Woot. I finished my bulk, and now I'm starting Meltdown Training, the product of Don Alessi (who after my workout like 2 hours ago, is the devil).

Hopefully some of you war vets (getting fit is a war ain't it?) get some laughs at my pain and anguish throughout the next 6 weeks or so.

And if Coach Alessi is the devil, whoever invented deadlifts is his right hand man. Seriously, I thought Full Range Squats were hard, dead lifts killed me. I was supposed to do 3 circuits, but I could only get 2. If I tried for a third I wouldn't be allowed back in the gym. I think vomiting profusely all over the gym is looked down upon.

My diet for this is kind of like the T-Dawg diet, except I changed it up a little bit, adding a bit more carbs and a bit less protein.

Also, I changed the Meltdown training (http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459809) with HIIT twice a week. We'll see how this pans out, and if it doesn't get me ripped, it'll kill me.

...pain.

I think my deadlift form wasn't so good. And now my back hates me because of it. Hopefully it'll shut up tomorrow when I have to work out again.

...pain.

I think my deadlift form wasn't so good. And now my back hates me because of it. Hopefully it'll shut up tomorrow when I have to work out again.

If you're not sure about your form, I'd suggest you drop the weight down and focus on your form. A serious injury could be major (even permenant) problems for your future. Sure don't want that!

Anytime I start a new movement in weight lifting, I do around 18 reps/set for a while until the form becomes natural and habitual. Then I increase the weight until I'm down to much lower reps/set. If it is a new movement, you'll probably make gains even in the high rep sets at the beginning.

There's no progress without pain, but not all pain means progress.

Yeah, I put on the wrong weight at first, I'm supposed to lift tomorrow, but im not going to. I'll wait till friday, and use a lighter weight.

Deadlifts have officially drawn blood. Seriously, they're epic.

I've switched my program, mainly because circuit training doesn't go over very well at my gym. I've switched to Waterbury 10x3 training, which is tough, but awesome. I think I freaked some people out at my gym, as my shins were bleeding from deadlifts, and I just kept on lifting.

HIIT is hard. Even for 5 minutes of 30 second intervals, it's hard. I think for the 3 days of HIIT (is that too much?) I'm going to stick with 5 minutes of intervals, then next week, I'll go to 6.

And I've also decided to quit smoking. Yay me.

HIIT is hard. Even for 5 minutes of 30 second intervals, it's hard. I think for the 3 days of HIIT (is that too much?) I'm going to stick with 5 minutes of intervals, then next week, I'll go to 6.

And I've also decided to quit smoking. Yay me.

Congrats on the decision to quit smoking!!! Maybe quitting smoking will help you make HIIT easier???

Congrats on the decision to quit smoking!!! Maybe quitting smoking will help you make HIIT easier???


Thank you. And well, over all cardio has gotten alot easier for me, regardless of smoking, compared to when I started working out about 4 months ago. I think I'm just not used to the intensity of HIIT. Though definately, quitting smoking can't hurt at all. Ahaha.


I have a sample of my current diet (i pretty much eat the same thing everyday) but I wanted to try zig zagging it, but I'm not sure how much lower I can go. Any tips to anybody who bothers to read this?

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have trouble with the last set on 10x3 training.

I feel bad about myself. I pretty much at fastfood from the night before yesterday to yesterday night. I went snowboarding, and thats all there was to eat. (edit) Who am I kidding? I could've gotten a sandwich or something, but oh well, past is past. Ahaha, I don't feel bad about going off my diet, as I'm diligently back on it right now, but the fact that I put that much garbage into my body over a 24 hour period.

After not doing circuit training I realized how annoying the people who do it are. I was using the pull up machine, and I don't have very long rest periods. I was about to get back on, some guy runs over throws my towel on the floor (doesn't even hand it to me) and jumps on. Didn't ask how many sets I had, couldn't wait the 2 minutes it would've taken me to finish. I wanted to pull him off and stomp on his face. And then, this girl was using the bench for both bench pressing and crunches, then she would go use the preacher bench only to use the leg curl machine after, while leaving her towel on the first bench so no one could use it. When I did circuits, i would bring my shit with me because I realized I wasn't the most important person in the gym, and if somebody was using whatever I had to use, I'd wait, or do another exercise.

