Best Posts in Thread: Home Workouts

Upper and Lower Body Workouts
Equipment needed: Gymnastic Rings/Pull-up bar and resistance bands. *Available on lazada.

Upper Body Workout:

Spoiler: Exercises

Requires rings

1. Ring Chin Ups - 4 sets / 10 reps / 2-3 minute rest between sets. Primarily works the the back/lats - shoulders - biceps. For more lower trap / less bicep involvement use the overhand pull-up grip.
2. Ring Dips - 4 sets / 10 reps / 2-3 minute rest. Triceps - delts - lower chest.
3. Ring Rows - 4 sets / 10 reps / 2-3 minute rest. Lats - rhomboids - traps - biceps
4. Ring Close Grip Pushups - 4 sets / 10 reps / 2-3 minute rest. Chest - triceps.
5. Ring Front Raise and Reverse Flies - 3 sets / 10 reps / 1-2 minute rest (Combination set - I do 1 rep front raise immediately followed by 1 rep reverse fly, 20 total reps per set.) Front and rear delts - rhomboids.
6. *Ring bicep curl - 3 sets / 10 reps / 1 minute rest. Biceps
7. *Ring tricep extensions - 3 sets / 10 reps / 1 minute rest. Triceps

*6 and 7 are a "super set"; complete one exercise, rest 1 minute, complete next exercise, rest 1 minute, go back to the first exercise, repeat.

All of these exercises can be made easier or harder by lowering the percentage of the bodyweight you are using (usually by changing your angle to the ground with rings or by using bands to help you up) or by adding weight (weight belt or loaded backpack).

Rings/pull-up bar exercises can also be replaced with resistance band variation of these exercises if bodyweight is too much.

You can also just do pushups from the ground. Rows, raises, curls and extensions can be done using something heavy. I just prefer the rings because I have them, they simplify my setup, and don't require me to pull out (and then clean) a mat.

Lower Body Workout:

Spoiler: Exercises

Admittedly, I don't have a good home lower body workout. This is mostly my gf's exercises, though I have adjusted to not be so glute dominant. I have yet to find a good alternative to deadlifts, my favorite lift. You can do good mornings, Romanian Deadlifts and glute ham raises to get the same hypertrophic effect but no single exercise can replace barbell deadlift. Banded deadlifts just don't cut it for me. Lower body bodyweight workouts suck just suck.

1. Bodyweight/Banded/Backpack/SO Squats - 4 sets / 10-15 reps / 2-3 minute rest between sets. Quads - Back - Glutes.
2. Sumo Deadlift With Bands - 4 sets / 10-15 reps / 2-3 minute rest. Entire posterior chain.
3. Single Leg Glute Bridge - 4 sets / 10-15 reps / 2 minute rest. Glutes - hamstrings
4. Bulgarian Split Squats - 4 sets /10-15 reps / 1 minute rest between each leg. Quads - Glutes (The further out your front leg is from your center of gravity the more glutes are involved, the closer it is the more quads are used.) Note: careful with these, they take balance and coordination and they will have you hating life for the next 3-7 days if you overdo it. Do not start these with anything more than bodyweight. I apologize in advance. Can be substituted with walking lunges if coordination is an issue.
5. Glute Kickbacks - 4 sets / 10 -15 reps / 30 second rest between each leg. Glutes
6. Thigh Abductor (Seated or lying if you have bands, standing if you don't) 4 sets / 10-15 reps / 30 second rest between each leg. Glutes - TFL
7. Rear Lunge - 4 sets / 10-15 reps / 60 second rest between each leg. Hamstrings - quads - glutes - hamstrings.
8. Single Leg Calf Raises (on ledge/stairs) - 4 sets / 15-20 reps / 30 second rest between each leg. Calf muscles

Resistance bands or a loaded backpack can be used with most these to progress.

These two workouts will get the job done in a pinch and should build muscle for beginners and intermediate if each set is taken near failure (2-3 reps shy of failure is best for muscle growth and recovery time). The upper and lower body workouts should be done twice per week each for beginners, maybe 3 times per week for intermediate.

YouTube can show you the proper form for all these exercises.

Running out of characters so here is a video for a no equipment home workout:

Doesn't look fun. I hate tabata/HIIT workouts.

 

As you get older your muscle protein synthesis becomes less efficient and body needs more protein to maintain and repair muscle damage. You should be eating more protein, not less...minus any medical issues. Diets heavy in protein are a good way to lose weight, upping your sugar and fat intake (to replace the protein) is the opposite of what most people should be doing. Refined sugars and alcohol get stored more readily as visceral fat (sugar and beer guts) and should be avoided. Nothing wrong with caffeine in moderation as long as you are drinking enough water and aren't loading your coffee up with sugar and dairy.

At the end of the day it all comes down to calories in vs calories out. If you are in a caloric surplus you will gain weight, a deficit you will lose weight. All fad diets work on this premise...they just make different things "off-limits" (which is a horrible way to be consistent with a diet).

IIFYM or "flexible dieting" is how I lost around 30kg over the course of about 4 months, and this is how I continue to go about my nutrition. Never once felt starved or deprived of a food I enjoyed.

 

Flexible dieting (IIFYM - if it fits your macros) is basically just eating whatever you want, so long as the macronutrients stay within a given range (which in turn limits the calories you are consuming). No foods are really off limits. I simplify it even further by just concerning myself with the protein and calorie goals. I hit 180 grams of protein, about 2.2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight / 1 gram of protein per lbs of bodyweight, everyday. Where the rest of the calories come from doesn't really matter that much to me. I do try to follow the 80/20 rule where 80% of my calories come from single ingredient unprocessed, or lightly processed, foods and the remaining can be whatever junk I feel like (brownies, ice cream, alcohol).

