Retxab

I left the bodybuilding site cause they all gave me bs answers and joked around. I have no interest in big gaping muscles or any of that I just want a skinny toned body, heck even those shadow abs'll do. If I did HIIT cario aboyt 5-6 days a week mixing treadmill workouts, elliptical workouts, insanity workouts and some ab routines in rotation can I have a body like this ? also I know abs are made in the kitchen and I have my diet written out already its all clean eating at about 1450-1500 calories. also the guy in the picture is taylor caniff if you need more pictures to see

 

I have no idea who that is. But the guy in the picture looks like a normal teenager at a low body fat percentage. If you're a teenager, you can likely get a similar look by rejigging your priorities - diet is far more important than your exercise routine for that kind of look. If you're not a teenager, much the same applies, except that it'll be far harder - you're not benefitting from the biochemical advantages growing males have in terms of building their physique.

Stretching's already part of my challenge - I do this routine after each workout, and also on a fair number of rest days - so not sure what to do about this challenge. Maybe I'll see if I can move a couple of the stretches into intermediate territory.

Week 3 Summary:

 

Goal 1 (logging) - 2/3, my Friday workout was a bit of a disaster and so I didn't properly record everything. Didn't get much beyond my warmups, not sure why.

 

Goal 2 (stretching) - 3/3, still good. 

 

Goal 3 (weight loss) - down .8 kg this week, so back on track it seems. 

 

Life goal (Traveller programming) - I have my functions set up to spit out Universal World Profiles (UWPs, the statblocks that Traveller uses to describe planets and similar places), and am pretty close on a basic I/O window, though the latter is much more involved than I expected. This week I'll probably switch focus to outputting a text file with a bunch of UWPs.

Workout for June 29: 

 

Much better.

 

DB Push Press: 6@70, 5@70

 

OHP: 10@45, 7@75, 9@70, 10@65

 

DB Lunge: 10@60, 5@80

 

Lat Pulldown: 10@60, 6@150, 10@130, 15@110

 

Deadlifts: 5@135, 7@185, 8@165, 12@145

 

Curls: 12@30, 11@30

 

Tricep Pushdowns: 11@80, 10@80

 

And got stretching done. Moving the deadifts to the end of the four main lifts really seemed to help, the OHP/lunge/pulldown were all much better this time around. But wow, am I wiped now. May end up only working out twice this week (Wednesday is Canada Day, a stat holiday, and my gym closes early).

Workout for June 26:

 

You know what, I'm just going to take a mulligan on this one. No idea what was up, but I barely made it through my warmup sets, and all my working sets felt ridiculously heavy. So I bailed early. Did get stretching in.

My new thing: bought my first swim trunks in... maybe 25 years? Been thinking for a while now that I should learn to swim properly (I can successfully not drown, but I don't really know any formal strokes), for a variety of reasons. Finally bit the bullet and picked up the necessary gear. Am now working out the best way to get to the point that I can start to swim laps, so I can start on the 0 to 1500m program. Assuming I can screw up my courage to the sticking point, will actually hit the water next week.

Workout for June 24:

 

Was in a bit of a rush today, so I cut out some of the exercises. Will try not to make a habit of that. What I did hit:

 

DB Push Press: 2x5@70.

 

Deadlift: 5@135, 5@185, 8@165, 10@145. Was nice to do full deadlifts, it's been a while. Guy around my age watched me do the last set, then told me "you lifted that like you weren't even trying, I hope to do that in a few months." Turns out he's back to the gym after 15 or 20 years of basically sedentary life. Nice guy, and a good ego boost, particularly since I was pretty sure my grip would fail if I did one more rep - my form must have held pretty well.

 

OHP: 10@45, 6@75, 7@70, 6@65. Big set great, second set OK, last set meh. 

 

DB Lunges: 10@50. Working on getting the form down, this is a new exercise for me. Will try something a bit heavier next time.

