What Program to Follow?

Hello all :slight_smile:

I’m going to get straight into the detail, cutting out the superfluous text >.<

I’ve been to 12 different gym’s over the last 12 years but have never stuck to a gym or training for long. I’m pleased to say my current cheapo gym is as good as the priciest, it’s got all the weights + machines i will ever need AND it’s got A LOT of room, so the place doesn’t smell like the meathead gyms do :).

About me now

I’m 5ft 10 and around 75kg, with a podgy belly that is well situated in the spare tyre department. I’ve not really stuck to any consistent training plan, have been quite here and there really. I’m now almost 28yrs old, and i want to reduce the belly fat, get stronger & have a better looking physique., I’d like to get a bit bigger and reduce fat on my belly, these are the aims of me going to the gym.

I came across this

And feel confused as to what program to follow… :frowning: The German 2000 looks good, but they all look good :frowning:

#help!

I can’t do benchpress either no btw, my shoulder hurts a lot when i lift the bar… so i’ll be sticking to dumbbells…

what do you want to achieve?

Well, looks like you, my friend, are a typical newbie, in spite of having “trained” for 12 years. But instead of giving you the typical “focus on getting strong at the basics and eat a lot of clean food” (although this is good advice), let me give you some more specific advice.

From your post, one can read in between the lines that your main goal is fat loss. Realize that fat loss comes primarily for your diet. To this end, I would recommend sticking to the basic and very effective plan of eating 100g grams of carbs per day, placing those carbs mainly around your workouts. Protein could be around 1g per pound of bodyweight and some healthy fats. This should take care of your diet.

Training-wise, I would suggest either a Full-body split, done 3 times per week (Chad Waterbury has some good examples) or an Upper Body/Lower Body split, with 4 workouts (2 of each) done per week. Aside from this, you can add some conditioning (HIIT, complexes, sprints,etc.).
Start with one 15-20min session per week and add to that if needed to keep losing fat. Steady cardio shouldn’t be necessary at this point.

Realize that these are guidelines and can (and must) be adjusted based on how you respond and progress. This program should accomplish what you want (lose fat and maybe gain some, not much, mind you).

Finally, there are many ways to accomplish this. I think the recommendations I just gave are pretty sensible and should work for most people.

Hope this helps!

I double what eaboadar wrote. If you enjoy training 6 days is fine 2. That is what i do, 6 days, upper lower split, alternating 8-8 reps, 10-10 reps, 12-12 reps off. The moderate/light weights are safer until your form gets good, it also saves time on warm-up, just about 5 min. general is enough like biking to the gym. It is gentler on joints. By doing about 5 exexercises(mainly compounds) about 5 sets each you will get most out of your time. Shorts rests will generate cumulative fatigue and trimming(about 40-70 sec. between sets).

You know you must change lifestyle/friends. Gym is 1 factor, general activity adds up just like good/bad food choices. Focus on single foods, unprocessed, without any ingredients label(they have the right to lie and guess what, they do). I mean you buy potatoes, carots, peas, lentils, oysters, clams etc… put 3-4 together voila an healthy(non fatening) meal.

All the best !

Osborn…from the sound of things you need structure. Wendler’s 5 3 1 added the structure I needed and it has turned my training around. I know exactly how many reps and the weight for each workout plus there is the built in factor of adding weight each time. Modify the assistance work to met current goals or a weakness. His views on cardio have helped me too. If he was in my area I’d sign up for any lecture he held.