I am the epitome of the "Eternal Beginner". Over the past five years I have done the Testosterone Advantage three times! But, weirdly, it has worked all three times as well.
First time I lost 25 pounds in three months but, this most recent time (April - June) I lost fifteen (I am now 6'0", 212 lbs, 33 y/o). Problem is that after I finished the T-plan I would fall off the wagon because I no longer had any structure and promptly start gaining the weight back.
Now, my wife discovered NROL and recommended it to me. I am two weeks into it and I must say, just the Break-In is kicking my ass - I LOVE IT! I am now to the point that I can't wait to get to the gym.
My big concerns are the strict schedule of the Eternal Beginner. I am an airline pilot for the world's largest airline (ponder for a moment and you'll figure it out) and I fly to every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Because of my erratic schedule I foresee it being difficult to mesh my flying schedule with my workouts.
Here is an example: In July I will fly trips on the 1st - 4th, 16th - 21st, and 24th - 27th. My workout schedule has me doing Break-In during the first trip where I will be in Cairo where our hotel has a piss poor gym. Besides, I'm climbing the pyramids there.
You'll also notice that I have a ten day off block after the 4th. But, the plan has me taking a week off there. However, those ten days would be perfect for me to hit the gym regularly. Then I have a six-day trip that takes me from New York to Amsterdam to Mumbai to Amsterdam and back to New York. No where during that trip is there a good gym. Sure, I can get on a treadmill in the hotel or go jogging (which I hate) but actual lifting? Nope.
So, this is my dilemma. Is it a big deal where I take my breaks or do I need to switch some stuff up? If I take a six or seven day break during the middle of, let's say, Fat-Loss I will I screw up the program and need to go back and repeat?
One more thing, I'm very glad I found this forum. I was starting to get sick and tired of the airline related ones. A man can only take so many arguments about contract negotiations, pay-cuts and possible furloughs before he starts going bonkers.
1st, you gained weight because you ate too much, not because you stopped working out. You can follow a diet with NO training.
2nd, NROL is great, but consider adding a bodyweight workout routine for travel periods with no gym access. Do you have a way to do pullups/chinups/inverted rows in on the trip? Park, gym, school, etc.?
pushups
reverse lunges
pullups/chinups/inverted rows (whichever you can do)
bodyweight squats
front planks
hip extensions/glute bridges
side planks
3rd, climbing the pyramids is probably more calories burned than a whole TAP workout, so good job. Just keep on the eating plan and you're good!
4th, if worse comes to worse and you don't workout for 6-7 days, keep on the food parts and get back to the gym when you get home. Pickup where you left off.
Always be reading the next book (whatever it is) so you know your plan for when the current plan is done. This is for life, right? So when you get to the end of your routine, you need to repeat it or hit the next one.
1st, you gained weight because you ate too much, not because you stopped working out. You can follow a diet with NO training.
Good point. I have been following the T-plan diet pretty closely (the whole 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carb) and keep my calories at about 2000 a day. I believe 3000 a day would be maintenance.
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2nd, NROL is great, but consider adding a bodyweight workout routine for travel periods with no gym access. Do you have a way to do pullups/chinups/inverted rows in on the trip? Park, gym, school, etc.?
Yeah, I do that stuff, kinda. Generally, I just use my flight kit as my weight. Do you have any recommendations on a bodyweight workout book?
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Always be reading the next book (whatever it is) so you know your plan for when the current plan is done. This is for life, right? So when you get to the end of your routine, you need to repeat it or hit the next one.
LD's right.....always be thinking ahead. For me, I have to have goals....short or long-term. But, SOMETHING. That gives me motivation and keeps my drive high. I'm always in competition with myself.
I also like to have a program to follow, so like LD said, start reading. I have a few things all lined up. I'll bet I have a year's worth of programs to try..what do to, what to do!!
I know when I travel for work, I also find piss-poor gyms at the hotels. What I've done is find a gym close to the hotel. Many times, the gym will let me workout for free with proof I was staying at the hotel or for a nominal fee. I don't know if that's an option for you internationally or not. Maybe there just aren't any gyms, period??
And, of course, the diet is really so important, so just make sure that's all in line and you'll be set! Your stats look good...is your goal maintenance, bulking, cutting?? Just make sure your diet is in line with your goals.
Good luck! Start a log over in the training forum, get to know the gang, and poke around....lots of great information here.
My wife and daughter are at the grandparents this weekend so, I am procrastinating on mowing the lawn right now. Sweet Jesus it is already 91 degrees out there! Maybe this evening...
Since I forgot to mention it until Missjane reminded me, my goals are to lean down, a lot. Actually, I do have a firm goal of 185 lbs by Christmas. I will start to reevaluate my goals and where to go from there closer to November. But, for now I am focusing on the buck eighty-five.
Back in college I was an avid runner. I weighed in at a whopping 163 and 6'. Tall, skinny, and lanky. Then, my knees started to hurt so, I gave it up. I blame running stairs in the Auburn Coliseum three times a week.
Then, I started flying, got married, had a kid and it went downhill from there. Finally, I have gotten completely fed up and I am going to finish what I have started. Besides, a fat guy with a hot wife is only acceptable in cartoons.
Good point. I have been following the T-plan diet pretty closely (the whole 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carb) and keep my calories at about 2000 a day. I believe 3000 a day would be maintenance.
good!
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Yeah, I do that stuff, kinda. Generally, I just use my flight kit as my weight. Do you have any recommendations on a bodyweight workout book?
I don't know any hardcopy books off the top of my head, and the ebooks I've seen are pretty advanced. You can try this free ebook from Craig Ballantyne, though.
I've never seen this particular site before, but CB's free bw workout is on there, so hurray. You might have to sign up for a newsletter or something to get it, but it's pretty decent to give you an idea of what you can do without much (or any) equipment.
There's nothing wrong with following a program (NR, whatever) when you can and having breaks in it where you do something else when you can't, and then going back to it. The breaks in the book are there to keep you from overworking, but if you had a week off 3 weeks before a scheduled break you can just move on. Consider that program like a book you have next to your bed to read. When you get the chance, you move forward and read a few pages before bed. You pick up wherever you left off, not necessarily at some preset schedule of one chapter a week. On nights you don't have that book with you, you just read a different book or the paper or a magazine. You read something to keep in the habit, basically.
Turbulence Training (google) has tons of bodyweight only routines that you can do on the road.
In my experience, even the worst hotel gym usually has a stack of DBs (and sometimes even a spare BB) in addition to the requisite treadmill. Of course YMMV.
Good luck!
Last edited by TheWookie : 06-29-2009 at 12:01 PM.
I'd say most domestic hotels we stay at at least have either dumbbells or a really crappy machine that looks like it came from the Spanish Inquisition. A few have feakin great gyms such as PHX and LAX. Others have absolutely no gym such as the downtown layover in NYC. So, hit or miss. It's either great location or good gym. Never both.
Internationally, most places we stay at in Europe have fantastic location such as Paris where we stay two blocks from the Eiffel Tower. But, there is no gym. Same with Rome, Milan, etc.
Surprisingly, the best hotel gym I have ever seen is in Bucharest, Romania. The hotel has the equivalent of a Golds Gym in the basement. Of course, the rest of the town is pretty much crap.
Scheduling concerns with the program?
Linear Mode
