1st Cycle...

O

Oxiomeat

New Member
Discovered the site about a month ago and had previously been following Anthony Ellis program/diet from his training plan. In 6 weeks I managed to gain about 9lb and only had 9 sessions (3 weeks) gym time due to a lower back injury which is just healing now...

I have been training on and off now for about 18 months so still a newbie really..

So I have had 2 full weeks to SD while I have been deciding my routine....

Had my first session today, im not the strongest guy about and here is how it went:

5 minute light cardio on exercise bike / 5 min stretching and 1/2 set of warm up for each exercise.


Squats 2x15 @ 60kg
Incline Bench 1x15 @ 40kg / 1x14 @ 40kg
Yates Row 2x15 @ 40kg
Lat pull down 2x15 @ (Level 7 unsure of weight)
Military press 2x15 @ 20kg

5 min cardio on exercise bike to cool down with a bit of stretching.


Started feeling a bit sick so ended the session. I work shifts and have just changed from nights to mornings so wasnt feeling at my best.

Will be looking to add 1 set of dips and drop a set of incline bench and also a set of chins whilst dropping the lat pull down on Wednesday when I feel re-energised. I will be adding approximatly 5lb to all exercises each session to reach my 15 RM in 2 weeks time.

Might do a split workout with deads / squats but at the moment I am worried my back might go so will probably stick to squats this cycle and then add deads next cycle, really dont want to be getting injured again.

I am 5'11" and 189lb hoping to add about 5 - 7lb to reach 196lb (14 stone) by the end of my first cycle.

Any advice or thoughts would be very much appreciated.
 
Welcome Oxiomeat!

Looks like you have a good plan. New routine looks solid.

As far as diet goes, (not sure how much you know about this side of the hypertrophy equation?) aim to add around a lb a week, which means eating about 500 cals over maintenance per day. That should ensure you are not adding too much fat along with new muscle. Make sure your macros are well balanced. This makes for a good read:

Eating for Size

Feeling a bit nauseous at the start of 15s is quite normal if you are unused to doing this many reps. You should find it improves as the 15s continue but they are pretty demanding if your 15RMs are accurate.

If your back is still healing I think you are wise to work around it as much as possible. If you can squat that's great. Adding deads back in when you feel confident to do so makes perfect sense.

Hope you have a productive cycle.
 
Hello Lol and thanks for the reply.

I read that article a week or so back and have already got similar equations worked out from my last program.

At the moment im eating about 6 times a day (every 2-4 hours) I try to prepare all my meals in advance so I then know how much of what im eating and its ready for the times I need to eat. If I get stuck I have myoplex MRP to save the day.

I know what I need to eat and how much I need to eat but some times struggle to count the calories correctly as you cant always be prepared!

At the moment im hitting between 2800 - 3500 calories a day and have put on bodyfat so I guess I have been eating too many calories/fats but I did get injured for 3 weeks and continued to eat quite heavily when really I should have ate at maintenance - my bad!

I just had my morning shake that consisted of about 900 calories, this is my biggest meal in one go on my rest days, the rest of the calories I try to evenly spread out for the rest of the day.

Feeling little sore today but not much, legs are a bit weak after yesterday I notice when getting in/out of chairs, also chest and back are tender!


I have a question about training frequency:

When I have read through the HST principles it says to train every 36 to 48 hours to continue the muscle stimulus. HST also recommends you do a three day training (M/W/F) my question is if its every 48 hours, why have Sunday off? would it have a detrimintal effect to train:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (then repeat over)

This way you are training every 48 hours without the initial weekend break?

Thanks again.
 
Oxio,

I train every other day as well...this shouldn't cause any problems for you. Some like the extra day of rest, but you could always just do that as necessary. Good luck with your program!

2 comments:

You may want to consider adding the deadlift and alternating that with the squat.

I strongly recommend adding traditional flat bench to your routine. Shoulder press and a incline press both hit the shoulders, and can be redundant especially if the bench is set to a steep incline. If nothing else, you may consider alternating incline with flat or dips at the very least.
 
