Did a lot of sleeping today. Drank a beer for the first time in about 4 months.
Got bloodwork lined up for next week.

When your app tries to shame you into lifting some weights.

Bench
1x8 135
1x4 170
1x4 205
4x4 240

Press
1x5 95
1x3 135
1x5 170
1x3 185
1x2 205
1x1 215
1x7 165
1x5 165

Overhead BB Tricep Extension
5x8 105

Hanging Leg Raise
5x8

KB Swings
5 min

hmm, do you often do bench and press together?

I was considering doing that for my own programming

thoughts on pros and cons?

No I've always been doing them separately. Trying to be more efficient this year and put forth real effort into managing my fatigue properly and see how that affects my results. I like it so far.

Pros are more frequent pressing should lead to better gains and the lifts complement each other. Cons would be only if you don't have good programming you're not going to recover properly and hurt your progress.

so for me I'm going to have 3 lifting days per week for upper body. I can either do say

2 bench 1 press in week 1 then 2 press 1 bench in week 2 or

1 bench, 1 press each week and then 1 bench and press on the 3rd day

guessing you'd think the latter would be better...so long as I'm not doing too much volume on the combined day?

Yeah I think I'd prefer the 2nd one. It will take some work to make optimal blocks because I found if you leave it to feel there's an innate desire to try to go hard all the time. I think that's what's hurt me the most the past couple years.

I never got injured, but I think my intensities have always been too high.

That’s always been my way. It’s gonna be a challenge with the rowing too because I love max effort stuff.

CG Bench
1x6 135
1x3 175
1x3 205
3x3 240

Push Press
1x4 135
1x5 185
4x3 205

BB Curl
5x7

Split Squats
5x8

Weird that you push press lower weights than you strict press?

Not really. Just the phase I'm in. I'm not doing anywhere near max effort on anything right now.

Got my DEXA today. Pretty quick and easy. Took like 10 min.
So I guess I'm a pretty good guesser.

Results:

Weight: 193.2 lbs
Total BF%: 23.9%
Fat Tissue: 46.2 lbs
Lean Tissue: 139.1 lbs
Bone Mineral Content: 7.9

So I guess there goes that theory that my ideal weight should be 140lbs like Bruce Lee.

Also showed a breakdown by body region. Leanest area were arms, fattest was lower abdominal. No surprises there.

Resting Metabolic Rate: 1,727 cal/day

Visceral Adipose Tissue: 2.23 lbs
Bone Density: USA (Combined NHANES/Lunar)
Total BMD (g/cm^2): 1.555
Age-Matched Z-Score 3.5

This one kind of confused me. They had a Z-Score chart that looked like the following:
Z-Score Greater than % of Population
-1.5 - -0.5 = 7%-30%
-0.5 - 0.0 = 30%-50%
0.0 - 0.5 = 50%-69%
0.5 - 1.5 = 69%-93%
1.5 - 2.0 = 93%-97%
2.0 - 2.5 = 97%-99%

So if I have a 3.5 then I guess that's a good thing. So I am big boned? idk.

This last bit was interesting.

My right arm has 20.8% %Fat while my left is 16.9% But lean tissue is almost the same.

Ry right leg has 18.3% %Fat while my left has 21.1% and 1.2lbs more lean tissue in my right leg.

Pretty interesting and informative. Might do another after the last 8-10lbs comes off to see the differences.

Dexa tells you your resting metabolic rate?

I guess. That's what it says on the report.

Maybe it's a generic calculation based on your weight and bf%.

I'm not sure how that was your takeaway. I mean you wouldn't be 130 like him but I think you'd def get into the 140s to be Bruce Lee-ripped. You'd have to lose 30-35lb of adipose tissue and would no doubt lose at least 10-15 of lean to get there.

I guess if you think doing that is ideal and also necessary sure.

But then you can say that about anyone. You say that like 10-15lbs of lean tissue is a minor thing.

My point that I made previously and that I think is substantiated by the Dexa is that 140lbs is not an ideal weight for me. I'd be literally skin and bones.

But yeah I guess if you want to say, "Sure just be close to 0% bf and also lose 15lbs of lean tissue you'd be there. Now that's ideal!"


