Project: Fix Lazy Bastard

[R31Nismoid]

Ok so starting a “build log”. New section, I might as well be the first.

Years ago I was fit as a fiddle. Top 40 in my year level (200) for anything we ever did be that beep test, long/short distance and stuff.

Then beer, bars & pussy took over as a priority when I was about 20.

After that along came shift work, 12hr days/60-80hr weeks and terrible sleep patters. What felt like overnight, was 4 years later and now I’ve got no fitness, strength or size and generally just a lazy turd.

After my first session in the gym it was a painful wakeup as I was significantly stronger when I was 17 than I am now, and I was a good 8-10kgs lighter. So with that…

Time to turn this around.

[Sunkist]

im in the same boat.

joined up a gym 2 weeks back..

i used to be quite fit in the younger days. but grew up to be a lazy f**k. lol

i started weights end of last week, and i was at the point where i couldnt bend my arm to scratch my head. got on a workout plan yesterday, said i should start seeing a difference within the month..

[NickR33]

hahaha less talk more action;)

seriously though I was in exactly the same position about 2 years ago and its a lot harder than you first think... I made it my mission to get back in shape by the time I hit 30... I'm 30 in about a week and although I'm in muuuuch better shape than 2 years ago I'm still not where I want to be... I'm much stronger and fitter but still have some fat around the midsection that is painfully slow to get rid of... there's always a dinner or birthday or drinks to go to, I'm pretty damn good during the week but can't avoid temptation on the weekend... I mean I probably could but don't see the point of never having any fun!

I could only do 2-3 pull ups when I started... I can now do 8-10 with a 10kg plate attached to the weight belt... makes you feel good when you do a PB in the gym

my tip is take it slow and be as consistent as possible... work it into your routine so you don't even have to think about it... go too hard at the start and you will burn out and lose motivation... forget the tricks and supplements and all that crap... cut out things one by one, eat good whole foods and don't starve yourself... work out with high intensity but don't overdo it... 3 times a week max so you can maintain it... get plenty of sleep (hard with shift work)

go too hard too early and you'll injure yourself and you'll be on the couch going backwards again

shit ain't going to happen in 12 weeks or whatever... its taken you 10 years to get outta shape so see it as a long term change

that's enough of my preaching... hardest time to work out in the middle of winter so if you can do it now it will be a piece of piss when it gets warm again

[R31Nismoid]

Ye sleep is the massive factor for me. The past 3 months I've been making a massive effort to get 7-8hrs a night as opposed to 4-5hrs and then sleeping for 14-15hrs on a Sat. The first month was fken impossible but I'm really coming good now and actually jumping outta bed @ 6:30-7am as opposed to not functioning at all until 10am.

Also been taking it very easy on the booze this year. Only had i think 4-5 big nights all year and quite a few I've chosen to drive which totally removes temptation

[R31Nismoid]

Been at the gym now for 3 weeks and just building up a base. Using mainly machines at the moment just to get some basic strength going as I’ve got sweet F/A

Interestingly I’ve been able to add weight and maintain almost the same reps each session.

No idea what the machine weights actually are. Just going off the numbers as reference.

Aiming for 3x8 of each

Session 1

Pec deck 3x135

S.Press 3x50

Dips. 8, 3

BB Curl 3x20kg

Leg ext 3x105

Leg Curl 3x65

Session 2

Pec Deck 3x135

S.Press 3x50

Dips 3

Tri pull 3x60

BB Curl 3x22.5kg last rep 7

Leg ext 3x105

[R31Nismoid]

Realised pretty quickly on I cannot do any dips. So they are out for the time being until I get some more strength. Used to do 3 x 15 when I was 17 @ 75KG’s so a long way to go.

Added in Tricep Pull Down in the mean time.

Also I’ve had to allow 3 or 4 days in-between sessions at the moment as still in quite a bit of pain with such poor condition. No point going when I’m still broken and only able to lift half weight.

