DFJ's Another Max-OT Log (17yo, 170lbs, 6')

[DFJ]

I've just joined the boards, here's my journal, hopefully it'll help me keep on track and motivated.

My current body state: I'm 171 lbs, about 6' 1" tall, and 17 years old. I'm moderate sized, not too big, not too skinny (though I'm probably leaning more to the skinny side). My main flab is over my torso: my ab region and some on my chest. I've got very strong legs and pretty decent bi's and tri's. My forearms, abs, and chest are probably my weakest areas.

I plan on doing a full body routine for the first two or three weeks to get my ligaments and tendons accustomed to exercise. I'm then going to move onto the nine-week beginner Max-OT program. Once I'm finished with that, I'll move onto the real 12 week program. That's 23 weeks total, ending in about mid-May, at which point I can start cutting.

The hardest part will be the diet, and I'll try to keep a 1g/1lb system going.

What I'll be writing: I won't track here the statistical details of what I eat and what I lift. Instead I'll write down my general progress, my routines, what goes right for me, what goes wrong for me, and the solutions that I find.

I'm going to start with a cardio session tomorrow (thursday) and do a first workout on friday.

[MC26VA]

Hey DFJ,
Welcome and keep us posted on your progress, sounds like a good plan starting with full body and moving to max-ot multiple days. Good luck bud!

-Mike

[warped]

Something tells me your gonna do good on Max-OT. At your age you should pack on a lot of muscle. Good luck.

[PhearaZer]

How many days a week do you plan on doing full body excercises? It's a very good idea to do that for a while, so i'll give ya props there. I used to do full body w/o's 4 yrs ago during football training, and if you do it right you could add on a good 10 pounds or so before hitting the Max-OT. Just lift hard w/good form and make sure you eat 1g protein & 2g carb per lb. of muscle mass. Good luck man!

[DFJ]

Good luck

Thanks

How many days a week do you plan on doing full body excercises? It's a very good idea to do that for a while, so i'll give ya props there. I used to do full body w/o's 4 yrs ago during football training, and if you do it right you could add on a good 10 pounds or so before hitting the Max-OT. Just lift hard w/good form and make sure you eat 1g protein & 2g carb per lb. of muscle mass. Good luck man!

I'm planning on doing the full body monday/wednesday/friday, with cardio on tuesday/thursday. Maybe I'll extend my full body phase out to four weeks or even eight, we'll see. I don't want to dwell on that too long, since the Max-OT beginner program is made for complete beginners anyways, and I'm eager to get into that.

[DFJ]

THURSDAY

SYNOPSIS
I plan on doing cardio tuesday/thursday (with weights mon/wed/fri); I did my first cardio session today. I also concentrated on my diet and wrote down all of the protein and carbs that I ate.

DIET
Today I wrote down everything I ate in a notebook, with protein and carbs for each. I'm aiming for the normal 1g/1lb protein, 2/1lb carbs. My totals for the whole day (so far, I haven't eaten my "6th" meal yet):

Protein: 192
Carbs: 372

I found it suprisingly easy to get the protein. My main sources were two cups of whey powder (44g total), chicken, eggs, and dairy (esp. cheese).

CARDIO
I used the elliptical machine, with handlebars, for fourty minutes. I didn't want it to be too intense, since I'm trying to gain mass. So I set it on "fat burn" and maintained around 135 heart-rate throughout. I burned 435 calories. Should I do less?

NEXT TIME
My first full body workout will be tomorrow. I still haven't really formulated a routine for myself, hopefully I'll have time to do that between now and then. I'll also be paying attention to my diet, but I won't write everything down.

[DFJ]

Friday
Today I did my first workout. Felt great.

WEIGHTS

I plan to do a full body routine for the first 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks, I haven't decided. Probably 4. I formulated my own routine, based mainly off of this:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/randy29.htm
I changed around a few things.

