Going from lean to ripped

[sexy_animal]

2008 was a year of progress for me. This was the first time I was able to consistently stick with an exercise and nutrition program. Here are the progress pictures.

February, 2008.

December, 2008.

I may not, yet have an awesome physique like some of the posters here, but I'm damn proud of my progress and my new found consistency.

So my goal for the first quarter of 2009 is to get ripped at 195. I will then maintain while building strength, anaerobic endurance, and flexibility, and balance.


What I find interesting is that my body weight stayed absolutely the same (around 195lbs) while my bodyfat dropped.

I will post a plan of attack later. I mainly want to use this blog for psychological leverage, so it will not be updated very often.

I will update it whenever I hit a new fitness milestone or when I have pictures that show notable progress.

 

[P-funk]

nice progress over the year!

patrick

 

[sexy_animal]

^^^Thanks dude!



Alright, it's time to set some new goals!

Goal: get to 8% bodyfat at no less then 195lbs by February 2nd. Current bodyfat around 9.5% at 197lbs. February 2nd is my woman's birthday, and I want to have a legitimate sixpack by then. I've been wanting a 6pack since I was 13, and this year I will have my wishN

Nutrition guideline: "The more you cook, the better you look." 90% of my meals are going to be home cooked, based around lean protein and clean carbs and healthy fats.

Supplements:
Fish oil 10-12mgs daily
multivitamins
l-argenine
tribulus
garlic

No Protein powders/shakes! I highly doubt the quality of protein powders out there and I really don't know what half the ingredients that go into them are, so I will stay away.

Workout schedule:
Sun: steady state cardio 45 min
Mon: legs (squats + calf raises)
Tue: Chest/Back (incline db press, pullups)
Wed: Arms (chinups, tricep press, forearms) + 25 min HIIT cardio
THur: Shoulders (military press, horizontal pullups, shrugs) + 25 min HIIT cardio
Friday: Cardio (form to be decided)

Core workouts performed with each training session.


Progress picture will be posted on February 2nd.

Alright, here we go!

 

[sexy_animal]

3 weeks of progress.

 

[sexy_animal]

4 week bodyfat loss cycle.

Starting date Jan 30, 2009
Ending date February 28, 2009

Age: 26
Weight 196lbs
Estimated b/f: 9.5%

Goal: lose 4lbs of bodyfat, while experiencing no muscle loss, and possible muscle gain.

Daily caloric requirement (maintenance) 3,500
Caloric intake during the cycle (15% deficit) 3,000

Meal frequency 5-6 meals a day.
No cheat days, 4 planned cheat meals per week.
Dietary goal: 90% compliance.

90% of calories will come from a combination of these foods:
proteins-chicken breast, low fat cottage cheese, eggs, beef stew, eggs, tuna, milk, Greek Yogurt.
carbs+fats: brown rice, bananas, walnuts, broccoli, brown rice mixes, avocado, olive oil, baby carrots, beets, potatoes.

Workout schedule: 20 workouts total, 5 workouts per week. Taking 3 floating days off to be taken as needed to avoid burnout and over-training.

7 Day cycle:
Day 1. Legs- Squats + Sitting calf raises + standing calf raises
Day 2. Shoulders-Standing Military press+face pulls/inverted rows+shrugs+core (Optional HIIT cardio 25 min)
Day 3. Steady state cardio 45-60min.
Day 4. Chest/Back-Incline DB bench press+pullups(weighted)+rack pulls
Day 5. Arms-Chinups(weighted)+Overhead triceps extensions+forearms. 25 min HIIT cardio.
Day 6. Off
Day 7. Off

I need to start working out my traps. My legs are responding like crazy to squats, very happy about that.

 

[nick2788]

Nice progress! Very encouraging.

 

[Built]

Your trap won't come up while cutting - nothing will, really, not this deep into the cut.

When you move into maintenance, and then a little more, I cannot recommend hang cleans enough. Those things will do wonderful things for your traps, shoulders, and forearms.

How much fat are you getting in? How about creatine - are you taking any?

What rep range are you using through your cut?

 

[sexy_animal]

Your trap won't come up while cutting - nothing will, really, not this deep into the cut.

When you move into maintenance, and then a little more, I cannot recommend hang cleans enough. Those things will do wonderful things for your traps, shoulders, and forearms.

