Bigmac73nh's Log

Training Logs
261

I hopped on the scale today- down to 199, 3lb drop since yesterday. I have my cals for yesterday calculated at 3955 (including ~460g carbs) not counting two pieces of homemade lasagna that one of my roommates shared haha… and that was while running Humapro as replacement for most of the day’s protein. Didn’t run a fats total because I don’t really count fats, but it was probably ridiculous. That leads me to believe that the metabolic demand from this type of training is, in fact, balls-high.

I felt pretty well recovered today and am actually looking pretty lean, so I’m going to keep eating until I’m full for now. I’d rather overshoot on cals and then take it down if I bloat up like fuk rather than shading things to the low side and waking up mid-week feeling like I got hit by a truck lol. I’ll probably end up covering most of my protein needs with Humapro today because I’ll be in class during the hours when I’m likely to track down a rotisserie chicken at BJ’s, but everything else is fair game.

Speaking of Humapro, looks like they’ve done some reformulating since I bought my last batch. I go for the grape stuff and it is actually purple now lol. It also lacks the previous warning about mixing it with other aminos or food, and even says that it can be enjoyed with meals to improve nutrient partitioning. Hmm. Pretty cool- that makes one less supp that I need to time precisely. I just threw two scoops of that and one scoop of the BCAA structured peptides into my peri shake today, and I’ll probably stick with that for the near future.

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I managed to get 7000 cals down in a 6 hour eating window yesterday… not bad lol. These aren’t all clean, but I’d guess that something like 5000 were. I’ve got some water retention, but I definitely don’t look like I should with a total like that.

I’m walking around at 200 the vast majority of the time these days (or within +/- 2lbs of it), and strength levels are doing ok. I think it’s time to make the push for 210lbs though. I want to end the year at 210 at a new peak leanness, so I guess there’s no time like the present to get there.

I’m going to shoot for 6,000 cals today, so my total will be less than yesterday’s, but still pretty high. Probably going to go with 5,000 tomorrow, and 4,000 Thursday. Just a little experiment.

Hitting the Agile 8 in a few minutes.

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Dude you are hyooge.

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@Jab1 Thanks man… don’t think I’ll be calling myself hyooge til I look like a miniature Synergy though haha

Today’s Workout: Explosive Work Day 1

Activation:

A1. OH BPA’s 4x1

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Quad Work:

B1. Front Squats (2 sec pause)

135x2
155x2
185x2
205x2
225x2
245x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Back Squats

225x1
245x1
275x1
295x1
315x1
335x1

B4. STC

2x Advanced Tuck x3
3x Advanced Tuck x1 (10 sec hold to back and front)
1x Full Back/Front Lever x1 (10 sec hold to back and front)

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

Shoulders:

C1. Reactive Military Pin Press

6x135x2

C2. OH BPA’s

6x1

C3. OH Power Hold

6x185x9 sec

C4. OH BPA’s

6x1

C5. Box Jumps

4x1 (last 4 sets only)

D. OH Power Hold

135x20 sec

Rehab:

E. Hammer Curls to Ears (slow) x20

F. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

Felt really strong on the squats today. Knees were holding up nicely on the back squats and I was taking them damn close to ATG.

Right biceps was feeling kinda beat up after the ring work. I tried to work out my biceps/forearm a bit throughout the day and it’s better now. Lol keeping myself together is kind of a pain in the ass.

Put down ~6000 cals today. Eating 4 recovery yo. Might add a bit more later if dat hunger returns.

Bands should be arriving tomorrow. I’ll be working those in starting next week and using them to add progression to the pressing work. Excite.

265

Today’s Workout: Explosive Work Day 2

Activation:

A1. Overhead BPA’s 4x1

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Chest Work:

B1. Bench Press (2 sec pause)

3x185x2
3x225x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Bench Press (touch and go)

3x275x1
2x315x1
315x1-1

B4. BPA’s

6x1

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

C. Smith Low Incline Neck Press (super slow reps, no lockout)

5x3 (omfg pumpz)

Back/Posterior Chain Work:

D1. Deadlift

6x185x2

D2. Band Straight Arm Pulldowns

6x1

D3. Deadlift

6x235x1

D4. Iron Cross

2x3 Partials
3x10 sec hold (moderate depth)
1x10 sec hold (full depth)

D5. Box Jumps

4x1 (last 4 sets only)

Rehab:

E. Hammer Curls to Ears x20

F. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

Had to work my right biceps/forearm throughout the workout to keep it feeling good from set to set, but other than that it was a great session. I’m trying to be more cognizant of locking my elbows on band and ring work, since that seems to take a lot of strain off the biceps. I’m down to keep investing in mobility/rehab work if it keeps me in the game to lift heavy and at a fairly high frequency, just trying to avoid doing anything stupid.

