CK's Journal - The Road To Achieving a 1-Star Rating

Some random thoughts: I've been strongly considering a complete overhaul of my routine. I've been doing this split for around 3 months (and a similar 4 day split for 4 months before that), and I can't help thinking it might be time for a change. Don't get me wrong I've been extremely happy with my results so far: if you had said to me in February that in 8 months from starting weight training I'd be repping with 36kg dumbbells and deadlifting one and a half times my body weight, I would've told you to shut up and stop being silly! Not to mention the aesthetic side of things: nearly every time I meet up with friends I get compliments about how "buff" I've gotten (LOL), and this is, after all, the entire reason I started weight training in the first place - to gain confidence and be happier about myself.

So if I was to sum up the first 8 months (and 3 days) of my training I would have to say that all in all it's been rather successful. There is, however, a HELL OF A LONG WAY to go. But I seem to have meandered off topic a bit, forgive me. Back to the routine, while I do think the split I've been doing has served me well, I can't help thinking that I'm focusing too much on isolations and not enough on the big lifts, given the relatively short amount of time that I've been training. I have a mate who has a cracking physique and is actually the guy who got me into weightlifting in the first place (and he's pretty much my go-to guy if I ever have any questions about nutrition or training or what have you), and he always frowns at me when I say something like "oh yeah I just finished in the gym, did a superset of EZ curls, pinwheel curls and incline hammer curls it was great!". Having said that this guy is into MMA and his training is all geared towards strength, but this fact notwithstanding he still has something like 17" arms, all from Deadlifting and Pull-Ups, he has basically never done an isolation in his life.

So this got me thinking about stripped down, basic routines that focus mainly on the big lifts, and the one that immediately stood out to me was Rippetoe's SS. I've heard great things from this routine and I'm very much considering just getting back to basics and starting out with something like this very soon. One of the main reasons I'm considering that routine also is the fact that I have heard how effective it is at bringing your squat up, which is by far my weakest lift. I've also been wanting to incorporate some power cleans into my routine and this seems like a good way to do just that.

Anyway, I'm just thinking with my keyboard here, and I'm probably getting ahead of myself. I'm going to stick with my current routine for the next while (the new version training shoulders on day 3 with legs), but I am very much considering a big change soon.

PS. If any of you guys have any thoughts about whether or not this would be a good idea or not, especially considering my main goal is hypertrophy rather than just strength, then please feel free to comment

Haha i thought you made pinwheel curls up then i saw they were real
Its a good idea sticking to basics, add in 1 or to isolation to bring up lagging parts.
My isolations consist of ez bar curls, cgbp, tir pushdowns and extensions.
Tri's help my bench and bicep curls just 'cause

Just made the most RIDICULOUS pre-bed meal.

Ingredients
4 Eggs
1 Clove of Garlic
20g of Cheddar Cheese

Boil eggs for 4 mins (so yolk is still runny), then finely cut (dice?) the garlic and mush it up with the side of the knife. Throw the eggs and the garlic in the bowl and stir them up together until it resembles a sort of paste. Then grate the cheddar on top. Microwave for roughly 1:30 minutes, or until cheese is melted. (For some reason it tasted very tex-mex, reminded me of my days in San Diego heading round to the local mexican takeaway for a cheap dinner when my funds were running low!) Followed by a tablespoon of peanut butter and a pint of milk.

Macros
Protein: 56.5g
Carbs: 27.25g
Fat: 44.9g
Calories: 739.1

Thankfully I'm single at the moment, if I had to sleep in the same bed as a bird tonight she wouldn't be too happy unless she happens to love the smell of really strong garlic and eggs!

Owen


Haha i thought you made pinwheel curls up then i saw they were real
Its a good idea sticking to basics, add in 1 or to isolation to bring up lagging parts.
My isolations consist of ez bar curls, cgbp, tir pushdowns and extensions.
Tri's help my bench and bicep curls just 'cause

Lol, yeah mate pinwheel curls, pretty weird exercise but I've tried them a few times, get quite a burn from them. I dunno I've just been reading a good bit by Rippetoe lately and his logic behind SS seems so perfect, the guy definitely knows what he's on about, and he also maintains that it's still probably the best mass routine for novices as well, not just strength, and I'm guessing I'd still be considered a novice in this context on account of the fact that I can still add weight/reps to all my big lifts week by week with relative ease (ie. haven't plateaued yet). I know you're a big fan of the strength based routines, and it certainly hasn't done you any harm in the hypertrophy department either! Shall keep you posted

Not much to report today. Didn't get to the gym today, simply too busy, but it's all good I'm looking forward to a big Legs/Shoulders sesh tomorrow.