Anyways, on a brighter note, I had an awesome workout.

I'm done with the shortened rest periods of 10x3 training, for the next two weeks I get to add weight. Which is good, because I think I started it with less weight then I should have. Ah well, no harm in that I suppose. And I found out we have a track at school, even though it's in the middle of nowhere on campus, it's awesome because I don't have to use the terrible cardio equipment at the gym AND I can feel like I'm on tv or something sprinting on the track (...only to walk incredibly slow while panting :whistle: ). And today I had an awesome workout, and besides my one cheat meal (biryani and butter chicken, hellz yeah) I've stuck to the plan. I also have a new picture for anyone who reads this (insert tumbleweed).

And anyone can help me with this, I'm really not sure of my BF%. I'm terrible with the calipers and the scale says I'm 15.5%. I think the scale is close, but I'm not sure.

I guess the title isn't catchy enough.

I've discovered the only proof that there is a god. Mustard. Mustard is seriously the best condiment known to man. Fuck ketchup. Ketchup has way too much sugar, and isn't nearly as enjoyable an experience as mustard. And what is possibly the best part about mustard (which I learned a few days ago), the cheaper you go, the better the mustard. I bought no-name brand mustard (99 cents for a squeeze bottle bigger then the French's ones, which are like 2.50) mainly because since going on my cutting diet, which has been all chicken and turkey for meat, I've been going through a squeeze bottle of mustard every 4-5 days. And man, what a good financial decision. I get 5 for the price of 2, and it tastes better.

Expect more tid-bits of randomness. I consider this journal a creative outlet, to sprinkle my random thoughts in between the logs of my cut.

Good luck with your cut!
Congrats on quitting smoking as well. :tucool:

Good luck with your cut!
Congrats on quitting smoking as well. :tucool:

Thanks. The smoking thing is still in progress though, but it's getting there.

Woot me. I managed to do the total amount of intervals I planned today, unlike last week. It was tough though. I'm going to the track again tomorrow.

I've discovered the only proof that there is a god. Mustard. Mustard is seriously the best condiment known to man. Fuck ketchup. Ketchup has way too much sugar, and isn't nearly as enjoyable an experience as mustard. And what is possibly the best part about mustard (which I learned a few days ago), the cheaper you go, the better the mustard. I bought no-name brand mustard (99 cents for a squeeze bottle bigger then the French's ones, which are like 2.50) mainly because since going on my cutting diet, which has been all chicken and turkey for meat, I've been going through a squeeze bottle of mustard every 4-5 days. And man, what a good financial decision. I get 5 for the price of 2, and it tastes better.

Expect more tid-bits of randomness. I consider this journal a creative outlet, to sprinkle my random thoughts in between the logs of my cut.

True that true that! Oh, and you forgot hot sauce. :drool:

True that true that! Oh, and you forgot hot sauce. :drool:

Hot sauce is definately good, I just don't enjoy it the way I enjoy mustard. Mustard is godly.

Anyways, Today I did interval training again, and it's awesome not almost dying at the end of it. Next week I'm adding another interval. And it can only get harder from now on.

Deadlifts have officially drawn blood. Seriously, they're epic.

How much were you using for how many reps and sets?

How much were you using for how many reps and sets?

Hmm, Im not sure actually. Definately not alot of weight. It's just the bar scraped my shins. And it definately doesn't help that my shins are all covered in scars and scabs already.

So I went to the gym today and got my body fat tested. I'm at about 11.5 percent. I think I might go back in a month or so to get it again. And I'm doing 5x5 next week, with this routine 3 days a week.

