Jumpstart Day 7

Day 7 Weigh In 199.5

Down a total of 4 pound in 7 days. Not too shabby. Tomorrow its back to eating mostly clean and following the AGD. I was little off schedule this morning as I ended up having Peanut butter toast and a protein shake for breakfast. I just was not in the mood for eggs again. Lunch was Vegetable soup with a piece of Salmon and a yogurt. Snack this afternoon was a banana and almonds. Supper was a burger (no bun), salad and wine. Snack tonight is more yogurt, cherries, and pecans. Tomorrow is a workout day, and from there I am probably going to go back to two days a week with some additional walking on the days in between, but I'm going to play that by ear. Too much structure, or trying to be too strict is not a good plan for me or most people who don't have defined performance related goals. Its more important to cover the basics on a consistent basis than make too many rules that are just broken due to circumstances.

Jumpstart Day 6

Sometimes, Supper just happens. Tonite was one of those nights. An onerously long meeting at the office, plus Mrs D. having work struggles led to finishing the entire bottle of wine. Its days like this that reinforce the concept of perfection being the enemy of the good. Because some days, good enough is just that.

Breakfast; Scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa

Lunch; Steak, salad with olive oil and vinegar

Snack; apple and almonds

Supper; Atkins Quick Seafood Chowder, Crackers, Cheese, and Wine

Snack; Pepperoni and cheese

Jumpstart Day 5

No picture today, sorry. I was going to take a picture of my supper, but I started eating and just plain forgot. Today was an average day at work. My energy levels were a little off today, probably still adjusting to lower carbs and a clean diet. I did manage to get in a quickie workout consisting of push-ups, assisted chin-ups, and 20 minute on the exercise bike at about 80% of predicted heart rate max.

Breakfast
Eggs
Sausage
Banana

Lunch
Italian sausage
Zucchini Bake

Snack
Yogurt
Nuts

Dinner
Salmon Cakes
Stir Fried Spaghetti Squash
Spinach

Snack
Yogurt
Cherries
Pecans

JumpStart Day 4

Breakfast
Bacon
Eggs
Orange

Lunch
Steak
Salad

Snack
Banana
Mixed Nuts

Supper
Ham
Acorn Squash
Broccoli

Snack
Cottage Cheese
Peanut Butter
Protein Powder

Jumpstart Day 3

Back to work today after a long holiday weekend. Getting up this morning was not fun. Made it through the day and even got in my work out.

Breakfast
Eggs
Sausage
Orange

Lunch
Chicken
Mixed Vegetables
Apple

Afternoon Snack
Greek Yogurt
Almonds

Dinner
Italian Sausages in Sauce
Zucchini Baked with cheese
Salad

Evening Snack
Greek Yogurt
Berries and Walnuts

Todays workout, 2 circuits of each of the following.
Dumbbell Squats
Push-ups
DB Rows
DB press
DB Up rows
Triceps press with DB
Wall Sits
DB Curls

Jumpstart Day 2

Today got off to a rough start. We were having our coffee and getting ready to cook breakfast when the power went out. We waited a few minutes and then a few more minutes and still no electricity. Having an electric stove, a cooked breakfast was out. I dind't really feel up for cold-cuts for breakfast, so I just had a bowl of Kashi Cereal, with some walnuts and a protein shake. It wasn't ideal, or what I wanted, but sometimes you got to do the best you can in any given situation. As for the rest of the day.....

Lunch
Deli meat rolls with cheese
Vegetable soup
Apple

Snack
Cottage cheese
Peanut butter
Protein Powder

Dinner
Scampi Style Shrimp
Spaghetti Squash
Tossed Salad
Wine

About the snack, I know it sounds a little weird. I even made fun of Mrs D for a couple of weeks for eating it. Then I tried it. It is really good, just add a little vanila extract or such for a little flavor. Its almost like desert. I also added 3o minutes on the bike today because of what happened with breakfast. Ordinarily I would not have worried about the cereal for breakfast but being that I'm trying to do the jump-start, I did it.

