Training Log + Pics + Question

I’ve begun my journey to a lower BF% and more muscle mass, and have constructed the following workout routine. I am hoping to receive some feedback, criticisms are welcome, so that I can get to my goal faster and more properly.

6 days a week
Day 1 - Weights - 3x each
A1: Lunges with 10lb dumbells - Walking (lunging) around the room and doing 30 reps (15 each leg)
A2: Push ups on dumbbells - 15 reps
40 second break
B1: Dead lift 60lbs - 10 reps
B2: Crunches/Bicycles - 30 reps
40 second break
C1: Dumbbell Press with 30lb dumbbells - 15 reps
C2: Plank 45 seconds
Stretch

Day 2 - run/bike for 20 minutes:
4-5 minute warm up, then 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, again 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, and last time 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, cooldown

The rest of the week is repetitions of Days 1 and 2 in alternating fashion.

My supplements are going to be ON 100% Whey protein (coming in the mail) and Centrum multivitamin.

Any advise at all is welcome!

http://kristinasepulveda.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/troll.jpg ?

[quote]grilw wrote:
I’ve begun my journey to a lower BF% and more muscle mass, and have constructed the following workout routine. I am hoping to receive some feedback, criticisms are welcome, so that I can get to my goal faster and more properly.

6 days a week
Day 1 - Weights - 3x each
A1: Lunges with 10lb dumbells - Walking (lunging) around the room and doing 30 reps (15 each leg)
A2: Push ups on dumbbells - 15 reps
40 second break
B1: Dead lift 60lbs - 10 reps
B2: Crunches/Bicycles - 30 reps
40 second break
C1: Dumbbell Press with 30lb dumbbells - 15 reps
C2: Plank 45 seconds
Stretch

Day 2 - run/bike for 20 minutes:
4-5 minute warm up, then 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, again 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, and last time 1 minute full speed, 2 minutes medium speed, cooldown

The rest of the week is repetitions of Days 1 and 2 in alternating fashion.

My supplements are going to be ON 100% Whey protein (coming in the mail) and Centrum multivitamin.

Any advise at all is welcome! [/quote]

That routine might help you lower your bf, but it’s going to do next to nothing for building muscle. You’ve got no method of progressive overload worked into this, so even though you might notice something after the first couple of times doing it. The gains will soon come to a screeching halt.

But honestly more information is needed.

Experience/training age?

Gender (no offense meant but 60 lb deadlifts is extremely light for a male)?

Diet?

Specific goals? I know you said lose bf and build muscle, but once again depending on your goals the program that we suggest to you may be different.

Also, if you’re a beginner, then I would suggest against trying to write your own programs. You just don’t have the experience, knowledge or foresight to be able to do so effectively. There are lots of programs available for free on this site.

I’d also suggest focusing on either building muscle, or focusing on lowering bf. You can do both, but your results will come much slower than if you focus on one and then once that’s accomplished the other.

I appreciate your input!

Here’s some more info

Male
5’4" , 158lbs
20 years old

After 3 sets of lunges today my leg muscles were spasming which is a good thing
The 3 sets of incline dumbell presses also tired out my arms completely, I was barely able to finish the third set, which is also good

My back was not tired after the third set of deadlifts, so I am definately going to add more weight. My heart was racing however, which is why I was reluctant to add weight then and there. The problem is that I am running out of plates now :slight_smile: will have to alternate between the dumbells and barbel .

As for avoiding building my own routine, I am limited to a bench, a barbell and dumbels, as well as a stationary bike, so I had to be creative at least a little bit.

Isn’t the most important part of getting stronger incorporating at the very least the three big lifts ? Bench, Squat, and Deadlift ?

And, with regards to focusing on one goal at a time, I am at ~16-17% body fat, and I definately want to get toned and yet be more muscular than I am. Which goal should I focus on first? Bulk up and then cut down ? I was under the impression that cross training is the smart path to results. Is that not the case?

I’ll post a picture when I get my hands on one.

How much weight do you have access to? If you’re running out of weight and using only 60 lbs on deads then you’d better start saving for some more plates (or a gym membership) because eventually, no amount of volume, intensity techniques, etc… are going to make you considerably more muscular.

You need to be able to consistently progress in terms of weight on the bar. That is the (well at least one of the) most important parts of getting stronger (the other being eating enough to support repair and growth).

The “big 3” (bench, squat, deads) are great exercises and should probably be incorporated into everyone’s training program (obviously unless saftey reasons specify otherwise). They’re great compound lifts that will work a lot of muscle groups and in turn release a lot of anabolic hormones.

