[BigD66]

So, I have taken the plunge and gotten back into the gym. Last night I made a thread asking guys for opinions/critiquing the program I had set up, and I was helped out a lot by finnigan and C.Beebe, so thanks guys, and with their help I started my workout today.

Here is the thread I mentioned, where my program was helped out:
Critique for Me Please

I'll add in a bit about myself. I am 19 about 6'4" and weigh roughly 330 lbs (up from my 275 during my football days ) I have always been a big kid, by the time middle school started (grade 6) I was 6'2" and atleast 200 lbs, and had a lot of natural strength. Throughout high school, I lifted and worked out sporadically never really getting down a set system, until my senior year when I started playing football. I had never played before, figured I would have to work my ass off, and I did during the summer and the season and became one of the top OL in Alberta. Well 2 fractures of my ankle led me to give up on football (I still kick myself when I think about it) and I have now gone back to school getting my Political Science degree. I wanna lose as much weight as I can (my new years resolution was 70 lbs) and gain a muscular/athletic body that is aesthetically pleasing to myself and others. So thats me.

Thanks to the help of those two, I basically stole what C.Beebe told me to do, and I started up this program:

Day one:
Squat: 5 sets of 5 reps
Lunges: 4 sets/ 8 reps
Pullups: 3-5 sets of whatever you can do
Overhead Press (or Push Press): 4 sets/ 8 reps
Wide grip BORs 4/ 8 reps
Finisher: Russian Twists: 4 sets, 12 reps

Day two
Dynamic Rows: 4 sets/ 8 reps
Incline Bench Press: 5 sets/ 5 reps, 2 sets 12 reps
Glute-Ham raises: 4/ 8 reps
Hammer Curls: 4 sets/ 10 reps
Finisher: Saxon Side bends: 3 sets, 6 reps

Day Three:
Deadlift: 5 sets/ 5 reps
Cleans (or Clean and Jerk): 4 sets/ 8 reps
Front Squat (or Zercher): 4/ 8 reps
3 second crunches: 3 sets, 10 reps
Finisher: plank hold for time.

So, I will update this as I go, Day 1 which I just finished will be on my next post.

[BigD66]

Day 1:

So, after my morning classes here at RDC (Red Deer College FTW) I ate my lunch, and made my way to the gym at 12:30.

I started with a 10 minute jog on the treadmill, my pace was about a 16 minute mile, but I just wanted to warm up and get moving. I have been out of the gym for so long, and put on enough weight that this really sucked.

After my run, I went through about 10 minutes of stretching, getting everything. Then came the weights:

Day one:
Squat: 1 Set of 10 - Bar (45 lbs)
3 Sets of 8 - 115 lbs
1 Set of 5 - 185 lbs
Lunges: 1 Set of 10 - No Weight
3 Set of 8 - 20 lbs dumb bells
Pullups: Instead of pull ups (don't think I could do any, I did dips between two benches)
3 Sets of 5 - Body Weight
Overhead Press (or Push Press):
1 Set of 10 - 10 lbs dumb bell
3 Set of 8 - 25 lbs dumb bell
Wide grip BORs: 4 Sets - 70 lbs
Finisher: Russian Twists: 4 sets, 12 reps

Finishing up after the twists, I went and rode the bike for about 20 minutes, not too hard just building up a bit more of a sweat. Then I did 5 minutes of skipping, and finally ended with a nice 10 minute stretch that felt better than sex. So theres day 1, if anyone has some critiques please let me know, the weight is not that high because well it is my first day back in the gym after about a year off, so I wanted to gradually get back into it, this whole week will be a process of learning where I am at right now, and I will begin to really push myself next week and beyond.

[finnegan]

Good start.
If you feel sore tomorrow, do some light work for active recovery. I see you put some dumbell work in there. That's a good idea. Since your goals lean more toward weight loss and muscle gain, the more you can keep your body guessing the better. It'll have to react to different stimuli, and consequently burn more fat/ build more muscle to compensate.
Its good to ease into it, but remember this: Each set can be seen as a sprint, hence the suggestion for about 8 reps on your most active lifts, which usually equals out to about 20 seconds. So if you add up your sets at the end of the day, you'll have spent about 400 seconds sprinting at maximum effort, or the equivalent of, say, twenty 100 meter sprints.

[BigD66]

Day two up now, same basic schedule as day one, finished my morning classes ate my lunch and head up to the gym.

