Taking a cue from Monday’s squat day — tight tight tight.

I worked on my bench setup today. Really getting my body locked in, from my shoulders being dug into the bench, to my feet being planted and arching hard. I don’t get much arch, but when my feet are in the right spot, if the arch is as high and tight as I can get it (which isn’t much, but still going as far as I can), boy that all really helps. Granted, I found myself losing my leg drive because I was focused on too many things, but I can live with that for now while I work through all of this.

After I get all tight and in there, hold it for a moment, settle, THEN unrack the bar. For whatever reason I get in place then unrack the bar without waiting… probably because I don’t want to tire out, but come on, it’s not that big a deal. I do want to work more on that technique of just pulling the bar out via lats, instead of “lifting” the bar out… all an effort to keep the shoulder blades back and pinned, y’know? Then unracked, let things settle and reacquire shoulders if needed, THEN start benching. Pause a moment at the bottom, then push.

So yeah, working on technique. It’s better, but it’s also a bit of a step back just because I’m thinking so much that it’s almost over-thinking and not just moving the bar, y’know? It’ll get there.

Anyways, things were generally good today.

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
  • 220 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 235 x 1
  • 185 x 11 (AMRAP)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 15
  • 105 x 12
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4

Today I learned many things.

First, the power of tight. This never ceases to amaze me. I already know that tightness brings strength, but every time I think I know it, I find out that there’s still more to learn. I’ve read a lot from guys like Dave Tate about crushing the bar, from the moment your hand first touches it until the moment your hands come off the bar, crush it. I grip it, hard, but what seems to happen is I start to focus on some other things in technique and so I lose the crush grip — not entirely, it’s still a hard grip, but certainly not a crush.

Well today I was able to keep outside world stuff off my mind and kept my focus on the next set and only the next set. I would spend the 2 minute rest period just telling myself things like “tight, go down, come up”. Tight tight tight. On that top set? I crushed the hell out of the bar the moment my hands touched it, and the telling sign was as I then got under the bar it hurt my arms/elbows/shoulders because I hadn’t loosened my grip one bit and so everything didn’t bend the same — telltale sign I haven’t been crushing as much as I could! Then I hit the rep and well… it’s hard to describe. I obviously felt the weight, I knew it was there, but the whole rep felt otherworldly, like I was there but wasn’t there and that it just happened.

That’s what I gotta keep striving for, because that was the easiest rep of the day for sure.

I do believe the helper was, as Dave has said, that crush grip, because it activates the whole body, the whole nervous system wakes up and charges up for it. And to do it from the start, first thing, gives the body a few to get up there, not when I’m already under the bar.

Yeah yeah… little things get better.

Second, the need to check equipment before you do anything with it.

I put the 315 on the leg press. I held onto one of the sled bars as I sat down into position… and the sled dropped. Not the whole way, but enough. From what I can gather, the person who last used it didn’t fully engage the hold bars/handles on one side and it popped out under load. The other was fully engaged so she didn’t move far, but BOY it was disconcerting to think about getting crushed, y’know? Was this the other person’s fault? One could argue that, but really the responsibility is my own for ensuring things are as they should be before I use them. So yeah, check your equipment — a check won’t take you out of the zone, but getting injured sure will.

Third, relaxed leg curls. Oh yeah, keeping my feet/ankles/calves relaxed through the leg curls makes a HUGE difference. Sure I can’t move as much weight, but who cares — it’s a leg curl. But it sure worked my hamstrings like I’ve never felt before. So here’s a place to NOT keep tight. 😉

Anyways, good session. I really have to stay focused and keep my head clear because the weights are going up and getting closer to “heavy” now (for me).

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
  • 260 x 1
  • 270 x 1
  • 275 x 1
• Pause Squat
  • 220 x 3
  • 220 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 20
  • 315 x 17
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 12
  • 40 x 12
• Calf Raises
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10

Nothing much to report, really. Just felt really solid.

The deadlifts went up fast and easy. All good.

