Help me plan my workout schedule

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

So 2 weeks into the challenge I've been doing pretty good with getting to the gym my goal number of 4 times, but I want to push it up to 6 to really try to get working on my fitness. Below I'm going to go over my weekly schedule and the workouts I want to get in, and hopefully you guys can help me figure out what days to do what.

Workouts (I'd to do each twice a week):

1. Stronglifts 5x5- This one is the most important to me. Takes me 1-1.5 hours.

2. Running Intervals- I want to work my way up to tabata, which right now is 20-30 minutes of interval training until I feel I'm ready. I'm doing a 10 mile run in may that I need to train for, and I think these are a very good option.

3. Jogging- There's a few good things here. I can jog on rest days because its low intensity and the max distance i do is 3 miles. Also, I can do it in the gym or at home.

4. Auxiliary workouts- Other than my stronglifts, I want to work on my pull ups and on my lower back strength. I try to do auxiliaries at the end of my stronglifts days, but I'm usually gassed and can't manage them, so I want to try to tack them onto the end of jogging or running interval days.

My schedule looks like this:

Monday- Normal work day, get to the gym around 5:15.

Tuesday- Wife has grad class til 6-7 then joins me at the gym, this will be able to be a longer workout day for me since I have a full 1-1.5 hours before she gets there for her workout, so I'll probably be there for at least 2 hours. A good stronglifts day.

Wednesday- Normal work day, get to the gym around 5:15.

Thursday- Like Tuesday, but we switch, I have grad class and go to the gym after while she's been there for awhile. This is a shorter workout day for me and I want to keep it to 30-45 minutes. A bad stronglifts day.

Friday- We have every other Friday off, so sometimes this can be a longer day. On weeks we don't have off, we are sometimes trying to drive back home (2 hours to Philly) that night, so we try to keep the workout shorter. We can get to the gym every Friday though.

Saturday- Sometimes we're where we live, sometimes we're back in Philly and don't have access to a gym. Seems like a good jogging day to me.

Sunday- Same as Saturday

So I'm thinking of something like the following:

Monday- Jogging

Tuesday- Stronglifts

Wednesday- Intervals+auxiliary

Thursday- Jogging

Friday- Stronglifts

Saturday- Intervals

Sunday- Jogging

The only thing I need the gym for are stronglifts and auxiliaries, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to fit another auxiliary in somewhere. I can't do them two days in a row as those muscles need to recover. Any help with that or any other ideas to make the workout better would be a huge help. I'll be using whatever we come up with for the rest of the challenge.

[ETFnerd]

did you get the stamp of approval from your wife? that's always step one... even if she says yes, i have to make sure she means it... usually she gets frustrated if you're never around unless she's out there with you...

[bigm141414]

I'd take out either a jogging or interval day so you can rest. A rest day is just as important as acutal activity. For rest days you can work on stretching/mobility type stuff to keep limber. All that jogging is going to affect your SL5x5 performance down the road.

As it is now I'd say make Thursday a rest/mobility day.

/two cents

[ETFnerd]

the other thing is that when you're lifting legs, intervals and jogging may mess with your rest... gotta plan that carefully because you want good recovery after exhausting your largest muscle group with lifting...

[ETFnerd]

This is a workout jd was discussing in another thread... in case you are looking for more challenging...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm

[weirdquark]

I saw a review of Stronglifts which included planks on A workout days and pullups on B workout days. Three sets of each-- I forget what the plank times are but I do 60s front, 30s each side, and pullups are three sets to failure. (In my case, it's less than five. I figure once I can do 10+ I should start adding weight rather than trying to add even more reps.)

I do pullups first-- that way my pullups are done fresh, they don't really affect my squats, and I have enough time to rest my arms before having to do OHP and deadlifts. So if you're trying to get in more pullup practice, I'd throw them in at the beginning of your Stronglift workouts instead of the end.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

did you get the stamp of approval from your wife? that's always step one... even if she says yes, i have to make sure she means it... usually she gets frustrated if you're never around unless she's out there with you...

I got her started on stronglifts a month ago and shes currently plowing through New Rules of Lifting for Women that I got her for Christmas, so she's right there with me.

I'd take out either a jogging or interval day so you can rest. A rest day is just as important as acutal activity. For rest days you can work on stretching/mobility type stuff to keep limber. All that jogging is going to affect your SL5x5 performance down the road.

I'll probably only do 1-2 of those a week, they're optional rest/jog days. I've been calling them rest days up until this post where I rest but jog if I'm feeling good with no soreness. I've experimented with the jogging and as long as I only do 20-30 minutes at a time at a pace where I could hold a conversation, it doesn't really affect my lift recovery. This is especially true now since I increased from 1 day between lifting to 2. But if I am sore and not getting proper recovery, jogging days are the first thing I drop. Right now running is the focus for this 10 miler in May, but after that it's back to lifting 3 times a week, and I won't be jogging on the 1 rest day between them.

