Building Back Up

Today’s WO

DL Top Sets 2x385, 2x405, 2x425, 2 singles x 435
Leg Press Top Sets 2x8 x 450
DB Curls
Triceps Pressdowns
Cable Shrugs

Decided to go super heavy on DL. Felt great. Although, after leg press I felt pretty shaky in the legs…haven’t felt that in a long time 😂
 
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GreenMachineX said:
Today’s WO

DL Top Sets 2x385, 2x405, 2x425, 2 singles x 435
Leg Press Top Sets 2x8 x 450
DB Curls
Triceps Pressdowns
Cable Shrugs

Decided to go super heavy on DL. Felt great. Although, after leg press I felt pretty shaky in the legs…haven’t felt that in a long time 😂
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Edited that leg press top sets. Didnt get 540 yesterday, I’ll shoot for 540 next week.

Something very interesting is I’m barely getting sore anymore. I can “feel” that I’ve worked each muscle, but nothing like that soreness I was getting most of my lifting career. Wish I knew what that was about, but I’m finally fully confident I can hit it again i plan to even with sufficient volume and intensity each workout.
 
Weight: 216.3

Diet still sucks. Who knows what will happen New Year’s Eve, so I’ll just keep it just under maintenance until then. Planning to cut hard Jan 1.

Another edit: When I say diet sucks, I mean 1-2 high kcal meals, otherwise meals are solid, but I’m absolutely meeting my minimums in macros.
 
GreenMachineX said:
I’m not wearing any supportive gear for anything except wrist wraps for heavier pulls.

I have sleeves somewhere, but they were so tight and painful. Maybe I should get a pair.
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I saw this dude in a bench group hit 405 and say he missed his 415 pr attempt (at comp) because he cracked his wrist on the 405. He was going without wrist wraps, which everyone lit him up for. He said he simply didn't like them and was superstitious because he felt every time he wore them he did worse or felt weaker. Its hard to argue with what you believe internally but man once I discovered good knee sleeves and wrist wraps I never went back.

I actually like wearing my wrist wraps for heavy squats as well, personally. anything that helps to just "tighten" everything up feels better to me.

GreenMachineX said:
Who knows what will happen New Year’s Eve
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I'm guessing I'll be in bed around 8:30-9:00 and the wife will ask me to set an alarm for midnight to see fireworks, the alarm will go off, she'll say meh and roll back to sleep 😂
 
I wear wrist wraps on heavy squats especially since I’m a low bar squatter. It not only protects your wrists, but takes some strain off your tendons that connect to your elbows.
 
Dustin07 said:
I saw this dude in a bench group hit 405 and say he missed his 415 pr attempt (at comp) because he cracked his wrist on the 405. He was going without wrist wraps, which everyone lit him up for. He said he simply didn't like them and was superstitious because he felt every time he wore them he did worse or felt weaker. Its hard to argue with what you believe internally but man once I discovered good knee sleeves and wrist wraps I never went back.

I actually like wearing my wrist wraps for heavy squats as well, personally. anything that helps to just "tighten" everything up feels better to me.


I'm guessing I'll be in bed around 8:30-9:00 and the wife will ask me to set an alarm for midnight to see fireworks, the alarm will go off, she'll say meh and roll back to sleep 😂
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When I said “im not wearing…”, I meant “i dont wear…”. The way I said it sounded snotty 😂

Do you have a suggestion for knee sleeves?

I’m too weak to justify wrist wraps for bench. I’m sure we’ve all seen that “normal” guy with all the gear and we roll our eyes lol. I’m already working on being that guy with my bag full of microplates, liquid chalk, bands, etc. 😂

I’ll be up to midnight…I still stay up late every so often. This NYE, I’ll be staying up mostly waiting for my 15 year old daughter to get home from her boyfriend’s 😒
 
Segansational said:
We're at the age we don't even pretend to try or even want to stay up, LOL.
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My wife was like hey we should host a party! I looked around and said, what? here? when? who? why? you want a bunch of people to show up and hang out for 5 hours just to make them leave promptly at 12:01am?

she goes it wouldn't have to be that long, we could tell them to arrive at like 7. 😂 😂 😂 😂


GreenMachineX said:
When I said “im not wearing…”, I meant “i dont wear…”. The way I said it sounded snotty 😂

Do you have a suggestion for knee sleeves?

