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I'm not like super vascular, haha, just got a few veins, mostly in the right arm, that I can poke and feel which I find exciting. Got some friends who don't workout at all who just have these gnarly vascular forearms and they make me jealous, haha.

I have quite a network of veins I can see in my right shoulder, so I'm hoping that if one day I get super lean I can have a vascular delt, which seems like it'd be quite badass, to me at least.

Mainly because I'm a bit more wary of overuse injuries that come from chinning than I am w/ bench and squat. I will probably keep training roughly as it is, a heavy chinup day or two,  then volume with rows and pullups on the other days. Varying the exact movement just feels safest to my elbows.

Taking today off training too. Feel like I could use some proper rest.

Edit: Plus I'm training to be good at squats and bench themselves, whereas I'm using Chins to build up to OACs, so muscle development is as/more important than straight up chin strength, I think

29-09-17

Morning BW: 74.0kg

Notes

Lolwut, 74kg? I tracked what I ate yesterday and it was >2000kcal. I guess it was a fairly active day. I think it's more water loss than anything, though, since I had a couple of beers. Anyway, sore + sleepy, so today is a rest day. Only one track session this week, but I've been practicing SVJs w/ lifting sessions and getting cardio in less intense ways, so I'm not too worried about that.

Edit: it's not very tasty, but it's just occurred to me to pick up some cottage cheese. So easy to eat and such a good protein:kcal ratio, esp if i get the fat free.

Double edit: Because I like making plans and then not following them, here's roughly what I'm thinking going forward.

First: my priorities are roughly, in order: 1) physique; 2) strength; 3) jumping; 4) cardio/fitness. I don't wan't want to neglect any of them, but that's the basic weight. It's easy to include SVJs before lifting as part of a workout, and extensive tempo/incline walking makes it easy to keep up cardio.

I'm gonna finish out the next 8 workouts of 5/3/1 then transition to a high frequency/moderate-high intensity programme for squat+bench, just to get the efficiency of those movements up. It's also the sort of training that is manageable when cutting since no particular day is too hard and it's all about really pushing the weights hard, so if I still need to drop a few lbs after 3 weeks are up it shouldn't be an issue. The main idea, though, is to transition to maintenance calories around this stage and so stay within +-1kg of where I finish the cut (after glycogen+water weight, is regained, I guess) while building up skill at squat and bench, while getting some volume in on back+side delts+arms.

The plan for that is this, taken from here (https://www.strongerbyscience.com/your-drug-free-muscle-and-strength-potential-part-2/):



I trust myself to wing back training since I love it, haha, and don't imagine I could ever neglect it. Might have some life-circumstance changes might been I do this with less frequency than 5 days/week, but we'll see. SVJs would of course be part of the warmups here.

Then after setting new 1rms on those lifts I'd move to a proper hypertrophy programme again and gain weight, but at a more measured pace -- I currently quite like the look of Jacked 'n' Tan 2.0, but I'm flighty so who knows where I am then.

Anyway, that's out in the open now so that I can look back and go "lol that panned out" when I inevitably barely stick to this place.

28-09-17

Morning BW: 74.6g

Workout

A couple of SVJs after the warmup.

Squat
Bar x Lots
60 x 5
77.5 x 5
90 x 5
100 x 8 [a few left in tank, basically went until I thought bar speed would slow on the following rep]

Bench
Bar x 8
40 x 5
60 x 3
72.5 x 5, 5, 5, 5
70 x 5

Chinups
BW x 5
+25 x 5 x 3 [i.e. 5 sets of 3, felt pretty easy]

Narrow+Neutral Grip Cable Rows
61 x 12, 12

Lateral Raise
8 x 16, 16, 16 [less taxing than DB OHPs for now, and I probs don't really have to worry about front delts, so doing some lateral delt stuff seems sensible]

Preacher Curl
25 x 12, 12, 11

Straight Bar Pushdown
16.25 x 25
21.25 x 16
26.25 x 10

Treadmill -- 3.8mph
15 mins @ 6% - 129/144
10 mins @ 6.5% - 133/139
5 mins @ 7% - 135/140

Notes

Really solid workout. I think it is sensible to rep out a bit more on the top sets on the non 5x5 days, not to failure, or even that close, but just to get a bit more hard work in without overly taxing anything.

Lol, I've really got to get on your level w/ the food snaps.

^ clean.

if that were one of my double meals a day, i would increase scrambled eggs to 150-200%, olive oil on it.. and add another 8 pieces of kiwi. will maintain 190lb with that.

Yeah, this was 4 eggs + 50g oats + 2 kiwis. I ate like 1.5 of them before plating, haha, so it looks very meagre compared to the rest of it.

Quote from: Joe on September 27, 2017, 06:55:24 am

Terrible picture but a good example of how I've been eating lately:



Spicy scrambled egg w/ ginger+tomato, oats and kiwi.

nice!!

bruh. I actually planned on making spicy scrambled eggs today.. 1 jalapeno, 1 red chili, and scrambled eggs. hah.

nicenice. I added in coriander/turmeric/cayenne/cumin powders to give it some proper spice profile behind the raw spiciness from the chillis! 

Yeah, the carb up/cheat day was deliberate. IDK if I look that much better today, haha. I was looking very vascular last night, but that was kind of offset by my stomach bloat, so it was six of one half a dozen of the other, there.

IDK that I need to make a maintenance break yet. The cut is going really smoothly so I don't think I'll have any issues carrying it on for another few weeks to a month, and I didn't really enjoy pigging out on snacks yesterday, so I don't anticipate having a major bounceback. I'd rather hit my goal without breaking the good rhythm. Am still at like ~15%, which isn't a number I want my body to be super adapted to. I'd be happy to let it get used to 12%, though.

Edit: Reason for the refeed was a combination of things I was skimming recommending them. Greg Nuckols, who I generally trust on about anything training/nutrition related, is an advocate, as is Lyle McDonald. I'm about to transition from "category 2" (i.e. >15% BF) to "category 1" (<15%) in his system, and he doesn't allow refeeds or cheat meals for the latter group, so I figured I go for it while I was still allowed. I'm dieting quite as hard as Lyle advocates, but I'm still losing weight pretty fast, so I figure what he says is pretty apt to my situation.

27-09-17

Morning BW: 75.2kg [good!]

Workout

Treadmill -- 3.8mph
10 mins @ 6% - Avg 105/Max 114
12.5 mins @ 7% - 119/127
7.5 mins @ 7.5% - 127/134
7.5 mins @ 8% - 133/140
7.5 mins @ 8.5% - 142/149
Overall Avg HR - 123

Notes

Feeling quite sore, so I don't think I'm going to hit up the track today. Will probably go to the gym and do a 45ish min cardio session.

Weight is up .7kg today. Ate lots of carbs and salty things yesterday so that makes sense. I don't feel any particular inclination to snack on those things any more today, but it was kind of nice to refeed. Now back to the grind. Finish this week in the low-mid 74s, next week low-mid 73s.