easytwosix

First update: Day one: Wednesday 18 SEP Today happened to be my weekly off day from lifting, so nothing to report there. However, I did spend 30 minutes with my kids, ate my goal calories, and had some time to work on my website. So, all in all, good start. Day two: Thursday 19 SEP First lifting day. Squat workout went very well. I am really making some good progress with my squat, which I attribute to adding the good morning into my leg workouts. I feel like my hamstrings and erector spinae have always been weak spots, so I've been trying to target them. It seems to be working. I did meet my goal for kids time and caloric intake, but I ran out of time to work on my website today. Day three: Friday 20 SEP Chest and back day. I have been really focusing on my upper back exercises lately because I think I may not have been emphasizing them enough in the past. This may have contributed to the shoulder issues I'm currently having. The good news is that all three of the upper back exercises I am currently doing (Bent barbell row, weighted pull-up, and underhand seated row) are all progressing steadily. I was able to fit in my alternate chest exercise without incident. I am doing less volume and weight with an exercise that doesn't implicate my shoulder in the same way. I am not really concerned with improving my chest at the moment. I am more focused on trying to keep the muscle from regressing while my shoulder heals. Hit all my secondary goals today. Day four: Saturday 21 SEP Shoulders and arms day. This morning I brought my daughter to her tennis lesson, but it was cancelled (and the jerk teacher never notified anyone!). So we're going to take the kids out this afternoon and try to find something fun to do. Before we go out, though, I'm going to knock out my workout for the day.

Main Quest: My primary goal is to add 10 lbs in six weeks to my 5-rep max for squat and bent-over row. My motivation: I really just want to get bigger and stronger. I am a relatively small guy (5'8" 165 lbs currently) and I want to put on some more muscle. I have already put on about 25 lbs from what my natural weight would be and I would consider myself an intermediate lifter. I want to start back into a program that hits strength but really focuses most of the effort on hypertrophy. I have been as big as 185 lbs in the past and I would like to get back to that point within the next 18-24 months. Mission 1: Do not miss any workout days. I am usually good about this, but I have noticed a trend in the last year where the continuity of my program gets screwed up when things get really busy in my personal / work life. I have recently rearranged my daily schedule and that seems to be working well. Here is my workout schedule (I won't go into the finer points because no one wants to read that): Thursday: Legs, glutes, lower back Friday: Chest and back Saturday: Shoulders and arms Sunday: Legs, glutes, lower back Monday: Chest and back Tuesday: Shoulders and arms Wednesday: OFF Note: this may seem like too much frequency, but I have adjusted the number of sets per workout to reflect half of what most people would do for a single workout (once a week). There is a lot of evidence to suggest that splitting up that workout into two workouts and overloading the muscle twice (but with the same overall volume) will stimulate more hypertrophy than simply hitting the muscle once per week. You could do the same thing using three workouts, but as a famous lady once observed, "ain't nobody got time fo' 'dat." Mission 2: Don't hurt your shoulder, idiot! So I worked bench press a little bit too much in the last few months. I made some really great progress on the lift and added weight to my max, but the volume caught up to me. I can definitely feel some clicking in my shoulder that has worsened slightly, as well as a very little bit of pain when I bench. So I have completely cut out the bench press and all variations thereof, as well as all other exercises that cause my shoulder to grind like that. It is severely limiting what I can do for chest, but I have found one exercise that doesn't work the shoulder in the same way and is allowing me to work my chest pain free. I am resting and icing it, as well as using an anti-inflammatory. This way I can treat the irritation before it actually becomes an injury and let my shoulder heal fully. I don't plan on going back to the bench press for several months, when I am sure that the shoulder has healed. I know this will cause me to lose some of my gains, but that is preferable to knocking myself out of training forever. Mission 3: Work on my website for 30+ minutes per day So one of my side projects is putting together a website with one of my good friends. I am currently in the stage of writing the substantive material we are going to use on the site. It is the type of thing I can sneak in here and there, while still making good progress on it. I am going to spend 30+ minutes per day working on this project. I would like to spend an hour, but I want to make it harder for me to find an excuse not to fit it in, so I am setting my official goal at 30 minutes. Mission 4: Eat 3,000 calories and >165g of protein per day This is nothing revolutionary, but I have a bad habit of not preparing my meals ahead of time. This often results in haphazardly throwing together some meal or, more often, just missing out on calories I needed. I will consume 3,000 kcal per day and greater than 165g of protein per day. Life goal: More family time! I have been getting better at this, but I still need to improve. I would like to spend at least 30 minutes of quality time with my kids each day. I am defining "quality time" narrowly, however, as time where I am able to give my full, undivided attention to them. This could be wrestling time, going for a walk, going to the playground, etc.