Legs
Leg Extension 2x10
Leg Press 2x10
Standing Calf Raises 3x14
Seated Leg Curls 3x12

Bi's & Tri's
Tricep Pushdowns 3x10
Barbell Curls 3x10

Abs
Knee Raise on Parallel Bars 3x10-12
Ab Machine Twist 3x10

Chest
Dumbell Flyes 2x10
Bench Press 2x10

Shoulders
Side Lateral Raise 3x10

Forearms
Palms up + Palms Down Wrist Curls Over Bench 3x10

Ones that felt particularly good were: Bench press, side lateral raise, barbell curls, and standing calf raise.

Problems
- “Knee Raise on Parallel Bars” felt good, but it took tons of effort to hold myself up there, especially since I did that exercise towards the end.
- The movement in “Palms down Wrist Curls Over Bench” was very awkward, but I'll get better at it.
- When I was doing Barbell Curls, all of the straight, non-bent barbells were too heavy for me, and the weights weren't interchangeable. So I used a bar with curves on it, holding the curve with my wrists rotated inward. Felt pretty good.
- Not really any real problems at all.

NEXT TIME
I'll rest and eat over the weekend, and do more weights on monday. I'm eager to do squats, but I think I'm going to ease into it by doing leg presses the first week or two.

[AYung]

Good luck!

[DFJ]

Good luck!

Thanks. I've read quite a bit of your journal.

[AYung]

Starting a good diet can be hard. But I think the hardest part is just sticking with it.

Thats pretty cool. How do you like it so far?

[DFJ]

Another thing I'd like to add to the above entry: The workout took me 1.5 hours, which was a bit too long. I did each exercise one at a time, taking 1-2 minute breaks in between. Next time I might try supersetting.

[AYung]

Yeah 1 and a half hours is too long. Max-OT recommends 35-45 minutes for maximum results.

[DFJ]

Starting a good diet can be hard. But I think the hardest part is just sticking with it.

Thats pretty cool. How do you like it so far?

Yea, it's definitely going to be tough to keep loading up the protein month after month... Im loving it so far, but I just hope I stick with it.

And I hope I'm not making a big mistake by not getting a trainer...

[AYung]

Im 15 and started lifting heavy at 14. It's too late to do what they recommend and take it slow. If anything, ill be the one suffering from back pains from not doing squats right.

[DFJ]

Tuesday
Since it's tuesday, I did cardio. Yesterday I did my second workout session.

WEIGHTS
I'm still doing pretty much the same routine as I did last friday. I forgot to include back exercises, though, so I added Lat Pull-downs and Cable Rows.

Yesterday my calves were sore from friday, I must have really overtrained them, so I skipped the exercises for those. They're not sore anymore.

I weighed myself earlier at 172 lbs. That's a 1 lb gain

CARDIO
Today I did the same thing I did last thursday: 40 minutes on the elliptical set to Fat Burn. I kept my heartrate at 132 and burned around 430 calories total.

DIET
I haven't counted my protein/carbs since friday, but I've definitely been making an effort to keep the diet up. I've been usually eating two cups of eggwhites in the morning, 2 scoops of whey protein after workout, one piece of chicken breast for lunch or dinner, and lots of dairy.

NEXT TIME
I'm going to start researching a couple more things: stretching and supplements. I want to start a stretching routine, my gym offers a yoga class, I might try that. Otherwise, I'll just go through a list of generic stretches after my workouts. I'm also going to do some reading on supplements to see if they'd be good/necessary for me.

[MC26VA]

DFJ,
Sounds like things are progressing well, congrats on the 1lb gain. How often do you stretch now before/after working out? I'd suggest reading up on basic stretching in the exercise area of bb.com, here are a few...
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/donald1.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/davidslon2.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/phil5.htm

As for diet i'm sure you already know about www.fitday.com and how it can help keep track of your daily intake and break it down for you. What kind of supplements would you be looking into, for what purpose? Keep up the great work bud...good to hear you're still sore, must have been an intense workout.

-Mike

[RiNgMaSteR]

Check the best of the workout section sticky to find some good fullbody routines. Good luck to you man!

