Hardlymovin2003 Reg Park Log

[hardlymovin2003]

What's up everyone? This is going to be my log for Reg Park's 9 month phase routine! I decided to log my journey for a couple reasons. First reason for me to stay motivated. Second reason for help along the way. Last reason because I haven't seen a log of this 9 month phase on the internet from my searching (maybe my searching needs work).

Little background of myself: I'm 20 years old (Male) always have been interested in weightlifting ever since I was really young. I've always been underweight and fairly weak my entire life. In January of 2008 I got serious about lifting/diet and went on rippetoes and stayed on it until August 2008 and went from 135-162lbs. My lifts were obviously all well up and I thought I was on my way. I graduated High School that year and that summer I basically lost focus and YES I lost all my weight gains that I worked so hard for along with my strength gains. I have been trying to get back on track ever since then and went through a stage of horrible anxiety issues that came out of nowhere. I'm always having trouble staying on the same sleeping track. Right now I'm waking up around 7am and I hope I can continue that but I always seem to slowly fall into staying up later and later each day and waking up later and later each day. I basically just can't stay focused for long enough and that's why I'm going to keep this log. I feel like I know a whole lot about diet/bodybuilding but just have never put my knowledge to the test (hard work) for longer than 7-8 months. I don't play sports anymore besides a church league football team each fall and basketball with my friends here and there and I bowl in a league every friday night. I'm not sure if I really am ever going to compete in a strongman competition or a bodybuilding show but I'm not really sure what the future holds. I've always been interested in weightlifting/bodybuilding simply because I would like to have a really good physique, be strong and just be confident with myself even more so than I already am. I'm going to make that change NOW!

The routine Reg Park's 9 Month Phase I have talked about is layed out as followed...


PHASE ONE

45-degree back extension 3x10
Back squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5
Deadlift 5x5

Rest 3-5 minutes between the last 3 sets of each exercise.

Train three days per week for three months

Phase TWO for Bodybuilders*

45-degree back extension 3-4x10
Front squat 5x5
Back squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5
Standing barbell shoulder press 5x5
High pull 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Standing barbell calf raise 5x25

Rest 2 minutes between sets.

Train three days per week for three months.

* After the basic Phase One, Park had a different set of recommended exercises for aspiring Olympic weightlifters. It used a few different sets and reps, and included lunges and power cleans.

Phase THREE for Bodybuilders

45-degree back extension 4x10
Front squat 5x5
Back squat 5x5
Standing barbell shoulder press 5x5
Bench press 5x5
Bent-over barbell row 5x5
Deadlift 5x3
Behind-the-neck press or one-arm dumbbell press 5x5
Barbell curl 5x5
Lying triceps extension 5x8
Standing barbell calf raise 5x25

Now for those that are unaware on how this routine is supposed to be followed I'll try and explain the best I can. You do phase one for 3 months and then move on to the next phase for 3 months...etc. You do each workout 3 times a week just like most fullbody routines you see. The sets that are 5x5 are actually 2 lighter sets of your actual working weight sets. So say for squats you're squating 200lbs you would do your regular warm ups and then your 5 sets as followed: 130x5, 160x5, 200x5, 200x5, 200x5...Something like that. Once you get all three sets of 200lbs for 5 reps next workout you up the weight. Pretty basic progression and each workout is obivously heavy. There isn't a H/L/M day and honestly since I'm starting back from a lay off I shouldn't need one right off the bat. Might have to use one later down the road though.

The reason I wanted to follow this routine is simply because it looks really interesting to me and just drawed me in. I'm a huge fan of Reg Park so what can I say.

I workout at home and always have worked out at home. I have a home gym and I've spent a lot of money getting the things I have. I have as followed in my home gym:

45lb Olympia Barbell
400lbs of Olympia Weight Plates
E-Z Bar Curl
4 Adjustable Dumbbells
Lastly, I took down my old weight bench that I owned for quite sometime and bought a Powertec Multi system gym (I paid a little over a grand for it).

For those that don't know what the gym consists of you have your squat machine (I know a lot of people over the internet don't like machines but it's what I got) Leg Curl station, Preacher Curl Station, Lat Pulldown station, Military Press, Decline/Flat/Incline/Dip Stations. It is really nice and part of the reason why I bought it was because of the saftey because I work out alone and for my family memebers to also use it (they are scared of the barbell lol).

Now since I decided to choose this routine of Reg Parks the only part of the machine I will be using is obviously the squat station for squats. I will be using dumbbells for my bench pressing, and the barbell for my deadlifting. So I feel like I have everything I really need here in my home gym.

