My time to get fit - stage 1 - The beginning.

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Ok,

Anyone kind enough to see if they can put together a 3 day split for me.

I would like to include, but am not limited to, the following if possible and looking more in the 15 rep range for endurance and weight loss rather than muscle growth......

Deadlifts
Squats
Bench press
Dips
Chinups
Pullups
Shoulder / military press
Pendlay rows
leg press

Something for my stomach / sides. My back has strengthened a great deal but I still feel my stomach is fairly week. 25 Situps would be a challange :eek:.

Cheers for any suggestions.
RB
 
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Muscle growth should be something to aim for, you won't turn into Arnie, but extra muscle mass will help you shed the fat quicker. :)

Sure but harder to do on a calorie deficit :(.

I have got over the concern of 'Arnie-ating' overnight but how to loose the weight whilst feeding the body with enough of the right stuff to gain muscle ?

I also have next to no endurance so hitting that may be a good move also.

Cheers FF
RB
 
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It is feasible as long as you eat the right things. To shed weight you need only drop your intake by up to 15% and even then that's an absolute max. As long as you don't have a rubbish diet to start with of course! ;) It's also eating the right foods at the right times. :)
 
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It is feasible as long as you eat the right things. To shed weight you need only drop your intake by up to 15% and even then that's an absolute max. As long as you don't have a rubbish diet to start with of course! ;) It's also eating the right foods at the right times. :)

The right times being the 6 small meals throughout the day or do you have specific clock times in mind ?

So to loose weight you need a 15% defecit in calories but to gain muscle you need a surpless of calories. How should these be aligned and what should the ratios be for fat -> carbs -> protein as an approx base to start from ?

My pre-exercise diet was rubbish X 2 and so cutting out the majority of the clearly rubbish food like the fast food has helped but it has not resulted in quite the expected weight loss (6Kg in around 6 months realised but no significant inch loss around the stomach). Lack of inch loss is the main bone of contention. My diet on the whole is much better although not perfect.

Strength is great but I would also like some endurance to go with it.

In the last two months with the new gym;
Bench press up 9%
Military press up 12%
Squat up 16%

These are the only exercises in both of the two routines since joining the new gym.

The one big 'but' though is that the new routine is 3*5 rather than 3*8 so reps have dropped. Which will account for some of the improvements.
 
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Ok so after 3 weeks off I kicked my butt hard enough today to land back in the gym.

I have also started back on a more healthy diet not that I had regressed too far. More takeaways but still smaller portions than previously. I do feel that I have gained some fat back though even though the scales at the gym had me at 98.8 when weighed after the shower and shakes.

I found a 3 day split on bodybuilding.com which used most of the exercises I enjoy so decided to try this.

All are 4 sets of 12 reps apart from teh superset 1 in day one and 3 which are 3*12.

Session one
Full Squat
Deadlifts (were romanian but changed to standard deadlifts)
Bench press
Bent over rows
Superset 1
Dumbbell curls
Skull Crushers
Superset 2
Russian Twists
Twisting situps

Session two
Military Press
Pullups
Dips
Pendlay rows (originally bent over rows)
Barbell srugs
Lateral raises
Calf raises

Session three
Full squats (originally split squats)
Snatch grip deadlifts
Incline bench presses
Chin-ups or bent over rows
Superset 1
Reverse curls
Skull crushers
Superset 2
Weighted Situps
Leg raises

I started with session 2 as I am still trying to keep away from leg work until I am fully healed.

10 minutes cross trainer to warm up (gottado something to help prevent the strains)
Military press 64lbs - 15, 10, 5, 5
Lateral raises 10lbs - 10, 10, 10, 10 - last 3 sets v.hard.
Pull-ups assisted (level 12) - 5, 5, 4, 3
Dips assisted (level 12) - 12, 9, 5, 4 - last 3 sets failed to get higher (quite violent shaking on last couple of reps for sets 2, 3 and 4)
Pendlay Rows 94lbs - 12, 10, 7, 5 - Last rep with good form counted. Felt faint after first set. All sets exhausting.
Barbell srugs 74lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
Crunches - 4*12
Crunch then swing left / right to touch heals - 4*12
Pushup position but resting on forearms - 4*20 seconds

Wakeup - Low cal shake, vit c tabs, multi vit, 2 fish oil caps
Breakfast - 4 spoons rolled oats with low fat milk, tea with one sugar and a little low fat milk.
Lunch - Salad with chicken and vinegerette dressing
Post workout - double low carb protein shake
Dinner - Large bowl of mixed veg
Pre bed - Low carb protein shake and vit tab.

