Blonde will make you STRONG

[iRaise]

So then gents. Training goals for 2017?

Personally haven't really got anything specific other than to keep going and keep getting a little bit stronger.

Didn't manage the 25000 press ups that I started this time last year. That was more a monotony thing than a physical difficulty issue. My body could easily have managed them as could anybody's I'm sure but keeping up the volume for a whole year is not easy.

I think if I had one single goal it would be to see my bench press get to 3 plates or more. I think 120kg for 8 reps has a nice ring to it as well but ultimately it's all about 3 plates for a couple of reps.

I was having a think last night,

Squat 150
DL 225
Bench 125

But we will see. Main aim is to be in the game and enjoying it by this time next year!

[iRaise]

Starting (again) Weight -  14st 12lb (Not recording fractions of pounds)

Target Weight - 13st.


Smoke me a low fat kipper.....

Strong thread please for more interaction.

We're all about general fitness and general health in whatever form it takes, to hell with the name of thread.

OK. Here I am.

Couldn't agree more with Matt!

How active is life day to day? Do you have any plans to be more active? Or just focus on the food side of things and tightening up there?

What is the plan food wise?

[EvilPie]

Started a new split today that I'm going to try for a few weeks to see if I like it.

Chest and shoulders Monday/Wednesday
Back and legs Tuesday/Thursday
Arms Saturday (optional)

I'm trying for 3 exercises of each body part which means I have to be pretty quick to fit it all in to my 45 minutes including warm ups. Managed it today in 50 minutes including a bit of stretching at the end so not too bad.

I went for:

Warm up. 2 minutes on an elliptical. Not really enough but meh.
Side lateral raise - 4 sets fairly light so acts as an additional warm up.
Bench press - 2 super quick warm up sets at 20kg and 60kg. 5 reps each. Then 80kg x 10 and 100kg x 8.
OHP - Super light warm up for 5 reps then 40kg, 50kg, 60kg but only 4 reps on the last.
Incline dumbbells. 3 sets of 10 at 26kg. Not done these for ages so nice and steady.
10 minutes on the cables doing various light movements for shoulders and chest including rotator cuffs.

Felt a decent session and I'm aching a bit now so must've hit something new. Not sure how it'll work out for legs and back but the general goal will be to get squats, leg press, RDL for legs and pull down, BoR and wide grip chins for back.

Can't decide whether I like this at all to be honest and now that I've written it down I like it even less. I was planning on doing my old 'bro split' routine for a while but from just about everything I read and watch that's just not how it's done these days especially if you're not pushing to failure like I did in the old days.

Apparently you don't need a full week to recover a muscle group so it's stupid to not hit it twice in a week. That's great in theory but then how do you fit in all the isolation movements unless you're at the gym for 2 hours? I think twice per week for each body part works great when you're focussed on the big compound movements but if you want to hit some of those little muscles that get ignored the 'bro split' still has to have its place.

Pretty confused right now as to which way to go. I'm leaning toward the old split even as I write to be honest. It may not be optimal but I bloody love it

[EvilPie]

Starting (again) Weight -  14st 12lb (Not recording fractions of pounds)

Target Weight - 13st.


Smoke me a low fat kipper.....

Strong thread please for more interaction.

We're all about general fitness and general health in whatever form it takes, to hell with the name of thread.

OK. Here I am.

Are you still doing your press ups Tom?

I was reading back through the thread a few days ago and you had a good routine going for a while by the look of things.

[RED-DOG]

Starting (again) Weight -  14st 12lb (Not recording fractions of pounds)

Target Weight - 13st.


Smoke me a low fat kipper.....

Strong thread please for more interaction.

We're all about general fitness and general health in whatever form it takes, to hell with the name of thread.

OK. Here I am.

Couldn't agree more with Matt!

How active is life day to day? Do you have any plans to be more active? Or just focus on the food side of things and tightening up there?

What is the plan food wise?

Was doing Bulgarian bag + press-ups and sit-ups 3xpw but currently unable to continue with that due to tennis elbow.

Currently brisk walking 4 miles, looking to add some light jogging and perhaps some hill walking.