I'm also pretty chuffed with myself because my sister's mate called around a few hours ago and I hadn't seen him in ages, I opened the door for him and the first thing he said was 'jesus you've gotten very big!' - it's nice when people notice the fruits of my hard work!

Still haven't decided whether I'm going to change routine yet, I'm going to keep doing my current routine for at least the next week, maybe two, before I will properly make my mind up.

Legs/Shoulders

Squat
20kg x 10
80kg x 8
80kg x 7
85kg x 5
90kg x 3
(Was going to attempt a 1rm here but decided against it because a) my left knee was feeling a bit dodgy and b) I didn't have a spotter)

Shoulder Press
50kg x 8
50kg x 6
50kg x 5

DB Front Raises
9kg x 10
9kg x 10
9kg x 10

Standing Calf Raise (Smith)
90kg x 14
90kg x 14
90kg x 14

Leg Extensions
150lb x 10
160lb x 10 (+10lb)
160lb x 9


Core/Abs

Roman Chair Leg Raises
BW x 14
BW x 14
BW x 10

Roman Chair Static L-Sits
BW x 14 secs
BW x 11 secs
BW x 9 secs

(+45 mins low intensity cardio on bike)


As you can see I mixed it up a bit today. I tried shoulders with legs for the first time in a while, and also I decided to go heavy with lower reps (veering towards my potential change of routine to Starting Strength in the near future - if I was to start SS next week for example at least I'd know pretty much exactly how much weight to start with for squats (85kg) and shoulder press (~55kg)).

For the Squats I didn't go ATTG like I have been doing before. They felt good but I'm not 100% sure how far down I was going, it felt like I was going parallel but it can be kind of hard to tell when you have quite a bit of weight on your back, so next time I do these I'll make sure to have my training partner with me so he can tell me if I'm breaking parallel.

Also definitely making fast improvement on those L-Sits, which equals core getting stronger, woo!

Allways good to assess how your trainings gone and what you can do different. Main thing is if your training is doing the biz (which it seems to be) then job done.

Now if you fancy a change, maybe a more strength orientated plan then do it pal.

One easy change is to make the main lift of the day as much more of a pure strength movement (1-5 reps for 3-5 sets, no maxing out every week) then continue with higher rep stuff on assistance work.

Cheers for the input Iain, that's a good idea, I had already started to tend to go for lower reps on the main lifts, except for Deads, which I'll start from now on because those high rep deads are starting to piss me off!

Push

DB Press
36kg x 7 (+1)
36kg x 7 (+1)
36kg x 6 (+1)

Incline Bench Press
60kg x 8
60kg x 8
60kg x 8 (+1)

Flyes
8kg x 14
8kg x 14

Incline Flyes
8kg x 14
8kg x 13

Chest Press/Pec Deck (Machine)
40kg x 20 - training partner just challenged me to see how many I could do, so stupid! Look how much it f.ucked up my Dips! Although I should have done Dips before Flyes, I just totally forgot about them.

Dips
BW x 8 (-2)
BW x 7 (-1)
BW x 6 (-3)

Pushdowns
60lb x 14
60lb x 12
60lb x 11

Delighted to be up in DB Press and Incline, despite being forced to doing shoulders yesterday due to time constraints over the weekend - could that have affected my lifting today? Perhaps we'll never know...

Tune of the day. Listened to this during that last set of DB Press, aggression was immense:

Pull

Deadlift
105kg x 8
105kg x 8
105kg x 8 (+2)

Form was perfect on these, felt really good doing them.

