Bens getting into shape log

[BjsAust]

Thanks to JP for letting me post this here [img]smile.gif[/img] .

First some background, I'm 28 years old from Melbourne Australia. Pretty standard story, was in great shape during high school, did my knee, had a reconstruction, got unfit, went to Uni, things went downhill from there. Never totally blew out, but have probably been around the 15-20% BF for the last 10 years. Found Mens Health and moved to JP Fitnes about 4-6 months back, and got into the HGM program and found I loved heavy compound lifting. Then about 4 weeks ago I changed jobs, for a couple of weeks leading up I slacked off too, and only just rejoined a gym in my new location, so I'm about 6 weeks out of doing anything. I've done a few other injuries to my knee over the years culminating in an MRI that showed a "defect about 1 inch in diamater through the centre of my cartlidge" and the doctor telling me to give up football and any other sport that requires stopping/starting/twisting suddenly. A year or two later I decided while I wont play football, I'll risk basketball because no sports sucks.

My goals are varied, I want a bit of everything! I've settled on trying to get a more athletic body, since doing that requires a certain amount of everything - strength, weightloss, flexibility, size, etc, with a heavy leaning towards weightloss initially.

The routine I've decided to go with is RR&D 2.0. It suits my situation letting me hit the gym briefly pretty much every mornining so I get a steady routine going but dont overdo things. Evenings I want to mix in some HIIT, and just shooting some hoops. I have one more game before we break for summer so I want to come back in really good condition by then. I'll get weight and bodyfat tonight so I know where I'm starting from, and post them.

I hit the gym on Monday to check it out, did some squats, dips, chinups, seated rows, incline dumbell press to just try them out and see where I'm at. Numbers are down, and I also just didnt feel good, never got into it. Went in this morning to do some squats and incline dumbell bench on a 5x5 routine and felt better. Squats got up to 105kg (was 115 - 250 lbs prior) and bench got to 27.5kg dumbells (was around 35 I think), I'll put them both up next time. I now need to actually write out the RR&D program and start following it . Gym doesnt really seem to have a spot for deadlifts (lots of equipment, but not much spare space) and never seen anyone else doing them. I'm just going to have to steal the barbell off one of their benches and hope noone tells me they're not allowed [img]tongue.gif[/img] .

[Ian Kay]

Sounds awesome! I've always been interested in RR&D, so it'll be cool to see how it goes for you.

Good luck with the deadlifts. Loading a bar on the floor sucks!

[BjsAust]

Its not loading the bar, its finding a patch of floor with enough space [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Also my old gym used to have a bunch of "spare" barbells hanging around. This one is all pre-loaded but only go up to 60kg. Only barbells which you can load yourself are on the squat racks and benches so I'll need to steal one off one of them and hope noone wants to use it for that time.

[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by BjsAust:
Its not loading the bar, its finding a patch of floor with enough space [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Also my old gym used to have a bunch of "spare" barbells hanging around. This one is all pre-loaded but only go up to 60kg. Only barbells which you can load yourself are on the squat racks and benches so I'll need to steal one off one of them and hope noone wants to use it for that time.

Deadlift in the squat rack.

[BjsAust]

Cant, it has...those things to catch the bar if you drop it. Hmm, guess I could double check the height, but pretty sure I'd bump into it before standing up straight.

[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by BjsAust:
Cant, it has...those things to catch the bar if you drop it. Hmm, guess I could double check the height, but pretty sure I'd bump into it before standing up straight.

If it has pins, then adjust them. If you cant, then what the hell kind of squat rack is that?

[BjsAust]

No pins, its made solid (all the ones I've seen are).

It goes up, accross, then up on an angle with hooks to rack the bar.

[Kaiser]

Good luck Ben. We're waiting on the pics and stats.

If I could make one suggestion: try to make your goals something tangible and measurable. It tends to help focus even if you don't reach them.

Knee injuries suck - I had my first surgery at 20 and the next one 10 years later. Like you, I couldn't see a life without competitive sports and running. But I finally walked away from the basketball court last year after 15 straight years of playing. Took up cycling and am returning to rock climbing instead - something to feed the competitive juices and get a good workout without looking at a knee replacement before I hit 50. But you'll see what I mean after a couple of more injuries - I know I wouldn't listen to anyone when they told me to back off (I ran for another 5 years after my doc told me not to - directly leading to the second surgery mentioned above).

[BjsAust]

Thanks Kaiser, I'll definately have them up tomorrow.

I'm at 2 knee surgeries so far, 2nd was just an arthroscope to clear up some damage to the medial ligament (I think). I've been tempted to take up cycling or running, but I just love team sports. Basically the doc said every injury from here in is that much sooner you'll have arthritis in the knee. I cant justify playing something with heavy contact like football, but thus far every injury has come from fairly severe contact so I'm hoping I can get away with Basketball for a while.

My clearest goal is 9% BF, I want to be single figures before I concentrate more on building muscle bulk. I just dont know whats a reasonable timeframe to achieve the goal to make it more measurable. That and being able to touch the basketball rim again [img]tongue.gif[/img] , but I'm hoping that will get easier as the kilos drop off .

