Big weekend ahead. Casino staying overnight Friday, brunch + meeting friends out Saturday afternoon, and driving down to Chicago Sunday. Need to stick as close to my rules as possible on Fri and Sunday and limit snacks and drinking carbs.

Friday weigh in of 223.8

Had 3 2/3 slices of Giordanos on Sunday, and some mashed potatoes and 2 vodkas 2 beers and light butter popcorn Thursday so I was expecting to be higher.

Lifting is meh but I have been going.

Small stuffed Chicago classic from Giordanos



Pot roast with potatoes from yesterday. I subbed crispy onion straws for grilled onions

also, how tall are you? Based on your pic and comparing to older pics of you, very surprised you're in the 220s. Your face looks way way leaner than in the past.

lol agree with KC you look super lean (good way) for 220.

Just an fyi, you may want to post those Squat and DL vids in the form check thread...

Squat is ok...need to work on depth.

DL is in need of some serious work.

I'm right around 5' 10.5" Last few doctor's have said I'm 5'10", but compared to others' self reported heights 5'11" seems right.

My first time cutting to the 220s I was just following calories in calories out and still eating a lot of fast food. My diet has slowly evolved to include more protein and more satiating foods. I was less consistent with lifting then too.

Squat - I have arthritic blockages that limit ROM on my knee, both extension and flexion. Effectively my right leg is a little bit shorter than my left, which makes squatting awkward. With a wider stance I am more balanced and can lift a little more, but can't get as low due to flexibility. With a more narrow stance I can get better depth but risk hitting the bone spurs if I go too far. My stance will be less consistent. Not sure which is best.

DL - failed PR attempt (432.5) again earlier this week. It seemed like I had the power based on how fast it came of the floor, but my shoulders came forward and I couldn't lock it out. I have been trying a slower setup and not rolling the bar for the last month or so, but I think I do better with my old way.

Completely skipped cheat day Saturday successfully. Also didn’t drink at all. Between the pizza and pot roast meals I posted from last week and some planned cheating Sunday and Tuesday I don’t think I have room for it or need it.



Woke up Sunday and decided to throw on a belt and khaki shorts for our family brunch(in Florida) Without thinking about it I pulled to the fourth notch and thought that felt really tight. But this was on the 36” belt where I have been on the second notch. So I improved at least one notch and closer to two.



Ate one Quest bar before



Brunch was:





Plus Half a sausage, 1/6 of a stuffed crepe, and two mimosas. That omelette was made with 5 eggs!



I ate about 25 plain shrimp, 2 turkey burgers(~400 cals), 15 smrya figs( ~ 1 cup 330 cals) and most of a 3.5oz bag of light butter popcorn. No drinking besides the two mimosas which were only 3-4oz OJ and champagne each.



That’s still pretty good for a day with cheating, but most of the figs and turkey burgers I ate unnecessarily when I could have prob held that to maintenance.

Giordano's <<<

Please cheat correctly with better pizza! Otherwise, glgl.

Cheat meal Sushi for brothers birthday. Also had chips and fish dip, a few of my brothers potato sides and Moms fries. 1 margarita and 2 vodka OJs to drink



Flight at a Tampa brewery called 81Bay or something. Liked the IPA Brown was decent, not a fan of the other two



Got this Reese's pieces swirl at Twistee Treat for desert. Everybody talked me out of large. Probably could have made due with kiddie tbh.

Some of those foods look white.

I'm thinking about a reset to work on form but I'm not sure on programming

Maybe
3x5x75% for squats and
3x3x80% for DL

Using my conservative recent training maxes of 365 and 425

Move up 2.5 lbs a week until I stall out

Or even a bit lighter?

Subscribed for food pics

Friday 3:15 AM
"**** I don't want to get on the scale today. Had five beers yesterday, big cheat Tuesday..."

Weight: 222.0

Sweet.

Back to Thursday:

Knew we had some sort of free lunch coming. Ate 420 cals blackbeans and an 80 cal cheese stick in the morning. It turned out to be salad bar, which was awesome. I used a normal amount of my usual dressing. Avoided adding cheese to the salad or taking a pita bread.

I did go back for a big plate of asparagus, which prob had butter on it because it was so tasty. Also a little more than 1 cup Saturday.

We had double happy hour. Free beer at the company and World of Beer for a coworker leaving. 2 12 oz Spotted Cow, 3 Sheeps Pilsner, and Surly Hell. Then went to friend’s house and had Lelenkugel grapefruit shandy.

Also celebrated yesterday at her house. In the past this meant eating all the oreos, wheat thins, etc. But I held it to:





Killed all the eggs, and was STUFFED halfway through the ham. Despite not really eating that much earlier and being starving while buying the food.