How much fat are you getting in? How about creatine - are you taking any?

What rep range are you using through your cut?

Well, you see, I recently started to do proper training for my legs. I have a torn meniscus and for a while I was afraid of doing squats, but now I learned the correct squat form and it quickly became my favorite exercise.

I'm definitely putting muscle on my lower body because in a month I haven't lost a single pound, yet I look more defined all over.

I'm training for maximum strength and all of my weights have actually gone up in the last month. Some went up significantly.

I always aim to increase the amount of weight I'm using.

I usually go for 1x4 with a new weight, then in the subsequent sessions I work it up to 4x4, then 5x5, then 4x6, and when I get to 4x8 it's usually time to use more weight.

I don't know the exact micronutrients that I'm getting in. There's a fair amount of educated guesswork, but I'm getting results, so there hasn't been any need to change up to this point.

I'm considering logging all my food intake for a week soon so that I know exactly what I'm dealing with.

I'm not using creatine, it just never really appealed to me as a legitimate training aid.

I'm going to look into hang cleans. The only problem is my gym is not equipped for any sort of powerlifting stuff. There is even no real space to do deadlifts.

Thanks for your input, it's much valued.

 

[sexy_animal]

Don't ya just love it how life throws a monkey wrench into your best laid plans?

I came down with the worst cold in my memory this weekend.

Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to shoot for 100% compliance for the next 3 weeks in order to hit my goals.

I did make the best of my period of inactivity and started to log my food intake.

It turns out I was not eating enough fat.

 

[Built]

Cool - glad you found your food intake. What average macros were you running and how have you fixed this?

 

[sexy_animal]

This is what was:

3000 calories total
250g protein=1000cal
300g carbs= 12000cal
89g fat=1000

I didn't realize that I was consuming 300 grams of carbs. I constantly felt hungry because I wasn't eating enough fat.

So I changed it to:

3000 calories total
250g protein=1000cal
200g carbs=800cal
133g fat=12000cal

I added Greek yogurt to my diet and more avocado and more olive oil.

 

[Built]

ISN'T THAT MORE COMFORTABLE?

Fats are SO satiating.

 

[sexy_animal]

ISN'T THAT MORE COMFORTABLE?

Fats are SO satiating.

Oh, what a difference.

I even feel like a happier person.

 

[sexy_animal]

I have to say that despite a week-absence from the gym due to illness, fat is literally melting off my body and my muscles are actually growing.

I'm very happy and I should hit my fat loss goal for this month in spite of all the problems.

Will post pictures.

 

[ZackAttack]

great job!

 

[sexy_animal]

Thank you very much!

Here's a current pic just for fun...I've only been training my legs for some 2 months because of a previous knee injury. They're responding like crazy.

I guess I'm losing fat a bit slower than 1lbs per week, but the upside is I seem to be gaining muscle.

It could also be possible that my fatloss occurs in spurts.

 

[Built]

Probably a bit of both - you're looking nice and lean now, and not at all "light-bulb"-ish. Nice work. Striations coming in nicely through the delts, legs showing evidence of that leg work, great to see abs coming to visit for spring.

 

[sexy_animal]

I completely FUBAR'd my last week of training.

First, I got a cold and was unable to exercise for 3 days. Then my landlord diced to sue me and completely fucked up the end of my week.

So I'm going to push back my goal deadline for this cycle by 10 days to March 10th.

I'm still kicking, and now I'm gonna come back stronger then ever!!! ARRGGGG!!!

 

[sexy_animal]

Well, it's time for an update.

I'm going to admit that I didn't reach the bodyfat loss goals that I was aiming for last month.

I figured out the reason for my fatloss plateau. It's complex carbs. I was consuming too many of them. I was still eating like a soccer player even though I don't currently play. Excessive carbs slowed my fatloss to a halt.

So here's a new template:

0.55g of simple and complex starchy carbs per 1lbs of bodyweight per day.
1.5g of carbs on refeed days, every (4-5 days)
unlimited fibrous carbs
controlled cheats on the weekend
damn heavy compound lifting 3x a week
stationary bike cardio 2x a week

Daily plan:


2 pieces of fruit in the morning (banana + pear)

Unlimited fibrious carbs during the day; green beans, asparagus, brussel sprouts, brocolli

2 scoops of cytogainer as PWO

1 serving of organic rice + beans an hour after workout.


