Week 4 - Weight gain Hooray!!!

So heading into Week 4, I decided to check my weight. I measure my weight first thing in the morning after my first dump of the day. I say first because drinking 2 litres of milk a day you end up in the toilet more than once. It is a literal pain in ass.

Hooray, my weight has increased from 69kg to 71.7kg, just shy of 3kg. Awesome. I measured the body fat, same measurement, so I hope the gain is more muscle than fat. Although it wouldn't surprise me if it was just fat. But at this stage I don't care. It's a huge motivation to keep going and keep working. I think if I can keep to the same consistency in calorie intake and working out following the routine, will see some really good gains in 3 months.

Week 2 and Week 3 Log

When increasing the weight by 2.5kgs each time especially on the squats 3 times a week, really is something seeing it in front of you. To think I started with just the bar 20kg and now coming up to 55kg. Each time I finish the 5th set, I think how am I going to it next time with more weight, but I'm actually surprised next time round that you can do it, your body is adapting. It is an amazing feeling and I can now see the addiction of this all.

Which is why now at this juncture I'm a bit upset, I need to travel for 3 weeks now. So my weekly regiment of Monday/Wednesday/Friday timetable goes out of whack slightly, as its highly doubtful hotel gyms will have a Power/Squat Rack, but lets see what happens.

Oh and got my first compliment from the office, "yeah I can see your arms are a bit bigger". Awesome.

Week 1

8th August, two days after my diabolical first day at the gym. I had some pain recovering from DOMs, which if you recall, I managed to achieve a world record of acquiring whilst still in the gym! However I remembered a line - no excuses. With the firm direction of following the plan, i walked back into the gym ready to do this.

First up squat, the power rack was free, awesome. So I did my 2 warm up sets with the empty bar. Now I should have added 2.5kg to the bar, but I added 10kgs. So total weight was 30kgs. I basically went to session 1 in Week 3 as per the plan. Was i going to make same mistake. Time may tell, but I knew how things would go later on with work so decided to bump it a little save some time. I managed to do full 5 sets of 5 reps easily and good form. I was happy.

Next up was the bench press. Along with squats, these are exercises I have never really done before and knew I would be rubbish at, but I had to get all of that out of my head and just do it. So this time I did 5x5 with just the bar. To get my form right. I didn't care I was only benching the empty bar. Being older, you care less what people think of you. Anyone reading this, forget the idea people are looking at you laughing, they're really not. Everyone starts somewhere, and with me, an empty bar.

Last exercise, Barbell Row - 30kgs, as the plan says, no deviation. Did them all decently. Hopefully form being okay, but with a light weight excellent way to practice and get used to it.

I had finished - 30 minutes in total. I felt good. Okay not the heavy session you'd expect, but I maintained discipline, followed the plan, did what I needed to do. I realised this all takes time. 30 minute workout done, get home, eat up, get to work. Awesome.

As I bumped up the squat weight, the other exercises weights' had to be balanced out to match the plan accordingly. So in effect the last session of Week 1 is basically the first session of Week 3. In essence a week was skipped. I ended the week well and was comfortable with the weight, they were not heavy at all but I felt decent compromise was made. Again time will tell how quickly I stall further down the line, but at least I wasn't making a drastic jump as I foolishly did in my first day.

Okay, now this is the fun bit, and for you all (myself included) to have a giggle. The pictures. The weight. The body fat. At the start of this epic journey we need pictures to show progress, otherwise whats the point!!

Handsome dude

So above, not a true ectomorph, but not muscular either. And hairy...wow. No chest, no biceps, no back muscles developed at all! Luckily I still had some shoulder definition from long ago, but in reality there is NO strength anyway. And I'm breathing in. Ha ha ha! You honestly think I'm going to put a picture up of a side profile of my pregnant belly. No chance!

Anyways, that's where i am now physically. My stats, 69kgs weight, 5'9", body fat apparently 13-14% using some fat callipers and measuring only the love handles. Muscular measurements, an unimpressive 12 inch arms (biceps), 22 inches legs (quads). Goal, lets be realistic, an inch increase in a years time? Fuck it, why not. That's my goal.  I have no idea what that translates to into weight increase, but lets see how it goes. The main thing at the moment, keep the calorie intake high, clean food, follow the work out plan, progressively increasing the weight each workout. Something has to happen right? Right????

Peace, need to drink my milk.

The Routine

So I mentioned in my last post, i decided to go for StrongLifts workout plan - 5x5. So what is it?

5 sets of 5 reps of 5 exercises

Squats, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Barbell Rows, Dead Lift

2 workouts in total, 3 workouts per week, 3 of those exercises per workout - squats in each workout.  So Monday Squats, Bench, Rows. Wednesday Squats, Overhead, Dead Lift. Friday same as Monday, and so on. Thats it. No curls, no tricep extensions, just basic honest foundation building compound exercises.  Here are the workout videos - A and B.

The videos inspired me.

Start off with the empty bar, and each workout adding 2.5kg. Im following this by the letter. Well thats what I said to myself. So the first session came, i went to the gym. Here we go - 6th August.

