Training update week ending 26/07/15 - Now with bathroom mirror selfie

Training these last two weeks has been going well. Starting to go heavy now for the Melbourne Open on the 15th August.

For squats, I hit 220kg last week then 230kg this week. This week coming will be 240kg.
Then I've been doing the same bodybuilding training afterwards, sets of 10 with 2 plates on the safety squat bar mostly. I also increased my hamstrings work with glute ham raises

Deadlift similar story, hit 2x250kg last week and 2x260kg this week. So a single at 270kg next week.
Been having issues with triceps tendinitis which was caused my doing yoke walks the day after benching with incredibly tight pecs. Issue is mostly sorted now but no more yoke walks for the time being.

Benching not so good, hit 115kg and then 120kg was very hard this week. The issue is a complete lack of tightness and control when the bar is near the chest. I've been doing mostly incredibly light, high rep touch and go work to save my shoulders and let them recover so now most of my training will be long pauses. On Saturday I hit a few triples then a set of 6 with 3 second pauses at 100kg. Tuesday I'll do this with 105kg, then 110kg on Friday... See where I stand after that.

I found a new triceps exercise I really like- overhead ez-bar extensions on the cable machine. Feels really good and is completely pain free. Amazing pump and really targets the part of the triceps that I lack (long head)

Body weight is now up to 81.5kg. Gaining very well, waist is still tight but I'm now holding a bit of water around my midsection. Still very lean though as evidenced by the mandatory bathroom mirror selfie

I'll be keeping calories at 3350 this week, with 500 less from carbs on my rest days

Weekly training update- Week ending 12th July - I finally trimmed my beard

I finally trimmed my beard this week, after the complaints I got last week
I don't give a fuck about any of you though, so I took this weeks photo prior to getting it trimmed

Training this week was pretty decent, body weight is filling out nicely and weight increased to 76.5kg this week. I did however hurt my serratus on Thursday while picking a 25kg plate off of the ground. I thought I tore it initially as it swelled up instantly and couldn't sleep at all that night for the pain but in the morning there was no bruising just a shitload of swelling. Friday I added a lot of curry powder, turmeric, ginger and garlic to my food to help with the inflammation and the swelling and pain has almost subsided. No idea what I did to be honest but I should be fine to squat again by Monday

So, this weeks training:
Monday I squatted 5x150, 3x170 and a single with 190kg pretty easy, followed by 5x12 safety bar squats and a dropset with 65kg on the last set getting an extra 12 reps out. Then some bulgarian split squats and I was pretty toast by this point

Wednesday I benched, everything pain free which was great for a change. 70kg on close grip bench for 5 sets very slow and controlled, hitting 15 reps on the first set and didn't count the other sets (they dropped off pretty fast though). Then I did 5 sets of body weight dips and finished with incline dumbbell bench, decline dumbbell bench and some push ups

Diet for the next week will stay the same calories, going to play with increased meal frequency- 8 on training days (2 pre and peri workout liquid meals) and 6 on non-training days. Weekly calories will be the same but on training days I will eat 3350kcal and on rest days 2850kcal
Fats will be at 135g, protein at 200g, the rest of the calories from carbs.

I'm eating mainly white fish, potatoes and rice. Pre-workout is rice flour with some water and peanut butter and during my training I drink a half serve of protein with a lot of sugar. Most of my carbs are around when I train and most of my fats are in the morning

That's all, enjoying the progress so far, this is definitely the best I've looked

Weekly training update week ending 5th July

Today was a pretty decent week, very pleased with how things have gone.
Diet wise, I started off on 2500kcal a day and by mid week bumped this up to 2700kcal.
I then failed to gain the 0.5kg I am aiming for each week despite two cheat meals (of bacon, plenty of it) so this coming week I'll be upping this 400kcal instead of the usual 200kcal and having another cheat meal tonight of ice cream

I was recommended to eat plenty of beef by an IFBB pro bodybuilder but 1kg of this was simply too hard for me. I was hungry but somehow my body just tapped out when trying to eat that much. So I switched to a mixture of different meats. This was FAR easier, especially fish. I even found myself getting starving in the evening.

All things considered, an average days food will be like this:
3100kcal
200g protons
115g fats
255g carbs

250g mince - 540kcal - 50p, 25f
200g bacon - 530kcal - 30p, 50f
600g fish - 800kcal - 120p, 35f
2 scoops rice flour - 255kcal - 56c
tbpn peanut butter - 60kcal
250g rice - 915kcal - 200g carbs

The bacon will be eaten first thing in the morning, fish and rice spread throughout the day. The beef will be my final meal when I am getting hungry. The rice flour and peanut butter is for a shake to drink pre-training. I don't like to eat before I train, I want the blood in my muscles not digesting food so this is essentially just a liquid meal. Rice flour is just milled white rice so is completely identical to actual rice.
It's pretty good taste wise, just put some hot water in a shaker, add two scoops, the tablespoon of your favourite nut butter, some stevia, cinnamon and nutmeg then stir it up and fill up the rest with more hot water. It's kinda like oatmeal. Sugar bloats the fuck out of me and causes the kidneys to release water dehydrating me so I do not want to use a mass gainer type shake. No protein powder either, the 5g from the peanut butter and my food for the entire day is PLENTY.

DO NOT SHAKE AFTER PUTTING THE HOT WATER IN, THE COLD AIR WILL RAPIDLY EXPAND AND IT WILL EXPLODE, SPRAYING MOLTEN PEANUT BUTTER EVERYWHERE

As for training, this week I did the following:
Monday - Squats 3x160, 170, 180kg no wraps. 5 sets 10-12 reps with 100kg on safety bar squats, then 3 sets each leg bulgarian split squats

Tuesday - Close grip bench 67.5kg 5 sets max reps, 5 sets ring dips max reps, incline db bench 5 sets with the 20kg dumbbells

Thursday - deadlifts, 5x180kg, 3x205kg, 1x230kg. Stiff legs 3x10x120kg. Rows 3x5x110kg, pulldowns multiple sets then some one armed dumbbell rows then 2 sets of preacher curls

Friday - Slingshot bench, ring dips, JM press, triceps extensions with the dumbbells, done like the other bench day

Saturday - Shoulders and arms, with a focus on rear delts. 4 delt exercises, 3 triceps/biceps exercises done for 3 sets supersetted

That's all for this week!