Serge Storms Experimentation Log - New Methods to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat

Training Training Logs
241

Thursday - 2840 calories

331g C
169g P
81g F
(25/48/27)

Training Thursday - AM

30 minutes - light DB and cable work for shoulders, arms, upper back, chest

Thursday - PM

45 minutes - arms and jump rope

Destroyed arms with some monster sets - probably 6 or 7 sets that each lasted about 5 minutes. Mostly just single-arm DB curl, cable curl, overhead DB extension, and cable kickbacks. Lots of different squeeze and contraction techniques in there - some slow reps, some constant tensions stuff, some explosive reps from a dead-stop, and some explosive reps with stretch reflex.

My arms were blown up. They’re still blown up.

I don’t pay a ton of attention on what is going on around me in the gym, but now that I’m at a gym with more people, it’s kind of hard not to at least peripherally pick up on some things here and there.

I’m noticing a big lack of focus and intensity. Most of these people are just kind of going through the motions. It’s no wonder the majority barely look like they lift. I don’t see much variety, either. Lots of seated shoulder press, benching, curling…and mostly everyone lifts with the same boring tempo. The body will find the most efficient way to move - it is inherently lazy that way. In my opinion, you either need to move huge weights or find ways to move light weights with less efficiency.

Moving light weights efficiently is not gonna do it. You might as well just get on the Precor for 45 minutes.

Not that I care - as long as I can find my 30 lb dumbbells, I pose no threat to these people. Plenty of room for everyone.

242

“Posing is something that doesn’t become easy or overnight, in
fact, even I need to practice for a week or two before I start my making up my routine just so I can make it through the practice. I also feel that it helps my
conditioning as it is another activity to add to the fat burn deficit I am trying to put myself in. I practice during even during my workouts, in between
sets, I find I get a better connection through my training if I know what muscles I am trying to activate. I even choose exercises that closely
resemble poses. The way I see it, working out is just another tool to help the body look the way I intend. I also practice posing during cardio and normally
after.”
-Dani Reardon

This is exactly what I do, especially for lats and chest. I base my movements on poses. Only I don’t actually pose in the gym, that would be pushing it for me.

Not sure how I stumbled on that quote or on Dani Reardon, I don’t really pay much attention to the competition scene or to women’s physique. Crazy…those girls in pro physique are bigger than me.

[photo]40546[/photo]

243

[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
Crazy…those girls in pro physique are bigger than me.

[photo]40546[/photo]
[/quote]

I am reminded of an exchange between Charles Gaines (co-author of the book Pumping Iron) and Frank Zane. They were watching a women’s BBing show together, a show early in the era when female competitors had started coming in huge and ripped.

[From memory]

Zane (whispering): Are you familiar with the work of Carl Jung?
Gaines: Of course.
Zane: Well, I don’t think there’s an archetype for this.

244

It’s a man baby…yeah

245

Sunday Weight = 192

  • I got down to 189 on Friday, so I bumped calories yesterday just because I could.

Saturday - 4500 calories

550g C
220g P
150g C

*First time in forever that I executed a mostly-intentional “high” day without eating a bunch of shit or downing a bunch of beers. This was all food and all good stuff. The majority of those fats came from my normal healthy food choices, including coconut oil, ground turkey, Omega Swirl, dark chocolate, and avocado.

Sunday Training - Chest and Shoulders

Holy shit, I found a new machine that hits my lateral delts like nothing else.

It’s kind of a old school - it’s just a standing lateral raise machine with two metal handles that swivel. Sort of like the typical old-school pec fly/rear delt machine where the handles have a bit of independent swivel action.

The swivel action on the handles is the key part. I think they are made to swivel UP, but what I do is swivel them down and out as I do the lateral raise…so I’m able to push down, away, and out. Smoked the shit out of my lateral delts today. I think the pictures I posted above planted some seeds of delt envy or something.

