AG's Learning Curve...

A

AderynGlas

Member
Ok it's time to bite the bullet and get my own log up and running, which will hopefully help me progress to the next stage of my training.

My goals:
* Get bigger, arms, legs, chest, back you name it. I've not got a desired weight yet as I had set myself a 12 stone target, but now I'm 5lbs off I still feel small in my upper body (and judging from what you guys have said in other posts, if I set a target in weight, once I get there it'll increase anyways).
* Become more powerful, and by that I mean stronger but also fit.

My gym is in a country golf club, so whilst it's not the best equipped for the serious lifter (which I certainly don't consider myself) it's a very plush environment that's never massively busy. Equipment is the usual sets of dumbbells, 1 standard bench, 1 cable machine (plus chin bars), 1 smith machine, dip station, speed ball, punch bag and a single machine for every major muscle group (ie not free weights).

My plan is to keep it simple (love the simplify and win thread). Lift 3 times a week, cardio twice. I've been following on here for around 3 years and have completed a few routines but never really had the diet to back up the lifting.
1. Dead lifts
2. Chins
3. Arnold press
4. Dips
5. Incline BB Bench press
6. Cable Ab's Crunch

I hate not having an bicep iso exercise, hard to shift old/bad habits.

From a diet POV, I weight 72kg and from looking at the articles on here I've worked out I need:

BMR: 1734 Cal's (72 * 24)
BMR Inc Activity: 2254 Cal's (1734 * 1.3)

Calories Goal: 2554 / Day
P 159 g - 636 Cal's - 25%
C 355 g - 1420 Cal's - 56%
F 55 g - 495 Cal's - 19%

Any critiques welcome, before I start lifting I'm going to take a look around for some good YT videos so I know what my form on each lift should look like. So if anyone has any tha they know of it would be appreciated.
 
Chins will work the biceps, so no worries there. If you don't need to make your abs bigger, you could replace the ab crunches with squats and alternate with the deads.
 
You also may want to up the protein and fat, and decrease the carbs. I think your proportions are off a bit.
 
I would do, but I hate squats as they just burn and tire me out. I might put them into my next routine as I know they're good.

My Carbs do look a little high so I'll have to rejig the figures and work something out, thanks for noticing. I've been so focused on trying to get the overall calories and protein in, I didn't notice/track the carbs. I do think I've finally found a way to get to 150-170g protein a day, but at the moment I'm finding it not as enjoyable eating so much. I wouldn't say hard, but I'm starting to get my fill of peanut butter already, lol.
 
150-170g protein is easy for me. Consistently over 200 is hard and 250-300 is nearly impossible. Try 2 whey protein shakes w/2 scoops for each and that will likely get you halfway there.
 
Yea, 2 scoops and 400ml's of milk give me around 60g's protein, I've just been shirking the second shake.

Now my little one has arrive ill be at the Gym later on than I normally would, which should give me an opportunity to get some food in me before working out and then have a shake after. The weight gain is coming roughly 2 lbs in just over a week now. :)
 
Put more scoops in each shake and you can protein up higher. I get 200 a day without even trying, with minimal effort I can get to 300 grams. If your shakes are getting too thick, then you've got a brand of shake that has too many thickeners in them. I really hate the ones that add thickeners, it makes it so you cannot use as many scoops unless you want to chew it. I regularly do shakes with two cups of milk and four to six scoops of whey, with the whey isolate I get from true nutrition, that is over 100 grams per shake. Two of those a day on top of food gets to 300 pretty easily. For you, I would attempt 200 minimum, ideally closer to 250.

I do think that your calorie goal is too low, that would barely be maintenance for most people your bodyweight. You should up your calories to 2800 in my opinion. When I was your size, I bulked on 3000 before I gained any appreciable weight, but I'm not sure how your metabolism compares to mine back then.
 
