I've been thinking about starting one of these for quite a while and it seems like now is as good a time as any. My main goal from working out has always been aesthetics, being able to lift heavy **** is just kind of a bonus. My goal at the start of the year was to get my six pack back, and I'm not there yet, but a lot of progress has been made. The goal of this log would be to help accomplish my aesthetics goals through structure and social accountability. That said, it would be nice to say I'm a scatter brained da Vinci that can't focus his genius in one direction, but I'm mostly just a lazy flake and this could be something that phases out in a short period of time (the main reason I haven't started one yet).

I wrestled from 7th grade through high school and got into some weightlifting programs where I was pretty strong by my senior year. I was repping 185 bench and 315 squat at 140-145 walking weight. After graduating I stuck with it for a while, but losing workout partners and changes in lifestyle lead to a downhill slide over the last decade+. At the start of the year I was probably in the worst shape of my life and weighing 180 or so. I started off walking and worked up to jogging and stuck with that for a few months, then started lifting a little and have stuck with it since.
I've also changed up my diet to include home cooking of chicken and rice, steak and greens, sausage and onions, etc etc, but don't take it too serious.

Current stats:
5'7 145
I haven't been to a real gym in a long time and am working out with what I have at home. I have a set of 10, 25, and 35 dumbbells, and 10 lbs of ankle weights that I can throw on those, 90lbs of free weight with a standard curl bar and a mega cheap straight bar, and I also have a set of resistance bands. My left shoulder was ****ed at the start of the year, but doing the resistance bands, moving into ohp and pullups, my shoulder has been significantly better. Also, my right knee is completely ****ed to where I haven't been doing legs. Lucky for me I was blessed with the jacked calf gene.


Current resting aesthetics



Today:
superset
Pullups 10x3
Pushups 50x3

superset
Dumbbell curl 35 7x3
Dumbbell OHP 35 10-7-2 fail

CB Skull Crushers 30 10x3

Scap Raises 10 10x3

Core

I think you should find a gym and do a program that interests you. IDK about you, but I personally was never able to adhere to a home gym routine. It just required too much discipline for me to be able to workout in the same place that had the video games and the internet porn.

Yeah it might seem impractical, but that's kind of the point. Going to the gym is an ordeal that requires you to block out time for it, and it has a whole ritual associated with it that makes compliance easier once you get over the initial hump of going for a couple of weeks.

I completely agree with you Renton. Was thinking of getting into SS if I could maintain this log at any semblance of regularity.

So, update, I guess.

Saturday I was on the computer and planted my right foot to adjust my chair a tiny amount, and felt a pop in my knee when I tried to push. Knee felt wonky after that, but seemed fine with no pain. Sunday, it still felt wonky but there wasn't any pain or anything so I just kind of ignored it. I stood up randomly in the afternoon and my knee felt stiff, and was pretty swollen. Iced it and Aced it to stabilize and have just been ginger on it with it aced since. Would prefer to avoid a Dr., but if it doesn't feel "normal" by Thursday then I'm going to bite the bullet. Workouts have been sparse because of the knee.

Went to Ortho today, and nothing confirmed, but it looks like a torn meniscus. Gotta do MRIs and etc. Might turn into a rehab log unfortunately.

Got MRI today. No news, just another Dr visit next Thursday. I waited a week to schedule an appointment after the injury, but it seems a bit ridiculous to me that it takes a month to figure out what's wrong with my knee. I guess it's fortunate that I'm fairly unhindered when it comes to mobility. Maybe if the injury were worse, things would move faster.

As far as workouts go, just been doing minimal maintenance. Pull ups have been my bread and butter until this, but it hurts to do them so haven't been. Mostly just anything I can do sitting. Curls, ohps, skull crushers, etc.

Would love to move forward from here. Just kind of stuck in limbo waiting to figure out what I need to do with the knee

So I went to Dr for follow up after the MRI about a month ago and he had diagnosed me with arthritis. At the time, things were doing pretty good so all I really retained was that I didn't need surgery, and that my ligaments looked strong. Sweet.

A few days after that, I took a step, felt a pop, and my knee got worse again. This happened a couple of times until the Wednesday before last where I heard an audible pop, went to lay down, rolled on my stomach, and felt an intense burning pain deep in my knee. It was a unique feeling, and was deeply uncomfortable. The next day I scheduled another Dr appointment.

I finally got in and they asked if I wanted to do another X-ray, and I was like, "why are you asking me?". PA comes in and listens to my complaints, manhandles my knee a bit, and tells me it's arthritis. I've been debilitated for 2 months because of arthritis? All the popping in my knee is arthritis? Deep burning after an audible pop??? Arthritis? Okay I guess. I'm 33, and the impression I get is that I'm wasting their time trying to pursue answers. I don't think it's normal for a 33 year old to be unable to walk normally for 2 months because his arthritis flared up after multiple audible pops.

