Speak for yourself, my dentist only hires attractive dental hygienists. I’ve been going to him since I was like 13. There have been several dozen beautiful women that have rested their boobs on me while, they stick odd metal objects in my mouth. I may have gotten unnecessary dental work as a kid. 
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Slept well, although my left shoulder felt like I’d been in an armbar all night. That eased up with my daily rotator cuff work though. Weighed around 199.5 lbs on waking (weighed post breakfast, which is around 2.6 lbs of liquid and food and scale was at 202.1 lbs) and looked leaner.
Today’s training
Lazy lifter
Stiff bar DL
6 neutral grip pull-ups between first three warmup sets. First two sets felt really good, third just OK.
5x390 lbs, under 6 RPE, hook grip
5x440 lbs, 7 RPE, straps - harder than I’d hoped, left me shaking slightly
5x495 lbs, 10 RPE, straps - went into this scared I’d fail and determined not to because I wouldn’t have dealt with it well right now. Sort of proud of this, even though it isn’t particularly heavy. Somehow managed to execute with decent technique throughout as far as I can see, but again, not really heavy so that’s how it should be.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQeHjCuB8rU/
SGDL FSL 3x5x308 lbs, 6 RPE across
SSB squat 50 total reps at 291 lbs: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Picked 10s because the top DL set took pretty much all my mental and a good portion of my physical energy. I could probably have done 15s but I’m not sure how that would have affected the rest of the week. On the plus side, doing 10s meant I ended up really focusing on bracing and positioning which always needs work.
Supersetted ab wheel rollouts/seated calf raises
Ab wheel 50 total reps: 5, 10, 5 from toes, 30 from knees
Calves 100 total reps at 154 lbs: 40, 30, 30
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQePWUXBsth/
Ab wheel from toes doesn’t just hit my abs, it lights up my glutes, low back and even hamstrings too - not sure that it’s meant to, but hey, it’s a change from weighted on my knees.
Deload next week is going to be a fucking lifesaver. I think I’m managing to keep up my recovery, but I’m probably very close to my maximum recoverable volume at this calorie level. Next cycle will be tough but just OK I think, then luckily it’ll be anchor time with less volume.
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I just rewatched my top DL set and it hit me that I’m now able to pull reasonably happily after spending a fair amount of time holding the bar on the floor. I used to find it really, really disconcerting and it made it hard to get tight. Now it doesn’t even occur to me that I might find it hard to get tight hunched over like that. So, no matter what else comes out of how I’ve been training DL this year that’s something I look at as a decent gain.
Hook grip is going to take some time to break in though. The strength of it is fine, but the discomfort still throws me off. Meh, I’ve got time. I’ll keep doing as many sets as I can before I feel like I’m going to damage the skin and hope that works out.
Got me a new kitchen scale, because my old one was starting to shit me considerably. So many crumbs had accumulated inside it (it’s an old analogue one) that it usually takes three attempts to get a halfway accurate measurement. The new one is digital.
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Do you ever think that you might be overthinking your lifts? haha
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I used to overthink them. Now I (probably, hopefully) have a better idea of what I need to look for for each lift. If I’m getting those things right, I don’t worry about the rest too much.
You’re not wrong in respect of me constantly checking though. That’s different though. I might look at less in total, but I keep a very close eye on what I’ve learned are the important things.
The whole time at the bar thing is a sort of big deal for me because until recently I found a noticeable difference in how easy a pull was gripping and ripping as opposed to gripping, setting up for a while and then pulling.
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Maybe I just don’t really think so much about technique. Hell, I’ve this retarded idea that I want to move more weight than everyone while having lousier technique. For some reason, that just screams strong to me
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What it will scream is injured I think
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Heh, you know I do care about form, just not that much haha. Guess there’s a reason why they call it “stupid strong”.
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Woke up at 199.5 lbs today ‘officially’ (get out of bed, take leak, weigh in). If I keep around here for the next week or so I’ll consider myself below 200 lbs. Waistline appears smaller, top four abs a little more visible and bottom two starting to hint at their existence. Hungry today too.
The SSRIs seem to slightly be manifesting their side effects of slight headache and nausea, but at a very tolerable level and more so the headache than the nausea. Not sure if I’m feeling better because I know I’ve done something to improve matters or because the drugs are working but either way I’ll take it.
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Woke up at 198.2 lbs. I’m putting that down to fluid loss somehow but I’ll take it. Looked noticeably better, or so I thought.
Miserable training courtesy of Lovan-induced nausea. Didn’t hurl but felt sick AF while benching which I’m blaming on throwing my groove off a bit.
