Morgan's Log

[quote]Morgan Hearst wrote:
Thanks Soldog. Now I see why your avatar is always typing, finding links for newbies like me ;-D

I’ve been nervous of the deadlift for a while as my father has bad back problems which has brought it home to me how vital it is to have a healthy back. I was victim of the ‘deadlift destroys your back’ myth, so its great to have proper information.

Magnificent Mobility and Inside Out arrived today so its proper warm ups from now on too :smiley:

[/quote]

I confess I’ve been trying to find a used copy of Magnificent Mobility for sale for a while. I’m convinced it must be good enough that there aren’t any used copies anyone will let go of.

Good work on your program, keep posting and keep honest with it.

[quote]Elaikases wrote:

I confess I’ve been trying to find a used copy of Magnificent Mobility for sale for a while. I’m convinced it must be good enough that there aren’t any used copies anyone will let go of.

Good work on your program, keep posting and keep honest with it.

[/quote]

Thanks for the encouragement :slight_smile:

MM and Inside Out are both very good. Easy enough for a beginner like me to grasp the exercises and remember them in the gym and detailed enough to keep the more advanced user well informed, or so it seems to me.

I suppose I should say that I am on a low(ish) carb diet plan along with whey powder, creatine, glutamine, superfood, and fish oils.

The stated goal of stage one of the 10/10 programme is to lose 5 pounds of fat. I think I have done that. Its only think because the trainer didn’t put my weight into the computer 3 weeks ago before I started. I’m pretty sure that it was 84.25 but I can’t prove it. Anyhoo, I’m 81 kg (179lb) now and happy about it :smiley:

I’m taking daily pictures and running an excel sheet on my progress so hopefully I should be able to fully document the results.

The next stage if High Frequency Training. I’ve read that Chad recommends that people who haven’t trained for more than a year should stay way from HFT as it may be too much. I’m going to give it a try and if I can’t handle it I’ll swap it over to either ABBH or Big Boy Basics.

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
Morgan Hearst wrote:
Thanks Soldog. Now I see why your avatar is always typing, finding links for newbies like me ;-D

I’ve been nervous of the deadlift for a while as my father has bad back problems which has brought it home to me how vital it is to have a healthy back. I was victim of the ‘deadlift destroys your back’ myth, so its great to have proper information.

Magnificent Mobility and Inside Out arrived today so its proper warm ups from now on too :smiley:

I confess I’ve been trying to find a used copy of Magnificent Mobility for sale for a while. I’m convinced it must be good enough that there aren’t any used copies anyone will let go of.

Good work on your program, keep posting and keep honest with it.

[/quote]

Magnificent Mobility is well worth the money. I have been using some of the movements for some time now along with foam rolling and think it may have helped with some of my shoulder issues as well as kept me healthy in other areas.

Todays workout:

Military Press: 5x10 20kg

It has been bugging me that I was using 25kg the first week and 20kg since. Then I remembered that I was doing push press rather than standing shoulder press that first week, lol.

Bent over rows: 5x10 30kg

Romanian DB Deadlift: 5x10 16kg DBs

My back is back to normal so I upped the weight. Very hard but good.

Goblet Squats: 5x10 16kg DB

Decided to do these as a prep for the front squat. I learned about them from Dan John’s fitcast vid on google:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744&q=fitcast&ei=9uZ0SNfJNILi-QGy1piLCw

Getting there, one day at a time. :slight_smile:

Last workout of phase 1 of the plan. I’m very pleased with the results so far for fat loss and have definitely gained some muscle.

Incline DB press: 4x15 6kg

Good mornings: 4x15 10kg

Lunges: 4x15 6kg DBs

Ab wheel 4x10 bodyweight

Wide grip pulldowns: 4x15 35kg

I just did a normal cardio day yesterday instead of HIIT as I was introducing a friend to the gym and stayed with him on the stationary bike, treadmill etc.

Its a holiday weekend here so the gym is shut until wednesday. I plan to do some GPP on Monday and maybe a run on tuesday to make up for it.

Sounds like a plan. You could turn your run into HIIT: 30 second sprint / 60 second jog/walk

Good idea. I’d better go early though. I wouldn’t want to scare the local kids with my red faced sweaty wheezing as I come shambling up the street lol

Precision Nutrition arrived today. Looks awesome :slight_smile:

Looks like you got all the right tools! You can’t go wrong with following advice from Cressy, Roberson or Berardi. Out of all the great writers here on t-mag these guys I respect the most.

Hang tough, you are doing great!

[quote]Colin Wilson wrote:
Looks like you got all the right tools! You can’t go wrong with following advice from Cressy, Roberson or Berardi. Out of all the great writers here on t-mag these guys I respect the most.

Hang tough, you are doing great![/quote]

Thanks Colin :slight_smile:

Don’t forget Waterbury, though, he’s a big bloke hehe.

I’m loving doing lunges, deads and squats in the gym. The local ‘gangsters’ are all leg extensions and pec deck, I keep catching them looking over at me with a confused look while they do their ‘back and triceps’ split lol

Thank God for T-Nation and all you guys. It blows me away how different and how much more effective these programmes are compared to what the trainers at the gym had me do for the last year.

