Cloughies journal – getting stronger, leaner and fitter

Originally Posted by snikez

If I were you, I'd try not to look at your body that much (in the mirror, etc), so one of these days when you finally do, you'll be happy and surprised at what you see... And with the dedication you have towards your diet and lifting, your journey should go pretty smoothly.
btw: remember me? I was one of the Novus bar contest winners that added you on facebook?

Great point. Because I want change so bad I am checking things too much, it's hard not to. I will try and do it less which will make the changes more noticable to me!

Thursday 16th October

Overall a pretty good day.

Diet was....

Meal 1 - 3 egg ommelete (with sausage and cheese) and green tea
Meal 2 - 3/4 Novus bar, cashew nuts and 4 x fish oil
Meal 3 - 2 servings of Nitrean and 4 x fish oil
Meal 4 - low fat greek yoghurt and 2 servings of Nitrean
Post Workout - Opticen
Meal 5 - Ate at a restaurant - chose the best thing on the menu - Chicken, mash, spinach.. AND passed on the desert... BUT, I also had 2 glasses of win and a couple of rum and cokes dammit it.

Overall though, pretty good and I hit the gym TWICE.

In the morning I did a 2000M row and 12 laps in the pool and then in the afternoon some lower body stuff and the great news is I have NO knee pain.

It was a fairly light rehab type of lower body day, so nothing major but feels nice to be getting back into lower body workouts and some soreness in my legs!

Single leg squats to box - 3 x 8
Single leg RDL's (with a dumbell - I forget how heavy) - 3 x 8
Nordics - 3 x 8

Then just had my hamstrings stretched out..

Looking forward to this session getting more intense and hopefully involving squats/deads and some oly lifting!

I'm very happy to hear your knee is going better, even happier to see you get yourself into the gym twice in a day!

Yep, feels good to be doing some lower body stuff at last. Hopefully squatting and deadlifting is just around the corner and then perhaps even some olympic lifts!

Yesterday was great on both the training and diet front.

It was a 15 rep day which I HATE lol.

Went a bit like this:

Front Pull downs - 3 x 15 @ 60KG
Flat Dumbell Press - 3 x 15 @ 20KG dumbells
Bent over Barbell Rows - 3 x 15 @ 50KG
Narrow Grip Bench - 3 x 15 @ 50KG
Standing Dumbell Bicep Curls @ 12Kg (2 sets) and 10KG (last set)
Leg Raises - 3 x 15

The one thing that I am definately finding is that it is quite hard to estimate the working weight due to the variation in exercises/order of things. Once I have done another 4-6 weeks on this, I may consider less variation in say 2-3 week cycles. We'll see.

Diet was super, super. Less than I would normally have but hey I am cutting

Meal 1 - 3 eggs scrambled (2 whole, 1 white)
Meal 2 - 3/4 Novus bar, cashew nuts and 4 x fish oil
POST WORKOUT - 3 egg ommelete (with sausage and cheese) and green tea
Meal 4 - Home made lamb chilli.... hmmm....

This weekend I am gonna make sure I keep on track, it is the number one reason for my stangnant weight loss i am SURE.

It's 10am now and I am close to meal 2 already

How did the weekend go?

On a scale of 0 to 10, I would say 5 which is better than a normally 2..

I like your advice about taking an evening over the weekend to relax and do what I want and keep it clean the rest of the time. So from now on Saturday evening is my chill time... This should enable me to be 90% over the weekend.

I didn't workout at all because I have been feeling under the weather.. Really sore throat, headache and feeling sick so I figured it was best to just rest so I can hit the Monday session hard and I feel pretty good today so I reckon it was the right decision.

Diet wise, it was fairly good. probably didn't eat enough, but it went like this:

Saturday

Meal 1 - 3 eggs scrambled
Meal 2 - Novus Protein bar and some cashews
Meal 3 - home made lamb chilli (from precision nutrition)
Meal 4 - Large Meal - Beef, potatoes, vegetables and 2 glasses of red wine

Meal 4 was opbviously my chest meal of the weekend.

