Just like the rest of us on here 
2 Likes
Okay, so after the full 3 week cut (yesterday was the last day of it). I just weighed in at 186.2lb (down from ~200lb). Another 0.8lb down from yesterday. Completely full of energy today as well after a wicked sleep. I’m now feeling it would be stupid to jump back to the bulk so soon. I’m just gonna play it by ear for now… if I start getting ravenous, I’ll end it. Otherwise just gonna ride it out.
5 Likes
01-03-2023
TBDL
205kg x 5
185kg x 10
Weighted neutral chins
BW + 7.5kg
10, 8, 8
Leg Press
160kg x 9
160kg x 8
Leg curls
65kg x 10
65kg x 8
65kg x didnt do. machine hurt shins
Chest supported rows
40kg x 8
40kg x 8
40kg x 9ish
Still maintaining all my pulling strength 4th week into cut. I was a little annoyed though. Because of the belt tightness fiasco on deadlifts last week, in my head I told myself “just get the five you did last week but cleaner”. Did the set. Ez pz. 2 guys (aquantainces) who were watching me wondered why I stopped the set and I had at 2-3 more in me. I felt it too. I don’t know why I stopped. It almost felt wasted. To remedy this, I managed an extra +1 on the backoff set and told myself those reps will always be there and that a cut doesn’t need to be the time that you chase these things too much. My body will be grateful for the extra recovery I’m sure.
Rest of the workout was straight forward but the more weight I hit on leg curls, the more the stupidly designed machine digs into my shins. I’m genuinely considering buying some chin football (soccer) shinguards for them.
6 Likes
02-03-2023
Seated OHP
60kg x 4
54kg x 7
48kg x 11
Incline 15° DB Bench
36kg x 6
36kg x 6
36kg x 6
Lat raises
12kg x 14
12kg x 10
12kg x 10
Machine Chest Press
90kg x 11
90kg x 9
90kg x 8
Rope pulldown
32.5kg x 10
32.5kg x 8
32.5kg x 8
Ez bar curls
40kg x 10
40kg x 8
40kg x 7
Still maintaining everything. Gained an extra rep on Machine Chest Press which is nice. Forgot to weigh myself this morning but still cutting. I had a bit of a slip up last night though. Girlfriend wanted fish and chips so I got a double chicken burger and chips. I still think I finished the day on only around 1900-2000cals so still a decent deficit! I think days like this are important for adherence (I probably said that last time).
When it comes to digestion I had quite a bit of cottage cheese yesterdy, a bit of lactose-free yogurt, and the bun was gluten. Despite that my stomach and upper GI symptoms feel better than they have all week! I think I can rule dairy and gluten out as being a problem, I’ll stick to no lactose though and remain having gluten only occassionally. I’ll tell you one thing for sure though, double chicken sat 10x better than double beef!
7 Likes
Feeling flat as a pancake with this extreme deficit but definitely leaning out. The intended 3 weeks has become 48hrs away from becoming 4 weeks…and now I’m tempted to extend it to the 5th.
4 Likes
Starting weight: 200lb
Todays weigh-in (2 days from 4 weeks): 184.2lb.
-16lb in 26 days.
I don’t half overthink these things. Even though I said I might extend to a 5th week in my last post. I’m now considering skipping heavy leg session today as I feel a bit beat up, with the intention of having the weekend off and returning to the bulk on Monday. I also feel like I need to eat more normally as too many veg doesn’t feel like it’s doing my belly any good. Need some stodge!
5 Likes
Not been in since Thursday. As I mentioned, with managing to keep performance up in such a big deficit I should probably give myself a few days off to just let my body get back to normal, eating with the shackles off, letting the extra calories re-energize and recover my body from all that hard training whilst eating food only substantial enough for a rabbit. Oh, and the mental break is nice too. I was gonna return today but had to take the dog to the vets so going to leave it until tomorrow. For the mathematically challenged, that’s 4 full days off.
I’ll use the extra time today to go over my programming, 90% of it will be pretty much the same though. Gonna have a bit of a think about what I’m going to do to be able to get the calories in also. No full-fat milk and no fatty meat is gonna make a huge dent into the ease of bulking.
Digestion update:
Ate pretty much no vegetables yesterday. A litre or so of 2% milk, lots of potato, some rice, a couple eggs, a whole buncha cottage cheese a chicken bun, and no psyllium husk. My stool was 50% better than it has been in the last 2 weeks. Little bit better upper GI too. It’s good that stuff hasn’t been too bad the past couple of days but makes it no less confusing.
