You’ve also probably lost some fat off your back. This can make a dramatic difference with your chest measurement.
Well done on everything up to now.
Ohhh and sorry to hear about the GF ;o(
Yesterday I was too mentally stressed from my life to workout, so today I resumed and hit legs hard.
Everything progressed except for the front squat…it actually was worse. I posted a thread in bodybuilding to see if I could get some help. Eating is going well…Basically from Friday-Monday I ate pretty light because I was just too stressed from my life to feel hungry, so maybe all of this stress / cortisol affected my workout today. I dunno, but I’m resuming my heavy eating today.
Did arms yesterday, but only for an hour, so I supersetted a bicep exercise with a tricep exercise. I got most of my workout in…but I didn’t document it because it was so haphazard and I was so rushed. I was really anxious about stuff in life that day anyway, so that workout wasn’t really going to go anywhere.
Chest/back today, so that should go over well. Starting to incorporate dynamic stretching in the beginning and extreme stretching at the end – let’s hope I get some gains in size and flexibility/health!
did chest/back yesterday
weighed in at 203 (2 lbs / 11 days)
did 100 lb dumbbells for bench for the first time in my life. hurray!
leg day today.
did 205 for 6 reps on the first set, which was better than the last 3 weeks. also, made it to 25 reps in fewer sets than ever before.
rest of workout went swimmingly. i still consider this to be a success.
anyway, next week is vacation, so i’ll probably just de-load and do bodyweight exercises and light weights to keep myself active, but at the same time, give my muscles a rest while i chill at home.
i figured that with 8 weeks on this program so far, i should probably change up my exercises a little, but i’ve also heard “if it aint broke dont fix it” so i’m wondering, from you all
when i come back to the gym full-time on mar 30th, should i change up my exercises, or at least some of them, or should i just stick to what is working?
I’m from the “ain’t broken” side. Maybe change rep ranges slightly first. If you’re seeing progression stick with it. If, on the other hand, it’s getting boring then “consider” something new.
Don’t know if you’ve ever read “zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.” Talks about “gumption traps”. Sometimes I think you fall into these. We all do from time to time but it takes a bit of self awareness to see it as it is. Trying not to get too deep here. Read the book if you get a chance.
Anyway 8 weeks is never set in stone and you might only need a couple of days off. Listen to your body. Personally I think you’re making relatively good progress. What do you think??
Hope this helps… good luck
I always value your advice – and I have read that book, GREAT read.
Yeah, I think I’ll just take a week off and do some bodyweight stuff while I’m at home. Then when I come back, I’ll resume exactly what I’ve been doing since I started this mass phase.
Did arms today, and they responded VERY well. Progress is continuing…
My body fat went down!!!
I can’t explain it…I quadruple checked all of my measurements, but it definitely went down!
I felt like I SAW it in the mirror, but I instantly dispelled it because who gains muscle AND loses fat at the same time, right? I’m wondering if its because of one key observation:
The days I haven’t worked out, I’ve dropped my calories back by a good 1000 calories. I went to Dr. JB’s massive eating calculator, and wondered how many calories should I eat when I do 0 minutes of exercise? How much should I eat on my days off? So on my days off, I follow those calorie restrictions and drop off the calories a bit, and apparently its working?
SWEET.
EDIT: Ya know what I’ve also started using apple cider vinegar and cinnamon heavily when I have high-carb meals. So my morning smoothies (which are at least 100g in carbs) have a ton of cinnamon in them. Whenever I have a huge meal w/ carbs like with rice or veggies, I also get a ton of apple cider vinegar in there (2 tbsp). And those help with insulin sensitivity, so maybe that’s helping too? Who knows, but those are my biggest observational differences over the last 13+ days.
Chest/back today. Went well. Did 100 lb dumbbells for the whole exercise. Pretty tough - only in the 3-4 rep range, but I powered through and didn’t give up.
Next week I’m taking off because its vacation and the gym is shut down – plus I’ll be home for a week. Probably just do some bodyweight conditioning to keep my muscles active but at the same time reduce the load so I can give my muscles a well-deserved rest.