I’m too weak to justify wrist wraps for bench. I’m sure we’ve all seen that “normal” guy with all the gear and we roll our eyes lol. I’m already working on being that guy with my bag full of microplates, liquid chalk, bands, etc. 😂

I’ll be up to midnight…I still stay up late every so often. This NYE, I’ll be staying up mostly waiting for my 15 year old daughter to get home from her boyfriend’s 😒
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LOL I knew what you meant. Hyde and I both run the Rehband 7mm sleeves. I've had mine for a decade now and they are still like knew despite me wearing them pretty much anytime I bend the knee (even most of my deadlift days). I like the 7mm cause they stay up, and I have not been able to wear through them. I had cheaper 5mms before and I blew through them. On vacation I might go semi heavy on bench without wraps, like 225-250 or something but honestly I'm usually strap them on loose by 185 and start cinching them when I'm up over 200. it's half mental, gets me in the game sorta.

GreenMachineX said:
This NYE, I’ll be staying up mostly waiting for my 15 year old daughter to get home from her boyfriend’s
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Dustin07 said:
My wife was like hey we should host a party! I looked around and said, what? here? when? who? why? you want a bunch of people to show up and hang out for 5 hours just to make them leave promptly at 12:01am?

she goes it wouldn't have to be that long, we could tell them to arrive at like 7. 😂 😂 😂 😂



LOL I knew what you meant. Hyde and I both run the Rehband 7mm sleeves. I've had mine for a decade now and they are still like knew despite me wearing them pretty much anytime I bend the knee (even most of my deadlift days). I like the 7mm cause they stay up, and I have not been able to wear through them. I had cheaper 5mms before and I blew through them. On vacation I might go semi heavy on bench without wraps, like 225-250 or something but honestly I'm usually strap them on loose by 185 and start cinching them when I'm up over 200. it's half mental, gets me in the game sorta.



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Which ones? @Dustin07 or @Hyde

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GreenMachineX said:
Which ones? @Dustin07 or @Hyde

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I’m inclined to say the cheaper ones - my Rehbands are what I wear when I don’t actually need compression or support, just warmth. I use EliteFTS Doubleply knee sleeves (2 layers of poly material) for my heavy squat training because they’re nearly as strong as the Inzer Ergopro gangster neoprene sleeves, never wear out, much easier to pull on, and were like $45 on one of their routine sales. Then I just switch to the Inzers just for final comp prep.

But the Rehbands did last like a decade with 1-2x weekly use, and they’re the best general knee sleeve there is for warmth & improved comfort without trying to squeeze pounds out of them. They just improve comfort and knee recovery from training, and they are easy to pull on/off.
 
Hyde said:
I’m inclined to say the cheaper ones - my Rehbands are what I wear when I don’t actually need compression or support, just warmth. I use EliteFTS Doubleply knee sleeves (2 layers of poly material) for my heavy squat training because they’re nearly as strong as the Inzer Ergopro gangster neoprene sleeves, never wear out, much easier to pull on, and were like $45 on one of their routine sales. Then I just switch to the Inzers just for final comp prep.

But the Rehbands did last like a decade with 1-2x weekly use, and they’re the best general knee sleeve there is for warmth & improved comfort without trying to squeeze pounds out of them. They just improve comfort and knee recovery from training, and they are easy to pull on/off.
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Well, I have torn an ACL in my left, and my right doesn’t feel great either. Should the Cheaper suffice still? The ones I got from Slingshot or whatever were so tight and hard to get on I never wore them. My calves were the problem with those.
 
