New Plan – Next Goal. Lets GO!

OK so as you may have read in my recent post, Progress! Finally god damn progress! I have managed, through blood, sweat and moaning, to make it to my target weight of 11 stone. Which is a real feat for me as I have spent my life floating around like leaf at around 9.8 stone. Tough times.

I achieved this by working really f#cking hard in the gym, eating more than I felt I could and keeping my focus on what was important to me, getting my weight up. It was everything I wanted for so long. I know at 11 stone I am not “massive”, but its a good effort and shows me that even with my ectomorph chemistry, can do it, it just takes a lot!

And me being me, I WANT MORE. Never rest on your laurels, push further and harder to beast yourself. So I go on to my next goal, 11.5 stone. I have been researching what I can do to shock my body into get those extra gains.

I am going to change my approach to workouts to see if I can get this weight on, and in muscle. When you do similar workouts for too long your body almost expects it, so you gots to shock it, blindside it, show it that any minute you are going to come at it like an angry crab, pinching those muscles and energy levels.

Whats gunna change?

Just the workouts, for now.I usually workout 2 muscle groups a day, chest and triceps one day, back and biceps the next and so on, switching them round to accommodate for recovery and taking rest days when I feel, get a look at my current schedule in my post, the importance of rest, finding out the hard way. Which covers how i have been approaching rest and how burnout can loose your muscle mass!

After researching other skinny guys wanting to get bulk’s blogs and websites I have come across something that may just work, fingers crossed. Ill give it a go and be giving you guys feedback as I go. Should be fun, win or loose, frustrating if I loose.

I like switching things up, it give a new purpose to getting up and hitting the gym, eating and recording your progress. Extra initiative and motivation is always welcome in my life, as sometimes I just get sidetracked and it all takes a back seat. I’ve got too much to loose. Keep it fresh guys, nobody likes spoiled milk.

The workout thing

So part of this workout is, incredibly, taking more rest days! 3 days in blocks.  I know right, what on earth am I going to get up to on my days off. Maybe I’ll start drawing again, or wax, people seem to do that these days, right?

So I am going to concentrate less on muscle isolation exercised and work more on exercises which us multiple muscles, compound movements such as dead lifts, squats, bench press, and pull ups, really concentrating on form in order to get a full workout across various muscle groups.

On the first day I will be working on very heavy weight with lower reps, really working the muscles to the max and wearing myself out till I maybe go a bit dizzy from too much blood pumping. Long rest in between sets. Then take a rest day, if you aren’t aching from the day before then you have yourself down, shame.

In my second and third day I will lift and push at lighter weights at higher reps, fast. The real key is the speed, go fast or go home, this will get maximum burn and really shock those muscles into action. Real short rest between sets, like seconds, until your body can’t push or pull anymore. Dead arm.

I will be working out a whole range of push and pull motion exercises that will fill out this exercise, which I will publish once I have performed this type of routine for a few weeks and perfected the form, allowing for recovery and using exercises which will really work my full body in a balanced way.

let me know if you have any push/pull exercises that may help out, looking to try s many as possible!

Cheers,

Chris

The Importance of rest – Finding out the hard way.

We all try to push ourselves to the limit sometimes. When we get an idea in our head or a goal there is something in your mind that just wont stop. The excitement to go and make it can overcome us and leave us blind to the damage we may be causing ourselves.

I wish this was work! or school! Or anything I haven’t been arsed to do in the past. Had I had the focus I have now when I was younger, my life would have been very different. I don’t know how, but surely it would have been different. Maybe I would have achieved more, been in a better financial position and even owned my very own nutribullet. Dreams.

But we have now to better ourselves, there is no other time. As my dad always used to say “I wish that id known what I know now, when I was younger”, or was that Rod Stewart? To be fair it could have been both, the Rod never ended in our car journeys in the old silver BMW of my childhood. Kicking the back of the chair for it to stop, only to find myself listening to the same songs 20 years later. Thank you Rod…and Dad.

