Stats – 45 years old, 5’10”, ~162 pounds, stickman legs and arms, increasingly pudge center

Activity level – extremely low, desk job with long hours, no sports in years, have not exercised regularly in over five years with exception of some really light core stuff I did a couple years ago to help with lower back pain

Diet – not good, bad habit of often skipping breakfast and only eating two meals per day, not eating a well balanced diet, too much junk and processed foods

Sleep – generally get to bed too late, sleep often interupted by young kids during night and they often have me up for the day way early in the morning

Goals – look better, feel better, tone up first, possibly put on some muscle later

Tools at my disposal – my body for bodyweight stuff, doorway chinup bar, couple kettlebells, hyper bench, elliptical, wife’s bike is on a bicycle trainer which I could use, flat/incline/decline bench with leg extension/curl attachment just showed up in the last few days as well

Working out at home is much more likely to happen than ever taking advantage of a gym. Minimal room to add much to a home gym without a creating some space in the garage (which is not insulated and has to deal with Canadian winters)

Plan – bodyweight exercises as a starting point, improve flexibility/mobility, eat better, get more sleep

Wife has just started working out and dieting as of late and keeps adding to the list of tools at our disposal, which should help.

After about a month of seriously thinking about doing something I finally took some action starting January 26.

January 26 – weight 162.2 lbs

5 minutes of light dynamic stretching and mobility work in the morning

5 minute warm-up with jumping jacks, shadow boxing, dynamic stretches and generally jumping around like an idiot

4 circuits of pushups/bodyweight squats/pullups/ab somethings
5/12/2 neutral grip/20 second plank
5/12/2 chins/10 supermans
5/12/1 pullup/15 bicycle crunches
5/15/1 neutral grip/ -

After the last set of pushups I felt like everything got pulled in my chest. Pullup quality was terrible and I’ll have to switch to assisted pullups or hangs or something for a while. Only good thing about this workout was that it was super quick, I actually did SOMETHING and I was a bit surprised I was able to do the number of pushups I was able to.

January 28
5 minutes of light dynamic stretching and mobility work in the morning, as well as previous day

Decided to follow the 100 pushups plan as close as I can, with zero expectation to actually hit 100 pushups. 25 is my interim goal. Will do similar for a 200 squats and 50 pullups plans, just jumping to the top of the pullup and descending as slowly as possible for hopefully 3 seconds for a couple weeks on pullups until I can do some real ones.

Started with a 5 minute warm-up of jumping jacks, shadow boxing, dynamic stretches and more generally jumping around like an idiot

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.

Pushups target– 5/5/4/4/5+
Pushups done – 5/5/4/4/6

Squats target – 8/8/5/5/7+
Squats done – 8/8/5/5/13

Pullups target – 5/9/7/7/9 (misread and took week two, should have been 2/7/5/5/7 – was problem)
Pullups done – 5/9/7/7/9 (was jumping to top of pull up and descending as slowly as possible, which meant dropping like a rock in my case – this felt useless)

Abs – 30 sec plank/15 supermans/18 bicycle crunches/30 sec plank/15 supermans

January 31

5 minutes of light dynamic stretching and mobility work in the morning, as well as previous two days

Started with a 5 minute warm-up of jumping jacks, shadow boxing, dynamic stretches, kicks and stuff

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.

Pushups target– 6/8/6/6/7+
Pushups done – 6/8/6/6/8

Squats target – 8/11/8/8/9+
Squats done – 8/11/8/8/15

Pullups target – 3/8/6/6/8 (jump to top of pullup and do a 3 second controlled descend)
Pullups done – 3/8/6/6/8 (descending much quicker than 3 seconds)

Abs – 30 sec plank/18 supermans/21 bicycle crunches/35 sec plank/18 supermans

February 1

Semi-HIIT

4 min medium jog on elliptical to warm up
5 cycles of 30 seconds going as hard as I could then 30 seconds medium jog
5 min light jog on elliptical to cool down

Started tracking food and came to 2133cal/261g carb/51g fat/175g protein/42g fibre for the day. Needed a scoop of whey protein plus a protein bar to push protein that high. 17g of fibre came from the protein bar as well. Not measuring exact, just taking best guesses.

