OD's training log

Status
Not open for further replies.

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
22,793
Location
London
PLEASE CLOSE THIS THREAD

OK.

I will post images later tonight and update the op.

I have been been in the gym since 2008 and got nowhere! I have tried, Full body routines, three times a week, Full body routines twice a week, splits where you only hit muscle once a week etc.... no thing worked for me.

Add to this, I have never been more than 3 months consistent.

I didn't understand the concept of either losing fat or gaining muscle. I tried to pull in both directions and ended up with nothing.

Fast for till now and I am back in it. My friend who has also been training for years did the same mistakes as me at the beginning but now he has made some solid progress and is in a position to give me advice.

He could see that at the end of last year I was huffing and puffing and not lacking in effort, but still not making progress.

So he said look do it my way and don’t argue with me about certain things.

The routine was simple a very basic 2 day split, done twice a week.

As I have knee issues, the leg press was tacked on at the end of one of the sessions:

So session A was:

Pull ups 3x10
Cable Rows 3x10
Barbell Curls 3x10
Leg Press 5x10
Calf Raises 3x10
35mins incline walking


Session B was:

Chest Press 3x10
OHP 3x10
Dips 3x10
Cable pull downs 3x10
35mins incline walking

The format was A,B, dayoff, A,B dayoff, dayoff.

This worked! No only did I smash previous plateaus I had, but I lost 5-6kg's in weight!

However over the last 4 weeks I haven’t really lost any more weight so it looks like my fat loss may have stalled and its time to move on to a maintenance diet and try to actually improve my lifting capacity.

The plan I think is to reach the end of April at maintenance and then go in to a bulk for two much, and try to do a rapid fat loss program to try to be as ready as possible for a summer holiday!

Sounds like a plan to me.

Here is my current maintenance diet:

Breakfast 9am:

1 egg white/ 2 whole eggs omelette fried in frylight, with 3 turkey bacon slices spinach, peppers and some tomatoes.

Sachet of quaker oats porridge plain with water



2 cups of coffee with milk (no sugar)



Lunch 1.30pm:

Sandwich: 2 wholemeal brown bread, light mayo, 3 slices of ham, lettuce and tomato

1 tin of tuna in water



Cup of tea with milk (no sugar) - I'm going to switch this to green tea



Pre gym 6pm: Chicken breast or tin salmon with a sweet or regular medium potato


Pre gym 7pm: 1 banana, double shot espresso shot and 20 Almonds


Dinner 9pm: Salad or Stir Fry with white fish/steak/seafood. (Salad consisted of: tomatoes, beetroot, radishes, lettuce, onion, cucumber, peppers - seasoned with balsamic vinegar)

Desert: Fruits (up to 5 - both of the dried and non dried variety excluding figs)

Finally the routine I’m going to start doing, is an adaptation of Lyle Mcdonald's bulking routine adapted to my needs.

Format is the same as before A,B, dayoff, A,B dayoff, dayoff.

Bench Press 4x8
Cable Rows 4x8
Shoulder Press 3x10
Pull up's 3x10
Dips 2x12
Barbell Curls 2x12
20mins incline walk


Step up's 3x10
SLDL 4x8
Leg Press 3x10
Split Squat 3x10
Calf Raises 4x8
Hyper Extensions 3x10
Hanging Leg Raises 3x10
Plank
Oblique Crunches
20mins incline walk


What I like about this routine compared to my previous routine, is that the legs get more focus, which they need and the upper body gets a good rest between sessions. Before although I was doing splits, it still felt like there was too much cross over.
 
Last edited:
So my first update:

Right, so as you know I started this new routine today, new tweaked diet and even had to go to a new gym.

Firstly, the potato made a huge difference to my stamina today. I felt like I wasn’t fatiguing as quick and had enough energy in the tank to get through all the exercises, with out the later ones suffering too much.

The routine, is good, I like the fact that I am now finished totally with the upper body and can focus on the lower tomorrow with no crossover and with the same intensity as the upper body.

The gym..... well over all it's an improvement on my previous one. It's bigger, has loads of machines more than Hendon and the best bit they have more leg options for me.

Example. At Hendon they have the squat rack and the leg press for doing that kind of movement ie a squat. At Cricklewood they have a squat rack, a leg press, a sledge type press where you sit upside down and a squatting machine!! The other good thing they have at cricklewood is a hip abductor.. yes yes I hear you say 'but thats a woman’s exercise. Yes it is! But, I have knee issues and the physio told me that the adbuctors play a role in knee stability so I can finally do some solid work on that now too!

