Yer 100 over you bloody slacker !!
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Everyone knows; a hundred calories today = 10 pounds tomorrow. I’m deeply appalled
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I cannot confidently say that I have EVER been within 100cals of a calorie goal. So good on ya.
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Woke at 190.3 lbs. Looking normal. Traps still sore.
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Last day of this cycle. New shorts from Ironville arrived today, which is cool.
Today’s training
Lazy lifter plus shoulders
Squat
TM is 396 lbs
Work up from bar in 44 lbs x3-5 to 60%, 10 facepulls between sets
3x275 lbs, under 6 RPE, open belt
3x319 lbs, under 6 RPE
1x357 lbs, under 6 rpe
8x396 lbs, 7-8 RPE - lost concentration around rep five, and lost count so I was slightly cheered up when I saw I’d hit eight instead of seven. Absolutely no valid reason not have gotten 10 by the bar speed, just lost my head.
Calculated my estimated max based on that, which is 500 lbs. That means 396 lbs is effectively 80%, so I decided to hit 90% of my estimated max
2x440 lbs, 9 RPE - all things considered not bad, especially since I started the first rep with a too slow descent. Cranked my head back on two and was a bit too upright but all up I’m not disappointed.
Close stance 3x8x275 lbs, open belt and short rests, all under 6 RPE
50 cm bodyweight step-ups 2x25, no rest
90 degree back raise to GHR 20, 15, 15 - hamstring brutality
Abs/shoulders
Lateral raises 3x15x25 lbs
Decline sit-ups 3x15 - probably add a bit of weight on chest next cycle
Calves
Leg press dropset
6 platesx30
5 platesx15
4 platesx15
3 platesx25
2 platesx25
1 platex30
Sledx40
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Finally figured out how to sort my video storage on my phone out.
All that I’ve got is today’s squatting
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I think recently (ish) you started pushing the hips backwards before the descent on your singles. For the reps it looks like you maintain this position.
Why? How? etc?
I feel like this might be something that could help me with butt wink and/or knee pain.
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Why: it works better, letting me use my glutes, hams and hips more and because when I was more upright my squat was a shitshow
How: unrack, squeeze your glutes to get hips under the bar as usual, walk out, let bar settle. Take air, squeeze glutes again and then push your hips back with locked knees. Pretty much reach back with your butt rather than pushing it out - the best description of the difference I’ve heard is be a powerlifter, not a stripper. You’ll feel a bit shaky but keep your abs and glutes locked in and you’ll be fine. Hold that position and push your knees out and go down. Coming back up, lock out and extend your hips fully though, then reset each rep.
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OK, cycle done.
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Briefs: uncomfortable AF but work well so far. They should work even better for squats although I’m not looking forward to how much they cut my hips up.
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TMs seem to be pretty much bang on, so will go up as per normal.
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following on from that, rep targets will stay the same at 10 by week three of next cycle, but initial goal will be to hit the best numbers from this cycle. So, bench 7, DL 10, CGBP 6 and squat 8.
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everything else in terms of supplemental and assistance work stays as I set out before.
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only thing I might consider adding is some trap bar or farmer carries on one of the weeks on Wednesday.
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Trap bar carries make me moist
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I wonder how that works 
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Did you just assume my gender? 
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You are a very consistent logger. Much respect. I hope to keep doing it like you do.
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No technique adjustment gets past Mark’s fans!
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Bhahaha I nearly spat put my Subway reading that lmao
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Woke at 189.9 lbs, looking decent. Seems like the 190ish mark is where things have normalised, which happened really fast. Coincides with increased veggie intake though, so possibly it isn’t normalised.
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Watching yesterday’s squats I think I was too upright. Belt was tighter than usual, so possibly that was the cause; or I could just have been sloppy. Will watch that next week.
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You are a hell of a squatter Mark.
Regarding still too upright, I don’t know about that. You may just be a vertical squatter. Nothing adherently wrong with that. However, RIP would tell you to point your nipples at the floor.
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Thanks man.
I’m not a super leaner, but yesterday I was a degree or two more upright than is optimal. Nothing major, but I need to keep track of that before I creep into bad habits.
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Warnng: this is probably TMI and not strictly training related. Anyhow.
I’ve had a rough couple of weeks. In my typical fashion, I’m fairly sure most of it was of my own making, which is what this is all about anyway. It gets a bit convoluted. I took a bunch of time off work (OK, like six days in total but I count that as a bunch) over this time. First bunch was because I was on nights, and I could see how tough it was on my fiancee - she doesn’t deal well with being on her own and munchkin was at his other house - and I didn’t feel right leaving her on her own. I actually didn’t feel so bad about that, because it’s a sort of valid reason, although I could have told her to suck it up. Well, theoretically. I don’t think I’d have liked how I felt doing that. I worked three straight months of nights a while back and it almost broke us. Second bunch was different, and is the one that’s bugging me. I was on afternoons (three to eleven pm), and it fell so that it was our short week with munchkin and I knew I’d only see him for an hour or so in the morning for all but one day. I feel like a weak pos saying this, but that made me feeling like I was breaking inside. So I pulled the pin on three shifts. Just to spend time with my family.
Then things really got interesting. The combination of being pissed at not seeing my stepson much and being ashamed of myself for doing something about that put me in a real spiral. All I wanted to do when I was done training and waiting for daycare to be done was sleep so I’d be unconscious. In fact, a bunch of the time that thought was kicking around at the back of my head that it would be so much easier to black out because I wouldn’t have to deal with how I was feeling. I can’t remember if it’s happened before, but for what I think is the first time I realised why people take drugs: to just black out. Hell, why people do anything to just not feel.
Anyway, I went to work today so that’s a plus. I guess.
This is what’s really irking me, though. I’ve always prided myself on being a hard worker, consistent and reliable. This is the first job I’ve had where I’ve pulled the pin so often, and I’m pissed at myself because I’m taking advatange of my conditions. Nothing I’ve done is in any way not allowed. My enterprise agreement gives me that facility. What pisses me off is that it feels like all that consistency and reliability I displayed before were just because I had to do that, I didn’t have any other option. So now I have the option I feel weak.
That’s the bit that twists the knife. I KNOW I’m consistent and reliable with my training, and I make it work no matter what. My results reflect this, and I’m damn proud of that. I’m also a decent parent and husband to be (OK, well, I’m going to guess I am based on the feedback received). But take those two things away and I’m pretty pathetic in some ways. Or it feels like that.
When it matters to me - family, training, and I think they’re on the same level or almost if I’m honest - there isn’t much that stops me and I do what is necessary pretty much regardless. When it comes to other matters and I have an option to take the easy way, though? Apparently I’ll take full advantage of that.
Is all of this an element of the depression I was diagnosed with? I think maybe? Because the last few days my brain has definitely gone off on it’s own tangent and there hasn’t been much I could do to stop it, even while knowing what it was doing was hurting me.
On the plus side, conventional deadlifts. No, seriously. If I didn’t have getting physically better to hold on to and driving me forward I’m not sure how well I’d be dealing with this.
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