CHASING NUMBERS

- I started lifting to get bigger and so I would feel more confident on the street.

- I started training for strength in Aprill 2008. First step was lowering the reps. Then I started deadlifting. I then joined Muscleworks 2 in May 2008 and started squating.

- From here on I will be, Chasing Numbers.

Stats at start:
5"6
52kg
Lowish BF, 12%?

Stats now:
5"6.5
63kg (67kg was my max weight before a but)
Lowish BF, 10%?


Here are my gains so far


BEFORE any weights at all:



MAY - After one month with a pair of 5kg dumbells lol:
Stole them of my mate and was using them everyday with no idea what i was doing... Still ok improvment seeing it was 5kg for 50 reps


4 Months - 4th October Pics


5 Months - 2nd November


Injury!! November 22nd - January 7th
Two months out saw the loss of quite abit of muscle

6-7 Months - 20th Feb


8-9 Months - 1st Aprill



10 months - 20th May
 

INJURY (Broken Hand) August 2nd - September 2nd

I take whey, mult vitamins, fish oil capsuals, creatine and now L-leucine.

Just to get an idea when i started i benched 30kg for 10 reps.


Keep watching!

Hmm this forum is odd. imageshack pics wont work? What should i use to upload them?

Imageshack works fine....


For posting pictures go onto www.imageshack.us

Click 'browse' to select your picture

Click on 'resize image' and select either 320X240 or 640X480 size

Click 'host it'

Then 'copy' the link from where it says 'Direct link to image'

In the Muscletalk post click 'image'

Then 'paste' the copied link in between the two 'image' words... [image]PASTE HERE[/image]


...job done!

PB's (88kg-natural)
Squat - 135kg
Bench - 125kg x 2
Deadlift - 230kg

My Journal... ##Getting back into it! ##

Thanks mate. Sorted!

Saturday 15th

Not a great worktout as the gym closed before i could finish my sets:

I dont normaly go to the gym which uses Lbs but my bike got jacked so this one was easier to get to on the bus.

DB shrugs - 140lbs - 15,10 (lost grip), 14, 12
Rear row machine - 55kg- 9,9,7
Wide pullups - 8,8,6
BB curl 50lb - 9,7,5

Gym bloody closed.. lol

Lookin good mate - keep it up.... Some very good gains you got there...

LA

Ok, well i was going to write down my progress weekly to save time but i lost my ****ing log book which i've had since i started lifitng. Really annoying as i wanted to record everything.

Anyway today i met my goal of benching my weight (58kg) with ease!

Funny story.. My weights set only goes up to 45kg. Untill today i was benching 45kg for the last month starting from being able to do 8 reps to the end of the month where i was doing 15...
SO i had a brain wave and tied my 7kg dumbells to my BB lol. So there i was benching with two dumbells hanging down hitting my wrist every rep.

Anyway was great to actualy be able to see what i could bench now as when i started 3-4 months i could only bench 40kg (yes really )

SUNDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER - (home workout)

Warm up (skipping)

Chest
Chest warmup

Bench:
50kg- 10 reps (most i have ever had on the bench)
52.5kg- 9 reps
55kg- 6 reps
57.5kg- 4 reps
60kg- 2 reps (Well this was my goal to get by the end of summer and i think i could of deffo lifted it by then. Think from this workout i could lift 70kg guys???) I will need to find some more heavey things to tie onto the bar hah.

Inc Bench:45kg-5,4,4,4,4

Shoulders:
Rear rows- 45kg- 8,6,6
Front rows- 40kg- 5,6,5
MP- 30kg- 8,7,4,4 (changed my grip on the '4' reps)

Tri's:
Close bench- 30kg- 8,7,7
Dips- 7.5kg between mi legs- 12,10



Need to get myself another log book now :(

Today was my first time doing judo with the adults group, before this i did 4 lessons with the junior group but moved up as training with bigger guys should be more benifitial.
First fight was against a pretty strong african guy. He went easy at first but then i gave him some problems when doing ground work so he gave me the hardest hand grip i had ever felt, ive got about 15 bruises on my shoulders from his dagger fingers! Was great though. Next i fought my mate who is a year younger but has been doing it for 2 years. In stand up he was pretty good, but when it came to the floor i beat him twice! With the only two locks i know lol. Held him down for 30 seconds with a scarf hold the first time and the next was a choke i had learnt that lesson. Was great fun. MUAY THAI for the first ever time on wednesday to look forward to aswell!

