Pull-ups aren’t even on my Monday workout! It just seems right to work the same plane when I can (i. e. Pull-ups and OHP).
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They’re a perfect combo!
12.12.17
Woke at 220.6 lbs.
Yesterday’s Nutrition
2907 calories, 359g carbs, 87g fat, 175 protein.
Ab Circuit
45 Degree Back Extension
BW x 20 x 3
Roman Chair Hanging Leg Raise
BW x 10 x 3
Farmer’s Walk
125s x 38 steps
125s x 30 steps
125s x 34 steps (hook grip)
125s x 24 steps (hook grip)
after circuit
Smith Suitcase Hold
105 x 30 sec ea x 2
Basketball
Attempted to play ball today but about four minutes into the first game I was paged to the Kid Zone and that was it. I did a half-assed job of shooting around for at least 30 minutes.
I am out of shape. Moving fast is hard and I can barely dunk. PATHETIC.
2 Likes
Hey man, at least you can dunk!
1 Like
12.13.17
Woke at 219.0 lbs which was a shock after two days in a row of going over my calories including drinking eight ounces of rum last night (yes, I’m so obsessive that I measure my booze).
Yesterday’s Nutrition
2836 calories, 213g carbs, 77g fat, 193g protein.
I’m excited to lift later! It’s strange. I find myself a little disappointed that I don’t get to lift on Tuesdays but this total body program is going pretty well. The reason for this split is to get in the most work possible around my work schedule. It’s also giving me more frequency. I can’t really tell if I’ve improved anything in terms of size or strength since I’ve been cutting but I guess I can say the program is helping me achieve my current goal. Hopefully I remember to take measurements next week before surgery.
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Training
Warm-Up
2 lap dynamic warm-up and 2 laps of running progressively faster on the straightaways while walking the curves for rest.
Power Clean
It occurred to me that I should just do my 5/3/1 reps on power cleans as part of my deadlift warm-up.
135 x 5
165 x 5
185 x 3
205 x 1
all hook grip
Deadlift
225 x 5
265 x 5
300 x 3
335 x 13
Underhand Pull-Down
180 x 10 x 5 sets
superset with
Seated DB OHP
50 x 10 x 4 sets
I’ve decided to stop at four sets so my pulling outweighs my pushing
Squat
160 x 5
185 x 5
210 x 5
Reverse Cable Fly
40 x 10
40 x 8
40 x 6
20 x 10F/10T/10B for a fun finisher
superset with
Lying Machine Crunch
155 x 10 x 3 sets
80 x 10F/10T/10B
Rope Press-Down
140 x 10 x 2 sets
90 x 10F/10B/10T
Back to the Track for Conditioning
Run 1 lap (1/6 mile) in 60 seconds or less with 2 minutes rest between
:60, :54, :52 (had to beat the previous time)
Last week I mentioned being worried about leg volume but I’ve realized it was an off week for my conditioning. I make up for lack of lifting leg volume with my conditioning (on good weeks). I’ll probably keep everything the way it is after surgery with a few minor tweaks to the program.
- Add 1 set of 15 on RDL’s on Mondays and Fridays
- Add Pull-Downs to Monday and superset with OHP (really just making it official)
- I’m considering adding a pec deck finisher and supersetting with reverse fly on Wednesdays because I have no chest movements (which isn’t the end of the world)
- Make power cleans part of my deadlift warm-up permanently.
I have now officially adopted the Full Boring program from Beyond 5/3/1 (for the most part). It’s a full body program where I do 5/3/1 for Power Cleans and Squats on Mondays, Deadlift on Wednesdays, and Bench on Fridays. I’ve removed OHP as a main lift. The Full Boring part is where you do the week 1, 2, or 3 reps on the non 5/3/1 days. For squats I do whichever week I want (5’s, 3’s, or 5/3/1) without any extra reps on the two non-squat days. I’ve added the same approach for power cleans on Wednesdays and Deadlifts on Fridays. In case I’ve confused you all…
- Monday:
Power Clean 5/3/1, Squat 5/3/1 - Wednesday:
Power Clean (pick weight and reps from 5’s, 3’s, or 5/3/1 week)
Deadlift 5/3/1 - Friday
Deadlift (pick weight and reps from 5’s, 3’s, or 5/3/1 week)
Squat (same as Deads)
Bench 5/3/1
Obviously there’s more assistance exercises than that because I’m obsessed with volume but that’s the approach for my four main lifts.
Thanks for staying with me!
4 Likes
Here’s my 1+ set for the day. The video makes it look like I quit early but I was ready to be done at #8. 13 is one of my two favorite numbers so it seemed like a good place to stop.
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crap! My favorite number is 24
That does not bode well for me on squat day Friday 
Nice 1+ set man; Smooth and strong
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31 is my number. I followed in my big brother’s footsteps in sports. I asked for 13 but our Athletic Director was superstitious and wouldn’t order 13 for any sport lol.
I took 13 when we started playing basketball together in recent leagues.
That doesn’t help you much… 42 is worse.
I plan to use the same weights when I return from surgery but I’m not a fan of these 10+ rep sets. I’ll be happy when my 1+ Day results in 5-8 reps…but I guess that means I’ll still be over 10 on my 5+ day.
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking I want to be at for my next cycle. We’ll see if I get the numbers right for that. Next week is deload and then start cycle 2.
I could do multiples of 24; 12 would be awesome.
