[Old School]

For conditioning I'm running John Romaniello's 6/6/6 sprinting program (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...nting_solution) in addition to my other conditioning which consists of around 25 mins worth of tempo runs 2x per week.

I ran the program for the whole 8 weeks then took a week off to let my Achilles tendons recover and today I started it again from scratch. Was fun, felt really slow though, but this was probably to do with the fact that it's been raining recently so I can't get quite as much traction as when it's dry.

Also, since incorporating regular conditioning work as part of my rehab my blood pressure has reduced dramatically. Was around the 128/80 mark in January but today (had a routine medical for the additional categories on my driving licence) it was 112/75). Maybe cardio isn't gay after all. Unless it's jogging. Jogging is always gay.

[Old School]

Today was bench day.

Bench Press

80x3
90x3
100x7- felt weak as a kitten today, probably because I've been eating so much sugar recently...

5x70x10

Dips w/20kg on the belt

5x10

Incline press

3x8-12

Pec Dec

3x12

Supersetted with...

Cables

3x15

Incline Flyes

3x12

Situps

3x15

Did 15mins worth of tempo runs today as it was stormy. Based on prior experience I have found that sprinting in a storm is a really bad idea. Had around a 1:1 work:rest interval did around 20s @ around 800m pace. Repeated for god knows how many rounds.

[Old School]

Whoops, totally forgot about this.

Last weeks training was good. Some PB's were set. Cardio and flexibility is progressing nicely. Back and hammy are almost rehabed.

Yesterday was legs:

Squat

110x5

130x3

140x11

Front Squat

60x12

100x5

120x5

120x3- I lost the bar forwards like a total tard. Also, legs were toast from the back squats (code for: I was being a pussy).

Leg Press

195x12
x12
x10
x8

Leg extension

3x12ish last set dropped and pumped out another 10

Leg curl

As above

SLDL

80x10x4- back was starting to feel a little ****ty at this point so I left it here.

Training press & conditioning later, will update today or tomorrow.

[Old School]

Pressing today. Feeling a little on the weak side again. Shame really, looks like I'm going to need to deload next week.

Press

55x5
62.5x3
72.5x4

Push Press
75x5
80x3
85x3
90xF

Press
60x8
50x9
50x9

Arnold Press
22x12
26x7
24x8

Lat raises (seated)
10x12x4

Rear delts
12x12x3

Facepulls
somex15-20x3

Also did sprints + 20mins incline walking.

[Old School]

Paid my debts and did my cardio today. As much as I hate to admit it cardio (the gay kind, not the awesome stuff like sprinting up hills and flipping tires) is important. Not as far as 'getting ripped' is concerned. Rather, for general health- so long as it complements other, more awesome kinds of exercise.

Today I did:

Sprints as per the 6/6/6 protocol (week two for those that care)

Low intensity intervals- stuck the treadmil on 16.5kph and ran for 30 seconds. Rested for 30 seconds. Repeated this 10 times.

Incline walking. Set a moderate-high incline and walked for a bit whilst talking to one of the instructors.

Total workout was 35mins.

[Old School]

Today I benched.

Bench Press

75x5

85x5

100x9

105x3

110x1

120x1

100x7

100x6

100x6

100x5

Incline Dumbells

40x6
40x5
36x8
36x7

Dips

15kgx9
x8
x7
x5 (then dropped down to bodyweight for another 8 right after)

Flyes

4x12-15

Cables

Some

Machine Chest Press

'till I was proper pumped.

Finished with treadmill sprints.

[JasonTerryIsMyHero]

Where in Bristol do you train?

[Old School]

(Original post by JasonTerryIsMyHero)
Where in Bristol do you train?

UWE gym.

Trained deadlift for the first time since my hamstring injury in Jan this week. Worked it in with my back training to see where my 1rm is.

Deadlift

50x8
110x5
150x1
170x1
170x1
150x6

Neutral Grip Chins

BWx12
+10x8
+15x6x3
BWx10

Dbell Rows

38x26
46x15
50x8
50x8

Bbell Rows

80x10x6

Lat pulldown and straight arm pull down superset.

4x8-15

Then did sprints.

Yesterday AM.

Cardio as per a couple of posts ago.

Yesterday PM.

Arm pumping session.

Can't really remember details, I literally just went in and did a few curl and extension variations with moderate-very light weights (highlight was my preacher curls with 2.5kg either side). Reps were slow (almost exaggerated) and controlled.

I don't bother with heavy arms anymore, I just go pump them up every couple weeks when I feel like it. Makes for a nice change of pace.

