Mike's Quest to Weight 200 lbs

[MichaelReinke]

Hi,

I have been 90's small almost my entire life but would now like to become a decently strong 200 lb. male. Although a cervical injury that has caused 24/7 tension headaches has kept me out of the gym for the past two years, my pain has subsided enough for me to now pursue this goal. However, this has an implication for my training: knowing full well the benefits I am missing, I am going to be a pussy and not power clean (unfortunately, at least not at the moment) because the impact and explosive nature of this exercise serves as a trigger that exacerbates my headaches. As such, I am following the novice routine laid out in the 1st edition of PPST with pull-ups and chin-ups. I began the program a couple of weeks ago. My beginning stats are:

Age: 22
Height: 5'10"
Body-weight: 138 lbs
Squat: 3x5 95 lbs
Bench: 3x5 65 lbs
Press: 3x5 55 lbs
Deadlift: 1x5 115 lbs

Tragic, I know. A couple weeks in I am now at body-weight 148 (I already feel much better).

1/17/10:
Squat: 3x5x145 lbs
Bench: 3x5x105 lbs
Dead-hang Chins: 6, 4, 4 x BW

Everything felt pretty easy today. I am hopeful that I can sustain some more 10 lb jumps on the squat and bench until slowing down to 5 lb jumps.

I also plan to increase my milk intake linearly by a gallon a week until I achieve GOMAD. This past week I did 2 gallons so now I will do 3.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat: 3x5x155 lbs

these felt good

Press: 3x5x85 lbs

I was a bit worried about the last rep of each set as form started to deteriorate and I hope excessive lean-back did not result, but I fought through them. hopefully I will get some video footage to look at sometime soon on this exercise; it is the one I am most worried about.

Deadlift: 1x5x192 lbs

had to switch to alternating grip on the work set, otherwise this went fine

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 3x5x165 lbs

Bench Press 3x5x115 lbs

Dead Hang Pull-ups x BW 4, 3, 2

Bodyweight increase: 148 => 151 from 1/17/10

everything felt good except the pull-ups, but they are harder than chin-ups and I suppose that is to be expected when I am rapidly increasing bodyweight. only 50 more lbs to go.

I also figured out what will serve as the foundation for my diet:
6 eggs + GOMAD + 2 peanut butter and nutella sandwiches = 4000 kcal

then another 1000-2000 kcal of whatever I like which will let me eat something not so routine and disgusting :] I'll start out around 5000 kcal and see where that puts me.

[MichaelReinke]

so I've been going Su/Tu/Th but now am switching to M/W/F so that I can train with some buddies. so that I didn't go four days without training, I simply did an abbreviated session on Saturday and didn't do any form of pull; this will also let me keep the deadlift in the middle of the week.

1/23/10 was as follows:

Squat 3x5x175

Press 90x3,2,2

a bit disappointed with the press, but I can't say that I am too surprised. I'm probably going to re-read the chapter on it.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 185x4,3,2
Bench 125x4,3,2
Chins 5,4,3

Bodyweight: 152

Annoying, well I learned a couple things:

1) My 10 lbs were probably a bit ambitious for the way the weights were feeling. time to slow down
2) Bodyweight. I seem to do the shittiest when my bodyweight isn't moving up (I guess all the guys at 70sbig.com will tell me this is a no-brainer) and I have now experienced this first hand. I only had a 1 lb. increase over about a week. I am actually quite surprised, I thought I was stuffing my face. I might have to re-evaluate diet as well and put in some high calorie foods that will go down easily like ice cream, etc.

[TartanEagle]

Track your diet on Fitday.com. I found this very helpful. It will help you figure out how much you are actually eating. I would shoot for 5 - 6 thousand calories. I have found that adding trail mix to my diet has really helped add calories.

[MichaelReinke]

Squat 3x5x185

My squats are definitely back on track, these felt great! I amped up the hip drive this week after watching the SS DVD.

Press 90x4,3,2

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the press, might be time to order some smaller plates.

Deadlift 215x5

Thanks for the advice TartanEagle, I just registered at fitday and will try out some trail mix next time I go to the store.

[MichaelReinke]

After dealing with some personal issues, I have since hit the grindstone again.

Workout 4/5/10:

Squat 3x5x185
Bench 3x5x130 (both these barbell lifts felt relatively easy today)
Strict chins x BW 7,6,5

[MichaelReinke]

Meant to type 4/7/10

Squat 3x5x190

Press 3x5x95

Deadlift 1x5x235

Also spent ~ 1.5 hours (I'm pretty new to cooking) making paleo meatballs off the crossfit football website: http://www.crossfitfootball.com/page...page=meatballs. Delicious, nutritious, and now I have pre-cooked beef for a few days. I would highly recommend them to any other cooking newbs.

I'll be weighing in on Friday.

[burnsco]

Start drinking a gallon a day and you will be amazed how the weight goes up! I just decided one day I'm sick of being small and skinny and set my mind on drinking as much as I could. It only took 3 days to get up to a gallon. you can do it too! I also recommend putting peanut butter in your protein shakes.