Adarq.org

17-07-17

Bench
Bar x 12
40 x 6
62.5 x 8
72.5 x 6
80 x 4, 4, 4
75 x 5
72.5 x 6
67.5 x 7
62.5 x 11

SS1A Chins
BW x 6
+15 x 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4 [nice!]
BW x 10, 8

SS1B OHP
32.5 x 6
37.5 x 5
45 x 3, 5, 7, 4, 6, 8 [at last I hit the 8 set here!]

DB Row
32 x 10, 10, 10
24 x 14

DB Incline Bench
24 x 13, 11, 9

SS2A Hammer Curl
14 x 15, 12, 10
10 x 17

SS2B PJR Pullover
24 x 13, 12, 12

Lateral Raise
10 x 12, 12, 10, 10

Pallof Press
12.5 x 14, 14, 14

Notes

Energy/mental drive-wise this felt like a pretty average workout, but everything moved very well and nice progress was had, so that's pretty fantastic.

Haha yup... they feel great. I think it's not the worst idea to keep my posterior shoulder and back strong with all the overhead work I'm doing. Still... I might add in some horizontal pressing again. Actually I would love to be able to profgressively overload pushups as I think they are an overall great exercise.

Note to self: apparently when cutting a good benchmark for deficit target to maximise fat loss while avoiding muscle loss is: Kcal deficit should not exceed lbs of body fat * 30. In this case assuming I'm ~20% at 85kg I could go as high as an 1100kcal daily deficit at first. That works out to about 2lbs of weight loss/week at first.

This is pretty much in line with the formula Greg Nuckols advocates: "Body fat percentage ÷ 20 = percentage of your current bodyweight you should aim to lose per week." So at 85kg and 20% that's ~1.85lbs/week.

Edit: The mixed units here are hilarious. That so much fitness content is produced by Americans has majorly fucked with my head.

19-07-17

Barbell Complex

Wide Grip Pullups
BW x 8, 8

OHP
Bar x 6
30 x 3
40 x 2
47.5 x 5
52.5 x 3
60 x 3 [+2.kg, = reps... FUCK YES! Huge/lifetime PR] 
57.5 x 3
52.5 x 3
50 x 5
47.5 x 5
45 x 5
40 x 10

Incline Bench
40 x 6
50 x 6
60 x 3, 5, 7, 4, 6, 7

Chest Supported Row
45 x 10 [i actually quite dislike this tbh]

SS1A Dips
BW x 14, 12, 11, 10

SS1B Narrow+Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns
59 x 10, 9
52 x 11, 10

1.5 Style Lateral Raise
7 x 8, 8, 8, 7

Lateral Raise Drop Set
8->6->4 x 13-12-11, 12-10-10 [my word this was painful]

Facepulls
12.5 x 18, 17, 16
10.2 x 16, 16, 16

Hammer Curls
14 x 15, 13, 11

Machine Preacher Curl
27 x 11, 10, 9

Bayesian Cable Curl
5.7 x 10
3.4 x 15, 15, 13

Flye->Press->Hold
12 x 10, 9
8 x 15

Rear Delt Flyes Burnout
8->4->2 x lots-lots-lots, lots-lots-lots

Notes

Didn't sleep well last night so I went against my usual principles and took ~200mg of caffeine since this is my last workout for about a week. Fucking overjoyed with that OHP top set. I was really not expecting to get more than 2 reps.

Also pleased that my chin "baseline" not too hard but not too easy set is at 8 reps now. Progressing well there.

Chucked in a ton of random volume. I will probably be rather sore tomorrow (my legs are dead today from yesterday).

oo 

So I've been working consistently for just under 5 months now, so perhaps it's time to take stock of progress.