I’m also contemplating substituting exercises for the next 8 weeks because I just don’t feel it in a great deal of these exercises, so I definitely want to make some key substitutions, while keeping the basic movements intact (as well as the effective ones).
I figured this out Tuesday night. All of the EZ bars were taken in my incredibly-tiny school gym, so I had to do french press instead of skull crushers. Virtually the same movement – but today, my triceps haven’t been this sore for MONTHS. I change 1 exercise and all of the sudden I feel like I haven’t worked arms in forever!
So I think if I mix up some of my exercises, it will create new stimulus for even MORE growth. And growth is good at this point.
Shooting for 205+ on Monday.
Sweet 10000 views! Glad to see people are interested.
Anyway, killer shoulders/abs workout for today. Nothing really interesting to note, I’m pretty much on point with my workouts and nutrition. Hoping to hit 205 or higher for Monday.
WERD!!!
spring break means no gym. no gym means bodyweight workouts for the week. probably 3800-4000 calories a day. should be good for my joints.
This week has been bodyweight exercises and less calories to sort of give both my stomach and my muscles a break while I am at home. NEW GYM WHEN I GET BACK FUCK YEAH. I’m also making a few exercise adjustments.
For one, I’m dropping squats and romanian deadlifts for the straight deadlift. All of my quad exercises are going to be single-leg, because I have SERIOUS leg imbalances. I can do 10 single-leg bodyweight squats on my left leg, and I can’t even get down all of the way on my right leg.
Making a few more adjustments besides that, but I’m ready for round 2!
Taking a week off during spring break was the best decision I could have made.
2 PRs today!
205x8 front squat
365x4 deadlift
both raw.
HELL FUCKIN YEAH
Nice PB’s Adam. Well done!!
arms today.
i have a bit of a cold.
i dunno if its the cold, but every time i eat i get really nauseous. i’ve been getting enough sleep, but too late in the morning (as evident by this post) and not as much as i usually get.
i’m sick of feeling like shit after every meal.
day off. i just realized but im basically doing a carb cycling diet. on the days i really work hard (chest and leg days), i tend to eat about 300-500 calories more, and theyre my highest carb days. days like today, when its my day off, i reach for more fats and protein, and im about 750 calories less on days like today than those other days (and about 200 g carbs less).
so without even thinking, im carb cycling. probably why my body fat has stayed in check despite my continuous increase in weight.
me likey 
chest/back today. going back to barbell bench did not make my left elbow happy.
also, why is it that when i drink my PWO this week, ive been feeling crappy right afterwards? wtf?
Hey man! I just read through your the log and you’ve come a long way. It’s very cool to see the progress you’ve made. I’m looking forward to see the progress you undoubtedly will continue to make.
Dan
[quote]acelement wrote:
chest/back today. going back to barbell bench did not make my left elbow happy.
[/quote] Benching with flared elbows/scarecrow style? [quote]
also, why is it that when i drink my PWO this week, ive been feeling crappy right afterwards? wtf?[/quote]
Want to go into a little more detail?
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
acelement wrote:
chest/back today. going back to barbell bench did not make my left elbow happy.
Benching with flared elbows/scarecrow style?
also, why is it that when i drink my PWO this week, ive been feeling crappy right afterwards? wtf?
Want to go into a little more detail?
[/quote]
Nope my form was great. Pretty much 45deg arms…I actually tried to flare my arms out more on the last set to take the burden off my elbows!
As far as the PWO thing…basically I’m doing 35g protein to 70g carbs PWO. It has about 3g DL-PL and 4g creatine as well, and I just add water and slam it down right after my workout.
20 minutes later, I feel a combination of bloated and nauseous. Then when I try to eat my PWO meal an hour after my workout, I haven’t been able to finish half of those meals this week because I feel so full/bloated/nauseous that I fear I’ll vomit if I have another bite. Then I sit in my chair for 20-30 minutes, feeling like shit, just waiting out the storm until my stomach calms down and I can finish my meal.