Lee's challenge part 2!

[Ordinary_Chap]

SSCV for 1 hour @ 6am

Lateral pull down (close grip) 3 x 8 @ 70kg
Seated pulls (close grip) 3 x 8 @ 80kg
Shrugs 3 x 8 @ 30kg
Bicep curls 3 x 10 @ 35kg
Hammer curls 3 x 8 @ 25kg (per dumbbell)
+ 20 mins CV

I felt good tonight and was able to push a little harder than usual.

[Ordinary_Chap]

Oh and I now weigh in at 91kg!

[Ordinary_Chap]

Lost_BMW your feedback is always welcome here! You and Morba are probably my favourite posters on this section of PH!

The problem I have with shrugs sometimes if I'm honest is grip strength. By the time I get to them I am already tired and my grip in the way I hold them isn't great. I sometimes do 40's but I often struggle to not drop them!

I'm getting stronger each week but I'm still fairly pathetic in overall strength I feel and the other issue I've been working on is a difference in strength of different body parts which has stemmed from my military days and very specific training.

I do definitely feel it although my grip gives away before my upper back does.

[Ordinary_Chap]

Lost_BMW said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

Lost_BMW your feedback is always welcome here! You and Morba are probably my favourite posters on this section of PH!

The problem I have with shrugs sometimes if I'm honest is grip strength. By the time I get to them I am already tired and my grip in the way I hold them isn't great. I sometimes do 40's but I often struggle to not drop them!

I'm getting stronger each week but I'm still fairly pathetic in overall strength I feel and the other issue I've been working on is a difference in strength of different body parts which has stemmed from my military days and very specific training.

I do definitely feel it although my grip gives away before my upper back does.

Glad you took it in good spirit, cheers!

I don't use straps etc. as I really want to develop my grip but if trap/upper back development is more of an issue for you maybe they would help?

I've thought about straps but then I think if I don't push through it I may never develop great grip strength so I decided to suck it up!

Thanks for the advice anyway!

[Ordinary_Chap]

Lost_BMW said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

I've thought about straps but then I think if I don't push through it I may never develop great grip strength so I decided to suck it up!

Thanks for the advice anyway!

I'll shut up soo, I promise! But what about using straps to maximise the shrugs then another exercise/day to focus on grip through things like plate lifting. I used to pinch two 22lb or 33lb plates or a 45lb one and hold them/walk around the gym for as long as possible and time it to gauge the next workout/improvements.

No need to shut up! I think you can add genuine value to any thread in this section and I especially welcome it here!

I'm thinking of adding an exercise to each body part so I may just try that!

Thanks!
Lee

[Ordinary_Chap]

Lost_BMW said:

Ta!

Incidentally, this is one of the kids I trained with - when he was a promising up and comer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVz9FF3-v2E

Awesome looking dude, although I don't want to get to his size!

I love the way he breaks out into a dance during that though! I went to a bodybuilding show not too long ago for the first time and I've got to say that stuff isn't for me, the overly tight underwear, fake tan and what not just made me feel uncomfortable!

[Ordinary_Chap]

So I let one of my staff have yesterday afternoon off due to it being the Srilankan New Year.

Anyway as a way of thanks he has bought in a raft of special foods they eat over the holiday for me which I've greatly enjoyed eating today although are most likely bad for my diet!



Oh well gym later anyway!

Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Friday 15th April 16:19

[Ordinary_Chap]

DownUnder. said:

Lee, really not trying to sound rude here but something about you confuses me.

On chest days you bench slightly less than me however your fly's are nearly double what I can do. Is there any reason for this or is it just a strong point for you?

Good progress by the way always enjoy the updates in this thread!

I have a unusual balance of strength to be honest and my coach has been helping me correct this. I think this is down to the very specific training I did in the military which has lead me to being unbalanced.

And thanks!

[Ordinary_Chap]

Thanks for the advice chaps! I am keen to address the areas I'm weakest in!

I'm going to give some of these suggestions a go and I will let you know how I get on!

Lee

[Ordinary_Chap]

So tonight was auxiliary training.

Lat raises 3 x 15kg
Shoulder press 3 x 8 @ 25kg
Weighted calf raises 2 x 20 @ 60kg
Hanging crunches 3 x 8
Decline crunches 3 x 10

So here's a question to something that keeps happening and I've got no idea why. Why do my shoulders bleed and show marks below the skin when doing shoulder exercises?



Any ideas folks?

[Ordinary_Chap]

Thanks! I need to stop it really because sometimes they bleed quite badly and the skin turns black around the blood marks which is unsightly to say the least!

Hanging crunches;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv6aWRJc95A&fea...

[Ordinary_Chap]

Otto said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

So here's a question to something that keeps happening and I've got no idea why. Why do my shoulders bleed and show marks below the skin when doing shoulder exercises?


Any ideas folks?

I think these are more likely from the calf raises..... was it a standing machine with the pads that rest on your shoulders??

I got identical marks the other day from my gyms calf machine. Guess I must have pinched the skin or something (i.e. if you have your arms raised and holding onto the handles for stabilisation).

Good idea but I didn't do standing calf raises, they were sitting raises.

Some dude was hogging the standing calf raise machine for a shoulder workout!

[Ordinary_Chap]

Pvapour said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

DownUnder. said:

Lee, really not trying to sound rude here but something about you confuses me.

