Please help critique my progress (long)

[Aristotelian]

Dear all,

This is my first post on these forums - hope you're doing well and thanks in advance for any comments. First disclaimer - I did read ironwill2008's guide 'for over-35 beginners'. In this thread I'm going to show you what I'm doing and eating; where I started a few months ago and where I am now. And then I'd like to hear from you what the major impediments are to progressing further. The long and short of it is I'm training hard and I am seeing results, but as a skinny fat person that started lifting weights when he was 37, progress seems incredibly slow. And it is sometimes disheartening.

Stats and program

Stats at start: 183cm, 89kg, January 2017. Stats now: 183cm, 81 kg, June 2017.

The workout program I'm using is Westside for Skinny Bastards 3. I should preface this by saying that when I started in January I could not do the 4 workouts a week - normally two was enough, and I wouldn't train when I felt such muscle soreness. Now I can train 4 times a week without these issues. So recovery was a lot longer back then.

Major lifts

I can deadlift 100 kilograms (including the bar) for 3 reps now (working up to that lift), and when I started in January I could lift 70 kilograms.

I can benchpress 50 kilograms (including the bar) for 3 reps now, and in January I could press 35 kilograms.

I can bulgarian split squat with 14 kilogram dumbbells in each hand now, for 8 reps each leg, for 3 sets (after deadlifting). In January I could do this with 6 kilogram dumbbells.

My wife says that my belly has become a lot smaller, but my manboobs remain. My arms (if I flex) now actually show a bicep curve, whereas in January I would flex and it would look like a flat line. My legs are visibly different now - definitely visible musculature from the quadracep and my calves, if I flex.

My typical day of nutrition is: coffee at 0800 when I wake up; shake at 11:30 (organic whey + organic milk + some berries (cherries or strawberries). After workout around 14:00 I eat meat + salad (I'd say a good 250 g of grilled lamb on any given day + some marinated beetroot with garlic) and have some natural yogurt. Then at around 19:00 I'll have meat/sauce/some carbs - last night I made my own chicken tikka masala and ate 3 chicken thighs, about 5 heaping tablespoons of bulgur wheat, and sauce (which is primarily onions, garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, and yogurt). I try to avoid 'lots of carbs' because I used to be quite a 'refined carbohydrate' junkie - in all its forms, cola, ice cream, pizza, pasta, breaded foods. My dietary change came in about March of this year.

I love to cook and tend to eat quite well.

Where my negative traits come in: I drink a few times a week, e.g. Monday night this week I had 2 glasses of wine. And when I do I begin to start thinking "Okay I'm really going to push it tomorrow". I'll drink on a saturday too - a few beers. I smoke about 1 pack a week, maybe a little bit more or less.

And my negative traits are really bothering me. I'm coming to the point where I am getting stronger but it's pissing me off how long this is taking. I have quite a high body fat percentage, visible belly rolls when I sit down, flabby-ish inner thighs, manboobs. My fat appears to be lowering since January but I'm starting to obsess over this and become militant and here's where my wife comes in because she'll want to go out to a restaurant once a week and indulge, and last week she wanted to go to a burger restaurant. And here I fail - I order the double cheeseburger with a peanut butter shake and chili fries, and gorge. I get angry at my wife for insisting on going out to a burger restaurant, but of course I'm really angry at myself for gorging.

From reading online it seems my body craves this gorging because it 'craves calories' but I can't help but think it's something more complicated - that I'm pissed with my slow improvements and then don't commit. My wife says I have a very inconsistent character - obsessing for a few months and then giving up - and that I need to treat this as a marathon not a sprint.

My workout

Below is what my workouts looked last week (I added updates for Monday/Tuesday this week since I did those already).

1. Max Effort Upper Body (Monday)

(i) barbell bench press: 5x 20kg; 5x 30kg; 5x 35 kg; 5x 40 kg; 3x50 kg; (repeated this week)

(ii) incline dumbell bench press: 16x 12.5kg (in each hand); 13 x 12.5kg (repeated this week)

(iii) Superset (cable rows + seated db power cleans): 8x50 kg + 9x8kg (in each hand), for four sets (with a rep or so variance sometimes, the last set of 8x50kg was really challenging on the row) - I upped this to 10x 50kg for four sets and 10x 8kg for four sets this week.

(iv) DB shrugs - 4 sets of 10 reps with 18kg in each hand; upped to 4x10repsx20kg in each hand.

