Turnup

Sunday, January 10, 2016: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph - 10min No Incline, 2.5mph - 5min Max Incline, 2.5mph - 5min No Incline, 2.5mph - 10min Bench Press: 45 WU 135x20 185x6 225x4 225x5 225x5 225x5 225x4 225x3 225x4 225x3 Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 20x15 20x15 20x12 20x10 Just a quick workout to get some cardio in, drill bench form some more, and show my biceps some love. Feeling healthy and rebooted to start proper programming again this coming week.

5 grams a day from the start, taken post workout - that's all you need to do. The "preloading" phase is marketing pseudoscience BS to get you to use up more product quickly. I didn't notice any significant water retention, but after a few weeks, I did notice more stamina and less recovery time between sets. The stuff works.

Saturday, January 9, 2016: Took the apartment complex gym for a spin. It's nothing spectacular, but it'll do for cardio and accessory stuff. The dumbbells don't go past 50lbs. It's a very liability conscious fitness center. All of the cable machines seem to come at me at weird angles too. I had to bow my head down in an odd fashion to prevent the lat pull-down bar from smacking me in the back of the neck. Here's what I did: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph - 15 minutes No Incline, 2.5mph - 5 minutes Lat Pull-Down: 100x12 100x12 100x10 100x10 Triceps Extension w/ Straight Bar: 60x15 80x20 80x20 80x20 Seated Row: 85x15 85x15 85x15 Incline Dumbbell Press: 50x15 50x15 50x15 Broke a sweat and got a good pump. Not bad for an apartment fitness center training sesh, even if the equipment is kind of wonky and the free weights are light.

Keeping everything here now. I will probably venture to the warrior board for February, because I really like this new format. The actual workouts and meal plans, should I decide to include them, will be here and both battle log and challenge will be in my sig. This month got off to a rocky start and I'd rather start a challenge off from the beginning when I can have some specific short term goals. Right now it just "stop feeling crappy and get into the groove" lol.

Haha! I do love me some vegetable puns! Raditz approves as well. Going to try out the on site gym in my apartment complex for some accessory back and arm work today!

Friday, January 9, 2016 Took another sick day and the last of my antibiotics and napped A LOT. It was glorious. The sleep was so healing. I have to thank my roommate and other training partner for getting me into the gym. I wasn't feeling 100%, but I was feeling good enough. I decided the best course of action would be to acclimate my body to training by giving it a taste of everything. After a decent dose of preworkout, I did the following: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph, 10min w/ 2 min cool down Bench Press: 95 warm up 135x15 185x8 205x8 225x6 205x10 - last one spotted Significantly weaker here, but happy to be under the bar again. Deadlift: 135x15 225x10 315x8 5x5x365 Quite satisfied with my performance here. Squat: 135x10 225x10 3x3x315 Was pretty tired from deadlifting, so I didn't push it. I wanted to get a feel for the movement again with some weight on the bar. During the workout my mother texted me that she had an extra plate of tomato pesto baked chicken, broccoli, and baked potato for me, so I enjoyed the first real meal in a few days after the lift. I took my supplements and a nice warm shower and haven't coughed or sneezed for at least two hours. Now to get a nice long sleep in to banish this cold for good.

Happy New Year to you as well! I'm enjoying the undisturbed freedom. Unfortunately on Wednesday I came down with a severe head cold. I suffered through that work day, but have taken Thursday and Friday off from both work and the gym. Fortunately, I was able to secure the antibiotics that I needed and am on the upswing as of this early Friday afternoon. I had to do abs he day before getting sick... it hurts like hell to cough . I didn't calorie count yesterday and won't be today. I eat meals when I can, snack on lots of fruit, and drink lots of fluids. I'm planning to get back into the gym tomorrow and Sunday to get my body acclimated to lifting again. This hasn't been the ideal start to the year, but one crappy week won't define my January. This weekend will be about getting everything dialed in as much as I can at the apt this month. There's still stuff I need to buy to furnish and optimize it, but it's more than functional in it's current state. God willing that I'm healthy by Monday, next week will be about establishing a routine: Work/Shopping/Nutrition/Training/Sleep.

I'm back for 2016 and I'm liking the look of the new challenge format. I already have two days of calorie counting, 1 gym session, and 1 at home ab roller session under my belt. I finally have my own apartment!!! Work is going well. I finally have everything in place to conquer my fitness and life goals.

