Serge Storms: Training Log

I ordered Mag-10 and Carbolin-19 today. Staples for me whenever my diet is on-point.

Carbolin makes me feel lean and pumped. I’m not sure it’s a big mass builder or fat burner, but it just seems to dial things in if they are close already.

Mag-10 provides many benefits. I feel like I can reduce or eliminate the need for protein shakes with half the amount of protein on a gram/gram basis. I can reallocate those calories to carbs. I also like how hydrated I feel without feeling waterlogged or bloated. Seems to pull water to the right places.

Monday 1400 calories

80g C
50g F
170g P

The Good Bean Roasted Chickpeas

Awesome snack - filling, low in fat.

I had 5 bags today instead of my normal first two meals. 90 calories each.

Monday AM - 30 minutes - Chest and Triceps

This morning’s lifting was intended to induce a signaling cascade resulting in maximum preservation of muscle during a period of restricted energy intake.

I also did some one-handed handstand spins, some back spins, windmills, and the robot.

I tried going with a different pre-workout nutrition approach and had a slice of pizza without the crust before my workout.

Interesting how that same little snack went straight to my veins and muscles yesterday afternoon, but had zero effect in the morning.

I’m still leaning towards dry and flat as my preferred state in the morning, even if it means I’ll miss the pump. But it’s kind of liberating, not chasing the pump all the time.

Plus, there’s something to just riding out that feeling of running on an empty-ish tank in the morning. Pants fit better and when the first meal does come, it feels like it gets sucked into the right places a bit more.

There is the whole cortisol-phobia thing, but I don’t feel like throwing a bunch of water and sugar into the system just to avoid excessive cortisol is worth it. I think diurnal rhythm trumps everything else. If I want a pump, I’ll do a second session in the early evening and ride out my natural pump.

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Tuesday 2240 calories

CPF% 40/35/25

I had one of those classic business dinners last night where one person noticed that I was eating less than usual and decided to make it her mission to make me the center of attention of the entire group. Eleven people around the table firing questions at me and trying to convince me that it’s just plain wrong to not order the 22 ounce ribeye because we were a a steak joint.

I stuck to my guns. I had some shrimp and the appetizer ahi tuna. Ordered a glass of wine and sipped about a quarter of it. Left the rest there. I had absolutely zero cravings or other issues. I got to observe some of my colleagues displaying some pretty shitty attitudes toward me and my eating, but at this point, that stuff rolls right off.

If I’m ever sitting next to you and you are on a diet, I’ll say “nice…I know it’s not easy in a setting like this, so awesome job for sticking to it.” Not sure why more people don’t take that approach.

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Cattle don’t like it when a lion eats with them. I’m glad you stuck to your guns, hopefully someone out of the group admired your conviction and may change their own attitudes.

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Good quote. Right on the money.

Been keeping calories low. Energy is very high, workouts are great, hunger is surprisingly absent, and I’m having zero cravings. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I am in the zone and seeing daily changes, which is always fun.

Weight was down to 191.2 this morning. I don’t have a target for my weight. In the past ten years or so, I’ve weighed as little as 183 and felt great and looked great. I definitely have a little more muscle now compared to the last time I hit 183, so 183 is probably 188 or so.

I’ll face a new set of challenges at that point. Usually, the goal has always been to start slightly increasing calories, but that’s when I seemed to buy-in to this mindset of “hey, look how many calories I can eat and still stay lean.” I’m not sure that’s my attitude anymore. I’m swinging towards, “hey, look how deep I can ingrain consistent eating habits.” And if that lands me at 188 at 2300 calories/day, then great. If it means my metabolism is suppressed by 1.5% to compensate for low calories, I’m not so sure that’s a horrible thing anymore.

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START Mag-10 and Carbolin 2 caps, 2-3x/day

WORKOUT: Wednesday - 45 minutes, arms, chest, front delt-focused giant mechanical drop set.

This is a workout where I use a 30 pound DB and go through a series of single-arm movements. I start with the mechanically disadvantaged moves like straight-arm lateral and front raises and holds. I do a movement until failure, then move to the next until I fail at the most-leveraged movement like a strict dumbbell press. In the process, I hit chest, the complete shoulder, traps, bis, tris, and a little upper-back.
I use a multitude of contraction techniques. I made most of them up. It’s all synchronized to the beat of the music. I take breaks here and there to jump rope.

On one hand, these workouts can be seen as a complete desecration of all that is holy in “the iron game.” I might as well just be dropping a hot, steamy log in the squat rack and then pissing on the bench.

On the other hand, they are super fun, extremely challenging, beyond effective, and have very little injury risk. They actually seem to require very little neuro recovery, which is why I can do them as frequently as every day for stretches of 4-6 days before the overreaching starts to catch up with recovery.

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Saturday AM Workout

45 minutes

Dance moves, some light DB work, jump rope, and a ton of stretching.

I am performing a dance routine at a foam party tonight, so I wanted to focus on recovery today and make sure I’m fresh for tonight.

After just two days with Mag-10 and C-19, I can appreciate how the combo seems to really pull water into the right places.

I did my two-week body fat progress check today. I use the Skulpt device. It’s awesome.

I was down significantly in every measurement. The biggest drops were in my abs and glutes. Shoulders, upper back, biceps, triceps, chest, and abs are all at 10% or less. Upper back had the lowest with one side reading 7.2%.

One glute was 14%, the other was 20%.

I store fat in my ass and quads. I consider it a good thing. I feel like my body can continue to function quite optimally in a slight-to-moderate energy deficit until my abs and upper body are nice and shredded, because I have this nice depot of fat to provide the signal that I’m not at risk of starving. That’s my story anyway.

