Two Years To Improve

[Chaosinflesh]

I've been working out on-and-off for 16 years. I have my own rack, bench and plates now, so there's really no excuse not to be a little more consistent. Despite putting on over 30 fat kgs in that time, I've only beaten my personal bests from 21 in !two! exercises. The aim of this journal is to publicly chronicle my success and/or failure in the hope that it will drive me to be more consistent, and to actually see some real increase in strength.

 

There's nothing flashy about what I'm going to do. 5 workouts a week, each concentrating on one major lift, 5 sets till failure: Deadlift, Bench, Barbell Row, Squat and Clean & Press. I'll be starting with my 50kg bar, and will attempt to add on weight as follows:

• Deadlift/Squat: 2.5kgs/week.
• Bench: 2.5kgs/fortnight.
• Barbell Row/Clean & Press: 2.5kgs/month.

Given the time proximity to the end of this year, I am planning only to build volume till next year, with weight additions beginning on Monday, 9th January 2017.

 

Previous personal bests:
Deadlift: 173kgs, in 2002 @ 72kgs.
Bench: 105kgs, in 2003 @ 76kgs.
Barbell Row: 80kgs, in 2015 @ 103kgs.
Squat: 167.5kgs, in 2015 @ 103kgs.
Clean & Press: 90kgs, in 2003 @ 76kgs.

 

Biggest weaknesses:
1. Consistency. Its too easy to skip that day.. then that week.. then omg I bought a 6-month membership and only went twice! This journal will hopefully mitigate that, as I will be driven to publish my next 'results'.
2. Eating. I hate eating, but working out pushes my appetite up approximately four-fold. I'd rather have a small tasty meal, than a big boring one, but I can't cook. My wife gets to have a field day on this one.
3. Money. Eating costs money. My wife likes expensive, niche food. Aargh. Rolled oats & scrambled eggs for breakfast, looks like. Yuck.
4. Right wrist. As mentioned in my 'Hello' post, I injured this just over 6 months ago, and have only been given the all-clear to lift again ~3 weeks ago. As a result, I'm both super weak, and super cautious about it. If at any stage it feels like it's playing up, that'll be the end of that workout, and back to the physio for a check up. Dammit.
    
I'm not doing this for looks, but I will add progress shots quarterly in case [some form of] transformation does happen.
I only plan on posting a log at the end of each week.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week -4:
Bodyweight: 96.5kg.
Deadlift @ 50kg: 6 / 6 / 8 / 8 / 5
Benchpress @ 50kg: 15 / 12 / 10 / 7 / 8
Barbell Row @ 50kg: 7 / 4 / 6 / 6 / 5
Squat @ 50kg: 15 / 16 / 15 / 12 / 5
Clean and Press @ 50kg: N/A - barrowed concrete for work.

 

Mostly as expected, except 5th set of squats - felt nauseous, so stopped. Probably due to lifting straight after dinner.

[Pseudonym]

Good one, mate. I look forward to seeing the progress pics.

 

On 10/12/2016 at 1:53 AM, Chaosinflesh said:

1. Consistency. Its too easy to skip that day.. then that week.. then omg I bought a 6-month membership and only went twice! This journal will hopefully mitigate that, as I will be driven to publish my next 'results'.

Remember... we're watching.  

[Chaosinflesh]

Week -3:
Bodyweight: 95.0kg
Deadlift @ 50kg: 11 / 9 / 9 / 10 / 9
Benchpress @ 50kg: 16 / 12 / 12 / 9 / 9
Barbell Row @ 50kg: 5 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 8
Squat @ 50kg: 20 / 17 / 18 / 13 / 10

Clean and Press @ 50kg: 2 / -

 

Failed to set up properly for first Barbell Row set - uncomfortable so cut set short. Also decided my Clean and Press technique was too poor to continue with my bar, so going to put in an appearance at my local gym to use their Olympic bar and work up to it.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week -2:
Bodyweight: 96.2kg
Deadlift @ 50kg: 20 / 17 / 18 / 18 / 16
Benchpress @ 50kg: 20/ 15 / 14 / 9 / 9
Barbell Row @ 50kg: 14 / 13 / 10 / 8 / 12
Squat @ 50kg: -
Clean and Press @ 30kg: 28 / 24 / 20 / 16 / 12

 

House-sitting for a friend, he only has a bench, so no squats this week. Now that I think about it, will replace with lunges next week instead of skipping. Wrist getting better though, as can be seen in Deadlift/Barbell Row.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week -1:
Bodyweight: 98.7kg

