Forgot to mention, I’m on my 3rd day of Creatine. Will be interesting to see what happens - I know I’m late to the party but I was always worried how my gut would react.
I’ve taken creative for years religiously but I’m not sure I could say it makes a difference as I’ve been using it for so long. I do think I look more pumped if I’m on it (I notice a difference if I go on holiday and stop taking for two weeks).
But all the science says it’s good though!
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01-10-22
15degree Incline DB Press
36kg x 8
36kg x 8
36kg x 8
BW Chins
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
OHP
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
One-arm hammer curls
14kg x 12
14kg x 12
14kg x 12
Two-handle pulldowns (neutral to pronated)
20kg x 12
20kg x 12
20kg x 12
Facepulls
27.5kg x 12
27.5kg x 15
The day started off awesome. As I did my first set of 8 incline press, a guy said “how many sets are you doing with that?” I said 3, he said “fair play thats a great weight, do you want me to spot you?”.“We’ll see how it goes” I replied. The second set went up easier than the first and he said “looks like you don’t need me, looking strong”. The third set was a little bit of a grind for the last rep but all good! Great progress.
Chins I’ve been adding a set each week and hoping it doesn’t interfere with anything. 7 sets today and the last rep was a grindy one. Haven’t decided what I’m gonna do next week yet, plenty of options for progression though.
OHP didn’t expect to get 4x6 so convincingly on the first week of 54kg. Moved so smoothly and fast. Almost too fast, I forgot to brace on the last rep and leaned back a little in a way I shouldn’t. Felt a tiny click but absolutely no pain so think I’m unscathed.
Note: When you know you need to get back to watch a football game, don’t leave for the gym late
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03-10-22
Squat
120kg x 1
130kg x 1
140kg x 3
122.5kg x 5
122.5kg x 5
122.5kg x 5
RDL
122.5kg x 7
122.5kg x 7
122.5kg x 7
One-arm cable rows
75kg x 10
75kg x 10
75kg x 10
Leg extensions
45kg x 15
45kg x 15
45kg x 16
My legs didn’t feel great today. Even the walk to the gym they felt a little tired. I’m wondering if I really needed those leg presses on my second lower day because I didn’t feel fully recovered. As i say though, this is the first time i’ve ever done anything other than just squats + DLs for them - maybe i’ll adapt to the extra workload quickly. Still got 140kg x 3 and I feel it was better depth than last time I hit it. On my back off sets I still managed to progress so still a good squatting day.
Everything else followed my expected progression which lets me know it’s working as intended.
Note: Train your tris and bis on the upper days instead of split up throughout the week. You loved the pump and have way more commitment to them when not exhausted from the lower body movements
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Feeling some great DOMs in my hamstrings and glutes today. I was aiming a little lower down my shins on my RDLs and feeling a better connection. It also might mean my depth was a little better on squats - I definitely feel more comfortable going lower whilst wearing a belt.
Anyway, a couple of miles of dog walking shortly and football coaching tonight.
2 Likes
05-10-22
Bench
95kg x 6
95kg x 5
95kg x 5
95kg x 5
95kg x 3 (could of done more but was just adding some easy reps, explained below)
Lat pulldowns
82.5kg x 10
82.5kg x 10
82.5kg x 12
Seated DB Press
26kg x 8
26kg x 8
26kg x 9
DB Curls (one arm straight set - not alternating)
18kg x 10
18kg x 10
18kg x 9
Lying tricep extensions
17.5kg x 22
30kg x 15
32.5kg x 12
Band pulls
15, 10, 20, 10
After some older woman accidently slightly knocked the bar half way through my second bench set, I messed up my plan a bit. The trials and tribulations of working out in a leisure center. The knock made my second set way harder than it needed to be and I was no longer confident going for 6 on the last couple. Maybe i’d not have been even without the knock but because of this I added an easy set of 3 at the end. I get paranoid about this kind of stuff ruining my recovery, but it felt right instictively at the time.