Day 1
Back Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Pull Up (shoulder width grip)
Military Press

Day 2
Deadlift
Front Squat
Bent Over Row
Bench Press

And I think I'm going to continue doing HIIT and add a day of LISS cardio.

Oh, and I remember when people estimated my bodyfat nobody said lower then 15%. The trainer who took my measurements said that the umbilical is pretty much out of whack with the rest of my body. I completely understand, as most of the men in my family have massive guts without storing fat in copious amounts elsewhere. Also, I'm at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease then I guess the average person. Cancer has never killed anyone blood related to me. And most of my family has smoked for 30+ years. But what has been a big concern is the heart, and the fact that the older men in my family don't move around as much.

None of this is to say I'm going to settle with having a gut. I've been continuing to eat the cleanest I can and working out the hardest. I don't think I have a lot more to go though. Oh well. And also, two new pictures for you guys who read this.

Today was definately an unhealthy day for me. I had two meals. Breakfast (oatmeal and eggwhites and some fish oil caps) and a massive burger and fries and coke.

I went on a mini-roadtrip from Toronto to Buffalo. It took us about 5 hours to get there (we got lost...twice, my friend had to wait in the immigration office for 2 hours because he's not a Canadian citizen) and ended up getting lost in Buffalo, Niagra and Burlington. It was so much fun though.

Tomorrow I will be back on my diet.

I'm sick. This blows.

Still sick. Though I worked out. The only Exercise I didn't complete all reps on was pull ups. And I've also switched out romanian deads for leg curls. That's the only isolation exercise I have in my routine. I really don't like romanian deads. I don't like hamstring work in general. Oh well.

I've decided to change my diet around and start carbcycling. Here are the 3 diets. I used Christian Thibadeau's Carb Cycling Codex to design it, though carbs are a little lower then what he prescribes for the high day (only by about 10 grams though).

Edit!!!! The image that says Day 1 is the hiday. I use the same template for all of my meal plans, and I forgot to change the title.

I can never bring myself to do extended cardio. I don't know why. I really need to work on that.

I think I'm going to change barbell bench press to the dumbbell bench. It saves time. I usually have to wait for the guys doing like 50 sets of benches while somebody does upright rows with the same bar.

I had a training session with one of the coaches at my school (it was free!) and he taught me and a few other guys some olympic lifts, mainly the clean. It was fun. And I found out I have the shoulder fllexibility to do them.

Also, I went paintballing again, and I'm covered in welts. I think paintballing should be considered HIIT because I was just sprinting over and over again.

I know some people read this, but nobody posts. It's getting kind of lonely in here...

I think I'm finally coming close to my match for deadlifts. Or at least today is the first day I've had alot of trouble with them. I'm at 125 (which is low for most of you guys I know...I'm weak) But I still managed to finish all 5 sets of 5.I think in a few weeks I'm going to change the rep set scheme again. And I haven't been losing any weight. I've actually gained weight!I think I need to start doing cardio, and after using the rowing machine at my gym for the first time, I think I'm going to do that. It was more challenging than the treadmill and considering attitude towards exercise choice, it's nice that it is a whole body exercise.

I actually did cardio today on my treadmill at home. I only did it or 25 minutes, but I also did a ton of power cleans with a somewhat light weight that I believe tired me out a bit.

Smoking up makes eating healthy food alot easier. I just need to salt it.

The fact that John is losing so much weight, and I'm not is starting to piss me off. Ahaha. I think I might try the refeed thing or something. Though I'm not sure if that affects post workout nutrition.

I didn't have a very good workout today. I only got to 3 reps on my last set of bench presses, and I didn't even do front squats. Oh well. I'm going to take the week off, and then change my rep/set scheme to 8-12.

Woot, I think the addition of cardio, and less medium carb days and more lows has gotten me back to losing weight. I've also added what I can only call a "velocity" day. I only drink shakes with peanut butter or flax meal and I only eat fibrous vegetables. I only do it one day a week, as according to the velocity diet, I would be eating under 1700 calories, which I think is a bit too low for all the time. I might try a week or 2 run of it. Something like Lyle Mcdonalds diet. I'm not sure though, time will tell.

btw, if anyone reads this, go see 300.

