Hi everyone,

I've been a member here for a while and not really posted, however I feel it's about time I started my journal seeing as I finally got around to getting to the gym.

History
Back when I joined this forum I had just started a uni degree, and decided it was about time I actually started to eat properly. During this time I also quit smoking so I was a little edgy. I have been friends with Foley on here for a while as I was teaching him freestyle kayaking at the time, he told me about here so I figured I'd trade smoking for working out. However that didn't work, I got stressed out by my girlfriend and started smoking again.

Today
Moving forward to today and I have a new girlfriend which has dropped my stress levels, and I quit smoking finally. I'm sicker than every of being a skinny weakling so I've decided to really do something about it now. I am now eating at least twice as much as I was before, and I actually have a gym plan all sorted, got the membership and got down there today for the first of my workouts.

The Plan
I'm planning to stick to a 12 week program to start with and see how I do. I've come up with a meal plan, and a workout routine which I should be able to cope with and it not affect my third year studies.

I have planned 6 meals per day, with workouts on 3 days a week. My workout days at present are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

My workouts are -

Monday - Legs/Abs
Barbell Squats - 5 Warm up sets -> 2 Heavy sets
Leg Press - 1 set
Stiff Legged Deadlifts - 2 sets
Lying Leg Curls - 1 set
Standing Calf Raises - 2 sets
Seated Calf Raises - 1 set
Rope Crunches - 2 sets
Swiss Ball Crunches - 1 set

Wednesday - Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Flat Bench Press - 5 Warm up sets -> 2 Heavy sets
Incline Dumbbell Press - 2 sets
Wide-Grip Dips - 2 sets
Seated Dumbbell Press - 2 sets
Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals - 1 set
Cable Pushdowns - 2 sets
Skull Crushers - 1 set

Friday - Back/Biceps/Forearms
Deadlifts - 5 Warm up sets -> 2 Heavy sets
Overhand Chin-Ups - 2 sets
Bent Over Barbell Rows - 2 sets
Barbell Shrugs - 2 sets
Barbell Curls - 2 sets
Seated Dumbbell Curls - 1 set
Barbell Wrist Curls - 1 set

I'll try to keep this as up to date as I can every time I go to the gym. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to..well...comment :tu:

Cheers
Adam

Good luck mate, you seem to have your plan sorted. Just make sure you don't fall into the "Must eat eat eat, the more calories the better" mindset that a lot of the "sick of being skinny" guys get into. Eat clean, eat often and eat hard and you will get big and look good. Eat crap and you will also get big, but you will have months of unneccessary cutting to look forward to once you've finished just to get rid of your man boobs :D

Good luck :tu:

Good luck mate. You know where I am if you need anything. :tucool:

Thanks for the encouragement guys :-)

I started my 12-week plan today and it didn't exactly go to...plan. Got up all good and had breakfast, had my pre workout shake and got down to the gym for 9am. I did a 5min warmup on the running machine and went to the squat rack to find that it was in use, ok I thought I'll wait. After 10min of waiting I ask the guy "using" it how long he was going to be, turns out he's waiting for his lifting partner and was just warming up.

That irritated me slightly but I moved to the leg press and did my warm up sets on that, then my heavy sets. I did figure out I'm pretty certain I didn't push all I could this time but it's a good indicator of where to aim next week. Squat rack still in use after this so I move on to stiff legged deadlifts. I don't know what was going on but I just couldn't for the life of me get the right form on these, I was helping my girlfriend out as well and I just couldn't get things right so gave up with that one for this week. Will have a look into it in the mirror at home to check form.

Leg curls, and calf raises went pretty well 8*30kg on curls, 8*43kg and 8*52kg this week. After finishing those raises my right calf was burning, about 10min later my left was as well which to my surprise felt really great. We don't have a seated calf raise machine at FitSpace so I left those for this week and am going to check around to see if I can use a leg press for those.

By the time it came to crunches the ropes were all being used so I couldn't get any rope crunches done, but did 10 swiss ball crunches before noticing it was 10am, and I was supposed to be in uni helping to setup the audio studios. Bit of a mad dash but didn't get too much stick for being late.

All food was yummy and kinda eaten at the right times, I must get better at the timing! In all I'm not exactly impressed, but I'm not really annoyed about it either. I got done what I could and now I have a point at which I can start from next week. That is where the real fun is going to start I think as I have a pretty good idea of my limits now.

