I recently made the commitment to consistent weight training in October 2007. I made some pretty decent gains but I’m meeting up with a bit of frustration and breaking into the next performance level of physique enhancement.
A little bit of my background: I started lifting, mostly bench press when I was a senior in high school and began winning benchpress championships that were amateur, but championships nevertheless. I was able to obtain bench pressing a maximum of 415 pounds steroid free. This was pretty good for my day. Now days, that isn’t considered much of a max.
While in the military at age 21 I quit weightlifting altogether - probably to my demise. So with that, 21 years later, an MBA, and PhD, a gorgeous wife and three beautiful children later I thought it would get off of my butt and start pumping iron again. I think my wife deserves more than an out of shape old man for a husband.
Currently, my maximum benchpress is well over 300 pounds and I usually work out with repetitions of 8 using about 250 to 285 pounds on the bench. When I was a 19-year-old kid I used to work out with 315 pounds with reps of 8 and did three to four sets maximum. My benchpress didn’t really take off until I started doing squats. After getting serious with squats my benchpress seemed to go through the roof, and I really started looking extremely athletic. I was naturally skinny because of my body type (ectomorph) so to look beefy at all was quite an accomplishment in my eyes.
After I decided to quit lifting weights I just got skinny again. Over the course of the next 20 years I noticed that I started looking pudgy around the face and around the waist. After seeing myself a picture I thought I better do something about it so here I am. I have always been athletic to say the least, but this is my first time 20 years and I’m taking the bull by the horns to do some serious physique transformation.
I’m currently on Monday – Tuesday / Thursday – Friday routine. I tried the five-day cycle but as I read about it in some articles. However, the five-day rotation does not work for me at all for some odd reason. Currently, I am targeting each muscle group twice a week. On Mondays and Thursdays I do chest, shoulders and triceps. Tuesdays and Fridays I do back, biceps, and legs. I take Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday off. I try to do light / heavy, light / heavy so as to not overtrain. In other words, if I do a heavy chest and shoulder routine on Monday, I try to do a light to moderate high repetition chest and should workout on Thursday. If I did heavy twice a week I would overtrain in a very short time. It I did high repetition all of the time I would just get a good pump but that would be about it.
Here is my routine:
Monday:
–Standard bar bell benchpress: four to five sets reps of 8 to 12 using 225 pounds-285 pounds.
–Weighted dips: four sets of 8-12 strapped with a 50 lb dumbbell around my waist
–Incline dumbbell press: three to four sets reps of eight to 12
–Peck deck: three to four sets reps of eight to 12
Tuesday:
–Moderate squats (I try not to go heavy so as to prevent a back injury) three to four sets of eight to 10 reps
–Moderate deadlifts three to four sets of eight to 10 reps
–Calves five sets of 25
Wednesday: off
Thursday:
Same as Monday
Friday:
Same as Tuesday
Saturday: off
Sunday: off
Cardio three times a week (Maybe)
Diet: I tried eating five times a day but started looking like a total lard ass. This is my biggest frustration. Further, trying to keep the weight off around my waist has been a very trying experience as I want to have a ripped six-pack that totally turns my wife on. According to her, I am her dreamboat and tells me that I totally turn her on but I know that she is also being very nice and gracious 
In other words she�??s lying.
Any advice on supplements?? The whole industry has changed and I am brand new to the world of supplements. I am from the old Joe Weider Dynamic Muscle Builder and Dynamic Weight Gain era (lololol!) I need something that gives me mega energy, builds lean muscle mass and keeps the fat off!
Also as I am now in my forties (although most think I’m in my early 30’s because of my boyish personality–a real jokester), is there some testosterone enhancing supplements that work that will not cause me to crash if I go off for a while in order to give my kidneys a rest?
Although the truth hurts – I need some serious help here.