Just ordered this. It’ll be here in a week or so. I’ve tried quite a bit of stimulants in my life time (Modafinil, Adderall, Ephedrine etc.) and one of the few things I haven’t tried is DMAA
Seeing it mixed in with DMHA though is pretty crazy. I’ll be keeping this to my leg and deadlift days, or special occasions.
December 5th
Paused Incline Bench
135 x 6
185 x 5
225 x 4
245 x 2
275 x 7 RIR 2
DB Skullcrushers (One Each hand, neutral grip)
40 x 7
60 x 5
70 x 10 PR RIR 1
This was the session. Left after this, felt like I didn’t need to do anything else. I actually went in earlier and I had to leave mid way through my warmups for incline because my wife got stuck in the blizzard.
Still hit good, brutal PRs. The 70s on Skullcrushers were terrifying but got them up. I’ll be staying in the 60s range for this next few sessions before trying my luck with the 80s.
Incline bench was hard af, but again, putting this on the fact I left on my warmups and had to come back 3 hours later after being in almost sub zero temps… Going to be making 5lb jumps here.
Lost 3lbs, down to 212, I’m dropping weight extremely fast with the diet change (I’m going back to the vertical diet, it’s been a week now), and I forgot just how fckn quick I lose the bloat, its almost a bit too fast for my liking, bumping up carbs and sodium.
Morning video dump, like re-watching these when I wake up and don’t wanna get outta bed yet. They’re interesting and I always go back to them as refreshers.
December 6th
Front Squat - Beltless
3 x 135 x 7
185 x 7
2 x 225 x 7
Pete Rubish Hyperextension (Deadlift Width, Hook Grip)
145 x 5
195 x 4
245 x 3
285 x 12 10lb PR RIR 0
Seated Leg Curl
165 x 8
2 x 245 x 8 PR RIR 3
RDL off Plate Loaded Lunge
2pps x 8
3pps x 8
2 x 4pps x 8 RIR 5+
Kneeling Cable Crunch (Facing Away)
130 x 7
2 x 250 x 17 PR
Ed Coan Suitcase Holds (Hook Grip)
135 x 15s
175 x 15s PR + Pain PR
Got told off for not controlling the weight on my hyperextensions and dropping it on the floor without using bumpers. Let me just gently lower damn near 300lbs on a hyperextension real quick lmao.
This gym is getting increasingly strict with everything, I’m planning on leaving very soon, want to stay long enough to finish out my log press block before going to a new one.
Anyways: Hyperextensions were an All time Rep PR, Seated Leg curls also PR. The Hyperextensions are a big deal for me since it’s an indicator lift, so I am extremely happy about this one. Suitcase Holds with a hook grip where BRUTAL. Fuck that hurt.
Dropped another half lb. Down to 211. This is the lightest I’ve been since I was 18 going 19, crazy. Overall I feel “fragile” but strong… I really don’t like this feeling at all, and honestly anything paired with fragile and strong is hypocritical. I’m trying to be extremely careful with warmups.
My knee and palm where fucked up because I took a hard fall yesterday at work, I do deliveries in the morning, and I had to send out packages on pretty ice sidewalks with a snow drift and wind chill, glad I didn’t crack my skull open. Pretty bruised up but ignored it and got the work in.
Week 7
Have a lot of thoughts to unpack and a lot of things to say. Alot of new training ideas that I will be taking for a spin. Since it’s the start of a new training block on the squat & deads, this is giving me room to be able to push my accessories hard.
First off, I’m in the homestretch and watching everything like a hawk, recovery wise. Even without the fact that I am still maintaining a hard calorie deficit, I usually end up getting injured around Weeks 7-10. Put a deficit on top of that, and I have a recipe for disaster.
This has included a copious amount of stretching and resistance band mobility work before leg days, even the addition of light jump-roping. This fragile but strong feeling isn’t too great and I’d like to avoid any crazy, freak injury that’ll take me out even for a few weeks.
To snowball off of that… That’s one of the reasons I planned out my Squat and Deadlift Training the way I did. The intensity for the next 4 weeks is going to be fairly manageable as I start off new training blocks, so by the time I go back up to maintain, my body will have what it needs to properly recover and grow as intensity is ramped up.
