*swoon*

holy moly

Looks like mostly sodium bloat to me

Always donuts.

Looking good bro!

Is there any sort of "mini" cable machine one can load with plates? I'm going to be working a lot more hours and need one for the school gym.

Forgot to post session length/rpe last time. I'd put it at a 6.5 and 45 minutes.

Back
Pullups: bwx 11, 9, 6, 5, 4 first set elbows hurt so I quit early. 90 sec rests
Rows: 60kgx10, 70kgx10, 80kgx8
MAG pulldowns: 110lbsx10x3
Cable rows: 95x10x2
DB CSR: 16kgx10x2
Paused SLDL: 60kgx10, 80kgx10, 90kgx10

41 minutes RPE 5, should have gone harder on everything but pullups.

I might ditch the ramping sets on rows or add additional volume.



Interview with one of my favorite guys in the bodybuilding industry. One of Dave's coaches when he was trying to get lean, Justin Harris. About the first 30 minutes is biographical, then the rest is strength/bodybuilding talk.

cliffs on the dude: one of the original DC training acolytes, got up to like 270 5'10 on stage as an amateur, nearly turned pro in 2007 when it was harder, then randomly stopped bbing to pursue a PhD in physics. Left after 4 years with a masters and didn't lift for some time after that. Randomly came back to coaching/lifting. Will be coaching Janae Kroc for her comeback in men's bbing.

He gives a much more detailed discussion on exactly why training and programming is so unimportant FOR HYPERTROPHY (not for strength/powerlifting) around 1 hr in.

Re-arranging my split again.3-> 2 days between legs and back, but now 1->2 days between back and arms. Makes sense because arms are my biggest weakness and back is my biggest strenght. Legs are weak now, but that's just from dealing with injury and after I regain some of the low hanging fruit from muscle memory I think legs will be a strong point anyway. I just figured out my arm training has gone poorly as of late because I only had one day between back and arms. Hammer curls and all bicep movements felt far stronger now

DB hammer curls: 18kgx10x4
Low cable kickbacks: 14kgx15,15,9,8 each side
EZ curl: ???x12,12,6,6
Cross body single arm tricep extensions: 14kgx12,12,9,8
Cable curl: 30kgx20, 21kgx8,8,7
V pushdowns: 30kgx4 sets failure
srpe 3 duration 34 minutes


I'm thinking I will pick an earlier show outside my city, perhaps where Syndr0m lives in fact. It depends on scheduling, however. This will allow me to not be dieting during my entire summer holiday or during the first few weeks of school, which sounds miserable and it was miserable when I did it last year. Dieting near the end of the school year is ezpz. So we're looking at a June or July show instead of September 2020. I have no idea how much stiffer or less stiff the competition might be. I want to win of course, but it'll be hard to be upset if I can be a legit 205lbs ultra ripped on stage.

Legs

Paused HBBS: 60kgx8x2
Paused SLDL: 60kgx10, 80kgx10, 100kgx10
Hamstring curls: 50x10x4
Leg extensions: 50x10x5

I think my previous attempts to return to squatting shared one thing in common; while I rested long enough, I just went back into the fire way too soon. I never gave myself more than like 4 weeks of light weights before being back up in the RPE 7 range.

Here is my plan of attack this time: At home every day hang out in an air squat for 5 minutes and do some bw rfess on the injured side. On leg days initially for hbbs, only 60kg for the first 4 weeks for slow eccentric paused reps for sets of 8-10 and no more than 30 or so total reps. Following four weeks, bump that up to 80. 4 weeks after that, gradually go up to 100kgx8x3(85, 90, 95 first). Even when I'm fully back to squatting I'm thinking slow eccentric (bout 2-3 seconds) with a pause at the bottom is both better for hypertrophy and easier on my knees. The slow descent is not just for higher TUT, but also for me to be able to focus on keeping glutes activated and engaged more which may or may not be easier on my knees (I don't really believe so but may as well try). I'm flexible enough can have totally relaxed quads in the bottom of a paused squat, but obviously I will consciously try to maintain tension.

Oh my stomach is still fighting back at me for trying to eat to much. Even a meagre 3800-4000 cals is starting to feel kinda hard. But I guess the idea is that if you're overfeeding for several months prior to starting a contest prep, it feels like a relief psychologically to start the diet and your metabolism is elevated from being in a surplus so long. How long this elevation persists, I don't know, but Mr. Harris from the interview above seems to suggest it lasts quite a bit longer than expected, allowing one to keep calories fairly high in a prep.

