Unless you have been hiding under a rock, the world cup has started and I love it. What more could someone ask for than three games of football to watch every day?

Of course I'm gutted that Scotland aren't in it, but I'm pretty used to that now. Defaulting to supporting my adopted second national team of Spain, although they got off to a pretty rubbish start yesterday getting destroyed by Holland. Fingers crossed they get their act together pretty quickly.

The gym has also been going pretty well lately. Into about the 15th week of my cut using the LdnMuscle cutting guide V2.0 (which is well worth the money btw). Yeah I'll admit that I've been cutting some corners, but I have no real time limit on achieving my goal, so however long it takes me, I'm going to get there. Morning cardio is the bit that I find so difficult, 'cos I absolutely hate getting up early. Most definitely a late night person.

Starting to look ever so slightly like a Dairylea triangle though, which is great, as my lats have always been the hardest part for me to grow.

I think that's really all the news I have to tell at the moment. Nothing really exciting has been happening.

Hoping to get a game of football tomorrow, but it really depends on how hungover the rest of my mates are going to be. Kinda sucks, being one of the only few that doesn't spend their Saturday night drinking. Would much rather be in the gym, busting my ass off to better myself.

So who are you guys all supporting for the world cup?
How are your summer cuts going?

Cutting the Fat

It's been a while since I posted on here. Almost too long in fact, but sometimes you just have nothing worth writing about and that unfortunately has been the case with myself. The good thing is, that in my absence I have accumulated a bit of stuff to write about on here.

New Gym Shoes

The first new piece of news I have for you is that I bought a new pair of Gym shoes. In the form of the Nike Freerun 2 in a beautiful Carbon and Blue colour scheme.

Aren't they just stunning?

They cost me £65 and I love them. Really comfy pair of trainers and also have the feeling of barefoot running. Kind of. 

New Gym

The next thing is that I have changed gym. No longer am I going to Pure gym. I am now attending a much better one called Warehouse. It costs slightly more per month, but I get the added benefits of a cleaner and much bigger weights section, less crowding and having to wait for a bench or machine, swimming pool and a sauna. Oh and did I mention that the changing rooms have underfloor heating, just so my little feet don't get too cold when I take them out of my new trainers. 

I love it there and I've only been a couple of times. It's quite crazy how much I feel like I've been missing out on having not joined sooner. 

Started to cut

I have decided it is now time to cut down some of that fat that I'm holding on to. All 22% of it. Scary when you think that 22% of my entire mass is made up of fat. It might not be 22, I'm just guestimating, but it was definitely in the early 20s the last time I measured. 

I purchased the LDNMuscle cutting guide v2.0 in the middle of January and gave myself a couple of weeks to read it and let it sink in. Then I began to plan for my own cut starting in the first week of February. 

It's two days into said cut and so far I'm not coping too badly. Maybe having slight carb withdrawls, but I'm just #thinkingoftheabs and trying to focus on keeping my mind on the end goal. My ultimate goal is to have myself in reasonable shape for my sisters wedding in May and my mates Stag weekend in Budapest three days after. A pretty hectic month, but that gives me nearly the full 15 weeks needed for the cutting guide to at least have some visible changes in my physical appearance. I'll post some starting point photos, just so I have something to refer back to and post a comparison shot at the end of the cycle. 

This is the first time I've really been focused enough to get to it and actually push myself to achieve a lower body fat. Usually I'll get a few weeks in and begin to think that I'm too small and I need to bulk. This time I need to stick to it and I will. 

For myself the diet macros are as follows : - 

Protein - 307

Carbs - 153

Fats - 68

Calories for the day are 2455

So far I've done pretty well in sticking to those and I've been eating so much chicken, that I might begin to get sick of it soon. That's a terrifying thought, considering how much I love chicken.

Oh well, here's those all important starting point photos. Please excuse my grumpy looking face. I'm not unhappy, it's just the way I look unfortunately. 

 So there you have it. That's a little update on my progress and hopefully the start of a new body for myself. 

Anyone else on a cut at the moment? How are you finding it and what are your little treats or food tips to help you beat those cravings?

Using Creatine

I've been using Creatine for a while now, but never really seen the benefits of it due to taking a serving before I workout rather than taking it in cycles and including rest days. This has somewhat warped my opinions on Creatine to be some hyped product that doesn't really do anything much, but with so much scientific evidence I must be wrong. Surely.

