Reply With Quote02/14/2019
Bench: 190x3x2
Triceps pushdown: 47.5x8x3
DB bench: 40x12x3
Chin-up: -45x8x2
Greg Nuckols has got me thinking about adding in some cardio. Avoiding Cardio Could Be Holding You Back • Stronger by Science
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02/12/2019
Bench: 120x8, 145x6, 167.5x4, 192.5x3, 205x1x2
Beltless deadlift: 230x1x10 EMOM
Chin-ups: 3,2,2
Notes:
I was supposed to do a heavy squat 5x5 last night, but weather got in the way. It's a winter wonderland here in Iowa, folks. My excuse for today was that my lower back still feels like it won't recover until next week, and squatting heavy is only going to make that worse. Basically, I'm a pussy, but I had no desire to squat today. Squat may stall a bit this 4 week cycle which is okay with me right now. For all I care, most of this cycle is adapting to have a bit higher work capacity and tolerance for volume, of which I have essentially 0 atm.
Deadlifts felt a little easy. Okay, like, really easy. But I believe the point was to grease the groove and get some practice while keeping the weight very light and recovering, and I think they served that purpose very nicely. EMOM deadlifts gave me some good practice setting up to the bar because my setup normally takes a minute in and of itself. I narrowed my stance and pointed my toes out more, and it felt much better on my lower back and in my hips. Must be some form creep that caused the discrepancy in my deadlift strength earlier.
Biceps were still sore from curls, so chins were a bit of an epic fail.
Got the whole workout done in 40 minutes and was walking out the door with plenty of time to spare. feelsgoodman.jpg
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02/14/2019
Bench: 190x3x2
Triceps pushdown: 47.5x8x3
DB bench: 40x12x3
Chin-up: -45x8x2
Greg Nuckols has got me thinking about adding in some cardio. Avoiding Cardio Could Be Holding You Back • Stronger by Science
✓ Member
02/15/2019
Front squat: 175x8, 175x6x3 A bit easy, but a good first day
BB row: 155x8x3
GHR: BWx12x2 Fail. Going to find an alternative dl assistance movement
Elliptical 30 min. LISS @70% HRmax
Notes:
Began my front squat journey and had a successful first day of relearning the motor pattern.
If anybody has ideas on a better deadlift assistance movement let me know. GHR and hip thrusts are out due to equipment issues.
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02/17/2019
Bench: 192.5x3x4, 180x6x3
CG bench: 155x6x2, 155x8
Deadlift: 325x3x3
Curls: 65x10x3, 65x12
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Several years ago I got my deadlift up very fast, and I think a big part of it was all the rack pulls and paused deadlifts I did. However, from what you were saying earlier regarding recovery I'm not so sure rack pulls are your best bet.
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Gotcha. No, I've found another assistance movement I'll perform on Fridays. Thanks though!Originally Posted by Mike Longnecker
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02/18/2019
Squat: 310x3x3, 310x2
Chin-ups: 4,3,3
Notes:
Weighed in at 231.0 today and felt very weak. Only scaled back calories 200 after only losing 0.5 lb after week 1, and my BW immediately plummets 2 lbs. It's weird. Couldn't get the 3rd rep of squats because they were way harder than they normally are, and I totally buried rep 2 of set 4.
Strength is falling away fast, but I'm in this, and I'm not quitting now.
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Good job on the squats, Devyn. The way you described feeling "very weak" in the morning is the kind of thing that would keep a lot of people from lifting at all. Sorry if I missed it on a previous page, but what are you cutting to? Are you going by weight, waist size, or mirror to determine if you are done? How quickly are you trying to get there? For what it's worth, I've found a week isn't generally enough to see if the calorie adjustment had the desired effect, so it's possible that that extra 200 might have been too much, but I don't really know.
For deadlift assistance, what about SLDL, RDL, paused DL (these seem like torture), rack pulls, or even medium-day % deadlift? If you do rack pulls, keep them at the % weight, rather than higher than your DL weight which you could probably do, but would be overly taxing.
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Thanks for your reply, abg! You might be right. I pulled 700 calories for 10 days and only saw about 0.5 lbs of weight loss, so I had assumed I needed to pull a bit more. Perhaps it just took a minute or two, but the weight loss sure is going now, a little faster than I had hoped, actually. I am not entirely sure. To be honest, the mirror was what inspired the cut, and the mirror is kind of the goal, but it can be deceiving, so I'm trying to stick with objective measures. I have "progress photos" from June of 2018 when I was ~206, and I really liked the way I looked then. My waist size around then was ~34. I was hoping I could end my cut around 210 in the hopes that I've maybe built an extra 4 lbs of muscle from June, but I'm not holding my breath. As for how quickly, the goal is 1x/week, but as I'm quickly remembering, it's not an exact science. By the looks of it, it could be anywhere from an avg of 2-4 lbs this week, so I'll probably be riding out this caloric intake for a while. I'll also be a bit more careful with how quickly I make changes!
I really liked paused deadlifts back when I did them, but I was looking more for a non-specific "bodybuilding" type, I guess you could say, assistance movement. I planned on doing BB glute bridges. I don't love them, but I'm sure adding in a specific supplemental movement like paused deadlifts could be seriously taxing on recovery, so I'll wait a while to see.
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02/19/2019
Bench: 120x8, 145x6, 165x5, 180x4, 190x3, 205x2x2
Beltless deadlift: 230x1x15 EMOM
Elliptical 30 min. LISS @70% HRmax
Notes:
230.0 today. The weight is just falling off of me now. I swear my body is so catabolic. In better news, the workout was very good, and bench felt pretty strong. I'm hopeful that the 205 AMRAP at the end of the cycle will be 4-5 reps, and I will have lost minimal strength. Probably not for squats and deadlifts.
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