A Recovery Journal

[SoloScott]

I am back in the gym, after a traumatizing year of “rest” and 30 pounds of weight loss. My last day at the gym in 2005 was July 29th; I weighed almost 190 pounds and I was in the best shape of my life. The next day, I crashed my motorcycle into a concrete highway divider. My friend on the scene later told me that several of the emergency crew, individually, told him that I would not live. I spent time in the hospital and took almost a full year to recover. Nurses told me that I probably would have died from internal injuries, if I wasn’t in such great shape. It wasn’t just the crash and injuries that kept me out of the gym for so long…

I had rented my house on the east coast, to come to Washington for a job opportunity in February of 2005. Because of the time crunch to start work, I had to leave everything in my house and pack one car for the drive. Even after doing some background checks on the tenants in my house, they just stopped paying me right after their move-in. This went on for several months, as I fought with them and dealt with their lies.

When I returned from the hospital after my motorcycle crash, my roommate (who owns the house I was renting a room in) went a little insane. He could not stand that I was home constantly, as I was recovering from my injuries. My use of the house was slowly forbidden, as he restricted me to the one room I was renting. He then threw me out, so I quickly found a new place to live. It was not easy to find a new place to live and make the move with many injuries, including a broken collar bone.

The new place I rented was in a decent part of town (not great, but not poor). Shortly after I moved into the new place, with most of my things still in boxes, the house was broken into. The thieves stole almost everything I owned out here. I was left with a bed and some of my clothes. In all, they took almost $16,000 (stereo, tools, laptop, etc.).

Shortly after that, I was forced to fly back across the country, face my tenants in court after they had defaced my house, and evict them. After threatening me and stalling, they finally left my house owing me $7,000. As they moved out, they stole everything in the house. I won in court against them, but I will never see any of the $15,000 they cost me.

Facing a cold winter in the Northeast, I spent a good deal of time trying to get the house taken care of (arranging snow shoveling and maintenance). Working on that, dealing with insurance companies for medical bills, and replacing the things that were stolen out here, the stress was becoming overwhelming. It showed at my job, and I was quickly fired without warning. I was out of work for 3 months, while sharing the rent of a place in Washington, paying the mortgage for the house on the east coast (more than a year at that point), and paying for all the utilities to keep things going. I dealt with more immature, filthy, and spiteful roommates, had my car vandalized, and got “jumped” in the following couple of months. I was depressed, to say the least. The breaking point was when my girlfriend, and best friend, left me to start dating another guy…

I did nothing for a couple of weeks. My parents had heard enough of my problems; I felt that I was just causing them more agony in venting to them, so I kept my problems to myself. With nobody to talk to, I came to the conclusion that I am the only thing that I have left. Using what strength I had seen in my ex, as she continued to support me through all the tough times, I went back to the gym.

Here is my journal…

[SoloScott]

This is why I am here…
I am using this as a place to see where I came from and refine my goals. More than that, I am looking for advice/ideas/support concerning my diet and training. I have learned a lot from browsing this site. Hopefully I will get some advice specific to my routine, goals, and diet by posting this journal.

Thanks.

I am 29 years old, 5’11”, and currently 175 pounds. I have always had a tough time gaining weight, until I started using the advice on this site and lifting/eating aggressively. I hit the gym and ate heavily for 7 months in 2005; I was able to gain 30 pounds in that time, with essentially no increase in body fat. I started lifting again, more than a month ago on July 17th, weighing about 165 pounds. I would ROUGHLY guess my body fat to be about 14% now (up from the past).

My goal is to reach 200 pounds at less than 10% body fat. I hope to reach 190 pounds by January (18 weeks from now). In my quest to get to 200, I will be bulking through about April 2007, and will possibly gain more (TBD). My body fat will certainly be above 10%, so I plan on doing a cut and then a slow, clean bulk. I want to reduce my body fat while maintaining my weight above 195 pounds until reaching my goal. I do realize that this goal may change a little, and I do not mind if I must do a series of small cuts and bulks to reach the end result.

[SoloScott]

My Diet…

This is an example of what I tend to eat.
Breakfast
2 bowls of cereal: “Go Lean Crunch” and granola & oats with skim milk
1550 calories (240g carb, 43g fat, 63g protein)

Lunch
2 sandwiches (whole wheat bread, 13oz of turkey, mustard) -sometimes 3 sandwiches
5.5oz of orange juice
791 calories (69g carb, 11g fat, 100g protein)

Dinner
3 chicken breasts with barbecue sauce
1320 calories (4g carb, 52g fat, 197g protein)

Total food intake
3665 calories (312g carb – 31%, 106g fat – 27%, 360g protein – 41%)

Add supplements
Generic multi-vitamin
Fish oil caps (2.5g EPA/DHA)
2 scoops of Nitrean in water (48g protein)
5g of creatine mixed with 11oz of grape juice

Intake after supplements: 4057 calories (33% carb, 25% fat, 42% protein)

Calorie expenditure:
RMR = 2018 calories
+ regular daily activity = 3027 calories
+ 1 hour of weight lifting = 3507 calories
+ TEF = ….

