My Father's Just Getting Started

My father is 52 years old hes just getting started with weight training now.I’d say his body fat is somewhere in the 15-19% range, probably closer to 15 though. he’s been running/biking for years and has been using an elliptical machine in our house for the past few months as well.

my sibilings and i recently got him a gym membership and he asked me what kind of work he should be doing with weights. The staff there will give him a little help but nothing extensive unless he pays for it. His goals are to reduce fat and build some muscle.

I’m thinking something like this:
1x(per week)take one of the free classes offered by the gym - bootcamp, cardio kickboxing, etc.

2x interval cardio training around 20 minutes worth

2x an extended cardio workout in the 30-40 minute range at a moderate pace

3x weightlifting, im thinking some kind of high rep circuit training with a Monday-full body, Wednesday-Upper body, Friday-full body.

Other issue that he hasn’t mentioned but i know is vital is diet. My family’s eating habits are subpar (they make fun of me and my sister for eating clean but bitch about having love handles, go figure)im thinking the best plan for him eating wise is to go with good lean protein throughout the day, start the day eating a lot of good carbs (oatmeal, 100% whole wheat bread, etc) but taper off as the day continues so that by dinner he is virtually carbless.

As carb intake is reduced throughout the day he would increase his fat intake from mostly good fats like olive oil, then right before bed have a decent fat/protein snack. I also think he should increase his water intake to between 70 and 85 ounces/day along with two cups of green tea or one cup of black coffee in the morning.

I’d love to hear feedback on this from anyone out there. I definitly appreciate any constructive criticism you may have and any suggestions that you may be able to make.

Thanks, have a good weekend.

A couple of thoughts:

If he hasn’t mentioned his diet, that’s probably because he doesn’t want to change it.

If he’s doing plenty of cardio running, biking and on the eliptical machine, why would you want to change that?

Your weightlifting program seems ok though. Good luck!

48 here I would tell him have fun

Appreciate your comments, here are my thoughts:

well as far as diet goes, i doubt there are many who WANT to change their diets, however if they want to see results then diet is probably as important (if not more important) then fixing workout habits.

for cardio the reason i am making the changes are because as far as i know he has been doing very low intensity cardio over longer sessions. As far as my experience has been concerned high intensity cardio over a shorter period of time is more condusive to muscle building.

[quote]pittbulll wrote:
48 here I would tell him have fun[/quote]

I agree with pitbulll. Your program for your dad seems a bit ambitious to me. I personally would leave the cardio stuff out, since your father already does it, albeit it’s not optimal for muscle building. Learning the lifts is much more fun, and when he is hooked, it’s time for the more ambitious stuff.

i definitly see what you’re saying about it being a bit abmitious, the reason i made the cardio look like that is because he had specifically asked me how he could improve his cardio schedule. I’ll probably tell him to stick with his current cardio schedule for the first few weeks. As he becomes more comfortable in the gym though i think it may be go to incorporate a little bit of interval training or some classes if only because interval training is a fun way to burn some fat, and a class every few weeks could be an interesting way to mix things up.

thanks for the advice, i will definitly consider it when making my reccomendations to him