BTs Getting Diced and Peeled log

Purpose of this log: First off, I’m doing a cut, hence the name diced and peeled. The point of keeping track of this is that I want to keep track of my workouts throughout this cut so I can look back later. Feel free to leave comments or constructive criticism along the way. I started the cut on January 11, 2010, and will complete the cut on April 6, 2010. That’s about a 12 week cut.

Starting stats as of January 11, 2010
Age: 26
Height: 6’0" (183 cm)
Weight: 221 lbs (100.2 kg)
BF%: 21.5% per 3 point caliper test
**Note about my BF% I should say that I’m normally a lot closer to 14% BF but I purposefully gained weight because I wanted to do a weight loss contest at my gym. Tyring to win some cash and the extra BF is a good motivator to get my ass in the gym. I’ve almost always hovered around 14% I would guess cause I can always see my abs pretty decently. When I wrestled I was more like 8-10%. Anyways, it’s not an excuse as to my BF%, it’s just to give you some background. I should be well under 15% in a couple more weeks.
**Training Age: Started 10 years ago and have been on and off since then. Worked to a max bench of 315 and a max dead of 495, but I don’t bench much any more nor do I dead much any more.

Current stats as of February 4, 2010
Age: still 26 :smiley:
Height: still 6’0" (183 cm)
Weight: 210 lbs (95 kg)
BF%: Hopefully less than it was last week. I’ll post some pics tonight and you can tell me what you think I’m at. I’d guess 15 or 16%. I have lost visible amounts of fat in 3.5 weeks though, so that’s good.

Goal ending stats:
Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)
BF%: 6-8% range

Specifics about my workouts:
Weights I use: As for weights I use, it’s really subjective because a) I’m dieting and b) I haven’t maxed in quite a while, so let the log speak for itself.

Training: Weights: 2 a days using the perfect rep, usually keeping reps under 6 and the workouts under 45 min each (plus warm up and stretching time).
Cardio: Been doing about 2-3 sessions a week of HIIT of some sort. I plan to kick up the cardio as I get closer to my goal.

Specifics about nutrition:
Diet: Thus far, it’s been low cals, and medium to low carbs.
Supplements: I’ve been on the Anaconda protocol and have taken several other supplements. I did HOT-ROX for the first 3 weeks and I’m taking a week off before I jump back on.

Pics to follow.

Feb 3, 2010: Legs

Noon Workout:

Leg Xts: Raming using sets of 8. I was ramping (but not to max force point) to get a pump and do a little pre-exhausst (although I don’t normally pre-exhaust I’ve been playing around with it lately). I probably did 7 sets and ended when the pump was good. I don’t remember the weight
Hack Squats (45 degree aparatus): ramped from 90 to 380 (which was my max force point) reps of 4. I then dropped the weight to 250 and repped out 20 reps

Evening session:

Warmed up with 20 minutes of foam rolling, then…
Front Squats 185 X 5 X 10 (50 reps total). I have to be honest that I was going to try and do 100 reps because I was inspired by that Dan John 100 rep challenge thing, but I decided not to be an idiot and keep things conservative on my low cal diet and stop at 50.

This was not a max weight for me, but I did it in around 15-20 minutes. It was a quick evening workout. I got in and got out. I think it was pretty effective though judging my how my legs feel today.

Overall this was a good day training wise.

Diet was a little lackluster on this day. I haven’t been tracking everything very well, which I need to do better in the coming week because I know if I track it I will be a lot closer to what I should be at calorie and macro wise (and timing of my meals).

Oh yeah and my split has been looking like this for the first 3.5 weeks:

Day 1:Upper Body Push (2-3 sessions, but usually 2)

1.1 Chest - DB or BB Incline
1.2 Shoulders - Seated Overhead Press
1.3 Triceps - Pressdowns

Day 2:Upper Body Pull (2-3 sessions, but usually 2)

2.1 Thickness - Row Variation
2.2 Lats - Pulldown Machine
2.3 Biceps - Curl Variation

Day 3:Lower Body (2 sessions)
This is usually just whatever I’m feeling. Front squats, hack squats, trap bar deads, and split lunges are my main moves, but I also do RDLs, and sometimes deads, as well as hamstring curls and leg Xts as accessories. I know I should balance out quad and hip dominant movements a little more, but I usually have been favoring the quad dominant stuff due to tightness in my hammy and low back (which has improved significantly lately with foam rolling and stretching).