In that case why not just say 120 is ideal? I would just have to lose some more lean mass and how about throw in some bone while we're at it?

Seems incredible to me that youve got that much bf when I can see your abs when I can hardly see mine in my pic when I was 17%

Have you got a recent nude?

You're the one who invoked Bruce. I'm just saying you need to compare apples to apples at that point. Getting to 7% body fat as a natural is definitely not optimal for your goals (nor almost anybody's goals, natural bodybuilding is completely nuts). But if you're trying to get under 15% then you're going to lose some lean pounds along the way, so it's still 160s we're talking about. You sound like you're content to get to around 20 and call it, which is fine. That's probably about the body fat percentage point where you're going to begin having a lot more trouble conserving strength.

Also to illustrate my point with a couple examples that are closer to reality and not just some arbitrary, "Hey you should lose 15lbs of muscle so I can be right."

I would say losing 1lb of lean tissue to lose 8lbs of fat would be a reasonable assumption for me.

Under that assumption, a bw of 154lbs I would be 7.8% bf in the Dexa which I would say is quite ripped. So yeah if I wanted to be like some physique competitor or something I guess that's ideal. Still nowhere close to 140.

But I don't see how that's at all ideal for someone who just wants to be strong and healthy.

At a bw of 171 it would put me at 15.3%.

So I'd say an "ideal" weight would put me in the neighborhood of 170-180lbs.

But of course you can always just move around the parameters and say stuff like "just lose x amount of muscle mass" so you don't have to admit you were really off.

Interesting now it's when I get to 185 I will begin to have trouble conserving strength. (Which I'm not even saying I disagree with.) But before it was if I got to where I'm currently at all my lifts were going to fall off a cliff.

You're being really defensive and snippy toward me and I really don't understand why. I didn't suggest that you would or should lose 15lb of lean mass. I'm just saying that's a likely outcome to get Bruce Lee lean. And your insanely optimistic 8:1 fat loss ratio is just as arbitrary as my 15lb. It is pretty well established that the ratio decreases as body fat percentage decreases. It is also a pretty well understood phenomenon that strength conservation is much easier the fatter you are. See 90% of the lifters in the IPF who are able to cut weight and still hit meet numbers very near their gym PRs. They tend to all be in the high teens low 20s of body fat.

I haven't changed my tune in light of your dexa, except to say that you probably need to lose even more weight to be 15%. I had a lot less info to work from then and I was pretty damn close.

The one I posted is like what 2 wks old?

I'm not really trying to be defensive. I'm trying to be objective about it and will grant you that you were dead on, on your bf% estimates. And you're right my goal I'm happy with is probably somewhere around 20% though maybe 18% is "ideal". But in either case that would leave me clearly in the high 170s-low 180s.

But the 8 to 1 thing I didn't just pull out of thin air. It's not arbitrary at all.

My drop from 202 to 193 I lost .5lbs of lean mass.

So I would say it's very fair and reasonable to think that an avg of 1lb lean mass loss from 193 to 183 and then again from 183 to 173 would be pretty accurate if not even on the slightly conservative side.

But for some reason you think that's an insane assumption? Care to share the reason why? I might seem snippy because you're falling into the same logic Loco did. "I can't do X so no one can. When I lose weight, this happens to me or I can no longer do X so that must be true for everyone." Remember how he was making fun of me saying I have no clue how to lose weight and I desperately need his help to accelerate things and I would lose all my strength?

It's funny how something is completely insane and impossible and then when I actually do it irl then all of a sudden there are other reasons why that weren't there before and goal posts moved.

Bench Red SS
1x3 190
1x3 225
2x3 260
1x2 295
2x2 310

Press from Pins. Bar at nose level.
1x3 135
4x3 185

RDLs
3x10

DB Flys
5x8

Hanging Leg Raise
5x8

I've been liking this frequency so far. Even pressing almost everyday my joint pain is severely reduced/almost gone.

I don't have a dog in any of these fights, but as someone who's been fairly lean at over 300 lbs, and a little more lean at 250-260lbs, 8:1 is indeed "insanely optimistic".

Anecdote and n=1, but those that I've seen or helped take the same path had similar results to mine.

I think all my numbers are in my log if you care to look and see the ratio I had on my way down.