Starting a new phase in life, I relocated to a new state, well back to my home town of SF Bay Area, and it's a lot different from Houston, TX let me tell ya!! My workouts have to be different #1 b/c I commute on a train to and from work and walk up hills day in and day out I think lost a couple of LBS just getting used to that. Things didn't change very much except with the kids being in a new place I'm thier only 'friend' and guide to our new location so no real quality time can be spent on long bike rides or runs plus after a weeks worth of commuting I'm beat. But with my can do attitude I came up with a plan that looks like it's working but I want to know if I need to maybe ramp it up over the long term. I'm gonna try it for a few weeks but I don't want to be wasting my time. I'm still shooting for fat loss at this point. I'm getting to 1.5 hours with a 10 minute walk to the gym to warm up. Tried it this week and it was great. I'm still kinda sticking to BFL but I use only 4 sets but still increase weight with each set and decrease on the last. I just can't be in the gym past 1.5 hours. I also have to work at 6 am which means I'm up at 3:30 no way to get cardio in my 'hood at that time of night. So I put it all together here. Talk to me!
Monday-
Squats
Leg Press
Leg Curls or deadlifts
30-45 minutes cardio ( spin or tredmill, spin is better)
Tuesday
Lat pulldowns
Any row
any bicep curl
30-45 minutes cardio
Wednedsay
Any chest press
flat or incline flys
tricep ext
30-45 minutes cardio
Thursday
lateral raises
front raises
could add abs in here
30-45 minutes cardio
Looks nothing like a BFL workout to me. There's much more to the BFL workout than just the set/rep scheme.
Also, this is more of a bodybuilding workout than fat loss workout. Bicep curls, leg curls, flys, lateral raises, front raises, and tricep extensions, are not going to give you much bang for your buck in the fat loss department. A set or two of these isolation movements at the end of the workout is OK, but for your stated goal, you'd be much better served with sticking primarily with the big compound movements. Work multiple muscles with each movement and work the larger muscles and you will burn more calories both during and after your workout as a result.
The Squats and deads are fantastic. The lat pulldowns are OK although I would rather see pullups, assisted if need be. Bench presses and military presses are good. You have some good movements in there but you are only doing them once a week and they are hidden amongst alot of isolation.
Personally, for fat loss, I would do 3 total body workouts or 2 upper and 2 lower body workouts per week. Throw in some supersets with short rest periods and you will turn up the heat on those fat stores.
Ok bigger movements sound do-able. I also found out after ultimate conditioning class that the movements that I'm doing aren't really helping, I'm just throwing around more weight, not very functional. I'll review what's do-able time-wise, I really can't spend more than 1.5 hours in the gym and I need cardio for 30-45 minutes. This doesn't allow for long total body workouts or even the 45 minute BFL workouts thus I've cut it down to 3 exercises. I'm going to try practicing some of the things I learn in Ultimate cond class( boot camp is more like it) and add that in somehow. Thanks for the input!
Ok bigger movements sound do-able. I also found out after ultimate conditioning class that the movements that I'm doing aren't really helping, I'm just throwing around more weight, not very functional. I'll review what's do-able time-wise, I really can't spend more than 1.5 hours in the gym and I need cardio for 30-45 minutes. This doesn't allow for long total body workouts or even the 45 minute BFL workouts thus I've cut it down to 3 exercises. I'm going to try practicing some of the things I learn in Ultimate cond class( boot camp is more like it) and add that in somehow. Thanks for the input!
A total body workout doesn't have to be an all-day affair. After all we are not doing an isolated exercise for each body part.
Here is a sample of the type of total body fat loss workout I'm talking about:
1: Barbell Complex (4x8, 90 seconds rest) (About 10 minutes total)
Bent Over Row
High Pull
Military Press
Back Squat
Good Morning
The Barbell Complex would serve as a warmup so you wouldn't go too heavy about 70% of your 1RM of your toughest exercise. That could be an unloaded bar or even a body bar. This is also a good opportunity to really nail down the form on these while working with a lighter weight.
2.Circuit (3x 12, 1 minute rest between exercises, 2 minutes rest between circuits)
2A DB Steps Ups
2B Pullups (Assisted Pullups)
2C Swiss Ball Hip Extension with Leg Curl
2D DB Push Press
At approximately 45 seconds per set with rest periods, Circuit should come to 22-25 minutes. Also, you will have about 5-6 minutes between sets of the same exercise so you shouldn't have to go light on the weights. You should be able to use your true 12 rep max
3: Core Exercise (2-3 minutes)
1 set of swiss ball crunches or reverse crunches to failure or plank held for up to 2 minutes
This is a total body workout that would take about 35-40 minutes. One could even shorten the rest periods on the circuit to 45 seconds or rest between circuits to a minute or a minute and a half. Of course we only did Vertical push/pull. This would be an A workout which would alternate with a B workout which would be something along the lines of Deadlift variation,A bench press variation, A lunge variation, and a row variation.
The complex in itself will work every muscle in the body, including getting that heart pumping.
That ultimate conditioning class sounds interesting. What do they have you doing?
I like Depalma's suggestion to add more compound exercises and reduce the number of isolation exercises. However, I find that as I get a older, my joints need a bit more time to recover than a 3-day a week full-body workout would allow. (I also have a history of chronic hip pain, so I'm extra cautious about giving my hip and the surrounding muscles adequate time to recover.)
Instead, I'm doing a body part split routine, but one that emphasizes compound movements for each. It's pretty much this routine from Krista's site (stumptuous.com). If I'm short on time, I eliminate the last of the four exercises listed for each day, because these tend to be the isolation movements.
