Blonde will make you STRONG

[iRaise]

Sorry been MIA last few days, busy few days with work. Then LDN for the weekend. Will do a write up of the last few weeks tomorrow. Good to see someone else in here, but if you are going to pull out squats stronger than me feel free not to post .

Sean posting some solid numbers too if he ever updates!

[iRaise]

Training wise things have been going really good. Last few weeks I have been really focusing on mechanical tension (basically as much as you can through the muscle not the joint) this is obviously insanely tough so I have dropped my weights by 50% on most things and had doms the last few weeks. Obviously isn't an accurate indicator of success, but I have been feeling far more depleted using this. So the strength work has definitely taken a back seat for the most part. Really enjoying it though, and watching some videos back I can see my movement becoming cleaner. So going to stick with this for a while.

Still doing 4 full body days and if I have time 2 gymnastic/accessory type of days too. Pretty much whatever I want.

No major numbers to report, but really enjoying training.

[EvilPie]

Training wise things have been going really good. Last few weeks I have been really focusing on mechanical tension (basically as much as you can through the muscle not the joint) this is obviously insanely tough so I have dropped my weights by 50% on most things and had doms the last few weeks. Obviously isn't an accurate indicator of success, but I have been feeling far more depleted using this. So the strength work has definitely taken a back seat for the most part. Really enjoying it though, and watching some videos back I can see my movement becoming cleaner. So going to stick with this for a while.

Still doing 4 full body days and if I have time 2 gymnastic/accessory type of days too. Pretty much whatever I want.

No major numbers to report, but really enjoying training.

Good to hear you're enjoying it mate. What's involved in the full body workout? Is it a different routine every day? Be interested to see the full breakdown if you have time to post it.

I'm fully recovered now so available for a session whenever you are. No particular goals of course just think it's about time we had another session.

[EvilPie]

Cheers mr evil.. I lurk the thread a lot  but some of the stuff you guys talk is lost on me .. I wonder sometimes how long I can do those kind of circuits .. I'm approaching 49 years old.. my PT says age is just a number.. easy to say as his only 27 ..one of the other PT's told me I trained to hard lol.. dunno if it was admiration or a warning he didn't want to break out the heart attack equipment ... as to
Max weight ? Hmmm I train alone so bench I wouldn't be happy without a spot nothing more embarrassing than screaming for someone to get an optimistic bar off ur rapidly compression chest...but I'd say 120kg is achievable. squats I think a lot bigger ..i done 60 kg warm up the 2 sets of 100kg x10 then done 6 reps at 120 today.. was reasonably happy and prob could have knocked out the full 10 but am was a little cautious as I didn't want to injure myself as that's the most I've ever squatted.. weirdly I only started real squatting in the last year or so.. I used to think it would make my arse big loooool.. it's hard to think of a max but 140 is def within range I'd say.. this was done after one of those killer circuits too and followed this with 2x 10 leg press at 250 kg and 2x 10 at 300kg.. finished with 3x 10 each side one arm row with 42kg dumbbell .. I prefer high reps as I don't want to get bigger.. I'm only 5'7.. I'm already built and I'd rather be leaner than bigger.. literally the opposite of
Most guys that go to the gym.. think brad Pitt in Snatch only bit more muscle and obv more handsome.. in reality my biggest enemy is food.. I love food and I have had to change my lifestyle
And eating in conjunction as my age and metabolism is against me to get on course of where I want to be .. but I'm getting plenty of protein and staying away from the takeaways.. hopefully will rip up for august and post an Eso Kraal type ghey selfie

I think as long as you keep them up you've got 20+ years unless an injury kicks in. No reason that at 70 the onset of old age will make them impossible to keep up. I'm pretty sure that if you stopped at 60 you'd never get going again without some serious willpower though.

Those estimates seem very realistic if you ever decided to have a push. I have the same problem with bench as I also train on my own. I get around it by not using collars on the bar so if I do ever have to bail it's just embarrassing and noisy rather than certain death unless someone strong enough happens to spot my impending doom and come to the rescue. Without the collars you just tip to one side to make all the weights fall off that end and then the weight remaining on the other end will sort the rest out for you.

