01/04
90.9kg
Morning routine: back - 20 minutes rowing / 6 * wide grip chins / 4* reverse grip chins / 4 * bent over rows / 4 * lat pull down / 4 * reverse grip pull downs / 10 minutes rowing / 30 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 40 minutes spinning bike
06:00 The alarm went at 06:00 and I jumped out of bed like a coiled spring. I'm going to make sure that I get up before sunrise every single day this month. I did well in March and probably only overslept maybe 5 or 6 days, but for early April the alarm is set for 06:00 on the dot. Halfway through the month it will move to 05:30!!
I have performed this training/diet regime in previous years and have been down to around 88kg in the a couple of times in the last 5 years. Unfortunately this always seems to co-incide with the start of Summer and the start of the professional beer drinking season. This has previously meant that I then proceed to drink myself silly throughout the Summer and end up back at 100kg by Xmas. However this year a few things have changed:
- it's not quite Summer yet so I feel less inclined to go out on the piss
- I'm more focussed on getting ripped this year and hitting that elusive sub 85kg mark
- the last of my local boozers closed last year so my options for drinking locally have been severely diminished, plus the fact that the remaining pubs are shite-holes
- I want to get super fit for my usual cycling/beer drinking trips down on the coast
- I'm getting to that age where keeping myself in shape gets more and more important every year
I've always enjoyed training and going to the gym, so that part of the program is quite easy for me. The gym that I joined is fairly basic but has all of the necessary equipment and weights etc and also has the added advantage of being relatively cheap, local, having a good heavy bag and a sauna. So in April I'm going to make the most of it and make sure that I do the following:
- train at least 5 days per week in the gym: I tend to warm-up on the heavy bag for at least 30 minutes and this gives a great cardio and shoulder workout without having to always do leg based work such as running or cycling. It's also a great stress reliever and I love punching stuff!
- increase the cardio: I'll finish each session with around 15 minutes of cardio at a very low intensity to burn some extra calories and to act as a warm-down.
- stretching: I have only just started to incorporate stretching into my routine. Way back in the day I did a bit of Kyokushinkai karate and was quite flexible so I need to get stretching again.
My diet was pretty good in March. I cut out biscuits, cakes, fatty foods such as egg/bacon/sausages/burgers/kebabs etc. I also dropped my carb intake and hardly touched bread or cereal. In April I'm going to go super strict and pretty much follow a pre-contest bodybuilders diet. This means:
- almost zero carbs: no bread, no cereals, no sugar. My main weakness in this area is that I often wake-up in the middle of the night craving carbs. This is usually followed by a trip to the kitchen and a bowl of cereal ... well no more!
- protein: my main sources of protein have been boiled chicken, tuna and egg whites. Now I normally eat tuna in oil which has a relatively high fat content, in fact over 10%, whereas tuna in spring water has less than 1% fat. Tuna in oil also has twice as many calories. Now I munch through quite a few cans of tuna every week so I'm going to substitute tuna in spring water for tuna in oil, although to be honest tuna in spring water tastes fucking horrible!
I do like a cup of tea every now and then, but this means that my milk intake can be quite high. I really like soya so I have switched to soya light which is 22 calories per 100 ml as opposed to 65 calories per 100 ml for milk.
10:30: tuna & 1 egg white
14:00: boiled chicken & broccoli
17:10: tuna & broccoli
20:45: boiled chicken & 1 egg white
Stretching: 10 minutes
02/04
Morning routine: quads - 20 minutes bike / hack squats (max 70kg) / lunges / leg extensions / 10 minutes bike / 20 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 30 minutes spinning bike
06:25 Both the diet and training were spot-on yesterday. I just need more of the same for the next 29 days!
I woke up at 03:00 and took the opportunity to dig into some tuna and broccoli before going back to bed ... oh yummy!
OK, let's get some insspirational videos stacked up for this month ...
Hit the gym at 08:00 and did a 20 minute warm-up on the bike followed by hack squats (maximum weight now 70kg), 4 sets of lunges and then a few sets of leg extensions to failure. Then warmed-down with 10 minutes on the bike followed by 20 minutes in and out of the sauna .... and I felt fucked!!
03:00: tuna & broccoli
12:00: tuna & 2 egg whites
15:30: boiled chicken & 1 egg white
19:00: tuna & 1 egg white
03/04
90.0kg
Morning routine: chest, triceps and calves - 20 minutes heavy bag / incline dumbell bench press (max 24kg) / 4 sets of dips / 4 * machine bench press / 4 * cable flyes / 4 * pec dec / 4 * tricep push downs / 4 * reverse grip tricep push downs / 4 * press-ups / 10 * calf raises / 30 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 35 minutes spinning bike
06:05. Had a great night's sleep. My biceps were aching from my back workout 01/03 so hit the gym and concentrated on chest, triceps and calves. Had a good workout, came home, ate and then had a great hour or so sleep.
06:15: boiled chicken & 1 egg white (try eating that shit at 06:15 = yuk!)
11:00: tuna & 1 egg white
14:15: tuna & peppers/chillis/onions/tomatoes (tastes like crap and starting to test my resolve)
17:45: boiled chicken and a few small pieces of potato
I just really do fancy a 1/2lb flame grilled juicy burger with lots of bacon, cheese and burger sauce.