I think when my Nitrean comes in, I'm going to do a week of the Velocity diet.

Why do I feel like I havent accomplished anything since January? I've barely lost any weight, I haven't cheated alot, and I've made plenty of changes to my diet. Seriously, what the hell am I doing wrong? I lift heavy, I force myself to do cardio for at least a half-hour pretty much every day I don't lift and still. I think I might've started losing fat now ( I can't tell because my calipers are shitty and broken) but I still feel like it should be going faster. I'll post a new picture and an old one for anyone who sees this to comment on. Have I lost any noticeable fat? (they should be labeled april and january.

Hey there!
What is your goal? What are you trying to achieve?

I'm trying to cut, to probably about 8% or a bit lower if my abs don't show.

Have you tried posting in Fat Loss/Cutting?

How exactly is your diet?
Have you tried cycling your calories and carbs?
Personally I waited with cardio till now (I have a contest in 8 weeks)
What is your weight training routine?
What are your stats?

What is your long term goal?

Have you tried posting in Fat Loss/Cutting?

How exactly is your diet?
Have you tried cycling your calories and carbs?
Personally I waited with cardio till now (I have a contest in 8 weeks)
What is your weight training routine?
What are your stats?

What is your long term goal?

Im assuming pretty good. It's on page 2.

I cycle carbs. And on weekends I have 2 days based on the Velocity diet with just protein shakes and flax meal or peanut butter. So it's only about 40 grams of carbs. (And that all comes from the peanut butter or flax meal).

My current weight training routine ( I did a month and a half of 5x5 training) is

Day 1
Back Squat
Pull Up
Bench Press
Hamstring Curl
Shoulder Press
Lying Tricep extension

Day 2
Deadlift
Front Squat
Barbell Row
Incline Press
Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Preacher Curl

M/W/F

all of it is 3x8-12. And in another month to a month in a half I'm going to go down to 4x6-8.

My current stats are

Weight: (still getting water back from the weekend) 162
Height: 5'11
Bf% about 11% I think.

And my long term goal is to get down to 8% and then add muscle.

You know... couple years ago (after only few months of working out) I tried to cut to about 14% and I found it really difficult.
My trainer told me then to just go and bulk, because the cut would be "easier" if I had more muscle mass.
So I reevaluated and just started clean/slow bulking. I dropped all the cardio then too.

He was right. Right now I'm more cut then I have ever been in my life.

I know that maybe you don't want to hear that, but why don't you bulk, add some solid muscle and then cut again?

Also I dont see any veggies in your diet.
Personally I think I would add more food instead of the protein shakes (food is more thermogenic).
You use gainer after your workout, right?
I see a lot of carbs there.
Try maybe have just a protein after your workout and then have a real food meal?
Also I would eat more often, like 6-7 times a day instead of 5.

Evening meal I would change up a bit too. Try some egg whites and even cottage cheese and almond butter. Maybe avocado?

Get different cources of fat too, not just PB and olive oil.

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. I think I'm going to eat at about maintentence for a few weeks then try the Velocity Diet in full. I know I can go through with it, and if that doesn't work get me down to where I can see my abs, then I'll bulk. Though how long do you think I should bulk for? I was thinking based on "The Truth about Bulking" by Christian Thibadeau, that 4-5 months would be good.

Edit I forgot to add this on monday.

Overestimating how much you can lift for a certain number of reps is both dangerous and embarassing. I didn't get even the minimum reps for the bench press, chinups and shoulder press for the second set. I did the first fine sets. It was an effort, but it wasn't like I went to failure or anything. But on the bench, I lowered for my 7th rep and when I tried to push back up, the bar wouldn't move. Not even budge. I did have a hard day at work, so that might've been the cuplrit. But still, having to almost shout at some guy to help pick the bar off me was embarassing. And all I had to do was drop 5 pounds off it to hit 8 for the next set. It almost made me want to just walk out of the gym and wait till today to workout (though I'm way to sore to workout, so it'll have to be tomorrow). But I pushed through and finished it.

