In need of a new program

[KaceyBuchanan]

Hello,

I’m 25 years old I weigh 250lbs and I’m 5’11. 4 years ago I was in my best shape ever. I weighed 180 and was benching my weigh. I was very lean and felt great and felt like I wanted to go to the gym. For the month of March I wanted to kickstart my health journey again and attempt to workout very hard to form good habits and start steps to get in shape. For the last few years I’ve been very sedentary and have had a diet of a ton of fast food and a lot of soda. Previously, I was in track and cross country in high school for 4 years. After that, I started to weight lift a lot when I was 18 until about 21-22. Just trying to get healthy and change my lifestyle.

My plan was to workout 5 days a week on a split workout where id hit a different part of my body everyday. I was tacking on 15 minutes of stationary bike for cardio.

Week 1 & 2 I only worked out 4 days a week and it felt really hard to keep this up and I was falling off. I did not workout week 3 but had gone on an almost 2 hour walk with a friend. It’s Tuesday on week 4 and I’m seeking advice on what I need to be doing. How much cardio a week? How much should I weight lift? How many days? I feel a bit lost and I hate being overweight it plagues everything in my life.

Please help!
Thanks.

[Partyrocking]

I would start with a novice program. GZCLP is a good one. I would run it as is and hold off on adding additional accessories until you get your conditioning up. It's easier to add volume over time than it is to start too high and burn out.

It's hard to say what weight you should start with without knowing how strong you are, but I would start with a weight that is somewhat easy. GZCLP has you do 4 sets of 3 reps and then one AMRAP (as many reps as possible). On that AMRAP, you should get at least 6 reps if it's your first week and it's okay if you get more. I got 10 reps on my first AMRAP deadlift set.

For cardio, I would keep walking. It's easy enough that you can do it every day and not worry about recovery. Try 30 minutes on days you lift and up to an hour on days you don't.

[KaceyBuchanan]

I was previously using this a 5 day workout split and I was resting 1 1/2 minutes inbetween different lifts and 30 seconds inbetween sets and I felt dead and exhausted my conditioning is very low. I’ll check out GZCLP. I felt I had slightly more strength the 2nd week and felt a little better. My main goal is to get back down to 180, which I know diet takes a lot. I’ll try just walking a lot more and slowly building myself up again. I was benching dumbbells at 35 lbs probably could’ve went slightly higher, doing lat pull downs on machine around 70lbs and shoulder pressing around 35 lbs with dumbbells.

For reps I was trying to go for 10-12 as I felt like it would help tone me rather than bulk me. However, with the thing you are recommending I should keep it slightly lower for now?

Also, I don’t feel like I’m a beginner I was in the weight room for awhile and exercising a lot before. Is this recommended because I’ve been gone from lifting for so long and it’s a good way to come back?

[Partyrocking]

After 4 years off, you're basically a beginner again. You'll likely rebuild faster than a true novice, but in terms of training, a beginner's routine would be the most sensible. GZCLP has you doing 3-15 reps depending on the day and the exercise.

[KaceyBuchanan]

Alright appreciate it. Makes sense.

[CJaySmith]

I think guys like Jeff Nippard and the Buff Dudes have free programs online. Maybe just start with one of those, see what you like.