Andrew

Stats:
21 year old male
160lbs
15% body fat
5'8"

No one can help me?? Only 30some people have read this post?? C'mon ya'll help a brotha out!!

This is comming from a 160 pound 23 year old with 15% bodyfat(lost 3% since joining forum lol!). Take a photo of yourself and set some phsyiological goals. Or maybe you want to be able to bench press 200 pounds. Which ever suits you! You can show me a recent photo of you and I can recommend a body part to work on or tell me the weights you are lifting and I can give you a target there. Or you could try to get down to 10% body fat(my current goal). If your stats are similar to mine weight wise maybe we could have an online competition. Where we chose an excersice or a group of excersises to compete in then set a date to achieve it and then have photographic or even better cinematographic evidence of us doing it. Just a few ideas.
Good luck and thanks for all the advice you have given me so far.

I know how you feel man about setting new goals, since changing to a better lifestyle I cant help but push myself further. Goal wise Ive never been someone to set long term goals, just never works out (will always get dissapointed when i dont see results) You could set yourself short term goals, either daily or weekly. I do daily, just real simple things like increasing weight per workout, adding extra time to cardio Anything really that at the end of the day you feel you've accomplished something you couldn't yesterday. (Mentally helped me visualise improving myself daily)
Regarding HIIT here's a decent site I used www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp
I basically just followed their advice, increasing the time every other workout.
Hope this is in any way helpful and keep us posted :gl:

This is coming from a 22 year old male of 5'8'', 10.4% BF and weighing about 159 lbs.

Your goals depend on what you want to achieve. I know you wish to push yourself, but there are 100000 ways to do that. You wanna be aiming for something you want to achieve. Do you want to be thinner, stronger, faster, fitter... ? Ok, all of the above probably, but which is the MOST important. I would stand infront of the mirror and really look at yourself. Stare yourself out and look for what it is you want. Sounds stupid, but i did it. I reached my goal of 10%, and wondered what to do next. And so i looked in the mirror and looked into my own eyes and asked myself where i wanted to be at. Did i wanna get more ripped, maybe get to 8% ? Or did i want to improve strengh and size ? I decided to bulk up as much as i can, and begin a training routine to get back into playing rugby. Thats my new goal. I feel now that i have a new direction that i truely want and its motivating to know that the effort im putting in is not put in for some half wanted reason. Its put in for the one thing i want .

Give it a try, get an idea of where u wanna go and then we'll all help u get there.

And well done on your progress. :D

PS Id REALLY like to see you and shadow in an online competition. That would be an origional thread. :nod: :nod: :nod:

How about it Shadow? You want to do a little friendly competition??

You know I do! Check your PM's!

Wicked !

Make sure u post the link to the new thread !!!

How about it Shadow? You want to do a little friendly competition??

I'm so definitely gonna follow this... :tu: