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BW: 77.75kg (PR; AM)

Finally broke 78 in the morning. But lets be clear, this is likely an artefact of low carbing not like i lost mad fat overnight. So my goal was to be 77.5kg by end of diet, which is today and tomorrow. I can realistically get there considering im still holding water etc. Whatever the scale reads tmr, that's what im going to try maintain off-diet. I think i can be a strong 77kg. And i should be a lean one at 77kg before I start gaining weight (down the line)

Game was okay, i was surprised how quick i felt with the ball dribbling around on the side before the game. and i couldnt figure out what possibly would have made that happen? maybe jump rope. idk.  im so over training like a bodybuilder/powerlifter tho, will be doing a variety of exercises whenever i feel like it, without worrying about not wrecking my muscles for a scheduled lifting session. to a point anyway. like it makes no sense to avoid doing pushups or jump rope cos you have to squat or bench that day or the following day or what have you, it's just a recipe for mediocrity.

kept up the low carbing, thought about doing a refeed tonight so i can sleep well for lifting tmr, but id rather just lowcarb today and tmr and then do the lifting on saturday on the last day of this cut, go hard and then refeed and bang job done, anabolic rebound etc

how's your hydration been during the fast?

Similar id say given it has been cold and we weather so haven't been asv thirsty but that's a good point hydration might be different. Actually I haven't been pissing out water like crazy which might suggest I'm still holding water

Quote from: maxent on February 09, 2017, 12:14:39 am

Quote from: acole14 on February 09, 2017, 12:10:26 am

Quote from: maxent on February 08, 2017, 11:40:53 pm

This is prob the least successful cut ive done. And i was trying to figure out why. I think it's b/c i didn't lowcarb.

Without wanting to read through your entire journal, have you ever had a 'successful' cut? What defines it?

yes several of them have been successful but this one relatively less. success is reduction in bodyfat% or positive body comp change

It might have seemed like an obvious question but I was thinking you need to have a performance aspect associated with a successful cut. I feel I've said it a bit here but body recomp-ing isn't much use unless it has tangible benefits down the road performance-wise. Otherwise you're just a bodybuilder. So I wouldn't think you could grade a cut as successful or not until you've done some training/testing. It's dangerous to assume that because you lose x% bf that you'll gain y% performance. I think you know all this but you always seem to get down when body recomp-ing doesn't go the way you wanted. [/$0.02].

i get ya, wasn't really looking at performance though.  im not sure then, like i stumbled across a page from my log from 2013 when i cut to sub 75kg and i was using similar weights on my squats to now. more or less. But this time im heavier but not much stronger. dont track numbers for running and im not training vertical at the mo, so no real markers of athleticism to compare against which is ok, just disappointed in current level of leanness more than anything

This is prob the least successful cut ive done. And i was trying to figure out why. I think it's b/c i didn't lowcarb.

BP 5x82.5(PR), 4Fx82.5
BS 6x110(p135; PR), 1x125(PR), 2x6x110
Back Xtn 3x8x70(PR)
Back Xtn 12x10x35deg (PR)
TM 2km in 13:25min (2 incline, 9km/hr; PR)

BW: 78.4kg

Notes:
Mid warmup on the squats i was thinking, too weak, not enough sleep, etc; maybe skip and try again tmr. But then i forced myself to go through with it b/c id rather rest the next 2 days. Glad I did cos i got some PRs. The 125kg pause was interrrrrrrrrrrrresting. My body figured out how to do that kick start our KF does out of his paused squats. I didn't even have to think about it it just happened naturally. My lockout is my weakpoint. I have a video, i would love some feedback. My theory is that embarassingly weak quads are holding me back from locking out reps I can squat otherwise. Like it would be one thing if i was getting stapled out of the bottom but instead i hit a sticking point and then it gets ugly, you know? Along with this ive been considering that if i do my paused squats with a weightlifting shoe, yeah temporarily i'd be a worse squatter -- but -- perhaps that would drag my quads up, screaming and complaining in the long term. Maybe it would put me in a better position to leverage quads. Maybe im just talking shit cos i always go back to my flat heel shoes cos i feel and squat way better in them. Anyone wanna humour me on this topic?