Starting Stats
BW - 76kg
Squat - 70kg x 4
Front Squat - 50kg x 5
Deadlift - 90kg x 2
Bench - 60kg x 1
OHP - 30kg x 8
Chins - BW x 5

Current Stats
BW - 84kg
Squat - 112.5kg x 3 [done 13-06-17]
Front Squat - 97.5kg x 3
Deadlift - 130kg x 4 [done at RPE~8 most recently]
Bench - 87.5kg x 4
OHP - 57.5kg x 3
Chins - +15kg x 4

So that's 8kg gained in 5 months. Some amount of that is likely due to creatine. I'll measure my waist in the morning, too, to see if that's changed much. https://www.strongerbyscience.com/realistic-training-goals/ suggests 3kg of lean mass in one's first three months as an average: "a “normal” range [for beginners] from .5kg/1lb per month to 2kg/4lbs per month." So I've probably hit the middle of that pretty well, which is pleasing.

Lifts are all near the best they've ever been. I checked back through old logs and my OHP PR is 60kgx1, which I should definitely be able to match or beat. I never repped 100kg on bench, so I reckon I'm at my peak there too. Squats less good, but lower body stuff has been impaired by occasional lower back pain. However, I'm happy with how I'm managing that and expect I will be at lifetime PR levels for that in the near future. I think my FS best was around 110x3, which I'll be at pretty soon.

According to symmetricstrength.com I'm at intermediate ("the lifter has been consistently training, likely for at least a year") on everything and all my lifts are fairly well in line with each other.

I would love to get to "proficient" by the end of the year.

Went through a lot of stress in this period with a horrendously intense final term of university where I had to take 24 hours of exams + job searching and whatnot, so all things considered I think this progress is pretty good going. Mental state-wise I'm having a really great time training and looking forward to sticking with it.

I'm going on a 10ish day holiday soon, retuning early August. I'll be training with a good buddy a few times during that span, maybe trying out maxes on some of the upper body lifts. After I return I think I'll commit to a cut. I'm not substantially fluffier than when I started working out again, but I'm now at a decent level muscularity and strength and think I could feel a lot better getting down to 75-78kg. I've never successfully got particularly lean in the past, but I've grown up rather a lot since previous training periods and the fact that I am a decent cook nowadays will make life a lot easier. I'm actually quite excited to try this out. If I cut at about .75kg/week then it should be about a 10 week cut. I think doing it now makes sense, because I'm probably still at the point where I can cut moderately aggressively and still make decent progress on gym lifts.

Anyway, glad to be back here and back in the gym. 

yup that's some good progress. you basically know what to do now.. you just seem much more confident with your training this go-round.

What made you stop training before? start uni & those responsibilities for the most part correct? Seems like you're really enjoying training & also realized how much you missed it. Just need to be careful when you start a new/big job, it's easy for training to slip when you're confronted with a whole new set of stressors + that "ego to perform" (work addiction).

As for cutting, that's always a debate. You've found a good rhythm.. One of the hardest things in training, is finding a good rhythm and then riding it out for as long as possible. Either we never find a good rhythm, or we find it and get bored or convince ourselves we need to switch it up. It's almost as if our subconscious is trying to short-circuit our progress in order sabotage our gains & make us quit training so we can go back to lying on the couch. Some of my biggest mistakes in training were finally finding a rhythm but then changing things up way too soon.

That's more related to switching things up drastically though, not cleaning up your diet slightly, eating a little lighter, and staying on basically the same routine. Seems like most people start cutting, their brain starts scrambling, and their routine eventually switches up dramatically.. just becomes a mess.

pC!

you know this already but: keep protein high. set protein first and build around.

Vacation has been nice but exhausting so far. I miss the gym, heh.

Bench
Up to 205 x 1
185 x 3
155 x 10, 8, 7

Chins x a few, a few, a few
Hammer Strength OHP
45+25 x 8
45 x 13, 11

Lateral Raise
20 x 16, 13, 13
10 x lots

Dips
BW x 15, 13, 10

Then did some squats, but kind of a no-go after deadlifts. Dis some curls. Fun workout. Back home Wednesday and looking forward to getting back into swing of things.