Hi guys! Here I go with my second post, and it has to be said I’m just as nervous about getting it right as I was with my first! This post is going to explain why, how, how long and how often I’m going to be training… But first of all..
My Goals
Everybody needs to set goals, whether it’s just one, or a number of goals, everybody needs something to work towards. Goals increase focus, they create routine, help to inspire, motivate and when you reach your goal you will be leaving with an unrivaled feeling of satisfaction! So to understand why I’m training the way I am, you need to know my goals, so here they are, and I want to achieve them by March 2014.
- Increase my strength (back squat 120Kg for 5 reps).
- Increase my speed (sprint 60M in 8.5 seconds).
- Reach 78Kg with under 20% body fat (23% at the moment)
So as you can see my goals are pretty simple, but they have a definite value, this means that you can get complete closure on a goal, and enjoy that beautiful satisfaction I described earlier! Remember, set some goals, long-term or short, pick your time scale and stick to it. Don’t give up.. Whats an hour of pain 3 times a week to achieve something you clearly value very highly? NOTHING!
My Normal Week
OK so with goals out-of-the-way, before I tell you exactly how I’m going to be training, you need to know what a normal week for me looks like! Because of my Rugby, I need to avoid over training, therefore I will only be in the gym twice a week, on a Monday and a Wednesday. So my tip to you is, make yourself a week planner, include all your work and 100% necessary activities, and work your workouts into those places you have an hour spare.
The program!
The program I’m going to be using is Mark Ripptoe’s Starting Strength (For a full explanation of the program, visit the link). This is a program for people who are just starting out in the gym or haven’t trained for a long time, It provides a sound workout routine worked three times a week, focusing on the basic compound movements. It is considered one of the best programs to follow for beginners, or anybody who hasn’t trained for a while and is looking to increase their strength and mass.
As shown in the link above, the program comprises of two workouts, workout A and workout B, the program suggests you workout three times a week, on non-consecutive days, for example a popular way of training is Monday/Wednesday/Friday, completing workout A twice and workout B once, the following week the workouts will be swapped so that workout A is worked once and workout B twice.
Workout A
Squat 3×5
Bench 3×5
Deadlift 1×5
Workout B
Squat 3×5
Press 3×5
Power Clean 5×3
Due to my rugby training, I’ll be training twice a week, workout A on Monday and workout B on Wednesday. Over the Christmas period, when I am not playing rugby, I will be doing a 6 week mass gain program as written by Dan John in his book Mass Made Simple.
I will be writing a workout journal as well as posting on this blog, and it would be wicked if you guys could follow my progress and post on there too!
Nutrition
Nutrition is a VITAL part of anybody trying to achieve any kind of goal within fitness. My nutrition is somewhat different to what many people’s will be, due to me being a Type 1 Diabetic. My diet is a lot higher in fats than many other people’s, this is to reduce the amount of injections I have to administer, giving me overall better control of my blood sugar levels (It’s also due to a lot of recent research on high fat vs low-fat diets, which I will explain in another post). I plan to be eating 350 calories over my daily maintenance, which leaves me eating 3000 Kcals a day, which is composed of 160 grams of protein, 183 grams of carbohydrates and 183 grams of fats. I will be making another post within the next few days explaining how you can work out your personal macro-nutrient requirements depending on your goal!
So there you have it! A very brief overview of my training and nutrition before I start to blog my progress! I apologize if there are some mistakes and my style of writing is hard to follow, this is something I know I need to work on!
Please don’t forget to follow SM Simple fitness on twitter (SMsimplefitness) and subscribe to my channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/SMsimplefitness)
Thank-you for reading and I hope your having a great day!!
The Squat
SM Simple Fitness 