Resparking My Strength

[derieu]

Hello Bodybuilding.com,

It's been awhile since I've been active on this site. A little background information on myself (Its a long read!)

I began my fitness journey when I was 15 years old as a sophomore in high school weighing about 120 pounds at 5'8. I was sick of being extremely skinny and feeling horrible as far as my health was concerned. My childhood friends convinced me to start going to the gym, about a month in they all quit on me. Mentally I was already hooked and determined to make a change and I continued to eat right and workout. Fast forwarding about a year, I weighed about 150 pounds and was unrecognizable going into my junior year of high school. I continued to workout and also began to seriously meal prep with proper nutrition tracking. Fast forwarding another year, I walked into my senior year at close to 175 pounds. A friend of mine told me to consider power lifting and I set a goal of mine to be ready for the MI.USAPL Open Frills meet early in the following year. I bulked to just over 180 pounds and began my cut during Christmas break. 3 Months passed, and I properly cut down to 167 pounds just missing the 165 weight class for Raw-T3. Regardless, I broke the current squat and bench press records for the 181 class and felt better than ever. Switching my focus over to Track and Field, I had seriously injured my hamstring during one of the early meets, making me unable to seriously train for 3 months. Once College hit, I took my body for granted and did just enough to "maintain" my current body. I continued to get stronger but did not do much to go above and beyond. During my 3rd year of College, I joined the WMU Rugby team and finally had something to train towards again. At the end of the first season, I had two high ankle sprains and seriously injured my left AC joint. I was essentially useless for 3 months, and I fell into a depressed state where I did not eat or sleep well. I lost over 20 pounds of good weight at the end of this recovery period and moved back home to the east side of the state. A few months went by and I was itching to start training again, I just did not know what or where to start. That brings me to today. Roughly 1 month ago, I decided that I was consistently going to workout again and prepare to start the new school semester with a proper routine and meal plan. The semester started last week (September 6th, 2017) and I successfully finished my pre-planned "conditioning phase". Today was the first real day of my proper routine and I plan to log the entire journey going forward from today on this Workout Journal. I am excited to see where the future takes me and hope that I can inspire people in similar situations to get back into living healthy once again!

Any comments and criticism is welcomed, I love to learn from feedback!


Follow my new fit Instagram to see daily progress photos! @derieustrong

Cliff Notes:
16-18 years old, 2 year 120 to 180 transformation.
18-22 years old, took body for granted, "maintained", seriously got hurt, lost 20 pounds of good weight.
Decided to respark my passion for fitness, and began training once again!

Phase 1: Clean Bulking, Growing, and Getting Stronger.
Phase 2: Cutting, Leaning out, and Gauging my Body Comp.

Starting Body Weight: 185.2
Start Date: 9/10/2017
Estimated Maxes
-Bench Press: 265
-Overhead Press: 175
-Squat: 385
-Deadlift: 485

Phase 1 Routine:

My current weaknesses are my "Chest Width", Shoulder Size, and Hamstrings. My routine is tweaked to hit those a little harder. I will also be doing miscellaneous core work everyday on top of the dedicated core day.

Workout 1: Legs/Calves/Abs
-Squat 3x17
-Deadlift 3x17
-Single Leg Hamstring Curl 3x15
-Leg Extension Machine 3x15
-Hamstring Curl Machine 3x15
-Hip Abduction Machine 3x15
-Smith Machine Glute Bridges 3x15
---
-Standing Calf Superset, 4x20, Feet Together, Heels Together, Toes Together (60 reps total per set)
-Seated Calf Raise, 4x20
---
-Toes to Bar, 3x20
-Plank Circuit, 3xTime, Front, Side, Side. Starting at 60 seconds (sides are cut in half), adding 15 seconds every leg day.
-Mason Twist, 3x30
-Cable Oblique Twist, 3x40, (20 one side, switch, 20 the other)