I will be improving the diet and replacing sone or two shakes with real food after some decent supermarket shopping. I will also be looking at adding some more meat to dinner.

Ok, so you have hear post after post about the aches and pains and injuries so i though I would put some positives in here as well.

For the last couple of years I have been getting tendonitus across the arch of both my feet. It was almost constant for those 3 years sometimes getting a bit better and then worse again. Since going to the gym this has vanished.

My back was quite week and I have damaged it a number of times in the past, sometimes taking me out of work for a number of months due to severe pain. My back feels a lot stonger. I have not had any twinges and have managed to lift 100Kg in a deadlift which I would have never ever even attempted before going to the gym.

I feel stronger and more aware of my body and the muscles and movements.

Self esteem has improved from walking around as a podgy westerner to walking with a straight back, head high.

Being able to lift and caty both my kids around (10yo and almost 2yo). Being able to play with both of them much more actively.

I am also much more aware of the food I am eating and even though my diet has not been perfect, at least I know what I am eating and what I can do to counteract it.

I am going to ache tomorrow :D.

RB
 
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Ok, an hour on the cross trainer with heart rate kept in between 135 and 142 bpm for the fat burning zone.

Intensity level varied but was not so high. Pushing it higher took it out of the fat burn zone so even though it was possible it was not where I needed to be.

Food more or less what it was yesterday but lunch added 8 pieces of chicken tikka to a larger salad and after gym snack was 4 half boiled eggs (small) rather than a protein shake.

The whole of the top of my body is aching like mad, even my stomach for the first time. My legs had a little bit of an ache but as they were not targetted it must have been a knock on from the other exercises.

I will see how my Achillies tendon is tomorrow as this is the first time exercising for cardio.

Session 3 tomorrow possibly without the squats. Thursday I have to get my new passport so booked the day off work..... no gym. Friday is a national holiday so no gym, Saturday will be session 1. A couple of days after an intensive restart would be good for recovery I think.

I am really tempted to get the sparring mits and give the punch bags a going over as a cardio exercise. Will see tomorrow what sort of cost they are.

Phuket is just a couple of weeks away. Lots of work to do but realistically not that much can be done in such a short time. Good motivation though :D.

RB
 
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Feeling super lazy today and rushing to get to the gym so .....

week1-3daysplit.png


Type: BB = barbell, DB = dumbbell, Cbl = cable machine, BW = bodyweight.
SW: starting weight (lbs without bar where applicable. Barbell is 44lbs)
SS: Super sets
Pullups / Dips / Chin-ups SW is the weight offset level. I have no idea what weight 12 or 16 equals in real terms as it is not listed on the machine. Dumb huh..... Cybertec or something like it.

Started on session 2 -> 3 -> 1 over the week.

Also did 1 hour long cardio session last week.

Aching has mainly stopped although rotating my shoulders is still a bit sore like someone is pinching along the top of my shoulders.

Also feeling quite exhausted but I am guessing that is partly the low carb diet.

Cheers
RB
 
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Well the holiday season is over, Christmans is out of the way as is New Year and both of my sons birthdays (too much cake)...

It has been a big break filled with far to much of the wrong foods and I have paid the price as I knew I would. Being prepared for a bit of weight gain helps soften the blow :D.

So, back to the gym for the first time since before Christmas and decided to lower the weight and see how it goes. I was very much tirng not to hit it too hard and fast and get another injury.

A fair amount of strength has gone and even lowing the weights caused a good deal of exhaustion on most exercises with some only doing 3*12 rather than 4*12.

I also did 3*12 on squats with a low weight as I have not done those in 3+ months now. My flexibility has gone so I can almost get tops of the thighs parallel but not below. I am sure that will come back with time. Insides of the thighs also hit with a nasty pain from the first set. This pain was why I limited it to 3 sets. The Achillies still is not right but seemed to handle the squats fairly well. I will keep to squats once a week for now to ease in to it.

After the main sets (using the previously posted 3 day split above) I stopped due to exhaustion and dizzyness. This will also go when I get the body used to exercising again.

The next 4 days were pretty bad DOMS with the middle two days being the worst. Had them everywhere apart from my stomach I think.

