Hi guys just starting a reboot to my log
I joined a gym last November (2014) at 30 y/o 5ft 9, 83 kg and 25% body fat having spent 12 years sat at a desk the only exercise being the 5 min walk to tesco for lunch. My posture was shot muscle mass non existent and I was probably halfway towards diabetes and a heart attack. My main aims were to get my golf handicap down from 17 and get fitter and more flexible while losing fat
So I did what any self respecting nerd did I hit the internet and came across stronglifts watched youtube vids spent nights reading pdf after pdf so that when it came to getting under a bar I thought I was god.
Anyway I was wrong 4th of November 2014 I rocked up to the squat rack empty bar as suggested dropped around 6 inches down to a half squat and collapsed. Of course the gym was packed there were girls in the other rack squatting 50 kg and id just bottled an empty bar, felt like crying. After spending a few min composing myself I tried again, this time I pulled a full set of 5 x 5 out the bag to as low as I could go at that time considering my range of motion was poor.
Fast forward to new years im down to 78kg bodyweight and squatting 75 kg for reps then disaster struck I was hit with a bad flu virus in january that knocked me off my feet and drained my energy for weeks but the time I got back in the gym beginning of feb I was back up to 81kg I de-loaded as the app suggested and found myself struggling to squat 60kg, all my lifts had gone back to end of november, I was gutted.
I kept going though pushing through the stalls and continuing to lose weight, by the time i'd got to mid april I was back down to 78kg and had just hit 90kg. At that time I decided to take a week off I was exhausted and the golf season had just started to kick in and I didt want to be tired for golf that was the whole point after all and killing yourself in the gym them being too knackered to swing a club defeated the object.
After the couple weeks break I decided to de-load, I know that isnt always recommended but I halved the weights of all the lifts I didnt want to push myself too much and I wanted to work on my form on everything so I increased reps taking it up to 10 reps for the 5 sets ensuring that I was getting everything correct and tight
I kept at this till the end of june where I got up to 70kg squats doing a minimum of 5x5 if not often more and body weight was right down to 72kg. At this point I met a PT at the gym, he was a great lad more of a sports coach than the usual meat head PT you can always tell the good ones cause he was a real lifter was front squatting 165 and dead lifting 230 so I took him on as a trainer and we worked real heard. Sadly not long after starting with him I lost a lot of gym time, my grandmother passed away at the end of july and I spent 3 weeks away from the gym helping my grandfather get through what was a very tough time for him, however by the time I got to my holiday in october my body weight was down to 68kg but I was squatting 105 for singles and deadlifting 120. More importantly my golf handicap was now 10.1.
Sadly my PT went to london at this point and I was stuck so after coming back from turkey I went back on to stronglifts again, at 70kg and 17%bf and heading into winter I decided it was time to bulk up a bit so I increased my cals while trying to stay under 20% bf, by the beginning of December I was back up to 90 squats benching 55 and deadlifting 110 for reps bodyweight was 74kg at about 18.5%bf
Once again though something got in the way, I spent a week away with my grand father before xmas then came back to christmas and all the bank holidays that get in the way of the gym so I gave up for a couple of weeks till I could get going again in January...
Which is were I am now I hit the gym in january at 75kg deloaded my lifts as the app suggests 75kg squat 40kg on row and bench 30kg on ohp and 90kg on dead. Sadly after those first squats it took me 4 days to be able to walk again so I was only able to do 2 days that week.
Sorry for the long post guys but after a little over a year I wanted a full catch up.
Things Ive taken away from this year.
It takes ages and I dont mean a few weeks I mean months of dedication to just fix the years of abuse that I have put my body through.
Stronglifts is real easy to get going with but once you get to that bodyweight squat and 1.5 bodyweight dead it takes real dedication to push through and there have been many times where ive thought im achieving nothing and spinning my wheels without realising that yes my squat hasnt improved but ive pushed the a bench or deadlift plateau this week. Strength gain isnt linear some weeks youl wonder why you bother then bam your hitting the ground running again.
Breaks and deload weeks are a requirement, no-one likes feeling like they are doing backwards theres nothing worse than rocking up to the gym after a week off racking up weights you were warming up with previously and feeling like a newbie again but give it time it will pay off.
Last thing to remember, doing something is better than doing nothing I know my lifts arnt huge my 6 inch wrists and ankles Celtic hips and my Italian stubborn body that just refuses to put on massive muscle gains (Franco Columbo juiced) I know I'm never going to be big and be able to lift massive weights but even if my genetic limit is squatting only 1xbw id rather do that than do nothing.
I will try to keep this updated hopefully a bit better than the last one I started.
