Lol's New HST Log

Tue 30/09/08

5th week UD2, Depletion day 2:

Got my fancy schmancy kitchen scales today. Finally, I can figure out 'exactly' how much I'm eating and get my cals more under control.

Pre-workout Protein drink:
110ml orange juice -
35g whey - 138 cals
5g creatine
1g Vit C powder
Water

Post-workout meal:
200g chicken breast - 330 cals
80g Onion + capsicum - 50 cals, 8g carbs
A few sprinkles of spices - 20 cals?, 5g carbs?
125g semi-skim milk - 65 cals, 6g carbs
Total: 465 cals. 19g carbs

SLDLs: 1 x 15 x 90kg, 2 x 15 x 110kg (242lb) - these were surprisingly hard

Bench: 15 x 60kg, 4 x 15 x 70kg, 12 x 70kg - finally ran out of steam.

Ring Pull-ups: 10,5,5,5,5 - these were ridiculously hard tonight. I just had no strength.

Upright Rows: 2 x 15 x 41kg, 25 x 41kg (90lb) - a bit too easy really so repped out on the last set for a good burn.

EZ-bar Curls: 15,12 x 41kg (90lb) - arms felt dead

Some ab work on the rings.

I had planned to do front squats too but just felt wiped after that little lot so called it a night.

==============================

Wildman, I've always had a penchant for pull-overs too and I've really missed them. My right shoulder used to give me trouble but after all the dislocates I've been doing my shoulder flexibility has improved a great deal. I didn't get any right shoulder pain performing them although the weights on the left hand side always wanted to reach the ground first; trying to get both sides to touch at the same time felt really odd so there's definitely an unevenness I need to work on. I used to use a heavy db so never noticed the problem then.

Your story reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Izzy Mandelbaum (Lloyd Bridges), his son and his dad all compete with Jerry to see who can lift the most. All the Mandelbaums proceed to pop their backs! Wish I could have been there to see the pull-over dude.  
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Izzy Mandelbaum
 
Wed 01/10/08

BW:195.75lb - Goal achieved and beaten by 1/4lb! Weighed myself several times just to be sure.

I should be pleased. I am to a degree but I thought I would be leaner than I am after dropping down from 220+. Admittedly, it's a depletion day again and I weighed myself pre-lunch but also pre-dump! My chart shows a pretty steady decrease since May.

Here's the chart to date:

lols_weight_loss_chart_08.jpg


It's been an interesting experience thus far. I have decided to keep it up for the rest of October (at least) and then I'll probably have a week off and eat at maintenance (or a little bit over) while I let my joints rest up a bit.

==============================

@ Totz: Re cardio: Yeah, Lyle's pretty keen on cardio on Wednesday's and Thursday am. I thought I'd leave it out for as long as possible and see how things went. Now I have an extra weapon to use in the war against my fat. Did my first proper cardio session before lunch today: 35 mins of gentle jogging. I expect I'll have to build that up to an hour in the weeks to come.

No training scheduled for today but might do some depletions for calves as I have neglected them so far and will probably put my lad through a workout.
 
Awesome results Lol. I always read your logs and never quite have much to say. You seem to really have a great grasp on this sport. We are all very lucky to have you posting here.

P.S.

Have you and nkl been conspiring on these chart thingies? I am starting feel like my plain old logs are going to need some sprucing up now. I think Ill choose a pie chart though. I like pie.
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(Lol @ Oct. 01 2008,10:09)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">BW:195.75lb - Goal achieved and beaten by 1/4lb! Weighed myself several times just to be sure.</div>
Excellent! Congratulations, you skinny bloke!

Time for a picture...!

You'll find that fancy shmancy scale to be of great value as you ween yourself off your cutting diet. Proper portions will help keep you from gaining an inordinate amount of fat back again.
 
<div>
(TunnelRat @ Oct. 01 2008,8:18)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Time for a picture...!

You'll find that fancy shmancy scale to be of great value as you ween yourself off your cutting diet. Proper portions will help keep you from gaining an inordinate amount of fat back again.</div>
Again I say, &quot;Be careful what you wish for!&quot;
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I may well take another vid at the weekend after I've carbed up. I need to see if I can still get 5 x 140kg for my back squat. Missed them out last week so I am expecting them to be very hard this week.

