Conditioning: 42 min zone 2 elliptical: 560 calories
Notes:
interesting squats today. Took my time to really stretch my hips beforehand, since I’ve been doing so much sitting for travel. One the plus side, and zero tightness on in my groin, but I also had very little “pop” out of the bottom. The tightness is my friend, so long as I don’t get injured lol.
Holy hell am I fat right now. I know a lot of it’s bloat, but it’s insane to me how much my bloat can change my size, especially how visible the changes are within a single day. Vacation ends Friday, and I’m very ready to be strict again lol.
I absolutely dig this hammer strength leg press. I wonder if I could fit one in a home gym….
Tried out some glute machine. You stand up and kinda kick a footrest back. Mainly doing it because my girl wants to get more into lifting, and I’m at her gym, so I thought I’d try out some machines to see what I should program her. Glute machine for…reasons lol. I was able to max the machine for reps, which further proves my theory that all my strength is in my ass and lower back lol.
Conditioning felt great today. I think I’m gonna move away from incline treadmill walk a bit. It does a great job for hitting a target HR, but I just don’t “feel” the same post cardio feeling afterwards like I do with other forms of cardio.
More replies and some life pondering to follow later
looking at some training moving forward here. I was have been around 220 for the better part of the last year. A few mini cuts, and some gains. Last 6 months were really meant to be a maintenance phase. I’m now high 220s, so my maintenance phase ended up being more of a slow clean bulk, but I think one that paid off well.
that being said, it is time to lose weight. I didn’t want to focus on hard cuts while on the ship, just because of quality of life concerns paired with my work demands. But, my time is coming to an end, and my workload is more manageable underway.
Wanting to cut for 2 reasons. 1) I have been reading a lot about health and longevity, and even though my blood pressure and RHR are fantastic, 220+ for 5”10’ just isn’t a good long term life decision, especially when a lot of it’s fluff and 2) plan is wedding next October, and I want to look good for the wedding and honeymoon.
plan is to split this cut into 5 phases. Phase one starts next week. There, I am going to cut until I am sub-215. Plan is to stop at 215, but if I hit 215 easily I may continue down on to 210, but definitely stopping there. Phase two is to maintain at sub 215 for a few months, and this is really determined by my orders, but I want to be under 215 when I leave my ship, and then not start cutting again until the move is over. Phase 3 is cutting to 200lbs, in my head this is any range from 195-203. After that’s done, enter Phase four where I’ll maintain in that range until about a month out from the wedding, when I will do a last, more structured cut (Phase 5) to 190-195, just to really try to lean out.
After that, who knows, but that’s over a year out of planned cutting and maintenance, and that’s far enough to plan.
I also have some aesthetic goals. Not usual for me, I’ve never cared much for it, but this is a special occasion. Now I’m not a bodybuilder and don’t care to look like one, but I want to look like I lift. So really shoulders, upper back, and neck are my focus.
How am I going to do this? Well on the nutrition front, just do what I’ve always done, as it’s always worked. Meal preps of starch, meat, vegetable, a few protein shakes, cut out the alcohol, and have any semblance of control on my 2x weekly cheat meals. Cut stalls, cut to 1x cheat meal, and lower amount of food eaten, while hitting 1g/lb protein. It’s always worked, so I’m not messing with it. Maybe start macro tracking if things get dire. Weigh myself at least 2x weekly, which I have gotten away from.
Side note, but having not weighed myself for 6 months and just going off the mirror to gauge my weight, pretty happy with only being up about 8lbs.
now, I go back to sea next week. That’s always difficult on the nutrition front. Plan is lots of protein shakes, not quite Vertical diet, but honestly not far off either.
Now to training. I’m having fun with this conjugate, I am going to stick with it for a while. After I’m off the ship, I will probably change it up. Considering hiring a coach, which will be very new to me, but also probably a smart move if I do want to get serious about powerlifting or strongman. Couple people I’m considering, but that’s for down the road. For now, 4x a week lifting, same as usual.
rows are my new best friend. Been a long time focusing on the vertical pull, results were good, now time to swap it up. Traps, here I come.
I did buy a neck harness off Amazon, and plan to start ending my workouts with that. Because big necks are cool.
For conditioning, I am going to be ramping it up. Idk if I want to start the whole “hybrid” training route, but I want to work a baseline for health reasons, and to get my cardio solid enough that it would be easy for my to either transition to hybrid training, or back off while focusing on lifting and rely on the base I’ve built to carry me through a competition prep.
And since I just binge read everything I could from Peter Attia, I’m going off of that. Plan is 3 hours a week of zone 2 cardio. For now, it will be no impact zone 2. So elliptical, bike, row, etc. maybe start running down the line, but I dislike running distance on the ship, and 3 hours of running a week is a lot on my knees at this bodyweight. 1 HIIT session per week. This could be V02 intervals, some assault bike work, really I just want to have at least once a week where I just absolutely blow my lungs out.
I think this will also help with the cut. While I fully agree that nutrition trumps cardio for weight loss, I’ve found that the cardio really does help quite a bit.