(v) Zottman curls - 4 sets of 8 reps with 10kg in each hand (the last set I had to pause to recover during the set in order to eke out 8 - by far the most challenging exercise). I upped this to 4 sets of 8 reps with 12kg in each hand - this was again really hard. Form starts to fail for the last set.

2. Dynamic Effort Lower Body (Tuesday)

(i) vertical jumps (I used the Joe Defranco tutorial on Youtube) with my first jump I flew much higher than I normally do and had difficulty landing. I did 5 sets of 2-3 jumps each set. My legs honestly felt trashed (the posterior part) after doing this exercise properly and after weeks and weeks of doing jumps I was shocked at how challenging this was (doing it right). This week I did this again - I'm jumping much higher than I used to and my legs were quite tired.

(ii) bulgarian split squats - front leg elevated, 3 sets of 8 reps each leg, holding 10kg in each hand. I always gas with these, feel my heart rate really racing, so I take it nice and slow. Repeated

(iii) 45-degree hyperextensions, 3 sets of 10 reps holding a 20kg kettlebell. Upped this to a 26kg kettlebell for 3 sets of 10 reps.

(iv) incline situps - 1x 15; 1x15; 1x10 (failure). I hit 12 in the last set this week and hit failure. This is at the lowest level of incline that the angle permits (I'd say it's about 10-15 degrees).

3. Reptition Upper Body (Thursday)

(i) barbell bench press - 3 sets. 12x35kg; 12x35kg; 10x35kg (failure)

(ii) superset: lateral pulldowns + db power cleans - 4 sets: 8x42kg + 8-9 reps with 8kg in each hand

(iii) db lateral raises - 4 sets of 9 reps or so with 6kg in each hand.

(iv) superset: db shrugs + zottman curls, 3 sets. 10 reps with 16kg in each hand; 3 sets of 8 curls - the last two reps in the 3 set were death, again, form started to fail so I stopped.

4. Max Effort Lower Body (Friday)

(i) barbell deadlift: 5x 60kg; 5x 70kg; 5x 80kg; 3x 90kg; 3x100kg - comment here is that my abdominals felt so weak, I felt the upper abs trembling in my last rep in the same way as if I push too many situps.

(ii) bulgarian split squats, 3 sets of 8 (each leg) holding 14kg in each hand.

(iii) 45 degree hyperextensions: 3 sets of 10 reps holding a 20kg kettlebell

(iv) incline crunches - 1x 15; 1x15; 1x7 (failure).

Conclusion

I highlighted the fact here that I am 'making gains' but that it seems really damn slow. I highlighted that I do have negative traits and the fundamental question is can smoking about 1 pack a week and eating a few junk meals a week really slow someone down enough that the person should: cut out alcohol completely; eat as clean as possible; stop smoking; sleep a lot?

I'm not trying to become an instagram model; I want to become a lot stronger (goals for 2017 for sure are bench body weight; deadlift 2x body weight) and hopefully feel better about myself, and if I can look better in the mirror that would be a plus too.

Grateful for any and all feedback ladies and gentlemen, and apologies if this thread rambled on for a while. I was trying to include every relevant tidbit here in my first post.

[MrNismo]

Here's my feedback, take it for what it's worth.

1. Alcohol -- There is plenty of information out there on it's affects for those in athletic endeavors. In moderation, it doesn't seem to be a major issue though.

2. Smoking -- It's bad for you. That said, there is no reason you can't be strong and lean while smoking a pack a week.

3. Eating a few junk meals per week -- this is most likely the biggest thing derailing you in my opinion.

It takes 3500 calories to gain or lose ONE pound of fat. That double cheeseburger, fries and shake is easily 3500 calories just by itself. What I try to do is prepare for those days when I know I'm going out with family or friends. Take in only protein shakes and water that day so that you can 'reward' yourself with that cheat meal. It's basic math really. You need to cut out 3500 calories somehow every week just to lose a single measly pound. 7000 deficit if you want to lose 2lbs per week.

4. Workout/strength. What you show is a a proven plan and you've made gains on every lift so I don't see any reason to change. Your wife is right -- it is a marathon not a sprint.

To me it sounds like you just need to decide on what it is you want more -- strength or smaller man-boobs. Then focus all your attention on that. You're not going to gain much strength if you're trying to lose fat.

[itsagoodday]

You want to lose fat, and you have. You want to gain muscle and strength, and you have. As long as those two things are heading in the directions that you want them to be heading in, then there is no problem. If you are concerned with your junk meal "gorging", you could try being LESS restrictive on what you eat (good food / bad food) the rest of the week. For some people, trying to be overly restrictive on a diet can make them more prone to bingeing at other times.

that I need to treat this as a marathon not a sprint.