I started with a 10 minute ride on the bike (only cardio machine open) then went and skipped rope for about another 5-10 minutes. Followed that up with a stretch, and then hit the weights.

Day two
Dynamic Rows: 4 sets/ 8 reps - 65 Kg
Incline Bench Press: 5 sets/ 5 reps - 135 lbs
2 sets 12 reps - 105 lbs
Glute-Ham raises: 4/ 8 reps
Hammer Curls: 1 set 12 reps - 20 lb dumb bells
4 sets 10 reps - 35 lb dumb bells
Finisher: Saxon Side bends: 3 sets, 6 reps

After I was done with the weights I ran on the treadmill for another 5 minutes, followed up with another 5 minute skipping and then stretched.

Felt pretty good today, the glute-ham raises I have never done before so it was kinda akward at first but I slowly got them. I really think there is something special about the water here at school, cause my shower after my workout was the BEST shower I have ever had bar none, I don't know it felt awesome.....I know no one cares how my shower was but I don't care, this is my training log.

The only thing that is starting to concern me, is I feel mid-way through my work out the lazy tendencies I have start to come through and I really have to push myself to not cheat on reps. I don't know maybe it is cause I just started up again....

[finnegan]

Good work. Once you start to see the fat come off, you'll have no problem w/ motivation.
Just curious, any ideas about your one rep max on any of these lifts?

[BigD66]

Originally Posted by finnegan

Good work. Once you start to see the fat come off, you'll have no problem w/ motivation.
Just curious, any ideas about your one rep max on any of these lifts?

No idea right now, I have been out of it for so long that its killing me. I know in my senior year of high school I maxed out at 300 on bench, and thats all I really know

[BigD66]

So today was day #3, and I had actually been dreading this day for a while now, simply for the fact that two of the workouts (zerchers, and cleans) I had never done before and didn't feel 100% comfortable with them.

So my daily routine was the same, finished morning classes ate some lunch, then headed up to the gym. When I got to the gym I rode the bike for 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of skipping then I stretched out.

After stretching I went to my workout.

Day Three:
Deadlift: 1 set 8 reps - 30 Kg
5 sets 5 reps - 67.5 Kg
Cleans (or Clean and Jerk): Now this is where the let down came. I had never done these before and even through my research into the lift I wasn't 100% comfortable with doing them. To go along with this the gym I workout in has very limited space, especially for free weights. I tried to do one, but again did not feel comfortable doing them, so I gave up.........
Front Squat (or Zercher): 4 sets 8 reps - 135 lbs
3 second crunches: 3 sets, 10 reps
Finisher: plank hold for time.- 1 minute twice

O yeah and after the workout I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill at about a 10-12 minute mile pace, then stretched.

I don't know, they gym I workout at has very limited space as I said, but also not an abundance of experts who could help me with the cleans. So what you guys think I should do? Is there a good alternative for them? Or just man up and do them right?

[BigD66]

Originally Posted by BigD66

I don't know, they gym I workout at has very limited space as I said, but also not an abundance of experts who could help me with the cleans. So what you guys think I should do? Is there a good alternative for them? Or just man up and do them right?

So just wondering, if anyone has any advice?

[Bizarro]

You don't have to do cleans, you can do high pulls instead:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/.../HighPull.html

(except you don't have to pull it that high, it's more of a personal preference, some people pull it just up to their belly-buttons.

Some stuff on cleans by Dan John:

http://danjohn.org/bp.pdf
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...84568772967672

I'm far from having great form on my cleans, but a couple things I try and do that help:

-Use leg drive to kind of squat the bar up, keeping shoulder over the bar, as opposed to deadlifts where you kind of want them behind the bar.
-Initiate the lift by pulling the bar with arched back and moderate speed (for better leverages) and then when you're about to catch it (talking about power cleans) jump up and explode with the bar and whip your hands around the bar, making sure the elbows stay high (parallel to the floor)
-For full cleans: what I did that got me to be able to do them somewhat was to just focus on pulling the bar to a certain height (like my belly-button for example) and then once I got there I would dip down fast and front squat it up. I saw that if I tried to explode up it would screw me up and I wasn't able to dip down like I wanted to.
-You don't have to go straight into them with heavy weight. They are a bit of a technical lift so start by practicing with lighter weight until your form starts to look decent.

Good luck man, hopefully that will help you out a bit.

[finnegan]

^^^Good suggestions. Look for a wrestler. They may be able to help you with your cleans if it was part of their routine. I desperately need help on them too.
Explosive lifting is the key here, as it really gets the body working.