All comments appreciated
Edit: I feel the pics all look a little clearer/better quality if you go to my hub and click photos for some reason, maybe check em out there if you’re interested
You’re like the leanest person ever.
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
You’re like the leanest person ever. [/quote]
Haha I dunno if I’d go that far but thanks!
Just like to say this log is really inspirational.
Keep it up!
[quote]E901 wrote:
Just like to say this log is really inspirational.
Keep it up![/quote]
Wow thanks man I really appreciate the comment. If you have any questions or anything feel free to ask, I’d be glad to help.
Thanks again.
I think it’s safe to say that you have had a very successful cut, and looks like you maintained all your strength. Any before pics?
edit: nevermind, saw them pg 1. Awesome progress
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
I think it’s safe to say that you have had a very successful cut, and looks like you maintained all your strength. Any before pics?
edit: nevermind, saw them pg 1. Awesome progress[/quote]
Thanks man! Quite happy with how the cut went. It’s cool because everything in this ‘sport’ happens so slowly that you don’t feel like you’re making much progress, but when I look at those pictures from so long ago I definitely do look a whole lot different.
Might as well give a wee update of my plans for the next little while…
So I’m low 170’s now, plan on slowly gaining weight for about the next six months, and prooobably doing a PL meet mid-May (I’m assuming there will be one in London around there because that’s when it usually is), and I’d probably want to be under 183 pounds for that. So maybe getting up to around 190 over the next 5 months or so, and then just eat a little bit less til the meet. Focus will still be mostly bodybuilding, but with emphasis on adding weight to my bench and squat especially, and also OHP and deadlift.
To start adding weight I’m mostly just be eating a bit more carbs around my workout, doing less cardio, and not worrying as much if I want to eat something ‘bad.’ Cardio I figure will just be about 20 mins of intervals on the bike, 2-3 times/week.
Lifting will be:
Day 1: Chest/Front/Lateral delt, Day 2: Back/traps/rear delt/abs, Day 3: Arms, Day 4: Legs (3 out of 4 times I’ll be squatting, 4th time deadlifting), repeat… will be lifting 7 days/week unless I feel I need a day off.
Progression plan for main lifts:
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Bench press - start weight of 265, do 7 sets of 3, next time 5 sets of 4, next 3 sets of 5, next 2 sets of 6, next 1 set of 7, next add 5 pounds and repeat… did 265 x 3 sets of 5 quite easy today, hoping to be able to keep progressing on this for a while.
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OHP - start weight 125 - same rep setup/progression as bench. I know it’s harder to progress on OHP than it is on bench but my OHP is horrid compared to my bench so I’m hoping it can go up as quickly.
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Squat: First day - 275 x 4 sets of 5, next day 285 x 4 sets of 4, next day 295 x 4 sets of 3, next day deadlift, next day add 10 pounds and repeat. Starting light on this too, hoping I can progress for a while. Deadlift I’ll just work up to a heavy set of 2-6, then 5 speed sets of 3 at 405.
Most other lifts I won’t worry about weight, worry a lot more about using the right muscles, feeling them work, etc. Lots of Mountain Dog type training for the most part.
Sure is hard to gain weight eating “clean.” For the past week I’ve been eating 3300-3500 “good” calories (1700-1900 pre and post-workout together), doing no cardio, and the scale has been ever so slowly moving down haha. Weird because at the end of my diet I was eating 2000-2200 and doing cardio almost every day. Damn.
Tonight at the gym I witnessed a 450 pound bench, most I’ve ever seen in person. As he was benching, I also witnessed a grown man pin himself with 85 pounds on the bar and have to roll it off himself. The best, and the worst, feats of benching I’ve ever seen, within a few minutes of each other.
Also, training’s going well. Weight is slowwwly going up (which is what I want, about a half pound/week), and the progression of my lifts is going just as planned (although that’s a lot easier to do at the start, just hope it keeps up for months).
Benched 340 today! All time PR, and I did it after I did 330 (only planned on going to 330, but it felt so easy I had to try heavier). 350 is my goal for end of February.
Dude, you need to update this log more often.
GOOD JOB on the benching!!!
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
Dude, you need to update this log more often.
GOOD JOB on the benching!!![/quote]
Thanks Spock! Maaaybe I will
Strict Overhead Pressed 160 tonight, which is a 5-pound PR! And it wasn’t too hard so I did it for 3 singles actually. Yes, my OHP does suck very badly compared to my other lifts, but I’ll take it!
Weighing around 178, so I’ve gained about 8 pounds in the last 3 months, some muscle some fat. That’s pretty much the rate I am trying to gain, because I gained a couple pounds right off the bat, then about half a pound per week.
Hey man I was looking for your log the other day lol. Nice on the OHP.
Can you tell me some of the details of your cut when you get the chance. Honestly very impressive how lean you got.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Hey man I was looking for your log the other day lol. Nice on the OHP.