Anyway, my point is that we are still learning every day, from our experiences, successes and failures, in our relationships (so many lessons), work life, play life and journey to becoming a real human person. So don’t fret too much if you are still finding your way, a lightbulb will go off at some point and you will make the right decision. Take it from me, probably too old to be making mistakes, but still being confused as hell when it all falls apart.

The Aches and that

So I had been going pretty heavy on the gym time. The more I went the more energy I had, sometimes I could go 7 times a week like a maniac. But over time as I started to make gains in my muscle mass, I felt more and more lethargic and achy, like I just didn’t have the energy or the drive to get up and go smash those weights.

You feel bad about missing which makes you feel even more down! Cant really win! But when you do go you feel like you aren’t putting in 110% and this is just sad. Sad face. You don’t want this as it is in this state of mind that you may fall out of love with it. The endorphins and testosterone aren’t pumping like it should and you just end up fading into the gym, then exiting through a wall like an old Edwardian ghost.

I started looking into what I should do. The one glaring point was rest, all the time people going on about how great rest is. I didn’t like the idea as I had time on my hands and this hobby is something I enjoyed planning my day around. Come on I am healthy, eat…okay, over excitable kind of guy, F rest. I decided to go 5 days a week, and take weekends off.

But then after about 3 weeks of feeling tired and run down, I changed the placement of my rest days, not packing it into 5 weekdays then weekends off like I had tried before. Maybe take a Tuesday off? or a Wednesday, It didn’t matter, Just when I was tired. And it worked, such a simple little change made such a big difference to my energy levels, muscle recover and general mood.  Really refreshing me and aiding my gains. but how?

Why rest tho?

Go on, have a rest. Sleep man, as much as your world allows you to. If you don’t rest your body takes all the strain as it doesn’t get the chance to recuperate and help you rebuild you muscle tissue which has been overworked by the unrelenting workouts you have gone through. Here’s why!

• Decrease energy levels
• Decrease testosterone Levels
• Decrease hormone growth levels
• Increase catabolic (muscle destroying) hormones

Apart from just feeling haggered all the time. You will not be able to gain muscle, if this is the reason you are hitting the gym every day, then you are basically wasting your time. Just give in and get some roids or something…joking. These are built up in sleep so get MORE! Go on, you have an excuse now.

Something to remember is that you only build muscle when not at the gym. It comes along when you are sleeping or resting, using the food you eat and your chemistry to decide if your gunna wake up super skinny in the morning, or keep those gains. If you spend every minute in the gym increases the risk of injury also due to the strain it puts on your muscles and nervous system.

Well what to do?

Try to design a weight training program the allows one day of rest in between each weight training workout, and never train the same muscle group on two consecutive days. Be smart, if you can split up a couple of days between doing your biggest weight sets for chest of back for example, then do, your body had built back the fuel it needs to help you hit the biggest weights and ultimately smashing your Personal bests!

Experts say you should rest each day in-between each workout, so go 3 days a week and have a day off in-between. But everyone is different, I am able to go 4 or 5 days a week with a couple of days off in-between and maintain my energy levels and feel invigorated when I leave the gym. So what works for one may not work for another. Try a few different ways before settling on how much you need. Sometimes you may just need more, being human you may just be tired one day from life and that.

Few tips:

Sleep 8 hours a night – I know its hard, I am at my most awake after 9pm and sleepiest between 8am and 8:59pm. But this apparently is what your body needs to aid your recovery.

No physical activity late on – Yeah I’m not sure about this one, because err, knocking boots and that. So try and do the dirty about 3 hours before your off to sleep if you can. If not, err…there is no advice I can give you here, if you know, please please tell me.

No eating late – Try to eat before 7 and not after, another hard one with everyday life and especially if you are on a weight gain diet like me. Stick to light stuff with loads of protein if you have to, just a simple shake or something

Get A sleeping schedule – Another hard one that I have had to work to get into, going to sleep about 11 and up at 7 every day. It can take time for you body to adjust as I am a night owl but over time I am settling into it and feeling the benefits

So yeah! That’s basically it! Overall do what works for you. Try a week with more rest and push yourself extra hard at the gym to see if you are improving. But have fun! Training exhausted isn’t fun, so what’s the point!

