Sports & Fitness Pls suggest 3 day/week - 45 mins - beginner gym workout

No problem, just trying to give an unbiased view.

So much information out there regurgitated by the fitness industry is purely to separate you from your money.
It's BIG business and there's no shortage of clients who want "easy and quick" results.
e.g. Recent FaceBook ads promoting 6 week transformation sessions to be ready for Summer.
If you're not currently in Summer condition, or very close to it, there should be a disclaimer mentioning Summer of 2018/19, things just don't happen that fast.

 

One year has passed since my gym adventure began.
I did have few weeks of breaks possibly every four months. Eiter sick or went on holidays.

Quality improvements:
Wight has reduced from 79kg to 75kg.
Definitely the belt size is reduced buy 1-2. Tailor made pants (from 3 years ago) is loose now.
Definitely have more muscles.
I can definitely wear resonably tight shirts without too much shame.

Quantity improvements:


Legs have improved a lot. Hands & shoulders not so much. I'm a bit surprised that I haven't improved much on 'Lat pull-down'.

Thanks a lot to all your words of encouragements: @Ace in the Hole, @RPI , @Phase2, @paulF, @twobobsworth, @trinity168, @D.T., @dabbler, @Johnny Cashflow and others.

 

Great job, keep at it, results will keep coming for some time.
Slow results are the best results and the most permanent.

You don’t want to be one of these people who do a 12 week body transformation challenge, giving it their all and getting an amazing after photo, only to be back to their original condition 6 months later.

Keep the habit for life.

 

and .. don't forget to enjoy the moment

 

Needs more squats

 

Nice work @devank !!! Great to see you're keeping at it.

 

Another two months gone since my last report.


Slight improvements from 2 months ago but I made few changes to my routine as per Ace's point.

I have changed my workout schedule to:
Mon: Yoga class (1 hr)
Tue: Gym or Pilates (1 hr)
Wed: Yoga class (1 hr)
Thu: Pilates (1 hr)
Fri: Gym
Sat: Kids sports activities
Sun: Tennis 2-3 hours

I feel this schedule is a bit more balanced eventhough my gym numbers don't jump too much.

 

Dear Diary
Almost 1.5 years past. It is hard to quantify but about 120% increase in strength.


Current doing 2 days Gym and 2 days yoga. I also play tennis for 3 hours a day.

Tummy circumference is reduced from 102cm to 96cm. I expected a bit more.
Weight is stabilised around 75kg (height = 181 cm).

I'm impressed with my leg strength. Upper body is a bit sad.

Any suggestions to increase the upper body strength?

 

Progress is progress and well done for keeping at it.
My tip for improved strength gains is to drop the machine exercises for a while and go to body weight and free weight exercises to bring more stabiliser muscles into it.
Even if you can't do a complete concentric rep, work on building your eccentric strength until you can.
This will get your levels strength up.
e.g. If you can't do body weight chin ups/pull ups, jump to get your chin over the bar or use a box/step and lower yourself slowly under control.
Do as many reps as you can until you can't control your decent.
Here are my suggestions to change your machine exercises to better options which should definitely improve your strength levels:

Chest press > Body weight push ups or Barbell bench press.
Leg press > Barbell Squats, or Trap bar deadlifts from the low handles.
Seated cable row > I'm ok with leaving this exercise as is for a while.
Lat pull down > Body weight pull ups/chin ups, and then continue with eccentrics until you can do at least 10-12 body weight reps.
Calf raise > Not really necessary unless you want to build bigger calves, you could do some plyometrics instead which will help overall performance too.
Parallel bar dips > Use body weight dip bars and do the same as with the pull ups, but these should be eaiser, aim for 15 reps.
Lying leg curl machine > Romanian deadlifts or Good mornings with a barbell will be much better.
Biceps machine > Basic barbell or dumbbell curls, machines are so restrictive !

Do this for one month and results will improve.

 

For upper body strength, consider doing aerial circus classes. They are fun to do. I went from being able to do not even 1 chin up to 3.5 full chin ups in a row with ease and I'm a middle aged female. You could even try pole classes but that's up to you

 

Ps. How many situps can you do?

 

Errrrr.. I'll pass

 

I don't do sit-ups generally. But measured just now.
Stright 32 situps within 80 seconds.

 

3.5 *full* chin ups? You dont see the oxymoron there?

pinkboy

 

As always, useful message.
I'll print this one, give it the gym instructor and do few personal classes.

 

Following your advice, I'm moving on to the next step. Free weights.
I gave my workout table and your suggestions to the gym dude. Signed up for 30min X 10 sessions.
This is what I was able to do today.
Round 1 (Twice through)
- DB Bench Press 8 - 10 reps, 12kg each hand
- 8-10 push ups
- Triceps Dips 12kg assistance 6 – 10 reps. ( +1/2 plate 2nd set )

Round 2 (Twice through)
- DB Bent over Row 18kg 10 reps
- Diamond Push ups 6-8 reps
- Walking Lunges with 12kg DB

Round 3 (Twice through)
- DB Pec Fly’s 6kg each hand 10 reps
- DB Bicep Curl 8kg each hand 8 – 10 reps
- Assisted Chin ups ( 12kg assistance ) 5-6 reps

I feel pain!

 

It's good that you've moved to more free weight/body weight exercises, however that workout is too anterior dominated.
The only posterior exercises you have in there are bent over rows and chin ups.
Was this supposed to be a full body workout?
If so, there's too much chest/triceps, which could be changed to more legs and some delts/shoulders.

The first round consisted of 3 chest /triceps exercises in a row which would be quite fatiguing to those muscles.
Then the next round you had another chest /triceps exercise being diamond push ups, which I'm surprised if you can do based on your Round 1 weights.
Then in round 3 you had another chest exercise being pec flyes.

The workout is very chest dominant where back/row type exercises should make up more volume.
This is especially so if you sit a lot for work which causes shoulders to round forward and forms a bad posture.
You need to work your back much more, focusing on squeezing/pinching your shoulder blades together your as you're doing the exercise.

Most general PT's really don't know much to be honest.
Exercise physiologists are much better at explaining movement patterns.

 

Maybe it was due to my requirements to him. I told him that I wanted the upper body strength without causing back pain. I do two yoga classes and play tennis for 3 hours as well.

I signed up for 10 weeks (Tuesdays), 30 mins sessions.
I can 'feel' what you are saying. My body is in pain. I didn't expect that. I thought, after going to gym for almost 18 months, I would be able to manage. I even went for a massage!
He asked me to take more time but beat my Tuesday's records. I will continue with him and learn correct techniques. Later I'll get back to full body work out with free weights.

 

Ace

Could you review Stronglifts 5 X 5 (StrongLifts 5×5 Workout Program for Beginners | StrongLifts) and give us your thoughts, or what would be your ideal 3-day full body workout (free weights).

(Sorry if you have already do this.)

Thanks

Intrigued

 

It depends on what your goals are in regards to training and what your starting position is.
They are all good fundamental compound exercises, although it would be good to see some dips and chins added in there.
You could do a a variety of options for a full body workouts at 3 times per week.

Bodybuilding.com has a good workout planner if you put in your parameters, I haven’t checked it for some years though.