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Messages - entropy

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301
Bodyweight: 90.1kg/198.64lb

So i'm getting close to breaking 90kg. But still not quite there. I haven't been strict with my diet at all. Just stuff keeps coming up and I can't stick to my usual routine of eating jack shit. It's fine as long as i'm home preparing my normal cutting meals. But when you go out, it's not easy to stick to the plan. So you have 2nds when you wouldn't normally. Or have desert when you never have it at home. No excuses, going to fast my way under 90kg, starting monday i'm gonna be 100% serious and going to finish feb strongly. I need to wrap up this cut quickly so i can get my lifts back to 160/170kg territory, and get my basketball ability up to a PR level for the comp in april.

Training today, abs and chinups, can't wait.

302
Training
90 mins basketball

Notes:
Yesterday was a clusterfuck. I had about an hour or so worth of sleep. Went to move furniture all morning, had lunch at a buffet (! mistake) but i only had 2 plates, so i think it was ok. And then i napped about half an hour before going to basketball training. Was a mess, no springs in my legs, a step behind my mind. Bad passes, got beaten on defense a lot. Missed most of my jumpers. Couldnt finish near the rim. Couldn't dunk, felt completely exhausted.

Why is that every week I go to basketball either fatigued from gyming or life and I can't play 100%? I think that's something I need to address. I should be striving to be the best players ont he court. Instead i'm allowing myself to be mediocre because of excuses.

Next week i'm going to go ball fresh, and i'll dominate. It's the only way to play, mediocrity doesnt get me anywhere!

303
BW: 90.5kg/199.51lb

Training
FBS 1x132.5
BS 4x2x132.5
BP 1x95

FBS notes:
Progress in a way considering i was pinned by 132.5kg the last 2 attempts. But it's mediocre compared to my 145kg PR, so i'm quite unsatisfied. Will slowly work my way up to a repeatable 137.5kg anyhow.

BS notes:
These were 10 RPE sets. I would have liked to do 2 more heavy sets with a belt. Thought i might save it for tomorrow when i'll try squatting again because today my core (back and abs) were just too thrashed to do justice to my squatting ambitions.

304
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 13, 2014, 12:47:09 am »
Lol. Thanks guys. I'm under 200! this morning. I'm hoping the next few kilos will come off suddenly, because scale has slowed down strangely, and it usually does that before a bigger drop.

305
Training
FBS 1x130
BS 3x2x132.5
BSS 2x4x137.5
AbWheel 2x20
DUNKZ ~ 30

FBS notes:
I think my FS slump is form related! Which is good, cause i can fix that. I am confident i can get to 140kg by fixing my form up. Lets do this thing!

BS notes:
So far so good, added 1 more set since last time. Slow and steady progress forward. My goal is 6 sets 132.5kg doubles. I'm adding 1 set per session, next time i'll go for 4 sets.

BBS notes:
Decided to add a rep, even though ugly, i'll take it. I will work up to 6x137.5kg before moving on up to 140kg. Just add a rep here and there when I can.

Abs notes:
Holy moly, 2x20 ab wheel at a bodyweight over 90kg is legit hard. I'm toast.

Dunk notes:
I tried a different angle but i regret it now cause the ball hit the tripod and broke it :( I've had that tripod for so long, i think i inherited it from my parents from before i was born. Bit sad now lol. But it's cool, i'll prob try glue the plastic bits together. I'm gonna try do some RFD work everytime i train.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX4FhGCAkLU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX4FhGCAkLU</a>

I tried to take a more aggressive and longer runup this time.


306
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 12, 2014, 06:14:45 am »
My waist was low 37"s this morning, so it wasnt just imagined reduction of waist as per my last post. Only downside is, i've only got 2 holes left in my belt. Fucking motherfucking starting strength "gains" mindset made me order XL when I should have got an L. It's a nice belt otherwise, top of the range leather lever one. It's just not suited for anyone athletic once you get down under 35" waist :( I wish i could swap it with someone who has a L. That would be awesome..

I must say there is something very seductive about being 90kg/200lb and lean. It seems like such a beastly thing to be. Don't get me wrong, i loved being 75kg/165lb and lean too. But being a strong and powerful 200 is something else. Maybe i'm not too far from that. Perhaps by the end of this cut, i'll be close.

307
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 11, 2014, 12:52:47 pm »
So magically the ball i've been playing has seemed to cut away my abdominal bodyfat. I bet i could have dieted for weeks, even months before that bodyfat started burning away (it always goes last), but something about basketball just burns it away directly. Pretty awesome.It's weird but overnight i've started to look relatively lean. I'm not saying i'm lean, but a lot leaner all of a sudden. I hope it sticks and it's just a transient thing.

I've become convinced to try more RFD related training. I am going to try on friday/saturday.