I'll be keeping an eye on your log too, we're both striving for similar results.

[BjsAust]

OK, some stats:

Height - 5'11
Weight - 85.5 kg (around 188 lbs)

I used http://linear-software.com/online.html and a set of skinfold calipers for bodyfat% using 3 point test (measuring myself).

18-19% BF .

I was going to take a picture but cant find my digital camera. I'll get one up as soon as I do [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Now off to the gym.

[BjsAust]

Dips, Pullups today.

Dips were easy, I really need to either get a backpack or belt so I can add weight to them. Something for this weekend I guess.

Pullups were worse, I actually did 5,4,4 then hit the assisted machine to get 5,5 on the last 2 sets. Dissappointing but i'll work on them.

Did some static stretching afterwards, I'm tight enough I feel it can only help. I'll be adding dynamic stretching probably in the mornings. I plan to take parts from the Core Advantage book (I think thats its name) and working them into other parts of the day (movement prep in mornings, some flexibility/prehab at night, stuff like that).

Worked out at lunch time today, was only gone from work for about 45 mins. I think I'll stick to this instead of mornings. I enjoy it more, it means I get to sleep a bit more, and whilst eating with people from work for lunch is fun, its a lot harder to eat well when noone else your with is.

[BjsAust]

Well, got home from work today and went down to the b'ball court to put some shots up. Did fairly well and did a fair amount of running around. When I got home I pulled out some rope I'd picked up and did the stretching stuff from Core Performance (got the name wrong last post). Anyway, after I was done I got my gf to take a picture of me, its not a great picture, but it sure shows the dreadful subject anyway [img]tongue.gif[/img] . Looks as bad as you'd expect almost 20% bf to look . Almost wasnt going to post it but I figure it can only motivate me more to get better results.

[Kaiser]

Hey, I posted mine too. You're about where I am - even our heights are close (you have 1-1/2 inches on me but I think I have a couple of percentage points of bodyfat more than you). Keep at it- let's have a friendly little trans-global contest between you and I to keep ourselves motivated.

BTW, thanks for the online BF estimator site...I'm going to use it myself this weekend to get a third estimate of BF%.

[GqArtguy]

I would do the pullups before the dips since most people are weaker on pullups. Youd be able to crank out a few more and then add weight on the dips. If you can, just put a DB between your ankles when you dip.

[BjsAust]

Great idea Gq.

Cant really do the DB thing though, they have a dip/pullup station that requires climbing up before starting. Apparently my GF has seen people ask the helpdesk to borrow a belt though, so I'll chase that up, could be an easy solution after all.

You're on Kaiser!

[BjsAust]

Today was pretty good. Hit the gym at lunch time for Deadlifts and DB Military presses. Deadlifts got up to 105kg (prev high of 115kg) and shoulder presses got to 20kg dumbells (never really done these before). Tonight I did some HIIT (5 x 30/90 sprints), tired out earlier than hoped but probably about what I'd expect. Some more rope stretching when I got home. Hurts, but feels good [img]smile.gif[/img] .

A bit later I remembered I need to get back into working my grip/forearm strength. Got into my trainer CoC grippers for 5 sets of 12, then pulled out my new rollup thingy (where you hook on a weight and roll up the rope onto the handle and then roll it back down), first time I've ever done this and damn it hurts. Harder than it looks and less weight than I thought I'd be doing.

[BjsAust]

Yesterday was a day off, didnt really do much of anything (but kept eating good). Today I hit the gym for DB Incline bench and incline curls. Bench was interesting, I upped the weight to 30kg and went with a full 5 sets of 5 rep max. Only thing was I couldnt get the weight up on the 4th set. I was prepared not to get all 5, but couldnt even get them started, dropped back to 25kg weights for last 2 sets. Curls I settled on 15kg dumbells. Seemed low, but I struggled. Did get all 5x5 done though so I'll up them next time.

Threw up some shots this afternoon. Had meant to do HIIT, but I watched the AND 1 mix tape guys live last night and had to get out there and do my own thing today! Feeling great, eatings good, only tough time is after dinner (I think I got into the habit of desert in that 6 weeks). I've copied down Johnkas peanutbutter banana bars recipies so I can cook some of them up for if the urge hits too hard.

[BjsAust]

Squats/Calf raises today. Man they felt good. 110 kg on the squats after warmup. First 3 sets were tough but good. 4th one lost form on the 5th rep and didnt get all the way down. 5th set never really found form and stopped after 3. Really felt it working hard. Moved onto a seated calf press machine, racked the entire weight and did the 5x5 pretty easily. Obviously going to need to move to the leg press machine in order to get enough weight to max out for 5 reps.

My birthday today so wont get any extra work in tonight, going to go catch a movie instead and might allow myself a snack while there [img]tongue.gif[/img] . I play Basketball tomorrow, and figure if I'm working out basically everyday, rather than post an update everyday I'll post every few days and update those that I've missed.

Loving the RR&D workout. I always feel good after a workout, but sometimes feel like I need a nap when done. This one leaves me feeling really invigorated, as well as feeling like I've done a good effort. Hopefully the scales/calipers will agree its good for me.