It’s fine now, the first two or three times were hard and triggered unwanted behavior (binge-eating) but now I’m feeling completely in control. It’s not enjoyable, but my feelings towards it are just shy of positive but better than neutral.
It’s not something I’d run around recommending though.
Are you running the program from the BTS article here on the site? It looks interesting, but that’s a lot of time in the gym for me.
As far as 24h fasting goes, I’ve done it before out of necessity, but I’m not sure it’s something I want to do to myself on purpose.
Strapped for time, supersets ftw
A1. Zercher 77.5 kg
A2. Floor Press 62.5 kg
B1. Deficit DL 117.5 kg
B2. Seated Cable Row
AM:
4x3 @ 70% of 3RM
Zercher 60 kg
Deficit DL 90 kg
Floor Press 50 kg
PM: Climbing!
Yup, workouts take about one hour and I’m expecting for it to take slightly less than that. I’ve been using small increments between my warm-up sets, arguably too small. But, I’ve offset the time the workouts take by supersetting exercises when I need to as you can see in my latest point. Afraid I’ll grow bored with the lack of variety, but right now it’s nice to focus on getting stronger and not do as much volume.
Worked up to a 3RM
Back squat: 110 kg (no progress)
Deadlift: 140 kg (last rep was bad. Lost my upper back)
Bench press: 2 reps at 77.5 kg
On the back squat, I started out trying to ramp for a ATG squat, as my back was feeling fucky and doing ATG would be more inline with my performance goals for the year (cleans/snatches etcetera.) however my hip didn’t like the depth and so I switched over to a low-bar back squat instead but I was a bit fatigued. Also, sleep has been poor all week. Not unhappy, not happy. Happy about the deadlifts though. The hip pain is probably a form/ankle flexibility issue. I’m a tall guy, with long femurs to boot, and who knows, maybe I just don’t have the hips for ATG squatting: https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-deep-should-i-squat https://www.t-nation.com/training/forget-about-squat-depth @danteism you ATG squat if I recall correctly, do you have short legs and a long torso?
I’m trying to figure out how to structure my diet. If I arrive at anything here, with your help, I won’t be able to implement that immediately as I’ve already stocked up on some goods for the coming week. But, I still want to write my thoughts down and hopefully get some guidance.
First, to frame the discussion, let’s mention weight and activity levels:
I’d like to add more activity but right now I’m a bit too beat up to get to the walks. This is because I’ve been bad at upping my calories after my diet as I’m afraid of getting fat by taking on too much of a surplus before my metabolism adapts to the increase in calories. I went deep into a deficit, 1400 calories. Not sure what exactly I’m eating right now as I’ve been clearing the freezer from some homemade baked protein goodies, but around 2400 and my weight remains stable on that.
My normal day looks something like, 2324 calories (226.4p, 183.6c, 75.3f)
Intra-workout (chug half before my warm-up, fill the bottle back up and finish during workout): 264 calories (26.3p, 38.1c, 0.7f)
10g EAA
20g whey
40-50g waxy-maize
Post-workout 1: >390 calories (44g protein, 39.8g carbs, 5.3g fat) + whatever a banana is
250g low-fat cottage cheese
50g oat bran cereal
1 banana
minimal amount of whey for flavour
Post-workout 2: the same as the above sans the banana about 60-90 minutes later
Lunch: ~600 calories, ~60g protein, 57g carbs, 15g fats
200-250g chicken
80g rice, or the equivalent caloriewise in potatoes or sweet potatoes. I favour rice and potatoes over sweet potatoes because the latter is expensive here.
500-700g frozen vegetables (thawed)
6-8 fish-oil capsules
Mid-afternoon snack: 236 kcal (20.3g protein, 5.6g carbs (3.1g fiber, 2.07g sugars), 14.4g fat)
Homemade protein fudge bar
Pics: Food Porn Thread
Dinner: 436 calories (29.5g protein, 3.4g carbs, 34.3g fat)
125g salmon
10g walnuts
15g almonds (I don’t sprout these… yet)
Assorted vegetables
and that’s it. I’m usually starving at the end of the work-day and biking home is tough. If I didn’t have the two post-workout I’d find it hard to get through the morning but ideally, I’d rather eat once instead of two times.
I want to: decrease my protein intake and increase my carb-intake. Why? Carbs are awesome, I hear, and I’m concerned about the environment so I want to decrease my meat/eggs/fish consumption. Apparently, sustainable eating would be,
A person following the planetary health diet would eat less than 50g per day each of eggs, fish, sugar and meat
(fortunately: sugar is not a staple in my diet)
I’ve noticed this week that eating something before leaving for the gym results in a marked improvement in performance, especially as it makes the biking to the gym less exhausting. It’s not ideal that I bike to the gym (previously fasted), and while there is another gym I could frequent I end up late for work if I go there and that is not feasible at the moment.
