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I do have a rack I can bench in, but there are one or two guys that sometimes show in the morning then proceed to use the rack the entire time. I do plan to use it when I get really heavy, or when I get close to benching 315 again.

Lifting regularly does feel good. I've found that I actually feel like crap when I don't lift. Sometimes I'll sleep poorly and wake at 5 am wanting to go back to sleep. When I do go back to sleep, I have a much worse day than when I just tough it out and lift anyway.
 
Welcome back... Consistently is definitely the key in my opinion.

I take my hat off to your poundage's and frequency. I am in my early 40's now and cannot sustain this kind of frequency and heavy weight. I guess it is a sign of getting older? I used to push the really heavy stuff some years ago and think I am paying a price with shoulders. I think if I started pushing the heavy weights again like I used to I would wind up in "snap city". I say good on you if you can keep pushing the personal records.

From my personal experience, arm growth once you are past the 18" measurement, the "gains" come slow, very slow. I think I am still seeing arm growth, but it is real slow. Again, consistency is the key.

After years of weightlifting, I discovered that my testosterone levels were very low. I am working on addressing what is causing this with naturally sorting out what is going on and as I do this, I believe it is paying dividends with new growth.

All the best!
 
Good to hear from you again Totentanz.

I've been away from the board for several months, so I may have missed some point...why aren't you deadlifting anymore?
 
I also wanted to ask how you found being at the weight of 255lbs? The biggest I got was around 220lbs and with daily life, I just felt like it was taxing on my system. I felt like my heart worked a bit harder and I had less energy etc. I dropped back to 205lbs and am now currently at around 212-213lbs. I am slowly dropping some weight again, because I just tend to feel better at around the 205lbs mark.

Just curious - Thanks.
 
I'm not deadlifting mainly because I lift before work, and deadlifting can be quite time consuming for me. I have to do so many warmups. So if I were going to deadlift, I probably wouldn't be able to do much else and still leave in time to go to work. But also because I just don't really care to deadlift right now. Maybe once I get a halfway decent bench press then I'll start working on my deads again.

As for bodyweight, my body is fairly accustomed to being around 220-230. I can move around easily enough at that weight. This close to 260, I do have a hard time getting my shoes on without getting a head rush sometimes and I notice my arms go numb during the night occasionally. Definitely can't move around as fast as I could when I was 30 lbs lighter. Eventually, my body will get used to the extra weight. I went through this years ago when I first bulked up to the 230 lb range and it got better after a while. This time doesn't seem as bad but I have been doing cardio, not sure if that helps or not.
 
Thanks for the welcome. For sure I still like the deadlift and would definitely do them if I were lifting after work. However, my work schedule is getting changed to four days a week, working 10 hour days Weds through Saturday instead of 8 hours a week Monday through Friday. Since I'll have an extra day off, I may start deadlifting on one of the days I'm not working. We'll see what happens. If I do start deadlifting again, I'll likely not program them into my HST routine and just do them outside the routine.

I went ahead and started my routine today and did the following:

Squats 225x10 315x15, 10
Flat Bench 135x10 160x20, 11
Row 210x20, 10
Pulldown 150x23, 7
Military Press 100x30
CGBP 135x15, 12
Curl 90x23, 10

A lot of the loads felt very light but this is the first day and I only used calculated 5 RMs to plot out the cycle rather than testing individual RMs for each lift. I could adjust but I'm not going to. I also decided to cut calories back for the first couple weeks to minimize weight gain until I get to heavier loads. Whether this will hurt my recovery or not, we will see.
It might be worth noting that for rest between clusters, I just did fifteen deep breaths rather than any sort of time count.
 
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Hey Tot'z, really good to see you posting again and to hear you've been getting back to some regular lifting.
Hope things are working out better for you now. That's some sick squatting as you start off again. :)
All the best with your benching goal.
 