Weighted ab work gets added every other workout, at the end.
OT: I just moved from the Bay Area last week. We must have passed each other somewhere around the Rockies...
Depalma, both you and the Ultimate Conditioning class have given me some great ideas for my routine. The UC class consists of calisthenics and some light weights but rest assured there is nothing light about this class. We do jumping jacks, squat thrusts, two and then one arm pushups, lifting weights on a Bosu ball with almost NO REST. The part I'm practicing more of is the calisthenics, man I forgot how much fun and how much of an overall workout they can be. I also could not do more than 3 pushups So I decided to scale back the weights a little and focus on over-all fitness splicing weights in between calisthenics and cardio. Yesterday my workout went like this.
3 sets of 25 Jumping jacks
2 sets of 15 knee bends
3 sets of 10 situps while holding a stability ball
3 sets of squats with 75lbs no rest between sets
3 sets of 10 deadlifts with 65lbs( too heavy) no rest between sets
45 minutes of SPIN with 3 climbing intervals
Ok I was BEAT!!!! The knee bends really amped up my squats, jumping jacks got my heart going and it never stopped. I'm looking to add 2 sets of complimenting calisthenics when I weight train. I can go lighter with the weights and add sets. The routine before I didn't even break a good sweat but yesterday was AWESOME. After dinner and a shower I still had energy to dance for 20 minutes. I'm tweaking it a little but if my goal is to burn fat then I'm going to take your advice and lay off the isolation movements. The calisthenics only add to the fat burning.
Depalma, both you and the Ultimate Conditioning class have given me some great ideas for my routine. The UC class consists of calisthenics and some light weights but rest assured there is nothing light about this class. We do jumping jacks, squat thrusts, two and then one arm pushups, lifting weights on a Bosu ball with almost NO REST. The part I'm practicing more of is the calisthenics, man I forgot how much fun and how much of an overall workout they can be. I also could not do more than 3 pushups So I decided to scale back the weights a little and focus on over-all fitness splicing weights in between calisthenics and cardio. Yesterday my workout went like this.
3 sets of 25 Jumping jacks
2 sets of 15 knee bends
3 sets of 10 situps while holding a stability ball
3 sets of squats with 75lbs no rest between sets
3 sets of 10 deadlifts with 65lbs( too heavy) no rest between sets
45 minutes of SPIN with 3 climbing intervals
Ok I was BEAT!!!! The knee bends really amped up my squats, jumping jacks got my heart going and it never stopped. I'm looking to add 2 sets of complimenting calisthenics when I weight train. I can go lighter with the weights and add sets. The routine before I didn't even break a good sweat but yesterday was AWESOME. After dinner and a shower I still had energy to dance for 20 minutes. I'm tweaking it a little but if my goal is to burn fat then I'm going to take your advice and lay off the isolation movements. The calisthenics only add to the fat burning.
Nothing wrong with calisthenics at all. Body weight workouts are underrated in my opinion. Sounds like you had a great workout!
As for pushups, you can start by setting the bar of the smith machine at waist height and using that for pushups. When you can do 10 reps, lower the bar. Before you know it you will be on the ground.
For one arm pushups, you can do them assisted if you have some jumpstretch bands (giant rubber bands). Attach the band to the top of a power rack or to the bar of a smith machine. Something stable that you can wrap it around right above where you will set up. Loop the other end around your waist and it will take some of the body weight off you and lower the resistance. Start with the strongest band and progress down until the band is no longer needed.
I like this workout you did much better than the one you originally posted. It sounds like your body agrees as well. Great job!
The only thing that I would be concerned about is with the squats and deadlifts back to back with lack of rest because of the load they place on the spine. If your form suffers from fatique, you could open yourself up to injury. Pay close attention to form, if it suffers in the least, abort the set.
You might want to stick an easier "recovery" exercise between the two. Something that will keep your form from suffering but won't let you reach complete recovery.
The only thing that I would be concerned about is with the squats and deadlifts back to back with lack of rest because of the load they place on the spine. If your form suffers from fatique, you could open yourself up to injury. Pay close attention to form, if it suffers in the least, abort the set.
You might want to stick an easier "recovery" exercise between the two. Something that will keep your form from suffering but won't let you reach complete recovery.
I agree, by back did hurt after this. I may try a short leg press set in between to give my back a rest, I know one that targets the glutes. I downloaded a PT workout today and I've got some ideas on more excercises. I may be able to get this down to one good full body workout when combining the body weight excercises with weighted excercises the workout gets a lot more bang for your buck in a lot less time. I was sweating by the time I got to the weights which was good, I was sweatin but not tired. Yesterday I did pushups and knee pushups, arm circles, air punching, obliques with a stability ball, chin-ups and dips, jumped on the bike and had a great workout. The body weight exercises are giving my a goal to work towards too. Seeing myself not being able to do 3 push-ups was a wake up call that something needed to change in my training plan. I like this one a lot better. Thanks Depalma!
Critique my workout ( suggestions please)
So I decided to scale back the weights a little and focus on over-all fitness splicing weights in between calisthenics and cardio. Yesterday my workout went like this. 
The knee bends really amped up my squats, jumping jacks got my heart going and it never stopped. I'm looking to add 2 sets of complimenting calisthenics when I weight train. I can go lighter with the weights and add sets. The routine before I didn't even break a good sweat but yesterday was AWESOME. After dinner and a shower I still had energy to dance for 20 minutes. I'm tweaking it a little but if my goal is to burn fat then I'm going to take your advice and lay off the isolation movements. The calisthenics only add to the fat burning.
