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This is my first post from the new apartment. The moving day was Tuesday. The whole process took _12_ hours in total with only two short pauses, so physically it was one of my hardest ever. The new apartment is on the 3rd floor and there's no elevator so my calfs were totally sore until this morning. However, I did go to gym yesterday and today, although with a little shorter program than usually. Yesterday I dipped 5x10 with added 15 kg / 33 lb, which was very good. Today some bicep curls on the Scott, hammer curls and leg curls. On the moving day my intake was probably thousands of kcals less than what my consumption was and thus my bw has been ~0.5 kilos lower than last week. Let's see if I'll manage to gain it back.

 

Stay tuned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sorry I haven't been posting at all for almost two weeks - I've been very busy with a project. Ofcourse I've worked out, I just haven't been posting about it

 

My workouts have been going smoothly and steadily, although I've lost some body weight (now 75 kg / 167 lb). I've taken lots of dips to my program and in the last two times I did 5x10 with added 20 kg / 44 lb. Can't wait to see how I'll be able to progress in it. Week ago I also squatted my record set so far; 5x6 with 120 kg / 265 lb, although it wasn't very pretty. In bench I haven't been able to improve, probably due to my weight loss (and not gain ). The dip has had very good effect to my triceps, as I did french overhead presses with 38 kg / 84 lb without any issues.

 

All in all, I'm feeling very good and stronger than ever

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  • 2 weeks later...

Long time no update. I start to sound like a broken record.

 

Lots of good workouts behind. Last week I trained five times and will probably end up to four on this one. I increased dipping weights to 25 kg / 55 lb and did five sets of eight reps with them. More weights kinda slows it down but I guess I've enough torque to still pull it off without huge difficulties. Maybe I'm even getting a bit stronger I've also focused a bit more to my back lately. Some improvements with triceps too, as 1-hand overhead french presses with 13.5 kg / 27.5 lb don't feel that awkward any more.

 

I'm kinda busy right now, but will post again sometime next week.

 

Btw, here's one new pic of me:

 

http://www.nic.fi/~jaakkoko/temp/beef/virne.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

No worries, I am very alive outside this forum!

 

The weather is becoming warmer even here in Finland too, so I've spent almost all of my free time being active outside, mostly biking and rollerblading (which is such a fine sport for your chest muscles ). Still, I haven't given up on gym training at all, having the normal 4-5 weekly workouts. Due to added activity I've lost some more weight so I wouldn't expect any actual improvements with weights, but it has become such a big part of my everyday life that it would be totally impossible not to go. Actually, I feel that my legs have improved somewhat, as I successfully did my last weekend's squats with 120 kg / 264.5 lb (5 sets, 9-10 reps). They also look a lot thicker and more muscular than before

 

Enjoy the summer and keep on lifting, buddies!

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  • 1 month later...

AAaand here I am again, returning to VBB after several weeks of absence. I guess I just have to admit I'm somewhat forum-lazy. Well, atleast my better half, candyflip, has been rather active.

 

Unlike in previous summers, this June was pretty active gym-month for me. I had 19 good workouts and due to that, I managed to keep little more weight on. For the past 3-4 years I've always dropped below 70 kilos / 154 lbs during summers but now I'm steadily at 72-73 kg. I don't have any hard figures but I'd say my fat% is pretty much the same it has been in summers before, so it looks like I've managed to really gain some muscle. I'm definitely stronger than year ago, so it seems I'm in pretty good starting position for winter's workouts. In this month I've had my vacation and travelled a little, so I probably won't make more than 10-12 workouts. Well, one lighter month in a year can't hurt, now can it?

 

Now that my vacation is about to end and I'm able to train normally, I also changed my workout program. In May and June I did longer sets (10-15 reps) and focused on isolating moves and smaller muscle groups. Now I've shifted my focus completely and will have more compound moves, double the sets and half the reps. For example, in Tuesday I squatted 8 (sets) x 6 (reps) x 130 kg / 286 lb (btw, in January I squatted 4x7 with 80 kg, so I've made some progress there) and benched 8x6x80 kg / 176 lb. I also started paying attention to recovery time between sets and will try to keep it no longer than a 1.5 minutes, usually 60 seconds sharp.

 

As this is little experimental for me, please share your thoughts if you have any!

 

p.s I added a fresh photo to my pics-thread so check it out and comment, thanx

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  • 4 weeks later...

Like I probably already mentioned somewhere, candyflip bought me a thorough fitness test for a birthday present (which was a great idea, btw). The test took place two weeks ago and finally I've the results in scanned form as well. I guess I won't post of them, but here's the body composition-part:

 

http://www.nic.fi/~jaakkoko/pics/bodycomposition.jpg

 

There weren't any huge surprises, except for the body fat. I honestly believed I was somewhere in 8-9%-zone. The result made me wonder where I'd be if I'd actually try to minimize my fat, for now I've done almost the opposite (fighting against weight loss).