I saw a review of Stronglifts which included planks on A workout days and pullups on B workout days. Three sets of each-- I forget what the plank times are but I do 60s front, 30s each side, and pullups are three sets to failure. (In my case, it's less than five. I figure once I can do 10+ I should start adding weight rather than trying to add even more reps.)

I do pullups first-- that way my pullups are done fresh, they don't really affect my squats, and I have enough time to rest my arms before having to do OHP and deadlifts. So if you're trying to get in more pullup practice, I'd throw them in at the beginning of your Stronglift workouts instead of the end.

I like this idea and considered it, but was too afraid of screwing up my OHP. Seeing that it works for you, I may try it today (deadlift day). As for planks, I'm really starting to focus on a hard core squeeze during the squats and actually have sore abs the next day, so I think they're getting plenty of work.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

This is a workout jd was discussing in another thread... in case you are looking for more challenging...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/luis13.htm

This is for bulking, which I will want to do once I drop all the fat that's currently on me. I'm storing it away for use 6-12 months from now.

[ETFnerd]

well if you're cutting, all the programs I've seen are done at much higher reps (10-25)... you're still getting to failure but at 50-60% of RM... high weight/low reps is more associated with bulking... since you're doing 5x5...

also they tend to be on low fat diets...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/scott-dorn-cutting-program.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kizzito-cutting-program.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sean-hardge-cutting-program.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kelechi-opara-cutting-program.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ryan-hughes-cutting-program.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/brian-stann-cutting-program.html

Steve cook is the only one who does low rep... but only for variety as he mixes it up with high rep...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/steve-cook-cutting-program.html

they're usually training for BB competition, but these guys know how to lower BF% & BW (for the fighters) efficiently when they need to as they have plenty of experience.

[67alecto]

This is for bulking, which I will want to do once I drop all the fat that's currently on me.

If your goal is weight loss, this will be a big factor of what your workout plan can and should be. If you are going to be running a calorie deficit, you are going to hit a wall. How quickly you hit will be determined by how intense you are getting.

I hit mine about a month after starting a lifting 3x a week, intense cardio 3x a week schedule. I was taking longer to recover, I stopped seeing performance gains, and I was tired. I increased my calories and was able to resume my course. Over the next few months, I was tweaking my calorie intake to adjust.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

My goal is to get stronger, faster, and have more endurance, but I also want to lose weight and fit into cloths instead of having to buy big boy stuff.

Once I'm done the 36 workouts of stronglifts, maybe I will take a break and go higher reps to cut the fat, then go back to strength building. I don't want to be a program jumper, so I want to finish the initial phases of stronglifts before I try something more suited to my short term goals. Also, I just started running again, so that should help. We'll see, got down to 235 last time before I hit a wall.

[weirdquark]

I like this idea and considered it, but was too afraid of screwing up my OHP. Seeing that it works for you, I may try it today (deadlift day). As for planks, I'm really starting to focus on a hard core squeeze during the squats and actually have sore abs the next day, so I think they're getting plenty of work.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been having trouble with my OHP lately, but I'm female and am trying to press a bit over half my body weight, which according to the strength standards is supposed to be my 1RM at an intermediate (what they think I can do after ~2 years training; I haven't been lifting for one yet) lifting level, so I'm pretty okay with managing to do one set of five but not five sets of five at this point. So it may be affecting my OHP, but I'm working at a pretty high percentage of my 1RM, so I figure I'd be having trouble with OHP even without the pullups.

[NukeTheUnicorns]

One thing I recommend is doing sprint work on the same days you do SL, after you do the SL workout. Your sprints won't be as fast as humanly possible, but doing this will teach your body to work hard when fatigued, and will improve your anaerobic and aerobic capacity.

[ETFnerd]

One thing I recommend is doing sprint work on the same days you do SL, after you do the SL workout. Your sprints won't be as fast as humanly possible, but doing this will teach your body to work hard when fatigued, and will improve your anaerobic and aerobic capacity.

sounds peachy... i wouldn't want to be in your little league team...

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been having trouble with my OHP lately, but I'm female and am trying to press a bit over half my body weight, which according to the strength standards is supposed to be my 1RM at an intermediate (what they think I can do after ~2 years training; I haven't been lifting for one yet) lifting level, so I'm pretty okay with managing to do one set of five but not five sets of five at this point. So it may be affecting my OHP, but I'm working at a pretty high percentage of my 1RM, so I figure I'd be having trouble with OHP even without the pullups.

Check out my blog from Monday I think, the week 1 wrap up. It has my progression charted in it and I'm pretty much in the same place with the OHP. 1/2 bodyweight after 6 months of weight training (only 2 with free weights). I'll try it today and see if it affects anything.

One thing I recommend is doing sprint work on the same days you do SL, after you do the SL workout. Your sprints won't be as fast as humanly possible, but doing this will teach your body to work hard when fatigued, and will improve your anaerobic and aerobic capacity.

This is what tabatas are designed to do and the major reason I want to do them. They have been shown to improve both capacities a good amount.