Adam's Physique Clinic

Training Training Logs
101

[quote]acelement wrote:
Hey guys,

Thanks so much for reading this – it always humbles me that people actually pay attention to what I do, and I REALLY appreciate the feedback – that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

Today was a HUGE day for me, because I finally learned how to squat like powerlifters. These two beasts showed me the ropes and SHIT. By simply putting the bar BELOW my traps, I was amazed at how much more CENTERED I was, how I didn’t feel so top heavy, and my weights SOARED!

I literally did 255x8 and didnt’ feel fatigued at all. I could have easily done another 8, if not more. Actually I did another 7 right afterward, with not even a few seconds rest and banged them out..

..ALL because I changed my center of gravity – and I have witnesses that these were legit reps, the guy even said “those were great sets - you have great form kid”. FUCK YES! Physics rocks! This brings my current maxes to the following:

Deadlift: 390
Squat: 370
Bench: 240

TOTAL: 1000

YES!!!

FUCK YES!!!

I FINALLY reached the 1000 lb club! This has been a goal of mine for a long time, and it made it a helluva lot easier for me to achieve once I learned how to fucking squat!

This is awesome…well enough rambling, on to my day

THURSDAY - DAY 81

A) Bench - I did DB bench today because I didn’t have a spotter… (weights are measured PER dumbbell)
75x7, 85x7, 95x6, 95x4, 85x6, 85x6

B) Bent-row
6x6 @ 155 for 1, 165 for the last 5

C) Squat
bad form at 225x5, 245x5, 255x5
then good form at 255x7, 255x8, 255x15

HELL

FUCKING

YES
[/quote]

can you explain a little further on the placement of the bar…I don’t really understand and tomorrow is a squat day for me so it will come in handy.

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[quote]
can you explain a little further on the placement of the bar…I don’t really understand and tomorrow is a squat day for me so it will come in handy.[/quote]

Ronaldo…

A lot of people place the bar at base of their neck which makes them top heavy and more likely to rock forward and bend too much, especially with the heavier weights. You should place it on your traps as low as possible. If you haven’t done it before it should feel like its “almost” going to roll down your back. I get trainees to do it first with a light weight on to a box squat. Sit down on a 12" box or bench and make sure you sit right back until your back is pretty much vertical . You want to have the feeling that your ass is going back on the box and not just down. If you feel like your feet are going to slip forward you haven’t sat back far enough.

Adam. Got your PM. Will answer properly when I get back from the gym.

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SUMMER REVIEW:

Started out at 175, made it up to just under 210. Goal was accomplished, and now I begin a cut down to 190 – well, I’m transferring to a new scale at my school, which is medical-grade, so that will give more accurate weight measurements, and thus I might bulk only for a few more weeks until I can get a solid 210 under my belt. My new goal (after verifying I’m at 210) is to get to 10% bodyfat, and that should do it. From there, adding on more muscle than fat will be easy, and I just need to add another 5-10 lbs.

To accomplish part two of the goal, I am going to use the V-Diet. I purchased some body fat calipers and will take some measurements later on this week. It’s a pretty drastic move, but I have a bet with my girlfriend that I can lose the weight before New Years, so looks like I’m gonna win this one, especially with the V-Diet!

New pics and more to come on Tuesday, takin it easy for Labor Day weekend (I earned it!) I was moving in yesterday, and I consider that my workout (at one point, I was deadlifting a 3 seater couch w/ a bed in it, and I haven’t sweat like that in a LOOOONG time).

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I can not talk from experience, but I have read that it is generally a bad idea to do a bulk and then cut immediatly after. Do you plan to eat and maintain at 210 for a bit before the cut?

105

DAY 87 - WEDNESDAY

I was just slammed in the face with a huge dose of reality.

My skin fold calipers arrived, and after much trepidation and experimentation, I have concluded that my body fat is at a staggering 17%.

Fuck.

Stopping the bulk now was a smart move, and now begins the dreaded cut, though the good news is that I was correct in assuming that if I drop down to 190, I’ll be just below 10% body fat, which is exactly what I hoped to accomplish, and the V-Diet should get me there.

the V-Diet so far is pretty easy – my meals are cheaper, and I’m not having problem being hungry because those shakes are actually pretty filling…in fact, I need to have one now!

