Routine help?

J

jaackdeth

New Member
Hello,
First I want to say hello, as this is my first post, and hope I'm in the right spot for this.

Ok, from the beginning. First off I am a Martial Arts Instructor. Been doing the Arts for a littleover 33 years, and am 53 years old.
A little over a year and a half ago, I became very ill with a ruptured intestine, surgery was needed and 50 staples later I come out of it. Almost died as the infection was extreme.

The meds they put me on made me gain weight fast, and within 4 months I was up to 315 lbs, and I am 6' 1" tall. I teach part-time at a fitness center near me, and have done alot of cardio to bring my weight down to 250, but I am not in shape anymore, as this bout of illness kicked my butt big time.

I still have my bad days, but I live with it. Ok moving on, sorry for long intro, but needed everyone to know where I have been.

Now I have never touched weights in my life, and working at that fitness center peaked my interest, as I have played with the leg machines and such just to get a burn.

What I am looking for "IF" possible, is a weightlifting routine that I can put some "size" back on my limbs and loose the fat all in one. Don't know if such I thing exsist, but that is what I am here for, to hear from the experts. I know I will ache, I don't care as I have to rehab myself this way, as I "feel the need"

What I have now are smaller arms and legs, although I did retain some of the muscle I put on with the Arts. You would never believe however how fast you can loose it!! There are some PT at the gym, but the routines I see them put people on and see no results kind-of scares me that they don't know as much as they think. I also don't know all the jargon so please keep it in mind. I need help big time.

Anyway I'll leave it at that for now, and if someone needs more info just ask. Great site and thanks for listening!!


P.S. I also have to watch what I eat, so that plays into the nutrition end of things. I take a multivitamin, and a few others helpers, but would like some suggestions on this area to. Thanks
 
Focus on compound movements, but keep the weight light for now. You should use a weight you can do for 15 reps and keep at that for a while so you can learn proper form.
The exercises I would recommend are:

Squats
Incline Bench
BB Bentover Rows
Military Press

Once you get stronger and more conditioned, you should add in some bodyweight exercises like dips and chins.

The important thing right now is to get the form down. Once you are able to easily do 15 reps with each of these exercises, start adding weight slowly to the bar, like maybe once every second or third workout. Keep it nice and slow.

I think after a few months, you should be able to handle a lot more. You should be able to build up a foundation of strength fairly quickly. But don't push too hard - you want perfect form on each lift. If any of the trainers at your gym can help you learn proper form for those lifts, then that would be great, but don't let them try to get you to do other lifts or other routines - most trainers don't know what is best for you. Some of them don't even know proper form for the core lifts.

Keep your calories at maintenance level right now. Since you are overweight and a noob to lifting, you should be able to lean out a bit while gaining some lean mass initially - don't expect that effect to continue forever though. Enjoy it while it lasts, but once you stop gaining strength and losing fat, you'll have to adjust your diet for your goals - fewer calories to lose more fat or else more calories to gain more muscle.

I'll be back in a bit to post links to the exercises I mentioned, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.
 
Full Squat

The squat is a good exercise, but you'll want someone to watch your form closely. This is one where bad form could hurt you. Good form isn't very hard to learn, as long as you have someone to watch you, or huge mirrors so you can watch yourself. Start off very light and go slow until you have it.

Barbell Bentover Row

For the Bentover Row, they suggest using an overhanded grip, but I believe it is better to use an underhanded grip and pull the bar to your navel.

Incline bench Press

They show a huge incline on the picture here. You want a much lower incline. Just put the bench at whatever is the first notch above flat. If you can't find one with a low enough incline, then just do flat bench. A higher incline isn't a good thing.

Military Press

Again, start light and go slow. This one can toughen up your shoulders considerably, but if you are reckless then it will do more harm than good.
 
That's solid advice from Totentanz. You can do a workout like he suggests every other day or three times a week.

You probably won't need to worry about doing a periodized routine like the basic HST one for a few months or more. Simply increasing the weight every few workouts as suggested should work for a while.

Down the road, when you can no longer increase the weights often and easily, you can consider using an HST routine.
 
That's a matter of opinion... and my opinion of him isn't very high. He might have some good stuff, but the guy talks a lot of stuff that is obviously wrong as well. Like when he said the nervous system recovers faster than the muscles do... that's just silly. This place here has more worthwhile knowledge than that guy.
Stay away from sites like t-nation and bodybuilding.com - they are only good for confusing people with crap information. Sure, sometimes they come out with something good but that is rare.

There isn't really anything magical about getting strong. Just lift heavy weights fairly often and make sure you eat enough food.
 
Well your right, it is very confusing! I read some of their articles, and everything they tell someone is so vague it's hard to follow. So that what you gave me I should do how often? And can I go to bigger weights as I want to add size to my arms and legs. I really feel stupid asking so much, but I've been told so much stuff it's hard to take it all in and make a routine that I can stick with, like I said I'm not afraid to lift, infact this is what I want to do, Just the know!! Thanks again
 
The thing about those places is that they are out there to make money. They have to keep putting out articles constantly. If they just gave you the truth, they'd only be able to write a couple articles before they would be totally tapped out. Waterbury's livelihood depends on his continued ability to keep churning stuff out, so he has to write a lot of stuff that he knows is crap to be able to continue putting out articles.


Anyway, back to the issue at hand. You can go to heavier weights once you have the form for those exercises mastered. Don't rush into it or you could hurt yourself. For now, lighter weights will be effective for you, since you are untrained. Try to work out three times a week. I wouldn't go everyday, that could be overkill right now.
For now, do two sets of each lift, using a weight that you can achieve 15 reps easily with. It if it is really easy, then next workout you can add 5-10 lbs or so... but don't focus so much on how much weight you are using right now, focus on form and feeling how to do the lift. You want these lifts to become easy for you so that when you eventually progress to heavier weights, it will be easy to maintain proper form.

Once you are confident you can do the lifts with proper form, just keep adding weight each workout. You could drop down to the 10 rep range, but keep it conservative, like I said above about 5-10 lbs added each workout should be sufficient. You could chart your progress on here so people here can keep advising you, but either way you will want to write down what weights you use each workout and how easy they were to do. That way when you feel you have built up a good level of conditioning, you will be able to plan out a full HST cycle with relative ease.
 
Listen to Totentanz. After a couple of months you can start to add in other exercises like he suggested. You'll build a base to then include conventional deadlifts and maybe powercleans.
 
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