Ah alright. Is working out necessary? Would I be able to do with like a pull up bar? So I can do push ups/pull ups/curls/dips. I'm 5'7. Uhh well I don't really have time to go to a gym =/ School 5 days a week, work 3 days a week and then go visit my dad every other weekend.

Hello, I have a few questions about starting to live a healthier lifestyle. I apologize if some of these have been answered, as I didn't have much time to read through.

My stats:
28 year old male
5'7" tall
170lbs

I quit smoking about 3 months ago after I found out that I have high bad cholesterol, and now I want to keep going with it. I would love to start eating better (I saw the stickied recipes and I will definitely hit them up), and excercising some. My biggest issue is that I am a single father of 2 young children, and I work swing shift. I work 40-48 hrs per week (usually), and I swing to a different shift each week. With me being a single father I have extremely limited funds so joining a gym is out of the question. I have a bench that inclines or flat, about 200lbs of weight for it, and a treadmill. I hope to buy some dumb bells soon, but I was wondering what I could do now to start living healthier. I have a very high body fat percent (probably like 22 or so) so I want to lose that fat (immediate goal), but my final goal is to get much stronger and bigger. If you have any suggestions they would be very greatly appreciated

oh okay.. do you have a nice routine for building mass? 2 times each muscle group but i can only train monday to friday. saturday and sunday is not an option

also, i know that when you train 5x5, you start set 1 with xx% of the max rm weight, then raise it each set, do i keep the same weight if i train 3x5?

This post was edited by GameBox on Feb 11 2014 02:18am

Also how many set/rep each muscle group:

for strength (training one time per week)
for size (training two times per week)

my body responds well to higher rep schemes to growth, however i do gain more strength when doing routines with a lower rep scheme. by incorporating both into one routine and hitting each body part twice a week i believe will make a difference from my logic. with the info provided, do you think my body would respond better to a different routine?

Check this:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=331731288
Bodyweight exercises


Also, try to do cardio if possible - at least 30-45 minutes a day. HIIT preferred.

Hey there. Your first order of business would be to CUT some body fat before bulking.

Given your stats, your body on its own burns around 2,000 calories a day from simply conducting life as usual. In order to burn fat, you will need to take in at least 500 calories less than this, per day, in order to progressively see fat loss. On days that you work out, You should take in no more than 600 calories under your BMR + calories burned from exercise. Example - if you burn 500 cals exercising, your total BMR for the day would be 2,500. That means you should eat no more than 1,900 calories for the day.

Read some more general fat loss advice here:

http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=335587138
Fat loss 15 tips



Now, as far as the diet goes. Here is a sample cutting diet for you on NON-WORKOUT days:


Meal 1 - 3 whole eggs + 3 egg whites + 1 oz cheese + 1/2 cup green peppers/onions + 1 small apple or orange (approx 400 cals)
Meal 2 - 40g protein shake + 1 cup of oatmeal + 1 tsp peanut butter (approx 300 cals)
Meal 3 - 1 large green salad with 6 oz grilled chicken + 1 tsp olive oil + vinegar (approx 300 cals)
Meal 4 - 1 large chicken breast (approx 6 oz) + 1/2 cup black beans + 1 cup broccoli (approx 300 cals)
Meal 5 - 1 cup cottage cheese + 1 tbsp peanut butter + handful of almonds (approx 400 cals)

You can adjust your meals accordingly, but try to keep the macros about the same which would be:

200g protein, 100g carbs, 55g fat

Also drink at least 1.5 gal of water per day (ice water preferred)



Now for days when you are working out, that gives you an extra 400 calories to play with (assuming you are doing at least 1 hour of INTENSE physical activity)

The extra 400 cals can be from anything, but the easiest way to achieve this is to increase your portion sizes of the above items, or adding an extra meal. Pick a lean meat, some veggies, and even a small helping of complex carbs in order to hit the extra 400 cals.

You can substitute any food for the ones listed in the above diet as long as they follow the same general macros (protein/carbs/fat) and total calories.


As for exercising:



http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=331731288
Bodyweight exercises


and:


Mon - chest/bis + cardio
tues - back/tris + cardio
weds - legs/shoulders + cardio
thurs - chest/bis/back + cardio
fri - legs/tris/shoulders + cardio
sat - CARDIO ONLY (if possible)
sun - REST AND RECOVER

Each exercise will be performed in the way of 5 total sets....1st set being a warmup set, 2nd set jumping to 80% of weight and then failure, drop 20% off of that and go until failure, drop 20% off that and go till failure, and drop a final 20% off and go until failure for a total of 5 sets. Take no more than 12-15 seconds rest between sets....the less rest the better. Do plenty of FORCED REPS...negatives....and breakdowns. You are working until total muscular destruction.

Mon - Flat Bench Barbell, Incline Bench Barbell, Flat bench Dumbbells, Incline DB Flies, Standing DB curls, Seated Hammer Curls, Barbell Curls

Tues - Straight leg deadlifts, bent over BB rows, Olympic bar T-Bar Rows, Lawnmower DB Rows, close-grip bench press (hands 4 inches apart), skullcrushers, DB kickbacks

Weds - BB Regular Squats, BB Front Squats, DB lunges, Standing Calf Raises, DB Front and Lat Raises (3 sets of each), DB shrugs, seated arnold presses, behind-the-head military/shoulder press (BB or DB)

Thurs - incline DB press, flat bench DB press, incline DB flies, Standing DB curls, Olympic bar curls (standing), T-bar Rows, Bent over BB Rows, Good Mornings

Fri - Squats, DB Lunges, Standing Calf Raises, Close-Grip Dips (with weight plate(s) in lap if possible), DB Kickbacks, Seated DB Shoulder press, Standing BB shrugs, Standing DB Front/Lat Raises

Sat - CARDIO ONLY (if you can, do 30-40 minutes of HIIT cardio this day - if you can't it's okay)

Sun - CARDIO ONLY


you can jog, bike, or swim for your cardio, just try to use HIIT format (google this if you don't know what it is)



OK Good luck!

