My first blueprint meteoric run/log!!!!!!!
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:38 pm
Hi everyone,
this is my first time posting on this forum let alone the first time I've ever done a training/diet log.
First of all I think a little background/stats are in order, just to give everyone an idea about me and what my goals are, as well as why I stumbled upon these forums as well as the blueprint training program.
THIS IS RATHER LONG, SO DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU LOL
I first started training roughly 12 years ago, drawn to the iron with a desire to change my body and to hopefully lead a healthier lifestyle. Luckily for me I was fortunate enough to benefit from the tutelage of my older cousin who was 10 years my senior. He was/is an incredible individual, a true athlete in every sense of the word and physically he stood head and shoulders above everyone else he came into contact with. He was 6'4 at around 270 pounds with a bodyfat range in the low 14% to 10%, if I had to guess.
Every where he went people would stop and look at him, giving him compliments on his size and for those who got to see him in the gym, well, he was easily one of the strongest guys. And they let him know that. Hell, I remember when he met a few pro bodybuilders (top 10 in the Olympia.) they would laugh and say how big he was and how he had a lot of potential. It was unreal. For a while he even trained in his home gym with a few powerlifters, pro bodybuilders, and wrestlers (British bulldog before he passed away just to drop a name.). This was all because they saw that he was the biggest guy in the gym, and who do you feel more safe training with, some guy who is repping 5 plates on squats or some kid who is struggling with 2? Here was the kicker. He was completely NATURAL! That's right. completely natural. He took nothing other than a protein powder, a multi vitamin, and some creatine from time to time (debate all you want what is natural, it is completely unnecessary.). Any product that would have an effect on one's hormone profiles he frowned upon, seeing it as something that if you trained and ate correctly was unnecessary.
From the first day I started working out with him he engrained this "ideal" into my mind, and it is still one I use to this day. For a few years he taught me everything he knew about training and proper technique and form. I excelled quickly in my strength in regards to lower body exercises such as deadlifts and squats but for some reason my bench press lagged behind considerably. In fact all upper body strength did. Another thing that was notably absent was any kind of diet template.
He always ate clean because he never liked the taste of "bad" food and how it made him feel but he never really told me about this. He just thought that was how most people ate. I on the other hand had a horrendous diet, eating terrible foods and tons of processed junk on a daily basis. I'm sure I could have progressed a lot more in these months if I had that in check but... well, hindsight is 20/20 right?
Another thing was I was also very inconsistent after a few months of my initial training with him, as "life" got in the way. Soon I was only training 1 or 2 days a week and I had made no progress. I would also fluctuate up in weight, gaining 30 to 40 pounds ( lots of fat though) then losing it just as fast as I hated feeling fat.
After a few years of this I stopped working out with him as I found myself becoming more and more busy with life and school. Eventually I was not even working out anymore. For about 2 years all I did was sprint every few days in an effort to keep my weight down. I had always been a heavy set person and was the kind of individual that could just look at food and gain 5 pounds. However, of that 5 pounds a large portion would be fat. To this day I am still like this, and getting lean for me is a nightmare.
About 7 years ago I decided to get as small/lean as I could, hating the way I felt at a higher body weight (around 200lbs.). Doing my sprints/cardio I managed to get down to about 155lbs but at that weight I also looked like I barely had any business being in any kind of weight room. For some reason I could still deadlift and squat in the 300lb range whenever I did step in a gym though. My bench however, still struggled, and I was topping out at 135lbs for just a few reps. Physically I felt fine, but I always had hoped that when I lost all the bodyfat I would be hard and ripped looking. It didn't pan out the way I had hoped it would.
After about a year of being in this state I decided that I would begin training like my cousin taught me, all those years ago, but this time with an emphasis on strength and intensity. A level that not even he was training at. I had hoped that this was the missing link and that with my new starting point of 155lbs all of the weight I would put on would be more muscle than fat.
I employed a slightly ketogenic approach with my diet, finding I didn't respond to starchy carbs very well but I did still have a few throughout the day. I didn't know about macronutrients of total calories or any of that. I just ate until I was satisfied. My goal was to increase my progress everytime I stepped into the gym, whether that be 1lb more of weight on the bar or 1 more rep. Progress was progress, at least in my mind, and that was all that mattered to me. And that I did.
Every workout was to COMPLETE FAILURE, to the point where it was physically impossible (at least on the compound movements) to complete another rep. My intensity when I attacked the weights I have yet to be seen replicated in any gym I have been in ( and I have been in at least 30 gyms on a regular basis due to moving around for my job over the last few years.). I have had legitimate bodybuilders/amateurs and powerlifters come over to me during sets and tell me how impressed they were that "a little guy could be moving such big weight on things like deadlifts" or just overall intensity. Once again, I believed this was all necessary. I didn't know any better. For me, I believed this was the only way for me to grow muscle.
