Kaizen - Shazriki's log to continuous improvement [Archive] - Page 7

Shazriki

09-30-2011, 12:22 PM

fixed

100% correct, exactly (besides that minor thing I fixed lol), it can work for people with crappy motor control in those muscles, but honestly I'd rather do something like touch training to help them get a feel for those muscles, and maybe have them do cat camels and protraction/retraction while looking at a mirror next to them so they can develop the motor control, instead of just "tricking them" by having them look up, which ends up being a double edged sword.

On that note, do you think it's easier to feel out a movement if the person doing it has at some point in their lives experienced some pain in the musculature involved? I mean, if you look at most people who don't lift they probably do very little with their lower backs and it probably wouldn't be that intuitive to them to "push the back out" to create extra support - almost as if they didn't know the muscle was there to be controlled.

Nothing beats an easy chicken stir fry when there's not much time to cook :)

So true. It's also a matter of storage space, since I'm now sharing a fridge again I can only really hold 1-2 boxes of meat at a time so I see a lot of chicken and lean ground beef in my future hehe.

all good :) take your time. get to it when you get to it.

You've got mail ;)

Man I want to get LASEK eye surgery done so bad but it's pretty expensive, no? I mean if you can afford it by all means. I can't wear contacts because my eyes get too dry (one eye doc even recommend artificial tears...srsly?) and any type of frame feels too heavy and gives me headaches eventually. Foreverblind.jpeg. Anyway I came in to offer my noob advice on deads but I see Quelly popped in (best person anyone can get advice from on these boards IMO). Until I learned that I didn't have to hyperextend my back at the top, and that it was all about hip extension instead, that's when I learned how to drive up better with my back arched (not rounded). The rippetoe vids are seriously the best around.

Funnily enough LASEK is the cheaper of the two treatments the clinic I went to provides. But yes it is expensive and the only reason I CAN get it is because of a very generous insurance policy that my dad is covered under through his work. I currently wear contacts and don't have any problems except later in the day when I've had them in for many hours (they get a bit gritty). When I went to the consultation one of the things they did was actually to measure my eye moisture, so I guess they would do this if you went in (they put drops which taint the moisture in your eyes, makes your vision go an orange tint - psychedelic effect).

Thanks dude, Eric was hot on the trigger with the advice and he covered a bunch of good points. But I think I know what you mean: focusing on rotating the hips as opposed to constantly worrying about pushing the back out?

Quelly

09-30-2011, 12:57 PM

Trillios

09-30-2011, 02:19 PM

trillios means you don't need to lean back at the top, its just firing the hips through, really, all a proper deadlift is is a standing glute bridge when done properly.

And your question is weird...do i think people who've been hurt will have better motor control in the muscle they injured?

There are so many other things that could affect that, why did they get hurt? Is it because they have ****ty motor control in the first place? Did the injury actually reduce their motor control or alter their proprioception and recruitment after the fact?

A better answer would be, people who have better motor control have better motor control, this comes from gaining awareness of the movements and muscles involved in specific tasks, how one can get there is incrediblly varied. From working as a stocker at a grocery store, to high school athletics, to having an online bodybuilding coach lol

yes!

Shazriki

10-01-2011, 12:32 AM

Trillios means you don't need to lean back at the top, its just firing the hips through, really, all a proper deadlift is is a standing glute bridge when done properly.

And your question is weird...do I think people who've been hurt will have better motor control in the muscle they injured?

There are so many other things that could affect that, why did they get hurt? Is it because they have ****ty motor control in the first place? Did the injury actually reduce their motor control or alter their proprioception and recruitment after the fact?

A better answer would be, people who have better motor control have better motor control, this comes from gaining awareness of the movements and muscles involved in specific tasks, how one can get there is incrediblly varied. From working as a stocker at a grocery store, to high school athletics, to having an online bodybuilding coach lol

yes!

Got it.

and Eric my question had to do with simply feeling the muscle through soreness (for example) I wasn't saying that if you think people need to be injured to feel the muscle. I'm talking about say someone moving into a new house spending a day lifting boxes with an arched back and then feeling a back ache the next day being able to feel out the muscle better after that event. I suppose phrased another way my question would have been something like "can you use it to its full potential if you've never felt it before in some way" It being the muscle in this case.

Shazriki

10-01-2011, 12:56 AM

30 September 2011

Finally 100% unpacked so today was a fairly straightforward case of get up -> go to gym. After the workout had a few more admin things to take care of up at the university, once that was done I was able to head home and just relax for the rest of the day aside from hitting the supermarket for a few essentials later in the day.

Workout itself was good, but I definitely felt the fatigue generated from the last couple of days of constantly moving around. Set a new PR for squats, bench and rows but for squats I couldn't managed 5x3. Went down for the 4th rep on the last set and could not get out of the whole no matter how hard I tried. I'm not worried though, it's most likely just a recovery deficit so I'll just take it easy over the weekend and come back to it on monday. Even though I was smashed to pieces after squatting, benching and rows felt pretty easy, so that was good news.

Tonight there's a house party which I'll be going which I'm really lookig forward to, people that I haven't seen in over 6 months are going to be there, so a good catch up opportunity.

Morning weight 196 - new low

Well glad to see the weight down, especially considering it was a couple of days after a refeed, might even be a bit lower but we'll see what the next week holds.

~The Workout~

Squats 264 x 5 x 2, 3 PR
*
BB Bench Press 187 x 5 x 3 PR
*
BB row 187 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Standing Calf raises 242 x 8 + 4,4,4,4
*
Reverse hyperextensions 14, 13

I performed the reverse hypers on a bench simply to save time. I bumped into a couple of people I know at the gym and workout was taking a bit too long, then some bros were sitting on the leg curl, so I decided to just blast hams quickly with a bit of BW and then shoot.

~The Eats~

Sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and ground beef over baked beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20110930-IMGP0575.jpg

Tuna salad with a quark-based dressing

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20110930-IMGP0581.jpg

Fudge brownie proats with Caramel Nibbles

These work amazingly well in proats...

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20110930-IMGP0579.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20110930-IMGP0582.jpg

Macros 219P/353C/50F

Quelly

10-01-2011, 12:57 AM

Got it.

and Eric my question had to do with simply feeling the muscle through soreness (for example) I wasn't saying that if you think people need to be injured to feel the muscle. I'm talking about say someone moving into a new house spending a day lifting boxes with an arched back and then feeling a back ache the next day being able to feel out the muscle better after that event. I suppose phrased another way my question would have been something like "can you use it to its full potential if you've never felt it before in some way" It being the muscle in this case.

gotcha, I think a more practical way of getting someone better motor control and body awareness of a muscle group would be to do touch training, and activation training coupled with them watching themselves in a mirror while doing a movement and having someone or themselves touch the muscle as it contracts, that's pretty common, probably better than trying to induce DOMS in order to attain body awareness

Shazriki

10-02-2011, 01:52 AM

gotcha, I think a more practical way of getting someone better motor control and body awareness of a muscle group would be to do touch training, and activation training coupled with them watching themselves in a mirror while doing a movement and having someone or themselves touch the muscle as it contracts, that's pretty common, probably better than trying to induce DOMS in order to attain body awareness

Makes sense, also probably a more ethical way of doing the teaching as a trainer lol.

Little update for yesterday

Not going to do a full update from yesterday other than to say my weight went back up to 197.2 strangely, but definitely not changing macros for another week. Nutrition yesterday was 285P/122C/27F as I wanted to test out Martin Berkhan's drinking strategy. Even though fats and carbs were low compared to what I usually take it, I was able to get through the day thanks to these beauties:

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111001-IMGP0584.jpg

Stew of lean pork cut, red cabbage, and green pepper with chopped tomatoes; seasoned and stewed in a casserole for about 10 mins I guess. Full of flavor and macros came out at: 159P/50C/11F and it was very filling thanks to the cabbage. On days when you have high protein low everything else, things like this are the way to go.

Shazriki

10-02-2011, 02:17 PM

2 October 2011

Woke up this morning slightly groggy from last night's debauchery, but nothing too debilitating. I was actually pretty keen to get to the gym for cardio once I had a strong cup of coffee down me. Cardio itself was a breeze, although I think the machines overestimate burn more than the ones I was previously using, so if I continue to do cardio on them I will probably do another 50 cals just to make sure it's consistent. That said, I felt great after cardio and spent a bit of time walking around time buying the last few things I need before classes start tomorrow.

Aside from that, a pretty uneventful day!

So, onto first day of lectures tomorrow :D /nerdexcitement

Morning weight 196.8

Awesome, for the first time I was able to successfully apply Martin's drinking protocol and sure enough I wake up lighter in the morning (and I was drinking pretty much whatever I wanted)

Workout

Crosstrainer 400 cals burned in 33:00

~The Eats~

Cheesy scrambled eggs with mushrooms, onions, and salmon; Cinnamon Raisin bagel with cream cheese; baked beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111002-IMGP0586.jpg

Macros 224P/249C/74F

andyboi

10-02-2011, 02:30 PM

dem eatz brah! Never cease to amaze me.

jzpowahz

10-02-2011, 03:55 PM

just a FYI, you will wake up lighter after drinking just about every time because of the dehydration. Always look lean as after a big night :P

foodpr0n

10-02-2011, 11:14 PM

Awesome, for the first time I was able to successfully apply Martin's drinking protocol and sure enough I wake up lighter in the morning (and I was drinking pretty much whatever I wanted)

Told ya! :p

Dexter3000

10-02-2011, 11:22 PM

What is your version of "successfully applying" Martin's protocol for drinking? I mean do you focus only on macro-composition that day or also on total calories?

Me personally, during the day I eat protein ad libitum (chicken, tuna, fish, whey, veggies, etc.) and keep fats and carbs low (except for the veggies). Calories usually around 50-70% of daily intake. For example on a 2500 calorie day I eat about 1500, leave the rest for drinks.

edit: also mirrin' that cooking plate bro, is it induction? dowant.jpg

Shazriki

10-03-2011, 12:28 AM

dem eatz brah! Never cease to amaze me.

Haha thanks my dude!

just a FYI, you will wake up lighter after drinking just about every time because of the dehydration. Always look lean as after a big night :P

That's the thing, usually when I've gone out drinking before (since tracking my weight) I've woken up heavier the next day, even with the dehydrating effect of boozing. But that may also be because on those occasions I also drank a lot more so it's hard to say. But yea I know about the dehydrating effect of booze all too well, it doesn't even take much. Had a large glass of red with dinner a few weeks ago and woke up like 2 lbs lighter the next day :p

Told ya! :p

Yea you did!

What is your version of "successfully applying" Martin's protocol for drinking? I mean do you focus only on macro-composition that day or also on total calories?

Me personally, during the day I eat protein ad libitum (chicken, tuna, fish, whey, veggies, etc.) and keep fats and carbs low (except for the veggies). Calories usually around 50-70% of daily intake. For example on a 2500 calorie day I eat about 1500, leave the rest for drinks.

edit: also mirrin' that cooking plate bro, is it induction? dowant.jpg

I actually followed his macro guidelines re: carbs and fats (1.5 g/kg and 0.3 g/kg respectively) and protein I jacked up to 285g, leaving me with about 700-800 just to reach my daily calorie goal, but maintenance would have been 1000-1200 cals away (which is a lot of booze since I wasn't drinking any fruity/sugary drinks).

I even managed to get a couple of rice cakes in me as well as some strawberries on the day, so it wasn't all that bad food-wise. But yea you're method is essentially the protocol. It's just that for me in the past I would either take in too many carbs/fats over the course of the day which may have been contributing to my post-drinking weigh-ins.

Nozzaa

10-03-2011, 01:44 AM

damn
food looks amazing
keep it up!

impakt1

10-03-2011, 03:32 AM

mind = blown every time i come in here & see pics

jzpowahz

10-03-2011, 05:16 AM

Shazriki

10-03-2011, 02:17 PM

damn
food looks amazing
keep it up!

mind = blown every time i come in here & see pics

Thanks guys!

Interesting. Not that I've tracked it that often but I can't think of anytime waking up heavier, even after some stupidly crazy drunken feeds haha. Thing with drinking for me is it's not the alcohol that hinders strength gains/fat loss but the bloody cravings. I'll get home barely feeling hungry and somehow be able to empty cupboards/freezer before actually going so sleep :P Hence, not drinking at the moment while cutting :)

Haha your body must be a black hole then if you can get away with the drunken feeds (at least on the scale). Me, if I even sniff a slice of salami while drinking BAM 1-2 lbs heavier the next day. Makes me feel extra sh!t along with the hangover. I used to have to eat something when I came home from a night out but sort of stopped with that habit since it was getting expensive :o

Shazriki

10-03-2011, 02:43 PM

3 October 2011

Well first day of lectures and also the first day of fitting training around the rest of my schedule. Today since lectures finished at 1pm I decided to give myself a chilled morning and try working out closer to when I usually start eating. In terms of energy it wasn't so bad, but problem was it was international bench day at the gym which was a bit of a pain at times. Next week I'll try jumping out of bed and getting to the gym ahead of lectures.

Workout itself was fine, still wasn't able to get 3x5 on squats, they went exactly the same as on Friday so... yeah looks like it could be a stall. Now, I haven't had to backcycle on squats since I started doing them so it might be time to drop 10% and build back up and see if that sets me up for more progress. I'll try to tackle the same weight again on friday but if it's a no-go then I'll do something about it. I just hope I wasn't squatting less weight than I thought I was in spain... Ah well

Morning weight 196.2

~The Workout~

Squats 264 x 5 x 2, 3
*
DB Bench Press 60.5's x 11 x 3 PR
These are 1lb lighter than the ones in Spain
*
CG Lat Pulldowns 149.6 x 14 + 4,4,3
*
EZ bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 11, 10, 8
These were just meh
*
Cable Twists (each side) 46.75 x 12, 10

~The Eats~

Bread pudding with banana and apple (yep, again)

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111003-IMGP0588.jpg

Chicken, baked sweet potato with cheese, broccoli, mushrooms

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111003-IMGP0589.jpg

Macros 224P/351C/50F

ian0789

10-03-2011, 03:21 PM

Shazriki

10-03-2011, 03:32 PM

When I stall on my Squats, Deads or Bench I tend to get a new 1xMax Pull and leave it at that. Then next day I do that lift again I know I can bang out that new PR but this time for multi's ;)

Bread Pudding looks good man, I think you need to start making some savage stews in a crock pot! Made a Tomato, Rice, Chicken Soup over the weekend and will be doing it alot more. Cheap, tasty, easy to make food.

Not too sure what you mean by that dude? Do you mean you cut volume to zero on your next lift day and just test your max on the lift, then come back to the usual routine the next day, or what?

Totally hear you on the stews dude. I'm going to look into getting some cheap lean chuck and make some hungarian beef stew. Either that or like slow cooked chili overnight MMM GOOD.

bigjimmy123

10-03-2011, 03:49 PM

Dexter3000

10-03-2011, 10:58 PM

early morning workouts ftw!

also, how does one acquire bread pudding? o_0

brendbro

10-04-2011, 12:08 AM

When I stall on my Squats, Deads or Bench I tend to get a new 1xMax Pull and leave it at that. Then next day I do that lift again I know I can bang out that new PR but this time for multi's ;)

Bread Pudding looks good man, I think you need to start making some savage stews in a crock pot! Made a Tomato, Rice, Chicken Soup over the weekend and will be doing it alot more. Cheap, tasty, easy to make food.

confused about this as well but sounds like it may be an interesting strategy

@ Shaz - even if you were doing less than you thought in Spain it doesn't really mean anything (and even if you were then it gives you something to aim for now :p )

curious to hear what is the idea of backcycling?

food looks bloody divine as usual, bread pudding :eek:

ian0789

10-04-2011, 02:36 AM

Not too sure what you mean by that dude? Do you mean you cut volume to zero on your next lift day and just test your max on the lift, then come back to the usual routine the next day, or what?

Totally hear you on the stews dude. I'm going to look into getting some cheap lean chuck and make some hungarian beef stew. Either that or like slow cooked chili overnight MMM GOOD.

I will work my way up to my working max 3-5 rep range on power days. Say if I am stuck at squatting 225x3-4 and its a struggle to keep at it for a week or so (No PR progression made). I will slap on some weight and set a new PR for my 1xMax. Maybe its in my head but I normally come back the next Power day and destroy the weight.

Shazriki

10-04-2011, 02:36 PM

I totally hear you on Monday being 'University Bench Day', went to the gym and was a total nightmare getting a rack. One guy actually turned up in jeans and a shirt and proceeded to do different inclines of bench for 45 mins and then leaving after wtf? I think may have to change Monday to a Lower Day as it was just silly.

Will be interested to see how your squats work out as I am fairly sure in the near future I am going to have the same issue as newb gains have to slow sometime. glgl though and btw that bread pudding looks delish :)

Jimmy

Jeez, if I saw some bro show up in his jeans while swallowing up a bench for 45 mins I think I would scream. Might be a good idea to switch to lower tbh, since even in big gyms a popular International Bench Day can ruin your entire session if you're unlucky. Luckily for me though, I only need to do a single set that uses a bench on mondays, so I'm ok.

Hopefully I can fix the situation with the squats, it sucks because I feel as if I were on 3500 cals I'd still be smashing PRs on a weekly basis, but such is the way with dieting. Cheers mate!

early morning workouts ftw!

also, how does one acquire bread pudding? o_0

So true, monday may really have to be switched to an early morning WO.

Bread pudding goes a lil' something like this:

6-7 slices of bread
1 egg
2 egg whites
10g sweetener
vanilla extract
cinnamon
+fruit or mix-ins as you desire

Preheat an oven to 350F. First break the slices up into small pieces in a baking dish, put in your other solid mix-ins, mix together all the other ingredients and pour the mixture over the bread. Using a fork push the bread down into the liquid so that all the bread has absorbed some liquid. Put the dish into the oven and bake for about 40 mins (should be semi-spongy solid when it's ready to eat).

confused about this as well but sounds like it may be an interesting strategy

@ Shaz - even if you were doing less than you thought in Spain it doesn't really mean anything (and even if you were then it gives you something to aim for now :p )

curious to hear what is the idea of backcycling?

food looks bloody divine as usual, bread pudding :eek:

Sure, you're right, I mean the weight on the bar is just a number, if you know you're working harder you're working harder and that's it. Still it's mentally disheartening hitting the bar with only 0.5kg more weight on it and feeling like the weight of the world is on your shoulders :p

Backcycling in this case just refers to resetting the weights downwards and working back up to (and hopefully beyond) your previous max weight. It's slightly different from a deload in that you do not just take one workout or one week as a light day or week, but you actually drop the weight down and build it back up using the same progression scheme that got you to your previous max. In my case that's linear addition of weight via microloading.

I will work my way up to my working max 3-5 rep range on power days. Say if I am stuck at squatting 225x3-4 and its a struggle to keep at it for a week or so (No PR progression made). I will slap on some weight and set a new PR for my 1xMax. Maybe its in my head but I normally come back the next Power day and destroy the weight.

Hehe that's a pretty balls to the wall strategy - I like it! Not sure it would work for me BUT I haven't tested my squat max ever so it would be interesting to do that.

Shazriki

10-04-2011, 02:47 PM

4 October 2011

Well well, two days of lectures under my belt and I have now had exposure to all of my new modules this semester. It's going to be an orgy of complex aerodynamics, aircraft performance and design, aerostructures, propulsion and aircraft stability. Basically everything I want to be studying which is awesome - all of it appeals to my nerd nature. On top of the lectures, also had some good news in that part of one my modules involves physically experience some low-G manoeuvres, so they're going to take us up in a small plane and try and make us hurl. GOING TO BE AWESOME.

Cardio was by the book today, as I mentioned on sunday I felt the exertion was a bit low so I added an extra 20 cals to the workout just to increase the length slightly. Felt a little more like my cardio in Spain so I'll stick with that. Not much else to add other than I'm looking forward to a good workout tomorrow morning followed by... NO LECTURES. Yep, my schedule is such that I have no lectures on wednesday for the entire semester. Word.

Morning weight 196.2

Weight unchanged after a high day, looking for a new low tomorrow!

The Workout

Crosstrainer 420 cals in 34:16

The Eats

Elvis style: turkey bacon, PB&Co DCD, cheddar sandwich

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111004-IMGP0590.jpg

Rump steak with risotto

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111004-IMGP0591.jpg

Macros 223P/250C/75F

vitornoob

10-04-2011, 02:56 PM

raiku5

10-04-2011, 03:52 PM

Sammch looks bomb! oh here's a joke why in horror movies do people always go "hello!?!!" Like the killers gonna say "Hi i'm in the kitchen what a sandwich?" haha Also you should try (when your feeling creative with food) Meatloaf :D

Dexter3000

10-05-2011, 01:55 AM

Thanks for the recipe Shaz, will definitely try it!

What is your goal/dream with your studies? Is it in the design area or more in the practical field? not really aware on this industry hehe.

btw, I don't know any student who has the meals (meat) you have. I'm jelly²

foodpr0n

10-05-2011, 02:08 AM

Oh, look, you drank like a champ, lost weight AND still PR'd...it's magic isn't it.
Haha, I'm 4 weeks in a row for drinking :o and will be making it a 5th this week! brb still losing and hitting PR's too :cool:

Lmao, good luck with the G-force testing thing.

Shazriki

10-05-2011, 02:02 PM

It's going to be an orgy of complex aerodynamics, aircraft performance and design, aerostructures, propulsion and aircraft stability

omg, do want this <3 nerds ftw!

haueheuhae

new low, come on!

Amazing eatings here, sir!
keep going, always lurking here!

Haha, you an aerospace fan as well? It's a great thing to be interested in.

Sammch looks bomb! oh here's a joke why in horror movies do people always go "hello!?!!" Like the killers gonna say "Hi i'm in the kitchen what a sandwich?" haha Also you should try (when your feeling creative with food) Meatloaf :D

Lol I always think the same thing to myself when I watch horror films. Meatloaf is actually a great idea since as a student any kind of time saving food which tastes good is a win. A good meatloaf would probably make three meals for a monster eater like me so I'll get on that soon!

Thanks for the recipe Shaz, will definitely try it!

What is your goal/dream with your studies? Is it in the design area or more in the practical field? not really aware on this industry hehe.

btw, I don't know any student who has the meals (meat) you have. I'm jelly²

Good stuff dude!

I'd like to begin working in the defence industry ideally in aircraft or weapons design. In engineering design IS actually the more practical side of things, as opposed to the guys who sit in front of computational models all day trying to come up with near analytical solutions to equations which are impossible to solve (in before this is me in 4 years)

As for the meat, it all depends on the cuts and the type you buy. Chicken/turkey are cheap and there are plenty of underrated cuts of beef because people either don't know how to cook them or they are perceived as un-tasty. Also I'm saving a lot of money compared to my last year at university by not eating any ready made meals which are hugely expensive relative to the cost of the ingredients you would need to make them yourself.

Oh, look, you drank like a champ, lost weight AND still PR'd...it's magic isn't it.
Haha, I'm 4 weeks in a row for drinking :o and will be making it a 5th this week! brb still losing and hitting PR's too :cool:

Lmao, good luck with the G-force testing thing.

Not bad hey? I will continue "honing" my skills this weekend. Some of my friends are down for a lil' reunion. Beer and extras will be consumed. :D

MAN I'm looking forward to the flight test, I hope we go parabolic so that we can experience weightlessness for a few seconds. Apparently vomiting is highly probable!

Shazriki

10-05-2011, 02:22 PM

5 October 2011

Well wednesday is going to be an awesome day for me this year since I don't have any lectures. All I have to do is get up and go to the gym and the rest of the day is mine. I assume at some point I might have to study or something, but we'll cross that bridge when I come to it lol.

Workout today was ok. I think I'm stalling on OH press again which kind of blows, after my near-wreck from last week I dropped the weight by about 5lbs and still couldn't get my usual 3x5. I think I might just backcycle and work my way back up. That should even out any discrepancies between the weight I was using in Spain and the weight I'm using now. Either that or maybe it's time to start looking at RPT for the lift and just make my top set the main focus with the lower lighter two sets for extra volume. Any suggestions welcome ofc.

I took another video of deadlifts today but I stupidly forgot to keep my neck aligned with my spine (I was still looking up). All in all the lift still felt fine (did 330 x 5 and it was easy as hell) but the form still needs work. Not going to bother posting this video up, but next week I will for sure grab one with all the corrections to my form. Also going to reread the section in Starting Strength on deadlifts. Nothing else to add really, other than that doing BB curls with oly bars is really weird.

Morning weight 195.2 - new low

What can I say, feelsgoodman, I'd say I look about as lean as I was pre bulk, but with the added size. One girl today noted "well I can see your arms have grown" <- success

~The Workout~

Front squats 214.5 x 5 x 3
*
Standing BB OH Press 121 x 5, 4 x 2
*
Deadlifts 330 x 5 Rep PR
Really felt easy, will do +10lbs next week
*
BB Bicep curls 82.5 x 10 + 3,3
Wasn't feeling it on these today
*
DB Lateral raises 22's x 13 + 4,4,4

~The Eats~

Leftover risotto with bagel sandwich

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111005-IMGP0593.jpg

Venison, onion and red pepper stir fry with Reggae Reggae Ketchup

Used this...

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111005-IMGP0594.jpg

to make this...

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111005-IMGP0595.jpg

UK brahs will have an idea of how good that tasted^

Macros 221P/353C/50F

Dexter3000

10-06-2011, 03:00 AM

you better bring some proteinz if you're going to throw up at that flight!1!!

also, lol @ having leftovers.. do you even lift/eat?

;)

vitornoob

10-06-2011, 03:53 AM

Aerospace fan? I have orgasms with it!
I am stil thinking about following this in the uni...

Btw, your Risotto looks so creamy, how do you do?

wheathins

10-06-2011, 11:32 AM

my dude! It's been a while and I must apologize. I knew two things though as I came back into this log, 1) the food pron would not disappoint and 2) you'd still be putting up awesome weights and I was right on both accounts. Your front squat and deads are niiiiiiiice man, I'm jelly as heck of them. REAL jelly of those front squats, do you wear a belt? I don't have one and when I do front squats I get really bad pains in my midsection, almost like a hernia or some ****, Berto told me to get a belt ASAP as that would probably help.

Anyways, keep up the good work bro, I'm back and in business on the boards so I'll be watching!

petersc2

10-06-2011, 06:47 PM

Well, I FINALLY got all the way through this log and it definitely did not disappoint :)

Fellow Aero nerd here (recent grad) and it sounds like you got the right idea with what you want to do...Defense industry is def where it is at! It makes reading this even better because of the nuances that most engineers seem to have (regarding numbers, structure, interests, etc.). Mad props for doing what you have done so far and keep up the good work. I'll be lurkin so make sure to keep up with all that delicious food/solid lifting too!

Trillios

10-07-2011, 12:43 PM

Good stuff going on in here bro! I'll be doing front squats today and I'm not looking forward to it because I have to put the 275lb bar on my delts lol. I wish I was flexible enough to do it olympic style :(. Great job on the PRs and deadlifts. Let's keep showing people how badass our cuts are! I keep wanting to post deadlift vids but i forget to bring camera :P. And wtf is reggae ketchup lmao..does it play Sean Paul when you open it?

raiku5

10-07-2011, 02:11 PM

reggae reggae ketchup? Taste Good? whats the secret ingredient.....weed?

Shazriki

10-07-2011, 03:55 PM

you better bring some proteinz if you're going to throw up at that flight!1!!

also, lol @ having leftovers.. do you even lift/eat?

Shouldn't be a problem, if it's anything like a rollercoaster I'll love it! Anyway it'll probably be a morning thing so I won't have any food in me.

LOL, I only have leftovers when dieting brah, it's sad I know. ;)

Aerospace fan? I have orgasms with it!
I am stil thinking about following this in the uni...

Btw, your Risotto looks so creamy, how do you do?

Do it dude, I firmly believe that people should only study something they're truly passionate about. At the end of the day what you study doesn't necessarily dictate what will happen for the rest of your life!

Risotto is pretty simple, just takes a bit of time. Fry up some onions and mushrooms and whatever other vegetables you want in the risotto in some olive oil. Throw in the risotto rice (however much you want). "Fry" the rice for a few minutes with the rest of the ingredients while making some broth (chicken, vegetable, it all works). You will need 3x the volume of broth as you have rice (this is important, as you will use all the broth to get that creamy consistency). Now for the time consuming part: add the broth a little bit at a time while stirring the risotto, only adding more broth when the rice has absorbed what is already in the pot. Keep repeating this process until you run out of broth. The risotto will be perfectly creamy.

my dude! It's been a while and I must apologize. I knew two things though as I came back into this log, 1) the food pron would not disappoint and 2) you'd still be putting up awesome weights and I was right on both accounts. Your front squat and deads are niiiiiiiice man, I'm jelly as heck of them. REAL jelly of those front squats, do you wear a belt? I don't have one and when I do front squats I get really bad pains in my midsection, almost like a hernia or some ****, Berto told me to get a belt ASAP as that would probably help.

Anyways, keep up the good work bro, I'm back and in business on the boards so I'll be watching!

Matt my man, good to hear from you! Still trying to put out a bit of foodpron here and there when I can but obviously as I'm now back at school I have some big meals there and keep things somewhat basic at home, it all works out though. And thanks dude, I'm still trying to improve those lifts as much as possible even in the face of dieting, but it's getting a little tough now lol. Now, I don't use a weight belt for fronts but I do know about the pain you're talking about. Basically, I need to focus way more while doing front squats than back squats, specifically on keeping my core tight. It's all about the core, and if I let up for a second my lower back tells me about it.

So far, though, haven't needed to use a weight belt - you should definitely get one though if the pain is that bad! Good to have ya back.

Well, I FINALLY got all the way through this log and it definitely did not disappoint :)

Fellow Aero nerd here (recent grad) and it sounds like you got the right idea with what you want to do...Defense industry is def where it is at! It makes reading this even better because of the nuances that most engineers seem to have (regarding numbers, structure, interests, etc.). Mad props for doing what you have done so far and keep up the good work. I'll be lurkin so make sure to keep up with all that delicious food/solid lifting too!

Sick dude! Awesome to hear from another aero guy. Defence just has so much more going for it compared to civil aerospace IMO. It's got the technology, the money, and of course... the mystique lol. Have you managed to find work yet or are you still looking?

Glad you enjoyed reading the log so far, stay tuned for more! :D

Good stuff going on in here bro! I'll be doing front squats today and I'm not looking forward to it because I have to put the 275lb bar on my delts lol. I wish I was flexible enough to do it olympic style :(. Great job on the PRs and deadlifts. Let's keep showing people how badass our cuts are! I keep wanting to post deadlift vids but i forget to bring camera :P. And wtf is reggae ketchup lmao..does it play Sean Paul when you open it?

Thanks bro! Front squats at 275 must be beast... I can only imagine. It took me (literally) a year to build up the require wrist flexibility to do them oly style. One tip I can give you is that you do not need to get all 4 fingers around the bar, not even close. I've got ~215lbs sitting on my delts perfectly secured by two fingers. Cross-grip was never balanced enough for me, the bar would tilt side to side all the time. Give it a shot if you can! Speaking of shots, get your act together and remember your camera ;)

Our cuts ARE badass, but I would love to be on a badass bulk again nomsayin'? But I can't deny that the results are awesome.

reggae reggae ketchup? Taste Good? whats the secret ingredient.....weed?

Reggae Reggae Ketchup is a mixture of Ketchup and Jamaican Jerk Sauce - it's like a spicy, smoky ketchup which goes insanely well with meat or just about anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_jerk_spice

Shazriki

10-07-2011, 04:07 PM

7 October 2011

OK ****, I had a long nice reply written out but my browser crashed. So anyway I had a later night than usual last night, and energy was really crap today. Squats were hellish, so I switched to an RPT scheme which I will stick with until the end of the cut. This should allow me to continue "gaining" throughout the diet. At the very least it will slow down progression massively compared to starting strength. All others lifts were just bad today, but that's because of the lack of sleep. Monday should see me fresh after a weekend's rest, and I will also be refeeding again. I'll continue refeeding on a 10-14 day schedule now, since energy seems to be dipping a little between them. Super tired now, so going to go crash, sucks when I had a more comprehensive update lol.

Also, these arrived today:

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111007-IMGP0603.jpg

Morning weight 196.4

It was a friend's birthday last night and I had a couple of beers. Calories were actually on point for the day but I was only able to eat at like midnight so was probably a bit bloated from that.

~The Workout~

Squats 264 x 5, 242 x 6, 220 x 7
*
BB Bench Press 187 x 5, 4 x 2
*
BB row 187 x 5 x 3
*
Calf raises 202.4 x 10 + 5,5,5
*
Ham curl w/ slow negatives 148.5 x 6, 9

~The Eats~

Beans on toast with Reggae Reggae Ketchup

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111007-IMGP0596.jpg

Chicken breast on mushrooms and red peppers

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111007-IMGP0598.jpg

XF LCP proats with apples, blueberries and PB&Co DCD

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111007-IMGP0601.jpg

Macros 221P/350C/50F

foodpr0n

10-08-2011, 01:09 AM

Thought you might like ;)
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=137417533&p=762872233&viewfull=1#post762872233

Shazriki

10-08-2011, 03:45 AM

Thought you might like ;)
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=137417533&p=762872233&viewfull=1#post762872233

Interesting just read it. Seems like something that could quite easily be fitted into an intermittent fasting setup. Not 100% on the section about pre-WO recommendations:

Is it 10g BCAAs or 20g EAAs with 5-20g carbs or do you still need the carbs with the BCAAs?

Other than that it doesn't seem hugely dissimilar from Leangains, just more specific regarding nutrient timing. Also how many meals a day does Borge eat? :o I mean, for someone like me, dieting, eating 2 big meals a day with maybe a couple of rice cakes or an apple, I am basically already following his recommendations on rest days (usually have salad for lunch with fatty fish and plenty of olive oil).

Now on workout days I'll admit that I'm getting most carbs within 2 hours post-WO, and finishing the day with a bit more fat and fewer carbs. Interestingly, I usually see new lows after rest days where I typically get the majority of my carbs closer to the evening with over half of my fat allotment for the day having already been consumed. So maybe Borge is on to something.

If I were to follow the recommendations I would probably alter them slightly in that I still wouldn't bother with whey. BCAAs pre and post are fine, but not prepared to micromanage beyond that. Would really, really like to see what Martin has to say to say on the subject because Borge's workout day recommendations are at odds to what Martin recommends.

Are you thinking about implementing this?

foodpr0n

10-08-2011, 04:05 AM

Interesting just read it. Seems like something that could quite easily be fitted into an intermittent fasting setup. Not 100% on the section about pre-WO recommendations:

Is it 10g BCAAs or 20g EAAs with 5-20g carbs or do you still need the carbs with the BCAAs?

Other than that it doesn't seem hugely dissimilar from Leangains, just more specific regarding nutrient timing. Also how many meals a day does Borge eat? :o I mean, for someone like me, dieting, eating 2 big meals a day with maybe a couple of rice cakes or an apple, I am basically already following his recommendations on rest days (usually have salad for lunch with fatty fish and plenty of olive oil).

Now on workout days I'll admit that I'm getting most carbs within 2 hours post-WO, and finishing the day with a bit more fat and fewer carbs. Interestingly, I usually see new lows after rest days where I typically get the majority of my carbs closer to the evening with over half of my fat allotment for the day having already been consumed. So maybe Borge is on to something.

If I were to follow the recommendations I would probably alter them slightly in that I still wouldn't bother with whey. BCAAs pre and post are fine, but not prepared to micromanage beyond that. Would really, really like to see what Martin has to say to say on the subject because Borge's workout day recommendations are at odds to what Martin recommends.

Are you thinking about implementing this?

It's not so specific, as in you must have this or that pre-workout. I did some reading on his forum and the general consensus was a small pre-workout meal or a BCAA concoction..further re-ierated in his article on his site; Applying it, an example.

Meal at 10: vegetables, chicken / meat / eggs, healthy fats from olive / canola oil, avocado, coconut oil / milk, walnuts / almonds. Max 20g carbs from 100-150g of fruit or 30g oatmeal for those who are addicted to oatmeal porridge for breakfast. This meal is dropped for the following intermittent fasting.
Meal at 14: vegetables, MyoProtein mixed with some cottage cheese / lean curd / cattle, healthy fats from the oil / nuts. Max 20g carbs.

Before training, max 20g carbs from fruit, 5-10g BCAA, 30g or other protein powder

After training at 17-18: 30-50g carbs from fruit / fruit juice / dried fruit, 30-50g protein from MyoProtein or M-Factor . Fat is also quite ok in this shake / smoothie.

Dinner at 18-19: Rice / potato / fruit (dropped depending on the desired karbnivå), meat / chicken / oily fish, healthy fats
Evening at 22-23, Fruit / rice / potatoes, meat / chicken / oily fish / eggs or the same meal, at 14 (egg and milk protein casein takes the longest to digest). Omega-3 supplements if you do not eat oily fish.

So basically, as I see it anyway, the 'powder' and fruit in the pre-workout meal could be interchanged with any carb/pro source of you're liking. Further than that IS splitting hairs too much. Same with pwo, eat what you want.

It's just interesting I think. I will give it a go, yes. Training earlier a little in the day these days. ~2pm

Blades notions on training aren't that differing from Martins. Albeit, MOST people will recommend more than Martin in terms of volume and freq, Blade still emphasises importance of weight on the bar/reducing frequency and volume slightly, just not to typical levels as per Martins outlines.

I guess on 2 meals a day, that's a different situation? :o And no, it's not different to the general IF schedule is it. Mimicking a re-feed and having majority of carbs in the evening.

I just find the premise of greater LBM retention intriguing.

Shazriki

10-08-2011, 04:34 AM

So basically, as I see it anyway, the 'powder' and fruit in the pre-workout meal could be interchanged with any carb/pro source of you're liking. Further than that IS splitting hairs too much. Same with pwo, eat what you want.

It's just interesting I think. I will give it a go, yes. Training earlier a little in the day these days. ~2pm

Blades notions on training aren't that differing from Martins. Albeit, MOST people will recommend more than Martin in terms of volume and freq, Blade still emphasises importance of weight on the bar/reducing frequency and volume slightly, just not to typical levels as per Martins outlines.

I guess on 2 meals a day, that's a different situation? :o And no, it's not different to the general IF schedule is it. Mimicking a re-feed and having majority of carbs in the evening.

I just find the premise of greater LBM retention intriguing.

Well it is slightly different in that Martin recommends tapering down carbs towards the end of the day doesn't he? (I personally haven't followed that recommendation that closely with fine results).

Also yea with 2 meals a day things would have to be swapped around a bit. I IF for two reasons like most: convenience and satiety, so that's not something I would change. Breakfast while dieting I will never do again lol. Now, I could always combine the first meal of the day with the post-WO meal and work like that. I mean follow his recommendations too closely and we're moving dangerously close to the multiple tupperware days.. not gonna happen.

But if we break it down to simply "eat the majority of carbs in the second half of the day leading up to bed time" then that's something I could certain give a shot. It is mighty interesting, and in the context of bulking even more so.

vitornoob

10-08-2011, 04:49 AM

Risotto is pretty simple, just takes a bit of time. Fry up some onions and mushrooms and whatever other vegetables you want in the risotto in some olive oil. Throw in the risotto rice (however much you want). "Fry" the rice for a few minutes with the rest of the ingredients while making some broth (chicken, vegetable, it all works). You will need 3x the volume of broth as you have rice (this is important, as you will use all the broth to get that creamy consistency). Now for the time consuming part: add the broth a little bit at a time while stirring the risotto, only adding more broth when the rice has absorbed what is already in the pot. Keep repeating this process until you run out of broth. The risotto will be perfectly creamy.

Yeah, thank you, not only the recipe but the secrets...thank you, i will be doing and then i post the pics ;)

Thought you might like ;)
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=137417533&p=762872233&viewfull=1#post762872233

Really interesting, i was reading and asking myself the things, good post, bro!

But if we break it down to simply "eat the majority of carbs in the second half of the day leading up to bed time" then that's something I could certain give a shot. It is mighty interesting, and in the context of bulking even more so.

really should be given a shot....

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 06:14 AM

Yeah, thank you, not only the recipe but the secrets...thank you, i will be doing and then i post the pics ;)

Really interesting, i was reading and asking myself the things, good post, bro!

really should be given a shot....

No problem dude, I'll keep my eye out for them! The diet is an interesting concept, but I'd really like to see more work (peer-reviewed stuff) done on it, since the recommendations are quite specific. That's the detail stuff though, I could happily give eating most of my carbs in the PM a shot, no problem.

petersc2

10-09-2011, 08:56 AM

Sick dude! Awesome to hear from another aero guy. Defence just has so much more going for it compared to civil aerospace IMO. It's got the technology, the money, and of course... the mystique lol. Have you managed to find work yet or are you still looking?

Glad you enjoyed reading the log so far, stay tuned for more! :D

You're right about everything above, especially the bold! I do have a job at the moment, but it's not really my cup of tea. I was more focused on space/controls in school, but am working in the aircraft industry at the moment. Can't really complain because a job is a job, but airplane's just don't get my rocks off!

Dexter3000

10-09-2011, 09:26 AM

Well it is slightly different in that Martin recommends tapering down carbs towards the end of the day doesn't he? (I personally haven't followed that recommendation that closely with fine results).

As far as I know he doesn't recommend this per se. One of his latest articles he talks about carbs at night and how it worked for fat loss. Maybe you've seen it, if not:

Summary

Dietary epidemiology commonly find associations between certain meal patterns and higher BMI / body fatness. However, this association can solely be attributed to lifestyle-related factors and eating behaviors; snacking in front of the TV in the evening, making poor food choices in general, and so forth. People who eat more in the evening simply eat more calories, which explains why they weigh more.

Calorie-controlled studies looking at the effects of distributing a fixed caloric load differently throughout the day are scarce; I have listed all of them above. These tell a much different story than the one found in dietary epidemiology. While short-term studies (15-18 days) do not find a statistically significant difference between early and late meal patterns, long-term studies (>12 weeks) show that late eating patterns produce superior results on fat loss, body composition and/or diet adherence. This might be explained by more favorable nutrient partitioning after meals due to hormonal modulation.

I understand that these facts might be hard to swallow for some people, given everything we've heard about late night eating being bad, fattening, and so forth. But then again, we hear a lot of strange things in the fitness and health community. Rarely do these old wives' tales mix with reality; think of all the myths about fasting, alcohol and meal frequency, for example.

That's all for tonight. I hope you've enjoyed the article and will rest easy knowing there's nothing bad about late night eating and big meals before bedtime.

http://www.leangains.com/2011/06/is-late-night-eating-better-for-fat.html

Just chiming in here :)

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 12:49 PM

You're right about everything above, especially the bold! I do have a job at the moment, but it's not really my cup of tea. I was more focused on space/controls in school, but am working in the aircraft industry at the moment. Can't really complain because a job is a job, but airplane's just don't get my rocks off!

So, NASA is the ultimate goal I assume? I'd eventually like to move into space applications but definitely want to get a grounding (bad joke?) in more "conventional" aerospace before I look into that.

As far as I know he doesn't recommend this per se. One of his latest articles he talks about carbs at night and how it worked for fat loss. Maybe you've seen it, if not:

[url]http://www.leangains.com/2011/06/is-late-night-eating-better-for-fat.html[/rl]

Just chiming in here :)

I complete forgot about that article dude, I should probably rereard that. Thanks for linking brah!

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 01:00 PM

8 October 2011

Today was a complete rest day. Really tried to just relax over the course of the day, since I had plans to go out in the evening and meet some friends up for drinks. So it was another one of those high protein low everything else days. Not so bad, whipped up another one of my cabbage concoctions to fill my belly.

Meeting up with friends was also great, probably one of my favorite things in life is the feeling of picking up where you left off with old friends. I've also been using these little reunions as opportunities to tell me friends about my future aspirations. Like I don't throw it in their faces, I only talk about it when asked. Thing is, since I'm not smashing a liter of beer every 20 mins like I used to there are already some raised eyebrows :p

Luckily, everyone I've spoken to about it has taken me seriously. Surprising, since I'd say 95% of anyone who thinks about bodybuilding would think of a physique like Arnold's, not mine. Still, they understand I'm a work under construction, which is awesome!

Morning weight 195 - new low

New low after a high day, sweet!

~The Eats~

Slow-cooked beef chuck chili with salad

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111008-IMGP0604.jpg

Macros 281P/128C/25F = fcking hungry

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 01:07 PM

9 October 2011

Another solid day of rest today. Even though I had a few drinks last night I woke up nice and early feeling great, so just got on with things and went straight to the gym for cardio. After that came home to make some lunch, it was nice to be back to normal food after yesterdays pre-drinking cuisine.

In the afternoon did a bit of looking over my notes from the past week, so far we've been getting blasted with new material and I need to make sure I stay on top of things since this semester everything hinges on the exams in January. No major project work to speak of so no excuses really.

Hunger was especially high today, looking forward to a nice refeed tomorrow. Also hoping to make some progress on squats now that I've switched things up with RPT!

Morning weight 196.4

A little bloated from last night, oops! Fully expect this to go down even after refeed day.

~The Workout~

Crosstrainer 420 cals burned in 33:05

~The Eats~

Salmon and avocado salad

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111009-IMGP0606.jpg

Chicken, bacon and cheese sandwich with broccoli

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111009-IMGP0608.jpg

Macros 220P/251C/75F

Trillios

10-09-2011, 01:38 PM

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 02:09 PM

275 felt like hell for sure lol. My problem isnt the wrist flexibility it's really more about keeping the triceps parallel to the floor as much as possible. When I do it it looks like I'm holding the bar in a military press position and nothing restsbon chest/delts (obv wrong). Meh I'll look into it cuz I'd love to do cleans again.

Can't wait to bulk again bro it'll be my first epic successful bulk. I'm going to blow up in a good way and strength might be powerlifter status (sike).

Hmm, are you doing fronts when you triceps are fried following an arm day? Could totally see that being a problem to get the overall arm flexibility to keep the tris parallel to the floor. But dude, they don't need to be perfectly parallel, I have a good amount of forward lean when I drop down and the bar has never come close to rolling off.

I have no idea when the next time I bulk will be, I would really REALLY love to get another gaining phase in before next summer, but I'd rather compete and have the experience than have the size at this stage.

andyboi

10-09-2011, 02:34 PM

phoa.. beef chuck chilli looks epic! nice and spicy???

Trillios

10-09-2011, 03:41 PM

Hmm, are you doing fronts when you triceps are fried following an arm day? Could totally see that being a problem to get the overall arm flexibility to keep the tris parallel to the floor. But dude, they don't need to be perfectly parallel, I have a good amount of forward lean when I drop down and the bar has never come close to rolling off.

I have no idea when the next time I bulk will be, I would really REALLY love to get another gaining phase in before next summer, but I'd rather compete and have the experience than have the size at this stage.

Usually the front squats are after a chest/back day but before arm day so it's kind of in between there. I've tried stretching and doing flexibility movements in the past but no good. I can get my triceps parallel to the floor but then my wrists are as high as my eyes lol. Eh next time I'll try again. I've said this before and will say it again. I won't compete until I feel I have something worthy to present. Experience is nice but I want to win or place top 3 in my first show.

Shazriki

10-09-2011, 10:53 PM

phoa.. beef chuck chilli looks epic! nice and spicy???

Of course my dude, plenty of cayenne pepper in there (funnily enough the "chili powder" spice doesn't have that much heat). Also some cocoa powder and cinnamon which I started using recently because it rocks in chili.

Usually the front squats are after a chest/back day but before arm day so it's kind of in between there. I've tried stretching and doing flexibility movements in the past but no good. I can get my triceps parallel to the floor but then my wrists are as high as my eyes lol. Eh next time I'll try again. I've said this before and will say it again. I won't compete until I feel I have something worthy to present. Experience is nice but I want to win or place top 3 in my first show.

Hehe, fair enough dude, I can understand you want to blow away your competition the first time. For me, getting to that stage would take another 12 months or more of lean gains, and it's not what I want at this moment in time. Plus having read the competition reports of the federation I'd be competing in (BNBF) it seems that the standard is overall quite low in the under-23 category (which I'd be placed in), like one or two guys with balanced physiques AND awesome conditioning. I know I can achieve at least one of those to a high standard so I'm not worried about being "that guy" on stage assuming I have enough time to prep (which I will).

Dexter3000

10-09-2011, 11:16 PM

Today was a complete rest day. Really tried to just relax over the course of the day, since I had plans to go out in the evening and meet some friends up for drinks. So it was another one of those high protein low everything else days. Not so bad, whipped up another one of my cabbage concoctions to fill my belly.

Meeting up with friends was also great, probably one of my favorite things in life is the feeling of picking up where you left off with old friends. I've also been using these little reunions as opportunities to tell me friends about my future aspirations. Like I don't throw it in their faces, I only talk about it when asked. Thing is, since I'm not smashing a liter of beer every 2 mins like I used to there are already some raised eyebrows :p

Luckily, everyone I've spoken to about it has taken me seriously. Surprising, since I'd say 95% of anyone who thinks about bodybuilding would think of a physique like Arnold's, not mine. Still, they understand I'm a work under construction, which is awesome!

fixed.

But seriously, I can relate to the friends thing, it's very nice! Relationships are what truly matter in life IMO. But what's even better is how you deal with your goals and telling the people around you about it. I think that's great man. Bodybuilding indeed is associated with super muscular guys in fluorescent thongs using steroids. So good job on showing them how it's done!

brendbro

10-10-2011, 01:02 AM

Relationships are what truly matter in life IMO

god, this x infinite.

It's funny how when I was growing up I didn't see my friends as much more than... well, friends. Now that I'm a bit older I see them as so much more than that, and I am so bloody grateful for the support group I have. My close friends are my family.

Definitely know exactly what you mean about the whole body building thing, not that I'm ever going to compete or anything but I have entertained the thought to friends before and they've been overly supportive :)

If it is indeed your goal then I and plenty of others are fully behind you mate

Shazriki

10-10-2011, 02:31 PM

10 October 2011

Great workout today, decided to get up extra early and hit the gym before my first class at 10am, which meant I had to get up and at 'em by 6.45. Easy stuff. Strangely, the gym was quite busy when I arrived but the rugby guys hadn't arrived yet to begin international bench day. Switching to an RPT scheme for squats left me with more energy for the rest of the workout. Obviously they were still hard to get through, but with the reduced intensity in the lower sets, my CNS was completely tapped out by the time I got to my second exercise. Set a couple of PRs today as well, which was nice of course. Also nailing PRs on a refeed day feels especially good because it's almost like you've earned it. 264 x 6 in the bag for squats, so on friday I'll bump the weight up, not sure whether I'll make another 2.5kg jump or use my microplates. Since I "only" need 4 reps, I might make the bigger jump. I'll gauge it according to my energy on friday morning.

Incidentally, monday is a pretty good day for me to have refeeds, since classes end at 1pm, I can just come home and spend the day cooking/eating/chilling :D

Cliffs: very happy with today's workout, I'm hoping that by not smashing myself to pieces on squats I might be able to enter a new groove with my training and continue building strength throughout this diet!

Morning weight 196

Still a little bloated from Saturday night, I don't expect this to change tomorrow after the refeed, but I'm planning to have a quiet weekend this weekend so that should give my body the chance to settle down and punch into some new lows!

~The Workout~

Squats 264 x 6, 242 x 7, 220 x 8 PR
*
DB Bench Press 66's x 9 x 3 PR
*
CG Lat Pulldown 165 x 12 + 3,3,3 PR
*
EZ-bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 11, 10, 8
*
Stir the pot 14, 9

~The Eats~

Curtains up, refeed eats!

XF LCP sludge with Raisin Wheats, blackberries, and chopped apple

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111010-IMGP0611.jpg

Sweet potato latkes with sweet toffee yogurt

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111010-IMGP0616.jpg

Sweet and sour stir fry (cabbage, red onions, mushrooms, red peppers, chicken)

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111010-IMGP0618.jpg

Cinnamon Raisin bread and B&J's Phish Food Froyo Ice Cream sandwiches

This...

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111010-IMGP0613.jpg

into this...

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111010-IMGP0620.jpg

Macros 202P/606C/41F

Shazriki

10-10-2011, 02:40 PM

fixed.

But seriously, I can relate to the friends thing, it's very nice! Relationships are what truly matter in life IMO. But what's even better is how you deal with your goals and telling the people around you about it. I think that's great man. Bodybuilding indeed is associated with super muscular guys in fluorescent thongs using steroids. So good job on showing them how it's done!

LOL at the bold. But yea I was surprised too, seems that more people these days are aware that the guys standing on stage at MR. Olympia didn't get there by "just" working hard. I have a great friend group and consider myself lucky to have fallen in with a group of people like this by pure chance in my first year.

god, this x infinite.

It's funny how when I was growing up I didn't see my friends as much more than... well, friends. Now that I'm a bit older I see them as so much more than that, and I am so bloody grateful for the support group I have. My close friends are my family.

Definitely know exactly what you mean about the whole body building thing, not that I'm ever going to compete or anything but I have entertained the thought to friends before and they've been overly supportive :)

If it is indeed your goal then I and plenty of others are fully behind you mate

Friends are insanely important. So I'm right there with you. It's great that you've had the same experience with your friends when discussing bodybuilding. I mean, you must get a lot of questions yourself about your diet, training, long term goals etc. Feels great when you explain it to someone and they're like "yea, good work!"

And thanks for the words mate, means a lot!

vitornoob

10-10-2011, 02:42 PM

petersc2

10-10-2011, 06:53 PM

So, NASA is the ultimate goal I assume? I'd eventually like to move into space applications but definitely want to get a grounding (bad joke?) in more "conventional" aerospace before I look into that.

The concept that is NASA yes, but not necessarily for them. They have been cutting back in that area of business, so a lot of the work has been transferring to the private industry. This and an overall smallish industry just leads to less total jobs, making it more difficult to find "the" job I am looking for. Just gonna keep pushing though!

Enough about this though, especially with all this amazing looking food...Good work on the current progress

66jzmstr

10-10-2011, 07:50 PM

Slayed dat dere refeed, Shazriki! NICE!

Shazriki

10-10-2011, 11:44 PM

LUULZ! mirin hard that ice cream sandwich :9

man, RPT is awesome, i am making a lot progress and have a lot energy for the workout

looking forward to see the next pics from the cutting

keep going, man!

Thanks dude, I just slapped together the sandwich on a whim and it worked perfectly! And yea, I think RPT is great, I did use it a while back but wasn't really doing it with the right sort of routine. It's a great way to get a nice mix of volume and intensity in an exercise though.

Next pics will be when I hit 190'ish, which will be roughly 5lbs off my goal weight for the cut. Hopefully I'll be there by the end of october.

The concept that is NASA yes, but not necessarily for them. They have been cutting back in that area of business, so a lot of the work has been transferring to the private industry. This and an overall smallish industry just leads to less total jobs, making it more difficult to find "the" job I am looking for. Just gonna keep pushing though!

Enough about this though, especially with all this amazing looking food...Good work on the current progress

Ah true I suppose after the grounding of the STS the industry is moving more towards privatised launch vehicles.. makes sense.

Thanks man, keeping the progress slow but ever forward :)

Slayed dat dere refeed, Shazriki! NICE!

Sup Dave! Yep it was a good one, feeling mighty fine this morning and still looked reasonably dry in the mirror, win win!

lakergreat1

10-11-2011, 02:20 PM

Interesting. Not that I've tracked it that often but I can't think of anytime waking up heavier, even after some stupidly crazy drunken feeds haha. Thing with drinking for me is it's not the alcohol that hinders strength gains/fat loss but the bloody cravings. I'll get home barely feeling hungry and somehow be able to empty cupboards/freezer before actually going so sleep :P Hence, not drinking at the moment while cutting :)

Guilty as well.

Great workout today, decided to get up extra early and hit the gym before my first class at 10am, which meant I had to get up and at 'em by 6.45. Easy stuff. Strangely, the gym was quite busy when I arrived but the rugby guys hadn't arrived yet to begin international bench day. Switching to an RPT scheme for squats left me with more energy for the rest of the workout. Obviously they were still hard to get through, but with the reduced intensity in the lower sets, my CNS was completely tapped out by the time I got to my second exercise. Set a couple of PRs today as well, which was nice of course. Also nailing PRs on a refeed day feels especially good because it's almost like you've earned it. 264 x 6 in the bag for squats, so on friday I'll bump the weight up, not sure whether I'll make another 2.5kg jump or use my microplates. Since I "only" need 4 reps, I might make the bigger jump. I'll gauge it according to my energy on friday morning.

Incidentally, monday is a pretty good day for me to have refeeds, since classes end at 1pm, I can just come home and spend the day cooking/eating/chilling :D

Cliffs: very happy with today's workout, I'm hoping that by not smashing myself to pieces on squats I might be able to enter a new groove with my training and continue building strength throughout this diet!

Love the idea of integrating RPT, I should have thought of that during my cut.

Cinnamon Raisin bread and B&J's Phish Food Froyo Ice Cream sandwiches

This...

into this...

Ridiculously fab idea.. two of my favourite things, cinnamon raisin bread and b&j froyo. I tell you though, u gotta try Half Baked Froyo as well.. it's 1a and 1b with Phish Food. Brownie is a distant 3rd, and Cherry Garcia I would just skip.

Shazriki

10-11-2011, 02:28 PM

11 October 2011

Long day was long, lectures kicked off at 9 and didn't get home until around 8pm, plus I only got about 6 hours of sleep last night so I'm pretty exhausted now. Had an epic cardio session though, I got to the end of my session but didn't feel like stopping so I continued for a few more mins lol, there must have been a good song on or something.

After finishing my dinner tonight I noticed some insane vascularity, like unusually pronounced, so I guess I'm leaning out further. Also noticing more quad separation in the mirror today following cardio, so it's all coming along slowly.

Morning weight 196.6

Up a bit from refeed but curiously didn't look especially watery this morning. Expecting some serious movement for the rest of the week.

~The Workout~

Crosstrainer 452 cals burned in 35:33

~The Eats~

Chicken breast, broccoli, baked beans and fried mushrooms

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111011-IMGP0621.jpg

XF CPB/Fudge brownie proats with apples and dark honey

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111011-IMGP0623.jpg

Macros 219P/249C/77F

andyboi

10-11-2011, 02:36 PM

In for the fawkin pics brah!!!

Lectures? Who goes to those? haha ;)

Shazriki

10-11-2011, 02:49 PM

Guilty as well.

Love the idea of integrating RPT, I should have thought of that during my cut.

Ridiculously fab idea.. two of my favourite things, cinnamon raisin bread and b&j froyo. I tell you though, u gotta try Half Baked Froyo as well.. it's 1a and 1b with Phish Food. Brownie is a distant 3rd, and Cherry Garcia I would just skip.

So far I'm feeling much better having done my last two workouts RPT style, still get that intensity but without quite the same drain you have with starting strength. Not so say that SS has lost it's magic.. just that it isn't a progression you can expect to stay with forever especially in the face of dieting.

Dude try it, at least with the phish food once it started melting it was like nothing I'd ever tasted, toast that bread though! We don't get the half baked froyo here but I'm not going to complain, having access to phish food, choc fudge brownie and cherry garcia are good enough for me at the moment. I have a tub of Cherry Garcia actually that will get opened soon - though I doubt it'll top Phish Food.

In for the fawkin pics brah!!!

Lectures? Who goes to those? haha ;)

Mate I LOVE my lectures so far, so much to learn, so little time (srs, the teaching time available is scarcely 3 months lol).

bigjimmy123

10-12-2011, 03:18 AM

Shazriki

10-12-2011, 02:56 PM

Lucky you I can't get the Phish Food Fro-yo but do enjoy their Fudge Brownie one. Happy to hear lectures are going well, I realised this morning that the work is already starting to pile up so gonna get on with it now I think.

Do you use the Dymatize FB for those oats above? I got some of this the other day as I believe you mentioned that you had it and I have to say it is a great addition to the team as the overnight proats are out of this world now. Also got Syntrax Micellar vanilla which is great for sludgy/ice cream bowls :)

Was just curious as I know that your plan is to compete so was wondering what sort of timeframe and future plans you have with regards to this?

Jimmy

What shops do you have access to? I've seen the Phish Food only at waitrose actually, but Morrison's is good for the other two flavors. You tried any of the other "frozen desserts" as they're called here? Work piling up is a good thing mate, it forces you to prioritize the things that are important to you and improves focus (IME).

Used a mixture of XF Ultra Peptide and Dymatize Fudge Brownie. FB is definitely a great one for overnight oats. How is the Syntrax for mixing into oats? I think I read on leangains.com that it mixes a little bit thin? If not I'll give it a try soon because lately my go-to for vanilla protein has been ON casein, but I want to try something. And syntrax is cheaper.

Well, I'm looking at a competition on 22 July next summer (date is actually TBC) and will begin my prep as soon as I get back from my christmas vacation. This will be right in the middle of my exam period but I'm not worried about it, my only focus at that point in time will be studying and the prep itself ofc. It'll be a good time to start as there won't be any temptation to go out or anything like that. Not sure on the specifics of the prep yet, I've only spoken to Eric once about it so far, and it looks like well do it slow and steady, but I have no idea if I'll jump straight into dieting or do some kind of maintenance recomping for some weeks beforehand. Rest assured I'll be making a separate log for that and all will be revealed :)

Shazriki

10-12-2011, 03:20 PM

12 October 2011

Had a very enjoyable workout today, set a couple of PRs and energy felt high all around. Even my accessory work was good and while I don't care too much about it at this stage I can usually gauge my overall energy based on how I feel when I get to the accessory work. There are definitely some days when I'd rather go home after the compounds, but thanks to myo-reps it's a pretty quick and easy affair once you get started. I got another deadlift form vid for you guys to critique down below. Once again, all the right muscles were activated, but it doesn't look like I complete the movement on any of the reps, even though at the time of performing the exercise I definitely felt as if each and every rep was complete. Front squats were powerful and felt great today. Just to be a cheeky kunt on the last rep of my final set I completely stopped at the bottom, before shooting up. People were mirin for sure. On my OH press I just decided to a weight I could handle easily and start progressing from there again.

Not much else to report from today, other than that I discovered the lean casserole steak I've been using lately had macros listed for cooked weight, so I was actually overestimating the calories in the meat, more food for me!

Morning weight 196.4

Down a bit from yesterday but not as fast as I was expecting. I will see how things continue to develop towards the end of the week, if I'm not happy with the progress I'll add in another cardio session starting from next week. This will mean I'm in the gym every day of the week, but I find the cardio sessions to be easy and relaxing, so not too worried about it. There are people here doing way more than me *cough*trillios*cough so I have nothing to complain about ;)

~The Workout~

Front squats 217.1 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Standing BB OH Press 115.5 x 5 x 3
*
Deadlifts 341 x 5 Rep PR
*
BB Bicep curls 71.5 x 14 + 3,3,3,2
*
DB Lateral raises 26.4's x 11 + 3,3,2

Deadlift vid:

n41GfV_AjAs

~The Eats~

Sweet potato hash with apples, mushrooms and bacon

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111012-IMGP0627.jpg

Vanilla overnight oats with caramel nibbles

Used whole rolled oats for this, mindblowingly good texture compared to normal oats

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111012-IMGP0628.jpg

Beef Tagine (Moroccan stew with squash, prunes, chickpeas and onions) garnished with coriander

Really happy with how this turned out, I wanted to make something different today.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111012-IMGP0631.jpg

Macros 224P/348C/52F

jzpowahz

10-12-2011, 04:31 PM

agreed re DL form. Get those shoulders back for the full lockout. I would say maybe only the last one was fully locked out.

Dexter3000

10-13-2011, 12:15 AM

Again I am no expert but I agree on the lockout, looks like you should get up further. Titties up :)

Still mirrin' that gym buddy. Nice floor mats/plates and it looks like a solid place to lift some weights!

Shazriki

10-13-2011, 12:45 AM

agreed re DL form. Get those shoulders back for the full lockout. I would say maybe only the last one was fully locked out.

Again I am no expert but I agree on the lockout, looks like you should get up further. Titties up :)

Still mirrin' that gym buddy. Nice floor mats/plates and it looks like a solid place to lift some weights!

Agree and agree, need to push through with the hips to get that last bit of height. I could have done it, but as I say I "felt" as if the movement was complete. Thanks guys.

Yea the gym is too sick for words. I'm glad I'm training in this place for the next 9-10 months!

Shazriki

10-13-2011, 02:14 PM

13 October 2011

Just another day in the books today. Had a good cardio session and got a bit of uni work done up on campus today. Super tired now though so you guys will excuse if I don't post in the usual detail today. PLUS I intend to get up very early tomorrow to make it to the phone store for the release of the iPhone 4S. Now, I'm not usually a macwhore but it just so happens that I need a new phone and tomorrow is a good opportunity to get it. SO it's going to be a long day for sure. Looking forward to the workout though as always.

Morning weight 196.6

Still hovering...

The Workout

Crosstrainer 428 cals burned in 33:18

~The Eats~

Roast chicken breast, butternut squash with coriander, garlic and cayenne pepper; brussels sprouts

Butternut squash is in season and I've discovered I freaking love it. I'm going to try making fries with it and risotto (maybe tomorrow!) mm good.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111013-IMGP0632.jpg

Ben and Jerry's Caramel Chew Chew

Good flavor, understandably heavy on the caramel (but in a good way). The caramel swirl through the center is very prominent, and the little chocolate covered caramel pieces are plentiful and well distributed throughout the ice cream. As usual B&Js don't skimp on the mix-ins. The ice cream itself is a smooth caramel flavor, most of the usual saltiness you expect from caramel comes from the caramel swirl, with the ice cream having a sweeter flavor. 8/10

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111013-IMGP0633.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111013-IMGP0634.jpg

Macros 220P/252C/75F

vitornoob

10-13-2011, 02:20 PM

Butternut squash is gold, my grandmom do with rice and Carne Seca(do you understand me, right?) lulz!! *-*

never eaten Brussels sprout, the market here has it, how do you do, just cook in water?

Dexter3000

10-13-2011, 11:01 PM

Shaz how do you count your macros/calories? own excel sheet (like me) or some fancy online program? (I tried daily burn for a few days but it's too much work)

Shazriki

10-13-2011, 11:19 PM

Butternut squash is gold, my grandmom do with rice and Carne Seca(do you understand me, right?) lulz!! *-*

never eaten Brussels sprout, the market here has it, how do you do, just cook in water?

Carne seca means dry meat, so I assume the dish is a similar thing to bacalao maybe with some fish stock used to cook the rice and squash?

You should try brussels sprout, a great alternative to other fibrous veggies but with a completely unique taste IMO. You can do a lot with them but I like to boil until al dente and eat them like that.

Shaz how do you count your macros/calories? own excel sheet (like me) or some fancy online program? (I tried daily burn for a few days but it's too much work)

I just use MyNetDiary. An excel spreadsheet would take WAYYY too long to set up and with mynetdiary once you pass the initial growing pains of inputting your custom foods it's plain sailing!

Quelly

10-14-2011, 11:15 AM

I just use MyNetDiary. An excel spreadsheet would take WAYYY too long to set up and with mynetdiary once you pass the initial growing pains of inputting your custom foods it's plain sailing!

livestrong ftw, has everything in it....I used to have a fitday account with a custom foods page that took 2 minutes to load lol

Shazriki

10-15-2011, 03:55 AM

livestrong ftw, has everything in it....I used to have a fitday account with a custom foods page that took 2 minutes to load lol

Livestrong is nice but the random serving sizes are a headache for me, so much easier to just have the stuff in macros per 100g... plus having a fiber optic connection to the internet helps with larger databases :p

Shazriki

10-15-2011, 04:14 AM

14 October 2011

At first I wasn't particularly happy with today's workout, but having thought about it for a bit it was a pretty good session, objectively. Increased weight in squats, rows felt easy, accessory work was great too (calves and hams are destroyed). The only problem was the bench where I have been stalling and even backtracking the last few sessions. I would normally just backcycle and build back up, but since I have the eye surgery coming up on the 25th and will have to take a week off heavy lifting, I will just continue to kill myself into next week. Pretty much all I'll be able to safely manage in the 5-7 days post-treatment will be light cardio, so for that week I'll just have rest day cals and do cardio on my usual lifting days followed by stretching. If anything, this might be a good thing. I haven't taken a full lifting break in ages so maybe this will give me the opportunity to really recovery well and hit some new PRs leading up to christmas! I can only hope.

Weight loss seems to have levelled off slightly so I will continue with current macros until this weekend and if nothing is changed by next tuesday/weds I'll do another macro drop. I was toying with the idea of adding another cardio session but that would have me in the gym every day, and without a full day dedicated to recovery, so I'll give that a miss for the moment.

In other news, after several hours of hassle and two visits to the phone store I did manage to pick it up. Not usually a technology fanboy, but I needed a new phone and didn't feel like waiting weeks for new stock to become available. pretty sweet features:

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111014-IMGP0636.jpg

Morning weight 196.6

~The Workout~

Squats 269.5 x 4 PR, 242 x 5, 220 x 6
*
BB Bench Press 187 x 4 x 2, 3
^^wtf
*
BB row 187 x 5 x 3
*
Calf raises 246.4 x 9 + 4,4,4,4
*
Ham curl w/ slow negatives 148.5 x 10 + 4,4,4,3

~The Eats~

Sweet potato shepherd's pie with diced venison

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111014-IMGP0642.jpg

Macros 219P/353C/47F

Shazriki

10-15-2011, 02:51 PM

15 October 2011

Had a chilled day today and did absolutely nothing. Got up nice and late in the morning, my body really needed the sleep. I just kept waking up in the early morning and falling back to sleep almost instantly. Guess I was dead after yesterday. Went down to the local bar to watch some football (soccer) and then went into town to do some grocery shopping. Apart from that just spent the day watching TV and lounging for the most part. Going to play some Red Dead Redemption this evening and continue the chillaxing.

Morning weight 195.8

Finally some downward movement!

~The Eats~

So I'm now addicted to butternut squash AND brussels sprouts...

Bro meal of chicken filets with brussels sprouts and broccoli

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111015-IMGP0643.jpg

Turkey burgers in english muffins, topped with cheese and peanut butter; served with roasted squash and brussels sprouts

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111015-IMGP0650.jpg

$$$
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111015-IMGP0653.jpg

Macros 220P/249C/75F

brendbro

10-15-2011, 06:55 PM

Trillios

10-16-2011, 04:57 AM

Man some dangerous epic eats in here! I'm looking forward to getting the iphone 4s since i've never owned a previous iphone (or smartphone for that matter O.o). I only have a 3rd gen ipod at the moment and relying on wifi is a pain in the ass. Good to see some weight drops. I'm in the gym 7 days/week dude and yea at first I thought I was missing the recovery day but with 45min cardio 6x/week, 1.6hr cardio 1x/week, hitting every bodypart 2x/week I feel amazing. The body is an amazing thing and adapts so well. It took time but I can honestly say it's worth it now. Whatever it is that you do your body will definitely adapt. I wouldn't hesitate about adding in another cardio day for the sake of pushing forward with progress. It'll be tough the first week or two but you'll see that after that it'll be a cake walk ;).

Shazriki

10-16-2011, 02:32 PM

phuck me, eats have been off the chain lately mate! good to see a rest day! I haven't had a single rest day this past week, actually really enjoying it honestly, but I can definitely understand the need for rest lol (who can't).

Let us know how the iphone 4s goes, thinking about getting it myself.

aaaand... good to see the weight finally drop! same thing myself :)

Cheers mate. Whether or not I NEED a rest day varies massively from week to week. I actually was in the mood for one yesterday, so I let myself have one :)

The 4S so far has been pretty awesome. The personal assisant, Siri, really does convert most of your audio commands to actions. Searching the web, setting alarms, playing music, and if you're in the US you can even find businesses by just asking for "nearest pizza place" or similar. Hopefully they'll update that functionality for other countries soon. But yea if you're in the market for a new phone then you won't be disappointed with the 4S.

Haha, and just as the weight went down, I was up a clear lb from yesterday. Now it's just teasing me :p

Man some dangerous epic eats in here! I'm looking forward to getting the iphone 4s since i've never owned a previous iphone (or smartphone for that matter O.o). I only have a 3rd gen ipod at the moment and relying on wifi is a pain in the ass. Good to see some weight drops. I'm in the gym 7 days/week dude and yea at first I thought I was missing the recovery day but with 45min cardio 6x/week, 1.6hr cardio 1x/week, hitting every bodypart 2x/week I feel amazing. The body is an amazing thing and adapts so well. It took time but I can honestly say it's worth it now. Whatever it is that you do your body will definitely adapt. I wouldn't hesitate about adding in another cardio day for the sake of pushing forward with progress. It'll be tough the first week or two but you'll see that after that it'll be a cake walk ;).

Oh man, if you've never had a smartphone before and your first one is going to be the 4S prepare for your world to be rocked. The voice command (Siri) function is easily the coolest feature. As I wrote above, you can do almost anything with it, and since you're in the states you'll actually be able to ask it to find local businesses/restaurants. Seriously, with Siri the number of keystrokes needed to perform an action on the phone has decreased to 1/3 of what it was I'd say. You'll never go back lol.

As for being in the gym everyday I think you (and Brendbro) might well be onto something. As I was sitting around chilling yesterday, I thought to myself more than once "I could so easily take the bus up to the gym, do 30 mins on the elliptical and be back home inside of two hours." So yea, I think adding a 4th cardio session will be my next change. I know it sounds like I'm going backwards and forwards, but I think I've made my decision now lol.

Trillios

10-16-2011, 02:39 PM

andyboi

10-16-2011, 02:39 PM

I'm still stuck with my iPhone 4 :( haha! I'm waiting on getting the 5 when it comes out soon. I heard that experts reckon that production may start very soon and it could only be 9 months away!!!

throwing in extra cardio won't be detrimental at all, so long as your nutrition is on point. I know Jay Cutler is on dat celltech, but he puts it so well when he says that you can never overtrain, you can only undereat.

Shazriki

10-16-2011, 02:49 PM

16 October 2011

Well, weight went back up a lb this morning, so I'm not too sure what's going on. Either my metabolism has caught up with me or my scale is screwing up OR (possibly) since over the last week I've been cooking for two meals in advance I may have been portioning the food out like a bonehead. Either way, I'll probably be throwing in another cardio session which will hopefully get things moving. If not, I'll do another macro drop. I need to get things moving again if I'm to reach my goal (185 or less) before I leave for my christmas vacation. There's still enough time to make it, but I can't really afford another week like last week (pretty much a complete stall).

Today while doing my cardio I met a bodybuilder who trains at my gym. He's a natty who actually competed in the same competition that I'm going for next year. I told him about my plans to step on stage next summer and he said I should definitely compete regardless of the amount of mass I have at this point in time or whatever. He even said I could consider some untested shows simply because the standard can be quite low in them and even if you're up against someone who's juicing they may not necessarily have great conditioning to go with the size and are therefore not complete packages. So I'll need to have a look but if the time is right I may be doing more than one show next summer!

Morning weight 196.8

Fu.

The Workout

Crosstrainer 425 cals burned in 33:35

~The Eats~

NB: For those considering the iphone 4s, both of the pics I took today were with the new 8mp camera that the phone has, using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) setting. As you can see, the pictures are good quality overall, but you don't get the depth of field that you would with a true lens, which is IMO what really lets you take great food pics (or pics in general).

Mushroom, onion and green pepper omelette with cheese; chicken breast and tomatoes

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111016-IMG_0012.jpg

Spaghetti with turkey bolognese sauce

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111016-IMG_0013.jpg

Macros 225P/250C/74F

Shazriki

10-16-2011, 02:57 PM

Crazy thing to consider that worked for me: increase cals with increased cardio. You lose nothing. You'll still be in deficit but will eat more fill out more and might even drop more fat/weight as crazy as it sounds ;).

Yea that strategy has been working great for you hasn't it? Essentially that's how I started my diet but wasn't doing enough cardio to actually initiate the weightloss. At this stage, however, energy levels are holding up nicely with this amount of food, so I'd rather keep things the same nutritionally and just do a little more cardio. I mean, hitting PRs is getting a lot harder, but maintaining my lifts isn't that difficult, so we aren't talking strength loss or anything.

I'm still stuck with my iPhone 4 :( haha! I'm waiting on getting the 5 when it comes out soon. I heard that experts reckon that production may start very soon and it could only be 9 months away!!!

throwing in extra cardio won't be detrimental at all, so long as your nutrition is on point. I know Jay Cutler is on dat celltech, but he puts it so well when he says that you can never overtrain, you can only undereat.

Mate I wouldn't be surprised if the 5 comes out before christmas lol. I'm 100% convinced that apple has 10+ years worth of innovations sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be released when they will have maximum impact on the market. And apparently Steve Jobs left 4-5 years of new designs to the company before he passed away last week.. crazy stuff.

Yea I think extra cardio will be the way to go. I'm pretty sure my nutrition is on point but just in case this week I'll make an effort to simplify my food somewhat to make things easier to track closely. The thing is I sometimes make food which is very saucy and that can sometimes skew the reading on the scale when I'm trying to portion it out. Either way, my mind will be blown if things don't start moving after the inclusion of more cardio :p

brendbro

10-16-2011, 03:58 PM

Quelly

10-16-2011, 10:51 PM

Livestrong is nice but the random serving sizes are a headache for me, so much easier to just have the stuff in macros per 100g... plus having a fiber optic connection to the internet helps with larger databases :p

yeah I could see that...I guess comcast isn't cutting it for my fitday page lol

Dexter3000

10-17-2011, 03:34 AM

I prefer the other way to be honest; dropping calories > more cardio. For me personally the cardio really taxes my recovery and/or motivation, energy to hit the gym. I like to focus on the weights and believe this is the most important aspect while cutting bodyfat. I'd rather drop calories a bit instead of doing more and more cardio. If you hit your protein you're good.

It's about what you like most of course, just thought to play advocate's devil here :)

Shazriki

10-17-2011, 04:04 PM

i phucking love this concept

Tis a good one on paper for sure.

yeah I could see that...I guess comcast isn't cutting it for my fitday page lol

It should be fine, I mean, you only eat rice and protein cakes right? ;)

I prefer the other way to be honest; dropping calories > more cardio. For me personally the cardio really taxes my recovery and/or motivation, energy to hit the gym. I like to focus on the weights and believe this is the most important aspect while cutting bodyfat. I'd rather drop calories a bit instead of doing more and more cardio. If you hit your protein you're good.

It's about what you like most of course, just thought to play advocate's devil here :)

There are proponents on both sides of the camp and it definitely has to do with individual response to cardio volume which in turn (IMO) has to do with how busy someone's day to day schedule is. Currently, as a student, I am fairly active but none of it is stressful activity, so the addition of cardio wouldn't be a big deal for me. However, if we go back to my recent internship days, I would have been pretty annoyed to have to do another cardio session just because of more daily stresses.

I am dreading another cal drop even though it will be inevitable, so first I will just do more crosstrainer :)

Shazriki

10-17-2011, 04:29 PM

17 October 2011

Nice workout today, definitely developing a love/hate relationship with these monday mornings. On one hand I have to get up early than any other day of the week to make it into the gym on time, and on the other there is nothing quite like the focus and drive I get while training when I know most other students are in bed or just barely getting up. Felt strong overall today, managed to hit a small PR on my db bench press but maintained most of my other lifts (except the lat pulleys which are going up - actually got a great MMC with those today). Could have hit a new PR in squats, but decided to leave some gas in the tank. Really happy with the way RPT is working for me: I get ridiculously psyched for the first set and then get a nice mental break knowing that the subsequent sets will be lighter. In general quite pleased. Things went a bit slow at first only because the gym was getting raped by the local rugby team, who also train on monday mornings but it wasn't a total nightmare to work in.

Seeing the way my weight has been going the past week I am now considering more cardio and less food just to get things really going (hopefully). I'll probably keep carbs and roughly the same level now and just skimp on fats from now on (for as long as is feasible) and add an extra cardio day on saturdays. Note this is all tentative assuming my body realizes it's being retarded and stops gaining weight on these pitiful cals (less than 2800 on training days and not losing at 195-196 lbs - no sir). I really don't think any of this has to do with the way I've been tracking/weighing my food, have done a couple of checks on the scale and everything seems fine, so it must just be some intermittent weirdness that my body is experiencing. I mean, I certainly don't FEEL as if I'm somehow eating more, and I usually respond acutely to an increase in food intake, like if I suddenly switched to 3k cals per day I would definitely note the difference compared to now... so yeah, annoying.

Anyway here's to a productive week. I'm going to really push myself on Weds and Friday to hit some new numbers, seeing as they will be my last workouts for around a week! Might also get a lift in on sunday.

Morning weight 197.8

brb bulking

~The Workout~

Squats 269.5x4, 242x5, 220x6
*
DB Bench Press 71.5's x 8 PR, 7, 7
*
CG Lat Pulldowns 155.1 x 14 + 4,4,3
^Was hulk mode on these today for some reason, they just felt so light!
*
EZ-bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 11, 10, 10 Rep PR
^Finally some progress on SKs!
*
Ab rollout BW x 7,8
^Had to do these on hard floor - knees did not enjoy.

~The Eats~

Cinnamon-Raisin bread french toast with XF CPB sludge and bananas

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111017-IMGP0655.jpg

Roast chicken, brussels sprouts and butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111017-IMGP0659.jpg

Macros 221P/350C/52F

Dexter3000

10-17-2011, 11:55 PM

oats_addict

10-18-2011, 12:15 AM

Bro what are you baking your sprouts and squash with? Looks like Olive Oil to get that singe on them. I always use to spray them with the olive oil sprays and add salt and pepper, but wondered what you did? Do you blanch them or just chuck them in raw?

Random weight increases suck, as you are well aware. Im guessing water weight man, wouldnt worry.

Squat numbers are looking spot on too!

petersc2

10-18-2011, 03:46 AM

Man, you are just killing it on the food front! If you don't mind me asking, how exactly do you do your french toast/sludge? I've played around with a couple different ways with mixed results, but it seems like you hit it dead on.

And good plan on the cardio front. I've always found it easier to add cardio then cut food, as I'd rather be dead tired then hungry. It's purely a mental game, but when sitting at a desk all day I need that physical outlet of just smashing on some cardio. Also makes me feel more productive :)

Shazriki

10-18-2011, 10:16 AM

You're obviously coming from considerably higher calories so I can imagine the frustration. However, if you look at it objectively then it's not that strange you're not dropping weight at ~2600-2800 calories per day. Not meant as an insult in anyway, of course, but a guy your size probably just has to drop calories more to lose dat dere adipose tissue contents.

Cutting is a bitch and the smooth sailing you had (losing weight at awesome calories) had to end some day, unfortunately. Now suck it up, do work and get ripped.

:)

You are 100% absolutely correct. Objectivity is so important and probably one of the hardest perspectives to have when examining oneself. Having said that, after reading your post, looking at last weeks weigh ins, and the last time I dropped cals it makes perfect sense that it's time for another drop. It's been weeks and the gravy train can't go on indefinitely unfortunately.

Macros have been dropped, on to the next one ;)

Bro what are you baking your sprouts and squash with? Looks like Olive Oil to get that singe on them. I always use to spray them with the olive oil sprays and add salt and pepper, but wondered what you did? Do you blanch them or just chuck them in raw?

Random weight increases suck, as you are well aware. Im guessing water weight man, wouldnt worry.

Squat numbers are looking spot on too!

Eyyy dude! Yessir that's olive oil. What I do is just chuck whatever veg I'm planning to roast in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season, then throw everything on a baking tray over greaseproof paper. Doing it in a bowl a) lets you use less oil and b) actually coats everything evenly which is a must IMO.

And yea I have no doubt these freak weigh ins were water/sodium related, but all the same it IS time for a macro drop if my body won't lose weight on these current cals. I mean if you ask me I should be able to lose weight just sitting down and playing video games at these calories but my body clearly has different ideas ;)

Thanks man, and I hope your first workout back isn't/wasn't too painful!

Man, you are just killing it on the food front! If you don't mind me asking, how exactly do you do your french toast/sludge? I've played around with a couple different ways with mixed results, but it seems like you hit it dead on.

And good plan on the cardio front. I've always found it easier to add cardio then cut food, as I'd rather be dead tired then hungry. It's purely a mental game, but when sitting at a desk all day I need that physical outlet of just smashing on some cardio. Also makes me feel more productive :)

Thanks Peter! That sludge was just a simple mixture of GY and XF CPB, I didn't add anything else because I was using cinnamon-raisin bread for the french toast and topping with bananas - so there was enough sweetness coming through naturally. Again, for the french toast I just whisked a single egg and dipped each of the slices on both sides and then directly into a hot pan. Plenty of french toast variations out there though so just get crazy and see what happens :)

And I agree on the cardio, to some extent you can offset the added cardio with appropriate recovery, whereas there isn't much you can do about going to bed hungry.

Shazriki

10-18-2011, 02:55 PM

18 October 2011

After reading several helpful posts in the log and a bit of self reflection I finally decided that today was the day to drop macros. I know I've been teetering this way and that the past couple of days, but I was just looking at a calendar when I realized I have a little over 2 months to reach my goal for this cut. That's plenty of time. But all the time in the world won't be enough if I'm not willing to drop the cals and accept the baggage that comes with dieting. Mentally I have been putting it off and I know why: I kicked off this cut at high cals and I was losing quite well for a while, but now the metabolism is catching up and things aren't as clear-cut as they were before.

Hey at the end of the day, the food isn't going anywhere, and I don't want to be dieting forever, so something has to change ;)

Felt really good after cardio today, call me crazy but so far the active recovery benefits have far outweighed the extra expenditure in energy and I can't really complain with that.

Time to get things moving the fck along again!

Morning weight 196.8

Moving back down after yesterday's freak weigh in. Not good enough though, need more! Want more! New macros:

Training: 220P/335C/45F
Rest: 220P/230C/70F

Also doing an extra cardio session @ 425 cals burned. If this doesn't work I may have to stop eating carbs after 6pm trollface.jpg

The Workout

Crosstrainer 427 cals burned in 33:38

~The Eats~

Tuna steak, brussels sprouts and BBQ baked beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111018-IMGP0661.jpg

Classic XF LCP proats with a lot of PB&Co DCD

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111018-IMGP0664.jpg

Macros 221P/230C/71F

Deadlifts tomorrow <3 Gonna nail the form this time.

brendbro

10-19-2011, 03:19 AM

there is nothing quite like the focus and drive I get while training when I know most other students are in bed or just barely getting up

I used to do early morning cardio back a couple summers ago, could not agree more with this. And seeing the sunrise is so awesome. Never had a workout that early, will need to give it a try ASAP

bummer about the cal drop, but I suppose it was inevitable! And hey, it'll only push you further towards your goal!

Food is looking great as always, LCP proats are some of the best proats ever I must say. Can't decide if I prefer cinnamon roll or lemon cream pie. They're both INSANELY tasty.

Also, how'd you do that roast chicken? Looks divine

snrygo

10-19-2011, 05:05 AM

A little suggestion about feeling full with the cal drop: drink extra water at meals and you will likely feel fuller. Empirically, I have found that this really works well for me seeing as I am a *mini* bottomless pit ;)

Dexter3000

10-19-2011, 05:53 AM

And there's always protein fluff, of course ;)

btw, yesterday I made an awesome fluff and added 2 cookies (crumbled them) to the mix.. every scoop tasted like cheesecake :D

Shazriki

10-19-2011, 04:04 PM

I used to do early morning cardio back a couple summers ago, could not agree more with this. And seeing the sunrise is so awesome. Never had a workout that early, will need to give it a try ASAP

bummer about the cal drop, but I suppose it was inevitable! And hey, it'll only push you further towards your goal!

Food is looking great as always, LCP proats are some of the best proats ever I must say. Can't decide if I prefer cinnamon roll or lemon cream pie. They're both INSANELY tasty.

Also, how'd you do that roast chicken? Looks divine

It's a great feeling for sure. Getting up is tough, but once you're out there heading to the gym it all becomes worth it. Plus there's nothing like having a FULL day - such a rare thing as a student don't.

Hey I'm not too bummed about the cal drop, at the end of the day the name of the game is "lose weight by eating less" not "lose weight by eating as much as possible". As long as my performance in the gym remains first-class (all other factors considered) then I don't care as long as it produces results!

Mann LCP vs Cinn roll... still not really a contest in my book, Cinn roll smacks all others down in the first round. But LCP has surprised me. On the face of it you'd expect the flavor to be super artificial and full of nasty, but it is genuinely creamy with the fresh lemon taste - pretty awesome. On the subject of XF UP 2.0 I have effectively singled out cookies n creme as my least favorite flavor of the ones I've tried. So far for me it's Cinn Roll -> LCP/CPB -> CnC.

Roast chicken was just spiced up, rubbed down with a bit of olive oil, and thrown into the oven @ 200C for 30 mins. Works like a charm ;)

A little suggestion about feeling full with the cal drop: drink extra water at meals and you will likely feel fuller. Empirically, I have found that this really works well for me seeing as I am a *mini* bottomless pit ;)

Yep water is important, I probably drink enough to give most people hyponatremia as it is, so no worries there ;) Brushing teeth after meals also works nicely, as it washes any residual food and flavor out of your mouth. Also, since I have started dieting my dentist loves me.

And there's always protein fluff, of course ;)

btw, yesterday I made an awesome fluff and added 2 cookies (crumbled them) to the mix.. every scoop tasted like cheesecake :D

I haven't had fluff in around 6 months... nuts. TIME TO BUY SOME FROZEN BERRIES. Btw, that fluff sounds incredible, must try something soon. What recipe have you found the most success with lately?

Shazriki

10-19-2011, 04:24 PM

19 October 2011

Really happy with my workout today. New PRs in squats and deadlifts AND I finally nailed my deadlift form IMO (video below). Even made some progress on my accessory lifts which was unexpected since I usually crap out on these when I go all out on the compounds. Probably the only thing I wasn't satisfied with was my barbell press, where I was unable to hit all 5 reps on the last set. I'll stay at the same weight and hopefully after my forced lifting break next week I'll have recovered sufficiently to safely hit those numbers. I guess I'm just one of those people that loses pressing strength first while dieting. Looking at workouts from the past couple of weeks, that certainly seems to be the case.

I met up with a friend in the evening to watch a film (Midnight in Paris - hilarious actually) so I ended up having to eat all my food a couple of hours earlier than I'm used to, no biggie though - had a good time. Will be a bit hungrier in the morning but between cardio and classes I won't have too much time to think about it. Also one of my housemates (who also became a foodgeek like me while on internship) and I decided to buy an extra fridge so now I have somewhere to stash my overnight oats and leftovers lol.

Morning weight 195.4

Bam, new macros have an immediate effect, I can taste a new low tomorrow.

~The Workout~

Front squats 220 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Standing BB OH Press 118.1 x 5 x 2, 3
*
Deadlifts 352 x 5 Rep PR
*
BB Bicep curls 82.5 x 10 + 3,3,3,2
^I get some seriously weird looks when I load up oly bars to do curls.. but I have no choice, there aren't any small bars
*
DB Lateral raises 22's x 14 + 4,4,4,2

(best viewed full screen)
-i5AJtOB_ds

inb4whythefukisyourtorsosowide

~The Eats~

Roast chicken and ham sandwiches; sweet potato fries which got ahem a little "caramelized"

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111019-IMGP0665.jpg

Fried beef escalopes with butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111019-IMGP0666.jpg

Macros 225P/333C/44F

snrygo

10-19-2011, 05:14 PM

i am far from a DL expert, but i would say that you probs wanna sit back a little more and get that but lower.

just my $0.02

The Solution

10-19-2011, 06:03 PM

Few things i see:

- Sit back more, your butt is still relatively high and keeping your hips high to start
- Really foam roll your IT bands and learn to SIT BACK, literally focus on just pushing your ass back as far as you can go before starting and it will help set up your shoulders/back
- You bend over the bar and your shoulders are over the bar, try pinning your shoulders back and squeezing your lower back to get your back more vertical instead of horizontal.
- Picture running a ruler down your back at a 45 degree angle, and then look at how your back is almost 90 degree over the bar like you are doing a pendaly row.

Erick Stevens has a few deadlift videos, I know Eric your coach does as well, your could also youtube videos of Layne Norton, Doug Miller etc.. to really get a good glimpse. But nothing beats the rippletoe video

Syt7A23YnpA

Food on point as always.

Dexter3000

10-20-2011, 12:34 AM

Agree with the deadlift comments above; I also thought your back was slighty bend and getting that ass deeper on the start will help a lot aligning the whole body, like TheSolution said.

Best fluff for me lately has definitely been:
- 40g whey or casein
- 200g frozen strawberries (nuked for 60s to make them mash-able)
- 100ml (skim) milk

I first mash it with my mixer into a fully liquid mix, then I change the mixer-head into the other mixer to fluff it up. I never expected it but the amount of fruit really matters a lot, it's what fluffs it up nice IMO. If you want you can just crumble a cookie or two (the ones you would use for a cheesecake bottom) and mix it in when the fluff is half-way. I promise after downing 500ml of this cheesecake-fluff you will feel like you have been on a 3-day pie binge except you only had 300-400 calories with a load of protein instead.

Works for me :D

edit: also check this out if you have not already:
- http://www.proteinpow.com/ Full of recipes for protein powder cooking; breads, brownies, pies, cakes, pancakes, truffles, wraps, etc.
- http://www.proteinfluff.com/ (needs no explanation)

Shazriki

10-20-2011, 01:21 AM

i am far from a DL expert, but i would say that you probs wanna sit back a little more and get that but lower.

just my $0.02

Thanks dude, I could actually have gone back further but I thought (since posting my last set of vids and getting the critique from those) that initiating the pull with my hips higher would be more beneficial for a taller guy like me.

Few things i see:

- Sit back more, your butt is still relatively high and keeping your hips high to start
- Really foam roll your IT bands and learn to SIT BACK, literally focus on just pushing your ass back as far as you can go before starting and it will help set up your shoulders/back
- You bend over the bar and your shoulders are over the bar, try pinning your shoulders back and squeezing your lower back to get your back more vertical instead of horizontal.
- Picture running a ruler down your back at a 45 degree angle, and then look at how your back is almost 90 degree over the bar like you are doing a pendaly row.

Erick Stevens has a few deadlift videos, I know Eric your coach does as well, your could also youtube videos of Layne Norton, Doug Miller etc.. to really get a good glimpse. But nothing beats the rippletoe video

[youtube]Syt7A23YnpA[/yotube]

Food on point as always.

Thanks for chiming in Bob, as above, after hearing some others' criticism from a couple of weeks ago I thought that for a taller guy like me it makes more sense to start with the hips a bit higher to make sure my body is in a more solid configuration (since my hips end up rising first regardless of how I pull). I can guarantee you that I have no tightness in my IT bands that's preventing a better ROM though, years of martial arts and skiing more than took care of any flexibility issues!

Will definitely consider point #3 to improve lower back support and shoulder position - that's a factor of the lift I still haven't "felt out" 100% yet.

That video is excellent, I watch it a lot, thanks again for posting!

Agree with the deadlift comments above; I also thought your back was slighty bend and getting that ass deeper on the start will help a lot aligning the whole body, like TheSolution said.

Best fluff for me lately has definitely been:
- 40g whey or casein
- 200g frozen strawberries (nuked for 60s to make them mash-able)
- 100ml (skim) milk

I first mash it with my mixer into a fully liquid mix, then I change the mixer-head into the other mixer to fluff it up. I never expected it but the amount of fruit really matters a lot, it's what fluffs it up nice IMO. If you want you can just crumble a cookie or two (the ones you would use for a cheesecake bottom) and mix it in when the fluff is half-way. I promise after downing 500ml of this cheesecake-fluff you will feel like you have been on a 3-day pie binge except you only had 300-400 calories with a load of protein instead.

Works for me :D

edit: also check this out if you have not already:
- http://www.proteinpow.com/ Full of recipes for protein powder cooking; breads, brownies, pies, cakes, pancakes, truffles, wraps, etc.
- http://www.proteinfluff.com/ (needs no explanation)

Again I'm still not 100% convinced on ideal back angle/ass position being that far off for a guy of my proportions, but I'll keep watching videos and see if any queues jump out at me that would improve my form.

Ok so you're recipe for fluff is essentially unchanged from the one i first used, except you're getting more adventurous with the cookies ;) Tbh hunger hasn't reached critical mass for me even on rest days: kick the day off with a big salad, then a few hours later a couple of rice cakes with protein pudding and then a couple of hours later dinner. Maybe after the next cal drop I'll start doing more. (Having said all that I'm probably going to buy some mixed berries today and give it a shot because it's been an age and a half since I made fluff :D)

Quelly

10-20-2011, 01:52 AM

ian0789

10-20-2011, 02:33 AM

Also can try DB Deads, they helped me learn how to keep my chest out and back tight/ proper form on the stretch to start. I am not sure if its because you have more control over the motion of the DB's and how you can keep them closer to your body but the Bar does seem not to stick on you. Instead its past your shoulders. You also are not digging your butt low as it should be. If its a flexibility problem then like others said work on that part. If its to heavy and you need to be at that starting level to get the pull then drop the weight and sit down more.

Eats look good and nice to see the weight moving down. Lifting heavy while on a cut ;)

Dexter3000

10-20-2011, 07:07 AM

Ok so you're recipe for fluff is essentially unchanged from the one i first used, except you're getting more adventurous with the cookies ;) Tbh hunger hasn't reached critical mass for me even on rest days: kick the day off with a big salad, then a few hours later a couple of rice cakes with protein pudding and then a couple of hours later dinner. Maybe after the next cal drop I'll start doing more. (Having said all that I'm probably going to buy some mixed berries today and give it a shot because it's been an age and a half since I made fluff :D)

Yeah.. and it's basically a snack to kill cravings or hunger when necessary.

By the way, in regards to your cardio and recovery from resistance training; Layne Norton shared some interesting stuff about this on Twitter yesterday.

edit: did a quick search and here are 3 tweets about it:

"New analysis of data from Dr. Wilson at U of Tampa shows that low intensity cardio actually impairs muscle growth MORE than high intensity"

"Further shows that high intensity actually causes almost no muscle growth impairment and is far better for fat loss than low intensity"

"Now I ain't trying to say I told you so but... I TOLD YOU SO!"

Just thought I'd share :)

brendbro

10-20-2011, 07:10 AM

Yeah.. and it's basically a snack to kill cravings or hunger when necessary.

By the way, in regards to your cardio and recovery from resistance training; Layne Norton shared some interesting stuff about this on Twitter yesterday.

edit: did a quick search and here are 3 tweets about it:

"New analysis of data from Dr. Wilson at U of Tampa shows that low intensity cardio actually impairs muscle growth MORE than high intensity"

"Further shows that high intensity actually causes almost no muscle growth impairment and is far better for fat loss than low intensity"

"Now I ain't trying to say I told you so but... I TOLD YOU SO!"

Just thought I'd share :)

wait, wat!?

Shazriki

10-20-2011, 12:15 PM

First rep was good to go, after that you didn't set up as deep and did not get as deep nor sit back like people have been saying. The rippetoe video is a great way to learn the deadlift, and foam rolling IT bands, calves, lats, and doing a dynamic warm up before deads will help with mobility in that position.

Thanks Eric. And yea having watched my video a few more times it does indeed look like the first rep was good and that things progressively got worse over the set. I will look into foam rolling but tbh I don't think it's a flexibility issue. I think it's more lack of experience and still developing my OWN mental queues to ensure proper form throughout the lift.

Also can try DB Deads, they helped me learn how to keep my chest out and back tight/ proper form on the stretch to start. I am not sure if its because you have more control over the motion of the DB's and how you can keep them closer to your body but the Bar does seem not to stick on you. Instead its past your shoulders. You also are not digging your butt low as it should be. If its a flexibility problem then like others said work on that part. If its to heavy and you need to be at that starting level to get the pull then drop the weight and sit down more.

Eats look good and nice to see the weight moving down. Lifting heavy while on a cut ;)

Yarr the butt digging is an issue that I need to work on throughout the set. Tbh DB deads wouldn't do it for me, the weight just wouldn't be enough for the kind of rep ranges I like to stick to.

Man, lifting heavy on a cut is great. If you hit a PR it feels like a double PR since you're doing it on a deficit :)

Yeah.. and it's basically a snack to kill cravings or hunger when necessary.

By the way, in regards to your cardio and recovery from resistance training; Layne Norton shared some interesting stuff about this on Twitter yesterday.

edit: did a quick search and here are 3 tweets about it:

"New analysis of data from Dr. Wilson at U of Tampa shows that low intensity cardio actually impairs muscle growth MORE than high intensity"

"Further shows that high intensity actually causes almost no muscle growth impairment and is far better for fat loss than low intensity"

"Now I ain't trying to say I told you so but... I TOLD YOU SO!"

Just thought I'd share :)

Tbh, I have never considered doing HIIT while gaining or dieting. Now, last time around that I dieting I did plenty of high intensity endurance cardio (10km runs in well under an hour, sometimes longer distances) and that fried me out completely. I wasn't able to sustain it for very long and it was seriously affected my performance in the gym.

I know it's important to stay out of the realm of anecdote when having these discussions, but anecdotally (:rolleyes:) I have only noticed good things from doing cardio on offdays placed between training days. DOMS don't really set in, I feel looser, more energetic etc. Maybe it's purely psychological but if it works, it works.

Anyway, did Layne really write that? Seems rather bro.

wait, wat!?

Yea I'm a little confused too.

Dexter3000

10-20-2011, 12:29 PM

Tbh, I have never considered doing HIIT while gaining or dieting. Now, last time around that I dieting I did plenty of high intensity endurance cardio (10km runs in well under an hour, sometimes longer distances) and that fried me out completely. I wasn't able to sustain it for very long and it was seriously affected my performance in the gym.

I know it's important to stay out of the realm of anecdote when having these discussions, but anecdotally (:rolleyes:) I have only noticed good things from doing cardio on offdays placed between training days. DOMS don't really set in, I feel looser, more energetic etc. Maybe it's purely psychological but if it works, it works.

Anyway, did Layne really write that? Seems rather bro.

Yea I'm a little confused too.

First off all I was just sharing it and I fully agree that you should do what feels good and what works for you, no doubt. You are your own best judge. What Layne comes up with is scientific data, and so it should be viewed in my opinion.

And yeah, he wrote it I am just copy pasting:

http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126705921396195328
http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126706161943715840
http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126706225944600577

Quelly

10-20-2011, 01:05 PM

Really shouldn't confuse you guys too much....weight training is an anaerobic, power driven, type II muscle fiber dominant activity. So is high intensity cardio. Low intensity endurance work is asking your body to adapt in the other direction.

The devil is in the details however when it comes to implementation. Sure, HIIT might be the best for lifters, but it is so similar to lifting that the recovery component must be considered as it can prevent recovery from weight training and end up leading to injury, back cycling of weights and burn out if done with too much intensity, frequency or volume. Just like trying to do squats for high volume, high frequency AND high intensity days on end back to back.
Likewise, "cardio" can be of such a low intensity that is not really even cardio vascular work. What many bodybuilders do: incline walking on a treadmill, does not even get their HR to triple digits. Its more burning calories than it is cardio. The adaptive demand is non-existant. Its more like NEAT than actual cardio work, so labeling this as "endurance cardio" and seeing it as detrimental would be a mistake.

Just gotta think about the gray area and the details

Shazriki

10-20-2011, 01:20 PM

First off all I was just sharing it and I fully agree that you should do what feels good and what works for you, no doubt. You are your own best judge. What Layne comes up with is scientific data, and so it should be viewed in my opinion.

And yeah, he wrote it I am just copy pasting:

http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126705921396195328
http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126706161943715840
http://twitter.com/#!/BioLayne/status/126706225944600577

Hehe I know dude I was just responding, sorry if it seemed snappy. I fully encourage these kinds of topics to be discussed in the log I was just trying to make the point that I could only comment on the cardio issue ANECDOTALLY i.e. I have no science to back it up just my gut feeling :)

Eric makes some very good points re: the recovery aspect of HIIT below though:

Really shouldn't confuse you guys too much....weight training is an anaerobic, power driven, type II muscle fiber dominant activity. So is high intensity cardio. Low intensity endurance work is asking your body to adapt in the other direction.

The devil is in the details however when it comes to implementation. Sure, HIIT might be the best for lifters, but it is so similar to lifting that the recovery component must be considered as it can prevent recovery from weight training and end up leading to injury, back cycling of weights and burn out if done with too much intensity, frequency or volume. Just like trying to do squats for high volume, high frequency AND high intensity days on end back to back.
Likewise, "cardio" can be of such a low intensity that is not really even cardio vascular work. What many bodybuilders do: incline walking on a treadmill, does not even get their HR to triple digits. Its more burning calories than it is cardio. The adaptive demand is non-existant. Its more like NEAT than actual cardio work, so labeling this as "endurance cardio" and seeing it as detrimental would be a mistake.

Just gotta think about the gray area and the details

The bold is pretty much my feeling on cardio. Sure the intensity varies over each individual session, but by and large I can breathe through my nose for the duration of each cardio session.

Dexter3000

10-20-2011, 01:29 PM

Hehe I know dude I was just responding, sorry if it seemed snappy. I fully encourage these kinds of topics to be discussed in the log I was just trying to make the point that I could only comment on the cardio issue ANECDOTALLY i.e. I have no science to back it up just my gut feeling :)

Eric makes some very good points re: the recovery aspect of HIIT below though:

The bold is pretty much my feeling on cardio. Sure the intensity varies over each individual session, but by and large I can breathe through my nose for the duration of each cardio session.

Oh, I did not mean to sound irritated or something at all.. I wasn't :)

Agreed on Eric's points and I definitely know what you mean with just doing a nice cardio session, I love it too!

vitornoob

10-20-2011, 01:31 PM

Here, bro (:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/steady-state-and-interval-training-part-1.html

edit: sorry if already posted

Shazriki

10-20-2011, 03:18 PM

Oh, I did not mean to sound irritated or something at all.. I wasn't :)

Agreed on Eric's points and I definitely know what you mean with just doing a nice cardio session, I love it too!

All good dude!

Here, bro (:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/steady-state-and-interval-training-part-1.html

edit: sorry if already posted

Most likely have read it before but I'll probably have another browse now that you've posted it ;)

Shazriki

10-20-2011, 03:26 PM

20 October 2011

Had a nice relaxing morning since lectures only start at 2pm on thursdays for me. Went up to uni a bit earlier to get some cardio in before class. Was pretty beat by the end of it all but I still made it to the supermarket to stock up on fresh meat and veg for the new fridge. Now I can actually stock a decent variety of stuff :D

Not much else to report, just another day in the books really!

Morning weight 195.2

Cmon new low tomorrow!

The Workout

Crosstrainer 427 cals burned in 33:28

~The Eats~

Turkey and veggie stir fry

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111020-IMGP0669.jpg

Macros 219P/232C/70F

Shazriki

10-21-2011, 03:36 PM

21 October 2011

Had a great day today, diet results and productivity all-in-one! Woke up to a new low this morning so decided to go full douchebag in the gym: tank top, spikey hair, determined scowl. You know the look. Pretty glad I did, since I noticed that my shoulders are getting pretty lean, new veins popping out across the delts and considering that a) I train fasted and b) today is the workout where I have the least indirect arm work, that made me damn happy.

Workout was good, felt strong throughout except for bench press. I've more or less made peace with the fact that since my bench (and pressing in general) sucks naturally, it'll be the first of my lifts to stall out on while dieting. In fairness I haven't backcycled on my bench press since june probably, so I'm due for one anyway. Squats, rows, calves and hammies all got blasted and in retrospect I probably could have pushed a bit more on squats, but since I'll be training on sunday I subconsciously left some gas in the tank. So yeah, as I just mentioned I'll be moving my usual monday workout to sunday because I have a busy beginning of the week next week. On Monday I'll be driving to an airfield near London to do this flight test (totally stoked for it) and then Tuesday/Wednesday I'll be all wrapped up in the eye surgery. Tuesday I'll actually go under the laser but I'll have to go the following day for a check up. They tell me training is out of the question for about a week so I'll give myself until the monday after next to get back into things.

For next week training wise I'll be doing my 4 sessions of LISS but I'll just keep to rest day macros on days when I do nothing. I'm hoping this "forced recuperation" will set me up for some new diet gains in the gym when I get back to it! Anyway this weekend looks like another chilled affair, MAYBE going out tomorrow but I have a lot of work to get on with. Also winter is rolling in rather fast so time to buy a new coat methinks!

Have a good weekend guys!

Morning weight 194.8 - new low

Hello 194's

~The Workout~

Squats 269.5x5 Rep PR, 242x6, 220x7
*
BB Bench Press 187x4x3
I decided to go all out on the last set and threw up a 5th assisted rep
*
BB row 192.5 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Calf raises 246.4 x 10 + 4,4,4,4
Calves were exploding after this
*
RDLs 154 x 10,8

Yea I know I don't usually do RDLs on Fridays but some little Chinese guy was monopolizing the leg curl and when I asked him how many sets he had left he replied "4" I was almost running late for lectures and didn't have time for fukarounditis so I just slapped a couple of plates on a bar and banged out some higher reps than I normally do for RDls.

~The Eats~

Beef strips with honey-glazed roast butternut squash, onions and carrots

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111021-IMGP0672.jpg

Dymatize Fudge brownie proats with Caramel Nibbles

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111021-IMGP0674.jpg

Macros 219P/336C/45F

66jzmstr

10-21-2011, 03:46 PM

NICE

Good-looking eats as ever. Nice on the proats too, reading this after just finishing my lunch of choco-banana-spice proatmeal.

Keep killin' it, Shazriki!

Shazriki

10-22-2011, 01:28 AM

NICE

Good-looking eats as ever. Nice on the proats too, reading this after just finishing my lunch of choco-banana-spice proatmeal.

Keep killin' it, Shazriki!

Thanks Dave! I assume to go along with your proats you are still smashing pints of B&J's on a regular basis? :D

66jzmstr

10-22-2011, 08:31 AM

Thanks Dave! I assume to go along with your proats you are still smashing pints of B&J's on a regular basis? :DAbsolutely! My quest is nearing its end, though! I've only got about four flavors left, three of which now sit in my freezer. The fleeting, Walmart-exclusive Pumpkin Cheesecake still eludes my clutches. I love ice cream (surprise, surprise), but I'm already starting to consume less in favor of other desserts. Lately it's been junk cereals from my youth, but I'm looking to move into other areas - pies, cake, etc. Unfortunately, donuts - and some cakes (choco, carrot, etc.) - end up being high in both fat and carbs, which make them a bit more cumbersome to work in. I might start baking some of my own stuff, as I've come across some good recipes here and have some unopened peanut flour I'm curious to try.

Keep killin' it, and I'll keep lurkin'!

(BTW, thanks for the post in my log. I just responded there, but it grew into a mega-post - watch out! :D )

Shazriki

10-22-2011, 02:38 PM

Absolutely! My quest is nearing its end, though! I've only got about four flavors left, three of which now sit in my freezer. The fleeting, Walmart-exclusive Pumpkin Cheesecake still eludes my clutches. I love ice cream (surprise, surprise), but I'm already starting to consume less in favor of other desserts. Lately it's been junk cereals from my youth, but I'm looking to move into other areas - pies, cake, etc. Unfortunately, donuts - and some cakes (choco, carrot, etc.) - end up being high in both fat and carbs, which make them a bit more cumbersome to work in. I might start baking some of my own stuff, as I've come across some good recipes here and have some unopened peanut flour I'm curious to try.

Keep killin' it, and I'll keep lurkin'!

(BTW, thanks for the post in my log. I just responded there, but it grew into a mega-post - watch out! :D )

Haha you certainly have been a diligent crusader. I can't imagine getting through that much ice cream in any realistic time frame myself, but if you enjoy it more power to you! All that said, pumpkin cheesecake sounds like an awesome flavor so you should do your best to seek it out. That's one of the beauties of controlled bulking IMO, you can pretty quickly scratch several itches since your diet is less restricted and then you either move onto a more steady state diet or, like you (and me), become interested in experimenting. Both are good things. Incidentally, there are innumerous low fat variations for any baked dessert you care to mention, the key is usually using applesauce or yogurt to replace the fat in the recipe. The end result tends to be a little denser and moister - personally I prefer this.

Sometimes you don't even need a specific "diet" recipe, since I've found applesauce works almost exactly like oil in equal volume for anything that is essentially quick bread (so cakes, muffins, pancakes etc.). For pastries and cookies, you do need some real fat, but hey, they taste awesome.

I'll run along to browse the mega post now :)

Shazriki

10-22-2011, 02:56 PM

22 October 2011

Woo, another full day. Woke up to a huge whoosh this morning, dropped another 1.2lbs from yesterday, don't ask me how or why, since I didn't even feel especially dehydrated or anything. We'll see if that's a fluke or not tomorrow. Anyway, smashed some coffee and made my way up to the gym for a quick bout of cardio. Initially, hams and calves weren't having fun with it but by the end of the session after some stretching I was feeling excellent. Stopped off at the shop to grab a couple of things for lunch, then came home and did a bit of aerospace structures coursework before cooking. In the old days I would RARELY do work on saturdays but this year I fear it's going to be a regular occurrence. Once I'd gotten bored with all that I decided to head into town to look for a new coat, found one that fit like a glove, and bought it. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow the plan is to do a bit of work in the morning then head up to the gym for a proper workout since it'll be my last opportunity to do so until the monday after next. Even though I really do count on the extra day of rest over the weekends I'm feeling especially good this evening so I'm sure I should be able to put up a good performance in the weight room tomorrow.

On a slightly related note, I was watching one of Lyle McDonald's latest pieces: Applied Nutrition for Mixed Sports, and while most of the information it contains is pretty logical to anyone who's read up on the subject (so most of us) I was re-awared on the comparatively low amount of caffeine in coffee. Now Lyle recommends roughly 3-5 mg/kg body weight but that's for people who train fasted and don't have extra catecholamines in circulation, so I'll probably get some standard 200mg strength tabs and start popping one about an hour before training. I won't ramp up to the dose, since I know from my little experiment with EC in the past that I can handle the stims fairly well. It'll be interesting to see if it has any noticeable effect on my performance!

Morning weight 193.6 - new low wtf!

Slightly skeptical, but I'll take it. Will be interesting to see what the next couple of weeks hold!

~The Eats~

Thai-style salmon & bacon salad with chili and fish sauce dressing

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111022-IMGP0676-1.jpg

English muffin with butter.. classic

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111022-IMGP0678.jpg

Beef stew with broccoli, carrots, shallots

This was freaking delicious and I made it up completely on the spot, the sauce was just some chopped tomatoes mixed with gravy granules

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111022-IMGP0680.jpg

Macros 225P/225C/70F

Shazriki

10-23-2011, 01:51 PM

23 October 2011

I woke up feeling extremely good this morning, DOMS had more or less dissipated except in my calves. Even so, I wasn't too sure what to expect during the workout seeing as I didn't have my usual full weekend of rest in me. Well, amazingly it was probably one of the best workouts I've had in the last couple of weeks in terms of overall energy. New PR in squats, DB bench and lat pulleys - and the PR in squats means another weight bump when I come back to the gym in a week's time! Super excited for that. This could all have been some sort of "mental outlier" since I did have the thought in the back of my head "you'll be out of the gym for a week, on this day you shall ruin yourself" And ruin myself I did.

I was toying with the idea of doing a refeed today but decided it was unnecessary. My energy has been really good lately and aside from a bit of cardio next week I'll be doing very little to tax my body. I will probably do one the monday I start training again, just to give myself a little carb bomb after this week.

The rest of my day was fairly boring, just a bit of cooking and more aero work, have an early start tomorrow so probably just going to lay in bed and throw a film on. Flight test tomorrow, yeah baby!

Morning weight 194

~The Workout~

Squats 269.5x6 Rep PR, 242x7, 220x8
*
DB Bench Press 60.5's x 12, 12, 10 Rep PR
*
CG Lat Pulldowns 176 x 9 + 3,3,3,2 PR
*
EZ-bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 12, 11, 9
*
Pallof Press 38.5 x 10 x 2 (each side)

~The Eats~

Turkey chili topped with quark; lettuce

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111023-IMGP0681.jpg

Bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and SF pancake syrup

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111023-IMGP0684.jpg

Macros 219P/334C/46F

Oh yeah, I went full douchebag at the gym again today, this was the best I could muster in terms of pump on 10g BCAA :p

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111023-IMG_0019.jpg

vitornoob

10-23-2011, 02:35 PM

1 week no gym? ): school?

awesome eatings as always, man..

Great workout, gratz for the PR

Flight test? is what i am thinking? explain! *-*

binks09

10-23-2011, 02:56 PM

Please, we all know you were trying to snap of pic of that guy's ass behind you.

Just kidding, nice going Shaz. Any plans to drop cals a bit during this week-off?

Shazriki

10-23-2011, 11:59 PM

1 week no gym? ): school?

awesome eatings as always, man..

Great workout, gratz for the PR

Flight test? is what i am thinking? explain! *-*

Yea it's because of the eye surgery I'm having tomorrow. Personally I would go back in as soon as I feel fine but they actually 2 weeks off from the gym (this is most likely the usual health and safety nonsense that's taken over the US/UK, so I'll probably be fine by the weekend lol).

The flight test is probably not what you think haha, I don't get to fly the airplane or anything. What we're going to do is go up in a modified Jetstream twin-prop which was data sensors all over the aircraft control surfaces, then execute various manoeuvres to see what kind of forces they generate (or what kind of forces are needed to execute the manoeuvre). Should be pretty sweet but apparently chance of airsickness is high haha.

Thanks for stopping by!

Please, we all know you were trying to snap of pic of that guy's ass behind you.

Just kidding, nice going Shaz. Any plans to drop cals a bit during this week-off?

LOL only just noticed that now, that guy sure is giving it all up for the camera :rolleyes:

Been thinking about a short term cal drop, it all depends on whether or not I can do cardio, if they say to refrain from any activity for a week, then I'll be dropping cals by 100 or so a day and making a conscious effort to walk everywhere. Hopefully that'll keep things humming along!

andyboi

10-24-2011, 12:12 AM

strong delt/bicep insertions right there man! We all have douche moments, don't worry ;)

Dexter3000

10-24-2011, 01:19 AM

Good work Shaz! I know for us guys it's difficult, but try to enjoy the week off ;)

bigjimmy123

10-25-2011, 02:20 AM

Hey Shaz hope the eye surgery went well and you are recovering nicely :)

Jimmy

Shazriki

10-26-2011, 07:36 AM

strong delt/bicep insertions right there man! We all have douche moments, don't worry ;)

Thanks dude! I just wish there was a biit more size there. Definitely something I'm going to work on in the future! Tbh the douche moments feel great, once I get shredded I will JUST ONCE wear a tank to to uni and watch the heads turn ;)

Good work Shaz! I know for us guys it's difficult, but try to enjoy the week off ;)

Haha it's SO difficult, dropping cals to compensate for less activity, not being able to lift ITS HELL :p Nah not really, but it certainly isn't the most entertaining time.

Hey Shaz hope the eye surgery went well and you are recovering nicely :)

Jimmy

Thanks man! In fact I just got back from my first follow-up appointment and it looks like my eyes are healing very nicely, actually I'mma update that below now:

Sup guys, still alive

..Been a very busy couple of days. Had the flight test on monday and my eye surgery yesterday. The flight test was awesome and easily one of the best experiences of my life. As an aspiring aerospace engineering, it was probably the best experiences of my life, being able to see first hand how a plane responds to disturbances in flight and how closely the theory applies to the practice when it comes to aerodynamics.

Just got back from my follow-up appointment at the eye clinic. The surgery went very well and it looks like my eyes are healing nicely. Yesterday I was pretty much unable to look at any sort of screen/light source until the late evening, by which time I was pretty tired from the codeine tablets I'd been taking all day. Following the surgery my vision was very blurry anyway, so reading would have been difficult. This morning I woke up to markedly improved vision, but still quite blurry. The doctor told me it can take up to a week for vision to become clear and stabilize, so I'm not worried. Given that I'm recovering well I'm expecting a pretty good final outcome.

The GOOD news it that I'm clear to get back into the gym next week, but I'll be giving it until next wednesday just to make sure I give myself a full week of recovery before jumping back into heavy weights. On monday I might do a very short light workout just to tell the muscles they're in use again. Nothing extreme, maybe just a couple of sets of squats, bench press, pull downs, and deads, then outta there.

In order to compensate for the lack of activity, I've been walking a bit more than I usually do (if I need to go into town and I'm not rushed I'll walk instead of taking the bus) and I've dropped macros to 220P/200C/70F. It sucks ass, but I don't want this week to be a stall just because I can't make it to the gym. Once I'm back into training I'll put macros back to where they were.

Update later today with food!

Dexter3000

10-26-2011, 08:41 AM

Glad to hear everything went well. Maybe I missed it, but is it laser surgery so you no longer need glasses?

Shazriki

10-26-2011, 09:00 AM

Glad to hear everything went well. Maybe I missed it, but is it laser surgery so you no longer need glasses?

Thanks Dex, and yes it's to permanently correct my vision. So far things are a bit blurry but it can take up to a week for vision to restore!

Shazriki

10-26-2011, 02:44 PM

26 October 2011

So as I mentioned in my update earlier, vision is restoring little by little and all in all I can't complain about the rate of recovery so far. Probably the only quibble I have is that looking at screens is still a little uncomfortable at times, pretty much everything I own that has a screen is dimmed as low as possible while still being readable. I'm mentally preparing myself for a temporary dip in vision either tomorrow or friday since the eye heals radially first before moving into the center. And once it gets the center there is some light scabbing on the cornea or something, so my vision will be a bit scattered, after that it's plain sailing.

But like I said the recovery is going well, and the doctor said the same so I'm grateful to be healing quickly. No doubt it's the nutrient rich food and vitamin D I pump my body with on a daily basis ;)
So this weekend I've got a friend visiting so there'll be a bit of partying and eating out most definitely. No weights until Wednesday anyway, so might as well take a bit of time off both physically and mentally. Anyway I find that taking a couple of days off from the diet AT WORST puts at break even for a couple of days, it rarely sets me back and sometimes I even lose a bit.

Oh yeah, I've dropped macros to 220P/200C/70F just for these next few days to keep things humming along. It sucks but it's only for a little while and if I can still get my daily bowl of oats in, I'm a happy man.

Morning weight 193.6

Matched my previous low, hopefully will end up lighter in the morning, 192's here we come!

~The Eats~

Some eats from the last couple of days:

Raspberry-Vanilla Fluff

Yup I tried it after about 6 months off... it was alright, still not my favorite snack

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111024-IMGP0685-1.jpg

Fried beef filets with roast broccoli, mushrooms and brussels sprouts

Yes they were super rare, come at me

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111024-IMGP0687.jpg

You know you love it, XF CPB proats with PB and extra PB mixed in

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111024-IMGP0688.jpg

Chicken and cabbage sauteed in cream cheese and broth; roast mushrooms and sprouts

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111026-IMGP0689.jpg

Baked trout basted with a thai chili dressing; baked potato with tomato-basil cream cheese and broccoli

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111026-IMGP0692.jpg

Macros 222P/201C/69F

vitornoob

10-26-2011, 02:56 PM

NordAK

10-26-2011, 04:34 PM

Glad to hear that you're recovery is going well... and the weight loss seems to be going great! This thread inspires me to bulk all the way to 200. Cutting with your macros doesn't sound too bad.

Shazriki

10-27-2011, 11:20 AM

I hope that you get better soon, bro!

next week you will be killing some PRs at gym and seeing much better than an eagle!

Amazing eatings as always, i am pretty addicted in Brussels Sprouts now, so much good

good recovery :)

Thanks Vitor, and yea I hope things turn out that way too. It would be an awesome feeling to come back to the gym refreshed and just smash some new PRs :D

I have the same addiction now, it's crazy isn't it? Such an underrated vegetable, I have them almost every day now. Even boiled they're great. I've been thinking of stir frying them but probably wouldn't work too well.

Glad to hear that you're recovery is going well... and the weight loss seems to be going great! This thread inspires me to bulk all the way to 200. Cutting with your macros doesn't sound too bad.

Hey NordAk! Thanks for the well-wishing, and yep weight loss is indeed still happening :)

Glad to see that the thread inspired you to go all the way to the big 200, it's a good number to aim for! Are the stats in your avi up to date, if so then you have a good amount of lean gaining ahead of you. Just don't do what I did towards the end of my bulk and let the food dictate the gains, eat only as much as you need to add the weight slowly: both to the bar and to your frame.

And yea my cutting macros aren't too bad so far, and the only reason they're as low as they have been for the past couple of days is because I've been out of the gym. Something I'm learning on this cut is that cardio seems to have a negligible impact on my overall hunger, whereas cutting cals and reducing available food volume does. So I've decided a compromise approach is best for me with a moderate cardio volume to allow me to eat more even on rest days!

Shazriki

10-27-2011, 02:11 PM

27 October 2011

Well it really does seem as if my eyes are healing on fast forward, the precipitous drop in visual acuity the doctors predicted at around day 3 happened today I think. Vision was noticeably blurred and I'm told it should just improve from here on out. Needless to say it was yet another day where I had every excuse to ditch schoolwork and just watch episodes of the Sopranos. Going to have a bunch of catching up to do next week, BUT it's all worth it ;)

Looking forward to tomorrow, got a friend visiting for the weekend and a big night planned in Bristol with the university French Society. And yes, 90% of the members are chicks. Awww yeah.

Morning weight 193 - new low

Boom! Should see another low tomorrow, and hopefully this weekend won't set me too far back, very pleased with the progress this week.

~The Eats~

Flatbread chicken pizza

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111027-IMGP0695.jpg

Macros 222P/200C/74F - forgot to count my fish oils lulz

Trillios

10-27-2011, 06:56 PM

Shazriki

10-30-2011, 11:38 AM

Nice to see drops in weight dude! I am the same when it comes to cardio or activity in general. It puts me in a nice deficit but never makes me hungry. I HATED (still do) the 200cal drop I did two weeks ago but it's definitely putting me on override for the cut. Also good to hear you're slowly recovering from the procedure. It's nice to have a day to day narrative on what it's like. Keep it up!

Thanks man! I think increasing cardio before dropping food is easier only when you're not running yourself into the ground with training volume., you know? It seems that the body responds much more acutely to less food than more activity!

And recovery has been going great the last couple of days since I last posted. Vision is much clearer, sensitivity to light is back to normal, the only strange thing so far if I had to nitpick is that my vision has restored slightly faster in my right eye compared to my left. But apparently the eyes healing at different rates is normal, so I'm not worried!

Quelly

10-30-2011, 11:51 AM

Shazriki

10-30-2011, 12:07 PM

30 October 2011

Well had a blast this weekend, caught up with several people I haven't really seen since leaving on my internship as well as my best friend who came down from London for the weekend. Had a couple of nights out and I must say with the "moderation is everything" mindset I'm rocking these days it was much more enjoyable than some nights I've had in the past. Waking up sans hangover but having still had a few drinks is an awesome feeling!

Diet wise I didn't really worry too much about counting for the weekend. I just decided to eat "like a normal person" in the sense that I just ate 2 normal meals a day and didn't worry about p/c/f totals. I find that if I give myself a couple of days like this every now and again it's a nice mental relief and has a fairly negligible impact on my results/performance. Since I couldn't train anyway I wasn't worried at all about optimizing my nutrition anyway. I actually do MORE damage trying to worry about hitting protein or whatever than just eating my meals and being done with it.

So being that it was an "off" weekend I haven't weighed in the last couple of days, but I did hit a new low of 192.6 on Friday morning, which was nice. Now that I'll be able to get back into training this week I'm expecting some good things to happen. Looking leaner every day in the mirror and I'm not worried at all about hitting my goal before christmas. Will most likely do a refeed on wednesday depending on weigh ins on monday/tuesday. Given that I've enjoyed some good eats this weekend I may do a slightly lighter refeed.

~The Eats~

Yorkshire pudding, sausages, steak & kidney pie, steak & ale pie

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111029-IMG_0074.jpg

Fish and chips with mushy peas

AWWWWWW YEAHHHH

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111029-IMG_0075.jpg

The classic Sunday roast: roast beef, potatoes and parsnips with yorkshire pudding

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111030-IMG_0078.jpg

Macros ?

Shazriki

10-30-2011, 12:08 PM

its a lot easier to rack up an appreciable deficit cutting food vs adding activity, even 3 400kcal cardio sessions added to a weekly schedule won't equal reduction of 10g fat and 25g carb reduction per day.

True, nutrition ultimately will decide, but damn E, it's just FEELS so much easier to clock a little more time on the elliptical ;)

Shazriki

10-31-2011, 01:58 PM

Update tomorrow folks. Just about to head to get my hallow-freak on.

Happy Halloween!

Shazriki

11-01-2011, 01:08 AM

31 October 2011

Well had a good time last night meeting up for a couple of drinks and all the usual banter that ensues on halloween. Actually got home fairly early so am not completely destroyed this morning (sleep is precious). Yesterday was also the last day that I'll be on the lowered macros since I'm going back to my usual training effective immediately, doing my usual Tuesday cardio session and tomorrow will be refeed+weights (YES!).

Morning weight 191.4 - new low

Even after a weekend of eating whatever I wanted and drinking here and there, I still manage to hop on the scale and smash a new low. Feelsgoodman, made fantastic progress this week.

~The Eats~

Wrap with chicken slices, cheese, lettuce and tomato with smokey chipotle chili sauce

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111031-IMGP0697.jpg

Chicken breasts with stewed cabbage

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111031-IMGP0699.jpg

Macros 218P/200C/70F + a couple of drinks

Dexter3000

11-01-2011, 03:01 AM

Dat wrap!! awesome broseph.

Also, you're killing it on the scale man! Strong weight loss.. don't go too fast ;)

bigjimmy123

11-01-2011, 03:17 AM

Note to self:

Never ever read Shazriki or BNizzle123's log when you are in your last 2 hrs of fasting!

Looking good man thats crazy you hit a new low out of the gym shows how strong your diet is

Jimmy

snrygo

11-01-2011, 06:40 AM

Looks like u finally got ur hands on some chipotle eh?

Keep killin it breh. I bet ull be breaking 190 soon.

Shazriki

11-01-2011, 06:53 AM

Dat wrap!! awesome broseph.

Also, you're killing it on the scale man! Strong weight loss.. don't go too fast ;)

Yea buddy, that flatbread was awesome, will be doing again and again :D

Also as for the weight loss, a bit of drinking last night (only two drinks) has resulted in a bit of bloat which has put the brakes on the weight loss for a day or so - a good thing. But I ain't even mad because I can train again!

Note to self:

Never ever read Shazriki or BNizzle123's log when you are in your last 2 hrs of fasting!

Looking good man thats crazy you hit a new low out of the gym shows how strong your diet is

Jimmy

Haha those are the risks of coming in here my man! Yea calories were aggressively low for the last week so I am looking forward to upping macros slightly back to where they were pre-surgery to slow things down a bit and deal with the hardcore hunger I've been feeling the last couple of days.

Looks like u finally got ur hands on some chipotle eh?

Keep killin it breh. I bet ull be breaking 190 soon.

YEA I did, I was in some random delicatessen yesterday when I caught sight of this beauty:

http://www.scorchio.co.uk/images/sdcf-chipotle.jpg

And it is seriously awesome, almost like a chipotle relish.

And thanks dude, I hope by this time in a couple of weeks I'll be in the 189's. ;)

Shazriki

11-01-2011, 03:28 PM

1 November 2011

Busy day today. Got up a bit earlier than usual so that I could call my dad as it was his birthday today. Even though I got to bed a bit later than I usually do last night I actually wasn't too tired - the last couple of days I've been using this sleep application on the iPhone which attempts to wake you up at the lightest part of your sleep cycle at around the time you set the alarm which basically results in you waking up without that groggy feeling. Has been working pretty well. Today was one of the two longer days in my week, so there was no getting around that, I'm pretty damn tired now :)

Managed to get back into the gym today for some cardio which I must admit felt amazing even though it was just cardio. I was reminded that it is a privilege to be able to train like we do, day after day, week after week. Not everyone has that privilege, and even then they sometimes get around it. Me, it took me a week of "forced" break to be reminded of how much I love to lift these days and how much I appreciate the ability to go into the gym 7 days a week and do my thing! So with that in mind, I'm looking forward to a crazy workout tomorrow. I'm going to lift things up and put them down - and will love every moment of it.

I haven't decided but I might do another max effort day and test my 1RMs (just to see if the week off did any good from a recovery point of view). Either way, it's going to be a REFEED! The lowered macros definitely produced some results but I'm happy to be going back to the old rest macros, a difference of 30g carbs is pretty damn significant and today I feel much fuller compared to previous evenings.

Morning weight 193

~The Eats~

Chicken salad topped with Smokey Chipotle Chili Sauce (addicted)

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111101-IMGP0702-1.jpg

XF CPB proats with PB mixed in; Reese's Pieces on top

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111101-IMGP0704.jpg

Macros 222P/222C/70F

brendbro

11-01-2011, 05:18 PM

I was reminded that it is a privilege to be able to train like we do, day after day, week after week. Not everyone has that privilege, and even then they sometimes get around it. Me, it took me a week of "forced" break to be reminded of how much I love to lift these days and how much I appreciate the ability to go into the gym 7 days a week and do my thing! So with that in mind, I'm looking forward to a crazy workout tomorrow. I'm going to lift things up and put them down - and will love every moment of it.

so very true. I always tell myself this before sets nowadays - EVERY rep of every set is a privilege, I'm lucky to get to do this... so give it your all and don't take it for granted. Really great way to motivate yourself for a big set. :)

Awesome to hear the week off went well and recovery flew by.
also, I don't know HOW you do it but somehow you always manage to make me crave salad, any particular advice on making a good salad?

Ignoring numbers - how do you feel the weight loss is coming? For me I'm actually noticing new cuts that I've never seen before and it's basically the most exciting thing ever lol, also noticing my legs seem to be getting leaner quicker than rest of body... ah well guess that's the way the cookie crumbles :p

snrygo

11-01-2011, 05:40 PM

Chicken salad topped with Smokey Chipotle Chili Sauce (addicted)

i told u that it was addictive lol.

eta: when i saw those proats, i immediately thought that there should be some chipotle pow(d)er sprinkled on top. Chipotle is such an awesome spice that it can be used in both savoury and sweet applications.

Hell, i even put it on my damn pudding lol

Shazriki

11-02-2011, 04:28 PM

so very true. I always tell myself this before sets nowadays - EVERY rep of every set is a privilege, I'm lucky to get to do this... so give it your all and don't take it for granted. Really great way to motivate yourself for a big set. :)

Awesome to hear the week off went well and recovery flew by.
also, I don't know HOW you do it but somehow you always manage to make me crave salad, any particular advice on making a good salad?

Ignoring numbers - how do you feel the weight loss is coming? For me I'm actually noticing new cuts that I've never seen before and it's basically the most exciting thing ever lol, also noticing my legs seem to be getting leaner quicker than rest of body... ah well guess that's the way the cookie crumbles :p

That's a great way to psyche yourself up. Don't be scared of the next set, embrace it, love every rep, it isn't pain it's pleasure :)

And thanks brah, sitting around was tough but it did give me some time to catch up with friends and chill out for a bit. Man there aren't any special tricks to my salads. I'm one of those weirdos who really likes raw vegetables, so I'll typically grab a 100-200g of 2-3 veggies one of which I always try to make an onion or pepper simply because they're awesome for the crunch/flavor. I don't count the lettuce towards that (aka in addition to the veggies). I usually use iceberg but romaine rocks and so does red lettuce. Meat is whatever you want really, chicken breast works great, as does tuna, salmon, pretty much any fish. Haven't yet made a steak salad but that one is on the cards.\

For dressing I'm a less is more type of guy. Usually just olive oil and a combo of spices to suit the ingredients, I find the creamy dressings (Thousand island, ranch etc) weigh down the salad too much and make it soupy. If I do use salad cream it's only just enough to coat the lettuce and that's it. Btw a bad ass dressing I've made a couple of times lately to go with fish is 2T fish sauce, 2T lemon juice, a sprinkle of sweetener and some chopped up fresh chili. Makes an awesome thai-style dressing for any salad.

Pretty much having the same experience as you re: weight loss. Slowly but surely seeing more cuts coming up especially around the delts and a bit of quad separation happening too (which is a big deal for me because I carry most of my fat on my legs - my ass has enough stores to keep norway warm through winter). I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm losing fat around my ass/hammies since pants are fitting even nicer and like I said I carry a lot of it there. If things keep going this way I might be able to jump into 31" pants by christmas.

i told u that it was addictive lol.

eta: when i saw those proats, i immediately thought that there should be some chipotle pow(d)er sprinkled on top. Chipotle is such an awesome spice that it can be used in both savoury and sweet applications.

Hell, i even put it on my damn pudding lol

It's crazy good. Unfortunately I am still only limited to the sauce as far as I know. I need to go back to the shop and see if they have the powder on its own.

Shazriki

11-02-2011, 04:43 PM

2 November 2011

Ahhh back in the gym. Feelsgoodman. Today's workout tore me up good, I gave it my all. Unfortunately I did feel quite dieted during the workout due to the week and a half on consistently low macros. Didn't stop me from hitting a new PR in front squats so that was sweet. Shoulder press felt downright nasty, so I think I'm going to start doing RPT for them as well. Pressing in general is one of my weak points so I would expect to lose strength here first anyway. Hopefully with RPT I can take things in the same direction as my back squats. Weight for deadlifts actually stayed the same as a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't eke out the 5th rep. I'm going to chalk that up to me nitpicking my form: today I really made sure that my hips were low and loaded before pulling, and that my shoulders were directly over the bar. The result was that things felt much harder and the lift was definitely more quad/glute dominant than I remember it. Of course, it could all have to do with me taking over a week off lifting and smashing myself on squats. I was going to get a video but accidentally double-tapped the record button, so will have to do that next week. I must be getting a reputation for being "that brah who always films himself deadlifting for just one set"

Not much else to report from today. Got some work done in the afternoon amidst plenty of cooking for the refeed. Just glad to be back in training really!

Morning weight 192.2

Moved down from bloat, just in time for the refeed!

~The Workout~

Front squats 222.6 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Standing BB OH Press 118.4x4, 107.1x5, 99x6
*
Deadlifts 352 x 4
*
BB Bicep curls 82.5 x 10 + 3,2
*
DB Lateral raises 22's x 14 + 4,4,3

~The Eats~

XF LCP sludge topped with Curiously Cinnamon (= CTC) and strawberries

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111102-IMGP0705.jpg

Twice-baked sweet potatoes filled with capers and cream cheese

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111102-IMGP0706.jpg

Butternut squash risotto

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111102-IMGP0708.jpg

Wholewheat pancakes topped with apple-blueberry compote

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111102-IMGP0709.jpg

Macros 198P/607C/47F

lakergreat1

11-03-2011, 11:16 AM

vitornoob

11-03-2011, 11:27 AM

yahuu! great, job...PR after no gym is awesome (:

no brussels sprouts? i am disappointed, son ;)

amazing eatings as always...

welcome back 8D

Quelly

11-03-2011, 12:58 PM

dude getting strong in here, 2 plates on squats (well out here in the states) over 100lbs on OHP, 350 on deads...****isgettingrealhomie!

Shazriki

11-03-2011, 04:36 PM

You're consistency and outlooks on everything are both impressive and inspiring. Keep up the good work man - I have no doubts you will be a cut beast in no time. Those biceps are looking pretty huge too! I WAS expecting a fist pump picture though.

Eats are tremendous, especially on that 600 carb refeed day.

And What Do you Know! I made risotta as well this week! My first ever actually.

Thanks Mike - means a lot. I'll have to see how far I get by christmas, maybe won't quite reach "cut" beast, but at least hoping to achieve "de-fatted" beast ;) Cut beast definitely by summer 2012 - no choice!

And as awesome as a fist pump would have been, I think in combination with the tank it might have sent my levels of douchebag to new limits and people would not have been happy (even though the Rugby guys get away with murder comparatively speaking lol). Next time I'll try and get one of me flexing my biceps in the mirror or something :p

Was it your first EVER time eating risotto, or just first time making? Either way, it tends to be pretty magical.

yahuu! great, job...PR after no gym is awesome (:

no brussels sprouts? i am disappointed, son ;)

amazing eatings as always...

welcome back 8D

Woop woop yea I was determined to hit a PR on my first session back and I decided to make it on squats.. it sure thrashed me though! And don't worry brah, I'm still eating sprouts on an almost daily basis, just sometimes for lunch so I don't snap a pic of them ;)

And thanks - it's good to be back :cool:

dude getting strong in here, 2 plates on squats (well out here in the states) over 100lbs on OHP, 350 on deads...****isgettingrealhomie!

Thanks coach! Just trying to be better than yesterday. I'm a little bummed out that things are stalling out on the OHP, but all things considering I'm basically pressing the same weight at roughly 12lbs lighter so I spose that ain't a bad thing :)

Oh and I really want to try 3pps for my squat before the year is out. Gonna set those pins lowwwww.

Shazriki

11-03-2011, 04:43 PM

3 November 2011

Well today I was sore like it was the day after my first ever gym session. This always happens and it always amazes me how quickly the body loosens up back into a more relaxed state when you impose less stress than usual on it. On the flipside, though, you adapt pretty quickly so I guess that's how balance is achieved in the universe... or something.

Anyway I very nearly pussied out on the cardio but decided it wasn't in my best interests to do so, simply because I really do benefit from the active recovery. Clocked in a nice little session after classes which was exactly what I needed after having my brain pounded for three hours straight.

Looking forward to my workout tomorrow, going for 275 on the squat, a milestone I've been looking forward to for some time now. My body is ready.

194

Dat refeed.

[B]The Workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals burned in 33:42

~The Eats~

Baked cod on a bed of green beans; Kimchi; chunky Satay sauce

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111103-IMGP0712.jpg

Macros 220P/229C/70F

MITCHAPAL00ZA

11-03-2011, 08:31 PM

lakergreat1

11-03-2011, 09:07 PM

awesome log man! ure pictures are awesome and all the food looks fricken delicious. Goodluck on the Squat PR attempt. I actually just hit that too. went up easier than expected so i hope the same happens for you!

x2.. Throw on some dubstep and Smash that PR...

On my current playlist are

Knife Party - Internet Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcejLp72iCE

1:22 is hilarious.. reminds me 100% of my ex... first time I heard the song I was listening to it in my truck and when the cell phone went off in the song I was like.. "WTF?? Where's my phone"

@ 1:47 the song gets AGGRESSIVE.. That's when the bar comes off the squat rack for me.

Probably my favourite on my "Smash Time" Mix is

Steve Aoki and Afrojack - No Beef

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksocjhxX_DQ&ob=av3e

@ 2:32 - I start getting mentally prepared...

@ 3:55 - Bar comes off the rack

Dexter3000

11-03-2011, 11:38 PM

Awesome Shaz!! Again, PR's & dropping bodyweight = perfect.

x2.. Throw on some dubstep and Smash that PR...

This is relevant to my interest :D I never really was a dubstep lover but in the gym it's pretty sweet..

Webber91

11-04-2011, 12:00 AM

fuaaarrrkk brb going grocery shopping to cure my seafood and vegetables/salad cravings these last few pages gave me.

Shazriki

11-04-2011, 05:05 PM

awesome log man! ure pictures are awesome and all the food looks fricken delicious. Goodluck on the Squat PR attempt. I actually just hit that too. went up easier than expected so i hope the same happens for you!

Hey man! Thanks a lot, glad you enjoy things around here :D Squats went awesome, I was pretty fired up for 'em so the outcome was good, the rest of the workout definitely suffered though lol!

Just saw you have a log too, will check in.

x2.. Throw on some dubstep and Smash that PR...

On my current playlist are

Knife Party - Internet Friends

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcejLp72iCE[/rl]

1:22 is hilarious.. reminds me 100% of my ex... first time I heard the song I was listening to it in my truck and when the cell phone went off in the song I was like.. "WTF?? Where's my phone"

@ 1:47 the song gets AGGRESSIVE.. That's when the bar comes off the squat rack for me.

Probably my favourite on my "Smash Time" Mix is

Steve Aoki and Afrojack - No Beef

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksocjhxX_DQ&ob=av3e[/rl]

@ 2:32 - I start getting mentally prepared...

@ 3:55 - Bar comes off the rack

Mike, get this. My new thing is ditching music for workouts. I know it sounds crazy but I actually get more focused without the music, especially during the actual sets. I feel as if a song were to end if I was mid-squat or something it would ruin the rep. So no music for me these days, except for cardio ofc!

Awesome Shaz!! Again, PR's & dropping bodyweight = perfect.

This is relevant to my interest :D I never really was a dubstep lover but in the gym it's pretty sweet..

You know how we roll bro ;) If I still listened to music while doing weights it would undoubtedly be a mixture of death/power metal and dubstep. The music needs energy otherwise it puts you to sleep.

fuaaarrrkk brb going grocery shopping to cure my seafood and vegetables/salad cravings these last few pages gave me.

Haha I'm exactly the same brah, sometimes I get salad/seafood cravings that genuinely don't go away until I do something about it. It's like being thirsty without a glass of water around. ;)

Shazriki

11-04-2011, 05:29 PM

4 November 2011

And on the second day... he created glute DOMS

Damn, if I thought I was sore yesterday today was like a new lesson in pain, especially during my workout. Partly because I was rushed to make it to class and partly because I was so smashed up after rows I decided to cut my workout short after finishing up with my rows. The session was a bittersweet mix of an awesome PR for squats, and seemingly losing strength in both bench and rows. I realize it probably doesn't reflect true strength loss but it seems to me that my torso detrains INSANELY fast. Like a few days out of the gym and the neurological wiring that makes lifting heavy sh!t possible just goes on vacation. Oh well I'm sure it'll clear up over the next week or so. Anyway who cares, 275 on squats booyah.

I have a big night out planned next friday so in order to make up my workout quota for the week I'll probably be hitting the gym on sunday, followed by tuesday and thursday, with a 3 day rest before getting back into a proper training groove right up until christmas. Should be fun, it'll give me a chance to break my body back into shape.

On that note: if anyone knows a particularly good foam rolling/recovery routine for the lower back I'd be very grateful, as my posterior chain has been WTF since wednesday thanks to those squats and deadlifts.

Morning weight 194.8

Yea, I'm gonna say it was the sodium packed up in the kimchi, prolly nothing to worry about.

~The Workout~

Squats 275x4 PR, 247.5x4, 225.5x5
*
BB Bench Press 176x4, 5,5 <--- MEH
*
BB row 192.5x4, 181.5x5x2 Meh again

Very abbreviated workout today, but there were time constraints and tbh my body was finished at this point...

~The Eats~

Roast chicken breast, sweet potatoes; mushrooms and green beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111104-IMGP0714.jpg

XF LCP proats with vanilla ice cream

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111104-IMGP0715.jpg

Macros 219P/331C/46F

Shazriki

11-05-2011, 05:05 PM

5 November 2011

Cool day today. Got up in the morning and headed to the gym to get in my cardio after which I asked one of the trainers there to show me a couple of foam rolling techniques for the glutes and lower back. All I can say is that I'm very impressed with foam rolling as a recovery technique, it's like you get the benefits of a deep tissue massage but saves you the hassle of paying a masseuse to do it for you. If you can call getting a 23 year old girl giving you a massage "hassle." ;) Seriously though, I'll definitely be making an effort to do a bit of rolling for my lower back and glutes a couple of times a week, as they seem to get hit the hardest.

Spent the rest of the day doing various bits of homework, and still didn't get nearly enough done, but hoping to buckle down tomorrow and finish it up. Spent the evening in town watching the fireworks display which was awesome. For those not in the know the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK and commemorates the attempted bombing of the British Parliament in 1605. Basically it's just an excuse to let off a load of fireworks, like these:

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111105-IMGP0792.jpg

Morning weight 192.2

Nice to see the downward movement, hoping to be back in the 181s tomorrow

The Workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals in 33:47

~The Eats~

Salmon wraps with green chilis, fish sauce dressing and cream cheese

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111105-IMGP0719.jpg

Chicken breast, cauliflower, and sweet potato

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMGP0824.jpg

XF CPB proats with Maltesers

Tried something new with my proats today after watching a cooking show: add a pinch of salt once they're cooked to bring out the other flavors. Mindblowing.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMGP0825.jpg

Macros 226P/233C/70F

brendbro

11-05-2011, 07:55 PM

nice going on the Squat PR

hoping to be back in the 181s tomorrow

wanting to drop 10lbs in a day eh? :p

I tried maltesars in proats once... absolute hated it, the malt ball becomes all chewy and sticky.

will need to try that salt thing though

petersc2

11-05-2011, 08:39 PM

[center]Spent the rest of the day doing various bits of homework, and still didn't get nearly enough done, but hoping to buckle down tomorrow and finish it up. Spent the evening in town watching the fireworks display which was awesome. For those not in the know the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK and commemorates the attempted bombing of the British Parliament in 1605. Basically it's just an excuse to let off a load of fireworks, like these:

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November..." :)

I had completely forgot about this until coming in here just in the nic of time! After my excitement over the reference faded, I decided to stick around for the lifts and food though...you're definitely killing it on both fronts, congrats on the 275!

Shazriki

11-06-2011, 08:02 AM

nice going on the Squat PR

wanting to drop 10lbs in a day eh? :p

I tried maltesars in proats once... absolute hated it, the malt ball becomes all chewy and sticky.

will need to try that salt thing though

Haha good catch brah I guess I was a little optimistic when i wrote that :p

Did you mix the maltesers in or just throw them on top? Because yeah I could see how they would get nasty if you properly mixed them in, but tbh in general I find most things get foul if you mix them into the oats, except for apples.

And thanks man was super stoked with the PR.

Try the salt thing, quarter tsp tops, you'll see what I mean once you taste it.

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November..." :)

I had completely forgot about this until coming in here just in the nic of time! After my excitement over the reference faded, I decided to stick around for the lifts and food though...you're definitely killing it on both fronts, congrats on the 275!

Haha that's it! I just had to download V for Vendetta once I saw people updating their facebook statuses with that quote!

And thanks a lot man, for the kind words and sticking around! 275 was a big big one for me. Next stop is 300.

brendbro

11-06-2011, 02:09 PM

Haha good catch brah I guess I was a little optimistic when i wrote that :p

Did you mix the maltesers in or just throw them on top? Because yeah I could see how they would get nasty if you properly mixed them in, but tbh in general I find most things get foul if you mix them into the oats, except for apples.

And thanks man was super stoked with the PR.

Try the salt thing, quarter tsp tops, you'll see what I mean once you taste it

nah I never mix things into oats like that (except for apple of course :p ), I think it was a combination of the oats being VERY hot and the maltesars being an old bag of 'em that we couldn't sell at work because they weren't properly 'heat treated' - essentially the chocolate layer became the colour of the malt, but aside from that there wasn't anything else wrong with them.... hmmm I don't know why I didn't think that would be the issue lol

for sure will get on the salt thing - we seem to have pretty similar tastes with proats so I trust your judgement ;)

Shazriki

11-06-2011, 02:30 PM

6 November 2011

I woke up this morning with none of the pain or soreness I had been experiencing the last couple of days. This what a sign to me that my body was 100% ready to get back into the usual training frequency. So without thinking about it too much I hopped out of bed and got to it. Sunday morning is an EXCELLENT time to train as I discovered, very few people around and those that are are all serious business. Most of the other people in the gym were training olympic lifts (recreationally) but there were also a couple of olympic athletes training too. All in all a very cool atmosphere which is worlds apart from the usual meat-fest that is mid-week training.

And as an added bonus I was able to have a changing room to myself for long enough to snap a couple of pics since it's been a while since I posted an update in that regard. They should give you guys a good idea of where I stand now, and where I'll end up at 185. Judging by my pics now from some ones I took in february this year I am easily as lean as was at ~183 except I"m not ~10lbs heavier and have added loads to my lifts.

I'll put the pics in this post, and my usual update in the next post. As y'all can see I have a bit of a sunken chest and a massive ribcage which is an unfortunate combination but just something I have to deal with. The effects are pretty hilarious when I stuff my face at an all you can eat, since my ribcage just juts out from the rest of my torso and it literally looks like I'm about to give birth to a foodbaby. Right, enough preamble.

NB: I take all my upper body shots from the right side since it's the less developed side as I'm left-handed.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMG_0091.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMG_0094.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMG_0095.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMG_0096.jpg

Shazriki

11-06-2011, 02:31 PM

Morning weight 192.2

Woke up looking squishy at the same weight as yesterday, so I'm expecting some movement over the next couple of days

~The Workout~

Squats 275x4, 247.5x5, 225.5x6
*
DB Bench Press 66's x 9x2, 8
Surprisingly only lost a single rep here after my break
*
CG Lat Pulldowns 160.6 x 12 + 4,4,3
*
EZ-bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 11,10,5+2 CG presses
Big time fail here, just did a couple of CGBPs with the bar to finish off, couldn't do much else
*
Stir the pot 11, 12

Ua0GCv2jPRg

~The Eats~

Today was chili day!

Slow-cooked chili with broccoli, tomatoes and potato farls

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMGP0827.jpg

The rest of the chili with baked beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111106-IMGP0831.jpg

Macros 212P/334C/48F

NordAK

11-06-2011, 03:12 PM

You put on some serious mass. Successful bulk/cut is successful. Awesome squats too.

The Solution

11-06-2011, 06:10 PM

Solid progress in here brother, consistency and dedication are paying off without question. Even if genetics are not on your side its more reason to keep busting your butt!

Dexter3000

11-06-2011, 09:25 PM

Awesome bro! great work.

On a side note.. you should ask that pink-shirt girl in the vid to join you for a post-wo steak sometimes.. looking hawt :D

Shazriki

11-07-2011, 07:22 AM

nah I never mix things into oats like that (except for apple of course :p ), I think it was a combination of the oats being VERY hot and the maltesars being an old bag of 'em that we couldn't sell at work because they weren't properly 'heat treated' - essentially the chocolate layer became the colour of the malt, but aside from that there wasn't anything else wrong with them.... hmmm I don't know why I didn't think that would be the issue lol

for sure will get on the salt thing - we seem to have pretty similar tastes with proats so I trust your judgement ;)

LOL those maltesers sound awful, but yea I completely know why you would grab them anyway. When I worked at Nestle we would get all the reject samples from product tests that were basically ok but "just" didn't make the cut or whatever. Even though we knew we were getting failed product we took it every time we got the chance :p

I tried it again last night with the fudge brownie Dymatize, it was sensational.

You put on some serious mass. Successful bulk/cut is successful. Awesome squats too.

Thanks dude, means a lot! I am much happier this time around with the results of my cut and hopefully the next few pounds will produce even more changes.

Solid progress in here brother, consistency and dedication are paying off without question. Even if genetics are not on your side its more reason to keep busting your butt!

Thanks Bob, and you're absolutely right. Genetics just set the initial limits that we must overcome one workout, one meal, one night's rest at a time. And keep busting my butt I shall!

Awesome bro! great work.

On a side note.. you should ask that pink-shirt girl in the vid to join you for a post-wo steak sometimes.. looking hawt :D

Thanks Dex! As for that chica she actually works at the gym, but man, the place is CROWDED with talent. What can I say, it's a great place to train :D

Shazriki

11-07-2011, 04:05 PM

7 November 2011

Very easy day today. Got up early to get in some cardio before class and also did some stretching. Came home around lunch time and basically "hit the books" (actually just spent the afternoon playing around with one equation just to find out what I was doing was going nowhere, ahhh engineering). Tomorrow's gonna be busy though, I'm going to be on the button from 9-5 literally as I have my workout sandwiched by two blocks of lectures and then more work to look forward to in the evening. S'all good though I'll manage.

Put in a little supp order today, myofusion milk chocolate and caffeine pills. I've heard good things about the milk chocolate, and while I wasn't impressed with banana, I think that has more to do with the fact that I really dislike the fruity protein powders, and only really enjoy the standard chocolate, vanilla, PB etc. flavors. Caffeine pills speak for themselves, going to experiment with 200mg about an hour before training to see if it injects new life into my workouts.

On the weight front I woke up this morning to 193.6 which I think is a result of me using the wrong macros for the beef I ate yesterday, quite possibly has more fat than I initially assumed, but it doesn't really matter. If things don't start shifting in a couple of days I think I'm going to do a couple of "low" days a week where I drop macros to 220P/200C/70F (the macros I was eating at during my week off), just to kickstart things.

Morning weight 193.6

The Workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals burned in 33:47

~The Eats~

Semi-bro eats today

Turkey steaks, "gratinated" broccoli and cauliflower, toast topped with fried egg and baked beans

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111107-IMGP0833.jpg

Turkey steaks, baked butternut squash, fried mushrooms and red onions

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111107-IMGP0836.jpg

Macros 226P/227C/69F

vitornoob

11-08-2011, 09:56 AM

MITCHAPAL00ZA

11-08-2011, 07:23 PM

you and your food pics!!!!! I have to step up my cooking game once i move into a nice apt. this place im in now has the smallest kitchen ever and its shared with 3 people so i have 15 minutes tops per day to cook. one day though....and yeah i used ure tip about salting the oats just a few minutes ago. definitely will become a common practice

Shazriki

11-09-2011, 01:53 AM

lulz, miring your wings <<<<< awesome progress so far..dedication is the key ;)

I was reading MEN thread and saw that you add salt to your oats, please explain...

ok, do not need to explain, i know how it works, but how much should i add?

btw, caffeine pills before WO ftw, i am using since i can not drink coffee before the WO...

keep going, man :D

Thanks Vitor, easily one of the parts of my body I'm more proud of! And yea, dedication and consistency, consistency, consistency can't be overlooked.

Just add a few shakes of salt to your oats when they mostly cooked but still a little soupy, just enough to just taste it and it will enhance all the other flavors.

Yea I'm looking forward to using them, my workouts lately have been good but I used to take the EC stack and I was like superman during some of those sessions, so hopefully I can recreate some of the magic but without the E ofc!

you and your food pics!!!!! I have to step up my cooking game once i move into a nice apt. this place im in now has the smallest kitchen ever and its shared with 3 people so i have 15 minutes tops per day to cook. one day though....and yeah i used ure tip about salting the oats just a few minutes ago. definitely will become a common practice

Hehe thanks man, but yea I'm very fortunate to have a nice kitchen in my student pad, the landlords actually refurbished it over the summer so everything is new. But yea I know how it can be in a small kitchen (though that was two years ago where I didn't give a crap about cooking lol). At the end of the day, all that matters is that you cram enough food to support that lifting ;)

Glad that you liked the salt in oats!

Shazriki

11-09-2011, 02:10 AM

8 November 2011

Had a great workout today, finally feeling back on form! Had a little hiccup during my first set of front squats where I let my core relax and tilted forward, luckily I was able to correct myself before hitting the uprights of the rack. Everything else went without a hitch though. I decided to continue using RPT for my OHP, and I will be using much the same rep ranges as I do for back squats now: start with a weight I can do 4 reps of top set, keep doing that until I can hit 6 reps, up weight and start it all again. If I were gaining I would probably go for RPT with a little more volume but seeing as there will probably be some changes to my training after christmas anyway I might as well just stick with what's working for now.

Deadlifts felt fantastic today, and I was able to match my previous PR of 352x5, but this time I really focused on back angle and sitting back into the lift (but not excessively so). The result was that I felt much more glute/hamstring engagement in addition to the lower back thrashing, where previously I have mostly felt the lift on my lower back. So this tells me I'm finally doing them correctly. Unfortunately I had to squeeze the workout in between lectures and didn't have time to snap a video, so I'll get one next week. Not sure if I'll up the weight though, because now that I changed my form slightly it does feel slightly harder.

Tried to go for 14kg dumbbells for side laterals today and damn they felt dirty, such a hard exercise to up the weight on!

Morning weight 192.8

~The Workout~

Front squats 222.6 x 5 x 3
*
Standing BB OH Press 118.1x5, 107.1x6, 99x7
*
Deadlifts 352 x 5
*
BB Bicep curls 66 x 13 + 4,4,3
Good pump today, dropped the weight a bit to get more volume, did a very slow eccentric on the last rep to finish the bi's off
*
DB Lateral raises 30.8's x 6 + 3,2

~The Eats~

Corn tortillas with chicken, peppers and onions

Failed roll on one of them

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111108-IMGP0840.jpg

Macros 222P/329C/47F

lakergreat1

11-09-2011, 12:45 PM

Mike, get this. My new thing is ditching music for workouts. I know it sounds crazy but I actually get more focused without the music, especially during the actual sets. I feel as if a song were to end if I was mid-squat or something it would ruin the rep. So no music for me these days, except for cardio ofc!

What!!! How could you do this!! You need to plan at what point in the song you start your reps better!!

lol, but a HUGE part of the reason why I listen to music is our gym has the ****tiest music playing over the loudspeakers that is terrible

And on the second day... he created glute DOMS

Soo much this, was brutal for me this week.

The session was a bittersweet mix of an awesome PR for squats, and seemingly losing strength in both bench and rows. I realize it probably doesn't reflect true strength loss but it seems to me that my torso detrains INSANELY fast. Like a few days out of the gym and the neurological wiring that makes lifting heavy sh!t possible just goes on vacation. Oh well I'm sure it'll clear up over the next week or so.

And this.. lol we are too much alike. My bench especially..

Anyway who cares, 275 on squats booyah.

Nice. Great progress. I go for 2 plates on my squats on Monday.

On that note: if anyone knows a particularly good foam rolling/recovery routine for the lower back I'd be very grateful, as my posterior chain has been WTF since wednesday thanks to those squats and deadlifts.

I follow this before EVERY workout - http://omarisuf.com/2009/06/14/foam-roller-more-than-meets-the-eye/

All I can say is that I'm very impressed with foam rolling as a recovery technique, it's like you get the benefits of a deep tissue massage but saves you the hassle of paying a masseuse to do it for you. If you can call getting a 23 year old girl giving you a massage "hassle." ;) Seriously though, I'll definitely be making an effort to do a bit of rolling for my lower back and glutes a couple of times a week, as they seem to get hit the hardest.

Bout time you started!

[quote]For those not in the know the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK and commemorates the attempted bombing of the British Parliament in 1605.[/quotes]

Guy Fawkes girl? I hope..

lakergreat1

11-09-2011, 12:46 PM

Anyways.. again.. can't say enough about your consistency.. Can you lend me some??

andyboi

11-09-2011, 12:47 PM

consistency is what seperates the mediocrity from a champ, this guy is going to go places. LOVING the inspiration.

bigjimmy123

11-09-2011, 12:59 PM

consistency is what seperates the mediocrity from a champ, this guy is going to go places. LOVING the inspiration.

This

mind you andyboi's no slouch himself lol

Shazriki

11-10-2011, 02:56 PM

9 November

Not much to report from today, aside from some cardio in the morning it was ALL work. Was sat at my desk from about 3pm to 10pm straight. Since I was sedentary all day (even with cardio) I decided to drop macros a little bit.

Morning weight 191.6

Back in the 191's!

The Workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals burned in 33:41

~The Eats~

Salmon avocado salad

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111109-IMGP0842.jpg

Macros 221/217C/63F

Shazriki

11-10-2011, 03:04 PM

What!!! How could you do this!! You need to plan at what point in the song you start your reps better!!

lol, but a HUGE part of the reason why I listen to music is our gym has the ****tiest music playing over the loudspeakers that is terrible

Soo much this, was brutal for me this week.

And this.. lol we are too much alike. My bench especially..

Nice. Great progress. I go for 2 plates on my squats on Monday.

I follow this before EVERY workout - http://omarisuf.com/2009/06/14/foam-roller-more-than-meets-the-eye/[/rl]

Bout time you started!

[quote]For those not in the know the 5th of November is [U]Guy Fawkes Day in the UK and commemorates the attempted bombing of the British Parliament in 1605.[/quotes]

Guy Fawkes girl? I hope..

Man I used to not be able to train AT ALL without the music, but these days even if the music at the gym is terrible (which it often is, or completely inappropriate to lifting) I'd MUCH rather focus on the next rep or getting my breathing down perfectly. The slight penalty I get for having to deal with the crappy music while resting doesn't compare to the extra concentration I get during the sets.

Yea most of my upper body lifts get FRIED when I take a break, legs last a bit longer for some reason. Good luck with the 2 plates, that's a HUGE squatting milestone to reach.

So you foam roll before every workout? I think that would be a little too much warm up for me lol, I'm really bad with warming up, just want to get straight into the lifts :D

and LOL at the bold

Anyways.. again.. can't say enough about your consistency.. Can you lend me some??

Sure brah let me just write you an open check you can cash in whenever you need it ;)

consistency is what seperates the mediocrity from a champ, this guy is going to go places. LOVING the inspiration.

Thanks Andy, that means a lot! Consistency is an issue I always had problems with in the past, but this whole lifting game has captivated me like nothing else so there's really nothing that can distract me from the next workout or the next goal. Loving every part of it.

This

mind you andyboi's no slouch himself lol

Strong this, Andy has been slaying his prep from day 1 and he still has so much time. His will be a truly terrific package come stage day.

Shazriki

11-10-2011, 03:05 PM

10 November 2011

Had a really good workout today! Decided not to shoot for any PRs on squats today and just maintained. 275x4 still felt pretty heavy but definitely easy than on Sunday so I think next monday is going to be the the day to aim for that extra rep or two. Like I've said several times, I WANT 300 for a single by christmas, I will keep forging on towards that goal and even if it seems out of reach by the time it's time to go on vacation, I'll just snatch for it and see what happens.

Benching today was at first intensely worrying and then absolutely hilarious. I racked up the bar with what I thought was 181.5, thinking I would just take my time to build back up to the numbers I was hitting before my break. I unrack the bar and it feels heavy as HELL. My brain was telling it me it was only 181.5 but my body was telling me to stop trying to bench press a car. Managed to get one rep out and failed on the second... so dropped the weight down by 5lbs.. that felt insane too. At this point I was simultaneously worried and confused: somehow I had lost a bunch of strength on my BP, yet I wasn't feeling any of the drained/dieted feelings that go along with strength loss. In fact I've been feeling GREAT lately. It was only once I had moved onto rows that I realized I had completely miscounted the weight on the bar, and was in fact doing 22lbs more than I thought. So I inadvertently did a 1RM day today for bench, and reached 203.5 lbs. A 200+ 1RM with good form was another one of my milestone goals to achieve before the end of the year, so I'm pretty damn happy with that!

Rest of the workout went without a hitch, rows are feeling good again, but still heavy. Also for the first time in a couple of weeks I got the chance to hit calves and hammies, which will no doubt be feeling the pain tomorrow.

Workouts like today remind me of the importance of staying positive in the weight room. Stay rational, stay positive, and you stand a much better chance of reaching your goals on daily basis. In the space of literally one second I went from feeling like a little girl to superman, all because of miscounting a bit of weight and thinking about it over and over. Who says weight-lifting isn't a mental game? Tennis has nothing on us ;)

ON TO THE WEEKEND

Morning weight 191.6

~The Workout~

Squats 275x4, 247.5x5, 225.5x7
*
BB Bench Press 203.5x1 PR, 198x1.5 PR, 176x3
*
BB row 187 x 5 x 3
*
Calf raises 246.4 x 10 + 4,4,4,4
*
Ham curl w/ slow negatives 132 x 13 + 4,4,4

~The Eats~

Baked chicken, baked potato filled with cottage cheese/mayonnaise/hot sauce; broccoli and roast butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111110-IMGP0844.jpg

Macros 221P/334C/44F

Quelly

11-10-2011, 04:03 PM

Oops I hit a PR on bench! lol

Dexter3000

11-10-2011, 11:15 PM

LOL @ accidentally PR'ing a 1RM!

About the music; this morning workout I was getting annoyed by my own music and took it off, I somehow felt more at rest without the loud noise blasting in my ears. So I can definitely relate to what you said about this. This also definitely backs up that a big part of hitting your lifts is your approach, mentally, when you step in the gym. Telling yourself you're here to get better and stronger and nothing else gives an intense focus, love it.

Keep it up bro, everything seems very very good.

By the way, have you ever done one arm db rows instead of bb rows? worth a try even though you can max out on the dumbbells pretty fast (I did this morning, just wanted to show off here ;)).

Icepray

11-10-2011, 11:25 PM

Hey Shaz it's been a while since I came to your log ;)

I see someones been gaining real nice, grats on your progress! My bulk went to hell when I started college haha, had to go dirty :P I'm totally jealous of your squats :( after my back injury I had to reset squats to 160...

Keep up the good work m8

Shazriki

11-11-2011, 12:13 AM

Oops I hit a PR on bench! lol

Haha that's exactly what it was like when I realized what was going on. I actually couldn't help myself from just grinning like an idiot for a few mins. Even a couple of laughs here and there. People were definitely wondering "wtf is up with that guy" lol.

LOL @ accidentally PR'ing a 1RM!

About the music; this morning workout I was getting annoyed by my own music and took it off, I somehow felt more at rest without the loud noise blasting in my ears. So I can definitely relate to what you said about this. This also definitely backs up that a big part of hitting your lifts is your approach, mentally, when you step in the gym. Telling yourself you're here to get better and stronger and nothing else gives an intense focus, love it.

Keep it up bro, everything seems very very good.

By the way, have you ever done one arm db rows instead of bb rows? worth a try even though you can max out on the dumbbells pretty fast (I did this morning, just wanted to show off here ;)).

Lol dude I tell you I felt stupid at first, and then great after ;)

The thing about music is that (for me) there are only a small number of songs that I vibe so strongly with that I think listening to them would actually improve my lifting during workouts. But that's such a small number I would run the risk of getting sick of them, and then I'd be back to square one anyway lol. And what you wrote in bold is also a big part of it, it sort of adds to the whole "hardcoreness" of training I guess, which I think all of us seek to some degree.

I've done db rows in the past yes, and I do enjoy them but atm I'm really trying to work to a 100kg bb row (220lbs). Plus in my current gym bench space is much more sought after than a free barbell, so it's easier to do BB rows!

Hey Shaz it's been a while since I came to your log ;)

I see someones been gaining real nice, grats on your progress! My bulk went to hell when I started college haha, had to go dirty :P I'm totally jealous of your squats :( after my back injury I had to reset squats to 160...

Keep up the good work m8

Hey dude, really good to hear from you! And thanks, means a lot.

The transition to uni can be a pretty damn overwhelming experience for the first time, so don't worry too much about going dirty man. It's taken me 4 years and a couple of major shifts in my thinking to FINALLY get it right this year :p

Hopefully your back gets better bro, are you able to squat without pain at 160 now? If so, then that's your base, just keep building at that day by day (or maybe move onto something else, it ain't worth throwing out your back every squat day).

Hope you're enjoying the uni experience ;)

Icepray

11-12-2011, 01:11 AM

Hey dude, really good to hear from you! And thanks, means a lot.

The transition to uni can be a pretty damn overwhelming experience for the first time, so don't worry too much about going dirty man. It's taken me 4 years and a couple of major shifts in my thinking to FINALLY get it right this year :p

Hopefully your back gets better bro, are you able to squat without pain at 160 now? If so, then that's your base, just keep building at that day by day (or maybe move onto something else, it ain't worth throwing out your back every squat day).

Hope you're enjoying the uni experience ;)

Yeah I switched to a 5x5 routine, going to cut for a few months so going to get my strength up so I can get some more size when I bulk!

Computer Science is a lot of work, I only get to go to the gym around 8pm but atleast I can and the 5x5 is better than my 5times a week for studying but it's interesting!

so yeah I can squat 160 without pain atg =) well yesterday it was 199lbs for 3x I actually went to 5 cause I forgot how many I had to do -_-
my legpress was getting too high and I spent more time loading/deloading so I decided to squat again I have a waist belt that I use when I go motorcycling and I wear a lifting belt and I warm up like mad xD

squats and deads are my only lifts that are lagging tho because of my back injury, my bench has never been this high :P i pulled 2plates for 3 so i was pretty happy

Well keep up the good work! time to study ;)

oats_addict

11-12-2011, 02:21 AM

I saw that adding the salt to oats program too, was it that fella on bbc1 that did the hot/cold combo with foods. Can't remember his name. I really want to try it too but the day after I watched the program I went away and then flew out here, so haven't had a chance yet.

Great progress as ever mate. Dont really get time to get on here or down the gym whilst I'm out the country but just catching up over the last week or so has made me want to smash the gym big time when I'm back. Keep it up pal

Shazriki

11-12-2011, 02:48 PM

Yeah I switched to a 5x5 routine, going to cut for a few months so going to get my strength up so I can get some more size when I bulk!

Computer Science is a lot of work, I only get to go to the gym around 8pm but atleast I can and the 5x5 is better than my 5times a week for studying but it's interesting!

so yeah I can squat 160 without pain atg =) well yesterday it was 199lbs for 3x I actually went to 5 cause I forgot how many I had to do -_-
my legpress was getting too high and I spent more time loading/deloading so I decided to squat again I have a waist belt that I use when I go motorcycling and I wear a lifting belt and I warm up like mad xD

squats and deads are my only lifts that are lagging tho because of my back injury, my bench has never been this high :P i pulled 2plates for 3 so i was pretty happy

Well keep up the good work! time to study ;)

Solid plan dude! Switching to a strength routine for a cut makes perfect sense, hopefully you'll get some good results out of it. 5x5 is a 3x/week routine right? That's definitely way better for a student. I mean I currently go to the gym 7 days a week (because of cardio), but lifting more than 4x a week would be tricky.

Good sh!t on the 199x5, sometimes doing more than you have to is exactly what you need! And yea a combination of lifting belt and proper warming up should take you far despite your back issues BUT that is a massive pot calling the kettle black because my warm-ups are lacking at best.

Sick bench progress btw, yes jelly. I need to go for 2 plates just for a 1RM before christmas!

I saw that adding the salt to oats program too, was it that fella on bbc1 that did the hot/cold combo with foods. Can't remember his name. I really want to try it too but the day after I watched the program I went away and then flew out here, so haven't had a chance yet.

Great progress as ever mate. Dont really get time to get on here or down the gym whilst I'm out the country but just catching up over the last week or so has made me want to smash the gym big time when I'm back. Keep it up pal

Yup Nigel Slater is his name. I like his show, good honest cooking and gives me ideas here and there to try out (mainly flavor combos because none of his dishes are macro friendly lol). You just in Abu-Dhabi for the weekend and then back in the UK or do you have a few other spots to get to before returning?

Thanks a lot dude, means a lot. Don't worry about your time off, you'll have plenty of time to get back to it once you're done living the jet-setting F1 lifestyle ;)

Shazriki

11-12-2011, 03:09 PM

11 and 12 November 2011

Just going to roll two updates into one since not much of relevance happened on these days. On friday I was basically on the books all day and then in the evening went to Bristol for a big dubstep/Drum'n'bass rave. Needless to say I didn't do cardio yesterday or today (given that I only came home at 7.30 am lol). Since I was THE definition of sedentary today I dropped macros a little bit just to make sure things still keep coming along. From monday onwards I will drop macros again since I have a feeling that thing are slowing down. Energy has generally been pretty good i the gym and I'm not worried. The occasional refeeds and eating out with friends when they visit keep me sane even when I'm not eating very much.

My housemate was mirin' my measly back aesthetics and offered to snap a nood, so here's a progress photo from the back:

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111110-IMG_0100.jpg

Morning weight yesterday 193.4

Weird jump in weight.

~The Eats~

Butter-fried salmon fillets with a baked potato/mayonnaise and cauliflower

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111111-IMGP0846.jpg

Chicken salad topped with grated cheddar

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111112-IMGP0848.jpg

Baked chicken, swedish turnip and brussels sprouts

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111112-IMGP0849.jpg

Macros today 214P/201C/71F

Shazriki

11-13-2011, 02:27 PM

13 November 2011

Well after my lazy day yesterday I was ready for some cardio so I just hopped out bed and ran out the door. It was basically my only activity during the day since I had to face the pile of homework and spent much of the day whittling away at it (little by litte lol). Cardio actually felt really good today, muscles were still sore since I hadn't really done any stretching since thursday and the cardio really helped to stimulate some recovery. Also did a bit of foam rolling for my lower back, just to make sure I wake up completely fresh tomorrow.

In other news, woke up to a face-slappingly good new low. Apparently between friday morning and this morning I turbocharged the fat loss and completely missed the 190's. Welp, I guess that's what happens when you dance to dubstep and drum'n'bass for 6+ hours! At this rate, 185 is within reach before xmas for sure. The good thing is, I'm basically in the same weight range as I was at the end of my first cut, except I don't feel like I'm dieting (just that I'm eating less); and I am maintaining or building strength in most exercises.

Looking forward to training tomorrow!

Morning weight 189.6 - New low!

The Workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals burned in 33:56

~The Eats~

Pork medallions; brussels sprouts; homemade chunky slaw

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111113-IMGP0851.jpg

Steaks; cauliflower, more slaw

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111113-IMGP0852.jpg

Macros 217P/219C/68F

andyboi

11-13-2011, 03:01 PM

Awesome mate! skipping the 190s.. damn, doing it right shaz. Dem eats man :eek: haha

edit: your back is looking awesome!

Trillios

11-13-2011, 06:24 PM

I foresee a christmas tree this coming christmas ;)...great stuff going in here man. It goes without saying that your eats are fuking amazing and your work ethic is inspiring. How many weeks are you out?

Shazriki

11-14-2011, 02:09 PM

Awesome mate! skipping the 190s.. damn, doing it right shaz. Dem eats man :eek: haha

edit: your back is looking awesome!

Thanks my man, skipping the 190's was a pleasant surprise indeed. I didn't even feel particularly depleted or anything like that :)

And cheers on the back, I know the lighting is good but that's probably as lean as my back has ever been!

I foresee a christmas tree this coming christmas ;)...great stuff going in here man. It goes without saying that your eats are fuking amazing and your work ethic is inspiring. How many weeks are you out?

It's what I want in my stocking as well as an iPad2 ;) Cheers dude, lately I have really been eating a bit more volume just to control hunger, but trying to keep things interesting where possible!

And I'm glad you asked that, since just the other day I noticed there are competitions on the 24th June, 17th July and 22 July, putting me at 31 weeks out for the first show! Color me excited as fuaark.

Shazriki

11-14-2011, 02:11 PM

14 November 2011

Well, I woke up this morning feeling pretty sick, sore throat, headache, bit of the sniffles etc my weekend indiscretions caught up to me. Since I wasn't coughing I decided to see what it would be like to train when I wasn't at 100% physically. Obviously the mind was still there, but I had all the little niggling aches and pains that come with getting a cold. In another life I would have probably said screw it I'll train another day, but these days if I can get out of bed, I can make it to the gym and at least do something. If I had been coughing and sneezing I probably wouldn't have gone only out of courtesy to the other people who train there, but a headache and sore throat? Fuk dat show me the weights.

Sickness is sickness though, so I did drop the weight on my squats and went full-bore on anything else. I wasn't in the mood to get pinned under the bar. Have to say that I loved pulldowns today. Now that by bodyweight is roughly 12lbs off my working weight there is a considerable amount of jerk at the top. I think what I'll do is keep myo-repping my way through to about 90kg and then see how I do on chins again. Maybe do some weighted chins.

Getting close to christmas guys, is everyone as insanely excited for 2012 as I am? ;)

Morning weight 191

Up a bit after the new low, looks like I'll be spending some time in the 190's after all :cool:

~The Workout~

Squats 253 x 5 x 3
*
DB Bench Press 71.5'sx8,8,6
*
Lat Pulldowns 176 x 10 + 3,3,3
*
EZ-bar Skullcrushers 71.5 x 11 + 4,4,3
Decided to myo-rep these today since time was short
*
Ab rollout 11, 7

~The Eats~

Chicken club sandwich

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111114-IMGP0854.jpg

Pork medallions, roast rutabaga and butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111114-IMGP0855.jpg

Got some Myofusion today, so naturally had to try it in proats..

Milk Choc Myofusion proats with bananas and nutella

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111114-IMGP0856.jpg

Macros 221P/316C/46F

oats_addict

11-15-2011, 01:27 AM

Yup Nigel Slater is his name. I like his show, good honest cooking and gives me ideas here and there to try out (mainly flavor combos because none of his dishes are macro friendly lol). You just in Abu-Dhabi for the weekend and then back in the UK or do you have a few other spots to get to before returning?

Thanks a lot dude, means a lot. Don't worry about your time off, you'll have plenty of time to get back to it once you're done living the jet-setting F1 lifestyle ;)

Yeah thats the one mate. Was it 1:3 parts oats to water he did? I cant remember that either, but it seems like loads of water.

New lows and progress pic is looking great mate, Im happy for ya. Love a good Dubstep rave up too.

Got back from Abu Dhabi last night after a week out there. That place is insane, so much money going about. Was nuts. Im now back until Sunday, when I fly to Brazil for the week.
Yeah gym access has been really intermittent. Im still about the 178lbs weight range so cant complain, considering we get fed and watered all day.

Keep doing what you're doing mate, its working!

brendbro

11-15-2011, 01:51 AM

firstly (and I can't believe I have to ask) - prognosis on the myo?

Really admire your mind set of still being able to committ to a work out when ill and yet play it safe. I know in the past I've basically felt terrible and forced myself to get in the gym and (attempted to) push what I usually would, of course I'd always fail and I'd just feel worse because of it. The fact that you can maintain some control in that sort of situation is only going to do good.

there are competitions on the 24th June, 17th July and 22 July, putting me at 31 weeks out for the first show! Color me excited as fuaark.

HELL YEAH! So excited to be here when it all begins :cool:

bigjimmy123

11-15-2011, 05:30 AM

DAM SHAZ 189.6 great job

Also don't know why but your 'Chunky Slaw' is creating some cravings inside of me, don't suppose you could post a recipe? PROATS look nearly as good as those front squat numbers lol

Jimmy

Shazriki

11-15-2011, 11:37 AM

Yeah thats the one mate. Was it 1:3 parts oats to water he did? I cant remember that either, but it seems like loads of water.

New lows and progress pic is looking great mate, Im happy for ya. Love a good Dubstep rave up too.

Got back from Abu Dhabi last night after a week out there. That place is insane, so much money going about. Was nuts. Im now back until Sunday, when I fly to Brazil for the week.
Yeah gym access has been really intermittent. Im still about the 178lbs weight range so cant complain, considering we get fed and watered all day.

Keep doing what you're doing mate, its working!

Don't quite remember the measurements, but I would guess they got away with more water since they were cooking the oats stove-top, where you do use more water. I just chuck in enough salt to get slightly salty flavor and then I'm good to go.

And thanks mate, means a lot. I'm happy too, the feeling of applied knowledge producing results is probably one of the most satisfying things ever. And raving IMO is the only way to truly enjoy dubstep; I don't go to them often but I definitely think that a genre that was born in dark, grotty warehouses should be enjoyed in the same places :D

OH man the money in AD must has been crazy. Did you even see a single reasonably priced car the entire week? :p Isn't it also in Abu Dhabi where they have that hugely exclusive mall which only has designers or something like that? I bet the food was awesome. Smoked salmon and champers for dayz? ;)

I'm going to keep on keeping on!

firstly (and I can't believe I have to ask) - prognosis on the myo?

Really admire your mind set of still being able to committ to a work out when ill and yet play it safe. I know in the past I've basically felt terrible and forced myself to get in the gym and (attempted to) push what I usually would, of course I'd always fail and I'd just feel worse because of it. The fact that you can maintain some control in that sort of situation is only going to do good.