If you aint having a good time, you are wasting your time – RZA

Cheers!

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress! Finally god damn progress!

Today I am at my parents house. When I come here I know I am gunna get fed, I was right. Mother came home sporting the greatest Friday treat in the U.K, fish and chips! God damn I love those shit’s, so much brown sawse! Too much sawse!

Dad’s been looking over my shoulder every time I pull my phone out and reading any messages when I do, then just laugh’s when I ask him what hes looking at, maybe that’s where I get the annoying trait from. As I get older I see more of my mum and dad’s personality coming out in me, embrace it, its going to happen sooner or later! And I bet they were cool back in their day!

I will let the father off. Hes an incredible father who always supports me when I want something, and tells me no when I’m about to make a stupid decision, same with the mother, but nothing really annoys me about her. Parents always give the best advice, and usually, over time, I realize they are right about everything! Or maybe I just forget if the discussed situation never arises and life moves on, I guess we will never know, all I know is when they are right, they are right.

One thing they cannot help me with is weight gain, They know nothing about it, like asking what a cod knows about the clouds.

Discovery!

So I remembered that there are some weighing scales here, I haven’t weighed myself for about a month, last time I did I was 10.8 stone, which is the same as the weigh in I had done a month before at boots on the super digital scales. This was frustrating as I was hoping for more gains with my food intake and shakes, seemed to stop a bit. Guttin.

So To be fair I haven’t changed anything with diet at all, which is odd. The only thing I have changed is that for the last weeks I have been back on the BCAA’s, now if any of you read my review of My Protein’s BCAA Plus, you would be aware that the last time I took them I had a….problem.

If you didn’t read it then shame on you! Ill briefly fill you in. I started taking them to help with my muscle gain after hearing some great reviews and chatting with personal trainers who recommended them as a great supplement for getting those extra valuable gains. The product works fantastically on the muscle side, allowing me to retain muscle for longer and work harder in the gym. The problem was that I got moody, Extra tired after gym and also the worst side effect, limp dick! Read the full review if you like, I still laugh about it now! Read my My Protein BCAA Plus review here!

So my girlfriend is away on holiday so I decided while she is away, I will start on them again! There will be no “action” this week, so why not! Lets try get the most we can in gains out of it!

Results!

So I dusted off the scales that were hidden behind some cleaning products in the bathroom cupboard, dusted it off and placed it on some solid ground,took a deep breath and stepped up.

The scales read dead on 11 stone! YAYYYYYYYYY!!! The gain has jumped forward! Yaayyy!! Its a fantastic feeling when you have battled so long against loosing weight to find yourself finally putting some on! What a wonderful day.

I go out into the garden and look up at a heavenly blue sky. There are two fat doves sat in the tree chatting politics.

I am going to continue doing what I am doing as I am more than happy today! I could feel very different tomorrow so I will keep you up to date. But for now, spending most of my life at a measly 9.8 stone, being 11 stone feels like I am really accomplishing my goals. Goals which change all the time. Being human, I am never truly satisfied.

I am leaving my life as a twig behind and finally becoming the lump I want to be. Fantastic.

cheers!

Chris!

 

 

Fast 5!!! Chest workout!

Who doesn’t enjoy a good chest session  huh? I know I do! I think its the rawness of most of the workout, being at one with the weights bench and pushing as much as you possibly can, usually surprising yourself or killing yourself in the process., one of the two.

I had to ease off on chest for a bit, still working it, but not concentrating on it so much and putting so much weight into it. My tiddy balls just kept getting too big, my girlfriend was joking they were bigger than hers! My pecs are high up on my body, so when swole they would protrude a bit far for my liking!

So I switched to doing a quick paced, high rep workout. and realized I could do what I did before in about 40 minutes, saving me time to do other things like playing with lizards, prank calling people and playing knock a door run.

I put together this workout by looking into what would be the best exercises to hit each part of the pectoral muscle, so to give a full workout and a rounded aesthetic look when you start getting those gains.

