Hey everyone. I want to start by saying that I am not particularly new to working out with weights, although I most assuredly still consider myself a novice. I’m 22 and long story short, I ballooned up to 270 pounds after my first year of college, lost over 60 pounds and got down to 207. Then I started straying from my exercise routine and eating habits and comfortably maintained my weight between 230 and 240.
In October 2008, after running and completing the Chicago Marathon, I started lifting with the intent of gaining strength and packing on muscle (I’m currently 250-255). I am lifting 4-5 days a week and have never been stronger. My workout partner and I somewhat neglect our legs (I play soccer a few days a week and he is into the basketball thing). This is an issue that we are going to resolve but I want to start a training log on here and keeping a journal of training and food intake to get the expertise and aplomb of people that have more experience.
I am not going to backlog all I’ve done so far but I will start from my workouts here on out. My goal is to eventually get under 200 pounds which I don’t think I’ve weighed since like…eighth grade.
CURRENT PRs
Bench: 275 (As of February 2008)
Squat: 365 (2005, not tested since, yikes!)
Deadlift: 415 (March 2008)
Why do you want to be under 200 pounds? Any particular reason? Unless your a boxer or compete in something your weight isn’t so important it’s your body composition. Post some pics.
My goal to be under 200 is to be more competitive in sports. I have thought about this a lot and really I am more concerned with BF% which is around 31 right now. That is obviously too high and bringing that down will result in weight loss. I’m just concerned about my health and the way I look and how well I am able to compete in sports.
Don’t take this negatively because I don’t mean it that way: Given your goal and current physique, I think you should keep a food log along with your training log - in fact the food log might be the more important part. They only you are going to lose around 50 pounds is by knowing what you eat and how much you eat so you can adjust accordingly. I hope you have your nutritional info figured, if not read the stickies on nutrition in the beginners’ forum.
Here are two websites that can help with tracking calories etc.;
Also, if you would rather use an already existing approach, here’s CT’s full program for fat loss (you can obviously find many others on this website alone);
You may not want to do it but I think keeping a strict food log is almost a must.
Good luck with your training and fat loss efforts!
There are heaps and heaps of articles here that can give you ideas for what to do. If you can keep a good track of your calories, make smart nutritional decisions plus bust your ass in the gym it’s simple. Simple but not easy
[quote]VikeSpike wrote:
Just got back from an evening cardio session.
2 mile run (20 minutes)
7 mile bike (20 minutes)
And an additional 20 minutes on the stair climber.
As far as my food intake today:
10:45 AM
2/3 cup Kashi cereal
1/2 cup skim milk
2 hard boiled eggs
1:15 PM
6 ounces of chicken post workout
4:30 PM
Two scoops Muscle Milk in water
8:00 PM
2 hard boiled eggs
[/quote]
Thats not a lot of food man. Find yourself an online calculator for and work out how many calories a day you should be eating to maintain your current weight, then knock 500 off that. This site is great in fact, http://www.fitday.com/
If you eat too little the danger is that you’ll lose a load of muscle as well as fat, not good.
You should probably put up what your weekly regime is going to be like as well ahead of time so people can advise you.
I use the same workout routine three weeks before tweaking and/or changing exercises. There is some leeway between chest and back; sometimes they are switched depending on tenderness of the biceps or triceps.
Sunday Chest:
Bench press 4 sets
Decline bench 3 sets
Seated Hammer Strength Incline Press 3 sets
Dumbbell pullovers 3 sets
Vertical chest press run the rack to fail
Wednesday Delts:
Behind head BB press 5 sets
Incline BB front raises 3 sets
Rear cable incline raise 3 sets
Wide grip upright rows 3 sets
Seated DB military 3 sets last one a drop set
[quote]VikeSpike wrote:
I use the same workout routine three weeks before tweaking and/or changing exercises. There is some leeway between chest and back; sometimes they are switched depending on tenderness of the biceps or triceps.
Sunday Chest:
Bench press 4 sets
Decline bench 3 sets
Seated Hammer Strength Incline Press 3 sets
Dumbbell pullovers 3 sets
Vertical chest press run the rack to fail
Wednesday Delts:
Behind head BB press 5 sets
Incline BB front raises 3 sets
Rear cable incline raise 3 sets
Wide grip upright rows 3 sets
Seated DB military 3 sets last one a drop set
Routine looks fairly solid, although I personally wouldn’t bother with a day dedicated to arms, arms are being hit fairly well in all the other days except your leg day.
I’d scratch that arm day completely and do a leg day on Friday, based around squatting 5x5. I’d also include Romanian deadlifts or Straight leg deadlifts, lunges, step ups, single leg legpress, ham curls and calf raises.
This gives a free day Saturday to do some high intensity cardio. Although thats probably not going to be the most well recieved around here, if you are looking at fat loss its will help.
