Soldato
There are times in life when you have tremendous setbacks and the odds seem insanely stacked up against you. That's when you're in control. It's all you. Character, strength and leadership is created under these circumstances. And it's at that defining moment when you must absorb all the misfortune and then make the mountain ahead a series of small paths and slopes. And hey, chances are you will succeed, surprise yourself and make those around you feel bigger and better than they are.
I've been through an incredibly challenging time and ultimately this impacted my training with many factors beyond my remit of control. It's funny because in the past, I've felt challenged in many different ways. Not only have I overcome them, I've excelled and exceeded my expectations but this time things felt different.
In 2008, I learnt a great deal about myself. It was the year I took the initiative to turn my life around after some serious health issues that led to me becoming seriously overweight.
It started when I woke up one morning I looked in this mirror. The eyes I saw in front of me were the eyes of a very tired man. a man who was on the verge of accepting defeat. It's improper to feel like that at 18. It was that day I saw this look in my eye. It was a look that began to change my world. I had an epiphany. My life began to turn around, on an imaginable scale. After this, I knew anything was possible with this kind determination and will. I had to attend to my health, body and physical state.
This is about my physical transformation, so here's what happened..
Late 2008-2010
I start at 210lb and I have no idea on how to lift. I teach myself and I learn things the hard way. I start on dumbells the size of a mini sized snickers bar and I lifted bars without weight. I go from this to this:
I learn to Squat 2.7 * my bodyweight, Raw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4joM5eZwt2s.
I go on to Deadlift 3 * bodyweight, Raw - http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-results-asif-deadlift-review/
Made solid contributions to Stronglifts. Featured in the ebook.
It was a good year.
2011
The only kind of training I now knew was strength training.
I hit dips for 50KG + BW for 6 clean reps, I could clean and press 97.5KG. Half way throughout the year, I got my deadlifts to 185KG for 8 reps raw. I was also squatting a lot stronger than I had been recently. My overall strength was higher than my previous achievements, without a shadow of doubt. I decided I wanted to put on more size and become even stronger.
I made a typical bulking mistake. I became fat again without even realising.
Towards November I ended up looking fat again at 174lb.
I did not train smart. My minimum working capacity was 80%. I never had a chance to recover/grow properly.
2012
I've made many mistakes in my past diets, so it was time to put my experience to the test.
I did this:
July
I gain nearly 18lb and I look like this:
My lifts significantly rise. I feel like a machine. 2 cycles of HST see me through some immense gains the way it should have been in the past.
Life at this point takes a U-Turn and it begins to go down hill from here. I attempt to get things back on road. A couple of months later I discover my AC has been cracked for the past 2 years. I make a decision to opt for surgery.
I decide to leave with a new PR as a testament to where my challenge will next begin from.
Nov
I have an AC surgery. Turns out to be a lot more painful than I imagined. Unable to train. Frustrated. Life becomes incredibly interesting.
Body goes to crap. I look far worse than I have over the years.
Dec
This was a tough month. Mentally it was draining. I went to the gym to do some active recovery work, stretch, walk. Drop all my weights by 90-95%. I return to work, 2 days later I lose my job. That evening, I book a trip to Egypt backpacking. I cover over 1,000 miles in 5 days.
I revisit my training journey and instill untainted belief that I will surpass what I reached. I set new goals and I start working on a new routine.
2013
I begin the new plan with some basic rules rules.
Here were the results 2 weeks ago:
I have the same 6 pack I had a year ago and I weigh 10lb more which puts me in at 167.7lb.
The road to recovery was a delicate one. I've never experience an injury before. So my parameters were done on 'learn as you progress' basis. I broke some of my rules as I don't believe in training more than 4 days a week. I was training between 5 and 6.
First I started off working on recruitment patterns. I was squatting 2/3 times a week and deadlifting once a week. I kept to movements that I could accomplish without causing any kind of irritation. After 4 weeks, I moved on to a stricter approach and went with a reverse pyramid routine. I've been on that for about 10 weeks now. My approach was 6reps on clean ass form. 8 reps minus 10% of 6r. 10 Reps minus 10% of 8r.
In between my big 2 heavy days, I was working on a number of assistance exercises and core days for building a threshold of core strength.
I've already achieved some of my annual goals as I did not expect progress on such a vast scale! I'm going to cap off my deadlifts at 180KG for the year and squats for 150KG. I'll share my thinking at a later stage.
Closing Thoughts
Pushing what happened in my life aside. This operation gave me some serious food for thought. Things are different than how they started off. Before things were a matter of going out there and pushing myself to the extremes which was good fun, really good fun.
Then I came to the realisation that if I want to progress to another level, I'm going to have change things. And one of those things is being less crazy. Doing big lifts is great fun but following that approach isn't sustainable. I want to be strong, function and healthy for the rest of my life. I believe I made use of what I knew best but after taking some time out. Things are much more refined.
I'm going to vary things. I will always be strong and more importantly I have the correct tools to become stronger when I need to be. I want to become functional in other areas. More on that in my goals.
Just some closing words. The thrill is in hard work, patience, discipline and results. My greatest asset is once I set out to achieve something, consider it done. And this is why I will achieve all my goals.
For the bro's whom have kept in touch and kept the bromance alive. I have no words other than my gratitude.