1 Like
You’re Kicking ass at the moment brother, i like it
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Thanks! Trying to catch up to guys like you with my leg strength. My deadlifts are acceptable but I’m not sure what happened to my squats lol!
Trying to go into surgery like a boss!
1 Like
dude, you’ve got legs that let you hunt geese with a rake!
LONG AS HELL, you are.
Squatting is always going to be a challenge I would imagine.
By comparison, I bet I have half the distance to travel on my squats (and you’re still kicking my ass)
2 Likes
LOL!!! That’s a nice explanation. Hell, I’m just comparing myself to… well, myself. I read the 100 day squat challenge article or one of those “squat everyday” articles and tried it out on my terms. I squatted every day that I lifted, which was Mon,Wed,Thurs,Sat. I used different percentages each day but tried 102% of my 1RM every week.
I think I ran CT’s The Complete Power Look Program prior to this and had my squat up to 335 lbs after maxing on Power Cleans. I got up to 365 lbs during my squat every day adventure but ended up shutting it down due to neural fatigue. I was failing at 90 and 92% of my 1RM on the days where I was supposed to try for a new max. I did that several times in a row so I called it a program and moved on to something else.
I think (I’d have to review my training log… and it was stolen) I decided to focus on front squats for a while to help my power clean. The squat has gone downhill since then.
12.14.17
Woke at 219.8 lbs
Yesterday’s Nutrition
2682 calories, 300g carbs, 93g fat, 164g protein.
My goal for fat is 63g per day with my current macro breakdown. I can’t ever stay at or under that number. Avoiding chicken means red meat and eggs for protein. And guess what, those come with lots of fat. I haven’t eaten a PB&J in like a week because of this. I was enjoying one every morning until recently. Stupid fat calories.
I’m definitely not going to hit my goal weight before the end of the year but I’ll be close. There’s nothing saying that I have to stop cutting just because the calendar says January 1 and the T-ransformation challenge officially begins. I’m debating on submitting next week’s photos as my “before” or waiting until January 1st. I think I’ll look even more pathetic by the 1st because I’ll be less than two weeks post-op with no leg training and very little upper body training during that time. Next week’s photos would be a better representation of “me” but my post-op photo might look pathetic enough to give me a chance at a slight transformation lol.
I missed this. Why are you avoiding chicken?
It started with my cholesterol and at about the same time I watched a stupid documentary about mass meat production in the US. From a moral standpoint, I feel a little guilty about how the animals are treated. I’m a Christian and believe that God created the animals so we could eat them; however, we shouldn’t abuse them leading up to that point.
I buy a quarter beef every year from a family friend and have a co-worker who raises hogs. I have no problem buying that stuff because I know it’s treated decently.
This actually started when I had my annual physical and my cholesterol was 220. My HDL was good and my ratios were good but the overall number was high. In 2016 my cholesterol was in the 170s. I cut out chicken and significantly reduced my egg consumption from June til now. I just had my cholesterol checked again and it’s in the 170’s!
The only changes from 2016 to to 2017 was increased chicken consumption. The only changes since June is reduced chicken consumption. Coincidence?
I still eat chicken occasionally but I stopped buying 10lbs per week. Wish I could find some locally raised chicken but I just don’t think I’m going to find someone to provide 2-3 chickens per week for a reasonable price
To make up for the lack of chicken I’ve been drinking three to four times more protein shakes to get my protein. That kind of sucks but I haven’t found another good alternative yet.
I will be eating at Chick-Fil-A for lunch today.
yeah, probably good deductive reasoning there.
I have always had high cholesterol and while everyone else (wife, doctor) worries about it, I don’t too much.
Maybe I’m putting my head in the sand to some extent but my dad has always had high chol too and I know there is a genetic predisposition to that. I eat a lot of eggs when I am training like I am now and I eat a lot of red meat.
I’ve been trying to eat more tuna and fish in general but of course there is the mercury issue with canned tuna - UGH!
Anyway, glad to hear you’ve got yours down to 170.
Mine is at 234 with HDL at 52 so my ratio ends up in range but both total and LDL are high.
You just can’t win these days with all the nutrition info/scare tactics out there. If I listened to ALL the reports, I would never be able to eat anything because based on some report somewhere, everything is going to kill you.
I do worry about it to some extent and I was on meds for a while a long time ago that controlled the cholesterol but I am not a good patient and don’t always take my meds.
I guess I still have some of that naive Jarhead invincibility in my head and being a Christian myself I feel like when God calls me home, it’s my time no matter what I’ve been eating.
The funny thing with mine is that the doctor told me that diet could impact cholesterol by about 10%. Well mine appears to have impacted mine (both positively and negatively) by much more than that. The doctor said your body produces most of your cholesterol and the bigger you are, the more you might produce (hence, obese people with high cholesterol).
But I’m not convinced. My own numbers don’t align with her statements and I find it hard to believe that obese people don’t have high cholesterol from their diet. I could be convinced that the body produces more in obese people so in theory it’s not a dietary factor, but I’m not sold yet.
12.15.17
Woke at 218.6 lbs. Cracked the 219 barrier. I bet I can be 215 in a week or two especially with surgery putting me on the sidelines. I’m hoping the pain meds will squash my appetite for a few days because I tend to be bored and just want to eat when I sit around all day. I also crave bad foods… like pizza.
Yesterday’s Nutrition
2260 calories, 211g carbs, 71g fat, 210g protein (thanks to four scoops of protein powder throughout the day)
I’ll be finishing up my training week at home after work tonight.