Please critique my program

Bigguy

Bigguy

New member
First off- I am a male, 33 years old, 6'4" 235lbs. I have lost 25 lbs in the last 10 weeks with a goal to get down to 200 and then hopefully build muscle back up to 210-215 or so. I am in the process of obtaining body fat calipers to see where I am at.
Here is my plan as of right now-
Sunday- chest & triceps. 30-45 minutes of interval cardio
Monday- 40-55 minutes of steady state cardio
Tuesday- back and biceps. 30-45 minutes of interval cardio
Wednesday- 30-40 minutes of steady state cardio
Thursday- shoulders & legs. 30 minutes of interval cardio
Friday- 40-55 minutes of steady state cardio
Saturday- rest

The exercises used to work the muscles are more or less the standard that you could think of. The only thing is that I am unable to squat or dead lift due to concern over my knees. I honestly think I will hurt myself if I squat of deadlift. This my be in my head but so be it- I do whatever else I can for the back and legs. I switch my cardio from ellipticals to arc trainers to treadmills to keep my body confused every 2 weeks or so.
I have read in this forum that training a muscle group once a week is not as productive as I would think. What can be done to combat this and not overtrain- also to not spend all evening in a gym? I spend an hour to 2 hours in the gym and cannot really spend too much more.
As for diet- I am eating between 2400 & 2600 calories a day. I just began protein shakes once a day to up the protein content. My diet, I think has a decent balance. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, good fat, meats are all included in quantity. I adjust the calorie number as I lose weight.
I am not unhappy with the results I am getting, I am just wondering if I am making any glaring errors. Please be as honest as possible.
Thank you in advance for your insights.
 
I personally don't see any reason for you to do cardio 6 days a week. That would cut back on some of your gym time. Maybe you could do something more like this? I know Steve could help you out with this if he takes a look at this thread.


Sunday- full body
Monday- 30 minutes of interval cardio
Tuesday- full body
Wednesday- 30-40 minutes of steady state cardio
Thursday- full body
Friday- 30 minutes of interval cardio
Saturday- rest
 
What you suggest looks good- the only reason I want to do 6 days of cardio is that I smoked for 18 years, quit for 10 weeks!, and I want to get my wind back so to speak. I just quite frankly am ignorant on what exercises to do for an effective full body workout- any suggestions?
I am not too concerned about time in the gym overall- I just cannot spend any more time in there than what I currently am.
Thank you for the response.
 
Spend some time in the exercise forum readig the stickied threads - you'll get a good jump start there and after reading - ask questions... :)
 
You need to decide what's more important to you at this stage - cardio or bulking up.

The reason I say this is, that you may be wasting time doing weights by counterbalancing it with too much cardio, and not enough of the right dietary supplements to support both. So your cardio starts eating into your muscle building. So by getting the right balance in your routine for your current goals, can cut off some time in the gym.

Eitherway, there's no reason for you to train up to 2 hrs a day 6 days a week - unless you're planning on competing. Similarly, no point in putting all this effort in without knowing how many calories you should be eating and eating the right foods.

In terms of full body exercises you should try - KettleBell training is incredible for a full body workout. You can get a few good programs out there now, or you can join a class.
 
Please clarify for me what you mean- or someone else please help me out here because now I am confused.
I thought WT needed to be done when you were losing weight to keep as much of the LBW that you have? I realize I was kind of doing things wrong but I do not think I was doing too much. I did not think I needed to decide if I was WT or doing cardio- they both worked hand in hand. The two hours in the gym was the high end- the average is around 1 hour 15 min. I rarely spend 2 hours in the gym.
Please also clarify what is wrong with my calories. My maintenance level is 3200 or so. I eat 2600 or so. I am actually raising that due to my exercise to around 2800-2900. My diet is pretty good- fruits, vegetables, lean meats 3-5 times a week, nuts, grains etc. The protein supplement is because I know I do not get enough and I am going to buy fish oil pills when I have a chance. I do not know of any supplements I could need- and know that is based on my diet completely.

I did just get my BF% measured yesterday- calipers on abs, chest and thighs- and am at 16.87 with 195 lbs of LBW. I know this is not 100% accurate but cannot be off by more than 10% or 20%.
Sorry for the long post, I am just pretty darn confused now.