Deadlift @ 50kg: 25 / 20 / 20 / 20 / 20
Bench press @ 50kg: 20 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 13
Pendlay row @ 50kg: 20 / 17 / 13 / 13 / 14
Squats @ 50kg:  20 / 20 / 17 / 15 / 12
Clean and press @ 32.5kg: 45 / 20 / 20 / 20 / 15

 

Working on setups this week - last 2 bench sets probably best I've ever done. Super comfortable and felt powerful, despite fatigue.  Changed to Pendlay row for back, again just felt much better, plus pause on floor helped wrists a lot. First clean and press set not a typo... probably burning off the 3 snickers bars I had at a church party earlier in the day.

[Chaosinflesh]

Progress 0%:

 

Bodyweight: 97.5kg

Bodyfat%: too high.

Neck: 40cm

Chest: 108cm

Waist: 103cm

Arms: 35cm

Thighs: 65cm

 

It has begun .. [queue Mortal Kombat theme] .. debated editing in Bro for gyno on right pec. Had for 13 years, op not high on priorities. I'm not a pretty man :P

 

Next shot in 13 weeks time.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 0:

 

Bodyweight: 97.5kg

Deadlift @ 50kg: 30 / 30 / 25 / 25 / 27
Bench press @ 50kg: 20 / 15 / 14 / 14 / 12
Pendlay row @ 50kg: 19 / 16 / 15 / 12 / 18
Squats @ 50kg:  -
Clean and press @ 35kg: -

 

Hiss, roar... fizz. Finished house sitting mid-week, haven't been able to get back into a proper rhythm afterwards - lots of family stuff to do for the new year that house-sitting delayed. Am kinda disappointed with the volume I attained on bench, but in perspective, its ~50% of my 1RM, whereas most of the others are around ~30%. It'll all even out eventually. Am thinking about adding some extra work in for bench, probably dumbbell press after rows. Hope next week goes better :P

[Chaosinflesh]

On 08/01/2017 at 6:45 PM, Chaosinflesh said:

Hope next week goes better :P

 

Famous last words. Got 3 days notice to move house on Monday, was super tight. Nothing sinister, just arranged for rental contract to be broken, as likely to be moving cities in the very near future, and new tenants required property asap. Everything moved to storage and staying with in-laws. So...

 

Week 1:

Bodyweight: 96.5kg.

Nada. 

 

Working out at uni gym for the next little while. 

[Bruce Al]

Do you have a gym membership? 

Do you plan on adding any extra weight to the bar?

[Chaosinflesh]

Yo. Yes, I was planning on adding weight from last week, which didn't happen. I'm debating just skipping last week's missed additions as the weight is obviously quite low for me (wrist recovery notwithstanding).

 

The uni gym here offers a per-week  no-fixed-contract membership, which I'm going to use as we're not expecting to stay where we are for much longer.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 2:

 

Bodyweight: 95.8kg

Deadlift @ 55kg: 30 / 30 / 28 / 25 / 23
Bench press @ 52.5kg: 13 / 13 / 10 / 7 / 9
Pendlay row @ 52.5kg: 16 / 14 / 10 / 10 / 9
Squats @ 55kg: 21 / 20 / 15 / 9 / 12
Clean and press @ 35kg: 15 / 14 / 7 / 6 / 8

 

Concreting again this week, so squeezed workouts into 3 sessions - well, actually 4 but I was too stuffed to do more than 1 set in the first session, so I stopped and came back the next day. The big losers in this was my two presses, as they were done with zero energy left.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 3:

 

Bodyweight: 95.3kg

Deadlift @ 57.5kg: 30 / 30 / 30 / 25 / 23
Bench press @ 53.75kg: 14 / 13 / 13 / 11 / 11
Pendlay row @ 53.75g: 19 / 15 / 13 / 12 / 11
Squats @ 57.5kg: 20 / 20 / 18 / 13 / 11
Clean and press @ 37.5kg: 18 / 16 / 15 / 14 / 17

[Pseudonym]

The weight's coming down, mate. Good stuff!

[Chaosinflesh]

Heh thanks. Alas, my weight fluctuates by +/- 2kg so those could be low-gravity measurements. Though... my wife has just told me I'm looking 'less round' lol. I'll take mean measurements for the week from now on, to take water fluctuations out.

