Also, working night shifts screwed up my sleep cycle, food intake, as well as training. I ended up doing alot of 'ghetto' workouts as i could not find time to go to the gym. These were really time effective, gave me a good pump, and definitely leaned me out abit, but to be frank, ain't nobody gon' get no gains from just ghetto workouts. It was hard to get quality nutrition too. Working at night and sleeping in the day meant all shops would be closed, so i had to pack my food, but when i forgot to, or it was inconvenient to, i had to do with mcdonalds, or shit from 7 11. REALLY BAD for gains.
My training programming was ridiculous too. I was trying out T-nation's Chris T-whatchamacallit's program, basically sets of three reps, cycling the weight within each workout. So an average squat session at the start of the year would look like this:
(sets of 3) 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115,
110, 112.5, 115,
110, 112.5, 115,
110xamrap
The program itself isn't very ridiculous, but it was the fact that i was a noob attempting to use a relatively advanced program to get gains. Look at the ridiculously low amount of weight i was squatting then. I was doing the same thing for press and bench. This got my bench rm up to 112.5, press rm up to 72.5, and my squat rm up to 130. At this point i was 80kg.
Somewhere in the middle of the year, i started playing with wave loading, and even ran a few cycles of 5 3 1. After that, my squat went up to 140 for 3 reps. What i realise, with the benefit of hindsight, is how i thought my squats were deep even though they only went slightly past parallel.
Then along came school. Interestingly, it was when school started that i started making pretty incredible gains. And its all thanks to one word. SMO-fkin-LOV. love that shit. Truth be told, i ran it with questionable depth on my squat reps, but the strength increase it gave me was pretty damn insane. I still remember my new year session last year at bishan clubfitt, when i squatted 120kg for 3 reps and thought i was purdy damn strong (compared to all the other weekend warriors in there at least). Today, i squat 140 ass to grass, for 6 sets of 4. Really substantial gains for a year, if i might say so myself haha. Noob gains, probably, but hey, the only way a noob can go is up.
During that same session on the first day of 2012, i benched 100kg for 2 reps, Which was pretty damn near my max at that time. During a recent bench session, i did 100 for 9. So i guess Smolov jr really does work for bench (ran two cycles).
Made some sweet gains on the overhead press as well. Was doing 60kgx6x6 somewhere in the middle of the year. Pressed 77.5kg for 5 sets of 2 yesterday.
What i've learnt from all this? Take control of your life, be the master of your own circumstances. Never, NEVER let your circumstances dictate the direction of your training (or job/results/family life, for that matter). Tried some pretty crazy shit this year (crazy to me at least) like having smolov squat session on less than 4 hours of sleep, or benching 105x10x3 after 2 hours of sleep (still remember the session because i was so fkin happy my crit was over and done with). I don't regret pushing my body, and i doubt anybody ever regrets that.
Today, i weighed 87kg after training on an empty stomach. Gained 9kg over a year, which seems pretty slow, but cut an asian some slack, i've only recently started actively trying to gain weight. Really hope to hit 90kg soon, and then see where training and eating (alot) take me.
So...... if i had to sum up shit the year taught me:
-No-carbing cuts you up pretty damn fast, at the expense of gains.
-Ghetto workouts are good as an inter-rim measure to prevent loss of strength, but they cannot be used to gain strength.
-I need carbs to get strong.
-Thus far, i've responded pretty well to high volume training. So, for me at least, volume is the way to go.
-When you go to the gym, leave your ego outside. Quarter squatting 160 is far less respectable than atg squatting 120. But of course, this is just my opinion.
-Choose your program wisely. There's a reason why programs are categorised by level of experience.
-A training partner helps, but don't become too reliant on one. If the quality of your workout depends on the presence of a training partner, thats just retarded.
-Same thing for training environment. Try not to let it affect you. I'm still working on that.
-Listen to the old dudes in the gym, especially those who have the strength or size to back whatever they're saying up. Some people say oh, even the noobs can teach you a thing or two. FK DAT SHIT. no noob can teach you nuts. i swear. thats just patronising BS.
-If you want to get stronger, don't be afraid to eat like you mean it. want inspiration? go watch frank yang's bulking vids. if you say you're trying to bulk, but your weekly food intake is less than what he ate in that one video, stop lying to yourself.
-Core work and posterior chain work help your squat more than you think.
-SLEEP. omg this point. YOU NEED SLEEP. sleep 9 hours a day if possible. love sleep. Does wonders for your cns, really important to sleep if you want to avoid burning out, or shitty sessions.
-Coffee is the only pre-workout you need. It's cheap, too.
-Stretch/do warm up sets with just the bar. Treat that shit like a mini 're-learning' of the lift for every session. And treat every rep like you would your rep max. That way you're not just warming up your body, but your mind as well.
Ok thats about all i can think of right now haha. Aww sheet. long post. oh well. Hope, with all the shit i've learnt this year, i can get bigger, faster and stronger in 2013. Benching tomorrow. yay.
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