i'm doing GSLP, when I run into a rut then I'll post form vids. I believe today will be 122.5 for bench and 150 for squat.

trust me, if anything this most recent month has told me that obsessing over the lifts is way more important than the diet. i'm just using bodyfat% as the benchmark for my performance. i can't control anything in my lifts beyond getting in there and doing it, and i've been doing it. you aren't seeing it in this thread cuz i'm just updating it monthly with the dexas as i find my workout logs boring.

Whatever makes you happy I guess, but if you wanna look athletic and aren't an actual athlete, getting strong and building actual muscle mass is the only pathway. May want to embrace the monotony of going to the gym and doing the same stuff day after day, since that is gonna be what actually gets you into a guy who isn't super skinny fat.

don't get me wrong, i would rather be 15% bf and be able to deadlift 250 lbs as opposed to 10% bf and be a weakling.

i'm not gonna look at 130 lbs and be like "yay, i did it". at a certain point i'm gonna transition into eating at a surplus and hitting the weights even harder.

thats why i say the eventual goal is sorta around expectedV where i'm like 160 but i have a lot of lean muscle mass on me.

the path in getting there at this point is sorta semantics, i'm aware some of you would rather see me bulk->cut but i'm gonna go the cut->bulk route. it'll have to be something i consider once i start stalling, be it the weights or the bodyfat%. crossfit also an option.

lifting from yday
bench 125 (5,5,6)
squat 155 (5,5,8)
bicep curl 30s, 9,9,9
tricep pulldown machine 40s, 10,10,10

definitely starting to feel it with the bench and the OHP, squat and DL feel like lots of room so i'm pushing those when merited.

brief update and 2 questions:

update: got sidetracked a little bit having to go out of town for business and didn't have a great plan for finding a place to lift. kept my calories under control but ate too many processed carbs (eg breakfast sandwiches at starbucks). opted for a non-extravagant cheat day on saturday since half the week was like a mild cheat week in and of itself. weigh in this morning and am in the 148ish range so I guess I managed to not **** up too bad. i guess walking a ton helped, i was paranoid i'd gain a few pounds just from the diet not being sharp.

weight reps from yday
press 75 (5x3)
DL 175 (7)

getting kinda close to considering form checkups, felt good to make progress in the press as this is generally the weight range where i stall. probably got another few weeks in the DL/squat/bench before I start running into a plateau.

question: i have 2 observations and i'm curious on input

1) if i continue losing fat mass while gaining lean mass, there's gotta come a point where that behavior stalls and then it's back to losing a small amount of fat mass in addition to losing lean mass. maybe the optimal point in time to switch from cutting to bulking is when this happens? maybe i'll get a cue when my lifts totally stall (idk how long that's gonna take). i don't mind if that optimal path happens to be when my fat% is at 18% or something, like i said my main thing is just not being skinnyfat. would prefer to avoid a situation where i'm overly focused on bodyfat% at the expense of strength gains. the lifts are continuing to improve so i'm not at that point yet, but it's food for thought for me. and on top of that, say i get back into bulking and lifting, at what point do i decide to go back to cutting?

2) training volume. i'm keeping it pretty basic right now with my lifting days,

A-day: Bench, Squat, dumbbell bicep curl, tricep pulldown machine
B-Day: Press, DL, horizontal row machine, lat pulldown machine, shoulder press machine

and wondering what stuff i need to add. i know i should add stuff eventually, not sure if that's supposed to be now or when i start bulking. i like the idea of just about everything except the row or pendlay row, i hate it and am always super paranoid of hurting my back doing it.

little over a week out from my next scan, this is looking like its gonna be an interesting one. i would give myself an A- this month with my workouts and a B- with my diet. i'm slowly losing my mind on chipotle (looks like it took about 10 weeks to get sick of it). i may mess around with a cauliflower mash as my primary carb next week. workouts have been very favorable.

strength splits:
Squat: 165 (attempting 170 today)
Bench: 130 (attempting 132.5 today)
DL: 185
Press: 80

still hovering around 149ish, i bet one super clean week of dieting gets me to 148 by the next scan but i'm gonna be out of town this weekend so that'll be tough. part of me wants to sorta keep it near 149 just to see what the bodyfat is from a month of okay diet but good gym. i feel a little better in the mirror over the last month so i'm hoping i'm down to 22 but would be happy with any positive results.

as i mentioned previously i feel like i'm eventually gonna come to a point where i need to bulk. i don't feel the stall coming in my DL and squat but i'm definitely feeling it with the bench.

Gl OP, will be following. Don't let the fatties in here ruin your goals and you will be golden.