Sunday: 12/20/2015 Saw Star Wars last night post Korean BBQ with friends. Not even going to bother to weigh-in. My buddy has my gym notebook, so I don't have my numbers to report, though I do remember slamming out a 225lb x 4 Incline Press PR. Going to take it easy next week as I have a really tight shoulder that was giving me problems on flat bench yesterderday and my back is overall pretty worn out.

Weigh-In, Sunday, December 13, 2015: 221lbs I'm not sure by what voodoo I lost 6lbs in a week, but I'll take it. It's probably a little fat and a lot of water. If my numbers from yesterday are any indication, my strength levels are currently unaffected. I feel and look better, so that's cool. My face is less full and my gut doesn't stick out as far. I didn't even do any cardio and ate a 1000 calorie burger after last night's training session. I'm going to try to stick to what I did this past week and see what happens next weigh-in.

My routine deviated significantly from what I posted above, but I still got 3 solid days in, hitting the big three and OHP. I didn't do the T Nation routine, besides some paused squats. I discovered that leading off the week with deadlift isn't the best idea. Work was tiresome and that contributed to one less day than I had planned. Monday 12/7/15 Deadlift: 15x135 10x225 8x315 6x365 5x405 3x425 - Rep PR Fail-455 Fail-455 1x425 1x405 5x365 5x365 5x365 Paused Squats - 3s: 5x275 5x275 5x275 5x275 5x275 Tuesday 12/8/15 Bench Press: 45lb Warm Up 135lb Warm Up 10x185 10x185 5x225 5x245 5x245 5x245 - Last 2 spotter assist 8x225 15x185 24x135 - Wasn't using collars and the weight started to slip off around the 20th rep Overhead Press: 45lb Warm Up 10x95 5x135 3x155 FAIL-175 3x155 3x155 4x155 4x155 3x155 6x135 Machine Reverse Flies - Didn't even bother writing down the weight. My training partner called it active fat guy resting lol. Incline Press: 45lb Warm Up 10x135 8x155 - spotter corrected bar path a bit 8x155 - spotter assist on last rep 7x155 7x155 135x20 - spotter assists began at 15 Saturday 12/12/15 45lb Warm Up 135lb Warm Up 8x185 6x225 5x245 3x255 2x265 2x265 2x265 - last rep spotter assist 2x265 - last rep spotter assist 3x255 3x245 3x245 3x245 8x225 - last three spotter assist 30x135 Incline Bench: 45lb Warm Up 10x135 6x185 2x225 2x225 2x225 3x225 - Rep PR 3x225 - last rep spotter assist 18x135 Squat: 45lb Warm Up 12x135 10x225 6x315 3x365 2x385 1x405 1x385 3x365 5x335 5x335 5x335 5x275 - 3s paused 5x275 - 3s paused 13x225 20x135 Looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow, feeling leaner!

Any knowledge that you can find, I will read! Right now I've used IIFYM.com to come up with the numbers and put myself in a minor caloric deficit. Been at it since Monday. Hope all is well

I'm back and after being frustrated with my 227 weigh-in this morning, I'm shifting my focus to fat loss. I'm scaling back my workouts to 4x/week, each day focusing on one of the big three and a fourth day for OHP. I'm not going to spend the time recording several old workouts. It's time to look forward. First, to keep things simple, I am just going to give a brief outline for how the training will work: Monday: Deadlift I will be following a routine I found on T-Nation specifically designed to help people with short limbs and long torsos compensate for having the worst possible build for deadlifting. I'll go into details tomorrow or Tuesday when I write up the training session. Wednesday: Bench Press Flat Bench/Incline Bench/Close Grip Bench I'm going back to 5x5 linear progression with Bench. Bench has frustrated the hell out of me for months. I need to get some volume in at a heavier weight to perfect my form and maintain my muscles during this fat loss phase. The bench variants will be done in bridges, building from low weight at high volume to near maximum 1 rep and back down again. Friday: Squat Squat Bridge Saturday: OHP OHP Bridge Arms and Back Accessory Work The beginning of my Pull Up Training Each day I will be doing 20 minutes of cardio and will try to get cardio in on the off days as well. Gonna work on my diet plan next. I'm experiencing a shift in my priorities as I'm feeling and looking fat. I want to be look good in addition to being strong, so it's time to make a course correction.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you! I'll give it a spin.