The scales are excellent but I am having to take extra time over all the food weighing and entering into FitDay's database. (Should get a lot easier in a week or two when I've got more of a handle on my daily consumption and can just select foods from my ready made lists.) It's already shown up that I have been consuming more cals than I thought; I'm tending to take in more fats then I really should and less protein than I really need. I was surprised that I put ~55g of milk in a mug of tea. If I have 6 cups a day that's an extra 160 cals I wouldn't have even considered before. It's not much in a day but it's an extra 1120 cals in a week.
 
Thurs 02/10/08

5th Week UD2: Tension workout

Had 30g of carbs in my pre-workout protein drink. Wow! That was a lot more than I had last week and I felt better for it.

Squats: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 90kg, 10 x 110kg (242lb), 2 x 10 x 120kg (264lb)

Front Squats: 1 x 120kg (264lb) - I was going to try a double but decided against it. I was a bit too fatigued from the back squats but at least a single went up OK.

Bench: 10 x 60kg, 2 x 10 x 90kg (198lb) - slight improvement over last week.

Parallel-grip Chins: 10 x bw+10kg - right arm still unhappy

Chins: 10 x bw+10kg - ditto

Dips: 10 x bw+25kg, 2 x 10 x bw+30kg (66lb)

EZ-bar Pull-overs: 2 x 10 x 41kg (90lb) - last few reps were pretty hard. Still building up strength on these.

EZ-bar Press: 2 x 10 x 46kg, 12 x 51kg (112lb) - pretty light but my shoulder joints are sore as heck.

EZ-bar curls: 15 x 46kg (101lb), 10 x 51kg (112lb)

And so to carb...

1100g over the next 24 hours! As I've had only about 200g all week so far, this is a blast! Just had two bananas in my post-workout shake (with two eggs, a pint of low-fat milk, and two scoops of whey), a bowl of cereal, a papadum, chicken tikka, a salad and some yoghurt. Awesome. It's now two hours after my workout and I feel like a furnace has been ignited inside me; I'm feeling hot without a hot drink for the first time this week. Hope I can sleep.
 
04/10/08

5th Week UD2: Heavy Day

BW: 196lb - up just 1/2 a pound which, after all the eating I've done the last few days, is amazing.

Didn't have a lot of time today so only about half my workout got done.

Bench: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 90kg, 5,5,4 x 100kg (220lb), 4,3,4,4 x 102.5kg (225lb) - Uh oh! Didn't make 5 reps on the third set with 100kg. Think I would have failed if I had tried. So put the weight up a bit and kicked my butt! I'll get 5 x 5 again next week.

Dips: 30 x bw, 15 x bw+15kg - quick erk1/2 blast!

Parallel-grip chins: 3 x 6 x bw+15kg, 12 x bw - right arm not too bad for these which made a change.

A bit of ab work.

Will try to get the rest done tomorrow.
 
05/10/08

Continuation from yesterday but only got around to doing a few squats:

Squats: 10 x 60, 5 x 110kg, 3 x 130kg, 2 x 5 x 140kg (308lb), 5 x 130kg (286lb) - second work set felt pretty hard and my hips were feeling a little sore so dropped the load back for the final set.

Back to low carbs and depletions again tomorrow.
 
Mon 06/10/08

6th Week UD2: Light Depletion Day

My shoulders have taken a real hammering over the last few weeks - not so much my delts or rotator cuff muscles, but the joints themselves. I think being on a reduced cal diet also makes it tougher for joint recovery. My hips are noticeably sore if I have to walk anywhere. Thankfully, a good warm-up helps.

I have decided to try doing sets of 25 reps or thereabouts for the first day of depletions. This will turn my workout into more of a Crossfit type WOD although I'm not going to be pushing immediately from one exercise to the next (my metcon is not great and I could do without feeling nauseous all evening). This higher-rep workout may help my joints recover a little. Tomorrow I'll do 15s.

So my new training regimen for UD2 will be:

Mon: 25s
Tue: 15s
Wed: Cardio
Thu: 10s
Sat:  5s

I may add a bit of cardio in on Thursday morning if I get a chance.

