Who knew how good food could be. 😉

Yesterday I was on the road and so I ate in a manner that wasn’t very in line with the old diet. But you know… I’m on a mid, so a little fudge is fine, one day off the wagon won’t kill me. But geez, I woke up bloated this morning…. or at least, I hope it’s bloat. 😉 I’ll see what tale the scale tells in a few days.

But it certainly lead to a nice day at the gym! More glycogen, more reps! I don’t peed out from being out of gas. How nice! And 8 reps on chin-ups…. dude, it was kinda surprising to me that I kept going! I was stoked. 10 reps is near!

I continue to try to keep weights heavy enough but to maintain some better form, especially on shrugs. I really have to overcome slouching when I shrug since that’s well… just not good when you’re putting such a load on your spine.

I also am finding that my biceps respond to heavier hammer curls than lighter with more reps. Hrm….

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Chins

• BW x 8
• BW x 5
• BW x 3
• BW x 3
• BW x 3

Cable Rows

• 115 x 10
• 115 x 10
• 115 x 10
• 115 x 10
• 115 x 8

Meadows Shrugs

• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns

• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 9

Hammer Curls

• 30e x 8
• 30e x 8
• 30e x 8
• 30e x 6

BB Curls (350-method)

• 40 x 15
• 40 x 14
• 40 x 15

80%

As I think about it, there’s not a lot to say. Today was just a day, a good 80% day.

Weight holds steady at 217, which is expected and good. I will say all the extra carbs and the hair more fat is just wonderful. I’m filling the void with more fruit, and a little less “care” about what I eat. I mean, I still care, but like last night instead of just “1 serving” of some pecans I probably had what equated to 2 or maybe even 3… and I’m not sweating it. There are worse things I could “binge” on.

Feeling good tho. Cannot complain.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Press

• bar x 5
• bar x 5
• 60 x 5
• 75 x 4
• 90 x 3
• 110 x 2
• 125 x 1
• 110 x 11 (AMRAP)
• 110 x 6 (50%)

Upright Rows

• 90 x 10
• 90 x 10
• 90 x 10
• 90 x 9
• 90 x 7

Side Laterals

• 20e x 10
• 20e x 10
• 20e x 8

Face Pulls

• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12
• 75 x 12

Close-Grip Bench Press

• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8

Triceps Pressdowns (350-Method)

• 45 x 23
• 45 x 17
• 45 x 15

Sometimes you gotta call an audible.

I forgot where exactly I read this, but it was a revelation. I find myself wanting to “good-morning” my squats every now and then. All the wisdom I’ve read up to this point says that means you need more posterior chain work, and so I’d think along those lines. Well, reading something (probably something Greg Nuckols wrote) made me realize that’s precisely wrong! The body is good at finding the most efficient pathway to do something, and so if my body wants to start good-morning-ing the weight up, it’s because that part of my body is strong! And this I know, because my deadlift is extremely ahead of my squat — I’ve got a strong back. I don’t need more posterior chain work — I need more quad work! I’ve got weak-ass quads. And this all makes sense given the experiences in squatting I’ve had over the past however long.

So, I’m changing things up to try to put more work into my quads. Have my assistance work focus there.

I was going to do it by front squats and leg presses, but once I got into the gym I called an audible and changed everything up.

First, instead of front squats I thought I’d try high-bar squats. Foreign to me, and that first set felt really weird. 🙂 Thing is, front squats are fine, but I spend a lot of time focusing on keeping the bar from rolling off, which isn’t where I want to focus! So I thought I’d try high-bar squats to see if that might work instead. Normally I am low-bar squatting, so going high-bar felt really strange. I’m also having a different stance, with my legs almost touching, toes pointed forward. Man, when you get down in the hole it feels so much deeper. So, all strange, and I’ll just work my way up with it. But the intent is to get some heavy-ish work that puts a little more emphasis on the quads. We’ll see how it goes.

Then, I was going to continue with stiff-legs and leg presses, but again figured no… if I’m supposed to work on building up my quads, then let’s spend what limited time and energy I have on that. So I went with good old leg extensions. I know powerlifters tend to frown on that, but Ed Coan used them so good enough. 🙂 If it means more work for my quads, if I can help them grow and thus be stronger, great. I’ll find the groove here in time, but the goal is higher-reps, build some muscle.

