Reaching my goal

Finally after 10 months or so of dieting and training heavy I reached the threshold. I have certainly learned a lot and if i were to do it again in the future I would do some things different but overall I think I done myself proud, especially receiving little or no help. Next time round I would definitely hire a nutritionist for valuable input coming up to competition time and I would be more reactionary when my weight or strength doesn’t increase for more than 2 weeks in a row.

My diet for the 5 weeks leading up to the comp was Ketosis and went as follows.

Every day diet plan	Food	Supplements
Breakfast	4 Duck Eggs pan fried with Coconut oil, 2 pieces of bacon	Magnesium x 1, Carlsons fish oils x 2, Zinc x 2,
Meal 2	200g Chicken, 150g brocolli, 20 almonds, 1 table spoon of udos oil
Lunch	170g steak, 150g brocolli, 1 table spoon of udos oil
Meal 4	150g salmon, 150g brocolli, 2 tablespoons of nut butter, 1 table spoon of udos oil
Dinner	200g chicken, 3 tablespoons of nut butter	Magnesium x 1, Carlsons fish oils x 2, Zinc x 2,
Meal 6	10 almonds, 1 tub of cottage cheese full fat, 1 table spoon of udos oil

Unfortunately this diet didn’t yield the results i expected, i did over the course of the 5 weeks i used it lose about 2% body fat, from 11% down to about 9% with a little over a week to go until the comp. The problem i can see with the diet above is the nut butter wasn’t specific as regards grams like everyone else was, nut butter is thick and i guess I was adding heaped tablespoons instead of flat tablespoons so probably adding 300-400kcal per day extra, it’s tasty stuff 🙂 I couldn’t get enough.

At about 9% body fat

At my wits end and with about 8-9 days to go I turned to my good friend Vinny Gough for help once again and he gave me a link to a guide about carb depletion/fluid manipulation that I again followed to the T and managed to drop 2% body fat down to around 7% in that time.

At 7% body fat

Here’s the link -> http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/10-days-to-extreme-definition-the-pro-fitness-models-guide.html

Thankfully by competition day I looked like I was finally ready and went on to place 3rd which I was delighted with, when I decided to do this comp back in October 2012 I had no designs on placing, infact I was happy to just get in the top 10 (from 30 in my class) to get a medal and have something other than photos to show my kids in years to come, now i guess I’ll have to come back next year and take 1st place. This time round I think I’ll use a nutritionist and I’ll do things differently. Here’s a look at how, using the rules outlined in that article above, my diet looked for the 8 days up to comp, high water/salt to begin and later low water/no salt and at the same time high protein/low carbs then no carbs followed by carb load/low protein to keep calories balanced.

At the comp

	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
	Day 8	Day 7	Day 6	Day 5
Protein	300	300	300	300
Water	6L	6L	6L	6L
Carbs	100	100	100	50
Fats	50	50	50	50
Salt
Total Calories	2050	2050	2050	1850
Foods needed
	Salt on all meals until Wednesday
Meal 1	150g chicken, 30g oatmeal, 4 duck egg whites	150g chicken, 30g oatmeal, 4 duck egg whites	150g chicken, 30g oatmeal, 4 duck egg whites	150g chicken, 30g oatmeal, 4 duck egg whites
Meal 2	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli
Meal 3	170g steak, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	170g steak, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	170g steak, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	170g steak, 75g brocolli
Meal 4	150g halibut, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	150g halibut, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	150g halibut, 50g yam, 75g brocolli	150g halibut, 75g brocolli
Meal 5	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	200g chicken, 75g brocolli
Meal 6	200g chicken, 50g yam	200g chicken, 50g yam	200g chicken, 50g yam	200g chicken, 75g brocolli
Meal 7	50g chicken	50g chicken	50g chicken	50g chicken
Meal 8	250g cottage cheese, 10 almonds	250g cottage cheese, 10 almonds	250g cottage cheese, 10 almonds	250g cottage cheese, 10 almonds

And then the final 5 days including comp day.

	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	Day 4	Day 3	Day 2	Day 1	Big day
Protein	300	100	100	100	100
Water	6L	6L	3L	1.5L	250ml or less
Carbs	None	500	500	500	500
Fats	50	0	0	0	0
Salt			None	None	None
Total Calories	1650	2400	2400	2400	2400
Foods to avoid		No veg after today just complex carbs
			No Salt at all from now on
			No training what so ever until after comp
Foods needed		Digestive Enzyme
		Rice, Potato, Yam, Oatmeal
Meal 1	150g chicken, 4 duck egg whites	70g oatmeal, 40g chicken	70g oatmeal, 40g chicken	70g oatmeal, 40g chicken	70g oatmeal, 40g chicken
Meal 2	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	40g steak, 75g brocolli	40g steak, 75g yam	40g steak	40g steak
Meal 3	170g steak, 75g brocolli	40g chicken, 75g brocolli, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g yam, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g brown rice
Meal 4	150g halibut, 75g brocolli	40g steak, 75g brocolli, 100g yam	40g steak, 75g rice 100g yam	40g steak, 100g yam	40g steak, 100g yam
Meal 5	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	40g chicken, 75g brocolli, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g yam, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g brown rice	40g chicken, 75g brown rice
Meal 6	200g chicken, 75g brocolli	40g steak, 150g brown rice	40g steak, 150g brown rice	40g steak, 150g brown rice	40g steak, 150g brown rice
Meal 7	50g chicken	200g yam	200g yam	200g yam	200g yam
Meal 8	250g cottage cheese, 10 almonds	200g yam	200g yam	200g yam	200g yam

My training for the 6 weeks leading up to the comp was just maintenance, this mainly requires picking your best exercises for each muscle group and trying to light your maximum weight 5 times then racking the bar or whatever. Build up to that weight with lighter weights over the course of 4 other sets. Once you can come back each week and lift the same you will maintain your size. That’s the same plan I am going to adopt now until probably after Christmas so i can drop my training days down to 2 and concentrate on the new task/goals at hand, Triathlons and being highly conditioned for the field hockey and snowboarding season starting in the early winter.

Doing this comp has made me realise the advantages of making goals, whether it be in sport, hobbies or your career. Setting goals, announcing them, tracking them and putting a plan together are by far the best way’s to achieve in life, I’ve heard countless times over the years references to “goal setting” but never took much notice, since doing so I’ve competed in the Tough Mudder, placed in my first Male Fitness – body building comp and sky dived without fear, on to the next challenge!

6 weeks to go….

Progress over the last 7 months

Starting at around 83/84kg back in October I calculated my maintenance calories but never re-adjusted it as my weight increased up to 91/92kg. At that stage the calories I was taking in was enough just to maintain my weight, no longer increase. For 6-7 weeks I maintained this weight, unfortunate as i could have been bigger before cutting, rookie mistake!

Dietary Changes

Recently changed from mass produced veg/fruit to organic. Paying a little more but when your massed produced veg doesn’t go bad for 4 weeks and organic goes bad after 3-4 days you start to wonder what they’re putting in it that your ingesting.

Stopped using tap water also to avoid ingesting flouride, going with 100% coconut water instead or get a water filter to get rid of the toxins in the water

After the comp I’m going to change my diet and remove meat for a year, leave fish/eggs and will have to add certain supplements to keep testosterone levels high. I’ll blog the entire thing and hopefully can still add muscle on a mostly vegan diet.

For now my training will be just maintenance as i try to retain as much muscle as possible. My diet will change and as my cardio progresses I will blog as to what I’m doing and how my weight is changing, what works and what doesn’t.

Taken last night 2nd June at 90.1kg 12.5% body fat.

Month 5

Month 5.

Month 5

GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE MONTH AS A WHOLE

I’d like to say at this stage of the game I’d have all the kinks worked out but now I’m finding a plateau in my weight. I’ve been sitting around 90kg now for 5-6 weeks without much of a change. I’ve somehow gotten stronger but my weight has stayed the same. You might have inclined to say there was a shift in my body composition but by the looks of it my bodyfat is around the same. I’ve increased my calories per day anywhere from 5-800kcal and nada, disappointing to weigh in a couple of weeks in a row and still be the same weight.

I decided after 2 poor weeks of bulking to continue bulking as cutting would be pointless, 4 weeks of bulking and no cutting yielded 0.0kg of an increase, disheartening!

Time has come again to start documenting all the food I eat to get an accurate handle on calories consumed then make some changes to increase it.

On another negative note I fooked my wrist snowboarding early March and left it for 3 weeks before getting medical attention, as a result there’s some exercises I haven’t been able to do all month (mostly with Chest) and I’ve gotten weaker in those area’s. Also I’ve had frozen shoulder for quite some time and haven’t been able to do a shoulder session all month, another disaster!

GYM REGIME AND BODY WEIGHT

Month 5 (26th Mar – 4th May 2013)

WEEK 1

Weight: 89.9kg / 11.2% Body fat
Up 0.2kg in a week on Month 4

Start 4 week building cycle

Monday – Chest/Biceps
25th Mar

Bench Press 120×5/110×2, 110×7, 110×6, 100×8, 100×5
EZ Curl 40×6, 35×7, 35×6, 35×6, 30×6
Incline Fly 72×7,72×6, 45×11, 45×10, 45×8
Incline Curl 50×6, 45×8, 45×6, 40×6, 40×6
Fly 80×6, 70×6, 60×8, 60×8, 60×8

Tuesday – Legs
26th March

Back Squat 100×12, 120×8, 120×6, 120×6, 100×8, 100×7, 100×7
Hamstring Curl 205×9, 205×7, 205×6, 185×8, 185×7
Inner Thigh 32×8, 32×12, 37×9, 37×8, 37×7
Outer Thigh 22×10, 22×7, 22×8, 22×8, 22×7
Inner Rotation 37×12, 42×8, 42×8, 42×8, 42×7
Outer Rotation 17×10, 17×6, 17×7, 17×6, 17×5
Calves – Cramping

Wednesday – Back/Triceps
27th March

Pull down 220×10, 230×7, 220×6, 210×5/200×1, 200×7
Pushdown 120×6, 110×8, 110×6, 100×6, 90×7
Seated Row 210×6, 200×7, 200×8, 200×7, 190×8
Dips 35×8, 35×7, 35×7, 35×7, 35×7
Flys 40×9, 40×10, 40×9, 40×9, 40×9

WEEK 2

Weight: 89.9kg / 13.0% Body fat

1st Week bulk over, no increase but body fat is different which can’t be accurate as I’ve gotten slightly stronger, still, FAIL.

