Thursday 10 January 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W8D2

Press: 48.5 @9, 45x3 @9, 42.5x3 x3 sets @ 8, 8, 8.5

Front Squat: 55x6, 65x6, 67.5x6 x2 sets

1:05, SRPE 6, 390 AU

***

Just ran out of time for this one. Another day of terrible performance. I will definitely move on to something very different after this program. Also gonna do a real cut after this, at least to 62kg. I'm not gonna grind to get an arbitrary plate milestone for squat. It's probably in my head but I feel like my body composition has actually worsened even though I lost 1.5kg over the last 2 months.

You've been lifting on a good program and lost weight, I think it's pretty unlikely your body composition has worsened. We are all our own worst critics.

I agree with you regarding the cut. I found it hard to stay motivated when generally eating at maintenance and seeing really really slow progress. Good luck!

Bodybuilders who get fat and cut go through a feeling of being smaller when bf% gets to a certain point. The definition isnt quite there AND they are visually smaller even though it's a good smaller.

Sounds like you might be there.

Thanks. I just feel like a fat **** more than ever. Also my lifts are going down for like a month now. More on that later.


Thursday 10 January 2018 Training
BBM Heavy Light Medium W8D3

Deadlift: 135 @7, 140 @8, 130x3 @7.5, 130x2f w/straps, 130x1 @8, 120x3 @7

2ct Pause Bench: 71 @8, 66x3 @7.5, 68.5x3 x2 sets @ 8.5, 8.5

2ct Pause Squat w/Belt: 117.5 @8.5, 110x3 x2 sets @ 8, 8.5

1:40, SRPE 8, 800 AU

***

An unceremonious end to heavy light medium. Deadlift looks like it might have been a decent day when 140 was the lightest it's ever been, but something weird happened in the sets after. My plan was 130x3 then 135x3x3 if it was there. 130 was fine but grip was weak. I decided to repeat it with straps and hopefully do 135x3x2 after, but for some reason I couldn't set my back right. It wasn't a true fail, just the first two reps I felt clear rounding and the third rep just felt terrible off the floor so I dumped it. Went back to mixed grip and I was just done after that. I couldn't even set my back well with 120.

Bench was strongest ever probably. My unracks were trash until the last set which was pretty much a perfect one. It is funny how my squat and dl have fallen off a sheer cliff and I finally began making progress on bench.


HLM POSTMORTEM:

Squat - went from 130x1 @8.5 / 117.5x4 @9 to 132.5x1 @8.5 / 120x4x4 @8 / 122.5x4x2 @9. Huge gains to pause squat. Also improved depth a lot.

Bench - Hard to compare as I switched to pause. I did pause 70x3 @10 just before starting HLM, so miniscule gains were made here.

Deadlift - went from 140x1 @9 / 125x5 @10 to 142.5x1 @10 / 140x1 @8 / 130x4x4 / 127.5x5 @9

Press - who knows or cares. probably tiny gains

Body Weight - 69.0 to 67.5
Body Fat - 22.0% to 23.5% because natty realities


What I liked: Seems like the program was nearly ideal for my squat. At least for the first 4-5 weeks. I had very consistent and improving performance week to week. I liked the exercise selection with the exception of barbell rows on the middle day instead of just more benching.

What I disliked: Seemed to be too little volume for bench and press, and too much volume and intensity for deadlift and its variations. I had extremely inconsistent performance for deadlift for the entire program, and for squat during the last 4 weeks of the program. I also don't seem to have the work capacity to do repeat sets @8 for squat/deadlift, much less repeat sets @9. So I was forced to do ramping and backoff sets in order to hit the indicated RPEs in the program.

Gonna make a spergtastic post with new pics and measurements. It's time for the Return of the Son of Cut.

First nudes in over a year:



Measurements:



That good nutrition, boy! At least my kyphosis appears to have improved. It's hard to call these results anything but sobering. I'm obviously leaner than the last time I weighed 68, but only 2cm smaller waist. In over two years.