Goal: lose 5lbs of bodyfat by April 10th. I should end up at around 191lbs.

Here's what I currently look like.

 

[sexy_animal]

Well, I dusted off my bicycle this morning and went for a 40 minute ride. I got a pretty good cardio workout using the least efficient gear combination. I plan to do this 5x a week, until I hit my bodyfat goals.

Of course I'm going to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Yay!

 

[sexy_animal]

I'm adding a new instrument of torture to my arsenal.
It's a lovely weighted vest. I want to get stronger on the pullups and build bigger arms so here we go. 25lbs of metal shavings strapped to my chest. I look like a Palestinian suicide bomber!

I'm going to try it out today for a lactate inducing workout.

 

[sexy_animal]

Well...that was a nice distraction, and I'm sore all over today.

I cranked up the metal on my stereo and got in a kickass workout with my new weighted vest and and a 12lbs medicine ball.

Run in place 3min

One set:
Jumping jacks (unweighted) 1x50
Squat thrusts 1x20
shadow boxing 2 min
medicine ball cleans 1x10 with each arm
squats 1x10
pushups 1x10
medicine ball side twists (similar to throwing a hook) 1x10 each side
medicine ball rapid forward thrusts 1x20
sit ups 1x30
plank 30 seconds
extended arm side plank variation 20 seconds each side

Active rest (jogging in place)
Repeat the super set x 3

I'm sore everywhere today.

 

[sexy_animal]

I have to say, whatever I'm doing right now, it's working...

I've been doing cross training in a fasted state, and I like the results I'm seeing. I had an excellent heavy bag workout yesterday, and now my forearms hurt, so I can't type much more. New pictures will be up on the the 10th.

 

[sexy_animal]

Today's core workout:

hanging leg raises 10
leg raises/L-chairs on dip bars 10
plank 30 seconds
side planks (on extended arm) 20 seconds each
60lbs weighted cable punches (right cross) 10 each
60lbs weighted cable side rotations 10 each side
60lbs weighted cable underhanded wood chops 10 each side
medicine ball crunches with full extension 20

steady state cardio (stationary bike) 40 minutes

 

[sexy_animal]

Keep trying to work up the nerve to do cardio twice a day. HIIT type of cardio in the morning, and a jog at night...let's see how this is going to go.

 

[sexy_animal]

Nice hardcore workout today!

Standing barbell military press 4x6
Smith machine shrugs 4x8
Cable face pulls 4x10
Chinups 4x10

 

[Built]

Keep trying to work up the nerve to do cardio twice a day. HIIT type of cardio in the morning, and a jog at night...let's see how this is going to go.

Ooooh, maybe the other way around. Go for a walk in the AM, try for some HIIT later in the day when you've eaten.

As an aside, why twice a day? HIIT daily sounds... um... like an invitation to an injury.

 

[sexy_animal]

Ooooh, maybe the other way around. Go for a walk in the AM, try for some HIIT later in the day when you've eaten.

As an aside, why twice a day? HIIT daily sounds... um... like an invitation to an injury.

Well, I'm still trying to work out how I can actually accomplish that.....

I read your Daredevils article, and I have to say I totally agree with what you're saying there. I found out on my own skin that if I want to break the fatloss plateau, the workout stimulus has to be both intense and constantly varied.

I think my crazy and varied calisthenic, plyometric, boxing, weighted vest and medicine ball training is what is driving my fatloss. My weight training is pretty much conventional. I decided to never do the same workout twice.

I try to imitate MMA training. Check out the clip below:

YouTube Video

 

[sexy_animal]

If you notice at the end of the clip the guy is doing his workout with a gas mask on. I remember having to do stuff with my gas mask on in the military and it was absolute torture, because it makes breathing extremely difficult. No wonder this guy is known as a conditioning machine in the MMA.

 

[sexy_animal]

Brutal conditioning session this morning!

5 min jog

Superset:
30 jumping jacks
10 squat thrusts
10 pushups
10 situps
10 side twists
10 Front-Back-Go drills
2 minutes shadow boxing.

I did two set unweighted and then the weighted vest came on! Needless to say I was dying.

I taped myself during this workout and will post it soon.