Been training for about 6 years now on and off. Tried every diet and training program under the sun (especially during the start), and bottom line is just dont overthink everything. Calories in vs calories out is always king.
After Uni in about 2012, I was a lump due to late nights and shit uni food and takeaways for 3 years. Think at worst I was just under 16st, and I’m 5’8 so that wasn’t a good look lol.
I literally bought a treadmill and did ketosis (no carbs) to shed the first couple of stone. Then hit the gym and learned how to fucking lift heavy shit for a number of repititions. Best decision of my life. Transformed after a couple of years of solid work and was sitting at a healthy 11.5/12st with decent muscle mass.
Last year or so I’ve stopped watching what I eat so have gained another stone but have continued to train hard, so have dirty bulked basically.
Used to do a similar regime to @SRCJJ but now only have time to go 4 times a week so I do:
Workout A (mix of all areas inc. compound)
Deadlifts and shrugs
Workout B (similar to A but different areas)
Abs and Arms
It’s been working well except today I over did it with deadlifts and have absolutely seized my lower back to shit
Need to definitely chuck in more cardio now as even though upper body is fine, the gut isn’t liking the eat what you want mantra!
Always gotta remember you can’t out-train a poor diet.
It’s totally dependent on my weight and the kind of training I’m doing.
On Monday it 4x8-10 of 120kg on the bench. So not my heaviest lift but some strong reps. My focus is always on form so I rarely compromise it for heavy lifting.
Dumbbells on the incline, I don’t think I went above 50 because I was exhausted from the benching. And even those reps weren’t great so it was between 45-50.
I try and to lift heavy so I can build some good dense muscle but it isn’t always easy when you’re trying to maintain a lean physique at a lower than usual body weight.
Back when I was a Bouncer here in New Zealand I developed a good exercise to do.
After a long shift of curb stomping twiggy student cunts complaining about our no trainers policy, I’d go out back to the dumpster. Here, I would deadlift the dumpster.
5 sets of 8.5 reps. That’s it.
The uneven weight distribution of the dumpster meant my core had to continually compensate for the shifting weight and the bins and shit and empty kebab boxes would slide around. The rough metal of the dumpster would help me build stronger calluses and the rust gradually being rubbed into my skin and getting into my bloodstream gave me a natural inoculation to tetanus, so when the homeless meth heads at came me with rusty blades I never had to get vaccinated.
I’ve always been in good shape, and trained as a boxer and played to a good level of football as a younger. But on the picture on the left I had gone through my own personal battles. I lost my father, my uncle and job in the span of 2 months and had been dealing with my fathers ailing health for months before he passed.
I stopped training and ballooned up to about 92kg at my heaviest. I’m not tall, so 92kg is some serious weight. I woke up one morning and looked at myself and realised I no longer loved the person I was and decided from that day forward in 2016, I’d train as hard as I could and dedicate myself to consistency again.
So on the left I’m between 89-92kg and on the right I’m 71kg.
It’s been a battle and a long journey but I woke up this morning feeling kinda proud of how far I’ve come in training. And what better place to share my pride than with my OA family lol.
Haha I’ve been able to grow a beard for a while I just never used to grow it out much back then. I think in that period of January-April 2016 I didn’t even cut my hair (and I cut my hair every week) so…
Even at 90+ you were in decent shape. To shed 20kg and be in that shape now is phenomenal. Your body fat must be in the single digits. Amazing stuff mate.
Thanks mate. I’m not sure what my BF% is right now. I initially cut down to 70kg, then bulked to 78, then down again so I imagine I’m around 10% right now
