Simplifying and Refocusing

[Erik25]

I bit off a little more than I could chew last challenge, so this time I'm going to try to simplify a couple areas so that I can do better overall instead of excelling in one area (lifting) while the other areas (diet, weight loss progress) stall or go backwards. To accomplish this, I'm going to alter my diet plan a bit so it takes less time/mental energy and hopefully I'll be less likely to backslide or crash. Hopefully this leads to fewer pizzas ordered/eating out/etc. 

 

Main Goal: Lose Bodyfat while maintaining or gaining strength. 

 

Missions:

 

1. Average 5/6 gym days per week

• Self-explanatory. There are 36 scheduled gym sessions in 6 weeks, basically go at least 30 times.

2. Eat sensibly

Instead of counting calories or using a specific diet I'm just going to have a few rules. I'll track scale progress weekly as well as paying attention to how clothes fit. 

• Don't drink your calories
• Do drink 3L of water every day outside the gym
• Eat protein with every meal- Focusing on less processed varieties
• Supplement at least 50g in protein shakes daily
• Exercise self/portion control
• Eat green things a lot
• Limit indulgences/cheats (I'm looking at you, Pizza and donuts)

2. Revised Diet Plan

I've been doing a lot of reading about different diet strategies and plans I could try without getting into territory that sunk me last time with variation/complexity. I came across one article that clicked with me so I'm going to try to implement it starting next week. 

 

Part of the problem with my diet plan was that I was placing way too much time and energy into things that produce minor results (meal frequency, eating the "right" foods) and that was drawing attention away from the most important factors for success: overall calorie intake, and macro breakdown. Represented on the site in this handy-dandy pyramid:

 

 

If you're interested in reading more here's the link to the whole article.

 

So starting next week I'm going to attempt to average the following each day, without worrying about cycling fat/carbs, optimal eating times, or anything else above this:

 

Target Calories Per Day: 2700

 

Macro Targets

·        Protein: 230g (920cal)

·        Fat: 100g (900cal)

·        Carbs: 220g (880cal)

 

 

3. Optional - Stretch More

I do some flexibility and mobility drills for warm-up, PT, and cooldown, but I need to do more static stretching when my muscles are cold so increase general flexibility. Posterior chain and Shoulders are the primary targets here. 

 

Life Goal:

1. Don't be doing Nothing

Allowing for lounging around, there are still things I can be doing while I'm watching TV or otherwise. There's always something to be picked up or cleaned somewhere. Hopefully this 'creates' more time in the day to get things done. 

 

Program

Starting 1RM

• Squat 405lb
• Deadlift 415lb
• Bench 270lb

Sticking with the same format as last time, with a few changes. Day 1 and 4 turned into days to address weak points in the main lifts which I like a lot. It gives me the flexibility to address what I need to and not be stuck doing a variant I don't like. Rep/Sets usually stay the same, although sometimes I'll drop it down to focus on using a heavier weight to get the strength and explosive benefit (Pin squats and cleans/power cleans specifically).

 

Adding in more defined upper back work, since it's usually the first thing to get cut and needs the most work.

 

(It was Bane-themed last time, so I'm sticking with it. Plus it makes the days easier to remember) 

 

Day 1: Hypertrophy and Assistance Work - Theatricality and Deception

1. Squat variant, 5×8 @ 70% 
2.  Bench variant, 5×8 @ 70%
3.  Deadlift variant, 5×8 @70%
4. Chinups 12x1 (Will progress if possible)
5. Curl Variant

Day 2: Strength - The Fire Rises

1. Squat, 3x Max Reps @ 85% --Low Bar
2. Bench, 3x Max Reps @ 85% -- Regular
3. Deadlift, 3x Max Reps @ 85% -- Conventional
4. Overhead Press, 3x Max reps @ 85%
5. Rear Delt Assistance (facepulls, rear delt flys)

