Dr J's journey from stick to thick

To clarify - I'm not a doctor - its a nickname from a friend because in my home recording studio, I manipulate and control audio/sound with surgical precision.
 
Just this week, I've now gained 20lbs in the 5 months since I started around May 1^st – up to 152 lbs from 132 lbs.  My button down shirts are getting quite snug in the neck.  My long sleeves are getting too short when I put my arms straight forward (driving), and my suit coats are getting a bit constrictive across the shoulders.  Waist of my slacks are getting a bit snug as well, filling out the legs substantially more too.
 
My 8RM for bench press has improved from an ridiculously absurdly pathetic 30lbs to a pathetically weak 90lbs. 
 
Still the thin guy that many of you would laugh at the gym, not lifting really big weights, but not bone skinny anymore - more of an "healthy/lean average" build now.
 
Practically, I can squat down, and scoop up my two children, one in each arm, and carry them around - something I couldn't do very easily just a few months ago.   And that’s an emotionally meaningful improvement in functional strength.  Many other tasks have become easier, ranging from carrying in multiple bags of groceries to mowing the lawn.
 
Current Routine:
 
targeting 3 sets of 8-14 reps (to failure), making steady progress.

Day 1:
Squat – 90 lbs
Straight leg Deads  - 90 lbs
lying triceps extension
hammer curl

Day 2: off

Day 3:
bench press – 90 lbs
OH press – 50 lbs
bicycle crunches
lat raise & front raise superset – 15 lbs
rows – 90 lbs

Day 4: off

lather, rinse, repeat!
basically a workout every other day.

the tricep iso's are because my triceps are what give out on me when doing bench & oh presses.  the curls are because I can't do pullups.  the lat & front raises are because my shoulders really need the work.
 
Doing straight leg deadlifts because everything is with dumbbells (unfortunately) as I don’t have a gym, nor a spotter.  Unsure how much more progress I’m going to be able to make on many of these lifts past this point using dumbbells.
 
Currently at what I estimate to be 3,500 calories / day, snacking on almonds seem to be the key to push me over the caloric edge into consistent gains.
 
Callouses are beginning to get annoying, probably need to buy gloves.
 
Next goal is another 15 lbs gained by December 31^st.
 
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - thanks to each & every one of you for the tips & help.
 

weight gain - up to 157, that makes 25 lbs weight gain in 6 months.  Had a bad week in the last month where I was stressed & didn't really eat.  Been super busy, haven't had time to be on this board.
 
2 sets of 8, followed by one set of 8+ to failure
Day 1:
Squat – 98 lbs
Straight leg Deads - 98 lbs
lying triceps extension - 20 lbs
hammer curl - 30 lbs
lat raise – 15 lbs
 
Day 2: off
 
Day 3:
bench press – 93 lbs
OH press – 60 lbs
bicycle crunches
rows – 93 lbs
 
Day 4: off
skipping bench press every other time to get my OH press to catch up a bit, since I didn't start that lift until later in the game.
 
Thinking I need to go ahead & get a barbell, for rows & deads.  Not in a position to have a spotter or rack still for squats & bench.  the dumbbells are getting a bit heavy & awkward to get into position by myself for bench pressing.  Someone I hadn't seen in about a year said on Saturday, "wow, you been working out a bit?"
 
Had a physical since I've substantially changed my diet & gained weight - bloodwork came back excellent.  Doctor said, "the really good news is that you're still to young for a prostate exam."  phew.

decreased the bench & row weights to improve form errors.  Put OH press first to focus on shoulders.

Day 3:
OH press – 60 lbs
bench press – 88 lbs
bicycle crunches - 2 sets of 50
rows – 88 lbs

saturday:

Squats - 8 @ 98 lbs, 8 @ 98 lbs, 10 @ 98 lbs. (increase by 5 next time)
OH Press - 8 @ 60 lbs, 8 @ 60 lbs, 10@ 60 lbs (increase by 5 next time)
hammer curls - 8 x 3 x 30 lbs.

nice, i gained 20 lb. in the last 5 months to, buying new clothes sucks doesn't it? liking the routine but maybe but some regular dead lifts in? other than rows nothing for back. Anyways Goodluck getting bigger and stronger!

Goals by end of 2009:
Bench 205
Squat 255 ATG
Squat Clean 185

"There is no elevator to success, you must take the stairs."

Thanks - congrats to you too, what else could I do, other than rows, for my back right now, with db's? 

not doing deads because i'm just with db's.  :(

Wish I'd done this more when I was closer to your age, than my current age!  haha.

You can do one arm rows with dumbells. What I do for pullups is put a chair behind me and rest my legs on there.. I do one set unassisted and then 2 sets with the chair. try it out! I workout from home..Has been great since getting my squat rack. It has spotter brackets just in case your in trouble!

Do you have any before and after shots?

dr j


Thanks - congrats to you too, what else could I do, other than rows, for my back right now, with db's? 

not doing deads because i'm just with db's.  :(

Wish I'd done this more when I was closer to your age, than my current age!  haha.

