Introduction
I thought having an online training journal would help me keep progress of my workouts. Hopefully keep me motivated at the same time. This forum seems to have a lot of strong and knowledgeable gym goers, so I hope to learn from reading others' training logs as well as any advice/comments on my own.

A quick bit on me. I'm 21, been weight training on and off for about 3 years, but have gotten really into it the last year. I'm hoping to join the Royal Marines as an officer next year when I finish uni, so keeping/improving on fitness and muscular endurance is most important. Goal is to get between 85-90kgs with super strength!

Current stats:
Bench Press 120kgs
Squat 140kgs
Deadlift 170kgs
Bodyweight 79kgs

Outline of training program
Over the last year I've been using Defranco's Westside 4 Skinny Bastards template and have made good progress with it. Will be following the ME days, but changing repetition/dynamic effort day into an overhead press and clean day with pull-ups and dips as accessory exercises. Apart from strength training I do circuit training/crossfit and running twice a week, but this won't be included in this journal.

Endex

Welcome to the forum.

Those are some credible figures you got going already.

One thing - what is your diet like?

KP

29-09-08 ME Upperbody

Incline bench press
60 x 10, 80 x 5, 90 x 5, 95 x 3 + 1 [PB]

Incline dumbbell press
30 x 10, 34 x 7, 30 x 8

Barbell rows
60 x 10, 80 x 5, 90 x 5, 100 x 3 (80 x 6, 60 x 8)

Lying triceps extensions
30 x 10, 30 x 9, 30 x 8

Preacher curls
30 x 10, 40 x 6, 40 x 6

Comments
During warming up for the first exercise I was not psyched up at all for this workout, generally feeling very tired because of minimal sleep over the weekend due to work and women! However the session went pretty well, personal best on incline bench press set the tone for the rest of the workout!

kp1512 wrote:One thing - what is your diet like?

KP

Hey, thanks for the warm welcome.

Diet isn't amazing, its something I've tried to address for a very long time. I get about 6 meals in a day, 3 of which are good meals. Being at uni and being out and about with mates means its not rare to indulge in pizza and other fast foods on a regular basis. At the moment just supplementing with weight gain, decided not to bother with creatine until I can follow a proper diet!

You're already pushing some good weight there especially for your body weight.

Target weight isn't far off what mine is at the moment so gives you some reference as to what can be achieved.

02-10-08 ME Lowerbody

Squats
60 x 10, 80 x 5, 100 x 5, 110 x 5, 120 x 5 (belt on)

Bulgarian split squats
15 x 10, 20 x 10

SLDL
60 x 10, 100 x 8, 120 x 6

Standing calf raises
3 sets of 10

Comments
Made a conscious effort to go a little deeper than parallel with the squats as I felt I haven't been going deep enough lately. Was suprised that the last set felt easier than usual, despite going deeper and having an extra "warm up" set with 110kgs.

Nice to see that women are your downfall. Keep this up and you'll fit in just fine.

good luck, you are already strong :]

Nice avatar, the walk into Port Stanley iirc

Welcome mate, good to see any person training with strength in mind and not just dreaming of parading around in little pants with highlighted hair... probably somewhere north of Cumbria

Your bench looks very close to your squat, have you not been doing lower work as long?

Welcome mate. Some good stats already. As Mark said, maybe a little imbalanced, but I have the same problem in some parts of my routine.

Good luck with the training, and I think you'll find this place inspirational

Welcome to the board and as been mentioned before impressive stats for your BW.

Welcome mate - as said your lifts are already respectable, bench your obvious strong point

I'm sure you'll do well here, plenty to take off these forums.

Cheers guys. Yeah squats aren't great but I'm working on it! I can hit 140 for a double, so may be able to push for 150ish single.

03-10-08 Overheard press/clean + accessory exercises

Standing military press
65 x 5, 65 x 5, 65 x 4

Dumbbell shoulder press
25 x 10, 27.5 x 9, 30 x 7

YTWs
8 x 9/8/6, 8 x 9/7/6

Weighted pull-ups
0 x 5, 0 x 5, 20 x 5, 20 x 5, 20 x 4

Comments
No power cleans today because I did legs yesterday, glutes are tight! Would normally do them after military press for 3 sets of 5. Also would have done weighted dips at the end but I was short on time to get home, shower and go to a lecture.

Hi Steve and Welcome. Some great weights there at 21. I reckon you can probably squat a hell of a lot more than that if you commited to improve there. I like your standing military presses too, I've always considered that an important lift.