Day 3: Power - Your Punishment Must be More Severe

1. Squat, 3×1 @ 90% Low Bar
2. Bench, 3×1 @ 90% Conventional
3. Romanian Deadlifts, 4×8
4. Additional Back/Bicep and Shoulder work (Optional)

Day 4: Hypertrophy and Weakpoint Focus - Necessary Evil

1. Squat Variant (Pins, Paused, High bar, Front, Zercher), 5×10 @ 60%
2. Bench Variant (Close Grip, Wide Grip, Banded, Paused, etc), 5×10 @ 60%
3. Deadlift Variant (Cleans, Hex Bar, High Pulls, deficits, block pulls, etc), 5×10 @ 60% 
4. Row Variant  (1 arm, Pendlay, cable, etc) 4x8-10

Day 5: Strength - Gotham’s Reckoning

1. Squat, 3x Max Reps @ 80% -- Low Bar
2. Bench, 3x Max Reps @ 80% --Regular
3. Deadlift, 3x Max Reps @ 80% -- Conventional
4. Chin ups 15 reps - Any set/rep scheme

Day 6: Power - Your Spirit or Your Body

1. Deadlift, 3×1 @ 90%
2. Push Press, 4×8 @ 75%
3. Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts, 3×10
4. Optional Accessory work

[elvenengineer]

Focusing on diet is important!  Good job on your goals

 

(I also like your gifs/theme)

[fearlesscreek]

sounds good! go for it! 

[wildross]

Having researched who Bane is (not a Batman fan)...subbing.

[raptron]

MORE BAAAANE!

[matty_mcfly]

But pizza and donuts are sooo good

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Erik25]

Having researched who Bane is (not a Batman fan)...subbing.

A lot of people like the Joker as a villain, but Bane's always been my favorite of the bunch even though he's relatively new. 

 

MORE BAAAANE!

 

But pizza and donuts are sooo good

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Agreed, they're the best. Well, that and beer. Pizza and beer are easy enough to stay away from because I have to go out of my way in most cases to get them. When someone brings donuts to the office though... those are the hard days. 

[Erik25]

Well, not the best start to the challenge, which is actually a huge understatement. I can confidently say I just had the worst workout I've ever had. I've never missed so many weights that should have been easy. 

 

I do have a contingency plan for when I start consistently failing weights, as this type of program isn't meant to be run over long periods of time. So I'm going to try to get a little extra sleep tonight and some more calories in for dinner, and see how the rest of the we goes. If the whole week is bad, I may start my 'next step' early, which will basically be a big drop in volume and a hard cut for a few weeks. I don't have the details planned out yet, because I wasn't expecting a stall so early but it shouldn't be too hard to put together. 

 

Anyway, today's workout:

 

Bulgarian Split Squats 95lb, 5, 5, 5, 0, 0

Back squats 185, 1x5

Bench 185lb, 8, 8, 6, 0, 0

Chin ups 4x1

RDL 45lb, 1x10

DB Curls 30lb, 3x8

Stretching

[raptron]

Oof at the bad workout day. They're not good days. Hope the rest of the week improves so you don't have to shift gears just yet.

[matty_mcfly]

Yea, it might just be a bad day that creeps out of nowhere sometimes.

[Erik25]

Definite improvement today. I wanted to push a little harder (on squats especially) but kept it pretty moderate. I did get better sleep going in to yesterday which may have helped, and I ate more throughout the day. I also changed up my whole warmup to be more active and less static. My hip flexors were especially bothering me on Monday, and they're usually the first thing I stretch, but I think stretching them cold may have been doing more harm than good. 

 

Warmup: Goblet Squats x10, Split Squats x5 each, Hip airplanes x10 each, Hip Side to sides x20 each, Goblet squats x10

 

Squat 345lb: 4, 4, 3

Bench 230lb: 2, 2, 4

Deadlifts 355lb: 1, 1, 1

OHP 135lb: 1, 2, 2

Facepulls 15.5lb: 4x12

[Erik25]

Continued improvement from Monday, though still feeling a little on the weak side of things. Hit all my 90% reps yesterday, and went light today with the 5x10s. No work tomorrow, so I'm hoping a little extra sleep will help things keep moving in the right direction. 