Jumpstart Day1

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with vegetables, Bacon, an Orange, Coffee with Splenda and Half and half.

Lunch; Italian Sausages on a salad with vinegar and olive oil

Post work out, afternoon snack; Milk, Bomber Blend Protein Powder, peanut butter and banana

Dinner; Vegetable Soup, Salmon with a macadamia nut and coconut crust

Evening Snack (not pictured);Fage Greek yogurt with berries and walnuts.

Todays work out consisted of 2 circuits of the following exercises;
Deadlift
Dumbbell press
Lat Pull down
Lunges
Push-up
Dumbbell row
Wall Sit
dumbbell curl
dumbbell tricep press

I used a moderate weight for all exercises that allowed me to finish the first circuit with moderate effort, ut a challenge for the second circuit. Rest between exercises was kept to a minimum, and rest between circuits was avout 60 seconds.

Its News Years, time to lock it back down

Official Jan 1 Weigh In 203.5 lb.

My most recent recorded weight prior to today was 197 on November 18. I had been down as low as 195, but I must have not recorded it. Even so, that puts my holiday weight gain this year at 6.5 lb. It could have been worse, a lot worse. I had hoped to end the year at under 200, but I'll take a 20 lb. weight loss year on year. I spent today just eating normally and taking a short walk. Tomorrow, the seven day jump start begins. I'll be posting my eating and exercising activities for the week along with my results. After the jump start I will be sticking to my plan very closely for the month of January, by avoiding any refined sugars and junk foods, and making sure I meet my protein, fruit and vegetable requirements. Exercise wise, I going to try to hit the gym three times a week. If this gets to be unmanageable, I'll drop it to twice a week and not sweat it. Lets get read to rumble.

If this is your first time here I'd start by going to the first Average Guy Post and beginning at the beginning.

Getting Back On Track

So, the holidays are winding down, and in-spite of your best intentions, you over did it. It happened at my house, and chances are it happened at some of yours. No big deal. Really.

Plan A - Just get back into the swing of things and the weight and belly bulge will go down on its own. Go back to the Average Guys Diet and start from there. Keep doing what ever exercise you are/were doing. At least one hard weight work out and one hard interval session for cardio will do. This may take a couple of weeks or more, depending on out of control you got at the buffet table.

Plan B- Many of us, me included, like to get the holiday weight and bloat off as quickly as possible. For four to seven days, up-to about 10 max, depending on how over the top you went, Eat meat, beans, eggs, cheese, nuts, olive oil, non starchy vegetables, and fruits, and nothing else. Limit your fruits to 2 pieces a day or what ever is your minimum amount accord to the AGD . Every other day, do some type of full body workout. The "No excuses work out", Circuit training with weights, or even push ups and sit-ups combined with Interval training on a Bike. Mix and match as you wish. In one week, you should have dropped the holiday weight. Then its back to eating right, and exercising on a normal schedule. Like I said before, you got to keep doing it forever.

Still An Average Guy

Oh what a lazy shit I've been these several months. Thats true at least about writing. So far however I have been doing quite well keeping my food and exercise in line which is the important part. Diet wise I have been following my own advice. The Average Guys Diet, is working and I'm down to the lowest weight I've been in about 4 years, 195. My last body fat measurement was a healthy 18%, and I've dropped several inches, and now have a 36 inch waist. I would like to get back to a 34 and a body fat less than 15%, but I see no need to push it. Slow and steady has been winning the race, so it aint broke and don't need fixing. This doesn't mean I've been perfect. Just this past Sunday, we got together with Mrs D's siblings and all their youngin's for a family picture. Afterward we all went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. I had the Smoke House Burger with Fries and a beer. It was wonderful, I enjoyed every bite. Didn't quite get my fruits or vege's for the day, but life goes on. Monday I was back on track.

