Sunday, January 22, 2017 Training

Bench Press (paused):

20x8
35x5
47.5x2
56x4
56x4
56x5
56x5

LBBS:

20x8
40x5
60x2
75x1
87.5x5
87.5x5
87.5x9 [PR*]

SS1 Chin-ups (@61kg):

9
8
7
7 [volume PR+1]

SS1 Machine Chest Fly (#):

140x12
130x12
130x10
120x12

Deadlift:

60x3
60x3
80x2
80x2
90x2
90x2

***

I botched the bench AMRAP and took another shot at it. It's a bummer that I lost 3 reps from the last session, but at least the second attempt had better form (and actual pauses).

The squat top set is an asterisk PR because at least two of the reps were shallow, but I'm still super proud of that set. It's a WIM PR at the very least.


Week 41 Diet, Week 24 Cut



Meh week. The neck thing took me out of commission for a couple of days and led to some meals astray. Generally, the more time I spend at the poker room, the more spot on my diet becomes. That said, this week could have been far worse. There were at least two times that I really wanted to go out and have junk for dinner and talked myself out of it.




Six solid months of cutting. The rate of weight loss in the last 12 weeks is about 2/3 of the rate of the first 12 weeks. Seems pretty normal. I see no real reason to deviate from this. I'll do another maintenance week this week and then hopefully reach 125 within the next 9 or 10 weeks.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Press: (5/3/1 C2W3 TM39)

10x10
20x3
27.5x5
34x3
37.5x4
40x1 [rep PR]
42.5xf

Deadlift (w/belt):

60x3x2
80x2x2
90x2
102.5x4
90x6

SS1 DB Incline Press (#):

35x12
35x10
35x2

SS1 Hanging Leg Raise:

12
12

SS2 Barbell Row (kg):

40x10
45x10
45x10

SS2 Leg Press (kg + sled):

140x12
140x14

***

Pretty bad day. I really felt going in like press 37.5x5 was nearly certain to happen. The set of 4 was an absolute limit set, with the 4th rep taking >8 sec to lock out. My press progress is so slow, I'm thinking 2kg monthly increases to my training max may be too large. Thoughts?

For deadlift I tried to put together all the things I've been learning in the last week for a max effort set and got half as many reps for the same weight as last week. It feels very unmotivating to know that much of the progress I've made on the deadlift in the last three months is undone.

Unsurprisingly, I found myself wimless for the assistance work. My left shoulder started hurting a little during the second set of dumbbell incline, then more during the beginning of the third set. I'm starting to think that I should be doing something different in place of that exercise because it seems that every other week it aggravates my shoulder somehow.

I switched up the dumbbell rows for barbell rows, really focusing on keeping my thoracic spine extended during the set. I can't help wondering if my shoulder problems, my weak press, and my crap deadlift form are all connected to thoracic posture issues.

Bad days happen. Lack of sleep, stress... IMO, if you hit a PR recently, it's not possible to have lost that muscle mass. At worst, you lost a hour or two for the workout but not a full week/month.

Shoulder: Yeah, DB BP are a killer for the shoulders. Same as dips or butterflies. I haven't done them in 2 or 3 months. Do you do rotator cuff exercises with a light DB or cable? I find they seem to help with strengthening my shoulders?

Just like that, can you do the movement like pictured below?
1) With the hand behind your back, palm facing behind you but close to your back.

2) Same palm position but you try to put your away from your body

My tablet was dead when I did the training log. Today's videos:

Deadlift 102.5x4

Press 37.5x4

Press 40x1

No, I mean I was training the deadlift in a different movement pattern. I probably made my spinal erectors much stronger at the expense of glute and hamstring development. It's definitely a major setback. That said, I should make some quick gains early on while I'm training a new movement pattern.

I used to, but I've fallen off that stuff. Mainly I just do the band pull-aparts and dynamic stretches.