I have been doing this split 2X per week (day 1-3 = Mon-Wed, repeat day 1-3 on Thur-Sat). Mostly I do one main exercise per muscle group I’m hitting and I do sets of 3-6 ramping to my MFP, then I cut the weight by 20% or so and do anywhere from 1-5 sets, sometimes with a max rep set. If I still have juice I’ll do something like 4X5 on an accessory movement.

Feb 4, 2010: Upper Body Push

Noon Session: Shoulders The session was pretty much instinctive (autoregulated??) training

  1. Seated Overhead DB Press: Ramped to 55’s (25X8 X1, 35X6 X1, 45X6 X1, 55X6 X7) using 35 seconds rest
  2. DB Upright Rows: 55X15 X1 (through this in for fun)
  3. Machine Rear Delts: About 7 sets of 8. Ramped to 105 I think
  4. Strict Side Laterals: 15X8-12 X2, 25X8 X2

Pretty good shoulder session. Good amount of volume, power, and rep range which I think is pretty well accepted as a good shoulder formula.

PM Session: Chest and Triceps

Chest:

  1. Incline BB Press from pins: Ramped to 135 in about 4 sets
  2. Incline BB Press: 135X2, 155X2, 175X2, 205X2, 135X2, 225X2, 205X2, 185X3 (wasn’t feeling it – I think I was tired from the shoulder press earlier in the day)
  3. Incline DB flys (elbows bent, paused 2-3 seconds at full stretch): 35X8, 45X6, 55X6, 65X4 X4

Triceps:

  1. Rope Pressdowns: ramped from 60-120 lbs doing 8-12 reps per set - ~8 sets total
  2. EX Curl Bar OH Tri Ext.: 50X25
  3. Machine Chest Press 120 (60 per side) until failure (about 20 good reps and 10 half reps)

Then I was spent.

Day 1 Front

Day 1 Back

Day 10 Front


Day 10 Back

Day 24 Front

**Edited: I had originally labeled these as Day 23 (and the file is named that too), but they should have been labeled day 24…

Day 24 Back

Note: These are relaxed pics. I’m NOT flexing my abs, chest, arms, etc. I suppose I can start tracking some of my poses as well to give a little more perspective cause I look like a little bitch without flexing.

Hey I’ve always had tight hamstrings too…

I had never done Good Mornings due to being tight. Guess what loosened my hamstrings hardcore?? Doing Good Mornings. I’m pretty sure there is an Arnold quote about doing what you suck at. Expect to be super soar for a few days. Just an idea…

[quote]Dont Want None wrote:
Hey I’ve always had tight hamstrings too…

I had never done Good Mornings due to being tight. Guess what loosened my hamstrings hardcore?? Doing Good Mornings. I’m pretty sure there is an Arnold quote about doing what you suck at. Expect to be super soar for a few days. Just an idea…[/quote]

Hey DWN. Thanks for stopping in. I think that doing what you suck at is a pretty damn good suggestion. Actually when I do RDLs, I do feel a lot better if I warm up and ramp up correctly/slowly.

Feb 5, 2010 (Fri): Upper Body Pull

Noon Session: Lats

  1. Pulldowns:
    a. Wide Grip: 11 sets: 108X8, 120X6, 135X4, 150X4, 165X4, 180X4, 195X3, 210X2 (form started to worsen in these reps; couldn’t get the last few inches, but speed was still pretty good, so I continued), 225X2, activation set - 120 for 3 reps, 240X2

b. Close (neutral - palms facing each other) Grip: 5 sets: 255X2, 270X2, 285X2, 135X2, 300X3

c. Wide Grip (3 second pause at full stretch): 5 sets: 180X5 X5
2) Single arm rows from high pulley: 2 sets: 140X7 each side, 140X6 each side

I always have a hard time feeling like I really worked my lats. Despite this, it was still a pretty decent workout.

