Lean Gains - Bulker Log

[Chrisb_]

Hey guys, this is my first log so bare with me here.

A Little Bit About Me

For my whole life I was the tall skinny guy that had no muscle mass at all on him. When I was a bit younger, I would tell myself that it was impossible to gain muscle and gain weight so there's no point in even trying. Grade 11 came around and I took a fitness class in school with a friend, hoping to "get jacked." I came into the class at a height of 6'1, 140lbs.The whole semester I messed around in the weight room and ran the 5-10k, three times a week. By the end of the semester I weighed myself to see that I was still 140lbs! By then I had given up. Bodybuilding was just not for me. No matter what I ate, I could not break 140lbs.

It was in November of 2009, nearing the end of my Grade 12 first semester when a couple of my friends decided they wanted to lift weights and told me to try it with them. This time around it was completely different. There were no teachers telling you what to do. There were no kids hogging up all the machines. There were no 45 minute time limit. It was great! That day was the first time I ever bench pressing and boy was it embarrassing. My friends "loaded" up a 10 pounder on each side and they lifted it without a problem, 10 reps. My turn comes around and I unrack it, bring it down to my chest, and that's where the bar stayed. I got stuck on a 65lb bench press! My friends were really nice about it actually and they just gave me the bar to practice on which I could do much better. Now after knowing that your 1MR on a bench press was less than 65lbs, a lot of people would have probably given up. I admit now that I wouldn't have come back a second time if it wasn't for this girl I was dealing with at the time (****gy time). The girl only lasted 3 months but by then I was hooked on lifting weights and eating a lot.

Some Quick Info

• Heaviest I've ever been has been 166lbs which was June 2010.
• Lightest I've been while trying to bulk has been 154lbs which was June 2011
• My Weight fluctuates around 160-163 before starting lean gains (http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html)

If you guys do not know about lean gains you can click the link above but I'll summarize it a bit.

It's basically a life style that entails you to fast (not eat) for 16 hours of the day and feed (eat) for the remaining 8 hours. This helps your body to slowly loss fat well keeping your lean mass. You will also be training in a fasted state. Your first meal of the day will be right after training.

I've decided to take on this life style to see if I will be able to still bulk while staying very lean.

I've started lean gains for just little over a week now and it is going pretty well. This log will continue my progress until I reach my goal of weighing over 166lbs while maintaining my bodyfat of roughly 9-11%.

My stats for Lean Gains

• Fast will start at 10pm and will be broken at 2pm everyday (within 30 minutes before and after)
• Within the 8 hours I'll be consuming about 3500 calories (500~ cals. above maintenance)
• Out of those 3.5k cals. I will be eating 65g~ fat, 220g~ protein, and 450g~ carbs
• I take a multivitamin (Multipro 32X) once a day after I workout (IF I CAN REMEMBER TO!)
• I take 10g of BCAA (Xtend), 15 minutes before my workout.

My Workout Split

Day 1 - Shoulders
Day 2 - Legs
Day 3 - Chest & Triceps
Day 4 - Back & Biceps & Traps
Day 5 - Rest
Day 6 - Repeat

My Lean Gains Experiences So Far

First day was the HARDEST day for me. My body is use to eating in the morning as soon as I get up so not eating until 2pm was a huge pain for me. I had to go walk to Popeye's to get some BCAA that will last me until the 8-20 business days I need to wait for the bulk version of BCAA I ordered the night before. The whole way there, all I could think of food and wonder what I had gotten myself into. The positive side was that I was finally getting enough water in the day because I had to keep drinking it to get the hungry feeling to leave. My first workout was shoulders at 1 so around 12:40 I mixed the 3 scoops of orange BCAA which tasted completely awful to be honest. I walked over to the gym and had a pretty decent workout actually. My endurance felt off by a rep or two at the end of some of my sets. Other than that I felt pretty strong. I stepped onto the scale on an empty stomach which started my first weigh in. I weighed in at 158.2lbs which was okay with me considering I had nothing in my stomach. I got home and was SO excited to eat my first meal which was 2 servings of pasta and an 8oz. top sirloin steak with green beans.