<div>
(soflsun @ Jun. 03 2008,3:22)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Oxio,

I train every other day as well...this shouldn't cause any problems for you.  Some like the extra day of rest, but you could always just do that as necessary.  Good luck with your program!

2 comments:

You may want to consider adding the deadlift and alternating that with the squat.

I strongly recommend adding traditional flat bench to your routine.  Shoulder press and a incline press both hit the shoulders, and can be redundant especially if the bench is set to a steep incline.  If nothing else, you may consider alternating incline with flat or dips at the very least.</div>
Hello soflsun and thanks for the reply,

I really want to do deadlifts but like I said in my first post I have just recovered from a lower back injury and am braving it doing squats, back is still very weak and im scared it may go again, it twinged the other day when I got out of a chair in work was painfull all day. I hope to add deadlifts to my next cycle, but for now I will leave them out to help give my lower back that extra time to recover and strengthen.

I took on board what you said about the flat bench and added into my work out today, I already had dips in my workout but couldnt finish my first work out due to fatigue from work and feeling sick!

Do you think the 'Yates Row' is a good exercise to have in my session to work the back? I find it quite exhausting and think its a good compound lift that works alot of the upper body.
 
Work out #2
----------------

Squats 2x15 @ 72.5kg (Read my plan wrong and used too much weight!)
Flat Bench Press 2x15 @ 42.5kg
Dips 3x4 @ BW
Yates Row 2x15 @ 42.5kg
Chin up 3x4 @ BW
Military press 1x15 @ 22.5kg / 1x11 @ 22.5kg
Upright Row 2x15 @ 20kg

Feel exhausted after work out and only on session two, is this normal?

Do you think maybe the volume is too high?
 
<div>
(Oxiomeat @ Jun. 04 2008,1:28)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Feel exhausted after work out and only on session two, is this normal?

Do you think maybe the volume is too high?</div>
It is normal to feel exhausted if you SD enough or if you were not used to full body workout.
The volume looks good for the second workout. Try dropping to 1 set when you get near the RM day. Of course you are the best judge of volume, if you feel you are more and more tired, has less strength and stuff like that, you are probably doing too much volume.
For chin and dip do you have access to an assisted machine? This way you can use load progression for these exercises.
 
<div>
(electric @ Jun. 04 2008,1:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Oxiomeat @ Jun. 04 2008,1:28)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Feel exhausted after work out and only on session two, is this normal?

Do you think maybe the volume is too high?</div>
It is normal to feel exhausted if you SD enough or if you were not used to full body workout.
The volume looks good for the second workout. Try dropping to 1 set when you get near the RM day. Of course you are the best judge of volume, if you feel you are more and more tired, has less strength and stuff like that, you are probably doing too much volume.
For chin and dip do you have access to an assisted machine? This way you can use load progression for these exercises.</div>
Hi

Yeah I think maybe its because im not used to the full body work out to be honest it really does take it out of me.

Regarding the chins and dips I do not have access to an assist machine unfortunatly. Im not strong enough yet to do anywhere near the required amount, do you think its best to drop them and maybe replace chins with lat pull downs?

Would increasing the amount of chins/dips I do each session be beneficial?
 
Oxio: hitting muscles 3 x weekly is plenty to create a chronic growth stimulus plus it allows you to keep a handle on CNS fatigue. There's nowt wrong with hitting muscles every other day but when the loads get heavy you may just find it all gets a bit too much. Strength tends to drop off if your CNS is hammered too hard. Best thing is to see how you get on.
 
