Phantasm

[Phantomb]

Legs

Squats

10 x 65

8 x 75

7 x 85

6 x 95

Stiff-legged Deadlifts

8 x 70

7 x 80

6 x 90

5 x 100

Leg Extensions

8 x ....I don't know. The machine is old and the numbers had rubbed off.

Was more just an intro to see how the legs would feel.

Ham Curls

10 x 25

8 x 35

7 x 40

Today was bizarre. I felt like I was putting in more effort than last week, hell I upped my max Deadlift by 15kg....but without as much pain.

Is this a newbie gains thing?

[Wynton]

Today was bizarre. I felt like I was putting in more effort than last week, hell I upped my max Deadlift by 15kg....but without as much pain.

Is this a newbie gains thing?

It could be a combination of things. It's most likely a neurological increase. In the first few months you'll find your strengh will increase quite a bit as your brain learns how to do the exercise more effectively.

It's possible during the first few months that a person can have dramatic increases in strength without much increased muscle mass dew to neurological factors.

However once your body has reached full neurological adaptation it will become harder to increase strength and to do so you will have to increase muscle mass. I believe this is what people mean when they refer to newbie gains. I hope that makes sense

Bought myself some BF scales - half price at Briscoes!

Weight: 87.5kg

BF: 24%

Which means I have 21kg of fat to burn through.....D'oh!

What bodyfat level are you aiming for?

I've heard that 1% BF roughly equates to 1 kg so a 21 kg decrease in bodyfat would mean around 19-21% BF.

So if you have 24% decreasing by 19 - 21% could put you at between

3-5%. Do you think it's necessary to go that low?

[Phantomb]

Bought myself some BF scales - half price at Briscoes!

Weight: 87.5kg

BF: 24%

Which means I have 21kg of fat to burn through.....D'oh!

What bodyfat level are you aiming for?

I've heard that 1% BF roughly equates to 1 kg so a 21 kg decrease in bodyfat would mean around 19-21% BF.

So if you have 24% decreasing by 19 - 21% could put you at between

3-5%. Do you think it's necessary to go that low?

Er....it's simple math.

24% of 87.5kg = 21kg.

I'm not intending to burn off the entire lot; that would be impossible. 'Twas simply sounding it out as a scare tatic (for myself).

But having said that the scales are fucked up.

Measured myself on Saturday morning and in the space of 5 minutes got measurements of 25% - 30% BF while the weight remained constant.

[Pseudonym]

Yup. Those scales are notoriously unreliable, as you've found! Out of interest, what happens when you weigh yourself after a run or a workout, when you're sweaty? I bet the results will be vastly different. I just can't guess which way they'd go. Would you try it out? I'd love to know!

[Phantomb]

LMAO

The gym at Vic had a burst water mains this afternoon, hadto make quick changes and head down to Pipitea Campus (a lot smaller)

Lat Pulldowns (Weight in pounds)

Overhand

90 x 10

110 x 8

120 x 7

130 x 6

Underhand

140 x 7

150 x 5

160 x 4

Single DB rows (lower weights but slow and concentrated on form)

15 x 10

17.5 x 8

20 x 6

Tricep Cable Overhead Extensions

44 x 10

56 x 8

62 x 6

Seated Rows

38 x 10

50 x 10

62 x 10

74 x 10

Overhand lat pull-downs are really frustrating.

I find I get to a point where I simply can't pull the weight all the way down...but it's not a pain issue - the muscles simply won't do it..... without cheating in some way. The underhand pull-downs however are all about effort. Is it worth just persevering with underhands? Will that inadvertentlyincrease my strength in the overhands as well?

[Varven]

Good stuff on all the workout increases mate.

In regards to not being able to get all the way down, the weight is too heavy for the number of reps. No matter how much you force it, it wont go ( at least in my experience ), so use other lat excercises to get strong at them, and then return to this. For example use underhand pull downs and Chins/weighted chins. Max that excercise out and then return to this and youll find your weights will keep increasing.

my 2 cents worth,

V.V.

[Phantomb]

Dammit mucked up my schedule

DB shoulder presses

17.5 x 10

20 x 8

22.5 x 8

25 x 6.