Chest+shoulders

Couldn't get a pump to save my life. It is certainly time to deload chest+shoulders. I don't really need to deload back ever, just rotate movements is enough.

Flat db: 45.5kgx18, 8. up 6 reps from a year ago which is pretty good
Machine flies: 10x4
Machine presses: 10x4
Incline db flies: 10x2

Side raises: 5 sets
rear raises 3 sets

After flat db press I tried to incline and even the bar hurt my elbows. I had no pain on the dbs. I'm going to drop about $200 on 2 pairs of new dbs and give/lend them to my main gym. Need a break from incline first. Incline BB just seems to stall and get stuck so long which is frustrating; I remember on flat db movements it's relatively easier to see consistent progress from week to week. That psychologically makes me feel better and less likely to do stupid **** that's going to injure me.

Back
Deadlift: 175kgx5x3
Weird pulldowns: 130x10x3, 140x10x2
Plate loaded low row: 1ppsx10x4
Cool Mag bar pulldowns: 115x10x5
DB CSR: 14kgx10x4

SRPE 6.5 or 7 maybe. Don't know if I'll go 177.5 or 180 next dl sesh. Did 5 pullups and gave up b/c elbow felt weird. Thats why I did all the machine work instead.

Skipped arms to give my elbows some extra recovery

Legs
paused HBBS: 60kgx10x3
hamstring curls: 12x5
leg extensions: 12x5
hyperextensions: 10x3

Felt good, no pain. We'll call this week 2 of 11 rehab weeks. I will continue longer than 11 total weeks if I feel it's needed, but I don't want my final rehab workout to be anything more than like 85-90kgx8x4 paused squats and I won't do less than 9 more weeks. We'll take it as an opportunity to really work on nitting on about technique and going slow mind muscle connection and all that.

Going to add some ghrp6 and the cjc pretty soon. Stuff is super cheap. Don't really care much about the gh increase, more just looking for the appetite. So i won't do a cumbersome 3x/day injection, just once post workout. Also added some eq for the same reason.


Daily diet is

6:45am Protein shake with 1% milk
11:15 about 12oz chicken breast, veggies, 4-5 cups of rice, a whole papaya or 2, and 1-2 donuts.
5:00ish foot long subway sandwich (or a 6 oz chicken breast+2cups rice meal if I'm stuck at work a bit later)
7:30-8:30 lamb and rice post workout
second shake if I can fit it in

Literally everything is from restaurants lol. It'd be great if I could get through my contest prep without any meal prepping and microwaving food. It's definitely possible if I just ask them to cut out a lot of the rice and be precise with measuring the chicken. Reheated tilapia or ground beef are fine with me though.

Back
Rows: 10s up to 90kgx8, then 80kgx8, 70kgx10x2
Mag pulldowns: 125x10x2, 110x10x3
Plate loaded machine rows: 1ppsx10x5
db csr: 14kgx10x5

Was done quick. going to try a higher volume approach but keep exercise selection about the same. Elbows and shoulders need a break. Canceling out pullups for a while. I'll use rows as my main lat builder and I think pullups are less essential because of how awesome the MAG bar attachment is for pulldowns.

Still gonna dl heavy though obv LOL.

2nd shake consistently gives me gastric distress. Might just be the milk, idk. It's chocolate so I don't mix it with gatorade as I would with a vanilla protein.

Arms
Hammer curls: 18kgx10x2, 16kgx8x2
Low cable kickbacks: 14kgx10x2, 9kgx12x2 (start the cable from the bottom, totally changes the lift)
EZ curls: somethingx12,10,6,7
V pushdowns: 30kgx20x4 30-45 sec rest
DB curls: 8kgx10x4
High cable kickbacks: 14kgxfailurex4

I like the new tricep routine. Very easy on my elbows, felt 0 discomfort besides the first few eps of v pushdowns. I'm still unsure about the third bicep exercise; some kind of cable curl, db curls, spider curls, haven't really decided. Gotta go with what's easiest on my pec tendon.