Sunday

Meal 1 - 3 eggs scrambled
Meal 2 - Vegetable Soup
Meal 4 - Beef stir fry with rice

Overall the weekend was more like 50% which is a bit dissapointing. I definately didn;t eat enough and specifically not enough protein.

However, looking on the positive side, I was aware of trying to be cleaner and I was feeling pretty rough which meant it just knocked me off course.

I think it'll take me a few weeks to get into the swing of things at the weekend, but if I can start nailing 90% weekends consistently, it will make a big difference in my weight loss for sure.

Scales today told me 13,9.5lbs which was pretty good.

5 x 5 in the gym today - can't wait..

Hey all,

Far too long without an update! I just got a bit sidetracked on Monday and Tuesday and then my internet happened to go down for over 2 days which has meant I have been working from my laptop at another location and just had tons to do.

Anyway...............

Training has been going great, a little summary of what I have been doing.

Monday - mobility & weights (5 x 5 - Antagonistic sets session)
Tuesday - tennis
Weds - mobility & weights (4 x 8 Antagonistic sets session)
Thursday - mobility/lower body/rehab

Here are the workouts.

Monday - (60 sec rest periods)

• Mobility - 20 mins
• Flat BB Bench Press - 4 x 5 @ 30K DB
• DB Horizontal Rows - 4 x 5 @ 70K x 1, 75K x 3
• EZ Bicep Curls- 4 x 5 @ 25K x 1, 30K x 3
• Tricep Push Downs - 4 x 5 @ 75K x 5
• Front Pull Downs - 4 x 5 @ 80K x 1, 70K x 3

Wednesday - (90 sec rest periods)

• DB Horizontal Rows - 4 x 8 @ 30K DB
• Romanian Deadlifts - 4 x 8 @ 95K
• Pull Ups - 4 x 6,5,4,4 @ Bodyweight
• Dips - 4 x 8 @ + 7.5K
• Flat BB Bench Press - 4 x 8 @ 62.5k x 1, 65k x 3
• Bar Roll Outs - 4 x 8

Thursday

• Single Leg Squats onto a fairly low box - 4 x 8
• Single leg RDL's with dumbbell (not sure of weight, perhaps 20KG) - 3 x 8
• Weighted hip thrusts with bar - 3 x 8 @ 70KG
• Box Squats - 2 x 8 @ 40KG

Good news was STILL no knee pain which I am loving. Felt I could have done more but coach said to hold it down an we'll slowly increase the intensity and weight.
Diet has been pretty good too - normal clean eating - a slip up here or there but nothing major.

Still pissed I am not losing enough weight and feel fat, but what's new lol. I decided that I am not gonna stress it between now and December. I am going to clean up the eating a little more and throw in some regular cardio and see where I end up come the end of the year. After that I will probably want to start counting calories and getting anal about stuff - it might take this to get my genetically defunct body lean lol

That's about it for now. Have a friends wedding tomorrow and I am an usher so I am out for a few drinks tonight and then have a day of it tomorrow and am not gonna stress it. Back on it Monday.

And back on Monday it was!

Well, kinda... I didn't hit the gym on Monday because I ended up running over on work, but I did eat 100%.

Tuesday is normally a day off, so I just shifted Monday's workout to Tuesday.

I had a tennis lesson in the morning, which is actually pretty good cardio. My technique is getting LOADS better after just two lessons and I am actually enjoying playing now. It's amazing what some technique coaching will do for your game. 2 weeks ago I had an inconsistent forehand and NO backhand. Now I am pretty consistent on the forehand and have a half decent backhand!

I went back to the gym in the evening to hit the weights. Four weeks ago I panned myself out 8 weeks of a routine. Lots of variation of exercise selection, order, volume, rest periods etc. Everything I had done in the past was so static, so I really wanted to mix things up and see where it got me.

This week is week 5, and I as weeks 5-8 are higher rep stuff, I kinda felt that I wanted to go back and do weeks 1-4 again as I spent a lot of that time trying to feel what was the right weight for a given exercise and now I want to really go for it at true rep maxes.

Here is what yesterdays session looked like:

All exercises are 3 x 5 with 60 seconds rest periods.

