Iron Miracle! The story about how I lost weight and gained muscles.

Hi, buddy!

2020-10-30T21:09:00.000+03:00

Hello, buddy!

If you see this I already respect you as you are somehow interested in developing your body and mind. This blog is dedicated to people who decided to change their physique for the better, but don’t know what to start with (anyway, even if one knows how to start and what to do - there is always smth to learn about).

This BLOG is interesting because I’m speaking ABOUT MYSELF (see my story), how I trained and behaved to lose weight (I’ve lost about 20 kilo and gained some muscles). This means all the programs and diets really work. However, EVERYTHING IS INDIVIDUAL, so only your creativity and fairness to yourself will help you to pick up the right strategy of training, but it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want in a gym. It means that you should be open to new ideas and any criticism that may occur, while LISTENIGN TO YOUR BODY ONLY.

What is getting into good shape?

When I say “good shape factors ” I mean several things. The first and the most important is how and what you eat. The second is weight training, third – sufficient rest… and etc. etc. etc. There are many factors that do their job and finally making you better.

Does it really work without any pharma?

Yes. I've never used any additives or chemicals to gain muscles or lose fat. However, I should mention that I couldn’t imagine my life without a diet. I try to keep protein and carbohydrates balanced; while maximizing the intake of natural vitamins and minerals.

What is "training" then?

As it is said – weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength and size of skeletal muscles. It uses the force of gravity (in the form of weighted bars, dumbbells or weight stacks) to oppose the force generated by muscles.

Even though, weight training improves your muscle tone but doesn’t produce aerobic fitness, which you have to achieve by jogging or roller-skating. So, I go jogging once-twice a week.

All in all, the healthy way of life depends on many factors: everyday activity, diet, the role of fitness in your life. However, if you want to lead a healthy way of life, try to control what you eat every day. Your next step is sport. Nevertheless, remember that you need a lot of self-discipline: pumping iron can improve your body but not without determination and sweat.

My training day

2020-10-29T13:57:00.000+03:00

Here is some kind of a diary. The posts you are reading here are dedicated to the description of my everyday training, my thoughts and ideas that I'd like to use in the nearest future.

Result

2008-03-20T22:07:00.002+02:00

So, finally I pressed 155 Kg without robe,
on 12.03.2008. It means ~175 with a robe.

2008-03-02T14:16:00.002+02:00

2008 year. got suntanned and lost some fat..

2008-03-02T14:15:00.001+02:00

2007 year

2008-03-02T14:14:00.001+02:00

2007 year

Some pics of me.

2008-03-02T14:09:00.001+02:00

2006 year

Feel adequate even if didn't get enough sleep!

2007-12-30T23:14:00.000+02:00

It sometimes happens that we don't have enough sleep at night and don't have a possibility to take a nap during the day. E.g. you have a day shift after a party ;). I feel not really well if I sleep 6-7 h. a night, I must say. However there is an interesting sleep research that says a person could be acceptably sprightly if he (or she) can get up at the exact moment during sleep, even if it is 4 hours.Here is the diagram:

You should get up at the peaks to feel not really sleepy.

Use you FURY to do more!

2007-12-29T15:50:00.000+02:00

I must say, I'm sometimes lazy when I train. Then I think "Oh, God it's so hard..." It seems that my dumbells weigh a ton! I can't do anything with it, I can't even focuse on training.
However, I have a secret weapon that helps me to cope with this and to win my selfcontrol back. I use my FURY.
How ? Ok. Let's imagine two completely different entities inside your head. My favourite example is like in Hulk movie. So one person will be constantly sitting and drinking beer watching TV,
he won't do anything hard. The other wants to release his power and to pump iron (in your case). So you have to be "Hulk" in a gym. No excuses, no exceptions. You vs. iron.

Here's the recipe:

1.When lazy, stand in front of a mirror and look in it. Look at "his" NON-perfect body. Look at "his" stupid pathetic face and hate him! I like saying "Work, lazy b*#ch" to my self. Even aloud. Do not hesitate or feel shy of people around. There're no people! There're only YOU and IRON here, drop all prejudices!

2.One more tip (I often use it just before I start a set) is clapping your legs and arms. I say "clapping", but it should be much stroger then just clapping. The pain should be felt distinctly and be at the age of tolerability, IT SHOULD BURN. Works well when wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts.

3.Breath. Right breath can do much. Just before you press or lift - breathe in as deeply as you can, full chest, three times, FLUENTLY. Do it as if you are gasping, the life depends on it!

Tip: Right breathing is very important during the very repititions as well.
While doing an exercise breathe in when the weight is close to you and out when it is away. Always try to breathe deeply, as your muscles and brains especially need oxygen all the time!

Everything I say is assigned to provoke your fury. Through the years of training I discovered that I can use it to achieve higher results. I can say that a good psycho-tone gives me up to 30% of extra power. For instance when being depressed you can hardly press 100*4 kg, in a rage - 130*4 kg. Feel the difference?

