Goin' From D-Line to Dead Sexy

[TAWL_BOY]

Hey Guys,
I've been lurkin' on here for a few months now and I finally decided to register.
I thought I'd let ya'll know what I've been doin' lately, and see what comments and advice I could get.

Background:
I was always skinny as a teen, but when I started workin' out and eating right this gave me a pretty good physique.
I played tight end and linebacker in high school. I weighed about 190. I'm 6'2". I got up to 200 after football season my senior year training for college, but once baseball started and with all the distance running and long practices without eating I got down to 185 by graduation.
I went to Rice University in the Fall of 03 to play football. I weighed in at 205 the first day of 2 a days.
I had just started supplementing with creatine and glutamine that summer, before then I had just taken whey protein.

Since I red shirted, we didn't have to condition as much and I worked out extra after our lifting sessions and I put on weight fast. I cleaned 320 that fall, but I started having back spasms and never maxed again. But I did get alot stronger in my training weights.

Well I ended up getting to 255 at my peak and was playing Defensive End, but by the end of August of 2006 my knee was destroyed from being forced to train and practice injured for 3 months, by an a-hole coach and incompetent trainer.

I have undergone 2 surgeries so far and I'm having a major knee reconstruction in May. They are doing an osteotomy(cutting my femur apart and realigning it) and adding cartilage they grew from a biopsy they took in my last surgery.

So for almost 2 years I went from being a 600+ pound squatter to having a chronic limp.
At 255 I was 14% body fat and didn't look bad, but I kept eating the same amount as when I was training hard and lost some muscle and gained some fat.
After going about a full year without training seriously at all. I've taken control of my diet and I exercise regularly now. I'm down to 219 and have about 11% body fat.

I'm still decent size in my upper body, but I've lost a ton of muscle in my legs. Right now I'm wearing jeans that hadn't fit me in 4 years.

(to keep things easy, I'll start another post)

[TAWL_BOY]

I'm limited to what cardio I can do. My knee can handle doing an elliptical for about 20 mins a day, but occasionally my knee swells.

I went with a pretty low carb plan for 4 weeks to shed the belly I had. I was eating about 100g of carbs a day and I'd cheat on Sunday but with healthy carbs.

I miss being as big as I was. I got respect when I walked into a club or showed up somewhere new.

But my immediate goal is to get really lean and minimize muscle loss right now. I'm getting married in July and I want to look like a stud on my honeymoon.

In the next few years I plan to have a bulking phase every winter where I'd like to gain 3-4 lbs of lean muscle each year and minimize fat gain.

So my distant future goal is to be a lean 230-235 with a fitness mag cover model body type.

My surgery has an 18 month recovery, so I need to lean out a bit more before it and I'll have to be really tedious with my diet after my surgery because for 8-10 weeks I can't put weight on my leg and I'll be bed ridden for over a week and really doped up on pain pills.
But if all goes well, I'll be able to got and get back in to some moderate squatting in 2 years.

[TAWL_BOY]

My workout over the last 10 weeks:
(this was last weeks workout)
Monday: Chest and Tri's
Incline Bench Press
135x12,155x10,205x5,225x5,245x5,255x5

DB Bench Press
85sx8,85sx8,85sx8,85sx8

Low to High Cable Flyes(Standing with pulleys low inclined motion)
30x8,30x8,30x8

Tricep Pull Downs (Rope Grip)
(Plate on the stack number)8x12,9x10,11x8,11x8,11x7

Rev Grip Tricep Pull Down(straight bar)
10x8,10x8,10x8,10x8

Hanging Knee Raise
3x20

Wednesday: Back and Biceps
Seated Row Machine
(plates in stack)10x12,12x10,15x5,15x5,15x5,15x5

Wide Grip Lat Pull Down
(plates in stack)8x12,9x10,10x8,10x8,10x8

Bent over Rev Flyes
35sx8,35sx8,35sx8

Alternating DB Curls
30sx12,35sx10,40sx8,45sx6,50sx4

EZ curl 21s
(bar+)20x21,20x21

Ball Crunches
3x15

Fri: Shoulders and light legs
DB shoulder Press
60sx8,60sx8,60sx8,60sx8

DB Front Delt
30sx8,30sx8,30sx8

Cable Side Delt
(plates on stack)5x8,5x8,5x8

Let Press(slow)
(rack+)300x12,300x12,300x12

Leg Extensions
(plates on stack)10x8,10x8,10x8

Leg Curls
(plates on stack)8x10,8x10,8x10

Hanging Knee Raise
3x20


I worked up from the start mainly doing 4 sets of 10 on major lifts and going much lighter. I slowly worked down doing warmup 10,8,6 and keep like that until I got to sets of 5s.

I'm been making Incline my main chest lift to emphasize upper chest for now.

I haven't been doing cardio the last few weeks because I had a knee scope where they cleaned out scar tissue and did the cartilage biopsy.

I'm about to resume my morning cardio on an empty stomach before breakfast. I lift in the afternoon.


I think I'm gonna start going 6 days a week and make my Mon, Wed, Fri into Mon, Tues,Wed and the the next 3 days be the same kind of routine but emphasizing flat bench instead of incline and doing some different variations of the lifts from the first 3 days.

I'm eating 6-7 meals a day. Trying to get close to 30g of protein in each meal. No sweets at all. I drink a Coke Zero a day to help with my sweet tooth. I drink a ton of water and a few glasses of milk with my main meals.

Lots of spinach and green bean for my carbs other than pineapple juice pre workout.

I drink a boost shake immediately after working out.

I welcome all advice. Lifting for D1 football is totally different than body building. I have a good base from football and I knowledgeable about training and nutrition, but I know alot of you have more experience.

I'm also interested in taking some legal prohormones if I can get some advice on some that won't have severe side effects.

I've been taking DHEA(100mg@night, 50mg@wake up) for 6 weeks and they've seemed to help. My skin seems alot better too.

[TAWL_BOY]

I left out shrugs on Fri
warm up 135x12, 275x10,275x10,275x10
I hold for 2 sec up top.

[Baradir]

May be up to preference, but usually weighted pullups/chinups are preffered to lat pulldowns

[TAWL_BOY]

My strength to body weight ratio hasn't caught up enough for me to get a good pull up workout in yet.

I actually have a decent width in my lats already.

I left my camera cable at home or I'd post some pics.

[Baradir]

Then there is actually a better replacement where you hang from a bar in a rack with your feet on a bench with weights on your lap and do pullups

[TAWL_BOY]

Here's me at 255. The only good pic I have.

Oh yeah, I build and compete with Mega Trucks as a hobby.

[TAWL_BOY]

Any advice?

[TAWL_BOY]

What do ya'll think?