4.8.2012

OHP
48.5 kg (107 lb)
5 / 5 / 6

Chins
+15 kg (+33 lb)
8 / 7

Incline-DB-Bench
20 kg's (44 lb's)
13 / 12

FS
55 kg (121 lb)
3 / 3 / 3

Ab-wheel
12 / 12

Bulking season 2, week 3

Avg'd ~2900 kcals and ~225 grams of protein / day.

BW = 66.1 kg / 145.9 lb (+ 1.1 kg / 2.4 lb in 3 weeks)

I think 3 sets of 3 every other day is kind of disproportionate quadriceps work considering you hit the triceps/chest/shoulders/abs every day, sometimes multiple times in one day.

I remember you said you had spinal issues, but if you are able to do FS without aggravating that I'd step up the volume, do like 5x3 at least, and maybe front squat every day, or at least do some leg work in a higher rep range on RDL day (goblet squats perhaps).

Sup? Fat-loss still going strong it looks like according to ur log. Good job.

Re: legs.
C'mon, bro, we spend like 50-75% of our waking time on our legs, how much gym-volume can they really need?

Serially tho, my current routine really is quite bro-like, 60% upper body, 20% lower body and 20% abs/core. Heh.
Well, at least that's better than what I did for a couple of months prior that - 100% upper body and abs.

Eventually I ofc want to get back on the standard GSLP-template doing back-squats/deadlifts and ****, 60/40 upper/lower type of deal, but need to take baby steps first.

Actually I've given this some thought myself too and pretty much came to a conclusion that my upper-body volume is starting to be too much, both in isolation and relative to my lower-body volume.
Especially so with GTG-work (up to 5 sets of 9 chins and 5 sets of 23 pushups now).

My gym-times are getting too long as well with 5 different exercises.
Hence I'll drop Dips and DP-Bench from my routine, for now.

That should make my routine at least a bit more proportional, 50/25/25 upper/lower/core.
And then the plan going on is gradually add lowerbody stuff as my back keeps getting better (which it is, slowly but surely).

In other news, I went to see a sport-massagist today, for the very first time in my life.
She grinded my gluteus medius and piriformis-muscles for 45 minutes plus poked my low back (muscles&ligaments surrounding the herniated disc?) for another 15.
That felt good, need to go more often.

My sleep has been super-erratic last week or so, avg'ing only 4-6 hrs/nite + taking random short naps here and there.
Not too good for gym-performance, or anything really.
Need to fix that.

7.8.2012

BP
65 kg (143 lb)
5 / 5 / 5

RDL
67.5 kg (149 lb)
5 / 5 / 5

These felt a bit AIDS-y in the low back and actually they did last time too, didn't mention it then hoping that it was just a rare occurance.
My back might still not be ready for these. Sheeeeeeeet

Dips
+13.75 kg (+30 lb)
6 / 6

Decided to keep dips in rotation and ditch curls instead.
Only 2x6, boooo, dunno what happended, just felt sluggish all over.

Planks
+19 kg (+42 lb)
15x15s

Guessing the babbie is doing a number on your sleep eh? I dunno about being concerned about disproportional strength as long as you can't do anymore lower body stuff. It'll catch up. I wouldn't worry at least.

More like myself being a jackass about going to bed early.
Just for no good reason I need to hang out till 2am dicking around every nite while I know very well that I need to get up 6-7am.
Well, dumb gonna dumb.

Yeah, sure hope so.
All in all back is gradually getting better. Just a few things which seem to aggravate the pain and unfortunately RDL's start to seem like they might be one of 'em.
I'll try doing them at least once more on Saturday and see what gives.

9.8.2012

OHP
50 kg (110 lb)
5 / 5 / 5

YELLOW PLATES, yay.
Next goal, blue plates, see ya in 2014.

Chins
+16 kg (+35 lb)
7 / 7

FS
57.5 kg (127 lb)
3 / 3 / 3

Ab-wheel
13 / 13

11.8.2012

BP
66 kg (146 lb)
5 / 5 / 5

Lifting itself feels fine but setting up ie even simply laying down on the bench and getting up is painful.
I think I might replace flat bench with incline-bench for a while. See if it's less painful.

