As I've lost my way a bit (psychologically at least) over the last few weeks I thought I'd start a fresh journal.

The first 6 months of the year went really well, but since I came back off my holiday at the end of June I haven't been disciplined enough with my eating. I was around 9% bf before then (quite a bit leaner than my last pics, and more vascular), which I got to without calorie counting in the end, and am probably more like 12%+ now Food has been 90% clean, but I've been eating too much. My appetite's been insatiable for whatever reason, and with that in mind I'm a little confused about why my weight this morning isn't higher - 84.6kg

This doesn't make any sense - I've been eating a hell of a lot and my composition is softer than it was before I went away. Pre Glastonbury I was about 84kg so this is a bit concerning as it means that I MUST have lost muscle? The only thing I can think is that it's related to coming off epistane but I've had no symptoms of any sort of shutdown (I don't think)...

Anyway, I need to get my conditioning back. Strength and size ought to look after themselves with proper diet, supplementation and training, and aren't my concerns at the moment anyway.

Split will be as follows:

Day 1 - Chest
Day 2 - Back
Day 3- Rest
Day 4 - Legs/Shoulders
Day 5 - Arms
Day 6 - Rest

This suits me as it means I can keep up plenty of volume and intensity and still have time to recover sufficiently.

Thats a good split ollie. How i would do it if training volume.

whats the workouts going to look like?

Like this I think mate:

Chest
Incline DB press
Dip
Decline DB press
Incline flye

Back
Rack pull
Bent over row
Single arm t-bar row
Hammer grip chin

Legs & Shoulders
ATG squat or Front squat
RDL
Calf raise
Military press
DB shoulder press
Lateral raise - may throw in some tri-sets for fun

Arms
Close grip bench
Tricep dips
Decline DB extension
Incline myotatic 1 1/4 DB curl (unilateral)
Single arm BB preacher curl
Prone incline BB curl

I'll superset where possible on the arms day.

Looks good mate.

Ever find you struggle to get fired up the same for an arms day as a back or legs day etc? I have been doign arms to themself days and i dont find it productive. Im going back to chest & biceps and shoulders & triceps i think.

I definitely used to mate...I find training arms pretty boring!

I'd like to concentrate on them a bit for a while though - trained them like that yesterday and it was fine so I'll stick with it for a while

I find alternating sets with arms can make it a little less boring but you still get the rest tiome between sets unlike supersets.

Looks a good split,pretty similar to my own which is
mon-Chest
tue-Back
wed-Shoulders
thur-legs
fri-arms
sat-core

Yeah it's not hugely different from what I've been doing - really just a dedicated day for arms and the combination of legs and shoulders. Should work well I think

Saturday 15 August - Cardio

Weight: 84.6kg

X-trainer: 30 minutes @ 150-160bpm, 5 minutes @ 130-140bpm

Notes: Good little workout this morning, alternated between using the levers and "walking" every 5 minutes, with more resistance than I usually work with. Hadn't weighed myself for about a month before today and was surprised not to be heavier as I've been eating a hell of a lot recently...oh well

I'm a bit the same with weight as I've been trying to put some on with Rugby approaching but extra cardio just makes me lean out regardless of my extra cals. The next 2 weeks I'll try and add more but I don't want to eat to the point of making myself sick or to put on bad weight.

Yeah, these last 6 weeks remind of when I used to run...I could literally eat anything, 4000+kCal a day, clean or dirty, and not put on a pound. My weight would just stubbornly stick at 70kg no matter what I did. I couldn't seem to readily lose or gain weight - very strange.

I'm just going to keep eating around maintenance - I think I'm holding a bit of water from the last few days as I've been eating even more... which makes it even more weird that I was that light!

Sunday 16 August - Chest

Notes:

Good session today, really pleased with it overall given that my chest wasn't fully fresh after Thursday's session. Although the dips were a fair bit lighter than last time I was happy with the weights after the DB presses - ditto the flyes.

I've never really been too comfortable with my form on flyes so I deliberately kept it light and the reps nice and slow. Could probably benefit from a chest session with someone who knows their way around the movement better. May be that I've got it nailed and I get a good feel in the chest but they just don't feel right somehow.

24 sets!

