Birthday Squats!

Fri, 29 Apr 16

Squats: 45x10, 135x10, 185x5, 225x2x10, 225x6x5

Weighed in this am at 217.6 - up a bit from the weekend, but not bad since I've been at maintenance and it's all water.  Birthday squats should be weight x age, but 2 plates a side was simple to load.  It didn't take long to see how poor my conditioning was after four months of dieting.  Once I finished the second set of 10 it was all sets of 5.  I did keep the rest periods as low as possible, just enough time to catch my breath and let my heart slow down a bit.  (30 secs to a min max)  Not bothering to check my weight tomorrow as I'm going out for dinner and I expect I will have drinks as well.

Maintenance diet - Deadlifts

Thurs, 28 Apr 16

Deadlifts: 135x2x5 (c/s), 225x2x5 (c/s), 315x5, 365x4x1, 345x2x2, 315x2x5

Nothing terribly impressive.  I had trouble initially breaking 365 off the floor and basically had to grip it and rip it to psych up.  The other three singles were easier.  I was pretty beat by the time I finished the two sets of 315.  All reps were reset at the floor, not touch and go.  It definitely makes it harder, but I need the practice getting off the floor - I have no problems once I get it to my knee.

Maintenance, bench

Wed, 27 Apr 16

Bench:  135x10, 185x5, 205x5, 225x2, 235x1, 245x1, 255x1, 245x2x2, 225x2x5, 185x2x5

Got in a good bench session.  Hands were a bit slippery, but managed.  I did some pec deck afterwards.  (150x15, 170x15, 190x2x5, 170x10)

Finally, squats with food in me!

Tues, 26 Apr 16

Squats: 135x2x10, 225x5, 275x5, 315x4x1, 275x2x5, 225x2x5

Once again, it took a while to get a rack.  So I warmed up with a bar out of the rack, front squats, back squats, stretches, then got a rack.  Decided to get to working weight fast, then do a few back off sets.  I felt strong, not super winded or exhausted, and form looked really good.  I was quite happy with the session and don't feel too bad about the wimpy weight of the work sets.  That will come back once I finish dieting.

Maintenance, machines

Mon, 25 Apr 16

I was hoping to squat today, but once again, could not get a rack. I guess I'm going to have to go to lunch early or late to get one.  Weight was only down a bit on Sat, 215 lbs even.  I went carb crazy the day before and almost ate the whole house.  I decided it was in my best interest to take a week or two off of the diet to get my hormones normalized a bit, and then go back at it.  My birthday is Fri anyhow, which means restaurant food and cake.

Anyhow, I did pec deck, tricep pulldowns, trap/bicep pulldown, leg extension, leg curls, and GHR.  All taken to exhaustion.  I think when I do machines I should probably do leg curls and GHR first, because working my quads to exhaustion and then lying on them REALLY hurts.

Pre-weigh in super depletion

Fri, 22 Apr 16

Scale weight this morning was 215 even.  I was a little carb starved yesterday and strayed.  I spent a good hour today depleting every muscle group I could, even abs.  I was really feeling the burn lol.  I even found the pec deck hidden away in a corner, so I managed to finally get a great pec workout.  I'm hoping to stay on the as an accessory to help with my chest definition and bench.  Like I said yesterday, I don't do a lot of my benching with my chest, no matter how wide I go.  My hand position is strongest just inside the rings.

Cutting, bench and upper body depletion

Thurs, 21 Apr 16

Bench: 135x2x10, 185x2x5, 205x2x4, 225x3x3, 235x1

Bench was OK.  Worked a bunch of upper body depletion to finish - trying to focus on my pecs as they seem to be my weak point.  I'm very much a tricep/delts presser.

Cutting, squats - birthday test

Wed, 20 Apr 16

Squats: 135x10, 225x10x5, 275x5

I wanted to see how many two plate squats I could do at once.  My work capacity is WAYYYYY down.  I kept the rests as short as possible to catch my breath, and started to get a crampy/strained feeling in my left calf.  I stopped after the set of 275.  I think if I do a squat mini-cycle I might be able to get enough work capacity in the next two weeks to do say, 20, 15, 15....

Cutting, depletion workout

Mon, 18 Apr 16

Various upper and lower body machines. 

I was supposed to bench today, but couldn't get a bench or squat rack.  Ended up just going to town on machines, feeling the burn, and did both upper and lower body.  Didn't feel like throwing up, but I was definitely feeling the muscles burning.

Cutting, squats and depletion work. (updated)

Fri, 15 Apr 16

Squats: 135x2x5, 225x2x5, 275x5, 315x3x3
Bunch of depletion work lower and upper body.

