Random Tip of the Week.

If you're looking to put on size and mass, compound movements are the way to go. Exercises that use multiple joints to complete a movement. Squats, Bench Press, Deadlifts, Pullups, Bent over Rows.
Heavy weights coupled with a calorie surplus and you'll see yourself gaining size.

Fashion and Lifestyle.

Other than fitness, I'm also interested in fashion.
I thought it'll be nice to share my likes and preferences when it comes to male and sometimes female fashion. If you share similar interest or you're looking to find out more about dressing up, I get a lot of my inspirations from Pinterest.

Feel free to follow me at my pinterest account. I also post other things like fitness pictures, "artsy" pics, pictures of celebrities who I think are good looking and dress well and fashion/hairstyle inspirations.

Thought it might be a good change from fitness related articles, gotta find a good mixture and balance in life eh :D

Gym Happy Moments.

#3

Feeling big even when you've just awoken from bed.

What to watch!

I've decided to start a new "series" on videos I have come across on YouTube or any other fitness sites that shares good information about health and fitness or motivation.

While I have spent hours browsing through all the videos online and from my subscriptions on YouTube, I thought it would be good to share and sort of act as a filter for the more important stuff available online so you wouldn't have to waste the same amount of time to look for similar information.

I also felt that videos can sometimes help explain things better than words.
It can also show you the kind of fitness content that I have adopted and deem beneficial for myself.
I will also be doing a post on the YouTube Channels that I subscribed to, in case you are interested to find out what are the available information out there that others have shared.

So to start this "series" off, here's the first video from Michael Kory's youtube channel on Macro Nutrients (diet information)

I decided to share this because I'll be starting to track my macronutrients more closely in hopes of gaining more lean mass and in the future try a cutting diet to get below 10% body fat.

Rest

I took a week off gym, let my body rest.
Feeling so much better now.
Just did a Full Body routine today to mark the end of the 1 week rest, I think it's becoming a pattern for me, after 8-12weeks of working out my body will start to plateau and tire out.

I guess the take away from this is to remember that rest is important. Your muscles and body don't grow during the workouts, it's only after that when you are resting that your body repairs itself and you start growing.

Plateau?

I don't know if I've hit a plateau, or my progress is so damn slow.
Feeling so fat (anything above 10% is considered fat for myself, not how I view others, it's a personal benchmark). I think I'm around 12-14% bodyfat, maybe more.

Quite demoralised, I'm not sure what to do. I don't even meet my daily calories consistently, how do I even start cutting. I feel like I'm neither here nor there. Maybe I should start to properly track my macros instead of guessing them. I'm not eating fatty stuff or fried and unhealthy food, I barely make my daily macros and calories (through guessing) but why do I feel like I'm gaining so much more fats and despite getting slightly stronger over the weeks, I don't feel like I'm getting anymore muscle growth. Aside from my legs which I think has grown a little. And I prioritise my upper pecs so much but every time after the pump is gone it goes flat again.

Currently hovering between 65-66kg. I want to get to 70+ before cutting but it's taking so long as I'm trying to gain lean mass. Instead I seem to be getting more fats.
Should I go ahead and start cutting at 66kg? reduce my carbs and up my protein and healthy fats?
I'm not sure.

Also I am not sure if my body is getting tired.
Maybe I should take a week off.

The main concern for me is that, I don't feel much different from my 6months/1st year transformation.
I feel like I haven't gained anything. I feel like all my hardwork isn't paying off at all.
Feel kinda shitty.

Just a little effort

Today I was supposed to go to the gym, it's legs day. But once again, motivation was not with me. Instead I took a nap and told myself I'll probably go for a run to make up for it. When the time came for that run, I procrastinated again.

Finally at 11pm, I decided to do a short high intensity circuit training in the comfort of my own home.
I like to call this freestyle HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which meant I needed to keep my heart-rate up at 160-165 beats/min (varies for each person) but I don't have a heart-rate monitor so I just made sure my heart was constantly beating fast and I was sweating like mad.

Now this workout took me no more than 15-20minutes and to keep it fresh and fun, freestyle it.
Have an arsenal of exercises and just mix it up every time you do this, in fact you can do this everyday if you don't have time for a full hour workout.

Basically for this night, what I did was
- single arm dumbbell squat swing (30secs each arm, if you don't have a dumbbell, what I did before I got mine was to fill my school bag with the heaviest textbooks I have as my weights)
- jump rope movement without the rope (cause I don't have one) (30secs)
- shadow boxing (20-30secs) ( I used to shadow box even before I knew how to box properly so no excuses, just punch rapidly)
- mountain climbers (30seconds)
- split squat (30secs each side)
- hanging leg raises (30secs, if you have a pull up bar, if not crunches would do fine) (subsequent sets I did with a rotation for the obliques)
- single stiff-leg deadlift (10reps/side) (same with the dumbbell squat swing, use a bag filled with books if not bodyweight is just fine)
-burpees pushup (30secs)

Okay so these were the exercises I used today. What I did was - for 15minutes non-stop I just did any one of this exercises. I try to put in the "cardio" type in between the "strength" type for each set.
Meaning after the squat, I did shadowboxing, then leg raises, after which jump rope, deadlifts to mountain climbers then back to shadowboxing, burpees pushup, squat, shadowbox, jump rope.