Breakfast - Banana, yogurt+blueberries+granola, coffee
Lunch - Ham and cheese sandwich plus a slice of bread with peanut butter lunch
Late afternoon/early evening - banana, protein bar, beef jerky, protein shake
Supper - Chicken salad with extra chicken

Pain everywhere from shock of body doing something has passed.

February 2 – 163.2 lbs

Minimal stretching in morning

Started with a 5 minute warm-up of jumping jacks, shadow boxing, dynamic stretches, kicks and stuff

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.
Pushups target– 6/8/6/6/7+
Pushups done – 6/8/6/6/8

Squats target – 8/11/8/8/9+
Squats done – 8/11/8/8/15

Pullups target – 3/8/6/6/8 (jump to top of pullup and do a 3 second controlled descend)
Pullups done – 3/8/6/6/8 (descending quicker than 3 seconds but starting to get more control over the descent, alternating grip between pullup, chin and neutral each set)

Abs – 30 sec plank/18 supermans/21 bicycle crunches/35 sec plank/18 supermans

2153cal/182 carb/79 fat/189 protein/41 fibre for the day, including 2 scoops of protein powder plus a protein bar to get there.

Breakfast - Flax Oatmeal with scoop of protein and a coffee
Lunch - Banana, ham and cheese sandwich, cottage cheese with blueberries
Protein bar early evening, protein shake following workout
Supper - Rib eye steak, brussel sprouts and a small sweet potato
Small handful of unsalted cashews and almonds snack later

Pics at beginning of this process, both taken January 29, 2016 at just over 162lbs.

I am doing a bodyweight exercise log as well, so I can relate... are you sticking with those three plans for now until you reach them (100 push-ups, 200 squats 50 pullups) or will you diversify before?

also have you set a calorie goal for the day or week?

gl for achieving your goals!

I plan to run those programs for at least 6 weeks and probably no more than 10. There is no way I will hit those full program goal figures, I am just using the programs to provide some structure. I have been lurking this forum for years and I don't think anyone has ever hit the 100 pushups. Not sure at this point what I will branch out to afterwards. Maybe keep on with using some bodyweight circuits plus some kettlebell work. Toying with the idea of getting a power rack and doing a Starting Strength type program but that is down the road a bit.

I haven't solidified a calorie goal yet. I am in the early stages of trying to figure out what my BMR is (and what BMR means for that matter). Based on my age/height/weight and a sedentary lifestyle I think it is just under 2K and depending on what the little bit of exercise I am now doing adds to that it is maybe 2,250 to 2,500 max. I just started tracking calories to get an idea of what I am consuming in a day and see what that translates to over time when I step on the scales. The tracker I am using suggested 1850 to 2200 calories per day and I am fine with falling in that range. I am trying to make sure I get my body weight in protein each day in order to help gain muscle. But I am trying to tone up and lose a bit of fat as well and those two goals are at odds. So I think what I am trying to do initially is shed some of my natural weight vest, get into the routine of doing something more active and then maybe worry about putting on some muscle. Daily goal for now at the end of this paragraph - somewhere near 2,200 cal and at least 160g protein per day.

I am eating quite a bit more than normal to get over 2k cal and protein needs a lot of help to get anywhere near my body weight. I must have been smashing late night snacks like crazy in order to slowly add this pudge on. Beer probably helped a bit too.

Been following your log as well! Thanks and good luck to you also!

February 3
No exercise other than a short walk at lunch.

2070cal/262 carb/47 fat/159 protein/51 fibre, including 1/2 scoop protein and a protein bar.

Using Quest Bars and Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard for supplementing protein.

