My Workout Progress / Body Transformation (Per April 2014)

Here is my workout progress from before I started working out in April 2012. Too bad I didn't take pictures periodically so I can't show the comprehensive progress. I'll try to take pictures every 2 or 3 months starting now to have a more comprehensive progress record.

Apr 2012 54 kg

Apr 2014 60 kg (After +-1 month diet)

When I started working out in April, I did the "unclean bulking", meaning beside eating high protein and high carbohydrate food, I also ate high-fat food like sweet food, crackers, oily food, etc. It did help to increase my body weight, I added +-1 kg body weight each month for about 6 months. But the thing is, since it was an unclean bulking, the increase of weight was mostly because of fat! My belly looked ugly because of the pile of fat.

After that I start to eat more cleanly than before, and the fat started to decrease. Then on March 2014 I tried to do some diet, by cutting my meal to half than usual, and no snacks. The result was I lose fat, my abdominal muscle looked more defined. But the downside is I also lost some muscle and workout power reduced a bit (this is what normally happen when we do diet / cutting).

Right now I don't do diet anymore, but I try to do clean bulking and I try to eat more egg white to fulfill my protein need (even so, I still eat junk food at the week end hehehe). See my meal plan here. If you want to calculate your protein need, see my guide here.

My Workout Plan

Here is my workout plan. I usually workout 4 times in a week. Each workout session follow this sequence:

• Warming up: Treadmill, walk 4 minutes, then jog 4 minutes, then walk 4 minutes.
• Stretching.
• Main exercise. I divide my main exercises into 4 different menus, one for each workout session.
• Abdominal exercise. I do abdominal exercise every workout session. These are my abdominal exercises:

	Exercise	Set & repetition	Alternative	Set & repetition
1	Decline bench crunch	5 sets 20-40 reps
2	Decline alternate oblique crunch	3 sets 40 reps	Static hold crunch	Until failure
3	Leg Raise	3 sets 20 reps	Bottoms up	3 sets 15 reps
4	Side plank	3 sets each side	Machine torso rotation	4 sets each side 10 reps
5	Opposite Arm and Leg Raise	1 sets each side

• Stretching.

Here are my main exercises including the number of sets and repetitions for each exercise. I divide my main exercises into 4 different menus, one for each workout session:

• Chest & Bicep
• Back & Tricep
• Bicep & Leg
• Shoulder

My Meal Plan (Per Week 2 September 2014)

Here is my daily meal plan that I started per Week 2 September 2014. Basically it's the same as my previous meal plan, but I change the snacks from cakes to bananas to reduce fat intake. And I also started to eat 10 egg white per day to compromise the lack of meat in my meal (I don't eat meat a lot).

Some Motivational Fitness Quotes & Pictures

Here are some motivational quotes and pictures from various sources to boost your workout motivation.
Disclaimer: copyrights to all images displayed on this page belong to their respective owners.

The Basic of the Basic FAQs for Newbies

Here I try to provide some basic FAQs about working out for newbies. It also contains some myth or fact about fitness.

Q: Can I build muscle mass by just doing calisthenic training / training with body weight?
A: Yes, but only to a limit. As muscle improved, they need constant "challenge". That's where the weight training come.

Q: How many time do I need to train every week?
A: For starter, you can train 2 - 3 times each week. Then once your body gets use to it, you can increase to 3 - 4 times a week.

Q: How heavy is the weight should I use?
A: Different weight for each exercise. Use the weight which you can do max 10 - 12 repetitions each set.

Q: How many sets for each exercise?
A: Do 3 - 5 sets for each exercise

Nutrition: The Importance of Whey Protein & Casein Protein

Nutrition is the most important aspect beside the workout session itself. During workout, our muscle fiber actually suffers "micro-tears", and our body will heal those micro-tears using nutrition that come from food, mainly amino acids that is contained in protein. Without proper nutrition, the muscles won't have the necessary ingredients to build themselves.

Protein is the most essential nutrition needed to recover and build muscle, and milk is a good source of protein. There are two kind of protein that compose milk:

1. Whey protein

is the protein contained in whey, the watery portion of milk that separates from the curds when making cheese. Whey protein is fast-digesting protein. Whey protein can be quickly absorbed by our body, it only need up to 30 minutes to be absorbed completely. Whey protein causes a large and fast spike in blood amino-acid levels. That's why whey protein is the best supplement to be consumed right after workout session.

Source: whey protein powder, milk, red meat, ricotta cheese, yogurt.

2. Casein protein

is a slow-digesting protein. It's suggested that we consume casein protein before we go to sleep, so that our body get enough nutrition to recover the muscle all the time when we are sleeping.

Source: casein protein powder, milk, egg white.

Somatotypes or Body Types

This post contains a summary of information I gathered from various sources. The concept of somatotypes, or body types was introduced by William H. Sheldon, PhD, MD in the 1940s. People are born with an inherited body type based on skeletal frame and body composition, but generally people fall into a particular category of body type: ectomorph, endomorph, or mesomorph. Keep in mind that these are generalizations, and that most of us have characteristics of two or even all three somatotypes. Different body types require different training methods and diet plans. Below are the explantaion of the three body types: ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph.

Plan to Start Working Out? Here's Some Tips!

Here is some tips for you who just want to start working out!

Know Your Goal & Motivation

Each Person might have different goals that they want to achieve with fitness. What motivates them is also might be different. For me, I want to obtain a better-looking body with fitness :) I realize that I don’t have the ideal body posture and I think I’m an endo-ectomorph, I find it hard to gain muscle mass, and easily gain fat at stomach area :( - see my post about somatotypes. Despite that, I think at least I can do something to make my body better. Probably I can’t obtain "the perfect body", but at least I can make my body better.

Some people want to reduce weight, and some others want to gain weight. Despite that, here are some common goals of working out:

1.       Slim body

2.       Athletic body

3.       Muscular body

4.       Huge / Bodybuilder’s body

Depend on what you want to achieve, your workout routine and nutrition will be different.

Find a Role Model

It’s a good idea to find a role model to make it easier for you to visualize what you want to achieve and to motivate you. Here are some role models that I think represent each goal category.

1. Slim body
Rain Bi in Ninja Assassin, Jay Park, Taeyang of Big Bang, Kim Giri, Kwon Sang Woo, Brad Pitt in Fight Club.