KOMED's TRANSFORMATION

[KOMED]

Introduction

After cutting for the last half a year or so, I'm entering a clean bulking phase to put on as much muscle with as little fat gain possible. I've always contemplated about having a workout journal here because I wasn't sure how dedicated I would be to posting into it, but I guess we?ll find out now?

History

The Beginning (Jan 2008 - June 2008)
I started lifting in January 2008 from the influence of a friend. I'm 5'8 and was around 170lb with 20-25% of body fat right when I first started lifting. I lifted with minimal guidance and direction, and tried varieties of exercises and after several months, my strength gains were alright. I went to the gym about 3 times a week and was not too motivated at this time. It was partially because of my lack of knowledge, but also because I wasn't able to see any progress in the mirror. I did a lot of my research on weight lifting online which eventually led me to bodybuilding.com. I spent hours upon hours on the supersite and the forums, trying to educate myself on the different aspects of bodybuilding. For many years prior to this, I had been extremely self conscious about my body knowing that I was quite chubby and larger than most of my peers. Add in some low self confidence and low self esteem and you can see I wasn't really happy with myself throughout my teenage years. I had several stints to lose weight in my teenage years but none of them went too well due to my lack of knowledge. After careful contemplation, I finally decided to have another shot at losing weight. However, this time I was armed with knowledge courtesy of bodybuilding.com.

The First Cut (June 2008 - November 2008)
As I began my first cut in June 2008, I finally had a sense of direction as to what I was doing. I saw all the different transformations on the forums and it was very motivating and inspiring. During this time, I also started using my first supplement: protein. I went to GNC to pick up a tub of their pro performance protein (I know, I know...) and started using that for my post workouts. I had my nutrition dialled in and was eating an average 1700-1800 calories a day on my cut and I was losing weight very steadily but at the same time I was losing strength as well. I do realize now that I was probably promoting a lot of muscle catabolism at such a low caloric intake. I trained about 5 days a week and incorporated much cardio into my workout. My motivation was at the highest it had ever been and I was very set on accomplishing my goal. Fast forward three month later and I was sitting at 145lb down from about 170lb. I wasn't that particularly lean, probably still around 13-14% body fat but I was much smaller in size and felt like a changed and renewed person. People were commenting from left and right and it felt awesome. My self confidence steadily rose and things were great. It felt good to be "normal" and not fat. It might not seem like much but for someone that lived through my teenage years that way I did, it felt almost unreal.

The Dirty Bulk (November 2008 - May 2009)
After successfully completing my cut, I felt thirsty for more. After seeing the results of hard work through training and nutrition, I felt much more motivated to pack on muscle and work towards a physique that I thought I could only dream for. The beginnings of my bulk went very slow because I had an extreme fear of getting fat. Every time I felt full from eating, I felt fat. After more reading on the forums and hearing opinions from others, I rid myself of that fear and started eating. During this time period was also when I started experimenting with different supplements. I felt like I wanted any supplement that could be beneficial for me in building muscle. I ended up trying different multivitamins, NO, creatine, intra products as well as many other protein supplements. At first it felt like they worked great but I started becoming dependent on them and my workouts were crap if I didn't take my supplements. I was a supplement addict, uh oh. Moving along, I saw lots of advice on the forums about how you have to eat, eat and eat in order to grow. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that advice was not suitable for endomorphs like myself. I ate lots, lots of junk as well because I felt like I needed to get the calories. As expected, I blew up and gained muscle along with quite a bit of fat. I had mixed feelings about my results, but either way I knew it was time for another cut, but this time I was going to do it right.

