Going to need to make some modifications.

Deadlifting was fine. Actually, I may have accidentally stumbled into a setup that helps manage my knee. Basically, bend over, grab the bar and put some tension into it, then slowly lower my hips into position. Basically it allows me to counterbalance my bodyweight going down against the pull of the bar, thus relieving some pressure from my knee going down. I didn’t intend to do this, but it happened and it sure seemed useful in my warmups. I’m going to keep trying it and see how it goes.

But all in all, deadlifting felt like where it needed to be. Going to keep focusing on getting that bar speed really up. It’s actually not too bad, but I certainly don’t think now is the time to up anything.

The problems then started with the accessory work.

I need to put chin-/pull-ups on the shelf for a while. No question they are aggravating my elbow. I had to cut things short due to the issues, and I am NOT going to have my elbows suffer for this. So I swiched to pull-downs, which aren’t as awesome but I can do less weight for more reps and not kill my elbows. Going to stick with the close-grip-v-bar tho, which really felt so different than the wide-grip stuff. It made me have to drop more weight on rows too. So I’m going to rearrange some things for next week. No big deal, really.

All in all tho, not too bad.

My current weight is 216, so I’m back on the loser train. I can’t wait to see what 200 looks like. It’ll be a nice Christmas present to myself. 🙂

Base Building Traditional Split

• Deadlift (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
• V-bar Pull-ups
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4
• V-bar pull-downs
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 8
  • 120 x 6
• Barbell Rows
  • 135 x 5
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 6
• BB Curls
  • 20 x 100

That went well.

Really, not a lot to say. The programming all felt right and where things should be for this first Base Building Model 1 bench press session. Hopefully this will continue. 🙂

One comment is regarding triceps work. I opted to do lying triceps extensions (ez-bar). I can’t recall the last time I did these, and while they can be famous for being elbow wreckers, I thought I’d give it a shot because they also are famed for producing results. I’m not going heavy — it’s 4×20 — and I’m trying to milk the movement for all I can. For example, it’s not a skull-crusher just bending elbow and coming to my face somewhere, but going all the way over the top of my head and the bar breaks the plane with the back of my head. I did realize I wasn’t being strict enough, with a little elbow flare at the end, so I tightened up that form as I went along and will continue to do that. Basically, milk the movement and avoid heavy weight. We’ll see where it gets me.

Otherwise, feeling good. 🙂 I’m glad I didn’t change things too radically yet. This is a step up from what I was doing, and the right way to have gone.

I also am liking the faster pace. Every set, even between exercises, is only about 1 minute of rest. It’s just move move move. That helps to bring up the intensity without abusing my body (joints, esp.).

Base Building Traditional Split

• Bench Press (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 4
• Incline
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 5
• Side Laterals
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 8
  • 20e x 6
• Lying Triceps Extension
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 20
  • 35 x 10

Time to change things up.

Coming off the Strong-15 Short cycle for a little strength peaking, which I consider a success given I met goals on squat (315#) and deadlift (405#) and while I didn’t meet my bench goal (265#) I did match the lifetime PR from before the cycle (255#), I’m starting a 4-6 week cycle of Base Building. The intent is to cement the strength gains, and increase the workload to better support the Defattening Project.

We’ll see what happens to my strength. But certainly today demonstrated increased workload — enough to put me right.

See, over the weekend I got pissed. I’m not losing fat at my desired rate, so that means I need to 1. adjust the diet downward, 2. increase the workload upward. No question the Strong-15 cycle was NOT a lot of work, which is the point to be low-volume. But I need more volume, more “work” to do because of course to fuel that work you burn calories. So it’s generally all as it should be, it’s just not where I want to be. So I actually became hell bent yesterday morning to radically change my gym work, going 4- or maybe even 5-day split, lots of volume. Thing is, the more I lift, the less cardio I have to do and the more food I get to eat. Win-win! But as I started down my path of planning a new program, I realized I was being driven by being upset and not by rational thinking.

It’s pretty evident that the Base Building models here will put me through a lot more work:

• there’s more volume
• there’s less rest (generally 1 minute between sets, at most)
• it’s just going to work you more

And after today, it’s pretty evident my conditioning levels are down. Not in the shitter, but not where they have been. But that all stands to reason given how I’ve been working the past some weeks. So as it is, this is going to be enough work for me. I don’t need to dive in from that Short-Cycle and go 5x week with tons of volume — that’s too much too fast, changing too many variables at once. I need to ramp up to it. My diet already has been adjusted to cut back, and just going to this 3x/week Base Building approach adds in more work. That’s enough for now. After 4-6 weeks on this, I can add a 4th day, plus change the session work again to be more bodybuilding-like (more reps, more volume, more intensity techniques like drop sets, etc.). One change at a time.

