Hi All,
I have been wanting to log in for some time but have always found some excuse or other but with 2015 here and a promise to myself to start new things I will do my very best to log here what I have gotten up to. (It is quite painful to type some of this)
Some background - living in Dubai is an easy place to gain weight and in the first few years here I quickly put on 20kg (100kg -> 120kg, I am 5ft 10) despite using the communal residents gym for some cardio now again I didn't really do much about it for sometime.
Realisation is a powerful motivator and I realised I could not move forward how I was and after rather stern talk from the Doctor (about the high risk I was running of Diabetes and hyper tension) at the start of 2011 I gave up drinking and fast food and embarked on group exercise classes. In perhaps the most brutal six months of my life I went to Les Mills Body Pump/Body Attack/Body Combat/Circuit Training Classes 4 or 5 times a week (it started at 2 or 3 classes a week) for a period of 6 months.
I didn't really go out all I did was go to the gym and do studio classes. After 6 months I had lost a total of 17kg but had endured during the process 1 calf strain, 2 hamstring tweaks and was sore pretty much all the time. The good news was I felt great and it was around this time I met my future wife
Over the next year or so real life and our relationship took a priority and I ended putting back on 10kg (112kg) and I felt terrible for it. So with the wedding coming up at the end of 2012 I went all out again on the exercise classes, we enlisted a personal trainer and I went on a 1800 calorie a day diet - the end result of that was losing 10kg for the wedding.
Wedding and honeymoon over we moved into a new house and renovated it (there is a thread on here about it) and the stress of this and reduced gym attendance, yep you guessed it I put back on 10kg.
Frustrated - I took stock. I read, re-read everything on here and time again you guys spoke about strong lifts. I had not lifted in anger since University - body pump does not count as lifting and I did some sporadic resistance training when we had a PT (but that mostly HIIT style stuff) I thought I would start doing stronglifts over the summer.
Stronglifts was humbling - as a big guy who had exercised regularly over the last couple of years I realised I basically had no strength, no core stability and major muscle imbalances. I persisted with stronglifts (not as regularly as I would have liked) during July - September and ended up with the following 1RM:
Bench Press -80kg
Strict Press - 47.5kg
Squat -100kg
Deadlift - 145kg
and a bodyweight of 107kg (down from 112kg) - not brilliant but I had come a long way in a short space of time and for the first time in a while I actually looked forward to workout days
As I really started to enjoy lifting - and ended up building a garage gym and I look at it as long term investment and I love being in there!
Getting into lifting weights made me want to explore more and I sought some advice from a strength and conditioning coach. After a long conversation with him and a few sessions with him it was very apparent that technique was the paramount above everything else along with a regimented scheme of diet and exercise program.
So mid September 2014 I started on the 531 program coupled with an introduction to Crossfit class (now I know there is some debate about crossfit but I had tried pretty much everything else up to this point) and while I thought my initial introduction to the world of exercise was tough crossfit brought a whole new level of intensity.
I also switched up by diet simply by eating a good whole food diet (veggies, meat, fish, nuts, fruit) - anything coming in a package is banned or eaten in small quantities.
The onramp to crossfit (about 12 sessions) taught me basic lifting techniques and modifiers for movements I could not yet do. The emphasis the whole time is on proper form.
I found the WoDs or Metcons incredibly hard to begin with I initially had a capacity of about 8 minutes before the wheels came off and I was a on my back in a sweaty, gasping for breath heap. In order to improve my conditioning I did two circuit classes a week focused High Intensity Interval Training for the first six weeks as well as doing 531 for squat, bench press and deadlift. Now I go to crossfit class 4 or 5 times a week with lifting and/or metcons in my home gym a couple of times a week.
After 12 weeks of hard work and I did every session of two cycles of 531 I tested just this week and here are the results:
Bench Press - 97.5kg (up 17.5kg)
Strict Press - 56kg (up 8.5kg) - didn't specifically train this
Squat -142.5kg (up 42.5kg !)
Deadlift - 160kg (up 15kg)
Bodyweight - 100kg (lightest I have been in 10 years)
I have also now started to me able to do some of the WoDs (Workout of the Day) as Rx (as prescribed)
Honestly, I was delighted to have achieved a 400kg total and this was the goal I set out to achieve. Here are the lifts:
Also what motivates is my attempts - so close yet....:
So what next?
Well I be lifting for sure I am working with my coach on some appropriate goals for the year at the moment and will log those here. I do have some for now:
5 strict pull ups (can do 1 now)
5 strict toes to bars (can do zero now)
1 ring muscle up (ugh)
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to capture everything over the last three years!
