I guess the graph speaks for itself... Being an engineering student, I really like to plot stuff on graphs. And this graph is about my increasing bodyweight this month (till 20th the weight is what I measured, after that I put on the expected trend, used some function in MS Excel for that). As you can see, I'm putting on more weight. For the first time after 6 months, I'm actually trying to gain weight. We have our institute bodybuilding competition happening on February 5th, so this little fight is for that. Other than the actual weight increase, the routine is what appeals more to me. This routine called the "20 rep squat" routine, or the "Milk and Squats" routine is an old school approach to monstrous muscle gains and I tried to go through it.
Note: The two routines I'm going to describe is not for beginners. I consider myself an advanced beginner. I can squat 1.5 times my body weight with very good form.
To put this routine in simple words, it's just that everytime I go to the gym, I put some weight on the bar and do one set of 20 reps of squat. After the squat, I do 2 sets each of stiff leg deadlift, pullups (or barbell rows), bar dips (or weighted pushups) and military press. SLDL, barbell rows and military press, I go for 10 reps. Weighted pushups I go for 15 reps. Pullups and bar dips are till failure. The more important part of the routine is not in the sets or the reps, but in the progression. Every session I'm supposed to add 2.5kg to the squat and barbell rows, 1.25kg to military press, weighted pushups and 5kg to the SLDL. So, in 2 and a half weeks, I find myself going from 75kg squat for 20 reps to 87.5kg squat for 20 reps (I had to do 20 reps of 87.5kg last Sunday, but gave up on the 15th rep), and from 100kg SLDL for 10 reps to 120kg SLDL for 10 reps (I do squat more often than I do deadlift). The result is very obvious- weight gain at almost 1kg/week.
The obvious fact that I have to eat a lot more than I usually eat need not be stated- after the body can only grow from food I eat. I'm currently eating 8-10 slices of bread in breakfast (previously only 6 slices), 8 rotis in lunch (previously only 4-5) and dinner is pretty much the same. In addition to this, I drink 1 'glass' each of tea and milk in the morning, 2 glasses of milk in the evening and half litre more milk in the night before sleeping, and a fruit juice after workout. I'm supposed to be eating about 5-6 eggs a day, but it hasn't been happening lately.
Other than the 20 rep squat routine, which I go through only once or twice a week, I'm about to start a different custom made routine, based loosely on the Wendler's 5/3/1 routine. To outline the routine, it's like this:
The actual program says I should workout 4 days a week, 1 day for each core exercise: squat, deadlift, military press, bench press. But I'm taking only squat (for 2 days in the week), military press and deadlift (for 1 day each in the week).
First week of the cycle, on all core exercises I do, I do 3 sets of 5 reps each. The first set at 60% of my 1 rep max, second set at 70%, 3rd at 80% of my 1 rep max. First and second sets, I stop at 5 reps. But the third set, I do as many as I can after the 5th rep.
Second week of the cycle, I do 3 sets of 3 reps each. The first set at 65% of my 1 rep max, second at 75% of my 1 RM, third at 85% of my 1 RM. Again, I don't stop at the third rep for the third set.
Third week of the cycle, I do first set at 70% of my max for 5 reps. Second set at 80% of my 1RM for 3 reps. The third set, I do at 90% of my 1 RM for as many reps as I can do.
Fourth week of the cycle is deloading. 3 sets of 5 reps each at 40%, 50% and 60% of my 1rep max.
After 4 weeks, I start the second cycle. For the second cycle, the 1 RM that I based my calculations on for the first cycle will be increased by 2.5kg for military press, 5kg for squat and 10kg for deadlift.
Currently my 'guess' of my 1 rep maxes are 117kg for back squat, 65kg military press and 175kg deadlift. And for the Powerlifting competition we have at our institute (on April 9), I'm targetting 125kg back squat, 90kg bench press and 195kg deadlift.
Other from the Weightlifting stuff, I got into the habit of switching off my cell phone during classes....
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