04/04
Morning routine: hamstrings and abs - 20 minutes rowing / bent over hamstring raises / 5 sets of lying hamstring curls / 4 * hanging leg raises / 4 * crunches / 4 * leg raises / 4 * planks / 30 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 25 minutes spinning bike
06:02 It's nice to be able to roll out of bed and get the garden door open and enjoy the fresh air. OK, it's not a perfect morning weather or even smog-wise, but it's still nice and relaxing. Getting up this early also means that I can prepare my food (chicken is boiling) and get my gym stuff ready.
I did wake-up at around 02:30 and felt hungry, so had some tuna and even a slice if bread (as you do) but then had some of those weird dreams that you tend to have if you eat just before you sleep. Unfortunately none involved fit young woman prancing about without any clothes on ....
Hit the gym again this morning and trained hamstrings and abs. Finished with a go in the sauna, came home, ate and had a 90 minutes kip.
02:45: tuna & 1 slice of bread
10:45: boiled chicken & 1 egg white
13:00: tuna & 1 egg white
17:00: tuna & 1 egg white
23:00: boiled chicken & 1 egg white & 1 slice of toast
My willpower with regards to my diet is now really being tested. My daughter is currently frying some chips and all that I can think about is kebabs and burgers .... arrrgghhhh!!
05/04
Morning routine: back - 20 minutes rowing / 5 * wide grip chins / 6 * reverse grip chins / 4 * hammer grip chins / 4 * hangs / 5 * upright rows / 10 minutes rowing / 35 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 45 minutes spinning bike
05:50 Sprang out of bed forgetting that I had reset my alarm for 05:45 ouch! I was in the gym by 07:20 and had a good back workout even though my energy levels were super low.
Journeyed down to my local Asda and bought myself some porridge and bananas which I think I'll take in a small quantities before my workouts. I also purchased 8 donuts, unfortunately not for me but for my grandkids who unsurprisingly love them! Other goodies that made their way into my trolley were Mars bars and chunky Kit Kats .... all for my youngest son who moves scaffolding around all day, so he needs the extra energy.
Now I would have weighed myself but my scales decided to completely fuck up. One minute I was around 89kg and then 2 seconds later I ws 87kg! Now I really wanted to know how much I weighed, and all this bollocking about started to fuck me off. I tried jumping up and down on them but this only made things worse. There was only one option left ... I took them out to my garden and beat the shit out of them with my sledgehammer and then threw the mangled remains in the bin. The missus seems to think that I have some sort of anger management issue? Suppose I'll have to pop down to Argos tomorrow and get some new ones!
06:00: tuna & 1 egg white & 1 slice of toast
11:30: boiled chicken & broccoli & 1 egg white
14:30: boiled chicken & broccoli
18:30: tuna & boiled cabbage & leeks yummy
21:30: boiled chicken & 1 egg white
I think that I need to get some low fat/low carb protein powder so that I can take on protein every 3 hours without having to force chicken and tuna down my throat at every meal time.
06/04
89.8kg
Morning routine: quads - 20 minutes bike / 4 * lunges / 6 * leg extensions / 4 * 25 bodyweight squats / 10 minutes bike / 15 minutes sauna
Evening routine: 50 minutes spinning bike
06:05 Felt pretty knackered this morning. Trained quads and there was no-one else in the gym!
Shot down to Argos to get my scales, got home and wieghed-in at 89.8kg, so finally under 90kg hurray!! Apparently the scales can also measure body fat percantage so I'll give that a go once I work out how to do it.
03:00: 8 tablespoons of porridge & 1/2 banana & 1/2 ring donut!
06:15: boiled chicken & 1 egg white & 1 slice of toast
07:15: 1/2 banana
10:00: tuna & boiled cabbage & leeks
13:00: boiled chicken & 3 egg whites & 1 slice of toast
16:45: tuna & 1/3 jacket potato
20:15: tuna & 1 slice of toast
21:00: 8 tablespoons of porridge & 1/2 banana
07/04
89.1kg / Bodyfat 28%
Morning routine: chest, triceps and calves - 20 minutes heavy bag / 4 * incline dumbell press (max 27.5kg * 4 reps) / 4 * dips / 4 * cable crossovers & press-ups supersets / 4 * machine bench press / 4 * tricep presses / 4 * planche stretches / 11 * calf raises / 30 minutes sauna
Lunchtime routine - 30 minutes bike
Evening routine: 30 minutes spinning bike
06:00 In terms of my diet I think that this is where it will start to get hard. I've let a few carbs creep back into my food intake over the last few days, but now I need to make a push over the next week or so to get down to sub 88.0kg as the last time that I was that low was over 15 years ago.
I purposely don't check my physique in the mirror every time that I go to the gym or bathroom as I think that it's harder to spot the gains. I always wear sweatpants and a sweat top while training (that's until I get ripped) and the last time that I checked my physique was last possibly last Tuesday. So I'll take a look after training today and see if I can afford to tighten-up my diet a little in terms of portion sizes. I'll also do my BMI and fat content on my new scales and maybe take a couple of update pics.
11:00 Just back from the gym and I think that my physique has definitely improved over the last week.
I jumped on my new scales and weighed-in at 89.1kg but I was shocked to see that my body fat was reading 28%. Now that seems well high as I'm getting fairly defined in the abs. I suppose that I will have to monitor this reading and even if it is incorrect at least it's a starting point and I'll obviously be looking to decrease this figure over the coming weeks. I'll also stick to my current diet as the weight seems to be coming off nicely, so I'll be looking to hit sub 88.0kg by 16/04.
06:15: boiled chicken & 1 egg & 1 slice of toast
11:00: boiled chicken & 1 egg
15:00: tuna & 1/3 jacket potato
19:00: chicken & broccoli
23:00: 8 tablespoons porridge