Today I got some time to do some ring work during the day - another reason why my shoulders are taking a hammering. I managed 15 deep dips. I can now handle L-sit pull-ups and dips and I'm working on getting a front and back lever. Great ab/core workout too.

For three rounds as a circuit:

Squats: 3 x 25 x 60kg (132lb)

Push-ups: 3 x 30 x bw - chest to floor. I measured how much load is on my hands doing a push-up: 130lb.

Rows: 30 x 41kg (90lb), 30 x 51kg (112lb), 30 x 61kg (134lb) - last set was about the correct weight

Press: 20 x 41kg (90lb), 2 x 25 x 31kg (68lb)

Then added these on the end:

EZ-bar Cross-bench Pull-overs: 2 x 20 x 31kg (68lb) - abs still sore from the last time I did these.

EZ-bar Curls: 2 x 25 x 31kg (68lb) - Great burn and great pump.

Felt a bit pukey after the second round so took a bit longer over the last round. I definitely prefer doing depletions this way.

Macros eaten today:

Protein: 170g
Fat: 113g
Carbs: 72.7g

Total Cals: 1,964
 
<div>
(Lol @ Oct. 06 2008,6:13)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">My shoulders have taken a real hammering over the last few weeks - not so much my delts or rotator cuff muscles, but the joints themselves. I think being on a reduced cal diet also makes it tougher for joint recovery.</div>
Maybe try an extra 8 or 10 fish oil capsules daily, if that won't interfere with your diet...
 
TR hit it on the head there bud. A nice glucosamine / fish oil cocktail might be in order. The fish oil should be immediate relief but the darn glucosamine seems to take a few weeks of doses to hit me. I cycle the stuff myself and started it in the second week of tens this time.
 
Tue 07/10/08

I hear you folks re fish oils etc. I have a pot full of capsules but they nearly choke me to death when I try to take them so I have to cut them open and drink the stuff. It's not even horrid so in future I'm just going to get a liquid fish oil supply. I also have an omega-3,6,9 liquid oil supp.

6th Week UD2: Light Depletion Day 2

Couldn't start my workout until after midnight so I knew it was going to feel hard. No circuit tonight, just consecutive sets of each exercise:

Squats: 25, 30 x 135lb - No rest at all between any reps and no full lockout. Last 5 reps of second set were killer.

Dips: 30,25,25 x bw - starting to feel pukey now

Parallel-grip chins: 15, 12 x bw - quite slow and strict

Chins: 20 x bw - faster and with a bit of body-language towards the end but not a kip. If I place my hands quite close together my right forearm complains less.

EZ-bar Press: 30, 25, 25 x 31kg (68lb) - this felt ridiculously light when I first picked it up but then after 15 reps it suddenly got hard.

Couldn't face any more tonight. I was supposed to use heavier loads tonight but couldn't face that either. I also now can't remember whether I did three sets of squats or only two so I've just recorded two. Although my carbs haven't been quite as low as Lyle suggests you can go for UD2 depletion days (~50g), I'm definitely suffering from the effects mentally!

Macros today:

Protein: 183g
Fat: 116g
Carbs: 61g

Today's Cals: 2,004
 
Wed 08/10/08

BW: 195lb - lowest on this cut so far. I am starving!

Just for a laugh, I got out my Accu-Measure Fitness 3000 caliper gizmo and took a suprailliac skinfold measurment as per instructions: 5mm (took it lots of times). Well, if I look at the supplied chart, 5mm equates with a 9.2% bf for my age group (41-45). Yeah right! If it is that then I'll eat my dip belt! I'm pretty sure it's more like 12%.

Can anyone recommend a good website to help me get a better bodyfat estimate based on multiple skinfold readings taken at various sites?

How much does age really play a part in the calcs? From what I can see from the supplied chart, the same 5mm reading for an 18 year old would equate with 4% bf and for a 56 year old it would indicate around 13% bf.

[Oh, I did some more ring work today and a quick set of 30 reps for squats with 60kg (132lb) to make up for yesterday's missed set. Forgot to do any cardio so I'll have to do some in the morning.]
 
<div>
(Lol @ Oct. 08 2008,8:44)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Can anyone recommend a good website to help me get a better bodyfat estimate based on multiple skinfold readings taken at various sites?

