What's Your Routine?

[WatDo]

For working out, hypnosis, diet, whatever you're doing to realize your goals. I am interested to seeing what people are doing, perhaps I might adopt some other things people are doing into my very sparse routine.

Mine is nothing special, sadly...

[Nick2]

Its going to be different depending on what your long term goals are. I lift upper body 3 times a wk and lower body twice a week. Do reps but push the limits to tear down muscle to build it back.
Diet is high on proteins like chicken, fish, eggs. I stay away from all fired foods. Try to limit carbs but not completely.
Stick to a routine that works for you. Measure progress.

Oh, I also drink a glass of water before each meal. You won't over eat that way.

Nick2

[lew897]

Generally for me, I work out three times a week. Twice on either upper or lower body, and once on the side that wasnt worked on. Two sets on each muscle group and aiming for the max limit. Usually only 12 reps.

To me it seems like the next day on rest day is where all the rebuilding happens. Its like new muscles appear the next day. Of course writing all the weights down is crucial so that you can understand whats best for your body and hit your limit. To me, lifting weights is awesome since you can individually hit each muscle group and push it to its limit. It seems like I would be just a couch potato without weights. As well as taking dietary supplements, which helps me out quite a bit I believe.

Ive sorta hit my goal in three months to just develop muscles that can be seen easily. Right now I want to do a lot more cardio to lose some fat that is just under my skin. Its weird since I have all this muscle and there is like a small layer of fat all over my body which seems strange to me. lol.

[rugbyjockca]

Right now, my routine is:

Weights 4x a week for about 60-90 minutes. Twice a week I work with a personal trainer, and twice a week I'm on my own (with a program he gave me). Right now it's a 4-day split, but that changes periodically. I do Legs and back/chest with him, and do shoulders and arms on my own.

For cardio, I do that 3-5 times a week, about 30-40 minutes. I'm lucky because there are lots of options for me: I have an indoor pool in my building, and am close to a park with a running track, in addition to my gym. Some days I do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), other days I do steady-state type excercies to keep my endurance up.

I also do yoga for 60 minutes once or twice a week to improve flexibility, but it also includes some strength work, particularly with my core.

For diet, I track my intake, and if I'm cutting I aim for about 100-200 calories below my maintenance level. Right now I'm around 2500 cals/day. I don't stress too much about carbs and fat, but do try to get between 200-250g of protein every day. I stick mostly to healthy foods, don't drink alcohol, avoid take out or restaurants, or choose a healthy option with a salad when I do eat out. I can cook, so I'm happy to eat what I make at home.

I try to avoid eating fats and carbs together, and aim to get my carbs and fats from healthy sources: oatmeal, sweet potato, brown rice mostly for carbs, and nuts, avocados, fish, olives and olive oil for fats.

I track what I eat, because that always gives me a clue about what I can change if I'm not seeing the results I want. In fact, I would tell anyone to start writing down what they eat and drink before they even start to change their diet. I would say tracking your food intake and learning how to read and understand food labels is one of the top 3 things you need to do to get fit. (the other two are work out regularly, and get enough quality sleep).

For hypnosis, I don't have a regular regimen. I would love to have a set and predictable program with a regular hypnotist/coach, but it's difficult getting schedules to line up and to find the right person for me. I'm learning what sort of styles and approaches work for me, and that's just where I'm at right now. Hypnosis is now more on the "fun and fantsay" side of things for me....my focus on bodybuilding is too important to leave it up to somebody else.

[0turner0]

wow - you're quite the inspiration!

I'm kind of ad-hoc in everything; started listening to some more focused jock files to get in the right state of mind, my new routine that I'm trying
is going for an intense bike ride, then back home for weight training... feels so good once I'm warmed up :)

[curiousguy92]

My routine is pretty ad hoc right now too. Now that classes are done for the summer (although I still have a project to finish in the next two weeks) I started hitting the gym again, and I've gone three days in a row. Taking a rest day today to let my muscles recover, but tomorrow I'm back in the gym.

I've been doing about a half hour of cardio followed by weights, trying to split muscle groups each day, but so far it's been like "I think today will be legs/back/chest" without a set schedule or planning ahead.

[WatDo]

I heard it was more beneficial to do weight lifting first followed by cardio.

Though I have had incredible success either way. I suppose it's because working muscles keeps your metabolism running high throughout the day.

[rugbyjockca]

I was just on vacation, and didn't have access to a gym, so I had to develop my own fitness schedule with mostly bodyweight excercises, and thought I'd share some ideas for people who don't have a gym membership or who travel a lot.

One thing I suggest good jock boys invest in is a jump rope: you can get an awesome cardio workout with very little space, and they pack really easily. Even when I'm not travelling, I use it once or twice a week.

Then, just alternate between about a minute jumping rope with 1-2 minutes of bodyweight excercises (squats, lunges, push-ups, sit ups, dips, chins, etc). That's pretty much what I did, alternating with brief rests after jumping rope, to get a 20-30 minute workout before jumping in our hosts' pool for a swim.

I had a resistance band that I used for shoulder presses, lat raises, and (with the help of a tree) rows for my back, and that also packed well in my suitcase and was really helpful in getting at some muscles (shoulders, back) that I couldn't do with just bodyweight.

Because I didn't have much choice in what I ate, I packed some sample packs of protein (but I would have just put protein powder in a Tupperware) and packed some protein bars. Other than that I just fosued on getting as much protein as possible during my trip and avoiding French fries, etc. I think I did pretty good!

[greatsmilesd]

I recently changed from working multiple body parts/session to a five day routine:

day 1 - Chest/abs
day 2 - Back
day 3 - shoulders/abs
day 4 - legs
day 5 - arms/abs

Hitting 3-5 exercises/6-3 sets for each body part. and then 20 minute HIIT cardio about 3-5 times per week.

I really enjoy the workouts and seem to be able to concentrate better focusing on a single muscle group. I feel good, and I am think I am starting to see results.