5 Likes
So pissed off! Super motivated, super psyched to start a new training cycle tomorrow but done something to my toe/foot and can’t weight bare at all. I was running to get the door and caught my big toe on a step. A lot of pain right away but it faded quickly, similar to when you catch your little toe on the corner of something. I’d forgot about it pretty much and even took the dog for a couple miles walk, completely comfortably. Came back and the pain has got worse and worse and worse to the point it’s throbbing so much I can’t even move any of the other toes.
I don’t understand how it can seem fine and now it’s radiating agony so much!? Meant to be squatting, RDLing, rowing etc tomorrow. All defeatist and low now. 
3 Likes
read and acknowledged. not hitting like.
positive thoughts for a quick recovery
2 Likes
Toes are the worst! You remember when George North missed a wales test because he stunned his toe in the shower and broke it! Toes and fingers are painful! Couple days rest and you’ll be fine!
1 Like
I want to go in so bad today which is rare. Already having my “deload/rest” has made me super motivated. There’s no way I can squat or RDL on this though, limping at the moment! It’s crazy that I was absolutely fine taking the dog for a walk after the incident only for it to inflame up quickly in the evening.
I’m trying to work out if i’d be able to bench with it even. Switch my upper / lower day round. Not sure I can though.
I remember North being out for for something like that, didn’t realize it was because of the shower though. Bloody hell lol.
4 Likes
Bench
100kg x 3
90kg x 8
80kg x 12
Seated DB Press
26kg x 11
26kg x 11
26kg x 10
Weighted Dips 20kg
10
10
Pushups
26 (2secs +1 (27))
Machine Shoulder Press
45kg x 12
45kg x 10
45kg x 8
Overhead triceps extension (rope)
30kg x 7
27.5kg x 8
25kg x 9
Dropset 15kg x 5
Walked up in the snow, foot feeling a lot better but still can’t put a ton of weight on it. I skipped cable curls at the end because I live in hope that i’ll be able train legs and back tomorrow. Maybe a bit of wishful thinking!
Keeping my program the same, just switching the rep ranges up on a few of the secondary movements. 8-10s slowly becoming 10-12s, that kind of stuff. It’s working and I enjoy it so no reason to change much.
A few days of eating, replenishing that glycogen and I can already feel strength rushing back despite not doing any of these movements for 9-10 days!
7 Likes
Squat
132.5kg x 4
120kg x 7
106kg x 14
RDL
137.5kg x 7
137.5kg x 7
Narrow pulldowns
85kg x 8
85kg x 8
85kg x 8
Leg extensions
77.5kg x 12
77.5kg x 11
77.5kg x 10
One-arm dumbbell row
42kg x 9
42kg x 9
42kg x 10
Hammer curls
18kg x 14
18kg x14
I can still squat with my toe! Yay! It still hurts a bit but don’t think it’s broken and it didn’t impair the session at all.
Back to bulking, back to progression. Hadn’t squatted since 24th Feb so was surprised to do as well as I did. I expect everything to come back quickly on the main movements and be making some PRs again in no time. The less complex movements went up on first session back so good stuff! Felt so connected with my RDLs.
All in all a good session… apart from the guy asking me to spot him on bench, failing and then saying he expected that because he’s been off with a cold. Cheers mate, thanks for all that exhale!
Oh, hammer curls were put in as time was up. Form was terrible, the kind of hammer curl that hurts your forearm. Meh. Just wanted to get at least some bicep “isolation” in.
7 Likes
You are definitely doing something right, with your weight being down and your lifting going up,
1 Like
Thanks @Bambiwithhorns . I feel like I’m on a good path at the moment and it’s showing in my training and how I’m feeling day to day.
2 Likes
11-03-2023
Seated OHP
60kg x 3 (terrible set, accidently warmed up at wrong angle and lost all my energy on the first rep with an AWFUL bar path - shit happens)
54kg x 8
48kg x 12
30sec rest
45kg x 7 (didn’t like the first set so added a dropset - meh…)
Incline 15° DB Bench
36kg x 6
36kg x 7
36kg x 7
Lat raises
12kg x 14
12kg x 11
12kg x 12
Machine Chest Press
90kg x 10
90kg x 9
90kg x 8
Rope pulldown
32.5kg x 10
32.5kg x 8
32.5kg x 10
Ez bar curls
40kg x 11
40kg x 9
40kg x 9
I didn’t post this on Saturday because I had it in my head as a terrible gym session and was stupidly feeling bad about it. I got there and felt disconnected from every movement, a bit forlorn about random stuff going on and not a great nights sleep. Looking at it now through a calmer head, even though I messed up the top set - both backoffs were +1s and every other exercise I gained on except for losing a rep on machine chest press. It’s not even really that terrible of a day. Besides, one bad workout means nothing. It happens to EVERYONE.
