Figured I would give an update after 4 weeks.
Diet:
One of the first things I needed to get sorted was diet, and it took a little getting used to, and patience weighing everything and recording all the values for everything I ate (wife got pretty pissed off too! Lol). But I’ve been doing 2 days at 2500cal and 3 days at 2250 cal. I average between 220g -240g of protein a day. At this intake I feel like I am dropping fat, stomach, man-tities and love handles are slowly receding.
Lifting:
First week were a real challenge. My back just couldn’t handle the weight. It was just seizing up and cramping, also had a fair amount of inflammation around my SI joint. This was only doing things like 60kg DL or BB squat. So decided to start really slowly, doing things like supermans and glute-and-ham raises on a swiss-ball, and planks on a swiss-ball etc. A week of doing heaps of these seemed to do the trick, back feels way better, and I have progressed in weight and now the back doesn’t size up or get inflamed. The muscles just get sore now. Haven’t done any max testing but am now able to comfortably do 100kg x5 x5 DL’s
I have been doing a lot of stretching, foam rolling and mobility work, I am starting to be able to get ass to calf without any hip-tuck in the back Squat.
Still only doing BB only squats until I get a rack. But it has been good for me to get my form and mobility sorted before I go heavy.
I’ve also been having some shoulder problems. The last couple of weeks I have been doing shoulder press 55kg x5 x5, but the last couple of times I have noticed a grinding in my left shoulder (no pain during exercise) but a dull ache after. So stopped overhead work and went and saw a physio. He said unstable left scapula (majorly winging) and also slight instability of the shoulder joint, so I’ve been doing several exercises to try and fix that. So no OHP until that gets fixed.
I’m in NZ now on a holiday visiting family, but when I get back in two weeks, I will buy a rack and I look forward to getting into heavier weights for DL and back Squats.
Here are some pics for comparison:
, plus goals were never meant to be easy!
