SUMMER BODY – WEEK 3

So, here we are.  My progress, so far:

SUMMER BODY - WEEK 3, FRONT FACING
SUMMER BODY – WEEK 3, FRONT FACING
SUMMER BODY - WEEK 3, SIDE FACING
SUMMER BODY – WEEK 3, SIDE FACING

Week number 3 of my brand new diet and attempt at the summer body side of things, and it’s going pretty good I’d say.  I was given a brand new way of eating just over a month ago by Julian at Titanium Fitness and since that day I’ve gone through a process of increasing my calorie intake to a sensible maintenance level.

This week has been a little easier on the reduction of carbs by 50g.  Most of last week and the first few days of this week I have found myself training well and hard, BUT, feeling exceptionally tired an hour or so after sessions.  To the point that on Monday & Tuesday I actually had a quick power nap to catch myself up a little bit.

However, forgetting the fact I’ve felt tired this weeks training has gone exceptionally well.  On Monday I completed my shoulder session with yet another personal best on the hammer strength shoulder press of 65kg per side plus the weight of the arm itself, meaning I lifted almost 70kg per shoulder which is a massive improvement from where I was.  I also did my usual inclined, treadmill walk at lunch for some steady state cardio work.

Tuesday was a chest day, I’ve not been lifting very heavy with my chest for a while now, and have instead been doing quite high rep work.  However, I wanted to try actually testing myself a little again so have began working my way back up the weight tree.  This week on Inclined & Flat bench I worked on the dumbbells lifting the 40kg bells for reps of 8 on both exercises.  I then concluded the session on the cable flyes & dip machine with some high rep work to keep the burn going.  Tuesday lunch was my biceps session, this is one of my weakest body parts so it’s all about trying to lift heavier weights and with the EZ bar I’ve currently built up to 40kg plus the bar itself making the entire weight about 52kg.

Wednesday was something new…ish for me.  As an ex decathlete and specifically pole vaulter, my core strength use to be what I’d consider very good.  However, I’m the first to admit I don’t do enough core work.  Every session I do ends with me doing 15 / 20 minutes of core work but it’s not enough and I skip a lot of the exercises i should really be doing.  So this week I dedicated an entire session to this body part.  OH MY GOD, it was by far the hardest session of the week for me. I went through multiple routines I’ve learnt over the years 50 double crunches, 40 twisting crunches, 30 crunches, 20 doorbell raises, 10 v sits is just one example of what I did.  The lunch time session was my usual cardio work out.

Thursday was a strange day and actually ended up being a rest day.  I didn’t sleep well at all and had an exceptionally busy day, I was in basingstoke with my business at a convention and then visited my old pole vault coach for the evening, before getting home at 11pm.

Friday was my usual Thursday session of legs in the morning.  The gym I go to (anytime fitness, newbury) has recently extended the club in size and so we’ve some new kit to be working on.  For my leg session I took advantage of the hack squat machine. Blimey, it’s amazing how weak a body part can be if you work it in a new way.  I found this machine exceptionally hard and made sure I used it most of the session along with leg press, calf raises and quad extensions.  Brilliant session, and I felt great afterwards….although I was walking like Bambi on ice.

I still did a lunch session Friday, and another of the new machines was a stair master / power mill.  I’ve not done cardio like this, in a very, very long time.  I started the machine far too quickly and after about 7 minutes, I knew, if I kept at this pace, there was no way I’d finish my 30 minute work out.  I slowed it down just a little and powered through the session.  I hurt A LOT, but, it was a great work out, I got a real sweat on, and as far as steady state cardio goes, this really hit the spot.

So that’s been my week.  I started it weighing in just over 92kg and I’ve ended it weighing in at 91.8kg so the weight is still coming off which is excellent, and means the diet stays the same for yet another week.

Speaking of my diet, I promised I’d give you a small break down of a day so you could see what I’m eating to hit my macros of 350g Protein, 212.5kg carbs, 115g fat.  So here you go:

Protein Bar (cnp professional)

30

20

4.9

Protein Shake (omni core)

50

80

3.9

Bacon x 2

16

0.4

12.6

Eggs X 2

12

1.4

18

Tuna 120g

36

0

7.2

Meatballs

24

14

11

Protein Bar (cnp professional)

30

20

4.9

Minced Beef

46

0

36

Pasta

11

24

2

Protein Shake (diet shake – sci mx)

52

32.2

3.6

Minced Beef (small portion)

40

0

32

Rice 50g

2.1

22

0.2

As you can see from the table, I don’t really take in any snacks, although I do like to class the protein bar as a sort of snack.  The main reason for this was the following:  As Julian put together my plan I asked about good things to snack on between meals etc.  His very excellent point was this…..”if you need to snack, you’re not eating enough”. This really struck a chord with me and since that point I’ve eaten no chocolate bars, no crisps, no fizzy drinks etc etc.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t easy, but, this far into the diet and seeing the results so far, well, I certainly don’t crave things as much as I have done in the past.

