Charlie Mike?

[amiiwu]

Hi all!

New to the forums, though I've been obsessively trawling bodybuilding.com for a few weeks now. I stumbled across Ashley Horner's new program Charlie Mike and was wondering if anyone else is considering following it?

Quick history:
I had been a cardio bunny for about 3 1/2 years, constantly under eating and pushing myself on the trails to try and achieve the physique shown in magazines. But it never worked and I was constantly flabby, and stuck in a binge/restrict cycle with food that played havoc with my self esteem. In early 2015 I hired a personal trainer at my gym who showed me some basic lifting and combined it with circuit training. Wow! My body has changed for the better, I've dropped from a 12 to an 8 (UK sizes) and feel so strong and empowered. I LOVE lifting!

I want to take it to the next level, but as a newbie think I need some structure and a guide, and Charlie Mike looks challenging enough to give me results. Currently you ladies all look like warrior princesses to me, it would be great to find someone who is also following the program.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

P.S. I just tried a couple of 'wall runs' and surprised myself that I could do them! This gives me hope that I'm not out of my league lol.

[LunaLifts]

If you haven't read this thread yet in your time lurking, I would do so: Link. There tends to be some misinformation, or a lack of certain information with newbies. Not saying that's a bad thing, just that the thread covers a lot, and is a good, highly recommended read.

Chances are the routine you mentioned is going to be overkill, as BB sometimes likes to advertise advanced splits to anyone, and everyone. Not every routine is meant for everyone, and it's not because of gender, or size, or age, but where you are as a lifter. You've been lifting for around a year, which is still considered being a beginner. You have great muscle recovery, and would benefit the most from working your whole body 3x a week. Particularly since you've been eating in a deficit, so you've been maintaining muscle, and building strength (through CNS adaptions), but not building it yet.

As you start building, eventually your muscle recovery won't be as good as it is now. Which is when it's a good time to jump on a 4x a week split, like the intermediate programs recommended in the linked thread. Higher splits where someone is splitting their body into 4-5x a week are typically for those would have built up a large amount of muscle, and need longer time for muscle recovery. The thread I posted goes more into detail, but long point made short, you'll do best on a program working your full body 3x a week for a bit longer.

That said, what is your goal? Are you still trying to lose weight or are you looking to start putting on muscle? Because the training alone won't do those for you. If you're still trying to drop weight, and have managed to lose some from working out, eventually you get to a point where you need to be more tedious with tracking, because there's less room for error. I don't know if you have been, but you haven't mentioned it, so I figured I'd throw that out there. If you're trying to build muscle, you're going to need to set your calories in the opposite direction for growth.

Welcome to the forum, and best of luck.

[amiiwu]

Hey LunaLifts,

thanks for replying to me I'll read up on the basics. Did Charlie Mike day one today, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I could bench press - I think I underestimated myself! Still room for improvement though.

Thanks again for the tip

Amy

[MVMama]

I am following Ashley Horner's "Charlie Mike" Program - I really like it. Did the Day 8 Bench Press workout today. The burpee pull ups were hard but Awesome ! had to break them into groups of 5 but I got them done. I hope that you are enjoying the program. Sounds like you are ready for it !