Well I went to the gym for an upperbody workout for the first time in over 2 months this week. For those that don't know, I"ve had knee problems alot on and off this year, and then just over 2 months ago fractured my hand and sprained some ligaments and tendons in my hand, wrist and forearm in a motorcross accident.

So physio has been going ok, hand is more useable now, far from better though. Went back on Monday 19/10/09 just to see exactly what I can and can't do. The fracture has healed, it's just the tissue damage now, have another MRI soon for another inspection.

So for training I was able to do:

5 sets of 15-20 reps of incline db presses with 20lb dbs. Any more than that and I couldn't support the weight comfortably.
5 sets of 15-20 reps of db side laterals with 15lb dbs.
5 sets of 15-20 reps of db rear laterals with 20lb dbs.
5 sets supersetting between cable tricep pushdowns (with very little weight, this was not a comfortable movement) with 20lb db curls.

I left it at just that, then returned tonight Thursday 22/10/09 and did the same routine but upped all the weights by 5lbs. I was getting some funny likes from people "Why is that guy still warming up?"

My diet in recent times has been dreadful, coupled with not training and I"m chubby for me. So since Monday, this has been pretty much spot on my diet:

Breakfast:
Bowl of oats with ON whey protein mixed on water and 2 soft boiled eggs.

Morning Tea:
130g of chicken.
80-13g of basmati rice.
Handful of spinach.
Handful of raw green beans.
Few almonds.

Lunch:
130g of chicken.
80-130g of basmati rice.
Handful of spinach.
Handful of raw green beans.
Few almonds.

Afternoon Tea:
ON whey protein mixed on water.
Green apple.
Few almonds.

Dinner:
200g of red meat.
60-100g of basmati rice.
Handful of spinach.
Handful of raw green beans.
10ml of raw olive oil.

Before Bed:
150-200g of low fat cottage cheese.
ON whey protein mixed on water.
Few almonds.

*Have staggered my carb levels each day by adjusting the amount of rice in the meals. I never carb deplete, it's unhealthy and in my opinion, not the best way to cut up. I have tried it, my metabolism falls over when I remove carbs, so alternating between medium to reasonably high is the most effective option for me.

I have kept the diet very simple to begin with, but have lost over a kg in the first four days, just the body getting rid of excess fluid. This is great, as it has pulled me alot tighter around the mid section already. Naturally as I train more I will increase the calories and slip in an extra meal, and change a few things. I'm lucky in the fact that I've done this so many times before that I know exactly what to eat, when to eat, to get optimum results for my body. It's all about experimentation, and I've done that much of it over the years that I know what works best for me. But I"m not closed minded to trying new approaches either.

Currently down to 84kg as of tonight, lately I've been weighing 85.3kg on average. My height is about 175cm for those that don't know me. My weight probably won't slip much lower than the 84kg if at all. From here on in, I will slowly climb by a few kg, but most importantly, I will lose heaps of body fat while regaining muscle. The plan is to be back at about 87-88kg and sitting about 7-8% body fat within a few weeks. This would be ideal, but sadly work has a bad habit of getting in the way of training and eatly correctly, so see how I go.

good to see you posting a training journal big fella. Keen to see how you go with your diet. I think im eating way to much to lower my fat levels but I need to eat to keep getting stronger...kinda a catch 22.

brads coming back dawg


so does your wrist stop you from squatting and other exercises that dont directly involve your hand?

I'm actually still having major problems with my left knee again. It was starting to come good, then somehow walking about 300 metres home from Andrews birthday party in the valley the other week, I managed to totally screw it again, have no idea how. Currently can't even squat my own body weight.

You have no idea how badly I want to get back into squats, and everything else. I had one guy looking at me doing multiple sets of incline bench with such small weights and say to me "Gee you warm up alot, do you have an injury?" I loled.

Probably the exercises that I can do best and with the most weight would be back. I'm able to row and do pull downs with a fair amount of weight. I just have to leave my thumb out of the equation, lock my wrists in, and use my other 4 fingers as a hook.

so your knees fucked as well, shit, yeah that'd be a pain in the ass getting back into it

I'm lucky in the fact that I can only get stronger and leaner from here haha. It does come to a point where you have to sometimes sacrifice a bit of strength to get that last bit off.


I was talking to a mate last night who used to compete, he was wanting to do it again next year, but snapped his achilles tendon pushing his car up a hill. Let that be a lesson to Nissan owners. We were both saying how we would want easily more than a good solid 12 months of good training and diet under our belt before we would even consider it again. I'm just aiming to fix these injuries and be lean within a few weeks. Then some serious training and see where I end up next year. I've actually got a job interview next week in Sydney for a position as a Network Engineer with Optus, which would mean back to better eating habits for starters.

Your not talking about Charl are you? If you are its a small fucking world man! hahaha

Haha Brisbane is way too small.

he must of been pushing pretty hard lol

yesss i can lift more then b unit....... atm

good to hear your getting back into it mate, hope it all goes well

I bet he can still calf raise more than you though

i wouldnt doubt that all

I'm hoping they have a calf category at the Aust Strongmen Championships

Here's me thinking I'm the only one doing this..

I've had to start doing this more and more due to none the woolies stores stocking egg whites. Last batch of 4 cartons I bought were just water inside..

Good to see you are getting back into the routine of things make.

My ex from 6 years ago left Aust about 5.5 years ago and now lives in Holywood. Still talk to her all the time, and she still has ON protein powder and oats for breakfast

Quick update. Still recovering from injuries, so still just doing 2 x upper body workouts as listed previously, but have increased on all weights. I'll use incline db press as my example of improvement, gone from 10kg db's on 22/10/09 to 22.5kg db's on 7/11/09. My plan was increases of 2.5kg per week, but I find myself pushing it to 2.5kg per workout. Strength in my hand is slowly still coming back, along with co-ordination. Still some slight tissue pain, but not enough that it appears to be doing damage. Generally not long after my workouts the pain subsides, then for the next 2 days I can feel pain similar to that fatigued pain you get for a couple of days after a workout. Not getting any muscle soreness in any other muscle groups yet, still not lifting enough for that.

As for my knee, still no leg training, and even stopped doing hammys and calves to see if that helps to repair it. My legs are getting skinnier, and I'm not happy. Diet has been very ordinary in general again also, few too many parties and drinks etc. But back into good diet as of today.

Nice work on getting the strength up. I know how you feel about the diet, I just had to endure my old mans bday, and my bday in the space of two weeks and then I had to sit some exams so all training and diet went out the window!

There is a curse when you lift and thats when you see your hard work disappearing and you can't do anything about it. Fucking injuries! haha

Once you stop drinking mate and start focusing on training again, everything will become so much easier.

Good to see you've increased weights so quickly and you aren't having too much trouble.

Didn't get to train at all this week, work was hectic, even went away for a few days, so diet was terrible. But the work was very physical, so I didn't even really want to train, my hand would have struggled. It was still feeling tired and fatigued as of last night, but have woken up today and it feels great, so I'm heading off to the gym in a short while. Will be attempting to increase weights once again, just slightly, 2.5kg.

I have actually started applying for some normal jobs, and am looking to sell up my van and tools and sacrifice some earnings from work to enable me to have a steady routine and some form of life again. Even selling up some of my toys (Chaser etc) so that I don't really have to earn as much to get by. Plus I have study kicking off very soon, so I need to be more stable with my work life to fit that in also.

I don't think I will be seeing any big numbers from lifting this year, sadly this hand injury has been far worse than ever first imagined. But I am still confident that I will make a 100% recovery and gain full use of it again. All I am saying is watch this space in 2010. There is going to be some big things come from the B Unit household, namely me