I started off Year 4 at a max of 91 kg of body weight. My waist was 40 in. in braced position. My hips was 43.
I initially started with a low intensity body-weight "circuits", which later transformed into a proper endurace-type weightlifting routines. This later transformed into a pure strength program which continues to today. Typically, my workouts consisted of about 3 hours of lifting per week. In between, I would add either cardio, or lots of "corrective exercises", and recovery exercises, or stretching. These would add up to about 2 hours per week.
However, in the last 2 weeks I had the opportunity to push myself to 6 hours of lifting per week, with almost the same amount or more of recovery-type/corrective/cardio exercises per week. To support this I also had to increase my sleeping.
My weight has gone up and down since then, to a low of 82 about 6 months back (probably water loss more than anything), and now back to a range of 85-88 kg, depending on water status.
Measurements since then (comparison between September 4 2008 and yesterday, July 2 2009):
(all in inches)
Neck - 15 --> 14
Arm - 12 --> 14
Forearm - 11 --> 12.5
Chest - 36 --> 41
Waist - 40 --> 38
Hips - 43 --> 41
Thigh - 22 --> 24.5
Calf - 16 --> 15.5
Not bad for 1 year. This is especially true when considering the fact that my strategy was to increase muscle and lose fat at the same time.
These are my strength capability changes compared to how I started up to 1 year:
Horizontal pushing - 5 pushups x 3 sets, no narrow push-ups --> (at least) singles of 70 kg barbell bench presses*, can perform (at least) 10 narrow push-ups
Horizontal pulling - Unsure of limit --> (at least) 6 reps of bent-over DB rows (pronated grip) with 22.5 kg for 5 reps
Vertical pushing - DB shoulder press with 5 kg for 3 sets of 10 --> (at least) 3 sets of 10 with 10 kg. Snatches are total body, so I won't really count them (3 sets of 5 with 17.5 kg)
Vertical pulling - No chinups at all --> (at least) 6 sets of 2 chinups (3 without good form), doubles of neutral grip pullups, singles of pullups
Quad-dominant - 3 sets of 10 bodyweight squats was too much --> (at least) 3 sets of 6 one-legged (pistol) squats (body weight only) each leg, can perform 8 sets of 10 bodyweight squats, Tabata-style (rest only 10 sec between sets)
Posterior-chain-dominant - Single leg deadlifts with 10 kg for 3 sets of 6 --> Deadlift 1 rep max at 120 kg, almost up to 125 kg (with grip as limiting factor, not posterior chain). Mind you, I only deadlifted for 2 of these weeks. Most of my leg strength development came from the pistol squats.
Real-life feats - I can carry my 60-kg mother and pose for my sister to take a couple of pics. I can "close-grip" bench press my 60-something kg brother. And lift several at least 40 kg-ish wide pots (difficult to grab on leverage-wise) and carry them around for transport. I've gone at least 1 size down for my pants. 1 can go 1 size down for my shirts (small enough now for my stomach, but now filling up the sleeves, but not tight). When playing sports, I can handle people taller/bigger than me, and those of the same height may fall down after (accidental) impact. Sorry Shahril.
Very good, considering that I trained with no trainer at all, no partner. Just me and reading and watching to learn proper technique.
Diet:
I slowly evolved it to the one I have now. This was the most difficult to stabilize, as I can't have a very low calorie diet due to student needs (learning can't happen without enough carbs).
Breakfast - Carbs, lots of protein/fat
Lunch - Protein/fat, undigestible carbs
Dinner - Protein/fat, undigestible carbs
1 "enjoy" Day per Week - Well, lots of carbs.
Supplements - Lots of fish oil, some glucosamine, protein powder post-workout when needed (I don't take it if I'm going for a meal right after training)
Body Fat Index:
Start - 28-33% (29 kg fat, 59 kg lean mass)on repeated assessments (BIA, 2 point)
Last February - 30% (60 kg lean mass, 26 kg of fat), 1 reading (BIA, 6 point)
Today - 22% (68 kg lean mass), 1 reading (BIA, 6 point, athletic mode). 27-28% (63-62.9 kg lean mass), 2 readings (BIA, 6 point, normal mode). 25% (63 kg lean mass) (body measurement method). 25% probably seems right, which means I'm probably at 22 kg fat and 65 kg lean mass.
BIA is the most troublesome method of calculating BFI (others are hydrodensitometry, fat calipers and DEXA, the gold standard nowadays). For the athletic mode using the Tanita BC-418 analyzer, the conditions are at least 10 hours of physical activity per week and HR of below 60. I fulfill the last criteria, but I'm not sure of the former. So I took both readings, making the middle somewhat the more accurate.
