Weighed in at a new low of 81.2kg this morning, & still feeling good. I think a lot of my success in maintaining my lifts on this cut, (aside from good food choices i.e. meat, eggs, milk & vegetables), has been training volume which works well for me, (i.e. lower volume). This is very important whether dieting or gaining, obviously. But some people do unnecessary amounts of volume, & when they switch from bulking to cutting, it can cause problems. Don’t get me wrong, that 1000 daily calorie drop doesn’t change their weekly recoverable volume by like 50%, it’s a relatively small change, but often these guys are on the brink, on the cliff, just being able to handle all they’re throwing at their body, & going from gaining to dieting is like a straw on a camel’s back. Well, actually it’s like a 30kg backpack on the back of a camel that can carry 250kg.
As you can tell by reading this, I’m trying to express the idea that dieting does affect your recovery, but only a little bit, (excluding competition leanness). I don’t want to propagate any sort of idea that you can’t train hard while dieting, or that you need to halve your sets. Usually an extra off day once every couple of weeks does the job. Recovery is NOT linear to your calories. Your optimal training on 3000 calories is NOT twice as much as on 1500 calories, more like 10% more. Anyway…
Pec Deck: 120kg for 9
Crossbody Pec Deck: 85kg for 8, 100kg for 9
Reverse Pec Deck: 60kg for 10, 85kg for 10
Startrak OHP: 50kg for 7, 60kg for 7, 45kg for 9 (super slow)
Pec deck not only holding on but actually getting slightly stronger - hitting up 100kg on my single arm variant for the first time for a top set of 9 reps with each arm, good stuff! Reverse pec deck & seated OHP holding onto my strength.
Dumbbell Incline Skullcrushers (SS):16kg for 8, 18kg for 9, 14kg for 9
Cable Lateral Raises (SS): 5kg for 6, 7.5kg for 7, 5kg for 12
On DB skullcrushers, both of the 14kg dumbbells were in use so I used 16kg for the acclimation set, & still did fine on the top set with 18kg & the backoff with 14kg. I shortened my rest period on cable laterals after the heavy set before the backoff set, (due to not wanting to hit too many reps on the backoff set - remember each rep takes 5 seconds), from originally 90 seconds rest, down to 45 seconds, & still hit 12 reps, very solid! I might need to drop further.
V-bar Pushdowns (SS): 30kg for 9, 37.5kg for 9, 30kg for 9
Machine Preacher Curls (SS): 50kg for 6, 55kg for 10, 50kg for 8
Hammer-grip Machine Preacher Curls (SS): 50kg for 7, 45kg for 7
Keeping on keeping on. Might think about changing my pushdown variant some time in the future…
Widish Grip Pulldowns: 100kg for 8, 110kg for 8, 90kg for 8
Seated Leg Curls (SS): 110kg for 6, 90kg for 10
Seated Chest Supported Row (SS): 75kg for 6, 90kg for 8, 75kg for 8
The backoff set on pulldowns with 90kg is after only a minute rest but still feeling good. 110kg for 8 is pretty good now that it’s 136% of my bodyweight pretty much. Leg curls, strength just holding on. Chest supported rows, I upped the weight! Remember it’s 2/2 tempo on these now, an 8 rep set is a 32 second endeavour of pure flexion, (not counting any pausing between any reps, not that I even do that), which as far as hypertrophy goes, is pretty good. Some people’s 8 rep sets take 12 seconds total which IMO is a mistake.
Hack Squat: 80kg for 7, 100kg for 8, 80kg for 10
Weighted Decline Crunch (SS): 20kg for 7
Calf raises (SS): 126kg 10
Great victory on hack squats. Happy to say I’m now doing two & a half wheels on these with just absolutely quad-shredding ass to grass form & 3 second negatives. And another victory on calf raises - up to 126kg, the next pin down on the stack, for a full set of 10 reps!