Yeah I could do with one of those right about now lol.
Well, progress has been a bit meh lately. I suppose there’s no harm in trying something new, might be nice to freshen things up too. Do you have any specific recommendations?
You always want to deload BEFORE you need to. If you wait until you need one: it’s too late.
SVR II is a really solid program. Lot of variety.
Probably a smart idea. I’ll remember that one next time, lol.
Will be sure to check it out!
I think maybe what I’ll do is finish this week, gauge recovery, and if things are looking OK I’ll do the 1+ week and go straight into the deload. Then I’ll decide whether to change the program or to stick with my current setup for another 3-week cycle.
It might be worth taking your training max back a few cycles too. Go beat some of your old PRs for like 10+ reps and by the time you’re back to your current weights you might be able to beat them too.
I would recommend to make sure you’re getting enough protein while losing weight too. I found that made a big difference for me.
1 Like
Yes that may be a good idea. I think you mentioned before that this is standard 5/3/1 procedure these days too - a few cycles forwards and then drop back to the weight from two cycles ago, rinse and repeat, or something like that.
Definitely, will do. I am pretty confident I am, but once I get my meal plan in place (will post it below a little later) I can be 100% sure I’m getting what I need.
1 Like
Diet update:
Congratulations, ya boi has finally decided to stop winging it and actually count what he’s eating with a meal plan. Shocking, I know. But to go further from here I am afraid that some degree of precision will be needed. If I don’t know what I’m eating, I can’t make any proper changes. Here it is: It’s based on Coach Thib’s “Best Damn Diet for Natural Lifters” - however, full disclosure, I’ve stolen a few grams of fat and replaced them with carbs because I would end up having to drink olive oil to hit the fat intake haha. It’s still within the range given by Coach Thib though.
1900 Cal
215P 150C 50F
Breakfast (30P, 25F)
5 eggs, 1 fish oil tablet
Morning tea (30P)
1 shake
Lunch (30P, 4F)
100g chicken breast, 100g broccoli
Pre-workout (30P, 50C, 4F)
100g chicken breast, 90g rice, 200ml pomegranate juice (or hold the juice and go 180g rice)
Post-workout (30P, 50C)
1 shake, 200g potato w/roast dressing, 2 mandarins (~180g)/1 apple (~200g)
Dinner (65P, 50C, 7F)
200g chicken breast + 125g potato w/roast dressing + 100g rice + salad
[17g fats left for cooking]
To refeed (once a week), use the following meals to take carbs to 300g:
POWO
Change carb amount to 600g potato w/roast dressing – gives 100C
Dinner
Change carb amount to 300g potato and 350g rice – gives 150C
To drop calories:
Step 1 go to 1700.
Drop:
a. 100cal=25g carbs=go to 130g potato POWO and 90g potato+80g rice Dinner
b. 100cal=10g fat=change breakfast to: 20P (shake and 2 eggs)
Step 2 go to 1500. Same procedure as above.
a. Go to 60g potato POWO and 55g potato+60g rice Dinner
b. Change breakfast to 30P from shake.
Notes:
- Will swap morning tea and breakfast on days when I have early morning cardio because downing 5 eggs beforehand will not go down well.
- If I have swimming in the AM I may also steal some carbs from dinner and use them to have some cereal before I go. Will calculate the specifics as needed.
- I am not keen to go lower than 1500 calories. If I end up there then I’ll need to reconsider my next move. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
- The “roast dressing” for the potatoes is just a yoghurt and flavouring mix, and I’ll go easy on that too. Shouldn’t add anything too significant, but as long as I’m consistent with it it’ll be all good.
Calculations may be a little dodgy but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter as long as I’m consistently tracking. All I need now is a weighing scale, lol.
I would definitely swap at least some chicken for lean red meat or steak. You could subtract cooking fats if you start to plateau.
1 Like
The formula for estimating your daily requirements is; BW in lb’s x 15. For you (at 170) thats about 2500. Given that you are doing HIIT, weights and swimming - I’d estimate that that you are going through more than that. Maybe 200-300 calories more a day.