On chest days you bench slightly less than me however your fly's are nearly double what I can do. Is there any reason for this or is it just a strong point for you?

Good progress by the way always enjoy the updates in this thread!

I have a unusual balance of strength to be honest and my coach has been helping me correct this. I think this is down to the very specific training I did in the military which has lead me to being unbalanced.

And thanks!

looking at Lees images I'd say his front delt development is superior to his pecs, hence his stability & greater strength with flyes, weirdly military press would do this but have no idea if this is where the exercise got its name from or even if Lee did lots whilst in the military.

Good to see its going well Lee.

I'm down 2kg in body weight since the 2 week HIIT and revised diet, LBM, strength & vital measurement stable, 1.5% BF drop.

Done any reading yet?

got some software to track things, free demo had me buying. http://www.dietcontroller.com/

eta: agree on calf machine, i get the same, you can get it with shoulder press as well though if you have a tendency to drop the weight to your trap cushion.

Edited by Pvapour on Friday 15th April 21:54

Hey good to see you around in here, was wondering where you'd disappeared to!

Are you going to update your thread with your results?

[Ordinary_Chap]

Pvapour said:

will do but got 10 days to prepare an old disused farmhouse to live in at the mo, so a little busy

as much I can do to control diet & training tbo, still, some good fat burn going on

+ I'd like it to run for 4 weeks before entering as any misleading water losses will be balanced out

Edited by Pvapour on Friday 15th April 22:14

Hey it would be great to see some progress pics around the new gym!

When I reduce carbs my initial weight loss is epic!

[Ordinary_Chap]

60 Mins SSCV @ 6am across the beach first thing.

Legs tonight.

Leg extensions 3 x 8 @ 70kg
Squat 1 x 10 @ 80kg, 3 x 8 @ 125kg
Leg press 3 x 8 @ 200kg
Reverse leg curl 3 X 8 @ 50kg

It all started well and after a weekend break I was feeling strong then during my 2nd set of squats my trousers gave much to the hilarity of everyone behind me. It was hard to finish that set with everyone including all of the girls laughing hard at me! But like a trooper I continued and by the end of the set of squats I'd gone from a small tear right round to being able to see my front lunch box area! ahem.....




Thats 4 sets of trousers in 6 weeks I've wrecked with my increasing leg size. I think my legs are growing quite well due to a complete lack of real training up until recently.

[Ordinary_Chap]

So today was a Chest/Tricep day, I felt tired today and really struggled through the workout tonight.

6am SSCV - 1 hour on the beach

Tonight;
Bench Press 1 x 10 @ 40kg then, 3 x 8 @ 80kg
Incline flys 3 x 8 @ 30kg (dumbbells)
Incline dumbbell press 3 x 30kg
Tricep push down 3 x 8 @ 60kg
Dips 3 x maximum

I also weighed myself purely out of curiosity and I'm down to 88kg which seems to be a rapid drop, its clearly not fat that has been lost so I think I've probably run myself down with some excessive training. I'm going to have tomorrow off to rest I think!

[Ordinary_Chap]

So I said I was going to take today off but, well, I woke up at my normal CV time (5:50am) without the aid of my alarm clock and spontaneously decided to go anyway even though my body was pleading with me to stay in bed! I've never been very good at slacking to be honest.





The beach was very pretty this morning with the way the sun was beaming out through the clouds. This thread is almost turning into a photoblog!

[Ordinary_Chap]

So as of Wednesday my body decided to play up with an old medical condition returning (something I've had issues with for most of my life), training doesn't cause this but its something that raises its ugly head every so often much to my angst! Please don't ask what it is as I'd prefer to keep it to myself but the long and short of it is, I need to rest up and look after myself when my body does this so I've been consuming a fair bit of food and not training since then and won't return to training until Tuesday.

It's one of the reasons why I always mock folk who are being pussies and not training because they are 'tired' or some other nonsense excuse. Try having a medical problem and continuing to train and then you'll get some sympathy. I don't consider myself unfortunate for a second when you look at folk with disabilities or sever health problems I've got it easy really.

So anyway I've lost a week out of the 12 week program when I get back to it so I'm going to experiment with my diet and have a bit of fun taking new approaches to catch up for lost time.

I'm up 4lbs this week and I am inclined to believe most of it will be fat from not training and eating plenty more so lets see what I can do to catch back up. I'm about 6lbs heavier than I'd expected (based on usually losing 2lbs per week).

[Ordinary_Chap]

So here's a comparison of what I've done over the past 4-5 weeks.

Start pic


Update



Getting better but still a long way to go and in addition to that I'm looking puffy from all of the carbs and illness since wednesday so if when back into the zone I do look much slimmer than those pics.

I'm also at 14 stone 3 now so just over a stone in lost weight since I started.

[Ordinary_Chap]

Working class said:

Looking awesome already mate!

Thanks but I don't agree, I've got another 1/2-1 stone to lose yet, although given we are only 24 days into this I should be able to manage that.

I'm going to experiment with keto using Lyle McDonald's approach (The Ketogenic Diet, for anyone interested google for the name + PDF although I've bought a copy) as a nod to this brilliant mans work.

I'm hoping if I'm well I will be able to make stark changes over the final two months!