Raynerd's Road to 40

[raynerd]

Well spend so much time on this site, it's time for me to start a journal. I have been training hard for over 3 years now, constantly learning and improving my knowledge, strength and body.

I spent my younger years in and out of the gym with poor form, bad diet and pretty clueless how to train and eat correctly. I battled with alcohol addiction for most of my life so I never accomplished anything substantial in the gym in my early years.

I got very sick with a Strep A pneumonia before I began back at the gym over 3 years ago. I was very close to death on a ventilator for 7 days. When I got discharged from the hospital I weighed 155 lbs of skin and bones. My journey began the next day!

I had to use 7lb dumbells of my wife's in my basement for around 3 weeks and began push-ups on my knees, walking up my stairs in my house for legs etc. I started from literally nothing.

Got back into the gym and ate and ate and ate some more. I ate myself up to 222lbs and was the strongest I had ever been. This is when I joined this site, and opened my eyes to all the things I was doing wrong.

Here I stand, cut down to 166 last summer, bulked to 185 in march, cut back down to about 166 at my lowest this summer. Both cuts were successful, no cardio with heavy lifting. I have a good handle on my macros, micros and calories now which will be essential in my goals.

I only started squats and deads last September and use compounds as my main lifts followed by accessory work.

My split is as follows:
1: quads (squats),biceps/forearms
2: calf/chest
3: off
4: back/hams (deadlifts)
5: shoulders/calf/triceps
6: off

I weighed in at 169lb this morning. I have been upping calories slowly over the last couple weeks. I will continue upping cals slowly looking for strength gains and adding size to my legs.

Goals before 40th birthday February 4th:

Deadlift: 500 lbs. ( best in march 455lbs)
Benchpress: 315 lbs ( best in march 285lbs)
Squat: 335lbs ( best in march 295lbs)
OHP: 185lb ( best now is 135 5x5)

My numbers are down from march during my bulk. I have just come off my cut and adding in cals with noticable strength gains already.

I have been running GVT for squats on quad day for 14 weeks. I have made consistent gains in reps and weight, but my knees are beginning to get beat down. Will be switching to a more strength oriented quad day.

[fittofattofit]

You've done great coming back from where you were 3 years ago. You've already joined the 1000lb club in March and you've got great goals with an 1150 target by your birthday. It looks like you're very close to achieving that

[raynerd]

First workout entry.
Shoulders/calves/tris

Standing Overhead Press (last week got 135lbs 5x5)

Figured I would jump to 145lbs....ya..back to 140
145 x2
140 x3
140 x3
140 x3
140 x2
Gonna be at this weight a while!

Dumbell upright rows
40lbs x12
50lbs x6
50lbs x6
50lbs x6

Facepulls
4 sets of 105 x 10-12

Calves: (light)
5 sets of toes in/toes out/toes neutral at 3 plates on legpress
4 sets seated machine
4 sets of dumbell raises for Tibialis anterior, heals on edge of bench with 50lb dumbell pinched between feet

All calf raises stretch down for 2 second, hold at top for 2 seconds

Triceps:
Close grip bench
Bar x 20
135 x 10
185 x 5
205 x 3
225 x 1 (yay haven't done this much in months)
185 x 5

Standing overhead triceps extension with 100lb fixed preacher bar:
100 x 8
100 x 8
100 x 8

Rope cable pushdowns

80lbs x 10
80 x 10
80 x 8, drop to 50 x 8

Dun, felt pretty good, strength starting to pick back up from 2 weeks of higher cals. Sure missed peanut butter in my whey!
Off day tomorrow.

[raynerd]

You've done great coming back from where you were 3 years ago. You've already joined the 1000lb club in March and you've got great goals with an 1150 target by your birthday. It looks like you're very close to achieving that

Thank you, it's been a great journey so far. My life and lifestyle has changed so dramatically in the last few years. I am consistent and focused so hope to get there, if not gonna have a blast trying!

[mirroroferised]

I'm so in buddy. Great to see in you in here

[raynerd]

I'm so in buddy. Great to see in you in here

Awesome, will be poppin by ur's as well, already do actually lol

[pastorgbc]

Those are grest numbers and goals, especially at your weight. It sounds like you got a plan and the correct focus. I will be checking out this journal to be there when you smash through those goals.

Ray

[raynerd]

Those are grest numbers and goals, especially at your weight. It sounds like you got a plan and the correct focus. I will be checking out this journal to be there when you smash through those goals.

