Just. Don't. Suck (Part 1)

I’m aware of the weight gain process and how it should be. I’m doing my best to be patient. I was 240 lbs year round in college so it’s easy for me to gain 20 lbs to get back to that weight. But I know it’s not muscle when it happens in two months.

10.13.17 Lunch Break Workout

Pull-ups
10
10
6
6

Underhand Pull-down
170 x 10
190 x 10
210 x 8
210 x 8
210 x 8
140 x 10F/10B/10T
140 x 10T/10B/10F

Cable Row
170 x 10 x 4 sets

2 Likes

10.15.17

Once again I forgot to weigh myself in the morning. I weighed myself after getting dressed for work (no duty belt, vest, or boots) and I was 235 lbs.

I didn’t work out yesterday. I got busy at work and it just didn’t happen so I snuck it in today.

Seated DB Military
30 x 10 (standing)
40 x 8 (standing)
50 x 10
55 x 8
60 x 6
65 x 4
70 x 2
75 x 3

Good old pyramid rep scheme

Cable Fly
70 x 10 x 3 sets
40 x 10 full/10 bottom half/10 top half

Cable Press-Down
140 x 10
150 x 10
160 x 10
120 x 10F/10B/10F

superset with:

Reverse Cable Curl
120 x 10 x 3
90 x 10F/10T/10B

I failed to do any ab work in the latter half of the week. I should’ve supersetted this stuff with abs but it was nice to take it easy and just get in a little shoulder and chest work. Nothing crazy but it felt good. This seems like a pretty small workout but it falls in line with my idea of doing two-thirds of my work Mon-Wed and then doing less on my work days.

3 Likes

10.16.17

Woke at 231.8 lbs. Hmmmm. I’m a bit confused by my weight and nutrition as of late. I was holding at 220 lbs at 3600 calories per day before my lifting and nutrition tracking break. I thought the 10 lbs I gained in a week was due to the creatine monohydrate. I quit taking that last week but my weight hasn’t fluctuated at all.

I’ve been operating under the premise that 3600 calories was where I needed to be at 220 but here I am maintaining 230 at close to the same calories. I bumped my goal up to 4000 calories per day about a week ago but I’m thinking about dropping that down a bit.

I’m not going to gain a pound of muscle in a week. If I’m lucky then I’ll gain maybe one pound per month, so my caloric surplus needs to be about 115 to 120 calories extra per day. The problem with that is that I can easily be over or under that mark; that’s like one slice of bread.

I guess I need to suck it up and get dialed in. I’ve been a little loose with my nutrition. I don’t think I’m eating too much but I guess it’s possible. I’ve been tracking through the day and then not paying attention to dinner the past couple nights because I’ve had meals that I didn’t prepare. I was behind at that point in the day so I figured it wasn’t a big deal to just eat like a normal person and not worry about weighing my portions and trying to figure out the macros.

I’m now right where I normally end up when I try to bulk. My mid section is a little softer than normal and I hate it. This is the point when I pull the plug and cut back to 220 so I can see my abs again. I’m going to try to press on this time. But my problem is that I’m not happy with the extra fluff but I still want to add quality mass. I don’t think it’s possible to cut fat and add muscle at the same time. I’m going to try to stay the course and as long as I’m at or below 15% body fat then I won’t hit the panic button.

1 Like

Definitely a good idea to get dialled in. I’m finding that the surplus needed to add lean mass is really quite small.

I saw your progress and projected rate of lean mass gain and my eating surplus was putting me on pace to gain more than you. I think I’ll gain slower than you because I’ve been playing the physique game casually for years.

Time to wake up and get serious.

1 Like

I’ve got this idea that the gaining surplus is really just eating around the top end of maintenance for your estimated LBM. Let’s say I’m around 15 per cent bodyfat and I’m weighing around 195 lbs. That means my LBM is around 166 lbs, and 166x17 is 2822 lbs. That’s within 100 cal/day of what I’m currently eating, and I always figure I’ve got a 100-200 calorie error margin based on scale inaccuracy, sometimes eyeballing instead of weighing some things, etc. If I follow those numbers, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing since June.

1 Like

Complete Power Look Week 1

As you can see, I’ve started CT’s program again. I think this will be the third time I’ve run it. I’m doing squats instead of front squats and working to reset my depth. I’m actually stopping a bit higher (Blasphemy, I know!) to mark from putting my hip in the ROM that causes the impingement. This will be my best bet for long term hip health after my surgery.

Warm-up
4 laps dynamic warm-up with 5 build up runs finishing at an all out sprint.

Squat
135 x 10
185 x 5
245 x 3 x 5 sets

Paused Squats
135 x 8 x 4 sets

Reverse Lunge (Smith)
85 x 8 each x 4 sets

Bonus Work

Seated Leg Curl
130 x 20 x 2

I might regret those in the morning.

