[quote]Papa Nick wrote:
Id hate to think 5,000 cal is your maint food intake for that weight.[/quote]
me too man. maybe i just need to wait a few years for my metabolism to slow down. 5000-5500 is uncomfortable. just going back to 4000 and letting the chips fall where they may is looking pretty attractive. i could just do 4 high carb days and the rest mediums; see what happens.
strength is my main concern, so as long as i keep getting stronger i guess an increase in scale weight is not necessary.
i did just get blood drawn for a thyroid test at the dr’s today. we’ll see what cholesterol levels look like, and if i’m actually a celiac.
so here’s the plan: squat to a parallel box for the foreseeable future. i can get to a par. box without losing my arch, which may be part of the reason for my back pain (end-range flexion or something). i will generally work up to a weight i think i could get for 8 or so, then go for 20% more for 3 sets of triples. this is kind of like figuring out my estimated 1RM for the day, then doing triples at 90% of that. go all out on the third set, a la 531.
then do some rep work. i’m not gonna lie, those close stance squats were more like 3/4 squats. really focusing on keeping that arch!
goblet sissy squats are like goblet squats (kettlebell in the hands at chest level), but on the sissy squat apparatus.
in the food department: obviously carb cycling the way i’ve been doing it is not working for me. i’m cutting back to 30/40/30% fat/carb/prot just to see what happens. i’ll have lots of veggies with every meat/egg meal. today was 4200 cals, 140/420/315g, fat/carb/prot. bw was 185 (not bad considering i was vomiting most of sunday) also, 315g prot is not too bad when i’m not eating so many carbs!
also, been doing a tri-plane psoas stretch 6 times/day or so, as prescribed by my chiro.
wow, i had no idea my conventional deadlift was this bad. 405 off of a 4.5" box was difficult! no good can come of having such a weak conv deadlift! i was thinking of alternating sumo from the floor and conv from the box, now i’m sure of it. i’ll work the reps up off the box, then increase weight, push reps, etc. maybe the box height will drop over time as well.
i didn’t have straps today so i tested my grip with the walking lunges. 100/hand for 10 steps was easy, 120 for 10 was fine, 130 it slipped out of my hands! then i grabbed it with a hook grip… which was very uncomfortable but it worked for about 8 total reps. then i pussied out - i could drive nails into my thumbs to practice pain tolerance because that’s what it felt like!
food: i have just been eating. i like 2-3 big meat meals with veggies, two carb/prot shakes, some fruit and lots of veggies. i drizzled a little honey on my chicken thighs last night and oooo baby that tasted so good. i don’t know if i’ll gain weight on this, but my body feels very good so i’m going to stick with it for a while.
not bad. pathetically weak at lateral raises (20/hand x 10 reps). i will work on those of course. also pulled something in my neck/upper back again, dammit.
today was a good day! i needed a PR like whoa, and this was a solid PR. i’ve determined that the box is parallel (i.e. my hip crease is slightly below the top of my knee). this means i was going about 3" too low before now lol.
SSB GM’s were a nice change… torso was not parallel to the ground as i am not that flexible and i’m not going to sacrifice my disks in an effort to make it to parallel. in time my hammies may loosen up.
for close stance squats i had my heels on nickels again. the sets started out as 3/4 squats, but got lower as i settled in. first set of 15 was surprisingly easy, second set was not so much. i’m hoping this will pack some meat on my quads.
my back is feeling very good! the plan seems to be working so far.
i was working my upper back over with the thera-cane all weekend and my neck is feeling much better. that thing is such a great tool. also useful for applying pressure to sensitive spots on the hammie muscle belly, and hip flexors.
benching went well. 245x5 is an improvement over last week. OAR’s only go up to 100 at school, but i will bring my own db handles next time… rowing 100s is pretty boring.
floor pressing was alright. the first 225 set i was off to one side a little, so i re-set and did a couple more reps. the last 185 set was great: 10, rest a few seconds, 3, rest a few more, 3 grinders, done! bb rows were the same old thing.
lateral raises because they are weak. curls 'cause my tri’s were fried from floor pressing.
food has been lots of meat and veggies. bw inching up from 185.
open-hand grip work: carry 100lb plates by the rim. 100 per hand, 5 trips of ~20ft each.
tried out various shrugs. i initially wanted to do some trap work, some ab work, and some calf work. did a 1-arm farmer walk, then did a regular farmer walk.
farmer’s walk - total weight
430x6 trips. probably 40 or 50 ft per trip. generally ran out of space before my grip gave out, which is good.
food: gunning for 2 meat, 1 egg and 2 shake meals per day, plus a couple apples. veggies with meat and eggs.
sumo dl
225, 275, 315x3, 405x3, 455x11 t&g (grip failed! ahhh that never happens!)
db w.lunge - weight and steps total
200x10, 240x10, 280x10, 300x10 (PR!)