So there we go, another week down, and we roll into the next weeks worth of training and dieting.  It’s been fantastic fun so far, all be it very hard work.

So, how is your diet going, are you working hard still on your summer body, what is it you’re finding hard to do at the moment?

Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to follow me on instagram, twitter and youtube, for daily updates etc.

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GETTING MY SUMMER BODY

So, I’ve been writing my training plans in blog form for a little while now on and off. However, like lots of people I’ve felt things just weren’t quite going my way. My body shape wasn’t changing to how I’d like it and my weight was steady fluctuating by about 500g up and down.

I know I’m not going to look like Steve Cooke anytime soon, but, I wanted to start to make a difference to my body shape and size. I was chatting to a business friend of mine (Titanium Training) I did some filming for a little while ago. He’s a former powerlifter and I filmed a competition for him.

Anyway, he has studied for years and works as a trainer but also helps people with nutrition etc. He kindly offered to sit down with me and discuss my current diet and improve on.

Oh boy, did we improve on it.

I kind of knew it myself, but, he pointed out a lot of my diet was supplement based and there certainly wasn’t enough actual food involved in it at all. We worked out my actual maintenance level of calories which went from around 1600 calories to 3500. Your bodies metabolism alters to suit the calories we take in, and mine had moved to such a low level that for me to drop any weight or mainly lose fat I’d be taking so few calories in my body wouldn’t function or be able to train.

We broke down the calorie intake to my macros which we went for 350g protein, 262.5g Carbohydrates & 115g Fat. My start weight two weeks ago was 91.1kg

So, for the last 2 weeks I’ve been eating more which is been interesting diet wise and I’ve put on weight. Today is the end of my 2 week process of building my metabolism again and have gained weight to 93.4kg.

So from today I’ll be slowly cutting down my calorie intake. We’re starting by removing 200 calories from my carbohydrate intake (My protein level always stays at 350g to keep muscle size). Once my body settles into the new calorie intake and I stop losing weight I’ll then drop another 200 calories and so on and so forth until I get to an ideal body weight for my fat content that I’d like (10%) which is 85kg.

So here we go, this is me now and I’ll keep you updated each week as to my progress with photos and the food I’ve been eating and training I’ve been doing, or you can follow me on instagram (stopjabbaingon) and see daily pictures.

WEEK 1- SIDE 93.4KG
WEEK 1 – SIDE 93.4KG
WEEK 1 - FACING 93.4KG
WEEK 1 – FACING 93.4KG

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy my journey, and I’d love to hear your stories about changes you’ve made to make a difference.

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(SUMMER BODY) TUESDAY 15TH JUNE PM – BICEPS

So this afternoon was a quick lunch session and I concentrated on biceps and just two exercises until exhaustion in the muscle. The first was inclined seated dumb bell curls:

16 sets of 12 reps @ 15kg 5 sets of 8 @ 10kg
EZ Bar 21’s 7 sets @ 20kg + bar

As you can see, I got the numbers into the reps and a real pump on the muscle too which was fun. It doesn’t take much to put the muscle into fatigue and get some real build going on.

It would seem my training is going well at the moment, now I just need to sort out my diet and get this summer body happening.

MONDAY 15TH JUNE 2015 – LUNCH CARDIO SESSION

So, we hit the gym again this lunch time for a cardio session. I’m trying to keep up the steady state cardio work at the moment rather than HIIT training. In the last 3 weeks or so, I must admit, I’ve found I’m getting more muscular definition and size, especially in my shoulders and legs and although it’s still early days so I can’t be sure, I’d like to think it’s the alterations to my cardio sessions that are making a big difference.

Rather than burning muscle to complete a cardio session I’m just burning fat, which is never a bad thing.

So todays session was:

30 minutes, incline of 15% (maximum for machine) at 5kph. Calorie burn of 462.

