Hi, i have been posting here for awhile now, and have decided i want to document my journey to a new, healthy Dan. I started this journey about 3 months ago when I saw the transformation my friend Jonno, aka Jmumm at these forums made, and he really inspired me. He showed me this website, and I read all about John, and was in disbelief. I decided for lent I was going to begin eating cleaner, but i still continued eating dirty. I weighed in at 179 in the middle of february. I am now down to 155 about, depending on the day. I am roughly 5'9" tall, so i'm fairly short, and i am still pretty pudgy. I would say I have a medium build, and i figure if i lose 10 pounds more fat, i will be in pretty good shape body fat % wise. i intend to post pictures soon. At no point was I far out of shape, however, i was always far from being in shape at the sametime. I have always maintained decent health from playing tennis on occasion. However, I have always been pretty weak, and have decided through weight training I was going to slim down and tone up my body. My goal is to get so toned and low bodyfat that I can see a six-pack of abs.

for my final push i am really on a low amount of calories, and if you have microsoft excel, it can be viewed at
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbucholtz38/food.xls



also, i have a blog i keep if anyone wants to read that, i link to this page from there.

http://tensdanny38.blogspot.com

expect an update with tomorrows workout.

today was shoulders, forearms, and biceps.
i felt my shoulder workout today was pretty good, but i feel as though i can do more. I am up to shoulder pressing 140 on the machine. I don't do freeweight upright shoulder press as it scares the dickens out of me. I did some lateral raises to work my deltoids, and then did the same thing while bending over. For biceps, i can only curl about 50 pounds, so i did some seated arm curls, then did some cable curls, then went with a 20 pound dumbell in each and did a ton of curls that way. my arms are not as strong as i'd like them to be. I then did some forearm work, but not too much of it. Overall a pretty easy day, tomorrow is my extreme ab day, then friday is insano chest/tricep day. i love fridays. Thats where my big strides come.

Today i made turkey tacos with low expectations, and needless to say, they blew any other taco i've ever eaten out of the water! they're delicious! i consumed far too many of those, but am doing pretty good for the day still.

peace.

I reckon you do standing shoulder press and sitting db shoulder press

I love em :D

today i was playing around with some great divinities and my blender. I created a new breakfast shake that greatly outdoes total protein in goodness. It includes the following:

1 scoop chocolate flavored All the Whey Protein
5 grams Glutamine powder
1 whole banana broken into small pieces
8 oz skim milk
4 oz water
8 ice cubes
one serving of dannons lit and fit fat free strawberry yogurt

it is amazing tasting! mmmmm!

as for the rest of my food today,
i woke up to my usual glutamine and protein w/ water, and a serving of protein total.
I had a turkey sandwich on wheat bread at 10 am followed by another at 12:13 for lunch.
I had my workout from 3-335 since all i worked on was abs.
I came home, created my shake, and had a chicken breast for dinner, along with some carrots and brocholli.
Right now i'm getting ready for my 1/2 cup of fat-free cottage cheese, and then i'm off to bed.

I did 4 dot drills tonight around 10 for my cardio for the day. Those things are absolutely killer, especially the left foot only step.

Homework was pretty fair tonight, but it was tough to complete with the whole 2 hour final episode of friends and all. Needless to say though, i got it done.

My day was pretty stellar.

Jmumm, want to lift with me sometime, show me a few tricks of the trade?

my chest lifts keep going down, i don't understand it. i just want to get in shape fast!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHH!!

today is my senior prom, so fitness really won't be accounted for. I will do my best to eat healthy, and i won't eat any of the junk at post prom. It's at the local ymca(post that is) so i think i will get my fair share of basketball in. I did 4 dot drills today. I clock in at around 53-55 seconds per drill. The left-foot set of 5 is what kills me, it is incredibly difficult. My quickness has greatly improved since starting this.

I was doing these without my shirt today, and you could see my heart throbbing through my chest. it was pretty gross. i am still going strong cutting, and having a good time doing so.

my exercise today was the dot drills, and mowing the lawn. We'll see what comes tonight at post-prom, i'm sure alot of exercise will ensue there, as i love 5 on 5 full court bball!

i think i am getting to that point where the progress really starts to slow down for those last ten pounds. I have no idea what my body fat is right now, but i have seen people say they're around 12-13 and i am not as defined as them but who knows. i am 5'9", and 156 pounds.

i guess it just seems weird to me since the pounds were dropping off me so fast at the beginning, now it's starting to slow. Maybe my body just adjusted?

today was my best day of lifting yet. i lowered alot of my lifts to work on picture perfect form with the weight room supervisor(professional body builder taylor rose) and holy cow am i feeling a difference right now. I worked my back today, and with the perfect form, the muscles were worked 10x better than i've ever worked them before. It is an amazingly feeling right now as i think this is going to help me get out of my rut. I also took jeremy likness' advice and had a few more carbs on the day. I had a piece of whole grain wheat bread 30 minutes before lifting, and from now on maybe i'll have a bowl of total. I am feeling really good right now, and I leave for work at best buy soon. When I return home at 10, 4 dot drills are awaiting me. I cannot wait.

:nod:

my weight seemingly keeps going up and i eat so clean. i have plenty of fat to lose so i don't understand it. if you read this, help me!

ate a great sum of food today. around 2200 calories, hopefully this boosts up my metabolism a bit and i get back on track. I did it with all clean food too, so i doubt it hurt too much.

I did squats for the first time today, and my legs are killing me. I just learned how to do the correct form for like an hour with just the bar, and my legs were killing me. Eventually I put on 10's on eachside just for the purpose of a little weight with the form. I've got it down pat i'd say. It is really complex though.

Next week i'll go heavier and gradually build this up.

i'm going to go do 4 dot drills now. later.

GD!
i feel fat and bloated. i don't feel like i'm burning food like i was three weeks ago.
I am going to not step on the scale for another 3 weeks starting today, when it was 160, but that was with water weight.

I suppose maybe it's been the occasional piece of cheese and peanut butter that i haven't been accounting for that are stunting my progress in weight loss. I have updated my diet accordingly, and swear to myself from here on out i am done cheating as it is only hurting me. I am eating clean 100% rather than 95% until I achieve my goals!

Food Consumed Calories Fat Carbs Sucrose Sugar Protein Fiber
6:45 AM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
10:00 AM
Turkey Sandwich on WGW Bread 280 9 26 1 34 6
12:00 PM
Turkey Sandwich on WGW Bread 280 9 26 1 34 6
2:40 PM
3/4 cup Whole Grain Wheat Total 170 1 27 3 3 3
3:00-4:30 Workout
5:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
7:00 AM
1/2 TBSP Natural PB 100 6 6 1 4.5 1
Brocholli 34 0 6.5 0 3 2.5
Chicken Breast 227 3 0 0 50 0
10:00 PM
Cottage Cheese 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
3 g Glutamine 10.5 0 0 0 3 0
Total 1558.5 33 128.5 14 198.5 19.5
Macro-Nutrients 297 514 794
% of Composition 19.06% 32.98% 50.95%



how is this looking? hopefully this can get me to my goal of 9% body fat. i estimate i'm at 13-14% right now.

After calculating my body's metabolic rate to be roughly 2800 because of all my physical activity, i have produce a new diet that should hopefully allow me to burn 2 pounds a week! :-) !

Here it is


Food Consumed Weekdays Calories Fat Carbs Sucrose Sugar Protein Fiber
6:45 AM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
3/4 cup Whole Grain Wheat Total 110 1 27 3 3 3
4 oz Skim Milk 40 0 6.5 6.5 4 0
10:00 AM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 70 3 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
12:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 70 3 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
2:40 PM
3/4 cup Whole Grain Wheat Total 110 1 27 3 3 3
3:00-4:30 Workout
5:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
7:00 PM
1/2 TBSP Natural PB 100 6 6 1 4.5 1
Brocholli 34 0 6.5 0 3 2.5
Chicken Breast 227 3 0 0 50 0
10:00 PM
Cottage Cheese 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
3 g Glutamine 10.5 0 0 0 3 0
Total 1828.5 32 211 44 214 20.5
Macro-Nutrients 288 844 856
% of Composition 15.75% 46.16% 46.81%



Weekends! Calories Fat Carbs Sucrose Sugar Protein Fiber
10:00 AM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
Jewel Apple Cinnemon Instant Oatmeal 130 1.5 26 12 3 4
Spring Tree Sugar Free Syrup 30 0 12 0 0 0
12:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 70 3 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
3:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 70 3 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
5:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
5g Glutamine Powder w. Water 18 0 0 0 4.5 0
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
1 TBSP Natural PB 200 12 12 2 9 2
7:00 AM
Brocholli 34 0 6.5 0 3 2.5
Chicken Breast 227 3 0 0 50 0
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
12:00 AM
Cottage Cheese 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
3 g Glutamine 10.5 0 0 0 3 0
Total 2023.5 37.5 236.5 56.5 227 20.5
Macro-Nutrients 337.5 946 908
% of Composition 16.68% 46.75% 44.87%




with that said, i had a kick-ass chest workout today! it was awesome!

i donated blood today, and didn't workout. my girlfriend came back from college, and i finally got to see her for the first time in 3 weeks, so that was the highlight of my day. tomorrow i am going to do quite a bit of cardio, and some ab work, and try out the new weekend diet.

played some tennis today, spent time with the girlfriend, and did some dot drills. That's about the extent of my workout today. I am going to do some pushups, and ab work as well right now.

did yard work all day today. My tan is coming along really well i think. Generally I am a pretty pasty fellow as one can deceiver from the above pictures. With school during the day, it is pretty difficult to get a good tan however. From tennis, I of course have the stellar farmers tan on the forearms and biceps :tu:


Anyway, today I stuck with my weekend diet completely, and it was quite delicious. On top of the deliciousness, I am kind of hungry right now, which means(i think atleast) that I am burning off my food like whoa. If this notion is incorrect, please notify me as i'd like to maximize my effectiveness.

School is almost done with for good, then onto college in August. That is going to be a blast, I cannot wait.

The girlfriend is in florida with her family for the week, so i am going to focus really hard on fitness and see what comes of it. I figure with my diet, and intense exercise, 2 pounds of solid fat can easily be shed this week! :-) !

later.

I was just wondering today if anyone has a hard time eating healthy while in college. I intend to use the cafeteria for the most-part my freshman year, and cannot foresee that containing foods prepared in a healthy manner. I foresee a challenge coming, which sucks since i want to bulk a bit during college.

Today I had a phenomonal back workout. It was simply incredible. Finally my friends came lifting with me again, so I had people to talk to and to compete with on lifts. It feels really good being the strongest of all my friends. Everything but my chest is fairly strong.

Ate around 2000 calories today, so at about an 750 calorie deficit. This is far better then my 1400 a day for several weeks which resulted in no weight loss, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully this proves to be successful and gets me lookin' good.

I invision myself having a brad pitt fight club-esque body in two months or so. That would be really cool, and I'd be very satisfied with that. :D

I really feel as though i'm back on track, and full of energy, which sucks, since it's 11:30 and i need to get to sleep!

Tomorrow is my leg day, and I look forward to doing some serious squats, deadlifts, calf-work, dot-drills, and leg curls. I cannot wait, should be a wonderful day ahead of me.

If anyone reads this, please comment my thread feels so lonely

Today I consumed around 2300 calories, which is good since my maintaince is supposedly around 2900. We'll see how i feel tomorrow. I must say i consumed a ton of food, alot of it was veggies. I'm stuffed to the maxx!

I did legs today, really focused on my squats and hamstrings. Being only my 2nd day of doing squats, i started off with just 25's on each side. That was good and nice and all, but I felt like a sally, so I went for the 45's. I did this, but it was really tough, and I don't think my form was too super so i'm going to go back to the 25's until i get stronger and better with the whole ordeal. How much does one normally begin squating with? I also did some dead lifts for the first time, and once i got the form down, my butt is quite stiff right now.

No cardio today, as I was rather busy with my high school band concert. It went pretty well. Good times.

I cannot wait for my shoulder day tomorrow! It is insanely exciting! I am going to be pumping some serious iron tomorrow. :)

I'm feeling much better about my diet right now. When I consume right around 2000 calories, I feel much fuller, and hopefully will be dropping the weight faster as I would like to get ripped as soon as possible. Also, now that i'm not consuming 1400 calories a day, and only about 50 grams of carbs, i find my lifts greatly going up right now, and my stamina is increased as well. Consuming 200 carbs a day is definitely helping me out greatly.

Hopefully the added calories are putting me closer to my goal with every passing minute.

I have a hunch i have about 12-15 pounds of fat left to lose, which needs to hurry up and get off!!!!!!!

Hi Danny, Congrats, looks like you've made some excellent progress. Im no expert but mybe the bloating is coming from the bread. Try getting your carbs from another source. :gl:

you think so?
:) thanks for posting, i'll see what i can do to fix the diet up. i do so love my bread though :p

alright, so it's been awhile. I've been eating really clean, and have had good results in lifting since upping my calories. With graduation next sunday, life has been hectic. Today I absolutely gorged at our senior trip since i figure it was a good excuse to party. Tomorrow and there after is back to strict dieting. I am not losing weight anymore, but toning up. I guess for being 5'9", 155 pounds isn't too bad.

