Belle's Training Log

[jono]

how tall are you dumbelle

[DumBelle]

5ft 2" A real shortie. I'm currently 10.5 stone.

[DumBelle]

I'll post my stats some weeks in. I'm a little disgusted with them at the moment. Been eating too much crap and not giving a damn about it due to the stress of selling my house etc.

[DumBelle]

STATS:

158 lbs in weight and 31% BF so I have 109 lbs lean body mass and 49 lbs of fat. So to get to the goal I mentioned above, if I increase my mass by 5 pounds alone, then I will need to lose some 17 pounds of fat over 90 days. Since I cannot gain mass at the same time as losing fat, what I am surmising I need to do is work very hard with mass building and also eat as much as possible of the right type of food. Must have gained 7 pounds back from the avatar here. I had been working hard for two years or so too with the exception of time off for injuries mentioned.

I'm reading this book and this guy is hitting the nail right on the head for me. I so wanted to lose the weight for my 40th birthday that when it came and went and I had not reached goal, I kind of gave up because I had no other goal set for me beyond that. So I can see how making goals and time frames is very important.

I havn't put my measurements here but will do at some point. I'm too tired to get naked and measure up at the moment. Took the boys to Manfeild to watch a few races and then took them for a bush walk in a local reserve which is very hilly. A fantail followed us all around the track and kept swooping across the pathway infront of us. Must have made it's day.

[jono]

STATS:

158 lbs in weight and 31% BF so I have 109 lbs lean body mass and 49 lbs of fat. So to get to the goal I mentioned above, if I increase my mass by 5 pounds alone, then I will need to lose some 17 pounds of fat over 90 days. Since I cannot gain mass at the same time as losing fat, what I am surmising I need to do is work very hard with mass building and also eat as much as possible of the right type of food. Must have gained 7 pounds back from the avatar here. I had been working hard for two years or so too with the exception of time off for injuries mentioned.

I'm reading this book and this guy is hitting the nail right on the head for me. I so wanted to lose the weight for my 40th birthday that when it came and went and I had not reached goal, I kind of gave up because I had no other goal set for me beyond that. So I can see how making goals and time frames is very important.

I havn't put my measurements here but will do at some point. I'm too tired to get naked and measure up at the moment. Took the boys to Manfeild to watch a few races and then took them for a bush walk in a local reserve which is very hilly. A fantail followed us all around the track and kept swooping across the pathway infront of us. Must have made it's day.

stick to your plans and you can accomplish anything

[deegee]

I am not too up on female bodybuilding, what is low bf for a female say the equivalent of 10% for men ? anyone?

[DumBelle]

I believe anything lower than 12% can interfere with menses. It also depends upon whether your going in to compete or whether you are off season I suppose. The reduction of body fat needs to be done gradually though-whatever it is, and as far as I knew can only reduce if your body allows that. Setting goals from 31% body fat to 22% body fat is not a drastic fat loss and do-able. From there if I am not happy, I could re set my goals, but at 22% with a lot more mass than I have ever had, I expect to look pretty good and will have lower body fat than I did have at 8 stone no doubt. I was essentially a fat skinny person, even then.

[DumBelle]

I would have had 22% body fat back then and I was a weight of 112 lbs of which only 24.5 lbs would have been fat and 87.5 lbs was lean muscle mass, so as you can gather, my metabolism was not exactly crash hot back then either. It's just that I was more of an ectomorph back then and hyperactive. I would not eat all day and then eat a lot at night. I worked at the mass side of things, mainly I burned calories off moving.

Since then I have done a few things:

1. Given up smoking

2. Learned to drive and drive everywhere instead of walking

3. Got a PC and spend a lot of time working on that

4. Had 87.5 lbs of mass

5. Kept up my old eating habits above

So consequently with those lifestyle changes, obviously when I slowed down, so did my metabolism and had all my children I gained a LOT of body fat. I have to admit I also ate a lot more because of the cigarettes being kicked into touch.

This all needs to be put into reverse so that I can reverse the body fat problem slowly and logically.