You get my point :P

Right after this routine, it hit (pun intended) me how just 15minutes of my day devoted to such a workout can make me feel so much better about myself and that much fitter as well as healthier.
Do try it! Don't forget to prepare your towel to clean up all that sweat that you'll have after this workout.

Personal Trainer

I've been wanting to try being a personal trainer but I've no idea where to start.
I mean my diet and nutrition isn't the best or at least I haven't actually tried a super clean healthy diet before, so maybe I won't be an expert at that portion. However, I do have some knowledge on diet and I do try to eat clean as much as I can.

On the other hand, what I really want to try out is the workout part of being a personal trainer.
Well maybe not a full on personal trainer but to be a gym buddy/trainer.
Anyone living in Singapore who needs a gym bud/trainer and is willing to be my "experiment" :P
and is also willing to gym at Bishan, please feel free to leave a comment if you're interested.
It'll be absolutely free, just that you'll have to pay for the gym usage as do I. But I'll guide you along to the best of my experience and knowledge as possible, no charge at all :D

Fatigue

This journey is hard, today I really had no motivation to work out. My body is tired, could barely lift the usual weights I used.

Although this journey is an individual one, but I wish I had some help and support from like-minded friends.. sadly none of the people around me share my interest. Traveling this alone can be tough.

Anyway, I lost the dedication to maintain this blog. Although I do have a lot of things I wish to share on this site, but my procrastination prevents me from getting any writing(typing) done.

I'm sorry if there is anyone who actually reads this and looks forward to new posts.
I'll keep this space up and maybe someday find the will to keep it updated on a more regular basis.

Every man's duty

I'll be away for a week, off to serve the nation and do my duty to protect my country.
The annual In-Camp Training(ICT), a low-key this time round and my very first reservist training.

I've also decided to take this week off gym for my body to rest, especially for my central nervous system. I really felt the strain this past week, couldn't lift as much or as heavy as I did 4-5weeks ago and I could feel some muscles on the verge of cramping.

I'll take this time to cycle off my supplements as well.
Hopefully I'll come back the week after and make more gains!
I'm also planning to change my routine to Chest/Back, Legs, Arms/Shoulders split routine.

After 4-6weeks my next planned routined would be the German Volume Training I did some time last year.


Anyway I'm really sorry for the delay with the "I'm Back(part2)" post. It'll be up when I get back from my ICT.

Till the next post!

What it all means to me

What does working out mean to me? It is a lifestyle. A lifestyle of fitness and health. One platform to exercise discipline, a part of life where you learn to dedicate time and effort into improving yourself. Working out for that confidence in myself.



Why do I work out?

• Physique and aesthetics - To build that lean and fit physique, with my focus on aesthetics over size, symmetry over mass. Of course I would like to gain more muscle mass and I am working towards that, slowly but surely. I have done it once before, putting on 10kg over one year of training but I felt that I did it with more body fat gained than muscle mass. So this time after losing about 6kg and all that body fat, I am going to try to gain muscle mass while getting leaner at the same time.

• It's all about me, I against myself - Being the better version, the best version you can be. It isn't about being better than someone else, yes it can be a secondary achievement but ultimately it's about building yourself. There'll always be someone better than you, be it overall, in size or in a certain body part but ultimately I work out to be that much more ripped/lean Jerome as compared to the one yesterday, better than that Jerome before the gym session.

When people ask me why do I gym so much or so often. I always tell them that I want to achieve the best physique I can while I still can. While I'm still young, fit and in my prime.

Till the next post!

I'm Back!

Helloooo, yes I know where the hell have I been!
I won't hide the fact that I lost all motivation to workout. The passion just went away.
I got tired, lazy, made up all sorts of excuses.
Perhaps the catalyst was when I injured my wrist during a soccer/football match.
I took almost 2 weeks off from the gym for it to heal and since then I kept finding excuses not to go back, the most used one being "I'll go tomorrow" but never did and week after week went by. Who knew 2 months of excuses would pass so quickly, there I was away from the gym and losing my 1 year worth of gains.

I lost 6kg and put on 5% body fat, that didn't make me motivated instead I felt demoralised and made even more excuses not to get it all back.

After sitting and lazing around at home for 2 months I tried my hardest to get back to training, forcing myself to go to the gym once a week. However, once I got there and realised how much strength and muscle mass I've lost, I got even more demoralised. I was lifting weights that I used to when I first started out.

I gave up again.


About 1-2weeks later I began recalling the many reasons why I started working out, slowly I brought my lazy ass to the gym and very soon 1 month had passed. This week marks the 4th week that I have returned to the gym with a proper routine and committing to all the planned workout days.

Anyway, I'll probably stop here for now.
My next post will continue from here, with the reasons that re-motivated me and the various attempts at creating a new routine to get back my lost efforts. (spoiler: those routines didn't work as well as I had hoped)

Also do look out for my other posts that I've begun drafting. Hope to publish them on a regular basis!

A video on "why I work out". Most of their reasons are very similar to mine!

Till the next post!