JawD

Well, I've had my journal before but I'll now leave that and start things over here. So, I'll make this the run of the mill intro post.

I've been training since Oct 07. While I have made progress, its perhaps not as much as I should have made but I am happy non the less.

Why did I start training?

Definitely the birth of my son. I'm 36 now and he was born last September. I just dont want him to grow up and think me a "slob". I want to be active with him, not just watching him and so on. The fact I feel 100% better and am starting to look better is an added bonus

Goals?

Well, in October I was 15 1/2 stone. I was carrying far too much fat in particular around my middle. I've lost coming up to a stone now. I hit the stone mark a month or so ago, then added a bit and am just over 14 1/2 now I think. But, I still have excess fat in the middle but its getting there. So, fat loss was my main aim. But, of course I wanted to build muscle as well. Good think about being a beginner, is you can train for fat loss and see muscular improvements as I have. I just havent been as strict diet wise as Id have liked or Id have lost more fat. Still, Ive made progress and am happy with myself.

My goals at the moment are still to continue shedding fat but more so now really starting to add muscle. Im still being fairly calorie restrictive but am concentrating more on eating clean and healthy than I am counting cals and carb cycling as I was. I do allow myself cheat snacks on occasion. Usually on a weekend.

Training

Weights Im tinkering with a cycle routine that I put together. Havent really had any critique for it so I dont know if its worth while or not. But, its basically :

Weeks 1-2 Sets of 12 Reps
Weeks 3-4 Sets of 10 Reps + Weight
Weeks 5-6 Sets of 8 Reps + weight
Weeks 7-8 Sets of 6 Reps + Weight
Week 9 rest
Weeks 1-2 Repeat + weight from last cycle
and so on.

The reason was based on a thought that you would get different benefits from different rep ranges. So long as you of course made sure each set was at maximum effort. So, I slowly decrease the reps while upping the weight and then making sure next time around each stage had more weight again.

Still, like I say Im not sure if t his is the best thing to try, but Im having a go.

I do a 3-day split:

Mon or Tue - Back / Bi / Abs (at fitness gym)
Thu or Fri - Legs / Shoulders / Abs (at fitness gym)
Sat or Sun - Chest / Tri (at home gym)


I also do cardio. This is 30-40min sessions doing a light jog near where I live. At the moment I am getting in about 3 a week.

Oh, and all training I do is early in the morning. Gym sessions are 7am - 8am and cardio is 6:30am to 7am.

Suppliments

Impact Whey Protein (1 scoop with water breakfast & 1 scoop with milk before bed)
2 x Fish Oil Caps with breakfast and 2x before bed
4g Creapure with breakfast and 4g PWO
1 Scoop Micro Whey Protein + WMS PWO
3 x BCAA pre and post WO
5g L-Glutamine Breakfast, PWO & Bed

Diet

Typically I eat:

Mon-Fri

6am Oats
9am Chicken breast & handful cashews
12noon Tuna & salad (sometime greek yoghurt)
3pm Chicken breast & handful cashews
6pm Chicken / Mince & salad/veg - sometimes rice / pots
10pm usually a cracker with peanut butter - sometimes 2 weetabix

Sat

6am Oats
9am Protein bar
12 noon Tuna / chicken on wholemeal
3pm Protein bar
6-7pm - as mon-fri or Takeaway

Sun

6am oats
9am Protein bar
12 noon Sunday lunch - no yorkshire pud ;)
3pm Protein bar
6pm Light tea, salad or soup etc
9pm peanut butter or weetabix

Right, thats about it for now. A basic intro!