Here is my original Post before making this Diary=
http://training.fitness.com/weight-l...res-25515.html


Hi there!
In Brief:

-I'm bulking up for the New Year (around 3 Months)
-I don't have any clear targets at this point but I'm dressing up as a Spartan out of '300' so I neeeeed muscle

Anyway, It was suggested to me that I make a Diary so here it is!

You should expect progress, I've been Gym-ing for almost a year now and have gone down from 12 Stone to 9 and 1/2 and am now at 10 and a 1/2 (muscle) but now that I have set myself this 3 Month Challenge, I'll be working extra hard!

Please point me in the right direction, I am definately willing to put alot of work into this, i.e more than this initial plan!

My current plan is as follows:

At least 40 mins Lifting every Night doing
-Bench Press with Heavy weight
-Chest Flys
-Leg Raises
-Sit ups
-Deadlifts
-Bicycle Crunches

(any others I truly SHOULD be doing?)

And I'll be doing this with the occasional HIIT/Cardio until around the last 2 weeks before the New Year where I'll be running I expect around 40 miles a week to get rid of any built up Fat.

soooooo please go ahead and Critisise, don't let me waste these 3 Months of Potential!

Cheers,
Rob.

Picture 1= From a few months back
Picture 2= From last week

Attached Thumbnails

   

Don't forget, diet is a big part of it too. What are you eating to bulk up? It's important to get the proper nutrition to make the most of your workout routine.

There is one exercise that you absolutely should be doing (unless you have a bad back), and that is: squats. They are a very effective lower body exercise. But make sure you are using the right form or you could seriously hurt yourself.

Good luck with your goals!

Let me introduce myself.......Im JOE BLOW!..........how do I KNOW? Look below my name and it will SHOW===============LOL

hey......im just waiting for them to change my title..........


Thought I would stop in and say GOOD LUCK ON THE JOURNAL!

Do you know who this is?........I have only 2 posts

I'll look into the squat, I tried doing it the other day but it felt wrong... I'll look it up now.

In terms of Diet, I have a very healthy Vegetarian Diet and I eat alot of this stuff

Tahini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is full of Protein amongst other things, I have this with Organic wholemeal bread.
The Things I tend to eat are either home grown or bought at the health food shop:

Tahini
Baked beans
Homemade Soup with all organic Ingredients
Weetabix
Protein Shakes before workout!
Pitta
Peanut Butter
Corn
All the standard fruit, 5 a day
Soya Milk and occasionally Goats milk

My mother also makes a large variety of vegetarian dishes, literally never Chips or burgers or stuff like that though!

Oh and hi Joe, you're Chillen from my other thread- right? makes sense judging by your name heya.

Well people,
My first update.


I can already feel some progress in my chest and lower abs although what hasn't helped is I've been ill which has set back my workout and I've not been able to eat as much.

Other than this there is no problems.

I was going to learn to do Planche push ups though as they are apparently very good all over.

Any thoughts?

Me.

Have you changed your current routine? What are the "purpose" of pushups in your routine? What are the chest exercises in your routine now? I would tend to favor DIPS over pushups.....if I had a preference.


I would also add Squats

Yea I keep half doing squats, and I've watched videos on how to do it and everything but I don't quite understand what areas it affects, I got the impression it was good for your stomach muscles as your body uses them to stabalise yourself what is it that's so good about squats? and I don't do press ups really, it's just the planche push ups look crazy-cool!

YouTube - Full Planche Pushups

Currently over the past couple days I've done exactly the same routine, heavy weight- bench press then leg raising/ bench press/leg raise etc then I do a bit of work on my biceps and attempt squats all for about 30 minutes.
I know it's a pretty basic workout and I'll add Dips, I used to do that at the gym actually yea good one.

To be honest me being ill last week has set me back a little bit as I was only eating about 700 calories for 2/3 days (and I tried to eat more!) when for the previous week I was eating 3500 a day! I did manage to have a protein shake each day though so it couldn't of been that bad right?! but now I'm back on track and tommorrow I'll do a full body workout, I've just done the routine I just described btw. cheers, rob.

Being ill can do that, but do try to eat better when sick if you can hold it down. You have to take care of yourself when you are sick and put training on the back burner.

On the squate benefits:

The squat benefits are vast and numerous. It effects the quad muscles (the largest muscles of the human body), and has a profound effect on the release of several biological functions (i.e. stimulating the release of testosterone, and other beneficial growth related compounds), and can have a huge impact on over all growth of the human body. In addition, the movement recruits the torso muscles for stability in the movement and it can be quite profound in nature, and is a good overall core builder.

When done correctly with proper weight, the demonstration of its power is in the fact it can make one breath hard, litterally sap your strength, and even make one vomit. The very fact that it can lead to this--demonstrates its power.

The dead lift is in the same ball park as the Squat, though it effects the legs to a lessor degree, the upper body muscle recruitement is tremendous (most noteably the back and traps, shoulders and core). I believe the back, as complex as it is, is the second largest (as a unit together) group of muscles next to the thigh (quad). And, is a fantastic mass builder and has a huge impact on biological releases--we ALL care about.

These two lifts are two of the most important exercises one can have in one's routine---hands down.

Hey guys!

So incase you are concerned, I'm still exercising, still eating healthily (best I can) and everything is going great!

I just didn't know what to post as an update seeing as taking a photo is tricky to show progress at my already lean stage over the period of a couple months but I will post a photo when the dressing up as a spartan thing happens at the end of this month- my target!

[I]oh and since I last posted there have been alot of other people agreeing to dress up on new years, it's now like an event! there's even a website.


I don't expect to be as ripped as this dude by new years but I'll do my best



Here is my status

I've just started last week to cut by eating less calories and doing three- twenty minute jogs a week and I still do weights three times a week.

The question really is, to look as defined as possible for new years, is dehydration an option? don't bodybuilders do that and white wine?
also to lose excess fat (about 1 pound off my stomach would be perfect) in the coming weeks before JAN 1ST , what do you think of this routine?

-Weights 3 times a week (I've got a strenous routine but I recover quickly)
-jogging 7 miles 3 times a week
-Eating low calories but high protein (eggs, protein shakes, peanut butter samwiches for college)

Seriously though, think of this as a serious competition, although I know at the end of the day it's just a bit of fun and there will be (currently 146) other spartans, some of which will make me look ok whatever happens ! but I see this as a goal and the reward is a night of fun, (hopefully) with a girl under my arm
.