Here’s a really simple program that you can do (using only the equipment that you have access to). It will work all of your major muscle groups.

Rotate between the two following workouts done on Monday, Wednesday, Friday (one week you’ll do workout A twice, the next week you’ll do workout B twice)

Workout A: Push

Chest: BB bench

Shoulders: Standing/or seated BB military press to front

Triceps: Close grip bench

Calves: seated calf raise (sit on bench, place balls of feet on a raised surface i.e. a block of wood, and place loaded barbell across your thighs, then proceed to press up onto your toes, repeat)

Quads: Squats (if you’ve got an adjustable rack on your bench, like I do at home, then you can just load up the bar and do back squats, if not then you’ll have to either do hack squats or learn how to clean and do front squats)

Workout B: Pull

Biceps: Standing BB curl

Forearms: BB wrist curls

Back (lats and traps): BB bent over rows

Hamstrings: Natural GHR’s (anchor your feet under either the weighted bar, or under the bench itself, you can also just do negatives to start with until you work up the strength to do the concentric phase)

Glutes/Upper back: Deadlifts
(you could also just do Sumo deads instead of both the GHR’s and conventional deads as those work the hamstrings quite well along with the glutes)

As far as sets/reps, I’d suggest doing 3 sets of 8-12 reps to begin with. You’ll want to pick a weight where you can do at least 8 reps but no more than 12 (you’ll have to experiment). Once you can do more than 12 (in the first set) increase weight. Otherwise just make sure you get more total reps.

Also, go to momentary muscular failure on all lifts where it’s safe to do so (if you don’t have a spotter, don’t got to failure on bench or back/front squats).

Finally, make absolutely certain that you eat enough to support growth. If you find that you can’t continually lift more weight, or the same amount of weight each time you do an exercise, you’re not eating enough.

When you eventually plateau on the lifts, switch to a different movement for that body part (for instance substitue DB bench for BB bench, BB lunges for squats, etc…).

And finally, I’d suggest that you focus first on building up the muscle. It’ll increase your BMR (resting metabolism) making it easier to lose the fat later down the road. Not to mention all of the other benefits of strength/mass gains.

Good luck. And if you have any questions, comments, concerns or clarifications needed let me know and I’ll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, you can do cardio either after your resistance training, or on days when you don’t do resistance training.

Just remember that you don’t grow in the gym (while training) you grow outside of the gym/during rest. So, make sure you’re still giving yourself enough rest to repair and grow.

Great advise ! I’m going to definitely make it my regimen.

What do you mean by ‘momentary muscular failure’ ?

Should I be doing super sets or one muscle group at a time with short breaks (walk around the room, shake it off, etc.) between sets ?

With protein intake, do you have any advise about how much protein I should be intaking?
50 grams in supplements on weight lifting days + natural sources , and 25 grams from supplements on cardio days?

The good news is that if I start by using BB for most exercises, I’m not going to run out of plates any time soon (have about 80-90 lbs of weight right now)

Thanks again! Today is cardio day. Gonna start with regimen A tomorrow.

Last question, have you have success following this regimen ? Is it a regimen you drafted yourself, or was it compiled by one of the staff on this/other website?

And, should I be doing any ab exercises at all, and if I am up for it should I incorporate some of my own exercises After I finish the workout?

Bump

Went to my on-campus gym today, finally got to lift with real olympic equipment

Did 5 sets of 5 reps
Squat on smith machine 105 pounds
Bench 80 pounds
Deadlift 80 pounds
Preacher Curl 25 pounds
Shoulder Press 70 pounds

I definately need to work on my form with the big 3 lifts. Any advise on how to make sure I am executing exercises correctly?

December 8
10AM
Did Cardio for 20 minutes on the bike
4 minute warm up
3 x (1 minute full blast + 2 minutes medium speed)
5 minute cooldown

10 PM did 5 sets of 7 reps BB Curl 45lbs, hoping to be able to curl 50lbs soon
Worked on abs bicycles leg raises , thai crunches

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good supplement to speed up the recovery of muscles ?

When I normally get sore, I get sore for like 4 days, and although I do train during those 4 days, I can’t do all the exercises and reps that I’d like to in order to push myself .

Any help here?

My recommendation would be to eat enough food to recover and grow, and not work the same muscle groups so often.

You dont need any supplements except possibly whey protein at your stage.

The soonest I would hit a major muscle group again would be 5 days.

Try to use a barbell to squat instead of a smith machine.