• DB Flat Bench Press - 3 x 5 @ 30KG dumbells
• Upright BB Rows - 3 x 5 @ 80KG
• Seated DB Military Press - 3 x 5 @ 25KG dumbells
• Standing DB Curls - 3 x 5 @ 20KG dumbells x 1, 18KG dumbells x2
• Tricep Press-Downs - 3 x 5 @ 80KG
• Front Pull Downs 3 x 5 @ 70KG x 1, 75KG x 2

Not a bad workout.. I find it pretty hard to work in the 5 rep range now as i feel it's hard to feel the muscle and focus on form, but as I have a good mix of rep ranges in this routine, I'm not bothered.

Diet went like this:

• Meal 1 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 2 - 3 egg omelette with sausage and cheese (at gym after tennis)
• Meal 3 - Beef stir fry and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 4 - Greek yoghurt and 2 servings of Nitrean
• Post Workout - Opticen

A meal short, but seeing as my workout was very late in the day, I didn't really want to be nailing a whole meal at 10pm and I didn't even feel hungry.

As I said in an above post, diet is REALLY being tightened up now and cardio is going to be done consistently each week. Weekends won;t slip.

Hopefully this can get me another 4-5 lbs between now and Christmas after which I will need to delve into calorie counting land. Something I am down for, but I just wanna spend the next 2 months getting as far as I can with non counting clean eating and lots of exercise.

My favorate 3 x 8 workout today, I will let you all know how it goes.

Originally Posted by Daniel Clough

This weekend I am gonna make sure I keep on track, it is the number one reason for my stangnant weight loss i am SURE.

Weekends can really derail me. I have found that using Chris's plan of 3-4 meals a day really helps me out. With weekends being unstructured I can just get really screwed up. This is especially true because I sleep late. Then I panic about getting shakes in, I don't feel like eating, etc. Saturdays and Sundays I just eat three times a day and take my Nitrean during those meals. If we go out to eat, I even bring my shake in the car and drink it just before going in.

It really stinks to have to play catch up with weight loss after putting a few back on every weekend. The Eating Optimally article by Chris has really helped me a lot.

In response to my log, go get yourself a massage a few times a month. You can't go wrong with it. The body can definitely use some pampering after what we do to it. It really relaxes the mind as well.

Your program looks good. Consistency is key.

Originally Posted by vdizenzo

Weekends can really derail me. I have found that using Chris's plan of 3-4 meals a day really helps me out. With weekends being unstructured I can just get really screwed up. This is especially true because I sleep late. Then I panic about getting shakes in, I don't feel like eating, etc. Saturdays and Sundays I just eat three times a day and take my Nitrean during those meals. If we go out to eat, I even bring my shake in the car and drink it just before going in.

It really stinks to have to play catch up with weight loss after putting a few back on every weekend. The Eating Optimally article by Chris has really helped me a lot.

In response to my log, go get yourself a massage a few times a month. You can't go wrong with it. The body can definitely use some pampering after what we do to it. It really relaxes the mind as well.

Your program looks good. Consistency is key.

Yeah, I dropped the whole frequent, smaller meals thing a while ago. I realised that it was so hard for me to stay consistent with it and at the end of the day consistency is key so if I can make consistent with 4-5, it would be much better.

I normally eat 5, plus a post workout shake.

For the weekend, I am gonna take your advice and drop it to 3-4 meals and just up the size a little to compensate.

Also going to get a couple of soft tissues a month and see how that works out for me. Considering my very long list of issues, I reckon they will really help. and... hurt lol

Couple of days to update on.

Wednesday 28th October


Wednesday was a write off really. I travelled to London about 11am and didn't get back till 7:30pm. And.. when i got back, my car was locked in some car park with all my gym gear in it so I had to get a taxi back blah blah blah. you get the idea.

Diet was pretty good though, considering. I'm getting much better at being aware of not just going crazy when I can't be 100%.

Meal 1 - 3 egg omelette (2 whole, 1 white)
Meal 2 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
Meal 3 - Pork Belly and mash with a glass of lemonade (out for lunch)
Meal 4 - Japanese (beef with blackbean sauce and steamed rice)

Thursday 29th October

Diet = super duper.