I will say, on a whim I changed and instead of chin-ups opted to do pull-ups. Well, I wanted to… been wanting to for some time to see how I fare. The trouble tends to be grip width then in relation to not causing shoulder problems, so while I sat for a moment to figure it out I just stopped thinking about it and grabbed the neutral-grip handles and went (less thinkie, more do-ie). Felt just fine on my arms/elbows/shoulders. In fact, I found I could actually go to a dead-hang, which I can’t do without shoulder problems in chin-ups (supinated grip). But then, in that dead-hang, yeah… because I can’t work that portion well, it’s obvious I haven’t — it was tough for me to get from dead-hang to even start. 🙂 But that’s good… tells me where I’m weak and need to improve. So, I’m going to go back to chin-ups for the rest of this cycle, but after I’m done with this Strong-15 Short Cycle and switch to whatever I do after it (probably 4-6 weeks of Base Building), I’ll go with the neutral-grip pull-ups and work on improving there.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Deadlift (goal: 405)
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 285 x 2
  • 315 x 1
  • 335 x 1
  • 345 x 1
  • 285 x 3 (backoff)
  • 285 x 3 (backoff)
  • 285 x 3 (backoff)
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 255 x 8
• BB Shrugs
  • 255 x 10
  • 185 x 20
• Neutral-grip pullups
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 1
• BB Curls
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 9

I don’t know what to make of it.

The singles feel heavy and unstable. But the reps? Just keep crankin’.

I think it’s a question of set-up. I feel pretty good with deadlift setup, just have to remember to do it. Squat setup is getting better and better. But bench setup… every time I think I’ve got it, something demonstrates that I don’t. I do think I’m getting better about planting my feet in a good position for me (not too far in, too far out, too close together, too far apart, that gives me solid footing and ability to get leg drive AND keep my butt on the bench). Good grip, etc. But well… I just have to think more about whole-body tightness I guess. I dunno. Just going to keep “studying” it and trying to figure it out — all I can do.

I will say I am also working to have a slight pause at the bottom, at least on the work sets. The AMRAP is certainly touch-and-go. Who knows, maybe that’s it, because I’m not used to that. It might also be figuring out my descent… the speed there.

Ah, there’s always something. I know what’s going through my head, it’s just hard to put into words. 🙂

That said, it was kinda cool to have a slightly heavier workup here (it’s only week 2 of the cycle), and then more weight for the AMRAP set than last week, but then hit more reps this week than last week. That was cool. And then on the inclines to hit the same as I did last week too. Plus whereas dips felt totally out of whack for me last week, this week it was alright — it didn’t feel foreign to me. So I’ll just chalk up last week to one-off weirdness.

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
  • 205 x 1
  • 220 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 170 x 16 (AMRAP)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 15
  • 105 x 12
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4

Stay tight. Go down. Come up.

That’s what I had to tell myself today. Repeatedly.

The squats are getting harder, but not really. Physically it’s still under what I can do, but the weights are technically heavier and call for tighter adherence to form and technique. My brain is distracted by work, so I had to really clear my mind and focus on one thing: squatting.

“Stay tight. Go down. Come up.”

Too many things going through my head, and on the double I found myself wobbling — just simple balance problems, keeping the bar path stable. So I stopped thinking about work, and thought only about the squat; and then, only about the next set/rep.

Stay tight. Go down. Come up.

And that’s all I thought about.

I’ve played around with my descent speed. Sometimes it’s nice to dive bomb because there’s a lot of momentum coming up, but that technique really doesn’t work for me because I lose all tightness then have to suddenly achieve it at the bottom. Nope. But I also can’t go too slow on the descent. I’m telling myself to go as fast as I can that still allows me to retain tightness, so it’s really not that fast, but it’s certainly not super-slow. Tightness… it’s magical when you utilize it fully (and I still need to work on that technique).

Still, all in all a good day. I realize how much I actually like pause squats. Don’t ask me why, but I find myself looking foward to them.

Oh and leg curls. When I do them I tend to keep my ankles locked, so the calves are all tensed up. Why I do this? I don’t know. But I’m trying to stop doing it, because when the feet (and calves) are loose, it’s harder (so that might be why I do it…). I end up feeling it a LOT more in my hamstrings. So I’m going to lower weight and really try to keep the feet (and calves) loose and see where that gets me.

