I thought I would start a log to facilitate feedback on my lifting and progress, since I lurk this forum a lot and have got a huge amount of benefit from it. Maybe this helps/motivates someone else, the same way people like KidColin, Halfslant, G4S, SM, Cha et al have helped/motivated me.

I started SS at the beginning of 2011, going from squat worksets of 115lb to 335lb, and a bodyweight of 150lbs to 185lbs at 5’ 9”. I switched to Texas Method at the start of 2012. I have current 1RMs of B: 205lb, S: 365lbs, D: 400*, OHP: 155. I can do 3x5 neutral chins with +25lbs, and power clean 5x3x155 (though I have stopped doing these to rehab a wrist problem).

*estimated from 5x345.

My current goals are for the calendar year of 2012. I’d like to squat 405x5, deadlift 405x5, bench 225x5, PC 225x1, OHP 155x5 and do 5 chins with +45lb. I would also like to participate in a meet, though I need to find one that is convenient.

I have just switched to IF given I feel I am at (over??) the top end of BF for a reasonable proportion of mass gain to be muscle. I am going on a very slow cut to see how it works (-20%/+10%), and will adjust as I need to. I plan to keep up TM, though this will be contingent on recovery. I am looking forward to the experiment! I have not done a lot of conditioning, and that is something I am trying to include a bit more of now that football season is here. Balancing these is going to be interesting…

YGOS Pics (179.8lbs first thing in morning):


I have also encouraged my wife to start SS. She squatted 135x5x3, deadlifted 180x5 and benched 85x5x3. Her goals are weight loss oriented at the moment, but I am proud of her nevertheless.

Chuck a couple of my older form check vids here.

365lb singles:


155lb press:

Football season?? You are a Euro?? Wouldn't have guessed that.

You have pretty bad anterior pelvic tilt, but I do too and haven't figured out any way to fix it, so can't help you there.

Also, your squat/deadlift goals are VERY ambitious. You would pretty much be the strongest person under 225 pounds on this board if you reached those goals. Still, good luck.

cool gl, saw you mention in other thread you are gonna review the shoes you bought, lookin forward to that.

I realize the goals are ambitious. I posted them in the January thread, and printed them for my wall, so I'll keep striving towards them. Posture problems have been noted before, but its a very slow road on that front. Im fairly sure its hip flexor related.

Im a New Zealander living in Connecticut, and God Save the Queen I'll keep calling it football. But yeah, soccer

Shoe review will be interesting for me as well, first pair of actual lifting shoes compared to chucks. I was going to get the Power Perfects as a first shoe, but its only another $70 for the premium pair, so I thought why not.

Nice numbers, I'm jelly.

I'll say that I doubt doing TM + conditioning on a caloric deficit is likely to work for very long, if it at all. It will be interesting to see though. You'll def have to be super nitty about getting enough protein and sleep. Any thoughts on what BF % you'd like to get to?

Imo ATP is about a lot of stuff including strengthening the anterior core muscles/lengthening anterior hip flexors, but at least as much about posture. I've had bad posture/slouching all my life, and I'm trying to always stand up straight. I catch myself slipping back, but it happens less and less. Being a desk jockey certainly doesn't help though...but it's improved my ATP for sure.

And from all the beautiful places in the US you chose Connecticut? That's got be a wife situation

Can I get an daily log of wake-up time, first meal, workout time, and subsequent meals and times?

Gl sir. I'll race you to 405x5

Thanks!

The conditioning will most likely just involve playing soccer once or possibly twice a week. I'll add 50g of carbs on those days if i find i need it, as Ive seen recommended. Not really sure about bf%, i'd like to look "good", but that is a very ephemeral goal. I don't really know what I am at the moment , we tried caliper testing but neither of us could be consistent so it was a bit useless. The eventual goal is to get bigger and still look good, but Im not in any hurry.

I really noticed improved posture just from SS, with the requirement for a bit more proprioception and just general awareness of position.

CT is not a wife thing, its a job thing. Lucked my way into a pretty sweet post-doc for a kiwi boy, and my wife was a saint and moved with me. Its close enough to New York and Boston that I havent got bored yet, but will readily admit its pretty far down the list of places you'd choose to live.

Sure, if you dialogue with me! If it feels like someone is reading/participating then I'll continue, otherwise i'll likely get bored and stop.

I feel like a huge dog here, what with your rock solid form, but there could be worse people to chase! See you on the other side of 400!

Today was first day on IF, and it is a rest day. I used the calculator to arrive at my desired cals/macros. I log my calories at fat secret because its easy.
I woke at 8am and had coffee with my wife. Ate omelette with bacon, cheese, peppers and tomatoes at 12:30pm, protein shake at 4pm, dinner was sausages and a mountain of green beans/broccoli at 7pm, greek yoghurt + protein powder at 8pm to close the window. 1977 cals, 180g protein, 111g fat, 62g carbs.

Im going to have to alter the 4pm shake to whole food due to satiety, i think. I'll see how it goes, depends with schedule. I can already tell im going to need to be more organised to meet the cycling requirements. Caffeine is going to be my friend.

You're probably around 20% or so right now. To look "good", I'd say anywhere between 10 and 15 % is good, depending on your desires. Personally I would have run a higher deficit and then later do some higher rep work, but to each his own.

connecticut holler

I'll race you down to reasonable body fat.

