My Progress?

First, I want to give you guys a little background information.

I’m 18 years old 6’0" 165lb, before this year I would eat crap, that is eat noting the entire day come home from school, eat sweets, and a big dinner. I would do this every day. I wasn’t involved in any sports, basically I did noting.

Finally in Decmeber of last year I decided to change my life completly. I would change my diet and get a lot more exercise. It’s been almost a month and a half and I have done just what I said I would do. I now eat 4-5 times a day and most of the time my meals include vegetables and fruits.

For breakfast I eat some high fiber cereal with 2% milk followed by an apple or bannana and a 1/2 cup of spinach. I then drink whey protein with water and fish oil.

Next comes lunch, I eat a sandwich with 2 slices of whole wheat bread, mayo, spinach, apple or bannana, one slice of chicken breast, and provolone cheese.

Some time later I will post my diet for a full day because I don’t want my post to be too long. So, how is my breakfast and lunch?

My workout is 3 days a week, M W F. I try to do at least 8 reps but no more than 12 and I start with a warmup set which is 50% of a real set. If I do 12 reps in my first set than on the next workout day I start with my 2nd set weight and add more weight my next set.

This is when I started:

Workout:

January 2, 2006
weight(lb) x reps
Bench:

Set 1: 52 x 8
Set 2: 58 x 8

Upright Row - shoulders

Set 1: 20 x 12
Set 2: 26 x 10

Barbell Bent-over Row - back

Set 1: 26 x 12
Set 2: 30 x 10

Barbell Close Grip Bench Press - Triceps

Set 1: 30 x 12
Set 2: 36 x 9

Dumbbell Curl - Biceps

Set 1: 20 x 8

My workout for today: February 10, 2006

   weight(lb) x reps 

Bench:

Set 1: 76 x 10
Set 2: 80 x 6

Upright Row - shoulders

Set 1: 40 x 10
Set 2: 46 x 8

Barbell Bent-over Row - back

Set 1: 50 x 11
Set 2: 56 x 9

Barbell Close Grip Bench Press - Triceps

Set 1: 56 x 10
Set 2: 30 x 8

Dumbbell Curl - Biceps

Set 1: 20 x 10
Set 2: 23 x 7

Squats - Quads

Set 1: 36 x 12
Set 2: 40 x 10

Abs:

Bicycle Exercise: As much as I can do x 3 sets

How do you guys think I’m progressing? Too slow? Anything I should change? Add? Subtract? Please some feedback/advice.

I would keep what you’re doin, but do more sets. 1 or 2 sets never got me anywhere. As a beginner, I think that 3-5 sets with a volume of 25-30 would be right. I’m sure you’ll get more advice from everyone else, and probably referred to a workout. Good luck and and keep it up.

[quote]subflood wrote:
First, I want to give you guys a little background information.

I’m 18 years old 6’0" 165lb, before this year I would eat crap, that is eat noting the entire day come home from school, eat sweets, and a big dinner. I would do this every day. I wasn’t involved in any sports, basically I did noting.

Finally in Decmeber of last year I decided to change my life completly. I would change my diet and get a lot more exercise. It’s been almost a month and a half and I have done just what I said I would do. I now eat 4-5 times a day and most of the time my meals include vegetables and fruits.

For breakfast I eat some high fiber cereal with 2% milk followed by an apple or bannana and a 1/2 cup of spinach. I then drink whey protein with water and fish oil.

Next comes lunch, I eat a sandwich with 2 slices of whole wheat bread, mayo, spinach, apple or bannana, one slice of chicken breast, and provolone cheese.

Some time later I will post my diet for a full day because I don’t want my post to be too long. So, how is my breakfast and lunch?

My workout is 3 days a week, M W F. I try to do at least 8 reps but no more than 12 and I start with a warmup set which is 50% of a real set. If I do 12 reps in my first set than on the next workout day I start with my 2nd set weight and add more weight my next set.

This is when I started:

Workout:

January 2, 2006
weight(lb) x reps
Bench:

Set 1: 52 x 8
Set 2: 58 x 8

Upright Row - shoulders

Set 1: 20 x 12
Set 2: 26 x 10

Barbell Bent-over Row - back

Set 1: 26 x 12
Set 2: 30 x 10

Barbell Close Grip Bench Press - Triceps

Set 1: 30 x 12
Set 2: 36 x 9

Dumbbell Curl - Biceps

Set 1: 20 x 8

My workout for today: February 10, 2006

   weight(lb) x reps 

Bench:

Set 1: 76 x 10
Set 2: 80 x 6

Upright Row - shoulders

Set 1: 40 x 10
Set 2: 46 x 8

Barbell Bent-over Row - back

Set 1: 50 x 11
Set 2: 56 x 9

Barbell Close Grip Bench Press - Triceps

Set 1: 56 x 10
Set 2: 30 x 8

Dumbbell Curl - Biceps

Set 1: 20 x 10
Set 2: 23 x 7

Squats - Quads

Set 1: 36 x 12
Set 2: 40 x 10

Abs:

Bicycle Exercise: As much as I can do x 3 sets

How do you guys think I’m progressing? Too slow? Anything I should change? Add? Subtract? Please some feedback/advice.

[/quote]

Well, it looks like you are making progress, which is great. Your routine is ok, but there are much better ones you can do all over this site. Here’s a thread that was started for newbies.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=0391C5E561C398FC4BEDFE145CA46CE8.hydra?id=640350

This one is also good.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=3DB020B99586C361F98F13EDE1ECFCD8.hydra?id=674008

They cover all the bases from nutrition to supplements to workout programs. Read through those and do some of the programs. You will be good to go for a long time, and will be on your way to having some idea of what you are doing. Good luck.

P.S. Alwyn Cosgrove just released a book called the New Rules of Lifting that can be picked up at Barnes and Noble. It’s really informative and has a bunch of programs, if you have the 20 bucks I’d get it.