The Road To 315 - PR's

We've talked about landmarks and about goals but personal records are the best feeling you can have when your striving for your goals, and today I hit two of them!! I had a great workout this morning and felt very accomplished after setting not one.. But two PR's for myself!! Today was leg day and bench press so we started by hitting squats for 4 sets working down in reps and up in weight. First warmup set was 135 lbs for 10 reps. Next we hit 185 lbs for 10, 225 lbs for 8, 275 lbs for 6 and 315 lbs for 3. I have never hit 315 for more than 1 rep so it felt pretty good to rep out 3 with 315 lbs on my back!! Especially at a body weight of 275 lbs. 

After squats we hit 4 sets of leg curls and 4 sets of leg extensions. Just focusing on the contraction and pumping blood into the muscle. After finishing those sets we did a variation of dumbbell calf raises with toes on a plate to add a little bit of a deficit. 70 lb dumbbells for 4 sets of 10 reps. I really like this variation because it's not just about pushing as much weight as possible like seated calf raises or normal calf machines. It forces you to focus on balancing with the weight and activates the stabilizer muscles. 

At this point of the workout my body felt shot, The squats definitely exerted a lot of energy because I was READY to be done my workout and Eric reminded me we still had to bench press. This is where my next PR was set. Today was 6 sets of 2 reps again at 225 lbs which wasn't bad even though I was tired. On our sixth set both me and Eric went till failure. Eric went first and said he wanted to hit 10 reps which he cranked out. I went after him and of course my competitiveness kicked in and I was gonna hit 10 reps also. I finished my tenth rep and decided I needed one more. It took a little support to get the 11th rep up but it was still a PR!! I've never hit 225 lbs for more than 9 reps and this was AFTER an hour long leg workout and 5 sets of bench so to say the least it felt great!!

After a long road to recovery from my back surgery it feels great to get back in the gym and actually FEEL like i'm making progress. There is much more to come and I can't wait to see where I'm at in a year if I keep up with the track i'm on now and keep injury at bay!! The best is yet to come!

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The Road to 315 - Goals

Setting a goal for yourself is I would say the most important step before you truly commit to the gym. If you don't have a goal, and you don't have a plan, your not going to be prepared and it WILL be more difficult to stay committed. When picking your goal you have to think about what you are really trying to accomplish! Do you want to lose fat? Do you want to gain muscle? Are you trying to get more athletic or are you trying to get strong? Everyone of these goals will have you changing your routines, your diet, and your mindset. When I think about the goal I want to achieve I think about long term what do I want. Am I trying to burn fat and lose weight (which was my original goal) to my goal now which is gain muscle while minimizing fat gain. With each goal you have your "landmarks" that I talked about in another post and these are your achievements along the way. The goal is the end picture. Whether your trying to get ready for beach season or want to be the next Mr. Olympia.. Make a goal. Make it happen.

So when you decide you have a goal, what do you do? How do you achieve it? Do you spend time researching or do you just dive in and wing it!? I can speak from experiencing saying both work, and one without the other is definitely possible, but if you have both you are going to be much better off! No amount of research on the matter is going to get you in shape, and going to the gym without a plan/goal will leave you walking around looking at machines and not maximizing your time spent in the gym.

I'm going to break it down to the two goals I have the most experience with and those are burning fat, and gaining muscle! At different times of my life I have worked towards these goals and though I wouldn't say I'm an expert on the matter, I have done my research, and I have put the hours in at the gym. 

If you're trying to burn fat/lose weight I'm a firm believer in weight training with a controlled diet. When I started my fitness journey I was 300 lbs and wanted to burn fat and get stronger at the same time. I had a personal trainer and his method was very simple and effective. In only 5 months I had gone from 300 lbs to 252 lbs which was the lowest weight I had been in years. The plan was simple; control your calories eating at a 700 calorie deficit, cutting out bad carbs, fatty proteins, and consuming only healthy fats, and weight train 5 days a week. I didn't do much, if ANY cardio. I would occasionally throw in some HIIT (high intensity interval training) like pushing the sled, box jumps, medicine ball slams, or running the stairs, but the majority of my training was using weights or doing body weight exercises. I'll tell you not only was it fun! It was efficient! Weight training is good because it works on building muscle and it helps burn fat while your body is at rest. It's important to keep the rest short between sets, 45 - 60 seconds and keep your reps in the 8 - 12 range.

