Strength Engineer Log

[StrengthEngineer]

9/9/17

Weekly Measurements:

Weight Average: 157.37lb
Average Weight Change: -1.0b
Waist Circumference: 31.625in
Body Fat Percentage: 12.5
FFM: 137.7lb
Fat Mass: 19.67lb

Thoughts: Good week. My cut definitely started moving again after plateauing before my break at maintenance. My average is a little high too, as it took a couple days for the cut to start taking effect, and this morning I weighted in at 1lb lighter than my average, so those couple higher days weighed it up quite a bit. So next week will probably look like a larger drop than really happened as well. Either way it was a good week. I finally broke out of the 13% range, after being there for damn near a month. And the weather is FINALLY starting to cool down a bit, which helps because I can be a little more active instead of just hiding in the air conditioning all day. Last night before bed it was actually only 95 degrees out, so I was able to walk my dog for a bit in the evening. Boom, easy extra 100 calories. Mid next week we are supposed to have our highs finally drop out of triple digits, and our lows go down into the 70's. That will be a welcome change, as I lift in my garage in the morning and it's been 85 degrees on the button every morning for months now. The more active I can be, the more I can eat and still continue to drop fat. If we can get nice enough weather I can start taking walks on my lunch break at work, and walking my dog in the evening, and easily burn an extra 200-300 calories per day without adding any extra fatigue in my body. Next week starts my next volume block, all my TM's tested fine this week.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/11/17

Press: 62 x5, 71.5 x5, 81 x5, 62 5x5
Pull-up: 5x10
Dip 10: 5x10
Ab-roller: 5x15
DB Curl 20: 10/10/8/7/7

Thoughts: Back in the start of another volume block. So far so good. It was hot out there again this morning, supposed to cool down later in the week with the morning lows in the 70s!!!! I can't wait! The summers in Phoenix definitely beat the winters of everywhere else, but this time of year the heat starts to get old, I'm ready and anxious to start our 8 months of nice weather. Probably sometime around late October I'll have to look at moving my workouts from the morning till after work as it will be chilly in the morning, but nice in the evening. I also am 5-10% stronger later in the day than the morning, so that's a good thing as well.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/12/17

Deadlift: 172 x5, 199 x5, 225 x5, 172 5x5
Face-pull (blue): 5x10
DB Bench 35: 5x10
Split Squat (bodyweight): 5x10
Band pull-apart (blue): 5x10

Thoughts: Good day. Lighter deadlifts do help to practice form. I'm noticing my deadlift has the opposite problem my squat had: on my squat I was sitting too far back, and on my deadlift I'm sitting too far forward. So today I was doing a better job of focusing on getting my hips back in the set up. It's especially difficult in later reps, even though I do a dead stop, breathe, and then re-tighten and pull I'm still fatigued on those last couple reps and it's easy to want to slack my hips a bit. Starting with my hips back and up keeps my back neutral through the whole lift, as it should be. Aside from that today is a much deserved refeed day. My fat loss has been great ever since I took that 2 week break at maintenance. I've been back in a cut for 10 days and lost about 2lb over that time, which is a little over 1% body fat. Definitely going to start my Tuesday refeeds again to make sure I keep it up and don't plateau again. As if I don't plateau I can probably hit my goal and be done with my cut in 2-3 weeks. I'm so ready to be done, lol. I'm starting to look good with a shirt off though, so that's helping to give me some motivation, lol. Still have that stubborn lower back fat, but other than that abs are there and love handles are almost completely gone. My arms and calves are starting to be quite vascular as well. I can also see it in my face the last couple weeks, my face looks better, I look younger and have a more defined jaw line. I also don't look skinny like I thought I would at this weight, I actually look a bit above average muscularity, you can tell I lift even though I am smaller than I want to be. But we will fix that in time. Hoping over the next couple years to pack on about 20lb of muscle, I see no reason why I can't do that, even for a natural at my age that should still be a very attainable goal. My strength should be in a good spot then as well. There's only so much I can do strength wise with 138lb of lean body mass, lol.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/14/17

Bench: 101 x5, 116.5 x5, 132 x5, 101 5x5
Row 140: 5x5
DB Press 30: 5x10
Banded twist (blue): 5x10
Hammer curl 20: 10/10/10/9/8

Thoughts: Holy shit, adjusting my deadlift on Tuesday to sit my hips back a bit more just destroyed my hamstrings, lol. I haven't been this sore in months. That's a good sign. Good workout today. My refeed definitely helped my energy levels, having some glycogen to use today was really nice. Moved rows back down to the 5 rep range as I want to get one upper back lift in the 5 rep range, and since 10 rep rows are nothing short of hell it was an easy choice which lift to bring down in reps, lol. I'll probably swap it out in 2-3 months to give some variation, bring rows back to 10's and weighted chins or pullups down to 5's. Other than that, I'm still not sold on banded twists. I'm gonna stick the movement out for the last 2 weeks of this meso-cycle just to see if they grow on me, and if they don't I'll look at swapping them out for something else. I just don't really know if they are doing much of anything. I definitely need to strengthen my obliques a little bit, but it's hard to find good movements online; googling any kind of core exercise brings up lots of silliness, lol.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/15/17

Squat: 123.5 x5, 142.5 x5, 161.5 x5, 123.5 5x5
Chinup 10: 10/10/8/7/6
Reverse Grip DB Bench 35: 10/10/10/8/8
Hanging leg raise: 8/7/5/5/5

Thoughts: Decided to try doing the workout fasted today (normally have protein shake and banana before) as it will make the time between lunch (12) and dinner (6) easier as I can have some protein and carbs halfway between. That's the time of day that always is the most difficult for me. Fasted training is also supposed to help mobilize stubborn fat. It was not easy, lol. Didn't seem to effect my squat, but as the workout went on it got harder and harder, as shown by my reps falling off on my assistance circuit the last couple rounds. So I'm not sure if I'm going to continue trying the fasted thing or not, I'll see how the day goes. I can say that my fear last week that leg raises and weighted chins would conflict with each other was true, but not for the reason I thought. It wasn't my grip at all, it was my lats. Hanging from a pull up bar the only way to lift your toes above your head without swinging is to super tighten the lats, and almost do a pull-down motion. That definitely conflicted too much with weighed chins. I'm swapping leg raise today with the banded twists from press day to eliminate the issue. Other than that, my squat form adjustment is definitely getting locked in and comfortable. I was able to get really good bar speed today, as I transitioned really well from my quads in the early movement to my hams/glutes in the second half. Now it's just a matter of strengthening my quads and bringing them up to par and I will definitely blow through my old sticking point.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/16/17

Weight Average: 156lb
Average Weight Change: -1.37b
Waist Circumference: 31.5in
Body Fat Percentage: 12.2
FFM: 136.97lb
Fat Mass: 19.03lb

Thoughts: As I mentioned last week my weighted average was a bit high, so this weeks average weight change is coming in a bit lower because last week was weighed a little high, so it was a good week but not quite that good from a weight loss standpoint as it appears. I should only be about 3-4 more lbs away from being done with this cut. Whether my measurements hit me at 10% or not at that point, that's probably about my limit that I'm willing to go. So I'm very close to the end. Hopefully I can continue at the pace I've been at the last 2 weeks and get this done and over with.

[Culican]

Hi,

Just noticed your log, I'll be following it. Nice cool morning here in Phoenix.

[StrengthEngineer]

Hi,

Just noticed your log, I'll be following it. Nice cool morning here in Phoenix.

Hey man, thanks for stopping by! Yeah it is nice and cool! I train in my garage so I've been waiting for it to finally cool down for a long time, haha. Went for a hike this morning. Love it!

[StrengthEngineer]

9/18/17

Press: 65 x5, 76 x5, 85.5 x5, 66.5 5x5
Pull-ups: 5x10
Dip 10: 5x10
Ab-roller: 5x15
DB Curl 20: 10/10/8/8/7

Thoughts: Weather was cool, almost a bit chilly this morning. Not to far away from swapping my lifting time from before work till after. Still a little too hot in the afternoons now, but we have some 80s in the forecast, so soon. Other than that, it's a sub-maximal volume cycle so nothing too thrilling. Starting to do a little planning for when this cut is over since I'm at the tail end, and one of the changes I think I'm going to make is doing a couple months is to bring curls down into the 5-8 rep range. I'll do those barbell of course.

[StrengthEngineer]

9/19/17

Deadlift: 185.5 x5, 212 x5, 238.5 x5, 185.5 5x5
Face-pull (blue) 5x10
DB Bench 35: 5x10
Split Squat 5: 5x10
band pull-apart (blue): 5x10

Thoughts: Felt a little weak on deadlifts today. Yesterday was my first day not being sore from deadlifting last week... so it's probably impaired recovery being in a cut. I still hit my assigned reps and weights though so all is good. Also, my lower back has been in some pain since doing hanging leg raises on Friday, as such I busted out my 4 inch belt today instead of the usual 3 incher. I'm going to swap out leg raises this week and bring them back when I heal, but try doing them on my dip stand as opposed to hanging from the rack. I'm adding in some extra carbs this week. Since the weather is cooling down I'm making up for those extra calories by walking. So it should all even out fat loss wise, but some extra calories should help. Extra carbs is extra glycogen, and glycogen is a precious and scarce resource for me these days, haha. Speaking of which today is refeed day, yay. I've been plateaued for the last 3 days straight so hopefully this will trigger a whoosh. I should find out on Thursday if it did.