Haha not for the faint of heart. Monday 11/23/2015 Got talked into another bro workout. Never again. This felt better than the last. Bench Press - 3 Second Pause: 45lb Warmup 8x135 3x225 2x245 3x245 - light spot on last rep 3x245 - light spot on last rep 3x245 - light spot on last rep 4-Inch Invisible Board Press (Or as I like to call it... Half reps): 8x195 10x195 10x195 10x195 Feet Up Wide Bench: 10x165 10x165 10x165 Three Second Pause Lat Pull-Downs: 12x85 12x85 12x85 Tricep Pull-Down: 15x60 15x60 Dumbell Bicep Curls: 15x20 15x25 Tomorrow I'm getting in a personal sesh. Deadlift, Bench Press, Squat, Overhead Press. No bullshit, just heavy iron and then it's turkey time!

I've reached the point in my powerlifting training where gains are becoming harder to come by and the amount of food that I need to eat to obtain them is also making me fat. I know the basics: You can't gain and burn fat at the same time. I've accepted this. You need to be in a caloric deficit to burn fat. I'm an engineer and I took my thermodynamics, so that checks out. The problem that I'm running into is that I can't estimate how much I burn from training. I don't do cardio, unless you count sets over 5 reps I strictly do the big three, their variations, and accessory movements. This makes calculating my TDEE a very rough estimate at best. If someone could please point me in the right direction here, I would really appreciate it. My goal is to maintain as much strength as possible, while losing weight at a rate of about 1lb/week for a period of 16 weeks. I am open to cardio, as long as it doesn't kill my gains. I'm 28, 5'10, 227lbs as of this post. I'd estimate my BF% to be somewhere between 20% and 25%. Thanks in advance for any advice!

11/22/2015 - Sunday Weighed-in at 227lbs. Not what I was hoping for, but I'm beginning to accept the fact that I won't have full control over my nutrition until I'm moved out and fully independent at the end of next month. I also started taking creatine a week ago and that makes you retain water. My sleep was fairly crappy throughout the week. I need to watch my caffeine and electronic device time around bed time, but again, I'll sleep better in my new place. Now for the fun stuff... Wednesday Training Sesh: Deadlifts 15x135 12x225 12x225 8x315 6x365 6x365 6x365 6x365 6x365 These felt great, even after all the squats on Monday that I hadn't fully recovered from. I'm aiming to turn this into a 5x5 of 405 before I attempt to PR again. It was light enough to drill form with volume and heavy enough to work the muscles. Front Squats: 10x135 10x135 10x135 10x135 I'm sorely lacking lifting shoes, so I step off of two stacked mats to make a heel. I just got myself flexible enough to hold the bar properly for these. Short arms, stubby fingers, and big biceps had me gripping straps at first. For now these are a bit awkward, but I'm making them work. Superset: Kneeling Leg Curl / Ab Wheel 3x12x60 / 3x10 Feeling stronger on the ab wheel, even though it was giving me acid reflux at the end. 11/20/2015 - Friday My buddy had some upper body routine he took off of T Nation that he was all stoked to try out, but he was late to the gym as usual, so I just jumped on flat bench: Barbell Bench Press: 45lb Warmup 20x135 10x185 7x225 Then he showed up: Incline Paused Barbell Press: 45lb Warmup 95lb Warmup 135 Warmup (I didn't record the warmup, if you couldn't tell ) 7x185 6x185 - barpath got awkward and hit the rack on one of my early reps 7x185 7x185 Overhead Press: 8x95 9x115 7x115 7x115 Dead-stop Barbell Row: 8x165 8x165 8x165 Used straps because I was getting fatigued and I don't have much hand real estate to grip the bar with. Hammer Curls: 15x25 15x25 Dumbell Flies: I didn't even record these because my form was awful and I was getting sick of this bro routine at this point Facepull: 20x35 20x35 So yeah, this is why I don't like doing chest and arms with this dude lol. I'm going to get my flat bench in tomorrow after squats. I'm heading in early.

