It's Clobbering Time - Phil Brooks becomes the Cult of Personality.

[Phil Brooks]

Today's diet:

Walked for about 30 mins at 14:00, did some shopping too.

Ate two drained tins of tuna in sunflower oil, 4 egg ommlette, 60g broccoli, 30ml thai chilli sauce, 20g almond butter and 20ml fish oil for meal one. Meal two will be a couple of chicken breasts with 80g broccoli, cottage cheese and 75g whey. Just about to put the chicken in the oven!

[Phil Brooks]

Dissapointed.

Flat bench: 20x8, 90x3, 80x4, 70x6. Only consolation is that every rep was a little lower and I'm working with a messed up left RC. Will give the bench some time to rest as I don't think squatting so wide on Saturday helped at all. Left elbow tendon not feeling too great either.
Incline bench: 70x8, 70x5. Very poor again but didn't want to go heavy as this is the exercise that is an enemy of my left shoulder.
Dips: Just bodyweight today but pretty slow - 9, 9.
Chins: Bodyweight again - 8.
DB flat flies: 12.5x10x2 extremely slow positive and negative - keep bending left elbow about 80% of the way down. Need to look at going super light and working back up on these then I guess, did exactly the same around November time IIRC. Did help with the bench massively so I may as well.
Tricep pushdown machine: 20 on each side x 10, very slow and controlled reps, pausing for two seconds at the top. Very hard considering I've done double before with similar fatigue levels but with a faster speed.

Diet:

07:45 - 4 boiled eggs, 20ml fish oil.
11:00 - 1 tandoori chicken baguette. These need to stop, won't be having these from Thursday onwards. Far too bland in taste and low in protein whilst being pretty high in salt and carbs.
17:50 - 200g brown rice, 100g chicken wings, 5 tablespoons natural yoghurt. Shouldn't have had this or the next meal but both would have gone frozen cold and dry if I had waited till gym.
19:40 - 250g chicken breast, 30ml chilli sauce. Will cut down on sauces and up veg intake.
22:00 - 100g whey, 2 scoop oats, 10ml honey, 200ml whole milk. Alpha men and creatine.

First session of the year where I have not hit a PB, but that's going to happen when it was more of a recovery based workout I think. My banoffee whey should last me another two weeks, by which time I had better have got the 100kg bench which I'll use as a 1RM to calculate the 4RM for RPT. After that I'll start using more fat loss orientated supps which I've got like diet whey and taking and posting pics every two weeks to compare progress till the end of March after which I'll go on a 100 day cut to really get as closed to ripped as I ever have been before the lean bulk. Weigh in will be in the morning of 1st Feb, really really hoping I'm down from 13 stone.

[Phil Brooks]

Weighed in about half an hour ago, 81kg. Pretty decent, a little more than 2kg in 4 weeks. I'll check the weight tommorow morning as that's when I usually do it. Certainly feel and look leaner than I did four weeks ago, I'll try and get a pic up by the end of the weekend.


Deadlifts in an hour or so.

[Phil Brooks]

January training review:

Positives:

• Introduced IF into diet.
• Became a lot better at bodyweight exercises. Finally got a pull up (or a few )
• Finally started a log and updated regularly.
• Numerous PBs.
• Fasted walks and sessions added.

Plans for February:

• Get close to the aims set in signature for March 31st by Feb 28th so that March will be a month where fat loss becomes the priority. Looking at 100x1 bench, 80x5x5 squat, 170 DL, 47.5kg DB row, sets on bodyweight + 10kg on dips and chins.
• MTTF training days. Chest, back, chest, legs. Looks a bit chest dominant but will only be until I get 100x1. Add chin ups at home and maybe swap a day for Saturday training which will have to be at around 10 or 11am fasted.
• Log diet everyday with macros.
• Eat more varied sources of protein.
• Take a week off creatine.
• More veg needed, especially on rest days.
• Squat 5x5 once a week without any breaks, squat should fly up - also do bodyweight squats every night at home.
• Reintroduce RPT on all exercises but squat.
• Balance uni, work and gym more efficiently - more fasted walks and fasted sessions needed.

Next weigh in: 28th Feb. 77-78kg would be great.

All PBs this month will be in this colour.

[Phil Brooks]

Unusually great session:

Deadlifts: 60x5, 100x5, 160x1.160kg went up pretty slow but I got the lockout finally.

Back was pretty tired after taking off and adding about 400kgs worth of 20kg plates for others training with me.

Chins: Was going to do weighted but the gym owner said to do chins everyday and go all the way down until I can get 3x6, then 3x8, then 3x10 - add 10kg and start again as he thought I weren't going down all the way, which I wasn't but now I am a few inches away from the floor. Sounds alright to me. Did 6 reps, 5 reps, and 3 reps very slowly. It was pretty hard and it felt good so I will stick with this and ignore what weight I add on for now as I've got two months to hit six reps on 10kg which is completion of the first stage of weighted reps. Will do same with dips but I think dip form is considerably better, I'll double check with him anyway.

Lat pulldown for 4 sets, tried a new technique of leaning upper back slightly whilst keeping lower back locked and tensing chest, was hitting rhomboids a bit more. First time I've been on the machine for around five-six weeks.

One arm hammer strength row machine: 20 each side x 8, 40 each side x 10, 60 each side x 12, 20 each side x 15. Ascending pyramid as first time on the machine ever and was trying to work out how good I am at it. Might try it again next time instead of DB rows.