246

[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
“Posing is something that doesn’t become easy or overnight, in
fact, even I need to practice for a week or two before I start my making up my routine just so I can make it through the practice. I also feel that it helps my
conditioning as it is another activity to add to the fat burn deficit I am trying to put myself in. I practice during even during my workouts, in between
sets, I find I get a better connection through my training if I know what muscles I am trying to activate. I even choose exercises that closely
resemble poses. The way I see it, working out is just another tool to help the body look the way I intend. I also practice posing during cardio and normally
after.”
-Dani Reardon

This is exactly what I do, especially for lats and chest. I base my movements on poses. Only I don’t actually pose in the gym, that would be pushing it for me.

Not sure how I stumbled on that quote or on Dani Reardon, I don’t really pay much attention to the competition scene or to women’s physique. Crazy…those girls in pro physique are bigger than me.

[photo]40546[/photo]
[/quote]

I completely agree with her. Posing before training, after training, and intrasets has helped me establish a much better MMC.

Things are looking good Serge. Keep hitting it hard and think hard about stepping on stage soon my man!

247

.

248

^Thanks, Dan and congrats again, man! Can’t wait to see more pics from the contest.

Speaking of pics, following Dan’s contests this summer and fall has really been keeping the competitive fire lit for me. It comes and goes, but it’s there.

So that’s why I just keep hammering the shit out of my shoulders, upper chest, and upper back. And I guess why I keep practicing the mandatory physique poses in my little makeshift basement selfie studio…even though I find those poses to be boring and frustrating to practice.

The back relaxed pose is the hardest - I really need to spread my shoulders apart as far as possible, but this can make my traps disappear completely. Try to bring the traps back, and the shoulders get pulled in. The sweet spot seems to be in the middle a little bit, and it’s easier for me if I don’t put a ton of emphasis on contracting either the traps or the lats, but instead focus on the posture and on my lower back…really trying to suck it in and get as much depth and separation as possible. Kind of like the reverse of the front pose where the emphasis seems to be best placed on the abs.

Anyway, I do enjoy the smoke and mirrors element of bringing out certain strengths through subtle angle tweaks and contractions.

249

Last week I averaged 3400 calories/day, which is a slight bump compared to the last month overall.

I was fucking around with macros all week. Ended up at 415g C, 188g P, and 97g F.

From all that fucking around, I’ve been able to reinforce a few things that I already knew.

There is no magic macro combination that will solve the “satiety” puzzle.

There is no magic macro combination that allows for unrestricted consumption of any one macro or food type.

There are, however, certain things that tend to lower the defenses against major binges.

For example - cereal, chocolate, and any kind of protein bar.

Cereal and chocolate are fine if they are the last things eaten in the day and fit the macros. They should be avoided earlier in the day.

Adding fats to enhance the taste of things - like putting butter on bread, mayo on a sandwich, or dressing on a salad… it’s not the fat itself that does the damage, it’s the enhanced reward signals from the improved overall taste. When I uncouple those things and eat a plain sandwich, un-buttered bread, or a salad without dressing - I’m much less likely to trigger a cascade of false appetite signals. I can even add the fat back in later or in some other form.

Basically, the more boring and less rewarding my food is, the easier it is for me to nail my macros.

For breakfast today, I had 3/4 cup of plain oatmeal, 2 scoops of casein - plain, and 2 slices of Ezekiel bread - plain. For my second breakfast I had a leftover turkey burger - no bun, just the plain burger straight out of the fridge. Not even reheated.

For lunch today, I choked down a sandwich with Dietz and Watson Gourmet Lite turkey breast on Ezekiel bread. Nothing else. Washed it down with a BCAA drink. For my second lunch, I mixed up a scoop of casein with 2 scoops of PB2 and just enough water to make it into play-dough. Then I added some grape nuts cereal and choked it all down. I had two swigs of Omega Swirl.

Going to dinner with my wife tonight, and I have plenty of room for a pretty normal dinner. I also won’t be battling false appetite signals going into it, because I’ve been choking down stuff that tastes like cardboard all day long.

It works for me, what can I say.

250

Hey Serge, fantastic and insightful read here. You stated “Passion is special. It kind of defeats the first law of thermodynamics. Once ignited, it requires no further energy input, but it continues to provide an unlimited source of fuel to whatever it is you are pursuing.” Did you get this from somewhere? Cuz this is one of the best quotes of heard in a very long time. Spot on. Can I use it? Ha! Thanks man!

