This diet thing… making me think about program changes.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 355#)
  • 1x5x145 (warmup)
  • 1x5x180
  • 1x3x215
  • 1x5x235 (work)
  • 1x5x270
  • 1x8x305 (rep PR)

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 160#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x5x105 (work)
  • 1x5x120
  • 1x8x140 (rep PR)
• Asst. #1 – DB Rows
  • 3 x 10 x 85
• Asst. #2 – Pulldown abs
  • 3 x 12 x 110
• Foam Rolling

As mentioned previously, I’m starting to toy with the carb cycling stuff. Nothing necessarily formal, but trying things like denying myself carbs after lunchtime (until breakfast the next day), measuring out my carbs to see “oh, that’s what 1 cup of brown rice looks like” and so on. Just things to get a handle on the function of things so when I start carb cycling I can know better what to do… and if I can do it.

So the past couple days have been low on carbs and I think it showed this morning. Sure I set rep PR’s, but I really had to grind and just felt flat all workout long. I also cut the assistance work short for three reasons: 1. I felt flat and pooped 2. didn’t want to overdo things if this diet thing is going to cut into recovery, 3. time. I started late today and gee… part of why I went to 2x week was time, but this program of 2 main lifts and then enough assistance work just takes too long… like 1:15 to almost 1:30, which is too much especially when you incorporate the walk to and from the gym.

So if there’s going to be energy issues… if there’s going to be time issues… it starts to reinforce my desire to try a BBB-like protocol when I officially hit the diet (starting next cycle, so 3 weeks from now). It’ll still be 2x a week, but like “option 2” of Wendler’s 2x week program, it’ll be a 6 week cycle with week 1 doing Squat and Bench, and week 2 doing Deadlift and Press, then you go to the next “week”. Yeah it takes longer but so what? My primary goal isn’t strength or mass, it’s fat loss. So I do the one main lift; repeat lift at lower weight, more reps, less rest between sets; then one more assistance exercise. That cuts the total number of sets per workout almost in half, it’ll be a lot less time too because rest between sets won’t be 5 minus (other than the 1 main lift), I only have to focus on one big lift instead of two. Yeah, I think that might work out better for me in a lot of ways.

Just thinking aloud tho… nothing is settled.