I really like your current workout. It looks like a strength based routine with a little metabolic weightlifing and a little cardio in it. Looks like something that would get you stronger and at the same time lose plenty of fat. Perfect for your body type and goals IMO.

I really think you can melt away lots of fat with this routine. How is your diet (any mayo)?? What's your daily brotein look like? Just curious.

Good job. See you in the teens bodyfat% soon.

You're absolutely right. It will be very satisfying for me since my OHP started so lolweak.

Even though I'm not far off, those little plates are not as impressive as those 45s. Then a plate and 25 on each side and then... two???

Thanks for reminding me to visualize it.

Thanks, loco.

If it interferes with the progress of my lifts, then I will adjust accordingly, but I won't ever eliminate cardio.

The DE sets are tough (but I love 'em), and the elliptical is kinda fun. I haven't put it in the log, but I always set the resistance on the elliptical on at least 7.

My diet is pretty "clean" the vast majority of the time. I rarely have mayo, and usually it's the olive oil kind. I haven't had a full soda in over ten years. I rarely eat fast food, and I've been to McD's twice in the past twelve or so years.

Since I'm trying (semi-unsuccessfully) to cut, I will take in 2,500ish cals

I eat 200ish grams of brotein a day. My macro breakdown on average is usually 20 / 40 / 40 (F/C/B)


Yeah, I am probably in the high teens or low twenties right now. I got measured in late November at 19.5% weighing 185ish. I swear I can see more of my abs now (where nearly all of my fat is stored) than I could in December. I'm stuck at 205lbs for some reason. The only logical reason I can come up with is that I'm growing more muscle which makes sense because I can see that this is definitely true.

BF% in the mid teens by the end of the summer, hopefully.

Looks really good. Keep doing what you doing. You'll see the changes soon.

One problem I see on this forum is that some people stay at the same weight and assume they either need to cut calories or increase calories. Not necessarily so. Gaining muscle and losing fat is very possible, especially for beginners. I am with you here, the fat you losing you are offsetting with the muscle you are gaining.

You want proof of this? Get a tape measure at walmart for $2.99 and start measuring your waist. The waist is key to seeing whether there is fat loss. This year my my neck has gone from 15" to 16". And my arms have increased an 1" each. Yet the craziest thing is that my waist has dropped 3" and I have lost 10 pounds! If I had not been keeping track I would have thought "Losing too much weight, must bulk bulk bulk." But not so, the increase in neck size and arm size while decreasing my waist is 100% proof that I have gained muscle while losing fat. The holy grail. Unfortunately that has now stopped. Probably just muscle memory from my college days.

But I truly believe your program and diet is good enough that the same thing is occuring to you. Keep up the good work. If you don't get the tape measure, don't worry your belt will soon tell you. And also realize there other factors. This method is not super accurate since theoretically you could be blowing up your erectors with massive deadlifting and/or your abdominals with ab work. But this method definitely much better than looking at the mirror everyday and using the weightscale.

June 24th, 2012

Fought hard against those negative thoughts that wanted force their way into my mind.

My left hammy was feeling a bit tight so I almost decided not to go to the gym at all. It was supposed to be my heavy squat day, but I decided to just do a medium-heavy day for DL, bench, and squat. Instead of 5x5 at 80ish% 1RM, I wanted to try DE sets with a bit more weight than I usually use.

Here's what I did-

DL:
1x5x45
1x5x135
1x2x185
10x2x225 (prob could have done 3 reps here)
1x13x185

This wasn't so bad. I should have done 10x3x225. Maybe I'll do some 3x5 DLs later this week. Maybe.

Bench:
1x5x45
1x3x135
1x2x155
10x2x170
1x11x155

Felt just about right.

Squat:
1x5x45
1x3x135
1x2x185
3x2x225 (****! I meant to do 3 reps for each of these sets)
8x3x225
1x11x185

I meant to do 10x3x225, but I accidentally did two for the first three sets, so I just added another set of three to even it out. This... was a grind, but I don't think I was ever close to failing a rep. I made sure to try moving my gaze slightly downward; it was fine. I will continue to do this. I tried it awhile ago, but looking straight ahead felt more comfortable to me. I think the gaze change actually helped, too. Thanks, Renton555, for reminding me of this.

No cardio!
I was toast after this one.

Oh yeah, and I weighed in at 202! < 200 lbs, here I come!

The experiment was a success imo. I'll see how recovery goes. I plan on going heavy on bench next and then heavy on squats after that. I might keep DL at medium-heavy when I do them again. Gonna let my body tell me what it can handle.

same age .lifts. bf% ,gutgoals and i also have a bad right shoulder from a car accident. will be following. i started a log if intrested in checking it out. gl

How do you know my age? The similarities are spooky. I'll follow your log, too.

Thanks!

lol idk why i thought you were same age, i just re-read your log and you didn't mention your age. are you 38? cus that would be ****ing nuts dude

any chance you could post your diet?

+1

My diet is this:

I shoot for a caloric goal. Right now it's 2,400.
Then I track my food with fatsecret for a couple weeks.
Then I tweak as necessary.
I generally don't track most of the time since I know roughly what the macros/cals are for what I eat. Every once in awhile, I'll track again to see if reality is close to my guesstimating.

What I'm concerned with are total cals and brotein. I'm pretty good at getting at least 190 grams a day.
Other than that, I don't worry about restrictions. I generally eat pretty healthy, so things (like doughnuts) are already naturally excluded since I never eat them.

What I actually eat varies depending on many factors. I like chicken for protein usually, and I should eat more veggies than I do.

June 26th, 2012

Weighed in at 200!

Felt okay. Still fighting the negativity in my brain. Sometimes it helps to get a bit pissed off. I went heavy on bench and light (for volume) on squat. My right hammy was tight; I'm sure it's due to compensating for my left one last time.

Bench:
1x5x45
1x3x135
1x2x155
3x5x185 (pr)
1x9x165

That was heavy. It's a pr because I did 190 once, but it was with a bro spotting me and was only one set. The pushups, overall volume, and incline dumbbell presses seem to help.

Squat:
1x5x45
1x3x135
10x5x205
1x13x185

Sweated my ass off here. The reps for the 10x5 weren't exactly DE reps, but I rested for one minute in between sets. Gassed at the end of those! Damn, I forgot the heavy unracks again today.

Time to work on dem gunz-

Biceps cable rope curlz:
1x5x15
1x3x30
1x3x50
3x5x57.5
1x7x50

My bicepts are weak... like a little girl's bicepts.

Triceps pushdowns - rope:
1x5x15
1x3x35
1x3x65
1x5x72.5
1x13x57.5

Tired but felt okay.

No cardio!

Good day overall. Gonna see if I can go heavy on skwats next time.

what program are you on? That's a ton of squatting for 1 session.

I made up my own. It's based on volume for light days and 3x5 for heavy days. A general description is in the OP; I've slightly modified it since then. My medium days can be 5x5 or 10x5 depending on how I feel. Obv I'll go lighter in weight on the 10x5s.

Yeah, I know it's a ton of sets/reps, but it seems to be working, and I do go heavy every week. As long as my lifts increase, I'm gonna keep using (and modifying when necessary) this program. I like it very much. It's fun and challenging for me.

That seems to be half the battle to training: having "fun" and staying motivated to go workout 3x per week. GL, I'll be following your progress.