I thought I may as well start one of these while I'm bored over the Xmas period. Up to now everything's been stored in my head, it might be good to get it down on "paper".
Background: I've always been slim, always played a lot of competitive football. Always eaten junk food. Recently (last six months) I've watched my diet and eaten very clean, but still had the odd treat and even rarer binge. No restraints on alcohol really, but it's my resolution to cut down a lot for the New Year.
Trained hard this (uni) year, missed a few sessions, good diet, put on a few kilos and seen good strength gains. As usual always playing football, taken up Taekwondo, walk everywhere.
I'm after lean gains so am looking to put on about 0.5lb per week. If I don't hit this I'll up my carbs.
Age: 21 Height: 5' 11" Weight: Just under 76kg a week ago BF%: No idea but in the some ab definition/not enough to look fat zone (12-16%?)
Activities: It's Xmas at the moment, so Football is in the off-season. Usually one to two games and training every week at uni but for the next few weeks it'll be 5-a-side whenever we get some together; Taekwondo four hours a week when at uni; other Student stuff. Basically minimal cardio over Xmas.
Goals:
- Getting up to about 80kg shredded after a bulk and cut.
- Bench 100kg, Squat 120kg, Deadlift 150kg in less than a year
- Generally get a bit stronger in the upper and lower body for Football and TKD.
Routine:Westside for Skinny Bastards III (for the last few months I've followed a basic Push/Pull/Legs with a lot of compound focus).
Diet Training Day: ~P200g ~C400g ~F65g ~Total3000Kcal
Diet is working at the moment, could maybe trim a few calories over Xmas with the lower cardio. Rest days which are few and far between (at uni, bad I know) will be reduced by 3-400 calories, cardio days will involve an increase of roughly the same depending on intensity. They're usually pretty heavy.
Diet is (c)lean with one or two cheats a week (which aren't really cheats). Lots of lean meat, turkey, chicken, oily fish, eggs, quark, milk, occasionally lean mince. Carbs from brown rice, pasta, bread, noodles, oats, oatcakes, sweet potatoes. Lots of fruit and veggies as standard. Fats from oils, nut oils, peanut butter, fish oils, e.t.c. Flavour from homemade sauces and spices.
Uni deadlines and nights out have made it hard to stick to this religiously the last few months, but I'm going to try my utmost after Xmas.
This all looks very solid. Good diet, sticking to a proper weights programme rather than pick 'n' mixing and ending up with a mess, and a good amount of cardio. Not a lot I can say, except that I approve.
The only issue I'd bring up is your deadlift. First of all, you don't need gloves, you need to do grip training and maybe get some chalk, and second you don't need to be doing 5x5 - 1x5 or 2x5 is perfectly adequate, 5x5 is excessive for basic strength training.
It's the pain from the blisters on my palms accumulated through the DL and other exercises holding me back, but I see where you're coming from and imagine that this is in part due to my grip failing me and the bar slipping as I lift and the friction that generates. My feet are tough as boots from football but hands not so much.
As the skin toughens up and my grip improves I imagine it should be fine. Reducing deadlift sets should help too. Westside has a grip exercise in it anyway, so that should be fine down the line. I'll have a look at some chalk since this is the only exercise the pain affects my lifting in. Cheers.
Deadlifts should be done as a max set of 5 on ME lower days on WS4SB.
What actual exercises have you picked, the list for ws4sb is pretty big.
Yeah I know, those were just my general lifts across the board last time I went max effort in a week, just as an indicator to everyone else. Looking at it, I guess 5x5 on DL was a bit too much but with my grip failing me I couldn't go higher on those and had to stick with 5x5. Haven't ever tried 1x5 so I imagine that'll make my figure go up once I get some chalk?
I haven't actually started WS4SB yet. I'm going to be using the most recent version which looks like:
MONDAY – Max-Effort Lower Body TUESDAY – Off WEDNESDAY – Max-Effort Upper Body THURSDAY – Off FRIDAY – Dynamic-Effort Lower Body SATURDAY – Off SUNDAY – Repetition Upper Body
Haven't really planned out my full routine yet but I know my good compounds e.t.c. A lot of these such as the dynamics I've never really done before. Are there mistakes I could end up making? Are there far better exercises than others in the same block?
I was also wondering why squats and deadlifts are in the same block, meaning I'd end up going 2-3 weeks without doing one or the other? I like doing both in a week with DLs usually coming on back days and not leg days. Is there a way around this?
Well I disagree with a few things from ws4sb, mostly their take on DE days, but thats neither here nor there. The fact that 3 of the most important lifts for athletes are trained on a rotational basis has never made perfect sense to me.
Theres nothing to stop you altering the program a bit, changing the DE lower day to deadlifts, box squats and some jump work, and then do ME squats is the most obvious change.
Well I disagree with a few things from ws4sb, mostly their take on DE days, but thats neither here nor there. The fact that 3 of the most important lifts for athletes are trained on a rotational basis has never made perfect sense to me.
Theres nothing to stop you altering the program a bit, changing the DE lower day to deadlifts, box squats and some jump work, and then do ME squats is the most obvious change.
Yeah, I might try that. Sounds like a good balance.
Originally Posted by Adonis
Gloves are for pussies
Use Chalk
Either way, we've established that I need something to help me grip the bar.
From my experience gloves make it harder to grip the bar.
I don't know about you but 1-2 weeks of training is enough to toughen up my hands so that I don't get blisters, stick at it and use chalk.
Well after a couple of months solid, I do still get them. Must just be my silky smooth hands.
Massive food shop coming tomorrow along with some of that new Total Protein XS stuff (Choc Mint of course) from MyProtein since I came home on the coach and my other tub was too big to bring. We're talking epic amounts of turkey and tinned fish.
Going to see if I can live a month without chicken or beef as it would make my life (and my wallets) so much easier. Epic fail coming.
So this has stalled a bit since getting home from uni. I'm struggling to find a decent gym near me and I'm still waiting on my supps. That coupled with revision, reading and basically playing an hour+ of football everyday means that I've ended up doing a mini-cut in the run up to Xmas, in anticipation of the amount I'm going to try and consume. After Boxing Day, no holding backsies.
I haven't had a drop of alcohol yet which is a bonus. Been doing some light sets of ab work, BW+Weight dips, press-ups, pull-ups e.t.c. Nothing organised, just when I'm bored.
For all you diet heads out there, here's a rough example of my daily diet. Any tips? I think it's pretty well-rounded, but everything can always be improved.
11AM
1 egg 2 white omelette (or sardines or mackerel + toast instead of oats + fruit or whey and oat shake if in lectures + fruit or veg)
100g Peppers
Handful of mushrooms
Onion
LF Cheese
60g Oats
200ml 1% milk
1.30PM
1/2 tin tuna (or tinned salmon or turkey)
2 slices w/meal bread
Lettuce
Handful of tomatoes
Light mayonnaise
Lemon juice + pepper
An orange
4.30PM (Pre-WO)
85g brown rice
120g turkey (or mackerel or herring)
100g broccoli
100g mixed veg
Handful of spinach
Creatine
6.30PM (PWO)
25g whey
50g dextrose
Creatine
7.30PM
120g turkey mince (or lean beef mince or salmon and veg, pasta + sauce, or turkey fillet or stir fry or healthy fajitas e.t.c.)
1/4 jar of passata
Handful of tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
Handful of mushrooms
1-200g veg on side
Spices + herbs
60g w/meal pasta
2 oatcakes
Probably eat about 1kg+ a day in fruit and veg. I drop the PWO shake on non-training days and sometimes have less pasta/rice/oats. I add a little on my heavy cardio days (e.g. football).
I like to mix things up. Obviously I don't have the same stuff everyday. As long as I'm getting roughly the same macronutrient values it's fine. I like to experiment in the kitchen too, finding healthy ways of making things like burgers, chilli, fajitas, curries e.t.c. The above is just a rough outline.
i'm intrigued, 230g of protein a day, why so much ?
excess protein is not stored by the body.
in someone who is having sufficient carbohydrates the majority would be converted to fat.
like this:
protein -> amino acid -> acetyl-coenzyme A -> fatty acids -> triglycerides (adipose tissue)
so why so much protein?
Yeah I know your body can only process so much. That's just the way it works out when everything's added up. Ideally it'd be lower, like >200g. 80g of what I take in is from vegetables and carbs alone though, with 70g dairy and 80g lean meat. On non-training days it's about 200g.
If I lowered my protein intake at the main sources I'd be eating half turkey fillets or quarter tins of tuna, which wouldn't help me get the carbs and veggies down any easier. It's lifestyle over function that makes it that way.
Everyone's different and everyone has different ideas about what's too much. Some bodybuilders would recommend I take in more, some less. My friend's probably eat about 150g a day and they don't even go to the gym. Don't worry, I'm not some nub who think rarr protein = big musclez.
Thinking about it maybe I will try and trim down a few g's where I can.
I'd be interested to hear your take on protein though.
Get some more fat in there, you've got a pretty crazy macronutrient ratio at the moment.
3020% is crazy? It's not the worst I've ever heard. Loads of people use it on a bulk. It's probably a bit more fat factoring in cooking oil and days when I have two portions of fish too.
I though 0.4-0.5g per lb fat was pretty standard? I've seen loads of people out there make gains on 4020, a lot of people use the zone diet, some use 3333. Everyone's different and what I've got is working fine, but I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say.
3020% is crazy? It's not the worst I've ever heard. Loads of people use it on a bulk. It's probably a bit more fat factoring in cooking oil and days when I have two portions of fish too.
I though 0.4-0.5g per lb fat was pretty standard? I've seen loads of people out there make gains on 4020, a lot of people use the zone diet, some use 3333. Everyone's different and what I've got is working fine, but I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say.
Lol. Back in the gym tomorrow (for the first time in a month) as I'm back at uni now. Indulged mucho at Xmas and not really changed at all physically. Not much else to say. Might put some measurements later on.
Keep track of you diet, monitor you fat loss and post your new 1 rep max. Post your blog here.
Westside for Skinny Brotherhood
20% is crazy? It's not the worst I've ever heard. Loads of people use it on a bulk. It's probably a bit more fat factoring in cooking oil and days when I have two portions of fish too. 
20, a lot of people use the zone diet, some use 33
33. Everyone's different and what I've got is working fine, but I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say.