Currently completely unaccustomed to eating straight out of bed though, so I’ll have to work up a tolerance here. Have had success with eggs and some almonds but I really want to get some low GI carbs in here and am accepting suggestions. Why low GI? So that I can spike insulin post-workout. However, my intra-workout carb source is waxy maize so maybe my body is desensitized after the workout to a rise in blood sugar anyway and this is an unnecessary optimization (?)
Maybe I could run some protein (whey) together with tangerines on waking, but I have to try and stay under 25g fructose a day (right @mertdawg?). According to Poliquin the following fruits can be eaten pre-workout as they will not spike insulin,
My intra-workout nutrition is 10g EAA, 20g whey, and 40-50g waxy-maize. John Meadow’s suggested this somewhere, and I reckon it was for guys bigger than me, doing bodybuilding sessions. So, it’s probably ample. I also prefer to get my food in solid form rather than powdered so unless I’m struggling to get food down (I’m not) I’d be unkeen to increase any of these portions but if there is a good argument to do so I’m open to it.
I will have finished my workout at 8AM. That leaves me 3 hours to get in carbs+protein meals (right?). Following the workout, I’m thinking maybe oats with blueberries and pineapple together with low-fat cottage cheese. Again, remaining mindful of fructose.
For lunch, it’s been more than 3 hours since my workout, so I’m guessing I should cut out rice and should opt for beans/lentils/chickpeas/butternut squash (should I treat squash as a vegetable or as a carb?) instead? And maybe the reason lunch hasn’t been sustaining for me is because it is so low in fat.
I’m already fairly happy with the dinner. Sometimes I split it, so I have the nuts later pre-bed together with some kimchi. But, by eating it together my stomach is somewhat empty as I go to bed which makes the melatonin I take work better. I do still however wake up every single night, usually multiple times. Maybe this wouldn’t happen if I had a pre-bed snack, but I used to have those during my diet and still slept like shit but then maybe I slept like shit because I was on a diet.
I realize I sound like a thousand other guys on these forums that have been freaking out about minutia, and while I do appreciate I don’t have to care about nutrient timing etcetera I kind of want to because I want to realize and implement what I’ve learned. It’s not so much about “optimal” as it is about just doing things right and leveraging all that I’ve learned.
Writing all of this out, I realize I should probably, (keeping in mind planetary health somewhat…)
Wake-up, eat something protein+carb:y, favouring a low GI. Maybe: 1 egg, rice boiled with coconut oil with a teaspoon of almond flour that has been refridgerated.
Train with my shake
Eat a mastodon amount of oats (it’s only wheat that causes an insanely long elevated insulin secretion, right @mertdawg?), the same amount of low-fat cottage cheese, and some blueberries/pineapple.
Maybe stop with chicken for lunch, and have a fattier meat source, but less (in grams) than the chicken. Make up for the decrease in protein with beans/lentils. By having a better spread across the macros this meal might be more satiating. I find that I’m experiencing some kind of “toxic hunger” at the moment where I’m never really satiated and maybe that’s because the meals aren’t too balanced?
Dinner: same, but smaller pieces of salmon eventually.
I guess I should make myself a pre-bed snack that is high in protein but I think I’ll already have reached my protein intake for the day at the weight that I am at.
When I get the chance, I’ll write up a new meal plan, but since I won’t be able to run it the upcoming week (already done my grocery shopping) that isn’t at the top of my priority list.
In the mean-time, if anyone wants to chime in in anyway I more than welcome it!
I do ATG front squats, on back squats I don’t go full on ATG, but it’s not far off.
I wouldn’t say that my legs are short, but they aren’t abnormally long either (I’d say they are shorter than most tall guys’ legs however)
CT remarked with a cussword or two just how long my legs were during the bootcamp. For reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUCr89g8kLQ
Got to say, it wasn’t done without a reason. Those are some long ass legs man
Do you use any salt in there? If not, you could try that.
Also, do remember that your intra-workout drink serves as a kind of post workout drink as well, Scott Stevenson briefly talks about this in Fortitude Training. You don’t necessarily have to spike insulin post workout when you’re having a good amount of carbs intra-workout. (Doesn’t really hurt though). Personally I’ve removed my post workout drink carbs and only have whey, greens powder and cinnamon in there. I do have some carbs with my post workout meal though.
Oh yea, one heaping teaspoon. Sometimes two. Just sea salt, so no added iodine but I make sure to salt my food plenty.
Thanks for the reminder, but I’m trying to get more carbs into my diet, not less 
Cinnamon is great, I just try to keep anti-inflammatories away from my post-workout window. How does it work in Finland with regards to cinnamon, do you mean cassia or ceylon when you say “cinnamon”?
