Hello. I’ll provide some background before I ask my questions …
I started lifting back in mid-january. I’ve since put on 20lbs, and have significantly improved on all my lifts. I’m 5’10 and weigh 180lbs. My lifts have nearly doubled in this time: my squat went from 3x8 at 135 to 2x8 at 205 and 2x8 at 225. My other lifts have progressed similarly.
I believe I’ve made some damn good progress despite not really knowing wtf I’m doing. I do a, what I now believe to be, fucked up total body routine on monday, wednesday, and friday.
It currently consists of (exercised in order listed):
4x8 close-grip chinups
4x8 DB seated shoulder presses
4x8 back squat
5x5 bench press
5x8 bent over DB rows
My diet consists of large amounts of cottage cheese, fruit (mostly apples & bananas), tuna (on ezekiel sprouted bread [little mayo]), oatmeal, shredded wheat, eggs (I’ll eat 5 whole ones at a time), and beef jerky. I drink mostly water, and some diet iced tea. I occasionally drink diet coke.
I try to eat 600 calories 5 times a day. I don’t count calories, but just go on “intuition.” Example typical meal: i’ll have 5 eggs + a piece of ezekiel (or two) and a banana). I believe I’ve got the eating thing down, except for two things.
In the morning, monday-thursday (picked up on my way to school), I eat a turkey sandwich. It consists of two slices of wheat bread, 38 grams of turkey lunch meat, 12 grams of provolone cheese, and some veggies (lettuce, peppers, tomatoes).
Macro-nutrient breakdown: 59.55g protein, 19g fat, 9g saturated fat, .5g trans fat, 49g carbs (11g sugar) for a total of 585 calories. I’ll also eat a large banana with this, or a handful (or two) of nuts (peanut/almond/walnut mix). Is this a good choice? Should I avoid lunch meat? I may eat two of these a day occasionally substituting roast beef for the turkey.
I also eat a fair amount of MET-RX MRP bars. Specifically, this one: www.metrx.com/labels/045843.pdf I’ll eat at least one a day. I eat one during a small break I get in school monday-thursday. I get 10 minutes at 10:15am or so, and during this time I slam down one of these & a banana (or large apple). Is this a good idea?
One more diet (which is also somewhat related to my program question) question: One of my classes on monday-thursday, at 12pm from 2pm, is a weight lifting & conditioning class. It’s turning out to be more of a conditioning class, and for about 1 hour my instructor puts the class through a variety of exercises (different ever day).
It kicks my ass: I’m absolutely soaked with sweat after an hour (I never did any exercise before January). I’m starting to very much enjoy it, however, I’m “worried” about not consuming enough calories in this time. I recently ordered some surge with the idea of consuming one serving (three scoops, I believe?) right before class at 12pm, then eating a meal (a turkey sandwich as described above, probably) at 2pm. Is this, also, a good idea?
I also want to change up my program routine; I would prefer to lift Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I can’t currently do this with my program as is. I basically would like to do some sort of a split routine… but I don’t really “get” doing a split routine;
For example, if I do “chest” on monday, how many sets of chest exercises total do I do? Won’t my total volume (weight times totals reps) per “muscle group” be lower on a split than a TBT? :-/ Would the recently posted “shut-up” program be a good idea, given I do a relatively (to me) intense conditioning type program 4 days a week?
Also, my phys-ed instructor wants the class to lift for 45 minutes after putting us through a “cardio-type” workout. This really seems like a bad idea to me. Is it? If I can get out of this requirement, and instead lift later in the day, should I?