Since you are doing the T-ransformation challenge, I would focus on getting stronger until about Feb, slowly reverse and cutting in March and April, than more aggressively cut May to the end of the challenge. Just me though!
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Yeah, I do have quite a bit of flab to shed though; Strongur.io and the Navy measurements put me at around 20-22% BF.
I think that, for the remainder of this year, Iāll continue lifting hard and eating proper food while keeping an eye on daily weight week-on-week and making sure my waistline doesnāt get any vaster (I carry basically every ounce of fat on my body between my neck and waist).
Come the New Year I may or may not have to rethink this approach and perhaps get a bit stricter on food, but as you say I think March through July can be weight-shedding months either way.
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Monday, 13 November
Woke up at 213.2. A little trepidation before todayās workout for a couple of reasons: firstly, my left knee has been feeling twingier than usual (see next paragraph) over the past few days and secondly, I was going to use my belt for the first time; adding unknown elements to workouts is always fun.
I actually bought this belt (an RDX lever) in December 2016. Literally the week before it arrived I strained my left patellar tendon running for a bus after a big squat session. It took a good few months before I was comfortable squatting and deadlifting again and it was with lighter weights, so I saw no need for the belt. Itās sat, unused, ever since.
I switched to low-bar squats when I began squatting again in earnest in September which generally feels a lot better on my knee. Theyāre actually still pretty high as low-bar goes, but theyāre on top of my rear delts rather than my traps anyway.
I have this glute/hip imbalance that Iām working on, which was probably the cause of the knee strain; left glute not pulling its weight put more stress on the knee.
Workout
Warmup
10m stationary bike
Flexible Five
Jumps/swings superset
I added the cardio as I felt that I was generally only hitting āwarmed upā mode one or two sets in. Just a little bit of easy stuff to get the blood flowing.
Squats
5x67.5kg
5x72.5kg (w/belt)
9x77.5kg (w/belt)
I called 8, and when I hit the 7th I thought āfuck it letās get 10ā but I spent just a half-second too long contemplating the horrors of life after the 9th rep and had to rack it. Still a nice rep and projected 1RM PR.
Three rounds of:
5x67.5kg
Knee feels no worse than it did yesterday, which is good. Sprints seem to aggravate it a hell of a lot more than squats do. Perhaps I just run like a spastic.
Bench
Five rounds of:
5x50kg
Accessories
Chins: 5x3
DB Rows: 100 total reps @20kg (15/15/15/15/15/15/10)
Facepulls: 100 total reps @15kg (4x25)
Situps: 5x5 strict and slow reps
DB Hammer Curls: 50 total reps @7.5kg (15/15/12/8)
Changed things up a bit this week and went a bit more Wendler Purist with the accessory stuff, just aiming for rep totals and focusing mostly on the main lifts of the day.
I wound up doing my chins and facepulls between squats, rows between bench and then situps and curls to finish the session off. Iāll probably up the weight on them when it takes me 4 sets to hit 100/2-3 sets to hit 50 for each one.
Total gym time: 1h25m
Diet
Breakfast
2 scoops Gold Standard
Pre-lunch
Banana and 50g peanuts
Lunch
Chicken jalfrezi and rice
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Homemade cheeseburger, salad and potato wedges
Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard
Misc
I bought some more liquid chalk last week and it came with a free sachet of pre-workout, which I mixed up with some water before the gym (forgetting Iād already had 2 caffeine pills). It tasted fucking disgusting; how do people choose to drink this over coffee?
That said I had a killer workout and felt super energetic even after coming home so maybe there was something to it, even though I only had two gulps before pouring the rest down the sink. Maybe Iāll have three caffeine pills in the morning insteadā¦
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Tuesday, 14 November
Woke up at 212.1. As I do a lot of walking on Tuesdays and I do my heavier squats on Mondays I donāt really do much conditioning-type stuff today. That meant I got a sweet lie-in until 8:00.
Workout
Walk to work, walk to Spanish after, walk home. Imagine I may hit 20,000 steps today.
Diet
Breakfast
Coffee
Pre-lunch
50g peanuts, banana, handful of raisins
Lunch
Honey balsamic chicken, rice and veg
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Beef and potato curry with naan bread.
Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard
Do NOT be that guy who talks about his steps like it counts as exercise. You are not an overweight, middle-aged woman. Hold yourself to a higher standard.
Also, you eat a heroic amount of curry. Super jealous.
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Haha yeah thatās a fair point.
Yeah, Iām British. Iāve just got a couple of go-to recipes that I like to make big batches of, so Iāve usually got a freezer drawer full of it. This past week was an exceptionally currific one because we went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant as well. Actually weāre going back on Saturdayā¦
Iām Scottish; stay up in Edinburgh.