My 2 cents:
Start at 2300 calories. For 2 weeks. Worst ways you don’t shed any weight and you drop to 1900 calories and you lose 2 weeks.
Alternatively - you can drop to 1900 calories straight away, and run the risk of dropping loads of weight but in the process feeling like crap, not training well / at all, and losing some muscle and fitness in the process.
Perhaps I’m overly cautious. But I’m a very slowly in sort of guy.
EDIT - this is where a food diary pays dividends. As you’d know the last 2 weeks worth of food and weight loss. So you’d have an idea on you maintenance calories.
1 Like
Actually dinner was originally going to be a lean lamb leg cut but the fat:protein ratio freaked me out. And I was bored of doing macro calculations at that point so I just plumped for chicken. But you make a good point, I will probably change that.
Yeah, I will admit that I did think that 1900 sounded a bit low. And as you say I would rather start a little higher and not screw myself up than run right into a wall.
That being said, I have a sneaking suspicion that I don’t actually burn that many calories, despite all the activity I do. Slow metabolism and all that. Of course, I don’t track my food, so I can’t say for sure - my suspicion could be completely wrong lol.
What I’ll do is I’ll weigh out all the food and try just one day at 1900 calories according to the meal plan I’ve calculated. If it seems like what I usually eat then we’ll run with that. If the quantities of food appear obviously too low, I’ll recalculate.
1 Like
It’s not all about the macronutrients. Yes, you need to be in a caloric deficit. But that especially means you need to make sure to minimize nutrient deficiencies. Chicken, especially breast, offers relatively little if any nutritional benefit.
2 Likes
Good plan. Just remember - a fat loss diet is the minimum amount of food you can eat whilst retaining muscle mass. To retain muscle mass - you must train. If at any point your in that much of a deficit you can’t train, then you’ve good too far.
1 Like
Good point, I’ll make that change. Thanks for the tip.
I’ll keep that in mind. Definitely don’t want to push the limits too far.
2 Likes
Training and life update
We’ll start with the workout reports. Unfortunately life has gotten busy again, lol. I’m working through it as best as I can. The end of last week especially was quite stressful and packed. I had to adjust my training as a result. On to the workouts (3 to report) -
20/11/20
First workout to report. Had swimming in the morning as usual. I knew I would be super busy today, so I did this workout quickly just before midday. As it happened, I was out of the house for most of the day, so it’s a good thing I did it when I did, or I would’ve had to push it back. Refer to the notes section for an explanation of why I set up this workout the way I did.
Squat
Warmup: 20kgx10, 40x5
Set 1: 62.5x3 (3 @70%)
Set 2: 71x3 (3 @80%)
Set 3: 80x6 (3+ @90%) (needed 10. Failed here on rep 7, so not great.)
Assistance:
Superset: Chins 8, 4, 4, 4, 4 (24, 5 sets) with dips 8, 6, 6, 6, 6 (32, 5 sets)
Notes:
- Obviously this workout was much shorter than usual - no assistance beyond an easy dips and chins superset, and even on that, I didn’t push to failure at all apart from the first set. I just didn’t have the time today.
- Not a great squat performance, but that’s ok.
22/11/20
You may notice that this workout is a day late - my bench and squat workout are usually on Friday and Saturday respectively, but I had to push this workout back a day because Saturday was a full day for me - I was awake from just before 5 am and didn’t get back home until after 11 pm, and I didn’t get to bed until an hour after that. So there was pretty much no chance to train that day. Saturday I also didn’t really watch what I ate - you know how it is when you’re out. Basically just ate assorted chocolatey snacks, but I didn’t let the leftovers throw me off after that day haha. Anyway, this was another short workout - I didn’t want to tax myself too much, since I knew I’d have the heavy 1+ deadlift workout the next day. Had a bit of life stress going into this session too, so I don’t think it was quite as good as it could have been.
Bench
Warmup: 20kgx10
Set 1: 47.5x3 (3 @70%)
Set 2: 54.5x3 (3 @80%)
Set 3: 61x6 (3 @90%) (needed 8.)
