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I've never tried professional arm wrestling or anything, but I've always been good at it when doing it with friends or people at work. I think mostly it is my arm proportions that give me an advantage with it.

I went swimming at a community pool with the kids and my girlfriend's extended family yesterday. These teenagers stopped me as I was getting out of the pool and seemed quite insistent that I was a mixed martial artist that they'd seen on television. They were asking me about my tattoos, telling me I looked huge, etc. I finally just said that yes, I was a fighter but I'm retired because my hearing got messed up from being hit in the ears too many times. My girlfriend's family all thought it was hilarious. Personally, I don't really like getting much attention out in public so I was just trying to excuse myself from the conversation as quickly as I could. It is kind of nice to get confirmation of my efforts from people but still, I'm mostly a private kind of guy and I don't do what I do to get attention from people. I guess it was kind of funny though.
 
What's 8-10% looking like these days? You probably do resemble an MMA off of UFC at your relative size and bf%. They're not the biggest guys, barring a few of the heavies, but they mostly look like their skin is stretched across the muscles and there isn't enough of it.
 
I think I look bigger now at 220 than I did at 250. Actually I'm back to 225, but as anyway. .. might try to get some pictures soon, at least for progress comparison, never took any when I decided to take a break from my cut.
 
Back down to 219.5 lbs even though I thought I was eating roughly maintenance. I'm not tracking calories though because I don't feel like it right now. I'll get back into it next week once I'm not working all these nights anymore.

Incline bench 135 x 10, 315 x 8,6,5
Shoulder press machine 205 x 10,8,6
Parallel grip pulldown 315 x 10,8,7
Rack pull 315 x 5, 405 x 5, 545 x 5, 615 x 3 x 5

Felt like crap today so I tried to take it easy. Got a little carried away on rack pulls. Strapped up for the 5 sets of 3 with 615. Got a little bit of an audience with that one. I'm a little pissed because the velcro slipped on my right versa and it came off during the first rep of the last set, so I had to rack it and quickly switch to a mixed grip to finish it real quick.
 
That's a nice bit of weight you're chucking around for those rack pulls on an "easy" day! Not far off triple bw. Not surprised you had an audience. 8-)
 
Yeah, thanks for the inspiration. Thats some serious iron you are throwing around.
 
I'm paying for it today. Haven't really done much lifting in the 600+ range for a while. Might have been a bit much.

I've got about two months left before I have to start moving, at which point I will be taking an extended SD for most of October. I'm kind of excited though, there is a powerhouse gym 6 minutes away from where I will be working, which is basically in Detroit, and I'll most likely sign up there so I can lift before or after work. The gym looks awesome from the pictures online, seems like a better equipped gym and much cleaner than where I am now, although it's not 24 hours so that sucks.
Going to pay a visit to the townhouse we are looking at in two weeks and I'm thinking of hitting up a couple gyms near where I want to live. I will be living about 45 minutes from work, so I'll either join that powerhouse gym near work or find a place near where I will live. Or I may join both if I can find a good gym in Ann Arbor. I would like to be able to workout on days I don't work without driving 45 minutes. Checking google, I only see a few places near where I want to live and one of them is a Planet Fitness which is obviously not an option for me.
 
Totentanz said:
GOAL SETTING
Bodyweight: I still want to hit 260 lbs before summer.
Deadlift: 650 by the end of the year
Bench: 350 by the end of the year
Squat: 500 by summer
Click to expand...

So these were the goals I set at the beginning of this year and posted in this log. I think I'm going to have to test my maxes soon and see where I'm at. Pretty sure I could bench that much if I start flat benching again and work up to it over a cycle. As for the bodyweight goal, I hit 250 before summer, so missed it by 10 lbs. I'll just have to remake a bodyweight goal this winter after I get settled in at my new place and try for that one.

Deadlift... not sure if I can get 650 yet, haven't really been training deadlift so I'd have to get back into it. I think like the bodyweight goal, once I get settled in, probably around the beginning of November, I'll start bulking again and working on the big three lifts to try and hit those goals before 2013 ends. Deadlift and Squat are both going to be a challenge, Bench I am pretty sure I can do before I move and the bodyweight will probably take the entire winter to achieve.
 
217.0 today, for some reason. I've increased my food intake too, so I don't know. Water balance, I guess.

