Progressive overload for the win
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BtM protip. Pass on jalapeños and hot salsa during BtM. Just trust me on this. Its taken me 5 weeks for me to learn this… A friend of mine made some awesome salsa with some Carolina reapers from his garden. I’ve been using the stuff on my eggs the last couple of days. Bad decision.
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Cooked up spaghetti for the kids and the wife and I like the zucchini “boats” as for meat/sauce delivery. Good way to get more fiber in right now.
Used 2.5 lbs of beef in the sauce…so anyone looking for authentic look away. I used a tin of crushed tomatoes, I like a little rotel in mine from time to time, half of an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Halved and seeded some zucchini then i flip the oven on 400 just after the sauce is made. I put quite a bit of olive oil on the zucchini then i top it with sauce/meat. Cook for a little longer than the spaghetti cooks, 15 min maybe. My wife doesn’t like it too soft. Good stuff and the kids love spaghetti win win.
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W5D2 BtM Deads and Bench. Deads 3x5 at 305 and Bench 5x5 at 165. Loving Wednesday Sessions. It was tough especially with the heat today, but nothing like Monday. Maybe its that Mondays suck so bad that Wednesday and Friday doesn’t suck as bad. I didn’t superset much except rows and shrugs…and that probably wasn’t smart. Did supine barbell rows then I racked it took a couple breaths and then tried kirk shrugs. I only used 155 so light kirk shrugs but imagine doing real deal kirk shrugs x 100 then with a superset of rows. I couldn’t do more than 50 with 155 and the super set. It wasn’t smart. Switched up to behind the back shrugs with a pause. Then finished it up with poundstone curls. Stopped at 60…should have pushed through because those last 40 were that much more excruciating. Forgot that I did ab wheel with the rows and shrugs too but just 50 of the ab wheel.
Weight we are officially at 219 and testing the construction of the button on my pants. Still walking 2 miles at least usually 3 miles just about everyday but Sundays. Getting there. Just over a week to go.
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Weight last night…upper 215 nearly 216. Kind of a bummer considering how much food I put down but on the lifting days the weight always does this. My conditioning is barebones LISS…just walking usually 2 miles by myself and a 3rd mile with a kid on my shoulders. Allergies are taking me down a peg today so I didn’t sleep well at all last night. Traps are sore today.
I know I keep mentioning this, so forgive me, but I really appreciate how meticulously you’ve been logging your food intake and demonstrating how hard it is to put on weight when you’re training like this. There are so many folks out there that go “I’d LOVE to be able to eat like that”, until they discover just how hard you have to train to make it work. And, conversely, it shows just hard much work the EATING is when you’re training your butt off.
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Thank you sir. Eating is a strong suit of mine, but even this has been a bit of a challenge mainly just the eggs. I’m sure that’s what everyone says about this program though.
I think there was one day where I pushed the conditioning a bit harder and just doing that for a short time cost me a couple pound setback. I’ve really just been taking the conditioning from a minimal approach. It’s boring but walking also kind gives you some time to clear your head and be outdoors. I kind of like it.
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W5D3 BtM Squats and Presses. Ouch…and I’m dumb. I did shrugs Wednesday, so…I did 100 more today on THE day I was supposed to do them. Squats up to 225 for 5 and then widowmaker at 175. Pretty easy had to take a breather at 13 and 17, but still wasn’t that tough. Presses though. They were light and it was supposed to be 15 x 5 but I wasn’t doing 15 sets of light ass presses. So I did 5 sets of 15. Ouch. I was cleaning the weight up so I could do pull ups in the rack. I had to a couple times bring the weights down to the hang take a breath then finish it off. Shoulders are burning. I did behind the back row shrugs with my lever machine superset with band face pulls.
Weight was 218 today. Waist is not so bad today but ass and leg room in the pants are reaching thresholds the stitches have yet to see. If I make a wrong move those cheap khakis are getting shredded.
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Working from home today with both the kids…so trying to work anyway. Weight 216. Going to cheat a bit today. Going to do chins and dips as I can before my lifting session begins. Otherwise not sure if I would be able to get a full session in today.
One thing I’ve been noticing on the egg front is our eggs here from our chickens seem to have a huge yolk and less white compared to store bought free range chickens. Not sure why that would be or if thats normal. Makes the eggs a bit tastier anyway which doesn’t hurt right now.
W6D1 Squats and Press. Squats 250 5x5. Press top set 115 for 5 and fsl 95 for 12. Band facepulls superset with presses. Chins and Dips i was able to get in this early afternoon when my boy went down for a nap.
