JT,

I had a similar feeling around my anniversary; time went by quickly, but it's pretty gratifying to see how far we've come, and how fortunate we've been, especially in comparison to a few of our peers.

Dang it. I had a whole post completed with nice thoughts, gym anecdotes, vid links and more and got hit with the expired token delete. Here is a truncated, half-assed recreate of that work of art. Trust me, it was navel-gazing goodness.

Monte,

Congrats to both of us and may we do the last decade another 4-6 times in a similar way.

Fitness,

I did deads again and for the first time ever did squats on the same day. I am not used to that and am feeling it. The good news is I mostly felt the DOMS in my traps and hammies which were toasted, and nearly nothing in the lower back. The less happy report is that while I was looking forward to Monte's karate chop the hips technique fixing my form to picture perfect, it only helped a great ****ing deal and I still have lots of work to do. The success is in the journey, though, innit?

Here is the gym story. While I was doing my deadlifts, a kid who was with a crew of younguns across the room who I peripherally noticed halloween-catting up three plates or so and slamming it down with high fives and hooting, came over to an older guy on the machine next to my station and asked him if he could borrow one of his gloves. The guy was clearly caught off guard by the strange request. After clarifying he agreed, though hesitantly, and the kid went back to his area and achieved, by the sounds of the celebration, a pr on DL with the aid of the single, borrowed glove. After the weight was slammed to the ground amid much yelping, I turned just in time to see him punctuate his victory by jumping in the air and slamming the borrowed glove to the floor. Much amuse. The glove request was caught on my self-video on a warm-up set so I included it here. Also a few different angles for consideration on working sets and my last set of squats because I am really tryna get deeper and my wife said she thought I was buttwinking. I am not sure but i got the back angle and would love some feedback and advice on how to clean that up. It may just be a case of not going as deep if my ankle mobility is not ready for it, according to a vid that evoken posted with the short Canadian natty guy.

Leggers

DL
135x6
135x6

185x6
225x5

225x5
225x5
225x5

225x5


HBBS ( I went lighter here and tried to really go deeper in the hole [still not as deep as it feels])
75x12
165x12
135x12
135x10
135x9
isthisbuttwink?


unilateral leg extensions
5 sets

Seated donkey calf raise
6 sets

Cheers brother.

Re: DL,

Your lockout looks a bit soft; finish by squeezing your glutes at the top and completely locking your hips at the top (not hyperextending your lower back). Also work on pushing with your quads more to break the bar off the floor instead of pulling it; the weight was so light it didn't seem like a problem, but it could be when it gets heavier. Also, work on pinning your lats back/down and pulling your chest up before the pull. I can tell there are a lot of conflicting thoughts in your head right now; things will tighten up as you get more practice.

Re: squat,

Yes. Work on breaking at the hips and knees at the same time instead of initiating with only your hips breaking first, and get your knees forward early and keep them there. Being a bit more balanced over midfoot may help you from getting so bent over in the hole, as happened in your later reps, but for my money, the bar's a bit too high on your traps/spine for HBBS. Having the bar lower may add a bit of stability, and also allow you to get tighter in your upper back/lats (bend the bar across your back, not your vertebrae).

I'd suggest trying a few squat mobility drills (loco would be a good guy to ask about this) and maybe try to groove the movement a bit with goblet squats.

Thank for the feedback. I was surprised to see I wasn't locking out the way I thought as well, and you are right that I am kind of cycling through cues/thoughts at this point.

I'll try the lower bar position as well, I had it backward and thought a higher bar position would keep me more upright, but I can go lower with no shoulder issue.

Like I said, the DL will come and you'll be pulling five plates in no time.

Re: bar position in the squat, you're right in general, but if the bar is too high and/or not firmly seated across your back, it can roll up your neck in the hole, which looks to me like what happened once or twice. A tighter upper back, finding the right amount of forward lean, and getting my knees forward early so I can use my quads finally helped me be only marginally terrible at squatting. Hopefully one/all will help you.

