T-Ransformation: Week 14 - Rest
Nutrition
12:00: 75g cashews, 300g blueberries, 1 cookie
14:00: (vile) protein bar, chocolate
17:30: red bull, 2 fruit bars
19:00: sausage casserole
Bodyweight: 96.1kg
Another rest day today. Nutrition was ok, barring that protein bar which was grotesque lol. Bodyweight continues to drop which is very encouraging.
T-Ransformation: Week 14 - Summary
Bodyweight: 96.6kg
Training: Pretty standard, can’t complain!
Nutrition: Very good, although I’m still having carbs from questionable sources.
This has been another good week for weight loss (0.5kg/1.1lbs since last week). Despite adding more carbs back in I’m continuing to drop weight at a decent rate, but I’ll have to be vigilant against dropping too fast. Usually when I get below 96kg I begin to notice some big changes with my physique so I’m looking forward to that. I already definitely look better than 2 weeks ago.
Tomorrow morning I’m going camping with some friends for a long weekend which will be awesome. Nutrition is obviously going to have to be quite flexible and I won’t get any bodyweight measurements, but that is fine. I’ll probably do some pistol squats and one arm push-ups while I’m out there.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Bodyweight
Pistol Squats
BW: 1,2,3,4,5
EMOM
One-Arm Push-Ups
BW: 3x5
Run
1.2 miles
Time: 11:46
I didn’t feel like training today but thought I should get some bodyweight work done. The pistol squats felt smoother than the last few sessions but this was quite a challenging rep scheme and I actually got quite a decent quad pump. I had to spot myself with my non-working leg on the final right leg rep.
Nutrition
12:30: Relentless, 3 rolls (salami, houmous), 4 oranges
15:00: handful of dates, 3 oranges
17:45: 1 roll (salami, houmous)
18:30: steak, potatoes, veg
I felt a bit rough after the camping so had a Relentless energy drink. Otherwise my nutrition today was pretty good.
Edited for the run and roll.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Gym
Pull-Ups
BW: 5x5
Deadlifts
140kg: 3
160kg: 2 - mixed grip
180kg: 2
200kg: F
Overhead Press
60kg: 3x5
A pretty disappointing session today. I was going to do upper body only as my knees felt a bit rough, but got tempted to deadlift. I decided to go for 200kg without a belt as I’ve never done that before, and failed it just below lockout, which was surprising. I didn’t feel like I was in a good position.
Nutrition
12:30: peanuts, dates
18:00: can of coke, 2 croissants
20:00: chicken goujons, potatoes, peas
Bodyweight: 96.8kg
I messed up with my nutrition today and really undershot my protein. I like having nuts and fruit for lunch, but if I do that I have to have a lot of lean meat in the evening. If I’d had turkey breast instead of the chicken goujons for example, that would have made a big difference. So this worked out as approximately 2700 calories but with only 95g of protein.
How about adding some sort of protein into your first meal??
Maybe an egg or 2, or maybe some Turkey?
Would make hitting your protein requirements a lot easier.
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That’s a very good idea man. I’ll start doing that on days I can cook for lunch. Otherwise nuts are more convenient.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Upper Body
Kettlebell Rows
40kg: 5x5
Push-Ups
BW: 35, 21, 20
Band Pull-Aparts
Blue: 5x25
This was a pretty uninspired upper body session. I feel like I’ve been really neglecting my upper body for the last good while, as I’ve been quite focussed on deadlifts, running and, to a lesser extent, pistol squats. My rear delts felt particularly fried today, but nothing felt strong.
Nutrition
12:30: BLT, 300g blueberries, lemonade
17:30: 500g turkey breast, 400g potatoes, peas, BBQ sauce
20:00: 3 protein flapjacks, 250g mango, 1 coke
Bodyweight: 96.2kg
This was better than yesterday - approximately 2700kcal and 185g protein. I’m never good at judging but I think I look a fair bit leaner now, which is very nice.
Boiled eggs are handy.
Do them the night before, and then microwave them at lunch.
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T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Rest
Nutrition
12:00: Chicken goujons, peas
15:00: Rockstar, mars protein bar
18:30: Chicken sandwich, tomatoes, almonds
20:30: Oranges
Bodyweight: 96.5kg
I felt pretty off today, I think I’m coming down with a cold. Again I didn’t do well with protein (125g) but total calories were fine (2700). I was driving all evening hence not having a proper cooked meal.
I think I’m going to run the Tim Henrique’s deadlift routine again because I’m not good at self-directed deadlift training. I might run it all beltless because I’m disappointed with failing 200kg this week.
I’d go the opposite direction. A belt is a tool. The less you use it, the worse you get at using it. As long as you do some beltless work (say, all bar your penultimate work up) you’ll be fine.
Yeah I’d just do this with the goal of improving my beltless deadlift, not my belted deadlift. I really want to be able to lift 200kg confidently with no equipment. Plus it would force me to use slightly lighter weights for a bit which might be good for me. What I could maybe do is do my top set beltless and then repeat it belted to keep my belt-technique ticking over.
That could work. It’d be interesting to see how much of a difference you felt between sets.
I have a feeling the belted sets will feel a lot easier. I don’t think straps are any stronger than mixed grip for me, but the belt definitely makes a big difference! That failed beltless 200kg rep felt extremely similar to my failed belted 220kg - both started pretty strong but I just couldn’t lock them out.
One of the biggest game changers for me has been using straps for most of my work sets. It’s helped me improve my ability to stay in a good position at the start, which transferred to my mixed grip. That said, I only started having issues with mixed grip because due to my left bicep strain I still can’t use my left hand for anything other than overhand grip so I started twisting around after a few months.
Yeah don’t get me wrong I think straps are extremely useful in training. I just don’t find a significant difference between straps and mixed grip on max effort attempts.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Run
Run
1) 2 miles
Time: 19:13
2) 2 miles
Time: 18:33
This turned out to be a pretty good training day! I was disappointed with how tired I felt during the first run, but it made sense when I finished and realised I’d been going a decent bit faster than usual: this was the first time I’d maintained a pace under 10min/mile for 2 miles. In the evening I felt like doing a bit more work so ran again, and was actually a bit quicker over more difficult terrain. I think I might switch my focus to getting faster over 2 miles rather than increasing my distances.
Nutrition
12:00: Ommelette (5 eggs, salami), tomatoes
13:00: Relentless, 3 Reese’s cups
17:00: Redbull, 3 Reese’s cups, blueberries
21:00: Chicken breast, baked potatoes
I got a bit cocky today and ate too much shit, which put me very slightly over my calorie goal, but I was good on protein (2800kcal, 210g protein). Vast quantities of chicken breast can hide all manner of sins.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Rest
Nutrition
12:00: Chicken sandwich, kitkat, blueberries
17:00: Cream soda, 2 doughnuts
19:00: Chicken breast, roast veg
Bodyweight: 95.8kg
Busy day at work today and I plan on hitting things hard over the weekend, so I took another rest day. Nutrition was fine - approximately 2,700kcal and 210g protein.
T-Ransformation: Week 15 - Summary
Bodyweight: 96.3kg
Training: Fine
Nutrition: Good - stuck to my targets
This has been a pretty unremarkable week. My bodyweight is continuing to drop but at a much less alarming pace. Since starting this I’ve gone 98.5kg - 97.1kg - 96.6kg - 96.3kg*. I’m extremely grateful to @MarkKO for his guidance on this because my diet has felt much more sustainable since I took his advice, and I’m confident I’m not losing muscle.
There’s really not much to say about training this week. I didn’t go for a long run and my deadlift session was poor, but that pistol squat pyramid felt very good and I’m happy with my faster runs.
*217lbs - 214lbs - 213lbs - 212lbs
T-Ransformation: Week 16 - Gym
Deadlifts
Warm-Up
180kg: 5 - belt, straps
200kg: F - no belt, mixed grip
200kg: F - belt, mixed grip
Pull-Up/Pistol Squat/One-Arm Push-Up - Giant Set
BW: 10x 3/2/2
E2MOM
Chin-Ups
BW: 8, 6
Dumbbell Press
25kg: 2x8
Pretty disappointing session today to be honest. I decided to scrap my plan of working on my beltless deadlift and just worked up to my usual top set of 180kg for 5. All the warm-up sets felt stupidly heavy and the final rep with 180kg was probably the single grindiest grind I have ever participated in (although there’s a chance it was a 6th rep, I lost count mid-set). After that I felt pretty wrecked but wanted to try 200kg beltless again - that failed below the knees and so did my follow-up belted attempt. Boo.
After the deadlifts I did a bodyweight giant set every second minute on the minute, and that actually went pretty well. In hindsight I probably should have gone for 3 reps on all 3 exercises, but regardless I got more volume done than I’d usually do. I wanted to do a bit more after that so did some chin-ups and dumbbell press, but I quickly lost interest. So much for hitting it hard today!
Nutrition
11:30: falafel wrap, chocolate bar
14:30: 5 eggs, 2 bananas
17:30: dates
19:00: beef meatballs, potatoes
Bodyweight: 96.5kg
2900kcal and 130g of protein today, which was disappointing as I thought this looked like a decent day of eating before I did the maths. I think that if I want to eat fattier meats like meatballs I need to be really on-point with everything else, otherwise it’s too easy to either over-shoot calories or undershoot protein (or both, in this case). I don’t know why but I was just starving this evening.
My bodyweight was 96.5kg which was higher than I’d hoped but I looked much leaner in the mirror so I really can’t complain.
Im not trying to be be a pain, but…
… reese’s cups, cream sodas, doughnuts, kit-kats: they all have to go.
Im sure you could find better alternatives to the above “foods”
Uncle Bird.
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