What is Creatine?
Creatine is a naturally occurring acid that is created in the Liver and Kidneys from Amino Acids. The main purpose of creatine is to supply energy to muscle cells. It increases the formation of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) meaning more energy for your cells. This in turn means that your cells having more energy should allow you to complete more reps in your lifts at the gym, promoting muscle growth. 

So, as I say, I am starting to properly cycle creatine with my loading phase beginning today. Starting off with four servings per day for the first five days, then it drops to once per day after that...I think. It's something along those lines anyways.

I'm trying to time my servings at 3 hour periods during the day, with servings being taken at 10am,1pm,4pm and 7pm. I bought two different flavours to make sure I have enough to last for a while. One fruit punch and another Grape. The first tastes a bit too sweet for me, so I've been sticking to the grape since it tastes like my childhood love of "Twist n Squeeze". The only thing that's slightly off-putting is the fact is looks like it is radioactive. Both were bought from +Holland & Barrett in their Penny Sale, where I get one of the two products for a penny.

Luminous Creatine

Anyway that's the latest with me and my journey to getting a bit of muscle on my body. Hopefully using creatine in the proper way along with increasing my calories a bit more should help me to start seeing some size increases. Only time will tell I suppose.

Have any of you used Creatine and seen many benefits from it? Let me know in the comments below.

Christmas Time!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes. 

This time of year is mental and it really gets in the way of your routine, or at least that's what I've found. I went for about two weeks without going to the gym, which is quite a long time for me. 

Never mind though, my progress wasn't hindered too much. I don't appear to have put on much weight over the festive period and I kept my alcohol consumption at zero, so no stupid calories added, just to get a hangover. 

My weight is a still a solid 13st 6lb, which it has been for a while.

I was beginning to feel a bit flabby though, but I think that's just due to my usual pump disappearing and holding a bit more water than normal. 

I forced myself back to the gym on Boxing day or I knew it would just become harder and harder to find the motivation. 

Entered the gym and there was a grand total of about 5 people there, which was good. Although the place was an absolute tip. My intuition tells me that the New Years resolution members had started early as there were weights just scattered everywhere, barbells loaded and plates all over the weights section. 

Last night I hit my chest and triceps. 

3 x 10 reps of 45kg Barbell bench

3 x 12 reps of 18.5kg cable flyes

3 x 10 reps of assisted chest dips

3 x 12 reps of 50kg Seated dips

3 x 12 reps of 54kg tricep extensions

Superset

To failure of 8kg overhead dumbbell tricep extensions. 

Safe to say it's the end of the day after and I'm beginning to feel my chest aching, so it's all good knowing that I'm back on track.

Off to the gym in about an hour to hit my Back and Biceps, maybe with some Abs thrown in for good measure. 

How did you all get on over the Christmas period. Did you still manage to get your workouts in? 

Any PR's?

Time to Reduce my Bodyfat

One thing that has remained surprisingly constant throughout my journey so far has been my body fat percentage.

It has always been at about 21%, which if I'm completely honest, I'm not happy about. I feel like so much of my weight is actually useless, yet I don't feel large. I look at myself in the mirror and still feel really small.

It wasn't until I was in the gym the other day and decided to use the machine which checks your stats like weight, height, bf%, etc. That I got a shock.

I discovered that my weight had shot up to almost 14 stone. Body fat up to around 23%, meaning that almost 20kg of me is just fat.

I suppose the weight thing isn't really a shock as I was intending to bulk at the moment, but the body fat bit is a bit of a worry. Although from what I read, these machines can be quite inaccurate and things like water, alcohol and food can all effect the results. My caliper reading was around 21% a few months ago, so it can't be too far out, but that slight change has got me on a mission to at least cut down for a while before starting bulking properly. 

So stay tuned for my workout plans and meal plans for my cut. I'll be sharing everything on here. 

Feel free to offer any advice or motivation you feel could help me. 

Going up!

One of my main problems with trying to bulk is simply that I can't do it. I eat so much food, but never seem to gain any weight.

It was nice to see that things are changing, since the last time I stepped on the scales. It would appear that I have managed to gain just over a pound in a week, which is definitely the sort of speed of gaining that I'm aiming for.

