That’s good to hear. I’m going to stick with it.
1 Like
FRIDAY
BW: 157.2 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Push Pull Push Legs W5 D3
Push
Warmup - Stairmill
5 minutes / 60 calories
Just to note, this is a hard warmup for me, especially at this weight. My HR hits 160 after just a few minutes. It’s no fun, but it works.
Chest - Seated plate loaded incline press
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
130 lbs x 4
150 lbs x 2
170 lbs x 8 (!)
115 lbs x 12 (!)
Probably too heavy on the drop set. 85-95 lbs would have made more sense.
Chest - DB incline press
40s x 8
45s x 6
50s x 4
55s x 2
60s x 8 (!), 5 (!)
35s x 15 (!)
Chest - Low2high cable flye
12 1/2 lbs x 10
20 lbs x 12, 12, 12
Triceps - Cable pressdown
72 1/2 lbs x 8
77 1/2 lbs x 6
82 1/2 lbs x 4
87 1/2 lbs x 2
92 1/2 lbs x 4, 3 (!)
57 1/2 lbs x 20 (!)
Probably a bridge too far with the set at 92 1/2 lbs. Will drop back to 90 lbs and see what we can do.
Triceps - Overhead rope extension
47 1/2 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
57 1/2 lbs x 4
62 1/2 lbs x 2
67 1/2 lbs x 5 (!), 5 (!)
42 1/2 lbs x 20 (!)
Reaching an upper bound here at 67 1/2 lbs.
Starting to up the volume just a little bit here and there in the final two weeks of this meso. About 105 minutes start to finish.
3 Likes
SATURDAY
BW: 159.2 lbs
waist: 35 1/2"
BP: Orange
Had planned on waiting until after Labor Day weekend to begin my Modified V-Diet. But now that I’m creeping back toward 160 lbs, I figure there’s no better time than the present.
Conditioning
Zone 3 Cardio
Row sprints
8:07 minutes / 97 cal / 1712m
2 min rest
6:07 minutes / 71 cal / 1274m
2 min rest
4:06 minutes / 50 cal / 883m
2 min rest
2:07 minutes / 29 cal / 486m
Totals: 247 cal / 4,355m
PR: 255 cal / 4,411m
Ran out of time, so I just did the Zone 3 work. I’ll do the Zone 1 cardio on Sunday. I might actually continue this split, since I do legs on Monday… That still gives me three cardio sessions a week. May need to make Wednesday a mixed session with a row and an incline walk.
Wasn’t feeling the love for higher intensity cardio with my weight nearing 160 lbs, but glad I bit down on the mouthpiece and got it done. Numbers actually turned out pretty decent on the day, though I felt myself fade on the 2 minute sprint after a strong start.
Looking over my weight over the past few years, I see that I’ve made the move down from north of 155 lbs to near 145 lbs three times. Each time it took me about six months to lose the weight and about six months at the new low weight before the numbers began rising again. There’s probably some benefit in focusing more on 150 lbs than 145 lbs as a target and potential maintenance level going forward.
3 Likes
SUNDAY
BW: 157.2 lbs
waist: 34 3/4"
BP: Orange
Push Pull Push Legs W5 D3 1/2
Shoulders/Biceps/Conditioning
Warmup - Stairmill
5 minutes / 60 calories
Back/Rear delts - Face pulls
20 lbs x 10
25 lbs x 10
30 lbs x 10 x 3
Delts - Single arm cable external rotations
5 lbs x 10 x 3
Delts - Single-arm cable Y-raises
5 lbs x 10
7 1/2 lbs x 10
10 lbs x 10 x 3
Delts/Traps - Lu raises
5s x 10
10s x 10 x 3
Biceps - Machine curl
40 lbs x 10
65 lbs x 8
80 lbs x 6
95 lbs x 4
110 lbs x 9 (!)
55 lbs x 20
Biceps - Face-away cable bicep curls
35 lbs x 10
45 lbs x 10
55 lbs x 10 x 3
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
2.5 miles / 356 calories / 45:31 minutes
Took advantage of having time on my side for a change to do a long session. Decided to turn my LSD cardio day into a hybrid cardio + shoulders/biceps day. This will help get me to some decent biceps volume. It will also help me wade a little deeper into the water of direct delt training. We’ll see how that goes.
3 Likes
MONDAY
BW: 156.4 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Push Pull Push Legs W5 D4
Legs
Warmup - Incline treadmill walk
10 minutes / 80 calories / 0.56 miles
Hams - Seated leg curl
70 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
130 lbs x 4
150 lbs x 9 (!)