Monday – Legs
1st April

Hack Squat 240×7, 240×6, 240×6, 240×6, 240×6
Ham Curls 250×7, 250×6, 240×8, 240×7, 240×7
Leg Extension 270×7, 270×8, 270×8, 270×7, 270×6
Calves 200×8, 200×9, 200×8, 200×9, 200×8

Tuesday– Chest/Biceps
2nd April

Bench Press 120×6, 110×8, 110×7, 110×6, 110×5
EZ Curl 40×7, 35×9, 35×7, 35×6, 35×6
Incline Fly 50×9, 50×9, 50×8, 50×7, 45×7
Incline Curl 50×5, 45×6, 45×6, 40×6, 40×5
Fly 80×10, 80×6, 70×7, 70×6, 70×6

Thursday– Back/Triceps
4th April

Pulldown 230×9, 230×6, 220×7, 220×5, 210×6
Pushdown 110×7, 110×8, 110×7, 110×6, 100×6
Seated Row 210×7, 210×6, 200×7, 200×7, 200×7
Dips 40×9, 40×7, 40×6, 35×8, 35×7
Flys 45×7, 45×7, 40×8, 40×9, 40×8

WEEK 3

Weight: 90.5kg / 13.9% Body fat

2nd Week bulk, increase of 0.6kg in 2nd week of bulking, SUCCESS

Monday – Chest/Biceps
8th April

Bench Press Machine 200×8, 200×7, 200×7, 200×7, 200×7
EZ Curl 40×6, 35×7, 35×7, 35×6, 35×5
Pec Dec 125×10, 14×7, 165×6, 165×7, 165×6
Incline Curl 50×5, 45×7, 45×7, 45×7, 45×7
Fly 45×7, 37×7, 32×7, 32×6, 32×5

Tuesday – Legs
9th April

Hack Squat 200×10, 240×10, 240×10, 280×6, 240×9, 240×7
Ham Curl 255×7, 240×8, 240x, 240×7, 240×7
Leg Extension 255×7, 255×9, 255×8, 255×8, 255×8
Calves 280×7, 240×8, 240×7, 200×8, 200×7

Friday – Back/Triceps
12th March

Pulldown 240×8, 240×5/230×2, 230×7, 230×5/220×2
Pushdown 110×10, 110×8, 110×8, 110×5/100×2
Seated Row 210×9, 210×8, 210×7, 200×9, 200×8
Over head cable pull 87×7, 92×7, 92×8, 92×7, 92×7
Flys 45×10, 45×9, 45×7, 40×8, 40×7

WEEK 4

Weight: 90.8kg / 12.3% Body fat

3rd week bulking over, up 0.3kg, SUCCESS

Monday – Legs
15th April

Hack Squat 200×10, 240×10, 280×8, 280×6, 240×10
Ham Curls 260×3/240×4, 220×8, 220×7, 200×8
Leg Extension 290×8, 290×8, 290×7, 290×7, 290×7
Calves 240×9, 240×8, 200×9, 200×7, 200×7

Tuesday – Chest/Biceps
16th April

Bench Press Machine 230×11, 245×10, 260×8, 260×7, 260×7
EZ Curl 40×6, 35×8, 35×6, 35×6, 35×5
Incline Machine 200×7, 200×7, 200×7, 200×7, 200×6
Incline Curl 50×5, 45×8, 45×7, 45×7, 45×7
Fly 32×7, 32×7, 32×7, 32×7, 32×7

Thursday – Back/Triceps
18th April

Pull up 15×9, 15×7, 10×7/2, 10×5/2
Pushdown 110×9, 110×7, 100×8, 100×7, 100×6
Seated Row 200×4, 180×8, 180×7, 180×7, 180×6
Overhead Extension 92×8, 92×8, 92×7, 92×6, 87×7
Flys – No time

Weight: 89.9kg / 12% Body fat

4 weeks bulking and I’m the same weight after it as before. COMPLETE FAIL

BODY WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 4

The exact same weight after 4 weeks of bulking without any cutting, seriously poor effort and waste of time..

WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 4

Chest/Biceps

Press Machine N/A
EZ Curl 0kg
Incline DB Press N/A
Incline Curl 0kg
Fly N/A

Back/Triceps

Pull down +20kg
Pushdown +0kg
Seated Row + 0kg
Dips +5kg
Flys +5kg

Legs

Hack Squat +0kg
Ham Curls +15kg
Leg Extension+20kg
Calves +0kg

MEASUREMENTS

Compared to last month the results are great, my chest/lats ha.

Arm: 15 3/8″ (+3/8″)
Chest: 43.1” (+0.1″)
Waist: 35″ (-1″)
Hip: 35″ (+0″)
Calf: 15″ 5/8 (+1/8″)
Thigh: 24″ 3/4 (+1/4″)

DIET AND SUPPLEMENTATION

I’ve changed my diet quite a bit since last month, I’ll take it per meal;

Breakfast

Added protein powder, turmeric (strong anti-inflammatory), cinnamon, nutmeg, honey into porridge in the morning with 3 tablespoons of coconut oil for kcal’s

When I’ve time I make porridge pancakes; Blend 50g porridge, add in 4-5 egg whites, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, 45g protein powder and blend into a paste. Lightly spray a pan with spray oil, brown the pancakes each side and serve with berries, honey and banana

Lunch/Dinner

Changed veg to all greens (asparagus, peas, brocolli, kale, spinach etc), added in 30g brown rice, same meat + coconut oil, using more spices and hardly any sauce.

Post Workout Protein Shake

1.5 scoops protein powder
Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Turmeric, honey
3 tablespoon coconut oil
Boiled/Soaked brown rice (20g)
1 x Kiwi
Some berries/pineapple
Coconut water
3 icecubes
Blend it all and serve, 550kcal, 45g protein, 45g slow (rice) and fast release (tropical fruits) carbs

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

All important photographs make it much easier to see progress especially when coupled with measurements and weight/body fat history.

I’m unsure now as my weight is the same, my leg’s are catching up at least.

Blasting the Abdominals

I had previously wrote that anyone interested in a list of ab exercises to contact me but I thought it better to write a comprehensive list with video links and let people choose what exercises work for them or they prefer as there are so many.

Personally I do 3 exercises in rotation without breaks for 5 sets each. I treat my abs like any other muscle group and you should too. That means doing weighted exercises that fatigue the muscle (abdominal + obliques) within 6-12 reps each time. I split the abdominal up into upper/lower and then the obliques which are the muscles under your love handles (internal obliques) and muscle over your ribs also on your side (external obliques). Oblique exercises generally work both internal/external.

Each gym session I do if my abs are not sore from the previous session I’ll work them out, choosing different exercises from the last time. That’s possibly up to 3 different sessions per week and after a month I’ll rotate all of these also.

I’ll split the exercises up into beginner, intermediate and advanced also and I’ve put a link to a video showing how to do the exercise under each exercise name. So just click on the exercises if you don’t know what it is (the name is a link) and the video on YouTube will show you. Any questions feel free to ask of course.

Beginner Exercises

Upper Abdominal

Bicycles
Plank
Crunch
Crunch holding medicine ball above forehead
Crunch holding medicine ball above head with arms extended for extra weight

Lower Abdominal

Reverse Crunch
Hip Raise
Plank

Obliques

Side plank
Side Crunch
Side Crunch on swiss ball
Side bend holding dumbbell

Intermediate Exercises

Upper Abdominal

Weighted Crunch – Cable machine
V Up Crunch

Lower Abdominal

Hanging Leg Raises
Leg Raise – Roman Chair

Obliques

Russian Twist – Cable machine
Side bends – Cable machine
Side bends – Back extension machine

Advanced Exercises

Upper Abdominal

Roll out
Dragon Flag
Single hand Weighted Crunch – Cable Machine
Crunch – Decline bench

Lower Abdominal

Weighted Leg raise – Romain chair, trap a dumbbell between your feet and lift that too.
Single hand Weighted Crunch – Cable Machine
Reverse Crunch – Decline bench

Obliques

Hanging Knee raise twist – bring your knee’s up to parallel then twist them to each side.
Side T bar – with or without a dumbbell
Single hand Weighted Crunch – Cable Machine
High hand side bend – Cable machine

Month 4

GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE MONTH AS A WHOLE

Great month overall, I think moving back into a non labour intensive job really helped too, meaning I don’t burn random amounts of calories per day and I’ve to eat a little less too.

About half way through the month while deadlifting I ended up with a bulging disc which affected my training for a good 2-3 weeks meaning I had to drop weight and concentrate on more reps and slower movements to get the same out of each exercise, this had a knock on effect with my weight progress at the end, putting a few red’s in there. Over all though for anything I could record properly for I increased the weight i was lifting which is about right considering my body weight increased too while my body fat remains low.

GYM REGIME AND BODY WEIGHT

Month 4 (25th Feb – 25th Mar 2013)

WEEK 1

Weight: 87.7kg / 10.9% Body fat
Up 0.7kg in a week on Month 3

Start 4 week building cycle

Monday – Chest/Biceps
25th Feb

Cable Press 67×8, 67×7, 67×6, 62×6, 57×6
Cable Single Arm Curl 32×8, 32×8, 32×7, 32×7, 32×7
Incline DB Press 100×8, 100×7, 100×6, 100×6, 90×7
Hammer Curl 45×9, 45×8, 45×7, 45×6, 45×7
Cable Under Fly 50×8, 50×7, 50×7, 50×7, 50×6

Tuesady – Legs
26th Feb

Back Squat 100×12, 120×8, 120×6, 120×6, 100×8, 100×7, 100×7
Hamstring Curl 205×9, 205×7, 205×6, 185×8, 185×7
Inner Thigh 32×8, 32×12, 37×9, 37×8, 37×7
Outer Thigh 22×10, 22×7, 22×8, 22×8, 22×7
Inner Rotation 37×12, 42×8, 42×8, 42×8, 42×7
Outer Rotation 17×10, 17×6, 17×7, 17×6, 17×5
Calves – Cramping

Wednesday – Back/Triceps
27th Feb

Pull up 14, 9, 8, 8, 7
Skull crusher 50×7, 45×8, 45×7, 45×6, 40×8
Dead Row 85×7, 80×7, 80×6, 70×8, 70×8
Close Bench 80×6, 80×6, 70×8, 70×8, 70×8
Lat Pushdown 85×8, 85×8, 85×8, 85×7, 85×7

WEEK 2

Weight: 91.8kg / 10.7% Body fat

1^st Week bulk over, increase of 4.0kg, SUCCESS, not exactly sure how I put on this much weight in one week but I wasn’t complaining to finally hit 90kg.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
4th March

Cable Press 72×7, 72×6, 67×6, 67×6, 67×7
Cable Single Arm Curl 37×7, 32×8, 32×7, 32×6, 32×6
Incline DB press 100×9, 100×8, 100×6, 100×5, 95×6
Hammer Curls 50×7, 45×8, 45×7, 45×6, 45×8
Cable Under Fly 50×10, 50×8, 50×8, 50×8, 50×8

Thursday – Legs
7th March

Back Squat 100×10, 120×8, 100×10, 120×9, 120×7, 120×7
Ham Curl 215×10, 225×7, 215×7, 205×8, 205×8
Inner Thigh 37×12, 37×11, 42×9, 427, 42×6
Outer Thigh 27×8, 27×9, 27×7, 27×8, 27×6
Inner Rotation 42×10, 47×8, 47×6, 42×9, 42×8
Outer Rotation 17×12, 22×6, 17×10, 17×9, 17×7
Calves 90×9, 90×8, 90×9, 90×8, 90×8

Friday – Back/Triceps
8th March

Pull up 10×7, 5×8, 8, 8, 8
Skull crusher 50×6, 45×7, 45×5, 40×7, 40×6
Dead Row 85×8, 85×7 ,80×7, 80×7, 80×7
Close Bench 90×7, 90×5/80×2, 80×5, 70×7, 70×6
Lat Pushdown 80×7, 80×7, 80×7, 70×7, 70×7

Saturday – Shoulders
9th March

Lumberjacks 50×6, 45×6, 40×7, 40×6, 40×7
Incline Shrugs 100×8, 100×8, 100×8, 100×7, 100×7
Rear Fly 30×8, 30×8, 30×8, 30×7, 30×8

WEEK 3

Weight: 90.4kg / 11.3% Body fat

2^nd Week bulk, decrease of 1.4kg, FAIL, decrease this time haven’t not changed anything I can think of, chance the weekend was heavy and I missed meals.

