Critique my workout - Beginning of body transformation

[KingstonU]

Some big changes in my life is giving me an opportunity to have the body I've always wanted. I already felt in decent shape / healthy so these goals are almost purely to have a more aesthetics body (just being honest). Any critique or advice is greatly appreciated.

I don't weight or measure myself regularly but I am 27, 5'11", ~190 lbs and 33" waist. I am guessing I started out around 18-22% body fat.

MY GOAL: Bigger shoulders, visible abs (so 10-12% body fat), I also really want my gut to stick out less. And also bigger chest and arms.

I am 6 weeks in and for the first 2 weeks I did nothing but calisthenics (push-ups and situps) 6 times per week till I moved to a new city and joined a gym.

For the last 4 weeks my workouts are more proper and have been pretty much consisting of 5-6 days per week alternating focusing on Pecs/Shoulders/Abs or Biceps/Triceps/Abs and throw in the odd leg exercise or other in there.

I have been doing 3 sets x 10 reps per exercise and full workouts tends to be 2 exercises x 2 muscle groups + some odd exercise + 2 ab exercises. I also tend to walk (briskly) about 2 hours throughout every day, which includes 25 min walk to the gym.

DAY A - Pecs / shoulders exercises:
-Dumbell chest press laying flat on bench or slight incline
-Butterflies
-Arnolds (standing and lift dumbells from my chest up over my head)
-Machine shoulder press
-Side & front shoulder raises
-Ab Exercises + Other

DAY B - Biceps / triceps exercises:
-Dumbell curls
-Hammer Curls
-Tricep Pushdowns
-Dumbbell Kickback
-Tricep Press (behind the head)
-Burpees
-Ab Exercises + Other

For Abs I do usually 2 of either: 25x Soldier plank, 50x spiderman plank, 50x straight leg raises, 200x bicycle situps.

Sadly the gym I go to has no barbells or squat machine :/

DIET:
Breakfast is one of the following: Healthy cereal + skim milk, 1% greek yogurt, 1% cottage cheese, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, boiled eggs

Lunch and Dinner are similar and will generally consist of some cut of meat (chicken, steak or porc chop) with some fresh veggies (avocado, mushrooms, brocolli, cherry tomatoes, kale), usually all sauteed together with a tiny bit of coconut oil and wine vinegrette.

I snack a lot on nuts (mixed and unsalted) and veggies + hummus dip. I add chia and flax seeds to many meals. I drink a glass of some healthy fruit juice faily often as well.

For last 4 weeks I have started with Whey Protein and Creatine immediately after my workout.

I stick to my diet ~80% of the time. I've made improvements to my diet slowly over the years. I like to socialize and consume something like 6 beers + 2 glasses of wine per week.

Progress:
6 weeks in I can definitely feel some good progress, I am increasing my weights and feels like my body is much harder, though it is hard to notice the difference in photos. I am guessing I am down to ~15% body fat.

Should I be contemplating a 5x5 workout rather than the 3x10? Should be doing more HIIT stuff, or just more weight lifting? Any other recommendations or changes?

(I am also very discouraged about how far my gut sticks out. I can feel maybe like 1/4 of an inch of fat on top of my abs but my gut seems to stick out a good 2" further than I feel it should. I have never been more than 20-22% body fat. I am left to wonder if this is a result of past all-you-can-eat buffets I've done with friends resulting in my innards being larger than they should. Or the sac which holds all your intestines in has been stretched too much. Could too large of portions do this? I will try to post post pics soon and might make another thread just on this as any advice to fix this specifically would be great.)

 

[smackababy]

I'd find a new gym where you can do squats and deadlifts.

If you want to lose weight, it is 100% diet. Read the fat loss sticky and stick with your diet 100%, not 80.

 

[gar655]

IMO your wasting time doing single joint small muscle exercises, like flies, side and front raises etc....

Like mentioned above, squats, deadlifts, add bench presses, military press, pull ups, clean and jerk. Use heavy (or heavier weights).

It wouldn't hurt to throw in some crossfit type HIIT. 15-20 minutes of it will wipe you out.

Then again like mentioned above, diet, if you want the definition and fat loss.

 

[southkrn]

IMO your wasting time doing single joint small muscle exercises, like flies, side and front raises etc....

Like mentioned above, squats, deadlifts, add bench presses, military press, pull ups, clean and jerk. Use heavy (or heavier weights).

It wouldn't hurt to throw in some crossfit type HIIT. 15-20 minutes of it will wipe you out.

Then again like mentioned above, diet, if you want the definition and fat loss.

There is nothing wrong with isolation exercises such as flies. In fact, flies are a great finisher to a chest work out. And don't make me laugh at your cross fit reference but I admit HIIT is a great type of cardio exercise.

