I know you don’t want to prolong things but you might repeat the last week of training you did before getting sick. It’s better than starting over and it’s better than getting buried by harder workouts.
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Definitely, no one but me really cares about “finishing” the program anyway so that makes the most amount of sense probably!
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Finishing is important! If you keep changing programs and goals halfway through the process then you end up wasting time and not accomplishing anything.
Well, it would be that the final week gets omitted. I wouldn’t view it in the light of program hopping or switching up goals, if anything, continuing beyond the targeted end-date is the thing that would be switching goals as the goal is to at that date stop the diet and then get on a hypertrophy/strength phase. But it is possible to view it both ways.
Haven’t made any definitive decisions yet though. Still a few more weeks to go before I have to.
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I hope my response doesn’t come across as disrespectful or disregarding
Not at all. Why did you set a date to stop your cut instead of a specific weight or body fat percentage?
My birthday is during the final week 
Trying to get as lean as I can before the day I celebrate it.
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And I assume you’ll be blowing your diet for that occasion, right? I certainly do.
I think you’re fairly new around here and forgive me if I’m wrong and we just haven’t crossed paths. I’ve been logging and posting for a couple of years now and I’ve changed a lot. I’ve been lifting consistently since 2002.
In my mind I should be bigger or stronger or both by now. You know where I failed? Cutting. Once I found my 6 pack I stopped growing. I tried to bulk a few times and I’d get into the 230s and hate myself and cut back to 220 where I was “lean”.
This past year I realized that my version of lean was bordering on skinny. I’ve finally decided to commit to growth. I started this year at 218ish and I’m in the mid 240s now. I was 240 for most of college so this isn’t all new growth; it’s regaining what I had.
I’ll be gaining and growing for the rest of the year and I hope to hit 260 lbs before I begin cutting. We have a transformation challenge here on the forum from January to June so I’ll do my cutting then. I hope to find myself at 235 to 240 with my previous body fat levels when I’m done.
The reason I tell you this is that I see you on the verge of making the same mistakes. Cutting before a bulk is common amongst people who focus too much on low body fat and not enough on growing. The tendency is to always cut and stay lean.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t be afraid to get a little fat to achieve big things down the road. Big and strong people don’t have abs unless they diet down for a show or photo shoot. There are special exceptions but those guys are genetically gifted and they suck.
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Yes, my diet will be blown on that occasion. Won’t be celebrating on the date, unfortunately, but yes. There’s a definitive cheat day scheduled therabouts. @danteism supplied me with a good tip though, maybe on his log or here (I don’t recall), to go back on a deficit until I lose the weight I gain that day. Normally, I’d follow good advice when it is given, but as a nice surprise, I’ll be hosting my best mate for a few days thereafter and I think I’ll put my efforts forth on being a good host more than keep with a deficit as he is visiting from abroad.
New on the board, yes.
Glad to hear that you are making progress!
Maybe I am. I think it’s a bit early to tell. I decided to cut because I wasn’t comfortable with the amount of fat I was carrying before the summer, as in, I wouldn’t have enjoyed going to the beach looking the way I looked. Being where I am at now, I still want to get rid of a bit more of my belly flab. A nice benefit to being leaner is now I’ll actually be able to see actual muscle growth, and not just observe how my fat is offset from the muscles hiding underneath once I shift my focus on getting bigger and stronger.
A little fat is fine, a lot isn’t, to me. I don’t want to feel the way I did as a fattie ever again if I can help it and I want to be at or near beach lean year round. That is more important to me than getting big — even though obviously I want to get to a point where it is obvious that I lift even if I wear a hoodie. I know I’m not genetically gifted, I’d be surprised if I can put on more than 1-2 lbs of muscle (I’d surmise I’d be gaining at the lower end there) per month (that’s ~450 grams for metric people like myself) and so, by trying to push the scale 200 grams (less than half a pound) every week will probably be adequate, and result in some fat gain as far as the math is concerned. I plan to address that fat gain with mini-cuts, and maybe control days if it seems as if I need them. Putting it all together, it will take me more than a year to get back to 200 pounds. This is fine, I’m not a total beginner and I fucked up the period when I could have enjoyed newbie gainz in my teens.
