Cure's 6 month strength building plan. Advice and comments sought.

[Cure]

Ok mixed update this time.

Saturdays workout was pretty awesome.

Deadlift- warmups to 1x5 125kg PR
The last rep was dodgy, this really took it out of me, but I got it.

Hamstring curl - I don't remember what weight I used, but still rapidly getting stronger at this.

Pull ups 2x5.
Never done 5 in a row before, so pretty pleased with this, even if the ROM suffered a bit.

Bicep curl- 31kg
2x10
1x8
tough, but making progress.


Today's workout was a comparatively a disaster.

Went in feeling ok, tried to do heavy barbell OH Press, failed after a couple of reps, disappointing, but not really surprising given I'm losing weight.
Squatted 80kg for 5 reps, felt heavier than it should have done.
Didnt do chest like id meant to.

One good bit was triceps cable extension 26.5kg 3x10, which is a PR.
I really need to get this up, as my triceps are small, lag behind my biceps and are quite possibly the reason for my pressing plateau.


Im off on holiday for 5 days now, to Wales, so I will be trying to stick to a healthy diet despite the temptations of wedding food/booze.

I will do a fair amount of hill walking/running which should get me in shape even better.

I weighed 73.5kg today, still dropping, don't want it to drop much lower.

When I come back Im going to add heavy squats back into my routine.

Cure.

 

[Quagmire911]

I remember the first time I did 125kgx5! 125 was the first weight I stalled with on deads.

Keep up the good work! You should set a date for nailing 300lbs,

Quagmire

 

[Cure]

Keep up the good work! You should set a date for nailing 300lbs,

Quagmire

*googles*

a mere 136kg, Should be do able in the next couple of months if I eat right.

personally, the mile stone I'm aiming for is 140kg. Bar plus six plates :yes:

Cure.

 

[Quagmire911]

I meant for a rep. You could probably hit 140kgx1 right now.

 

[Cure]

Im back,

It felt so awesome to be back in the gym today!!

Squats, low bar, fairly wide stance, below parallel.

barx10
40kgx8
60kgx20.

got the first 8 reps, then it was doubles and triples, felt good. Difficult but within my capabilities.
Im going to do this twice a week, adding 2.5kg per session, and see how far I get.

DB Press 28kgx3. Didnt like this without a spotter.

Bench

62.5kg 3x5, which matches my PR, I think 65 for 3x5 is within reach.

Leg curl. 3x8-10 82kg PR

OH DB Press 3x5 18kg. Not so good, could get 8 reps before the break.

Tricep cable extend 3x10 26.5kg.

Weight 74kg.

I dont appear to have lost any strenght over the break. tommorow I will do rows and misc, then in a couple of days set up a proper SPBR again.

Im planning to cut down my job hours and take up wing chun kung fu, which I will do 3-4 times per week, that should A. get me in really good shape and B. give me somthing to do with all this strenght.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

Todays workout was pretty good.

20 repper- 62.5kg

I did 8 reps, then 6, 4, 2.

My form was good, Lower back ached like hell at the end, its not used to it!

This felt easier than the last one, I guess because Im back in the "groove" of squatting now, I suspect it will get difficult very quickly, bring it on!

Seated DB OH Press 18kg.
2x8, 1x10
Strength recovered here, which Im happy about, aiming to get 18kg for 3x10, then up the weight and see how many reps I can get.

Ham curls, got 89kg for 5, then they gave up on me so I stopped. I think Ive reached the limits of "catch up" with this one now and I'll have to grind it up like all my other lifts.

close grip bench press, 40kg
3x10

Tricep cable extension. 3x10 29.5kg PR.
good.

Some ab work to finnish. weigh static at around 74kg.

Im definatly getting leaner, my "V" taper is looking awesome in the mirror, But I still need to put on considerable muscle mass to get the "cover model" look.

Slowly but surely, diet could be better but is good enough for now, I need to reintroduce supplements, fish oil and eggs.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

yesterdays WO-

Pull ups 2x5.
I meant to do 3 sets. I will get 3x5 with good form next time.

Stiff leg deads, warm ups to 5x100kg.

these were tough on my hams but my lower back felt very strong, not my PR, but my PR resulted in injury..

bent dumbbell rows, 26kg
x8
x7
x7

My left side is weaker, So I will work with dumbbells untill its corrected.

Chin ups 2x8

some side bends to finnish.

happy with this.


Diet wise Im still not drinking any/much milk, Ive just been eating loads of normal food again, i need to get back on the raw eggs, they were awesome.

Im going to aim to get my strength up while slowing increasing my body weight, I want to get lean, so if strenght doesnt improve a lot at the moment, so be it.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

Today-

DB Bench 28kg per side.

