Training/Supplement Plan for a Beginner Middle Aged Man

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Cross posted from Biotest forums

Hi, I’m Kris from Japan (I’m not japanese).I’m 34yrs old, around 5’7" weighing around 200lbs.
I have a typical Dad-Bod or let’s just say “skinny fat”
I’ve decided to start my journey on a more healthier lifestyle, but have little to no
idea on how to plan my training and supplements.

I’m seeking advice on what workout and nutritional plan should i follow.
My normal everyday routine is: waking up 10mins before 6am, start at my job around 7am and
will be done by 7 or 8pm, going to bed at 11pm earliest. Sunday will be my only rest day of the week.
Take note that i have a very exhausting job (manufacturing of car parts) that includes standing for a long period and constantly moving and lifting heavy parts and materials.

I have already made a simple plan of my own basing on what i’ve red and seen on forums and other pages. Need a constructive criticism on this for improvement.

TRAINING: (suggestions on what exercises on every part will be appreciated)
*home based, i have no access to gyms.
*will train after work -around 8pm
*at least 60~90mins duration
*equipments available: dumbbells, barbell, reclining bench, pullup bar, ab wheel

DAY 1 (Legs, Back, Core, Biceps)

DAY 2 (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Traps)

DAY 3 (Conditioning/Cardio, Rest)
-Loaded Carries (Farmer’s walk)
-HIIT treadmill or Basketball(solo)

DAY 4 (Legs, Back, Core, Biceps)

DAY 5 (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Traps)

DAY 6 (Conditioning/Cardio, Rest)
-Loaded Carries (Farmer’s walk)
-HIIT treadmill or Basketball(solo)

DAY 7 (REST)

NUTRITION/SUPPLEMENTS DAILY PLAN:
*time is just an estimate. can vary from day to day.
*willing to add or remove a supplement if needed.
_ planning to add Finibar, Z-12, ZMA and Carbolin 19 in the future_

My current available stack:
Metabolic Drive
Plazma
Mag-10
Indigo-3G
Micro PA
Brain Candy
Flameout
Alpha Male
Creatine

6:00 : 1/2 bottle Brain Candy
2 tablets Alpha Male

6:15 : (Breakfast) 2~4 Eggs, bacon, Oatmeal or rice
1 serving Metabolic Drive

7:00 : workplace arrival
Black Coffee, banana

10:00 : 1 serving Mag-10
(Snack)1 whole apple

11:30 : 1 serving Metabolic Drive

12:10 : (Lunch)Typical Japanese bento/lunchbox
slice of pineapple as dessert and to satisfy my sweet tooth :smile:

14:00 : 1/2 bottle Brain Candy
2 tablets Alpha Male

15:30 : 1/2 serving Mag-10
(Snack) 2 boiled eggs, half slice boiled sweet potato

17:30 : 1/2 serving Mag-10
(Snack) Banana, Almonds

19:00 : depart from work
6 capsules Indigo-3G
6 capsules Micro-PA

19:40 : (pre-wo) 1 serving Plazma

20:00 : (start training)
(peri-wo) 1~2 serving Plazma

21:10 : (post-wo) 1 serving Mag-10

21:40 : (Dinner) whatever my wife serve me or else… :confused:
4 capsules Flameout

22:30 : pre-bed protein 1 serving Metabolic Drive w/ 1scoop(5g) creatine
cup of hot japanese green tea

Any feedback and recommendations on my plan? Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

I think you have a solid plan. As for the work being physical- mine is too, and your body adapts. Building muscle will help you with the physicality of the job anyway, so good on you for setting this up. My only problem with your routine is that Legs, Back, and Core comprise like 75%+ of the body, and your other day is pretty much just upper push, so why not just do an upper/lower split?

Do lower Monday and upper Tuesday to put some distance between leg day and conditioning day.

Chest/Back/Shoulders/Traps for upper, and try to keep more horizontal pulls than vertical pulls, and Quads/Hams/Calves for lower. Abs you can do on either day, but I usually keep it on my lower body days since there’s a good amount of core involvement there already.

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So how about triceps and biceps?

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Your plan reeks of impatience–of wanting to be lean and muscular right now. There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way–I too am an impatient guy. The issue is, going from 0 to 90 like this–from an ordinary lifestyle to that of a BBing monk–is a setup for failure. Doesn’t mean you’ll fail, of course–maybe you’ll be one of the few who survive (and even thrive) such a draconian change. But in my experience, most people who attempt such a radical life-change can’t sustain it, and end up back where they started. Just my $0.02.

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Any advice on what should be my approach?

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My advice is that you reflect on previous attempts to lose weight/build muscle (I’m assuming this isn’t your first bite of those apples). Did you follow a similar sort of ‘all or nothing’ approach? If you did, how did it work out for you? If it was successful, by all means proceed with your plan. (Although if it was successful, it raises the question of why you’re out of shape presently.) If it wasn’t, you might ought to reconsider.

