2024-1-1
Day: Rest
I’m gonna be writing daily blogs here about my journey in the gym. Gonna keep it pretty casual to prevent it from being too much of a hassle/chore.
Some background:
- was sitting at 130-ish lbs for the entire duration of high school, minimal physical activity
- started lifting around mid-September 2022 when I got to college
- dream was to bench 225
- bulked from 130 to 175 lbs in 6 months
- only managed to bench 210 by the end of the school year in May
- took almost the entire summer off for work and classes
- started again in August when I came back to campus, bench was at 165 and I was at 160 lbs
- bulked to 175.5 lbs and benched 225 on 10/23/2023
- immediately started cutting to achieve my childhood dream of getting a six-pack
- about a 10 week cut from 10/23-12/31/2023 from 175.5 to 149.7 lbs, still no six-pack
So the goal is to still keep going for a six-pack, although I’m planning to maintain my weight for a little bit to get my health back in order. Winter break ends in about two weeks so my diet and daily cardio will definitely be more consistent back on campus where I have more control.
For reference, here was my original split up until I benched 225:
| Mon | Tues | Weds | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | x | Bench | x | ||||
| Back | x | x | |||||
| Arms | |||||||
| Legs | x | x | |||||
| Shoulders | Front + Side | Rear | Front + Side | Rear |
As detailed, I was benching three times a week using ufpwrlifter’s program. Since I was still a relatively new lifter, there was a lot of junk volume included, so my workouts normally took 2-2.5 hours. I was also eating pretty unhealthily, but it worked out in the end.
Here is my current split:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | x | ||||
| Back | x | ||||
| Arms | x | ||||
| Legs | x | ||||
| Shoulders | Side | Rear |
I transitioned to a four day split with 30-ish minutes of cardio (burn 300 calories) after watching Sam Sulek’s videos. I also copied his training style by limiting myself to 8-10 sets total of a body part per day to reduce junk volume and save time in the gym. As such, my workouts take around 1-1.5 hours now, and I have more options as to what machines or movements I can do to properly target my muscles.
My programming nowadays is much more bodybuilding focus as opposed to getting a big bench like in the past. It’s a bit bittersweet not being able to experience the high of hitting a PR, but having freakier pump checks is nothing to complain about.
That’s pretty much what my entire life post-high school has been about. I’ve had a pretty fun experience so far, so I’m interested in seeing if there’s any changes in the way I view the gym when I document it in this manner.
To better days ahead…