fitness

2012-08-23 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, bench press 2

/ hsoi

It was good.

“Week 2”

  • 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x140
    • 1x3x165 (work)
    • 1x3x185
    • 1x7x210 (rep PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10/10/10/10/8 x 140
  • Asst. #2 – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows
    • 5 x 10 x 80/80/80/80/70

Yeah, I’m really happy for making this routine switch. I feel like I’m getting a fair amount of work but not overworking myself. Just felt good today. Of course, we’ll see about the long-term… the verdict is still out in that regard.

I especially like getting in and getting out of the gym. I cannot argue with the benefit of that time improvement.

I’ve also just dove in on the diet front. I used Scooby’s calorie calculator, plugged in my numbers, a 40/40/20 macro ratio (basically, wanting to ensure a little over 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight) and 5 meals a day. I found a fantastic food database at CalorieKing.com; not only a very expansive database, but I like their interface because you can calculate food and calories really easily. Basically works out to getting 55g of protein and 55g of carbs (and minimal fat) per meal, 5x a day. It’s proving to be interesting… we’ll see how it goes.

More talk of diet – can I simplify?

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So yesterday I started fiddling with my workout and I’m happy about it. My legs are sore this morning and I haven’t felt that in ages. 🙂

The next part to bring in line is diet. I have been thinking about carb cycling since it seems all the rage and makes a lot of sense. The difference I’m attempting this time around? Doing the math. I want to calculate out the numbers, the macros, the ratios, everything, and make myself strictly follow them.

So I started doing numbers.

I started looking at the numbers that would come from Shelby Starnes’s take. At my current bodyweight of 240#, it would work out to:

High Days
Protein: 240g-300g
Carbs: 480g-720g
Fat: zilch

Medium & Low Days
Protein: 300g-360g
Carbs: 120g-360g
Fat: 36g-84g

Gee… that sure seems like a lot of carbs on the high days, but isn’t that the point? It’s a lot more protein than I figured, a lot less fat too.

Now if I start looking at Christian Thibaudeau’s take:

BMR: 2238
Calories per day: 3680 (moderate activity level)

but I want to lose weight, so shave 20% and that’s 2834 kcal/day.

Protein: 360g
Carb: 375g (high), 300g (med), 225g (low)
Fat: 29g

Somehow that seemed more reasonable and straightforward.

But then I started doing the math to break things down per meal. Plus I looked at the way they wanted you to ingest. Basically with 6 meals a day and front-loading the carbs in the morning, especially true since I work out in the morning.

The one that floored me? With Thibaudeau’s recommendation to get 50% of your carbs post-workout, that means on my high day I go and lift then come home and have to ingest 187.5 grams of carbs. How in the hell am I supposed to do that? That’s like 14 apples, 3.5 cups of uncooked oatmeal… how am I to eat that without vomiting? or resorting to something ugly like eating fast food? 🙂  Maybe there’s a way, but I just can’t see trying to do this without wretching.

As I’ve been reading, this guy “Scooby” keeps coming up. I read some of his stuff, and one interesting thing is he says carb cycling is not for someone like me. He says for someone in my boat, it’s better to just curb portions, jack up the workload, drink water. Which frankly all makes sense to me. I plugged into his calculator various values. Granted, a lot of it starts out the same as Thibaudeau’s because they use the same basis upon BMR. I pick a macro ratio of 40/40/20, and get some basic results. It comes out to getting about 40-50g of protein and 40-50g carbs per meal. Fat just keep minimal and it’ll work out.

And gee… that seems so much simpler. But fundamentally the same thing. The only difference is I’m not gorging myself like Takeru Kobayashi, everything is spread out; and that every day is the same instead of having high/medium/low days.

Hrm.

I’ve been down this road before and failed. After enough time my body screams at me and off the wagon I go. And that’s part of why carb cycling appealed to me, because there was a chance to recharge and acknowledgement of that need. But another difference from before vs. now is here I’m wanting to really measure things out and work to stick to it. And who knows… maybe I’ll adjust macros some so I get a little more carbs. Or maybe I have a “high day”. I don’t know.