Another 4 reps added to lat pulldowns and Seated DB Pressing continuing to explode after never really doing them before. I went for 10 on my last set which was a bit unneccessary as I don’t ever plan to go to failure but oh well.
Note: Make sure no ones wandering around before starting your bench sets
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Just started following along. Great work on your overall progress to date, major kudos.
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Awesome, and thanks. I have set the notification bell for yours also. It’s always nice bumping into some of the UK guys on here.
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07-10-22
TBDL
175kg x 1
187.5kg x 6
167.5kg x 8
167.5kg x 8 (forgot to put belt on but still got the reps)
Leg press
120kg x 110
120kg x 110
Chest-supported DB Rows
26kg x 12
26kg x 12
26kg x 14
Leg curls
47.5kg x 12
47.5kg x 12
47.5kg x 12
Half way through my last TBDL set I caught a glimpse of myself and the belt lying on the floor in front of me. I thought “damn, the last half of this set is gonna rough”, but it didn’t break my concentration and the set went about as well as it did with the belt.
I dropped a set of Leg Presses as I suggested on Monday. I didn’t feel fully recovered when it came round to squats. Not just that but its one of the machines there always seems to be a queue of people waiting for!
I need to set up my chest supported rows better. I strap up and then just awkwardly fall on the bench, I felt the slightest twinge in my left shoulder as I allowed myself to fall today. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about though and my upper tomorrow should still go well. Maybe grab a couple of plates to rest the dumbells on allowing me to get into position before picking them up.
Note: Don’t chat so much between TBDL sets that you forget to put your belt back on.
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Feeling a bit tender around my left ribcage today. When I introduce a new exercise that I haven’t done before, I watch several different form videos for the first couple of weeks. On one of the chest-supported row videos it suggested raising your chest at the very top of the movement. I never felt that I needed that but for my second set I gave it a go. I was in a bit of pain afterwards - thought it was my heart at first which was a little scary. It was like opening my ribcage at the time pulled something slightly. During my rest period it completely went away and I completed the third set without overly raising my chest and didn’t think about it for the rest of the day. Awesome no problems.
Late evening I yawned and did a big stretch and felt a similar pain and this morning it almost feels bruised.
I have Incline DB Press, OHP and Chin-Ups today. I really hope it doesn’t cause me pain during these 'cause my progress has been great lately. I’m one of those guys that put so much of my head in the gym that it breaks me when I can’t perform.
The rest of my body is psyched for today but I’m wondering if it’s worth taking the weekend off. 
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Smash the gym!!! There’s always time to rest later
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That’s usually my mentality but the pain kinda grew throughout the day. I don’t know if it’s from me “awkwardly falling” into place rather than reaching over to grab the dumbbells individually, or the over-extension of my chest during that one set.
Hopefully it’s just minor and heals within a few days. Quite uncomfortable at the moment though.
Every injury I’ve ever had in the gym has been so stupid, trivial, and avoidable.
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Still doesn’t feel wonderful today but I will be moving about more anyway. Will try some stretches later/warm it up a bit. No gym again today though.
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I should be going back today. The muscle under rib still doesn’t feel 100%. Got a builder coming to the house today which gives me an excuse to give it one more rest day. I’m going through the whole “3 days off I’m gonna lose all my strength” pathetic bullshit. Rationally I know after 3 hard training weeks, 3 days can work as a mini-deload/recovery half-week to help me push the hard training for longer. If only my brain would listen.
Gonna try various stretches today for it. Every time I get an injury I panic its gonna be an irriated long-one. But damn, if a rugby player can get their ribs injured so regularly and be fine so quickly, I should be okay with my trivial impact/overstretch!
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I feel like I’ve got a full range of motion and it doesn’t really hurt much at all at rest. Will likely go in to feel it out tomorrow morning. Won’t be stupid with it though, will warm-up slowly and hopefully get to the weights I wanna hit. That could go out the window if I feel i’m aggravating it though.
These 3 days off have made me consider doing a quick 1-month cut. I’m probably around ~24% bf. I’m one of those former skinny malnutritioned dudes that fear getting smaller. I’m just obsessed with getting stronger and making such good progress. Goals are up in the air.
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Going to have a smaller breakfast today. Not 100% sure i’m going to jump into a 4 week cut. I like that all my clothes feel tight now. That said, the longer I go on, the longer the cut will need to be. I never want to be “lean lean” .For now 18% is my goal and i’m happy to get there and then bulk in 3 months cycles and then get back to 18%.
@throwawayfitness Do you have any advice for me as you’ve been absolutely smashing it? All the resources online are either for obese people or getting under 15%. Very little for the guys that don’t seek that.
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I’m the wrong person to ask.
I ate egg whites for 2 months while training twice per day.
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That’s exactly the thinking behind my current 4 week plan so I 100% see the logic in this.
It would be pretty much the same in all fairness namely:
- Figure out your maintenance and decide how much weight you want to lose (normally 1-1.5% body weight a week is a good shout)
- Reduce calories to achieve the amount you want to lose. I’m sure majority of places you’ve seen go with 1lb a week is 3500 calories so 500 deficit a day would achieve 1lb so using that you could figure out how much of a deficit is good
- Limit high amounts of cardio (potentially not applicable if it’s only 4 weeks as that may not long enough to induce metabolic adaptation)
- Eat your protein
The reason you probably only see info about getting sub 15% is because 15%-20% bodyfat tend to look the same. It’s why a lot of people fuck up their bulks in that region because they gain excess body fat but don’t see it in the mirror so don’t think the surplus is too big.
But roughly looking at your goal if you are currently 24% and want to get down to 18% that would be a 6 % drop.
No idea on your exact bodyweight but I’m going to use 80kg/ 180lbs so a 6% drop would be 4.8kg/11lbs of body fat you want to lose so 1.2kg/2.7lbs a week for the next 4 weeks of just fat.
To be honest I think this will be the major sticking point if you do go for a 4 week cut to try and drop down to 18%. Looking at the above math (even if you weight70kg and not 80kg) it would require a very aggressive deficit to achieve which will make for sucky workouts/ temporary loss of performance. Add into that that the look in visuals week on week won’t change dramatically and it may be mentally a tougher battle than it will be physical.
You achieved AMAZING results so you are the right person to ask
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Thanks for the thorough reply.
Yeah I see it’s mostly the same just that if you have more fat sometimes people say you can lose a little bit quicker. Eating low calories is no problem for me, my body loves the digestive break. I don’t do much cardio anyway other than the coaching which is hardly ever strenuous. I may walk a bit more during the cut though.
I’m at 204lb at the moment (4lb of which has come from just starting creatine). Bulking at around ~3200 calories a day. 24% is only an estimate, it’s very likely I’m higher than that given my strength levels. An arbitrary percentage doesn’t matter to me though, I just know i’m bordering on passing my threshold of feeling like a complete slob. I might post a couple of pics later that I took after an upper workout last weekend.
I just got a workout done but my phone with my log on is downstairs so i’ll update shortly. The workout went okay considering i’ve had 3 days off, not been eating great and managing that rib muscle injury. Lost a couple of reps on my last set of incline press but everything else was okay. I only did 3 sets of chins because it felt like in the dead-hang I was aggravating the issue. If i’m cutting I don’t need to be doing a ton of chin sets anyway.
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15° Incline DB Press
38kg x 8
38kg x 8
38kg x 6
Chinups BW
5, 5, 5
OHP
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
54kg x 6
One arm hammer curls
14kg x 12
14kg x 14
14kg x 15
Two handles pulldowns (neutral to pronated)
20kg x 12
20kg x 13
20kg x 15
Facepulls
27.5kg x 12
27.5kg x 15
As I said, 9 days since doing this workout, 3 days of no gym and nursing a rib injury. Happy with that tbh. My chin-up programming has been super wayward so its hard to measure at the moment. Was doing sets of weighted 7.5kg not long ago. Will sort it out after the quick cut.
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