Skinny to Strong

I have not been updating my blog for some time now, mostly because I had nothing to update. I am still doing the same exercises and still trying to gain weight irrespective of my fat %. The good news is that I have finally reached a weight of 130 lbs. This has been my dream ever since I started working out some 2 years ago. The journey has not been easy at all. For some time I was stuck at 125 lbs (which was my previous high before I decided that I had to lose fat before I start gaining again). My body seems to have some kind of resistance at my previous weight set point of 125. I could not break it no matter what I did. But before going into more details, take a look at my graphs first. Weight Chart Fat % Chart Lean Mass Chart As you can see, I was trying to break 125 since early June. But no matter how much I tried, I could not break it. I was about 125 for a full 2 months. I got really frustrated. I was eating the same kind of food and about the same amount every day. I did n...

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 ...

In my previous post I gave some body weight and fat numbers for the 3 month period starting from April 2010 to Jun 2010. It is now time for some graphs. Here are my weight, fat and lean mass graphs for the same period. Weight Chart Fat% Chart Lean Mass Chart As you can see I pretty much kept my fat% constant. There were a few jumps here and there, but in the end, I am still under 10% body fat and can still see my abs definition slightly as is expected at around 10% BF. Now for some observations. Right before I got sick my weight jumped a lot. That was around May 8th. The gain was probably just water weight. My body was perhaps retaining water as I was about to get sick. Interestingly, my caliper measurements have also gone awry and showed higher fat percentage. Right after I got sick and as I started recovering, I lost a lot of weight. This was around May 15th. There is a sharp drop in the weight and fat % dropped to the normal value. But I did lose some muscle as a result of fa...

This is a very exciting day for me! I can finally bench press my body weight for 3 sets of 5 reps. I weigh just 120 lbs. And there are probably 99.99% people who can bench press as much weight very easily. But for an ectomorph at my weight, it is an awesome feat. By it self 120 lb seems a very light weight and 99.99% makes me feel like I am nobody. But think again. How many people can bench press their own weight? The percentage is not 99.99% any more now is it? Add to it the fact that I can do 35 push ups after a 3 set bench press. This is going well :). However I am still considered average. To become good I have to lift 1.5 times my body weight, which is 180 lbs if I stay at the same weight, even more if I gain weight! The progress has been very very slow, but at least I have come a long way. I am adding about 5 lbs every month or so to most of my exercises. So in about 3 months I should be able to bench 135 lbs, which has always been my dream. I have never used the 45 lb plates y...