From Dud to Stud: The Journey To Glory

I’ve always been a fat guy. I just am. I wrestled in highschool as a heavyweight and in a year I want to wrestle in college. I got a neck injury wrestling which completely prevented me from training and I got really fat. SUPER FAT.

The kind of fat that would make you laugh. I want to change that. I want to be a heavyweight wrestler in college, but I don’t want to be a disgusting fat ass. I want to be like Tony Nelson and work my way to Brock Lesnar sizes. Scratch that - I will be like Brock Lesnar one day.

Current:
6’2"
293 lbs
50% body fat (I have no idea if this is correct…I don’t think so though)
405 Deadlift
330 Bench Press
190 OHP
335 squat

1 Year Goals:
215 lbs
12% body fat
500 deadlift
375 bench Press
450 Squat
245 OHP

It’s July 21st 2012 and I want this by July 21st 2013!

Work Out:
Day 1) Chest
Bench Press 4x10-8-6-4 (Do a single every 2 weeks)
Dipsx50reps

Day 2) Hamstrings, Low Back, Abs
Deadlift 40 reps (Do a single every 2 weeks)
Weighted Ab Choice

Day 3) Upper Back
Shrugs 6x6-10
T-Bar/Barbell Rows 6x6-10
Wide Grip Pull Ups 30 reps

Day 4) Shoulders
Barbell OHP 3x10
Lateral Raises 3x10-15
Reverse Laterals 3x10-30

Day 5) Quads
Squats 40 reps (do a single every 2 weeks)

+Biceps/Triceps (Do 6 sets of biceps or triceps once a week with any work out)
+Wrestling (Have to practice!)

Day 1) Chest

Warm Up:
1 minute Jump Rope
Warm up the inner external rotators of the shoulder
Bench Press: 125x10 145x10 175x5

Bench Press
Wt:200 225 250 275
Rp:10 8 4 3

Dips
Wt: BW
Rp: 5x8

Wide Grip Pull Ups
Wt: BW
Rp: 6x2

Day 2) Hammies/Low Back & Core

Warm Up:
1 minute jump rope
stretch
Dead lift 135x10, 225 2x5, 275x1

Dead lifts
Wt: 315x9/7/6/4/3=30 reps

I wanted to do 40 reps, but I was so dog tired I could barely even stand. Deadlift day is a humbling day where you find out just how truly fat/weak you are. Truly ashamed of how out of shape I’ve gotten. Even if I’m not 50% body fat I’m still obese and weak.

Core (because I was so tired I had to split this up from the main work out)
Front plank 2x30s
Right/Left Plank 2 each sidex30s
50 crunches

So because of my disbelief over the whole 50% thing (I can still run an 8:30 mile at 292 and very out of shape/do BW pull ups/BW Dips) I retested it and It came out at 64%. No-Fucking-Way. I retested over and over (about 6 times total) and after entering the same stats over and over It turns out I’m as fat as 67% and as skinny as 14.2%. So I am relieved to know that I’m not 5 seconds away from a heart attack, however, just looking in the mirror I can tell that I’m a walking ball of adipose tissue. Anyways - I’m going to buy a body fat tester that works because the scale I’m using is broken.

Also, I’m not going to do any singles until the 5th week so I can get back into the everyday grind of working out.

You’re a bit tough on yourself, ain’t ya?!

You seem very motiviated by the sounds of things, good job!

I’ve been trying to force myself to intervally jog on my way home from the gym instead of just doddling my ass home walkin’. It is very humbling to have to realize how outta shape I let myself get ona daily basis, but whateveskies.

Though I really can’t tell if I am slow because my legs are tired from squatting or I am slow just cause I’m slow, ha.

[quote]Spock81 wrote:
You’re a bit tough on yourself, ain’t ya?!

You seem very motiviated by the sounds of things, good job!

I’ve been trying to force myself to intervally jog on my way home from the gym instead of just doddling my ass home walkin’. It is very humbling to have to realize how outta shape I let myself get ona daily basis, but whateveskies.

Though I really can’t tell if I am slow because my legs are tired from squatting or I am slow just cause I’m slow, ha. [/quote]

I appreciate you stopping by. Always nice to have support, Spock :).

@ “You’re a bit tough on yourself” - History doesn’t remember second place. If I want to do well in colliegate wrestling I have to be stronger and better conditioned than everyone because of my lack of skill. I only wrestled 2 years because of my injuries).

@ Your jogging situation - I imagine it’s because of the squats hahaha. When I jog, which is never, after I squat my time goes from maybe 10 minute miles to 15 minutes because of my legs xD. I hate running so I do other things for cardio such as: Ladders, Sprints, Plyometrics, Intervals…etc.

If you don’t mind me asking - How’d the gym boy situation go?

Day 3) Biceps & Triceps

I almost never do an arm day due to it being incredibly trite, however, with my schedule this week I needed a day off and nothing says “Relaxing” like doing bro-ceps.

Won’t bother with listing the warm ups.