Today i had 3 slices of thin crust cheese pizza
3 hamburgers
oatmeal for breakfast
a chocolate chip cookie
a brownie
a mini chocolate cream puff
and thats about it.

gameworks is a really fun place. whoever came up with the unlimited gaming per hour arcade is a genius! today was great!

sorry about the lack of updates lately, i've been super busy with school and all lately. In fact, i decided to take a week off from lifting, and eating clean. though i haven't eaten horrible, it's been far from ideal. today i woke up to my all time low weight after like 4 days off. i'm at 154 now. sweet!

time to begin studying for ap chemistry.

shocking, 153, my all-time low now, while eating practically a whole pizza yesterday! isn't that nuts!!! tomorrow is back to my program, as i feel a little bloated, and can take off some serious wieght again now that i'm fresh and motivated once again! w00t!

6:45 AM Calories Fat Carbs Sugars Protein Fiber
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
Jewel Apple Cinnemon Instant Oatmeal 130 1.5 26 12 3 4
Spring Tree Sugar Free Syrup 30 0 12 0 0 0
8 oz skim milk 90 0 13 13 9 0
12:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 70 3 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
2:30 PM
3/4 cup Kashi GoLean 140 1 30 6 13 10
4:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 0 1 1
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
8 oz Skim Milk 90 0 13 13 9 0
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
6:30 PM
Brocholli 34 0 6.5 0 3 2.5
Chicken Breast 227 3 0 0 40 0
1 Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 90 0 16 12 6 0
11:00 PM
Cottage Cheese 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
Total 1907 18 261.5 79.5 197.5 22.5
Macro-Nutrients 162 1046 790
% of Composition 16.68% 46.75% 44.87%






my new improved less-bread filled diet. i am gonna miss my whole grains of baked goodness. this is my final 15 pound diet, i am excited!

i'm gonna post pics again one day this week. whenever i had some gd free time!

Getting back on track felt good today. Really good. My hitting the weights was kind of weak in comparison to normal, but then again it has been awhile and maybe it was just my imagination. It was a back day, and it is feeling pretty good. Tomorrow i'm gonna hit chest, then legs on thursday, then biceps, triceps, and shoulders on friday.

i work too gd much. Best buy is a great place to work. I enjoy it. However, my supervisor guy is a big douche bag. i cannot stand him. Everyone else in the department is cool, but from day one this guy has given me awful vibes, and really weirded me out.

Dan,
I saw your question about eating in college. I just finished up my first year at school and let me tell you...it was hard. The best advice I could give you is cut as much as you can before you go to school, and then bulk when you get there. The cafeterias have seemingly every food you could ever want, and if your bulking, that is a big plus. Also, try to keep the beer drinking to a minumum. If someone would of given me this advice before I left for school, maybe I wouldnt of gained the 12lbs that I did. Now I have to cut all summer just to start bulking in the fall....dammit

thanks for your advice and response! that's currently what i'm doing. Does one eat clean when they bulk? I don't want to get huge, just hopefully add a little bit of muscle, and then cut back down before i come home for the summer so i can knock the sox off the ladies!

I am eating well today. This day has been flat out great.

After todays exams, i played hustle for an hour. I love that game. It was good times.

Then I replenished, and hit the weights for awhile. Needless to say, it felt great hitting my chest. Through my week off, i've been able to rework my weekly schedule so it's monday back, tuesday chest/triceps, wednesday legs, thursday biceps, shoulders. It's great to be back into it, plus now i split up my push/pull days.

I only have a calc exam left, then i'm money! NFSU time!

high school graduation is today! i'm very excited! sorry aobut the lack of updates, i've been eating quite crappy.

i am going to try and keep it clean today. you guys all have a great day, and i will catch ya all tomorrow for an actual update.

:( i ate crappy again. stupid graduation party and lack of will-power.

where has justin been lately?

so i really sat down and thought about this for a good hour or two while constantly refining my diet. Here is what looks like the winner to me. Lots of low-gi carbs, but 62 grams of sugar still :( it's so hard to eliminate!!!!! here goes! feel free to comment and fix it up!

8:30 AM Calories Fat Carbs Sugars Protein Fiber
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
Jewel Apple Cinnemon Instant Oatmeal 130 1.5 26 12 3 4
Spring Tree Sugar Free Syrup 30 0 12 0 0 0
Meal Totals 268 2.5 40 12 25 5

10:00 AM
3/4 cup Kashi GoLean 140 1 30 6 13 10
4 oz Skim Milk 40 0 6.5 6.5 4 0
Meal Totals 180 1 36.5 12.5 17 10

12:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 140 6 0 0 52 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
Meal Totals 350 10.5 34 6 63.5 4

2:30 PM
3/4 cup Kashi GoLean 140 1 30 6 13 10
4 oz Skim Milk 40 0 6.5 6.5 4 0
Meal Totals 180 1 36.5 12.5 17 10

4:30 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 108 1 2 0 22 0
Gatorade Powder 50 0 15 15 0 0
Meal Totals 158 1 17 15 22 0

7:00 PM
Brocholli 34 0 6.5 0 3 2.5
Chicken Breast 227 3 0 0 40 0
Sweet Potato 117 0 28 7 3 4
Meal Totals 378 3 34.5 7 46 6.5

11:00 PM
1 Cup Cottage Cheese 1% 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
Meal Totals 200 6 14 7 26 0

Total 1866 22 205.5 65 203.5 35.5
Macro-Nutrients 198 822 814
% of Composition 10.61% 44.05% 43.62%

would taking two one-a-days be considered bad? i mean the premise behind the one-a-day is one pill per day, but if only 40% of the nutrients are absorbed, wouldn't taking 2.5 a day be more acceptable? they really should change the name to 2.5 a day so people really are getting their proper amounts. Knowing i'd only get 40% of all those nutrients really would have made me rethink purchasing those. i think it's pretty much settled that overdosing is the only way to go.

i'm not going to die by taking 2 a day am i?

god damn, todays eating was terrible. It seems like everyday lately it i cheat :(. I was eating perfectly clean today, and all of a sudden, wham, 4 slices of pizza :(. I think today i probably burned it off since i did 1.5 hours of tennis, lifted, and about 30 songs on ddr which is a wicked workout. it is nuts. Damn, what do you guys do to keep yourself from cheating?

i am always going to be fat :(.

finally, back to the cutting diet. I'm so hungry right now, while eating my normal daily food amounts, so i am probably going to have some more cottage cheese. Hopefully this period of time off really benefitted me and will let me get right back into the ball game.

Today i lifted chest, and i am led to believe i might overtrain. That could be why i don't really get gains.

alrighty well i'm back in the ball game finally. after slacking off all summer due to the weightroom being closed, i'm back at it. My butt is killing me right now from today's workout of deadlifts and squats. Oh man is that gonna be tender tomorrow.

Yesterday, I did about 30 pull-ups, and today my pecs are killing me for some reason.

I am feeling really good right now, and have designed a new diet and workout program. Here is the diet.


9:00 AM
25 Minute Jog

9:30 AM
1/2 cup of Oats 140 2.5 26 0 5 4
3 slices of Turkey 140 6 0 0 26 0
Spring Tree Sugar Free Syrup 30 0 0 0 0 0
Meal Totals 310 8.5 26 0 31 4

11:00 AM
Resistance Training

12:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 110 1.5 3 0 22 0
12 oz Skim Milk 135 0 21 21 13 0
1 Banana 105 0 26 26 1 1
Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt 90 0 14 14 6 0
Meal Totals 440 1 63 61 42 1

3:00 PM
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
1 Slice Whole Grain Wheat Bread 90 1 17 3 4 2
Turkey 140 6 0 0 26 0
1 Slice of American Cheese 30 2.5 0 0 3.5 0
Meal Totals 350 10.5 34 6 37.5 4

6:00 PM
Chicken Breast 190 3 0 0 40 0
1 TS Olive Oil 150 14 7 5 0 0
Meal Totals 240 17 7 5 40 0

8:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 110 1 2 0 22 0
2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter 200 16 7 2 7 2
Meal Totals 310 17 9 2 29 2

12:00 AM
1 cup 1% Cottage Cheese 200 6 14 7 26 0
Meal Totals 200 6 14 7 26 0

Total Calories 1850 60 153 81 205.5 11
540 612 822
29.20% 33.08% 44.43%




and the my workout plan as well, though it may not make sense to some of you, the exercises are worded so my ignorant to fitness friend would be able to follow it as well.

Monday: Chest/Triceps
Flat Bench
3 warm-up sets of 4 reps lifting just bar
4 sets of 6 reps at the heaviest weight you can do
Incline Dumbbell Press
2 sets of 10 moderate weight
Skull Crushers
4 sets of 6 heaviest weight you can do
Tricep Pulldown
2 sets of 10 or until failure



Tuesday: Back
Pull-ups
3 sets of 10 – add weight as you can, focus on good form and technique. Do one at a time if you must until you can do 3 sets of 10.
Bent-over Barbell Row(lower back)
4 sets of 6 at heaviest weight you can do
Upright Upwards Barbell Row(upper back)
2 sets of 10 at moderate weight

Wednesday: Legs
Squats
5 sets of 6 at heaviest weight
Leg Curl
1 set of 10 moderate weight
1 set of heavy weight until failure
Calf Raises
3 sets of 10 heaviest weight you can do

Thursday: Off

Friday: Shoulders/Biceps
Seated Dumbbell shoulder press
4 sets of 6 heaviest weight
Seated Deltoid Flies
3 sets of 10 light weight(10 pounds)
Standing Deltoid Flies
3 sets of 10 light weight(10 pounds)
Bicep Curls Dumbbells
4 sets of 6 heaviest weight
Barbell Bicep Curls
2 sets of 12 moderate weight

i am always going to be fat :(.
Unless you gained weight since your original pictures, I'd hardly call you fat. You have a little weight you could stand to lose, yes, but not enough to warrant the "fat" label.

On the other hand, it'll be much more difficult to achieve your goals when you have no confidence in yourself.

thanks french:), i was just mad that day. I don't think i'm fat by any means I am at like 13% body fat, I just really want to get that down, and near the end it is so hard. I spent the past month back at a normal lifestyle while eating only moderately clean. I ate quite a bit of candy, and just overall good foods, and am at just about the exact same weight. Now I really just want to cut it all off before I leave for school. I really want to get down to 8-9% body fat by the end of august. Hopefully, that is possible. Thanks for reading up man, thats awesome!

today i lifted chest, and did 60 minutes of cardio at about 75% maximum heart-rate. it went pretty quick since it was jogging switched with walking most of the time. Hopefully that is going to work out well for me.

I would really like to get on the swolegenix program, however I lack the proper funding. Hopefully, my new diet is going to workout for me. I am eating alot more brocholi then is listed on here so hopefully the pounds just begin to fall right off!

9:30 AM
1/2 cup of Oats 140 2.5 26 0 5 4
3 slices of Turkey 140 3 0 0 26 0
Spring Tree Sugar Free Syrup 30 0 0 0 0 0
Meal Totals 310 8.5 22 0 31 4

11:00 AM
Resistance Training

12:00 PM
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 110 1.5 3 0 22 0
60 g Dextrose 232 0 57 57 0 0
3 slices of Turkey 140 6 0 0 26 0
Meal Totals 480 7.5 60 57 48 0

3:00 PM
3 slices of Turkey 140 3 0 0 26 0
Brocholi 170 2 14 0 18 18
Meal Totals 310 8 14 0 44 18

6:00 PM
Chicken Breast 150 3 0 0 40 0
1 TBSP Olive Oil 150 14 7 5 0 0
Spinage Salad 10 0 10 0 5 5
Meal Totals 310 17 12 5 45 5

8:00 PM
3 slices of Turkey 140 3 0 0 26 0
1 Scoop All The Whey Protein w. Water 110 1.5 3 0 22 0
2 TBSP Natural Peanut Butter 200 16 5 2 7 2
Meal Totals 450 21.5 10 5 48 0

12:00 AM
1/2 Cup 1% Cottage Cheese 100 3 7 3.5 13 0
Meal Totals 100 3 7 3.5 13 0

Total Calories 1960 56.5 105 81 229 27
510 420 916
26.70% 22.00% 48.00%

i love the initial losses when you start cutting. i am down to 152, the lowest weight i have been in 6 years. It seems I still have like 6-8 more pounds to lose however.

I don't want to sound too critical or mean or anything but your posture is kinda bad.

You don't stand up straight. Your back is sorta hunched over at the top, your shoulders are high and forward and you abdomen isn't tight.

