The way of the firest0rm...

***New Bulking Log / http://www.muscletalk.co.uk/tm.aspx?high=&m=2956849&mpage=1#2956849 ***


*Picture & Personal Best Updates*
*14/04/08 - Page 2: Day 1 pics + August 06 pics for comparison*
*19/04/08 - Page 2: Day 6 pics - Bodyfat down .7% in 1 week*
*21/04/08 - Page 3: New personal best on shoulder press!*
*25/04/08 - Page 3: New personal best on quad leg curl!*
*26/04/08 - Page 3: Bodyfat down another .3%, bringing the total to 1% in 2 weeks*
*02/05/08 - Page 5: Squatted 125kg for 3!*
*04/05/08 - Page 5: Stash pic links!*
*05/05/08 - Page 5: Picture updates, including legs*
*10/05/08 - Page 7: Bodyfat dropped to 15.6%, a .8% drop from last week!*
*10/05/08 - Page 8: New personal best on flat bench! 115kg 4 reps!*
*17/05/08 - Page 8: Bodyfat down to 15.3%, down .3% from last week*
*23/05/08 - Page 9: New PB on squats, 130kg!*
*24/05/08 - Page 9: Bodyfat down .9% in a week, now 14.6%!*
*24/05/08 - Page 13: Week 7 pictures added!*
*09/06/08 - Page 16: Back shot and pics of girlfriend added!*
*14/06/08 - Page 17: Bodyfat down to 14.1%!*
*15/06/08 - Page 18: New pics up!*
*23/06/08 - Page 19: Bodyfat down to 13.8%!*
*23/06/08 - Page 22: Bodyfat down to 13.2%!*



Personal Information

Age: 26 (27 in July)
Height: 5ft 10
Weight: 14st 10.5lbs (as of 12/04/08)
Bodyfat: 17% (as of 12/04/08)
Years in training: 3 years 6 months


Background Information

I have always been 'chubby' but my weight began to get out of control in 2003/2004. I was working in an office and ate a lot of junk food. I knew I had problems because I began to get very bad stomach ache's and was generally unfit and unhealthy. My weight got to 16stone, pure flab, and my waist was 38inches. I was very self conscious, I had little confidence and was incredibly useless with women. I had wanted to join a gym and lose weight for a while, but paranoia about the gym held me back. It wasn't until I was watching, and please don't laugh lol, Big Brother and a contestant named Jason who was a bodybuilder and had a good physique. I developed a real longing to have this type of physique and it spurred me on to actually join the gym.


Background Training

I finally joined a gym in September 2004 at a round 16stone and began to train. I started buying Mens Fitness and Mens Health and just read and read and read. I started making simple lifestyle changes such as no carbs after 6pm, and by December 2004 I had dropped from 16stone to 12st 7lbs. My confidence began to grow and I started buying new clothes and going out enjoying myself.


The Hospital Incident

Supplementation looked appealing to me and in around February 2005 I started buying stuff. I tried a few Universal Animal products, and began making mistakes. I believed by taking a "metabolic booster / fat burner" I could sacrifice cardio time. This obviously didn't work and I started putting on weight again. Anyway as time went by and I started looking more and more at advanced supplements (and steroids) and in June 2005 I started an ECA stack. I wasn't aware of this at the time but my family has a history of ulcers and the asprin in the ECA stack began to give me stomach ache. I didn't realise at the time it was the asprin causing the stomach ache and I began to take more asprin to battle it.

I took more and more asprin and my stomach ache got worse and worse, and this culminated in an ulcer bursting a hole through my stomach and diaphragm. I was rushed to hospital and underwent major surgery, and had to be rescucitated twice. I was on a morphinie drip and I'm sure some of you are aware morphine can affect your testosterone production, so recovery was a long and arduous process. It took a while getting back up to speed with my training; my strength and fitness was shot to buggery.


Since Then...

Around January 2006 I had recovered quite well and began training hard again. I experimented with supplements again but stayed away from steroids and stuff like ECA etc. I had some good success with ALCAR, I made adjustments to my diet and I began dropping a fair amount of weight. I began a cycle of MD2, hammered the cardio and in August 2006 I managed to drop down to 11st 5lbs. I'm not sure what my bodyfat % was, I didn't have a six pack showing so I'm assuming it was around 13-15%.

