T-Nation.com | Ash's Training Log

Join date: Apr 2009
Location: Ontario, CAN
Posts: 69

Hello T-Nation!

I thought I would start logging my workouts here, as I am getting sick of keeping a paper logbook and hate using excel for one. I used to use fitday's journal but I don't like logging in there anymore. I figure now i as good a time as any to stop lurking. This log is mainly for my own reference, and something to direct my friends to, but any comments and advice is appreciated.

Height: 5' - 9"
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Weight: 177 lbs
BF%: Don't particularly care about this at this time, I'm not fat but I'm not lean either.

So about me, I'm a sixth year Engineering and Management student at a Canadian university (yes, a legit six year undergrad--don't ask), and will be graduating in 7 months, and I hope to start work in either the semiconductor industry, or to pursue entrepreneurship.

As for training, I might as well say my whole history, for anyone who cares to read it, if you don't care just skip to "Goals" below. I have roughly 2 years training experience. I say that with a grain of salt though, as I started in third year and had no clue what the heck I was doing. I copied what different friends did and did some stuff I read in magazines, so it was all over the place. The best thing to come out of that year was that I learned decent form on most exercises, but I didn't know anything about planning, progress, where to get information or any of that. I stopped working out in 4th year, mostly because it was the hardest year academically of my life. I was constantly at school from 8 AM to 11PM, and I think i got into the gym a total of 10 times that whole year. I put on a lot of weight in this year, went up from ~165, to ~180, and not quality weight.

After 4th year, just over a year ago, I took on an internship in Ottawa, far away from my friends, and found that I had a lot of free time on my hands. I signed up at the gym at a local college and started up again. In this time I tried a few different things, was experimenting with losing weight, gaining weight ( I really didn't know anything about nutrition at the time, so it was basically starving myself or eating garbage), at the same time, the training was along the lines of what I had done in 3rd year. After a few months, I got into a routine I was comfortable with, and would be in the gym consistently, 3-5 times a week. But I wasn't really making gains, and I knew it was because I didn't know what I was doing. I was at around 187, couldn't bench more than 135 (for several months), and couldn't figure out how to change it up. Luckily there was an older engineer at my work who was very obviously a bodybuilder. I decided to ask him for advice, and he pointed me to T-Nation, particularly "The Waterbury Method", he also gave me some advice on nutrition and pointed out some good articles regarding food. "The Waterbury Method", combined with better eating led me to lose over 10 pounds in 4 weeks, after it I continued with 3 total body workouts a week, with 5-6 exercises in the 5-6 rep range. I found this was working very well for me, and by the time my internship was over at the beginning of may, I was down to 162 pounds. At this point I decided it was time to start trying to grow and increase my strength. When my internship ended and I moved back to Hamilton, I had the following numbers for the main lifts.

Squat (half squat, I only learned proper ATG form recently) 275x6
Deadlift: 245 x 6
Bench: 200 x 5
Barbell Row: 145 x 6
Dips BW+ 50 x 6
BW Pullups 4 reps

After the move It took me a few weeks to get settled and to get comfortable at the gym at school again, but once I got in the hang of things some of the lifts went up. I got up to a 300 lbs 6RM deadlift, but unfortunately, on a day I was feeling particularly strong, I got a bit too excited deadlifting and my grip loosened mid set, I set the bar down to re-grip and continue the set, but did it too quickly, didnt have good form, and hurt my back. It was a minor disc bulge and I still feel it a bit to this day. I took 2 weeks off, and started looking for ways to work around the injury. I finally was really into training and didn't want to give it up because of a stupid mistake. It started with just swimming everyday for a couple weeks, then (with permission from the right people) I started doing dips and pullups, 3 times a week, doing different set/rep schemes. Eventually my back decreased and I felt comfortable doing single leg/single arm things, and gradually worked in more exercises. I started using CW's TBT framework with exercises I was comfortable doing (1 arm cable rows, dips, pushups, floor dumbbell press, single leg squat, Bulgarian split squat), since I was injured I would limit the weight I was using (45 lbs in the vertical plane, 60 lbs in the horizontal plane, these were based on my comfort levels at the time). My goal was growth, and I was steadily gaining weight. Eventually I started more and more things at heavier weights, walking lunges, sumo deadlifts, ATG squats, front squats, eventually barbell bench, incline and flat bench. Just before school started I realized I was mostly recovered and could now proceed (although I am much wiser and way more careful now) with whatever goals I wanted. I weighed 173 and looked and felt just as lean as when I was 162.

The last 4 weeks I have been doing "The Waterbury Method" again because I love the steady strength gains I get on that program, and will list my numbers for the final week below.

That's the whole story, sorry about the long post.

Current Goals: Steadily increase size and strength, in that order of priority.
Size goals: Keep gaining weight until 185-190, then decide where to go there from based on how I feel.
Strength goals: It would be good to deadlift 300, Squat above 275, eventually bench 225+, do more than 12 pullups.

Since I am in a very hectic final-year engineering degree schedule, I am restrained to the gym 3 times a week for this semester. I decided to give CW's "Huge In a Hurry" a try for the rest of this semester, since I feel like I progress well on his programs. I hope to try 5-3-1 next semester though, as I will have some more free time.

For nutrition, I try to eat carbs for breakfast and on training days. I consume what my friends describe as insane amount of beef, as much as my student budget permits anyway. I eat as much as I can, as per the advice of the T-Nation Alphas. I try to typically keep it clean--but that wont stop me from my weekly burrito though. I use fish oil, multivitamin, whey, dextrose and creatine, and drink a pre- peri, and post shake. I haven't tried out any Biotest products yet, but since the price drop and the flat shipping rate, I will definitely try SWF and MD when I run low on my current supplements.

Again this log is mainly to be a reference for myself and my friends, but if you did bother reading above, awesome! Here it goes! I'll start with WM numbers in the next post, and what I have done so far with the "Get Ready" program of HIAH.