251

[quote]bobbyPGA wrote:
Hey Serge, fantastic and insightful read here. You stated “Passion is special. It kind of defeats the first law of thermodynamics. Once ignited, it requires no further energy input, but it continues to provide an unlimited source of fuel to whatever it is you are pursuing.” Did you get this from somewhere? Cuz this is one of the best quotes of heard in a very long time. Spot on. Can I use it? Ha! Thanks man![/quote]

I made that up and you can definitely use it!

Glad you liked it and thanks for dropping in.

252

Monday - 2400 calories

230g C
240g P
60g F

I haven’t been logging much detail on the training, but I’ve been putting in some monster sessions lately.

Two hours yesterday. Upper back, mid back, and even lower back.

I’m gonna start doing way more work for lower back. I find that any muscle with a super low threshold for fatigue also responds quite well to training. I think some more mass and depth down there will be a good addition to that back relaxed pose and look super freaky when shredded down.

253

Need more deadlifts :wink:

254

Deadlifts?

I was thinking more along the lines of high-rep back extensions holding a 5 lb plate out in front of me.

But seriously, funny you should say that.

I just deadlifted. And squatted.

It was part of a finisher complex I did with Dave G. (of Indigo Boot Camp 2 fame).

This was AFTER a little lifting session where we traded some techniques. I made him wear lulemon yoga pants and do isolation reps. He made me load up his bar with plates.

Lots of plates.

Good stuff.

Now I have five more minutes to feel like I lift before he gets here. Once he’s standing next to me, I’ll look like a fucking marathon runner for the rest of the night.

255

Try banded good mornings and banded back extensions

256

[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:
Try banded good mornings and banded back extensions[/quote]

Dude, great idea.

I tried them this morning to a mix of One Direction, Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees, and New Kids on the Block. Awesome pump and painful burn. Good shit.

Wait…what? You were talking about a different kind of bands?

Nutrition this week has been a mix of unrestrained gluttony and strategic overfeeding.

I met up with Dave-g in Grand Rapids. I had some work up there and he drove down to meet up for a few good lifting sessions and some eating. And some drinking. We did plenty of both.

We found a gym up there that was run by a bunch of Vitalus-selling zombies. Vitalus t-shirts, sales pitches, and even commercials looping on the TV screens.

They did have a decent gym, though, so we did our best to turn that place upside down a little bit.

They also had a strangely large number of smoking hot women working out there.

For Dave and I, it was like Thanksgiving. From the north, he brought his heavy-ass lifting and general bad-assery. We did some killer finishers, and he always managed to sneak some deadlifts and squats in there.

From the south, I offered up some of my little contraction techniques. He tried my micro-oscillation stuff as an activation move before heavy bench pressing. I don’t think the Visalus zombies had ever seen someone throwing up 3 plates PLUS (almost four) per side like it was nothing. That guy throws plates around like a fucking bus boy at a banquet hall.

He also tried my cross-body chest move, but his chest got in the way. Which kind of made us both realize that he probably doesn’t need that one.

There wasn’t much going on at night, although we did see a dance-off and a guy with sparkly Michael Jackson shoes. Nothing escalated to the point of needing my involvement or intervention, though. As Dave said, against a guy with sparkly shoes, I would have lost that battle before it even started. But nobody threw down the gauntlet with any floor moves or anything, so I remained a spectator for this one.

Anyway, just seeing Dave has ignited a little fire for me - I might just incorporate a few heavier elements into my training…I especially enjoyed the deadlifts and the way my whole body felt after doing them. They were light and part of a circuit, but still…they felt great.

I’ve already crushed two big sessions in my gym since then. This morning I did an hour of floor work and rope work, followed by another hour of shoulders and traps.

Yep, two hours. Had to reverse the metabolic engines a little bit. Bacon cheeseburgers, bacon and egg sandwiches, an entire pizza, I was even eating some normal people junk like fries and hash browns and even pretzel nuggets. It just kind of went along with the theme of north meets south thanksgiving warrior feast.

