Hello everyone,
Following some consideration, I've decided to start my own training log. I've always struggled with training motivation and by keeping a log of everything here and receiving feedback, hopefully it'll push me to keep going and stay motivated. I hope I can also help other people with the training experiences I have.
Stats:
Age: 23
Height: 186cm / 6ft 1"
Weight: 99kg / 15st 9lbs
Training Background:
I've been training on and off since I was around 16 and weighed 60kg. I started off with very little knowledge, and as an addition, very little fitness. I distinctly remember being unable to get a clean set of 6 out with a standard Olympic bar for bench press, I also remember the same going for squats, I don't even believe I had the strength to do a full depth squat back then. I originally messed about with bodybuilding style routines (though never stuck to anything rigidly) and then made the decision to foray into strength training as I didn't really like the whole vanity over fitness ideology.
Following this, I've made one step forward, one step back progress for a few years. I often end up bulking, putting some bodyfat on and then burning the progress I've made off along with any excess bodyfat due to incorrect cutting methods. About a year ago, I told myself not to be bothered about burning inefficient mass off and tried to get as strong as possible regardless. I've tried to train 3+ times a week since, but also had several multi-week breaks in between for various personal/work related issues.
At the moment, I'm going through a cycle of enthusiasm and I've been trying to train pretty much as soon as my fatigue from the previous session goes, and often training regardless of fatigue. As a result, I would say I'm at the strongest (and heaviest) I've ever been though I feel as if I'll end up settling at the low 90kg range after I stop the massive calorie increase that I've introduced as a result of doing the Smolov squat routine, as I feel as if I'm retaining a lot of water at the moment.
Current Lifts:
Bench Press: 135kg-140kg
Squat (Full Depth): 180kg
Deadlift: I've not deadlifted since a large increase in leg strength so I'd estimate 200kg+ at the moment.
My next set of goals are a 160kg bench press, 200kg squat and 240kg deadlift, at which point I'd like to settle down on powerlifting and move towards Olympic lifting as my shoulder strength is diabolical at the moment. Plus, I like the functionality of the lifts and have enjoyed them when I've tried them (although it'll no doubt take me a long time to learn proper technique). I'm aiming to hit the last two in the next 3-5 months as I seem to add strength on both sets of lifts easily when massively increasing my caloric consumption but I think a 160kg bench press may be a little way off at this stage as I've always struggled with it, hopefully I'll hit it by the end of the year though. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy at my current bench so my priority is squatting and deadlifting at the moment, in that order.
My long term goals would be to foray into either olympic lifting or powerlifting on an amateur level, though I don't know whether I could achieve this.
I've also messed about with boxing and brazilian jiu jitsu in the past, but these are currently on hiatus as they would be counterproductive to my current lifting goals. I would like to mess about with them further when I hit the above goals though.
I'm going to start the training log officially as of tomorrow which is the start of the second week of the Smolov Squat routine (the link for this routine can be found here.) I've also got some supplementary bench worked into there, I'll be leaving deadlifts until the 3 week phase is over though (anyone who has ever done this routine will understand why!).
More to come, I'll also be posting videos of my lifts and progress in due time. Wish me luck!
Following some consideration, I've decided to start my own training log. I've always struggled with training motivation and by keeping a log of everything here and receiving feedback, hopefully it'll push me to keep going and stay motivated. I hope I can also help other people with the training experiences I have.
Stats:
Age: 23
Height: 186cm / 6ft 1"
Weight: 99kg / 15st 9lbs
Training Background:
I've been training on and off since I was around 16 and weighed 60kg. I started off with very little knowledge, and as an addition, very little fitness. I distinctly remember being unable to get a clean set of 6 out with a standard Olympic bar for bench press, I also remember the same going for squats, I don't even believe I had the strength to do a full depth squat back then. I originally messed about with bodybuilding style routines (though never stuck to anything rigidly) and then made the decision to foray into strength training as I didn't really like the whole vanity over fitness ideology.
Following this, I've made one step forward, one step back progress for a few years. I often end up bulking, putting some bodyfat on and then burning the progress I've made off along with any excess bodyfat due to incorrect cutting methods. About a year ago, I told myself not to be bothered about burning inefficient mass off and tried to get as strong as possible regardless. I've tried to train 3+ times a week since, but also had several multi-week breaks in between for various personal/work related issues.
At the moment, I'm going through a cycle of enthusiasm and I've been trying to train pretty much as soon as my fatigue from the previous session goes, and often training regardless of fatigue. As a result, I would say I'm at the strongest (and heaviest) I've ever been though I feel as if I'll end up settling at the low 90kg range after I stop the massive calorie increase that I've introduced as a result of doing the Smolov squat routine, as I feel as if I'm retaining a lot of water at the moment.
Current Lifts:
Bench Press: 135kg-140kg
Squat (Full Depth): 180kg
Deadlift: I've not deadlifted since a large increase in leg strength so I'd estimate 200kg+ at the moment.
My next set of goals are a 160kg bench press, 200kg squat and 240kg deadlift, at which point I'd like to settle down on powerlifting and move towards Olympic lifting as my shoulder strength is diabolical at the moment. Plus, I like the functionality of the lifts and have enjoyed them when I've tried them (although it'll no doubt take me a long time to learn proper technique). I'm aiming to hit the last two in the next 3-5 months as I seem to add strength on both sets of lifts easily when massively increasing my caloric consumption but I think a 160kg bench press may be a little way off at this stage as I've always struggled with it, hopefully I'll hit it by the end of the year though. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy at my current bench so my priority is squatting and deadlifting at the moment, in that order.
My long term goals would be to foray into either olympic lifting or powerlifting on an amateur level, though I don't know whether I could achieve this.
I've also messed about with boxing and brazilian jiu jitsu in the past, but these are currently on hiatus as they would be counterproductive to my current lifting goals. I would like to mess about with them further when I hit the above goals though.
I'm going to start the training log officially as of tomorrow which is the start of the second week of the Smolov Squat routine (the link for this routine can be found here.) I've also got some supplementary bench worked into there, I'll be leaving deadlifts until the 3 week phase is over though (anyone who has ever done this routine will understand why!).
More to come, I'll also be posting videos of my lifts and progress in due time. Wish me luck!
Last edited:
hopefully the rubber matting I've currently got should be okay in the garage and dampen it enough to make it a non-issue. One thing I need to check is the height of the roof frame to make sure that I can comfortably extend my arms with a barbell above me.