Is my work out going to do what I want it to.

[Paradoxsoldier]

Hello,

Ok so here is the work out I have been doing for about a month 2-3 times a week -

4 Circuits of -

8 chin ups - As many of those done without jumping as I can

Push ups (Have been increasing) includes incline, wide, and standard

set of 10 dead lifts

Planks or sit ups alternating

Jumping body weight squats or plyo-ball squats.

Box jumps

I wait about 2 minutes between circuits. I follow all of this with either 15 minutes of high intensity interval training on the treadmill or 20-30 minutes of consistent cardio.I recently added alternating bench press on this as well.

So my goals are to change my body mass. Less fat more muscle. I want some growth but no need to become a total beast. Anyway I am eating 80/20 paleo. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know.

Thank you,

Tim

[Knightwatch]

Sure, pretty much anything done with intensity and focus will get you closer to your goals.

Just something to consider, though, that when you do the same circuit over and over, your body just gets better and better at doing it, and if you don't change the stresses that it's put under, progress will slow quickly.

It's kinda like a few years ago when some magazine put out "the 300 workout" based on something the cast't trainer said offhand about a challenge that he had for the guys at the end of all their training. He was pretty explicit that the actual training was a mix of a ton of constantly varied stuff, and that the "300 test" was just that, a fun challenge. But sure enough, the next week thousands of guys were hitting the gym doing that exact circuit 3 times a week or whatever. The first few times, sure, it was pretty brutal, but after a while their bodies adjusted to it, because they were adapting to the stress and there was never anything more.

Anyway, slight tangent, but you kinda run the same risk here. You said the chinups and pushups have been increasing, which is good. How about the rest of it? Are you deadlifting more each time? More squats, or the set number done faster? Higher or faster on the box jumps?

The reason good ol' barbell training (or whatever other mode of resistance training) is so popular and effective is that, each and every workout, the stresses increase. The reason stuff like Crossfit and the like work is that your body never simply gets good at doing the same task over and over, and it's constantly varied, and you're always expected to increase your output via intensity. The reason running works is that you have that slow buildup over time, either more distance or faster times.

Once again, something is always better than nothing, and you're off to a good start. Just take some time to consider how you'll measure progress here.

Best of luck!

[thescrawnycaveman]

I agree with knightwatch, you've gotta mix things up if you wanna get maximum gains. Though its going to be diet that will likely have the biggest effect though

[Elastigirl]

You may want to increase the difficulty and not just numbers. Try feet elevated push ups or other harder push ups. Instead of chin ups work on pull ups. Doing more of the same exercise will build endurance, doing more difficult or heavier weight will build strength.

[Fakeplastictree]

As others have said, just make sure you constantly make it more difficult for yourself. Once one rep/set count or weight is not as hard for you, it's time to change it somehow.

[Nocturnis]

In my opinion you may be doing to much way to soon. If you are a beginner you should working on getting the basic movement patterns down before you go all out. The whole chin ups without jumping is a indicator that you need to build up that skill. Instead of doing 8 reps do as many as you can with good form and try to increase that number weekly. If you want to lose fat cardio is key but diet is the biggest factor. If you want to gain muscle too much cardio can cause problems. I suggest you start on a bodyweight workout and work towards using weights focusing on compound movements. If you need any help feel free to message me.

[Waldo]

Pick a goal. Losing fat or gaining muscle. Concentrate on that. If you want to lose fat, lift as if you were trying to gain muscle, and hope you gain a little, but don't have any expectations to gain muscle whatsoever. If want to gain muscle, do that, but accept that gaining fat is a necessary side effect to be dealt with at a later time.

Jumping chinups? How many natural/dead hang can you do? (most people will naturally kip a little, a true dead hang takes extra effort to avoid motion, most people do not do dead hangs, they just do them naturally with no extra kipping effort).

Keep making the pushups harder.

Don't worry, you won't become a total beast. That takes years of dedication and mastery of the craft of strength training.

Do you have weights? Or are those BW deadlifts.

Leg plyometrics aren't really necessary or useful until you have a very good base of strength. Squat heavy instead. If you don't have weights, learn to do pistols (even if you do have weights, they are an awesome exercise).

[Lachy]

waldo, nocturnis, this thread has been dead since April ...

[Pat G]

its not dead, just pining.