They do say you gain half an inch for every twenty pounds of fat you lose from your gunt

Thanks, bros. Aidan, the plan is probably to go with longer increments of time. Gonna stabilize my weight with near maintenance calories for this cycle, then, then at least 3 more cycles of slow bulk and see where I am at that point.


Wednesday, April 26, 2017 Training
Bench Variant, C3W1 TM76 3x10 @65%

1. Close-Grip Bench:

20x10
35x5
45x2

49x10
49x10
49x14 @8.5

2. T-Bar Row (kg):

55x10
55x10
55x10

2. Arnold Press (#):

25x15
25x15
25x15

3. Chin-ups (@57kg):

7
7
9

3. Push-ups:

16
16
16

3. Cable Lateral (#, leverage):

15x11
15x11
15x10

***

Excellent day. I got +3 reps at +1.25 kg and at a lower RPE than last cycle's 3x10 week. And my form wasn't even on point. I struggled a bit with leg drive today, having my feet too far out on the first two sets and probably too far in on the final set. I also worked more on getting used to doing two reps per breath.

Not much remarkable to add. The DB presses were pretty hard for sets of 15 and I could be more aggressive with pushup progression, with tons of reps in the tank on those sets.

Thursday, April 27, 2017 Training
Squat Variant, C3W1 TM117 3x10 @65%

1. HBBS:

20x10
40x5
65x5

75x10
75x10
75x18

2. Romanian Deadlift (kg):

62.5x11
62.5x11
62.5x11

2. Cable Straight-Back Crunch (#, leverage):

100x17
100x17
100x17

3. Leg Press (kg):

140x12
140x12
140x12

3. DB Hammer Curl (#):

15x10*
15x10*
15x10*

3. Good Morning (kg):

50x9
50x9
50x9

***

Another great day. Squat depth was pretty economical, but I'm proud of the 18-repper nonetheless. It's also enough reps that I'm going to increase the training max from 113 to 117. Basically, that means I'll be doing 6x6 week at 87.5kg instead of 85kg.

RDLs might be a bit too ballistic, more like dimel deadlifts than RDLs, but they feel pretty good and probably too easy. Going to go with much more aggressive weight increases on these going forward.

* Instead of ditching curls altogether until my arm feels better, I just went with sub-maximal sets. I'll do the same with cable curls on Sunday.

Nice work. Looked like 20 reps could have been had

Wow, great work. You're looking really good. I'm impressed and inspired.

Thanks. Yeah, definitely some in the tank as usual. Today, on my bike going to the gym, I gave myself the pep talk that I would keep doing reps until I feel like total **** and want to rack the bar, then do two more. Trouble was that feeling came on rep #16 .

TYVM. I've been following your log as well. The most important thing is to get started and overcome inertia. The longer you keep a log going after that, the higher the stakes for slacking off become. Just pile up a few months of log entries, riddled with novice mistakes as they'll be, and eventually, you'll realize you're not so bad at all this health and fitness stuff.

Saturday, April 29, 2017 Training
Overhead Variant, C3W1 TM45 3x10 @65%

1. Press (kg):

10x10x3
20x5x3
27.5x3x2
29x10
29x10
29x12 @10

2. Paused CGBP (kg):

20x8
30x4
40x2
49x8 sloppy, w/ non-pauses
49x8 better, 7th rep not paused
49x8 best, all reps with a pause

2. Chin-ups (@56kg)

9
9
9 @9.5

3. DB Incline Press (#):

35x12
35x12
35x12

3. DB External Rotation (#):

10x11
10x11
10x11

3. Cable Face-pull (#, leverage):

55x23
55x23
55x23

***

I woke up today with debilitating soreness from Thursday's squats. I guess it's a sign that the deload weeks are doing their job of re-sensitizing me to training.

I spent a lot of time working on press form today. Unfortunately, other than fixing my grip (thanks, abrahamovic!), my technique improvements didn't carry over too well to the work sets. The bar still gets away from me, and I'm still racking it too low. Still, I managed to gain a rep and 1.25kg from last cycle's 3x10 week, albeit at a higher RPE. Can't really complain.