On the exercise side, I have made a few changes. I'm back to once a week strength training plus once a week high intensity interval training. Some people do well on more frequent, less intense type workouts such as the one in my previous post, I'm just not one of them. I just feel better with more days recovery then working out. This is not to say I'm a couch potato on my off days, I'm not. I often go for a walk or bike ride after dinner, its just nothing structured or planned. The twice a week routine has also seemed to be what a couple of friends have gone back to as a default. One just hates cardio and does an A/B split strength training routine, while the others have adopted my strategy of one day a week of cardio plus one day of strength training. Not everybody loves HIIT the way I do, so they do what the prefer.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner along with all of the dietary pitfalls associated with this time of year. There will be no baking in the Dill house this year. Holiday feasts will be one day events. I'll be keeping to the twice a week exercise plan as well. Remember, being on track 80% of the time is good this time of year. Stay strong, and hopefully it won't take me 6 moths to have something to say.

Average Guys guide to a no excuses work out

You plus one pair of dumbbells plus 15 minutes equal fitness

I was recently contemplating one of the most common excuses I hear as to why people don't exercise. Of course that exercise is lack of time, followed closely by lack of equipment. So I wondered what would be the minimum investment one could make in time and equipment. Time wise, 60 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous exercise seems to be a general, but not unanimous consensus. For equipment of course, that would be zero dollars, using nothing but body weight. For some reason however, people just seem to regard calisthenics as not worthy, and feel the need to use some type of equipment to get the job done. The most basic piece of equipment is a single pair of dumbbells. Many guys already seem to have a pair or two stashed away in a closet or in the basement, unused. I see these at yard sales and flea markets all the time for about a buck. Many of them are of very light pink type, but I also see pairs of 10 - 15lbs as well. So with one set of 10 -15lbs dumbbells in mind, I tried to figure out how to use these in a way that would meet the criteria of a fitness based workout in 15 minutes or less. During my research I came across a site, Shovelglove, that certainly offers one possibility using a sledge hammer instead of dumbbells. Much of what follows is largely the result of my adapting his concept for a sledge hammer and putting it to use with body weight and dumbbells with the idea of achieving a minimum passing score on a physical fitness test. The site itself is worth a read, particularly the part about the trap of progress, and Urban Rangering. Oddly enough, or perhaps not so, he too is a software engineer.

Off the top of my head I came up with the following list of exercises. When I began thinking about this, I had in mind a "daily dozen" that would be done on most days of the week. I ended up going for ten. The first four exercises are kind of "required" to make this work, but the rest are substitutable with what ever you may wish to do. Do this four or five days a week and get on with the rest of your busy life.

Jumping Jacks
Push -Ups
Sit Ups
Deep Knee Bends/Hindu Squats - with or with out weight
Upright rows
Over head press
lunges - with or with out weight
Curls
French Press
toe touches/Stiff leg dead lift

In starting this workout do each exercise for 10 reps, or as many as you can, which ever is less. Do each rep of each exercise at a brisk but deliberate pace, the idea is not to rush, but to keep moving. After completing an exercise, take a couple of deep breaths and move immediately to the next exercise. Once you are able to confidently do 10 reps of each exercise and move to the next after a breath or two, add 2 reps to each exercise. The last rep should be a challenge but not so hard that you might not get it. Don't add reps every work out, and don't add reps on any exercise until you can add them to all exercises. This way you only have to remember one number. Keep doing this till you are able to do each exercise for a full 50 reps. If 50 sounds like too many, start with a more modest goal, like 20 or 25. After you get there decide if thats good enough, or to go further. If when starting out you struggle to get ten or fewer push-ups, getting to 20 or 25 and hanging out there for a while is not a bad idea. For guys over 40, 30 good "Army" push ups would be sufficient to pass the push up test. A good way to get an idea of where you stand is adultfitnesstest.org. If you pass, go back and re-evalutate once a year. The key is, once you are fit, there is not a lot of benefit to pushing much further. You may just want to ride the plateau and enjoy the view.

