That was a little painful, but not how you’d expect.

Today was the first real day on the new program. Again, I’m following a template based upon the “Mass Building” template out of Paul Carter’s Base Building manual. It’s slightly modified to deal with some issues (e.g. shoulder pain), and I want to add some stuff to boost intensities (e.g. drop sets, rest pause, etc.).

Thing was… I spent the weekend taking a rifle class (write-up on that later) and got a little beat up over the weekend. For example, my right wrist, from being canted at odd angles throughout the weekend, was a little hurting this morning. Nothing I noticed — until 100+ lb. was pressing down upon it. Not a huge deal, but present. My knees also got a beating from kneeling and prone positions, so we’ll see how tomorrow’s leg session goes.

But all in all, today went good. I estimated weights well. Things moved well. All in all it went as I wanted. I did fail in one thing, and that was adding some of those intensity techniques. 🙂 My brain just isn’t in that mode yet so I forgot to do them. But I did add a 100-rep set of front plate raises at the end. I actually did 100 reps straight, which is really a mental game. Paul Carter recommends it for traps, Jim Wendler for shoulder rehab — going all the way over your head (arms straight up) instead of just above parallel. If that helps with my shoulder, great.

• Incline Press
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 4
  • 125 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 175 x 1
  • 155 x 9 (AMRAP)
  • 155 x 5 (50%)
• DB Bench Press (2-0-1-0 tempo)
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
• Press Behind Neck (seated, smith machine)
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
• Seated DB Press
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 9
• Front Plate Raise
  • 10 x 100

Change up.

Taking yesterday off was good. I feel better. So I did go to the gym today, but I opted against doing a full shoulder/triceps workout. Again, I want to give my shoulder a break given what’s before me the next few days.

So what did I do?

Every bro’s favorite: arms…. no, not chest — it’s not Monday. 😉

Thing is, as I thought about how to change things up, I realize I do need to go with more moderate weights, higher reps, and just give my body and joints a break. Plus as the diet continues to cut, picking up more mass-building techniques is really where it’s at. So… here I am.

As I looked through my logs, I actually had set up a round of programming based upon the mass-building template in Paul Carter’s Base Building manual but I never executed it because I opted for the Strong-15 Short cycle instead. So since I’d never tried it, I figured why not — it seems about where I’ve been wanting to go anyways.

I did have to modify things slightly. For example, no chin-ups because the hanging creates too much shoulder pain. I won’t do lunges every week, changing it up with split squats or some other variation just to keep me from going nuts. As well, I plan on throwing in some things like drop sets or rest-pause, partials, whatever. What I do will all depend how I’m feeling and how things are going, and what logistically works (e.g. dumbbell exercises are prime for drop-sets).

So since the Friday session will be arms… why the heck not.

Some comments:

The 100’s. I find if the weight is such that I can do 100 reps nonstop, it’s too light to elicit anything useful other than the mental discipline of 100 reps. But if I follow another popular 100-rep protocol, I get something solid from it. That protocol is to pick a weight you can do for 40-70 reps, crank out as many reps as you can, then rest for the number of seconds equivalent to the number of reps remaining. Then keep going, repping and resting until you total 100 reps. So crank out 40 reps, rest 60 seconds; 20 more, rest 40 seconds; 15 more, 25 seconds; 13 more, rest 12; 12 more, done. That sort of protocol.

The dumbbell curls. While I love hammer curls, I really should spend more time on db curls. Hands start neutral at sides, then as you raise the dumbbell up, supinate the hand; unwind on the way back down. I do get much from this, so I really should do these more than hammers.

Close-grips. Given the pains and problems I had with the JM Presses, I took this light. I warmed up with the bar, and did a work-up to a single. Everything felt pretty light, and while there was a little stretch in the shoulder, it was ok — the work-up is good instead of just hitting work sets. Given the 12 reps (the goal is 8-15; and I didn’t push it to failure because I’m being conservative on my shoulder), yeah, the weights are a little on the light side, but generally still in the ballpark so I’ll stick with them for now; once I hit 15, I’ll up the weights. Still, the close-grips felt better than the JM’s (in terms of my shoulder) so there we go.

Anyways, all was generally good. Looking forward to the change up.

As for my shoulder… doing the “rehab” type warm-ups is good. Gets some rotation/cuff work in, some stretching, and things are feeling a lot better. Still not out of the woods, but every day it’s a tiny bit better. For sure stretching the anterior deltoid is the biggest help. It’s a hard stretch to do, and hurts like a bitch, but it’s helping.