Today's squats were better than last Friday's - that's positive.  I depleted the hell out of myself afterwards until my body was burning and I felt like I was going to puke!  My wrap was soooo good at lunch today.  I can't wait until weigh-in tomorrow morning.  I've got a good feeling.  I really stuck with the diet this week, no creep, and only grapes at bedtime for a snack.  Smoked turkey wrap with light mozzarella cheese and a chicken sausage for lunch each day.  Supper as normal, but no large second helpings.

I will be having birthday cake and a restaurant meal this weekend as it's my wife's birthday, but hopefully I've got everything else dialed in.

Just a quick update - weighed in at 215.6, so down 4.4  this week. Another inch off the belly.

Cutting, bench and upper body depletion

Thurs, 14 Apr 16

Bench: 135x2x10, 185x2x5, 205x2x3, 225x3x3
Bunch of other machine stuff.

It took a little while to get a bench so I did a bunch of pulldowns, cable flys, etc. After I finished benching I continued to work my upper body until it was exhausted and super PUMPED!  (lol)

Cutting, deadlift

Wed, 13 Apr 16

Deadlifts: 135x10s, 135x10c, 225x5s, 225x5c, 315x5s, 315x5c, 365x2x2, 385x3x1, 405x1

At first I felt bummed out I could only manage a single at 405.   Then I looked back at my previous deadlift log and it was lower.  So, hey.

Cutting, depletion workout

Tues, 12 Apr 16

Leg Press Sled - single leg: 90x2x10 each leg
Leg Press Sled - double leg:  90x10, 180x10, 270x10, 360x2x10
Crossover Cable Flys: 30x10, 40x10, 50x2x10
Seated Leg extensions: 100x20, 130x20, 160x4x5
Prone Leg Curls: 50x15, 60x10, 70x2x5
Hammer Strength Pulldown: 70x10, 80x10, 90x10, 100x4x5
GHR: 2x20

My weight loss not only stalled, but it went up .8 lbs to 220.  While not earth-shattering, it's annoying to be losing strength in the gym and gaining a little over 2 lbs.  I *have* been letting my diet slip a bit - things like a piece of chocolate and a couple of oreo cookies, then some frozen greek yogurt - cause protein!  Anyhow, it's obvious that crap has to stop and I need to stick to fruit as my nighttime snack again.  I've also got to tighten up my weekend eating a bit too as I could theoretically wreck my entire week's loss with a bad weekend. 

On the bright side - only about 20 lbs to go, which isn't insurmountable if I smarten the hell up.

Cutting, squats

Fri, 8 Apr 16

Squats: 135x2x10, 225x2x10, 275x2x5, 295x3

The weight wasn't super heavy, but I was working out with some guys at the gym, and we were cycling through.  I burned myself out on the early sets.  I tried a second set at 295, but knew I was going to pass out or barf as soon as I unracked it.

Cutting, bench

Wed, 6 Apr 16

Decline Bench: 135x2x5, 185x2x5
Bench: 135x2x10, 185x2x10, 205x2x5, 225x2x5, 205x5, 185x5
Cable Flys: 60x3x20

I felt pretty good today.  I didn't get on a normal bench at first, so I tried decline.  It's a weird feeling.  Although it wasn't heavy, the movement is completely foreign to me, it's like pushing in a weird sort of curl movement.  The 185 sets went really easy, but I couldn't get the 225 I tried next out of the racked position.  I just couldn't find the groove.  I then went and did some dumbbell shoulder presses - those sucked, even at just 40 lbs a hand.  My shoulders hated them!  I did a few rows at 45 and 90 lbs, then a bench freed up and I went and did my normal bench.  I was feeling pretty warmed up and strong and was happy to hit 2x5 on 2 plates again.  I finished off with a bunch of cable flys to deplete myself.

Cutting, squats

Tues, 5 Apr 16

Squats: 135x2x5, 225x2x5, 255x2x5, 275x2x5, 315x1
Leg Extensions: 135x10, 155x10, 175x10, 205x10
Leg Curls: 50x2x10

I ran out of energy real fast.  Legs felt like spaghetti for the 315, which is pitiful.  I decided to go and do some additional leg work on the machines and called it a day.

Cutting, light bench

Sun, 3 Apr 16

Bench: 135x3x10, 185x3x8, 135x3x10
Leg Extensions: 130x3x20, 150x3x20, 180x3x20

Phoned it in today.  Shoulder wasn't feeling good, and all my gear was at work.  Weight was actually up this week a bit, due to all the crap I was eating.  It hit a high of 226 early on in the week, and got it back down to 219.2 by the end of the week.  (1.4 lb gain)  On the bright side, I did drop a half inch off my belly fat, so that's positive.

Cutting, deadlift

Fri, 1 Apr 16

Hex bar deadlift: 242x2x5, 332x2x5, 382x2x5
Squats: 135x2x5, 225x2x5
Leg Extensions: 110x20, 130x2x20
Leg Curls: 60x3x20
GHR: BWx3x10

Couldn't get a rack, and by the time I got one I was too tired to do any real squatting.