I found it difficult at this weight to drop any more fat so decided on a different approach to achieving my goal; I decided to bulk up first and then cut from there under the belief that the extra muscle mass will ultimately help to burn more calories and make dropping my bodyfat % below 12% easier.


Where I am currently

Since August 2006 I've managed to put on approx 42lbs. My bodyfat % has risen from an approx 13-15% to 17%. I am now sitting at around 14st 5lbs and I think it's time to cut. I've been playing about with my diet and training the past few months, increasing and tinkering with my cardio, looking at my diet and the calories I consume as well as looking at the many supplements available.

I've made a number of mistakes in my training history which I'm not ashamed to admit. I'm still learning and I don't think anybody can safely say they know everything, so I'll carry on learning. I'll probably make mistakes along the way, but such is life.


Training Goals

I want to get below 12% bodyfat, simple.

Naturally, I want to drop fat slowly. I don't want to lose my hard earned muscle mass so with my diet and training at the moment I've been losing around a quartar of a lb a week. Slow, but gradual. I'm hoping with the addition of the many supplements I shall be taking over the coming months I can increase the amount of fat I lose without having an effect on my muscle mass (that's the idea anyway lol).


Diet

I like to think I'm fairly clued up on foods and nutrition, but I'm still learning and not afraid to change my diet if I'm wrong about something. One thing I will say is I don't believe in having an extremely strict diet; this contradicts my ideas about life in general and I'm not willing to completely give up some foods. With this in mind I tend to have a very healthy lunch, and not be as strict with my dinner. I do normally have a healthy dinner as well, usually a steak of different meats with loads of veg, but i won't shy away from having a pizza occasionally. Life is too short and delicate to be giving up all the little pleasures, so I believe moderation and balance is the key.

A typical day will look like this:

Breakfast: Oats
Lunch: Tuna + Mackeral + lots of veg drizzled in olive oil
Dinner: Something sensible, usually steak with veg.
Snacks: Nuts

I've also changed my Whey Protein supplement regime and now have a lot less per day than I used to. I typically only have a whey shake now before+after training.


Training

Monday: Shoulders / Traps - smith shoulder press, db arnold press, lat raises, front lat raises, wide grip seated row, wide grip dips, upright cable rows, db shrugs

Tuesday: Chest / Triceps - pressups, flat bench, incline dbs, db flyes, cable pulldown, skull crushers, dips, close grip bench, v-bar pushdown

Thursday: Back - wide grip pullups, wide grip rows, deadlift, wide grip dips, lat pulldowns, narrow lat behind head pulldowns

Friday: Legs / Biceps - quad leg curl, ham leg curl, squats, leg press (high reps), cable curls, 21's, concentration curls, hammer curls, chins

Cardio: 15 minutes run, 15 minutes crosstrainer, 15 minutes bike/walk


Supplementation

I'm about to begin an Epistane cycle which will look like this:

Weeks 1-6 Epistane 20mg throughout
Weeks 3-6 Methoxy-Trn 4.5mg throughout
Weeks 1-6 Proviron 25mg throughout
PCT = 11test + Inhibit-E (Serm on hand)

I also start USPLabs Recreate on day 1. I shall run this for 2 months (2 bottles). I shall be running the first bottle on its own, the second shall be stacked with DCP and ALCAR. Half way through my second bottle of Recreate I shall start taking Anabolic Pump, as well as begin using the topical fat loss product ThermoGlide. At the end of my second bottle of Recreate I will begin my second bottle of DCP which will be stacked with Leviathan Reloaded. The ThermoGlide and Anabolic Pump and ALCAR will run 2 weeks into this.


Final Thoughts

This log will last through the summer, and I will not be making smaller logs for each of the products I shall be running. I will typically update each day's entry with my strength, my diet as well as how I feel personally. I wil be posting pics, hopefully at regular intervals, and I appreciate any constructive criticism on any aspect of my training/diet/supplementation.

I want to finish with a big thank you to everyone who keeps a tab of my logs, and who offers compliments, constructive criticism and general banter which makes it all worthwhile.

Having a baby girl :)

Hey Tom

Good lock with this endeavour mate, if you want i can offer some real world advice for you about muscle loss if you like to put your mind at rest?

P.s. hows your kid?

