Pinkman

Thanks for the awesome reply! Good idea. Im planning on buying an oven with my roommates, so I was thinking egg/bacon breakfast muffins or egg tortillas or something like that. Also im gonna start the PLP challenge soon to build some extra momentum and strength.

Dear awesome fellow NF-followers, It's been a while since I visited this forum (hence the respawn), but I'm very motivated to get back on track and kick some ass by working out and eating right. This year september, I've started at the university and therefore moving away from my parents' house and started living on my own. I've been eating quite ok, mostly Paleo-ish for dinner, I drink mostly water and I don't eat candy or cookies. Next to that some healthy snacking in the weekends (peanuts) and I've cut back on drinking beer. Also, I've joined an Ultimate Frisbee club, which is freakin' awesome and I would recommend it to everyone! So I get my weekly workouts at least once a week. (loads and loads of sprinting ) I have been on and off strenght training routines in the past (last one in june I guess), but I really like to pick it up again. I now have access to a proper gym (I already bought the membership) and I'm gonna use this month to set goals for myself and try to sort everything out. I'm a bit scared to step foot in the gym for the first time, especially because I'm quite weak atm. So I'm also gonna use this month to build some strength again and get used to a routinely way of exercising. I have a pair of dumbbells in my room which I use for some compound exercised in combination with bodyweight exercises. I started with this last week. My most challenging goal for this month is to make up a good diet scheme. I really like the freedom that I have now that I live on my own, but I still need to get it structured. I have to think of a good way to prep meals and what to replace my breakfast and lunch with. I now eat either two sandwiches with chocolate sprinkles or a bowl of yoghurt with a banana in the morning and 4 peanut butter sandwiches at lunch. I want to replace this with more Paleo-ish dishes. Omelettes for example. I'll work it out. My dinners are mostly Paleo as mentioned and snacking is an apple, a banana or some peanuts in the weekends. I've been experimenting with some easy Paleo recipes and my goal is to gather lots of em and try which recipes fit my schedule best. I've also been thinking about Intermittent Fasting (I'm a big fan of Anthony Mychal, also because I can relate to the skinny-fatness), but I think that's too much of change in one go. Maybe I'll work up to it. Long story short: I'm gonna use this month to sort everything out and set goals for myself, so that I can (cliché, I know) start fresh next year. Keep track of everything and accomplish goals!

I'm sorry for my late response, but thanks a lot for your advise! I like the idea of a push/pull workout, I checked out Steve's push/pull workout in Barbell Batallion, but what is a static/dynamic workout plan? Thanks for your workout plan! I checked out the barbell hang cleans, but they look very difficult, I've never really touched the barbell before, so I'm gonna start by practising the barbell deadlift and front squat with increasing weight before advancing to hang cleans. Also, is there a certain advantage for alternating between a weightlifting day / bodyweight day? I like the idea. I think my next plan of strategy is to practice a lot with the barbell. Thanks again!

Thanks The cooking for my parents is a great suggestion! That way I can also prepare for when I'm living on my own in a couple of months, thanks I was also thinking about making myself some natural post-workout protein shakes, I found some good recipes online. I was thinking about working out 3 days per week, just like I have been doing up til now. That works best for me in combination with school and work. That's why I would like a workout that is challenging, effecient and working the entire body. With two workouts I mean just 2 different kind of workouts, so only A and B for example, instead of A, B, C and D. With A and B I don't mean the A and B workouts mentioned in my first post, but they can be any set of exercises. What I was trying to say is maybe it is better to create two kind of workouts (A and B ) covering the entire body? My week would then look like this: day 1: A, day 2: B, day 3: A etc. As to the building mass with dumbbells, I happen to have a barbell, but I don't have a squat-rack and since I'm training by myself in the attic, I think it's quite risky to squat and bench press without them. But since I promised myself to make changes, maybe it is time to start experimenting with the barbell. I'll try to think of a new workout scheme. Ah of course, the 3 x 8-12 set/rep scheme is better to archieve my goal right? Thanks a lot for your advice!

