Stockbroker's Beginner Training Journal 2010

[Stockbroker]

Hi all,

So, this post will serve as both an introduction of my training journal, and myself a fresh minted My Protein customer and forum member!

I've been lurking for a 3-4 months now taking in some of the info, and have been using MP products for just over a month.

I'm a 25 male, living in very Central London working in IT Sales, and not a Stockbroker as the name would suggest - it was a nickname from colleagues born from a few slightly bad taste shirt/tie combos (which are no longer with me I hasten to add!).

Despite best intentions, I rarely make it to the gym - perhaps once, or twice a month and although thoroughly enjoy each session, I find myself making the usual excuses not to go.

I play football for a Sunday league team, the standard isn't particually high, nor is the fitness requirements but it's good fun and I enjoy it - we were promoted in our first season and gunning for two promotions in two seasons currently lying in a strong position. The standard within the next division however is substantially higher, but more fitter and more physical teams.

My first sport is rugby (i'm a Wasps fan), but too small and lacking the skill to have continued playing after school. So, football has to make do. I'm a (slightly aggresive) left back, though at the moment seem to be spending most of my time on the bench through lack of fitness (and will to do much to change it).

I've also recently split up with my girlfriend, we were together for 14 months or so and used to spend a fair bit of time together so have a little more time to structure excercise around / into.

Rathern than a single thing, it's been a whole culmination of events / situations that has motivated me to pull my proverbial finger out and do something about my weight and overall lifestyle.

After a lengthy intro, it would probably be a good idea to lay out what my goals are and what i've done about it so far.

My goals:

• Increase fitness; specifcally i'd like to get to the point where I can put in a good solid 10km in under 45 mins. It's a tough target, but will be staggered into training to get to under an hour initially, then under 55 and so forth down to sub-45 mins
• Increase strength; I tend to play football with a pretty physical game, nothing stupid - firm but fair. I like a physical sport
• Take up some form of Martial Art / Self-Defence class. I'd like to do one, or a mixture of Krav Maga, Muay Thai or BJJ. I've tried Krav Maga and it was great fun. The Gym i'm a member of (or at least pay for!) have loads of classes a week, a lot of which are centered around Martial Arts / Combat Sports
• Enjoy a generally more healthier lifestyle

I came back from a 4 week holiday in Thailand at the middle of Jan, and was 12 stone - my heaviest ever. Clothes didn't fit properly, and there was little I could do to hide my beer belly.

Having done some research, I paid for an eBook by Matt Lovell and looked at implementing some of the advice in there to lose some weight and help drive my behaviour during the working work and instill some discipline in what i'm eating.

In the next post i'll breakdown what i've done so far to lose a stone in a month, having made some basic lifestyle changes and what my proposed training schedule is going to look like (hopefully!).

[anabolic]

good luck with it mate. Keep the cardio and weights high intensity and you'll be gaining strength and losing weight by the buckets

[Stockbroker]

Out of desire to make some changes to my lifestyle and to enjoy a more balanced diet and I made a few simple changes championed by Matt Lovell, the sports nutrionist.

I am strict Monday - Thursday and now eat (within reason) whatever I feel like without guilt on Friday through to Sunday. I like a drink, and have no intentions of cutting out alcohol completely. I also think that (for me anyway) cutting out all of lifes luxuries isn't neccessary.

So here's the changes I made to my diet:

• Cut out all starchy carbs - No rice, potatoes, flour, pasta and so forth...
• No added sugar, to anything
• No caffeine - Green, Herbal & Fruit teas only
• 4 meals per day, each consisting of a fistful portion of protein and two fistfuls of vegetables / salad
• 9 portions of fruit and veg a day split 3:6 of fruit/veg, respectively
• Eat breakfast at work (after walking to work) and eat dinner early in the evening - before 19:30

I also looked at using some supplements to help account for any additional vitamins / minerals I might need, all of which came from My Protein

• Thermopure with with breakfast, lunch and dinner (not with my afternoon snack)
• 2 x Super Omega 3 (1 with Breakfast, 1 with lunch)
• 2 x Alpha Men multi-vit (both with breakfast)
• Green Tea Extract 3 times a day as with Thermopure
• VegXS for days when diet isn't a strict as it should be!

I have also purchased L-Glutamine & Chocolate Whey for post-excercise.

By following this for a month, I have lost a stone in weight. It's all been very painless and quite simple. I didn't have a target weight loss in mind, more to be able to fit into my trousers again comfortably, and to lose some of my belly. Very happy with result so far, though I understand that naturally there will have been an element of muscle loss too.

With excercise planned, I will need to slowly up my carbs to help with energy and will look to try and time the eating of said carbs to co-incide with pre and post exercise.

[Stockbroker]

Quote

good luck with it mate. Keep the cardio and weights high intensity and you'll be gaining strength and losing weight by the buckets

Thanks!

Yesterday (Monday) evening was the first day back at the Gym in a long time. 110 days to be precise - thanks to the guy on reception who mentioned it!

I got to the gym for about 18:45, with a view to doing 45 mins on my first Stronglifts session. It was quick and easy and I tried to focus on form.

Annoyingly, the gym was busy so had to spend a bit of time waiting - mornings for weights sessions for me are looking more likely, particually as Stronglifts allows for quick sessions!