You can deadlift with dumbbells, as long as you can put enough weight on them, if they are adjustable, I think the max plate you can but is 50 lbs a piece, I know for sure you can get 25's cause i have 4.

thehardway

dr j


Thanks - congrats to you too, what else could I do, other than rows, for my back right now, with db's? 

not doing deads because i'm just with db's.  :(

Wish I'd done this more when I was closer to your age, than my current age!  haha.

You can deadlift with dumbbells, as long as you can put enough weight on them, if they are adjustable, I think the max plate you can but is 50 lbs a piece, I know for sure you can get 25's cause i have 4.

true but after a month or 2 that won't even be a workout for him it will be to easy..oh and thanks Dr J.

Goals by end of 2009:
Bench 205
Squat 255 ATG
Squat Clean 185

"There is no elevator to success, you must take the stairs."

if I am right about the 50's, you can get at least 4 on eac so that would be 200, each hand. 25's say you can feat at least 3 each side, that is 150 (and on my collars I know you can do that), each hand. getting workable increments might be the tricky part, but he should be able to be challanged indefinetly. But yeah a straight bar would serve him well. 

thehardway


if I am right about the 50's, you can get at least 4 on eac so that would be 200, each hand. 25's say you can feat at least 3 each side, that is 150 (and on my collars I know you can do that), each hand. getting workable increments might be the tricky part, but he should be able to be challanged indefinetly. But yeah a straight bar would serve him well. 

but most dumbells have a max weight of like 55.

Goals by end of 2009:
Bench 205
Squat 255 ATG
Squat Clean 185

"There is no elevator to success, you must take the stairs."

Thanks guys, I tried deadlifting with the dumbbells last night, but they are either: 1)too close together (between my knees) 2) too far apart (outside my knees) or 3) just int he right spot, but then they slip around my knees, with the plates immediately on either side of my legs.

My db's weigh 4 lbs, and can definitely fit 3 10 lb plates per side, for a total of 64 lbs / db.  Pretty sure I can toss on at least one more 10 lb plate if need be, to get it up to 84, x2 = 168 lb lifts.
 
whats the benefit of one-arm rows, vs standard rows?
 
no pix, I'm too shy!  lol.
 
weight, 158 lbs
 
last night:
Bench: 8x3 @ 93 lbs.
OH press: 8 x3 @ 60 lbs.
rows: 8x3 @ 93 lbs
a batch of bicycle crunches.
 
decided my goal is to continue the 1 lb/week weight gain until March 31st (which should get me to about 177 lbs.  That will be a 45 lb gain, or 35%, which seems like plenty at one time.  Then I'll cut for a couple of months see where I am. 

last night:
Squat: 8 @ 103 lbs, 8 @ 103 lbs, 10 @ 103 lbs
SLDL: 8x3 @ 103 lbs
OH press: 8x3 @ 60 lbs
hammer curls: 8x3 @ 30 lbs.

The dumbbell squats are sort of like a cross between a deadlift & a squat, probably actually more like a deadlift really, I suppose:


Felt good to pass the 100 lb milestone on a couple of lifts.

lol, the image i posted in of the db squats got replaced.. guess someone doesn't like their bandwidth being hogged.

Just wasn't working right last night, after doing my bench press, the OH press fell apart for some reason, then when I went to do rows, on the second set, my lower back sort of tweaked on me.
 
So, I stopped.  Guess I'll pick it up again on Sunday, or just do legs tonight.
 
Bench: 8 @ 93, 8 @ 93, 8 @ 88.
Rows: 8 @ 88, 4 @ 88 . . . .
 
Think I have incorrect wrist/hand position on my presses, going to pay more attention.

Something you may want to think about for the future of your squats... I used to do only dumbbell workouts for 2 years. I am very familiar with the difficulty of DB squats, they held me back for quite a while, eventually the plate size just was always in the way. For minimal money you can get a straight bar and with that straight bar you can do front squats and power cleans... The power cleans are necessary, because that is what you will use to get the weight set for your squat. Eventually you'll stall but it will allow you to progress much longer then with out anything but dumbbells.

thanks for the advice!

I just joined a gym, trying to figure out what makes the most sense to do now, given that I still don't have a spotter...

However, I think that my workout the other night is an indicator that I need to take a week off - haven't done more than 3 days off in a few months.

Took a week off (not counting the halfway workout last friday) and started back up today.

Bench: 8 @ 93lbs, 8 @ 93lbs, 5 @ 98lbs
Rows: 8 x 3 x 88lbs - concerned I'm rounding my back.
oh press: 8 x 3 x 70 lbs
bicycle crunches: 50 x 2
DB squat: 8 x 3 @ 103lbs
sldl: 8 x 3 @ 103lbs - concerned I'm rounding my back
hammer curls: 8 x 3 @ 35 lbs
wiped out after that - feels good!
one of the screw caps on the end of my dumbbells has locked on tight, not sure what to do to loosen it up.

weight dropped to 156.5 this morning - think I'm having massive water weight fluctuations, possibly drinking too much water during the day.

got home last night from visiting family, so had a very short workout, just so that I didn't miss it, especially with all of the calories consumed in the last couple of days.