Feel free to post up those recipes. Fucking love making curries.
Marks Daily Apple has a few good curry recipes if youāve never seen them. I make the butter chicken quite a lot. You use like a whole stick of butter. Mmmmm
Good plan. This is one I make quite often, sometimes adding chicken to it. I have another staple one which is a korma-esque affair in terms of colour/mildness and uses cashews for the sauce. Iāll try to dig it up.
Cheers, Iāll check them out.
Wednesday, 15 November
Woke up at 213.2. Stomach is feeling weird; I may be coming down with something. Despite my general weakness my immune system is generally top-tier and I almost never get ill so Iāll probably be fine. Girlfriendās parents are visiting this weekend so hopefully I wonāt be ill for it.
Workout
Warmup
5m stationary bike
Flexible Five
Jump/swing superset
Deadlift
5x85kg
5x92.5kg (belted)
11x100kg (belted)
This may have been 10 or may have been 13, I kinda lost count but it was definitely double digits. This seemed a nice compromise.
Three rounds of:
5x85kg
Press
So this got weird. As Iāve mentioned the ceiling in the gym is less than 7.5ft/2.3m high which means I canāt do standing press. Iāve been sitting on the bench facing the uprights and doing it that way but itās super weird on my rotator cuffs to get the bar off from there. Thus, I thought Iād replace press with incline bench.
Incline Bench
Finding my TM
5x37.5kg
5x42.5kg
5x47.5kg
5x50kg
5x52.5kg
*It was in the shower after this that I realised I could just clean the bar off the bench in front of me. That might work.
Misc
50 lat pulldowns @60kg (16/14/10)
50 situps (5x10)
100 facepulls @15kg (4x25)
Diet
Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard
Pre-lunch
Banana, 50g peanuts
Lunch
Cod & veg
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Chilli
Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard
General
Must decide what to do with press. I think I have three options:
- replace press with incline bench and do DB presses each workout
- clean the bar off the bench from sitting. Not even sure is that feasible as the weight increases?
- replace press with DB press and do my best to 5/3/1 it with dumbbell increases. Not ideal.
I think I prefer #1 of these options as it keeps my pressing volume up and allows me to be a bench bro.
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Friday, 17 November
Woke up at 213.6. Girlfriendās parents are visiting for the weekend and getting in this evening. There will be more curry in my future.
Workout
Warmup
Flexible Five
Jump/swing supersets
Squats
5 rounds of:
5x67.5kg
Easy peasy, but definitely feeling that imbalance. Have to actually do something about that!
Bench
5x50kg
5x52.5kg
11x55kg
Happy enough with this rep PR, especially as it comes after adding two extra sets of squats beforehand.
Three rounds of:
5x50kg
Accessories
16 chinups (4/3/3/3/3)
100 facepulls @15kg (25x4)
100 DB rows @20kg (20/17/17/17/15/14)
For chins Iām going to look to add at least 1 rep per session. For the 100x rep exercises Iām starting with a weight with which I can do 100 reps in 10 sets or less and increasing it when I can do 5x20.
Diet
Well my day has started off with two pork pies for breakfast so who the fuck knows whatās going to happen hereā¦
Post-workout
Nada
Pre-lunch
2x pork pies
Lunch
Chicken and veggies
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Cottage pie
Evening
Pints
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Friday wound up being pretty normal, but on Saturday we ate a good-sized fry for breakfast, I had a shockingly large ploughmanās lunch, finally we went for a curry. Sunday was a little more sensible until the evening; scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast and a roast dinner mid-afternoon, though a slice of cheesecake did follow that. However, after seeing off her parents the girlfriend and I watched Justice League and she had bought a couple of bags of popcorn. As I have no willpower I ate some. Anyway this is all a preface so that the opening sentence of todayās report isnāt surprising.
Monday, 20 November
Woke up at 218.9 (!!!) which I know is just bloat from the weekend but still pretty awful. My trousers still fit, at least.
Iāll have to be extra conscientious re: diet for the next couple of weeks. This weekend Iām back home in London from Friday-Sunday and next weekend Iām in Dublin for my girlfriendās MA graduation. Both have the potential to be gluttonous weekends, though Iāll do my best to mitigate the damage.
Workout
Warmup
10m stationary bike
Flexible Five
Conditioning
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) circuit:
10x kettlebell swings (16kg)
10x power bag clean and press (30kg)
10x goblet squats (16kg)
Doing conditioning M/W/F and lifting T/T/S this week. The above was not fun for someone in my condition. Made five rounds.
Diet
Going a bit more IF given the scale today. Prior to the stupid weekend, my weight was holding fairly steady so probably not much need for drastic diet changes yet.