However, you should be very cautious when provoking the rage while doing an exercise. One must remember about the right techniques. So try to do it with a small weight firstly and feel the right movement. Always ask somebody to be a standing by to help you, in case you won't cope.

Good music helps!

2007-12-28T20:26:00.000+02:00

Did I tell you about the music? So I do now.
I can't actually go without a good dance music. I use it as an "activation factor" when I'm sleepy or lazy. It often happens that music helps me to run a couple of extra miles or do some extra repetitions or even exersices. I love active dance music so I always listen to it while training .

If you don't have - here a piece of what I like
(download)

Abdominal muscles training

2007-12-28T13:30:00.000+02:00

Good way to start training at home. This guy gives a recipe how to pump your abdominal muscles without any equipment. I tried this style and can fully agree - it does work. Try it! But do just like he does without changes or exceptions!

See this!

Why is sleep so important?

2007-11-10T18:35:00.000+02:00

As you can understand we rest while sleeping. But why sleep is so important?
It is obvious that sleep affects our physical and that is more important mental condition. During sleep your body produces the most growth hormone, that is so needed to gain muscles, therefore the more sleep you get the faster your muscles will heal and recover from exercises. Another plus that when we sleep enough we reduce mental stress that we cat get during the day. That means better training and faster recovery and fat loss. The thing is that when stressed our body tries to save its energy by means of slowing down our metabolism, simply speaking it spends all the calories that we consume slower than in normal conditions and reduces fat burn, and we need the opposite, as you can understand.

Normally, grown-ups need not less than 7-8 hours of night sleep. However, in stress conditions we need more rest. An athlete, that you are going to become, should take more rest. Besides, it'll help you to cope with the insufficient (in comparison with your previous diet) calory intake.
The more you sleep the less you eat - simple, but works. And it's not a matter of "free-time-for-eating" only, but our brain produces leptin - "the hormone of satiety" during sleep. This hormone reduces your hunger and allows you to lower the caloric value of food and actaully its amount.

So as you see sleep is more than essential for the recovery of our body. However, sleep correctly is important too if you want to get optimal rest. So read further posts, I'm gonna write on this poin in the nearest future.

How do I start?

2007-11-05T00:24:00.000+02:00

Get your body prepaired for physical activity! Don't through it into sport suddenly!

So let us imagine, a person wants to lose weight, start going to a gym to keep muscles toned, but how to start? What problems may occur?

People say:
"I tried jogging - it doesn't really help!"
"It's too hard to break my eating habits!"
"I sleep much - but have no rest at all!"
"I know that everything should be combined, but I can't change my lifestyle at once!"

Yes. It is not easy to change the behavior at once. That is why I used my plan to cope with this.

To start with, I must say that starting transformation is the final and firm decision. However, exactly this moment is one of the most problematic one, when a person is trying to change his or her body. Whether a diet, or gym, or quitting smoking it is we say: “I’ll start it tomorrow”.That is the main and a wide spread mistake.

Whatever you decided to start - START IT RIGHT NOW.

It doesn't’t matter what - decided to keep to a diet -
don’t say “That will be the last cake I'm gonna eat”
BUT say “That WAS the last cake”!

This approach allows a person to skip the very “X - hour”,”The terrible moment”, so you just continue doing what you are supposed to do. The thing you have to do since this moment is just keeping the same situation, not struggling with new conditions. You've already eaten your last candy (smoked the last cigarette)! - so nothing to worry about, no farewells, no tears and no looking back. Just keep it going!

The thing is that you shouldn't start everything at once. Don't even try. The worst you can do to yourself and to the whole process is getting out of bed earlier one day, taking your tracksuit and going to a gym rapidly without a cup of your favourite coffee and a bun with some jam and a cigarette. Don't you believe you start a new life? I believe the lognest you can take is a week of this.

Take several steps instead.
Once you decided to change your life, change your attitude to yourself and to the things you do.

IT IS NOT A PUNISHMENT - YOU ARE DOING BETTER TO YOUR BODY.
So take every new action (like cutting down on salt e.g.) with some inner approval.
Say "Yes, I'm good, I'm going further!"

But what are the steps?

The first step I offer is getting enough rest.

Normally, grown-ups need not less than 7-8 hours of night sleep. As you can understand, any physical activity and changed diet is stressful for our body, but it is POSITIVE stress, note. So we will need about 9-10 h/night. Besides, it does matter when you get to bed. The best time for falling asleep is 10-11 PM. This period of time is natural for most people to fall asleep. I bet you start yawning about 10.30 but never get to bed this time because of something. So the first step is finishing all your activity by this time. I know it is hard, but believe if you wake up at 7-8 next morning, having slept 9-10 hours, full of energy you will cope with everything twice faster as you are rested. So the thing to do is getting to bed by 10.30 only. But don't forget to wake up after you sleep your 9-10 hours, because oversleeping means headaches and lethargy in some cases (it works for me at east).

