Taking a break from posting while deloading. Still tracking macros roughly. Had a big cheat last night and ate 2500+ total cals today; 2200 net. Tomorrow is beach day and still showing Abs just not as shredded which is fine with fuller muscles and feeling much better. Will hover around 2000-2200 net cals most of the week, have one more cheat then start bulking next Saturday. Bodyweight was 159 this morning so I’ll try to keep it 157-159 for most of the week.
Phenomenal vacation and phenomenal Deload. Came back at 159 and weighed in at 157 this morning; feeling much better on more carbs and almost half the caffeine. I had 1 large cheat meal to the point I overindulged and puked several hours later lol. I fit some ice cream and other treats into my macros on other days without going crazy which kept my weight stable while reverse dieting. First time I maintained self control on vacation as I worked too hard to get ripped to just let it all go.
I Walked 4-6 miles a day for cardio on average on top of many additional steps from family time on the boardwalk and beach. Not lifting for legs (I only hit a Bodyweight circuit Wenning warmup style; 3 movements 4x25 each) and only hitting 1 movement per upper body muscle far from failure twice in the last week is exactly what I needed. I feel so refreshed and ready to destroy weights in my next mesocycle.
I am reverse dieting currently averaging 2200-2300 net calories a day and will add 100-150 calories/day per week for a few weeks before I ramp up my bulk. I expect to be 160-163 from water weight gain by time I bulk but am almost as lean still as I was at 155 while being 157-159. Below are some vacation physique pics:
I developed my next mesocycle training split and am ecstatic as I hit my first day today. It’s based on a 6 day bro split with moderate to higher frequency by adding in additional work per muscle so I get the best of both worlds; the fun of a bodybuilding split with the science of moderate frequency (2x a week for most muscles; 3x for calves). Below is the new split:
Saturday Leg Day (Quad Focus) + Biceps
Sunday Chest Day + Shoulders & Abs
Monday Back Day + Extra Calves
Tuesday Arm Day
Wednesday Legs (Glute/Ham Focus) + Abs
Thursday Shoulder Day + Chest & Lats
Cybex Leg Extension
90x12
130x10
Top set - 170x8
Backoff set - 150x10
Front Squat
45x8
135x6
165x5
195x4
Top set - 225x8 (PR; fried my core. Maybe ~@8 RPE but with my core it felt like a banger of a set)
Backoff set - 185x8
Cybex Leg Press
3pps x20 (knees to chest; ultra freaking deep. Less than half the weight I’d normally go for since I’m hitting a Widowmaker here with ultra strict form. Could barely walk afterwards)
Adductor Machine
60x15
70x10
Kept isolation work to around @8.5-9 RPE and compound @7.5-8 RPE to begin since I’m more sensitive to stimulus from the Deload. Technically everything felt like @9-10 RPE but I know I could grind out another rep or 2 on most working sets. Very happy and this was fun!
2926 total cals
2538 net cals
58g fat
356g carbs (259g net carbs)
245g protein
80g fiber
17g sugar alcohol
Reversal is going very good. Ahead on calories which makes sense because while I was starving on 1500-1600 cals a day in the final weeks of my cut I had 10k cal cheat days once a week which averaged my weekly calorie intake out to over 2700 net cals a day. I’ll stick to around 2400-2500 this week and bump by 100-150 a week to finish reversing in 2 weeks before entering my bulk which will be about 4 weeks post cut.
Incline BB Bench
45 2x10
135x8
155x6
175x4
190x2
205x6 (tied PR?; overestimated what I could do and keep it below @9 RPE. This was @9.5 RPE; I probably had 1 more rep if I cheated. I’ll take it though first chest day of the mesocycle at a much lighter Bodyweight than when I stopped free weight bench variations and opted for smith)
185x8 (2 reps shy of tying PR; ~8.5 RPE)
Overall great first chest session of the mesocycle. All I needed was 5 sets not to complete failure and my chest was totally smashed. I opted not to throw in intensity techniques such as rest pause, dropsets or partials for chest since I killed it without them. I will add them in by week 3 when I’m adjusted and have even more calories in me. Intensity techniques for week 1 will be on leg curls (as I did yesterday), biceps, deltoid isolation, and maybe other isolation work.