PM Session: Back thickness and Biceps

Back Thickness:

  1. DB Rows: 2 sets: 35X8, 45X6
  2. Chest Supported Rows:
    a. 8 sets (ramping to MFP): 45X8, 70X6, 90X4, 105X3, 115X3, 135X3, , 90X2, 180X3 (MFP)
    b. 2 sets: 135X5, 135X5
  3. Rack Partial Deads superset with close grip chinups:
    a. Partial DLs: 4 sets: 225X3, 315X3 X3
    b. Chins: 7, 6, 5, X

Biceps:

  1. BB Curls: 6 sets: 60X8, 80X4 X2, 90X3, 100X3, 110X3
  2. Seated DB Hammer Curls: 4 sets: 35X6, 45X6 X3
  3. Low Pulley curls: 3 sets: 100X8, 150X7 X2
  4. Standing Two Arm (High) Cable Curls (the one that mimics a double Bi pose): 4 sets: 80X8, 70X6 X2, 50X15

Done.

**edited

Feb 6, 2010 (Sat): Legs

Session 1: 3:00-4:00 PM: Quad Dominant

Warm Up: 10 minutes heavy bag + jump rope, 10 minutes foam rolling

Quads:

  1. Leg Xts:
    a. Rap to 8: 11 sets: 75X8 X2, 90X8 X2, 105X8, 120X8, 135X8, 150X8, 165X8, 180X8, 195X8 (MFP for 8 reps using ~45 sec rest)
    b. Ramping to 4 reps: 6 sets: 210X6, 225X4, 240X4, 255X4, 270X4, 285X4 (MFP using 60 sec rest)

Hams:

  1. Single Leg BB RDLs (one foot forward RDLs with a barbell): 3 sets: 105X10

PM Session: 8:00-9:00 PM Hip Dominant Missed this session. FML. I felt kinda funny so I watched the UFC fight instead. Loved Randy’s walkout music. Coleman needs to hang em up.

Feb 9, 2010 (Tue): Upper Body Push (catchup) and Upper Body Pull

Originally today was scheduled to be an upper body pull day, however I missed yesterday’s workout due to food poisoning. That’ll teach me to cheat on my diet and eat freaking Super Bowl party snack food. Anyways, I’m back on track and feeling almost back to usual.

Noon Session: Upper Body Push: I only managed to do my chest, so I neglected my shoulders and triceps. I’ll try to do a few intense sets tonight during my pull session to make up for it.

Chest:

  1. DB Incline Flies superset with DB rows: 35X10-12 X3 (to pre-exhausst the pecs - did not even come close to failure, just squeezing and stretching)
  2. DB Incline Press: 8 sets: 40X3, 50X3, 60X3, 70X3 (started feeling queezy, not sure if it was the lingering effects of the food poisoning or if it was the low cals combined with the reps from the pre-exhaust flies being higher than I’m used to) 80X3, 95X3, 35X3, 100X3*

*this was my MFP for 3 reps;
**rest increased 30-90 sec as weight increased;
***I feel like my muscles could have done a lot more weight. I’m not sure why, but the weight moved really slowly but was steadily being lifted and didn’t get stuck at all. Maybe Alpha-GPC would have helped. I’ll find out next upper body push workout if this is the case.

6:00PM Session: Upper Body Pull and a little tricep and shoulders

Back:

  1. Machine Rows: Ramp to 3X machine max (150 per side)
  2. Machine Pulldowns: 4 sets: 150X12
  3. Seated Cable Rows: Ramp to 225X3
  4. Pullups: 4 sets: BWX5

Biceps:

  1. Preacher Curls:
    a. 2 or 3 sets(too exhausted to remember): 70X5-6
    b. 3 sets: 90X4-5
    c. 110X1 (easy)

Shoulders:

  1. Lateral Raises: 20X15 (strict), 12X25 (difficult)

Triceps:

  1. Pressdowns:
    a. 50X6, 70X6, 90X3, 120X3

Superset (pulldowns and pressdowns)
b1. 1 set pulldowns: 240X10 (MFP)
b2. 1 drop set pressdowns: 120X3, 90X3, 70X5, 70X9 (the 70X9 were leaning over and I had to grind out the last 5 or so reps, but form was good and speed didn’t slow down considerably)

Good session. Tired and very hungry. Anaconda was gone before I even got to the shoulders… I think maybe even before the biceps.

