5 mins for the work sets, 2 mins for the accessories (A-B-two mins-A-B...)

The accessories can vary depending how you feel.

Crap like face pulls should be 60s tops. You want proof? You won't deteriorate with rest that short.

Dumbbell incline bench?

I need 3mins tops and I am still going to deteriorate substantially.

Dumbbell Rows? 2 min.

Cable crossovers? 90s

Tricep pushdowns? 60s.

Skull crushers? 90s

Cable rows? Lol. 45s.

Which makes accessories about a 14 minute per day chore. lol, I am going to overtrain on a diet. So dumb.

Okay ty guys, gonna give this program a shot and see how things go.

Care to make a wager on that? No over/under range, simply 20% as the cut off.

BTW thanks for giving me 1%

Can you confirm your lifts? You bench 215 and squat 290 at 177, right?

My last *3RM bench was 235 a couple months ago, so probably 240 *shrug*. I just haven't bothered to test cause I don't terribly care about a big bench but it'd be nice. For the last 2 months now I've been doing dumbbells, fluctuating between 5@85/90. Absolute worst is just getting those into position. I nearly failed before I started last night cause I kicked back weirdly and was leaned off to the side...definitely a huge leak getting into proper starting position.

My last 1RM squat was 340 over a year ago, but that probably dropped since I took a bit of time off last year from squatting anything heavy. I did 3x3@315 last week.

My last 1RM dead was 370 a couple months ago.

I can FS 3@245 also


I weighed 173.2 on Friday morning after a 14 hour fast for a work health screening thing. And either the gym scales are off (I trust the health screen ones more), or I inflated 3.4lbs last night when I weighed at the gym. *to be fair, I was wearing shoes at the gym and phone was in my pocket now that I think about it

Keep in mind I've never once followed any kind of strength programming. I've just "done ****" and gotten to where I'm at.

And I'm actually 5'8.25" according to the Health Screening report. Which doesn't help if you're going by weight and lift #s to judge, it just increases my BMI lol

How about adding in accessory volume (I'm biased towards cable/machine flys for chest) and if you aren't ridiculously sore by the next chest/press workout you up the volume accordingly. You fall into this trend of not pushing and exerting yourself, your log is full of posts referencing such.

Appears you assume you cannot recover. Give it an honest go for a while, push yourself beyond your perceived limits and see what happens.

I think I just have low expectations for what my body is capable of on such restricted calories, and it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when I get under the bar. At this point, I'm even skeptical of using soreness as an indicator. I'm gonna do the new program for at least a month and try to ignore those things, just see if my numbers stop going down. Adding the backoff set of deadlifts seems to have arrested the strength loss for that lift, so it's pretty likely that I needed more volume for everything else as well.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016 Training

Press:

20x5
20x5
25x2
30x1
33.75x4 @9.5
31.25x5 @8.5
31.25x7 @9.5
28.75x8 @10

Deadlift:

60x3
60x3
75x2
85x1
95x5 mixed
82.5x8 straps

Face-pulls (#):

75x15
75x15
75x15

DB Incline Press (#):

30x12
30x12
30x9

Chin-ups (3, 3, 3, 2, 2)

***

Astonishingly weak press. Another one of those days that I selected what I thought was a conservative weight and proceeded to be shocked at how hard it was to lift. I'm fairly happy with the deadlifts and the additional accessory sets.

I'm uploading the top sets for OHP and DL but they're taking forever, so I'll add the links in a separate post.

Friday, October 7, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x5x2
30x5
40x3
45x1x3
51.25x5
51.25x5
51.25x6 @9.5
45x10 @10

Front Squat:

20x5x2
35x5
55x2
65x4
65x5 [PR]
55x7

Machine Chest Fly (#):

80x15
90x15
90x15

Leg Press (kg + sled):

60x12
70x12
80x17

Pull-ups (3, 3, 2, 2, 2)

Elliptical 20'

***

Bench press is a work in progress, but it was a less fail-tastic day than most. Squats were tough. The backoff set had many more reps left but I couldn't catch my breath. My conditioning could use some work, lol.

Sunday, October 9, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x5x2
30x5
40x3
45x1
52.5x5
52.5x3 (bad setup)
52.5x1 (bad setup)
45x2 (practicing setup)
45x2
52.5x3

Front Squat:

20x5x2
35x5
55x2
66.25x5 [PR]
66.25x3
55x9 [PR]

DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x12
60x11
60x9

Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm):

25x15
25x15
25x17

***

I started from scratch with a new setup method for bench press, to mixed (read: bad) results. It seems like I can get a better arch and leg drive if I pull myself into position using the bar, but my upper back isn't as tight as when I used the feet-on-the-bench method.

Front squat continues to go well. Again, with the backoff set it seems like my conditioning is the limiting factor. I had better breathing this time than last time, but I still felt like I was about to pass out after rep 9.

Week 26 Diet, Week 11 Cut



Not much to say here. Calories/macros are pretty on point, but I need to be doing more cardio. I also need to start thinking about what comes next after this week. Probably another maintenance week then back to perma-cut mode, sadly.

Anyone would have trouble breathing on high rep font squats, you could try lunges or goblet squats.