The Second Cut (May 2009 - October 2009)
I started cutting in May 2009 but in a less extreme fashion. I first stopped decided to stop taking a boatload of my supplements as I felt like I needed a cleansing from them. I was down to just the basics: protein, multi-vitamin and fish oil. I started with about 2400 calories per day and eventually dwindled down to about 2000. Weight was steadily shedding off in the first few months but slowed greatly towards the end. As I got closer to the lower teen digits of body fat, I found it very hard to lose every additional pound of fat. I was locking my diet in at 2000 calories a day but I found it very hard to not go over because I found myself hungry so I would go over 2000 calories every other day or so. Towards the end of my cut, I was starting to like my physique. The definition and vascularity was becoming more prominent. Still I was quite small, but I looked much better with a bit of muscle mass compared to how I looked after my last cut. Towards the last month of my cut, I used CL Reduction AM/PM to assist me in losing that extra bit of fat. I just recently finished my CL Reduction and decided it's time to start a good clean bulk, which has led me to starting this log.

Current Body Stats
Height: 5'8
Weight: 137lb

The Routine

I'm following a simple split routine. I don't have particular days assigned to certain muscles because my schedule changes on a week to week basis. For majority of the time, my 5 day split will be chest, back, legs, shoulder/traps, and arms with slight variations from here and there. In addition, I will be doing ab ripper x for most of my abdominal work.

For my big 3 lifts, I will be focusing on gaining strength for the first part of my bulk so I will be doing low rep schemes. As of current, my standard sets for the big 3 are:
Bench: 5x155lb
Squat: 5x205lb
Deadlift: 5x225lb

For the rest of my exercises, I will mostly be doing 4 sets of 8 reps with a few exclusions. I will be working out about 5-6 days a week for 45-80 minutes per session. I'm going to also give myself stars out of 5 for the quality of the workout as I feel I am very prone to having bad & lazy workouts. The scale is as follows:

* Horrible
** Mediocre
*** Average
**** Very good
***** Phenomenal

Nutrition

I will be starting this bulk at 2300 calories and l'll be slowly adjusting my caloric intake accordingly over the span of my bulking phase in order to maximize growth yet minimize fat loss.

As for my meal plan, I will be avoiding junk food as much as possible though I know I won't be able to avoid it completely. I am also very likely to have a wide variety of foods so I don't really have any set meal plans. However I do have a list of staple foods that I will be consuming on a day-to-day basis. These include: oats, eggs/whites, whole wheat bread, turkey breast, lettuce, broccoli, chicken breast, almonds, milk tuna, peanut butter, cottage cheese and of course, protein shakes.

Supplementation

Protein: I have a lot that I will be using: All The Whey Isolate & Muscle Gauge Nutrition Isolate for post workout, Gaspari Myofusion & RedXLab Whey Complex for general use, ON NitroCore24 for pre-bed, and PVL Whey Maxx for recipes
Creatine: None currently though I intend to start after I make my next order. Debating between Green Mag and Creatine Mono..
Multivitamin: Controlled Labs Orange Triad
Fish Oil: Jamieson Omega-3 Select
Intra: None currently though I do have Purple Wraath

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Oatmeal, 2xEggs, 2x Orange Triad, 1x Fish oil
W/O: 1 x Purple Wraath Sample
Meal 2: Banana, Myofusion
Meal 3: Bread, Peanut Butter, Banana
Meal 4: 8oz Chicken Breast + Broccoli
Meal 5: Small yogurt, orange, banana
Meal 6: ATW Isolate mixed into skim milk
Meal 7: Cottage Cheese, apple, peanut butter, skim milk
~2200 calories

Workout - Back ****
Pullups
8xbw
8xbw
7xbw
5xbw

Bent-over row (machine assisted)
8x45
8x70
8x70
8x70

Deadlifts
5x135
5x205
5x225
2x275

Rack pulls
5x205
5x185
5x135

Lat pulldown machine
8x110
8x120
8x120
7x120

Seated rows machine
8x60
8x60
8x60
8x70


Overall: My workout was solid today though I felt like I should have pushed out another set of my max for deadlifts. Maybe next time? Nutrition was very good, I didn't really eat any junk and my calories were in check. Yay for a good first day!!

