One thing about RDLs is that the bar was getting snagged on the skin right above my knee. I’m thinking about wrapping that part of my leg with painter’s tape or something so it slides.
If you watch the videos in my log, I wear a torn up pair of sweatpants on deadlift day for just this reason. Creates a slippery surface.
Good idea. I have sweatpants I never wear. I’ll try slipping them on over my shorts next time I do RDLs
4/22/2026
Calories: 3200
Sleep Night Before: 7.5 hours
Mood: Relaxed/Normal
Energy Level: 5.5/10
Hunger Level: 4/10
Workout: Wednesday Upper
I think I might be in a deficit. I have been running out of juice fast while working out and I haven’t been progressing quite as fast as before. I’m going to weigh myself tomorrow morning to see where I am. My first sets are all pretty good (some are really good) but the subsequent sets are harder than usual and by the 5th exercise I’m like “ugh… whatever”.
Pullups I got 11-6-5-4 which is a total rep PR by 1 and the first set was a lot easier than last time.
OHP last time I got 90lbs for 12 so I tried 95lbs and got 9.
Single arm overhead cable tricep extensions are still progressing well. I’m at 20lbs for 12 reps first set and my triceps are definitely bigger/stronger.
I didn’t want to wait for the preacher curl station so I did barbell curls again and got 10 reps with 55lbs first set.
For lateral raises, I’ve been learning how to do them properly. I was up to 25lbs DB’s just swinging them around and using a lot of upper and mid traps. My delts got big but they stalled out. So I brought it back down all the way to NO weight and learned how to raise my arm with only my delt without moving the shoulder girdle which involves the traps. Way more feel in the delts and no feel in the traps. I did 10lbs DB’s for 10-15 reps for a few sets.
Nothing notable for neck curls or pinwheel curls. Although this morning I did notice my neck is looking different. It’s more defined in the front.
For my rear delts I tried that cross body dumbbell fly exercise and I like it. Going to have to play with it some to get it down but it might be a winner.
Steps: 3000
Thought Process: So, I think I’m still in a deficit. I feel good but my workouts are suffering and I think if I stay in this deficit then eventually my workouts will start regressing. Idk if I should push calories to maintain/progress performance or what.
I was thinking about it and I realized the 8oz of 93/7 beef I eat for lunch every day, I drain like 90% of the fat out of it. Since 8oz is supposed to have 16g fat, 16 * 0.10 is 1.6g fat so I’m missing out on 14 x 9 = 130 calories from that. But I don’t think just that is enough to put me in so much of a deficit that I’m losing performance like this. Maybe I just have an adaptive metabolism? Or it’s just faster than typical?
I am at a crossroads. Do I just eat by feel or do I force cals and hope my performance keeps going up?
Personal preference I’d say. You have to think about what is making you feel better. If your overall goal is performance you have to feed the machine, but if your goal is looks you need to eat accordingly and suffer the performance hit.
Workouts are looking good man, keep it up.
I am at a crossroads. Do I just eat by feel or do I force cals and hope my performance keeps going up?
I feel we may be straying from making the method the goal here.
Thanks man. I appreciate it
I weighed 161.4lbs this morning so I’m not in a deficit. Must be something else.
You are right
Diet changes take a bit of time to show up, and bodyweight can fluctuate quite a bit. It seems like you have to look at 7-10 day chunks to make any decisions.
If the average weight of the last 7 days is less than the average of the previous 7 days, you can be pretty sure you’re in a deficit. Shorter time periods are a lot harder to have any confidence about.
Something like 50-60% of the body is water, by weight. So anything that increases or decreases the amout of water your body is retaining can muck with scale weight. A day of slightly saltier food will increase it, alcohol and caffeine will decrease it, for example.
Yeah I have been fluctuating between 159 and 161.5 since I started this log. I am leaner and stronger at the same weight. I just feel sort of deflated recently. It could be my sleep
I got my sleep apnea test equipment in today so I will be taking it tonight. Let’s see what it says.
Since I’ve been speculating about having sleep apnea, I learned that sleeping on your side is best for sleep apnea so I tried sleeping on my side but I always woke up on my back in some crazy position. Sometimes I pull the blanket over my head, sometimes I’m almost all the way across the bed at a 45 degree angle. So last night I slept across my bed with my back up against the baseboard of my bed so I couldn’t roll over. I slept from 1am to 9:30am and then stayed in bed for another hour kind of awake/sleeping thinking about getting up. I woke up a few times due to a massive thunder storm in the middle of the night lol.
Today I am definitely better rested than normal. Getting out of bed I did not feel great but I just had this laser focus I never really have anymore. I usually just sit at my computer thinking about all the stuff I should be doing until it’s 6pm then I go to the gym, but today so far (it’s 2pm) I have gone grocery shopping and I’m about to be done doing my laundry then I’m going to go to the gym. And I actually remembered where I parked at the grocery store today (have been having issues with that for a little while now). I think I’ve run out of “extra” energy today but it was awesome while it lasted.
So maybe my ADHD symptoms are more sleep related than I previously thought.
The one problem with sleeping on my side is it hurts my shoulder and I don’t really find it comfortable. I like sleeping on my back. So when I take the sleep apnea test tonight I’m going to sleep on my back to get the score on how I sleep in that position since that’s how I want to sleep going forward.
I also stopped taking the DGL supplement for my stomach two nights ago to see how I feel without it. I’m pleasantly surprised that I haven’t notice much difference. I am definitely better off than before taking it. Although I suspect I am not fully healed yet and will probably start taking it again soon. We’ll see.