My Seventh Workout

Last night I did my mid week workout although it wasn’t my normal routine. I was still quite achy after Monday’s session, particularly my legs and chest. I did hit PB’s on these lifts on Monday so that could have explained it, but anyway I didn’t really feel that I’d had enough recovery time since then. I thought I’d give it a go anyway in case I was just being a pussy so I started with squats as usual, loaded 55kg but only managed to hit 8 reps and I could tell I wouldn’t be able to go heavier. The next set I just dropped the weight down to 45kg and hit 15 reps and I decided that would have to do as I didn’t have the energy for more.

As I didn’t really feel I was going to be able to do my usual sets and I was already at the gym, I decided to do a few different exercises so that I still did something rather than nothing. I did 3 sets of bodyweight dips as normal but then I followed them with some incline bench fly’s. I also did 3 sets of chins, and managed to do a personal best of 5 reps at bodyweight! I chucked in a couple of sets of lat pull downs and cable crossovers for variation. Then I did some tricep extensions and some abs exercises too.

I’ll go back to my usual workout program for my third session this week (either Friday or Saturday, haven’t decided when yet) but just thought I’d mix it up a bit since I wasn’t going to be able to do my normal exercises with the intensity that I wanted. I figured it would be better to hit some alternative muscles/target them in a different way, than do nothing at all!

That’s all for now, I’ll update again after the weekend and my final workout this week.

Re-Posted Pics from 14.11.07

Ok, these are the same pics that I posted before, taken on the 14.11.07 but they are a bit lighter now so hopefully a bit clearer. As before the first pics are relaxed and the second pics tensed.

My Sixth Workout

Right, I’ll get the bad bit out of the way! My weekend was a weight loss write off! Booze, junk food, no gym, the lot!! Not impressed with myself! Anyway, back on track again now. Think over December I’m just going to have to be stick to the diet and gym as much as possible but not expect too much since I know I’ll be drinking and eating more cheat food than I should be. You can’t have everything can you?!

My new plan will be to completely cut out alcohol and rubbish food for January and then if I get rid of enough fat I’ll start a bulk. If not I’ll carry on with the diet until I’m happy with my fat loss.

Anyway, onto last nights work out. I thought it went alright, and I’m definitely aching a bit today. I don’t think my weekend of unhealthy ness helped in the gym to be fair! However, once again I managed to hit a couple of personal bests on my lifts. I hit the 60kg mark on my squat (8 reps). Added a rep to my chest press, and a couple of extra reps to my bodyweight dips.

I’m still struggling with deadlifts, I think it’s mainly my lower back and grip that’s letting me down so I’ve not seen any progress with these exercises yet. Row’s and chins seem to have stayed the same over the last couple of workouts too but I’ll keep trying to add to these lifts.

My Fifth Workout - Quick Review

This will just be a short post as a quick review of my workout last night. Fairly pleased as although I didn't add weight to any of my lifts yesterday I did managed to increase reps for all exercises other than Bench Press and Chins.
My diet so far this week has been good again (other than Monday night where I left myself down a bit and had a Chinese!). I've got my final workout this week on Saturday so I'm hoping to either up weights or increase reps yet again and I’ll write that up on Monday. I’ll also try and get some better quality pics put up since the ones I have posted are a bit dark!

Measurements & Pics

Measurements as of 14.11.07

Chest: Relaxed 36'', Tensed 38''

Left Arm: Relaxed 11.5'', Tensed 13.5''

Right Arm: Relaxed 12'', Tensed 13.5''

Waist: 32''
Neck: 15''

Pictures

Ok, not very good quality pics I'm afraid, they have come out a bit dark on screen but I will re do these when I next get a chance this week. These have been taken after 4 workouts on the new diet plan.

Front Relaxed

Front Tensed

Back Relaxed

Back Tensed

Side Relaxed

Side Tensed

The Forth Workout & Update of Last Week

I had my fourth workout last night (Tuesday) and it went pretty well. I managed to push out my final two sets of dips at bodyweight for 10 reps which was a personal best plus I did a PB on bench press with 8 reps at 24kg’s per dumbbell.
For squats I was a little more careful about chucking weight on the bar after Wednesday’s incident and pushed out in the final set 9 x 55kg which was also a PB.
I left a slightly longer gap between squats and dead’s by putting DB Chest Press in-between which seemed to help out with the lower back pain I got on Wednesday. I still kept the weight fairly light though to be on the safe side.
Saturday’s work out from last week, which I haven’t written up was also pretty good. Hit a couple of PB’s and also did a couple of sets of EZ bar curls at the end.

I have noticed from the first few workouts that the order that I do the exercises in makes quite a bit of difference to my lifts but I think I have now got the best order sorted out and I'm pretty happy with my workout.


My first week of the diet plan was pretty much been spot on food wise. I managed to hit my protein target of 145g per day (except for Sunday) and have regulated Carbs and Fats well. I did however have a bit more alcohol than normal as I had a couple of things on at the weekend which won’t have helped! I also had a very late night out on Saturday which again wasn’t so good. Sunday I ended up eating some rubbish as I was out all day and couldn’t choose my own food!
Just as a note, whenever possible I’ll be trying not to drink however this is not going to be that easy with Christmas coming up! I'll have to accept that I'm going to be slowing down my progress by doing this.
I also went food shopping and stocked up in bulk to help save some money. Plus it's much easier to prepear in advance if I know what I've got.

