Newbie here; Critique my workouts/diet

Hi everyone, I am Ryan, a 20 yr old Texas Tech student. I have been browsing and learning from t-mag off and on for a couple years now. I originally heard about it from Chris Shugart(was one of my high school English(and Psychology) teachers). Now I finally registered and decided to post.

I started working out about the end of July. I weighed about 167 or so, with not alot of muscle and some fat(I’m 5’11" with a normal build). I started with the beginner’s blast off program, used it until about a week and a half ago. Now I weigh about 160 with a lot less fat and a lot more muscle.

My current routine is modeled after Chad Waterbury’s ideas.
Monday: Maximal Upper Body
10 sets 3 reps Dumbbell Bench
" " Pull Ups
" " Flyes
" " Dumbbell Rows
" " Skull Crushers
" " Dumbbell Curls
Tuesday: Explosive Lower Body
10 sets 3 reps Jumping Box Squats
A1 4 sets 5 reps Hanging Leg raises.
A2 " " Glute-Ham Raises
B1 " " Crunches
B2 " " Back Extensions

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Explosive Upper Body
4 sets 5 reps Close Grip Push Ups
4 sets 5 reps Wide Grip Push Ups

Friday: Maximal Lower Body
??

I have searched though back articles and couldn’t find much about explosive upper body other than push ups anybody have some suggestions?
Also, I haven’t decided whether I should keep the lower body maximal lifts I was doing on the Blast off program and just change the sets/reps like I did on the monday lifts or should I do new exercises?

My current diet is the T-Dawg diet, I get about 1800-2000 calories per day, about 180g of Protein, 70-100 carbs, and 70g of fat. It changes a little from day to day depending on my mood, but that is an average. I also incorporated the cheat to win diet a little by cheating on wednesday after dinnertime and saturday the same way.

My current goal is to stay with this to gain a little more muscle and lose a little more fat until I start a Mag-10 and tribex w/M* cycle in a month or so(saving money for everything).

Eat more protein.

Then, after that, eat some more.

You are already fairly lightweight for your height, why are you cutting calories?

I bet you would look even better by eating maintenance and working out than you would by going hypocaloric with that amount of food.

Explosive upper body:
speed bench ala westside
push jerk
plyo pull-up/ chinup
speed pullup, chin up
medicine ball throws (sitted, lying, standing, forward, backward)

Antivenom,
I was going to respond to this earlier, but something came up at work…and Antiliberal beat me to the punch. I was going to say the same thing he did in that EAT EAT EAT. At 167 lbs and at your height…you should be more concerned about putting on some mass (not cutting)…and the t-dawg diet is NOT going to help you in terms of packing on the muscle…;o) Concentrate on more protein (1.5-2.0 grams per lbs) and post workout nutrition. This is the time where you really want to take advantage of that anabolic window and stuff those carbs and protein into your muscles (generally around a 2:1 ratio) as this is the time where they will be “put to work”. Your training looks pretty good to me…just need to “tweak” the diet and really take that next step to achieving your goals. Take care bro…Tony G

Thanks for the replies guys.
Alright, I will change my diet. I had actually been thinking of changing it, but it helps to have someone else tell me what I am doing wrong.
As far as post-workout nutrition, I usually drink a smoothie I make from 1 cup milk and a banana or half a banana and some stawberries. This meets the 4:1 carb to protein ratio(I think that is what I read).

Hey, there, AV. I have a homework assignment for you. Do some T-Mag searches on PWO nutrition. What you’re doing currently is not optimal and will work AGAINST what should be your goals PWO; i.e., reducing cortisol levels as quickly as possible and kicking protein synthesis into overdrive.

Read up on Surge, which was desinged by John Berardi, and from there, read anything the guy’s ever written. Do that, put it into practice, and you’ll have the body of your dreams.

Good luck to you!!!

First off, you should totally nix the program you mentioned. For instance, your first day includes 60 sets with a 85% of 1RM load - yikes.
If you want to gain muscle, up your protein and calories as everyone has alluded to and perform my Anti-BB Hypertrophy program.
When that is finished, contact me for further guidelines.

I had read the other articles you wrote, but totally missed that one somehow. I will start that monday.

So today I have started Chad’s Anti-BB hypertrophy program and Massive Eating for a diet. Thanks for all the help.

That sounds like a plan Ryan, a good next step for you. I’ve used both with great results. Drop me a line if you need some help.