GreenMachineX said:
Well, I have torn an ACL in my left, and my right doesn’t feel great either. Should the Cheaper suffice still? The ones I got from Slingshot or whatever were so tight and hard to get on I never wore them. My calves were the problem with those.
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Me too, same knee actually. no ACL. I am a fan of buy once cry once, but if your "cheap" choice is rehbands then I think you're doing the right thing.

are those prices for a pair, or each? I feel like when I got mine, that was the price each. ($10 less actually). I didn't know which version I had so I took a pic just now:

I know without a doubt I've had these since at least 2015. this year as I focused on legs and squats more I could tell I must have put on some size cause they got tight again, which I'm happy with.

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1767105829315.webp
 
Looking again, I think the prices you are seeing are the price for 1 vs the price for 2, I think that both of the sleeves you posted are the same one.

www.roguefitness.com

Rehband 7051 Knee Support - Blue

Blue Rehband knee sleeves are used by top athletes ranging from CrossFit Games competitors to World's Strongest Man strongmen. Available now at Rogue!
www.roguefitness.com www.roguefitness.com

1767106027987.webp
 
Dustin07 said:
Me too, same knee actually. no ACL. I am a fan of buy once cry once, but if your "cheap" choice is rehbands then I think you're doing the right thing.

are those prices for a pair, or each? I feel like when I got mine, that was the price each. ($10 less actually). I didn't know which version I had so I took a pic just now:

I know without a doubt I've had these since at least 2015. this year as I focused on legs and squats more I could tell I must have put on some size cause they got tight again, which I'm happy with.

View attachment 257499

View attachment 257500
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You didn’t have your ACL replaced? I had hamstring graft reconstruction. Unsure it was best; it’s so much weaker than my right.
 
GreenMachineX said:
You didn’t have your ACL replaced? I had hamstring graft reconstruction. Unsure it was best; it’s so much weaker than my right.
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no, he did imaging, decided it was torn. I went back for a month or two and he'd do a "wiggle" test on it and despite it showing torn in the imaging he said the knee itself seemed structurally sound and he didn't want to cut me open unless we had to, so he wanted to wait until I blew it out completely to make surgery worth it. my brother in law had the surgery though, with the full leg ice device wrapped around him for months etc.

I did PT for about another month until I decided PT was wasting my time then went back to life as I knew it. the knee does remind me that it's hollow there occasionally during cold weather, or on a slipper surface when it has the ability to slide a little bit in the wrong direction.
 
Dustin07 said:
no, he did imaging, decided it was torn. I went back for a month or two and he'd do a "wiggle" test on it and despite it showing torn in the imaging he said the knee itself seemed structurally sound and he didn't want to cut me open unless we had to, so he wanted to wait until I blew it out completely to make surgery worth it. my brother in law had the surgery though, with the full leg ice device wrapped around him for months etc.

I did PT for about another month until I decided PT was wasting my time then went back to life as I knew it. the knee does remind me that it's hollow there occasionally during cold weather, or on a slipper surface when it has the ability to slide a little bit in the wrong direction.
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Oh, so the ACL wasn’t a compete tear? Mine was gone completely.
 
GreenMachineX said:
Oh, so the ACL wasn’t a compete tear? Mine was gone completely.
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doc said it was but that the knee itself was intact enough that he didn't want to cut me open 🤷‍♂️
he imaged it twice and both times said the ACL was torn but he didn't think I needed to have surgery cause the leg/knee seemed strong still.

I honestly think squats and sports have helped a lot. I've noticed like with socks on I slid across the carpet the wrong way a few times and the knee is lacking that "rebound" or recoil that keeps it from going the wrong direction. when temps drop around 40f or cooler in Oct, it feels "hollow" for a little while. but other than cold weather and the occasional slick surface I don't have any knee pain as long as I wear sleeves when I squat

This is the same surgeon that put a big ol piece of metal in my clavicle that I had busted into 3 pieces of bone, I think that surgery was like August of 2006 and the ACL I blew out snowboarding that Dec/Jan so he knew me well by then lol. we ended up looking at both injuries in some appointments. I asked if he was going to take the steel plate out of my shoudler and he said "if it was me, yes. but since it's you, no." lol
 
Dustin07 said:
doc said it was but that the knee itself was intact enough that he didn't want to cut me open 🤷‍♂️
he imaged it twice and both times said the ACL was torn but he didn't think I needed to have surgery cause the leg/knee seemed strong still.