The rest of the day was a blur due to the fact that this was over a week ago.


This will conclude the first post of my log due to the fact that I have to go to work. I will update day 1 of my recorded progress (today) when I get home. Feel free to ask questions or give advice or anything you want really. I'm always open to people's opinions.


Chrisb

[Chrisb_]

July 26, 2011

Alright just got home from work. What a busy night.... Went into the gym at 12:30pm today and weighed in at exactly 160.0lbs. It was the same weight I weighed yesterday but that's understandable considering I wasn't able to fully eat 3500 yesterday due to being so busy but I didn't go down so I'm happy! Worked out chest and triceps today which went really well. Got home at 2pm and ate 1¼ cups of rice and an 8 oz. chicken breast without the skin. Also had some green beans and a protein shake with it (1100~ cals). I had work at 5pm so as I was walking to work, I quickly ate a piece of salmon (120~ cals). 7pm, I went upstairs to the break room and heated up 2½ cups of pasta with some garlic and onion pasta sauce (bring it on ladies). Also had a 5 oz. steak with it (1050~ cals). Finished work at 9 and got home around 9:20. I made myself a bagel with 2 tbsp of peanut butter. Also had 3 hard boiled eggs with salsa sauce and a protein shake with 1 cup of oats in it (1200~ cals). That's about it for today. Had a total of 3500~ cals. Heading to bed in an hour and will post tomorrow's log when I get home from work again. Take care guys.

Starting Weight - 158.2lbs
Yesterday's Weight - 160.0lbs (+1.8lbs)
Today's Weight - 160.0lbs (+0lbs)
Goal Weight - 167.0lbs (-7lbs)


Chrisb

[Chrisb_]

July 27, 2011

Hey guys, just finished my last meal. I went to the gym today to do back, biceps, and traps. It turned out to be a pretty good workout. I've been doing pullups without the help of the machine for only a month now but I'm at 8 reps, 7 reps, 6 reps for the 3 sets. My lats always feel destroyed (in a good way) after doing the pull ups so the rest of my back exercises are pretty challenging. Oh and I weighed in at 160.1lbs. Not much of a difference at all but hey, it's progress right? I pretty much had the same food as yesterday except instead of 1¼ cups of rice and 2½ cups of pasta, I had 1 cup of rice and 3 cups of pasta. I also found out that I had ran out of chicken breasts so I had to eat 10 chicken nuggets instead which had double the cals but half the protein. I wasn't too worried because I already get over 200g of protein a day anyways so I'll be fine. The only thing I added to yesterday's food intake was a sweet potato and an apple. Had about 3800~ cals today so overall it was a pretty good day.

Starting Weight - 158.2lbs
Yesterday's Weight - 160.0lbs (+1.8lbs)
Today's Weight - 160.1lbs (+0.1lbs)
Goal Weight - 167.0lbs (-6.9lbs)


Chrisb

[Chrisb_]

July 29, 2011

Didn't get a chance to post last night due to BB updating their site but no worries, you guys didn't miss much. It was a rest day so I didn't head to the gym and I don't know how much I weigh. I got in about 3400-3600 cals eating the regular food that I stated in my previous posts. Also bought some chicken which I'll show for fun tomorrow once I upload the pic to my computer.

Today was suppose to be shoulders after work but I was invited to a pool party so I decided to have some fun. I had about 2000 cals in me before going which was around 5 (rice, steak, pasta, and chicken breast). At the party they had some sausages on a bun so I had a couple of them which was minimum 500 cals each so I hit my 3000 minimum (cals were a little dirty but it did the tricks). I freaking hit my foot off the pool side ramp or something and it hurts like hell when I walk on it now. I have leg day two days away so I hope it heals after a good nights sleep or else I'll have to take a little break from legs until it heals. I'm invited to another party tomorrow but not sure if I'll drink or not. I'm going with two good friends (one is drinking and wants me to drink/other doesn't drink and wants me to stay sober). Either way it'll be a good day tomorrow.

Weight Stats - N/A


Chrisb