My Road to abs. End of Year Update.

Alright, so here's an update for today. In September I was 163lbs, carrying a LOT of fat. I have since then dropped 18lbs and am now at 145lbs. I achieved this fat loss by incorporating proper nutrition, the Max-OT weight training program(http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-max-ot-workout-a-full-and-in-depth-review.html), cardiovascular training, and tabata protocol. On the last week of October I got employed and have been working a lot. This month I've started to work full-time so it's really hard for me to make time for meals and gym. My Gym pass expired in November and I was out of gym for about 3-4 weeks. I then renewed my gym pass this month and just got back in on December 18th. Now moving along, the progress pictures shown below are over a period of 96 days(September 26th-December 30th). Please excuse the undies. Let's be mature here.

SEPTEMBER 26th - OCTOBER 15th

NOVEMBER 2nd 2011

And this last picture is from today, 

DECEMBER 30th, 2011

The routine I had looks like this:

Sunday - Back

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Shoulders & Traps

Wednesday - Arms

Thursday - Legs

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Chest

*I do abs and cardio whenever I get the chance. Abs will be trained once to twice a week. Cardio will be done 4-5 times a week light-moderate

I'm now at 145lbs, lost 18lbs from September 26. Still trying to get leaner. I'm just really happy that I can now see my abs. I don't get embarrassed from having a bloated stomach that comes past my chest when I go out anymore. No one believed me when I told them I was fat because they didn't see what I looked like behind a shirt. I was too ashamed of the amount of fat I've put on when I let myself go. But now I don't have to worry about that. I'm happy with my results and my girlfriend is happy with my results. That's all that matters really. :) The only supplement I'm taking right now is Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein Cookies & Cream Flavor(the best I've had so far), Carbo-Gainer from NOW, and multi-vitamins that I get from costco. I did take the green-tea extract fat burner from september 26-november 11th(when my gym pass expired). But I no longer use it anymore. Well there you go, that's my progress.

P.S. Another way of getting myself motivated was that I didn't want to be this guy.

Saturday October 1st


Had major terrible sleep the night before. I blame the green tea extract pill I took at 6pm. Caused me to stay up till 5am, then I was finally about to sleep. Woke up and felt like shit, but still had a decent chest workout. Incline DB strength increased. :)

Barbell Bench Press - 205lbs 3x4
Incline DB press - 70lbs x 6, 80lbs 2x6
Machine chest flies - 180lbs x 6, 190lbs 2x6
Half tabata set of push-ups
quick cardio - tabata set of jump rope

Sunday October 2nd

Pull ups - bodyweight 1x10, 45lbs 1x4 -> dropset to bodyweight for 6, 25lbs 1x4 ->dropset to bodyweight for 4
Ronny Rockel rows - 3x10,15,15(focused a lot on the mind muscle contraction, this version of rows works much better for me than the barbell.) Definitely going to increase the weight next week. Only did this weight to focus on form and feel since it was a new move to me.

^weight used for Ronny Rockel Rows

Lat Pull downs - 150lbs 3x6
Seated Cable Rows using a wide D-handle bar - 135lbs 2x10
Cardio - Treadmill for 25 minutes.

^25 minutes of cardio, 300 calories according to monitor. I can feel my cardio endurance building up. Going to increase the pace next time.

October 15 Pictures comparisons to Septermber 26

Definitely making progress.

September 29(Thursday) - Leg Day

Barbell Squats
warm-up: bar x 10, 95lbs x 7, 135lbs x 7, 185lbs x 5
work-sets: 245lbs 1x4, 235lbs 2x4,6(guess I didn't warm up enough since I was able to do more reps on the 3rd set.)

Stiff legged deadlifts
it was my first day doing it so I was just working on form
135lbs - 3x10

Leg extensions

^weight used. 3x10

Lying leg curls(jay cutlers padding method)

 ^this picture is just so I can remember the settings I had it at. Weight used with 80lbs pinned 3x10. 10th rep was the failure rep for all 3 sets..

did a set of seated tabata calve extensions as well. forgot the weight..blah.

also bought this today(september 24th)

Going to head out and do some sprint intervals later tonight.




UPDATE 9:07PM:
Just did 3 sets of 10 pull ups, 50 roman chair leg raises, 3x15 rolls with ab wheel, a tabata set of crunches, 1 full minute of a plank, then 4 20 second sets of planks(half tabata). went outside for 9 sets of sprints, then walked with Kayden for 25 minutes. Gotta melt this fat!