Workout 2: Chest/Shoulders/Tris
-Bench Press 3x7
-Overhead Press 3x7
-Weighted Dips 3x7
---
-Incline DB Press 3x15
-Cable Flies 3x15
---
-Behind the Neck Barbell Press 3x15
-Side Lateral Raises 3x15
-Barbell Upright Rows 3x15
---
-Supinated Cable Pulldowns 3x15

Workout 3: Back, Bis
-Bent Over Row 3x5
-Weighted Pullup 3x5
---
-Cable Row 3x7
-Pullup Ladder, 3xFailure (2, 4, 6, 8....Failure, ~5-10 seconds rest between reps)
---
-DB Rear Delt Row 3x15
-Single Arm Cable Pulldown for Rear Delts, 3x15
-Seated Rear Delt Row 3x15
---
-Barbell Curl 3x10
-DB Spider Curl 3x15

Phase 1 Meal Plan
Calorie Intake: 3500 Calories (35/45/20)
Protein: 306
Carbohydrates: 394
Fat: 78

[derieu]

Very ironically disappointing day, While warming up and stretching for my first lift of the day, I pulled something near my hip/lower back. My mobility and flexibility is very good, everything felt perfect, I have no clue what went wrong. Seems like a strain, I'll reassess as the days go on. Until then, the heavy compounds will unfortunately be suffering. Diet went well today, the minor setback wont prevent me from starting my plans!

Day 1: Legs/ Calves/Abs
-Squat 3x17 45x10, 95x10, 135x10, 185x10, 225x10, 245x5, 275x3, 315x1 (Tweaked lower back on this rep, most likely a stupid mistake.)
-Deadlift 3x17 Omitted
-Single Leg Hamstring Curl 3x15 25
-Leg Extension Machine 3x15 130
-Hamstring Curl Machine 3x15 65
-Hip Abduction Machine 3x15 230
-Smith Machine Glute Bridges 3x15 90
---
-Standing Calf Superset, 4x20, Bodyweight
-Seated Calf Raise, 4x20, 50
---
-Toes to Bar, 3x20 Went Knees to Chest due to lower back/hip tweak. Bodyweight.
-Plank Circuit, 3x60 secs
-Mason Twist 3x30 - Bodyweight
-Cable Oblique Twist 3x20 - 25 pounds

[derieu]

Today was better than yesterday, the strain in my lower back is really holding me back but I was able to safely get some blood moving through my muscles. Kept the weight extremely low and really focused on slow tempo reps to make sure I didnt further aggravate my current injury. Appears that I will be able to do a bit more heavy lifting in a week or two if it stays on track!

Day 2: Chest/Tri/Shoulder
-Bench Press 3x7 155
-Overhead Press 3x7 65
-Weighted Dips 3x7 +45
---
-Incline DB Press 3x15 35
-Cable Flies 3x15 25
---
-Behind the Neck Barbell Press 3x15 45
-Side Lateral Raises 3x15 10
-Barbell Upright Rows 3x15 40
---
-Supinated Cable Pulldowns 3x15 40

[derieu]

Day 3, finally some progress is being made! I can walk properly and not feel any sort of horrible tightness in my hip from the strain that I had on Day 1. I unfortunately have some sort of nerve irritation because there is a burning sensation in my left side near my oblique and hip area. X-Ray's came out good from the chiropractor aside from the muscle-induced s****osis, so with time this should just fade away. I did not risk loading my core at all, so I maintained my original rep scheme with lower weight. Really focused on tempo reps and squeezing the muscle at the top of the movement. Very good pump despite the lower weights.


Workout 3: Back, Bis
-Bent Over Row 3x5 135
-Weighted Pullup 3x5 BW
---
-Cable Row 3x7 50
-Pullup Ladder, 3xFailure (2, 4, 6, 8....Failure, ~5-10 seconds rest between reps) Upto 6
---
-DB Rear Delt Row 3x15 25
-Single Arm Cable Pulldown for Rear Delts, 3x15 25
-Seated Rear Delt Row 3x15 15
---
-Barbell Curl 3x10 60
-DB Spider Curl 3x15 20

[derieu]

Day 4: Legs/ Calves/Abs: Some updates with my current hip issues, It is most likely a strained piriformis muscle that is causing my sciatica. Proceeding with caution and doing what I can to rehab it. Keeping the weight low and really focusing on form work followed by stretching after! Hopefully this will be gone within the month. Until then, I have to push forward.

