johnnyfantastic's training journal

[JohnnyFantastic]

my story:
i'm 5'6", and i believe i peaked at around 204/205 lbs - so i was a pretty fat guy. since february of this year i've really started to take care of my body, through eating right, riding my bike to and from work, exercising, lifting and i stopped drinking. this morning i weighed in around 151.5 lbs, so i've lost roughly 50 lbs this year. i don't know what my bf % is, i would guess between 13-14% or so.

i'm starting the 24 workout mass blitz tonight. my goal for right now is to put on a good base layer of muscle in the next 6 or so weeks, and re-evaluate at the beginning of september if i need to move on to a maintenance phase or if i can continue to gain.

i have a few potential problems as i see them:
1) i ride my bike to and from work most days of the week, which amounts to 42km/day with some good size hills. so performing a good workout on my quads may be tough.

2) i've drastically reduced my caloric intake - i'm being much smarter about what, when and how i eat - so i have a bit of a psychological barrier to break in order to eat enough to gain mass, and i would rather sacrifice muscle gains than gain excess fat (so i need to do a clean bulk diet).

in terms of supplements/diet, i'll be using whey protein, glutamine and a multi-vitamin, but that's about it. the rest will be real food. i figure it's been a while since i've trained seriously, so my body should react pretty well to this workout blitz with just those supplements.

overall, my diet generally looks like:
7:00 oatmeal
9:30 protein drink
12:00 lunch (changes every day, but is real food)
4:00 cereal
7:00 dinner
10:00 post-workout protein drink

it's been a while since i had a serious routine in the gym, so i'm starting over as a beginner. any and all advice is welcome! wish me luck [img]/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Fahsy]

Congrats on droping 50 lbs!

However, if you want to build muscle now, you diet could use some work. A few comments:

-Have a protein source with you oatmeal in the morning (whey or eggs are probably the easiest)
-Have a balanced meal at 9:30 (ie- a protein shake and a peanut butter sandwhich)
-Make sure lunch is a also a balanced meal
-Get rid of the cereal. Either have oatmeal and some protein or some other balanced meal.
-What's in your PWO drink, whey/dex/malto? You should try to get a meal in before bed but after you PWO shake.

[JohnnyFantastic]

thanks for the tips! i'll change up my diet to incorporate your suggestions...

oh, my PWO is just malto/dextro/whey/water, glutamine at the beginning, and that's about it.

monday was my first chest/shoulders/triceps workout -

chest: i need to work on my explosiveness
shoulders: i was failing after 3 reps on all of my descending sets except the last one, then i could go to 6 reps (but my shoulders were dead after this)
triceps: i'm just working by myself so i can't add any additional weight when doing behind the back dips - my triceps were still getting a good workout, but i may need to change this up to blast them

cardio: 45 minutes bike in and 1:15 bike home

the day after i felt fine, but today i can really feel it like i haven't felt in a long time - it feels good

[JohnnyFantastic]

day off yesterday, so i just did cardio
45 minutes bike in to work
45 minutes bike home - although i tweaked my knee playing baseball the other day, i couldn't finish my ride. i iced the knee last night, i'm keeping off it today, and if all goes well i should still be able to get a leg day in tomorrow

tonight is my first back/biceps/forearms workout, we'll see how many pullups i can do now that i'm so much lighter than before [img]/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[badblood909]

Hey dude...

Great work on losing the 50lbs, now let's see if you can put them back on in muscle [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Whether you're bulking or cutting, you need to include protein in each and every meal, this is not just for "us bodybuilders", remember, protein with every meal.

If possible, don't workout at night, how about you go to sleep early and workout before work? I realize this might be very hard for you, but just in case.

I personally would not recommend something like the 24 week mass blitz for a "base", how experienced are you? What are your lifts like?

Good luck.

[JohnnyFantastic]

i'm doing pretty well with my diet i think - protein every meal, for the most part from real food and protein shakes a few times a day. my job has me in at work before 7:00am, so i'm already getting up at 5:30am just to get in on time. if it's really much better i could get to the gym for 5:00am, spend an hour and then head in to work.

i guess i'm really starting from scratch, i need a good base. at my peak i was probably doing 150lbs bench press, 225 squats and 190 dead lifts... honestly, i never really kept good notes, or really lifted with a goal/strategy in mind. i'm trying to change that now... in terms of my level, i'm starting over as a novice. with that said i've always had fairly good form/discipline for not cheating...

so, if anyone has any recommendations for a solid base bulk workout routine i'm more than interested. i suppose i should also figure out my BF% and set a real goal to reach. thanks for the replies!

[badblood909]

I'm sure many people will disagree here, but I believe a strength based routine is the best thing anyone can do to build a solid base

Just look at some of the journals here to get an idea of what's that like.

Regardless of what you do, always focus on the big compound movements first, isolation exercises are complementary at the novice level.

[Boka]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure many people will disagree here, but I believe a strength based routine is the best thing anyone can do to build a solid base

Just look at some of the journals here to get an idea of what's that like.

Regardless of what you do, always focus on the big compound movements first, isolation exercises are complementary at the novice level.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good advice badblood.

Johnny all the best to you on reaching your goals.

[JohnnyFantastic]

i just got a set of calipers, so i'm going to check on my bodyfat % tonight. i haven't been eating as much as i should for a bulk, just because i'm scared of gaining back fat. so measuring my bf% should help me overcome that psychological barrier.

last night i had an off night trying to do back/biceps/forearms... i did make it through all of my sets but it was a mental struggle for sure.

wide-grip chins: 10/8/6 + 5 negatives

close-grip chins: 5/6/5 + 5 negatives

bent over rows: 70x12/70x10/60x8
superset with bent-over dumbbell laterals: 12x10, 10x10, 10x10

concentration curls: (30x10, 20x8, 10x6)

standing dumbbell curls: 35x10/35x8/35x6

lying dumbbell curls: 20x12/20x10

wrist curls: 35x10/35x10

overall it was extremely hard to push through this workout... tonight i have legs, i hope it goes a bit better. i'm going to try to be a bit more diligent about keeping track of my reps/weights.

[JohnnyFantastic]

i felt better doing my leg workout, much more focused and intense.

squats: 15x65 warm up, 115x12/135x10/155x8
superset with sissy squats: 10/8/6

dumbbell lunges: 20x12/20x10/35x8/35x6

leg curl machine: (110x6,90x10,60x12)/(100x10,60x8)

standing calf raise machine: (215x10,155x10,95x10)/(175x10,115x10)