Since everyone else is starting up new journals, I may as well follow...

Goals

1) Get super hench

2) Big guns

Weight gain has stalled since starting to bulk around August. I'm currently weighing 11st 2lbs at about 5"6. Currently really struggling to get enough food down me, so I think I really need to work on making my food more appetizing. So I'm gonna switch between white and brown rice, which I feel will help things. Any help would be appreciated with regards to diet, as I've never really counted any thing other than protein. Currently aiming for around 250g of protein per day. Any advice as to how much carbs and fats per day?

When I think about it, my bodyweight makes me sound like a streak of piss and that's something I really need to address, but I don't want to just gain weight for the sake of weighing more. I train for bodybuilding (but I don't think I'll ever really want to compete) so my primary goal is to look good, but to do so in the long term, I'll have to gain some muscle and if that comes with some fat, that's okay (although I'd like to keep this to a minimum).

Training

3 day split: Chest & Back, Delts & Arms and Legs.

Supplements

Whey protein
Fish Oils
Pre-workout supp (only used occasionally, usually on leg days)

I'd love to give the juice a go, but if I'm honest, at the moment, I just don't have the balls to do it.

First off you don't need AAS to get big, you need to supply your body with the correct nutrients to get big. AAS simply provides the body with a far more favourable environment in which to become stronger and build muscle mass but ultimately it's still down to what you put in your mouth.

As I already posted for Simon keeping things clean makes a fair difference and means you don't need to starve yourself as clean calories aren't usually as dense as the dirty ones.

I wouldn't worry too much about counting carb calories as such but certainly measure out what you eat over a day and keep a mental note so you can make slight adjustments as needed. For me I mainly eat pasta, rice and oats as my main carn sources so I measure these out in cups and know daily how much I roughly have. My fats and protein stay fairly constant so I tend to simply make small changes to carbs as required unless more dramtic measures are required.

I'd look to introduce green and red veg where you can and rice can me made pretty palettable by adding in some peas, brocolli, spinach and a little Avocado or Olive Oil. Play with some marinades for chicken and oven cook for around 30 mins at 170C for a fan and you're laughing for good tasting chicken to go with it. Steak Mince for a Chilli is also a good alternative with rice and is still clean its a good quality Steak Mince.

Cheers Alex. Diet is already fairly clean, with a few cheats per week if I feel the need, it's just the volume that I struggle with. OVer the holidays, I ate less than usual as I just don't have a huge appetite. I am already eating red and green veg, but I could definitely do with more.

I think I may also try and find a butcher to by my chicken from as the supermarket stuff isn't very nice.

I use Lidl for my chicken now as the quality is surprisingly good, as good as any quality butchers I've used, and you can't argue with £6 per kg.

Alex wrote:I use Lidl for my chicken now as the quality is surprisingly good, as good as any quality butchers I've used, and you can't argue with £6 per kg.

Got a Lidl near me so I'll have to take a trip down there. Do you buy in bulk and freeze? If so, how does this affect the taste/texture of the meat?

if your reheating chicken then poaching it for a short period to keep really moist then it is good in the fridge for 3 days worth (coking the night before)

Re your diet. my biggest thing in improving was keeping track of my food intake and getting it in every day. I have a shit appetite too and nee keep an eye on myself to get the food in.

Time things too mate. dioing short diets will spike up a dead appetite and prime you for new growth plus keep you lean and give space for a little fat on the bulk

ie - i bulked my balls off after my det there and was ravenous in appetite. gained good muscle and some fat. now...im at the point i dont want to get any fatter plus appetite died so im dieting now for a while. Point being an endless or long bulk dont do no good imo

Alex wrote:I use Lidl for my chicken now as the quality is surprisingly good, as good as any quality butchers I've used, and you can't argue with £6 per kg.

Awesome...there's one a 5 minute walk from me. I'll have to check that out.

Lidl sirloin steaks are bloody good too where i am. Really tender and juicy

Yeah, when I dieted down and then starting trying to add some size, my appetite was crazy and has died down now, so perhaps a short period of dieting is in order to prime myself for some new growth? How long would you suggest and would you suggest I go straight into fasted cardio every AM and cutting carbs straight away, or do it slowly?

I buy the 1kg packs a few ay a time so they usually stay within date but do defrost fine and come out as they are fresh. worth checking out fresh and frozen veg as it's cheap and good quality. Avocados at 39p each currently is amazing value and they are usually ready to eat unlike most you buy from the supermarkets.

Alex - you sure that the Lidl stuff is good quality?

Its about the same quality imo as tesco normal range chicken breats from what ive had up here.

Roadz. I recon go with a good month diet but longer if your getting results. longer you go, more fat you lose, better rebound and appetite you will get to grow again for a period.

id drop a percentage of carbs yes and go straight into 20-30min am cardio. Thats my preferance to cardio. I just think its so much more effective. Some may not like this au natural...ive done it without sauce and got results then too without any apparent muscle loss.

kp1512 wrote:Alex - you sure that the Lidl stuff is good quality?

Yeah, no issue with it and no water coming off through cooking which is the main concern with lower quality meat. Texture when cooked is spot on and to be honest I can't tell the difference from what I get from my local butcher. Been using it for a while and no issue.

Alex wrote:

kp1512 wrote:Alex - you sure that the Lidl stuff is good quality?

Yeah, no issue with it and no water coming off through cooking which is the main concern with lower quality meat. Texture when cooked is spot on and to be honest I can't tell the difference from what I get from my local butcher. Been using it for a while and no issue.

