Draken50

A cheated chin up is better than no chin up. If you can get your chin over the bar by giving yourself a little bit of a hop, do it, until you don't need to.

Chinups/pullups are a skill exercise as well as strength. I.E. Your body has to learn how to do it.

Negatives help, assisted pullups help. Don't kip, by which I mean, don't bother with the crazy gymnastics swing. If raising your feet on the way up gets you to the bar, do it.

You'll get to the point where you can do dead hang pullups ect. But the first goal is getting from bottom to top. I started at being able to do one with a bit of a hop, pull up per day. Literally per day. If I did it in the morning, I couldn't do it again at night. But with practice I got to one an hour. I did them as often as I could muster. Then I got to like 5, and got lazy and stopped doing them. Now I'm working my way back up.

Weight loss helps... a lot. I weigh 220lbs. (100kgs) right now. Pullups/chinups were easier at 200. 

Big thing is, if you can do a pullup without a band, without machine, with a hop or whatever, do it. Don't worry about being crazy strict, the best way to get good at pullups/chinups is to do pullups/chinups. Pushups are similar in this regard.

Yeah, you see the same thing for lots of stuff, like martial arts and the like. I hear all the time "I'll do martial arts after I lose weight." When it can really help people to lose the weight in the first place.

The secret to all those fit people doing those things is generally, the activities they are doing are what helped them get and stay fit.

When you enjoy what you're doing it's much easier to sacrifice to do it, and even more so you'll be more interested in doing it. I never want to eat fast food after sparring, my body wants steak and salad and goodness. When I spent the day lounging around playing monster hunter. Well, then a sonic burger with tarter tots doesn't sound to bad.

I'm glad I could help. Focus on the things you want to do, and go do them. If it hurts, scale it back a little, be smart and remember that injury will cost progression. A walk around the block leads to a walk around two which lets you build more and more. You'll find the balance and the more consistent you are, the more you'll be able to do.

I have been distracted by my own ass in a window reflection.

Well you can look up stretches to find what hurts, but for knees feet and ankles. I'd think two things.

1. Make sure when you squat down you do it with good form. Try to keep your heels on the ground, push your knees out a bit. If you're basically having to do squats throughout the day. Look up stuff on squat form and try to keep better positioning.

2. To avoid soreness, drink a lot of water, and try to move around more. Never sitting is bad, as is always sitting, so that's going to be hard to avoid.

What do you want to do? What are your goals?

That being said, don't worry about your weight and get your lifts up. Once your lifts stop going up. Re-assess.

Take the things you want to do. Hike or whatnot. Then look at why you aren't doing them. Get rid of those reasons.

So lets say you want to hike. Go hike. Did you go hike? If so, yay! do it again. If not, why not? It's walking in the woods, it's not like it's that complicated.

Do you feel you don't have time? Figure out how to make time. Make the time.

Don't have shoes? buy shoes.

Feeling lazy? Not really a reason is it?

Don't want to because of feelings? Can you physically walk right now? To the fridge? to the bathroom? Yes? Well then your feelings are not keeping you from walking. Go walk.

Addressing things specifically often helps a lot. Here's how I started lifting weights.

I want to lift weights.

I don't have any weights.  I joined a gym. A gym close to my work and pretty close to my house.

I don't have time. Guess I can start doing it during my lunch. So I will lift, at the gym, during my lunch.

There's no food at the office for lunch. I will bring my lunch .

I don't want to make my lunch beforehand it's inconvenient. Tough. I want to lift weights more than I want to not make lunch.

Another thing that's helped me here and there is to ask. What will I prefer to have done? Tomorrow, am I going to wish I'd gone to the gym and lifted weights, or stayed home and watched cartoons?

I've been seeing this thread title for a while and am frankly amazed at the lack of innuendo in here.

That's... a lot of... stuff.

So... yeah, you're doing a lot of stuff.

You might consider doing ... some of the same stuff more often, and doing less stuff overall. Otherwise, you have a fine collection of stuff.

I would expect that you will get tired from doing it. Which ummmm... is good?

