How’s your day going?
Some stats:
5’11
Start BW ( at 17) 125 Pounds
Current BW (at 24) 195 Pounds (probably 18-20% BF, Some upper ab definition, everything else is well defined.)
Current Bench: 225
Current Squat: 275
Current Deadlift: 405
BW pullups: 20-23 (depends on how I feel)
BW Chest dips: 30
I am currently 24, I have been “working-out” since I was 17. I started training using the programs in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Mens-Health-Power-Training-Performance-Based-ebook/dp/B001EHE22A
It worked pretty well and i gained about 10 pounds, don’t remember how much strength but it was a lot more than it was. I was doing a ton of running on top of that because I wanted to join the military.
I went to college instead and in the first semester gained 20 pounds, it was suprisingly clean I still had abs. All I did that semester was this: 3 sets of max BW chest dips, followed by 3 sets of max BW pullups, followed by an ab circuit or some arm pump stuff depending on the day. I did that three times a week, it was short but I pushed myself until my muscles would almost burst, I worked hard on those 6 sets. I gained 20 pounds doing only that and in a massive calorie surplus. That college cafeteria food, amirite? I proceeded to keep that weight (155) until my sophomore year when I went to Europe for a few months.
The first month me and two friends recklessly went to Europe a month early before our study abroad semester with no money and we were homeless for a month backpacking, it was a great time and saw some cool shit, we were hangry but it was cool. The food was crap at the campus in Rome so I lost back down to 140. That summer I had an easy job and I ran a variant of the program I’m going to share in a moment. I gained up to 170 (pretty clean). My strength actually went up a decent amount, bench 235, Squat 300, dead 375.
I was still interested in the military so I signed up for USMC OCS, which is like bootcamp for Marine Officers. I trained up for that my Junior year and went the summer before my senior year. It was all running and weightlifting once a week. OCS itself was pretty horrible, very fast runs and hikes that were like speedwalking with 80-90 pounds on your back. The pace of the runs were about 7 minute mile pace for atleast 3 miles a run. We did gut busting physical training every day. The worst were probably the runs, I was good at calisthenics so those were easy but the running sucked. I made it through and at the end I was back down to 140. (Yeah, I lost 30 pounds in 10 weeks, it kicked my ass.) Senior year I gained back to about 175-180ish. I didn’t consistently stay on a program from then till I graduated college. The summer after I graduated I was waiting on going to TBS (which is a finishing school for Marine officers, it teaches Infantry tactics and skills, and generally introduces you to the chaos of warfare, in my opinion it was harder than OCS.)
That summer I was depressed out of my mind for personal reasons and I got soft. TBS was hard when I got there due to my lack of preparedness and its utter difficulty. We did a ton of hiking, and by hiking I mean speedwalking on crappy terrain carrying 60-90 pounds plus a flak jacket. Hard to get used to but we did it so much that adaptions occured and I was a master at it by the end. I probably went to the gym about 3 times, there wasn’t much time for it and I was gaining weight by literally doing cardio (hiking). By the end of it I weighed 190, my arms had grown huge for unknown reasons and I still had abs. The only thing I could do though (physically) was hike. I hadn’t done any lifting for 6 months straight. That brings me to now. Now I am going to the gym every day and it has been difficult re-establishing the mind-muscle connection to even my pecs and lats, not to mention my arms or any small muscles. My nutrition isn’t great given I have no kitchen and I cook literally everything in a crock pot.
Sorry about the autobio but I think it is important context for the advice I need.
My question is: How to I increase my strength on my big lifts while maintaining and increasing my cardio(runnung) capacity without loosing too much weight?
My current program is this:
Sorry about the formatting.
What I mean by sled work is I get a sled and put 90 pounds on it and just go to town and push it around until I feel like I’m going to vomit or I can’t walk.