 

I'm going to start indicating equipment use so I can track it a bit more consistently. 

 

7/29/15- Your Punishment Must be More Severe

Same as previous warmup

 

Squat 3x1 365lb w/belt and knee sleeves

Bench 3x1 245lb w/wrist wraps

Good Mornings 4x10 135lb

 

Supersets

• 4x10- Close grip cable rows 144lb/ DB Hammer Curls 30lb
• 4x12- Tricep Extensions 25lb/ DB Curls 20lb

 

7/30/15- Necessary Evil

Same Warmup

 

2-3sec Pause Squats 5x10 135lb

DB Bench 5x10 45lb

Deficit Deadlifts 1x10 135lb, 4x5 225lb w/straps

Pendlay Rows 5x10 135lb

[raptron]

Awesome. Much better than Monday for sure.

[Erik25]

For the first time in a while I didn't totally derail diet-wise over the weekend. Had a few beers while "golfing" (I'm not sure if what I am capable can actually be called golfing), and ate out for lunch and dinner but stayed reasonable. I did have to deal with some of the typical questions one receives when not treating your body like a garbage disposal, but that's alright. Missed Saturday's scheduled workout, but made it up on Sunday. 

 

Focus shift for workouts: concentrating my accessory work for deadlifts on strengthening my back, upper and lower. Been noticing some consistent rounding on heavier sets so I've been playing around with stance and belt placement a bit as well. 

 

7/31/15

Warmup: Goblet Squats 65lb 2x10, Split Squat 5x each leg, Hip airplanes 12x each leg, hip back-and-forths 20x each, Goblet Squats 1x10.

 

Squat 325lb: 5, 5, 6

Bench 215lb: 5, 4, 5

Deadlifts 335: 5, 5, 5

Chin-ups 15x1 (spread throughout workout- seems to work better than just doing 12x1 at once.)

--

DB Hammer Curls 30lb 4x8

Trap Bar Shrugs 225lb 3x10

Super Sets

• Rope Tricep Ext 22.5lb 4x15//1 arm cable curls 22.5lb 4x10
• Face Pulls 17.5lb 4x12//Paloff Press 22.5 4x10 each side

8/2/15

No full warmup

 

Deadlifts 375lb 3x1

Push Press 135lb 5x5

OHP Backoff sets 95lb 3x5

Paused Good Mornings 135lb 4x6-8

Deficit Snatch grip Romanian Deadlifts w/straps 185lb 4x8

[Erik25]

8/3/15

Warmup: Goblet Squats 2x10, Split squats 1x6 each, Hip Airplanes 1x12 each, Back and forths 2x20 each, Goblet squats 1x10

 

5-second Pause Squats: 45 1x10, 135 3x8, 185 1x6, 225 1x4

Squats: 225 1x10

Close Grip Bench Press 135lb: 5x8

Snatch Grip RDL 135lb: 5x8

Chin-ups 12x1

DB Hythe Flyes 15lb: 4x8

DB Incline Curls 25lb: 4x8

[raptron]

Oof at 5-second pause squats @ 225#.

[Erik25]

Yeah, I was thinking a little too highly of myself when I planned out the weights for the day. 

[Erik25]

Edited Diet Info in first post, basically going back to counting calories and macros but not sweating the little stuff that produces minor (possibly zero) results. We'll see how it goes.

