A - Week 3

Full Body Training - Workout A - Week 3

Overall Impression:

Happy New Year (in advance) everyone so i weighed myself today. i weigh 81 kgs = 178 lbs. nice. thats a 5 lbs gain roughly. i need to increase carb intake. im kinda happy. not that the scale matters much. for me, its the mirror that counts.

Workout:

Deadlifts
255 lbs x 8 reps
265 lbs x 4 reps
185 lbs x 10 reps (back off set)
taken very very close to failure. i liked this. im happy.

Bench Press
185 lbs x 3 reps
90% of 1RM
i think ive found my bench groove back. my problem was gripping the bar. i havent been able to grip it correctly where the weight is distributed down the forearm.

Bulgarian Squats
40 lbs x 8 reps x 2 sets

Ab Work
- Hanging Leg Raises = 2 sets x 17 reps x 8 kgs dumbbell (17.6 lbs)
- Over Head Plate Side Bends = 2 sets x 17 reps x 5 kgs plate (11 lbs)
added 2 reps per set per exercise from friday's workout. nice. im happy. on friday, ill be focusing on some heavy negs.

Shoulder Prehab
Dip Shrugs and Scapular Retractions

I hope everyone has great plans for this new years eve happy new year in advance guys and gals

C - Week 2

Full Body Training - Workout C - Week 2

Overall Impression:

Im somewhat happy about this workout. it isnt the best ive had but its far from the worst. my diet off late has been good and i think the ab work that i am finally doing after so many months is slowly paying off.

Workout:

Military Press
132 lbs (60 kgs) x 5 reps
121 lbs (50 kgs) x 5 reps x 5 sets
I was going to try and nail 132x5x4 but something felt odd in that first set so i decided to reduce the weight. surprisingly, the remaining 5 sets werent as difficult as expected. i reckon i could've stuck to my plan if i hadnt panicked. i should've just rested for a bit and then gone back to it. ill try to get 132x5x4 next week.

Dumbbell Rows
75 lbs x 6 reps x 3 sets
smooth and easy

Seated Unilateral Dumbbell Military Press
45 lbs x 8 reps x 2 sets
i will try to progress on these next time round. i will either aim for 9 reps or increase the sets to 3.

Flat Dumbbell Bench Press
55 lbs x 12 reps x 2 sets
i did these in a Strength Speed fashion. reps were controlled but very fast.

Ab Work
- Hanging Leg Raises 8 kgs x 15 reps x 2 sets
- Over Head Side Bends 5 kgs x 15 reps x 2 sets
So i progressed on these two...i upped the reps by 2 on HLR and by 5 on OHSB. my goal with ab work is to keep increasing volume steadily for 2-3 weeks on any 2 exercises, then switching them out for another 2 exercises and then coming back to these after i apply similar progression techniques on the new exercises. i still have 1 or 2 weeks left of these 2 though. im happy im finally doing some direct ab work. i can feel my abs getting tighter and i like it. somehow though (and perhaps this is a stretch of my imagination), i feel like my waist size is increasing. is that normal? or am i just imagining this? i hope its just my imagination.

Alternate Hand Dumbbell Hammer Curls
45 lbs x 12 reps x 1 set
this was taken to failure.

Facepulls
80 lbs x 10 reps
120 lbs x 10 reps
145 lbs x 4 reps

Shoulder Prehab Work
some scapular retractions...

3 more days till 31st hope y'all have exciting new year's eve plans

B - Week 2

Full Body Training - Workout B - Week 2

Overall Impression:

i need to weigh myself. i have this feeling that my weight's increased. also, either its the effect of all the ab work or the bloat ive brought on with the carbs im consuming, but my stomach is becoming bigger and bigger and im not liking it - although i am developing some pretty hard feeling abzz..

Workout:

Squats
225 lbs x 5 reps x 5 sets
I cannot believe how I was able to do these. My form was spot on correct and the weight felt good. The last set was really tough and I had to take 2-3 breaths before the final rep. When i was on the texas method, my 5x5 max had been 245 lbs. i plan on shattering that record soon.
My form was spot on. i compared it to last week's squat session - i had walked into the gym on an empty stomach and when i worked out, i had spread my feet too far apart, etc. but today everything just sunk in right. everything was exactly as it should be. perhaps next time i will take a video.
i am thinking of either doing 235x5x5 or 200x8x3 next week. lets see.

Pull-Ups
Density Training = 10 sets x 4 reps in 10 minutes
I cannot believe i nailed this!!!

