Daily Check In - Part Duex

[ColePens]

Sports interval training this morning - main focus was core. Heading to work chest/tris at the gym in about an hour. A nice 2-a-day on a day off from work.

Killer to get 2 workouts in before 4.

 

[Crease]

Hit it up hard this morning at the gym. Back before 10:30am, downed a shake and finished last night's stir-fry with a couple fried eggs.

Tomorrow is active rest day, which means I get to freestyle at the gym (armsssssss )

 

[RayP]

Good ride today.

50 miles
3800+ feet of climbing
17.1mph on average

Then a nice short 2 mile transition run, at about an 8:50 per mile pace.

 

[wingsnut19]

After failing 160 on bench 2 weeks ago, hit 170 for 3 today. The difference of getting proper leg drive is huge.

 

[Crease]

Arms and abs on my "anything goes" active rest day. Two weeks into my twelve week program and feeling good, got a nice routine going.

 

[Ozz]

Had to start my week a couple days early due to upcoming scheduling issues, so my back routine was done 5 days after the prior one. Now that I'm rotating rows-for-strength out from being my main focus, I am switching to a routine more focusing on lat width. Topping all of that off will be rows for higher reps.

Tendonitis and random elbow issues have kept me from doing pullups, so I'm incredibly lacking compared to where I used to be. Back in the day, I'd put 100lbs. on a weight belt and do wide grip pullups with a pause at the top. I could do a bunch of one-arm pullups, side to sides, you name it. A few years ago at my worst, I couldn't do 3 without a sharp pain and inability to keep gripping the bar. Over time I've gotten better, but my pullup strength sucks. Since I could get away with doing Hammer Strength pullovers, pulldowns, and minimal pullups, I stuck w/that. But crazy power on those machines doesn't translate to real pullups (major lesson there for you some of you that might not understand that!!!), so here I am trying to become a beast there again too.


So! My "welcome back" lat width workout was the following. I'm smoked today. We'll see how that feels the next 1-2 workouts and I'll add accordingly:


Flat DB pullovers SS w/Wide Pullups: 60x12 / 5 - 3 sets of the same


Nothing gets your lats & pullup strength going like going bananas, so here we go:

Weighted Chins / BW chins / Rest Pause set (rest for 15 breaths) / forced negatives (jump up on the bar and fight the negative)
+25x6 / drop BW x6 / RP 3 / neg x3 - 2 sets of the same

​
BB Rows: 225x10,4,6 RP set

 

[Blueblood9]

So update. Hit a big mile stone on Wed. Went for my yearly physical cholesterol is now normal. My blood sugar which was elevated last yr is now in normal range. As for my weight I'm now 290. Starting in mid January that's 30 lbs lost and doing it the right way my diet and exercise are on point.

Best part is my co-workers are taking notice and say the difference is definitely noticeable.

I feel great and the more I keep going down this path the more I wanna go. I leave a workout so energized I feel like I can go another round.

 

[Crease]

So update. Hit a big mile stone on Wed. Went for my yearly physical cholesterol is now normal. My blood sugar which was elevated last yr is now in normal range. As for my weight I'm now 290. Starting in mid January that's 30 lbs lost and doing it the right way my diet and exercise are on point.

Best part is my co-workers are taking notice and say the difference is definitely noticeable.

I feel great and the more I keep going down this path the more I wanna go. I leave a workout so energized I feel like I can go another round.

Fantastic. Isn't progress addictive?

 

[Ozz]

So update. Hit a big mile stone on Wed. Went for my yearly physical cholesterol is now normal. My blood sugar which was elevated last yr is now in normal range. As for my weight I'm now 290. Starting in mid January that's 30 lbs lost and doing it the right way my diet and exercise are on point.

Best part is my co-workers are taking notice and say the difference is definitely noticeable.

I feel great and the more I keep going down this path the more I wanna go. I leave a workout so energized I feel like I can go another round.

Keep on goin'!

 

[Blueblood9]

Fantastic. Isn't progress addictive?

Most definitely is. Can't wait to get back to the gym.

 

[Cory Trevor]

Got a new job back in December. Little more stability but happy overall. Since then I've decided to give myself realistic goals. Got in shape pretty well in college for a while down to 193 pounds at one point. Since then I've consistently gained weight(roughly eight years since). I topped out most recently at about 255. My BMI was 37.7% and now down to roughly 36.1, at about 245 pounds.

I started going to the gym quite a bit the past few months and have really started for the first time in a while, stopped dreading it. I get extremely excited to go now. I would be going prior to this job once or twice a week. In the summers I do play tennis a few times a week which helped me from getting morbidly obese but now I've become more and more consistent with the gym. Trying to go four or five times a week now. Now summers here so the tennis will help me pick up on the cardio for sure. Slow steps I feel like have helped. In the past I always try to psyche myself up to going. Now it's all about getting to a plateau, and continuing onward. For instance for a while I could only do sit down bike and elliptical consistently(I get bored easily). I'm on the regular bike and stairmaster mostly. I've also heavily increased the weight training including finally being able to do plates on bench press for the first time! A big achievement for me. I've also started to add some late night crunches and ab exercises. I want to do those every night if I can keep it going.

The diet will be the hardest part. First and foremost, I love food and beer way too much so I can't expect to cut those out entirely. But lately I know I'm reducing my appetite slowly but surely and eating less. I also try to eat more hardy things, more salads and things like quinoa as well some yogurt and things like that. Bread seems to be the hardest thing to cut out though.

I agree with blueblood. I can't wait to go back to the gym. When I leave work it's the first thing I want to do and that has never happened before. I'll give another update as it goes along but I hope I stick with it. I know it's corny but watching youtube videos of changes and transformations help keep me motivated.

 

[Crease]

Almost skipped today. Almost. About to hit the floor for week 3 of 12.