AderynGlas said:
My plan is to keep it simple (love the simplify and win thread). Lift 3 times a week, cardio twice. I've been following on here for around 3 years and have completed a few routines but never really had the diet to back up the lifting.
1. Dead lifts
2. Chins
3. Arnold press
4. Dips
5. Incline BB Bench press
6. Cable Ab's Crunch
Click to expand...
Drop the Arnold press. The incline presses will hit your deltoids plenty. If you really are concerned about delts, do some lateral raises or something. Arnold presses and incline presses are too similar IMO. Evn better, throw in some cable rows which will thicken your back and hit the rear delts too. Your legs won't grow much on that program, but if you only want upper body, it's fine. But I would do some leg presses or lunges or something for legs.
 
In my opinion it isn't really needed to up the protein that high. I mean 250 300 g for 72 kg? 4 g per kg and more? I dont know what metabolism do you guys have but i do just fine at 1,2 g x lb... Even his calories are right.. Think about it, he says hes eating a lot in respect to what he was eating before, so we can suppose that with around, let's say, 2000 kcal he was at maintenance before (so he hasn't that fast of a metabolism). In my opinion with around 500-600 kcal over his previous intake he can gain nicely for 2-3 months minimum.

The only change i would do in his counting would be to lower that extra 50 g of carb and up the fats a little, taking them from some good sources (olive oil ftw).

I suppose there are a lot of people here familiar with lyle or even blade for that matter, and they all have found that more that 1,5x bodyweight in lbs for protein isn't really needed.

That said everyone metabolism is different, so if one for example happen to have a lot of t3, or happen to train 6X-12x week then maybe... but it's a thing so personal... recommending 300-400 g of protein to everyone isn't very healty IMHO

See for example this: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0024320587900865
 
Last edited:
I think I might be getting more protein than I give myself credit for (I'll get around to a food diary I think to get a consistent figure, just sorting our my new phone).

Usual diet whilst in work:
7am. Bowl cereal + milk,
8-9am. Shake (2 scoops + 400 mls milk, 60g-ish protein)
11-14pm. 2 Sandwichs or baked potato (tuna) or pasta salad, (always make suer it's alteast 30g protein)
6-7pm.Evening meal (which I don't count Cal's or Protein as the Wife makes it).
9-10pm. Anything chocolatey.

Throughout day - 2 x protein bars (home made, 10g protein in each around 100 cals), 30-50g nuts, apple and banana.

Out of work you can drop the fruit and nuts and throw in a second shake (normally only 1 scoop, so prob 35g protein) and add in some scrambled egg, bacon on toast.

I've had a look around the internet and it seems the average BMR for my age/build is 1750 Cal's, so add in moderate exercise and add the extra (to gain) and 2,500 should be spot on. Although, I gained 2lbs last week with 0 exercise and this week i'm starting cardio before the weights next week, so if over the next 2-3weeks I don't gain i'll have to follow Totz advice and increase further.

Historcially I've been one of those eat everything guys who stays slim. I can still drop almost half a stone at will if I stop drinking alcohol altogether (I have now lowered my drinking down to weekends, and no more than 5 pints + 1 whisky in that period). My body likes small meals and often, I struggle with large portions but 30 minutes after eating I can almost east another full meal again.

You guys know more about the detail of nutrition, but the Whey I settled on is Extreme nutrition. Tasty and I can keep it down and it doesn't wash through me like another make I have tried. Seems to have a small ingredients list, which must be good?

Sci, if I was to change the Inc DB Bench to a flat Press i'm guessing that would change the work load off the shoulders to the chest/arms? I know it's a little top heavy, but people have always said I have good size thighs for my size so i'd like to re-dress the balance (plus did I say I hate squats ;) )

Routine wise i'm planning:
1 Week of 15's,
2 Weeks 10's
2 Weeks 5's
1 Week 3's
1 Week testing new max's (although I might just to this instead of the 3's)

SD and start again.
 
Thursday - 30/1/12
-15 Min's Treadmill, Hill setting, level 8.
-15 Min's Bike, Hills, level 8.
-1000m Row, 10, 4 Mins.

