Mike's Quest to Weight 200 lbs

[MichaelReinke]

Hi,

I have been 90's small almost my entire life but would now like to become a decently strong 200 lb. male. Although a cervical injury that has caused 24/7 tension headaches has kept me out of the gym for the past two years, my pain has subsided enough for me to now pursue this goal. However, this has an implication for my training: knowing full well the benefits I am missing, I am going to be a pussy and not power clean (unfortunately, at least not at the moment) because the impact and explosive nature of this exercise serves as a trigger that exacerbates my headaches. As such, I am following the novice routine laid out in the 1st edition of PPST with pull-ups and chin-ups. I began the program a couple of weeks ago. My beginning stats are:

Age: 22
Height: 5'10"
Body-weight: 138 lbs
Squat: 3x5 95 lbs
Bench: 3x5 65 lbs
Press: 3x5 55 lbs
Deadlift: 1x5 115 lbs

Tragic, I know. A couple weeks in I am now at body-weight 148 (I already feel much better).

1/17/10:
Squat: 3x5x145 lbs
Bench: 3x5x105 lbs
Dead-hang Chins: 6, 4, 4 x BW

Everything felt pretty easy today. I am hopeful that I can sustain some more 10 lb jumps on the squat and bench until slowing down to 5 lb jumps.

I also plan to increase my milk intake linearly by a gallon a week until I achieve GOMAD. This past week I did 2 gallons so now I will do 3.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat: 3x5x155 lbs

these felt good

Press: 3x5x85 lbs

I was a bit worried about the last rep of each set as form started to deteriorate and I hope excessive lean-back did not result, but I fought through them. hopefully I will get some video footage to look at sometime soon on this exercise; it is the one I am most worried about.

Deadlift: 1x5x192 lbs

had to switch to alternating grip on the work set, otherwise this went fine

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 3x5x165 lbs

Bench Press 3x5x115 lbs

Dead Hang Pull-ups x BW 4, 3, 2

Bodyweight increase: 148 => 151 from 1/17/10

everything felt good except the pull-ups, but they are harder than chin-ups and I suppose that is to be expected when I am rapidly increasing bodyweight. only 50 more lbs to go.

I also figured out what will serve as the foundation for my diet:
6 eggs + GOMAD + 2 peanut butter and nutella sandwiches = 4000 kcal

then another 1000-2000 kcal of whatever I like which will let me eat something not so routine and disgusting :] I'll start out around 5000 kcal and see where that puts me.

[MichaelReinke]

so I've been going Su/Tu/Th but now am switching to M/W/F so that I can train with some buddies. so that I didn't go four days without training, I simply did an abbreviated session on Saturday and didn't do any form of pull; this will also let me keep the deadlift in the middle of the week.

1/23/10 was as follows:

Squat 3x5x175

Press 90x3,2,2

a bit disappointed with the press, but I can't say that I am too surprised. I'm probably going to re-read the chapter on it.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 185x4,3,2
Bench 125x4,3,2
Chins 5,4,3

Bodyweight: 152

Annoying, well I learned a couple things:

1) My 10 lbs were probably a bit ambitious for the way the weights were feeling. time to slow down
2) Bodyweight. I seem to do the shittiest when my bodyweight isn't moving up (I guess all the guys at 70sbig.com will tell me this is a no-brainer) and I have now experienced this first hand. I only had a 1 lb. increase over about a week. I am actually quite surprised, I thought I was stuffing my face. I might have to re-evaluate diet as well and put in some high calorie foods that will go down easily like ice cream, etc.

[TartanEagle]

Track your diet on Fitday.com. I found this very helpful. It will help you figure out how much you are actually eating. I would shoot for 5 - 6 thousand calories. I have found that adding trail mix to my diet has really helped add calories.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 3x5x185

My squats are definitely back on track, these felt great! I amped up the hip drive this week after watching the SS DVD.

Press 90x4,3,2

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the press, might be time to order some smaller plates.

Deadlift 215x5

Thanks for the advice TartanEagle, I just registered at fitday and will try out some trail mix next time I go to the store.