Seems you are quite level headed with a good logic about achieving your goals. Good attitude too and realistic about where your training is going and how it fits in with the rest of your life.

Good luck Mate

Everything look spretty nice here, I must say. Of course there are some minor points (squatting/benching imbalance for one) but generally everything looks good.
You also seem to have somewhat similar goals to me - at least we go about business in a similar way.
Not sure I know what YTWs are.
Feel free to stop by my journal, for inspiration/motivation.

YTWs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12i9VmaIpx0

06-10-08 ME Upperbody

Bench press
60 x 10, 80 x 5, 90 x 5, 100 x 5, 105 x 4

Incline dumbbell press
30 x 10, 35 x 6, 35 x 4 (double dropset, 25 x 3, 15 x 3)

Incline reverse grip bench press
50 x 9, 60 x 7, 60 x 6

Cable pressdowns
30 x 10, 30 x 6

Barbell rows
60 x 10, 80 x 8, 100 x 6 [straps on](double dropset, 80 x 5, 60 x 5), 80 x 9

Cable rows (pump set)
1 set x 10

Straight bar curls
35 x 10, 40 x 7, 40 x 6

Comments
First time trying reverse grip press on incline, liked the increase range of motion. Generally pleased with workout, spent a bit longer in the gym than I intended to, lots of wasted time chatting inbetween my lifts and spotting my mate etc.

Bench is very stong! good luck with the training.. your squat should go up nice with some good work on it.

08-10-08 ME Lowerbody

Squats
60 x 10, 80 x 5, 100 x 5, 120 x 5, 130 x 3 (belt on)

SLDL
60 x 10, 100 x 8, 120 x 6

Standing calf raises
3 sets of 10

Abdominal circuit
2 sets of 4 exercises

Good squats - just be be cruel to you, why not add in a couple of high volume leg presses straight after?

simon m wrote:Good squats - just be be cruel to you, why not add in a couple of high volume leg presses straight after?

Use to always follow up squats with the leg press, but over next few weeks I'm training at a shit gym with those "commercial" leg presses, so plan to follow up squats with a unilateral exercise like reverse lunges or single leg squats, but didn't have time last leg workout.

10-10-08 Overheard press/clean + accessory exercises

Standing military press
70 x 5, 65 x 4, 65 x 3

Dumbbell shoulder press
25 x 10, 30 x 8 PB, 30 x 6+1

Dumbbell lateral raises
12 x 10, 14 x 10, 16 x 7 (drop set to 12 x 4, 8 x 4)

Pull-ups
0 x 8, 8, 8, 6

Weighted dips
0 x 10, 15 x 10, 15 x 10, 15 x 10

Shrugs
32.5 x 10, 37.5 x 10, 47.5 x 8 (straps on)

Comments
Felt pretty poor on the pull-ups this week, and okay on the dips, complete reversal from last week. On the bright side had a really strong set on dumbbell shoulder press without any forced reps for a PB. Just started back on creatine 3 days ago. Everything is sweet!

What made me laugh as well, start of my workout one of the bigger guys down there benching 140kgs with half reps and the spotter doing all the work! Why!?

Good one on the PB mate

What you witnessed in the gym mate was a 2-man Bench and Deadlift

Looks good Steve, some good lifts & well structured training.

13-10-08 ME Upperbody

Incline bench press
60 x 10, 70 x 5, 80 x 5, 90 x 5, 95 x 3

Incline dumbbell press
30 x 10, 35 x 8, 37.5 x 5+1 PB

Close-grip bench press (2 fingers inside smooth part of bar)
60 x 10, 80 x 4+2, 80 x 4+2, 80 x 4+2

Cable pressdowns
30 x 15, 30 x 9

Barbell rows
60 x 10, 80 x 8, 110 x 4 [straps & belt on](double dropset, 80 x 5, 60 x 5), 80 x 10

Seated dumbbell power cleans
10 x 9, 10 x 9, 10 x 8, 10 x 7

Hammer curls
14 x 10, 18 x 10

Preacher curls
30 x 10, 35 x 6

Comments
Straight out of bed and into a gym fueled by Boot's £2.99 meal deal! Chicken & bacon sandwich, energy bar and a can of Relentless! Happy with workout, first time hitting 37.5kgs on incline db press. Went a bit over the top with barbell rows, should have stayed at 100 and get better/more reps.