Back again You can read an [re-]intro from me here if you're so inclined.

I've been lifting low reps, heavy weights for quite a while, then my training got disrupted early this summer by a house move, so lost a bit of fitness, especially as I now have nearly a 1 hour daily commute on the bus each way instead ofa 30 minute walk to work.

Things were starting to stagnate a little anyway, as I think I need to add more basic mass if I want to get stronger as I was hitting a plateau.

So, reps back up to around the 8 rep range, more sets, far less rest time, just a higher overall "density" that means I'll get a cardio workout in the mix too, as time is also at a premium now (got about 50 minutes to get my workout done).

Squats have become even more foundational for me: the more incessantly I do them, the more I notice they help with everything else.

Decided to hammer things this week by training consecutively on Monday, Tuesday, and Weds. Will train again on Sat.

Nothing special in terms of weight, more concerned with getting the necessary level of fitness and strength-endurance back.

Can't exactly remember the weights or exercises I did on the days, as I'm just "feeling" my way back into shape, and only just decided to renew my journal this afternoon! Will be more clued up in a week or two.

Monday 12 July 2010

60 seconds rest between sets

Olympic ATG back squats: 8 * 55kg / 8 * 75kg / 8 * 95kg
Standing military press: 8 * 45kg / 8 * 55kg
Incline bench press: 8 * 50kg / 8 * 55kg
Standing DB press: 8 * 20kg / 8 * 20kg
Wide-grip bent-over row (//): 8 * 55kg / 8 * 65kg

Tuesday 13th July

60 seconds rest between sets

Think I replicated some of the exercises from Monday. Also

Deadlifts: 8 * 70kg / 8 * 120kg / 8 * 130kg

Wednesday 14th July

60 seconds rest between sets

Again replicated a couple exercises from Monday, but this time did a lot of cable work, and also did more "finishing" exercises on my arms.

Squat single arm cable-row: 8 * 55kg / 8 * 65kg (full stack)
Reversed grip lat pulldown: 8 * 65kg / 8 * 65kg

--

Something like all the above, anyway.

Mainly my lower back that is sore today from the consecutive days of squatting and deadlifting, which I haven't done in a while, though comfortably within my [weight] limits. Also feel it in my biceps, as I've targetted them a lot more than normal as it is my triceps that usually end up getting hit a lot more as I traditionally tend to concentrate on major compound lifts.

Never hurts to do the basics, although 2 days in a rwo for legs would kill me

I like the look of your prog dude, nice exercises.

Great to see you back, been ages.

Hope all is well. Still up on the Tyne?

Cheers guys.

Indeed, yes, still up here in Newcastle.

So, a catch up:

Trained again on Thursday 15th, 4th day in a row, was pretty fatigued by this point so kept the weights relatively low. Remember doing some BORs, fairly strict, parallel, pulled to chest with a wide grip; did some more squats (of course ), again fairly light, and blasted my arms again.

Took Friday as a day off, then back again on Saturday 17th - won't bother listing exercises/weights (can't remember, to be honest!) but they were all pretty light/easy, as I was still stiff and rather sore, as I haven't trained with this amount of volume for quite a while.

Sunday 18th was another rest day.

Monday 19th was a good session! Legs were still feeling it, so squats were relatively light. Triceps got hammered, so didn't have much left on later pressing exercises. Certain exercises/weights I remember:

Olympic ATG back squats: 8 * 65kg / 8 * 75kg / 6 * 85kg
DB incline chest press: 8 * 20kg / 8 * 30kg / 8 * 34kg / 4 * 38kg / 8 * 34kg
Weighted dips: 8 * +0kg / 8 * +20kg / 8 * +30kg
Seated DB press: 8 * 20kg / 4 * 22kg (dead arms!)
DB hammer curls: 8 * 16kg / 8 * 16kg
DB lateral rotation: 8 * 16kg / 8 * 16kg

There were a couple of other exercises too that I've forgotten. Did a bit of core work.

