ALT

Current Health Program


Caveat

I'm not a nutritionist, physical therapist, or any other kind of -ist when it comes to physical well-being. Everything presented here is anecdotal and should be considered for entertainment purposes only. All calculations made against a 182 centimeter/6 foot tall, 46-year-old male body with full mobility. I'd never claim that the following could cure depression, but it sure has helped with mine.

Program

Time Activity Details
Per Hour Hydration Coupled with recommended hourly "stand up and stop looking at monitors", daily total 2.6 liters/88 fluid ounces.
0600 Sleep Wake up.
0600 Nutrition Protein powder with glucosamine, nattō (fermented soy bean), 1 tbsp salsa, multivitamin and iron supplements.
0600 Exercise 1.65 kilometer/1 mile walk to gym, ~18 minutes, ~120 active calorie burn.
0620 Exercise Cardiovascular ramp-up, weight training, complete stretch. ? calorie burn.
0720 Exercise 1.65 kilometer/1 mile walk from gym, ~18 minutes, ~120 active calorie burn.
0900 Nutrition Five pre-cooked meatballs.
1200 Nutrition One large raw carrot and half an air-fried skinless chicken breast.
1500 Nutrition Half an air-fried skinless chicken breast.
1800 Nutrition Calorie deficit make-up meal, variable until normalized.
2200 Sleep Go to bed.

Strength Training

To formulate this plan, I first divided the body up by muscle groups: core (abdominals, external obliques, erector spinae), back (trapezius and latissimus dorsi), chest (pectoral), arms (deltoids, triceps, biceps, forearms), and legs (gluteus, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves). Since I have 24-7 access to a gym, I decided on a rolling ten-day series with rest days every five days. The first four training days are "dual" exercises, working both sides of the body under a single weight (where possible). The second four are "split" exercises, using seperated weights or exercising each side in isolation.

DUALSPLIT
BackChestArmsLegsRESTBackChestArmsLegsREST
lat pulldownpushupslateral raisesquat lying pullupdumbbell flyesarnold pressdeadlift
barbell rowbarbell bench presscable rope triceps pulldownleg extension dumbbell rowdumbbell bench pressfrench presssingle leg extension
barbell shrugpec deckez-bar preacher curlleg curl dumbbell shrugdumbbell incline bench presshammer curlssingle leg curl
barbell upright rowdipsdumbbell forearm curlsseated calf raise dumbbell upright rowdumbbell decline bench pressdumbbell forearm extensionsseated calf raise

Each session starts with five minutes running pace on the treadmill, and ends with a series of core exercises (crunches, side bends, and back extensions). See below for further explanation.

Dailies

Notes

The previous iteration of this program was posted in January of 2021, and only carried me so far. I think that by March, I was zero sum or greater (meaning worse off) than I'd been. Then in late March I dove headfirst into a more protein-rich diet alongside full days of doing nothing but sitting at a computer or lying on the floor. That brought me down to under 100kg/220lbs. I'd been waiting, like the responsible prick that I am, to get my full COVID-19 vaccination. This happened on July 6th. A week after I start the gym training.

The program was devised in a very straighforward manner: divide the body into major muscle groups, choose two exercises for each (one that uses both sides of the body at once, like barbell bench press, and one that uses them independently, like dumbbell flyes). Then compose two series of four days that use the conjunctive exercises in one and the independent exercise in the other.

Weight-to-lift is determined on a rolling cycle of experimentation. For the base-building, three sets of ten repetitions whereby the first two sets can be comfortably achieved with failure coming in the eighth to tenth rep of the third. Once that weight is determined, sets continue until the third set can be completed, at which point the smallest increment of weight available is added. Rinse and repeat.

The goal of this program is not mass-building. I'm going for "wiry farmer's strength" and as lean a physique as I can achieve. I want efficiency, something that's strong yet doesn't cost a fortune to feed. I want to be able to leap out of bed and attack the day, and I don't need a Herculean body to do that.

I'll update this after a month of consistent work.

I know it's been years since I promised to update this. I'm ashamed. As of this note (24.02.13) I'm 92-91 kilograms and injury-free. I'm preparing a home gym, and I'm 100% confident that I have a killer program. Whether that makes it into these pages remains to be seen. —Ed.

2021.07.13


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