Som's Log - Manlet on a Mission

Joining the fray - losing track of where I post all this stuff but what the hell, I'm on here a lot and there's lots of knowledge and application here so... probably won't post every single workout but will try and get form vids up, PBs, ask advice etc.

I'm a noob to training and have been only doing this since June, so might as well bring you up to speed with my progress.

TL;DR

Starting off (June 2012):
Age - 28
Height - 5ft8/173cm
Weight - 11st/69.9kg/154lbs
Waist - 32in/81.3cm
Chest - 39in/99.1cm
Exercise history - minimal, inconsistent, mainly cardio-based, never picked up a barbell before or used much/any resistance training, very weak. Obese in teens, just skinny fat in my 20's (yay for doing nothing but cardio... derp). Added fail in Sep 2011 as I got a new job in London and did 0 exercise from that point forward and ate more and more (all the donuts people would bring in at work etc, living off ready-meals).

Was not mirin myself. Did something about it. Joined gym. Started off just doing squat/bench/deadlift x3 a week, getting used to the movements and upping the weights from an empty bar/weight I could handle just about comfortably and moved onto SL 5x5 after a couple of months once I was less green. Sometimes jog to the gym and back, no dedicated/specific cardio plan (other than my commute lulz).

Mid December:

Haven't measured/weighed myself since before my diet break started (I do 12 week stints then follow Lyle's McDonald's diet break thing for a week or two (fit nicely with Christmas), 2nd week of Dec they were:

Weight - 9.5st/59.9kg/132lbs
Waist - 28.7in/73cm
Chest - 34.6in/88cm

Light as fuark, I think it's because a) not that tall/big b) I had very little lean mass to start with (could barely do a handful of pushups lol), fat loss exposing that, will be years before my aspirations of being the next Babolimp can be fulfilled.

Method:

Doing a cut-emphasised recomp via Leangains style I.F - so slower gains/fat loss than strict cut/bulk, but I shouldn't end up anorexic looking. Focus is on the leanness first as I'm a big Lyle McD fan and like his thoughts on it, plus I didn't want to look in the mirror and keep wanting to shoot myself, so for body-image and ease of gauging changes in body fat reasons (easier to see hard abs of peace become softer abs of woe than fatty belly getting fattier), I've done that. Been super easy and enjoyable, even on rest days with the lowered intake.

Practice IIFYM - most of my diet is decent and I polish off my macro targets with whatever fits (e.g. a few slices of Soreen tonight were a part of my PWO carbs). Roughly eating at about a +10%/-30 to 35% split, obviously with LeanGains this means macro cycling of fats/carbs and aiming to get majority of carbs PWO on training day. You all know this stuff.

Once lean as fuark, will clean bulk and then strict cut when bodyfat creeps up too much.

Best Current Lifts (@Just under 60kg, 5"8 using SL 5x5 routine):
Squat - 100kg (high bar) - deloaded a bit recently because I wasn't getting low enough, can't get the hang of low bar - started w/bar and found it hard at about 50kg
Deadlift - 100kg - started at 40kg, became hard at 60kg
Bench - 60kg - started with the bar (lol)
Pendlay Row - 62.5kg (lol I know, better than my bench) - started with the bar
OHP - 40kg - started with the bar

Hopefully can bump them up a bit more between now and when I'm in holy grail 10% or under land. Pics in next post. Little guy on my shoulder keeps telling me to try something new but according to Mehdi's average weight/strength ratios for ppl he's coached, I should still have gains in me so should stick w/SL.

No idea how well I'm doing tbh, hence might as well post 'ere innit.

Oh ya, unaesthetic pics of mediocrity. Pepper your angus... (not rly)

June 2012:



Fast forward 6 months and slightly less unaesthetic pics of mediocrity. Angus starting to warrant peppering.

December 2012:



My wrists are so girly and my knees are so knobbly. Not mirin'.

Bonus - in my 28 years I've never seen dem abs. Ever. Exciting.




They're starting to show under the right lighting, neat. Will have to get some leg shots done at some point. Quads okay, calves never going to be big I suspect. Knees forever knobbly. Need some flexed ones too I guess, suck at posing.

Sidenote - all of your nice jeans no longer fitting, even with a belt, kind of sucks, but then you look in the mirror and you don't mind as much.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Feedback appreciated.