[Old School]

I had a bit of a wobble this weekend, my back flared up when I was squatting yesterday and I had to cut things short.

I went home and ate 2 14" pizzas and a couple tubs of ben and jerry's apple pie ice cream along with some diclofenic and paracetamol.

I felt a little better this morning and after a pot of coffee went back into battle with the iron. Swapped back squats for front squats as I find them a little easier on my low back when it's being gay.

Front Squats

60x6
100x6
110x5
120x1
130x1
135xF
135x1 (PR)
140xF
100x5
100x5
100x5
100x5

Leg Press

195x15
195x10
195x8
195x12

Leg Extension

lightx15
10,10,10 drop set

Leg Curls

lightx15
lightx3x12

SLDL

5x60x10

I've been writing a little something about the psychology behind my training that I'm gonna post up tomorrow. It's a little deep and a little dark but should provide those of you that read this with a few lulz at my expense .

[Slumpy]

(Original post by Old School)
UWE gym.

Huh, hadn't realised there was anybody else in Bristol here. How is the UWE gym? Is it just on the UWE main campus?

[McHumpy92]

140kg front squat would be great.

[Slick Fosbury]

Do you think it's important to try to work the different heads of the tricep, quads etc?

[Old School]

(Original post by Slumpy)
Huh, hadn't realised there was anybody else in Bristol here. How is the UWE gym? Is it just on the UWE main campus?

It's on the frenchay campus. It's a solid little gym, especially for a university. Has a rack, platform, bench, dumbells up to 50kg, T-bar pivot built into the floor, a load of machines and a smith. Serves me just fine, solid group of lads there too in the evening.

(Original post by McHumpy92)
140kg front squat would be great.

Almost had it, 135 came up easy on the second attempt. Lost the bar forward on the 140.

(Original post by Slick Fosbury)
Do you think it's important to try to work the different heads of the tricep, quads etc?

Unless you're already pretty damn huge then no. By all means vary things like foot positioning on leg press/extensions or hand position on pulldowns or whatever but do this after you've done your big stuff (squat/bench/deadlift/press) cos that's what matters. Growth you see from assistance work will be negligible compared to what you'll see when your big lifts are progressing from week to week.

Speaking of which...

Did my AM cardio today pre-lectures. Trained press this evening. This was the last workout of my 'deload' week. It's in parenthesis because it's not a deload per se. I treat it more as a free week where I'll either test my strength or do random ****. I'm not strong enough to need to deload every four weeks tbh. Plus my recovery ability is pretty good. However these workouts are much more relaxed and I'll have a laugh in between sets and generally arse around a bit.

AM Cardio

Sprints as per 6/6/6 week 3

LIIT 30s running @ around 15-16kp/h followed by 30s rest x10

Incline walk for 30 mins

Hanging leg raises

3x10

Situps

3x10

PM

Press

50x5
60x5
70x4
70x3
70x3
70x4
60x8
60x7
60x6

Dumbell press

24x12
24x10
28x6
28x10 (last 4 were forced reps)

Lat raises (seated)

4 sets

Face pulls + rear delts

Some

Also did around 40 chins

[Slumpy]

(Original post by Old School)
It's on the frenchay campus. It's a solid little gym, especially for a university. Has a rack, platform, bench, dumbells up to 50kg, T-bar pivot built into the floor, a load of machines and a smith. Serves me just fine, solid group of lads there too in the evening.

Alas, that's miles from me, and I've only got a bike. Still, my current gym is pretty good!

[Old School]

Living in the (not so) Funhouse. (Part I)

As promised here is the first part (it's only in two parts because I can't be bothered to write the whole thing now, plus sticking 'Part I' after the title is nice and pretentious. Just like a real blogger) of my little spiel about why I lift and why I think the way I do. There is a reason why I'm writing all of this self indulgent horse-****. Well, two reasons actually. The first is to get **** straight in my head. The second (and arguably more important reason) is to maybe help someone who also feels like this in some bizarre and improbable way.

Anyway...

It's pretty ****ing apparent to anyone who knows me at all well that I have muscle dysmorphia. To quote wikipedia 'Muscle dysmorphia or bigorexia is a disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with the idea that he or she is not muscular enough. Those who suffer from muscle dysmorphia tend to hold delusions that they are "skinny" or "too small" but are often above average in musculature'. I'm not vain and I'm not in love with myself. In fact, things are quite the opposite. I look in the mirror and hate what I see. Don't get me wrong, I don't get all depressed and emo about it, rather, I just go do something about it i.e. I go lift heavy ass weights and eat properly.