Hey there. The battle log let's me log at my own pace in my own format. My goals are also more of a process than six weeks. I don't plan to track attribute points, so I like this better for now. Love the dancing Colbert btw haha. 11/16/2015 - Monday Followed supplementation plan and stuck to whole foods. Had a lot of extra energy going into my training session, which consisted exclusively of squats: Bar Warmup (45lbs high-rep) 10x135 8 x 225 5x315 3x365 2x385 1x405 1x425lbs PR! 5x335 5x335 5x335 5x335 5x335 Great sesh! Great feeling PR! Let out one hell of a yell when I got it up. Let the gains begin!

11/15/2015 - Sunday Allowed today to be an eat with reckless abandon day or a "refeed". Felt great after that crappy attempt at a carb cycle last week. Also got in an excellent overhead press bridge session with my buddy. Put up a PR 185lb. I have my supplementation schedule figured out and entered into myfitnesspal to keep me on track. Going to cook some turkey burgers in a little bit so that I have lunch and dinner ready for tomorrow. For the moment, I am going with a "listen to my body" diet, while training my ass off and getting lots of sleep. Essentially, I eat quality food as I need it or when I anticipate that I will need it, such as before a workout or consuming caesin before bed.

Battle Log in sig.

I'm Turnup, former second in command to Supreme Commander Nappa. I was fortunately on a special mission in deep space when Frieza destroyed Vegeta. It seems our prince and the younger son of Bardock are the only remaining survivors... and it look's like I have a lot of catching up to do! Aaand that's enough RP for me. Turnup's my Dragonball Xenoverse Saiyan brawler. Let's get down to business! I discovered the rebellion about a week ago and immediately jumped into a challenge. This did not work out so well, because I do not have a solid nutrition plan and I'm at a transitioning point in my programming. As I described it to one of my gym buddies, I have entered the lowest tier of what you can consider strong by powerlifting standards. I am commercial gym strong: 415lb squat / 285 bench / 445 deadlift = 1145lb total I'm 28 years old, 5'10, 223lbs as of last weigh-in. I did a eat everything in sight dirty bulk for 2 months. Then I felt gross and low energy and tried a ridiculous low calorie carb cycle last week and felt like hell. My lifts suffered. I went from doing 2x5x405 deadlift one day, 5x3x405 on another, and then my 445lb PR a week ago, to barely being able to get 405 up once today. I also blame sleep. My buddy and I talked, and essentially, I need to deload, plan when I eat as well as what I eat, start supplementing, and get my sleep game tight. We're going to talk specifics over lunch tomorrow. I hit up GNC for some supps. Going to get a jump start on getting my sleep game tight. Hopefully I'll have a new training and nutrition program to report tomorrow.

Yeah nothing like it! For a number of reasons, I have decided to withdraw from this challenge while I get some things sorted out. Moreover, I simply don't have time to update my thread. I'm pressed for sleep as is. However, I will be creating a battle log to assist in sorting out my nutrition and programming. Thank you, Koaladle for your the support! I wish you all the best. I'll post a link to my battle log once I make it.

I already have a ton of stickies. Another didn't hurt and as I'm about to crash, it looks like I finally succeeded at this goal! Thursday Results: Goal 1: Pass Goal 2: Rest Day Goal 3: Fail Life Goal: Fail Friday (Tentative) Results: Goal 1: Pass Goal 2: Fail Goal 3: Pass Life Goal: Pass Almost aced the day and dropped the ball on training. My main workout partner usually motivates me in these situations, but he's out of town. I was drained from the week and the decreased calories. My other buddy just texted me. He works at the gym and noticed I wasn't there. Gonna go hard with him tomorrow.

Middle of the week scorecard: Goal 1: Carb Cycle (Giving myself 10 calories or 10g of wiggle room while I adapt) Mon: Pass Tue: Pass Wed: Pass Thu: On track to pass Goal 2: Training Mon: Pass Wed: Pass Goal 3: Sleep Mon: Fail Tue: Pass Wed: Fail Thu: On track to pass Life Goal: Fail x 4 Goal 1 feels dialed in. Goal 2 is easy because it's fun. Goal 3 has been a challenge. I need to plan my evenings better. I knew the life goal was going to be hard, but the plus side is, once I fail it, I tend to abstain for the rest of the day. I need to put a reminder on my computer at work or something.

Yeah! That was an excellent session. Here's the revised Goal 1: Only two of the days are particularly painful and I'm set up to lose almost a lb a week! I'll adjust as necessary, but I'm getting more calories overall than before and moving my heaviest carb days to the day before the heavy lifting days will better prepare me for them than having heavy carbs the day of.