Total calories spent on a gym-day = 3810 calories

[SoloScott]

My Routine

Six Day Split

Day1 rest (Sunday)

Day2 Back
pull up (warm up) 3*10
seated row or dumbbell bent row 4*9-6
wide grip pull down 4*9-6
back extension 4*15-10
Straight arm pulldown 4*9-6

Day3 Triceps
dips (elbows in) 5*10-8
tricep push down 4*10-7
skull crushers 4*10-8
...alternate - Single-arm tricep push down 4*10-8
Abs:
...incline sit-up 4*20-10
...vertical straight leg raises 4*15

Day4 Legs
squats 4*10-8
leg extension 4*10-7
leg curl 4*10-8
standing calf raise 4*9-7
reverse calf raise 4*10

Day5 Shoulders
lateral raises 4*10-8
rear lateral raise 4*10-8
shoulder press 4*9-7
lever lateral raise (seated) 4*10-8
shrugs 4*10-8
...alternate - cable rear deltoid row
...alternate - upright row 4*10-8

Day6 Chest
flat dumbbell press 4*10-7
decline dumbbell press 4*10-7
incline dumbbell press 4*10-7
...additional - pec flies or cable press

Day7 Biceps
standing preacher curl 4*10-6
concentration curl 4*10-7
cable curl 4*10-6
...alternate - incline dumbbell curl 4*10-8
...alternate - standing barbell curl 4*10-6
Abs:
...incline sit-up 4*20-10
...vertical straight leg raises 4*15

[SoloScott]

Can anyone comment on what I am doing? What changes would you suggest? Anyone?

[SoloScott]

Ok, I guess I'm talking to myself :)

Anyways... I am changing my routine around to look like this:
Day 1 rest (Sunday)
Day 2 Shoulders
Day 3 Back
Day 4 Triceps
Day 5 Legs
Day 6 Rest (Friday)
Day 7 Chest & Biceps

The reason for doing this was to split up my shoulders and chest days. I also want to add another rest day, so I will try to get chest and biceps in on the same day. We'll see.

[Sidior]

Glad to hear you got through everything bro, gl with the journal. Why does triceps have its own day?

[ddegroff]

Wow, thats tough. Glad to see your still motivated to hit the iron again. Welcome to journal land!

Glad your here!

Couple of comments:
1) Why biceps/triceps have there own day?
2) You sound like you made good gains in the past, so once a week per body part may work for you

[clawhammer_33]

Props to getting back on the horse.

The iron never lies nor cheats, and is always happy to see you.

[SoloScott]

Glad to hear you got through everything bro, gl with the journal. Why does triceps have its own day?
It's a fair question.... They deserve their own day because I love to really work them hard. Probably my favorite body part to completely exhaust.


Wow, thats tough. Glad to see your still motivated to hit the iron again. Welcome to journal land!

Glad your here!

Couple of comments:
1) Why biceps/triceps have there own day?
2) You sound like you made good gains in the past, so once a week per body part may work for you
I gave biceps their own day, pretty much because triceps had their own day AND because I wanted to get into the gym on that day. I have recently revised my routine, now that my schedule has stabilized a little.

I will post my new routine later.

Thank you very much for the support! It feels really good to be back in the gym, and making good use of my time. I got back into the gym on July 17th (2006). In those 2 months, I have gained about 13 pounds.

[ddegroff]

Nice work!

Cant wait to see the new routine!

[SoloScott]

My (New) Routine

Five Day Split

Day1 rest (Sunday)

Day2 Shoulders
shrugs 4*10-8
lateral raises 4*10-8
rear lateral raise 4*10-8
shoulder press 4*9-7
...alternate - lever lateral raise (seated) 4*10-8
...alternate - seated rear lateral raise 4*10-8

Day3 Back
pull up (warm up) 3*10
seated row 4*9-6
wide grip pull down 4*9-6
back extension 4*15-10
straight arm pulldown 4*9-6

Day4 Triceps
dips (elbows in) 5*10-8
tricep push down 4*10-7
skull crushers 4*10-8
...alternate - single-arm tricep push down 4*10-8

Day5 Legs
squats 4*10-8
standing calf raise 4*9-7
reverse calf raise 4*10
leg curl 4*10-8
leg extension 4*10-7

Day6 rest (Friday)

Day7 Chest & Biceps
flat dumbbell press 4*10-7
decline dumbbell press 4*10-7
incline dumbbell press 4*10-7
...additional - pec flies or cable press

concentration curl 4*10-7
standing preacher curl 4*10-6
...alternate - cable curl 4*10-6
...alternate - incline dumbbell curl 4*10-8


Triceps still get their own day, mainly because I can't fit them into the workout on my shoulders, back, or leg days. I try to limit my gym-time to 1 hour per day.

[SoloScott]

Just to follow up, I will eventually incorporate Deadlifts and SLDLs into my routine. My routine is never set in stone, and I do switch things up for a week, about every 2 months.