A little background: I was fat. With fatness comes bullying. This carried on right through college until one day something just snapped. The new series of Gladiators was on sky and I just decided that I was going to look like Atlas (Sam Bond). After the initial chest-arms-chest-arms phase that lasted around a month or so one of the older bodybuilders at the gym got me onto the Reg Park 5x5 program (the one that starts easy and gets crazy by phase 3). I used this to lose around 35kg in 6 months. No cardio, just a strict diet. By the end my workouts were retarded, often lasting 3.5 hours. But I was new to lifting and the weights weren't enough to really tax my nervous system so I had no problems recovering.

By the end of this phase I was lean, but tiny (75kg). So I started bulking. I got up to 102kg at my heaviest before cutting back to around 90kg which is where I am now.

The weird thing is I still felt small at 102kg. I feel ****ing tiny now despite being bigger than most (I'm only 5'7"). Not big by bodybuilding standards, but certainly bigger than your average gym rat. This is where the title comes in. In a funhouse you have three types of mirror- ones that make you look fat, ones that make you look thin and ones that make you look all squiggly and ****. Whenever I look in a mirror I see a small, soft bloke looking back at me. I know that this isn't true because of what people say and what I see in pictures. When I was bulking I thought that when I hit 80kg I'd be jacked. 80kg came and it wasn't all that great. Same with 90kg. I was really excited to hit 100kg though, I mean, 100kg? That's like 16 stone. Hell, some pro bodybuilders compete at 100kg!

100kg came and felt very much like 80 and 90kg. Well, sort of. I actually felt a little worse because I was soft. Not fat (I still had two abz ) but being a former fat guy the funhouse mirror kicked in big time and I thought I was 10x fatter than I actually was.

This is the problem. Because my mind is locked in the funhouse my perception of myself is always going to be warped. It's a vicious cycle, I'm always chasing '5 more lbs' but when I get them it's not at all satisfying and I still don't look how I want to. Some days I actually feel worse.

I regularly ask my training partners 'Am I as big as that guy?' when 'that guy' weighs like, 75kg.

It seems to me that people who spend a lot of time developing their body don't actually see it for what it is and enjoy their achievements. Add another inch to your biceps, that inch ain't all you thought it would be so you add another inch and eventually you end up with Greg Valentino (lulz).

Apologies for the random outpouring.

[u4m1r]

Read all of it. Wouldreadtograndchildren/10

Pics of you at 75kg and 102kg and now? No homo.

[Slick Fosbury]

Enjoyed the read too. Some of it was a bit close to home for my liking, had heard the term but didn't really know much more. When your training partner says you're bigger than the 75kg guy what affect does it have?

[Old School]

(Original post by Slick Fosbury)
Enjoyed the read too. Some of it was a bit close to home for my liking, had heard the term but didn't really know much more. When your training partner says you're bigger than the 75kg guy what affect does it have?

Glad you did .

Generally I'll snap out of it and get a grip...

(Original post by u4m1r)
Read all of it. Wouldreadtograndchildren/10

Pics of you at 75kg and 102kg and now? No homo.

I don't have any pics worth posting of me at those bodyweights. However I will throw up a couple of 'now' pics over the next few days when I can work out how to do it.

[Old School]

Conditioning and bench today:

AM:

Standard cardio/conditioning protocol. Only change being that I'm now on weekk 4 of the 6/6/6 protocol.

PM:

Chest

Bench
60x6
75x5
85x5
95x13

Dips
+20kgx8
x8
x8
x10
x8

Incline Dumbells
24x12
28x10
32x8
32x10

Flyes

2 sets high incline 2 sets moderate incline

Chest Press Machine-thingie

Till I was really ****ing pumped. Did like 4-5 sets of 20 or so really light. Cable station was busy with curlbrahs.

Now, pictures. Current weight 91kg.




(cut off legs in this photo cos I let them relax- they looked more **** than the first photo as a result, if that were possible)

As you can see, I'm fat at the moment. Goal is to hit 110kg, then cut back. My body doesn't seem to like getting any fatter than it is currently, especially when I actually stick to some form of cardio protocol. Not that I'd be that bothered if it did. Getting huge natural requires putting on a fair bit of bf, unfortunately.

No specific areas to improve. I am weak all over, specializing at this point would be retarded.

[Slick Fosbury]

How tall are you btw? Same weight but you're much thicker haha.

Sorry trying to pick your brain a bit since everyone else seems to be powerlifting. But what do you think of BB vs DB for bench and OHP? Since switching to DB bench I move a lot less weight but feel it more in my chest. Also at my gym DB seems to be favoured by the bigger guys which obviously sways me a bit.