diary of a wannbe

[UCANDOIT]

Maybe somebody can offer some advice here and point me in the right direction (or confirm I am going in the right direction).
I have been training for almost 5 months and gradually getting more into it as I go. The first months I was just concentrating on the exercise routines and started working on seperating body parts, up to now where I am taking some supplements and whey proteins and continue to work single body parts.

My questions is should I continue to work only on one body part per session, I find I get a good work and also like to end with a pump?
Also I have recently, by error, stopped taking a carb/protein USN meal suuplement. I am trying to reduce my 19% BF. I am now taking USN Whey Protein, Creatine and Glytamine but have found the last 2 days of no energy? Any ideas?
PS 36yrs, male 86kgs, 19% BF.

[blueleo65]

Hey UCANDOIT,

I myself would not recommend 1 body part per session unless you are an advanced lifter and just trying to define the muscle mass you already have.

If you are trying to build muscle, for the first 6 months, I would start with whole body, 1 exercise per body part, concentrating on multiple joints lifts (ie Bench Press). For fat loss, I would use reps of 8-12 or even 15. For building muscle mass, I'd recommend reps of 4-8. It all depends on what your body responds to, and you are the only judge of that. Hope this helps.

Mike

[UCANDOIT]

Thanks for you advice, will consider it.

Here are some of my journels, I try include at least some compound and some isolation exercises. Also I work chest one day then triceps then next, biceps and then back, legs and finally shoulders the last day.

Day 1 Chest
30 mins cardio
Bench press (straight) 4 x 6
Bench press (incline) 4 x 6
Bench press (decline) 4 x 6
Dumbell fly (flat) 4 x 6
Dumbell fly (incline) 4 x 6
Cable row standing 4 x 6

Day 2 Triceps
Military press 4 x 6
cable pull downs 4 x 8
Machine dips 4 x 10
cable overhead pulls 4 x 6
bent over dumbell row 4 x 8 or failure

Day 3 Biceps
Seated incline hammer curl superset 3 x 6 (drop 5lbs each time and superset 1st and last weight)
straight bar curls 4 x 6
preachers easi bar 4 x 6
straight bar reverse curls 4 x 6

Day 4 Legs
Squats 4 x 8
Squats (close feet) 4 x 8
leg ext 4 x 8
leg curls 4 x 8
calf raises 4 x 20
Cardio 30 mins

Day 5 Back
Pull downs behind neck 4 x 6
Pull downs front 4 x 6
close grip seated cable pulls 4 x 6
close grip seated cable pulls 45deg 4 x 6
Barbell single hand lifts 4 x 6

Day 6 rest

Day 7 Shoulders
Shoulder press behind head 4 x 6
Shoulder press front 4 x 6
seated side d/bell raises 4 x 6
arnie press 4 x 6
Bent over lat raises 4 x 6

Day 8
start again

[pastorgbc]

I like the idea of training one bodypart per session, but I would consolidate arms as a single bodypart and then rest over the weekend.

You could split out like this:

Legs
Chest
Back
Shoulders
Deadlifts and arms

I do not think you need to do as many movements as your are doing for your arms. You may find that you make better gains by doing a little less. For instance, on day 5, do deadlifts, close grip bench presses, barbell curls, and maybe hammer curls.

Ray

[IdahoViking]

Originally Posted by pastorgbc

I like the idea of training one bodypart per session, but I would consolidate arms as a single bodypart and then rest over the weekend.

You could split out like this:

Legs
Chest
Back
Shoulders
Deadlifts and arms

I do not think you need to do as many movements as your are doing for your arms. You may find that you make better gains by doing a little less. For instance, on day 5, do deadlifts, close grip bench presses, barbell curls, and maybe hammer curls.

Ray

IMHO - His posted routine sure didn't look like it ever gave his arms much of a chance to recuperate.

[UCANDOIT]

Hi thanks for the advice....
My reasons for concentrating a day on triceps is all the info I have read states 60% of your arms are triceps. If you want to go big then go big triceps?

Training today Biceps
Easi bar curls 4 x 6 (30 - 45kg)
D/bell curls seated 4 x 6 (18kg)
Straight bar curls 4 x 6 (30 - 35kg)
Cable curls double 4 x 6 (30 - 40)
rev straight bar curls 4 x 6 (35kg)
Cable pull downs 4 x 6 (75) - just to get a good pump (feels good!!)
20 mins cardio at 135HB

Normal protein, creatine, glutamine

Must get time to measure myself, my weight has gone up about 3 kgs and bf maintained 19.6-20.4%

[UCANDOIT]

Well here is my journel for the past 2 days.