Cheers
Adam

Wednesdays workout -

Bench Press - 10x12.5kg / 10x15kg / 10x15ks / 10x15kg /\ 7x20kg / 6 x20kg
Incline DB Press - 9x8kg / 6x9kg
Wide Grip Dips - 2 / 1 (Really need to figure out the correct form for these)
Seated DB Press - 6x8kg / 6x8kg
Standing DB Side Laterals - 7x6kg
Cable Pushdowns - 6x25kg / 10x6kg
EZ Bar Skull Crushers - 10x10kg

I felt really good after this workout and REALLY wanted to go back to the gym, I still do! I know I can do heavier on most of those, being my first time doing most of those I thought it best to be a little safer. Diet is going well, lots of pasta which I love :-D

Best wishes, Mate. I'm also one of those "skinny blokes" who came here to shape up. It is possible. I managed to put on quite a bit of weight, most of it good, and cut back to the lean but more muscled look I was going for. As has been said, eat clean but over maintenance, and get into a good lifting routine. With help from someone as experienced as Foley, you should be looking great in short order. :nod:

Thanks for the encouragement carguy it's good to know someone else who's got results and is a 'skinny guy'. I sent all my diet plans and stuff to Foley for him to look through and he said that things looked good, he's great for that stuff!

I had a great back, bicep, and forearm workout today, went pretty dizzy a few times so must remember to drink more water before, and during working out!

Deadlifts - 10x25k / 8x27.5k
Overhand Chin-Ups - 4 / 3
Bent Over Barbell Rows - 6x17.5k / 8x20k
Barbell Shrugs - 12x20k / 10x25k
Barbell Curls - 9x15k / 8x15k
Seated DB Curls - 12x6k
Barbell Wrist Curls - 10x10k

I think I'm going to add another set of DB curls to this workout next week or up the weight a fair bit, I felt I could have easily done another set after resting a little. Deadlifts are an absolute killer, I think I can go heavier on them but I need to check my form first.

Cheers for reading so far, I'll post some pics at some point.

Went to see Eddie Izzard on Friday night so didn't manage to keep properly to my diet plan timings, although I did eat everything I was meant to and had no cheats! Got a leg session at the gym in the morning which I'm looking forward to, still aching from Fridays session a little but it's all good.

I've also now been tasked with building my girlfriend a weight loss program as she's been going with me to the gym following my program except the diet, and is enjoying it, seems to get a bit of respect for going straight for the free weights too. Maybe I'll get her to sign up here!

Cheers

Had an amazing workout today, definitely had one of those can't be bothered to get out of bed mornings, but once I was at the gym I was completely focused on completing todays workout. I'm really loving going to the gym, leaving everything outside, and once I'm inside I have one thing to do and getting on with it and it being great fun at the same time is awesome!

Today was legs and abs day, and I can say I certainly felt it! I did change my original plan from barbell squats, and did DB squats instead as I need to get someone to help me sort out proper form for barbell squats, I don't want to screw my back up again.

So onto the stats -

Barbell Squats - 10x8kg / 10x8kg / 10x10kg / 10x10kg / 10x12kg -> 10x16kg / 11x20kg
Leg Press - 8x79kg
Stiff Legged Deadlifts - 15x17.5kg / 15x17.5kg
Lying Leg Curls - 12x35kg (Up 5kg from last week)
Standing Calf Raises - 11x52kg / 10x61kg (Increase from 8x43kg on 1st set, and from 8x52kg on 2nd set)
Seated Calf Raises - NEED TO FIND A REPLACEMENT
Rope Crunches (Currently using ab machine) - 10x30kg / 10x30kg
Swiss Ball Crunches - 30 (Increase from 10 last week)

I've been doing this program a week and I'm seeing improvement already so I'm pretty happy. If anyone could help with a replacement for seated calf raises that'd be great.

I enjoyed last week so much I've gone and bought myself a bench which can incline, and also has a squat rack built in. I also got the leg attachments, pec dec, preacher pad, and lat tower for it. I need to decide now whether to get an olympic bar and 2" plates, or get a standard bar, use the 20kg weights I already have for my DB and then buy more 1" plates for the bar. I'm also going to pickup a complete set of DB probably after xmas so I can work out whenever I like and I'm not constrained by gym opening times.

On another note I decided to drop into the gym shop today to check out the supply of supplements as my MRP was getting really low. The rage is pretty awesome and it just so happened they were having a sale on EAS this week, so I picked up 2 boxes of Myoplex Deluxe for £14 a piece which is normally £30 a piece, decided to get Vanilla and Strawberry.