Back to the gym tonight for the second time and I will try to upload some pics as re-starting pics for this year. Weight was up to 101.9Kg (original was 106Kg and lowest was around 98.8Kg)

My stomach has gained some weight but the rest has stayed fairly ok, well maybe a little softer. I was surprised what I ate over Christmas did not seem to have much of an effect until New Year so I guess the metabolism was running on high and then dipped due to lack of training over that period.

Oh well.. back in the saddle. :D.

Hope the holidays has treated everyone pretty well.

RB
 
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Cheers Cybermonkey.

Well last night was a mixed bag.

Got my 4*12 squats out all be it with a light weight but had no pain on the inner thighs.

Got my 4*12 deadlifts out and then got spoken to by one of the personal trainers offering a free assessment (this is the 4th since Oct 09 all with different trainers). So I say, "sure, why not", any chance to learn....

Well this guy was in to posture correction and Kinesis.

He went on to explain how my head is too far forwards and my shoulders are rounded and my back is hyperextending to compensate. Not uncommon and can be corrected apparently.

Did a couple of sets of cable crossovers and then had me on the half swiss ball balancing whilst squatting lower and lower then with some arm movements and then with some weights.

It was not so bad although the vibrating legs as my body tried to stabilize it'self was an interesting experience and the burn when squatting on the half ball at 45deg was not so pleasant.

Had the body fat ect re-measured to the following results (my new starting point).

Body type: normal
Gender: Male
Age: 36
Height 185 cm
Weight 101.1 Kg (yay, lost 0.7 kg since last monday ;))
BMI: 29.5
BMR: 8481 kj
2027 kcal
Fat %: 32.1 %
Fat Mass: 32.5 kg
FFM: 68.7 kg
TBW: 59.3 kg
Desirable range
Fat %: 17-23 %
Fat Mass: 14.1-20.5 kg

Segmental Analysis

25-jan-10Segmentalanalysis.png


Interestingly the equation I have puts fat percentage at 27.2 % for the same stats inc BMI. Just goes to show different measuring methods have wildly different results.

On a plus note, the trainer mentioned that the scales are available to all members and ran through how to use them.

He then asked for my personal training budget and took it very well when I said $0 (I did warn him when doing the exercises I would not be signing up for personal training).

My body feels tired (lack of sleep not helping) but no aches or pains yet and the Achillies is feeling fine (i.e. no worse than usual). Woke up with a headache though and it is not getting better. Will try some food and panadol and if that does not help then sleep will be the only cure.

Back to the gym Friday.

RB
 
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My advice to people in these situations is ALWAYS simply eat less, exercise more. If you're looking to generally just be healthier and slimmer than you are now then you will achieve it by eating less and exercising more.
 
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My advice to people in these situations is ALWAYS simply eat less, exercise more. If you're looking to generally just be healthier and slimmer than you are now then you will achieve it by eating less and exercising more.

Good advice but very, very open to interpretation. Eat less could result in cutting out the good food and ending up with the junk and exercise more could be walking an extra 30 minutes a day.

Eating less could also have an advers effect if the diret is poor in the first place. Maybe eat right would be a better turn of phrase :).

Anyway.

The first part of this week has resulted in my body proving the concept of what goes in must come out ........ usually after about thirty minutes unfortuntely :(.

Back to the gym tonight. Will try for Friday as well.

Diet is not as good as it could be, drinking water the same, exercise needs to be stepped up.

Looking to be going (coming) back to the UK around the end of October to see the family so that is the goal for significant improvement. I believe it is fully obtainable if I work at it.

We have a family photo coming up for Chinese New Year (15th & 16th Feb) and whilst I have lost some weight compared to the same time last year, it has regressed from the beginning of December.

Oh well. The path is clear. Points that need attention are defined. Now just to get it all going.

RB
 
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Well 3 weeks in and I have only been able to get to the gym once a week.

Have been keeping with the day one from the three day split and have been keeping the squats in.

I was a little dissapointed yesterday as I really felt I could not work as hard as I would have liked and I would guess it is lack of sleep. The 2 year old is keeping us all awake more than we would like.

After completing a reduced program I went and weighed myself......

Just under 100Kg..... so have lost around 2 Kg since restarting.

Now I was feeling quite smug what with only doing one day a week in the gym and my diet was not that good..... previous night was all but one slice of a deep pan meat feast pizza for myself (at least it was lunch not dinner)....

That was until I suddenly though how much better it could have been if I had a fairly strict diet and managed the 3 times a week in the gym....

Well at least the weight is comming off. Even with the lighter weights, the 4*12 (48 total).

