Dradis

Eugh, I'm tempted again. Haven't weighed myself for 2 months and have been enjoying bulking a little too much I feel. I'll weigh tomorrow and then decide. Good luck everyone regardless.

My American fiancé came packaged with this stereotype. She has since changed her mind having visited here a number of times. Anywhere where "cheese" includes that plastic burger crap should not be allowed to look down on any cuisine

Barely with the food, luckily having had a body scan thing last week I haven't done much damage, about 3lbs, some of which might be muscle. Been rubbish at updating this thread, as per usual! Kept up with the swings and get ups and have been to chiropractor 3 times now. I think I'm starting to see improvement in the shoulder which is great as that seemed to have stalled for a long time. My back is still whack (thanks for that phrase Alan Thrall), It just needs some rest and for some better glutes I think. I left my job yesterday. Got a month to go til I emigrate. Gonna dial in the food from Monday onwards and continue to hit the gym. First off its my stag-do (bachelor's party) this weekend. Exciting few months coming up I think

Its impossible to get full on ice cream from personal experience. Also, google the youtube video of Alan Thrall's 10,000 calorie per day diet. Great watch and will give you some ideas.

Have you only got 50lb weights? It's pretty normal to be able to handle less weight unilaterally. My guess would be core yeah. Can either drop the weight and build back up or look into core training. I have a rubbish core so I'm not the best person to ask. Check out jdanger's "do your damn and" routine.

Excellent job of using the word "twunts". Really does need to be popularized that

Very wise. I've been off heavy deads for 2 months because something wasn't quite right with my technique and i tweaked my back. Nothing kills gainz like getting injured.

I like greyskull too. The added benefit over SS and SL (which i did for a while) is that the deloads are less demoralising because you get to smash your rep records when you drop the weight down so you get the motivation of making progress rather than spending 2 weeks redoing weights and reps you've already done. Greyskull, imo, is both a beginner and an intermediate program. I'm planning on going back to in in the new year once i'm (hopefully) injury free. You could take greyskull a long way i think. The other thing with greyskulll with regards to the topic is that it sets out the main lifts and the assistance stuff is basically left up to you. There are set "plug-ins" you can use but you can also just add stuff at the end to fit your particular goals. I think Mehdi's recommendations on how strong you can get on SL are either exaggerated or aimed at people eating a caloric surplus (he does say to eat to be fair). I did SL on a long cut and i got nowhere near 135kg squat. I did drop 17kg of bodyweight though.

As someone on my first bulk I'm not gonna wade too much into this discussion. However, on the subject of muscle loss I was reading this the other day and the thing I took away from it is that muscle loss during a cut might not be the end of the world as it should return quickly once you go back to a slight surplus http://www.strengtheory.com/grow-like-a-new-lifter-again/

I asked about the weak position, let's see if I can explain it using just words.... There are 2 ligaments on the front of the shoulder. When you move into that position they sort of rotate so they are on top. Therefore there is a lot less support at the front of the shoulder. It's a weak position for anyone, but more so if you've had previous ligament issues or a dislocation. One of the easiest ways to dislocate a shoulder is to put someone in that position then hit their shoulder from behind due to the lack of ligament support on the front as they've rotated upwards. Clear as mud, right?

Have you considered doing them unilaterally? That way you'll have a free hand to help you. It will also be a good test of your core to keep you in position.

You've just ruined deadlifting for me ;-P

Why would you hope for that??? It's the only thing that gets me through the day. Nothing stops people trying to get you to do their jobs better than a bit of passive aggressive humiliation on a group email that includes superiors

There is nothing to be angry about here. All devkat was saying was the satisfaction of a bunch of PRs through hard work would be more satisfactory than 40kg of magic bullet improvement.

but but but, if i stop believing that then i have to admit i'm weak!