Legs

3 sec eccentric 3 sec pause HBBS: 60kgx10x5 1.5 min rests lmao
Hamstring curls: 10x5
Leg extensions: 10x5

This felt like a real workout. Maybe the gym bros were right, not about the weight but about the mind muscle connecshuunnnn!11!. Not really, but feels good to do something that was actually semi challenging on a leg day. I'd give this a solid 5 SRPE

My upper body was NOT recovered enough for today. Tris were still sore and I could feel them not firing properly because delts massively took over. On top of that, I put my contact lense in backward and as soon as I tried to adjust it in the gym bathroom the contact got lost in my eye causing lots of irritation and distraction. I tried to fix it in the gym with tap water, but to no avail. Naturally, i tried to do my workout only because the pain wasn't that bad. But of course it got worse as I progressed and I wasn't really recovered anyway. So basically life handed me a deload and a warning shot about proper arm training.

Incline bb: up to 70kgx5, 80kgx5, 90kgx5 (last paused), 55kgx10x2, x9, 50kgx7, 40kgx10 tried 1 min rests, lolno

As you might be able to tell I was tryna start 5/3/1. It didn't work lmao.

I need to back off arms volume or intensity. Maybe just 9 sets biceps 10 sets triceps? Maybe do ramping sets and count those very low rpe sets as working sets? maybe just lower the weights and try softer but keep it at 12/12? I'll probably do the last one.

Tomorrow first day of 5/3/1 dls. Plugged in 235kg (227.5kg was an actual 1rm about 14 weeks ago, but I did a mini peaking block for it) as a prospective max, but I'll probably base my training maxes on 85% of that instead of 90%. I remember about 14 months ago I did 170kgx9 @ 91-92kg bw, it'd be kinda cool to start with an amrap at 170kg to see my progress. Granted I gained 10kg so by loco logic that 10kg should translate into +15 reps even if it was all facking fat, water and glycogen.

Oh, I came home and had to invert my eyelid to get it out! Fun times!!!!!

Love it when that happens. Or when a small piece breaks off and you're left wondering whether it fell out or is in there somewhere. Found one small piece on my pillow a few days later once. Probably have a little stockpile behind my eyes by now.

Today went much better

5/3/1 DL 130kgx5, 155kgx5, 170kgx12, BBB 90kgx10x3
Medium mag pulldowns: 5 sets
Close mag pulldowns: 5 sets
DB CSR: 5 sets wth dbs from 12-14kg
Row machine: 3 sets

Although I've done 170kgx10 last october at a similar bw and might have expected more progress; I also have done 0 sets of more than 6 reps since about then. I imagine as my body sort of reconditions to these kind of amraps we'll pick some low hanging fruit here. Wouldn't be surprised if next monthly cycle I add 2.5kgs and also add a rep or even 2.

Going to just go with machine work for lats right now. AMRAP DL+BBB is plenty for lower back so I'd rather do 0 free weight rowing and my elbows don't seem to like pullups so we'll simply take a long break from those and maybe reintroduce pullups+rows as my main back builders once training weights for legs start getting heavier and I'm finding it hard to balance squat+dl in the same week. Until these knees are back to big boy weights on the squats though, I guess we'll just drive DLs pretty hard.

Arms

Hammer curls: 14kgx10, 16kgx10x3, 14kgx10 (lower weights, more volume)
Low cable kickbacks: 14kgx10x2, 9kgx10x2
Ez curls: a 5kg and a 2.5gkg on each sidex10x4 pr!!11
V pushdowns: variousx15-20x4
Cable curls: 30kgx25, 11
High kickbacks: 14kgx15x2

It's the day after and I feel no soreness so that's good. Seems Im always making prs on the 2nd movement of the day for upper body but it's hard to make prs for the first movement. I also gotta cut v-pushdowns b/c elbows. I think cgbp with limited ROM, perhaps cg spoto press, would also be a great addition if done for teh pump with like 60-65kg for sets of 12-15. If that bothers my pec tendon, there's really no reason I couldn't just incline cgbp to focus on triceps. No idea why the thought of this only now occurred to me. If that still doesn't work for my elbows, I'll do a cross body single arm cable pushdown but I don't like the idea of a triceps routine that is 100% cable unilateral weird movements that almost nobody does.

May also stick ez curls as first bicep movement since I have an easier time progressing weights on that than hammer curlz. So maybe something like warming up with light cable work no worksets, then cgbp, then ez curls, then do the rest of my routine. I'll give it a shot!

Digestion/heartburn have been really horrid this week. Calories have come down drastically because of this. Fats in particular are ****ing me up really hard. I had bloodwork 3 weeks ago and liver values were only at the top end of normal which I guess for me is enough for heartburn. I'm due to stop accutane early march then start prep late march... I don't know if it's a good idea to actually compete, maybe march 2020 just do a cut with the clen, t3, and lots of cardio included, but not the tren/winny and spraytan+competition part. I'm just not having a good offseason b/c I can't facking eat food.


