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Mark's training log.

Training Logs
#1

3rd time lucky, will be keeping this log for tracking my progress and as a way to keep me on the right path for training. More than willing to listen to any T-Nation members who are willing to chime in and give advice/critique.

What has brought me to making this log:
-Got up to 104kg BW playing rugby and didn’t feel comfortable
-Coming back from tendinitis which caused a long hiatus(Thread is in injury forum, thanks again)
-Wanting to do a body recomp. and lose fat
-Get into good shape for next season
-Push some big weight

Admittedly, in the past, I am not one for counting macros. I just ate to bulk and get big, now things are different, I looked into a low carb diet and upon consultation with a good friend we decided since I’m going to be training 2 times a day I can afford to have high amount of carbs. The diet is simple and cheap, exactly what a student needs:

9AM- 80g Oats with scoop and a half of protein

Training AM

12PM- 80g Oats with scoop and a half of protein

3PM- 80g Pasta with 200g chicken breat

Training PM

6PM- 80g Oats with scoop and a half of protein

9PM- 80g Rice with 150g of chicken

Today is day 1 of the diet, I think its around 3000 cals, close to 300g of carbs and close to 300g of protein. I will get around to posting pics for credibility and I will getting my bodyfat checked every week.

#2

20/6/13

Thursday AM
-Compound Set
Bench Press x 4 > Wide push ups x 6 > Close grip push ups x 6
Bench was done at 95kg. 6 sets of this.

DB shoulder press
20kg 5 sets of 8

Lateral raises
5 sets of 10

Pec dec
5 sets of 8

Thursday PM
Chins BW 6 x 6

Bentover row
Worked up to 90kg x 4

Shrugs superset with reverse flys
5 x reps

Planks and wood-chops to finish up today, sweat was rolling off me.

Supplements:
Whey
Creatine
Fatburners (new as of today)

Should note I take a multi vit, fish oils and vit c in the morning.

#3

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Here’s what meal 3 looks like, I forgot to mention that I’m not including veggies as they wont be making much of a difference to the calorie count they are however essential I feel and I will be having some veggies with both meal 3 and my last meal.

Training today

Friday AM

Low incline bench (wide grip) x 6 @85kg
Superset
Wide span push ups x 10
5 sets of this

Incline DB shoulder press x 8
Superset
Plate raises x 10

BW Chins
3 x 8

DB row
5 x 8 @ 35kg

Notes: my shoulder feels a bit tender ATM and I noticed some clicking or popping sound when I was doing the DB shoulder press, What is this and what should I do for it?

Training PM

Sumo Deadlift
4 x 6-8 @ 100kg
1 x 15 @ 100kg

Squats
Worked up to 5 x 100kg for a set. Very happy with this, my first time squatting two places since my knee injury.

Split Squats
3 sets of 10 for each @ BW

notes: No real weight was moved in the afternoon session but I’m taking it slow with my knee, here’s hoping to being injury free for a long long time. Also, I’m worried about my shoulder should I do some prehab work?

#4

22/6/13
Trap bar deads with no descending movement (just did these to work on explosiveness)
5 x 3 @ 110kg

Single leg step up
3 x 8

Power cleans
20+ x 3 @ 60kg (yeah that’s 20’s sets with little to no rest, me and the trainer partner got into a bit of a competition, it’s cardio if nothing else)

Calf raises
superset
Leg raises
4 x 15

Prowler+ 20kg
6 x 20 metres

Sweating!!

#5

23/6/13
Went up to the pitch and did:

10 Sprints to the 22
lots of stretching
kicking
light jogging
2 sprints to the halfway line

doesn’t look like much but I only brought one ball kicking so I was jogging after it for about an hour.

Lowered my carbs slightly this day.