Ate quite alot as i wanted to build up my energy for judo

Diet today:

8:30 - Whey/creatine Shake. Bowl of oats, seed mix, flax seeds, 10 strawberries, loads of blue berries. A small chicken breast.
11:00 - Chicken tika in brown bread.
1:00 - Chicken tika bagel.
3:30 - Whey shake. Bowl of oats, seed mix, flax seeds, 10 strawberries, loads of blue berries.
5:00 - Huge home made kebad. About 250g of chicken sliced, with salad in a brown pita bread.
6:30 - Chicken breast in a bagel
JUDO
9:15 - Apple and some sort of youghurt bar i got from a vending machine
9:45 - Decent sized chicken salad. Home made fruit mix.

Well today i did my whole back and bi's. My gym only goes up to 45kg BB's and 30k DB's (im a member of a chain of gyms and none of them have 45kg+ BB's...) which didnt matter so much as my form is still ****. I cant seem to get my back straight, it really curves at the bottom. ONE quesions... what works you lower back more and legs less. Straight or bent leg deads?
I also just had a quick go on the chest press machine as i couldn't help seeing what i could press. I did 85kg which wasnt too bad, could mabie of done 95kg with a proper warm up. What do you think i could max on my bench press with that as a chest press maching PB?

Tuesday 25th Sep - (gym)

Deads - 45k BB (warm up) 10 reps.
30kg Dumbels - 10,8,8. Im still trying to improve form so i didnt want to do too many reps/sets.

Rear rows - 55kg - 10,7,8,8
Pulldown 55kg - 6,7
Close pulldown - 70kg - 8,7

Shrugs- 30k DB's - 20,15 (again, rubbish gym so cant shrug more)

BB curls - 25kg - 7,7. (my biceps were already pretty tired from the pulldowns but just wanted to push them abit more)

Forearms - 14kg DB's - Basically i made up my own forearm routine which seems to help me more than the curl things. Its great for Deadlift and shrugs grip. I hole the dumbell infront of my leg with a straight arm. Let the dumbel extend my fingures towards the floor so it looks like im going to drop them from my hands, and then i pull them back up into a clenched fist. Do this 12,12,10.

Diet.. SO FAR:

8:30 - Whey shake. Larg bowl of Oats, strawberries and seed mix.
11: chicken tika sandwhich.
1: Large flap jack
2:30: Bagel and whey+creatine shake.
GYM
4:00: Whey shake
4:30: Large chicken kebab (sheesh i think, the healthy one)
Next 2-3 meals im yet to eat!

Hi mate, good luck with this bud.

My brother lived in North east london for a while in Enfield/Tottenham, he said it's exactly the same as you've described it for young lads around your age (He never got mugged once but he's in his 20's)

As Plan B said in one of his tracks 'NO MORE EATIN FOR YOU NOW BLUD!'

As far as your training goes, I personally wouldn't worry about doing Chest twice in a week.

If you want to do that, train your whole upper body twice.

For example - a 3 day routine would look like:

1) Bench Press, Rows, military press, pull ups, arms
2) Squats, Deads, Front Squats, Hamstring Curls
3) Dips, 1 arm DB Rows, Standing DB Rows, Cable rows, arms

Ye im thinking of going into a more full body workout style, when the work from college piles on. Also with judo and muay thai im guna be pretty busy. Ye its the same is most bad boroughs in london. Hate it, but tbh i wouldnt really live anywhere else. Its my home and everyone i know is here apart from a few cousins who live in york and ireland. Well in a year or so il be at uni, probs out of london. So who knows might end up living there away from it all.

No judo today. Going to see SuperBad instead with some mates. So i did my chest/shouler/tri day today instead of tomorrow. So guna do legs tomorrow if i have time. Im going to my school gym for the first time, its tiny and we can only go under supervision on fridays but im hoping they will let me try max my bench.