Monday – Legs
11th March

Leg Press 240×10, 280×8, 320×6, 280×6, 280×7
Ham Curl 230×8, 240×6, 235×7, 230×6, 220×8
Leg Extension 255×8, 255×7, 255×7, 255×7, 255×6
Calves On Leg Press machine 280×6, 240×8, 240×7, 200×6, 200×6

Wednesday– Chest/Biceps
13th March

Cable Press
Cable Single Arm Curl 72×9, 72×7, 72×6, 67×6, 67×6
Incline DB Press 37×10, 37×7, 37×6, 32×8, 32×7
Hammer Curl 50×7, 45×8, 45×7, 45×8, 45×9
Cable Under Fly 60×8, 60×6, 50×8, 50×8, 50×8

Thursday – Legs
14th March

Hack Squat 120×10, 160×10, 200×10, 240×10, 280×10, 280×10, 280×10
Inner Thigh 42×8, 42×8, 42×7, 42×6, 42×6
Outer Thigh 27×8, 27×9, 27×7, 27×7, 27×7
Inner Rotation 42×8, 37×7, 37×7, 37×6, 37×6
Outer Rotation 22×8, 22×8, 22×7, 22×7, 22×6
Calves 240×8, 240×8, 240×8, 240×8, 240×8

Friday – Back/Triceps – Had to change some exercises as fresh injury was causing problems, bulging disc
15th March

Lat Pulldown – 210×8, 210×8, 210×7, 200×7, 200×6
Skull crusher 45×9, 45×6, 40×7, 40×7
Seated Row 210×7, 200×7, 190×7, 180×7, 180×7
Close Bench 90×7, 80×8, 80×6, 70×7, 70×7
Lat Pushdown – too sore on my back/side from bulging disc

Saturday – Shoulders
16th March

Press Machine – 150×7, 140×6, 140×5, 130×7, 130×6
Incline Shrugs 100×10, 100×8, 100×8, 100×8, 100×8
Front/Side Raise 25×9, 25×8, 25×8, 25×7, 25×7
Rear Fly 30×10, 30×9, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8

WEEK 4

Weight: 89.7kg / 11.2% Body fat

1st week cut finished, down 0.7kg, SUCCESS

Monday – Legs
18th March

Leg press 280×10, 320×8, 360×5, 320×7, 320×7
Leg Curl 250×7, 250×7, 240×7, 230×7, 220×6
Leg Extension 265×8, 265×7, 265×7, 265×7, 265×6
Inner Thigh 42×12, 47×8, 42×8, 42×7, 42×7
Outer Thigh 27×10, 32×8, 27×9, 27×8, 27×8

Tuesday – Chest/Biceps
19th March

Cable Press 77×7, 72×6, 67×6, 67×7, 67×7
Cable Single Arm Curl 42×6, 37×8, 37×6, 37×6, 37×6
Incline DB Press 100×9, 100×7, 100×8, 100×7, 100×6
Hammer Curl 50×8, 45×7, 45×7, 45×8, 45×6
Cable Under Fly 60×10, 60×7, 60×5,/50×2, 50×8, 50×7

Thursday
21st March – Back/Triceps

Pull up 10×9, 10×8, 5×8, 5×7, 8
Skull crusher 50×9, 50×6, 45×8, 45×7, 45×6
Dead Row 210×6, 200×7, 190×7, 190×7, 190×7
Close Bench 90×9, 90×7, 90×6, 80×7, 80×6
Lat Pushdown 80×10, 80×9, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7

Friday
22nd March – Shoulders

Lumberjacks 50×6, 45×7, 45×7, 45×6, 45×6
Incline Shrugs 100×8, 100×9, 100×10, 100×8, 100×8
DB Press 65×10, 70×9, 75×7, 75×5, 70×6
Rear Fly 30×10, 30×9, 30×9, 30×9, 30×8

Weight: 89.9kg / 11.2% Body fat

2nd week cut finished, up 0.2kg, FAIL

BODY WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 4

Up total of 2.2KG over all with a 1.1% decrease in body fat which is good progress.

WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 4

Chest/Biceps

Cable Press +10kg
Cable Single Arm Curl +10kg
Incline DB Press +0kg – heaviest dumbbells there is unfortunately
Hammer Curl +5kg
Cable Under Fly +10kg

Back/Triceps

Pull up +10kg
Skull crusher +0kg
Dead Row – cant tell how much I increased as due to injury I had to change exercises half way through
Close Bench +10kg
Lat Pushdown  – cant tell how much I increased as due to injury I had to decrease weight as was causing pain

Legs

Leg Press +40kg
Leg Extension +10kg
Ham Curl +45kg
Inner Thigh +15kg
Outer Thigh +10kg
Inner Rotation +10kg
Outer Rotation +5kg
Calves – Not too consistent with machines so no accurate measurement

Shoulders

Lumberjacks +0kg
Incline Shrugs +0kg – Heaviest DB there is
Rear Fly +0kg

MEASUREMENTS

Compared to last month the results are great, my chest/lats ha.

Arm: 15″ (+1/4″)
Chest: 43” (+2″)
Waist: 36″ (+1″)
Hip: 35″ (+1/2″)
Calf: 15″ 1/2 (+1/4″)
Thigh: 24″ 1/2 (+1/4″)

DIET AND SUPPLEMENTATION

Diet has continued the same as last month up to this point, the only change is adding frozen berries into my porridge instead of pineapple but still with banana. I’ve yet to get Centrum and start taking it! I’m sure I’m missing some of the lesser known minerals like selenium.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

All important photographs make it much easier to see progress especially when coupled with measurements and weight/body fat history.

I’ve definately gotten bigger/stronger/heavier compared to last month, going in the right direction for sure!

The minor but important details for weight training

I’ve been lazy up till now, only blogging about my own recordings, never giving any detail into why I choose to super set or why I’m eating so many calories/protein and for this I apologize. The whole point of this blog when I thought about writing it was to document my progress in case I actually done well at the WBFF’s this summer, to be able to look back on it. But now that view’s for this blog have just hit 4,800 and more and more people are coming to me with questions by email and Facebook I’ve decided to document the minor details – how to make gains, work ethic, attitude, protein, how to decide how many kcal to intake, days off, exercise choice, planning, intensity, movements, rest, psychology of training and the all important cheat days.

Before I get into that I want to say Thanks! to everyone who’s read this, from 71 countries around the world, your support makes the time and effort worthwhile and if YOU have any questions, you all have my Facebook! Don’t hesitate.

1) Progression
2) Attitude and Psychology of Training
3) Movements
4) Intensity
5) Planning
6) Exercise Choice
7) Protein
8) Complete Protein and Amino Acids
9) Nutrition and Calories
10) Diet Structure and Calculating Calories
11) Cheat Days

Lets get into it…

Hypertrophy or muscle growth is outlined as the following
3-5 Sets of
6-12 Reps with
30-90 seconds rest time between each set

Super setting means you train 2 muscle groups which work well together back to back without rest. As you rest your chest, you train your biceps, as you rest your biceps, you train your chest again until all sets are complete. Generally speaking it takes 30 seconds to complete 8 reps, more or less, that mean’s through super setting with no rest period each work period is 30 seconds each which is the optimum. This may take a month or so to obtain as it’s intense and muscle recovery is not as good in between sets.

1. Progression

   With every good exercise plan must also come a progression plan. Have you ever noticed when you take a break from the gym and go back, your first session back for each muscle group (chest, back, biceps etc) you’re sore for days but as the weeks go by how sore you are after each session gets less and less. This is your body naturally adapting to the exercise and if you continue with the same regime you won’t make any progress after 6-8 weeks has passed. Your body adapts, the muscle, even though fatigued during your workout session, is not sore the next day. When you’ve worked hard in the gym on any given day and the next day or maybe the day after that you’re not sore at all, even to touch or massage the muscle, you’re doing something wrong! I generally rotate my exercises every 4 weeks. Either change all of your exercises for each muscle group including abs or else change the rep range (6-8 vs 10-12), rest period (30 sec vs 90 sec), order of the exercises etc. For each muscle group there’s generally a small number of key exercises that seem to get the job done best, this is the exercise pool I draw from.

2. Attitude and Psychology of Training
   
   As you would imagine this makes a difference, there’s a certain attitude you must obtain to reach your goals, it must be to push that bit harder each day, to keep your sessions intense, to be truthful to yourself in the amount of sets you do, how much the workload is, how many reps you can do, you must push yourself hard. The key point about muscle growth is that creating micro tears on the muscle fiber doesn’t come from doing a certain weight or just doing the 8 reps and stopping even though you’re still not fatigued. The more you struggle, the more micro tears you create, that mean’s doing the extra rep or two, being red in the face and about to pop a vein on your forehead, realizing that you may have struggled a bit on that last rep but instead of giving up you could definitely, with a massive effort, push out another rep. This is how you insure exercise after exercise, session after session, week after week you’re sore the following day, then you provide the body with the calories, protein, water and rest it need’s and your body does the rest. If you can take in everything I outline and put it into practice you’ll save yourself the 6-7 years I wasted in the gym making little or no progress because i constantly heard conflicting advice, wasn’t told anything abou protein  and why or how often it was needed. I used to take protein after a gym session and then return to my regular diet not realising i was taking 2 steps forward and 1.9 steps back. If you hit the gym a lot and don’t provide your body with the proper nutrients it need’s, it just gets them from elsewhere to heal your torn muscle, the process is called catabolism (derived from metabolism) and it’s basically the breaking down of your existing muscle to heal what’s been torn. So, 2 steps forward, 1.9 back.\

3. Movements

   Each exercise requires a particular movement, generally speaking free weights are a better choice over machines when possible as they allow for a natural movement instead of a set one. Whatever this movement is, it must be done completely without any momentum, ever! Always try and think of what muscle your working and are you accidentally using other supporting muscles to gain momentum and then following through with the main muscle.
   Examples of bad form;

Standing bicep EZ Curls – Arching your back as you go to lift the bar/dumbbells, the arching has starting the bar off and people then continue the movement as momentum has started – WRONG
Standing bicep EZ Curls – Standing completely still, using the biceps and only the bicep to bring the bar up to your chest area, lowering the weight while keeping it controlled. – PERFECT

Leg Raises – With your legs hanging straight down, starting off the movement fast and hard meaning once your legs hit the angle where gravity starts to have an effect, your already moving fast and can continue with momentum – WRONG
Leg Raises – With your legs hanging down at an angle so your abs are already engaged, slowly bringing your legs up to parallel with the floor, hold for a second and lower to 45 degrees again before starting the movement again – PERFECT

Tricep Pushdown (cable machine) – Starting the movement from the top where your elbows have left your side and are pulled upwards, meaning you pull your elbows down to your side using your lats and then continue the movement using momentum to extend your elbow using your triceps – WRONG
Tricep Pushdown (cable machine) – Starting with your elbows tucked in by your sides, your upper arm should never move. From here extend your elbow using your tricep only, straighten your elbow and tense your tricep, then slowly reset – PERFECT

One crucial part of the movement is speed at which you do a rep, you must keep this slow for both the negative (eccentric) and positive (concentric) parts of the movement, eccentric is generally the lengthening of the muscle, it being stretched, such as lowering the weight to your chest on bench press and of course concentric or contraction is the shortening phase. It’s important both of these are done slowly, the negative being just as and if not more important than the positive.