My numbers are not set in stone yet. A big reason (and the most obvious) is because I genuinely just don’t have a baseline. It sucks to be going in blind, but a baseline has to start somewhere, and it’s only doing me more harm than good NOT to be doing it. So these 12 weeks will be unchartered territory and every set and weight I hit moving forward, will technically be a PR.
Squat
The benefit of front squatting is that I get to hit my hamstrings harder and I can get away with that. RDLs are going to be a big one moving forward. I might be able to get away with this alongside rows & hyperextensions. One of them might have to give in the later stages but we’ll deal with that when it comes.
I’m going to be experimenting with static holds more often on the Squat for at least a few weeks. Going to be testing out some ideas I have. If it doesn’t work, then at least it’ll be a learning experience.
Bench:
Honestly, I’m progressing really nicely here. There’s no complaints and not really anything I feel like I need to change.
Lying Dumbell Skullcrushers, Log Press and Incline Dumbell Flyes have all been accessory lifts i’ve actually been looking forward too. It’s starting to overtake the incline bench press in terms of excitement. I’ve been progressing so well with them, and with reps left, that I think this is a big part of it. It’s like my mind KNOWS it has a PR waiting for it whenever I step foot in the gym for the next upper body session and this is what I think the excitement is coming from.
The next big thing on my list is Weighted Dips in conjunction with Larsen Pressing. Again, still letting the pot simmer with all these different accessory lifts… I don’t think I need to add these in just yet, but Weighted Dips are one of the few things I have rarely trained, there is gains waiting for me here once I hit these seriously.
Deadlift/Back
There’s not too much to say here. This is kind of the same thing with my squats currently, I have no baseline for Paused Deficit Deadlifts, so this will be unchartered territory.
A big focus for this training block will be Hyperextensions and Rows. I haven’t pushed them in awhile while a focused intensity and I think the next 5-6 weeks is going to give me room to be able to do this.
Thoughts on losing weight In General:
What this Weight Cut is showing me is that: I didn’t lose the discipline I thought I lost all those years ago. When I dropped my 95lbs in Highschool, it was slow, over about a year. I was afraid that all these years of Dirty Bulking would make me lose my discipline but I realized it was a mental hurdle that needed to be overcome, the first step was the hardest and now it’s actually much easier.
A second thought: This was inevitable and needed to happen. Why? Because at a certain point, I’m going to want to downsize and not hit the gym as hard. This could be 20, 30 years down the road from now. If I don’t start now… when it’s much easier because i’m young and moving fast, how much harder would this be for me to learn when i’m in my 40s or 50s and want to drop weight with even MORE life stressors, which I barely have right now.
Also what’s this teaching me is how to train through a deficit and take injury management seriously. I’ll only be a better lifter this way by feeling both sides of the coin. It’s showing me what I can get away with and what I can’t. It’s teaching me when to push and when I can’t. It’s also teaching me how to keep progressing without always being peaked out all the time. This is a win for me, because it’s teaching me some seriously valuable things that I can apply to my next Bulk. I’ll come out better and stronger.
When plotting my numbers for my accessory lifts out onto a graph on Strengthlevel, I realized that I am still in an upward trend for EVERYTHING except my main competition compound lifts. I’m still progressing in a linear, upward fashion. I am still getting stronger.
December 8th
Standing Log Press
75 x 5
115 x 5
175 x 14 Massive 2 Rep PR RIR 2
135 x 18 10lb PR RIR 3-4
Incline DB Flye (Paused)
70 x 8
80 x 4
2 x 95 x 10 RIR 2 PR
Neutral Grip Shoulder Press Machine
130 x 8
170 x 4
2 x 220 x 10 2 Rep PR RIR 5-6
Plate Loaded Dip
3p x 4
5p x 4
2 x 7p x 17 2 Rep PR RIR 4
Seated Face Pulls (Max ROM, Paused)
Full Stack
2 Sets of 25 PR RIR 1
PR Session all across the board, a rare occurrence but fucking sweet when it happens. All with reps left, which still leaves me room to grow.
My DMAA pre-workout comes tomorrow as well. I’ll be waiting till I get that before going in for a brutal deadlift day
I’ve been eating 2500 calories for the last 7 weeks and it finally looks like my weight has stabilized and the weight loss has slowed down. The last 3-4 lbs with maybe 1lb of that being fat seemed to be mostly water bloat being stripped off from the diet change. I’m hovering at a steady 212 now.
Also some golden knowledge from Jeremy Hamilton. Been watching alot of videos from him lately.