Good base! Looks like a smaller version of LiE!

And some great lifts at a bw not much more than half of me!

And don't worry about the rows: mine are bigger than my benc, too, but back work is just awesome.

Kep it up!

Nice one som, that's some really solid progress.

You say you can't get on with low bar squats, what was the issue? Was it the pain of the bar lower on your back to start with? Or we're you using a pad on the bar still?

Cheers.

Low squats is mainly a shoulder flexibility thing, like I can't get the bar in the right place without my wrists bending, and because I don't have a lot of mass on my back, the bar doesn't feel like it's on much of a shelf. What happens is I can't seem to not have to use my arms to support the weight of the bar slightly, which obviously ends up causing pain at decent weight - I'm awared on low bar of the increased forward lean btw and I will never use a pussy pad!

I sort of have this problem with high bar as well (small shelf) but obviously I can do it without my arms being involved at all.

You don't need a shelf to rest the bar on, you need to pull the bar in to your back

As for the pain, this passes pretty quickly, and on strong lifts you have plenty of squatting to get used to it. I now get the uncomfortable pain trying high bar lol

Awesome progress so far mate

Syla5 said:

You don't need a shelf to rest the bar on, you need to pull the bar in to your back

As for the pain, this passes pretty quickly, and on strong lifts you have plenty of squatting to get used to it. I now get the uncomfortable pain trying high bar lol

Click to expand...

It probably doesn't help I watch Cali Strength vids all the time which are obviously all high bar (want some Oly shoes!):


In an ideal world I'd mix both in.

Yay new log!

Epic weight loss though, especially on the chest.

I seem to have got the short straw genetically for fat distribution (although I have been told it may be hormone related), as obviously I haven't got much on my arms, legs, and even my stomach now but still more on my chest than I'd like. One of the biggest motivators for me was to get rid of the moobs for good as it put me off going to the beach, swimming and pretty much anything with my shirt off. Still does, a bit, but give it a few months...

It's gone down a lot though - I bought some casual shirts from French Connection the other day that fit nicely in the XS size - in my fattest teenage years I was wearing size L and back in June S was usually tight in the chest but I bought that because M would be far too long in the sleeves and waist. Cursed proportions! Improving all the time though. I fit in some size 28 shorts, my 32 waist jeans literally fall off me even done up fully.

Recomping is pretty cool though - I get to eat a very satisfying amount on workout days, indulging in stuff most people on a diet would probably look at me in horror for, and then rest days I can still have a couple of decent sized meals even though macro/cal wise I'm under-eating a fair amount.

Looking good and nice lifts considering you're body weight.

I started of doing high bar squatting but recently changed to low bar after spending a good bit of time doing shoulder stretches. It is sore on the back at first and may feel a little uncomfortable and it makes you lean forward a bit more but you will get used to it

Got a great base to bulid on keep it up!

Excellent progress I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Good stuff, I wanted all the big names in SA mirin! The lack of bro-sci and people doing good programs on here is one of the reasons I thought it worth posting my stuff here. Wish I'd started when I was younger grrr.

I'm at the point where I'm thinking about what I'll do after 5x5 and I'm really not sure! The I.F. crew tend to go with RPT due to Berkhan doing it, a lot of people on here do 5/3/1, then the 5x5 crew move to Madcow or Texas method... it's taking me back to when I started and was getting info overload.

While I'm recomping, it's preferable to keep it relatively low-volume (as I'm cutting 4 days a week) so I'll probably stick with SL until I'm lean as I've only been doing it 6 months then see how long I can carry on with it while I clean bulk.

I'll try and work on my low bar squatting - I'm super consistent with going to the gym but very inconsistent when it comes to stretches and foam-rolling.

I should probably add I've managed to get on the way to decent shape working a job which involves rotating 12 hour day/night shifts (8 till 8) 3-4 days a week in a month-long pattern, with a 70-90min commute each way - on work days I'm up before 6am, and can't get in the gym till 8:45pm after work (shuts at 10pm) and have to eat my biggest meal before I go to bed. On nights I go to bed at 10am, get up and train fasted after 5-6 hours sleep... basically if I can do this, then I imagine anyone can!