First plan of attack is to:

1. Move more and rely less on my car.

2. Keep gaining lean body mass

3. Eat slightly less than my body needs calorie wise every day but make it food my body can utilise better.

4. Use more of the muscle that dominate in my body. I get more out of a high rep workout. Therefore the slow twitch muscle type (red) dominates in my body and I need to work that to burn more fat. This means long sessions of cardio at lower intensity.

[DumBelle]

I'm a meso-endo from what I can see though. I gain lean mass easily but I also gain fat easily if I am not active. My whole life I classed myself as an ectomoprph though and I say that because I could eat when I wanted and what I wanted and did not gain much. I would gain fat a little but always moved more at certain times of year and burned it off. All this time I have been treating myself as an ectomorph that has a serious metabolism problem to be honest. Last year when I went hard at it I developed endometriosis but I now believe it was over training that caused that. In effect I was training like I was an out and out ectomorph according to Tom Venuto when I should have been doing training myself as a meso-endo. As anyone knows you cannot gain mass if your doing cardio everyday and trying to burn fat.

I guess I need to settle at 3-4 days of cardio and 2-3 days of weights and concentrate hard on making sure I allow mass to recupe before hitting it again. Cardio to my mind needs to be low intensity and long so as not to compromise muscle mass I am trying to grow.

[DumBelle]

This is kind of making sense to me because when I didnt drive I walked everywhere, and I hardly ever ran or jogged but it kept me in shape.

Also possibly the cigarettes boosted my metabolism a lot. Giving them up and starting to drive have kind of took their toll.

Not that I want to take that habit up again. Heck, I even used to drink about 10 cups of coffee a day. I had to have caffeine with my nicotine, and all that was stopped dead. I'd say my metabolism was propped up so long with stimulants that when I gave it up and did less, my body just did what it would have done years ago had I not been active.

[DumBelle]

With my training I am even beginning to think that I should cycle my cardio. I.E. have two weeks of weight training concentrating on building mass and two weeks of cardio. It make more sense to me than trying to build mass and burn fat at the same time. I feel in both phases that I should eat a lot to hold onto my mass because as this guys says, eating a lot and doing a lot of cardio enhance eachother and speed the metabolism up. Likewise you need to eat to gain too.

I dont believe body builders try to do both. They're either cutting or bulking, and Tom's suggestion to mimic those that have had success who have gone before you kind of makes a lot of sense to me in that I think I should mimic those two phases on a smaller scale rather than try to do both at once.

[DumBelle]

Why do the mirrors in the gym me me look so fat assed. lol. Always look twice as fat..I know you guys like to look twice as big but I don't..not when it's fat anyways. lol.

They were open from 1-6pm today so I went in as scheduled and did my workout. I dropped the reps down on some exercises and went heavier as the last workout seemed to drag out longer than an hour and I hate that. But basically I did the same exercises I did on Friday except I put my chest presses in there this time. 36kg - 15,12,10 reps. Weak I know but I was tired today and I leg pressed 40kgs instead of 20kgs because I saw a guy leg pressing 20kgs and just wanted to do it for the hell of it. LOL. I did 3x15 reps. I have another goal... I want to push atleast the equivalent of my weight now in leg press in 90 days so I had to get cracking anyway and pick up where I left off before my knee injury.

[Pseudonym]

With my training I am even beginning to think that I should cycle my cardio. I.E. have two weeks of weight training concentrating on building mass and two weeks of cardio. It make more sense to me than trying to build mass and burn fat at the same time. ... I dont believe body builders try to do both.

That certainly sounds like a logical approach, DumBelle. I'd be interested to see how it works for you.

As far as the gaining lean mass while cutting goes... It certainly is possible - I've done it (see my comp countdown journal for details). Obviously, you can't put yourself in too much of a caloric deficit and still gain muscle, but yes - it can be done.

[DumBelle]

Thanks Pseud,

I'll take a look later. I know there is a lot more potential to develop mass in my legs as they have been sadly neglected in the past year and half. The current workout Tash has set has not really addressed that so I will get on to it in the coming weeks. One of the reasons I dont like the whole body workout is the more exercises I add the longer it gets. it needs to be split up and I am in consult with a few friends now as to how that can be done.

