BACK
Barbell rows
135x10
200x10
225x6
225x6
225x6
225x6
EZ bar curls
95x6
105x6
115x6
125x8 (cheated my ass off)
Seated DB curls, couple sets with the 35’s just to round things out. I’ll deadlift after I squat tomorrow.
any recent picture to update your progress? you been training for quite some time, show us some progress pics 
[quote]sijun wrote:
any recent picture to update your progress? you been training for quite some time, show us some progress pics :)[/quote]
I’ve improved, but it’s nothing like a “HOLY SHIT” picture. More a “he’s slightly less fat and his arms, chest, back and legs are bigger than they were” picture.
I’ve more or less stayed at the same state, but bigger, if that makes any sense. I’ve also retooled my diet recently and started doing around 20-40 minutes a day of fast walking or cycling again. In the next twelve weeks I feel like that should help me see some improvement.
I think my biggest mistake was not training the deadlift hard enough, honestly. While I realize not everyone likes to train deadlift after they squat, NOT training it on the same day has held me back, imo. There are guys on these forums who have difficulty with 290 in the squat and pull in the 400’s with the greatest of ease, and while squatting is great, I sure wouldn’t mind having some heavier upper back and forearm development.
One thing I’d like to do is to continue to work in a very heavy 1-6 rep range on my core lifts, and then do a couple back off sets of 8-10 reps after my main exercise. I did this last time I benched and my chest and shoulders are almost painfully sore. I’ll put around 270-300 on the bar tomorrow after my sets of five and see where that goes (squats, that is).
ok i see
[quote]LUEshi wrote:
I think my biggest mistake was not training the deadlift hard enough, honestly. [/quote]
Um, dude, if you look like you did in the first picture, your biggest problem is eating like shit. ABSOLUTE SHIT. AND neglecting cardio.
And I’m not saying that to be rude. I’m saying that because tons…8 pages worth, in fact, of people, including King Bulk himself, Professor X, have told you that you are fucking fat and you need to diet down, for your physique and for your general health. It is apparently not getting through your head by people saying it the nice way.
Look at it this way. If you took 6 months and dieted down to 8% bodyfat. I mean, really busted ass and actually put the damn work in in the kitchen and on the treadmill, all the while concentrating on still getting stronger anyway, you could loosen your diet up some and then gain a lot more quality mass. Overweight people will gain a ridiculously disproportionate amount of ugly ass bodyfat vs muscle compared to a lean person when trying to grow. Not only that, but you can get stronger as you lean out. And if you got down to 8% you might actually have a decent physique on you under all that adipose tissue. Plus you would be much healthier.
Anyway, I guess the choice is yours. You, however, are choosing to be stupid. “I should’ve deadlifted more” No, you should listen to the 95 people who are telling you the truth in this thread- You’re carrying too much bodyfat. Please don’t think I’m a dick or that I’m trying to give you a ‘complex’, lol. People get heavy sometimes. However, no one is doomed to be fat. People just choose to stay that way out of a refusal to spend the time dieting, because dieting for 6 months is harder than squatting. You’re either in denial or you are lazy. Go on a good fat loss diet, lose the damn weight, get some abs, and get it over with. You are too heavy to do the ‘maintain bodyweight and slowly shift body composition’ stuff. Bust ass hard, get it done with, and then concentrate on gaining some weight back when your body won’t automatically store it all as fat because your insulin sensitivity/hormonal profile are fucking shit.
Either way, no offense meant, believe it or not. Good luck with whatever you choose to do bro.
I don’t. What I was saying is that I personally don’t want to post new pics until I’M satisfied with my improvement. I’m not yet, hence I won’t. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding.
I changed up my diet about three weeks ago and started cardio again about ten days ago. Hopefully this helps.
Alright man. It’s just, a lot of people waste time. The guy who absolutely MUST maintain sub 6% bf while ‘gaining muscle’ is the same as the guy who is far too heavy but will ‘slowly shift body composition’.
Sometimes this is a sport of extremes, and no on is saying that the lean guy should bulk to 40% bf in 6 months, or that the heavy guy should become anorexic and do nothing but run.
But, in your case, you could stay on a Westside type strength workout, add in morning cardio on off days and go on a high protein diet with calories around, say, 11 times your bodyweight. 1.5 grams of protein per pound., 1/2 gram of carbs per pound and the rest made up of healthy fats. You will keep your muscle, perhaps build some new if your protein levels are usually not that high, and drop bodyfat at a very, very fast rate. Sometimes trying to do things ‘slow and steady’ is a waste of time. Just go at it hard, get it done, and then move on to the next goal, ya know?
Again, once you were lean a lot more of the weight you gain (I believe you did say you wanted to bulk up and get bigger) would be muscle because of your improved ability to transport nutrients. I still believe the above is the absolute best thing you could do for yourself at this time, but either way, good luck with your goals.
