Doubtful, you've almost certainly got more LBM than I do; I'm shooting for 190-195, which I'm guessing will be about 10% -- from your pictures, I think it's going to be tough for you to get down that low.

Keep on shaming me with your lifting numbers, though; pretty much everyone's numbers on the cable based exercises are much better than mine, so I'm telling myself that the weights on the one I use are different.

Cables vary from manufacturer and also by use.

You should be able to pushdown a buttload of plates where people do cable crossovers. You will not pushdown jack on the pulldown cable.

I personally think most cable exercises stink. Except for rehabish/prehabish stuff like external rotation. Face pulls good too.

Lol there's no way that I can hit 10% at any number higher than 190. Not saying 10% is easy though ...

Yeah I really disagree. Obv not as good as barbells for a bunch of things, but for bi/tri work, rotational core stuff, back and rear shoulder work they're awesome.

Friday, April 12

BP - 170,195,220x5
OHP - 120x10x2,115x9+1
DB Incline Flies - 35sx15,10
Machine Flies - 156x15x2
Reverse Machine Flies - 132x15x2
Cable Crossovers - 60x20,50x20
Side Raises - 20x15,15x5,15x20
Pronated Cable Tri Pushdowns - 140x20x2
Supinated Cable Tri Pushdowns - 80x20x2
Straight Bar Curl - 65x15x2
DB Curls - 25x15,20x15
Face Pulls - 120x12x2

Meant to post this earlier but forgot. Weight on cable cross, tri extensions, cable curls, face pulls are actually half of my listed. Figured this out a workout or two ago when I tried to do lat pulls on that cable complex and had to put it to 260. Lat pulls are correct. Rows are correct, but how can "10" be wrong? So I took 25 of ephedrine and 200 of caffeine then drank a coffee right before the workout cause I got invited last-minute by a pretty girl. BP nice and easy. Kinda pissed about OHP. So ****ing close to finishing the workout but I barely got rep 9 up. DB flies should go up.

On the life front, have really been enjoying time with my new female friend. And having a girl constantly want to touch your arms and back is quite nice. So thanks there, Loco. Work is going well (recently named chief resident for next year and found out that I'm going to be inducted into the AOA - medical honor society!), but the next two months are just gonna be bat****. Am taking my 3rd step boards in 7 weeks, am trying to get some research semi-wrapped up so I can include it on my CV and I found out this week that fellowship applications are due the first week of June, not August like I had previously though. ****. On the plus side, I'll have tons of stress to burn off in the gym.

Thank Christ, I thought I was going insane, with everyone doing 2x as much as I was doing in tri extensions, cable curls, face pulls, and whatnot. This post has done loads for my mental health.

Congrats on all fronts brother -- keep living the dream. Has your weight loss positively affected your medical career, do you think?

Lol sorry Monte. Would have made sure I posted on Wed had I known. I throw out all the cable exercises when I look at other logs and just compare DB/BB lifts to see where I'm at.

Absolutely, in several ways. Probably foremost is an increase in overall confidence. I just wasn't comfortable with myself at all at 310lbs - and rightfully so lol. Then I can use my experience (I keep my really fat pic on my phone to show the patients) to try to inspire others. And my energy is so so so so much better now. I don't know how exactly I would have survived 90 hour weeks when I was that fat.

I had a strong suspicion that was the case, but it was still a little unnerving when I see people cable curling 80 pounds for 20 reps.

Congrats all around ook!

Ook, how long does all of this take? I don't even know exactly what half of these exercises are, but just looking at the list it looks like well over 2hrs. How much of a break do you take between sets?

I do a very similar locotarding regimen (borrowed from loco obv); 2 minutes in between compound lifts and 1 minute in between assistance stuff. 50-60 minutes is pretty normal for this day ime

I guess I'm just slow. I'm doing SS and on Fri I just did squats, press, and DLs. Whole thing took me a little over 1 hr including warm-up.

That's one of the biggest differences between SS-type programs and metabolic lifting programs - short breaks between sets. In addition to way higher volume and decreased intensity. 1 hour is completely standard or even on the short side for an SS day, depending on how far you've progressed.

A program like 5/3/1 would be somewhere in the middle, with more intensity/lower volume on the main lift (kinda - depends on where in the cycles you are) and higher volume/shorter breaks between assistance lifts. Wendler recommends 3-5 mins between the big lifts and 30 secs - 3 mins between assistance lifts.

Yeah, that's totally normal Melk. When I was doing SS, I'd regularly take an hour or a little more. Each workout where I throw 5/3/1 at the beginning takes me between 60-75 minutes to finish. Everything but the BP in that workout takes 45 minutes, then it's just a matter of how much time I take between my actual work sets on 5/3/1. Basically what Monte and soul said.

Monday, April 15

OHP - 125,140,160x3
Dips - +25x10x5
DB Incline BP - 50x10x3
Lat Raises - 15x12x2
Front Raises - 10x12x2
Face Pulls - 130x12x2
Cable Curls - 100x20x2
Cable Overhead Ext - 100x20x2

How do you do more on lateral raises than on front raises? That seems unpossible to me.

How does he press 180+ and yet does front raises with 10s???!!!!
That seems unpossible to me.

dat metabolic burn though

maybe he accentuates the eccentric portion of the lift for maximum delt swollertrophy and muscle fibre separation

Gotta up the weight son. I mean 10s??? Lol. 6+ foot giants should not be hoisting 10s in any shape or form.

Guess I need to up the weight on my lateral raises then

You guys should do cable side laterals. You guys are going to love them, you cable monkeys.

I've been considering it.

Okay, this I can explain. I superset lateral and front raises, so I do 12x lateral then immediately do 12x front, rest 60s then repeat. I should probably do front first sometimes ... although I feel like my front delts blow the rear delts away so maybe I should do rear raises then lateral raises ...

Dunno. I do them with perfectly straight arms, maybe it's that?

Will definitely try this

Friday, April 19

BP - 185,210,235x3
OHP - 120x10,115x10,9+1
DB Incline Flies - 35sx15x2
Machine Flies - 156x15x2
Reverse Machine Flies - 132x15x2
Side Raises - 15x20x2
Pronated Cable Tri Pushdowns - 140x20x2
Supinated Cable Tri Pushdowns - 80x20x2
Straight Bar Curl - 65x15x2

****in exhausted from a long week of work. Cut cable cross flies b/c a huge ~240, 13% dude was using both interior cables to do tri extensions. He would do his left arm on the right side cable so he could look in the mirror then go to the left side cable to do his right arm. Again so he could look in the mirror. No hate here, cause if I was that ripped, I'd stare in the mirror all the time too. Then I just said **** it, I'll do DB curls later. Actually kinda happy that I made a pretty good effort even in spite of beingn so tired.

Oh ****, forgot to add. When I went to the gym after work tonight, there were about 8 other people there. And I was by far the least buff guy there. Some enormous, G4S type dude was kroc rowing 120 but doing metabolic-type programming. Humbling. And then to make it worse, a tiny bro came in about half way through my workout, but he's this loco-sized black guy who plays around with 315 on BP. Made it worse. /ggo

Refresh my memory . . . what's the issue with squatting?