Take the hint! ATG squats are dumb unless you’re competing (and I’d argue they’re still unnecessary due to potential long term damage).
I have on hip surgery under my belt and I’m heading down the road to number two. The reason? Hip impingement. If the head of your femur is even a bit off then you can have problems. The head (ball part of the ball & socket joint) is supposed to be round. If it’s oval like an egg then you will have impingement. I imagine none of us are perfectly built, so some have problems and others don’t. If you have any impingement and you force ATG squats then you’re asking for unnecessary problems.
Do you want to compete? If so, then you’ll have to weigh the risks and rewards.
If not, then don’t worry about ATG anything. You can still do power cleans and power snatches. Those are actually better for performance in my opinion. It’s a power movement and transfers to other activities well. A full clean is really a good and strong pull with a super fast drop followed by a front squat. On max attempts the bar barely moves until the front squat portion.
I say don’t force the depth unless you have a very good reason to do so.
Our default, what people mean when they say cinnamon, is cassia. And so, when people go on the internet and read about the health benefits of cinnamon they start adding cassia cinnamon to everything they end up with liver damage.
I used to get the same exact pain just going to parallel and then my bracing sucked and so my hip flexor bore the load. But you are right, I probably would do best to not ATG. I won’t ever compete or at least I’m not planning to.
I miss squatting. It’s hard not to love the exercise because it loads so many different parts of the body. But, I may never do it again.
My overall goals are to be strong, muscular, and athletic. A sub-goal is to squat 4 plates. That goal is not necessary to achieve the first three goals. Pursuing it may actually prevent me from achieving the first three goals (with further hip problems). The three main goals outweigh the sub-goal so it’s probably getting scrapped.
I’ll miss it, but I miss living pain free more.
Monster climbing session.
Worked up to 2 RMs,
Zercher 100 kg (could probably have gotten 105, but at this point my form was breaking down substantially)
Deficit DL 140 kg
Floor Press 75 kg
Skipped back work since I climbed yesterday and am doing a climbing course tomorrow. Tuesday is climbing day as well. My back musculature is not at risk of being under stimulated.
80% of 2 RM, 4 sets of 2s:
Zercher 80
Deficit DL 112.5
Flooring press 60
(super-setted the last two to save time, nice pairing)
was devilishly heavy, almost comparable in effort to yesterday’s effort. Odd how the nervous system works in that regard.
Went off-script and did seated cable rows today, the program schedules vertical pulling today but this fits with my climbing better as today I believe will be a low effort day (course) and I didn’t do any horizontal pulling yesterday.
I’m permanently sore all-over. Love.
Climbing in the PM, could climb at a fairly high level which was surprising since my grip was still shot from yesterdays climbing course
4x2@90%
A1. Zercher 90
A2. Floor Press 67.5
B1. Deficit DL 125
B2. Seated Cable-Row
Did this for warm-up, https://www.t-nation.com/training/mobility-complex Liked it but I still need to activate my glutes to get the most out of my sessions.
@danteism, you are a super knowledgeable dude. I have a nutrition question for you. Recently, I’ve started having breakfast in the AM before my workouts. What I was doing was this,
Pre-workout:
50g oatmeal
50g blueberries
20g whey
some cinnamon (insulin sensitivity)
Intra-workout:
50g waxy maize
10g EAA (technically, BCEAA)
Post-workout/Breakfast:
100g oatmeal
1 banana
250g low-fat cottage cheese (expensive to use everyday, moving over toward whey)
A sprinkle of whey for taste
Post-workout 2:
250g low-fat cottage cheese
50g oatbran cereal
This runs in at about 1100-1400 calories. Line-of-thinking was inspired by Berardi, that carbs are best reserved for intra-workout and post-workout. Ideally consumed within 90 minutes of the workout and at most 3 hours after the workout.
I started thinking, maybe this is just… too much carbs in a short time window. I’ll be trying out this instead, and I wonder if the general layout is better from a nutritional standpoint (don’t focus too much on the grams)
Pre-workout:
30g oatmeal
50g blueberries
20g whey
1 tbsp of peanut butter
Intra-workout:
50g waxy maize
10g EAA
Post-workout (immediate, utilizing Glut-4 as per https://mountaindogdiet.com/basic/nutrition-basic/nutrition-faqs/)
2 scoops of whey
Breakfast (60-90 minutes after):
70g oatmeal
1 banana
1 scoop whey
To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll run this indefinitely as it’s just so goddamn boring eating oatmeal twice in the morning. Might start my day off with eggs and some nuts. Just, one or two eggs and some almonds. But, since I bike for 20 minutes to the gym I’d love to get some carbs in there. Is rice too high in GI for pre-workout?