4. Intensity

   When you’re starting out with your first set, whatever the amount of reps that you plan to do (usually 8) you pick a weight that will fatigue the muscle by 8, so if you’re doing 9/10/11 reps etc increase the weight on the next set so you will fatigue by 8, record each set with weights like in my blog, e.g. 65×12, 70×9,70×7, 70×6, 65×7 – In this example after the first set i realized at 12 reps that I should increase to 70kg, when my reps got down to the lower end of 6 i decreased the weight again because 6 is the lower range of muscle growth (see up above No.1). You must recognize when it’s time to lift a heavier weight, generally your notes from the previous session can provide insight into that or well, your first set. Always be trying to increase as long as it doesn’t affect your intensity or over all session.It’s hugely important to record your exercises, weights and reps session by session as I do, I do this in the notes part of my iPhone or iPod, I keep a template of the months exercises in a seperate note and copy/paste the exercises into my notes for that gym day with the date and off I go. Each month i start new notes page otherwise there’s too much data to scroll through.

5. Planning

   So your walkin up to the gym floor, lookin trim I must say, poppin’ tags everywhere, you take a look at your exercises from your phone or printed off and you know exactly where you’re going to first (machine, bench, free weights etc), you start with some light weight’s doing the same movements you’re going to be doing next to get the muscle working, warmed up etc. If the 2nd exercise you’re doing (in your super set) involves free weights or a barbell try to bring it/them over to where your bench or whatever is so you don’t need to keep walking back and forth across the gym floor, possibly losing your bench or whatever in the mean time. This mean’s your workout is more intense, faster and no time waiting around.

6. Exercise Choice

   There’s 2 types of exercises to be concerned about; isolation & compound

   Isolation involves one joint being used and thus one main mover (muscle group). e.g. Chest fly (pectoral, shoulder joint only), Side raise (medial deltoid, shoulder joint only), front raise (anterior deltoids, shoulder joint only), leg extension (quad, hip joint only), leg curl (hamstring, hip joint only)

Compound on the other hand involves more than one joint being used and thus involves 2 or more muscle groups e.g. chest press (pectoral, anterior deltoids, tricep, shoulder and elbow joint), squat (quad, glut, calf, hip and knee joint) etcGenerally speaking starting off you should be doing more compound and less isolation exercises where possibly, especially for larger muscle groups like back, chest etc. Changing exercises from month to month can also mean going from compound to isolation and back again. At this stage in my training I do a mixture of both, you can just follow my training plan if you want.

7. Protein

   A non gym goer, e.g. Johnny two times only needs about 0.8g protein per kg of body weight, 100kg guy would only need 80g protein per day to maintain muscle repair, hair and nail growth/strength, skin replacement etc. When you start to weight train this can go up to more like 2g protein per kg of body weight, suddenly Johnny needs 200g of protein per day. If a large chicken breast only contains about 23-25g protein, you’re gonna need a heap of extra protein to satisfy the human body! Also taking into account that protein is the only nutrient from 6 (carbs, fats, minerals, vitamins, water, protein) that is not stored, PROTEIN IS NOT STORED and your body with its torn muscle from your gym sessions now needs a constant supply of protein to avoid the dreaded Catabolism or breaking down of existing muscle to heal what’s torn.Averaging this out it means you need to be eating every 2-3 hours every day of the week. Not only on training day’s as muscle takes sometimes as long as 3-4 days to heal depending on how hard your session, sometimes I do legs on Monday and when I go to do Back/Triceps on Thursday my legs are still sore meaning they needed extra calories and protein every day since then. My gym session’s are spread out and generally don’t involve the weekend but its vitally important your diet is in place each day regardless of rest days or not.

8. Complete protein and Amino Acids

   I’m going to get into the science a little bit for those interested in information, after all, information is power!
   Amino acid’s are best described like this – imagine a long chain of sausages, each individual sausage is an amino acid but the entire chain is protein, amino acid’s are building blocks of protein.There are 20 different amino acids, 8 essential and 12 non essential, the non essential amino acid’s can be synthesized from other foods but the 8 essential MUST COME FROM FOOD SOURCES. Every animal source of protein is complete, containing all 8 essential amino acids (meat, fish, eggs etc) but the only plant sources of protein that are essential are Soy beans and Quinoa rice. Soy has too much estrogen so for a man it’s not recommended you base your vegan or vegetarian diet for the gym around this bean, quinoa is fine.

For vegans/vegetarians you must combine one high protein source from the legume group along with one from either nuts & seed or grains group. If you want more info on this Facebook me, I had to research it in depth for a friend who turned vegan and wanted to continue the gym with me.

9. Nutrition and Calories

   Generally speaking a regular male working an office job with a semi active life style outside work would burn about 2,000 kcal per day, in construction anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 depending on labour intensity. When you start going to the gym, 2,3,4,5 times per week your calorie (or kcal) need for a day can increase by 1,500-2,000kcal plus the extra protein. How you break this now 3,500 – 5,000kcals down nutrient wise is important. I see so many guys in the gym with big chest, big arms and an even bigger belly and neck, they enquire as to how I put on muscle week by week while keeping my body fat in and around 10%. They outline their diet, which always involves a huge amount of carbohydrates (not surprisingly) but they don’t like the answer 🙂 Cut out the starch! Totally…week start to end cut out the starchy carbs. Carb’s have one main function in the body, energy! The body is great at breaking down carbs fast and efficiently, infact carb’s are broken down first in the body, starting in your mouth with the enzyme amylase in your saliva starting to break some sugars in carbs down, continuing in your stomach and being absorbed in your smaller intestine. Protein break’s down 2nd after this and fat’s are last. All 3 of these nutrients have calories in them meaning they can be used for energy.

These are the attributes;
Protein/Carbs: 4kcal per gram
Fats: 9kcal per gram
Alcohol: 7kcal per gram
Vitamins/Minerals/Water: 0kcal per gram

As you can see, fat’s have a much higher calorie count per gram, alcohol (ooooh oh) is pretty high too 🙂

So, getting back to the previous, the body generally releases stored energy taken from each nutrient in the same fast, medium or slow pace in which it was broken down in your digestive system. If you eat 100g of cashews (606kcal), the body will take much longer (hours infact) to break these down as they’re about 78% fats, giving your body time to use some of the fats for healing muscle, some to store as glycogen in your muscles, discard some, use some as energy for whatever tasks you’re doing over this time and store some as fat, possibly. Instead you take in 100g of something sugary, the calorie count is much lower true, but the body is so efficient at breaking it down it happens possibly within an hour, too much blood sugar to handle, alot more is stored, less is discarded, less is stored as glycogen, less is burned off as energy as the time frame is lower.

Taking all this into account, this is why my diet consists of a lot of fats (nuts, oils, avacado etc) and zero starch. It mean’s I can eat anywhere up to 4,500kcal per day personally and at the end of a 2 week bulk cycle I haven’t put on much fat at all but I’ve grown my muscle tissue quite a bit. In a high calorie diet it’s best to use slower releasing foods (Low GI) to keep your body fat increase to a minimum.

The structure of my diet has some origins in the diet, Ketosis, which does something similar, you exhaust the body of carbs totally but because dairy (lactose), fruit/veg (fructose) all contain sugar it means you cannot have them at all. Just raw protein and fats, it’s a hard diet to do, when your body finally switches over from using carb’s as a main energy source to using fatty acids you enter ketosis, your breath smells like acetone but from talking to friends who have done it, your energy feels false, you have some but you feel weak etc.This diet instead is an adaptation which I was introduced to by a friend of mine (Rua Gilna), he’s a former WBFF contender and as far as I believe came 3rd place in Toronto a few year’s back in his first WBFF competition. He’s over in DCU personal training with his own setup, check him out https://www.facebook.com/RuaGilna.

10. Diet Structure and Calculating Calories

    The structure of how I arrived at 4,500kcal for calorie intake per day went as follows.Take your weight in pounds (kg x 2.2, I’m 90kg today so 90 x 2.2 = 198lbs x 11 = 2178kcal x activity levelActivity level
    1.0 sedentary
    1.2 slightly active (1-2 gym sessions per week)
    1.5 very active (3-4 gym sessions per week)
    1.7 extremely active (5-6 gym or other sessions per week)
    2.0 extreme athlete (atleast one heavy session per day, maybe a 2nd lesser one, possibly coupled with a labour intensive job)With 4-5 gym sessions, yoga and 4-5km runs most days I’d be 1.7, 2.0 when i worked in construction as the extra calories I burned per day I needed to take in.
    2178kcal from above x 1.7 = 3702kcal – This is my maintenance calories per day.

I go through 2 week bulk and 2 week cut cycles.
In the 2 week bulk I add 500kcal onto my maintenance, 3700 + 500 = 4,200kcal per day.
In the 2 week cut i remove 500kcal from my maintenance, 3,700 – 500 = 3,200kcal per day.

This is a guideline. The best way to keep this measured is weigh yourself every single week, same time, morning if possible, in your underwear and record it like I do. If you’re bulking you should increase 1-3 kg per week each week, realistically 2-2.5 is optimum. On your cutting phase you want to maintain strength and lose some of your body fat. You must keep your protein intake the same the entire time, 2g of protein per kg of body weight but your overall calories must come down. This 500 kcal that you add/remove from your maintenance is also a guideline, if you find your losing too much weight or putting too much weight on in each phase, reduce that 500 to 400 or even 300 if needed.

I have started avoiding dairy in my diet, removing it totally and replacing it with avocado, almond milk when needed and some more oils/fats. Mainly because dairy is known to store around the mid section and we could all do with less fat around there no doubt. The amount of dairy I was eating also was quite high.