I'll take a look at your vids and pay attention to the knee break and the bar position. As I said, as much as I know I still have improvements to make it has been super valuable to get this feedback and I know that I am already getting incrementally better for it. I appreciate it. I just gotta stay patient.

Chest day. Decent workout and I took some progress pics with a pump. The cut seems to have stalled out a bit based on weight and the pictures from last week to this week, so I may do a more drastic calorie redux here pretty soon. I have another scheduled vacation for 2 weeks coming up that will not be an eating holiday but will disrupt the workouts.

Weight 155
Calories 1963
c187/f55/p181

Incline db bench (45-second rest,20 seconds on pauses)
35x20
35x12
100x3
85x7
70x8
70x8,2
50x11,4

Flat db bench (45s, 20s)
90x7
75x8
75x8,4
45x13,7

pec deck
135x8x4

Hanging leg raise ss superset with bw dips (45s rest)
10/16
10/13
8/12
8 then drop to captain chair for 4/10

decline hammer strength slow negative, explosive concentric
90sx8x3

N00ds.

Looking good Johnny

Probably time for me to just give up lifting.

If it makes you feel any better, I suck at basketball.

Was finna hit legs yesterday but my hammies were still sore and I don't want to phone it in. I am going to try to flip-flop deads and squats as primary movement on leg days for a while, but even though squats are up I would like to add a few sets of RDL as well. Thinking it may help my overall form on DLs to get the practice with the hip hinge and flat back using lighter weight and easier ROM.

Anyway, couldn't do shoulders and tris because I hit chest Monday. Didn't want to do Back/bi because I hit that Friday. So I did cardio and abs.

Weight 154
Cal 1701
c161/f46/p159

Jump rope 5 minutes
concept rower 14 minutes @ 900 cph average

Hanging leg raise toe to bar superset with kneeling cable crunch
3 sets of 8/8

Pallof Press 2 sets
?x15 per side

Steam room 15 minutes

I just come here for the noodz and steam room updates!

Rexx,
LOL! No nudes or steam room in this update.

So I recorded some goblet squats that I have been doing for warm-ups for the last couple months. I can get ATG but after the butt-wink revelation of 2018, I wanted to see what it looked like from other angles. Hella butt-wink is the answer. I don't really know if it is compromising the lumbar when you are not loaded on the spine directly, but I also just figured it would be great to get some form tips on how I am massacring this movement also.

I am also trying to temper my expectations for progression in both squat and DL form because you know what? I had better. I have a good long way to go to get even beginner proficient and I am going to have to table any ideas of moving the weights I used to do with out-of-sight, out-of-mind snap city form. Embrace the new journey. Be patient. Make that the discipline challenge rather than the easier ones for me like getting into the gym regularly. Bah.

That said I saw some improvements I think in my hbbs. I placed the bar on my rear delts/traps rather than high on my traps/neck. This for sure forced me to tighten up my back. I made the mistake of not warming up my shoulders at all before my first empty bar warm-up set (not recorded or shown) and not only did I tip backward I kinda aggravated my left shoulder a bit. It is not too bad, but I won't make that mistake again because even though I can get into the lower bar position comfortably with a wider hand position it is not as easy as the previous bar position for me.

Also, RDL was like fish out of water time. I am not happy at all with how they looked compared to the furious effort I was putting into trying to keep my ****ing back flat and scapular retraction and lats tight. I really feel like I am missing a fairly big cue somehow or else am locked up in a pretty bad way. Further, I am seeing the same issue with my wife as we add this movement to our routine and have no idea how to coach her out of it since I am struggling myself. If I keep up at this slow pace I may look for a coach to hire for us on DL and squats this fall.

Rexx, this is exactly what I was alluding to in your log. I really should be enjoying being a newb and stop expecting linear, dramatic progression when I am only practicing a movement max once a week especially, but I m constantly looking through it to the "end" of being proficient. It is tough for me.

One other note on my N=1 supplement trials. Since I have been taking the curcumin and glucosamine every day I have not had a noticeable joint pain flare-up. I took a break on the apple cider vinegar mostly cuz I kinda forgot.