24/6/13

Monday AM

DB bench press
6 x 6 @ 35kg

DB incline bench press (normally I use a barbell but it was being used)
6 x 10 @ 25kg

V shoulder press (I don’t know how to execute these, feel so unnatural)
6 x 8 @10kg

Dips
5 x 8 @BW

Monday PM

DB row
6 x 12 @ 40kg

Shrugs
superset
Upright row
6 x 10

Was suppose to be doing lat pulldown here but I couldn’t get to the machine so I did core instead

Leg raises
3 x 15

Woodchops
3 x 15

Sit ups
3 x 12

Notes:
Today I was completely exhausted, felt like I was crashing multiply times. I also calculated the distance I normally I cycle to the gym and back on the bike, it adds up to 12 miles each day… Should this be factored into my diet? For now I wont change it

#6

Last post was long please tell me it shows up…

#7

Well fuck… Not going to bother writing up my training for the two days because I have already done so.
Cliff notes:

-5x5 @ 90kg on incline today

-dropped 2.5% bodyfat since last Wednesday only dropped just over 1kg bodyweight

-my knee is sore today, feels niggly, like it did at the start of the tendinitis so I did lots of stretching and mobility

-only training once tomorrow

#8

01/07/13

So I’ve been having difficulty posting updates… he goes another attempt.

-Stag on Saturday, holy hell I think I’m still hungover.

Monday AM

DB rows
6 x 6 @ 45kg

Latpulldown
superset
reverse grip pull down
6 x 8

Shrugs and reverse curls
4 x 15

Hanging leg raises
4 x 15

Monday PM

DB bench press
6 x 6 @ 40kg

Incline bench press (I was just messing around with the angle of the bench and I raised it higher than usual I felt it a lot more in my shoulders but still hit my upper chest)
4 x 12

Decline bench (I haven’t hit these in a year and half maybe, kept the weight light and got a ridiculous pump, I will keep these)
3 x 20

Dips
4 x 10 @ BW

Notes:
-When I don’t mention the weight on the exercise it’s because its nothing heavy and probably not worth mentioning.
-Bodyfat being check on Wednesday, hopefully Saturday wont have affected me too much.
-Lots of work to do outside training but I will still be getting sessions in.

#9

Update for today and yesterday.

-Yesterdays AM session was decent, lots of single legged squats and leg pressing. Finished up with some core. The PM session wasn’t worth talking about, felt pretty shitty leaving the gym. I did however do some T-bar rows, first time in a long time doing these, felt great.

-Today AM I got my bodyfat checked, down roughly 2% this week (happy-ish with this, considering I was on the beer Saturday and didn’t eat clean or train all weekend.) BW @ 97.2kg

-PM some arms and core, it’s arms, not worth mentioning. I just don’t want to look like I’ve strings of spaghetti when dieted down.

My goal is to be 9-9.5% BF by the end of the summer going into the season hoping my BW can be around 95kg for that.

#10

04/07/2013

Felt really shitty today. It’s like I’ve been getting the bare minimum of a flu and it’s just been lying on the peripheral waiting to strike for about a week now. Let’s hope it goes when the rumored good weather comes.

Only got one session in today due to college work, any electrical engineers out there hate programming as much as I do?

Eating today was poor, no hunger and college work got in the way.

Thursday PM
-Compound Set
Bench Press x 4 > Wide push ups x 6 > Close grip push ups x 6
Bench was done at 105kg. 6 sets of this. I felt weak on the bench today, 4 slow reps each time.

DB shoulder press
22.5kg 5 sets of 8

Incline DB
22.5kg 5 x 8

Lateral raises
4 sets of 10

Hanging leg raises
3 x 20

Notes: According to the calculations I’ve dropped ~4.5% bodyfat and I’ve put on 2kg of muscle in two weeks but yet I don’t think I look much different and I feel pretty shitty. Thoughts? Maybe because i’m still looking shitty haha

#11

Playing position Body fat Explosive power Speed
7 Skinfolds (mm) Vert Jump (cm) 10m (sec) 40m (sec)
Inside backs <56 (9%) 65 1.65 5.25
Outside backs <56 (9%) 68 1.68 5.10
Loose forwards <72 (10%) 62 1.72 5.30
Locks <90 (12%) 65 1.75 5.50
Hookers <72 (11%) 60 1.75 5.50
Props <96 (12%) 55 1.80 5.65

                                                          Strength	                           Anaerobic Capacity	                 Aerobic Capacity
                       	Bench Press (kg/kg.bw)	Squat (kg/kg.bw)	Repeat Sprint Ability (m)	Bleep Test (Level)	3km run (min/sec)

Inside backs 1.3 1.3 780 13.5 11.15
Outside backs 1.3 1.6 780 13.5 11.15
Loose forwards 1.3 1.6 760 13.0 11.45
Locks 1.5 1.6 750 12.5 12.15
Hookers 1.5 1.8 750 13.0 12.00
Props 1.5 1.8 720 11.5 12.45

Notes:
10m and 40m sprint must be executed on a rugby field.

Bench press and squat must be executed with an olympic bar.

Repeated sprint must be executed on a rugby field.

3km run must be executed with tekkies on tartan or tar.

This is what I use for guidelines, it’s the South African players minimum requirements for the 2007 world cup.

EDIT: This didn’t come out as I planned, I’m sure you can pick out the values all the same

#12

10/07/13

Weather is killer over here… so hot! Have only missed two sessions but i’ve made up for it with some other work (lots of kicking)

Pre-season is starting the 30th of July so I hope to get my bodyfat down more by then, speaking of which I dropped .8% this week. A lot lower than previous weeks but I think it’s going to start slowing up now but I know I didn’t go balls out this week diet or training wise.

Will log tomorrows workout, have been busy lately.

#13

11/07/13

Thursday AM
-Compound Set
Bench Press x 4 > Wide push ups x 6 > Close grip push ups x 6
Bench was done at 105kg. 6 sets of this, got a lift out for 4 of the sets, felt much better than last week.

DB shoulder press
20kg 5 sets of 8

Lateral raises
4 sets of 10

Decline Bench
3 x 20 (love the pump off these)

Sit ups
3 x 15

Thursday PM
Chins BW 6 x 7

T-bar row
warm up weight then
3 x 10 @60kg plus bar or whatever that is

Shrugs superset with reverse flys
5 x 12

AB roll outs (sweet jesus I haven’t done these in a long time)
4 x 8 so sore

#14

12/07/13
Low incline bench
5 x 6 @ 85kg (these felt great)
with
Wide span push ups x 10

Incline shoulder press x 8 (don’t like to go too heavy with shoulders)
with
forward raises x 8

Chins
3 x 8 @ BW

DB row
3 x 15 @ 35kg

Friday PM
Deadlifts
4 x 5 @ 140kg ( no chalk, very sweaty but my legs felt good, the good part of the workout ends here)

I tried messing around with some safety bar squats and such but my knee was sore, not ideal.)

AB rollouts
4 x 8

Notes:
-Got a sports massage this morning, she says my knee looks good but it doesn’t feel so good. Legs and back rubbed. Hopefully dropping bodyfat will reduce the stress on my knees.
-Forgot to take my fatburners before my workout took them this evening, absolutely soaked while typing this. It’s hot!!.
-Will post tomorrows workout because I will be doing academic stuff tomorrow evening/possibly going on the beer

#15

Saturday workout

A1) High Pull

B1) Box jumps
B2) Single leg step ups

C1) Trap Bar deads

then some calves

#16

Busy as hell lately. Still getting my workouts, still dropping bodyfat no loss in strength. Studying is taking up any time outside the gym.
Longer post tomorrow.
Pre-season starting the 23rd.

#17

Just replied to this in the “strongman rugby” thread! An awesome program!!! Keep it up mate the gains are great

You’ll be leaner and bigger if you eat enough!

Got any height/weight stats and what position do you play/team play for?