I thought i should put out a thread here so i cannot cheat on when i'm starting. Because i don't have that much bf i think i will start bulking right away. MAX-OT, maybe slightly modified.

I've been into building before and i know the importance of diet and rest. Well, here's me right now:

Height: 176cm
Weight: 64,1kg this morning.
BodyFat%: 9,9% ((BF% from caliper + BF% from impedance) / 2)
Right Bicep: 32,5cm
Left Bicep: 29,5cm (gonna sort this difference out too)
underarm: 28,5cm
Chest: 98cm (unsure how to measure this one)
Thigh: 51,5cm
Calves: 35,5cm

My goal is to put on 6kg of lean mass until the 1'st of June without going over 12% BF according to my measurements..

Please tell me if you think my goal is too easy or too hard.

I will put pics here every now and then to show my results.

And, i really have to thank for such an inspiring forum, i've been a reader for a long time but a member only a short time!

Kris

EDIT: forgot the pic:

Here is my workout scheme, im doing a 4-day split. I haven't put specific weekdays on the different workouts because i work very irregular. But my hope is to have it like this:

Monday - Day 1 - Legday!
Wednesday - Day 2 - Shoulders, traps, triceps
Thursday - Day 3 - Back and abs
Sunday - Day 4 - Chest and Bicep.

No cardio whatsoever. I need the energy to grow.

The 4-day split is good because it let's me rest a lot wich gives me time to give the body the food it needs.

Well, here's a detailed look at the workouts (If anyone against all odds would be interested ;)) :

Day 1 - Legday!
Squats 3set 6-8 reps
Deadlifts 2set 6-8 reps
Lying legcurls 2set 6-8 reps

Calfraises 2 set 6-8 reps
Calfpress 2set 6-8 reps


Day 2 - Shoulders, traps, triceps
Straight bar militarypress 3set 6-8 reps
Dumbell press 2set 6-8 reps
Dumbell side laterals 2set 6-8 reps

Barbell shrugs 2set 6-8 reps
upright rows 2set 6-8 reps

Tricep cable pushdown 2 set 6-8 reps
dumbell kickback 2set 6-8 reps


Day 3 - Back and abs
Bent over barbell row 3set 6-8 reps
Straight arm cable pulldowns 2set 6-8 reps
Chins 3set 6-8 reps
Weighted hyperextensions 2set 6-8 reps

Weighted cable crunch 3 set 8-10 reps
Weighted Crunches 3 set 8-10 reps

Day 4 - Chest and Biceps
Flat barbell press 3 set 6-8 reps
Incline dumbell press 3set 6-8 reps

Straight bar bicep curl 3 set 6-8 reps
Dumbell curl 3 set 6-8 reps


That's all i can think of right now, please make comments if you have any. :)

Looking like you have nice plan laid out :claplow: Go for it :tu: I'm about your height with 19% BF and looking to cut til I reach 10-12% BF. Hopefully that will be accomplished within about 2 months. I will then start bulking. Out of curiosity, what is your waist and neck measurements? This will help me see how much I have to loose around my belly in the cutting phase. :)

Thanks, im guessing im somewhere between 10-12 % myself, not sure though,

Measurements now:
My waist: 77cm (30.5")
Neck: 37cm (14.5")

Im really looking forward to start growing! Please tell me when you start bulking and do you keep a journal of your cut?

I keep a journal but havent decided wether I will post it or not. Summarized I do a 3 day split with weights (chest/tri , back/bi , shoulder/leg) plus cardio 3-4 times a week (biking, running, spinning, x country skiing etc). I also do abs on cardio day. My work hours are hard to plan, so it varies a lot which day I do what and so forth. Dietwise I eat around 1700-1800 calories a day while cutting, trying to get a decent share of protein and less fat. I don't track my diet all that thouroughly though, but so far it has turned out ok. I am thinking on upping my calories to around 3000 /day when I start bulking, but I have got plenty of time before I start doing that, so I figure that number will be changed several times :) My stats at the moment

neck: 38 cm
waist: 87 cm
arms: 32 cm
chest: 99 cm
thighs: 58 cm
height: 176 cm
weight: 71 kg

I will cut till waist measurement is below 80 cm AND BF% is below 12. Hopefully I can achieve that by the end of february. Thats my plan anyway :) I will let you know when I start bulking.

Your plan looks good, but I dont see anything about nutrition. My experience with weighttraining is that it isnt worth shit if you don't get your diet and resting right. You need to eat a lot of clean foods to grow without putting on to much fat.
Please keep my posted on your bulking progress, I whish you the best of luck :gl:

Thanks, sounds like you got it all sorted out. I see we have very similiar stats! :)

You don't see anything about diet because i haven't posted anything about it yet, except for in my first post, where i just said that's important.