I think I am going to avoid doing weighted olympic squats altogether, but rather use a squat press machine, where my legs are pushing the weight away from me while I am in near laying down position.

When I use a bar, either olympic w/ weight or smith, it rests on my lower neck /spine and makes it sore for several days, and is not convenient at all when performing the exercise. That can’t be good, right?

I saw people wrap a towel around the bar before performing the exercise, and I tried that too but it doesn’t help that much.

Try resting the bar lower on your back, and the weight pressing down on your skin may be a bit painful. Also you can try belt squats with a weight belt, cable machine and two benches, this keeps the load off the spine. Although at some point you should start doing full back squats. Other options are front squats and zercher squats.

I tried front squats but I felt that I couldn’t keep the bar balanced enough , and that there wasn’t really anywhere on my collar bone or chest it could sit without me having to bend my back too much and thus lose my balance.

The hip belt squat is wicked and seems perfect, albeit expensive and tedious, but what about if I take a backpack, stuff it with weight and squat with my backpack on? Would that work?

Also, I know that the squat machines are not the ideal way to build your quads and leg muscles, but my friend really got his legs built from using those machines. Is there any real disadvantage to them except less bragging rights and less ‘real’ power?

Does your campus have a cable machine, if it does you can attach the low cable to a belt and stand on two benches then squat.

I feel machines can be incorporated into a program but, free weights should make up the majority of the movements. You can make progress with a machine but, the back squat is a better way for overall leg development.

[quote]grilw wrote:
What do you mean by ‘momentary muscular failure’ ?
[/quote]

I mean to the point where you can no longer perform another repetition in good form.

Do straight sets. In other words, all sets of one exercise before moving onto the next. Doing super sets with the program that I suggested to you would have absolutely no benefit. Super sets are good for either:

  1. antagonistic pairings (opposing muscle groups i.e. chest and back), this allows one to cut total workout time because while one muscle group is working the other is resting

  2. pre/post fatigue. This is an advanced training technique designed for people who have a hard time overloading certain muscle groups.

Try to get 1.5-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. So, if you weight 200 lbs (just using that number as an example because it makes the calculations easier) then you’d need to eat 300-400 grams of protein per day.

[quote]
Last question, have you have success following this regimen ? Is it a regimen you drafted yourself, or was it compiled by one of the staff on this/other website?

And, should I be doing any ab exercises at all, and if I am up for it should I incorporate some of my own exercises After I finish the workout? [/quote]

I haven’t done this exact routine before. But I have done a push/pull split that gave me good results. And I have used push/pull splits with clients of mine (also with good results). Also, it’s something that I compiled and I do have some good empirical evidence that it works, but it’s also contains concepts/methods that I’ve gleaned from numerous sources as well.

Ab exercises are up to you. I’d try the program as is for a little while and if at the end of that trial period (give it at least a couple months) you feel your abs aren’t getting enough, add in ab exercises.

Really though, your abs should be working pretty hard in many of the exercises that I suggested (squats, overhead press, really anything where your abs must stabilize your spine). Having visible abs is more a function of bf, which is most closely linked to diet.

You’re most likely not eating enough (or at least not eating enough of the “right” foods, think protein). There are a couple supplements that I think anyone (regardless of level) would be good to include in their diet (whey, fish oil, possibly glutamine). But I tend to agree with Mr. Popular that if you just ate more/more protein, you’d find that you would recover much quicker.

Don’t give up squatting (especially if you now have access to a squat rack). Yes, leg presses can build your legs. But squats are the single most time tested proven effective leg builder (and probably if not the best at least one of the best overall mass builder) on this planet.

You may be placing the bar too high up your back (I think someone already mentioned this) and also probably need to build up some trap musculature to give the bar a “shelf” to sit on. Try keeping your shoulder blades retracted (like you’re trying to hold a pencil between them) while squatting and see if that doesn’t help. If that’s still painful, you could try a “low bar” position.

And while you’re at it, check out all of the “squat rx” videos. They’re very informative and well done IMO. Great resource for beginners.

Good luck.

Haven’t had time to train due to exams, but did manage to set a new record in my basement today on BB curl and BB Bench Press

now able to curl 50 pounds + bar (~15lbs) about 5 reps

now able to bench 80 pounds + bar (~15lbs) 6 times

Protein is STILL on its way here, man Bulk Nutrition are slowwww , and I am in Toronto! I’d understand if it was like Nunavut or something, but 9 days to get a small jug of protein to Toronto is just a ripoff.