This week I’m going to do my workouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as the footy is on Wednesday, come on England!

My Second Workout

Well my second weights session on the new diet was a bit of a mixed bag! I started off with squats and deadlifts to get them out of the way as I’m not a fan of deadlifts. Then the trouble started!
Just as a background my last session for squats lifts were:
13 x 30kg
12 x 40kg
10 x 50kg

So last night I thought I’d increase the weight and I started off with 13 x 40kg which was fine. Then for some reason I added another 15kg which took me to 55kg plus 20kg for the bar. At this point bear in mind that I only weigh 65kg so I’m squatting a total of 75kg which is 10kg more than my bodyweight.

The first two reps were ok, then on the third as I started to come back up I lost my balance and the bar tilted to the left at which point I stupidly let go off the bar!!! Luckily I quickly came to my senses and grabbed back hold of the bar and straightened up, but I was very close to having a nasty accident!
I then managed to compose myself and push out another few reps which took me to a total of 8 x 55kg; my best lift so far (although not without incident!) Note to self, do smaller weight increases with squats!

The other rubbish element to my workout last night was that I had to leave Deadlifts out as I did one set and my lower back started hurting and I didn’t want to risk damaging it. I think I’ll need to drop the weight right down for deadlifts until my lower back has some more strength.

Next I decided to do dips and chins as on Monday I found them pretty hard after doing bench press. This definitely helped. As I managed to do 10 reps at near bodyweight on dips and 8 reps on chins and my arms were pumped after that.

Then I moved onto dumbbell bench press and discovered that although my dips and chins had just improved my bench was just about to get worse! My arms after doing close gripped chins where f**ked!!! All I could manage was 20kg for 10, 9 and 8 reps! I’m thinking I might just try sticking to my normal order on Monday and Saturday, and then as I did this Wednesday, mix it up for variety, plus my chest and arms felt like they got a good blast with this variation.

The First Workout

As I have mention previously, I have already been working out for about 2 months using a slightly different full body workout. Last night was my first attempt at my new workout in conjunction with the new diet plan.
I thought it went ok but as I am trying to keep my workout time to an hour I’m not doing any specific lifts for arms, purely hitting these through compound movements.
I think on workouts one and two (which I will be doing after work during the week) I shall stick with normal my compound routine as I’ll be a bit short of time. Then on a Saturday when I can spend a bit more time at the gym, I’ll add in a few sets of EZ bar curls and some overhead tricep extensions at the end of my session.

I have listed below the details of my first workout. Note that some of the exercises are listed with a * instead of kg. This is because I am using machines which have a numbered weight system rather than kg which is a bit annoying! Dips and Chins are decreasing in *number as at the moment I am using some weight to counter balance my body weight because I would not be able to do enough reps otherwise (10* = Easier, 0* = My full bodyweight). I am hoping to just be using my own body weight with no weighted assistance soon.

Monday 12th November

Squats: 13 x 30kg, 12 x 40kg, 10 x 50kg
DB Chest Press: 13 x 20kg, 10 x 22kg, 9 x 22kg
Deadlifts: 12 x 20kg, 8 x 30kg, 8 x 30kg
Dips: 12 x 10*, 10 x 9*, 8 x 8*
Chins: 14 x 10*, 9 x 9*, 7 x 8*
Seated Rows: 12 x 11*, 8 x 12*

I am new to Deadlifts so the weight this week will probably be quite low whilst I get to grip with the technique.

The First Week

Ok, so this is going to be my first week on Neil McTeggart's diet plan. I think it's going to take some getting used to and I don't think I'll be able to get it spot on to start with but I'm going to try my best!
The first thing I think I'll need to do is get up a little earlier so that I can have some brekkie before I go to work otherwise I can't see that I 'll be able to fit in the amount of protein that I need. I used to have breakfast between 9 and 9:30 which is a good couple of hours after getting up which is wasted fuel time! I am going to be aiming for 140 grams of protein per day (approximately a gram of protein per pound bodyweight). I will be trying to split this over six meals which is about 24 grams of protein per meal.
Second thing which will be a bit odd to start with is controlling my carb intake and trying to find enough variation in foods so I don't keep eating the same thing every day. I'll have to check out some recipes!

I shall post some before pics and take measurements hopefully this week so I can monitor fat loss/gains.

My First Post!

Next week will see me start with my new programme which I am hoping I can stick to and achieve the results that I would like to see! I intend to workout at my local gym which is David Lloyd, and I have been a member there for a while now. The one that I go to is actually pretty decent so I shall be continuing there.

As I mentioned in my in profile I shall be using a full body workout, three days per week for the time being. I shall stick with this until I feel the need to update my workout to improve gains. I am going to be using compound lifts initially as I have had some results from doing this in the past (although I haven't stuck to these previous attempts!) I currently weigh around 65kg's/10.5 stone (depending on the scales!) and I'm 5'6''.

This is my new full body workout:

Squats
Dumbell Bench Press
Deadlifts
Seated Rows
Dips
Close Grip Chin Ups
Weighted Ab Crunches

I will be performing three sets per exercise with a rest of approximately sixty seconds in-between each set. My warm up will be five minutes of jogging and then before each exercise, ten reps with a light to medium weight. I am aiming to go heavier with each lift so will normally aim for the first set to be twelve reps, second set to be ten reps, third set to be eight reps. This is not fixed so I will play around with this trying to increase weight and add extra reps each session.

Right, that's enough for now, I'm off to buy some food for next week!