3 full body workouts is good. That with a little cardio and some sports once in a while and good nutrition is all you need.
However, the details matter.
Give us some details on your workouts, your diet, your current strength levels and physique. Let us know what currently works for you and what doesn’t. Your plan may need tweaking or it may need a major overhaul.
Meal 6 - Peanut butter sandwich with 1 banana (1 slice of wholemeal toast) or protein bar or nuts mix (almond, cashew, brazil whole foods nothing added). Whey with milk before bed.
My workout is currently (1 exercise per muscle group, 3 sets):
Monday - Chest, Back, Shoulder, Tricep, Squat, Calf, 20 minute cardio (interval run)
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Chest, Back, Shoulder, Tricep, Squat, Calf
Thursday - Swimming
Friday - Chest, Back, Shoulder, Tricep, Squat, Calf, 20 minute cardio (interval run)
Sat - Rest
Sun Rest or Swim
I will then mix it up after every 1 week. I am trying to follow the Chad Waterbury Total Body Workout.
Any thoughts?
What’s your exercise selection and rep range? I don’t know why you have a tricep exercise is you’re doing chest and shoulders. That indicated you may not be doing a balanced amount of pulling.
How intense is your swimming? If you are just doing long laps it may not be providing any benefit. If it’s relaxing and you enjoy it it can be a stress reliever, or if it’s intense sprinting there will be a benefit. You probaly need to include some high intensity brief workouts say Tuesday and Thursday, something like sprints, HIIT, tabatas, complexes, etc. These will help you lose fat while preserving muscle. They burn calories after the exercise is over without making you hungry they way that swimming will.
What’s do your total calories look like compared to what you burn? Does it change on workout days vs cardio or rest days? Your foods look good but you probably want to add more fruits and veg and cut simple carbs (bread).
I am currently doing 3-4 set of 8 reps, with a weight that I struggle with near the end of the last set.
I am looking for change. Isnt it the same with back excercises (why do Biceps?) I was basising some of this on Chad Waterburys pick 4 compound and 2 single joint. http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=508031
My swimming is just for something to do, as a stress reliever and enjoyment.
I havent added my calories up but off the top of my head i would say about this:
You want your pulling exercises to generally be the same volume and intensity as your push exercises. I agree, if you do enough pulling you don’t need biceps unless you’re a bodybuilder.
Assuming you do something like bench press for chest and military press for shoulders, which you should be, do something like bent over row and pullups for your back. Power cleans are also good.
You can superset bench and row and then press and pullup. It keeps the workout brief and rest periods short. The short rest periods will add to your fat loss goals.
Find out how many calories you need, there are lots of calculators on line. Eat 500 cal less than maintenance on days you don’t workout or your cardio days. On days you workout eat 500 cal over your maintenance. This way you will slowly lose fat and gain muscle. You can adjust those up or down if you need to lose a lot of fat, just go at least to maintenance twice a week and don’t go lower than 20% deficit. That will allow a good fat loss while protecting your metabolism.
Mix up your reps. Go heavy once a week (reps 5 or under and high reps once a week (12-15 reps). You can even do this within workouts if you want, sort of pyramid style. You can cycle alternating exercises each workout if you want. There are lots of options but the variety of reps and loading is important.
I would check those calorie counts more carefully. Things like nuts and peanut butter are very calorically dense. Milk is too. Chicken salad, additionally, is very high in calories.
Your “meal 6” calorie count stood out, and it seems like it’s way off to me.
Banana = 100 calories.
Toast = 100 calories.
TBSP of PB = 100 calories.
One cup of skim milk = 100 calories.
Scoop of whey = 100 calories.
That’s nearly 500 calories right there. Now, I’m guessing on food quanities here, but I just wanted to throw the above out there.
I’m NOT saying you’re eating too little or eating too much! Your body composition and weight determine that. Plus, that food log is not nearly accurate enough.
Just be aware that accurately counting calories makes fat loss, while retaining muscle, a lot easier.
In general, you need about 16 calories times your weight in pounds to lose weight and 20 calories to gain weight. You don’t give your weight but lets say you are 200 and you want to lose a little weight and gain a little muscle.
That means on Mon, Weds, Fri you eat about 4000 calories and on all other days you eat 3200 even on the days you do cardio. Over time your weight will stay relatively constant but you should gradually get leaner and more muscular. Each meal should be about 500-600 calories on average and then add your pre and post workout meals. You have to do the arithmetic. I like my main meals a little bigger than my snacks. They don’t all have to be equal but they should be balanced.
There are several online calculators to track your calories. Fitday seems to be popular.
Try the different rep ranges. You could split your full body workout up into sections, lower, horizontal and vertical. On Monday do Lower at 5x5, horizontal at 3x8, vertical at 2x15. Swap them around on Weds and Fri. Every 2-3 week change the exercise selection slightly.
Some of the different high intensity cardio options are quite fun. Search for complexes by Alwyn Cosgrove on this site. You can vary the intensity by changing the rest between sets, the load or the number of sets. With a few sets and very short rests you can get a killer workout in 10-20 minutes.
