Archi's Fitness Diary

[ApxuV]

Hi everyone! This is my fitness achievement journal and personal experiment: can I maintain a regular workout routine like I used to?

A bit about myself: as a child, I was often sick, which led to me weighing only 28 kg at the age of 14-15, with a height of 150 cm. Now, my height is 173 cm.

At 16, I decided to join a gym. I still remember my first workout! I approached the trainer and asked what exercises I should do. He replied, "Watch what everyone else is doing and do the same." My workout lasted a whole 4 hours! I did absolutely every exercise I saw. It was incredibly exhausting. I could barely lift a 3 kg dumbbell.

After a week of rest, I went back to the gym, a bit wiser this time. This continued for 3-4 years. I stopped getting sick, and my weight gradually started to increase. In the first year, I gained 20 kg, but even that didn't change the situation much: I weighed 46 kg. I was as lean as dried fish, which was awful. Eventually, my weight reached 56 kg, and I was happy, but it still wasn't enough.

By the age of 21, I was finishing college, weighed 56 kg, and my personal achievements were:

Bench press: 80 kg
Dips: 70 reps in one set
Weighted dips (+30 kg): 25 reps
Pull-ups: 25 reps (my least favorite exercise to this day)
Leg press: 320 kg (I didn't like barbell squats)
I was very active, loved running almost as much as my ex (whom I eventually left, just like running). Due to the slow progress in muscle growth, I started to quit workouts, smoked, drank, and fitness became a sporadic part of my life.

At 25, I pulled myself together, rethought my workouts, went to a friend who owned a gym, and within a year, I reached 75 kg. It was amazing! Yes, I was a bit chubby, but it felt so much better. I even felt more stable standing, especially in windy weather.

At 26, I got injured: I damaged my gastroeso****eal sphincter due to heavy leg presses, which led to reflux. This caused depression because sports were off-limits for many years. No matter how hard I tried to start again, I always experienced pain and discomfort. Burping became my best friend throughout the recovery period.

Now I'm 31. In these 5 years without sports, I lost muscle and gained fat (probably 20-25%). But I haven't smoked or drunk alcohol for 4 years. I've lost all my gymbros. And for the past two months, I've been trying to get back into fitness. It's tough, I'm lazy, it's hard to keep going, but I'm starting again.

My current achievements are:

Worked out 5 days a week. I don't go to the gym yet, I work out outdoors. My routine includes:
Walking about 8-10 thousand steps in the morning.
Dips: barely 5 sets of 5 reps.
Australian pull-ups: 5 sets of 8 reps (can't do a single pull-up on a bar).
Hyperextensions with body weight: 3 sets of 10 reps.
Leg raises: 3 sets of 5 reps.
I hope my journey inspires you and me to maintain regular workouts. I want to relive those wonderful feelings of muscles pumped with blood and fatigue, the admiring looks from people, the atmosphere, and the company of equally dedicated gymbros.
P.S. and this is what I look like now.

[ApxuV]

A week has passed, and I'm still sticking with my exercise routine, which is great. I'm even starting to get into it. Running still doesn't appeal to me, so I walk every morning and evening instead. I haven't learned to do pull-ups yet, but I can hang for a long time and do leg raises while hanging. Also, the scale shows 73.5 kg. See you in a week!

[ApxuV]

Another week has passed (June 13 will mark a month of my outdoor workouts). What can I say? Yesterday, I started a more challenging routine. I added squats, calf raises, and used a 3 kg dumbbell for exercises. I also managed to do a pull-up once, which is a record for me right now! Have a great day, everyone. See you in a week

[ApxuV]

Well, another week has passed. Everything is going well. The workouts have become more intense for me. I managed to do three pull-ups, by the way. Of course, the next day, I could barely manage one pull-up, but I did 15 sets of 1 rep))), lowering myself slowly.