110 lbs x 20 (!)
Quads - Back squat
bar x 10
135 lbs x 8
165 lbs x 6
185 lbs x 4
205 lbs x 9 (!)
130 lbs x 20 (!)
Top set and widowmaker felt ugly, but doable. Probably still getting used to it. There’s a part of me that’s been considering a program like StrongLifts where you squat three times a week as a way to build up strength ahead of a 5/3/1 palooza in 2024.
Hams - RDLs
bar x 10
95 lbs x 8
135 lbs x 6
165 lbs x 4
190 lbs x 9
120 lbs x 20 (!)
Did an abbreviated leg day because I ran out of time. Still only shorted myself some GHRs and HLRs. Not a top priority. Work today felt successful if not pretty. That sounds like a leg day.
Thinking about some time saving strategies since it’s such a chronic issue. I’m going to stop doing the cardio warmup. I live in Arizona and I’m baking in my car for 15 minutes on the drive to the gym. My body is plenty warmed up. Seriously, three warmup sets is enough. I’ll start with the set of eight, and shorten my rest time during the warmups to 90 seconds as I do the sets of six and four.
That said, the stairmill is a very inefficient cardio tool for me - which means I need to keep it in the rotation for fat loss purposes, if nothing else. Maybe part of a midweek stairmill - row - incline treadmill 5-10-45 cardio workout?
Tomorrow is the last day of barbell bench pressing for this meso. I miss my Swiss bar so much that I’m kind of glad to see my BB bench programming come to an end. I’m probably going to swap it out for the standing cable press going forward, which will give me the ability to converge that a barbell won’t. And to tell you the truth, the DB incline bench might be the next to go in favor of the cables.
3 Likes
TUESDAY
BW: 156.0 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Hypertrophy
Chest - Seated flat machine press
110 lbs x 8
130 lbs x 6
150 lbs x 4
170 lbs x 8 (!)
130 lbs x 15 (!)
Chest - Single arm sternal cable press around
17 1/2 lbs x 10
22 1/2 lbs x 8
27 1/2 lbs x 8
32 1/2 lbs x 6
37 1/2 lbs x 9
22 1/2 lbs x 20
Chest - Seated machine fly
Level 4 x 10
Level 8 x 8
Level 12 x 6 x 3
Level 6 x 20
I have no idea what the weights were on this Star Trac Human Sport machine. The regular pec deck machine was taken, so I had to work with this thing.
Triceps - Single arm cable kickback
10 lbs x 10
15 lbs x 8
20 lbs x 6 x 3
12 1/2 lbs x 20
Triceps - Overhead rope extension
47 1/2 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
57 1/2 lbs x 4
62 1/2 lbs x 2
67 1/2 lbs x 7 (!)
47 1/2 lbs x 15 (!)
95 minutes start to finish. Decided to do the warmup since I’m doing so little cardio compared to what I’ve programmed in the past.
Took in more calories than I should have today, but I’m feeling good about my diet. Tomorrow will be a bigger deficit day, along with some needed cardio.
3 Likes
WEDNESDAY
BW: 157.8 lbs (about those Tuesday calories …)
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Conditioning
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
3.3 miles / 470 calories / 60 minutes
1843 cal
171p / 109c / 52f’
New rules
150g protein daily minimum
Weekday calorie cap at 1650
Salad for breakfast with fish (anchovy, trout, salmon)
Protein Shake for pre/peri workout and lunch
Protein Shake for post workout
Low Carb HSM for dinner
Reduce weekday alcohol consumption
Enjoyed seeing an Instagram video of Paul Carter talking about why he’s glad he doesn’t use dumbbells for pressing as a regular thing. I’m slowly getting more comfortable abandoning free weights and embracing machines and cables as I get older.
Dropped the dumbbell pressing out of yesterday’s push session in favor of cables and will do the same with the BB pressing scheduled for Friday. I almost tweaked my shoulder hoisting the 60s into position a little while back. I can press the weight - got a hard 8 followed by a hard 5. But the stability demands feel as if they are rising rapidly and I just don’t need to live that life of danger.
4 Likes
THURSDAY
BW: 158.0 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Push Pull Push Legs W6 D2
Pull
Back - Chest supported row (upper grip)
90 lbs x 10
110 lbs x 8
130 lbs x 6
150 lbs x 4
170 lbs x 9
140 lbs x 20 (!)
