bench press, deadlift, etc.
 

I'm in the worst shape of my life! Mid-thirties, with a wife who is a genius in the kitchen, and a two-hour commute to a sit-down computer job.

I have had to find ways to excercise. I do not have time for the luxury of driving to a gym.

Step number one: just to keep from being completely inflexible and getting stress headaches, I do strectches/crunches/push-ups etc. every morning before I get dressed. This happens in between putting on my socks and underwear and finishing getting dressed, so it is "scheduled" every day (therefore I do it every day (I can't skip getting dressed!)).

Step number two: bought a used Gold's Gym weight bench (basic incline/decline adjustable bench) at the thrift store for $39 (cha-ching!) and it came with two sets of dumbells and one straight bar. I had one set of dumbells already--so now I have a warm-up weight, a working weight, and a max weight with dumbells, and one heavy straight bar.

I am forgetting all the fancy bullsh!t I ever read in workout magazines (when I was in my early twenties and had a fast metabolism so what did it matter anyway?) and cranking out BASIC, COMPOUND movements:

Dumbell presses (both slight incline & seated for shoulders)
Deadlifts
Clean and Jerks (yes, those) which are actually a straight-bar version of my own favorite movement (#1 here)
Bent-over barbell rows
Hammer curls
I throw in a few bent-over flys for my rear delts. That's about it.

No fancy cardio warm-up, super-setting, pre-fatiguing etc. etc. just pyramided sets of basic freeweight movements.

STEP THREE: I need to go get some new shoes I can go jogging in. Burn a few calories and get some heart health in there.

Supplemental: We are trying to eat smaller portions and more healthy choices, but NOT to the detriment of enjoying eating food, which we love. I am drinking straight rum over ice instead of beer. I don't plan to cut that many calories, instead I intend to work out with free weights in my garage, like a prison inmate, and build more muscle mass to BURN more calories even at a resting metabolic rate.

per lumberjim's comments in chat: yes, I do need to hook up some pullups and dips.

jinx's comment

huh? really

Don't forget to get a little exercise during the day. Figuring a two hour commute (each way?) and a nine hour day, you've got 13 straight hours in there with no exercise. Go for a walk on your lunch hour or do some dumbbell stuff in your office. I think it makes a difference.

you should get one of those ultimate pull up bars and slap it on your office door and pound out pull ups and chin ups. you'll be the envy of the office.

That thing is awesome - I just got one!

I enjoy mine too. It's way better than the old anchored one I've had for years.

Some crystal meth with help you drop the weight and give you lots of energy.

HIV will help with the weight too, but I remember hearing something about unintended consequences...

I agree. At my last facility I could eat at my desk and then go to the on-site gym for "lunch" (some light cardio etc.). I'm still waiting for the physical therapy department to get built here, but I am trying to stay buddies with the director. I do need some kind of office activity though...

On a serious note, I used to skip lunch and hit the gym at lunch. It really worked great

Hell yes, man. Especially if I wore scrubs on those days.

I run the stairs at work if I'm feeling run-down. I've been working on flexibility as well.

Do your 2hr car commute by bike, say six hours each way plus eight hours of work... you'd even have an extra four hours for the Cellar.

I take breaks, and half my lunch hour, and walk. I walk all over the building, up these stairs, down those stairs. Today, my feet were killing me because of my shoes and I refused to get on an elevator.

When it's nice I'll probably walk around town: there's a lot of cool stuff nearby.

Yeah totally, pull up and dips are huge... especially if you concentrate on using your back/should muscles on the pull ups and not just your biceps. You can do your lower abs with the pull up bar too if you set it up right...

Oh, yeah, I know, dips are hella compound. And pullups are THE thing, if you get that "my arms are just a strap connecting my hands to my lats" thing going. Got some Zoom Vomero 3s yesterday, gettin' my jog on. And as it turns out, I had one of these type things in storage:

Those things rock Flint. I have not been able to find a pull up bar high enough. Doorway ones don't cut it.

Do a search for "bodyweight exercises". There's an enormous amount of things you can do without any equipment.

Crossfit for all your training needs.

Got my pullup station rebuilt. Using the Dip handles to rack an ez-curl bar (can't roll off) and do SQUATS.

Yeah. Ran my normal two-mile jog yesterday right after doing squats and deadlifts. Running uphill was hard.

Both ways? in the snow? no shoes?

i'm going to use this thing. it counts calories, and records exercise. also weight and measurements.

I've been doing it on and off, but have resolved to do it 100% and see if it makes a difference. I think just having to know that I have to record what i eat will help. they have a forum we could troll too!

I'm all about body weight workouts: http://www.fitdeck.com/. Works for me because I'm just built a big dude. Mix in some stationary biking and elliptical training (to preserve my knees as opposed to running) and some racquetball for cardio, and I'm doin pretty good.

link wants me to sign in? got another or a description?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

it's a daily calendar thing that you can plan your meals on, or just record them. also logs exercises. It's worth registering for, classic....
easy to use....

you can make custom meals for stuff you eat frequently and save them with your own names for them.

Update. Regarding basic "compound" movements.

I now have a real squat/bench rack (somebody was giving it away by the side of the road). The kind you can rack an olympic bar on, and also set safety stops at the bottom if you can't finish a rep and need to rack the weight. Now I can do barbell bench presses (been doing heavy dumbell presses) and heavy squats (been racking an ez-crul bar on the dip handles of a power station).

I also have perfected my deadlift form...the biggest thing to not rounding your back is LOOKING UP. Your posture follows your eyes--try to look BEHIND yourself, over the top of your head (I got that from yoga).

Regretfully I have determined that Clean and Presses are just not something that I can do safely. I have frequent wrist issues and do not want chronic pain there. I'm still working on an alternative...I noticed that the "log lift" as in strongman competition is done with a hammer grip. I'm thinking I should get a hammer grip/tricep bar and do them this way. Tried with heavy dumbells and found that it puts my shoulder in a bad position trying to cheat the dumbell up.

Maybe I will just do seated military presses on my new rack. Squat + Bench + Deadlift + Military Press. I've been doing all incline presses to hit the front deltoids with the pecs, so I probably just need to go to a flat bench and a true barbell shoulder press.

In any case I am bigger and stronger than ever before, and now I don't care so much about carrying some extra fat.

BWAAAAHHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

MMMMWWUUAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH

Revised: I have a wife who is a genius in the kitchen, which is allowing me to reap the full benefit of a weightlifting regimen, by constantly flooding my system with a surplus of calories and nutrients!

Last night, we went out to eat, I had a bacon-chili-jalapeno-cheeseburger and multiple beers and fried everything, and I said "This doesn't conflict with my training regimen, as long as I'm training to be a turn-of-the-century strongman..."

You can't get really strong without carrying some fat.

I could totally kick your ass.

And a very nice ass it is too, iirc

You know Honey... you could do Isometrics while sitting at your desk. ;-) I bet your co-workers would enjoy that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLbq87AvdG4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4sBxMl_5wk

isometric loaf pinching position:

...'cause that guy just has a figure to aspire to, no?