In 2 years I went from 155lbs to 180lbs and this was also making sure I was doing multiple sprint sessions throughout the week to make sure I didn't "blow up" and become sloppy. I felt good and I looked like I was in decent shape, at least to the average person on the street. My strength had also increased. My deadlifts had gone up from 315 for 3 reps to 405 for 3 reps and my benchpress had gone from the 135lbs for a few reps to 225 for 2 reps. (Although the benchpress wasn't exactly with the best form.).
Another interesting thing was that I totally discarded doing legs. Blasphemous! I know, but the squat movement never felt right to me for my body and my legs were (and still to this day) overpower the rest of my physique. I figured the sprints would be enough to keep them the size they were and besides, I was focused on bringing up my upperbody to match. As for my bodyfat, I have no clue. If I was to guess looking back on it, I would say I was in the 15% to 18% range.
After the end of those 2 years I began working a job I absolutely hated , but still I tried my best to keep going to the gym. I made it a point to go on benchpress/chest and back/deadlift days but all my other training days (shoulders/arms, anything else.) were soon discarded as I just didn't have the time. After about 6 months I had the fortune of relocating as well as leaving that job. I decided to once again give the weightlifting/bodybuilding a more conscious effort especially considering the last 6 months I had not given it the proper time it deserved.
I started out at about 185lbs and thought to myself "instead of trying to cut back down to a lower weight let me just take 2 to 3 months and try to get my strength back to where it was before that horrible job." I ended up reaching 200lbs again with very little problem in this short time but once again (and like always) I had accrued a substantial amount of bodyfat. My strength was better than it had ever been and I can vividly recall benching 225 for 8 reps (pathetic, I know lol.) and deadlifting 455lbs for reps. While the strength was great I felt like garbage and was quite self conscious about the increased fat.
I decided that I wanted to keep the strength I had worked so hard for but wanted to ditch the excess bodyweight. After many months of trying to figure out the proper approach I stumbled upon Layne Norton and his concepts of macronutrients (at the time he was heavily endorsing this form of dieting.). I figured "why not, I don't really have anything to loose", and thus began my approach to getting leaner using a combination of different macronutrient numbers prescribed for me based on a dieting calculator he endorsed.
The program boasted that a partaking individual would lose 1 to 1.2 lbs of weight (mostly from bodyfat) a week but to me this seemed too drastic. I figured that if I employed this way of dieting I would lose a good chunk of the strength gains I had made. In an effort to combat this I extended the diet out from the 16 weeks prescribed to double. I was also more interested in losing 0.5lbs of weight a week as I felt my body would hold onto all that hard earned muscle more easily.
My training during this time did not differ at all from before, if anything it was even more intense as I was focused on keeping my strength up and in my own mind, more of my muscle. I know that a lot of programs say to lighten up on your loads when you are dieting and go for higher reps with lighter weights but this approach just never seemed to make sense to me. I wanted to keep my strength and my muscle, after all it was hell to gain it in the first place!
Over about a year I went from 200lbs down to 155lbs however the look of my body was vastly different to any other previous incarnation. My strength, while down, was not nearly as low as I thought it would get. At 155lbs I was still able to do 405 for 5 to 6 reps on deadlifts and my bench press was still at 225 although the reps ranged anywhere from 2 to 5 on any given day. Like I mentioned before, the workouts during this time were absolutely intense and it would not be uncommon for me to get anxiety the day before a heavy compound lift. All in all I considered it a success, and I felt good about my body as when my shirt was off I had that ripped lean look to my muscle I had been after for so long.
For the last year I have stayed in this state, hovering around the 155lb to 160lb mark all while keeping my strength in the same range as mentioned above. After a year of beating my head against the wall but doing so for fear of getting too fat again (trust me, getting fat sucks lol.) I decided it was time for a change.
ENTER THE BLUEPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As is probably obvious by now, I am deathly afraid of getting too fat again, but I knew that in order to get bigger/more muscular and stronger one has to be in a caloric surplus. This usually means an increase in bodyfat at the same time. As I stated before, I am natural (all I take is protein powder, multivitamin, food and a fiber supplement.) and as such I have no plans on using anything else other than what I already am. This made trying to figure out what would be the next most optimal approach a very tough endeavour.