What else. I just ejaculated for the first time since october, which seems like such a long time, i just wanted to see if my equipment still worked. Was pretty awesome for an orgasm but i couldn't get very hard. Which is starting to worry me. I'm convincing myself it's because i'm cutting so all systems are depressed. But in the past even in the middle of 6 weeks of 800 calorie a day RFL, I'd still have excellent mood. I don't really care, maybe it's stress, whatever. We'll see once i'm done cutting and down to 10% bodyfat, hopefully i'll be good then..
 
Also, regretting playing basketball outdoors yesterday. It seems to have a much more stressful impact on my joints, way more residual achiness and soreness which i haven't been getting from playing indoors. Also i didn't take caffeine which probably didn't help with recovery. It wasn't even planned, just friends called last minute. I was to rest monday, and then have an awesome squat session tuesday. Instead i ended up taking tuesday off as result, and i'll try training weds instead. Last time i play outdoor pickup ball with that crowd. It's a low quality, low return activity. Rather stick to playing high quality ball against better players.




308
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 10, 2014, 09:58:49 am »
Oh trust me, ChrisM, I am repulsed by the sport of PL in all different ways, and I would go as far as saying they're not athletes. The only strength athletes are, you know, the ones in the olympics lol, throwing shit or lifting stuff. That's it. PL is a horrible vulgar sport. Those who can't play any real sport, start powerlifting instead. I have slightly more respect for competitive crossfit. I think that's enough. Having said that, even PLs, at least those in the lower weight classes absolutely have to be lean and ripped and have good ratios, at least the competitive ones. I'm not talking about the 5'7" guys who bulk to a very sloppy 230 and think they're hot shit. I mean the ones competing under say 180lb. Even so, my goals are the pole opposite of PLs. I want to be strong AND athletic, which is entirely foreign to that sport.

Like vag said, if you're cutting you want to maintain your lifts, which will maintain your muscle mass. And that's the extent of it. I am not sure where the advice to lay off squatting is coming from, but it's not the right answer.

309
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 10, 2014, 08:35:48 am »
Well, this discussion is only happening because you're saying what you're doing isn't working. Maybe for you, both the cut and the bulk are happening over too short a time-frame for any practical use. A 150kg HBBS and 100kg clean would be very respectable numbers at 75kgs, by the way.

What i'm saying is not working is i don't know a way to get my squats going again. That's all. I don't expect to set PRs, just keeping 90% of my pre-cut maxes would be cool if i could figure THAT out. My basketball ability is coming along nicely, much better than i expected, so quickly. I'm not there yet but each time i play I improve, whether it's conditioning, passing, defense or ball handling. Shooting really sucks but I can usually get that going thru lots of practice which i haven't devoted yet. Conditioning is still very bad but like i said, i improved from 1/10 to 2/10 which is cool, just in one session. Maybe i can keep bumping it up 1pt each time i play?

I need really amazing conditioning cause my team has shit, unathletic, unskilled bigs (amazing guards though), so they'll rely on me heavily for workhorse minutes, even though ideally i'd play fewer minutes, as an elite SF who pick-and-pops my reliable mid range shots or driving against bigger slower bigs. It's really not ideal when the opposition will have lean, athletic, strong 6'8" guys, or big strong 120kg beasts in the post.  Also, i have to work so hard on defense cause the other bigs suck, and i end up anchoring the defense even though i'm not build for it, being so light and having to work so hard for position against much bigger and stronger guys. Plus our guards are very score happy (think iverson), so i get very few field goal attempts, which is frustrating, because i always have excellent fg%, i just commit myself off the ball to setting picks and getting boards instead of actively contributing to the offense. So if i'm squatting to much, it's because i know what demands there are on me, some of which are very unreasonable! it's not playing to my strengths at all but that's not my call. I need big strong thighs, buttocks and calves! It's not optional. Plus you guys are sprinters, your sport is more about raw performance rather than the multitude of physical demands of basketball. If i was a sprinter, i'd just accept i'd have sore dommed legs to be good in the gym, and accept the compromise, but i'm not getting that sort of leg fatigue from my sport, so i am hoping to do much better in the gym!

Incidentally i played ball again today, which means I trained thursday, lifted and played ball saturday, lifted sunday, and played ball monday. And i'm due to lift again tomorrow, tuesday. And possibly playing a full court game on weds, a friend has asked me, although i don't really know if it will eventuate cause last time we ended up driving back home half way there. I couldn't possibly be playing more ball right now. Btw have i mentioned i'm cutting? And i'm getting leaner as we go along!


