Hello all sifu,

I am a pure beginner in working out, and I havent work out I guess over 10 years. I have the following physique.

H: 183 cm
W: 106 kg

I am recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and been advised by doctor to start working out before they going to decide if I need to start medication. So, the goal is to get healthy and reduce weight. Anyway, I have below equipments to work out at home every morning before going to work. Due to work and commute and family commitments, I dont think an evening work out will work.

1) 3 units of dumbbells - 5kg and 2x15 kg (both adjustable, and same model meaning I can interchange weight between these 2 without problem)
2) 1 unit stationary gym bike
3) Bench

I am currently planning to do the following work out routine.

Workout time: 6.00 am after wake up (no pre workout meal), followed by breakfast (after 30 min) and go to work
Routine: 2 days workout, 1 day rest. At end of month, plan to have 4 days rest instead before reset back to original routine.

Workout plan

I've been reading this ebook as a guide and feeling of following and doing short rep with heavy weights exercises.
Bigger Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews


1st - Old plan


2nd Plan


Current Plan- I found out after a while that some muscles are being worked too much, while others are lagging. So made few adjustments there.


So, here's the problems or questions I have in mind

1) By doing this, am I covering all the muscles that I need to work out?
2) Is the workout order is good? I mean, if I follow the above sequence, may I overwork the muscles? I will start with light weights for the beginning and slowly will increase the weight in future.
3) I would like to know also, what is the best period to increase the dumbbells weight, for the dumbbel and by how much? Is increasing 1kg each in every month is a good target?

For meal, I still stick to my usual 3 meals per day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). However, I start to calculate and record the calories intake and WILL maintain less intake than the TDDE.

Appreciate all advice given

This post has been edited by blitzbullet: Nov 11 2018, 01:43 PM

include swimming if u can

sadly not possible. No swimming pool around, and no time too.

Im not professional

but according to my experience, i think i can give some advises

1) hmm seems not covering all muscles
2) if you are solely depend on dumbells, i don't think it will over work your muscles, otherwise we don't need to go to gym already (throughout my 6 yrs working out experience i never experience overtrain too)
3) if it is too light and you can do more than 15 reps then that is too light for you.

This post has been edited by daimon: Sep 19 2018, 10:51 PM

1)AthleanX is a very good place to start, just do his dumbbell routine and you will be fine

2)30 min to cover all the weights exercise and cardio?

2 set of 10 for 30 min a day wont overwork the muscle unless you do heavy work like construction or walk around all day

3)When you can do the weight relatively easy,

add reps, if still easy,

add set after that add weights

Dumbbell plate is expensive in the long run, also there so much weights the handle can fit

and try find some resistance band and try to incorporate that into your routine

keep calculating and record your food intake, that is a good plan
don't trust eyeballing the food weight, get a food scale

good luck and stay consistence

Seems like an OK workout that targets all body parts, you need to make sure that you give your all on those 10 reps. Meaning that on the 10th set of each workout, you would slightly struggle to do it and its hard to hold a conversation after your exercise. If it's too light, you can increase the weight, and progressively overload.

What I would do is I would rate on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the easiest and least struggle while 10 is the hardest of each exercise. If it's 7 or below, I would increase and weight and maintain the same weight if it's 8 or more. I will then aim to decrease the "toughness scale" on my next workout.

As for HIIT, I would suggest doing 15-20 second sprint with 30-40 rest intervals with x5 cycles. Giving your obsolute best, pedal to the medal in those 15-20 second sprint at 80-90% max. If you're not giving your best, then it would considered at HIIT. Please mind that doing steady state cardio (jogging slow) is also a good option to lose calories. HIIT is not a necessary.

thanks for your advice especially on #3. and few people also gave same advice, and I actually never thought that the focus should more on how much I can handle instead on focusing too much on the KGs itself.

target is to complete everything including cardio in less than an hour. Though I plan to do HIIT cardio to at least 20 min, but I am still too weak, and only managed 10mins for now. But will keep it up
thanks a lot for #3, this roughly gave me the rough idea on the progression expectations. I'll have a study on resistance band first. i honestly have no idea what it is for lol

thank you very much on the tips. Its my start of 2nd week of workout, I actually didnt managed to complete a full 10 reps without cheating a rest in between. But I also wonder if I do it correctly as I dont really sweat when I did the lifting. I do sweat a lot during HIIT tho. I am thinking that I should focused more on correct form before thinking of adding another set anything else tho.
Will try that HIIT tomorrow. Reason why I plan on HIIT is just to cut time. but 5 cycles seems like a little low?

