Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,372
Introduction
This thread is nearly 10 years in the making for me and I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it. Up until 18 I played sport every day to a decent competitive level, Rugby, Hockey, Squash and Track and Field. I haven't been near any of these since I had a bad knee injury which put my on my back for about 6 months.
Since then I've gone to university, drank a lot, got a job in the City, played a lot of poker and completely let myself go. I've ran the odd 5k race for charity and managed to keep it under 30 minutes but overall I'm pretty unhappy with myself.
I'm lucky in that I have a very good metabolism naturally but I'm also an incredibly lazy cook and probably operate on a calorie deficit every day, despite doing nearly no exercise. I want to change all of this from today, I don't need to be like this anymore, I have a great job, have recently moved in with my girlfriend (who is also wanting to kick off a health drive) and have a membership to a beautiful gym in London.
I have made a small start before writing this to get me going.
Me
Age: 27
Height: 5ft 11 / 180cm
Weight: 68kg / 150 lbs (I was 61kg / 134 lbs when I started)
Fitness Condition:
I am weak, crazy weak. This is the main issue I want to address with this log. I don't have the frame to ever be a big muscular guy who can lift big but I want to focus on making the most of what I have. I feel I have stronger legs due to skiing a lot but that could be in my head. My upper body is laughable.
Cardio wise, I'm not too sure where I am as I haven't run for a long time. I'd like to think I could still do a sub 30 minute 5k but my focus is more on strength gain in the short term future, then making sure I keep my cardio up in the longer term.
In terms of my body, I had an operation on my knee 10 years ago. It was a complete success and have skied every year since recovery but I have been told that aiming for things like marathons are not a good idea, especially running on pavement.
Goals
1) My number one goal is to get stronger and make the most efficient use of my body as I can. As I mentioned I'm never going to be a big big guy so I need to make sure that any weight on me is being used efficiently. Initially I will measure this by the weights I'm able to lift in the gym but I'm sure there is a more scientific way to do it down the line.
2) Short term I would like to hit 75kg, I think I might aim to hit 80kg and then cut down to a comfortable 75kg rather than just make it and fight to keep it.
3) Eat better. I am awful with skipping meals and eating crap. I need to take in more protein and cut out sugar. I have managed to massively cut down on sugary drinks and sweet foods but I love the convenience of fast and easy meals.
4) Cut down on drinking. I'm a pretty big drinker, I'd love to cut this down to one day/night a week. This will help me with the above three goals as well. When I'm hungover I have no stomach for food and I also will skip the gym.
Method
I'm going to work on two different gym circuits that are purely designed to just help me build some core muscle groups up a bit and improve my overall strength. Further down the line I'll look at proper lifting techniques and doing more barbell work but for now this is what I'm working off:
Upper Body Circuit:
- Dumbbell Chest Press, 3 sets, 8 reps, 14kg dumbbells (3x8x14)
- Dumbbell Bicep Curl, 3x8x8
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press, 3x8x8
- Dumbell Peck Fly, 3x8x8
- Back Row Machine Pull (definitely not actually called that), 3x8x35
- Lat Pull Down, 3x8x35
- Tricep Pull Downs, 3x8x12.5
Lower Body Circuit
- No idea how to describe this machine, it is a leg press with a curved action. No idea what the base weight of the machine is but I add 20kg. 3x8x20
- Hamstring Curls, 3x8x40
- Thigh lifts/extensions?, 3x8x45
- Calf lifts, 3x8x35
I am sure these routines are horrible but I've made progress in all of these areas since I started and the weights are very slowly increasing.
I'll leave it at this for now, it is already a horribly long post but I want to make sure I keep this up and progressing towards my goals.
Last edited by Parsons Grinder; 07-09-2017 at 07:48 AM.