Progressed my back extension with 10kg vest and 3x20kg plates. Now what? Holding 3x20kg plates is a challenge, my grip was giving way on the latter reps. So i guess I could just stick with this weight and master it first, potentially working up to 3x12, while i figure out a way to load them further than 70kg. Honestly i am taking 5kg PR weekly jumps on this exercise, im no where my potential .. and i think eventually they'll actually start benefiting me but right now i dont think im getting anything out of them in terms of carryover to squatting. Oh along with this, the set i did with 35degree -- i found that i could literally wrap my arms around the 10kg plate. Why? cos my legs get short enough to allow FULL range rom on this exercise. I think adarq suggestion along with a change to 35degree and even 0 degree will get me where i wanna be (moving mad weight with full rom). That's pretty tantalising!

Finally, i erred with conservatism on bench press volume. I had to drop my sister off at the airport and i rushed 2 sets of bench presses, unfortunately failing the 5th rep of the 2nd set. I wanted 3x5x82.5kg but it's okay.

Oh and ive decided to set myself a HARD goal for conditioning - i think working up to 12km/hr for 10 minutes, at least once a week, is a wicked goal. And once I get there, it will go on maintenance, maybe i will toggle it upwards 0.1km/hr per week or something because lyle says you can improve fitness incrementally forever unlike sprint intervals and i think that would be a good thing for me considering im a terrible athlete in terms of fitness. Yes  sprints will be added to the mix soon, probably this coming week but long term I dont think i will be able to improve sprints as much as running long term, which is okay too.

In terms of tradeoffs, i think i can still aspire to have a 1.9xbw paused squat at 77kg. Im still fat as fuck at my current 78.5kg so if i shed some adipose and add some lean tissue, yeah, i can improve my paused squat from 125kg to 140kg for 1.9x, right?

genetic potential for your height is 100-105kg lean. you have a big 25% room for improvement.

keep grinding buddy.

I'd kill to be 85kg lean. 100kg would be amazing. I just cant even imagine but then i look up before and after transformations for first time users of similar height and they go from like 80kg to 95kg and look amazing and meanwhile ive been working my ass off all these years and still havent' made any noticable gains.

(BS 5x110 (alternating paused reps starting from 1st rep), 1x120(Paused; PR)
OHP 4x55, 4x54.5, 3x56, 2x57.5, 3x56, 2x57, 3x55
Incline Bench 8x40, 10x40, 2x50, 5x60
CND - TM jog, 1.5kfm @ 8km/hr, ~11mins

BW: 79.0 (da fuk?)

Notes:
Was conservative with squats .. have decided to chase the 2xbw paused milestone .. wishful thinking considering i havent ever done with or without a belt or a pause or whatever but im willing to try it because of something lyle mcdonald said about maintaining intensity on the bar while cutting. well i cant do that since my squat has vanished but i can make reps a lot intensier via paused so maybe that will do the trick. tbh it shws up my weakness pretty well in that i cant lock out for shit so perhaps now i can address it better than without a pause

um i tried inclined bench for trhe first time. it may be the exercise which gets my upper body training on track cos it felt completely different from the other 2 presses (overhead and flat bench). but the reason i nevre used it cos i dont have a way to fail safely. the incline bench wont fit inside the rack and so that makes the exercise more challenging to execute alone..

and yea i think im not going to bother with push presses anymore .. it's a quality exercise, just not for my build tbh. the btn variant is too weird to do heavy, again thanks to my build. so will just stick to the presses.

hoping to be consistent with the treadmill work, for health benefits if nothing else but i am hoping it gets me in better shape.