Monday - Legs
Wide squats - 4 x 8 (80kgs)
Pencil squats - 4 x 8 (60kgs)
Leg press - 4 x 8 (160kgs)
Calf raises - 4 x 15 (65kgs)
Cardio 20 mins

Tuesday - Chest
Bench press flat - 4 x 6 (60kgs)
Bench press inclined - 4 x 6 (60kgs)
Bench press declined - 4 x 6 (60kgs)
D/Bell fly inclined - 4 x 6 (23kgs)
O/Head D/bell row - 4 x 6 (30kgs)
Cable row - 4 x 6

Have been reading all about the various proteins available, isolate, concentrate and casein? Seems to be all about speed of release into the body and promoting amino's into the body? any comments.

PS how do the reps, stickies etc work?

[UCANDOIT]

Well todays work out was a rest day,,,,, sort off

Wednesday - Cardio and stomach
My least fav day.... find stomach the least rewarding exercises

20 mins climbing machine
Cross crunches 3 x 30
straight crunches 3 x 30

Visit to dietrictian today...good news got an acurate BF count.....well it seems to be down from the starting 20% to 15.7%. That said she did mention it will be a little lower than normal due to the fact that it was taken after my gym session

Well more tomorrow

[jtroster]

Great news. You might have to change your UserID to YUPIDIDIT.

[UCANDOIT]

Thanks, I see you have many posts and reps etc. How do these work?

I see you also have 12% BF as your goal, want to make a friendly bet to get there first? Some friendly motivation.

[jtroster]

To add to someone's reputation click on the middle icon of the three under the user's ID. You give reps to someone who has helped you in some way.

As to the 12% goal I think I'll take some time to reach it - maybe by spring. I started at 27% and am just now around 17%.

[UCANDOIT]

Well we are both very similar now, I will keep an eye on your profile for updates.

Thanks for advise on posts, reps etc

[thruxton]

Originally Posted by blueleo65

Hey UCANDOIT,

I myself would not recommend 1 body part per session unless you are an advanced lifter and just trying to define the muscle mass you already have.

If you are trying to build muscle, for the first 6 months, I would start with whole body, 1 exercise per body part, concentrating on multiple joints lifts (ie Bench Press). For fat loss, I would use reps of 8-12 or even 15. For building muscle mass, I'd recommend reps of 4-8. It all depends on what your body responds to, and you are the only judge of that. Hope this helps.

Mike

totally agree with this. compound, core type of exercises are the way to go. i plan on cycling strenght: 5 reps, and volume: 10 reps with many sets.

i hope you keep this log. "dairy" does the body good =)

[UCANDOIT]

Workout for Thursday - Triceps

Military press 4 x 6 (60kgs)
Decline bench d/bell overhead row 2 x 6 (23kgs)
cable pull downs 4 x 8 (65kgs) good tight flex at end of pull
bent over d/bell row 4 x 6 (14kgs) good flex
cable overhead row ext 4 x 6 (55kgs)

Friday - Biceps
I am still deciding on the fact that the triceps counts 60% of arms on whether to include bi & tri together???

Standing D/Bell curls 4 x 6 (23kgs)
straight bar curls 4 x 6 (50kgs)
Preachers curl 4 x 6 (35kgs)
Rev straight bar curl 4 x 6 ( 35kgs) tight concentrations
Easi bar cable curls and rope pull down supersets 4 x 6 (45kgs & 55kgs)

Sat - Rest

Sun - Superbike riding

Any more comments on Bi and triceps will be accepted.

Otherwise see you on Monday.

[=M=]

With as many sets/reps you are doing with your arms, you run a great risk of overtraining them. If that happens, you will see no progress, and may even see a decrease in mass and strength. Someone gave you good advice a couple of posts ago, as far as incorporating tri's and bi's into one day.

One way to do this is to hit 3 sets of however many reps for bi's; the same for tri's.
Bi's could include-BB curls, preachers, cable curls or hammers (there's literally dozens of exercises you could choose from).
Then for tri's-Dips, close grip BP, cable pushdown.

Go as heavy as possible, and don't be afraid of failure-that just means that you've worked as hard as possible.

GF and I are trying a combo of Max-OT and High intensity and we do 2 sets of about 4-6 reps for each. We've both seen a lot of improvment with this, and will probably stay with it for a while. The lower rep/higher weight combo really seems to be working well for us.

[UCANDOIT]

Hi -M-

Have you seen an articale on this site, 12-Week Mass-Building Workout
By: Nathan Underhill. I am not sure where to go with this?

I am now starting on mass this month, have changed my Whey Protein to USN Fast Grow MRP, continuing on Creatine and Glutimine. I see there is 3680kJ of Energy in this, will I slow down my muscle growth if I do cardio every day and possble burn some of this up? I have managed to gain 3kgs and lose 4%bf in last 2 months I want to gain some more but not increase bf?????????????