Also just out of personal challange, I tried the 1 rep max for dealift again at just over 100Kg. Yep made it but it was very difficuly lifting that weight up and even worse was getting it to the floor again safely as my back really wanted to bow outwards. Managed to keep it straight and was very pleased to still be able to obtain that weight.

As some of you will know, this week is Chinese new year which the closest thisng I can think to compare it to in the UK is Christmas. Families visit each other, red packets of money rather than presents are exchanged and there are two days national holiday (some other places have a week+ off).

So this coming week will be visiting the in-laws, eating a lot but fairly healthy food and taking the family photo again and hopefully looking a bit better in it this time ;).

So.... Gong Xi Fa Cai or happy and prosperous Chinese new year to you all (hey, every little helps :D).

RB
 
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Well it has been two months since the last post and unfortunately two months since I last went to the gym.

Just after the last post I came down with the flu and then just after that I came down some stairs...... sideways :(.

Upshot was that I damaged my knee on one leg, the calf on the same leg and fractured a toe.

The knee and calf are now back to normal, the toe is not bad and the achillies tendon on both legs also seems to have sorted themselves out finally.

I went to the gym a week ago and then promptly came down with a nasty cold and finally got back down there yesterday.

I have a lot of work to make up and although I am only up to 100.8kg, the body composition has not changed to my favour :eek:.

Back to the more rigid diet and 3 times a week at the gym.

I have two target dates;
28th May: Trip with the kids, wife and sister-in-law to Bintan.
Goal - Firm up a bit, better posture and loose a little fat.
October: Back to the UK for 3 weeks.
Goal - Loose another few Kg and have compliments rather than comments about putting on weight.

Lets get to work.....
RB
 
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I was wondering where you had got to when I seen your posts in my thread the other week, its always crap when you have an enforced lay off but good to hear your healing well and raring to get back into it.
Good luck with your goals :D
 
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Thanks Tom,

Have also been working on a personal project so have been posting in the Linux forum a bit as well.

Looks like you have been getting some good results too. Well done that man.

Well, first week back is over with three sessions. The last two were at lunchtime and the gym was much emptier as I took a late lunch and will make an extra hour up each day I do that.

I am working back to the previous stopping point and am getting there which is good. Also had DOMS for the entire week so the weekend rest period will be nice as the body can rest and repair and I can hopefully catch up on sleep. The little one (2 1/3) is now sleeping around 9pm and so is the older one (11). THis gives a bit of time for my project although my brother-in-law dropped off his PS3 and FFXIII which i am now playing through. This is the first one I am playing since 7 and then 8. I am not getting to bed as early as I should.

Food is getting better but is not quite as strict as it was.

The May 28th deadline for the Bintan trip has changed..... well you try organising a trip with two sisters (my wife being one of them) who both have quite strict views on where and when to go. I ended up taking a step back and letting them both sort it out. Off shoot is we are going to Genting (Malaysia) by coach. Genting has a fun park like Alton Towers and shopping etc and is in the highlands so provides a welcome break from the hot humidity present in Singapore. I may even have to wear a <gasp> jumper :eek:.

Anyway, I am feeling pretty good and pumped up and like a ninja in the night, unfortunately I am still close to Mr Blobby ;).

Oh and I have taken to belting the punchbag at the end of my session to drain the last of that energy. I enjoy it although I had to get some boxing wraps and learn how to wind them around as the ones in the gym are for 'personal trainer sessions only' :(.

One other thing that happened on Wednesday is that 4, yes 4 personal trainers approched me to see if I was interested in personal training. At least two mentioned a weight loss program :eek:. This was not encouraging :( :D.

RB
 
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Cheers FF,

Comes from having two kids who bring back whatever is going around at school and share amongst the family.

Adding to that I also injured myself again on Wednesday just after the gym..... and I have no idea how.

Grabbed a sandwich on the way back to the office, took a bite and my jaw suddenly became very uncomfortable when chewing on the left. Felt like I had strained something. I mean, really..... how on earth did that happen. more or less back to normal now so that is good.

Anyway, it is good to get back to it and I am looking forward to getting back to the previous shape which should come fairly soon I hope with the right food and decent effort in the gym.

I have some time until mid June and as I am doing volume rather than heavy, less chance of over stressing. My squats are also better with no pushing off from the toes. Not sure how it changed but now it is through the heals and feel natural that way.

I think it will be some time before I join the deadlift compo even at body weight :D. I rep max at he moment...

cheers
RB
 
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