Wednesday 21 December 2011

The lean bulk (training phase 2)

3 weeks down 7 to go!...in this post I will cover my workout plans for phase 2 of my lean bulk. I’m really looking forward to getting into this phase as I love the feeling you get after performing a full body push or pull workout. Due to the amount of muscle recruited in each workout my heart rate shoots through the roof and fatigue sets in rather quickly. To me, the feeling of walking out of the gym after giving it everything you have physically and mentally is like no other. With that feeling each time you leave the gym I can guarantee you will see results in no time!
Once again each workout is warmed-up with the ‘barbell warm-up complex’ and mobility drills, which I presented in a previous blog post back in September. I’m using a 4 day a week split, which I’ve put together using the template I talked about in my previous blog post back in October called “the push/pull formula”. The spit is as follows:
·         Explosive exercise, push, abs
·         Pull, biceps
·         Explosive exercise, push, abs
·         Pull, triceps
You’ll notice I am now training abs twice a week and performing explosive exercises twice a week at the beginning of my sessions. Calf training has been dropped for this phase as I find they get a great workout from explosive Olympic lifts. There is also a lack of isolation exercises. Lastly to try and eliminate any imbalances I may have, I’m also performing a uni-lateral (one limbed) exercise for every bi-lateral (two limbed) exercise I do. The basic principle behind this phase is to build bigger, stronger muscles through performance based conditioning. There may be a few exercises you might be unfamiliar with, so I’ve included a few photos at the bottom of this post to help you should you need it.
Day 1: explosive exercise, push, abs
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Power clean
4
1-3

Smith machine front squat
4
8-10
Ass to the floor!
Incline bench cable decline press
4
8-10
See image below for exercise set up
Standing BB press
4
8-10

Seated Russian twist
3
8-10

Valslide pike
3
8-10
use a TRX or exercise ball if you don’t have valslides


Day 2: pull, biceps
exercise
sets
reps
notes
1 leg weighted back extension
4
8-10
Use 45 degree angle back extension bench
Cable face pull
4
8-10
Use a rope attachment
1 arm lat pulldown
4
8-10

TRX bicep curl
4
8-10
Elbow in front of the body works on inner bicep
Fatgripz incline DB curl
4
8-10
Elbow behind body works outer bicep


Day 3: explosive exercise, push, abs
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Power snatch
4
1-3

Walking DB lunge
4
8-10

Incline smith machine bench
4
8-10
Use a low incline
Arnold press
4
8-10

Cable wood chop
3
8-10

plank
3
30-60 sec.



Day 4: pull, triceps
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Cable pull through
4
8-10
See image below for exercise set up
Seated 1 arm cable row
4
8-10

Fatgripz close grip pull-up
4
8-10
4 seconds down, 1 second up
TRX overhead extension
4
8-10

Cable kickback
4
8-10



Cable pull through – stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart with your back to a cable machine. Use a rope attachment set at knee height. Grasp the rope between your legs and forcefully extend your hips until you’re in an upright position. Slowly return to the start and repeat for reps.

Incline bench cable decline press – attach D handles to a cable machine set at about waist height.  Sit on an inclined bench and press the handles in front of you. Slowly return to the start and repeat for reps. This is a great exercise for hitting the lower pecs.

Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a merry christmas and a happy new year. I’ll be back in 3 weeks with a review of how this training phase went, hopefully I will still have some abs visible after all that Christmas food!

Friday 16 December 2011

The lean bulk (post phase 1 progress check)

First off, apologies for the homemade poser abs shot, but there’s no other way I can prove to you that if you practise what I preach it’s not a crock of shit and does actually work!  (The clock is just to show the date it was taken, so you know I’m not being cheeky and using an image from back in the summer or something) I just thought I’d give you a quick run down of how I thought the first 3 weeks (phase1) of my lean bulk went.

It’s been about 8 weeks since I’ve trained using a body part split like I have used during this phase, so as you can imagine it was quite a shock to my muscles and I experienced some serious DOMS the following morning, most days. Overall I think the training went really well. I got all of the workouts in, and I was more than happy with some of the weights I was lifting for the 10-12 rep range used in this phase. I’m currently weighing in at 71.2KG, which means I have gained 0.8KG in the first 3 weeks! And I can still see my abs!

So that’s phase one complete, now it’s onwards and upwards moving onto phase 2. During this phase I’m using a push day/pull day split and I’ve included exercises such as the power clean and fatgripz pull-ups. Meaning I can start to focus on those other particular goals I set. Like power clean 80KG for 3 consecutive reps and perform 2 consecutive sets of 12 reps of fatgripz pull-ups. I will be posting my entire workout routines for phase 2 at some point next week, so watch this space…

Sunday 11 December 2011

The lean bulk (diet)

Here is my lean bulk diet. Whatever your goal, whether its weight loss or muscle gain without fuelling your body with the proper nutrition your going nowhere, It’s that simple!
If I could offer a few tips when it comes to eating right I would firstly say plan your meals in advance. If you know you’re going out shopping and won’t be able to eat for most of the day, take some pre-prepped healthy food with you. Nothing worse than getting caught out with no food and having to buy fast food. Secondly I would say get yourself into a routine. Wake up at 6am every day? Get your breakfast in at 6.30am every morning. Have a break from work at 1pm? Eat a meal at 1pm, you get the idea. I would also say - get creative, if I ate the same meals every day, all day for the last 2 years I would have given up ages ago! If you need a few ideas to get you thinking check out some of my previous blog posts on healthy meal ideas. Lastly, treat yourself once in a while. If you eat really well for a week an extra 500-600kcal blowout on the weekend won’t put much of a dent in your progress.
The diet
(Meals are subject to change on a daily basis, but the timings tend to stay pretty static. I also remove carbs pre-bed if I don’t train on that particular day. Lastly I’ve also included my supplements in green font, so you can see how they fit in during my day)
·         7am – chicken and mushroom omelette (made with 4 whole eggs)
small handful of almonds
2 x omega3 caps, zinc, vit D3


·         9.30am – 30g whey shake
·         12pm - 1 chicken breast, sweet potato and steamed veg drizzled with hazelnut oil
2 x omega3 caps


·         3pm – smoked haddock, brown rice and spinach drizzled with olive oil
2 x omega3 caps
·         5.30pm – 30g whey shake
·          7pm – steak, brown pasta and steamed veg
-WORKOUT-
·         8.30pm – post workout shake (30g whey, 100g carbs, 5g leucine)
·         9.30pm - peanut butter sandwich, made with 3 slices of wholegrain bread
·         11pm – 4 oatcakes with 8 teaspoons of cottage cheese
1 serving of FFN protein matrix mixed with 200ml semi skimmed milk
2 x omega3 caps
-BED-

I’m not a massive calorie counter, but if you want a real rough idea of the amount of macronutrients I’m taking in from my current diet, here it is:
Kcal: 3000-4000
Carbs: 300g-400g
Protein: 250g-300g
Fat: 80g-100g

Some important ‘take home’ points from my diet are…

-meals are little and often to keep my metabolism reved!
-high protein for increased protein synthesis
- No carbs with breakfast. Why? Carbs at breakfast causes your body to secrete serotonin, making you feel tired and sleepy (aka the carb coma!) not a fantastic way to start your day I think you’ll agree? The combination of lean protein and healthy fats for breakfast allows for a slow and steady rise in blood sugar levels.
-higher carbs pre-bed on training days. Linked to the previous point having high carb meals pre-bed causes my body to release serotonin helping me relax and have a deep sleep. Better quality of sleep means more testosterone and GH, which in turn means more muscle and less body fat!
-like I do with my training, I will also be progressing my diet by increasing calories by about 50-100kcal a week. I just go by feel so if the scales aren’t going up, ill increase portion sizes slightly, but I won’t go overboard or else I’ll end up storing body fat!
All this food talk has made me hungry, so I’m off to get a meal in now! On a final note, building muscle and losing body fat is simple when eat the RIGHT foods at the RIGHT time…

Friday 2 December 2011

The lean bulk (training - phase 1)

1 week down 9 to go!...its been a tough week training wise and the workouts have been hurting good, but overall I’ve been really pleased with the sessions and the weights I’ve been lifting. From now on over the next 3 weeks I will be aiming to increase the reps/weight progressively each workout. In this post I’ll go through the workouts and exercises I’ll be using over the next 3 weeks during phase 1 of the plan.
Firstly each workout is warmed-up with the ‘barbell warm-up complex’ and mobility drills, which I presented in a previous blog post back in September. The warm-up should not be overlooked if you want to get your body prepared for the work about to come and reduce chance of injury. I’m using a 4 days a week, body part split which is as follows:
·         Chest, calves
·         Back, hamstrings
·         Shoulders, triceps, abs
·         quadriceps, biceps
Day 1: chest, calves
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Incline smith machine press
4
10-12
High incline to really hit the upper part of my chest (an area I think I need to work on )
Fat gripz dumbbell bench press
4
10-12
Using a thick grip implement increases total muscle recruitment and neural activation
TRX flye
4
10-12

Calf press
3
10-20

Seated calf raise
3
10-20
This seated variation targets the soleus muscle


Day 2: back, hamstrings
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Weighted pull-up
4
10-12

Machine row
4
10-12

Straight arm lat. pull-down
4
10-12
I like to bend the torso forward slightly on this exercise to increase range of motion.
(Behind back) smith machine shrug
3
10-12

Seated leg curl
4
10-12

Supine hip extension
3
10-12
Squeeze glutes hard to activate them during this exercise


Day 3: shoulders, triceps, abs
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Smith shoulder press
4
10-12

DB lateral raise
4
10-12

TRX rear delt fyle
3
10-12

Fat gripz close grip smith machine bench press
3
10-12
Using a thick grip implement increases total muscle recruitment and neural activation
1 arm DB overhead extension
3
10-12

Hanging leg raise
2
10-20
Bend your knees, if you cant perform the straight leg variation
Crunch on swiss ball
2
10-20

Swiss ball side crunch and twist
2
10-20
Great for hitting the obliques and working on those ‘finger like’ muscles either side of the torso


Day 4: quads, biceps
exercise
sets
reps
notes
Smith machine top squat
4
10-12
Use just the top quarter of range of motion to really focus on the vastus medialis (tear drop muscle) An area I want to bring up.
Leg press
4
10-12
I like to put my feet low on the plate to shift the emphasis onto the qauds
Uni-lateral Leg extension
3
10-12
Performing this one leg at a time will balance out any weakness’s you may have developed in your quads
Fat gripz barbell curl
3
10-12
Using a thick grip implement increases total muscle recruitment and neural activation. Really good for working on your forearms with this exercise too.
High pulley cable curl
3
10-12



If you’re familiar with a typical body part split and exercise selection there should be no surprises here. The workouts start with the ‘big’ compound, multi joint exercises and move onto the single joint, isolation exercises towards the end of the session to really home in and finish off the targeted muscle group.
In my next blog post I’ll present a typical ‘day in the life’ of my diet for adding muscle whilst minimising fat gain.