I had always heard about Rob and the blueprint, and what stood out to me was how unlike many other things out there it placed a heavy (if not complete) emphasis on the training and diet more than anything else. Sure, Rob recommended taking certain supplements that could aid people in their progress and muscular/strength goals, but it wasn't a necessity.
After a little more research I contacted Rob and conversed back and forth with him through many emails. Many as long as this writeup lol. Not only did he answer all of my questions and concerns but he even set up a time for me to phone him and discuss what my goals and plans were if I did so choose to use the blueprint (which I did lol no surprise.).
After a lengthy phone conversation he recommended that someone with my years of experience toiling away at the iron employ the blueprint meteoric. He claimed that for someone such as myself this approach would yield the best overall outcome.
As such I have just started the PHASE 2 of the blueprint meteoric (skipping PHASE 1 as per Rob's recommendations as I already know my max lifts on deadlift and benchpress.) while also for the first time in 2 years putting my body in a caloric surplus. It feels a little strange to not feel hungry all the time lol, but I trust in what Rob has outlined in the BM.
My goal for this run (6 weeks lol, seem so short) is to increase my strength most notably on my bench press (PLEASE!!!!! lol) and my deadlift. I also would LOVE to build more muscle and you can bet that my diet will be 100% on point, no excuses. (Heck, you don't go from 200lbs to 155lbs not following a diet to a T.)
Currently I am at 159.6lbs at a bodyfat of 7.85% (I used the Jackson/Pollock bodyfat method but I don't really believe I'm that low, not even close; I would guess I'm more around 11% to 14%.).
benchpress: 215lbs for 1 perfect form rep. (had to check the ego at the door in order to get a proper form bench.)
deadlift: 420lbs for 2 reps (but I will be using my deadlift 1 rep max at just 420 as I felt the 2nd rep I did was not perfect.)
Sorry for the LONG write up, I promise all my other updates won't be nearly this long lol. I just thought that a log like this might benefit/help out other's who have been or are in the same boat as myself. Conversely, I think it would be helpful to not only myself but to others for anyone to chime in with their own experiences in regards to things such as body weight and losing fat.
We usually hear about people being skinny and trying everything to just gain weight, ANY kind of weight. But what about those of us who have the opposite problem? Those of us who put on muscle and fat/or just fat very easily. Seems not a lot of people talk about this.
Here's hoping for some good progress and gains in lean muscle mass and strength. Wish me luck everyone!
NATTYDADDY7
this is my first time posting on this forum let alone the first time I've ever done a training/diet log.
First of all I think a little background/stats are in order, just to give everyone an idea about me and what my goals are, as well as why I stumbled upon these forums as well as the blueprint training program.
THIS IS RATHER LONG, SO DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU LOL
I first started training roughly 12 years ago, drawn to the iron with a desire to change my body and to hopefully lead a healthier lifestyle. Luckily for me I was fortunate enough to benefit from the tutelage of my older cousin who was 10 years my senior. He was/is an incredible individual, a true athlete in every sense of the word and physically he stood head and shoulders above everyone else he came into contact with. He was 6'4 at around 270 pounds with a bodyfat range in the low 14% to 10%, if I had to guess.
Every where he went people would stop and look at him, giving him compliments on his size and for those who got to see him in the gym, well, he was easily one of the strongest guys. And they let him know that. Hell, I remember when he met a few pro bodybuilders (top 10 in the Olympia.) they would laugh and say how big he was and how he had a lot of potential. It was unreal. For a while he even trained in his home gym with a few powerlifters, pro bodybuilders, and wrestlers (British bulldog before he passed away just to drop a name.). This was all because they saw that he was the biggest guy in the gym, and who do you feel more safe training with, some guy who is repping 5 plates on squats or some kid who is struggling with 2? Here was the kicker. He was completely NATURAL! That's right. completely natural. He took nothing other than a protein powder, a multi vitamin, and some creatine from time to time (debate all you want what is natural, it is completely unnecessary.). Any product that would have an effect on one's hormone profiles he frowned upon, seeing it as something that if you trained and ate correctly was unnecessary.
From the first day I started working out with him he engrained this "ideal" into my mind, and it is still one I use to this day. For a few years he taught me everything he knew about training and proper technique and form. I excelled quickly in my strength in regards to lower body exercises such as deadlifts and squats but for some reason my bench press lagged behind considerably. In fact all upper body strength did. Another thing that was notably absent was any kind of diet template.
He always ate clean because he never liked the taste of "bad" food and how it made him feel but he never really told me about this. He just thought that was how most people ate. I on the other hand had a horrendous diet, eating terrible foods and tons of processed junk on a daily basis. I'm sure I could have progressed a lot more in these months if I had that in check but... well, hindsight is 20/20 right?