Come & Visit UGM

Hey! That would be great thanks!

And my kid is great, saw him today. I see him usually 6 times a week at the moment. He's not starting to stay over at mine until he's 3 months old (he's 6 weeks old right now).

p.s - just got my weight+bf checked, I am actually 14st 10.5lbs and 17% bf. Pretty chuffed actually.

Having a baby girl :)

Sweet, 17% sounds like a good figure, id say 3 months to 12% should no no problem if youre dedicated and seriously motivated about getting down

My experience with BF loss and muscle is that youre not at much if any risk of losing it until you get down to 10% and you want to get down to single digits

Muscle loss occurs when diet and training are so out of whack it aint funny. So plenty of protein and carbs around training and breakfast and you can go no carbs through the rest of your meals. Its about nutrient timing with regards to keeping muscle. Im just over 13 stone at the moment and im around 14-15% BF, trying to get down to 10% and the diet James has done for me as well as the output i have most people would thing i would go catabolic, it aint happening yet and i dint even have a PWO shake for a whole 5 weeks, made sod all difference except i no longer had hypo attacks from all of those sugars i was ingesting

Come & Visit UGM

Yea when I go through the supplements and prohormone sections I always keep an eye out for certain names replying, such as yours or a mods etc, and I've read a few of your posts in reply to questions and learned from them. I do think I had a hell of a lot of whey back in my Epistane cycle October-January, and even when I got it down to 90grams a day from what you said even this seemed a lot. I'm always open to suggestions, so decided to go a few days without a PWO shake and low and behold it wasn't as bad as what I thought. I think I put too little confidence in my diet and too much confidence in my supplements. I have a very good meal about 1 hour after my workouts, typically 50-60grams of protein from two different fish sources, mixed with a generous amount of vegetables.

I've got 1kg of WMS coming from Myprotein which I shall experiment with. I'm going to take some before and after workout.

I'm not sure I want to get below 10%, 10-12% I think I will be happy with.

Having a baby girl :)

12% you should have a four pack and some decent definition depending on your genetics and where you hold your fat of course

i have tried WMS and it aint pleasant, no where near as bad as ALCAR though

ive been sticking to the diet James has done for me an 30g of whey then a PWO of around 80g of carbs and 50g of pro has been serving me well

Dont forget if youre gonna be on anabolics too then catabolism on lower cals is even greatly reduced again unless the diet or training is silly

if you want ill happily do you a diet based around your training that will give you results, but youre gonna have to accept some strength loss on it as your output is high

Come & Visit UGM

Yea that would be great thanks!

Having a baby girl :)

what time do you train, what foods do you like and do you do any cardio on the same days as you do your weights

Come & Visit UGM

I typically train at 11am.
I like oats, muesli, tuna, salmon, mackeral, salad, chicken (this is the healthy stuff I like)
I do cardio 4 times a week on the same day as weight training. At the moment I'm doing 30 minutes of cardio pre-weights, and 15 minutes post-weights.

Having a baby girl :)

ok time you get up and time you go to bed as well

what abut things like white fish, rice, pasta, fruit and veg

this should be easy really for you with a some simple adjustments

Come & Visit UGM

Bloody hell, you have alot of different exercises in there buddy.

You do all them in the same session?

Also deads as a third exercise on back day?

ORIGINAL: theiopener

ok time you get up and time you go to bed as well

what abut things like white fish, rice, pasta, fruit and veg

this should be easy really for you with a some simple adjustments

Get up around 9am
I like most fish, and wholemeal rice and pasta, and of course like fruit and veg

Having a baby girl :)

ORIGINAL: Bigtime

Bloody hell, you have alot of different exercises in there buddy.

You do all them in the same session?

Also deads as a third exercise on back day?

I do indeed. And I don't go heavy on deads, I've only recently started doing them for the all over body workout. It's a risky exercise in my opinion, I'm not willing to go heavy. Therefore doing it as a 3rd exercise is fine for me.

