Your cat is adorable.

Meh, confirmed not an animal. Saw better on so you think you can dance, lol.

Thanks, I grew it myself.
Beat: you've watched so you think you can dance. I was just impressed because I've seen c-walking before, but this guy has his own style that was new to me.

I just happened to see it while zapping ldo

8/4:

BW: 199.0
foam roll, noticed some tight spots on upper quad area

Front Squat:
5x45
5x95
5x135
5x170
3x190
9x215 (1rm 279.5, +12.8)

Knee sleeves make my legs sweat a ton. After the last set I bent down to grab my drink and a puddle of sweat that had accumulated in some sort of reservoir area of the sleeve shot out and made a little sweat puddle on the floor.

OHP:
5x45
5x65
3x95
5x115
3x135
8x145 (1rm 183.7, +1.7)

Pendlay Rows:
5x65
5x95
3x135
5x145
3x160
5x190 (1rm 221.7, +6.4)

This was an accident. I was supposed to do 180, but then I applied some gorilla math to the bar and actually had 190.


DB OHP:
10x50
8x50
10x45

8x145?!?! wtf man, slow down

Sorry bro, I'm out of control. This programming is heavy on the presses imo, which kinda explains why my bench and OHP went up so quickly.


8/7:
Weight: 198.8

foam roll + couch stretch


Squat:
5x45
5x135
3x185
5x210
5x245
13x275 (1rm 394.1, +4.1)


Bench:
5x45
5x95
3x135
5x150
5x175
10x195 (1rm 260, -17.5)

Well that was pretty terrible. I was setup a little bit too far back on the bench and each rep was real close to the rack. I'm also seeing what looks to be a slight timing issue in that my right arm is finishing before my left. I'm guessing this is probably a muscle imbalance?



Rest was actually kinda easy...

Dips:
10,10,10

Chins:5,5,5

Ab Rollout:
10,10,10

Thanks for posting this. I noticed from watching it that I probably wasn't getting my elbows in enough. I made the adjustment and my bench press went up a quite a bit. I don't know that I'm functionally any stronger but at least now I'm pretty sure I can bench more than nham.

Fredd --

I've previously had success evening out the bar by looking at the hand that's a bit weaker on the way up. I'm sure I read it in a bro-science-y type publication when I was a young bro, but it worked for me.

Glad I could help. I'd hope you could bench more than him already. He's like ... nham. :s

Thanks for the tip, I will try that out next time. That sounds more psychology than brosciencey imo, and there is a lot of that involved in weight lifting. Any practiced discipline really.




8/9:

Bodyweight: 197.4

foam roll + lax ball glutes + left shoulder/tricep

Power Clean:
5x45
3x45
3x65
3x95
3x115
5x3x145

Just kinda worked on form and felt that watching the Olympics has helped me with that.

DL:
5x145
5x185
5x225
5x255
8x285 (1rm 361, -31)

lol, I took a long break after the 255 set. I am on a calorie deficit though, so I guess this will happen from time to time. Also, I just realized I was supposed to do 220, 250, 285.. I doubt it made a big difference.

Incline Bench:
10x45
10x135
2x7x135

Hey an improvement from pain! Didn't actually have any pain at all, so who knows.

Back Extensions:
3x20xBW

Barbell Curls:
(in the squat rack)
3x10x45

switched it up from the dumbbells because the squat rack was open.. Last time this hurt my wrists a little bit, but this time I think I had a different grip which produced no agitation.

8/11:

foam roll + couch stretch

Front Squat:
5x45
5x95
5x135
5x165
5x185
12x210 (1rm 294.0, +14.5)

OHP:
5x45
5x65
3x95
5x105
5x120
8x135 (1rm 171.0, -12.7)

Pendlay Rows:
5x65
5x115
3x115
5x140
5x160
8x180 (1rm 228.0, +6.3)

Might try to pull 2 plates next time for funsies.

DB OHP:
2x10x50

---

Good enough for me on a Saturday.

30 minutes on the exercise bike



Kinda went ape**** on my diet this weekend by posting 2.8k and 3.8k cal days back to back. I'm going to do 30 minutes of bike every off day for the next 2 weeks. I'll try to keep it up after the diet is over too.

8/15:

quick foam roll, focused on my quads as they were a little tight from my short bike session yesterday.


Squat
5x45
5x135
5x185
3x225
3x260
10x295 (1rm 393.3, -.8)

Not a bad dropoff this week as I kinda ate too much this weekend, so I prob had OK energy.

Bench
5x45
5x95
5x135
3x160
3x185
8x205 (1rm 259.7, -17.8)

Super mehhh, not sure what my problem was. Phone was dead, so I couldn't take video either.

Dips
3x10

supersetted with

Chins
3x4

Did 3x5 last week at chins, but supersetted I'm alright with 3x4 because that was tough.

