Back to Basics

[kirbydunker]

Stats:

Age: 26

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 165lbs.

Bodyfat %: ?



Lifts estimated

Bench: 215

Deadlift: 285

Squat: 215





Injuries:

SLAP tear on right shoulder (football injury that I never fixed), tendonitis of both elbows, knee problems (bmx, skateboarding, football, etc.)




Goals:

Lose fat

Gain Muscle


Natty?: At the moment, yes, however, if I can be persuaded that non-natty can be safe (I've done 1 shot of deca about 5 years ago, my friend told me it'd 'fix my shoulder'. I got scared and didn't want to take any more), then I'd go on something, as I have pretty average genetics.






I've had a long, drawn out relationship with bodybuilding. I was a fat kid growing up, I wasn't bullied too much about it, but I still

became self-conscious because of the occasional obese joke, fatty mcfats etc. The summer, right before my freshman year of highschool,

I decided that being overweight funny kid, wasn't what I wanted out of life, so I began to cut my food intake, drink water, etc. This was in

the summer of '00, and since then, I've been very self-aware of my image. I've been an active person my whole life, I played sports

through my childhood, and in high school, I joined the football team. I played through my Junior year, until I got injured by getting my

shoulder stampeded on by a 250+lb lineman (I was 160 lbs at the time). My senior year is when I really started to see I was becoming a

fatty again, so taking the limited knowledge I acquired from the high school football weightlifting program, I began my troubled relationship

with bodybuilding.


Starting anything with the wrong kind of information, is almost always going to end up in disappointment. In my senior

year of high school, I lifted 6 to 7 days a week. Every body part was worked twice a week, and I believe I spent one day on arms/abs, so

my arms were being worked 3 times. Don't get me wrong, I felt like shit doing it at first, but I eventually was used to anemic whithery

feeling, and my determination trumped my muscles inability to work due to fatigue, and I grew; well, a little bit. I became distraught with

bodybuilding though, I thought to myself, "I'm working out every day, running 2 miles before I work out, super-setting lifts, eating nothing

but protein (at the time, I believed carbs were evil, and ate a diet that consisted of mainly protein), and I'm not getting huge. WTF is dis?"

My lack of significant progress led me to question myself, not question my training. i thought to myself, "once a fatty, always a fatty'. At

first, I quit my 2 mile cardio extravaganza on 7.0 mph, then I got a little pudge going. I remember sitting next to this butter-face in my

graphic arts class. When I was doing cardio, I was a lot leaner, and I could tell she was looking at me, but once I stopped; I could tell she

was disgusted in my bod. She was a bit of a porker herself, and I was never interested, but I could tell that other people were starting to

see the decline of my physique. Luckily, when I was in my 'prime' at 18, I bagged this insecure goth chick with nice C-cups, and used her

as a pin cushion for my 18 year-old hormones. She had great genetics, and she had super-low self esteem, man, being 18 was great...


Nineteen however, was okay. I'm out of highschool (this is the summer of my freshman year of college), and by this point, I'm in to the

whole emo/post hardcore music scene, broke up with my highschool sweet heart, and stopped lifting/taking care of myself. This didn't last

long, as there was another girl who I wanted to impress. This time though, I was reading...BODYBUILDING MAGAZINES! The information in

them was so mind-blowing to me at the time. These monsters were posting their top-secret workouts that got them from average, to

ANIMALS! I was lifting for about a month before that, but then I saw this article that claimed that power-lifting style, compound

movements were how all the big guys got so big. The regiment, in hindsight, was actually quite good for me. It taught great form, and it

was focused on high-weight, low reps, to stimulate growth. This article was one of the best things that ever happened to me in

bodybuilding, regardless if the information in it was actually complete garbage (which it kind of was, It had a 4 day/week lifting regiment

doing compound movements). My bench was maxed at 250, my squat was 295 I believe, and my deadlifts were at 345, and I gained a good

amount of weight, I went from 165 lbs, to 175-185. The most important thing I learned during that time, was how to lift. Lift with

everything you have, and then more. Go ****ing nuts, get crazy, see those stars from lack of oxygen going to your head? You'll be one

some day, haha! This was all great, but I hit a bit of a plateau, and to be quite honest, mentally, I couldn't handle the 4 day a week

compound movements. There would be times when I would do this leg work-out twice a week...:

