Righteo. I’m going to outline my plan here, and what I’ve been doing. Thankfully, despite lack of willpower and discipline lately, I’ve not been totally idle! I’m currently 87.4kg. While I’ve backslid in terms of weight, it’s not all bad. I’ve been using Greasing the Groove and resistance bands, and I can now do 2 chin ups from a dead hang. Considering a few weeks ago, I needed a HUGE resistance band to even do one, I’m proud of that.
I’m also on week 2 of the Couch to 5km running program. I manage about 4-5 cardio sessions per week, although admittedly a lot of them are ike a 15-20 minute walk around the neighbourhood. It’s still better than nothing. I do aim for 10k steps per day, but that’s less of a goal, and more of an indicator for me.
I’ve been pretty on and off with the gym, since I generally don’t have much time. I’ve just written a new, very minimalistic program. I’m gonna trial it for 2 weeks, see how it does, then either adjust it or scrap it. It’s called “Super Minimal; Testrun”. Here it is:
Day 1:
Bench Press (dumbbell) 3x6-8
Lat Pulldown (close grip, spinated grip) 3x6-8
Hammer Curl 3x6-8
Tricep Cable Pushdowns 3x6-8
Day 2:
Sumo Deadlift 2x6-8
Hip Thrust (machine) 3x6-8
Day 3:
Overhead Press (barbell) 3x6-8
Lat Pulldown (Close grip, supinated) 3x6-8
Hammer Curl 3x6-8
Tricep Cable pushdowns 3x6-8
Day 4:
Sumo Deadlift 2x6-8
Hip Thrust Machine 3x6-8
Rest times are typically 1-1.5 minutes, set on my phone. The idea is to make gym go from some big task that takes up a lot of mental energy, into a quick 20 minute errend. When I build the discipline and habit, and stop running on willpower, I’ll expand it. Right now, I want to form the habit. If anybody is about to come for my soul for not doing an established program, keep in mind this is super similar to the “I ain’t doin’ jack” template for 5/3/1 Wendler put out years and years ago, but with extra dead work, no squats, and db bench instead of barbell.
I’m also going to be doing some light, bodyweight neck work. Nothing crazy; just extensions and flexations supersetted with my deads and thrusts on my lower day. I think my physique would suit a beefy neck.
I’m going to continue on with my cardio. Aiming to be doing at least some sort of cardio, even if it’s gentle LISS for 20 mins, 5x a week. I have major concerns about my heart health in a few decades, and a tiny bit of effort now is gonna be a lot easier than major lifestyle changes in 30 years.
I’m still doing greasing the groove with chin ups. Chin ups are a compound lift I think would pay huge dividends for me, and being able to do more than 2 reps in a set would be huge. I think honestly my weight is the main factor in not advancing right now.
My goal is to build muscle. I’ve tried to pick exercises I enjoy that are compounds, so that I get the most bang for my buck.
My upper days are pretty simple. The first lift is just a compound that alternates between a horizontal and verticle pushing motion. The DB bench is partly because db’s are faster to set up, but also I find the bar dips on barbell bench, which indicated that one of my sides is weaker than the other, and db will fix that. The supinated close grip is because my goal through the lat pulldown is to continue training pullups by training the involved muscle with external loading, as well as through gtg. I want to swap that for sets of chin ups when I can. The arm work is optional, and will be scrapped when I’m in a time crunch, but I just like training arms. It doesn’t take long, and makes me feel cool. Plus my arms are pretty weak and spindly, so strengthening them will help with my chin ups, since chins use arms.
On the lower day, I figured deadlifts would be the single best “bang for my buck” exercise I could do. I think 2 sets with a decent rep range would be plenty, since I’m doing it twice a week. I do sumo because it’s more comfortable for my anatomy. The hip thrust is because I like hip thrusts, I like how they make my body look, and my gym recently got a fancy brand name machine, so set up time is minimal.
This is my current plan. I’ll be doing the first day of this workout tonight; planning to aim for 4x weights sessions per week. My partner, who is awesome, is going to be my gym buddy, which is good because somebody to keep me motivated is sometimes the push I need.
In terms of nutrition, I’m trying not to overthink it. I’ve started logged calories as of yesterday. Aiming for 2400kcal per day, which is a 500kcal deficit IF I’m in the moderate exercise category. I’m not, but I do work a job that has me on my feet, so I can’t afford to be running out of energy on shift. I figure a smaller deficit is an OK price to pay for that. I’m also trying to keep protein high, like 160g+ per day, and meal prep. The meal prep part is because I keep splurging on Uber Eats and it’s killing my wallet. I’ll use nSuns adaptive tdee spreadsheet when I have 3 weeks worth of data, and really nail my tdee. My phone has a super handy app for daily weigh ins, which will typically be done in the morning.
OK, that’s the plan. It’s out there now, and I’m gonna stick to it. Sorry for such a wordy post, I promise they’ll be a lot briefer from now on!