I'm on day 4 of the velocity diet, and everything seems pretty good.

Today is day 6 and I took my first dump. NICE!

Day 9. Today I'm gonna do a little update.

I guess the supreme being doesn't like me. Ever since I've started this diet I've had heavy ass lifting to do besides weight lifting. Today I had to put a ton of stone in my trailer, and then when I got home, I had to deadlift the trailer arm, and hold it for a bit while my dad put a cinderblock on it.

Anyways, enough complaining, on to stats.

Weight: 163.4
Scale BF%: 12.3%
Skinfold BF%: I think I did something wrong because I got 9.6%

I've started to see my obliques a bit. More so whe flexed, but I'm really happy about that.

I've got 2 pictures, a before I started and todays.

The top one (the darker one) should be the before the diet and the bottom one should be today's.

I've seemed to have hurt my shoulder over the weekend BMXing. So for the rest of this week I'm going to eat closer to maintentance and resume the velocity diet next week. I managed to get through deadlifts and barbell rows no problem, but when I tried front squats, there was a bit of a twinge in my shoulder. Injuries blow.

The twinge I felt in my shoulder has started to go away. I really want to get back on the v-diet again.

Today is the first day back on the v-diet. Also, due to my exam/work scheduale this week, I'm working out sunday and wednesday this week. I think I'm also going to tinker around with my weight training program again. I'm going to steal another part from a Chad Waterbury routine. I think because of the extreme calorie deficit I'm only going to raise the weight every first and third week and decrease the rest time every second week and fourth week.

One thing I noticed today is that unless I use a very narrow grip for squats (like, with forearms completely perpendicular to the ground) my shoulders hurt. I've always had bad shoulders, even as a little kid, so I think I need to do anything I can to prevent injuring my shoulders.

BMXing is fun :) Do you flatland/street/vert? I used to ride a few years ago, but broke my arm in ramp and my bike got stolen, so that was the end of that. Id like to get another bike to flatland some on occasion, but havent gotten around to it yet..

And I agree with the lovely lady above, cant remember her name, Id bulk if I were you! If youre worried about summer coming up, just take your time and do it clean =)

Looking at your pictures, honestly I think you should work on adding some quality mass before you really cut. You said you haven't made much progress in weight term. Well, I'm kinda like that too. I don't have much muscle mass either so when I cut, I can never go below 143lbs, or even get to 10% body fat. The lowest body fat I achieved was around 12%, and that took about 5months from around 16-18%. That is a ridiculously long time to drop 4-6% body fat and it took a hell lot of work (daily cardio, lifting, cheated on diet only like 3 times during the whole 5 months, burning out, overtraining, etc.). Maybe you can slowly bulk until at least the end of the year and then cut?

BMXing is fun :) Do you flatland/street/vert? I used to ride a few years ago, but broke my arm in ramp and my bike got stolen, so that was the end of that. Id like to get another bike to flatland some on occasion, but havent gotten around to it yet..

And I agree with the lovely lady above, cant remember her name, Id bulk if I were you! If youre worried about summer coming up, just take your time and do it clean =)

I bmx street. Though I mean, I don't do alot of tricks, I'm still relearning how to grind and stuff. I mainly got the bike to get around.

And yeah, I probably should bulk, but I think I'm going to try to finish the velocity diet and then afterwards bulk.

Stupid god damn exams. I think I failed an exam today, and I went and got McDonalds afterwards. I need to be really strict from now on.

My new favourite beverage: http://bevnet.com/images/reviews/drpepper_berries/diet.jpg .

I'm very tempted to order cases of it.

For the summer I joined a bally's near my house. Everything is amazing except the people who work out there. Nobody uses the squat rack except for the idiots doing barbell curls and wristcurls (who the fuck does wrist curls in the squat rack?) but besides that everything is good. And the cute girls that work there don't hurt either.

