boilermaker

Some of you may have seen my initial posts on the forums here. Since then, I've done a tremendous amount of reading on this forum and have been true to my program so far. I decided to start this journal to get feedback on my program and make myself accountable at the same time.

I'm 195 lbs. @ 5'-10" and have never trained "on a program" before. Two weeks ago I was a heavy drinker and had a terrible diet. I've given up the alcohol for good and started eating properly. My first goal is to cut my weight down to 172 lbs. which is the weight I feel most comfortable with.

My diet is fairly consistent now. I have been eating about 5 to 6 times a day. On Sunday, I bought a bag of 15 bean soup mix and cooked the whole bag of beans, throwing out the seasoning packet that came with it. I also cooded up a box of brown rice. This all went into tupperware containers in about 3/4 to 1 cup increments. I also bought chicken breast, salmon fillet, tuna in water, natural peanut butter, yogurt, oats, cottage cheese and whey protein mix. It goes down something like this:

Meal 1: cup of oats, 1/2 cup of blueberries, slice of whole wheat bread with PB.

Meal 2: Protein shake consisting of 5 oz. skim milk, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 bananna, 1 scoop whey, 1/2 tbs. PB.

Meal 3: rice/beans with chiken/tuna/salmon, Garden salad with veggies and vinegar and oil dressing

meal 4: yogurt/cottage cheese with berries and raw veggies

meal 5: rice/beans with chiken/tuna/salmon, Garden salad with veggies and vinegar and oil dressing

Workout

Meal 6: Protein shake in meal 2

With slight variations here and there, fitday tells me that I'm consuming about 2000-2500 calories with a breakdown of around 25% fat, 40% carbs and 35% protein. Fitday estimates I burn about 3300 cals with my lifestyle.

My workout regimen involves 1 day of upper body and one day of lower body seperated by 1 day.

Monday: Upper Body

3 sets x 8 reps of: flat bench, straight arm pulldowns, chest flye, seated db presses, curls, seated overhead tricep extensions, lat pulldowns

Tuesday: 2 miles on treadmill

Wednesday: Lower Body

3 sets x 8 reps of: leg press, calf raises, hamstring curls, quad extensions, db lunges

Thursday: 2 miles on treadmill

Friday: Repeat Monday

Saturday: 2 miles on treadmill

Sunday: Rest

Soon, I'd like to break this down to 1 day arms, 1 day chest and back, 1 day legs and cardio on the days between.

Any advice or critique would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Boilermaker

boilermaker

Stuck to diet as written.

Bench: 2 x 8 setting 5; 1 x 7 setting 7

Straight Arm Pulldowns: 2 x 8 setting 3; 1 x 6 setting 3

Chest Flye: 3 x 8 setting 3

Seated Dumbell Presses: 3 x 8, 25 lb. DB

DB Curls: 3 x 8, 25 lb. DB

Seated Overhead Tri-Extensions: 3 x 8, 15 lb. DB

Lat Pulldowns: 3 x 8, setting 4

I know weights are small, but just starting out.

Any comments or advice on my program are appreciated.

thanks,

Boilermaker

boilermaker

Stuck to diet today. Did 25 minutes on the treadmill. My outer calves burn like heck on that thing. Is that normal for a beginner? Does it go away with repitition? It really limits how long I can go before I'm exhausted from a cardio standpoint.

Comments?

Emma-Leigh

Hey there!

Woo hoo - all excellent things to do! Well done! You have worked it out - getting things 'organised' early means that you can't do wrong! It is all there for you to just grab when you need it!

Excellent - but you need to add some protein to this meal. What about a scoop of whey or some cottage cheese? Some scrambled egg whites would also be fine.

Great.



Excellent! You could add some healthy fats here - what about some walnuts?

Once again - excellent.

Great! My only suggestion is to take out the PB from this shake - after your workout you want to leave out the fat.


I would also suggest you get some 'fish oil capsules' (not cod liver oil) and start with 6g a day (which will add 6g of fats to your day). These are essential fats and very helpful for you when trying to lose weight.

That looks like an excellent start - I think that 2300-2500 would be a good calorie level to start with for now just to see how you respond. Just try to start higher first - as this means you can always decrease things if you get 'stuck'.

