Woke at 184.8 lbs, so yeah, vegetables. What little lower ab bloating there was is gone. Got a nice long sleep too.
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I went to canberra in winter once, on a school camp. I ended up getting sick by the second day its that cold!
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I was watching a video you posted on instagram recently (No homo). i think you may be getting calf gains. 
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Actually giving some thought to my warm-ups this time around, if only so there’s one less thing for me to think of on the day. It’s actually not thought as such, I’ll work up as I do in training, except I’ll treat my opener as my TM and ditch the in between pull aparts/pull-ups, etc.
Squat is easy: from bar to 264 lbs in 44 lbs x3-5, then wraps on up to 352 lbs in 44 lbs x1-3, then a single at 396 lbs. That means on Monday I’ll work up to 352 lbs in wraps for one to three.
Bench actually takes some calculation because my opener is 236 lbs. I’ll go from the bar to 110 lbs in 22 lbs x3-5, then 137 lbs for 3-5, 165 lbs and 192 lbs for 1-3 and a single at 214 lbs.
Deadlift is identical to squat, but extends to a single at 440 lbs and starts at 132 lbs.
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I hope so! I’m getting upwards of 600 reps a week in.
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Haha and heres you dedicated to calves, im that guy thats lazy and says “maybe il train calves today, there kinda small” then does 1 half assed set and calls it a day expecting gains lol .
I do 200 reps (half both feet, half single leg) every day I’m not in the gym.
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So far today
1x100 neutral toes calf raises on stairs full stretch, controlled eccentric, explode up and squeeze hard - another painful way of doing these. Learning that time stretching or squeezing during reps is effective for calves.
Single leg to come later.
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Single calf raises on stairs, 4x25 each leg constant tension (not fully stretched or squeezed).
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How do you decide when to increase weight for your assistance/side work for things like biceps or triceps, basically anything that isnt your main lift of the day? Like you did 3x15 44lbs with tricep push downs one day, 3x20 44lbs an earlier day, how or when do you decide to increase reps or weight there? Cause I’m assuming if you had wanted you could have pushed for more on your 3x15 day, yet you decided not too.
The same question goes for things like sumodeadlift and floor press. I’ll see you hit your main lift, then move to sumo deadlift 3x3 and you’ll list rpe at like 6,6,7 or something similar with floor press. How/why do you decide to stop at that point, or decide not to increase the weight, if by your own scale you had a decent amount left in you?
You had to specify that? It’s always implied here, so that’s kind of suspect.
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Well it is abit weird to just say “hey, ive been watching your instagram videos”
I dunno man…
Just kidding, I am just messing with.
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Haha had me going for a bit there.
@staystrong for stuff like bis and tris I’m not concerned in the slightest about the weight. All I want is to get a good pump and feel the muscle, so I pick a weight that lets me do that and I play with tempo and pauses and rest periods. Curls in particular are also therapeutic/prehab for my elbows, so I don’t often push weight there if I feel like my elbows are taxed by other things. If my elbows feel fine, I might play with variations that let me handle a bit more weight.
The backoff sets are a different matter. Those are generally kept at the load of my first work set (70% of my TM) and are a way to get in recoverable volume and/or work on weak points. For example, my weak point in sumo is off the floor, so doing paused reps in that position has been very beneficial. My bench sticking point is around where I start a floor press. If you look at the RPE rating for my sets, almost all of them are around 6 or 7; only my top sets and jokers go into the 8 to 10 bracket. I’m not a fan of pushing hard on every single work set, rather I use every set to work on technique and practicing the movement. The top set and jokers are the ones I push. Then my assistance is where I bust my arse.
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Woke at 185 lbs, everything much the same as yesterday. Off to get my BIA.
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BIA results are in. Weight around the same (within about three quarters of a pound), skeletal muscle mass down around one and three quarter pounds and bodyfat percentage up to 12.9% - although apparently that increase is due to the lower muscle mass and same bodyfat mass as last time. That kind of makes sense I guess.
I’m not overly concerned given the caliper measurements moved down overall, the mirror is much the same and my strength is doing OK. Definitely time to move to 2500 cal/day post meet, so today in a week. Next BIA I’ll be looking for increased muscle mass and same bodyfat.
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Had a look at my previous BIA, and it gives the lie to ‘your increased bodyfat percentage is due to decreased muscle mass’: it lists my bf mass as about one kilo (around two pounds) lower than today.
This is where I’m going to call a degree of BS. Here’s my reasoning:
- The mirror hasn’t changed beyond day to day minor fluctuations in the last six weeks. Key markers I’ve noticed like ab veins haven’t gone;
- Calipers have gone down in sum. The two increases were half and one millimetre respectively, and the lower back where fat tends to hang out hasn’t changed. Everything else went down; and
- All indications are that my strength, especially all kinds of pressing and squatting, is on the way back up.
To my mind (and correct me if I’m wrong) none of these point to any loss of muscle; while one would think that an added two-odd pounds of fat would do more than add a half and one millimetre in two different locations while seeing decreases in most others.
This doesn’t explain everything but what if
- You have high ish levels of body fat months ago which translate to higher estrogen levels and ‘worse’ fat partitioning.
- You lose body fat, therefore changes your hormone ratios (less estrogen).
- Fat is now being distributed more evenly across your body which results in lower calliper readings yet higher overall fat levels.
- Strength has not been negatively affected due to improved neural pathways/ higher general test levels and just being a beast with training.
The biggest hole in my theory is that you weren’t actually that fat to begin with and you were eating and training decently enough not to have typical fat man estrogen levels. But who knows!
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So with things like sumo and floor press, even though you’re using them to address a sticking point or weak point, you don’t really push yourself quite as far as you could if you wanted since they’re typically 6-7 RPE? Why is that? In my mind, I would take the viewpoint that if they were addressing a weak point, I would push those just as hard as the top set of your main lift. Not saying your wrong, just saying how I think and want to understand your reasoning. How does doing something and not necessarily pushing yourself on it lead to improving the main lift over time?
Also, if you’re going for the pump and blood flow for stuff like bis and tris, do you stop when you feel some pump or are you pushing yourself on the last set or so until you likely can’t do another rep? I’ve been doing Paul Carter’s 350 method lately for arm stuff and like it cause mentally I feel weird if I don’t take those sets until I can’t do another rep, but that doesn’t seem to be very common among people. Seems to be much more common to do 3x12 or 3x15 or whatever with the same weight and get all the reps in that way.