Lets smash it out the park!

The Workout!!

Chest Press

Lets go! Straight in with a classic here. The most simple of the exercises, but most effective. Hands shoulder width apart, push the weight as high as you can, bring down to touch your chest, this way you know you are using your full range of motion and really working those pectoral muscles.

for this we will start at a manageable weight, say 30 kg for 15 reps, then 12 adding 5kg to each side, 10 with another 5kg then 8 at the max you can do.

This will hurt but you will manage it if you really focus, get the right form and believe you are not a puss puss.

NEXT!

Decline Bench Press

I LOVE this workout. For some reason I seem to find it easier than the flat bench press. Weird, But it just works for me.

Try and use the exact same weights and reps as we used in the last exercise to keep it all level and gain a balance of muscle across your pectoral.

Don’t try to push the weight on any angles, your body is already in declining position and the muscles naturally worked will be your upper pectoral.

Concentrate on pushing straight up to get to get the most from this, when bringing the weight down ensure you just touch you chest before going back up, it doesn’t count if not! If your partner is cheating, enforce the rule that you start again from 0 if you don’t! They’ll soon start doing it the proppa way!

Incline Chest Press

This is going to get tough here, if it hasn’t already. If you are breezing through it, your an animal, if you’re not, WE CAN DO IT!

As before, concentrate on the weights going in a straight line upwards, use an adjustable seat to support your weight so your not slipping about or staining your legs.

 

Same reps as before too, so a 15 set on a manageable weight, go higher for 12, higher again for 10 and as high as you can for your last 8! Your arms will start to die a little, but man, you will have rock hard pecs going on, looking like a lil Terry Crews.

Machine Bench Press

It took me a while to get used to this There is something about the movement that I had to get used to. But not everything is comfortable first time. Don’t quit! It will work and become a staple part of your workout.

So to avoid confusion we are sticking with the same reps as the exercises before. Just so we don’t mix anything up and you can smash through it and get off home.

concentrate on keeping your back and shoulders straight, for this one. Set the start position to slightly behind you and using the motion of the machine, swing your arms forward to a point where your fingers touch to complete the full rep. NO CHEATING!

Dips

This is the last exercise! WE ARE ALMOST DONE! Put everything into it and you WILL get results!

Try to do 3 sets of 10, your arms will shake and legs may swing at first, but concentrate on keeping your core straight and putting everything into your arms and chest.

Dip down to just below your elbows, going any lower may cause damage from over stretching so be careful and have a stretch before you start.

ITS DONE!

Now you should have a really good burn/numb feeling in your upper body. Should be struggling to jog down stairs tomorrow making you hold your breast’s as you go.

I hope you enjoyed this shit!

Cheers!

Chris!!!!

 

 

Review Time – My Protein’s MYPRE!! Itchy Ears?

Sometimes it can be really hard to build up the extra energy and excitement for hitting the gym, especially after a hard days graft or just being alive, It can be hard man, some of us are just on the edge of laziness. We try our best but there are moments when we doubt out own performance and tinker with the idea of leaving it for the day. Sleeping is great!

Personally, I find that if I am feeling particularly lackluster, which happens from time to time, if I have something to make me focus on like new to try it gives me the extra drive needed. So I toyed with the idea of a pre-workout, I had heard they are great and wanted to see what they could do for me.

Whenever I had thought about pre-workouts before I imagined it would be a bit intense, eyes popping out of my head, sweating and babbling away at about 100x an hour! Loads of caffeine which put me off and all a bit serious for your everyday gym fellah! So I started to read up on reviews and information before I started. They don’t sound “that” bad, extra energy and concentration in a drink? I tend to babble and sweat anyway so just gimmi that energy!!!

To the product!!

After much reading up I opted to go with a pre-workout from a company I knew and trusted. My Proteins MYPRE. The reviews came across very well and something I always look for are people’s issues and side effects, especially with a product that contains a heap of caffeine. Caffeine I feel effect’s me strongly and wont let me drift off to sleep even if I have had it upon waking up, it just wont let me go to slumber town!

the price is around £21.24 over at My Protein, which may sound kinda steep, I would say though it does seems to last ages and took me over two months to get through. Its not the cheapest but I would say it is the best I have tried, so really you do get what you pay for here.