Yesterday-legs
Weight 154.5
Cal 2203
c210/f90/p161

Goblet squats
22kgx10
22x10

You can see I am back on my heels too much here and lose balance on one rep.
22x10
22x10


HBBS- I tried to work on both my bar placement and breaking my knees quicker but tbh I was thrown off a bit by the different balance as well so overthinking in abundance. I think I missed depth on quite a few reps but it is hard to tell from the angle. Butt Wink looks better and Mrs. Truant said it looked way better with each set. Only including the vid of the last one.
45x7
85x10
135x6
155x5
155x5
155x5
155x8


RDL 8 sets at 135, all at ultra-low RPE as this was just practice.



Walking lunges double drop sets
100x14,50x8,bwx8
100x8,50x6,bwx8

donkey calf raises 5 sets

bw chin-ups palm-in 45 second rest
bwx14
bwx10
bwx8

seated calf raise
115x10
115x10

Being a perfectionist can be paralysing when it comes to trying new things. Urgh I still hate goblet squats. They are definitely my most hated KB exercise which can probably be seen by the fact that if I am unmotivated I only do one set of the mongrels lol. Plus I only use a 5 kg KB! The fact I am no good at them and hate them probably indicates it's an area I should be working on more and not less.

You better up your game with the noodz posting and steam room updates mister! While I may be learning more from your ramblings and videos, you gotta give the people what they want.

Well, no noods today either but I do have a whiney steam room update. Stay tuned!

weight 154
calories 1776
c170/f64/p158

Shoulders and triceps

My shoulder was a little aggravated yesterday as I mentioned but I felt like I might be able to work with it and just promised to pay attention. I was debating giving it another day before doing pressing and maybe adding cardio, but I went for it. It felt fine during warm-up which for me consists of about 5-8 minutes of dynamic shoulder specific stuff....70 slow small circles in each direction with shoulders packed, 30 full wide circles with complete scapular movement, two sets of external/internal rotation holding 15 lbs or so, band pull aparts, band rotator cuff external rotation, and band face-pulls. I do some variation of that on every upper-body day and it seems it has eliminated my shoulder issues that used to pop up with pressing.

So wifey and I started a little late today and decided we were going to power through with no lollygagging and attempt 45-second rest max and superset some movements to up our output. We usually are pretty snappy, but to hit 45 seconds requires we are ready with our weight selection and choreography for switching off. It went well but I did feel a little bit too much on the left shoulder on the first working set of presses so I backed off and switched to Arnold presses, and it was fine. I used less weight on the close grip bench as well to be sure. Came through fine and it was a fun workout.

Seated DB Press then Arnold press (30-45second rest)
30sx10
30x10
55x7
switch to
Arnold
45x12
45x12
45x10

Close grip incline DB bench
55x12
55x11
switch to flat
55x12
55x10

DB skull crusher
25x8
20x8
switch to incline (30-45 rest)
20x7
20x7

Kneeling reverse cable fly high to low (30-45 rest)
35x8
35x8
switch low to high
35x8
35x8

cable lateral raise in front (30-45 rest)
35x10
35x10
behind
35x8
35x10

Super-set reverse grip tricep pulldown, BW dips, hanging leg raise toe to bar 10-second rest max between movements and none between sets
50x12, 14, 10
50x11, 12, 10
50x8, 10, 8

Prison push-ups with 15 lb ball to front raise.
Ladder to ten reps.

I went to go meet my wife in the steam room after a quick shower and it was facking packed. Like ridic packed. Not even standing room. **** was like an elevator at quitting time. It was like I opened a can of my beloved sardines. So I went to the dry sauna instead and it was basically like a mildly hot room. Very disappoint. Not only that, there was an entire family sprawled out in there, mom, dad and 4 kids aged between 10 and a freaking infant. The baby could not have been more than 6-8 months old if that. I was kinda glad it was underheated as I would have been worried for the baby and little kids otherwise.