Bench: 7 @ 98 lbs, 7 @ 93 lbs, 7 @ 93 lbs
Rows: 8 x 3 @ 93 lbs 
DB Squat: 8 x 3 @ 103 lbs - need to up this, but that cap is stuck on.
Had my wife check to make sure that I wasn't rounding my back on the rows, she said it looked fine.
Feel stuck on the bench press & rows, just not making the progress that I'm seeing in other lifts.
this morning, weight was up to 161. 

This morning, weight at 159.

last night:

Bench: 8 @ 98, 6 @ 98, 4 @ 98, 4 @ 93
Rows: 8 x 3 @ 98 lbs
Lat Raises: 8 x 3 @ 15 lbs
DB Squat: 8 x 3 @ 103 lbs
Two sets of bicycle crunches.

Not writing anything down about last night's PT session.

Tonight:

OH Press: 10, 8, 8 all @ 70 lbs (2 x 35 lb dbs)
DB Squat: 8, 8, 11 all @ 108 lbs (2 x 54 lb dbs)
SLDL: 8, 8, 11 all @ 108 lbs (2 x 54 lb dbs)
reverse curls: 3x8 @ 50 lbs (2 x 25 lb dbs)
2 sets of biccycle crunches (didn't do so well at the end)

Tonight:

Bench Press: 7 @ 98, 7 @ 93, 6 @ 93, 4 @ 93.  Need to do something different here, its just not getting better.  Switch to incline for a while, maybe?  Going to add some cable flyes at the gym.
1 set of bicycle crunches
Rows: 3 x 8 @ 98
db squats: 3 x 8 @ 108

fin.

Really having trouble keeping my calories up again.  Sigh.

Last night:
OH Press: 8 @ 35, 7 @ 35, 6 @ 35, 6 @ 35.  Keep realizing that I'm not brining the weights down as low as I should be.
DB Squats: 3 x 8 @ 108.  time to bump up!
SLDL: 3 x 8 @ 108.  time to bump up.

this morning: 157.5 lbs.  WTH?

appetite is horrible, no food sounds good.  tempting to go ahead & cut off some fat, since i'm having trouble bulking for whatever reason.

last night at the gym:
assisted pullups: 3 x 8 @ 55lbs assist
cable chest press: 3 x 8 @ 70 lbs.  interesting that this is lower than what I'm doing free weights.  I guess the different positions cause that - probably pretty good for me then.
machine squat: 3 x 8 @ 80 lbs. 
cable flyes: 3 x 8 @ 40 lbs.

next time, want to add cable rows & OH press.

will do these machine exercises every third workout.

This morning: 160 lbs.

Last night:
Bench Press: 8 @ 98, 5 @ 98, 7 @ 93, 5 @ 93.  sigh.
Bicycle crunches
rows: 8 @ 98, 8 @ 98, 8 @ 103.  These last 8 hurt my back.
DB Squats: 3 x 8 @ 113.

This morning: 160 lbs.  sigh.

sunday night:
OH Press: 3 x 8 @ 70.
bicycle crunches.
sldl: 3 x 8 @ 113
DB Squats: 2 x 8 @ 113, 8 @ 118.

need to buy 4 more 10 lb plates, looks like.

Tonight:

pullups: 3 x 8 @ assist of 45 lbs.
cable chest press: 8 @ 70, 6 @ 70 - 2 @ 60, 5 @ 60 - 3 @ 50.  wtf.
machine bench: 8 @ 80, 8 @ 90, 8 @ 100
cable OH Press: 3 x 8 @ 50 or 60 (can't remember, drat)
cable flies: 3 x 8 @ 40.
wanted to do some cable rows, but a kid was on the machine, and I was tired of standing around waiting.

this morning: 161 lbs.

last night:
2 x 50 bicycle crunches
DB Bench Press: 3 x 8 @ 88.  backed off here again, trying to push through...
db rows: 3 x 8 @ 103
db squats: 2 x 8 @ 118, 10 @ 118.

this morning: 160.5 lbs

last night
db incline bench press: 2 x 8 @ 88, 8 @ 93 (going to do incline for a while, drop the oh press)
sldl: 3 x 8 @ 113
db squats: 3 x 8 @ 118
set of bicycle crunches

this morning: 160.5 lbs

tonight:
2 sets of bicycle crunches (50 each)
db incline press: 8 @ 88, 8 @ 93, 7 @ 93.
rows: 3 x 8 @ 103
lat raises: 3 x 8 @ 15
hammer curls: 8 (or 16) @ 35, 6 @ 30, 6 @ 30, got distracted & blew it.
db squats: 2 x 8 @ 118, 14 @ 118.