Alternatively, the ability to move more weight and/or for longer periods/more often can be an effective gauge as well.

As you do exercises you adapt to what you are doing. For instance, the first time I did barbell squats, I was sore for several days, no a few hundred pounds heavier. I'm really not sore the next day at all. If I for some reason don't lift for a couple of weeks, I will be more sore when I return to it. Soreness/tiredness is a way to tell I guess. Mostly though it just means you have done a lot of eccentric movement (muscles lengthening) that you have not yet grown accustomed to.

If you were doing a barbell program, its as simple as increasing the weight you use. With bodyweight, it gets a bit different. At that point your going to be looking for harder exercises to do, and you may try doing them faster and/or with less rest. This will also vary per exercise. Don't have a problem with squats, but your push-ups are still rough? Move on to jump squats or pistol squats or the like, but keep to the regular push-ups.

Ultimately, soreness is relative, and chasing it can be a less than ideal methodology. Having track-able progression. I started at 10 pushups, and after a month could do 20 or 30 or whatever. In some cases, with limited weight, folks decrease rest. I did 3 sets 20 reps and rested 5 minutes between,  then I did 3 sets of 20 with 4.5 minutes of rest ect.

Yup. Basically every time you hit say 3 sets of 5. Increase the weight. 5 lbs. is the norm or 2 kilos I guess. For stuff like press and bench it can be good to go to 1 kg increases. That way the weight just keeps going up.

Basically Starting Strength works on A and B days. Rest between days. I do three days a week, but every other day is fine if you're eating/sleeping enough and recovery is not an issue.

A: Squat 3x5, Overhead Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5 (Deadlifts you'll be able to get heavy pretty quick and pulling that much from the floor wears you down. Hence, less sets)

B: Squat 3x5, Bench 3x5, Dynamic lift 5X3 (Powerclean, powersnatch). Some people sub in other stuff like rows because they aren't comfortable with the form, a pulling excercise is a good idea though. If it's a slow lift 3x5 is fine. It goes to 5 sets of 3 reps as you don't want form breakdown on a dynamic lift.

Chin-ups make a great assistance excercise. I do 3xmax. If you're doing over 10 per set, add weight. I also like to add dips.

Other methodology includes Heavy Light Medium. Basically you have a heavy day, then lighter, and then a medium to keep stimulation up without overtraining. This can be done by using lighter weights, or exercises that use lighter weights. For instance Bench is a heavy press, whereas overhead press is a light due to most peoples difference in the loads they can handle on the two exercises.

I'm doing a bit of a mix, but I've done the normal Starting Strength methodology for a while, and have some time constraints.

Monday: Deadlift 1x5x148kg (Heavy Pull) , Overhead Press 3x5x64kg (Light press), Judo(conditioning)

Wednesday: Squat 3x5x143kg (Heavy Squat), Bench Press 3x5x76kg (Heavy Press, Intensity), Chin-up, dip. My chins are low rep right now, so it isn't a lot of extra volume.

Friday: Deadlift 1x5x158kg (Heavy Pull), Overhead Press 3x5x65kg (Light press), Judo(conditioning)

Saturday: Front Squat 3x5x68kg (Light squat), Bench Press 2x10x61kg (Heavy Press, Volume), Chin-up, Dip.

My front squats are weak, as I just started doing them, so they'll probably go up by 4-5 kilos per week for a few weeks. My bench form wasn't very good either, and I had some strains from pushing it, so that's when I added the 10s to work staying tight.

You'll find what works for you, and you're schedule. Consistency is key. Basically you're going to be trying to balance Intensity, Volume, and Recovery. Too much Intensity, and you don't make your reps and form breakdown may injure you. Too much volume, and you may have a form breakdown under the bar leading to injury, or most common, you over-train a muscle/muscle group and your lifts don't go up. I did this with Bench and OHP, I add dumbell assistance and over-trained my shoulders. My presses stopped going up.

