Yeah thats my best guess as to why I'm doing so well.

My buddy who started SS with me at the same time had been working out for a 1/2 year or so before hand and has started slowing down the past couple weeks.

He has really bad form and refuses to read SS or listen to my advice too, so I'm glad he's stalling before getting into too heavy of weight.

Sounds like your buddy is a budding bro.

Well prior to SS he definitely was. He was one of the buddies I referenced in my OP. My day with them consisted of like 7 different arm exercises, and my arms were sore for about 2 weeks afterwards. Of course he's enjoying the gains he's making, but his squats are just about the ugliest I've seen.

I keep telling him he should read the book, and keep giving him advice for form, but his view is: "I'll work on form in my warm-ups, but I don't feel like worrying about form once the weight gets heavy."

To his credit, his form has gotten better, but its still really bad and asking for injury.

Hopefully as I continue to move ahead of him strength wise he'll be a little more receptive of my advice.

There's only so much you can do to shield him from his own stupidity imo.

Yeah I mean, he's a good guy, so I hate to see him hurt himself. But it seems like the only way he'll actually start caring about form.

Although part of me worries that instead of deciding to improve form, he'd just decide that Squats are simply a bad exercise.

Day 16 - 6/20/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x105
1x3x165
1x2x225
3x5x275 (+10lbs)

Press:
1x5x45
1x5x65
1x3x85
1x2x105
3x5x125 (+5lbs)

Deadlifts:
1x5x135
1x5x185
1x3x235
1x2x285
1x5x335 (+15lbs)

Squats are getting pretty heavy, probably will be needing to go to 5lb jumps soon.

Press felt awesome, definitely the right move going to just 5lb increments on it.

Deadlifts felt great too, heavy as hell obviously, but I think I kept my form solid and they weren't too draining. 350 on Friday should be interesting.

Sigh, so torn.

Can't decide between whether to keep at maintenance/surplus and keep gaining.

Or to start dieting.

On one hand, I am really really enjoying the strength gains I'm making, and watching the weight go up every week is pretty awesome.

But on the other hand, I am really really sick of being fat. I look at pictures of myself from a couple years ago and I look so so much better with 20lbs less of fat.

I got dumped by my gf last week too, was a mutual thing, but it means I'm single for the first time in 3 years, so I kind of see losing some weight as a good confidence boost to get back into things.

What I'm thinking about right now, is trying a RFL diet for a couple weeks to shave some weight, and then from there decide if I want to lose some more, or go to intermittent bulking/cutting.

I know this isn't ideal from a strength gaining perspective, but I'm not really in any rush to get strong as fast as possible, so I have a lot of patience there, obviously this would set me back a bit, but I'm fine with that.

Is there any glaring thing I'm missing that makes this a terrible plan?

Soulman told me that most here are against RFL and I still plan on doing it for at least 2 weeks, maybe even longer. I also felt that way about how I'm not in a rush to get as strong as fast as possible but I was lying to myself. Guess I just typed out a lot of nothing, sorry.

From what I gather its because there will most likely be some strength loss?

If thats the main reason its not really a big deal to me. I'm willing to sacrifice some strength to no longer be a fattie.

And I honestly am in no rush to get really strong asap, if it takes me two years of slowly bulking a bit, cutting a bit, I'm cool with that too. I just enjoy being in the gym and exercising. The big strength gains are an added benefit.

Sigh, I'm probably going that have this debate with myself at least once a week no matter what I choose.

I'm voting for dieting.

RFL - Day 1

Weight: 197lbs
Calories: 940
Fat: 29g
Protein: 160g
Carbs: 10g

Meals:

Breakfast:
Protein Shake

Lunch:
Grilled Chicken Garden Salad
(Someone offered to buy lunch so we went to a Pizza joint, was a pitiful amount of Chicken, but a ton of greens so it was relatively filling.)

Supper:
MOAR CHICKEN, and lots of steamed Broccoli.

Evening:
MOAR CHICKEN

Overall day 1 wasn't too hard, was a bit hungry a 1/2 hour or so before Lunch and Supper, but other than that not too bad. Need to grab some more Broccoli tonight for snacking purposes, big broccoli fan.

Probably the worst part is the rest of my family still eating normal/unhealthy. Bags of chips, bread, etc are so much more tempting when you can't have them. Bastards.

Weighed in at 194lbs this morning. Losing ma water weight.

