Body Sculpting I

[hungrywebworm]

Status: 5ft 5in, 70 kg (154 lbs), chest 38in, waist 35in, neck 14in, arms 14in, forearms 10.5in, calves 13.5in, thighs 23in.

Goal: Get my waist down to 30in. That's the last time I can remember having a flat stomach. And that was about 10 years ago when I weighed around 60 kg (132 lbs). I want to maintain muscle while losing fat.

Method: Eat less calories than I currently do. Focus on healthy food choices. Do some form of cardiovascular exercise and weight training x3-4 per week.

Problems: I love food and have a voracious appetite. I would much rather curl up and read a book or play my piano than exercise.

Solutions: 1. Necessity. I've bought myself a bike and will cycle to and from work most days. It's about a 30 minute ride each way. That way I'm forced to get some cardiovascular exercise. 2. Accountability. I've joined this website and will post photos of myself (see my BodySpace photos). It will be embarassing but will motivate me to improve. 3. Develop greater will-power. Resist the temptation to eat chocolate and other junk foods! 4. Set smaller short-term goals. Losing 10 KG is a long-term goal. It took me around 10 years to get to this weight so I don't expect to lose it overnight. I will set myself a monthly fat loss goal of 2 KG.

[FrostFox]

Looking forward to reading your journal. Let us know how many Calories per day you're aiming for, and what exactly you are doing for your workout routine!

[hungrywebworm]

Thanks FrostFox! In answer to your questions

1. I can maintain my weight on 1500kcals so to begin with I'm aiming to consume around 1250kcals daily. This in addition to exercise will hopefully create a large enough deficit to achieve my goals. I'm not following any particular diet just eating less, selecting healthy foods and avoiding junk.

2. I cover the cardio by cycling in to work and back. At the moment I maintain a moderate steady pace which keeps my heart beating fast and breathing laboured. I can make the journey in 30-40 minutes. As my fitness improves I'll do fast/slow intervals too. If for whatever reason I can't cycle in to work then I'll make up for it by going for a run, skipping in my garden or playing some sports.

3. I'm doing split routines for weight-training at the moment. After warming up I do a few heavy sets as well as some lighter pumping sets. I don't like to rest much between sets. Either I'll wait 30-60 seconds or superset with another exercise for another bodypart (usually abs). At the moment my workouts look like this but I plan on varying things every month:

#1 Chest+Back:
Chin-Ups (mixture of grip widths)
Barbell Rows (slightly wider than shoulder-width grip)
Incline & Flat Bench Presses (wide grip, sometimes with dumbbells sometimes barbells)

#2 Legs:
Squats (mixture of foot positions: narrow/sumo/heels on plates)
Leg Curls (mixture of foot positions: toes in/out/neutral)
Stiff Legged Deadlifts (mixture of foot positions: toes in/out/neutral)
Standing Calf Raises

#3 Shoulders+Arms:
Side/Front/Rear Dumbbell Raises
Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
Standing Dumbbell or Barbell Curls (different grip widths)
Wrist Curls (forwards and reverse)

I build up my volume over 3 weeks, cut back on the 4th and then start again.

[living]

1250 cals is too low if you want to maintain whatever muscle you have.

[hungrywebworm]

Maybe for a big guy but for me it is reasonable. I'm 5ft 5in weigh 154lbs and maintain on 1500kcals a day. Therefore I need to eat less.

[hungrywebworm]

I've been on the aforementioned weight routine for a month and in keeping with the "Borg Principle" [*1] of adaptation I have decided to try something else now. My new routine is actually not so routine. If you read the Alwyn Cosgrove article from which the change was inspired you'll get what I mean.

I am going to workout with weights 4 times a week on a upper/lower split.

The reps, sets and rest periods change each workout. E.g,

Workouts 1 and 4: 5x5, 90 secs rest, 2 and 5: 3x15, 30 secs rest, 3 and 6: 4x10, 60 secs rest.

I did my first workout on this program today. I supersetted each pair of exercises and rested 90 seconds between each superset.