8/16:

Weighed in at 199.2

foam rolled legs and upper back, kinda half assed the warmup today

Power Cleans:
3x65
3x65
3x95
3x115
3x135
3x3x155

These felt absolutely terrible and I noticed a little left elbow pain after the 2nd work set.

Deadlift:
5x155
3x185
3x235
3x270
7x300 (1rm 370, -22.6)

Umm.. ya.. caloric deficits suck.

Incline Bench:
5x115
3x10x135


Back Extensions:
3x20xBW

Skipped curls because elbow wasn't feeling great and I just wasn't having a stellar day overall. I think I'm going to finish out this week with my regular programming and even though I'm only on week 2 of this cycle, imma skip week 3 and do a deload. I have another 8 more days left of cutting and I don't think I'm adapting that well lol. I've also been having some trouble getting 8 hours of sleep, which obv compounds my output and recovery issues.

light hammer curlz helps with my elbows. calorie deficits are great.

I was planning on doing some barbell curls and didn't even think about something like light hammer curls, damn it. My body doesn't seem to react that calorie deficits. Maybe it's something else tho and I'm just attributing it to the calories because it's the easiest answer.

8/18:

short foam roll + couch stretch

Front Squats:
5x45
5x95
5x135
3x165
3x190
10x210 (1rm 280, -14)

OHP:
5x45
5x65
3x95
3x110
3x130
7x145 (1rm 178.8, -4.9)

more mehh overall

Pendlay Rows:
7x65
5x95
3x10x135

I kinda had a realization that there's a lot of pressing in this programming and not a lot of pulling. Which made me realize I might want to mix in some 10 rep sets of rows for more balance.

DB OHP:
10x50
8x50
7x50

------

Pretty pumped to go into a deload while I'm finishing this cut. The last week was kinda brutal and I need some rest.

So I was feeling good today and I was all, "**** a deload".

Cressey foam roll for legs and pecs, skipped all lax ball work for today

Squat:
5x45
5x135
5x185
5x225
3x275
10x300 (1rm 399.99, +5)



Next week was originally supposed to


Bench:
5x45
5x95
5x135
5x175
3x200
4x225 (1rm 254.997, -22.5)

My arm was kinda bugging me. I asked a guy to spot and didn't really explain it properly to him. He kept his hand on the bar the entire time, so I just kinda quit on it...

Dips:
BWx10
+25x5
+45x3

Weighted dips are pretty interesting and I'm going to do these more often now that i found a belt I can load at the gym

Peaced out after that.

Today marks the end of a 4 week cut. My longterm plan is to "inchworm" my bodyweight down to an aesthetically acceptable level by repeating 8 week diet phases consisting of 4 week cuts followed by 4 week "bulks", that will just be more of maintenance phases.

I kept a spreadsheet tracking my various progress and here's what it looks like:



This morning I also did a body fat caliper test again, just to add another data point since my cut is done.

7/18:
@203lbs, 19.6% BF, 163.2lbs LBM.

8/24:
@196.8lbs, 16.4% BF, 164.5lbs LBM

-6.2 lbs bodyweight, +1.3 LBM

Genetic freak itt. (obv tons of variance with self-administered caliper tests)

I did a DL day but it was pretty much and my accessory work was "ain't doing jack ****", so I'm not going to log it.

8/28:

BW: 200.8

Cressey foam roll, went pretty hard on my lower body with this

Front Squat:
5x45
5x95
5x135
3x155
5x175
3x200
9x225 (1rm 292.5, -1.5)

Note to self, don't use the "new" bars that have a center knurling. I'd say that digging into me was probably Also, I'm going to try a 3 plate front squat next front squat day.




OHP:
5x45
5x65
3x95
5x120
3x135
7x150 (1rm 185, +1.3)

Inching closer and closer to that that BW 1rm.

Pendlay Rows:
10x140
2x8x140

Just was not feeling these tbh. Might switch this up to some croc rows.

---

8/30:

short foam roll and no other mobility drills

Planned deload week and I modified the programming a little bit to make it a 2 days at the gym

Squats:
5x45
5x135
5x185
5x225
5x275
1x315,335,365,375,385(f)

Bench:
5x45
5x95
5x135
3x5x185

DL:
5x135
5x225
5x275

Why 4 weeks on diet/4 weeks off instead of say 6/2 to speed up progress? Hoping to get stronger/minimize strength loss with the maintenance weeks? Depends on how low you wanna go of course.

And nice press

My goal was to minimize strength loss and lessen the chance of going crazy. Cutting messes with my head (even when it's not keto!) too much and I felt like 4/4 was more easily sustainable for me.

Thanks.

Alright, compliance is king.

Yup, but my bulk has been pretty "dirty" thus far, including lots of beer and not caring about what I eat, so I'm already at 200+lbs again instead of the slow steady bulk I had planned. Bulking is hard. But since I'm bulking, I'm going to start doing more cardio, so nice, that's nice. I went and rode the exercise bike for 30 minutes the other day and made it 8.02 miles. And should be going back tonight for at least 30 minutes.