• Meal 1 - 3 egg omelette (2 whole, 1 white)
• Meal 2 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 3 - Beef Stir Fry
• Meal 4 - Greek Yoghurt, 2 servings of Nitrean and 4 x fish oil caps
• Post Workout - Opticen
• Meal 5 - Roast Chicken Thighs and vegetables

Training was also really good. Managed to get through another lower body workout with more weight and NO pain - everything felt comfortable.

• Single Leg Squats onto low box - 3 x 8 (each leg)
• Romanian Deadlifts - 3 x 8 @ 100KG (good advancement here)
• Box Squats - 4 x 8 @ 30KG, 50KG, 40KG, 40KG
• Deadlifts 3 x 6 @ 60KG

As you can see, still very light but it's giving me the opportunity to really focus on fire and getting some good glute drive on the squat and dead.

The aim is to just get to the point in 8 weeks where I am dong medium weight - 80-90KG on squat and perhaps 100KG-110KG on deadlift. At that point I should be able to redesign my routine properly to include lower body movements.

Tomorrow is 12 rep day and also gonna get some cardio in, maybe even some tennis!!

argh, pretty annoyed right now.

The last two weeks or so I have had a pain in the right side of my chest, quite high up. It feels as if something is trapped and very tight and quite sore when i turn my body.

It started about two weeks ago, which times with when I started getting tennis lessons so I think I may have just tweaked something. One of the main things in my game that has changed is the backhand and forehand swing. They now have much more range of motion and there is quite a stretch at their end of the swing.

This morning I played tennis and now it's really bad, pretty painful and it feels very tight.

I am just gonna rest up today and the whole weekend and knock tennis on the head for a week. And when I get back to it, really stretch before and afterwards.

Bloody anoying, but the right thing to rest. Hopefully I will be good to attack the weights next week.

The good news. No knee pain from yesterdays workout - whoop, whoop.

Still a bit of pain in my right chest but it's almost gone.

Back into the gym tomorrow for a mobility & full body workout.

Diet was good today. Very basic and missed a meal but on the whole clean and probably just too few calories.

• Meal 1 - 3 egg omelette (2 whole, 1 white)
• Meal 2 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 3 - Greek Yoghurt, 2 servings of Nitrean and 3 x fish oil caps
• Meal 4 - Beef Mince, Tomatotoes and vegetables

Tennis is stupid Cloughie Good to hear you're on the mend though. How are you finding all the bodybuilding stuff?

Originally Posted by tomv

Tennis is stupid Cloughie Good to hear you're on the mend though. How are you finding all the bodybuilding stuff?

Tennis is cooooooooooool! Seriously though anything that is cardio related and that I ENJOY, I gotta take advantage of lol Plus I love the competitive side of Tennis.

Yeah the bodybuilding is going well. My goal is to still just keep progressing and getting stronger so it doesn't really make a huge difference but obviously the rep ranges are different. To be honest, I think I am going to get injured less with this approach anyway because I am realkly focusing on form and many of the workouts are 8 reps+.

Obviously the key thing that is frustrating me is the lack of lower body movements in my routine. I am basically doing 3 x upper body workouts and 1 lower body (very light) a week. It;s a bit much on the upper body and also I can;t wait to get squatting and deadlifting again. Even if it is lighter and less intense than before.

Patience.. patience...

Weds 4th November

Weighed 192 today on the scales. This seems to be the point that it's hard to get beyond, but my goal is to get <190 for the end of November which should be easily possible if I apply myself.

Quality day on both the diet and training front - everything was spot on.

Diet went like this:

Meal 1 - 3 eggs scrambled (2 whole, 1 white)
Meal 2 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
Meal 3 - Beef Stir Fry
Meal 4 - greek yoghurt, 2 servings of Nitrean and 4 x fish oil caps
Post Workout - Opticen
Meal 5 - 3 Pork Sausages, sweet potatoes and vegetables

Training was a bit of a struggle as I got up at 6am and got an early start to the day and I was pretty tired come 5pm. Managed to grind it out though and ended up doing ok. At least the same or more than the last session.