Note - Why 50? Generally speaking, 50 is the minimum macho number for doing push ups.

Average Guys Diet Revisited

Its been about a year since I last blogged for Average Guys and I think I'm over due. A lot has happened in the past year, and I am still dealing with some of the fallout of these changes. Along the way I kind of lost sight of what I was trying to convey. Recently however one of my office colleagues had a health issue. He's an Average Guy, and its guys like him who need this advice more than most.

Way back here I laid out the template for the Average Guys diet. Today when I look at it again, I think it stands up pretty well. That's not to say that its perfect, it isn't. Or that in light of today's economy that some changes and variations couldn't work just as well. Now, having read over it again I will say this.... If you can still afford to eat according to the original plan with out limiting your selections to hamburger and hot dogs, by all means feel free, and use these updates as needed or desired.

Generally speaking, the most expensive part of any higher protein, lower starch type diet is meat. My original recommendation was to divide your body weight by 10 to get the amount of meat/eggs/cheese your are supposed to eat everyday. In our cheap eating model you are going to divide your weight by 13 and round down any remainder. So in this case our 210lb guy would be eating 16oz of meat/eggs/cheese a day instead of 21. Since we are taking away 5oz of meat we need to add something back. That my something my friends is beans. Navy black, kidney, garbanzoand lentils, etc... Yes, the musical fruit. I can hear the paleo purists howl already, too bad. Beans have gotten humans thru some pretty tough times in history, and likely they will do it again. Both canned and dried bean will work, with dried being the most economical, but most time consuming. Four our example guy, since he is reducing his meat by 5 ounces, he is going to add 1 1/4 cup of beans , (.25 Cup per ounce of meat), to his daily plan. So chili con carne, sausage and bean casserole, even baked beans are back on the menu.

In doing this you no longer get to count beans as a vegetable however. So in dividing your weight by 30 to get veggie servings, our average guy would be eating 7 servings of mostly non-starchy vegetables.

Fruit servings are still weight divided by 70.

Still eat an ounce of nuts, nut butters or seeds everyday.

Add at least two tablespoons of fat from olive oil or real butter to you plan. This is important when eating the beans and vegetables to aid in digestion.

As before, the above are minimums that are too be eaten every day. If eating all of this you still want a biscuit or something, go for it, just don't stuff yourself to do it, and don't do it everyday. A serving or two of dairy is good if you digest milk. Plain whole yogurt or kefir is always a good choice, especially mixed with fruit. The plan isn't perfect and you shouldn't worry about perfection. The idea is to be on track most of the time, with allowances for special occasions and real life situations.

Average Guys Guide #10 plan B

The alternative plan for Spring Training for the Average Guy, cleaning it up to look better nekid, or close to it.

The Definition Diet

Unlike plan A, there is no measuring, weighing or counting of anything. The diet goes like this; eat as much meat, eggs, cheese and green vegetables as you want, just don't stuff yourself in the process. The only exceptions to the green vegetables are red peppers, summer squash, mushrooms, and cauliflower. So if its not on the above list don't eat it, no exceptions. Now you can add butter, oil, avocados and cream to make your food taste better, and for cooking. You can drink water, coffee, tea, wine and hard liquor (Max of 3 drinks total per day for men, 2 for women). Again, no exceptions - Not even diet soda or crystal light. Spices and seasonings of all kinds are fine as long as the don't have any type of sugar or starch in them. Thats it. If you don't see it mentioned, it isn't part of the plan. I may seem to repeat myself here, but people always seem to say but what about ...., If it isn't on the list the answer is no, you can't eat it or drink it. Not for the next 6 weeks. For the first few days, you might feel a little rough, suck it up. In six weeks you can accomplish what the plan A guys are going to take 12 weeks to do. But like most things in life there are trade offs. So you'll just have to console yourself for the next 6 weeks with delmonico steaks, broccoli with cheese sauce and Jack Daniels or Cab Sav for dinner.