Here's a link to postural guidelines: http://www.changingshape.com/exercise/directory/correctposture.asp

Try standing like the guys in the attached image.

oh it's all good, i really have to work on that. i have absolutely horrible posture. i agree. i sit slouching all the time too. i really should try to sit straight up, it build some serious core strength. My girlfriend has a C curve bent at like 30 degrees, when it is supposed to be 5 or 6 degrees, so she is all about the good posture. I am amazed it is still that bad after she notifies me of that atleast once a month for the past 2 years.

i weighed in at 151 today. I was 156-157 two days ago right away when i woke up. I look substantially thinner. I must have been storing alot of water. I cannot wait until I get to 10% body fat and lower. I imagine I am at like 12-13% right now, and really hope I can get down to 11% by Saturday the 24th. I'm going to a water park that day known as "Noah's Ark" with my girlfriend and her family. Last year it was a blast and I was way chunkier. Looking back at my recent pictures, I look quite pale, yet am really not that pale in real life. Hmmm. Maybe i'll do some tanning just in case.

As for working out, I had an excellent leg workout today. My Squat keeps going up and up and I love that. My deadlift is progressing at about the same rate as my Squat. My butt feels super tight today. It's awesome. :p

I notice my legs are really thinning out. This is such good news to me, since I stored a ton of fat in these thunder thighs and giant calves.

I've had an awesome week thus far. As much as I hate running/jogging, I am sucking it up and doing it anyway. I really don't have any other means of cardio then jogging. What I am doing is jogging very slowly on flat ground, and decline hills. On incline hills, I walk. Whenever my heart rate gets out of control, I slow it down a bit and walk. It seems to be working so far. I've been doing about 45 minutes a day. I am thinking about going further throughout my city rather than just going around my block, that way I am forced to go longer as I get far away and realize I have to get back, and push myself. As much as it sucks, I will keep at it until the sub 10% body fat.

Can anyone guestimate my body fat by the aforeposted pictures? they're on page two at the bottom I believe.

I'm off to eat my cottage cheese. Later.

Nearly 5 years later I'm at 250 pounds from drinking, partying, and the stress of college and work.

Over the past few years I have tried to get myself into a routine but every time I get some momentum going, I lose motivation.

Looking at these old pictures is really eye opening and how I look like an entirely different person.

Anyway, I am going to get back on the horse and see what I can do. I don't want to be one of those parents (someday) that is unhealthy and I REALLY don't want to be one of those parents that is too obese to play with their children.

Hey tensdanny

That's quite the bump! :D What's your plan? Did you get married (early in my marriage I gained serious weight)?

Keep us updated. :)

Rogo

Well, the big thing was lack of exercise, lots of drinking in college, and lots of crappy food as income was short during those years.

I find the hardest thing in the entire battle is breaking comfortable habits. It blows my mind how *good* it feels to eat healthy and to prepare your own food. You're more energetic, it's cheaper, and it typically tastes very good as well!

But, that requires work, and we all know how much easier it is to take the easy way out, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

With that said, I've found that I'm much more sensitive to eating food later in the day than I ever could imagine, so I'm trying to pump most of my calories into my system early on in the day.

Diet wise, I know this is going to be a long term battle so instead of going with the "perfect" diet which I know I won't be able to stick to, I'm opting to go with foods I enjoy.

So far, I have opted to go this route with my breakfast.

1 egg - 60 calories
1 apple - 100 Calories
1 cup of Green tea - 0 calories
1/2 Grape Fruit - 40 calories
1 cup of Total Whole Grain - 110 calories
1/2 cup Skim Milk - 46 calories
1 tbsp natural peanut butter - 100 calories
1 slice whole wheat bread = 90 calories
Breakfast calories - 550 calories

Lunch will be a hearty salad of mixed vegetables with some olive oil and a little parmesian cheese for flavor. I'm not sure how many calories that will add up to, but I can't imagine it being more than a few hundred at the most. You can eat a lot of broccoli and not end up with too many cals.

My post workout shake is absolutely delicious and something that I really enjoy drinking. I pretty much chug the thing down after a workout!
- 30 grams of mint chocolate whey concentrate
- 60 grams of dextrose


For dinner, I think I'll go with some grilled chicken loaded up with crushed red pepper and cajun seasoning for flavor. I'm not too concerned about the sodium levels as I drink a lot of water. I'm thinking about having this with a large bowl of broccoli and sliced red bell peppers.

Before bed, I'll go with a cup of cottage cheese (oddly enough one of my favorite foods if it is the 1% deans type) and then take a couple of fish oil capsules


As for exercising, I find by far and away the most effective cardio for me is to run. I don't burn nearly as many calories on the elliptical. I'll be beginning to tackle this running plan, though I am going to add a week or two to the beginning and start out slower.
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I am planning on doing that 3 days a week, and lifting 4 days per week, sharing one of the days. I know I will not have the energy to combine the two at the beginning and to take full benefit out of both activities.

Nearly 5 years later I'm at 250 pounds from drinking, partying, and the stress of college and work.

Over the past few years I have tried to get myself into a routine but every time I get some momentum going, I lose motivation.

Looking at these old pictures is really eye opening and how I look like an entirely different person.

Anyway, I am going to get back on the horse and see what I can do. I don't want to be one of those parents (someday) that is unhealthy and I REALLY don't want to be one of those parents that is too obese to play with their children.
Wow, I didn't think you were still around.

Alright, so, I'm off to a good start today.

I had my first workout in a long time. I did the first day of the 5k plan outlined in my previous post. 60 seconds on, 120 off is a lot for a big chunky dude!

I'm going to stick with just the jogging for a few weeks until I get into slightly better cardiovascular shape, then I will shift the focus to lifting with running complimenting it. Right now I cannot properly do squats without feeling like my heart is going to explode.

My breakfast takes forever to eat! I will have to work on a way to get the time required down. While delicious, it sure does take a heck of a lot of time.

I don't think you have touched on this yet. What are your goals?

I don't really have a goal pertaining to what weight I'd like to be, but I'd like to be comfortable walking around without a shirt on and to be healthy.

Obviously, I've got a lot of weight that could be lost, but right now I'm focusing on just improving habits and making exercise and healthy eating a regular part of my life. My diet so far probably hasn't been ideal, but its been good enough to lose weight with, and something that I can eat every day for the rest of my life and enjoy! There's something to be said for that when it comes to sustainability.

In terms of specific things I'd like to do, I'd like to be able to successfully run in the annual "firecracker 4" run on the 4th of july, which is a 4 mile run. Back in 2005, I ran in a 5k or two, and I enjoyed that. I wasn't competitive about it, but it was fun training for it and finishing in about 25 minutes (the "Storm the Bastille" Bastille days run in Milwaukee).

Does anyone know of a good three day split resistance workout? I think the best bet will be to separate the days of my workouts. 3 days of intense cardio work, and 3 days of intense resistance work. I'm looking to add some some strength as I don't have a very good muscle base in my opinion.

At some point, I would like to be able to bench what I weigh. I don't know when or at what weight that will be, but that will be a very gratifying thing for me to accomplish.

I'm really hungry. I guess that comes with the territory of dieting. I'm about to go to bed, and I haven't picked up some cottage cheese yet, so I'm hitting the sack and will be ready to knock out my gargantuan breakfast bright and early tomorrow!

Well, I just finished my running workout again. Today I went on a treadmill to better gauge my speed (consistency is king) and time(I don't want to cheat, and I feel that I slow down on the track when I look back at the giant clock on one end of the track).

I enjoyed that a lot more. I'm debating whether I want to cook up some baked chicken breasts with the bone in them (Yum!) or grill up a turkey burger (quick and easy).

I'll probably go with the chicken and then have that for lunch tomorrow as well.

I'm still looking for some advice on a resistance 3-day split. I'm looking for something for a beginner to gain some strength despite cutting. I don't have a lot of strength of experience lifting, so I have a hunch I can make some pretty good gains despite being at a calorie deficit.

Although it's not a three-day split, this is a three day a week program that would definitely be your best bet.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=8930794&postcount=1

Pete man, that 100 meter dash in 10.8 is flying! I wish you the best of luck! What is your PR currently?

You used to post at PR right? Why'd you stop?!?

How long should a workout like the one posted take? One of my concerns has always been that I'm not keeping my intensity up and taking too long in between exercises.

Pete man, that 100 meter dash in 10.8 is flying! I wish you the best of luck! What is your PR currently?

You used to post at PR right? Why'd you stop?!?

Thank you for the post, I will take a look at that right now!
Current PR is 12.2 twice. Yes, you read that correctly.

You see, that's the thing. I wasn't anywhere close to that last season. Based on personal experience in other aspects -- marathon and the training, which were both tough as sh*t -- I know I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. I'm also putting in the work (shoveling the track, running sprints on Christmas day, when it's -20, weighted core training, ME lower days, etc). I have the relative body strength to be a great sprinter, I just have to get the mechanics down.

I'm not going to use blocks this year and that in itself will shave at least half a second off of my time. We've timed this and it has shown.

While I'm a Packers fan, I just wasn't that interested in the team.

Oh man, I just had some more of that chicken for dinner tonight, and it is spectacular. I loaded it up with crushed red pepper (think pizza place) and it was delightful!

Now its time to settle in and relax. Tomorrow and Friday I've got to jog again.

Well, I am bumming pretty hard because I dislocated my ankle and have what the doctors described as a high ankle sprain after a brutal fall snowboarding. The nose of my board got stuck and my body ripped my ankles around in the bindings. Hurt like hell.

This is going to be a major set back and I am bumming right now :(

This would be a perfect excuse for you to quit, but I know you won't do that. You won't quit, because you understand that life is full of constant set-backs, and situations like yours are a great opportunity to grow as a person. By rehabing the injury and coming back to your original plan in a few weeks (lose weight, bench press your bodyweight, etc.) , you can build references for yourself that you overcame a roadblock and those references will enable you to succeed in your future endeavors.

Yeah, I'm not going to quit, but it is definitely not a good thing. Hopefully by keeping it elevated and keeping the splint on for support, it will be healed within a week or two.

Well, I am bumming pretty hard because I dislocated my ankle and have what the doctors described as a high ankle sprain after a brutal fall snowboarding. The nose of my board got stuck and my body ripped my ankles around in the bindings. Hurt like hell.

This is going to be a major set back and I am bumming right now :(

Nightmare feel for you that sort of injury is a set back. :( Time to concentrate on upper body and core for a couple of weeks. Make sure you give it time to heal you don't want to break down all through the season. Good Luck :tu:

I appreciate your sentiments. Knowing people actually read this and could potentially be inspired is a really good motivational tool to keep going and never give up!

I really want to work out! Man, this sucks. Hopefully within a week or two I can start doing upper body again.

I really want to work out! Man, this sucks. Hopefully within a week or two I can start doing upper body again.


Danny, why can't you do upper body right now? I thought you said you said you had an ankle sprain, right?

There's plenty upper body you can do with an ankle injury. I know you can do it!

Well, I dislocated the ankle so I cannot really walk yet. I'm still hobbling around on crutches and can't really put any weight on it.

I think within a week I will be able to put a shoe on it and hopefully put some pressure on it.

I need to lift. I'm going crazy. This is really interfering with my plan!!!!! :doh::doh::doh::doh:

I'm going crazy and need to lift!!!!!!!

Give it some time. How are things healing up?

I'm going crazy and need to lift!!!!!!!

Do you have access to a gym with machines? Even on crutches you can do chest press, shoulder press, pec deck, etc. When I was on crutches I would also roll dumbells to a bench, workout, and then roll them back. You just have to be careful not to put any weight on your foot. And you would be amazed at how many people will talk to you and help out when you are working out while on crutches. It can give you a mental boost and help you get out of that feeling crazy funk. Again, just be very careful.

I'm going to take one more week off than hit the gym again. I can finally begin to awkwardly walk on it. I'll take it easy on the leg exercises.

I'm going to lift tomorrow! Hurray!

Per the Starting Strength FAQ, I should be eating 12x my bodyweight. Hopefully I can gain a good amount of muscle while losing fat. I'm going to give a diet similiar to this a try for a month, then adjust as necessary.

Breakfast:
3 Extra Large Eggs - 240 Calories
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
1 Apple - 95 calories
2 Tbps Peanut Butter - 210 calories
2 cups 2% milk - 245 calories
Breakfast Cals - 1010

1 slice Roundy's PJack Cheese - 110 calories
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
3 oz of turkey - 115 calories
1 Apple - 95 calories
Snack cals = 540

Pre-lift
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
2 Tbps Peanut Butter - 210 calories
1 Banana - 105 calories
Pre-lift calories = 435

PWO
60g Dextrose - 240 calories
30g Protein - 120 calories
PWO calories = 360

Dinner
1 cups Brown Rice - 215 calories
2 cups 2% milk - 245 calories
Chicken Stir Fry Mix - 150 calories
Dinner calories = 610


Total calories = 2955 per day

After watching the youtube video about food portions, I'm going to cut my food quantity back a bit, as I don't really measure anything accurately or precisely.

With that said, here is the new diet plan. It is a ton of food.

Gym didn't go sell well on Sunday. I'm going to try again on Wednesday.

I'm trying to guess my turkey consumption based on a half pound being 8 oz. I get about 4 sandwiches to a half pound of turkey, so I'm sitting at about 2 oz. Need to pick that up a bit.

