Thanks. I hope so too.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

***

Decided to take a full day off. It's a short deload week anyway so I wouldn't mind the extra rest. Whatever I did to my shoulder on Friday caused me to have pain that still hasn't gone away. The bad news is that, unlike my left shoulder pain, it's much easier to produce the pain i.e. it happens with many different movements of my right humerus. The good news is that the pain has steadily diminished since Friday.

I have a couple of days to figure out my program. I'm considering switching to something completely different.

Week 69 Diet
Mass Phase Week 10



Another week that I took a more relaxed approach to logging. I basically didn't plan my meals and ate intuitively, filling in what I ate on each day but going back days later to tally up the calories. Other than on Friday when I under-ate, this worked remarkably well.

***

My shoulder feels pretty good now, so I'm pretty excited to get back into training. I've been feeling an urge to change things up considerably, so I'm going to switch to a more strength-focused full-body program for a couple of cycles. Mike Israetel (my chosen guru for those of you new to this thread) advocates running lower-volume strength blocks for 1-2 cycles after every few cycles of high rep accumulation.



Main goals and implementations:

1. Get better at sumo deadlifting:

I'll be deadlifting twice a week to get more practice with the movement. The second day will be lighter, with ramping sets up to a top set at the same weight as the sets across on the main sumo day. Once I've tightened up my form, I may change this day to paused sumo.

2. Get better at overhead pressing:

In the same vein as 1., I'm pressing one more day per week, but in this case, it will just be for higher reps, lower intensity, and lower rest between sets. Just pounding the groove with a weight with which I'm comfortable.

3. Find a barbell bench variant that doesn't ruin my shoulders, and become reasonably strong at it:

I'm going to start off with reverse-grip, but I may end up going back to close-grip if it doesn't pan out. Benching 3x a week (once with dumbbells).

4. Keep trucking on squats and use more aggressive progression for all the main lifts:



I simplified the progression a bit from my former program. It's still steadily increasing volume and intensity each week until the deload, but it's less volume overall, higher percentages, and weight is increased every two weeks instead of every cycle. The pictured example is for the squat, but it's the same sets and reps for all the main lifts. I'll determine the TM increase for the squat by how many reps I get in the last set. For the deadlift, I won't be doing an amrap set, and instead will increase the TM based on how hard the last set was. This is to avoid accumulating too much fatigue with squat and DL amraps in the same week. I also won't be amrapping on press or bench, but for different reasons (my sad shoulders).

That's about as far as I've 'sperged. The paused work will be sets of 4-5 and the assistance work in sets of mostly 8-10. The main goal of the program is greater specificity, somewhat higher percentages, and somewhat lower total volume.

Maybe you've mentioned it before...but why not dumbbells?

Nobody is forcing you to barbell bench. Nobody is forcing the barbell *ever* - only those who are competitive powerlifters *need* the barbell.

I am doing db flat bench on one day. I'm resisting moving totally away from barbells because I like the motivation of making progress on something that's easily tracked and measured. There are also issues of practicality with doing DB as my main bench; it's hard to load higher percentages and to approach failure in sets. If injury (or risk thereof) precluded me from benching with barbells entirely, I'd be forced to do that, but I don't think I've reached that point yet.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W1

1. HBBS (kg):
TM120 3x6 @75%

20x6x2
40x6
65x6
82.5x3
90x6
90x6
90x6

2. 2ct Pause Reverse-grip Bench (kg):
w/ Band External Rotation: 1x15, 2x12
TM66 3x4 @72.5%

20x4x3
35x4
42.5x3
47.5x4
47.5x4
47.5x4

3. Romanian Deadlift (kg):
w/ DB Hammer Curl (lb): 20x15x3

95x10
95x10
95x10

***

Decent day. It looks like I chose the training maxes well for the percentages; squat and bench sets were hard but not total grinders. Bench was more awkward than hard. I missed a few pauses but mainly I was struggling to get used to the movement. I feel like I'm locking out too far up and back. I'm thinking my arms should be at a not-quite-90 degree angle to my body at lockout; perhaps 80 degrees.

RDLs were kind of strong. I meant to do 3x9 but I did an extra rep by accident on the first set and it was still easy enough so I did 10s instead. Let's try to ignore the fact that my ROM is like 6 inches.

There's my first crack at strength programming in nice neat excel spreadsheet format. I like the idea of making bi-weekly progress on everything instead of monthly. Basically, I've staggered the intensity so that I go for PRs on squat and deadlift on alternating weeks; same for bench and overhead press. Percentages are kind of a shot in the dark and expect some of them will need to be adjusted.