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1:Oatmeal, 2xEggs, 2x Orange Triad, 1x Fish Oil
Meal 2: Turkey Sandwich, Apple, Banana
Meal 3: Red Bull SF (Needed an energy boost..), Oatmeal, ATW Isolate in skim milk, Banana
Meal 4: ATW Isolate, 5oz chicken breast, broccoli
Meal 5: RedXLab Whey Complex in skim milk, Bread with cheese/turkey breast/egg
Meal 6: Bread with Peanut Butter, Cottage cheese mixed with apples and peanut butter, 2x Orange Triad, 1x Fish oil
~2290 calories

Workout @ RCC - Chest ****
BB Bench
8x135
6x155
4x165
5x155
5x155

Incline BB
6x115
5x125
5x125
5x125
5x125

Decline BB (rotary smith)
10x135
5x155
5x155
6x155

Cable Flies
10x40
8x40
8x40

Machine Flies
5x95
7x85
7x85





Overall: Bad start with only 6 hour of sleep. I had to tough out a work shift and a few hours of school. Drank a sugarfree redbull today to get some energy back. Lifting at the gym was great, spent about 1.5 hours there and had a very exhausting chest work out.

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Protein pancake (egg whites, oats, cottage cheese), Small peach yogurt, 2x OT, 1xFO
Meal 2: Detour Bar, Turkey Breast Sandwich
Meal 3: Chilli with bread/crackers
Meal 3: MGN Isolate in skim milk
Meal 4: one BIGGGG Hot Dog (zzZzz..), 2x OT, 1xFO
Meal 5: Small strawberry yogurt, small orange
Meal 6: Peanut butter, 1/2 apple, cottage cheese, peach yogurt
~2335

Workout @ SFU - ARMS ****

chin ups (supersetted with dips)
8xbw
8xbw
6xbw
6xbw

dips
10xbw
8xbw
8xbw
8xbw

overhead extensions (supersetted with preachers)
8x60
8x65
8x65

db preachers
8x25
8x25
8x25

standing db curls (supersetted with rope pulldowns)
8x25
8x25
8x25

rope pulldowns
8x90
8x90
8x90

Overall: I had a good arms workout today. It could have been better but due to the time constraint in between classes, I wasn't able to push myself to the limit. I think I could have done a few more sets for each muscle. Nutrition was alright, not perfect but I'm satisfied.

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Protein Pancake, 2xOT, 1xFO
POST W/O: MGN Isolate, Turkey Breast Sandwich
Meal 2: Oatmeal (w/ almonds/milk)
Meal 3: 5oz Chicken Breast, Spinach salad, Apple, 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 4: Oatmeal (skim milk)
Meal 5: Chilli, Whole wheat bread, Orange
Meal 6: Bread (w/ turkey breast and cheese)
Meal 7: MGN Isolate in skim milk
Meal 8: Cottage Cheese (w/ apple & peanut butter), Glass of milk
~2400 calories

Workout @ SFU - Leg/Trap?**
Squats
8x135
8x135
8x135
5x145
2x155
2x155
1x165

BB Shrugs
10x135
10x135
8x185
7x185

Standing Calf Raises (machine)
20x135
20x135
15x205
15x205

Seated Calf Raises
20x100
20x100
20x100

Overall: My first official bad day. I ended up pulling a muscle in my traps while shrugging and it ruined my traps workout. I kinda lost motivation immediately after due to the nagging pain in my traps. As for my squatting routine, I decided to start trying the Smolov squat routine hence why I have such a high volume of squats. I did not feel exhausted at all today meaning the workout was horrible. Zzzz

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Oatmeal, 2x Eggs, 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 2: Yogurt, Bread w/ Peanut Butter, Myofusion
Post W/o: ATW Isolate
Meal 3: Brown Rice, Lemon pepper tuna, brocolli, orange
Meal 4: Wendy's Chicken Grill Burger, Homestyle Chilli & Diet Coke (1st session fast food sesh..), 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 5: Orange, Small yogurt, MGN Isolate in skim milk
Meal 6: Apple, Cottage Cheese, Peanut Butter, Skim Milk
~2425 calories