How much does age really play a part in the calcs? From what I can see from the supplied chart, the same 5mm reading for an 18 year old would equate with 4% bf and for a 56 year old it would indicate around 13% bf.</div>
Try this site if you have an Accumeasure 3000. It shows how and where to do skinfolds.

Then try this site to plug in the numbers.

I use the 3-site calculations.

Age is a factor, because it is assumed that the older you are the more visceral fat you have. It does not take into consideration that you might be a bodybuilder. Bodybuilders do well to subtract five or ten years from their age for this calculation.
 
Thanks very much TR. That's exactly what I was looking for.

If I do the 3-site reading (Chest, Abdominal, Thigh) and put 35 in for my age rather than 43, I get just under 11.5%. With my true age entered it comes out at 12.3% which I reckon is nearer to the truth.

I think getting this way of taking a reading to come out at 10% should be my new goal.

In order to get to sub-10% levels I'll have to lose around a further 3-4lb of fat. That doesn't sound too bad at all. I have barely done any cardio as yet so I might make that by the end of this month if I take it up a notch.  
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You skinny boys and your caliper toys...

The progress is awesome Lol. This log has been a real inspiration for me. One of these days I gotta get my big butt motivated to losing some of this. I still plan on trying a bit of a cut in the spring. I am not sure I got the stuff for a more measured approach but I have no goals of being sub 10% either. I just want to get down to 280#. I feel and look pretty good at that weight.
 
Thurs 09/10/08

@Wildman: Yeah, ha ha. I wouldn't admit to owning them anywhere but here! If I was ever somehow able to get up to 280 I'd make Mike Mentzer look like a pencil neck! I'm glad my log has been an encouragement to you. Kinda makes it more worthwhile but it's good for me to keep a record anyway.

Dropped cals today to just under 700 prior to 10pm workout. Did a bit of cardio and some more core work on the rings earlier in the day. Thought I'd pulled my abs near my rib cage but I think they're just really sore from all the recent ring work and pull-overs.

30g of carbs from fresh orange juice and 35g whey protein plus creatine as my pre-workout protein drink.

Squats: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 90kg, 10 x 110kg (242lb), 10, 12 x 120kg (264lb) - bit better than last week and with one less pound of body weight too! I might have pushed for 15 reps if I hadn't had the rest of my workout to think about. Almost no waiting between reps - just had to adjust my right foot placing a couple of times (I hate it when that happens).

Bench: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 80kg (176lb), 10, 10 x 90kg (198lb) - a bit more work than last week as I added in 5 reps with 80kg.

Bent-over EZ-bar Rows 10 x 61kg (134lb), 10 x 91kg (200lb), 15 x 81kg (178lb) - second set felt too hard so dropped it down for last set… a bit too much though!

Dips: 15 x bw, 15, 12 x bw+30kg (66lb)

Parallel-grip Chins: 10 x bw+15kg - that was a fight!

Chins: 10 x bw+15kg - still can't drop all the way down to a dead hang with my hands fully supinated as my right arm still complains if I do.

EZ-bar Upright Rows: 15 x 31kg, 15 x 41kg, 15 x 51kg (112lb), 10+5MS x 56kg (123lb) - extra Max-Stim reps to keep delts on the edge of tetany for a few more reps. Shoulder joints still feel a bit stiff but a lot better than last week.

EZ-bar curls: 5+5MS x 56kg (123lb) - first five got hard pretty quickly so switched to MS reps to finish up.

No direct tri work but they were pretty fried after the dips. Couldn't do pull-overs as my abs are just too sore.

Carb-up time again. How the weeks do fly when you're having fun!
 
<div>
(Lol @ Oct. 08 2008,9:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I think getting this way of taking a reading to come out at 10% should be my new goal.

In order to get to sub-10% levels I'll have to lose around a further 3-4lb of fat. That doesn't sound too bad at all. I have barely done any cardio as yet so I might make that by the end of this month if I take it up a notch.</div>
Tom Venuto wrote in Burn the Fat -- Feed the Muscle that an optimal percentage for non-athletes is 10 - 14%. Competitive male body builders may drop as low as 3 - 5% for competitions, then increase to 8 - 10% in the off-season.

I suspect you'll find reaching 10% (or even single-digits!) is a reasonable and obtainable goal.
 
