I’m sick of this.

It’s a program that’s not much fun. I’m hungry. I’m drained. I feel weak. I’m getting those “not enough carbs in the diet” dizzy spells. And I am not seeing the needle move on the scale.

Well, I do. But it’s up and down. Which tells me it’s other things in the mix, like water retention. And I know there are other factors to measure progress – like how things look in the mirror, and to that I can say my gut is reduced a bit.

But it still gets old to see the scale weight bouncing around and not showing the desired longer-term trend. I do expect it’s been from some salt and water retention. Diet’s been a bit salty lately, but in part it’s 100º+ right now so I’m trying to keep my electrolytes up as well. It’s just a battle.

But this where discipline trumps motivation. And yes, I’m going to stick this out at least another 3 weeks (for the total 6 weeks of the program). And I do want to do the 7th week protocol, then at least 3-4 weeks of an anchor template (still undecided as to what). How I adjust my diet during those last weeks is TBD based upon where I am when I get there. But I am pretty sure that once I’m done, I’m going to change gears and have some fun for at least a few weeks (I’m looking at Basebuilding).

As for today.

Since this is the 2nd 3-weeks, 2 more sets of the assistance work is to be added. So I add in 2 more sets of the KB swings at the end. 100 KB swings total.

During the top pressing set I did something in my shoulder/neck. This is not uncommon, because of the way my neck/shoulders are these days. There’s a hint of pain, but it’s just going to require massage and stretching of the upper traps and neck muscles. I had considered stopping the session, but it was TBD based upon pain — things got better, likely because there wasn’t more heavy stress on it AND it continued to pump additional blood to the area. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. 🙂

So yeah, shit’s getting old and tired. But just keep plowing ahead.

Oh, and in terms of weights? I have opted to keep my gym weights mostly the same for this 3-weeks cycle as the prior 3-week cycle. I’m going to be dropping the rest periods down (75 seconds this week). I’m getting weaker from lack of carbs. I’m allowing myself to go up on assistance work as it makes sense (e.g. if I can do more pull-ups, do more pull-ups). So press, squat, and bench all remain the same. Deadlifts tho? I went back and recalculated to use 80% of the training max instead, so it dropped session weights around 20# or so. I expect this should work better for me to get in the work, in light of circumstance.

And I am happy to have gotten as many pull-ups today as I did. Strict (total dead hang, to chin above bar, no kick/kip/momentum). This is slowly improving, which tickles me.

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 243
Rest Period (seconds): 75

• Press – bar x whatever
• Press – 70 x 5
• Face Pull – 65 x 25
• Press – 80 x 5
• Face Pull – 65 x 25
• Press – 105 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15e
• Press – 120 x 5
• Split Squat – BW x 15e
• Press – 140 x 5
• Pull-up – BW x 5
• Press – 155 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 4
• Press – 120 x 5
• Pull-up BW x 4
• Press – 120 x 5
• DB Row – 65 x 20e
• Press – 120 x 5
• DB Row – 65 x 20e
• Press – 120 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• Press – 120 x 5
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• KB Swing – 40 x 25
• KB Swing – 40 x 25