Oh man!! Power rack was in use, I was impatient, I mean how dare someone use it. I'm all excited eager, let me get jacked already!!!! Fuck it, So i got one of the fixed 20kg barbell which is the same weight as an empty bar. Did my squats - 2 sets of 5. This is piss easy. So i decided to go up in weight. i picked up the 60kg one. Fucking hell was that a mistake! My legs were gone.

Next i should have done bench, but didn't, i went for overhead press instead - basically following workout B, again i did 20kg for 2 sets, then like a dick, i went to 30kg for the next 3. I then tried to do a pull up - didn't happen. I tried then do some chin ups, managed 3. WTF?! But not surprised. Then i did some dips, one. ONE!!

i was fucked. i was gone. DOM's actually got to me IN the gym, within 20 minutes, i have myself to blame. So i went in the changing room, had a shower and went for a swim. Then half hour in the steam room. Pondering on what just happened. After sweating and rubbing my legs, i said to myself, get a grip. All you have to do is follow the program, just do it. Fuck everyone else, just follow it.

And guess what...8th August, i did.

And So It Begins.....Again....

Hey! And so here we are....Again. A personal diary of a handsome bengali man's journey from being a skinny weak guy into hopefully a lean mean muscular mard. Or maybe just a fat bastard. Only time will tell.

So heres what happened. I woke up one morning, put my nice fitted slim shirt on for work, and i noticed something. Something awful. My belly. Was I pregnant? I mumbled to myself seeing my buttons holding on for dear life. No i was just getting fat and looked unbelievably stupid. I physically had to go out and buy a new set of shirts....bigger ones. For all the wrong reasons.

Here's another thing that happened. I was walking back to my car carrying a bag of 10kg onions in one hand, other bits and bobs on the other. The car was about 5 minutes walk away. Whilst walking my arms, my friggin arms felt like dropping off my body, bowing on the floor and begging me to stop putting them through torture, asking me why Ali, why, why are doing this to us!

It was then I realised. I'm 34, I'm Bengali, i'm handsome, I look pregnant, and my arms couldn't cope with carrying a grocery bag longer than 3 minutes. This is fucking serious. I need to sort this shit out.

I got myself a plan together, join a gym, get a workout plan, get an iPhone App. But first, most importantly, I needed some gym clothes. So before any of that shit, i spent about 4 hours finding the perfect tracksuit bottoms, and coordinating gym shoes and top. I was set, step one completed.

Next, sourcing a gym. David Lloyd as i did before waaaay back in 2004? Fuck 10 years ago! Was that really the last time i worked out. Shit! Why am I getting old!! Okay i digress, nope, too expensive. So i found one much closer, much cheaper. Fitness4Less, less than 5 minutes drive, had the necessary equipment needed AND had a steam room and pool. Awesome. Paid up £165 for the year. Incentive is now there. Now needed a routine. After reading various blogs, posts, articles. I decided i needed to go right back to basics. I'm a noob, skinny noob. So read up and found a basic vague routing of compound exercises to build the foundation - squats, presses etc. But no details on sets, reps, weights etc, but within that article (Nerd's Fitness to Getting Bigger - awesome article) I found StrongLifts. I liked this guy. I liked this program. I liked how he explains things in a no nonsense way. So i decided fuck it, this is the program I'm going to do by the letter. No messing around, just follow it. So got the app, downloaded the spreadsheet.

Diet. Food. I resigned to the fact that after reading so many articles, One thing in common, mans got to eat to get strong. Simple as that. I looked at my diet. In fairness, m diet was actually quite healthy now that my job had changed at work. I realised what caused me to get so weak, get preggers, was the fact I ate no breakfast, no lunch, ate a ton of crisps, drank far too much fizzy drinks, and one medium size dinner. Junk food on the weekend. Late night restaurant curry on Friday/Saturday nights. Thats what got me weak and loss of weight. What gave me a belly was 6 weeks in Hamburg living next to a kebab place. Too many kebabs and no working out. Simple as that. 34 years old, metabolism isn't what it used to be. I got fucked. So now, major milestone for me now, 3 meals per day, clean meals. Junk food treat limited to once every fortnight. Plenty of water. Fruit snacks in between meals, and the high protein intake....2 litres of full fat milk per day. After my calories calculation, my maintenance calorie intake should be 2300, with my new diet, 2900. A caloric surplus  600.

So my average meal plan:

Breakfast - 2/3 egg omelette, green tea, cereal, Milk
Snack: Milk and Fruit
Lunch: Rice, meat/chicken/fish, vegetable, Lentils (when at work, Egg Sandwich on Brown Bread, Sushi Rolls and an Oat Bar)
Snack: Milk and Fruit
Dinner: Rice, meat/chicken/fish, vegetable, Lentils
Snack: Milk

And plenty of water in-between. I cannot do full gomad, (Gallon of Milk a Day) i don't think I'm lifting heavy enough yet to do it. So half gomad is okay for now. Luckily i am not lactose intolerant, have a tough stomach. But the bloating, and tough shits does take it toll some days!!

So i was proud of myself, everything prepared and ready to go. I just had to go to the damn gym and get started. You know thats the hardest. Ive had DOM's before. Its awful. I don't give a shit how careful you are, first time you train you get the pain ALL over. Its horrible. And knowing that, was the hardest challenge to get started. But i had to man up. I have a hairy chest, i call myself a mard. I looked at my gym pants....just mother loving do it you skinny piece of shit.