I’m glad I didn’t let my emotions get the better of me. Trust the programming.

That said, all in all today was ok for a first session. Squats went well. Not too hard, but not too easy either. Really working on driving the bar up (that whole Compensatory Acceleration Training). For sure, it’s work. I reckon with only 4-6 weeks on this that I will not be changing weights, but hopefully I can change the intensity. For example, once 5×5 is stupid easy, consider going to model 2, or maybe I’ll try less rest (45 seconds instead of 60). And so on. It’s only 4-6 weeks so I can’t see any need to change weights.

Anyways, I’ll see how things look in a week.

Base Building Traditional Split

• Squat (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 165 x 4
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 2
  • 240 x 1
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 170 x 5
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
• Lunges
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10

405 felt good to hit again.

I remember the first time I deadlifted 405 lb. and what an awesome feeling it was. Today came pretty close to that feeling again. I lost a bunch of strength on the cut diet and have been working to get it back. My squat is just shy of my prior lifetime PR, I set a new lifetime PR in bench (tho only tied it at the end of this short-cycle), and while I’m nowhere near my best in deadlift, I did hit my goal for this short-cycle and am happy. It felt good to lift 4 plates again.

So I’d say this Strong-15 Short Cycle was a success. Pick your (reasonable) goals, put in the work, and it happens. Amazing, that.

I will say I wasn’t sure I’d hit the 405 today. On the 200 set my knee acted up. Same knee that always gives me trouble, and it was not good. I struggled with the 200 lb. because of it, but finished that set, shook it off, and just kept going. It’s a matter of how deep I go, and for sure it turned the rest of my stuff into a little more stiff-leg than I wanted, but still pretty close to a proper conventional deadlift. Bummer, but hey, the 405 went up so I’m ok with it.

Oh, and after I did that, I opted to just cut the session short. Good enough end to it all.

I will keep doing conventionals during the next 4-6 weeks as I do a short cycle of Base Building to work to cement the strength gains. If there are knee problems tho, I’ll switch up. But certainly after the BB cycle, I’ll put conventionals on the shelf, at most I’d do stiff-legged deadlifts, and then lighter for reps. I don’t need to make a situation worse, but I do think some of the lighter sets could be good to continue strengthening the knee area.

I am looking forward to starting the Base Building cycle next week. I’ll also be cutting back on my food intake… first true cutback in my cut diet. I’m hanging at 217 right now, which isn’t where I wanted to be (wanted to be at least 215 by end of August), so yeah… it’s time to pull back a little more on the food.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Deadlift (goal: 405)
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 285 x 2
  • 355 x 1
  • 385 x 1
  • 405 x 1
• V-bar Pull-ups
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 3
• BB Curls
  • 30 x 100’s

The mind is a powerful determiner of your success or failure.

I know this, but I’m obviously not yet a master of it.

Monday’s squat session was in part due to feeling physically great, but also having a killer mindset that I was going to squat that 315. But today? If I’m honest with myself I know that I’ve had doubts about hitting the 265 all this time. In general I don’t know why as the cycle went well, but I think it’s just general trepidation about benching my max. I work out alone, and the gym doesn’t have the best setup for failing on bench press. There is something I can do, but the metrics of it are off by just enough that it actually makes things worse in their own way. I don’t want to fail (and risk bad injury), and so I psyche myself out.

I was to go 235, 240, 245. I thought I’d try the 265, but I could tell I was doubting. The 235 went up fine. I figured go for 245, but then half-way through the rest period I bumped it to 250 because I felt 250 would give me a better gauge if I could hit the 265 (a 15# jump instead of a 20#). The 250 went up hard; I totally lost my leg drive because I was so focused on pressing. And so, 255 was my top for today and it was an ugly grinder, but I got it. It matches my previous lifetime PR set just a few weeks ago, so it’s not all bad, but I also know this went up harder than that prior 255.

I could say it’s a matter of other things… I was mentally distracted by other life things. Diet, rest, etc…. and yeah, maybe the played a part. But I doubt it. I’m pretty sure it was all in my head. I approached it like it was going to be heavy, and it was. I just didn’t have the mindset that it was “Ronnie Coleman light weight”, just enough doubt… and nope.

