Yeah, I would think so. The increase in serotonin levels will likely have dropped by then. Nothing wrong with a good serving of carbs before bed. Don't let that old wives tail about no carbs late in the evening mess with your head. It's BS.
Didn't you also recently slow down your negatives? If time under tension has increased you aren't going to see rep improvements you expect for a little bit because you are working more / longer each set already if that makes any sense.
Right on.
I did on several exercises, but bench was always very controlled, perfect form. Maybe I just need another layoff at the beach next week lol
Weight 223
Squat 5x225, 3x275, 3x285, 3x295, 3x305
Pullup 4 x 3 x BW
Double Arm Cable Row 8x85, 8x100
BB Shrug 12x135, 3 x 6 x 185
Reverse Peck Deck 4 x 10 x 35
Incline DB Curl 4 x 8/6/6/6 x 25's
@Dustin07 I'm coming after ya! Lol
Everything progressing here except Curls. So, bench and curls going down, everything else going up. Makes sense
Thanks. It's frustrating though how I put so little work into lower body and those lifts keep going up, whereas I'm doing so much more volume with upper and not making a dent anymore.
Perhaps your volume is actually too high on upper body stuff. You may need less sets for those muscles due to different recovery times and whatnot. It is worth a shot since you feel what you are doing now is not working. That or pull back on legs a little to let upper body have more resources to recover. Of course that means you have to decide one is more important than the other, at least for a few mesos and then change up. Also your exercises could just be getting stale and need a switch up. Try low incline bench instead of flat, just like put a plate under the feet at the head of the bench, or the opposite and a slight decline. It is still close enough to a regular flat bench to carry over but just different enough to be a slightly novel change. Other options, like switch to DB over barbell for a while, or from free weights to machines. Lots of things you could adjust to make some tweaks that may result in the progress you desire.
every time that happens I take a step back and see if I can change my approach some, instead of hammering the same thing over and over every week. Right now my lifting is fairly varied since I'm rotating between raw triples, emotm banded work, overloaded slingshot work etc so every time I come in for bench the numbers are much more exciting for me than in the past when I stuck to 5s or texas method, etc.
Thanks. Also good feedback. I'm also just stuck in a rut of not eating enough for gains in training days and eating too much on weekends or after bad sleep nights with a net result of adipose accrual
So lets talk about goals regarding the bolded. Are you focusing on strength right now, or hypertrophy? If strength then go for it. If hypertrophy then you want to take as long as you can ring out growth to get back near those numbers. Why risk joint safety and other things if growth is the goal. A simple slow and methodical increase from whatever is work for you now is the goal for growth. Sure you can push for faster regaining of strength but then you have to work that much harder to get the same growth you would from taking it slower and getting all of the adaptation you can out of the climb back up to your old numbers.
Very good points. I guess my goals are a mix of strength and hypertrophy...it's so hard to look at where I've been and where I'm at now, which is where the strength goals come from. But, like I've said 20 times before, I need to cut fat. That needs to be my primary goal as my physique is bordering unhealthy body fat levels.
Well, if that is the focus, you may want to push overall volume up some, probably by lowering weight a little and increasing reps, and sets while shortening rest periods. That way you are increasing overall fitness while trying to lean up. Then focus more on strength once you are building back up from whatever level of leanness you decide you want to get to. Do what works best for each scenario instead of trying to do a little bit of all of your goals and not really getting anywhere fast. So, if I were you I would focus on dropping fat while increasing overall fitness levels until you are at a point you are ready to start the climb then choose hypertrophy, strength or something more like a powerbuilding program while back in a surplus.
Lol
Yeah it's a grind. I'm trying to very slowly, methodically, drop a couple lbs of vanity fat but my priorities are
Pullup 3, 2, 1, 1
Also great points. Thanks. I'm very bad about viewing what doesn't work negatively, instead of viewing it as learning opportunities.Ya you can definitely make progress and in both areas with doing things properly. Its pretty simple, not necessarily easy though, but doable. I think people mix up various factors and issues and going for super shredded isn't the same as just losing weight.
Everyone is different and you have to keep in mind various factors like duration, current and former set points, and factors in and outside of the gym, but once you find your groove you can hammer it out.
I personally don't overthink my gaining and losing too much, the calories dictate that. Sure there is some nuance to help ease these things in the right way and to make things more "enjoyable" or "sustainable", but usually I don't make many drastic changes to my training, just my eating. I'll leave the caveat that a lot of my volume is self regulated, so it may go up or down a bit based on things from day to day and week to week fluctuations, but that is just a matter of finding what works for you in regards to those things.
Just keep moving along, note what is working for you and what isn't. At the end of the day finding what doesn't work for you shouldn't be viewed negatively it is just more information that can help you dial things in as you continue. Can't always guess right, but you can always be ready to make adjustments as needed.
I haven't done 5x5 in a while. It did work well back then. Maybe next block.
I tend to have an Arnoldy approach to cutting, pulling calories from carbs and fats. Which can lead to flatness and sore joints if I remove too much, as well as brain fog and fatigue. SOoooo I try to time my carbs preWO and utilize more LISS vs calorie restriction if possible (and of course the fasting this year has been great).
I would probably pull from fat first, then start with the carbs unless you are already eating in a surplus of protein. Then I would bump protein down to minimal acceptable level for me before cutting the carbs out. Which is quite the opposite from what I would have done in the past when I was a bit carb-phobic. Now it is more about the performance benefits, and hormonal benefits of carbs, as well as the protein sparing effects it has. So I want as many carbs as I can get in to drive anabolism and performance now.
My fats stay pretty consistent year round aside from dates with my wife so it's not a lot to pull from, when I did that 8 month or so reverse/bulk from Sept till May a lot of the excess calories were double my breakfast carbs, adding carbs preWO and having some at dinner. protein was always over 200g/day at that point.
How many grams per day of carbs when gaining like that? Vs how many now?
Geez louise, that's a lot of carbs lol.
Sorta, it's sorta relative though too. My buddy at age 41 was over 450g a day as a shredded all natty xfit competitor but he was training for hours daily
I guess I'm still trying to figure out what I really need, and it hasn't worked yet lol
Agreed, and there's a certain amount of functional/life strength/power I want from my training, but thinking I can get a little more out of rack pulls or trap bar DL. I've also had the realization my glute medius are huge, creating a more blocky appearance and distorted shoulder to waist ratio. Body fat plays a role of course, but not like this. I think I have been using the medius more then glute max which are also lagging comparatively.
Flat DB Press 8x70's, 6x80's, 3 x 6 x 90's
As always it depends on why you do them, but I've never really been a fan of rack pulls for either hypertrophy or especially for strength (I'd probably prefer pulling off blocks if I really wanted to decrease the ROM).
Trap bar pulls also probably wouldn't be the direction I'd go if I was aiming for more back work either, I love them, but just not for that purpose.
I think deadlifts and pulling in general should probably be in everyone's training in some form or another, but also don't think it is necessarily the best for a hypertrophy stimulus for some of the back muscles. I do attribute a lot of my back development to pulling either as deadlifts, cleans, or snatches (and variants) several days per week for many years, but that also wasn't the main goal behind them for me (and its been a very long term progress kind of thing). Probably getting a little off track, but basically I'd keep deadlifting (because I like it) and add more volume for back exercises elsewhere OR maybe a variation (if you have straps) like Snatch Grip Rack Pulls (I know I just said I don't like them
Just some thoughts and food for thought, not necessarily saying you should go this way, just maybe getting you thinking of some options.
I've never utilized deficits, but to confirm then you'd do the below with the scheme above?