From personal experience, if you're working out before 12 pm, do HIIT as your cardio for around 15-20. If you're working out past 6pm, do just regular cardio such as biking or jogging for at least 30 min. The reason I recommended HIIT in the morning is it increases your metabolism throughout the day and if you do HIIT past 6pm, you will have a hard time sleeping at night.

 

[KingstonU]

I appreciate the few that commented thus far and their advice. I have read the sticky and just looking to see if anyone thinks I am doing something wrong.

Does anyone think that perhaps my current routine and diet is sufficient/robust enough to reach my goals?

Is it impossible to think that I could be there or largely there within the next couple months? Or will it take much longer than that?

I figure it will take longer to put on 10lbs of muscle mass than it would to reduce body fat by ~5%.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

As the posters above mentioned, abs are made in the kitchen. Do you track your calories? My wife uses an app on her phone, and I use a notebook.

Little things add up, like how 1 serving of humus is 28g (which is NOTHING!) but it can derail a snack calorie goal if you accidentally eat 4x that without realizing.

I've found that I can shed fat if I keep my carb count between 30g and 80g/day, not counting refeed days, but everybody is different. My wife can eat twice that and be fine, if I drive past a Dunkin Donuts I gain a couple of lbs just from the proximity.

My advice, eat normally for a couple of days and record everything just to get a better idea of what you're consuming (weigh it on a food scale to get it exact, do NOT eyeball portions, you'll guess on the low side). If it isn't measured it isn't managed.

Also, that alcohol has got to go, limit yourself to 2 drinks maximum per weekend day. More than that can start to affect your next days workout, and generally people make poor food choices while drinking. Don't get on the hamster wheel of loosing weight all week to put it right back on over the weekend (unless you're happy where you are, then go for it)

As for the workout, I like 5x5 myself, with more compound movements. In your current split I don't see any back or leg exercises...add them.

 

[Koing]

DIET:
Breakfast is one of the following: Healthy cereal + skim milk, 1% greek yogurt, 1% cottage cheese, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, boiled eggs

Lunch and Dinner are similar and will generally consist of some cut of meat (chicken, steak or porc chop) with some fresh veggies (avocado, mushrooms, brocolli, cherry tomatoes, kale), usually all sauteed together with a tiny bit of coconut oil and wine vinegrette.

I snack a lot on nuts (mixed and unsalted) and veggies + hummus dip. I add chia and flax seeds to many meals. I drink a glass of some healthy fruit juice faily often as well.

For last 4 weeks I have started with Whey Protein and Creatine immediately after my workout.

I stick to my diet ~80% of the time. I've made improvements to my diet slowly over the years. I like to socialize and consume something like 6 beers + 2 glasses of wine per week.

The best way to gauge progress is pics, weighing yourself daily and working out your 7 day average and measurements. I didn't do measurements as I'm lazy but i did weigh myself everyday and work out a 7 day average as well as pics weekly.

If your not dropping visible scale weight on your 7 day average you are SIMPLY EATING TOO MUCH. Nuts and humous are great snacks but in MODERATION. Do you weigh the amounts you are eating? Nuts are very calorie dense. VERY.

I would highly recommend counting calories and weigh food for at least 10-14 days so you get a good appreciation of how many calories thing have. I'm sure you will be surprised.

You can get towards your goal but you have to be accountable and to accurately measure things. You can't just eat things without understanding what the macros are. If you don't know how much you eat from week to week you can't expect to lose fat over the long run IMO.

I'd try to add squats and deadlifts at least once a week. But the reality is you can't out work a bad diet unless you do like 4-6hrs of training a day and even then it'll be tough if you eat really badly IMO.

Koing

 

[KingstonU]

Thanks Koing and Wonderful Pork as well for your input.

I doubt I can be dedicated enough to weight all my food so perhaps I'll just be stricter on diet, specifically try to reduce total amount in general by avoiding large portions and avoiding calorie dense foods. By the sounds of it diet, rather than more cardio, is what's going to reduce the % body fat.

For legs I do either burpees (man I can only do like 25 though and it kills me!) or leg presses or do squats (just with dumbbells for weight). I'm currently doing 1 set of leg exercise every other day.

I am in fact taking progress pics every week but not really sure if there is much of a difference in them. I will perhaps post when I have a few more weeks worth of pics.

 

[Ventanni]

Is it me, or does your entire workout consist of working out the front upper half of the body? Every exercise you've listed is for mirror muscles.

 

[Koing]

Thanks Koing and Wonderful Pork as well for your input.

