Serge Storms: Training Log

[Serge_A_Storms]

Thursday Macros
2,100 calories
60g fat
230g C
193g P

I got two workouts in today, the usual 5 am and then a bonus 6 pm. Total workout time was about two hours. 1330 calories burned.

Same stuff. Lifting this morning was mostly triceps.

I’ve also been doing some pull-up work. Until recently, my elbows weren’t in good enough shape to handle pullups. Chronic tennis elbow in one elbow (from tennis) and golfers elbow in the other (from…golf).

Taking it slow with my bicep work helped me get past that. It took about a year.

Now I’m suddenly back to being a beast on the pull-up bar. I do lots of slow-mo reps, partials, holds, etc. Very low volume on any given day. I feel like frequency is good for building pullups strength and endurance and skill.

One thing for sure, the insane volume of bicep work I do, never with more than a 30lb dumbbell, has given me all the strength I need to dominate the pull-up bar. It feels awesome.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Friday AM Weight 191.1

That’s a bit of a head-scratcher, I cut off the food pretty early yesterday and woke up feeling pretty light and tight, but the scale weight bumped up about a pound. Totally within range of normal fluctuations, but I still would just love to better understand exactly what causes these shifts.

My guess would be the combination of lots of rice yesterday and a ton of soy sauce at lunch. I had a small pile of sashimi, some plain rice, and a ton of soy sauce. Actually woke up with a bit of a dull headache this morning…I don’t think soy sauce (beyond a tiny little drizzle) is something that works for me.

Friday AM Workout
80 minutes, 740 calories burned, Max HR 162 (during jump rope double unders)

Same format - 20 minutes of pop-lockin’ and stupid human tricks to move the body, warm up, and activate the systems.

40 minutes of lifting with a focus on biceps. Threw in some very super slow, strict pull-ups. Slow pull-ups require bicep strength, cardio fitness, and the ability to stay calm and breathe while holding a great deal of full-body tension. (At least that’s how it feels for me). These aren’t even worth doing if you’re not in good cardio shape. When I say slow, I’m talking about 60-second negatives, maybe even slower. Holding for long stretches in the weakest positions of the movement…that kind of thing.

20 minutes of jump rope and a few more pistols and bodyweight strength moves.

Tomorrow marks 12 continuous weeks in a calorie deficit/cut mode

I see a lot of new-ish school thinking about there about diet breaks, and if I listened, I might just lock into maintenance for 12 weeks and hold this level of bodyfat before making a final run at a truly “shredded” look, which apparently is impossible to hold for longer than it takes to take the pictures or do the contest. The RP guy Dr. Mike talks about this, as well as some of the other coaches with YouTube content out there.

Eh…I don’t know if I’m buying that, and I don’t know if it matters that much. I”m NOT looking to achieve some fleeting moment of absolute riptitude, only to then cycle back and forth between different phases. I want to get somewhere between where I am now and unsustainably lean. A level that is sustainable with sustained effort, but without a feeling of chronic restriction and without risk of rubber-band bingeing my way back to where I started. I’m talking about like 2-5 more pounds here, nothing crazy.

I feel like if I was setting myself up for some kind of metabolic crash by “dieting” for longer than 12 weeks, I would be seeing/feeling signals of this, and I’m NOT. I feel amazing. None of my macros are unsustainably low right now, and my rate of weight loss is super slow. So, I’m kind of already teetering on a maintenance phase, but I’m still kicking so much ass that the fat loss is still noticeable every day.

Finally, I’ve given myself a goal of 2600 and I’m not even hitting that right now. Without really restricting or feeling restrictive, I’m easily able to shut down the intake at about 2300 calories.

Ride it out. Change nothing. Keep kicking ass every day.

You’re done.

Your’e done.

You’re done.

I just read an old post and saw the term “recreationally shredded”. I like that one. That’s what I’m shooting for.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Weight 190.1

A few looks.

Feeling pretty good about the progress I’ve made in 12 weeks. Also glad that it only took about 8 weeks to undo the fat gain from about two years of pretty shitty eating. By week 9, I was already looking beyond just getting back in shape and thinking more about a hitting the next level beyond my previous best-ever.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Friday Macros

33g F
350g C
210g

2930 cals

Saturday

40g F
285g C
155g P

2100 cals

Weekly Average Macros

53 g F
275 g C
187g P

Absolutely NAILING IT!

Limiting fat intake until dinner seems to be making it very easy to stick to my plan.

Front-load protein. Carbs all day.

Saturday AM Workout:. Standard plus Shoulders.

Saturday PM Workout:. Movement and posing. (shit got weird)

Total workout time: 144 minutes
Calories burned:. 1136

---

I ran some numbers on the 12 weeks so far.

