Today I started my new transformation plan, following Nick Mitchell’s 12 Week Body Plan. The diet and training is pretty hardcore so I knew this was going to be one hell of an experience.

Starting stats:

Day: 1
Date: 12/05/2013
Workout Day: 5
Weight (lb): 171.8
Body Fat %: 16.6
Health: Feel great (full of carbs still) but a bit of golfers elbow in left arm (due to golf).

My day started with an hour of photography, trying to get good “Before” shots and establish some settings to allow consistent photographs each time. I aim to take weekly shots and will probably publish them later down the line once I’ve got some visible progress. I was amazed how unflattering the photos are, which I guess is a good thing to keep me motivated to keep improving.

I’ve also started a food diary on myfitnesspal.com which is all free and has a great app to go with it. Today was consisted of roast beef, chicken and broccoli, together with a tonne of supplements. I got through 36 BCAA tablets in my training session. It’s fortunate I’m good at swallowing tablets.

The training went well, but was very challenging. Not difficult per se, just intense due to the training tempo focusing on lengthy eccentric movements (e.g 4010) and short rest periods. I ensured I didn’t go over 90 seconds between supersets, and less than 45 seconds between exercises within the supersets. Due to me doing this 12 week programme in 11 weeks, I started a week into the process on workout day 5. That meant today was upper body training. I was surprised how hard I found the dips as I’m fairly good at these but I think the eccentric portion of the chin-ups burnt out my shoulders and together with the bench presses my chest and triceps were fried. Also I did change the incline bench press to a guillotine bench press, to make it somewhat safer with the loading and catching of the bar without a spotter (I relied on the rack catchers). This sounds a bit odd, but if you try an incline bench press, it’s difficult to lift the bar initially into position when you’re at an incline.

Circling back on the BCAA thing, I followed Joe Warner’s route and took 3g after every set. So that amounted to 36g across the 12 supersets. PWO (Post workout) I had a double Optimum Nutrition protein shake with an extra 5g Leucine and 5g Creatine Monohydrate added. This all went down easily, (aided by the pleasure of watching Manchester United winning and Alex Ferguson’s emotional final home game) and I was ready for dinner. Dinner did not go well. I had zero hunger, even after an hour post shake, and therefore only managed a bit of broccoli and two breasts of chicken. Looking at my food diary however I’ve had a good day on the diet, except for the distinct lack of vegetables. I endeavour to plan my eating so that any loss of appetite PWO doesn’t impact my meat/veg intake.

Another consideration is that I need to put a clock in the gym to ensure I stick to the rest intervals.

So today went well. I feel shattered, broken and somewhat apprehensive about tomorrow’s leg day, but I know it’s all progress. 76 days to go….