Blonde will make you STRONG

[Marky147]

This lad is one of the fitness vloggers I follow. He's pretty strong, considering he weighs about 12 1/2 stone!

[arbboy]

Set a modern day flat bench pb today of 115kg for a rep no spot.  Feels nice to 'warm up' with 2 plates now for a few reps before i try a pb on the bench!  One plate a year ago wasn't that easy.  So excited about 2019 and where my journey gym wise can go strength wise.  Feel like i have wasted a decade or more on the piss but we can't change that so its in the past and we move on.
  
Happy xmas to all the muscle boys and lurkers of the thread.  If you lurk join us next year and tell us about your plans and journey.  No one could have been more out of shape and physically unfit as me when i started so everyone is welcome.  I still am massively out of shape and fat i am just fitter and stronger but still weigh over 20 stone.  Don't be put off.

[Marky147]

Nice little Xmas present. Congrats, mate!

Happy Xmas everyone.

[vegaslover]

Congrats Arbboy, amazing progress all round for you this year

[EvilPie]

Great finish to the year Arbboy be interesting to see where that bench goes in 2019.

I'm on a little break at the moment probably until the new year but I may sneak in a light session at some point to keep my eye in.

Pretty good training year for me, haven't exactly smashed any records but I've stayed free of major injuries especially recently and I feel like I'm ready for a push in 2019.

First target will be to get my 3 plate bench back. It was August 2017 that I hit my 145kg PR and I haven't moved more than 137.5kg since. Might have to make a bench PR my target for 2019 although I'm enjoying being reasonably lean so that's a bit of a stumbling block.

Current bench routine is:

Week 1 - 3 x 1 then 3 x 3 then 3 x 1 with slingshot
Week 2 - 3 x 3 then 3 x 1 then 3 x 8 with bands

Then back to week one and repeat for a 10 to 12 week block. I'm going back to my old warm up which is 4 x 10 DB press up to about 40kg supersetted with slingshot lat activation. This is what I was doing when I hit my last PR so makes sense to put it back in given that recent programmes don't seem to have got me anywhere.

Hopefully with the low reps I'll have a shot at a PR somewhere in there without specifically having the pressure of an 'attempt' day. You get good days and bad days so on a good day depending how the first two singles go I can have a shot at something decent as part of the normal routine.

I'm currently at 125kg for the singles but that felt pretty easy. Going from 105kg for 4 x 10 for 10 weeks up to 115+ was difficult at first, I couldn't believe how heavy 120kg felt when I un-racked it for the first time. The following week it was pretty easy but the first one was mad. I was discussing this with Harvey and he said he always liked to have a heavy session thrown in just to get the 'feel' of it.

Onwards and upwards for 2019, let's all smash a few PRs!!

Merry Christmas all

[Marky147]

Eat a load of carbs before you train, and should be able to chuck it up a couple times

Great first 6 months of the year, then not too bad after Vegas, but the last few months since taking on a load more work have been non existent.

Started to settle down a bit now that I'm into the swing of things, and will be back to 4x a week in Jan.

[arbboy]

got to love the xmas protein fest!  Maximuscle got a boxing day fire sale on all their protein ranges if you like choc/strawberry flavours the prices are incredibly cheap (slightly more for other flavours.  Ends midnight i think.  Promax lean is £17 a tub when usually £40 for example.  Amazon price is £21 normally.  Hard to buy this stuff any cheaper year round. 

[arbboy]

WSM final just starting on c5 for anyone interested. 

[arbboy]

Great line up.  Shame Eddie valued his health over defending his title.

[EvilPie]

Tough start to the year for me but managed to get through it.

I managed to put my back out last weekend although physio has fixed it quite nicely. I did a steady leg session last night and then bench today didn't seem to be affected too much other than by the lay off.

I did 3 x 3 at 105kg which was quite easy and then singles at 110, 115 and 120kg. 120kg felt insanely heavy and moved really slow. It's 3 weeks since I benched so understandable I suppose but it was still a bit of a shock.

Looking forward to getting back in to a proper routine again starting on Monday. Will have to change posterior chain day quite a bit as I can't currently bend very well at the hips. That should ease in a few weeks so not a major worry.

What's everybody's goals for the year? 140kg bench and 100kg OHP for me I think. OHP will be the hardest of the two but neither will be easy at all.

[the sicilian]

Sigh Christmas.. try to be good..so much crap food.. had a bout of flu and slight cheast infection leading up to christmas.. imapact on fitness levels is frustrating..getting back to it but 3 of the first 4 sessions was horrible

Am ready to roll ful power again..

[Marky147]

Making my way over to the obesity thread

Booked in to start training again on the 14th, but not sure if I'll be doing 2-3-4 sessions a week. Got to wait and see how his schedule is, then go from there.

I've put on about 10kg since the summer, so will get that off, and then go from there.

Clear run until Cheltenham would be nice, and then a clear run from there until Vegas.

[EvilPie]

My back seems to be fixed now and I have full flexibility back. Didn't expect it to recover quite so quickly so I'm really pleased about that.

It really set me back though as it meant I'd had a lot of time off to the point where I was really aching after my last chest session. Bit better this Saturday and got 3 solid singles at 120kg which didn't feel anywhere near as heavy as last week then triples up to 110kg which felt very good. Slingshot singles up to 130kg were good to feel the weight but these need to be at 150kg for me to hit 140kg without it so a long way to go.

Got a reasonable OHP tonight at 75kg for a single, still 10kg off a PR but I'm hoping to improve this quite a lot in the next few months.

Really focussing on the pressing movements for a few months now with the target being PRs for both bench and OHP. I'm not programming any PR attempts just trying to stick bigger weights on the bar whenever I feel good and just see where that takes me. Accessory movements are all geared towards pressing so if it all goes to plan I should get somewhere near before too long.

How's everyone else? Marky you back on it yet? Gutted to see you'd put 10kg back on after doing so well recently. The good thing is you know what to do to get it back off again so if you want to remove it you can just get it done.

[Marky147]

Been twice this week, and feel like someone has run over my chest, which is just the job. In again Thursday & Friday, too. Will be the same until Cheltenham, barring any mishaps.

Don't be too gutted about the 10kg, I'm quite happy. Actually suprised it wasn't 20, as I've been eating whatever I wanted since October

Good news on the back!

[the sicilian]

Getting back to it.. first of the serious long Crossfit workouts since xmas yesterday  after building up with emoms etc since new year.. wasnt too bad and I actually improved by 23 seconds ( it takes 56 minutes lol so not that impressive ) but a surprise..back up to normal sprint sessions too.. was the first session back also that i didnt struggle badly..so fitness beggining to return.. have some brutal stuff scheduled in the coming ten days so will find out where I am then