2nd sesh of the year, last one this week, did the A workout - super super tired, lack of sleep, weak, given my struggles with my first session after a couple of weeks without lifting I deloaded everything a bit, which turned out to be a good idea because I struggled (although didn't fail anything). Job can suck sometimes, had an hour to warm up and do everything before gym closure) - no time to experiment with low bar squats. :'(
Squat - 95 5x5
Bench - 55 5x5
P. Row - 55 5x5
Dips (bw) - 13, 6, 5
Core stuff

Could have been worse. Reckon in a week or two things will be back to normal. Tried a belt today w/squats after reading this -
More Reasons For Wearing A Belt | 70's Big
Belt Me Up, Scotty | 70's Big
PR Friday | 70's Big

Maybe keep it up for my working sets.

3rd sesh of 2013!

B workout, getting back to normal,

Squats were... okay - still at 95kg high bar (wish I had a OCUK-brah for low-bar walkthrough as I'm jonesing to try it).

OHP managed 40 x 5 5 5 4 (+1) 4 (+1) so only a bit short of where I left off pre-xmas... last 2 sets I knew the weight wasn't going up on each last rep so I just push-pressed them. Should be good for 5x5 all strict on Friday I reckon.

Deadlift 100 x 5 felt better than pre-xmas for some reason (maybe as I spent a bit more time on the 40/60/80kg warm up sets), almost tempted to up the weight but I know my 4th and 5th reps are suckier form wise - got to film so I can see how sucky, don't think it's awful though.

Chins (12 7 5 @bw) and planks to finish. Went okay, I try and use the smith so I can do close-grip chins as the captains chair/dip/chin station only has wide grip pullup and semi-supinated grips but that was in use, so semi-supinated it was.

On nights tonight, Tuesday and Weds so my mid-week workout will probably suck due to sleep deprevation.

1) get normal 9-5 job instead of working nurses hours
2) aesthetics
3) ???
4) profit

Urgh, I hate working 12 hour night shifts. Asleep at 10am, only time I can go to the gym is in the afternoon, so alarm for 3:30pm, almost had to crawl to the gym, trained fasted, managed to get through it okay, crawled home, shovelled food into my face, came to work, shovelled more food down me... might have a nap now, only 2 of us in tonight and nothing to do. Zzzzz.

Put the Fitocracy app on my iPhone, kind of motivating in a lulzy way.

Since we had the bathroom done over xmas we swapped from thin carpet to Amtico... the scales are now giving me a slightly heavier reading than before... 62.5kg lol/137.8lbs. Not that big of a deal tbh as the measurements are more important. First measurement of 2013, back on the diet blah blah. I'll keep macros the same - I tend to be conservative on rest days and liberal on workout days with my counting so I'm definitely on a nice deficit for the former and a minor surplus for the latter (not a big deal if I end up on more than a minor surplus either).

Workout A later, didn't sleep well last night so it'll probably suck, although I'm on short shifts for a month so I can train at 5pm and have a normal eating window of 12-8pm rather than having to train at 9pm and eat at 10:30pm like I normally do on work days.

EDIT - also, in love with Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, even if Crossfit makes me want to headbutt a wall:

Workout went okay.

Squat 97.6kg 5x5, good depth on nearly all the reps. Kind of jonesing for Oly shoes for high bar and went I try front squats, plus future investment for cleans (can't really do at this gym due to lack of bumper plates and 'no dropping dem weights').

Bench 55kg 5x5, convinced my bench form sucks, although this was easier than last Weds. Shouldn't be long before I'm back at benching bodyweight, although I look at most people in the gym warming up with my max and crybate in the corner.

P.Rows 62.5kg 5x5 - rowed bodyweight, pretty fatiguing, form iffy. Will see how they go Friday.

Dips (bw) - 12 9 7

Messed about doing some hanging knee raises, reverse crunches etc but kept it brief as I was running late (delayed train = late in the gym).

Olympic shoes are awesome.

For pretty much all things involving the legs, anyway.

Yeah I afford whatever so was looking at the Romaleu 2s or the Adipower's - would ideally like to try them on first and since there's a shop in London near Liverpool Street station that apparently sells the latter I'll probably end up getting those. I have Komodosport Vibram's I train/jog to the gym and back in atm (big fan of minimalist footwear), which work well for some stuff but the Oly shoes would work well for others, obviously.