I'll call you Dragon, but you have to call me Nighthawk. OK, cheap Stepbrothers joke. Welcome to the forum! I guess the starting point for giving you advice is to ask if you have any specific fitness goals in mind. For example, add 10 lbs of muscle or lose 10 lbs of fat, be able to do 50 pushups, increase VO2 max, etc. That being said, if your only goal is truly just to get a "decent balance," then your best bet is some type of circuit training workout that incorporates your dumbbells, some bodyweight exercises, and keeps your heart rate high. If your goal is actually to get stronger, then you really should either get a gym membership or go out and buy a barbell and some weights. The dumbbells will only get you so far in that regard. It sounds like you're primarily focused on being a generalist, though, and if that's true, you can do more than enough with some dumbbells. If I may ask, what sort of dumbbells do you have? Do you have a couple 35lb DBs, adjustable DBs, or a set of a bunch of them? The reason I ask is that it will impact what sort of workout we recommend to you.

Skipping the deload is fine. Like these other guys said, though, do not increase the weights faster than he recommends. Getting 5-7 reps on your 1+ day is perfectly normal at first. I find that when I start a 5/3/1 protocol, my first 1+ workout for squats usually ends up in the 9-10 rep range. Do it for a couple months and you will get closer to the rep ranges he specifies. If you skip ahead, you will stall out faster and no one wants that. Just remember that even when you hit reps in the 5-10 rep range, you are still getting stronger on this program because you are constantly increasing the stimulus. You might hit 8 reps instead of the 3 he prescribes on a given day, but chances are those 8 reps are with a weight that is heavier than your previous 8-rep max. Just keep doing what he says and adding the prescribed amount of weight.

The other dimension to this is the fact that you are not just engaged in weightlifting, but also in life. Having a strong cardiovascular system is going to pay dividends in terms of your long-term health and ignoring it will cost you later on. By all means, go all out with the weightlifting. Get big and strong because that will dramatically increase your mobility and quality of life as you age. But doing some light cardio is absolutely not going to kill your gains and will be beneficial to you in the long run.

Hey all, Here are the results of my first challenge! Main Quest (6 weeks): Add 5 lbs to my 5RM for Deadlift, Squat, and Bench Press. I passed this with flying colors and actually added 10 lbs to my 5RM on Bench and 15 lbs to my 5RM on Squat and Deadlift! As an added bonus, I actually managed to add 0.5 inches to my chest, 1/8 of an inch to my arms, and 1.5 inches to my quads! I think this is because I had taken a layoff from squatting and jumped into a program with a high volume and frequency for squats. I would give myself an "A" for my main quest. Side Quest 1: Complete two cycles of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 powerlifting program, modified for hypertrophy by adding volume and frequency. This side quest was the method by which I achieved success on the first quest, so I also need to give myself an "A." Side Quest 2: One long, slow run per week (5-8 miles). One interval run per week. One ruck per week (35 lbs, 5-7 miles, must keep pace between 10-12 min per mile). So this one did not work out as well. I have been having a hard time fitting everything into my day: law school, all the reading AFTER law school, my kids, my wife, my strength training, my cardio, dishes, tidying up after the kids, etc. That being said, I still managed to do 1-2 cardio sessions per week. I will give myself a "B-" on this side quest. Side Quest 3: Stick to new family diet. All natural foods. Not quite paleo because I don't believe in cutting out dairy and carbohydrates when you're trying to gain weight. We're going to follow the spirit of the paleo diet, if not the letter of it. We'll only eat foods you can find in nature. This goal has gone incredibly well! We have stuck to the new diet as a family and I actually credit this for why I've been able to get a little bit of hypertrophy while keeping the fat off. Giving myself an "A." Life Goal: Do three fun activities with the kids outside of the house. I wrestle and play with them and give them tons of attention, but I need to get better about actually going out and finding fun things to do. This goal went very well, but I didn't hit my goal of three activities per week. It was more like two per week on average. I'm going to give myself a "C." Overall Grade: 95+95+95+82+82=449 449/5=89.8 ... so we'll round it to 90 and I'll give myself an "A-" Guild I am joining: Since I have been to the real Ranger school and my goal is getting bigger and stronger while maintaining a solid base of fitness in all areas, the obvious choice is the Rangers. I toyed with the idea of going Warrior, but I need to have a broad fitness base and it would hurt me too much to specialize.