This is probably only so-so. I noticed the highest changes during the holidays, while I stagnated near the end of 4th year. Probably because of my training methodology rather than diet. But being able to consistently focus on both fat-loss and "muscle" gains was probably a good thing, with me still at "beginner level" (less than 1 year of training).
Knowledge-wise:
I'm now more aware of the various diets and training methodologies. Not only that, I now understand a lot more regarding the anatomy and physiological basis, not only from a medical standpoint, but also other fields like kinesiology, physical therapy and strength & conditioning.
I started from Men's Health (which isn't the best in terms of applicability) to T-Nation (where articles are contributed from various fields including doctors and nutritionists for bodybuilders, powerlifters and sports athletes), EliteFTS (major site especially for powerlifting enthusiasts), various blogs (Eric Cressey, Tony Gentilcore, Bill Hartman) and podcasts (The Fitcast). I can't describe the amount I've learned. But I can assure you, that I've probably learned more regarding various knowledge in the "fitness" world than medicine. In fact, my hobby now is analyzing people's physique and posture, seeing what are their problems, especially sportsmen.
Tip: If your BMI is more than 30, please don't do steady state cardio if you care for your joints. Stick to intervals if you're desperate to avoid lifting and want cardio.
Lessons for Next Year:
1) I should've focused on strength. Anyone could benefit from strength. And if you don't want to bulk up, just keep the reps low. I focused too long on endurance-like reps (> 10 reps per set), and my fat loss and physique changes quickly stagneted. My most rapid gains occurred during this recent holiday, in which I ditched fat-loss type of training to just focus all out on strength. Now I regret not doing that earlier, or at least cycling them both.
Fat & skinny girls: if you think that lifting heavy will turn you into a man, look at mothers carrying their 1-2 year olds. They don't look like a man. She lifts more than me and she doesn't look like a man. Lift strong.
2) Training at home leads to quick stagnation. There's only so much to make bodyweight exercises harder at home. I should've bought bands when regular pushups were too easy. It might have been wise as well to buy new dumbbell plates as I quickly outgrew the ones I had. Training at a gym allowed me access to lots of free weight equipment, and lots of heavy plates and dumbbells.
3) Adjusting to a permanent diet takes time. And the funny thing is that nobody will agree on your diet. You have to trust how you feel and make adjustments from there. My parents still think I eat too much now. Some of my friends think I'm on an Atkins diet and crashing my calories down. The best diet is one that you can maintain long-term, provides you with a small deficit as needed, but high enough to keep your energy levels good for your activities of daily living. I think the current one is sustainable. I'm more sleepy from training than the diet itself.
4) I started chinups too late (after 5 months in). Had I started earlier, who knows how much stronger everything else might've been? Not to mention the metabolic boost from a strong powerful back. Sigh.
Plan for Next Year:
1) I'm going to keep my current diet; I like it as it's flexible enough.
2) I need to consider getting into a gym in Kuantan. But I need one with a squat rack. Pistol squats over and over gets "boring". And it needs to allow barefoot training. It's always physiologically better, and is used by all elite trainers. I can't afford Nike Frees. If I'm forced to train at the hostel only next year, I have to buy at least 40 kg's of dumbbell plates minimum, and defitnitely bands as well (band pushups can replace bench presses, no problem). But replacing true conventional deadlifts will be almost impossible. In fact, I'm thinking of writing a review about TLS Fitness Center, the place I've been training for the last 6 weeks.
3) If I decide to make a home gym some day, all I really need is a bench and a good power rack (with built-in chinup/pullup bars), with probably bands/chains as additional options. And my old jump rope if I feel like it. Not bad.
4) Programming-wise, I think I'll follow Eric Cressey's technique of 4 week cycles with deloading already built in. I'll let that dictate my weights, sets and reps schemes. I'll have to think about the exercises to do though in what will probably become a 3 hour per week training. If I can I'll try to push it to 4 hours of mostly lifting, but I'll need to think about scheduling, especially since at least 2 of the days will have to be consecutive to each other.
5) Goals: Maximum strength, period. Since I started deadlifting, it's become a habit. I really like the exercise. 1 move, stimulates practically almost every muscle group I have, and it makes my whole body feel like shit afterwards, whether it's muscular or CNS (very sleepy). I'll let my diet do the work as regards to fat loss. Less thinking, more doing.
And Tony Gentilcore says the truth: You can get up to a 400 lb deadlift in 2 years of serious training. I did shitty training, and still got 120 after 2 weeks of learning deadlifting.
If I feel like adding more, I'll just add them with an addendum as a note. If this is too long, remember that it's for me first, readers second. Hehe.
P.S. I wonder if I should post pictures. If somebody asks, I may fulfill their wishes.
*No spotter to bail me, so I played conservative here.
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