The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Good job dude! Hope you have some videos

 

I have nothing. All my friends bailed on me so I was there alone. Haha.

 

Some thoughts...

my scale is going in the trash. Weighed 180 this morning at home and weighed in at 176.5. WTF? Could have done a lot more eating.

the squat was on FIRE. I was a little iffy since I made the last minute call to switch to heels so I lowered my opener to 341. It moved like an empty barbell. Second was butter at 380. Third was RPE8 @408 (3#lifetime pr). I was so pumped. The only depth red I got was from the front judge on my second. (Wtf?)

bench started out equally on fire. 166 and 181(6#pr) moved so fast. I chose to skip my planned third of 187 and jump to 192 and missed.

I was super excited about the deadlift because I thought a big PR was there, and I would have been if I was in the gym only deadlifting today. I was tired by the time dead’s came around. Opener flew at 418 so I was feeling good. 2nd at 455 was more of a grinder than it should have been so I chose to drop my 3rd to 463 (8#pr) and pulled it slowly but pretty smoothly.

I had a ball. Definitely going to sign up for another. Time to build a bench (somehow).

Big thanks to all of you for the tips/tricks/advice, and especially @ThunderCookies for the peaking cycle. Couldn’t have done as well as I did without you.

 

Good work! Hooked now?
Keep in mind on your next block of training, that bench generally requires higher volume then other lifts to improve.

 

Yes, I’ve found 4 times per week is where I find my beast results.

I need some help. How do I improve what I have to work with here?

*my sticking point is almost always about 2-3” off my chest. I feel like this is before my triceps take over for lockout.

*im limited to this very close grip that I’m using to stay psychology m free.

Bench is definitely the priority in the coming months. Plan right now is to hammer the bench volume and do lots and lots of back work. Additionally, I need to loosen up my hip flexors and quads to I can get in a better position to use more leg drive.

I’m all ears if anyone has suggestions.

 

I would have 2 bench days a week, start with 3 sets of 8 at rpe 7, 2nd bench day, do 8 sets of 3 reps at rpe 7. 2nd week either add volume or exertion, i.e a goal of adding a rep to each set or 2.5-5lbs each week. You don’t want to add either quickly or it will get too heavy before you get any work in.
Wk1 3x8 @ rpe7. 8x3 @ rpe7
Wk2 3x8 and 8x3 indentical but add 2.5-5lbs
Wk3 3x8 and 8x3 and add 2.5-5lbs again.
Wk4 3x8 and then 3x8 both at rpe 8
In week 5-8 lower the volume a bit as your exertion gets higher.. same for week 9-11. You could be hitting rep prs @rpe 9 around the 2-3 rep range on the 11th week. Accessory movements should start out high in volume and end more medium with lots of focus on tricep extension as triceps are always going to be the weak link with bench or overhead. And then take suggestions as just suggestions lol but you get the idea.

 

Damn, sorry everyone bailed but glad you were prepped and killed it

should’ve asked some strange to video for you or done a prop job lol

as for the scale, it’s a crap shoot. You’ll never find 2 that measure the same but it’s better you came in under. Another reason why it helps to have a 24hr weigh in, you could’ve crammed down a lot more food before the meet started

 

Getting the lifts on video literally never crossed my mind. I was using my phone to blast prelift death metal while I was waiting for each attempt. Wish I would have thought of it now though.

 

Shitty run this morning. Made it 11 miles before I bailed.
Side stitch started at mile 4 and took over my entire abdomen by the end.

Shit lift session Friday. Shit run yesterday. Shit run today.

Need to get back into ketosis and shake this bullshit off.

 

I have ate. Soo. Much. Food this week. I am over this. Gonna do a real 8 week program like y’all say.

cure to craving food and struggling with a diet? Just eat and eat and eat till you never wanna see food again lmao.

 

Bruhhhh fuck yea man. Proud as fuck of you.

 

I’m sort of in the same boat. I ate allllll the carbs yesterday trying to stay fueled. Then went and ate a burger and fries and beers. I don’t even want to see a carb today. Haha

Thanks man. Was the wife impressed with the new physique?

