Exercise Progress: April

Exercise Progress: April - June 2010

In my previous post I set some strength goals. But a few weeks after writing that, I switched to a more balanced muscle mass and strength training. So it is harder to reach those goals. Anyhow here are the numbers.

Exercise / Start (March) / Goal (June) / Peak

Squat / 175 lbs / 195 lbs / 185 lbs
Bench Press / 125 lbs / 145 lbs / 135 lbs
Row / 95 lbs / 110 lbs / 100 lbs
Shoulder Press / 65 lbs / 80 lbs / 80 lbs
Deadlift / 200 lbs / 240 lbs / 215 lbs

I 10 lbs away from reaching my goals for Squat, Bench Press and Row. I would not have been able to reach those goals even if I did not do the big switch. Unless I gain some quality weight I cannot expect to lift a lot more. Still need to work on that. I was however able to reach my shoulder press goal. Sweet! Deadlift is lagging behind. My legs and back are probably strong enough to lift 240 lbs, but my fingers are losing grip. Which is the main problem.

I am planning more changes to my exercises and diet. I will follow up on them in upcoming posts.

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Stats for Oct 2009

So it has been a month since I started bulking up. How am I doing so far? Here are the raw numbers Exercises Squats: 170 lbs, 8 reps Deadlifts: 185 lbs, 10 reps Bench Press: 110 lbs, 4 reps Pull ups: Body weight + 25 lbs, 7 reps Overhead Press: 75 lbs, 6 reps I am doing well in all exercises except bench press. The exercise that is already closest to my goal for end of december is my pull-ups. I can already do 7 reps with 25 lbs hanging off my waist! You can check out my previous post for the goals I have set. Body weight and fat Weight: 120.8 lbs Fat %: 12.2% I am able to add weight as expected. But my body fat % shot up too much. My goal for end of december was to weight 125 lbs at 12% body fat. But I am already over the limit for my body fat %. So I have to lower it and at the same time increase my weight. Very unlikely. I might have to revise my goals, but I will see how it goes and hope to make better predictions for my next bulking phase. It is not at all easy to ke...

The Story so far...

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For an ectomorph, illness is always followed by weight loss

As I mentioned in my last post, I got sick last weekend. I have allergies which means from time to time the runny nose and sneezing can take a toll on the immune system. The scenario gets even worse if an antihistamine is taken right after a heavy bout of exercise during a season of flu. The antihistamines suppress the immune system further, allowing viruses to attack the human body. This is the sequence of events that took place last week and is usually the sequence that leads to me getting sick often during flu seasons. Anyway long story short, I contracted this flu from a co-worker when I was at my weakest on Thursday evening last week. I did not feel too bad on Friday morning, but come nightfall I was totally exhausted and running a slight fever. Matters got even worse on Saturday. I was only fully recovered by Wednesday. However the damage is already done. I worked hard forcing myself to overeat a couple of weeks ago which gave me an impressive 1.4 lbs gain (body weight is 124.6...

Skinny to Strong

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