Lukewarm Sauna-15 minutes. Blah.

I've never heard of a dry sauna lol. I can understand you wanting to get out of the crammed sauna though. Shuddering just thinking about it.

Yesterday became untrackable for food, as we went to a wedding. A Vietnamese wedding. I have been to probably a dozen of these, including my own, and the food is always the same, at least in circles I am in. Basically, if it comes out of the ocean it is getting eaten. Crab, lobster, prawns, shrimp, abalone, jellyfish, seaweed, scallops, some kind of white fish, calamari. Also chicken and quail (heads included for the first time in my experience) and loads of veggies. Some rice as well, and seafood soup. I didn't eat the pork or beef, but that was only a couple of courses. Then a lot of cognac and Heineken.

weight- 152.3 Morning weight instead of gym weight because the scale was broken today, but it is always lighter in the morning.

Calories 1659
c160/f56/p147

Back and bicep

wide grip pulls ups (30-45 second rest)
+25x6
25x6
25x5,1
bwx8
25x4 drop to bwx6, drop to red band assistx4, drop black band assistx6

Seated row (45-second rest)
210x7
210x6
210x6
225x3, 190x3, 175x3, 160x3

straight arm pulldown superset with lat pulldown leaning back
4 sets no rest

hammer strength low to high chest supported row
80sx8
70x8
70x7
70x7

band straight bar curl, first with the black band, then with no band then only band
45lbs four sets

incline curl superset with spider curl fat grips
17.5 three sets

Hammer curls
15 fat grips four sets
run the rack
22.5, 20, 17.5, 15, 12.5, 10

I took my BP this morning and it was well within normal, lowest it has been for ages. Surprising because I am agitated beyond the norm right now with politics. Guess I should give up my dreams of being a 165lb mini version of the Rock and just stick to being a svelt 150.

Yesterday
Weight 154
calories 1518--this is low by a bit because there was a hint of pesto sauce that I did not calculate and I never include veggies because I'm lazy.
c186/f42/p108

Chest day. I for sure lost strength from the cut, and from being in a calorie deficit I assume, but I refuse to not attempt the 100s as my first set even when I can only get 2 reps at full failure because I do not want to forget what it feels like. It is likely a bad strategy for hypertrophy but **** it. Mrs. Truant suddenly became a ****ing ripped fitness chick right before my eyes. She has been making improvements all along, but she clearly made a breakthrough. Like everything we do together, she surpasses me eventually so I should not be surprised that is coming soon. Super proud of her.

Incline DB (strict 45-second rest)
35sx20
35x10
100x2
85x7
70x7
70x6
70x6,2

Flat db press
70x10
70x8
70x8
70x8,3

Cable cross, low, high, med
3 sets each

decline hammer strength slow negatives, explosive concentric
90sx8
90x8
90x8
45x15,5

Took Tuesday off to go swimmin with the kiddies. My 3.5 y/o son starts jumping around like a flea and fist pumping when we tell him we are going to the pool. I stayed way under calories, even with a 65 gram 12 y/o scotch to take the edge off the evening.

weight (morning) 152
calories 1426
c112/f37/p120

Yesterday hit the leggers. It was dl day and I was in an awkward station to film, but I got a bunch of different views--each probably sub-optimal. I stuck with 225 working weight even though the woman just off camera was doing reps with 275. Because I'm secure.

I feel like it is getting better, especially in the earlier sets but starts to break down a bit in the later sets. Still improving incrementally. One thing is Monte mentioned that I am not getting my hips fully locked-out, and I noticed that too in the vids even though I thought I was. Now I am focusing on squeezing my glutes at the end but it still looks like I am bent forward from some angles and I suspect it may be an optical illusion because I am packing a formidable, Instagram glute girl level ass.

Weight 153.5
cal 1952
c189/f63/p148

Did goblet squats with a 45 lb plate because all the good bells were taken after a dynamic warm up. 3x10

Deadlifts
WU 135x?
135x5
225x5
225x5

225x5

225x5

225x5


HBBS
45x15
155x5
185x5
185x5
185x5

Donkey calf raises 5 sets

uni leg extensions
three sets

cable standing bicep curl
50x20
60x15
70x10

No steam room-zero minutes
N00dz-

Dang it, another post lost. Here is an inferior version.