The workout requirements for plan b are the same as for plan A. Though I would recommend the Circuit Training option over the strength training and cardio combination. I recently came across a good collection of routines for this program in a book called the "Abs Diet - Get Fit Stay Fit". Its an interesting assortment of workouts using a variety of equipment that can be adapted easily. While the routines are certainly not strength focused, they will meet the bill for fitness and fat loss.

Average Guys Guide #10 plan A

Spring Training for the Average Guy, cleaning it up to look better nekid, or close to it.

The Neutral Diet

I call this the neutral diet because it is not high or low in anything. There will be some extremists who say that it's too much/little protein, or too many/too few carbs or too much/too little fat or too what ever. To all of them I say b*llsh*t. Now there are a couple of assumptions built in to the neutral diet. The first being that you are willing and able to do hard exercise 3 or 4 days a week. The second is that you are willing and able to plan and track your eating. Lastly, that you are at a body fat level that would be considered "healthy" by the ACSM. This means 15-24% for males, 22-31% for females. If you are fatter than this you can still use the basic template, just don't do the refeeds. If you are leaner then this it may not be enough calories and cause you to stall or lose lean mass.

The set up is simple. Your weight in lbs. equals the number of grams of carbs. Divide your weight in lbs. by 3 to get the number of fat grams, and multiply your weight in lbs. by 0.7 to get your grams of protein. Recalculate your diet with every 10 lbs of lost weight. To move from fat loss to maintenance ,add 200 calories to your day, in weekly increments. in a balanced manner. This set up provides sufficient carbs to fuel your work outs and avoid muscle glycogen depletion, adequate protein for muscle building and repair, and adequate fat to maintain hormonal tonus and provide satiety. While that sounds all sciencey, it means this, your won't "bonk" during your work outs, you shouldn't lose lean muscle, your hormone levels shouldn't get all crazy, and your food can still taste good.

As part of this, include one free meal a week, and one carb refeed every other week. Now, about free meals. These are not an excuse to go face down in a buffet until they call the cops to escort you out. Generally speaking I recommend this meal be eaten out with out worrying about your diet. Have a dessert and fried food if you like. Just don't gorge your self. The refeed is a bit more structured. In these, double the amount of carbs you eat for one day, while keeping the fat and protein level close to normal. Many people use refeeds to indulge in candy, pop-tarts, and pancakes with syrup. All of which are fine, as long as fat and protein levels are maintained.

The associated work out plan I recommend for this is three circuit training sessions a week using alternating routines, or two full body strength training sessions with some type of interval training done on two other days. If you don't know which way to go, try one for a month, then try the other the next month. See which one you prefer, or even continue to alternate on a monthly basis. Fred Fornicola has two excellent examples of circuit training on his blog.

Dumbbell Routine

PHA

Interval Training is explained here.

Keep this up for three months and you can drop enough fat to need smaller pants.

Average Guys Giude #9

Right now, there are three types of guys, and perhaps gals, that have done the basic routine I laid out. The first group reached the strength mile stones in ExRx rather quickly, wondered what all the fuss was about, and probably stopped reading this blog as I obviously had no clue. They are now doing WestSide or DC training. The second group, is getting close or can see the possibility of getting there in the not too distant future. They think I have a clue. The third group is wondering how in gods name are they ever gonna lift that much weight. They wonder about me and the the authors of the strength standards, and question our drug free status.