Today’s training
Lazy lifter plus shoulders
Bench press
30 pull aparts between first three warmup sets
5x198 lbs, 6 RPE
5x220 lbs, 6 RPE
5x247 lbs, 9 RPE - pauses were shorter than Monday, but didn’t get as good leg drive and bar path was all over the place
3x5x198 lbs, 7, 6 and 6 RPE
Dips 50 total reps plus 22 lbs: 15, 10, 10, 10, 8
Kroc rows 120 lbs 30 L+R - started on my right, then realised I’d have to match it on my left and just managed to keep my fingers around the DB handle. Still counting it though.
Balance to 50 reps at 90 lbs: 10, 10
Nausea had subsided after dips, Kroc rows brought it back with a vengeance. Also, realised I look to Kroc rows more to stress my whole body than as a back/grip exercise. They do this admirably.
EZ bar preacher curls at 44 lbs: 14, 11
Felt these in my biceps nicely.
Jacked in more curls, shrugs and Stairmill because I was running out of time. I’ll work on picking that up next cycle.
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Broke under the 200lb mark, nice! I’m looking forward to seeing 199 on the scale.
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Do you think that ‘stay strong when dieting’ diet would be a good idea for me if I were to use x16 body weight to create a surplus? Or at least the macro breakdown with 3000 or so calories.
I feel like at the minute my diet is a bit wild, especially these last few days and I’ve felt a bit rubbish for it.
I didn’t know whether to post this in your log or in mine and tag you, I hope this is okay. Thanks for any help.
@caesium32 I think it is an excellent idea. That’s currently what I intend to do when I go back into surplus in 18 months or so.
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Dayum, you are going to be shredded!
As soon as this fricken competition is over I’m going back on the gain train. Being hungry sucks.
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Nose fairly blocked since yesterday and throat scratchy AF. Antihistamines are helping so I’m putting it down to a combination of shit in the air and jacked up air-conditioning at work. Still annoying though, and definitely noticing that it’s harder to breathe. No nausea today though.
Today’s training
Lazy lifter plus shoulders
Squat, Oly shoes
15 TRX fatman pull-ups between first three warmup sets
5x357 lbs, under 6 RPE, wrists on bar
5x407 lbs, under 6 RPE
5x451 lbs, 7-8 RPE - didn’t get the reps out as fast as I wanted but I’m happy enough with bar speed
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQl2pzCFegL/
FSL front squat 5x8x242 lbs, 6, 6, 6, 7-8, 6-7 RPE
RFESS with 44 lbs 50 total reps per leg: 25, 25
45 degrees back raises with 44 lbs 100 total reps: 40, 30, 30 - discovered that raising or lowering my feet makes a big difference to where I feel these.
Supersetted seated calf raises/GHR sit-ups
Calves 100 total reps at 154 lbs: 40, 30, 30
Sit-ups 50 total reps: 25, 15, 15
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@littlesleeper I won’t be in a deficit for 18 months. It’s looking like maybe five more months deficit, then a year letting my body adjust so it gets a new set point. I figure that’s a good investment of my time, otherwise I may end up regaining more fat than I should.
Here’s this week’s highlight reel
This nose/throat thing is pissing me off. I doubt it’s a cold because I almost always get a sore throat first - unless somehow I’ve lucked out and missed the sore throat and just gotten some congestion in which case I’m definitely not complaining.
Right now I feel like I’ve survived again; which seems to be how this leader phase leaves me feeling every third week.
What is (sort of) intriguing me is that in terms of heavy/high RPE work I have done much less than I am used to (even since starting 531). Apart from deadlifts in week three (both cycles) and bench press in week three (this cycle), every main lift top set I’m sure I could have hit anywhere between two and four more reps. Despite this, come the end of week three I am very glad it’s deload time. Apparently just because the volume isn’t super heavy hasn’t stopped it being taxing. Is that normal for a volume phase?
Whether or not my calorie deficit has much to do with this is something I’m unsure about. Not being particularly sore, not having missed reps, rarely struggled to complete sets and not having injured myself point to the deficit being largely uninvolved. Although it dors make me very curious as to how much muscle I could add during this kind of phase in a slight excess. Well, that’ll be something to investigate in about 18 months.
Not complaining in the slightest about anything - just observing. Hopefully by the end of the leader phase I’ll have really laid down some solid foundations to build on.
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On another ramble-y note, I’ve been doing this for just over two and a half years. I’m a fucking iron baby!
OK, so I did some basic noob work for three months and then kettlebell/bodyweight/conditioning sort of stuff for for a year and then did kettlebell sport for two and a half years before that, but I tend to overlook that.
I need to keep reminding myself of that periodically. Partly because a lot of the time I expect myself to have a better grasp of things than I do; and partly because I sometimes feel like I’ve come a fair way already.
Training Maximally is going to be an interesting test. I’m very excited to do it, but I’m going to need to be on my fucking toes.
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