Breakfast:
2 Extra Large Eggs - 160 Calories
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
1 Apple - 95 calories
2 Tbps Peanut Butter - 210 calories
2 cups 2% milk - 245 calories
Breakfast Cals - 930

1 slice Roundy's PJack Cheese - 110 calories
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
3 oz of turkey - 115 calories
Snack cals = 445

Pre-lift
2 slices Wheat Bread - 220 Calories
2 Tbps Peanut Butter - 210 calories
1 Banana - 105 calories
Pre-lift calories = 435

PWO
60g Dextrose - 240 calories
30g Protein - 120 calories
PWO calories = 360

Dinner
1 cups Brown Rice - 215 calories
Chicken Stir Fry Mix - 150 calories
Dinner calories = 365


Total calories = 2530 per day

Today's lifting session went really well. I am a little sore ankle wise, but nothing major.

I squatted deeper than I ever have before. That was something to be sure. My hamstrings and glutes are FRIED.

I did all of the warm-ups for every exercise. Not sure if they're necessary as I felt pretty good early on, but still, it is still lifting more iron than I would otherwise, so that is something.

I'm excited for Friday's workout, but I'm not at all excited to conquer stairs the next few days :D

Sets x Reps Session #1
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 50
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 105
working sets 3x5 135

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 65
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 120
working sets 3x5 135

Deadlift warmup 2x5 70
warmup 1x3 110
warmup 1x2 155
working set 1x5 185

I'm feeling awfully sore today. I'm ready to go and hopefully stretch out these sore legs a bit and lose some of the DOMS.

I weighed in 6 pounds heavier today than yesterday.. Must be the sodium 'cause I ate ~2000 calories yesterday unless my burrito bowl from chipotle had significantly more cals than reported.

This was workout 2 for me.

Sets x Reps Session #2
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 55
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 110
working sets 3x5 140

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 45
warmup 1x3 55
warmup 1x2 70
working sets 3x5 85

Pendelay Rows warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 95
working sets 5x3 115

Just got back from the gym. Had a solid 3rd day of starting strength.

Lifts went up 5 pounds for bench(5 total since day 1), 5 for squat (10 total since day 1) and deadlift went up 10 pounds (10 total from day 1).

I'm feeling pretty good. It was definitely a hard day in the gym. I think my form suffered during my second set benching. It was a really poor set.

Sets x Reps
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 55
warmup 1x3 85
warmup 1x2 115
working sets 3x5 145

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 125
working sets 3x5 140

Deadlift warmup 2x5 75
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 165
working set 1x5 195

I find myself very hungry tonight, and I am debating whether I want to eat something or not. Clearly, I have fat to lose, but my goal is not to kill my metabolism by not eating.

I guess I will go get some more brown rice, chicken, veggies and evoo before bed.

So far, I'm feeling really good about the way things are going. My ankle is holding up, I'm eating really clean (outside of a few beers for my buddies birthday this weekend), and have made the expected progress in the gym.

All in all, I feel very good about it, and absolutely cannot wait to A) get in the gym Wednesday and B) deadlift on Friday so I can clear 200 for the first time in my life!

I kind of wish I had more reps of the deadlifts in SS. 1x5 is not very much imo, especially when compared to the other exercises.

Just cooked up some bulk food for the week.

- 2 cups long grain brown rice, 4 cups of water
- 2 16oz bags of frozen stir fry veggies
- 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts
- one 16 oz can of hot chunky salsa

First, I put the rice on (took about 45-50 minutes or so).

While that was cooking, I cup up in the chicken into as thin of strips as I could. Then, I pan fried that without any oil/water. I did sprinkle some lowry's seasoning salt on it.

I then heated up the frozen stir fry by putting it in a frying pan. I put in some crushed red pepper like you see at a pizza place as well.

Then, I drained the excess water from the veggies once they cooked down a bit, and did the same with the chicken.

Then, I mixed up the brown rice, veggies, salsa and chicken. It tastes good, it's healthy, its inexpensive, and it is like 8-10 meals.

Just cooked up some bulk food for the week.

- 2 cups long grain brown rice, 4 cups of water
- 2 16oz bags of frozen stir fry veggies
- 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts
- one 16 oz can of hot chunky salsa

First, I put the rice on (took about 45-50 minutes or so).

While that was cooking, I cup up in the chicken into as thin of strips as I could. Then, I pan fried that without any oil/water. I did sprinkle some lowry's seasoning salt on it.

I then heated up the frozen stir fry by putting it in a frying pan. I put in some crushed red pepper like you see at a pizza place as well.

Then, I drained the excess water from the veggies once they cooked down a bit, and did the same with the chicken.

Then, I mixed up the brown rice, veggies, salsa and chicken. It tastes good, it's healthy, its inexpensive, and it is like 8-10 meals.

I gotta do this too, my meals just aren't cutting it. Thanks for the recipe. :tu:

A great idea.. I'll be able to finally have chicken on the go. Stir-fry, now why did this idea never cross my mind? :confused:

I made it last week without the salsa and I enjoyed that more. It was a little plain, but it got the job done.

I'm itching to get back in the gym. Never thought I'd hear myself say that two months ago.

I definitely think Pendlay rows would be your best bet. At least that's what I would go with. Besides, learning the form for the olympic lifts doesn't happen overnight.

Well, I'm up right now studying for an exam, and I am absolutely starving despite eating 2500 calories or so today. Unless the Qdoba burrito bowl calorie estimator is way under what it should be. This seems like significant progress as even as recently as last Tuesday this amount of food left me stuffed! To me, that says my metabolism is increasing from going from no exercise to significant exercise.

Had a burrito bowl with light cheese and rice, extra black beans, steak, two scoops of the tomato salsa, one scoop of green salsa for lunch while at school (midterm week is crazy busy).

Had chicken stirfry salsa brown rice creation for breakfast. It was better this morning than last night.

Had peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat as a late night snack.

Had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with slice of pjack, pickels, 16 oz of milk, and an medium to large apple.

Decent day food wise. Not great, not horrible. Qdoba was really salty.

Tomorrow will be a great workout as I'm absolutely jacked up to hit the gym. My only concern this week is recovery time as with midterms this week (4th exam in as many days), there isn't a lot of free time left for sleeping.

Then, this weekend my girlfriend wants me to go to Chicago for the day with her and some of her friends from school. Should be a fun time, but I'm assuming we'll go out at night, and while I will drink water, I'm sure I won't get a good night sleep Friday or Saturday as well.

Definitely have not slept in 24ish hours. Will crash in about 2 for 5-6, then hit the gym, then probably sleep another 8 or so. Then, lots more studying :-/

Weight fluctuates big time with my diet :) I didn't take my weight the first day, which was a mistake in retrospect, but I've seen fluctuations of 9 pounds total. Damn salt.

I estimate I'm down 2 pounds of body fat or so. I really don't know for sure, but I'm at 2.1 pounds lower than I have weighed in at any other day of the week.

Moving on up...

Sets x Reps Session #2
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 120
working sets 3x5 155

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 45
warmup 1x3 55
warmup 1x2 70
working sets 3x5 85

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 65
warmup 1x3 85
warmup 1x2 105
working sets 5x3 125



Tonight was actually really tough. I was absolutely gassed doing the pendlay rows. I am thinking its one of the following:

1) SS is catching up with me
2) Lack of sleep last night (4 total hours)
3) Poor food rations prior to workout (~1200 calories or so from 5am to 7pm).

Time to chowdown on a steak burrito bowl from chipotle and get something in me after that workout. Whoo!

Man, thesee days every few hours I'm hungry.

Today was a pretty uneventful day, but I'm ready to hit it hard for tomorrow.

Had my worst workout yet today. I made all of my reps, but barely. I felt really shitty during the workout. I attribute that to eating a chipotle steak burrito bowl immediately before lifting. Never will I do that again.

Anyway, made the reps again.

Sets x Reps Session #1
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 120
working sets 3x5 155

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 100
warmup 1x2 130
working sets 3x5 145

Deadlift warmup 2x5 80
warmup 1x3 120
warmup 1x2 170
working set 1x5 205

Gym closed early today? Will have to postpone workout to tomorrow.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. Seems heavy for a week.

Had my best workout yet. I'm not sure if its due to eating some deep dish pizza on Saturday while in Chicago, or what, but I felt unstoppable.

Last session of doing this workout, by the end I was completely gassed. This time, with 5 pounds more per exercise, I crushed it. Hell yes! I'm on a high right now.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 95
warmup 1x2 125
working sets 3x5 160

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 45
warmup 1x3 60
warmup 1x2 75
working sets 3x5 90

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 110
working sets 5x3 130

Tomorrow is a very big day for me both workout wise as well as professionally.

Well, I had a bad workout yesterday, and my company told me they cannot afford to pay me full time hours once I graduate in May. I've been working 20-30 hours during the school year, and 50-60 hours during the summer for the company for the past year and a half. That sucks.

Crushed my workout today. Rawr!

Squat Sets x Reps Session #2
warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 3x5 175

Press
warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 50
warmup 1x3 65
warmup 1x2 80
working sets 3x5 95

Pendlay
warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 90
warmup 1x2 110
working sets 5x3 135

Had a really good workout today. I'm 100% so much of how you do in a workout is related to diet. Somedays I feel fricking invincible. These days tend to come when I eat really clean and don't eat anything for 1.5 hours or so before lifting.

Then, the days where I feel like shit come after I eat a garbage meal before lifting. Earlier in the week 150 felt heavy after putting down a chipotle burrito bowl before lifting. Today, after eating healthy, 150 felt light. I dominated all of my reps with ease.

I absolutely crushed todays workout. I didn't come close to struggling on a single rep. That is definitely a good sign!



SQUAT Sets x Reps Session #1
warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 3x5 175

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 135
working sets 3x5 150

Deadlift warmup 2x5 90
warmup 1x3 135
warmup 1x2 190
working set 1x5 225

I'm down about 3-4 pounds (after I factor in a few pounds for water weight) in 2.75 weeks while going up rapidly in weights lifted.

While its not the fastest weight loss, if I can continue gaining strength and inch towards 200 pounds while adding muscle, I'll be REALLY, really stoked!

Here are some goals I would like to accomplish. At some point I'm going to start actively cutting, so that will probably put a hamper on going up so rapidly in my lifts.

1. Deadlift more than I weigh (whatever weight this occurs at is fine)

2. Squat more than I weigh (whatever weight this occurs at is fine)

3. Deadlift 300 pounds

That's all for now. I have more in mind, but I'm sure they will be revised as I continue lifting.

Within two weeks, I should accomplish goal #1. This will be a big moment for me.

If you can deadlift 225 for 5 reps, then I'm sure you can deadlift your bodyweight.

I meant for the 5 reps. I'm at a stage where I feel like I could probably progress faster, especially with deads and squat.

It's hard, but not that hard, ya know? I mean no matter what, lifting 225 is heavy and not exactly a walk in the park, but its not really a struggle by any means either. I can do it with slow, controlled reps or fast, powerful ones if necessary.

Eventually, if things keep progressing at their current rate, I will be able to handle DLing 300 pounds for 5 reps. That will be a very gratifying moment.

This Friday I'm going to try going for 255 for 5 reps on the DL. I think I'll be able to do it.

I had a rough day food wise (not enough) and it was evident in the weight room today. I had an exam in school, then a homework assignment due in the next class, than was immediately called into work unexpectedly until 9pm. I hit the gym, and hit my weights for the week, but I didn't have as much energy or pep.

I am 100% convinced of the impact diet plays. Today, I hadn't eaten enough food (900 calories over 13 hours before hitting the gym), and it showed. I also have a bit of a headache, which I'm not sure if its from staring at the monitors at work, or what exactly.

Sets x Reps Session #2
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 3x5 180

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 55
warmup 1x3 70
warmup 1x2 85
working sets 3x5 100

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 95
warmup 1x2 115
working sets 5x3 140

I had a rough day food wise (not enough) and it was evident in the weight room today. I had an exam in school, then a homework assignment due in the next class, than was immediately called into work unexpectedly until 9pm. I hit the gym, and hit my weights for the week, but I didn't have as much energy or pep.

I am 100% convinced of the impact diet plays. Today, I hadn't eaten enough food (900 calories over 13 hours before hitting the gym), and it showed. I also have a bit of a headache, which I'm not sure if its from staring at the monitors at work, or what exactly.

Sets x Reps Session #2
Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 3x5 180

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 55
warmup 1x3 70
warmup 1x2 85
working sets 3x5 100

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 95
warmup 1x2 115
working sets 5x3 140

tensdanny

I did the same thing yesterday. If we're going to be that far under maintenance then we can't do it on weight day. :(

Definitely not something we should make a habit of. Cannot wait to hit it hard in the gym tomorrow, however. Had a lot of delicious and nutritious food today.

Gah! Gym closes at 8pm today instead of the 11pm I suspected. Once again I was denied at the entrance!

I will have to make up this workout tomorrow am.

Absolutely crushed the workout today.

