We know by looking at photos you have quite a kyphosis that needs to be corrected through a lot of mobility work and muscle imbalance correction. I'm not joking when I say you should be doing face pulls *every* workout. Light as a warmup on an upper body day and "less light" as part of a regular workout. There's literally no downside to it. You should however avoid any kind of leaning backwards when you do it, so drop the weight until you don't lean.

Looking back through your log you do have more push then pull - and I'm not counting the deadlift as a pull in this case because if anything a deadlift can exacerbate a kyphosis - the fact your upper back is quite sore is suggestive of you actively fighting the attempt to round you out.

^all of this; it's literally impossible to do too much upper back work. Check out Neanderthal No More if you need some ideas for assistance work.

But, in general, more vertical pulling, more horizontal pulling, buy some bands and grease the groove with band pull aparts, random other **** like shoulder dislocations, probably grease the groove with full ROM strict push-ups . . . There's plenty that can be done.

That's a really, really, really good sign.

If I were your physical therapist I would be cheering. I've had this exact issue relating from a car accident. I'm still working on it years later.

I agree, more face pulls, pushups and stability work will help. Most people can't pull off the long term posture corrections even with strength training and PT. The fact that you're doing it naturally says a lot. Mindfulness and work ethic FTW

Maintaining ideal posture at the table is very hard. 8+ hours is a very long time. If you can actually work up to that level, congrats.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Training
Bench Variant, C1W1 TM68 3x10 @65%

Close-Grip Bench:

20x10
35x5

44x10
44x10
44x16 @8 maybe

SS1: Chin-ups (@60kg):

7
7
7

SS1: Machine Chest Fly (#):

120x12
120x12
120x12

SS2: Arnold Press (#):

25x11
25x11
25x11

SS2: Cable Facepull (#):

55x15
55x15
55x15


***

Took it pretty easy today. I think a 16 repper indicates that I chose the training max for this lift wisely. I wouldn't have wanted to hit more than 18 or less than 14, I think. Chin-ups were a lot weaker than I expected, as I'd planned to get three pretty easy sets of 8. Oh well.

I took my time and still managed this session in less than an hour, including warmup. Pretty nifty considering >2 hours is the norm for me. There's a lot more space in 4-day programming to cram more volume in when the situation calls for it.

my thoughts
%s look better

incline bench is not a valid replacement for ohp and in general you need more shoulder work

more back work, can add it to dl day

you should move your primary accessory movement to immediately after your main lift. ex. rdls on squat day

single arm cable lat pull downs seem lol

Guess what just showed on my News Feed as a new item today

Tip: Hit Lats Harder with the Unilateral Lat Pulldown

A T Nation post completely devoid of content does not convince me they are any less lol

I know just humorous timing . Though watching the video I get what Thib is saying re:feeling it more as your mind is on just one vs both

Your thoughts are appreciated.

I was using variants of the main lifts just because that's what the book recommends, but he also says it's not that important. I could just do overhead press instead of incline. Or something like replacing the DB bench accessory with another overhead variant like Z press. What would you do?

By back work do you mean lat work?

Why?

I was planning on doing them with a straight arm like he does in this video. I thought it would help me cue my lats a bit better in all the lifts.

I would go with press, or push press if you want to do a variation, and find a place to throw in some (cable) side laterals. Then you could swap db bench for incline db if you want to keep the incline work.

back work could be rows, pullups, power cleans, shrugs... probably some type of row.

You will be more tired at the end of the workout and able to give less effort in the more important movements. Also you will be able to do more on leg press if you put rdls in between so that your quads get some time to recover

I have never done them. Just seems worse than a bunch of other exercise choices. You could do db rows if you really want something unilateral

Thursday, February 16, 2017 Training
Squat Variant, C1W1 TM95 3x10 @65%

HBBS:

20x10
40x5
55x3

62.5x10
62.5x10
62.5x18 @idk

SS1: Romanian Deadlift:

40x8
40x8
40x8

SS1: Cable Straight-Back Crunch (#):

75x12
85x12
85x12

SS2: Leg Press (kg):

130x10
130x10
130x10

SS2: Cable Curl (#, example):

35x12
45x12
45x12


***

Another pretty easy day. I think I have some form issues to work on for my high bar. It looks like my hips are shooting back at the bottom for some reason. I'll begin to address it with my paused work on deadlift day.