Unilateral RDLs
45 lbs x 7 reps x 2 sets

Grip Work
one set of wrist curls and one set of reverse wrist curls

Ab Work
- Hanging Leg Raises = 2 sets x 13 reps x 8 kgs dumbbell (17.6 lbs)
- Over Head Plate Side Bends = 2 sets x 11 reps x 5 kgs plate (11 lbs)

Shoulder Prehab Work
Did some scapular retraction work. very light and easy.

only a few more days left for the new year. i hope all is well with all of y'all

A - Week 2

Full Body Training - Workout A - Week 2

Overall Impression:

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Today's workout was pretty good.. Im very happy with my deadlifts. I've been hogging food. Unfortunately though, I ate my last meal 4 hours before my workout and I took too long of a nap before my workout. This kind of drained me of any energy. Thats not cool. I will try and avoid something like this happening again.

Other than the food intake timing mini-fiasco, there's nothing else special to report, guys and gals.

Workout:

Deadlifts
225 lbs x 5 reps
245 lbs x 5 reps
255 lbs x 5 reps
245 lbs x 3 reps
225 lbs x 3 reps
Im trying to think of what would be better to do next week. I want to sort of alternate perhaps between weeks of high poundage work and low poundage work. perhaps this a good idea. I'll see. For now, my goal next week will be to do 2 sets of 5 reps with 255 and perhaps use a similar pyramiding system where i pyramid up and then down.

Bench Press
Speed Strength Work
70% of 1RM
145 lbs x 3 reps x 6 sets
I want to do something different next time. I might try a few singles with 200 or so. It depends on how beat up I feel after deadlifts.

Bulgarian Squats
40 lbs x 8 reps x 2 sets

Ab Work
- Hanging Leg Raises = 2 sets x 10 reps x 8 kgs dumbbell (17.6 lbs)
- Over Head Plate Side Bends = 2 sets x 10 reps x 5 kgs plate (11 lbs)
I am keeping the volume and intensity relatively low. I do not want to have sore abs for my squat workout in 2 days. But I am proud of myself for finally taking some initiative in training teh abzz. haha.

Shoulder Prehab Dip Shrugs

This is for my shoulder prehab work. I will be doing 1-2 shoulder prehab exercises per workout. It's not too intense.

Thanks for reading, y'al!! I would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas Have a great day

C - Week 1

Full Body Training - Workout C - Week 1

Overall Impression:

im going to be changing a few things in my training program. im not sure when and im not sure what exactly but a few changes are required.

regarding diet, ive been eating plenty of food and i got 13 hours of sleep last night. that hasnt happened to me once since 8th grade. god it feels good

Workout:

Pull-ups
Density Training = 10 sets x 4 reps in 10 minutes
This was very very difficult. I think i've actually gotten weaker on these since before. I'm gonna be doing them for one more week before i switch.

Close Grip Bench Press
135 lbs x 3 reps
155 lbs x 3 reps
175 lbs x 3 reps
125 lbs x 8 reps
I liked this. I'm doing CGBP after a long time. And it feels good

Dumbbell Rows
70 lbs x 6 reps x 3 sets
Felt great!

Seated Dumbbell Unilateral Shoulder Press
45 lbs x 8 reps x 2 sets

Barbell Curls
65 lbs x 6 reps x 1 set

Ab Work
i did some hanging leg raises with 6 kgs dumbbells. 2 sets to failure around 15-20 reps odd.

Christmas is just round the corner everyone! i hope y'all are all having a fabulous holiday!

B - Week 1

Full Body Training - Workout B - Week 1

Overall Impression:

I've been eating good food and lots of it. I checked my bodyweight yesterday and im very disappointed to say that i weighed in at 175 lbs

i also did some cardio yesterday. today's workout was good and i am happy at the way my strength is improving. i think my routine may need to be slightly tweaked in maybe 3-4 weeks. i have a few possibilities but i will explore those in another post...this one is dedicated to today's workout which i am pretty pleased with.

Workout:

Military Press
132 lbs (60 kgs) x 5 reps x 3 sets
121 lbs (55 kgs) x 6 reps x 2 sets
99 lbs (45 kgs) x 8 reps x 1 set
I think the 3x5 set with 132 lbs is a PR by 2 lbs. im not sure...the bar at my gym weighs 12 kgs (weird) so actually the weight was 62 kgs which equals 136.4 lbs however i dont think thats possible. either way, im underestimating the weight and taking 132 lbs as my new 3x5 max haha i am very happy with the way this went down. all reps were controlled and not too slow. the last set of 132 was killer. i struggled on the 4th rep, lost my breathing pattern so i racked the weight, took a deep breath and cranked out 1 more rep. form was good too. elbows in front of bar.