Tuesday 20th. Went for a run in the woods/forest right near my house; did a 40 minute-ish circuit. The forest is a runners dream; countless trails everywhere, beautful scenery, and the forest runs down the side of a valley so is on a pretty steep incline - extremely tough when running back uphill!

Felt much improved, can feel my fitness starting to kick back into gear, gradually. Got some flab to shift from being lazy/depressed in early part of this summer, but keeping my calories high as I intend to lose it slowly so I don't lose any muscle. At the rate I'm going, I'll easily be trim by autumn in any case.

Wednesday, was going to go to the gym... but got sidetracked by an unexpected meeting with some friends when leaving work, so that instead turned into a couple of beers down the pub and a pizza - all good though

Thursday 22nd. Now, I know things are coming back! Hardest session I've done in a long, long time, probably since early spring this year. Objective was good volume with fairly minimal rest times. Squats absolutely destroyed me, only took about 60 seconds rest between sets. In fact all the rest of my muscles felt somewhat fried for the rest of the session! I'm just lacking anaerobic/CP fitness at the moment, specifically - unsurprisingly. Aerobic system is pretty good, but the other energy systems are the ones that tend to decline first. Workouts like this will fix that though...

Legs/chest/arms

Olympic ATG back squats: 8 * 45kg / 8 * 65kg / 8 * 85kg / 8 * 105kg / 8 * 95kg
Olympic ATG front squats: 8 * 65kg
Barbell incline bench press: 8 * 40kg / 8 * 50kg / 8 * 60kg
Standing DB shoulder press* 8 * 20kg / 8 * 20kg
Seated DB shoulder press: 8 * 20kg / 6 * 22kg
Incline DB flyes: 8 * 20kg / 6 * 20kg
Standing DB hammer curls: 8 * 16kg / 8 * 16kg
Close-grip bench press: 8 * 45kg / 8 * 55kg
Russian twist (cable): 8 * 40kg (slow tempo)

Cardio

15 minutes level 14/20 stepper. RPE = 15/20. Definitely working far harder on this than I should be. Cardio fitness will return quickly though. I am sadistic so deliberately chose to go on the stepper at end of this session after having had tough squatting.

* Did with feet placed right together to make balance tough to direct higher load through my core.

So nothing special weights wise, although very pleased with squatting, and the solid set at 105kg is promising at my current level of (un)fitness. I can tell I've definitely gained strength during my lazy period, strange as that my sound, given that my weights are currently down on best levels. Classic case of putting on weight/bulk and add some muscle in process. I know this based on what I'm currently lifting at my current fitness level - i.e. when I get fully fit, I should be easily hitting some new PBs.

That'll probably be in around 2 months time, if I can maintain current rate of progress.

Trained 9 out of last 12 days. That might seem excessive, but it is having precisely the desired effect; metabolism definitely raised, appetite significantly up, and my rate of recovery is now much improved; less and less muscle soreness/fatigue by the following day.

Perhaps even more importantly, mood = good.

Good work Aren. Over training to kick start the metabolism, or get back into training works really well and it's something you do in rugby during the 1st week or pre season, but you must now back off a little and ride the wave

Friday 23rd July

Key:
P = pronated grip
S = supinated grip
W = wide grip
N = narrow grip
V = very strict
// = upper body parallel to floor

Back/arms

Deadlift: 8 * 75kg / 8 * 105kg / 8 * 115kg / 8 * 105kg / 8 * 75kg
Lat pulldown: 8 * 57.5kg (P,W) / 8 * 65kg (S,N) / 6 * 57.5kg (P,W) / 8 * 57.5kg (S,N)
Bent-over DB row (V, //): 8 * 20kg / 8 * 22kg / 8 * 22kg
Seated machine row: 8 * 40kg / 8 * 60kg / 8 * 70kg
DB lateral rotation: 8 * 14kg / 8 * 14kg
Cable front press/"supermans": 8 * 40kg / 8 * 40kg
Cable lateral rotation: 8 * 12.5kg / 8 * 15kg

Core/lower back was fatigued from heavy squatting, so weights on deadlift were conservative but solid. Lat pulldowns felt absolutely fantastic due to the lovely stretching effect, and felt considerably limber after those. Grabbag of rapid fire exercises afterwards, with quite a bit of work to the external/posterior rotators to balance up the heavy load on the anterior rotators from all the pressing yesterday.

Definitely had a fair bit of DOMS in my legs today, though not too bad, and the workout actually helped to lessen it somewhat.

Saturday 24th

30 minute light/moderate run.

Sunday 25th

Rest day.

Monday 26th

Horrible humidity in the gym, totally strength sapping, plus I felt tired. So just did a light session, did some squats and deadlifts, but well submaximal so can't really remember specific weights, followed by lots of stretching which felt good. Was a good session though, left feeling more limber and looser than before the session.

Early night.

Tuesday 27th

Rest day, second early night. Did me the world of good.

Wednesday 28th

Felt really good today. Took a little while to get going as I was feeling a bit too relaxed, but managed a pretty intense session that, again, was a heavy cardio workout due to short rest times between sets. Another hard squat session, think I'll try starting off with a different exercise first next time, as the heavy squats seem to zap a lot of strength out of the rest of my system. Good for fitness though...

Arms and chest were dying from the superset combo, had to keep dropping weight to keep it going! After that point, arms were fried...

Legs/chest/arms

Olympic ATG back squat: 8 * 45kg / 8 * 75kg / 8 * 95kg / 8 * 105kg / 6 * 110kg / 8 * 95kg / 8 * 75kg
Incline BB press: 8 * 50kg / 8 * 50kg / 8 * 55kg

Incline DB press: 8 * 28kg

Superset {Incline DB press, Incline DB flyes}:
(7 * 28kg, 8 * 18kg) / ( 8 * 24kg, 8 * 14kg ) / (8 * 20kg, 8 * 12kg)

DB hammer curls: 8 * 14kg / 8 * 14kg
BB concentration curl: 5 * 35kg

Supersets combos will do that to you.

My favorite one for chest which I'll start doing when I get back from my hols is:


Flat DB Bench ---- Incline Flyes ---- Incline DB Press x 4

I got up to 40kgs flat, 24 kgs flyes and 30ks incline each for 10 reps per set last time.

You should give Upper/Lower a go sometime, 2 sessions of each a week.

Yes, the upper/lower split is a good one, I have done that before and enjoyed it.

The 5 day Legs/Back/Chest/Shoulders/Arms split is also an enjoyable one, as we did for quite a while back at Woking, though more "bodybuilding" orientated (i.e. less "functional") as you tend to end up doing far less compound work. It is a psychologically nice split as you get the most painful/tough lifts (i.e. squats, deadlifts) done early on in the week, then end up with more "pump" orientated smaller lifts by the end.

I'll just try and keep mixing things up every few weeks to keep it interesting. I'm going to try and draw up a proper periodised and structured regime over the next day or two for the next 12 weeks or so, alternating training zone (i.e. rep range) and exercise splits. I think I'll probably also make a few small memory jog cards to take to the gym with me too, as once a routine develops beyond a certain level of complexity it gets difficult to remember all the specific exercise combinations.

There's quite a few good routines out there.

Do a search for Yoda3 training

Aren wrote:
I'll just try and keep mixing things up every few weeks to keep it interesting. I'm going to try and draw up a proper periodised and structured regime over the next day or two for the next 12 weeks or so, alternating training zone (i.e. rep range) and exercise splits. I think I'll probably also make a few small memory jog cards to take to the gym with me too, as once a routine develops beyond a certain level of complexity it gets difficult to remember all the specific exercise combinations.

For me and the way that "life" is, making such a detailed 12 weeks plan is bollocks. Things come up, shit happens etc etc. I could never plan in such depth and only ever have an idea of the next week or twos plans...which alsways pretty myuch evoles around going and lifting blody heavy and hard or slightly lighter but just as intense.

low intesity weeks and all that are for when you are busy or the shit happens i refered to and you cant train as much or at all. Not some scheduled program i dont think

in short i just think keep it simple. Nothing more effective that going to the gym and just fcuking training hard and Nothing more rewarding and motivating than te results this produces

Uber busy but excellent week's progress.

