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.

10/7/17

Pretty tough start this morning, woke up feeling absolutely shocking, not sure if I've got a bit of a cold or flu or if my hayfever just decided to kick my arse especially hard this morning.

Dragged myself out of bed regardless and got to the gym and worked through my upper body circuit, as above except I increase the tricep pulldown weight to 15kg.

I felt a million times better after going to the gym. I forgot almost everything in my stupor in the morning though including my office locker key, tie, work phone, second protein shake etc etc.

Food wise I did ok:

Breakfast: Shake after workout and bowl of pineapple, watermelon and melon

Lunch: Thai Green Chicken Curry

Afternoon snacks: 60g Cashew nuts, 3x Nutri Grain Breakfast Bars

Supper: Chicken Tagine with brown rice, Ice Cream (oops)

I also drank about a million cups of coffee as I slept horribly. Glad I kept to my schedule though regardless of how I felt, same again tomorrow!

11/7/17

Felt much better today, pretty sure it's a cold that's wearing me down a bit at the moment, definitely feeling it in the gym. Worked through my lower leg routine and have a lot less aches and pains after it than I have in the past. Maybe I need to up the weight again.

Food:

Breakfast: Nutrigrain Breakfast bar pre workout, shake after, bowl of peach yoghurt and granola.

Lunch: Grilled chicken breast with iceberg lettuce, green beans, sun dried tomatoes and chilli and lime dressing.

Afternoon snack: Shake

Supper: Mac and cheese, double portion.

I want to address something that I've noticed in the gym, both recently and other times I've been since leaving school at 18. My intensity has dropped hugely, I'm still able to make the gym part of my routine but if I'm honest I just feel like I'm going through the motions. There are three main reasons for this I think.

1) Why am I doing this? I could stay in bed!
When I was in school I had some kind of competitive sport every weekend, if not twice a week. Every weight I lifted and mile I ran directly translated to being faster and stronger on the rugby pitch and to beating my opponents in track and field. I always knew I'd have a size disadvantage but I was damned if I was going to let anyone out work me.

Now I'm not training for anything, I have no organised sport in my life and I'm not sure I have time to unless I make some pretty big changes to my life. I'm also not too sure what I should be getting involved with. I know I can sign up to some 5/10k runs or a triathlon but they're not really aligned with my goals of getting stronger.

Over the next few days I'm really going to think about some goals that I can aim for, something that gives me a reason to be in the gym and to get out of bed at 5am every day.

2) I'm not in school anymore...
Life was simple back then. Like many people here school for me was not intellectually challenging and therefore I had so much time to pursue all the other things I loved doing. Additionally I went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere where there were no distractions to take my focus.

Our facilities were great, we had gyms, weights rooms, all the sporting equipment you could need as well as endless fields, forests, hills etc to run around and they gave you the freedom to do so.

I'm now based in the City with a job that challenges me but is also very time intensive. In tough periods we can be working up to and over 100 hours a week so my time is very limited. This has seen me curtail my poker playing, video gaming etc as I have to be really strict with my time off.

I have also moved in with my gf which is the best thing that has ever happened to me, but at the same time I need to make sure I'm giving her the time she deserves as well. I feel bad sometimes leaving at 5am and coming back anywhere between 7pm and 3am absolutely shattered, usually eating and then falling asleep watching a film or TV with her.

I guess it's a bit of a shock to the system realising that I'm settling into life and becoming a real adult. I never appreciated how important time was until the last few years, if I had one wish I would extend the length of a day to 36 hours so I can fit in everything else I want to do.

3) I'm getting old!
It's going to sound ridiculous at 27 but I'm definitely not 18 anymore. I haven't been kind to my body over since school and I'm working in a pretty sedentary environment which isn't great for anyone.

The flip side to this is that there is plenty of time to change the above and make new great habits. I'm already seeing differences in myself since starting this (pre-thread, not in the two days..) and I'm going to keep it up!

As a take away from this long boring rant (apologies if anyone makes it this far); I need to find my motivation for this, be it a sporting challenge of some sort, purely making myself feel better or just sucking it up and working harder.

12/7/17

Yesterday felt a bit strange, I definitely felt a bit weaker, not sure if I'm a little tired but managed to get through the circuit. Worked through my upper body routine and upped the tricep pull weight again to 17.5kg.

Food:
Breakfast - Shake after workout and Bacon sandwich
Lunch - Jacket Potato, baked beans and cheese
Afternoon snack - shake
Supper - Spaghetti Bolognese

I've managed to avoid all sugary drinks so far this week despite some craving during meals. I'm fine 95% of the time but when I'm eating and just after I just feel like I need one. Will keep ignoring it and I'm sure it will go away.

Had the long weekend off as I got some exam results on Friday. Managed not to get drunk over the weekend and kept up my eating which is something I've struggled with historically. I'm also away this weekend at Secret Garden Party festival but planning on going to the gym for the rest of the week.

Weight
Monday Week 1: 69.3kg
Monday Week 2: 69.7kg

Not a huge increase but I think the easy gains were made from 61-69kg, now comes the hard work.