Well, i will try to eat around 3000kcal a day, based on chicken and salmon in big, with oatmeal in mornings and tunasandwiches. I have really hard to put on fat but i grow fairly easy in muscles when i eat loads of food. I will also take proteindrink twice a day and im having multivitamins/minerals too.

I will try to post a more detailed plan about my diet when i get the time too! :)

And, my goal is to get no less then 8 hours of sleep everyday except after the last worknight of the period where i sleep less to get my dayrythm straight.

Good luck with your cut!

First training session done. Phew!

Well, i have to say it's sad how much weaker my legs gotten, but i will anyway post the results here. Hopefully i will improve it quite fast! ;)

Squat (kinda deep): 80kg 3 set, 6 reps
Legcurl (frontside): 40kg 2 set, 8 reps
Legcurl (backside): 35kg 2 set, 8 reps

Then i did some calves too, 2 exercises, 5 set total, but i didn't get the weights for them.

Tomorrow im gonna move some furniture, but hopefully i will be able to work out in the afternoon.

This morning i was 64.1 kg's at around 10% BF. This is the first day on my diet, today i will eat around 3200kcal divided in 55E% carbs, 25E% protein (around 3g/kg bodyweight), 20E% fat.

Shall be funny to see if the scale shows anything more tomorrow due to the change of diet.

Time to eat!

Ok, this morning (2005-01-11) i was 1.8kg (4 pounds) heavier than the morning before.

Because of different things my diet yesterday got kinda weird, but nothing unhealthy.

I ate 3300kcal, divided in Energy%: 22 / 49 / 29 (Protein / Carbs / Fat).


Today was shoulder and triceps day. Sure, my weights was low and it felt heavy, got a good workout though.

I felt some pain in my back while doing Dumbell shoulder presses, but it wasn't anything serious. I will see tomorrow if it's gone or not.

Well. Today i ate better, 3332kcal divided in Energy%: 24 / 56 / 20. (still prot / carb / fat)


Tomorrow is work and rest day.

Time to sleep!

Dammit!

I can barely walk today, i look like an 80-year old when i move! My legs hurt, but it's good pain. :)

I decided to take one more day of training and get somewhat healed, and then i will work out friday when i'm free and do the last workout of the week on saturday.

My shoulders doesn't hurt that bad, but maybe tomorrow... ouch!

My diet works better and better, today i ate 3304kcal in nearly perfect mix of: 24/56/20 (p/c/f).

One thing i noticed is that it isn't hard to make food boxes for work, but the amount of money you save is huge!

Todays foodbox was around 13kr ($2), while im never beneath 60kr if i buy it at work (10$)

Well, got one more small meal to eat and then it's bedtime for me!

Okey, i got some kind of nasty soreness in my lower arm, so i will wait it out.

My diet is going great though, even though i find it hard to cover my 65 grams of fat when eating chickenfilet.. But i get all my calories atleast.

I will update when i start to work out again, most likely in the middle of next week.

Hey Stoffer,
Just a couple comments for your program:

1) Are you working out at a gym or home?
2) Why do are you doing deadlifts on leg day? Deads (not straight-leg deads) are primarily a lower back exercise. Yes, it is a compound movement involving other muscle groups. So what? Bench press uses shoulders, tris, and lats, but you certainly wouldn't do it on shoulder day. If I were you, I would move deads to back day and add two more sets to your squats and maybe add a couple sets of lunges or hacksquats.

Hey Stoffer,
Just a couple comments for your program:

1) Are you working out at a gym or home?
2) Why do are you doing deadlifts on leg day? Deads (not straight-leg deads) are primarily a lower back exercise. Yes, it is a compound movement involving other muscle groups. So what? Bench press uses shoulders, tris, and lats, but you certainly wouldn't do it on shoulder day. If I were you, I would move deads to back day and add two more sets to your squats and maybe add a couple sets of lunges or hacksquats.
Hey!

You are absolutely right! I've removed the deadlifts from my legday actually before i did my first workout. I should've changed it. I got the tip from one of my friends. Now i added one more set of squats and 2 sets of normal legcurls (for quads)

I'm not sure if i should do the deadlifts on backday though, i've never done them :/

Just FYI, leg curls are for the hamstrings. I think that what you are referring to leg curls (for quads) are leg extensions.

As far as deads, there is absolutely no better exercise for the back than deads. But, you are correct in being hesitant. Find out how to do them. Get one to show you or research it on the internet.

Good luck!

I will look it up, might start doing it at low weight as a extra set just to get the feeling for it.

Yeah, you're right again, i was refering to leg extensions. Just as you know, i call them "Benspark", but i didn't think you would understand that ;)

Hard to translate exercise names :)

Yeah, I was a US ARmy officer attached to Task Force Able Sentry in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I was an operations officer. I had to call over to the Nordic Battalion quite a bit. A lot can be lost in translation. Luckily, you guys speak pretty good English (probably better than me).

