GRADUATING THE SCHEDULE
After voluntarily being into fitness schedule for more than two years, i thought i will jot down few changes that i incorporated in my schedule, various phases that i went through and the blunders that i think i created.
First of all i would cover the training part. I had given out my initial workout schedules in my previous posts. after carrying on with them for more than a year. i felt that after some time, i had reached a stagnation level and that was the time for some changes. in fact, i was getting a feeling that even with the same intensity in my workouts and the same sincerity in my diet, the fat was not reducing further and the muscles were not growing. after going through some bodybuilding.com articles and few issues of men’s health, i realized that trying for fat loss and muscle gain simultaneously does not work well… The best way that i could decide on was to gain some muscle first and thereafter reduce the extra fat gained during the process. Keeping this in view i started off with muscle gain programme in nov 2008 with reduction in cardio and increase in calories intake. I continued with it till feb end and saw some increase in size. thereafter from apr onwards i switched gears and got on to fat reduction schedule. it constituted of increase in cardio and reduction in diet. with that, i was able to get my body fat level considerably down. i was on this schedule till aug 2009. thereafter it was again time to change gears so now for some time, im on a mixed schedule. about the training split that i followed, i’ll discuss later.
Coming over to diet plan…it’s really difficult to follow a particular diet plan indefinitely….and it becomes useless too after some time. i almost starved myself for the first year but thereafter felt that there was a need to maintain balance so that i don’t miss out on tasty things in life…and more so because i tend to have a sweet tooth. so i increased the no of cheat meals in my diet plan. i’ll give out the diet plan in the later part of the post.
The most important part that tends to go down with time is the motivation level. One has to make deliberate efforts to keep it high. there are various ways and means to to so which i had already jotted down in my earlier post. After being on a strict self disciplined regime for a long time, one gets a feeling to stop and have a break.. especially when you see people around you having a ball.. but believe me.. those are the people who finally motivate you.. once they compare their paunchs with yours and try to justify their being fat.. and at the same time wish that their body was as yours.. But one surely requires a break.. once or twice a week is OK.. but that should not give you a taste of it and deviate you from your motive..
Now coming to my training schedule..
while being on a muscle gain programme, the training schedule i followed was six times a day, one body part twice a week.. someone might say that’s over-training, but i didn’t feel it.. my schedule was as under..
Monday: Chest/Triceps/Abs
Tuesday: Back/Biceps
Wednesday: Legs/Shoulders/Abs
Thursday: Chest/Triceps/Abs
Friday: Back/Biceps
Saturday: Legs/Shoulders/Abs
After some time, i changed it to Three days a week..
Monday: Chest/Triceps/Abs
Wednesday: Back/Biceps
Friday: Legs/Shoulders/Abs
The workouts were the same old home gym workouts with a pair of dumbbells.. with a variation in exercises. generally it used to be 3 Exercises per body part with 4 sets each consisting of 12 reps.
While switching over to fat loss schedule, all that i had to do was insert cardio in the remaining three days.. ie tue, thu and sat. Cardio consisted of morning jog, cycling and punching practice..
…… to be continued…
