Good stuff!!! seems like ur progressing steady.
long u been training for?

Don't lower stuff, increase and do more

Progressing well James.

Cheers guys, this is my second week back into training now after maybe 8weeks off, and before that wasn't really consistent to be honest.

When I said about lowering stuff, I meant more the stuff on rest days. Playing a lot of squash, tennis, some football, and fairly long distance running won't help putting on weight very much. Got a few things on my mind at the moment that are kind of driving me slightly insane, so just doing as much as possible to keep my mind off things. But point taken. Also thanks very much.

Just add in a little more calories if you feel weight is suffering form the extra cardio and activities but to it in small amounts.

No point sacrificing doing stuff you enjoy.

jamesb_88 wrote:

Frio3535 wrote:

jamesb_88 wrote:Thanks man, I'm happy so far, hopefully can keep this progress up for a while! Legs n shoulders tomorrow, gym is closed to how front squats will be done remains yet to be seen! But they will be done!

I've still got a load of chalk from long long ago haha, just haven't needed it for so long.

The weightsroom is still open mate. The gym is closed but the room downstairs is still open. Just rang the dragon to check. Fancy a session with me 2moro afternoon? About 1:00-1:30pm?

Sounds good to me man, will you have enough time to drop Arlene at the airport and get back then yeah? Just played an hour of squash, lower back aches a bit, but fuck it, I reckon I've got another week or 2 in me yet before I have to lower the amount of things I'm doing.

Yeh drop her off around 11:30am so go back home, get some lunch and pick you up bout 1ish?

Yeah, calories it is, probably getting around 3,000kcal a day at the moment, but fluctuates because my diet isn't the cleanest at the moment. Blessed with a fast metabolism, but I think I've taken advantage of it a bit much, especially as of late, would like to clean it up, and I'll try to maybe build up slowly to 3,500kcal a day.

Nick: That sounds perfect for me mate, will have to replace leg press and leg curl with some free weights. Romanian deads for the first time maybe, and maybe some lunges.

Just having a think, I said before about my shoulders aching for quite a while as i have legs/shoulders, and then chest/triceps... Also, my legs/shoulders day is pretty packed and I think I might neglect some exercises as time goes on if I keep the same setup. To try to sort this out I'm thinking about training 4 days a week with this split...

Back/Biceps - monday
Shoulders - wednesday
Legs - thursday
Chest/Triceps - saturday

I figure this way, shoulders are 2 sessions away from chest and triceps which obviously stimulates them more as well. What do you guys think, does this look a bit better, or would you do things a bit differently? Any advice welcome. Cheers

Just got back from the gym with Nick from training shoulders. They could definitely need work, fairly weak in a lot of exercises there. Anyway, the day went as follows:

Hang clean n press - 40kg - 6, 6, 6, 6.
DB Front raises - 11.5kg - 8, 8, 8.
DB Side raises - 9kg - 8, 10, 8.
DB Rear lat raises - 9kg - 8, 8.
Weighted decline situps - 5kg - 10, 10, 10.


Nick gave us a tip for a longer clean in the hang clean n press which made the actual clean much easier. I was surprised at how much I struggled at the press cus I can comfortably press 25kg DBs when seated. My only thought is that maybe from doing more seated work, there are some stabilising issues going on. Few weeks of perseverence should help out there. Never seen the need to do front raises, they went ok. Side raises were fine, but maybe I was a bit more tired than I thought and couldn't get another 10 reps on last set. Rear raises I've never done either, really neglected my rear delts in the past. First time I've worked abs directly in about 5 years I think, got into the habbit of associating abs with gay gym procedure, but just another muscle that needs working at the end of the day. Bring on the legs tomorrow!

front raises are good for those that need to develop their shoulders more, but on the whole if you do lots of pressing they're not needed. For you I guess at the moment they are of use.

Not a bad session earlier on today. Gym had 6 people in it, tiny room with no ventilation. Upstairs being refurbished so no machine access for the day. Anyway:

Last week:
Front Squats - 50kg - 7, 65kg - 5, 6, 6.
Leg Press - 115kg - 12, 135kg - 12, 12, 12.
Leg Curl - 63kg - 12, 12, 12.

