dsavage gets cut, warrior style

[dsavage]

Hey Warriors,

 

You read that title right, dsavage is switching teams (from rangers). After close to a year on nerdfitness, I've come full circle. Here's my story:

 

Last August I started nerdfitness. I've always had a pretty unimpressive physique. For years I've been around 150-160lb with a bit of a belly. I come from a family of runners, but I've had a hard time staying focused on fitness since college. For one brief, glorious year after high school I worked out every week, working my way up to 180 lbs by being a gym rat. (In addition to tutoring calculus, the college gym offered me a job because I spent so much time there). "Working" at a gym at a community college during summer is pretty much the gym-goer's dream job.

 

Unfortunately I moved out of my hometown to start my 2nd year of college and dropped it all so fast it would make your head spin. For 10 years I would work out a little, and lose it, run a little, and lose it. It's nice that I never really "let myself go", but I got so tired of working at being in shape and never actually being in good shape.

 

Fast forward 10 years and I had hit a new highwater mark weight wise and started needing to buy bigger pants (34" instead of 32"). I was also dangerously close to 30. I had the realization that I really wanted to be in good shape by the time I hit 30. I also felt like if I didn't get in shape now, it would be twice as hard later.

 

After doing nerd fitness since August of last year, I've made some pretty great gains. I can knock out lots of pushups, and an easy half-dozen pull ups. I managed to hit a 6 minute mile (I figure if I run hard enough, it's not cardio). I've focused on mobility issues so now I can squat and deadlift with good form, although the weights are way too low. Due to doing squatting and deadlifts correctly I have way better core strength (it really does help with posture and back pain). Not to leave out diet: After a brief love affair with paleo, I've found a new food obsession: clean eating. I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and now I'm hooked on clean eating and avoiding unproceesed foods. tbh I'm hooked on my own cooking, it's become my new hobby. Since I work from home I do most of the cooking around my house. We eat a shitload of meat.

 

So I think I'm ready to really get serious with my squats, deadlifts, dips, bench press, and ohp. I think I'm going to need some warrior encouragement to do it. I also just finished up 6 weeks of bulking. It's actually weird, I'm within 5lbs of the weight I was at when I started nerdfitness, but I feel (and look) much better. I'm going to start doing 5x5 workouts and linearly progressing the weight until failure. I think this is stronglifts. I'm also going to do a cut. I know that will hinder my gains, but that's ok.

 

 

So here are my goals:

 

Goal 1: 30 inch waist

 

I like to place my cutting goals in terms of measurements. That way if the gains fairy gives me an extra 10 lbs of muscle, I still achieve my goal. I'm going to achieve this goal mostly through diet, and I'll be doing some extra cardio.

 

Goal 2: Complete 6 weeks religiously following the stronglift 5x5 program

 

Because my legs are too damn small, and so are all my other muscles. This sort program seems like the best thing to do to maintain muscle mass during my cut anyways.

 

Goal 3: Begin tracking food in MFP

 

I've never done any calorie counting or macro counting, and I think it's holding me back. I need to get serious about my diet so I can change the things I need to change to get stronger.

 

[wildross]

subbing..

[SpecialSundae]

Concrete goals.

 

Much love for leg gainz and MFP. I've got the same username on MFP if you want friends over there!

[concretecavewoman]

Bam, also cutting. Good luck!

[Jaymul]

Another fellow cutter here, looking forward to seeing how you get on.

[brutalbears]

Nice to see you over with the warriors. I am also on a cut myself (that last damn few pounds!), but I'm rooting for you this challenge!

[dsavage]

Hey nfers, welcome to day 2 of the challenge (well, day 3 for me). I  now have managed to log my food for 2 days in mfp, which is awesome.  I didn't feel hungry at all yesterday. If I actually manage over a pound of weight loss this week I might bump up my calories a little. I'm a little sore from my first 5x5 workout (especially my legs).

[dsavage]

Hey warriors, slight change of plans.