I think a maintainable sub 15% long term would be a good goal. The cut is quite gradual at the moment, as i didnt want to jump straight in and get smashed by a steep deficit. I'll likely ramp it up depending on how it affects training and day to day life.

Somehow these two races seem a bit ambitious, as jdock would say. Nothing to it, but to do it.

Gym day today, taking it easy this week though.

Squat: 250x5x3
Press: 110x5x3
Chins: BWx5x3
Farmers Walk: 55 DB in each hand, ~40yards, 6 reps with 45s btw reps.

Messed around with my new monster mini bands, with some deadlift triples of 135, and then 185 + bands. Think I'm going to enjoy these! The chart on EliteFTS says they add ~80lbs when stretched to 30", which is what I measured the pull distance as being once I got home. I'll do some more testing next time to see how accurate that is.

Woke at 8am, ate chicken rice and veges at 12:30pm. Had to sit through a morning meeting where everyone was eating cake. Drank my protein shake (w/ oats and raspberries) at 4:30pm. Got to the gym a little after 7pm, then ate so much chicken rice and veges at 9:30pm, with some cereal to meet macros. 2420 cals, 230g protein, 235g carbs, 56g fat.

My eating window will continue to be a bit longer on workout days, unavoidable due to schedule.

Band tension: http://articles.elitefts.com/trainin...band-strength/

I'm a noob/lurker in this forum, but Soulman what if he did no deficit at all? Or super duper low deficit and let the hormonal effects of IF bring the bodyfat % down.

OP if I recall correctly you said you were 5'9" 185 lbs. A person with your height and weight but a low bodyfat body building type physique would look awesome. So is it more of a recomp that is needed? Or maybe I misunderstood and recomp is your plan.

I see tons of impressive strength numbers in people's logs but don't seem to see many Frank Zane physiques. It is almost as though body building is a bad word around here. Though recently I have seen more people willing to put a "+ aesthetic" to their logs. So maybe add some higher reps and some body building swoletrophy type exercises.

I'm not a fan of huge deficits, tends to hurt strength and LBM quite hard. At least if you're not overfat. I'm also not a fan of recomps for people who aren't weak - potential for gaining LBM is probably down to 0.5 LBM per month (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...potential.html). That being said, I haven't tried it myself really. It seems like the potential for spinning your wheels a lot is high though, and whatever approach promotes compliance is the better one imo.

Also note that Aidan said he wanted to enter a meet. And between 10 and 15 % BF doesn't indicate wanting to look like an actual BBer.

Thanks for the input 2ton. My reasoning for the slight deficit was that i estimated my bodyfat at >20%, and there is some literature suggesting that it is best to cut down to sub 15% due to greater hormone sensitivity (i'll see if I can find where i read this, either Lyle, Aragon or Berkhan). I think a recomp at greater than 15% has a greater chance at being inefficient.

As for the bodybuilding front, I am not sure where I'll go in the end. At the moment strength is by far the biggest goal, and this cut is aimed at getting back into a BF% range where mass gains are the most weighted towards muscle. So even though Im cutting, its so I can go on a bulk again. Ive printed and saved the 5/3/1 for bodybuilding template, so that is an option for when I give up on TM.

Obviously those pics in the OP are relaxed, but I can flex and show some muscle definition, and Im pretty pleased about my progress after a year. I am still ashamed at myself for not taking photos when I first began, but my wife gives me plenty of positive feedback

Did some quick back of the envelope calculations. Assuming 20% bf and 180lbs of mass, that's 144lbs of lean mass. If i lose no lean mass (generous assumption obv), i will be ~13% at approx 165lbs. Thats pretty far away at ~2lbs of fat lost per month, so hopefully IF can work some magic

Getting down to low teens is a bitch, that's just the way it is.

u strong bro. had you lifted prior to starting SS?

and +1 to lowering bf% is a bitch. would seriously help my fitness goals right now if I weighed 170lb. instead of 178lb. but I just don't have the disciprine atm.

Thanks!

This is the first time I have consistently gone to the gym. I managed a couple of months doing ******ed stuff as an undergrad, but other than that nothing. I played a lot of soccer, but I suffered an ACL tear and had the reconstruction 1.5 years ago. I got to the end of my physical therapy, and realized I needed to get in the gym if i wanted to regain proper function and play soccer again. I started out doing stuff I was instructed to do (leg press, leg curls, balance stuff), moved on to some Mens Health mag routine (cuban presses FTW!) with a workmate, then found this subforum and SS. I probably started that in february of last year. I took a month off for a trip back to NZ, but other than that have been really consistent. I now enjoy lifting as a hobby as much as I do playing soccer, which still blows my mind.

So far, the adjustment to IF hasnt been too bad. Time will tell if it is effective, but I definitely got too caught up in Rips diet dogma. I got good gains out of it, but now I have to work equally hard to get good BF% gains.

Rip has gone off the deep end lately imo. I can't be bothered reading his forum anymore, just a huge circle-jerk.

^

Power corrupts.

Definitely. Its a shame, because I feel very thankful for how accessible starting strength was to me. Sadly, an inflexibility with regards to people having different goals and a one size fits all approach can be a negative as well.

For Spenda: woke at 8am, bacon omelette with a beer at 12:30pm, shake in water at 4pm, roast pork and veges at 7pm. Liberal amounts of coffee through the day. I forgot to mention previously that the last meal of the day is usually half total calories, particularly on workout days.