strong Achilles tendon lol
3/10/13 Legs/calves
Lying Hamstring Curls: 15, 12, 10, 8, 50 (w/ half weight of 8 set)
2d Smith Machine Stiff-Legs: 3x20x2pps (ouch!)
Reverse Hack/Power Squats: 8x1pps, 8x2pps, 8x3pps, 8x4pps, 8x5pps, 8x5.5pps, then 8/8/30 drop w/ 6pps/4pps/2pps (narrow and deep on 30 rp burnout)
Smith Machine Lunges: 4x10x1pps
Leg Extensions: 2x50 (2nd set needed a few rest-pauses around 30 and 40 mark)
Hack Machine Calf Raises: 2x20x2pps, 2x30x1pps
Cardio: 30 min incline treadmill
Lower ab veins are really starting to come through, even without being tan. Curious to see how Shelby handles the next week or so.
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
3/9/13 Off
Cardio: 30 min fasted morning walk
Bodyweight 177.0 v. 176.8 5 days ago…
SERIOUSLY considering dropping Shelby. In my time with him so far:
- Physique hasn’t changed (I’d actually argue I’ve lost detail!)
- Weight hasn’t really dropped
- Carbs have been cut in half
- Cardio has gone from zero to nearly 4 hours a week.
Obviously in a bind here, because he’s got the street cred. I just don’t think he knows what to do with a natty at my stage of leanness. He’s approaching this all like I’m on gear I believe. [/quote]
How are your “perceived” stress levels? Sometimes chronically elevated cortisol levels “hide” fat loss progress due to excessive water retention. The stress can occur due to increased cardio + tighter diet alone.
3/11/13 Chest/delts
Pec Dec: ramping sets of 10, 1 sec hard squeeze until I hit full deck for 2 sets
DB Press: 15x70, 12x80, 10x90, 11x100 (pretty sure spotter helped me a little on last 3)
WG BB Incline: no touch, no lockout…1x15x135, 2x15x155, 1x14x155
Machine Lateral Raises: 4x12
DB Partial lateral raises: 30x50, 30x40, 2x30x30
Incline Bench Rear delt flyes: 6x15, 30 sec rest
HS Shoulder Press: 2x20
Cardio: 30 min evening walk
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
3/9/13 Off
Cardio: 30 min fasted morning walk
Bodyweight 177.0 v. 176.8 5 days ago…
SERIOUSLY considering dropping Shelby. In my time with him so far:
- Physique hasn’t changed (I’d actually argue I’ve lost detail!)
- Weight hasn’t really dropped
- Carbs have been cut in half
- Cardio has gone from zero to nearly 4 hours a week.
Obviously in a bind here, because he’s got the street cred. I just don’t think he knows what to do with a natty at my stage of leanness. He’s approaching this all like I’m on gear I believe. [/quote]
How are your “perceived” stress levels? Sometimes chronically elevated cortisol levels “hide” fat loss progress due to excessive water retention. The stress can occur due to increased cardio + tighter diet alone.[/quote]
Stress was pretty high the last week, but I still don’t think that changes the fact that I haven’t seen much progress in a month now. I’m gonna give it one more week before I make any big decisions.
[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
Lower ab veins are really starting to come through, even without being tan. Curious to see how Shelby handles the next week or so. [/quote]
Yea, when I asked him about it he said I’m more or less supposed to look like crap being flat during this part of the prep. I’d be on board with that and all if I actually saw the scale moving…that’s what’s worrying me though. I’m certainly not recomping on such low carbs, so my body’s basically fighting and holding onto as much water as it can.