Ray

Thanks for the support, lurking in your journal for a while! You have taught me lots already without even knowing it. Note that my previous PR's were at a body weight of 179lbs 2 weeks into my cut in March. Hope to be back up there and beyond soon!

[raynerd]

Weighed in 170 this morning. Was up late with my wife in the emergency dept. She had her large intestine removed a week and a half ago and had some severe pains, CT scan revealed nothing serious. Little tired. She had an elective surgery to cure her ulcerative colitis.

Biceps:
Standing curls with fixed preacher bar, wide grip
30x20
70x12
100x8
110x5
110x5

Hammer strength preacher machine:
115 x 10
115 x 8
90 x 10
90 x 7
60 second rest

Standing alternating hammer curls/dumbells
40x7
40x6
40x5, drop to 20lbs for 10


Forearms:
1 arm wrist curls with 50lb dumbell on edge of bench
12, 10, 8, 8 reps respectively

45lb straight bar reverse wrist curls on edge of bench
3x10

Quads: note: ran GVT 10x10 squats up until today for 14 weeks. Began with 135 and last week was 205 (73 reps). My knees were suffering on this program near the end, lower half of my kneecap and patellar ligament progressively worse.
Haven't had anything heavy on my back for over 3 months....

Long stretch on mat, hips, hams, calves
Lower back feeling alittle funky today, stretched it out good, but still alittle tweak going on

Squats:
Bar x 10
135 x 10
185 x 10
225 x 10 (felt good here, always stopped at 6 in past)
275 x 2 (disaster! Weight felt like a ton, messed up my walkout and did 2 shallow ass reps
275 x 2 (pissed about last set so buried it 2 times, still felt heavy!)
255 x3
245 x3

Front squats:
135 x6
155 x4
155 x4
135 x5
Lower back was hurting a bit on these, got nice and deep but strength pooched

Extensions:
165 for 8 x 3 sets

Mixed feelings about quad day, good workout, I was pretty fried after. Disappointed with 275, it felt crazy heavy, that one set pissed me off!

It was nice to put some weight on the bar and take more time between sets. I was doing 90 second rests on GVT and felt absolutely destroyed after each session. I found GVT so demanding mentally and physically. It never really got easier for me. Get my 100 reps, then raise the weights for next week. Will probably visit GVT again next year.

Thinking I gotta rethink my rep scheme on squats. The 225 x 10 may have been detrimental to my heavier sets lol

Post workout meal
4 whole eggs, scrambled with ham littered throughout it
2 cups milk

Tomorrow calves and chest!

[pastorgbc]

Nice job on the biceps workout. It looks like you may have made too large a jump to 275 after pushing yourself to get 225 for 10 reps, although the 10 reps is nice.

Definitely some sets to grow on.

Ray

[mirroroferised]

Great to hear your wife is still recovering well.


That's some solid weight you're moving for a lot of reps before you even get into the lower reps. I've read a bit about GVT but not much. How much did it help your overall stength?

[raynerd]

Nice job on the biceps workout. It looks like you may have made too large a jump to 275 after pushing yourself to get 225 for 10 reps, although the 10 reps is nice.

Definitely some sets to grow on.

Ray

My thoughts exactly. I went into this one with no real gameplan other than I was going to back squat, front squat then some extensions. Lol been doing volume for a few months so guess that is still stuck in my brain. In retrospect it was a nice change for me to incorporate higher reps on legs. Was always doing low rep work in the past.

[raynerd]

Great to hear your wife is still recovering well.


That's some solid weight you're moving for a lot of reps before you even get into the lower reps. I've read a bit about GVT but not much. How much did it help your overall stength?

Thanks man, she is one tuff lady, she teaches me strength every single day!

I just did GVT for quads. It consisted of 10 sets of 10 reps. I tried to keep 3 seconds on the way down and 2 on the way up. The sets I timed at 90 seconds in between. My heart was fn pounding everytime! It is pretty much strictly a hypertrophy program. Basically recruiting all the muscle fibres u possibly can. I only did this on quad day. There was absolutely nothing left in the tank for anything more!

I started at 135, got the 10x10
Next went to 150, got 85 reps
Stayed at 150 until all 100 reps completed, them up again etc

I gained reps roughly 5-9 each workout, so in a way I was constantly gaining strength (or endurance? Lol)

Was on a deficit most of the time and this was the only area I was making any real gains. Thoughts: gained some size on quads and glutes. Strength? Will let you know in a couple weeks transitioning back to heavy squats in a surplus. My set of 10 at 225 felt really good today though.