-Squat Omitted
-Deadlift 3x17 Omitted

-Extensive warmup with Rowing Machine and Stairmaster

-Single Leg Hamstring Curl 3x15 30
-Leg Extension Machine 3x15 135
-Hamstring Curl Machine 3x15 70
-Hip Abduction Machine 3x15 240
-Smith Machine Glute Bridges 3x15 110
---
-Standing Calf Superset, 4x20, Bodyweight
-Seated Calf Raise, 4x20, 70
---
-Toes to Bar, 3x20 Went Knees to Chest due to lower back/hip tweak. Bodyweight.
-Plank Circuit, 3x75 secs
-Mason Twist 3x50 - Bodyweight
-Cable Oblique Twist 3x20 - 25 pounds

[derieu]

Day 5: Chest/Tris/Abs: Good chest and shoulder pump today! The hip felt better towards the end of the day, but I still was limited to how much weight I could stabilize when doing the larger lifts due to lack of core activation. Hopefully I make some progress with my hip within the next couple of weeks, really itching to lift at higher intensity. I threw in some Viking Presses today to really hit those front delts.

-Bench Press 3x15 155
-Overhead Press 3x15 65
---Viking Press 3x15 100
-Weighted Dips 3x15 bw
---
-Incline DB Press 3x15 55
-Cable Flies 3x15 25
---
-Behind the Neck Barbell Press 3x15 45
-Side Lateral Raises 3x15 10
-Barbell Upright Rows 3x15 45
---
-Supinated Cable Pulldowns 3x15 45

[derieu]

Day 6: Back, Bis, Rear Delts: I actually had a very good workout yesterday (sorry about the late post!), the rear delt pump was unreal. Hip is getting better, more flexible, but still unable to really load the posterior chain. Slowly ramping up the weights and making progress!

-Bent Over Row 3x15 145
-Weighted Pullup 3x7 BW
---
-Cable Row 3x7 60
-Pullup Ladder, 3xFailure (2, 4, 6, 8....Failure, ~5-10 seconds rest between reps) Upto 6
---
-DB Rear Delt Row 3x15 30
-Single Arm Cable Pulldown for Rear Delts, 3x15 30
-Seated Rear Delt Row 3x15 15
---
-Barbell Curl 3x15 60
-DB Spider Curl 3x15 25

[derieu]

Day 7: Legs/ Calves/Abs: WEEK 1 COMPLETE, WEIGH IN TOMORROW! Very happy with today, I played my weekly game of flag football. I could run at about 85% with limited mobility with lateral movements and stopping. Went immediately to the gym to hit legs, boy was I happy! My hips and lower back were warmed up enough to allow me to squat pain free! I did not push any weight, but I did do 20 pound kettlebell squats for 15 reps after EVERY set completed during the day. Hips felt great afterwards and I was able to do some warmup front squats to end the workout.

-Squat Omitted
-Deadlift 3x17 Omitted

-Single Leg Hamstring Curl 3x15 35
-Leg Extension Machine 3x15 145
-Hamstring Curl Machine 3x15 80
-Hip Abduction Machine 3x15 250
-Smith Machine Glute Bridges 3x15 120
---
-Standing Calf Superset, 4x20, Bodyweight
-Seated Calf Raise, 4x20, 90
---
-Toes to Bar, 3x20, Hanging leg raises today. Next workout will be toes to bar!
-Plank Circuit, 3x90 secs
-Mason Twist 3x60 - Bodyweight
-Cable Oblique Twist 3x20 - 30 pounds