It’s fun being on a cycle again like this. It sure beats going in, doing the same weights/sets/reps as last week, hoping I can break a rep PR but failing because diet isn’t supporting it.

Speaking of diet, weighed in at 220 yesterday. So the downward trend is happening, but I don’t really think much of it until I’m at least about 10 lb. down because then I know there’s some actual tissue loss and not just water/bloat.

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
  • 245 x 1
  • 260 x 1
  • 270 x 1
• Pause Squat
  • 205 x 3
  • 205 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 20
  • 315 x 20
• Leg Curls
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 9
• Calf Raises
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10

I miss deadlifting. 🙂

It’s either been no deadlifting, or some variant like stiff-legs or sumo or deficits. It’s been ages since I truly did conventional deadlifts. And it feels good.

Today was very light, as to be expected from week 1 of the cycle. In fact, shrugs were silly…. 135 was so light, I got to 30 and just stopped because it was ridiculous. 🙂

But otherwise, just felt good. Kept a double overhand grip the whole time; I won’t go mixed until I need to. Worked on being explosive and really getting my hips to push-/follow-through at the end.

Feels good.

For my notes, BB curls are with a straight bar and a wide grip. Not excessively wide, but basically if I hold my arms (with no bar) down at my sides with my hands fully supinated, where do they rest, that width apart… grab the bar there. Before I was doing EZ-bar curls with my hands on the “inner” camber, so I figured for a few weeks let’s go straight bar and wider, giving more supination.

And in weight-news, yesterday weighed in at 221 (down 2 since Sunday). Too early to really tell, but so far that’s the preferred trend. 🙂

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

• Deadlift (goal: 405)
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 4
  • 245 x 3
  • 285 x 2
  • 305 x 1
  • 315 x 1
  • 335 x 1
  • 245 x 3 (backoff)
  • 245 x 3 (backoff)
  • 245 x 3 (backoff)
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 255 x 9
• BB Shrugs
  • 255 x 7
  • 135 x 30 (stopped, got silly)
• Chin-ups
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 3
• BB Curls
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 8

Not sure what to make of today

All in all it was good, but the weights were light (relatively speaking), yet everything felt heavy. Well, not so much heavy as things just felt…. slow? Hard to describe. I just expected with these weights to have felt a little lighter, moved a little faster.

Why? Hard to say. Could it be the fact I’ve been off creatine for 1.5 weeks now and it’s wearing off? Could it be the diet change? Was it just an off day? Who knows for sure.

Weirdest thing was dips… I felt really unstable and unbalanced. My body wasn’t liking it. Maybe just my triceps were tired from the prior AMRAP sets, but given past performance that doesn’t seem right.

But… whatever. I would love to know exactly why, but one day of data isn’t enough. It may simply have just been an off day.

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
  • 200 x 1
  • 205 x 1
  • 220 x 1
  • 160 x REP (AMRAP)
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 15
  • 105 x 12
• Dips
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5

Oh, that felt good.

I’m starting back on the cut diet. Back in mid-May I had cut down to 211 lb (from 265), but 9 straight months of deprevation finally got the best of me so I spent the past 2.5 months bulking. I’m up to 223 lb.. I also got to change how I lifted, and while it was good, it wasn’t the way I like to lift. So as of yesterday I began another cut, with the goal of clearing 200 lb.; I’m not sure 200 is where I’ll stop, as it’s more about look and composition than pure scale weight (I’m out to lose fat, and the scale weighs fat and muscle — so scale matters, but the mirror does too). But at least that’s the goal. I’m also mentally figuring this cut will last until just before Thanksgiving (about 16 weeks). Where I go after that will depend upon where things are when I get there. No need to worry about it for now, just stay focused. 🙂