Intensity is just the amount of weight moved (basically). Volume would be how much is moved. Deadlifting 1x200kg is higher intensity, but lower volume than 5x100kg. It also varies depending on set structure. I consider 2x200 to be more intense than 2x1x200. Absolute beginning lifters may only need 1 type of stimulus. A Desk jockey that does nothing will see improvements off of volume alone. More advanced lifters need both. Deadlifting 100kg until you collapse from exhaustion is never going to get you deadlifitng 400kg, by the same token, lifting your 1rm once a week is probably not going to give your body the stimulation necessary to cause adaptation. 

Recovery... your ability to recover from your workouts. This is an adaptation as well. Generally the better sleep you get, and making sure you have enough food is the big thing, as you continue your body will be able to adapt to what you do to it. People will look at an Olympic competitors 2x per day, 6 day per week schedule and try to jump into that. Their ability to recover from has advanced as much as their ability to move weight. So don't plan to just double your volume. Always try to give your body time to adapt to changes.

There's a book called Practical Programming that gets into this. There's probably other resources but that's what I've been using.

Ah, so if it's not like a slipped disc, previous back injury type thing. Then I would highly recommend squats and deadlifts, as they will do a lot to strengthen the area.

Unless you have any particular reason to avoid compound lifts. You'll probably be able to be able to see good results from running Starting Strength or the like. Compound movements for 5 reps will drive a lot of strength and aren't horrid for mass gains either. I'm not very strong by any means, but after getting my squat and deadlift over 300lbs. I've been quite pleased with the results.

A buddy of mine was using a similar program to what you were at, with a 230 or so bench. He was also way too arm focused, so his bench far exceeded any other lift. He started doing the Starting Strength stuff for a few months, and while he claimed he missed the burn of 12 rep sets, he shot his lifts up pretty quick, except bench which was already pretty inflated. Then wanting to be "ripped" he went to 12s on the compound lifts, and his arms looked pretty big.

Basically what I'm saying is, if you want to be strong. Do compound lifts, regularly. You don't really need to mess with changing stuff each week or whatnot.

If you want to be bigger/buffer/leaner... get stronger... then if you want to toss in some higher volume vanity weeks/days you can do that. You don't need to be able to deadlift 600 lbs to look strong, but you're not going to deadlift 600 lbs. and not look strong either. If that makes sense. So personally, I'd say drop isolation stuff, and get some weight on the bar.

Lower bodyfat can come from 2 things,  less fat or more muscle. You've probably got the diet thing down, so get your lifts up. You're bench isn't bad at all, but could be be better. A bodyweight bench is a different thing between a 135 lb guy and a 225 lb. guy. Squats and deadlifts will see you fine, just keep your back straight.

Make sure you don't bench without spotters. Big thing if you're getting a barbell is you can work overhead press, which is great for shoulder health, barbell rows, deadlifts, and of course bench. You're not going to want to try to bench 300 lbs. on that thing, but it's definitely better than nothing.

Best exercises to learn in my opinion without a squat rack and/or power cage.

Deadlift, Overhead Press, Barbell Row. Even without the cage or whatnot, you can still put the empty bar on your back for squats, or hold it overhead for overhead squats. Overheads are pretty tiring and nice full body exercise. Your equipment will probably be the limiting factor for what programs/methodologies you can use. 

My ideal is always power-cage plus bench and a fair amount of weight, but I use a pretty simple program. Adding a barbell and the ability to increment your exercises by gradually adding weight is very very helpful, and I think you'll like the effect of adding a barbell to your exercises regardless. I may be on the "keep adding weight" 5 rep band-wagon, but adding extra weight for higher rep schemes can certainly produce results people like seeing.

Okay,

1 stone= 14 lbs.

1 kg = 2.2lbs.

So what I'm seeing is that you are 132 lbs (60kg). You have a body weight bench, which is is alright, I don't know your squat weight or the like. Generally smaller/lower weight guys can lift more lb. for lb. than bigger guys.

I don't know your height, but I'm going to guess that at 132 lbs. You're probably more what people call "skinny fat" rather than, fat fat. Personally, at that low of body-weight I'd be less concerned with loosing fat, and more with building muscle.