Having a baby girl :)

Training wise leave the cardio till after weights, you need all the energy you can get to hit that iron as hard as possible. Do 45 mins of sscv AFTER your weights session and stick to one machine, or you can change if you get bored but its better to keep your HR stable and tough it out, cardio is cardio IME

ok try this for size

Wake at 9am:
Breakfast at 9:30 am
100g oats in water with sweetener
40g whey protein in water (if its flavoured you can mix it with your oats)
small piece of fruit
coffee/green tea made with sweetener

11am training
PWO 40g whey in water

meal no later than 1 hour later
2 tins of tuna
tin of sweetcorn and natural yogurt mixed in
2 wholemeal pittas

meal 3
2 small tins of mackeral
salad
low cal/low carb dressing
green tea

meal 4
small handful cashew nuts
200g chicken breast
plenty of fibrous veggies
soy sauce (make a stir fry)
green tea

Meal 5
piece of fruit
250g white fish or 200g lean red meat
mashed cauliflower (boil it, drain it and mash it with quark, add a few teaspoons of the instant mash powder to it to make it really creamy)

Prebed
2 tubs of quark mixed with options sachets

more than enough protein for you to keep your lean tissue, should be enough carbs to sustain your workouts but you will lose a bit of strength in the process so dont worry about that. If it really nosedives then up the carbs slightly. IME 15% dip in strength is normal, if not slightly more. Start off with 2 cardio sessions after weights and adjust from there, if youre not losing then add in another cardio session, use this as your tweaker

Come & Visit UGM

Thanks for that TIO. SSCV I assume meant steady state cardio? I only guessed this because Traps replied to my other thread lol. I'm going to google and read up, but can you recommend something? And you say to stick to one machine, so that would be say 45 minutes of the crosstrainer in one go? I got confused because at the bottom of your post you said to start off with 2 cardio sessions, by this do you mean 2 sessions a week? I do prefer doing the majority of my cardio pre-weights but I think for the next couple of weeks I'll do as you say and experiment.

Queries with the diet: It seems like too much for me, seriously. I'll only have 50grams oats in the morning, anything more tends to bloat me. I'll also skip the coffee because my morning dose of Recreate has approx 150mg of caffeine in it. I'll give the pittas a go, but I have a feeling they'll bloat me so I'll try them for a week and see how I feel. Meal 3 is a cando, but meal 4 and 5 look too much for me to handle lol.

Also, what are options sachets? I initially thought the hot chocolate mix, but then I read quark is a kind of cheese? You don't seriously want me to mix hot chocolate with cheese do you? lol

Thanks for the help and advice, I really appreciate it

Having a baby girl :)

Also wouldn't HIIT be better for fat loss?

Having a baby girl :)

Options is hot chocolate powder, it comes in all different flavours. Quark is indeed cheese but its a cross between cream cheese and fromage frais, its slightly tart and when mixed with options it becomes a protein mousse without all the crap in it. no sweat with the coffee, but get some decaf green tea down you throughout the day, full of antioxidants

SSCV is indeed steady state cardio, dont worry about the HR just find a pace where you aint panting for breath and just break a sweat. 2 sessions indeed is 2 sessions a week to start with

If oats bloat you as does wheat products then try an alternative like spelt, rye or even barley flakes from H&B. and for other carbs you can use 80g rice of a small sweet potato if the pittas dont float your boat

meals 4+5 arent that big, the protein is a decent size but put in as much veggies as you see fit mate, 30g of nuts is a small handful last time i checked too

You can get a protein blend and sub one of the meals with it if you like

if you want subbing for some of the meals for protein bars or shake recipes i can also do this no problem, just let me know what you want and ill modify it for you

edit: HIIT is good for fat loss coupled with a higher carb intake, this is under 170g of carbs which is enough to keep muscle and fuel your workouts and cardio sessions. If you want to do HIIT then up your carbs a but and do it, but i wold just do SSCV for now and see what that gets you, dont forget youre doing weights 4 times a week so HIIT cardio IMO would overstress your CNS

Come & Visit UGM

Great, thanks for clearing all that up. I am literally going doing my shopping tomorrow so will stock up. I'll swap the pittas for the rice. I think I will swap meal 4 with a protein blend, I think I'll have a look at the MRP's at sportsnutrition and myprotein.

As for the cardio, I think I'll do 45minutes on the crosstrainer, on a lower hill setting. I have it on level 14 at the moment and I sweat loads and am usually out of breath. Think I'll drop the level to 10 and see how I get on.

Again, thanks a lot!

Having a baby girl :)

youre most welcome, good luck on the cut dude. Ill be watching with great interest