I honestly think squats and sports have helped a lot. I've noticed like with socks on I slid across the carpet the wrong way a few times and the knee is lacking that "rebound" or recoil that keeps it from going the wrong direction. when temps drop around 40f or cooler in Oct, it feels "hollow" for a little while. but other than cold weather and the occasional slick surface I don't have any knee pain as long as I wear sleeves when I squat

This is the same surgeon that put a big ol piece of metal in my clavicle that I had busted into 3 pieces of bone, I think that surgery was like August of 2006 and the ACL I blew out snowboarding that Dec/Jan so he knew me well by then lol. we ended up looking at both injuries in some appointments. I asked if he was going to take the steel plate out of my shoudler and he said "if it was me, yes. but since it's you, no." lol
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Wait, do you slide across the floor in socks with a running start? I thought I was the only adult that does that…
 
Yeah 7051 model is what I have, and what you want. Like Dustin said, buy nice or buy twice. They make stronger/tighter knee sleeves if you want performance, but you know you don’t want that - you want something that is comfy & will make your knees feel snug that will also LAST,

Rehband is probably the best brand for neoprene sleeves that you can expect to still be using the product in 5 years without stitches coming out or tears in the sidewall internally or something (cheaper sleeves eventually blow out).
 
Flat BB Bench
5 x 5/5/5/5/8 x 215
Inverted Row 4 x 6/6/6/6
Hammer Strength OHP 3 x 6 x 230
NG Pullups
Machine Fly
Lateral Raise

Really undershot the bench 5x5 considering that last set AMRAP, but felt good. I’m SUPER glycogen full, and took 2.5 scoops (75g) HBCD and 9g L-Citrulline preworkout. Glycogen full workouts are still solid I guess.
 
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One more note for my current workout plan…while I’m loving it, it takes almost 2 hours and I don’t have as much time for cardio after. When I really start cutting for real, I’ll have to re-evaluate.

Edit: it takes almost 2 hours including drive time to gym and 10 minute treadmill warm up.
 
GreenMachineX said:
One more note for my current workout plan…while I’m loving it, it takes almost 2 hours and I don’t have as much time for cardio after. When I really start cutting for real, I’ll have to re-evaluate.

Edit: it takes almost 2 hours including drive time to gym and 10 minute treadmill warm up.
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it seems like most of the movements you have in your setup today could be done as supersets which would raise HR and speed up your session a lot I think. It's not conducive, IMO to strength gains, but if cutting is the priority you might like it.

also unpopular opinion but once my knee is healthy again, I plan to go back to doing WOD's that are built with accessory movements to my main lifts of the day. in 90 minutes I can have 60 minutes of lifting done, a 10-20 minute HIIT WOD, and time to puke. a lot of my heavy only sessions are taking me between 50-70 minutes now depending on how much extra work I toss in. BUT some of that also might be because the added cardio I've done the last few months, my recovery time between sets is shrinking drastically.

With cardio I feel like 10-20 minutes of HIIT > 40min LISS (for me).
the challenge is being smart about HIIT because you can encourage injury and wipe out CNS, IMO.
 
Dustin07 said:
it seems like most of the movements you have in your setup today could be done as supersets which would raise HR and speed up your session a lot I think. It's not conducive, IMO to strength gains, but if cutting is the priority you might like it.

also unpopular opinion but once my knee is healthy again, I plan to go back to doing WOD's that are built with accessory movements to my main lifts of the day. in 90 minutes I can have 60 minutes of lifting done, a 10-20 minute HIIT WOD, and time to puke. a lot of my heavy only sessions are taking me between 50-70 minutes now depending on how much extra work I toss in. BUT some of that also might be because the added cardio I've done the last few months, my recovery time between sets is shrinking drastically.

