# Hello Everybody :)



## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

Hey guys, my name's Jack and i've just joined today as it seems the perfect place to get some good advice.

I'm 17 5'9 and 145lbs (10stone 5lbs) been training about a year and a half at a fairly crappy commercial keep fit gym (pool, bar, aerobics classes, brand new machines and not much in the way of free weights - there's only dumbbells up to 35kg and a little bar that weighs 8.2kg with some plates)

Due to this I probably haven't made as much progress as I could have thought I did start at 5'9 54kgs and now i'm at 5'9 and a fairly lean 145lbs.

My workout probably isn't very good but I haven't got too many options because of what's available. I do a monday, wednesday, friday split and i'm looking to gain as much lean muscle as possible.

On monday I do dumbbell bench press, dumbbell squats, leg press. Wednesday I do military press, shrugs and throw in some abs work.

Friday I do back work and do some dumbbell rows, abs work .

This workout is mainly 5x5 but on things like dumbbell bench where it's hard to progress

(2.5kg increments) i do an increased number of volume like 3*10 so I can progress onto the next weight.

As for my diet it's a lot better than it was and my appetite has increased quite a bit however due to not having much money I'm not using any supplementation such as whey PWO.

For example today I had: 2 slices of homemade wholemeal bread, whole ti n of tuna with a glass of water for breakfast at around 9.30.

Then I had about 50g of peanuts and a orange. For lunch I had 4 sausages and quite a bit of mash potato and another glass of water, couple hours later I had another 2 sausages and a glass of milk before my workout and then a red bull during my workout. For tea I had roast lamb with potatoes and some vegetables and then a serving of bread and butter pudding and finally I had a muller corner, raw eggs in milk and a muller corner.

In terms of my current lifts, i managed to do a full 5*5 on 25kg dbs which is a new best for me however for some reason today I felt very lethargic and struggled to even lift the dumbbells up. I squat with 35kg dumbbells, military press 27.5kg (bar+weights) for 5x5, dumbbell row 27.5kg 3x8, i did deadlifts a while ago when they had a oly bar and did 5x5 for 72.5kg. Today I left after about 10minutes due to nto being able to do my sets on bench press - i can't understand why i felt so tired ( i did walk 5-6 miles yesterday however).

So guys, do you have any advice for what I should do regarding my diet or workout and what I should be doing in general. I'm particuarly annoyed about how I feel so lethargic and out of energy sometimes at the gym.

Many thanks, Jack. :thumb:


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## mal (Dec 31, 2009)

hi jackprobably the sausages and bread and butter pud making you

feel lethargic.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

I had the sausages before my workout however the bread and butter pudding was after when i had tea. Cheers any tips would be good


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## Jungle (Mar 9, 2009)

Welcome mate, check out the diet section of the board and if you still got any more questions post 'em.

Routine looks okay, its just the diet that is shabby


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

Thanks will do, my plan is to change gym to the workout mill in Leamington Spa and do the Stronglifts 5x5 routine eventually problem is I have to wait till next christmas as that's when my current membership will end. Any tips on progressing in dumbbell bench pressing i've sorta plateaued around 22.5kgs and i'm struggling however friday when i did 5x5 on 25k was really good. The military press is a new addition and hopefully will help train my shoulders to help my benching. Thanks guys


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

Hey mate, I train at the workout mill in leam at the moment. By the sounds of your first gym you were at the warwickshire, am I right?


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

5x5 you should find your strength consistently increasing, I'd suggest that you need to eat more if you've hit a plateau.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

I had been wondering about my food intake i'll be sure to check out the diet section and nah my mate trains at the warwickshire, I train at the ardencote in Claverdon which is prob slightly worse but as I live in claverdon it's pretty convenient.


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## Críostóir (Dec 12, 2009)

Hi Jack and welcome


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

Ah yeah I know the Ardencote. Know a few people in Clav as well.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

Ha it's a small world i'm looking forward to joining the workout mill cos it sounds brilliant might be slightly cheaper than the ardencote as well i only go for the gym as well.