[Chaosinflesh]

Someone at the gym suggested my row technique was bad. So here's a video for critique. 55kg Pendlay Row.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByBskInadxdxaC1HaWQ4aUloV1U/view?usp=drivesdk

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 4:

 

Bodyweight: 97.1kg

Deadlift @ 60kg: 30 / 30 / 19 / 30 / 12
Bench press @ 55kg: 15 / 12 / 7 / 9 / 10
Pendlay row @ 55kg: 15 / 14 / 12 / 15 / 12
Squats @ 60kg: 20 / 17 / 9 / 10 / 4
Clean and press @ 40kg: 19 / 17 / 13 / 15 / 13

 

Felt super weak this week. Not enough recovery and too many carbs over the weekend, I suspect.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 5:

 

Bodyweight: 97.3kg

Pendlay row @ 60kg: 12 / 9 / 8 / 9 / 11
Bench press @ 60kg: 10 / 10 / 10 / 8 / 7
Squats @ 70kg: 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10
Deadlift @ 70kg: 12 / 12 / 12 / 12 / 12

 

Felt like doing some more rep work, so pulled weights 4 weeks forward, and changed order. Did across 2 sessions,  and was pressed for time, so dropped reps slightly. Wrist too unstable this week for clean and press, hopefully will have more time next week to get full sessions in. Really enjoyed press and row this week :)

 

[Realtalk]

Hey bro good work! I just saw your pic, although the right side of your chest is holding a lot more fat than the left I reckon it will still dissapear when you get lean enough. We all hold bodyfat in different areas with different things binding to different areas in our bodies. Can definitely improve that I would say.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 6:

 

Bodyweight: 98.2kg

Pendlay row @ 60kg: 16 / 13 / 13 / 12 / 14
Bench press @ 60kg: 13 / 11 / 7 / 9 / 8

Clean and Press @ 50kg: 11 / 11 / 8 / 9 / 7
Squats @ 70kg: 16 / 15 / 14 / 10 / 10
Deadlift @ 70kg: 25 / 25 / 17 / 13 / 17

 

Reasonably happy with this week. Two more weeks at these weights, be interesting to see how the body adapts :) And funny story - cut final set of squats cos my undies twisted on my nuts after rep 8 ... 2 reps was enough to prove to myself I just couldn't take that pain lol.

 

@Realtalk thanks. Yeah, the extra fat is binding to gyno I had diagnosed 14 years ago :P Couldn't afford to fix it then, and finally got over my phobia of being shirtless in public when I got married 4 years ago. Fixing very low on priorities now.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 7:

 

Bodyweight: 97.8kg

Pendlay row @ 60kg: 17 / 18 / 14 / 12 / 14
Bench press @ 60kg: 14 / 11 / 7 / 10 / 8

Clean and Press @ 50kg: 14 / 14 / 11 / 7 / 7
Squats @ 100kg: 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5
Deadlift @ 100kg: 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5

 

Had a wedding in Dunedin this week, spent half of it traveling there and back. Forgot what time gym closed at week's end, so busted out quick 5x5's at higher weight than normal for Squats and Deadlifts.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 8:

 

Bodyweight: 97.0kg

Pendlay row @ 60kg: 20 / 14 / 12 / 18 / 14
Bench press @ 60kg: 15 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6

Clean and Press @ 50kg: 16 / 14 / 12 / 8 / 12
Squats @ 70kg: 16 / 16 / 12 / 6 / -
Deadlift @ 70kg: 25 / 20 / 15 / 10 / 15

 

Odd week. Super stressed, but worked on technique/breathing a lot. Bench just dies on final lockout, head wasn't in game for squats, and 4 hours of brush work killed my grip for deadlift. So all good bar external factors :P

 

Back to increasing weights next week, going to change it up slightly and focus on bench a little more.

[Chaosinflesh]

Week 9:

 

Bodyweight: 97.4kg

Bench press @ 61.25kg: 16 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6

Clean and Press @ 52.5kg: 16 / 11 / 11 / 10 / 9

Squats @ 72.5kg: -

Pendlay row @ 62.5kg: 20 / 13 / 11 / 13 / 11

Bench press @ 61.25kg: 12 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6

Deadlift @ 80kg: 26 / 21 / 16 / 14 / 10

 

Was dropping my wife off at her PT session, and noticed she was the only one who had shown up, so did some HIIT with her instead of squats this week. For someone who once had an 11s 100m - I've forgotten how to sprint (the extra 30kg bodyweight might also have something to do with that ...). Went to the gym later that day and hit 70kg step-ups as well, just to cover the quads, and pretend I'm training for Farmer's Walk in a gym with limited space.