Trying new things is the theme for me and so yesterday I did my first ever yoga class (hot yoga as well) and survived and literally burnt 650 calories in the hour - in all a quest to help my mobility (another big goal for 2015 - shoulder and mid thoracic mobility)
Namaste - Ronski
I have been wanting to log in for some time but have always found some excuse or other but with 2015 here and a promise to myself to start new things I will do my very best to log here what I have gotten up to. (It is quite painful to type some of this)
Some background - living in Dubai is an easy place to gain weight and in the first few years here I quickly put on 20kg (100kg -> 120kg, I am 5ft 10) despite using the communal residents gym for some cardio now again I didn't really do much about it for sometime.
Realisation is a powerful motivator and I realised I could not move forward how I was and after rather stern talk from the Doctor (about the high risk I was running of Diabetes and hyper tension) at the start of 2011 I gave up drinking and fast food and embarked on group exercise classes. In perhaps the most brutal six months of my life I went to Les Mills Body Pump/Body Attack/Body Combat/Circuit Training Classes 4 or 5 times a week (it started at 2 or 3 classes a week) for a period of 6 months.
I didn't really go out all I did was go to the gym and do studio classes. After 6 months I had lost a total of 17kg but had endured during the process 1 calf strain, 2 hamstring tweaks and was sore pretty much all the time. The good news was I felt great and it was around this time I met my future wife
Over the next year or so real life and our relationship took a priority and I ended putting back on 10kg (112kg) and I felt terrible for it. So with the wedding coming up at the end of 2012 I went all out again on the exercise classes, we enlisted a personal trainer and I went on a 1800 calorie a day diet - the end result of that was losing 10kg for the wedding.
Wedding and honeymoon over we moved into a new house and renovated it (there is a thread on here about it) and the stress of this and reduced gym attendance, yep you guessed it I put back on 10kg.
Frustrated - I took stock. I read, re-read everything on here and time again you guys spoke about strong lifts. I had not lifted in anger since University - body pump does not count as lifting and I did some sporadic resistance training when we had a PT (but that mostly HIIT style stuff) I thought I would start doing stronglifts over the summer.
Stronglifts was humbling - as a big guy who had exercised regularly over the last couple of years I realised I basically had no strength, no core stability and major muscle imbalances. I persisted with stronglifts (not as regularly as I would have liked) during July - September and ended up with the following 1RM:
Bench Press -80kg
Strict Press - 47.5kg
Squat -100kg
Deadlift - 145kg
and a bodyweight of 107kg (down from 112kg) - not brilliant but I had come a long way in a short space of time and for the first time in a while I actually looked forward to workout days
As I really started to enjoy lifting - and ended up building a garage gym and I look at it as long term investment and I love being in there!
Getting into lifting weights made me want to explore more and I sought some advice from a strength and conditioning coach. After a long conversation with him and a few sessions with him it was very apparent that technique was the paramount above everything else along with a regimented scheme of diet and exercise program.
So mid September 2014 I started on the 531 program coupled with an introduction to Crossfit class (now I know there is some debate about crossfit but I had tried pretty much everything else up to this point) and while I thought my initial introduction to the world of exercise was tough crossfit brought a whole new level of intensity.
I also switched up by diet simply by eating a good whole food diet (veggies, meat, fish, nuts, fruit) - anything coming in a package is banned or eaten in small quantities.
The onramp to crossfit (about 12 sessions) taught me basic lifting techniques and modifiers for movements I could not yet do. The emphasis the whole time is on proper form.
I found the WoDs or Metcons incredibly hard to begin with I initially had a capacity of about 8 minutes before the wheels came off and I was a on my back in a sweaty, gasping for breath heap. In order to improve my conditioning I did two circuit classes a week focused High Intensity Interval Training for the first six weeks as well as doing 531 for squat, bench press and deadlift. Now I go to crossfit class 4 or 5 times a week with lifting and/or metcons in my home gym a couple of times a week.
After 12 weeks of hard work and I did every session of two cycles of 531 I tested just this week and here are the results:
Bench Press - 97.5kg (up 17.5kg)
Strict Press - 56kg (up 8.5kg) - didn't specifically train this
Squat -142.5kg (up 42.5kg !)
Deadlift - 160kg (up 15kg)
Bodyweight - 100kg (lightest I have been in 10 years)
I have also now started to me able to do some of the WoDs (Workout of the Day) as Rx (as prescribed)
Honestly, I was delighted to have achieved a 400kg total and this was the goal I set out to achieve. Here are the lifts:
Also what motivates is my attempts - so close yet....:
So what next?
Well I be lifting for sure
I am working with my coach on some appropriate goals for the year at the moment and will log those here. I do have some for now:5 strict pull ups (can do 1 now)
5 strict toes to bars (can do zero now)
1 ring muscle up (ugh)
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to capture everything over the last three years!
Trying new things is the theme for me and so yesterday I did my first ever yoga class (hot yoga as well) and survived and literally burnt 650 calories in the hour - in all a quest to help my mobility (another big goal for 2015 - shoulder and mid thoracic mobility)
Namaste - Ronski
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