The trouble with my current hectic routine is that I leave the house before 8AM, and don't get back till about 9PM on 5 out of 7 days, and typically get back even later on Friday nights, so keeping this log up to date is nigh on impossible. The workouts I did were so intense and so packed with exercises in a short space of time that I can't remember most of them! Most primary exercises were around five to six sets, short rest intervals of about 60 seconds. Everything was rapid fire to turn the workouts into high-intensity cardiovascular sessions as well.

Anyway, on Mon, I felt rather drained and off colour, and on Tue morning I found out why: I'd picked up some type of gut infection from something. As soon as I took an anti-diahorrea tablet, I felt fine. So, Salsa dancing on Tues evening (I've recently taken up Salsa dancing, as it'd be handy to be able to dance and to meet more ladies...).

Wed was a lower body workout, target of 12 reps sets. Certainly needed it! Was tough doing these higher rep sets, but pleased with the 12 x 95kg set.

Thur was an upper session, really concentrated on doing solid good-form deadlifts, several sets of 12 x 85kg. Did a very tough superset complex of BOR, upright row, and DB lateral rotations to really blast my back and shoulders. Did and extensive bench press session with a lot of volume. Also did some EZ bar pullovers, which is definitely an exercise I need to concentrate on, as my spinal erectors and lower back is extremely strong relative to other muscles around my core, so I need to balance it out with exercises in flexion. I am definitely considerably stronger in extension than flexion, no doubt largely due to my proclivity towards deadlifting. I'll probably introduce heavy weighted crunches into my routine.

Fri Salsa dancing again, this is my main one; won't necessarily always go to one on Tues, but will make this one a staple.

Sat Long head of my triceps was very sore at its point of origin, the severe eccentric load on Pullovers, an exercise I haven't done in an age, definitely did the damage. Expecting a good adaptation response. Anyway, avoided pressing exercises as a result, and concentrated on some vicious supersets to target primarily biceps and compounds involving pulling excercises.

Sun Wonderful 10 hour sleep last night, exactly what I needed. Going to have another earlyish night tonight and hopefully get around 8+ hours in. Went for a short and sweet run, but introduced a couple of very short sprint blasts in. Fitness is noticeably starting to really improve again. Expecting that my anaerobic/CP system will start to properly come online in about another month or so of this type of weekly training load.

Diet has been extremely good this week.

Typical;

Breakfast 7:30AM: 3-4 whole eggs, two slices of multi-seed toast. Can never eat much first thing in morning, got not appetite for a couple of hours.
9:30AM Morning shake. 40g WPC, 40g Oats. Will snack on a chicken leg mid morning if my lunch isn't big enough.
Lunch: Hefty home made meal of chicken and rice, or chilli con carne, etc, etc. Typically have around 200g meat, try to get decent vegetables and/or pulses in there.
4:30PM Preworkout shake. 30g Oats, 50g WMS, 40g WPC.
7:00PM Postworkout shake. 60g WMS, 40g WPC.
9:00PM Hefty meal of steak and rice, or pork and rice, or pork and potatoes, etc., with vegetable accompaniment of typically brocolli, peppers, onions, etc.
10:30PM Bedtime shake. 40g MPC, made with roughly 300ml whole milk, 400ml water.

Snacks are usually a banana or couple of apples through day, also try to have yoghurt with berries on quite a few days.

Intention this forthcoming week or so is to do a big fish stew to get some quality fish EFAs in. When I get paid next month I'll invest in some more Omega 3 oils, as I'd like to increase these.

Other supplements I use:

Taurine, Di Arginine Malate (Preworkout). Focus/energy enhancers. Think I took to much Malate on Sat as I was actually getting over-pumped in my arms, making it difficult on grip strength! (Anyone experience this before?!).
Glutamine (Bedtime). Recovery.
BCAA, Leucine. (Multiple). Amino support.
Flaxseed oil, for Omega 3.
OAKG. I've got this pot of it that I've had for ages, so I'm using it up! It is supposed to enhance strength endurance. Taking about 10g a day of it, it tastes indescribably vile, and not convinced so far that it is worth it. We'll see how it goes over next few weeks.
A few vits/mins.