I then opted to drop the stiff legs and just do some leg curls. I think my posterior chain will get enough work right now in the normal course of squatting, so let me focus my assistance work elsewhere. See what happens.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
• High-bar, narrow-stance Squats
  • 155 x 5
  • 135 x 6
  • 135 x 6
• Leg Extensions
  • 40 x 15
  • 50 x 12
  • 60 x 12
  • 50 x 12
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 50 x 12
  • 60 x 8
  • 50 x 12
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12

Carbs… sweet sweet carbs! 🙂

I’ve been on the (fat) loser train for a little over 3 months now, so it’s time for a break. I don’t really want to take a break, but it’s appropriate after such a long stretch, especially since I have another long stretch ahead of me. Officially weighed in at 219 yesterday, which was up a hair… but given I was 217 this morning, I am pretty sure I was just retaining something. So, taking a “mid”… following same basic dietary template, but adding in some carbs (including on my off days!!) and bumping up the fats a hair too. I’ll stay on this for about 4 weeks, expect to gain at most 5 lb. or so, but that should be just things like water, glycogen, etc…. no real fat or even muscle gain expected here.

So I did eat carbs yesterday. Not sure if that affected me today or was pure placebo… but I did feel good, and it showed in my work.

I continue to focus my later assistance work on tempo, with explosive concentric and a good controlled eccentric. Also trying to just make the muscle work. Like on the incline DB pressing, I don’t think about pressing, I just think about my pecs pulling my upper arms “together”. Yeah… the challenge really starts to become how hard you can make the muscle work, with as little weight as needed to make that happen It doesn’t satisfy the external ego, but it sure seems to be more internally satisfying and working.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 4
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 7
  • BW x 7
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 6
• DB Incline Press
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 9
• Machine Flies (350-Method)
  • 70 x 17
  • 70 x 17
  • 70 x 12

Yeah, slow and steady seems to make my back happy.

I continue to work on lifting more bodybuilder-like, and no question my back actually gets good work from that! I dig it.

I will say, I think lighter loads are coming as well. Yeah the ego never likes to go down in weight, but the reality is the body doesn’t know — it’s about the stresses. For example, I often find when I am standing with dumbbells that my posture craps out, which means I’m now supporting this weight in a sub-optimal way, which winds up being bad for me. But when I make sure I’m having good posture, well… the weight can be too much. Small stabilizers start to feel stressed and fatigued before other things, which is kinda good… shows that I’m always struggling with good posture, and strengthening those little guys will help. Or like the position of the DB’s when I’m doing shrugs — in front of me I can move more weight, behind me I can’t, but the more in front the worse it is on my upper spine and posture. So it’s just stuff I need to continue to play with, and get more strict about. But it’s all good for the short-term if it means better long-term payoff — I must remember that I’m primarily in this for my health, to make sure that as I age I am strong, mobile, etc..

That said, I also think I’m refining what I do heavier and as a movement and what I will do more for a heavier muscle thing, or a lighter pump thing. Like I think I may find some benefit eventually in refining my back work so I still do maybe 4 sets of some sort of heavier row, as a movement more than a muscle (e.g. traditional BB rows, t-bar rows, etc.). But then follow it up with 4 sets of a lighter, stricter row (e.g. cable rows). Not sure what I’d do more as an isolation here tho. But like for legs, squats heavy movement; then leg extensions would be lighter, slower, strict; and leg presses would be somewhere in between. Or here with biceps, I’m finding it a little better to work them on something heavier for maybe like a 4-5×5-8, then like 3-4×8-15. Those sorts of progressions seem to give me better work.

Of course, the real test will be once I can eat again. 😉

Still, the discipline of figuring a lot of this out now is all being done to prime me for things in a few months when I’m done with Defattening and can start building up again.

Another thing that I’m thinking about playing with are less straight sets and doing other sorts of progressions. So it could be that I just rep to failure across multiple sets, which is sorta what the 350-method works. But I also see lots of bodybuilders that do progressions like 5 sets with like 15 reps, 12, 10, 8, 6, 6 or something like that, starting with a lighter weight and then working up the weight and lowering the reps. Never tried that sort of progression, but finally curious to try.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Chins

• BW x 7
• BW x 6
• BW x 3
• BW x 3
• BW x 3

Cable Rows

• 110 x 10
• 110 x 10
• 110 x 10
• 110 x 10
• 110 x 10

BB Shrugs

• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12
• 65e x 12

Wide, Neutral-grip Lat Pulldowns

• 130 x 10
• 130 x 10
• 130 x 9
• 130 x 8

Hammer Curls

• 30e x 8
• 30e x 8
• 30e x 6
• 30e x 5

BB Curls (350-method)

• 35 x 25
• 35 x 20
• 35 x 15

I still don’t regret taking a day off the other day. It really was the right thing.