Anyway, here are my lifts for today:

A1) Push press

8x5 @ 135 – not the same as bradford press because sitting down is much easier to lift weight than standing up, for sure

A2) Chin ups
8x5 @ bodyweight – should probably start adding weight next week, or making sure all reps are even wider

B) Deadlift
7x5 @ 315, 1x3 @ 315
An improvement over last week…my volume increased by 3 reps, and I had even less food/energy to work with, so that must count for something. Next week I hope to get all 5 reps in on the end.

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Great log acelement! Great progress… after my last tattoo session I’ll be trying your stuff out 30+lbs in 2 months is great!

As far as the V-Diet is concerned… from what I’ve read it’s generally a bad idea if you’re under 20% bf.

After reading several other logs I’d just recommend cutting your calls by 250-450 per week while maintaining your intensity in the gym. BF will drop gradually (healthier) and you’ll maintain, if not, gain muscle. Just my two cents :slight_smile:

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[quote]
A1) Push press

8x5 @ 135 – not the same as bradford press because sitting down is much easier to lift weight than standing up, for sure

A2) Chin ups
8x5 @ bodyweight – should probably start adding weight next week, or making sure all reps are even wider

B) Deadlift
7x5 @ 315, 1x3 @ 315
An improvement over last week…my volume increased by 3 reps, and I had even less food/energy to work with, so that must count for something. Next week I hope to get all 5 reps in on the end.[/quote]

Well done on these lifts Adam. Keep thinking heavy even on the diet ;o)

I like the exercises you’re doing here. Are you timing your rests between sets? With only 3 exercises I would suggest you keep a record on how long you spend on each exercise. When the diet really kicks in there might come a time where you can’t increase the weight like you have been. I’ve found that if I get stuck on a weight I can still increase intensity by reducing total time for completion (especially when dieting). Just a thought.

You mention “wider” for chin ups. Do you mean pull-ups i.e pronated grip??? Pull-ups do use the arms slightly less and put some extra stress on the lats BUT there is a substantially shorter range of motion. I would consider “wider” pull-ups on the first 4 sets (as they are harder than chins) and chins on the last 4. Doing 5 reps everytime tells me you have something left in the tank in the first 5 or 6 sets. There are different opinions on this but over the last 6 years of my training I’ve gone balls to the wall in every set with great results (obviously if it doesn’t work for you stick with your current rep scheme). Depending on bodyweight I could end up with 12,10,9,8 for example. If this happens I would add a weighted vest or DB for the first 2 sets next time. As you get closer to 10% bf you’ll really start to fly on BW exercises like this.

As Poliquin says “over 10% bf is fat”. I would say you’ll be happy enough with 12% (until summer next year anyway) but I know you have a bet with your gf. You’ve done your calculations and I think you just need to stick to your diet and training until this time next week. At that point reassess your bf and bw. Different people loose different amounts on the v diet and sometimes this can be partly muscle. So lets hope you do even better on this workout next week as this will be the true test and if needs be you might need to make some “minor” tweaks.

Keep it up. You’re really gonna learn about your own body over the next month ;o)

Good luck!!

108

[quote]Intersweat wrote:
Are you timing your rests between sets?
[/quote]

Absolutely. I’m following the rest protocols on the Shotgun method to a T, however I must mention that rest in between the deadlift gradually increased to just under 3 minutes by the last set, but everything else was exactly as prescribed in the shotgun method (90-120 sec, depending on the exercise)

Yeah sorry, I meant wide-grip PULL ups…I’ve only been doing pull ups actually. Trying to develop back width. The difference is that I may have all sets down, but I need to get all sets down w/ the WIDE grip. It’s usually the first few sets are wide, then I have to alternate between wide and regular grip pull-ups.

This is one hell of an experiment, I just have been so busy with moving into my new apartment/school that I haven’t had a chance to find a scale, so I hope my 17% was still at 207 and not lower, or else my body weight has to drop even further back to my old norms :frowning:

And as far as the comment about “V-diet bad below 20%”…I mean, I’m just below 20%, and the moment you start the V-diet at 20% your bf% drops, so you could rationalize that I did a few weeks of the V-diet already haha. Anyway, I’m sticking to the V-diet, because if I can put on the muscle that fast, I can surely lose the fat that fast, I’m certainly dedicated enough.

