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Building Back Up

It was a bit of a loss when my body stopped letting me push heavier weights, but after some adjustment period I am not that worried about it. I may not be lifting as much, but if I put these paws on you, you are likely to get rag dolled. I still lift heavy objects regularly in life so functional strength in general is pretty darn good. I just can't push as much without risking injury now. One thing I will say, is that if you keep pushing through to a physique that makes you proud of how you look, the sting of the lighter weights will dissipate a bit. The enjoyment of how you look and feel kind of takes the place of it in a way. Not saying you won't miss things but if the nerve stuff sticks around focusing on aesthetics will help a lot with that once you are getting to where you want to be on that front.
 
Also, congratulations on the wifey coming home. I can not imagine 11 months without my wife. I am sure you are ecstatic!
 
Weight: 211.6

BB Row 5x135, 5x155, 5x165, 3x5x170
Deadlift 5x 3/3/3/3/2/1 x 375
DB Row 3 x 8 x 75’s
Machine Preacher Curl 4 x 8 x ???
Shrug Machine 3 x ???

2 big meals on the weekend, so weight coming back down, but not cutting too hard this week. 3k each day planned, so only a small deficit, until the weekend away where I won’t have any control what I eat Thursday evening to Sunday evening..damage control only. After that, game on again.
 
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Weight: 209.6

15k steps the past 2 days, 20-30 minute incline walk cardio and weights each day with the following macros/kcal and I lose weight still. I’ve been underesting for a long time, no wonder I’ve lost strength and muscle over the years…then I’d binge like crazy and regain only fat. Never realized eating 2500kcal could have yo-yo diet consequences…(the day listed isn’t accurate; those are Monday and Tuesday).

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The struggle is real. when trying to maintain more consistent macros/cal intake myself I'm finding its excruciatingly hard to get under 190lbs (194 this morning) but I'm eating clean, I appear to be putting on size and strength again, and the mid section is staying a bit leaner. I go back and forth with three thoughts:

a. more cardio
b. steeper deficit
c. excess training = cortisol issues

the past few years I really used those occasional 36-66hr fasts to cut quickly so now that I'm using a more balanced approach my gym sessions are 10x better and the weight loss is excruciatingly slow.
 
Dustin07 said:
The struggle is real. when trying to maintain more consistent macros/cal intake myself I'm finding its excruciatingly hard to get under 190lbs (194 this morning) but I'm eating clean, I appear to be putting on size and strength again, and the mid section is staying a bit leaner. I go back and forth with three thoughts:

a. more cardio
b. steeper deficit
c. excess training = cortisol issues

the past few years I really used those occasional 36-66hr fasts to cut quickly so now that I'm using a more balanced approach my gym sessions are 10x better and the weight loss is excruciatingly slow.
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A: is not a viable option for you, or C: will be the likely result. B is the obvious answer. If you are using activity for most of your deficit you are creating an issue with recovery. You are better of just removing another 300 calories a day at this point than creating more need for recovery to create the deficit with more activity. It will gradually run you into the ground. I can almost promise you bump your cals down by 300 you will see things moving more quickly again.
 
Dustin07 said:
The struggle is real. when trying to maintain more consistent macros/cal intake myself I'm finding its excruciatingly hard to get under 190lbs (194 this morning) but I'm eating clean, I appear to be putting on size and strength again, and the mid section is staying a bit leaner. I go back and forth with three thoughts:

a. more cardio
b. steeper deficit
c. excess training = cortisol issues

the past few years I really used those occasional 36-66hr fasts to cut quickly so now that I'm using a more balanced approach my gym sessions are 10x better and the weight loss is excruciatingly slow.
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I hear ya.

After this coming weekend, I’m pretty sure I have several weeks free and clear I can hit it hard, and correctly that is. Gotta get to 200…then to size 34 pants.
 
MrKleen73 said:
A: is not a viable option for you, or C: will be the likely result. B is the obvious answer. If you are using activity for most of your deficit you are creating an issue with recovery. You are better of just removing another 300 calories a day at this point than creating more need for recovery to create the deficit with more activity. It will gradually run you into the ground. I can almost promise you bump your cals down by 300 you will see things moving more quickly again.
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Yeah I think you're right. my next plan of attack is likely to lean out breakfast a little bit. switching back to this eating has made dinner much easier (meaning, I dont have that massive starvation leading to over consuming at night) but I may have just switched too many of my cals to breakfast. I noticed today it felt heavy in my gut, I was well fed, brain capacity strong, but thats likely the area I need to knock down a tiny bit.