Any tips for warm up? I did a steady cycling for 5 min and then straight away move to lifting without stretching or anything.

You are correct, you should focus on form first then try to add weights after. Remember that working out is suppose to be challenging, if you are not challenged, you are not giving your all.

For warm up, you can try to search for dynamic stretching, plenty of videos on youtube on how to do, followed by 5 min steady cycling. Stretching is really necessary for joint health.

i think you can go to gym , dumbbell usually cant satisfied if you are into workout HAHA

Thank you very much. That dynamic stretching is another new word to me

You can do more squats and deadlifts. These workouts are really tiring and build alot of strength

thank you for the advice. Yea I think its good idea to add deadlift too. Found multiple dumbbells deadlifts video just now.

Ok i take back my words. The 20 sec cycle 40 sec rest is very very intense. Barely able to complete 5 cycles lmao.

Thanks for all the advice. Roughly i now know what I'm going to do for the next few months. Hopefully can sustain this. Already lose my beginner weigh lost about 1kg just in a week.

You have a bench? And why do one arm incline bench press? That's just odd. Overall, don't think it's a good routine at all. Worst if you have to do EVERYTHING in one session...

Hello thanks for the comment. Mind to explain further, and possibly advice what should I add or remove from current plan? Thanks

Get on a legit beginner program. Try googling. It doesn't matter if you don't have the equipment for all exercises, chances are you can substitute with dumbbell equivalent movements.

Come back once you found a program

Please be specific
Being too generic doesnt help.

Mostly beginner get recommended to do StrongLift/Starting Strength/GSLP in a gym but since you have limited time and only dumbbell its ok to just do what you currently have

Try do doing P90X, try find it in youtube or torrent it

Thank you. Now this is very useful info. From the quick read, I may want to change routine to 1 day workout, 1 day rest instead. I havent read in depth of the exercises tho

Ok, after I'm done reading the book (which actually have most of what am I looking for LOL) and multiple online research/youtube, I've come to below conclusion, which I plan not to change (except the weight) till I reach my ideal weight. i also just bought another pair of 15kg Dumbbell (I dont mind investing for equipments which doesnt consume space)

All reps about 6 to 8. Circled number are the sets for each exercise. I've substituted the recommended barbell exercises with dumbbells which targeted the same muscle group (I think). And I do have a bench available.

Warm up and cool down with 5 min of moderate cycling, with dynamic stretching. All weigh exercises using dumbbell whichever applicable. Daily workout within 1 hour.

Routine

Day 1 (Monday) - shoulder, tricep

Incline bench press (3)
Flat bench press (3)
Close grip bench press (3)
Stand military press (3) - not sure if there is difference between stand and sit. I assume standing will help the core as well?
side lateral raise (3)
Overhead pullover/skullcrusher (3) - not sure if I should do both or either

Day 2 (Tue) - rest

Tabata HIIT Cycling

Day 3 (Wed) - back, core, bicep

Deadlift (6)
One arm row (6)
Bicep Curl (3)
Hammer Curl (3)
Wrist curl (3)
Shrug (3)
Ab crunch (3)
Flat leg raise (3)

Day 4 (Thurs) - rest

Tabata HIIT Cycling

Day 5 (Fri) - Leg

Squat (6)
Romanian Deadlift (3)
Stiff leg deadlift (3)
Lunges (3)
Calf raise (3)

Day 6 (Sat) - rest

Tabata HIIT cycling

Day 7 (Sun) - total rest

I really appreciate all comments especially on: if I have all muscle covered. And also if the workout orders are good? Definitely dont want to have muscle lagging after doing this for few years . Moving on to week 4, I've lost a total of 5 kg already . Looking good considering my previous routine done were chaos.

I'm working with just dumbbells too. 15kg adjustable.

Im so bad with squat form. Also my lateral raise sucks. Like I have to decrease my normal weight drastically.

I've looked over a few programs, and can see how they target the muscle and arrange the workouts. You can see the similarities across the beginner programs.
I think you can do whatever you want, just pick the ones you prefer as long as they target those similar muscles.
I prefer to do more, finding some compound workout if possible.


You gonna workout at home for a long time? Im just getting myself ready for gym.
Since I bought the dumbbells for a long time already, gonna milk them out first before I move on and commit to gym.

Yes I am going to workout at home for as long as I can. Just dont have much time available to commute to gym, in addition to my current daily 3 hours of commuting to/back from work. I've been going to fitness concept outlets and saw they have dumbbells up to 40kg. So, I am pretty sure I can do a lot with just dumbbells, and it will definitely take years till I outgrow them.

ill probably get a lot of flak for this but what the hey, I'd suggest you check out Mike Chang's older Sixpackshortcuts vid on youtube. plenty of stuffs for home workout with light dumbbells.

