Resolution 2019 - Get Stronger

[Adam Levine]

Workout 43 of 150 - Friday 3/29
- Skipped bench because I'm going to a local, non-SS bench camp tomorrow and didn't want to show up whomped.
- 5x3 Squat instead of 3x5. It appears my coach/inern at SSOC really doesn't like me to fail and mixes up the program before I do. I'd almost prefer failing - I need to get a sense of what is close to failure. I know my coach knows and has determined I'm there, but I need to be able to feel it for myself.

Workout Sequence:
----Squat: 45x5x2, 85x5, 125x3, 165x2, 205x1, 225x3x5
----Bench: Skipped.
----Light Deadlift: 135x5, 165x5, 225x2, 245x1, 270x5x2

Adam Levine on Instagram: “Workout 43 of 150 Two plate squat today, or at least it would have been if @ironfitboxing had two plates. Even better, 3 plate Squat!…”

-->Adam

[Adam Gottstein]

I saw your post about the elbows. It looks a lot on these squats like when you start the move and shove the hips back and go more horizonal, you also extend your wrist a fair bit. Not sure if that is the case or if I'm seeing things, and not sure if that's your issue, but thought I'd point it out in case it might help. You are making great progress, and it's great to see. Enjoy the bench camp.

[positronbomb]

Hi Adam
I thought this might be of interest to you.
I was just reading that there is some evidence to suggest that Taurine supplementation can help control high blood sugar levels.
Might be worth trying it.

[Adam Levine]

I saw your post about the elbows. It looks a lot on these squats like when you start the move and shove the hips back and go more horizonal, you also extend your wrist a fair bit. Not sure if that is the case or if I'm seeing things, and not sure if that's your issue, but thought I'd point it out in case it might help. You are making great progress, and it's great to see. Enjoy the bench camp.

Thank you - I'm aware of that issue and am working to fix it (technique improvements come very slowly for me). It appears though that when I do that, I'm actually pulling down on the bar most of the time, but start to push up at the end when I'm racking the bar. Bad habits on both fronts, but it doesn't explain why Paul Horn stretches and the empty bar both originated and seem to cause the issue.

Hi Adam
I thought this might be of interest to you.
I was just reading that there is some evidence to suggest that Taurine supplementation can help control high blood sugar levels.
Might be worth trying it.

Thanks - hadn't seen that. Tried garlic, which appears to have no effect, and I was going to try Chromium. I'll look up Taurine.

-->Adam

[Adam Levine]

Body and Diet Stats for Week 14
Notes:
- Doing blood sugar experiments - changing diet and seeing how it affects the next morning's number. It appears high carbs and/or insomnia really push the number up - got some very high numbers this week from that which are skewing the average. I'm going to try near-keto levels of carbs for a few days and see what happens.
- Level 2 strength in Deadlift achieved. I'm close on the other main lifts.

Body Stats:
Age: 48
Height: 5'9.7"
Weight: 182.5lb (Up 1.2 lb)
Neck: 15.75" (No change)
Waist: 34.5" (No change)
Body Fat (by Navy Calculator): 17.1% (No change)
LBM (by Navy Calculator): 151lb (Up 1 lb)
Average morning/fasting blood sugar: 124 (DOUBLE YEEK!)
Total Weight Gain on NLP: 8lb
Total LBM Gain on NLP: 6lb

Diet Stats:
Average calories/day: 3,324
Average protein/day: 350g
Average carbs/day: 305g
Average fat/day: 91g
Supplementation and drugs:
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder per day (discontinuing next week)
- 1000mg Vitamin C per day (discontinuing)
- 5,000 IU of Vitamin D per day
- 1 Flintsones multivitamin/day
- 10mg Atorvastatin/2 days (reduced dosage this week)
- 1 OTC Omeprazole/2 days
- 5g Creatine per day
- 15tsp benefiber per day
- 1000mcg Chromium Picolinate per day (added this week)
- 2g+ DHA and EPA per day, in the form of canned salmon

[Adam Levine]

Supplemental entry

LP is over, and the 3400ish calorie LP diet appears to have wreaked havoc with my blood sugar.

So, I'm going back to a 2200-2400 calorie diet for health reasons - a diet similar to when my blood sugar was good. I'm researching intermediate programs that will work with my restrictions:
- Not in caloric surplus
- Don't know 1RM and have no sense of RPE or reps in the tank
- Overall goals aren't lofty - I want to be stronger and fit, but don't need the strength of a competitive powerlifter. Rip's level 3 would be ideal, and the work to get to level 4 probably won't help much from a health standpoint.

Given this, I'm starting to think the SS model might be overkill for me, and might go to a more NASM-type strategy. Lift a bunch in different rep ranges, and when it feels like I can add weight, add weight. Don't over-complicate it or try to schedule weight increases - they'll happen over time.

Again, still thinking... This may change...

-->Adam

[wiigelec]

Strength & Mass After 40 - Andy Baker

YouTube

[positronbomb]

Adam
I’ve been lifting on no more than 2000 calories a day the whole time, and have been able to make progress.
You don’t need to switch programs until you truly hit a plateau and can’t break through it.

[Geoff Bischoff]

Something from PP for early intermediate will serve you well. An Old-Man Texas Method for instance, where you gain weekly PRs for as long as you can sustain. I'd say skip out on the truly whacky stuff until middle-intermediate/late-intermediate.

I think skipping the early-intermediate step (in some form which looks quite similar to LP, though on a weekly cycle) will lead to regression, as I've seen with some other folks going from Novice to Intermediate in this forum.

[Adam Levine]

Thank you all for the help advice. I'm a bit frustrated as this wasn't my plan - I'm still too lean, want to gain and can't. I love the 3400 calorie diet!

So, I've got my basic plan:
1) Use SSOC's programming for as long as I have it. I'll be dropping them when my contract ends in a few weeks, but that gives me time to figure out what to do next.
2) The new plan must include conditioning - studies show that conditioning + strength training is better at controlling blood sugar than either alone. I totally need that.
3) Talk to my sources (Mia Inman, Practical Programming, this forum...) and plan out my intermediate training plan before switching away from SSOC. I'm pretty time-constrained and can't afford the longer workout times that some of these intermediate plans require (even changing 3x5 to 5x3 costs me 10 minutes, and is problematic). I'm leaning to some kind of a 4-day split spread over 9 days instead of a week, then adding 1-2 conditioning sessions on off days. I'm also considering templates from AndyBaker and Barbell Medicine (though I don't like BBM's reliance on RPE). Those templates tend to include more volume, which is good for blood sugar.
4) Gain weight as fast as my diabetes will permit. Titrate my diet based on blood sugar. Basically, if my blood sugar was good for the week, try to add some calories and see if it stays good. If it gets bad, cut some calories. Unfortunately, my current calorie level is probably near maintenance - I doubt it will move my weight by more than about a pound or two a month in either direction...

-->Adam