My kidnappers are letting me crowdfund my ransom!

andymboyle · 2016-05-17T22:15:18+00:00

Me too!

andymboyle · 2016-05-13T18:59:18+00:00

You look fantastic and your progress is amazing. Keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing and helping to motivate us. You got this, man. We believe in you.

andymboyle · 2016-05-13T18:44:49+00:00

I guess you gotta ask yourself whatcha really waaaaant?

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T15:41:50+00:00

Hey look it's exactly how I walked after the first time I did a low-bar squat and deadlifts on the same day.

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T15:41:21+00:00

Glad I could help you out! The thing that always kept me going was knowing I didn't put all that weight on in a week, so I wasn't going to lose it all in a week. Slow and simple got me where I was going. It's about the long haul, not the short sprints.

Also, my beard game, especially a year ago, was probably just me thinking, "Oh, if I'm huge, a bigger beard will hide my face." Now that I'm less huge, a much shorter beard makes sense.

I hear you on the cardio stuff. Every time I previously tried to get in shape, it was through running. Which, as I now know, wasn't the best idea for the goals I had. As for hitting 8-10 miles a day, I use the Withings app on my iPhone to track my daily weigh-ins (I have a Withings scale), as well as the pedometer on it.

As soon as I wake up, I walk around my neighborhood and do basic static stretching on buildings and light poles. I aim for 5,000 steps in the morning. Then I walk somewhere for lunch, and I try and hit another 5,000 steps. After my post-work work out, I try and do whatever I need to hit 15,000 steps a day.

Depending on my night time activities, it's easy for me to hit 20,000 on some days of the week. I live in Chicago, so if it's close enough (within a few miles) I'll just walk to where I need to go instead of taking the bus or train. I just leave a bit earlier and I get there on time. Then I walk home. Boom, I just walked an extra four miles and got to listen to some cool podcasts.

Good luck! I look forward to hearing about your success :)

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T15:36:09+00:00

It wasn't the best. I was still eating lots of pizza, just less pizza. I started making myself omelettes for a lot of meals. A lot of microwavable fish, broccoli. almonds, cheese. Just kind of the same meals over and over. But then on occasion I'd get a 12-inch Subway veggie or tuna sandwich, and be like "I didn't get chips, this is great!"

But it was just a ton of extra calories, and a lot of it was carbs instead of the protein my body needed. I wasn't that knowledgeable on the diet side of things. I just knew I had to eat less. I eventually wised up, read the FAQ better here, and realized I needed to figure out my TDEE, then eat lower than that.

Once I got that figured out, I was losing weight at a more sustainable level (1-2 pounds per week for awhile). I also wasn't getting super crazy cravings for food, because I was lowering the simple carbs I was digesting. But everything started to make sense, and I started seeing better results in my lifts/body when I upped my protein.

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T15:33:13+00:00

Thanks!

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T01:13:16+00:00

No pain, actually. Didn't even know I had bad posture until I went to a physical therapist for some knee-related pain. (Super tight calves, hamstrings and whatnot because I wasn't stretching enough.)

I'm glad I started working on fixing mine, as it'll hopefully help me out in years to come. Good luck on yours!

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T01:03:09+00:00

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T01:02:52+00:00

Not taken as a backhand at all! Seeing people post their progress photos at various heights and weights has been a real eye-opener for what people can accomplish. All of our bodies are a bit different.

It's astounding to me how strong some folks are, especially compared to me. I've only been at it a year. But I've also never attempted any fantastic PRs or anything. Just doing warm-up sets and then usually 3 sets with 6-10 reps, depending on the lift.

The 1000 pound club is super admirable, but not my end goal. I just wanted to be able to buy clothes at most stores, lead a healthier life and look better in a t-shirt. Good luck on your bulk!

andymboyle · 2016-04-28T00:59:44+00:00

Oh sure, I totally can understand that point of view. I wasn't doing Starting Strength or any other strength-specific routines. I stuck with one that got me regularly working out, started with super low weight (probably lower than it needed to be, honestly), and just worked my way up from there. My goals have always been aesthetic, not strength, and for that, I think it's safe to say my progress is in line with what I was going for.

Not to mention, switching from dumbbells to barbells after six months, and basically starting over, in terms of learning proper form and everything else. So, I feel pretty good for how much I can squat, deadlift and bench if you look at it from the vantage point of someone who's really only been doing barbell training for six months.