3046 total cals
2622 net cals
53.5g fat
372g carbs (260g net carbs)
269g protein
82g fiber
24g sugar alcohol
A little bit more calories than I aimed for today but I was so ravenous; likely from my back workout which was a lot of work. I’ve been staying under 159 since coming back from vacation so will see where I’m at in the morning and adjust accordingly. Will need to factor in that I’m waking up early again around 4:30am and weighing myself since my workouts are always early and now back to where they were before since lifting will take a bit longer handling a little more volume again.
Superset
Pro Maxima Preacher Curl 40x8, 50x8, Dropset 60x3 + 50x3 + 40x3
HS Dip 144x8, 184x8, 234x8
Superset
Seated DB Curl 30’s x10,8
Lying DB Extension 30’s x10,8
Reverse EZ Bar Curl
50x12,10
(Forearms and biceps were very veiny on these sets; loved it)
Paramount Overhead Tri Ext
7 plates x12
9 plates x10
In and out in less than 32 mins so headed home and walked around my block. Good pump workout since all my other days are heavy and I am pressing on my chest focused day and shoulder focused day. If I recover well over the next few weeks I may opt to add in light close grip bench press on this day but I don’t want to overdo it on week 1.
Wednesday August 16, 2024 (AM BW 157; holy smokes almost 2700 Net cals and over 3100 total cals and I lost some weight again; this reversal is incredible. Metabolism/NEAT must be back up!)
Stiff Legged Deadlift (slight reset/deadstop)
135x8
225x6
295x4
335x3
365x6 ~8 RPE
315x8 ~8 RPE
(I hit 365x12 TnG ~10 RPE after a 455 sumo max pull last mesocycle but 365x6 was much more controlled on the eccentric with a slight reset between reps AND done third in this workout making it far more difficult. Looking to maximize muscle gains; not just strength at all costs during my first reversal and bulk. Getting stronger with strict form will be key here. I will definitely throw in overwarmup and such deeper into my bulk but starting out that would be unnecessary in week 1)
Hamflexor Unilateral Leg Curl
20x15
25x10
DB Split Squat (back foot on tire)
35’s x8
50’s x8
Being 157 and on 360+ grams total carbs (250+ grams net carbs) I’m looking so much better being fuller with the same level of leanness as when I was depleted at 155 doing PSMF after massive cheat nights. Loving this!
I ate at a Thai restaurant for the first time last night and was better than ever at choosing what I ate. I technically cheated by going over my calories but it was highly controlled since I’m no longer cutting and need to make sure I don’t go overboard while reversing. My end of day nutrition landed around 3300 total calories and 2900-3000 net calories which is around where I’ll begin my bulk in 2 weeks so lines up perfectly. I drank over 2 gallons of fluid yesterday too; I’m normally right under 2 gallons but with all the sodium I wanted to make sure I had enough fluid in me. I woke up at 160.8; even though that’s a few lbs of transient weight I looked the same and felt awesome for my shoulder focused upper body workout this morning which I’ll post next.
PM Cardio
Walk 2 miles - 33:56 (my ankles were killing me; I’m probably going to bike for cardio tomorrow on my rest day)
Nutrition
3092g total cals
2740 net cals
59.5g fat
352g carbs (263g net carbs)
287g protein
78g fiber
10g sugar alcohol
Starting tomorrow I’ll probably begin tracking calories based on nutritional labels and not counting macros to then count calories. The cool thing is I’m likely eating more calories than I’m calculating based on macros and maintaining when going off the label for calories and not just macros.
Woke up 159.4, ate a small meal, got some coffee from Wawa then hit just a little AM Cardio on the bike; will be doing more cardio this evening.
AM Cardio
Bike 20 mins ramping from no resistance to max resistance in the first 10 minutes then rotating resistance between none and medium every 1-2 mins until I hit 20 minutes.
Distance - 4.57 miles
Calories - 110.4
I haven’t biked in awhile because I did so much earlier this year I got bored from it plus I feel I burn more calories power walking; however, with my ankles hurting during last nights walk I feel motivated to bike and enjoyed it this morning. Plus the lowest impact cardio like biking will be great during my bulk. More to come tonight.
I tracked my calories and macros up to 3010 total and 2699 net (not factoring in calorie label but counting cals based on macros still) then had 2 decent sized bowls of chili that had very lean meat. Woke up at 160.4 and visibly lean which is good. I’ll try to hover around 159-161 for the next week or 2 to finish reversing.