I've been inactive on this forum for a couple of years. That's going to change. I will be committed to updating this log as often as I can.
I've been through an incredibly challenging time and ultimately this impacted my training with many factors beyond my remit of control. It's funny because in the past, I've felt challenged in many different ways. Not only have I overcome them, I've excelled and exceeded my expectations but this time things felt different.
In 2008, I learnt a great deal about myself. It was the year I took the initiative to turn my life around after some serious health issues that led to me becoming seriously overweight.
It started when I woke up one morning I looked in this mirror. The eyes I saw in front of me were the eyes of a very tired man. a man who was on the verge of accepting defeat. It's improper to feel like that at 18. It was that day I saw this look in my eye. It was a look that began to change my world. I had an epiphany. My life began to turn around, on an imaginable scale. After this, I knew anything was possible with this kind determination and will. I had to attend to my health, body and physical state.
This is about my physical transformation, so here's what happened..
Late 2008-2010
I start at 210lb and I have no idea on how to lift. I teach myself and I learn things the hard way. I start on dumbells the size of a mini sized snickers bar and I lifted bars without weight. I go from this to this:
I learn to Squat 2.7 * my bodyweight, Raw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4joM5eZwt2s.
I go on to Deadlift 3 * bodyweight, Raw - http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-results-asif-deadlift-review/
Made solid contributions to Stronglifts. Featured in the ebook.
It was a good year.
2011
The only kind of training I now knew was strength training.
I hit dips for 50KG + BW for 6 clean reps, I could clean and press 97.5KG. Half way throughout the year, I got my deadlifts to 185KG for 8 reps raw. I was also squatting a lot stronger than I had been recently. My overall strength was higher than my previous achievements, without a shadow of doubt. I decided I wanted to put on more size and become even stronger.
I made a typical bulking mistake. I became fat again without even realising.
Towards November I ended up looking fat again at 174lb.
I did not train smart. My minimum working capacity was 80%. I never had a chance to recover/grow properly.
2012
I've made many mistakes in my past diets, so it was time to put my experience to the test.
I did this:
July
I gain nearly 18lb and I look like this:
My lifts significantly rise. I feel like a machine. 2 cycles of HST see me through some immense gains the way it should have been in the past.
Life at this point takes a U-Turn and it begins to go down hill from here. I attempt to get things back on road. A couple of months later I discover my AC has been cracked for the past 2 years. I make a decision to opt for surgery.
I decide to leave with a new PR as a testament to where my challenge will next begin from.
Nov
I have an AC surgery. Turns out to be a lot more painful than I imagined. Unable to train. Frustrated. Life becomes incredibly interesting.
Body goes to crap. I look far worse than I have over the years.
Dec
This was a tough month. Mentally it was draining. I went to the gym to do some active recovery work, stretch, walk. Drop all my weights by 90-95%. I return to work, 2 days later I lose my job. That evening, I book a trip to Egypt backpacking. I cover over 1,000 miles in 5 days.
I revisit my training journey and instill untainted belief that I will surpass what I reached. I set new goals and I start working on a new routine.
2013
I begin the new plan with some basic rules rules.
- Don't be stupid.
- The smallest of pain, you must immediately stop
- Not to be stupid.
- No chest or shoulder work until I make progression.
- No weight jumping. Small increments throughout.
- Srs bro. Don't be stupid.
Here were the results 2 weeks ago:
I have the same 6 pack I had a year ago and I weigh 10lb more which puts me in at 167.7lb.
The road to recovery was a delicate one. I've never experience an injury before. So my parameters were done on 'learn as you progress' basis. I broke some of my rules as I don't believe in training more than 4 days a week. I was training between 5 and 6.
First I started off working on recruitment patterns. I was squatting 2/3 times a week and deadlifting once a week. I kept to movements that I could accomplish without causing any kind of irritation. After 4 weeks, I moved on to a stricter approach and went with a reverse pyramid routine. I've been on that for about 10 weeks now. My approach was 6reps on clean ass form. 8 reps minus 10% of 6r. 10 Reps minus 10% of 8r.
In between my big 2 heavy days, I was working on a number of assistance exercises and core days for building a threshold of core strength.
I've already achieved some of my annual goals as I did not expect progress on such a vast scale! I'm going to cap off my deadlifts at 180KG for the year and squats for 150KG. I'll share my thinking at a later stage.
Closing Thoughts
Pushing what happened in my life aside. This operation gave me some serious food for thought. Things are different than how they started off. Before things were a matter of going out there and pushing myself to the extremes which was good fun, really good fun.
Then I came to the realisation that if I want to progress to another level, I'm going to have change things. And one of those things is being less crazy. Doing big lifts is great fun but following that approach isn't sustainable. I want to be strong, function and healthy for the rest of my life. I believe I made use of what I knew best but after taking some time out. Things are much more refined.
I'm going to vary things. I will always be strong and more importantly I have the correct tools to become stronger when I need to be. I want to become functional in other areas. More on that in my goals.
Just some closing words. The thrill is in hard work, patience, discipline and results. My greatest asset is once I set out to achieve something, consider it done. And this is why I will achieve all my goals.
For the bro's whom have kept in touch and kept the bromance alive. I have no words other than my gratitude.
I've been inactive on this forum for a couple of years. That's going to change. I will be committed to updating this log as often as I can.
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