Got my BP checked in the office today and was in normal range. 112/69. If I get below 110 the nurse said I should talk the doc about reducing or stopping the meds, though I am on a very low dose already. I have been home monitoring for months, but it was not until very recently (last 6 weeks or so) that it dropped significantly even though I have been on the meds for a long time now.

What changed in that time?

Dropped 8 lbs or so, though clearly some lean muscle in there, and I was about this weight and body comp when I was diagnosed originally.
Started taking curcumin/turmeric
Started taking d3
Started taking Glucosamine
Occasional ACV
Dropped calories to 2100ish

Anyway, pretty crazy considering I am in a heightened state of agitation recently as well.

The cut is going super k. I am not sure about continuing deadlifts at this frequency though, as my ass is getting freaking ridic huge. Seems to be the number one responder for me. Yay.

My shoulder still felt a little bit agitated from the less than carefully planned bar position change last week on squats, so I went low weight and focused on TUT with 3-4-second negative and 2-second positives and very low rest for presses.

Weight-152
Cal 1818
c175/f68/p148

Shoulders Triceps
Seated DB press
25x20
25x15
50x7 (ouchie)
35x10
35x10
35x10
35x10

Close grip DB incline press
50x10
50x8
switch to flat
50x11
50x10

DB skull crusher
25x7
25x7
switch to flat
25x5
20x8

Kneeling reverse cable fly
35x8
35x8
35x8
30x8

cable lateral raise
35x8
35x8
30x8
30x8

Weighted dip and reverse tricep pulldown superset
+45x15/60x10
45x12/60x5,50x5
45x10/50x5,40x5
45x10/40x8

15lb med ball prison push-ups to front raise
ladder to 10

No steam or nood.

Copying this in case it errors out again.

Two minor changes in behavior seem to have reversed course pretty quick. I had a few drinks this weekend, and I mean an only a few. One weird peanut butter milk beer that tasted good for a sip or two, a couple of gin and tonics, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a margarita. I did not go off the rails on the food even while buzzed at the home poker tourney.

Also, tragically, Costco has dropped the brand of sardines I like. I ordered some on Amazon for a decent price, but go the skin on bone in variety by a mistake. I just don't like those as much now, even though I started out on them. Because of that, I have not been eating them first thing in the morning for the last week or so.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to keep this log. When I read the above two paragraphs, which I wrote without irony, and at the same time am tormented with the understanding of what is occurring at the borders it is difficult to reconcile. I know people who as children would have been placed in cages based on the current policy. There are a lot of things to be concerned with, a lot of tragedy worldwide, it has always been so, but this is here, now and us. If we are okay with this, we will be okay with much worse, I am sure, and am afraid we are going to find out.

Bout to take a 2-week gym and tracking break. The cut worked, I got through the awkward stage of less muscles and still some fat to pretty lean which makes me look bigger even though I am 152 instead of 160 now. Even though I am a bit disappointed to have lost some strength, and even though it feels like a lot of work to get that big just to shrink again, I suppose I gained 2-3 pounds of lean muscle since last summer's peak which is about all an lol-old-natty can expect.

The reduction of my bp and joint pain continues. I did have a little knuckle pain last night which was minor and short-lived compared to the more chronic version I was experiencing earlier this year. Just like the other times, it was preceded by a noticeable mood drop.

For the record, I did my usual chest workout monday and back and biceps yesterday. Pretty certain I have reached an overtraining for the calories I am taking in as my recovery seems to be suffering now in terms of strength and I had been trying to chase that by making up for it with volume/intensity which in hindsight is probably the wrong approach. I'll regroup after the break, which will likely be a lean bulk attempt depending on how bad I go off the rails.

Enjoy your break Johnny

locoRIPlosttothenomziesrant.exe