MJC - and his journey with SPBR.

[mjc565]

To introduce myself,

I'm 18, been lifting for about 10 months...and yeah guess what! doing all sorts of useless shit for you LOL, i still laugh at myself when i thought concentration curls were the best bicep exercises hahahaha.

Anyways, been on the popular yet most useless bodybuilder like split with hammering one body part per day and then turned to SPBR for about 6 weeks (saw amazing gains) and then by selfish means + ego did that whole useless split and saw myself getting smaller. So this post is more like to keep myself nailed and focused into doing SPBR and taking it seriously...as I plan to make size and strength gains...hopefully to the next level by the end of my summer break. So if anyone else is just starting SPBR or has been just started it recently or just wants to support each other morally...join in me with this log!

My current stats:

Height: 5'10
Weight: 178 lbs and at 13% body fat.

Strength Stats (most current):
Bench: 178lbs x 5 reps (converting kg's to lbs...so yeah, i live overseas right now).
D.L.: 308lbs x 2
Squat: 231lbs x 7

I'm going to rest until Monday, which will be workout 1.
Also, I was wondering if I should cut back on my starting working set weights for week 1 (like cut 40 lbs from bench, and 80 lbs from Squat and DL) just to give it a light kick to my body and CNS....and freshen up a bit and start working my way up because I have a lot of time?

Advanced lifters, please fill me on that question if you have any idea.

As for diet, I try to eat clean, rarely cheat, eat about 4-5 times a day. Drink whey for PWO, and drink BCAAs during Workout and before sleep. I try to get most of my dietary protein from grilled chicken & turkey. As for macros and whatever, I really need to read more of the Recomp section and other GOLDEN threads about diet before structuring my own.

Let's go!

[slyfox115]

Get to reading buddy, it will be the best thing you can do for yourself. As far as starting out light, it really depends. If you cut 40lbs from yoru bench and its easy, increase the weight. If its just right, then roll with it. The only way to know is to try it. You don't want to be going to failure, just leave a few reps in the tank.

Finding a consistent way to progress is something only time will let you find out.

[mjc565]

Hey thanks for the reply slyfox.

I was wondering, since IA recommended increases of ~5lbs for worksets for hitting PR's every week...the gym i goto only works in kg's and the lightest plate u can add is a 2.5kg, so for barbell work, the lightest amount of weight you can add is 5 kg. I'm not trying to be too technical here, but since I can't really translate ~5lb increases, I can substitute that for more reps?

So to break it down, if I go for let's say a 5lb PR on the bench for 190 (with previous PR as 185 for 5RM) as for a new PR I can set the goal as 185 7RM? After doing SPBR for a short amount of time, I found out that increases in bench was very small compared to pulls and squats...(so for those two 5kg PR's can be possible)...so yeah I was just wondering what to do with this whole metric business.

[slyfox115]

So your saying at MINIMUM you can put 11lbs (5kg) on the bar? Yes you could go for a rep PR one week, then the next week increase the weight. If it were me, I would get some plate mates:

http://www.amazon.com/Plate-Mate-Hex.../dp/B00078BOC8

That would solve your loading problem.

[mjc565]

Monday (5/31) Workout 1


Squat - 100 kg (220lbs) x 5 reps x 2
Cable pullthroughs x 100 lbs x 10 x 3
Bent Row 80 kg (176lb) x 6 x 1, 70 kg (154 lb) x 6 x 3
Barbell Curl 30 kg (66lb) x 8 x 3
Calf Raises 198 lb x 15 x 3

Overall, pretty good start I believe. I went easy on most of the weights of what I can usually lift, just want to ramp back up gradually, making sure i train properly with good form. bent row 80kg felt heavy, doubted myself that I could go for 4 x 6, so went down on that one. Overall pretty intense workout, was sweating alot.

Damn, converting to lbs from kilos suck lol.

As for calories/diet, I have to run fitday for a week and see changes in weight and then decide what is my maintenance and blah blah, so that will come next week. Rest day tmrw! Might do cardio for walking for 45 min.

[mjc565]

Alright, so i've been using fitday for two days now (and first i gotta say, it's so much more awesome to track ur nutrition instead of your training...lol)

and I realized I eat maybe way too many carbs? I ate around 160 g of carbs yesterday, and right now after dinner I realized I ate 181 g of carbs. Although i'm trying to run a recomp where I will use timed carb diets (more carbs on training days)...maybe if i let things run in this way...things might fail lol. Im saying this because today was a non-training day, and I ate more carbs than yesterday. I try to keep protein at 1~1.25g per lb of body weight.