Squats
200 lbs (90 kgs) x 6 reps x 3 sets
176 lbs (80 kgs) x 8 reps x 2 sets
My squat strength is returning slowly and steadily. this is good. I think once i reach the potential to squat somewhere along the lines of 225 for 4x6 or 5x5 i am going to have to re-arrange a few of the exercises on this full body program. this is a topic for a new post though....

Unilateral RDLs
45 lbs x 6 reps x 2 sets
I took it easy on this for today. i am being conservative this first week. I dont want to do so much that in 2 weeks i need a deload lol..

Facepulls
a few heavy sets. i didnt do too many because i have to do pull-ups day after tomorrow.

Ab Work
i did some hanging leg raises with 8 kgs and 4 kgs dumbbells. 2-3 sets to failure around 15-20 reps odd. im gonna stick to this exercise for another 2-3 weeks before i switch.

Thanks for reading y'all! Happy holidays everyone and i hope everyone's doing fine!

A - Week 1

Full Body Training - Workout A - Week 1

Overall Impression:

I just got back today morning from Houston (took a Houston-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Bombay flight) and the last 24 hours sitting at airports and sleeping on planes has left me very dehydrated and hungry because the food on Lufthansa sucks. I did workout today and I think it was a good workout on the whole. My diet is improving and since I am now at home, I have zero excuses for the next 30 days to skip meals or not eat enough. I have lost a lot of weight and I am not too happy about it.

Workout:

Deadlifts
135x5
185x5
225 lbs x 5 reps x 3 sets
245 lbs x 1 rep
265 lbs x 2 reps
Very nice workout. My back is feeling fine. I did all the lower back stretches at the end of the workout as well. I am happy with the way my deadlift strength is slowly and steadily improving. Not very long ago I found moving 185 lbs a challenge.

Bulgarian Squats
40 lbs x 6 reps x 2 sets
This is probably one of the most boring exercises. From next week onwards I am therefore going to spend more time and energy perfecting this exercise.

Bench Press
Dynamic Effort Work
70% of 1RM
145 lbs x 3 reps x 5 sets
Felt pretty easy. The bar kinda flew up. I think that next week I will either do more sets or aim for 3x3 with 180 or 185 lbs. I might even do some 3RM attempts. I need more time to think about this.

Grip Work
I did a circuit of
- Hammer Curls
- Wrist Curls
- Reverse Wrist Curls
- Bar Pull aparts
These felt good.

Ab Work

I wasnt feeling too good today so I didnt do any serious ab work - just some basic core stuff like crunches, etc.

Thank you for reading, guys! I hope everyone is having a good week

ill + exams + future plans

hey everyone,

i know i havent been updating my journal over the last 3-5 days. i am a little under the weather at the moment and this is exam week for me so i am very very stressed. therefore i will not be working out this week at all.

i leave for bombday on the 16th and arrive on the 17th late night. therefore my next workout will be on the 18th. i will be posting regularly from there on.

my goals are the same, just in case anyone has forgotten:
1.) reduce bf% through diet
2.) get my overhead press to 185 (currently at 155 which is 90% of my bw)
3.) get my deadlift to a more respectable number (currently around 255 because of lower back injury)

however, i will not be using this upper lower split for the time being. i have been using it for around 30 weeks now and my priorities in life have kind of changed a little bit so my split has been altered. i will be doing 3 full body workouts a week from now on. with this new program i might need to deload every 6-7 weeks or so. maybe. i wont know till i actually try it out.

before i post my workout program i would like to also add that during these holidays i will be doing cardio 3-6 times a week. sometimes it will be low intensity sometimes HIIT. i am not so sure. but i will be trying harder to focus on some amount of cardio. i dont expect earth-shattering results in 4 weeks from this but every little step counts.

i would also like to add that this workout program has been arranged the way it has because i need it to be like that. if someone has suggestions regarding substituion of exercises then i am all ears but i will not changing anything in terms of muscle groups worked, etc. the basic layout of the program is:

Workout A: Full Body w/ focus on deadlifts and lower body work
Workout B: Full Body w/ focus on military press and squat work
Workout C: Upper Body only w/ focus on military press and bench assistance work

here is the workout program:

Full Body Training

WORKOUT A:
- Deadlifts
- Bulgarian Squats 2x6-8
- Bench Press speed 70%ish, proceeded by some triples every other week, or replaced by "quality volume" every several weeks with one strength-speed set at end

WORKOUT B:
- Military Press
- Squats 3-4x6-10
- Glute Ham Raises
- Facepulls

WORKOUT C:
- Pull-ups Density Training
- Close Grip Bench Press 2-3x6-10
- Rows 3-5x6-10
- Seated Dumbbell Unilateral Shoulder Press 2-3x8-12

the volume on these workouts will vary because handling full body workouts is a bit difficult. i need to start out with really low volume and then add volume slowly in order to make sure i distribute stress in a way that my body can dissipate it and allow me to recover faster.

so this is the plan and i look forward to posting again in this journal post the 18th.

thank you everyone for reading i hope those of you who have exams have the best of luck and i hope everyone is having a good week.

