Rate my progress in 3.5 years

BrianD3

Anybody like to rate my progress after about 3.5 years of weights?

The story starts in around March 2003 when I was 25. I was very unsporty, weak, skinny and unfit with a terrible diet. I decided I wanted to do something about this so got a set of vinyl dumbbells and started doing bodyweight push ups and pull ups with the aim of gaining strength and mass. Gained about half a stone of mostly muscle pretty quickly.

In July 03 I decided to try to do some more serious weight training, got better weights and started doing deadlifts and pullups with added weight. At this stage I weighed 10.5 stone

Below is the actual thread where I first asked for advice on deadlifting and posted my early progress. Everyone has to start somewhere and I was probably right to be cautious at the start. But it's embarrassing how I thought I was good to be deadlifting 48 kg by Oct 03 and then got defensive when a GIRL said she was deadlifting more than me. Really threw my toys out of the pram there - what an eejit
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107708

Now it's January 2007. I have added various exercise to my routine, have dropped others, changed things around etc. My priority now is different than it was at the start - am no longer interested in becoming "hyooge" but want to remain about the same size and get stronger. The two exercises that have remained there all along since the start are the deads and pullups. Obviously i'd prefer to have more than two exercises to measure my progress with but that can't be helped now.

I'm now just over 11 stone so only about 1/2 stone heavier thah 3.5 years ago. Deadlift is now up to 205kg which is not far off 3 times bodyweight. Unfortunately I have no record of what my starting strength in the pull ups was but it was a lot less than now. I'd estimate it was about 20% of bodyweight added. About a month ago I did a weighted pullup with 100% of bodyweight added.

So in this length of time what sort of progress have I made - good bad or indifferent? It'd be interesting to know this because it will give me a better idea of whether i'm doing things right or not.

If anyone else wants to discuss their own progress they can post about it here too.

t-ha

Rating: 8

Em, well first off, the fact that you're still at it after 3.5 years is probably the best thing.

A 100%BW weighted pull-up is awesome & not something I think I'v ever seen done in any gym I've been in.

Your deadlift is very strong too, my only concern is that to get it to progress after hitting 3xBW probably requires specific programmes to keep it going. What kind of template are you following at the moment - your lift seems to have been 205kg for quite a while now?

amazingemmet

The progress you've made i'll give you a 7 :P

Not bad overall, whats your squat at?

The 100% bodyweight pull is ridiculously good.

What height are you btw?

Have you any before and after photos?

daveirl

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davyjose

Yeah, I agree with DaveIrl - the two exercises you rate yourself off are awesome. Nothing short of it. Find more goals and more exercises to rate yourself with (bench and squat maybe) Good luck mate, and fair play.

BrianD3

Thanks lads for the honest replies. As regards pull ups, the thing about them is that too few people do them compared to say benching so it's not as easy to compare to others and rate your progress. Even when people do them, they don't tend to max out or go heavy on them. I believe that bodyweight and weighted pull ups are one of the very best upper body exercise you can do. Also, the technique is simple and they are one of the safest heavy exercises IMO. Just make sure you have a sufficently strong chin up bar - I believe a normal doorway mounted one has a limit of about only 100kg total weight.

To answer a few of the questions. I am 5 foot 9 and have never done a back squat or a bench press. Although I'd say I could be a reasonable squatter as I do a lot of tough leg work like weighted pistols, one legged deads, sumo deads. Also do overhead squats occasionally. The reason I don't do back squats or bench is simply that I workout at home and dont have the right equipment i.e. a power cage. Must get around to getting one.

As for training regimes - if I didn't enjoy training I wouldn't stick at it so enjoyment is no.1 goal. I find that I like doing frequent, heavy, simple and low rep workouts with a lot of maxing out and heavy singles. Might not be the best way to gain strength and I agree with t-ha that a specific programme (Westside?) might be needed to make more progress in the deadlift. However I don't think I'd enjoy a Westside programme very much.

daveirl

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Aedh Baclamh

Good going Brian, just wondering do you bodyweight training every day? Like push ups etc?

davyjose

Couple of things here might be worth the investment. Just an example - you can probably go one better than Argos: http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ArgosBrowseCounts?storeId=30001&jspStoreDir=argosie&identifier=8171747&Trail=C%24cip%3D44184%3EC%24cip%3D44234%3EC%24cip%3D44245&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

BrianD3

I don't do Lunges or Bulgarian Split Squats. The Bulgarians look interesting though - might try them instead of weighted pistols as the pistols are getting awkward and dangerous trying to find ways to add weight.

I also don't do many bodyweight exercises. Obvious problem with many BW exercise is the lack of progression. Some bodyweght exercises are too tough to even make a start on. Others are too easy because the resistance is too low. I don't believe in doing large number of reps @ low resistance. That's why I don't do bodyweight pullups myself, they no longer give enough resistance. But for somone just starting out doing pull ups, BW would be a good starting point. For people who cannot do one BW pull up, assisted pull ups or maybe negatives could be utilised at first.

For equipment, Argos is actually not bad which surprises many people. But for cages, racks and benches I'd probably buy from VJs, Gymratz UK or Mickk (if he ever gets his online shop up and running!)

Black Swan

Establish a baseline using today's measurements, then set a time in the future to measure again to assess progress?

daveirl

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