Training advice

[JerseyBoy73]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and am after some advice about my current training schedule and how I can get the most gains out of my current training and increase my strength levels. I want to reduce my body fat levels but retain the muscle mass I have put on through training.

Basically, I am a big bloke (6'2" and 18s9lb) who has a busy gym schedule. I have refined my diet for this year and have cut out all alcohol and carbs etc. I cycle to and from work every day which is roughly 12 miles in total as well.

At the moment, my schedule looks like this:

Monday - 'complete body workout' as follows:
Squats 3 x 8 reps
Bench 3 x 8 reps
Standing shoulder press 3 x 8 reps
Tricep push downs 3 x 8 reps
Upright rows 3 x 8 reps
Legs curls 3 x 8 reps
Leg extensions 3 x 8 reps
Bicep cable curls 3 x 8 reps
Barbell curls 3 x 8 reps
Tuesday - 20 minute Wattbike session and 1 hour of hard boxing training
Wednesday - off day
Thursday - as per Tuesday
Friday - off day
Saturday - strength training with 300kg pay loader tyre (4 x sets of 5 flips / 2 x sets of sledgehammer hits both close and extended grip and box jumps onto tyre)
Sunday - Boxing circuit - 3 min rounds on the heavy bag, battle ropes, burpees, press-ups, skipping, lunges with weights, crunches, leg raises etc /possible deadlifts after?

The problem I have is that I want to get more weight training / strength training in, but cannot stop my boxing classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Also, if I weight train on Monday, my chest/shoulders/arms are depleted for Tuesdays boxing.

Looking at my current gym workouts, I am only getting in one weight session in the gym - which is on a Monday, but want to introduce deadlifts which I haven't done for a month or so now.

Could anyone give me some advice on what I should look to swap/change with my training?

Thank you so much.

 

[R1balla]

Welcome to the forum! What you are wanting to do is called a recomp. Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. This is VERY hard to do. I've seen many people get discouraged with the results they see and discontinue the routine because of it. If your heart is set on it, then we are here to help. Just realize it will take a long time to see results vs doing an all out cut/bulk.

1) Diet

You need to be eating enough lean protein to maintain/gain muscle mass but at the same time keep the fat off. Sure cardio will help with this, but get your diet on point and the rest will fall into place. You will see results much faster (and better results) when diet is on point. This means meal prepping. With all the training you are doing, diet is going to have to be first and foremost. I would type more on this but I'm about to go to bed and want to hit on a few other points to get things started for you.

Side note on diet: how much water are you drinking throughout the day?

2) Training

Everybody has an opinion on what works best. You may need to try a few different routines to see what you like/respond to best. If I had your schedule, I would change it just a bit.

Instead of a full body workout on Monday, I would look into an upper/lower split. There are many different types of them and I am more than willing to give you a few examples maybe tomorrow or sometime this week/weekend when I have more time.

3) rest

With a normal weight routine, getting proper rest is vital. With your routine, it's crucial.

Monday- upper body
Tuesday - your usual workout
Wednesday - lower body
Thursday - your usual workout
Friday - off
Saturday - Sunday your usual workout

To me, that's a ton of training and I would personally take off another day but at the same time keep your lower/upper training days in there.

I know you said you don't want to weight train Monday because you will be sore for boxing, but your current workout is on Monday so that wouldn't change anything really.

Another option would just to pick one day out of the week for weight training and focus on 5-10 reps on compound lifts only. This will give you heavy compound lifts once a week in addition to an extra rest day.

 

[VO2Maxima]

I really think you'd benefit from looking into a pre-made program. The one you listed could be balanced a bit better. Let's break it down:

Upper body: You have a horizontal push (bench) and vertical push (OHP), but no pull. The closest is upright row, which is more shoulders than back. You NEED to balance out all that pushing with pull work, or you're in for some serious shoulder issues. I'd add at least one horizontal row and one vertical row variation. Barbell row, Pendlay row, T-bar row, chest supported row are all good examples of horizontal rows. Pull-ups would be best for vertical row, but if you can't do them, lat pulldowns work in a pinch. Drop one of the curl variations and add in some rowing.

