I really wanted to respond to this message and give you my thoughts but i thought i’d wait. Now you’ve had some time to digest, is going back to bulking your plan?
And if so how are you approaching it?
14-7-23
Bench
60kg x 20
60kg x 18
One-Arm DB Press
24kg x 13 (10 with weaker wrist)
22kg x 15 (13 with weaker wrist
Machine chestpress
62.5kg x 20
62.5kg x 18
Lat raises (much slower tempo)
8kg x 15
8kg x 15
8kg x 15
Cable curls
30kg x 15
27.5kg x 13
RP15sec +5
Tricep pushdowns
15kg x 30
15kg x 18
This was a bit of a mess-around/pump/have fun session. Wasn’t feeling very strong and didn’t want to irritate anything for this weekend’s debauchery on the stag do. My wrist didn’t feel great on bench warm-ups which set the tone for the rest of the workout. I did go a little too hard on the second set of One-Arm DB Press with my weaker wrist though, my backs talking to me a bit because I ground out a rep I shouldn’t have with no real form at all. Nothing too bad though.
Every single cut I’ve ever done, my strength drops off at around 5 weeks. It’s like clockwork. Even in a strange cut like this one where I was regaining strength after time-off, it still rings true! I ate a bit more last night and will let the chains off this weekend. Let myself do what I want, aim for around maintenance but not with any accuracy - especially when an obscene amount of beers will be drunk on this stag do tomorrow.
Back to the bulk then.
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Yeah I believe so. I think I’m as lean as I wanna get. Any more leaning out and I’m just taking away size from when I wear a t-shirt. If I went a bit deeper and fully revealed those abs I’m seeing, there might be a chance I don’t want to lose them which just isn’t my goal at all. I was skinny all my life. 15-18% is where I wanna be most of the time at least for now.
Nothing too complicated. Eating more normally today, probably ending up on around 2600 calories which I hope is around maintenance (2800 was where I was at before losing 25lbs). Pointless doing any tracking tomorrow at the stag, and feeling super rough on Sunday will probably mean eating a lot of junk. Come Monday I will be back to slowly going above 2600 and stretching to my new bulking calories I predict to be around 2800-2900. Will adjust after the first couple of weeks based on the scale. I would love to hit around 1.5-2lb gain a month like I was on my previous bulk where I was absolutely smashing it before my injury.
In terms of my training, much of the same stuff. Might raise the rep ranges for the pressing and hope for some good progression on my wrist whilst I’ll be giving it much more of the stuff it needs (food) for recovery. Pulls are gonna stay exactly the same - they are feeling great at the moment and I expect it to continue that way once I reintroduce more calories.
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Have you considered just maintaining for a bit? Maybe give your mind a break and just coast for a week or four. lol
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With the weekend I just had with the stag do it’s gonna take a week or more to re-align myself for performance in the gym and eating as I should anyway. 
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Apologies for not catching up with everyone else’s logs yet! I will when I’m actually online for more than a few minutes.
I came down with a bug. Sore throat, coughing, hot and cold flushes, etc. It’s apparently going around my small town. I had extremely poor sleep the night before the stag do despite sleeping like a baby for an easy 7-8 hours leading up to that point. I still had an amazing time but the morning after had a bit of a tickly throat and it just got worse from there. I’ve been trying to but barely eaten this week although my appetite has started to return thankfully.
Don’t think any real muscle loss is gonna happen this week, but it’s made me consider slightly changing my split and swapping some exercises around so I’m not concerned with the numbers. I was already thinking of dropping bench press because my wrist seems fine up until around 80kg and then it starts to feel like I’m hurting it. A decent variation that allows me to get more out of less weight would probably be the smart thing to do. Will see though.
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Hope you recover quickly dude.
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24-07-2023
Bench
80kg x 9
72kg x 11
64kg x 11
One-Arm DB Rows
44kg x 13
42kg x 15
One-Arm Seated DB Press
24kg x 8
24kg x 8
V-Handle Pulldowns 2 sets
85kg x 10
77,5kg x 11
Dips
15kg x 10
10kg x 12
Lat raises
8kg x 15
8kg x 15
8kg x 15
That’s cool. Pretty much matched what I did last time despite 9-10 days off. DB Press I stopped a few reps short of last time because it’s one of the worst irritators of my wrist when I try to grind one up. I feel progression will come quick without me hitting it too hard as they are a fair bit behind from when I was doing them before the injury. I’d planned to do 3 sets with them but it’s just so much time when doing unilateral. Desperate to get back to doing them as normal but I just don’t think controlling that weight up and don’t with one arm is safe for me right now. I’ve actually been considering all out alternatives.
Back to the bulk today. I’ve wasted 5 months of progress due to a stupid reactionary moment but I’ve got through it, I’m a good few pounds lighter, and it’s all about moving forward again now.
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Do you think lifting straps might have something to do with the wrist issue? I’ve had a wrist issue and it’s been better since I slowed down the tempo on Dmbl rows.
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25-07-2023
Squats (15 days since I last squatted, felt heavy but this will rocket up over the next couple of weeks)
110kg x 5
100kg x 9
RDL
130kg x 6
125kg x 10
Leg Extension
85kg x 10
75kg x 12
Incline DB Curl
12kg x 14
12kg x 10
Skullcrusher
17.5kg x 30
27.5kg x 12
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Not sure if you misread bud. DB Presses, not DB Rows. My pulling actually feels absolutely fine. It’s just pressing that’s a bit of a struggle - DB Press and DB Bench being the worst culprits because of the stability needed. They are both improving fast but up until yesterday I was grinding a bit hard to chase reps with my non-injured side.
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27-07-23
Seated OHP
55kg x 5
50kg x 9
45kg x 13
DB Bench
32kg x 10
30kg x 12
Chin-ups
20kg x 5
15kg x 7
Machine Shoulder Press
50kg x 10
45kg x 12
Cable row with the straight bar
80kg x 13
80kg x 10
Incline Smith Bench (felt horrible)
60kg + bar x 7
50kg + bar x 12
Hit pretty much everything I expected to after my time off, even got a few +1s on the non-free weight exercises. Now time for some consistency. This year has been a constant 4 steps backward, 2 steps forward. I want to get back to my previous strength quickly and start hitting some PRs every week again like the roll I was on before injury.
Oh yeah. I only went on the smith machine because the machine chest press was taken and I needed to get out of there. I can’t pretend to know much about form on it as I never use it but it felt horrible. I adjusted every warm-up set and even in the middle of working sets. The position I was in had me drop the bar nowhere near my actual chest and my shoulders did NOT feel comfortable. Even though I went pretty close to failure, awkwardness had me using lighter weight than I thought I would and it feels a little like 2 wasted sets. Meh.
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Deadlifts
155kg x 6
142.5kg x 8
Leg Press
130kg x 14
120kg x 12 (rushed for time, only probably 90secs rest after a HARD set)
Leg curl
70kg x 7 (calf cramp killed set early)
60kg x 12
Ezbar curls
37.5kg x 12
37.5kg x 10
20secs RP + 2
Tricep pushdowns
27.5kg x 13
27.5kg x 10
20secs RP + 4
Hadn’t deadlifted in 16 days due to illness but matched what I did last time out so can’t complain.
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Bench
82.5kg x 7
75kg x 10
66kg x 14
One-Arm DB Rows
46kg x 10
44kg x 15
One-Arm Seated DB Press
24kg x 13/12
24kg x 12/11
V-Handle Pulldowns
85kg x 11
77.5kg x 12
Dips
17.5kg x 9
12.5kg x 11
Lat raises
9kg x 15
9kg x 12ish
Bit crazy how this stuff goes when trying to work your way back up. Top set on bench continues to move up slowly right now but the back-off sets are flying up. Maybe this means it’s more a neurological thing than a strength thing. I just wanna be back repping out 100kg like I was in Feb. On DB Press I actually got a +5 on last week - muscle memory makes my world lol. The discrepancy between the non-injured and injured side was only a rep as well which is probably the best thing about this workout.
+1s and added weight elsewhere. I did plan to do another set of lat raises but strangely my wrist started feeling it. Weird as it was fine on all the compounds today and 9kg is no weight at all. Maybe it was just accumulated inflammation I didn’t notice from the rest of the workout.
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Squats
115kg x 7
105kg x 11
RDL
140kg x 6
130kg x 10 (not happy with last rep though)
Leg Extension
90kg x 10
80kg x 12
Incline DB Curl
14kg x 12
14kg x 10
Triceps overhead
20kg x 17
20kg x 15
another set I can’t really remember. I was chatting too much.
+5kg and 2 reps on each squat set. Can’t complain. RDLs I did a 10kg jump which was probably a bit ambitious but I got the reps out. Not sure how good my form was but I can psychologically start chasing PRs with it again now.
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Just posting this as a reminder to myself. I need to be more consistent with psyllium husk. If I take it for 2-3 days in a row I always end up being able to go a hole deeper on the lifting belt, so it definitely helps with my motility and bloat.
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03-08-23
Seated OHP
55kg x 6
50kg x 10
45kg x 13
DB Bench
32kg x 11
30kg x 13
Chin-ups
20kg x 6
15kg x 8
Machine Shoulder Press
52.5kg x 10 (expected 8!)
47.5kg x 12
Cable row with the straight bar
80kg x 14
80kg x 12
Cable flyes
25kg x 13
25kg x 10
I thought my presses would be going back up more quickly after returning to the bulk and mostly rehabbed my wrist. I still got +1s everywhere so I shouldn’t complain. I’m working in higher rep ranges as well so some of these are actually probably rep PRs. I also added 2.5kg on the machine shoulder press and matched reps on both sets which is nice. Feels great to be repping out the 20kg for 6 on chins. I know it’s not impressive on the net, but it’s rare I see guys doing it in the gyms I go to.
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I see you’ve been eating more for a little over a week now; it’ll definitely take longer than that to see a big performance boost, especially in the strict press. Great job dude, just keep going.
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Yeah, it’s a bit frustrating but I need to be realistic. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to push with any real intensity on my wrist so there’s probably a neurological component to it as well. I also had a 3-5 rep discrepancy on unilateral DB Press which is closing fast which probably carries over to the bilateral stuff. As long I’m moving forward, I’m happy.
Really appreciate you dropping in! I’ll be following along with your log. Some wicked strength on display there!
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05-08-2023
Deadlifts
157.5kg x 6
145kg x 8
Leg Press
140kg x 13
130kg x 13
Leg curl
70kg x 8… and a half
62.5kg x 12ish
Ezbar curls
37.5kg x 13
37.5kg x 11
20secs RP + 3
Tricep pushdowns
27.5kg x 15
27.5kg x 12
20secs RP + 5
Lunges (more of a rehab thing than muscle building right now)
28kg x 10 each leg
40kg x about 10 each leg (was just feeling it out, nothing tough)
The plan was to Deadlift 155kg x 7 today, but the weights were moving well on the warmups so added 2.5kg and matched last week’s reps. Same story for the back-off set. It actually felt easier than last week which is great.
Leg press sets were a bit strange, pec cramp holding onto the bars which messed up my depth a couple of times. I’m sure I used to have that years ago so will have to look up to see what I did to remedy it.
Had some extra time so added a couple of light sets of lunges. I’ve only ever done them a couple of times before. I’ve banged on so much about my wrist that I forget to ever mention my 100% torn adductor. Pain varies day to day, I believe that the stability needed in lunges may help the other muscles take over more in my day-to-day life. Will up the intensity depending on how I get on.
Oh, and I remembered…
Pullaparts x 60-70ish
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