Hey Solo, Great job with your challenge! What did you do in the Army? Were you an Infantryman? I've been in for 11 years now, the most recent 5 of which have been in the Infantry. When did you go to Ranger school?

Update for this week. Wednesday C2D6: Rest Thursday C2D7: Chest / back / triceps. Great bench workout. I hit the reps I needed, plus a couple more. This means I beat my goal for the MAIN QUEST for bench press! In fact, I doubled it. I was aiming for a 5 lb increase to my 5-rep max, but I managed to get a 10 lb increase! The only downside is that the increased heavy-lifting frequency and volume of this program is starting to bother my left shoulder during the bench press. I don't know if it's a rotator cuff issue or not, but for the last few months I've been warming it up with some internal and external rotations before I hit the bench press. I've had a clicking in my left shoulder ever since I started lifting, but I think the increased volume is just aggravating something in there. So I'm icing it and taking some ibuprofen and I'll do a deload. When I start back up, I will cut back to a lower volume of benching, more akin to a standard 5/3/1 cycle. Friday C2D8: Legs / Shoulders / Biceps. I kicked ass on squats today and beat my Squat goal on the MAIN QUEST! Instead of adding just 5 lbs to my 5-rep max on squats, I added 15 lbs! The key has been doing the increased frequency and volume. By condensing a 5/3/1 progression into a shorter period of time, I've been able to achieve a ton of overload in a short time. I obviously couldn't keep this up forever, but it definitely helped give me a little boost in the short term. As with the bench press, I am definitely going to cut back a little bit on the frequency. This also marks the completion of Side Quest 1. It didn't take 6 weeks, but I went through two cycles of 5/3/1. I am not stopping my updates and I plan to continue following a 5/3/1 protocol, though. Side Quest 2 is not doing especially well. I have been so tapped for time that I have been having a lot of trouble fitting in the cardio that I wanted to do. The problem is that I have committed the day to my family, which requires me to be completely done with my workouts prior to 7:30. On the other end, I've got my law school work and my wife vying to keep me up late, so I end up fighting to get 6 hours of sleep before my wake-up at 4:45 am. I've managed to get some cardio in, but I would only give myself a C grade on this side quest so far. Side Quest 3: We've actually been kicking ass with sticking to this diet. I even put together a meal plan for each week and we have integrated food prep time into our family schedule. It's going very well! Life Goal: I've been doing pretty well at fitting in the fun family stuff. In the last couple weeks, we've gone to the beach, gone blueberry picking, and a couple other things. I just need to maintain this trajectory.

You can absolutely put on muscle and get stronger while doing cardio. Would a guy who is prepping to be the next Mr. Olympia want to do a lot of cardio and "risk interrupting his gains?" Probably not, but since you asked this question here, I'm guessing you are not looking to be Mr. Olympia. When I was at Ft. Campbell, my rifle platoon did weight training four times per week, one 4-6 mile run, sprints, a ruck run with a 35 lb rucksack, and sometimes an additional short run (5k range). Guess what: guys still got bigger and stronger, even with all of that cardio. Is this the best way to get bigger? Of course not, but my point is that if cardio is important to you, you can still do it and put on muscle mass at the same time. Just keep it reasonable (the example I gave before is a bit much). If you're not some advanced lifter or bodybuilder who has already put on 50lbs of lean muscle mass and is looking to put on more, you can still make gains. You just need to eat more and keep weighing / measuring yourself. If you're not gaining weight or getting bigger, eat more.

What type of full-body workout are you thinking of? Do you want it to just be bodyweight-based or do you want it to be a weight-training program (or a combination)?