After my weights session I jumped into a Yoga class which lasted for an hour. I've tried Yoga before, and enjoyed it. Will think this will become a regular Monday evening fixture.

It was a mixture of Vinaysa and Ashtanga Yoga styles (doesn't mean much to me at the moment) but the first 30 minutes of or so which were Ashtanga focused were quite tough.

[stallion87]

Good luck with your goals mate, you seem to have your head screwed on and have set yourself reasonable goals which are not beyond you!

110 days to the gym though! I hope you don't pay a membership! hopefully once you start to get into stronglifts you won't get too discouraged! Its a tried and tested method and one in which I got a good bit stronger in my squatting!

Good luck, I will follow this thread to see how your getting on.

[Stockbroker]

Ok, a bit of an update, more for my own motivation than anything as it's been close to 2 months since my last visit to the gym.

A change in role for the company I work for has driven this, though excuses have been made by me based on long days. Lots of travel has been involved. Now, however, I have control of my own whereabouts so it's easier to plan meetings and travelling around planned gym sessions.

My diet has still be good, being relatively careful / conscious of what I am eating and as a result the weight I lost initially through pure diet has reamined off - a result in my book.

I had a great day last Tuesday, despite a 0530 start to get the train upto Manchester and not getting back to Central London until 2000 I had enough motivation to get myself for a run. It had been a really productive, positive day.

The run was fairly leisurely, stretching the legs more than anything and running 3.5 miles in and around The Mall, Green Park and along Horses Guard Parade. Just under 35 minutes in total, so roughly 10 minute miles. The legs felt like jelly at the end, but I had a good stretch before a cool-down jog back to the flat, a whey shake and a cold shower.

Thursday saw me wake upto some very sore legs (DOMS?), but despite that I played my first 90 minutes of football in 6 months. I had a strong game at Left Back, keeping out a stronger, pacier and fitter Right-Winger for the whole game with the score ending up 0-0. Not bad against a team who have won our division already (we're pushing for second, win our last 3 games and we go up!).

No football this weekend and a combination of a hangover on Saturday and flat-related stuff to do on Sunday meant an absence of exercise.

I went to bed early last night, with a view to getting up early enough to hit the gym before work and start the Stronglifts 5x5 programme.

At 0600 I woke up bright-eyed and bushey-tailed, hit the gym and thoroughly enjoyed Day 1 of SL 5x5. Squats and Bench were a breeze and concentrated hard on form.

The inverted-row was much tougher than I expected, and completely burnt my arms / shoulders out. I managed 15, 10, then 7 reps per set. It made the push-ups harder, managing 15, 10 and 10 reps thereafter.

I'm sure the arms and shoulders will ache tomorrow!

All-in-all, a good 7 days. Just need to keep it up.

[James]

Just had a read of the thread here, sounds like you have good solid knowledge of what you are doing, which is what many people lack nowadays! How has fat loss gone since the last update?

In regards to muscle/lean tissue loss whilst dieting, if you are training heavy with your SL5x5 program and including adequate enough protein muscle loss will be non-existence or very minimal. When/if you come to eating more to add a little muscle you will quickly regain any possible lean tissue lost, so do not worry!

Keep us updated on progress, and keep on with the SL5x5 sessions, it takes between 3 weeks - 2 months to get into repetition of a good practice, it then becomes a habit, albeit, a good one!

Best of luck.

[Stockbroker]

Quote

How has fat loss gone since the last update?

To be frank, it hasn't. I've not changed since the initial weight loss - purely based on looks, body shape and clothing fit. Largely because i've been sensible rather than strict with diet and not been properly exercising.

Yesterday saw my first 'B' workout of SL 5x5. Squats feel far to easy, but i'm concentrating on form and happy to take baby steps in the short-term to progress in the long-term.

Overhead press was fun and the last set was challenging, but kept good form.

Deadlifts. Need work. Asked a guy to help spot me and give me some guidance on how to DL properly.

After the gym I realised why they were such a challenge - i'd made the school boy mistake of slinging a 20kg plate either side of the bar so was trying to DL 60kgs instead of 40kgs.

40kgs should be a breeze to DL with proper form and i'm feeling slightly foolish for omitting to count the bar as I have been doing with the other exercises!

Pull-ups were assisted as I can't do any more than 3 unassisted. In the nature of the programme I feel it is best to try 3 sets of 10 assisted reps and looking to reduce the assistance with each session.

Prone Bridges no problems.

I think i'd like to add dips to the workout as I like them. But conscious not to overdo things. I might add a 3 sets of dips to the next 'B' workout and see how I feel after.

I've got a football match today, which i'm looking forward to. We had the weekend off and I had a great game last week, so confident of a repeat performance and getting stuck in for 90 minutes again.

The only other thing to note is that on workout days i've been taking the ZMA supplement before bed and it's making me feel particually queezy, last night I threw up about 1.5 hours after taking a couple of capsules though I suspect that was due to having some sushi about 1.5 hours before taking them and my stomach not being empty.

I find my heart thumping and feeling queezy, stopping me getting to sleep straight away - even if tired. Is it a common problem?

Probably best not to continue taking them?