T Nation

I am a weak bastid

Bodybuilding
#1

Has anyone ever seen a guy 6’2" weighing 237 lbs (my bf% is in the high teens) max his squat out at 155? Well Hi how are you doin’, that’s me. I am now a week and a half into meltdown and my poundages have dropped big time. I have done this program before with weights at around the 200-225lb range. Now yes I totally dropped the bottom out calorie wise compared to last time. Now I am consuming around 2100 calories a day compared to 2800 - 3000 last time. I was hoping double dosing mag10 would help keep my strength levels up however things aren’t quite going as planned. Maybe I am expecting too much considering I am only on day 3 of the dosing? Also I was thinking about only doing day one and day 2 of meltdown once a week each and then supplement my other work with conditioning drills and the bear two other days of the week (i box twice a week).

Anyway I am getting kind of nervous about becoming a weakling and with my fight coming up december 5th I am wondering if my weight loss goal of going from the 250lb area down to the 215-220 area will be way too much of a drop for my body to handle. Can anyone chime in on this and give me their opinion?

The supps I am using are grow, hot rox, mag10, zma. Also has anyone else ever noticed a severe drop in their sex drive while cutting calories so severly? Thanks

#2

why are you circuit training if strength is a concern?

#3

I am training this way to get ready for a fight and to drop alot o ffat. I knew I would drop strength as well but I didn’t know it would drop THIS much. I was just asking for some advice as far as calorie adjustments - training substitutions…that sortta thing.

#4

When you are dropping body fat, you should be aiming to maintain (or possibly even increase) strength. To do this, lower rep, higher intensity exercises should be used. With no disrespect at all to Coach D., the bear will probably not help as much in terms of gaining strength.

As for your low weight in the squat, it sounds like you need to do some serious posterior chain work. Start hitting the low back, glutes and hams by doing good mornings, deadlifts, sumo DLs, snatch grip DLs, reverse hypers, Glute Ham raises, box squats, etc etc. These exercises will give you strength in the posterior chain which will in turn allow you to see your squat poundages go up, probably WAY up.

As far as fat loss goes, use your energy system work and sparring for dropping weight, and your strength training to maintain or gain strength and mass. Do not consider any part of strength training as a way to lose fat.

Hope this helps you in some way. Good luck to you, athlete.

#5

Hey good luck with your fight, (any details about your fight where, when, etc). Anyway from what I’ve read on t-mag (I’m no expert) try to consume as much protein as possible as this will help maintain your strength levels (Protein intake = bodyweight). Good Luck

#6

I have been doing reverse hypers, sumo dl’s and regular dl’s and cable pull throughs. My weight training sessions are usually two hours long. The meltdown part of the session acts almost as an over the top warm up because it causes the most impact on increasing blood pressure and effort. That is why meltdown is my focus despite all the supp work I am doing. However I have yet to learn how to perform the proper snatch movement.

Ok so basically what is being said is to train for strength, increase my energy system work and drop the circuit training?

#7

Did I just read you do supplemental work with Meltdown?

I think you are simply doing too much lifting without enough rest if that’s the case.

#8

Ok you are saying that I am simply over training?

#9

2 hours of strength training is too long. If you spend more than around 4 hours in the gym per week, you are probably overtraining. You should be able to complete a strength session in approximately 45 mins - 1 hour. You might need to rethink your plan a little bit here. You want to go into your fight feeling fresh and strong. If you keep up like this, you will probably wilt like a vegatable in the hot sun.

#10

Hmmm…So does anyone have any suggestions? I have a bunch of ideas floating around about how to restructure this but I want to see some other opinions if anyone has any before I set something in stone.