Workout for Monday - Back

Wide cable pull down 4 x 6 (90 kgs)
Seated cable pulls 4 x 6 ( 95kgs)
Seated cable pulls 45deg 4 x 6 (90kgs)
Barbell lifts single arm 4 x 6 (45 kgs)
Concentration wide grip cable pull downs 4 x 8 (65kgs)

Tuesday travel to rig
All weights will now be in pounds

Wednesday - Chest

Bench press smith mach 4 x 6 (120 lbs)
Bench press smith mach inclined 4 x 6 (110 lbs)
Bench press smith mach declined 4 x 6 (110 lbs)
Inclined bench d/bell fly 4 x 6 ( 45 - 60lbs) very good increase in weight here, not sure why just kept on going??
Overhead single d/bell row 4 x 6 (70lbs)


Thursday -

[UCANDOIT]

Thursday - Shoulders
Lunch time cardio 30mins treadmill 70% max HR

Shoulder press behind head 4 x 6 (90lbs)
Shoulder press front 4 x 6 (90lbs)
Seated lat raises 4 x 6 (35lbs)
Seated front raises 4 x 6 (30lbs)
Seated bent over lat raises 4 x 6 (35lbs)
D/Bell shoulder press 4 x 6 (40lbs)

If anybody has any ideas about yesterdays post on mass building and cardio appreciate it?

Tell tommorrow then cheers.

[jmc53]

Originally Posted by UCANDOIT

Workout for Thursday - Triceps
Military press 4 x 6 (60kgs)
Decline bench d/bell overhead row 2 x 6 (23kgs)
cable pull downs 4 x 8 (65kgs) good tight flex at end of pull
bent over d/bell row 4 x 6 (14kgs) good flex
cable overhead row ext 4 x 6 (55kgs)

G'day,
I'd strongly recommend you go with a basic mass building program for a while - and with the utmost respect to you I really think you need to rework your whole program.
For example,your triceps program: Military Press is a shoulder exercise (with triceps as a secondary muscle involved), bent over d/bell row is for lats.
You'd be better off doing one of the 3 days per week mass building programs and doing some cardio, crunches and stretching if you feel like going to the gym on the other days. One of the hardest lessons to learn is that, for BB'ing, "MORE IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER". It can be fun at the gym, and it's addictive, but the smart move is to do less work but of high quality compound moves rather than lots and lots of isolation exercises.
Good luck to you.
Look for programs that focus on Bench press, squat, deadlift, dips, chins etc.

[UCANDOIT]

Well have absolutely no motivation to go to gym today......
did some cardio (30mins) today at lunch time and spent most of afternoon reading articles looking for another work out to replace the flawed one I have been following todate?????

Well if someone can suggest a workout that can keep me busy for at least 7 days a week as all the recreation on board a rig is gym I will apprecate it. I am willing to split lifting and cardio to fill the days but I have to go every day!!!!

I am trying to bulk and have limited gym on board, not many cable machines.


Frustrated........................

[jmc53]

G'day mate,
Didn't realise that you're on a rig with time to kill.
How about something like this:

DAY 1
Squats 3x8
Incline bench dumbell press 3x8
Bentover BB row 3x8
Military press 3x8
parallel bar dips 3x8 (replace with bench dips if necessary - 3 x max.)

DAY 2
Calf raises
Reverse curls - forearms
Crunches
Stretches
Cardio

DAY 3
Flat BB Bench press 3x8
Deadlifts 3x8
Dumbell pullovers 3x8
Hammer grip seated d'bell press 3x8
Alternating d'bell bicep curls or bb bicep curl 3x8

DAY 4
Repeat day 2

And just keep rotating. When you need a small change - do 5x5 instead of 3x8
This will work your whole body every second day, and be very taxing if you work with intensity - with appropriate diet you should drop bodyfat and put on muscle - and there's a couple of little exercises thrown in on the cardio days to keep you busy.
Then after a few months - make a change.

[UCANDOIT]

Hi JMC53

Just checked out the correct name for some of the exercises I incorrectly named.

The military press I was doing, was in fact "Close grip bench press", I believe this does work the triceps.
The bent over row was in fact bent over dumbell tricep extensions...

I suppose that naming an exercise properly is always better,,,,,I always new what it meant?

Thanks for the workout, will look at it and let you know how it goes.

[jmc53]

Originally Posted by UCANDOIT

The military press I was doing, was in fact "Close grip bench press", I believe this does work the triceps.
The bent over row was in fact bent over dumbell tricep extensions...
.

Aaah - this makes sense. Close grip bench press is a good one, I'm personally not a big fan of the other.
Must be hard to kill time out on a rig - do you do like 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off?

