Looking for a new workout...

[Cristo Meyers]

I've been working out on a regular basis for some time now: 4-5 days a week M-F. But, well, I've just kinda hit a rut. So it's probably time to switch things up a bit.

The problem being: I'm supremely bad at putting workouts together. I've pretty much been winging it for a while now. I don't suppose anyone more learned in weights and exercise can help me out in shaking my routine up?

More detailed info:

My week usually looks like this:
Monday thru Friday, starting with chest on Monday, then back, arms, legs, and just some machine cardio on Friday. I rest on the weekend mostly because I don't have access to my gym on the weekend (it's a YMCA in my office building).

A usual daily routine is weights for the first half and finish with machine cardio (usually an elliptical). This usually translates to 3-4 exercises, 5 sets of varying repititions. I alternate how many reps from week to week (3/5/10).

I'm unsure of my current max(s), it's been a while since I last tested myself. I can squat 250 lbs with little trouble, bench is probably around 135-145, and deadlift lags behind but is at least 145 and probably higher.

[Erloas]

I guess the main question is what is your goal going forward?

Are you looking for more interesting exercises to do, are you wanting to train for some peak that you haven't been able to get to yet? Since stagnation leads to lack of gain as well as lack of interest, your problem could be either or both.

The current, lets go with fad for lack of a better word coming to mind, is more full body exercises and more explosive movements. The latter of which was kind of common in old style lifting as well but now is with a bit less weight but more intensity rather then trying to pile on the weight. Many old lifts were designed to isolate muscle groups as much as possible to get the most work on muscle X as possible in the fewest number of reps. The full body movements are usually a lot less weight but they use many different muscle groups at once and try to balance everything out. Generally referred to as functional strength as opposed to the more static lifts.
That is essentially what Crossfit is focused on; at least as far as I understand it, haven't done it myself.

It also sounds like you could use a lot more core work. Almost everyone does much less core work then they should. The core should probably get more exercise then any other part of your body.

And yes, that is fairly general, but without knowing specifically what lifts you *are* doing it is hard to say what there is for you to try.

Lastly, finding a hobby that can put your exercise to use is a great help. For me it is fighting in the SCA as well as skiing. Also functional exercise like that can point out those areas you didn't even realize you weren't really exercising at all.

[Astral Avenger]

Like Erloas said, more info needed and more core.

My generic suggestion is to try getting into a sport that uses everything, Nordic skiing is my favorite, Ultimate requires a fair amount of legs and cardio, but core and arms help a fair amount. Cyclocross is another fun less well known sport where you can get one heck of a workout.

[Crow]

Start by asking yourself this>

"What are you training for?"

Then go from there. If you can't give yourself a specific answer with measurable goals, nobody here is going to be able to help you.

[valadil]

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe is the best intro book out there. I did that for a while then graduated to Wendler's 531 program.

[Eulalios]

Best routine I know of requires no equipment.

It is best to ease into it slowly, though. Make sure you can do the moves safely, otherwise hips and shoulders can get wrecked.

It goes something like this:

200 pushups daily - 150 normal, 50 diamonds. work to include alternating one-handers*, 40 daily.
200 situps every odd day. (even days, 200 supermans).
200 mountainclimbers*& daily.
500 jumping jacks daily.
run 2+ miles daily.
ladder drills for 10 minutes daily.
pullups to exhaustion when time permits.

* careful with the shoulders
& careful with the hips

repeat for 3 months.

It's insane and not really feasible if it's not your full time job. But it caused me to gain 20 lbs solid muscle, which was about 1/8 of my final body weight.

[Crow]

It's insane and not really feasible if it's not your full time job.

I wouldn't say that. I'm fairly certain I could knock that out in about an hour, probably less. Unless we're talking 4-count jumping jacks...in that case I wouldn't touch this workout.

Also, I'm pretty sure that 3 months of that would cause me to /lose/ 20 lbs of muscle, lol.

[Cristo Meyers]

You'd think after going down this road once before I'd realize how little info I'd actually given...

Mostly I was just looking for something new to try, but now that I actually think about it I've been doing little more than maintenance at best. More than a little aimless. This is probably issue #1

In terms of a short-term goal: my weight's been trending upward, mostly due to bad diet that I'm working on getting under control again. Dropping 10 pounds to get down to about 165 and staying there would probably be first on my list.

Long term is where things get hazy. I'm not really a sports kind of person, I just started working out to get into better shape than I was in. To an extent I succeeded in that, but it's hard to come up with a real direction for that. Burning off some unwanted midsection fat is definitely on my list.



And yes, that is fairly general, but without knowing specifically what lifts you *are* doing it is hard to say what there is for you to try.


