You don't need photographs to say (for example),

"I went from a 103cm chest and 97cm waist to 110/83, my weight from 84kg to 79kg, I can run 5km in 22'30", and for 5 reps overhead press 57.5kg, bench press 82.5kg, row 87.5kg, squat 102.5kg, and deadlift 127.5kg; all this took 6 months."

and some statement like that would tell us something about the success of your routine.

Quotehowever my only point is that I disagree on dismissing traditional weight lifting with splits as something beginners cant do. It's definitely a very valid option of which i am merely one example.

As I said, everything works for beginners. They were doing nothing, now they're doing something. Something is more than nothing, so their body adapts. This is particularly so if the person improves their diet, too - the effect of dropping junk food and alcohol and introducing fresh fruit and vegetables is often quite dramatic.

The only question is what will produce those results most quickly and safely, and what will continue producing results after those first few months.

You should start your own thread in which you describe your training and diet in detail, so that you can offer it to people as another system. This here is like talking about RuneQuest while someone pops in to say, "D&D is also a fun system!" That may be so, but we're talking about RuneQuest.

First of all my sincere apologies for intruding your thread, forgot you where the one who made it in the first place and had the wrong idea about it.
Can ask a mod to delete my posts since i really dont care about preaching over internet the particular path i followed or my results. I just wanted to point out a disagreement and it spiralled out of that.
best wishes

Hey Kyle,

First of all, thanks for posting these guides.

Next, I'm wondering how true, or how important, the stuff about leaving a day between, really is. Just started going to the local gym, and I must admit, there's a lot to it that I just don't know about. If I do some stretching, a range of cardio and some weights every day, or at least 5-6 per week... what can (or will) go wrong? Luckily, if it's too bad, I haven't been doing this more than a few weeks, so far.

Lastly, if I shouldn't be doing everything every day (or nearly), how does your regimen of body-only exercises (including a bit of cardio) Monday-Wednesday-Friday, weights and cardio Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, and nothing Sunday, sound?

I'm male, in my 30s, and apparently "OK" according to weight/height. No serious complications that I know of. Oh, and I walk a lot, already.

Can you work out every day? It depends.

• Your body has a certain amount of recovery capacity.
• This recovery capacity depends on food and rest, the better or worse they are, the greater or smaller your capacity
• it also depends on your natural constitution, which comes from your genetics, your past physical activity, etc.
• How much your capacity is drawn on depends on the intensity of your workout; 1 pushup a day is "a workout", but even a cystic fibrosis patient could recover from it and do it again tomorrow.
• In my experience, beginners who work out every day do not get any worse or better results than ones who work out every second day
  

So it's up to you. I don't know the intensity of your workouts, your nutrition or rest and thus your recovery, your past physical activity, etc.

What I suggest is that in the beginning it's better to err on the side of going too easy than going too hard. If you go too hard you injure yourself and have weeks or months off. If you go too easy then you can build up.

Start with doing it 2-3 times a week with a full clear day in between. Do it for a month, see how you feel. If you feel you are both willing and able to do it more often, go ahead, add a day. And so on.

However, I note that at this stage you are doing nothing. Begin by doing something, don't worry about how much of a something it is. More important than your physical capacity is your willpower. Get your body moving.

I find myself thinking of the story of Rimmer from Red Dwarf, who was going for the officer's exams. He began 30 days out with a study plan, but it took him 2 days to prepare so he now only had 28 days and had to redo it. This went on until 12 hours before the exam he did a Big Final Plan which was poster size and colour-coded with tassles, then he collapsed in exhaustion, arrived an hour late for his exam and wrote "fish" 1,000 times down the page. Better for him to have started studying at once.

Likewise, in the time it took you to type your query, await my response and read it, you could have done the first workout already.

Get your body moving. That's the important thing.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;469752However, I note that at this stage you are doing nothing. Begin by doing something, don't worry about how much of a something it is. More important than your physical capacity is your willpower. Get your body moving.

Er. Yeah, I started going to the gym nearly "full time", a few weeks ago. Haven't stopped, yet. Or maybe I don't quite get what you mean.

But anyway, the rest I do understand. Thanks for the helpful reply, and you can be sure I'm taking note, and will actually be applying it to the genuine article (i.e., exercise in RL).

And as long as I'm not injuring myself, I can do 6 days a week of stretches, cardio, weights, et al? Cool.

Cheers, from a fellow Aussie gamer!

Quote from: brunz;469815Cheers, from a fellow Aussie gamer!

If you live Down Under, try and get Kyle to coach you personally

Quote from: Imperator;469832If you live Down Under, try and get Kyle to coach you personally

I might've, but for the fact that I'm miles away!


Just an update, while I'm at it. Now relying more heavily on body-only exercises (as per your guide, more or less), as they seem to have more of a positive effect, overall, than the weights. Except barbell squat, deadlift and bench press - they seem to be the good stuff. I occasionally add in a few others, just to mix it up. But yeah, it's the hanging leg raises, pushups, pullups, chinups, dips, cardio, etc., that have made a lot of difference so far.

Oh, and is it normal, even after weeks of being comfortable with strenuous workouts, to feel half-dead after ONE lesson (so far) of a martial art?! Like, for two whole days afterwards?

I hope so. Doesn't feel as though anything's broken/fractured/pulled, etc. Just really sore, in many places. Muscles I didn't know I had, as the saying goes.

Glad to hear you're being active.

Being miles away isn't always a problem, a guy who reads these forums followed me up and works out with me, he comes before work, he has got good results so far. Of course he can come straight down the freeway so it isn't that difficult for him.

Apart from one guy (also a gamer, and my longest-standing client), my strongest clients are women. It's simply that strength is their particular goal, so they've worked towards it; most of the men have more general health or sports-oriented goals.

I had a woman deadlift 100kg today. At a strength-oriented gym that's unremarkable for a woman, but at a mainstream commercial or community gym it'll usually make the woman one of the strongest there. For her it's remarkable since when she started she couldn't do a single deep bodyweight squat. So never underestimate how far you can go with consistent effort over time properly applied.

Whenever you do a new kind of movement vigorously, you're likely to hurt a day or two afterwards. This fades as your body becomes accustomed to the new movement.

Yeah. The pain is fading. I was just surprised that, after all the effort I've been putting in, it still hurts! No big deal though. Encouraging to know that it's "normal", anyway.

And I can certainly believe what you say, about female clients. Just for example, one of the martial arts instructors is female, and she's extremely fit. The weights gym is fairly well-populated with women as well, and while - just like the guys who go there - strength and endurance (etc.) varies a lot, some of them are pretty damn impressive. No wait... that sounds sleazy.

Ah, you know what I mean.