Gym Routine

Feb 25, 2015 @ 12:19 PM

About 6 months ago I started lifting. I did the strong lifts program for 6 months straight.

During the course of that time I continued playing soccer. I was getting quite a bit of cardio every week, in the neighborhood of 3-5 hours.

I worked out every Mon/wed/fri:

• Squat 5×5: I originally couldn’t even get parallel with a sumo squat. I’m pretty tall and spend a lot of time sitting so my hip flexors were ridiculously tight. I have an elaborate stretching / warmup routine for everytime I squat. Eventually I loosened up and was able to go ass to grass. My biggest achievement was a bro in the gym who was squatting 360 lbs complemented me on my squat form.

Started 120 lb squat —> Currently at 255 lb squat

• Bench 5×5: Back in like 2012 I went to the gym on a split and basically fucked around. I didn’t really have a proper routine and was doing hypertrophy. We benched every single day. So I have great form for benching. Problem is I don’t have enough mass on my chest.

Started 120 lb bench —> Currently at 165 lb bench

• Bent Over Barbell Row 5×5: I struggled with this lift for the longest time. The form was extremely uncomfortable as I had poor flexibility and I’m tall as hell. I stuck with it for months but when the weight started getting high I had issues with my shoulder. My back is extremely tight, to the point when I would squat, near the end of my set it feels like my shoulder is going to pop out from having my arms back. I switched up from a bent over row to seated bench rows. My body has been much happier with me since.

Started at 65lb row —> Got to 115 row

Switched to seated rows at 120lb —> currently at 160lb seated row

• Overhead Press 5×5: What a struggle. Holy shit. This one was brutal for me as I was so tight I could not raise my arms straight above my head and tuck my ears against my arms. I basically did this with terrible form for a while until I hurt myself. Luckily it wasn’t too bad, but essentially I would move my arms up with the weight, and I would have a “click” in my left bicep. One of the PT’s finally corrected my form and showed me some stuff to help out with my flexibility, but the exercise continued to fuck my shoulder so I switched to a machine overhead press. My buddy continued to barbell OHP and while he did that I would go do an elaborate stretch routine and then machine OHP with a hypertrophy set, 3×10-12.

Started Barbell OHP 75lbs —> didn’t get past 75lbs

Started Machine OHP 80lbs —> Got to 140lbs machine OHP

• Deadlift 5×5: Again as with some of the previous lifts, deadlift was a struggle for me. I didn’t like crouching and bending over so much, but eventually a found a form that was comfortable. I continued this form for 6 months until a PT corrected me. Since this recent correction i’ve dropped my weight to fix my form, but i’ve steadily started climbing back up again. I now make sure to deadlift in my socks, and try my best to scrape my shins with the bar. I know with my body proportions I am built to deadlift like a boss, but I just need to get there first.

Started deadlift 145lbs —> got to 230lbs

Fixed form restarted at 205lbs —> currently at 225lbs

All of this lifting was while I continued to play for two soccer teams and play futsal. (soccer varient) I participated in a beep test (leger shuttle run) in January and was very proud to score 13, which in a class of 250 first year kines kids was the highest score. (2 other people tied my score.)

In January I got frustrated with my men’s team and decided “fuck it I’m going to bulk.” I kept up with it for approximately 1 month and actually managed to put on some weight. My main changes were the introduction of eggs whites and oats into my diet.

Since then I’ve rethought my goals and I care more about soccer than bulking. I am currently working on a new program that still has my big lifts in it, but also new stuff for my “soccer performance.”

Diet

-I basically eat a big bowl of vector and have a couple cups of black coffee every morning. I try to have a second breakfast of oats if I can manage it.

-At lunch I will make my protein, (Musclepharm Combat) with skim milk and take my 4 fish oils and 1 multivit. I usually also make a sandwich with deli chicken and cheese.

-Dinner is a toss up, sometimes it’s healthy sometimes it’s not. Frequently I eat pizza, or burgers and fries, or lasagna. Linguine, tortellini, steak, and pork makes frequent appearances though.

-Throughout the day I intermittently take a swig of egg whites.

Sups

I take musclepharm 100% pure creatine with some sugar right before every workout and mens soccer game. I take musclepharm 100% pure glutamine after every workout.

As mentioned before, Musclepharm combat protein powder, fish oils and a multivit.