3/7/11

I need to keep up with this blog more for you guys. I dug through and found a really old pic of how I looked before I started. Mind you, this picture is 3 years old. You get to see my face this time, luck you...or not. Haha. Jesus I was thin. Today shall be a good day as I begin to launch my health and fitness website and hit the chest/tris hard at the gym today.

I've been pretty unmotivated as of late with a few things coming up such as debt and troubles with the car. Debt has been taken care of and the parts for my car should be here Wednesday. Feel free to leave some comments to help keep me motivated through the bs!

2/25/11

Ok so now that I've caught up to now, I don't just want to leave this blog to die. I hope that you will follow me as I continue to peruse a bigger, better me. This is definitely a life long commitment and hobby for me. So there will be a lot of updates to come.

Currently: Cutting down for Spring/Summer. I ended at 186lbs and am down to 176lbs. Here's a pic of what my back looks like currently.

NOTE: If you're coming to this blog for the first time, you will notice that they are arranged newest to oldest. To follow me from the beginning and gather steps, please click 'older posts'. 

Final thoughts.

It was sort of cloudy when I first started having to pick through information. Once I started seeing common ground, it was really simple. That's why I created this blog, to help guide you in the right direction and show you what worked for me. Not only did this produce dramatic results, it wasn't complicated.

I gained over 50lbs in one year and I'm completely confident that anyone reading this blog can do it too. Heck, I've seen lots of people produce bigger results than I have. I'm sure not complaining though! Haha.

This didn't happen by accident. The transformation came via using resources and good old fashioned hard work. Nothing more, nothing less. Here I've given you a resource, so let's get to work!

The 1 year mark.

So lets skip ahead to the one year mark. I started in December of 09. This was around late 2010.

Start weight: 132lbs
Pictured weight: 185lbs

8 months in.

Nearing the one year mark, I saw drastic improvements just following a simple diet and simple routine. Once you just go back to the basics, this is what you get. Results.

Start weight: 132lbs
Pictured weight: 176lbs

Falling off the path.

Ok let's get into falling off the path. It happens to everyone at some point. Don't get down or kick yourself if you cheat on the diet or skip workouts. The important thing is to recognize you're getting off path and correct it.

It's ok to have a few cheat days here and there but you're going to gain fat when you're chowing down on fatty, greasy foods. Also, this is a biggy...Alcohol consumption, especially beer. I had a problem with this one myself. I got into the habit of drinking again and gained some unwanted fat. While you have to realize that there will be fat when bulking up, you can keep it to minimum by kicking the alcohol and crappy food.

Alcohol is responsible for fat gain, health problems, and even lowing testosterone. Good levels of testosterone are essential for growth. We can't be trading that for alcohol. So, if you can't cut it out completely, try to keep it to a minimum.

Just know that it's common to fall of your path, recognize it, and correct it.

The 5x5 routine.

So you've rested and have a new plan of attack or maybe you can't think of anything. Well, what I went with is the 5x5 workout.

It's always a good idea to change the number of reps and sets to confuse the body like I had mentioned previously. This in conjunction with different exercises for the muscle groups works well to get those results rolling again.

The 5x5 routine is simply 5 sets of 5 reps. When you're lowering reps, you will want to increase the weight. Before we were doing 8 reps for 3 sets. You will want to bump the weight up to where you can get 5 reps in but no more. Repeat for 4 more times to complete the 5 sets.

The 5x5 is usually used to focus on strength gain, but it really did work for me when I hit the plateau. Not only did it increase my strength, it kept the mass coming as well.