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RobJ93 Gets big or dies Trying

Decided to give this lifting blog business a shot.
Firstly a bit of background. I've never been fit and certainly never been strong due to lack of trying and caring. Over the past few years I have fluctuated between being fat and skinny-fat with my weight being anywhere between 10 stone and 14 stone with no muscle.
The change:
I decided that when I started university that I wanted to gain some sort of muscle mass, join the gym and get fitter.

Starting stats (approximate in september 2011):
Height: 5'9
Weight: 70kg
Bench press: 30kg
Squat: 40kg
Deadlift: 40kg



Targets 1RM (End of 2016):

Weight: 85kg
Bench Press: 120kg
Squat: 200kg
Deadlift: 230kg


Current 1RMs:
Bench: 110kg 04/16
Squat: 190kg 07/16
Deadlift: 210kg 07/16
OHP: 60kg 02/14

(edited 7 years ago)

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Your stats are so similar to mine. I'll be keeping an eye on you. You might wanna include your targets.

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Will edit in now, cheers.
Are they one-rep maxes or multiple rep PBs?
3x5 on all except bench press which is 3x6 (not really sure why I do sets of 6)
WARNING, THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS CARDIO

5 minute warm up walk followed by a 5k run in 28:40.
Gym was boiling, sweated my own body weight.
Chest/Triceps day

Bench press: Warm up 40kg x 8
Working sets 65kg x 5 x 3

Incline dumbell press: 22.5kg x 6 x 3

Dips: Bodyweight x 8 x 3

Medium grip pulldown: 54kg x 8 x 3

Weird pectoral fly machine (bit of a piss around): 44kg x 8 x 3

Bench press was tough today, ****ty gym, was waiting round for equipment making everything slow.
Back/biceps day

Deadlift: Warm up 60kg x 6
Working sets 140kg x 5 x 3 (exhausting)

Rear deltoid flys: 45kg x 8 x 3

Weighted rows: 52kg x 8 x 3

Then mixed in some curlz for da girlz.

Was in a bit of a rush, off to work.
Cardio warning

2k warm up run in 9:48
HIIT for 20 minutes. Sprints between 14 and 15km/h.
Original post by RobJ93
Cardio warning

2k warm up run in 9:48
HIIT for 20 minutes. Sprints between 14 and 15km/h.


You should try HIIT outdoors. The treadmill sucks. 15km/h is a good running speed but it's not a sprint. The best equipment in the gym IMO for HIIT is the bike. You can go all out on that.

Anyway, good to see you're one of the few that sticks to cardio.
Original post by silent ninja
You should try HIIT outdoors. The treadmill sucks. 15km/h is a good running speed but it's not a sprint. The best equipment in the gym IMO for HIIT is the bike. You can go all out on that.

Anyway, good to see you're one of the few that sticks to cardio.


My cardio is pretty appalling! Trying to get my general cardiovascular fitness up before I venture out into the wild for cardio. Outdoors tends to bugger my asthma up but I suppose this is all excuses.
It wasn't pure HIIT really, was running for like 2 minutes per 'sprint'.
Just received my MyProtein delivery. 5kg of unflavoured whey protein, 500g of creatine and 250g of L-glutamine.
Legs/Shoulders

OHP: 40kg x 5, 42.5kg x 5, 42.5kg x5

Squats: Warm up on 40kg x 6
80kg x 5, 90kg x 5, 92.5kg x4f (first squat fail), 60kg x10

Power cleans: Warm up on 30kg x 4
52.5kg x5, 55kg x4f, 52.5kg x5

Shoulder press (dumbell): 17.5kg x6, 20kg x3f 17.5kg x3, 17.5kg x 6

Brutal session. Few fails there, was possibly trying to push it too far. I probably could've had the last squat rep but I felt a twinge in my lower back so didn't want to compromise form and bugger my back up. PB nonetheless.
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Mark85
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Original post by silent ninja
You should try HIIT outdoors. The treadmill sucks. 15km/h is a good running speed but it's not a sprint. The best equipment in the gym IMO for HIIT is the bike. You can go all out on that.

Anyway, good to see you're one of the few that sticks to cardio.


I think the erg is a good piece of equipment for doing intervals too. Not necessarily HIIT protocol, but say 6 x 500m or whatever. I am sure it has similar effects.

Cardio is good! It seems a dirty word amongst weight trainers but **** gains - I would much rather be able to run up hills and do a sub 20min 5k then just look like I could.
Original post by Mark85
I think the erg is a good piece of equipment for doing intervals too. Not necessarily HIIT protocol, but say 6 x 500m or whatever. I am sure it has similar effects.

Cardio is good! It seems a dirty word amongst weight trainers but **** gains - I would much rather be able to run up hills and do a sub 20min 5k then just look like I could.


Oddly enough my current gym has no rowing machines. That's a first. I don't do much cardio indoors atm besides skipping and cross trainer before weights to warm up, so it's no big deal. Yeah it's important to stay focused on your aims or you get carried away with lifting more and more to the detriment of other stuff like cardio. If you can't run at a decent pace then you're kinda pathetic. That's my view anyway. Running like swimming, cycling etc is one of the basic forms of carrying your own weight so it should be pretty high on the list of priorities.

I'm at a bit of a cross roads myself. I'm reading up on basic bodyweight and gymnastics stuff but don't know enough about it to add in to my routine. However, I do know I want barbell training to be secondary and support exercises, not the meat and potatoes of my workouts. Sprinters do weights but it's only secondary, for example. My order of priorities should be like this: bodyweight training > cardio > weight lifting.
Anyway I'm going off on a tangent. Basically, write down your goals and aims and stick to them.
Always enjoyed a bit of rowing tbf. May start mixing it in on my cardio days for HIIT then.
Chest/Triceps

Bench press: warm up 40kg x 8
67.5kg x3f, 65kg x 4f 65kg x 1, 62.5kg x 5

Incline dumbell press: 20kg x 6, 22kg x5f, 20kg x 6

Piss around with tricep pulldowns.

Not a good session, got quite demoralised. Considering a reset and giving starting strength a go.
Cardio

Gym was busy and bloody humid. Asthma being a bellend.

5 Minutes on exercise bike on resistance 10

5 minute warm up walk, 5k run in 25:50

Starting strength and minor reset begins tomorrow. Think it'll do me the world of good.
(edited 11 years ago)
Starting Strength. Workout A

Bench Press: warmup on 40kg, 60kg x 5 x 3

Squat: Warmup on 60kg, 85kg x 5 x 3

Deadlift: Warmup on 60kg, 140kgx1 (bugger that), 130kg x 5

Done a minor reset to start starting strength. Bench press felt good, nice and deep on the squats. Was exhausted by the time it came to the deadlifts so I dropped the weight a bit more.
So you've started SS. Good one. I'm sure you'll progress. Just don't get trigger happy and go up in big increments. I found that slows down progression. 2.5kg on bench and 5kg on deadlift/squat are more than sufficient (sometimes too much on squat). I guess you're squatting 3 times per week now?

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