Monday:
Bench
Chest Press (machine)
Chest fly (machine)
Incline Bench when I can fit it in
Ab crunches (weighted, machine)

Tuesday:
Deadlift
Isometric row
Lat pulldown
Wide-grip lat pulldown
Pull ups if I have time

Wednesday:
Bicep curl (both free weight and machine)
Tricep pulldown (I guess, pulling a lat bar down to chest level, locking my upper arms, and then just pulling down with my lower arms)
Wrist curls
Chin up

Thursday:
Squat (on a smith machine, if it matters)
Leg Press (machine)
Sitting calf raises (weighted)
Leg abduction/adduction
Leg curl
Leg extension

This all varies depending on how much time I have. I always get in Bench, Deadlift, and Squat if at all possible. I have about an hour to work with in an given day except Friday, so I usually weightlift and spend the last 20-25 minutes on a cardio machine.

[Crow]

Blugh! Start doing Starting Strength right away, man!

Once you've gotten your weight numbers to acceptable levels, your belly fat won't really be an issue as long as you don't eat like a trailer-dweller. If you want to trim some more, consider adding in some interval training.

But doing your workout, you would need to have my diet super dialed-in to gain any strength and still cut fat off your belly.

[valadil]

Squat (on a smith machine, if it matters)


I hate to break it to you, but those aren't real squats. If it helps, I've been told my squats sucked so bad I had to start over three or four times. http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Lifts#The_Squat

The smith machine doesn't let you fall over. The bar is always fixed in place. This removes the balancing aspect entirely.

[Eulalios]

Unless we're talking 4-count jumping jacks...

There's no other kind. :smallamused: They take about two second each.

A decent pushup also takes two seconds. A solid situp is about the same. eight count mountainclimbers take four-five seconds each. ... so what I proposed would add up to, you're right,

a bit less than an hour of continuous cardio + strength training.

Thinking back more than a decade, and considering how much time we spent working this routine, it's clear that I lowballed the reps by a factor of two or three. My apologies.

[Cristo Meyers]

Blugh! Start doing Starting Strength right away, man!

Once you've gotten your weight numbers to acceptable levels, your belly fat won't really be an issue as long as you don't eat like a trailer-dweller. If you want to trim some more, consider adding in some interval training.

But doing your workout, you would need to have my diet super dialed-in to gain any strength and still cut fat off your belly.

Heh, like I said: tremendously bad at putting together workouts. It did get me to where I am now, but I stalled out pretty quickly.

I remember hearing about that book from the last thread, but I had forgotten about it (and fallen into a deeper-than-usual seasonal depression :smallsigh:) before I could seek it out. I'll check out the local Half-Price Books on the way home.


I hate to break it to you, but those aren't real squats. If it helps, I've been told my squats sucked so bad I had to start over three or four times. http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi...ifts#The_Squat

The smith machine doesn't let you fall over. The bar is always fixed in place. This removes the balancing aspect entirely.

I kinda figured as much. Part of the reason for using the smith is simply having a back-up plan in a somewhat-crowded gym. I'll re-calibrate the numbers and start hitting the cage more often.

Thanks for the help.

[Crow]

Heh, like I said: tremendously bad at putting together workouts. It did get me to where I am now, but I stalled out pretty quickly.

They aren't bad workouts. Better than what most people do for sure. But a lot of those exercises are stuff you do after you've built up a good strength base. Except the smith machine. You never use the smith machine. Unless you need an emergency pullup bar.

[Cristo Meyers]

They aren't bad workouts. Better than what most people do for sure. But a lot of those exercises are stuff you do after you've built up a good strength base. Except the smith machine. You never use the smith machine. Unless you need an emergency pullup bar.

I shall henceforth only glower at the thing with mild contempt :smallwink:

I really only have two concerns with Starting Strength: one is an inability to do Power Clean. The gym just isn't equipped for it. The other is should I just start completely from scratch with the beginner program (my gut says yes)?

#edit - two concerns and a straight question: are rest days full-on no exercise or just don't lift? Would a jog or other simple cardio be out as well?

[Erloas]

#edit - two concerns and a straight question: are rest days full-on no exercise or just don't lift? Would a jog or other simple cardio be out as well?
This is one of those questions you have to answer yourself. What is your body telling you? The rest days also depend a lot on what you are doing, more high-rep lower weight endurance lifting you generally need less rest. And in some cases light/moderate cardio is good on your off days because it helps you to keep from cramping and tightening up.