I'll go pop in the one locally at the weekend as the Waitrose Boneless Chicken Diet is bloody expensive

I was using Waitrose cook range having the pre marinated chicken that you pop in the oven which worked out keeper than buying the breasts plain! The whole deboned chicken worked out good value too as are the rotisary chickens.

roadz wrote:Since everyone else is starting up new journals, I may as well follow...

Goals

1) Get super hench

2) Big guns

Weight gain has stalled since starting to bulk around August. I'm currently weighing 11st 2lbs at about 5"6. Currently really struggling to get enough food down me, so I think I really need to work on making my food more appetizing. So I'm gonna switch between white and brown rice, which I feel will help things. Any help would be appreciated with regards to diet, as I've never really counted any thing other than protein. Currently aiming for around 250g of protein per day. Any advice as to how much carbs and fats per day?

When I think about it, my bodyweight makes me sound like a streak of piss and that's something I really need to address, but I don't want to just gain weight for the sake of weighing more. I train for bodybuilding (but I don't think I'll ever really want to compete) so my primary goal is to look good, but to do so in the long term, I'll have to gain some muscle and if that comes with some fat, that's okay (although I'd like to keep this to a minimum).

Training

3 day split: Chest & Back, Delts & Arms and Legs.

Supplements

Whey protein
Fish Oils
Pre-workout supp (only used occasionally, usually on leg days)

I'd love to give the juice a go, but if I'm honest, at the moment, I just don't have the balls to do it.

I dont like your split pal

Chest and back in one go ?
I couldnt do it !
I tend to do chest and triceps , back and biceps , big with small !

What rep range/sets etc you using ?

Chest and Back together is awesome!

But if you do want the variation of movements then big with small as suggested works well. Could work antagonists though with Alternating Sets to get even more variation.

I know on paper Chest & Back sounds like it shouldn't go well together due to it being so much, but I really like it... And here's my workout from today...

05/01/2011 Chest & Back

Deadlift
110 x 8
120 x 5
120 x 8

Bench
90 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 7

Close Hammer Grip Pulldown
50 x 12
55 x 10
55 x 8

30 Degree Incline DB press
36 x 12
38 x 10
38 x 8

Hammer Strength Style Single Arm Row
40 x 12
45 x 12
45 x 10

30 Degree Incline DB Fly
22 x 10
22 x 10
22 x 8

I always thought that my grip was the weak link on deads and today confirmed it. First ever go using liquid chalk and grip was no problem. My hands are naturally extremely clammy, to the point that anyone who touches them thinks I've just washed them or something, so it really did help. I know the numbers still aren't great, but I'm sure now I can really strive to push those up and finally build a decent deadlift. Bench felt really good too and I'm really gonna concentrate on pushing that up in small increments, as I have been guilty of trying to make increase in weight too quickly in the past.

In regards the rep ranges, I'm generally going to be using a main lift for each body part and work on increasing pundages for that main lift, followed by some assistance work in slightly higher reps (anywhere from 8 - 15, depending on how I feel), just like the workout above. I think for bench and deads, reps will be mediumish (5 - 8) and squats perhaps 8+ as I feel higher reps work well for me on that.

Any comments, help and advice appreciated.

Chest & Back rocks...works especially well if you use alternating sets.

Personally I'd keep deads to your lower/legs day. Maybe alternate each week with front squats/deads and squats/RDLs

Looking really strong for your bodyweight...apart from those girly deads

Pretty much as Ollie says.

On rep ranges you could try 5-8 reps for heavy compounds and then increase rep range as you change movements so that recruit different muscle fibres. So if you're hitting 3 movements per muscle group then something like 5-8, 10-15, 15+ is worth a go or 5-8, 8-12, 12-15 if you don't fancy going so high.

Agree with Whats been said to an extent. I think chest and back together can work but i dotn think that it would if squeezign in deadlifts and id personally be doign a chest and back workout twice withina 10 day period maybe and doign two exercises a piece...upper back exercises

Id do the same and keep deadlifts to a lower day, or for a day of their own along with things like traps and calfs/abs maybe....a wee catch up day..... and also not be afraid to use straps for your heavy set of deadlifts.

Personally I wouldn't even dead lift when dieting just stick to stiff leg.
Good luck bro x

If I do squats and deads in the same session, I can never get the best of whatever I do second, so I'll stick to what I'm doing at the moment and will be changing to a full body routine end of Feb/start of March.

08/01/2011 Legs

Squats
110 x 8
120 x 8
130 x 8

Leg Curl
3 squeezy sets of 10 - 12

Leg Press
190 x 25
230 x 20
230 x 15

Short but sweet. Squats were pretty hard as I still had some DOMS in my lower back and hams from deads. Leg press was unbelieveably painful, but wasn't feeling particularly strong, so chose to go for higher than usual reps. Was supposed to do calves as well, but I actually felt like I was going to pass out after leg press, so didn't. They were pretty fried already tbh.

DOMS were probably more pronounced from deads as I haven't deadlifted consistently in a while, but can anyone suggest anything to help reduce DOMS?

You might not QUITE get the full out of what you second but neither will you cramming everytung into a schedule of one week and doing squats with a lower back thats not recovered

What is a week ayway in bodybuilding terms and o your body? Nothinng at al which is why when i work out my training regime i dont even thing about weeks and just spacing things properly whether it takes 7, 8, 9 or 10 days between workouts rotating back to the start

Rab wrote:What is a week ayway in bodybuilding terms and o your body? Nothinng at al which is why when i work out my training regime i dont even thing about weeks and just spacing things properly whether it takes 7, 8, 9 or 10 days between workouts rotating back to the start

I never quite understood why people get so worked up over weeks. It's a completely arbitrary timespan that has no link to anything.