• Barbell Curls
  • 30 x 100 (protocol: AMRAP, rest as many seconds as remaining reps; continue; repeat until 100 total)
• DB Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
• Close-Grip Bench
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 125 x 4
  • 145 x 3
  • 165 x 2
  • 185 x 1
  • 145 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 145 x 7 (50%)
• Pushdowns
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 20
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15

The log of no log.

Today is deadlift day, and instead of deadlifting I decided to sleep.

For whatever reason sleep has been lacking this week. It’s not been major, but I’ll wake up 30 minutes prior to normal, and it just creeps up. Obviously I’m not getting the recovery I need. My shoulders hurt, my left knee is just hateful… this is not a recipe for a productive deadlift and back session. I’ve got some things going on this coming weekend that I need to be up for, so I’d rather be rested and healed up so I can perform there.

This plus other things are making me think it’s time to ditch the Base Building for a bit. But what instead, I just don’t know yet. But it’d be “bodybuilding-style” stuff — moderate weights, higher reps, less emphasis on “the big 3” (e.g. maybe inclines or db presses instead of regular bench press; stiff-legs instead of conventional deadlifts). I’ll probably still avoid dips and chins as well for the sake of my shoulder.

Gah… this sucks. But better to find ways to work around it all.

Not good.

My shoulder was not happy with me…. and became unhappier as the session went on.

First, I dropped the weight during the benching. Upper body work is easy to get weaker on when you’re on a cut diet, and it’s kicking in hard. So after my work up I just shaved 10# off everything. That was good.

I also found myself trying to do things to be kind to my shoulder: I brought my grip in a bit (usually middle finger on the rings, now I put my ring finger on the rings), really watched my form, racked it before things got too much. But still… methinks it was too much.

I mean, I totally skipped dips. I got set up, my shoulder said “this would be unwise” and I completely skipped dips. I thought about doing something else to make up for it, but other than one more set of flies, I didn’t and my shoulder is happier for it.

Hrm.

What I actually started to think was I should just go ahead and switch up — to just work up (tho perhaps a little lighter), then do an AMRAP and a 50% set and call it good. Just lower the weight, up the reps, etc.. I did opt to do that a bit, but still stay in the vein — i.e. go for incremental change. After doing that, I think I may need more change.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I do know I need to be mindful of things. I do think laying off the heavier weights for a while will be beneficial. or at least, worth a try to see if lighter/more-reps might be kinder, because for sure the heavier stuff starts to wear on me.

Grr.

• Bench Press (Base Building model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 185 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 135 x 12
• Incline DB Press (350 Method)
  • 35e x 25
  • 35e x 17
  • 35e x 14
• Machine Flies
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12

Today was amusing.

Over the weekend, someone claimed to have set a world record in the squat. However upon watching video, the squat was higher than Snoop Dogg. Of course, much hilarity ensued… whatever. But I found myself apparently affected by this and was going ass-to-grass this morning. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but I realized on my work-up that I was going deeper than usual. 🙂 I didn’t care so much about C.A.T. as I did ensuring good form.

I think Brandon Lilly said it pretty simply: to leave no doubt.

Anyways, switching to Model 2 felt alright. I actually felt like it was less work, but I think it works better because it’s slightly higher weight and I can work my form more. Oddly tho, while it didn’t feel like more work, it did cause my assistance work to feel like more work. Again, my goal is to support Defattening, so work matters. All in all, I felt good about things.

Tho I still hate lunges. 🙂

• Squat (Base Building model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 230 x 1
  • 245 x 1
  • 200 x 3
  • 200 x 3
  • 200 x 3
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
• Leg Press
  • 345 x 10
  • 345 x 10
  • 345 x 8
  • 345 x 6
• Lunges
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10

I will have to change some things up.

My shoulders were fairly happy through this session and all things were running well… until the JM Presses.

Everything hated life.

Before I give up on them, I think instead of getting right into them I need to ease/warm into them. You’d think with so much preceding work things would be fine to just jump in, but no. So next week I’m going to try that: bar, very light weight, then work up to my working weight/sets. If that works, great. If that doesn’t, I’ll probably have to scrap JM Presses until my shoulders feel better.

I also tried doing the pressdowns as 100’s. Didn’t work well enough. I opted to use a bar instead of the ropes, but forgot to compensate for the weight, because that bar on that pulley mechanism basically ends up acting like a counter-weight, so the weight on the stack isn’t quite the same resistence. It’s hard to judge how much weight would be ideal for 100 reps, and I probably should have put an additional 10# on there. Oh well, live and learn. I will say my lats got really sore from having to hold my body rigid for 100 reps — just one long isometric hold. 🙂

Ah well. A reasonable session overall. Learned something; can’t complain.