February 4 – 162.2 lbs

6 minute warmup

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.
Pushups target– 9/11/8/8/11+
Pushups done – 9/11/8/8/11 (tweaked my right elbow a bit on last rep of 2nd set but managed through the rest okay. Last rep of last set was pretty crappy)

Squats target – 11/13/10/10/13+ (should have been 13/15/11/11/15+, will skip ahead next time around)
Squats done – 11/13/10/10/25

Pullups target – 5/9/7/7/9 (jump to top of pullup and do a 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 5/9/7/7/9 (managed to do very controlled descent for first set and got worse from there but still better than previous days, alternating grip between pullup, chin and neutral each set)

Abs – 40 sec plank/25 supermans/25 bicycle crunches/40 sec plank/25 supermans

2131cal/240 carb/52 fat/184 protein/42 fibre

February 5

HIIT on bike trainer
4min warmup
2 cycles 30sec hard/30sec easy
5 cycles 20sec hard/40sec easy
4 min cooldown
Seat on the bike was way too low for me and I walked funny for a few minutes after this, which may or may not have had anything at all to do with the seat height.

Stretched a bit after with:
3x10 hyperextensions
3x10x35 leg extensions

2221cal/169carb/74fat/216protein/21fibre

February 6 – 161.4 lbs

5 minute warmup

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.
Pushups target– 10/12/9/9/13+
Pushups done – 10/12/9/9/14

Squats target – 13/16/13/13/18+
Squats done – 13/16/13/13/25

Pullups target – 8/10/8/8/10 (jumping to top of pullup and do a 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 8/10/8/8/10 (still not quite full 3 second descent after 1st set, pullup grip especially weak, alternating grip between pullup, chin and neutral each set)

Abs – 42 sec plank/10 hyper extensions/27 bicycle crunches/43 sec plank/28 supermans

2501cal/233 carb/93 fat/190 protein/34 fibre

Today my body officially revolted at my new found cleaner eating. Or I just have some sort of weird stomach bug that empties ones body but otherwise leaves them feeling fine. For the past 10 days or so I have been eating much healthier than my historical norm. Still plenty of room for improvement but significantly better than usual. I blame the fibre. I probably had as much in the past week as the previous month or two combined. Probable exaggeration maybe hopefully.

February 7

No exercise other than a bit of stretching.

1936cal/152carb/89fat/157protein/33fibre

Good luck. I joined LA fitness health club Dec 2014. Starting in about March 2015 a big part of my exercise has been their boot camp and body works classes which are included with the membership. The classes are mainly body weight and some light dumbbell exercises performed aerobically, but I'm not disciplined enough to do it on my own!

I think I may be in the best shape of my life, so I wish you luck and some encouragement to stick with it.

Thanks much and congrats! The very biggest problem for me was starting something. Now of course the biggest problem will be keeping at it. I am hoping that posting a log will keep me motivated and that when I inevitably miss a workout or two that it doesn't quickly devolve into weeks/months/years of inactivity.

February 8 - 160.6 lbs

5 minute warmup

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.
Pushups target– 12/13/10/10/15+
Pushups done – 13/13/10/10/13 (FAIL)

Squats target – 16/18/13/13/21+
Squats done – 16/18/13/13/26

Pullups target – 6/10/8/8/12 (jumping to top of pullup and do a 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 6/10/8/8/12 (still not quite full 3 second descent after 2nd set, pullup grip still weakest, alternating grip between pullup, chin and neutral each set)

Abs – 45 sec plank/12 hyper extensions/28 bicycle crunches/41 sec plank/30 supermans

Failed the last set of pushups. Doing an extra one on the first set didn't help. I barely made it through the last set a couple workouts ago so I knew this would happen sooner or later. Was hoping for later. I will likely repeat the whole week and work on form. I think my arms are winging out at a greater angle than they should be and are probably making the pushups easier and less effective.

Did 15 mins or so of joint mobility stuff later.

1903cal/163 carb/61 fat/176 protein/28 fibre

February 9 – 161.0 lbs

HIIT on Elliptical – 4 min warmup, 7 cycles of 20s hard/40s medium, 4 min cooldown plus a few additional minutes quite light at the end with incline and resistance jacked up. I put both resistance and incline (moreso incline) up from the last time I tried this on the elliptical so that it felt less like my legs were just spinning out of control during hard effort.