 

Summer is about to end here in Finland and in my humble opinion IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME. I mean, summers are great for relaxing, visiting new places, seeing new things etc, but all the time spent on those extra activities means you dont' have as much time to the normal, routine stuff (ie. gym). Actually, gym-wise this summer wasn't as bad as few previous ones have been, but now that I can finally return to my 100% workout routine, I feel like I haven't really worked out for weeks. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have few lighter weeks per year but I have to say I'm happy they're behind me now.

 

I've still kept the 8 sets x 6-10 reps -program, which has mostly worked just fine. I think the next change to my program is gonna take place in the beginning of September, and this time I'll probably return to bigger weights. I am planning to really gain some muscle during the winter so it's better start early than late.

 

Rock on, vegans

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  • 2 weeks later...

What's up, guys?

 

As I already predicted in my previous post, the autumn has really put me back to the gym. I've had total of 17 workouts in this month already and there are still four days of the month left. I could've easily break the magic 20-workout limit but decided not to do so after three 5-workout weeks. The plan was to take it easy on this week but looks like I'm still going to have four (slightly lighter) workouts. It has become clear I'm somewhat addicted to workouting but what the heck, it's one of the healthiest addiction I can imagine of.

 

Last change to my program happened in the beginning of July, when I moved from 4-5 sets to 8. At that time I dramatically cut down on weights to save energy for the additional sets. It seems this new program has worked out pretty well, because now I'm practically 100% in par with my May- and June-weights while doing two times the sets! For example, just yesterday I squatted 8 sets with 8 reps on 120 kg / 264 lb and it was easy (I actually did 10 reps in some sets just for the fun of it)!. I think there's no returning to only four sets for me, but I might go towards 3-4 warmup sets and 4-5 with the actual weights.

 

Well, that's it for today. Stay strong!

 

ps. thanks to Robert for the awesome vbb-shirt!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good to see you're still around, HCP!

 

Here's a quick update on my workouts: during the last few weeks I've gained 2-3 kilos (5-7 lbs) and increased almost all weights 5-10%. I took a glance at my logs from year ago and it seems I'm using almost the same weights but doing twice the sets. So my endurance is better, or atleast I'm really going till the end now. I should be changing my program already and since I'm definitely going for nothing else than pure POWER and MASS, I'll add just add more weights and do 1-2 sets less. Does it make sense to you guys? I might also skip some muscles altogether to make more room for my weaker areas. For example I'm not really sure if I'd really need any dedicated bicep-workouts, as they're getting punished in almost all other moves already (deadlifts, back moves etc).

 

Comments very welcome.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Aannd we're back!

 

I am happy to tell that September was my most active gym-month ever with total of 20 workouts (though it's only one or two workouts more than what I ~always do, but still!). This is obviously resulting from the fact that summer is over -> I can happily gain some weight (and have done so) -> increased results -> increased motivation. Lately I've been considering adding one more workout to my weekly schedule, going from five to six. Then again, I think I could have some lighter weeks occasionally, now I haven't had one for 1.5 months.

 

I've altered my program and it's now five-split. I have one for arms, one for back, one for shoulders and then two (diffent) workouts for legs and chest. So far it feels fine so I think I'm gonna stick with it for now. As already mentioned, I've managed to gain weight since June (~four kilos (= 9 lb)) and it has impacted my results greatly. Currently I'm in same weight than in Jan-Feb, so it seems this winter I'm going to be the biggest and strongest I've ever been.

 

One more thing; last weekend we attended the Fitness Expo 2009, where they held the national bodybuilding competition of the year. It was my first time in any bodybuilding event and I really enjoyed it (surprise! ). Also, my old classmate competed there. Here are some pics of the event: http://www.power.1g.fi/kuvat/Fitness%20Expo%202009/

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  • 5 months later...

Yes, I'm still very much alive and kicking, even though I haven't been here for almost half a year. My civil service ended in last year's October and I returned to my real work right the next day. At work I jumped right in to a very urgent and challenging project, on which I worked like a madman until the end of February. Now it's pretty much complete and I'm working only the normal office hours. Luckily I like my work, even the crazy projects like that

 

However, despite working so hard, I did manage to keep my gym schedules. I've worked out five or six times a week with very few exceptions and gained quite nicely; I'm currently seven kilos (~15 lbs) heavier than in August, when the body composition test was done. In pure strength that translates to 10-15% increase in practically all muscle groups. Currently I am already dieting the excess fat away, mainly by adding aerobics and carefully watching my carb intake. I'll post some new pics when there's something new to show

 

Have a good one

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