11/10/08

6th Week UD2: Heavy Day

Bit of a train wreck tonight.

Upper abs still tender. When I was warming up for my squats, my hips were stiff and my legs felt pretty sore still.

Squats: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 90kg, 3 x 110kg, 5, 1 x  140kg (308lb)

Darn, even the 110kg warm-ups felt heavy. Then I did my first work set which felt like blimey hell! I put the rack safety bars in for the second set just in case and then I whacked the bar into them on the way down which really unbalanced me. I decided to stop there.

Bench: 10 x 60kg, 5 x 90kg, 5,5,5,4 x 100kg (220lb) - the last 4 reps were all paused on chest contact before driving the bar up. Didn't try for a fifth. The first work set was tough but the others didn't really get any harder; in fact, the second set was performed slightly better. Abs bugging me a bit.

Parallel-grip chins: warm-ups then 3 x bw+20kg (44lb) - Uh oh! Apart from my usual right arm pain I had pain in my left upper abdominal area. It was getting worse each rep and by the third I decided to stop. The area is now quite sore to the touch so I think I have strained it slightly. I figured it was better to stop before any really sharp pain. I hope a few days resting it as much as possible will allow it to heal enough to resume chins. I'll probably have to avoid ring work and pull-overs next week.

EZ-bar Bent-over Rows: 10 x 56kg, 5 x 81kg (178lb), 5 x 91kg (200lb), 3 x 5 x 101kg (222lb), 5 x 106kg (233lb) - last set was a bit too much and my form got a bit sloppy on the last two reps.

SLDL: 10, 15 x 106kg (233lb) - easy, but just to finish up after rows.

Decided to stop there.

All in all, I'm pretty cheesed about tonight's effort. It's pretty depressing and frustrating that trying to trim a bit of fat causes so much strength to drop off. It's not like I'm really lean yet either. How much strength will I have to lose to get to sub-10% levels I wonder? Right now, if I could take something to give me a boost I probably would. It's possible that my squats tonight were rubbish partly because I overdid it a bit on Thursday. I may have another go at them tomorrow.

If my squat strength drops off again this coming week I think I'll have a couple of weeks eating just over maintenance and try to grab some strength back with two weeks of progressive 5s. Then I'll go back to another month of UD2.

Stuffed my face after my workout to cheer myself up, so this week's dieting was probably for nothing anyway.

Heigh-ho.
 
I've had some time to think about this.

Re squats: The fact that I managed to hit the safety bars so hard in the position that used to be fine for a full ROM when I was a fatty means that I am now getting a bit lower in the hole; I have less fat getting in the way and therefore my ROM has increased. Effectively, my squat has become a little harder as I've leaned out. I wouldn't have thought about taking this into consideration but it's got to be part of the reason that it's been getting harder to complete sets of 5 with 140kg. That's good news really.

With UD2 I'm doing high-rep, full-body depletion workouts on Monday and Tuesday; on Thursday I'm effectively doing a 10RM full-body workout but avoiding failure; on Saturday it's my only heavy full-body workout of the week.

I want to see if I can do something to help me maintain strength while I continue on this cut. I've decided to try adding in some heavy singles before doing the high rep stuff for each of the Mon and Tue depletion workouts (an idea I got from Mikeynov's log). I'll do this for different exercises on each of the two days.

For some of my main compound exercises, I'll warm up to a heavy single (&gt;5RM) and then drop the load back down for a few sets of 15-25 reps. As I squat two days in a row I'll only warm up to a heavy single on one of the days. If I do dips and bench both days, I'll chose one each day to warm up to a heavy single - ie. If on Mon I do a heavy bench, on Tue I'll do a heavy dip.

Psychologically, I think it will be better for me to get under a heavy bar more than once a week. There may also be a strength maintenance effect from the mechanotransduction and potential p38 signalling even though the stimulus will not be that high because TUT will be short. So whilst there may not be much of a growth stimulus it may be enough to help maintain size while on reduced cals during the depletion days. I thought it would be worth a try just to see if there is any noticeable effect.

Of course, I may just get more worn out, in which case I'll take a break for a week and eat at maintenance. I haven't had a break since April or May. I was hoping to get through this cut without one but, now I've decided to drop body fat further than my original goal, a week off might be a good idea.
 
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