Chucked in Chest Press as well as arms are feeling much better even after just 2 sessions

Session 3

Pec Deck 3x150

Chest Press 3x100

S.Press 3x60

Tri pull 3x70 sets of 10

BB Curl 3x 22.5

Leg Ext 3x105

Leg Curl 3x65 set 10

Session 4

Pec Deck 3x150

Chest Press 3x120

S.Press 3x 60 last set, last 2 reps @ 50

Tri pull 3x70

BB Curl 3x22.5 last reps 10

Leg Ext 3x120 last reps 10

Leg Curl 3x75 last reps 10

[R31Nismoid]

Eating like a horse at the moment too – 4 if not 5 solid means a day, every 4 hours if possible.

On advice from Piggaz last w/e I’m also gonna start smashing 500-600ml of water before bed… Hopefully waking me up for a leak around 2am and smash a protein shake down my head to keep everything in order.

I also have a mentor getting in my ear which is helping me too. 40 yo body builder from work – big unit. Will get some pics when I can.

He is helping draw up a program as well once I’ve settled in getting some basic strength down and dusted.

Also put me onto a super-cheap supp site he uses: www.bulknutrients.com.au

So Creatine and WPI is on order and should be here next week. Not going to get any more supps than that – better off just eating

[R31Nismoid]

Not being ‘too’ particular about diet at this stage. I generally don’t eat a lot of sugary/fatty foods too much anyway.

I just want to put on a heap of size more than anything.

A rough daily intake for me will be something like below.

Morning:

Bacon & Eggs (2), maybe some yoghurt

Perhaps an orange

Morning Snack:

WPI Shake, few almonds

Perhaps 2-3 boiled eggs

Lunch

Beef/salad The land of goat sphincter rings roll or Chicken/steam rice/veg

Sometimes throw a few olives in there and some Flora pro-active butter

Pre-workout:

Creatine

Post-workout:

Creatine & WPI Shake

Dinner:

Steak/Chicken /w steamed vegies (broccoli/carrot/califlour)

About an hour after, psyillium husk

Some fruit if im still hungry an hour later

Sometime in the early AM:

WPI shake and a leak

I always have boiled eggs in the fridge so if i've got the munchies at any point I'll just dive into those. Obviously lots of water all day as well.

Feedback welcome

[iamhe77]

Going through a similar mindset at the moment...

Nothing worse than getting back into the gym and realising that you are heavier and weaker

Good luck with getting your body to where you wanna be.

Feedback?

Ditch the creatine

Excess protein is stored as fat (see: gluconeogenesis)

[R31Nismoid]

Yeah its a fair wake-up, but to be expected after years of neglect. Nothing that can't be fixed with hard work.

Without major details excess protein isn't a problem for me. I actually need a bit of saturation more than 'average' as my body dont process it that well.

Plus my Irish build I'm designed to be lanky lol. Took me 10 solid years of dedicated beer drinking to get a minor pot. I'll be happy to have some fat!

[NickR33]

if I have any advice its to get off the machines and ditch the isolation stuff (for now)

you want to add size and get stronger the golden exercises for you are:

squats - not on a machine, with a barbell on your back... start off really light until you get the technique down

deadlifts - same as squats... you will be limited by your grip strength for a while but it will come good... don't bother with wrist curls or any of that rubbish

cleans or upright rows – again with a barbell

bench press - incline flat or decline, mix it up... also try close grip for tricep work

shoulder press - barbell or dumbells, mix it up

pull ups, push ups and dips - don't underestimate bodyweight exercises

don't bother with bicep curls or tricep extensions... you will get enough of an arm workout with free weight compound movements listed above... even your core gets a workout with those

cables exercises are good too and better than machines IMHO... for instance doing cable flyes standing up is better than those pec deck machines

isolation exercises only after compound movements to finish off a targeted muscle group... for instance a few sets of cable flyes after bench press to hit the chest without being limited by your fatigued triceps... smaller muscle groups take less work

diet looks fine, I wouldn't bother with creatine but its your money

[R31Nismoid]

Yeah squats and deadlifts are going into the mix from next week.

Also thinking of adding in military press in place of shoulder.

Shoulders are always a problem for me, get a tendon/muscle grab/catch feeling so booked in to get that finally looked at too as no doubt it'll just get worse.