With cardio I feel like 10-20 minutes of HIIT > 40min LISS (for me).
the challenge is being smart about HIIT because you can encourage injury and wipe out CNS, IMO.
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Yeah, true. It’s the 5x5 that’s eating up the time. But, I really want to give that an honest go again even in the deficit. Out of all the programs I’ve ever used, it’s was by far the most effective.

I’ll attempt to do supersets when possible with other lifts though.
 
GreenMachineX said:
One more note for my current workout plan…while I’m loving it, it takes almost 2 hours and I don’t have as much time for cardio after. When I really start cutting for real, I’ll have to re-evaluate.

Edit: it takes almost 2 hours including drive time to gym and 10 minute treadmill warm up.
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how much cardio where you doing during the heavy cut?
 
GreenMachineX said:
One more note for my current workout plan…while I’m loving it, it takes almost 2 hours and I don’t have as much time for cardio after. When I really start cutting for real, I’ll have to re-evaluate.

Edit: it takes almost 2 hours including drive time to gym and 10 minute treadmill warm up.
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Took me 3 hours round trip to/from training today and all I did was squats. Plus the highest rep set that wasn’t something bodyweight was 6. Training takes time. Especially strength.

If you are only spending 90 minutes at the gym, you are doing good. And like Dustin said, if you slash rest times and superset, you can shave another 20 minutes down for extra cardio for sure. You’ll get at least 80% of the results for sure, even with lower performance. Then once you adapt, you will get a bit more performance back too.
 
Hyde said:
Yeah 7051 model is what I have, and what you want. Like Dustin said, buy nice or buy twice. They make stronger/tighter knee sleeves if you want performance, but you know you don’t want that - you want something that is comfy & will make your knees feel snug that will also LAST,

Rehband is probably the best brand for neoprene sleeves that you can expect to still be using the product in 5 years without stitches coming out or tears in the sidewall internally or something (cheaper sleeves eventually blow out).
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I just found my size large Slingshot knee sleeves, and I could barely get them over my calf, and needed my wife’s help getting it back off 😂 I only had 1 on for a couple minutes, and the muscle felt like I was cutting off blood supply for several minutes. Now I’m hesitant to buy anything since those were the right size supposedly.
 
GreenMachineX said:
I just found my size large Slingshot knee sleeves, and I could barely get them over my calf, and needed my wife’s help getting it back off 😂 I only had 1 on for a couple minutes, and the muscle felt like I was cutting off blood supply for several minutes. Now I’m hesitant to buy anything since those were the right size supposedly.
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I always err on the side of bigger for knee sleeves. Also, Slingshot as a brand is marketed for increased performance. Rehband knows their market.
 
GreenMachineX said:
I just found my size large Slingshot knee sleeves, and I could barely get them over my calf, and needed my wife’s help getting it back off 😂 I only had 1 on for a couple minutes, and the muscle felt like I was cutting off blood supply for several minutes. Now I’m hesitant to buy anything since those were the right size supposedly.
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They fit perfectly then! 😂😂😂😂
Like Hyde said, you want snug but not knee wrap tight unless you’re competing.
 
Hyde said:
I always err on the side of bigger for knee sleeves. Also, Slingshot as a brand is marketed for increased performance. Rehband knows their market.
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So a large in Rehband should work?

Edit: according to sizing chart, I should be a medium, but I still ordered a large.
 
Weight: 216.0

Finally got one day clean eating yesterday 😂
3k kcal, probably small deficit since I skipped cardio, but enough that between that and attempting to cut my lunesta in half back to 1.5mg, was awake for half an hour twice in the middle of the night last night. Still totaled 7 hours though so feeling good.

Very sore from the NG pull-ups and horizontal pull-ups! Finally sore in the middle rhomboid/trap region too.
 
GreenMachineX said:
So a large in Rehband should work?

Edit: according to sizing chart, I should be a medium, but I still ordered a large.
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I always go on the bigger size when general wear is the priority. Every single time you put them on & take them off, you will be happy you didn’t get tighter.
 