 

Lat Pulldown: 10@50, 5@150, 9@130, 13@110. Heavy set was rough, everything after that was simple.

 

Skipped: core work, curls, triceps. Did get in stretching.

 

Next time I do this workout, I think I'll move the deadlifts to the end - they wiped me out pretty good, and I think that's why the third OHP set bombed. I think changing the order will have minimal effect on the deadlifts, but might help the other lifts a bit.

Workout log for June 22:

 

Core work: planks, 2@30s each

 

Kettlebell swings (2-handed): 10@20kg. Was planning on 2 sets of 5, but the heaviest KB at the gym felt light enough to just do all at one go. Next time, will likely do one-handed swings.

 

Bench: 10@45, 5@115, 5@135, 7@115, 13@95. First time I've done a plate for reps; was intended to be AMRAP, and I think I had another good rep or two in me at 5, but it was a fairly hefty psychological barrier to overcome so I stopped at 5. Now that I know that's doable, in my next bench session on Friday I'll see if I was right about the extra rep(s).

 

Squat: 10@45, 5@135, 5@175, 9@155, 11@135. Was working pretty hard on form and depth, and everything after the two warmup sets seemed pretty solid to me.

 

Row: 10@45, 5@115, 5@135, 8@115, 13@95. The big set (135) was a little harder than I expected, otherwise all good.

 

Step up (3 blocks): 5@40, 5@80, 7@70, 9@60. First time trying this so I took it easy. Will push it harder next time, I suspect it won't be too long until grip strength will limit me more than leg strength. At that point, I'll be switching to more reps and an offset load.

 

Curls: 2x11@30.

Tricep Pushdowns: 10@80, 6@80. Think I was just wiped out at the end, and didn't rest long enough between sets.

 

All in all, felt like a really good session, even if the extra exercises probably contributed to me feeling wiped at the end. Once I get used to the extra work, I'm sure everything will sort itself out.

Week 2 summary:

 

Goal 1 - logging. Got all the workouts logged in my thread, though I was tardy with one of them. So still OK, up to 6/6, but will try to be more timely this week.

 

Goal 2 - stretching. Also up to 6/6. I'm working on getting better at doing the stretches directly post-workout at the gym, rather than coming home first.

 

Goal 3 - weight loss. Oddly, plateaued this week, no loss. Not sure what's going on. My daily weigh in today* was a fair bit lower than the last five days, which means there may be some shenanigans going on with hydration. Other indicators - measurements and such - are fine, so for now I'm just going to stay the course and see how this week goes.

 

Otherwise, all is good. Went to see Canada vs. Switzerland at the WWC last night, so I'm a little hoarse today. I'm not a particularly patriotic guy, but singing "O Canada" with 50000 other people was pretty cool. Canada won, and I can check "attend a World Cup match" off my bucket list. Though my sister and I are currently mulling over the idea of going to Canada's quarter-final match, against either England or Norway, so maybe...

 

* I weigh in daily, then use a seven day rolling average to track my weight.

Did 100 this morning: 20, 20, 30, 30. Around 2 minutes break in between. Darn tough, but glad I got through them.

Busy week, but just updated my workout log with the Wednesday and Friday workouts. Also took a shot at the mini-challenge this morning; mountain climbers are not normally in my repertoire, so it took some getting used to. I split a hundred reps up into two sets of 20 followed by two sets of 30. 

Logging catch up day. Workout from June 17 (Wednesday):

 

Overhead Press: 10@45, 12@65, 10@65. Progress at least.

 

Squat: 10@65, 12@125, 12@125. My notes say this felt really easy, so the good squat day on the 15th wasn't just a fluke.

 

Lat Pulldowns: 10@50, 4@130. Had some elbow pain when I moved up to working weight, so I cut it short at that point. I'm a little paranoid about joint injuries, given my age and job. Also skipped the scheduled chest flies and face pulls for the same reason. Good news is it felt fine on the next session.

 

Leg Raise: 20.