Now lets make sure we are all on the same page here. If for example, you are a 198lb guy, the novice one rep max for dead lifts is 289lbs. This means if you are doing 225 -230 for eight reps, your one rep max should be about 289. If after six months of exercise, and three months of dead lifting, you are nowhere near the weight you would need to get to hit your one rep max, its time to re-evaluate. First, are you really trying? If you are really trying, then, probably less exercise is in order. That's right, less not more. While in many mainstream publications and web sites, they will tell you you need more, I am here to tell you you need less. Even for the guys in the second group, many will get stronger faster buy doing less. The name of this blog is lowcarbhit. Well my friends, its time to up the ante, and try a little new school, old fashioned HIT (High Intensity Training). First thing, drop any and all cardio and conditioning work. (Hold your applause till the end.) Next get a stop watch with a cord. Now lets re-organize your workouts. From this point on you are only going to be doing one set of each exercise. The goal is to reach fatigue in about 55 - 90 seconds, this is why we have the stop watch. I want you to preform the exercises in a deliberately slow manner. I am not worried about a specific time that each rep should take, just move as slowly as you can while still moving . If you need to, reduce the weight you were using by 10 -20% so you can slow down your rep speed. Don't worry about counting the reps, we're going to be tracking time. For example, you are about to due a set of bicep curls. With the stop watch around your neck or otherwise easy to get to, start the watch just prior to grabbing the bar. Do your curls slowly, and keep going until you reach a point where you can't move the bar. Put the bar down and stop the watch. Subtract 10 seconds from the time on the watch. If it is less than 50 seconds, you used to much weight. If its more than 90 seconds, add a little weight next time. This is how all you exercises will be done except for the dead lift. On the dead lift stop at the last full rep you can complete in good form. Your new routine looks like this;

Dead lifts
Overhead Press
Rows
Pushups
Curls
Ball Squats/Wall Sits

For those folks who workout in a gym your workout looks like this;

Leg Press
Shoulder Press
Row
Chest Press
Lat Pulldown
Low Back Extension

You are going to also reduce the number of times you work out from twice a week to once every 5 days, or a Mon, Fri, Wed schedule. Meaning you will workout On Monday and Friday one week, Wednesday the next week, and so forth. Don't be fooled, if you work each exercise as hard as you can work it, you will need 5 days between workouts. If in doubt, take 7 days between workouts. Keep this up for a good 4 - 6 weeks, and you'll be surprised at how strong you can get.

Average Guys Guide #8

Avoiding Stupid New Years Resolutions

We are at the second most dangerous time of year, New Years. During this time many people, including tons of folks who should know better, make ridiculous resolutions for the new year. Often these resolution come in the form of promises of diet and exercise. I am here to tell you that if you have been doing the Average guys eating and exercise plan, to avoid the impulse to jump into something radically different in hopes of some fast transformation into a leaner and more muscular you. Now, if you have been going along and think you would like to step it up a notch thats fine, just wait a week or two after Jan 1, to make sure its not some passing fancy that you will abandon. Its way too easy a trap to fall into. Right now your total time commitment to exercise is about 90 minutes a week, max. Your eating guidelines are quite flexible. Many, however, have probably already gotten complacent. Rather than jump into something completely different, tighten up on what you are already doing. Examine your diet, are still eating the recommended amount of meat, vegetables and fruits? Are you still eating breakfast everyday? What about your workouts, are you still adding weight when the exercises get too easy? Are you still faithfully working out twice a week every week? Are you still doing any conditioning work? If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then you are ready to step up to the next level if you wish. If you are not doing all of these, and haven't been able to keep up with the basics, why would you make an even larger commitment? Yes, its bloody hard to resist the sirens call of all the advertising and marketing out there. Remember tho', all these people really care about reducing, is the money in your wallet. If you really feel compelled to spend money and try something new then let me recommend going to your favorite used book store and buying either A Week in the Zone or Mastering the Zone . For people that have trouble with my eating recommendations due to their lack of sufficient structure, these are a good way to go. Next time I'll address how to take your training a new direction.

Average guys guide to getting thru Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season.

Step 1, eat enough protein.
Step 2, continue with your work outs.

