Fabadab's Gym Log

Terrible name, but just ‘Fabadab’s Log’ was too short…

I created a log last year but gave it up almost immediately, so I’m starting afresh for the 2020 T-ransformation challenge! I do keep a logbook when I’m in the gym, but having it on here too should hopefully keep me accountable.

I’m 6’ tall, and currently weigh just shy of 13.5st (189lbs/85.7kgs). Pics at this point are right here.

Ideally I’d like to be bigger, stronger, leaner, faster etc. etc., but for now I’m just aiming to see my abs whilst maintaining current muscle mass/strength (meagre though it is) as that suits this challenge. I’ll reevaluate in June.

Thursday 2nd January:

Chinups - 8 + 2.5 + 1

DB RDL - 10 @ 10s, 15s, 20s, 25, 9 @ 30s

WG cable row - 12 + 10 + 6 @ 38.75

EZ bar preacher curls - 11 + 3.5 + 2 @ 22.5

Rope hammer curls - 10 @ 8.75, 13.75, 9 @ 18.75

Notes
1m rest between sets of RDLs and hammer curls, rest-pause for all the others. Weighed in at 13st 6.2lbs in the morning. Will need to increase the cable row weight next time (Was only aiming for about 20 reps total) and reduce the preacher curls slightly. Been a while since I last did chinups, and I’m probably a bit heavier since then, so pretty happy to hit 8 on the first set.

Saturday 4th January (AM)

Roman chair knee raises - 3 x 10 + 30s plank

Dips - 8 + 4 + 2

DB lateral raises - 16 + 4.5 + 4.5 @ 5s

Leg extensions - 15 + 9 + 8 @ 50

Rope triceps extensions - 15.5 + 8 + 4 @ 18.75

Notes
Weighed in at 13st 7lbs in the morning. Planks were done immediately after each set of knee raises, with 1m rest after that. All other exercises were rest-pause. Also remembered to do stretches straight after each exercise this time. First time doing dips in years so happy with how they went- seemed to strain my tight shoulder a bit while I was doing them, but it felt fine afterwards. Probably need to make sure I don’t fully extend to keep tension on chest rather than triceps. Need to up the weight on the leg extensions next time, but otherwise the rest were in the right rep range.

Monday 6th January

Leg curls - 16 + 8 + 5.5 @ 50

Seated WG let pulldown - 8.5 + 6.5 + 4 @ 50?

Seated NG cable row - 9 + 6 + 4 @ 51.25

DB curls - 12 + 6 + 5 @ 9s

Notes
Weighed in at 13st 7.6lbs this morning, which gives a worryingly upwards trend… I was struggling to remember the reps almost as soon as I finished the exercises which led to me not recording the weights used on the last three. Rows and curls I could remember for sure, but can’t remember if the lat pulldown was 50 or 55kgs.

Wednesday 8th January

Med-ball twists - 4 x 10 (each way)

Goblet squats - 10 @ 15, 20, 25, 30

Seated DB press - 9 + 5 + 5? @ 15s

Chest press - 8 + 4 + 3 @ 55

EZ bar lying triceps extensions - 9 + 6 + 5 @ 25

Notes:
Weighed in @ 13st 5.2lbs in the morning, a movement in the right direction! 1 minute of rest between sets of twists and goblet squats, and then everything else was rest-pause. Did 30s side plank after each set of twists (so twice each side). Goblet squats weren’t the right movement, as I felt I couldn’t got any heavier due to core instability, rather than legs hitting their limit. Also substituted in chest press because someone was hogging the bench (they told me they had 5 sets left, but what they meant is they had 5 sets of rows, after which they were doing squats, after which they were doing overhead press…)

Friday 10th January

D-handle cable pulldown - 8 + 4.5 + 4 @ 50

Lying incline DB rows - 10 @ 15s, 17.5s, 20s, 12 @ 17.5s

Deadlifts - 10 @ 40, 8 @ 60, 6 @ 80, 90, 7@ 100, 12 @ 80

EZ bar curls - 14 + 7 + 6 @ 20

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 5.2lbs in the morning. 1m rest beyween sets of rows ans deadlifts, rest-pause for the others. Deadlifts were disappointing, although it’s annoying in this gym because you have to use these curved dampners rather than oukking straight from the floor, and if you don’t land or in the perfect place the bar rolls a bit, and you can have one side being pushed out in one direction or the other, so that makes things a little tricky. Curls were a tad light.