But really, one key factor I need, apart from numbers, is simplicity. If it’s too complicated I’m not going to be able to stick with it. Not just because of myself, but I need Wife’s support in this as she’s the primary food preparer and deliverer. If I can say something simple like “40-50g each of protein and carbs per meal” then that greatly facilitates life for her and thus her ability to support me. That’s vital.

This is all stuff I started working, reading, calculating, and thinking on just in the past 12 hours… so it’s all still fresh in my head and no firm choices made. But this may be where I’m going. Time to let it simmer.

 

2012-08-20 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, Squat 2

/ hsoi

I called an audible on the way out the door, and I’m happy about it.

“Week 2”

  • 3 reps – Squat (working max: 290#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x145
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x3x205 (work)
    • 1x3x235
    • 1x4x265 (PR os sorts
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 5 x 10 x 135
  • Asst. #2 – Leg Curl
    • 5 x 10 x 70
  • Foam Rolling

As you know I’ve been thinking about a major program change, wanting to focus on shedding the fat I’ve built up. There’s the diet side of things, then there’s the work side of things. This is about the latter.

Right now I follow “option 1” of the Wendler 5/3/1 2x/week setup. But that’s been proving to be difficult. First, it just takes a long time in the gym because there’s 2 main lifts per day. Second, I think because it’s 2 main lifts, it’s a big energy drain. Maybe a younger me could have handled it, but I have to adapt to what my body will allow. Sure I could eat like mad, get lots of sleep, but right now those (well, eating) are bit counter to what I need. So I’ve been thinking about keeping 2x week but using the BBB template: 1 main lift, 2 assistance with one being the main lift for 5×10.

That was the audible I called on the way out the door. I’ve been thinking about it and figured why the heck should I keep waiting around to try it. I didn’t reset the program… didn’t start over at 5 reps or whatever. Basically just keep doing this cycle as-is but now spread it out. So weights are the same, just different days and content.

I felt quite good. I didn’t feel like I had to really keep energy in reserve to make it through. It was time to squat, I squatted. I didn’t know what weight to use for the assistance work… I figured 50% but I didn’t know nor really care what the value was. I figured pick 135 because it was simple enough, tho probably on the lighter side… and it’s always smarter to go light. Now that I’m home and can look at numbers, 50% would be 145 and I can do that.

The trick here tho is all assistance work is done quickly. Strict form — which I really need work on, and thus all this extra time on that exercise will be a HUGE boon. Deep squats (I videoed a set to ensure I was breaking parallel). And only about 90 seconds of rest between sets. I want to get my heart pumping. That’s part of this.

I forgot to note when I started the workout, but I could tell it ran shorter… at least 20 minutes, which is significant for me in the morning. And later on if I deem I want to do something like 15 minutes on the treadmill post-workout, then I do have the time.

And hey… I had one hell of a pump in my legs today. I felt wiggly and wobbly as I left. And you know what? I missed that feeling. Sure it’s more of a working the muscle than working the movement feeling, but gee… I stated some time ago in terms of desire for more volume, to feel more pump, more work. And gosh, I got it. Plus I hope this won’t lead me down the road of too much work that’s too hard to recover from. If anything, I expect it’ll be better in that regard.

So here I go. Next up tho… getting the diet tightened up. I need to run numbers and will be calculating that this week.

2012-08-16 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, Deadlift/Press 1

/ hsoi

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.

on diet

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I don’t talk much on diet because well.. it’s the toughest part of fitness things for me. There’s no question it’s where I struggle, it’s where I fail. But I have noticed bringing things to light here, keeping logs, for whatever reason it helps me keep more on track. So, let’s try it with diet. I won’t keep logs like I do for the lifting or the dry fire, but I will try to mention it more and be more up-front about it when and where it’s relevant.

Backstory

I’m not fat, but I carry more fat than I care for. I’ve got a gut and frankly I hate it. I’m 6’3″, weigh 235-240# depending on the day. Semi-recent picture of me here (scroll to the end). If I got down to 200, I’d be feeling and looking much better. But I also cannot track pure weight because weight is made up of fat, muscle, bone, organs, water, etc.. I am working to build muscle, so my weight is going up from muscle growth. I also refuse to follow BMI because it’s a bullshit measure. Really in the end it’s about body composition and the ratio of tissues, and I just want less fat (and more muscle). So while I might target a weight, while I might track weight changes per week, it’s more about composition. I will need to take pictures every week, but well… I am not sure I’ll share them. 😉

My general goal is to keep myself healthy. I grant that I will die someday. So much of what people strive to do is find ways to recapture youth and avoid death. I acknowledge the futility of that, and just want to ensure I can enjoy the life I have while I have it. I know I’ll never be an elite powerlifter, I’ll never total 2000#, but that’s fine with me. If I can be strong enough, mobile enough, and continue to function as well as I can, that’s all I’m wanting and is the general goal that directs me.