11. Cheat Days

    For mental strength and also for leptin levels (hormone which regulates energy uptake) cheat day’s are an essential part of any complex training and diet plan. Generally speaking I stick to Sundays as it’s a day of rest (sort of) and next day Monday comes around and it’s back to work, routine, gym, hockey or whatever and my diet will be perfect again. From past experience if I had a cheat day on a Friday my will power diminishes pretty steadily after a Friday cheat day meaning Saturday and Sunday end up failures also. Whatever works for you!

    As a guide line for cheat days, you spend the whole week not eating starchy carbs (assuming your following my diet) you need to replenish stored glycogen levels and replenish leptin levels, which start to get low as a result of not much insulin being produced from a low carb diet. Also after a hard week of gym and dieting you deserve it!Food wise it’s best to stick to complex carb meals, dont stuff yourself, better to spread it out as much as possible to give your body time to store as much as glycogen instead of fat. Sure, have some ice-cream, chocolate etc but don’t go crazy, you don’t want to undue all your hard work. Personally I just have an indian or thai for dinner, some kind of restaurant food for lunch and breakfast is 4 egg omelette with 2-4 slices of whole grain toast and a small chicken breast and veg. Again you’ll still need to get all your protein/kcal in so you’ll need to have your snack meals of nuts/protein shake etc. Just don’t over do it! After a time you’ll get to know what you can and can’t get away with, listen to your body!

——————————————————————————————————

Well that pretty much wraps up that, I don’t think I’ve missed anything and hopefully this will help people out, anything else feel free to Facebook me again, I’m here to help

~ Eat big, Lift big, Get big

Month 3

GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE MONTH AS A WHOLE

Well, bit of a disastrous 2 months since Month 2 was posted. The day after I wrote it I went home for Christmas and between jet lag and enjoying pints with friends and family I wasn’t waking up for 12-14 hours each day, never made the gym in 2 weeks then came back to Vancouver and got food poisoning a few days later. Over Christmas i purpsoely stayed off pies, chocolate, cake etc, only really averaging about 2 meals per day due to so much sleep time followed by going out drinking early in the evenings. All in all I lost about 2kg and put me back to a similar weight I was at when starting this blog in October. Talk about anti-motivational! But I got back into it deciding to do 4 weeks of bulking and 2 weeks cutting to try and get back to the kind of weight I was at prior to this mess and it somewhat worked, although I lost about 2 months of training and strength in the process. I now should be over 90kg but sure, onwards and upwards.

I am going to take out any repeated paragraphs from previous months to shorten things a bit. Nutrition wise I have made some permanent changes you will see later on. Having spoke to a former WBFF Champion I met here in Vancouver from London, he’s told me his exercises never changed he just changed rest time, rep count, sets and training style like Pyramid, Ladder, Super setting etc. Reason being is some exercises are better than others for muscle growth so he takes the best one’s and doesn’t change them, fair enough. But I’ve decided to stick to rotating my 2 different work out’s month by month.

I’m also happy to report that I moved into a house meaning my diet can finally expand. I changed gym location which have 100lb dumbbells giving me more variety in Chest/Back exercises and I got a proper job meaning I’m out of construction so I’m saving about 1000kcal per day working in I.T. The only issue was over the course of the last 6 weeks due to working in construction, the labouring was mostly shoulder intensive so by weeks end when we’re due to workout shoulders they were too sore to continue, shoulders have however gotten stronger/bigger due to this but I have no recorded weights as of yet.

GYM REGIME AND BODY WEIGHT

Month 3 (15th Jan – 25th Feb 2013)

WEEK 1

Weight: 85.5kg / 11.8% Body fat
Down 1.7kg over Christmas

Start 4 week building cycle

Tuesday – Chest/Biceps
15th January

Bench 100×8, 100×5, 90×8, 90×7, 90×6
EZ Curl 30×10, 30×7, 30×7, 30×6, 30×6
Incline Bench 80×5, 70×8, 70×7, 70×7, 70×6
Incline Curls 45×5, 40×8, 40×8, 40×6, 40×6
Flys 60×7, 60×7, 50×7, 50×7, 50×6

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
16th January

Lat pulldown 210×7, 210×7, 210×5/195×2, 195×6 195×6
Tri pushdown 160×10, 160×8, 160×8, 160×7, 160×6
Seated Row 180×8, 180×6, 170×8, 170×8, 170×8
Dips 30×6, 25×8, 25×7, 25×6, 20×8
Flys 40×3/30×5, 30×9, 30×9, 30×7, 30×6

WEEK 2

Weight: 85.8kg / 11.9% Body fat

1^st Week bulk over, increase of 0.3kg, SUCCESS, didn’t exactly put on a huge amount of weight but something is better than nothing.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
21st January

Bench 110×6, 100×5, 90×6, 90×6, 90×5
EZ Curl 30×11, 30×7, 30×6, 30×6, 30×5
Incline Bench 80×5, 70×8, 70×7, 70×7, 70×6
Incline Curls 45×5, 45×8, 45×7, 45×6, 45×5
Flys 60×5, 50×8, 50×7, 50×7, 50×7

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
23rd January

Lat pulldown 210×11 210×7, 195×7 195×5
Tri pushdown 110×6, 100×8, 100×7, 90×7, 90×7 – Machine change, other machine maxed
Seated Row 190×5, 180×6, 180×6, 170×7, 170×7
Dips 30×10, 30×7, 30×7, 30×6, 30×6
Flys 30×9, 30×9, 30×8, 30×8, 30×7

WEEK 3

Weight: 88.8kg / 11.2% Body fat

2^nd Week bulk, increase of 2.9kg, SUCCESS, decrease in body fat but again, not sure about bio impedance machine but weight is up a lot over all which is good, getting back to pre-christmas weight.

Notes: Decided to do a 3^rd week of bulking as 2 weeks of cutting will bring me right up to Christmas.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
28th January

Bench 100×10, 100×7, 100×6, 100×6, 100×6
EZ Curl 30×11, 30×8, 30×8, 30×7, 30×5
Incline Bench 80×7, 70×9, 70×8, 70×7, 70×7
Incline Curls 45×6, 40×8, 40×7, 40×6, 40×7
Flys 60×9, 60×8, 60×7, 60×7, 60×6

Tuesday – Legs
30th January

Bulgarian Split Squat 60×7, 60×7, 60×6, 60×5, 55×6
Ham Curls 120×8, 130×7, 130×5/120×2, 120×7, 120×5
Leg Extension 265×7, 265×7, 265×7, 265×5, 240×6
Calves 300×6, 280×8, 280×8, 280×7, 280×8
Inner Thigh 80×10, 80×11, 80×10, 90×9, 120×9
Outer Thigh 80×7, 80×7, x80x7, 80×6, 80×7
Inner Rotation 70×9, 70×9, 70×6, 70×6, 70×5
Outer Rotation 35×8, 35×8, 35×7, 35×7, 35×5

Thursday – Back/Triceps
31st January

Lat pulldown 225×8, 225×7, 225×5/210×2, 210×7, 210×6
Tri pushdown 110×8, 110×6, 100×6, 90×7, 90×6
Seated Row 190×8, 190×7, 190×6, 180×8, 180×8
Dips 30×8, 30×6, 25×8, 25×8, 25×7
Flys 35×10, 35×8, 35×7, 35×7, 35×7

WEEK 4

Weight: 87.3kg / 12.2% Body fat

3^rd week bulk finished, down 1.5kg, FAIL.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
5th February

Bench 100×11, 100×9, 100×7, 100×6, 100×5
EZ Curl – Biceps were too sore from work to do anything
Incline Bench 80×6, 75×8, 75×7, 75×7, 75×7
Incline Curls – Same as above
Flys 70×8, 70×7, 70×7, 70×6, 70×6

Tuesday – Legs

6^th February

Bulgarian Split Squat 65×8, 65×7, 65×7, 65×6, 60×6
Ham Curls 130×8, 130×7, 130×8, 130×7, 130×6
Leg Extension 265×8, 265×7, 265×7, 265×7, 265×5
Inner Thigh 120×9, 120×8, 120×7, 120×8, 120×7
Outer Thigh 80×9, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7
Inner Rotation 70×8, 70×8, 70×6, 60×8, 60×7
Outer Rotation 35×8, 35×8, 35×7, 35×8, 35×6

Friday
8th February – Back/Triceps

Lat pulldown 240×6, 225×7, 225×7, 225×5 210×8
Tri pushdown 110×8, 110×6, 100×8, 100×8, 100×7
Seated Row 190×10, 190×8, 190×7, 190×7, 190×6
Dips 30×9, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8, 30×7
Flys 40×8, 40×6, 35×7, 35×7, 35×6

WEEK 5

Weight: 88.2kg / 10.8% Body fat

Last week of bulking finished, up  0.9kg, SUCCESS, finally getting back to same strength and weight as 6 weeks before.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
11th February

Bench 110×8, 110×5/100×3, 100×6, 100×6, 100×6
EZ Curl 35×6, 30×8, 30×8, 30×7, 30×7
Incline Bench 80×7, 80×5/70×2, 70×6, 70×6, 70×6
Incline Curls 45×7, 45×5, 40×6, 40×6, 40×7
Flys 70×8, 70×7, 70×6, 70×6, 70×6

Wednesday – Legs

13^th December

Leg press 490×7, 470×6, 450×7, 430×5, 410×7
Ham Curls 130×8, 130×7, 130×6, 130×6, 130×6
Leg Extension 272×8, 272×6, 265×7, 265×8, 265×6
Calves 380×7, 380×6, 360×7, 360×7, 300×6
Inner Thigh 130×8, 130×8, 130×8, 130×7, 130×8
Outer Thigh 90×8, 90×7, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7
Inner Rotation 70×10, 70×9, 70×8, 70×7, 70×6
Outer Rotation 35×10, 35×8, 35×8, 35×7, 35×7

Wednesday
19^th December – Back/Triceps

Lat pulldown 240×7, 225×8, 225×7, 225×7, 225×6
Tri pushdown 110×8, 110×7, 110×8, 100×9, 100×7
Seated Row 200×7, 190×6, 180×7, 180×7, 180×7
Dips 30×10, 30×8, 30×8, 30×6, 25×10
Flys 40×8, 40×8, 35×8, 35×7, 35×7

WEEK 6

Weight: 87.0kg / 10.2% Body fat

1^st week cut, down 1.2kg, SUCCESS.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
18th February

Bench 110×8, 110×5/100×2, 100×7, 100×6, 100×6
EZ Curl 35×7, 35×5/30×2, 30×7, 30×6, 30×6
Incline Bench 100×6, 90×8, 90×6, 90×5, 80×7
Incline Curls 45×7, 45×5, 45×6, 40×7, 40×7
Flys 70×7, 70×5/60×2, 60×6, 50×6, 50×6

Wednesday – Legs
20th February

Bulgarian Split Squat 65×8, 65×6, 65×7, 65×6, 65×6
Ham Curls 190×8, 190×6, 170×8, 170×7, 170×7 – New Machine
Leg Extension 270×8, 270×7, 270×7, 270×6, 250×7- New Machine
Calves 90×8, 90×7, 90×8, 90×8, 90×7– New Machine
Inner Thigh 22×10, 27×9, 27×9, 27×9, 27×8- New Machine
Outer Thigh 12×12, 17x,10, 17×10, 17×10, 17×9 – New Machine
Inner Rotation 32×10, 37×9, 37×9, 37×9, 39×8– New Machine
Outer Rotation 17×10, 17×10, 17×9, 17×9, 17×8- New Machine

Thursday – Back/Triceps
21st February

Lat pulldown 240×4/220×2, 220×6, 210×6, 200×6, 190×6
Tri pushdown 110×4/100×2, 100×6, 90×6, 80×6, 80×6
Seated Row 200×9, 200×7, 200×7, 200×7, 200×6
Dips 30x10x 30×9, 30×8, 30×7, 30×6
Flys 40×9, 40×8, 40×7, 40×7, 40 x7

25th Feb
Weight: 87.7kg / 10.9% Body fat

2nd week cut, up 0.7kg, FAIL.