• Press Behind the Neck
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 65 x 5
  • 85 x 3
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
• Wide-grip Upright Rows
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 7
• Lateral Raises
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 8
• Reverse Machine Flies
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 10
• JM Press
  • 115 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
• Triceps Pressdowns
  • 25 x 100

That went well, but I did have a funny thought.

Overall today went well. My knees and shoulder weren’t feeling great, but after a good warm-up things were fine. For sure I’m keeping up with my shoulder/rotator warm-ups. Never should have stopped, but here we are.

Deadlifts were fine. I am thinking about bumping up 10#. Rows, fine.

Shrugs are something I’m going to work on before I go up more. Using dumbbells is helpful due to posture, but I’ve had poor form/posture during shrugs for so long that I’m used to it. So I’m trying to get in position, then really stand up straight, let my arms be not just at my side but a little behind the lateral midline — not really, but it’s a mental cue to help ensure my shoulders stay back and thus my posture upright (instead of everything rolling forward). Then as well, when I shrug I often bend my head back, which isn’t the best spine position, so I’m trying to basically keep my chin tucked in and “sucked in”. I’ll keep the weight here as it’s a reasonable weight while I work on fixing my form issues. I’ll say tho… these Meadows Shrugs give me a trap pump like crazy.

And on the bb curls, for a change instead of 100 reps I did 21’s (7 start to mid-way, 7 mid-way to top, 7 full reps) and did 3 sets of those. Why? Just for a change.

See, my funny thought is direction after I finish Defattening. My intention was always to get back on the strength train and work up to a 3/4/5 bench/squat/deadlift — that could be 300/400/500 or 3 wheels (315) / 4 wheels (405) / 5 wheels (495) — probably the wheels, just because. I’d still like to do that.

But I’m finding myself thinking more about mass building. On the one hand, the heavy loads are beating me up. On another hand, having lost all this weight isn’t just fat loss but it’s also size loss — and I feel small (“The day you started lifting is the day you became forever small” – Dom Mazzetti). Yeah, I’d like to put on some more size. So I don’t know.

I actually think it may play more into Paul Carter’s year-round thinking, where you cycle through phases of mass building, base building, and peaking. Or part of me thinks to just spend a few months going back to 5/3/1 Boring But Big.

Don’t know. Thinking aloud.

In other news… weighed in at 214 this morning. That’s the sort of progress I expect to be seeing.

Here’s the trick: I’m pretty much perpetually hungry.

“Hunger is just fat leaving the body” (if not a quote, a paraphrase from Dr. Mike Israetel)

• Deadlift (Base Building model 1)
  • 185 x 5
  • 210 x 4
  • 250 x 3
  • 275 x 2
  • 290 x 3
  • 290 x 3
  • 290 x 3
  • 290 x 3
  • 290 x 3
• BB Rows
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
• DB Meadows Shrugs
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 10
• Hammer Curls
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 6
  • 35e x 6
• BB Curls (21’s)
  • 30 x 21
  • 30 x 21
  • 30 x 21

Hrm. That may not have been the best idea.

I opted to move my bench to model 2. I ran into this in the past, where model 1 just doesn’t work as well for me on bench (tho perhaps if I was eating like a horse it would), but model 2 worked out ok. So last night I opted to do it. All in all it went well, but my shoulder isn’t too happy with me.

It is because of model 2? No, I don’t think so. But I don’t think the heavier weight helped.

At this point I’m starting to think I may need to totally change my upper body work. Jim Wendler posted this to his website just yesterday:

Question: I have a bad shoulder. How can I work around or through this?

Answer: This is something most veteran lifters have gone through. Rest is the obvious answer (as is an MRI and a good doctor, and I’ll assume these steps have already been taken). Here are a few more tips:

• Start squatting with a buffalo bar or a safety squat bar.
• Eliminate any kind of pressing from your training other than the main lifts. Keep all assistance to pulling movements.
• Pause all your reps at the bottom.
• Make sure you warm-up thoroughly.
• If you’ve had shoulder issues in the past, don’t stop the rehab. It should always be done as part of your training program. You don’t stop fucking once you get married, and you shouldn’t stop shoulder love once it’s healed.
• Make band pull-aparts a steady part of your training. Do 100 reps every day. Another great “rehab” movements is the full-range plate raise. This has helped my shoulders immensely and has actually allowed me to press again.

It makes me wonder if I should also “start over” with bench pressing. Drop the weight WAY down, never fewer than 8 reps, work on adjusting technique to be more aware of shoulder (e.g. I even noticed this morning after I unracked my shoulders had come out of position; I re-retracted them), add in more stuff like Jim mentions. In fact, that full-range plate raise is something that’s come up in some other contexts and I’ve been thinking about doing.