Squats (Normal Stanced, warm ups): 2x10

Wide: 3x6

Narrow: 3x6

Hack Squats: 3x6

Leg press Wide: 2x8

Leg press narrow: 2x8

Standing Calf Raises: 3x8


Every set would be until failure. This again, was sometimes done twice a week, following the program in the magazine.

The peak of my bodybuilding career, was during the middle of those 3 summer months of '05. I was putting up those numbers above, and I

was really feeling 'big'. People were telling me I was big, and I remember overhearing a girl ask one of my friends we were with at the

waterpark, if "I was on steroids ". But, I just couldn't keep up. I started working concrete construction with my father that summer, and

between the ridiculous amount of work I had to do at work, and doing the big compound movements 4 days a week, I was becoming

mentally exhausted. I even remember coming home one night after a concrete pour-into gym day, and not having the energy to thrust my

legs so I could make love to my girlfriend, hahaa!! It was really rough. My CNS couldn't handle all of that stress, and again, I burnt out.


After that, I started doing shitty in school, I got laid off, and eventually I dumped my psycho girlfriend. Things were looking pretty grim,

and it's honestly a blur at that point; I cannot remember much of what happened in those years. I did go back to weightlifting though, and

for a while, I was actually looking better than ever, but I had an 'episode', you could say. I was doing nothing but lifting weights, and

playing video games, and I was looking, and feeling great. But I turned into an anti-social hermit, and I hated everyone. One night I went

to a bonfire, and a girl came up to me (she's actually a friend now), and said, "oOooh, you have a nice body", and started feeling up on me.

I was like, 'uhhh okay', so I just like grabbed her, I didn't give a shit about anyone else's feelings, or emotions. I wanted to be a machine, I

didn't want to have emotions, I felt like they made me weak, and that is why I failed at so much in my life.


Then,this happened. So, I came back from a lift, hopped on my computer, and my friend wanted to hang out. So I met up with him and

another buddy, to hang out in his garage and bullshit about life, we've all been friends since grade school. Well, he busts out the pipe, and

he smoked very strong chronic. At the time I really didn't smoke, I did once in a while, but I knew that when things got bad in my life, it

never helped me, because then I'd just dwell on my life, and it gave me anxiety problems. Tonight was an especially crappy night though, I

had a crappy lift before then, and I had no job, etc. But, I did it anyways. This is when I had my first panic attack, but at the time, I

thought I was dying. I finally calmed the **** down, but it felt like I lost 30 lbs of muscle from all of the stress of having that, and not

knowing what was going on etc. I've had episodes before when I was 'too high' (eating snow off the ground, curling up into a ball), but

never anything like this. I was so confused, I felt by myself, just me and my muscles. I guess that is really what triggered it, but my anger

was the catalyst. I finally calmed down, and I thought it was due to my diet, so I started fasting the next day. Well that night, I drank a

Red Bull Energy Drink, and did some squats, my squat went down a little bit, I mean I just had my first full-blown anxiety attack the night

before. It hit me again, I started panicking. I thought, "OH I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK FROM ALL THE BAD SHIT I'VE DONE IN MY LIFE!

THIS IS THE END!!1", and ended up having a friend at the gym drop me off at the hospital. I thought I was okay after talking to him in the

waiting room, so I ended up just going home. This is the start of a very long, and hard process I've been going through since then.