Romanian Deadlifts - 3 x 8 @ 100KG (felt pretty comfortable)
Flat BB Bench Press - 3 x 8 @ 65KG (bit tough on the last set, arrghhh)
Pull Ups - 1 x 8, 1 x 6 (+2) @ red band and 1 x 6 (+2) @ blue band
Dips 2 x 8, 1 x 6 @ +7.5KG
DB Horizontal Rows 3 x 8 @ 30KG dumbell

I would have normally done bar roll outs but I had to skip them as I could feel the pain in my chest as I went to do the first rep.

As I said, it wasn't pretty, but I got it done.

Today is lower body day and it will be 100% on diet too. Right, I am off to make some scrambled egg!

Thursday 5th November

Alrighty then..

Great day yesterday - Lower body training went well and diet was spot on.

First off training.. Lower body day is feeling better and better. NO knee pain and progressively getting heavier with the weights, but... still light overall

It went like this:

• 20 min dynamic warm up
• Weighted Hip Thrusts - 1 x 50KG, 2 x 70KG
• Single Leg Squats - 1 x mid box, 2 x low box
• Squats - 1 x 40KG, 3 x 50KG
• Deadlifts - 2 x 50KG, 2 x 60KG
• Glute ham raises - 3 x 8
• Hamstring Stretches

So as you can see, very much still rehab but the key is that there is NO pain.

I am going to be getting some tissue massage over the next couple of months to help with my tight hams, glutes and calves.

Ok, and diet...

Meal 1 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
Meal 2 - 3 eggs scrambled (2 whole, 1 white)
Meal 3 - Beef Stir Fry
Meal 4 - greek yoghurt, 2 servings of Nitrean and 4 x fish oil caps
Post Workout - Opticen
Meal 5 - Jacket Potatoe with Cheese and Beans

Meal 5 a bit lacking in protein, but not bad overall.


Ok and lastly, some really exciting news

Chris and I have been working hard lately on a pre workout/NO formula which should hopefully KICK ASS. We drafted in a very respected guy on the formula side of things and we came up with what we think is a solid, no nonsense formula for a great NO/pre-workout product.

As with all of our new products, we've arranged for secret samples to be produced so our athletes can try them before we bring it to market. (watch this space)

Here is evidence!!!



Probably won't start using it until next week though... It'll sit safe until then

If you want to test it on a real athlete you just send a sample down to Sydney, Australia ;-)

Haha good work big guy, good to see ALN growing all the time.

Originally Posted by tomv

If you want to test it on a real athlete you just send a sample down to Sydney, Australia ;-)

Haha good work big guy, good to see ALN growing all the time.

Let me know if you know of any and I will let you know

Thanks, got some exciting stuff planned at the moment. Working on three new products!

Friday 6th November

Pretty good day. Good training session and good diet wise apart from a cheat meal out with a mate.

Training went like this:

• Front Pull Down - 2 x 15 @ 60K
• Flat BB Bench Press - 1 x 15, 2 x 10 @ 60KG
• Machine Row - 2 x 15 @ (can't remember weight now)
• Seated Dumbell Military Press (no back support) - 1 x 12+3, 1 x 10+5 @ 12KG dumbells (rest pause)
• Olympic BB curls - 1 x 15, 1 x 10+5 @ 25KG (rest/pause)
• Tricep Push Downs - 2 x 15 (can't remember weight now)

Followed by a jacuzzi

Diet went like this:

• Meal 1 - Novus bar, cashews and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 2 - 3 eggs scrambled (2 whole, 1 white)
• Meal 3 - Classic Chicken (Chicken, vegetables, cocunut milk etc)
• Meal 4 - greek yoghurt, 2 servings of Nitrean and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 5 - Chicken Wings, Chicken and Beef Buritos, 2 glasses of wine (not so good)

From now on it's Operation Move More lol. EVERY day I am gonna do something that gets me moving. I don't care what - from a long walk with the dog to an intense cardio session. I gotta move more if I want this weight to drop.

Started today off with an 8 mile bike ride, felt brilliant.

Gonna do what I feel like this weekend as it's my birthday today and then bac on it Monday - eating less and moving more

Monday 9th November

Awesome day today. Good training session and the diet were spot on.

I felt pretty strong on everything and the lifts are all going up nicely.