Off to class!

109

Good to see you’re following shotgun to the tee. Forgot about that actually… oops. Thinking I’m doing too many tnation posts at the same time.

There are two schools of thought on the wide grip for wide back idea. As I said the wide grip IS more lats but has a restricted range of motion. I like to cover both bases by doing wide grip and then chins (hands beside each other and supinated grip).

Don’t forget, Chris designed this for getting himself from 12% or so down to single digit numbers and from my own experience also it works. Not sure where mpenix read this but I was under the impression the opposite was true. Sorry mpenix for disagreeing on this ;o)

110

DAY 88 - Thursday

A) Seated rope pulls to neck
5x12 @ 70lb
different pulley system because I’m at my school gym instead of my summer gym, so that’s just going ot have to be the new benchmark

B1) Standing DB curls
40x5, then three sets @ 30-35x5 seated at the preacher machine (so basically DB preacher), then another set standing again for 35x5. Basically someone stole my weights so I had to work around it.

I don’t know if this is bad or not, but I can’t seem to get past 40x5, that’s still really damn hard.

B2) Close grip bench (supinated grip)
5x5 @ 185 - should get up to 7 reps next week, this is a great weight, definitely more than last week

C) Supinated and pronated wrist curls
5x12 @ 20lb for pronated grip, 30lb for supinated grip. No more wrist rollers means I’m running out of ideas for my wrists, and I really need to maintain that size (or add onto) my forearms

D) Calf machine
4x12 @ 270, 1x18 @ 250
Without a neck machine (and because my neck is up to where I want it to be), I did calves. Though in retrospect, I think I’m going to replace neck with abs – I haven’t done any core work whatsoever in months, and it’s always good for your body, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt during a cut.

Since Monday, I’ve had 3 solid meals – 2 of them were because Monday morning I was still moving into my apartment and hadn’t gotten the chance to go shopping. Nonetheless, if I keep that pace I’ll stick to 90% adherence.

THIS IS TOUGH. I already had hunger pains and longing for solid food. My girlfriend was devouring a wrap and I was hungry as hell – and I ate but only 2 hours ago! I’ve droppped over 2000 calories from my daily consumption, and only 4 days in I am feeling the pain.

This is going to be a long month, but I’m soooo psyched that I have some great people checking in on me and motivating me to succeed – thanks so much for everyone that is reading and cheering me on!

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I’ve found splitting my shakes into single scoops every 60-90 minutes holds off the hunger pangs. Milled flax seeds or flax seed oil (if you can get/keep it fresh) will add the necessary fibre and again, ease the pain.

You’ll do this no problem Adam. It gets easier. You’ll find your appreciation for good clean food after about 2 weeks.

112

DAY 89 (DAY 5 of V-Diet): Friday

A) Bench
155x5, 185x5, 205x5, 210x5, 210x4, 210x3
Probably should stay at this weight

B) Bent row
6x5 @ 185 (last set I actually made it to 6, so I’ll probably up 10 lbs next week)

C) Squat
225x5, 275x5, 295x5, 300x5, 300x1, 225x10
I just lost the gas for that last set…so I took off some weight and just banged out some reps. It’s too fucking hot out today.

The heat is feeding into my exhaustion even more than the severe lack of calories. I have to say though, I feel like the fat is melting off like an ice cube on the surface of the Sun. Can’t wait to see what I weigh/body fat next Monday!

I guess the numbers are going up

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Did you take the skinfold measurements yourself? How many sites? I have some of the cheaper calipers and I never trust what I get.

And yeah, I kind of suck. I’m stuck around 195 ish, but thats after getting terribly sick twice in a 45 day period during my ‘summer bulk’. So props to you bc you beat me and you are already cutting.

Good luck with the diet.

114

[quote]gabex wrote:
Did you take the skinfold measurements yourself? How many sites? I have some of the cheaper calipers and I never trust what I get.

And yeah, I kind of suck. I’m stuck around 195 ish, but thats after getting terribly sick twice in a 45 day period during my ‘summer bulk’. So props to you bc you beat me and you are already cutting.