Straight Bar Curls
85 3x8
Supination curls
35x10

Skull Crushers (I want to be able to do 135 for 3x8 <–GOAL! This is quite possibly my favorite tri exercise)
115x8
115x7
115x3/1/2
115x3 (I did all the extra because I wanted to match the reps with biceps)
Tricep Push Downs
100x10
80 2x10 (I lowered the weight because I couldn’t get a good contraction with 100s after the skull crushers)

This work out reminded me how much I truly hate working biceps. There’s nothing bromidic or comforting about a biceps/triceps day to me. Working the bro-ceps actually destroys my enthusiasm for lifting because of all the times I walk into a gym and see everyone doing bench press and bicep curls. It makes me feel less of a lifter (not that I’m a good lifter to start). Love triceps though. I think I overdid the arms because 12 sets is quite a bit of work on top of benching, OHPing, and a myriad of pulling exercises. When my schedule abates I think I will just do a few sets on top of a work out.

hey i posted a big ole comment here the other day, but it didn’t make it through due to my shitty internet. haha. anyways looks good man, what is your primary goal? weight loss or strength gain? in my experience its hard to do both at the same time.

First and foremost my goal is conditioning. Deadlifts don’t win wrestling matches. If you look at what makes people successful it’s just a matter of who sticks it out the longest. People go to work from 9-5 and go home because they’re tired. Who get’s the promotion? People who go from 9-9. That’s what wrestling is. Sticking it out longer than the other guy is willing to.

Second is strength. The lack of skill I posses has to be made up with strength otherwise I won’t last.

Third is body composition. I don’t care if I have abs as much as I do not dying on the mat. However, I do want to be skinnier just because of vanity reasons. Nobody likes to be a giant wad of adipose tissue.

Thanks for the support, Zenon :).

^ Other thread, haha.

Nice lifting man. By the way even the body fat testers you can buy are often waaay off, best to just go by the mirror (and take pictures, even if you don’t want to post them, just so you can more objectively look at progress over time).

What’s your diet like? I see no real mention of it, which makes me think you might not put that much importance on it (could be wrong), and it’s going to make by far the biggest difference as far as body composition changes.

I apologize for the tension. I should have you know that I meant no harm by it and I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in there. That’s all it was - 2 pennies that really mean nothing, but 2 pennies that I earned over a short life time.

My diet is boring which is why I don’t really post it. I fast twice a week anywhere from 24-36 hours and on days I eat I try and keep it as ketogenic as I can (1+gop, most of my calories from fat, 30-50goc). I really only eat: beef, nuts, chicken, fish, olive oil, lettuce, olives, milk and a copious amount of other sundry bull shit.

[quote]MaximusE wrote:
I apologize for the tension. I should have you know that I meant no harm by it and I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in there. That’s all it was - 2 pennies that really mean nothing, but 2 pennies that I earned over a short life time.

My diet is boring which is why I don’t really post it. I fast twice a week anywhere from 24-36 hours and on days I eat I try and keep it as ketogenic as I can (1+gop, most of my calories from fat, 30-50goc). I really only eat: beef, nuts, chicken, fish, olive oil, lettuce, olives, milk and a copious amount of other sundry bull shit.[/quote]

Sounds pretty solid. Looking forward to lots of progress

Day 4) Upper Back

Warm Ups:
Shrugs 135 1x30, 225 2x15
Stretch

Shrugs:
275 2x10 (no straps)
315 1x10
365 2x10
405 1x8

T-Bar rows:
225x10
250x10
275x8
300x6
275x7
250x8

Wide Grip Pull Ups:
BW 10x3

*Notes - Looking forward to the day when I can do WGPU for 3x10 instead of 10x3. It’s so time consuming that I did super-sets with the other exercises. I love upper back day. It’s my favorite day of the week. I am probably going to drop the weight a little bit on T-Bar rows just because I wasn’t really doing an awesome job with the form. I want those big ol’ Bane traps. Mostly because the more muscle I have on my neck/traps the more padding I’ll have on it for wrestling. I suffered a pretty back neck injury so I’m trying to put as much mass back there as possible.

These songs pump me the fuck up. I was ready to murder some one by the time the work out ended.

In

Thanks for the support, Plain :slight_smile:

BANE TRAPS!! EEE, I noticed those too! I want bane traps…

I want Alfred’s compassion.
Cat woman’s sex appeal.
Batman’s intimidation-ness.
Gordon’s work ethic.
And fox’s intelligence.

I’d like to chime in with some advice if you’ll hear it, but I got a lot of questions.

What sort of conditioning workouts are you doing on top of the weight room stuff you posted?
Are you getting on the mat at all right now? Do you have a club or team to practice with over the winter? (if you’re still in school I guess this one’s kind of moot)

Maybe I’ll get around to some of the other stuff later. And I still can’t remember what the hell I was going to say from the other thread . . .

I’ll also give props to Bane’s traps. That guy did a really good job of bulking up for that role, in my opinion haha.