She happens to be correct. It is a slow process.

[Zocas]

Imho I would switch tour routine around and add cardio. Fierce 5 or something similar. I think you will spend less time and have quicker results.

Knock it off with the cola, don't smoke.... If you must have your nic start vaping and then give that up as you work your nic levels down. Wine is ok, beer in moderation.

What's up with the cardio?

I think a few cheat meals is ok, but a little pizza to you is how much? A few beers to you may be a case, a few to me is three a week. A few smokes may be sometimes a pack a day other times a pack a week. Smoking isn't worth it nor is vaping but could be a means to an end...... Stop the cola!!!!!

[ironwill2008]

Why in hell are you still smoking???


There is no 'acceptable' amount of tobacco usage. Quit NOW.

[Zocas]

Oh and to actually answer your question.... as long as your making progress your doing good. It's definitely not a sprint like you said, but you could probably see things go quicker with a few modifications.

[Marius_Ursus]

Why in hell are you still smoking???


There is no 'acceptable' amount of tobacco usage. Quit NOW.

Unless you count using chaw to catch a catfish.

[Aristotelian]

Thanks everyone for your feedback - feels like a good welcome to the boards. Let me go through your replies so far:

To me it sounds like you just need to decide on what it is you want more -- strength or smaller man-boobs. Then focus all your attention on that. You're not going to gain much strength if you're trying to lose fat.

The thing is, I want it all. So I suppose I'm going to have to commit a lot more than I am already doing. I want to become stronger, and change my body composition, lowering the high fat percentage into something much lower - and this should be the product of my training.

You want to lose fat, and you have. You want to gain muscle and strength, and you have. As long as those two things are heading in the directions that you want them to be heading in, then there is no problem. If you are concerned with your junk meal "gorging", you could try being LESS restrictive on what you eat (good food / bad food) the rest of the week. For some people, trying to be overly restrictive on a diet can make them more prone to bingeing at other times.

She happens to be correct. It is a slow process.

Thanks for both elements. I equivocate between being too hard on myself and being too lax. I just got back to the office after doing the repetition upper today and again upped a number of lifts, had a home cooked chicken soup with loads of vegetables and a few tablespoons of bulgur. And I noticed when I eat a solid lunch like this my cravings for sweets or junk food drop drastically. So part of my cravings may indeed come from the fact that I'm not eating enough sometimes. I needed to hear that it is slow, I guess. I am making progress but it's not fast enough, but I'm new to lifting so what the heck do I really know about how fast this should be.

Knock it off with the cola, don't smoke.... If you must have your nic start vaping and then give that up as you work your nic levels down. Wine is ok, beer in moderation. What's up with the cardio? I think a few cheat meals is ok, but a little pizza to you is how much? A few beers to you may be a case, a few to me is three a week. A few smokes may be sometimes a pack a day other times a pack a week. Smoking isn't worth it nor is vaping but could be a means to an end...... Stop the cola!!!!!

My smoking is down to about a pack a week; I haven't had cola in about 1 month (and won't again). The once in a while binging is a bit shocking, once after a max effort lower body day I bought a family bucket of KFC here and ate everything except the fries (almost 20 pieces (some small)) of fried chicken and was shocked to see the 4000 calories and some 200+ grams of fat. But I have not binged like this now for about 2 weeks I'd say and (subjectively) I feel leaner already.

Why in hell are you still smoking??? There is no 'acceptable' amount of tobacco usage. Quit NOW.

Well, I started when I was 27 just on a whim (a friend was rolling one and I asked if I could try it - from the first puff it was great) and I have found it very difficult to stop. I could blame my environment (everyone around me smokes) or whatever but the truth is I still smoke because I'm a weak bastard and I'm trying to develop my character and my body through a new lifestyle. It's something I am planning to deal with.

In general terms: on the cardio - I was planning to start swimming on saturdays and sundays (I have access to a half olympic size pool), and keep Wednesdays as a rest day because usually by the end of the week I'm feeling quite gased. Ladies and gentlemen - I still don't have much in the way of appreciable muscle mass - should I really be doing cardio on the same day as I do lifts? I watched the Kris Gethin trainer (the 56 day one, 8 weeks) and he's doing cardio every day - I'm nowhere near his level of athleticism, so 'active rest days' for me so far have been - if I'm meeting friends for dinner on a saturday, I walk about 3.5km there and 3.5km back through fairly hilly terrain - it hits at least 30 degree inclines at points and I have to stop, I'll be sweating a lot etc.