First HFT phase of the 10/10 programme. If I feel that its too much I’ll swap it to Big Boy Basics. So far, so good:

Lat Pulldown (sup grip): 6x3 65KG

Goblet Squats: 6x3 30KG Dumbbell

I decided to stick with goblet squats rather than front squats until I am happy with my form. As it turned out I am using close to the same weight anyway so its all good. Really felt these in my abs btw, as well as the usual places :slight_smile:

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift: 6x3 22KG DBs

Dips: 6x3 20KG plate

Did the first 2 sets as full body dips but I wasn’t making it on the last rep so I swapped to between benches with a 20kg plate on my legs.

I drank Surge though the workout(Boy, is that stuff sweet!), I’m eating big in the PN manner and taking BCAAs along with zinc and magnesium so hopefully I’ll be in good shape for recovery.

Day 2 of the HFT training phase:

Push ups: Was supposed to be 3x16 but was really, 14/14/10. A real ego buster but I obviously need to do more of these.

Good Mornings: 3x16 25kg

I upped the weight on the good mornings as the amount of sets was lower than in the first phase. As you can see its only up by 5kg (roughly 10 lbs)and they were not too bad so I might push it up to 30kg for next time depending how my lower back feels tomorrow.

Bent Over Row: 3x16 20KG

Lowered the weight as the reps were higher. Seemed about right but I might do an increase next time.

Step Ups: 3x16 (per leg)6kg dumbbells

This is a real sweat maker. It felt a bit like cardio. Again I will likely use heavier dumbbells next time, although the exercise was challenging.

I drank Surge all the way through and for PWO as well. Very, very sweet. I got vanilla flavour, are the others less sweet?

In the gym again tomorrow, looking forward to it :slight_smile:

Day 3 of the Hypertrophy stage:

Wide Grip Pulldowns: 5x8 42.5KG

Reverse Lunges: 5x8 (per leg) 8kg Dbs

Think I can go higher on these. First time doing them so I was a bit cautious.

Push Press: 5x8 28KG

My form is still not great with the push press but practice makes perfect.

Single Leg Deadlifts: 5x8 (per leg) 6kg DBbs

I had a hard time with my balance on these, hence the low weight. Again this was my first time with this exercise but I was beginning to groove the motion a bit on the last set. Time will tell.

Off tomorrow then back in on Saturday and Sunday for the final two sessions of the week. So far I am sore, but not too bad and find an afternoon nap to be essential, 3 hours today! I’m sleeping more than my cat these days lol

Day 4 of the HFT phase of 10/10

Lat Pulldowns: 6x3 65KG

Goblet Squat: 6x3 32.5KG Dumbbell

I’ll be going to a front squat next time. I’m a little confused at the difference between my squat weight and deadlift.

Deadlift: 6x3: 1x60KG, 1x65kg, 3x70kg, 1x80kg

I decided to do normal deadlifts instead of Romanian DB deadlifts as I felt I had better technique with normal deadlifts and as a beginner I wanted to practice on my lift. Last time I did a deadlft I lifted 60KG, big boy plates. I loaded the same on the first set and it went up like air. I was stunned lol. So I cautiously loaded the bar as you can see and finally ended with a set of 3 at my own body weight :smiley:

Dips: 6x3 20KG plate

These felt hard today, not sure why but I did them anyway.

I had a great day today and I am feeling it already. Tomorrow I’m doing high rep work. Bring it on!

Lookin’ good Morgan! I also found that beginer gains came quickly when you kept up the consistant training.

Cheers, Soldog :slight_smile:

Push-Ups: 14/16/12

Good Mornings: 3x16 30KG

I decided to go heavier with Good Mornings and was pleased with the weight considering the rep range.

Bent Over Row: 3x16 30KG

Step up: 3x16 (each leg) 8KG dbs

Good hard workout, left the gym feeling pleased.

I’ve been doing some more reading over the last while and am now sure that the 10/10 routine is too advanced for me. I say that as I can’t claim to be anything other than a rank beginner and Waterbury makes it clear tha his programmes are not for beginners. Not being able to make the rep requirement on pushups convinced me.

I did make great fat loss progress though but I feel I need to follow a programme designed for my level.

So I went out and bought New Rules of Lifting and started today:

Squat: 2x15 30KG

Static Lunge: 2x15 10KG
Bent Over DB Rows: 2x15 10KG

Push Ups:1x15 1x12
Swiss Ball Crunches: 2x20

When I saw it was 2 sets, twice a week I thought it would be a bit easy. I was badly, badly wrong lol. Very hard and felt good.

Cosgrove is a cheerily sadistic bastard. His stuff is really good. And really hard.

Did some interval training today using my heart rate to cycle the intervals. I chose a range of 140 bpm to 170bpm, speeding up when it hit 140 and slowing down at 170. Seemed to work well (still sweating):slight_smile:

Workout two from NROL

Deadlift: 1x15 30kg, 1x15 60KG

Last time I deadlifted I managed 3 reps for 8okg (a PR) on my last set. So today, with a set of 15 ahead of me I thought thirty would be about right. Turned out it went up like air! Second set I loaded up 60 KG as I noticed my form wasn’t great with the smaller plates. I expected to get about 6 or 7 to be honest but they all went up :slight_smile:

Step Up: 2x15 10KG DBs

One handed DB Shoulder Press: 2x15 6kg

Close grip lat pulldown: 1x15, 1x13 50KG

Very pleased with this weight even though I didn’t manage the full second set.

Reverse Crunches: 2x20

Its a killer but I’m loving it :slight_smile:

I find it really hard to practice form on certain lifts if the weight is too light. You’re getting stronger faster than you thought. Good workouts and way to stick with your plan.