Assistance -
Chins 10, 4, 4, 3, 3 (24, 5 sets)
BW situps, 1 set
Notes:
- As I mentioned - barely any assistance work so as not to tire myself out before the deadlift workout the next day. Didn’t push the chins to failure beyond the first set, but I got 10 reps on that set (just!) which ties my all-time best for chins. Admittedly though, I was sort of just banging them out rather than really focusing on the movement, and the last rep was a little ugly. But yeah, pretty happy with that.
23/11/20
Yesterday’s workout, and the third and final one to report on.
Had swimming in the morning before this session. About 2.3 kilometres (1.45 miles or so) total distance in an hour, so not too bad. More of a volume session than a brutal max effort session though.
Deadlift
Warmup 60kgx2x5
Set 1: 92.5x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 104.5x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 117x6 (1+ @95%) (needed 6. Took about 20-30 seconds before doing rep 6 - basically just stood there bent over holding the bar - but I didn’t get up and rest properly until I got that damn last rep!)
FSL: 92.5x5x5 (5x5 FSL @75%) (these were hard)
Assistance -
Superset: Chins 8, 6, 5, 5, 4 + 2 rest-paused (30 reps, 5 + 1 rest-paused set) with dips 10, 7, 7, 6 (30, 4 sets)
BB rows 50x9, 8, 7. (Not sure why I bother counting these to be honest, my standard for what a rep is changes a lot with rows lol).
Pullovers 2 sets
Giant set: lateral raise - weighted situp - neck work - lateral raise - neck work - lateral raise
Notes:
- Back to doing a full session today, except for the circuit at the end. I originally planned to do 3 circuits of lateral raise - weighted situps - neck work, but I realised I was running out of time, so I sort of bastardised it into one disorganised giant set.
- Deadlift FSL sets were genuinely bloody difficult - I genuinely considered skipping a few sets but eventually decided to do the whole thing and not be a wuss.
- Happy to have hit 6 reps with 117kg - that is heavy weight for me. I’ve never used that sort of poundage as a working set before. According to Jim Wendler’s 1RM formula, 117kgx6 puts me at a 1RM of 140kg/308 lbs - or, in other words, only a stone’s throw from that magical 315 lb deadlift, which is one of the goals I had when I started this log:
- Given that my repping ability tends to be quite a bit worse than my 1RM strength, I might even be at the 315 deadlift now, and while strength was never the primary goal, if that is the case, I am very happy.
1 Like
Cutting update:
My meal plan still hasn’t come into force - I need to get it sorted out ASAP and then implement it - but I did wake up today at 77.1 kg, which is fantastic. If I did finally manage to break the 78kg barrier, I am very happy. On the road to 75! Also, saw some interesting leanness today in the mirror - could just see the serratus poking about, and the upper back is looking quite lean, especially in the right lighting. Nothing’s really changed though to be honest - I’m still bloody fat around the waist lol. And still looking like crap in general, and looking pretty small too. But we’re getting there, slowly.
Edit: forgot to add, I didn’t do cardio today. Yeah, I know lol. I might do some tabata front squats a la Dan John later in the evening though. Been a while since I’ve screwed my quads over haha.
25/11/20
Didn’t do the tabata front squats yesterday, so slotted them in at the end today! Unfortunately performance on the press was, as usual, lacklustre to say the least…
Press
Warmup: 20kgx6
Set 1: 42.5x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 48x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3; 53.5x3 (1+ @95%) (really, I needed 5 here. 3 won’t cut it at all, far too low.)
FSL: 42.5x4x5, 42.5x4 (5x5 FSL @75%) (I could only get 4 reps on the last set.)
Assistance -
Superset: Chins 9, 5, 5, 4, 5 + 2 rest-paused (30 reps, 5 + 1 rest-pause set) with dips 9, 6, 6, 7, 7 (35, 5 sets)
BB rows 55x8, 7, 7 (grip was giving out after set 2 or so)
Pullovers 2 sets
Superset x3: Lateral raise with rear delt raise (see notes for details on form here)
Superset x3: Weighted decline situps with neck work
Conditioning finisher: Dan Jon Tabata front squats, 25 kg, 4 minutes.