310
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 10, 2014, 01:27:09 am »
I disagree with not bulking or cutting and just maintaining a low bodyfat. That would have been around 75kg for me, how strong can I be at that bodyweight? No chance of front squatting 150kg, some chance of backsquatting 150kg but that's about it. Could I have got more athleticism out of that bodyweight by switching to RFD work. Possibly, but it's not like i was in danger of cleaning 140kg being that weak. If my front squat is around 160kg, and i'm lean and strong, there is a chance of having a decent clean, maybe not 140kg, maybe 120kg. But at 75kg i doubt I could clean over 100kg! Guys remember even at 90kg, i'm not super muscular, i have barely begun to get big enough to move heavy iron. If i was 8% at 90kg, maybe i would be just doing RFD work right now and just beasting.

311
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 10, 2014, 01:18:11 am »
I def can't argue with doing more RFD work. I know I need that badly. But, i'm going to defend the bulk. I had to gain enough mass to make myself a better lifter. It was at the point i hit around 95kg bodyweight at the end of RSR1 and during RSR2 i didn't gain any weight but my lifts really took off. It was because i had enough mass then to really push my lifts up. It's quite possible if i had started a 3rd cycle of RSR then, instead of cutting, i would have maintained my bodyweight and put my lifts up into respectable territory, 165kg beltless, 180kg belted, 150kg front squat, etc.  And that would have been awesome, but i really needed to get the cut started.

So I did, even though i wasn't strong enough for my purposes to be cutting. Ideally my belted would be around 190kg, my beltless 170kg, and front squat 155-160kg or so. At which point I could just maintain my worksets and maxes while cutting, which is easier than what I actually ended up attempting which was to put 10kg on my lifts. But that didn't work out at all. Instead i've gotten weaker, a lot. But merely maintaining my lifts at end of RSR2 would not have been that great anyway which is why I tried to do more than that.

Right now at 90kg, i could probably maintain my bodyweight, and get back to my previous PRs, but to exceed them i'd have to gain a kilo or two. That wouldn't really win me anything though, considering i'm too heavy to do anything awesome with the strength. So i'll keep cutting, i'll be under 15% soon, and hopefully when i cross  under 85kg, ideally 83kg or so, i'll be close enough to 10% (maybe as high as 12-13%) to stop actively cutting and start to eat more food and do a lot more training. I'd be working hard initially to get my lifts up though. But while maintaining my bodyweight.

312
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 09, 2014, 09:28:07 am »
Here is the story. My lifts are all over the place, i'm losing anywhere from 15kg to 40kg on my squats since january when I wrapped up RSR2. I'm finally adapted to playing basketball and come out well recovered the day after. Which is great news because this means I can keep improving my game skills gradually. My conditioning is still very poor, i'd put it at 2/10, and only because I feel I made the jump from 1/10 yesterday. Still really really fat, the more weight i lose, the fatter I think i am, which i think is a normal and unfortunate feature of cutting.

So in this situation where i'm struggling to keep my head over water, when i'm trying only to lose 10-15kg on my squats, i don't really have time to add in extra exercises which prob won't do anything for me right now because they'll eat into recovery for squats. Yes i know in theory you can do make it work, in practice i am already struggling and that's without even doing any extra work.

I really am quite stuck right now for ideas. I know there are a ton of ideas out there, but i have to reconcile that with my body and personal experience and i know most of the programs would never work for me.

I haven't even got a day to day plan for what to do in the gym. Kind of freestyling it based on mood and feel.. :/

313
Training
WCU 1x112 (PR)
WCr 2x20
LR 8, 10, 10x105kg (PR)

Notes:
My triceps were so torched by the time i was done with that lifetime chinup pr, that I couldn't do my volume sets afterwards lol. So that sucks. I kind of keep finding myself doing 4 training sessions per week which is not ideal. I just don't know where to put some of these lifts without making any oneday too long/difficult to recover from/. I will do a seperate post on this actually.

314
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 09, 2014, 08:12:39 am »
That's a really good point bro. I've just never been strong enough to do anything more than just basic lifts. Maybe some day. Sigh. I hate myself lol.

315
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 09, 2014, 01:20:28 am »
Why don't you start doing 4-6 weeks of explosive work? Depth jumps, jump squats, KB swings, hang cleans, hang snatches, speed squats, explosive box squats, box jumps, broad jumps, bounds, plyos of all sorts and jumps to the rim.

To me, you're already pretty strong and maybe it's a good time to get into such a cycle right now because, again - that's what you seem to lack the most.

Because i'm still cutting, limited recovery resources. I have another 5kg of bodyfat to lose yet. I do plan on doing it though, just as soon as i'm below 85kg, i'll let the remaining fat loss come from conditioning alone. Hopefully it won't take to long because i'm running out of time. I agree with you my reactivity deficit is far greater than my strength one.

For the record, i am under 91kg now, just barely, have seem to have hit a wall. Hoping to wake up a kilo or two lighter in the next coming days, that would get me back on track.

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