Little Boy to Large Man (Log)

[coreygb]

Stats
Age: 19
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 172
Bodyfat: No idea. Any guesses based on the pics below?

Current max (2.6.11)
Squat: 185 x 5
Deadlift: 185 x 5
Bench: 155 x 5
Press: 85 x 5
Unweighted Pullups: 5
Unweighted Chins: 5

I know I can do more than I listed on the above squat and deadlift maxes, but I never have, so I didn't want to cheat.

Experience - Started college in Fall 2009. Workout out from September 2009 - Jan 2010. I only used machines, had a terrible diet, and all around didn't know much of anything. But, I did grow a bit, and people did notice. Went from about 120 to 140. Fast forward to September 2010. I Had a little more knowlege this time around, but not much more. I did a lot of isolation work, and the only compound lift I did was bench. I also did squats, but it was on the smith machine. So in December 2010, I started gaining much more knowlege about eating and lifting in general. I decided that my school gym wasn't going to cut it because it lacks a squat rack. So here I am, February 6, 2011, and I'm about to go lift in the garage using my new power rack.

Goals
Squat: 300 x 5
Deadlift: 300 x 5
Bench: 250 x 5
Press: Bodyweight
Chins/Pullups: 30? Not Sure what to consider good.

As far as me beng worried about strength or size, I'd say I'm more concerned with size, but strength is nice of course. Maybe like 70/30. I don't play sports, compete, or engage in physical work outside of workouts, so I don't have much use for insane strength.

I'm not really sure about my appearance goals, as far as numbers go. I can't imagine being 5'5" and over 200 lbs; that seems like a bit much. I would like to lose my huge gut, though. I don't mean to make excuses, but I think its also part of my body's design. I have an 8 year old brother who is super skinny, but his belly sticks out like mine. No fat on him. Just like he's pregnant or something, ha. But, I don't want to cut and have nothing to show for it. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing for now and bulk.

Routine
I'm doing the Practical Programming Novice Program. I'm sure you all know what that's about. Just a simple 5x5 type program based on compound lifts. 3 Days per week.

Diet
I eat tons of steak, chicken, cottage cheese, oats, veggies, fruits, ANPB, and drink milk with every meal. The worst things that I eat are probably rolls given at sit down restaurants, PB crackers, and pizza. Not too bad, but could be better I admit.

Supplements
Optimum Whey (Breakfast/Post-workout)
Optimum Casein (night)
Optimum Multivitamin
Creatine

Current Pics (2.6.11)
Because I have less than 25 posts, I can't post links without putting (dot). So, here is my photobucket album:

photobucket(dot)com/albums/m639/corey_gbl/

 

[coreygb]

Workout 1 - Sunday, 2.6.11

Squat
45 2x5
60 1x5
95 1x3
125 1x2
160 3x5

Bench
45 2x5
65 1x5
90 1x3
115 1x2
130 3x5

Chins
5
5
5

The squats were moderately difficult since I was sure to go alllllll the way down. Bench was easy. Chins were to failure. The program says to start below your current 5 rep max, and then hit current PR's after a few weeks. This will probably get hard real quick. Time to eat.

 

[coreygb]

Workout 2 - Tuesday, 2.8.11

Squat
45 2x5
65 1x5
95 1x3
135 1x2
165 3x5

Press
Didn't go exactly how the program says for this one.
Reason 1: I have no way of pressing 35 lbs like it said to start with
Reason 2: Pressing 45 pounds for more than a warmup seems ridiculous.

Here's what we did:
65 2x5
70 3x5

Deadlift
Also didn't go exactly as the program said.
Reason: lifting with little plates (<45's) on each side requires awkward starting position. I think my deadlift max is far above 185 x 5 anyway, so I still didn't overdo it today. It felt farirly light, just as its supposed to for these first several workouts.

Here's what we did:
135 4x5
170 1x5


Nothing today was incredibly difficult. Press was really easy, and the heavy set of deads wasn't too difficult either. The last set of squats, particularly the last rep, definitely took the most effort. Probably 6.5 or maybe a 7/10 if I were to scale the difficulty of the last set. The other sets were nothing. I'm really excited for the upcoming weeks and getting into some heavy stuff.