My spread sheet doesn't update my squats for some reason. Damn excel :-p

Squat
warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 70
warmup 1x3 110
warmup 1x2 145
working sets 3x5 185

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 135
working sets 3x5 155

Deadlift warmup 2x5 90
warmup 1x3 140
warmup 1x2 195
working set 1x5 235

Had another really nice workout today. Went up again. Didn't crush it, but did pretty well. Definitely crushed the squats and pendlays.

I failed on my third set of presses. Then, I told myself to be a man and focus. So I did it again, and didn't fail. I attribute the failure more to lack of concentration and will on the set than anything.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 110
warmup 1x2 150
working sets 3x5 190

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 55
warmup 1x3 70
warmup 1x2 85
working sets 3x5 105

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 100
warmup 1x2 120
working sets 5x3 145

I've completed 4 weeks of starting strength now.

After the initial workout, I have gone up 5 pounds for every workout for every exercise except for deadlifts, which I do 10 pounds per week. There was one session where I failed to meet my requirements for the week on chest, however, after a poor day of eating crappy foods.

So far, I have added:
Squat - 60 pounds
Bench - 25 pounds
Press - 30 pounds
Deadlift - 50 pounds

I have lost 4 pounds total. I'm not sure what amount was body fat and how much lean mass I gained, etc. I don't really feel any stronger, either, but then again, when do you feel strong when you're just existing. The proof is in the pudding that I am in fact stronger now.

I'm going to keep doing starting strength for as long as my gains keep coming. Then, I'm switch over to cutting, and hopefully have a significantly easier time as I'll have added a few more pounds of muscle by then.

One thing is for certain is my metabolism is a lot higher now than before I started. I'm basically constantly hungry these days. I attribute that to eating a million times healthier, but also to the weight training and doing the compound movements.

The diet thing is going very well. I'm not too strict, as this is a life long commitment to better health, but I have been eating well enough in my opinion. Lots of milk, lots of turkey, I just started incorporating beef, lots of veggies, brown rice, PB, etc.

So far, so good.

Squat

warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 75
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 155
working sets 3x5 195

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 80
warmup 1x3 110
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 3x5 160

Deadlift warmup 2x5 100
warmup 1x3 150
warmup 1x2 215
working set 1x3 255

I missed Friday's workout, so I will have to make it up tomorrow.

I did this today:

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 80
warmup 1x3 120
warmup 1x2 160
working sets 3x5 200

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 75
warmup 1x2 90
working sets 3x5 110

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 80
warmup 1x3 105
warmup 1x2 125
working sets 5x3 150

Per the girlfriend getting on my case, I'm thinking of dropping about 400 calories off of my diet per day. I'm unsure what the effect of this will be.

I'm unsure how to tell if I've put on muscle. I'm definitely stronger than when I started SS 5 weeks ago, and I'm about the same weight, but I don't know how to tell if my body composition is shifting.

Nailed the 5 reps of the DL today, but on the 5th rep my grip really started to slip. What do you guys do about that? Pete, how the hell do you hold 530 without your grip giving out? You're far more man than I :D

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 80
warmup 1x3 120
warmup 1x2 160
working sets 3x5 205

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 80
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 145
working sets 3x5 165

Deadlift warmup 2x5 100
warmup 1x3 150
warmup 1x2 215
working set 1x5 255

I figure I will go about 6 more weeks of SS, than switch to cutting.

I'm looking forward to cutting down on my grocery bill. All of these lean meats sure do add up in price. At least it is still significantly cheaper than eating out every other meal or so.

If my linear progression continues for another eight weeks, I will shatter all of my SS goals by a mile.

I will also theoretically be in the 1000 club ( squat + dl + bench > 1000 )

Here's hoping that happens, as that would be very cool.

So far, I've knocked off one of my goals. I weigh 254 these days, and deadlifted 255 for 5 reps on Monday.

I had a really rough workout today, so I'm going to retry again tomorrow. I had a horrible day food wise, and that was reflected in the gym big time. Yuck!

Whoa, lacking the updates.

Diet has been pretty sub par lately. Need to stop with the one meal of junk food a day. I'm about back up to where I started in weight. Don't look any fatter, maybe slightly leaner.

The shoulder press portion is getting really difficult.

Here was yesterdays workout:

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 85
warmup 1x3 125
warmup 1x2 170
working sets 3x5 215

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 60
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 95
working sets 3x5 115

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 85
warmup 1x3 110
warmup 1x2 135
working sets 5x3 160

Had an interesting workout today. Somehow, on my last rep of my last set of squats, I managed to launch the loaded barbell up off of my shoulders, and somehow it went over my head. I've never seen anything like this happen before, but it seemed to hit the top of my head and really crank my neck downward.

I was in pain for a minute or two, then I was just in shock at what happened. Then I focused and finished my workout.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 85
warmup 1x3 130
warmup 1x2 175
working sets 3x5 220

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 85
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 150
working sets 3x5 170

Deadlift warmup 2x5 105
warmup 1x3 155
warmup 1x2 225
working set 1x5 265

If I continue with linear progression throughout my remaining time on SS, I will reach the following numbers:

Squat - 135 to 320 (3x5)
Bench - 135 to 220 (3x5)
Deadlift - 185 to 375 (1x5)
Overhead Press - 85 to 170(3x5)
Pendlay Row - 115 to 215 (3x5)

I'll be wrapping up in about 6 weeks. Then, it will be time to hit the Zone/Paleo diet hard and FINALLY get back in respectful shape.

If I continue with linear progression throughout my remaining time on SS, I will reach the following numbers:

Squat - 135 to 320 (3x5)
Bench - 135 to 220 (3x5)
Deadlift - 185 to 375 (1x5)
Overhead Press - 85 to 170(3x5)
Pendlay Row - 115 to 215 (3x5)


Now that would be some serious strength gain!:tu:

I hope it continues. Outside of my grip on the deadlifts, I don't see the progression ending soon as I'm still doing the exercises pretty well, particularly the bench press.

The overhead press is definitely hard, but I feel like I'll be able to keep going for awhile just by gritting my teeth and grinding it out. It's not easy by any means (definitely the hardest exercise right now for me), but I'm determined.

Since I began lifting again, this has given me a purpose that my life was missing. I have something that I can compete in each and every day. I'm really enjoying this, and I cannot believe that I ever stopped doing it. It has filled the void that I've missed since I graduated high school and stopped playing competitive sports.

Lifting is especially fun when you can relax your diet and just eat a good amount of clean, tasty food. I'm really enjoying doing the SS bulk, and am basically at the exact same weight I started at now, without eating perfectly by any stretch of the imagination.

I'll be wrapping up right after Memorial day.

I'm really looking forward to cutting down the fat this summer and doing some HICLI (high intensity compound lift intervals - I'm taking this acronym mainstream) 2-3 times a week.

I'll be doing the 'Zone' diet this summer. I'm going to try to minimize my grains and eat more veggies in place (ie. have a chicken breast and a cup of broccoli instead of a chicken sandwich on wheat bread). I'm slightly concerned about the fact I'll be eating about 2000 calories a day or less, but after seeing CASONS success with so few calories, I'm slightly more intrigued. At the very least it's worth a month long trial.

Failed in the third set of pressing working sets. Really tough to continue to make 5 pounds a week gains in the overhead press. Probably the toughest lift to gain in from what I'm reading here.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 90
warmup 1x3 135
warmup 1x2 180
working sets 3x5 225

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 65
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 100
working sets 2x5 120
working sets 1x3 120

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 90
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 5x3 165

Damnit! I'm ticked off at myself for missing that last set of presses. It's getting hard, but I need to get stronger and become mentally tougher and overcome it. I think it was a lack of carbs today (maybe had ~100g, it was a mostly protein filled day).

Per the girlfriend getting on my case, I'm thinking of dropping about 400 calories off of my diet per day.

Why? :confused:

'cause when you date a girl for six years you just don't want to hear nagging about being fat.

When you're 250 pounds, they don't like it when you say I'm going to bulk! :D

Yikes! Workout on hold temporarily. Family member passed away.

Had a good, hard workout today. Learned I don't have great deadlift form on the really heavy sets(for me).

I'm debating whether I should scale back and try to get perfect form, or keep charging ahead? It has been mentioned here that one can reap the benefits of the deadlift without necessarily having perfect form as its such a big move.

Today was my 21st day of starting strength.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 90
warmup 1x3 140
warmup 1x2 185
working sets 3x5 235

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 65
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 100
working sets 3x5 120

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 90
warmup 1x3 115
warmup 1x2 140
working sets 5x3 170

So far, I've failed on deadlifts once, one bench once, and then on press once. I went back and nailed the workout the next time up.

I'm about the exact same weight as I started, so that is excellent news.

You're making tremendous progress over all areas of your training.

You're making tremendous progress over all areas of your training.

Thanks man! I'm very appreciative of you introducing me to starting strength. It's really been a great program so far. This has been without a doubt one of the best experiences of my life.

I think I have 5-6 more weeks of SS, don't remember the exact amount.

After that, I'm going to begin cutting pretty hard core and will be following the Zone diet (16 blocks) with Paleo diet foods. Should be an interesting experience to say the least.

Dieting is harder during the summer because of everything that is going on, plus I'll be working some long hours for a start-up company and taking a summer class, so it will be a full schedule to say the least.

I just bought a food scale to measure out my portions. :D

I also just bought a myotape to do bi-weekly or monthly measurements.

For my primary resistance training, I'm going to continue following the SS procedure as I really like the structure and the challenging nature.

I'm thinking about doing this work 2 days a week to really improve my VO2 max, become much better conditioned (I sweat all the god damn time and I hate it, getting in much better shape on a cardiovascular level will hopefully help with this), and ultimately burn a hell of a lot of fat.

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

20 sec boxing
10 sec rest

* 7 minute rest *


20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

20 sec burpees
10 sec rest

* 8 minute rest *


20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

20 sec power clean and press
10 sec rest

I'm itching to get back in the gym. This 3 day break has been the longest consistent break I've had in weeks, due to my schedule altering workout days.

Also, I'm noticing some serious ability to flex back muscles that I never had before. Nice!

This was a really hard day of lifting. Struggled on bench and dead. Squats went fine but were taxing.

I really need to improve my deadlift strength.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 95
warmup 1x3 140
warmup 1x2 190
working sets 3x5 240

Bench Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 90
warmup 1x3 125
warmup 1x2 160
working sets 3x5 180

Deadlift warmup 2x5 115
warmup 1x3 175
warmup 1x2 250
working set 1x2 295

Moving is a bitch, but I feel like I work my glutes and hammies harder carrying furniture down 3 flights of stairs than I do when I do deadlifts and squats.

Hmmm :confused:

However, I'm stoked to be out of my apartment. Last year I moved in with two good guys, and before I knew it they turned into deadbeat roommates. One spent 11 straight months collecting unemployment not doing anything but making a mess of the house and playing video games all the day. The other was better, but he recently lost his job and doesn't do any thing but play video games either.

What a boring life.

Holy shit, my whole body is incredibly drained and sore today from moving. I had help with the bed and dresser, but I did the book case three stories, and my desk three stories myself.

I was making noises I've never heard myself make from breathing. A high pitched gasp almost. My heart felt like it was going to explode.

After about 20 trips up and down the three flights, I'm almost done. I completely sweat through my clothes last night.

I'm skipping todays workout as my arms and back are burning. That was a million times tougher than a day of SS!!!!!

Ready to get back down to business tomorrow. It's been a very stressful, chaotic week.

Felt very good to get back into the gym today. My wrist was absolutely killing me for some reason before I even started lifting. Not sure what thats all about.

I redid my last workout in SS since I took a week off. I crushed it.

I'm not on my normal comp due to moving so I don't have my spreadsheet, but I did some warmups, then did...

squat
3x5 @ 245

bench
3x5 @ 180

deads
3x5 @ 245

I have lowered the weight on the deads to really hunker down on the form, and to improve my grip strength by holding the weight longer and doing more sets. I was really stalling so I figured I'd try something different.

Had a good workout today. Squats are becoming very taxing and I have a hunch my linear progression is almost up for the time being.

I need to lose a ton of fat. I would have so much better stamina!

Warmups as usual, then

3x5 @ 250 squat

3x5 @ 120 overhead press

3x5 @ 175 pendlay row

I'm incredibly sore today. Not sure if its because I've switched from boxers to compression shorts and am now squatting well below parallel, or if its a lack of sleep.

The muscles that are sore are my hamstrings and glutes.

Walking around Chicago for 6 hours today didn't help. Then again, my girlfriend was extremely sore by the end of the day too.

Hopefully a good night of sleep tonight will result in a healed body for tomorrow's workout.

Those are all with barbells right?

In the other thread, I thought you pressed 120 lb dumbbells... i was like damn...

Those are all with barbells right?

In the other thread, I thought you pressed 120 lb dumbbells... i was like damn...

No, no way. That's a ton to press. I'm trying to follow Rippe's advice as close as possible, and thus I only use dumbbells.

Today I was feeling wicked strong and it showed in the gym. I had a ton of quality food this morning and it helped go the distance.