Good luck with the diet.[/quote]

From what I remember Adam used the cheap calipers for 7 sites and got on or near 17% on each attempt. Does help if you have an experienced PT but doing it at least 5 times will give an average. One problem is when they get bf tested by different people each time.

115

[quote]Intersweat wrote:
gabex wrote:
Did you take the skinfold measurements yourself? How many sites? I have some of the cheaper calipers and I never trust what I get.

And yeah, I kind of suck. I’m stuck around 195 ish, but thats after getting terribly sick twice in a 45 day period during my ‘summer bulk’. So props to you bc you beat me and you are already cutting.

Good luck with the diet.

From what I remember Adam used the cheap calipers for 7 sites and got on or near 17% on each attempt. Does help if you have an experienced PT but doing it at least 5 times will give an average. One problem is when they get bf tested by different people each time.
[/quote]

Yeah, they’re cheap calipers, but they’re very highly rated, and I really do not care the extra 1-2% difference a professional would do w/ $200 calipers at an incredibly over-inflated rate.

So before I get to my workout I just want to point out another frustration. Last night, walking back to my apartment, was the first big party night on campus. Trying to mind my own business, these football jocks wanted me to stay, but I said no. Words were exchanged, and I just kept walking and wouldn’t give them the time of day. They continued to harass me and then threw full beer cans at me from a distance.

Un-fucking-believeable.

I called the cops, and the idiots that they are told me to stay put, even though I could have followed them and helped the police apprehend them, instead they’re still around somewhere.

I feel really small – My whole point of my transformation was to never feel weak again, and yet it’s like I’ve accomplished nothing.

I guess the truth is, there will always be someone bigger than you, but it doesn’t really help if you’re still not bigger than the people that would actually test you (them, being football players). What pisses me off even more is that I know some guys on the football team who are genuinely good people, but its these jerk-offs who perpetuate the stereotypes that surround them…fuck!

Anyway, enough ranting, on to my workout:

SATURDAY - DAY 90 (Day 6 V-Diet)

A) 7 reps lat raise + 7 reps front raise + 5 reps db press
5x5-7 @ 35 db’s

B1) Machine preacher
5x6 @ 70 – also a new pulley system so it’s hard to tell if I’ve improved
B2) Tricep pressdown (v-bar)
70x7, 80x7, 90x7, 100x7, 110x3 to 100x4 – 100 seems to be the magical number

C) Thick-bar BB holds for time (pronated and supinated grip)
I finally found a use for those foam things for your back!

D) Decline situps
5x7 w/ 45 lb plate

Any suggestions on ab exercises? I’m looking for the best ab and the best oblique exercise for intermediates…same with forearm exercises. I think I have a good forearm selection now, it just sucks not having a wrist roller, because those things are awesome.

As far as the V-Diet is going, it’s doable, but I miss real food.

God I miss real fucking food.

It’s not the hunger that bothers me anymore, I conquered that, it’s just the constant chalky, powdery, protein-aftertaste that I can’t remove. I haven’t had a solid meal in days, and you’re right, I would KILL for a spinach salad w/ some lightly-seasoned grilled chicken. I already used up a few solid meals from this week while transitioning over to V-Diet on Monday afternoon, so I’m going to have to wait again until next weekend… :frowning:

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I haven’t done any direct ab work for 10 years so I’m maybe not the best judge BUT I do know a few things. Anytime your feet need to be held while you do situps your hip flexors will do as much work as your abs, if not more. Now it’s good to have strong hip flexors - Soccer players need them to get off the ground super fast after a sliding tackle for example. Best exercise I know of is STANDING pulley crunches.

I also don’t do any direct forearm work, though I probably could do with a bit. I’ve found real heavy rack pulls (600 lb) lifted off the pins at knee height with no straps give me an awesome workout. In fact as long as I don’t use straps during back workouts the forearms get a good session.

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MONDAY - DAY 92 (DAY 8 VDiet)

Hectic day and weekend. I think my adherence was around 90%, though Sunday I almost broke up with my girlfriend so I didn’t eat very much. 2 of my meals were cheat meals, 3 of my meals were solid. On Saturday I just NEEDED a spinach salad w/ some hanger steak and a light balsalmic vinagerette. It was what I needed to keep my sanity.