Also..I took this picture for Kenny Quoc Tong(my brother) who lives in Nebraska to let him know what supplements I take. I never realized how much I took..i'm supplement crazy. sue me. :P

Optimum Nutrition Whey(first thing upon waking, post workout)

Optimum Nutrition Casein(Before sleeping)

NOW - Carbo Gain(post workout shake)

C4 by Cellucor(Pre-workout)

AST - Micronized Creatine Monohydrate(pre & post workout)

Kirkland: Vitamin C(breakfast)

Kirkland: Vitamin D3(breakfast)

Nature Made: Fish Oil(breakfast)

Kirkland: Daily Multi-vitamin(breakfast)

GNC: L-Glutamine(post-workout)

Green Tea Extract(breakfast & evening)

Arm day w/Max OT and a dip set of Tabata

Barbell Curls - 80lbs 3x6
Hammer Curls - 35lbs x 8, 45lbs x 6, 40lbs x 6
Machine Preacher Curl - 110lbs 3x6
Decline Close-grip bench press 185 3x6
Skull Crushers - 75lbs 3x4
Dips - Tabata Set w/Bodyweight.
Cardio - Only 5 minutes of stairmaster @ level 9 due to being in a rush to leave the gym because my brother had hw to do.

Max - OT: Shoulders and traps day

Dumbbell press 60lbs 3x6
Upright rows(ezbar) 90lbs 3x8,6,6
Machine Reverse flies 150lbs 3x7,6,6
DB lateral raises 20lbs 3x15
DB shrugs 50lbs 2x20, dropset ->50lbsx15, 40lbsxfailure, 30lbsxfailure, 20lbsxfailure, 10lbsxfailure

Treadmill - 6.5speed for 20minutes

Update - MAX OT

As of September 17th, my brother and I began a new workout program called MAX - OT. I won't go into details about what it is about. But if anyone is interested, here is the link. http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-max-ot-workout-a-full-and-in-depth-review.html

If the link doesn't work for you, just go to simplyshredded.com and search "Max-OT".

Currently weekly split looks like this:
Sunday - Back
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Shoulders & Traps
Wednesday - Arms
Thursday - Legs
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Chest
*I do abs and cardio whenever I get the chance. Abs will be trained once to twice a week. Cardio will be done 4-5 times a week light-moderate.

I won't post what my training went like the first week because I do not remember much of weight, set, and rep range information. So I will begin by logging from September 24.

Sept 24 Saturday:
Barbell Bench Press - 205lbsx 4,4,3+1(using rest-pause technique with 15 seconds rest between 3rd rep to 4th rep on the 3rd set.)
Incline DB Press - 70lbsx 6, 6, 6
Machine Chest Flies - 180lbsx 6, 6, 6

Sept 25 Sunday:
Pull Ups - Body Weight x 7,7,6 I have pathetic and weak pull ups. :(
Bent Over barbell Rows - 185lbs x 6, 6, 6
Lat Pull downs - 150lbs x 6, 6, 6
DB Rows - 100lbs x 6, 4

Sept 26 Monday(today):
Hanging Leg raises - 3x10
Cable Crunches - maxed out on plates 5x20
Oblique crunches - 25lbs 3x10
Wood chops - 3x12, don't remember the weight used..
Crunches - 2xfailure
Plank - 1 set with 1 minute

Also did cardio today.

And here's a picture I took this morning.

My goal right now is to get leaner, taper down my waist, without losing my current muscle. According to a skinfold caliper test I recently took, I'm at 12% bodyfat..which I highly doubt..I feel and think I'm actually above 20%..lol

and why I believe I'm fat...also taken today..

Update

So about a month ago I injured my back and haven't been able to resume my training. I took a bit over 3 weeks off of training and have recently just got back in. Lost strength and endurance..but I'll get it back! Eating properly and training hard again. This first week of getting back has truly brought soreness upon me. My legs feel so beat it hurts just to walk, sit down, stand up, etc. My chest and back are sore to the point where it annoys me to shower..don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining although it sounds like I am. I'm just REALLY happy that I can even lift anything right now. The back injury I had was terrible and I truly hope I never encounter anything like it again. Well, it's good to be back. :)