Here's a 5 day hypertrophy:


Workout plan for hypertrophy:

[Perform all exercises as follows: 1. Warmup set (15ish reps light weight), 2. First set (wait about 30 seconds after warmup, then do 10-12 reps medium weight), 3. Second set (wait about 30-45 seconds after second set then do 8-10 reps medium/heavy weight), 4. Third Set (wait about 1 minute after second set then do 85% of max weight for as many reps as possible until failure, rack the weight, wait 5-10 seconds and get it again for as many reps as possible until failure), 5. Fourth Set ( wait 1 minute after third set then do the Same as third set), 6. Fifth Set (WITHOUT RESTING after the fourth set, cut the weight in half and immediately go until failure again).

The only exception to these exercises are supersets which will be performed with medium/heavy weight and both exercises done until failure, wait 60 seconds, then repeat the process with a MILD weight increase (5-10% max increase). The key with supersets is just to keep going and fight the burn and get as many reps as possible with medium/heavy weight.


Mon (chest/bis) - Incline Bench Press, Flat Bench Press, Incline DB Flies SUPERSET with Flat DB Flies, Wide-grip Dips (weighted if possible), lying DB pullovers, Low cable crossovers SUPERSET w/ high cable crossovers. Standing olympic bar curls, seated E-Z Bar preacher curls, Standing DB curls SUPERSET w/ seated DB hammer curls, Concentration DB curls, High cable curls (looks like a standing double-bicep pose) SUPERSET w/ low cable bicep curls.

Tues (Back/Tris) - Straight-Leg Deadlifts, Seated Cable Rows, Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns, T-Bar Rows, Bent over DB Rows SUPERSET w/ Lawnmower DB Rows, Good Mornings Superset w/ Lower Back Hyperextensions, Bent Over Barbell Rows. Cable Tricep Pulldowns (Rope or V-Bar), One-Arm tricep cable pulldowns SUPERSET w/ One-Arm tricep cable kickbacks, DB Kickbacks, Seated DB Skullcrushers SUPERSET w/ laying EZ-bar skullcrushers, Close-Grip machine dips.

Weds (Legs/Shoulders) - Barbell Squats (ATG), Plate loaded Leg Press, Leg Extension SUPERSET w/ Leg Curls (laying or seated), DB Lunges, Hip Abductor SUPERSET w/ Hip Adductor, Standing Calf Raise Machine, Donkey Calf Raises SUPERSET w/ Seated Calf-Raises. Seated Military Press, DB Shoulder Press, DB Arnold Press SUPERSET w/ DB Front raises, DB Lat raises (normal 2 arm method) SUPERSET w/ one arm slow-decline lat raises, DB Shrugs, Barbell Shrugs.

Thurs - (Chest/Bis/Back) - Do the above exercises for these 3 muscle groups

Fri - (Legs/Tris/Shoulders) - Do the above exercises for these 3 muscle groups

Sat - OFF

Sun - OFF

Mon - Repeat Monday - etc.


You will notice that thurs/fri are more intense than the other days. This is completely normal and intended as part of the plan. If you'd prefer to do those days on mon/tues, and do the other 3 days as weds/thurs/fri, that is also acceptable.


Now the only part I didn't mention was abs and cardio. For Abs, you can train them 3-4 times per week (although you only really need 2x per week) on whatever days suit you. Consider ab training on your easier days. So whichever 2 of the 3 days are the easier days, throw ab training on those days. If you can't get abs more than 1-2 days per week, that is fine and shouldn't really matter all that much.

Abs - 30 minutes ab instinct training (yep, just like arnold) - basically you jump from a plethora of ab exercises without stopping in between. You are going to jump from exercise to exercise and perform them all until failure (weighted exercises until failure - for bodyweight ab exercises, just do 20-25 reps). After 30 minutes of ab instinct training is over, hang from a pullup bar for 30-60 seconds to stretch out the abs sufficiently.

For cardio, this is totally optional. If you start detecting fat gains, you can throw in 20 mins of HIIT cardio every morning and 15-20 mins post-workout every day. If you aren't gaining fat, forget cardio all together.



edit:

to also answer your question about 3x5, there are two ways.

3x5 of the same weight (max for each set)

or 3x5 increasing each set.

The choice is yours, although the first way is the traditionally accepted way.

This post was edited by SKCRaynor on Feb 11 2014 04:23pm

See the above routine I posted you for the hypertrophy plan.

I generally recommend 4 or 5 sets, regardless. For reps, it depends because of the breakdowns/supersets, and so forth.

strength training I recommend in the 5x5 format as found here:


http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=21269614&f=60&p=345300636
5x5 plan

You would be best suited to ALTERNATE between both. Run a standard 5x5 for around 4-5 months, then follow up with 4-5 months of solid hypertrophy. This is how I run my bulks and see the best overall results from this.

Combining both can potentially lead to much less than keeping them as demonstrated above.