On average I eat about 190 grams of carbs and 90 grams of fat. The nutrition plan I try to follow says I should be eating 380 grams of carbs and 70 grams of fat per day but I find that to be near impossible to accomplish when eating "clean". It is just such a ridiculous amount of food, so I turn to fats (mainly butter/olive oil/lard, bacon and whole eggs) to reduce the quantity of food I need to consume.

My TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is currently around 3100 calories, being how much I need to consume daily to maintain my weight. I go on a 250 calorie deficit when cutting and a 250 calorie surplus when bulking, always staying between 10 and 15% body fat while doing so (best range to put on muscle). I enjoy cutting weight much more than I do bulking, having to eat 5+ times per day... constantly feeling full and bloated.

 

3 times per week for each workout (with this split) would be optimal. Anything more than that is "junk volume" and would go well over the maximum recoverable volume, interfering with a person's ability to repair the damage they have accumulated. (Muscle is not built while you are lifting but while your body repairs itself.) Research shows that working out a muscle group twice per week (between 10-20 sets each muscle group) is what's optimal.

Proper rest periods are also important for muscle growth as total volume lifted and time under tension is much more important than just getting your heart pumping or getting a metabolic burn. If you don't give your muscles enough time to rest your performance will suffer and volume will go down. Of course, if your goal is cardiovascular health then by all means, go for the shorter rest periods (tabata/HIIT style workouts) but if hypertrophy and weight loss is the goal then short test periods are not the way to go.

If time is an issue then everything in the OP can be grouped into super sets since they are antagonist muscle groups (back - chest, front delts - rear delts, biceps - triceps...push-pull). Exercise 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8 can be done with a super set, cutting rest periods in half.

 

All of the exercises in the original post can be replaced with their resistance band variations (search any of the exercise names and add "band" or "banded" in a YouTube search and you will get videos showing how to do it). The muscle groups worked and order they are done in should be the same for any experience level. The exercises are the core building blocks of any routine (push, pull, squat).

I have used some of Bob and Brad's videos for self diagnosing (and exercises to help treat) a rotator cuff injury and to work on a shoulder impingement issue. They are a good source of information.

There are three main type of bands: the thin ring, the rubber tubes and the flat ring bands.

The quality of bands available here in lazada and local shops are really quite low. Most are just cheap Chinese ripoffs. You should consider most of these products as disposable. Don't expect them to get through 6 months almost daily use. They are cheap enough though. The included accessories (handles/anchor points/Velcro ankle straps) to the tube bands will pile up as they seem to be much more durable than the bands themselves. I generally have the heaviest band break first, then I will use the next heaviest plus the lightest until one of those breaks then I will find another combination to mix and then I will finally break down and buy another set.

Note: check your bands before each use for dry rot and cracks. It f'n hurts when one of those snaps then comes back and slaps you in the face.

My gf bought some of the elastic nylon(?) cloth bands (the flat type meant to go around your legs) and they seem quite a bit more durable, although they aren't nearly as elastic as the rubber type. There is a trade-off with range of motion with these.

As for Bob and Brad's exercise order, I don't really agree with it, they are focusing a lot of isolation and rotator cuff/shoulder rotation and not so much on compound movements/overall health, which can be done easily with bands...though their audience may be quite a bit older. Perhaps this is what the elderly should focus on with limited ranges of motion and maybe these are the most common injuries they see on their patients. So it could make sense for them to really focus on these exercises.

 

That would depend on the person's body weight and their level of fitness. If a 200kg guy can do 10 regular pushups and 10 pullups that would be extremely impressive. During a regular pushups with toes on the ground you are lifting around 70% of your bodyweight (75% at the bottom - 69% at the top). The goal shouldn't be to just do the same 40 pushups every workout and never progress. Progressive overload needs to be applied to every exercise. Example: once you can hit 10 pushups for each set weight or resistance bands should be added to stimulate more growth and progress the exercise, then when you can hit 10 reps each set with the new weight more weight should be added. Same with every exercise.

As for bodyweight vs traditional weights: your muscles don't know the difference. 80kg of bodyweight is the same as 80kg of plates. Sure, IMO it isn't as rewarding as lifting with a barbell but it gets the job done all the same. There are plenty of guys out there that get completely jacked with nothing more than calisthenics.

*He recommends even longer rest periods of 2-5 minutes in the description.

 

My primary protein sources are:
Chicken breast - is the cheapest and most readily available lean protein source in Dumaguete. I buy frozen boneless 2kg bags from Belcris but you can get it from the market as well...though their price includes the bones.

Whey protein powder (Optimal Nutrition brand) - to make shakes/smoothies or protein pancakes. I haven't done the math but I believe this could be nearly as cheap as chicken breast when you look at it in per serving basis. The upfront cost is quite hefty though. It is about P3.5k+ for a 5lbs tub, from lazada including shipping, that gives you ~73 servings. Comes out to less than P50/serving.

Secondary protein sources comes from bacon, eggs (usually 4 pieces of bacon and 4 whole eggs every morning), and sometimes I eat squid. I don't like seafood as much because the price is prohibitive since they include the shells in the price, which can be about half of what you are paying for. Squid is usually the best option since you can eat almost all of what you are paying for

Here is the last week's overview of my protein intake.


Note: fish, like tilapia, are low fat high protein options that I believe are quite cheap. I just don't really care for tilapia. I limit my tuna intake due to the mercury levels. I limit my salmon intake due to the cost.

I don't have much issue hitting my protein goals as my daily calorie intake is quite high. It gets harder (and more unpleasant) to hit these numbers once you get down around 2k calories per day.