 

On chat yesterday I had a warrior-tervention when I mentioned I was trying to cut at 163lbs. After much deliberation the elders of the tribe recommended that I bulk or focus on caloric maintenance and increasing strength. 

 

This made me sad, because I've always heard recomp is slower, but it also made me happy because I get to gain more muscle. So I'm revising my goals. Although technically I'm still getting cut warrior style.

 

So I'm going to add a strength goal and drop my waist goal. I'd like to increase my squat over the next 6 weeks. I'm just going to make up a number and say I want my squat to go up 30lbs. That allows me to try and add 5lbs each week, which seems doable according to google. (I have been squatting for several months working really hard on form and mobility so I think I'm ready to up the weight)

 

Here's some inspirational squat images:

 

[Br0din]

What is this leg day you are talking about?  

[SpecialSundae]

Recomp is slow but the gainz can be ridiculous. It's well worth it if you're a bit fluffier than you'd like but too light to get away with cutting any further.

[dsavage]

What is this leg day you are talking about?

 

Standing curls, of course.

 

 

Recomp is slow but the gainz can be ridiculous. It's well worth it if you're a bit fluffier than you'd like but too light to get away with cutting any further.

 

+1 for ridiculous gainz. Bulking's funner anyways. I love cooking healthy food.

[brutalbears]

I saw a squat t-shirt today that said "if squats were easy they would be called your mom". The hardest I have laughed this week...

[dsavage]

I found this today, #nailedit.

 

 

 

Yesterday was a challenge. I missed my morning workout because I had to rebandage my dogs head (don't worry, she's fine). I worked through lunch, and then I couldn't leave the house until my wife got home because she was worried nobody would be there to watch my dog. Once she got home, I still had to walk the dogs and cook dinner.

 

 

 

So at like 6:45 I went to the gym. My first thought was that someone had turned the gym into some sort of weird rave/social club. Of course there was the usual vast expanse of abandoned machines, but the little room of weights was packed. No squat rack available, no benches available, no thingy where I sometimes deadlift available. Grrr. I couldn't even do overhead press with a proper weight.

 

 

So I learned, never ever ever go to the gym after dinner.

 

 

I managed to persevere though I had to make a few substitutions on accessory exercises. The best part was after my workout I was so hyped up I felt like Leonidas.

 

 

Anyways, that's it. End update.

 

[SpecialSundae]

Oi, where you gone?

[dsavage]

Hey Nerds,

 

I haven't been on the forums as much lately, but I've been kicking ass at the challenge!

 

Exercise:

 

Last friday I was traveling so I wasn't near a gym. I ended up just running 5 miles on saturday and sprinting up and down a hill a few times, it was definitely better than nothing.

 

This week I'm back on track. I hit a new personal record deadlifting at the gym. I deadlifted 195lb (88.5kg) 5x5. I think my forearms are having a little trouble keeping up with my progression.

 

I'm doing better in squats too. The weight that I could barely handle last week felt pretty easy this week, and I'm ready to bump up the weight a little.

 

Mobility

 

My shoulders are a little sad. I have some ligament damage in my right shoulder that acts up from time to time. It is definitely not a fan of OHP. My left shoulder got into the act too and woke me up last Wed. night because it was hurting. I've decided to basically skip OHP and play with the shoulder dislocation bar to work on my shoulder mobility. I have a few other exercises I'm going to try with my shoulder.

 

Diet

 

I've been pretty good about tracking everything in mfp. I'm mostly focused on hitting my macro goals for the day and making sure my weight grows slowly. I got some delicious lemon spinach from the farmer's market that I've been adding to most of my meals.

[Jaymul]

Nice work, great to see your progress!

[dsavage]

Random update. I weighed myself today, it looks like this whole maintenance weight plan is working.

 

In other news, when I was in portland I visited the famous Powell's bookstore. While there I scored some old doc savage books (my name on nerdfitness). I haven't been able to find these since I was a teenager!