Melkerson,

Much thanks for those kind words.

I am not so much putting myself down as lifting Monte up and pointing out the advantages he has that I didn't.

He is lean, healthy, and will now get stronger. The true essence of a goldenbusto is not to achieve some grand body composition within any specified time frame, it is patience and discipline to maintain a lean body composition while letting the slow gains accumulate.

Lifting like he is while remaining at maintenance or a slight surplus is going to take him far. I am excited to see his status at the end of the year.

Yeah, I'm obviously not competing with anyone but myself at this point, but I too am interested to see where this goes. My previous bulks were pretty unfocused and not as regimented as they needed to be, I don't think; the plan is for this time to be different.

Impressive stuff in here. I'll have a hard time getting stronger than you if you start eating

I watched 245x3. Squats look pretty good for the most part. Nice work. One thing to work on: You let the bar start to drift a little forward near the bottom. Focus on staying upright, dropping your hips straight down (once they are back far enough, instead of continuing too far back) and pushing your back into the bar. Put some weight on the bar too. Those look easy.

cha,

Thanks. The forward bar path is something I've been working on for a while, that I largely corrected by figuring out how to get my knees forward at the start of the squat. I've noticed it's creeping back in a bit on heavier sets, though, and I'll try to take your advice.

Re: adding weight, given I was on a cut trying to dial in new form, I was being conservative with the jumps in my training max. Depending on how things go now that I'll be at maintenance, I may be marginally more aggressive once this latest round of international travel is done.

Thanks for taking the time.

Do you increase your training max throughout a training cycle?

How long in between jumps?

So, I guess that's a no on the bodpod? That's too bad. There's few things more satisfying to S&F than neckbearding over noodz and body composition assessments.

Donnie,

Standard 5/3/1, so every three weeks, assuming I'm able to lift that frequently. Generally five pound jumps for squat and DL, though if I feel better on non poverty calories that may increase.

Melk,

I assume I can float in salted fish water or something to verify bf once I get to Sweden. I'll let you know what I discover.

"Put some weight on the bar". Finally someone else!

Monte,

What are you doing in Sweden?

American abroad? Probably complaining loudly about everything and trying to liberate the local population of their oil.

Have you ever even spent time with an American? It's the exact opposite. Everything is "wow, this is amazing!" when it's actually completely unimpressive.

I've encountered many 'murrican tourists who validate my stereotype.

That's not to say I haven't met many who are very courteous tourists, but that's not a very funny stereotype to perpetuate.

i remember being at Kings Canyon in the NT and a middle aged American very loudly announces "This is nothing like the Grand Canyon, I don't even know why we bothered coming here. What a joke". I remember thinking well why the fk did you come here you knob, can't you appreciate this beauty on its own level. Then the Canadian guy next to me rolled his eyes and I got the giggles. Obviously not all Americans are like this, but I think this is the sort of thing Snitch is talking about. Most Americans I meet I generally like though so I'm not sure what the point of my story is

European Men Are So Much More Romantic Than American Men vs. American Women Studying In Europe Are Unbelievably Easy

Yeah. Basically what Rex said. I can think of many similar occasions. And general other lol complaints like "it's so hot", yeah. You're in Australia, buddy. I also heard this multiple times in Thailand.

Buuuut, like I said, it's not all of them and probably not even the majority, it's just a fun stereotype.

Least year in Buenos Aires we bumped into an American couple and ended up hanging out with them for a night and they were great... they were super into beer and the drinking of it, so that obviously helped.

In before "well Australians just get drunk and fight\break sh*t". Yeah. So what? Want to fight about it? Hold my beer.

That article Holliday posted reminded me of a quote where someone says something like "It takes a woman at least 2 years to realise he is just a schmuck with a french accent". It could have been from the Simpsons. Which reminds me of an Irish guy I knew who had spent heaps of time in Australia so when he was in Australia he would lay on a thick irish accent and when he went home he would put a bit of Aussie in. Apparently it worked a treat with the ladies.

Same ol: evaluating a laboratory's work performed for a client. In Gothenburg. You near there?

All,

I try to remember to be boorish when I'm abroad to keep up appearances, but after all the fedora doffing and figuring out the best local customs for bowing when opening the door and screaming "m'lady", sometimes I forget.

Monte,

Nope, I'm in Stockholm, 300ish miles away. Hope you enjoy Sweden though, it's pretty neat sometimes.

Bon voyage en france

Gothenburg is so lovely this time of year, when the mademoiselles finally break out their spring outfits and the smell of stinky cheese is in the air.

I don't appreciate you getting such great results cutting with that jerb of yours + kids. Makes the rest of us (me) look really bad. Great job though. Really!

Edit: Chrome wanted me to spell Gothenburg Hindenburg. Take from that what you will.

4/14: 186.8

A
OHP (5/3/1): wu, 3x105, 3x117.5, 7x132.5, 2x140, 1x150, 8x125, 10x110
Facepulls: 6x15
Seated Cable Row: 6x15x87.5

B
DB Incline Bench: 8x70, 7x75, 6x80, 8x75, 9x70
DB Pullover: 4x12x70

C
Dips: 4x8x+50
DB Hammer: 4x11x40

D
Single Arm Cable Tricep Pressdown: 4x12
Lateral Cable Raise: 4x12

E
Lying DB Skullcrushers: 4x12
Single Arm Cable Curl: 4x15

I was unable to resist unlimited Eurobreakfast buffets at my hotel; call it four day refeed, and I'll keep things tight until my next trip and see how things look.

On the plus side, OHP felt really good, and I got one or two more reps than I'd expected going in, with some good volume on the backoff sets. Ditto on the incline, as I got extra reps on the last two sets of the pyramid and may have been able to grunt through a 7th rep at 80 pounds for the top set. Everything else felt pretty good, and I'm looking forward to squatting tomorrow; based on my schedule, it looks like I'll be able to squat twice before my next trip, which is good I think.

You doing strict OHP?

As opposed to what . . . push press or the utterly rippetarded Press 2.0? Yes, strict OHP.