I was in the exact same boat as you about 2 years ago. I’m about 5’9/5’10 and i previously weighed about 210-215. i pretty much had the exact same workout plan. 3 day split, with cardio on all off days (except i ran instead of swimming).
I lost a lot of weight and got down to 165 fairly quick, but it was REALLY hard to lose weight after that. however, thats actually pretty common. I was eating pretty damn healthy, or at least as healthy as I was willing to without torturing myself to death. its just that the last few lbs are always a bitch to burn off.
I didn’t change anything at all except the way I did my cardio. Before I hit my difficulty weight, I was simply running for about 35 minutes for about 3 miles. I quit that, and on my 4 off days i’d have 2 HIIT days and 2 distance days. HIIT days I’d just do HIIT anywhere from 15-25mins, then the distance days i’d run as far as I could in 45 minutes in the morning an once again at night. Make sure you PROGRESS with every session
If you already do that, then I say just stick with your routine. The last few lbs are always difficult. As long as you’re weight training, then you’re building muscle. The more muscle = more calories burned without having to do extra work. Just gotta be patient and consistently progress.
^^tech master I feel you on the eating front. I forgot to mention even on my lifting days I still do a ten minute warm on the treadmill (walking briskly on a mid incline) and after either on the eliptical or treadmill do a fairly high intesity (for me) for about 15 to 20 mins. Also about the hiit training that’s where you go balls out for a min or so than a relaxed pace for about the same right?? If so I might be doing that in the pool I’ll do the breaststroke for 4 laps at a moderate pace than do 2 laps of freestyle balls out rinse repeat. Also good to hear ur success story…and the thread is fantastic
Let me ask you guys a random question: I was watching The Biggest Loser earlier because I was bored and waiting on the shield to come on and there is this guy on there that is like 6 foot tall and he weighs about 280 and he looks really fat. Not trying to be mean, I am getting to a point. I am 6’5-6" and I weigh 300 and I don’t look anywhere near as bad as this guy, I think his name was Brady or some shit. What’s up with that? Granted I do have quite a bit of muscle due to working out over the years but I am still flabby, just not that flabby and he works out constantly to stay on the show.
How fucking awesome is breaking your plateau?! In the last 2 weeks I have broken mine and im lifting heavier in almost every exercise!!! ROCK!!! I was stuck at around the same weights for a few months.
I attribute this to Muscle Milk and Starting to do more Forearms and Abs. Increasing my forearm strength helped me in training every muscle group as I expected. I wish I would have done forearms from the beginning.
Cardio is taboo @ my gym, nobody wants to do it and if they do its for ten minutes,or slow-mo walking. I met a guy who ONLY does, bench press and biceps, no cardio(or any other exersise). 'he now has the chest of Ronnie Coleman,arms like Greg Valentino, but has the legs of an anerexic,glutes like an ironing board and a gut like Fat Albert. :lol: i dont see how that is healty
hahaha. well i’ve been doing cardio and weightlifting while im at the gym. i try to get at least 30 minutes of cardio, but as soon as my shoulder started to hurt, i cut down on lifting and did an hour or cardio. Shoulder feels better now, but still a little hesistant when adding weight when benching.
i usually just warm up with cardio (easy jog etc.) than weight lift for 30 min - 1hour, than more cardio 30-1 hour. i only have time to go to the gym 1.5-2 hrs before they close.
oh yea, my shoulder is feeling better after not lifting for a couple weeks.
Not sure how severe your pain is, but I remember my right shoulder was strained during another exercise. When the day to bench came, I was pretty worried I would get owned. Luckily, keeping my elbows in as close as possible to my body (arms pressed up against ribcage, elbows pointing same way as my chin) helped direct a lot of work to my triceps.
If you try benching again, try a moderate amount of weight.
Its not just deadlifting its everything. the past couple of weeks i’ve just been able to do higher weight in pretty much every excercise all of the sudden.
There are definitely many ways to go about a workout program, and sticking with, lets say a 3-day split [Such as the one you have been on], for about 3 to 4 weeks, and then changing it up will help keep things fresh while your body continues to burn away calories.
If you stick with a 3-day split, I would go with what Soldier Zero recommended. And to add to that, you can also try:
Monday-Chest/Back [super-setting one chest exercise followed by a back exercise right away.] For example: Flat bench chest press for 12 to 15 reps and then superset it with one-arm bent-over dumbbell row.
Wednesday-Shoulders/Bicep/Triceps. [Here you can go with a giant set.] Example: Start with dumbbell shoulder press; and right when you finish your set, go ahead and perform standing alternate curls. And finally, you can follow it up with tricep dips on a bench or seated overhead dumbbell extensions.
Friday- Legs. Superset with legs. Starting off with either lying down leg curls or seated leg curls, and once youre done go ahead and begin a set of leg extensions.
I understand in a busy gym that super-setting or giant sets can be difficult due to certain machines being taken up, but there are still ways to go about it. Dumbbells can be all you need and a bench like the Shoulder/Bicep/Tricep example I gave above.
For your off days, when you go swimming, you can even add your ab routine at the end, just for something a little different.
Well, it depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want to become really strong, then this would be a terrible workout plan to follow. If you wanted to becoming realy big, this would also suck because it doesn’t have the 2 MOST IMPORTANT EXERCISES, squats and deadlift.
Plus supersetting isn’t that great for bulking, because you can’t perform at what you want to do. I know you would still be doing high reps, but you’d be doing it at like 55% instead of 65-70%, so you wouldn’t be getting as much benefit.
You must have missed the part where I said examples of what a super-set was, since thats what I was doing. Had he asked for a routine then I would have added squats and a few other exercises, and as you can see when it came to legs I only mentioned to perform Leg curls w/ Leg Extensions and nothing else, so I wasnt missing squats or deadlifts because there wasnt a full list.
Also, read the guy’s question because he said what he wanted.