I'm only on 10mg/day of accutane from the doc, btw. I don't know if I'd be able to anything beyond out of bed or do anything but work and sleep if I was on the 50mg/5 months plan instead of the 10mg/10 months plan.

Legs
Paused hbbs: 60kgx10x6 1-1.5 min rests
hamstring curls: 45x10x5
leg extensions: 35x10x5

Not hard. Might start adding weight in about 2 more workouts.

Chest+shoulders

Incline: 65x5, 75x5, 85kgx11 1 in tank, last rep paused.
BBB: 50kgx10x5 8 min 30 seconds. We'll keep the target around 12 minutes and move up 2.5 or 5kg whenever we manage to get under that. I'm doing the reps very slow and controlled eccentrics so each set of 10 is probably taking a solid 30 seconds or more.
Weird funky new chest press: 100x10,7, 90x10
Machine flies: 10x3
The usual stuff for shoulders idk why I even write it out every time.

I'm trying a new approach to chest training. I'm cutting out flat db press and I'm hoping between that and the BBB and pump and fluff machine work I can minimize stress on my elbows which seem to be what's been inhibiting my incline press progress. Basically I think the tissue around that area just can't handle all that. I'd love to do cable flies, but as popular as cables are in western countries, they are tenfold more popular in China with many "lifters" terrified of dbs, bbs, or plate loaded machines yet finding cables approachable.

I think the flat cg spoto presses will be fine for covering whatever's missing by not having a flat pressing movement and I'm going to be doing them in a way that I'm hoping doesn't stress my elbow tendons too much.

I'm going to do the thing wendler is now recommending where you run 2 cycles before deloading and I'll deload slightly heavier, doing maybe something like 100kgx12, 120kgx8, 140kgx6 for DL deload when the time comes. idk if I'll bother adding anything to the training max tbh, maybe just match reps but add a little weight or volume to bbb and attempt a rep pr only in the last workout before a deload. Adjust weights post deload but use only a 3+ or 1+ amrap set to make a new training max. when you get over 10 on the amrap set the 1rm calc will overshoot by too much.

Finally, i think I figured out a solution to my DL BBB problem; normally it'd be just way too cardiovascularly fatiguing to do a proper bbb after a near amrap dl for me to get anything else done unless I took a half an hour break. But instead I can simply do the main 5/3/1 set, do all my lat machine pump+fluff, then return to BBB as the last lift and my lower back/hamstrings/lungs will feel much more recovered and I can do it much easier then just go home not having to worry about lifting after what is basically HIIT under load.

Back
DL 140kgx5, 160kgx3, 180kgx8 with 1 in the tank this time
Pullups: bwx6x3 lol I promise I'll take a break...
Pulldowns: 5x10
DB CSR: 14kgx10x5 bump this up next time
Machine row: 3 sets of 10
DL BBB: 90kgx10x5

SRPE 8.5-9.

Yesterday
Arms
CG spoto: 60kgx12, 70kgx10x2, 70kgx8 short rests
Cable curls: 36kgx10-15x4
Single arm cross body tricep cable extension: 10x4
Hammer curls: 12kgx10x4
Cable high kickbacks: 14kgx10x4
EZ curls: somethingx10x2

Felt good, not sore the next day really.

Today skipped legs and gonna do them tomorrow but even lighter instead becauuussseee...

Today went to the same bbing show I competed in last year. The standard went way up. I'm glad I didn't compete this year! 2 ifbb pros showed up; this is allowed to cuz the differentiation between pro and amateur is murkier. BBing shows have comparatively large audiences and are much more of a marketing affair than in the west. I've never actually attended one in the west, but I don't believe there are dozens and dozens of booths trying to sell gym equipment and hock supplements using the alluring power of slim fake boobed women. Nor is there total prize money in the 10s of thousands across all the divisions. Just based on bullshitting through youtube videos and pics on npcnewsonline, I'd say a show like this in China is much higher caliber than a local show in America, but not quite as good as national level pro qualifying shows in America. Maybe just below or around the same as junior national level non pro qualifying shows.