Movements (approx 90s rest throughout):

Incline DB press (each side) - 3-0-X:
24kg x 12 / 38kg x 10 / 40kg x 8 / 40kg x 7 / 40kg x 5 / 38kg x 7 / 24kg x 12

Chest dip - 3-0-X:
BW x 12 / +20kg x 10 / +30kg x 8 / +30kg x 7 / +30kg x 6 / +10kg x 10

Decline bench press - 3-0-X:
60kg x 12 / 80kg x 10 / 90kg x 7 / 100kg x 5 / 100kg x 5 / 60kg x 12

Incline DB flye (each side) - 5-1-X
20 x 12 / 20kg x 10 / 20kg x 10 / 20kg x 10 / 22kg x 8

PWO cardio - x-trainer:
15 minutes @ 140-150bpm

Looking good mate.

I'll happily help out when you''ve moved over.

Thanks Alex - look forward to it. I'll let you know when I've got a day off in the week as they'll probably suit me best for heading over to Raynes Park

Looking good Ollie.

When are you moving mate?

burningnun wrote:Looking good Ollie.

Thanks mate

Alex - I'm moving on the 28th

Cool.

Monday 17 August - Back

Notes:

Bit reluctant about this session this morning as I'd caned my back last Thursday, but it turned out fine...think OKG is definitely helping my recovery at the moment.

Had a 4th rep in me at 230kg on the rack pulls but decided against it (probably wisely).

Managed my first sets at 120kg on BORs with good form. Any more reps and I'd have been standing up though. Hammer chins were very hard at the back end so I just added in some pulldowns instead.

I need to start working on my grip and forearms so I'll aim to do more work without straps in future.

Movements (approx 90s rest throughout):

Rack pull - X-3-1-2:
140kg x 5 / 180kg x 5 / [straps on:] 210kg x 5 / 220kg x 5 / 220kg x 5 / 220kg x 5 / 230kg x 3

Bent over row - X-1-3:
60 x 12 / 100kg x 10 / [straps on:] 110kg x 8 / 115kg x 7 / 120kg x 6 / 120kg x 5 / 60kg x 12

Single arm T-bar row - X-1-3:
+40kg x 12 / [straps on:] +60kg x 10 / +65kg x 8 / +65kg x 8 / +65kg x 7

Hammer-grip chin - X-1-4
BW x 10 / +5kg x 8 / +5kg x 7 / +10kg x 5

Reverse grip pulldown - X-1-4
L16 x 9 / L17 x 7 / L17 x 7 / L18 x 5

PWO cardio - x-trainer:
15 minutes @ 150-155bpm

Impressive BOR..are they parallel?....I found with over 100-110 you start to have to heave that begining rep up until strength catches up with the rear delts and back?

They're not quite parallel, but pretty close. This guy off Google images is pretty close to my form I'd say:



I know what you mean about heaving the weight up as well!

thats not bad then...I do find that bring the bar up higher then mid way really canes the upper back..but you need to do lower weight i think...at least I do...

Great BORs ollie.

Do you struggle with stablilty i really have to fight past 100kg or so and it almost becomes a core exercise, amazes with that Alex, Simon etc get 140kg off the floor without falling on their faces.

Marks1972 wrote:Great BORs ollie.

Do you struggle with stablilty i really have to fight past 100kg or so and it almost becomes a core exercise, amazes with that Alex, Simon etc get 140kg off the floor without falling on their faces.

Thats cos we're shrugging the weight

You just find the bar comes up lower down the torso, so on the really heavy sets it's almost running up and down my legs. For some reason I found myself straightening my legs on some sets halfway up the movement which seemed to help although this was never deliberate.

Marks1972 wrote:Great BORs ollie.

Do you struggle with stablilty i really have to fight past 100kg or so and it almost becomes a core exercise, amazes with that Alex, Simon etc get 140kg off the floor without falling on their faces.

Yeah a little - you're definitely working the hamstrings and core to keep stable. I think now it's going to be about working up the reps and maintaining form at 120kg for a while rather than just adding more weight for the sake of it. Any more and I'd be standing up so would like to avoid that if possible.

Tuesday 19 August - Cardio & Core

X-trainer:
40 minutes @ 150-160bpm

Planks:
6 x front - 40s with 30s rests / 3 x each side - 40s with 30s rests

Notes: Not done any direct core work for God knows how long... probably a good couple of years I think. Good to mix things up a bit.