Friday - 31/1/12
-15 Mins bike, Hill, 11.
-15 Mins Treadmill, 11, run up, walk down hill.

Sunday - 3/2/13
-100m Row, 10, 4.
-Dead lifts 15 x 15 x 2 (narrow grip)
-Bench 15 x 15 x 2(narrow grip)
-Cable Crunch 28.75 x 15 x 2
-Arnold Press 6 x 15 x 2
-Chins BW x 15 x 2
-Dips BW 15 x 2

Comments: Started light as i've not retested my maxes and didn't want to wait another week. Routine took less than 30 Mins and felt like I'd not done it at the end. Can't wait for the 10s and 5s. (Weight in Kg's).

Good news on the diet, I'm now getting closer to 180g protein a day.
 
Tuesday - 5/2/13

Chest press machine - 2 x 15 x 25 (2 young guys were on the smith machine for my entire work out)
Deadlift - 2 x 15 x 10 (with dumbbells due to the above)
Chin ups - 2 x 7 x BW (middle grip bar, so hands facing each other)
Cable Crunch - 2 x 15 x 33.75
Arnold press - 2 x 15 x 8
Dips - 2 x 7 x BW


Wednesday - 6/2/13

Row - 1000m x 2,
Treadmill - 15 mins, 11, hill
Cycle - 8 mins, 11, hill


Thursday 7/2/13

Deadlift - 2 x 15 x 25 (wide grip)
Bench - 2 x 15 x 25 (wide grip)
Chin up - 2 x 8 x BW (hands inward)
Cable crunch - 2 x 15 x 38.25
Arnold press - 2 x 15 x 10
Dips 2 x 8 x BW
 
If I were you Id consider the previous advice where you could alternate between deads and squats. You´ll really reek the benefits after a while. Just get a good demovideo, start off easy and build up slowly. I feel my base is so much stronger than previously when I didnt do them. Also: try and do as many exercises with real weights as oppose to machines. You´ll work so much more muscles than the isolation of the chest machine. Id use dumbbells or barbell instead.

I really couldnt imagine my routine not including both dead and squats.
 
So, if I were to consider a squat/dead split, it would look like:

15s
Sun - S(quat)
Tues - D(eadlift)
Thurs - S

10s
Sun - D
Tues - S
Thurs - D

Etc

Now to follow HST I need to progress the overall workload (load x volume) right? So how would this work with the above routine as I cannot seem to work out a decent progression as it looks to be jumping from working at one level on 15s and then a big jump into 10s?

I'm only using a smith machine as my gym dumbbells only go to 20kg and there's no free barbell, only the smith machine as a barbell substitute.
 
I think it would look more like this. If not, one of the more experienced HSTers will correct me. ;)

15s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM

10s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM

5s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM
 
Ok, that makes perfect sense seeing it like that. M&d it might actually work quite well considering I'm lifting relatively lighter weights at my current stage so there's not a lot of range between my 100% and my 70% (which is way too light).

Thanks, ill make sure I plan it into my next HST routine.
 
You could also do 80% - 90% - 100% or any other combination that progresses the weight to your RM's
 
T-man said:
I think it would look more like this. If not, one of the more experienced HSTers will correct me. ;)

15s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM

10s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM

5s
Sun - Squat 90%RM
Tue - DL 90% RM
Thur - Squat 95% RM
Sun - DL 95% RM
Tue - Squat 100% RM
Thur - DL 100% RM
Click to expand...

Tis correct.
 
Been a while and I'll post up more later but for now a quick question.

Someone in the gym suggested that since I'm continuing my second cycle using the same exercises (albeit with squats now alternating with deadlifts) that I should alter my bench slightly to range between a slight incline to flat bench and not stay with a flat bench continually.

Makes sense as surely it would work different parts of the chest, but not get too upright otherwise ill be hitting the shoulders too much each workout.

Right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top