Caractacus - training journal

[Caractacus]

Hello there, I'm Caractacus, a new guy. I look forward to becoming a regular member of this community.

I'm 54 and I've been going to the gym semi-regularly (at least once a week) for about a year now after a layoff of 20 years or so. Before that I was in reasonable shape. I did Judo as a kid and was competing nationally by my late teens and did various other martial arts sporadically from 20-30 or so and was physically pretty active. Then I became a consultant / web architect and started living in hotels and being stressed all the time. I gave up smoking when I was about 50 and got fat due to using pork pies as a nicotine substitute.

About a year ago, I decided to get back in shape. So I hit the gym. Typical routine, say 2x per week would be 20mins cardio, usually on an elliptical machine, followed by 2 sets of 12 (or 2 x 20 for legs) on the usual array of machines found in a small hotel gym or local fitness gym. Plus an occasional bike ride at weekends. During that time I got stronger and fitter but my weight, after dropping rapidly at the start, stayed steady at around 120kg (I'm 5'9")

Over the last few years the wife has made great progress in dieting down from some weight that she wouldn't reveal, to a svelte 70kg (she's 6') and she's stayed at that weight, becoming a heroine to other women in our area who would like to do the same. She's done it by becoming a calorie-count guru, transforming her diet and doing several hours of low intensity cardio every day. So I sat down with her help the other night and worked out my calorie intake. When I'm on the road, it's about 4000 kcal/day. When I'm home it's more like 3000 kcal (and much healthier) So say 3500 kcal/day.

I've joined here because I've resolved to start training in a more focussed way, with the intention of hitting about 90kg in 12 months, by a combination of calorie-counting, aiming somewhere (need to find out where) under 3000 kcal/day and training with free weights to retain as much muscle as I can. Long-term goal is staying healthy and active, maybe doing some martial arts again.

What I'm doing right now in terms of training is one heavy session on Saturdays and 1-2 lighter sessions in a hotel gym during the week.

Here's my most recent Saturday workout. (Note that I've only just switched from machines and am being cautious)

Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Barbell Squats - 2 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 60 kg
Barbell Military Press - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 30 kg
Dumbbell Bench Press - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 40 kg
Dumbbell Rows - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 22 kg (each hand)
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

In hotel gyms I do bodyweight squats, rows, alternate days with dumbbell overhead and bench press plus 40 mins cardio @ 140-150 bpm

I'm also looking to add a 1-3 hr bike ride with the wife on Sundays (she's just in the process of getting used to riding again after many years)

Once I've found a better gym (one with proper squat racks and that allows deadlifts) for my weekend sessions, I'm planning to get some coaching to check my form, introducing some periodisation and pushing my numbers a bit harder than I currently do. Right now I'm telling myself that moderate loads, getting form sorted out and strengthening connective tissue is progress enough until I've got the right conditions to start increasing load significantly.

I'd be interested to hear feedback on the above.

[Caractacus]

Today's nutrition.

Breakfast
2 Egg Omelette With Onions and Peppers

Lunch
Bread - Whole-wheat
Chicken Chilli Soup

Dinner
Melon, 75 g (approx 1/8th)
Cottage Pie, 300 g
Fruit Terrine
Cream 0.5 cup, whipped
Sourdough Bread, 1 slice
Parma Ham , 1.5 slice

Snacks
Sourdough Bread, 2 slice
Shredded Ham Hock, 25 g
Avocado, 0.5 Medium

Total = 1,952 kcal

Carbs 207g
Fats 62g
Protein 83g

Straight off, I'm seeing a big protein deficit if I take the advice of 1g per lb of lean body mass advice seriously.

[Caractacus]

So, managed to do two hotel gym workouts while I was away and scouted out a gym with better facilities.

Hotel workouts were.

Tuesday:

Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Bodyweight Squats - 5 x 20
Dumbbell Overhead Press - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 14 kg (each hand)
Dumbbell Rows - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 20 kg (each hand)
Elliptical Machine - 20m @ <150 bpm
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

Thursday:

Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Bodyweight Squats - 5 x 20
Dumbbell Bench Press - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 20 kg
Dumbbell Rows - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 20 kg (each hand)
Elliptical Machine - 20m @ <150 bpm
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

I've been tracking nutrition and the results were pretty shocking. I only hit my protein target 1 day over the course of the week but managed to exceed my calorie target by an average of about 1000 kcal/day.

I wasn't making any attempt to cut back this week though. Just wanted to see what it looked like over the course of a 'normal' week relative to a target of 2,500 kcal/day and 188g protein.

