For Your Health (a hunk's log)

[broseph]

I hereby start my Exodus lifting log whatever who cares.

I've "worked out" and been health conscious my whole life. Started lifting at Tanner Stage little boy, vacillated between - bro splits @chickenbroccolibrownrice, running 5-10K @dressingontheside, starting potato @fatfucked, texas method @injuryaccumulation, etc.

I currently require monthly organized programming, which I'm completely clueless about, but I lift consistently and hard enough that I tend to slowly accumulate what could technically be defined as "progress."

Let's check it out!

[broseph]

Currently doing 4 week blocks that basically look like:
Week 1: 30 reps of 75-80%
Week 2: 39 reps of 75-80%
Week 3: 12 reps of 85%
Week 4: 5RM with 30 reps of 70%
(this is just for squat and bench, I think my deadlift just increases as my squat gets better)

I lift exclusively in my basement. Topless whenever possible. Listening to weird music.

9/17/17 Week 4 Squat A

Bodyweight 212. Need to increase calories again.

Squat 420x5 @11
355x3x5

[broseph]

9/19/17 Week 4 Bench A

Bench 350x4 @9.67


275x3x5

Press 165x3x5 @sloppy but easy

Nothing felt right today- couldn't find the groove or stay tight. Lame. I've benched 350x4 before... Looking back through my log, it was December of last year. So in 9 months my net progress has been losing 10 lbs of bodyweight and maintaining my bench. Amazing.

I've been increasing calories a little at a time after cutting weight, and I either maintain or keep losing. Currently up to 3550/day.

Edit: Looks like I held my breath for the first 3 bench reps. I don't know if that's something.

[TimK]

Edit: Looks like I held my breath for the first 3 bench reps. I don't know if that's something.

I usually try to hold my breath for at least two reps at a time and it seems to help me stay tighter. I think three is the most I've done on a single breath with heavy weight. I've heard some people say they hold their breath through a whole set of five but that seems crazy to me.

[broseph]

9/20/17 Week 4 Squat/Deadlift B

Squat 355x3x5 @EZPZ

Deadlift 455x2... don't even want to talk about it. If I were making progress, I would have planned on 500x3 @9. I knew that wasn't in the cards (because I keep losing bodyweight), so I was just going to do 455x5 @8 for a small stimulus this week. I got 2 reps, felt like I was losing back extension, so I quit there. Reviewing the footage, these reps were fast and my back was fine. Who knows.

Abwheel 2x20

I usually try to hold my breath for at least two reps at a time and it seems to help me stay tighter. I think three is the most I've done on a single breath with heavy weight. I've heard some people say they hold their breath through a whole set of five but that seems crazy to me.

I've played around with this as a variable, and found I perform better NOT holding my breath. Without thinking about it, I seem to hold one breath through warmup sets. Sometimes I'll do it for lower RPE sets of 5. But for a 5RM, I'm better off with a breath between each rep. I wonder if a slightly lower blood CO2 concentration keeps the ol' central governor from freaking out.

[chromoly]

vacillated between - bro splits @chickenbroccolibrownrice, running 5-10K @dressingontheside, starting potato @fatfucked, texas method @injuryaccumulation, etc.

Hah!

[broseph]

9/23/17 Week 1 Squat/Deadlift A

Forgot to weight myself today, but have increased Calories to 3600+

Squat 395x3x5 @8.5, last set:

I kept the disrobing of the belt portion of the video for the belt placement thread.

Deadlift 455x2x4 @8.5, last set:

Video shows these to be easier/faster than I'm perceiving. Maybe all the medium volume of late has hurt my ability to grind.

Straight Bar Curls 105x3x15 (bicep pump for thighs:bis thread)

vacillated between - bro splits @chickenbroccolibrownrice, running 5-10K @dressingontheside, starting potato @fatfucked, texas method @injuryaccumulation, etc.

Hah!

It's funny because it's true.

[broseph]

9/24/17 Week 1 Bench/Press A

Bench 327.5x3x5 @9.5 For reasons unknown, these quickly escalated from the first set @8ish.

