Muscle Diary 101

Muscle Diary 101

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Day 5 March 14 2016

Being inspired by Reg Park's 5 x 5 workout I decided to work up to heavier weights and less reps today especially after my easy-ish day on Saturday.

It's funny because the main compound movements in Reg Parks 5 x 5 programme are also the main movements in the Jim Stoppani programme that I am following right now.

Therefore it seems that THE exercises to do as a beginner are:


  • Bench Press
  • Squats
  • Rows
  • Standing Press
Stoppani has obviously added bicep and tricep work as well as ab work.

So basically my workout started with a set or two of each exercise to warm up. I then added real weight and worked up to the following:

Bench Press worked up to 2 x 5 @ 45kg

Single Arm Bent Over Row 2 x 8 @20kg

Squats 4 x 12 using only 16kg but I focussed on technique making sure that my knees didn't move as appearently I have a habit of moving my knees forward. So technique before weight.

Dumbell Shoulder Press 2 x 10 @ 10kg

Tricep Pushdown 2 x 10 @ 9kg

Dumbell Curl 2 x 7 @ 15kg

Leg Raises 3 x 15

Stop The Press

So I bought my first muscle mag yesterday as well and inside the March edition of Flex magazine, on page 14, is an excellent article by Chris Lund about bulking up. In the article Chris describes both the exercises you should follow as well as the diet.

Anyhow the article is very timely as the main exercises I am doing anyway but he also lists a few different, and better, exercises to do.

So now I might change the Stoppani programme slightly.

I'll keep the Stoppani programme exactly the same on Wednesdays but on Monday and Fridays I will change:

Bent Over Rows to Chin Ups
Barbell Shoulder Press to Seated Dumbell Press
Tricep Pressdown to Dips

Though I might try the new regime tomorrow as I am excited about it.

Amount of Reps

I will also try Chris' recommendation of decreasing reps but adding weight so benchpress might look like:

1 x 15 @ 15kg
1 x 12 @20kg
1 x 10 @25kg

and 12, 10 and 8 for the other exercises. Obviously for the dips and chin ups I'll try to do as many as I can for each set (which probably won't be many!).

Bring on tomorrow!!




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