So I think tomorrow, I going to see what I can do, i.e. I will try the squat machine and see if I can do that rather than step ups, I will try the sledge machine too, either way the leg press will be in there in some capacity, but now I have more options.

The diet is good too. Far healthier, and the potato will help me increase my weights. Already today, I jumped 2.5kg on the pull up and I tried 2.5kg increase on the shoulders as I felt I had it in me, but failed, but still I had the energy levels to attempt it.

Forgot to eat my almonds before gym, but just ate them on way home.

So all in all pretty good. Lets see how tomorrow goes!


Oh the other thing is they dont have a cable row machine, but had something very similar called a low back pull (I think) similar movement, but I knoticed it did not create any sort of bicep pump, so was probably isolating the back more than the cable row. Still unless I find another option, thats my best bet.

--

Oh and the pool is twice the size at the new gym!

---

As the new gym I'm going to has more leg options Im gona try the squat machine tomorrow instead of step ups and I will do the 'man' leg press rather than the girly one.

Lower now looks like this:

Squat 4x8
SLDL 4x8
Leg Press 3x10
Split Squat 3x10
Calf Raises 4x8
Abductors 3x10
Hyper Extensions 3x10
Hanging Leg Raises 3x10
Plank
Oblique Crunch
 
Last edited:
Lower routine update:

Right, well I tried the hack squat machine. Becuase I cant go down ass to grass, (due to pain) it's not really going to do anything for me at all.

The sledge type upside down leg press, although OK, I think will not be good for me either. At the bottom of the movement, all the weight is bearing down on you, and for me that means the knee joint is under too much stress. It will only get worse as the weights go up.

Thats fine I can stick to the regular leg press, which although a bit girlie, was fine and doing the job. I was able to go heavy without the knee being under strain and the gains where coming.

The question is what to complement it with.

My options:

Step up's
Split squats
Single leg press

I can choose just two of those. Single leg presses may be more beneficial for me than say split squats. My balance is bad and the leg press is a seated 'machine' excersise, so form isnt too much of an issue.

Im thinking: Leg press, Step up's & single leg press at least I can aim to go heavy on those three.

I'm not saying the split squats arent a good excersise, its just for me, my legs arent strong, my balance is bad, split squats are very form demanding and I cant do the bulgarian split squat yet with out a lot of practice.
 
I say take up Icecold on his offer. Get a video of you actually squatting body weight or with just a bar on your back and if you don't want to post it here send it to him via his trust email. Explain the pain as you go through the motion of the squat for the video as well, you may not realize just how straight forward fixing/correcting your problems might be.

If you just faff about for a few months and eventually send him a vid just think of all that wasted time, kinda like with getting a log going......

You will get there, how fast depends on how willing you are to do a little bit of work to get extra help.
 
I get the message. Squats are king. But I'm telling you, I cant do it, due to rom and how the weight is distributed accoss my knee joint during the movement.

I will never be able to go ATG on a squat. It's not something 'fixable' without surgery and thats assuming that after surgery I would be able to squat at all.

I was hoping the hack squat machine would be my middle ground, but again rom limits it so much that it wasnt even worth my time.

I could drop the step ups then for the BSS?

--

But I do appreciate the offer. The new gym im going is a bit more hardcore to my old one, and dont think I feel comfotable doing baby weights on the squats with all the beef cakes asking "how long you gona be" etc...

I reckon I need strong legs first to even think about trying to squat, becuase I need the muscle mass to take the stress of the knee joint.

Maybe with a year of leg pressing and reaching some high numbers, I might be strong enough.
 
Last edited:
You don't get close to ass to grass with low bar back squats.

I know you have knee issues but to what extent have you been advised by a sports physio/coach that you can't squat?

What's stopping you making 1 video with commentary as you squat about what pain your getting and where?

Until you try to fix something, your never going to know you can't fix it. I am not saying you must squat at all. They are king yes, but if you truely cannot then don't. However it seems you are happy to say you can't, but very reluctant to actually try some of the advise that is being offered. If you can leg press, you can low bar squat.
 
I don't think he'll ever listen, but I'm going to immortalise my prediction.

1) Flat feet, or at least a dysfunctional arch.

2) Valgus knee all over the place.

3) Leg press allows greater control over position and ROM, making pain avoidable.


There is a guy I'm training at the moment who I most likely could have saved from needing his cartilage to be scraped out of his knee.
 
opethdisciple said:
I get the message. Squats are king. But I'm telling you, I cant do it, due to rom and how the weight is distributed accoss my knee joint during the movement.