I see. 3 hours commute is damn long tho.
But for dumbbells, I think it's better to pick the ones with smaller shape.
The Maxx dumbbells discs are huge diameter wise.
Not that suitable for some movements.

There are some callisthenics-only strength training. Dumbbells only training should be doable.

A lot can be done with dumbbells. you can do goblet or front squats (dumbbell placed on shoulders), romanian deadlift, bulgarian split squats, shrugs, rows, presses. for home workouts, buy a dip bar/station and you can progress by adding dumbbell for weighted dips. can do tricep overhead, kickback, curls etc. just buy a good stable bench.

Thank you for the comments! definitely gave me good motivation

Use MyFitnessPal to track your calories intake.

Good luck!

I found out after a while that some muscles are being worked too much, while others are lagging. So made few adjustments here and there. Updating just in case other newbies want to try out these kind of routines as well.



Pretty much still disciplined at the moment, and body weight down to 97 kg (lost 9+kg)

that wrist curl i like reverse wrist curl... if i wanna do wrist curl i will stand put barbell at back.. good luck

Side note, to counter high blood pressure. Careful with your diet especially salt, and caffeine does increase blood pressure so no, no pre-workout.

its been.. almost 3 years? . there have been up and downs in term of body weight, from 110 kg down to 93kg, gained back to 103kg and further reduced to 96kg (today) due to changes in life routine (change job, MCO etc). I also started to measure body fat 3 months back, and saw good progress from over 30% to 24.4% (today). Over the years, it is challenging to stay motivated and consistently deliver as life always give some slaps which I can easily turn into excuses for not working out .



just wanted to share my Home Workout journey to keep myself motivated, with updated routine as I encountered and learn what works and does not work with my workout.

Next Target
Body weight: 85 kg
Body fat: less than 18%

Routine Updated 2021


I have also removed some workout, as I found out most of the time I will ran out of energy to continue further, and sometimes it took too much time to complete the whole circuit. And I also learnt that the most important is the quality of each rep over the quantity every single time

I have been doing this set up routine for almost a year, and feeling good about it. If any sifu can advice if I am missing any muscle to add on, that will be appreciated.

Thank you

Well one thing’s for sure, you sure do have the discipline to keep on track to be doing this for 3 years straight.

Whatever works for u man, but i can tell you among my circle of friends who DO NOT live in a gym, but has massive chest, bicep, forearm, quads usually all keep their workout basic and simple, one week 3 times, 4 if too free, and each time 1hrs settle everything, basically 30mins~ of hard HARD work only, yet keep a healthy social life.

Just bench, squat, deadlift, row, ohp, and bicep/tricep for accessory work, because dont bs, all male wants bigger arm.

Really depends on your goal la, because the weight you’re using is too light eg: farmers 20kg @ your bodyweight? Dude.. at least, start with 40% of your bw.. means, at least 38.5kg farmers.

Take the below with a pinch of salt, and you can keep doing you, nothing wrong with it as long as you’re still lifting but these are the most basic cookie cutter, any educated PT will set as your STARTING point-

1. serious lifter will track their weight lifted, that is the most, MOST important thing, because you need to keep adding weight, if u no add weight, how can get progress? You’ll get more efficient, but not progress/muscle growth if thats your goal

most usually starts with these weight (6-8 rep x 5 set each):
Bench: 90-100% bodyweight
Squat: 100-120% bw
Dead: 140-150% bw
Row/ohp: 60-70% bw

thank you very much for this good advice. I do wish that I can carry more weight, but being a man who barely lifted anything in his life previously, my starting weight is extremely light. side note for farmers, 20k per DB, hence it is indeed 40kg in total at this moment. and definitely will keep increasing from time to time. Slow but surely.

those are great benchmark to be my next goal. thanks a lot.

Nice work staying committed. Was reading the earlier post & noticed the dates, thought who Necro thread

Rather than a body split routine, how about trying a full body routine instead?

Ie.

2-3x a week
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps
Pick 1 of each category

Hip dominant (deadlift, Romanian deadlift)
Knee dominant (any squat variation, Bulgarian split squat if limited weights)
Push (shoulder press, bench press)
Pull (pull ups, rows)
Core (deadbugs, Turkish get ups)


Tips: if your weights are limited & looking to make it more difficult.
Play with the tempos, especially the eccentric portion.

Using squat as an example, take 6s to go down (eccentric), pause for however much you want or don't (isometric), explode up (concentric)

Apply progressive overload, every workout should be tougher than the previous workout/week