Monday 13th January

Leg raises (Roman chair) - 3 x 10

Standing WG press - 13 + 4 + 3.5 @ 35

DB bench press - 10.5 + 5 + 2.5 @ 20s

CG chest press - 9 + 4 + 3.5 @ ???

Leg press - 10 @ 40, 8 @ 60, 80, 9 @ 100, 7 @ 110, 13 @ 82.5

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 4lbs in the morning. 1m rest between sets of leg raises, and roughly 1m between sets of leg press (working in with someone else so didn’t time them). Chest press machine doesn’t seem right for me for either chest or triceps isolation, so think I’ll have to bin that altogether. Presses went better than expected, although I think seated might work better to control the lean.

Wednesday 15th January

Chinups - 8 + 3 + 1

WG cable row - 15 + 8? + 6.5 @ 40

DB RDL - 11 @ 30s, 8 @ 25s

EZ bar preacher curls - 14 + 4 + 2.5 @ 22.5

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 4lbs this morning. 1m rest hetween sets of RDLs, resr-pause for everutjing else. Really didn’t want to go to the gym, but still made the effort and stayed on track! This is thr first workout in the 2-week cycle that I’ve repeated, and I improved in everything which is good. Cable rows were too light, although I may have had a quicker tempo than last time. Low back got fried on heavy set of RDLs which is why I did fewer on the second set.

Saturday 18th January

Twist Situps - 3 x 10 + 30s plank after each set

Dips - 10 + 4 + 2

Lateral raises - 16.5 + 5.5 + 4 @ 5s

Leg extensions - 15 + 9 +7? @ 52.5

Rope triceps pulldowns - 25 + 7 + 5.5 @ 18.75

Notes:
AM workout. Weighed in at 13st 3.2lbs in the morning. 1m rest between sets up Situps, rest-pause on all other exercises. Good improvement in everything since last time. Did way better on triceps pulldowns, but I’m wondering if I did the reps slower last time (particularly on the first set) who would account for the difference.

Monday 20th January

Leg curls - 18.5 + 6.5 + 6.5 @ 50

Seated WG lat pulldown - 12 + 6.5 + 5.5? @ 60

Seated CG cable row - 10.5 + 5.5 + 4.5 @ 55

DB curls - 14 + 6 + 5.5? @ 9s

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 4lbs in the morning. All exercises were rest-paused. Clearly a day for pushing to failure given all the half reps! Felt like I had good intensity and improved on performance from 2 weeks ago all round. Also remembered to do stretches after ever exercise.

Wednesday 22nd January

RC knee raises - 3 x 10 + 30s plank after every set

Smith bench press - 9 + 6 + 4.5 @ 60

DB press - 11 + 5 + 4 @ 15s

Squats - 6 @ 40, 50, 60, 70

EZ bar lying triceps exts - 11 + 6 + 4.5 @ 27.5

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 4lbs this morning. Rest-pause on everything but squats. Much better exercise selection than last time. Bit disappointed with the squats, but my legs did feel tired from the very first set, which I’m thinking is probably just the effect of cycling straight from work.

Friday 24th January

D-handle pulldown - 11.5 + 4.5 + 3.5 @ 50

Deadlift - 8? @ 100, 15 @ 80

Lying incline DB rows - 12 @ 20s, 13.5 @ 17.5s

EZ bar curls - 16 + 6 + 4.5 @ 22.5

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 3.2lbs this morning. Lost count on the deadlifts- definitely hit at least 8, but might have been more. Did well on the backoff set too, so will up the weight next time. EZ bar curls are still too light, so they’ll need to go up.

Realised I shouldn’t have put squats and deadlifts on the same week, so I’ll have to shuffle things around to split them up.

Monday 27th January

Twist Situps - 3 + 10 + 30s plank each set

BTN Smith press - 9 + 5(x) @ 50

CG chest press - 7.5 + 3 + 2.5 @ 55

DB bench press - 13 + 5 + 2.5 @ 20s

Leg extensions - 13 + 9 + 7 @ 55

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 4.8lbs in the morning - diet was looser over the weekend, so an increase was expected. Rest pause on all exercises except for the situps. BTN presses seemed to aggravate my shoulders, particularly the right one, so shut that down early.