I'm going to cut at least 6kg, maybe 8kg. I'm going to replace the battery in my food scale and try to do some meal planning but I'm going to attempt this cut without logging calories. More of an experiment to see if I can do it than anything else. To be clear, this is going to be a real cut, at least 0.4kg a week.

I'm still not sure about programming. Probably going to do something percentage based with lower intensity and make a more concerted effort at doing cardio.

Shoulders are noticeably bigger.

Might be time to give Sheiko programming a try; the program fakeb and I got from Weasel is going pretty well for us -- I could give you the gdoc link if you'd like. Percentage based, lower intensity, higher volume. I'm enjoying it.

I'd imagine cutting would be challenging when living in SE Asia -- lean protein sources must be hard to come by.

Didn't know SE Asia was devoid of beans and lentils. Damn what a horrible place to live.

No trolling my log, ILP. First/last warning.

He's going to have some extra free time to contemplate your warning.

I feel like I live there 99% of the time.


Current 68 definitely better looking than previous 68.

Nice gains! You’re noticeably more jacked at a higher bw

I lost my initial 21kg living here. It was easier then because I played in a poker room with free food and took most of meals there. I got in a routine of eating lots of the same meals that were <600 calories. I basically forbid myself to consume fried rice, fried noodles, french fries, desserts, or alcohol. I'm gonna be doing similar this time around, except the poker room I play in has worse comps and worse food choices. I'll manage.


Thanks, bros!



So, here's the plan:

1. Breakfast will be the same every day. On off-training days it will just be a large cup of whey coffee. On the other four days of the week it will be whey coffee plus either a bagel or some oatmeal, measured out, for about 300 additional calories. I think having ~25% of my total energy intake locked in like this is a good starting point.

2. Late meal will be either one of a few approved choices at the casino, probably stuff along the lines of Hainanese chicken rice or lean beef skewers with rice that run around 500-800 calories and relatively low fat. On days that I don't play poker it will be something at home like tuna/mayo or canned soup + whey or leftovers from my wife's occasional cooking.

3. The mid day meal will be the wild card and probably where I'm most likely to eat less clean, i.e. dinners with friends and stuff. Almost anything goes here, but gonna avoid fried carbohydrates, Italian food, pizza, french fries (though cheeseburgers will be on the menu), desserts, and alcohol.

4. Not gonna track calories or macros but I will add whey to ensure that I get 3-4 boluses of >30g protein each day. Preferably 4 unless one of my meals was huge.

5. My program will probably be 4 days, I'm leaning toward the candito 6 week program, sheilfko, or my own thing. Relatively short sessions, higher volume, lower intensity/specificity. I think on a calorie deficit I'll have a hard time making progress on all 4 lifts at the same time, so I think I'll prioritize the squat and bench a bit more than the press and deadlift for a while, possibly even relegating the press to an assistance exercise and switching to sumo.

6. Cardio: 2x a week steady state, shifting to 1x steady state and 1x intervals. Additionally an hour long casual walk on one of my days off from lifting/poker. My lower back is getting seriously janked up from all this sitting hunched over playing poker.

Looking good Renton! Version 2.0 at 68kg shows noticeable improvement.

Intuitive/flexible dieting sounds nice but it will be interesting to see if someone with your mindset enjoys it. Personally I’ve had trouble stepping back and not tracking.

I’m planning out my cut to 62kg once I get to 71-72 by end of February. Maybe we race to tinydom?

Long term you will have to figure out something different training wise as this two year before and after isn’t enough progress imo. Interesting to see how different your 62kg pics are here in 3-4 months.

Half of 2018 I didn't train and my stress level was maxed out pretty much the entire year so I'm sure that contributed to the lack of results. I also think that poor nutrition was a major factor.