Workout @ RCC **** (Tempted to put 5 stars because this workout was off the charts)
Squats
8x135
8x135
8x135
5x145
2x155
2x155
1x165

BB Flat Bench
5x135
5x155
4.5x165 (0.5 signifies an assisted rep)
4.5x160
5x155

Dips
10xbw
10xbw
10xbw

Cable Flies
10x40
10x40
10x40

Skull Crushers
8x50
8x50
8x50

Rope Pulldowns
8x70
8x80
8x80

Machine Flies
10x85
10x85
10x85

Overall: As stated before, today's workout was insane. I have not had such a high volume workout in a very long time. It was a chest/tricep day along with a session of the microcycle of smolov. I feel wrecked and fatigued, but that's a good thing. Hope more workouts end up this way.

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Protein Pancake
Meal 2: Oatmeal, Small yogurt, Orange
POST W/O: ATW Isolate, Oatmeal, Bread w/ cheese,turkeybreast
Meal 3: 8oz Chicken breast, mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), brown rice
Meal 4: Small yogurt, Earl grey tea, Strawberry myo,
Meal 5: PB on WW Bread, 2x Yogurt, Orange
Meal 6: Cottage Cheese, peanut butter, apple
Meal 7: ON NitroCore24
~2640

Workout @ RCC - Back/Biceps ***

Squats
5x145
5x145
5x145
5x145
3x155
2x165
2x165
1x185

Pull ups
8xbw
8xbw
8xbw
6xbw

CG Seated Rows
8x80
8x90
8x90
8x90
8x90

WG Seated Rows
8x60
8x70
8x70
8x70

Hammer Chin ups
5xbw
5xbw
5xbw

Standing DB Curl
8x25
8x25
8x25

Medium Grip Preacher
8x40
8x40
8x40

Overall: I felt horrible today. I woke up feeling sore from yesterday's high volume workout and also woke up with a bit of a cold. Throat is sore and body is aching... felt bad man. Eventually pulled myself together and got myself to goto the gym. I felt pretty beat after squats but still managed to pump out every other set. The mentality for a exception workout was there today but my physical condition couldn't sustain it. I didn't do deadlifts because I would have probably passed out and I didn't do much free weights for my lats.

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1: Oatmeal w/ milk, almonds, 2x Eggs, 2xOT, 1xFO
POST W/O: ATW Isolate Shake
Meal 2: Beef Hotdog, Small vanilla yogurt
Meal 3: 100cal bag popcorn
Meal 4: HUGE DINNER: 1/2cup brown rice, 8oz lean chicken breast, 1 cup of mixed vegetables (broc,cauliflower,carrots)
Meal 5: Small yogurt, papaya, orange
Meal 6: MGN Isolate in Skim milk
Meal 7: Cottage Cheese, peanut butter, apple
Meal 8: Peanut butter and whole wheat bread
~2760

Workout @ RCC *** - Shoulders

Lunges
16xbw
16xbw
16xbw

DB Shoulder Press
8x25
5x50
5x50
5x50
5x50
5x50

Standing Military
5x65
5x65
5x65
5x65

Front Raises (supersetted with Lateral Raises)
8x15
8x15
8x15

Side Raises
8x10
8x10
8x10

Reverse Flies
8x10
8x10
8x10




Overall: Typical day at the gym. Don't have too much to comment on. A little high on calories today though... om nom nom..

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- 2x Eggs, 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 2
- MGN Isolate + 5g CrM
- Protein Pancake
Meal 3
- 1/4c Brown Rice
- 1c Broccoli
- 6oz Chicken Breast
Meal 4
- MGN Isolate
- Skim Milk
Meal 5
- Brown Rice
- Tuna Steak
Meal 6
- Apple
- Peanut Butter
- Cottage Cheese
- Almonds
~2480calories

Workout @ BCC **** - Chest/Triceps

Flat DB Bench
8x35
4x50
8x60
8x60
7x60
8x60

Incline DB (ss with incline flies)
8x45
7x45
8x45

Incline Flys
8x15
8x15
8x15

Dips
10xbw
10xbw
10xbw

Skull Crushers
8x50
8x50
7x55

Rope Pulldowns
6x90
6x75
6x75

Cable Flys
8x35
8x35
8x35

Overhead Extensions
8x15
8x15
8x15

OVERALL: Good workout today, also started on creatine mono.

