I am 22-years-old and I feel like an old man. I used to be very healthy and active but now 2 years after a pretty bad accident and a couple failed attempts to create a work out schedule, I am dedicated to getting myself into shape to compete in some type of team/group sport by fall '09.

I have tried rippetoe's starting strength program but I would miss days occasionally, and it was too much working to eat as much as I was. I have also recently become vegentarian, and that coupled with the fact that I am not very interested in getting 'bigger' as much as I am interested in getting strong.

I also have a very atheletic background, I used to wrestle and dance, as well as running cross county and distance races in track when I was in cross country. I would like to make gains in my cardiovascular strength.



Stats:
22 yo male, 6'4" 195 pounds
I broke both legs at age 19 and I have titanium down the length of both tibias, and nails in my ankles and knees. When I run for any significant distance I can a localized pain around my right knee, but mainly just below the knee cap.
Earlier in the summer I was pretty good about lifitng, I took a month off, and tried again for two weeks before flaking out on Rippetoes SS program. Here was what I was lifting back then

3 days a week
Week 1: M-d1 T-rest W-d2 th-rest friday-d1 sat-rest sun-rest
Week 2: Continute with pattern starting with d2 on monday and d1 on wednesday

**D1**
Squats 3x5 @177 lbs
Bench Press 3x5 @ 120
Dead Life 1x5 @ 235
Dips 2x8 @ -50lbs body weight resistance
2x15 needsize ab situps with 20lbs barbell

**D2**
Squats 3x5
Overhead Press 3x5 @ 80
Pendlay Row 3x5 125
Attempt 2xMAX pull ups, I normally can onyl get 2-3 solid ones, rest I kip until exhaustion
Same situps

I'd like to play rugby, which is something I enjoied for a brief period before my accident. I'm not sure if my body will be able to handle the impact, but I would like to do everything I can to put myself in a position to play

GOALS
Intensive Cardo Traning
Weight Lifting with a focus on Functional Strenght/CNS/Flexability/Balance over size(something I can concentrate on once I have a healthy foundation)

What do you all suggest to do? Am I going to have to eat huge amouts of whey protein and carbohydrates if I trying to gain strength while I do cardio? Are there any exercises you all suggest that can work on strenghtening the muscles around my knees, shins, ankles besdies my squat work? is there anything in the old program I need to revise? Any weights that I gave that seem too low/too high in context of the others?

Any advice for eating vegetarian and trying to get stronger? I'm willing to eat pork/chicken/beef occasionally through the week if it is avoidable, but I don't eat it for personal reasons, as well as the fact that my family has a very bad history of heart disease, and I try to avoid red meat whenever possible.

Thanks for sticking around to read a strangers blog and I look forward to the advice.

Can you explain why you want intensive cardio training, and if you turned vegetarian for health reasons?

Time to bring out the checkboxes

Perhaps intensive isin't the right word, maybe substantial is better word. I need the cardio work out because my main goal for fitness here is to play rugby again like I used too, and I am just not in good enough cardio shape to expect to play longer than 20mins without getting winded.

I'm vegetarian for moral reasons, not religious or health reasons. Because of this, I would be willing to slip in a little dose of piggy or cow if it was unavoidable, but I would prefer to accomplish them without having to eat pork,chicken, or beef. I am perfectly willing to eat fish. I eat a good amount of tuna already, and I would love to eat more salmon.

I kind of touched on this in my OP, but my dad and grandpa both got heart attacks really early, so that is another reason I have decided to avoid to red meat, but it is certainly not THE reason.

It's okay to eat fish cause they don't have any feelings...

Well mainly because
1) If I want to be succesfull with not eating meat (this is a new diet) I have to draw an arbitary moral line somewhere
2) Fish are less intelligent, less self-aware, less social, and frankly less cute than the big three pork/beef/chicken.
3) Nirvana

i would say the best way to get in shape for rugby is to play lots of rugby.

This isint really an option for me because I live in Michigan and its winter. There isint really a lot of Rugby to be found. But I appreciate what you are doing here...

**** lol you pussy eat some steak you bitch.

Cardiovascular and strength is makes no sense. stfu you pussy go dance.



yeah your life is dead you **** pussy eat some steak.

okay maybe your not gay now.

okay your all right with me now your not gay.

stfu ***. red meat isn't bad for you. just get organic or some other hippy **** you stupid sissy. I'm drunk btw.

Hard to get enought protein from food sources without meat, although salmon & tuna are both good.

What is your position on milk & eggs?

plants have no feelings either that;s why we slaighter them by the rtrillians.

Feasting on disfigured coma patients ok?

Are you saying this because of the thing about not eating tuna more than few times per week because of mercury?

If you were not limiting yourself for this reason seems to me like you can get tons of protein from fish. I'm actually surprised this isn't the typical bodybuilder type's diet.

No problems with eggs, regardless of how they are treated, because I realize that eggs are hard to replace in a good weight gain/ strength diet.