The crunches felt very good. I'll probably stick with these moving forward. As for the curls, they felt too easy at the top so I'm going to continue to experiment until I find some curl variants that I like.

I'll actually be doing Week 1 over four consecutive days without a rest day, as I'll be taking a short vacation with the GF for the following three days (no, we didn't break up). Should be okay considering how light I'm starting out.

RDL is good. Work on retracting a little bit harder. That will keep the barbell closer to you as you get deeper in the movement. You're doing this thing where the bar gets a little out in front when it passes by the knees. Your descent also speeds up slightly as you get below the knees, when it should be slowing down to reverse at the bottom.

You can also consider terminating the movement when you get to around the knees or a little lower. Your hips basically stop extending after you get to the knees and you're making the rest of the movement with your back- which is fine but isn't necessarily the point of the exercise. At that point its a SLDL and the back retraction becomes less important. A degree of Scapular retraction in the RDL is critical. It will also limit your ROM to a degree, and the weight you can use.

Squat looks OK. The reps where you cut depth a little and drop into the hole less aggressively look better.

Friday, February 17, 2017 Training
Overhead Variant, C1W1 TM40 3x10 @65%

Press:

10x10
20x3x2

26x9 (miscounted reps)
26x10
26x12 @8.5


SS1: Pull-ups (@59kg):

7
7
6

SS1: Rope Triceps Pushdown (#):

35x12
35x12
35x12

SS2: DB Incline Press (#):

30x12
30x12
30x12

SS2: DB External Rotation (#):

10x12
10x10
10x8

SS2: Cable Lateral Raise (#, example):

15x10
10x15 (with DB, bros were all over the cable crossover at the time)
15x8 (back to cables)


***

Another nice and short workout. 70 minutes including chatting with people. Instead of using a variation of the press, I've decided to do the press but do it differently than before. Basically, starting the reps from a dead stop instead of breathing at the top and using a stretch reflex.

Previously, I'd been doing overhand pullups with handles instead of a bar. Having to put my chin over an actual bar made them significantly harder, so I'll stick with these from now on. Cable laterals felt way better than dumbbells.

Don't reach with your chin at the top of pullups. It's bad for your neck and it's cheating. The lockout is the hardest part and should be achieved with a neutral head position. You basically need to get your elbows further back and closer to your torso as you approach the top to lockout, which will require more upper back and arm strength. You're cutting your ROM short and compensating with the neck reaching

I'd like to add to the above convo that not everyone can do OHP and plenty of advanced lifters get away with assistance work, incline db bench, arnold presses etc as a replacement. Not a comment at all on Renton's form which is pretty good.

I do think your head is coming a little far forward in the OHP. It's good to rise the traps and retract the chin, but the head shouldn't lean forward

New nudes:



Measurements:



***

Pretty big progress, but still pretty fat....

Hopefully, I'm under 20% now, but it wouldn't totally shock me if I wasn't. And if I'm not, I ain't gonna be 15% at 125. Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty much ecstatic about the progress I've been making. I look and feel better than I ever have. It's just dismaying to continually re-discover how fat I am after cutting for so long.

Anyway, my guess is that I'll be cutting for at least six more weeks.

Looks like new weight target. 115.


But fat doesn't look and feel like that, looks like a chunk of it is excess skin.

My guess is no more lifting gainz til you start eating more.

Great progress from where you started. Keep at it.

Saturday, February 18, 2017 Training
Deadlift Variant, C1W1 TM105 3x7 @65%

6cm Block Pulls:

20x10 rdl
40x5 rdl
60x2

67.5x7
67.5x7
72.5x9
72.5x3 deadlift

SS1: Paused HBBS (no belt):

65x6
65x6
65x6

SS1: Hanging Leg Raise:

12
12
12

SS2: Rows (kg):

50x8 bent over row (form was ass)
45x8 t-bar row (i like these better)
45x8 t-bar row

SS2: Leg Curl (#):

50x12
50x12
50x12

SS2: DB Hammer Curl (#):

20x12
20x12
20x12

***

Powerlifting bro was in to give me pointers today. Kind of a blessing and a curse, tbh. 67.5kg was so light that I felt like I couldn't get tight enough before the pull, so I bumped it up a little for the third set. This means changing the training max to 112, which I think is fine. Bro said they looked good and asked me to try a set from the floor, so I humored him. I'm still gonna stick with the blocks for the foreseeable future.