Feb 10, 2010 (Wed): Legs

Noon Session: Quad Dominant:

10 min jump rope and heavy bag

Quads:

  1. BB Standing Lunges: 6 sets 105X6-7 (+ Warmup sets) Planned on more sets, something like 10, but felt tired and form started to fail.
  2. Leg Xts: 150X22 (MFP)

6:00PM Session: Hip Dominant
Well since i did lunges earlier in the day I figured I already hit my posterior chain decently well, so I decided on…

  1. Front Squats: ~8 sets ramped up to 265X2 going slightly below parallel. I haven’t handled this weight in some time – crazy since I’m cutting!
  2. DB Single Leg Curls: 3 sets: 45X3 (each leg), 65X3, 85X3
  3. Machine Leg Curls: 7 sets: 105X4-6 X6, Drop set: 120X3, 105X2, 75X5, 45X7

Cardio: 3 mile light jog finished with 18 flights of stairs with as little rest as possible

Feb 11, 2010 (Thur): Upper Body Push

Noon Session: Chest:

Chest (and a little shoulders):

  1. BB Incline Press: 6-7 sets ramped to 230X3 i[/i]
  2. DB Flies: 3 sets: 35X12, 45X10 X2
  3. DB Incline Press: 4 sets: 3X: 70X5-6 (using ~45 degree incline); 1X (Drop Set): 70X7 + 50X6 (using ~75 degree incline)

I figure the incline chest stuff hits the front delts pretty hard, so that combined with the laterals gives a decent stimulus to the delts. I plan to hit medial delts again in the PM session as well as rear delts with some higher volume, and may do a few heavy and a few powerful sets for shoulders as well

6:00PM Session: Shoulders and Triceps

Shoulders:

  1. Seated DB Shoulder Press (ramp to 3): 6-7 sets ramped to 85X3 i[/i] PR?
  2. Seated DB Shoulder Press (5X5): 5 sets: 55X5-6 (it really helped when I left my shoulders and hands in line with my ears, i.e. almost like a behind the neck press, but not quite that far back).
  3. rope tricep pressdowns: 30X14 X3 (just wasn’t feeling it for triceps today, likely because I was so tight and needed to stretch my shoulders)
  4. machine chest press (2/3 reps) (slow with elbows in tight): 140X15, 160X15
  5. laterals: 12.5X15, 20X8 + 12.5X7 + 12.5X10 high pulls (close at bottom to wide at top)

Feeling burnt out

Feb 12, 2010 (Fri): Took the day off. Just felt like I needed a break (was an upper body pull day)

Feb 13, 2010 (Sat): Upper Body Pull and Legs

highlights:

Front Squats: 245X2
BB Curl: 135X6
Chest Supported Rows: 4 plates X5
Bunch of other bicep variations

Called it a day. Gonna hit it hard on Monday. Planning to up the intensity for the remaining 50 days.

Feb 15, 2010 (Mon): Upper Body Push

Noon Session: Chest:

Chest (and a little shoulders): highlights

  1. DB Incline Press: 95sX7 i[/i]
  2. DB Flies: 3 sets: 35X12, 45X10 X2
  3. DB Pec Stretch: 30s held in peak stretch (DB fly) for one minute with limited brief breaks (held DBs with arms straight up over above my chest while I was resting)

6:00PM Session: Shoulders and Triceps

Shoulders:

  1. Seated DB Shoulder Press (ramp to 3): 85X5
  2. Seated DB Shoulder Press (5X5): 50X8, 70X5, 50X8, 70X5, 50X8
    3a) Machine Glose Grip Bench w/ Neutral Grip: 150X10 X 4 (could go heavier, but felt it better in my triceps with this weight) Loved this exercise
    3b) did a little tricep pressdowns as well
  3. machine chest press (2/3 reps) (slow with elbows in tight): 140X15, 160X15
  4. DB high pulls superset with laterals: a1) 40X8 a2) 12.5X8 Perform A1+A2 4 times