Some gains on chin-ups were had, and DB incline was still way too easy. I had programmed 3x11 @ the 35s, but decided to do an additional rep for each set and honestly could have probably done 3x15. First time vidding them in a while, I don't see much wrong with them except perhaps that I could be descending more slowly.

Typo. These sets were 25x3.

Renton,

I'd suggest tucking your elbows a bit more on your DB presses; think about where your hands would be if you could actually bend the bar when you're performing the bench press and using the "bend the bar apart" cue. IME it's just safer for your shoulders, especially once the weight gets heavy.

fail that you should be controlling the descent more on those, looks like hell on your shoulders.

Funny, these used to give me pain when I focused on tucking more. Doing them like this I've made a lot of gains. In another thread, iirc Evoken said he liked doing them with flared elbows. Meh. I'll keep the same elbow flare with a slower decent for a couple of weeks and see how that feels on my shoulders, and proceed from there.


Sunday, April 30, 2017 Training
Deadlift Variant, C3W1 TM136 3x7 @65%

1. 6cm Block Pulls (kg):

20x10 good morning
20x10 rdl
40x8 rdl
60x4
75x2x2
87.5x7
87.5x7
87.5x12

2. Paused HBBS (kg):

20x10
40x4
60x2
70x8
70x8 front view
70x8 side view

2. Hanging Leg Raise:

16
16
16

3. Machine Seated Row (#):

100x16
100x16
100x16

3. Leg Curl (#):

80x16
80x16
80x16

3. Cable Curl (#, leverage):

55x10
55x10

***

I went in still pretty sore from squat day. I set up to do block pulls not in front of a mirror, and that all but fixed my neck issue (still did it on a rep or two). Form seems to be much improved all around. The third set had a lot in the tank, but I chose to take it easy because there was a bit of form breakdown on the 12th rep, and I also wanted to save some gas for squats, which I expected I would have trouble with. Considering I got 12 reps at like an RPE 6, I think it's appropriate to tweak the TM up a bit on these as well, from 133 to 136. I might regret this but confidence is high these days.

Squats were hard. I took a little too wide a stance in the last set and had to adjust mid-set. I'm kind of surprised I was even able to get all 8 reps on that one. Also, some of the pauses were a bit thrifty. I need to watch that.

More news on the forearm pain front. I'm pretty sure I've isolated the cause of the pain. I do cable curls with a straight bar attached to the crossover, with my back up against the upright. Even sub-maximal sets of these seem to aggravate my arm. Next week, I'll skip curls altogether and see if the seated rows are the culprit. Assuming they aren't, I'll switch to a unilateral curl of some type, probably something with a dumbbell.

Hammer curls might be a good solution, or EZ bar curls.

I flare but do them very slowly to feel a stretch. Probably lol broscience but whatever.

I already do the hammer curls on squat day and they feel fine. EZ bar might work since it seems likely to be an issue how supinated my hands are.

Since I'm doing them for chest assistance, using as little bounce as possible makes sense.

Week 55 Diet
Maintenance Phase Week 1



I didn't make any great effort to limit calorie intake this week. I essentially aimed for 140g protein, 1800 calories, and as many carbs as possible within those parameters. I went a little HAM at a french restaurant yesterday so I ended up going a bit over.

Dropping 1.2lb in average weight this week despite eating a ton (for me) of carbs was kind of interesting. I guess it's Lyle McDonald's LTDFLE happening. I expect this will be my all-time lowest weight.

Flare and slow is correct til you get to heavy weights. Then you may want to tuck in elbows.

If you are doing 8-12 reps your set should be minimum 40s.

TUT is extremely underrated in these parts of the woods and it makes sense why many look 2D instead of 3D.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Chin-ups / Push-ups / 90s rest:

4, 12
5, 14
6, 16
7, 18
6, 16
5, 14
4, 12

I was hoping to ladder up to 8 / 20, but that wasn't happening. But hey, at least I managed another one of my monthly extra upper-body days!

