Journey to Size

Ok, I’m back… No great success story or anything else like that - I changed my job, country and got tired of looking bad, so I’m trying to lift again :slight_smile:

I started in the summer, doing Mehdi’s Stronglifts 5x5 again, due to its simplicity and the fact, that I know almost nothing about strength training.

Currently, I’m dealing with several things at once, mostly the problems with my current job, as due to management lies I moved to another country for something completely different than promised and I’ll have to undergo the same process again, once I get a better position elsewhere…

Long story short, with my job and almost no time being my biggest problems now, I’m trying to do some lifting with the simple goal of getting as big as possible in the long-term and simply looking better (not necessarily ripped) ASAP :smiley:

I’m going for the strength routine improved with a little of accessory lifts, cardio (as I’m medicated with high blood pressure and also it seems, that I’d profit from somewhat reduced bodyfat) and mobility.

The skeleton of my training (no warmups, I’m doing these according to Stronglifts Android App recommendations):

General warm-up:
5-7mins of treadmill

Training A:

  • Squats 5x5
  • Benchpress 5x5
  • Pendlay Rows 5x5
  • Triceps Dips 3x10
  • Skullcrushers 2x8

Training B:

  • Squats 5x5
  • Overhead press 5x5
  • Deadlift 1x5
  • Pull-ups 3x10
  • Biceps curls 3x8

Training C:

  • Incline benchpress 5x5
  • Pull-ups 3x10
  • Dead hangs
  • Whatever else - need to work on this one more…

Training A and B will be rotated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, i.e. every week one of them will be twice. Training C will be always on Saturday, if I have time. Also, I’d like to employ some isometric holds for squats and benchpress.

Cardio:

  • LISS 30mins+

Cardio will be on off-days, i.e. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Mobility:

Mobility is my hands down least favorite part of my workout, albeit necessary. Here I trust Joe DeFranco immensely, so I’m gonna do two of his mobility routines with the plan of doing one of them on every day, preferably switching between these two on daily basis.

For food, it’s a completely different chapter… Since the summer I was trying to get to some regime, which was regularly interrupted by being sick because of stress or having too little time to cook. Now it’s not really better and I consider this part to be the biggest and scariest problem of the all for now.

For my current stats:

  • Bodyweight: 87kg
  • Chest (inhaled + flexed lats): 119cm
  • Right arm circumference (flexed): 39.5cm
  • Left arm circumference (flexed): 39cm
  • Right leg circumference (flexed): 63.5cm
  • Left leg circumference (flexed): 63cm
  • Waist (exhaled, no sucking in, flexed): 99.5cm

All-time training maxes - right before the last deload (1 set of 5 repetitions):

  • Squats: 113kg
  • Benchpress: 75kg
  • Deadlift: 125kg
  • Overhead press: 47.5kg
  • Pendlay rows: 67.5kg

As usually, for the last two weeks I had almost no time to go anywhere and missed several trainings. Because of that, I had to deload by 20% according to Mehdi, so here I am now, with my last two trainings. To be more positive - I’ll add a little more and I’m a princess :joy: :joy:


8. 12. 2023
Training A

  • Squats 2x5 20kg 1x5 40kg 1x5 60kg 1x3 80kg 5x5 90kg
  • Benchpress 2x5 20kg 1x5 40kg 1x3 50kg 5x5 60kg
  • Pendlay row 1x5 40kg 5x5 55kg
  • Triceps Dips 3x10 (+ 2.5kg)
  • Skullcrushers 1x5 15kg 2x8 20kg

As we can see, not only the weights are terribly low after deload, but chin-ups seem still very difficult, so I’ll try to put them on my accessory day with Training C to improve on them. Another two things I’ll gladly improve on is my upper chest and always weak-looking arms.

9. 12. 2023
Training C

  • Incline benchpress on multipress 5x5 60kg
  • Incline dumbell flyes
  • Low-to-high cable crossover
  • Chin-ups
  • Dead hangs

Forgot weights, as I didn’t have a special category for this training in my app… Also, on this training I’d like to aim specifically on my weaknesses, i.e. I’d like to change it rather often in contrast to A and B.

11. 12. 2023
Training B

  • Squats 2x5 20kg 1x5 40kg 1x5 60kg 1x3 80kg 5x5 92.5kg
  • Overhead Press 2x5 20kg 1x3 30kg 5x5 40kg
  • Deadlift 1x5 60kg 1x5 80kg 1x3 90kg 1x5 100kg
  • Chin-ups 2, 2, 1 + negatives up to 5 every set
  • Barbell Curl 1x5 15kg 2x8 20kg

15. 12. 2023
Training A

  • Squats
    2x5 20kg 1x5 40kg 1x5 60kg 1x3 80kg
    3xISO standup holds
    150kg 5x5 95kg
  • Benchpress 2x5 20kg 1x5 40kg 1x3 50kg 5x5 65kg
  • Barbell Row 1x5 40kg 5x5 60kg
  • Triceps Dips 3x10 (+5kg)
  • Skullcrushers 1x5 15kg 2x8 25kg

Overall, I really liked stand-up isometric holds, as my squats were feeling much lighter afterwards. Also, I need to work on my cardio, as after the few missed session I still feel terribly gassed during squats. Also, I need to eat more, as I slept most of the day after basically day+night shift and ate literally nothing before today’s training.

All the food today: KFC wings + potato dollar chips…


Aside from EVERYTHING, I think, that my current problems are:

  • FOOD
  • Upper chest - looks really super underdeveloped and weird
  • Arms - even when kickboxing and doing judo, my arms looked strangely weak for the most of my life

And my current goals (not so long-term) would be:

  • Lean up a little
  • Get to solid 90kg
  • 100kg benchpress (5 reps)
  • 140kg squat (5 reps)
  • 180kg deadlift (5 reps)

Finally, I’d like to thank @TrainForPain , @cyclonengineer , @simo74 , @QuadQueen , @s.gentz , @jskrabac , @LoRez and @silvieillesova for support in the topic Body Composition Not Changing after Several Months? and overall, as without you I wouldn’t probably continue anytime soon…

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