Potential issues:

1. Lat work is pretty sparse compared to what I'm used to. That said, I am deadlifting twice a week, and along with the RDLs, there's a lot of total back work.

2. It may not be enough upper body volume. We'll see. The curls/abs slots are essentially placeholders for additional bench assistance if necessary.

3. Certain things like going for PR deadlifts the day after volume squats could be an issue. I may need to rearrange some things if I can't perform well when I need to.

Thursday, August 10, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W1

1. Press (kg):
TM44 3x6 @75%

20x6x2
27.5x4
30x3
34x6
34x6
34x6

2. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
w/ Hanging Leg Raise (2ct hold): 0x15x3
TM134 75%x5, 80%x5, 85%x5+

60x4x2
80x4
90x2
100x5
105x5
110x5 @9 [PR]

3. Chin-up (@60kg):
w/ DB Lateral (lb): 15s x16x3

9
8
7

Training time: 1:33

***

Press was easy, as it should be at this weight. I much prefer pressing from the safeties as it makes a walkout unnecessary. Not sure why I wasn't doing this before.

Deadlift is only technically a PR. I didn't expect 110 to be this hard and I think grip strength might have been a factor. I'm pretty happy with the form in the 105 set, though.

Saturday, August 12, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W1

1. Reverse-grip Bench (kg):
TM66 3x6 @75%

20x6x2
35x4
45x3
50x6 @8.5
50x5 miscounted reps
50x7 @7?

2. 2ct Paused HBBS (kg):
w/ Cable Straight-back Crunch (lb): 57.5x20x3
TM134 3x3 @77.5%

20x5x2
40x4
60x3
75x1
85x1
92.5x3
92.5x3
92.5x3

3. Machine Seated Row (lb):
w/ Machine Triceps Extension (lb): 70x14x3

130x12
130x12
130x12

Training time: 1:44

***

This was a really strong, productive day.

The RPEs of the bench sets are obviously wack, but the movement is still new to me. In the first set, I think I was touching a bit low on my chest. The second set had better form but I was too far back on the bench. I hit the Js on the first rep, re-racked it, and then miscounted the reps. The third set was way more solid. I think I did a good job of not losing my upper back tightness at lockout which resulted in shorter, easier reps.

Squats went very well. I was a little worried that I'd set the percentages a bit too high (I've only paused with 85 before), but when 85 was super easy I got out of my head and just did the prescribed work. Depth was better than usual, and pauses were about right, at least in the first two sets.

I never noticed how long your thighs are, must be contributing to making hitting depth hard

Fixed a typo. 134 is my deadlift TM.

Yeah, long legs relative to the torso in general, I think.

Sunday, August 13, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W1

1. Press (kg):
TM44 75%x5, 80%x5, 85%x5+

20x5x2
27.5x5
31x5
34x5
36x8 @8.5 [PR] {TM+1}

2. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
w/ Band Facepull: #0 x25x3
TM134 3x6 @75%

60x4x2
80x4
90x3
100x6
100x6
100x6

3. DB Flat Bench (lb):
w/ DB Concentration Curl (lb): 15x16x3

40s x12
40s x12
40s x12

Training time: 1:28

***



PR is PR, but let's keep in mind that I haven't worked up to a max set of press in a while, so these are gains on display from months of higher-rep work.

In the context of previous bests:

37.5x4 @10 [e1rm ~42] (8 months ago)
35x8 @10 [e1rm ~44] (7 months ago)
36x6 @9 [e1rm ~44] (7 weeks ago and 2 weeks ago)
36x8 @8.5 [e1rm ~47] (today)

The 36x6's were done in a state of accumulated fatigue so it makes sense that I wouldn't be able to perform at maximum on those days. So it appears that conservatively I increased my 1rm press by 3kg in 7 months which I suppose isn't a total stall.

I would have pushed the set harder but I lost tightness after the 7th rep and was already pretty stoked to hit a PR. There's also something nice about knowing I have another press PR in reserve whenever I want it.

Deadlifts went pretty poorly, but I know what I need to work on and it's just a matter of getting in the practice.

Week 70 Diet
Mass Phase Week 11



Not a lot of meal planning this week. Just eating intuitively and writing down what I eat afterward. Protein could be a touch higher. I pretty much try to eat four >30g protein meals a day. On Thursday I went to a wedding party and had some wine.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W2

1. HBBS (kg):
TM120 4x5 @80%

20x5x3
40x5
60x4
75x2
87.5x2
95x5
95x5
95x5
95x6 [rep PR] {TM+3}

2. 2ct Pause Reverse-grip Bench (kg):
w/ Band External Rotation: #0 x13x3
TM66 4x3 @77.5%

20x4x2
35x4
45x2
51x1 lost groove bleh
45x3
47.5x3
50x3
52.5x3 @8.5
50x4 @8.5

3. Romanian Deadlift (kg):
w/ DB Curl (lb): 20x18x2, 20x17

97.5x10
97.5x10
97.5x10

Training time: 2:15

***

Squats were solid, IMO. The amrap was a bit disappointing, at least as far as PRs go, because the prior sets felt so strong that I expected I'd get 7-8 reps. I think depth is slowly improving.