2x5, 1x6(+one assisted) PR Happy with this.

65kg for 20 reps. I did 10, then 6, then 2 and 2. Very happy with how this went. I need to focus on getting depth, its fine at the moment but need to keep an eye on it as the weight goes up.

2x10 glute thrusts.

Shoulder Press, 18kg per side. Wanted 3x10. I got 9 reps, and 8x2. Never mind.

Dips, on the assist machine.
Im doing these instead of tricep stuff today.
3x10. with various assist settings to experiment. I wil try for unassisted nest time.

Crunches and planks and stuff to finnish.

Also the other day I went for a 20 min interval run, was great. need to get atleast 3-4 a week in.

Diet still going ok.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

awesome day today.

pull ups x5, x4, x4. not so good but never mind.

Deads

40x8
70x7
90x3
100x1
110x1
120x1
136x1 (300lb PR- woohoo!!)

100x7

Was easier than I thought it would be, you were right Quag I could lift it right now, its all in my head.
My knees clicked somthing aweful but that always happens when I lift a weight for the first time. Next time I dead I will try 130 for reps. then for a 140kg single.

DB rows each side 26kg.
3x8.
left side still slightly weaker.

chin ups 3x5

Stretching and flexibility has kinda hit a brick wall at the moment, but hopefulyl will fix itself if I continue with the stretching.

Im starting a wing chun/san shou class on wedesday which Im really looking forward to. Will be great to train with somthing other than weights.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

Todays workout was hard, havent had it take it out me like this in a while.

Squats.

Barx10
40x4
67.5x20 (8, 3,3,2,2,2)

Tough, but got throught it, for 70kg I need to eat pleanty in the run up, and make sure form is good on every repetition.
Im close on body weight for 20 reps now.

ham raises, using a barbell to keep my feet down.
3x5, but I had to use arms to assist for 80% of the way up.
I thought my hamstrings were strong, turns out they are not!
I will persevere with these, aim is to get at least one rep of all the way up without arms.

glute raises with a 20kg BB. x10 and then x20.
Only the higher reps seem to work with this, so will be doing 3x20 in future.

one leg calve raises, 2x10 per side with a 10kg dumbell.

Left it at that for today. Im going to a new martial arts class tommorow night so I wanted to leave my upper body and core fresh for it.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

weighed in at 73.5kg yesterday, down a little but not worryingly so.

Just got back from a double class, Wing Chun followed by San shou Kickboxing.
It was amazing to be back in a martial arts class, Im so glad I got motivated to go.
I will pay a set fee of £50 a month, for that I can go to as many classes as I like, I think I will start with 3-4 a week and see how it goes.
Its a 12 mile bike ride there and back so pleanty of added cardio as well.

If I start doing multiple hours of extra cycling and martial arts I will need to up the calories. Back on the milk soon I think!

Im going to take a couple of days off.

Cure.

 

[Quagmire911]

weighed in at 73.5kg yesterday, down a little but not worryingly so.

Just got back from a double class, Wing Chun followed by San shou Kickboxing.
It was amazing to be back in a martial arts class, Im so glad I got motivated to go.
I will pay a set fee of £50 a month, for that I can go to as many classes as I like, I think I will start with 3-4 a week and see how it goes.
Its a 12 mile bike ride there and back so pleanty of added cardio as well.

If I start doing multiple hours of extra cycling and martial arts I will need to up the calories. Back on the milk soon I think!

Im going to take a couple of days off.

Cure.

Going to be tough getting strong doing all that ^^^^^

 

[Cure]

Todays workout-

Squat 70kgx20. PR,

Form broke down a little in the last 10, I tend to go down, then lift my arse up a bit, then lift my back up and push down, should be one smooth movement. Will work on this.
I'm going to switch back to 3x5 format now for a bit, then try to get the 20 repper up to 80kg in a few weeks.

Bench 3x5 65kg PR, bout time I got this. Happy.

Glute barbell thrusts. 48kg bar, 3x15. Good, but I'm not sure how effectively this is hitting my glutes, time will tell.

Ran out of time, but wasn’t planning to do much more.

Weight static at just over 73kg.

Quag, you are quite right doing lots of cycling and martial arts will make it pretty difficult to get stronger.

I’ve had a think about it though, and really, what’s the point of being “strong”. Being strong is pointless and a waste of food unless you have something to be strong for. I don’t see the point of training for trainings sake. I want to be as fit, strong and generally athletic as possible, which means training in a number of disciplines.