What kind of cardio training do you do in your weekly sessions?

Monday 15th June 2015 – SHOULDER SESSION

Good Morning,

Hope you’re all well and had a fantastic weekend. So, I’m sorry, I’ve been very remiss the last few weeks getting my training posted up for you to take a look at.

We’ve been switching things up a little to really try and get some higher rep work out, using heavier weights and also trying to work on my diet a little too.

My maintenance calorie intake is 3304 a day, however, I’m in a process of trying to lose a little of the fat right now, especially around the love handles area, and at 38 years old, it ain’t gonna go easily.

I’ve lowered the fat in take I have every day and I’m generally trying to just snack less on crap, which isn’t easy when you pop into a coffee shop, grab a green tea and then see the CAKES.

Anyway, on to this mornings training session. We’re working on pyramid reps starts high, working down, back up and back down again every set.

SEATED LATERAL RAISES: 10,7.5,5KG 8,8,8,6,6,6,6 reps
SEATED FORWARD RAISES: 10,7.5,5KG 8,8,8,6,6,6,6 reps
SEATED REAR DELTS: 10,7.5,5KG 8,8,8,6,4,6,8 reps
SEATED DUMBELL PRESS: 3 X 15 @ 20KG

It’s only 4 exercises, but with that number of reps I certainly got a good sweat going on so decided to cool down on the bike rather than go for any real extra calories burn. I ticked along for just 15 minutes as I know I have a hard cardio session coming up at lunch time.

How’s your summer body training going? Are you getting the results you’d like, maybe you need to switch things up a little bit in your diet or your training plan.

Training 27th May 2015 (Lunch Session)

So, my training partner and I have decided that as good as doing HIIT sessions is we need to do something different that’s less counter productive to what we’re trying to achieve body wise.

Many people talk about constant low effort walking etc etc. So we thought we’d give it a crack. We normally burn around 600 calories in a 30 minute session of HIIT so didn’t expect to come anywhere near this during our cardio walking session.

We set the treadmill on an incline of 15% (as high as it would go) and set the pace at 5kph and cracked on.

Bloody hell fire. 8 minutes in and we’re both sweating, 20 minutes in and we up the pace to 5.5 then 6kph for the final 5 minutes. Just a little over 500 calories in 30 minutes and we where both sweating just as much as we would doing HIIT. However, I think the walking was actually a little bit harder than the usual cross trainer session. I was frankly blowing out my arse, and was loving every minute of it. Here’s to more walking sessions in the future (3 a week) and let’s see what happens.

What cardio session do you do that works for you?

Training 27th May 2015

As it was a bank holiday weekend we missed our usual Monday international chest session day. This meant we moved the session to Wednesday AM and after a shoulder session on Tuesday we knew this would be a difficult session.

Essentially it was like doing a pre exhaust exercise before the main compound movements.

So we cracked on, and I was frankly in bits.

Inclined Dumbell Chest Press: 4 x 8 @ 35kg Flat Dumbell Bench Press: 4 x 8 @ 35kg 1 x 8 @ 30kg 1 x 8 @ 25kg 1 x 8 @ 20kg 1 x 10 @ 17.5kg Cable Flyes: 1 x 12 @ 12.5kg 1 x 10 @ 15kg 1 x 6 @ 17.5kg 1 x 15 @ 10kg

Finish off with some core:
Machine crunch 5 x 15 @ 55kg
Roll Outs 2 x 10
Weighted Cable rope crunch 3 x 20 @ 55kg

After doing this session we’ve decided to move our shoulder session to Mondays and chest to Tuesday. The main reason being is it not only shakes up our sessions a little and keeps the body guessing, but, we also found the weight wasn’t needed to get a good pump as the shoulders where out of the equation when it came to lifting, hence why the weights where kept so low.

Training 26th May 2015 (lunch session)

2nd session of the day and we’ve chosen to combine both Biceps and Triceps into the hour as a super-set style session.

E Z Bar Curls: 15 x 10 @ 20kg, 35kg after 3 sets to set 8, back down to 20kg for final sets

Each set followed by triceps

E Z Bar Triceps: 15 x 10 @ 20kg, 35kg after 3 sets to set 8, back down to 20kg for final sets

Dumb bell curls: 6 x 10 @ 15kg

Each set followed by triceps

Dumb Bell skull crushers: 6 x 10 @ 15kg

Machine drop sets from 55kg down to 15 in 10kg increments.