Ah well.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Bench (goal: 265)
  • bar x 5 x 2
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 4
  • 180 x 3
  • 200 x 2
  • 235 x 1
  • 245 x 1
  • 255 x 1
  • 215 x 5 (AMRAP)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 15
  • 105 x 15
• Dips
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5

A +10% day, so I went for it. Got it. It’s awesome when you reach your goals, isn’t it? 🙂

This is my last week of the Strong-15 Short Cycle. Again, I opted to NOT do the deload then testing weeks because I really need to focus on the fat loss — that’s truly my main and proper goal. But the whole reason I did this short cycle was because I needed it. And being honest with myself, tho I shouldn’t feed my ego, I’m still human and if you starve the ego it doesn’t really help you either. So while I’m getting off the peaking cycle and onto a plan that’s better suited to support the fat loss efforts, man… I still wanted to finish strong because that’s the whole point of this effort.

I went in today planning to work up to 295 because that’s what I was supposed to do. But I felt so good. I’ve been getting more sleep. Work has been calming down and I’m a lot less stressed. I barely thought about anything today other than the lift before me. I kept with my mantra of “tight, go down, come up”. The warm-ups felt a little heavy, but they always do — it’s warming up. Then the 275 felt really good… and while I was supposed to then go 285 then 295, I said “screw it” and put 295 on. It went up, a little grind, but still easy enough that told me I had more in me. I put 315 on the bar. Rested up. Grabbed the bar so hard that the steel oozed from between my fingers, tight tight tight, went down, came up. And frankly, it felt easier than the 295.

Damn, that felt good. I’m still smiling. 🙂

See, my best squat ever is 325, which I set a little over a year ago, just before I started The Defattening Project. Now I’m 45-50 lb. lighter and within 10 lb. of that best-ever. In fact, after I squatted the 315 I felt like I had more in me, but I didn’t do it because I still had the rest of the session to go and frankly 315 was my goal so be happy with it. I lost a lot of strength over the past year, but spending the past 3-ish months bulking up and lifting in a mass-building and then strength-peaking way? Yeah, it’s coming back. Heck, I set a lifetime PR on bench just before I started this peaking cycle so shit… this isn’t too bad. 🙂

Will I try for my goal weights on Wednesday (bench) and Friday (deadlift)? I don’t know. The only reason I did today was because I felt damn good, so I reckon it’ll just depend how I’m feeling and how the weights move.

But for now, I’m still smiling and happy that things are coming back. Yeah, I expect I may well lose some over the next couple months while I continue my cut cycle, but that’s how it goes. I am planning next week to start on a Base Building Model 1 for 4-6 weeks (at least) in an effort to solidify the strength gains and start transitioning to rep work; this should hopefully work out alright for me in terms of trying to preserve what I have, support the fat-loss diet, and set me up for later success as the diet cycle progresses.

Onwards.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Squat (goal: 315)
  • bar x 5 x 2
  • 155 x 5
  • 185 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 235 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 295 x 1
  • 315 x 1
• Pause Squat
  • 250 x 3
  • 250 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 20
  • 315 x 15
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 8
• Calf Raises
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10

A few things from today.

First, I had a passing thought that maybe next week (being the last week of the cycle) I’d actually work up to my proposed max. But quickly put the kibosh on that because again, what purpose? Just ego. Just do the work, call it good.

Then shrugs I tried being stricter about. I did some “air shrugs” to get the proper feel of just contracting my traps to lift the bar. Gotta do that more so it translates into moving the bar. Just that, y’know?

Then… chin-ups. I’ve been feeling a bunch of elbow pain lately, and while I don’t know if chin-ups caused it, I know they are aggravating it. I used to not go to full dead-hang, stopping just above it — for the sake of my shoulders. But now that I’m going all the way down, it puts a torque on my arms and my left elbow is really feeling it. So… I’m gonna stop. For sure other grips are less stress on the elbow, like neutral-grip. So, Paul Carter often talks about v-bar pull-ups, so why not. It’s basically a very narrow-grip, neutral-grip. Might as well give them a try. It was a little fumbling today tho as I work to figure out a good placement of the bar so my head doesn’t bang into things. I’ll get it figured… but might as well see what these do for me. 🙂

Otherwise… I’m just looking forward to next week!

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Deadlift (goal: 405)
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 285 x 2
  • 345 x 1
  • 355 x 1
  • 265 x 1
  • 325 x 3 (backoff)
  • 325 x 3 (backoff)
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 255 x 9
• BB Shrugs
  • 255 x 5
  • 185 x 20
• Chin-ups
  • BW x 5
• V-bar pullups
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 4
• BB Curls
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 8

Good day… but I’m rethinking.

As week 4 of this Strong-15 Short Cycle progresses, I’m starting to wonder….