 

Also got my stretching in.

 

And the workout from June 19 (Friday, yesterday):

 

Bench: 10@45, 2x5@95, 3x5@125. All good, no elbow issues.

 

Squat: 10@45, 5@95, 5@135, 3x5@165. A couple of reps didn't hit quite the depth I wanted, but overall felt pretty good. Earlier this year - before a knee injury a couple of challenges ago - I'd been squatting in the 180 territory but wasn't happy with my depth. Now I'm getting back to the same range, but I feel my form's better and squat depth is more consistent. 

 

Row: 10@45, 5x5@135. Kind of a breakout session for row, I felt my form was really good, too.

 

Straight-leg Deadlift: 15@145.

 

Curls: 11@30, 10@30

 

One-arm Kettlebell swings: 3x8@16 kg. 

 

And got stretching done.

 

So, a pretty good week. I'm revamping my workouts a little bit over the next couple of weeks, to accomplish a few things:

 

- more core work, including some plank + pull dynamic stability exercises

- some explosive-type exercises (kettlebell swings and push presses for now)

- find a spot for full deadlifts, which I miss

And workout for June 15:

 

Bench - 10@45, 8@115, 8@105, 12@95

Squat - 10@45, 12@145, 15@125, 16@105

DB row - 7@65, 9@60, 11@55

Curls - 2x10@30

Triceps - 2x10@70

Leg Raise - 18

 

I decided to switch to 3 working sets instead of 5 for the Monday workout. At first, this seemed like a stroke of genius because bench utterly kicked my butt - I was expecting an easy 10 reps on set 1, but everything seemed hard from the start. Felt like a high gravity day. So then I went into squats - which I haven't done above warmup weight in a week due to knee issues - and destroyed my work sets. Really weird. Everything after that was more normal, I went with DB rows because there were no barbells available.

 

Also got stretching in, so a good day. And then I got home to see Canada win their group at the Women's World Cup, which was great - I have tickets to the round of 16 game here in Vancouver on Sunday, and now we know it's Canada's game, place should be crazy. Which has nothing to do with workouts or calories, but it's cool dammit.

Calories!

 

June 13 - 2614, 174 g protein

June 14 - 1841, 125 g protein

June 15 - 2208, 168 g protein

Week 1 down.

 

Goal 1 - 3/3.

 

Goal 2 - 3/3.

 

Goal 3 - down .7 kg for the week, which is on track.

 

Side Quest - spent a couple of hours battering around some functions last night, mostly refamiliarizing myself with control and data structures. This week I need to spend a little time on creating a simple windowed interface. So trucking along.

 

And now I gotta go lift some moderately heavy things.

Hi RisenPhoenix, thanks for your answer!

 

I'm more interested in loosing the fat first before developing some muscle (is that possible?)

If I start bulking now I'm pretty sure that even though I may perhaps build some muscle, I will gain more fat than muscle.

I will end up super fat, cry and quit like I always do.

 

There's various flavours of bulking. When people end up fatter, it's because their bulk plan is along the lines of "I'll eat a lot, lift a lot, and become Arnold." Then it quickly becomes apparent the third one isn't happening, so they give up on the second one, and that leaves only the eating.

 

You could set your bulk up to preclude that outcome by bulking slowly (requires figuring out your maintenance calories then running a small surplus), following your strength program religiously, setting a limit as to how much of a bulk you're doing either in time or weight, and plan for the cut to follow. For example, your plan could be to bulk for two months at a 250 kcal/day surplus, then cut for a month at a 500 kcal/day deficit, while doing whichever program fits for you. Executed correctly, three months from now you'd be the same weight as today but with a couple pounds more muscle and less fat. Repeat that cycle three more times, and a year from now you'll be a lot stronger and probably look better. The thing to remember is that doing this kind of thing isn't easy or natural, it'll take work and meticulous record keeping and trusting the process. Progress will seem very slow.

