Thread: Hi all

I'm new
(hence the post in newbies eh! )

I'm David, Birmingham UK. 20 years old, 5ft8. Weight = 16st 8lbs (Overweight i know but see below before judging please) I'm and IT Manager (yep a geek) and i'm a Microsoft Certified Professional.

I used to play rugby, semi pro whilst at school, after i left school i continued to play and was having professional trials, until i was stupid enough to get a motorbike. One day i went round a corner and the bike shot from underneath me due to oil on the road, i went over on my knee and tore the left side ligaments and cracked the right side of my knee socket. During this time i ballooned up to 22 stone, which was emabarassing but i couldn't do anything about it at the time, i couldn't walk for a long while yet alone train.

So this January i thought i will do something about this (been walking about 6 months at this point). So on the 1st January this year i joined a gym near me, and i started a strict diet, at the start of the diet i weighed 21st4lbs, i'm now 16st8lbs which is not bad going if i say myself!!

Anyway i began doing light work until one day i got talking to a lad who works at the gym (built more like me, not the young slim jims who train all week and get slaughtered weekends ) He has made me work hard, i've massively increased strentgh and tone since working under his 'guidance'. One example is the Chest Press machine, i can do the full stack of weights which is 202KG, for sets of 10 reps, around 5 sets, then i pyramid down to around 100KG.

Mark (the lad at the gym) is a Thai boxer and i now box a lot and do some MMA and Kendo fighting (This was the only real 'CV' work i could do in the first place because of the knee) and i have come along fantastically since i've worked under him.

I also get advice off my Dad and Uncle (Used to compete in the British Weight Lifting Championships) and my brother for CV work as he is a Professional Footballer (Soccer) player in the UK (Kidderminster Harriers for anyone who wants to know lol) and in all i can feel the tone coming quite well now.

I do a lot more CV nowadays, only last week i began 'running' (on the Cross Trainer, as good as it gets for now) i'm doing around 10 minutes per session on this at the moment, 3 - 4 times a week, my other CV work includes some heavy anaerobic rowing to match with boxing rounds, i.e. 500metre sprint row, 1 minute break, 500metre sprint row, 1 minute break, i do about 3 - 4 of these sprints, in around 2 minutes a sprint. I also try to do some bike work to.

No unfortunately the knee means i can't do the normal lifts (squats would literaly cripple me), i'm currently working machines to rebuild lost strentgh all over before i really move to free weights, now if this is wrong then by all means tell me so, i do some free weights, mainyl for biceps, triceps, delts/shoulders, chest and thats about it (I mean little weights really, 10kg dunbells, but for big rep sets). I have started to regain strentgh now though, after six months heres what i'm pleased with most :

Chest Press Machine : 202KG (Then pyramiding to exhaustion, thats around 100 reps at 100KG)
Leg Press : 135KG (250 reps, sets of 50)
Boxing, i'm doing really well with this and i'm punching as hard as some 'low end semi pros' as someone said to me.
My body, yeh its still a bit flabby, but my god what an improvement in 6 months, my shirt size has reduced for XXXXL to XL, trousers from 48" waist to 38" waist.

I think thats all, i train 5 days a week, ensure i have enough protein as much as i can, drink Whey Protein after training and eat right now (still the occasional slip

lol sorry Var, do you guys use lbs? If so i will adjust.

202kg is 445lbs

135kg is 297lbs