So with that in mind, my initial milestone was to get off my butt. I had to give up martial arts for numerous reasons, but sitting on my butt wasn’t welcome. Returning to lifting started out more along the bodybuilding routines that I did as a teenager, but thankfully I got sick and in that downtime discovered Rippetoe and Wendler and it’s been a great year. My goal then became to build strength. Sure build muscle, but I really wanted to be strong because you can have muscles and not be strong but if you’re strong you’re going to also have muscles. But even if I didn’t have sexy bulging muscles, that’s fine… it’s more important to be strong as that’s far more useful.

But in getting bigger you well… you get bigger. I’ve built strength, I’ve built muscle, but I’ve also put on fat. You just have to eat a lot to get big, and that can lead to eating more than needed and thus you pack on fat with the muscles. Typical bodybuilder routine was to have “bulking” and “cutting” cycles, where you’d lift heavy and eat like crazy for some months to pack on the pounds, then you’d cut back on food and bump up the cardio to shed the fat. A constant cycle of binge and purge, if you will. But it tended to work. However that sort of thing is just… painful. I’m just not cut out for it. It’s simple. I love food way too much.

See… I recall watching a video on Rich Gaspari. Back when I was a teenager, Rich was my bodybuilding idol. In this video I watched Rich having a family dinner, but he was dedicated to his bodybuilding lifestyle and eating something different from everyone else. Then there was something about his breakfast, and I don’t recall the whole concoction, but it was rather bland and well.. functional. It certainly was the right thing for his lifestyle and greater goals, but there was no pleasure nor fun in that food, from my point of view. When I look at the typical bodybuilder diet plans of chicken breasts and rice, that’s fine for a day or two, but 3 months of that shit would drive me mad. I respect those guys for what they do, but I can’t do that (I’ve got different goals in life). I love food. Not that I love eating crappy food, I just know the wonderful things out there in the world and I wish to enjoy them. It’s like that opening scene in the Pixar movie “Ratatouille” where Remy is talking about one flavor, then another, but put them together and it’s sensational… that’s what I like. Compounding things, Wife is an awesome cook.

Carb Cycling

Backing up a bit, before I went back to the gym I tried shedding some of the fat through simple diet changes. A friend of mine had pretty good success following this “Up Day, Down Day” diet. I tried it and actually lost some good weight and got myself to 212. But you can see in the 1.5 years since falling off that wagon I put 30# on. I know a fair portion of that is muscle, but there’s no question flab came with it. It was tough doing that diet because of the denial, but it worked alright. And when you start to think about the logic behind why it works well… it leads me to think about… carb cycling.

As I’ve been researching stuff on lifting, of course you come across diet issues. These days the two big dietary plans (ignoring “bloat”) seem to be things from John Kiefer, like Carb Nite and Carb Backloading, and then Carb Cycling from guys like Shelby Starnes. It’s all about playing with carb (and other macronutrient) levels, when you take them, and how much you take of them. Given how I was able to deal with Up Day Down Day, plus given all that I’ve learned and much that’s changed in my diet since then (e.g. how we get the weekly veggie box from a local farmer) well.. I wonder if Carb Cycling could work for me.

The trouble is… numbers.

Look at this plan from Shelby Starnes. Now compare to this version from Christian Thibaudeau.

Here’s how it would work out for me, at my present 240# bodyweight

Starnes:

High Day
Protein: 240g – 300g
Carbs: 480g – 720g
Fat: as little as possible

Low & Moderate Days
Protein: 300g – 360g
Carbs: 120g – 360g
Fat: 36g – 84g

Thibaudeau

BMR: 2237 kcals/day, base but I’d cycle between 1.2 (off days) and 1.6 (work days) so 2685 kcals on off days and 3580 kcals on work days. BUT since I want to lose weight, that becomes 2148 off and 2864 work. Using those then, macros calculate out to:

High
Protein: 360g
Carbs: 375g
Fat: 29g

Low & Moderate
Protein: 360g
Carbs: 225g – 300g (low – mod)
Fat: 29g

So you can see, there’s a lot of variation here. Some overlap, some general agreement, but gee… what to follow? What to do?