Wednesday, May 3, 2017 Training
Bench Variant, C3W2 TM76 4x8 @70%

1. Close-Grip Bench (kg):

20x8x2
35x5
45x2
52.5x8
52.5x8 front view
52.5x8
52.5x12 side view @10

2. T-Bar Row (kg):

60x9
60x9
60x9
60x9

2. Arnold Press (#):

30x10
30x10
30x10
30x10

3. Chin-ups (@57kg):

8
8
8

3. Push-ups:

18
18
18

3. DB External Rotations (#):

10x11
10x12
10x12

***

I posted last cycle's week 2 to show how dramatically stronger I've gotten on bench in the last few workouts. I guess this is what not cutting is like. The main things I focused on today were doing two reps per breath and having more consistent leg drive. Still a lot of room for improvement.

In less exciting news, correct t-bar form continues to elude me.

Tbar is okay just lower your back angle. You might have to lower weight but who cares. I have done plenty of sets with just 90lbs added.

The way you are doing them looks Trapalicious.

yea agree with above, your way to upright and it almost looks like your doing shrugs or some kind of row-shrug hybrid. try to lower your back angle so that you are closer to parallel to the ground, should be a similar angle as if you were doing bent over BB rows. Doing so might limit your ROM (if the 45 plate is coming up to your chest), which is why you see some people do these with a bunch of 25 lb plates loaded up instead of 45s.

Your pull direction is back and up. It needs to be back and down if that makes sense and since you're engaging trap and rhomboid to assist in the pull up the lats are losing the prime mover status when you get past a certain degree.

The Lats are a unique muscle in that there isn't just a single point attachment across a joint like other major muscle groups we train regularly. There is no joint. It has multiple attachments to the spine stemming from the bottom portion of the T spine all the way to the bottom of the lumbar. Thus a straight back pull doesn't engage the lats significantly enough, let alone any measure of "up" movement.

A good way to look at it is the bar angle needs to close in on your back angle when your back angle is more shallow. This is impossible to do with a "lifting up" motion, it has to be back and "down". Think about driving your elbows back and down.

Also, use smaller plates if there are plenty to spare.

Why not opt for something like a seated cable row which is pretty much the same movement you're trying to do but allows for greater ease of having a consistent back angle? Also possibly more rom because no plates to worry about.

Nice pressing gains btw

Thanks, guys. I still haven't found a row variant that speaks to me. I'll lower the back angle and try nuclear's cues next week. Another thought is returning to a standard bent-over row since I've become better at hinging at the hips and keeping a flat back. Also, the plates are 15kg, they just look like 20s next to my puny torso. I could go down to 7.5s but I'd probably run out of barbell after a few months of progress. My gym only has two 10kg plates and they're always being used.

I do seated rows on deadlift day already, and yeah they're much easier. I'd like to do something barbell-related as my main variant on bench day, though: either a t-bar row, bent-over row, or pendlay row.

Thanks. I'm pretty stoked about them tbh.

Thursday, May 4, 2017 Training
Squat Variant, C3W2 TM117 4x8 @70%

1. HBBS (kg):

20x8
40x5
60x3x2
72.5x2
82.5x8
82.5x8
82.5x8 depth view @10
82.5x8

2. DL* + RDLs (kg):

67.5x1+10
67.5×1+10
67.5x1+10

2. Cable Straight-Back Crunch (#, leverage):

115x14
115x14
115x14

3. Leg Press (kg):

150x10
150x10
150x10

3. DB Hammer Curl (#):

20x10
20x10
20x10

* Because I'm a nit and I'm counting it.

***

Kind of a disappointing day for my squat. Either it was an off day or my ability to perform at higher reps isn't translating all that well to lower rep ranges. This is the first time I had this much weight on my back for high-bar, and my form was not consistent. I think that fact is obvious considering how hard the third set was (bar nearly came to a stop) while the fourth set was maybe an @8.5.

I decided to move the good mornings over to the leg curl slot on deadlift day because leg curls make me feel like a ****** and to reduce the length of my lower sessions a bit.