Caesium32's Log - Cycling With a Side of Lifting

I actually can press more than 100 kg (current PR is 106 kg with an axle, Push press) but have achieved none of the other. With the deadlift being the one I am furthest out.

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26/04/17

Bench press:
2x10x20, 5x40, 5x50, 15x55 (PR), 15x40

This was interesting. I focused on pinning my shoulder blades back between each rep and ended up with a lat pump. The last set I had to stop because my back was too tired rather than any of the pushing muscles. It feels a bit foreign at the minute but I’m sure once I get used to it it’ll help a lot. Still trying to figure out how to position my wrists; too straight and I feel like I have to touch the bar too low on my chest and more bent and it feels unstable with heavy weight.

Threw in an extra + set at the end with a low weight because I felt like I’d done basically nothing, I’m sure it won’t make much difference.

Squat superset with chins:
2x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x75/ 6x2xBW

Lat pull down:
5x10x40

Not that I care about how much I can lat pull-down but this weight feels very easy now which can’t be bad.

I was thinking of adding ab work but with all the compound movements I don’t really feel like I need to right now.

Bench press is a whole-body exercise, seems like you’re starting to learn how to use your back.

Put the bar on the meaty part of your palm
It’s kinda hard to explain in words, you’re better off watching this video: (At about 1:38 he shows quite exactly what I mean, no idea who the guy is)

If you feel that you are touching the bar too low on your chest, play around with different grip widths and check that you have a solid arch.

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Thank you mate I’ll check that video out and give it a try next time I bench!

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It may be a bit odd first time around, but when you get the hang of it, you will feel more solid than ever before.

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Have you started the 5/3/1 full body (I just saw day 1)?

One training log I found that I thought was really inspirational for the 5/3/1 FB is the following:

This dude doesn’t post here anymore (I don’t think), but you can see the improvements he made in a year of just doing the 531 FB with minor modifications.

I’m starting to think less is more. But you have to do more with less lol.

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Thanks for that I’ll check that log out when I’m bored. I’m pretty shocked by the template, it doesn’t look like that much on paper but it’s fairly tiring and I’m enjoying the workouts.

This early on in my training ‘career’ I just want to experiment and try different things to see what I enjoy and works well and this is one such example.

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For sure man! I love FB workouts. I always feel like something is “missing” if I don’t do a squat, pull, press! I always feel like squatting (for moderate weights/reps) gets you primed for the upper body lifts. Everything feels lighter after that.

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Yeah full body seems to be the way to go for me recently and I like it. I’d rather spread a body parts weekly volume out than do loads in one workout.

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@danteism covered everything I was going to say, especially about grip.

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28/04/17

Squat:
10x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x75

Felt a bit stiff today, think I might of slept funny.

Overhead press:
2x8x20, 5x25, 5x30, 12x35 (PR)

Probably could have only got one more rep on the last set.

Deadlift:
5x60, 2x80, 2x90, 2x95, 2x100

All double overhand and moved well which is good because I haven’t deadlifted much the last month. Had a bit of pain around my lower back and SI joint after this and I’m not sure why because everything felt really spot on technique wise. I liked doing lower reps at a bit higher weight though and it’s definitely less demanding than pushing myself on a PR set which is what I want for now.

I was going to end with some sort of rows but ran a bit short on time. My plan was to go to kickboxing today and do this workout tomorrow. I didn’t realise I’ve got a lecture scheduled at the same time as the class though so I’m going to go to kickboxing tomorrow instead. Only difference is instead of a ‘general’ class today it’s circuit training so I’m not sure what that’s going to be like.

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So I’m supposed to be at kickboxing right now but the new guy running the group didn’t think to put any message online that he was cancelling it. Unless you went to yesterday’s session you wouldn’t know. I’m going to have some food and I might go for a run instead later. I’m pretty annoyed.

EDIT: Went for a 2km jog over quite a few hills which took 15-20 minutes. I think I might include this weekly, it’ll probably do me good.

Wanted to do an update on my weight and that sort of thing.

Got weighed for the first time in a month after quite a lot of bad eating towards the beginning of the week and weighed 87.2kg. Then I was 86.7kg on Thursday and I’m 86.1kg today.

I’ve massively cleaned up my diet so I was expecting some weight drop, at least initially. Every day this week I’ve had eggs for breakfast, sometimes with peppers, then either chicken or beef mince and veg with potatoes or occasionally pasta or rice for lunch and dinner. As well I’ve been having about a litre of semi skimmed milk and a banana each day. On workout days I’ve also had some oats and a scoop of whey and then BCAAs intra workout too. Fish oil, a multi vitamin and creatine each day too.

I’ve decided I want to cut down a little bit then build back up. I’m not planning anything serious I’m just going to see how far eating well will take me. I don’t want to lose anymore than about 0.5kg a week ideally so if I do I’ll just start eating more but I’m not going to eat any less than I am now.

One other thing, I’ve just ordered 1kg of cyclic dextrin to have intra workout with my BCAAs and creatine. I’m not normally that into supplements but I had a discount code making it extremely cheap. I’ve been very good with money recently so I decided to see if it helps and the BCAAs I’ve had for ages so I may as well use them.

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That looks like very normal weight fluctuation to me. Have you tried measuring your waist, chest and hips? I haven’t myself, but I know it is often referred to as a very reliable measure of progress.

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I haven’t but that’s a good idea, I’ll try and get hold of a measuring tape, thanks.

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I’d definitely second the measuring tape idea, but I find it can be a bit tricky to get accurate waist measurements as it’s obviously affected by breathing.

Also measuring your arms and thighs along with scale weight is a really good way to monitor potential muscle loss as your weight drops. I do arms cold and flexed and thighs cold and relaxed. Best way to measure thighs is to find the midpoint between the top of your kneecap and your hip and measure the circumference there. The main thing with measurements is to do everything consistently, because obviously there will be big variations with flexed vs relaxed or sitting vs standing etc.

I haven’t actually measured anything in ages, that’s a good reminder.

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I agree with @MarkKO and @Furo. Measurements are better than scale weight. Just this week I’ve fluctuated 9 pounds. I ate like crap Thursday at dinner and weighed 231.0 before bed. Weighed 225 the next morning, and 222.2 yesterday. I’m back up to 224ish today after another bad dinner. Sodium and hydration play a lot of tricks on your weight.

I measure with a tape every once in a while. I do relaxed measurements. I monitor biceps, forearms, neck, chest, abdomen, waist, hips, quads, and calves. I measure both sides because they’re always different and I like to stay close to being symmetrical.

Taking measurements before cutting or bulking will tell you if you’re gaining or losing in the right places. The reason I’m confident that I can’t add much muscle to my body naturally is because my last few attempts at bulking (even clean bulking) have only added size to my abdomen, hips, and sometimes chest (added back fat). No change in arms or legs so I’m not putting the added mass in the right places.

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02/05/17

Squat:
8x20, 5x40, 3x60, 3x70, 12x80 (PR)

Happy with this PR. 10x80 was a big PR for me last time I did a plus set with it so to get 12 on a very average day is nice.

Cable row:
5x10x30

I went late at night when for some reason there’s always loads of people in the dumbbell area so couldn’t get a bench to do dumbbell rows.

Then a bench opened up so…

Dumbell bench press:
5x10x20s

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Doesn’t that feel just great?

That sounds really solid to me.

Intra-workout carbs are great, they help you recover faster and you can train for a longer duration without getting so worn out.

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Awesome!

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