Blonde will make you STRONG

[arbboy]

AMRAP at 44kg went pretty well managing to get 14 out. They weren't the prettiest reps ever and I definitely felt a bit wobbly although in my defence I haven't done flat DB for absolutely ages.

I'm pretty sure all the volume work I've been doing recently helped these a lot and it kind of gave me a hankering to have another blast at them for a while to see if I can perhaps go above 50kg. They have a set of 54s so that would be nice to go for a couple of reps at that in the next few months.

Got to stay ahead of Arby.

That behind the neck press is really strong by the way. Don't think I could get near that.

Changed my routine quite signficantly now i have moved to Nottingham and training with a full time training partner.  Pretty much doing the same core exercises across the body parts but instead of training each body part once a week in total.  Each body part is being trained twice a week but with half the sets on each day.  Allows you to be fresh and go more max out on the heavy part of each work out.  For example when i did chest and barbell flat/incline i was fucked for dumbells after and couldn't go max on them.   Now split the two up over two workouts to be fresh for both.  After a month going to rotate the work outs so each month you get to go fresh after two days rest on alternative exercises.  Core exercises going heavy 4-6 reps and the lighter exercises go for higher reps 6-10 reps.

Four day split Monday/Tues/Thurs/Fri.  Rest Weds and weekend off totally to suit real life social life.  Been doing it for two weeks now and it is working really well.  Basically split Chest/Shoulders/Arms in two work outs (Mon/Thurs) and Back/Legs (Tues/Friday)

Monday

Chest - Dumbell Flat (44kg)/Incline bench (40kg) - 3 sets of each  Dumbbell flies 2 sets (16kg)

Shoulders - Behind neck barbell press 3 sets (60kg).  Dumbbell front raises 2 sets (12kg)

Trcieps - Dumbell overhead press (44kg) rope machine extensions 3 sets of each

Biceps - Ez bar curls (50kg) and seated dumbbell curls (22kg)

Tuesday - Basically everything involving barbell for ease of logistics in the gym for back and legs

Back - Deadlifts (180kg), bend over barbell rows (110kg), t bar rows (100kg)

Legs - Stiff legged deadlifts (110kg) seated hamstring machine curls

Weds - REST

Thursday

Chest Barbell flat(95kg)/incline(85kg) bench.  Pec-dec machine

Shoulders - dumbbell overhead seating presses (34kg) dumbbell lateral raises (14kg)

Triceps - ez bar lying down presses to forehead (45kg) tricep machine push downs

Biceps - Standing dumbell curls (24kg) and hammer curls (24kg)

Friday

Back - One arm dumbell rows (50kg), upright row ez bar (55-60kg) machine long bar pull downs

Legs - Barbell cleans (70kg), seated leg press (450kg in plates) seated machine quad curls

[EvilPie]

Great numbers there mate and looks like solid progress. I'm more determined to stay ahead on chest now as that's the only thing I still have over you.

My current routine is fairly similar to yours doing most muscle groups 2 times per week.

I tend to go:

Monday - Shoulders and back
Tuesday - Chest and back
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Shoulders and back
Friday - Legs
Saturday - Chest
Sunday - Rest

I throw in a few bicep curls here and there usually as super sets between any of the shoulder or chest variations.

I don't do anything specifically for triceps partly because most isolation exercises hurt but also because I think they get plenty of work from pressing 4 times per week.

I also do some abs work at least 4 times per week. Nothing crazy, just a few machine crunches at the end of my sessions in between stretching off.

Absolutely loving training at the moment. Quite looking to seeing what happens to my strength when I bang a few pounds on towards Christmas.
 

[arbboy]

Trouble with the strength gains is i am back over 20 stone.  Weighed in at 288lbs last week but i am much leaner around my waist and fat levels in general and face is less fat looking.  Clothes are a lot looser.  LOt of people i haven't seen for a while saying 'you look like you lost weight' even though i am nearly as heavy weight wise as i have ever been!

[Marky147]

Body recomposition FTW

I'm going to revamp all mine once I finish up with my PT. Will have to alter a fair bit, as I can't do a ton of stuff myself.

He's got tonnes of new clients since I went to Vegas, and has cut his hours working now he has a new Mrs.

He goes to tenerife in 10 days, then I've got Glasgow in 4 weeks, and a week in Malta now end of Oct. That wasn't planned, but I won a package for a tenner at the wekeend.