I did squats 3x5 @ 255 (breaking body weight barrier - goal 2)

I did bench 3x5 @ 185

I did deadlifts 1x5 @ 315, and while it was hard as hell and required putting the bar down and taking about a 10 second break, I made all 5 reps. They had horrible form, though. I think I was just burned out before, because this was a nice increase for me.

Very nice progress, sir!

Good luck with that overhead press. I'm going on my 5th week of weight training (StrongLifts then SS) now and I'm already starting to stall on that. Went to 85... then 85 next B workout... then tried 90- NOPE - back to 85 >.<

Gonna try deloading to 75 and working on form. Lemme know if you figure anything out for yourself!

I've been thinking about going to the hardware store and buying some chains to make my own custom 1.25 pound weights that I can hook around the clips. That way, I can make sure I get gains every week.

I think most people have a really hard time with that lift. It's certainly not gain quickly to do it and maintain good form.

Here are some goals I would like to accomplish. At some point I'm going to start actively cutting, so that will probably put a hamper on going up so rapidly in my lifts.

1. Deadlift more than I weigh (whatever weight this occurs at is fine)

2. Squat more than I weigh (whatever weight this occurs at is fine)

3. Deadlift 300 pounds

Bam. Done all 3 now. However, both squatting and deadlifting are becoming very taxing when going past parallel and when trying to do the initial liftoff in the DL.

I'm at a cross roads right now. If I kept making linear progress using my SS spreadsheet, I would break the 1000 club barrier in about 4-5 weeks now. However, the lifts are becoming really challenging for me and I'm not confident that I can keep gaining.

I absolutely have to start cutting by the second week of June per the girlfriend. She's a saint for still being a perfect gf while I've been a chunkasaurus. She has not been the most supportive of the bulking because I'm so fat, but she's really happy that I'm goal oriented again about something besides my job.

With that said, at this time I'm going to make a goal to be consistent and accountable for whatever I decide to do. I REALLY want to join the 1000 club, but realistically I'm taking years off of my life carrying around all of this weight.

I weighed in today two pounds lighter than when I started SS today. Weird.

It makes me wonder if I'm eating less since I've moved. That would explain why lifting has been significantly more challenging the past two weeks. Hmmm.. Will definitely pick up my efforts today.

Well, hey, if you're eating about the same as you were two weeks ago, you've probably made some metabolic tissue gains since then, on top of lifting heavier weight in that time period! Maybe your intensity has gone up slightly, too, as your form gets better with practice.

Remember, it's a positive feedback cycle. I love it :tucool:

Had a pretty darn good workout today. I ate pretty clean prior to the workout, and had a ton of energy.

Right now, SS is taking me about an hour to complete. Earlier, it was taking about 50 minutes. Not sure what that says, but its significantly more taxing.

The squats weren't as bad today as they normally were. I had little doubt I was going to make all of my reps, unlike my previous workouts where the weight felt very heavy by the end.

Did the 120 again on the press. Going up to 125 on Sunday. I've accepted I won't be able to add 5 pounds per workout to my press, and will settle for going up 5 pounds per week.

My projected big 3 is at 833 right now. 170 pounds to add to the three exercises in 3 weeks is simply not going to happen. Damn.

Squat warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 100
warmup 1x3 155
warmup 1x2 205
working sets 3x5 260

Press warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 65
warmup 1x3 80
warmup 1x2 100
working sets 3x5 120

Pendlay Row warmup 2x5 45
warmup 1x5 95
warmup 1x3 125
warmup 1x2 150
working sets 5x3 180

I think I caught a nasty bug because I am feeling sicker than hell right now. I'm calling it a night hoping I'll be back at 100% at 4:30 when I have to wake up for school stuff. Yikes.

Oooo, I'm sicker than a dog. I don't think I've ever had a worse night of sleep. How on earth did I manage to get sick right before the biggest weekend of homework all year?

WTF.

Geh, sorry to hear that man.

Hope you don't have the Baconlung! :rolleyes:

Good luck recovering and finishing up your school year.

:gl:

Well, missed two workouts due to illness. Damn you. Hopefully I will be better soon, because this has been quite a few days of sickness.

I don't think I'll be joining the 1000 club before this bulk is done, but I've decided that I will resume starting strength and instead of doing any resistance training for my supplementary cardio, I'm going to use the rowing machine for HIIT.

Hopefully, do to fat coming off my body, my DL and Squat will still increase, and maybe my bench a little too.

I really don't like taking any form of supplements, but I've decided to go with a multi, and am debating about adding creatine and xtend to the fray for an additional boost in the gym due to low calories.

The zone diet is really interesting. I'll be approaching it with a paleo food emphasis. With that said, I'm eating 16 blocks. I'm also substituting a good amount of the carb blocks for 3x blocks of fat (it's a pretty standard substitution for cross fitters when cutting).

I know everyone and their mother is going to be "omgwtfbbq" you're not eating enough, but I noticed lots of Crossfitters and our own cason have had very good success eating about ~16 blocks.

With that said, here is a day's nutritional breakdown.

6 TBsp natural peanut butter (dependent on brand) - 600 calories, 48g fat, 24g protein, 15 carbs, 6g daily fiber

6 fish oil tabs (unknown) - 63 calories, 6g fat, 1.5g protein, .5g carbs, .0g fiber

12 oz chicken breast(340g) - 330 calories, 4.5g fat, 72g protein, 0g carbs, 0g fiber

4oz cheddar cheese (112g) - 452 calories, 26g fat, 28g protein, 0g carbs, 0g fiber

5.0 cups broccoli (228g) - 156 calories, 0g fat, 15g protein, 30g carbs, 10g fiber

2 medium apples ( 308g) - 160 calories, 0g fat, 0g protein, 44g carbs, 10g fiber

calories - 1761
grams fat - 84.5
cals fat - 760.5
gram protein - 140.5
cals protein - 562
gram carbs - 89.5
cals carbs - 358
net grams carbs - 63.5
net cals carbs - 254

This should absolutely melt the fat off of me, especially since the fat content in the diet is so high. I don't think I'll suffer from any muscle loss as long as I stick with doing the SS lifts and attack it as I have been thus far.

Just ordered 2 90-serving batches of Xtend (grape and orange), 600g of creatine monohydrate, 800g fish oil capsules (optimum brand), and a 3 month supply of glucosamine for joint lubrication.

I'm all set and ready to go for the cut fest. Also, adding these supps might take the last two weeks of my culk to a higher level.

BCAAs are protein, and should be tracked in your calorie intake if you are going to that detail. Most people don't count them, but I usually do..

BCAAs are protein, and should be tracked in your calorie intake if you are going to that detail. Most people don't count them, but I usually do..

Good call. I'll have to add them in to my calculations. You think eating an apple and 6oz of chicken is a satisfactory pwo meal?

Turns out there is a mini epidemic at UWM and I was told to reschedule all of my exams privately with the professors to avoid spreading whatever virus I have according to the university health center. Cool, I guess?

Ugh, that's no fun. Hope you're feeling better soon man.

Please let me know how the Xtend and creatine and such works - I've been taking creatine since I started so I'm not really sure how I'd feel without it... though I did forget it for a week or two and it was a rough week at the gym.

Xtend is great. The orange tastes amazing, I can't say I know about the grape. I haven't had much of any DOMs after taking it (and eating more) and my workouts have been pretty intense. Again, I dunno how much of that is just my own determination and how much is the BCAA, but I like it all the same.

Oh! any reason you chose the Pendlay rows over the cleans?

Just find it easier/more comfortable to do?

I kinda want to incorporate rows into my workout, but I really like power cleans :confused:

Per my main man Pete's advice, I went with the Pendlay's as I've never done power cleans before. Now I'm to the point where I'm invested and simply want to catch up with some of the bigger "rowers", so I can't stop now!

Good call. I'll have to add them in to my calculations. You think eating an apple and 6oz of chicken is a satisfactory pwo meal?

I think the rule of thumb is 1:3 protein to carb, but thats quite debatable. When cutting, I prefer whey/dextrose then a real meal about an hour later - since I'm usually carb depleted. When bulking, I eat eye of round and white potato.

There's some debate as well about using fruit PWO because of the way fructose is processed. Mastover has posted some about it, I just can't recall where (probably in his private journal from last year). I however, had pretty good results using raisins in the 10/10 transformation.

Oh! any reason you chose the Pendlay rows over the cleans?

Just find it easier/more comfortable to do?

I kinda want to incorporate rows into my workout, but I really like power cleans :confused:


I wouldn't do both, and given the option would go for powercleans. All the benefits of rows, but more bang for the buck. Some people don't like the oly lifts, in which case rows are a fine substitute.

Fudgesicles. I want to lift but I know I will be hacking up a lung on the first squat. I think I will try to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday to fit my workouts in. I really want to get as high as I can before the cut starts June 1st.

Consequently, my gym closes next week, so I will have to use my Smith machine for all my exercises. I'll have to do some minor modifications to my workout (sitting military press instead of standing, for example, 'cause the ceiling isn't high enough).

Can one deadlift properly on a smith machine? I guess we'll find out soon enough :D

Can one deadlift properly on a smith machine? I guess we'll find out soon enough :D

Difficult, but not impossible. RDLs might be a better pick, but you'll have to really watch your back alignment. Start out light to get a feeling for the necessary form and bail if you feel your back moving or you start to go off balance.

It's only for one week, so I can make it happen. Our school has "Spring shutdown" on campus for a week before the summer classes get rolling.

I read a pretty good article that talked about PWO nutrition: http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/puzzle_1.htm

There's a second part to it.

Basically recommends body weight in kg *.8 = amount of carbs in grams.


So at 170lbs I take 77.1*.8 =~ 60g of carbs, then half that of protein. I add in about 5-6g of half-n-half for some anabolic fats to round it out a little and I feel great.

Maltodextrin + Whey + Half-n-Half


Wanna try that Waxy Maize stuff after my 7lbs. of malto runs out >.<

I read a pretty good article that talked about PWO nutrition: http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/puzzle_1.htm

There's a second part to it.

Basically recommends body weight in kg *.8 = amount of carbs in grams.


So at 170lbs I take 77.1*.8 =~ 60g of carbs, then half that of protein. I add in about 5-6g of half-n-half for some anabolic fats to round it out a little and I feel great.

Maltodextrin + Whey + Half-n-Half


Wanna try that Waxy Maize stuff after my 7lbs. of malto runs out >.<

I've done the whole dextrose thing in the past. As a matter of fact I still have a good 6-7 pounds of it sitting around here in tupperware. I'm not a huge fan as I didn't really feel any benefit from it.

I've been eating natural foods like either ground beef tacos, a frozen pizza, or a burrito within an hour of my workouts and I don't think my recovery as ever been this good (then again I've never lifted at a surplus before this culk either).

Lifting today did not go well. I actually blame the smith machine. I couldn't get a feel for anything at all. I have several standing offers for the machine and 395 lbs of iron for 400ish, so I'm probably going to sell it, the bench, and the weights since I'm lifting weights now that I don't feel extremely comfortable under the machines itty bitty hooks anymore.

Celebrated my Sister's 26th birthday today. Jeez, we're really getting old. You can't beat time. Talk about depressing.

Never used a Smith machine, other than for sad attempts at chinups. Plan on getting a power rack or anything instead?

Definitely feeling the "getting older" thing myself.

Knee and hip have been acting up lately, majority of my friends are younger than me... I can't even take my girlfriend to the bar :doh:

Makes me feel like a geezer.

Probably going to use the Smith money to pay off some student loans. I've got about 10k to pay and every little bit helps.

I've considering getting bumper plates and building a wooden power rack, but I'll do that when I'm more settled into a location. Currently my nomading behavior of switching apartments annually for the most part isn't condusive to owning a nice set of equipment.

Went back to the doctor today because I woke up feeling like hell. Took a mono test that was negative, but my girlfriend in PA school says it is likely too soon to get a positive test back (Evidently it takes 14-21 days before you can get a good reading). Not sure whats up with me, but I'm exhausted and just overall worn down for 10-11 days now.

Tried lifting yesterday and I felt weaker than weak. It was awful!

Made the 11 herb and spices chicken tonight despite having about 8 of the herbs and spices. Fantastic.

Which chicken be this? The "Kernel's" chicken? I'm makin that next!

Which chicken be this? The "Kernel's" chicken? I'm makin that next!

Yeah. It's really good. I was missing a few of the seasonings and threw in a teaspoon of cayenne pepper instead. Ended up tasting great.

Following that recipe and adding another egg to the fray will allow you to do probably 3 pounds of chicken. I had a pound and a half and I could have made a bunch more.

Well, now that I'm on amoxicilin(sp) I'm hoping I'll be back to normal by the end of the week. Yesterday's doctor's appointment they established I've probably just had a pretty bad sinus infection.

Definitely ready to start my training again. I don't care for my Smith machine, so I'm thinking about finding a local gym and trying to finagle a free trial for a week (my schools gym is closed for "spring shutdown").

Good luck man!

So far so good in my first week as an actual employee instead of an intern at my company.

Finally over the sickness. Hurray!