Bench felt really good today. I definitely had more than two singles on the final set of 315, but I didn’t want to push it. 8 reps of 315 on the week isn’t half bad since I’ve only recently gotten back to heavy pressing. My goal for bench progression on the heavy singles is just to add one rep to each top set per week.

I wasn’t thrilled with the slow ring dips that I tried on Monday, so I decided to try out some slow incline neck press on the smith machine. Loved these. I will probably throw them in on the second chest workout of each week because my chest recruitment tends to slip far more than that of any other muscle group. My upper chest could also use some sessi lol. These did feel a little light at the top, so I’ll probably band them next week and add some variable resistance to keep the pecs under tension during the top portion of each rep.

BW seems to have stabilized at 202 finally. Only took like three days in a row of eating 7000+ cals lol (yeah, ate more last night). I’m hoping to settle at 205-208 by the end of April. I’ll be really happy if I can stabilize at 210 by the end of May, but I’d like to at least top out at 210 by then. I’m going to just get weird on the intake until I can hold 210 for two weeks, then gradually cut back on calories (to see how many I need to maintain gradual growth at that point) and settle into a steady recomp and spend the rest of the year working toward a leaner, more aesthetic 210. Dreamz lol.

Going to keep crushing cals through tomorrow… will probably drop them down for Friday since that’s off day one of the week and I’ve got quite a bit of eating coming up since I’ll be home. Will hit the Agile 8 when I head home after work.

266

strength is there, and youre leaning out. Diet is working for you no need to change.

267

[quote]Achilles of war wrote:
strength is there, and youre leaning out. Diet is working for you no need to change.[/quote]

That’s what I thought too, but I’ve seen some positive changes since starting to eat more that lead me to believe that I was undereating. I’m up about 7lbs from the recent progress pics and haven’t really given up any leanness, muscles are looking fuller and more defined. I also added holds to my training, which make recovery more challenging.

I’m definitely erring on the high side this week with intake, but I’d rather overshoot recovery needs a bit and have great sessions rather than not give myself enough and short gains from my training. I’ll be refining things over the next few weeks, still learning as I go.

268

Today’s Workout: Explosive Work Day 1

Quad Complex Round 6:

Roflcopter @ the back lever attempt. Lost core tension while easing into position and it went to shit. I need to widen out the rings more to go deep as well- my tri’s kind of butt up against my lats and kill the ROM. Back squats could have been a bit deeper. I was trying to get my knees to track more tightly together to minimize posterior chain involvement and really fry the quads. Great feel- I don’t think a triple with 335 has ever beat my quads up like that before.

Shoulder Complex Round 6:

Playing with the new toys (bandz). Me gusta. OH Power Hold was slightly off in the setup- bar got behind me a little on the unrack and I had to step back to stabilize.

Activation:

A1. OH->L-H BPA’s 4x1 (Start overhead, pull apart, rotate slowly to get into L-H BPA position, continue to pull apart, slowly bring it back in)

A2. Weighted Jumps 4x1

A3. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec holds) 4x5

A5. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor 4x1 LR

Quad Work:

B1. Front Squats (2 sec pause)

135x2
155x2
185x2
205x2
225x2
245x2

B2. L-H BPA’s

6x1

B3. Back Squats

225x1
245x1
275x1
295x1
315x1
335x3 (making this AMRAP)

B4. STC

2x Advanced Tuck x3
3x Advanced Tuck x1 (10 sec hold to back and front)
1x Full Back/Front Lever x1 (back was shit, got a decent hold on the front position)

B5. Box Jumps

6x1

Shoulders:

C1. Reactive Military Pin Press

3x135x2
3x135+Microsx2

C2. OH BPA’s

6x1

C3. OH Power Hold

6x185x9 sec

C4. Biceps Hold

6x9 sec

C5. OH BPA’s

6x1

C6. Box Jumps

4x1 (last 4 sets only)

D. OH Power Hold

135x20 sec

Rehab:

E. Hammer Curls to Ears (slow) x20

F. Hyperextensions x25

Notes:

Solid workout. Quads were beat up sufficiently- had some Brain Candy-enhanced MMC going on. Really getting a lot out of every rep these days.

I found out that the shoulder work was irritating my right biceps more than anything else, so I threw some biceps holds into the complex as an experiment. They made the biceps feel way better, so I’ll keep them in.

New bands are great. Way better than the bullshit I was using before. Excite for bench pressin next week.

P.S.

