Probably right Aidan. I am a big freak.

The case of the wannabe bodybuilder's missing 6 pounds
Encyclopedia Brown

* A fairly new 100lb dumbell only weighs 98.6 according to this same digital weightscale that was used yesterday

* weight taken yesterday on empty stomach after 3 mile jog. Weight was being measured mid afternoon before

Case solved.

Weighed 171.6 on faulty scale. No jog today. Worked out in morning again
on empty stomach (taking BCAAs)

Bench press
185x5, 185x5

No spotter = no failure. I thought elbow was 100% but he did say hello here, need to be careful.

Incline Dumbell Flys
40sx10
40sx10

Should have done 45s. Did last reps super slow mo to reach failure in fewer reps

Superset (no rest)
Cable crossover 65x 8
Pushups x 19

Broscience preexhaust

Military press
115x4
105x7
To failure. Seems kinda wimpy. Need to these more often

Machine side laterals
70x8
Drop set (no rest)
70x7, 50x7, 30x7
More broscience.

Rope pulldowns
80x13

Dumbell kickbacks unilateral
20x12

Overall a little too much broscience this workout. Trying to keep that to a minimum but also working around the cranky elbow. It feels good but not ready to do exercises that bother it. Still on push, pull, legs since its convenient to work around during travel time. Depending on chest feels tomorrow, may just crank out pull tomorrow with no rest in between days.

Food tilt for the first time in a long while. Milk shake and double
at inn-n-out.

Pendlay row
145x3 145x3 145x6
Barbell row 145x 7
Barbell row 95x12

Cable row
120x10
120x10

Pullupsx4
Had to quit, right elbow hates these

chinups x6 x5
Seemed weakish today

Behind neck lat pulldown 120x7 120x7
Bb curl 70x7
Hammer curls unilateral 35sx7

The food tilt continues. Some kinda tempura sesame chicken and a mcdonalds chicken salad extra patty with some weird doritos like substance inside.

Finally got a break from exorbitant gym prices. Some gym in the south was giving away free month long passes!! Nice. Gym is decent, even has a donkey calf raise machine.

Light recovery day

Deadlift
225x6
225x8

Using straps now. Is that cheating? Chalk would have been good enough but i am not carrying my own and i have not seen it at any gym.

Standin calf raise
3x100x11

Donkey calf raise
3x160x10

Blah. Calves are my worst bodypart and appropriately I dont feel much when working them out. Looking at possibly getting implants. Saw tv show, they look good. Just ask flex wheeler. I wonder if they make lat implants also?

Abcoaster thingamajigga
4 sets +50 lbs x20

notsureifsrs

Obviously joking but not the worst idea ever. Need to get to 190 at 10% before I would ever consider and I think that might be genetically impossible.

In other news, I have ruled out the greyskull LP as my next workout program. I did read the whole book and I did take away some good things out of it (for example frequency pushups and frequency pullups).

I seriously think the book is full of too much broscience. I also think its more geared towards being big and strong. All those white dudes over at strength villain enjoy being 240 21% BF. I want to be 180 10% BF.

But seriously by biggest issue with the greyskull LP is the intensity and frequency of workouts. One whopping set of deadlifts per week? Its saving grace is that at least its too failure. But my biggest problem are sets like this

Bench Press
185x5,185x5 185x9

And then next workout you jump 2.5 lbs or 5 lbs whatever it is.

That's way too light in my opinion. To me that looks like two warmup sets of 185x5 and one set done to failure (185x9). I think it would be so much better if you did two sets of failure 3-6 reps and then lowered the weight 10% and then did that set to failure. So your workout would look like this

185 x 5, 185x 4
165 x 9

In my opinion that would be better not only for strength but for mass also. You would incorporate powerlifting reps and bodybuilding reps into the same workout (what greyskull tries to accomplish). If the intensity is too much, we just stop a rep before failure. But I don't think intensity is an issue as long as form is extremely strict. Form failure is almost always reached before getting into the crazy vomit/overtraining reps.