[Marius_Ursus]

You had me at sourdough and ham hock.

This early basically anything you do should have you making progress. Don't give up if you start to stall out. Keep journaling, keep reading, keep training...and ask around. We have a lot of members who know a lot about training and diet.

[yaaar]

Welcome! I'm here to work on getting stronger and losing weight as well, also part of the tech sector so I can relate to the sedentary lifestyle.

Looking forward to the journal.

[Caractacus]

Thanks for the responses guys

[Caractacus]

Yesterday's nutrition was

Breakfast:
Porridge and peanut butter

Lunch:
Tuna salad with high-protein pasta, olives, green beans, egg and potato.

Dinner:
Serrano ham and melon
Cuban black beans and basmati rice with chopped avocado and ham hock
Belgian waffle with apple and custard

Snacks:
Grilled chicken with cheese on rye bread
Tuna and spring onion salad

My Dad was over for dinner, hence I also had a few German pilsners.

Total calories a shade over 3000 kcal, about 172g of protein. Would have been about 2000 kcal without the beer.

Today's workout.

I've sorted out the 'can't deadlift here' issue with the gym manager. It was an over-zealous employee not distinguishing between controlled deadlifts and ones that make craters in the floor. I've decided to squat elsewhere though as their squat stands are just too dangerous. I'm aiming to join a gym near my place of work in London that has proper squat racks and plenty of space.

Today's session therefore went like this (as always, 2-3m rest between sets to avoid hypertrophy):

Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Deadlifts 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 60kg
Dumbbell Rows - 1 x 5 warmup and 3 x 5 @ 22.5 kg (each hand)
(at that point my right shoulder started feeling a bit dodgy, so I abandoned the rest of the lifts and completed my cardio)
Elliptical Machine - 20m @ <150 bpm
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

Edited to add: seem to have knocked about 1kg off my weight despite fairly grotesque over eating during the week.

[Caractacus]

Goals for next week.

- Sort out gym membership at the place with proper squat racks near work and get at least one session done there. (Get a trainer to check form if possible) Other gym night while away can be in hotel gym (I know I'll be very busy next week)

- Hit calorie target of 3000 kcal/day for the week. Idea being to try to stay at that level for a week or two and see if I'm still losing weight. Should be doable if I cut back a bit and use shakes to make up any protein gap rather than kebabs.

Last week was intended as a calibration week, so not trying to hit targets but baselining a 'normal' week (kcal/day):

Sun: 2389 (wife-controlled nutrition, no beer)
Mon: 3416
Tues: 3015 (90 min workout)
Weds: 5586 (brutal beer frenzy with my team, followed by cheeseburger at hotel)
Thurs: 3518 (90 min workout)
Fri: 3304
Sat: 3164 (90 min workout)

Feeling yesterdays deadlifts today. I was careful to start light (I think my 1RM is probably around 90kg right now) but a did quite a few reps @ 60kg in order to work on form. Slight niggle in right shoulder, probably due to doing dumbbell rows right after deadlifts (all the good weight benches were taken which caused me to change the order of my planned workout)

I've been doing some gentle martial arts warmup stuff today to counter-act stiffness.

As you can see from some of the nutrition posts above, the wife has been experimenting to try to improve quality of diet (which she's very experienced at) while trying to hit my protein target (which is way higher than she's used to from her diets) So far the results have been really very good. Having a spouse who is a great cook and a nutrition guru is a big plus.

[Caractacus]

So if I were aiming for a bodyweight of about 80-90kg (down from 116.5kg) and 15% body-fat (down from 30-odd) in say 1 yrs time, would a plan like this seem sensible?

Nutrition: work down to about 2300 kcal/day and 200g or so protein. That should be around 0.5kg / week drop and get me to around 90kg inside a year (obviously I'm being optimistic about will-power, but if I make any real progress I'm happy)

Training:
24 Weeks. Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength 3d + LISS 2d
12 Weeks. Madcow or 5/3/1 or similar programme + LISS 2d
12 Weeks. 2d periodised Bench/Squat/Dead + HIIT 2d, LISS 1d

Idea being to take advantage of the opportunity to build strength while losing weight that a fat beginner has, then up the cardio and get some anaerobic training, while maintaining muscle gains, as 15% bodyfat starts to become a realistic prospect.

[yaaar]

If you can manage that, you'd be a monster.

I'm doing Stronglifts 5x5 with a goal of 21 weeks, there's some things coming up at that point so that's why it's an odd number of weeks. I'll be done with week 8 here tomorrow. Couple of things I can say from my very little experience.

