Morning all - I’ve lurked on and off for a couple of years reading articles but only just registered so I could start a training journal.
I blew my ACL out a couple of years ago and eventually got around to having the surgery in December last year. Initially (and up until recently) my goal was to get back to being able to play rugby but that is now off the table so I need a new hobby. I always shyed away from bodybuilding because it seemed, frankly, gay… however, to be honest I think that attitude was more just me liking weights but also liking pizza and not caring about appearance! My current schedule as a student and also my reluctance to knacker my knee again means rugby is finished, along with Judo and other cool stuff. Bodybuilding lets me push myself, do weights, and maybe will even help me get a new girlfriend!
I’ll give you a bit of a run-down on the year so far and how I ended up here - it’ll be a long first post!
December 12th 2008 had my surgery and got off crutches almost one month later… weighing 210lbs. Not too much, I hear you say? I’m 5’3" and had 42" hips. Exactly. I looked like a bowling ball crammed into a pair of 38" trousers.
Unable to do serious training but wanting to get a bit of blubber off, I started with crossfit style workouts - the idea being to reintroduce a lot of movements and a lot of reps so I could burn some belly and get used to lifting again before cranking up the volume a bit.
I combined this with the Zone diet (very popular with crossfit guys) and after a couple of months weighed in at 202lbs, with visibly more muscle in my operated leg.
In March I started lifting properly, upper body only, and while still zoning (but fewer carbs) I had reached 194lbs by mid April and was getting some momentum. All was not well with my knee unfortunately and by the end of April I was off training, disillusioned with ever being able to play rugby again and booked in for another surgery. The issue was scar tissue and cartilage tears which were making the knee lock and swell as soon as I put any power through it.
June I returned, 198lbs and pissed off. By mid-July I decided to lose the crossfit and go more basic lifting - ie; use weights to get muscles, not to lose weight. Unfortunately, with this approach the Zone seemed to lose it’s previous effectiveness and after messing about with IF’ing I was 200lbs in mid-August.
This weight gain combined with the prospect of going back to studying in September (and mixing with females again) led me to have a crack at Lyle Mcdonalds RFL. The weight fell off but I was dizzy, weak and found that a scheduled free meal left me only 2lbs lighter than I started a week previously. I know a couple of pounds a week is great for fat loss but there are far easier ways of losing that much! I started eating more paleo choices, keeping kcals around 2,000 and after a week of following that I had lost a further 5lbs, without the dizziness and inability to train and without the massive weight/water gain following a cheeky free meal. Not knocking RFL by the way, it just wasn’t the best road for me.
This left me down to 192.5lbs with a week to go before university and by now I had been front squatting (back squats hurt my knee), benching and cleaning a bit and felt ready to start pushing.
First week of October (end of first week at university) I was 188.5lbs, my 36" jeans needed a belt and I looked much better. Plus my weights were going up nicely. At this time I noticed that my paleo food choices had turned more and more very low carb, mod protein and high fat. A bit of reading on here led me to the anabolic diet and suddenly I understood why this had coincided with my strength going up and me suddenly breaking that 192lb mark which I had previously struggled like a bitch to get under. I wasn’t sure why I had naturally and completely sub-conciously gone so low-carb - I was just looking through some fitday stuff and suddenly realised I hadn’t eaten more than 5g of carbs in a fortnight, yet felt great.
I wanted a weight training program that would compliment this low carb diet - ie; one that wouldn’t need loads of sugar to run it - and after reading some of Thibs comments on another guys thread where he said that low rep training should be relatively unaffected by low carb diets because of the energy pathway used, I then set about looking for a low rep program with a bodybuilding slant. 10x3.
This is where we finally get up to speed! I have continued to follow very low carbs, mod protein and high fat for the past 3 weeks with one cheat day a week, and now weigh 183lbs (my lightest for 5-6 years), my 36" jeans are in a bag ready to be thrown out or donated, and I am comfy in my 34"'s. I’m still fine tuning and am looking to follow the AD a little more closely (ie; include some fibrous green veg) but am already adapted and have already determined that a 12 hour refeed is my absolute max, with 6 hour being preferable (I get a hung-over feeling the next day if I overdo it).
So that’s where I am now - the next post will be the workouts I have done to get used to 10x3 rep ranges and get a best guess of exercises and weights to use.