269

Man, I know skrillex takes a lot of hate, but that video was awesome, I personally really enjoy him.

A lot to catch up on here for me, but I will say your newest progress pictures are very impressive. You have a ton of mass/thickness. Your arms are awesome and calves look pretty damn big too. Delts/chest look to have plenty of mass, especially delts.

270

[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Man, I know skrillex takes a lot of hate, but that video was awesome, I personally really enjoy him.

A lot to catch up on here for me, but I will say your newest progress pictures are very impressive. You have a ton of mass/thickness. Your arms are awesome and calves look pretty damn big too. Delts/chest look to have plenty of mass, especially delts. [/quote]

Haha yeah Skrillex does take quite a bit of hate… I’m not into ALL of his stuff, but Promises is pretty sick so I liked the Ultra clip anyway.

Thanks for stopping by man, appreciate the compliments

271

So I ended up falling asleep while watching Archer and eating a chicken and rice concoction I put together last night (2 cups rice, meat from a rotisserie chicken, lots of cheese/salsa/sour cream OM NOM NOM). I got at least 3/4 of it down before I passed out, but that was probably still a 3,000 cal drop from Wednesday haha. Not going to sweat it since I have four recovery days (University gym is closed through Monday due to the holiday).

I’ll be taking care of business with the Agile 8, working 14 jumps in with various band pull aparts (mostly overhead work for shoulder mobility), and respecting my fasting intervals.

Realistically, I’ll probably just end up compressing my feeding window to however long dinner and dessert with the family takes. Tomorrow and Sunday will be some big eating days, so Today and Monday will be intentionally low to balance things out (the latter two days are travel days, so it works well). I’ll try to be as clean as possible in the food choices, though I know Saturday is going to get ugly since it’s a family tradition to have a Chinese food feast that night (my dad gives it up for lent every year… my four person family’s order always shows up with like 10 fortune cookies lol). I’ll just up the volume of band work on Saturday/Sunday to compensate for moar foodz.

I liked the results of my high calorie experiment this week. Based on what I saw as far as my body and performance were concerned, it seems like a 3 high calorie days/2 moderate calorie days (over the course of my 5 weekly training days)/2 low calorie (off dayz) will keep me well-fueled without causing me to hit spillover. I definitely crossed over into the spillover zone between Wednesday and yesterday (training days 4 + 5), so next week I’ll try lowering my intake after the first three days and see what that does for me. Feeling good after lowering calories into the moderate zone yesterday though. I will facilitate the drop from high cal to moderate cal by allowing dirty foods on the high cal days after I eat enough good stuff (dessert shakes, cheezburgaz and such) and then limiting myself to 100% clean eating on the moderate cal days. That way I can just eat until I’m full without counting.

I’m going to settle in on that approach and just let things happen (unless something starts going wrong and I need to make changes, obviously). No nutrition updates for awhile unless anything extraordinary happens, but I’ll get on the scale once a week and keep snagging progress pics every couple weeks. Shit’s just too mundane to talk about much lol- but I will be eating a solid variety and eating to gain on training days. Also, will try to get vidz of the chest and back/posterior chain complexes next week.

/BC rantin lulz. Random dubstepz for listening pleasure:

272

AM Workout: Upper Body Mobility/Ring Work

A1. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

A2. Ring Dip Catches->Forward Lean (Working toward Maltese position) 4x2

A3. OH->L-H BPA’s 4x1

A4. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x5

A5. BPA’s 4x1

A6. Biceps Holds (~10 sec) 4x1

B. Plates Hammer Curls To Ears (slow) x20

C. Back Lever Attempts x5 (just videoing myself and working on some form adjustments to get deeper)

D. Biceps Holds x20 sec

E. Plates Hammer Curls To Ears (slow) x20

Notes:

Splitting my work into two sessions today. This one covered my shoulder mobility, then I just had some fun with the rings. I bookended the ring work with some biceps rehab just to make sure they are nice and recovered by Tuesday when I resume normal work. Session two will be lower body mobility and explosive work. I’ll probably do almost exactly the same thing tomorrow, though I’ll substitute Iron Cross work for the Back Lever work.

Biceps are feeling significantly better since I threw in the biceps holds. Shoulder mobility has also come a long way in the week and a half since implementing CT’s new shoulder work recommendations. I was playing around with the bar a little and it seems like I’m significantly closer to being able to rack a clean correctly at the top. I’d love to get those back in, but I think I need to work wrist mobility a bit first. I’ll probably start drilling the positions that CT mentioned in the more recent spills and while trying to clean grip on my lighter sets of front squats to get wrist mobility up, then evaluate at the end of this 4 week programming cycle what I want to do about the cleans.

273

PM Workout: Lower Body Mobility/Explosive Work

A. Agile 8

B1. Knee Jump Series

2xBWx1
2xBar Across Backx1

B2. OH->L-H->OH BPA

4x1

B3. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor

4x1 LR

C1. Vertical Jumps/Vertical Jump w/ Running Start 4 Lulz

9x1/1x1

C2. BPA’s

10x1

Notes:

This was probably the best jump workout I’ve ever had. I was feeling nice and activated after the B circuit and it’s fucking lovely outside, so I took the vertical jumps to the back yard. We’ve got a basketball hoop out there, so I did the jumps under the hoop so I could grab net and get some instant feedback as to how high I was getting on each jump. I typically rely on the box for that and judge jump quality by how well-extended my legs are when my feet contact the box, so this was a nice change of pace. Got a much better quad feel out of the jumps than I ever have before, which is funny because my main focus was on arm movement today.

This was absolutely everything I look for in an explosive workout. I took Synergy’s recommendation and tried to just get lost in the moment/invest fully in each jump (to a greater extent than usual). Now I just need to try to capture that feeling with every jump-related workout.

Also, quick nutrition note. I was really amped up about having some Chinese food leading into today (been craving it for awhile), but something happened overnight and I’m just so fucking repulsed by the saltiness of the food and the amount of water it’s going to make me retain that I can’t even bring myself to eat it lol. As of now I’m switching my plan up and just fasting straight into tomorrow’s Easter feast with the family, at which point I will do work and eat everything in sight. However, I’m happy with today’s workouts so I’m more than willing to eat some carbs/fats later if I get hungry. Feeling good as of now though, and regardless of whether or not I eat anything later today I will keep Humapro in at protein replacement levels.

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Did eat. Very clean selections. Reading an old Spanish text to write a final paper, so I needed I figured the nutrients would help get the brain cranking. Neurostim and BC are both good in the fast window, but I find them to be significantly more effective when I get some carbs/fats in me as well. Cals will still be very low for the day. Done eating now, so apart from Humapro I won’t be eating anything until Easter dinner tomorrow (3PMish). Will have a good long fast on both sides of the Easter meal to offset. Back to the book :confused:

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I just wanted to mention, btw, that the main reason I said I was puzzled by your diet (lol, aside from you barely ever eating) is that it seems to completely contradict what you said in this thread (a thread I found pretty interesting):

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[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
I just wanted to mention, btw, that the main reason I said I was puzzled by your diet (lol, aside from you barely ever eating) is that it seems to completely contradict what you said in this thread (a thread I found pretty interesting):

Ah I see what you mean. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the rice measurements I give are dry measure (I’ve mentioned this in some, but not all, nutrition-related entries). That means that two cups are good for about 1400 calories… the rotisserie chicken is about 1600, then the brazil nuts add about 200 calories. That gives me about 320g carbs, 225g protein, and 120g fat for a total of ~3200 cals. I also dip the chicken in some BBQ and/or hot sauce to make it palatable, so there are some more calories and carbs there. So my typical day with that nutrient breakdown wasn’t a far cry from my recommendation of a few hundred calories below maintenance (maintenance according to online calculators, anyway).

Now, I will definitely admit that I’ve done some sillier experiments with dropping carbs out on some days or fasting for longer periods of time that are NOT in line with what I recommended. And to be honest, I wouldn’t really recommend that anyone play around as much as I do lol. I’m constantly modifying my training based on my needs and new information that I’m receiving from CT, so the metabolic demand of my training isn’t all that consistent.

My experimentation with nutrition is mainly geared toward seeing what I can get away with as far as intake within the context of my programming at a given time. I’ve been refining things for some time and I think I’m getting very close to what I would consider optimal programming for me. My goal is essentially to settle on a 4 week progression that I can just continuously recycle while only modifying resistance- once I lock in on said programming cycle, the nutrition will be more consistent (as my body’s needs won’t be changing as frequently).

I hope this all kind of makes sense; I do have an overarching plan that drives the smaller changes I make. Thanks for stopping by- it’s pretty obvious that I’m not explaining everything perfectly in here, and I appreciate being challenged to do so. I’m always glad to re-examine how I’m going about things, since that’s really the only way to improve.

EDIT: Also, forgot to mention this but I’ve been on a ‘steady recomp’ rather than a ‘focused fat loss’ kick, which is another reason why I haven’t gone for a gradual caloric reduction as I recommended in the linked thread. I’d rather take a day here and there to do something more drastic (not unlike the pulse fast) to clean up a bit as needed rather than lock into a lengthy fat loss diet plan.

