Background:
Growing up I was always the skinniest kid at school, right up until the last year of high school when I started going to the gym and putting on a little bit of muscle. Even then I was still skinny, but the 5 or so kg I'd gained did make a visible difference.
In the last two years I've been studying Cert III, IV and Diploma of Fitness. I started 2008 at 54kg, and built up to 61kg (7kg growth) over about 3 months in Cert III. I've pretty much maintained this much healthier weight since then, with small fluctuations during the Diploma year (my highest weight was 65kg, but these days I'm around 63kg).
My training in the last year has primarily been in one of the three following categories:
- Rehab/posture/movement pattern based
- Learning and relearning technique as new information comes to the table
- Performance based (least frequent of the above)
The amount of training I've been able to do during the last year has been insufficient to see much progress, due in part to extensive loads of theory, and otherwise to frequent illnesses (which has never been a problem for me before; historically it's been a rare event for me to get sick...maybe I'll blame illness on stress
). In that time I've gained a little bit of fat, which I never thought would happen. It's nothing major, but does make me a little less impressed when I see my naked reflection.
Now:
I'm soon to enter into a 12-month contract with a fitness centre, as a personal trainer. The PTM (personal training manager), and am aiming to get into visible shape as I start my business. I don't have any personal driving need to be big, but I will be aiming to burn away my little fraction of excess fat and put on some more muscle. No body weight or measurement goals, as I lapse into bad psychological states when I focus on that. Instead I'll be organising a program and focusing on increasing my lifts, seeing results that way.
As it is, I'm intending to do a full-body session 3 days a week. I had my first session yesterday, and have been psyched about getting into it next week for the last 24 hours. I'll be trying out a few different upper body variables on Monday, because I had some issues with bent over row and military press on Friday (for rows, I think it was just timing; for press it was the gym's limited freeweights).
The session, as is, is about an hour long, focusing on the 6 major lifts (squats, deadlifts, military press, chin ups, bench press and bent over row). The sets and reps for each exercise are as follows, with a 1min rest between sets:
- Warm Up (1st set): 1 x 10 x bar (20kg for most lifts; lighter bar for military press) or 4 bodyweight chin ups.
- Warm Up (2nd set): 1 x 8 x 50% 1RM or 6 bodyweight chin ups.
- Working Sets: 3 x 5 x 70-80% 1RM, or 8-12 bodyweight chin ups.
Yesterday I did this at about 70% my 1RM for deadlifts and bench press, and guestimate I was working at a similar intensity for most exercises. I haven't worked up to a 1RM fullsquat yet, so I can't judge that, but I supsect my 1RM would be about 85kg at the moment. My aim is to get this working at 80% of my 1RMs within a month. My aim for each individual workout is to work hard in each working set, but not reach fatigue until the last set. Each exercise should take about 10min to complete.
Growing up I was always the skinniest kid at school, right up until the last year of high school when I started going to the gym and putting on a little bit of muscle. Even then I was still skinny, but the 5 or so kg I'd gained did make a visible difference.
In the last two years I've been studying Cert III, IV and Diploma of Fitness. I started 2008 at 54kg, and built up to 61kg (7kg growth) over about 3 months in Cert III. I've pretty much maintained this much healthier weight since then, with small fluctuations during the Diploma year (my highest weight was 65kg, but these days I'm around 63kg).
My training in the last year has primarily been in one of the three following categories:
- Rehab/posture/movement pattern based
- Learning and relearning technique as new information comes to the table
- Performance based (least frequent of the above)
The amount of training I've been able to do during the last year has been insufficient to see much progress, due in part to extensive loads of theory, and otherwise to frequent illnesses (which has never been a problem for me before; historically it's been a rare event for me to get sick...maybe I'll blame illness on stress
). In that time I've gained a little bit of fat, which I never thought would happen. It's nothing major, but does make me a little less impressed when I see my naked reflection.Now:
I'm soon to enter into a 12-month contract with a fitness centre, as a personal trainer. The PTM (personal training manager), and am aiming to get into visible shape as I start my business. I don't have any personal driving need to be big, but I will be aiming to burn away my little fraction of excess fat and put on some more muscle. No body weight or measurement goals, as I lapse into bad psychological states when I focus on that. Instead I'll be organising a program and focusing on increasing my lifts, seeing results that way.
As it is, I'm intending to do a full-body session 3 days a week. I had my first session yesterday, and have been psyched about getting into it next week for the last 24 hours. I'll be trying out a few different upper body variables on Monday, because I had some issues with bent over row and military press on Friday (for rows, I think it was just timing; for press it was the gym's limited freeweights).
The session, as is, is about an hour long, focusing on the 6 major lifts (squats, deadlifts, military press, chin ups, bench press and bent over row). The sets and reps for each exercise are as follows, with a 1min rest between sets:
- Warm Up (1st set): 1 x 10 x bar (20kg for most lifts; lighter bar for military press) or 4 bodyweight chin ups.
- Warm Up (2nd set): 1 x 8 x 50% 1RM or 6 bodyweight chin ups.
- Working Sets: 3 x 5 x 70-80% 1RM, or 8-12 bodyweight chin ups.
Yesterday I did this at about 70% my 1RM for deadlifts and bench press, and guestimate I was working at a similar intensity for most exercises. I haven't worked up to a 1RM fullsquat yet, so I can't judge that, but I supsect my 1RM would be about 85kg at the moment. My aim is to get this working at 80% of my 1RMs within a month. My aim for each individual workout is to work hard in each working set, but not reach fatigue until the last set. Each exercise should take about 10min to complete.