[iamhe77]

Shoulder probs can more often than not be attributed to rotator cuff damage or muscle imbalance.

Shoulder/Military presses are great for the anterior "head" and a very wide grip is awesome for overloading the muscle, but you'll need to hit the lateral and posterior "heads" to avoid muscle imbalance.

I've found that pre-exhausing them with db/cable side raises for the laterals and bent raises for the posterior works wonders

Get them right from the start makes things a lot less painful later on!

[Tangles]

Id say use creatine for sure. I cant understand why you wouldnt? Will help in feeding muscle growth.

[NickR33]

Shoulder probs can more often than not be attributed to rotator cuff damage or muscle imbalance.

Shoulder/Military presses are great for the anterior "head" and a very wide grip is awesome for overloading the muscle, but you'll need to hit the lateral and posterior "heads" to avoid muscle imbalance.

I've found that pre-exhausing them with db/cable side raises for the laterals and bent raises for the posterior works wonders

Get them right from the start makes things a lot less painful later on!

yep I agree

Ash your shoulder problems are probably associated with long hours in front of a computer... as you slowly start to strengthen them you might find you get less and less pain (I did)

just make sure you do your shoulder stuff standing up... that way you bring your core into play and improve balance etc... and let's be honest I've never seen someone lift something over their head from whilst sitting down

re: the squats/deadlifts maybe have someone watch/spot you the first time to make sure your technique is correct... when you start lifting heavy you don't want any bad habits

[R31Nismoid]

Shoulder probs can more often than not be attributed to rotator cuff damage or muscle imbalance.

Shoulder/Military presses are great for the anterior "head" and a very wide grip is awesome for overloading the muscle, but you'll need to hit the lateral and posterior "heads" to avoid muscle imbalance.

I've found that pre-exhausing them with db/cable side raises for the laterals and bent raises for the posterior works wonders

Get them right from the start makes things a lot less painful later on!

I never had an issue whilst i was rowing 16/17/18

But i remember my last "poor" gym effort in 2007/08 it ended up being unable to do benchpress after the weight increased over a few months. Kinda stopped once the pain set in and did nothing about it

Off to Physio tomorrow, been there before for other things and they are very good compared to a lot of others so no doubt i'll get a decent answer or at least more investigation.

But ye, gotta slowly build up there as I know it's 100% my weakness.

[Birds]

RE: the shoulder thing...may well be in the rotator cuff. I sit on the "stretching is good" side of the debate. I always stretch the arms and shoulders, rotating joints and loosening the muscles before I do any exercise that uses them...never had a shoulder injury caused by gym work since doing that.

It's a very useful diagnosis tool. If a particular muscle or joint is prone to damage because something isn't sitting quite right, you're better off finding that out during stretching than when you have some heavy weight on it. You can turn a couple of days off into several weeks that way.

Other than that, I agree with pretty much everything Nick has said.

[NickR33]

but you'll need to hit the lateral and posterior "heads" to avoid muscle imbalance.

I've found that pre-exhausing them with db/cable side raises for the laterals and bent raises for the posterior works wonders

I use dumbell rows a lot... it uses a lot of lat/back but a good shoulder exercise too

my favourite exercise for the front delt is the arnold press... good to mix these up with normal dumbell presses and military presses (with a barbell)

[dan_the_man]

arnold presses are horribly hard to do

[NickR33]

dan: yep, you have to use a much lighter weight than normal presses... makes it difficult to look like a tough guy in the gym but the make your delts buuuurn

shoulder pain while doing bench press can sometimes be linked to incorrect technique... a lot of people have it too far up their chest so its almost over their neck... you need to have it over your lower chest, below your nips so to speak... your back should be arched and feet firmly planted on the floor... its not a chest only exercise it actually uses your whole body if done correctly

I never stretch before a workout... but I do use kettlebells and very light dumbells to warm up each body part... stretching has been shown to 'turn off' muscles and can limit your maximum lifts by about 25%... but this is just what I've read, I'm not an expert and believe everyone's different so I would never tell someone not to stretch before if that's what they prefer to do and it works for them