More reverse-grip folly. I feel like I have a tendency to touch too far forward at the bottom and to bring the bar too far back at the top. After I took some weight off and worked back up, I think the form improved a lot.

Thursday, August 17, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W2

1. Press (kg):
TM45 4x5 @80%

20x5x2
27.5x5
32.5x2
36x5
36x5
36x5
36x5 @8.5

2. Chin-up (@60kg):
w/ Hanging Leg Raise (2ct hold): 0x16x3

0kg x5
5kg x5
10kg x5 @10 [PR]
5kg x5
5kg x5 @9

3. Sumo Deadlift w/ hook grip (kg):
w/ Cable Lateral (lb): 7.5x15x4
TM134 67.5%x5, 72.5%x5, 77.5%x5+

60x4x2
80x2
90x5
97.5x5
105x5 switched to mixed after 3 reps

Training time: 1:58

***

Solid day. Press could have been better, but no major complaints. I made light deadlift day interesting by making my first honest attempt at the hook grip. It was actually not as bad as I thought, but it did make the work sets way heavier than they should have been (considering they're meant to be light sets). I'll continue to pepper some hook grip sets in there until I get accustomed to it.

Minor gains on chin-ups. We'll see what gains are possible with 1x weekly frequency, and maybe add a second day in a future cycle. Until then I'll just alternate weeks of volume sets and ramping up to a PR attempt (on heavy and light deadlift days respectively).

Saturday, August 19, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W2

1. Reverse-grip Bench (kg):
TM66 3x5 @80%, 1x5+ @80%

20x5
20x8
35x5
42.5x4
49x2
52.5x5
52.5x5
52.5x5
52.5x8 @8.5 {TM+3}

2. 2ct Pause HBBS (kg):
w/ Cable Straight-back Crunch (lb): 65x16x3
TM123 3x4 @72.5%

20x4x2
40x4
60x3
75x2
82.5x1
89x4
89x4
89x4

3. Machine Seated Row (lb):
w/ Machine Triceps Extension (lb): 55x20x4

145x8
145x8
145x8
145x8

Training time: 1:51

***

I didn't get enough sleep last night and woke up feeling very unmotivated. Then I went in and had a great session anyway. Cool.

....and it's that time again.



Measurements:



***

This may be the first time I've taken pics that looked worse than previous pics.

Lookin pretty oafish, but I'm probably gonna push this mass phase for another 8 weeks or so.

Sunday, August 20, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W2

1. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
TM134 4x5 @80%

60x4x2 hook
80x3 hook
100x2 hook

107.5x5 straps
107.5x5 straps
107.5x5 straps
107.5x5 straps

107.5x1 +2" hold w/hook
100x1 +2" hold w/hook
85x1 +6" hold w/hook
85x1 +34" hold with double overhand

2. Press (kg):
w/ Band Facepull: #1 x18x3
TM45 4x10 @65%

20x5x2
27.5x5
29x10
29x10
29x10
29x10

3. DB Flat Bench (lb):
w/ DB Hammer Curl (lb): 25x11, 25x10x2

45s x8
45s x8
45s x8

Training time: 1:48

***

Pretty meh day. I can't complain that much since I got all the work done, but it was just kind of a miserable session. Sumos were just completely awkward, like I forgot how to do them. The linked set was the best. I tried deadlifting in my adidas sneakers which I thought would allow for a bit better traction than socks, but the sole was more compressible than I expected. Otherwise, I just couldn't get tight enough to set up, and straps made that aspect more difficult (can't easily reset between reps).

I'm still not sure if I'm doing hook grip right, as I can't decide if it's better to have two or three fingers around my thumb. Both feel awful, but that doesn't tell me much considering it's supposed to feel awful. I'm going to give my thumbs a break on Thursday's PR attempt and just do everything with straps. If I can just not lift like a fool, 112.5x5 should be there with reps in reserve. Today's sets were fairly easy in spite of my bad technique making them as difficult as possible.

***

Week 71 Diet
Mass Phase Week 12



Solid week. Good protein and calories on point.

Looking good! Your June pics are the best.
I can see the strength change in your arms from December by the viens buldging.

