KD13 Not Very Strongman

I am following hcg diet which is a low calorie diet my dietician prescribed for me.
She promised i would lose weight by following the diet.

Also she asked me buy hcg drops as they suppress my hunger.

@arlinton that diet is not something I am familiar with, if you trust the person who has you doing it then it may be worth sticking to there advice.

Gonna keep up the food tracking, yesterday I tracked everything, finished my evening meal and then when I checked the app I realised I was pretty short of the cals target. Ended up eating some yogurt, mango and a few slices of bread to make sure a cleared the cals target.


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EDT
Bench and curl (beat rep targets on both exercise)

Incline flies - 2 sets of 15
Band raise/fly - 3 sets of 12

Was hoping to squat or deadlift tonight but I have a minor foot injury (impact injury to top of foot) making it rather painful, will rest it for a few days.

Another good days eating

Weight has surely got to start creeping up again!

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Okay itā€™s time for a little self assessment.

Now if I was asked by someone wanting to build a more muscular physique what I would consider to be the key things they should be doing to achieve that goal, based on them being a lift long skinny bugger I would answerā€¦

  1. hit your calorie targets

Work out what your daily calorie intake should be and consistently eat above that day in day out no excuses.

  1. eat mostly whole foods

Lots of good meat, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit, good quality carb sources like rice, potatoes, brown variations of foods, whole grain stuff ectā€¦ You donā€™t need to be 100% clean, just eat as good as you can but if you need some crap to hit your calorie targets, so be it. Hitting the target will make or break you.

3 drink lots of water

No explanation needed!

4 follow a simple routine

A simple push/pull split is ideal.
Push day
Squat, bench, overhead press, leg kicks, tricep isolation.
Pull day
Chin up, deadlift, row variation, ham curl, bicep isolation.

5 **8 to 12 reps **

The 8 to 12 range is ideal, most of your time should be spent here.

6slow eccentric

The magic happens lowering weights, use a 4 second controlled negative on all but deadlift. Stick with it every rep, if you canā€™t maintain it lower the weight until you can do every rep of every set in this fashion.

7 forget your ego

Having an ego will severely hinder your ability to carry out point 6. You will be disappointed with how little you can rep for 10 with a 4 second negative, you will feel like everyone is looking at your puny weights, you will want to forget tempo and form and prove you can lift heavy. Donā€™t do it, stay strong and stick with the plan. Itā€™s all in your head, Nobody actually cares what your lifting, and if they do thatā€™s there issue not yours.

8leave the gym feeling trained but not half dead

Stick to your program, donā€™t add more because you still feel fine, donā€™t do 100 extra sets because you can still feel your arms. Donā€™t aim to leave the gym beat, anyone can tire themselves out.

9 progression

You have to be making progress, you could progress by doing more weight, more reps,more sets, less rest. Pick a preferred method of progression that works for you, just make sure there is one. If your following a tried and tested set program, use the progression they prescribe.

10 keep a journal

This will help with progression and self assessment. The faintest of ink is clearer then the most vivid memory. Not sure where I read that but I like it.

So thatā€™s what I see as being vital to progress, number 1 being the most important of all of them. Which leads on to my self assessment against this listā€¦

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So have I been doing all of the above.

  1. No (will explain later)

  2. Yes thatā€™s how I have been eating, mostly clean but nothing is off the menu, Iā€™ve just not been eating enough consistently.

  3. Yes I drink enough

  4. Not really, Iā€™ve been doing all sorts the past few months.

  5. Yes most of my work has been in the 8-12 rep range.

  6. This has been going out the window. Still very controlled reps though but Iā€™m not sticking to a strict 4 second negative.

  7. Training alone at home, no one impress. I have been guilty of this before but not in the past 8 months.

  8. Iā€™ve been killing myself with the high volume EDT stuff and the 20 reps squats.

  9. Progression has been steady. Not a problem there.

  10. Been scribbling down loose notes but nothing accurate enough. Need to do it better.

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So after a tracking my food intake over the past week itā€™s been clear that some days Iā€™m eating a lot but the calories are just not adding up to what they need to be.

Monday I ate well and cleared 3500 calories with ease, after my evening meal I was over the target. Jobs a good un.
Tuesday I ate to my knowledge just as well but must have been lacking in the cals department. Finished my evening meal and looked at my intake, 400 cals missing. Oh well thatā€™s easy sorted, few slices bread and oil.
Wednesday I overslept and had to have breakfast on the go, had my second meal on the go because of hospital appointment. Rest of the day ate well, 800 cals down After evening meal. Made the cals up eating anything and everything.
Thursday smashed it and Friday smashed it. Now I know for a fact I under eat at weekends and will be fixing that.

So 4 out of 7 days Iā€™m down on cals, and if I wasnā€™t tracking them I would have been unaware how short I was. what a dick!

Add into the fact Iā€™ve probably been pushing the volume too hard and itā€™s no surprise Iā€™ve been leaning out!

Gonna switch to my tried and tested push pull routine with the slow eccentric and nail the cals, that should get things moving in the right direction again.

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Squat 4x10
Bench 4x10
Military press 4x10
Close hand press up 12/6/6
(Triceps where fried from bench and military)

Great session, 4 second negatives and 1 minute rest between sets, 10 seconds rest on close hand.

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Cals yesterday were 3886

Todayā€™s training

Chin up 40reps
Single arm row 4x10
Deadlift 3x5 + 2x10 of lighter form work
Ez curl 4x10

Squat 4x10 (increased weight)
Bench 4x10 (increased weight)
Military press 4x10
Close hand press up 15/7/6

Training time 31 minutes

Is that 10 sets of 4 or 10 reps Ɨ 4 sets?

Lol I wrote it out wrong! Well spotted. I was doing 10 sets of 4 as part of the anti bodybuilder routine but this time it is 4 sets of 10.

Iā€™m back to basics.

Yeah i was thinking what the f*ck 30 sets in thirty minutes. Lol.

Training time 37 minutes

40 chin ups in 7 minutes 30 seconds
Row 4x12
Deadlift 5x5 plus lighter form work
Curl 4x10

Had a few 4000+ calories days, having to make a real effort over the weekends to make sure I at least clear 3500.

Walked 5.5 miles this morning with the little one in a carry back pack, was tough going as he is a chunky boy! We walk a lot as a family and whenever we get a few spare hours nearly always get out and about. I think thatā€™s why I dropped weight over Christmas, we were doing 4 or 5 miles near enough every day.

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Happy cake day man!

Iā€™m bulking, everyday is cake day.

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Haha! Il be bulking soon too. Gotta gain back some lost kgs

77kg today, still looking pretty lean at that weight. Hoping I can make it to 80+ and maintain this conditioning.

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Squat 4x10
Bench 4x10
Military press 4x10
(last set had to rest pause 7/3)
Close hand press up 19/8/7

Increased weights on all exercises

Interrupted session tonight.

40 chin ups in 6 minutes 37 seconds.
Db row 4x10

Warmed up for deadlift then little one who was in bed decided to wake up and wouldnā€™t settle, took 20 minutes to get him back down. Couldnā€™t be bothered to warm up and start over so just did all types of curls to finish off.

30 reps hammer curl
25 reps ez curl
20 reps ez curl
10 reps heavy curl drop set to failure

Will deadlift tomorrow evening.