Hello, Intro and Background

I just wanted to say Hi to everyone on the forums and introduce myself. My name is Adrian, I am from Illinois. I am 6’0 weighing 190ilbs at 14%BF. Ive only been strength training for a little under 2 years. Before that I was a fat ass, weighing 280ilbs. I managed to lose the weight, and the self-discipline I learned from the dieting carried over to my life.

Moving from 280 to 170 was a big positive change. I was even able to play varsity soccer my senior year of high school because of it. Although I was alot more happier with my physique than when I was obese, I was kind of scrawny (or at least I thought I was, especially compared to being used to being huge) and wanted to gain some muscle (of course who dosn’t right?).

So it began. I started learning as much about weightlifting as I could by reading a shit load. Especially, a bunch of the articles here on T-Nation. With overall great advice from all of their authors, and especially from my favorite authors such as Dave Tate, Polquin, Thibaudeau I have been able to experience great results. I went from struggling to put up 95 on the bench press, to being able to put up 225. Not that impressive but a milestone for me on my way to 315. Raw Squat 315, and raw deadlift nearly 405 (lockout issues).

My training has been very diverse. It went from me owning two 30 pound dumbells and curling them every day. To a bodybuilder type split. Then I read about the 5x5 powerlifting training and of course I had to implement it. It lead to great strength gains. Recently, I have been doing some cluster sets, and rest-pause. Overall, now my training takes a periodization approach.

However, I mostly have been emphasizing 2 types: muscule gain, and CNS intensive. For gaining muscle, I will typically work out 4 or 5 days a week, twice a day. Hitting the same muscle group twice a day, and allowing 5-8 days before it is hit again. The rep range is usually 5-10, but I throw in plenty of rest-pause, drop sets, occasional partials, and im loving/hating isometric holds.

For CNS intensive I will usually work in the 1-3 rep range, working at 80%+ of my 1RM. And when I do both types I always try to throw in some athletic training, like box jumps, sprints in place of heavy lower body lifting, high knees, side shuffles, jump rope etc. Ive also done a bunch of boxing/mma/jiu jitsu, and try to use these as forms of cardio. I love playing tennis and soccer in the summer. I am also very fortunate to have a weider squat rack in my basment, where I do all of my working out when I am back at home(I am a college student), and do all my other working out at my school’s rec center.

Hope I didn’t put anyone asleep, and I look forward to chatting with you all.

Welcome to the Nation.

[quote]adrian01 wrote:
I am 6’0 weighing 190ilbs at 14%BF. Ive only been strength training for a little under 2 years. Before that I was a fat ass, weighing 280ilbs.[/quote]

Hoe-lee-shit. Fantastic job so far, now stick with it and get that muscle built. We’re here if you’ve got any questions.

Came to the right place…

Congrats on the fat loss, and also can you put down your routine? or training log?

Thanks in advance

As of right now I dont have a workout schedule that is set in stone, rather I go by a semi-structured template with personal variatons depedning on whatever training goal I have, but I can still give everyone a good idea what my typical training looks like.

Day1 Monday Session 1 a.m.
Bench Press-6 working sets with reps:5-3-2-1-1-1
Dips- 10 sets x 5 reps, or stopping whenever reps slow down.

Session 2 p.m.- Advanced technique bench (slow negatives, rest-pause, drop set, higher reps up to 30) bascially anything to shock my muscles. Also sometimes I set the bar on the saftey pins and just press in from any given position.
Incline/Uppper Chest exercise (flys or incline bench.)

Tuesday Session 1 a.m.
Squat- work up to 80%+ 1RM and do 10 reps with about 1-2 minutes rest between reps. I squat in a squat rack, and right now I have been lowering myself to the saftey pins, setting the bar on it, then squatting back up. Eliminating the momentum. This and box squats have been making my raw squat go up alot.
HIIT sprints, box jumps, and alot of just jumping in place, or jumping out of a squat position (one of my secondary training goals is to increase my verticle jump)

Session 2 p.m.
Front Squats (usually 5sets of 7) or hex bar deadlifts (some heavier sets or grinding out 20 reps stopping at the top and breathing)
If im not fried by now ill throw in some Leg extensions.
Ab raises

Weds- Off- some active recovery- light jogging, bodyweight squat, shoveling the snow off my driveway. Or if im feeling lazy and burned out then full day of rest.

Thursday- a.m. session 1
Bicep Pullups- 10 sets of 5 (stopping the set as soon as reps start to slow down) sometimes Ill throw in some negative only, and other times ill really emphasize my biceps to pull me up.
Military press- about 10 sets starting with 10 reps and moving down to about 5. Usually I do them strict, and towards the lasts sets start doing push press.
Lat Pulldown- but with my arms the same way as the pullups, much more narrower. I usually emphasisze pulling the bar with my back and lats for as many reps as I can, than switch over to relying on my bicep to pull it down, and also do static holds at various parts of the ROM.

p.m session
Barbell curls- usually 6-10 working sets rep range 5-10.
Barbell row or dumbell row- about 6 working sets, I never really throw in any fancy techniques for these since they are fairly new. Sometimes with dumbell rows I do some higher reps (thanks Kroc).

Friday- off day/active recovery

Saturday- Abdominal focus
Ab raises
Also, Im not sure what its called but on the Ab raise thing
when you take your feet and move them up so they are pointing out straight in front of you (hah I dont know if thats the best description).
And I just up on a boxing bag wrap my feet around it hang upside down and do sit ups.
And finish up with ab crunch machine.

Sunday- Rest

Restart cycle, but replace Tuesdays workout with deadlift workout. Various stances working up to a single. Then hitting some singles 1-5 times.
Good mornings.
Additional ab work similar to saturday.

So this is how my training pretty much is. After a few weeks I will usually cycle the order of the exercises in my workout, and the rep ranges. Any comments/criticism and feedback would be greatly appreciated.