Do you mind if I ask what lead you to getting the tests you had done ?? Were you feeling symptoms or was it just a check up? I rarely ever get checked and as I am older than you, and possibly less healthy I am starting to think I should consider it?
Just a check up. I have a family history of high cholesterol, so I get it checked a bit more frequently than my peers. And I know numbers arenāt the be all/end all of health, but it was a pretty decent wake up call to how much I had let my diet slip while convincing myself it was healthy, haha.
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This is fairly common with climbers
Yes, you should. Iāve been doing it for about seven years. I hope itāll allow me to catch any bad things early through blood work instead of late when Iām feeling bad.
How do you do this? Are these work days? I really struggle to not snack on days off and a low carb day for me is 100 grams.
Iāve finally found that my dietary goals are best guided by what I want out of this. Part of it is training driven. Part of it is physique driven. And the final and most recent part is psychological.
Iām guessing that last part is less important to you, but Iām letting my happiness drive the ship a bit. Iām unhappy with excess fat so I canāt eat everything in sight. Iām also unhappy when Iām hungry and having to restrict everything so being lean is out. Iāve settled on the middle ground - not fat, not lean, just right. I can usually see my abs first thing in the morning and Iām happy with my food (plenty of ācheatsā). Iām letting the scale keep me in check but Iāll allow my weight to creep up over time if itās quality weight.
Iām not sure if that helps you one bit, but thatās where Iām at these days.
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Iām really happy to hear that you continue to have success with your body image, I know it was tough for quite some time.
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My work schedule right now is 7 days on/7 days off, so sometimes itās work days and sometimes itās not.
Carbs are really not a part of my daily diet in general. I only eat them around lifting. Otherwise, meat and vegetables form the core of my diet, with nuts, greek yogurt and protein bars being the āoutsidersā.
Here was yesterday, a particularly light day of eating, and a work day.
0440-Wake up, have 3/4 cup fat free greek yogurt mixed with protein scooper of PBfit, diet coke on the way to work.
0700-Some broccoli with some sugar free honey mustard sauce for light dipping and a Reign zero carb energy drink.
0900-Half a chick-fil-a cobb salad w/grilled nuggets (what comes with the salad plus 4 extra) and a tablespoon of avocado based cesar salad. Diet soda.
1200-Same as 0900.
1730-Avocabo salad from Red Robin, no blue cheese crumbles, small amount of thousand island dressing, no crutons, diet soda.
1930-Microwaved quest bar.
Through out work, I drank 6 liters of water, and had some diet green tea, a coffee and a diet rootbeer at home.
If that was a non-work day, Iād have a real breakfast instead of the broccoli meal, which these days is an egg white omlette at a breakfast place we go to, and lunch might be an almond butter sandwich on keto bread, if not just more meat and veggies.
Snacking really just isnāt a thing I do. I have some broccoli, peppers, pickles and mushrooms in the house to eat if I ever AM feeling hungry for some reason, as I like having something with some micronutrients in it, but for the most part I just eat when itās time to eat, and if itās not time, I donāt eat.
Definitely appreciate you sharing it dude. For the most part, food isnāt a big source of joy for me. Iāve seen it as fuel for a LONG time. I do get a bit of joy just in being creative with how I approach food, as āsolving the puzzleā can be cool, but Iām content to eat the same thing everyday. The things I DO enjoy are currently in the severe āoff limitsā category, but I hope to phase them back in with some elements of portion control in the near future.
Thatās why I figured my psychological aspect wouldnāt apply to you. This sounds easy for you - figure out your next goal and eat accordingly.
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Thatās the rub for sure: I have no idea what the goal is, haha. The absence of competitions has given me a bit of ennui. Martial arts ticked back up on my radar for a hot minute but went away again, like it tends to do with me. Powerlifting has been coming up in my mind and going back down. Itās all idle thoughts anyway, because I canāt act on an of them, which is most likely what I went after leanness, as itās just something Iād never done to this extent before. But since Iām not cutting for a comp, itās weird not knowing where āstopā is for this.
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You could always start a side business as an Instagram trainer. Unlike most of them, you actually have a huge body of work to back you up.
running
strongman
strength training
hypertrophy
cutting
The only thing youāre missing is a bikini photo from a local bodybuilding show.
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Hah! Definitely appreciate the sentiment there. I am technically a sponsored athlete right now, and I discovered I donāt have the stomach for any of that nonsense, haha. I donāt want to tie my livelihood to my passion. The blog keeps me satisfied. Iāve āstartedā an e-book but genuinely donāt think itāll go anywhere for now. I donāt like working on it at home when Iām with my family, and the computers are work are SO frustrating because they have a lag in the keyboard that I constantly have to retype every 3rd word, so it kinda rules out that avenue.
Iāve got a half marathon coming up in Nov that can turn into a virtual race if need be, so thereās A competitive outlet available to me. Definitely encourages staying skinny, haha.