1) 24 weeks of SL5x5 is a lot. You should approach the program as written and go for as long as you can, starting with the empty bar and everything. I've got a goal of 21 weeks (vacation, holidays, etc) but honestly I don't know how it's going to end up. If I can only do 16, then I've got 5 weeks to transform it into something else for a little while. I think you'd do well to pick one and stick to it, and once you're getting close to the end figure out what's working, what's not, where do you want to go next, and then figure out how you're going to get there.

2) These aren't weight loss programs. I haven't lost any weight for about a month, although I did drop about 15lbs right away. I'm not going for the quick win, I'm going for something that works for me and that I can stick to. I'll lose weight at some point, but please be aware that these programs are intended for gaining weight. Also notable, inches have been decreasing even though weight hasn't.

3) LISS sounds easy enough, but when you've got DOMS 6 of 7 days through the week... Oooof! If you can do it, awesome... anything more than walking though is going to get tough after a couple months. Forget about HIIT

It took a while to get there... it's going to take a while to get back. Steer the ship in the right direction and start heading where you want to be, no need to put the pedal to the metal. Get the program ingrained, get the forms down (I'm going through this right now), and make yourself a little bit better each day. The rest will work itself out.

Definitely not trying to be critical, you're on the right path. Just make sure that you understand that failure is not an option.

[Caractacus]

Sensible advice I think. If I'm breaking it into 12 week blocks, then probably a week of rest then re-test 1RM every 12 weeks might not be a bad idea.

I take your point about adding LISS but at that point it'd be secondary to lifts. My thinking though was focus on strength for 9 months then cardio for 3 months but keep some sort of balance between them the whole year. So during the strength phase, as much LISS as is compatible with e.g. Stronglifts. During the conditioning phase, as much lifting as is feasible after hitting the cardio targets.

When I try to remember what being fit enough for martial arts competitions felt like, it definitely included being well conditioned *and* strong.

[Caractacus]

Well, doing ok on calorie target today, quite a bit under in fact.

Not so good on gym. Not enough sleep I think, maybe a bit wiped from deadlift on Saturday.

The shoulder issue from Saturday's session recurred when I started doing dumbbell bench press warmups, so I decided to finish today's session as cardio.

It'd been fine for some lat pulls, but as soon as I set up to bench, there it was again. Not serious, but worrying enough not to want to push it.

Hence:
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Lat Pulls - 1 x 8 @ 45kg, then 3 x 5 @ 60kg
Dumbbell Bench Press - 1 x 5 @ 10kg (stopped due to dodgy shoulder)
Elliptical Machine - 20m @ <150 bpm
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

[Caractacus]

Doing well on the calorie target. Unless I go on a cheeseburger and beer binge tonight, looks like I'll average about 2800 kcal/day for the working week. Well under the 3,500 or so from my benchmark (first calorie count) week.

Didn't sign up at the good gym near work (contract hassles mean I don't know if I'm going to be in that area for the minimum 3 month period)

Managed a workout at the hotel gym yesterday. Dodgy shoulder feeling better and I'm hoping to push my deadlifts up a bit on Saturday's session.

Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (warmup)
Dumbbell Squats - 3 x 10 @ 20kg (each hand)
Dumbbell Overhead Press - 2 x 5 @ 12kg, 1 x 5 @ 14kg
Elliptical Machine - 20m @ <150 bpm
Elliptical Machine - 10m @ <140 bpm (cooldown)

Looking into replacing the non-warmup cardio work with some sort of Judo-style bodyweight conditioning: e.g. hindu squats, dive-bombers etc.

Maybe do a separate day for that stuff instead of using it as assistance for my main lifts (once I've got a proper gym sorted)? Conditioning is equally important to strength from my point of view and I'm at all not sure what approach will let me push both hardest.

[mirroroferised]

Welcome. Seems like you're off to a good start.

[yaaar]

Yup, kicking butt over here!

[Caractacus]

Welcome. Seems like you're off to a good start.

Hey thanks

I'm still struggling a bit with finding a good gym and don't have room at home to build my own setup like Yaaar has. Having failed to join the decent gym near work this week, due to contract renewal uncertainty, I'm going to go try out a plausible looking local gym, Titan's of Birkenhead, tomorrow morning.

[Caractacus]

Yup, kicking butt over here!

Heh thanks yaaar

I've been thinking about your advice above and doing some more reading. What I think I'm going to try to do is something like 2 blocks of 12 weeks with a week's rest in between them, doing some sort of beginner strength programme (e.g. Starting Strength) and not push the diet too hard, or try to introduce a whole load of strenuous conditioning stuff on top of the lifts, until that's done. Need to sort my home and away gyms out obviously so that I can squat and bench safely, but that's in hand I hope.