DB Rows
42kg x 10
42kg x 10
42kg x 9 (+1)

Wide Grip Pull-Downs
140lb x 10
140lb x 8 (-1)
140lb x 7 (-1)

EZ Curls
27kg x 10
27kg x 9
27kg x 8

Alternate DB Curls
14kg x 8
14kg x 8
14kg x 7
Supersetted with:

Pinwheel Curls
14kg x 8
14kg x 6
14kg x 5

Nice progression mate, lol at your mate challenging you

Pinwheel curls are class, similar to hammer curls, they will fairly pump your arms up.

Ice - Yeah mate the pump you get off them is sensational! Especially when supersetted! Hope the training's going well mate, got the next cycle planned yet?

---
No training today, due to time constraints this week I've was forced to go to the gym the last 3 days in a row! So next session will be Legs and Shoulders on Friday.

In other news, I'm now officially a professional guitar teacher! Just gave my first lesson there this afternoon, nice 11 year old lad, he's really enthusiastic and wants to learn how to play Metallica and Megadeth, which suits me down to the ground cos that's exactly the type of stuff I'm loving playing at the moment!

Also I'm currently doing the Movember charity thing at the moment (for those that don't know, it's where you grow a moustache for the month of November). All my mates are doing it so it's a great laugh but I look absolutely ridiculous, big filthy lookin knacker-tash it is!

Yeah i do them very light as using a heavy weight means form suffers. You ever tried ez bar or bb preacher curls, man they are awesome seriously im hooked on them, done them the last 3 wo's or so and my arms are so sore the next day, really good, you may wanna try them sometime.

Yeah planning to start a SD/test e next week buddy, 3 week sd/10 week test e, prob do a log if you wish to follow mate.

SD - week 1-3
Test e - week 1 -10

Well done on becoming a guitar teacher mate, get in that cash money :D

Tell me more about that charity thing mate, sounds interesting :)

Ah hittin the test good man, crossing over to the proper darkside! You should defo run a log, your journals are always a quality read! Yeah mate I used to do preacher curls with an ez bar quite a bit, they're a great exercise! Must do them again some time soon!

Yea the movember thing is cool, although I'm not actually getting sponsored for it I just decided to do it at the last minute cos all my mates were! The charity is for prostate cancer so it's raising awareness either way and it's a good cause. Check it out www.movember.com Loads of lads on the Irish and English rugby teams are doin it, it's a great laugh even if it makes me look like a filthy scumbag!

EDIT: Double post. Instead here's a picture of Kevin Levrone for no apparent reason:

CitizenKane


Ah hittin the test good man, crossing over to the proper darkside! You should defo run a log, your journals are always a quality read! Yeah mate I used to do preacher curls with an ez bar quite a bit, they're a great exercise! Must do them again some time soon!

Yea the movember thing is cool, although I'm not actually getting sponsored for it I just decided to do it at the last minute cos all my mates were! The charity is for prostate cancer so it's raising awareness either way and it's a good cause. Check it out www.movember.com Loads of lads on the Irish and English rugby teams are doin it, it's a great laugh even if it makes me look like a filthy scumbag!

Thanks mate, would be nice if you followed :D Yeah quality exercise :)

Cool, about to go to bed will have a look 2mra would be fun if a pile of mates did it like with you :)

Good man, I'm just about to go to bed too, but the extended version of american gangster is on tv so I'll prob stay up watchin that for the next few hours lol

lol haha

I carn't grow a full tash so I'll have to make do with the beard!

I just had the most embarrassing experience I'm ever likely to have. I posted this in the General section but I'll put it here too. Basically about 15 mins ago I was mixing up a whey shake after breakfast. I had just started shaking it and I realised the lid of the shaker wasn't on properly, so I unscrewed it and tried to put it back on, at which point my grip completely slipped and the entire shaker fell out of my hand, open. I was drenched from head to toe in semi-mixed brown chocolate whey and water, I just had to take my t-shirt off immediately because it was soaked. Then I looked around and I saw that it didn't just spill on me, it had gone onto every single surface in the entire kitchen, the worktop, all the cupboards and all over the floor.

So I stood there in shock for a few seconds and then, the icing on the cake, two builders who are working on my house at the moment just strolled into the kitchen back from their lunch break, to find me standing there topless covered in this brown liquid all over my trousers and my face, and the entire kitchen drenched in the stuff. What a way to start the day. Probably the most embarrassing situation of my life!