If you're doing conditioning on top of the lifting, just rest as long as you need to complete all your reps. It's better to rest 5 minute and finish your set, than rest 1 and not.

With lower back issues, Good Mornings are actually something you may want to be careful with as they can be quite tiring/straining on the lower back. Not knowing their nature or what aggravates them I can't recommend squats or deadlifts. Though generally if they can be done safely I do consider them superior exerciser.

As to much switching, that's PR baloney. Basically the exercise "feeling" harder does not mean that it's more effective for building muscle ect. Movement also involves the nervous system, and while untrained movements tend to be more inefficient thereby making a person tired faster, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a more effective exercise.

Using the overhead press as an example: A person is going to find it much harder to press the weight and lock it out in front of their toes. I see this sometimes with new lifters. Basically instead of being under the bar, they're holding it some distance, usually pretty slight in front of them. This is hard, mechanically this makes things much more difficult and puts strain on the body in a much different way than a properly performed press. The lifter additionally cannot use nearly as much weight because of this mechanically disadvantageous position. This improperly performed movement then means the lifter is not able to use as much resistance to drive adaptation and may be at more risk of injury. When do mechanical issues like this most occur? Either when the weight is very heavy, in which case the lifter will almost certainly not be able to perform the lift, or when the movement is unfamiliar. Familiarity with movement only comes from practice, even with coaching. Coaching is to correct issues with the movement when done wrong through cues(generally speaking).

Basically, muscle confusion is a fancy way of making you feel tired, while do movements you are unaccustomed to, so that you never progress in resistance or capability as once you've begun to get them you move on to something else.

What are your goals? What are you lifts? What is your experience

This looks like a isolation based hypertrophy routine. Which for beginners is pretty... over complicated.

Personally, I'd look more at using compound lifts like squats, deadliftis, Press, and bench press than all that stuff.

I don't know what the point of the 1-2 minute rest maximum is. If you want to do cardio, do cardio, if you want to strength train, strength train. Mixing them is... silly at best in my mind. You can always do some tabata after you finish your lifts if you're worried about conditioning.

If you're trying to go for mass, realize that strength helps build that. There's a saying that bodybuilders don't need to be strong, but that's relative. A guy I knew who competed as a bodybuilder told me that, but he also didn't think that dumbell benching 125lb. in each hand was very strong. So while you don't need to be competitive power-lifter strong I'm willing to bet you need to be stronger than you are now.

Yeah beginner-body weight workout is probably your best start.

You may want to try to avoid doing pushups from your knees but instead do them at an incline, the higher your hands are relative to your feet, the easier they should be.

Your description tells me that your conditioning isn't particularly good, and you've obviously said your not strong.

If your lower weight and weak, body-weight stuff will help, relatively quickly, and you'll be able to work up through different exercises. If you're heavier, then that gets tougher, and I lean far far more to the strength training with barbells spectrum. Basically, if your 120 lbs. it's easier to get to begin able to do push-ups and pull-up and the like if you're 220 lbs. as you have to be stronger to do the actual exercise. I've also felt that heavier folks tend to be at more risk for injury from higher repetitions.

So, right now, Beginner Bodyweight workout 3 times a week. With a gym, you might look at barbell training like Starting Strength.

So limited time, space, and equipment... alright.

So first off, I'm going to mention that my normal strength training recommendation is barbell training. That tends to require a barbell and weights, also time. That appears to be out, but that'd be your best bet.

Now then, if you can't do a push-up, your not able to do pull-ups or chins easier. So you'll need easier variants. For example, with pushups you can do that at an incline, the higher your hands are compared to your feet, the easier they are. For pull-ups there's inverted rows.

So looking at these goals:

• Stronger back, chest, shoulders and core
• To be able to pull my body weight up
• Have the muscles to climb on things

You want to be stronger. So you're going to want to strength train. Bodyweight can work for strength training, but you are much heavier than than you are strong. There's a lot of people in that position. So you're going to have a much tougher road in that regard. Additionally, it's unlikely you're going to provide the stimulus to cause your body to adapt to the point that you can pull up a bodyweight of 200+ lbs. with a 10 lb. kettlebell.