148.5 24.15% bodyfat

thanks. i will try and draw some inspiration from your thread, i'm sure there's a lot of good stuff in there. may take me a while but i am on on the grindddd.

where are you pulling this from? if i ended up at 24.15 after last month's 24.3 i'd be kinda depressed. it would do more to re-enforce the notion of how important diet is, and i'd probably tilt and start bulking. my hope is that i'm at 23ish, i reallllyyyyy just want to have a normal diet and go hard at the gym and take off .5-1% a month until i stall in my lifts.

===

lifting today went well, i thought i'd be stalling at the bench but managed to get 5x3 cleanly. recorded my squat from a couple angles and will record DL on sunday.

so, gonna break this down in a seperate post:

can't say i'm surprised that i didn't make huge progress on the bodyfat % here because, like i said, i didn't really do a great job dieting. had a couple small vacations and there were stretches where i just got completely sick of riceless chipotle and needed a sandwich or something just to keep me from losing my damn mind. 3 months of no white carbs except on saturdays is about my mental breaking point, evidently.

(as a random aside, i actually weighed in at 147.8 which was the first time i got sub 148 but i guess morning coffee and wearing clothes and lolhydration swings mean that a tiny amount got added to show up on this report.)

i was saying last month that i made these great gains i didn't see it at all in the mirror... this last month i felt like i was seeing some real progress, especially in my face/jawline. i feel skinny wearing clothes and skinnyfat'ish shirtless, which is a small improvement over feeling skinnyfat in every walk of life. so it's funny that my read of what i see in the mirror is evidently the opposite of what's actually going on... unless there is just a larger role in noise with this dexa stuff, and by virtue of being around maintenance i'm opening myself up to noisy results (like maybe last month was noisy on the rungood side)

the positives to take away from this are solid gains in the lean mass in the arms and legs (but strangely not trunk) due to the good progression on my lifting weights. but that's about it.

i would say mentally when it comes to continuing to cut, i am shot. i think it's better if i switch to eating at a small surplus with no dietary restrictions and continue going hard in the gym. top priority should be gaining lean mass and not being a weakling.

if anyone has any suggestions on ways to tweak GSLP or add anything to it, i'm all ears. my strength splits for 5RM are as follows:

bench: 135
squat: 175
deadlift: 190
press: 82.5

feel myself hitting a wall with the bench and feel fine on the others

So you managed to lose primarily muscle mass in the last month why getting off diet multiple times, are weaker than you were previously, still don't post any of your workouts, or really anything about your diet, and focus on a not super accurate once a month scan to determine all your gains/losses.

Who could've guessed that we'd be here?

I think basically everything you're doing is varying shades of dumb. (Quite literally everything.) Just grind a small caloric deficit, do SS, and then when you stall on squat/DL a couple times, move onto GSLP or the advanced iteration of SS or TM or whatever. I've already explained the reasons why GSLP is FPS for novices. But without really having any idea what your training is, no one is gonna be able to help you. Your diet also seems pretty bad.

I mean, you're going to gain fat at a preferential rate if you were leaner, and your BF is pretty atrocious already. Why don't you switch over to something that isn't dumb instead of smashing your dick in the door repeatedly?

i've said this before in the thread, my workouts are as follows: A/B/A or B/A/B three times a weak, A=Bench&Squat, B=Press&DL, and I add accessory lifts to each of them (for bench/squat for example i have added bicep curls, tricep pulldowns, fly machine, etc). bench and press i add 2.5 lbs each workout, squat and DL i add 5 lbs. it is safe to assume that i am still on this path, and i'm posting my strength splits.

i don't think it's fair to categorize things in black and white as me getting weaker when i'm continually putting up more weight (no stall yet on lifts) and gained a decent amount of lean mass in arms and legs the last month. i've already posted as to why i'm not updating this thread daily with my workout logs.

i would like some other people's take on this. i find myself a lot more motivated doing the GSLP program cuz the start-with-squats every day was really draining after a while and i did run into random hip issues. that said, maybe there could be an argument for needing to increase volume. that's why i'm asking for help on this. i recognize everyone has different opinions on this and i'm really just looking to stick to whatever a smart-people-group-consensus is and follow through with it.

this is the direction i'd like to go to now that i've lost about 10 lbs from the start, just a matter of what diet and what exercise routine is needed.

small deficit, maintenance, small surplus? is anyone gonna advocate for a real bulk?

and is GSLP okay or should i do more volume like SS. tips on accessory work and volume?

these are the main points i'd like to hit as i plan out my next 3 months. goal is to increase muscle mass and get to the part where i'm hitting those quoted lifts.