2344cal/232 carb/94 fat/162 protein/60 fibre

February 10 – 161.0 lbs

5 minute warm up

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and some sort of ab exercise.

Pushups target– 9/11/8/8/11+ (repeating week 2 and working on form)
Pushups done – 9/11/8/8/12

Squats target – 16/22/17/17/22+ (moving on to week 3 based on doing 31-40 squats on stress test which I skipped)
Squats done – 16/22/17/17/27

Pullups target – 4/9/6/6/9 (moved on to week 3 based on not being able to do more than 5 pullups based on stress test which I skipped and still jumping to the top of pullup and doing a 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 4/9/6/6/9 (still improving but not doing a full 3 second descent/hang through all of the sets – alternating grip for each set)

Abs – 45 sec plank/28 bicycle crunches/14 back extensions/45 sec plank/30 superman

Was supposed to take two days off but only took one as I want to squeeze in an extra workout before heading out of town for a few days on Saturday. Repeating week two for pushups and resetting slightly on pullups I expected this to be much easier than it turned out to be.

1962 cal/183 carb/54 fat/193 protein/28 fibre

February 11 - 161.6 lbs

HIIT on bike trainer - 4 min warmup, 9 cycles of 20s hard/40s light, 4 min cool down
Walked funny afterwards again for a bit.

1988 cal/199 carb/55 fat/180 protein/40 fibre

February 12 – 161.6 lbs

Didn’t get finished packing for everyone until almost 10pm and had to get up at 5am the next day so took a pass on any exercise.

1999cal/189 carb/74 fat/158 protein/35 fibre

February 13 – 162.0 lbs

In Florida for a few days and nothing to do pullups on. Alternated between pushups and bodyweight squats.

Pushups target– 10/12/9/9/13+
Pushups done – 10/12/9/9/13

Squats target – 19/25/19/19/25+
Squats done – 19/25/19/19/25

I went for a planned 15 or 20 minute run afterwards that turned into 5 minutes of running and 10 minutes of walking. I haven’t run in about 20 years and still hate it every bit as much as I used to apparently.

2435cal/117 carb/106 fat/196 protein/29 fibre – count is probably off on the low side for a few days while out of town – lots of estimating going on and definitely missed some grazing on fruits and veggies

February 14

A bit of stretching and lots of walking, mostly at kid speed.

2581 cal/194 carb/108 fat/211 protein/27 fibre

February 15

A bit of stretching and more kid-speed walking.

Pushups target– 12/13/10/10/15+
Pushups done – 12/13/10/10/15

Squats target – 22/29/20/21/29+
Squats done – 22/29/20/21/29

2250 cal/198 carb/87 fat/159 protein/38 fibre

February 16

Playground fun – 1 x 2 pullups, 6 x 2 chinups

Came home to 50+cm of snow and got to do some digging at 3am.

2214 cal/168 carb/91 fat/163 protein/42 fibre

February 17 - 162.4 lbs

Pushups AMRAP - 21
Squats AMRAP - 40

15 minutes alternating between burpees and jumping jacks with lots of panting and cursing after each burpee round. Really good reminder just how out of shape I am.

21 pushups barely keeps me in the same column moving into week three (having done week two twice). The number of reps coming up looks daunting.

2167 cal/222 carbs/62 fat/186 protein/39 fibre

February 18 - 162.4 lbs

Got a couple mini stretching sessions in today - joint mobility stuff for the most part.

Pushups target 12/17/13/13/17+
Pushups done 12/17/13/13/17

Squats target 24/30/22/22/34+
Squats done 24/30/22/22/34

Pullups target 4/9/6/6/9 (3 second controlled descent - restarted week 3)
Pullups done 4/9/6/6/9

45 sec plank/30 bicycle crunches/15 hypers/45 sec plank/32 supermans

Barely managed the last pushup and last couple squats. For the first time so far all pullup descends were for the full 3 seconds at least. The break from pullups seemed to help quite a bit.