So, you can look at incline pushups, and inverted rows. add some situps and the like. Maybe use elastic bands to get to the point that you can do a pullup. Squats are always worthwhile in my mind. Horseback riding or no.

My honest recommendation, what I think will get you to your goals most efficiently, would be to look at barbell training, with some assistance work on a pullup machine. Is the machine ideal? No, but for me that tends to be more of a consideration once the assistance used is lowered.

Some people, particularly those with hip or knee problems want cardio, but have to use their hands. There's a machine at my old, and come to think of it, I think there's one at my new gym that's basically an exercise bike that you pedal with your hands/arms. I've seen a couple dudes use at as a warm up for their shoulders before lifting.

@Draken50, it's interesting you bring up smoking, because I literally did just one day stop. I had pneumonia and when I got better even the smell of cigarettes made me so nauseous I just haven't had one since. That was over two years ago, and just last week I wanted a smoke really badly in my head, but my stomach revolted at the idea and so I didn't.  I guess that's what I mean - I don't have any faith in my ability to tell my body "no" in the long-term. Brain wants a smoke, body says no? Body wins. Brain wants to eat healthy but body is going to complain constantly until we have KFC? Fine, we'll have KFC but just tonight and we have to be good tomorrow. Body wins. I guess I have to come up with a way to let my brain win more often (if this stream-of-consciousness isn't making me sound like a crazy person). 

Well I have news that starts bad and gets good then. In my experience, especially when it comes to diet, it is possible to gradually manipulate what your body craves and likes. For example. Before I started working on changing my diet, I ate Burger King. A lot. I always got a meal and usually a desert on top of that. So the bad part was that it took my body a bit to get used to not eating that kind of food. My trick was to avoid calorie counting all together and EAT ALL THE TIME. See My body got used to me dropping 3000 calories on it in a sitting, so I just stuffed it with fruit, veggies, and meat. So I'd have 3 burger patties and a salad and bananas and blueberries with honey on them.

Here's the thing though, how much I ate still gradually went down as my body got used to real food. After a few months of this, not like years, but it does take a month or three, I had Burger King again on a road trip. It was horrible, I kept burping, I didn't finish what I ordered, it just... was, and to this day remain unappetizing. So even now, no matter how hungry I am, my body would rather go hungry than have Burger King. I didn't get food poisoning or anything either, my body just doesn't want it. Its funny you mention KFC too, because my wife traveled for work last week, so I being lazy decided to get a bucket of chicken to last a couple days. My stomach doesn't handle it very well any more either. It's gotten to the point where I'll hit a place for a chicken salad and half a sandwich because my body likes it more, and I'm a 200+lb. weightlifting dude. I eat steak more often than most people eat breakfast, and I've come home and wolfed down 3 bowls of chili after a rough night of judo.

It takes time, but your body, as it gets used to better food, and as you feel better as a result. It'll become more of an ally when it comes to changing your lifestyle.

That's not something you know, that's something you think, or feel.

Weight loss requires, commit, and honesty with yourself about what you're doing. I could complain about how I'm not losing the weight I'd like, and look at all the effort that I put into it, and completely ignore where I steadfastly ignored both my goals and the process by which I intended to achieve them. I may have done well in buying vegetables and not going out for lunch, or dinner, but once things were inconvenient I made the decision to eat out, and order in, and completely ignore the process by which I was making progress.

Here's the thing I've found. People never succeed when they eliminate their agency, their ability to decide, from the matter. "I can't stop myself from eating cake." Is not the same as saying "I keep choosing to eat cake." 

People who say "I can't eat that" are for more likely to give in than people who say "I don't eat that." One is saying that some outside force or requirement is forcing you to abstain, the other is that you have made the decision to abstain in the pursuit of some goal.

You are not a slave to outside influences.

That being said, it may be important to understand that it is being found that fatty and sugary foods are addictive, and difficult addictions to break. Often issues with food and weight loss are looked at as moral failings, that's bullshit.