Another thing was I was also very inconsistent after a few months of my initial training with him, as "life" got in the way. Soon I was only training 1 or 2 days a week and I had made no progress. I would also fluctuate up in weight, gaining 30 to 40 pounds ( lots of fat though) then losing it just as fast as I hated feeling fat.
After a few years of this I stopped working out with him as I found myself becoming more and more busy with life and school. Eventually I was not even working out anymore. For about 2 years all I did was sprint every few days in an effort to keep my weight down. I had always been a heavy set person and was the kind of individual that could just look at food and gain 5 pounds. However, of that 5 pounds a large portion would be fat. To this day I am still like this, and getting lean for me is a nightmare.
About 7 years ago I decided to get as small/lean as I could, hating the way I felt at a higher body weight (around 200lbs.). Doing my sprints/cardio I managed to get down to about 155lbs but at that weight I also looked like I barely had any business being in any kind of weight room. For some reason I could still deadlift and squat in the 300lb range whenever I did step in a gym though. My bench however, still struggled, and I was topping out at 135lbs for just a few reps. Physically I felt fine, but I always had hoped that when I lost all the bodyfat I would be hard and ripped looking. It didn't pan out the way I had hoped it would.
After about a year of being in this state I decided that I would begin training like my cousin taught me, all those years ago, but this time with an emphasis on strength and intensity. A level that not even he was training at. I had hoped that this was the missing link and that with my new starting point of 155lbs all of the weight I would put on would be more muscle than fat.
I employed a slightly ketogenic approach with my diet, finding I didn't respond to starchy carbs very well but I did still have a few throughout the day. I didn't know about macronutrients of total calories or any of that. I just ate until I was satisfied. My goal was to increase my progress everytime I stepped into the gym, whether that be 1lb more of weight on the bar or 1 more rep. Progress was progress, at least in my mind, and that was all that mattered to me. And that I did.
Every workout was to COMPLETE FAILURE, to the point where it was physically impossible (at least on the compound movements) to complete another rep. My intensity when I attacked the weights I have yet to be seen replicated in any gym I have been in ( and I have been in at least 30 gyms on a regular basis due to moving around for my job over the last few years.). I have had legitimate bodybuilders/amateurs and powerlifters come over to me during sets and tell me how impressed they were that "a little guy could be moving such big weight on things like deadlifts" or just overall intensity. Once again, I believed this was all necessary. I didn't know any better. For me, I believed this was the only way for me to grow muscle.
In 2 years I went from 155lbs to 180lbs and this was also making sure I was doing multiple sprint sessions throughout the week to make sure I didn't "blow up" and become sloppy. I felt good and I looked like I was in decent shape, at least to the average person on the street. My strength had also increased. My deadlifts had gone up from 315 for 3 reps to 405 for 3 reps and my benchpress had gone from the 135lbs for a few reps to 225 for 2 reps. (Although the benchpress wasn't exactly with the best form.).
Another interesting thing was that I totally discarded doing legs. Blasphemous! I know, but the squat movement never felt right to me for my body and my legs were (and still to this day) overpower the rest of my physique. I figured the sprints would be enough to keep them the size they were and besides, I was focused on bringing up my upperbody to match. As for my bodyfat, I have no clue. If I was to guess looking back on it, I would say I was in the 15% to 18% range.
After the end of those 2 years I began working a job I absolutely hated , but still I tried my best to keep going to the gym. I made it a point to go on benchpress/chest and back/deadlift days but all my other training days (shoulders/arms, anything else.) were soon discarded as I just didn't have the time. After about 6 months I had the fortune of relocating as well as leaving that job. I decided to once again give the weightlifting/bodybuilding a more conscious effort especially considering the last 6 months I had not given it the proper time it deserved.
I started out at about 185lbs and thought to myself "instead of trying to cut back down to a lower weight let me just take 2 to 3 months and try to get my strength back to where it was before that horrible job." I ended up reaching 200lbs again with very little problem in this short time but once again (and like always) I had accrued a substantial amount of bodyfat. My strength was better than it had ever been and I can vividly recall benching 225 for 8 reps (pathetic, I know lol.) and deadlifting 455lbs for reps. While the strength was great I felt like garbage and was quite self conscious about the increased fat.
I decided that I wanted to keep the strength I had worked so hard for but wanted to ditch the excess bodyweight. After many months of trying to figure out the proper approach I stumbled upon Layne Norton and his concepts of macronutrients (at the time he was heavily endorsing this form of dieting.). I figured "why not, I don't really have anything to loose", and thus began my approach to getting leaner using a combination of different macronutrient numbers prescribed for me based on a dieting calculator he endorsed.