RDL
Warmup

Too much pain and agony hence gave up. I think I have to ditch these for now.

Hammer-Curls
14.25 kg's (31 lb's)
14 / 12

Dips
+15 kg (+33 lb)
6 / 6

Planks
+20 kg (+44 lb)
15x15s

Bulking season 2, week 4

Avg'd ~3k cals and ~215 grams of protein / day.

BW = 66.1 kg / 145.9 lb (+ 1.1 kg / 2.4 lb in 4 weeks)

Ate more and moved less, and no weight gained. Hrmph.
La variancia.

14.8.2012

OHP
51 kg (113 lb)
5 / 5 / 5

Pretty damn tough.

Chins
+17 kg (+38 lb)
6 / 7

FS
60 kg (132 lb)
3 / 3 / 3

Ab-wheel
12 / 12

Had to move Thursday WO to Friday due to some life stuff.

17.8.2012

Incline-BP
55 kg (121 lb)
5 / 5 / 9

Figured 55 kg could be somewhere in 10 reps in AMRAP-set territory.
Close.
No back/ass -pain at all, much more comfortable than flat bench.
I think I'll keep doing these.

RDL

No can do.
I have to figure out something else for dem hamstrings.
Preferably soon.

Hammer-Curls
14.25 kg's (31 lb's)
15 / 14

More weight next time.
If there is next time for these.
If I can figure out something for hamstrings I'll prolly skip these to keep the gym-time close to an hour.

Dips
+16 kg (+35 lb)
5 / 6

Meh. Repeat next time.

Planks
+20.5 kg (+45 lb)
15x15s

Also, got my shipment from New Mexico today:



It took only 8 days to get here. Not too bad.
Although it took 4 days to travel the first 8500 km's from U.S to Finland and then another 4 days for the last 200 km's.
Finnish Customs and Postal office, you suck, honestly.

18.8.2012

OHP
52.5 kg (116 lb)
3 / 3 / 3

Too damn tough.
Every set I completely ran out of gas after first 3 reps.
I wonder how much working out on 2 consecutive days had to do with it but in any case, it's starting to feel like a reset is just around the corner.
Gonna give this weight one more go next time and see what gives.

Chins
+18 kg (+40 lb)
6 / 6

FS
62.5 kg (138 lb)
3 / 3 / 3

Ab-wheel
12 / 12

Bulking season 2, week 5

Avg'd ~2930 cals and ~220 grams of protein / day.

BW = 66.8 kg / 147.5 lb (+ 1.8 kg / 4 lb in 5 weeks)

21.8.2012

Incline-BP
57.5 kg (127 lb)
5 / 5 / 7

Hammer-Curls
15 kg's (33 lb's)
12 / 12

Dips
+16 kg (+35 lb)
6 / 6

DL
80 kg (177 lb)
5

Deadlifting for the first time in 5 months! YAY.
Worked my way up from 40 kg to 80 kg and decided to call quits there.
Seems like a fine weight for a skinny bastard like me to start building on again.
These actually felt fine. No back/sciatic nerve -pain at all. If it stays that way I'll keep doing these every other WO.
Fingers crossed.

Ab-wheel
12 / 12

Didn't have time to do planks so did these instead.

Sup Broskies?
It's been a while since this bitch got updated.

I've missed H&F.
I mean, I browse it every day while I grind internet pokers (def +EV) but it's time to start posting/logging again, regularily.


Recap of my last 9 months:

First two months of my leave from my 9-5, I got absolutely crazy with pokers. As a result I spent most of my time awake (or half-awake really) sitting.
All those all-nighters and 15+ hour sessions slouching in a chair absolutely ruined my already bad-ish low back.

I made decent monies but that money really came at a price.
For next 3 months I was in constant pain and the nagging pain combined with impaired mobility made me move around like a legit old man.
I couldn't even tie my shoes in the mornings, had to buy a pair of rubber boots to avoid that.

I consulted yet another physiatrist and few other so-called medical professionals.
But as I had learned before, you can throw all the money in the world at them but get not much in return. They couldn't diagnose me reliably let alone give me sound advice on how to fix it.
Pain killers were useless as well.

Those miserable 3 months I quit playing poker almost altogether and actively avoided all other sitting-including activity. Avoiding sitting helped me some but the real solution so far has been truly activating myself, starting doing **** and keeping at it.