Back - Cable shrugs
25 lbs x 10
35 lbs x 10
45 lbs x 10
55 lbs x 10
65 lbs x 10
Lats (H) - Single-arm plate loaded row
70 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
135 lbs x 4
155 lbs x 9 (!)
90 lbs x 20
Lats (V) - Chins
BW x 10
BW x 8
BW x 8 (!)
Biceps - NG rope hammer curl
35 lbs x 10
45 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
62 1/2 lbs x 4
70 lbs x 7 (!)
40 lbs x 15 (!)
Just under 80 minutes start to finish. Cut rest periods during warmups to about a minute, which not only saved time but definitely improved my intensity and pump. Shrugs are new; strange to do a lift with so little range of motion - really forces you to focus.
Speaking of focus, I’m trying to emphasize that distinction that Van Wyck talks about between bodybuilding and weightlifting. As a log book guy, I’m always tempted to drift into the latter and start thinking about beating the number above all else.
It’s almost 9pm - which is the beginning of the Diet Self-Destruction Zone. Let’s see how tonight’s stroll across the minefield goes …
1686 cal
163p / 70c / 51f
3 Likes
FRIDAY
BW: 156.6 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Yellow
Push Pull Push Legs W6 D3
Push
Warmup - Stairmill
5 minutes / 50 calories
Chest - Seated incline plate-loaded press
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
130 lbs x 4
150 lbs x 2
170 lbs x 7 (!)
115 lbs x 14
Chest - Seated cable flye
25 lbs x 10
35 lbs x 10
45 lbs x 10 x 3
Chest - Sternal cable press around
22 1/2 lbs x 10
27 1/2 lbs x 8
32 1/2 lbs x 6
37 1/2 lbs x 4
42 1/2 lbs x 9 (!)
27 1/2 lbs x 20
Triceps - Cable pressdown
72 1/2 lbs x 8
77 1/2 lbs x 6
82 1/2 lbs x 4
87 1/2 lbs x 2
60 lbs x 20
Triceps - Rope overhead extension
47 1/2 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
57 1/2 lbs x 4
62 1/2 lbs x 2
67 1/2 lbs x 8 (!)
47 1/2 lbs x 18 (!)
About 90 minutes start to finish. I can push the work rate a little bit more on pull days compared to push days, it seems. Starting to feel the ego/log book creep into my thinking. Time to level off and consolidate at these weights with stronger contractions and greater control
3 Likes
SATURDAY
BW: 156.0 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Green
Conditioning
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
3.3 miles / 415 calories / 60:26 minutes
Zone 3 Cardio
Row sprints
8:06 min / 93 cal / 1675m
2 minutes rest
6:06 min / 68 cal / 1238m
2 min rest
4:06 min / 47 cal / 844m
2 min rest
2:07 min / 28 cal / 474m
Totals: 236 cal / 4,231m
PR: 255 cal / 4,411m
Was going to just do the LSD cardio, but decided to do the full program anyway. Not my best effort on the row sprints after an hour on the treadmill, but respectable.
3 Likes
It’s baa-aack …
3 Likes
Took Sunday and Monday off. A bit of yard work in the sun on Monday.
TUESDAY
BW: 157.8 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Orange
Push Pull Push Legs W6 D4
Legs
Warmup - Treadmill
10 minutes / 80 calories
Hamstrings - Seated leg curl
70 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
130 lbs x 4
150 lbs x 9
115 lbs x 20
Quads - Back squat
bar x 10
95 lbs x 10
135 lbs x 8
165 lbs x 6
185 lbs x 4
205 lbs x 2
215 lbs x 6
135 lbs x 20
Hamstrings - BB RDLs
bar x 10
95 lbs x 8
135 lbs x 6
165 lbs x 4
200 lbs x 9 (!)
125 lbs x 20
76 minutes start to finish. Skipped the GHR/HRL superset at the end. I’ll add it to tomorrow’s cardio, if I think about it.
That’s it for this six-week, mini-specialization meso. Going to spend the next two weeks increasing the cardio and getting ready for the fall weight cut. Historically, it’s taken me about six months to get from this BW down to near 145 lbs. I’m hoping to do it in three months or less this time.
Also, as my last post indicated, I’m going back to Alsruhe’s RPM Full Body starting on the 18th. Was inspired by @antiquity’s recent log to bring some metcon back into my training. Also, it will help me prepare for returning to jiu-jitsu training, inshalla, in November.