 

8/4/15

Warmup: goblet squats, hip airplanes, back and forths, goblet squats

 

Squat 345lb: 5, 5, 5

Bench 230lb: 3, 3, 3

Deadlifts 355lb: 3, 3, 3

OHP 135lb: 3, 3, 4

Facepulls 17.5lb 4x10

 

Stretching

[Erik25]

8/5/15

Squats 365lb 3x1

Bench 245lb 3x1

Good Mornings 135lb 4x10

1 arm Row 60lb 4x8

BB Curls 45lb 3x10//DB Curl 25lb 1x10

Rear Cable Flys 7.5lb 4x10

Tricep Extensions 22lb 4x15

Rotator Cuff assistance

 

 

8/6/15

Squats 185lb 5x10

Wide Grip Banded Bench 135lb 5x10

Block Pulls w/ Pause at bottom 225lb 3x5

Seated Vertical Cable Rows 52.5 5x10

High to Low Cable Flys 27.5 5x10

Dogcrapp Method Curls 35lb DBs: 9, 4, 5 (forgot the 4 second negative portion)

[Erik25]

Felt pretty worn down every day last week, so I've decide to do my dreaded Deload week. I know typically people are worried about losing the gym habit and reverting back to old habits, but I feel like I'll have the opposite problem; continuing to push too hard during a deload. So for that reason I'm dropping some sessions this week, and placing a strict 30 minute time limit on my time in the weight room when I do go. I think I'm going to do one session of 5x5 with 50% of my 1RM, one session with a couple singles at 75% and one session of 3x8 at 40% of 1RM. All 3 sessions I'll just do Squat/Bench/Dead and some mobility stuff (including the new NF yoga challenge). 

 

Then next week I'm going to start Jonnie Candito's 6 Week Strength Program and run that for as many cycles as I can while on my 2700 calorie eating plan. I've been looking at this one for awhile and I'm excited to get started on it. 

 

8/7/15

Warmup

 

Squat 325lb: 6, 5, 4

Bench 215lb: 3, 5, 5

Deads: Assorted Sets messing around with my stance and form. 

Chin-ups 3x1

Facepulls 17.5lb: 4x12

Standing Cable Crunch 84lb: 3x10

DCM Challenge: Push Press 135lb: 8, 4, 5+static hold

 

8/8/15

Skipped due to burnout. 

[raptron]

Ugh, deload week is the worst. I'm glad you're planning on picking up some extra mobility work because the "UGH WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS FREE TIME?" bug is so weird. 

[Erik25]

Exactly. When I didn't pack my gym bag last night I tried to think of what I would do with my spare time tonight, and I can't remember what I used to do on weeknights. Right now it's looking like laundry and Halo.  

[Erik25]

8/10 and 8/11 I made my new calorie and macro goals without much trouble. I went a couple hundred over on 8/11 but am going to make up for that today. 

 

8/11/15

Warmup: Goblet Squats, Reverse lunges, hip airplanes, back and forths, goblet squats 2x10. 1 round shoulder prehab. 

 

Squat 5x5 225lb

Bench 5x5 135lb

Deadlift 5x5 225lb

--

 

I broke my half hour rule already this week, but it was so I could play around with my deadlift form and be fresh for each set. Deadlifts haven't been 'clicking' recently so I want to see if I can find that groove again. I think I found a set-up that's better and I'm going to test it on my heavier day tomorrow. 

 

Squats and bench I ran through pretty quick, with 60-90sec rest times. I have to remember to brace my core better on squats with light weight, though, my first three sets were lazy and put a lot of stress on my lower back. On my last two sets I braced intentionally rather than just squatting down and that seemed to mitigate it.

 

Failed at adding mobility work. Planning to do that tonight since I'm off again today.

[raptron]

Mehhh, form work and practice is a good enough reason to extend a deload workout. Get on that mobility work though!

[Erik25]

My new diet plan has ben going well. I've hit the target most days, went over a couple, went under a couple. Overall good so far. Going to shuffle out some lower quality foods and replace them with 'better' ones gradually. 

 

The higher intensity of the new workout schedule is going to take a little getting used to, but once I get back into the flow of things everything should fall together nicely. It's also slightly comforting to know that I don't have to squat or deadlift again until Friday. 

 

8/17 Workout

 

Standard Warmup (need a bit more loosening up after a long weekend)

 

Squats 4x6 325lbs

Deadlifts 2x6 330lbs