Thursday 30th January

Chinups - 9 + 3 + 1.5

WG seated cable row - 15 + 8.5 + 5.5 @ 45

DB RDL - 9 @ 32.5s, 8 @ 27.5s

EZ bar preacher curls - 8.5 + 2 + 1.5 @ 25

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 2.8lbs this morning- new low weigh in, which is nice! Rest pause on all exercises besides RDLs. Rows are still too light despite bumping them up from last week. RDLs seem to put straight in my lower back which is worrying, but I don’t feel it until after the set it over so it’s hard to tell what I’m doing wrong…

Saturday 1st February

Squats - 9 @ 70, 12 @ 55

Knee raises - 3 x 10 + 30s plank each set

Dips - 12 + 4 + 2.5

Lateral raises - 17.5 + 6 + 3.5 @ 5s

Rope triceps pulldowns - 14.5 + 6 + 3.5 @ 21.25

Notes:
AM workout. Weighed in at 13st 2.4lbs this morning (new low). Everything went up since last time, and squats were particularly better, although there are quite a few factors that probably helped (first exercise, no cycling beforehand etc.). Knees were coming in a bit in the last few reps though and they felt a bit sore afterwards, so I need to be stricter with my form. Back off set wasn’t anything special either. Rest pause on dips, lateral raises and triceps pulldowns.

1 month update pics as below- haven’t been able to compare side by side with the starting pics yet, but scrolling back and forth I think there is a fairly minor improvement, which makes sense given I’ve progressed ok in the gym and dropped just a few pounds. Still got the dropped shoulder issue to try and sort out…

I also took some measurements at the weekend which came out to:

Chest - 40"
Arms - 14.5" each (flexed)
Waist - 35" (not sure where this is supposed to be measured, so I just went round the fattest bit)

Didn’t take any of those measurements at the start, but it still allows me to track going forwards. I think a good result would be stable arm and chest measurements, with a fall in waist size.

20200202_204319

Monday 3rd February

Seated WG cable pulldown - 9 + 5.5 + 5 @ 55

CG cable row - 12.5 + 6 + 4.5 @ 55

Leg curls - 15 + 7.5 + 6.5 @ 52.5

DB curls - 20 + 6 + 4.5 @ 9s

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 3.4lbs this morning. Pretty pleased with this workout on the whole as everything felt good and moved up. Hamstrings felt crazily pumped after the leg curls (stretched for about 25s immediately after finishing last rep). Not slept brilliantly over the weekend and legs (quads) were really tired cycling to/from work today, but didn’t seem to impact anything in the gym.

Wednesday 5th February

Twist situps - 3 x 10 + 30s plank each set

Smith bench press - 10 + 4 + 2.5 @ 62.5

DB OHP - 10 + 4.5 + 2 @ 17.5s

Leg press - 8 @ 110, 13 @ 82.5

Lying EZ bar triceps exts - 9 + 6 + 3.5 @ 30

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 3lbs in the morning. 2m rest between top leg press sets, rest-pause for everything else. Elbows really didn’t like the triceps exts- think I need to go lighter and higher rep with these, and maybe really focus in slowing the negative too. I also did something weird on my warm-up OHP sets whete I think the DB was drifting backwards, causing my arm to twist back a bit… managed to hit the top set without issue though.

Friday 7th February

D-handle pulldowns - 12 + 6 + 5 @ 50

Lying incline DB rows - 10, 12, 10 @ 17.5s

Deadlifts - 10 @ 60, 8 @ 80, 10 @ 110

EZ bar curls - 13 + 6 + 4.5 @ 25

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 1.6lbs this morning, for a new low weigh in. 1m rest between sets of rows and deadlifts, rest-pause for the others. Bit of a meh workout because the weights I wanted always seemed to be in use so I was having to work around other people.

Monday 10 February

Knee raises - 3 x 10 + 30s plank after each set

Smith CG bench press - 6 + 3 + 1.5 @ 67.5

DB bench - 9 + 4 + 2.5 @ 22.5s

WG OHP - 6(x) @ 35

Leg extensions - 19 + 9 + 7 @ 55

Notes:
Weighed in at 13st 1.6lbs this morning. 1m rest on knee raises, rest-pause for everything else. CG bench press worked well, so happy to stick with that now, but shoulder exercise continues to be a bust- had to cut that short because it just wasn’t working. Very happy with leg exts result though!