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Yeah, I just follow guys like you and Ryan because I’m at similar levels of size and strength (195lbs, squat 395-405, bench 285-300), so I find it helpful to follow what you guys are doing to see what works/what makes sense. You guys are wayyy more into supps and such than I would ever be, but I’m at least interested in the fasting concept for weight loss (I’ve done it before with success). So I find the diet stuff on both of your logs to be information that I’m sort of putting in the back of my mind for if I decide to go whole-hog on some sort of fasting protocol.

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[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
Yeah, I just follow guys like you and Ryan because I’m at similar levels of size and strength (195lbs, squat 395-405, bench 285-300), so I find it helpful to follow what you guys are doing to see what works/what makes sense. You guys are wayyy more into supps and such than I would ever be, but I’m at least interested in the fasting concept for weight loss (I’ve done it before with success). So I find the diet stuff on both of your logs to be information that I’m sort of putting in the back of my mind for if I decide to go whole-hog on some sort of fasting protocol.[/quote]

Oh ok, that makes sense. Hey, if anything in here is even remotely helpful at some point, then I’m pleased.

BTW, supplementation is gradually being simplified as I prepare to do my time as a PLS haha. I’ll likely settle in on nothing but creatine mono/Humapro/fish oil along with a basic stim/noop stack to help with classes.

279

Today’s Workout: Mobility/Explosiveness/Form Work

A. Agile 8

B1. Ring Dip Catches 4x3

B2. OH->L-H->OH BPA 4x1

B3. OH Bar Rotations (3 sec peak hold) 4x5

B4. Biceps Hold (9 sec) 4x1

B5. BPA 4x1

C1. Pelvic Power Hold (6 sec)/Pelvic Power Position->Full Extension Position

7x1/7x1

C2. Knee Jumps

14x1

C3. Full Extension Hold (6 sec)/Pelvic Power Position->Full Extension Position

7x1/7x1

C4. One Arm DB Snatch From Floor

14x1 LR

D. Bar Good Mornings x25

E. Slow Plate Hammer Curls To Ears x20

Notes:

I actually managed to get some DOMS in my mid back with yesterday’s workout lol. I figured it would be prudent to dump any ring work and to go easy on the bands as well, so I just did a shitload of mobility work and then circuited some form/explosiveness drills.

This was my first experience with the oly lift-specific holds, and I have to say I was very pleased. I worked extremely light (95lbs) and just really tried to feel all the right muscles through the holds, then keep them involved when I transitioned from one position to the next. I’m going to start incorporating these into my day 2 programming- I’ll drill holds as a circuit in between my chest and posterior chain/back work, then substitute the explosive transition work for one of the DL sets in the posterior chain/back circuit. Ideally next month I’ll have the lift-specific neural efficiency and wrist mobility to work full cleans into that circuit instead of the transition.

280

Back to the grind today after the visit home. Ended up getting a little emaciated real quick yesterday on the drive down lol… dropped a stupid amount of water and had a surprise extension to my fast due to the marvel of modern retardation that is the NJ Turnpike South (6 lanes->3 lanes near a rest stop with at least 5 lanes shifts WHATTHEFUCK). I had a bunch of cream in my coffee at 20ish hours fasted, but didn’t get to eat any real food until I was about 24 hours in.

I decided to take a low protein day, since it was an off day (didn’t beat up the muscles) and I haven’t done that in awhile. Got in plenty of carbs/fats/veggies and prepped my food for the rest of the week. Made yesterday a high calorie day relative to my activity level because of the forced extension to the fast. Today and tomorrow will be high calorie as well, then I’ll settle in for two moderate calorie days followed by two low calorie days.

Here’s what food choices will be for the near future:

Every Day: 2lbs steak (tired of chickens), “the cocktail”

High Calorie Day Additions: 2lbs (uncooked measure) rice, 1 blueberry Greek yogurt, as much cole slaw (made with organic dressing) as I can get down

Moderate Calorie Day Additions: 3 blueberry Greek yogurts

Low Calorie Day Additions: Nada

I start my last bottle of Indigo today, which means I’ve got about two months left with it (assuming I don’t take it on low carb days). I want to make sure I’m not racking up fat cell inflammation, so I’m avoiding gluten on most days and trying to stick to foods that are at least fairly clean (no moar fast foodz/ice cream treats/poptarts lolz).

Only working out 4x this week- just cutting the first quads/shoulders day and leading off with chest/back/posterior chain. I’ll be trying out something new for quad recruitment/TUT on the second quad/shoulder day, so the 3rd day of skwatz shouldn’t be a huge loss.