Back in Oct?06 I started a 4 month home study course for the Feb?07 Washington State Bar Exam. For those 4 months I basically lived the life of a hermit. I grew a beard, had a cave like room I spent 8-9 hours in per day, didn?t leave the house for several days at a time and lost track of what day it was. I was lucky to not have to work thanks to my wife supporting me, so I 'really treated the course as a job.
I get up at 8 am everyday and studied until 5 pm. I knew for the sake of my sanity I?d have to get in some daily exercise so I developed a program and for the last 4 months I did nothing but study, eat, sleep and workout. Below is my routine and the great results I had.
Gym or No Gym?
I decided against a gym for three reasons: price, a year long contract and I was so fanatical about keeping on my study schedule that I didn?t not want the drive time to the gym to take away from my studies. So instead I made up a home based workout consisting of mostly bodyweight exercises and minimal equipment.
Set-up
I didn?t have any DB?s or Barbells. I had a chin bar, two saw horses to do dips with, a sledge hammer and a tire to smash, heavy bags of soil to carry around and press, an ab wheel, a jump rope and a big steep hill to run in the back of my house.
The Workouts
I figured out very quickly that I didn?t handle total body training well, so I did an upper body/lower body split: 2 days on and 1 day off. Upper body workouts consisted of all variations of push-ups, chins, pull-ups. Some times I have an explosive day where I?d do clap push-ups or other days were strength days so I?d put a 50lbs bag of soil on my back and do push-ups and I?d have endurance days too.
The workouts were always slightly varied. For lower body it was hindu squats, 1 legged squats, lunges, bodyweight squats, squats with a bag of soil, jump squats. and Glute-ham raises. I end a session with either grip work or core work and then a finisher. For upper body it was hitting a tire with a 10 lbs sledgehammer for 5-10 minutes. For lower body, either hill sprints or a jump rope workout. My workouts were intense but never went to failure and they lasted 30-45 minutes.
Diet & Supplements
I ate a ton of food during this period. I never counted calories but I?d have to say 3500-4000 a day. I?d stagger my carb intake throughout the day. Breakfast would be oatmeal or a whole wheat cereal, fruit and eggs. I?d have a snack and then eat lunch, which usually was a big sandwich with whole wheat bread and meat, fruit and a salad. After noon I?d start to lower my carb intake and pretty much just eat protein, good fats and veggies and some fruit
Supplements were minimal:
Fish oil (3g x 3?s per day)
Multi-vitamin
Biotest’s BCAA (3 tablets x 3?s per day)
Chocolate milk (pre-workout)
Endurax R4 (post-workout)
Bedtime shake: cottage cheese, yogurt, flax seed, walnuts, berries, unsweetened green tea and a bit of OJ (very high protein, high omega 3 and low sugar)
The two key supplements were the BCAA’s and the shake. I?d miss a shake and wake up at 2 in the morning with a growling stomach. With the BCAA’s I really noticed how effective they were when I ran out two weeks before the exam and didn?t reorder. I found that I couldn?t recover with the 2 on 1 off split so I changed to 1 on, I off, 1 on and then I ended up with a very nasty cold five days before the test but got over it just in time.
Rest & Recuperation
8-9 hours of sleep per night plus a 20 minute nap each afternoon. Off days do some active recovery with light walks and stretching.
Results
I have been lifting weights for about 10 years and this is the best program I?ve ever done. I used to do mostly bodybuilding routines and had never done much conditioning. I didn?t do any fat % tests or anything but I went from 200lbs on Oct 27 to 209lbs on February 26. Appearance wise I could see mass increases in my shoulders, arms and chest and more definition. The most shocking change was the effect the hill running and jump roping had on my quads, hams and calves. I have pretty bad genetics when it comes to calf development. In the past I never got any results from doing any variation of the calf raise. I gained a bit of mass and a lot of definition on my calves and for the first time every I had upper quad definition plus a noticeable gain in mass. I also loss some stubborn fat in my face where I tend to gain my weight. On top of this I felt very fit really for the first time. What this program made me realize is that if you eat enough and get enough rest you can gain mass and lose fat at the same time and WITH OUT weights.
By the way I took the exam earlier in the week and it went great.