So many PRs up in here! Nice job!
December 9th
1" Deficit Paused Deadlift - Beltless
3 x 135 x 3
225 x 1
315 x 1
385 x 7
395 x 3
Barbell Cheat Rows
365 x 3
405 x 3
435 x 8 10LB PR RIR 0
Row Machine
Full Stack
2 Sets of 20 Reps
Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown w/ Cable Flye Attachment
3 x 180 x 15 PR
Kneeling Cable Crunch (Facing Away)
75 x 15
2 x 220 x 25 PR
KB Swings / One Arm KB Swings (Supersets)
3 x 75 x 15 PR
My pre-workout didn’t come in the mail oof, delayed until tomorrow. Kinda irritated by that so used it to fuel this workout on top of a double scoop of pre haha.
Brutal volume all around, heavy ass rows, very cheatsy but my lats and traps were damm fried after that and I wanted to see if i could do it lol, fun day. Unfortunately the camera didn’t capture the plates on the outside (a 10 and 5) and I don’t really care, I’m happy with it.
Smoked myself with volume, this was a different gym and they had heavier Kettlebells so hit a PR with those.
December 11th
Weighted Pullups (DL Grip)
3 x BW x 8
BW + 35 x 12
BW + 35 x 11
Conventional Rack Pull @ At Knees (Hook Grip)
225 x 3
315 x 3
405 x 3
495 x 3
585 x 3
675 x 3
Drop Down to Wide Grip Snatch Width (Straps)
3 x 405 x 20
DB Row (Paused)
3 x 160 x 15 PR
Barbell Cheat Row
315 x 5
405 x 3
445 x 8 PR
I am so hopped up on DMAA right now. Psychotic Level Workout.
I am writing this as I lay sprawled out on the floor. I am in pain but it feels so good haha.
PRs all around, I’m taking the next two to three days off depending on how I recover. I am NOT eating at deficit today, I will be going into a slight surplus.
Maybe I’ll come back to edit this later. Don’t got the energy right now… Consensus on this pre-workout… It’s about the same as low dose Adderall, insane. Can’t do anything else at all except lay here lol.
All I got video wise, cut off some of the first reps, didn’t realize it. this was more of a form thing
December 12th
Comp Squat
5 x 225 x 5
Paused Incline Bench
3 x 135 x 8
3 x 45 x 12
Conventional Deadlift
5 x 115 x 5
Bunch of technique stuff
Well. Looks like my shoulder is fucked. Was driving to work today and a sharp pain popped up in my rotator cuff enough to make me wince, just turning the steering wheel. It hasn’t gone away.
All that stretching, watching and preventative measures didn’t do shit. Oh well, I’ll see how it feels the next couple of days. I’m going to take it gracefully in stride.
Unfortunately, I’ll have to put the brakes on my upper body training for a bit. I need to figure out what’s fucking with it the most.
I’m sorry, 20? Jesus Christ man, that’s nuts.
Week 8 (Still Cutting)
Fucking hate this shit right now
Recovery:
Alright, a word on the Rotator Cuff. It’s a bit tender today. I think I ended up straining it. What’s insane to me, is that it’s a steering wheel that took me out. The external rotation is probably what was fucking with me.
It’s a bit disheartening because I truly did take alot of measures to try to stay as injury free as possible. I was doing alot of stretching, hydrating, cleaned up the diet, and warming up.
I could have been a little better with the Frequency, but leading up to it, it wasn’t even that insane. Incline Benching 1x/wk with 2x/wk of Shoulders and Tris. Very sensible and realistic. It brings me back to a Mark Bell Quote with John Haack “No matter how hard you try, sometimes shit just happens.”
Regardless, I’m not going to dwell on it too much. Thankfully, it was a strain outside of the gym. What this mean’s is that 1) it was definently past the point of no return and 2) at least I didn’t injure it under heavy load. So hopefully with that second point, it’ll play out in my favor and give me some quick recovery time.
This doesn’t change much in my training. I’ll have to drop the Incline Benching though. But I can still find some ways to get some good work in. I’m going in tomorrow to feel out what I can and can’t do. I may avoid heavy rowing as well.
Nutrition:
This has been significantly cleaned up. I’ve been eating around 2lbs of Meat a day, with a good spread of vegetables. Lots of Wild Rice, Oats, Honey, and Tuna or Canned Salmon on the side. Also lots of Berries.