Yeah, easily. I have bad range of motion raising my arms over my head, though. It's been improving slowly.

topkek.jpg

Doing DB bench press and DB incline with ****ty form are for sure bad for shoulders, but considering I kind of agree ****ty t-spine mobility and hunchback type posture in general are likely at least somewhat to blame for OP's shoulder issues, lighter dumbbell bench and incline presses with fully retracted scapulae and full ROM is going to be helpful. Also volume pushups.

Dips and flyes can be bad depending on shoulder joint morphology; neither are an issue for me.

Oh, also, I've decided to take 1.5kg increases to my press training max (down from 2kg). This results in me essentially going for 38.75, 40, 41.25, 42.5 respectively for the 1+ set in the next 4 cycles, and that has an aesthetically pleasing look on my spreadsheet. Maybe once the cut is over I'll take larger jumps again.

I want 750g plates Maybe I could buy my own

Press is the hardest exercise to increase weight and also the first hit when you're cutting; dialing down the increase seems fine and appropriate.

My 625g plates:

1. A baseball bat weight that weighs 1lb / 450g.
2. A 0.5kg wrist weight with some of the stuffing poured out that weighs 0.5lb / 225g.

So actually it's 675g, but I just call it 1.25kg (counting both sides) since I'm no longer dealing with pounds.

how do u do the baseball bat setup thing?

edit:

Oh, I had to google it. I thought you were taping the bat to the BB LOL.

The bat weights are hoops that are coincidentally the exact diameter of an olympic bar. I use one on each side + one wrist weight on each side to approximate +1.25kg.

Renton, what's the dumbbell path like when you dumbbell bench press? I'm screwing my lats down pretty hard the entire set, which results in my elbows being relatively tucked, scaps retracted, and the dumbbells being internally rotated about 30 degrees -- seems impossible to have shoulder issues that way if you're keeping it light enough and your chest stays big.

I was curious about this myself and took some videos with my phone. The first set of 12 was EV-style with humerus at 90 degrees and prob not at all healthy to my shoulders. The second set I tried tucking more like a traditional barbell bench press and the pain was actually worse. Honestly, I don't want to waste everyone's time with the videos. I never researched how to properly perform this lift, and I intend to watch some youtube videos before I do them again next Tuesday. Then we can analyze this more if the pain persists.

Might be time to google Neanderthal No More and steal liberally from that program for pre-hab/assistance work.

Thursday, January 22, 2017 Training

Bench Press (paused):

20x8
35x4
50x2
57.5x4
57.5x4
57.5x5 (*) [rep PR]

LBBS:

20x10
40x5
60x2
75x2x2
90x5
90x5
90x6 [rep PR]

SS1 Pull-ups (@61kg):

8
8
7
6 [volume PR+1]

SS1 Dips (@61kg):

3
3
3
3

SS2 Deadlift:

60x3
60x3
90x3
90x3
90x3
90x3

SS2 Cable Face-pulls (#): (slower tempo, stricter form)

55x20
55x20
55x20
55x20

***

Solid day, much to discuss. Benching went really well. (*) I got a spotter for the third set and he messed up, grabbing the bar on the 4th rep and causing me to have to re-rack and start over mid-set. I got two more after the second unrack, so I feel pretty confident I would have got 6, but meh we'll never know.

Even though I didn't technically beat the numbers on my best squat sets (82.5x11 and 87.5x9, each with questionable depth), I think I had my best squat day ever today. All reps were to depth. 90x6 is probably a true PR if you account for the fact that my form was so much improved. My camera failed to record that set but it felt great under the bar and a friend watching said it looked good. I should be good for 1.5BWx5 on Sunday. On a side note, in the first recorded set, I experimented with a downward gaze and found that depth was easier to achieve but I felt way weaker rebound. The third rep looking down was so hard that I started looking straight ahead again to finish the set. Then I resumed my normal forward gaze for the other two sets.

My gym brought back the dip bars, so I gave them another try. I went pretty easy on them the first time. I think I'll sub them in for the triceps rope for a while and see how things go.