What the F is it?

People who use pre-workout’s are usually looking for help in gaining focus and an energy boost to get them through a workout. So these types of product’s are always packed with energy rich ingredients for energy and vitamins to help brain function allowing you to focus on your workout and not be drifting off watching a bee fly past the window. Which I tend to do…yeah, my attention span is not the best.

In the MYPRE blend you get an absolute ton of the ingredients to help you have the best workout of your life!

• Creatine (4g)
• Caffeine (400mg)
• Amino Acids (4g)
• Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin B6, B12, Niacin and Riboflavin which contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
• 3g of Beta Alanine, L-Citrulline Malate, L-Arginine, D Aspartic Acid, and Betaine.

It also comes in a wide range of flavors, I tried the raspberry lemonade mix. Other flavors include Sour Apple, Lemon and Lime, Watermelon, Orange, Grape and Blue Raspberry.

Put it to the test!

Let have ittt!!! It’s time to see if this product could really turn me into a gym machine! I was really excited to try this, after reading the reviews and seeing how it helps other’s. This is something that gets me hype’d to head out and put myself to the test in the gym.

Before

So I mixed the product, 2 scoops with out 500ml of water, it tasted great! Very fruity and refreshing. It seemed to mix with water perfectly, leaving no dust or clumps behind once lightly shook. No problem at all drinking this every day!

The first thing I noticed after about 30 minutes was that my ears would start to tingle and itch, sometimes my arms would get slightly itchy, not to the point I was scratching my arms and body like a drug addict, just an odd sensation. A strange reaction, which after looking into it is caused by the caffeine hit.

During

My workout was definitely improved. I felt a real boost leading up to and during my workout. Huge difference, all I wanted to do was get in the gym and work, and during I just wanted to keep going and pushing myself. This was a real revelation for me! Really becoming part of my routine in the build up to hitting the gym. Fantastic stuff! Getting me in the zone, Showing the benefits of the ingredients in helping my concentration and focus which I sometimes find hard.

It just made me want to do more. Knowing I had this product fueling me on really showed me what I can do, extra reps, extra time in gym, extra weight’s, all leading to better results, its the reason we do it!

After

After the workout was improved too, sometimes being able to go back for a second session in the same day! I would feel the tiredness kick in still but it was delayed, it would be a few hours before I would feel sleepy even knowing how much work I had put in that day!

The one thing I was worried about was getting to sleep after working out, fortunately for me with this product it didn’t cause a problem as the caffeine seems to loose its effects after working it off, which would all be done in the gym with the extra effort I was putting in! For me this is becoming the perfect product for my body chemistry and a real staple of my workout!

I would become intensely hungry within on an hour of finishing up at the gym which seems to be a side effect. I am looking to gain weight myself so this is just another advantage of the product as I would rush to get those extra calories in me and my protein shake.

Final words!

I really cannot rave enough about MYPRE, it really has helped me in my quest to be the best version of me, giving me that extra push to go extra hard on everything that comes my way. I have tried other products but this is the best of them all.

Taste  

Effectiveness 

Price 

So overall, taste’s great, mixes great, gives for a greatly improved, energized performance and is reasonably priced. Definitely one to try if you are looking to try get the most you can out of yourself!

Get yours here! My Protein MYPRE.

Cheers for reading!

Chris

 

 

Lets review My Protein Hard Gain Extreme then! Just one side effect this time!

It sounds a bit hardcore, what is it?

So you’re looking into gaining weight, there are so many powders and supplements that boast the ability to do this for you.  My Protein Hard Gain Extreme is one of the product’s from a leading brand promising to help you get those calories in! Along with a heap of other beneficial ingredients. If like me you sometimes don’t have time to cook extra food or just cannot bring yourself to eat anymore, but know you have to force in the extra calories to reach your goals!