A1: Wide grip pull ups [*2]
BW x 5x5,

A2: BB incline bench presses
Warm ups: 30kgx10, 40x6, 50x5, Work sets: 60x5, 50x5, 45x5, 45x5, 45x5,

B1: BB rows
Warm up: 30kgx5, Work sets: 40x5, 35x5, 40x5, 35x5, 37.5x5

B2: BB military presses
Warm ups: 25kgx5, 30x5, Work sets: 35x5, 40x5, 35x5, 27.5x5, 30x5,

C1: BB curls
Warm ups: 15kgx5, 20x5, Work sets: 25x5, 22.5x5, 22.5x5, 20x5,

C2: Overhead triceps bar extensions
Warm up: 2.5kgx10, Work sets: 7.5x5, 12.5x5, 15x5, 17.5x5

[*1]

...your body is the Borg. It's designed to adapt. When you keep doing the same exercises in the same order, for the same amount of reps, using the same hand grip or foot stance, the body adapts. In effect, the nervous system becomes ""hardwired" to that particular routine and consequently, fewer muscle fibers are recruited, less energy is used, and fewer demands in general are made on the body. You become an expert at that routine, and after a surprisingly short time, you stop making progress.

If, however, you keep shaking things up, "changing the frequency," so to speak, the nervous system does not adapt. Instead, what happens is that the muscles grow stronger and bigger to survive the onslaught of your attack. Research (by Poliquin and others) shows that, in most cases, the body begins to adapt after having performed a particular routine 6 times. After that, it's time to shake things up again.

From A Simpleton's Guide to Charles Poliquin's Training Principles, Part I.

[*2]
I'm not strong enough to perform wide grip pull ups with my own bodyweight so I assist myself by reducing some of my bodyweight by placing my toes on a supporting bar on the chinning bar frame. I lever my weight on or off my toes according to how hard I want the chin ups to be. A poor man's Gravitron machine!

Diet-wise I've been good today - no junk at all. For breakfast I had 4 boiled eggs with an orange. For lunch I had 3 medium sized pieces of haddock with a small bowl of couscous and vegetables. After my workout I had 2 servings of ON Whey in skimmed milk and a banana. I might have another protein shake a few hours before going to bed.

[hungrywebworm]

(60 seconds rest between sets)

BB Squat
Warm up: 30kgx10, 50x10, Work sets: 60kgx10, 70x10, 60x10, 50x10

Lying Leg Curl
Warm up: 10kgx10, Work sets: 20kgx10, 20x10, 17.5x10, 16.25x10

DB Step Up:
Work sets: 2x10kgx10, 10x10, 10x10

I had to pause my workout here as I needed to start getting ready to go to work.

Workout resumed after work:

One Leg Calf Raise (off a stair):
BW x 10, 10, 10, 10

Swiss Ball Crunch:
BW x 10, 8, 8 (couldn't do a 4th set as my abs cramped)

Swiss ball crunches are harder than crunches from the floor as the range of motion is larger. I don't actually use a swiss ball as I don't own one. I use the edge of my sofa which has a curved arm. I place the small of my back on the curve to achieve a greater range of motion.

[hungrywebworm]

As noted in a former post I did assisted pull ups by resting my toes on a supporting bar on my pull up frame to reduce my bodyweight. But this looks like a better method and I'll be doing it this way from now on:





This is the pack I've bought. Resistance ranges from 35lbs to 150lbs. As my strength improves I'll be able to use weaker bands and more bodyweight.

[hungrywebworm]

60 second rests between sets
* + sign denotes a drop set with no rest between it and the preceeding set.

Band** assisted wide grip pull ups
Black x 15, black x 5 + green x 6, black + green x 10

BB incline bench presses
30kgx15, 40x15, 35x7 + 30x8, 30x8

BB rows
30kgx15, 30x15, 25x10 + 20x5

BB overhead presses
30kgx15, 25x10 + 20x5, 10x15

BB curls
5kgx15, 15x10, 10x15, 7.5x15

Overhead triceps bar extensions
5kgx15, 15x15, 10x15, 7.5x15

*In some exercises I didn't quite make my 15 rep per set goal for this workout so I quickly lowered the weight and continued the exercised until I reached the target number of reps. Hence the drop sets.

**It's difficult to know in terms of weight how much the bands are assisting. I looked up the resistance of the black and green bands and the guideline given by the manufacturer ( Iron Woody ) is that black bands provide between 60-150lbs of resistance and green ones between 50-120lbs. This depends on how stretched they are. So in relation to pull ups, they would assist more in the bottom stretched part of the rep than the bottom contracted part.