• Flat BB Bench Press - 3 x 5 @ 80KG (getting stronger on this now)
• DB Horizontal rows - 3 x 5 @ 37.5KG dumbell
• Seated DB Military Press - 1 x 5 @ 26KG Dumbell and 2 x 5 @ 27.5KG dumbell
• Standing DB Curls - 2 x 5 @ 20KG dumbell and 1 x 5 @ 18KG dumbell
• Narrow Grip Bench Press - 3 x 5 @ 65KG
• Front Pull Downs - 3 x 5 @ 75KG

I finished off with a 500M row just for a warm down.

Overall a good session!

Diet went like this:

• Meal 1 - 3 eggs scrambled (2 whole, 1 white)
• Meal 2 - Novus Bar, cashew nuts and 4 x fish oil caps
• Meal 3 - Classic Chicken (Chicken, vegetables, cocunut milk etc)
• Meal 4 - greek yoghurt, 1 banana, 2 servings of Nitrean and 5 x fish oil caps
• Post Workout - 1 serving of Opticen
• Meal 5 - Chicken Stir Fry

Yesterday I tracked my calories because I wanted to know a bit more detail about the calorie/macros of what would be a 100% day.

Here is the above in FitDay - http://fitday.com/fitness/PublicJour...Owner=Cloughie

It came out at:

• Calories - 2,599
• Fat 104.5 g (37%)
• Carbs - 135 g (21%)
• Protein - 261 g (42%)

Calories aren't tooooo bad for a training day, but I would prefer 2300-2400 to be honest..

I had a brief chat to Paul (Unholy) and he suggested protein was a touch high, as was fat and carbs could be more.

One easy way to address that is to just cut out the cashew nuts in the morning an switch the greek yoghurt to low fat yoghurt. That would literally save me about 400 calories and the main reduction would be fat and a little protein.

Then if I feel like a few more carbs I can eat an extra piece of fruit or add some oats into breakfast but for now I'll probably leave it as it is for a few weeks.

So today I am gonna also record in fitdat and cut out the nuts and we'll see where I end up today.


To address that

Keep it up big guy. Glad to see things are going well =)

Good work cloughie, I'm surprised you're willing to give up the cashews though... I mean we all know how much you love Nuts

*ah yes, immaturity at it's best right there.*

Originally Posted by tomv

Good work cloughie, I'm surprised you're willing to give up the cashews though... I mean we all know how much you love Nuts

*ah yes, immaturity at it's best right there.*

ahhh, I just love these motivational, inspirational and encouraging posts by you Tom. They keep me going in the tough times, when ya gotta dig deep

Tuesday 10th Novemeber

I smashed yesterday. I seem to have found a new lease of motivation lately which is driving me to train harder and track my diet more carefully.

Let's start with diet today... I need to get to 182 (13 stone) SO badly and am 10lbs away from it right now and have been stangant at my current weight for about 6-8 weeks now. **** has to change.

Tracked my diet on fitday again... It's AMAZING when you do this because all of a sudden you realise things you wuold have never of thought. I still don't think it is required every day to do this but doing it now and again really hits home.

For example, I thought Parsnips were basically vegetables and had the same calorie/macro content. WRONG. They are more on par with potatoes!

Pork Sausages. I always knew they were high in fat, but ****.. 3 = 400+ calories and 30grams of fat.

Here was yesterdays calories and macro's - http://fitday.com/fitness/PublicJour...onth=10&Day=10

• Calories - 2,192
• Fat - 85.8g (37%)
• Carbohydrate - 140 (26%)
• Protein - 198g (37%)

Better than the day before. Fat was still quite high but the sausages did that. Had it have been a more lean meat it would have been down as would have the overall calories.

I hit the gym yesterday too:

• Cross Trainer (10mins)
• Row - 2000M (about 6.5 mins)
• Uphill walking - 6 gradient and between 6-7KMH (10mins)
• Boxing/Pad work (5mins straight)

Gotta keep up this momentum and turn this week into an amazing one with perhaps even getting under the 192 weight mark!

Oh I also had a 40min soft tissue massage yesterday - calves, hamstrings, IT bands and glutes. Feel a bit loose this morning, gonna try and get this done a couple of times a month.