Anyway, last year I managed to beat 3 people in the 9 person SHW class, and one of those was highly questionable where even I'll admit I maybe only should have beaten 2 of them. Even if I'd showed up at whatever my best is (hard to know because I've literally only competed once), I would have beaten 1 or 2 but the class was also 3 people smaller so wgaf. I had a totally dogshit offseason thusfar with accutane, digestive issues, lat injuries, knees that are just now recovering, and elbows that I'm still unsure how I need to handle long term.

I saw a lot of breast implants today, and yet it was not a feast for the eyes as women at that level of leanness just start to look weird and not sexy. Beautiful, certainly, but not sexy. The booth ladies schilling supplements to DYEL 30 something bros were nice to look at though.

Anyway, I recorded the whole SHW class this year and might upload it to youtube. It was about 12 minutes long. One of the pros was there and it was crazy seeing somebody at that level in person.

Long story short, 2020 comp isn't happening. I was okay with just getting my feet wet and not going in to win because it was the first comp, but after round 1 I want to be competing with a shot at winning (losing only to an ifbb pro basically counts as a win imo). I have to be like a solid 250 offseason at about the same leanness as I am now to have a shot at my height. I'm right at 102.8kg this morning, so a long way to go. I'm a ****ing giant at just around 5'11.999 compared to these dwarven and elven musclesmiths.

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to ask about the digestive problems I've been having, set up an appointment for bloodwork for the accutane. Slow and steady... 2022 maybe, this is going to take time if I don't want to blast the tren and orals in my offseason, which I really ****ing don't! BBing isn't worth feeling so bad when you don't even have a contest coming up.

I'll definitely need to reset with a cut at some point. I'll start around March, but it'll just be test, clen, and a lotta cardio.

Also very weirdly, there were only 5 bikini girls last year and 1 was brazilian. This year, over 30 with one Russian and one Korean. Almost nobody there was from my city though, even the foreigners came from out of town.

Had a very good doc's office visit today and got fairly lucky. Malaysian bro who lifts recreationally and understands bodybuilding. In his home country he had some friends who were bodybuilding docs and prescribed people test+gh, but he didn't himself. Anyway, I went mostly for digestive problems that seem to be eternally plaguing me off and on since about 2016. He said based on bloodwork I brought in it was probably NOT accutane or liver related, but was either vanilla GERD from eating like a bodybuilder or was because of h. pylori overgrowth (much more likely the latter). We're going to test for it next week saturday morning.

Secondly, I asked him about prescribing stuff for bbing, while he was unable to do this and couldn't give me a referral, he did say he'd support my efforts to self monitor via bloodwork which is a huge relief. Not only that, we can get a serum GH and serum IGF test to verify if gh is real or not, so I will be buying some this week and testing it next saturday. Normally I was doing bloodwork only when I go to America which has been only twice in the last four years. Figuring out if gh is legit is great as well; I haven't taken the step toward it yet but now knowing that I can actually verify if it's real or not maybe I'll actually commit to it!

Fixing my ****ing digestive issues would be huge though and hopefully I'll return to my status of being an eating machine and I can start doing what I'm supposed to be doing for a bodybuilding offseason. If it is h. pylori, I will need to either deload or not train entirely for 2 weeks while doing the fairly aggressive treatment for it; which is probably honestly desirable to give my facking elbows a break.

Chest+delts
INcline bb: 70kgx5, 80kgx3, 90kgx8 (1-2 in tank), BBB 60kgx10x5 @ 9 min 30 sec
Chest press machine: 115lbx12,10,8
Fly machine: 3 sets of 8-12
Normal shoulder stuff

I know I was supposed to go balls deep on incline today, but my elbows were feeling kinda 50% so I elected to not go as hard and just go heavier on BBB. I need a deload for those elbows already. DLs I'm not so sure, I guess we'll base it on tomorrow's performance. If I get like only 6 reps at 190 where I got a 5x3 with not particularly long rests just on July 16th, then it indicates that clearly I need a deload already on that too.


I know I just briefly committed to and then bailed on a cut a few months ago, but I'm thinking its reaalllyyy time now. I am just so god damn sick of eating this much and now that there's no pressure to do a comp in 2020 I don't see anything wrong with just hitting a solid cut right now to feel better and let my digestion heal up. Been at the bulk for basically a full 12 months now from 98kg to 103kg in the mornings and given that knees are not going to be at 100% for a while and elbows haven't been great lately either, maybe I'd benefit from slowing down on the cals a bit. Then when I'm really training the squats hard and the gains start slowing, i can add back in a bunch of cals.

At this point cutting involves nothing but stopping forcefeeding too lmao.