Hi. I've had a couple other logs on here, having started lifting in December-ish 2012. Since then, I've gained about 35 pounds, which is moving in the right direction for me. I've had ups and downs in that time. Lately has been somewhat of a down. Follow through in the gym hasn't been there as much as I want, and I've decided to change that. So I'm starting the Project Mass trainer on bobdybuilding.com.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jake...s-trainer.html

It says it's mostly for advanced lifters, which I don't necessarily consider myself, but it looks like an entertaining and like it will definitely yield good results.

Essentially it's composed of a series fourteen 8 day microcycles that are split with three days of strength workouts (low reps), three days of hypertrophy workouts (higher reps) and two days of rest, on which I'm supposed to do HIIT cardio (which will probably mostly be on my bike).

Currently, I'm 6'4", 195 pounds, and the fattest I've ever been at around 14% body fat. Ideally, I'd like to get up to around 225 and 8% body fat at some point, but that's probably unrealistic for this time frame. My short term goals are to complete the prescribed workouts for every microcycle and cycle and to improve all my compound lifts a bunch.

I am no longer a full time student, only taking 9 credit hours this semester in a victory lap, so I no longer have access to the student rec center and the great equipment that comes with it. I got a membership at the YMCA, so that's good enough (though I have noted that the barbells seem longer and thinner, which makes balancing while squatting seem a little harder).

Other challenges include staying relatively sober, eating nutritiously and sufficiently, and sleeping adequately. To meet these challenges, I'm instituting a seven drink per week policy, trying to get to bed by 11-12 on week nights, and buying assloads of no defrost chicken breasts and rice. Wish me luck

Today was the first day, and I hit legs. Was supposed to be 4 sets, 3 reps of each of the following:

Squats
Deadlifts
Romanian Deadlifts
Leg press

Unfortunately, the deficiency of the Y compared to the SRSC was immediately apparent: only one squat rack, and somebody was bent-over-rowing on it! So I decided to hit deadlifts first, which I hardly ever do. After warming up, I did my first set of 3 at 245. It actually felt really easy, so I moved up to 265 for the next set, and 275 for the next two. This was the most I'd ever deadlifted. I tried to get a video of one of the 275 sets but an alarm went off on my phone and it only wound up capturing up till I walked up to the bar.

Squat rack still in use- I hit Romanian deadlifts. I wasn't sure how much weight to use, so I started at 135 for 10 reps, then did 185 for my first set of 3. The thing with these is I'm not sure how it's supposed to feel. More or less it feels like a really deep stretch instead of a heavy lift. What to do? I could have moved up in weight probably, but I stuck at 185 for the next three sets.

Finally the squat rack freed up. I started out light at 205 cuz my legs were tired from deadlifting, then moved up to 225 for the next three sets (which is not a ton for three reps for me, but it was all I could do after deadlifting). I got a couple on video if I can get them uploaded. It looks like my knees were dropping in, but I don't think that's typical for me. Depth looked good (to me at least).

For leg press I banged out four sets with five plates on each side.

Hammies are definitely feeling it; I think the Romanians did their job even though I didn't feel like they were really beating my muscles up at the time

I'll let others chime in with programming advice, but FYI we've got someone on here who is ~ 6'4", 195: Montecore. If you're interested, take a look at his last log and you can find some pretty recent noodz. Aside from genetically poor abs (which I think will improve with his new ab initiative), aesthetically he is doing pretty well, and it should give you a good idea what a guy your size can do by just re-comping (rather than trying to gain wt).

If you ask loco, he will tell you that it is essentially impossible to be natty and pack on 30 lb of muscle on top of what Monte's got now. I'm guessing you're probably quite a bit younger, so that helps a lot, but you goal is still quite lofty (which it seems you realize).

Definitely impossible to weigh 225 single digits for like 99% of people.

Thanks. I'll take a look. Lofty is good for a long term goal, I think.

I feel like I'm a 1 percenter then. I've been single digits most of my life, just really skinny. I still feel pretty darn skinny. And I'm a tall guy. I think most pro basketball players who are my height are 225ish, and I'd have a more muscular physique since they're not trying to get big, but to put balls through holes.

Weight this morning was 194.

Here are the squatting vids. First one is the 205 set and the second one is the last 225 set. On review, my form is pretty sloppy on the 225 set. Depth isn't deep enough, and knees drop in noticeably. Some of that may be cuz I was tired, but there are definitely weaknesses that are around either way. Any other criticisms?

Videos are linked incorrectly and not loading.

And to echo what others have said, maintaining your abs and gaining 25 pounds is going to be essentially impossible without dat 'tine, especially since we almost certainly have the same build and I know for sure I couldn't do it (though I've got the OLDS, so who knows).

Where are your current lifts at these days?

Here are the links cuz I'm pretty sure I embedded correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MInn...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkPFjEfHGc

I've mostly trained for hypertrophy so my lifts are pretty weak. Bench is 205ish, squat I've hit 275, deadlift is very weak- yesterday at 275 for 3 reps was the most I'd ever hit at all, military press is 155ish. Definitely the most room for improvement on deadlift.

I used creatine in pill form for about two months last year, and I definitely saw improvements, but it's expensive so I stopped.

225 at true 8% at 6'4 is def impossible, but probably achievable with moderate AAS dosages.

Your squats have great depth, but awful knee cave. Get weightlifting shoes. They're about $50 from http://www.maxbarbell.com/collection..****ifting-shoes They will help you maintain upright posture, improve quadricep recruitment, stay balanced on your heels, and slightly improve depth.