BODY WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 3

Up total of 2.2KG over all with a 1% decrease in body fat which is good progress. Now just need to break that magical 90kg weight which I never seem to reach. Only 5 months or so to comp and have fallen behind the plan.

WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 3

Chest/Biceps

Bench +10 kg
EZ Curl+5 kg
Incline Press +20 kg
Incline Curl +0 kg – Slow bicep progress, unusually
Flys +10 kg

Back/Triceps

Lat Pulldown +30 kg
Tricep Pulldown +0 kg
Seated Row +20 kg
Dips +0 kg
Flys +0 kg

Legs

Bulgarian Split Squat +5 kg
Leg Extension +32.5 kg
Ham Curl +20kg
Calves +32.5 kg
Inner Thigh +40 kg
Outer Thigh +10 kg
Inward Rotation +0 kg
Outward Rotation +0 kg

MEASUREMENTS

Compared to last month the results are poor, generally havent grown or lost much but a substanstial period of time has passed, goes to show how fast you lose muscle when not training or not eating enough to maintain your weight.

Arm: 14″ 3/4 (+1/4″)
Chest: 41” (0)
Waist: 35″ (+1/2″)
Hip: 34″ 1/2 (0)
Calf: 15″ 1/4 (-1/4″)
Thigh: 24″ 1/4 (+1″)

DIET AND SUPPLEMENTATION

Compared to previous months and some research due to a close friend turning vegan and needing a diet to match mine for the gym but vegan/unprocessed I have removed dairy totally from my diet. To replace the whole milk I’d been having I’m now drinking equal quantities of almond milk (it is however 1/2 kcal per 100ml so I needed to add more kcal elsewhere). The cheese I’ve pretty much replaced with avacado for natural fat’s and similar kcal’s. I also removed all vegetable oils (olive, rapeseed etc) and replaced it with coconut oil which is much better for you and when fried doesn’t turn to trans fats.

BULKING DIET

Breakfast – 7am

4 extra large eggs
30g porridge + half banana, some pinapple
1 avacado

Snack – 10am

75g mixed nuts (cashew, almond, walnut, pine, brazil)
250ml almond milk with 1 scoop whey isolate protein powder

Lunch – 12.30pm

140g+ of lean meat + mixture of veg, whatever you fancy
40g of coconut oil over it + small amount of low fat ranch

Snack – 3.30pm

75g mixed nuts
250ml almond milk + scoop whey isolate protein powder

Gym Pre-Workout Shake – 5.30pm

N.O.Xplode for energy/creatine

After Gym session – 7pm

250ml almond milk + 1 scoop whey isolate
280 kcal protein bar with 19g protein

Dinner – 9pm

Lean meat, large piece
Steamed or oven cooked veg
3 TBL coconut oil (40g more or less)

Bedtime – 11.30pm

250ml almond milk + scoop whey isolate

CUTTING DIET

Compared with my bulking diet I just removed a small amount of nuts and coconut oil and increased my cardio by 1 hour per day including weekends. As my job has changed I need to find a new balance with my calories as I’m burning around 1,000kcal per day less in I.T. than in construction.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

All important photographs make it much easier to see progress especially when coupled with measurements and weight/body fat history.

Very similar physique to last time, I guess I lost muscle over the christmas period then put it back on.

Month 2

GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE MONTH AS A WHOLE

Decided to do 3 weeks bulking this time round as a further 2 weeks cutting would bring me right up to Christmas and going home to Ireland for it. The bulk phase on a whole was great once again, good gains, good size and strength increases. Unfortunately the cut phase I went over board. Combination of cutting out a lot of calories, doing alot of high intensity cardio and a physical job meant i lost muscle mass and fat in the 2 weeks of cutting. Measurements were all positive at the end with 1/4″-1/2″ gained all round. Photographs compared to last month show a clear difference also. Take a look once you’ve read down.

My gym is a little restrictive in some ways. The maximum dumbbells are 70lbs (32kg more or less) meaning any back or chest compound exercises I max out on reps before I’m fatigued. As a result I had to use hip pushups as a 3rd Chest Exercise. I also added in Rotator cuff exercises this month (inner/outer rotation) as I had been missing them.

GYM REGIME AND BODY WEIGHT

Month 2 (19th Nov – 23rd Dec 2012)

WEEK 1

Weight: 87.3kg / 11.8% Body fat

Start 3 week building cycle

Monday – Chest/Biceps
19th November

Decline Press 80×8, 80×9, 80×8, 80×8, 80×8
Single Cable Curls 40×11, 60×9, 60×8, 60×8, 60×7
Incline DB Press 70×12, 70×12, 70×11, 70×10, 70×8
Cable Extension Curls 50×10, 50×9, 50×8, 50×8, 50×8
Hip Pushup 12,9,8,8,7

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
20th November

Pull up 15,9,8,7,6
Skull Crusher 50×4/45×2, 45×5,42×5/1, 40×7, 40×7
Dead Row 80×8, 80×7, 75×8, 75×8, 75×7
Close Grip Bench 90×4/80×3, 80×6, 70×8, 70×7, 70×7
Lat Cable Pushdown 90×10, 90×4/80×4, 80×6, 70×7, 70×7

Friday – Shoulders
23rd November

Lumberjacks 40×11, 40×8, 40×6, 37×8, 37×6
Incline Shrugs100x8, 100×10, 100×10, 100×8, 100×8
DB Press 65×6, 55×6, 55×7, 55×8, 55×8
Rear Flys 25×10, 25×10, 25×8, 25×8, 25×7
Deadlift 100×10, 100×10, 100×9, 100×8, 100×8

Saturday – Legs
25^th November

Back Squat 100×11, 120×7, 120×8, 120×7, 120×6, 120×5
Glut Ham Raise 110×6, 110×8, 110×9, 110×9, 110×9
Adductors 70×10, 70×10, 70×10, 70×10, 70×10
Abductors 70×10, 70×10, 70×10, 70×10, 70×10
Walking Lunges 55×8, 55×8, 55×8, 55×8, 55×8
Inner Rotation 50×10, 50×10, 60×8, 60×9, 60×8
Outer Rotation 30×10, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8

WEEK 2

Weight: 88.5kg / 14.2% Body fat

1^st Week bulk over, increase of 1.2kg, SUCCESS, body fat increased a lot but skeptical whether bio impedance machine working properly.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
26th November

Decline Press 85×12, 90×8, 90×9, 100×7, 100×6
Single Cable Curls 70×8, 70×7, 70×8, 70×7, 70×6
Incline DB Press 70×12, 70×12, 70×11, 70×9, 70×9
Cable Extension Curls 60×9, 60×8, 60×6, 60×6, 60×5
Hip Pushup 10,8,8,8,8

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
28th November

Pull up 16, 10, 9, 8, 6
Skull Crusher 50×5, 45×7, 45×5, 40×6, 40×5
Dead Row 80×7, 80×6, 75×8, 75×7, 75×7
Close Grip Bench 90×5, 80×8, 80×6, 80×5, 75×6
Lat Cable Pushdown 90×7, 80×10, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7

Saturday – Shoulders
1^st December

Lumberjacks 45×7, 45×6, 45×5, 40×7, 40×7
Incline Shrugs110x7, 110×8, 100×9, 100×8, 100×7
DB Press 65×7, 60×5, 55×6, 55×6, 55×5
Rear Flys 30×9, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8
Deadlift 120×7, 120×6, 120×6, 120×6, 120×5

WEEK 3

Weight: 89.1kg / 13.0% Body fat

2^nd Week bulk over, increase of .6kg, SUCCESS, decrease in body fat but again, not sure about bio impedance machine.

Notes: Decided to do a 3^rd week of bulking as 2 weeks of cutting will bring me right up to Christmas.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
3rd December

Decline Press 90×9, 90×7, 90×5, 80×7, 80×7
Single Cable Curls 80×5, 70×7, 70×6, 70×6, 70×5
Incline DB Press 70×12, 70×12, 70×12, 70×12, 70×11
Cable Extension Curls 70×10, 70×7, 70×7, 70×6, 70×6
Hip Pushup 10,9,9,10,10

Tuesday – Legs
4^th December

Back Squat 120×8, 120×8, 100×10, 100×9, 100×7
Glut Ham Raise 100×9, 100×8, 100×7, 100×7, 100×6
Adductors 80×11, 80×10, 80×10, 80×10, 80×10
Abductors 80×11, 80×10, 80×10, 80×9, 80×9
Walking Lunges 60×8, 60×8, 60×6, 55×7, 55×7
Inner Rotation 60×10, 60×9, 60×7, 60×7, 60×5
Outer Rotation 35×6, 30×7, 30×7, 30×7, 30×5

Wednesday – Back/Triceps
5th December

Pull up 10×9, 10×7, 8, 7, 7
Skull Crusher 50×7, 50×4/40×3, 45×7, 45×5, 40×6
Dead Row 80×9, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7
Close Grip Bench 100×4/90×3, 90×7, 90×6, 90×4/80×3
Lat Cable Pushdown 80×10, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7

Friday – Shoulders
7^th December

Lumberjacks 45×6, 45×6, 45×5, 40×7, 40×7
Incline Shrugs110x9, 110×5, 100×9, 100×7, 100×7
DB Press 65×6, 65×5, 60×7, 60×6, 60×5
Rear Flys 35×6, 30×9, 30×8, 30×8, 30×8
Deadlift 120×8, 120×8, 120×8, 120×7, 120×7

Saturday – Legs
3^rd November

WEEK 4

Weight: 89.0kg / 12.5% Body fat

3^rd week bulk, down .1kg, FAIL.