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

Workout Mill is good mate - I paid £185 for the year, works out at around £15 a month. That's their student membership though, you need a valid NUS card, and at 17 I'm assuming you don't have one of those.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

That's pretty nice, I don't have a NUS card at the moment but i'll definitely look into getting one. Bit annoying how you have to have a passport quality picture of yourself in digital form, I've got a passport photo in printed form hanging around but no scanner :cursing:


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

NUS cards are automatically given to uni students, so you don't need to apply for one if you're going to uni.


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## Nutz01 (Jan 27, 2009)

Hello mate & welcome to ukm

Dont be to put of by your gym, i'm sure you havent out grown your gym yet as your not up to the 36kg db's


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

ah i was wondering because a person i know in 6th form actually has a NUS card already which i presume they applied for and cheers I hate having skinny man syndrome even though i used to be so much worse. I'm having great difficulty progressing up the dumbbell benching :/ a barbell bench would be great to have a go on, as would a squat rack but oh well :whistling:


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2010)

Yeh you can apply for them if you're in 6th form too through the website I'm pretty sure. What school are you at?


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

I train with my mate Rich whenever he can be ****d to come down haha and he's obviously of a different build to me me being ecto and him more endo probably. Initially i was beating him quite a bit in terms of bench pressing but now he's beating me, i hasten to add he's been training quite a bit less too!

i feel like i've been eating a lot too; he's your average guy tbh doesn't supplement or anything, he's 6ft 12 stone i think whereas i'm 5'9 nearly 10 and a half :/ Anyone got any training tips of what i should be doing, any good techniques of getting up to eventually pressing those 35's which would be brilliant.


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## iron head case (Jul 2, 2008)

Welcome to UKM Jack


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

Cheers and i'm at Aylesford, Warwick Lol


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2010)

Ahh ha I used to go to Warwick, few years ago now mind.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

ah i know a few people at warwick boys; any ideas on tackling this bench press btw? i did 5x5 25kg and thought i'd be able to repeat it but i couldn't even get the weight up - very annoying. :cursing: Benching the 35's would be ace, theres quite a few built guys at the ardencote for a place that doesn't have much there haha


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

welcome to the forum mate.

And if you're struggling with the 22.5kg dumbells then you've got a while to go before you're maxing up the db's available at the gym. I've been going for a year and a half and I'm only just getting to the 35kg db's so I reckon if you keep at it hard then that gym should suffice you til christmas.

I'm doing a 5x5 split of push/pull/legs each week and I am finding my weights going up slightly in at least 1 exercise each session.

I'm currently only eating about 1700 cals a day too so you don't need to eat tons to gain strength.

Dan


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

i'm fairly comfortable with the 22.5kgs could do 3x10 22.5 i then did 5x5 25kg on another day, however this monday was aful and i couldn't lift the 25s up at all. I really want to progress up with weights, is it that i've plateaued at 22.5kg dbs. any tips? cheers


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## XJPX (Jan 10, 2009)

main tip is ur diet sucks...literally u will make v little gains off eating crap.

u weigh 10 stone.....u need to start eating EVERYTHING u see....

oats/eggs/milk/protien in a blender.....is 1000 cals easy....have one at breaky and another at lunch and url b on the way to growing


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

I thought as much on the diet side and do try and eat as much as I can little meals but frequently throughout day.

Obviously i'm looking to bulk up however vsideboy said how he is presumably dieting and still making gains in strength, how come that's possible

i spose we're all different but hope u can clear that up anywho.

cheers


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## XJPX (Jan 10, 2009)

Jmorri said:


> I thought as much on the diet side and do try and eat as much as I can little meals but frequently throughout day.
> 
> Obviously i'm looking to bulk up however vsideboy said how he is presumably dieting and still making gains in strength, how come that's possible
> 
> ...


LOL, ur 10 stone at 5foot 9, why are u over thinkin anything....just EAT and carry on EATING til u feel sick, then eat sum feckin more lol


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

haha will do, i feel my stomach's bigger and its getting easier getting the food down


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## XJPX (Jan 10, 2009)

Jmorri said:


> haha will do, i feel my stomach's bigger and its getting easier getting the food down


gdgd, stil try to keep the food as clean as poss, all carbs need to be low gi....so oats, sweet spud, green veg, rice.....this will help keep fat gains lower....also keep ur carbs lower in evening and fats higher...so more eggs, salmon, steak, olive oil at night....this will also help minimize fat gains......the logn and short of it is tho if u eat lots u r gonna get a bit fat...but at ur weight i wudnt worry bout it, u can tidy things up once ur 12-13 stone :thumb:


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

So i'll prob aim to get to 12/13 stone any tips on the dumbbell bench.

shall i try and get 3x12 on 22.5kg so 25kgs is comfortable, i really wanna get out of this rut. many thanks:thumb:


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

Not plateaued mate, as said earlier you need to eat to feed the muscles. We all have days when we get to the gym and we can't do anything, its either you've eaten rubbish previously or your just having a bad day mate. Don't worry about it though.

