Let me know how it goes! It’s a pretty brutal setup. I always try to go as close to failure as possible with every set…
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12/13
Woke 166.4
I was feeling a bit drained so I allowed a bit of a cheat meal on Wednesday night. Not much of one. Had flour tortillas with my fajitas rather than lettuce wraps. I did have a few margaritas. The pump that I got on the next workout was insane. I felt gigantic. If I compete again after knee surgery I’m definitely gonna have a carb heavy meal the night before. I didn’t do that this go round and think I could have looked a lot bigger on stage.
Today’s gonna be back and biceps. I’ve already hit it hard once this week so it will probably be more of a high rep pump session.
My wife is trying to drop some weight and is more likely to get her workouts in if I do them with her so I’ve been training more than usual. She’s down 9 lbs so that’s awesome.
Anyways hope everyone has a good weekend
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Nice progress pics, well done Jack.
And that last picture, looking good man.
great workouts you’re putting in.
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Workout today was short but brutal. 100 pull ups in under 25 minutes. Started super strong and was smoked at the end!
12/16
Woke 167.8
Got my flu shot on Friday and not sure if it was coincidence or not but was pretty sick on Saturday. Just felt bad in general but had a nasty round of stomach flu issues. After a bunch of Imodium finally got some sleep and woke up on Sunday at 165.2. This morning I was back to normal.
HGH update… I am starting to notice more fat loss visually and that the scale isn’t really dropping much nowadays. At this point I track fat loss with the appearance of new veins lol. I’ve been seeing one peek out occasionally on the side of my stomach by my obliques. It didn’t show up until right before competition last go round. Hopefully this trend continues. So far it’s been all good other than some hand pain/numbness here and there.
Today’s work:
Chest and triceps
Dumbbell press 3x15@52.5 (10 second reps)
Cable fly 3x15@200
Incline dumbbell press 3x15@52.5 (10 second reps)
Incline cable fly 3x15@160
Tricep kickbacks 3x15@40
Rope pull downs 3x15@150
Skull crushers 3x15@72.5
Cable bar push downs 3x15@160
Finisher
Underhand incline pushups to failure
Push ups to failure
Knee push ups to failure
Is hand pain/numbness a known side effect?
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Yep. Typically associated with carpal tunnel syndrome.
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Yeah, I’m not sure why though. I don’t have pain so much as my hands just fall asleep a lot at night. Not the numb fall asleep but the pins and needles. Annoying but not bad at all
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pins and needles in the pinky and 3rd finger? Sleep with your elbows in a bent position?
Could be ulnar nerve entrapment and cubital tunnel syndrome.
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Yep. Middle finger through pinkey and sleep with arms bend under me or under the pillow. Only happens when I’m taking peptides or GH though… any ideas on why? I start trying to sleep on my back and side but always end up on my stomach.
Hypertrophy or inflammation of the carpal tunnel, compressing nerves in your hand would be my guess.
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12/17
Woke 166.0
I’ve started a carb cycling routine. With a lot of research I’ve come to the conclusion that carb cycling is probably the most effective and sustainable method for fat loss and maintaining a super lean physique year round. So pretty much I’ll be doing two super low carb days (Mon, Tues) which means my only carbs will come from veggies and the three strawberries I have in the morning. Should total around 50. Wednesday will be a high carb day at 250 carbs, Thurs and Fri will be low carb again, Saturday will be high carb and Sunday will be medium carb. Prob around 150. Protein will be 200-250 all days and fat will stay under 50 grams.
From what I’ve read the carb cycling has a few benefits as opposed to simply keeping carbs moderately low.
- Continuously changing your carb intake will increase your insulin sensitivity which is a big plus for fat loss and how you body deals with sugar in general.
- Having two high carb days a week will give you a mental break, and also offer more energy throughout the week for workouts.
- Not being completely depleted will help balance cortisol, and leptin levels in the body which will also aid on fat burning.
I did the first low carb day yesterday and it wasn’t too bad. I’m definitely hungry today, but still feel pretty good energy wise. Guess only time will tell how I feel long term on this.
Back is feeling pretty crappy today so I’m gonna hit shoulders and hopefully it will be happier
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How do you pack all that in?? 
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Looks good. Big fan of carb cycling after trying 100% low carb a few times.
Two questions: do you keep total calories relatively constant each day as the macros fluctuate? And how do your feeding correlate with your training (i.e., is Wednesday, your highest carb day, a high energy output day, etc.)
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I think I’m just going to try to keep total calories right around 2k. So on low carb days I’ll be a little looser with fat intake and high carb days I’ll keep fat super low. Protein will always be right around 200-250.
For me this is really an experiment to see if I can reach stage level leanness without the accompanied miserable fatigue levels. Right now I’m around 8% body fat I’d guess and before my contest this is right at the point where the exhaustion set in.
I would say that my workouts are pretty consistent as far as energy output goes, so not I won’t be adjusting that. They are pretty much 60-90 minutes of as hard as I can push myself.
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Have you considered using a targeted keto or cyclical keto diet to achieve your goals? Ive been keto for I think 4 or 5 months and ive been using targeted keto with refeed days. Its been awesome. Super lean. Never have crazy hunger but I can eat like a horse and stay shredded. What your diet looks like is not far from mine but I dont take in near as many carbs even on refeed days.
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I didn’t feel like I could get enough protein in and stay in ketosis and I ended up having cholesterol issues. What are your macro splits like? Also where are you getting your fat primarily from?
Are you timing your high carb days with certain lifting days? Legs is high carb, chest and back are moderate carb, abs and conditioning or rest days are low/no carb. For me, at least.
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I’m not… not training legs right now because the lack of an ACL. Just gonna see how it goes. If I feel like I’m tanking I’ll probably make adjustments. And… with Christmas next week there will naturally be some flexibility in the plan
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