Notes: 3 week bulk finished. Up a total of 1.7KG with apparently a .7% increase in body fat. Bulking is consistently well with diet and training. With current progress I’ll be looking at close to 100kg very lean in August.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
11th December

Decline Press 90×9, 90×8, 90×8, 90×8, 90×8
Single Cable Curls 80×7, 70×9, 70×8, 70×6, 60×9
Incline DB Press 70×12, 70×12, 70×12, 70×11, 70×9
Cable Extension Curls 70×10, 70×9, 70×7, 70×7, 70×7
Hip Pushup 13,12,10,10,10

Tuesday – Legs
12^th December

Back Squat 100×10, 100×9, 100×8, 100×7, 100×6
Glut Ham Raise 90×8, 90×5/100×3, 100×7, 100×7, 100×6
Adductors 90×9, 90×10, 90×9, 90×9, 90×9
Abductors 90×8, 90×7, 90×7, 80×8, 80×7
Walking Lunges 65×8, 65×8, 60×7, 60×7, 60×7
Inner Rotation 70×9, 70×7, 70×8, 70×8, 70×8
Outer Rotation 35×6, 30×10, 30×8, 30×7, 30×7

Wednesday
13th December – Back/Triceps

Pull up 10×8, 10×7, 10×7, 10×5/3, 8
Skull Crusher 50×6, 50×3/40×5, 45×7, 45×6, 40×8
Dead Row 85×7, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7, 80×6
Close Grip Bench 100×3/90×3, 90×5, 80×7, 80×6, 80×6
Lat Cable Pushdown 80×9, 80×8, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7

Friday  – Shoulders
16^th December

Lumberjacks 45×8, 45×7, 45×7, 45×6, 45×5
Incline Shrugs110x8, 110×7, 110×7, 110×6, 100×8
DB Press 65×9, 65×8, 65×7, 65×7, 65×7
Rear Flys 35×6, 35×7, 35×6, 30×11, 30×7
Deadlift 130×7, 130×6, 120×7, 120×7, 120×6

Sunday – Legs
11th October

WEEK 5

Weight: 87.1kg / 10% Body fat

1^st week cut, down 1.9kg, SUCCESS, would appear to be too much weight lose, I did notice a minor lose in strength. Too much calories cut out combined with too much cardio.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
17th December

Decline Press 90×7, 90×8, 90×8, 90×8, 90×8
Single Cable Curls 80×5, 70×8, 70×7, 70×5, 60×9
Incline DB Press 70×12, 70×12, 70×11, 70×11, 70×9
Cable Extension Curls 70×10, 70×9, 70×7, 70×7, 70×7
Hip Pushup 13,12,10,10,10

Tuesday – Legs
18^th December

Back Squat 120×10, 120×9, 120×6, 100×7, 100×6
Glut Ham Raise 90×9, 90×8, 90×8, 90×7, 90×6
Adductors 100×8, 100×8, 90×9, 90×9, 90×8
Abductors 100×8, 100×7, 100×5, 90×9, 90×8
Walking Lunges 65×9, 65×8, 65×7, 65×7, 65×6
Inner Rotation 80×6, 70×9, 70×8, 70×6, 70×6
Outer Rotation 35×8, 35×6, 30×10, 30×9,30×8

Wednesday
19^th December – Back/Triceps

Pull up 10×9, 10×7, 10×6/2, 5×7, 7
Skull Crusher 45×6, 45×6, 40×7, 40×6, 40×6
Dead Row 80×8, 80×8, 80×8, 80×8, 80×8
Close Grip Bench 90×6, 90×5, 80×7, 80×7, 80×7
Lat Cable Pushdown 80×9, 80×8, 80×6, 80×6, 80×5

Friday
21^st December – Shoulders

Lumberjacks 45×7, 45×6, 40×6, 40×6, 40×6
Incline Shrugs110x5, 100×8, 100×7, 100×7, 100×6
DB Press 65×6, 65×6, 60×5, 55×6, 55×6
Rear Flys 35×9, 35×8, 35×8, 35×7, 35×6
Deadlift 130×6, 130×5, 120×8, 120×8, 120×7

Weight: 87.1kg / 10% Body fat

2nd week cut, same weight, FAIL

Down total of 1.9KG in cut phase. Over all too much. Tweeking needed for next cut, need to find balance between losing too much and not enough. This time round removing 1,000kcal per day in cut phase coupled with my physically demanding job and 1 hour of intense cardio 7 days of the week burning about 800kcal per session plus 4-5 weight sessions means too much weight lose. Also doing high intensity cardio where my heart rate is often over 160BPM is not good, muscle mass is lost, need to keep cardio down to 120-130BPM for better results and maintaining muscle.

BODY WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 2

Down total of .2kg over 5 weeks, made great progress in the bulk phase but the cut phase was disasterous. It really shows it in the pictures. I did drop a lot of body fat so the over all lose is not completely muscle but some muscle would have been lost which is a waste of time. Tweeking needed to find a middle ground somewhere between month 1 and month 2.

WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 2

Chest/Biceps

Decline Press +10kg
Single Cable Curls +10kg
Incline Dumbbell Press +0kg – Maximum dumbbells in my gym is 70lbs
Cable Extension Curls +10kg
Hip Pushups – irrelevant as its body weight and depends on how hard I worked chest already

Back/Triceps

Pull up +10kg
Skull Crushers +5kg
Dead Row +5kg
Close Grip Bench +10kg
Lat Pushdowns 0kg

Shoulders

Lumberjacks +5kg
Incline Shrugs +10kg
Dumbbell Press 0kg
Rear Fly +10kg
Dead Lift +10kg

Legs

Back Squat 0kg
Glut Ham Raise +20kg
Adductors +30kg
Abductors +30kg
Walking Lunge +10kg
Inner Rotation +20kg
Outer Rotation +5kg

ABDOMINALS

I train my ab’s every day once they are not sore. I generally rotate the exercises every session, doing one exercise for lower, one for upper and the last for obliques with 5 sets of each in rotation with no rest. Each set is 6-12 reps until fatigued. I don’t keep track of reps or anything so I’ve nothing to record.  I can provide a list of the 15 best exercises if anyone wants them.

FINISHING EXERCISES

I forgot to add this in last time. After every session I do 3 sets of body weight exercises to shred the remaining muscle fibers. I do the exercises in rotation on days with 2 muscle groups and for shoulders/legs I wait 30 seconds in between. The exercises are as follows

Chest/Biceps – Wide hand pushups & Close Grip underhand inverted row
Back/Triceps – Close hand pushups & Inverted row
Shoulders – Pike pushup
Legs – Box jumps

MEASUREMENTS

Compared to last month the results are not bad but not what I had expected. Too much muscle lose from the cut phase has taken its toll.

Arm: 14″ 1/2 (+1/2″)
Chest: 41” (+5/8″)
Waist: 34″ 1/2 (-1/2″)
Hip: 34″ 1/2 (-1/2″)
Calf: 15″ 1/2 (-1/2″)
Thigh: 23″ 1/4 (+1/4″)

An increase in all measurements with a reduction in waist/hip due to much better fat lose.

DIET AND SUPPLEMENTATION

BULKING DIET

Breakfast – 7am

3 extra large eggs
75g cheddar cheese
1/2 breast chicken, pork or steak

Snack – 10am

75g mixed nuts (cashew, almond, walnut, pine, brazil)
250ml whole milk with 1 scoop whey isolate protein powder

Lunch – 12.30pm

Iceberg Lettace
Tomato
Pepper
Onion
1/2 Avacado
25g nuts
50g cheese
tin of tuna or large chicken breast
3 TBL olive oil
Vinegarette

Snack – 3.30pm

75g mixed nuts
250ml whole milk + scoop whey isolate protein powder

Gym Pre-Workout Shake – 5.30pm

N.O.Xplode, Blast or Superpump for energy/creatine

After Gym session – 7pm

250ml whole milk + 1 scoop whey isolate
320kcal protein bar with 23g protein

Dinner – 9pm

Lean meat, large piece
Steamed or oven cooked veg
3 TBL olive oil

Bedtime – 11.30pm

250ml whole milk + scoop whey isolate

CUTTING DIET

Compared to Month 1 I removed all dairy from my daily diet, about 125g cheddar cheese, 1L of milk. Also removed 1 tablespoon of olive oil at lunch/dinner making up in total about 1,000kcal. I added in porridge for breakfast and a shake with the 3 eggs with a banana. Also added in a banana before the gym. Increased cardio to 1 hour most days of the week, burning a further 6-800kcal depending on how energetic I was feeling. My physical job also meant I was burning much more kcal’s per day than usual.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

All important photographs make it much easier to see progress especially when coupled with measurements and weight/body fat history.

This time round there’s a very noticeable difference in my body fat but over all I don’t think I’ve grown much muscle mass due to too much high intensity cardio, eating up muscle.

In The beginning & Month 1

Having spent the last decade or so in and out of the gym you’d imagine I would be huge and would have achieved something substantial or anything at all. But no, sadly for the first 6-7 years I had no clue what I was doing. I ate regular meals, used little or no supplementation, stayed with the same routine for months on end, took regular breaks thinking nothing of it, never recorded my progress and bought in to all the fads and myths on the internet about how to look like Arnie in his prime with little or no exercise and no change to your diet. Only in the last few years since going back to university to do some personal training and nutrition qualifications did all of my previous experience and research tie together. I became pretty efficient in sniffing out the bullshit, which there is a lot of on the internet and utilizing the remainder. Having never had any realistic goals in the past I decided about 2 months ago having returned from road tripping around the USA that I would compete in the next WBFF Mr. Fitness Championship held in Toronto in August of 2013. Only in the past couple of days did it dawn on me that writing a blog to record everything from now up to that point would be very beneficial to anybody out there who uses the gym and gets no where from week to week, month to month. I’ve no interest in making any money in the sports and fitness world, whether it be coaching strength and conditioning or personal training friends and associates. I’d much rather do the same for free, my payment, seeing them excel, better themselves, be completely happy with their bodies for maybe the first time ever, I’ve accumulated a wealth of knowledge over the years and I’m ready and happy to share every bit of it. The training regime and diet I use and will record may not be perfect but it certainly works a charm, as you’ll see.

What i plan on sharing will be my exact training schedule, each session week on week of what weights lifted, reps completed, routine changes month on month, weight/body fat taken at the same time each week,  calorie cycling, diet down to every kcal and supplement taken, notes and comments week on week, measurements, photographs of progress, cardio and high intensity training. I’m already back from traveling 6 weeks so I’ve already some progress, tips, tricks and other info to share. So I’ll start….

The split routine I’ve been using has been Chest & Biceps, Back & Triceps, with Shoulders and Legs on seperate sessions. I super set the exercises, meaning there is no rest period, you go from completing one set of a particular exercise and jump straight into a set of the other muscle group worked that day. Example: 6-12 reps on the bench for chest followed by 6-12 reps on EZ curls for biceps then straight back onto the bench without resting. This may take a month or so to get used to but its my personal favourite, saves time and always promises to be an intense workout. I tend to stick to 5 sets of each exercise, the amount of exercises I do is dependent on the muscle group and how many days there is for recovery. Chest and Back for instance I work once per week giving me plenty of rest before the next session, so I’ll do 3 exercises for it. Whereas Biceps/Triceps I work 2 times per week with only one day in between for rest so I generally do 2 exercises each session. Sometimes depending on whether they’re sore or not I may work them in with shoulders on Fridays to give them an extra boost.

