Yeah, I used to be super anti-neck extension, but I got over it. No one lifts like that and you don't hear about anyone's head falling off.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Bench Press:

20x10
30x5
45x2
52.5x1
60x5 [PR]
60x5
60x4
54x9 [rep PR]

LBBS:

20x10
40x5
65x2
81x5 [PR]
81x5
81x5

SS1: DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

55x13
55x13
55x13

SS1: Machine Chest Fly (#):

130x13
130x13
130x13
130x13

SS2: Romanian Deadlift (kg)

70x10
70x10
70x10

SS2: Seated DB OHP (#):

30x11
30x12
30x12

***

Proper milestone on the bench press, a long time coming. I'm also finally moving into new frontiers for the squat. My squat form needs a lot of work but I think it's good enough to proceed with weight increases. That said, I expect to need to reset pretty soon.

I decided to lower the RDL sets to 10 reps (not including the deadlift off the floor) so that the sets would be a little shorter. The 3x12 was pretty torturous, with my conditioning being the limiting factor.


Week 35 Diet, Maintenance Week



This week was a nice break from the cut. As I mentioned last week, the plan is to return to 1300-1400 calories. I'm not happy with the rate of weight loss at this intake, but I'm kind of on a roll with lifting gains and I'd rather not disturb that. So same diet as before (but with a bit more judicious carb intake) until I have three consecutive weak gym days. At that point, I will reduce calories to 1150, de-load for a week, and proceed to bring this cut to a much-desired end as quickly as possible.

Also, new nudes/measurements next week.

Congrats on the 1 plate BP! Gotta up the protein a little, you been slacking in that regard. Do you take creatine?

Nice work setting pr's while cutting is good going. Next up BW bench

Thanks, bros. Bodyweight bench x5 should be happening during this cutting cycle. Even if it takes me just losing 3kg of weight to get there.

Right now I'm right at 2g/kg-bw protein which is what all the studies seem to converge on. My macros are pretty tight to the point where consuming more protein would cripple my dietary options. This will especially be the case once I cut to 1150.

Yeah I take 5g/day creatine. My supplement stack is creatine, fish oil, d3, multi, and potassium (I don't eat enough veggies). And pre-workout caffeine.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Press:

20x5x2
27.5x2
36x4
36x3
30x2
30x2
36x3

Deadlift:

60x3x2
80x2
90x1x2
105x5 [PR]
92.5x8

DB Incline Press 2' (#):

30x15
35x11
35x12

Chin-ups 3' (7 [PR], 6, 6, 5) [+3 reps]

***

A bittersweet session. I made big progress on everything but the press, which continues to be hopeless. I've been at 36kg for like a month now, and I was at 35kg for a month before that. Basically, I've added 10-15% to my bench in the last 8 weeks and made solid week-to-week progress on dumbbell incline press, but my press never wants to go up.

I'm not very confident in my setup for press, especially the grip width. I bounce between wider and narrower grip by turns, as each seems to feel more comfortable at different parts of the ROM. Lately, I've settled into a fairly wide grip (thumbs about 9cm into the first knurling) , which I used for the first two work sets. After they went so poorly I took some weight off and tried narrower grip widths. The final work set is with a much narrower grip (thumbs 3cm into knurling). I feel like with narrow grip I'm a bit stronger off the shoulders while with the wide grip I have a stronger lockout.

I use almost exactly the same width for front squat rack position and overhead presses. My setup for both starts nearly the same.

The wider the grip the more abduction is used in the motion which means more side delt recruitment, and the sides are known to pop, but are also uber weak comparatively. You're going to hammer grip front raise way more then you will ever side raise.

Also why you're less strong at the start as they are part of the initial movement, taking some away from the triceps.

That's my .02c broscience

Yeah, the problem is I don't have the shoulder flexibility to assume the front rack position comfortably. When I front squat I have to use straps to hold the bar from above. I really don't do enough to improve my flexibility. I've been just hoping the 15 minutes or whatever I do to warm up for the lifts, along with the lifting itself, would get me by.

As for the press, I think I need to change the program. 3x5 at a weight that's near my limit seems not to be working and I always feel like I'm gonna injure myself. I was thinking either higher reps not training to failure or something like 5/3/1 (just for the press) that allows for a slower rate of progression.

Thursday, December 15, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2x2
61x3
55x5
55x9 [PR]

LBBS:

20x5x2
35x5
60x2
70x1
82.5x5 [PR]
82.5x5
82.5x5

SS1 Pull-ups: (6, 5, 5, 4) [+1 rep]

SS1 Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm):

35x15
35x15
35x15
35x12

SS2 Leg Press (kg + sled):

130x12
130x12
130x15

SS2 Facepull (#):

85x15
85x15
85x15

***

Another day in the golden age of gains. I probably could have pushed through with another attempt at 61 bench but I felt a little psyched out and took the conservative approach of resetting.

Friday, December 17, 2016

Chin-ups 3': (5, 5, 5, 5, 5)





New nudes:



Measurements:



***

Pretty SALTSy. Stomach def looking a little flatter from the side. My delts/tris might be a bit bigger. It's only 5lb of fat loss but keep in mind that I added ~15% to my bench and ~8% to my deadlift in this time, so hopefully I recomped at least slightly.