Milk: I love it and drink as much as possible. I worry about estrogen, phlem/pus, stuff like that so I don't drink as much as I used to.

blackkeys come back here in 8 hours and give me good advice. In the meantime I will cover men with bean sprout and make love to them.

lol k. you drink milk and eat eggs so you're ok in my books.

That, plus how many times a day do you want to eat fish? Once a day is enough for me personally.

That'll help with the protein.

I've heard about the merc. thing but Its never really bothered me.
When I was turbo-poor I used to eat tuna ~12 times a week. Currently I could eat fish every day and be happy. Is this a good strategy?

Im about to head out to the Y/shameless bumb. I thought of a quick question you guys can answer after I get back. My YMCA doesn't have a proper squat rack, and the machine I use is kind of funky. Basically its a cage and there is a bar that I can roll forward and backwards as a saftey mechanism to attach and detach a claw from the machine. The bar is kind of suspended on either side so that it can only move at a 90 degree angle from floor, straight up and down. If I dropped it, it would fall all the way to the floor. Is there something I should be doing to compensate for the weird bar?

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/en...est-coat-rack/

Damn...
... that sucks. I've been using that machine on and off for two years. Is there a point where I should think about switching gyms (once I get to 240 squats or something etc), should I just ignore squats until I go to a gym that has a power rack, or should I continue to use the smith but be careful?

I still havn't got any word on the cardio/strength gain idea. What type of training should I be looking at? HIIT seems like a good fit for me. Should I do it after I lift, or on a completely different day?

[_] Welcome
[_] Read the FAQ
[X] Re-read the FAQ
[X] You aren't a special snowflake
[X] Check out SS (real version, where you actually stay consistent and do barbell squats)
[X] Once adequate strength and muscle adaptations have taken place, you can transition to something else
[X] You need to continue SS
[_] Check out 5x5
[_] See the westside template
[X] Post more information on your current stats, diet, and training
[X] Figure out your BMR, expenditure, intake, etc. Follow, adjust. Repeat
[_] Eat more, fool
[_] Eat less, fool
[X] Clean up your diet, based on above
[_] Don't worry too much about a "clean" diet
[_] Too much cardio
[_] The "fat-burning zone" is a tard-monkey concept, for the most part
[X] Goddamnit, why are you doing so much steady-state cardio and complaining you can't build muscle
[_] Work on GPP. Once a reasonable level is achieved, transition off
[X] Try HIIT
[X] HIIT has downsides too
[_] Never again use the term "tone"
[_] Join a gym, or make a better home gym
[_] Your gym sucks
[_] Sick gym!
[_] Your trainer sucks
[_] A good trainer. Rare.
[_] 3x10 is not the only set-rep scheme
[_] Program design is hard. Use a good premade one if you're a beginner.
[_] Thremp will pwn you, I hope
[_] Shemp will pwn you
[X] Eat more protein
[_] Carbs suck
[_] Not all carbs suck
[X] Fat is not the devil
[X] Olympic lifts, ftw. (Integrate em in later)
[_] LDO
[X] Big rocks, little rocks (Consistency, in particular)
[_] NOX is a scam, chump
[_] Creatine is not a steeeeroid
[X] Whey/caesin protein, fish oil, creatine are good starts, but only after training and diet are in order
[_] Forget ******o supplements, lift well, eat right
[X] Compound movements>Isolation movements
[_] You are neglecting your posterior chain
[X] Start squatting, even if you want the big gunz yo
[X] More squats
[X] Not on the smith machine, you slag heap
[X] More deadlifts
[_] Too many bicep curls make your weiner smaller
[_] Tricep kickbacks and lateral raises. See above.
[X] Progressive overload, yo
[_] Pullups > Pulldowns
[_] 1 jumping jack
[_] If you want a 6-pack, screw crunches. Build muscle and drop bodyfat to low levels
[X] Don't become vegetarian/vegan for health reasons, you stupid strumpet. Ok whatever. Eat more wild salmon, eggs, whey/casein/ and as much meat as your ethics allow.
[_] Overtraining
[_] Not overtraining, pussy
[_] Active recovery is the nuts
[X] Sleep
[_] If you want a stronger/bigger upper body, work your lower body harder
[_] You will not magically wake up hyoooj one morning
[X] Fat loss/muscle gain is not linear
[_] Quit whining
[X] More mobility work
[_] Screw the burn/pump
[_] Xylem is back
[_] Soy will make you a woman
[X] Eat more vegetables, especially spinach
[?] Eat more meat
[X] Eat whole eggs

HIIT on the non-training days.

At first I was kind of disapointed that I got a list of checklists, but I think this actually kind of covers what I was looking for.

Is 2 days of HIIT training a good number to shoot for? I'll read more about HIIT in the meantime.

As far as my diet goes, I am taking 20 credits and I can only manage it with adderal (I know its sad). I know this effects my diet. For example I've only had a bagel with egg and some milk today, I just worked out, its 3:40 and I'm not hungry. This is something that needs to change. Its just hard to eat GOOD food when I have to cook it for myself and I'm not really motivated directly eat. (I want to get HUDGEEE but I don't really enjoy eating that much)