I will never be able to go ATG on a squat. It's not something 'fixable' without surgery and thats assuming that after surgery I would be able to squat at all.

I was hoping the hack squat machine would be my middle ground, but again rom limits it so much that it wasnt even worth my time.

I could drop the step ups then for the BSS?

--

But I do appreciate the offer. The new gym im going is a bit more hardcore to my old one, and dont think I feel comfotable doing baby weights on the squats with all the beef cakes asking "how long you gona be" etc...

I reckon I need strong legs first to even think about trying to squat, becuase I need the muscle mass to take the stress of the knee joint.

Maybe with a year of leg pressing and reaching some high numbers, I might be strong enough.
Click to expand...

Try some box squats. I know Mobwod, well Kelly Starrett, has done some interesting stuff on box squats (at a height where your upper leg is about parallel to ground) where people manage to squat with huge knee issues.

kd
 
If it helps, I used to have knee pains from squatting. It was down to the way I squatted and the bad form. I've since fixed this (thanks to Icecold) and haven't had any knee aches or pain since, in fact they are very good.
 
I have a confession to make... well it's not a confession but I keep it quite non the less, becuase peoples would have trashed me.

For the past 3 months I have been using the machine chest press and machine shoulder press!! :eek:

Yes, yes, shock horror, but I did it for a reason. Which may not be neccessary any more.

At the old gym I used to go to, they had only one flat bench and 3 different olmpic bars all with about 2.5kg -1.25kg differences and thickness.

This was driving me crazy, either I would have to wait 30mins to get on the bench or, the bars where different from my last session and it would mess with my weight progression!!

So I went with the machines, and have indeed made progress. But now I have changed gyms, they have two flat benchies and perhaps the barbells are the same... so... my big question is:

Would I benefit from going back to barbell for bench and shoulders as opposed to staying on the machine.

I asked my freind a question today:

If you where to compare two people who had worked the same reps/sets over a year one on machines one on barbells (chest/shoulders). would there be a difference?

He's answer was, who ever was able to make the most progress weight wise.

What you say?

I feel like I should do as much barbell work as I can simply becuase I don't do dl's and squats. I feel like I would actually make some progress now that I am actually doing it twice a week.
 
Last edited:
Syla5 said:
You don't get close to ass to grass with low bar back squats.

I know you have knee issues but to what extent have you been advised by a sports physio/coach that you can't squat?

What's stopping you making 1 video with commentary as you squat about what pain your getting and where?

Until you try to fix something, your never going to know you can't fix it. I am not saying you must squat at all. They are king yes, but if you truely cannot then don't. However it seems you are happy to say you can't, but very reluctant to actually try some of the advise that is being offered. If you can leg press, you can low bar squat.
Click to expand...

why you no answer questions??:confused::(
 
opethdisciple said:
Possible to elaborate a bit more? Obviously Im keen to get the most out of my sessions.

I'll probably see how the land lies tomorrow with regards to the barbells for chest/shoulders at new gym.
Click to expand...

Using free weights means you have to stabilise the weight. Machines do this part for you, and therefore work a much more limited set of muscles.

Even something like Benching/squatting in a smith machine, means the bar is being kept level. For something like Bench, it means that you don't have to balance the weight, and don't have to use the stabilisation muscles to stabilise the weight.

Hope this helps.

kd
 
Syla5 said:
You don't get close to ass to grass with low bar back squats.

I know you have knee issues but to what extent have you been advised by a sports physio/coach that you can't squat?

What's stopping you making 1 video with commentary as you squat about what pain your getting and where?

Until you try to fix something, your never going to know you can't fix it. I am not saying you must squat at all. They are king yes, but if you truely cannot then don't. However it seems you are happy to say you can't, but very reluctant to actually try some of the advise that is being offered. If you can leg press, you can low bar squat.
Click to expand...

The deeper I go in the squat the more it hurts. I have either thin cartalidge or nonw at all at a certian point, and during the rom of the squat the patella (knee cap) comes in contact with the femur and causes pain.

The leg press, doesnt seem to cause this problem, becuase the forces are different. The joint is technically not bearing any weight, it is just pushing.

Another way to understand the problem as the physio showed me, he got me to sit on the edge of a bed, he bent my leg back and held it there with resistance, then asked me to push. I was able to do it up to a point, untill I suddenly felt sharp pain and obviously stoped pushing.

This is why leg extensions and leg curls are bad for me, becuase I would be doing the above, but this time with weights. It was the leg curl machine I caused ths problem on to start with.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom