Very limited w/o time - trying to maximize my efforts

[antiacus]

Hello, please check my program and let me know if you see anywhere i can improve.

Long story short: I'm limited to lifting on my lunch break. I work 4 10 hr shifts a week and i get 25 minutes in the gym 4 consecutive days a week. This is what i'm doing. Started week 6 today.

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday is a circuit routine in order to minimize time between sets. Tuesday is deads and i do "traditional" lift, rest, lift...

Monday:

Barbell Squat: 1x10 warmup
45 degree hypers to warmup hams, glutes, back: bodyweight x35
dumbell rows: x10, x6
Squats: x8, x5
dumbell military press: x10, x5
dumbell flat bench press: x10, x5

Tuesday:

45 degree lateral side raises (obliques) x25 per side

deads x15 x10 x8 x5

Wednesday:

de-weighted pullups (i'm not fat i'm husky!) x10 x 6
de-weighted dips (using same weight) x25, x15
dumbbell tricep kick backs x10 x 8
dumbbell curls (standing) x8 x 6
cable pull downs (to chest) x10 x 8

Thursday basically repeat Monday but add weight or reps based on what i did Monday
Barbell Squat: 1x10 warmup
45 degree hypers to warmup hams, glutes, back: bodyweight x35
dumbell rows: x10, x6
Squats: x8, x5
dumbell military press: x10, x5
dumbell flat bench press: x10, x5

Like i said i'm on week 6. I've made gains in every lift. Today i switched up the progression and it didn't work out. i did a warmup squat, then the hypers, then did rows, squats, military press, bench press - putting mp in directly in front of bench ****ed me and i wasn't able to make my 5 reps at my normal range of motion.

I usually finish a little early on Tuesdays so i'm thinking of taking both rows and military press from monday and adding to my dead lift day. the only problem being my total weekly volume would go down since the monday workout is repeated on thursday. Feh, i don't know. I guess i could add something else on the monday/thursday workout but what?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[BigKrabbe]

Honestly, for a time crunch your workout looks really good. Question for you..why change anything if you are making consistent gains my man? If it ain't broke don't fix it!

 

[PaulBlack]

If you are getting those W/O's done in 25 mins, good for you, as you must be moving at a pretty good clip.
If you are also making gains, why stop or fiddle with a good thing? Run it until you start to plateau on the major lifts.

What are your goals?
2 cents...
Lastly, when I have been pressed for time, or have to do abbreviated training, I just hit perhaps 2 of the compounds hard that day. If I do that in a 30 min period, I am pretty beat up and have hit most of my major body's mass. ie: Squats/OHP's, then maybe Deads/BP's, then perhaps Leg Press/Rows.
That way I hit the legs, hips, back, shoulders, chest and arms pretty heavy and can build some progression over time, since the compounds always have some good room to slowly move up.

 

[antiacus]

Thanks for the replies.

Goal at the moment is to gain muscle with limited fat. In March i cut and get ready for a 1/2 marathon this fall.

A brief backstory. June 20th of 2000 i quit smoking. I ballooned from 260 to 300 very quickly but managed to stay the course. Looking a a 3 and two zero's on the scale was my tipping point. My joints ached, i couldn't run from my house to my car without pain, i felt like ****, if you've never been there you just can't imagine how bad it feels to be fat and your entire body in a constant state of inflammation. I lost down to 260 very quickly, then took about 5-6 years to lose down to 235 and slacked off on my training & diet in part due to some back problems, in part due to being lazy.

Anyway, i've been pretty disciplined since May of 2013. I've been taking measurements once a month since then and my waist has been going betting smaller and my muscles getting bigger. I'm dead set on making my final push into awesomeness this go around. I've been super diligent with my lifting form in order to avoid injury. I've modified a few lifts that tended to cause problems (e.g. dumbbell press range of motion hurting my left shoulder) and i've been pretty damned disciplined with my diet.

Right now i eat alot, but i eat good. Lots of free range eggs, only oil is raw extra virgin coconut, carbs are about 50% veggies & greens to 50% sweet potatoes. Alcohol is one beer (20oz) every 2 weeeks. Supps are whey, multi, d3, probiotics, creatine, some kinda beef gelatin stuff, and cod liver oil. I'm starting to research the benefits of carb cycling and may incorporate that into my cut in March, which i'm really looking forward to.

I guess my biggest concern is that i'm getting enough volume. I'm always looking for ways to increase it. I think i'll rearrange my monday/thursday workout to not do flat bench right after overheads and be fine. Tuesdays i'm finishing my workout after about 15-17 minutes so i'm going to take advantage and add something there. Just have to figure out what.

Thanks for reading

 

[antiacus]

I guess i should add that when i started i was well over 35% bodyfat. I'm down to 25% so that's good. But a far cry from good enough. I've never in my life had the exact body i wanted. When i was young i was too skinny, when i got older, too fat. I'm going to find out what it's like to have the exact body i want for once in my life.

Beyond that, i'm dealing with low T. Bloodwork from 18 months ago was pretty bad. I've done some stuff with diet, sleep, chinese medicine doc, supped zma and cut out alcohol and i feel better. I haven't been retested (on the todo list) but i guarantee it's much better. I've been looking at some PCT supps people take as an option to maximize my natural output, not sure if this is a common practice or not... Also kicking around the idea of a ph cycle when i start my cut in March to jumpstart things, but i have a lot more research to do before committing to something like that.

 

[PaulBlack]

First off, big congrats on the weight loss and the kick to get healthier with foods etc. and into the best shape of your life...! Good for you dude.
Never give up.
As far as the BP's and OHP's... My OHP is usually always weaker if I BP first and vice versa, but I know if I am gaining in one, I am most likely gaining in the other too, even though it may not show up as weight or rep performance for that specific session.
Another thing I always do, is switch off my OHP's with my BP, taking turns starting each one first in the W/O. The carryover always seem to be there.

 

[HIT4ME]

My views on this may get hammered, but I think you are doing just fine and I definitely would not ADD to the workout you are doing, especially if time is at a premium. I think you have a sound training strategy and as everyone said, if you are adding weight and/or reps each workout and keeping good form - why change anything? If you hit a wall and you are not progressing, then something has to change.

I am in a similar boat as you, but even fatter. I was 285 and about 55% bodyfat, no joke. About a year ago I started lifting weights again and I'm down to about 250 and about 42% bodyfat. To put that in perspective, I went from carrying about 150+ pounds of fat on my body to about 105 pounds of fat and dropped 35 pounds in the process. That means I gained about 15 pounds of muscle at the same time, and I did this without being too strict on my diet. The numbers may be a little off - but I used a Tanita bodyfat scale as well as waist and body measurements that plugged into formulas and I get around these numbers with various different methods.

After about 10 months of training I hit a wall and my progress stopped and even backtracked a little. I was still working hard, but going in the wrong direction. I had already gone from training 4X per week to just every other day with 2 days off at the end of a 4 day cycle (so 3X/week) and my results weren't coming.

I base my training a lot on Mike Mentzer's approach and he recommended people never work out more often then once every 4 days. I hate to do it that infrequently so I went to 1X every three days about 3 weeks ago. I also trimmed some of the exercises from my workouts and consolidated things. This week, at long last, my lifts have started to jump up again. I am losing weight and getting stronger at the same time, and I work out 2X/week for under 30 minutes on my longest workout and as little as 10 minutes on my shortest workout.

I am not trying to bore you with my own history or brag about myself, what I am trying to point out is that volume is NOT always the answer. If you are working HARD, you may need more time to grow than you think....i.e. - you may be stimulating growth just fine, but not allowing for it to ever happen.

And, I know, I mentioned Mike Mentzer, so there is a good chance I will start a war...I hope that isn't the case.

 

[antiacus]

Thanks guys.

Hit4me, always awesome to hear of someone elses success.

For now i'll be adding some hip mobility stretches & exercises on Tuesdays prior to deads in order to try to get on top of my lower back pain. At this point it doesn't interfere with any lifting, but i wake up every morning with it and it takes several hours into the day for it to go away. I'd post a link to the program, but i'm too newby

 

[badwolf42]

Do you mean you have gym for 25 minutes or can literally only work out for 25 minutes?

You could always hit heavy weight then do some body weight stuff at home.

Other than that you might want to check out charles Stanley EDT. It's good for quick effective workouts. You basically chose a weight and a set time like 10-15 minutes start the timer do a set then do a set of a second exercise that's unrelated to the first then repeat. Try to get more reps next week.
One example he uses is squat then pull ups. Keep the workout moving quickly and in 15 minutes You have a more effective workout than most people spending hours n the gym

 

[antiacus]

Yes, i get 25 minutes max in the weight room. The good news is it's always empty and i never have to wait on anything.

For the most part i do circuit training, i do 1 set of everything on the list for the day before i go back and do my 2nd set of anything.

I'll definitely check out Stanley EDT, thanks!

 

[HIT4ME]

Antiacus, thanks for the kind words - I think you've seen quite a bit of success yourself, and it sounds like you're doing better than you give yourself credit for. I know how that feels - I look at what I've done and think, "I've lost 30 pounds in 1 year" and that isn't impressive. When I look at the total change though, it is slow and closer to what I should expect than I give myself credit for. Could it be faster? Hell yes. Have I done everything right? Hell no. But I've done OK and probably a little better than I think I've done.

The 25 minute limit is probably helping you to push faster, which I believe can improve your results if done correctly and it sounds like you are doing it correctly.

As for the lower back - deadlifts can be brutal. One thing I've been doing that has helped me a lot (I used to wake up with back pain also) is to do a set of hyper-extensions all-out and then do my deadlifts in superset fashion. One super-set of these all-out will leave you VERY winded and is a workout in itself. I hold plates across my chest on the hyper-extensions and then go right to the deadlifts. I find this is VERY intense, but also allows my back and core to get more of the work than if I do deadlifts straight up. I have to drop the weight on the deadlifts by about 75 pounds or about 15-20% from if I did them fresh. I believe achieving the intensity with the lighter weight, however, increase the safety of the exercise also....

 

[waynaferd]

Just a couple .02......rack pulls are just as effective as deads, but begin/end at knee height, and not nearly as taxing, IMO.

Also, obliques are good for core strength, but too much will widen out your mid section, ruining any V taper you might be looking for.

When I'm crunched for time I try for heavier compounds as they require more muscles and effort.

Anyways, I'd keep doing what you're doing if its working....good luck!!

 

[R1balla]

Looks good for 25 min. If you hit a plateau, change up the reps or go to DB from BB or machine...etc

 

[gymratluke]

Im with the others here, if its working for you, no need to change what you're doing! In due time you may need to change it up, and like someone else said, just change your rep ranges, or maybe change from DB to BB exercise or even a machine if they are available for you to use. At some point, since you have 4 days, you could do a Leg Day, Chest Tricep Day, Back Bicep Day, Shoulder Day. But for now, I see no need for you to change anything. Good luck with all your goals and congrats on all you've accomplished thus far!

 

[antiacus]

Thanks guys

Good to just have some confirmation that i'm not wasting my time and/or doing something really dumb