Happy to add a reasonable amount of cardio in, was hoping that two solid swimming sessions on rest days saturday and sunday would already help a lot.

On today's lifts I upped the lateral pulldown repetitions to 10 each set (with 43kg pulldown) for 4 sets; upped the db lateral raise to 7.5kg in each hand for 4 sets of 8 reps. And I upped the shrugs to 18kg and 3 sets of 10, and the zottman curls to 10kg for 3 sets of 8. So there is progress. Just can't believe how weak I have been for most of my life.

[Bo_Flecks]

Knock it off with the cola.

...... Stop the cola!!!!!

What if it's diet cola?

[Aristotelian]

Okay, so I added swimming. While I am in the water for about 40 minutes, every few laps (side crawl or front crawl) I need to stop. It's an interesting addition to the lifting I'm doing because while I swim I can feel exactly which muscles in my body are still tired, which is a good predictor for my performance in the coming week.

At this stage, I think I'll make a workout journal in the sub-forum for over 35s. Thanks a lot everyone for the feedback.

My plan will be to keep the 4 times lifting a week, add the two cardio rest days (saturday/sunday), and the next stage will be on the wednesday (I'll see how I feel this week).

[CommitmentRulz]

I drink a few times a week, e.g. Monday night this week I had 2 glasses of wine. And when I do I begin to start thinking "Okay I'm really going to push it tomorrow". I'll drink on a saturday too - a few beers. I smoke about 1 pack a week, maybe a little bit more or less.

..here's where my wife comes in because she'll want to go out to a restaurant once a week and indulge, and last week she wanted to go to a burger restaurant. And here I fail - I order the double cheeseburger with a peanut butter shake and chili fries, and gorge. I get angry at my wife for insisting on going out to a burger restaurant, but of course I'm really angry at myself for gorging.

Be aware of the "empty" calories in those drinks. If you can justify the calories, go for it. I'll have a glass of wine every so often (a couple of times a month, max.)

Learn to deal with the "minefield" of eating out. Nothing wrong with eating any of what you listed if it is a rarity and doesn't lead you down a binge wormhole. ;-) I'm not saying that you should or must do this, but this is what I do... I'd order that cheeseburger with no bun. I haven't found ANYWHERE where they wouldn't make this happen for me. IF you can get a baked potato instead of fries, that's a "win" IF you can eat it with no (or little) or sour cream. I taste my wife's shake, but order a diet drink for myself.

Again, not saying you HAVE to do any of the above, just try to minimize the damage if you have a tendency to binge.

[Leddyman]

The hardest thing to quit is smoking. In the early 90's I owned a nightclub in Atlanta and developed quite a problem with ******* and strippers. Coke was way easier to quit than cigarrettes. Strippers...meh they are a pain in the ass anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, get some nicotein gum and quit.

It took me several tries, I'd quit for weeks and then backslide. Keep after it. I knew I was done when I got mad at my wife (to whom I wasn't married during the stripper phase) and decided to smoke to cool off. It made me so sick I spent the rest of the day in bed. Never wanted one again.

Good luck and keep after it.

[Aristotelian]

Thanks for the comments! Yeah the smoking remains strange - I hadn't smoked for almost a week and then I went out with an old friend last night (who smokes) and I'll bum a cigarette without hesitation, but I've stopped buying them which does help. It's weird - I'm never really craving one - it's just that when I can easily have one I don't tend to refuse.

But this again is my wife's long criticism of my inconsistency and she's absolutely right about this and many other things. With the swimming my recovery (lifting) seems to take a bit longer but it's not stopping the increase in weight week to week. Again once I get things set up where I am I'll make a workout log in the O35 area and really commit to this forever.

[Lenny777]

My vice was Dr Pepper. Not as addictive as smoking but every time I would quit I would give in when I was tired at work or whatever. I have a saying that I would use when I was training for my endurance mountain bike races. YOU EITHER WANT TO OR YOU DON'T. No one would sneak a soda in my mouth. I make a conscious effort to buy one and drink it. My point is if you REALLY want to quit you will. If you don't you won't.

[jebrown9]

Good Luck! I started back sometime ago. I have been able to keep up with a body part a day and switching out to a full body three times a week. Cardio in the evening. Everything in moderation. I hope that you do well. The feedback seems great. First post in a forum. Thank you to everyone.