Adarq.org

Tournament is going well, my team made the grand final, my first one ever. I can't wait for tmr, going to play my heart out.

Played my first proper game since last july or something. I didn't have the fitness to run the whole game, which i already expected but i needed to cause we didn't have subs. My team lost. We only had 5 players, actually 4, one was some guy who filled in lol. We had 12 points added to the opponents cause of lateness othewise we won that game. That's not important. I just feel like shit, i haven't slept well in 3 days so that's my main concern right now. I must have got 8 boards, 6 blocks and an additional 2 were clean but called fouls which idk about, a couple of steals. i scored i think 8 or something, nothing special, ordinary game, but happy to get a game under my belt. have another one on weds and then tournament starts friday. Idk if im gonna be ready but we'll see.

Bodyweight: 84.05kg / 185.3lb

So scale dropped out of the blue. Im not even trying to cut, just training a lot. Idk.

Training
Terrible session of basketball. Coach went a bit over board, kinda ruined the whole vibe. OH well.

---

Got basketball training tonight. Going to push hard.

Training
FBS 1Fx120, 1x122.5
BS 1x125
Basketball ~ 2 hours, pickup

Squat notes:
When you start failing a warmup like 120kg double, you know you're a piece of shit in the gym. Disgraceful squatting lately. Im fairly sure i was tripling 130kg or so, back when i weighed less than I do now, before the RSR bulk. But. I'm playing a lot of ball. A lot. So maybe it's to be expected. Or maybe im just making excuses.

---

More basketball tomorrow.

Training
FBS 2x120
Basketball training ~ 1hr drills, 1hr scratch match

Squat notes:
I last squatted tuesday, it was sunday today. This is prob the longest ive gone btw squat sessions. Dunno if i logged, but i hurt my back so i took a day off lifting thurs, balled friday night and rested saturday after getting stomach flu friday night ball, either from water fountain or from going KFC lol.  So ended up lifting and balling sunday. Not really lifting if you consider i only did a warmup as a topset and no upper body exercises at all. I should have at least done some chinups this week. But anyway, I noped out of a 126kg top single, took it out of the rack and put it back, my confidence in the gym is gone. I feel mentally defeated and i just dont want to risk injury by attempting such a light weight for a max attempt when it means nothing to me when i've lifted over 20kg more only a few months back. Anyway. Fuck it talking about squats. i'll get them back after my bball season.

Basketball notes:
I didnt play so good. Not to my standards. Friday night i beasted, even got a game time alley oop. But for the most part im not playing my best game yet. Illness, injury, mental and physical fatigue and stress are all culminating in some poor performances. I'm trying to train through it all though.

---

So you know you love basketball when you spend 2 hours discussing strategy and team tactics instead of talking to a girl or even watching the fuckin world cup final which i missed apparently. All good. not long to go now. im starting to look lean as well, the lightest the scale has read was i think friday morning when it was 84.45kg or something like that? todday that means it's closer to 25lb lost (24.x) rather than 15 But you are right, im probably getting too light than i need to be. I'll try to maintain my weight now. Im lean enough. need to get my performance up by eating normally.

i really appreciate the level of quality discourse you get on this site. im not sure what i've done to deserve it, esp when it seems like i complain and whinge mainly but like it's been observed i use this journal to vent and get out my frustrations and i know most of you understand that now. the reason i used mirror as a bodyfat check is because i got my info from physique dieting sources, aka kyle mcdowell, and i should know by now there are better sources for performance athletes. Noted. Will keep that in mind in future.

Yeah... I'm wholly confused.  If you claim you would be at 2.4% at 180-183.... And now you are at 187... woudn't that make you a lot leaner than 7% currently?   

Right, I don't think he is 2.4% and i don't think i would be either if i weighed 180-183. Isn't that near enough essential bodyfat levels? Like stage ready bodybuilder levels? I dont think your friend is there, i'd say he's maybe somewhere between 6% and 12% as a guess just from visual inspection but that's not worth much. What was the estimation method btw? 2.4% with how much error? Cause if the error is say ± 3.5% then i wouldn't put much stock in 2.4% (which is claiming what, that you know bodyfat to 2 figures? i dont think so).

My main point is that perhaps the mirror isn't the best gauge for your bodyfat levels. The person I am comparing you to is the same height as you and has much less lowerbody muscle than you (as judged by quad size) and doesn't really lift...  However, he is 2.4% at 180 while you claim to be much higher % at 165lbs.   That doesn't make sense.  Sure, if we just look at you both you "look" much fatter.   But how fat you look and how fat you are are not always in agreement. 

But the mirror is the only reliable thing we can rely on. If i look lean enough compared to other ppl who are athletic, i'd say i'm around that 10% mark, even though in reality, i have no idea what exact number my bodyfat might be in that case. And in truth it doesn't even matter. Its just a threshold of going from average in shape guy to athletic bodyfat levels. If i took a DEXA today and it came out with 6.9% (say) i wouldn't say great i'm lean now, i dont need to worry about my bodyfat. Because i'd know that i'm not quite there compared to my desire level of leanness. And after DEXA what else is there, dunk test? It's got issues too with error. We can't really do much better than mirror and photos in practice..

I don't want to get into some long argument about race and bodyfat but just a few things to consider.  You have not been training for most of your life so you probably added a lot of subcutaneous fat cells to your body.   You are south-asian ethnicity and some evidence suggests that as such have a slightly higher set point as far as the fat you store subQ.   As such it seems reasonable to me that you might get down to 175 lbs or so (with a decent 400lb squat) and take a look at yourself in the mirror and think "I'm still too fat" while in reality your actual bodyfat % is not THAT high (say around 7%). Trust me that seeing person after person get their bodyfat tested suggests that the mirror really isn't reliable for everyone.  Cutting till you are as "ripped" as that other guy might just not work...  That's all.

It's interesting but its also a recipe for complacency. People have no shortage of excuses for not cutting. I'm going to recomp. I'm carrying a lot of LBM underneath so my bodyfat isnt that high. I'm just a few weeks away from seeing my abs IF I WANT. etc. In the end its only when you do the hard work and get rid of the bodyfat that you have something solid to show. But the only problem is when I get there, i am so weak that it's counterproductive to becoming athletic. There is probably a sweet spot to being strong enough and fat enough to be athletic though. I need to work harder at optimising my training and diet to find it..

Hurt my back lifting last session. I can't be certain whether it happened during 220kg standing barbell calf raises or overhead presses. I think ohp is the culprit, it's a common thing for me, you'd think i'd learn to respect this dangerous exercise more but i keep relearning the same lesson the hard way. So dumb.

For the record pain is around right glute. I haven't got any back discomfort as far I can tell, but i know the cause is def my spine. I took the day off training, did nothing, iced to get the inflammation down. And took a 500mg naproxen tablet at 7pm. Will take another one sometime around 2am, and hope i'll be good by tomorrow. Terrible timing for this, ive been lucky to stay injury free til now..