Press 190x3x5 @9.25. These actually got easier as the sets progressed. First set was close enough to @10 that I considered dropping down to 4's.
Last set:


Horizontal Pull Up? 3x6. Video demonstration of this bull shit:


Ok, hear me out- I HATE HATE HATE barbell rows, always feel them in my hams and low back more than anything. I rigged up a cable and pulleys to perform seated cable rows, but as these get heavy the weights swing all over the place and it feels dangerous. Enter the "horizontal pull up." I've never felt my mid/upper back work so much in my life. Plus abs. Not incrementally loadable, but if I can increase the reps and eventually the sets, I think I could get some swolertrophy out of this.

[cgeorg]

I don't see any reason not to try them and find out. They look pretty hard! Could probably be incrementally loaded with a weight belt.

[Allentown]

Those are pretty cool and all, but, hear me out, why not get a pair of rachet straps or just some 2" tubular webbing or 2" flat webbing, run it over your PU bar, put your feet on the bench, and do it that way? If you want to get REALLY fancy, you can even clip a variety of handles to the webbing. Imagine how bad ass it would look to do rows hanging from these!

[broseph]

9/26/17 Week 1 Squat B

Squat 365x3x5 @7ish

RDL 315x2x8. Planned on 3 sets, but wussed out. No legitimate excuse.

Abwheel 3x20.

Those are pretty cool and all, but, hear me out, why not get a pair of rachet straps or just some 2" tubular webbing or 2" flat webbing, run it over your PU bar, put your feet on the bench, and do it that way? If you want to get REALLY fancy, you can even clip a variety of handles to the webbing. Imagine how bad ass it would look to do rows hanging from these!

I see what you're saying, but hear this- I think the effort of keeping my body as horizontal as possible is a big part of what's making the exercise "work." If my feet were supported, it would be too easy. Right now it's all the work of a pull up, a dragon flag, and a pullover combined into one awkward exercise. I concede that the grenade handles would add bad-assery though.

[broseph]

9/28/17 Week 1 Bench B

Bench x5: 225, 275, 295, 305, 315. Last set @7.5

Chins +90x 5, 5, 6.5 (almost 7)


Close Grip Bench 275x3x8

EZ Curlz 158x3x7

Musings: It's been over a week of 3600 Cal/day, and bodyweight has stayed @211-212. Upping to 3800/day. The last few months I've been trying to eat "healthy"- focus on single ingredient foods, ~5 cups of fruits and vegetables/day, monounsaturated fats, less sugar... This is getting difficult as the calories increase. Especially when roughly following Jordan's advice, which tends toward what I would call a low fat diet.

[Allentown]

Musings: It's been over a week of 3600 Cal/day, and bodyweight has stayed @211-212. Upping to 3800/day. The last few months I've been trying to eat "healthy"- focus on single ingredient foods, ~5 cups of fruits and vegetables/day, monounsaturated fats, less sugar... This is getting difficult as the calories increase. Especially when roughly following Jordan's advice, which tends toward what I would call a low fat diet.

Here's an "easy" way to help with this: buy the tubs of spinach from Costco. Twice a day, shove as much spinach into your mouth as you can fit and still chew. Just stuff it all in there while standing over the counter like some sort of rabid animal. Try and make eye contact with your neighbor through the window while doing this.
Also, cook 2 cups (dry) of rice a day. Keep leftovers in one container, and force yourself to empty out the container before the next batch is finished.

[broseph]

Here's an "easy" way to help with this: buy the tubs of spinach from Costco. Twice a day, shove as much spinach into your mouth as you can fit and still chew. Just stuff it all in there while standing over the counter like some sort of rabid animal. Try and make eye contact with your neighbor through the window while doing this.
Also, cook 2 cups (dry) of rice a day. Keep leftovers in one container, and force yourself to empty out the container before the next batch is finished.

Simple. Elegant. Effective.

[broseph]

9/30/17 Week 2 Squat A

Bodyweight 212. Day 3 of 3800 Cal/day.