2 Likes

Doing high squats…should have put that in the flame free confession thread !!

1 Like

Not too high! I can go to parallel but I’ve got in the habit of going a little bit further to use the stretch reflex to get my ass out of the hole. Now I have to stop higher than normal (parallel or a shade above) which is actually harder.

I’m used to letting my ROM stop the descent. Now I actually have to put some effort into stopping and reversing directions.

3 Likes

When I 1st started squatting, this is what I would do as I was worried I would get stuck in the hole. I kept putting weight on and as the weight got higher, my stress about going too low and getting stuck also got higher.

A than had a bit of a hiatus from the gym and when I went back I dropped the weight considerably and made sure to go deeper.

I than found out I could handle more poundage as it was easier to use the stretch reflex and it was also more intuitive. I was no longer worried about getting stuck down low as my sticking point tended to be a few inches higher than parallel on the way up.

So in short, yeah I agree that staying slightly above parallel is tougher, and expect the weight to move a bit differently.

3 Likes

10.18.17

Woke at 230.8 lbs.

Monday’s Nutrition
3498 calories, 331g carbs, 133g fat, 166g protein.

Yesterday’s Nutrition
3273 calories, 368g carbs, 131g fat, 193g protein.

Yesterday’s Training

I’m lifting Mon, Wed Thurs, and Saturday while I’m on the new program. That leaves Tues and Fri for cardio and abs. Tuesdays are great but I’m not sure how I’m going to get it in on Fridays.

Cardio
20 minutes on the Adaptive Motion Trainer. Interval program. 2.23 miles.

Barbell Rollout
4 x 10 with 25’s

Cable Twist
80 x 10 ea x 3 sets

45 Degree Back Extension
3 x 20

Farmer’s Walk
120s x 60 steps x 2

Steam Room

A little more cardio
Swimming (yes, swimming)
I managed to get in 5 whole laps (50m ea lap I think). I’m a terribly inefficient swimmer.

Hot Tub

And done.

My daughter is friends with the daughter of one of the managers in the Kid Zone. They never see each other now that they’re both in preschool but she’s there on Tuesdays. I wanted my girl to have some fun with her friend so I just meandered around looking for something to do so she could have the maximum amount of play time (2 hr time limit).

I might swim more often because 1) I suck at it and 2) I’m sure it burns a lot of calories due to reason 1.

EDIT to add Farmer’s Walks

Training

Conditioning
2 lap dynamic warm-up
4 laps of fun the straightaway, walk the curve at about 70% effort

Push Press (BTN)
I saw these on a webinar about the clean and jerk yesterday so I thought I’d try them. They feel awesome on the pressing part but they’re a little painful during the lowering portion. I’m still undecided about keeping them.

45 x 10
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 3
165 x 3 x 5 sets

Pull-ups
3 x 8

OHP
95 x 8 x 4 sets
Felt some pain with these. I think it’s a result of the push presses.

High Incline DB Press
50 x 8 x 4 sets

Reverse Cable Fly
50 x 8 x 2 sets

Reverse Cable Fly Rear Delt Emphasis
40 x 8 x 2
30 x 15 x 2

SA Neutral Press-down
50 x 10 ea x 5 sets alternating arms with no rest

Was the pain due to the lowering motion or the catch on the back?

It was in the shoulder on the lowering. I’m not sure if it was pain/discomfort due to a new movement or pain b/c my shoulders don’t like being in that position. I’ll keep trying it until I figure that out.

The pain/discomfort I felt during OHP felt like my shoulders had been stretched and just weren’t used to that range of motion.

Gotcha, was gonna say if it’s cause the bar is landing on your neck… duh :joy:

I need to use a wider grip for BTN pressing otherwise my shoulders get cranky as well. Seems like your hands are pretty out there in your video though so perhaps just a newness thing.

It’s remarkable how much you look like a dude I want to college with (you and him are not the same person lol).

I prefer to form a straight line with my forearm when pressing. I try to select my grip so that I accomplish that when my elbow is at 90 degrees.

Looking at the video after I uploaded it I realized that my grip was in the right spot. It looks too wide at the start of the movement but it’s right where I want it when my elbow hits 90 degrees. But, moving my grip in a bit felt better on the last two sets.

I thought about finding the squat bar pad but I don’t need it yet. I think the only legitimate reason to use a pad is to protect your spine when jumping or possibly doing something like this movement…but definitely not for squats!

1 Like

They don’t call it the p-pad for nothing :stuck_out_tongue:

You don’t seem to really be catching the weight as much as just partial squatting after lowering the weight. IMO you should lower the weight and learn how to drop and catch the weight because lowering it that slow when you’re reaching your limit can destroy your shoulders.

What do you mean by “catching the weight”?