Will probably introduce Creatine HCL in a week or two when I move into Hypertrophy range as I've got a nearly full pot of this lying around too.

Main objective at moment is conditioning and strength endurance, as there is no point in me trying to lift too heavy until these are at the levels they need to be. Also, I need to bring my core strength and endurance up significantly too. But this week has gone very well overall, starting to feel the benefits.

Nice work dude! On a good road!

Aren

Looking good, OAKG does work, but you should cycle, month on and month off.

Training with giant and supersets is great, but you can't do this all the time, so every few weeks, try some basic strength work as a change is as good.....

Rab wrote:

Aren wrote:
I'll just try and keep mixing things up every few weeks to keep it interesting. I'm going to try and draw up a proper periodised and structured regime over the next day or two for the next 12 weeks or so, alternating training zone (i.e. rep range) and exercise splits. I think I'll probably also make a few small memory jog cards to take to the gym with me too, as once a routine develops beyond a certain level of complexity it gets difficult to remember all the specific exercise combinations.

For me and the way that "life" is, making such a detailed 12 weeks plan is bollocks. Things come up, shit happens etc etc. I could never plan in such depth and only ever have an idea of the next week or twos plans...which alsways pretty myuch evoles around going and lifting blody heavy and hard or slightly lighter but just as intense.

low intesity weeks and all that are for when you are busy or the shit happens i refered to and you cant train as much or at all. Not some scheduled program i dont think

in short i just think keep it simple. Nothing more effective that going to the gym and just fcuking training hard and Nothing more rewarding and motivating than te results this produces

Agree in part although i see nothing wrong with planning the next weeks training and having an overall monthly goal

Gym-pig wrote:

Rab wrote:

Aren wrote:
I'll just try and keep mixing things up every few weeks to keep it interesting. I'm going to try and draw up a proper periodised and structured regime over the next day or two for the next 12 weeks or so, alternating training zone (i.e. rep range) and exercise splits. I think I'll probably also make a few small memory jog cards to take to the gym with me too, as once a routine develops beyond a certain level of complexity it gets difficult to remember all the specific exercise combinations.

For me and the way that "life" is, making such a detailed 12 weeks plan is bollocks. Things come up, shit happens etc etc. I could never plan in such depth and only ever have an idea of the next week or twos plans...which alsways pretty myuch evoles around going and lifting blody heavy and hard or slightly lighter but just as intense.

low intesity weeks and all that are for when you are busy or the shit happens i refered to and you cant train as much or at all. Not some scheduled program i dont think

in short i just think keep it simple. Nothing more effective that going to the gym and just fcuking training hard and Nothing more rewarding and motivating than te results this produces

Agree in part although i see nothing wrong with planning the next weeks training and having an overall monthly goal

Don't disagree with a title holding bodybuilder mate. If Rab says beathing was bad for you, I'd stop as he knows best!

Are we like Uk-Muscle now ??

Are we into pointless heroe worship arse kissing ?????

Ok your right I never have a plan , have no idea , no plan and just walk into the gym and expect a great workout

I hate you two old shits

I just dont think planning much further ahead than a week is of much use. Things never really work to plan in life of with the gym. You have to asses and adapt to the sittuation as you go along and just go an dbust your balls every time

WHat do you two know anyway? Im a real bodybuilder now, you two are no more than bicep boys of old so listen when i speak ok!!!! This is how i roll now

Rab wrote:WHat do you two know anyway? Im a real bodybuilder now, you two are no more than bicep boys of old so listen when i speak ok!!!! This is how i roll now

Are you Dutch Scott, are your Ducth Scott in disguise? Are you Ducth Scott in disguise.....

No updates for quite a while, simply because I'm been so uber busy - in a good way! On a typical day I leave the house at 7:45AM and don't get back till 8:30-9:30pm, so no time to keep this updated by the time I've eaten etc.