If you add some fats to your cottage cheese (eg: 0.5 oz walnuts) and some protein to your breakfast (eg: 0.5 cups cottage cheese and 4 scrambled egg whites) then this will add a couple of hundred cals and would be enough to keep you towards the higher end of the calorie range.

Excellent start! And I think that these training days are good to start with - you have only been doing this for a little while so you should do what you are comfortable with until you get used to things - then progress from there. After you are started, you should then look into more complex/ compound movements such as squats and deadlifts - as these will give you many anabolic advantages over and above some of the movements you are doing now.

This is not always needed - sometimes seperating your body into soo many little 'bits' is actually less helpful in the long run... You should do some reading both on this forum (in the training section) and on as many other websites as you can - so you can get a good base information on training and what can and doesn't work.


Keep it up! You have made a great start!


ps: in terms of your calves on the treadmill... a few things:
1. were you wearing GOOD training shoes?
2. were you on an incline?
3. was it the front or the back of your calves?

boilermaker

Followed my diet as outlined in the beginning, incorporating changes suggested by Emma.

1) added protein (4 egg whites) to breakfast.

2) cut peanut butter from post workout shake (natty peanut butter is messy as heck anyway)

3) I'm already taking a multi-vitamin and fish oil pills, just didn't mention it before.

Lower Body:

Leg Press: 2 x 8, setting 11; 1 x 12 setting 13 (stack)

Calf Extensions: 2 x 8, setting 9, 1 x 12 setting 9

Quad Extension: 2 x 8, setting 6; 1 x 6 setting 6 (single leg lifts)

Hamstring Curls: 2 x 8, setting 2, 1 x 8 setting 3 (single leg lifts)

Dumbell Lunges: 3 x 8, 25# each hand. A little unstable here in my first attemp at them.

Emma: Thanks again for the inputs. To answer your questions:

1) I think they are good training shoes. A decent pair of Reeboks. Certainly not my "lawn mowers".

2) The lowest incline setting on the treadmill is 1.5, which is very slightly uphill.

3) I looked up the muscle group that is burning and it seems to be the muscles of the anterior compartment.

Emma-Leigh

Great.

How old are the shoes?
Were they fitted properly or did you just pick them up at sports store?

Anything older than about 6mnths you any might want to think about getting something newer. Also, if they were not specifically fitted (even by a trained person in a store) then they might not be right for your foot shape - so this might be the reason.

Ok - do you know if it is worse when you are doing more incline work?

Also - how quickly did you work up to doing this treadmill stuff? Have you done it before?

And are you stretching your calves before/afterwards?

Right... thought that this would be the case.... It sounds like it might be something like medial tibial stress syndrome.... otherwise known as "shin splints"...

You can read about it here and here and see if it sounds like what you have.

I would not recommend getting orthotics (excessive arch support often does much more damage than good) but I would recommend you get new shoes if the ones you have are old and that you make sure they are correctly fitted to your food.

You should also remember to stretch your calves regularly and try not to do too much too soon - you might want to start on the lowest gradient and walk a little slower (but for a little longer time). You could also do a different form of cardio such as the bike or elliptical machine until your calves start to feel better.

boilermaker

Eating schedule was a little off today because of an abnormal work schedule

Meals:

Meal 1: Beans, Tuna, Onions, Mushrooms

Work Out

Meal 2: Scoop of Protein Whey, 12 oz. Skim Milk, Two Slices of WW Bread

Meal 3: Brown Rice, Grilled Salmon, Mixed Veggies, Olive Oil

Meal 4 will be: Yogurt, Blueberries, Salad

Meal 5 will be: Cottage Cheese with NPB

Workout:

20 minutes walking on treadmill with two 1:30 sprint intervals

Legs are sore today, which I attribute to the Lunges. They weren't sore after my last leg workout.

The shoes are only a couple of months old and they were not fitted.

I didn't do any extra incline work in my previous sessions, however, I noticed today that the screw in feet that support the back end of the treadmill off the floor were missing! This caused the incline to be greater on the machine since the back end was resting on the carpet (no the belt wasn't rubbing, I'm not that dumb). They must have fallen off when we moved from Missouri to Michigan a year ago. Luckily I'm an engineer so I just put two 2.5 lb. dumbells under the end and that made it level. This seemed to solve everything as I made it through the session without any pain or burning and even sprinted for a few minutes.