This week:
Front Squats - 50kg - 7, 70kg - 5, 6, 6, 7.
DB Lunges - 21.5kg - 6, 5, 5.
Stiff leg DLs - 60kg - 8, 80kg - 7, 6
*Good Mornings - empty 20kg bar - 8, 40kg (overall) - 8

Good increase on the front squats, feeling more comfortable with that exercise now, and I hope that I can continue to make good gains. Lunges, it turns out - I absolutely hate haha. I did 10 reps, only to realise I have 2 legs and have only done 5 reps. Stiff legs felt good, good stretch in the hamstrings, although in all honesty I'm not too sure about how they differ from romanian deadlifts, either way, I did one of them.

* Did good mornings with Nick cus neither of us had ever done them and he was going to do them to finish off the workout.

So now I have a day off tomorrow, might play some squash, or go for a run (albeit a slightly shorter one than those of recent times). Might just have an actual day off, and look forward to chest and triceps the following day. Over n out.

Good progress James. Good to see you getting some more functional posterior chain work in this week.

Looking very solid there.

Though you say your shoulders need work, I'm thinking an entire day for shoulders might be overkill?
Now, I don't know which days you train, but if you train for example mon/wed/fri, you could do back/chest, legs and arms/shoulders.
Personally I'm currently doing full body mon/wed/fri (well mostly upper body/back rehab to be honest, because of an injury) - that might be an option also? With FB you don't have to do the same workout three times a week, you can just as easily focus on three different groups during the week, while still hítting the others with a single exercise.

jamesb_88 wrote:Just having a think, I said before about my shoulders aching for quite a while as i have legs/shoulders, and then chest/triceps... Also, my legs/shoulders day is pretty packed and I think I might neglect some exercises as time goes on if I keep the same setup. To try to sort this out I'm thinking about training 4 days a week with this split...

Back/Biceps - monday
Shoulders - wednesday
Legs - thursday
Chest/Triceps - saturday

I figure this way, shoulders are 2 sessions away from chest and triceps which obviously stimulates them more as well. What do you guys think, does this look a bit better, or would you do things a bit differently? Any advice welcome. Cheers

I think that looks good. Personally, If im doing a 4 day split, i would give back its own day, and legs there own day as they are the most demanding and I like to know that i can go all out and not ahve aother bodypart to start after them. That can sub-consciously lead to holding back a little.

I would move biceps to the chest day, and triceps to shoulder day, but its good te way it is if you are happy with it!

Cheers for the comments and advice guys, appreciate it all. I think I'm going to keep things the way they are at the moment, as things seem to be going well. I've been stupid before when I've been gaining, thinking... hmm how can I get more gains, would this work? etc etc. So just going to keep consistent and see where this takes me. Would like to train full body some time though, so many in a couple months... We'll see.

Either way, I trained yesterday, didn't get round to updating so here's a summary of the preceeding week, and yesterday's session:

Last Week:
Incline db press - 29kg - 9, 9, 9, 7.
Incline db flyes - 14kg - 6, 11.5kg - 10, 10.
single db pullovers - 22.5kg - 12, 12, 12.
Bench dips - 30kg - 10, 10, 12.
db Tricep extensions - 11.5kg 6, 10.5kg 9, 9.

This Week (30-06-08):
Incline db press - 31kg - 6, 6, 6, 6.
Incline db flyes - 13kg - 9, 9, 9.
DB pulloveres - 25kg - 6, 8, 6.
Bench Dips - 40kg - 12, 10, 10.
EZ bar Tri extensions - 20kg - 10, 25kg - 10, 8.


Overall a good session. The maximum before this session that I had incline db benched was 30kg for reps, so on third week back I've set a pb if you will, which I'm happy with so far. I think I used 13kg for flyes, I can't quite remember though (will update quicker in future). Pullovers are interesting, 22.5kg I didn't struggle with last week, but this week I was struggling for stability and more trying to keep my feet on the floor. The set where i got 8 I had a support behind me where I thought I might be using an excessive ROM, but I don't think it helped all that much. Bench dips were fine, triceps fatigues quite fast through the sets, but was nice to get back to 40kg. Prefer EZ bar tricep extensions to DB I think, have only included the weights added for them because my EZ bar weighs next to nothing, and I couldn't find the locks to put on grr.

Tomorrow is back n biceps, I look forward to getting back to the deadlifts (not so much the chins).
Cheers

Ok, got to the gym this morning for back n biceps, was tired, didn't sleep too well, didn't have tea last night (grr) and had breakfast close to going today so felt pretty sick throughout. Bitching over, here's how it went:

Last week (Tuesday 24th June):
Close grip pronated chins - bodyweight - 5, 5, 5.
Deadlifts - 45kg - 8, 85kg - 7, 105kg - 5, 5, 5, 6.
BOR - 60kg - 8, 8, 8, 8.
DB row - 25kg - 8, 8, 10.
DB curl - 15kg - 8, 7, 6.

This week (Thursday 3rd July):
Close Grip pronated chins - bodyweight - 6, 5.
Deadlifts - 60kg - 7, 80kg - 5, 110kg - 5, 5, 5, 4.
BOR - 65kg - 7, 7, 7.
DB row - 28.5kg - 6, 6, 6.
Standing EZ curl - 30kg ~ 10, 35kg - 7, 7.


Happy with the weights moved, really did think I was going to puke after a few sets of deads, and then again with BORing. My head really wasn't in it today, and I didn't feel a great mind-muscle connection, so I should be grateful that I lifted the weights that I did. It's still progression, so I'm not going to beat myself up over not having a great time, look forward to shoulders and abs tomorrow...

Hey lads, just a quick update.

I took a couple weeks off the gym after feeling quite a lot of pain in my back after deadlifts. Everything is ok again now and I had my first session back a couple days ago. Going to try to get into the gym later on today and get some deadlifts done. Looking forward to them, and will get back into the journal swing of things soon I'm sure. Cheers

125kg deadlift today for sets n reps after some chins. Did some db rows after and then some db curls. Back is very weak now, but in a good way I think.

Tomorrow evening I return to rugby training. First time playing in ooo, about 16 months ish I think, so skills are at full time low. We'll see how it goes, think there will be a lot of fitness work going in. Will keep you updated.

Will you be playing for a team mate or are you just doing a little training? Wise on taking time off!!!

Yeah, felt the twinge and thought there's really no point in hammering myself into the ground after only couple weeks back. Kind of lost interest for a week or 2 as well, maybe just a little bit miserable for whatever reasons.

Urm, tomorrow is just training back for the town I live in, really not a high standard at all, but I've got friends in Cardiff talking about playing again and giving it more effort for the last year of uni, so if I could get up to a reasonable skill and fitness by September, you never know. Originally back in March I was going to bulk towards 14 stone and worry about fitness after, but I'm not sure that is too attainable in the time now.

I'm going to play squash as well tomorrow afternoon, really need to concentrate on getting enough calories in now. Especially what with being one of those blessed / cursed with a fast metabolism. Wow, how did this post get so long?

LOL

I'm in the same boat mate. my metabolism is a swine.

Right boys and girls. Have been keeping up with gym going a fair bit. Playing squash a couple times a week at least, and not going towards any particular goal. Just getting fit, trying to get a bit stronger - not tooo concerned with hypertrophy at the moment, just enjoying being back in the gym.

Played squash for about 70 minutes yesterday, then went to rugby training for the first time in about 17 months in the evening. Absolutely shattering, went back in time for fitness. Doesn't sound like much, but to the 22 and back, half way and back, far 22 and back, and then touchline and back 3 times in 6 minutes very nearly killed me. Then 70 seconds to get all way around the pitch, 1 minute break, do that 5 times. So all cardio stuff, but it's all important and getting healthier after 2 years of abusing my body at university. Good times.

Will keep anyone still reading up to date with the kind of consistent frequency I know you've come to expect.