Just one more thing about your workout routine. It looks like on most days you try to hit each major muscle group with 3-5 exercises. However, on chest day, you are only doing two. What about throwing in some cable exercises, chest spreaders, or flies? You should already be going heavy on flat and incline...some kind of stretching type exercise should fit right in.

Thanks, yeah, a lot of nordic people have decent English. We started studying it at age 10 when i was in school, i think it's even earlier nowadays.

Yeah, you are right about that. I will see how i feel after doing the two exercises, and if I feel like it i will put some cable cross (or what it's called) in there. But i always did get better gains by doing only two exercises instead of three before.

Right now im overloading my muscles too much because it was 18 months since i was to the gym. My soreness in my legs lasted for 6 days! :/

Allways appreciate comments!

Getting over the initial shock to the body is something that causes people to get out of the routine (or never into the routine). I know that some people will say that you don;'t have to be sore to get the effects of a workout, but I use it as a gauge. When my body starts to not be sore after a workout is usually an indication to me that I need to make some changes to my routine. I will add another exercise, or add more weight. I should really start keeping a journal myself to keep up with my progress. Perhaps I shall...

I usually have no problem getting sore from weight lifting. Even after 3 years of constant training i still got sore. And if i feel i don't get sore i will start lowering the reps and put on the weight. If that doesn't help it's time for the creatine.

Today is back and ab-day. Can barely wait!

Ah, blessed be thy workout.

Back and Ab day went nice and smooth, really feel it now. Nice to be able to lift, hopefully now i won't have these too long breaks in my schedule.

Friday is beach muscle day! :)

Okay, due to some pains in my arms i haven't finished the beach day until now. Pecs and Biceps went good, did few but heavy sets. Guess im gonna feel that the upcoming days.

Good news! I went from 64,1kg to 67.4kg in 13 days. I will check my weight tomorrow morning to see exactly how big the difference is.

Right now i gained 3.3kg or over 7 pounds. Ofcourse much of it is water and food in my body.

How's your bulk going, there's been some weeks since your last update. I'm currently down to around 17% BF. My progress has slowed down a tad the last couple of weeks though so I still have at least a month of cutting before I start bulking. Hope you're still doing good!

I've been moving from one apartment to another and lost a couple of pounds again. hadn't time to eat properly. Did my second legday yesterday and today is shoulders.

It's nice to be back, and now i don't have any obstacles in the way for a long time.

Nice to see that your cut goes well, and i'm looking forward to check out your bulk!

Update:

It's now one month since i started my bulk. But, i only feel like i've just started.

I have only been able to finish 7 passes in the gym due to strains, hurts and the fact that i moved to another apartment and much work.

But, to sum it up:

Gained 3.3kg of bodyweight.
Remained at the same Fat%
Gained 1.5cm of bicep


I know much of this is just due to waterweight, more food in the system and activated muscle, but still, i don't expect the same progress any other month!

Im looking forward to continuing my bulk!


Something awful: I couldn't do more than 4 chins in a row :(

Well, it's atleast something to work on! :)

Picture Update!

I have now trained every muscle in my body 2 times, except for the legs wich i have managed to do 3 times. Yeah, only two times in 5 weeks, i have had problems with straining myself ;)

Well, the progress is quite good, before going to bed today i weigh 69,4kg (compared with 64,1 when i woke up the day i started). My scale shows 1% LESS fat. (?)

Well, i let the picture speak, it says more then a million of my nonsense words :)

Well, i cannot see much difference myself, and i really need to work on the legs (I am! Promise!)

Now it's time to sleep! It's 4:11 AM here!

Comments! Please! ;)

I never seem to find time to go to the gym before i go to work at 9 pm, that makes it very hard for me to keep consistence in my workouts. But now i managed to find the right solution!

My gym opens at 6:30 AM, and i quit work at 7 am, so i just go to the workout after my 10 hour nightshift instead of before it.

I cannot sleep right after work anyway, and this might help me do my workouts even when my work is taking all my time.

It's hard to find time to workout when you have to eat a lot and you work 10 hour nights 15 of 16 days in a row!

Well, tomorrow at 7:30am, i will be in the gym, doing back and abs!

See ya!

Sorry for the few updates, but hey, i don't get much feedback either! :)

Today i hit 70kg, and have gained total 5.9kg since my start back in Jan. It hasen't been as easy to keep up the training on a regular basis, but i think im getting the hang of it now.

5kg to go for now.

And today at morning i hit 72kg. Started taking creatine though!

I have taken creatine on two occasions about 8 years apart. I gain 10-15 pounds within two weeks and my face gets pudgey.

Here is me at currently 71.5kg. Last morning i was 72.4kg, i've been working with my motorcycle, so i guess im low on liquid.