Thanks for the suggestion. For now, I'm going to avoid making changes to the program for a while, but all things to keep in mind later on. The backoff set of fronts is "hard" and I need to do hard things to keep my laziness in check. And my gpp could use improvement besides.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016 Training

Press:

20x3x3
27.5x2
32.5x5
32.5x5
32.5x7 @10 (failed 8th)
28.75x8 @10

Deadlift:

60x3x2
75x2
90x1x2
97.5x5 mixed
85x8 straps

Face-pulls (#):

75x15
75x15
75x15

DB Incline Press (#):

30x12
30x12
30x12

Chin-ups (5 [PR], 4, 3, 3, 3)

***

Awesome day. Press 32.5x7 isn't a PR but it's probably stronger than I've been in about a month. Similar for the deadlift, 97.5x5 is the best showing I've put up since nearly the start of the cut 11 weeks ago. My only gripe with the deadlift is that my downtime between reps is starting to blur the line of what constitutes a single set. I need to take 8-10 seconds to catch my breath between the harder reps.

If taking a breather between DL reps ensures your form stays as solid as possible, I'd say taking the time is actually a positive.
You still got the work done, it just took a little longer.

Thursday, October 13, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x5x2
30x5
40x5
45x5
50x5
52.5x5
52.5x6
47.5x8

Front Squat:

20x5x2
40x3
47.5x2
57.5x2
67.5x5 [PR]
67.5x6 [PR*]
57.5x8 [rep PR]

Machine Chest Fly (#):

90x15
90x15
90x17

Leg Press (kg + sled):

90x12
90x12
90x15

Pull-ups (3, 3, 2.5, 1.5, 1)

***

Another really good day. On bench, I tried a heels-up foot position and used the uprights to get a tighter arch before gripping the bar. Form seems to have improved a lot.

Squat performance dramatically increased since the last workout. The 67.5x5 set was almost easy. *The last 3 reps of the 67.5x6 were a little high but that's certainly a WIM PR, at least.

Sunday, October 16, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x5x2
30x5
40x3
45x2
50x1
53.75x5
53.75x5
53.75x4 (f)
47.5x8

Front Squat:

20x5x2
35x5
57.5x2
68.75x5 [PR]
68.75x3 (wim fail)
57.5x9 [rep PR] (wim redemption)

DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x12
60x10
60x10

Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm):

35x15
35x13
35x10

***

Running hot. Bench strength levels are approaching those of pre-cut, and it's the fifth consecutive front squat workout with linear progress.


Week 27 Diet, Week 12 Cut



Some nice weight loss to close out the second phase of my cut.




The goal in 13 weeks was 141, but given I increased the calories by 100 after Week 7, and given I fell off the cardio wagon, I'm pleased with the results. I went from a depleted 157.8 to a depleted 142.6, which comes out to be -1.17 lb/week, including the maintenance week.

Tomorrow is bi-monthly picture day, but I can spoiler it already and say that the cut needs to continue for at least another 6 weeks. I still don't think that I am sub-20% body fat. This week's gonna be a glorious 1800 calorie per day week though .

nice work

New nudes:



Measurements:



***

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm not there yet. This looks like >20% body fat, but maybe I'm wrong. Any good BF% estimators here?

It's quite simple.

>20% love handles
15% visible abs
10% perfect 6 pack abs

You will get visible abs at <125. The realities of natty training are quite sobering.

But your changes are still massive. Certainly a contender for golden loco.

Gotta give you credit dude. Posting the pics and sharing the progress even with the ups and downs. The last 10 difference is subtle but there. The 20lb is so obvious.

Good work

Thanks, guys. I really don't want to believe that I'd have to drop 17 more pounds in order to be 15% BF (as that would have me at 24-25% now). Love handles are in evidence, though, so we can certainly establish 20% as the lower bounds of my body fat probability.

My intent is to cut until around 17%, which is an arbitrary number that I've chosen to represent the maximum amount of fat a man should have before he can begin bulking in good conscience. I don't really see the point of getting visible abs when I'm this tiny, especially considering every pound lost between here and there will be slower and more difficult.

So if I'm 21-24% body fat now, then that means cutting 8-14 more pounds before this is over.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 Training

Press:

20x3x3
25x2
30x2
35x5
35x5
35x6 [PR]
31.25x8

Deadlift:

60x3x2
80x2
90x1
100x6 [PR*] mixed
90x7 straps

DB Incline Press (#):

30x12
30x12
30x13

Face-pulls (#):

75x15
75x15
75x15

Chin-ups (5, 4, 4, 3)

***

Gains.

Press PR is huge, given my failings for the last two months. Deadlift is an asterisk PR only because I took a long (~25 sec) breather after rep 4. That rep was so slow that I wanted to make sure I'd hit the 5th and call it a set. Then 5 went up so fast that I pulled a 6th for good measure.

Good work so far.

21-24 % sounds about right.

Maybe it's just me but 17% sounds more like where one should be at when they end their bulk, not when they begin it.
I mean, 17% is still fairly fat IMO.

Point of getting to visible abs -lean at this stage of your h&f career would be that you don't end up bulding fat on fat when you finally begin bulking.

Plus it would make your next cut much easier / shorter and/or allow you to bulk for a longer time.

Obviously, the leaner you get, the more likely you are to lose muscle as well but I don't REALLY see that becoming an issue before you're sub 125 lbs.