The life long journey.

I have decided to start a blog for my gains. After a year of not working out seriously and going through a rough patch I have decided to start a blog with my new journey. My current plan is to bulk 10-12kg in 10 months. I am currently third week in, my biggest issue is though I have injured my lower back right at the start of my bulk so unfortunately I have not been able to workout on my deadlifts, squats, bent over rows. By the way, I am skinny fat, high body fat % with lower muscle mass. This is something I have battled with since I was a teenager, due to poor diet from not eating enough, and eating badly, causing my body to store fat since it thought it was dying. So my long term goal is for body recomposition, gain more muscle mass without gaining too much fat first, then going on a cut. If I were to cut now I would be extremely skinny. I am posting progress photos as well (I know my mirror is dirty).

Starting weight: 70kg (body fat % unknown probably 18%)

My lifts pre-bulk:

• Squats: 77.5kg 5 x 5
• Bench: 52.5kg 5 x 5
• Deadlifts: 102.5kg 1 x 5 (pyramid, 1 x 4 warm up sets leading up to this)
• Overhead press: 37.5kg 5 x 5
• Bent over rows (and how I fucked up my lower back): 55kg 5 x 5

That was after a month of fixing my squat form and getting back into gear. I have strained my lower back, so currently in the process of rehab, and just focusing on upper body, core, with some light leg exercises and light cardio. 

Workout for today:

Pull ups: 3 x 8

Bench: 60kg 3 x 5

Bent over dumbbell rows: 23.5kg 3 x 12

Incline bench: 40kg 3 x 10

Lat Pull downs (chin up grip): 45kg 3 x 10

Shrugs: 40kg 3 x 15

Dumbbell curls: 9.5kg 2 x 10

Triceps Press-down: 22.5kg 2 x 10

So as you can see I get the strength component at the start when I have my glycogen levels at their max, and then its pretty much hypertrophy rep ranges for muscle growth for the rest of the work out. When my lower back is back to normal I am going to go onto a PPL (push, pull, legs) or a LPP (legs, push, pull) split. This means I'll have to join a gym to get the full work outs done since all I have at home is a pull up bar, squat rack, bench with a lat pull down machine attached to it.

Current weight: 72.5kg

Most of that weight is water mass since I'm back on creatine. For the supplements I am taking at the moment: 

Universal Real Gains (mass gainer whey and casein) I like this one since all the other mass gainers on the market have 25-30 grams of sugar where as this only has 7 grams. I want to gain mass but I don't want to become a diabetic. It has less calories compared to others due to this. To be honest you don't need mass gaining protein, I just use it for convenience. You can easily make your own with plain whey protein, oats, peanut butter, a banana or honey. I add oats to mine though when I know I haven't reached my carb macros. I take this whenever.

BSN Amino X, trying out BCAAs for the first time, can't comment on it at the moment since I've just used it 3 times so far but can definitely feel my heart working. This is to stop the breakdown of muscle, and help improve recovery. I take this before/during my workout. I think the best part about this is that it has vitamin D. I just had my blood test done a few weeks ago and was told my vitamin D levels were at 55. The minimum to be considered healthy is 50, so that means during winter when I am less exposed to the sun I will drop out of that range. This really means a lot to me, because in winter I get really depressed, so come winter time, if I have not come down to depression again, then that would explain how my mood is seasonal.

Body Ripped L-Leucine Nitrate, although the BSN Amino X already has L-Leucine in it, this is to help continue keeping my blood vessels dilated to continue blood flow into my muscles after a workout to get the nutrients into my muscles, once again can't comment yet on it, but can feel the same thing as the BSN Amino X in terms of my heart working. I take this an hour after my workout session.

Dymatize Creatine Micronized, this is creatine monohydrate, the most basic and effective form of creatine, you don't need the extra shit with it. Creatine has had years and years of research and proven that it works. It is naturally occurring in red meat but just has very minute amounts of it. The human body just needs 5g a day but in order to get 5g from red meat, you would need to consume over 20kg of meat. It increase the volume of your muscle cells and fill them with water. The purpose of this is to help you give that last bit of energy to get the last rep of your sets done, so it helps you overload and push yourself which leads to strength gains, and muscle growth. I take this pretty much straight after my workout with either my protein shake, or a green smoothie that has orange juice or something with simple carbs so that my body absorbs it more effectively. I've used creatine on my second bulk and my body responds well to it.

This post has turned out to be really long, I guess since its an introduction the others won't be as long. I'll write up my meal plans on the next one.