Then I read this article that tries to simplify things.

To quote Vinnie Barbarino, “I’m so confused!”

I’m not starting this in earnest yet. I still have at least 2 more Wendler cycles to go through because I want to get my bench press to 225#. But I am going to continue reading and trying to figure things. Plus I can start trying to do a few useful things. First, I’ve been very good about measuring/weighing my protein consumption but not my carbs. Today when getting my dinner I scooped my brown rice into a measuring cup to see what 1 cup of cooked rice actually looked like (more than I thought!). I can work on measuring and seeing what I really am eating, what am I actually consuming and how carbs calculate out so I can get a handle on things. I can also see about carbs before noon, only. That seems to be a constant no matter what flavor I follow, so let’s see what I can do there.

If I could drop 40#, that’d be awesome and a great bit of progress, but that’s merely a guide because again it’s more about composition than numbers. I reckon that could take me up to 6 months, and that’s going to require a metric ton of dedication. I do hope I can do it. I hope Wife can tolerate and support me through it. 🙂  But I may only try running this for 2-3 months and then reevaluate. We’ll see.

Wish me luck.

True Nutrition Whey – Round 2, Natural Chocolate

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

After trying TrueNutrition.com’s 38 flavor sample pack, I made a few choices for further experimentation.

“Natural” Chocolate

This is their chocolate flavor using stevia as a natural sweetener.

In a word? No.

Actually I need more words: Hell No.

The first time I tried it, I had a scoop of the unsweetened chocolate, so I mixed that with 1 scoop of this stuff. The first thing I noticed? Different colors. The unsweet was a darker brown, this stevia-chocolate was rather light in color.

The taste?

“Oh Dear God No!”

It was horrid. The mix of that cardboard flavor of the unsweet and this… odd flavor from the stevia.

I tried the stevia-chocolate again in water (all stevia-chocolate this time), and then in some skimmed raw milk (which is about the same as a 2%). While it got a little more palatable each time I tried it, it still is… weird.

I don’t know how to describe it, you just have to try it. The sweet isn’t what I expected. We all know what sugar sweet is like. Honey sweet. And even HFCS sweet. Most sweets try to chase the sweet of sugar, especially artificial sweeteners. This stevia? the taste is nothing like a sugar sweet. It’s sweet, very sweet, wicked sweet… but it’s some sort of different sweet.

I did work to finish the pound that I purchased. It did get a little better, it wasn’t as ugly tasting to drink, but it still left this weird taste in my mouth, a weird aftertaste, and that never went away and never became pleasant to me. I gave it as fair a shot as I could give it.

I won’t totally write off stevia yet, because maybe it’s this particular batch or this particular mix. Maybe it’ll taste better in other products. But I will say I’m in no rush to try it again. If I go the rest of my life never having stevia again, I’m OK with that.

I know some people are all happy about stevia. I’ve spoken with a few people and they are crazy about the stuff. Well, they can have it. 🙂

2012-08-13 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, Squat/Bench Press 1

/ hsoi

Not the day I wanted.

“Week 1”

  • 5 reps – Squat (working max: 290#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x145
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x5x190 (work)
    • 1x5x220
    • 1x6x250
  • 5 rep – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x140
    • 1x5x150 (work)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x8x200
  • Asst. #1 – Shoulder-width pronated grip, lat pulldowns
    • 3 x 10 x 135
  • Asst. #2 – Back Raises
    • 3 x 12 x 10 (plate held on chest, arms crossed over
  • Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
    • 3 x 10 x 130
  • Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 75
  • Foam Rolling

Wasn’t the workout I wanted. I wanted to break some rep PR’s but didn’t. Ah well. I also didn’t do as hot on my last set of squats, but I know why — my head wasn’t there. I didn’t go low enough on rep 3, realized it, realized everyone else in the gym was watching me squat, and that blew my focus… rep 4 sucked, tho I got it back for 5 and 6 and 6 was a tough one but I got it. This also started fertilized the seeds in my head about program change.