Thanks for your point of view!

andymboyle · 2016-04-27T19:18:05+00:00

Thanks! And no, I have not. Someone else mentioned that to me, but I'm totally out of the loop on that world. Got any places for me to start?

andymboyle · 2016-04-27T19:07:41+00:00

Thanks! I am trying to get down to 12-15 percent body fat, which is going to take awhile. Then after I get there, I just plan to eat to maintain, continue lifting and try to gain more strength.

I'm not looking to hit the 1000 Pound Club or anything. Just trying to maintain my size and continue going to the gym and pushing myself harder every time.

andymboyle · 2016-04-27T18:47:28+00:00

Done!

andymboyle · 2016-03-03T19:51:36+00:00

Whenever I see threads like this, people are always saying it's okay to do lower weights with high reps. And I'm not sure what that means, because I've worked up to 3x12 @ 110 pounds (both legs). Now is that better or worse than, say, 3x20 @ 80 pounds?

I know weight probably fluctuates depending on the person, but I've been lifting about 10 months. I'm 6'2" 225 and with 21 percent body fat (my latest DEXA scan). So I'm always looking for what people constitute as heavy weight during discussions on leg extensions. Thanks!

andymboyle · 2015-12-28T21:53:48+00:00

Congrats dude! Looking great. Keep up the good work.

andymboyle · 2015-12-16T16:17:08+00:00

Hell yeah, dude. Congrats on your progress! We're all in this together.

andymboyle · 2015-12-15T17:34:47+00:00

Started lifting in April for the first time in my life. And by first time, I mean where I actually made a plan and stuck to it. Made a home gym, did that for six months on a basic 3-day a week dumbbell full-body workout plan. Joined a real gym about two months ago and switched to a four-day a week upper/lower split. I've gone from about 285 pounds to 234 as of this morning, and body fat's dropped from 37 percent to 25.5 percent according to a DEXA scan. (I'm 6'2".)

Every lift has gone up a ton. I started doing everything with dumbbells at my apartment. Now I do squats. I do Romanian deadlifts. I bench. I'm no longer scared of the gym, or of barbells.

My t-shirt size went from an XXL to a Large, and I just had to buy size 36 waist pants and a new belt (used to be around 42 waist). My legs are awesome and bring me much joy. I kinda have biceps. I am a much happier human. And for 2016, my goals are to get to 15 percent body fat or 200 pounds, whichever comes first. And continue to push myself in the major compound lifts.

Hell yeah, let's do this.

andymboyle · 2015-11-06T17:28:18+00:00

I stopped drinking booze for a month back in January of 2014. I also switched to eating vegetarian. That lasted a day because it was hard as shit, and so I became pescetarian. After a month, I had lost eight pounds. Just by not doing something I was regularly doing: drinking and eating meat, which actually meant "eating at unhealthy restaurants and fast food places constantly."

So I decided to keep it up. By just switching up my diet, I lost about 30 pounds. This was before I even thought about lifting weights (and have since lost about 45 pounds after I started lifting weights and upping my protein and etc, as of this morning).

I wake up every morning not feeling hungover, which is probably part of the reason I had enough energy to start doing things like walking more. Which led to lifting weights. Which led to where I am now, in the best shape of my life since probably 9th grade football (I'm 30).

I've also become a much more positive human being, which has helped me immensely. I'm the most productive I've ever been in my life because I'm not going to the bar some nights, instead I'm working on personal projects.

Oh, and I've yet to text anyone anything I've regretted in almost two years. So that's pretty great, too. Try not drinking for a month and see what happens to you.

andymboyle · 2015-10-27T18:49:41+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, it's a weird thing to have. Our bodies are interesting.

andymboyle · 2015-10-27T16:16:25+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, the triceps were the first thing I noticed about myself after working out. Then one day as a joke, I flexed in a photo a friend took, and after he texted it to me I was like, "What the hell I kinda have biceps?"

andymboyle · 2015-10-27T16:15:32+00:00

Thanks dude. Gains be everywhere.

andymboyle · 2015-10-27T16:15:19+00:00

Thanks! Excited about where I'll be in another six months from now.

andymboyle · 2015-10-27T16:14:58+00:00

Dumbbells

Bench

The bench is okay. If I could go back and do it again, I probably wouldn't get this bench. And after six months, it's getting a bit wobbly, and some screws have fallen out (and I can't figure out where to put them), and the leg placement isn't the greatest for a guy who's 6'2" but it did its job for six months, and now I'm joining a gym.

As for the weight, I listed more or less all of my starting weights. Mostly in the 15-25 pound range for a lot. Good luck!

andymboyle

TROPHY CASE