If you want, try starting with some stuff where you can really get a good cramp. Kayak rows are absolute murder for me, and then I can feel everything else the rest of the workout. Wide-grip Pulldowns work for me too, but apparently not everyone. Once I got the ability to flex like that, I could start my workout with Meadows Rows or something similar and get the same cramp.
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These?
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I also have less of a problem on vertical pulling day, but I struggle with rowing. Even when I go slow I tend to only feel my lat insertions. I felt the muscles working and fatiguing, it just wasn’t near as isolated as something as delts or pecs can be. My back is sore today (and yesterday) but it’s like a general achiness and fatigue instead of a localized DOMS feeling.
Yes sir. You can really press your lat down and hold it when you go to each side. It’s incredible how miserable that tiny movement can be.
And the difference between vertical and horizontal pulling probably just makes sense. Like you mentioned, you’re distributing the load across a huge area. Kind of like it’s harder to feel your quads when squatting vs. leg extension or even leg press.
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strong work JM!!!
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Bet now your glad you didn’t call it quits at 220. What do you thing your final number will be? I wonder if theirs a good calculator out their that could tell you what your weight would be scaled up or down. For example what would you weigh at 5’9” with your same body proportions?
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Dang… I like those. Wonder if alternating sides would be better or to do like 5 on one side and then five on the other, or all reps on one side and then on the other.
Yeah, you can just do a square/cube calculation. For identical proportions, for a given height change, the muscle and bone cross-section is the height change squared, and the mass is the height change cubed. For example, I’m 5’7" and JM is 6’4", so 76" vs 67". The ratio of his height to mine is 1.13. For us to have the same proportions he’d have to weigh 185# x(1.13)^3 185#x1.44 = 266#. Unfortunately his muscle cross-section would only be (1.13)^2 more = 1.27x more, which is why strength relative to body size generally goes down as you get bigger, and also why things like mythological giants are physically impossible and why large creatures like elephants have the physical structure they do.
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So, to go the other way, JM from 76" to 69" would be .91 ratio, so 211# x(.91)^3 = 211# x.75 = 159#.
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Thanks! Glad to see you back.
205 is where I’m calling it regardless of how I look. Maybe 207. 207 would be 30 lbs for the T-ransformation Challenge.
Weak But Painful Leg Circuit
3 ROUNDS
LEG PRESS CALVES
150 x 20
SMITH GLUTE BRIDGE
115 x 20
LEG EXTENSION
100 x 20
LYING LEG CURL
80 x 20
I underestimated how much this would torch my calves and hams.
ABS
CABLE TWIST
60 x 15 ea x 2 sets
STANDING CABLE CRUNCH
90 x 15
110 x 10
110 x 6 + 9 (messing with different grips)
AB WHEEL
2 x 10
_This workout had two purposes. 1) it gets me on track to do pull/push/legs/pull/push over the week. 2) I’ll feel better about eating pizza and drinking beer tonight.
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4.8.19
Woke at 210.4 lbs!
Well, folks, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I was 210 and change this morning! The bad news is that I’m calling this cut effective immediately. Well, that’s probably good news for me as well. The truth is that I’m developing an unhealthy relationship with food and my mental health is all sorts of jacked up. My brain is constantly “on” in regards to my body and food. I’m also way too aware of other people’s bodies. I’ll be at church singing along with the worship band and have thoughts like “That girl’s voice is amazing. It’s too bad she’s about 60 lbs overweight.” Like, what the hell is wrong with me?
Last night was date night with my wife and it wasn’t exactly a blast. We’re both in weird places right now. She’s way too consumed and stressed by her masters classes. She has one or two left and will be done in four weeks but she is so stressed about it that she can’t relax. She always has high anxiety and this is a bad time for her.
On top of that, she shared that my obsession with food is having a negative impact on her. She used to weigh and measure everything in college and I thought she’d left that behind. She just eats what she wants and never tracks anything. I’m jealous because I’m pretty sure that’s what normal people do. Well, my craziness is causing her to stress out about food and she’s feeling the urge to start obsessing about her food again. It’s not a healthy place for either of us.
So I’m calling an end to this madness. I’ve made great progress but I can’t answer this simple question: Why are you doing this?
My wife asked me last night, “What’s wrong with eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full (intuitive eating, which I bashed in the FF thread this week)? What’s wrong with carrying a little more fat? It doesn’t mean that you’re unhealthy.”
Well, she has a point. Life is a lot more fun when I can eat. I bumped into an acquaintance at the gym last week and during our conversation he said “We’re both dads. No one cares if we have a six pack.” He’s training for powerlifting meets and has accomplished quite a bit. He’s also not shaped like a bowling ball. He’s pretty jacked and has a respectable physique.
Now I’m not saying that I’m throwing in the towel and I’m just going to eat and grow like an average American. I’m just going to chill out for a while and see if I can maintain weight like a normal person. I’m going to try to limit my weigh-ins to once a week instead of every day. That will keep me from making drastic adjustments day to day. I eat well when I’m cutting. I just need to keep doing that even when I’m not instead of indulging all the time.
End of rambling. I’ll post my T-ransformation stats in a little bit.
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So here’s my measurements dating back to when this really all started. Around Halloween of 2017 I realized that I’d gained about 10 lbs of fat/water/fluff in about four days and it never went away. I decided to cut until my surgery. Surgery was December 2017 and I began my slow gaining phase immediately afterward. I continued to gain until Halloween of 2018 where I decided I’d had enough and was uncomfortable. I’ve officially been cutting since that time, but obviously my T-ransformation entry couldn’t start until January 1st.
So here are the numbers.
In addition to those, I decided to track quad, abdomen, and chest skinfolds starting in March per @jackolee’s log. I’ve only done this twice now but here’s that data.
3.19.19
Quad - 14
Abd - 8
Chest - 10
4.8.19
Quad - 12
Abd - 7
Chest - 8
And my next post will be the photos. I still need to do the cropping for the official Challenge entry and then I’ll do some side by sides for comparison.
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I find I do exactly the opposite. When I do less frequent weigh ins, I overreact far more.
Either way, I think you’ve achieved plenty in this transformation that if you want to call it now, you can still be very proud. Just don’t forget the after picture.
I don’t blame you, you’ve already exceeded the goal you set by a fair margin so you’re not giving up or anything. Doing something like this just to see what you can accomplish is fine, and you did it, but you definitely don’t want to turn it into a lifestyle. I’m going to stick my cut out until the 1st, but I also didn’t hit it as hard as you did.
It’ll be nice eating at maintenance, and not really obsessing over exactly what ‘maintenance’ is. enjoy!
Here’s the better AFTER pic. The relaxed front shot is lame.
There ya go! A photo gallery of the whole journey. What did I accomplish? Probably nothing, but I am a year and a half older, still look okay, and I was only 100% for about 12 weeks of this.
I’m not officially posting my after of for Yung challenge yet, but you can see I have it on there. Maybe I’ll look better in a month? Only one way to find out.
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It feels weird to be liking a gallery of a dude in his undies, so I’ll just comment.
If you can’t see a massive, and noticeable difference since October, I think you need to look again.
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I’ll add that, as far as the entire journey goes, you look both bigger and leaner now at 210, than you did in 2017 at 219.
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You look awesome, dude.
But it is absolutely your choice to maintain, and I think being attentive to your wife comes first. You can continue to recomp at this weight. Remember back in the day, when we talked about what a lean 210 looks like at 6’3-6’4? You’re there!
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By the way, your back looks bigger than it did at 249 lbs. No joke. 39 lbs lighter and your back has not lost width. That’s sweet.
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