Thanks
 
Sorry, one more thing regarding the WT I do. I use heavy weights and usually do 3 sets from 10-6 reps per exercise. I do use compound exercises for most of the body parts but do admit that I worked the little muscles- biceps, triceps etc- too much on their own.
Thank you again.
 
some advice around here really should be taken with a grain of salt - good for youfor questioning it :D

I did not think I needed to decide if I was WT or doing cardio- they both worked hand in hand..
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You are correct in that - they do work together... while it'sdifficult to bulk up while you're in caloric deficit (wow, I almost sounded like i know what i'm talking about :D weight training will help to maintain the muscle you do have... and the suggestion is to start with weight training, so you have full strength then do the cardio portion of your program...

You shouldn't pick one over the other - both have their place and should be done...
 
Thanks Maleficent- thought I was going slightly carzy there for a second. I actually started with cardio first and then brought in light weight training later with machines. I really only have been doing the heavier WT with free weights for a little over a month.

Not that I automatically reject adivce I do not agree with- but with no explanations given I needed to question.
 
Steve has a post somewhere on here - and I'm sure he'll chime in (he's busy this week and less chatty than usual) about why you shoudl do weights first then cardio - and it's basically that you want your full strength for the weights - cardio tends to require a bit less energy... or energy depletion won't have much of an impact on your cardio workout..
 
Actually maleficent I do get what you are saying. I was reading incorrectly.
I always do any WT before Ido my cardio. I really do not know what I thought you said.
 
maleficent said:
I don't make sense a whole lot - I like to think its a cute personality quirk -when in fact it can be pretty irritating :)
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You? Irritating?! Never... :waving:

And to kind of add... there is nothing wrong with cardio 5 times a week. Is it as necessary? ... well that is debatable among different people. I used to do it 5 times a week but due to a scheduling change I had to reduce to 3 times (beginning this week its back up to 5, I realized even with my schedule change I noticed a change in my body). However, others will say that it hurts doing it that much... Like I said, its debatable and YMMV.
 
Hurts as in physically hurts- or hurts as it it detrimental to what you are trying to achieve?
My attitude is that as long as you can continue doing it without hurting yourself it is ok- although I may be severely wrong here.
 
Bigguy said:
Hurts as in physically hurts- or hurts as it it detrimental to what you are trying to achieve?
My attitude is that as long as you can continue doing it without hurting yourself it is ok- although I may be severely wrong here.
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Hurts as in detrimental to the GOAL, which is complete bullshit, because cardio is working the heart muscles. And anytime you feel pain, that is when you should REST or see a doctor about it, I just have a hard time with thinking cardio hurts when changing it up from interval to steady state (HIIT is a different story, and should only be limited to a few times a week).

Now, I like that attitude you've stated a lot because it is what I've prescribed to... I've also found that my "routine" is also one of my hobbies. I've gone from the guy who knows how to eat to the guy who knows about fitness and getting into shape.

I read this a whiles back and think you might like this... I am of course an ENDOMORPH... someone like Steve is an MESOMORPH (motherfucker, :)).
Bodybuilding.com - Nick Nilsson - Weights Or Cardio: What's It Going To Be?
 
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To be honest, I'm an ectomorph.

You should see my wrists and bone structure.... very skinny. I just fought the tide for so long that my body had no choice but to hypertrophy. But the bones are still thin and long.... makes moving heavy weights that much harder!
 
Steve said:
To be honest, I'm an ectomorph.

You should see my wrists and bone structure.... very skinny. I just fought the tide for so long that my body had no choice but to hypertrophy. But the bones are still thin and long.... makes moving heavy weights that much harder!
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Funny thing about that Steve, I wrote ectomorph FIRST then reedited to change it. I knew you were at one point, I think we had a discussion about that somewhere... should have gone with my first instinct.
 
I wouldn't have said anything, but I find a lot of ectos believe they can't achieve impressive muscles simply due to their structure and it's far from true. Train intelligently, consistently, and EAT ENOUGH and you will grow.
 
Steve said:
I wouldn't have said anything, but I find a lot of ectos believe they can't achieve impressive muscles simply due to their structure and it's far from true. Train intelligently, consistently, and EAT ENOUGH and you will grow.
Click to expand...

Very expensive to be an ecto isn't it?
 
Haha, that it is.
 
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