Upper 1, Week 30

Fall '07 - Upper 2, Week 30

Overall Impression:

its reading day before finals. i woke up really early today after only 6 hours of sleep and i had been studying from 10 am till 6:30 pm with a one hour break for lunch and then i studied from 7:30 till 9:30 and went to workout. now i dont feel like studying...might go out partying....i hate accounting. lol. however, diet today was pretty ok. im upping my protein intake.

Military Press

i did a LOT of sets for these. ill list them right from warm-up:
95x5
115x2
*work sets from now on*
135x3
140x2
145x2
150x2
155x1
120 lbs x 8 reps x 3 sets
fuck yeah! 155x1 is a new PR for me (not even my 1RM though). its also 90% of my bodyweight right now. well, 88.9% but whatever. im pretty thrilled about this. the goal with this was to do some heavy pressing work using only 5 lbs increments as the largest increment. i think i did ok. considering i was very tired when walking into the gym, im happy about this workout.

Pull-ups = 10 sets x 4 reps x 10 minutes

this was worse than last time. im gonna have to repeat this 10x4 scheme next week. shit.

Seated Barbell Shoulder Press = 95 lbs x 5 reps x 3 sets

nice. i think i need to work the midpoint of the ROM of the military press. the bar went up really slowly around there.

Lat Pull Downs 2 sets x 10 reps x 150 lbs superset with Pull Overs 2 sets x 10 reps x 45 lbs

nice!

Facepulls

80 lbs x 10 reps
100 lbs x 6 reps
120 lbs x 8 reps
140 lbs x 5 reps

Leaving Thoughts:

im pretty happy. my overhead pressing strength is pretty dencent for my bodyweight i reckon.

i hope everyone else is happy with their week so far. thanks for reading, guys

Lower 1, Week 30

Fall '07 - Lower 1A, Week 30

Overall Impression:

ok we have a slight change in my schedule...from now on, my schedule will be a 2 week rotation:

WEEK 1:
Mon - Lower 1A
Wed - Upper 2
Fri - Lower 2

WEEK 2:
Mon - Upper 1
Wed - Lower 1B
Fri- Upper 2

this will be repeated again and again...

diet has improved...i think i fall into these lapses where my diet just goes right out the window....i hate that...

Deadlifts

did quite a few sets today
135x5
185x3
205 lbs x 7 reps x 3 sets *work sets*
225 lbs x 7 reps x 1 set *work set*
i think my strength is coming along pretty nicely. i hope this continues for a while.

Bulgarian Squats = 2 sets x 8 reps x 40 lbs

god....ive finally learnt to like this exercise enough to try and maintain good form. lol

Glute Ham Raises = 2 sets x 10 reps

im getting better at these i think

Shoulder Rehab and Prehab work

did a few light sets of overhead shrugs, dip shrugs and some rehab work i have outlined in my injury thread...

Leaving Thoughts:

cool workout

i hope everyone is having a good week! thanks for reading, guys and gals.

Upper 1, Week 29

Fall '07 - Upper 1, Week 29

Overall Impression:

diet has been kinda better. i think ive been slacking off the protein a lot. i will make up for it soon.

regarding my weight, i weighed in today and i was at 176.2 lbs. funny...

Bench Press = 1 set x 1 rep x 205 lbs

this used to be my old 3RM. now its like my 1RM. which is fine - its probably because i am focussing so heavily on over head pressing. which is exaclty what i want to do so im not complaining. this is alright. the only thing which i find wierd is that it was REALLY slow. i got stuck midway and i stayed in that position forever before the bar moved up. i didnt enjoy that.

Dumbbell Rows = 5 sets x 6 reps x 80 lbs

this is by far one of my favourite back exercises - right after pull-ups

Seated Dumbbell Unilateral Shoulder Press = 2 sets x 7 reps x 50 lbs

the goal next week is 3x8x50

Lat Pull Downs = 3 sets x 8 reps x 120 lbs superset with Hammer Strength Shrugs = 3 sets x 8 reps x 200 lbs

nice...

Skull Crushers = 2 sets x 12 reps x 50 lbs superset with Pull Overs = 2 sets x 12 reps.

felt good. i figure i need to do more tricep work

Facepulls

90 lbs x 6 reps
100 lbs x 6 reps
120 lbs x 6 reps
120 lbs x 6 reps

Leaving Thoughts:

nice workout.

i hope everyone is having a good week! thanks for reading, guys and gals.