[fittofattofit]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife but she will be feeling a lot better after the op .. it's hard to imagine that losing most of your colon will help you but I know that living with UC just leaves you chronically fatigued and unwell. Wishing you well for her recovery

Nice volume with the squatting and those sets of 10 are a good way to go for hypertrophy. Were you not doing any heavy squats while you were doing the quad GVT? I suspect that doing the GVT with the leg extensions has just left your CNS unprepared for the heavy bar weight with the squats, and especially while you've been cutting. It won't take you long to push back that 'oh sh!t that's heavy' sensation until well in the 3pps+ zone

As for the patellar pain .. try the flossing. I've posted a vid on my log so you can see how it's done

[raynerd]

I'm sorry to hear about your wife but she will be feeling a lot better after the op .. it's hard to imagine that losing most of your colon will help you but I know that living with UC just leaves you chronically fatigued and unwell. Wishing you well for her recovery

Nice volume with the squatting and those sets of 10 are a good way to go for hypertrophy. Were you not doing any heavy squats while you were doing the quad GVT? I suspect that doing the GVT with the leg extensions has just left your CNS unprepared for the heavy bar weight with the squats, and especially while you've been cutting. It won't take you long to push back that 'oh sh!t that's heavy' sensation until well in the 3pps+ zone

As for the patellar pain .. try the flossing. I've posted a vid on my log so you can see how it's done

Thanks, she is getting better daily. She suffered UC since 13 years old and just had enough. We were looking forward to this surgery. She will have to go for another surgery for a reversal where they will tie everything back together in 6-12 months. Its awesome to see her improving daily, my four boys and I need mommy to keep us in line!

As for the GVT, no heavy squats were done at all. There were no extensions either. Just 10x10 squats every 6 days. DOMS was insane for a few days after. CNS will need some adaptation for sure, and thanks again for the link!

[doughnutgut]

Great lightbulb moment straight after the hospital discharge. Sometimes that is what it takes to get onto the ladder.

I like your story of eating and realizing just how little we knew from what we thought we knew.

GVT makes me slightly want to be sick in my mouth. srs. Great news on the successful cut runs. Usually many mistakes are made along the whey.

Seen you around the walls in certain areas that are a credit to others in those parts.

So on that note.


IN

[pastorgbc]

Thanks, she is getting better daily. She suffered UC since 13 years old and just had enough. We were looking forward to this surgery. She will have to go for another surgery for a reversal where they will tie everything back together in 6-12 months. Its awesome to see her improving daily, my four boys and I need mommy to keep us in line!

As for the GVT, no heavy squats were done at all. There were no extensions either. Just 10x10 squats every 6 days. DOMS was insane for a few days after. CNS will need some adaptation for sure, and thanks again for the link!

I am sorry I overlooked the information about your wife's surgery. UC is so debilitating. We will certainly add her to our prayer list and pray for rapid recovery.

When I was 38, I had 20 centimeters of my colon removed due to repeat bouts of diverticulitis. After about a 4 month recovery, I was able to come back and get everything back in order. To be rid of the problem after about 18 years of suffering was a true blessing. We will pray that your wife experiences true relief as well.

Ray

[raynerd]

Great lightbulb moment straight after the hospital discharge. Sometimes that is what it takes to get onto the ladder.

I like your story of eating and realizing just how little we knew from what we thought we knew.

GVT makes me slightly want to be sick in my mouth. srs. Great news on the successful cut runs. Usually many mistakes are made along the whey.

Seen you around the walls in certain areas that are a credit to others in those parts.

So on that note.


IN

Great to have you aboard DNG! Following your journal for a while now. Love everything you are doing. Bench is looking tight! The Smolov looks intense. I was sick to my mouth every GVT session to be honest, was excited to start lifting heavy again.

[raynerd]

I am sorry I overlooked the information about your wife's surgery. UC is so debilitating. We will certainly add her to our prayer list and pray for rapid recovery.

When I was 38, I had 20 centimeters of my colon removed due to repeat bouts of diverticulitis. After about a 4 month recovery, I was able to come back and get everything back in order. To be rid of the problem after about 18 years of suffering was a true blessing. We will pray that your wife experiences true relief as well.

Ray

Thanks so much Ray, grateful for your prayers! Glad to hear about your success post surgery! Every story like this is inspirational to us. Appreciate your sharing.