6 Likes
WEDNESDAY
BW: 155.8 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Orange
Conditioning
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
2.5 miles / 356 calories / 45:31 minutes
3 Likes
Got in a little cardio while out of town on business this week. No resistance training. Back on the beat today.
SATURDAY
BW: 154.8 lbs
waist: 34 1/2"
BP: Yellow
Conditioning
Warmup
Stairmill
10 minutes / 37 floors / 100 calories
Zone 3 Cardio
Row sprints
8:07 minutes / 1711m / 96 calories
2 min rest
6:07 minutes / 1267m / 70 calories
2 min rest
4:06 minutes / 858m / 47 calories
2 min rest
2:06 minutes / 473m / 27 calories
Totals: 240 cal / 4,309m
PR: 255 cal / 4,411m
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
3.34 miles / 473 calories / 60 minutes
3 Likes
SUNDAY
BW: 157.0 lbs
waist: 35"
BP: Orange
Conditioning
Warmup
Stairmill
10 minutes / 37 floors / 100 calories
Zone 3 Cardio
Javorek Complexes
DB upright rows
DB high pull snatch
DB thrusters
DB bent over rows
DB high pull snatch
six reps / six rounds / first round with 10s, the rest with 15s / one minute between rounds
Rooney Supersets
95 lb Front squat
135 lb Deadlift
five reps EMOM alternating exercises / eight rounds
Can’t do the rack and was struggling a bit with the California grip on the front squats. Started to get better in the final round or two.
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
1.75 miles / 216 calories / 30:17 minutes
3 Likes
MONDAY
BW: 155.8 lbs
waist: 34 3/4"
BP: Orange
AM:
Band side laterals
2 x 20
Dumbbell Yi raises
10 lbs x 2 x 10
PM:
Warmup - Stairmill
5 minutes / 50 calories / 300 steps / 20 floors
Tricep pressdowns
62 1/2 lbs x 10
67 1/2 lbs x 8
72 1/2 lbs x 6
77 1/2 lbs x 4
72 1/2 lbs (RP) 8/4/2
57 1/2 lbs x 11
Tricep overhead extensions
37 1/2 lbs x 10
42 1/2 lbs x 8
47 1/2 lbs (RP) 8/5/3
32 1/2 lbs x 15
Seated incline plate-loaded press
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 6
130 lbs x 4
150 lbs x 2
130 lbs (RP) 6/3/2
70 lbs x 12
Pec deck
70 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 8
110 lbs x 8
130 lbs x 8
150 lbs (RP) 9/5/4
50 lbs x 20
3 Likes
Unable to make it to the gym on Tuesday. Moving furniture. Driving back and forth across town.
WEDNESDAY
BW: 154.2 lbs
waist: 34 3/4"
BP: Orange
Push Pull Legs Push Pull
AM:
Band side laterals
2 x 20
Band upright rows
2 x 10
PM:
Warmup - Stairmill
5 minutes / 50 calories / 300 steps
Bicep cable curls
47 1/2 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
57 1/2 lbs x 9, 9 (!)
37 1/2 lbs x 10
Rope hammer curl
47 1/2 lbs x 8
52 1/2 lbs x 6
57 1/2 lbs x 7 (!), 6 (!)
37 1/2 lbs x 11 (!)
Seated chest-supported row
75 lbs x 10
105 lbs x 8
135 lbs x 6
160 lbs x 5
130 lbs x 7 (!)
100 lbs x ?
These felt heavier than usual. May have been the lower/middle grip vs upper grip. Forgot to note my numbers on the final 100 lbs set.
Chins
BW x 10, 8, 6
Face pulls
27 1/2 lbs x 10
32 1/2 lbs x 10
37 1/2 lbs x 10
3 Likes
THURSDAY
BW: 155.4 lbs
waist: 34 3/4"
BP: Orange
Conditioning
Zone 1 Cardio
Incline treadmill walk
3.3 miles / 470 calories / 60 minutes
Feeling DOMS in lats, forearms, and biceps - in that order. Trying to take a bodybuilding approach to my bodybuilding, meaning avoid the “log book curse” of chasing the number at the expense of feeling the muscle do the work. Yesterday was a good day that way.
Woke up with some left delt pain; need to be careful of getting back into shoulder training too aggressively. Need to remember that it’s been a year since I did any delt work (other than rear delt). A little is likely to go a long way.
3 Likes