Got asked to start wiring up the 5.1 surround sound control room properly in uni today which I started last week so that's planned for my rest day tomorrow. I think that about covers today.

Had a great workout today, felt really great upping every lift I did, I know I can go higher still. My girlfriend joins me in the gym following my routine so she has actually started to spot me for stuff, that's really helped me feel a little more confident to go heavier.

Todays stats -

Flat Bench Press - 10x10kg / 6x12.5kg / 4x15kg / 3x15kg / 1x17.5kg -> 7x20kg / 7x22.5kg
Incline Dumbbell Press - 7x9kg / 7x10kg
Wide-Grip Dips - 5 / 3
Seated Dumbbell Press - 7x8kg / 5x8kg
Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals - 6x8kg
Cable Pushdowns - 7x30kg / 10x35kg
Skull Crushers - 12x15kg

Definitely need to up the weight on nearly everything for next week. Going to give 25kg on the bench press a shot, 10kg on DB incline press, stick with 8kg for seated DB press, and for standing laterals, 40kg on cable pushdowns, and 17.5kg skull crushers, I think that gives me something to work towards for next weeks session, and I think they are all within reach.

That's it for now, next session is Friday for back / biceps / forearms, I can't wait!!

Today's workout session, I'll post something more when I'm a little more awake.

Deadlifts - Warm Up
10x15kg
6x17.5kg
4x20kg
3x22kg
1x25kg

Deadlifts - Heavy
11x30kg
11x35kg

Overhand Chin-Ups
4
3

Bent Over Barbell Rows
12x25kg
9x35kg

Barbell Shrugs
12x30kg
11x35kg

Barbell Curls
11x15kg
7x17.5kg

Seated Dumbbell Curls
10x8kg

Barbell Wrist Curls
12x12.5kg

Wow I've been real busy recently. I have 2 major projects on the go for uni, another big project for an idea my tutor and I came up with, AND I also have a test coming up which will make or break my live production unit. I've been teaching myself Objective-C, Cocoa, and Cocoa Touch so I can build apps for iPhone and OS X, as I have a possible job opportunity working with a large company in London who have a few rather large name clients from the music industry!

Workout on Monday was pretty awesome, I increased pretty much everything so I'm happy about that, Wednesday was a complete shambles and I'm not massively happy about it. I got to the gym a little late so had to cut warm-up a little short, I increased some but ended up decreasing some also which I was a little gutted about, I don't think I was 100% at all on Wednesday. Here's my latest workout numbers anyway.

Monday
Dumbbell Squats - Warm Up
10 / 10
12 / 6
14 / 4
16 / 3
18 / 1

Dumbbell Squats - Heavy
10 / 20
10 / 20

Leg Press
13 / 88

Stiff Legged Deadlifts
19 / 25
15 / 30

Lying Leg Lifts
9 / 40

Standing Calf Raises
12 / 70
10 / 79

Rope Crunches
8 / 35

Swiss Ball Crunches
10 / 5

Wednesday
Flat Barbell Bench Press - Warm Up
8 / 15
8 / 15
3 / 17.5

Flat Barbell Bench Press - Heavy
7 / 25
7 / 25

Incline DB Press
12 / 10
8 / 10

Wide-Grip Dips
4
1

Seated DB Press
11 / 8
6 / 8

Standing DB Side Laterals
7 / 6

Cable Pushdowns
4 / 40
13 / 30

EZ-Bar Skull Crushers
8 / 17.5

Thought I'd post today's workout in a new post. Today I felt awesome before heading to the gym, then while I was at the gym I was still pretty annoyed about Wednesday's workout I was pushing myself even further than I thought I could. Evidently I really wasn't hitting potential and I'm even more determined than I was before I started! Anyway here's the numbers for today:

Deadlifts - Warm Up
10 / 20
6 / 25
4 / 30
3 / 30
1 / 35

Deadlifts - Heavy
7 / 45
7 / 45

Overhand Chin-Ups
4
2

Bent Over Barbell Rows
10 / 40
8 / 40

Barbell Shrugs
13 / 30
10 / 35

Barbell Curls
12 / 17.5
8 / 20

Seated Dumbbell Curls
13 / 9

Barbell Wrist Curls
10 / 12.5

After spending a little bit of time looking for alternatives to Seated Calf Raises, I decided to try Seated Barbell Calf Raises and all I can say is OWW, I need to figure out a way to make that more comfortable if I'm going to carry on doing them! Anyone know a way to do that?

