Slapshotz' SST journal

Congrats man, great progress, this really sounds like the dream bulk!

Do you count calories?

I wonder if you didn't end up doing something in the way of a cyclical diet, instinctually?

I have a friend who is a trainer, and he poo poos cutting and bulking entirely. He eats at roughly maintenance all the time.

About once or twice a year, he gets rapid recomp effects. His weight will remain unchanged, but all of a sudden he'll be packing 2-3 lbs more muscle and 2-3 lbs less fat.

Given the ideas of Alan Aragon and others, this makes sense. I guess you can bulk/cut and if you do everything ideally, hope to make net gains faster.

Or you can "culk" and over a year, for example, hope to gain 6 lbs muscle and lose a few lbs of fat.

I guess the question will be, can you reproduce these effects, and how fast?

I'm staying tuned!
 
LOL wrote:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Certainly, for me, if I added six pounds of muscle I would expect to be measurably stronger in my main compounds. If you were leaner then it might be due to changes in water retention, bone mass, tendons, ligaments, fascia, possible viscera enlargement, or perhaps thicker skin! I think our ears continue to grow as we age so that might account for a few grams too.</div>

yeah, maybe it's the added ear hair that I've noticed, although the loss of the hair on my head should more than offset that
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And I love the JUDPUPs acronym.  It is now forever in my training vocabulary, copyright LOL, 2008!!  It doesn't sound like much on paper, but they really wiped me out, so I guess they did something good.

Q-dood wrote:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I've haven't had time or energy for cardio. Need to get some of that soon</div>

Ah, heck, why'd you wanna be skinny like me, anyway?  As you often opine, if we're ever in battle, guys like me will be taking shelter behind guys like you
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I used to drill you about the &quot;no cardio&quot; thing, but let's face it, you have a physical job and a pacemaker to boot.  Cardio shouldn't be anything more than an afterthought for you, and I mean that sincerely.  I know it upsets you to not do cardio, but really, I think you're just fine without it given your day to day activity level.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Congrats man, great progress, this really sounds like the dream bulk!
Do you count calories?
I wonder if you didn't end up doing something in the way of a cyclical diet, instinctually?</div>

Thanks for the props! yes, it was the dream bulk, but like a lot of great things in life, it was totally unplanned and unexpected.

I actually don't count calories, per se, but I do count carb grams and keep them at a modest 100 to 150 grams per day for most days.

If I did consciously diet at all, the only thing I did was to be sure to eat a bit less when I was going through my sinus issues b/c I couldn't work out at all, and I didn't want to get fat.

I think the most surprising thing of all this is how ill I felt for such a long stretch, and even with those suboptimal conditions, sleeping patterns, etc., my body managed to do what it did.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of coming with a whole new (and easier!) way of gaining lean mass, and if it helps the guys around here make some real gains, that's icing on the cake.

Training highlights from last session:

Bench press - 245 - 1
400 meter sprint / wind sprints
surfing
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Not much, but my legs are still sore, so I'm going to try for deadlifts tomorrow. I have a killer work schedule coming up, and tomorrow may be my last day to hit the gym until Saturday.
 
Highlights for...
Deadlift day

Over/under strapless deads - 415 x 1
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Over/under strapless deads - 275 x 8
3/4 rapid-fire chins - 25

NOTES: I&quot;m only 40 pounds from all new PBs in the deads, my old mark of 455 was set using straps. If I can best my old PR sometime this fall, I'll be very proud. Following up after the 415 set, the 275 seemed nice 'n light at first, and I managed to do 8 of them, which I think is a PB for that weight, but I could be wrong.
 
Fantastic Slapz! Pushing the loads back up and without straps this time is a real achievement. I'm counting on you getting a strapless PR!
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Slapz, congrats on your progress.  It's always great seeing the correlation between methodology and real results.

One question for you...what was your daily protein intake?   From my own experimentation, I'm beginning to question the $$ spent on supplementation to maintain 1 gm/lb.
 