Once I get back from there, I'll have a couple months solid until Xmas to close the year out, and then work out some new goals for the new year. Will plan it out over Xmas, and then be ready to go in Jan.

[the sicilian]

Some great work being done here boys..

Im progressing well and my PT is busy creating new and horrific cross fit combos for me.. we are now into the realms of 40-45 minute non stop routines.

One interesting thing is im officially fitter than my PT and post times significantly better than him.. im not sure if this is bugging him..he actually called me a freak the other day looool !

I am significantly fitter than ever.. i used to do an excercise ..tyre flips ( i think the tyres 60 KG ) 5 X 16 flips 30 second rest ..performed at speed too.. no walking up to it squat /flipping deep breath then again.. flip and instant flip again literally running behind it

done it sunday after squats etc..was hardly out of breath,,before i was coughing up lungs..

Up to 50kg overhead squats too.. 10 reps 4 sets ..weight seems to be comfortable but im trying to keep good form..pretty sure another 20kg wouldnt be a problem..PT was surprised ive gone over 40kg

[EvilPie]

Trouble with the strength gains is i am back over 20 stone.  Weighed in at 288lbs last week but i am much leaner around my waist and fat levels in general and face is less fat looking.  Clothes are a lot looser.  LOt of people i haven't seen for a while saying 'you look like you lost weight' even though i am nearly as heavy weight wise as i have ever been!

Erm.... Not being funny but your strength gains haven't got anything to do with your weight going up. Eating more calories than you expend is what's made your weight to go up, simple as that. You may be eating more to assist your strength which in turn has made your weight go up but it's the food that's the ultimate cause, not the training.

Your training will affect your body composition but if you want to lose weight you need to eat less it's as simple as that.

Are you comfortable with your weight or would you like to drop a bit?

[arbboy]

Trouble with the strength gains is i am back over 20 stone.  Weighed in at 288lbs last week but i am much leaner around my waist and fat levels in general and face is less fat looking.  Clothes are a lot looser.  LOt of people i haven't seen for a while saying 'you look like you lost weight' even though i am nearly as heavy weight wise as i have ever been!

Erm.... Not being funny but your strength gains haven't got anything to do with your weight going up. Eating more calories than you expend is what's made your weight to go up, simple as that. You may be eating more to assist your strength which in turn has made your weight go up but it's the food that's the ultimate cause, not the training.

Your training will affect your body composition but if you want to lose weight you need to eat less it's as simple as that.

Are you comfortable with your weight or would you like to drop a bit?

I know i want to change my body and it looks so much different to the last time i was over 20 stone.  I know i need to eat less to get to 16/17 stone but i just love getting strong and you need to eat to get strong.  My body just aches like fuck if i don't eat under this training schedule!   I have lost 3 inches off my waist and lost weight since my fattest.  My clothes are much looser where it matters and much tighter on my upper body and arms.   People who haven't seen me for ages asking me if i have lost weight.  I know its weird.  The biggest thing for me is my sex drive.   Don't really want to discuss it but there has been a large improvement since the last time i was 20 stone in that area and i am several years older which doesn't make much sense at the same weight all things being equal.  I think the weight loss will come in time but at the minute i am just loving 'living like eddie'.  If i end up at 20 stone and a totally different 20 stone to the old one so be it.

Me and my traiing partner who is 220 and 6'5'' and lean are thinking about having a race to 250lbs as a prop bet whilst training hard and eating good (for him obviously)  John McCann (onny87 online years ago) is my training partner.  Marky knows him.  Sure a few others of you do.  He literally could be anything strength wise. He plays top class tennis and has big natural explosive power for a guy his size.   Huge server tennis wise and you can see the power in certain exercises we do naturally.  He could be a lean 265 in a year given how unexposed he is.  He has the natural frame of a strongman with nothing on it currently.

[EvilPie]

I've been a lean 230lb in the past at 6' 4" so I can almost begin to imagine what would be involved for your mate to get to 265lb lean and it's insane.

It took over 5000kcals a day for me to stay at that weight whilst training hard to maintain the muscle. Admittedly my training back then was pretty 'bro' and I also burned a lot of calories with other forms of exercise but still it's a huge ask.

I genuinely have no idea how he could possibly do it without steroids and if he does I'd love to know how. Genetics and age would obviously play a huge role but even so you're talking an insane lean weight there. Even to get to 250lb lean will be really tough for him, is it even possible to gain 30lb of lean muscle in say a year without steroids? I always had it in my head that 2lb of lean muscle was a decent number through a bulk/cut cycle. We need Harvey back.....