[DFJ]

DFJ,
Sounds like things are progressing well, congrats on the 1lb gain. How often do you stretch now before/after working out? I'd suggest reading up on basic stretching in the exercise area of bb.com, here are a few...
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/donald1.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/davidslon2.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/phil5.htm

As for diet i'm sure you already know about www.fitday.com and how it can help keep track of your daily intake and break it down for you.

Thanks for those links. I'll post how my stretching goes in a day or two in my log. I already made an account with fitday; very handy site.

Check the best of the workout section sticky to find some good fullbody routines. Good luck to you man!

Thanks. Is there something wrong with the one I'm already on?

[DFJ]

What the... Looks like the last few posts were deleted...

[DFJ]

Ok, since two people have suggested that I look for a new routine, I took a look at their links and found a routine from Brit_Beef. I'm still not sure what was wrong with my original routine, but is this better for me than what I had?

This is a mon/wed/fri routine for a beginner to training, just alternate between routine 1 and routine 2 every time you train. Do two sets of each exercise and work around 10-12 reps.

Routine 1.

squat
leg curl
standing calf raise
seated row
hyperextensions
bench press
seated db shoulder press
closegrip bench press
barbell curl
crunches

Routine 2.
legpress
stiff leg deadlift
seated calf raise
pullups
shrugs
incline db press
military press
pushdowns
incline db curls
reverse crunch

[MC26VA]

Those actually look pretty good, full body routines. I'm starting a full body 3x a week on monday. So it would be alot like what i'm starting up. I think it's a good plan dude.

-Mike

[DFJ]

Tuesday
My second week of my beginner workout. I've changed the routine from last week's.

WEIGHTS
My new full-body routine I got from Brit_Beef. You can find it in his splits thread in The Best of the Workout Section sticky:

Today I did:
- squat
- leg curl
- standing calf raise
- seated row
- hyperextensions
- bench press
- seated db shoulder press
- closegrip bench press
- barbell curl
- crunches

In two days I will do:
- legpress
- stiff leg deadlift
- seated calf raise
- pullups
- shrugs
- incline db press
- military press
- pushdowns
- incline db curls
- reverse crunch

2 sets for each exercise, 10 reps each. I stretched after every exercise and for the first time did a couple warm up sets for each muscle group. It will still take me a couple days to grasp the concept for doing warm-up sets.

If someone could critique what I'm doing, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I asked one of the gym employees if they could do me a favor and check my squat form (since I only know it from a couple of books and the videos and animations on the internet) and he said that my form looked good. He also said to “be careful with that one.”

NEXT TIME
Some cardio tomorrow, workout on wednesday. A few more weeks and I'll start the AST beginner program split (http://www.ast-ss.com/training/getti...rted_intro.asp)

I tried to get a pic of myself, but I guess my digital camera is old enough that it's not working on my computer right now. If I get it fixed I'll upload the pic.

[DFJ]

Monday
My four weeks of full-body training is over, and I've gained 7 pounds, mostly from the last two weeks doing Brit Beef's routines.

NEXT TIME
I have always planned on switching to the Ast-ss beginner program at this point, but I might do full-body for a couple more weeks since I've been getting good gains. Any suggestions?

(http://www.ast-ss.com/training/gett...arted_intro.asp)

[MC26VA]

DFJ,
I agree with you, even though you've made gains in the fullbody routine, switcing up once in a while will keep the body guessing and change in exercise in general is a good thing. Also adding a more dynamic workout with more days being able to concentrate on each body part more will also benefit you in the long run. Good job on the last workout...looked intense, how did it feel doing them and were you doing more than 2 a week, like 4 (so each a couple times) a week? Great job so far, keep up the good work bud! I'll also bump this up for some more responses from ppl who may know more and give you more precise advice.

-Mike

[IronBender800]

Link doesnt work for me.