What you are trying to do is harder than it is to kick a cigarette habit, and by some peoples accounts, harder to kick than heroin. Use every tool in your arsenal. When you backslide, and it will happen, forgive yourself. I personally know of no-one who has kicked smoking all in one go, or changed their diet and lifestyle without ever giving in to temptation. Forgive yourself, learn from it, and make the decision to get back on course. (An example, If I don't eat, I have a far harder time choosing to eat well over eating what's convenient. So, I put the effort in to have healthy food available at almost all times, keeping me from feeling like I'm starving, and making my decision easier.)

Don't take control away from yourself. Grow from your mistakes, and keep trying.

smoked several times this past week having successfully gone several weeks without. 

I could say "Well, I'm addicted I guess I just CAN'T quit." or I can say "I made the CHOICE to smoke. I could have CHOSEN not to." 

While there's always factors that effect thing, chemical dependency, stress, habits, ect. Today I still can CHOOSE to avoid the situations where the decision becomes harder, try new ways to handle the ones I can't, and try again.

You can do whatever the hell you want. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but it is your choice.

I started using the stronglifts methodology, but as I had confidence and a 220+ bodyweight, I started at a higher weight for squats. 115 specifically.

The stronglifts program does work, and will get started on a good path. I do feel that the resources provided are inferior to those found in the book Starting Strength. Additionally, If your lifts stop going up due to failures on the 4th or 5th set you may want to switch to 3 sets of 5 reps as outlined in Starting Strength.

So basically, the program works. Get Starting Strength for one of, if not the best beginner guide to barbell training. Which includes very comprehensive writing on the low-bar squat, deadlift, press, and bench.

Yeah, keep lifting, keep pushing.

A big thing to keep in mind about that whole caloric deficit thing, is that a fair amount depends on where you were at, and what your eating now.

My lifts are currently going up while I lose weight due to a combination of factors. 

1. I am eating in a way that is good for lifting. (I eat a lot of vegetables, meat and fruit.)

2. I lift regularly and with consistent programming.

3. I get enough sleep.

The less weight you can reasonably lose the harder this balance becomes. So if you want to go from 12% bodyfat to 10% it's going to be a lot harder to keep your lifts going up while you do so, than it is to go from 25%-20% ect.

The most success for both fat loss and weight lifting come over the long haul.

Yeah, I don't have bumpers at my new gym. 

At the old one I'd toss a pair of tens on. At the new gym I put the wheel on to start, but as I just moved it to the first lift on a couple of days, I may look at adding a bit of rowing or the like before I start.

Yup. What you describe sounds like warming up. I prefer decreasing the number of reps as I get closer to my work weight

So I'll do something like this

5x45 (Empty bar )

5x95

5x135

3x185

2x225

1x275

3x5x315

For everything but deadlifts, I always start with the empty bar.

In my experience, higher reps = more sore. Cut down the repetitions, and then add them back in slowly so your body has time to adjust. 

Most importantly, don't stop. DOMS is more likely to occur when you do exercise you are not accustomed to, rather than something you do every other day.

For weight-loss, it's all about what you eat. Fruits and veggies are the most useful tools for success.

For bigger folks looking to get fit, I tend to recommend weightlifting as it tends to be lower impact and more satisfying to do. I started bigger and lifted and ended up with lower body-fat and more muscle. No matter what you do, stay consistent and dedicated and one day the beginner body-weight workout will be your warm-up.

You may look at barbell training. You'd still end up squatting, but 3 sets of 5 is much easier on the body than 3 sets of 20. Starting Strength is my go to on that.

Additionally, the muscle development would make it much easier to body-weight squat.

Lastly, strength training is low impact. This is a big deal if running hurts your knees or the like.

As a bigger guy, you are very likely to outpace your dumbbells in terms of strength very very quickly.

If your goal is primarily weight-loss, and strength training seems counterproductive to that. You might consider that the extra strength would allow you to do your body-weight/cardio exercise with less likely-hood of injury, and that ultimately that would be determined more by your diet than by your exercise.