Ok so I haven't had time to update this in a few days. I did a few rest days and then started up the second cycle. I will give a quick overview of this cycle so far. Friday Cycle 2, Day 1 (C2D1): Did my chest / back / triceps workout. All my percentages are up by 5lbs for upper body and 10lbs for lower body from the last cycle. With bench, I hit the weight / reps that I wanted to and, since that was an increase from the last cycle, it means my program is working and I'm officially making progress. Additionally, I was able to increase the weight on all of my exercises that were focused on hypertrophy. Saturday C2D2: Did my legs / shoulders / biceps workout and was able to make the same types of increases as the previous day's workout. Squats are coming along. Sunday C2D3: Rest. Monday C2D4: Chest / back / triceps again. Increases continue. Tuesday C2D5: Legs / shoulders / biceps. Squat keeps going up. I ran out of time to do my biceps workout this morning, but I will hit it up really quick this afternoon. Very encouraged by my progress with this higher volume version of the 5/3/1 protocol. Also, it makes me ravenous. I am eating a ton of food but actually seem to be leaning out slightly, even as I make gains.

Rumik, Great job getting to where you are! I am a relatively small person as well. I'm 5'8" and if I didn't work out I would probably be around 140 lbs too. I also have bad genes, so it's hard for me to put on muscle without getting fat. That said, I've gotten myself up to a lean 180 in the past when I had more time for lifting. Here is my take on the muscle-building diet. The trick to doing it without getting fat is to not add too many calories over your maintenance level. It's a relatively slow process and you can't rush it by scarfing down a ton of calories. There are formulas out there for you to figure out how many calories you should be eating, but I think you'll find that 2,500 calories might be a touch too much for someone at 5'4" 140 lbs. Right now I am around 165 at 5'8" and I am eating around 2,750 calories per day. It's a delicate balance and if you accidentally eat too many calories, you're going to find yourself getting fat. Here is a really good calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and activity level. It also lets you set your desired macronutrient ratio: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ FWIW, that calculator puts you at about 2100 calories. You could probabIy go up to 2,250 without a problem. I would recommend trying this at first since you say that you don't have a great metabolism. Keep measuring and weighing yourself and if your weight or measurements don't change after a few weeks, add 250 calories. It's a tedious process, but for people without good metabolisms, it's essential to not getting fat. Trust me. I also think that, if you are trying to gain weight, you should increase the amount of carbohydrates you're eating. You're going to want carbohydrates for the weight training you will be doing and for the glycogen resynthesis afterward. As for protein, you're right that the average person doesn't need 1g/lb of bodyweight, but if you are bodybuilding it absolutely helps, so don't skimp on it or you will not make gains as fast as you could.

DAY EIGHT Went to a zip line course and then did a ropes challenge course right afterward. Then I came home and did my squat workout. Did joker sets up to my training max x 2. DAY NINE My plans are getting screwed up by the fact that I'm going to be away on Wednesday, so I decided to fit in one last training session for bench today and squats / military press tomorrow. This workout is just going to be with my training max for multiple sets of 2. Today I did my training max on bench press for 8 sets of 2 with 30-60 seconds rest between sets. Note: this is obviously not my actual 1-rep max because, if it were, I would be unable to get 2 reps. My training max is more like my 4-rep max or so.

Plenty of people do cardio in between weight lifting workouts. You can strenuous cardio on off-days (or following your squat or deadlift workout) and still make gains. You may go through a short period of time where you're accumulating a lot of fatigue, but once you do this for a couple weeks, you will wonder why you even worried about it. At my last duty station, I trained guys in my platoon who added 50+ lbs to their squats while also running 5 miles at a fast pace or rucking with a heavy pack the day before their squat workouts. I'm not saying you should jump into something like that, but I'm saying that you can ease into combining cardio with your weightlifting and it will not prevent you from making continued gains.

Saphira, Great job taking the first step and putting a plan together! Most people don't even get that far. Your plan looks good for a beginner, especially since you don't seem to be concerned with gaining or losing any weight. The only thing I would say to you is that if you think you might have trouble adjusting your habits quickly, you might want to cut the number of days you're introducing a new responsibility to your life. If you are someone who has trouble sticking with things, it will be far better for you to only train three days a week until you've formed the habit. Then you could increase your training frequency. Maybe you have a ton of willpower and motivation and this is not an issue, in which case you should go for it with this program! As you progress, you may find that your goals change and you want to get fitter (stronger, faster, or more cardiovascular fitness, etc.). If that happens, you will have to look at changing up the strength training and cardiovascular training (or making the activities you are already doing harder). Just pop in here and there will be plenty of people to help you come up with something new. For now, though, this program seems to match your goals. The activities you picked are not the best ones out there for getting stronger or for increasing cardiovascular fitness, but right now it's more important that you have a program that's easy for you to stick with and that makes you happy.