The diet i’m using is similar to Ketosis, I build and cut in 2 week cycles, eating in and around 4,000kcal per day while building and removing 600-1,000kcal per day while cutting. For the build cycle I never eat starchy carbs (no bread, rice, pasta,cereal,chips,potatoes etc) then when switching to the cut cycle I introduce oats in the morning and some fruit during the day to give myself readily available higher GI carbs for when I do cardio. I weigh myself on a weekly basis to see if my weight has gone up or down and see what my body fat is like. This allows me to adjust my diet to maximize muscle growth while keeping body fat to a minimum.

GYM REGIME AND BODY WEIGHT

Month 1 (16th Oct – 18th Nov 2012)

WEEK 1

Weight: 85.6kg / 11.1% Body fat

Start 2 week building cycle

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
16th October

Lat Pull down 82×8, 82×7, 82×7, 75×7, 68×7
Tricep Pushdown 72×8, 72×8, 72×8, 72×7, 72×7
Seated row 50×10, 50×9, 50×8, 50×8, 45×8
Dips 15×8, 15×8, 15×8, 15×8 , 15×6
Bent Over Fly 10×8, 10×8, 10×6, 7.5×8, 7.5×8

Thursday  – Chest/Biceps
18th October

Bench press 100×8, 100×5/90×3, 90×4/80×4, 80×8, 80×7
Ez curl 45×10, 45×6, 45×6, 40×7, 40×7
Incline press 60×8, 60×6, 57×7, 57×6, 55×6
Incline curl 18×8, 18×5, 16×8, 16×6, 16×6
Cable flies 16×9, 16×8, 16×8, 16×7, 16×5

Friday – Shoulders
19th October

Side raise 7.5×10, 7.5×9, 7.5×8, 7.5×8, 7.5×8
Rear fly 12×9, 12×10, 12×9, 12×8, 12×8
Shrugs 80×10, 80×10, 80×9, 80×8, 90×6
Military press 45×9, 45×7, 45×5, 40×9, 40×9

Saturday – Legs
20th October

Bulgarian Split Squat 22×6, 22×6, 22×6, 22×6, 20×7
Ham curls 110×7, 110×7, 110×7, 110×6, 110×6
Leg extension 120×9, 120×7, 120×6, 110×7, 110×7
Leg press 195×10, 195×7, 195×6, 195×6, 195×6

WEEK 2

Weight: 86.1kg / 11.1% Body fat

1^st Week bulk over, increase of .5kg, SUCCESS, zero increase in body fat

Monday – Chest/Biceps
22nd October

Bench press 110×4/100×2, 100×6, 90×6, 80×6, 80×6
Ez curl 50×6, 45×9, 45×7, 40×7, 40×7
Incline press 80×6, 70×8, 70×5, 60×8, 60×8
Incline curl 20×6, 18×7, 18×7, 18×6, 16×9
Cable flies 16×11, 16×10, 16×10, 16×8, 16×6

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
23rd October

Lat Pull down 88×9, 88×7, 88×7, 81×8, 81×7
Tricep Pushdown 40×9, 40×7, 40×7, 35×8, 35×8
Seated row 64×9, 64×10, 64×9, 60×9, 60×8
Dips 20×9, 20×8, 20×7, 20×6, 15×8
Bent Over Fly10x12, 10×12, 12.5×10, 12.5×9, 12.5×9

Wednesday – Shoulders
24th October

Military press 55×9, 55×9, 55×7, 50×9, 50×7
Side raise 10×11, 10×8, 10×8, 10×7, 10×8
Front raise 12.5×10, 12.5×8, 12.5×8, 12.5×8, 12.5×9
Rear raise 14×12, 14×11, 14×8, 14×8, 14×7
Shrugs 100×8, 100×7, 100×7, 100×7, 100×6

Sunday – Legs
28th October

Bulgarian Split Squats 22×7, 22×6, 22×7, 22×6, 22×6
Ham curls 55×8, 55×7, 55×6, 55×8, 55×6
Leg extension 120×8, 120×7, 120×6, 120×6, 120×4/5
Leg press 205×6, 205×6, 195×8, 195×8, 195×8

WEEK 3

Weight: 87.5kg / 11.0% Body fat

2^nd Week bulk over, increase of 1.4kg, SUCCESS, 0.1% decrease in body fat

Notes: 2 week build cycle finished. Up a total of 1.9KG with 0.1% decrease in body fat. Need to add 200-300kcal per day extra on next build to maximize muscle growth. Should have increase in body fat during build, not decrease.

Monday – Chest/Biceps
29th October

Bench press 110×2/100×3, 100×5, 90×6, 80×8, 80×6
Ez curl 15×5, 12.5×8, 12.5×6, 11×6, 11×6
Incline press 80×7, 80×4/70×2 , 70×7, 70×5
Incline curl 20×5, 18×9, 18×7, 18×5, 16×6
Flies 27×10, 27×8, 27×7, 27×7, 22×8

Tuesday – Back/Triceps
30th October

Lat Pulldown 95×9, 95×6/88×3, 88×11, 88×5, 82×6
Pushdown – too sore, rest day
Seated row 68×10, 68×9, 68×6, 63×9, 63×7
Bent Over Fly11x10, 11×10, 11×9, 11×9, 11×10
Lat push 36×9, 36×7, 31×7, 31×8, 31×8

Friday – Shoulders
2nd November

Military press 57×7, 57×6, 55×7, 55×6, 55×5
Side raise 12×8, 12×6, 7.5×7, 7.5×6, 7.5×6
Front raise 14×8, 14×6, 12×8, 12×7,
Rear fly 16×12, 18×6, 16×8, 16×7,
Shrugs 120×7, 100×11, 110×8, 110×8, 110×8

Saturday – Legs
3^rd November

Bulgarian Split Squats 22×9, 22×9, 22×8, 22×8, 22×7
Ham curls 60×7, 55×8, 55×8, 55×8, 55×6
Leg extension 120×10, 120×9, 120×8, 120×8, 120×6
Leg press 205×8, 205×8, 205×7, 205×8, 205×5

WEEK 4

Weight: 88.0kg / 12.2% Body fat

1st week cut, up .5kg, FAIL

Notes:
Didn’t change diet initially just done more cardio, cut out milk after weekend to lower kcal as I had put on weight. Had some effects in 3 days that followed until weigh in on Wednesday. May need to start eating porridge and cut dairy out totally as it sticks around the gut especially.
Monday – Chest/Biceps
5th November

Bench press 100×8, 110×5, 100×6, 90×7, 90×6
Ez curl 35×5, 30×7, 30×6, 25×8, 25×6
Incline press 85×7, 80×6, 80×7 , 70×7, 70×6
Incline curl 45×6, 40×7, 40×7, 40×7, 40×6
Flies 60×8, 60×9, 60×8, 50×8, 50×6

Tuesday
6th November – Back/Triceps

Lat Pulldown 95×9, 95×7, 95×5/ 88×3, 88×8, 88×8
Tricep Pushdown 36×12, 41×7, 41×8, 41×5/36×3, 36×8
Seated row 72×9, 72×8, 72×7 , 72×7, 72×6
Dips 25×8, 25×9, 25×7, 25×7,  20×10
Bent Over Fly12x10, 12×8, 12×8,  12×8, 12×7

Friday  – Shoulders
9th November

Military press 57×7, 57×7, 57×5, 55×6, 55×5
Side raise 12×6, 12×7, 12×6, 10×9, 10×7
Front raise 13×9, 13×8, 13×7, 13×6, 13×5
Rear row 18×10, 18×11, 18×9, 18×9, 18×9
Shrugs 110×10, 110×10, 110×7, 110×8, 110×8

Sunday – Legs
11th October

Bulgarian Split Squats 24×8, 24×8, 24×7, 22×8, 22×7
Ham curls 60×9, 60×8, 60×7, 55×8, 55×7
Leg extension 120×12, 120×11, 120×10, 120×9, 120×8
Leg press 205×9,205×8, 205×8,205×8,205×7

Weight: 87.3kg / 11.8% Body fat

2nd week cut, down .7kg, SUCCESS, down total of .2KG in cut phase. Over all not much. Tweeking needed for next cut, carrying injuries means cardio will be difficult.

BODY WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 1

Up total of 1.7KG in 1 month. Body fat increase of .7% due to bad 1st week of cutting. Need to remedy in future.

WEIGHT PROGRESS OVER COURSE OF MONTH 1

Chest/Biceps

Bench press +10KG
Ez curl +10KG
Incline press +20KG
Incline curl +5KG
Cable flies +2KG

Back/Triceps

Lat Pull down +20KG
Tricep Pushdown +5KG
Seated row +27KG
Dips +15KG
Flys +6KG

Shoulders

Side raise +6KG
Rear fly +11KG
Shrugs +30KG
Military press +12KG

Legs
Bulgarian Split Squat +20KG total (10kg each side)
Ham curls +20KG
Leg extension Lifting max available, increase in reps, slowing of movement
Leg press +30KG

ABDOMINALS

I train my ab’s every day once they are not sore. I generally rotate the exercises every session, doing one exercise for lower, one for upper and the last for obliques with 5 sets of each in rotation with no rest. Each set is 6-12 reps until fatigued. I don’t keep track of reps or anything so I’ve nothing to record.  I can provide a list of the 15 best exercises if anyone wants them.

MEASUREMENTS

Having not taken these before I have nothing to compare to. Next month we will see.

Arm: 14″
Chest: 40″3/8
Waist: 35″
Hip: 35″
Calf: 15″
Thigh: 23″

DIET AND SUPPLEMENTATION

Generally, because of my living arrangements at the moment and for the next few months, my diet has been too familar, I don’t have the space or means to stockpile too much or too varied of foods which means my diet is quite boring. That will change in the future, after christmas. This is an example. Any of the foods can be substituted once its with other foods with very similar nutrients and quantities of.

BULKING DIET

Breakfast – 7am

3 extra large eggs
75g cheddar cheese
1/2 breast chicken, pork or steak

Snack – 10am

75g mixed nuts (cashew, almond, walnut, pine, brazil)
250ml whole milk with 1 scoop whey isolate protein powder

Lunch – 12.30pm

Iceberg Lettace
Tomato
Pepper
Onion
1/2 Avacado
25g nuts
50g cheese
tin of tuna or large chicken breast
3 TBL olive oil
Vinegarette

Snack – 3.30pm

75g mixed nuts
250ml whole milk + scoop whey isolate protein powder

Gym Pre-Workout Shake – 5.30pm

N.O.Xplode, Blast or Superpump for energy/creatine

After Gym session – 7pm

250ml whole milk + 1 scoop whey isolate
320kcal protein bar with 23g protein

Dinner – 9pm

Lean meat, large piece
Steamed or oven cooked veg
3 TBL olive oil

Bedtime – 11.30pm

250ml whole milk + scoop whey isolate

CUTTING DIET

Only thing I’ve been changing so far is adding Porridge in before my eggs in the moning, mixing it with water and a small banana or apple. Later in the day before I go to the gym I’ll have another piece of fruit. I also remove all cheese and milk from my diet. Which works out to be about 800kcal.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

All important photographs make it much easier to see progress especially when coupled with measurements and weight/body fat history.