Dreading the ghey selfies. Makes me feel shit for being fat

[EvilPie]

Trimming phase starts for me today. Wasn't overly fussed about my weight until very recently when I noticed the dreaded 'love handles' have made an appearance.

Started a bit of abs work so there's hopefully something to show when the layer or two of fat disappears. I'm hoping this will also help my squats and deadlifts which I'm sure are suffering from my weak core as well as weak posterior chain. Lot's of work to do there but that's one for another post.

Won't be doing any cardio whatsoever as it's stupid so it'll just be cutting down the calories. Should be easy really as I eat way too many unnecessary foods. Pitta breads are my easy one to cut out. I currently have between 5 and 9 per day. On the 9 days it's two with morning scrambled egg whites, two with lunch time tuna, two with after work scrambled egg whites and three with evening curry. At 143 calories each that's up to 1300 calories per day from pitta breads! I'd say I average 7 per day so about 1000 calories.

General training day is:

Breakfast fruit/veg/protein powder smoothie
After training protein shake
mid-morning eggs + 2 x pitta
Lunch tuna + 2 x pitta
Mid afternoon flapjack
After work eggs + 2 x pitta
Evening meal curry + 3 x pitta

I have a bit less on non-training days but not drastically less.

Easy wins are:

mid-morning eggs + 1 x pitta
Lunch chicken + rice
Mid afternoon protein shake (about 40g extra protein compared to flapjack but fewer calories. Makes up for protein lost elsewhere)
After work eggs + 1 x pitta
Evening meal chicken + veg

I'm not going to calculate anything exactly, I'll just let the scales and mirror do the talking. It's quite a drastic cut in calories probably in the region of 1000 on a previous bad day and 500 on a previous 'better' day for a total in the region of 5000 per week. Should lead to a pretty quick weight loss if I stick to it but it's definitely needed.

I'm not going to change training at all other than reduce weights if I feel the need. I'll still target the steady increases in bench which will hopefully be fuelled by those reserves currently residing just above by belt...... See what happens there but overall I'd rather be a bit slimmer than a bit stronger.

[EvilPie]

I've just checked through the blonde will make you thin thread to see what happened when I dieted before:

7th April: Weight 15st 13lb. Waist 37" to 38.5"
.....
.....
2nd June: Weight 15st 2 3/4lb. Waist 35.5" to 36.5"

This was two years ago and I lost 10lb in 8 weeks along with 2 inches off my waist.

Current numbers are:

28th June 2017 - Weight 16st 10lb, waist 37.5"

So nearly a stone heavier than two years ago with a similar waist. Guess that means I've gained a fair bit of muscle which is nice

If I can get back down to 35.5" waist again I'll be really happy. I looked quite decent at that before so would be very pleased to be back there particularly as everything is bigger so should make the waist look even smaller. 16st with the waist around 35" or so would be fantastic but difficult. I'm going to make that the target though so I have something to aim for. Fun times ahead......

[the sicilian]

I've just checked through the blonde will make you thin thread to see what happened when I dieted before:

7th April: Weight 15st 13lb. Waist 37" to 38.5"
.....
.....
2nd June: Weight 15st 2 3/4lb. Waist 35.5" to 36.5"

This was two years ago and I lost 10lb in 8 weeks along with 2 inches off my waist.

Current numbers are:

28th June 2017 - Weight 16st 10lb, waist 37.5"

So nearly a stone heavier than two years ago with a similar waist. Guess that means I've gained a fair bit of muscle which is nice

If I can get back down to 35.5" waist again I'll be really happy. I looked quite decent at that before so would be very pleased to be back there particularly as everything is bigger so should make the waist look even smaller. 16st with the waist around 35" or so would be fantastic but difficult. I'm going to make that the target though so I have something to aim for. Fun times ahead......

I try to stay away from scales..they can just be depressing.. i was 14'4.. then was 14'10.. i know in myself when im running heavy.. im only going near scales when im sure of a result i like .. im prob around 14'4 again and ive given myself some extra motivation having just been measured up for £2K's worth of made to measure suits.. theres no hiding now if i want my monies worth

[iRaise]

Training wise things have been going really good. Last few weeks I have been really focusing on mechanical tension (basically as much as you can through the muscle not the joint) this is obviously insanely tough so I have dropped my weights by 50% on most things and had doms the last few weeks. Obviously isn't an accurate indicator of success, but I have been feeling far more depleted using this. So the strength work has definitely taken a back seat for the most part. Really enjoying it though, and watching some videos back I can see my movement becoming cleaner. So going to stick with this for a while.