Okay, so they can't help me apparently and dealing with them is a slow expensive pain in the ass. I've been trying to gather my medical records to take to someone who can provide me more attention. I requested my MRI and medical records and in the medical records is the radiologist report assessing the MRI. "No damage to cartilage, signal consistent with mild sprain of the ACL". What? So this guy thinks I sprained my ACL and have no arthritis but the Dr and PA are telling me the opposite even though my symptoms are consistent with ligament damage.

I dunno. I despise going to the Dr and this has been one big clown show. They even ****ed up my prescription antiinflammatory they were supposed to get me by today. I'm trying to get everything together for a 2nd opinion. If they told me blatantly wrong **** I'd guess I have grounds to sue them as well. Fun times. I haven't been able to walk normally in over 2 months now.

The plan was to just scrap the log with the way things are going. I figured it could be useful to post in case anyone has gone through this, or finds themselves going through this. Any advice or opinions would be welcomed. If this isn't proper h&f log material then I'm totally fine with it getting locked too.

Hey Coordi - I just stumbled upon this 'cuz I poke into the Health and Fitness forum on here every so often. Sucks to hear about your knee, no idea what's up with that, but sounds like that's something you really need to see a doctor about.

I'm really not qualified to give advice on your knee except I would say you should probably find a Doctor that you have confidence in. I don't think a "pop" is arthritis, but then again, I didn't go to medical school, so good luck with that.

However, assuming that you are physically healthy enough to workout, I figured I'd share my two cents since I recognize you from the BFI forum. About 4 years ago I was drinking way too much, had a pretty sedentary lifestyle, and had gotten pretty out of shape (I was 6'2 and almost 230 at one point, now I'm down to 200 and much MUCH stronger than I was before). I've also learned a lot about health and nutrition from talking to different people, working with coaches, and doing my own research.

Assuming your knee permits you to workout, here is what I would suggest:

1.) The photo that you posted didn't look that bad, you clearly have some muscle already, but you've kind of got that skinny fat look going on. Basically, you need to put on muscle and lose fat. I am of the opinion that you shouldn't overthink this (i.e. people will tell you that you can't lose fat and put on muscle at the same time - in my experience that is absolutely NOT true unless you've already been lifting consistently for a lot of years.) Just eat healthy, cut back on booze, and lift heavy objects, and good things will come.

2.) Nutrition is absolutely essential - you won't get the results that you want if you're putting **** food into your body and drinking a lot of beer, no matter how hard you workout. I would recommend reading Jordan Feigenbaum's "To Be A Beast" article and following his recomp guidelines, or maybe just doing his recomp / weight loss and splitting the difference.

Meal prep is easy: Just buy chicken thighs, season them to taste, and toss them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350. For carbs, I recommend Sweet Potatoes. Just scrub 'em down, toss 'em on the stove, and boil 'em for 15 minutes. Both keep very well and are nutritious. You don't need to meal prep all the time, but having one or two healthy meals a day instead of eating a burrito from Chipotle or whatever will go a long way.

And most importantly if you're serious about getting in shape, cut way back on booze. Beer is the absolute worst thing you can drink. If you're a drinker, try limiting yourself to only drinking on the weekends, and even then moderation is your friend. Replace alcohol with sparkling water and if you want to get drunk, stay away from beer and drink spirits instead. Alcohol is public enemy #1 if you're trying to improve how you look. I'm not saying don't drink, but be a lot more selective about it.

3.) Cardio won't do anything for making you look better with your shirt off. Run once or twice a week if you want to (running does have a lot of health benefits) but don't run tons of miles or anything like that.

4.) Weight lifting is, of course, absolutely essential if you want to change the way you look. Agree 100% that you should be going to the gym, you won’t get the results that you want from doing pushups at home. If you don’t like big commercial gyms with lots of people (I don’t), find an independently owned one that’s less crowded. Or workout with a trainer.

Like a lot of people on this forum, I do think Starting Strength is a pretty good program. I did the Linear Progression and while I didn’t necessarily get great results physique wise because I was eating too much (don’t listen to Rippetoe’s nutrition advice, it will just make you fat), I did get a lot stronger. I think Starting Strength doesn’t do nearly enough for your upper back / rear delts, and I think you should be doing additional tricep training from day 1, but I think it’s a good basic program.

Here is what I would suggest:
Barbell Squat - absolutely mandatory. Hire a good coach and work with them until your form is on point. If you Squat you really don’t need to do anything else for your legs IMO.

Lower Back - Do something for your lower back and posterior chain. I hate deadlifting, but that's probably ideal if you can get your form down and enjoy it. I don't think you necessarily need to deadlift though unless you're really trying to get as strong as possible, back extensions and/or kettlebell swings can still produce good result. Just do something for your lower back and posterior chain. If you are going to deadlift, hire a coach.

Overhead Press
Bench Press
Bent Over Row
Chinups

For arms, in my opinion your triceps are more important than your biceps, both for strength and for overall size. For Triceps, Skullcrushers are your friend. For biceps, just do whatever you want.

Other good exercises:
Incline DB Press
Facepulls
Pec Dec / Reverse Pec Dec (For chest and rear delts.)
Dips

And that’s pretty much it! Sorry if I just posted a wall of text on your log, but once I started writing this post I just figured I’d put everything down. Good luck to you!