And now it’s back to some plain Ezekiel bread and chicken breasts for a few days.

257

That sounds like a good time.

So I was kind of kidding, but kind of not kidding. I saw your “you don’t really need to jump on this all-compound-movement all-the-time bandwagon” spiel somewhere. Someone’s log probably.

Deadlifts on their own have always been kind of a meh movement for me. Likewise with mat pulls or rack pulls. Pretty much anything I could get off the ground I could lock out, so the only “work” I had to do was get it moving.

But then I got to thinking about it, and I realized I could throw some chains over the bar to make it hard through the whole movement. Then limit the range of motion a bit to keep the effort about equal. And then do higher rep touch-n-go sets to increase the TUT. And then drop the rest times to increase density.

(Granted, t3hpwnisher’s ideas were instrumental in pushing me that direction.)

And it all kind of came together for me. A way to merge the compound-movement ideas with the hypertrophy ideas.

So, given that, and your “more mass in the lower back” comment, maybe there’s something you could use? E.g., some sort of weighted back extension movement using accommodating resistance to maintain the tension, combined with any of your other millions of intensity ideas.

258

[quote]LoRez wrote:
So, given that, and your “more mass in the lower back” comment, maybe there’s something you could use? E.g., some sort of weighted back extension movement using accommodating resistance to maintain the tension, combined with any of your other millions of intensity ideas.[/quote]

Good stuff.

This morning, I did weighted back extensions. I only used a ten pound weight, but it’s easy to modulate the resistance just by moving the weight around.

I started getting my feet locked in and then I got into my “relaxed back” physique pose. So I was very much upright and extended, not yet putting much tension on the target area, but trying to lock into my posture.

Once I found that, I started moving the weight around while lowering my upper body and focusing on my lower back. It wasn’t intentional, but I started shaking a little bit and realized I had stumbled upon the micro-oscillation effect. So then I locked into that sensation and tried to pinpoint it right at the bulk of those lower back muscles.

I ended up spending about two songs worth of time probing around with this, and in the process, got some great TUT work done.

I also figured out that faster, pumping reps can bring on the burn much, much faster. This is true for many muscles, but especially true for the lower back. I could light up a burn just by pumping out 8 or so super-quick reps. I guess when you don’t give the blood a chance to completely clear out, the pain cytokines accumulate much faster.

The early burn onset also tells me that it doesn’t take much weight to create this particular form of fatigue. To me, that’s great news. It means I can work this muscle with lots of frequency and probably expect some early rapid gains.

Yeah, I know it is believed that you need to add 10 total pounds of muscle to get a noticeable size increase in any one area. But it benefits me to believe that I can quickly and directly impact growth and additional qualitative changes to specific muscles. It’s a mindset thing.

Anyway, I also like the accommodating resistance thing, but my jump rope is already too much for me to keep track of in the gym. Seriously, I think that’s why I don’t have bands. I am in a much bigger and better gym now, so maybe I’ll look around for something. Bands would be good for this, I completely feel why.

Although when you’re starting with the lower back of a veal calf, plain old back extensions will work for a while.

259

One Year.

I did it!

I Just. Kept. Lifting. Finally!

Quick before and after. 85% consistency, 15% creativity, 10% smoke and mirrors.

[photo]40562[/photo][photo]40558[/photo]
[photo]40561[/photo][photo]40563[/photo]

Why not throw in a quick wheels shot since we’re celebrating

[photo]40560[/photo]

In this past year, I went from about 195ish to about 195ish.

Other than that, everything changed.

260

Just popped in to say what up, and obviously chose a good day!

Really good results in the past year bro. Particularly can see increased thickness and size in the traps, chest and delts. Oh and everywhere else! Well done.

I must read through your log, but did you bulk and cut, or some kind of re-comp?

I’ve just posted “before pics” and nailed down my calories for the official start of my semi-dirty bulk from slightly fat to probably end up very fat. Haha! Never really done an official bulk before. Any advice welcome.