Stats:
Age 20 M
Height 5"8
Weight 141
BF% 10-13 (Guessing from scale)

Diet:
Aiming for Min 2600 calories and Max 3000 calories
Fat anywhere from 65-80
Carbs anywhere from 300-420
Protein anywhere from 140-180

I'm a hardgainer by the way if you haven't already guessed that lol!

Now onto how I'm going to be logging this routine. Today will be my first workout of the first phase. I'm going to slowly ease myself into this fullbody routine/as well as slowly easing myself into my diet ( Not used to eating this much food!). My first workout I'm going to lift fairly light weights and condition myself over the next couple of weeks. I will post my workout/weights lifted for that day everyday I workout (that's the goal). I think I'm even going to post everyday in this log regardless if I lift or not and I may post my diet at the end of each day. I will post my weight each day from the morning as well.

I'm sorry that this is really long but thank you if you have read it this far . Also I made this log for some of you to chime in and give me some opinions/adivce on some things. If you have any questions about the routine or ways I should do the routine a little different please post because I will probably not do the hyperextenions each workout because of the deadlifting. Even though I'm starting all over really, I remember how some of the lifts affect my body and as well as how certain foods affect my body.

Time to finally stay dedicated and get that strength/physique I've always imagined !!!

Hope you come with me on my journey!

[Carl1174]

Look forward to seeing your progress in here mate, its gonna be epic.

The routine looks rock solid (as you would expect from Park), personally though I wouldnt necessarily change just because 3 months are up. i would run the initial part for as long as possible, then the second part for as long as possible, to really milk the progression out of it.

Good luck buddy, Ill definitely be following

Carl.

[BendtheBar]

Looking forward to this journey. Seeing the progress you made on Rippetoe's plan, I have complete confidence that you will succeed in reaching your goals and then some.

[strkout35]

welcome to the forum and good luck, i'll be watching. I'm interested to see what you think of the routine

[hardlymovin2003]

Alright fellas first workout done. I went very very light, short breaks between sets, got a nice sweat/heart rate going and felt nice...

Squats
Warm Up-50x15
Working Sets-70x5, 75x5, 90x5
Flat DB Bench
Warm Up-10x15
Working Sets-20x5, 25x5, 30x10
Deadlift
Warm Up-65x15
Working Sets-85x5, 90x5, 100x5

This workout also only took 30 mins.

My goal this workout was again to go very light so I can condition myself for this routine in the long haul. As you can tell with the routine it's a 5x5 with 2 lighter sets and 3 working sets. With this workout today I just did a very light warm up with 15 reps just to get the blood rolling and then did 3 work sets of again very light weight. For the Flat DB Bench I should have gone a little heavier because when I got to my last set it was still very light so I just pumped out a few more reps.

Nothing exciting will be going on these first 2 weeks but, I think it'll pay off in the long run conditioning myself like this.

Peace

[hardlymovin2003]

Originally Posted by Carl1174

Look forward to seeing your progress in here mate, its gonna be epic.

The routine looks rock solid (as you would expect from Park), personally though I wouldnt necessarily change just because 3 months are up. i would run the initial part for as long as possible, then the second part for as long as possible, to really milk the progression out of it.

Good luck buddy, Ill definitely be following

Carl.

I'll more than likely take your advice and milk the progression...thanks!

[strkout35]

nice first workout! just curious, why did you choose to use db bench instead of barbell bench?

[hardlymovin2003]

Originally Posted by strkout35

nice first workout! just curious, why did you choose to use db bench instead of barbell bench?

I don't have a bench stand for my barbell because I got rid of my bench for the Powertec machine. I have a hammer strength bench press on the Powertec machine but decided to go with DB bench instead for this routine. I tried explaining it in my first post but, I may not have explained it good enough because it was such a long post, sorry about that. Only thing machine I'm doing is squats and I know a lot of people don't like that but I bought the machine to use it and I'm still using free/barbell weights for everything else so I think I should be good!

[hardlymovin2003]

Headed to bed here in the next hour or so. I'm not going to post up the foods I ate today because they weren't the best of foods but I managed around 2600 calories for the day. Glad I hit that goal of calories for the day. Over the next 2 weeks I'm going to slowly clean my diet up and get used to eating this much. Normally I only eat 1-2 meals a day so I had some stomach aches today. I will be posting up my diet for the day just about each day but I need to clean it up.

Night!

[hardlymovin2003]

Weighed in at 140, yesterday I weighed in at 142.4 but it was after a meal and with my pjs on so this was more of my starting weight than yesterdays weight. I woke up and felt a good sore everywhere so thats cool. I'm headed to bed here in a little bit, as far as my diet, I ate a little less than yesterday but that's alright I ate a lot better foods today though. Workout tomorrow, talk to you all then.

Night!