Agreed with almost everything you said, except the part about overwieght people gainign a disproportionate amount of fat. All thise tests were done on NON weight trainign specimens (the 1 pound of LBM for 3 pounds of fat idea started by JB and lylemcD). The only thing that can be said is that the body is most anabolic under a certain state of conditions. But if youre progressing in your lifts consistently while adding scale weight, the 1 pound of muscle for 3 pounds of fat idea does not make any sense.
Of course, I would expect a guy at 35-40% body fat who’s already trained for a year or two to make almost negligible strength gains naturally unless he just hit upon a sweet spiot with his diet trainign supplements and cardio. So adding weight for this guy would just mean adding body fat.
Point is, this guy seems to be gainig strength quite rapidly and he isn;t using a ridiculously low volume training program either. So ther eis a good chance he is not gaining a 'disproportionate amount iof fat"
That said, I agree with your advice to the guy. He likely has a solid physique under there and f he gets to 195-200 he can shock us all.
[quote]MikeKubo wrote:
Sometimes trying to do things ‘slow and steady’ is a waste of time. Just go at it hard, get it done, and then move on to the next goal, ya know?
[/quote]
[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
Agreed with almost everything you said, except the part about overwieght people gainign a disproportionate amount of fat. All thise tests were done on NON weight trainign specimens (the 1 pound of LBM for 3 pounds of fat idea started by JB and lylemcD). The only thing that can be said is that the body is most anabolic under a certain state of conditions. But if youre progressing in your lifts consistently while adding scale weight, the 1 pound of muscle for 3 pounds of fat idea does not make any sense.
[/quote]
Actually, I feel it makes quite a bit of sense. Strength is as much neural as it is muscular. Do the neural adaptations help you build muscle, and, more importantly in this case I believe, retain muscle while dieting? Absolutely. However, the idea of overweight folks gaining fat easier makes a lot of sense. Your insulin sensitivity goes to shit, regardless of whether you’re weight training or not. You may have a slightly better tolerance for carbs and what not directly after training even if you’re overweight, but no where near as well as someone who is lean, and the rest of the day you’re still as fucked as any other fatass, lol.
Is being more like 8-12%bf prolly more anabolic than being at 4%? Yes, but 10% bf is no where near ‘obese’ either. you would still be lean.
This makes a lot of common sense as well as scientific. Think about overweight people you’ve known throughout your life. Time and time again you will hear 'Man, if I even look at food I gain 3 lbs." Granted, while quite often they are sedentary people, quite often they are NOT also. Just as many fat lifters go through that particular problem as fat ‘normal folk’. If nothing else, I would be willing to put money on the fact the the hard training they do, if nothing else, prevents SOME of the excess weight fat gain, but you will not convince me that given the same amount of calories in proportion to bodyweight, that a 5% hard training guy and a 30% hard training guy will have the same reactions to them. The leaner guy will use those excess calories to help build muscle and fill glycogen stores. The 30% guy will just be looking at more dimples on his already huge ass.
Also, how do you know all of these studies were done on sedentary individuals? If I recall correctly, I remember reading a study of a 10 lbs weight gain, where it was like 8 1/2 lbs of fat to 1 1/2 lbs of muscle for obese, and 8 lbs of muscle and 2 lbs of fat for the lean.
I have a hard time believing a sedentary individual is going to gain 8 lbs of muscle just from overeating with no training at all. You may be right on some studies, but I’m pretty sure others have been done using trained individuals.
Either way, I think we both agree this guy would look markedly better at 200, and that his biggest mistake was not that he should have just been deadlifting more, lol.
Been a busy few days.
SQUATS (three days ago)
Worked up to 340x3 paused off a low box and nearly blew chunks afterward. Had strep throat all this week)
BENCH (two days ago)
270 for a couple sets of doubles, 185 for a few sets of triples and lots of laterals and extensions.
BACK (yesterday)
Wide-grip pullups
BWx4
BWx4
BWx4
Barbell rows
135x12
200x8
225x6
225x6
Deads
225x10
290x6
315x6
315x6 (gassed at this point, but I felt like I could have got ten)
EZ bar curls
95x6
105x6
115x6
125x6 (cheat curl)
Couple sets of seated db curls.
DIET
Just to clear up any misconceptions, I have been doing cardio immediately upon waking (time permitting) for the past couple weeks now and my diet is now squared away as of five days ago.
I haven’t really been writing down the minutiae simply because I don’t think it’s terrifically relevant to what is a training log, and not a diet log.
Suffice it to say that with the exception of Saturday I’m eating usually around 1-200 grams of carbs a day and about 3-400 of protein. (Saturday’s a cheat day. Nothing too overboard, just a few slices of pizza at the mall and a bigass thing of Dr. Pepper.)
Most likely more than I need, but I’ll see how my body responds. No fast food. Soda has not crossed my lips for some time now. Carbohydrates are coming primarily after waking and post-workout, and none whatsoever after 7:00 PM.
I don’t have any specific basis for doing things this way, it’s just what I think will likely work best for me personally. If anyone has any advice on the issue I welcome it.