4 Likes
13-03-2023
TBDL
205kg x 6 (PR)
185kg x 10
Weighted neutral chins
BW + 10kg
9, 7, 8
Leg Press (completely different form, more depth, different foot placement etc - maybe didnt push as hard as I could but finding weight)
110kg x 15
120kg x 15
120kg x 15
Leg curls
65kg x 10
65kg x 10ish
65kg x 10ish
Chest supported rows
40kg x 9
40kg x 9
40kg x 10ish
Remember one bad day means nothing. Back to normality, back to PRs. Could have probably got another rep or two on the TBDL back-off set, but this early on in my bulk I don’t feel the need to push too hard. I got the top set rep PR so i’m happy. Chest supported rows I wasn’t 100% sure of my ROM om the last few reps but I need to remember I’m coming back from time off. I counted the reps as clean, will see how next week goes.
6 Likes
15-03-2023
Bench
100kg x 5
90kg x 9
80kg x 12
Seated DB Press
26kg x 12
26kg x 11
26kg x 10
Weighted Dips 22.5kg
8
8
Pushups
26 (2secs +1 (27))
Machine Shoulder Press
45kg x 12 (failed 13th - not sure why I went for it)
45kg x 11 (lol @ last reps form but I got it up - right side a couple seconds behind left)
45kg x 11
Overhead triceps extension (rope)
25kg x 11
25kg x 11
25kg x 12
Easy 5 on the bench. Back to within a rep on both the top and second set just a week back to eating… and to be honest those reps may have already been there. Lovely.
Extra reps everywhere else from last week. I didn’t half grind on the shoulder stuff though. My second seated DB press set was a full 3-4 seconds of not moving on the last rep but I stayed with it. Was really impressed with how strict my form stayed despite the grind - none of that leaving one arm behind rubbish. On the machine press though… errrr… yeah. I probably shouldn’t have gone for one or two of those reps, on the very last rep of the second set my left arm was fully extended and the right arm wasn’t even half way up, cue some very awkward back manipulation that I know better of not to do. Feels a teeny bit unsettled but don’t have any concerns for squats and RDLs tomorrow.
6 Likes
16-03-2023
Squat
132.5kg x 6
120kg x 10
RDL
137.5kg x 8
137.5kg x 8
Narrow pulldowns
85kg x 9
85kg x 9
85kg x 9ish
Leg extensions
77.5kg x 15
77.5kg x 12
77.5kg x 13
One-arm dumbbell row
42kg x 12
42kg x 12
42kg x 12
Cable curls
30kg x 17
30kg x 12
30kg x 12
Up super early with severe heartburn, feeling rubbish, spaced out, forgot creatine past couple of days, lower back a bit iffy from yesterdays dumb machine press grinds but WHAT A SESSION. Exceded my pre-cut Squat numbers, a rep on each set of RDLs, EIGHT reps on DB Row, 3 reps on neutral pulldowns, SEVEN reps on leg extensions and 3 reps on the cable curls.
Feels really good to get a session like this after I had that bit of a bad one on Monday.
7 Likes
18-03-2023
Seated OHP
60kg x 5
54kg x 9
48kg x 13
Incline 15° DB Bench
36kg x 8
36kg x 8
36kg x 8
Lat raises
12kg x 15
12kg x 13
12kg x 13
Machine Chest Press
95kg x 9
95kg x 8
95kg x 7
Rope pulldown
32.5kg x 11
32.5kg x 10
32.5kg x 10
Ez bar curls
42.5kg x 10
42.5kg x 9
42.5kg x 9
Last weeks same session had me feeling not great because it was a “bad day”. This week was much better though. Progression on everything but the biggest surprises were machine chest press and ezbar curls. They both felt so heavy last week I decided I didn’t want to grind through to 8-10 reps so was gonna decrease the range just a little to 6-9 whilst increasing the weight. I added 5kg to machine chest press and my first set ended up straight in at the top end of the range (just 1 rep lower than the lighter weight last week). On Ezbar curls pretty much matched all the reps I got with 2.5kg lighter last Saturday. It goes to show how strength isn’t always ready to be displayed. I’ve gone from disappointment to feeling like I’m an anabolic machine all within a week. Consistency and working hard conquers all.
6 Likes