Well after a few people suggested a journal is a good idea at tracking progress closely and a way of motivating yourself, iv decided to get one started. It may not be updated daily though, but il try my best!

current stats

age 19
height 5'10
weight 70ish kg's

Obviously my aim is to gain as much qualikty weight as possible. In terms of diet, i eat very clean, sometimes perhaps too clean for my aims, although just recently i seem to be gaining nicely, so its all going well.
Starting from tomorrow il start to post my training and diet as closely as i can, and hopefully look back in a few months and see some change. Obviously with time, some pics will be posted, although il leave that for a little while!
Any help/ideas/general chat etc all welcome

Cheers Rob

Awesome, great to have you on the forum Rob and I look forward to reading your journal.

Good luck matey, how are you planning to train? Following a popular program or going to do your own split?

OOH! Another stranger appears from nowhere

Hello .

good luck looking forward to some quality workrkouts and nutrition

Good one you mate,cant wait to see the journal!

Resurrected wrote:OOH! Another stranger appears from nowhere

Hello .

Haha i wont be a stranger for long

I have been training four days per week, ideally 2 on 1 off then 2 on 2 off ...
but with university and other commitments sometimes it doesnt quite work out this way!
Iv been doing a bit of reading though, and spoke to a couple of people and im starting to come around to the idea of a 3 day split, something like push, pull, legs..
Not quite sure how im going to go about it yet to be honest, still trying to have a look around for something which best suits me!

Excellent attitude to take!

You'll find some on here (Simon springs to mind) but personally I get great results from push/pull/legs and no matter what anyone says I'd give it a try and see if it works for you.

When short on time or like myself work ridiculous shifts a p/p/l routine can be flexible and also gives you good recovery time.

Have a look at Galt's journal for a good example of push, pull, legs

What kind of training styles have you been doing up till now?

Iv basically followed a 4 day split- chest, bi's/ shoulders, tri's/ back/ legs
not necessarily in that order as the times and days i could train have been everchanging with college n now uni.
recently though iv kinda put compound movements as my priority and tried to cut down the volume, without sacrificing the workout!

yesterday for example i trained with "paramaniac" (not sure why hes not popped in yet lol) and did deadlifts, bbrows and chins for back, that was all. Usually i would be doing 5, maybe 6 exercises for back involving a number of cables etc, and to be honest i wasnt benefitting from it. The lower volume i feel suits me!

Good stuff Rob!

I've been training with Rob over the past few weeks and he has the potential to be as good as he wants to be.

For 19yrs,he has an excellent attitude and outlook and displays maturity and real dedication - very refreshing!

I look forward to this journal Rob and will be more than happy to assist your quest whenever i can.

Best of luck.

Robisco wrote:Iv basically followed a 4 day split- chest, bi's/ shoulders, tri's/ back/ legs
not necessarily in that order as the times and days i could train have been everchanging with college n now uni.
recently though iv kinda put compound movements as my priority and tried to cut down the volume, without sacrificing the workout!

yesterday for example i trained with "paramaniac" (not sure why hes not popped in yet lol) and did deadlifts, bbrows and chins for back, that was all. Usually i would be doing 5, maybe 6 exercises for back involving a number of cables etc, and to be honest i wasnt benefitting from it. The lower volume i feel suits me!

Ooohh,just beat me to it

Welcome!

One bit of advice i'll offer wrt diet is don't listen to people who say something like- 'just eat a shit loada cals bla bla' etc. If you need more calories clean carbs in moderation and fat is where it's at...obviously protein goes without saying.

Good attitude, you can never go wrong with heavy compounds to start.

Hiya Robisco... good luck with everything, looking forward to your posts

haha a few seconds late there!

Thanks for the comments as well, to be honest iv leanrt quite a bit these past few weeks, im glad as well, its got me away from the fancy "train twice a day 6 days a week for 2 hours a time and add 20 lbs of muscle" rubbish that you cant get roped into from magazines lol
Hopefully il have a solid year,and make some good gains!

Karlos wrote:Welcome!

One bit of advice i'll offer wrt diet is don't listen to people who say something like- 'just eat a shit loada cals bla bla' etc. If you need more calories clean carbs in moderation and fat is where it's at...obviously protein goes without saying.

Good attitude, you can never go wrong with heavy compounds to start.

Yeh thats true.
I feel iv got my diet pretty much bang on now with help from para as iv said and Paul George at the gym,both have been a real help! Gaining nice and steady now after months and months of plateuing!!

PPL!

Don't get me started!

Great to see you here mate.

If you can afford it, eat rib eye steak and beef stews. You will grow and be very strong on such a diet.

steak...sounds good right about now!

did a little chest and tri's today.Probably the last time il do this kind of workout for a while, as i switch to a 3 day routine! Cant remeber specific weights, but i can remember (i think) the amount of sets!

chest

incline DB press- 4 sets- increasing weight each time- 6-10 reps

flat bench (smith machine) 3 sets- again increasing weight
supersetted with
incline DB flyes

dips- 12xbw
10x bw+10kgs
8xbw+ 20kgs
finished with an immediate set of 8x BW

Triceps i kept to nine sets of overhead extensions, cable pressdowns and CG bench!

done and dusted as they say

Welcome to ESN, you've got a good start training with para, what body type are you mate?

Craig wrote:Welcome to ESN, you've got a good start training with para, what body type are you mate?

Hey thanks,
i find it hard to gain weight, or gain weight consistantly anyway!
i wouldnt really say im an ecto, as i dont really like saying that. Sometimes people just blurt it out as an excuse as to why they cant gain weight imo and recently iv found i do have the ability to gain some good weight with the right diet.

I am very lean and dont tend to hold too much 'excess' weight, so it is an effort to stop the pounds dropping off
at the minute iv found a happy ground of gaining at a nice rate that allows my lifts to increase, but not enough to make me feel 'heavy' (if that makes sense)~!

if you train with Par at Olympic gym the you have so much class around you with Paul and the seminars that take place you can really rise to thetop

SCOTT GALTON wrote:if you train with Par at Olympic gym the you have so much class around you with Paul and the seminars that take place you can really rise to thetop

yeh your dead right there!
the amount of knowledge and experience thats avaliable is top notch.
Fingers crossed i can use it all and take it all on board. A year of learning ahead!

[Welcome mate]