Everything else was what it was…

As for program change, I’ve got a post coming up later this week talking about diet, which factors in. I’ve already started to think about program change, and this furthers it along. But what I think I should do is go slow. In this cycle stay the course, but add in the sled drags. Next cycle, change up the lifting routine. Cycle after that, change up the dietary stuff.

But even with that, I am going to try some diet stuff now… like I’m eating 1 cup of Ezekiel cinnamon raison cereal in a bit of raw milk as I write this.

2012-08-10 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 12, Deadlift/Press 3

/ hsoi

It’s nice when you set a big PR.

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 345#)
    • 1x5x140 (warmup)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x3x210
    • 1x5x265 (work)
    • 1x3x295
    • 1x7x330 (PR)
  • 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 155)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x5x120 (work)
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x150 (PR)

The deadlift was awesome. Set a true PR of 7 reps at 330… never did that much weight before, and of course then never did that much weight for that many reps. So, true max PR there. I felt I could have pushed myself to do a couple more, but that’s not what it’s about. I did feel my back rounding on the last couple reps, so it was powering through stuff… but I refused to get less than 7 reps. Why? Because last cycle I did 7 reps at 320 and I wanted to get the same reps. Johnny got stronger, no question.

The press was a rep PR (most I’ve done is 155 for 3 reps). Last time I did 150 I got 3 reps, so my goal was 4. But once I finished the 4th I felt so damn good and knew I could hit a 5th. I also didn’t feel much of a need to leave more in the tank because I knew I wasn’t going to do assistance work so I ground out #5. The lockout felt good. 🙂

I did actually do a little assistance work. I did a couple sets of chins and dips, then a set of hammer curls, but I didn’t write down amounts. I do recall thinking I’ve lost something on chins… or I’ve gotten heavier. 😦

In light of that, I’m starting to think more seriously towards my next long-term cycle. My present cycle will remain, but after this, as mentioned previously, I’m going to put strength work on hold and work to shed some flab. I recently read about a guy dropping 30# in 10 weeks using Shelby Starnes’ help and carb cycling. If I could get results like that? Awesome. But I’ll take a steady drop of 1-2# week if I can get that. Today I was thinking to stay on 2x week tho more like “option 2” in the book, so squat D1W1 bench D2W1 deadlift D1W2 press D2W2. Takes 6 weeks to get through the cycle. Let the work sets be as normal, but if I grind out more reps on the last set or just prescribed reps will just depend how I feel that day because assistance work will be more important. Adopt something like the BBB template for assistance because I really think doing 5×10 of squats and deads is going to be a HUGE boon for the cardio work. I’ll drop weight light (50%??) and keep rest periods to 60-90 seconds at most. Weights would probably remain the same as whatever my last “prior” cycle had, and if anything go for rep PR’s but I’m also not opposed to increasing weight if it’s called for (e.g. getting 10 reps on the 5/3/1 week last work set? I think upping the weight is right). Do this probably M/Th. Then Tu/F I’d drag the tire sled. Try carb cycling (I tried it before, but had a hard time sticking with it because I didn’t really dedicate).

Not sure… still thinking about a lot of things, but I do think it’s soon time to enter into fat loss phase.

True Nutrition Whey – Round 2, Unsweetened Chocolate

/ hsoi

After trying TrueNutrition.com’s 38 flavor sample pack, I made a few choices for further experimentation.

Unsweetened Chocolate.

I wanted to try unsweetened chocolate to see what it’d be like. Would the sweetness of milk be enough? I don’t really care for artificial sweeteners, so could adding a little cane sugar work out? What else could be done?

My usual consumption practice is to use 2 heaping scoops, which ends up being about 50-ish grams of protein. I put it into a 16 oz glass, then I add as much liquid as needed to fill the glass. I don’t know exactly how much liquid I use… probably at least 8 oz, but I add the liquid up to the rim, then stir… the liquid level goes down, add a little more, topping off trying to keep the glass as full as possible.

First time was with milk, HEB Mootopia skim milk. Oh no no no… that wasn’t good. It was like cardboard. But this stands to reason. I remember as a child seeing “baking chocolate” and just thinking “Wow! That’s a HUGE chunk of chocolate!”, then biting into it and recoiling in horror at the lie that is baking chocolate. 🙂  Unsweetened chocolate just doesn’t cut it, and there wasn’t enough ratio here with the milk to help out.