Would like to get back into monthly goals, that always worked well for me. Going to start with August.
@simo74 brother, I wish I was out in your neck of the woods! Been a lot of places, but never managed Australia, its definitely on the bucket list
@Stormblessed I haven’t watched Alan Thrall in years, I’ll have to check that out! For me, I like the idea of triathlons, but in practice? That’s a lot of work lol. Especially the swim. Mainly the swim. I’m really comfortable in the water, and am a strong swimmer in the sense I can move in the water well, but I have never really been fast. That would be a huge hurdle for me.
@QuadQueen lol, you’re entirely right. For me, I always think of “training” as exercise with a specific goal in mind, and find I’ve always made my best progress when striving for something. I think that’s probably true for a lot of former athletes. I want to find another “something” to push forwards, but for now I’ll just lift and look pretty lol
Oh! @T3hPwnisher amazon had a big sale on those blender bottles you recommended, so I’ve got one coming my way. Figured it was time to treat myself to an upgrade from the old plastic one I got for free lol.
I’ve seen some powerlifters call this a closer-grip bench. Essentially I put my pinky where my thumb normally is, still a bit away from the smooth, but closer than normal.
Changing up the conjugate a little. Instead of triples and singles, I’m doing sets of 5-3. Seen Dave Tate mention this in some articles? And honestly I just don’t feel like I get much from singles.
Incline bench felt a little weak, but I also think I was a bit shot from the bench. I know the reps are just slightly hire, but it feels more taxing.
Kroc rows felt great, back was fried after.
Flying back to VA tonight. Bittersweet moment. This will (hopefully) be the last time the Mrs and I are long distance, should be getting co-located in the upcoming months. But, it’s going to be at least 3 months, maybe up to 6, and we probably won’t see one another until then. Longest we’ve gone apart yet. So we’re both looking forward to the reunion, but I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye.
Should get my orders within the next 2 weeks, so at least then I should know. Hoping for the D.C. area
@simo74 ya know, that’s actually not a bad idea. We’ve been talking about where we want to go, no decisions made yet. Iceland and Italy were on the table, maybe we should consider Australia!
Good to see you stepping up your game dude! I still feel pretty old school thinking back to life BEFORE these shaker bottles, when I used to scoop protein into an oversized cup and blend it with a hand blender, haha.
Good on you for getting that neck harness too! Those are awesome.
Mrs and I flew out from Seattle last night, heading separate ways in Atlanta. She managed to make it out, but my flight was canceled, as were all flights back to VA beach. Crossing my fingers for a standbye to Richmond, then I guess I’ll find a rental car to get home. I don’t think I’ve had a flight without some sort of major delay in like 18 months. My luck is cursed lol
Yup. But, made it to VA, so I’m at least in the right state now lol. Now to brave the rental car lines
Edit; spoke to soon. They lost my bag, and the rental car I booked doesn’t exist. Now in the back of a somewhat sketchy car after I paid a dude $150 cash to drive me to Norfolk
Deadlift; 135x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315x2, 365x1, 405x1, 455x1, 475x1 (PR), 495x1 (Huge PR, this has been a goal for years)
405x5, 405x5
Leg press: 5platesx20, 6platesx15, 6platesx15
Ab wheel: 20, 20, 20
Notes:
absolutely ecstatic about that deadlift PR. Really, really was not expecting that. Honestly, wasn’t expecting much of anything today. Back home, yesterday I slept for like 16 hours, just worn down from all my travel. Moving slow today, and had to really force myself to get into the gym. Said I’d just work up to a heavy single on deadlifts. Then 405 felt pretty fast. Then 455 was still quick. 470 is the heaviest I’ve done since college, so I thought I’d try 475, and that’s was pretty smooth too, slower, but smooth. Said fuck it, threw on 5 plates, and it went down!
So, my deadlift is a big fan of conjugate lol. This is my first time touching a straight bar in months, and I hit a PR. I wonder what my squat can do… honestly, not expecting the same gains. Too much focus on posterior chain, not enough quads. Still think my squats going up, just not with the same love as deadlifts
Back off sets felt fantastic . I had no “pop” in my anymore, so all of those sets were as strict barbell control as I can imagine. Weight moved surgically.
Is it possible the ridiculous amounts of food I’ve shoveled down the last few weeks helped my deadlift? Yes. Is it possible the copious amounts of whiskey helped my deadlift? I like to think so.
Leg press feeling stupidly strong too, normally 15 reps at 5 plates is a tough set, I had reps in reserve at 20… now I’m wondering if this is just what my body feels like when I’m not doing the sleep schedule my work gives me. Could it be that noticeable a difference in performance?
Decided to keep the workout shorter and leave strong. Very happy with how this day went.
@TrainForPain Uber was overloaded at the airport due to all the cancellations, this guy just showed up as I was waiting for my ride that was 50 minutes away, and I decided that I wouldn’t mind that much being in a kidnapping documentary lol
lol. I was able to max the machine for reps, which further proves my theory that all my strength is in my ass and lower back lol.