Lower body: You're lacking in posterior chain work. You have squats and some quad and ham isolation, but I'd recommend adding in a deadlift variation, whether it's conventional deads, sumo deads, SLDL, RDL, rack pull, deficits, etc. I would NOT attempt to do deadlifts after your boxing circuit...they're not something you want to be fatigued for. Either do them before, or put them on one of your lifting days (probably instead of squat).

Beyond that, you definitely want a plan for progression. How fast you can progress depends on your skill level...beginners can progress faster than intermediates, and they generally do well on a linear progression scheme. Intermediate lifters will have to use a slower progression scheme, whereas advanced lifters will progress very slowly.

If you do decide to go with a pre-made training program instead, give us a little more information on your training history and we can go from there.

 

[R1balla]

OP, what do you think of the suggestions so far?

 

[JerseyBoy73]

Hey guys. Thanks so much for your help here. It's really appreciated! Sorry, I should have added in that full body workout lat pulldowns. Not sure why I missed that!

With regards to my diet - I drink a lot of water (probably around 2litres a day). I am also working on my diet and portions at the moment. Plenty of protein throughout the day, lean chicken and veg for lunch, fruit snacks etc. My problem is snacking in the evening after my dinner though. I need to cut it out, as eat things like corn chips/mini baked bagels etc.

If you guys could help me out with some alternative workouts, I'd be really grateful!

Thank you so much!

 

[R1balla]

Hey guys. Thanks so much for your help here. It's really appreciated! Sorry, I should have added in that full body workout lat pulldowns. Not sure why I missed that!

With regards to my diet - I drink a lot of water (probably around 2litres a day). I am also working on my diet and portions at the moment. Plenty of protein throughout the day, lean chicken and veg for lunch, fruit snacks etc. My problem is snacking in the evening after my dinner though. I need to cut it out, as eat things like corn chips/mini baked bagels etc.

If you guys could help me out with some alternative workouts, I'd be really grateful!

Thank you so much!

Are you wanting to keep your same schedule just change what workout you do or change the entire weight schedule? If it's the entire weight schedule, we laid out a few options for you listed above.

 

[JerseyBoy73]

Hey there. Yes, I am wanting to try and keep to the same schedule but just get your advice on the weight training in the gym, in between boxing, as it fits with my home life too!
Thank you so much!

 

[R1balla]

Hey there. Yes, I am wanting to try and keep to the same schedule but just get your advice on the weight training in the gym, in between boxing, as it fits with my home life too!
Thank you so much!

Did you get a chance to read my original post?

 

[JerseyBoy73]

Hey there. Yes, thank you, I did read your original post. I agree with you about the upper/lower split and think I could work with that. However, as you say, it only gives me minimal rest - one day off isn't much recovery time. What are your thoughts on the compound exercises? My Saturday session with the tyre is only about 30 minutes, but is tough on my body (tyre flips/hammer blows). I could do a compound session on a Wednesday night and that would give me Monday and Friday off. What do you think? Do you think my current exercises are right as well as doing deadlifts on the same night? Many thanks again

 

[R1balla]

Hey there. Yes, thank you, I did read your original post. I agree with you about the upper/lower split and think I could work with that. However, as you say, it only gives me minimal rest - one day off isn't much recovery time. What are your thoughts on the compound exercises? My Saturday session with the tyre is only about 30 minutes, but is tough on my body (tyre flips/hammer blows). I could do a compound session on a Wednesday night and that would give me Monday and Friday off. What do you think? Do you think my current exercises are right as well as doing deadlifts on the same night? Many thanks again

Compound lifts include bench, row, shoulder press, squats, deadlifts...etc