Also narrow your stance like a lot. That will also help with knee cave+increase ROM.

Your routine is probably fine, but on the "strength" days I think it would be beneficial to increase the rep range to 5-8 or so. Your form is still in it's infancy stages and moving high % weights is not a good idea until you can perfectly perform reps at lower %s. You might also benefit from reducing the overall volume on the "strength" days and decreasing slightly from the "hypertrophy" days. Also lol @ 3rm curls, that's just stupid.

Good luck.

wutangpoker,

Post a picture of yourself, you aren't 8% bodyfat, nobody believes you are 8% bodyfat.

more importantly, the arbitrary number doesn't matter except when it comes to finding out your exact BMR which an estimator can get pretty damn close to unless you are a mass monster

Not even I believe it

I once claimed to be 6% bodyfat on these forums when I weighed 170, but that was more or less a complete guess based loosely on having been measured at something around that when I was cycling (and even lighter than 170). I later redacted and said I was 12% after actually testing it. Completely unscientific. None of the methods I've used are very reliable anyways. 14% was arrived at with a scale with a body fat function and the test on one of the blood pressure machines at a Kroger. That's all.

Should I do accessory work to strengthen my flexors or just continue strengthen them naturally through squatting?

I'll get some lifting shoes or something eventually. I've always thought the low reps for single joint exercises, so I probably won't do that either.

OP,

You are in luck. We have many members who style themselves experts on estimating true BF% based on pics of members. The more you show, the better the estimation will be.

Strengthen naturally through squatting. I think you'll find that if you close down your stance and reduce the weight to something you can do perfectly, you'll be back to your original weigh with correct form within just a few sessions.

I'm not taking selfies of myself naked, I'll get a girl to shoot a photoshoot

I agree with pretty much everything evo said re: squat form; it would also be helpful to get a video from the side, because it looked like there was a fair bit of lower back movement, but it was hard to tell for sure.

I probably post a gratuitous boxer brief shot every 4-6 months when the mood strikes, but I won't do it unless the locker room is empty, because the patriarchy has programmed me to believe that such peacockery is NOT MASCULINE. Also I immediately delete it from my phone after uploading it so I don't accidentally share it on Google+ or Facebook. Stay safe.

Fair enough. We will be eagerly awaiting.

Day 2 in books.

Warmed up on bench, then started at 185. Failed on the third so I took of the 25s, slapped on two tens on each side and did 175x3 for the next three sets

Did 155 on incline for all four sets without much problem

Pressed 115 all four sets

Substituted weighted dips in for close grip bench. My puny arms did 4 sets of 5 reps with a 25 pound ballsack. Did a superset on the last one and dropped the weight and went to failure.

Nutrition and sleep have been awful today because I woke up at 6 to write a 2,000 page paper that I hadn't started that was due at 2, and neglected to eat well because of how close I was cutting it.

That's about all there is to report. I might move up to 5 reps for the lower body lifts as Evoken suggested, but I'm pretty certain my form isn't going to kill me on the upper body lifts for 3 reps

So you are basically a novice lifter and your "programming" is to so 3 High intensity low volume upper body compound lifts in one session? I mean it will probably work for a few workouts because you are a novice and hen you are a novice everything works, but this looks like pretty bad programming for any novice/beginning lifter.

It's just push/pull/legs with 3 heavy low volume compound days and 3 high volume hypertrophy days. It's not optimal, but probably better than SS. Lol @ 6 days a week though.

I've been lifting for a little over two years and I'd was a collegiate and near professional cyclist before that, so I'd consider myself intermediate probably.

Anyway, yesterday:

Bent over rows: warmed up, then went 185 x 5 for 4 sets

Weighted pullups- did a set of bodyweight x 15 then 45 x 5 for 4 sets (did these hammer grip because it's more comfortable for me and also seems to hit my back more).

BB curls- IDK if this is smart, but I started with the bar, then built up to my 3RM in 5 pound increments, then stripped off the 5s one at a time and went to about one rep to failure until I was down to just the bar again (rather than doing four sets of 3). Still did one low rep set, which is probably dumb for isolation exercises, but I just wanted to see what a three rep curl set would feel like.

BB shrugs- 175x5 for 4 sets on smith machine


Today's my day off, and I'll probably play some basketball later instead of HIIT.

I think "novice" in this case might refer to how much you lift, rather than how long you've been doing it, but I'm not sure.

Novice etc refers to the rate at which you can add weight to your lifts. People always get upset when they are called a novice lifter. That is pretty much the best thing you can be for gains

Op is obviously a novice lifter but that is totally fine. Novice lifter is not a pejorative

I mean I started benching like 95 for heavy lifts. Weakest upper body in the world. Didn't deadlift at all at first, and squats were always light. I definitely didn't do things right at first, so yeah I probably have a lot of room for growth. But I'd still consider myself intermediate I think

No offense man but you are not an intermediate. It is good to not be an intermediate. My best lifts are 500/345/600 at 232 and I'm an intermediate. Just get on a novice program and make gains. No reason to get on an intermediate program before you have to

I'm just going to do this for a while, just adjusting strength days up in reps as Evoken suggested.

But anyway, I did HIIT on treadmill instead of basketball cuz I didn't even get to the gym until it was 30 minutes from closing. 10 minute walking warmup, 5 30 second intervals with 2 minutes active rest between each and then 5 minutes cooldown. According to the description, I'm supposed to be almost coming close to muscle failure at the end of the 30 seconds. That didn't really happen cuz I didn't put the treadmill on incline and just did it on flat at the highest setting each time, but I think that level will actually open up my legs for lifting tomorrow.