RDL
225x15, 275x10,10
well i was gunning for 12 on the deads, but my trusty grip gave out… maybe due to yesterdays grip work. so maybe don’t put your grip work before deadlifting nick. or account for that at least!
i wanted a PR somehow, so i took the 150’s for a walk (with straps of course). still toying with programming ideas. it’s nice to be having fun again… not taking the deadlifting too seriously helps. i figure it will go up somehow eventually, even if i have to pull 500 conventional (that might take a while though).
mil press
95, 105, 115, 135x3, 145x3,3,3 (better than last week!)
pull-up
25, 45, 75, 90x3,3,6
dips
bwx10,10, 45x10, 90x8,6
rope chins
bwx10,10,10,10, 45x5 (just to see if i could)
curls, shoulder horn, stretching
lifting was good today! i really like the rope chins because i can feel it in my back for once. also the regular pull ups were done with a much closer grip due to the bar. i have some ideas about working around this too.
this morning (saturday) i woke up at 3 or so with intense shooting pain in my right leg, the one with the plate in it. this was approaching the pain i felt in the hospital after surgery. there was one very tender spot near the plate, so i tried rolling the shit out of it with a tennis and field hockey ball. this did not alleviate the pain one bit, so i took some morphine and finally went back to sleep after it kicked in. this morning the tender spot is no longer tender, and my leg no longer hurts. more evidence to me that soft-tissue work is the key to most body pains.
sumo dl
225, 275, 315x3, 405x3, 455x11 t&g (grip failed! ahhh that never happens!)
db w.lunge - weight and steps total
200x10, 240x10, 280x10, 300x10 (PR!)
RDL
225x15, 275x10,10
well i was gunning for 12 on the deads, but my trusty grip gave out… maybe due to yesterdays grip work. so maybe don’t put your grip work before deadlifting nick. or account for that at least!
i wanted a PR somehow, so i took the 150’s for a walk (with straps of course). still toying with programming ideas. it’s nice to be having fun again… not taking the deadlifting too seriously helps. i figure it will go up somehow eventually, even if i have to pull 500 conventional (that might take a while though).
[/quote]
today was a great day :). i was shooting for a 10RM, but i sure as hell ain’t gonna complain about 12 reps. this does serious things to my estimated 1RM. my quads are definitely getting stronger and helping out way more. i like this i’m just going to keep stretching and taking care of myself…
next week is “deload”. i’m thinking 3x5 at the 10RM weight, or maybe 5x3. depends how i’m feeling i guess.
been sticking pretty well to the 2 meat, 1 egg meal structure and 2 shakes + fruit and veggies. not gonna lie, i feel pretty good!
tried some inc db benching, stretching, shoulder horn
i’ll use 205 for my work sets next week… 225 was not quite a 10RM. i should ask myself before i begin a set if it’s an ego lift or not. though the E1RM went up, so that’s sort of good.
dunno if i’ll go back to bb rows for a while. i have a hunch doing those and the squats, gm’s, deads and rdl’s all in the same week might be a little much for my lower back at the moment.
no lifting today. it was beautiful outside so i went mountain biking. 1hr 15mins at 145bpm average. it was soo nice, especially with some of the leaves turning. felt really strong for short bursts… i like the way the bike is set up now, so i will try to get out on the trails more.
conv block dl - 6 plywood squares (3-4 in maybe?)
225x10, 275, 315, 365x5, 405x5, 425x3, 405x5 (much better than last time)
w. lunge - weight and steps total
200x10, 240x10, 240x20 (PR), 240x10,10 - straps were slipping
GHR - playing around with foot pad positioning
bwx10,10,10,10
deads went alright, better than 2 weeks ago. i don’t think i have a 500lb back yet. hopefully these conventional pulls will help that (i really felt the entire length of my back working). walking lunges were brutal. i just turned up the 'thrakh and took steps until i covered the goal length. to say they kicked my ass would be an understatement. with dumbbells, i think these are a trap exercise as much as a leg exercise. also the GHR was a nice change of pace. way more interesting than doing leg curls. i can see why people like these: my hammies were torched.
i’m not sure if one session of biking can improve my stamina, but i seemed to recover really quickly between sets (until the 240x20 lunge sets that is). food for thought.
didn’t quite get 125x10, so i’ll use 115 next week. have patience, it will improve. actually, 125x8 is a slight improvement in E1RM over the last two weeks. so that’s nice!
squat to box
135, 185, 225, 275, 315x5, 365x3, 385x3,3,5 (PR)
SSB GM - trying to stay TIGHT!
75x10, 165x10,10, 185x10
front squat
135x10, 185x10, 225x8, 245x6, 275x4, 225x6
stretch, calf raises
so i was thinking my plan over on sunday and i really didn’t want to deload this week. i’ll do another 3 week cycle and then force myself to deload on week 7 (if i’m not already looking forward to it). basically work up to 3x3, AMRAP last set. next week, 3x3 again with more weight or more reps on AMRAP set. third week, shoot for 10RM. so that’s a 3 week cycle… do two cycles and deload with low reps at 10RM weight.
front squats felt pretty good. the 275 set was out of curiosity more than anything… we’ll see if that was a wise choice or not. between SSB GM’s and front squats, my middle/upper back is a little worked.
body weight was 181 today. i’ve resigned myself to waiting a while before trying to gain weight again. in the meantime, lots of meat, veggies and extra calories wherever i can. i think lots of carbs really really cranks up my metabolism which may be why that shit just didn’t work for me.