[UCANDOIT]

Originally Posted by jmc53

Aaah - this makes sense. Close grip bench press is a good one, I'm personally not a big fan of the other.
Must be hard to kill time out on a rig - do you do like 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off?

I work 4 weeks on and 4 off, works good to break a gym routine.

Well after much debate and frustration I am finally changing (progressing) my training to move away from the single body part per day. I am still not keen on the full body thing but what I am doing is a training plan I stole from Muscle and Fitness mag. I see this includes a lot of compound exercises and 2 body parts a day, 3 training days rest and 2 training days then rest. I will probably still sqeeze in some cardio, but make it light 30mins tread mill at no more than 75% Max HR.

Here is a general overview and I will elaborate as I do each day.

Mon - Chest / Abs

Tues - Back / Calves

Wed - Arms

Thurs - Rest, maybe some light cardio

Frid - Legs / Abs

Sat - Shoulders/Traps/Calves

Sun - Rest, maybe some light cardio. 30 mins at 70% Max HR.

I will also have to modify some of the workouts as we do not have all the equipment of a full gym on board. I am also going to keep the work out to 45 mins, so I may also remove some of the exercises.

Friday - Legs and Abs
Leg press - cannot do as do not have press on board
Squats smith machine - 4 x 8 (145lbs warm up 200lbs)
Single leg smith machine leg press - 4 x 8 each leg (90lbs) extra added instead of leg press.
Dumbell lunges, removed due to time and also doing single leg sqats?
leg extensions - 4 x 8 ( 115lbs)
Leg curls, dropped due to time and also isolation exercise, prefer compound of dead lift?
Romanian Dead lift - 4 x 8 (145lbs)
Machine crunch, 4 x 25 (65lbs)
Lying crunches, ran out of time. Will drop leg extensions so I can have 3 legs and 2 ABS in future?

Protein shake (USN Fast Grow), creatine and Glutimine after work out.

Well good days training, feel really dead and almost puked after single leg squats.

Look forward to comments and tomorrow being shoulders/traps and calves.

[Gunn27]

Originally Posted by UCANDOIT

Well good days training, feel really dead and almost puked after single leg squats.

You know you have paid your dues when you get to that point!!

Looks like you are getting a pretty good routine put together; some great advice from jmc53. Keep up the good work!

[UCANDOIT]

Originally Posted by Gunn27

You know you have paid your dues when you get to that point!!

Looks like you are getting a pretty good routine put together; some great advice from jmc53. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, I have some new motivation and making the most of it. I can definitly recommend this if you are getting down.

Cannot wait until tommorrows workout.....

[jmc53]

Good going on the workout. The program looks better than your original. I think your intuition to drop a couple of iso exercises to focus on compounds is very good - one extra killer set of a compound move will probably be as beneficial as three sets of an isolation move.
The four weeks off will test you - one week off from training is good - some believe that your muscles grow more in a week off (after several weeks intense training) than they will during each of those weeks - but 4 weeks is long enough for you to lose strength and muscle.
If you don't have access to a gym during your four weeks off the rig, you could try one weeks rest and then, during the other three weeks do bodyweight exercises at home:
Pushups, one legged bodyweight squats, single leg bodyweight calf presses (high reps), crunches of course. You could curl and do laterals with buckets of water or dining room chairs - you'll think of something.
Good luck to you.

[UCANDOIT]

Originally Posted by jmc53

The four weeks off will test you - one week off from training is good - some believe that your muscles grow more in a week off (after several weeks intense training) than they will during each of those weeks - but 4 weeks is long enough for you to lose strength and muscle.

Hi JMC, miss communications, looks like I am good at that. My time off is off from the rig and home. I have a membership to one of the Virgin Active gyms and normally only take off a couple days for travelling Angola and South Africa, about 5 days including the first weekend. I will see about continuing on the same 3 on 1 off and 2 on 1 off routine at home as well.

PS My Friday work out was actually done yesterday Saturday.....happens sometimes on board where I have no idea what day it is, we work 24/7 so weekend do not mean a thing here.

Well the last part of my Frid/Sat work out was 30min light cardio, no more than 73% max HR.

PPS. crawled to work this morning, the legs got a good one yesterday.

[JD1213]

Hey UCANDOIT, good work on legs brother.
LOL at your crawling to work. Hang in there it wont always be like that.
JD1213

[UCANDOIT]

Originally Posted by JD1213

Hey UCANDOIT, good work on legs brother.
LOL at your crawling to work. Hang in there it wont always be like that.
JD1213

Thanks,,,, day off today and watch out Monday

[UCANDOIT]

Well yesterday I was feeling ****ty and cannot believe it. Today confirmed I have some dreaded bug, or flu........

Well that is me off training and on antibotics until Tuesday and then possible rest of week off.......dam.

No rest for the wicked!!!

Watch out next week