Breton, First, lets look at your ABS Question. Everything goes in sync together, diet, cardio, and exercise. If you want a nice looking hard body, these all must be in place. Cutting out or down the sweets is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Sweets have sugar and bad carbs and when ingested will turn into fat. A common misconception is that a high fat intake will make you fat. I agree that a high BAD FAT intake will make you fat, but good fats are vital to losing weight. If you cut down seriously on the sweets, only have them every now and again and in reasonable portions, yes you can have a flat belly in a relatively short period of time, providing you are not seriously overweight, which you say you are not. 2ND CARDIO- Cardio doesn't have to be "gut busting" in fact, it shouldn't be. Your optimal heart range should be about 60% or so, this is the best range to burn fat. To find this you will need a heart monitor. There are many on the market and according to your budget, I can recommend one suited to what you can pay for. If you can spend a little money, I recommend POLAR. POLAR is what is built into the LifeFitness Cardio machines, the best on the market IMO. 3RD Weights- Breton, I think you need to build some basic bodyweight strength before you get into weight training. Can you firm up your arms, legs, butt, chest? The answer to that is yes you can firm them up. Can you build that hard look just doing those, my answer is no you cannot. I feel that weight resistance training is critical to this. Can you weight train at home? Sure you can!! Sears offers a good home gym line at a reasonable price. Bench with several attachments, olympic size bar, 300 lbs. of free weights, all for about $300.00 Throw in some hand dumbells at wal-mart and you are in pretty good shape! INJURIES- Breton, I would argue that your exercise technique is what was hurting your back, not the weight itself. I have 3 herniated discs in y neck, calcium deposits in my knee and 2 ACL surgeries, all from playing football. Weight training is what has kept me strong and healthy, not a doctor or a bunch of pills. I deadlift 650 lbs and squat the same. I would focus on the correct technique of your lifts. Any other questions, hit me with them!!!
