Creating a Plan - and sticking to it

Hello there. Just to introduce myself, my name is Jack. I've been involved in fitness both personally on my own journey and also through involvement in sport at both a national and international level over the last seven years.

Throughout my time I've managed to go from 80kg bodyweight when I first started (tall and skinny) to my current weight of 106kg, most recently at 13.7% body fat. During this weight gain I've had very large increases in weight which resulted in a lot of body fat gain and also decreases in weight with my lowest body fat percentage being about 11%.

I hope to help people in this blog achieve their own fitness goals.

So, let's begin.

Sometimes, the hardest point in any journey is always the beginning. Getting into the gym can be very daunting at the start no matter how many times people say “nobody will pay attention to you” (which is the truth, by the way).

I have found that even the smallest steps in a day can change your whole week. I often have days where I don’t feel like I want to exercise or have the energy to do so and those days are some of the most important ones.

I prefer to get my workouts done before work in the morning, it leaves my evening free for time to be spent with family and just switching off for a small while. But, for example, just last week I slept through my alarm, had that thought of “I won’t bother” or “I’ll workout later instead”. I decided to get out of bed in the end and get a workout in.

I did three exercises in the 20 minutes that I had.

Trust me, I won’t be making any life changing physique changes with those 20 minutes.

But I kept the intensity high and a bit of a sweat out of it. It’s the principle of carrying out that work when you don’t want to that really lays a good foundation for the days you feel like doing so.

For the first year or two I only did three gym sessions a week but still managed to put on a noticeable amount of muscle mass just by ensuring that I was eating when I felt like it and slept well. I’ve never been a big fan of counting calories but if you trust in the quality of food you eat, over time everything else will take care of itself.

You don’t need to be setting the world alight for the first few months of exercising, it’s just about building a habit that you can stick to and you’ll always thank yourself for it, I can guarantee that.

My plan when I first began was two upper body sessions a week and one lower body session. If you’re also able to get a short walk in on the weekend, great! If not, don’t worry and just focus on those three sessions. I’ll get into the intricacies of what exercises I do later on but there’s plenty of basic information on the type of exercises you can do out there. At this point I’ve reached a stage where some of my lifts are more advanced and might be considered unconventional, but they work very well for me.

I try to keep my sessions under an hour in length as I think intensity plays a bigger role than a lot of people realise in terms of building muscle. For strength, you can take that 5 minutes between sets but from a muscle-building perspective you’re much better off with shorter rest times.

Here's a short example to get started with:

Monday – Legs (hardest day of the week)

·       Squats – 3 sets 5 reps

·       Romanian Deadlifts – 3 sets 8 reps

·       (Bulgarian) Split Squats – 3 sets 6 reps (some people opt for higher reps on these but start small)

·       Leg Extensions – 4 sets 12 reps (nice and controlled, try hold at the top and lower the weight down)

Wednesday – Back & Biceps

·       Bent over row – 3 sets 5 reps

·       Chin Ups (assisted if needed) – 3 sets As Many Reps as Possible (AMRAP)

·       Hammer Curls – 3 sets 12 reps

·       Bicep Curls – 3 sets 12 reps (slow and controlled)

Friday – Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

·       Barbell Bench Press – 4 sets 5 reps

·       Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 sets 8-10 reps

·       Lateral Raises – 3 sets 12-15 reps

·       Straight bar Tricep Cable Pushdown – 3 sets 10-12 reps

I hope this helps to get started a look forward to hearing feedback from people!

Jack.