When I was cutting calories I could have a bad weekend and eat what ever I wanted and I’d gain 15lbs, few days back on the plan and I’d drop 15lbs. A lot of the weight we lose while dieting is water and glycogen and other random things that I don’t know. Point it, I wouldn’t try and get too hung up on the number vs the look.
Pot meet kettle obviously 
I’m also a big fan of not weighing yourself.
Thank you wannabe
also you and your gf look great together.
I can see how people would struggle with weight loss. From my experience so far, it takes a lot of discipline and patience. You and @wanna_be pretty much told me to just trust the process.
I am vastly underestimating how much time this process can take and I just have to accept it.
Nothing wrong with scheduling some diet breaks to give you a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m a fan of that approach. 12 weeks gaining, 7 week break. It can go the other way too. 12 weeks losing, 7 week break. The “trick” is to “keep the goal the goal”. Don’t turn it into a gaining or losing phase: just take a break, eat normally, train hard, then get back to work.
Maybe some opposite advice, but I will say, breaks are the enemy. Your mileage may vary, but I find that weight loss can stagnate seemingly out of nowhere. Diets the same, nutrition the same, but sometimes the weight falls, and sometimes it sticks around a bit.
Obviously this advice is different if you are already relatively lean trying to get ripped, but coming as a guy whose dropping a lot of weight, the absolute last thing I want to do is to take the gas off the pedal when things are going well. If I stagnate, maybe it’s time to bump calories for a few weeks and allow my body to reset. But if the weight is going the direction I want it to, I find it best to just ride it out until a stall.
That was my idea from the start as well, if I need a diet break then I have that option but right now I don’t feel one is necessary.
When I initially saw this my mind created “Todd the Immortal.” He’s just some dude you went to high school with that you never figured out was immortal because he lived a very normal, safe life.
When I think of the name Todd, to me it’s a name that belongs to a blonde hair douchebag football player, who’s probably a quarterback.
Well, unfortunately, Tood the blonde-haired douchebag is also immortal!
Lol Tood
Heretotypo
@T3hPwnisher Silly question but can you gain size on conjugate?
No joke, I could train this way for years and never change the routine.
I could also use all those movements in Bill Pearl Keys to Inner Universe to target every muscle group.
To me it’s like 5/3/1’s cooler older brother.
Before I answer, I’m curious what you think the answer is.
The answer is yes.
And why is that?
As long as my training reflects my caloric surplus then I will gain size and strength.
That’s a fantastic observation to be sure. If you are eating big, you will gain size, no matter HOW you train. What training does is impact the ratio of how much of that size is muscle vs fat. Some training is better than others for that.
One of the things to remember about Conjugate (which you read in all those articles I linked you along with that free e-book) is that what makes Conjugate Conjguate is that you are training multiple qualities AT ONCE. You train maximal strength, speed AND hypertrophy all at the same time. That said, training can (and should) STILL be phasic using conjugate, much like you’re demonstrating right now running it while in a fat loss phase of training.
Conjugate can absolutely be run indefinitely, because it’s not a program so much as a collection of principles that guide programming. 5/3/1 is the same way. What makes 5/3/1 more user friendly is that it doesn’t require NEAR the knowledge depth that conjugate does to be effective. Right now, you’re young enough in your training that you can pretty much get strong doing anything.
Make no mistake: you are a strong dude. BUT, you’re so “new” to the game that EVERYTHING is “weak” such that, if you focus on it, you’ll make it strong and see it reflected in your lifts. If you were to specialize in your triceps right now, your bench would go up…but the same is true if you picked pecs or shoulders. But one day, you’ll finally reach a point where making your shoulders stronger isn’t what is necessary, and you have to be smarter about what you pick for your assistance and supplemental work.
That’s where having a team/crew comes in handy with conjugate, because we tend to be terrible personal evaluators of our ability while outsiders are MUCH better at it. With 5/3/1, we keep things mostly the same and train the programming of the lifts in order to affect change, with conjugate, we keep the programming the same and change the lifts.
My first initial great big bulk, going from 190lbs to 217 (SO close to 220) was using a conjugate approach. It absolutely works, and you’re right: it’s FUN to train that way (as much fun as training can be). Except I never cared for dynamic effort work. But that’s because I was doing the Westside Barbell box squat against bands thing. If I did it over and did some kettlebell quick lifts or box jumps or something, I’m sure I’d enjoy it more.
Tim’s Fictional Character Of The Day
Blade
Absolutely love Blade. During winter break I watched Wesley Snipe’s blade and fell in love with the character and the movie. The first Blade movie is one of my favorite movies ever, it’s badass and very gritty. I actually started reading comics with Blade these past couple of weekends. I started reading Midnight Sons and I finished a Marvel Team Up Comic with Blade and Punisher.
Ramble:
There are a ton of different Marvel characters I want to read more about. From the top of my head: Black Panther, Blade, Morbius, Punisher, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch), Venom, Cloak and Dagger, Luke Cage, Agent Venom, etc.
Doesn’t matter what universe either but, so far the ultimate universe of Marvel has been my favorite. I still haven’t finished reading Ultimate Spider-Man.
Another thing, you could probably tell but I am a big fan of the Marvel vs Capcom game series and there is a good reason for that. The characters in the game feel…well… comicy (lol that is probably not a word). The more I read comics, the more my opinion changes on the mcu. Not sayin those movies aren’t enjoyable cause if they weren’t enjoyable I wouldn’t have watched all of it. Let’s just say that I wish there was more mature Marvel media out there. Also it seems as if a lot of Marvel media (games/shows/whatever) resembles the mcu which stinks lol. It would be pretty sick if Marvel made animated movies like DC universe does, those movies are awesome. Last weekend I was watching an animated movie with Black Widow and Punisher.
Conjugate Training
Week 7 Day 3
Dynamic Effort Lower
Speed Box Squat
10 x 2 - 265 lbs (10-20 sec in between)
Conventional Deadlift Speed Pull
10 x 1 - 355 lbs (10 sec in between)
Bent Over Row- 3 x 10 - 225 lbs
RDL - 3 x 10 - 285 lbs
Standing E-Z Bar Curls - 4 x 10 - 90 lbs
Tabata Armor Building Complexes - 35 lb kettlebells - 4 Minutes - 10 ABCs
Back Squat - 3 x AMRAP - 225 lbs
Incline Treadmill Walk - 2.2 Speed - 11.5 Incline - 30 minutes
Most definitely going to do that 20 squat/20 deadlift thingy Pwn and boilerman do eventually. Probably within a couple weeks or so to replace 3 x amrap back squat.
I really wish I had the mobility to do regular front squats, I would be going crazy (not too crazy) with them especially on dynamic effort days.
Where are you lacking the mobility? The rack portion or the actual squat portion?