The squats weren't bad, though I could have gone a bit lighter given its the first week. I didn't expect them to be this hard, but it's not surprising since I forgot my belt. I'll probably belt up next time and go for sets of 8 at the same weight.

All in all, week 1 wasn't too bad. I think there's loads of room to increase weight/volume and push myself harder from week to week for quite a long time.

Yeah, that is a pretty drastic difference from start to present. Good work.

Don't let that t bar pull your upper back out of extension. Keep the upper back tight and shoulders back and down. Same as an RDL. Don't forget the big breath to push out the core before pulling your DL.

Everything looks really good including the squats and DL

Thanks, bros.


I hope none of those things is true.


Upper back was even worse on the bent over row set. I'll keep it in mind next time. Thanks as always for checking my work.

Week 45 Diet, Week 27 Cut



Bad week. I went out to a restaurant for dinner almost every night. It should still be a deficit, but I can do better than this. For some silver lining, I did train 5 days this week.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Training
Bench Variant, C1W2 TM68 4x8 @70%

Close-Grip Bench:

20x10
35x5
42.5x2

47.5x8
47.5x8
47.5x8
47.5x15 @8.5

SS1: Chin-ups (@59kg):

7
7
7 @10

SS1: Arnold Press (#):

30x8
30x8
30x8

SS2: Machine Chest Fly (#):

110x16
110x16
110x16

SS2: Cable Facepull (#):

55x20
55x20
55x20


***

Nothing much to comment on today. I'm going to tweak my training max up 2kg. I'm okay with starting off light, but getting 15 reps at what should ideally be 65-70% of my 1RM after having done 3x8 seems a little conservative. This will have me doing 5x7 @51.25kg and 6x6 @52.5kg, and I expect I'll still have a lot of reps in the tank on those.

In other news, it looks like I lost a lot of my chin-up gains. I got 11 reps at 60kg body weight a few weeks ago. I know everyone's been suggesting I do more chin-ups, but I resisted taking that advice because I was making fast gains on the work I was already doing. Now that that is no longer the case, I'm amenable to adding more chin-up work. I'll start off with doing 3 sets of @8 on Monday and Thursday evenings.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Training
Squat Variant, C1W2 TM97 4x8 @70%

HBBS:

20x10
40x5x2
60x2

67.5x8
67.5x8
67.5x8
67.5x15


SS1: Romanian Deadlift:

45x10
45x10
45x10

SS1: Cable Straight-Back Crunch (#):

100x12
100x12
100x12

SS2: Leg Press (kg):

135x10
135x10
135x10

SS2: Cable Curl (#):

45x15
45x15
45x15


***

Solid day. I tweaked the TM up from 95 to 97 and still got 15 reps for the top set. The bar speed on the last rep was pretty fast but I was running out of breath. I'm happy with the form for these.

RDLs are still awkward but I think I'm getting the hang of them slowly but surely.

I made a video of leg press for fun. It looks like I should set the seat inclination back so I can involve more glute and maybe get a little more ROM.

Friday, February 24, 2017 Training
Overhead Variant, C1W2 TM40 4x8 @70%

Press:

bar x5
bar +5kg x3

bar +10kg x8
bar +10kg x8
bar +10kg x8
bar +10kg x12 @8.5


Lat Pulldowns:

7 stack x10
7 stack x10
7 stack x10

Rope Triceps Pushdown:

3 stack x15
3 stack x15
3 stack x15

DB Incline Press:

15kg x9
15kg x10
15kg x12

DB External Rotation:

5kg x9
5kg x9
5kg x9

Cable Lateral Raise:

1 stack x12
1 stack x12
1 stack x12

***

Unfamiliar gym. No idea what the bars weigh, and the weight stacks are unlabeled. Prob the barbell was 15-18kg. Decent workout given the conditions, and even the missus got a workout. Back home in 2 days.