Thanks for all the replies so far everyone. Haha my milk and I are just staring at each other now; neither one of us knows what to do

A quick update: next Wednesday morning I'm undergoing the following assessments: blood pressure, cholesterol, percent body fat, heart rate, flexibility, lung volume, muscular endurance, strength, aerobic capacity, relative fitness level and lifestyle risk status.

This assessment is followed by a consultation period taking into consideration all the above information. Recommendations will then be made accordingly by a health professional. Hopefully that should get me on the right track, as well.

The 3-5% BF was just an estimate. I'll have a much better idea of where I want to be after Wednesday morning.

To Wrangell, I plan on sticking with a consistent workout plan and better eating habits and hopefully maintain a new BF level simply by adopting a healthier lifestyle. The 3-5% is probably much lower than what I'm envisioning.

To danboyle, I will be training hard all summer (til classes begin again in late August) while rotating my workouts every 4-6 weeks. I will cut the cardio down (I haven't been doing more than 20 thus far yet, which is now looking like a good thing). A definite "no" to becoming like a bodybuilder -- just aiming at adding definition and tone while maintaining or even adding a bit of my muscle mass. Thanks for cottage cheese comment. I'm still learning to like it myself. As for calories, it varies from day to day, but this week I've been between 1800-2200.

As for the compound exercises...any recommendations to take place of the isolation exercises?

Hopefully I've addressed everyone's questions thus far, please remind me if I forgot something. Thanks again to all.

I would agree.......3-5% is way too low IMO and totally unrealistic as a sustainable goal.

Given most professional hockey players are usually at 9% - 10% body fat, that should speak for itself.

This just in:

I've gotten my results from my General Fitness Assessment -- things went pretty much as I had anticipated. My BF% is actually 14 as opposed to the 12 I'd estimated in the earlier posts. Therefore, my new short-term goal is going to be 10%, and we'll see how things look/progress from there.

As for compound exercises, how does the following schedule look to you all?

Monday - Chest, Shoulders, HIIT
Incline Bench Press
Decline Bench Press
Pushups
Standing Military Press
Arnold Press
15-20 minute HIIT session

Tuesday - Back, Biceps, Cardio
Deadlift
Iso-lateral Row
Lat Pulldowns
Chinups
Preacher Curls
20-minute cardio session (bike/swim/run/elliptical)

Wednesday - Legs, Cardio
Squats
Dumbell Lunges
Calf Raises
20-minute cardio session (bike/swim/run/elliptical)

Thursday - HIIT
15-20 minute HIIT session

Friday - Triceps
Dips
Close-grip pushups
Skull-crusher/close-grip bench press supersets

This is a tentative outline of my workout plan that I'll begin next Monday if I get the go-ahead from you folks. Please do suggest other exercises/techniques and feel free to yell at me if I'd included an exercise that just isn't ideal for what I'm trying to do. Thanks again to all; I truly appreciate all the advice.

I don't mean to bother, but I'd really appreciate some feedback. The advice to be had here is truly valuable and will make a world of a difference in my results. Thanks!

Looks pretty decent to me. Your working your triceps in Monday a lot as well, so you could just get rid of the Friday workout and add in dips/skulls to your Monday workout.

But you don't have to.

Thanks a lot, Phate. Should I add anything to Friday or just use it as an off-day?

1. You can use it as an off day

2. You can use it as a power day, and just incorporate some cleans, hangs, and snatches

3. You can use it as another leg day. Could make better improvements if you squatted/deadlifted more.

4. If you have some exercises that are lagging in strength, you can use Friday to add in exercises you want to improve upon.