Six months weight training exclusively just made me bigger but very unfit. I'm currently 4kg lighter than my all time high, but stronger than I’ve ever been.

Thus I'm going to cross train martial arts, free running, and weights. My goal is to get stronger and faster. If I need to get bigger to achieve that, I will, and it’s likely I will.

I’ve started back on the raw eggs today, and will reincorporate sups and fish oil tomorrow.

The plan is to do the martial arts and cardio training, and eat a **** load, focusing my weight training only on-

Squat, deadlift, Bench, Row.

With OH press and pull up as secondary exercises. Aims-

Bench and row body weight.
Deadlift 140kg for reps, and double body weight for a single.
Add at least 10-20 kilos on my various squats.

I will eat a load for the next few weeks and see how it goes. Tweaking as necessary in a few weeks time.

All advice and comments very welcome and appreciated.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

Well Im in pain today,
My shoulders hurt like hell from benching, and my glutes hurt every time I contract them, I've definatly found an exercise that targets them!

Went to martial arts today, it was great. The bike ride is tiring but the class itself is pretty easy, cardio wise.

raw egg intake- high.

Cure.

 

[CarlitosWay]

yes I do barbell glute thrusts from time to time and they're brutally good. real great movement..good stuff

 

[Farfetched]

Good stuff, I'll take attempts to do something similar

 

[Cure]

cheers guys,

Did martial arts last night, really enjoying it. Its not massively intense, so long as I eat enough to cover the calories expended it shouldnt hurt my strenght gains.

Gym today-

5 pulls ups

squats, warm ups to
3x90kg
2x5 90kg

wussed out on the first set, could have got all 5 if id tried. The bar felt REALLY heavy. but Ive not squatted in a few months now so 12kg off my PR isnt to bad. Will work this up to 100kg again over the next few weeks then try and go for a PR. Not sure how well that will work if my weight remains static.

Rows
5x40kg

3x5x65kg, but some reps were dodgy so wont call it a PR yet.

Next time. my Row has caught up with my bench now, which is good.

Hamstring exercise again. 3x5 approx, still nothing like strong enough to get body weight so may move back to the machine.

Glute bridge raises. 48kg for 3x10 ish.

Glutes are a muscle I really need to develop, they are lagging WAY behind my quads. I dont think my squats are likly to improve untill I correct this imbalance.

5 more pull ups.


overall, a bit meh. my lifts are crawling up so slowly its agonising. Ive only put 5kg on my bench in four months!! I guess I just need to get more disiplined, eat more, rest more, put more effort it.

Cure.

 

[Cure]

Short and sweet today.

Squats-

barx10
40x3
60x3
80x3
100kg 3x5

much more like it compared to a few days ago!! only a few kilos of my all time max, this was difficult, and I wasnt going much past parrallel. Ive found I can engage my glutes/hams better with my feet on a block (ankle flexibility issues) so I will be using one from now on I think.

Bench, warmups to-

2x67.5, 3x65
5x65
5x66

going up in 2.5kg jumps doesnt seem to work so well for this lift and similar, but 1kg jumps is doable.
Im getting fractional plates!!

Cure.

 

[Cure]

A whole weeks worth to report!

Ive had 3 martial arts sessions with associated cycle rides. which were great, although doing the martial arts classes has really shown the gaps in my fitness, my muscle conditioning is terrible, but cardio is acceptable and getting better with every run.

I also managed to fit in 3 work outs I think, but cant remember all the details, Important are the PR's Ive made.


row- pendlay style lifting from the ground each time.

67kg 3x5 PR


squat -
3x5 105kg. PR

felt really heavy, as it should, but I got it.

Bench- SO FLUCKING CLOSE argh!

I got 67.5kg 2x5, but only 4 on the last set, had to dump the last rep on the bottom pins, so fraustrating, but still awesome progress in only a few weeks so Im not complaining, Ill get it for sure next session.

Ive not deadlifted in a while, so will do that later this week, friday maby.

Weight remains the same at around 73.5kg, but Im definatly leaning out, still a way to go but I will get properly fit in time.

Happy with my progress in the last week, even if its been exhuasting!

Cure.

 

[Cure]

yesterday- short and sweet, after a dance class

barbell row (from the floor each rep

warm ups to-

3x5 67.5kg PR

stiff leg deads.
4 warm up sets to 1x5 with 100kg.

My legs were knackered from martial arts, cycling etc, so I couldnt go all out with this. 110 is my PR but that was with injuring myself, I want to do some heavy deads soon, its been a while, this saterday should be a good day for that.

Also did martial arts monday and will again tonight.

Diet is going well, Ive started cooking so im incorporating more beef and veggies like brocoli!

Cure.