Did not feel like lifting today. Didn't sleep GREAT, but not bad enough to justify how I'm feeling. I mustered up the willpower to get started only to have a weird groin/hip/leg/knee thing... At the bottom of the first couple reps of every warmup set there's a twingy feeling that extends from the medial anterior groin, follows through my thigh and ends up in the posterior lateral knee. It's bad enough that I would get really wonky and have lateral movement at the bottom of every first rep.

Scheduled to do 8 sets of 3 @82% 1RM, but with this firs rep jitters deal I called an audible for 3 sets of 8 @76%. Each set felt @8.5 with regards to reps in the tank, but left me dizzy, sick, and out of breath for 10 minutes each round. The last set felt awesome, probably a 7.5... Video replay showed it to only be 7 reps. Must've miscounted in my clammy lightheaded stupor.

Squat 365x8, 8, 7. Assuming (hoping) I only miscounted the last set.


That's it. Started warming up the deadlift and felt like I was going to throw up. It's just lifting, who cares.

*edit: The lateral movement is not very visible on video (mostly just knee shaking). By the last set I was able to control my reaction to the pain a little better. Because I'm so tough.

...brb sending DTFgilcrest $200 for a toughness badge.

[broseph]

10/1/17 Week 2 Bench A

Bench 295x 8, 8, 12. Ties an old PR at a heavier bodyweight. Not significant.


Press 175x 8, 8, 7. First set:

I don't know what "version" of the overhead press I do, but that's what it looks like. I forgot to shrug for the first few reps, and remembered when my shoulder started hurting.

Horizontal Pull Up 3x7

[broseph]

10/3/17 Week 2 Squat B

I haven't felt very lifty this week. All the children have had low grade fevers/high grade fussiness. No fever for me, but definitely fussy.

Squat 365x3x5 @7 or less.

Deadlift 405x5 @EZPZ. Haven't deadlifted much lately, so instead of RDL's I did a set of 5 @75% just to grease the groove and get a feel for things. I filmed them to get an objective view- crisp, fast, solid.


Abwheel 3x20

[broseph]

10/4/17 Week 2 Bench B

Bench 295x 6, 6, 6 @8

Chins +60x 8, 8, 8

Close grip bench 315x 4, 3, 3, supersetted with:
EZ curlz 158x 8, 8, 8.

It's called hourly undulating periodization, sweetie, get used to it.

It's been a week at 3800 Cal/day with no change in bodyweight. Upping to 4000. Mathematically speaking, If I was losing 2lbs/week at 2800C/day, then that's a 7000C/week deficit from maintenance. And 4000C/day should roughly equal 0.5lb gain/week.

I've never been this nerdy about macros, but it worked for cutting, and it's strangely satisfying. Moving forward, after a cutting phase I will add something like 300C/day every week so there's a 1 month transition from losing to gaining (instead of a 3 month frustratingly slow transition of adding 100C/day/week). I don't know why I didn't just do the math up front instead of the slow titration. Guess I was afraid of instantly getting fat again.

[TimK]

I don't know why I didn't just do the math up front instead of the slow titration. Guess I was afraid of instantly getting fat again.

But how do you know that wouldn't have happened if you jumped straight up to 4000? Maybe there is some mechanism by which going slow allows your TDEE to ramp up along with the added calories to a point, even without any real change in activity, but that mechanism is overwhelmed by a sudden increase in daily calories. I'm pretty much talking out of my ass here but that seems to be the basis for "reverse dieting" and some smart people say that that is the way to do it so maybe they're right?

[broseph]

I don't know why I didn't just do the math up front instead of the slow titration. Guess I was afraid of instantly getting fat again.

But how do you know that wouldn't have happened if you jumped straight up to 4000? Maybe there is some mechanism by which going slow allows your TDEE to ramp up along with the added calories to a point, even without any real change in activity, but that mechanism is overwhelmed by a sudden increase in daily calories. I'm pretty much talking out of my ass here but that seems to be the basis for "reverse dieting" and some smart people say that that is the way to do it so maybe they're right?

Yeah, I hear you. It all seems very brosciency, but I think there's merit to it.