Thats it. Despite all the ranting, raving, hand wringing and self pity that goes around this time of year, my advice to you is have a good time. Yup, you heard me; eat too much, drink too much, stay out too late, dance with your wife, flirt with the secretarty, have a good time. If you do nothing else but make sure you eat a healthy serving of protein at every holiday event you attend, and keep with your twice weekly workouts, you'll be fine come January 2. Maybe you'll have gained a pound or two, maybe not. As long as you keep lifting, at least part of it will be muscle. Come the frist of the year when things calm down, and you retrun to a normal eating pattern, and keep with the lifting, any extra fat will take care of itself with no extra effort from you. Plus you'll have the bonus of having added a bit of muscle in the process. If for some reason you have to go somewhere that may not have much protein, or you just want to keeep things in check, chug down a protien shake before you leave home. Water, ice and protein powder in a blender, gulp, go, party on dude!.

Average Guy's Guide #6

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Ok, so for those of you who are waiting with baited breath, all two of you, for the next installment into the average guys guide your wait is over.

The question I here from my meat space participants who have been my guinea pigs, most often is, "How strong is strong enough?" Well, the most straight forward answer I can find is the tables at EXRX.net For the purposes of this series the only two of the exercises listed that we are going to concern ourselves with are the over head press and dead lift. The combination of these exercises provide for a very good assessment of total body strength. You goal should be to achieve the "novice" levels of strength. According to the authors of these charts, the level of strength associated with novice is sufficient to support vigorous fitness activity. So in my estimation, that is strong enough for an average guy. This is not strong enough for competitive lifters, or bodybuilders, but hey, all we're trying to do here is be strong enough to be healthy, fit, and not too fat. Right? So far I've had you do a body weight, and an intro routine. Nether of which included the dead lift. A stiff leg dead lift yes, but that is not the one we are concerned with. The dead lift is the most basic exercise there is, and one of, if not the most useful. It involves your whole body, and working up to novice levels of strength in this exercise will pay dividends for years to come. We will not however be doing any one rep max lifts, nor will we ever work this exercise to failure. Start with a weight you can lift with confidence and slowly add weight. It will get hard soon enough. Starting with this next routine we are going to be working a split routine. Not a bodybuilders body part split, we are just going to divide the exercises into two different workouts, each done once a week.

Workout A
DeadLift 2 sets of 8 reps
Overhead press 2 sets of 8 reps
Curls(optional) 2 sets of 8 reps
A brisk walk or other conditioning work

Workout B
Split Squat 2 sets of 8 reps
Bent Over Row 2 sets of 8 reps
Push Ups/Bench Press 2 x max reps/2 sets of 8 reps
Hammer work

Continue using this routine until you reach novice levels of strength as defined by the charts at Exrx.net. Do a warm up set or two prior to the work sets. This is a tried and proven program that has been used before by many many trainees to achieve strength levels much higher than we are shooting for here. You can find numerous variations of this routine in books and on the Internet. The reason you see this routine in so many places is quite simple, it works. Don't be put off by its simplicity, worked hard, this is a beast. Yes, it is enough volume. Until you have built a solid foundation of strength you will do yourself more harm then good by doing extra work. Leave the advanced routines to the advanced trainees. To sum it up, lift hard, eat well, get enough sleep, recover between workouts. Simple ? Yes. Easy? No.

Average Guy's Guide #5

So, the time has come, man meets iron. After much consideration, read procrastination, its time to get busy lifting weights. We are going to stop the body weight deep knee bends, but keep the push ups, situps and hammer work, plus add a few other things in. There will be a link provided for each new exercise to exrx.net for a complete description and demo. So here is your next routine

Spilt Squats
Stiff leg Deadlift
Overhead Press
Bent over Row
Push Ups
Sit Ups
Hammer work

