Strength Engineer Log

[StrengthEngineer]

10/5/17

Bench: 104 x5, 120 x5, 136 x5, 104 5x5
Row 155: 5x5
DB Press 32.5: 5x10
Crunch 35: 5x10
Hammer curl 20: 5x10

Thoughts: Good day out there. It's funny, I'm eating enough calories and stringing together a bunch of good days, coincidence? Barbell rows are especially making some good progress. That's 5x5 at my body weight today fairly strict, and the last set was only an RPE 8.5; I believe I had 2 reps left in the tank. Looking back in my logs the most I ever did for a barbell row was 160 for 4 reps and that was when I was 20lb heavier and I had to use a little body english to get all 4 reps. Next week I'm going for 160 5x5. Feels good to be getting the PR train rolling again

[StrengthEngineer]

10/6/17

Squat: 130 x5, 150 x5, 170 x5, 130 5x5
Chin-up 15: 10/10/10/8/8
Reverse Grip DB Bench 40: 10/10/10/9/9
Woodchoppers (red): 5x10
Band pull-apart (blue): 10/10/10/10/6

Thoughts: Squat was a little off balance this morning. At least it was a light week so it didn't matter much. I just had a hard time finding that sweet spot, kept either tilting a bit forward, or then over compensating and tilting a bit backward. I'll probably go out there with an empty bar this weekend to get some good practice reps in to hopefully get my balance tuned back in for next week. I'm definitely not in love with woodchoppers. Matter of fact, I'm not in love with my core routine in general right now. I do like the ab wheel, and I like the russian twists, but I'm not really sure I'm getting much out of woodchoppers or weighted crunches. I need to find some replacements. Maybe next week I'll try to bring hanging leg raises back instead of crunches. Maybe if I terminate the reps at head height instead of going all the way up to the bar it will be easier on my back? I don't know what to replace woodchoppers with. I would really like something that strengthens my obliques a bit more, as they are definitely a squat bottleneck for me. So if anyone has any suggestions please shoot them over. Searching online for core exercises can be... well... interesting, lol. You see the very worst of the internet fitness world when trying to search for core exercise ideas, lol.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/7/17

Official Weekly Measurements:

Weight Average: 153.83lb
Average Weight Change: +0.23lb
Waist Circumference: 30.6in
Body Fat Percentage (Navy Method): 10.2
FFM: 138.14lb
Fat Mass: 115.69lb
Body Fat Percentage 3-fold caliper: 10.54 (16 navel, 7 chest, 10 thigh)

Thoughts: It felt very good to be back to eating 2200 calories this last week. I can especially tell my recovery is much improved! Body fat percentage stayed the same this week, so I did my job of maintaining this week. Gained a tiny bit of weight, but that's expected from glycogen and water. Actually there was a couple days this week I was pretty bloated, and without that bloat weight I probably would have been the same average weight if not slightly less. So starting today I'm up to 2300 calories. We are just going to keep increasing 100 calories per week until I'm bulking. I also am starting to log my 3-fold caliper measurements here as I'm starting to get better with them to the point that I'm getting consistent enough data for the data to be considered valid from an analytical standpoint. I suspect there will be a point where I swap my body fat percentage tracking from Navy Method to calipers, and simply use that and my waist measurement to track my composition, but for now I'm keeping it in beta testing I guess you could call it, lol.

So all in all it was a good week, I achieved my goal of maintaining my new body fat percentage, I hit a PR on BB rows, and I figured out what has been off with my deadlift form the last couple of weeks. I think I'm in a good spot moving forward.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/9/17

Press: 70 x5, 80 x5, 90 x5, 70 5x5
Pull-up: 12/12/12/11/10
Dip 15: 5x10
Ab roller: 5x15
DB Curl 20: 10/10/9/8/8
DB Overhead Tricep Ex 20: 10/10/10/8/8

Thoughts: That's a weighted dip PR there. Time to add 5 more lb next week. Also starting to add some tricep work in as well now that I'm back to eating enough calories that I could build muscle. Recovery is also feeling great at 2300 calories. I felt rather fresh out there this morning.

I had my 2 friends over this weekend that I mentioned last week, took them through the proper form and got them started on their LP's. I was surprisingly actually able to get both of them to pretty good form on all the lifts. There's a couple small things I had to ignore on the first workout to iron out the big stuff. I could tell that just focusing on the big things was about all they could focus on at that first workout. I forget how many just queues there are to focus on at first, over time most of them just become second nature. I'll come back and help them tweak the little stuff in the coming weeks as they're going to come over every Saturday for awhile, so I'll be working with them once a week for a bit. I basically just coached them through the lifts the exact same way I see Rip do it in the videos, and the same way that Robert Santana went through the lifts with me. It worked out really well.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/10/17

Deadlift: 189 x5, 216 x5, 243 x5, 189 5x5
Face-pull (blue): 5x12
DB Bench 42.5: 5x10
Bulgarian Split Squat 20: 5x10
Russian twist 15: 5x20

