Didn’t want to, but you do the work anyways.

I did not want to go to the gym this morning. Just drag-ass all the way. But you still drag your ass there and put in the work, because it’s consistency over time that gets you there. Why not? Got to bed late. Plus I wasn’t feeling it. I’m not sure if it is the lowered carbs, or heck, it could simply be that finally the weights are getting heavy and hitting the 10-rep threshold all the time is finally coming to a close. Probably a combination of factors. I do expect that the 10-rep stuff is going to be ending here soon, maybe even during this cycle. Of course I’m still going to strive for as much as I can neatly do, but things had to get heavy sooner or later. 🙂

That said, overall the session went well. Deadlifts almost felt deload-ish. 10-rep front squats… oof.

In other news, I’ve been cutting back on the carbs a few days now. My weight is down a bit, but I know that’s just depletion and not tissue loss. But you need to deplete before tissue loss will happen. For sure I don’t feel bloated any more, which is good. Thing is, some months ago I stopped the 1-on-1 with Renaissance Periodization and went with their templates. I picked massing, because that’s my current plan. But because of what? 16-18 months of strict dieting took a toll, I needed a break. I just happily ate carbs, with some regard for the plan, but not much. And so I have put on a little more than I should have. So in this “return to form” what I’m doing is going back to the templates, lowest level of things to (re)establish a base. I expect I’ll lose a little bit of weight, and the goal is to just stay on this set of “base” templates, shed whatever sheds, and get to a point of stabilization. It may be that I drop just like 5-7 lb. or something, and that’s fine. Just get things back into a realm. Then I can go from there.

I don’t really want to do a straight up cutting cycle, but I’ve contemplated it. I don’t want to derail my main goal of the “3/4/5”, but there may be a way to work it in. For example, do the above, get things back in bounds, and just keep working until it’s time to reset my lifts. Once I reset, do a 6-week (or maybe 12-week) cut cycle. The weights should still manage OK, I might change the lifting program a bit to support it (e.g. Jim often recommends just going for prescribed reps, then upping the assistance work to get a little more volume and stave off muscle loss). I just refuse to get fat again.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 140 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 210 x 3
  • 230 x 5
  • 265 x 5
  • 300 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 125 x 10
  • 150 x 10
  • 175 x 10 (10RM PR)
• Elevated Glute Bridges (superset with crunches)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 17
  • 35 x 14