I’m putting faith in that those 200 grams a week will add up over the years, down the road, though. Maybe that is making the same mistake you made, maybe it isn’t. I just want to look in the mirror, or grab at my stomach, and not feel disheartened by having my belly spill over the edge of my shorts at least once in my life (adult, adolescent and prepubescent included - I’ve always had a gut)
What’s your ideal physique for you?
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You are still a young dude Allberg, and you could gain mass at a faster rate. But I do understand your concern and I do see that you are very careful about not eating too much, the other day you were a bit concerned over a couple of grapes.
You do know how to lean out, so you could gain a bit more than you think.
Eat the right food and eat enough while training hard for the next 5 - 6 month, then lean out during the end of winter and start of spring, maintain the lean look during summer.
But I and Maier know your concern about losing the sight of the abs. I have to constant remind me that this is a phase and at the end I hope despite my age I would have gained some muscles.
I have tried to lean bulk or what it’s called for a year and it didn’t happen. I gained weight but not that much muscle, now I try to gain at a faster rate and see what happens.
As stated in the start, you’re young so you might be able to lean bulk.
Gonna be fun to follow your journey
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Maybe, I have reason to believe my T levels aren’t great though. I’ll be getting that checked up thoroughly post-diet. Any readings right now would be useless.
That grape comment will be my undoing! 
No, but just to be clear, it wasn’t the grapes per say that made it merited to mention it, the takeaway was supposed to be “I’ve been eating nothing outside of what I’ve planned for the last 5 weeks, now that has changed. Uh-oh, better be cautious to not slip”
That’s the plan more or less. 9-12 weeks of Built for Battle, 2-3 weeks mini-cut (not sure what I’ll be doing in the gym at this time) followed by another 9-12 weeks of some hypertrophy/strength geared program (undecided which as of yet).
To my mind, without any experience to back it up, maintaining an ab outline at least seems alright by me. Where I am at now is probably the softest I’ll be comfortable getting (keep in mind that I’m blurry from all of the excess carbs I’ve been taking in during my illness).
Sometimes trying to decipher this from someone’s log is just plain inefficient. How’s it going so far?
I hope so. Had a former classmate who was one of those people that could lean bulk just by getting his calories right, and cheesecake and the like were staples. This guy did used to play American football professionally in his youth despite being 165cm so obviously, he had gifts.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I’ve started sketching on goals for next year, to be revised in December and posted then ultimately. Hopefully, you’ll find that I can check it all of before 2019 ends!
BTW: your log has an awesome name
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That can work great if you stick to it! My problem has been that I go from maintenance to sloppy eating (holidays & life in general) and then have to cut some fat and then it’s back to maintenance. There hasn’t been any real growth. Program hopping and constantly changing goals also killed my progress.
I’m hoping to hit 235 lbs at 12% body fat. 240 would be even better! I’d love to look like Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. I think he’s around 260 though!
I’m not sure if he’s enhanced or not. I know he’s genetically gifted so there’s no reason to expect that I can look like him naturally so I’ll take the goal I stated above.
Keep tuning in and we’ll see! Life can sometimes be a monkey wrench. Last fall+this spring I arranged a weekly outing to the local jazz club for me and my coworkers, needless to say, I had my fair share of beer/wine/spirits over those months. And food. But, now I have goals!
Admirable goal. Have you posted any progress pictures in your log?
I haven’t really assessed my progress since June when I finished my first round of CT’s Simple Guaranteed Strength & Size. I think it was the first week of June.
I’m waiting till the end of the year, or at least this round of SGSS, to check my progress. I’ll take photos and measurements eventually.
March 2016 I weighed just shy of 89 kg and couldn’t fit my tuxedo for a party, so decided to lean out. March 2017 I weighed 75 kg and was very lean probably under 10 % bodyfat. Did begin to eat a bit more trying to keep the weight but ended up gaining a little bit so from 2017 until now I’ve gained 7 kg. About new year 2018 i weighed 82 kg, leaned out to 79 kg over a month and have gained to 82,6 now. Not much muscles to show for it.