[yaaar]

In to follow your journal, let's see if a 40yo can hit his goals! :-)

[raynerd]

In to follow your journal, let's see if a 40yo can hit his goals! :-)

Yaaaar matey! Thanks for coming in!!

[raynerd]

Morning weight: 168.8lbs, odd thought I was a bit heavier.

Calves (This is my heavy session)

Smith machine standing calf raises. In socks with no block. Try to heavy overload muscle

1 pps x 20 (all reps, all sets with 2 second pause at top)
2 pps x 12
3 pps x 7
3 pps x 6
3 pps x 6
3 pps x 6, 2 pps x 6, 1 pps x 10 (drop set)

Seated calf machine superset with single leg Tibialis anterior toe raises with plate resting upright on toe

Seated calf, 2 45lb plates, 2 10 lbs plates
45lb plate for alternate toe raises

7 reps seated, 7 reps each leg toe raises
Continuous for 4 sets
Pause 2 seconds bottom, 2 seconds top

Standing 1 leg calf raises superset with 45lb dumbell Tibialis anterior raises pinched between toes with heals on edge of bench

Holding 35 lb plate for standing 1 leg raises

7 reps per leg/9 reps Tibialis anterior
7 reps " " /9 " "
25lb plate
7 reps " "/9 " "
7 reps " "/drop to no weight 7 reps of standing/ 8 reps Tibialis anterior

Tad confusing lol

Chest:

Bench:
Barx20
135lbs x 8
135 x 5
205 x 3
225 x 3
245 x 3 (form got wonky, butt moving around)
255 x 1 (redeemed a tight rep)
245 x 3 (tight form this time)
225 x 3
225 x 3

Incline press:
155 x 8
175 x 5
195 x 2
155 x 6

Fly machine:
Stack 220lbs x 9
Stack x 7
190 x 7
190 x 6, drop set to 130 x 6

Dun

Felt pretty good today. Good sleep, nutrition etc.

More bench than I normally do. Dropped a chest exercise to add sets on bench. Will stick with this scheme as my strength comes back. I have been regaining bench power the last couple weeks now that I am done with my cut and starting to eat a bit more. Looking good so far!

Post workout meal:
4 whole eggs scrambled with diced tomato and ham and some Italian lunch meat stirred into the mix!

Grow day tomorrow, deadlifts the next day!!!

[mirroroferised]

I remember a thread of yours awhile back about your calves. Nice to see the routine in here. Looks like a tough one, that's for sure. Real solid benching. Great work.

[raynerd]

I remember a thread of yours awhile back about your calves. Nice to see the routine in here. Looks like a tough one, that's for sure. Real solid benching. Great work.

Lol still at it doing everything I can to gain some size on the skinny lil buggers.

[Big_Sky_Guy]

Solid goals!

[fittofattofit]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone do as much calf work in a session! Your calves must be hyooge (or else so small that you are feeling very guilty for having neglected them up to now )
Awesome work on the chest as well .. strong sets at 225 and 245 and strong single. How long did that combined session last?
You must be looking very lean at 168 and 6'. You should post some pics for page 1 of your thread

[Flounderbout]

Spotted this journal pop up from somewhere under my journal radar.
Saw that I had seen you in a few journals about the place.
Decided to come and sub myself in.

Then read this...

Deadlift: 500 lbs. ( best in march 455lbs)
Benchpress: 315 lbs ( best in march 285lbs)
Squat: 335lbs ( best in march 295lbs)
OHP: 185lb ( best now is 135 5x5)

Checked out your weight.



Felt a little sick to my stomach and felt waves of envy wash over me...

Unsubbed quickly and backed out again...


lol - just kidding. Phuark those are some great numbers though at your size. As the kids here say, I'm "well jell"...

[raynerd]

Here a few pics from the last few months. My body weight reflects on my skinny bone structure and frame.

[yaaar]

Damn, not terrible for an old guy.

[raynerd]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone do as much calf work in a session! Your calves must be hyooge (or else so small that you are feeling very guilty for having neglected them up to now )
Awesome work on the chest as well .. strong sets at 225 and 245 and strong single. How long did that combined session last?
You must be looking very lean at 168 and 6'. You should post some pics for page 1 of your thread

Lol not huge in the lower pegs at all. I always trained them, nothing like this in the past 6 ish months. My legs are long and skinny, always been self conscious of them. Calves finally hit 15" from this program and quads are a mere 22 1/2.

Workout was an hour 20 min, all the calf work was fast, i rest very little between. Bench I took my time