As for your current lifts:
I'm not sure how you are doing leg extensions, but the only way I've ever seen is with a machine that is often on the top 1-2 list of worst machines that gyms carry that are likely to hurt people. I don't think leg curls are of much practical use either.
Almost every lift you do with a machine you will get more work on your support muscles by doing them free-hand. In fact just a simple bench press or fly, if you rest your shoulders on one of the large balls and hold your body flat (instead of on a bench) you then have to engage your core and legs just a huge number of small stabilizing muscles to hold you up and help balance you as you do the lift. It takes a simple one muscle lift and works out other muscles at the same time.


It might be worth trying a couple weeks or a couple months of something almost completely different, give your body a good shock so it isn't used to the routine.

I would say cardio, both distance/endurance and high intensity, would make a bit impact on how you feel. That doesn't require a gym so can be done on the weekend or other off-times. I would assume at your current ability you should probably be able to do 5 miles pretty easy in less then an hour.

Core I would make at least 10-15 minutes for at least 3 days a week if not more. There is a *lot* more to core then just sit-ups, though that is all a lot of men ever think to do. And yes, pilates and yoga moves feel kind of silly at times, they can be a huge challenge. Even a simple plank held for 1-2 minutes at a time works out quite a bit of your body.

Most of the full body exercises tend to use a lot of core, that is after all what the core does, connects everything else. It is also why it gets ignored so much by basic lifts because those lifts are designed to isolate muscles.
I think most crossfit exercises are either full body or high intensity (or both), so searching for those to get a few ideas wouldn't be bad. Also kettleball exercises are almost exclusively full-body too, or simply searching for full body exercises will give you some ideas to try. I would say do a lot of research and then take those couple weeks to try as many different exercises as you can.

A lot of the smaller stabilizing and balancing muscles (which is pretty much all core, but also other parts of your arms and legs as well) are ones you won't necessarily feel as you are working them but they tend to make themselves very well known a day or two after you use them.

[valadil]

#edit - two concerns and a straight question: are rest days full-on no exercise or just don't lift? Would a jog or other simple cardio be out as well?

Depends on what you're recovering from. After a day of squats or deads, I want a full rest. After bench press I see no problem with jogging.

Usually I only take one full rest day a week but I'll have a couple lighter days too. My general plan is bench on saturday or sunday, deadlift monday, shoulder press tuesday. Squats are next, but I need more of a break, so wednesday ends up being chinups and foam roller time. Then squats and I finish out hte week with power cleans. My program doesn't actually include the chinup or clean day, so I drop those first if I can't find time.

My programming also has me doing a light, medium, heavy, and deload day on each of the main exercises. I've staggered those days so that I have one of each for each exercise instead of having a whole week of light, then a week of medium, etc. I point this out because deload day is practically a rest day as well. So I end up with 3 or 4 days of hard work, two lighter days (deload and chinup) and one actual day off.

[Cristo Meyers]

I think most crossfit exercises are either full body or high intensity (or both), so searching for those to get a few ideas wouldn't be bad. Also kettleball exercises are almost exclusively full-body too, or simply searching for full body exercises will give you some ideas to try. I would say do a lot of research and then take those couple weeks to try as many different exercises as you can.


I've browsed crossfit a little, and it's intriguing once I got past all the salesman-speak. I like the idea of its generalist approach. But there's a lot of baggage there that's giving me pause, plus it doesn't seem like something I could do solo.

Admittedly, exercise almost always benefits from a partner that knows what they're doing, but it seems more manageable in just straight weightlifting.

It looks like a back-to-basics approach might help most. Strip away the bells and whistles and get down to core and the big three lifts.

[Crow]

I've been doing crossfit solo for years. All their talk about working out harder in a group, or being more motivated is just crap to get you into their crappy gyms with crappy hours.

If you're motivated and want to work hard, you will work hard.

I also don't do regular crossfit. I use the crossfit football program, which is quite a bit more strength-based, consisting of a strength workout, followed by a more traditional crossfit-style (albeit heavier) conditioning workout after. Http://www.crossfitfootball.com

[Cristo Meyers]

I've been doing crossfit solo for years. All their talk about working out harder in a group, or being more motivated is just crap to get you into their crappy gyms with crappy hours.

If you're motivated and want to work hard, you will work hard.

I also don't do regular crossfit. I use the crossfit football program, which is quite a bit more strength-based, consisting of a strength workout, followed by a more traditional crossfit-style (albeit heavier) conditioning workout after. Http://www.crossfitfootball.com

Hmm, well, while it's fresh in my mind then where's a good spot to start from for crossfit? I've gone through the website's FAQ and such, but that's really only general information. Just pick a workout and hit it?

[Crow]

I started by watching instructional videos on YouTube for all of the exercises on a given day's workouts, and then just jumping right in. If you're not really a visual learner, it my be worthwhile to find someone familiar with the squat, deadlift, press, bench press, a nd power clean, and get a little instruction first.