[Phantomb]

I finally have the first results of my scheduled weigh-ins.

Weighing myself on Saturday mornings after the week's workout and before breakfast.

Week 1 - 87.1kg

Week 2 - 86.1kg

Woo! The scales also measure bodyfat, but they tend to skew depending on where you stand on them. Tis morning I got readings of 26%, 25% and 21% (??)

So I'm going to ignore than until I can get a caliper reading.

[Phantomb]

Monday

Chest and Biceps.

I'm aware that I tend to favour my chests in ths work-out so I concentrated on the biceps and did a different chest exercise.

DB curls

12.5 x 8

15 x 7

17.5 x 6

Preacher Curls

20 x 8 (bad form)

10 x 10 (better form)

15 x 7

Incline BB

60 x 10 (bad form)

40 x 10 (good form)

50 x 9

60 x 8

Is there any secret to preachers? I couldn't feel a thing in the biceps but there was ache all up the side of my forearm.

I know it's an isolation exercise, but ironically I feel I get a lot more pump from standing BB/DB curls.

[Pseudonym]

I know what you mean. I used to be able to feel preachers aching nicely in one arm, but not the other! Incredibly frustrating!

When you do them, do you rotate your wrist as far inwards as it will go (supination)? That may help.

[Phantomb]

I know what you mean. I used to be able to feel preachers aching nicely in one arm, but not the other! Incredibly frustrating!

When you do them, do you rotate your wrist as far inwards as it will go (supination)? That may help.

Have always been confused as to where to put the hands. Wide group, closer grip, stright grip....will try the inward wrist curl next time, thanks.

[Pseudonym]

Ooops. sorry - I was thinking of concentration curls using DBs. You won't be able to get much inward rotation while holding a preacher bar!

Having said that, it may be worth trying to rotate your wrists anyway. You could find it helps the mind-muscle connection. Alternatively, try concentration curls instead - these ones you can rotate.

[Varven]

forearms hurt cause heyre not upto par strenghtwise. Youll find it in other Bicep exs too.. in having said that carefull.. those tendony things which keep your hands togeather can be damaged relatively easily ( as I have found out ).

[Phantomb]

Tuesday

Legs

Squats

60 x 10

80 x 8

90 x 7

100 x 5 (Fucking A!)

Stiff. Deadlifts

60 x 10

80 x 8

80 x 7

100 x 6

Leg press (pounds)

314 x 8

352 x 7

I hate legs.

Having trouble keeping grip when I get to 100 in Deadlifts. Should I start using straps? Or do some extra gripwork on another day.

[jono]

hey man,

u from welly ? me too.

if you want to train with me one time gimme a yell, ill take you through a REAL leg workout lol :grin: :grin: (once im a little more back into things hehe)

legs is all about pushing you body till you cant do anything more, btw i would have sldl last. throw some more sets in with 100 on squats man, you wont regret it, well .. you might at the time :grin: but thats what its all about man.

yes you should use straps, the ONLY reason not to use straps would be if you are trying to work your forearms.

i use straps for most of my back work, and things like sldl, dl etc.

my forearms grow steadily.

nb: heavy bicep work will also make your forearms grow.

[Phantomb]

Awesome bro.

I'm off to Auckland tomorrow for 5 weeks so I'll give you a buzz when I get back.

Thursday

Back/Tri

Underhand Pulldowns

60 x 10

66 x 8

72 x 7

78 x 5

Hyper Extension

10

10 (twists)

10 (5kg weight)

Bent over Row (underhand)

40 x 10

45 x 9

50 x 8

Tri overhead cable rows

44 x 10

50 x 8

56 x 6

Pushdowns

56 x 8

62 x 7

[Phantomb]

In the recognition that I've been sick of the fat on my stomach I've been tweaking my diet in the last week with a few less carbs, figuring that I should cut up first before starting a reasonable mass build.

The protein intake has stayed high to maintain strength gains that I've made so far, and I've kept the stomach happy by upping my vege levels and loweing my rice, especially at night.

So what's the good news?