Today I also had a solid meal, chicken and a spinach-based Indian food (Saag paneer) with rice before my workout. To limit carbs, I didn’t have my waxy maize after my workout, and resumed my Vdiet with only 4 shakes and 8 scoops to keep calories in check. It’s great because I can go out to eat with my girlfriend and not feel like a chump, I just shift my calories, subtract shakes, and make smart choices in food – and I cheat once or twice a week to keep myself sane, which is still high adherence to the program.

Also, I was very busy today and had little time for the gym. In 20 minutes, I accomplished the following:

-1 warmup set of 225 deadlift.
-5x5 @ 315 deadlift, 1x2 @ 335 deadlift
-4x5 wide-grip pull-up
-2x5 close-grip chin-up

And I basically just super-setted the deadlifts with the pull/chin-ups. I basically rested 20-30 sec in between each exercise, never really resting more than 45 seconds between either exercise, and I got through all of that in twenty minutes, and I worked up quite a sweat, which is certainly very good during a fat-loss period.

I think I’m seeing results already, which is good, but since I got to the gym so late, I didn’t get a chance to do a weigh-in, nor take pictures. Gotta get back on that track, which I hope to do tomorrow.

Cheers,

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Looks to me like you were thinking on your feet Adam which is always a good thing. That was good work for only 20 mins. Stick with it!!

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TUESDAY - DAY 93 (V-Diet day 9)

Glad to see I’m almost a 1/3 of the way done with the V-Diet, I can’t wait to eat real food on a regular basis!

This afternoon’s weigh-in (w/ sandals, mesh shorts, and a tank top…so probably 1/2 lb of clothing): 199.0 lb. And this was on the school’s medical-grade scale.

So last weigh-in was 2 weeks ago? So that means I’ve gone down from 206.5 to 199 in 2 weeks, that’s 7.5 lbs lost already, which is just over 3 lb per week. At this rate I’ll lose another 10 lbs by the end of the V-Diet, and be a shredded 189. I don’t know what my new body fat measurements are…I think I’m doing it wrong, because the numbers seemed to have gone up. I also have to find my camera…so maybe I’ll post later again tonight.

On to the workout…

A) Rope pull to neck
80x8, 80x10, 80x9, 60x12, 60x12
I dropped down to 60 because I felt my form was sluggish at 80, and I really started to feel it in my rear-delts when dropped the weight.

B1) Zottman curl
25x7, 30x7, 35x7, 35x7, 35x7 (stick w/ 35 the whole time next week)
B2) Close grip bench
185x5 – couldn’t increase the reps.

I feel like I need to start switching up my exercises because I just need a new tricep exercise. Dips hurt my shoulder girdle too much, and close grip bench, though a great compound exercise and great for my triceps, is just killer on my wrists. One set I swear I could do 7, but another set my wrists are not PERFECTLY lined up and I can barely get 5 down. This exercise is just too finicky to get down for me, and I’m not progressing.

C) Wrist curls (pro- and supi-nated)
35x5 pro, 20x5 supi

Another exercise that feels useless - even though the weight is manageable, I seriously believe that unless I’m using a crusher or a wrist roller, it just isn’t working for me. I think I’m going to redo my Shotgun Method exercises for next week, totally.

D) Standing cable pulley twists
70x12, 80x12, 90x12, 90x12, 100x10
clearly 100 is the target weight to go for next time

So yeah…direct forearm work is starting to get stale, and I can’t find a tricep exercise. I think my full-body workouts on Mon and Thurs will stay the same, but my shotgun days need new exercises for sure.

V-Diet is easy when no one is eating food near you/your girlfriend isn’t around to ask you to go get food. 9 days in, 19 more to go…

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Hey Man,

I am not the strongest guy in the world, but I have had a lot of good success with training the triceps using tate presses, band pushdowns for high reps, and rolling db extensions. Helped me push my raw bench up from 320 to 360 pretty quick.
As for forearms, try using a superset of dumbell holds and farmers walk. Always kills me. Also, if you add in some heavy DB rows without straps it will help out. Just a couple things.

I am just now getting back into it after a little bit of a break. Congrats on everything bro. Let the weights be the rock you can always depend on, just remember what Henry Rollins said, “a hundred pounds, is always a hundred pounds.”