I haven't been on a treadmill in about 3 years. I just jumped on. I do some light stretching beforehand.

I looked it up, but that's not it. It's more of a stiffness/butn around and above my ankel bone. Not really near my Tibia. I think it was just a problem of walking uphill all the time.

boilermaker

Today wasn't a perfect diet day as I was on the road for work and didn't get up early enough to get my stuff together.

Meal 1: Protein Shake - Skim Milk, Ice, Oats, Nat. Peanut Butter, Bananna, 1 Scoop Whey Protein

Meal 2: Subway (sorry Emma) 12" turkey breast on whole wheat w/lettuce, tomato, onion, bananna peppers, olive oil and vinegar

Meal 3: Protein Shake - Same as above

Meal 4: Brown Rice, Vegetables, Tuna, Olive Oil, Ground Pepper

Meal 5 will be: FF Yogurt, Blueberries, Vegetable Pita (whole wheat)

Meal 6 will be: Cottage Cheese, NPB

Also: 3 Fish Oil Pills, Multi Vitamin

Workout: No workout today. My back is really sore between my shoulder blades when I arch or bow my back. Has been getting sorer for about a week now. Seems worse after treadmill days. I think I'll give it a rest for the weekend and resume workout on Monday.

Need to buckle down on Diet Saturday and Sunday. I'll be heading to Las Vegas for work Mon.-Wed.

boilermaker

Here are my current stats and measurements:
Age: 34
Height: 5'-10"
Weight: 189#

Neck: 17"
Chest: 43 1/4"
Bicep: 14 1/4"
Waist: 40 1/8"
Thighs: 22"

Body Fat: 18% (Taken 3 times)

Sad as it is, those are the numbers I am hoping to IMPROVE upon.

boilermaker

Cardio: Rest
Weights: Rest

Diet:

Meal 1: Oatmeal, Blueberries, Whey Protein, Skim Milk
Meal 2: Shake-5 oz. skim milk, 1 scoop whey protein, 1/2 bananna, 1/2 cup
oatmeal
Meal 3: See shake above
Meal 4: 10 oz. Ribeye, large salad, green beans, slice rye bread
meal 5: large salad w/veggies and 1/2 avacado
meal 6: cottage cheese, NPB, Blueberries

Played in golf outing today. Resting because of sore back.

Purdue Power

Glad to see a Boilermaker here. Are you an alumnus or student?

5'8 1/2, 225lbs

Your M1T Info Source

Dream as though you'll live forever,
Live each day like it's you last.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Tomorrow is never promised.

Emma-Leigh

Wow - these look a lot better than you were making out! 18% is not too bad at all...

And just give it a few months of training and eating consistantly and I am sure that this will plummet - especially because you are so new to it all!

Keep it up!

I hope your back is feeling better soon. A little muscle soreness is good, lots of pain is not!

boilermaker

I graduated in '95. Back in the Alstott days of 3-8 or 2-9. Tiller is great, but that was a tough one today. What are you studying?

boilermaker

Emma, thanks but there is a ways to go. I'm headed to Las Vegas monday thru Wednesday, so eating properly will be more difficult. Also, the ultimate test of sobriety. My hotel supposedly has a great gym, which I'm looking forward to spending some time in because I'm strongly considering joining one here. Got a tour of my local gym Friday and all the different exercise options, along with some guidance and spotters is appealing to me.

My middle back has been a little sore since I started this a couple weeks ago. I may have tweaked something in there. It's not the good kind of pain, but it isn't all that unberable either. Trying to give it a few days off to see if it helps. I'm sure golfing today doesn't really help either.

boilermaker

Off to Las Vegas tomorrow for work, so no more journal entries until Wednesday night unless I can get my hands on a computer out there.

