I wasn’t happy at 250. I was uncomfortable. It wasn’t just the lack of abs. I physically didn’t enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind gaining weight because I don’t care what the scale says. I care about how I look and feel.
My uniform at work tells me when I’m getting fat. I store it in my stomach and love handles first. My love handles will get pinched between my vest and gun belt when I’m too fat for my liking.
Haha that’s a great practical fat test! My comment was tongue in cheek but you do always say how hungry you are… I suppose life is a balancing act, not too hungry, not too small, not to big, Goldilocks!
I’m a skinny “probably” fat bastard, and whenever I eat to gain, it’s going the same place as your stores J. I can measure the same way you do.
At the moment I’m eating less in the weekdays dropping a bit of weight and eating a little bigger during weekends gaining a little.
I know. Everyone has seen my struggles. I’m 35 and been training consistently since I was 17 and I still think like a newb. I’ll want to cut to see my abs. I’ll swear off bulking. And then I get to the place I’m at now - I want to get a little bigger so I probably need to eat more.
Back and forth my mind goes…and the scale.
Seen your struggles but seeing your triumph now though! As long as you’re eating clean and gaining slowly/sensibly I’m sure you’ll get where you want (just got to remember how long the process is, as you mentioned!).
Think that newb mentality is still in most people’s minds (definitely still in mine) we all want it yesterday and think it should be achievable even if the overwhelming evidence shows us we aren’t going to get it within weeks/months, it’s the consistency over multiple years that matters.
Keen to see how your journey to beach muscles goes though as I’ve got a similar journey (minus the injuries) - tall guy who followed the legs and back matter most mantra whilst eschewing arms/chest/abs shoulders - thinking the big three will take care of it and then realising way too late that hey I actually do care about arms and not so much about massive legs (although I do appreciate my legs!)… So I’m in a similar spot to trying to get an upper body that looks decent (and trying to get a bigger big 3 - cos newb mentality I can do it all!!!)
It’s good to know I’m not the only one!
Have you read this? CT talks about his weight always being around 215 but looking different based on his training. He calls it muscle migration. The body can only develop so much muscle naturally, but the way you train can impact where it goes. I’m hoping he’s right!
Yes indeed, it has influenced my thinking in regards to training and trying to focus more on mirror muscles. I hope he’s right in a way but also hope I can just have it all and gain endlessly, everywhere! In all seriousness though I would happily lose a bit of the legs and have bigger arms, my trousers are always 2 waist sizes bigger than they need to be to accommodate my thighs.
ELLIPTICAL
15 minutes while watching John Meadows’ video on the perfect shoulder workout. I’ve seen it before but apparently I forgot everything because I didn’t implement any of it yesterday.
TREADMILL
12 minute incline walk while watching Meadows’ video on back training. I might make today a two a day and go do a back session later.
DEADLIFT
185 x 5
235 x 5
275 x 1
335 x 5 singles
I felt weak on my warm-up sets. My only food before this session was one green grape. Does that count as breaking my fast? I’m about to eat everything in the fridge.
On a different note, my wife’s cousin’s husband (is that a cousin in law?), Ben Heeney, will be playing MLB for the New York XFL team today at 2 pm ET. Hey, @flappinit, maybe they’ll turn out to be a winning team for you.
On to the food…
Oh, here’s a physique update. I think I’m lean enough for a maintenance phase. Screw cutting.
Fuck yeah. To the physique. If my only winning team is an XFL team then I’m just gonna become a hardcore curling fan and boycott all other sports forever.
Don’t cut. Pointless. I’d maintain/gain throughout 2020 and see what you look like with a 2021 90-120 day moderate cut.
You’d be wasting progress if you cut at this point. Feed the injury repairs as well.
My brain pattern exactly! We want the size but not the fat. Just keep pushing my friend.
So I was thinking that I’m not ready for a dedicated shoulder day, but maybe I just set it up wrong. The Meadows video only had one pressing movement and it was a high incline Smith press. I can do that pain free and he even emphasized stopping before the elbows get too low to save the shoulders.
Shoulder day would be reverse fly, heavy partial lat raises (contrary to PC), cable lat raises, and the high incline press.
The trick is balancing overall weekly work. I was thinking about doing DB OHP on my push days. That’d be three days a week of shoulder work. It would actually be less volume than doing the complete shoulder day twice a week.
Thoughts from my fellow bros who always correct me when I’m thinking about doing something stupid?
Bingo. The only reason I was loosely trying to cut is the T-ransformation Challenge. Stupid.
I think it gets the job done all the same. Only perk to dedicated shoulder day would be the ability to really fo us on different areas of the delt. Adding it into push days should be fine for your goals.
Just take your time building up. 3 days of any amount shoulder work seems like overkill, especially for you in your recovery.
Yeah take it easy J.
Slow and steady for the win.
I’m not sure if it’s more work. It’s just spread out differently. I think I’ll stick to push/pull. I’ll do the high incline Smith press on both push days. I’ll do the heavy partial raises on one day and cable lat raises on the other. The reverse fly’s for rear delts will be done on both pull days.
I didn’t like my shoulder session yesterday but it was mostly pressing. The high incline feels a lot better than a true OHP so I think that’s the right call.
Overall, this cuts out two chest exercises that I would’ve added on push days if I had a dedicated shoulder day. That’s probably a good thing.
Thanks, guys!
I swear your arms and chest have grown
Don’t do the heavy partial lateral raises.
I really don’t mind them, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing with PC, I just think you can stimulate the side delts just as much without them, and that your particular shoulder situation means that that’s a poor risk to reward ratio. Just do cable lat raises and some regular lat raises. Or do the lateral raises lying sideways on an incline bench like we’ve talked about before.
Also you look solid, dude. You might have confidence in growing a big upper body because you already have one.
And yeah, I’ll throw it in for us for the millionth time, you’re tall too, so it’s even more impressive.
My arms barely change but my chest measurement is within two inches of what it was when I weighed 250. I’m 30 lbs lighter and barely smaller there so that’s a win. [quote=“flappinit, post:6984, topic:228202”]
Don’t do the heavy partial lateral raises.
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I’m torn on these (not literally). If I do them after hitting failure on lat raises then they smoke my delts. It’s part of doing raises until you can’t raise your arms anymore.
Maybe I’ll go back to lat raises with DBs and a band.