So… not sure, but it’s rolling around in my head.

• Bench Press (Base Building model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 185 x 2
  • 206 x 1
  • 195 x 5
  • 195 x 5
  • 195 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 140 x 15
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
• Incline DB Press (350 Method)
  • 35e x 21
  • 35e x 17
  • 35e x 14
• Machine Flies
  • 70 x 10
  • 70 x 10
  • 70 x 10

All in all, a good “80%” session. Walking lunges are evil things. 🙂

Squats went well. I worked up to my EDM because I was feeling good. The 5×5 work sets continue to just slam along. So at this point, I think I need to change up. But… what? More weight? Different model? I’m going to go with different model and bump up to model 2. Main reason is the primary goal is Defattening Project, and model 2 will give me “more work” while also upping the intensity a bit. Plus if you look at model 3, that’s a LOT of work/volume, and if I want to go model 3 I better do model 2 first to work up to it. Not saying I will go model 3, but again given my goal and the path I ought to take to get there, it’s somewhat about more work not necessarily more weight (on the bar). So, I’ll start model 2 next week.

The other reason is the 60% doesn’t feel like it’s translating over. When I did the 285 I had a little stick about 2/3 of the way up, which is the transition point. I would like a little more weight on the bar to see if I can get some work to carry over into helping at that point. We’ll see if model 2 will do that.

I also realized I’ve been calculating my numbers wrong. Model 1 is supposed to work up to 75%, but I’ve been working up to 85%. Oh well. It’s been working fine for me, so I’m not going to sweat it.

Anyways, model 2, next week.

Oh, and on the Defattening. FINALLY — 215 yesterday, and 214 today. Carbs have been reduced, and I’m just constantly hungry, even after I finish eating. Ah well… the journey to 200.

• Squat (Base Building model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 240 x 1
  • 285 x 1
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
• Leg Press
  • 345 x 10
  • 345 x 10
  • 345 x 10
  • 345 x 7
• Walking Lunges
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 10
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 8

A little good. A little bad.

Overall, the session went well. Still adjusting and feeling things out on this new program, but all in all good.

Feels good to be pressing again. It’s the hardest thing for me to progress on, but I do like doing it. But I had to call numerous audibles today because — shoulder.

No question the Advil and back-sleeping are helping, because I just don’t feel the pains as much any more. Plus I’m doing some good shoulder stretching, rotator cuff help, and so on, and those can’t be hurting. But with the pain gone, I feel everything more, and things don’t always feel good. 🙂 Still, I hope with inflammation going down that the body can focus on healing up and not just battling the inflammation.

But it was odd and painful at a few points. The upright rows didn’t feel exactly comfortable on my right shoulder. Then the JM Presses — as soon as I unracked, my left shoulder complained loudly. I actually thought about not doing any more JM’s but stuck with it so I could try to diagnose what went wrong. Thankfully no more issues, but still…. But because of it I didn’t do the extensions, instead going for rope-pushdowns. But those even caused some weird shoulder binding at the bottom of the movement (as I’d try to squeeze-hold at the end).

So… I suspect I’ll keep this groove but perhaps update the weights a bit. Like on the pressdowns I bet I could go lighter but really work the movement more, like maybe a 2-1-4-0 type of tempo, ensuring that hard squeeze/hold at the peak of the contraction. Basically I want to ensure the shoulder HEALS, so if adjustments to lighter weights, more reps, and other intensity-increasing techniques is what I have to do, then so be it.

That said, one thing I also did was remove the face pulls. Instead I did something I hadn’t tried before: the reverse flies on the pec fly machine. The other day when doing the rotator cuff work I had just put my arms out to the side, parallel to the ground, and was “open and closing” my chest. Man, that felt awesome and really moved some things that needed it, shoulder-wise. So I thought why not try doing those sorts of machine flies? Bent-over lat raises always irritated me, so if these hit the rear delts and also maybe help on the shoulder, why not? Man, that was good — I was able to forget about other muscles (e.g. I didn’t grab the handles — just braced my hands against them so the movement was all generated from contracting my delts and upper back), and it seemed good.

So really, apart from the shoulder weirdness — which I need to keep an eye on — I feel good about how today went. Some adjustments will be made, but overall, good.

• Press Behind the Neck
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 65 x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
  • 95 x 8
• Wide-grip Upright Rows
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 9
  • 90 x 7
• Lateral Raises
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 8
• Machine Reverse Flies
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 12
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
• JM Press
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
• Rope Pressdowns
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 14
  • 35 x 13