Realized today that my 2 coffees per day were missing 1 sugar in the macro totals, so cal intake is about 70cal higher per day than noted above. Highly likely that isn't the only error in there as well. Whatever I have been consuming seems to be pretty close to maintenance for me at any rate.

1986 cal/223 carbs/48 fat/170 protein/35 fibre

Almost four weeks in and there are no visible signs of change so far. No change in weight and virtually no change in measurements. I expect that I should start to see some changes towards the end of the next four week period but that it will likely be some time beyond that before anyone else can tell there is any difference and outside of my regular orgy circle I don’t expect anyone at all will notice. I have been eating much healthier throughout this time and generally feel better though. I seem to be forming some decent habits with respect to both food and exercise. I am clearly stronger than I was when I started but that is not saying much as I am still super weak. It is a good start though and I am building some sort of fitness base slowly. I have been logging food semi-religiously on sparkpeople and have been meaning to switch to MFP the entire time. I have been slightly better with respect to getting to bed a little earlier but still struggle to get a good 7 hours sleep per night.

I am going to drop my daily calorie target into the 1800 – 1950 range and see if I can’t start to melt away some of my butter. I plan to get 160g of protein into me per day at a minimum and am not too fussed where carbs and fats end up. I could and maybe should be more aggressive with a calorie deficit as I have no muscle to lose at this point but for that very reason there isn’t much muscle structure under there to reveal anyhow so I’m not sure I should be in any rush. I would like to slide down to somewhere around 155 lbs by the end of April and see how that looks and feels for now.

Not sure how much longer I will try to follow the 100 pushups/200 squats/50 pullups programs. I just wanted to use some sort of structured starting point and will likely morph to more Ross Training and/or Kettlebell stuffs sometime soon. Still thinking about getting a power rack and doing a starting strength program but just won’t have the time to get that going until May at the earliest and will seriously consider a few sessions with a trainer to help get form down from the get go. Given my super low fitness level I think that starting out with bodyweight stuff first is for the best and it gives me time to work on some mobility as well in the meantime.

February 19 – 162.4 lbs – 3 days in a row at exact same weight, scale confirmed broken

I planned to do 30 seconds of each of the following with no rest in between exercises for 4 sets with 60 seconds of rest between each set (burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, chair dips, bicycle crunches, jumping rope). Did closer to 20 seconds of each exercise with 10 seconds of transitioning and crying between exercises. Burpees, mountain climbers and dips were the big problems. ****ing burpees. These things are awesome and I hate them. Or they suck and I love them. One of those. Did manage to get through 4 sets anyway.

1696 cal/161 carbs/44 fat/183 protein/48 fibre – lol tilapia and broccoli dinner, might throw a scotch or two on top of that total after this post

February 20 – 161.2 lbs

Alternated between pushups and squats.
Pushups target– 14/19/14/14/19+
Pushups done – 14/19/14/14/12 (FAIL)

Squats target – 27/34/27/27/38+
Squats done – 27/34/27/27/38

Alternated between pullups and abs.
Pullups target – 5/9/7/7/9 (jump to top and do 3 second controlled descend)
Pullups done – 5/9/7/7/9

Abs – 45 second plank/25 bicycle crunches/18 hyperss/45 sec plank/35 supermans

Found pushups super hard. Barely finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th sets and then fell way short on last set. Had trouble with last set of squats too.

1841 cal/193 carb/53 fat/174 protein/48 fibre

Nice to be feeling healthier, even if it doesn't show yet.

I found sparkpeople app very slow on my phone, but if logging at the computer, it's just as good as MFP, maybe a little better.

For sure! I think MFP might have a better database of food but sparkpeople has been doing okay for me. All logged on computer, none on phone.

February 21 – 160.8 lbs

Cardio – basically did the beginnings of a couch to 5K running program tonight. Did a 5 minute walk to warmup and then 8 cycles of 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking. -10 Celsius and parts of this turned out to be on freezing puddles which was a bit sketchy. Covered almost 1/2 km during the 5 min walk and around 2.25km during the 20min cycles. Felt way better than I was expecting.

1868cal/171 carbs/60 fat/176 protein/36 fibre