Feel something almost like bronchitis in my lungs, people at work have been sick so I guess it's my turn. Last time I had something like this, which was a few years back, I didn't take it easy and it turned into pneumonia. The problem is that whenever I get sick, I still feel pretty good and can still perform normally, so sometimes I overdo it and eventually get really sick. So I'm going to take it easy for the next few days and just go to work, etc, but skip the gym for now. I suppose those 600+ rack pulls might have stressed my system and made me susceptible to the crap that is going around at work. Whatever. So no gym for the next few days.

Sold my weights and rack to some lady who was buying it for her husband who wants to start lifting with her son. Gave them $100 off of what I was asking, so hopefully they actually use it. Maybe I should send them a copy of my HST e-book. Anyway, glad I don't have to move that crap now, and that money is going into my moving fund for October.

I heard online that there is a powerlifting focused gym in Dexter, MI which is pretty close to where I am looking to settle down. Might check it out in a couple weeks when I go to look at the townhouse I'm thinking of renting.
 
May be the infamous"whoosh" effect. Usually occurs after increasing your calories. No one knows if it's water or fat being lost. Not even recognized by scientific community but we know it to be true.

Always exciting for me to move to new area. Getting to know the new area and people. Fresh start.
 
I'm familiar with the whoosh, I'm not exactly dieting anymore so wasn't expecting anything like that. Oh well.

I am excited about the move. Just need to find the right gym is all. I'm guessing I'm going to go a good few weeks without being able to lift, so I'll consider that an extended SD and once I get settled in and find a place, it will likely be the beginning of November. I'll start my bulk then.
 
Hah, happened upon this video again today. July 2007, so six years ago. I was deadlifting 435 and it wasn't a maximal attempt or anything. So... I've only added a little less than 200 lbs to my deadlift in 6 years. Kinda depressing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ_sOWSV_1A

On the bright side, I remember that shirt because I gave it to my younger brother. It's a medium sized shirt. XL shirts are somewhat snug on me know, so at least I've gotten considerably larger.

That piece of **** bar.
 
Just for point of reference, here is Brad Pilon's formula he uses for determining what amount of lean mass someone should expect to be able to build, from his site http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/my-guide-to-bulking/

Lean mass (kg) = C x H3.2



Where H is your height in meters and C is the coefficient we use to account for age.

The standard deviation is roughly 0.5.

OK now for “C” use the following numbers:

If you are between 20-24 use 11
If you are between 25 and 34 use 10.9,
if you are between 35 and 44 use 10.7
If you are 45 and older use 10.5
Click to expand...

In my case, that is 10.9 x 1.8542^3.2 which equals 78.6190050743kg or 172.96181116346 lbs. That means at 10% bodyfat, I would be about 192 lbs. That's supposedly the biggest I can get.

Currently, I'm about 220 at 9-10% bodyfat or so. That's roughly 198-200 lbs of lean mass. Looks like his calculator is a little off.

Incidentally, 220 @ 10% is just about what Casey Butt's max potential calculator gives me and also pretty damn close to what the HST max potential calculator gives me.

So according to Brad's formula, I must be a heavy steroid user. According to Casey Butt and Bryan Haycock, I'm simply someone just about at the limits that my genetics would allow.

Which is it? I leave that to all of you to decide...

It's worth noting that he also determines whether you should cut or bulk by your waist to height ratio. If your waist is greater than 45% of your height, then you are too fat to bulk. Mine is currently about 32 inches, which apparently means I'm at a good waist to height ratio, coming in at 43.8% for my ratio.
 
It sounds like Brad's formula is based on "leangainers" who are too afraid to bulk properly. Their "maximum" lean mass will obviously be limited by their fear of getting fat.
 
I'm sure they would insist I'm just a big time juicer, can't be the extra calories. You're a roid head too. Can't get to your size naturally yaknow. And all those excess calories you are eating all just turn directly into fat, you gain no muscle by overeating, sorry bro.

Strange that your strength is up so much though, guess adipose tissue has tensile strength?
 
Brad's formula is the work of an idiot. This, and Rihad's displayed methodology (no coincidence) are the worst kinds of thinking, being that one establishes a conclusion and interprets data to suit it.

It's also missing about a billion 'check along the way' questions, but you know ... when it's this bad, that isn't surprising.
 
The calculation is obviously worthless and anyone who accuses someone of steroid use because of their amazing gains made from HST is an idiot but does it have to be either or with leangains and hst? I have a pretty good understanding of leangains and thanks to the wealth of information on this site and good people sharing their knowledge I am learning more and more about hst each day. I don't see why you couldn't follow both?
 
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