 

Yes sir but we have been running around all week meeting family and friends she hasn’t seen in months and what do people love to do when meeting up? Eat eat eat. And she’s Mexican and to them, it’s rude if you don’t eat so even if you say no.... grandma still makes you a plate and tells you to eat lmao. So I have been eating just non stop and I’m honestly over this lol. Tomorrow things get normal again and this has for sure made me want to get strict on he diet train again.

 

I'm fresh off a 10x10 5 week volume cycle (10 reps of 10 at ~50% weight with 90 second breaks). It's odd lifting with a heartrate of 120.

Cutting is going well. I'm down ~10 lbs. in about 5 weeks which is exactly where I wanted. No loss in strength (gotta sneak a few 1RMs in the volume). My leanest (that I care to do that's livable for me) is around 205 which puts me around 11-12% bf (5'11"). My extended bulk last year (12 months) saw me up to 230 and I'm at 220 now. My extended bulk resulted in: Bench 365 to 400, DL from 425 to 510 and squat from 365 to 440 so I'm not complaining. I did get a lot stronger. Only supps were preworkouts and creatine with a not very clean bulk but a lot of protein. I dropped quite a few supps over the year as I don't think they were doing anything for me TBH. I could definitely tell when I cut creatine out (I did NOT recover as quickly) for a few weeks and well preworkout because my gym time is 5am.

Next step: 5x5 for 5 weeks down to 3x3 for 3 weeks and then a good break after that. I decided to implement Ligondrol at 5mg/day for these 8 weeks. I researched it enough to feel comfortable with it. I'm on day 3 of starting (no PEDs of any type before this), and so far so good besides being thirsty all the time and putting on 2# of water weight. I will keep calories at 3k which keeps me in the deficit of around ~500ish/day. My goal with the ligandrol is to slowly introduce myself to other things outside of the normal stuff and just see how I like it. If I can get in the 205-210# range and keep my bulking maxes or close to it, I am going to be very happy. I've always lost gains when I cut (10%-ish usually).

 

2300-2400 calories consumed today, I’m still feeling good in the mornings, I was low on energy today but I’ll blame that on working until midnight yesterday and the dogs waking me up between 5:30 and 6:00.

Workout tonight felt good, bike warmup, machine circuit (added more weight this round) and then I used an ab machine and a lower back machine, finished out with 1.5 mile walk/jog and then a 4 minute cool down walk.

The biggest issue I had was abdominal cramps from the AB machine, it worked my abs in way that I’m not used to, I probably pushed a little too much on it for it being my first time on the machine. I may have to break my fast tonight and drink some Gatorade, it always helps when I feel like I’m going to cramp at night.

 

Don't break your fast.
Personally I think when people start fasting, be a Nazi about it for 4 weeks. No excuses, don't break. It ensures you actually get the benefit and see how good you feel doing it.

I eat very little processed foods to begin with, so I already struggled with sodium deficiency. When I started fasting and keto I was drinking 2 gallons of water per day, getting up 4-5 times a night to pee, and still was thirsty. I also was noticing my calves tightening up more than usual after my runs and I never have calf tightness.
I had to start adding salt to virtually everything I drink. I have himalayan pink salt (it's pink because of Mg, K, and Ca) that I sprinkle in everything. I also add a lot more to my food. But I seriously sprinkle it in my coffee, water, and teas. It doesn't need to be a ton and it doesn't taste bad. In fact you can barely tell it's there but your body likes it because it knows you need it.

Post long run (I'm still in my fast another 2+ hours sometimes) I do green tea with salt. When I lift (in my feeding window) I do water, BCAA powder, and salt.

Fasting has a tendency to bring out electrolyte imbalances and make them more noticable. Plus when people start eating better and staying away from processed foods, it gets rid of a lot of sodium and potassium in the diet.

The problem with sports drinks is the empty calories and sugar. All it is, is junk. Artificial colors and flavors and sugar. It's junk. Plus it spikes your insulin like nuts which can make the remainder of your fast hell.

 

Me and pink salt don't go anywhere without each other, lol.

 

I love dat shit

 

Does it fucking enrage anyone else here when people
1) Don’t rerack ALL weights
And
2) do not put the plates back on the right wrack (ie putting 25lbs on a 10lb rack with fucking 10s already on there)

People need to be beaten

 

Leg day today. Feelin pretty great. I’m hoping this means I’m back to normal

#fuckcarbs