There ya go. Do these twice a week, giving yourself at least 2 or three days between workouts. Start conservative with the weights. These are new movements, and it'll take a time or three to get the hang of them. Its far better to do it light and do it right, then go heavy too quickly and get hurt. Getting hurt is not good, in fact part of why we're doing this is to be more injury resistant. Now that we are past the absolute beginner stage the question always comes up as to how many sets to preform. If you travel about the internet you will find various answers to that question. Here is mine, One set works IF you have a qualified coach or partner to spot you, push you, and watch your form. IF you are in this situation, especially if you have access to high quality equipment like Med-x or Hammer, then go for it, one max set is all you need. IF however, you are working out alone in your garage or basement, then two hard sets, is better then trying to do one max set unsupervised. To start the Split squats and deadlifts with, use a weight that you could get 20 reps with but stop at 15. For the press' and row's, use a weight that you could get 15 reps with, but stop at 12. For the pushups and sit ups you should be able to get 2 sets of 20. If on the second set you aren't sure if you can get all the reps, stop on the last rep you know you can get. Just try to do a little better next time. After you are able to get all reps in both sets confidently, add weight, 5 lbs, at the next work out. This routine should last you for about 8 weeks. At the end of 8 weeks, take a week off. It will be time to change things up again.

Average Guy's Guide #4

So, how ya doing so far? You're probably wondering when the miraculous transformation is going to start. Well, it ain't. This here is not some get ripped in 90 day type of program. This is about building a foundation of strength and health, one brick at a time. There are plenty of books and websites that'll promise you the moon,take your money, and leave you right where your are now, looking for a real answer. The real secret to strength and health is there ain't no secret. Its about eating right and getting regular exercise, for the rest of your natural life. Sorry to bust your bubble. Thats right, the pursuit of health and strength is not something you do for a little while and then you're done. Nope, to continue to reap the benefits of eating right and exercising, you got to do this forever.

So, Back to the eating right part. Protein, protein, protein. In case I was too subtle, PROTEIN. Forget all the nonsense you hear about the dangers of a high protein diet. Unless you have been diagnosed with kidney disease, a high protein diet is better than good for you. How much protein? I am so glad you asked. Since I am in The U.S., I will answer in pounds and ounces. Dive your weight in pounds by 10. That is how many ounces of meat/fish/foul you should eat everyday. Notice I didn't say grams of protein, this is how many ounces of meat you should put on your plate. A piece the size of a deck of cards is about three ounces. So if you weigh 210 lbs, that would be 21 ounces or seven decks of cards of meat. Such non meat items as eggs and cottage cheese can be used as well. Each large egg is one ounce of meat, a half cup of cottage cheese is 4 ounces.

Your mother was right, about vegetabels anyway. After protein, vegetables are the most important part of your diet. A serving a vegetables is about a cup raw. To get the number of servings you should eat divide your body weight in lbs. by 30. Round Up any decimal point to the next whole number. This is how many servings of vegetable you should eat everyday. One serving can be of root vegetables (carrots, beets, potatoes etc), and beans (navy, kdney etc) can be substituted for a serving as well. People who are carb sensitive may need to do an either/or on the root vegetables and beans.

For servings of fruit divide your body weight in lbs by 70, and round up as before. If you are carb sensitive stick to berries, apples, and citrus, and avoid tropical fruits (bananas, mangos).

Eat one ounce of nuts or seeds (almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds etc) or two table spoons of nut butters everyday.

The above are minimums. Divide it up over 3-4 meals and a snack or two. You can eat more if you like.

What about Pasta, cereal, and bread? Here is the deal. Fill your plate with the protein, vegetables and fruits first. If on any given day you have the choice between pasta and a potato, pick the potato. As long as you eat your minimums of the meat, vegies, fruits and nuts, you can eat what ever else you want, just don't stuff yourself to do it. I eat dairy almost everyday in the form of yoghurt, or milk in my protein shakes. I go to community dinners where spaghetti is served. I just make sure I eat meatballs, sausages and salad in sufficient quantities to go with it. BBQ's are easy, just stick to the ribs, chicken, beans, and fresh fruits. Everyday isn't going to be perfect. Life sometimes gets in the way of our best efforts. The object is to be on track 90% of the time. If you blow a meal, or a whole day for that matter, just get back on track the time you eat. Again, its not about being perfect, its about making progress and doing better over time.

NOTE: The above diet is based on a post Made by David Maurice in the Hard Gainers Round Table. To see the original diet as posted you will need to join the round table.