Lol wrote:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Fantastic Slapz! Pushing the loads back up and without straps this time is a real achievement. I'm counting on you getting a strapless PR! </div>
Thank you kindly, lol...it's been a loooooong time between PRs , so this would be really nice for sure!

Omega wrote:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Slapz, congrats on your progress. It's always great seeing the correlation between methodology and real results.
One question for you...what was your daily protein intake? From my own experimentation, I'm beginning to question the $$ spent on supplementation to maintain 1 gm/lb.</div>

Thanks, Omega! Hmm, I just did the quick calc in my head, and most days I was @ 100 to 130 grams, significantly less than 1g/pd. The vast majority of my intake, believe it or not, is healthy fats. The olive oil in my nightly salad alone is about 700 calories!
 
<div>
(colby2152 @ Jul. 30 2008,9:57)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Five tablespoons of olive oil?  Nice slapz!
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</div>
Let's just say...better not interfere with my morning dash to the bathroom!!!
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<div>
(Slapshotz @ Jul. 12 2008,2:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">              March 8                   July 12
BW.........162.2......................168.8
BF...........8.6%.......................8.2%

LBM gain - 6.7 pounds!!!
Fat loss - .4 pounds
</div>
Slapz, another question about your progress.  I realize you weren't on an HST program, but did you take any body measurements to determine size gains?  I'm really inclined to give the lower-frequency, higher-load program a try, but I'm mainly concerned with hypertrophy at this point.
 
<div>
(omega99 @ Jul. 30 2008,9:13)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Slapshotz @ Jul. 12 2008,2:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">              March 8                   July 12
BW.........162.2......................168.8
BF...........8.6%.......................8.2%

LBM gain - 6.7 pounds!!!
Fat loss - .4 pounds
</div>
Slapz, another question about your progress.  I realize you weren't on an HST program, but did you take any body measurements to determine size gains?  I'm really inclined to give the lower-frequency, higher-load program a try, but I'm mainly concerned with hypertrophy at this point.</div>
Hey, Omega. Unfortunately, no, no individual bodypart measurements, but if you're stil going to give this method a try, I would allocate 4 to 6 months to truly gage progress...just be sure to have all your ducks in a row:
-lifting heavy
-infrequent training (every other workout is either squats or deads)
-wind sprints and other high intensity cardio
-low carb intake / high protein, healthy fat intake

best of luck!
 
<div>
(Slapshotz @ Jul. 31 2008,6:49)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(omega99 @ Jul. 30 2008,9:13)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Slapshotz @ Jul. 12 2008,2:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">              March 8                   July 12
BW.........162.2......................168.8
BF...........8.6%.......................8.2%

LBM gain - 6.7 pounds!!!
Fat loss - .4 pounds
</div>
Slapz, another question about your progress.  I realize you weren't on an HST program, but did you take any body measurements to determine size gains?  I'm really inclined to give the lower-frequency, higher-load program a try, but I'm mainly concerned with hypertrophy at this point.</div>
Hey, Omega.  Unfortunately, no, no individual bodypart measurements, but if you're stil going to give this method a try, I would allocate 4 to 6 months to truly gage progress...just be sure to have all your ducks in a row:
-lifting heavy
-infrequent training (every other workout is either squats or deads)
-wind sprints and other high intensity cardio
-low carb intake / high protein, healthy fat intake

best of luck!</div>
Slapshotz,

Very nice job w/ the muscle gain and BF%.

A couple ?'s: How often do you train each muscle group (define infrequent)?

How often and how much volume of sprint work are you doing?