Then yesterday I did my usual trip for cardio. and today, back to lifting. I do miss lifting, just one day away was not what I desired. But I desire being recovered and rested, instead of beat-up. I can’t eat my way to recovery, so I have to really be mindful of sleep. Been thinking more about it and how I can improve my sleep efforts too. But another topic for another time.

Official weigh-in today: 218, down 2 since Sunday. Huzzah. See, taking Tuesday off meant I also ate like an off-day, so it was 2 days in a row of almost no carbs, and much hunger. But if “hunger is just fat leaving the body”, then so be it. Seems it’s paying off, so you just keep going through it. But that said, that bowl of oatmeal this morning was awesome. 🙂

I keep working on lifting in a bodybuilder style: explosive concentric, slow eccentric. I found myself today really trying to be even more getting the muscle to do the work, instead of making the movement. I found that especially on face pulls, of all things. That pull can very much be the arms doing the work, or at least carrying a fair portion of the load. I found myself really working to remove the arms from the mix and let the motion focus on just the shoulder… retracting the shoulder to get the blades to touch, “flying” the elbows out to the side and that THAT is only done by contracting the rear deltoid. I even lowered the weight because it was more about trying to just get those muscles to do the work. It’s taking time, but I’m getting there… building that so-called “mind-muscle connection”… thinking more about really just having the muscle move the weight by pure contraction, instead of the body working in concert to move the weight. It’s different for me to really focus on that, but kinda cool to branch out and try this.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Press

• bar x 5
• bar x 5
• 60 x 5
• 75 x 4
• 90 x 3
• 110 x 2
• 125 x 1
• 110 x 11 (AMRAP)
• 110 x 6 (50%)

Upright Rows

• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10
• 80 x 10

Side Laterals

• 20e x 10
• 20e x 10
• 20e x 8

Face Pulls

• 85 x 12
• 85 x 12
• 85 x 12
• 85 x 12
• 70 x 12

Close-Grip Bench Press

• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 8
• 145 x 7

Triceps Pressdowns (350-Method)

• 45 x 15
• 45 x 13
• 45 x 13

The log of no log.

I didn’t go to the gym today, by choice.

I woke up, and my body told me that sleep was more important. And not just sleep, but not beating myself further with squats and deadlifts… I needed the break to recover.

Don’t regret it. It was the right decision.

Change up. Let’s see where it goes.

As I mentioned before, whereas at the start of the diet my strength increased, slowly but still increased, for the past some whiles it’s been steady and more recently it seems to be going down. But it’s hard to get a bead on it because I’ll go down in some things but go up in others. Like on squats, that top work up weight feels heavier and heavier, but then the work sets feel stronger and strong. Go fig. But again, I have to remember that lifting right now is to support the diet.

On that front, I was officially 220 at yesterday’s weigh-in, so I “held steady” since the Thursday-prior weigh-in. But that’s not entirely true. I did have a cheat meal on Thursday-prior (2 slices of pizza… don’t go crazy now), and I did “bloat” a bit from it, but then by Sunday had lost the bloat. So on paper it’s steady but it really wasn’t, but good enough. This morning I’m 219, so we’ll see where it goes. If I’m 218-219 by Thursday, I’m good.

So while I’m contemplating dropping my weights, before I did so I figured to try changing the plan first. The changes are minor, but sigificant enough to try for a little while, assess, then continue from there. In this case, I was doing Base Building model 2 for bench, so I figured let’s drop back down to a model 1. Well, it’s not entirely model 1 because I wanted to keep the work-up to a heavier single, and to me that’s a matter of helping assess strength on the diet — a bit of a way to compare how model 2 was doing vs. model 1, since you can’t directly compare them.

Model 1 is a little less work, but still work. It’s also more reps per set, which may play into the diet plan. I mean, I got through the first 3 sets ok, but then sets 4 and 5? No gas in the tank, which makes sense. So now the question is, what happens over the next few weeks? Do things remain here? go up? go down? That will be telling. And yes, if the solution winds up being that I have to drop my weights, then so be it.

I also upped some other things, like another set of dips. I’m also going to do inclines for straight-sets now… did 3 today, might up it to 4, we’ll see; 8-12 rep range, bodybuilder style to really make the pecs work. Machine flies… shit… I only stopped where I did because it was driving me nuts… such slow movement, so many reps…. fucking killing me. 🙂 But it became more mentally tolerable as I went along; I thought about not doing it 350-method, but no… that’s good. Strive for a lot of reps, failure, good squeeze… etc..

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 4
  • 180 x 4
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
• DB Incline Press
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 8
• Machine Flies (350-Method)
  • 70 x 18
  • 70 x 18
  • 70 x 12