Monday
Dumbbell Squats - Warm Up
10 / 20kg
6 / 24kg

Dumbbell Squats - Heavy
8 / 32kg
7 / 32kg

Leg Press
16 / 97kg

Stiff Legged Deadlifts
12 / 35kg
9 / 40kg

Lying Leg Lifts
8 / 40kg

Standing Calf Raises
10 / 97kg
10 / 97kg

Seated Calf Raises
16 / 40kg

Rope Crunches
20 / 40kg
14 / 55kg

Swiss Ball Crunches
16 / 6kg

Wednesday
Flat Barbell Bench Press - Warm Up
10 / 12.5kg
6 / 15kg
4 / 17.5kg
3 / 20kg
1 / 22.5kg

Flat Barbell Bench Press - Heavy
10 / 25kg
6 / 27.5kg

Incline DB Press
11 / 10kg
8 / 10kg

Wide-Grip Dips
4
5

Seated DB Press
6 / 10kg
4 / 10kg

Standing DB Side Laterals
10 / 6kg

Cable Pushdowns
12 / 35kg
12 / 35kg

EZ-Bar Skull Crushers
12 / 17.5kg

I felt great after both workouts, I still know I could have done more on the first half of my Wednesday workout, I'm definitely going for 30kg bench press next week! Can't wait for Friday workout.

Friday
Deadlifts - Warm Up
10 / 22.5
6 / 25
4 / 30
3 / 35
1 / 40

Deadlifts - Heavy
7 / 45
8 / 45

Overhand Chin-Ups
4
3

Bent Over Barbell Rows
10 / 40
11 / 40

Barbell Shrugs
10 / 40
10 / 40

Barbell Curls
10 / 20
5 / 20

Seated Dumbbell Curls
8 / 10

Barbell Wrist Curls
18 / 12.5

Monday
Dumbbell Squats - Warm Up
10 / 16kg
6 / 20kg
4 / 25kg
3 / 25kg
1 / 28kg

Dumbbell Squats - Heavy
10 / 30kg
8 / 30kg

Leg Press
9 / 106kg

Stiff Legged Deadlifts
13 / 40kg
9 / 45kg

Lying Leg Lifts
12 / 40kg

Standing Calf Raises
10 / 106kg
12 / 106kg

Seated Calf Raises
25 / 45kg

Rope Crunches
16 / 60kg
15 / 65kg

Swiss Ball Crunches
25 / 8kg

Time to update the journal man ;)

Time to update the journal man ;)

Wow completely forgot about this :-( I shall update again soon with something more than an oops.

Going to start logging my nutrition, workouts, and also rest day rubbish in here. I may also put uni stuff in here too just in case anyone is interested.

Starting later today :D

Ok so I ended up going to my friends celebration party to celebrate the end of 3 years of hiccups due to a brain tumour so didn't have time to do anything. I very nearly missed a uni deadline thanks to the party but it was so so worth it, I do however think that my gym routine has really taken a hit this month due to a few things.

First I split up with my girlfriend on new years eve, then I got a silly amount of uni work all of a sudden, and have a week in London working.

I need to get myself back on track when I get back from London, I've really annoyed myself so far this year by not keeping up with my workouts so I'm going to make myself keep to my routine. I will do this, and I will do it right!!

Finally got around to ordering a barbell for home use, and some spotters so I can do 2 days of my workout at home now if I rework some of my routine. I actually got a 5' and a 6' straight bar with 50Kg of weight to start with as I already have 20Kg of compatible weights. I can see myself going past this point pretty soon, however using standard 1" plates they aren't too expensive to get more.

I have been looking into my supps recently and I've decided that I'm going to switch from using USN Muscle Fuel Mass, and switching to USN Muscle Fuel Anabolic as one of my MRP, and also look into getting hold of some Scivation Solution 5 to try that for a month and see what it's like. I have stopped taking my post-workout stack of whey, creatine, glutamine, and dextrose in favor of Scivation Xtend. I decided to change after reading something on Xtend and whey that Foley pointed me at a while back. I now have half a serving pre-workout, the other half during workout, and another serving post-workout, so far I've been pretty impressed with doing things this way as I seem to have so much more energy during my workouts.

FEB 1 '10 - Back / Calves / Forearms
Weights in Kg

Dead Lift
60 x 10
60 x 9

Barbell Bent-over Row
35 x 12
40 x 7

Chinup (57 body weight)
57 x 5
57 x 6

Shrug
20 x 20
20 x 13

Calf Raise
106 x 13
106 x 11

Seated Calf Raise
106 x 13

Dumbbell Wrist Curl
6 x 14