Still doing 4 full body days and if I have time 2 gymnastic/accessory type of days too. Pretty much whatever I want.

No major numbers to report, but really enjoying training.

Good to hear you're enjoying it mate. What's involved in the full body workout? Is it a different routine every day? Be interested to see the full breakdown if you have time to post it.

I'm fully recovered now so available for a session whenever you are. No particular goals of course just think it's about time we had another session.

Will drop you a message actually, might be able to do this Sunday if thats good for you? Might be a bit late.

Basic structure is: (4-5 sets on each)

Squat variation
Pull
Press
Single Leg variation
Pull
Press

If I have time arms and calves

If I have time to fit a 5th in, I just do some tri sets with bits of everything.

Really enjoying it though as its mentally so different, will go back to upper lower I am sure at some point. But for now, happy to roll with this.

[iRaise]

Cheers mr evil.. I lurk the thread a lot  but some of the stuff you guys talk is lost on me .. I wonder sometimes how long I can do those kind of circuits .. I'm approaching 49 years old.. my PT says age is just a number.. easy to say as his only 27 ..one of the other PT's told me I trained to hard lol.. dunno if it was admiration or a warning he didn't want to break out the heart attack equipment ... as to
Max weight ? Hmmm I train alone so bench I wouldn't be happy without a spot nothing more embarrassing than screaming for someone to get an optimistic bar off ur rapidly compression chest...but I'd say 120kg is achievable. squats I think a lot bigger ..i done 60 kg warm up the 2 sets of 100kg x10 then done 6 reps at 120 today.. was reasonably happy and prob could have knocked out the full 10 but am was a little cautious as I didn't want to injure myself as that's the most I've ever squatted.. weirdly I only started real squatting in the last year or so.. I used to think it would make my arse big loooool.. it's hard to think of a max but 140 is def within range I'd say.. this was done after one of those killer circuits too and followed this with 2x 10 leg press at 250 kg and 2x 10 at 300kg.. finished with 3x 10 each side one arm row with 42kg dumbbell .. I prefer high reps as I don't want to get bigger.. I'm only 5'7.. I'm already built and I'd rather be leaner than bigger.. literally the opposite of
Most guys that go to the gym.. think brad Pitt in Snatch only bit more muscle and obv more handsome.. in reality my biggest enemy is food.. I love food and I have had to change my lifestyle
And eating in conjunction as my age and metabolism is against me to get on course of where I want to be .. but I'm getting plenty of protein and staying away from the takeaways.. hopefully will rip up for august and post an Eso Kraal type ghey selfie

I think as long as you keep them up you've got 20+ years unless an injury kicks in. No reason that at 70 the onset of old age will make them impossible to keep up. I'm pretty sure that if you stopped at 60 you'd never get going again without some serious willpower though.

Those estimates seem very realistic if you ever decided to have a push. I have the same problem with bench as I also train on my own. I get around it by not using collars on the bar so if I do ever have to bail it's just embarrassing and noisy rather than certain death unless someone strong enough happens to spot my impending doom and come to the rescue. Without the collars you just tip to one side to make all the weights fall off that end and then the weight remaining on the other end will sort the rest out for you.

Dreading the ghey selfies. Makes me feel shit for being fat

Guy at the Pure I go to, although very annoying at times, is 45 does Olympic Lifting and has a fantastic physique. He has only really been doing it for 5-6 years too I think. I do think it becomes harder to recover with age, physically to an extent, but more people tend to be busy with work and families/friends in there 40s so they just can't prioritise recovery. 25 year olds who are anti social can just go to bed

Keep it up though, always looks forward to seeing some updates.

[iRaise]

Trimming phase starts for me today. Wasn't overly fussed about my weight until very recently when I noticed the dreaded 'love handles' have made an appearance.

Started a bit of abs work so there's hopefully something to show when the layer or two of fat disappears. I'm hoping this will also help my squats and deadlifts which I'm sure are suffering from my weak core as well as weak posterior chain. Lot's of work to do there but that's one for another post.