It'll be hard for you to fall asleep early if you normally get to bed at 1.00 AM, but try to get up early this day. 5 hours of sleep once will make you fall asleep at 10.00 PM this day - you are not training yet after all, so it'll be a little sacrifice!

(for more info see Transformation Factors - Sleep)

OK. Now you sleep right. The next step is my favourite one.
My wonderful, beautiful, amazing FOOD. You love eating, I know. But what do you eat? And How? I must say that diet is a point of endless speaches and countless points of view. But the thing that needs no discussion is that one must eat healthy food. I mean no hamburgers, no hot-dogs, no fried potatoes, no fish and chips, etc., etc., etc - all in all - NO FAST FOOD. It'll be good if you cut down on coffee too as it adds some work to your heart while you're training.

As I said, the question of food is not so simple, but cutting off any sweets (except natural ones e.g. honey, fruit), bakery (take cereals instead), fancy cakes and buns, etc is hell of a good start. The good idea of mine was creating a table of all forbidden products, then I'd been taking away one product per day untill I started to eat only right ones.
It is a good idea to cut down on salt, because a lot of it can be a cause of high blood-pressure and besides it retains moisture in your body, that helps your fat stay. Sugar needs to be cut off at all, in my opinion, and replaced with fruit or honey - and no chemical sweeteners - they add more work to your liver.

DRINK TWO GLASSES OF WATER EVERY MORNING. Just after you brushed your teeth. Better warm. Eat not earlier that 30 min after that. That will tune your digestive system and enchance metabolism for better performance. Generally, try to eat between 10 AM and 18 PM. The more "sets" you can do - the better (normally eat 4-6 times\day, but in small portions). Don't eat once a day - it'll do no good.

(for more info see Transformation Factors - Food)

Next step is adding some more physical activity.
1.Your supermarket is 500 meters from house? - go on feet. Yeah. Don't disturb your car for such tiny distances! Get some comfy shoes and walk!

2.Subscribe to a swimming-pool. Swim for pleasure, not for result. 30-40 min of swimming will do. Don't speed up - water will do its job, you'll be feeling tired and dead hungry after, but it means that we have achieved our goal - spent some extra calories. But don't even think of anything sweet after such exercise - eat only what is necessary to your body (some meat or porridge with vegetables e.g.).
3.Jogging. If you somehow can not visit swimming pools - jogging will be necessary. Do it in the morning on an empty stomach BUT don't forget to DRINK TWO GLASSES OF WATER before. A audio-player would be a help, listen to something rhythmic.
What about the tempo? IT'S NOT ABOUT THE SPEED.

You are not to run faster. Run comfortably! The time you're running is much more important that the speed. Start with 15 min of medium-speed run and come up to 40 min over 1.5 month. Do jogging twice a week.
I must say that my last experiment showed changing speed to be the most effective. So you can try it: 15 min of slow "close to fast walking" run, 5 min of fast run, 15 min of medium and 5 of slow = 40 min. But if you're feeling bad - put this method off untill ready.

The final step is GYM.
Find the closest to your house to:
1) Walk there and thus warming up
2) Make "Oh, it's so far, I'd skip today" impossible

Enter the club and pay in advance for the longest period to:
1) Activate "I paid money, I can't skip"
2) Make "Oh, I don't have money to pay, I'll skip today" impossible

When in gym, you can find the trainer and ask him what to start with, besides there is often a starting training plan in a gym somewhere on the wall, find it and ask questions as more as you can to make sure you are acting right.

Here we are. You are at a gym. Keep going and you'll surely notice the difference. Read my blog and use imagination.

(for more info see Transformation Factors - Sport, My training day, Exercises)

And remember "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger" and "No pain, no gain".

Good luck.

My story.

2002-10-29T22:10:00.000+02:00

To start with I’ma say I was fat. That was the problem of mine and a great stimulus for development at the same time.
I’d been overweight from my childhood:

I was really overweight even several years ago:

But then in 2004 something changed. I met her. My first obsession… and my curse, love and torment.
Yeah-yeah… however that may seem hackneyed, she refused me motivating I was “as a friend”. However, I knew the truth. The thing was I was fat. So, since that day I had smth to do.

First year I trained to bring her back. Second – in a FURY I couldn’t. Third – to get her out of my head… Now – for myself, as I can’t live without training and feeling well instead of getting exhausted by climbing the stairs of my house.

NOW
I just understood, how right she was when she refused me and changed my life for good.
My best shape was a year ago, I weigh 78 kilos here (and it is NOT a photoshop):

Now I look like that (besides with my hair cut =) ):

I gained muscles (and some fat, but it is a part of a plan), feel and look great, bench pressing 172.5 kilo in one repetition (using a bench shirt).

How did I reach it? Actually, I don’t think it is a great success, I’m not saying “WOW I’M SUPERB”…no. I could do this not, but I did. And I want to share my ideas, inventions and experience with those people who want to take my way and to change their lives.

Read my blog and maybe it’ll help you to reach your goals.