Asked this question once, been working with the 5x5 routines for quit a while with little or no success. I am looking for something a little new, refreshing and affective. I workout alone with limited equipment and my goals are strength and size. I am 27, and have a wife 2 kids under the age of 3. I have a 2 hour commute each way to a construction laborer job and get an unacceptable 4-6 hours of sleep average. I workout 3-4 days a week 45 min. - 1 hour depending on my energy level. I am not new to working out but at 5’2 I can’t pass 130lbs.
Thankyou to those that reply, and to those that have already replied.
[quote]agarza wrote:
Asked this question once, been working with the 5x5 routines for quit a while with little or no success. I am looking for something a little new, refreshing and affective. I workout alone with limited equipment and my goals are strength and size. I am 27, and have a wife 2 kids under the age of 3. I have a 2 hour commute each way to a construction laborer job and get an unacceptable 4-6 hours of sleep average. I workout 3-4 days a week 45 min. - 1 hour depending on my energy level. I am not new to working out but at 5’2 I can’t pass 130lbs.
Thankyou to those that reply, and to those that have already replied.[/quote]
Describe the routine thaat you have been doing. Quite a lot of different stuff falls under the 5x5 umbrella these days…
Alwyn Cosgrove, has a great article called “Hacking Your Strength Training”. I used it over a period of six weeks when I was flat out with exams and couldnt spare much time to study and sleep wasnt great and my body was stressed! It was simle, short and enjoyable!
With that job, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’ll need a LOT of food to put on weight. You’re burning a lot of calories. Post your diet plan when you do your workout routine.
My workout consists of 5x5 mon-squats, pullup, bench wed-squat, dead, overhead press fri-squat, row, bench. Weight used depends on my energy levels.
I eat when I can, usually 3-4 eggs and coffee for breakfast, energy bar or whatever I can throw in my mouth until lunch when I get a sandwich and bag of chips. I get no breaks between my 2 hour drive and lunch, if I do get a break I usually sleep. I get home at around 6, eat dinner, drink plenty of milk and start over the next day.
Based on your last post, it’s going to be awfully tough to gain size based on that amount of food…like, zero chance. Strength—MAYBE, but not size.
The combination of minimal food, minimal gym time (meaning, not very much mechanical work overall…length of workouts isn’t the problem), labor job, and what seems to be a lot of life stress (good and bad) from traveling and having a family, is a tough one.
However, there’s definitely room for improvement in the eating department.
Think of high quality calories you can pack and bring with you on the road to work…trail mix, fruits with peels, protein power (meal replacements), high quality bars (like Biotest’s Metabolic Drive bars), as well, as bringing a cooler to work filled with lean meats, veggies, nuts, etc.
You can’t make something out of nothing. While most overestimate their caloric needs for growth and underestimate their caloric intake for fat loss, you simply need more calories (especially nutrient dense ones) than you’re currently getting. You’ll feel better during the day, have more energy to train, and recover better from long days at work and your training.
I recommend you start with taking a hard look at your diet. It stands out as the most critical factor leading to sub-optimal gains from your training efforts.
I am on a tight budget, would adding whey protein help with my diet? Is there any suggestions for cheap protein on the run, i’m talking bite size carry in your pocket protein? There are also many different types of whey, is it a waste of time to get something cheap? Lastly, what is meant by mechanical work?
[quote]agarza wrote:
I am on a tight budget, would adding whey protein help with my diet? Is there any suggestions for cheap protein on the run, i’m talking bite size carry in your pocket protein? There are also many different types of whey, is it a waste of time to get something cheap? Lastly, what is meant by mechanical work?[/quote]
There are many choices you could make here, off the the top of my head, canned tuna is great, they even make them in pouches for even easier access. Two cans of tuna would give you around 40-50g of protein, add some almonds with it and you have a great affordable meal on the go. You could even make tuna burgers out of it, eggs, flax meal, you can google recipes for them. You can even buy salmon in a pouch as well. Granted i recall CT not being to fond of things in a can, but i think he understands some people don’t have the funds or convienience to buy fresh.
If you do get some whey, i would recommend the Grow! Whey protein Biotest sells here, personally, you can’t beat the price with the free shipping and i have found it to be the easiest whey protein on my stomach. Buy some greek yogurt(many brands to choose from, I buy Dannon) Mix the greek yogurt, which has 15g of protein with one scoop of whey and add some fruit and or nuts, or both to the mix and you have another high protein meal to take on the go.
As synergy above stated, for 69.99 for 4 boxes of Metabolic Drive bars, that is hard to beat at that price, add in some yogurt and fruit along with the bar and your up to around 400 or more calories for the meal. He also mentioned trail mix, which is a good idea as well when you want a good calorie dense meal, i would recommend contructing your own mix though, i believe Charles Poliquin does this as well, and uses things like dried cherries, various nuts, etc.
Easy and synergy gave great info on ideas for nutrition. I am going to recommend something that many may find objectionable… use a lot of protein powder. When I was in college I went to school full time and also ran a semi-truck cleaning small business full time; needless to say I had some long hard days.
Protein sources are typically what takes the longest time to eat, so I would have some large shakes (3-4 scoops each) with me along with nuts, fruit and sometimes a salad. Dinner would be the meal that I would slam down the meat. Am I saying consuming large amounts of protein powder is better than eating meat? Of course not, but you gotta do what you gotta do when you are looking at 14-16 hour days.
Also, peanut butter in the shakes helps with getting in the fats but eating mixed nuts of trail mix is better in my opinion.
As far as the training, I would look at something like:
Wednesday
Deadlift variation
Row variation
Bench or Incline
Friday
Explosive squat variation (jump squat, or other types of unweighted jumps) or Olympic lift variation (love the power snatch personally)
Deadstop Pulling variation
Deadstop pushing variation
This was basically taken from a post Coach Thibadeau made about abbreviated training.
The main issue is food though. You have GOT to put food down. With the amount of physical work you do and I did, one must scarf down nutrient dense foods at every opportunity; even if you are kind of full and don’t want to.
Should I add some isolation exercises or should I stick to full body routines. Is 30 min.- to an hour enough time working out considering my lack of rest. Does coach Thibs. have any other abbreviated workouts or anything that I can do with my schedule. I am not looking for a magic routine just want some options.
You can add isolation exercises if you want. Here is the thing though. I think you are worrying too much about the training and not enough about the food intake. The others that posted before me are right; your eating is terrible, no offense. Get your nutrition in order and I bet you will start seeing progress again even if you don’t change your training.
I would make a big protein drink that you can take some gulps from, throughout the day. The other guys probably take water breaks - you take a protein shake break. Keep it in a cooler or a thermos. Milk based (only if you can digest it easily, otherwise use water), protein powder, maybe a banana, peanut butter, ice, ground flax meal (fiber, healthy omega 3 fats). Blend it up in the morning and fill your thermos. Figure it’s going to be a few servings worth, and you’ll consume it gradually throughout the day, between meals.
You don’t have time to screw around with real food on a busy job site, plus a thermos doesn’t attract a lot of negative attention from the boss or the clients or co-workers. It will only take 15 seconds to get a protein shot, then back to work.