I absolutely love North Carolina, and my wife and I have had conversations about moving down there… It feels like a different world. I’ve spent a little bit of time in Georgia and Florida.
Or did you mean south-west? Because that’s another area I’d absolutely love to visit.
The “South East,” I guess.
I’m in East Tennessee, right across the border from the mountainous west end of North Carolina. It’s nice over there.
I was originally from Western New York (Hamburg, in south Erie county) so I get all excited when people from up north come down to visit.
I haven’t ventured terribly far from where we normally stay in the outer banks, but I went to a wedding in Asheville a few years ago and was able to explore for a couple days- it was beautiful in that area. Not a huge fan of the atmosphere there, but the scenery was great!
Nice! I’ve made my way out there a few times for work and regularly to the Buffalo area for concerts. I definitely like it in that area more than the city I live in, haha.
Deadlift
135x8
225x5
315x4
405x2
455x1
Still got it
Eating has been 100% deepwater style the past few days. I had forgotten what it was like to be actually hungry. I like it.
I’m going to stick as closely to the DW style through vacation as possible without being disruptive to anyone there… Dinners will likely be partially to mostly carbs, but I’ll pick and choose what I want in smaller portions and try to keep a consistent timing of meals so I’m not ravenous by the end of the day.
Belt is feeling looser than normal, so things are happening. Might hit some quick conditioning tomorrow, and then off to NC bright and early Friday.
Also wanted to add that my mind feels ready to hop back into BBBB, BtM and DW. It’s only been a few weeks, and I really need to show some mental fortitude. I need to commit to this fat loss and be cool with gaining taking a back seat for a while. I have the tools to get stronger and bigger, but I need to experience and build the capability of losing weight on purpose.
Squat
135x10
185x5
245x5
275x5
315x1
345x1
225x34
Wanted to make sure I was uncomfortable the entire 14 hour drive tomorrow. I’m pretty sure it’s mission accomplished.
Dude, is it your birthday or something? That smacks of @heretolog’s birthday challenge.
Nice work!
Before a 14 hour drive, I’m not even that masochistic!
Dude, no, this is a GOOD thing. Your fire is being re-lit. This is exactly why we go on these breaks! Best thing that can happen is have you champing at the bit and ready to tear training a new one.
Losing is full of ennui. Gaining is greatness. You are on a solid path.
I just hope it works in my favor. I don’t want to give up halfway through this “cut” and end up wasting a few months. I am already a decent amount more lean than the end of BtM, and weight has really been falling off easily without too much effort, so hopefully I won’t have to do this for a ridiculous amount of time before I’m happy with how I look. Like I said before, too, this is something I should learn how to do anyway.
You’ve mentioned before how taking a break from gaining could potentially be a mentally strange space to be in, and so far I agree. By this time of my previous breaks I would’ve given up already. I feel committed to this one though.
I wish… It would’ve been 2 reps less and 20 lbs lighter!
Says the guy who’s birthday celebration is high rep squats with BW on the bar!
On this note: I HIGHLY recommend your cut be measured in time vs leanness/satisfaction. When I went with the latter, I got the leannest I’d ever been in my life…and absolutely crashed my hormones and did some damage that took a LOT of undoing. Habits build and develop momentum, and “not eating” is TOO easy of a habit. You eventually become too good at it, like Kafka’s “Hunger Artist”. And then you start chasing the leanness dragon. “Dude, I have veins in my TRAPS! …I wonder if I can get striations in my glutes…”
I have a hard stop date of 7 weeks these days. I can get plenty lean in that time, and then the time is over and I move on. That way, I know when I’m “halfway through”
Your thought process never ceases to amaze, dude. That is an awesome idea, and one I will use. I think I said 6-8 weeks before starting so that’s what I’ll commit to.
500 swings
2x amrap goblet squats (50-60?)
100BPA
1x amrap band curls with a very slow tempo
Did some stuff this morning and I’m just getting around to logging it. My legs are totally shot from having fun in the ocean yesterday. It’s been pretty windy here, so a lot of wave-battling has been taking place. Might get a day pass at a small gym either tomorrow or Wednesday to do some chest and maybe trap bar stuff, we’ll see
A bunch of pump stuff superset between three amrap goblet squat sets this morning
Took the squats to the point of feeling physically sick which was a new experience. Followed it up with 4 hours in the ocean, running and body surfing.
Bench
115x10
135x5
165x5
185x4
205x3
225x1
CGBP at 135
x13
x12
Having a fairly busy Sunday, and energy is low. Lots of sun and a 13 hour car ride yesterday which totally drained me of all willpower to continue this.
Ended up taking a day or two “off” during vacation as well. I spent a solid 4-6 hours per day in the waves and my legs actually had DOMs upon waking up a few mornings.
Haven’t weighed myself but I threw on the lifting belt and it was loose, might have to bring it in a hole. I adhered fairly well to the diet plan I laid out and it seemed to work well.
I should be home and not nearly as busy as I have been the past couple months for a while, which I am extremely ready for.
The plan from here is to continue restricted eating for another few weeks and, after some serious deliberation about my goals, signing up for 12-16 weeks of coaching provided by my friends powerlifting company. After that, reassess and see if I want to continue with the programming they are writing for me.
I want to get stronger. I know that BBBB, BtM and DW will do that for me, but I’m unsure if I am doing everything I possibly can to get what I want. I want to see if handing the reins to someone else will provide me with enough feedback and criticism to push me beyond what I think my limits are. The main goal here is to improve my rep maxes enough that the next 26 week gaining block will be absolutely preposterous to to the boilerman of today. I laid out my “short” term goals of 3 plate bench, 4 plate squat for reps and 5 plate deadlift for reps to my coach today.
I absolutely love the feedback I get from this site, but at this point I just want someone to tell me what to do and tell me to try harder and be better. Maybe I’m not pushing myself as hard as I think I am.
You get to do so many fewer reps when you are Powerlifting. It’ll be like a vacation!
Please compete so I can watch you dominate
Haha, I was actually thinking the same thing.
I checked out my coaches lifting vids yesterday and I unfortunately don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk. MFer is intense.
I was considering it if I’m happy with my progress tbh. I’m so far away from being proud of my lifts that I don’t think it’ll be any time soon, though.
I’m curious: did you play any sports growing up?
I haven’t been commenting in this log enough. You’re always killing it my dude.
An Intense MFer’s training style? Now I’m getting excited for what’s next! It will be fun to peak in.
Baseball from 6 years old until 10 years old, lacrosse when I was 12 and modified football when I was 13. Nothing from 7th grade until I started lifting at 28, haha. Sports were never big in my family and I’ve never connected with them personally.
Thanks man, and no worries about commenting. I haven’t been on here nearly as much as I used to but am hoping to get some time to really dig into other people’s logs again.
Haha, he seems like an intense guy at least. I’m hoping that translates to his training style. I should be getting a program within a week or so and I’m hoping I surprise myself with the peak.