Hello everyone, this is my first post, and I imagine it will be quite long, so I thank those in advance for reading it. For about 3 years now since I was 17, I have gone through many, many phases of workout routines that have had various results. I have taken several sorts of supplements, and it is now that I have begun to try and pick and choose parts from each routine and put it together to what I feel fits me best. I am a college student, and granted I take grades and friends seriously, I don't have all the time in the world, so I'm only willing to spend 3-5 hours a week working out, though my diet is generally excellent.
I am 5'11" and 165 pounds.
Anyway, this past semester at school, I have followed the routine:
1) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Add "1-minute rest after each line"):
15 chin-ups (with palms of fist facing me)
2 miles on tread-mill @ 8mph
3 reps of 200 lbs bench press
2 reps of 200 lbs bench press
1 rep of 200 lbs bench press
10 reps of 150 lbs bench press
2 miles on tread-mill @ 8mph
10 chin-ups
5 chin-ups
On Sunday: 8 miles on treadmill @ 8mph
Each workout would take 1 hour (pretty much exactly, even MWF) and I felt it was a good mix of endurance and resistance training. Honestly, I am pretty unscientific about it, and I'm sure I'm making some awful mistakes, which is where I need advice. Is there anything I can do to drastically improve my workout? Are any of the things I do harmful? Would you recommend that I do lower weight on the bench press and higher reps?
2) In the morning, I take multi-vitamins, but additionally, I take 1 caffeine pill. Perhaps I am crazy, but someone once told me that a little caffeine can catalyze your metabolism. Is this bull? If anything else, it at least gives me energy for class.
3) On my off-days (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) should I let my body rest, or could I throw in a push-up routine? Lately, I have done the following: 50 pushups, 40, 30, 20, 10 with 2 minutes of jogging in between. I'd run for 20 minutes at 8mph, and do the push-up routine again. In the end I have I done 300 pushups and about 30-40 minutes of running (depending on how efficiently I got from push-up to run). Can I do something about this routine?
4) Another push-up variation that my wrestling coach taught me involves a pack of cards. You flip a card over from a 52 card deck. Do that number of pushups (K=13, A=14). That color is the push-up color, and from then on, you rest for the number of seconds if the other color flips over (for example, the first card you flip over is 4 of diamonds. 4 pushups, and for every red card, you do that number of pushups, and rest for black cards). Anyway, in the end, you do 208 push-ups, but you have less rest-time (about 3 and a half minutes) than my other push-up routine. Is the important factor for push-ups your total number? Or total intesity?
5) Lately, for my morning breakfast (I'm not crazy about protein...I know I'm probably ridiculous, but I found that I react much better to an overall veggie diet, then I do to a high-protein diet) I throw in an apple, an orange, 6 small strawberries, 6 cubes of ice, and a 60 calorie strawberry banana yogurt into a blender, and it produces a delicious smoothie. And that's my fruit for the day, and my breakfast. Is that much fruit good? Or too much?
6) Regarding pull-ups. What are the main differences between pull-ups and chin-ups? I've grown accustom to chin-ups (used to be able to do maybe 7-8. Now can do 15 straight). I know it takes time to train muscles to be good at either one, but if pull-ups are better, I will change to them. Also, it seems that I've completely plateaued at 15. I started at 8 and added 1 a week. But I can't get past 15 now, no matter what. Anything I can do?
7) Finally, I often workout at night so that I don't suffer from post-workout hunger binge. Instead I go straight to bed (I know, yuck) and wake up the next morning to a smoothie. Is it better to workout in the morning and be hungry(er?) or at night and avoid replacing lost calories with desperation food?
Anyway, thanks for reading my lengthy post (for those that did) and I appreciate any and all responses (even negative ones! I realize that a lot of what I said probably sounds incredibly naive to some)!
I am 5'11" and 165 pounds.
Anyway, this past semester at school, I have followed the routine:
1) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Add "1-minute rest after each line"):
15 chin-ups (with palms of fist facing me)
2 miles on tread-mill @ 8mph
3 reps of 200 lbs bench press
2 reps of 200 lbs bench press
1 rep of 200 lbs bench press
10 reps of 150 lbs bench press
2 miles on tread-mill @ 8mph
10 chin-ups
5 chin-ups
On Sunday: 8 miles on treadmill @ 8mph
Each workout would take 1 hour (pretty much exactly, even MWF) and I felt it was a good mix of endurance and resistance training. Honestly, I am pretty unscientific about it, and I'm sure I'm making some awful mistakes, which is where I need advice. Is there anything I can do to drastically improve my workout? Are any of the things I do harmful? Would you recommend that I do lower weight on the bench press and higher reps?
2) In the morning, I take multi-vitamins, but additionally, I take 1 caffeine pill. Perhaps I am crazy, but someone once told me that a little caffeine can catalyze your metabolism. Is this bull? If anything else, it at least gives me energy for class.
3) On my off-days (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) should I let my body rest, or could I throw in a push-up routine? Lately, I have done the following: 50 pushups, 40, 30, 20, 10 with 2 minutes of jogging in between. I'd run for 20 minutes at 8mph, and do the push-up routine again. In the end I have I done 300 pushups and about 30-40 minutes of running (depending on how efficiently I got from push-up to run). Can I do something about this routine?
4) Another push-up variation that my wrestling coach taught me involves a pack of cards. You flip a card over from a 52 card deck. Do that number of pushups (K=13, A=14). That color is the push-up color, and from then on, you rest for the number of seconds if the other color flips over (for example, the first card you flip over is 4 of diamonds. 4 pushups, and for every red card, you do that number of pushups, and rest for black cards). Anyway, in the end, you do 208 push-ups, but you have less rest-time (about 3 and a half minutes) than my other push-up routine. Is the important factor for push-ups your total number? Or total intesity?
5) Lately, for my morning breakfast (I'm not crazy about protein...I know I'm probably ridiculous, but I found that I react much better to an overall veggie diet, then I do to a high-protein diet) I throw in an apple, an orange, 6 small strawberries, 6 cubes of ice, and a 60 calorie strawberry banana yogurt into a blender, and it produces a delicious smoothie. And that's my fruit for the day, and my breakfast. Is that much fruit good? Or too much?
6) Regarding pull-ups. What are the main differences between pull-ups and chin-ups? I've grown accustom to chin-ups (used to be able to do maybe 7-8. Now can do 15 straight). I know it takes time to train muscles to be good at either one, but if pull-ups are better, I will change to them. Also, it seems that I've completely plateaued at 15. I started at 8 and added 1 a week. But I can't get past 15 now, no matter what. Anything I can do?
7) Finally, I often workout at night so that I don't suffer from post-workout hunger binge. Instead I go straight to bed (I know, yuck) and wake up the next morning to a smoothie. Is it better to workout in the morning and be hungry(er?) or at night and avoid replacing lost calories with desperation food?
Anyway, thanks for reading my lengthy post (for those that did) and I appreciate any and all responses (even negative ones! I realize that a lot of what I said probably sounds incredibly naive to some)!
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