Wednesday 26th - (home)

Bench- 55kg- 5, 7,6,4 (i went to near failure on my first set, so its odd i pulled out 7 on the second set which wasnt even to failure. I thinm my form was better on the second set and also mabie the creatine only just started doing its stuff?)
60kg- 1 rep lol

Inc DB bench- 20kg- 7,5,5,5

Front raises- 12.5kg- 14 (7 per arm), 12, 12
Laterals-12.5kg- i did a few and my shoulders started really hurting so just went straight into rows.
DB rows- 12.5kg- 12,12,12

Dips +12.5kg DB between legs - 12,14,10
Standing DB overheads- 7.5kg- 5,5

Todays diet.

-whey, oats+fruit+seed mix
-big chicken tika baguet
-BLT bagel
-whey+creatine, oats+fruit+seed mix
Workout
-whey
-Huge chicken sheesh kebab
-Half a chicken tandori style

Friday 28th Sep (home)

It was pissing it down so i just did a bicep/forearms/abs workout at home

BB curls - 28.5kg - 7,5,6,4,5
DB curls - 12.5kg - 14 (7 each arm),14,10,10

Forearms

Abs

Saturday 29th september - (gym)

Legs today. Although i've been lifting for about 4 months i have only really done legs on and off so im not really used to lifting with them and havnt got the reps per weight sorted out yet.

Oh ye this gym uses pounds for some reason.. but i go here on leg and back day as there are heavier wieghts than my KG gym.

Warm up

Squats
70lb DB's - 4 (too heavey)
60lb DB'S - 5,5,5

Deads
70lb DB's - 8,6 (terrible form so had to use the BB which is too light)
90lb BB - 10,10 (for the first time i had great form, i have only done deadlifts 4 times btw..)

Leg Press
95kg - 6, 10
125kg - 5

Leg Press calf raises
125kg- 12,12
135kg- 12
155kg- 14

As i said before im still trying to get used to legs and deads so my numbers are slightly odd

Keep it up mate you're doing great.

Lemon fresh lifting journal

Lemon fresh vids

Hi mate, from your pictures i would say you have an excellent base for adding some lean mass!

IMO, your routine could be better, however it wouldnt take much to change it,

Just like what has allready been said, i dont think it is necessary to train chest, shoulders or tris twice a week.

IMO i would do this



Sunday: Chest
Monday: Judo
Tuesday: Back/Bi's
Wednesday: Judo
Thursday: Shoulders/tri's
Friday: Time to get drunk!
Saturday:Legs

Make sure every workout in the gym is HARD and INTENSE and you will see some good gains.

Good choice with Judo. People think twice when you throw them on the ground. Plus the Muay Thai is great. I've watched some matches, the knees and kicks are devastating!

As Snake said, you have a great base to build on. As a beginner you should stick to compound movements and should be eating like a madman for energy for your martial arts and for growth.

Good luck!

Gday Mate, good to see another 17 year old starting up, quiet a few of us now

i do recommend tweaking your routine a bit mate, to either a full body or 3/4 day split, good for adding mass rather than doing the big lifts twice a week, at this stage mate youll just be burning yourself out.

either way mate best of luck and keep on keepin' on.

You are not your Job
You're not how much money you have in the Bank
You're not the car you Drive
You're not the contents of your Wallet
You're not your ****in Khakis
You are the all singing all dancing crap of the World.

Thanks for the tips, i think il do this routine for another two weeks and then switch it, changing my routine every 6 weeks or so, so if one routine isnt working for me the next one should sort it out... Also keep some routines are probs going to be more baised to some muscles, a change in routine every 6 weeks should give me a more even build to?

Adam - whats a 3/4 day split? Guessing its 3 days on 1 day off right?

Il be checking out both your journals adam and snake.

Oh ye just to say. Once i have had good strength gains and am seen as strong for a man not just a teenager i will be looking at starting a rossboxing style workout. Improving power and strength slightly while getting really fit with great conditioning

Age - 18

Bench - 95kg (at 62kg)
Deadlift - 120kg (at 62kg)
Squat - 100kgx5 (at 62kg)
Front Squat - 92.5kg (at 62kg)