GreenMachineX said:
I hear ya.

After this coming weekend, I’m pretty sure I have several weeks free and clear I can hit it hard, and correctly that is. Gotta get to 200…then to size 34 pants.
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once you get there it becomes an easy accountability thing where you never want to let yourself go up again. when they get tight you buckle down and decide its time for a cut instead of buying new larger ones, lol. I've been on both sides of this struggle haha.
 
Weight: 209.0

Weight still dropping even after 3k kcal yesterday. No cardio/lifting, only 8k steps. Strength doing flat db press this morning feels good even though it’s super early also (and no caffeine in a week now), adding 1 rep to sets so far.
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Today’s WO:

Flat DB Press 4 x 7/7/6/7 x 80’s
Machine OHP 3 x 8 x 198
ROC-It Flies 2 x 8 x ???
Skullcrushers 3 x 6 x 60
Overhead Cable Extension 1 dropset

Felt stronger and got a couple extra reps on most things. Guess I need >350 carbs to maintain while cutting.
 
proportionately, since you seem to have a higher metabolism than me and sustain on far more calories than me, I would find that believable. two reasons.

a. I remember Layne posting examples of pre-competition athletes he had on as much as like 400+ grams of carbs while cutting for comp.

b. I can live without carbs, for sure. but adding carbs at least to my breakfast makes my lifting sessions 10x better like I'm on PED's. carbs are my favorite lifting supplement.

so I basically try to maintain the balance by watching my fats closely, minimizing alcohol, making sure my calories are heavily skewed towards carbs and protein. which can be a challenge cause some of my favorite carbs like corn chips are fat heavy, but rice is a great solution for me still after all these years.
 
Weight: 217.0

Went a little overboard on the long weekend. 10-15k steps every day, but unlikely enough to mitigate the daily soft serve ice cream damage. Who would’ve thought soft serve was so popular in Canada?!

No workout today since I only got 4 hours sleep. I’ll start again tomorrow. Today’s macros below:
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AM Weight: 212.4

That 217 wasn’t real obviously 😂 Just a lot of bloat.

Today’s WO:

Standing OHP 5x95, 5x135, 5x145, 4x150, 3x155
Dips 3 x 10 x BW
Seated DB Press (45deg elbows) 2x10x50’s
Cable Upright Row 3 x 10 x 55
ROC-it Flies 2 x 10 x 100
Triceps Pressdowns 3 x 10/9/8 x 55
DB Lateral Raise 2 x 15/12 x 10’s
 
Yesterdays WO:

BB Row 8x135, 8x155, 6x165, 2x5x185
Deadlift 3x3x375
Pull-up 4x3xBW
1Arm DB Row 2x8x70
Cable Shrugs 3x8x???
Incline DB Curls 3x8x25’s
Machine Preacher 2x8x???

Today’s Weight: 210.6
 
Weight: 210.4

3300 kcal yesterday…had to make sure I slept decent for the early morning pull session today. Should’ve been maintenance kcal though.

More things getting in the way of my cut the next few days, but going to try to keep it at maintenance or a bit lower. 😡
 
211.4

Didn’t do too bad with yesterday’s surprise shenanigans. Today’s will likely be a problem though. Tomorrow potentially but I plan to eat subway on the road all day.
 
what does 3,000+ calories look like for you on a given day? it seems like you're pretty consistent there, I'm just curious what a day of eating consists of at that calorie level.
 
Dustin07 said:
what does 3,000+ calories look like for you on a given day? it seems like you're pretty consistent there, I'm just curious what a day of eating consists of at that calorie level.
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Breakfast: 3-4 eggs, 120g oats, 2 oz People’s Choice jerky or 6 oz grilled chicken thighs

Pre-Workout: 2 scoops vegan protein, 2 scoops cluster dextrin

Post Workout: 6oz grilled chicken thighs, 4 servings parboiled rice, apple

Dinner: 2 93% lean beef burgers, 2 whole wheat buns, 1 serving rice, maybe some blackberries

Snack before bed: 2 scoops vegan protein, either 32g oats or a serving of protein Cheerios

I wish there was an easy way to export history on MacroFactor but that’s pretty close to an average day. I’ll be switching to mostly tuna and grilled chicken thighs away from beef to save money though now.
 
