Thread: My Uncle

This is what I came up with for his beginner routine.
In about a month I'll lower the reps to 5-8 for him.
Day 1- Upper
Day 2- Lower
Day 3- Off
Day 4- Upper
Day 5- Lower
Day 6- Off
Day 7- Off

Lower- 3x10-15 @ 90 seconds R.I
BB Full Squat
BB Straight-Back Straight-Leg Deadlift
Weighted Crunches

Upper- 3x10-15 @ 90 seconds R.I
BB Incline Bench Press
BB/DB Bent-over Row
BB Military Press
Pull-up

by the sound of it, it seems like your uncle is really really deconditioned. Your program will pretty much kill him.

He needs to (a) establish a base and (b) get onto a healthier lifestyle.

I would start him on a program like this:

day1- total body
day2- steady state cardio
day3- off
day4- total body
day5- steady state cardio
day6- off
day7- off

after a few weeks of that, increase the weightlifting to total body three times a week and try and turn one of the cardio days into some sort of interval work. allow him to rest enough to get his heart rate down to 60% of his precieved max. You can test to find his aerobic threshold with a bike and a talk test. have him ride and every couple minutes increase the intensity. keep talking to him. the point at which he cannot maintain a conversation and is breathing heavy stop the test and guestimate that to be around 80-85% of his max heart rate. work from there.

some more info-
well he rides his bike to and from work 5 days a week(about a ten minute ride) he doesn't look that fat(his gut is big from drinking beer, but his hips are small), I was very surprised that he was 215, just so you can estimate his strength at 215 5ft 11, he can do 12 pushups in good form, his biceps are pretty big, but he has a little fat on him. What im getting to is maybe most of that weight is muscle??

Originally Posted by mike456

some more info-
well he rides his bike to and from work 5 days a week(about a ten minute ride) he doesn't look that fat(his gut is big from drinking beer, but his hips are small), I was very surprised that he was 215, just so you can estimate his strength at 215 5ft 11, he can do 12 pushups in good form, his biceps are pretty big, but he has a little fat on him. What im getting to is maybe most of that weight is muscle??

With a 42" waist @ 5'11" 215 lbs, I'm guessing there is very little muscle on him. I'm barely 5'10" with a 34'' waist and I weigh 215 lbs.

I got some pics of him, how do I get it on here?

here they are

teh guy sounds like a typical syndrome X'er. Small, skinny fat all around, bit gut, lots of viserfcal adipose tissue. Drinks, smokes, probably eats like shit. he is a friggin' time bomb if you asked me. He needs to begin getting conditioning going imediatly.

Riding to work for 10min is shit because (a) if he does it everyday he has adapted to the stress of riding 10 min and needs something more challenging to make progress and (b) I am sure it isn't like those 10min are an all out sprint to the finish. He probably smokes a cigarette and has a cup of coffee on his leasure ride over.

Tell Uncle Rico that it is time to start getting his health in order.

Originally Posted by P-funk

teh guy sounds like a typical syndrome X'er. Small, skinny fat all around, bit gut, lots of viserfcal adipose tissue. Drinks, smokes, probably eats like shit. he is a friggin' time bomb if you asked me. He needs to begin getting conditioning going imediatly.

Riding to work for 10min is shit because (a) if he does it everyday he has adapted to the stress of riding 10 min and needs something more challenging to make progress and (b) I am sure it isn't like those 10min are an all out sprint to the finish. He probably smokes a cigarette and has a cup of coffee on his leasure ride over.

Tell Uncle Rico that it is time to start getting his health in order.

lololol

did you see the pics-pfunk?

Originally Posted by mike456

did you see the pics-pfunk?

I don't care about the pictures. Pictures don't tell a story. You can be rail thin and still have heart problems. Some people genetically might not get fat. That is the worst because at least people who get fat KNOW that something is not right or that they are in danger. Those that can eat shit and live like roaches without gaining weight are timebombs.

he needs to get on a solid program to promote his overal health before anything else. trust me, i see it everyday. I work with people like this for a living.

ok ill take your advice, but he does not eat shitty, he eats no sweets, he just eats meat, vegtables, eggs, macaroni/rice, the only bad things is he drinks on average 1-2 cups of beer a day, and smokes around 6 cigarettes aday.

day1- total body
day2- steady state cardio
day3- off
day4- total body
day5- steady state cardio
day6- off
day7- off

total body- 3x10-15 @ 90 seconds R.I
BB Full Squat
BB Straight-Back Straight-Leg Deadlift
BB Incline Bench Press
BB/DB Bent-over Row
BB Military Press
Pull-up

and for cardio 30 minutes of regular bike riding?

Originally Posted by mike456

day1- total body
day2- steady state cardio
day3- off
day4- total body
day5- steady state cardio
day6- off
day7- off

total body- 3x10-15 @ 90 seconds R.I
BB Full Squat
BB Straight-Back Straight-Leg Deadlift
BB Incline Bench Press
BB/DB Bent-over Row
BB Military Press
Pull-up

and for cardio 30 minutes of regular bike riding?

Seriously, that program is probably going to be too much for him to start. Stick with something like this to begin:

Day A:
DB Front Squats - 2 x 12-15
Pushups - 2 x 12-15 (Just accumulate a total of 20-30 over a few sets if need be)
Seated Cable Rows - 2 x 12-15
Planks - 2 x 30seconds (Just accumulate a total of 60 seconds over a few sets if need be; maybe less if he's real bad in terms of core stability)
Tricep Pushdowns - 2 x 12-15

Day B:
DB Pile Squats - 2 x 12-15 (Kind of like a Sumo DL with one DB)
Seated DB Overhead Press - 2 x 12-15
WG Pulldowns - 2 x 12-15 (I doubt he can do any pullups, just make sure he doesn't go unecessarily wide)
Side Planks - 2 x 15seconds each side (Just accumulate a total of 30 seconds each side over a few sets if need be; maybe less if he's real bad in terms of core stability)
Bicep Cruls - 2 x 12-15


You may also want to go through them like a circuit at first, allowing rest in between as needed. This will make for very long rest intervals between sets, which is good to begin. He won't really need precisely timed rest intervals just yet. Add a 3rd set into each workout after 2-3 weeks of doing this. Eventually, start pushing him through the circuit a little quicker as hit conditioning improves. This will help him develop his conditioning base too.

After a couple more weeks you can start focusing more on a hypertrophy type workout by increasing intensity and doing straight sets or super sets with exercises using different muscle groups so that the rest intervals are more in the ideal range. Believe me, anything works the first several week. You don't need to follow traditional hypertrophy guidelines at first, just build a solid foundation!