LoganBrown's journey to better physique, better health, and better overall life
LoganBrown's Journey into the Fitness and Bodybuilding Community
What's up guys, I've been lurking these forums since 2011 but have never posted consistently. However, I feel it's time for a change! Originally I had this thread in the contest prep forum, but decided to move it here to the contest prep journals forum. I plan to start logging not only my bodybuilding off-season but also my journey into the fitness world in general. I want to eventually become a well known name in the fitness world and be an established personal trainer. A little background/story about my journey so far: As a kid, I was actually very athletic, strong willed, and hard working. There was definitely a lot of potential.. I played baseball and football along with a martial art called Soo Bahk Do and excelled in all of them.. However, That all stopped after I lost both my dad and grandpa at the age of 9.. After that happened, I just seemed to shut down and forget the strong willed kid I once was. I stopped trying in all the sports I played and eventually ended up quitting all together. The next 7 years were pretty much nothing but video games and junk food and weight gain. Sports didn't matter, school didn't matter, and I didn't care about much of anything from age 9-16; I just played video games and ate, eventually blowing up 225 lbs at 14 years old and 5'4" tall. People picked on me every day and called me all sorts of fat names, so I became even more of a recluse over the next few years and only went to school because I had to. I never participated in anything and felt like I was the biggest loser in our school; even in our town. Around the age of 16 I grew tired of all the bullying, being the most fat and out of shape between me and my friends and family, and being generally looked down upon by everyone. I realized that I was capable of more and that I could turn things around for myself if I truly wanted. Since then, I started pumping on the gas and haven't looked back. I hit the weight room hard, started running, and eating "healthy" which resulted in a 70 lb weight loss over the course of my sophomore year of high school. Well I say I started pumping the gas.. Lol more like spinning my wheels and learning what NOT to do in the weight room and with my diet. I was hooked on the weight room after that and haven't even thought of looking back. I Been lifting for about 3 years, but never took it or my diet too seriously up until last spring when I decided to compete in a Men's Physique show. I somewhat knew my body and how it responded to things, but I've still got a longggggg way to go. I dieted from 185 lbs at 16-17% body fat to 162 lbs at probably 9-10% body fat for my show. I'll post up some pictures later on when I get to a laptop. I ended up taking 3rd (out of 3, sadly) so I decided its time to truly get serious and start training smarter and get my diet in check which is what is leading to this log!
A little bit about my life right now.. I am currently a sophomore in college majoring in communications and business. I live in a small town of 1500 in Oklahoma and am commuting to Rogers State University. I'm eventually wanting to move to Knoxville, Tennessee and start attending the University of Tennessee. As of right now, I'm actually enrolled in 18 hours of school next semester and work 25 hours per week waiting tables at a local Pizza Hut. I'm excited to see how I can handle balancing out my training, school, work, church, and my relationships. That's another reason I created this log.. To help keep myself on track with what is looking to be one helluva hectic schedule. I've seen how supportive this community is and I'm excited to be getting involved in it.
My eventual goal is to step back on the Men's Physique stage here in the next 3-5 years and win my IFPA pro physique card. This off-season will be dedicated to putting on some solid mass and raising my caloric maintenence as high as possible so my next prep will not be near as rough.
For the past 5 weeks, I've been working with my coach Corbin Pierson (xclassic10 here on the forums) who I'm sure many of y'all are familiar with! I decided to start working with him after I had a horrible post show rebound and let my body fat get too high. Since I've started working with him, I dropped 10 lbs and got my body fat back down to a reasonable level and we are going to start focusing on slowly raising my calories very soon. I feel like working with Corbin, feeling a new sense of motivation after my competition, and consistently updating this log will lead to my best off-season yet! It's about time for some gainsss! If anyone has any pointers for me about training, nutrition, or life in general then feel free to share. I love hearing other opinions that can help.Here are my stats to begin:
Weight: 170-171
Height: 5'8"
Body Fat %: Roughly 12-14% (not the best at estimating)
Waist: 30 inches
Arms: 15 inches
Legs: 23 inches
Shoulders: 47.5 inches
Chest: 39.5 inches
Current Macros:
1907 Calories: 185P/195C/43F
Weekly Refeed at 175P/270C/38F
Routine (This routine is not set in stone, I'm simply testing things out to see how it will work for this upcoming off-season):
Day 1: Legs
High Bar squat: 5x5 with linear progression until I stall
Hack Squat: 3x8-10
RDL: 3x10-12
Lunges: 2x10-12 each leg
GHR: 2x15-20
Day 2: Push A (Chest Focus)
Incline Bench Press: 5x5 with linear progression until I stall
Seated DB Press: 3x6-8
Weighted Dips: 3x10-12
Lateral raises: 4x15-20
Cable crossovers: 3x15-20
Close Grip Bench Press: 3x10
Tricep push down: 3x10
Day 3: Pull
3 sets pull-ups, 3 sets chin-ups alternating each set x10 reps
Barbell Rows: 5x5 linear progression until I stall
Rack Pulls: 3x6-8
V-bar pulldown: 3x10-12
DB Rows: 3x12-15
Alternating DB curls: 3x10
Hammer curls: 3x10
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Legs (same as before)
Day 6: Push B (Shoulder Focus)
OHP: 5x5 with linear progression until I stall
Incline DB press: 3x6-8
Upright Row: 3x10-12
Dips: 3x15 body weight
Single standing DB press: 3x10
Lateral raises: 4x15-20
Day 7: Pull (same as before)
This routine is somewhat high volume and frequency but I find that I respond best to this kind of training.
I was on my push B workout today so I will begin my log with that.
OHP set 1: 115x5
Set 2: 120x5
Set 3: 125x5
Set 4: 130x5
Set 5: 115x5 (backoff set)
Incline DB press Set 1: 60x8
Set 2: 60x8
Set 3: 65x8
Wide Grip Upright Row set 1: 95x12
Set 2: 105x12
Set 3: 115x10
Dips: 3 sets of 15 body weight reps
Single arm standing DB Press: 3 sets of 12 reps with 40lb DB
Lateral raises with 20lb kettle bell: 4 sets of 20.
Still have 903 calories remaining for the day that I will hit using flexible dieting methods.