I hear you on that, beef has really skyrocketed it seems. FWIW, that pork shoulder I smoked yesterday was about $1.99/lb for an 8lb'er. It's obviously going to be higher in fat content, but since you use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts anyways it will at least be closer to your existing macros if that interested you. fairly less expensive way to meal prep if you cook a biggun on sunday for the week. My scale won't show any benefits for a few days for me because of the salt intake lol, but I'm having some delicious and cheap left overs today!

we did see good quality salmon on sale in the frozen section at costco this weekend for $4/lb as well which seemed pretty good for non atlantic salmon. they had the sample lady cooking it up and it was phenomenal. I'm hoping to be raising tilapia next year at home, if that works it would be less expensive than the $8+/lb price I'm seeing at the store as well. (well, year one tilapia will probably be break even if they survive)
 
Dustin07 said:
I hear you on that, beef has really skyrocketed it seems. FWIW, that pork shoulder I smoked yesterday was about $1.99/lb for an 8lb'er. It's obviously going to be higher in fat content, but since you use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts anyways it will at least be closer to your existing macros if that interested you. fairly less expensive way to meal prep if you cook a biggun on sunday for the week. My scale won't show any benefits for a few days for me because of the salt intake lol, but I'm having some delicious and cheap left overs today!

we did see good quality salmon on sale in the frozen section at costco this weekend for $4/lb as well which seemed pretty good for non atlantic salmon. they had the sample lady cooking it up and it was phenomenal. I'm hoping to be raising tilapia next year at home, if that works it would be less expensive than the $8+/lb price I'm seeing at the store as well. (well, year one tilapia will probably be break even if they survive)
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What’s the macros per 4 oz on that pork? The chicken thighs I get aren’t bad at all. 4 oz is 6g fat and 30g protein per 4 oz.

Weight: 209.8
 
its gonna vary a lot, you can trim a lot of the fat although when you slow smoke it of course the fat rendering into the meat is half of the deliciousness. when I had pulled up stats yesterday I was looking at:

thighs = 30g pro, 8-18f
pork butt = 20-30g pro, 14-19g fat

so your thighs might be leaner than I was thinking which definitely makes a difference.

Brisket is similar = 15-20g fat, 25-30g pro.

a guy in the smoker group says he will smoke up the full 5-8lb+ of brisket, freeze the left overs in smaller portion sized bags, then slice it up as deli meat for morning breakfasts, so I'm thinking about doing that myself. the fat content needs to be accounted for, but its hard to smoke less than 4-5lbs at a time for a quality smoke and thats a lot more meat than I need for a given dinner, lol.
 
Dustin07 said:
its gonna vary a lot, you can trim a lot of the fat although when you slow smoke it of course the fat rendering into the meat is half of the deliciousness. when I had pulled up stats yesterday I was looking at:

thighs = 30g pro, 8-18f
pork butt = 20-30g pro, 14-19g fat

so your thighs might be leaner than I was thinking which definitely makes a difference.

Brisket is similar = 15-20g fat, 25-30g pro.

a guy in the smoker group says he will smoke up the full 5-8lb+ of brisket, freeze the left overs in smaller portion sized bags, then slice it up as deli meat for morning breakfasts, so I'm thinking about doing that myself. the fat content needs to be accounted for, but its hard to smoke less than 4-5lbs at a time for a quality smoke and thats a lot more meat than I need for a given dinner, lol.
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Oh ok, yeah, that won’t work for the macros I’m going for. I’m already at 60-70g fat per day.
 
GreenMachineX said:
Breakfast: 3-4 eggs, 120g oats, 2 oz People’s Choice jerky or 6 oz grilled chicken thighs

Pre-Workout: 2 scoops vegan protein, 2 scoops cluster dextrin

Post Workout: 6oz grilled chicken thighs, 4 servings parboiled rice, apple

Dinner: 2 93% lean beef burgers, 2 whole wheat buns, 1 serving rice, maybe some blackberries

Snack before bed: 2 scoops vegan protein, either 32g oats or a serving of protein Cheerios

I wish there was an easy way to export history on MacroFactor but that’s pretty close to an average day. I’ll be switching to mostly tuna and grilled chicken thighs away from beef to save money though now.
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4 scoops of protein per day can also get expensive. Any reason you do the vegan protein?
 
Segansational said:
4 scoops of protein per day can also get expensive. Any reason you do the vegan protein?
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The price per gram from Myprotein brand on sale is almost half vs boneless skinless chicken thighs. I was using optimum nutrition vegan protein which was almost the same per gram as chicken thighs.

Whey and casein both make me feel lethargic oddly enough.
 