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LUNCHTIME WORKOUT
MAX EFFORT
(2) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pull
5x135
5x225
3x315
1x405
1x495
1x545
3x1x585
GIANT SETS (dead-row-chin-neck)
(3) Deficit 2 Count Pause Deadlift 315
3x9
T-bar rows 155
2x9
DROPSET of 155/90/45
1x9+9+9
NG chins (various grips)
3x9
Neck harness 45
3xFailure
CONDITIONING
Stone of Steel (135lbs) lapped 30 times
2:18
2 mile walk
Notes: 3:45 between heavy pulls, 2:00 between giant sets. With the big weight drop over the weekend and being super carb depleted, I was feeling pretty dead coming into this. 545 felt awesome, but 585 was a struggle. Iām taking solace in the fact that, at 177.8lbs, 585 is significantly more than triple bodyweight, but it still stings to see less than 6 on it. I may switch to the axle for the next cycle. Might also be time to bring back some touch and go, because my lats seemed to be struggling to stay tight on the heavy pulls.
The stone lapping is getting real easy. I think soon I need to push it to a 100 rep workout and see if I can leave some blood on the stone.
Threw in a very small amount of extra carbs in the pre-workout meal with 1 fig. Look at me living wild. Iām going to try to just slowly sneak some calories in my pre-workout meals and see what happens. Have plans for a significant cheat this weekend and a possible midday Taco Bell nacho meal around my squat workout.
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You animal.
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I almost went with raisins, but decided to show some restraint.
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AM WORKOUT
(2) Incline DB bench 105s
1x17
1x11
1x8
Axle bench press 210+chains
1x10
2x7
Incline swiss bar bench press 205
1x10
2x7
Pull ups between sets of benching
2x9
8x8
1x10
Dips
1x48
3x36
1x34
Poundstone curls
122xAxle
CONDITIONING
Tabata rounds on the BAS (16oz gloves, boxing)
Notes: 2:00 rest between sets of benching and dips. Didnāt get the numbers up on the DB press, but I hit the first weekās numbers with 1 minute less rest, so still progress. Get it where you can. Was rushed a little bit as far as nutrition timing and training went. Next week I get into uncharted waters as far as incline angle, so that should be interesting.
More gratuitous male shirtlessness, but wanted to capture what 177 is looking like. More pronounced vascularity in the shoulders. Iāve got lots of veins in the quads these days too, but donāt tend to like taking the below the waist photos.
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Itās wild to see what you look like and then remember Iām a few lbs heavier than you currently. Well done man.
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Thanks man. This has been a pretty crazy phase of training. Been weird to see it play out, but itās at least given me something new to chase during a period of forced inactivity.
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Your pancreas is going to start showing.
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@biker Will make it easy to judge insulin sensitivity, haha.
PM WORKOUT
Buffalo Bar Squats
5xBar
5x140
3x230
1x320
REST PAUSE (12 Deep Breaths Between Sets)
9x370
4x370
2x2x370
8x320
4x320
2x320
1x320
7x280
12x230
Reverse Hypers 360
1x13
3x12
3:45 REST
CONDITIONING
Lapping an unloaded Stone of Steel 56 times
6:10
Notes: Had a fantastic pre-workout meal
And decided to go for broke. This was the first squat workout in a while that felt ārightā. Didnāt have to baby the abductor: just went for it. In turn, I had to round down after the topset, so got in an extra double to make up the rep. Once the full squat workout was done, I needed to lay down, which was a good sign.
Original goal for the SoS was 100 reps. I COULD do that, if I wanted to spend about 20 minutes loading the stone, but I was reaching the point of āno longer productiveā and capped it at 56. I really like this conditioning workout. Hit just about everything. Just isnāt āexplosiveā, so I gotta keep some of that in somewhere. Canāt just slide back to what Iām strong on. Still, this will make some regular appearances.
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Iām curious on your thoughts now youāre lean and decent size not skinny lean; do you feel that long periods of significant weight gain have really benefited your physique? Do you think you could have achieved this better another way? I know your focus is primarily strength but youāve nailed the physique and I have a similar focus of goals long term, so always good to know I suppose would you suggest this route if you had to do it again?
Great question, and much appreciated with the kind words. Going to ramble a bit, but it answers I promise.
Chasing after big goals has been huge for my results, which is why I competed in strongman. Powerlifting didnāt quite answer the mail, because you can pick your attempts in the competition, and though I was after some records at some points, I never really had that ālooming threatā over me that I HAD to hit a certain number if I wanted to win. With strongman, the weights for the event are predetermined, and itās on me to be able to hit them. Paired with me choosing to compete up a weight class, and it became a solid recipe to give me a vector to aim for as far as weight gain went. Specifically, Iād have a 3-4 month window (the time between when weights were announced and when the event was) to do everything in my power to get as big and strong as possible in order to hit a lift that was outside of my grasp. My most recent competition (which ended up getting canceled) was my most successful weight gain phase, as I was after a 275lb keg press. Iāve written before about how chasing the press specifically results in the best physique improvements, and this definitely proved true.
And I feel like having these performance based goals driving me to do whatever it takes to get there definitely put me in a better spot compared to if I tried to stay as lean as possible and slowly add muscle. Itās kinda interesting in that, when adding muscle is the method to reach the goal, I feel it results in better muscular gain compared to when adding muscle is the goal in and of itself, but I feel like it results in me not worrying about what ELSE comes along with the muscle like a lot of trainees do. I added fat chasing the 275lb keg, but I didnāt care, because I was pressing heavier and heavier, which meant muscle had to be getting added.
About the only thing Iād have done different is better food choices, which is pretty much what everyone says. However, Iād rather have eaten poorly and did whatever it took to get that press goal than eat well and biff the goal.
Sorta went around on that one, but let me know if that answers things, or if I can clarify anything.
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