Long time lurker to T-Nation. figured I would get my training log up.
History, was a huge kid when I was younger. Then went off to college lost a bunch of weight and had decent gains in size and strength. Recently lost the handle on my weight stopped training and ballooned to 260lbs.The huge weight gain was partly because I tried to regain strength I lost when I stopped working out as quickly as I could. so now dieting down to my old weight (200lbs) while trying to maintain what I can in strength.
Max Lifts:
bench: 315
Dead lift: 435
Squat: 365
Overall goal for the log is to catalog and keep track of what I do diet/lifting wise. My last year in college so my time is very restricted and I am implementing the minimalist training that was in an article here not to long ago by dan john, I believe. So here is to me keeping this thing up and getting decent results.
college is the most free time most of us will ever have in lift. What is your schedule like, how do you plan to train? Good luck ill be following up on here.
My classes begin at 1 pm everyday which is a dream schedule, but I commute an hour to an from class daily. I am also a TA for several labs throughout the week and on Mondays and Thursdays I have night classes. As a result I train mornings now.
Lifting days: Monday/Thursday
Cardio/Miscellaneous Tuesday,Wednesday and Friday
Monday: Lower body (Morning)
Squat
Leg press-1 leg variation
RDL
Leg Extension
Leg Curl
Calves
Incline Bench
Tuesdays/Fridays: Cardio (Morning)
20 mins interval training on exercise bike…so like 20 seconds as fast as I can go and 15 seconds rest.
20 mins Elliptical or Track. This is after the bike I try to do more steady state
Wednesdays: Miscellaneous
Flip Tires
Drag Tires
There is a hill with tires by the football field that is sort of open to the students. When the team isn’t practicing I try to get some time in flipping tires up and down the hill along with dragging as well. If it is occupied I just train in the gym with stretches and abs.
I have been on the weight template for a couple of weeks now and diet wise I have cut out soda and have added a healthy breakfast and moved up my dinners from 9-10pm to 5-6 pm. So far I have been losing weight rabidly I am getting close to 240.
Training for today:10-11:30 am.
10 min warmup on exercise bike.
Smith machine Squats: 315x8,405x4,365x6,365x5
Leg press (both legs):720x8,810x5,810x4, 810x6
Leg extension (one leg): 115x10,130x8,145x6,145x6
Leg Curl (both legs): 200x10,250x10,250x8,250x8
Seated calf raises: 135x10,135x8,135x8,135x12
Straight leg dead lift: 110x5,110x4,110x4,110x5
Decline press: 225x8,245x8,275x5,275x5
cool down 10 min on bike.
Post workout:
2 chicken breasts
cup of brocoli
1 scoop of protein (20g)
Some notes:
The gym I go to is the school gym doesn’t have a real squat rack. I try to go heavy on squats to make up for this.
Leg press-810 was kind of easy I usually go easy on this due to the fact I tweaked my quad when I hit 1k and never felt the same after that. I have been going one leg on this first week going two.
Leg Extension-I super set this exercise.
Decline Press- I ramped up slow. I depleted my carbs too fast the first week on my diet and I rolled my wrist back when doing bench. felt good though.
weight wise I’ll post what I weigh at end of week hopefully continue seeing a gradual loss in that area.
Upperbody numbers a little low rep-wise. Can be attributed to lack of a good dinner the night before and breakfast in the morning. Deadlifts might be moved up in my rotation to reduce a fatigued lift. Numbers were also low for this lift as well. I would have liked to hit 385x4-5 today but for some reason that lift suffered the most. Although once I got my head out of my ass and focused I was able to pull it for 8 times at least on my last set.
Friday workout AM: cardio
Intervals on bike for 20 mins
extra cardio 20 mins
abs
Standing Situp: x10,x10,x8,8 15 secs rest
Decline situp: 25x8,25x6,25x6,26x6 15 secs rest
leg raises: x10,x8,x8,x8 10s rest
forgot my pad to write down the weight I used, but I tried to work heavier today b/c I’ve felt the need to work closer to my max to try and retain some of the muscle mass while still dieting.
Thursday:
45 min cardio
20 min of intervals on bike
standing sit ups: 5x10
decline sit ups(weighted): 5x7
leg raises: 4x8
Tried to keep rest interval at 30s or less.