In conjunction with my HIIT in the morning I lost a kg in each of my first two weeks of training. In the 3rd week which implemented more carb control I lost 1.2kg, the weigh-in coming a day early due to travelling to Auckland.

This morning is when I would've normally weighed in for the week and if the scales here are to be believed then I lost 1.5kg over the week.

Unfortunately I don't trust my BF measurement on the scales at home - every time I step on they say I'm at 25%, which is ridiculous given the gradual emergence of my abs, So I'm going to assume that the majority of my weightloss is fat, taking into account initial loss of water-retention.

3.5kg in 3 weeks.

Boy I'm stoked.

[Pseudonym]

Nice going! Are you able to get a caliper test done at your gym? They're not perfect either, but they're miles better than the ones on scales.

[Phantomb]

I've had to alter my routine while I'm here in Auckland as the closest available/cheapest gym doesn't have all the facilities needed.

Having said that though it's a good excuse to work on some of the areas which perhaps are lagging behind others, so I've changed the workouts around a bit to utilise opposites.

Yesterday was Bi/Tri.

Went through 3 different exercises supersetting Bi and Tri with the same apparatus.

ie. Cable bi curls/cable overhead tripress.

Dumbell bi curl/tricep kick-back

Barbell bi curl/tricep skull crushers

Monday will be Chest/Middle Back

Tuesday will be Bi/Tri

Thursday will be Legs

Friday will be Shoulders/Lats.

[Phantomb]

I've flagged legs for the moment,

I've decided to concentrate on those body parts that are lagging behind, so I replaced todays legs with antoher Bi/Tri superset workout.

Dumbbell Standing Curl/Tri standing extension

Cable curls/Overhead extension

Barbell curls/Skull crushers

Isolation curls/Standing extension

[ama]

Hey phantomb -

Whats your sets/reps like?

[Phantomb]

Well I got the idea from a Men's Health mag.

The DB work is 3 sets of 6-8 (of each exercise)

The cables I do 3 sets of 10

The barbell is 3 sets of 7 half-motion/7 full motion.

The iso curls were 2 sets of 6

[Phantomb]

Woo!

Back in action in good ole Wellington.

My time in Auckland was spent in a gym that had dumbells up to 20kg....not much good for the big muscle groups, but good for my arms and shoulders.

I did get one session at a proper gym, but just couldn't afford a short-term membership at a decent gym.

But I've lost about 6kg in all so as a cutting period it worked nicely.

I went through a bottle of Universal Zero-G FLS fatburners. Hard to know the impact they made as I was doing a lot of cardio type work anyway. Certainly didn't deliver the kick they promised apart from some drowsiness on the first two days. Purchased from RNC in Ponsonby.

Having said that though the Devine Protein from RNC is just that - Divine. Mixes like a charm and whilst it contains no artificial sweetener, requires no added flavouring. Best tasting protein I've ever had! And very easy on the pocket!

Anyways, I've started a new period by purchasing some Kre-Alkalyn, L-glutamine and Dextrose for PWO. Creatine Monohydrate hasn't done much for me in the past - having said that I don't think I used it very well. We'll see if Kre-Alkayn can have an impact. Seeing as I've reached the heaviest weights of my life it's an optimum time to try these.

Today was a catch-up workout but I tried to keep it the same as my last back workout.

BACK

Underhand pull-downs.

48 x 10

60 x 8

72 x 7

78 x 6

B/O BB rows (overhand)

40 x 10

45 x 9

50 x 8

55 x 7

Tri overhead cable extension

44 x 8

50 x 7

56 x 6

Tri cable pushdowns

50 x 10

62 x 8

68 x 7

Just had a shake: 250ml Calci-smart milk, 35g scoop protein, 1/2 cup oats, 4g glutamine, 1/2 cup dextrose (70g?)

Wow, they weren't kidding when they said dextrose enters the bloodstream quicker than regular sugar! What a buzz! It does seem like a high dose to me, although the reading I've done on the net indicates a maximum of 1g per kg of BW. Might cut it back to around 40g and see if the results change.

[Wynton]

Have you found that when taking dextrose about 30 minutes later you come crashing down and get extreme fatigue?

[Phantomb]

Nope.

This was only the first time though - we'll see what happens