New Program and Log

[deanis55]

Current stats are:
Bw 110kg @ 181cm (5 11)
Bf around 20%
Squat 250kg high bar
Bench 132.5kg
Deadlift 270kg

So the goal is to drop down to around 14-15% bf while maintaining my lifts, the program is set to increase squat by 12.5kg, bench by 5kg and dead by 10kg, although i will go off how i feel.

Maintainance cals are roughly 5k cals a day. As high a 6k for today. Currently struggling to eat enough to avoid losing weight too quick with a full time job. Probably eating around 4k cals. Though the cruise dose is helping to hold onto size even with the heavy deficit.

Currently cruising on 250mg p/w.

Will be benching and squatting 3x a week. Bench will be the focus as it is low compared to other lifts due to a lingering back injury that i have finally sorted out through a physio.

This is the for the first 4 weeks.

This is for the last 5 weeks.

Reduction in training volume, dropping the third bench and squat day. Deload and ramping back up with 1x3 and 3x3.

This is the spreadsheet i will be following for the core lifts. I just have my program set out a little different and over 4 days instead of 3. Disregard ohp on the spreadsheet. Only doing volume on ohp to focus on bench. Will be doing 4x3 for power work on the 3rd squat and bench, that will be based off the percentages of the wednesday squat.

Currently doing a soft start to the program to work on form, technique and to recover after the maxes. Current weights are 10% of 1rm less then the first week indicated on the program. Next week will be 5% less. Following week i will begin the program.

Its going to be a hard 10 weeks with the cal deficit so i will eat more around my training sessions.

I probably wont update very often, maybe weekly as life is full on at the moment.
Any input would be great.

@mnben87 Might be of interest.

[mnben87]

@deanis55

Will be benching and squatting 3x a week.

I see you are high and low bar squatting, so you have some variation on the squat. I would consider doing a variant of the bench to mix things up. The right variations can also reduce the likelihood of injury. For me I bench pretty wide (middle fingers on the rings), so I like doing a narrow press for a variation. If my shoulders get beat up, I like doing work off of a board or 2 board, or doing bands (makes it lighter at the bottom, which is hardest on the shoulders).

If your main goal for this training block it to bring up the bench a bit, I would consider benching first at least one of the days. I would do it on the heavy bench day.

One more thing that I would consider with this program is that your second 5 weeks has a big drop in volume. Going from 5x5 to 3x3 is going from 25 reps to 9. Some exercises seem to have an ever larger percent drop in volume, but it is a bit hard to tell as the exercises move around a bit in the second 5 weeks. I would consider going from 5x5 to 5x3 if you can handle it.

[deanis55]

@mnben87

I would consider doing a variant of the bench to mix things up. The right variations can also reduce the likelihood of injury. For me I bench pretty wide (middle fingers on the rings), so I like doing a narrow press for a variation

I do have some narrow pressing for triceps, its volume work. A variation that where i could work on my weak point (bar off the chest) would be a good idea.

@mnben87

, I would consider benching first at least one of the days. I would do it on the heavy bench day.

I will definitely do this, great idea.

@mnben87

Going from 5x5 to 3x3 is going from 25 reps to 9

The idea behind this is purely intensification. Working with heavier weights for less reps. With the weight loss and cal deficit i will probably need it. A lot of my programming has a significant drop in volume in the second phase, although not as much when im in a cal surplus and bulking.

I do like the idea of 5x3 though. I may incorperate it into the program after this when i can handle it better.

Thanks for the advice @mnben87 Its always appreciated to have your take on things.

[deanis55]

Thinking i might stick with 3x5 for the heavy day. 5x5 is hell on the cal deficit even with the lighter weight this week. Might be a few more tweaks over the next week before i start the program properly.

[deanis55]

Currently sitting around 107kg ish so roughly down 5.7kg. Slowly starting to see some abdominal definition so pretty happy with that.

Squats have nose dived, not suprised though. 3x5 @ 180kg nearly killed me so ill repeat last weeks squats and work from there.

Bench 107.5kg x5 felt great, deadlift 215kg x5 was easy. Losing steam after main lifts but thats to be expected. Will try to eat my before and after training to help with that.

Over all pretty happy, can work at the squats when i finish this cut so im not too concerned there. 5 more kg to lose and i think ill leave it at that.