Diet will be 1800 calories comprising mostly.

Breakfast: Porridge with fruit/nuts or occasionally eggs on wholemeal toast sans butter. ~ 500 cals

Lunch: Soup, fruit or salad. ~ 300 cals.

Dinner. Mostly fish/chicken with veg/rice/pasta. ~ 1000 cals.

[iRaise]

Started a new split today that I'm going to try for a few weeks to see if I like it.

Chest and shoulders Monday/Wednesday
Back and legs Tuesday/Thursday
Arms Saturday (optional)

I'm trying for 3 exercises of each body part which means I have to be pretty quick to fit it all in to my 45 minutes including warm ups. Managed it today in 50 minutes including a bit of stretching at the end so not too bad.

I went for:

Warm up. 2 minutes on an elliptical. Not really enough but meh.
Side lateral raise - 4 sets fairly light so acts as an additional warm up.
Bench press - 2 super quick warm up sets at 20kg and 60kg. 5 reps each. Then 80kg x 10 and 100kg x 8.
OHP - Super light warm up for 5 reps then 40kg, 50kg, 60kg but only 4 reps on the last.
Incline dumbbells. 3 sets of 10 at 26kg. Not done these for ages so nice and steady.
10 minutes on the cables doing various light movements for shoulders and chest including rotator cuffs.

Felt a decent session and I'm aching a bit now so must've hit something new. Not sure how it'll work out for legs and back but the general goal will be to get squats, leg press, RDL for legs and pull down, BoR and wide grip chins for back.

Can't decide whether I like this at all to be honest and now that I've written it down I like it even less. I was planning on doing my old 'bro split' routine for a while but from just about everything I read and watch that's just not how it's done these days especially if you're not pushing to failure like I did in the old days.

Apparently you don't need a full week to recover a muscle group so it's stupid to not hit it twice in a week. That's great in theory but then how do you fit in all the isolation movements unless you're at the gym for 2 hours? I think twice per week for each body part works great when you're focussed on the big compound movements but if you want to hit some of those little muscles that get ignored the 'bro split' still has to have its place.

Pretty confused right now as to which way to go. I'm leaning toward the old split even as I write to be honest. It may not be optimal but I bloody love it

I understand where you are coming from, but the good think about upper/lower splits is you can train at a high intensity as you are swapping from front to back (albeit a little harder with legs)

So supersets become gold.

The only isolations I do in a week are 2 lots of cable flyes/arms (once/twice or non sometimes) and leg ext and ham curl. The rest are all compounds trying to focus on total volume.

End of the day, both will work, even if a bro split works less efficiently on paper, if you enjoy it more you will give it more and your volume per body part might go up as a result. You definitely don't need a week to recover, but its not as if you will lose progress in a week either. I don't see a huge place for isolation movements unless you wanna be a top level bodybuilder as that really is top of the pyramid (I guess unless its prehab/rehab).

All depends what you want, you don't have a huge amount of training time, so you do have to choose exercises incredibly well, or you are in danger of dropping total volume and losing progress.

[iRaise]

Starting (again) Weight -  14st 12lb (Not recording fractions of pounds)

Target Weight - 13st.


Smoke me a low fat kipper.....

Strong thread please for more interaction.

We're all about general fitness and general health in whatever form it takes, to hell with the name of thread.

OK. Here I am.

Couldn't agree more with Matt!

How active is life day to day? Do you have any plans to be more active? Or just focus on the food side of things and tightening up there?

What is the plan food wise?

Was doing Bulgarian bag + press-ups and sit-ups 3xpw but currently unable to continue with that due to tennis elbow.

Currently brisk walking 4 miles, looking to add some light jogging and perhaps some hill walking.

Diet will be 1800 calories comprising mostly.

Breakfast: Porridge with fruit/nuts or occasionally eggs on wholemeal toast sans butter. ~ 500 cals

Lunch: Soup, fruit or salad. ~ 300 cals.

Dinner. Mostly fish/chicken with veg/rice/pasta. ~ 1000 cals.

Seems an absolute winner to me, keep it up and watch it work.