Another option is you could get a girlfriend who forces you to eat more by calling you a little bitch if you cannot finish that second serving, now this does work I promise you this, nobody wants to be undermined at the dinner table like that. If you can get these kind of enthusiastic, motivational speeches on the daily, mix it with this product and you are onto a winner.

Along with a whopping 35g of protein per serving you get 61g of carbohydrates, 446 calories, 5g of creatine, L-Glutamine and other various vitamins in every 125g serving. As you can see a real mix of products shown to build and maintain muscle growth but also has the ingredients that help you with you immediate recovery from your vigorous workouts.

It comes in a range of 6 flavours, I am sure all of these are fantastic but the first time I ordered this product the one I went for was the Mint chocolate, and its so good I have stuck with it since. If you are a fan mint choc chip ice cream then this is the one for you, even with water it tastes incredibly good, and after meals it acts as a good sweet replacement to deserts, giving your sweet tooth the fix it needs.

Reasons for choosing

Well to look like this, OBVIOUSLY!!

Naa the above is too far, is it even real? looks like he has mumps in his whole upper body!

As the type who has NEVER been able to gain weight and seemingly in a lifelong mission to find a bulk gainer, that will help me to not only get bigger, but actually keep the weight on once it appears on my body I opted for My Protein Hard Gainer Extreme. I had seen from the reviews that it was working for a lot of people, now these people mostly seemed to have been reaching for slightly different goals, but with the description, favorable reviews and praise the product was getting I thought I would give it a go. Why not huh?

I was looking to be able to primarily gain weight using this product, but also with my workout schedule and diet, be able to see the results in muscle gain and performance in the gym!

So is it actually good?

The Mint choc chip flavor is so good and though very sweet as you would expect with this flavor it is not something I have got sick of, some products I have tried I have been dreading from the moment I open my eyes and feel like I could gag just at the sight of that big sack of protein sat on the counter. It mixes with water and milk surprisingly well, hardly any lumps in it without having to shake it too vigorously, which again I have found some just wont mix and you waste half of the serving stuck on the sides of your bottle!

Within a week I was seeing results, not just in how I was looking but also how I felt in myself. I was staying full for a lot longer than usual after meals and felt my gains would stay for the day after I had worked out, with the post pump gain hanging around rather than feeling like I had never stepped foot in gym or lifted my arms by the end of the day! This is great!

My weight had improved from my previous gains, various other products had got me from a measly 9.6 stone to much more acceptable 10.1 stone, but never managed to keep the weight.  I was now heading up to 10.8 stone, on my way to becoming a big lump of muscle, exactly as I hoped it would. Gym performance was better also upping weights and feeling really positive about the direction I am heading!

I am always excited to weigh in now, see if I have upped on those scales and would be able to smile at myself for the extra achievements, maybe get a few hi-fives from random people on the way home! Reaching for your targets and actually hitting them is the greatest feeling, especially when you have been trying for so long and suddenly a product click’s and everything comes together.

Side effects tho…

Yes this product is great and does exactly what it says on the tin. It tastes good, really, really good, mixes well and the results have been great. For me though, there is a but, of late I haven’t had the best relationship with spicy foods and have had to cut out something very dear me, something I thought I couldn’t live without, something I think about every day…Jalapeno Hummus, its just the greatest thing, but my stomach really didn’t agree with my passion for it, I think you know what I’m getting at here.

The shake was having the same effect as the spicy foods had been, only when I had the shakes before bed though, I would wake up about 5am and get the cramps, run off to the bathroom and, yeah you know the rest. And the same for the rest of the day. This was a problem as I felt I really needed to be having them late on at night so my body would be able to work through the concoction through the night rather than the precious muscle I had gained.

I counteracted this by simply cutting down a small amount to having 1 shake in the morning then 1 shake right after I work out, this worked out fine and now, sticking to this routine the gains are still coming and I am having no problems sleeping like a normal person and fine through out the day, WAAHOOO!!

Has anyone else had these issues? If so how did you cure it!

You can get My Protein Hard Gainer Extreme here!

NICE ONE!

Chris