I wasn't able to keep logging due to the site being down. I decided the fat gain was getting a little out of hand, so have started calorie cycling for the next couple months. On one hand, my Doctor is pissed. She wanted me to cut down to around 200 lbs. Last time I went in, I was around 215, so when I went in to the office at 258, she was a bit disappointed. On the other hand, my pants were getting a little tight, so I figured I should cut down a bit before I start bulking again some September or so.
I'm under-eating four days out of the week when I'm at work since I'm just sitting all day. Weight has dropped pretty quickly. I'm getting ~1500 calories, 200 grams of which is protein then whatever fats and carbs on work days, then around 2500 or so on the days I'm off work.

I've been lifting or doing cardio every single day. So far, I still feel good. I do get tired my last day of work, but I sleep extra on my days off to make up for it. I'm working out fasted, so I've been taking it kind of slow with the progression and not pushing the reps quite as hard. I try to get between 20-30 reps for each muscle group except legs, give or take. Seriously thinking about swapping the squats out for leg press, or just dropping them. Squats in the AM on an empty stomach suck and my excuse is that the cardio is enough for the legs.

Today was this:
Squats 225x8 365x10, 8
Flat Bench 135x10 205x15, 9
Row 235x13, 10
Pulldown 180x16, 7
Military Press 165x12, 8
CGBP 155x15, 15
Curl 130x12, 6

Tomorrow is cardio. I basically just run or jog on the elliptical because I'm afraid the treadmills will break when I run. I go from whenever I arrive at the gym until 6:50 AM when I have to get dressed for work in order to get to work on time. Usually ends up being 4 or 5 miles.
 
40 minutes steady state cardio on the elliptical. I must be tired today, I only got 3.8 miles.
BW was 238 lb today but I got less than 50 grams of carbs the last two days along with lifting, so that's probably a bit misleading.
 
Re: bench issues; all I can figure is that you're either way up in your head, or need to lock the scapula and upper back in place more effectively.

Insane OHP.
 
I wish I had legs like yours. Insane curls too. I assume you're doing these in the rack, seeing that's probably as much as some people are squatting with? ;)
 
I don't know what exactly my problem is with benching. I may need to seek out some coaching on it some day, at least if I ever want to actually compete. I do have long arms, which I guess might be somewhat of a hindrance. But if I use the Hammer Strength Bench thing, I can load it up with like eight 45s and get a few reps, so obviously it is a technique/form issue. I guess I could try taking some videos to post.

Haha, I actually was doing the curls in the rack because they don't have any good floor space for leaving the bar on the floor and I don't feel like picking the bar up for every set. But as early as I lift, it's rare that anyone else needs the rack. May have to drop the curls as my elbows have been feeling a little funny when doing them the last few sessions. I don't have any pain other than that though, so who knows. Maybe it's because I'm using a regular olympic bar, because the EZ curl bars piss off my wrists. I have been trying pinwheel curls with DBs occasionally and those feel fine, so might be time to swap out.

Did cardio yesterday because I didn't feel like lifting. Today was:

Incline Bench 135x10 185x10, 10
Shrugs 325x15, 10
Pulldown 180x15, 8
Military Press 165x10, 10
CGBP 165x13, 10
Pinwheel Curls 45x15, 8 - these really fried my forearms
Leg Press 380 x 18, 12

Leg Press was just a guess for the load. I really hate adding up the plates without the 45 lbs for the bar. My brain just automatically adds the bar in when counting how many 45s I've put on. I'll have to work on breathing while doing them, got rather dizzy near the end of the 18 reps.
 
Suggest adding in RDLs if regular deads are too intensive schedule wise.


I'm working out at 5am ish each week day right now, deads on all bar Wed, and incentive adapted they're no biggie.
 
Totentanz said:
I wasn't able to keep logging due to the site being down. I decided the fat gain was getting a little out of hand, so have started calorie cycling for the next couple months. On one hand, my Doctor is pissed. She wanted me to cut down to around 200 lbs. Last time I went in, I was around 215, so when I went in to the office at 258, she was a bit disappointed. On the other hand, my pants were getting a little tight, so I figured I should cut down a bit before I start bulking again some September or so.
I'm under-eating four days out of the week when I'm at work since I'm just sitting all day. Weight has dropped pretty quickly. I'm getting ~1500 calories, 200 grams of which is protein then whatever fats and carbs on work days, then around 2500 or so on the days I'm off work.