From about a week from now I’m going full bulk the rest of the year trying to eat about 500 calories over maintenance. Then I’ll see what happens.
Sorry for the rant.
Thanks man Yours ain’t that bad either
Thursday, 23th of August 2018
Weight: 76.4kg (+0.1kg)
Sleep: ~8 hours, I snoozed. Big mistake.
Look weird in the mirror, can’t explain it really. Flat? Flabby? Shapeless? All of them? I wasn’t looking great is all I can say.
4 circuits
Top-half squat 5@160kg [0]
Front squat 5@60kg [1]
Power snatch from hang or blocks 3@40kg. [2]
Jump squat with bar 8@40kg
Vertical jump series 8@40kg
Ergometer 250m
4 circuits
Top-half seated overhead press 5@55kg [3]
Standing military press 4-5@40kg
Push press 3@40kg
Medicine ball push-press throw overhead 10@7kg
Plyo push-up 8 reps [4]
[0] Yup, heavier than before. I had the safety pins one setting higher than before as I went with a high bar squat this time. This let me keep my torso straighter, and so my hips were at the quarter squat position with this setting. I worked up to this weight as the circuits progressed
[1] ATG
[2] I should still go lighter on these but I only had two barbells today and it was so easy to use the bar (20kg) and two 10kg plates on each side for the front squats, remove one plate on either side and do the snatches. It kept the workout pace higher but at the detriment of rep quality.
[3] Felt a weird shooting pain down my right trap on a few reps.
[4] Finally starting to get better at this
Felt fucking amazing to workout, hopefully, I won’t relapse back into illness.
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Good workout Allberg.
Why the half squat?
It’s straight from the program, where the rationale is,
This movement is both a great neural activator and a very effective quadriceps movement. The top-half of the squat is done mostly by the quads. 6 Weeks to Superhero - Bigger Stronger Leaner - COMMUNITY - T NATION
I love it, it takes away a lot of the mystery behind the weight. At 140kg my legs hardly had to work at all, it was only at 160kg my quads and glutes made themselves known. It also made it really easy to diagnose what the weak link is (although I already knew it to be my lower back). If I can bring my lower back up to snuff I could probably parallel squat 140kg pretty soon.
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Hes enhanced lol
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Friday, 24th of August 2018
Weight: 76.8kg (+0.4kg) Unexpected weight gain, but I see a plethora of possible explanations so I’m not going to worry about it
Sleep: ~8 hours. Snoozed again, I have to stop this habit
Look better in the mirror, but still not on-point. I blame being sick for just about a week.
Today’s awesome workout
4 circuits
Top-half bench press 90, 100, 90, 90 [0]
Bench Press 5@65,4@65,3@65,5@65 [1]
Speed bench press 5@45kg [2]
Medicine ball chest throw 7kg 8 reps
Plyo pushup 8 reps
4 circuits
Top-half deadlift 5 reps at 150kg during first circuit. 170kg the remaining three circuits [3]
Deadlift 5 reps at 110kg [4]
Power clean from hang, 3 reps at 50kg
Jump good morning kettlebell 10 reps at 32
Broad jump series 10 reps every time
[0]: 100 left me a bit too fatigued for the next exercise. Was having shoulder pains from the second I woke up, that might have played into it as well
[1]: Missed the third circuit, but I’m okay. Such a light weight it didn’t even matter that I rolled the bar across my body.
[2]: These were great
[3]: I’m going to try to go with the safety pins one setting lower next time. I could move more weight than this on the current setting, but it’s not that challenging somehow. I don’t feel overloaded so to speak. Although, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as there are 4 more exercises to go after it.
[4]: Ready to progress here.
Overall, I performed just as well, maybe a little better, than I did before my illness. Ready to progress next week, no problem. Got to use my new straps, they are godlike.
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