[DumBelle]

Back/Biceps

1500 Metres on Rower

Assisted Chin Ups - 3x12-15

Hyperextensions - 3x12-15

Lat Pull Downs (Close Grip) - 3x12-15

Bicep Curls - 3x12-15

Core Work/Swiss Ball

Stretch

20-30 Minutes on Treadmill or Elliptical

Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

1500 Metres on Rower

Lying Chest Press - 3x12-15

Chest Flyes - 3x12-15

Dumbbell Side Laterals - 3x12-15

Tricep Pulldowns - 3x12-15

Core Work/Swiss Ball

Stretch

20-30 Minutes on treadmill or Elliptical

Legs

1500 metres on Rower

Leg Press - 3x12-15

Walking Lunges - 3x20 (unweighted go up in reps not weight)*

Leg Curls - 3x12-15

Calf Raises - 3x12-15

Core Work/Swiss Ball

Stretch

20-30 Minutes on Elliptical

*We're gonna hit both types of muscle in one workout.

I'll do the workout today and add 5-10kgs to the 40kgs I did the other day and see how I go. Obviously have to watch my knee and take into consideration the lunges being done after.

[DumBelle]

Wednesday Leg Workout:

Row level 5.5 1500 Metres

Leg Press 55kgs 3x15 (lol)

Walking Lunges 3x20

Leg Curls - 14.5kg's 3x15

Calf Press - 3x15 46kgs

Felt like doing something else?

Treadmill grade 8 Speed 4.1 for 20 minutes.

Core Exercises

Stretch

Out of there...

*still in shock that I could slap 15kgs on the leg press and feel as if I was pushing 40kgs*

[DumBelle]

Legs and butt are looking bigger than ever, wonder if this will get larger before it get's smaller lol because I dont know how much bigger I can stand my butt sticking out like a shelf.

[jono]

Legs and butt are looking bigger than ever, wonder if this will get larger before it get's smaller lol because I dont know how much bigger I can stand my butt sticking out like a shelf.

the amount of water i drink, and how much carbs i have each day makes a huge difference to how i look.. mayb these are the effects you are experiecing

[DumBelle]

Probably. I pop one of those BOOST tabs in my gym drink and they have a little sodium in them. Thats probably what makes me look worse. Not only that but I dont expect to start shrinking till I grow some mass so I expect things just get bigger before they get a little smaller when there is a lot of fat on your legs etc.

[Growth]

Legs and butt are looking bigger than ever, wonder if this will get larger before it get's smaller lol because I dont know how much bigger I can stand my butt sticking out like a shelf.

Do you measure around your hips or are you just going on what you see. The tape never lies :grin:

[DumBelle]

I'm going by what I see. It's big believe me. lol. All that 49 lbs fat I have...well most of it resides on my thighs,abs and my butt. lol.

I'm going to be whining a LOT about fat butt's for a while-right after every workout and just before the time of month. Ignore me.

[DumBelle]

It's gonna be worse when there is eyecandy at the gym and I look like this. lol

[DumBelle]

I was reading a web page the other day..these young girls talking about slimming their thighs down and what they should do. The vast majority of them were stating weights should NOT (NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES) be done and to avoid pushing heavy weight as this will make them twice as thick. This is the kind of mentality I have to get over and push through...

I find it very difficult at the moment to bulk knowing my legs are thick as it is...

I just have to trust that Tom Venuto's theory will pay off and stick at it. But right now I feel a total prat at the gym I tell you...LOL!

[DumBelle]

ALL the women are on lot's of cardio... interspersed with weights, exactly as she started me off. Some are doing nothing but cardio. One guy came in today and he looks as if he would be suited to weight training and he did about 30 minutes cardio and then hit the weights. ?????

[jono]

ALL the women are on lot's of cardio... interspersed with weights, exactly as she started me off. Some are doing nothing but cardio. One guy came in today and he looks as if he would be suited to weight training and he did about 30 minutes cardio and then hit the weights. ?????

the average gym goer doesnt have a clue, also ... the average pt doesnt either :grin: