Background
I’m 27 years old and I’ve been logging on this site for a long time now (previous log: Furo's Comeback Log). Since my last log ended in June I’ve maintained my strength levels, but been way too relaxed with my diet and gained quite a bit of fat. It hasn’t been a waste of time as I consolidated the strength improvements I’d made, but now it’s time to really focus on getting lean.
Plan
Unlike previous logs I’m not going to commit to a particular training routine at this point, as I don’t have a great track record of sticking with prescribed routines and I usually just default to training instinctively. More than likely I will follow an upper/lower split for the majority of this log. Last year I made decent progress during the t-ransformation challenge, but never fully committed to it as my primary goal was to improve my deadlift. I think the reason I failed to keep the fat off after completing it was because I had continued to fit sugary food into my macros, and as soon as I stopped tracking things I went back to the way I’d been eating before. For the 2018 challenge my only focus will be losing fat, and as well as tracking my intake (starting at 2500kcal) I will eliminate obvious crap food from my diet.
Starting Point
So here I am at a very soft 102kg (225lbs). My lifts are around the same as they were in June, with a 220kg (485lb) deadlift and a 125kg (275lb) bench press.
This was a solid deadlift session - I’m currently trying to focus on maintaining a neutral neck position and driving with my legs, and most of today’s reps felt very good. I still occasionally get a little out of position, but overall things are definitely improving. 185kg (408lbs) seems to be a good weight for technique work.
Running is definitely my least favourite part of training, but I’m determined to maintain some sort of adequacy at it. My knees actually seem to feel better when I’m running regularly, so long as I don’t push things too far.
@duketheslaya - thanks a lot man, happy New Year to you too!
It’s nice to drop below 100kg bodyweight! So far I’ve found it pretty easy to stick to 2500kcal per day and avoid eating crap - the hardest part is definitely planning meals ahead.
I’m coming down with a cold but it didn’t seem to affect training today - I just took my time with the rest periods. I imagine my benching will suffer a little as I lose weight, but at least my pull-ups should improve! A good session overall.
Pistol Squats
High Box: 5
Med Box: 5
Low Box: 5
Free: 5x1
Bodyweight: 100.2kg
I felt pretty rough again today so kept the deadlift volume low. 180kg and 190kg moved really well, but my grip almost gave out with 200kg. I have a weird preoccupation with pistol squats, although I’ve managed to avoid doing them for several months as they seem to jack my hips up. I just find a nice clean pistol squat extremely satisfying. Afterwards I did some hip circles to try to minimise the damage - we’ll see how that goes.
@ChongLordUno - Thanks bud! I’m at Extreme Gym just now, where is your gym? I definitely need to check it out.
This was a pretty good upper body session. I’m always happy with pressing 60kg (132lbs) for sets of 5, and the rows felt solid too. My hips feel completely fine despite yesterday’s pistol squats, so that’s promising - I just have a nice level of DOMS in my glutes and outer quads.
@ChongLordUno - I’ve never come across Elite before but it looks pretty perfect, I’ll fire an email to the address on the website to see if it’s possible to check it out this weekend. Thanks mate!
Training: Good this week! 2 upper body days, 2 lower body days and a run.
Nutrition: Good. I had alcohol on Hogmanay and tonight, but otherwise I’ve avoided all crap which is a pretty big deal for me - especially not having energy drinks. I haven’t strictly stuck to 2500kcal - I’ve been a bit loose with it, but I think I’ve probably been around 2600kcal.
Not much to say otherwise - this has been a good week! Going forward I’m going to stick with avoiding crap and aiming for around 2500kcal/day until I get down to around 97kg, which is where I’ve spent most of my adult life, then I’ll reassess.