My recent 'cut' has seen me drop to under 15st for the first time I can remember since probably my early twenties. I still don't have anything like a visible 6 pack so I know that my lean muscle must be nothing compared to what it once was. I'm as strong as I used to be but a stone and a half lighter with a slightly bigger waist. I'm 15 years older so I'll use that as the main excuse but I'd still love to see if I can get back to something like what I used to be.

I'll be starting a 'bulk' very soon aiming to get back up to 16st or so. I'm going for a 'lean bulk' which I hope to achieve through a combination of good diet and the 16/8 meal timing. Will be interesting to see how it works.

Good that we're all so different in our goals isn't it. Be pretty boring if we were all the same.

[Marky147]

I knew Onny played tennis, but he never struck me as the type that could get that big, and putting on >2 stone is a lot of weight, unless you do it following my old diet

My trainer is ~250, and he won't mind me saying he's juiced to the gills.

I was 1lb heavier than I was when I passed ouf of my Royal Navy basic training when I got back from Vegas @ 195. However, I'd had a norovirus type thing for the last day or so, and probably lost about 1/2 a stone after not eating for almost 2 days. I'm back to around 15 stone now, and back in the gym 3 days a week.

[arbboy]

Dumbbell bench update today.  Banged out 2 clean reps with 46kg and 42kg incline then 3 more with a slight spot.  The dream of 50s is getting closer.  I got them out today and tried to do a rep on my last set but i was too tired and they just didn't move! 

[arbboy]

Deadlift update today.  Did the usual warm up with 170kg expecting 4 reps did 7 easily and banged it up to 190kg and smashed out 1 rep twice.  Pretty solid as well.   Looking forward to getting to 200kg very soon.  Big barrier to smash through.  Got a video of today but no idea how to post it up.

[EvilPie]

Tough day for me today in the gym with it being my first session after a very heavy long weekend in Magaluf.

My dieting went really well in the lead up to the trip bottoming out at 14st 10lb on Thursday from a starting weight of 16st 7lb at the end of April

Weighed in this morning though and I'm back up to 15st 7lb already 

Main thing I took from the weight loss was my waist getting down to a tad under 34" which I honestly never thought I'd do again. Going to strive to keep the waist as lean as possible now but gain a bit of size back up top.

I'm not sure how much the intermittent fasting contributed to my weight loss in the last 7 weeks. It was pretty much the same as I would've expecting had I been on a normal timing schedule given the same calories. I'm going to stick to it though now I'm gaining as it's supposed to help keep fat levels down and be really good for lean gains.

Strength on bench and shoulders hasn't suffered at all through the weight loss which I'm pleased with. Deadlifts are down really low though as are squats. I've been overly focussed on upper body work though so not entirely unsurprising.

Pull ups are also going really well with me getting up to sets of 4 with 14kg added, doubles with 18kg added and a current body weight AMRAP of 13.

All in all a really positive and interesting few months.

[arbboy]

barbell bench 21st century pb alert!   Banged out 102.5kg on flat bench today for 2 reps with no spot after a very easy 8 reps warm up set at 90kg.  Chest coming along nicely (mainly due to the solid tricep work)

[vegaslover]

barbell bench 21st century pb alert!   Banged out 102.5kg on flat bench today for 2 reps with no spot after a very easy 8 reps warm up set at 90kg.  Chest coming along nicely (mainly due to the solid tricep work)

Smashing it Arb. Any new xmas targets now you past 100kg for bench?

[arbboy]

barbell bench 21st century pb alert!   Banged out 102.5kg on flat bench today for 2 reps with no spot after a very easy 8 reps warm up set at 90kg.  Chest coming along nicely (mainly due to the solid tricep work)

Smashing it Arb. Any new xmas targets now you past 100kg for bench?

By xmas i want to be benching at least 120kg 1 rep max and 50kg dumbells for at least 6 reps.   Deadlift want to be pulling 200kg for a few reps with one rep max maybe 210/215.   The bench is all down to an incredible upturn in tricep strength i think plus i have started a creatine cycle 2 weeks ago which will last 3 months til xmas.  I think i need to improve shoulder strength to partially assist benching as well.   Would like to be shoulder pressing high 30kg dumbbells by xmas as well.

Tricep power is quite amazing improvement wise last few weeks.