[iRaise]

First leg session of 2017 and was incredibly jelly legged. Tried to sneak in an extra three sets and it showed.

3x5 Squats 100kg, felt really good and looking forward to this one. Felt plenty in there so looking to get upwards of 120 for these over Jan/Feb.

4x12 Leg Press, 180, that was hard.

3x8 RDL 100

3x6e Split Squat 30kg held like a goblet squat

3x8 Nordic

3x8e Ham Curl single legged 27kg

4x10 Leg Ext 59kg
S.S.
4x15 Calf 100kg

Had all of Xmas off so good to get back in!

[EvilPie]

I understand where you are coming from, but the good think about upper/lower splits is you can train at a high intensity as you are swapping from front to back (albeit a little harder with legs)

So supersets become gold.

The only isolations I do in a week are 2 lots of cable flyes/arms (once/twice or non sometimes) and leg ext and ham curl. The rest are all compounds trying to focus on total volume.

End of the day, both will work, even if a bro split works less efficiently on paper, if you enjoy it more you will give it more and your volume per body part might go up as a result. You definitely don't need a week to recover, but its not as if you will lose progress in a week either. I don't see a huge place for isolation movements unless you wanna be a top level bodybuilder as that really is top of the pyramid (I guess unless its prehab/rehab).

All depends what you want, you don't have a huge amount of training time, so you do have to choose exercises incredibly well, or you are in danger of dropping total volume and losing progress.

Bro split didn't last. As much as I like my old routine I've loved the upper/lower recently so that's what I'm going to stick to for a while.

Went ridiculously light this morning but focussed 100% on technique making every rep perfect.

Warm up: 2 mins on the elliptical. 2 sets of light kettlebell squats. 2 sets of light leg press

Squats 4 x 10 at 40kg.
RDL 4 x 10 at 20kg.
DL 4 x 10 at 40kg.

Every one was executed as though there was 200kg on the bar. 100% focus, breathing properly, keeping everything super tight, trying to break the bar etc. Despite the low weight I was surprised how much of a sweat I got on.

It won't be easy staying light but I'm going to give it a try for a good few weeks to try to get some reps in. If I stick to this for 4 weeks, twice per week that should have me in the groove quite nicely so that I can start to slowly increase the weight.

I'm basically looking at starting again completely as though I've never done them before.

Patience is king. Long game ahead......

[EvilPie]

So then gents. Training goals for 2017?

Personally haven't really got anything specific other than to keep going and keep getting a little bit stronger.

Didn't manage the 25000 press ups that I started this time last year. That was more a monotony thing than a physical difficulty issue. My body could easily have managed them as could anybody's I'm sure but keeping up the volume for a whole year is not easy.

I think if I had one single goal it would be to see my bench press get to 3 plates or more. I think 120kg for 8 reps has a nice ring to it as well but ultimately it's all about 3 plates for a couple of reps.

I was having a think last night,

Squat 150
DL 225
Bench 125

But we will see. Main aim is to be in the game and enjoying it by this time next year!

Big numbers there mate. My targets constantly evolve as I'm sure yours do but anything similar would be great for me.

Definitely going to be doing a 140kg bench some time soon and then target towards 160kg but squat and DL could be quite a bit lower.

[iRaise]

I understand where you are coming from, but the good think about upper/lower splits is you can train at a high intensity as you are swapping from front to back (albeit a little harder with legs)

So supersets become gold.

The only isolations I do in a week are 2 lots of cable flyes/arms (once/twice or non sometimes) and leg ext and ham curl. The rest are all compounds trying to focus on total volume.

End of the day, both will work, even if a bro split works less efficiently on paper, if you enjoy it more you will give it more and your volume per body part might go up as a result. You definitely don't need a week to recover, but its not as if you will lose progress in a week either. I don't see a huge place for isolation movements unless you wanna be a top level bodybuilder as that really is top of the pyramid (I guess unless its prehab/rehab).

All depends what you want, you don't have a huge amount of training time, so you do have to choose exercises incredibly well, or you are in danger of dropping total volume and losing progress.

Bro split didn't last. As much as I like my old routine I've loved the upper/lower recently so that's what I'm going to stick to for a while.