If your trying to gain muscle while minimizing fat gain, which is what I am doing right now, it's important to still eat a healthy diet to minimize the fat gain but you got to up the intake! My goal is to maintain my current weight which is 275 lbs, but to gain muscle and lower my body fat percentage in the process. The key to this type of training is heavier weight, more sets, and eat enough food to maintain your current weight. It's important to find your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and aim for a calorie range equal to that of your BMR. You can find your BMR by looking online or using this easy equation. 

Men = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

Women = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

The healthier you eat at this calorie range the more muscle you will gain while keeping your body fat percentage low!! Currently I bench 3 days a week and train legs twice a week. One leg day is higher rep with less weight and the other is lower rep with heavy weight! I'm not claiming to know it all but I do know the key to gaining muscle is lift heavy and eat a lot!!

Now that you have your goal set, get to the gym and start making them a reality! The worst thing you can do is push back starting because your afraid of beginning! Set a goal, make a plan, and START YOUR JOURNEY! 

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The Road to 315 - The Routine

I started this new routine on international chest day (Monday of course) 11/14 and it goes a little something like this. Find your 1RM, for me it's 275 lbs, then find 80% of that which for me is 220 lbs (I rounded up to 225). Now, for the next six weeks I will be benching 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This does not mean hitting chest 3 days a week though! Just adding heavy bench press at the end of each workout. Monday is chest, Tuesday is arms, Wednesday is legs and bench, Thursday is back and shoulders, and Friday is legs and bench. I've never done a routine like this and I'm hoping my body will respond with huge gains! 

The working sets each day vary slightly. For example, on Monday we did 6 sets with only 2 reps per set. On Wednesday we did 6 sets with 3 reps per set and on Friday we did 6 sets with 2 reps again. That's week 1. As the weeks go on the sets either get heavier or you add reps with the same 80% weight! I know it's a stretch but I'm hoping to push 315 by the end of this 6 week program!

I finished my first week today with a deadlift/bench day. I started the workout with bench because I didn't have a spot and wanted to be fresh for this portion of my workout. My warmup was pretty basic. I stretched out my chest with some light controlled reps with just the bar, and then did a few more slow and controlled reps with 135 lbs. I then loaded on 185 lbs and went for another 3 or 4 reps before starting my 6 sets of 225 lbs. The program called for 6 sets with 2 reps per set. I was feeling pretty good today so I varied the reps slightly. 1st set I hit 2 reps, 2nd set I hit 3 reps, 3rd set I hit 3 reps, 4th set I hit 4 reps, 5th set I hit 3 reps, and 6th set I went to failure with 9 reps. I figure with 2 days off over the weekend I should push myself!!


I'm waiting to see if this program is going to over work my muscles and leave me feeling soar without making much progress or if it will result in some great success. I'm hoping that the saying "There's no such thing as over lifting, just under eating and under sleeping" is accurate!!I have however been training long enough to know when my body has had enough and when to back off and give it time to recover. One thing is for sure though and that is if you eat big, you will get big! 

I was talking about goals in my last post and that is definitely one goal that has changed for me. I currently reside at 275 lbs which is pretty heavy in comparison to my goal weight, but if I set a goal for myself too weight 250 lbs and to gain 40 lbs on my bench.. It's possible! But you have to make a choice! Either eat big, lift big, and make gains! Or control your diet, cut, and work to gain strength at a calorie deficit. Me personally, I don't care as much about what the scale says, as I do with how my body feels and how I feel in my body. I'm happy right now eating enough calories to maintain a body weight of 275 and working on gaining muscle, and when I get to where I want to be with strength and muscle mass, then I will lower my body fat percentage and find my ideal weight. Currently I don't know how much I want to weight, and frankly I don't care too much. As long as I FEEL good not only physically, but mentally happy with my body. It's great to have goals and to push yourself and want the best for yourself, but if your can't be happy with where you are, you'll never be happy when you reach your goal. 

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