Yeah, don’t think I am that skinny, but apparently my colleagues do.
Of course, they are all fat AF, so there is that.
4/12/19 5/3/1 cycle 3 day 8 Bench primary/deadlift secondary
Warmup: Barbell complex x3 with chinups 1/1/1
Main:
Bottom up Bench from pins, 2" above chest, dead stop each rep:
10x45#
5x65#
5x85#
3x105#
3x125#
3X145#
3x165#
3x165#
Chinups: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/15
Deadlift:
5x45# +2 power cleans
3x95# + 2 power cleans
3x135# + 2 power cleans
3x185#
3x225#
Work sets:
3x275#
3x315#
Switched to mixed grip
3x355#
Accessory giant set:
Front squat: 5x155#, 5x155#, 5x155#
Dips: 10/10/10
Barbell rows 185#: 10/10/10
I figured the bottom up pin bench was a better option for my shoulder, and it definitely felt better, as well as safer. The last set of deadlifts was hard, but I think that was mostly because I decided to do 15 chins right before. Overall, this was less of a ‘feel great and kick ass’ day and more of a ‘get in there and get the work done and get out’ day. No conditioning, I’m going to run tomorrow.
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HOLY CRAP
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I am hearing you loud and clear here man. I am actually linking the new me, shoulder definition starting to come though and upper body shape looks better. Yes I’m smaller but hopefully when I increase the weights in the next training block I won’t have lost any strength.
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I know, right? That drop was welcome but totally unexpected!
I’m starting to feel a little weaker on deadlift, but I expect part of it is just from being in a calorie deficit for so long. Once June 1st comes around and I ease back up to maintenance+ calories, it’ll come back without gaining much/any weight.
4/12/19 food for yesterday
Breakfast: Shake = 1/2 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 1/2 scoop protein powder.
Lunch: Don Miguel’s 4 meat breakfast burrito from ‘carousel of death’ at work.
Dinner: 6 Pizza Hut hot wings with blue cheese dressing. 10 Ritz crackers with cheese. some garlic-stuffed olives. Some grapes. 1 giant armadillo egg = very large jalepeno stuffed with cheese, wrapped in hammered out chicken breast and bacon, and smoked = deliciousness.
Snack: 1 small piece of apple pie a la mode. 1 lemon drop cocktail.
Bedtime: 1 scoop creatine.
Total for today 2590 calories, 173g protein, 191g carbs, 107g fat. Pretty crappy eating day, but a good day overall. Only 9 calories over my training-adjusted goal, as well. Lunch was garbage out of the machines because I had to go into work and I was in a hurry, so scarfed it down and hit the gym quickly on the way home. Last night was game night with the kids so food was all over the place. Ate some wings early, then a bunch of the different finger food that the wife fixed while I fixed cocktails for everyone who wanted them, followed by hot apple pie with ice cream for dessert. #noguilt
4/13/19 morning weigh-in 183.4# 2 days in a row at this weight, even after all the crappy eating from last night! I will definitely call that a win. It’s Saturday, so time for the weekly average:
4/7 - 186.2#
4/8 - 186.6#
4/9 - 185.6#
4/10 - 186.2#
4/11 - 184.8#
4/12 - 183.4#
4/13 - 183.4#
Average = 185.2#, down 1.7# from 186.9# last week. I’ll keep trying to keep a good weight loss pace through the end of the challenge.
I had the gym at work to myself, so I took some more progress pics. I don’t see a lot of difference from 3 weeks ago, and definitely still too much fat around the middle. I guess that’s just where my body likes to retain fat at this stage of my life?
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The definition around your delts and traps is awesome - keep it up!
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Thanks, man! My shoulders and arms are my best features. My chest will always lag because of my bad pec, and my legs are just now finally showing some separation in the quads. I’m not where I hoped to be, but I can definitely see the improvements from 3 months ago.
4/13/19 conditioning
Run 2.70 miles in 25:44. Splits were 9:51 pace for the first mile, 9:35 for second mile, and 8:56 for the final 0.7 miles, Overall average pace 9:32/mile. So, my slowest pace was :08 faster than my fastest pace last week, and I again hit my goal of increasing my pace throughout the run. If I had run a full 5K today it would have been sub-30:00 easy. Definitely happy with my continuing improvement here, although it may be contributing somewhat to my declining performance on the weights. I think this mix is helping with my weight loss and body recomp effort.
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Yessiree prolly all those salads
I don’t doubt that 5-6 cups of uncooked fresh veggies for 3-4 meals per week is helping.
Even if it doesn’t help you lose weight, it definitely makes you healthier (and probably feel better too, which is an awesome bonus)
Looking lean and mean man! Shoulders are definitely a strong point for you. Amazing what well built shoulders do to how a shirt fits.
Great progress! I’m sorry our bodies get to suffer so long for such slow rate of fat loss, but we’ll get there. Keep it up!
Looking great Steve. Triceps looking thic as well as shoulders abs upper back. Quality
Thanks, all! feeling good about things overall, and shoulder is actually feeling a little bit better as well.
4/13/19 food for yesterday
Breakfast: Shake = 1/2 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 1/2 scoop protein powder.
Lunch: 1 armadillo egg. 10 Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese.
Snack: 1 Cappuccino = 4 oz. whole milk.
Dinner: Asian fusion bistro. 4.5 oz. salmon and tuna sashimi. 2 pot stickers. 1 veggie eggroll. 1 cup egg drop soup with crispy noodles. 1/2 serving Hunan pork with veggies, 1/2 serving fried rice.
Bedtime: Creatine.
Totals for today 2103 calories, 172g protein, 144g carbs, 84g fat. Overall a fairly good day of eating, 286 days under target corrected for exercise done. It’s pretty handy that the mapmyrun app links directly to myfitnesspal and adjusts for the training automatically. A little high on the fat, which is pretty normal for me, but also really high on the sodium today as well, which I don’t do that often. It didn’t seem to affect my morning weigh-in though, probably because I sweated out a ton of salt while running yesterday so probably needed it replenished.
4/14/19 morning weigh-in 183.2# I keep waiting for a correction back upward, but it dropped another .2# this morning, so apparently the 183’s isn’t an anomaly after all.
Today is a complete rest day, and Game of Thrones with the family tonight!
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Must be a national holiday or competition for the Superbowl at this point. My wife is signing up for the HBO app today just for six episodes. It’s a great series, don’t get me wrong, but at this point the ending can only disappoint based on all the wait.
Glad your shoulder is better.
Yeah, I’m still going to enjoy it. Check this article out for some perspective on enjoying it…
I think you might just win this thing!
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Heh, I appreciate the compliment. There’s people in this who look way better than I do, the only reason I would even be in the running is that I looked like garbage after the holidays… 
2.5 months of lay off + Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family was not kind to me.
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Yeah but sime if them started out that way. This is about transformation and who put in the work. I think you have to be in the top tier here.
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Thanks for that. BTW, is it snowing by you? I hear winter is coming tonight…bum, bum, buuuummmm!