Edit to 9/23 measurements: Shoulders - 49"

Cardio: Rest (other than lots of yardwork)
Weights: Rest

Back is slowly feeling better

Diet:

Meal 1: 5 oz skim milk, 1/2 bananna, scoop of whey protein, 1 tbs. NPB, 1/2 cup oats

Meal 2: cup of nf yogurt, 1/2 cup blueberries, 2 tbs peanut butter, slice ww bread

Meal 3: Baked chicken breast, baked eggplant, salad with veggies and tomatoes, brown rice

Meal 4: 5 oz. skim milk, 1/2 bananna, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup oats, scoop whey protein powder

Meal 5: Can of tuna, capers, oilive oil, ww pita, lettuce, tomato

goandykid

Speaking of Boilermakers getting cut down...did you see the game Saturday? I'm not off much better...I'm a michigan fan

You guys are going to lose. You might as well just cheer for me, because Boston isn’t winning in Boston for the season opener. I’m sorry. " - Gilbert Arenas

boilermaker

Yes, that sucked. I live in Michigan and went to Purdue

Purdue Power

Ya, that was a tough loss against Minn.
I am a Public Relations undergrad and going to be starting a Health & Fitness Masters program.

5'8 1/2, 225lbs

Your M1T Info Source

Dream as though you'll live forever,
Live each day like it's you last.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Tomorrow is never promised.

Emma-Leigh

Your diet is looking wonderful Steve! Keep it up! And really, don't sweat a few days away - in the grand scheme of things (and your goals over the next few months/years) it is not going to make a difference. Just do as best you can (watch your portion sizes and aim to make sensible choices - there are always chicken or fish and vegetable options, and there is usually fresh fruit and skim milk and other things available too).

In terms of looking at gyms - you should certainly consider joining one. Having more equipment (even if it just means access to a better range of DBs and BBs) makes all the difference!

And about your back - have you thought about seeing a physiotherapist about it? If it is something more serious than just a little 'ache' then you might want to get it seen to.

Anyway - Hope you have fun in Las Vegas!

TJ Cline

Good luck with your goals.

boilermaker

Was forced to bring my computer to Vegas because I had some work to finish up. So, I guess I might as well make a journal entry.

Cardio: Miles of walking around in Las Vegas, but no serious work
Weights: None

Diet:

Meal 1: Scrambled Eggs and Pico De Gailo? diced potatoes (fried)

Meal 2: Large Salad, lots of boiled eggs, broccoli, onion, pasta salad, italian dressing

Meal 3: Berry Smoothie, no sugar added, 30g carbs, 1g protein

Meal 4: Breaded Cod Fillet, German Potato Salad, Pretzel w/mustard, bar cheese spread. Not sure if cod was baked or fried, but removed breading before eating.

Meal 5: FF Yogurt Cup with Raspberries and Granola.

Damn hotel wants $18 a day to use fitness room and spa. No thanks.

Emma: Thanks for dropping by. Trying to make sensible choices here, but it is Sin City. No alcohol though. I'm standing by that one.

Note: Drunk people look so riddiculous when you are around them and sober.

Foreman:Thanks for the support!

boilermaker

Good for you. I didn't know Purdue offered that program. I graduated from the School of Agricultural Engineering. Good luck to you.

boilermaker

I'm here in Las Vegas for day 2 of my convention. I fly out at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow and I have to tell you that I didn't eat too poorly today, but I'm probably catabolic because of it.

Cardio: Must have walked a couple/three miles again today overall but nothin strenuous. Everything is just so far apart here.

Weights: None (not paying $18 a day)
Diet:

Meal 1: "california omlet" 3 eggs, olives, tomato, swiss cheese, onion, half an avacaldo

Meal 2: "Shrimp Cocktail" about 1 cup of shrimp, lettuce, cocktail sauce (lots of horseradish"

Meal 3: Berry Smoothie. Mixed Berries, no sugar, Carbs 30g, Protein 1g

Meal 4: Shrimp Cocktail again

Notes: My back is feeling much better today. Guess the rest did it some good. I will work my upper body when I get home tomorrow.

Congratulations to self: I have not had an ounce of alcoholic beverage while I've been here. I'm going to bed soon, so the chance of a breakdown is gone!

While this may seem trivial to some, it is a huge benchmark in the life of someone like myself who is an alcoholic. As Emma would say, Go Me

Emma-Leigh

It doesn't look too bad! Probably not as much protein as you needed but you had a good breakfast and the two cups of shrimp would have given you some good protein too... although I am not sure about that cocktail sauce!

Good to hear that your back is feeling better too! A rest can sometimes do you the world of good.