People have expressed a wide range of opinions about the topic and my progress over the past six months, mostly positive, some negative, but surprisingly little of which was not constructive. I’d like to thank you for both your support and your criticism. It helps me more than you could know.
I have a wide range of reasons as to why it took me six fucking months to get my head on straight, and they’re all quite good ones, believe me.
My life, emotionally and financially, has imploded over the past year. But all I have left is the inner universe to explore and develop. I intend to build quite the temple. So excuses are of little use in the furnishing of that masonry.
“Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one’s rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.”
~Georges Bataille
About 7-8 days into the diet and I’ve already dropped a pants size, I think. Less fat hanging around the waist and hips.
RE SQUAT
Narrow stance
135x5
225x5
270x5
315x4
300x10 (belt and wraps, more about this)
GMs
225x8
270x6
280x6
I was cooked after that last set of squats. I opted for a belt and wraps because I had no idea how I would react after doing high reps again after such a long time. I had originally planned to go up to 20 reps, and I felt I easily had another 5 reps in me after the first 10. Unfortunately my belt hiked way up around my waist and my frigging knee wraps came undone on the 9th rep.
I think I’ll start including RE days again in my schedule. They seem to work well for me.
I have been following this post since the beginning and I just wanted to say keep up the good work mate, I hope you get where you want to be.
Just be consistent, and keep going.
[quote]gilesdm wrote:
I have been following this post since the beginning and I just wanted to say keep up the good work mate, I hope you get where you want to be.
Just be consistent, and keep going.
[/quote]
I appreciate that.
One thing I’ve been having a problem with since I started the diet (besides an incessant craving for a Double-Double) is hunger. As in, I’m not really hungry anymore. It’s actually become a bit of an effort to get my meals in. I ended up barely eating three meals yesterday and to my mind that’s just as bad.
Also, it looks like I can’t have whey on an empty stomach anymore. Goes right through me. Think I’ll order some egg protein or something from truprotein and see if that doesn’t upset my stomach.
BENCH
Flat bench
135x3
200x3
225x3
250x1
270x1
280x1
300x0 (just held it)
250x4 (I was DONE at this point)
Seated military press
135x10
170x5
190x3
190x3
OH tri extensions supersetted with side laterals;
3 sets of 8-12 reps
I was very pleased with the military press, even though it was a hellacious grind each rep. Finally nearing 200 pounds.
I had it in mind to do an RE day today, and I couldn’t resist doing some heavy singles so it ended up being more of a halfass ME day. I’d like to bring back true RE days for my upper body as well and see how I respond.
RE BENCH
Flat bench
135x15
200x13
225x7
245x3 (gassed)
Seated military press
135x10
155x6
170x5
170x5
Side laterals and overhead tri extensions for 3 sets of 10 reps
Felt like benching today in lieu of squatting, and it was an absolutely brilliant session. I haven’t really been testing myself with reps lately and it shows. If I’d been fresh I’m sure I would have been good for 6 or so reps with 245. Feel great, looking much better. Another few weeks of dieting and cardio and my waist and bodyfat should be down to a much more reasonable level. Haven’t lost any real muscle to speak of. Getting quite a few more looks from the ladeez as a result, too.
Also, I’ve been using about 10-15 Sweet Tarts and a whey shake for post-workout nutrition and it seems to work out quite well AND not make me sick after. Aside from that it’s been a lot of eggs, chicken breast, lean hamburger, canned chicken, milk & bananas and such.
Question to the diet gurus out there; would a meal with white bread (i.e. hamburger with a bun) after cardio late at night be detrimental to fat loss?
CURLS
Alternating DB curl 35 lbs
1 set of 20
Wrist curls w/ 35 lbs
1 set of 25
EZ bar curls
95x10
105x8
115x6
I was fairly stoned last night and I felt like messing with some light weight. It was actually pretty cool, although I wouldn’t want to try it with anything complicated technique-wise.
SQUATS
Front squats
135x6
200x5
225x4
225x3
GMs
225x8
280x6
280x6
Had lots of technique issues with the front squats, but I felt like doing them. Very humbling exercise.
BACK
Wide grip pullups
BWx4
BWx4
BWx4
BWx4
Barbell rows
135x12
185x10
200x8
225x7
225x7
Shrugs
135x20
225x12
270x10
290x8
315x8
335x2 (grip was double overhand. Getting better)
I think I’m going to split my training up a bit differently. Still an emphasis on ME and RE days, but something along the lines of-
Back
Chest & shoulders (bench and OH press)
Legs (squats, front squats, lunges and GMs)
Arms
Or just legs and arms on the same day.
BENCH (yesterday)
Flat bench
135x10
200x10
225x7
250x2
250x2
250x2
Incline flyes
35x a million
Seated military press
135x10
155x6
170x5
190x1
Side laterals
3x10
That was it. Good session.
SQUAT (yesterday)
Narrow stance
135x6
225x6
270x6
315x6
345x3
GMs
225x8
280x6
280x6
I made an abortive attempt at some front squats, but I really need to get some shoes with heels for that, I guess. Everything felt really heavy for some reason. Just one of those days.