Not tracking calories is really just me not wanting to pile on more neuroses. I think 2-4 weeks will make it clear whether it was a good idea or not. I'm really looking for a simpler approach to training and nutrition for a while so I can focus on living life.

My personal opinion is that you're "strong enough", relatively speaking, such that if your goals are primarily body composition related, a more hypertrophy/powerbuilding/volume focused training plan is probably indicated.

ty bro


Even if that's not the case (that I'm not strong enough), it's indicated. I've been doing strength focused stuff for like 5 months now. It's not an uncontroversial idea that blocks of lower specificity should be included in a macrocycle. Candidates are sheiko, candito 6-week, gzcl jnt, bbm hyper, and bbm gpp/endurance.

I kind of feel like the Sheiko template is meant for someone a lot stronger than me though. Do you put in your PRs for the training maxes or your estimated 1rm? If the former, then these workouts look like a cakewalk and the top sets are @<6. Is that by design?

Renton,

They're training maxes. DL is probably right at my theoretical 1RM when peaked (420), while squat and bench are potentially slightly below (345 and 270, respectively). Basically I started with what felt right, then calibrated things a bit if the intensity felt too low. I will say, though, that I'd guess your work capacity could use some improvement - doing a cycle of the prep cycle that's "too low" with short rest periods (2 minutes for upper and 2.5 to 3 minutes for lower) and supplemental back/bi work supersetted in is . . . not easy. Especially on a five day per week schedule. It generates a non-trivial amount of fatigue I'd guess, although I suppose I'll see how much in seven weeks or so.

That said, the frequent work at 80-85% is very good for honing in technique. It's not strictly a hypertrophy program, but I've seen some gains nonetheless.

Given such goals, bro splits.

They really do work for looking good.

(see: every bodybuilder ever.)

PPL szn?

Yeah problem is I gotta actually do these workouts. I just don't think I have the discipline to go to the gym with the objective of doing 32 miscellaneous sets of "back" and calling it a day, trusting the process and hoping my back will grow half a centimeter in two months.

I've decided to go with Sheilfko. Thanks for the recommendation, Montecore. Only major modification is on the days that squat twice i'm going to do front squat the second time with a separate training max. I'll pull sumo and do snatch grip instead of deficit dl, floor press instead of board press, and back raises instead of "SQ to depth" which I just discovered on reddit is a mistranslation of this exercise.

Going with highish training maxes of 140 for squat, 80 for bench, and going conservative at 130 for DL since I haven't pulled sumo heavy in over a year. Front squat TM is 95. This outputs numbers that seem more than doable. The heaviest squats in the cycle will be 120x2x5, bench 65x3x7, deadlift 117.5x1x3 sumo, 75x3x4 front squat. I'm sure I'll feel like I need to increase the TMs at every turn but I'll try to keep it on the conservative side while I adjust to 5 days a week training and higher tonnage.

Posture looks way better than 3 years ago. If you cut to 62 again, the difference in the 62s is going to be way more pronounced. You will be ripped!

Looks like more muscle and less gut now, good job.

Also agree with arjun: your shoulders are back and look more relaxed, far less of that caveman-knuckle-dragging look. Working on that myself and I'm jealous of your progress.

Good job

Idk about ripped but thanks. I'm afraid I'll need to cut to sub 60.

Thanks. I think it just takes a long time to fix. If anything though I've learned that strength is specific. I think if you want to have better posture, then you should do exercises that isometrically load the chest-up shoulders-back scapulae-down position. Essentially squats and deadlifts with strict form. High bar and front is probably better than low bar for this, and rack pulls are probably better than deadlifts since they can be done heavier and held at the top. And with all of these you can just round upper back and get no posture training at all. Which many people do i.e. every starting strength squatter and many deadlifters who round to get better leverage. I can't prove it but I feel like I got very little posture benefit from doing rows and chin-ups. But others swear by them for this purpose.


21.1.2019
40 minutes casual walking