As whatshisname said earlier, plenty of chicken, oats, green veg, eggs etc. Get feeding the workouts, he's also had a go at me in another thread for not being able to add up so maybe I'm having more than 1700 cals, need to check on my figures when I get home tonight.

Tell you what else I've found mate. If I've maxed at 25kg one session one week, I can't just jump straight to 25kg the next week, I have to work my way upto it again, so I would maybe do

15,17.5,20,22.5,25 then the following week do

17.5,20,22.5,25,25 then the following week try for

20,22.5,25,25,27.5 always making some progress, but have tried in the past to go straight from

15,17.5,20,22.5,25 to

22.5,25 but then failed to do hardly any and its made me feel rubbish and have a bad rest of the workout.

Hope that helps.

Dan


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

sounds good to me mate any ideas on what reps to use for those pyramid weights i've previously just done straight out sets eg 3x8 on 22.5kg

also a bit of background, i startedlike 1.5 years ago and i bulked up from 8.5 stone to like 10 stone 5 now i've put on a little bit of fat would you suggest i keep this bulking up; i also haven't been using whey due to money.

cheers

would 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 be good for reps?


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

Well I've been advised on doing the 5x5 for building up strength which is still working as my weights are still slowly going up.

What I was doing previously was just max weight for 3 sets of 8-12, if I could get to 12 then I would increase the weight which would drop down to 6 or 8 reps and then just keep with that weight each session until I could get to 12 again then increase the weight again.

Definitely finding the increases coming more often with the 5x5 split though.

Check out my journal in the members pictures thread if you want any more info on my current routine.

http://www.uk-muscle.co.uk/member-journals-pictures/76928-dans-gotta-get-looking-awesome-his-wedding.html


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

that's cool man my initial thoughts are if you're doing 5x5 and working up the weights surely you're doing less work than if you were doing 5x5 for a certain weight or pyramid sets with varying reps? many thanks

I reckon ill keep doing 5x5 for things like barbell eg 5x5 35kg military press and then 5x5 37.5kg the next week however ill try what you've said on dumbbells and hopefully i can get some more strength gains


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

well I'm just going from my sessions mate, but doing 5 sets of a heavy weight is similar to doing 10 reps of a lighter weight in the amount of effort you're having to use in the long run.

I'm doing a work up like my example for 5 sets of 5 reps (although I try to just keep going to failure on my last set) and I am gaining strength, upto you how you want to do it at the end of the day.

e.g. my latest leg press

45degree Leg Press

10 x 50kg

5 x 100kg

5 x 150kg

5 x 180kg

5 x 190kg

8 x 200kg (Failure) PB!!

compared to the same exercise the week before.

45 Degree leg press

8 x 100kg

5 x 150kg

5 x 175kg

5 x 180kg (PB)

8 x 180kg (failure)

hope I can jump up weight again this weekend.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

awesome, i mean if it gets me up my weights than that's great cheers mate :thumb:


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

no probs mate, if you can get away with protein from eggs and chicken then thats fine not to have whey powder. Its only to make it easier at the end of the day anyway. i.e. its easier for me to drink a protein/oat drink in a morning at my desk than it is to sit here eating chicken and rice and chucking it all over the place haha.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

alright then that's cool i'll just eat like a machine 

i'm currently trying to do military press 5x5 with 2.5k increase per workout however today's workout i did 3x5 on 38.2 (15k+8.2k bar) shall i try 5x5 again next workout?

also as said before, db benching has been a bit of an issue for me but today, not a chest today but i felt sod it, after my military press i did 1 set of 5 on 22.5kg 2 set sof 5 on 25 and 1 set of 5 on 27.5kg with a spotter on last set.

