Yeah after 14 I was trying to quickly do two at a time before taking massive breaths just to get them over with.
Just came in from a repeat of yesterdayās workout.
Was a bit harder but not too bad.
Iām going to do upper body through the week as I often canāt be arsed with squats after work.
Time to EAT!
Stiff-legged shrug bar deadlifts today.
Feeling good. Upper body from Monday.
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Various presses, some extensions and bench dips yesterday. Will do some pulling movements either today or tomorrow.
I had more of a struggle getting myself into the loft the other week, want to improve this.
My upper body is so weak, feels like itās going to take ages to progress. I must focus on it though.
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More squats today then some bent over rows and finished with bro curls and dumbbell curls 
Trying to squeeze done upper body stuff in like this when I can.
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Too warm for intervals today- flagged badly on the last of 3
Good session today where I think I got my squat stance in the sweet spot - a bit narrower that it had been. Really got in a groove and weight felt easier than yesterday. I seem to like squatting two days in a row. Worked up to a heavy single this week without the manta ray.
Also did shrugs and barbell curls.
Iāve used a calculator to see how many calories I should be having and itās suggested 2900 to 3500 per day to gain weight. Iāve been tracking them on my fitness pal and Iām struggling to get that many, especially with one meal a day. I can usually get around 2500. I might do one meal a day when at work Mon to Thurs and just eat whenever Fri to Sun, to pack more calories in.
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Why one meal a day? Almost impossible to actually digest your daily calories in one sitting and absorb the nutrients. Max protein absorption probably 30-40g which is nowhere near what you need for training recovery let alone weight gain.
Your training and diet might not be aligned to the same goals.
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Iām not fully convinced that the protein absorption touted is correct. When I say one meal though itās ended up being a three to four hour window, so a twenty hour fast.
You could be right about the diet and training but Iām trying it out as Iām interested and tend to not eat that much during the day naturally. Iām willing to change it up if itās not working but Iāll give it a decent go.
Iām feeling good right now but will monitor this. Iāve added a few pounds already but whether thatās muscle I donāt know (letās just pretend it is for now though).
Doesnāt matter. How many grammes of protein do you think you need a day? 160-200 or more? Plenty of calculators out there to check.
You need a decent body fat tester, otherwise youāre guessing or hopeful.
So what are you are your goals right now?
True.
I want to add a stone in weight, primarily muscle. So from 10.5 to 11.5.
You just canāt do that from one meal a day, end of. Whatever the other benefits of 20 hr fasts, your digestive system is working against you here, it just doesnāt have the capacity to do what you want it to do.
If youāre like most people then trying to add more than a pound of muscle a month (and even thatās debatable) it will be increasingly composed of fat, which slow you down and make you look worse not better.
The formula is pretty tried and tested, and then people have tried to endlessly fiddle around the edges to make money for themselves/ sell magazines:
- Train 3-4 times per week, using compounds only
- Add a small surplus of calories
- Sleep at least 8 hours a night
Has to be big compound movements which will stimulate the greatest growth and avoid injury to individual muscles which will mean skipping a workout etc. No bro-curls - you do not need them!
Depending on how fast you recover I would go 3 x same workout, or if 4x per week Iād have an A and a B workout.
Are you slow twitch or fast twitch do you think? I would recommend slightly different set and rep approaches.
Calorie intake - I would make sure I had good scales and a fat tester, and increase daily calories by no more than 500 per day as you ramp up your workouts. If youāre not gaining weight then add another 500 per day; if you are then use the fat tester to judge whether its largely water and fat and scale the cals back and go again.
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Canāt bee 100% sure but Iām usually more comfortable with lower reps.
Most of what I do is compound movements with just a few isolation exercises thrown in here and there. Mainly Squats, Deadllifts, Good Mornings, Chins, Press-ups, Standing Press and Rows.
Most peopIe build muscle size or with higher rep ranges, 8-12 and 12-15, with a focus on controlled tempo and mind muscle connection.
Yeah, I started doing 20 rep squats to aid in this but changed it up for this weekend, though I still did some sets of 10 at 70kg, before and after the lower rep sets. When I narrowed the stance the control was great and my body just felt more in line. It felt lighter so I think Iāve hit on a better stance now and Iām hoping this will help going forward.
This might be because youāre a leg lifter rather than a back lifter, narrowing your stance loads the legs.
Have you got long or short legs relative to your height?
I hadnāt really thought about it like that but it definitely felt like I was using more back before I narrowed, which felt more comfortable.
Iām not sure, seems evenish. Iāll have to measure.
Still having physio for my elbow, which has meant no weights or body weight exercise for 3-4 months now.
Done more running and cycling though but have definitely lost gains I had made in last 6 months of 2017. Oh well back to the beginning then once the elbow is sorted.
What? No one arm press-ups?
At least youāre allowing it to heal instead of jumping in and ruining it completely.
Tried that, it didnāt work 
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