Now I am not saying Greyskull LP won't be effective for me. I am sure it would since I don't really train for strength. But my primary goal is not strength. However, I do believe a hybrid bodybuilding/powerlifting program might be best for mass. Thus I am really leaning towards Lyle's generic bulking program or PHAT. I know Lyle is not an expert in training, but I saw that program and automatically liked it for reaching my goals. I really need to try training each bodypart twice per week since its something I have never done.

In the future I will look back to doing a modified greyskull LP more for maintenance and bringing up my squat numbers. For now the book goes into the pile of read and appreciated.

Here is one of my favorite studies that I use for reference

http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2011...-musculus.html

Obviously Electromyography is not the end all of selecting effective exercises. But I think its a start. I also like this particular study because it chose 10 young adult males as the reference point. The EMG studies on tnation were based on one individual. Obviously we are not all going to respond to exercise the same, but again I think its a good starting point.

An example of how I incorporated this was my bothersome elbow. I injured my right elbow doing skull crushers. So obviously I took that exercise away (maybe permanently) and replaced it with dumbell kickbacks.


Here is another one I use also

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ceps_exercises

This one is more flawed because I am sure its based off the studies on one person. But I still think its worth looking at. The back exercises were really interesting on this one. Basically what I got from it was that working the back is as effective for working the biceps as are most bicep exercises. Also interesting was how much trap involvement there is in all exercises that target the side delt. I've been working on my form lately so that my side delt work is going to the delts and not to my already developed trapezius.

Legs today
Front squat
155x4
155x5
155x5

I've never really done this exercise and am considering doing it on a recurring basis. I'll post the form check video soon if internet connection allows.

Unilateral leg extension
80x5
70x10

Left quad may be significantly weaker than right quad. Need to look into this

Romanian deadlift
205x5
205x5

Another new lift for me. Have a form check video also that I will post

Lying leg curl
130x7
130x7

Some machine brands i can do 180 pounds, this one only 130 pounds. Go figure.

Overall workout was more for strength rather than hypertrophy. H&F influencing me.

Decline bench
185x7
185x6
185x6

Dumbell incline bench
65s x 8
65s x 8

Superset machine fly to pushups

Standing calf raise
110x10x3

Donkey calf raise
200x10
200x9
200x9

Weak form here, need to lower weight and hold contraction longer

Made big changes to my diet this week. I kept track of my calories for a couple of days and noticed that even on workout days I was only barely above maintenance calories. All those protein bars and shakes were lowering my appetite and I was not realizing it. For the last 3 months have basically been at 40-50% protein, 15-30% carbohydrates, 15-30% fat.

Since I got rid of alcohol, sugar, and white breads I just don´t get enough good quality carbohydrates. So I was still losing weight up to this week. I am currently at 173.5 lbs and my waist around navel is down to 33.5 inches. Around 14-15% BF.

So this week added whole wheat bagels, cheese, bananas, and grapefruit. Going to add more beans to my diet also.

So obvioulsy health is my primary goal but fack that, I don´t want to be small. Sure I could easily get down to 163 at 10% bf, but who cares. That´s way too small. The goal is 180 at 10%. Looooong ways to go, but going to need some calories to get there. I am hoping an update at the end of this summer has me at 180 lbs and 15-16% BF.

So you have 148-150lbs of LBM at 173, to be 10% at 180 you need 162lbs.

Sounds like you better start eating.

Yep, just realized this recently. I don´t need help with protein since been getting 200-300 grams on workout days.

I do need help with carbohydrates though. Anybody have any suggestions¿
Ideally it would be carbohydrates that help with muscle catabolism, however I don´t think there are studies on that kind of stuff. But maybe I should add a preworkout meal an hour before, been training on empty stomach (some BCAAs).

Do whatever helps you train best in the gym, if that's fasted, then just crush tons of post workout carbs and protein.

Carbs are ez, I'm a sucker for baked goods though. I also enjoy a good sweet potato.