Click here to read my three month gym review
Update
In my last review in November, I had just started a push/pull/legs split. I mostly stuck to that, although usually swapped out a leg day for additional push/chest work because I was aiming for a 100kg bench press. I've started doing a lot more free weights, specifically benching and dumbbell press.
Hotel Gym
In February, I went on a trip to the US and only had access to a hotel gym. It was pretty decent, but didn't have a bench press and the dumbbells only went up to 50lbs. And yeah, everything was in lbs not kg. This messed up my tracking, so I decided to delete all those workouts from my app because the machines were messing up my PRs for my local gym.
I didn't want to tank my bench press progress, so I focussed a lot on (incline) dumbbell press and tricep exercises.
My diet was horrible. I was eating very little and most of it was ordering from UberEats and really low in protein. I went from ~80kg down to ~70kg which certainly included some muscle loss.
Hitting 100kg Bench Press
When I returned, it took me a while to readjust to my local gym. I felt a lot weaker. Before leaving for my work trip, I had hit 90kg as my 1RM. I was now struggling with 80kg. This was a bit demotivating, but I stuck to a routine, focussed on heavy weights for 3-6 reps, and started to eat as much as I could. This included a ton of tuna+sweetcorn+mayo 🔥
Then there was Ramadan, but I kept going gym and training and don't think Ramadan impacted my progress at all. After Eid, I was able to hit 100kg for 1 rep!
Progress
Here's some comparisons for different exercises from November to April:
- In November, I had never tried the bench press. My first bench session was in December, where I hit 60kg for 3 reps. In April, I hit 100kg for 1 rep.
- Iso-lat chest press: 50kg -> 70kg for reps
- Chest fly: 45kg -> 86kg for reps
- Seated row: 32kg -> 52kg for reps
There are a couple exercises where I'm sure I could go a lot heavier, but I prefer just doing more reps at the same weight. This includes lateral raises, face pulls, and tricep pushdowns where I haven't really focussed on going heavier, but maybe there's something I will change up.
Looking forward + Injury
I have serious forearm (ulnar) pain, especially when doing bicep curls. It probably started when I was doing incline dumbbell curls because I wasn't dropping the dumbbells, but putting them down which was putting a lot of strain on my forearms. I tried to power through it for the last 2 months, but it's not getting better. I'm going to take a break from bicep curls and anything else that causes pain. The pain is usually when I let go of the weight. In the meantime, I'll probably be doing more hammer curls instead.
I'm no longer really doing a push/pull/legs split. My split is more like: chest/back/arms+shoulder/legs. My workouts are now a lot shorter (45 minutes compared to 60+ minutes). I'm probably going to continue heavy for 6-8 reps rather than 8-12+.
I don't have a specific new goal in mind, however some things at interest me are attempting to be able to do a muscle up and hitting 1/2/3/4 for OHP/Bench/Squat/Deadlift (although not that interested in deadlift). Legs I have a lot of room to improve on, so I'll probably focus on that a more.
I've started a new job and have been finding myself a lot more tired when going into the office, which makes finding the motivation to go gym a lot harder. It's unlikely I'll be waking up early enough to go to the gym before work, and after work I'm very tired. There is a gym near my work, so I'm thinking I might try going there. Either during lunch or later after work if it's not too busy (which it probably is...)