Lifting will likely resume Tuesday. Cannot wait to start cutting this fat off.

Awesome wedding and tons of dancing tonight. Gotta love dancing!

wedding #2 was not nearly as fun but still pretty good :D

I'm F'in jacked up to tackle the Tabata tomorrow on the rowing machine. Cannot wait to be absolutely drenched in sweat and feeling like death. I will love it! Then shower and get back to work!!

I've been playing with my food scale and measuring out broccoli and natty pb. I'm getting pretty good at eye balling the PB but broccoli is still brutal. I attribute that to the huge margin of error when trying to eye ball 5 cups of broccoli.

5 cups is a lot of broccoli. My mouth is exhausted from chewing.

5 cups is a lot of broccoli. My mouth is exhausted from chewing.

At least you won't have to worry about getting enough fiber for today!:lol:

Do you get to any Packer games?

At least you won't have to worry about getting enough fiber for today!:lol:

Do you get to any Packer games?

I try to make it up to one game per year at least. How about you? Love going to the games!!

6 TBSP of peanut butter is a lot as well. This diet is heavily concentrated in a few foods to minimize cost. So far so good after one day. All meals are down.

I try to make it up to one game per year at least. How about you? Love going to the games!!

Heck yes! I try to get to 2 or 3 games each season. Are you a tailgater too?:tucool:

Heck yes! I try to get to 2 or 3 games each season. Are you a tailgater too?:tucool:

I'm a huge Packer fan. I post on Packerrats.com. That's how I knew Pete before coming here. Love the tailgating too.

Today's workout was very taxing. It was my first time back in the gym in a LONG time, and I attribute this having something to do with it. I've been through moving from one apartment to another, finals, two weeks of a nasty sinus infection, and now I'm finally back!

I did 3x5 @ 265 for squats. By the third set I was exhausted and knew I was near failure on the 3rd rep on that final set so I stopped. It was very intense, and I'm sure once I get a workout or two under my belt after basically a 3 week absence I'll be back to normal.

I did 3x5 at 155 on the bench press today. I felt weak but cranked this out with relative ease. 175 was pretty tough and I'm confident I would have failed, so I pre-emptively lowered the weight since I didn't have a spotter.

I failed after doing 2 deadlifts at 265. I couldn't get the bar up. Don't know what happened but I wasn't really feeling it.

I attribute the poor workout to mostly getting back into the swing of things. I felt very energetic, and every other time I've felt like this I've had a good workout, so I'm mostly chalking it up to being out of the gym so long.

Tonight my girlfriend and I went and ran/walked a half mile. She beat me despite not doing any exercise at all. I suppose being less than half my weight and having freakishly long legs helps though. She has 4 inch longer legs than me. He waist is at belly button, and yet I'm still taller than her by a few inches.

Hopefully it isn't due to being on a calorie restricted diet (only two days in, so I doubt it has much effect yet).

The broccoli and peanut butter are still excessive but the diet is going well and I'm actually enjoying most of the foods. The broccoli and cheese combo is pretty tasty for the first three cups or so, but then it just gets excessive. I'm going to try breaking it up into two meals tomorrow, but so far I've been poorly prepared in the mornings and haven't had time to get it all done.

It feels REALLY good at work to be doing basically the same job and getting paid significantly more to do it. I was finally rewarded after a year and a half of interning with a nice pay increase. I would treat myself to something cool, but with the housing market so poor I'm trying to save up and score myself a deal.

Holy crap am I exhausted from two tabata intervals on the rowing machine. I feel sick almost here eating my PWO meal.

Nice?

I've never had DOMS this bad in my life. I could barely get out of a chair today. With that said, I opted to push back the workout from today to tomorrow. Not a biggie in the grand scheme since I'll still hit the 5 workouts for the week.

My legs were still jello today, but going out and doing some squats seems to really help that. I'm not sure why. I'm moving much better now :D

My body is not responding well to the fewer calories. These lifts are far more challenging than they were just 3 weeks ago.

I don't think I'll see many gains during the few months. If I do, I suspect they'll come very, very slowly.

I miss bulking already. Lifting is a lot more fun when you're shattering records daily!

That said, I'll be curious to see what I weigh in at on Tuesday morning. I've taken creatine after I took my initial body fat (4 point measuring) and weight, so I suspect I'll be a few pounds heavier.

Time to eat 4 cups of broccoli and a grilled sirloin burger w/ ketchup. Hopefully it's delicious!!

I'm a huge Packer fan.

+1

Hoping to get to a game within the next couple of years, but cross-atlantic flights aren't too cheap :p

+1

Hoping to get to a game within the next couple of years, but cross-atlantic flights aren't too cheap :p

If you are ever able to make it over here for a game, and you are coming all the way from the UK just to see the Packers - I will give you our tickets for that game.:tu:

Sticking to a diet 100% is very hard. Today I spent the day with my drinking buddies at the bar and decided to have diet coke for all of my drinks.

Then, we went to Wendy's for lunch. I had a large chilli.

Later on, we went back to the bar. I had more diet coke.

Finally, to end the night we went to Jimmy Johns. I had a turkey and veggie sub without cheese.

Finally, I came home starving and didn't have any decent food, so I had two slices of my roomates pizza and 16 oz of chocolate milk.

This is a good example of not giving up a life, but making healthier life time decisions. Sure, it's not a "healthy" day of food during a cut, but its a day of good enough food while not giving up a social life. Once every week or two a day like this will have minimal effect on the end result 3-4 months from now.

Cannot wait to get into the gym again today to do my HIIT. That was way fun, but the DOMs were brutal in the hamstrings.

Cannot wait to get into the gym again today to do my HIIT. That was way fun, but the DOMs were brutal in the hamstrings.

Cardio always seems to help ease DOMS in my legs.

Tabata is intense but also wonderful. I really feel like I'm accomplishing something because it is quite painful by the end, but its also great because you are A) dripping with sweat B) panting as hard as humanly possible and C) done in just a few minutes.

It took about 20 minutes to do the two tabata sessions and exit the gym today. Fun, intense stuff.

Diet is going pretty well so far. It's not going perfectly, but I'm down 3 pounds this week despite being on creatine, so thats good news. The only crappy part is balancing the social element, the busy-ness element and then the hungryness. With that said, I feel like I'm accomplishing something, and am eating nearly perfectly at 5 days a week.

Tomorrow morning is the one week weigh in. I'm much more interested in the following weeks, though, as the creatine is clearly keeping more water in my system.

Cannot wait to hit the gym with weights again tomorrow. Here's hoping my legs are back at 100% by then.

5 pounds down week one while taking creatine. Not bad, not bad at all.

Definitely had an intense workout today. I started out with my usual warmup and squats. However, on the first squat down at 265, I could barely get back up.

That was it for squats for me. My legs were burned out today. I don't think cutting and 3x squats and then doing the rower 2x a week is giving me adequate recovery time for my legs. They're absolutely jello again this week.

So, in place of squats, I put in power cleans, something I've been wanting to incorporate into my workout for awhile.

Power cleans:

3x5 110 --

This wasn't too tough from a weight moved perspective, but boy was my heart pounding in between sets. These puppies take it out of you. I think I'll be able to move up easily next workout.

Then, I moved on to bench:

3x5 165 --

This went really well and I put the weight up with ease for the most part. This says to me that my strength isn't as far diminished as I feared after taking 3 weeks off and going from a massive surplus to a pretty significant deficit. I'll be going for 3x5 170 next time I do this workout.

Deadlifts - 1x5 265

This was a struggle. I was pretty fried by this point, and I had to take a break mid set, but at least I grinded out all 5.




Today's weigh in was 5 pounds less than my start weight, and 11 pounds less than my creatine fattened weight. I'm assuming most of it was was the initial balance of water, so probably 3-4 pounds of fat I'm guessing. Good first week.

Cannot wait to see the weight loss for next week given that my body has now adjusted to the creatine.

With that said, time to go eat a massive amount of broccoli (5 cups steamed). Not really yum, but its something.

5 pounds down week one while taking creatine. Not bad, not bad at all.

That's good, not bad isn't cutting it. ;)

That's good, not bad isn't cutting it. ;)

Thanks, let's just hope I'm not burning off muscle dropping that quickly! I'm assuming some of the 5 pounds is water, and then some more of it is just from the initial shock of switching from zero vegetables to 4-5 cups of broccoli per day!

Someone was using the rowing machine and I had about 15 minutes to do a workout and walk to class, so I went with timed deads.

I did 4 sets of 8 with a 20 second rest in between at 185. This was hard as hell, as I have only done lower reps for dead.

Then, for the final 4 sets of 8 I did 155. Very light weight but very intense.

Doing these suckers for speed will clean up your form and make you realize what you're doing wrong. By the end, I was getting WAY more push out of my butt and lower body than I typically do, and the weight was going up pretty easy despite exhaustion. I will focus on pushing from the butt from now on.

When I got to class drenched in sweat, my traps began getting DOMS. Wow, they're sore right now!!

Overall, I'm really enjoying this high intensity stuff. It's a lot faster and I really feel like I'm getting in better shape anaerobically.

The hardest part of cutting the impatience. I want results NOW!!!

Cannot wait to hit the gym tomorrow. Big day of squats, overhead press and pendlay rows.

The row is an underrated exercise. I used to under appreciate it. Now it's one of my favorite exercises.

If you are ever able to make it over here for a game, and you are coming all the way from the UK just to see the Packers - I will give you our tickets for that game.:tu:

:spaz::spaz:

:spaz::spaz:

Same offer applies to you and your hubby if you ever make it out this way LSC!;)


(Sorry for the hijack tensdanny.)

Same offer applies to you and your hubby if you ever make it out this way LSC!;)


(Sorry for the hijack tensdanny.)

If we ever make it out that-a-way, I'd be more interested in meeting you than the Packers! :nod:

No worries.

My back is very sorry today so I'm going to push the weights back until tomorrow and do a hiit workout tonight. Not sure if I'll do boxing or running. Will post later when I decide and execute.

Didn't do the HIIT, just went for a walk for 20 minutes at a very brisk pace. Not sure how far or fast I was going, but I was certainly breathing pretty hard.

Well, my gyms summer hours have basically screwed me over the past few days. I've missed workouts as a result, so I set-up my heavy bag and went to town on it tonight.

Did a tabata with a 60 pounds heavy bag tonight and just went all out on it. Holy crap I was weezing by two minutes into it. This was the most intense tabata interval yet!

Typically I try to do two of these, but I was so gassed that I could only do one. I've been sitting for about 10 minutes now and I'm still hacking up a lung.

Had an excellent day of eating, but am slightly worried about metabolic slow down. I barely ate anything today just due to being on the go, but I wasn't very hungry at all either.

Not anything I'm too concerned about at this point, but something to keep an eye on I suppose.

I'm going to investigate joining my local YMCA tomorrow. The summer hours at my gym are just not at all working for me with school and work. Very tough to get there by 6:30 pm everyday when I'm working full time and taking two classes.

Signed up for a one month membership to a local gym that has more accommodating hours with my work and school schedule. Once this 6 week session is done it'll be back to the awesome, free gym.

My squat is down. Way down. It's extremely frustrating. Gah!

I had a pretty good workout today and grinded out all the reps for every exercise, but WTF, my squat is pissing me off.

3x5 @ 245 Squat
3x5 @ 265 Bench
2x5 @ 245 Deadlift

I need to become more consistent with clean eating. I've relaxed the diet a bit to lose two pounds a week, but I feel like I need to step it up. I need to eat ultra clean for energy in the gym otherwise I'm F'd at such low cals.

I'm thinking today my be a deadlifts for time day then follow it up with a tabata on the rowing machine. I really feel the desire to go balls to the wall today. Yesterday's workout has me pumped up.

tabata on the rowing machine.

Brutal, isn't it? :nod:

Awesome workout today. I squatted to failure at 245. Did it until I couldn't get out of the hole. That feels like you really accomplish something!

Did my overhead presses at 115 3x5.

Did 4x5 power cleans at 115. This is pretty hard despite a pretty low weight.

Tomorrow I have a date with deadlifts for time. I was going to do it yesterday but life happened.

Nutrition is good. Down around 5.5 pounds now, will likely hit 6 by Tuesday morning weigh in. That's right on pace of 2 pounds a week, and it doesn't require giving up a social life. Not bad, not bad at all.

Girlfriends' birthday is tomorrow, so I think the third day of heavy lifting will get moved to Tuesday. I have an 8 hour day, then 3.5 hours of class there after, so there won't be too much time to hang out with the lady as is.

My butt and hamstrings are killing me today. I wonder if the reason my squat weight has dropped off 20-30 pounds has to do with me squatting deeper and thus activating these muscles more. When looking in the mirror I do feel like I'm going past parallel now!

I'm really enjoying the power cleans I've added to the repertoire. I don't think I'm hitting my back as well as with the pendlay rows, but they should do get the heart pumping while doing them. I think I'll begin doing both exercises on the same day next week.

I'm considering switching from starting strength to a different program that is 4 days a week. Any suggestions?

