8 weeks is about the time many people do a diet break (maintenance or slight surplus). You could take your restrictions off and essentially bulk for a week or two and then return to the cut with newfound vigor. That said, you’re right in that the more time you spend cutting, the less time you spend bulking. But again, if you get closer to how lean you really want to be then the next cut won’t need to be as long. Ultimately you will always have to get rid of this extra fat at some point, you either do it now, or you do it later. Only you can decide that. I battle the exact same things.
The plan is always to spend as much time over the course of a year in a bulk as possible. You can do that at any bodyfat as long as you’re comfortable- although the more I read on insulin resistance and nutrition partitioning, the leaner I feel I should be during my bulks.
I’m so glad to hear that things are moving again, and if you’re getting the movement you’re looking for with just the changes you’ve made so far - maybe hold it there until the scale stops moving again and then incorporate some of the other changes I suggested. Don’t do more than you have to. Keep some tricks up your sleeve!!
Well I spoke to my physio about my calves who then looked at them and she said she’d never seen muscle wastage so bad!
So my right calf minor muscle (can’t remember the correct name) but the one on your inner leg is basically gone.
I’ll post a picture when I can and probably post in the injury section but my left calf has two heads to the muscle as normal people do and my right one only has one head!
She gave me a couple of exercises and said I could probably do with the tenns machine on it to try and stimulate it but she also said that it might be impossible due to how much it has gone and to really isolate it against the calf major which will want to take over.
She didn’t sound optimistic about fixing it to be honest. I’ll do the exercises but not holding out much hope on this one.
At least calves are stupid. It’s not like it’s a biceps. You’re in the UK anyway - just don’t wear shorts that one warm day of the year and you’re golden!
Not great lighting but you can see my right calf minor is gone, vanished. Also my calves in general look tiny on this photo but I’m real life they are massive, like so big I can barely fit through a door!
Physio is hard, hard in that trying to feel it and isolate my inner calf is difficult.
You purposefully took video without a shoe for reference, so I can’t believe you.
I definitely see what you’re talking about. The good news is, absent a bodybuilding stage, nobody cares about calves!
Good luck, man; I really don’t know what you can do about if it’s nerve function. That stuff seems to either improve or not, but it’s not based on anything we do.
I’m not really bothered by the aesthetics of it but more by the complete lack of strength in my right calf which I’m assuming is due to half the muscle being missing.
I’ll run my physio and see what happens but maybe it can get stronger.
It’s nerve related from when I crushed a disc in my lower back. Gave me permanent numbness down my sciatic nerve in my right leg. My right quad and ham are slightly smaller than my left no dramatic loss in strength. Whereas my right calf can barely do any single leg calf raises and is really weak compared to my left one.
Legs session - focus on mechanical tension, triple progression
Hack Squat - 2m rest
warm up sets
70kg
x 8
x 8
x 8
Smith machine RDL - 2m rest
85kg
x 8
x 8
x 8
Leg extensions (1.3m rest)
30kg each side
x 12
x 12
Good Girl/ Bad girl combo
Good girl
100kg
x 10
x 10
Bad Girl
100kg
x 10
x 10
Hip Thrust machine - 1.3m
47kg
x 12
x 12
x 12
Still adding reps, very happy with that, no back niggle or pain which is good. I’'ve got to consider if i want to BB squat again or just stick to hack squat. Risk vs reward.
I’m playing rugby this Sunday and next Saturday so may have to take it a bit easier than normal.
Upper session - focus on mechanical tension, triple progression
Dips (2m rest)
1 warm up set - should have done more
20kg x 8
20kg x 8
20kg x 8
Rack chins (2m rest)
x 10
x 10
x 10
Hammer curls & single arm tricep cable extensions - 1.2m rest
Hammer curls
16kg DBs
x 10
x 9
x 9
Single arm tricep extensions
30kg x 10
25kg x 12
25kg x 12
DB curl SS with DB French Press - 1.2m rest
DB curl
10kg DBs
x 12
x 12
x 10
French DB press
12kg DBs
x 12
x 12
x 12
Wanted to take it easy to day as i’m playing rugby on Sunday but i really pushed the isolation work for some silly reason! Need lots of nutrition to recover from this week’s training before Sunday!
Played 80 minutes of rugby yesterday (yes a Sunday game), feeling battered and broken today. I’m sacked off my gym session so will have to re plan my week a little. Going to rest up and hit the gym Tuesday - Thursday instead. Then i’m playing again on Saturday (but then have a month off).
Probably going to do some stretching tonight as i ache massively!