The program boasted that a partaking individual would lose 1 to 1.2 lbs of weight (mostly from bodyfat) a week but to me this seemed too drastic. I figured that if I employed this way of dieting I would lose a good chunk of the strength gains I had made. In an effort to combat this I extended the diet out from the 16 weeks prescribed to double. I was also more interested in losing 0.5lbs of weight a week as I felt my body would hold onto all that hard earned muscle more easily.
My training during this time did not differ at all from before, if anything it was even more intense as I was focused on keeping my strength up and in my own mind, more of my muscle. I know that a lot of programs say to lighten up on your loads when you are dieting and go for higher reps with lighter weights but this approach just never seemed to make sense to me. I wanted to keep my strength and my muscle, after all it was hell to gain it in the first place!
Over about a year I went from 200lbs down to 155lbs however the look of my body was vastly different to any other previous incarnation. My strength, while down, was not nearly as low as I thought it would get. At 155lbs I was still able to do 405 for 5 to 6 reps on deadlifts and my bench press was still at 225 although the reps ranged anywhere from 2 to 5 on any given day. Like I mentioned before, the workouts during this time were absolutely intense and it would not be uncommon for me to get anxiety the day before a heavy compound lift. All in all I considered it a success, and I felt good about my body as when my shirt was off I had that ripped lean look to my muscle I had been after for so long.
For the last year I have stayed in this state, hovering around the 155lb to 160lb mark all while keeping my strength in the same range as mentioned above. After a year of beating my head against the wall but doing so for fear of getting too fat again (trust me, getting fat sucks lol.) I decided it was time for a change.
ENTER THE BLUEPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As is probably obvious by now, I am deathly afraid of getting too fat again, but I knew that in order to get bigger/more muscular and stronger one has to be in a caloric surplus. This usually means an increase in bodyfat at the same time. As I stated before, I am natural (all I take is protein powder, multivitamin, food and a fiber supplement.) and as such I have no plans on using anything else other than what I already am. This made trying to figure out what would be the next most optimal approach a very tough endeavour.
I had always heard about Rob and the blueprint, and what stood out to me was how unlike many other things out there it placed a heavy (if not complete) emphasis on the training and diet more than anything else. Sure, Rob recommended taking certain supplements that could aid people in their progress and muscular/strength goals, but it wasn't a necessity.
After a little more research I contacted Rob and conversed back and forth with him through many emails. Many as long as this writeup lol. Not only did he answer all of my questions and concerns but he even set up a time for me to phone him and discuss what my goals and plans were if I did so choose to use the blueprint (which I did lol no surprise.).
After a lengthy phone conversation he recommended that someone with my years of experience toiling away at the iron employ the blueprint meteoric. He claimed that for someone such as myself this approach would yield the best overall outcome.
As such I have just started the PHASE 2 of the blueprint meteoric (skipping PHASE 1 as per Rob's recommendations as I already know my max lifts on deadlift and benchpress.) while also for the first time in 2 years putting my body in a caloric surplus. It feels a little strange to not feel hungry all the time lol, but I trust in what Rob has outlined in the BM.
My goal for this run (6 weeks lol, seem so short) is to increase my strength most notably on my bench press (PLEASE!!!!! lol) and my deadlift. I also would LOVE to build more muscle and you can bet that my diet will be 100% on point, no excuses. (Heck, you don't go from 200lbs to 155lbs not following a diet to a T.)
Currently I am at 159.6lbs at a bodyfat of 7.85% (I used the Jackson/Pollock bodyfat method but I don't really believe I'm that low, not even close; I would guess I'm more around 11% to 14%.).
benchpress: 215lbs for 1 perfect form rep. (had to check the ego at the door in order to get a proper form bench.)
deadlift: 420lbs for 2 reps (but I will be using my deadlift 1 rep max at just 420 as I felt the 2nd rep I did was not perfect.)
Sorry for the LONG write up, I promise all my other updates won't be nearly this long lol. I just thought that a log like this might benefit/help out other's who have been or are in the same boat as myself. Conversely, I think it would be helpful to not only myself but to others for anyone to chime in with their own experiences in regards to things such as body weight and losing fat.
We usually hear about people being skinny and trying everything to just gain weight, ANY kind of weight. But what about those of us who have the opposite problem? Those of us who put on muscle and fat/or just fat very easily. Seems not a lot of people talk about this.
Here's hoping for some good progress and gains in lean muscle mass and strength. Wish me luck everyone!
NATTYDADDY7