Rather than start a new journal now that I am starting my journey to getting on stage for the first time, I have decided to keep this one going so you are able to see the changes that have been made over the last few years to bring me to this point.
Here are some links to navigate to certain points in my journal rather than having to trawl through 100's of pages:
Start of Cut 2011 Start post 10 week carb cycle End of Cut 2011 Journey to Leeds 2012
Hi fellas, welcome to my journal, please feel free to join in.
A bit about me This will be my 2nd attempt at a journal after the last one died a death along with my motivation. I stopped training completely for weeks and weeks and this soon became months - the longest break I have had from bodybuilding since I started. Stress of life etc had gotten the better of me and I just stopped doing anything. Instead I was sitting on my arse, getting fatter and more unhealthy by the day.
New year came and along with it a fresh motivation, I decided to pull my socks up and slowly started to sort myself out. I have been back training solidly for nearly 3 months now and the improvement to my appearance and well being has been fantastic.
At the beginning of the year my mate decided to join me, which has been a great boost for motivation, he has trained on and off over the years but with injury and work commitments has never managed to get into a routine. He is now starting to see results and has already developed a good base. In this journal I will be tracking both of our progress. I have nagged him to register on here, so he will be posting in here too.
I train at home in my garage and have built a pretty good set up. I have the following equipment:
Power Rack with high / low cable attachment, Pull up Bar & dipping bars
Fixed dumbbell's with rack (2.5kg - 35kg)
adjustable bench with leg & preacher attachment
7ft Oly bar and an EZ bar
Treadmill
Punchbag
I have adapted a few things so I am able to perform most exercises.
Stats
Weight: 15st
Height: 5' 10"
Chest (exhaled): 44"
Upper Arm (right arm contracted): 16.5"
Waist (around belly button): 39"
Thigh (right leg contracted): 25.5"
Calf (right leg contracted): 16"
Goals My goal is to continue to gain muscle mass or at the very least keep hold of what I have, whilst dropping my weight by a stone. This is an approximate weight figure, I will judge whether or not more / less is needed by checking; mirror / pics, tape measure and scales. I am not sure of percentages but I would assume that 10 - 15% BF is the level I am aiming for. I would hope to achieve this by the end of 2009, if I manage it earlier, I will reassess my goals.
Plan I plan to add some am cv sessions into my training. This will consist of; incline walking on the treadmill, bag work and sprints. I will also be going for a run once a week (Sun night) to try and improve fitness.
I will list each workout each day. I am starting a high rep / high intensity routine, based on the workouts of Daz Ball. It is something that I have yet to try and it may be that it works better for me than anything has done in the past.
Although I am hoping to drop my BF%, I will still be eating a fair amount of calories. I am not a fan of changing from a bulking to cutting diet, I would much rather increase / decrease cv to create the calorie deficit.
Diet
I have calculated that my bulking calories being moderately active would be around 3800cals. I have just crept over that figure with my current diet but I am probably playing it safe by basing it on moderately active. I have found over the years that I require a lot of calories to grow, in the past I have had diets with as many as 5500 calories a day, so this is far more sensible for my goals.
All weights are dry / uncooked 8.00 - Black coffee with 5g BCAA's
CV @ 8.00 - 8.45 9.00 - 250ml Fresh grapefruit juice, Breakfast shake - 50g Oats, 200g Cottage cheese, 300ml Skimmed milk, 1 banana, 1tspn Cocoa, 2tspn Sweetener
11.00 - 100g Salmon tikka, 1 Wholemeal pitta bread, 10ml Cucumber yogurt
13.00 - Chicken Korma (home made), 50g Brown rice
15.00 - 100g Salmon tikka, 1 Wholemeal pitta bread, 10ml Cucumber yogurt
17.00 - Tin of tuna, 2 Slices of granary bread, 10ml Natural yogurt, Sliced cucumber
17.40 - 2tspn Coffee, 5g Creatine
Weights @ 18.00 - 19.00 19.00 - 50g Whey, 30g Dextrose, 30g Maltodextrin, 5g L-glutamine, 5g Creatine, 2tspn Skinny Cow, Water
20.00 - 200g Minced beef, 1 Malted grain bap, 2 Slices of pineapple, Big salad
22.00 - 100g Quark, 1tspn Honey, 1tspn Skinny Cow, 60g MP's Bedtime Extreme, 250ml Skimmed milk
3950 cals / 324g Protein / 389g Carbohydrate / 112g Fat Training This is the routine I will be following for the next 8 weeks or so. The weight used is light to moderate and the rest is very short, I complete a set, my training partner does his and then I am straight back onto the next. After 8 weeks I will go heavier, decrease reps and increase rest periods for about 1 - 2 weeks, then up the weight again, decrease the reps further and increase the rest again for another 1 - 2 weeks. I will then revert back to this high volume / intensity routine. During the 8 weeks I may shuffle exercises about to keep things fresh, I will list each workout with the reps and weight each day.
Mon - Chest Flat Flyes
Flat BB Bench Press
Incline DB Press S/S Incline Flyes
Decline BB Press
Decline Flyes (drop set)
Tue - Back (width) & Biceps Wide Grip Pulldown Front S/S Wide Grip Pulldowns Rear
Straight Arm Pressdown (drop set)
V-Bar Pulldowns
Lying Cable Curl
DB Preacher Curl
EZ Bar Curl
Wed - Shoulders Seated Lat Raise
Shoulder Press
Rear Flyes
Standing DB Press S/S Steering Wheel
Reverse Cables
Seated Arnold Press
Standing Front Press S/S Upright Row S/S Rear Press
Rear Upright Rows
Thurs - Legs Leg Curls
Squats
Front Squats S/S Wide Squats
Leg Extension
Leg Curls
Calf Raises
Fri - Back (thickness) & Triceps Seated Cable Row
T-Bar Row
Standing Single Arm Cable Row (triple drop)
Good Morning Raises
Single Arm Pressdown (triple drop)
Seated EZ Bar Tricep Extension
Bench Dips
Pics Here are some pics of when I started training again in January and some taken today for comparison.
Jan 2009 - Looking flabby after 12 weeks off training
Mar 2009 - Taken today, pleased with my progress so far
I will take progress pics every 12 weeks or so and post them for comparison.
Thanks for reading
Dan
<message edited by Tuffy on 16 September 2011 23:34>