[hungrywebworm]

I read a very interesting article recently where I learnt about seven new forms of progression in weight-training. Before I had a two-dimensional view of progress. It was either adding weight for the same number of reps or doing more reps for the same weight. The author believes you may not be able to progressively add weight or reps in a linear fashion indefinitely therefore a variety of other methods should be used to gauge progression. The seven new forms of progression I learnt about are:

1. Increase the average weight lifted for an exercise. If I do 3 sets of 10 squats and my sets look like this: 10x70kg, 10x60, 10x50, then the next workout in which I do squats I do 10x70kg, 10x65, 10x55, that's progress because my average has increased.

2. Increase training density by decreasing the rest between sets while keeping the weight used the same or not decreasing it too much. Using squats as an example again. If I do 10x70, 10x60, 10x50 with 60 second rests between sets but a few workouts later I can do the same with 30 second rests, I've made progress because I've increased my training density.

3. Increase training volume, i.e., do more sets per body part. This could be more sets of the same exercise or more sets by doing an extra exercise for that body part. The author believes this method should be limited to up to 12 sets per body part unless you are specialising in that body part and reducing volume elsewhere.

4. Use intensive training methods such as drop sets, rest-pause sets etc. The author believes, like increasing volume, this method should not be abused.

5. Use more challenging exercises. Instead of always performing exercises you are used to try new ones.

6. Produce more tension in the targeted muscle group by consciously contracting the target muscle throughout the whole duration of each rep. Instead of heaving the weight up in BB curls, for example, keep the torso still, lift the weight by consciously contracting the biceps and flexing them forcefully at the top.

7. Increase the time under tension by lowering the weight under control instead of letting it "freefall."

[hungrywebworm]

My mum had a stroke. As a result I did not get time to workout last week, my sleep and diet has been poor. Today was the first time I had a few hours to myself. I trained my upper body:

Band assisted wide grip pullups: Green x 10, black x10, green + black x 10, 2 greens + 1 black x 10 + 2 greens x 4.

BB incline bench presses: 20kgx10, 30x6, 40x10, 45x10, 45x10, 45x6, 40x8.

BB rows: 10kgx10, 35x10, 40x10, 37.5x10, 35x10.

BB military presses: 10kgx10, 35x10, 32.5x8 + 30x2, 27.5x7 + 25x3.

BB curls: 20kgx10, 22.5x10, 20x4 + 17.5x6.

Overhead triceps bar extensions: 5kgx10, 20x10, 17.5x10, 15x10.

60 second rests between sets.
+ means drop set.

[hungrywebworm]

BB squat: 30kgx10, 50x5, 60x5, 70x5, 80x5, 75x5, 70x5, 70x5, 70x5

DB step up: 2x20kgx2, 17.5x2, 15x5, 15x5, 10x5

Lying leg curl: 10kgx6, 20x6, 30x6, 40x4, 35x5, 35x5, 30x5, 30x5

One leg calf raise: BW+5kgx5, 7.5x5, 10x5, 12.5x5, 17.5x5, 20x5

Swiss ball crunch 2.5kgx6, 2.75x6, 5x6, 7.5x6, 5x5

60-90 sec rest btw sets.

[ChocoChick]

Maybe for a big guy but for me it is reasonable. I'm 5ft 5in weigh 154lbs and maintain on 1500kcals a day. Therefore I need to eat less.

I don't see how this is possible. I maintain on more than this and I weigh less than you do. And I am much older.

If it's true, then I recommend that you have a complete blood panel run, as it sounds as though something else is going on.

And welcome!

[mom24boys]

x2

[ArchAngel'73]

My mum had a stroke. As a result I did not get time to workout last week, my sleep and diet has been poor. Today was the first time I had a few hours to myself. I trained my upper body:

My sincere condolences. Hopefully she will be okay.
And welcome!, nice to have you here!

[drkartiksc]

Body sculpting is a great way to get the body you want without having to put in a lot of time at the gym. There are a number of different ways to go about body sculpting, and the best way for you will depend on your goals and your body type.

If you are looking to add muscle, then you will want to focus on weightlifting and resistance training. This will help you to build muscle and to sculpt your body into the shape you want.