Average calories overall: 2300

My calories trendline over the course of the whole 12 weeks is positive. I started out averaging about 2200/day. Now I’m at about 2500.

My output peaked in the middle of the diet, when I was consistently doing double sessions or at least tacking on an extra 500 calories burned every day, on top of lifting.

I’ve dialed that back a bit, and my average output now is at the lowest it has been in the 12 weeks. It’s still up there above 700 calories

Leanness gains keep coming. Quad separation is very cool, it’s like new quads popping up on top of my other quads.

Those lower abs are coming more into focus. Just a little more sculpting to do. Right around the corner.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Sunday Macros: 2900 calories

57g F
295g C
188g P

2 Workouts. 144 minutes total.
1400 calories burned total.

Lots of jump rope today. Less lifting, but I did hit a shitload of volume for triceps. Mostly just single-arm overhead DB extensions with 30lbs.

Calories and Macros balanced out exactly on-target for the week.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on the mirror this week. I’m just trying to ride out this recomp momentum for as long as possible. I may need to throw some low days back in, but I’m hoping not.

Feeling super human in the gym. For as much time as I spend there, I could be way more beat down. Years of “auto regulation” are paying off, I think.

Things get complicated next week. Meetings/travel/catered food and restaurant meals. I will make it work. That’s what I do.

[raven78]

@Serge_A_Storms

I don’t think soy sauce (beyond a tiny little drizzle) is something that works for me.

But it tastes so good. Concur it’s likely not good for humans in anycase… but if I partake in sushi I’ll use plenty of it. Flavour-town!

[Serge_A_Storms]

Monday Macros
2660 calories
65g F
273g C
216g P

Maintenance-level-ish I take.

Output: 2 workouts, 1050 calories burned, 101 minutes.

Probably nets out as a very slight deficit day.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Had a big work trip this week.

Relaxed the restrictions for a few days a bit and took one day off from working out. That’s the first in a while.

I didn’t feel much different in the gym this morning. One day off isn’t going to have a huge impact with the way that I structure my workouts.

I’d like to string a few lower-calorie days together and keep up the intensity of focus on my goal, which I still haven’t hit yet. I do think I’ll need my bodyweight to come down just a bit more to get there. I don’t think I can squeeze out much more recomp.

I took a break from the carbolin-19 (standard practice when I finish a bottle of anything), so adding that back today, tightening up the calorie intake, and staying the course … that’s the plan.

[Serge_A_Storms]

Friday Macros
2500 calories
290g C
195g P
60g F

Saturday Workout

730 calories in 60 minutes avg HR 125 max 169

This was a pure dance/cardio/vibration session.

Weight 191

[Serge_A_Storms]

Sunday Macros
2200 calories

63g F
230g P
175g C

Workouts - 2 Sessions
1800 calories burned total

A lot of everything today - bodyweight stuff, experimental cardio, some standard cardio, some lifting.

[Serge_A_Storms]

I have been cruising along for the past 8 weeks or so at around maintenance calories. Average intake since 1/1 has been 2900 calories, and my weight is stable at 190.

I can easily keep cruising here and just be happy where I’m at from a body composition standpoint. But, I’m also curious to see if I can now drop calories to around 2500 and still tighten up. Big picture, just keep going back-and-forth so that over time, I can use shorter-length deficits with fairly high calorie intakes and gradually keep getting sharper over time without ever having to get into any serious kind of deficit.

My output is high - probably averaging about 800 calories burned/day through exercise. I haven’t missed many days of working out, and I’m usually putting in 1-2 hours/day. Closer to 1 most days, but 90-120 minutes/day is not that uncommon.

If I just stay here, I might still have a shot at doing okay in this transformation challenge, because I can wait until we get close to the end and then just put a little peaking strategy together for the last 2 weeks or so.

On the other hand, I do feel like I’m losing a little interest in the whole fitness thing in general. I like to pair what I’m doing (tennis, getting shredded, cycling, nutrition) with lots of reading and research, and when it comes to fitness/bodybuilding/nutrition content, I can only go so long before I start losing interest. I wish I could just run my fitness and nutrition like a background protocol and get interested and involved in other things while still maintaining a super good condition. Maybe that’s something to strive for, I don’t know.

Instagram seems to think I’m super interested in IFBB wellness competitors showing off their glutes and abs, but I’m kinda done with that.

And on a side note, since when does getting shredded and juiced suddenly turn all of these people into enlightened coaches who have somehow managed to encounter and conquer all sorts of demons and now have these valuable life lessons to share? Skip the platitudes and just caption your shit with, “hey everyone, look how good I look.” I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that. Ron Burgundy pulled it off with ease.

[Serge_A_Storms]

I was in Florida for a week.

Big work event, tons of restaurant meals and late-night partying.

I added a few days in the end just to relax and get sun by myself.