So then in terms of gym work, I have decided to try Paul Carter’s Strong-15 Short Cycle. Why? In large part, because I want to. All of my lifting for the past year has been done in a manner to support the fat loss, and while I’m good with that, it’s not what I like to do. So I’m continuing to take a bit of a mental break and letting myself lift like I like. Of course this still supports the fat loss efforts, but certainly this sort of lifting I have to do NOW instead of later; can’t do this as I get deeper into the cut. Right now my diet plan can support this style. See, the plan I was on for about the past month as a “mid” is what I’m continuing with at the start of this cut. During the mid I had a plan plus a lot of cheating; if plan + beaucoup cheating held my weight, then strict plan should allow me to lose weight. Plus, I’m adding cardio (1 hour of walking) back into the program, so along with strict diet and cardio burning some cals, that should be sufficient to start loss. But the level of food intake is still quite sufficient to support a short strength cycle, so I’m giving it a go. Yeah, it might fail, but that’s ok as it’ll be a learning experience. My intention is to continue to get my strength back up, so as the cut continues I have a bit more “buffer” to lose from. So if I am going to lose some strength, at least it won’t be as far a regression. Plus, if I am bit stronger, that should enable better work during the latter parts of the cut when I have more mass-oriented work to focus on. So all in all, I think this should be alright for supporting my efforts. Besides, the Short Cycle is only 5-7 weeks.

So how did things go to start?

Great!

Because I’ve never run the Strong-15 Short Cycle before, I opted to try a ready-made template. This comes right out of Paul’s “LRB-365” book. I know he adjusted the Short Cycle in the “Base Building” book, but I wanted something that had the cycle plus all assistance work laid out. By using his ready-made program it helps to take the guess work out, especially in finding the right amount of assistance work to do, as you don’t want to do too much but need a little bit. This’ll help me better understand where Paul’s coming from.

Of course, week 1 here is pretty easy, moving weights well-under what I’ve been moving before. I did feel a little creaky, likely because I took all of last week off. It was good to have a “no-deload deload” last week and totally stay out of the gym, but I was quite active in other ways (lots of walking, other physical activity). All good, and I feel refreshed.

One non-obvious thing to note is rest time. All assistance work is going to follow about 1 minute of rest between sets and probably 2 between exercises. But on the main movement, I’m going to take rests as I need it. The warm-/work-up will probably get just 1 minute between sets, but once I get to the double and the singles I’ll take what I need. Today I did 2 minutes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if as the weeks go on I probably up it to 3-5 minutes. But even then I don’t know. I’ve gotten used to taking short rests, so I may well just continue with that. Bottom line: I don’t want to miss a weight, so if I need the rest I’ll take it. But if I don’t, I won’t.

In the end, I was just happy to lift today. Felt good. 🙂

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
  • 235 x 1
  • 245 x 1
  • 260 x 1
• Pause Squat
  • 190 x 3
  • 190 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 315 x 20
  • 315 x 20
• Leg Curls
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 10
• Calf Raises
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10

If you don’t care about my fat-loss and weightlifting stuff, stop reading now. If you do care, read on as I ramble on.

It’s been just shy of 1 year since I started The Defattening Project. With the help of Nick Shaw @ Renaissance Periodization I went from about 265 lb to about 210 lb. But after about 9 months of deprivation, my body and mind had enough. Even though we’d take a small break every so often, it still wore on me pretty bad. So back around mid-May we opted to go full-stop and run a short bulk-cycle. I’m up to about 223 lb now, my lifts are recovering (even set a lifetime PR in bench press of 255 lb), and I feel ready to get back on the loser train. While it’s not about weight (it’s more about how things look, as weight alone doesn’t tell the whole story), picking a weight does help to gauge things. The goal is going to be 200 lb. Will that be where I stop? Can’t tell that now; I’ll make that call when I get there. Just call 200 lb. a marker on the road.

Of course, my gym work needs to support the fat-loss efforts. But the other day I realized that I’m not having fun in the gym any more since it’s all oriented around supporting the fat loss. I’m good with that because the fat-loss is an important goal to me. But still, if going to the gym every day becomes too much of a chore, how does that help anything? I decided that, at least at the start of this cut cycle I’m going to try having fun again.

I’m going to try running Paul Carter’s “Strong-15 Short Cycle”, and using the version from his “LRB-365” book.

Yes, this might totally blow up in my face, because cutting really doesn’t go with this sort of lifting. But I think this might work. My current diet would certainly support this style of lifting, and for the first 6 weeks of the cut the diet really isn’t going to be all that different. In fact, we’re going to start out by me just following the diet plan I have now, cutting out all cheating (and I’ve been cheating), and adding cardio back in (1 hour walking 4x week). That should be sufficient to get the ball rolling and that alone should last a few weeks. I don’t think I could do a full 9-12 week Strong-15 cycle, but 6 weeks? Yeah, that should be workable.