HELP PLZ

Reading this thread has made me break a self imposed exile.

Ignore everything Renton wrote.

Listen to Thremp, KC, and Loco (where they've agreed).

And yes... everything you've been doing to this point is ****ing ******ed.

With regard to the first portion: You don't list your AMRAP sets, so no one knows how those are changing. You accessory work as well. (Which is almost certainly trash volume that isn't contributing in any meaningful way.) Literally no one has any idea beyond "GSLP" which is pretty much meaningless. The problem as a novice is that you don't even know how utterly meaningless it is. 531 could range from BBB to a bunch of isolateral isolation movements. Also, you posted 145/215/225, and then mention stalling on bench progression (who knows wtf that means either) so I think its fair to say you're substantially weaker than at a point in the past. But hey! View things however you want.

Ultimately do whatever you want. I don't think you have a prayer of making any meaningful progress with your attitude. You hip was clearly not ****ed up by SS. Probably not knowing how to squat and your attitude toward learning proper form. If you have some structural problem, then maybe finding a leg movement that doesn't injure your hip flexor would be a good idea. Ultimately that is impossible for anyone to know since no one knows how you even squat. You could need more volume or less volume, again no one knows wtf you're doing since you don't post it.

Essentially I don't think there is any possible way for anyone to help you since no one knows what you're eating (other than only white carbs on Saturday which is absurdly stupid), or how you're training.

i can't seem to find anything all 3 of them agree on

let's try and do a quick reset here, because i'm actively trying to find a way to not be ******ed, yeah?

1) i ask for advice, program
2) renton chimes in, he's in a similar spot to me, offers GSLP. i have been grinding GSLP ever since.
3) some people say GSLP is good, others say GSLP is ******ed
4) some people say bulking is good, others say it's ******ed
5) some people say cutting is good, others say it's ******ed
6) i am now ****ing ******ed

i'm trying to be a sponge folks, just tell me what to do and i'll do it. if you want me to start a log/new thread, sure why not.

just find it a little frustrating that any path i choose will be accepted as good by 50% of the posters here and the other 50% think i'm ****ing ******ed.

at least i can fall back on the fact that my lifts are going good and i'm less of a weakling than i was before and i'm less fat than i was before

i posted my diet here. please stop thremping and read the thread. i am willing to accept your tough love but you need to stop hammering me on things that i've already provided you.

i will address the other points individually shortly.

if you'd like me to start a log i could do that.

last five benchings:

plate, rep, rep, amrap
40, 5/5/6
41.25, 5/5/5
42.5, 5/5/5
43.75, 5/5/5
45, 5/5/5

squats:

plate, rep, rep, amrap
55, 5/5/8
57.5, 5/5/6
60, 5/5/7
62.5, 5/5/7
65, 5/5/5

DL:
plate, amrap (edited here)
65, 7
67.5, 5
70, 7
72.5, 5

press
plate, rep, rep, amrap

15, 5/5/5
16.25, 5/5/5
17.5, 5/5/5
18.75, 5/5/5

when i address my bench as 'stalling' it's in the context of not being able to get past 5 on the amrap and struggling to get those last few reps in on the work set.

i asked for help on accessory work here and didn't get a response from anyone. i would have loved your input there.

as i said prior, bench/squat day my accessories are bicep curl, tricep pulldown, fly machine. i have considered adding an additional bench exercise like incline or decline but not sure where to go. press/DL day i add in a lot of shoulder and back stuff, shoulder press, row machine, lat pulldown.

Clayton,

There is likely someone better suited to help explain why all of that is a giant mess. Best of luck.

i disagree, i think my attitude is good and i will eventually accomplish my goals either in this thread or a diff thread.

i went out of my way to pay for lessons from a local powerlifter/coach who was a student/disciple of rippetoe 100% and neither he nor a doctor could explain my random hip issue.

i've yet to get that issue in my recent lift sessions fortunately, but i'm down to be critiqued on my recent squats. i may be off in some random spots and it would be better to patch that up now before i approach 200 lbs again.

i'll post vid soon.

OK fair enough

Would you please answer the following
Age
Weight
Height
Years lifting and what you have done.

Whatever your max lifts are right now, prefer 1RM but will take whatever you have.

Primary Goal Be Specific (you dont get to have two. Just one)

this is pretty frustrating. you are so quick to berate me for the things i do wrong and when i go out of my way to give you more info for help so i can do things less wrong, you say it's a mess but won't explain why.

then other people tell me i need to listen to you.

Clayton,

Go ahead and listen to BPA.

BPA,

Sup.

.