Again, way to go on the body recomp, especially from an already very lean condition.
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S
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Slapshotz,
Very nice job w/ the muscle gain and BF%.
A couple ?'s: How often do you train each muscle group (define infrequent)?
How often and how much volume of sprint work are you doing?
Again, way to go on the body recomp, especially from an already very lean condition</div>

hey, smf, thanks for the props!

it's really hard to quantify my frequency, b/c it's never a set schedule, but it kinda works like this...generally, I take 3 to 4 days in between lifting sessions, cardio in between. Since every other workout is deads/ squats, that means I'm hitting &quot;everything else&quot; once every two weeks, or even once a month sometimes! if I'm sore, I stay home or do cardio. I always want to be fully rested b/4 the next session.

I generally stay away from the &quot;peripheral&quot; exercises. I do squats, deads, pullups/chins, bench, dips, shrugs. That's pretty much it.

As far as sprinting, usually I do 10 to 15 minutes of 40-yard dash wind sprints, sometimes followed by a 400 meter run. Sometimes I go for an 85% THR run for @15 minutes beforehand, just for my overall &quot;heart&quot; health. Hope this info helps!

Anyhoo, onto the recent highlights.

Bench Press - 250 x 1

Barbbell Shrugs - 465 x 8

Notes: It's official, I'm about 40 pounds away on virtually all my lifts from new all time PRs. Dunno how many new ones I'm gonna crack, but I'm hopeful on the squats and deads.

Oh, and I'm playing football in 2 weeks. I know I said I wouldn't, but it's a scrimmage, and I can test the waters. I've been training for it, so at least I know all my training won't be for nothing if I play in just one game.
 
<div>
(quadancer @ Aug. 04 2008,10:55)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Good luck with those strapless deads man!
Straplessguy.jpg
</div>
Best damm photos on this forum, my man!!!

Miss ya posting more often big daddy..everything a-ok?
 
I've been busy elsewhere, learning all I can and building hydrogen assist units for our car and truck. Now into the electronics needed to make the computer stop correcting our additions. It's tricky, so I've been on a lot of other forums studying. Still working out as I can, every third day or so .
 
<div>
(quadancer @ Aug. 05 2008,8:44)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I've been busy elsewhere, learning all I can and building hydrogen assist units for our car and truck. Now into the electronics needed to make the computer stop correcting our additions. It's tricky, so I've been on a lot of other forums studying. Still working out as I can, every third day or so .</div>
hmmmm...check out this site...

http://www.genepax.co.jp/en/

Today I did cardio, wind sprints, and a 100 meter.

japanese car that runs entirely on water  
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quick update, I have decided to do a 2-week SD, where I'm going to do two or three total body workouts per week.

Simple formula, every exercise in the 15 to 20 rep range, NO major movements. For example, today was as follows:

bench machine
Lex xtns
Wide grip pulldowns
Leg curls
dumbbell shoulder press
calves
dips (well, okay, one major movement, but it's bw only)
Incline dumbbell curls

With the exception of dips, I don't consider any of the other movements to be major

The reason?  I have had big success lately in revving up the loads, and I'm gonna chill for a bit and let my bod completely recover before I enter the next push and hopefully set some new strength prs.

Oh, and I'm playing football sunday night.........wish me luck
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in the last week, I've done another full body session, along with two cardio sessions. One cardio session was in the gym, but today I actually ran outside
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AWESOME SESSION!
Here's the long &amp; short of it

Squats:  315 x 2

Squats:  325 x 1

Stiff deads:  225 x 8

Notes:  Well, I'm 25 pounds from my all time squat high (with better form), and it was pretty cool how easily 325 went up.  I probably should have tried for 335, but I want to ramp up slowly.  It seems I've had my best PR attempts off of layoffs, for what it's worth.  

It's the best of both worlds, really...I alter bodycomp with relentless squat, dead &amp; sprinting work, and then when I want to go for PRs, I take a layoff and come back rippin' it.  It's been SO FRIGGING LONG since I've set a true PR, I can't wait to get another one into the books...oh, so close, at least on squats.
 
Great job Slapz. I noticed that too, after a time off (around 2 weeks) I come back pretty strong.
 
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