[DFJ]

Thanks, MC. I really liked the fact that the full-body routine switched up the exercises every other work out. I did it mon/wed/fri

I linked to the ast beginner program improperly. Here it is:
http://ast-ss.com/training/getting_s...rted_intro.asp

Actually, I haven't seen anybody's opinions on this program. Is it good? It lasts nine weeks and switches routines every three. I want to use it to prepare for max-ot.

Here's the first three week routine:
http://ast-ss.com/training/getting_s...?part=1&page=4

The second:
http://ast-ss.com/training/getting_s...?part=2&page=2

And the final:
http://ast-ss.com/training/getting_s...?part=3&page=3

Also, I bought a training session with a trainer to work out form. It was really helpful. I'm doing deadlifts perfectly, but the squat form needs some work for me (i was hyperextending forward somewhat and putting stress on my knees). I'd recommend all newbies to buy a trainer session to get advice on form from a real person instead of just the internet.

[IronBender800]

Routines look ok but id do pullups instead of pulldowns and take out the kickbakcs in the first one and do extensions.

Trainers at my gym will say **** to you for free lol.

[DFJ]

Wednesday
I'm in the middle of my second week of the ast-ss beginner program. I'm still getting pretty steady weight gains to my surprise. I'm now at 185 lbs.

WEIGHTS
I decided that since I already did 6 weeks of a full-body program, I didn't need to do the beginner exercises in the first 3-week phase of the ast-ss beginner program. So I skipped to the 2nd phase: http://ast-ss.com/training/getting_s...?part=2&page=2

Since I haven't yet, I guess I'll give all the exercises and the weight I did for Day 1. I can add more later.

Flat BB Bench Press – 2x8 – 60
Incline BB Bench Press – 2x8 – 70
Decline “ “ - 2x8 – 55
Lying Tricep Extensions – 2x8 – 60
One Arm DB Overhead Tricep Extensions – 2x8 – 17.5
45 Calf Press – 2x8 – 230
Seated Calf Raises – 2x8 – 65 (one leg at a time)

DIET
School started up again but luckily I have a class just about 3 hours after breakfast and 3 hours before lunch that I can eat food in. Otherwise things have been the same.

[DFJ]

Well, I'm on my first week of the Max-OT program. I finished the AST beginner program last week, and I've made good weight gains. I started out around 170, now I'm around 191-195. I'll hit 200 soon.

I've had some great improvements in my lifting. My bench press, bicep curls, and many others have shot up a lot. I started out on BB bicep curls doing 15 pounds total, now I'm up to 80 pounds total (my reps have reduced from ten to six, but still). Bench press started out 40-50 pounds total, now I'm doing 90-100.

A few weeks ago I was doing ab exercises with lower reps and heavy weight. My stomach starting distending a ton, and I've converted to high rep ab exercises and a three-day a week stomach vacuuming program. (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ms-fit5.htm) I made a thread about this last week.

[DFJ]

I'm up to max-ot week five now, just finished reading the training article thing for it. Basically a ten page advertisement for their damn supplements. **** came up one week and I couldn't get to the gym, hopefully it doesn't really matter. I hadn't taken a week long break since I started anyways.I haven't hit 200 yet. I'm around 196. I really need to start eating more. I think I've been slacking off on that for a while. 7 more weeks until I start cutting, so I'm going to start trying hard to eat more, pack it on before then. I'm not making very good gains right now. I'm going to buy some creatine and start trying that.

The whey I'm using is “Pro-rated” from costco. It's really cheap. Six pounds for 20 bucks. It isn't 100% isolate, the main ingredient is whey concentrate, followed by whey isolate. I would just buy the five “core” supplements at AST, if I could pull unlimited amounts of money out of my ass. That's what they want me to do, anyways. I'll just try one supplement at a time the cheapest I can find, starting with creatine, and see if they work.

I've been going to the gym at around 7:30 or 8 pm. I like going at that time, there's only a few other people there and it's pretty peaceful. I've always read the best time to go to the gym is the time thats most convenient, so it should be ok. Anybody have any advice for me, it'd be really damn appreciated.