Hit a fucking wall around two hours ago. I think my new work trousers are looser too. No bad thing. Looking forward to squatting tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll sleep well, but I think I will.
1 Like
Your work capacity has gone up! Loosing weight has so many benefits! 'Hit a wall you mean your energy levels @MarkKO?
1 Like
Holy hell I am tired! Feeling hot and sort of trembly, which is my body’s hallmark of being exhausted. Not sure why. I think it could be that I’m a bit unused to training early morning and then working, combined with the last two weeks at work being busy and mostly devoid of sitting. Add to that waking up a ton last night, so what with one thing and another…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine. Just noticeably tired. I should sleep like a log tonight.
1 Like
Just at work, got all sleepy and didn’t want a bar of it. I don’t mind early rising, but I don’t like early morning training anywhere near as much as mid morning or mid afternoon.
Yeah, it’s funny with the work capacity. I don’t think I notice it much except at odd moments here and there, like realising high rep squat sets feel kind of normal; or being able to take shorter breaks between sets.
Honestly, though @Irishman92 if you and @stronkfak hadn’t mentioned it in the past couple of your posts I wouldn’t even have thought of it.
2 Likes
Woke at 185.2 lbs, which I pretty much expected. Looking normal apart from slight bloating around lower abs. Feeling better after an improved sleep.
1 Like
Today’s training
Lazy lifter plus shoulders
Squat
TM is 440 lbs
Work up from bar in 44 lbs in 3-5 to 60%, 10 band facepulls between sets
3x308 lbs, under 6 RPE
2x352 lbs, under 6 RPE
1x396 lbs, under 6 RPE
3x440 lbs, 9 RPE - first rep felt similar to 396 lbs, then got quickly much heavier
2x440 lbs, 9-10 RPE
3x8x308 lbs, under 6 to 6 RPE, open belt and lower bar with short rests
50 walking lunges - quad veins popping by the end
DB RDLs with 65 lbs per hand: 15, 15, 20 - getting a feel for how to so these
Supersetted abs/shoulders
Shins to be with slings/22 lbs plate raises: 8/20, 7/20, 7/20
Incline treadmill walk 15 minutes at 15 incline and 5 km/hr
In and out in two hours without rushing.
4 Likes
Going to go a bit over my calorie budget today (about 130 cal): family dinner at Raiders and they only do 300 g steaks. Given how absolutely ravenous I was last night and after training today I think it’s a calculated risk that could actually pay off.
EDIT call it 360ish extra calories. Fiancee only ate half her steak so I ended up wolfing that down too. Not sure where this hunger came from, started last night when I got home and hasn’t stopped. I don’t remember being this hungry in a long, long time.
Meh. Obsessive me is quietly freaking out about the extra calories and doubting my willpower and ability to stay lean. Normal me is enjoying not being hungry and understands this is, at most, a small lapse.
3 Likes
Here are the week’s highlights
7 Likes
Beautiful
That’s what lifting should look like, efficient and not awkward
2 Likes
Thank you.
Training Maximally is genius. I’m very, very happy I switched to it. Squat and DL TM is arguably a trifle high, but nothing terrible.
3 Likes
You really love 5/3/1 in all of it’s forms, don’t you?
Personally I do love max effort lifting (even though I’m into bodybuilding at the moment) and I’ve seen really great strength increases with myself and others when it is prescribed correctly
I guess I do, but only how I’ve implemented it. I’m a fan of the versatility and simplicity of the base program. Some of the newer iterations I’m less enamoured of, for me at least. Too broad in focus.
Training Maximally is not just a nice change, but I think for me a more sustainable system. The volume is there, but after the heavy work as opposed to mandatory heavier volume per set. I think it’s 5/3/1 stripped down to bare principles and with absolute responsibility on the practitioner to execute. That makes me use my brain effectively: rather than focusing on executing 5/3/1 as intended, I have to figure out how to execute 5/3/1 principles optimally for me.
The max effort side I like, but I have to monitor myself closely or I end up maxing for its own sake. With working up to a TM I feel out whether going above is a good idea or not.
1 Like
This here is gold
The program should be adjusted to fit the needs of the trainee, a trainee should not be forced to fit a program, so to say
1 Like
Just curious after following your log for a bit: how long in your training career have you been tracking RPE and have you found that including such info in your log has been of noticeable benefit? What other details in your log do you feel maximize the benefit of tracking RPE? I assume recovery aspects, such as sleep.
I just started tracking workouts for the first time, so still tweaking how/what I log. Cheers!
2 Likes
@lil.greggy good question. I think I’ve been tracking RPE for a little over a year now. It’s habit to track it now, but I’m still undecided whether it has much value or not to be honest. I think above eight RPE is probably beneficial. Under eight and I find it harder to really value. For example, if I can get three more reps (7 RPE) what’s to say I can’t get four or five more? Different if I know I’m good for two. Then maybe I can get three, but even that isn’t a given.
I have a suspicion I’m using it wrongly. Here’s how I really think of the scale
10 - absolute max effort
9-10 - just maybe I could get another, but unlikely enough I didn’t want to risk it
9 - could probably get another but risks ending up a 10
8-9 - could get another for sure, maybe even two
8 - two more for sure
7-8 - two more, possibly three
7 - three more. Probably.
6-7 - three more for sure, maybe four
6 - four more. Probably five if I really wanted
Under 6 - anywhere between another five and another 15 to 20, the only determinant being how hard I’m willing to push
4 Likes
Ah, I gotchya. Yeah, I really didn’t know much about the scale, and it’s a subjective measurement, so I think your interpretation of it is as useful as any. I agree that anything below of 8 would not have as much utility because the subjectiveness of it increases; the earlier we avoid failure, the less we know of just how far we could have gone.
I think I may start to include it in my log for my sets of heavy singles/doubles/triples. I think it could be useful for me since I am trying to avoid maxing out/flirting with failure but still focusing on strength. Thanks for the insight!
1 Like
…basically a body builder haha
You’re RPE scale I think is pretty on point as far as usefulness, I’ve been trying to figure it out lately as it just kind of seemed to sneak up on me out of nowhere (one day I hadn’t heard of it, then it was everywhere) I think it could effectively be used (at least in my case) to spot trends, if a person is consistently feeling like they have 2-3 in the tank (RPE 7-8) after they rack the bar then maybe it can be used to spot confidence issues and address them (mostly thinking out loud). Appreciate the RPE breakdown, it was a good one, makes sense.
1 Like
You’ll survive, buddy. In the past week or two I’ve gone over 4000 calories multiple times. Usually I see an increase on the scale the following morning. This past week I did it and to my surprise, the scale actually dropped to it’s lowest two days later. Overfeeding occasionally tends to ramp up the metabolism and sometimes continues to burn even after it’s burned up what you ate. In the end you actually come out ahead of where you started. Again, this is the occasional overfeeding… not every other night like I’ve been doing.
2 Likes
Woke at 184.6 lbs and looking arguably slightly better than yesterday. Feeling decent too. Seeme like @Frank_C is quite correct.
1 Like
This. I did a refeed this week because I was flat out hungry, today I woke up at 181 and 12.6% - down about two from my average.
Auto regulation!
1 Like