Journey to being jacked | Beginner's Log

Also, I have a question regarding my overhead press. Last workout I did 5x5 at 25kg and on a Thursday I’d like to increase this a little but there are only 2.5kg plates at the gym. How else can I increase this lift on thursday? I can’t get fractional plates at the moment, unfortunately.

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Do more reps. Or sets. Or do them better.

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What @dagill2 said. You can also do explosive up and controlled negative during your reps to increase TUT (Time Under Tension).

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11 Jan
Pull

BB Deadlift
3x5 60kg
1x5 65kg
2x4 65kg (miscounted this so did an extra set)

Iso-lateral row
3x10 50kg
Seated Cable row
12 - 10 - 10 at 37.5kg

DB one arm row
10 - 8 - 9 15kg

Lat Pulldown
5x5 40kg

Hammer Curl
8 - 10 - 10 12kg

Bicep curl
3x12 10kg

All in all a great workout. Gonna keep an eye on my weight this week. I’ve weighed in at 75 for 2 days in a row and worried I may not be eating enough.
Sa 75.4
Su 76 (after eating 4000cal)
Mo 75
Tu 75.

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Don’t worry too much about day to day weigh ins. I weights 217.8lb yesterday and 220 this morning, but throughout the week, I’ll still watch my weight drop as I’m cutting.

At 4000cal daily, you’re most likely still gaining - just keep tracking it throughout the week and compare weekly averages.

How much protein are you eating? At 75kg you should be anywhere from 135g -150g daily (1.8g/kg to 2.2g/kg)

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Ok perfect, I won’t pay too much attention to that. My average weight has been steadily increasing though quite abit - think I gained 1.5kg’s in the first 2 weeks. From what I understand that is mainly water?

Re calories, I only do the 4000cals once a week. It’s 2800 for every other day. My protein intake is north of 130g almost everyday, so that seems with in your range. I’m definitely gonna start taking whey soom though because the eggs needed to get to this point can be quite a lot.The only thing I’m a bit worried about is that my fats seem to be quite high and I sometimes battle to get my carbs over 320g. I’m unintentionally low carb at home because we don’t eat much pasta or rice.

There’s no great way of understanding what this weight is, but if your lifts are increasing - you can trust your muscles are getting bigger.
I believe in tracking your weight to use as a general guide, but it is subjective. If you are making progress, the mirror is usually the best method to track, but pictures are even better.

Fats were vilified by some shitty scientists in the 60s, most of which has been debunked - but not advertised as such. Nothing wrong with being higher in fats and lower in carbs. I’d give advice for how to increase carb intake but honestly I’ve never once needed to. I think if you’re within the realm of your calroie intake goals with enough protein - your carb/fat ratio is a little irrelevant for now. A lot of people do better on lower carb/ higher fat diets anyhow.

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Ok yeah, I’ve definitely seen an increase in the weights I’m lifting so must be at least partly muscle size. I think I’m seeing some changes in the pics, but I’m not sure cause I don’t think any of them are significant and could likely be just me overanalysing.

100% was undereating massively. My maintenance is actually 3.1k. I calculated it assuming initially that I did little physical activity (1-2 days) because that was my starting point. But I’ve been consistently exercising 6days a week so I suppose that countts as intense exercise. So I’m just gonna eat like about 300 cal or so and eat approximately 3.4 - 3.5k cal every day. I’d rather gain a bit of extra fat and monitor it closely than loose any gains cause I’m eating in a deficit. I kinda see how some bulking programs can have guys drinking gallons of milk and eating tonnes of chicken, rice - you need tonnes of food to really bulk, even leanly. The foods definitely the least of my concerns though cause I love cooking.

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12 Jan
Legs

Squat (Barbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 12 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 30 kg x 10 [Warm-up]
Set 3: 40 kg x 8 [Warm-up]
Set 4: 45 kg x 5
Set 5: 45 kg x 5
Set 6: 45 kg x 5
Set 7: 45 kg x 5
Set 8: 45 kg x 5
Set 9: 35 kg x 8

Romanian Deadlift (Barbell)
Set 1: 30 kg x 12
Set 2: 30 kg x 12
Set 3: 30 kg x 12

Shrug (Barbell)
Set 1: 30 kg x 12
Set 2: 30 kg x 12
Set 3: 30 kg x 12

Leg Press (Machine)
Set 1: 80 kg x 11
Set 2: 80 kg x 12
Set 3: 80 kg x 10

Seated Leg Curl (Machine)
Set 1: 45 kg x 10
Set 2: 45 kg x 10
Set 3: 45 kg x 8

Leg Extension (Machine)
Set 1: 35 kg x 10
Set 2: 35 kg x 12
Set 3: 35 kg x 12

Standing Calf Raise (Machine)
Set 1: 52.5 kg x 16
Set 2: 52.5 kg x 16
Set 3: 52.5 kg x 16

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Push
Thursday, Jan 13, 2022

Bench Press (Barbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 12 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 30 kg x 12 [Warm-up]
Set 3: 40 kg x 10
Set 4: 40 kg x 10
Set 5: 40 kg x 10

Overhead Press (Barbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 8 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 20 kg x 8 [Warm-up]
Set 3: 25 kg x 5
Set 4: 25 kg x 5
Set 5: 25 kg x 5
Set 6: 25 kg x 5
Set 7: 25 kg x 5
Set 8: 25 kg x 5

Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 26 kg x 12
Set 2: 26 kg x 10
Set 3: 26 kg x 10

Triceps Pushdown
Set 1: 35 kg x 12
Set 2: 35 kg x 11
Set 3: 35 kg x 10

Lateral Raise (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 6 kg x 16
Set 2: 6 kg x 16
Set 3: 6 kg x 16

Triceps Extension (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 13 kg x 10
Set 2: 13 kg x 8
Set 3: 13 kg x 8

Lateral Raise (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 6 kg x 15
Set 2: 6 kg x 15
Set 3: 6 kg x 15

Ok workout, dropped a bit in my reps on Incline BP and the tricep work felt unusually difficult. This morning I woke up feel incredibly hungry and lacking energy, so I’ll see how it goes the next few days now that I’m eating lots more food!

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I would suggest doing Incline bench before flat bench as it’s an all around better muscle builder. My opinion is biased though, I skip flat bench entirely. For many people though, bench is btheir favorite exercise so it’s mostly perspective.
Dips are a much better exercise than flat bench if your shoulders can manage.

Just my 2 cents

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Thanks, should I be doing incline barbell as well as incline dumbbell?

Either/ both work fine. Learning the movement pattern with dumbbels first is a good idea, but so is adding weight onto the bar.

I don’t know if it’s beneficial to do one over the other in your situation right now

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Pull
Friday, Jan 14, 2022

Deadlift (Barbell)
Set 1: 60 kg x 5 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 60 kg x 5
Set 3: 65 kg x 5
Set 4: 65 kg x 5
Set 5: 65 kg x 5
Set 6: 65 kg x 5

Dumbbell Row
Set 1: 15 kg x 12
Set 2: 15 kg x 10
Set 3: 15 kg x 10

Seated Cable Row
Set 1: 37.5 kg x 12
Set 2: 37.5 kg x 12
Set 3: 37.5 kg x 12

Iso-Lateral Row (Machine)
Set 1: 50 kg x 12
Set 2: 50 kg x 10
Set 3: 50 kg x 9

Lat Pulldown (Cable)
Set 1: 40 kg x 5
Set 2: 40 kg x 5
Set 3: 40 kg x 5
Set 4: 40 kg x 5
Set 5: 40 kg x 5

Hammer Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 12 kg x 12
Set 2: 12 kg x 12
Set 3: 12 kg x 10

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)
Set 1: 12 kg x 8
Set 2: 12 kg x 10
Set 3: 12 kg x 10

Pretty great workout today. Very happy with my progress on the deadlift.

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Legs
Saturday, Jan 15, 2022

Notes: not as great a day today - was feeling quite drained On back squats and had to drop the weight a bit. I did some goblet squats at the end cause I had a bit of a second wind. Relieved I have a rest day tomorrow.

Seated Leg Curl (Machine)
Set 1: 45 kg x 10
Set 2: 45 kg x 10
Set 3: 45 kg x 10

Squat (Barbell)
Set 1: 20 kg x 12 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 30 kg x 10 [Warm-up]
Set 3: 45 kg x 5
Set 4: 45 kg x 5
Set 5: 40 kg x 5
Set 6: 40 kg x 5
Set 7: 40 kg x 5

Romanian Deadlift (Barbell)
Set 1: 30 kg x 10 [Warm-up]
Set 2: 35 kg x 8
Set 3: 35 kg x 8
Set 4: 35 kg x 8

Leg Press (Machine)
Set 1: 80 kg x 12
Set 2: 80 kg x 12
Set 3: 80 kg x 10

Leg Extension (Machine)
Set 1: 35 kg x 12
Set 2: 35 kg x 12
Set 3: 35 kg x 12

Standing Calf Raise (Machine)
Set 1: 52.5 kg x 16
Set 2: 52.5 kg x 16
Set 3: 52.5 kg x 16

Goblet Squat
Set 1: 11 kg x 9
Set 2: 12 kg x 8
Set 3: 12 kg x 8
Set 4: 12 kg x 8

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You did hard deadlifts yesterday. It would be weird if that DIDN’T affect your squats today.

Can I suggest a slight change to your training schedule?
What you’re doing:
Push
Pull
Legs
Push
Pull
Legs
Off

What I recommend:
Pull
Push
Legs
Off
Pull
Push
Legs
Off

I did this for quite some time to separate squats and deads while still getting in 5-6 sessions every week. It’s up to you here, but if you can avoid 'bad workouts due to recovery - it may help.

Food for thought

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Ok, I’ll give this a try next week definitely. I definitely noticed that today I felt very depleted although I did not necessarily have very sore muscles. And also, I’m quite happy with the 5x5 deadlift - it’s quite challenging and really making me think about how I’m moving my body, so don’t wanna cut down on that just yet.

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Good, don’t cut down on deads or squats - just try to space them such that you can do both a little better. With

you always have at least 2 days between deadlifts and squats. This won’t work for long, when either your squats or deadlifts stall on progression for 2 weeks or so - it’s time to change

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Progress.
3 weeks into lifting, I’m feeling pretty good! I’ve never felt this fit before, and I’m definitely intending on carrying on with this lifestyle for at least the next year. Beyond that point, I’ll leave to the distant future.

Anyway, some progress pics (2 weeks since the last.
Front:


Back:

Side:

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