Workout June 12:

 

Much better day overall, though my knee was still slightly wonky.

 

Bench - 10@45, 2x5@125, 3x4@125

 

Row - 10@45, 5x5@125. Will be bumping the weight to 135 next Friday.

 

Squat - 10@45. Felt a little off, so I skipped the working sets.

 

SLDL - 15@135

 

Curls - 2x12@25

 

Leg Raise - 15

 

Did my stretching. Still a fast workout, being light by 5 sets of squats, but c'est la vie. With luck things will be back to normal on Monday.

Calories for June 11: 1915 kcal, 120 g protein.

 

June 12: 2095 kcal, 85 g protein.

3/3 for both logging and stretching. However, didn't get the coding done Wednesday night like I wanted to. Will try to get it in on Sunday.

 

I weigh in daily, and weight is dropping at a reasonable pace to meet my weight loss goal, so that one also appears to be on track. 

 

Had a great time at my oldest nephew's grad today - hard to believe he'll be in high school come September. I did have a bit of a wardrobe crisis this morning - the shirt I was planning to wear was too big, I bought it around two years ago and now it fits me like a tent. Found a shirt that fit, but it didn't go with the tie I wanted, so had to hunt down another tie. A nice problem to have, I guess. When I get closer to my goal weight, I'll have to invest in some formalish clothes that fit better.

So far, 2 for 2 on logging, 2 for 2 on stretching. For the non-fitness goal, the plan tonight is to get some code bits started while I do laundry - a common task during Traveller star system generation is 2d6 plus various mods against various tables to get details about the system, so battering that into a common bit of reusable code seems like a good place to start. We'll see how it goes.

Calories for June 9: 1758 calories, 110 g protein.

 

Calories for June 10: 2084 calories, 161 g protein.

 

Workout for June 10:

 

Kind of "eh" today. Everything felt hard, and I skipped squats because my knee was feeling funky. Still got some lifts in:

 

OHP - 10@45, 8@55, 8@60, 9@65, 8@65

 

Squats - tried to warmup at 65, made about 4 reps before deciding my knee wasn't going to cooperate.

 

Pulldowns - 10@40, 8@60, 8@90, 8@110, 9@130, 8@130

 

The idea for both OHP and Pulldowns was to work up to my working weight, get a set of 9 or more reps, then a set of 8 or more reps. So I managed that for each of them, but no more. A far cry from Monday's overachievements, but still OK.

 

Chest Flies - 2x13@40

 

Leg Raise - 1x16

 

Facepulls - 2x13@57.5

 

Did get my stretching in, so that was good. An 'eh' session is better than no session.

Jessie's Girl, by Rick Springfield. Dunno the show. Clunky lyrics like that still keep alive my very faint hope of someday publishing something. I mean, somebody got paid for that last line, after all.

June 8 Calorie report:

 

2114 calories, 98 g protein.

I'm on the stretching bandwagon, I almost never stretch. In the times I do though I feel so much better, so you'd think I'd have learned by now.

 

My logging game is on point whenver a start a new diet but I normally fall off pretty quick so I enjoy that you're integrating that into your challenge, it really helps with acountability.

I'm actually well along in my logging game, it's always been one of my strengths - I track a bunch of stuff as part of my job, so the skill is well established. Public logging is a whole nuther ballgame, hence the challenge goal. My advice is start small and build up, if you're not accustomed to careful tracking it can be difficult to just jump in.

Awesome challenge, I have also found logging and tracking to be a great help.

I have been using the App MyFitnessPal and my FitBit to help me stay on track.

Have you found anything that helps you?

For food:

I used to be fairly religious about using MFP, but I didn't like how they rolled out their pay service. Now I use a beta site called joyapp.com for calorie tracking, and so far I like it quite a bit.

For exercise:

I tried various apps and spreadsheets, but now what works best is a notebook and pen. Slightly embarrassing since it is the 21st century, but whatcha gonna do?