Well, been quite busy and unable to train effectively other than some upper body this week. Didn’t have time for squats or dead’s and likely won’t next week either, but I’ll make sure to get some upper body work every few days.

Traveling a couple hours every other day to our rental property to work on it to either rent again or possibly sell it but it’s taking all my time and I’ve stopped trying to cut while doing the work. Can’t feel like garbage with what I have to do, but still ate clean all week (until tonight). Subway Siracha chicken on multigrain footlong is the way to go.

Hoping to be done this week so we can get rid of it and pocket some cash for savings.
 
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GreenMachineX said:
Yep. And still woke up today at 209.6. So, not doing too bad considering the hectic life right now. Hoping we get all the updates/fixing done to that house by Friday, or next Wednesday latest.
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Well, this won’t be happening. Averaging 2 workouts per week. Actually did a couple easy sets of deadlifts today (should’ve been easy, but 315 for 3 wasn’t that easy).

Maybe house project will be done by end of next weekend.

Edit: Ate way over maintenance this past weekend…only weighed 211.0 this AM though. The past 2 weeks of working on the house has me withering away as my wife said 😂
 
GreenMachineX said:
Edit: Ate way over maintenance this past weekend…only weighed 211.0 this AM though. The past 2 weeks of working on the house has me withering away as my wife said
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haha its true. we smashed the equivalent of about a 1/2 ton pickup truck's entire bed of apples into these antique 19th century apple juice/cidar presses on Saturday and the whole time I'm sitting here smash/squeezing apples I'm thinking "the people who needed the calories the most, had to work the hardest for the least".

on the other hand, it easily took like 15 apples to equal a single glass of juice which is a stark reminder of the sugar content and why I typically only enjoy a shot of a given juice at a time, lol.
 
The house renovations out of town are finally done. Time to get serious again. Did a full upper body workout yesterday. Plan is to start normal routine Monday since we’re headed out of town for an event this weekend.

Weight today: 210.0


Haven’t gained or lost anything the past few weeks, but possibly decompositioned. Unsure yet. Felt a little weaker in the gym yesterday but could just be exhausted from the work the past 3 weeks.
 
Weight: 215.6

Last weekend away over for a while. Times to cut seriously again. Normal training returning this week (4 days, each muscle 2x per week).
 
page 91 in starting strength says: “The shoulder blades are not squeezed together as in a bench press, but they are not relaxed either… traps and upper back muscles tight to provide a stable platform”

I think the OHP is honestly as technical as most lifts and one of the hardest to judge which I believe is why its no longer in the olympics. a legit competition OHP typically has a narrow grip, hip engagement/thrust etc. but most guys just pounding out some press don't realy dig into the technicalities of a legal lift since its rarely in comp anymore.

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ME PERSONALLY, I do not think about the shoulders/scap, etc nearly as much if at all on OHP as I do bench and squats. what I think about is a super tight CORE. when it gets heavy that thing will want to crush your diaphragm. no breath, no rep lol
 
Yes, you still want to pack the scaps back & down to protect the shoulder girdle and shorten the stroke to lockout.
 
Gents…I finally got my lateral delts sore 😂

On my upper press day, I did slightly bent over dumbbell rows fleeting elbows wide followed by lateral raises with my arm at 90 degrees as opposed to hands far away Deion the body. The next day on pull, I did high-to-low reverse cable flies with hands as supinated as will go with the initial goal to target the lower traps/rhomboids. I’ll continue both like this, 3 sets of each twice per week.
 
GreenMachineX said:
Gents…I finally got my lateral delts sore 😂

On my upper press day, I did slightly bent over dumbbell rows fleeting elbows wide followed by lateral raises with my arm at 90 degrees as opposed to hands far away Deion the body. The next day on pull, I did high-to-low reverse cable flies with hands as supinated as will go with the initial goal to target the lower traps/rhomboids. I’ll continue both like this, 3 sets of each twice per week.
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Big difference between just lifting the dbs/cables up vs really isolating the medial delts - they are hard to do right and don’t take much typically! And you know it when you hit them.
 
imagine the neural pathway development that occured when the mind muscle connection said "hey look, a new road". you probably honestly grew your brain a little bit figuring this out tbh. one more shield in the fight against dementia some day! not even joking-
 
Weight: 208.4

Almost guaranteed to hit a new 3 year low this week.

Also very much enjoying my updated training plan with exercise substitutions. I’ll post the full workouts later.

Kcal @ 2800 per day, 12k steps, 20 minute high incline walk after workouts, and 1 cheat meal per week.
 
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