I've been lifting or doing cardio every single day. So far, I still feel good. I do get tired my last day of work, but I sleep extra on my days off to make up for it. I'm working out fasted, so I've been taking it kind of slow with the progression and not pushing the reps quite as hard. I try to get between 20-30 reps for each muscle group except legs, give or take. Seriously thinking about swapping the squats out for leg press, or just dropping them. Squats in the AM on an empty stomach suck and my excuse is that the cardio is enough for the legs.

Today was this:
Squats 225x8 365x10, 8
Flat Bench 135x10 205x15, 9
Row 235x13, 10
Pulldown 180x16, 7
Military Press 165x12, 8
CGBP 155x15, 15
Curl 130x12, 6

Tomorrow is cardio. I basically just run or jog on the elliptical because I'm afraid the treadmills will break when I run. I go from whenever I arrive at the gym until 6:50 AM when I have to get dressed for work in order to get to work on time. Usually ends up being 4 or 5 miles.
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This may not be a welcomed comment, but I can kind of see where your Doctor is coming from... The fluctuations in weight are just not good for you. I don't know how you go with being at 258lbs. Biggest I got was 220lbs (I am 5ft-11inches). I was told that I was too big and I started to feel out of breath and somewhat lethargic. My cholesterol and triglycerides went off the Richter as well. I dropped down to 205lbs after this and have tried to keep this as my goal weight. I feel a whole lot better being around 205lbs. My cholesterol and triglycerides are evening out again too. Currently I am probably hovering around the 212 - 213lbs mark and am not happy with this. My pants are not tight or anything (shirts all are, so most muscle is being added to arms, shoulders and chest), but I do want to get things back down to the 205lbs mark. I will very slowly come down in weight. Nothing drastic or extreme. I know that you are taller and everything, but wow... Those fluctuations in weight cannot be good... If it were me, I would ease up on the calories and maybe ease up a bit on the intensities of cardio and working out. Just my opinion...
 
I appreciate the concern. However, for what it's worth, I do track my cholesterol, triglycerides and etc on a regular basis with my doctor. Everything is in the healthy regions. From what I've read, cholesterol is influenced a lot by genetics and some people are just totally screwed on that front. I seem to be fairly well blessed in that area as it doesn't seem to matter what I do with my diet, my numbers always come back good. The only issue is that my blood pressure is a little higher than what they consider optimal, but nowhere near the level to where they would want to put me on blood pressure medication. And I do take daily medication that one of the primary side effects is increased blood pressure, so that's most likely the culprit. By the way, my resting heart rate is right around 45 bpm these days, which my doctor seems to think is amazing. So all signs seem to indicate that I am in great health except for the BMI scale.

Obviously increased weight is harder on the body. I've never questioned that, I just honestly don't care. I'm not happy with my body when I'm too close to 200 lbs. And at this point in my life, I don't much care what other people think is best for me and my body. Since she is my doctor, I do take her opinion into account but also, she is basically required to suggest anyone over a certain BMI tries to lose weight. But the idea of what the proper weight is and what the correct BMI is has all been based on the general population - so called "normal" people. I'm not exactly an average or "normal" person. So when she goes on about how this and that indicator are all great and in the healthy range, but then finishes that up by saying "but you need to lose weight" - well, it's not very convincing. Whatever feedback she gives me is still just her medical opinion (based on facts, yes) and so is just input that I use to determine what I am going to do.

With regards to training - I have always been one to push until I find the limits and I haven't hit that yet, so I'm going to keep going. The worst thing that can happen is I will eventually overtrain myself and have to take a week or two off. But after spending a couple decades on my feet almost all day, running/walking all the time, I still feel like I'm doing less overall activity now that I'm working a desk job than in my previous career. In fact, I've considered going to the gym after work as well as before, but it might be hard to fit that into my schedule.
 
Jester said:
Home gym it again.

Best fitness/training/gym decision I've made.
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Ditto, albeit I could do with more equipment but I can train as often as I want to and my training has been very consistent since starting training at home, and no one is curling in the squat rack [emoji2]
 
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