Post-workout
Nothing
Pre-lunch
Banana & 2 mini packs raisins
Lunch
Chicken and vegetables w/sweet chilli sauce
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard & 25g popcorn
Dinner
Cottage Pie & vegetables
Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard
Misc
I expect that weight is going to be a bit of a roller coaster over the next couple of weeks but come Christmas Iāll have a good couple of months of no calorie counting under my belt - and hopefully that belt will not be too tight.
In the New Year Iāll look to continue that for a couple of months, assuming I keep getting stronger without getting fatter, and then reevaluate as I look to shed some flab for the summer.
That said, Iām considering running the Base Building template from Tactical Barbell for the first six weeks of 2018 since my conditioning is awful. IIRC it has an option of swapping the 4x weekly strength-endurance workouts and the 2x weekly strength workouts, which would allow me to run a basic 5/3/1 template for those six weeks as well.
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Tuesday, 21 November
Woke up at 214.8. Looking over the past month or so, weight has been trending upwards slightly; Iāve probably gained <0.5lb a week on average though and Iām not losing strength on chins and pressups so while Iāll keep an eye on it Iām probably doing OK.
Workout
Warmup
Flexible Five
Jumps/swings supersets
Squat
3x72.5kg (no belt)
3x77.5kg
7x82.5kg
Three rounds of:
5x72.5kg (no belt)
Bench
Five rounds of:
5x52.5kg
Accessories
5 sets chinups (4/4/3/3/3)
100 facepulls @20kg (5x20)
100 DB rows @20kg (5x20)
48 DB curls @7.5kg (16/16/16)
30 situps @BW (5x6)
Diet
Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard
Pre-lunch
Banana, S&V Snack-a-Jacks, raisins
Lunch
Cod and veggies
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Some sort of sandwich/wrap from the shop en route to Spanish
Evening
Chilli con carne
I think batman has abs 
Are you going to start a martial arts in the new year? That will take care of any excess fat and conditioning problems.
Iām pretty sure he can bench more than one plate as well. If I cut down to 12% BF now Iād be a fucking skeleton so Iāll carry on with what is basically amounting to a recomp for now. Around end of January Iāll see how itās going and reevaluate.
Grand scheme of things I donāt think I have to worry about fat gain at the moment:
Yeah if I can. I live in a pretty small place so options are limited but there seem to be a couple of places I can try out. Iād also have to get a pair of prescription sports goggles since Iām blind and glasses probably donāt go well with getting punched in the face.
Wednesday, 22 November
Woke up at 213.4. Getting sick. Deadlifts tomorrow will be fun. Originally I had scheduled my next few weeks of workouts so that Christmas week was a deload, but I may do one after 5/3/1 week next week because Iāve been feeling kinda shitty for a little. Weāll see how it goes. I know youāre meant to take a deload before you think you need one but live and learn.
Workout
Warmup
Flexible Five
Conditioning
Tabata:
Pullups
Pressups
Mountain Climbers
Squats
Was going to do sprints but it was chucking it down this morning.
Diet
Post-workout
Nothing
Pre-lunch
50g peanuts, banana
Lunch
TBD
Post-lunch
2 scoops Gold Standard
Dinner
Pulled pork rolls and corn cobs
Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard
Add to the above a few spoonfuls of honey as I drink Lemsip throughout the day.
Or āI forgot to eatā or āIām just never hungryā. gtfo.
IN for the follow on this log fellow Brit.
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When I got my first non-freelance job, a combination of being super busy plus the heat (it was in Gibraltar) meant I often didnāt get hungry/forgot to eat, which resulted in my not getting fat despite smoking about an ounce of weed each week. However when I moved back to the UK and started freelancing again I fucking ballooned.
Perhaps I just have an unhealthy relationship with food (entirely possible) but I spend the time between meals thinking about the next meal and canāt foresee circumstances that would change that! ha.
I am always hungry, luckily a combination of vanity / willpower and being a ffb (former fat boy) keep me on the straight an narrow.
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Thursday, 23 November
Woke up at 212.6. Pretty sure 3lbs of that is snot and mucus. Feeling pretty rough today.
Workout
Went in and hit the most bare-bones session of this log.
Warmup
Flexible Five
Kettlebell swings
Deadlifts
3x90kg
3x100kg
6x110kg
Serious rest-pause on the sixth. Couldnāt work out a proper belt position either. On a better day Iām sure Iād be good for 8 or more here.
Press
3x40kg
3x42.5kg
7x45kg
Accessories
Did a few sets of chins. Whoās even counting?
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Itās fun to pretend Sgt Hartman is counting!