I'm about to head to do the gym to do some deadlifts for time right now. Should be fun.

50 deadlifts at 185 pounds today. It was really intense, but I grinded it out. About half way through I applied chalk to my hands, and that really helped. It made it much, much easier to grip the bar.

I think doing the deadlifts like this is just about the perfect way to learn correct form and muscle activation. I can feel each body part carrying a burden in their respective stages of the lift. Very cool!

With that said, it's time to put down a serious PWO meal. I'm starving!!

My legs are absolutely fried. I'm hobbling around like an old man. I'm alright with it!

I've been doing the same routine for like 11 weeks and I'm thinking about changing it up. I really enjoy the SS program, but I find with my calories this low squatting 3x a week is a bit much when paired with the DLing for time, etc.

Ideally, I'd be doing a 4 day split as I really like lifting, but I'm also open to the idea of doing a 3 day split with two extra workouts of "deadlifts for time" and maybe "power cleans for time".

Something like this, which is a modified version of westside for skinny bastards. Any thoughts?



Tuesday -
Bench Press - 3-5 rep max building
Incline Bench - 3x10
Pendlay Rows - 4x12
Delt Rows - 3x12
Hanging Leg Raises - 3x15

Thurday -
Olympic Squat - 5 rep max building
Unilateral Bulgarians - 3x15 each leg
Glute-Ham Raises - 3x10
Seated Calf Raises - 3x10
Barbell Grip Holds - 3 sets of x amount of time

Friday -
50 Powercleans for time at 115 to begin

Saturday -
Bench Press - 3x max reps at 135
Skull Crushers - 3x10
Lat Pulldown - 4x12
Military Press - 3x10
Barbell Curls - 3x10

Sunday -
50 Deadlifts for time at level 1

Looks like a pretty decent routine, but you're going to die doing that many reps of bulgarians. To each their own...Seriously, that is going to be rough -- unless you use a conservative weight that is.

Down 7 pounds total as of right now. We'll see what it is in the morning. Today was an insane day and I've only had ONE meal. Yes one. Terrible.

Time to go cook up some broccoli and a sirloin burger or two. Hold the bread of course. Wash it down with some fish oil.


Looks like a pretty decent routine, but you're going to die doing that many reps of bulgarians. To each their own...Seriously, that is going to be rough -- unless you use a conservative weight that is.

I'll give it a whirl, see what happens, and adjust. I've never done them before. I've read of your affinity for the GH raises and the unilateral leg work, so I figured it's a good time to try.

One thing that seems interesting about the WS4SB program is the higher reps versus Starting Strength, as well as the shorter rest periods (60 seconds versus 3 minutes on SS). I think this could serve to be beneficial while cutting.

Regardless, I've got to change something up for the time being. My legs are not doing well on such low calories with 3 days of work per week. I've never experienced doms like this before. On the plus side, I'm doing basically olympic squats now, so thats something.

As usual, I'll keep you posted on my progress. :tu:

Well, the first day was absolutely brutal. I don't have a fancy spreadsheet, but I'll recall the best I can.

It's weird not doing squats to start a workout. Very bizarre.

Flat bench - worked up to a 3x max of 175. I'm quickly catching up with where I was.

Incline bench was a doozy. I haven't done this in 3-4 years and have probably never done more than 95 lbs. I started off with 125 for 3x10. I finished two sets, and I failed at rep 6 in the third set.

Pendlay rows were significantly harder today. I think the shorter break times and longer sets were really killing my energy by this point. I was really struggling. I completed one full set of 12 at 135. It's much easier to move a heavier weight with 5 reps per set.

From that point fourth, I did 3 more sets of pendlays, and failed each time at 8ish.

Finally, I went on to an exercise I've never done before, and that is the rear delt row. I probably went far too heavy in the first set, and despite completing it, I failed at rep 5 for the other two sets.

Finally, I did leg raises. These bad boys are surprisingly tough.

All things considered, good first day. It's at a much faster pace than SS, and will be an interesting few weeks. I'm going to give this an 8 week session, and then we'll see whats next. I think the additional reps and elevated heart rate will aid in the fat loss process.

My upper body feels pretty wrecked right now. Partially still from the deadlifts for time on Sunday, and now the rest of the way from this todays workout. Should be good to spend a whole day focusing on my lower body in two days.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I'm excited for my first ever attempts at both unilateral leg work and at glute-ham raises.

My legs finally feels recovered today. I'm going to hit the squats REALLY hard tomorrow.

I didn't have a very good workout today. Bulgarians are effin hard even with 95 lbs on my back, and then I'm pretty sure I'm either A) not strong enough for glute-ham raises or B) not doing them right.

Hopefully B as that'd be a little sad.

I didn't have a very good workout today. Bulgarians are effin hard even with 95 lbs on my back, and then I'm pretty sure I'm either A) not strong enough for glute-ham raises or B) not doing them right.

Hopefully B as that'd be a little sad.
I see you have been initiated into the club.:nod:

I see you have been initiated into the club.:nod:

Pete my main man, I was destroyed by these exercises. The single leg stuff makes my leg wobble like jello.

I simply don't think I'm strong enough or capable at this point to do glute ham raises. I went on the machine, tried to flex and pull myself up, to no avail!

Fuck it, I'm too much of a fighter to simply accept that I cannot do glute ham raises. I was getting a little self conscious in the gym so perhaps my effort wasn't as good as it should have been.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/renegade10.htm

^ I'm going to lower the bar on my smith machine and give these another whirl. I won't go down without a fight (or a really uncomfortable bar on my legs, we'll see how this works out)

50 power cleans as fast as I could at 100 pounds. Not easy. My forearms are burning. Sweat was everywhere :lol: Don't know how much time it took, but by the end the sets were fairly slow.

I get really, really low, and its such an explosive motion. Way more tiring than deadlifts at 185 imo!

Just now, getting out the shower, I notice that my traps either A) are growing, B) have lost some fat in my upper back, or C) have a massive pump. Probably a combination of all three. Not quite Pete-height-ish, but decent!

7.8 pounds down now. Want to hit 9 for the month. Feels good to be losing this type of fat when on creatine (thus keeping the water on and a bloated feeling).

Monday night I will do my 4 week measurements and see where I'm at.

7.8 pounds down now. Want to hit 9 for the month. Feels good to be losing this type of fat when on creatine (thus keeping the water on and a bloated feeling).

Monday night I will do my 4 week measurements and see where I'm at.

Way to go on the weight loss! How much did you gain with the creatine? I think that would mess with my mind.

Way to go on the weight loss! How much did you gain with the creatine? I think that would mess with my mind.

Thank you for the compliment!

I put on between 5-6 pounds from the creatine as far as I can tell.

Today's workout went well, but it was under whelming from a heart pumping stand point. I may have to modify the military press into possibly a clean and press? Not sure, but I definitely didn't feel my heart pumping too hard besides doing the bench presses at the beginning.

Regardless, I went by the book and my arms feel completely torched.

Body is really tired today. A good tired, though.

Going to deadlifts for time right now. Attempting to get jacked up right now. Need to get pumped up so it's a good workout.

I had an amazing workout today. I did my deadlifts for time at 185 again, and I absolutely brutalized this.

I'm clearly getting in better shape, and I think I did all 50 in probably 6-7 minutes. I was flying. Feels really, really good to see some results from my hard work.

Next week I will go up probably 10-20 pounds. Not sure exactly yet.

WHOOO! I'm on a high. I seriously absolutely smoked that and made it my biotch.

I seriously absolutely smoked that and made it my biotch.
Very nice! :madpimp:

You're kicking ass! :dance:

Very good workout tonight. I'm getting stronger!!!!!!!!!

Weight is still up and bloated due to Father's day feast and lack of water yesterday. Cannot wait to see what I weigh tomorrow.

Work is kicking my ass. I've already put in about 30 hours in the past three days and have more coming tonight. At least I'm paid hourly :D

Was playing football today and work and while sprinting I stepped into what was a small hole and hurt myself. It wasn't my ankle, but my calf-ish high ankle region.

It hurts hella bad whenever their is pressure applied, so I think I pulled a muscle?

Hopefully it's better in the morning so I can lift tomorrow. I'll probably try to lift either way as its just a calf.

Careful, it's just a calf, but doing any standing overhead work could be harder than you think. You need the calf for stabilization. Hope it's ok!

Dan, who do you think we're (Bucks) going to lock up tonight? I definitely want Flynn, but I'd also take Lawson anyday. It surprises me to see him so low on everybody's boards.

Dan, who do you think we're (Bucks) going to lock up tonight? I definitely want Flynn, but I'd also take Lawson anyday. It surprises me to see him so low on everybody's boards.

Not sure who I want. Flynn is a little small. Would love it Evans fell!

updatE: Really like the Jennings pick, hearing him speak tonight I didn't think he was dumb or the game was too big for him. You've got to love a guy that athletic, but clearly he has some head issues. Time will tell, but I'm confident Hammonds did his homework.

Tyreke Evans is going to be the best player from this draft IMO. With his size, and from what Calipari says about him rising to any competition he has ever faced, I suspect he'll be basically unstoppable penetrating and either scoring or kicking it out. Stud!

Weight has gone up about a pound all week. Need to refocus on commitment to diet.

Had a decent workout today. Leg wasn't bothering me too bad, and I hit 3x5 squats at 245.

Had a good workout today and then spent the day at Summerfest, the big music festival in Milwaukee. Was a lot of fun. Only had one beer and split the Saz's platter with the lady instead of getting my own.

Everything in moderation.

Did the 50 reps of Deadlift at 195 in probably 5 minutes today. It was crazy fast.

I'm considering switching from 10 sets of 5 to 5 sets of 10. What do you all think? Is there any benefit to this?

Going up another 10 pounds next week. Hopefully I can keep going for awhile at this. I started out at 3x5 at 185 a few months back. Doing 50 reps of this is a piece of cake now

I'm making a few modifications to my program. I like some elements of it and dislike others.

Tuesday -
3x5 Bench Press
3x5 Incline Bench
3x5 Pendlay Row to stomach
3x5 Pendlay Row to neck
3x15 Hanging leg raises

Thursday -
3x5 olympic squat
3x5 barbell step-ups
4x3 deadlifts
3x15 seated calf raises

Friday -
50 High-intensity Power Cleans

Saturday -
Bench Press - 3x max reps at 135
Cable Pushdown - 3x10
Lat Pulldown - 3x8
Military Press - 3x5
Seated Row - 3x5

Sunday -
50 High intensity Deadlifts


This is taking me closer to my starting strength roots while keeping the squats to one day a week. I really like the exhausted feeling I had with the SS program, and I don't feel that with some of the smaller movements I was doing before.

I'm hoping this modified program will take me to where I want to go. It's definitely kicking the intensity up a notch and focusing on strength, which will hopefully provide the SS exhaustion I really enjoyed.

Down right around 10 pounds in 5 weeks while taking creatine. Right where I should be.

Tonight was the kind of workout i'm in the mood for. Lots of heavy weights, lots of struggling to push or pull the weight up, etc.

I damn near got locked under a barbell while benching 180. I couldn't get a rep up in my second set and had to roll it down off of me. Hurt a bit.

Next time I just won't lock the plates on, or I will ask one of the guys to spot me. I really like having a spotter as I push it harder.

Gah! I caved and had a slice of cake tonight at work. I was stressed and it was staring me down.

GD, I'm so pissed at myself right now. It's just not worth it in the end. Why would I slip up? I don't even enjoy cake that much. I realize in the end knowing that this is ultimately a year long battle that one piece of cake will be meaningless, but if this becomes a pattern...

Tomorrow i've got my leg day which is exciting. I'm ready to move some big time weight around.

GD, I'm so pissed at myself right now. It's just not worth it in the end. Why would I slip up? I don't even enjoy cake that much. I realize in the end knowing that this is ultimately a year long battle that one piece of cake will be meaningless, but if this becomes a pattern...

Tomorrow i've got my leg day which is exciting. I'm ready to move some big time weight around.
We all do it from time to time lol. Learn from it and move on. I will eat something bad 1-2 times a month and HATE myself for doing it. :lol:

Plus I feel very sick after eating it.

I was a lifting fiend today and it was glorious. That was the best, most fun, highest sweat inducing workout I've had in a long time. I'm so jacked up right now it's unreal. I'm literally bouncing off the walls.

YESSSSSSSS!!

Chalk has been the biggest difference maker in the my workouts. The gym I signed up for a month at has an endless supply available to lifters so I use a lot of it.

Where do you guys get your chalk?

Chalk has been the biggest difference maker in the my workouts. The gym I signed up for a month at has an endless supply available to lifters so I use a lot of it.

Where do you guys get your chalk?
I ordered a box from elitefts for ~$10 and am betting it will last me at least 5+ years.

Is it just in a bottle/contain, or is it a big brick of chalk? How would I go about transporting this to the gym without looking like a weiner?

This mornings workout was very good as well. I'm crushing this lately. It was an interesting experience because I did it fasted early this morning so I could get in 8 hours of work, then head to a cookout, then the fireworks. Busy day!