So, in February I finally got my act together and started rehabbing my back on my own, mostly based my routine on the work of Stuart McGill.
Last 4 months or so I've done static stretching (and/or SMR), lumbar stabilization exercises and nerve flossing EVERY DAY, EVERY ****ING DAY.

After countless hours of stretching/SMR'ing/nerve-flossing and thousands of reps of bird-dogs, planks, side-planks and curl-ups, my efforts have started to really pay off and my low back is finally almost as good as new.

I have no way of telling if the (supposedly herniated) disc itself is any better but at least the muscles surrounding and supporting my lumbar spine are in much better shape and as a whole my low back is much more stable now.

Back is not quite 100% yet but getting there. The difference to 6 months ago is drastic. Basically my mobility has improved 10-0 and I only have very mild nerve-pain in my left hip in the mornings and sometimes after a workout.

Plan is to keep doing what I'm doing until back is 100%, might be 2 more months, might be until I die at the age of 96, who knows.
Also, I now limit my poker session length to a maximum of 2 hours and get up at least once during every session.

Anyways, overall things are starting to look quite promising going forwards.


Cliffs:

Last 10 weeks I've frequented the one-man-gymnasium of mine 3 times per week doing body-weight or low-weight, high-rep type of **** with short rest time (60-90s) between sets/exercises.

I've been alternating these two workouts:

A
Lower body, 5x10, (Squat)
Vertical pull, 5x10, (Chin-ups)
Vertical push, 5x10, (Dips/OHP)
Abs, (Side-Planks)

B
Lower body, 5x10, (Swings/RDL)
Horizontal pull, 5x10, (DB-Row)
Horizontal push, 5x10 (Push-ups/Bench)
Abs, (Planks)

Here's my excel-log for those 10 weeks.



Obviously no much strength gains can be expected with this kind of program.
But I've had some and I think loco's right - high-volume kills skinny-fatism.
I mean I've been eating around maintenance but feel like my muscle definition and vascularity have improved a ton.
Well, at the very least my work-capasity is much improved now.

Time to move on, though.
Next stop, Starting Strength.

Okay, while I'm at it, might as well assess the current state of affairs and do some goal-setting:

Current stats:
Age: 32 (ripe but not quite yet ready to just go and die)
Height: 175 cm / 5'9" (no gains here unfortunately, shoulda been coached by AF)
Weight: 60 kg / 132 lbs (laughable for a grown-ass man, really)
BF: 10%-ish? (might be way off, should probably consult the BF-committee of H&F with this one)


Goal: (at some point in 2015 is fine)
Be 75 kg at 10%-BF
Be decently strong and mobile/agile.


Execution
1.) SS for a short while to get the strength levels up
2.) 5/3/1, I'll probably move on there prematurely and go berserk with assistance work, esp with upper-body ****.

As far as diet goes, I'll start by eating maintenance-tiny surplus and up the cals as soon as I can sense any signs of stalling with any of the lifts.

As far as nutrients go, I'll shoot for a minimum of 2,5 grams of protein per 1 kg of BW and 1g of fat per 1 kg of BW.
Also try to get in decent amount of fiber and remember to eat my fish oil and multi-/D-vitamin like a good boy.

Going forwards, I'll probably alternate bulk and cut periods trying to oscillate between 10% and 15% BF.
Or maybe do 4-week blocks, each consisting of a 3-week bulk following a 1-week cut.
Or something.

You're skinny as hell, why not just go for 6-12 months of bulking and then reconsider? You'll get stronger much faster that way, and when you don't have much muscle you don't really even look any better at 10 than 15% BF imo.

Welcome back, sounds like your rehab has gone fairly well. As with all things medical, taking ownership and educating yourself >> only trusting medical personnel. Looks like you have a solid plan, best of luck.

Also agree with chinz on the periodization.

Welcome back. Go go go. Stay un-injured.

Thanks guise, good to be back.

First need to cut is obv far, far away in the future anyway so lots of time to think about it.

I just find that 3-week bulk / 1-week cut type of deal intriguing in general.
As in minimizing fat gainz while bulking long-term.

Welcome back.

Get hyooj, man.

Tinybros unite!