Up at 86.5 kg

I have decided to go back to another three day split as I felt I wasn't really getting too much out of stronglifts. So thought I'd give you a run through of the routine that I'm doing today. 

I decided to start off with a quick 10 minute cycle on the stationary bike. Nothing too exciting. Just wanted to get the blood flowing in my legs given that today was mainly leg day. 

After the cycle was completed it was onto the squat rack for 3 sets of 10 squats. I think I just started with 50kg squats. Nothing too heavy. 

After squats it was onto the leg press machine for three sets of 96kg leg presses. I actually really enjoy these, because I can see my legs working so much during them. 

After the leg press it was onto some romanian deadlifts. Something that I haven't done very many of before so I started with a light weight, just so I could get the form right as that is much more important than how much weight I'm lifting. Today I started with 20kg.

That concluded the legs for the day, so onto shoulders I went. Starting with overhead dumbbell press using I think it was 14kg dumbbells. 

Next up was side lateral dumbbell raises, with about 3 sets of 10 reps. I think I used 8kg dumbbells for this.

After those brutal raises were done it was onto the seated cable row. I love this machine. There's so many people I see using it incorrectly and my form on this machine is something I pride myself on. 

So there you have it. That was my legs and shoulders day along with some awesome news about my weight gain. Can't wait to keep seeing progress. Really glad to have found that magic calorie number that finally allows me to put on some beef. 

Todays Workout - 12/10/13

Today I went back to the gym that started it all off for me. A private gym in my hometown called Sacrifice.

This place was a real grassroots gym with none of your fancy equipment that you get in all the big commercial gyms these days. It had all the basic stuff you needed to get a great workout in, without the extra rubbish.

Going back in, after being away from it for so long felt great. I felt a surge of motivation and really couldn't wait to get my workout started.

It was yet again another day of Stronglifts, with todays session made up of Squats, Overhead Press and Deadlifts.

Here's the results of the days lifts.

Another successful day at the office. 

Breezing through the lifts

Today saw another day of my Stronglifts workout routine and first on the cards was the same as always is, Squats. I was jumping up again today after flying through the 60kg sets first time. This time stepping up to 65kg. Again this was no trouble and I successfully completed all five sets without much struggle.

Next up was bench. Now this is around the weight that I've been stuck at for quite some time now, so I'm hoping that Stronglifts will help push me past this and get my bench going upwards again. Todays target weight was 50kg. With a little bit of effort I stumbled through the first set, but soon after was coasting through the final five sets. Sometimes it just takes the first set to warm my body up to the exercise.

Last exercise of the day was bent over rows. Something I quite enjoy doing although after doing 5 sets of squats, my legs always feel like they are wanting to give out. Todays weight was 45kg. No real struggle to complete these five sets, so that means a full house for todays workout and it's onwards and upwards for the next.

Todays Workout - 07/10/13

Tonights workout was another Stronglifts session.

Comprising of the usual Squats, Overhead Military Press and Deadlifts.

Having dropped my weights back down and starting again in order to build a good base strength I am starting to get closer to my limits I think, so hopefully will start hitting the point where my muscles are working to full capacity soon and begin building new and stronger muscle fibres.

Getting older and fatter

I suppose I should begin by giving you a bit of a background idea about myself. 

I'm a 26 year old male, from Scotland who has become obsessed with working out.

I’ve been active most of my life, but as I’m getting older, I noticed that my metabolism wasn't what it used to be and I couldn't rely on it as much to keep the fat off. 

After almost two years of going to the gym, I think I can safely say that I am a fitness fanatic. That's not to say that I haven't had my downfalls or off periods.

It started when I realised that I couldn't rely on my metabolism to take care of those extra calories and the pounds began to creep on to my waist, with momentum gathering quickly. I had to do something about it.
I turned to my friend to help me get myself into strength training at the gym, because I had never had a six pack and unfortunately as vain as it sounds, I would like to have one before I die. I'm not there yet, but I'm certainly in a lot better shape than I was.

I don't have a progress photo from 2013, but I hope that this will be the way to keep others up to date with my progress.

Recently I have started doing Stronglifts in order to build a better base strength as I felt I wasn't improving at all. This is my journey into becoming the best I can be, whilst helping others.
Join me on my journey towards my goals and hopefully I can give you the motivation and help to achieve yours.