Need to hit the gym and hammer out some curls, who cares about the rest of my muscles, just gotta keep my guns.

Hm, are you the first person in H&F to do an RFL who isn't super-weak and/or ActionJeff? Anyways, gl, will be interesting to see results.

you have made awesome gains on starting strength, continue it for like what.. another 2-4 weeks till you can't make linear gains.. then diet!

also you are doing these squats to depth? I am beyond jealous that you've gone linear at 10 lbs without much problem.

RFL Day 2

Weight: 194lbs
Calories: 1015
Fat: 39g
Protein: 150g
Carbs: 6.4g

Meals:

Breakfast:
Protein Shake

Lunch:
Grilled Chicken Salad

Supper:
Extra Lean Ground Beef, and lettuce.

Evening:
Extra Lean Ground Beef mixed with egg whites.


Don't like those numbers calorie wise for what I got. Need to stick to Chicken more than the beef. Perhaps some more eggs too.

Once again, wasn't too hard, only hunger a bit before meals, and other than that almost not at all.

Going to the gym after work tomorrow, so we'll see how the strength is holding up then.

Thanks,

Ideally I should have waited till I finished starting strength and cut before starting an intermediate program, but being a fatty was just wearing on me too much.

I expect to be able to continue pretty good progress after I finish these two weeks. I may have to catch up a bit, but thats not too big of a deal to me, and I plan to just go with maintenance again, and then once I start stalling move to a small surplus to keep the fat from packing back on too quickly.

As far as the squats go, I've got a few videos up in the thread, but short answer is as far as I can tell my depth is pretty good. Being a pretty active athlete in high school I think is the main reason why I've done so well.

ah had just skimmed the thread.. yeah squats don't look bad at all.. can't tell exact depth/angle, but you're definitely in the right neighborhood. I notice you setup not standing up straight [i tend to do this too.. you come out a little hunched... you get more erect each rep. i'd recommend squatting the bar out of the rack and make sure you're standing upright [or as upright as you can for 300 lbs o your back].

I really think you should just finish out SS, you are still freaking going up by 10lb on squat, bench, etc.. you haven't even had to do 5 lb steps.. you should take a few more weeks [just weeks, int he scale of a lifetime!] and complete it.. if you stall then you can switch to maintenance, or reset, or whatever... but the more muscle you build now the more calories you're going to be burning while sleeping, playing poker,e tc with the added muscle. I know it's summer and you want some beach abs.. your numbers are good, but I just dont' see how you won't regret not pushing 2-3 more weeks for your linear gains. Then you can switch your diet to RFL or Zone or whatever.. (just eliminate 90% of grains/sugars/starches] and do a month of crossfit football or crossfit or something.. that'd be my advice anyway! I am not really familiar with RFL but it looks like super low carb ketosis [sp?] type stuff, and I can't imagine it's going to let you keep getting those linear gains. have you notice any changes in your body composition from when you started a month ago?

I know you want to get the ex jealous and all but I really think 2-3 weeks of more muscle, and RFL may even be too extreme, it really looks more liek starvation plus protein. I'm also not a big fan of getting 1/4 of your meals from shakes vs real (natural) food. Are eggs/milk and healthy fats [avocado/nuts/olives/olive oil] anti RFL?

Damn you and your logic.

:P

You're right.

Gonna keep going, time to nom some carbs.

This is broscience. Added muscle has a negligible effect on extra calories burned.


RFL is pretty specific on what type of food is acceptable, and fats are out the window. Like you said, it's basically a starvation diet + protein.

Most guys in this forum don't advocate RFL for basically anyone, especially people trying to keep LBM/strength.

I agree with your post in general though, Zomg would def be better served finishing linear gains which surely can't take that much longer. Given his numbers he can probably skip the whole reset and move up again entirely.

What do you mean by this?

Badly worded. What I meant was, doing SS most guys usually need to reset 1-2 times on the different exercises due to stalling. With your progress though, you're probably better served to go straight to an intermediate program once you stall, since your lifts are close to most people's intermediates anyway. Especially given your body composition goals, and resets generally don't lead to a lot of progression anyway.

Ah ok.

Thanks for the clarification.

Would that be the best time to cut? Between stalling and moving to an intermediate program?

Yeah, that's a good time.

Alright cool.

Time to stop ****ing around and do SS properly

Lol