So it’s has been a year and a half since I last serious worked on this blog. Since then, I have been pleasantly surprised to see the number of visitors increase steadily. I have graduated from college, found my first job in finance, and enjoyed a serious long-term relationship. Sounds as though I have added on a handful to my life. But I’m still training though. In fact, I am now working out four days a week instead of three as back in the good old college days.

Scroll down to check out my progress. It has been slow but steady. If you have been reading my last updates, you’ll know that I was still on my fat-cutting phrase when I stopped working on this blog more than a year back. Ever since, the new job commitment and the girl-friend commitment, in addition to cooking for and taking after myself for the first time in my life, have not been the most conducive to my training, to put it nicely.

But to cut to the point, I am generally happy with my progress so far. I have gotten stronger, much stronger, while cutting down a good amount of fat, and am looking much more ribbed.

CAUTION: I am not suggesting that you should try cutting fat and gaining strength at the same time. This is something I do because it seems to work for me and because I have no other choice. I would have a good week of working out, gaining some weights along the way, and lose pretty much all of it on the weekends when I am with my girlfriend and cannot eat properly. I noticed this pattern and was okay to go along with it since I see myself still getting stronger while leaner at the same time, though the progress was very slow. Trust me, given the chance, I’d rather focus on one thing at a time.

Sorry to jump off on that caution, but I think it is important to take note of that. Now, here is the most important part: how I have been training in the last year and a half.

For the a good part of one year, I basically was very successful with losing weights while maintaining my strength. For an ectomorph, losing weights is easy, but the tricky part is keeping the muscle while shredding only fat. At first, I continued to train with the four major compound exercises (Deadlift, Squat, Bench Press, and Press) along with other assistant exercises. Then for a few months, I kept only Squat and Deadlift and incorporated P90X. All of these got me no stronger, and even though I was still losing some fat, I knew I could do better.

The answer was 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength by Jim Wendler. It was the shortest book on training I have ever read, but three pages in and I knew I have finally found it–the program that would got me out of my plateau. Check out my more detailed review of the book and my progress from it here.

For now, check out my latest photos.

Updates 3 (1.5 years later), 10.0 out of 10 based on 3 ratings