 

[coreygb]

Workout 3 - Thursday, 2.10.11

Squat
45 2x5
65 1x5
100 1x3
135 1x2
170 3x5

Bench
45 2x5
65 1x5
95 1x3
120 1x2
135 3x5

Pullups
6 (oh boy, a PR)
5
5

It's 11:30pm now; I got a late start because my two partners ditched me this afternoon. The squats actually seemed a little easier than last workout, but there was a slight discomfort in my groin area during the heavy sets. Kind of an achey feeling. I told myself it was because I was working out in a 28 degree garage. I don't think it'll be a big deal though. Anyway, bench was really easy, but, I really suck at pullups. My gut = an anchor. Food tiiiiiime.

 

[coreygb]

2nd week weigh-in: 174lbs (+2 from last week)
I think I'm going to post pictures every two weeks.

Workout 4 - Sunday, 2.13.11

Squat
45 2x5
70 1x5
105 1x3
140 1x2
175 3x5

Press
45 2x5
55 1x2
55 1x3
70 3x5

Chins
8 (PR)
5
5

Starting with low weight is killing me on the press. I feel like I could go to town on so much more than 70. Squat felt strong. It was nearly 60 degrees in the garage today, and my groin didn't hurt, so maybe there was a correlation. I was quite satisfied with 8 chinups. It didn't even feel difficult until the 7th rep. One more important piece of information - I had gas during squats, so the rack was basically one big shit box.

I'm pretty sure no one reads this, and that's alright because I do this log for myself, but if anyone wants to answer this question, please do. Anyway, this routine is obviously designed with strength gains in mind. I would later like to try a bodybuilding-type routine once I get to a point of respectable strength on compound lifts. From what I understand, big weight means big size gains generally speaking. I guess my question is - am I going about this the right way? Is it a smart decision to get real strong before switching to more bodybuilding/isolation excersises? This could be what everyone does for all I know. Maybe its a dumb question. Either way, I'm gonna do this program til the gains stall.

 

[coreygb]

Workout 5 - Tuesday, 2.15.11

Squat
45 2x5
70 1x5
105 1x3
140 1x2
225 1x5 [PR] (My friend is an idiot, and he accidentally loaded up the bar with 225 instead of 180. I knew something wasn't right as soon as it was on my shoulders, but I went ahead and did the set since I thought maybe it was just me. I got it, but the shit was tough!)
180 2x5

Bench
45 2x5
70 1x5
95 1x3
125 1x2
140 3x5

Deadlift
70 2x5
110 1x3
155 1x2
185 1x5

Tiring workout. By this time next week, its gonna be getting intense.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I like your log amigo. I will post in it.

As for your question on going for strength vs bodbuilding imo strength first is the way to go. I don't care what anyone says you will not build an impressively muscled body on baby weights. gymnasts look impressive generally, but in actuality it's a combination of mid-level muscle development and low bodyat. And they developed that level of muscle from uber hard bodyweight movements that are exponentially harder than what your typical joe 100 pushups guy does.

Even the bodybuilders that use light weight in comparison to their peers still use alot more weight than your average gym lifter. To them 315 for strict controlled reps nice and slow on bench for multiple sets of 10-12 reps may be light. In actuality that is still damn strong and enough weight with that kind of volume to produce large muscle mass.

Imo, for your height and weight I'm guessing that once you get to the point that you can lift the numbers you posted as goals that would be a good times to switch to a higher rep/volume.

Honestly I'm of the opinion that typical bodybuilding routines are stupid, full of redundancy and have too much volume both in exercises performed, workouts days per week done and total sets used.

If you get to the point you can bench 250 for 3 sets of 10, squat 315 for 3 sets of 8-10 and stiff-legged deadlift 315 for a set of 12-15 you will probably have developed quite a well muscled body.

 

[coreygb]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input.

thatbloke, yeah I tend to talk too much, haha. Just want to make sure I get my point clear. I'll work on that. Weird that photobucket won't show the pics. Here they are:

Boy, look at that belly.

 

[lweaver]

Been following your log actually, just havent had much to add yet. And yes, stick with heavy compound lifts. At this point in your training isolation movements with light weights won't do shit for shit.

 

[coreygb]

Workout 6 - Thursday, 2.17.11

Squat
45 2x5
70 1x5
110 1x3
145 1x2
185 3x5

Press
45 2x5
50 1x5
50 1x3
60 1x2
75 3x5

Pullups
9 (PR)
5
4

Great workout. Proud of the 9 pullups, but I started to suck after that. Oh well. I'm gonna go eat a steak dinner now.