Should I keep going?

I knew it’d be an experiment to try a peaking cycle with the start of my weight-cut. I figured it could work OK since I was at the start of the cut and food would be essentially the same as it had been during my prior bulk/mid. But I think cutting out all those cheats and the fact I am losing weight is making a difference. Not so much the weight-loss itself, but the lack of volumous food. I have started to get the occasional dizzy-spell, which is a tell-tale sign of the carb depletion. I’m still doing well in my sessions, but it’s enough to make me wonder if I really will get to the end OK.

Also, the amount of work I’m doing per session just isn’t what I need to support the fat loss. This I expected, but I have to remember that my goal is fat loss and I need to be supporting THAT goal right now.

So why did I do this short-cycle? Because I wanted to. Because I miss lifting this way. Because I miss the heavier weights. Because I miss trying to build strength; because I miss being strong(er) than I was before. So yeah, it was all emotional and ego, but lord I needed it after a year of other stuff. So I don’t regret it, I do think the mental break was good.

But what I’m starting to think is that I’m going to skip the testing. So finish this week, finish next week (which technically marks the end of the cycle — after that you’d deload for a week, then test). And then switch gears. Why? Because what will testing accomplish for me other than the ego satisfaction? Granted, I want the ego satisfaction, but that’s not a Good Enough™ reason to do it. I have to also consider that my fat loss hasn’t been at the rate I’ve wanted, and if I want to hit my goal (weight loss in time-period) then I gotta get focused on it — so that means changing my gym work to up the volume and workload to support that goal-work. Besides, after next week I will have put in all the work, so really… is there anything truly lost here? No, I don’t think so.

So, it’s an ego-check, really. I think that’s a good thing. I think that I’ll benefit more in the long-run by doing this. I’m good with it.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Bench (goal: 265)
  • bar x 5 x 2
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 4
  • 180 x 3
  • 200 x 2
  • 225 x 1
  • 235 x 1
  • 240 x 1
  • 200 x 7 (AMRAP)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 15
  • 105 x 15
• Dips
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5

4th week, and feeling good.

Really, getting tight beyond tight is what it’s about. Crush that bar so hard the steel oozes from between your fingers. It makes a huge whole-body difference.

The other big help is having a clear head. I’ve been so busy, my brain buzzing with work and life issues, that my gym sessions are more thinking about that than the weights. It’s not about being focused — if anything it’s about having a clear mind, no mind. All I’m thinking about is what’s immediately in front of me. That’s been huge too.

Hitting 285 today isn’t much in the grand scheme, but coming back from all my losses it’s one of the bigger weights I’ve moved in ages. Next week’s 295 will be telling, but I feel no qualms about that going down and then coming back up. 315 is going to happen! I’m very happy about that, because I’m getting closer to regaining where I used to be.

Anyways, all in all today went well. Not much else to say.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Squat (goal: 315)
  • bar x 5 x 2
  • 155 x 5
  • 185 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 235 x 2
  • 270 x 1
  • 275 x 1
  • 285 x 1
• Pause Squat
  • 235 x 3
  • 235 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 20
  • 315 x 15
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 9
• Calf Raises
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 10

Things are getting heavy.

So brings an end to week 3 of the cycle. This is where things aren’t quite heavy, but they are starting to.

I’m going mixed grip on the singles from here out.

Really tho, I was surprised today went so well. I was out of town for the past 2.5 days on business, with bad travel, time-zone changes, and not a lot of sleep. My body did NOT want to get out of bed this morning — “MOAR SLEEP!” it cried. But once I got in there and got going, everything went pretty well.

Looking forward to how the last few weeks of this cycle go.

And yes, I’m leaning towards going Base Building after the cycle is done. I hope that will help me cement the work done in this Strong-15 Short Cycle, and start the transition back to rep-work and “bodybuilding” as I finish out this cut/diet cycle. Alas, the business trip may have set me back a little bit — I’ll know better come my weigh-in on Sunday, I’m hoping to at least have maintained weight. But when you have to eat a little and drink a little to be socially polite to your hosts and business partners, well… calories-in don’t care much about your business deals. Ah well, should just be a small bump in the road. For the record, Arcadia Ales is pretty damn awesome (had the Brown Cow… man, that was good).

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Deadlift (goal: 405)
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 285 x 2
  • 335 x 1
  • 345 x 1
  • 355 x 1
  • 305 x 3 (backoff)
  • 305 x 3 (backoff)
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 255 x 9
• BB Shrugs
  • 255 x 10
  • 185 x 23
• Chin-ups
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 3
• BB Curls
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 7