Second time I added 1 tsp of sugar made from evaporated cane juice. That was just a hint better but still not great. I added a second teaspoon and that made it palatable. I stopped there, figuring 2 tsp (for the way I make it) was minimum.

Later on in another drink I did try adding more sugar; I tried with 3 tsp and then with 4 just to see. I think 3 is mighty tasty, and 4 you find yourself tasting more of the sugar as a dominant flavor. So really, I’ll probably stick with 2 because that seems sufficient…. at least in milk.

I tried mixing in water. Using 2 tsp of sugar was enough to remove the cardboard flavoring, but not really make it yummy. Still, I think 2-ish tsp is sufficient to allow you to drink things down and not gag. I reckon if you mixed with other things, like in a smoothie with frozen fruit, that may be enough sweetness to compensate. All depends what sort of sweet tooth you have, I guess.

In the end this settles to me as a reasonable staple flavor. It’s chocolate. I’m happier adding a bit of sugar than using artificial sweeteners; sure it’s a bit of carbohydrate, but meh… you just compensate for it elsewhere.

2012-08-06 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, Cycle 12, Squat/Bench Press 3

/ hsoi

Not quite the PR’s I wanted, but PR’s nonetheless.

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x5x215 (work)
    • 1x3x240
    • 1x3x270 (PR-tie)
  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x170 (work)
    • 1x3x195
    • 1x6x215 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Shoulder-width pronated grip, lat pulldowns
    • 3 x 10 x 130
  • Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
    • 3 x 15 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
    • 3 x 10 x 120
  • Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 70
  • Foam Rolling

On squat, I was hoping for 4 to set a true PR, but only got 3. Rep 3 was bowling-shoe ugly so there was no point in going for 4. Prior to this, my best ever on squat was 270 for 3, so I at least tied it. But frankly, I think this is a better one. First, it’s a clear-cut improvement over cycle 11 (260 for 3 reps). Second, my form is a lot better than it was some months ago. I’m certainly going below parallel… from time to time other guys in the gym watch me and comment on my depth. I’ve been making a bigger effort at going deeper, chest up, neck into the bar, etc., and so with better form and using technique to get the bar up instead of muscling it all up there…. well, I figure this technically ties my all-time PR but I know it’s better than the last time I hit this weight.

Bench was a rep PR. I’ve done more absolute weight (220 for 3), but last time I did 215 was for 3 reps. So I’ll take this, be happy, and be excited about next cycle.

Thinking towards the future, and I’ll only mention it briefly now, I am likely to change my routine in the coming months. I want to get my bench press working weight to 225, and that’s 2 cycles (6 weeks) away. That should also take the top working weight of press to 160, deadlift to 350, and squat to 290. Yeah, part of me kinda wants to keep going to get my squat to 315 (which will be one hell of an accomplishment given how much I don’t like squatting), but I need to change gears on my goals: I need to shed some fat. I want to see if I have the discipline enough to drop about 20# in 3 months. That is certainly do-able, if I’m smart and dedicated. I’m not 100% sure what my program will be, tho I know it’ll primarily be about diet. My present thinking keeps 5/3/1 as my core, dropping my last set back to prescribed reps (tho on 5/3/1 week I’ll do a triple), accepting that strength may plateau (but I’m OK with that; I can live with not progressing, but I don’t want to regress), and increasing conditioning work. I’ve not settled on anything yet. Heck, I even thought it might be interesting to change squats to do a 20 rep program… tho that’d probably be wrong on a restricted diet. But point being squat a lot to boost up conditioning.

Diet will have to really fall in line too. I’m already examining my current ingestion and seeing what I can do. I figure there’s no better time than now to start tightening things up. For example, one simple change is no more whey in milk… just water. This should make my True Nutrition sample exploration more interesting; tho given that I MIGHT have one or two in milk just for taste research, but then compensate elsewhere.

And I know this puts off my longer term goals of getting into the 1000# club, but 1. I’ll be lighter and just as strong, and I’ll take the better ratio, 2. my greater goal is my health, not how much I bench, so I must work towards that end.