Notes:
- Lack of progress on press is really beginning to tick me off… made absolutely zero progress in the last few weeks. But it is what it is. I’m deloading next week anyway, which will give us a chance to talk more then about what the next steps are going to be. I’m considering changing up the template a bit.
- Still keeping the rest short on the dips and chins superset - only about a minute between finishing the dips and restarting the chins.
- The “rear delt raises” were a weird one. I did them in this way: sit on the edge of a bench, lean down to bring the chest down to the knees, and do a sort of rowing movement with the weights - almost as if you were rowing to the neck on a seated row machine, only you’re doing it bent over on a bench. Weird, I know. I think I saw a video of some bodybuilder doing it once, can’t remember who though. Anyway, the shoulders definitely felt taxed, so clearly something was working. I ended up just grabbing some 5kg plates and using those instead of DBs since the plates were less cumbersome and I could get more ROM.
- Tabata front squats were fun as always - 4 minutes of joy. I elevated the heels a bit with my 1kg plates since I really struggle with front squats on the flat - I just have to lean too far forwards. It definitely helped, I might raise the heels a little more though and then adjust as I get used to the movement (if I ever do, lol). To be honest the front squat just doesn’t suit me that well, but with the heels elevated, it felt much, much better. Life would probably be easier if I could get some proper lifting shoes with a raised heel - I’ll need to look into that.
Cutting update: weight is now down to 76.7 kg with a waist that is slightly down to just over 31 inches (controlled) and just over 32.5 inches (relaxed). Not bad!
Going to go swim now - legs still a bit sore from the front squats on Wednesday so we’ll see how the squat session today goes, lol.
2 Likes
Report on yesterday’s workout, 27/11/20. Had swimming in the morning, pretty good session. Legs were still a little bit tight today from the front squats on press day, but nothing too bad.
A relatively quick session today too.
27/11/20
Squat
Warmup: 20kgx10, 40x5
Set 1: 67x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 75.5x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 84.5x5 (1+ @95%) (needed 7. This set was not great, set 1 and 2 felt heavy and I didn’t feel the groove well on the PR set.)
Experiment: 60x5 with heels raised - see notes.
Assistance -
Superset: Chins 10, 6, 5, 5, 4 (30 reps, 5 sets) with dips 11, 9, 8 + 2 rest-pause (30 reps, 3 + 1 rest-pause sets)
2 sets pullovers
Notes:
- I like having the heels elevated on the squat, but standing on two small plates with a heavy barbell on your back is not ideal, as I found out during my experiment set today. I really need some good lifting shoes - will add it to the list for the future.
- Happy to have hit 10 reps on the chins! Ties my PR.
- But I am disappointed not to have hit a PR on the squat.
Today’s training. Cardio in the AM - 7x100m sprints on the 2 minute mark.
Weights in the PM:
28/11/20
Bench
Warmup: 20kgx11, 40x5
Set 1: 51x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 58x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 64.5x6 (1+ @95%) (needed 6 - finally managed to grind out a PR!)
FSL: 51x5x5 (5x5 FSL @75%)
Assistance:
Superset: Chins 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4 (31 reps, 6 sets) with dips 7, 8, 6, 7 + 3 (31 reps, 4 + 1 rest-pause)
BB rows 55x9, 8, 8
Pullovers 2 sets
Superset x3: Weighted situp w/ neck work
Superset x4: Lateral raise w/ rear delt raise
Superset x3: Hammer curl w/ DB close-grip floor press
Superset x3: BB curl w/ BB lying tricep extension.
Notes:
- Yeah I went absolutely ham on the assistance fluff today. Had to make up for yesterday’s quick workout, and also it’s been waaaay too long since I’ve done proper arm work lol. Anyway, we’re going into a deload now, so it’s all good.
- Great to have actually hit a PR today!
- Thinking about using my deload week to do some more bodybuilding-style pump and fluff work - will make for a nice break. And as I said - really been neglecting the arms lately.
- The deload will also give me a chance to decide what my next steps are training-wise - I might change up the template a bit to take me to the end of the year.
2 Likes