3/12/13 Back
HS Dante Rows: 4x10 (lower lat emphasis)
Deadstop DB Rows: 2x12x130
Conventional DB Rows: 12x90, 12x100 (nazi strict form here)
Meadows stretchers: 4x10
Superset
HS CS Rows: 3x12x2pps (high elbows for rhomboid emphasis)
HS Shrugs 3 sec squeeze: 3x12x2pps 25s
Cardio: 30 min morning fasted walk
3/13/13 Arms
Supersets
HS Preacher Curls: 4x8
DB Curls: 4x8
Rope Pushdowns: 4x8
EZ Bar Skullcrushers: 4x8
EZ Bar Curls: 4x10
DB Hammer Curls: 4x10
Upright Dips (no lockout): 1x40, 1x35, 1x24(failure here)
Cardio: 30 min fasted morning walk
Nice tricep mass in the front double bi.
Maybe I missed this earlier, but what is your current deadline RE: leaning out? At what point are you going to transition to another gaining phase?
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
Nice tricep mass in the front double bi.
Maybe I missed this earlier, but what is your current deadline RE: leaning out? At what point are you going to transition to another gaining phase?[/quote]
Show’s April 20, after which I will be in perpetual maintenance mode…maybe get back up to 190. I’m happy with how I look and will be ready to start a professional career.
Have you been as blunt to Shelby about your concerns as you were in your post?
[quote]coyotegal wrote:
Have you been as blunt to Shelby about your concerns as you were in your post? [/quote]
Let’s see, this is the email I sent to him:
"when one depletes during this phase of a contest prep is it normal to feel like you “look worse” only to have things pick up later. I can’t help but feel I’m looking softer each week and it’s starting to mess with my head. "
He just replied with a yes basically. I should look flat.
I’ve also told him with picture updates that my mood is “rotten” and I have “no energy,” and he never acknowledges it.
We’ll see what happens with my next weigh in on Saturday.
3/14/13 Off
Cardio: 30 min fasted morning walk
3/16/13 Legs/calves
Lying Hamstring curls: 3x10, then 10+10+10+20 partials drop
Leg Press 3-sec negative: 15x6pps, 12x7pps, 10x8pps, 8x9pps
Hack Squat: 8x2pps, 8x2.5pps, 8x3pps, 8x3.5pps, then 15/8/8/8/20 drop w/ 4pps/3pps/2pps/1pps/0pps (sissy style on 0)
DB Stiff-legs: 4x15x60s (got advice from zraw to drop down in weight and try to make the 60s feel heavy…I was successful.)
Seated Calf Raises: ramping 1 plate at a time, sets of 12, think I hit like 7 or 8, 30 sec rest
Cardio: 30 min fasted morning
**Started EC stack today. Felt goooooood, LOTS of energy despite no carbs.
A quick note about the lack of weight-loss. Its not that uncommon to find that scale weight can stall pretty bad for dieting, or for you to actually even gain weight periodically despite being in an energy deficit, but usually this precedes a drop. Its like one step back, two steps forward.
Various people have hypothesized about it (this is not a proven fact) and I think that Lyle McDonald wrote an article about it on his website. The theory is that the energetic component of the fat cell gets mobilized and used as fuel during the diet, but that fluid takes up that cellular space briefly, causing you to look squishy and a little blurry. You then find though that at one point, the fluid gets excreted and your weight drops quite dramatically and your appearance improves
Visible progress is hardly ever always linear.
[quote]Dave Rogerson wrote:
A quick note about the lack of weight-loss. Its not that uncommon to find that scale weight can stall pretty bad for dieting, or for you to actually even gain weight periodically despite being in an energy deficit, but usually this precedes a drop. Its like one step back, two steps forward.
Various people have hypothesized about it (this is not a proven fact) and I think that Lyle McDonald wrote an article about it on his website. The theory is that the energetic component of the fat cell gets mobilized and used as fuel during the diet, but that fluid takes up that cellular space briefly, causing you to look squishy and a little blurry. You then find though that at one point, the fluid gets excreted and your weight drops quite dramatically and your appearance improves
Visible progress is hardly ever always linear.[/quote]
Thanks for writing that up. The thing is, it hasn’t happened to me since I started this journey at 235! It’s been dropping most weeks, and never stalling all that long when it did. And it of course wasn’t linear.