Went ridiculously light this morning but focussed 100% on technique making every rep perfect.

Warm up: 2 mins on the elliptical. 2 sets of light kettlebell squats. 2 sets of light leg press

Squats 4 x 10 at 40kg.
RDL 4 x 10 at 20kg.
DL 4 x 10 at 40kg.

Every one was executed as though there was 200kg on the bar. 100% focus, breathing properly, keeping everything super tight, trying to break the bar etc. Despite the low weight I was surprised how much of a sweat I got on.

It won't be easy staying light but I'm going to give it a try for a good few weeks to try to get some reps in. If I stick to this for 4 weeks, twice per week that should have me in the groove quite nicely so that I can start to slowly increase the weight.

I'm basically looking at starting again completely as though I've never done them before.

Patience is king. Long game ahead......

This is where the 1.25/2. are your best friend. Just slow and steady progression.

I do love upper and lower, I can train at a much high intensity and it always feels different if that makes sense. Allowing a few minutes of extra rest on one muscle group lets me mentally recover as well. I will graduate towards whole body training at some point too, but I feel I have progress to make up upper/lower.

[iRaise]

So then gents. Training goals for 2017?

Personally haven't really got anything specific other than to keep going and keep getting a little bit stronger.

Didn't manage the 25000 press ups that I started this time last year. That was more a monotony thing than a physical difficulty issue. My body could easily have managed them as could anybody's I'm sure but keeping up the volume for a whole year is not easy.

I think if I had one single goal it would be to see my bench press get to 3 plates or more. I think 120kg for 8 reps has a nice ring to it as well but ultimately it's all about 3 plates for a couple of reps.

I was having a think last night,

Squat 150
DL 225
Bench 125

But we will see. Main aim is to be in the game and enjoying it by this time next year!

Big numbers there mate. My targets constantly evolve as I'm sure yours do but anything similar would be great for me.

Definitely going to be doing a 140kg bench some time soon and then target towards 160kg but squat and DL could be quite a bit lower.

I might be optimistic with the DL, but we will see. Hopefully the others are on the cards.

[iRaise]

First upper of the year today.

3x5 Bench 87.5

3x8e OAR 48s

3x8 DB Press 34

Pretty pleased with that.

[EvilPie]

First upper of the year today.

3x5 Bench 87.5

3x8e OAR 48s

3x8 DB Press 34

Pretty pleased with that.

Nice work. I'll be doing something similar tomorrow although probably OHP rather than DB press as they risk me setting off my dodgy wrist.

You've reminded me of another goal. Single arm rows... Really want to do 70kg on those again. I had to leave them out completely for ages as they absolutely killed my dodgy arm but I tried them last week and was fine up to 40kg. Will give them another go tomorrow and see how they go.

Think I mentioned before that I'm experimenting with the hook grip. I've looked in to this a bit and from what I can see if I start with it now at light weights I shouldn't snap my thumbs off by the time I build up to anything heavy.

220kg DL using an overhand hook grip sounds pretty manly to me.

[iRaise]

First upper of the year today.

3x5 Bench 87.5

3x8e OAR 48s

3x8 DB Press 34

Pretty pleased with that.

Nice work. I'll be doing something similar tomorrow although probably OHP rather than DB press as they risk me setting off my dodgy wrist.

You've reminded me of another goal. Single arm rows... Really want to do 70kg on those again. I had to leave them out completely for ages as they absolutely killed my dodgy arm but I tried them last week and was fine up to 40kg. Will give them another go tomorrow and see how they go.

Think I mentioned before that I'm experimenting with the hook grip. I've looked in to this a bit and from what I can see if I start with it now at light weights I shouldn't snap my thumbs off by the time I build up to anything heavy.

220kg DL using an overhand hook grip sounds pretty manly to me.

OHP is on the second day for me, just to spread it out. But seems a good enough switch

Pure only goes to 50, which is annoying I might ask them to see if they can get a few heavier ones, but 70 is a LOOOONG way off. I love a OAR though.

Totally with you regarding DLs. Double overhand . I do struggle with hook grip, but might try something similar and start of lighter and build a tolerance.