As for my deadlift, continuing to follow ActionJeff's advice, I tried to get my hips lower and farther back to limited avail. One thing is that it felt like to keep my hamstrings tight I needed to shove my knees out more, which caused my grip width to get significantly wider. The linked set was my best set, but I still think I have a lot of work ahead on these.

Sunday, January 29, 2017 Training

Bench Press (paused):

20x8
35x5
50x2x2
59x4 @9.5
59x2 @9
59x2 @10
52.5x6

LBBS:

20x8
40x5
60x3
75x2
91x5 [rep PR]
91x4
91x5

SS1 Chin-ups (@61kg):

9
9
7
8 [volume PR+2]

SS1 Machine Chest Fly (#):

130x13
130x13
130x12
130x12

SS2 Deadlift:

60x3x3
80x3
80x3
90x3
90x3

SS2 Arnold Press (#):

20x12
25x12
25x12
25x12

***

Very weak day of benching. I'm not gonna sweat it much. The set of 4 doesn't even count because they weren't legitimate pauses. Time to reset and do a tng cycle and see if I milked any gains out of the paused block.

Squats felt very good today. Getting 1.5x bodyweight for 5 is a legit milestone.

More experimentation in the accessory department: I really like the way Arnold presses feel. I'll be sticking with these in place of the dumbbell ohp.


Week 42 Diet, Maintenance Week



Pretty much a full diet break this week. The calorie numbers are unreliable because a lot of the entries read like "uncountable French meal, 1200 calories" or whatever. I think I'm reasonable at eyeballing calories at this point, but when the cut is over I intend to log accurately. This week was just an aberration, mainly due to being stressed out over life stuff and not giving a ****.

Now it's back to the cutting grind. I'd really like to be near or below 130 pounds before the new nudes come out in mid-February.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 Training

Press: (5/3/1 C2W4 deload TM39)

10x10
15x5
20x5
25x5

Deadlift (no belt):

(starting from top)
20x10x2
40x9
40x6

(starting from floor)
60x3x2

(starting from blocks)
80x3
80x3

(starting from floor)
80x2
80x2 front angle
90x2
90x1

***

I went into today planning for it to be an upper body deload per 5/3/1, yet still pulling heavy. The session ended up developing into me flailing my fists at the brick wall that is my deadlift.

I recorded every set, but only linked the ones that were pertinent: either illustrating a particular flaw or showing my best set at that weight. A few observations:

1) In the <60 reps that start from the top, I found myself having to expand my grip width during the set in order for the bar to clear my knees.

2) Related to that, it seems that I can only get my hips lower by shoving my knees out further, which leads to me needing to take a comically wide grip on the bar in order to allow room for my knees to track. You can see this in the front-on view that I linked. I really don't know where my knees should be. Out feels more natural but it would seem absurd that I need to take practically a snatch grip.

3) Today I didn't reset between each rep, and the result seems to be that those reps look better. Maybe there's something to staying tight during the eccentrics and using that to pull from a better position for subsequent reps. That said, it appears that my hips are higher in those reps.

4) Pulling from blocks was easier.


My upper back felt pretty tight after the all the deadlift practice so I skipped the rows and called it a day.

Keep up the good work. Excuse me if you already posted, but what weight are you aiming for with your cut?

Thanks.

125lb / 57kg is the goal. I am probably about 17-19% bodyfat currently.

Nudes soon? On your last pics, you were pretty far from 17-19% imo. I'd say closer to 25 even.

I have the bare beginnings of upper abs (in good lighting), yeah I think <20% now.

edit: Nudes in 2 weeks.

Lol that perfectly sums up my BF estimate range, 15% good lighting 17% bad lighting

You always have further to go than you think. I thought I was going to be ripped at 205 and I'm closing in on 180 with a few pounds left to go.

Brutal. 133lbs 25% body fat? Wat a dickhead.