Thoughts: Slept like shit last night. Also got a lot of work stress going on this week. Still got the job done though even though I obviously wasn't feeling great out there.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/12/17

Bench: 112 x5, 128 x5, 144 x5, 112 5x5
Row 160: 5x5
DB Press 35: 10/10/10/9/8
Hanging Leg Raise: 5x8
Hammer curl 20: 5x10
DB LTE 20: 5x10

Thoughts: Another week, another row PR! I think I have one more PR in me next week before my deload week. Also got a DB Press PR today. Still doing those neutral grip as it seems to not aggravate my shoulders like a standard prone grip. I'm also upping my calories today to 2400, as my weight has been the very definition of stable this week. Matter of fact I've been 153.6 exactly the last 3 days in a row. My body fat percentage is also stable. So I think my hormones and metabolism are back enough to start initiating a slight surplus. I can also feel the late cycle fatigue starting to set in, especially since I've really been pushing my accessory work hard the last couple of weeks, so the extra calories will definitely help there. I'll probably be at 2400 for a couple weeks, as I don't want to be in more than a slight surplus during my deload week. I'll start increasing calories again the week after my deload, and keep bumping them up until I'm gaining somewhere in the .5-1lb per week average range. I've also cut back most of my conditioning over the last couple weeks. Really just doing 1-2 20-30 minute interval sessions per week, basically just enough to maintain my conditioning level but no more.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/13/17

Squat: 140 x5, 160 x5, 180 x5, 140 5x5
Chinup 15: 10/10/10/9/9
Reverse Grip DB Bench 40: 10/10/6/10/10
Bicycle Crunch: 5x20
Band Pull-apart (blue): 10/10/10/10/8

Thoughts: Squats felt really good out there today. Hopefully I'll get my squat back to pre-cut levels pretty quickly. It will be interesting to test it here in a couple weeks. I don't know what happened on that 3rd set of DB bench, my grip for some reason just failed out on my left hand. I almost dropped the weight. I think I'm going to use straps on barbell rows from here on out. I had to strap up the last set yesterday. I think I'm overly fatiguing my grip. Between deadlifts, weighted chins, pullups, and dead hangs (I do these a lot at the end of my workout a lot as shoulder pre-hab, I've had chronic shoulder issues in the past and dead hangs help a lot) my grip is getting plenty of training, and if my grip is getting fatigued and limiting me in other places because of it then it's time to adjust. Of course, in general, my body is holding a lot of fatigue right now. I could really feel it building up day after day over the course of the week. Work stress on top of physical stress probably didn't help this week either. Glad to have a two day break to rest. Next week is the last week before deload, so in all reality I'm right where I should be fatigue wise. Next week will be tough as I'll get even more fatigued, then I'll get to deload the week after to drop the fatigue, and the week after that I'll kill it in AMRAP testing my lifts.

[StrengthEngineer]

Official Weekly Measurements:

Weight Average: 153.57lb
Average Weight Change: -0.26lb
Waist Circumference: 30.5in
Body Fat Percentage (Navy Method): 9.9
FFM: 138.36lb
Fat Mass: 115.20lb
Body Fat Percentage 3-fold caliper: 10.23 (15 navel, 7 chest, 10 thigh)

Thoughts: Good week here. I was surprised to see my body fat percentage still drop a hair on both navy and 3-fold. Getting a little bit of recomp gainz going on. I dropped most of my conditioning as well as increased calories to 2400 per day so I should actually be in a slight caloric surplus even after metabolism increasing. Also, now that I've successfully maintained for 2 weeks and my hormones and metabolism are obviously in a good spot once again I'm going to treat myself to some pizza for lunch today. I have been craving pizza for months, and after staying strict and compliant in my diet for 5 months and cutting from 21% down to 10% body fat it's time to give myself a little pizza

[StrengthEngineer]

10/16/17

Press: 75 x5, 85 x5, 95 x5, 75 5x5
Pull-up: 5x12
Dip 20: 5x10
Ab-roller: 5x15
DB Curl 20: 10/10/10/9/8
DB French Press 20: 10/10/10/9/9

Thoughts: That's a dip and pull-up PR. It's a good sign seeing my assistance work start to PR on a regular basis. It means that after increasing calories my body is starting to adapt to training stress once again! Curious to see how my main lifts go when I test them in 2 weeks.

[StrengthEngineer]

10/17/17

Deadlift: 202.5 x5, 229.5 x5, 256.5 x5, 202.5 5x5
Face-pull (blue) 5x12
DB Bench 45: 5x10
Bulgarian Split Squat 25: 5x10
Russian twist 20: 5x20

Thoughts: DB Bench, Split Squat, and Russian Twist PR! Also, deadlifts are feeling a lot better. DL's were the lift that got hit the hardest in the last couple months of my cut. Now it feels like it's bouncing back. That 256.5 x5 was about an RPE 7, big change from 3 weeks ago when I did 251 and only got 4 reps, I just couldn't get the bar to budge on rep 5. So things seem to be moving forward again, thank god!