 

[UnrealMachine]

3/7 Office Workout

- Core Flow: 6:00 x 2
- Bulgarian Split Squat: +75 x 10 x 3
- One-Arm Row (4-1-0 tempo): 65 x 10 x 3
- DB X-Shrug : 55 x 12 x 3
- Kettlebell Swing: 120 x 20 x 3

Bike Trainer

- 65 minutes of sweet spot training

Climbing

2.5 hours. Projecting up to 5.12 and lots of 5.10 climbs. Followed up at home with some wrist curls and rice bucket work.

Continuing my quest to get back on track. Getting better at BSS. Weight doesn't feel heavy at all, but I'm happy to do higher reps and perfect my technique/coordination. Dropped the weight on 1-arm rows and working on negatives each rep. Don't know if I like it better or not? Made some incremental gains in climbing, but not at the high end. Going to have to specifically increase my finger strength to be able to grip the smaller holds necessary at the high end.

 

[Crease]

Back and biceps tonight. I follow Steve Weatherford on IG and I took notice of his slower tempo. I'm going to focus on that tonight.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Back and biceps tonight. I follow Steve Weatherford on IG and I took notice of his slower tempo. I'm going to focus on that tonight.

I've enjoyed the results so far employing 4-second negatives. Just don't slow down the concentric (positive) portion of the lift, and you should feel a greater recruitment of muscle fibers on those lifts. It has worked best on pull ups, push ups and triceps work.

 

[Ozz]

Slow negatives are great. There are some times or some exercises where I do 5-10 second negatives. Always great for hypertrophy.

 

[Crease]

Great pump with the slow negatives. Had to check my ego and lower the weight too.

 

[Ozz]

Tonight's workout was pretty good, numbers up everywhere again! Starting to love flat bench for the first time in over 10 years.

Working set numbers were flat bench/2-board press 265x4 for 3 sets, then parallel dips +45x20, +80x12, +80x10. Next week I'll either aim for 275x3 for 3 sets or 265x5 for 3 sets. Not sure yet. I've done the 5-rep focus for a few weeks, I think a couple at 3-reps will be pretty good. Soon enough I've got to see how this all translates to my 1RM.

Great pump with the slow negatives. Had to check my ego and lower the weight too.

Pfft, no worries. Anyone who knows anything in the gym can see what you're doing and recognize/appreciate! I know I do.

 

[blue425]

March has been better than February. Here is hoping it continues

 

[Crease]

Leg day today.

I know some people love leg day. Is it one of those "tell yourself until you believe it" things?

 

[Ozz]

Leg day today.

I know some people love leg day. Is it one of those "tell yourself until you believe it" things?

My love of (muscle here) day comes and goes for almost everything, so I've loved and hated leg day almost as much as anything else.

I don't doubt many people just say it because it's something to say, though, or those who 'do stuff for legs' rather than go in and try to make them literally explode. Then again, Stockholm Syndrome can happen

 

[RayP]

March has been better than February. Here is hoping it continues

You and me both!


Won't bore with the details, but my cycling numbers since hiring a coach have been increasing far more than I could have even asked for.

 

[Thepoolmaster]

Ok gonna start posting here mostly to keep me accountable and have some questions as well. i have been trying to get my body fat % down. Currently 6 ft. ~183 lbs with a bf of 22%. Would like to get it down to 20% to start then down to 15%. Not super strong due to some injuries to my legs that made me stop going to the gym.

Going to be doing two days of chest triceps and abs and back biceps and traps and two days of swimming or rock climbing depending on schedule. E.g

Sunday CTA
Monday Rock climbing
Tuesday BBT
Wednesday CTA
Thursday Swim
Friday BBT

Can't do legs at the gym cuz I'm currently getting some treatment on hips and knee and will try to substitute that with the swimming.

My question though is how to get down the bf%. Should I be eating at a deficit or a lot. High carb low carb? There's a lot of info out there and it's difficult to figure out what's best.

Currently I'm looking at secret to shred (don't know if anyone has done this) but I can't afford all the supplements nor have the desire to do all that.

Thanks to anyone who responds

 

[Crease]

Ok gonna start posting here mostly to keep me accountable and have some questions as well. i have been trying to get my body fat % down. Currently 6 ft. ~183 lbs with a bf of 22%. Would like to get it down to 20% to start then down to 15%. Not super strong due to some injuries to my legs that made me stop going to the gym.

Going to be doing two days of chest triceps and abs and back biceps and traps and two days of swimming or rock climbing depending on schedule. E.g

Sunday CTA
Monday Rock climbing
Tuesday BBT
Wednesday CTA
Thursday Swim
Friday BBT

Can't do legs at the gym cuz I'm currently getting some treatment on hips and knee and will try to substitute that with the swimming.

My question though is how to get down the bf%. Should I be eating at a deficit or a lot. High carb low carb? There's a lot of info out there and it's difficult to figure out what's best.

Currently I'm looking at secret to shred (don't know if anyone has done this) but I can't afford all the supplements nor have the desire to do all that.

Thanks to anyone who responds

Ignore the supplements, whatever they are.

As far as eating goes, this worked well for me: (1) eat at a deficit, (3) workout in a fasted state, and (3) limit your carbs (rice, bread, potato) to your post-workout meal.

 

[Thepoolmaster]

Ignore the supplements, whatever they are.

As far as eating goes, this worked well for me: (1) eat at a deficit, (3) workout in a fasted state, and (3) limit your carbs (rice, bread, potato) to your post-workout meal.

Ok cool figured about the supplements

1) roughly 1700-1800 calories should be good then?

2) planning on morning workouts when possible

3) ok if workout in morning only have carbs for breakfast but what about the days I have to work out at night? Only have the carbs after workout or just forego them?