Won't be doing any cardio whatsoever as it's stupid so it'll just be cutting down the calories. Should be easy really as I eat way too many unnecessary foods. Pitta breads are my easy one to cut out. I currently have between 5 and 9 per day. On the 9 days it's two with morning scrambled egg whites, two with lunch time tuna, two with after work scrambled egg whites and three with evening curry. At 143 calories each that's up to 1300 calories per day from pitta breads! I'd say I average 7 per day so about 1000 calories.

General training day is:

Breakfast fruit/veg/protein powder smoothie
After training protein shake
mid-morning eggs + 2 x pitta
Lunch tuna + 2 x pitta
Mid afternoon flapjack
After work eggs + 2 x pitta
Evening meal curry + 3 x pitta

I have a bit less on non-training days but not drastically less.

Easy wins are:

mid-morning eggs + 1 x pitta
Lunch chicken + rice
Mid afternoon protein shake (about 40g extra protein compared to flapjack but fewer calories. Makes up for protein lost elsewhere)
After work eggs + 1 x pitta
Evening meal chicken + veg

I'm not going to calculate anything exactly, I'll just let the scales and mirror do the talking. It's quite a drastic cut in calories probably in the region of 1000 on a previous bad day and 500 on a previous 'better' day for a total in the region of 5000 per week. Should lead to a pretty quick weight loss if I stick to it but it's definitely needed.

I'm not going to change training at all other than reduce weights if I feel the need. I'll still target the steady increases in bench which will hopefully be fuelled by those reserves currently residing just above by belt...... See what happens there but overall I'd rather be a bit slimmer than a bit stronger.

Once a meathead...

Yeah thats decent to be fair food wise, interesting to see how quick it happens. I am really surprised how quick I have leaned up this time, 3 and a half weeks and a very noticeable difference. If it wasn't my body I may even claim 'assistance'.

[the sicilian]

Think my PT is on some kind of mission..

Yesterday he introduced me to a variation of something called the '300' as in Spartan 300 etc..

A circuit that consisted of the following :

25 assisted pullups
50 ( yes these are fifty reps !! ) dead lift 50KG
50 V ups ( suspended situps )
50 pressups
50 squat clean and jerk to overhead 30KG
25 assisted pullups

this was without stopping

Oh lordy .. there were probably half a dozen 25 second breathers in there.

Although the weight wasnt heavy the sheer number of reps takes its toll.. I think it took a little over 19 minutes..

Today was beast mode and we went for a new PB squat..

warm up set 60KG

then 3 x 10 for 110 KG

then squeezed 4 out at 130KG.. there's def more in the tank and we may look at 140KG next week

Followed this with a full workout

This was taken after in the warm down room whilst no one was about.. im a great critic of gym selfies..but just this once not bad for someone approaching 50 years old

[Marky147]

Looking jacked, mate.

Superb effort, and embarrassing for most of us seeing that.

Some thanks has to go to Vin, for shipping out of the country

[the sicilian]

Looking jacked, mate.

Superb effort, and embarrassing for most of us seeing that.

Some thanks has to go to Vin, for shipping out of the country

Lol.. yup kebab intake def down

[iRaise]

Looking jacked, mate.

Superb effort, and embarrassing for most of us seeing that.

Some thanks has to go to Vin, for shipping out of the country

Looks a pretty solid physique there! Would definitely take that closing on 50.

Also, amazing engine to get 300 out under 20 mins!!!

[iRaise]

Never been huge on following a certain tempo. Just trying to be in control, but with a few little checks recently, there are definitely portions on the movement where I am not. So last few weeks have been following a 4-1-2-0 tempo. So 4 seconds on the way down, pause for one then 2 on the way back up. Trying not to lock out hence the 0 seconds at the top.

Gives you an ego dent, but definitely helps find the weaker areas of the movement. Last few days I have dropped to 8kg DBs for bicep curls as the lower (longest range of the muscle) I am pretty dam weak.

Would highly recommend for anyone to see where the are weakest, you can always use bands/chains/cables/shorter rep movements/different accessories to strengthen the weaker areas. One of those moments where you realise how complicated bio mechanics is, and how lucky some people are that they just recruit the muscles during that range, just because their brain tells them to!