Frankenbuilding - c21w2 (redux) - summary
I confess I’m sick of gaining. I confess I’m sick of Frankenbuilding. I confess I’m ready for something different…
Decent 5s week repeat, though: I got a little extra practice on my press and deadlift, I hit 8x3 on Tabearta with 70 lbs, I got the missed 5s week chest & tris and legs & abs workouts in, I crushed the 500-swings-in-less-than-14:00 minutes goal, and I generally rebounded from a weird few days of killer head congestion and body aches late last week. So, no, not a bad 5s week at all.
But, yeah: “sick of gaining.” Today marks the last week of a 13-turned-16 week gaining phase that started with 7 weeks of 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding, a 7WP Deload week, and what should end up being 7 weeks of Frankenbuilding.
Bear with me here, but I got sick in each of the two 6-week templates and so had to repeat a week in each: 7 + 7 = 14. Then I had a deload week in between, so 14 + 1 = 15. But the calendar says 30 October 2022 through 18 February 2023 is 16 weeks… I confess I don’t understand how that works out! I must be missing something, but sitting here waiting for my son’s events to start, I don’t see it.
Whatever—the actual point is this: 13 (or 15 or 16) weeks is TOO LONG for me to be gaining. Everything was humming along just fine until sometime after the first Frankenbuilding cycle, roughly week 10 (or 11 or whatever). From that point forward, it got much harder to sustain the food intake WITHOUT resorting to dirty(-ish) calories—I started getting a little foot-loose and fancy-free with the carbs, I started eating desserts more regularly, and I even found myself saying things like, “It’s okay, I press/deadlift/bench/squat in the morning.”
It’s probably not a strange pattern for someone to fall into when gaining for that long, and it may not even be problematic for most people. BUT, I’m not most people. I’m me.
And I found myself paying too much attention to my love handles—in fact, you’ve all seen me complain about it in this log. And that, in turn, led to mental battles between Eat-to-Grow and Be-Unhappy-with-My-Body-Image, which in turn leads to…
Yeah, been there, done that.
It’s NO GOOD, and I’m not going back.
So, 12+ weeks of gaining probably isn’t something I ought to repeat.
But now I know.
And now, based on that experience, I’m thinking a 7-week gaining phase—a 6-week template followed by a deload—or maybe a 10- or 11-week gaining phase—a more traditional 5/3/1 2 Leader/Deload/1 Anchor setup, maybe including a follow-on TM test week—would suit me better. I think I could still lay down some decent muscle in 7 weeks, and even more so in 10 or 11 weeks, but do it without tipping the scales mentally, so…
Live and learn.
And do better next time.
Nevertheless, I’m going to finish this Frankenbuilding template strong, whatever it takes. And that means my goals for this final 1s-week are:
- Complete all 4 lifting workouts
- Complete 3 days of easy conditioning & direct calf work
- Hit my triceps with a high-rep movement every day
- Do 500 28-kg KB swings every day
- Eat big
Once I get through that… Yeah, at that point, I’ll change gears, re-ingrain the good habits, and move forward with new and better understanding of what I can (and cannot) handle.
And THAT’S progress, no matter how you look at it!