Aside: Aren't your legs supposed to be more parallel to the ground for deadlifts? It doesn't look like you are lifting with your butt....maybe I'm doing it wrong.

What has been the total weight gain since June?

You've been at this whole lifting and dieting thing a while now. Do you have a good idea of what you care about the most regarding aesthetics vs strength progression?

I don't like the idea of pushing through if you can't get positive results. You could call this period a nice prolonged diet break and head back to steadier, less dramatic weight loss. If you continue with the bulk I imagine some tweaks have to be made to get more ideal results. I wouldn't just keep following the same diet/training protocols that yielded those pictures.

Thanks. Re: deadlifts, it's pretty individual based on leg/arm/torso length.


Total weight gain: 8.1lb in 12 weeks (average 0.68 lb a week). It's not the most aggressive of bulks.

I'm not that worried about it. The way I see it, it's the gains that are hard. Cutting the weight will be fast and easy by comparison. If you consider the couple of pounds of bloat that I'm holding onto, I could probably be back to sub 125 in 6 weeks or so. I just don't see a big problem with massing up to 140ish.

I suppose I could tweak the calories down a little, especially since I've decreased my training volume a bit. Maybe go for closer to 0.3-0.5 lb/w of weight gain.

As to your question, I'd be lying if I said that the aesthetics don't matter to me at all, but I am definitely more interested in strength right now. I still look great in clothes, my XS shirt still fits, meh if I don't have any abs for a while. The only thing that gives me pause is the disproportionate increase in my waist measurement vs. the other measurements.

While this is obviously true, I do believe that working on hip mobility you could get your ass a little bit lower still (open up hips, knees more directly above ankles). Whether this position would be advantageous I am not entirely sure, but at the time I started doing sumo deadlifts I was definitely trying to get in such a position.

Nice pics, great job

Thanks, bro.

I definitely haven't ironed out my sumo setup, but I'm still early on in training it. I agree with this and am working on it.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W3

1. HBBS (kg):
TM123 4x6 @75%

20x5x2
40x5
65x4
77.5x2
87.5x2
92.5x6
92.5x6
92.5x6
92.5x6

2. 2ct Pause Reverse-grip Bench (kg):
w/ Band External Rotation: #0 x13x4
TM69 4x4 @72.5%

20x5x2
35x4
45x2
50x4
50x4
50x4 bad pauses
50x4 extra long pauses

3. Romanian Deadlift (kg):
w/ DB Concentration Curl (lb): 20x11, 20x12x2, 20x13

100x8 straps
60x8x2 hook

4. Hook Grip Holds (kg):

80 for 9" (lol)
70 for 20"
70 for 24"
75 for 23"
80 for 16"
85 for 29"

Training time: 2:26

***

Today was good. Didn't PR anything but everything went smoothly as planned. I think I'm finally getting the hang of bench.

I did something a little different for RDLs, just working up to one heavyish set. I'm going for a PR set of deadlifts tomorrow so I'd like not to be destroyed with fatigue going into that workout. Then I dovetailed this change with my ongoing hook grip training.

I made a ridiculous amount of hook grip progress within 15 minutes today. The light RDL sets just weren't heavy enough for hook grip to even work properly. On the first 80 hold, the right thumb just got sucked too far underneath the bar and the pain was unbearable. After that I think I improved my technique quite a bit, and on the 85 set, I had a bro looking on with a stopwatch so I guess it was easier to endure the pain with an audience.

Thursday, August 24, 2017 Training
Strength Block C1W3

1. Sumo Deadlift (kg):
TM134 75%x5, 80%x5, 85%x5+

60x4x2
80x3
97.5x5 straps from here
105x5
112.5x7 [PR] {TM+3}

2. Press (kg):
w/ Hanging Leg Raise (2ct hold): 0x16x4
TM45 4x6 @75%

20x5x2
27.5x5
31x2
34x6
34x6
34x6
34x6

3. Chin-up (@61kg):
w/ DB Lateral (lb): 15s x16x4

5kg x6
5kg x6
5kg x6
5kg x6 @10

Training time: 1:42

***

Going into this one, it was hard to know what to expect. I ate some weed last night and was still pretty stoned going into the workout. I just felt really sluggish and distracted. Luckily, it didn't really seem to affect my strength.

As suspected, switching to straps for my max set boosted my performance quite a bit. I beat my 2-weeks-ago PR by +2.5kg, +2 reps and probably a lower RPE. There was some in the tank there too, but I felt like I was doing something wrong at lockout. Looking back at the vid, it looks like my lockouts are pretty iffy, but overall I'm pleased with the set under the circumstances. I'm going to proceed with a modest training max increase and hopefully keep the gains train going.

sounds like she's cumming