I think my back carries fat. The biggest victory for me was my sides. I don’t have any fat hanging over my waist line. I can feel a small pinch of skin when I’m sitting down and moving around. It’s crazy compared to how I felt at 250 lbs.
I think it’s tough to get the lower abs to pop unless you do some sort of water cut. I’m pretty sure whatever food is in our intestines kind of flattens everything out.
That’d be nuts and quite the achievement. I’ve tried to grow so many different times that I’m not too confident in myself to add quality mass. I’m thinking that maybe I should shoot for 215 lbs (220 would be amazing) at my current level of body fat by the time I’m 40. I turn 35 in September. That gives me 5+ years to gain 8-13 pounds. I used to gain that in the first 4-6 weeks on a “bulk”. Stupid.
We can do it, we just have to be dialed in. We need to be giving our bodies the right reasons to adapt. That’s where I’ve failed:
-Too much junk volume that just stifled the growth response
-Time lost to injury
-Overweight offsetting optimal hormone profile & response
-Recovery-centric focus
I know I’ve still got growth in me. But not the way I’ve done it in the past. The necessary changes are being made though. Been some tough lessons learned though!
I’ve followed good programs. I’ve trained hard. I’m training harder now. For strength I think I’ve changed my movements too frequently. I train something until it hurts or I get injured and then I switch it up. I go months without doing a particular movement and then I’ll circle back to it. I seem to lose a ton of progress when I do that.
For example, on SGSS I did squat, deadlift, RDL, and lunges for legs. I’m currently only doing lunges and it’s without weight. I haven’t done those other movements consistently for months due to injury.
For my upper body I did bench, OHP, pull ups, and Pendlaw rows. I’ve benched once since June. I took a break from OHP but it’s finally back in the rotation. I did the same with Pendlay rows. Pull ups have always been a staple and my performance hasn’t declined much. Go figure.
3 rounds:
Red Band Resisted Feet Elevated Ring Pushups
8
-with-
Chest Supported Row
44x12
-with-
Bent Orange Band + 18lb KB Lateral
15
Band Pressdowns
-with-
KB Curls
40 mins brisk walk outside with bonus half mile run
Wow, that 90/90 hip lift drill nearly made my pain disappear. Crazy. Obviously I’m going to give my lower body some time to recover, but holy shit that was a surprise. I’ll be doing that a few times per day along with a few other drills.
180.9 upon waking for another new low (.8). Slaying fat right now (hopefully not muscle). Only a pound from my goal weight, but thinking 175 now. Why not? I’ve gotten this far, and I have some time left before my stop date.
July 1 is the stop date. So, I’m going to diet until then. That’s another 4.5 weeks. It’s official, the new # is 175. Success will be anything from 175-179.9, but anything below 179.9 is a bonus, with 175 being the ultimate goal. I have 2 work trips and a mini beach vacation in the month of June, so I’ll have to manage that well. I’m going to work real hard the next 2 weeks, as I’ll be home and can control more variables.
A step back incoming today though. It’s my reward for destroying my 183lb week goal by 2.1 pounds. Pool/night party with family/friends with mixed drinks, authentic paella, pizza, homemade ice cream flavors, etc. I plan to get in a big cardio session first, maybe at the track. I just had about 800 cals for bfast, will just have a protein shake for lunch, then afternoon/evening festivities. I should still have 1600+ cals to expend (maybe more depending on how hard cardio is), so the step back shouldnt be bad!
Woke at 183.1. Had a blast last night. Did well not overeating until it got late and we started smores. I had 2 of them, a bunch of fruit and 2 big servings of ice cream, and 2 bread sticks.
Also, planned to just stick to my calorie sparing Seabreezes, but then our spanish friends made a huge batch of Sangria, and wow, tasted like candy so had 3-4 glasses of that on top.
All in all I did ok, and we had a helluva lot of fun. All thr activity prior and during mitigated some of the eating and drinking.
Back to business. Today will be some med intensity cardio. Either 40-60 min incline treadmill walk or neighborhood walk/run combo.
Also, Greg Nuckols emailed me his Average to Savage 2.0 program, since I bought the first version. I’ll spend some time today checking it out. I had a lot of success with 1.0. May run that when i get healed up.
Letting go and enjoying life on the occasion is not the end of things but a nice place to reset and move foward. Doing it willingly instead of mindlessly is the key to success
I agree, to a point, especially the mindlessly aspect. Most excellent things require intention. If you have goals in place, then organization and planning are necessary. Last night was planned into my week, but not before I met certain short term goals/criteria.
Also, every Friday and Saturday doesn’t quality as on occasion . That can be trap thinking.
You’re doing good Iron, a well deserved party and not some stupid BS eating, but a good time with friends.
It’s a win and you’ll be back on track in no time.
Woke 181.0. The serratus was popping this morning. Very cool.
I can tell that my body is primed right now to do whatever I want it to do. This I’ve never experienced, and I do think it has to do with higher sensitivity to hormones, nutrition, etc. This has opened my eyes. I think I will be able to put on more mass than I thought I could, as long as I go about it optimally. Less workout volume, but more intense work…optimal recovery. Lower year around body fat set levels, injury free.
Upper workout tonight. Flat DB probably. Thinking two proper 8/8/8 drop sets. Some chins, rows, and laterals of some kind and done.
Back/SI joint update:
Getting better. Just need to not aggravate it, as in, dont load it yet. BW stuff is fine, which is what I will do for lower for the next few weeks. Have another chiro apt tomorrow. Moving in the right direction.
Woke 183.9? I did eat very good yesterday, 2980 cals with 400g carbs including a double meat Chipotle bowl. But, I also burned big time cals with 80 mins of cardio and a strength training workout. Woke looking on point. Pretty sure salt/glycogen replacement.
No strength stuff today, but probably will hit the track for some 80-90% 200M sprints or hill sprints in neighborhood. Also have a PT apt.
Chiro was good, making progress. It’s weird, the pain changes sides. Not so much pain, but tightness. Will keep working the plank variations, hip flexor hold, 90/90 hip lift/breathing, etc.
Tomorrow I plan to do more BW lunges (perhaps a little weight) banded hamstring curls and bridges. Will aim for 200 steps of lunges and 200 reps of hamstring curls.
Diet has been good today. Should see a nice drop tomorrow.
Woke 182.4. Looking good. More stuff pops out every day it seems. Going to have another tight diet day. I’m zig zagging my way down.
Back did not like sprints yesterday. Very tight this morning. Pain/tightness switched from low left to low right yesterday morning. Kind of weird, but it’s happened before. Hopefully part of the healing process. So ready for this to be healed up. What a life suck.
Will do BW lunges, single leg glute bridge and band hamstring curls in circuit fashion. 100 total reps each. 10x10 probably. Then 30 mins incline treadmill.
My FAVOURITE! We have an annual scramble tournament (doubles) with friends where each beer drank takes a 1/2 stroke off your final score. So it is a bit of a balancing act. I’m not a great golfer, but I can usually help our team out quite a bit on the other front, haha.
So good job staying out of the pints!
I can relate to this. I’m typically a salty over sweets guy (Doritos, almost any flavour, are my nemesis), but recently it has been the damn Mini Eggs that we seemed to have acquired KGs of over Xmas.
The Titos will pack the cals, and they’re going to be strong too.
. That can be trap thinking.