The software seemed to have messed up the calculation of overall body fat, though. I went down in every measurement…by a large margin in many…but the total bf went from 11.8% last time to 15.4% this time. Can’t be right. There was only one measurement that was even over 15%, and that was just one glute.

Doesn’t matter, I’m not trying to win a Skulpt contest. It was rewarding to see those numbers come down so much and obviously confirms what I’m seeing in the mirror. It’s pretty easy to judge process when you’ve been through several successful periods of leaning out. For me, there are details in the obliques and serratus and some lower ab vascularity that signal when I’m getting close to my happy zone. Delt striations and the clamshell details in the tricep on a back double bicep pose are some other hallmarks.

I’m close to that right now. But the goal is not a certain level of leanness. It is to continue my exploration into effective methods of habit formation.

Where my leanness lands after habituating to a lower energy intake than ever over an extended period will be an effect that I attempt to simply observe and record with a certain level of detachment.

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Oh yeah, the other reason I like to keep track of BF% is to monitor any estimated changes in LBM.

I use the quick scan function on the Skulpt, which is just a 3-site consideration. I’m at 11.2% on the quick scan, which puts me at 172 lbs of LBM. That’s a two-pound increase. Whether I’m riding the magical recomp unicorn or not, it’s still an indication that I’m at least coming close to doing things right.

Energy, hunger, cravings, workout quality, sleep quality, mood, joint pain, immune system…these are all additional clues to help ensure things are lined up properly.

Every time I think I was the one who invented my workout routine, something like this pops up to show me that somebody has beat me to it.

Foam Party!

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Arms and delts every day up in here!?!?

There seems to be a spate of former members returning here, welcome back serge, good to see you

Hey Lonnie, good to hear from you! Yep, arms and shoulders every day!

New low weight - 189.8.

I haven’t dropped below 190 since August of 2014, so it’s great to hit that mark.

It’s also great to pull some of the clothes out that I haven’t worn since then. Opens up some new options.

Macros last week ended up landing in the good old “Zone Diet” zone. 40/30/30.

190g C/160g P/60g F

I also hit a recent-era PR on double-unders with 125 consecutive.

I did start to struggle a bit with late-morning through early-afternoon cravings. I think if I start too early with carbs or higher-calorie breakfasts, it makes the rest of the day a bit more difficult. So this week, I’m going back to lower carbs in the morning. Yes, even at the risk of missing the magical “peri-workout window” of mystical gains. Sometimes you gotta look at the trade-offs on a more personal level. If you buy into everything that’s out there, you’ll be simultaneously on an IF leangains low-carb cyclical keto high-carb, high-fat, IIFYM backloading craploading frontloading, green faces, green feces diet plan. You just gotta pick something and lock down some variables.

I do still use a high-quality BCAA throughout my morning, or Mag-10 more recently. But I like to keep calories lower in the early part of the day to help manage cravings and to set me up to be able to enjoy more-standard but still-healthy dinners. I’d rather be able to add a few pieces of dark chocolate because I have room for them later at night than drink 50 grams of pure appetite-derailing carbs just because I’m afraid of the cortisol boogie man.

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Training - Monday

Chest and triceps focus - 60 minutes

Started with some DB work to get the joints moving and everything warmed up and stretched.

Then I did some flat bench DB press, working my way up to the 80s for sets of 5.

Lots of cable work.

Took it to the floor and did some push-up work and handstands.

Finished with some abs.

Might sound like an easy workout, but I was using extremely strict form and really playing around with some different tempos, angles, and contraction techniques throughout the workout.

I still have some time left in the day, but today’s intake will be on the very low side.

One reason is that I started the day with small breakfast - just 4 ounces of leftover grilled chicken breast and 2 eggs.

Then at around 11, I had another 7 ounces of grilled chicken breast, which I made into chicken salad because it was my third chicken breast meal in a row and I couldn’t stand the thought of eating it plain. Just cut it into small pieces and mixed in two tablespoons of light mayo.

I didn’t have much in the way of carbs until mid-afternoon. Two bags of Good Bean roasted chickpeas and about 6 strawberries.

Still feeling great and not hungry, which brings me to the other reason I can keep my intake low today. I had a serving of a fat burner I’ve been taking.

I’m a pretty loyal Biotest customer - have been for like 20 years, or however long they’ve been in business. They don’t have a fat burner without yohimbine, so I use something else. I only take it once or twice a week, usually on days where conditions are lined up for an easy low-intake day.

Today was that day, and wow, this shit really crushes the appetite. Some of the key ingredients include HICA, ashwagandha, terminalia arjuna, intellectus, 2-amino-6-methylheptane, a “tri-phase PPAR agent”, afralean grains of paradise, melegueta, coumoroyldopamine, and rauwolscine.

I usually don’t buy anything without researching the shit out of it, but I’ll be honest…I don’t know what most of that shit is. My guy at my local place just got it in and said he heard good things and he liked it when he tried it, so I gave it a try. It definitely crushes appetite.

I think the key to these things is to not take them enough to develop a tolerance. I don’t buy into the direct effects on fat loss as much as the appetite thing. If it can help crush my appetite for a day, that’s all I need. With this one and a few other good ones I’ve tried, the effect can sometimes bleed over even into the next day, so we’ll see. Conditions are good for a low-day tomorrow, too, so if it comes easy, I’ll probably ride it out.

I have a beach reveal coming up very very soon, so I’ll consider it my “two days to shredded” program.

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Issues with yohimbine?

PVCs.

Enjoying your musings!

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Thanks IronOne for stopping in! Glad to know a few people are dropping by.

I did a quick scan of your log. I see it goes back to 2014, so nice work sticking with it for so long.

I also see some interesting names for some stretching movements.

And some leaning lateral raises. I love those.

And squats, of course.

Then I saw mention of you going to the beach after a workout and I got jealous and left.

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