I'm going to try to aim for around 2800 kcal/day for the first couple of weeks and see what happens. I'll adjust if I don't seem to be making gains.

The idea is to maximise the 'fat beginner' strength & recomposition gains for 3 months, then move to something more conditioning-heavy and perhaps some more challenging calorie targets after xmas.

Make more sense?

[yaaar]

Make more sense?

Makes a lot more sense!

[mirroroferised]

You really can't go wrong with any of the 3 day a week 5x5 programs out there and Starting Strength is a highly ranked one for a reason. Good luck in the gym hunt. I lucked out with mine as it's fairly empty and they don't care if we deadlift at it. Some do. Good luck.

[Caractacus]

Bodyweight is down from 116.5kg to 115.2kg at this morning's weekly weigh-in.

That's 0.75 kg (1.65lbs) down on the week, which seems about the right rate of progress.

I'm starting at a gym with proper squat racks etc today, so I'm going to reset all my lifts (mostly compromised by wrong equipment at crap gyms anyhow) and aim to progress in increments of 2.5 - 5kg for as long as I can within a 12 week block. I'll then take a week off, or at least go light, and figure out the next 12 week block.

I'm going to use as a starting point ~70% of the Strength Standards "Untrained" 1RM's at ExRx.net, where I have no idea what my actual 1RMs are. These look pretty close though from what I can tell. With the squats I have a better idea of my 1RM so I'll use that.

Bench. ExRx 1RM, 66kg, 70% = 45kg
Deadlift. ExRx 1RM 78kg, 70% = 55kg
Press. ExRx 1RM 45.5kg, 70% = 30kg
Squat. My 1RM 80 kg. 70% = 55kg
Power Clean 1RM 46 kg, 70% = 32kg

[Caractacus]

Interesting place that new gym. Even the rats have prison tattoos, but the strength training stuff is plentiful and in good working order. Workout was:

Workout 1, week 1

Warmup: 10mins treadmill @ 105w
Squats: 2x warmup, 3 x 5 @ 60kg, 1x2 @ 80kg
(I got the trainer to show me how to work their weird cage and he wanted to see my form with 80kg)
Bench: 2x warmup, 3 x 5 @ 45kg
Deadlift: 1x warmup, 1 x 5 @ 60kg
Cooldown: 10m brisk walk home.

Bit more weight than I'd planned but no harm done as far as I can tell. Felt really good.

[yaaar]

Glad you've found a place to work out! How was your form with the 80kg?

If you want some videos on the stuff check out the videos by Alan Thrall, he does a great job of explaining how to do all of these exercises correctly.

[Caractacus]

What seemed to happen at 80kg on the third rep was that I tried to compensate for weakness in the backs of my leg by using quads, which messed up my form so much I bailed. Trainer seemed pretty happy with my form on the whole though, which was reassuring. So I'm going to stick with the plan and work up to that sort of weight over a few weeks.

[yaaar]

Right on, definitely watch those videos for reference though.

One thing the bigger fella's like us have is that we're used to throwing around extra weight all day, everyday. I can add 100lbs to my squat just by going on a diet! LOL.

Obviously it would be best to not be overweight, but if you're going to look at an upside there it is.

[Caractacus]

Good videos. Thanks.

Wasn't that guy in ZZ Top?

[yaaar]

Good videos. Thanks.

Wasn't that demo guy in ZZ Top?

Could be related! The OHP one is pretty funny, his beard keeps getting in the way.

[mirroroferised]

Great to hear about the gym and there's nothing wrong at all starting a bit lighter. Gives you tons of time for progression. All in now. Go get it

[conoutlook]

Following dude..... keep doing what ur doing bro

[Caractacus]

Great to hear about the gym and there's nothing wrong at all starting a bit lighter. Gives you tons of time for progression. All in now. Go get it

They even have 1.25kg plates, which is great for people doing beginner 5x5 type stuff that involves adding small increments often. It's apparently owned by a 'Britain's Strongest Man' contestant, so it's got all the strongman kit too.

The building is a bit run-down. It was previously an MMA gym called 'House of Pain' and back in the late 1970's a horrible violent nightclub called 'Mr Digbys' I saw Motorhead there on their first tour, a bunch of classic punk bands (Sex Pistols didn't show up to play their gig alas) Local casuals used to go there on 'alternative night' to pick fights with the 'weirdos' ...

[Caractacus]

Following dude..... keep doing what ur doing bro

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