Training has progressed onwards. Went to an awesome festival weekend of 12-13-14th, then back into training and down into 10 rep range for week of 15-21st. Intensity continues to increase, able to keep pushing harder as I'm returning to fitness. Solid ATG squats @ 10 * 105kg; back into Clean & Push Pressing about 8 * 60kg; benching rising back up to about 8 * 75kg or so; deadlifts somewhere around 10 * 125kg.

At this point, most of the work is concentrating on conditioning, as I'm getting my energy systems back up to scratch and reinstating all the critical CNS adaptations.

This week has seen another step up: went to the Gateshead atheletics track (first time I've been on a track in over 15 years!) and was killing myself blasting out 400m intervals. Managed to pick up a really nice pair of proper track spikes for £20 (and came with a free tech t too). I was getting pasted by boys less than half my age; however, this was entirely expected, as I knew as I was gonna be slow. Legs were getting totally rubberised because of the sheer amount of lactate from pushing myself so hard anaerobically.

There is also an Olympic lifting facility at Gateshead next to the track. I am most definitely going to go along there and get myself a coach to teach me proper Olympic lifting. I want to be able to Snatch and execute perfect, explosive Clean & Presses.

Promising signs of progress, and I know I'll probably be able to run a lap literally 10 seconds faster within a month or two as I get my efficiency and anaerobic fitness levels right back up.

Additionally, I now have a full set of kettlebells. Did my first workout with them this morning. Brutal. They destroy you: one of the most punishing 45 minutes of my life, within minutes you're gasping for breath and your heart rate is sky high. I love 'em already!

New schedule is probably going to be something akin to this:

DAY AM / PM
Mon Kettlebell training / Off
Tue Off / Olympic lifting
Wed Off / Gym (Upper/core)
Thur Off / Athletics (100m, 200m, or 400m intervals)
Fri Kettlebell training / Salsa dancing
Sat Off / Gym (Powerlifting/strength/Lower)
Sun Rest

Goal is total all round fitness and general conditioning; strong and explosive. Most training will therefore be heavily orientated towards primarily functional lifts; I will do a small amount of "bodybuilding" specific training only to the extent of trying to assist in creating a balanced and aesthetic physique and correct any noticeable areas of deficiency. Generally speaking, isolation exercises make up only a minute part of my training (and more for my own vanity/enjoyment more than anything else!).

This schedule will be probably be subject to significant variation depending on how various bits of my body feel! (i.e. if I feel fried after the Oly lifting on a Tues I might just have a light session at gym, or perhaps even go swimming). Since I also have varying days off work each week, that will also effect things.

Things are going in the right track, as I have had noticeable fresh hypertrophy in my shoulders, arms, and legs whilst simultaneously (slowly, but surely) been dropping body fat from my waist. I'm about 2 months away from being what I consider to be quite "trim" and fit (though of course, one is never ever satisfied). By then I'll be working on developing more limit strength, and start lifting in the 1-5RM range. Looking forward to going heavy on deadlifts again!

Career wise, I have finally picked up from where I stopped and got my head back together after years in limbo. I am now back on the register for exercise professionals as a Personal Trainer. I am doing a Kettlebell certification in September, and a Boxing certification in October. Intention is actually to get job attached to a gym and be making some money from it by the close of the year, heading into an exciting 2011! Since this time (unlike last), I am in a stable (albeit boring as f**k) job, I have regular income coming in so have no pressure to actually make the jump and ditch it in until the right opportunity arises.

Additional note: recovering extremely well each day from the taxing training load, which is a good sign of fitness improvement. No longer really getting any DOMs, even when training to virtual failure on an exercise. Only area of my body which is currently suffering are my calves, from the sprinting on Thursday: in retrospect they don't really get hit especially heavily during most of my leg training at the gym, since I'm obviously squatting feet flat to the floor and trying to significantly involve the posterior chain - the high level of ankle plantarflexion from the flat out running/springing off on the track has therefore taken its toll!

Sounds very positive which is great to hear.

With calves, I believe in stretching them off every day. On2-3 minutes a day and you'll notice a big difference.