New addition to my routine. Started with cat/camel, birddog, and side planks to warm up. Just did 6 sets 10 seconds each side for the latter two. Maybe I'll add more later. Thanks downtown crossfit log!

Bench

5x182.5
5x210
4x237.5
6x185

DB incline bench

10x50s
8x55s
8x55s

Haven't done in a while so started light and didn't quite AMRAP.

Dips

4

Then arms felt dead so I PVC pipe rolled legs and got out.

Squats

5x95
5x95
5x135
5x175
3x205
2x245
5x275
5x275
5x275
5x225

felt done after that.

Squats are making me very sad. I attempted to do some lighter sets to work on depth. I felt a tightness in my knee around the point I was stopping in my earlier vids. With the lighter weight it looks like I buttwinked down to try to get to parallel, which I didn't think I could get away with at 315&355. Still didn't get much more depth out of it.





Now that it is kickball & volleyball "season", I may be unable to squat completely to parallel. But I think I can still get a lot of benefit out of my 90% LBBS.

Saturday food.

I planned to hold it to just a cheat meal and not drink too much. Ate black beans, a cheese stick and 1.5 scoop of whey after the workout. Had a beef stick and a bunch of tiny free samples(cheese,jam with pretzels and crackers as a vehicle) at the farmer's market.

Then volleyball for a few hours. played 7-8 sets of 6 a side volleyball and 1 set of 5 a side. Felt like that burned a decent amount of cals.

The cheat meal was great, really filling, and probably not too horrible caloriewise(for a cheat meal that's a big portion of my daily cals anyway). I had 2 modelos. and 2 or 3 of the taco sized tortillas with my big plate.



Buche and Lengua tacos





1 spotted cow at the end of a poker session
Bought this Danish at the farmer's market:



and ate after I got back from the casino, along with 2 pepperoni and cheese meat sticks from the casino gift shop.

Tuesday

Press

5x140
4x140
4x140

Front Shoulder Raises

3x10x35s form not quite as good as the 30s

Dips
9xbw,5xbw

Wednesday

Deadlifts
10x135,
5x185,
3x225,
3x265,
2x305,
3x5x345

Focused on hips up and shins close to bar. This felt a lot better in warmups, though a bit awkward in the work sets still. What I forgot was to pull the chest up to avoid pulling with a rounded back. This also led to my shoulders being too far in front of the bar. I was afraid of lowering my hips, but I tried pulling the chest up after my last set and felt like I was in a much better position to have a straight bar path.

Hard to say because of the tshirt, but you might be erring on the side of hyperextension in your low back. I suspect the movement in your back is just going from extension to neutral, which is stopping you from going further, but if you were in neutral in the first place you would feel fin with a bit more depth.

Bracing by bringing your sternum to pelvis and inflating as hard as you an in all directions should get it to neutral. Then squat.

UNDER 220 LBS
UNDER 100 KG

219.4 this morning

Bench is holding steady. Feel like I'm weak enough to still make a little progress in a cut

3x195,
3x225,
2x252.5

At least the 3rd rep of 252.5 was closer than last time...

Dips
9,8x bw

Overhead DB tricep extension

10x45
10x50 w worse form

I'm beginning to think light beer is better for my diet than whiskey or vodka and diet soda. With diet mixers the liquors ate 90-120 cals per drink depending on pour. the lighter craft beers are 120-150, go down slower and are more filling. Carbs have to be better calories than alcohol. I get a little less drunk per calorie, but now that I'm getting older that's a good thing

Agree with Aidan.

Also, unless you are going to compete, I would give zero ****s about a few inches of depth...keep working on it without aggravating anything and no stress imo.

This is really good, and now that I rewatch the "butt wink" doesn't look so bad. I have been over exaggerating "chest up" to keep balance and make sure I don't use too much back in my LBBS. Still, my lower back has been randomly hurting after some sets. It's probably the hyperextension. I'll try that cue for staying tight when I squat tomorrow.

I think this went ok. Back felt like it stayed neutral, maybe a little off for one or two reps. Don't know if my form was super consistent or how my depth was Knees didn't hurt or limit my depth, but kickball was rained out Wednesday so I was more fresh.

Just did the 3 sets of 5 of 275 again. I felt really hungry from not eating a protein heavy meal since 5PM the night before(got there at 9AM or so ). No WIM for rows or backoff sets. Not sure what to do next week with these.

These two guys took their shirts off and were rubbing Bengay on themselves/each other. Pretty tilting

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSKEo2XjYI6