LOG # 167
Jump rope circuit 25 mins
General update:
Feeling very good lately.
Few things I’ve noticed for training and recovery:
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Eating giant meals doesn’t do good for my stomach and physique in general. I’ve separated my meals into 7 meals throughout the day. And I have less gas, and less bloating, and don’t get tired or sleepy after eating.
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pancakes=perfect preworkout meal
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high volume I can do bi weekly for each lift if I program in such a way where it’s set up like that.
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max lifts I do good once every two weeks, or just about, and not necessarily 1RMs.
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I’ve found a sweet spot concerning calories. Energy, and strength start to plummet if I consume anything under 2,000 roughly. On the other end, strength and energy tend to reach their peak at around 2,600-2,700. Anything over that I just start to pack on fat.
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I’ve got a decent capacity for endurance, but just like heavy days, they have to be implemented in a sort of structure. Endurance and max lifting go hand in hand, in that endurance tends to compliment the other in terms of performance the next day or the next two days after. Endurance and volume don’t go over well with me. If I have implemented endurance, ~4-5 days need to have gone by until I can jump back into volume. When I say endurance I mean any cardio vascular activity that isn’t HIIT or circuit style type training.
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onto HIIT and circuit style type training now that I’ve mentioned it. These are things I can do pretty much whenever I want and however much I want. I’m come to assume that with the amount of fat I carry, I’m in the inbetween in that I’m not super lean to where I would probably need more rest, but i don’t carry enough fat to where I’m struggling. I’ve been doing jump rope twice a day, everyday, and I’ve noticed, slow, overall fat loss and increased work capacity.
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Concerning anything related to body weight, I see more of a mobility increase than anything else.
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I have a decent base for volume, to an extent. My muscles do, but my joints need some TLC to be fully convinced. No problem. I’m going to further break it down into volume according to percentages. Anything 60% or lower, it seems I can get well into 65-70 rep range, 65-70% I can push into the 40-50 rep range, 75-80% I’m looking at 20 tops, on a very good day. 85-90% roughly 5-10 solid reps. 95-100% 1-6ish. Seems legit.
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I carry an even amount of body fat throughout, so when I lose it, it comes off slowly and evenly. Meaning I get smaller overall first, but for a while I won’t see certain parts start to really show out.
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I do not benefit from any sort of preworkout that isn’t just plain old food. Caffeine, Beta Alanine, or any other stimulant do not effect me in terms of energy spikes during training. All they do is give me a mild headache. Carbs eaten about 30 mins before training work very well. I’ve also noticed in my last attempt to use them that once I broke the 75-80% max, I began to sweat profusely to the point where I’m thirsty/dehydrated enough that it affects my training even while drinking water. So it’s a no.
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I have a bit of supination going on with my feet. Have to work on that.
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concerning carb timing it works well for lifting, but I see no difference in terms of anything concerning cardio. I see a difference in cardio depending more on how much/well I’ve slept the night before.
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when squatting I’ve found a way to predominantly use my butt, but in doing so I have to pay close attention to my hips.
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Onto proportions. Firstly I do think proportions have a good bit of influence on how you lift. Concerning myself I’ll start at the tippy top. Wide jaw, nothing is dominant just wide, pronounced cheek bones, I don’t have a long neck, but I have very broad shoulders, and rather short arms, so I tend to not struggle in the benching department, it’s just a matter of getting stronger. On the flip side concerning deadlifting, when pulling sumo I have to get something just shy of parallel in order to start the lift. Anything too high and I’m leaning forward and can’t reach the bar, anything too low and I dump all the stress onto my lower half. I have a wide chest as well. Get it from my dad mainly. My torso is rather weird. When I was really skinny I was pushing almost a 21 inch waist, and when I started recovery my waist went up around 24-25in. So while it’s small “naturally”, it’s also not very long. When squatting I’ve noticed I have tendency to fold over, and I don’t really arch my back whatsoever. During deadlifting, since I have a short torso, Placing the belt works best when it’s just above my navel. I have wide hips and shorter femurs in respect to my waist, so I squat pretty well in various stances. In deadlifting I can take a rather generous wide stance as well. Decent length of tibia and fibula are in proportions to my femurs so that’s that. I have VERY small feet, and I’m also flat footed. I don’t really have any problems with it, aside from supination. You can develope problems with flat feet, but I feel like there are other factors that come into play as well. Namingly your knees.
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rest wise My sweet spot is 9 hours approx. anything less and I get headaches, and I lose my appetite. Anything more and I’m sluggish and more tired.
That’s it for now, but there will be more to come as I progress
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Active recovery!!! Keep the body moving and mobile while not taxing it.
ME TOO!! Out of no where I could hold a front rack again.
Supplement rant…that being said in a cut some supps can help with energy levels. B vitamins might be something to look into.
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I need to start taking b vitamins again. My mom used to always give them to me and they taste good. Espeacially the gummy ones lol. I try not to get the gummy ones because I’ll treat them like fruit snacks lol
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LOG # 168
Squat
135x5
165x5
200x3
250x5
280x3
315x2
330x1+ 1 single
Assist:
Front squat: 135 5x5
Leg press: 225 AMRAP
Hanging leg raises: 3x10
My stepdad decided to join me. He used to be a boxer so he decided to get back into training. He’s pretty simple to have around. Does his own thing. He had a small heart attack at the beginning of the year so it’s all the more important to stay in shape. So all around good show.
Nothing is hurting at the moment. Which is great. Knees feel good, lower back feels good, hips feel 100% better. Finally.
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LOG # 169
Jump rope 25 min.circuit
Bodyweight exercises:
Push-ups: 5x5
Squats: 10x10
Hanging leg raises from pull up bar: 3x10
Single leg deadlift: 3x9
(Attempted to do pull ups: got 2 solid reps. So there’s that.)
Dips: AMRAP.
Experiencing an annoying bout of insomnia. So I am fully prepared to sleep pretty much the entire day today. Gonna have to fix my sleeping pattern for classes soon.
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Not sure if you realise how impressive that is. Not many women can do ONE unassisted.
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@MarkKO Touché. I guess I was hoping for maybe 2 more?
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General update:
Managed to sleep Something just shy of about 38 hours. Husband and Mom both thought I was dead or near dying. Didn’t help that my cycle started which was complete trash. Slept through the cramps and was an absolute zombie upon waking. So I guess this would be a well earned fasting/recovery day. I woke up a few times to drink some water. Got a chance to weigh myself to see my true weight once I finally woke up, minus water weight, bloat, needing to go to the bathroom, etc. Weight is sitting at 207. Which isn’t bad by any means, according to my own body composition. Whenever I decide to cut down I’ll probably go back to 190, see how I feel, and then let 180-185 be where I stop and see where I can go from there. At 180 I’ll probably be well defined. Abs and all. So roughly a 30 pound fat loss. Rather excited to get there.
I’ve recalculated a rough estimate of body fat%, I’ve ball parked it right up into the 25%. I’ve decided to keep the higher number, because at first I was getting around 22-23%, but I’m going to spare generosity on my behalf and be as honest as possible. It’s Technically “normal”, but I’ll have to drop calories just a bit to keep fat gain in check. I’m also going to have to take advantage of the free food at my job, but keep parameters on what I eat of course. There’s a crap ton of stuff that’s battered, fried, covered in cheese, saturated in butter, etc. I’ll stick to the salads they have, and by the time I get home I won’t be so hungry.
Going back to what I said before, if I do everything correctly I might not even lose any of my strength. My strength tends to plummet mainly from infrequent training, or janky timing schedules concerning lifts, or eating crap food. Usually if my diet is dailed in I see good progression, so I’ll experiment.
Nothing is hurting on me but I won’t jinx myself. I am going to start strengthening my lower back as much as I can, because it has hindered my deadlift quite a bit. Compared to my squat my deadlift lags behind A LOT. It may not ever be as high or higher than my squat, but my squat number makes up for it, however I do wish to have my deadlift at its best possibility.
Im finally getting glasses next week because I have janky vision. I can see fairly well, but I had corneal abrasions a while back in both eyes from a pop rocks (those candies that make a popping sound) incident in middle school (looooooong story lol). So I have slight astigmatism. Not fond of glasses, but I also such at putting in contacts so that’s that.
School starts next week so I have to come up with a tried and true plan on how I can balance school, food, training, and eating. I’m not worried about my job because it’s part time, I only work 5 hours, and I’m surrounded by food, and it’s a weekend job.
My uncle bought a HUGE industrial fan and I love it!
Completely freezes the room. So much yes.
I plan on competing sometime next year, I can’t give a specific date because I’ll most likely just do it without any heads up since I have a tendency for that.
For the time being I’m going to finish up this last cycle of 5/3/1, rotate a few cycles of Westside, and then jump back onto 5/3/1, but I’ll probably run a revised version meant for peaking and try to time it up until I compete. No promises though.
Pretty much it for now.
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Well heres what i do:
6:30 am Wake up get ready, shower, make breakfast and pack food that iv prepped (il prep every days meals the night before)
School
Come home eat preworkout meal and do some chores or whatever before the gym
Gym
Come home
Eat
Eat
Cook next days food
Bed
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I usually try to mimic something like that. I’m not in highschool anymore, and my college classes are spread out during the day. I’ll go to school in the morning, and then I won’t start my next class until 4-5pm. So I try to shove sleeping somewhere in between there, and then set a timer to eat every few hours from when I first woke up. I choose not to train between classes because it screws with my concentration and attentiveness in class. After training I just want to sleep.
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After school classes i just want to sleep lol
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LOG # 170
Deadlift
135x5
155x5
185x5
Assist:
Good mornings: (super light) 120lbs 3x10
Back extensions: 230lbs 3x10
Decline sit-ups:
4x12
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LOG # 171
Jump rope circuit in the A.M.
Grappling with hubby. Main goal was to make me sweat, so guidelines were for him to just use his maximum body weight in which I had to use a good deal of energy to get free and then reset. Did this for about an hour after he got home from work. Gotta get creative.
Leisurely dancing around in the garage to this throwback song:
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Just about finished with the second cycle of 5/3/1 for powerlifting. Technically its for offseason lifters, but I see no reason why I shouldn’t take advantage of it.
This next cycle has me doing a TM from these lifts: B-225, D-350, S-405. I’m not there yet, but the way Wendler has the percentages written for bench ill never max over 190, for deadlift ill never max over 330, and for squat I wont max over 365. Considering I’m pretty driven to hit a 405 squat this seems to be a good way to work up to it. I like the way the cycle has been laid out so ill probably run it twice, and then keep steady with Westside and tweak a few things.
I’ve been breaking up my resting days with two days at a time but when I return the following day I’m pretty slow, and a struggle to warm up as fast as I usually would. So I’m going to keep a 1 day on 1 day off type of pattern, but on the off days I will treat it more of a volume fully body day, which means I will be seeing myself in the gym pretty much everyday, but with this I will cut back on cardio and then see how I fair after that.
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One of my very spoiled and weird dogs.
Doesn’t want her feet or nose under the covers because she gets hot. Doesn’t completely want the covers off because she gets cold.
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LOG # 172
Squat
150x5
185 x5
220x5
295x3
310x3
330x3
345x2
360x1
Assist:
Ham curls: 45lbs 3x15
Leg press: 225 3x12
Hanging leg raises: 3x10
10 min jump rope
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