I doubt I can be dedicated enough to weight all my food so perhaps I'll just be stricter on diet, specifically try to reduce total amount in general by avoiding large portions and avoiding calorie dense foods. By the sounds of it diet, rather than more cardio, is what's going to reduce the % body fat.

For legs I do either burpees (man I can only do like 25 though and it kills me!) or leg presses or do squats (just with dumbbells for weight). I'm currently doing 1 set of leg exercise every other day.

I am in fact taking progress pics every week but not really sure if there is much of a difference in them. I will perhaps post when I have a few more weeks worth of pics.

If you eat clean for at least 2-3 weeks you should be able to see a noticeable difference as well as a loss in your 7 day week to week average. If it doesn't happen after 2-3 weeks you are eating too much and your not as strict on your diet as you think you were.

Weighing/ counting calories is a PAIN but it makes you 100% accountable for what you have eaten. It also means you can readjust your calories very easily if you are eating too much.

It takes dedication to do lose weight. Dedicate at least 3-4days to counting calories to really figure out what your eating.

Koing

 

[Wonderful Pork]

I doubt I can be dedicated enough to weight all my food so perhaps I'll just be stricter on diet, specifically try to reduce total amount in general by avoiding large portions and avoiding calorie dense foods. By the sounds of it diet, rather than more cardio, is what's going to reduce the % body fat.

If you don't measure what you're eating, how will you be "strict"? Its not forever, just a couple of days so you can see whats going on.

I found that what I thought a serving size versus the actual serving size was off by about 100% when it comes to condiments & spreads. I thought I was putting 2 Tbsp of hummus (1 serving) and it was 2x the weight, so twice the calories. And this was me being strict.

Now I weigh EVERYTHING when I pack my lunch & eat dinner, it doesn't take any extra time...just put the plate/tupperware on the scale instead of the counter, and try my damnedest not to eat out at all to prevent extra calories from sneaking in. Limit to 2 alcoholic drinks max once per week (so I don't feel like crap the next day and blow my workout). Frame things as "refeeds" and not "cheat days" to eat cleaner carbs as opposed to pizza, pastries, and random junk.

Losing weight requires dedication, an iron will, and the ability to say "no". It will take weeks or months to get to your goal weight, and if you eat the way you did before then you'll gain it all back (ask me how I know) faster than you lost it.

Don't think of it as a short term "diet", more of a lifestyle change.

Wish you all the best.

 

[KingstonU]

Is it me, or does your entire workout consist of working out the front upper half of the body? Every exercise you've listed is for mirror muscles.

Largely true, which I stated in the original post, that this is entirely just to see what kind of aesthetic physique I can achieve. I do other exercises for legs and back as well, but definitely more focused on the aesthetic muscles.

 

[z1ggy]

I stopped reading after I saw you didn't have any leg work outs in there.

Edit your OP to add in legs otherwise you're wasting your time. There's obviously tons of variation, but sticking with your general theme, you'd want something like

Day A:
Squat
Bench Press
Bent over Row

Day B:
Shoulder Press
Dead Lift
Pull Ups

Or, just go look up starting strength and combine that with a diet of low carbs and fat, high in protein along with some interval training.

And the gut thing is a combo of body fat and tight hip muscles most likely. Focus on stretching your hip flexors out and that will help w pelvic tilt. People often over look this stretch.

 

[Ventanni]

Largely true, which I stated in the original post, that this is entirely just to see what kind of aesthetic physique I can achieve. I do other exercises for legs and back as well, but definitely more focused on the aesthetic muscles.

The back, core, and legs need to be treated with equal dedication. The problem with working just the "aesthetic" muscles is that they're only the "aesthetic" muscles to you when you're looking at them in a mirror. During that time, you're likely to be slouched over attempting to accentuate your hard work. To the rest of the world, you just look like someone who's over-focused on the chest/shoulders, which is not attractive. There are other disadvantages to doing so as well:

1. For all your hard work, you're just ignoring 75% of the rest of your body's muscle mass, making it more difficult to lose weight.
2. For all your hard work, you're just creating a muscle imbalance. The muscles in the front of your body are largely comprised of fewer, but larger muscles, which always overpower the smaller, but more numerous muscles of the back.
3. And, for all your hard work, 9 out of 10 women check out your legs first. Having a nice chest is appreciated, but it's the legs that get their attention.

Instead, focus on proportion, which the human eye is drawn to. You'll still build a great upper body working it 2 days a week instead of 4. I know it's tempting to focus on just the upper body while you're in the gym, especially given the fact that it's most obvious in the mirror that you're working it (blood flows to the area you're working, and your upper body will look huge when doing so), but take it from the veterans here; don't do it.

By incorporating back and legs into your workout equally, you'll be far more impressed with the results you achieve.