A big part of this switch up is because i’ve ran the Vertical Diet before with great success in the past. Another part of this is because I have a pretty big fascination with Bears since I was a kid (Cue Joe Rogan lmao). I think they’re cool and I’ve really been making a conscious effort to mirror some of their eating habits/food choices. I’m not sure how it will affect me, but I enjoy the array of food they eat. I guess it’s a Bear-Esque diet but honestly it’s just shit that I’ve already been eating just narrowed down lmao.
The diet change has done some really interesting things to me, I’ve been craving Beef or Fish with Wild Rice especially. When I wake up in the mornings I used to just slam some sugary cereal but now I wake up craving some sort of Honey, Berry and Oatmeal Combination. . Fast Food Cravings, Sugar Cravings still pop up obviously but is significantly down.
I’m still leaning out pretty quick. Obliques are obviously coming in now, Upper Abs are slowly, slowly coming into shape. It’s only been 3-4 years since I’ve started seeing them lol.
Training:
How I feel right now lol
December 17th
Midnight Session
Beltless Paused Squat w/ 80lb Chains
3 x 45 x 15
3 x 135 + 80lbs x 5
225 + 80lbs (305) x 3
315 + 80lbs (395) x 3
3 x 365 + 80lbs (445) x 3 RIR 4
1" Paused Deficit Deadlift - Beltless
135 x 5
225 x 4
3 x 305 x 5 (50%)
Seated Leg Curl
120 x 8
190 x 8
2 x 255 x 8 RIR 3 PR
Pete Rubish Hyperextension
135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 2
265 x 15 PR + Pain PR RIR 0
Hyperextension and Leg Curl PRs.
Squatting with Chains was significantly harder than I anticipated it to be. Like… Insanely hard. I did not realize how much stabilization is required for this. My gym does have 2 Chains (heh) but I was too blind to see the other one which was halfway across the gym on the 2nd floor. Felt like a near death experience just walking it out.
My Shoulder felt a little rough on deads, 305 didn’t aggravate it too much. Kept it at 50% of my deficit max. This isn’t good because it still hurt with 305. Not good. Hyperextensions aggravated it even more so had to bring the straps out.
Felt very slow and sluggish coming in. Saturday and Sunday I drank quite a bit because an old friend I hadn’t seen since we were 12 was in town (8 beers on Saturday and 9 on Sunday, pretty much the entire day spent drinking), I was feeling it today.
For the chains, I’m not sure if I set this up correctly. Anyone who has experience can chime in because I have no idea if this is right. I think it is. My gym has no clips to hang chains on so I kinda had to improvise
Ah, I forgot to mention a little training note. Don’t feel like editing it.
I messed around with a few grip variations. The only thing that gave me the most relief and minimized the pain was doing Flat Reverse Grip Benching. This is promising. Going to be playing around with this.
Most Pulling, Tricep and Pulldown Movements (Basically 80% of like… Everything) aggravates it right now.
December 18th
Paused Incline Bench Press - Close Grip Spoto Press
45 x 15
115 x 15
135 x 15
155 x 15
205 x 3
2 x 225 x 15
This didn’t cause too much pain. Stopped 2-3 inches above my chest, slow and controlled. The pump was awesome. I’m glad to be able to do something with minimal discomfort.
Reverse grip bench is the shit!! I do all of my raw bench with a reverse grip
I used to do it alot a couple years ago, it’s a good variation to have and I agree it’s awesome. I actually got pretty strong with it for awhile. I almost feel like I should play around with it again to see if I’m stronger Reverse Wise, cue Anthony Clark lol.
Do you train it because you prefer that grip? Or a pre existing injury? What carryover do you think it has to your regular flat bench if you do it?
Finally, finally bit the bullet after like 2.5 years of contemplating whether or not to get Weightlifting Shoes for Squatting. A big reason was just money wise, I saw these on sale for 32$, originally 75. I had to get it with a deal like that lol.
I have terrible ankle and calf mobility. I’m hoping these are a gamechanger for me. I’m assuming i’ll have to make some form adjustments as I break them in. But I have high hopes this will make my squat as efficient and comfortable as it can be.
Jimmy Kolb uses it exclusively for his raw bench. After talking to him about it, I switched over to it, and you really can’t argue with a 1400lbs + bencher lol. It’s made my lockout in my shirt alot stronger
