Sunday, July 17, 2016 Training
Squat 72.5kg (5,
5) 9/10 depth, 4/10 vertical bar path
Shrug.
Press 33.75kg (5, 5, 5)
Minus 2 reps for plus 1.25kg, definitely strength loss here.
Deadlift 95kg (
4)
My lower back still felt a little sore going into the gym today, so I had a feeling I wouldn't be very strong on these. I loaded 105 and barely broke the first rep from the floor. It felt so heavy I just stopped and de-loaded 10% to get some reps in. Even 95 was surprisingly hard.
Superset:
Leg Extensions 110# (12, 12)
Facepulls 85# (15, 14)
***
I'm definitely noticing a pattern of terrible workouts here. No squat progress in a month, strength loss on the bench press and press, and now finally the deadlift. This week my nutrition was fairly dialed in, averaging 140g of protein a day, up from 125g last week. Carbs are lower than usual, at 91g/day, which might explain some performance loss. My sleeping and stress levels are no better/worse than usual. It just seems like I'm doing too much work for not enough calories.
It seems like I have the following options:
1) Reduce volume substantially and keep diet constant. Drop all the 3 sets across to 2, deadlift 1.5 times per week instead of 2, maybe squat 2 times a week instead of 3. Possibly decrease intensity a little, at least avoiding training to failure as often.
2) Do a bit of 1) while increasing calories slightly. This might allow me to have a few more recomp weeks at a slower rate of fat loss. This option isn't that appealing to me since I'm already losing less than 1/2lb a week as is and it seems at best a stopgap to the inevitable 3), which is....
3) Do a proper cut and get it over with. If I went for 1% of body weight lost weekly, I could go from 159lb and 24-27% body fat to 141lb and 17-20% body fat in 12 short weeks. In the meantime, I could work on making progress in the areas that are least affected by calories: increasing my cardio fitness and work capacity, improving form on the lifts, and working on my mobility. Another pro to 3) is that I've become very accustomed to eating not much food. Lately, I feel like I've had to cram food down just to hit 1400 calories on rest days.
I'm eager for anyone's thoughts.