TBT vs Split - Gains Challenge

Training Bodybuilding
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[quote]jgundrey wrote:
Hey, Pete! February 22 has come - and gone. I know the competition aspect of this thread sort of dissolved early on. But you documented progress was killer! What what’s the endgame? Pix? Summary? Any lessons learned or pontificating you’d care to share?[/quote]

LOL, yea I been busy these past 1-2 weeks. Moved to a new house this past Saturday. Woot! Love the new place. Got boxes sitting around me.

I will probably wrap this up tomorrow. Left the pic of Kramer at the old place also :slight_smile: Dam nice to be back online after the move.

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I know some people have been watching this thread and I apologize for not updating it yet since the 6 months ended already. As I said, I just moved to a new apartment, and this has really taxed my time.

I do not see any benefit from posting pics since I doubt you would notice any significant muscle mass increase, although I am a little leaner. So, I don’t plan to post pics anytime soon.

I will, however, be back to provide information about the the process, what I did, diet, etc. I am just too busy lately to sit down and draw it all out. I will do it soon though.

I will also continue to come back and periodically update and post pics of my status, etc.

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Great work and good thread!

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Guess I promised to add specifics to this, so here is what I did for my diet:

My diet was mostly protein, I ate vegetables very little. I tried to eat real food as often as I can, if I am out or something, then I will have a meal replacement shake. I make sure my meals are small enough so that I would get hungry every 2-3, then I would eat when I got hungry.

I would not go more the like 30-60 minutes hungry, I would always eat something. I would also supplement with skim milk for the added protein in my diet. sometimes I would have whey protein shakes with my food to supplement the protein. I would eat whatever I wanted on the weekends.

I did not keep a food log every day, and I did not count calories. I made sure I was hungry every2-3 hours, and adjusted my future portions if I ate too much and was not hungry later.

A typical day in my diet would look like this:

  1. milk & 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg, tomatoes, green peppers & onions, slice fat free cheese

  2. chicken breast, green beans

  3. turkey chili, added chicken, some tomatoes

  4. chicken & broccoli

  5. chicken & carrots & 3 pieces of fruit

  6. pre bed time meal, Metabolic Drive

I eat mostly chicken.

I eat lean red meat, or lean ground beef 1 meal 1-3 times a week.

breakfast, I usually have 2-4 eggs, add some canned tomatoes, onions, green peppers, slice of fat free cheese melted on the top of it.

I eat canned green beans, some bagged spinach with balsamic vinegar on it, fresh broccoli I cook in the microwave, very little canned fruit occassionally.

I pretty much ate what I wanted on the weekends. I didnt touch pizza, fast food, hot dogs, no bread, rice occassionally, no processed foods, no crackers/cookies or anything like that.

I paid attention to what my body was telling me, I would make sure to be hungry longer if I felt fat was not dropping off. If I felt too empty and I may not be anabolic, I ate pretein, but I made sure not to over eat, or eat too much. Just get rid of the hunger.

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Here is my basic training routine. I added deadlifts part of the way through this 6 month period. I cannot say I noticed any significant pumps, or gains from the deadlifts, but my deadlift weight went up.

A few times during this 6 months period I had to back off the weight in squats because I found I was not going down as far. Perhaps I was adding weight too fast. I don’t know for sure.

Anyhow, here is my split routine:

Mon: Chest, triceps
3 different chest exercises 4 sets, 5-7 reps.
3 different tricep exercises 4 sets, 5-7 reps.

Failure on each set, and try with all your might to get another rep out. On the fourth rep of each set, do a giant set.

Tues: OFF

Wed: Legs, biceps

Squats: 4 sets, 5-7 reps to failure, try standing and you CANNOT. 4th set…go past failure, you cannot. If I got 8 reps out on any set, I added weight to bring it back down to 5-7

Deadlifts: 4 sets, 5-7 reps to failure. I try to Keep my leg form tight here it is too easy to not bend those knees all the way to parallel. I use a box, or smaller plates like 25 plates as opposed to 45 plates. I found the difference in range of motion to be significant.

In fact, one reason I did not do deadlifts was because I originally did them with 45 pound plates and I felt there was not enough reange of motion to call it an exercise, or call if difficult. The box, or the smaller plates changed that.

Calf raises: 4 sets, 5-10 reps per set, preferably drop sets on each set. Past failure.

leg press/lunge/ leg variation: 2-4 sets with 5-7 reps depending on how good I was walking and standing at this point. Again to failure on each set.

Biceps: 3 different exercise, 5-7 reps. All sets are to failure and beyond. I would do drop sets as I felt I could handle them.

I had a problem where my left arm was smaller than my right. I focued on this with negatives, and isolater work. Isolateral work always started with the weaker arm setting the pace, and would often end with the left arm trying to do another rep even when I could not.

Thurs: OFF

Fri: Back, shoulders, traps

Back: 3 different exercises, 5-7 reps to failure. I would add drop sets to faciliutate fatigue. And once I would fail on a set, I would try to push/pull the weight anyhow, I would try to push past failure. I try to go past where I fail and my mind tells me I cannot lift it.

I try to push those thoughts out and struggle with the weight. Whenever I struggle, or cheat a weight up because I failed, I accentuate the negative portion, feeling the burn like a rush.

Shoulders: 3 different exercises, 5-7 reps. Same thing. Failure on each set.
I found that pushing failure often made for loud lifts, not always, but often. After all, I work out with my wife and she only allows me to get so loud before telling me to stop.

Traps: any random trap exercise: 4 sets, 5-7 reps. all to failure and beyond.

Sat & Sun - Off

I did zero cardio other than 30-45 minutes rollerblading maybe 10 times when I first started back in August/October. Other than that, I did zero cardio.