Thanks julle
Cardio:
I just lift weights faster...
No just kidding.
Mornings I do fasted cardio. 600 calories, generally about 45 minutes of high resistance low rpm (60 - 65 RPM) cycling. I will drink 2 strong black cups of coffee when I wake. I also squeeze out half a lemon in a cup with half a teaspoon cinnamon. I add boiled water to this and drink this before I start my cardio. This pushes up my temperature and I have read that it assists in breaking down fat. Sometimes I will take a Disprin too before hand. Feels like a Med Lemon effect.
Sometimes I will add in cardio in the evenings but since I bumped my calories up from 400 to 600 I don't have the go or the energy left to do cardio at night.
Weights:
Like I said in my first post. I started a gym journal. This was the best decision and change I could ever made. I take my little black book to gym and write down all my exercises with the reps and plate count / weight I used. The following week I will try and perform better on every exercise. If not by weight then I'll complete more reps. What makes this nice is the fact that I don't have any "wasted" or unsure sets. I know exactly what weight to start on.
I keep changing my routines and I like to keep my body guessing what will be next. I lost a good couple of cm's with a program from Kyle Leon. It consists of supersets and it is awesome for keeping the heart rate up but it doesn't concentrate on specific body parts which I didn't like. It was like doing circuit with weights. It consisted of one Push day and one Pull day. Push day would start of in the first set by doing Flat bench with barbell- then superset straight on to Tricep pressdowns. That was one set. Repeat for 4 sets. Then Military DB lifts for shoulders and straight on to Leg press. You get the idea.
These days I train more old school again. I will aim for reps between 8 and 12. If I do make 12 I'll try for 13 or 14 or failure. I did 4 sets of each exercise- bumped it up to 5 sets from this week.
It says Mondays but it might as well said Day 1-5 as you will see in my below explanation.
Mondays - Shoulders
Tuesdays - Arms
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Chest
Friday - Back
I don't stick to these days if I missed a session. Say we are preparing for an exhibition and I missed Chest - then my days will move on. In other words I might skip a day or too but I don't skip body parts. This is also a change that is doing wonders for me. If I missed a day in the past (and it was usually Thursdays and Fridays when I had my excuses to skip gym) I would stick to my regime and skip that body part. Now I might miss training a day but I don't skip any body parts. That is one of the reasons my back always lacked - I didn't gym most Fridays. At this stage Mondays are my leg day and Fridays are arms.
Diet & Supps:
I start off with a whey and raw oats shake with Garcinia Cambogia, L Glutamine, L Arginine, Dextrose, D Aspartic Acid and ZMA after my cardio. I like to flavor this shake with Amila Apple / Pear.
Then I will have brown rice and usually chicken breast for breakfast, or boiled / scrambled eggs. I also do a beef mince / scrambled egg mixture some times on top of my brown rice. Depending on my timing before gym I might have a similar meal before I go to gym. This last two weeks I was on Spar's bulk sirloin & rump @ R59-99/kg. I cut off all extra and possible fat.
I will take around 5 grams of Beta Alanine before I leave for the gym, 10g of BCAA or L Leucine and 10g of L Glutamine in my shaker to gym which I will sip through my first few sets.
Post Workout I do around 120g of carbs (80g oats and 40g Dextrose) and 60 - 70g of Whey protein. I add 20g of L Glutamin to this shake, sometimes a bit of L Taurine, Alka plus which keeps my body alkaline and in an acid free state, 1000 - 2000mg Vitamin C and I will add another flavouring of Amila again, probably Orange & Naartjie or Fruit Cocktail.
Then I will do another meal like the above. Some afternoons I will do Chilli Pilchards with my brown rice or swop the Rice for a potato.
In the evenings I will have a similar meal again, or I love to bake a whole large chicken in the oven for myself. If I eat this I will not have any carbs with it, maybe a small and simple salad or green veggies like Broccoli or Spinach.
I know my meal plan at his stage is far from perfect but it is still working for me. I will change and fine tune when my results are not on par anymore. My meals are boring and simple I know. What I do add if I'm getting too gatvol is different sauces from Steers. I like the Prego, Peri-peri and Burger relish sauces.
I will coat my chicken breasts in Oive oil and braai 4 - 6 kg at a time on a sekelbos fire. I love the smell and the taste. These breasts then goes 3 or 4 in a little plastic bag in to the fridge and freezer. When they are cold I will cut them in thin slices with a electric slicing / sliding machine like the ones they use for cold meat. These thin slices of breast goes down easy as they are not that dry- it mixes easy with my rice and one of the above sauces in a big lunchbox and with a few shakes everything is covered with the "marinate"
Before I go to bed I will have another glass of water with only GABA, DAA and ZMA. This I believe is one of the best supplement drinks you can make yourself and I will also say that these 3 products together are very potent for recovery, fat loss, lean muscle gains, libido etc. I also believe it is because of these three ingredients in my night cap that I don't experience Testicular shrinkage although I have been on TRT for 3 years.
I also take CLA, L Carnitine and Omega 3 daily.
All supps off course are from BSSA.
I get pain in my knee where I had a ligament op if I take Creatine. It happens with both monohydrate and with CEE. I have no idea why. I still need to do my research on this.
I have used no hardcore fat burners this year but I am going to try FFF now. Right when I started out in February I had a few drops of LP Clen left but it was only enough for about 2 weeks and couldn't do much.
As for gear- At this stage I'm trying to get smaller not bigger. It is also difficult for me to talk gear for future plans as you will get uninformed idiots who stumbles across this thread who will always discredit your hard work, supplement- training- and diet research and write it off as AAS usage. I'm not sure how I am going to handle that yet. Maybe I'll ask Admin if I can do another account for this purpose. I must just remember not to answer my own posts like Jakes did
General:
From my pics - I look at least 10 years younger on the 2nd photo. I still have handles which are covered by the towel, but they are much smaller. :blush:
My pics were the motivation behind me starting cardio now.
I went from a 3XL / 4XL shirt to an XL shirt. I have much more energy and I am more focused on my tasks. I feel like a new person. My weight is currently at 124kg. 2 kg heavier than than my "before" pic. I need to make a small correction though- on the right side I am also 122kg. From there on my weight went up with another 2kg to where I currently am. So my weight in both of the above pics is 122kg.
I would like to encourage other heavies not to look at the scale, but to look at the mirror and the way your clothes fit. I have lost around 25 - 30 cm just on my belt size. I punch in a new hole every 2nd week.
I never had the V Taper- I was always build like a square block with massive calves and quads, good chest and arms. I almost always neglected my back as it was on Fridays - mainly because I went pub lunching and because I thought I was build like a block and my back will not widen. Since I don't skip back anymore I'm amazed with the size and increase in V I experience.
I still have a long way to go but I'm all up for it. I think I took a long time to grow up. I wasted a good 16 years which could have been training and my life could have turned out completely different.
I don't have a problem with adding size and my muscles responds immediately to any exercise I do. I have always been the strongest kid (and biggest) around and I know my genes are in favor of building muscle or getting fat. Its what I do that determines the outcome. I'm looking forward to share my experience with you all.
And having the amazing athletes that we sponsor and being part of the body building shows and part of their preparations and all the new friends I made is also very encouraging and it helps a lot with my motivation. I'm training now like I am going to compete hehehe although that is not my intention or in my future goals. But it is all a matter of being the best you can be every day. And when I go to bed at night I feel I did my best for that day and that is good enough for me.
That is it for now. Please feel free to ask or comment on anything. I like sharing and if it can help anyone that is a bonus
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