Day 5) Shoulders

Warm Ups:
Ran with my dog
External rotations for the rotator cuff 5lbsx80reps(40 ea arm)

Barbell OHP:
135x10
135x9
135x4/2

Lateral Raises:
35x12
40x12
45x10
25x13 (Super-Strict)

Reverse Laterals:
15x3x20 (SUPER strict. Hold at the top and everything)

*Notes - Disappointed that I couldn’t even get a 135x3x10 for my OHP, but we all have to start somewhere I guess. The OHP started out strong and I didn’t even really feel it after my 1st 10 reps, but after the first set came a decline. Probably just because I’m not conditioned to lift right now (I haven’t worked out in FOREVER). My lateral raises were all pretty strict, however, I didn’t hold the movement at the top so I dropped the weight at the end of the 3 sets and did one with a couple second hold at the top. I didn’t swing or do anything worth of it to be considered “cheating”. This work out today confirmed my belief that having a full blown arm work out with 6 sets of triceps is way to much. My triceps were so sore the OHP was that much harder. I’m probably just going to tag skull crushers along with either my chest or shoulder day to prevent a take away from training.

All in all it was a fun day.

@ Spock - Looks like you have your work cut out for you haha. I don’t think you will be as intimidating as batman. You’re just way too nice and you don’t have a malignant throat tumor xD. I love Alfred. Alan Shearman(?) is a great actor.

@ Jonty - I always take advice. The absolute worse handicap a human being can ever acquire is to be narrow minded. If anyone more experienced than myself offers to take time out of their day to give me advice - the generosity would be well received.

*Conditioning workouts - I was finishing up summer school this week so I didn’t have a lot of time to do anything other than getting a lift in. Starting Saturday (the day after summer school ends) I’ll be doing the classic wrestling conditioning which consists of: Sprints, running, ladders, intervals, and of course wrestling for extended periods of time. I plan on working up slowly. I’m not a huge believer in “over-training”, however, I remember the first year I joined the team. I did no cardio and just weight lifted and the second I got on the mat BAM for the first month I dreaded every day because I thought I was going to have a heart attack every time I got up there. Every day I got beat up by the seniors and ran/sprinted until I couldn’t breath by the coaches orders. Sure enough I got better and when I left the season I could run a 7:10 mile @ 236 lbs (I wasn’t always a fat ass xD). Best shape ever. BUT IT WAS FUCKING MISERABLE! So I want to slowly work my way up to that kind of shape instead of diving right in because it’s hard to push yourself with out friends playing around with yuh (“c’mon heavy weight! Don’t be a pussy!” hahaha)

*Am I getting on the mat - No, I don’t have a mat. I train in the back yard on soft dirt with knee pads and elbow pads. I do practice regularly, though. I plan on going to other schools for open mats though.

*The Season - I moved states and was put in a private school for snobs. It’s a great education opportunity, but the downside is that it’s incredibly small and it has no sports. So, I’m signing up for club for the greco/free-style season this year. I also plan on going to open tournaments.

[quote]MaximusE wrote:

I love Alfred. Alan Shearman(?) is a great actor.

[/quote]

Michael Caine!

Also, that’s a solid OHP you’ve got there.

[quote]Gmoore17 wrote:

[quote]MaximusE wrote:

I love Alfred. Alan Shearman(?) is a great actor.

[/quote]

Michael Caine!

Also, that’s a solid OHP you’ve got there.[/quote]

DAMN! I google searched it real quick and I think I picked the wrong name. Michael Caine is a great actor (haha - sorry).

I appreciate the pick-me-up, but for a 290 lbs man I think I should be doing more than that. It’d be awesome to do 185x3x10 :smiley: - that’s the goal. I’d love to slap a wheel and a quarter on the bar and just go nuts with it.

Day 6) Quads

So I was over in the barn stacking hay bales so I could rest the stacked barbell on them for squats. I did 135 for warm ups and I was going for 225 next and I was going into the tack room to grab 2 more 50s (I have one of those shit thin 20lbs bars and my weights go from 2.5s-50s) and throw it on and I did. I was going to go get the clips and the hay bales fell over and when I turned around to see if maybe one of the horses kicked the stall doors or something I realized that the barbell smashed into the ground bending it. My barbell is completely ruined.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----

So now I have to make some choices. Here are my options:

  1. Buy another shit 20lbs barbell - I have another barbell in my tack room, but it’s only one of those 10 lbs ones and if the 20lbs one bent after anything heavier than 300 lbs (there is a HUGE curve in it from back when I could lift a damn). So, I can only assume that if my 20lbs barbell bent at 300 the 10lbs barbell is going to be a lot worse. However, between my dad and I we got 505lbs of free weight which means if I don’t buy another shit barbell all that weight is just going to be rusting. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----

  2. Buy a gym membership - This shit is beyond expensive. I’d have to actually start working to pay for this stuff. I mean working outside of the farm because I don’t get paid enough to go to the gym. However, if I do buy a gym membership it will be much safer for me to lift (imagine if I was in that catastrophe) and I’ll actually be able to use weight (my 20lbs barbell is notorious for making lifting weights much harder because of how skinny it is and how shitty and bent it is).

  3. Do P90X or some other home work out routine which only requires minimal equipment - I got p90x as a gift and I’ve never done it besides specific work outs (plyometrics) and it’s famous for incredible success stories. The lack of barbell compounds makes me hate the idea of it though.

decisions…Decisions…DECISIONS – FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!