... from beta male to alpha male.
Every week for the next 8 weeks I'm going to journal my progress as I try to improve my health and fitness.
I'm not a fat shit or anything. I'd estimate I'm 63kg & 5'6". I do have some skin problems. I haven't focused a lot on building upper body strength. The main point is to get a reasonable amount of strength and to improve my diet. I'm not looking for abs or to be @pmya's top twink. It's just about moderation so it's easy to maintain.
The main goal I have is to do around an hour and twenty mins or so of exercise a day. Starting from today, 19th of May.
A dietary change I want to make is my consumption of coke. Lately over the past few months I've been easily drinking a bottle a day (1.25l and even 2l). I need to cut back because my skin around my neck is going fucky. My plan here is to drink the equivalent of a coke can a day while balancing it out with a bottle of water to wash it down. I'll be drinking alternatives like cups of tea and/or juice to provide an alternative with a taste but is more healthier.
As for the exercise plan I want to get back into biking more again. I have been doing around 8km a day for most of 2021. Last year doing 20km+ was not uncommon. Starting from tonight I'm going to start doing a 14km bike ride for 45 minutes.
I don't have any weights and I want to focus on building some muscle strength. But something I have that is equivalent to 1kg are laptops. I figure that if I just bag up some laptops and lift I should be able to build some strength but getting some dumbbells would be better. I'll be logging my reps.
The last thing will be doing push ups. I tried doing some the other night and I struggled like a bitch. I've read that noobs should do 3 sets of 5.
This is going to fuck my arms for a few days. Likely tomorrow I'll have a break except for cycling. Though the day after I'll do the same exercises again.
Overtime I'll push myself to do more and to the increase the intensity. This week is just getting started and into the swing of shit.
Choose a system of measurement and stick to it, otherwise you'll be perma-beta.
There are more than enough body weight exercises to do where you can get a great an all around workout for building muscle. Pushups/situps are the most obvious for abs, chest and tris. For upper and mid back, ideally you would want to find a place to do pull-ups, but there are good substitutes that I do often, even though I have a lot of weight equipment.
For back exercises, just go to an open door, stand a little in front of the frame with your feet together locked in place, grab onto both sides of the door frame with your palms facing behind you, then lean back as far as you can and pull yourself forward. That emulates a good mid/upper row. To increase the weight load, if you have a sturdy table or desk then you can lay nearly parallel to the ground and then pull yourself up using the edge of the desk/table in sort of a "reverse pushup" sort of way.
For sides, do side-bends or oblique crunches. For lower back and lower abs, do leg lifts or "scissor planks" as I call them where you lay on your back, lift your feet about 6 inches while keeping your legs straight and then spread your legs apart as far as you can and then close them without letting your feet touch the ground
Doing squats even without any weights is still super beneficial. Step-ups are even better - find something about 1-2 feet high, put one foot on top of the platform (with your thigh/calf about at a 90 degree angle), then push up with the elevated leg to bring your other foot up, then put the original foot down on the ground (slowly lowering with the other leg going from a straight leg to about 90 degree angle again) and then bring both feet down.
Dips are good for arms and can be done on almost anything. I usually do them on my bed or couch frame. You can do them using a chair as well.
Those are most of what I used to do a lot back when I was into doing a lot of bodyweight stuff. I got to the point of doing handstand pushups, but my shoulders were not too happy with that.