And it should be fun.

And frankly if it does fail, I’m OK with that. I know I’ll learn something, and I know somehow I’ll grow.

So yeah, main reason for doing this is because this is the sort of lifting I really like doing, I haven’t done it in over a year, and I want to have a little fun again.

But in terms of “smart” reasons for doing it….

It’s at the start of the cut cycle, when I should still have the nourishment to support it. Certainly once the cycle is done I’ll need to change gears and go to a more mass-building/bodybuilder-style program. But even that will be good because I’d like to try building up my strength a little more so when I have the inevitable losses it won’t be as much regression. If I’m lucky, by the end of it all perhaps everything will just average out to being flat.

I do think this should set me up better for going into some mass building and rep work. A little stronger, a little more weight, a little more rep… should all pan out nicely to help support the fat loss efforts.

I think lifting 3x week will be better for me for a little while. It’ll be a little less impact on my body, a little more rest/recovery, and frankly I think that will help me out in many ways, including the fat loss. And then later on in the fat-loss when I need the added work, when I want more gym days so I can eat more carbs, I’ll have somewhere to go (4x week). So backing off now should be helpful for when I need to ratchet it up later.

Why Strong-15 Short Cycle? Again, short cycle because I think timing works best here. I also feel I’ve set myself up decently for it, given how Paul lays out work prior to doing a short-cycle. I’m following his LRB-365 version of it because that maps out an entire cycle including assistance work. Given I’ve not done his Strong-15 Short Cycle before, I figure it’s easier to start with a known template and see how it goes for me. After I have more knowledge under my belt, I can adjust and customize from there. One thing I have to be careful on is that I want to add more volume in, but that’s not appropriate — so having someone/something like an existing full-template is good to keep me reigned in because otherwise it could blow everything. And as I’ve said numerous times, I want to keep trying Paul’s protocols because they really do seem to be working for me, both in terms of making progress and not feeling so beat up.

And yeah, this could all be a big FAIL. But I’m sure I’ll learn from it. So it’s all good.

But really, it’s just because I want to have fun again. 🙂

 

So in the spirit of “having fun again”, I opted to work up to a 1RM on deadlift.

I haven’t deadlifted proper in a while. But I do believe all the stiff-legged deadlifts have been good for me. It felt weird to actually properly (conventional) deadlift today — just haven’t been in that position in a while. But I got back into the groove and things went alright.

Worked up easily, and I told myself if I hit 405 I’d be happy. And I did, and I am. I actually felt I had a little more in me, maybe could have done 425. But I was short on time and well, the 405 was “good enough”. I should be able to have a good short programming cycle based off 405, and the end goal of that is to move 405 better than I moved it today (e.g. faster, better form) and allow myself to work up even more if I want to.

All in all, I’m happy to be in the place I am right now. Sure I’ve lost strength since I started Defattening a year ago, but I’ve also lost a lot of weight too. 🙂 And what I can see is that I’ve gained a reasonable portion of my strength back, and getting back to my prior 1RM’s really won’t take much longer. I mean, heck… 2 days ago I set a lifetime PR on bench, so that’s awesome. My best squat was 325 and I am going to program 315 for this upcoming cycle. Best deadlift is 445 and given what I did today I’m pretty close. It’s like a cycle or two and I’ll be setting new lifetime PR’s AND at a lighter bodyweight too. Win!

Of course, I do have another (long) round of fat-loss to go through over the next 3-4 (or more) months. But at least I feel like if I work it right and well, muscle and strength loss should be minimal and then afterwards I should be able to program well and get things back on track towards my next goal of 3/4/5.

So, I’m happy. All is good.

This is my last gym session for a little while. Taking a no-deload deload, and will hit things again hard in about 10 days.

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 275 x 2
  • 315 x 1
  • 365 x 1
  • 385 x 1
  • 405 x 1
• BB Curl
  • 70 x 8
  • 70 x 8
  • 70 x 8