scandalous1
Registered
First of all I am 39 years old, 5'7" tall, & at 175lbs. I have had several times in my past where I was athletic and very physically active. I played football & wrestled in high school where I learned about lifting weights and strength training. At that time and at two different body weights I benched double my body weight (150lbs/300lbs & 160lbs/320lbs). I have always been lucky in the fact that my body reacts quickly to physical exercise and am able to gain strength and lean body mass fairly quickly. I went through phases on and off along the way where I was involved in working out with good success but life's curves sometimes took me away from it. I was also into mountain biking for about 10 years and kept in good shape through it but sold my bike earlier this year.
Back in July of this year (2008) I decided to get motivated about my physical shape and health. At that time I was 192.5lbs. on my 5'7" frame. My diet was terrible and was getting no real exercise. After dedicating myself to a better diet and exercising I also set up a physical for a life insurance policy for my family should anything ever happen to me. I know from an experience a few years prior that unless you are in good health the monthly cost of a life insurance policy can be quite expensive. My first goal was to be in good enough health for that physical to allow myself to obtain the best possible rates. Just by changing my eating habits and diet and picking up stretching and beginning to exercise I dropped ~ 10lbs. the first week. I had about 3 weeks to be prepared for the physical. Coincidentally my step-son was visiting us for the summer and he is the kicker for his high-school junior varsity football team and needed to train. I was very eager to help him and the timing with what I wanted to do for myself was perfect. We went everyday to the practice field of our local high-school and worked out. Stretching was followed by kicking field goals and kick-offs. I shagged all his kicks and ran the balls back to him. After the kicking was done we would run sprints, usually quad 50's. In between these work-outs I was doing push-ups (of various types) and sit-ups & crunches. At my physical I weighed in at 179. It took several weeks to get a copy of the lab results of my blood work but finally got them and was amazed at the good results I had gotten. My cholesterol was 127, all my liver enzymes were at good levels, and basically every result of the blood work were at outstanding levels.
In the mean time I have kept up with my good diet and have added some resistance training to my exercise. I started at a friends house with some DB's, perfect push-up's, and a blowflex. I couldn't quite get a good feeling from the bowflex though. It was nice and smooth but just doesn't compare to the feeling of using free weights. I started working out at another neighbor's and he has a nice 300lb set of olympics, a set of those bowflex DB's that you can quickly change the weight of by turning the dials on the ends, and a nice weight bench that inclines, squat rack etc. About this time I discovered this site and have read many of the great stickies on training and diet. I have been just doing a basic power strength bench press work out I remember from my high school football coach. I have been working out alone so without a spot I haven't been able to find my 1RM but just estimated one and went from there. The workout is simple and I have been able to add 5lbs to my estimated 1RM per week by doing 3x5 at 80% of 1RM, then 3x3 at 90% of 1RM. I follow this work out up with DB incline press, BB curls, close-grip bench, military press and then do ab work at home. About 3 weeks into this type of work out and I'm doing 3x5 with 190, and 3x3 with 210. I'm sure I could do more if I had a spot and would love to as if you are getting all 3 reps of your 90% set, you need to go up. But doing it alone I'm always cautious and don't want to have to roll 210 pounds off of me. I started keeping a record of my eating and work-outs a couple of weeks ago. I just made an appointment at my local gym to check it out and will hopefully be able to join it this week.
My overall goals are to be fit and physically healthy and would like to lower my body fat % at the same time adding some lean body mass. I plan on doing a 4 day split schedule based on upper-body push/pull days, hams & calves / quad days (thanks to reading builts blog and good advice from other members on the site). My plan is to concentrate on simple compound movements focusing on higher weights/lower set/rep counts to first gain overall muscular strength and the size that comes with it.
Back in July of this year (2008) I decided to get motivated about my physical shape and health. At that time I was 192.5lbs. on my 5'7" frame. My diet was terrible and was getting no real exercise. After dedicating myself to a better diet and exercising I also set up a physical for a life insurance policy for my family should anything ever happen to me. I know from an experience a few years prior that unless you are in good health the monthly cost of a life insurance policy can be quite expensive. My first goal was to be in good enough health for that physical to allow myself to obtain the best possible rates. Just by changing my eating habits and diet and picking up stretching and beginning to exercise I dropped ~ 10lbs. the first week. I had about 3 weeks to be prepared for the physical. Coincidentally my step-son was visiting us for the summer and he is the kicker for his high-school junior varsity football team and needed to train. I was very eager to help him and the timing with what I wanted to do for myself was perfect. We went everyday to the practice field of our local high-school and worked out. Stretching was followed by kicking field goals and kick-offs. I shagged all his kicks and ran the balls back to him. After the kicking was done we would run sprints, usually quad 50's. In between these work-outs I was doing push-ups (of various types) and sit-ups & crunches. At my physical I weighed in at 179. It took several weeks to get a copy of the lab results of my blood work but finally got them and was amazed at the good results I had gotten. My cholesterol was 127, all my liver enzymes were at good levels, and basically every result of the blood work were at outstanding levels.
In the mean time I have kept up with my good diet and have added some resistance training to my exercise. I started at a friends house with some DB's, perfect push-up's, and a blowflex. I couldn't quite get a good feeling from the bowflex though. It was nice and smooth but just doesn't compare to the feeling of using free weights. I started working out at another neighbor's and he has a nice 300lb set of olympics, a set of those bowflex DB's that you can quickly change the weight of by turning the dials on the ends, and a nice weight bench that inclines, squat rack etc. About this time I discovered this site and have read many of the great stickies on training and diet. I have been just doing a basic power strength bench press work out I remember from my high school football coach. I have been working out alone so without a spot I haven't been able to find my 1RM but just estimated one and went from there. The workout is simple and I have been able to add 5lbs to my estimated 1RM per week by doing 3x5 at 80% of 1RM, then 3x3 at 90% of 1RM. I follow this work out up with DB incline press, BB curls, close-grip bench, military press and then do ab work at home. About 3 weeks into this type of work out and I'm doing 3x5 with 190, and 3x3 with 210. I'm sure I could do more if I had a spot and would love to as if you are getting all 3 reps of your 90% set, you need to go up. But doing it alone I'm always cautious and don't want to have to roll 210 pounds off of me. I started keeping a record of my eating and work-outs a couple of weeks ago. I just made an appointment at my local gym to check it out and will hopefully be able to join it this week.
My overall goals are to be fit and physically healthy and would like to lower my body fat % at the same time adding some lean body mass. I plan on doing a 4 day split schedule based on upper-body push/pull days, hams & calves / quad days (thanks to reading builts blog and good advice from other members on the site). My plan is to concentrate on simple compound movements focusing on higher weights/lower set/rep counts to first gain overall muscular strength and the size that comes with it.