I am pretty sure the slingshots are sold to increase your squat (performance as Hyde pointed out) whereas rehbands are not as far as I know sold to help with rebound as much as our various other knee requirements (warmth seems to be the ticket for me). I've seen Mark and the guys doing promos for the slingshot sleeves and I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be tight as hell to work like the bench slingshot.

My rehbands get very tight when I have a big pump, but I can actually run with them on if I want. So they're firm, snug, warm, but not tight like wraps.
 
Squat 5 x 5/5/5/5/7 x 250
Romanian DL (light work)
Single Leg Curls
Leg Extensions
Skullcrushers
DB Curls
Smith Shrugs

Progress on squats. Day 1 cutting…hopefully 😂
 
GreenMachineX said:
Squat 5 x 5/5/5/5/7 x 250
Romanian DL (light work)
Single Leg Curls
Leg Extensions
Skullcrushers
DB Curls
Smith Shrugs

Progress on squats. Day 1 cutting…hopefully 😂
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200 by April or you’re dead to me 😝

Just kidding, but I do believe you could do that if you lock in like you were. Nice training! Happy New Year to you
 
Hyde said:
200 by April or you’re dead to me 😝

Just kidding, but I do believe you could do that if you lock in like you were. Nice training! Happy New Year to you
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Well, day 0 cutting. But went to Indian buffet so not nearly as bad as typical binges. Also drank a shake before doing so only had 2 plates of chicken Marsala, rice and naan. I’ll just do a shake for dinner too to save on calories.

Talking to my wife, given the next week out of town is in February, the goal is under 200 by May. I’m probably back to 220 now.
 
yeah but you didn't eat 14,000 extra calories yesterday so its just water rention. You at 200 or lower by May is similar to what I'm setting up 2026 for. I'm looking at probably 12lbs by May 1 when we go on vacation. I was 198 yesterday, didn't weigh into day cause my wife grabbed a bunch of those little $2.99 lobster tails at safeway so we did steak and lobster with the kids for NYE. I'll take avg weights all weekend Fri-Mon though, start cleaning up nutrition today, and aim for an avg of 3lbs+ per month until May. should be pretty doable I think with some discipline. I'm in it with ya-
 
Dustin07 said:
yeah but you didn't eat 14,000 extra calories yesterday so its just water rention. You at 200 or lower by May is similar to what I'm setting up 2026 for. I'm looking at probably 12lbs by May 1 when we go on vacation. I was 198 yesterday, didn't weigh into day cause my wife grabbed a bunch of those little $2.99 lobster tails at safeway so we did steak and lobster with the kids for NYE. I'll take avg weights all weekend Fri-Mon though, start cleaning up nutrition today, and aim for an avg of 3lbs+ per month until May. should be pretty doable I think with some discipline. I'm in it with ya-
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Nah, it’s just that extra 1000 or 2k too often since Thanksgiving. So, likely at 220 bloated, probably 210-213 dried out and carb depleted.
 
Hyde said:
Took me 3 hours round trip to/from training today and all I did was squats. Plus the highest rep set that wasn’t something bodyweight was 6. Training takes time. Especially strength.

If you are only spending 90 minutes at the gym, you are doing good. And like Dustin said, if you slash rest times and superset, you can shave another 20 minutes down for extra cardio for sure. You’ll get at least 80% of the results for sure, even with lower performance. Then once you adapt, you will get a bit more performance back too.
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Second this. Right about 3 hrs w/drive and warmups
 
Weight: 215.2

Yes! Thought I threw away it all after the Indian buffet at lunch, but only having a can of tuna, a few crackers and 300g black/rasberries for dinner did the trick.

So, official goal is 20 pounds by June….195.2 depleted. That gives me a little wiggle room after a vacation to fill up to 200 or so.

Sleep was great last night, even with only about 2mg lunesta (broke a 3mg tablet into “halves”, but one half was quite larger then the other). I’m going to continue breaking them up until I get really far into this cut and sleep turns extra bad.


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