Power shrugs: First time ever doing these with a barbell, 60x10, 100x10, tried to get 140kg up but couldn't - group of guys I was training with suggested straps, tried them for the first time ever and got 13 reps, so I'll definitely buy some liquid chalk from here in my next order even though my quads were sore for some reason at the end of the heavy set. Then I did 140x4, 100x5, 60x30 with grip failing me at about 18, picked it up straight away and started again. Very good guys to train with and will be training shoulders with them tommorow instead of bench probably.

Diet log back on tommorow. Macros should be included too. Feel free to critique

[Phil Brooks]

Diet today been fantastic.

07:45 - Four boiled eggs.
11:10 - 200g chicken breast with 300g low fat cottage cheese.
19:30 - Half a One Blast.
22:20 PWO - 75g oats, 125g whey, 200ml whole milk, 150g chicken breast, 240g red kidney beans, 15ml fish oil.

May go for some homemade rice pudding now though

Workout today - hardly noticed I didn't skip a day.

OHP: 20x5, 60xfx2, 50x5 (very good form - but found it hard to stop the weight trying to go behind my head and crash down), 45x5, 40x5.
Incline bench: 60x8x2 (very good form), 60x5 (still decent form with a shorter break)
Dips: Best form I've probably ever done with a 2s pause at the bottom and 1s pause at the top, 9, 7, 5.
Shoulder press machine: #8x8, #7x8, #6x10. Extremely slow with great depth on all reps.
Side lateral raises: 12.5x10, 8x10x3 - switched to using the frontal delt a bit more half way through making it easier.
Front raises: 8x10x3. Hard, tried best not to swing but some was happening.
Chins: 5 with the good form I started to use yesterday, back pretty sore from yesterday and although left trap was thrombing in the morning the DOMS had gone by this time.
Rear delt machine flies: 8x10, 8x10, 6x10.
Dips: Good form again, 7.
Chins: Did 3 and then held the position at bottom for about 40 seconds.
Tricep pushdown machine: Stupidly got a massive blister when trying to adjust the seat's height on my thumb, was very sore for about an hour and went a very dark red colour almost immediately.
Standing overhead dumbell extension: Did a set of 10 with an 8kg dumbell.

Way too many exercises but I was just trying to set a routine up for shoulders and triceps.

May do squats tommorow instead of Saturday so I can have the weekend off.

[Phil Brooks]

Yesterday's short squat session:

Squat: 20x5, 70x5x5 - Pretty easy and pausing at the bottom. 80kg next week.
Leg extension: 11x10x2 - Hard but a lot of burn when doing them slowly.
Hanging leg raises: Two sets of 12.

Should have done a bit more but had 30 minutes to train and took 3 minute breaks when doing the squats.

Yesterday's diet:

07:45 - Four whole boiled eggs with black pepper.
12:00 - 300g low fat cottage cheese and a 150g of chicken breast.
20:15 - 25g True Whey.
Trained from 21:00-21:30.
21:45 - 200g more chicken breast with 75g oats, 200ml milk, 400g low fat natural yoghurt, 50g scrambled egg and 100g whey.
02:00 - 10ml fish oil.

Fat must be under 30g yesterday, protein 200g plus, carbs around 100-120g.

Haven't eaten yet today but will be aiming to eat everything by half 9. Missed fasted walk today having woken up at quarter to four and seeing snow

[Phil Brooks]

Apologies for not updating over the weekend but diet was pretty decent, managed a couple of mini refeeds over it and looks like it worked today.

07:45 - Same old 9am lecture so just the four eggs again.
12:00 - 150g chicken breast, 300g low fat cottage cheese.
19:30 - 1 scoop True Whey.
20:00 - 21:30 - Training, including walk to and from gym.
20:00 - 1 One Blast.
22:00 - two minutes ago (still got 50g of True whey and fish oil to go) - 120g oats with water (not as disgusting as I thought it would be), 4 scoops of True Whey, 300g low fat cottage cheese, 350g chicken breast, 2 alpha men (stopping creatine supp for a week after accidently not taking fish oil, alpha men or creatine yesterday at a time I was thinking of going off it), 500ml MP One Isotonic, 15ml fish oil.

Need to get some pics taken!!!

Great training session today, appears as if the shoulder work that's been missing for absolutely ages is doing the trick and I can already see clearly mass being added to the shoulders after only three shoulder sessions!

So...

Flat bench: 20x8, 40x5, 92.5x2, 85x3, 80x5. 92.5 was ok form, 85 was pretty hard probably because I kept hitting the rack and 80 was flying up today.

Shoulder press: Wasn't with an olympic barbell so it was around 35-40kg I'm guessing, did a couple of sets of 10.

A heck of a lot of side raises with a 12.5kg and 8kg dumbell.

Dips: Very good - 14, 10. Again pausing at top and bottom.

A few front raises with a 12.5kg dumbell.

Chins: probably around 4/5, good form.

Barbell curls: one set of 10 with about 10kg on each side. Huge pump.

Dumbell curls: 8kg x12 for each arm.

Chins: 3

Preacher curls: 30kg x8 - Very slow and fantastic pump.

Current PBs at 81kg bodyweight as of 07/02/12: 92.5x2 bench, 140x5 squat, 160x1 deadlift, 45kg one arm DB row x8, 8 chin-ups (+5kg), 10 dips (+5kg). Next up deadlifts on Wednesday - may as well go for 165kg.

[Phil Brooks]

Good diet wise yesterday and today so far. Did 50 bodyweight squats yesterday at home in one set with a pause at the bottom, much harder than I thought.

[Phil Brooks]

Been stupidly ill vomiting and feeling sick generally for the last few days so haven't been training. I'll update when I can.