A final issue I think you should consider: How long do you think you can sustain the plan you laid out, and assuming it gets you where you want to go, what will you do going forward from there? I ask because one of the downsides of going all-or-nothing is, once their goal is achieved and they jettison the all-or-nothing plan, people tend to slide back into old habits. Much better, IMO, to come up with an exercise-and-eating lifestyle that you can live with indefinitely. Such an approach won’t get you where you want to be as fast as will the all-or-nothing way, but it’s much more likely to keep you there. Whatever you do, good luck.

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  1. Pretty sure arms are upper body, so add sets for both on the upper day if you want.

  2. Hard to hit chest and back without hitting tris and bis.

  3. You could always do a bodypart split.

There are tons of free programs in the articles on this site. Push pull legs, upper lower, bro split, full body, it’ll all work. You should choose one.

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So you work 60+ hours per week at a physically-demanding job? That doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else. Not to say there isn’t time, but think about how you’re going to fit sustainable habits into what time you have available and keep it up over time.

I agree with @EyeDentist. Don’t go full bodybuilding monk yet. Become a person who lifts weights sensibly and productively. Learn how to fit that into your life first. I started lifting around age 34 too. It’s a big change from not lifting for 34 years. It took me a few months just to figure out what the hell I was even doing in the gym.

In the meantime you can just try to eat less junk food and see what happens. There’s nothing wrong with supplements, but you don’t want to give yourself the idea that they’re necessary for progress. You definitely don’t need all of the supplements. Maybe take some of that money and put it towards your home gym.

You’re a busy guy with the desire to make a big lifestyle change. Work on fitting regular lifting into your busy life. Get that routine down and a lot of other stuff will fall into place.

3 Likes
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Applause.

I know this website sells supplements and I don’t mean to suggest that they’re not useful, but when I see someone who knows that they’re presently out of shape starting with this:

Dude, leave something in the tank for when progress stalls. Maybe start off with a good, simple, sensible diet and workout plan, then start layering in the supplements as needed. Don’t fire all of the bullets at once.

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Thanks. Will check articles on this site and try to find a program that’s more suited to my daily routine.

11

Thank you all for your feedback, especially to @EyeDentist . All the constructive criticisms made me re-evaluate my approach to this lifestyle change. Will definitely reconstruct the plan based on the feedback on this thread.

I’m so overwhelmed (in a positive way) with the support i got from this community. Guess I made the right choice in joining t-nation :smiley:

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Glad to hear that it is helpful. You will find support here as long as you have a good attitude, which you most certainly do. I think the most important point(s) have already been made by EyeDentist - basically, people who start with an all-or-nothing approach are most likely to get frustrated and fall off the wagon at some point. Telling yourself that you’re going to work out for 60-90 minutes a day at 8PM while working a physically demanding job 60+ hours per week is a quick road to burning yourself out. Set a more reasonable target, like 30 minutes/day or 60 minutes for 3 days per week, which is more than enough to make decent progress. I can squat 420 and deadlift 605 while working out 20-30 minutes daily (and with terrible sleep for the last month, as I have a 5-week-old son). My goals are not your goals, and will require a different approach, but there’s absolutely no reason you have to work out >60 minutes per day to make progress.

One other comment re: the big supplement stack is that by introducing all of that stuff at once, it’s hard to know whether each individual piece really “worked” for you. Someone with more expertise than I can tell you the order in which to introduce them and why, perhaps, but I would merely note that by layering them in one at a time (maybe adding a new one every 4-6 weeks), you’ll have a lot better idea how you respond to each individual thing.

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Yes, i’m now considering a 3days/week of lifting, rest in between, basketball and cycling on weekends(which i often do before i had kids). But still have no idea on what program or split to follow. Will try to read more articles on the site :slight_smile:

Compulsive buying disorder got the best of me lol. Nah, more on lack of knowledge and guidance regarding nutrition and supplements. I should have asked here first before ordering. But it’s already been bought so might as well make the most of it. I’ll just reasses everything for my next order :wink:

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Even if it’s already been bought, I would still suggest introducing them one at a time, at least giving each new thing every 2-4 weeks before introducing another thing (you probably can use the Metabolic Drive, Creatine, and Flameout all from the beginning; then would start with things like Mag-10, Plazma, Indigo, etc one at a time). Give yourself some time to see how you handle each one.

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This sounds super-sensible, especially if basketball and cycling are things you enjoy doing. If you can figure out a way to lift that you enjoy (or at least learn to enjoy the results), it will become something you will prioritize and make time for. You can get a of good lifting done in 3 hours or even less per week, and there’s ways to make it work by spreading it out over any number of days.

You’ll figure a lot of this stuff out as you go. I’d suggest reading some Dan John articles on this site, and just start lifting in the meantime. The man has good ideas that I think will be very applicable to your situation of a busy husband and father with limited time and equipment.

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Will definitely do this. Thanks a lot!

But can i include indigo from the start? Just to compensate on my daily high carb intake (there’s not a meal that doesnt include rice in japan :confused: )

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That’s probably reasonable. I’m not an expert on the supplements themselves and how they might interact. I’m merely pointing out that you can/should layer the things in one at a time to figure out how you’re responding to each one.

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Leaning towards on following this program on a 3days/week of training:

And will try to include “The Eagle” as my cardio/conditioning twice a week

19

Rip it my man.