Fat. Cut.

125


Honestly you can probably just stay at 135-140 for a few years and you will look much better if you keep consistently lifting. But of course you a former cracked out fatty who loves carbs and dreams of surpluses one day. You probably also believe in nonsense like natty bulking.

LOL I dream of maintenance at this point.

I goofed the back pic comparison, using literally the same photo as last time. There's the fixed version:

Stomach way flatter. Nice work. Agree with Loco.

Thanks, BPA.


Sunday, December 18, 2016

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2
56x5
56x5
56x9 [PR]

LBBS:

20x10
40x5
60x2
70x1
84x3
84x5 [PR]
84x5

SS1: DB Bent-over Row (# each arm):

60x12
60x12
60x12

SS1: Machine Chest Fly (#):

130x13
130x13
130x13
130x13

SS2: Romanian Deadlift (kg)

75x10
75x10
75x10

SS2: Seated DB OHP (#): (*)

30x11
30x10
30x10

***

I woke up 4 hours early and couldn't go back to sleep. I felt pretty ****ty going in, but luckily I had a great bench press top set and I rode the momentum from that to have a pretty solid workout. Depth and bar path remain a challenge for the squats. I cut the first set off at 3 because my stance was too wide and I was wasting a lot of energy.

(*) I tried these on a more vertical bench and they were much harder. Not sure which I like more; the incline bench on the highest setting gives better back support but still involves a little pec, while the chair gives worse back support but is more vertical and isolates the shoulder more.

Brogress is subtle between different batches of photos, but it's there.

Just keep on truckin' IMO.

a) Down to 125
b) Slowly back to 140-ish over the next 2 or 3 years, while making all kinds of lifting-related gains

seems like a winning strategy to me.

You're gonna make it, we're all gonna make it.

Much Later:

Chin-ups 3': (5, 5, 5, 5, 5)


Week 36 Diet, Week 19 Cut



Very good week. Lots of strength gains and lots of fat loss. Can we just have 5 more of these?

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Press: (5/3/1 C1W1 TM37)

10x10
20x4
25x5
27.5x5
31x10 [rep PR]

Deadlift:

60x4x2
80x2
90x1x2
107.5x5 [PR]
92.5x6 [lol]

DB Incline Press 2' (#):

35x12
35x12
35x12

Chin-ups 3': (7, 7, 6, 5) [+1 rep]

***

I'm trying out 5/3/1 for the press. I used a calculated 1rm of 42 based on the fact that I've managed 36.25kg for 3x5. Taking 90% of that is 37.8, so I rounded down to a training max of 37. I could only get 10 today so I might have started slightly heavy. That said, I tweaked my shoulder a bit during the 25 set so I probably didn't try as hard on the 31 set for fear of hurting myself. I'm wondering: is it common to skip de-load week in the first cycle?

Deadlifts were quite hard; the 107.5 set was probably pretty close to my limit. I had nothing left for the 92.5 set even after resting for 6-7 minutes.

In Beyond 5/3/1 6 week training cycles are a thing so you do 3 weeks, increase training max, do another 3 weeks and then deload. I think that's a good way to go especially with relatively light weights. I'm doing that as well.

I think HalfSlant did about 14 weeks without deloading? You'll be fine.

Cool. Maybe I'll try that.

How recommended is it for me to read the 5/3/1 books and etc. if I'm just doing it for the press?

Honestly, I feel kind of lame using an intermediate program for a press that's so weak. But looking at the lack of progress I've been making, some slow gains are sounding pretty nice right about now. 5/3/1 will be having me attempt 45kg press in 5 months which is a weight I'd love to be able to lift by then.

I'll just play it by ear, then. Deloading every two cycles seems reasonable, though, especially considering I'm still doing novice programming for bench 2x weekly. It would be a decent break from that.

It's a good read imo but unless you plan to do 5/3/1 at some point I wouldn't bother. It's mostly just about the program and variations, assistance and such. Then again it's $10 for the ebook so you might as well.

I feel like I have a lot of novice program-based gains to make on the other three lifts, especially once the cut is over. But my problem is that my workouts are going too long and it's making me want to switch to some kind of 4-day program. In that case, I could easily see switching to 5/3/1 for everything else, at least eventually. But right now I still want to bench and squat heavy 2x a week so I think it will be a while before I'm ready.

Thursday, December 22, 2016 Training

Bench Press:

20x10
35x5
50x2
57.5x5
57.5x5
57.5x8 [PR]
52.5x9

LBBS:

20x5
40x5
60x2
70x1
85x5 [PR]
85x5
85x5

SS1 Pull-ups: (6, 6, 5, 5) [+2 reps]

SS1 Rope Triceps Pushdown (# each arm):

35x15
35x15
35x15
35x15

SS2 Leg Press (kg + sled):

135x12
135x12
135x14

SS2 Facepull (#):

85x16
85x16
85x16

***

Awesome day. Squat form was better than ever. Bench is a little annoying because the spotter touched the bar for the 9th and I think I probably had it. But 8 is still a PR and in my heart of hearts I'm calling that **** 8.75. Also, 57.5x8 at 62kg bw is intermediate, bros.

Actually, with further investigation: