History [updated 29/06/20]
- Ran 5/3/1 for Beginners and lost a bit of weight. Then ran Full Body, Full Boring and put it back on.
- Did a few more basic 5/3/1 templates and dropped from ~220lbs to 205ish.
- Ran a Brian Alsruhe Powerbuilder and put on some weight. Conditioning improved.
- Trained for and competed in a strongman show. Got stronger, but went up to 240lbs.
- Began a “get rugby ready” program in January 2020. Then all the rugby got cancelled because of Coronavirus.
- Completed Dan John’s 10,000 kettlebell swings challenge.
- Lockdown gave me no choice but to start doing more cardio. Ran Tactical Barbell Base Building, got some (still slow) 5K PBs and some distance PBs including a first 10K.
- Lost about 18lbs (8kg) during lockdown.
- Old shoulder injury came back to haunt me and I tore up some ligaments a few weeks before gyms reopened. Writing this update as I’m about to head to the gym for the first time in months and see how much weaker I’ve gotten…
Start-of-Log PRs
3x50kg (110lb) OHP
1x70kg (154lb) bench
2x90kg (198lb) squat
1x130kg (286lb) deadlift
Current PRs (February 2020):
1x65kg (143lb) OHP
1x85kg (187lb) bench
1x160kg (353lb) squat
1x202.5kg (446lb) deadlift
Original post
In 686 days I will be 30. At this point I would not like to be my current fat, weak and small self. The goal, therefore, is to be Batman By 30.
The main differences between myself and Batman
- My parents are both alive and well
- My super-intelligence pretty debatable
- My net worth is approx. 0.000004% that of Bruce Wayne
- My body fat is approx. 15 percentage points higher
- My combat abilities are non-existent
- My strength and conditioning levels also may as well be non-existent
I could change #1, but I’m not particularly willing to do so (even if it would help ever-so-slightly with #3). I think I smoked too much weed in my early twenties for #2, but I can at least work on points #4 through #6.
About me
Height: 6’3"/190cm
Weight: 214lbs/97kg
BF: 23-27% (looking to halve that)
Est. Powerlifting Total: 285kg/630lbs (looking to 2.5x that)
At the age of 28, with approx 25% bodyfat and an inability to run 5k I am in the best shape of my life.
I’ve never been anything close to fit. I didn’t really play sports as a kid and none of my friends did either. Well, one or two of them played cricket but that hardly counts.
The first time I picked up a barbell was 2014, when I did Stronglifts 5x5 for a few months before moving on to Ice Cream Fitness. I didn’t make much progress and gave up the whole endeavour for a while when things didn’t change overnight.
In late 2015 I started again, getting on a PPL routine with no conditioning work and a lot of fuckarounditis. I managed to put on some modicum of lean mass (not that you’d know if you’d not met me before; if you had met me before you’d probably know I’d looked a dumbbell once or twice) but remained fat and weak.
In September I moved to a new place (and country, actually) and for the past six weeks have been doing a conditioning-focused routine of lifting heavy things in supersets and sometimes running up a hill. Actually you know what, maybe I could run a 5k now…
My workout schedule
I’m running a Full Body 5/3/1 as follows:
Monday
Squats 5/3/1 + 3x5 FSL
Superset w/planks and rows
Bench 3x5
Superset w/chins and curls
Tuesday
Some form of hard conditioning work
Wednesday
Deadlift 5/3/1 w/3x5 FSL
Superset w/planks and curls
Press 5/3/1 w/FSL widowmaker
Superset w/chins and cable crunches
Thursday
Some form of hard conditioning
Friday
Bench 5/3/1 w/3x5 FSL
Superset w/chins and hyperextensions
Squat 3x5
Superset w/planks and rows
Saturday
30-45m easy cardio
Diet
Lots of meat, lots of whey, lots of vegetables, relatively few carbs, lots of water. I’m British, so probably lots of beer too on occasion but we’ll try to keep that to a minimum.
Future plans
I’m very keen to get into boxing or some other form of combat. A friend of mine has been doing boxing and BJJ for a while now and very much sold it to me.
My goal is general GPP, with the Batman thing being kind of tongue-in-cheek, but adding some solid sparring skills to a strength and conditioning base certainly won’t hurt. Plus, as mentioned, I’ve just moved to a new country so some kind of social outlet would be nice!