[MichaelReinke]

After dealing with some personal issues, I have since hit the grindstone again.

Workout 4/5/10:

Squat 3x5x185
Bench 3x5x130 (both these barbell lifts felt relatively easy today)
Strict chins x BW 7,6,5

[MichaelReinke]

Meant to type 4/7/10

Squat 3x5x190

Press 3x5x95

Deadlift 1x5x235

Also spent ~ 1.5 hours (I'm pretty new to cooking) making paleo meatballs off the crossfit football website: http://www.crossfitfootball.com/page/index.php?menu=nutrition&page=meatballs. Delicious, nutritious, and now I have pre-cooked beef for a few days. I would highly recommend them to any other cooking newbs.

I'll be weighing in on Friday.

[burnsco]

Start drinking a gallon a day and you will be amazed how the weight goes up! I just decided one day I'm sick of being small and skinny and set my mind on drinking as much as I could. It only took 3 days to get up to a gallon. you can do it too! I also recommend putting peanut butter in your protein shakes.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat: 3x5x195
Bench: 3x5x135
Strict pull-ups: 7,5,5

I am currently doing 1/2 GOMAD. By tweaking my diet from the full GOMAD, I have personally found (from paper training records) that I have have gotten better results (avoided stalls) when substituting out some of the milk for protein powder and more egg/meats instead. I definitely remain open to adding back in more milk if it is needed, however.

[Aslin]

good stuff

[MichaelReinke]

I am exposed to a lot of germs at my job, so this probably caused the illness I am suffering from with a bad fever. Regardless, I went in to train (perhaps a foolish move, but I just don't want to slow down). By some miracle, despite A LOT of joint pain I managed to hit weights:

Squat: 3x5x200
Press: 3x5x100
Chin-Ups: 8,6, 5 x BW

Feels like my fever spiked a bit and I don't want to stand, and so I will omit my shower after finishing my protein shake (disgusting I know). Hopefully I am better for Wednesday.

[MichaelReinke]

Still running a fever and feeling some aches; since I suspect I am battling the flu here and not just the common cold, I am just going to sit tight until friday and focus on eating/drinking fluids to recover.

[MichaelReinke]

I'm still sick, but I am feeling quite a bit better today and growing restless; I did not want to lose a training day this week so I am going Thu/Sa/M/W/F to get back on track.

Squat 5,4 (went to low on last rep and lost it in the hole, oops), 5 x 205
Bench 3x5x140
Deadlift 1x5x245

[MichaelReinke]

Thank god the flu is pretty much out of my system. After I had recovered, oddly enough it was THEN that some exercise intolerance kicked in and I was helpless to do anything but some light squats/presses to keep form preserved on 4/17.

Training 4/19:
Squat 3x5x205
I repeated the same weight because I decided to try out a belt today after reading the 70sbig.com rants about the benefits. Felt much easier; I could really feel my abs forced to contract. I feel like I will plow through the next few days of squats now.
Bench 3x5x140
I repeated the same weight here too to tweak some form issues after re-looking at SS. My ABS almost caused me to fail during bench since the belt made them so tired!
Chin-Ups 8,7,5xBW

Oh and BW is a pathetic 160 lbs. No one to blame but myself. GOMAD and lots of trail mix are what the doctor ordered now.

[Mr.City]

What kind of belt did you try?

[MichaelReinke]

I'm not actually sure what the specifications of the belt are, it is just some leather belt they have lying around my university rec. center that that I figured I would try while waiting to get my own.

Speaking of which, perhaps you (or someone else too) could give me some idea of what size belt I should be buying. I measured my waist to be around 30-31" where the belt will be placed, but I want to have some growing room while buying a belt that will fit me currently. Would it be a good idea to go with the medium (33-36") then as opposed to the small (29-32")? Would I be able to make the medium tight enough to fit me currently/ if my waist size does not increase dramatically?

[MichaelReinke]

Squat: 3x5x210
Press: 4,4,3x105 (ARgH)
Deadlift: 1x5x255