Food today was awesome just ate 2 scrambles 1 with sausage and one straight up. I made what turns out to be “fancy” hamburger helper. I can make it better. But basically 2.5 lbs ground beef, 12 or so ounces of macaroni, 2 cups beef bone broth, 1 can tomatoes sauce(would have been better with rotel), 1/2 onion and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic. 6 to 8 oz cheese i used cheddar and parmesan. 3/4 cup of cream. Brown the beef and onion, add minced garlic last minute of browning along with a couple tbl spoons flour. Then add tomatoe sauce and bone broth. Cook pasta. Drain pasta add pasta to thickened sauce. Turn off heat and add cream and cheese. Anyway also ate 8 ounces of ham and a tin of tuna my kids didn’t want. I ate so much dinner though my lifting was slowed. Afraid I was going to barf. Weight after lifting 218. It went up. Mission accomplished. Finish strong get that 220.
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60lb weight vest came in. That takes walking up a notch. Just a mile breaking it in. I like it. Just 2 miles walking today 1 of which with the vest. Weight 217.
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Great work going on in here still, you’re going on strong on the food front, I implemented a few changes and have started to see the scales move, is such a battle on this program!
Thanks. It definitely helps to eat this much during this. I don’t feel as beaten up as I normally would. Although my lats are pretty fired up still. Really can’t wait to change things up a bit though. 2 more sessions left.
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W6D2 BtM Deads and Bench. Shite. Today was rough. Hot again today. I was lazy and didn’t want to put all the tiny plates on for 340 (actually 337.5 was supposed to be it…) today. So since I only have 4 45s 2 35s and 2 25s thats what I went with, 345. I have 10s and 5s and 2.5s but didn’t feel like it would make that much of a difference. The last couple of reps in each set were rough. Can’t say 5 lbs made that much a difference but man that sucked the life out of me. Then on to Bench at 185 superset with 12 60lb dumbell rows. Bench was even draining today. I was sucking wind after rows and bench each time. Then an arm finisher of 50lb rope curls, ez bar curls and then 12 d handle reverse grip push downs. I did 100 curls. However long it took me to get there. I think it was just 5 sets though. Busy day and I’m glad it’s over for the most part. 1 more day…just 1. This week is a punisher for sure. Dayum I’m glad thats over. Walked 1 mile today may vest walk another…May not…
Damn, weight is upper end 215. I knew tonight was ice cream night. Damn it. Tomorrow ice cream for sure.
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Disappointed in the weight yesterday. This morning I smashed 6 eggs quick as soon as I woke up with some potatoes and sausage. Went to work had another 8 eggs with 1 sausage patty all scrambled up. I was actually still kind of hungry. So just had my typical meat salad for lunch with 15 ounces of beef. Tonight I am having another meat salad…just remembered but I like the one tonight a little more. It’s really called Hamburger salad, but its essentially a big mac minus the bread. You have the chop the dill pickles up, onions, lettuce, shred some cheddar cheese and make up some quick thousand island dressing (or just buy it…). Throw it all together with some ground beef. Good stuff. It fits what I need and the kids seem to like it too that’s a big win. Thinking ice cream may help out tonight too.
Scratch that kids wanted cheese burgers. Done deal. Ice cream mission accomplished.
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W6D3 BtM squats and presses.
I finished it up today. 250 top set for squats followed by 185 for 20. That last set made me realize that my conditioning may need some help. I took a couple rests for breaths in there. That was fun. The presses to me sucked. I still did it backwards. I did 90 for 5 sets of 12 super set with lightly weighted chins. Only 10 lbs but hey thats 25 reps of that. I have not done that many weighted chins before. Back to the presses, I cleaned the weight up and then pressed the last 3 sets I took a pause then finished the last 3. My delts, upper chest and tris got a nice pump. Then I did behind the back shrug rows super set with face pulls.
Mission accomplished. Weight is close, 218. I doubt my weight goes up tonight but I’ll check again and update. I have actually been hungry this week despite throwing down all kinds of food.
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Congrats on finishing it Zeptrey, what’s the plan for next program?
Going to run Reactive Pump for at least 6 weeks. Possibly longer just to shake it up. I’ve pretty much been in the 531 mode this year. Its been a rough year for everyone but its been absolutely crazy for me and 531 is just so simple. It also works that doesn’t hurt. Your switching it up to a Dead focused SGSS right?
Not sure yet, my 2021 will be deadlift focused all year long, that’ll be primary goal, followed by actually trying to improve my arms, this is something I’ve never consistently done, then after that cardio needs to improve. All other lifts can just stick with basic 531.
That will definitely involve SGSS for deads at some point, maybe immediately but not sure, I like @T3hPwnisher idea of just annihilating myself on high rep deads for a bit with straps on, might do something like alternate 2 a week deadlifting with high rep trap bar work and some work at 75-85% on my standard deads (sumo).
Needless to say whatever I choose there will be loads of back, hammy and core work in the assistance. (And curls, lots of curls).
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This is the beauty of 531 for me (ran it for years, just the basic program) it’s so simple you can just forget about it turn up between 2-4 days week depending on time and make progress, might not be the most “optimal” program but you’ll still make progress consistently, for years on end.