...doing interval training.
I dunno if I'm doing it right; the jogging is a cinch, I'm just following the instructions on weekly interval training MP3s, not too difficult (okay, difficult from a "GOD I WANT TO STOP" perspective, but very easy from a knowing what to do perspective). But the weight lifting, I have no idea; everybody's idea of what interval weight lifting is is different, and I kind of mixed up the different instructions to something which is at least entertaining to do.
I'm doing ten repetitions as heavy as I can do, waiting ten-twenty seconds, repeating. Once I can't do ten (and I mean can't do ten, not doing ten is painful, I mean the muscles physically will not do it) I move down ten-twenty pounds. Repeat until I consider the weight I'm lifting to be trivial (generally if I can do three sets without tiring out). I'm doing this about twice a week. (Jogging more frequently, every other day.)
(I'm also consuming -unholy- quantities of protein.)
It's... surprisingly effective. I mean crazy surprise effective. From one session to the next I'm making noticeable gains in strength; from my first session to my second, I could do fifteen pounds more on triceps (which I'm hitting the hardest as the exercises I'm hitting my back with are also hitting my triceps), five on biceps, and I'm not sure about the others as I haven't been keeping track. From second session to third, another fifteen, another five. That's a thirty pound gain in strength in one week, from 170 to 200, so a 15% increase. (Yes, I'm a fairly sturdy couch potato right now.) [Edit: Gains have continued at this pace. I did a comfortable 230 last session; I'll be trying 245 today. The machine caps at 285; I don't have much more room to expand with targeted exercise there.]
Granted, this is the first week, when gains are supposed to be the highest. But bloody hell, I'm not wanting to do a body building contest or anything like that, and the results for me are astounding.
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