I'm currently 18, weigh 178lbs, and at 13% body fat.

I remember Wes saying that if you're a teen, it'd be better to not be so OCD about nutrition and "eat big and lift big and rest well" and you'll grow...so maybe I should try to just keep things within a certain range and not be SO strict about how much carbs i intake? I don't know i'm so confused help me out here

[mjc565]

Wednesday (6/2) Workout 2

BB Bench - 75 kg (165 lb) x 5 x 3 (After warm-ups)
Incline DB Press - 50 lb x 8 x 4
DB Shoulder Press - 40 lb x 8 x 3 (All the way down, rest at bottom)
Skull Crushers - Bar + 20 kg x 10 x 3(I'll figure out how much the Bar weighs...i'm figuring around 30 lbs).
Weighted Crunches on Decline - +10 kg x 10, +20 kg x 10 x 2

Overall, good, short intense workout...Thought 75 kgs for workset might be hard on Bench, but the warmups did really help i believe...only the last rep of the last set was difficult, but managed to push it up without spotter. Gonna go for 75 x 7 x 3 next time (since i can't add 5lbs in my gym for the next workout, the minimum is ~11lbs (5kg). I'm thinking of buying microplates, but we'll see...

50lb DBs are the heaviest ones in here in my gym, so i'd have to switch it up to an incline barbell or add more reps once i gain more strength. As for db shoulder presses, once i reach 50 lb x 10 reps x 3, I'd have to switch to standing military or seated smith military...but until then, i'll lift in silence.


Saw couple of lifters today doing the whole classic BB 5day split...Shook my head inside my mind lol.

[vsvs]

Originally Posted by mjc565

Saw everyone today doing the whole classic BB 5day split...Shook my head inside my mind lol.

Fixed. And get used to it haha
We have pretty similar stats, 5 10, 180ish, 13% fat
Keep at it man, I raised my total by 120lb just doing SPBR when I started. Good routine

[mjc565]

Hey vsvs - LOL i know. It's nice to see another person with similar stats, thanks for checking in. I'll check into your log. Yeah, it's only my first week of SPBR, but i'm really looking forward to hit some PRs. Nutrition is really hard though...i gotta admit

-----

Workout 3 (June 4th)

1. Deadlift - 120 kg (264.5 lbs) x 5reps x 2
2. Leg Press - 140 kg (~308lbs) x 10 reps x 2
3. Weighted Chins - BW+10kgs x 6 reps x 4 -- Last rep of last set...had to cheat because I was struggling on 3/4th way up
4. Barbell Curl - 30 kgs x 8 reps x 3 (Biceps were really hammered from chins)
5. Calf raises on leg press machine - 90 kg (198lb) x 15 reps x 3

Overall, good workout. Deadlift on first working set felt heavy, i think it's because I was maybe too OCD on if my form was right or not. Second set was easy pulling, just focused on the work. Chins felt good. Curls were hard, but managed to pull it off.

I'm still using fitday to track my nutrition, and i'll finally conclude what my maintenance calories are...soon.

[mjc565]

June 5th - Rest day

Cardio:
Walked on incline treadmill for 35 minutes, decent sweat, pretty low intensity.
-3 sets of heavy abs x 10 on decline bench (BW + 20 kg)
-Stretched...I think deads and heavy chins really killed me. My traps, spinal erectors, rear delts and lats are sore.

Diet:
-Very iffy here....
-Averaged fitday.com calories, came to be about 2060. I actually lost ~5 lbs (178->173).
-Looking at the mirror, my two middle abs are more visible.
-However, ~5lbs loss over a week or so doesnt seem like it's all fat...i'm pretty sure some muscle loss involved.
-I look at the grams of protein I ate, and I barely ate 1lb/body weight. I realized how hard it is to up it to 1.5lb/body weight. I will do that.
-Carbs will be around 200g for training days, Around 100g for non training days.
-Trying to find ways to up the fat content to about 40% of calories, guessing eating more almonds might do the job + whole eggs.

...gosh diet is so hard. Am i doing something wrong here. : (