Work out #3
----------------

Squats 2x15 @ 67.5kg
Flat Bench Press 2x15 @ 45kg
Dips 1x6 / 1x5 / 1x5 @ BW
Yates Row 2x15 @ 45kg
Military press 1x15 @ 25kg / 1x11 @ 25kg
Upright Row 1x15 @ 25kg
Lat pull down 1x15 @ (Level 8 unsure of weight)
 
Work out #4
----------------

Squats 2x15 @ 70kg
Flat Bench Press 2x15 @ 47.5kg
Dips 1x6 / 2x4 @ BW
Yates Row 2x15 @ 47.5kg
Military press 1x15 @ 27.5kg
Upright Row 1x14 @ 27.5kg
 
Work out #5
----------------

Squats 2x15 @ 75kg
Flat Bench Press 2x15 @ 50kg
Yates Row 2x15 @ 50kg
Dips 1x9 / 1x7 @ BW
Lat pull down 1x15 @ (Level 8)
Military press 1x13 @ 30kg
Upright Row 1x13 @ 30kg


really struggling to hit my 15 reps with my shoulder exercises, might keep the weight the same for my last workout (30 kg) and hopefully hit my 15, what are peoples thoughts on this?
 
Work out #6 (End of 15's)
----------------

Squats 1x15 @ 80kg / 1x15 @ 85kg
Flat Bench Press 1x15 @ 52.5kg / 1x15 @ 55kg
Yates Row 1x15 @ 52.5kg / 1x15 @ 55kg
Dips 1x12 / 1x6 @ BW
Lat pull down 1x12 @ (Level 9)
Military press 1x13 @ 30kg
Upright Row 1x15 @ 30kg


As no one replied just went with the 30 kg on shoulders, struggled again with hitting 15 with the Military Press but managed to hit my 15 with the Upright Row. Managed to gain strength during the cycle and hit 5kg more than I could on Squats/Bench Press/Yates Row.

Also can now do 12 dips straight off rather than just 4 that I was able to do at the start of the cycle!

Bit disappointed with my Military Press though, I do not seem to be getting stronger in that area.

Very happy with the way the 15's have progressed but now thinking I may have to add more weight for the 10's as I finished higher than I expected on the 15's.
 
Work out #7 (Start of 10's)
----------------

Squats 2x10 @ 75kg
Flat Bench Press 2x10 @ 45kg
Yates Row 2x10 @ 45kg
Dips 1x13 / 1x5 @ BW
Military press 2x10 @ 25kg
Upright Row 2x10 @ 25kg
Lat pull down 2x10 @ (Level 8)
 
Work out #8 (10's)
----------------

Squats 2x10 @ 80kg
Flat Bench Press 2x10 @ 50kg
Yates Row 2x10 @ 50kg
Dips 2x10 @ BW
Military press 2x10 @ 27.5kg
Upright Row 2x10 @ 27.5kg
Lat pull down 2x10 @ (Level 8)
 
Work out #9 (10's)
----------------

Squats 2x10 @ 85kg
Flat Bench Press 2x10 @ 55kg
Yates Row 2x10 @ 55kg
Dips 1x10 / 1x9 @ BW
Military press 2x10 @ 30kg
Upright Row 2x10 @ 30kg
Lat pull down 2x10 @ (Level 9)
 
<div>
(Oxiomeat @ Jun. 13 2008,12:30)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">As no one replied just went with the 30 kg on shoulders, struggled again with hitting 15 with the Military Press but managed to hit my 15 with the Upright Row.</div>
It's not bad to repeat a weight from time to time, especially if you had to struggle with it. Repeat Bout Effect isn't going to set in all that quickly.
 
thanks for the reply tunnel rat. I think i might be repeating weights towards the ends of my 10's as I can see the 2nd week of tens now getting real hard to complete!
 
Oxiomeat, try decreasing volume to 1 set per exercise to see if you get more energy instead of repeating the weights.
 
Work out #10 (10's)
----------------

Squats 2x10 @ 90kg
Flat Bench Press 2x10 @ 60kg
Yates Row 2x10 @ 60kg
Dips 2x10 @ BW
Military press 2x10 @ 32.5kg (had to really struggle to get my last 2 reps out in the second set)
Upright Row 2x10 @ 32.5kg
Lat pull down 2x10 @ (Level 9)

Workout went really well today considering I have been ill over the weekend being sick and not being able to consume any food or drink for 2 days, felt really drained and light headed after the work out though and it also took me about 20 minutes longer to complete than usual.




Thanks for the advice electric, I think I will have to reduce my 10 RM workout to 1 set for the military press and maybe for the bench press.
 
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