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- 2x Eggs, 2x OT, 1x FO
Post W/O
- ATW Isolate
- Banana
- Clif Builder Bar
Meal 2
- Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich
Meal 3
- Beef Burger
Meal 4
- 2x Eggs
Meal 5
- Apple, Cottage Cheese, Almonds
Meal 6
- Skim Milk

~2610 calories

Workout @ BCC *** - Back/Biceps
Pull ups
8xbw
8xbw
8xbw
6xbw

Bentover BB Row
8x65
8x85
8x85
8x85
8x85

T-bar Rows
6x100
8x75
8x85
8x85

Deadlifts
5x205
5x205
5x205 (slow)

Preacher DB Curl
8x25
8x25
8x25

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- 2x Eggs
- 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 2
- MGN Isolate / 5g CrM
- Egg Sandwich
Meal 3
- 9oz of Chicken Breast, Broccoli, Brown Rice
- 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 4
- Protein Pancake
Meal 5
- Skim Milk, Peanut Butter on Whole Wheat, Yogurt
~2400


Workout @ SFU **** - Shoulder/Traps
DB Press
8x20
8x40
8x40
8x40
6x45

Arnold Press
8x30
8x30
8x30
8x30

Front Raises
8x15
8x15
8x15

Side Raises
8x10
8x10
8x10

Reverse flies
8x10
8x10
8x10

DB Shrugs
10x65
10x65
10x65
8x65

Standing DB Curl
8x25
8x25
8x25

Standing BB Reverse Curl
8x40
8x30

BB Shrugs
10x135
8x185
8x185
8x185

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- 2x Eggs
- 2xOT, 1xFO
Meal 2
- Egg Sandwich
Meal 3
- 1cup papaya
- Strawberry myofusion
Meal 4
- 9oz Chicken Breast
- Mixed Vegetables
Meal 5
- Unknown dessert from chinese restaurant...
Total Calories: ~2500? Unsure

Workout - N/A

FIRST REST DAY IN OVER 1.5 WEEKS!!! Feels good man

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- 2x Eggs
- 2xOT, 1xFO

Meal 2
- ATW Isolate
- Oatmeal

Meal 3
- Oatmeal

Meal 4
- Binge @ JAP AYCE

Total Calories - Don't want to know..

Workout @ RCC - Chest/Triceps ****

Squat
5x135
2x175
2x175

Flat BB Bench
5x135
5x155
3x165
4x160
3x155
3x155

Incline DB Bench (ss with incline flys)
8x50
8x50
8x50
8x50

Incline Flys
8x15
8x15
8x15
8x15

Dips
10xbw
10xbw
10xbw

Overhead Extensions
8x60
8x60
7x60

Rope Pulldowns
8x70
8x80
8x80

Machine Flys
10x85
8x85
8x85

[KOMED]

Nutrition/Supplementation
Meal 1
- Oatmeal
- Egg
- 2xOT, 1xFO

Meal 2
- ATW Isolate
- Detour Bar

Meal 3
- Sandwich
- 2x Yogurt
- Peanut Butter on Whole Wheat

Meal 4
- Some chicken dish at century house

Meal 5
- 2x Oranges

Meal 6
- Almond, CC, Apple


Workout @ RCC - Back/Bi ***
Squat
5x135
2x175
2x175

Pull Up
8xbw
8xbw
8xbw
6xbw

Bentover BB Row
8x65
8x65
8x65
8x65

Lat Pulldowns
8x120
8x120
8x120

Seated Rows
8x70
8x70
8x70

Preacher DB
8x25
8x25
8x25

Widegrip Preacher
8x40
8x40
8x40