Can you tell me some of the details of your cut when you get the chance. Honestly very impressive how lean you got.[/quote]
Thanks man I appreciate it, and for sure:
Training-wise, I just did a 4-way split, usually have a main lift or two that I try to lift as heavy as I can (bench, squat, deadlift, OHP), focus on weight progression, and other lifts focus more on feeling the muscles work, some Mountain-dog style stuff, etc. You can look through the log to see exactly what I was doing but you obviously know what you’re doing there. I actually lift pretty much every day because I just find I feel better the more I’m in the gym.
My diet was high protein, moderate-low fat, low-ish carbs, mostly around my workout. And I removed stuff as I went, ended up quite low at the end. It started like this:
Breakfast/pre-workout: 1 cup oatmeal, granola bar, and protein shake with 2-3 scoops protein, a banana, and a yogurt.
Post-workout: 1 cup oatmeal, granola bar, protein shake with mixed berries.
Later: either 4-5 scrambled eggs with cheese, ham, and green pepper, and a handful of almonds; or salad with can of tuna, ham, ranch sauce, maybe cheese, handful of almonds.
Dinner: Meat and vegetables, maybe a carb source on leg or back day.
Before bed - protein shake.
I also had around 8 fish oil/day, multivitamin, creatine, and later on in the cut took a fat burner.
By the end I was eating significantly less than this, i.e. no oatmeal, less cheese, no almonds, never carb source with dinner, and only had one granola bar on leg day and back day, the other days basically only carbs coming from the banana and mixed berries.
At first I didn’t do cardio, by the end I was doing about 40 mins of steady-state cardio on the bike, 5-6 times/week. I just did easy steady state stuff since I was at the gym pretty much every day and in a caloric deficit so I didn’t want to put much extra stress on my body.
While I did get quite lean, I think I took away too much too fast, as well as adding in too much cardio too fast, and ended up making it harder on myself by crashing my metabolism a bit. At the end I was eating 1800ish calories, lifting and doing cardio almost every day, and just barely losing weight. About 6 weeks after this diet, I was maintaining on 3300-3500 calories and virtually no cardio, maybe once/week. So, while effective, if I had’ve been a bit more patient/smarter about it, I could’ve made it easier on myself. And, if I want to get leaner than that in the future, I’ll need to be more careful about that, because it would’ve been very difficult for me to lose much more without making myself miserable.
Thanks.
I basically have been dropping weight fast, eating around the same and doing cardio for 45-60 minutes 6-7 days a week. I like my cardio though so no complaints.
How well are you holding onto that condition. I have no doubts I’ll get to where I want to get to as far as leaness goes, I just don’t want to worry so much about maintaining. It seems like your holding onto that condition well considering you said you’re eating 3300-3500 cals a day.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
How well are you holding onto that condition. I have no doubts I’ll get to where I want to get to as far as leaness goes, I just don’t want to worry so much about maintaining. It seems like your holding onto that condition well considering you said you’re eating 3300-3500 cals a day.[/quote]
Actually I eat even more than that on most days now, because I have been trying to put weight on. It’s actually been close to 3 months since those pictures now, and I’ve gained about 8 pounds, some muscle some fat. With the amount I’m eating now, I do feel it’d be much easier to get back down to that condition pretty quickly though.
[quote]Gmoore17 wrote:
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
How well are you holding onto that condition. I have no doubts I’ll get to where I want to get to as far as leaness goes, I just don’t want to worry so much about maintaining. It seems like your holding onto that condition well considering you said you’re eating 3300-3500 cals a day.[/quote]
Actually I eat even more than that on most days now, because I have been trying to put weight on. It’s actually been close to 3 months since those pictures now, and I’ve gained about 8 pounds, some muscle some fat. With the amount I’m eating now, I do feel it’d be much easier to get back down to that condition pretty quickly though.
[/quote]
Sounds good brotha. Well you did well. Just one last questions about it, how long did it take and how much did you lose overall?
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
[quote]Gmoore17 wrote:
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
How well are you holding onto that condition. I have no doubts I’ll get to where I want to get to as far as leaness goes, I just don’t want to worry so much about maintaining. It seems like your holding onto that condition well considering you said you’re eating 3300-3500 cals a day.[/quote]
Actually I eat even more than that on most days now, because I have been trying to put weight on. It’s actually been close to 3 months since those pictures now, and I’ve gained about 8 pounds, some muscle some fat. With the amount I’m eating now, I do feel it’d be much easier to get back down to that condition pretty quickly though.
[/quote]
Sounds good brotha. Well you did well. Just one last questions about it, how long did it take and how much did you lose overall?[/quote]
Hmm looking back, it seems I lost 19-21 pounds in 2 months (bought a new scale in the middle of it so not sure of the exact number). I actually didn’t realize it was that fast, no wonder my metabolism took a dive.