Added fiber,BCAAs and fish oil as part of my supplement routine.
Sunday:
intervals on bike 25s and 10 s rest continuous for 21 mins.
steady state for 20 mins
abs:
standing crunches
4x10 15s rest in between
Leg raises:
4x8 15s rest in between
decline crunches:
5x6 20s rest weighted with 25 lbs
PM:
40 mins steady state
Monday:
body felt pretty drained and legs very sore that and a combo of no sleep led me to take this day took off as I’m seeing my weight loss plateau a bit (sorta expected after coming down from 260 so fast) used this day to sorta put more carbs in (albeit bad carbs). then i’m back on my normal routine tomorrow with chest
Sunday weight in 232lbs.
Notes: bench wasn’t there today #s going down. went in the PM to the gym to do some shoulder work/ delt work. Due to time I combined lat pulldown with db row and triceps with biceps. I usually would leave dead lift for last but I already had the bar loaded on the floor after push press so I went with that. DB rows I know I can do more; however, the max weight at school gym is 80 lbs and they were in use so I went with what was available, debating whether to load an ez bar and try rowing that way. For deadlifts I was reading the minimalist training w/ Dan John and intrigued me to follow the rule of 10 (10 reps) on the lift, and ya I know I did 12 reps total but I couldn’t help myself.
Sample of diet: not much has changed from weak to weak I added more vegetables today and made sure to add fiber in the morning.
Breakfast:
3 eggs
oatmeal
1 teaspoon fiber
BCAAs
Lunch:
potatoes mixed with green beans 1/2 cup
two turkey breasts
Protein shake
BCAAs
wednesday:
intervals on bike 40s then 10s rest for 20 mins.
gerbil wheel 35 mins (elliptical)
rope crunch:
4x12
leg lifts:
4x12
weight sit up:
5x8
thursday:
off
easy cardio day with abs thrown in. tomorrow will be an off day due to tests, hw that still isn’t finished and my night class which should get me rested for a friday session of legs. I figure for my leg session i’ll do hamstrings first and do a A/B combo of squats and leg extensions
Friday AM:Leg day
10 min warm up on bike
stretching
1.Snatch
20lbsx3,45x3,65x3,65x3,95x3,95x3,115x3,135x1,135x3
2. hamstring curl
190x8,205x8,235x8,235x8
3a. squat
315x8,315x7,315x8,315x6
3b. leg extension
190x10,250x10,250x10,250x10
4. leg press
630x8,720x8,810x4,810x6
5a. seated calf raise
135x12,135x12,135x12,160x10
5b. unilateral leg press
180x12,180x12,180x12,180x12
6. bench press
225x5,245x5,255x5,265x3,275x2
7. straigh leg DL with DB
130(total)x8,130x8,140x8,140x8
20 min bike cool down.
a long workout. I threw snatch in there b/c I have never done it before and was sort of practicing and hopefully down the road I can replace my bench press on this day with a heavy snatch. On this day I enjoy doing the a and b combination of exercises it makes the workout seem faster and makes me work harder as well. I did hamstrings first after reading some of John Meadows musings about it. It was a different feeling to do that first and I made sure I didn’t over do it.
Need to find a new place to workout, was told today no olympic lifts can be done in the gym. Apparently, doing things like deadlift, clean, push press can be a “hazard” and also ruin the floor. So because of this it is now banned from the weight room here at school. I’ve been doing deadlifts there for the past year so to come to me mid set and say I can’t do those anymore left me surprised and mad. Anywyas atleast I was almost done with deadlifts before they did that.
Tuesday:
40 mins cardio
Wednesday:
off
Thursday: legs
1a. squats
5x6
1b. hamstring curls
5x8
2a.leg press
5x8
2b. leg extension
5x8
3.alternating unilateral leg press.
5x10
4. seated calf raise
5x8
5. straight leg dead lift
3x5
6. bench
5x2
Busier week than usual at school is why my normal cardio days didn’t have abs or anything like that. Leg day i figured I try a little harder so I paired up most of my exercises with another or I reduced my rest time to under 30 seconds.