Got COVID out there and after a few days of feeling like shit, I’m starting to turn the corner.

I didn’t log food intake. I’ve done like 3 workouts in the past ten days.

Results: 188.5 pounds today. Lowest weight yet.

Besides two peak symptom COVID days (yesterday and today) where I only ate 1400 calories each day, I was probably eating 3500-5000 calories/day out there during the middle of that trip. We drank a lot and ate a lot.

One thing that really helped offset the damage was the size of the hotel. My room was probably a good half-mile from the meeting room. I was averaging 12,000 steps/day vs my normal 9,000ish.

Another thing was that the partying included a shitload of time on the dance floor. On Saturday, I recorded 24,000 steps! A bunch of those were actually Friday night dance floor hours after midnight, combined with more on Saturday night before midnight. Not sure I’ll ever break that record.

(Dancing tallied up 2500 steps per hour. That’s a lot. Probably bonus steps from the pop-lockin’ bboy arm movements)

The only regret I have is the same one I always have from these types of excursions. Too much alcohol. I regret it for the most superficial of reasons: I didn’t look nearly as sharp at the pool as I could have. The food and booze was on full-tilt for a few days before I even had a chance to go to the pool. I pretty much did everything wrong in terms of “peaking”.

Oh well, no big deal. In the back of my mind, I knew the week would work that way.

What’s next?

Once I feel better, get back to the gym. The nutrition is already back on-point.

Then I need to figure out what my north star will be this summer from a goal standpoint. I can stay fit and eat right without a north star, but to take it to the next level, I feel like I need a more meaningful goal, a solid WHY. That seems to be an even bigger challenge when my goals are inherently more physique-oriented vs. performance-driven.

Oh, and I need to find a way to get out dancing way more often. I forgot how much I love it.

[Serge_A_Storms]

I did a little journaling session to lay down some goals and plans. There was a good bit of bantering that I won’t share, but I came up with a plan. It has some tried-and-true no-brainers and a few new tweaks.

Some elements are outcome-based, some are process-oriented.

Long-term goal: String together four consecutive 8-week periods where the SMART goals are set and not revisited until the end of the 8-week period.

Next 8 weeks:
Decrease bodyfat percentage by three percentage points
Hit my calorie goal of NET intake 1700 calories 6/7 days/week
Do not exceed 60 grams fat 6/7 days/week
Do not exceed 2 units of alcohol 5/7 days/week
Burn 900 calories/day through exercise 7 days/week

If anyone happens to pop in here, let me know your thoughts on those. I’m guessing some would probably be curious about the lack of anything more specific than “burn 900 calories” in my workout-related goals.

The calorie intake goal works out to 2600/day, by the way.

I’m trying to keep the carb and protein macros out of my goals as a way to help me hit my calorie goal a bit more consistently. I think if I keep fat under 60 and hit the calories, carbs and protein will generally work themselves out. What I find happening when I get too nutty with the macros is that I’ll look at where I’m at, realize I’m low in something, and then go eat something to get the macros balanced.

What if I didn’t do that because I didn’t care so much about where my carbs and proteins were relative to each other at any given point throughout the day? I’d probably end up eating less, because I’m not using “topping up my macros” as an excuse for snacking way more than I need to.

[Serge_A_Storms]

New Low Weight - 185.5

I jumped on the In Body bodyfat analyzer at the gym. Last time I was 8.3%. Today I was 8%. Feels about right in terms of the directional trend. The actual number is probably like 10–13% ish probably if I did something like a DEXA scan.

I’ve been crushing it these past few days. Hitting all the goals, not struggling at all with any bullshit appetite/cravings. Simplifying the way I’m tracking (less focus on looking at my grams of carbs and protein so much throughout the day) has been working well so far.

My strength in the gym on the bodyweight movements is absolutely off the charts right now. I’m in a state of super-recovery right now after covid and taking a bunch of days off, plus I’m at a low bodyweight. Handstands and pistols and just moving through space in general feels amazing right now.

Today’s goal: Dance Club

[raven78]

I presume all travelling well here mate? BF in the 7’s or lower now?

[raven78]

Bump again here @Serge_A_Storms trusting all is well!

[Serge_A_Storms]

All good!

It has been a while… I had to recover my password just to give you a reply.

I am still crushing daily workouts with superhuman acts of strength and balance. Still throwing down old school breakin’ moves.

That’s just all the daily routine part.

My passion and energy have gone into my golf swing.

I had a goal to hit a golf ball 350 yards and achieved it last week. I might consider competing in a long drive contest. With the specific equipment and a little bit of speed training, I could probably climb the ranks pretty fast in the masters division.

Hope all is good with you?

[raven78]

Brilliant, glad you’re going strong!

All is well here, same old really, dropped a few kg’s and still lifting heavy things!