D
discipleofmentzer
Guest
Hello. I have been weight training off and on for two years. Before I started I had never touched a weight in my life, so I joined the local gym and hired a personal trainer in order to learn proper form.
When I started lifting at 29 years old I weighed 147lbs at 5?10? with a 30? waist. I couldn?t squat the bar for ten reps. After 6 months of doing 3 sets of 10 reps of an ever-changing variety of exercises 3 days a week and eating like a hog I weighed 175 with a 34? waist. I had seen noticeable increases in strength and size, adding 2-3 inches to several measurements.
Then I hit a wall. I made little to no progress for the next six months. Increasing volume and attempting to increase weights on various lifts didn?t help.
One day a co-worker let me borrow a book: "High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way." I stared using the HIT principals in this book and also started taking in 180g of protein per day by adding ON whey & casein shakes to my diet. I got bigger fast. My friend asked if I had started using steroids, but I was clean. My friend who I had borrowed the book from started working out with me.
Instead of using my bastardized version of the MM workout, we used the exact ?Ideal Workout? from the book HITTMMW. With somebody watching me I learned that my form was incorrect on several lifts. Correcting my form forced me to lower the weights I was using and slow things down, but I still saw slow but consistent progress for the next six months or so.
Then I started working more OT. Skipping workouts, not putting enough effort into the workouts I did make. Progress slowed down and my belly got bigger.
I thought it must be time to change the workout, so I swapped out the ?Ideal Workout? lifts for the alternate exercises listed in the book. I saw some progress for a short period of time, and when progress slowed down I switched back to the ?Ideal Workout? only to find out there was little carryover from the alternate lifts. My numbers were down.
I tried harder, but more effort and intensity into each workout only to see the isolation exercises were stuck at the same old numbers. Compound exercises only saw small and inconsistent gains. It didn?t help that I was eating less.
I read the book again and learned that this was overtraining as predicted. Following the recommendations in the advanced chapter, I took two weeks off and prepared to begin the Advanced Consolidation workout.
At the same time I started looking for new information. I began reading everything I could find on ironaddicts.com and powerbuilding.net. I bought the book ?Starting Strength? and learned more from that book then I ever learned from that personal trainer.
So today I start the Advanced Consolidation workout from "High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way." I will start a Training Journal with the details.
When I started lifting at 29 years old I weighed 147lbs at 5?10? with a 30? waist. I couldn?t squat the bar for ten reps. After 6 months of doing 3 sets of 10 reps of an ever-changing variety of exercises 3 days a week and eating like a hog I weighed 175 with a 34? waist. I had seen noticeable increases in strength and size, adding 2-3 inches to several measurements.
Then I hit a wall. I made little to no progress for the next six months. Increasing volume and attempting to increase weights on various lifts didn?t help.
One day a co-worker let me borrow a book: "High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way." I stared using the HIT principals in this book and also started taking in 180g of protein per day by adding ON whey & casein shakes to my diet. I got bigger fast. My friend asked if I had started using steroids, but I was clean. My friend who I had borrowed the book from started working out with me.
Instead of using my bastardized version of the MM workout, we used the exact ?Ideal Workout? from the book HITTMMW. With somebody watching me I learned that my form was incorrect on several lifts. Correcting my form forced me to lower the weights I was using and slow things down, but I still saw slow but consistent progress for the next six months or so.
Then I started working more OT. Skipping workouts, not putting enough effort into the workouts I did make. Progress slowed down and my belly got bigger.
I thought it must be time to change the workout, so I swapped out the ?Ideal Workout? lifts for the alternate exercises listed in the book. I saw some progress for a short period of time, and when progress slowed down I switched back to the ?Ideal Workout? only to find out there was little carryover from the alternate lifts. My numbers were down.
I tried harder, but more effort and intensity into each workout only to see the isolation exercises were stuck at the same old numbers. Compound exercises only saw small and inconsistent gains. It didn?t help that I was eating less.
I read the book again and learned that this was overtraining as predicted. Following the recommendations in the advanced chapter, I took two weeks off and prepared to begin the Advanced Consolidation workout.
At the same time I started looking for new information. I began reading everything I could find on ironaddicts.com and powerbuilding.net. I bought the book ?Starting Strength? and learned more from that book then I ever learned from that personal trainer.
So today I start the Advanced Consolidation workout from "High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way." I will start a Training Journal with the details.