I find the beginning of the lift the hardest part and once i've got the dbs up for the first instance it's all good. Any ideas on combatting this problem, i think it's fairly common - shoulder/triceps weakness? also any ideas on progressing on from today's chest workout i think the sets working up to final weight really will work as it warms me up quite a bit. :thumb:


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

Jmorri said:


> alright then that's cool i'll just eat like a machine
> 
> i'm currently trying to do military press 5x5 with 2.5k increase per workout however today's workout i did 3x5 on 38.2 (15k+8.2k bar) shall i try 5x5 again next workout?
> 
> ...


So it wasn't chest day, but you just decided to do chest anyway? Ok mate, can you jot down your programme for us please (or have you done that previously? I'll have to have a backtrack)

I agree the begining is usually pretty difficult, you've just got to use your legs to help you get the weights into position as you lay back. Rest the db's on your thighs and then as you lay back, bring your legs up so the kind of flick the db's up and that should help you get them where you want them.

Yeah as said mate, I've really struggled for the full session if I have tried to jump upto max weight straight away, do it progressively and just try to do more sets at your new max each time, what I mean is

1 session may end up at 5 sets of

10,15,20,25,30 (30 being your max it that week)

following week you might do

15,25,30,30,30 or 15,25,30,30,35

therefore 35 is your new max for the following week

then you'll do

20,25,30,35,35

see how it works out? Just cos the max weight hasn't gone up, doesn't mean you aren't improving cos you're doing more sets of the max weight than you did previously. And as I said before I am trying to do to failure on my last set, so that varies between 4.5 and 8 reps, if I get 8 reps then I am hoping for an weight increase the following week.

Others may argue that I'm wrong but this is whats currently working for me, and as you're only young then it should work well for you with all your young man testosterone haha.


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

Yeah pretty much:lol:my workout should be found near the start of this thread, i'm pretty much using that sorta technique atm.

So yesterday i did shoulders work and then did bench afterwards and did 2 lots of 5 on 22.5kg another 2 sets of 5 on 25k and 1 setof 5 on 27.5kg with my mate conrad spotting me.

Should i repeat that for monday's workout? tomorrow is my back workout so i won't do any benching, or should i up it a bit, sets etc

i don't get how you choose what you're going to do is it fairly guesswork like eg i think ill be able to do so and so. so i did 22.5 22.5 25 25 27.5

the 27.5kg i had a spot i pushed 3/4 way and then he pushed my elbows up and i could complete the 5 reps without his assistance after that what would a logical step be on from that bearing in mind i needed a spot for the 27.5s

cheers:beer:


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## pudj (Apr 25, 2008)

welcome youve come to the right place to learn


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## Jmorri (Apr 5, 2010)

cheers


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## mark2009 (Apr 4, 2010)

welcome m8


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

Jmorri said:


> Yeah pretty much:lol:my workout should be found near the start of this thread, i'm pretty much using that sorta technique atm.
> 
> So yesterday i did shoulders work and then did bench afterwards and did 2 lots of 5 on 22.5kg another 2 sets of 5 on 25k and 1 setof 5 on 27.5kg with my mate conrad spotting me.
> 
> ...


Yeah pretty much mate, I'll use leg press example again.

3 weeks ago I managed to do

5 x 100kg

5 x 150kg

5 x 160kg

5 x 170kg

8 x 180kg (failure)

2 weeks ago I managed to do

5 x 150kg

5 x 170kg

5 x 180kg

5 x 190kg

8 x 200kg (failure)

Then last week I went for

5 x 150kg

5 x 180kg

5 x 200kg

5 x 200kg

5 x 200kg (failure)

See how I am trying to do my previous weeks maximum about half way through the exercise, then based on what that max weight is will determine what I do for the previous couple of sets.

Also you can see how my last set of the exercise I'm going to complete failure, which is usually about 8 reps but this week was proper knackering at 5 reps so may just try the same range again this week but try to get 8 reps out in the last set, or increase the weights to something like

150,180,200,205,210 if I'm feeling super strong.

Dan


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## SoulXedge (Mar 15, 2010)

Welcom to the forum m8


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## vsideboy (Feb 3, 2009)

how you been getting on with the 5x5's mate?


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