Today's Weight: 157 (almost 10 pounds left then when I started the v-diet at 166.

Skinfold: 8.9? I think I might have messed up. I'm going to get my bf tested at the gym at my school.

My weight this morning is 155.8 which I'm not too excited or concerned about the drop, as I haven't had anything to drink.

Skinfold:Alright, todays is at 9.2-3 which sounds more correct in my opinion. But definately not too far off from yesterdays.

I'm done the dreaded Velocity diet. I ended it a bit early because I've jsut been feeling like absolute shit. I did a week of it, then I got sick, so I took off a few days, then I did about 3 weeks. I've been trying to get a hold of the personal trainer to get my bf tested, but the prick won't call me back. I was going it at about 11.5% so we'll see how successful it was. I think it was alright. Though it wasn't as spectacular as Chris Shugart made it out to be.

Though my strength kept going up, which was good. Except today though, on barbell rows, but I think that was from being tired as hell from getting no sleep. I think for either a quick fix, or a short crash test before going on a more moderate cutting routine, the v-diet would be good, though, I think some things should be changed. For one thing, having the "cheat meal" to be something ridiculous like just healthy carbs and also factoring in the calories from that meal to stay at 1300 is not a good idea. for the amount of calories being eaten during the week, having a cheat meal like mcdonalds or something is not a bad idea to me. The calories are just too low to do otherwise. Also, this diet could easily be done with a mix of real food and protein shakes.

So what am I going to do now? I think I'm going to do a nice long clean bulk. I'm going to force myself to stick with it, and I plan on taking at least 5 or 6 months to do it. I have the routine I'm going to use. It's similar to what I've done in the past. http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=267max2. Though for the short term, bext week, I won't be training at all. I'm going to eat at a little below maintenance and just eat generally healthy, though I will eat some bad stuff a little bit. After going through the velocity diet I think I deserve it. Though the week after I will bump up my calories to about maintenance and just go easy while working out. The week afterwards my bulk will start. I think I'll eat about 3100 calories, though I'm not sure if I should include my pwo shake to that or just drink it regardless.

I think this is the longest update i've ever made. Go me!

Alright, so due to the the fact that nobody at either my school gym or the gym I go to for the summer have called me back, I tested myself today. And I'm down to 9.8 percent. Which certainly isn't a big drop from the 11.1 i was at before. I'm not going to discredit the velocity diet, because mainly, it was a huge problem for me to lose the fat before I went on it, when I was using a carb cycling diet. I think my lack of muscle mass was the culprit. Oh well. I did lose about 4 pounds of fat though, and no muscle. I think I might try the Velocity diet again after my bulk, but will see. I would recommend it, if you don't like eating.

I'm back (again). Since I have a hip injury I can't do squats or deadlifts right now.I think it might be snapping hip (my hips do pop and snap from extension, sometimes rather violently), and I've been going to a physictherapist to fix the problem (and my winged scapula as well). So for the next while, all I can do is Bench Pressing, Rowing, Overhead Pressing and Pull ups. My pullups have gone to complete shit (from not doing them when I should have).

Hope soon (within the next 3 months) I can build my powercage http://www.joeskopec.com/scaffold.html and work out at home. I'll never have to worry about people who take too long, people who criticize my arm ("dude, keep the bar over your neck, it works the pecs better") and old wrinkly free ballers in the changeroom (eugh).

Anyways, I think this cut might work a bit better then before (regardless of the no squatting). I've added a bit more muscle (especially in the shoulders chest and back, where I had none before). And I know more of how to eat right.

I've been lazy too long (took a few extended breaks from lifting while I thought I could heal my hip) and I need to kick my own ass a bit.

I really need to get back into consistent lifting again. Due to stuff piling up at school, and having to work, I've only been going to workout 1 or 2 times a week. Once thats done I'm going to start hitting the gym full throttle.