In the mean time guys, hope this has been useful to you all and to those struggling with girls weights try not to get disheartened your not alone
I joined a gym last November (2014) at 30 y/o 5ft 9, 83 kg and 25% body fat having spent 12 years sat at a desk the only exercise being the 5 min walk to tesco for lunch. My posture was shot muscle mass non existent and I was probably halfway towards diabetes and a heart attack. My main aims were to get my golf handicap down from 17 and get fitter and more flexible while losing fat
So I did what any self respecting nerd did I hit the internet and came across stronglifts watched youtube vids spent nights reading pdf after pdf so that when it came to getting under a bar I thought I was god.
Anyway I was wrong 4th of November 2014 I rocked up to the squat rack empty bar as suggested dropped around 6 inches down to a half squat and collapsed. Of course the gym was packed there were girls in the other rack squatting 50 kg and id just bottled an empty bar, felt like crying. After spending a few min composing myself I tried again, this time I pulled a full set of 5 x 5 out the bag to as low as I could go at that time considering my range of motion was poor.
Fast forward to new years im down to 78kg bodyweight and squatting 75 kg for reps then disaster struck I was hit with a bad flu virus in january that knocked me off my feet and drained my energy for weeks but the time I got back in the gym beginning of feb I was back up to 81kg I de-loaded as the app suggested and found myself struggling to squat 60kg, all my lifts had gone back to end of november, I was gutted.
I kept going though pushing through the stalls and continuing to lose weight, by the time i'd got to mid april I was back down to 78kg and had just hit 90kg. At that time I decided to take a week off I was exhausted and the golf season had just started to kick in and I didt want to be tired for golf that was the whole point after all and killing yourself in the gym them being too knackered to swing a club defeated the object.
After the couple weeks break I decided to de-load, I know that isnt always recommended but I halved the weights of all the lifts I didnt want to push myself too much and I wanted to work on my form on everything so I increased reps taking it up to 10 reps for the 5 sets ensuring that I was getting everything correct and tight
I kept at this till the end of june where I got up to 70kg squats doing a minimum of 5x5 if not often more and body weight was right down to 72kg. At this point I met a PT at the gym, he was a great lad more of a sports coach than the usual meat head PT you can always tell the good ones cause he was a real lifter was front squatting 165 and dead lifting 230 so I took him on as a trainer and we worked real heard. Sadly not long after starting with him I lost a lot of gym time, my grandmother passed away at the end of july and I spent 3 weeks away from the gym helping my grandfather get through what was a very tough time for him, however by the time I got to my holiday in october my body weight was down to 68kg but I was squatting 105 for singles and deadlifting 120. More importantly my golf handicap was now 10.1.
Sadly my PT went to london at this point and I was stuck so after coming back from turkey I went back on to stronglifts again, at 70kg and 17%bf and heading into winter I decided it was time to bulk up a bit so I increased my cals while trying to stay under 20% bf, by the beginning of December I was back up to 90 squats benching 55 and deadlifting 110 for reps bodyweight was 74kg at about 18.5%bf
Once again though something got in the way, I spent a week away with my grand father before xmas then came back to christmas and all the bank holidays that get in the way of the gym so I gave up for a couple of weeks till I could get going again in January...
Which is were I am now I hit the gym in january at 75kg deloaded my lifts as the app suggests 75kg squat 40kg on row and bench 30kg on ohp and 90kg on dead. Sadly after those first squats it took me 4 days to be able to walk again so I was only able to do 2 days that week.
Sorry for the long post guys but after a little over a year I wanted a full catch up.
Things Ive taken away from this year.
It takes ages and I dont mean a few weeks I mean months of dedication to just fix the years of abuse that I have put my body through.
Stronglifts is real easy to get going with but once you get to that bodyweight squat and 1.5 bodyweight dead it takes real dedication to push through and there have been many times where ive thought im achieving nothing and spinning my wheels without realising that yes my squat hasnt improved but ive pushed the a bench or deadlift plateau this week. Strength gain isnt linear some weeks youl wonder why you bother then bam your hitting the ground running again.
Breaks and deload weeks are a requirement, no-one likes feeling like they are doing backwards theres nothing worse than rocking up to the gym after a week off racking up weights you were warming up with previously and feeling like a newbie again but give it time it will pay off.
Last thing to remember, doing something is better than doing nothing I know my lifts arnt huge my 6 inch wrists and ankles Celtic hips and my Italian stubborn body that just refuses to put on massive muscle gains (Franco Columbo juiced) I know I'm never going to be big and be able to lift massive weights but even if my genetic limit is squatting only 1xbw id rather do that than do nothing.
I will try to keep this updated hopefully a bit better than the last one I started.
In the mean time guys, hope this has been useful to you all and to those struggling with girls weights try not to get disheartened your not alone