Thanks anyway, hi to you too

Hi guys, I'd like to start by saying that I love Nerd Fitness and Steve's fitness philosophy. I've been following NF for about a 6 months now and I think it is about time I join the rebellion properly. I am 18 years old and I'm about to move out and go to college in a couple of months. I've always been a sporty kind of guy, I've been playing football (soccer) for about 7 years until last year. As to fitness I've been on and off different workout schedules, like the Basic Training routine from Dumbbell Division and the BBWR and I've put together some workouts myself with dumbbells, but I always quit after a while because I found them too easy or because I thought they werent effective. But after a lot of reading and learning, I think it is time to do it right this time. Im 18 years old, weigh 62kg (136lbs) and Im about 1,78m (5'10"?). Im sort of skinny-fat, I have skinny arms, chest etc. But I do have a a bit of belly fat. (My legs arent really skinny because of football, but I think if I hadn't played football for that many years they would be skinny too.) My goal is to become bigger and stronger, so gain muscle. According to the Operation Bulk Up guide book, I should eat a lot (about 3000kcal in my case), but Im afraid my belly fat will increase even more. Because I still live with my parents, I am sort of dependent on what my mom cooks for dinner, this is usually vegetables, potatoes and meat, pasta or rice, so that's ok, but I cant really make big changes to my diet. My diet now looks something like this: Breakfast: bowl of yoghurt with 4-grain muesli (oats, cornflakes, barley and wheat) and a large cup of milk. Snack: apple Lunch: 2 peanut butter sandwiches and 2 sandiches with cheese Snack: another 2 peanut butter sandwiches Snack: handful of almonds Dinner: whatever my mom cooks and another bowl of yoghurt as dessert Post-workout: large cup of milk Drinks: water Unfortunately the occassional milkshake, icecream or beer gets thrown in there as well, but Im trying to cut that out as much as possible. As to my working out: I have a adjustable dumbbell set (up to 17,5kg (38,58lbs) per dumbbell), a pull up bar and a bench to my availability. My plan was to do some kind of adjusted version of the dumbbell division workout: A 5x5 dumbbell push press 3xMax chin ups 3xMax dumbbell push ups B 5x5 dumbbell front squats 3xMax pull ups 5x5 dumbbell straight leg deadlift C 3xMax chin ups 3xMax dumbbell push ups 5x5 dumbbell bent over row D 5x5 dumbbell front squat 3xMax pull ups 3x8 dumbbell lunges But since the dumbbell division workout is (sort of) aimed a 4-day split, and Im planning on doing a 3-day split, is it maybe better to combine some exercises to form a 3-day split with only 2 workouts (so only A and B ) with more focus on the entire body? So instead of alternating between more upper body and legs focused workouts to 2 kind of workouts focussing on the entire body? Another thing is that I have a bench that I can use, so are there some great bench exercises that I can throw in here? (like dumbbell bench press or bench shoulder press or anything)? I want my workout to be simple, challenging and effecient. I've been doing a lot of these exercises (without the bar exercises) the last 4 months or so within different workout plans, but as I said I quit after a while, because they were too easy or I didn't think they were efficient. I gained some strength, but I didn't gain mass. For example I am able to do 5x5 dumbbell front squats with 10kg (22 lbs) dumbbells and 20-15-10 dumbbell push ups, but I don't gain mass. After reading the Strength Guide again, I realized I wasn't eating enough. This time I want to do it right. I now have a pull up bar to my availability and I'm ready to start tracking again and go for it! Long story short: I've read and learned a lot from Steve, I know the basics, I have some fitness history (Im a total rookie though) and I'm ready to do it right this time, but I still have some questions: -Are there any tips to improve my workout? -I'm afraid that if I start bulking seriously (in order to do gain muscle), my belly fat will increase, any tips? I guess that's about it, thanks for reading and I hope I will learn a lot from you guys. Pinkman out.