I step inside of a gym, I'm fine now. This took me A LONG time to do, but, I don't panic any more being in the gym. Even lifting heavy

weight, doing cardio, I'm not checking my pulse every five seconds, or getting migraines. There was a time though, where I couldn't leave

my own house. I was just so scared I was going to die. I ended up going to a cardiologist, and the results came back that I had a fine EKG,

and my stress test was great, my b.p. was fine, etc. This still didn't relieve the mental anguish I put myself through, and that has been the

process ever since; regaining that fearlessness I used to be known for.



I've made a ton of progress in the last year.

I no longer fear death, but I DO NOT WELCOME IT EITHER!

What I really fear the most is,

making the same mistakes in my life twice.





My battle now, isn't a physical one now, it's a mental one. I do a very strict, HIT style program now, with 2 warm up sets, and 1 working

set until complete failure, with 45-1 min in between sets. I'm really following Yates style HIT, but I've had some hang-ups. When I leave

the gym, just getting in a car, and driving is a challenge for me, because I get migraines, and I actually was going cross-eyed at the wheel

during my last work out. I have generalized anxiety, that is brought on by working out, or being in social situations. It's something, I really

don't have much control over, although I've regained enough to start my work out program again; so, here I am. I'm ready to take back my

life again, and get that nice body, so I can feel good about myself. I've been working out very religiously these past 3 months, but I tried

the Paleo diet, and lost a bunch of weight, and I'm a weakling again. But, I'm BACK TO THE BASICS, no more of this bullshit, I'm going to

listen to myself, and try to get an adonis-like physique =P.


Here I am, this is DAY ONE.


Diet (typical day)

Morning: 3 eggs, 1 piece italian toast, peanutbutter, 1 and 1/2 servings on bread. (390 calories)

Snack: protein, simple carb. (200 calories)

Lunch: Sandwhich (400+ calories)

Snack: (200 calories)

Dinner: Protein, veggies, carb (potatoe) (400 calories)

Snack: 200 calories

Late night binge fest: (300+ calories)

I try to eat 6 meals a day, not because I think it does something magical, but for me, it keeps me not bloated, and keeps my overall drive, much higher.






Activities

Basketball, Full Court or Half-Court (burns shit tons of calories, water need to hydrate A LOT!)

I lift 2/3 days a week, depending on how I feel.




Lifting Regiment (estimated)

Lifting days, are Mon, Weds, Fri, and I take Tues, Thurs, Sat, and Sun off. I really lift how I feel though, and if I don't feel mentally
prepared, or recovered, I'll wait another day, or even two, before I do another lift.

Yates/Mentzer style, slow, full R.O.M., 30/45 mins tops in the gym. 1 min TOPS between sets. Working set until brain hemorrhaging complete failure, at life, FAILURE AT EVERYTHING! RAWR!

*STF= Set to Complete Failure

Chest/Shoulders/Tri's:

Bench Press: 2 warm-up, 1 STF*.

Incline Dumbbell: Same

Dumbbell Flys: Same

Military: Same

Skull-crushers: 1 warm-up, 1 STF.

Tricep Rope: Same



Back/Biceps/Core

Bent-Over Rows: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Wide-Grip Cable Rows: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Dumbbell Rows: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Preacher Curls: 1 warm-up, 1 STF.

Partial Rep Dead-Lifts: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.




Legs

Leg Extensions: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Squats: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Dumbbell Lunges: 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts (focus on hamstrings): 2 warm-up, 1 STF.

Calves: 1 warm-up, 1 stf.





Cardio

Basketball

Sprints

I have a love-hate relationship with cardio. I am in the belief that weightlifting is inherently, cardiovascular exercise, and my body responds

to repetitive movement by getting rid of muscle; that is my limited experience. If you can convince me otherwise, I'd be happy to try

something new out. As you can see from my pics, I'm not the leanest person ever, even on my 2k 2.4k cal/day diet.

Well, here I am. Lifting for 10 years, but really, this is day one. Trying to get back to a look that I feel comfortable with, and trying to keep a level head in this crappy economy. I've got a long battle ahead of me, and just hoping the people on this forum can give me some good advice, because I still feel like I can learn.