Workout Evaluation (I'm New and need to make sure I'm doing it right)

ibscot740232016

Hello!,

I lift every other day. Monday Wednesday Friday.

Male
41 years old
6' tall
starting weight 335 lbs
current weight 314 lbs

Routine:
Monday : leg press 3 sets, Bench Press 3 sets, Lat pulldowns 2 sets 25, any push motion with a lighter weight chest press, overhead press etc. 50 reps (2 sets 25

This weight routine usually exhausts me and when I'm finished I have nothing left in the tank when done. I have seen progression in strength and weight has gone up slightly each week.

On in-between days when not lifting I either walk at a 3 degree incline for 30 min or I do a HIIT workout for 4 rounds on a bike.

For those that are experienced, does this look like enough for building muscle etc. I kinda hit everything with it (I think) Would like to know of any recommendations. Thank you very much!! -- SB

Retroguy2000

You've got the basics covered there, with quads, press, overhead press and a row. It's fine. However, you should probably consider something like Starting Strength.

https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs

You can sub barbell row for power clean, and at your weight you'll probably need to sub the barbell row for the chin-ups.

Once you switch to more hypertrophy focused, maybe six+ months from now, you'll want 10+ working sets per week of each body part.

Until then, honestly your focus should be weight loss for the next 6-12 months. Yes, do the weights, keep what muscle you have as best you can while dropping pounds, and if you can make progression there in weight and volume that's great, but don't exhaust yourself with the weights. Get more cardio in like walking/hiking/cycling which will burn a lot of calories. Trying to add muscle at your current level while you presumably want to drop a lot more pounds is not a good idea, and you should manage your expectations there.

williamsonmj1

You can definitely make some improvements. If you can, you should learn to squat and do that as your basic lower body movement. You can add leg presses later. The lat pulldown is okay but as the name suggests it mainly focuses on the lats. If you can do some rowing movements then you can target the whole back including the lats- especially if you do some where you are pulling a bit higher (pulling the bar to your chest) and some where you are pulling a bit lower (pulling to your abdomen).

Regarding the exhaustion, you might have started off too agressive. A lot of beginner programs have you work up from very light weights and add a tiny bit every time. Your 'work capacity' increases steadily and it's some time before you actually find your sessions exhausting. And in general a lot or even most of your sessions shouldn't be exhausting. If possible you want to find a way to do a tiny bit more each time- you will get bigger and stronger but usually you won't be exhausted.

Probably the best thing that you can do is to get on a beginners' program that was designed by experts. People will recommend different programs- the person above mentioned Starting Strength. I personally don't recommend Starting Strength and prefer Greyskull LP for beginners. But the fact is that it won't make much difference. Any of the programs designed by experts will be much, much better than any program designed by a non-expert and will all get you to roughly the same place- a lot stronger, a bit bigger, some foundation of lifting technique. If you pick one and do it for 3-6 months you will be transformed. Then you should pick one of the intermediate programs and do that for 6 months. You can basically just go on these programs for years, if not forever. You have to be really strong to actually need anything customized.

My recommendation to people is to get the Boostcamp app. It's an app for logging weights, but it also comes pre-programmed with loads of beginner and intermediate programs, even some that are suitable for advanced intermediates. It has strength programs and more bodybuilding-type programs. Looking through the list of programs, some options for your first program would include:

• Greyskull LP
• Starting Strength
• Greg Nuckols Beginners' Program
• r/Fitness beginner basic lifting routine

If you are more interested in getting muscular than strong, there are also some beginners' hypertrophy/bodybuilding programs in there. The app actually asks you a bunch of questions to help you find a suitable program.

You absolutely don't need this app to follow these programs, the information is all there for free on the web! But the app does make it nice and easy.

Retroguy2000

I don't have an affinity for Starting Strength, since I have no personal experience of it. When I restarted my lifting journey a few years ago I only had db's, also I don't think I had heard of it back then either. It seemed similar enough to the exercises OP is already doing I thought it worth mentioning as an option.

And agreed, squat > leg press. Also imo barbell row > lat pulldown. And if you have the chance to do two back exercises, then do a horizontal row like barbell or t-bar row, plus a vertical one like pullups or lat pulldowns.

ibscot740232016

Thanks guys! Yea, I switched up the lat pulldowns and added some rowing motions toward belly area etc. along with them, cutting lat pulldown reps in half. I stopped doing squat temporarily because of a lower back strain I had not too long ago. I'll be going back to squatting again soon. I have taken both of your advice and applied some of it and we'll see how it goes.

tomcustombuilder

Your program is ok, pretty basic however Fatloss and not muscle gain should be your priority. At your weight if you aren’t losing 2 lbs a week you need to lower your weekly calorie amount.