HELL YEAH! So excited to be here when it all begins :cool:

Myo surprised me this time around. The Milk Choc is a good flavor, mixes suitably thick in oats and cottage cheese (just tried the latter) and has good macros, which is sort of why I got it. At 25g pro, 5g carb and 3g fat per serving it's pretty much bang on. Ultra Peptide is still better in every other way, though, but I needed another protein powder that I could just whack into anything without worrying about the macros. Last time I got myo it was Banana Perfection which I thought was "Banana Failure" but I have since discovered that I pretty much hate any artificial fruit flavor (except Xtend watermelon which rocks my socks).

I could brag about keeping a level head or whatever, but the truth is, the only thing that stopped me from racking up my usual numbers was the knowledge that I would absolutely get crushed under the bar without question. If I had believed that I had even a 10% chance of doing the weight, I probably wouldn't have given it a shot, but when you know, you know :p

Dude, I'm so excited too, it's like a christmas present that you're waiting to unwrap.

DAM SHAZ 189.6 great job

Also don't know why but your 'Chunky Slaw' is creating some cravings inside of me, don't suppose you could post a recipe? PROATS look nearly as good as those front squat numbers lol

Jimmy

Cheers Jimmy!

Chunky slaw the way I make it might just be the most macro friendly craving ever lol. I chopped up half a small head of cabbage and a red onion. Finely grated a bit of swedish turnip (Rutabaga). Whacked in about 4 dollops of low-fat mayonnaise, 2 dollops of english mustard (I like that spicyness) and some smoked paprika. Mixed it all together and bob's your uncle! I also threw in some capers but they made it a bit too salty so I would leave them out in the future. Also something sweet like grated carrot would be awesome in it.

tswdan

11-15-2011, 12:41 PM

Shazriki

11-15-2011, 01:35 PM

I hadn't been to this thread in awhile up until about 5 minutes ago.. All I've done for those 5 minutes is stare at food pictures. Are there words somewhere in the log because I've been blinded by food porn.

Haha welcome back dude and thanks for checking in! And don't worry about it: I don't actually lift and I'm basically illiterate so all there is to this log is food anyway :p

Srsly though: no real update today guys. 8 hours at uni = my brain is tired. Meeting up with some friends in town for a quiet drink, then back home to make sweet love to my mattress. THEN REFEED TOMORROW RAWR.

snrygo

11-15-2011, 04:08 PM

make sweet love to my mattress. i thought that was what pillows were for

http://www.gamerdna.com/uimage/jNW8YBk/full/wait-wut-jpg.jpg

ian0789

11-15-2011, 05:18 PM

Still killing it man ;) So you going to run one of those comps I take it?!

Shazriki

11-16-2011, 01:27 AM

i thought that was what pillows were for
[ig]http://www.gamerdna.com/uimage/jNW8YBk/full/wait-wut-jpg.jpg[/img]

Pillows are my booty call... wut?

Still killing it man ;) So you going to run one of those comps I take it?!

Sup Ian, long time no see ;) Gonna keep killing it till the day I die - that's a promise!

As for the comps I need to think about it. The question I'm asking myself now is: considering that in the best case scenario I will come on the stage looking smaller but well conditioned do I
want to diet for longer than necessary just to experience more than one show, or should I just smash one show, get the experience and jump right into another ~2 years of solid growth? In either case we're talking about a month's difference, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things...

Luckily I have until January to figure that one out!

Dexter3000

11-16-2011, 03:52 AM

Props for nutella in that bowl, epic stuff.

Shazriki

11-17-2011, 01:03 AM

Props for nutella in that bowl, epic stuff.

Lulz, it does taste good!

Shazriki

11-17-2011, 01:30 AM

16 November 2011

Well today was busy as hell even though I didn't have a single lecture to attend. Basically got out of bed, headed to the gym, did some shopping, came home and was working solidly till 1.30AM... and I'm still not done with that particular assignment. Just taking a break to write this quick update.

Workout was very good, could still feel the last little bit of illness holding on but nothing hugely debilitating. In fact I hit a new PR for front squats which felt awesome as I'd been holding off on progressing with these for the last few weeks, what with my schedule being so topsy turvy. None of that any more, I'm back in the groove! Going into the workout I was slightly concerned that my OH pressing would suck today, but it was quite the opposite. It didn't feel easy, but at no point during any of the reps did I feel that I was going to fail, if I just kept pushing, everything else would follow. So next week I can look forward to finally upping the weight on my OHP, and hopefully start climbing back some of the ground I magically lost when I came over from spain (probably didn't lose any ground, just thought I was lifting heavier there than I actually was :p). Deadlifts were super solid, and I would have liked to get a vid for you brahs but the gym was just too packed at that point, there wasn't even space to get a good side angle so I"ll leave that for next week (hopefully, again). Either way, I'm going to be upping the weight on them next week. Gotta say that when I deadlift I do get a few bert stares and I always think to myself "you think this is heavy weight? just log onto a lil site called bb.com and prepare to have your existence shattered."

Anyway like I said, all of the day was spent working. I perhaps not too cleverly decided to do a refeed today as well, but since I didn't have time to cook too extravagantly most of the eats were simple. Good thing though, as all the stuff I was craving was simple. Doing these giant refeeds every couple of weeks seems to be have been working nicely for me, but I do wonder what a smaller weekly refeed would be like (physiologically).

Back to the grind! T-minus 7 hours till deadline - ain't no thang! Thanks for reading!

Morning weight 189.2 - new low

New low after beer consumption = trollface

~The Workout~

Front squats 225.5 x 5 x 3 PR
*
Standing BB OH Press 118.1x6, 107.1x7, 99x8
*
Deadlifts 352x5
*
BB Bicep curls 82.5 x 10 + 3,3,3
*
DB Lateral raises 22's x 15 + 4,4,2

~The Eats~

Spaghetti with tuna, onions, mayonnaise, parsley, sweetcorn and cherry tomatoes

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111116-IMGP0858.jpg

Cinnamon Raisin bagel with nutella and bananas

Prepped on the same chopping board as the parsley, come at me

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111116-IMGP0859.jpg

Baked potato with baked beans; roast chicken and butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111116-IMGP0860.jpg

Proats with chopped apple, low-fat vanilla ice cream, cinnamon

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111117-IMGP0862.jpg

+various other bits and pieces like rice cakes, yogurt, etc. Feels SO much better to mix carb sources rather than get too much grain.

Macros 204P/601C/46F

brendbro

11-17-2011, 06:40 AM

Ashlei

11-17-2011, 07:38 AM

Coming out from lurking... Love the food porn in here, and nice job PRing front squats in a deficit!

canuck17

11-17-2011, 10:26 AM

Wanted to rep your latest MEN post... still on spread.

Come check out log then.
See your weight is dropping like a bawwwss and you're hitting PR's broo. Awesome.

PS, front squats, OHP, and the dead's. You cheeky yoo.
Great work Moses. Keep @ it.

Shazriki

11-17-2011, 10:27 AM

ha I always cut banana up on the same board as other things, always seem to have brocolli in my banana lol

refeed eats are killer. So you really think refeeds are beneficial? Do you think there is any difference between a refeed and simply spreading out those calories throughout your regular daily/weekly intake? I've yet to do refeeds this time round

Tbh prepping multiple things on the same chopping board is typical student fare. Like I never chop meat on a chopping board, because then it gets contaminated and I have to clean it, whereas if you just chop veggies, it's all good? (I hope I'm not the only one who does that lol :o)

To say that refeeds are the lynchpin of my diet this time around would be an exaggeration, but to say they're unimportant would be an understatement. Even though the actual physiological benefits of refeeds are in dispute, there is something special about "gorging" on carbs in a controlled fashion from time to time. Mentally, they give you a break from dieting but more than that they remind you that food... is just food. Always going to be there, no need to dream about it or put it up on a pedestal.

So that's why I think doing a big refeed less frequently works better than spreading out those calories over the week: when the rigors of dieting get to you, have a day where you stock up on carbs and then jump right back into the diet. I definitely don't think they're required only a weekly basis, and they should be regulated. Like don't refeed because you think you should, refeed when you feel you should.

Coming out from lurking... Love the food porn in here, and nice job PRing front squats in a deficit!

Sweet, another one emerges from the shadows! The Vegster! I must admit I love your food pr0n too and I lurk your log. And thanks, that PR was all down to the caffeine I swear, I popped a 200mg tab before hitting the gym and nice and wired by the time I was done warming up :)

You keep lifting strong too y'hear? :cool:

Ashlei

11-17-2011, 12:35 PM

Tbh prepping multiple things on the same chopping board is typical student fare. Like I never chop meat on a chopping board, because then it gets contaminated and I have to clean it, whereas if you just chop veggies, it's all good? (I hope I'm not the only one who does that lol :o)

Sweet, another one emerges from the shadows! The Vegster! I must admit I love your food pr0n too and I lurk your log. And thanks, that PR was all down to the caffeine I swear, I popped a 200mg tab before hitting the gym and nice and wired by the time I was done warming up :)

You keep lifting strong too y'hear? :cool:

I do that too with the chopping board. I usually brush off the excess vegetable stuff before chopping fruit though. :)

Thank you! Caffeine in the form of coffee is my PR-setting-fuel. Love it!

Continuing lifting strong - will do!

tswdan

11-17-2011, 12:53 PM

they remind you that food... is just food.

Something easily forgotten by most when dieting.

bigjimmy123

11-17-2011, 12:55 PM

Was just wondering when you do your roasted butternut do you weigh it pre or post cooking to and then judge macros? Weird question but had some today and it was like 500 pre and 320 post cooking and have no idea which is more accurate?

Hows uni going? looks like you are seeing about as much daylight as I am atm lol

Great work on those front squats man thats seriously BEAST

Talking about insane deadlifts, don't know if you have seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DanaLinnBailey#p/u/8/yBJVL-uPAXU

Jimmy

Shazriki

11-17-2011, 02:17 PM

17 November 2011

Well, got that assignment handed in nice and tidy. Last minute work is either terrible or some of the best stuff you'll ever write. Aaaand I think I just might have pulled it off. Really not much else to report from the day. I really need to get back into the cardio, but given how busy I was the last few days, the priority was really just to keep lifting and to get my work done. Pretty easy to keep things ticking along by just dropping macros without the cardio. But I enjoy doing it so this weekend I'll make sure to get a couple of sessions in.

Bought myself a celebratory sirloin steak and took the night off working. You can be damn sure I fried that beast in butter and did not trim the fat.

Morning weight 192

Strong 3lb fluctuation post-refeed. Love dat.

~The Eats~

Sirloin steak; salad and brussels sprouts

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111117-IMGP0863.jpg

Macros 226P/197C/71F

Shazriki

11-17-2011, 02:20 PM

I do that too with the chopping board. I usually brush off the excess vegetable stuff before chopping fruit though. :)

Thank you! Caffeine in the form of coffee is my PR-setting-fuel. Love it!

Continuing lifting strong - will do!

Haha so you're slightly better behaved than me. No parsley coated bananas in your diet then... probably for the best :p

I still drink loads of coffee but before workouts I need a mega dose. I chalk that up to a year of working in Nestle in the coffee department. Free espresso for days, literally!

Something easily forgotten by most when dieting.

I've been guilty of it on occasion. Hell, the only reason the thought occurred to me was because I went to bed thinking of fcking pancakes on monday. That kind of stuff just can't go on.

Was just wondering when you do your roasted butternut do you weigh it pre or post cooking to and then judge macros? Weird question but had some today and it was like 500 pre and 320 post cooking and have no idea which is more accurate?

Hows uni going? looks like you are seeing about as much daylight as I am atm lol

Great work on those front squats man thats seriously BEAST

Talking about insane deadlifts, don't know if you have seen this:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/user/DanaLinnBailey#p/u/8/yBJVL-uPAXU[/rl]

Jimmy

Dude. That. Video. Made. My. Day. I'm going to test my DL max next week, no question about it. Almost tempted to test squat max tomorrow, hmmm.

You want to weigh the squash beforehand and then use raw macros, they lose a crapload of water while cooking. Then again, if you have the macros for cooked squash then you can just stick with that!

Uni is fine tbh, just the last couple days as well as this weekend will be a bit of a spike in coursework as I had a deadline today and one again on monday. The good news is that these are the only two courseworks I'll have for the entire semester, all I have to look forward after this is exams in January. Good thing too, because each lecture is like an entirely new subject.

Thanks dude! Those fronts were tough, took all my effort to keep the core tight and not roll forward!

Wanted to rep your latest MEN post... still on spread.

Come check out log then.
See your weight is dropping like a bawwwss and you're hitting PR's broo. Awesome.

PS, front squats, OHP, and the dead's. You cheeky yoo.
Great work Moses. Keep @ it.

Haha no worries Ryan, glad you enjoyed the food! And thanks, the PRs are all down to "knowing" when it's time to up the weight, and knowing when to cut back. I don't need to lift heavier than yesterday tomorrow, but I do in a month, if you know what I mean. Gotta get leaner though!

Fronts, OHPs and deads on the same day. Just what a man needs when he has nothing else to look forward to but a session in front of the PC staring at equations :D

Keeping at it, no doubt!

Ashlei

11-17-2011, 02:40 PM

Haha so you're slightly better behaved than me. No parsley coated bananas in your diet then... probably for the best :p

I still drink loads of coffee but before workouts I need a mega dose. I chalk that up to a year of working in Nestle in the coffee department. Free espresso for days, literally!

Sorta, kinda, really jelly of the free espresso. I used to work at Starbucks, but that stuff is expensive now that it's not free! :p Espresso >>>> coffee

Shazriki

11-19-2011, 01:44 AM

Sorta, kinda, really jelly of the free espresso. I used to work at Starbucks, but that stuff is expensive now that it's not free! :p Espresso >>>> coffee

Starbucks is good but yea the price gets you. Good thing you're not a fan of their fancier drinks otherwise that would really burn a hole in your pocket (I also always get espresso at starbucks) :p

Shazriki

11-19-2011, 02:11 AM

18 November

Today's workout was a mixed bag really. I'm still shaking off the last bit of this cold so I wasn't feeling 100% in the zone again. Plus it's been a long week with not a lot of rest so in that couple with the illness really makes it hard to put today's session into context. Hoping that after some good quality R&R this weekend I'll be firing on all cylinders come next week. In fact, I know I will be. I'm done with this cold, time to move on.

Anyway, on the plus side rows felt the strongest they have in the last couple of weeks, and matched my previous PR on them (almost, dropped one rep on the last set). Lats got properly fried and since I was wearing a tank I got to notice that my shoulders are starting to shred up a bit! Nice to see finally. Benching is still difficult so I've decided to switch over to RPT here as well. This is the last stretch until christmas, and I have to do everything I can to ensure that my workouts are as high-quality as possible, WITHOUT taking a diet break - RPT does that pretty well for me I've discovered.

That means that front squats are the only exercise that I'm still doing 3x5 starting strength with. Could I progress further on starting strength? Without a doubt, but I would need to be eating to match the output. That program really is gold, and if anyone ever asks me where they can get started with weight training I'm going to a) try and break the dogma that 5-day splits are the only way to go and b) convince them that full body 3x a week will take them FAR.

I'm not worried about having to manipulate my routine that much though, I don't "feel" as if strength is being lost anywhere, I just notice that the truly epic sessions where all the weights feel light are fewer and far between.

Morning weight 191.6

Weight is always a bit slow following the epic refe

~The Workout~

Squats 275x3, 247.5x5, 225.5x7
*
BB Bench Press 181.5x4, 165x6, 148.5x8
*
BB row 192.5x 5,5,4
*
Calf raises 246.4 x 11 + 4,4,4

~The Eats~

Chicken stir fry with oyster sauce; basmati rice

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111118-IMGP0865.jpg

+had a mega sandwich for lunch up at uni that I didn't snap a pic of.

Macros 230P/316C/44F - forgot to count xtend again lol

bigjimmy123

11-19-2011, 02:13 AM

Shazriki

11-19-2011, 05:38 AM

Since starting IF I have really started to get into coffee and learn more about it. It's crazy how many different types/methods to serve it there are.

IMO Costa Coffee>Starbucks

Funny actually as I have to do a project for Uni and am doing it on Costa Coffee

Also has anyone tried the Gingerbread Latte? All I can say is WOW

Jimmy

Coffee is the best. IMO nothing beats a good cappuccino prepared at a proper Italian cafe. We have a place here in Bath that is legit. Some old italian guy comes out and takes your order, and then delivers the finest cup of coffee you've ever tasted.

Gingerbread latte sounds like something I would smash to bits :D

Shazriki

11-19-2011, 02:08 PM

19 November 2011

Not much to report today, other than that cardio felt great! For some reason I was just fired up to get the session done as fast as possible. Even though I woke up a bit groggy this morning I felt awesome afterwards. The rest of the day was spent doing homework, still have one more assignment for monday and once that's done the rest of the semester will fall right into place.

Also, I made cheesecake today. It rawked (and there's still 2/3 left).

Morning weight 191.4

~The Eats~

Salmon-osyter sauce wrap with salad

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111119-IMGP0867.jpg

Roast chicken with garlic and butternut squash

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111119-IMGP0869.jpg

Chocolate-Banana Cheesecake

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111119-IMGP0870.jpg

Macros 217P/210C/71F

vitornoob

11-19-2011, 03:15 PM

Good stuff here lately :D

Eats on the point and dat choc banana cheesecake, omg...where is the recipe sir? ;)

Glad to see your progress, keep going, wish you the best

Bonny_Lassie

11-20-2011, 01:38 AM

Yaaaasssss! Your log, your epic food porn......I am back! :D

Shazriki

11-20-2011, 01:52 AM

Good stuff here lately :D

Eats on the point and dat choc banana cheesecake, omg...where is the recipe sir? ;)

Glad to see your progress, keep going, wish you the best

Thanks Vitor!

I can't take credit for the cheesecake recipe, it actually belongs to kwebbers (she posted in the MEN thread). I just made a slight substitution in that I used myofusion milk chocolate instead of sf/ff pudding:

4 eggs
225g bananas (roughly 2 decent sized) mashed
340g FF cream cheese
10g splenda/sweetener
1 scoop chocolate myofusion
cinnamon/vanilla extract to taste

Mix all ingredient together until you have a smooth batter (no lumps from cream cheese or bananas). Pour into a form and bake @ 180C for 45 mins (use a small water bath), then put into the fridge to cool for a few hours. It's quite good... but as you know with all these diet substitutions do NOT expect the real thing.

Definitely did not compare to my snickers-PB-cookie cheesecake from my birthday LOL.

Yaaaasssss! Your log, your epic food porn......I am back! :D

Bonny! Long time no see! I saw in Ashlei's log that you got seriously ill for a few months there? Hope all is well now and glad to have you back :D

brendbro

11-20-2011, 02:23 AM

I'm not worried about having to manipulate my routine that much though, I don't "feel" as if strength is being lost anywhere, I just notice that the truly epic sessions where all the weights feel light are fewer and far between.

perfect way to put it IMO.

awesome to hear about the shoulders, get some pics up if ya can

man it's been too long since I've made a cheesecake, I think you've inspired me to give one a try this week!

P.s are you familiar with the XF banana creme flavour? Thinking about taking the dive and giving it a go for my next purchase

Dexter3000

11-20-2011, 03:09 AM

Dude that cake looks good. My last protein choco/banana brownies I topped with protein fluff.. sludge would work as well. Great way to add something extra and improve taste!

Ashlei

11-20-2011, 04:30 AM

That chicken and bnut squash! Oh lawd, do want!

Bonny_Lassie

11-20-2011, 03:05 PM

Bonny! Long time no see! I saw in Ashlei's log that you got seriously ill for a few months there? Hope all is well now and glad to have you back :D

Yaaa been really ill, but getting back into things now! Fingers crossed! Bulk starts big time from tomorrow - oh yeah! :D

Shazriki

11-21-2011, 02:43 PM

20 November 2011

Didn't reallly do much today since I still had this report to finish. As a result I didn't do any cardio either. Since the gym is on campus (which I have to take the bus to) it can take up to 2-3 hours just to get a simple 30 min cardio session out of the way. Now under normal circumstances that is perfectly fine since I enjoy doing it, but not when that's 3 hours I could spend on a fairly important piece of coursework. Luckily it's the LAST piece of coursework this semester :)

Morning weight 190.8

~The Eats~

Red pepper, mushroom and cheese omelette (failed flip) roast sprouts

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111120-IMGP0871.jpg

Macros 222P/201C/70F

Shazriki

11-21-2011, 02:44 PM

21 November 2011

Some days you just have to cut back. This morning I woke up randomly stiff and a little achey in my lower back (which almost never happens). I could kind of tell that today's workout wasn't going to be epic. Now, I never mentally resign myself to pushing lighter weights BEFORE getting into the gym. Something like that I always try to auto-regulate. I think it's more beneficial psychologically. Going into a workout having accepted that you're going to push less weight can in some ways devalue it. If you wait until after the warm up, you may find that you've loosened up enough to put in a killer performance, but sometimes you just have to cut back. Today was one of those days, with the lower back voodoo I wasn't about to do anything stupid. I think it has to do with my body shaking off the last stage of this cold.

The workout itself was kind of funky. Ended up doing some lighter than usual squatting, some heavier than usual dumbbell benching, and ended up having to do straight-bar skullcrushers with lighter weight than I usually do because nothing else was available. The gym had been taken over by the rugby team :p All in all pretty meh but I can honestly say I'm feeling better tonight and should back in full swing by wednesday. Can anyone say max deadlifts? Aww yeah.

Also the last couple of weeks have been hectic with two coursework deadlines effectively back to back. Well that's all over with so my updating should be back to it's regular daily frequency without as many interruptions, and in general I should have a lot more energy mentally and physically. It's crazy but sitting down in a chair crunching numbers all day is probably one of most tiring things I know. Now all I have to do for the rest of the semester is attend class, understand what's going on, and smash the exams in january. Child's play.

Weight loss has slowed down a bit, but I seem to be getting leaner, so I'll give things another week and see what needs to be done. I'll make a decision on Saturday morning, since from Saturday afternoon until monday evening my dad will be visiting me in town which means wining, dining, and generally not stressing about ze diet. On that note, I wonder if my energy levels in the gym lately don't just have to do with being sick, and if I might be shortchanging myself a bit with these lower carb rest days. To see if it makes any difference I'm going to drop fats 10g on rest days and increase carbs 20g to give 220P/220C/60F. It's marginal, but it might make the difference.

Morning weight 191.2

~The Workout~

Squats 258.5x5, 236.5x6, 214.5x7
*
DB Bench Press 66's x 9,9,7
*
CG Lat Pulldown 160.6 x 11 + 4,3
*
Skullcrushers (straight-bar) 60.5 x 16,12,9
Just decided to go one rep short of failure each set, dat tri pump was insane.
*
Cable twists 46.75 x 13 (each side), 12 (each side)

~The Eats~

Double-decker ham sandwich

I'm quickly getting a reputation for the "guy who eats fcking huge sandwiches during lectures"

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111121-IMGP0872.jpg

Corn tortilla burritos, medley of roasted veggies

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111121-IMGP0873.jpg

Macros 218P/314C/46F

Shazriki

11-21-2011, 02:45 PM

perfect way to put it IMO.

awesome to hear about the shoulders, get some pics up if ya can

man it's been too long since I've made a cheesecake, I think you've inspired me to give one a try this week!

P.s are you familiar with the XF banana creme flavour? Thinking about taking the dive and giving it a go for my next purchase

I'll see if I get a chance on Wednesday after I've had a chance to bro-pump my shoulders ;) Try the cheesecake man, very simple, great macros. You can even eat it a day if you want :p

Nope never tried the XF fruity flavors. Tbh I find artificial fruit flavors to be one of the worst things in existence, which is probably why to date none of the fruit flavored protein powders have done it for me!

Dude that cake looks good. My last protein choco/banana brownies I topped with protein fluff.. sludge would work as well. Great way to add something extra and improve taste!

Yea next time I need to whack up a batch of thick sludge to use as icing, would have really taken it to the next level!

That chicken and bnut squash! Oh lawd, do want!

Oh lawd I just realised I haven't eaten butternut squash in over a day, must go back to the store now :p Thanks though, those eats you posted up from the other day were killer!

Yaaa been really ill, but getting back into things now! Fingers crossed! Bulk starts big time from tomorrow - oh yeah! :D

Sorry to hear about the illness, but glad to hear about you getting better and the bulk. What's the plan routine wise?

foodpr0n

11-21-2011, 03:09 PM

Shazriki

11-22-2011, 06:00 AM

Popping and seeing you're kiiiiiilling it big fella!
You can look and actually be leaner and scale weight not move. It's happened to me over the past month. Fluctuated +/- 2lbs but vasularity has improved two fold over progress pics and waist cm's have been going down!

Thanks dude!

It's funny since you mentioned this because I looked in the mirror yesterday and I didn't notice extra leanness in my legs. And this morning I woke up not too fluffy and was up 2lbs. Very weird lol, I should probably starting taking waist measurements to provide a more consistent way of gauging fat loss, though my waist is so wide it's more or less limited by bone structure :p

phozosado

11-22-2011, 06:25 AM

IN on this at long last. Food pics are great, btw.

Ashlei

11-22-2011, 11:48 AM

I
Oh lawd I just realised I haven't eaten butternut squash in over a day, must go back to the store now :p Thanks though, those eats you posted up from the other day were killer!

I pretty much have to eat butternut squash, sweet potatoes or pumpkin something or another just about everyday or my day is just not complete.

Hope you're feeling better from the cold or sickness you're harboring. That's awesome you're done with your last piece of schoolwork. Must be nice!

Bonny_Lassie

11-22-2011, 12:49 PM

Sorry to hear about the illness, but glad to hear about you getting better and the bulk. What's the plan routine wise?

Decided to go for PHAT. Just started today with upper power - loved it! Maybe I'll do a log but no sure :D!

Everytime I look at your log, even if I've just eaten my dinner, it makes me hungry!

BTW, you've probably been asked this before, but how do you get your pics looking so awesome? is it a super duper fancy camera?

Shazriki

11-22-2011, 02:35 PM

IN on this at long last. Food pics are great, btw.

Great to have you in! I've lurked your log several times, and I must say I enjoy your approach to the whole Iron Game. Lift heavy, eat well, don't fret about every last bit of food, fire up some stogeys and make a bangin' cocktail. Much respect. Everyone looking for an example of balance should check out your spot IMO.

On that note, how do you rate Long Island Iced Tea?

I pretty much have to eat butternut squash, sweet potatoes or pumpkin something or another just about everyday or my day is just not complete.

Hope you're feeling better from the cold or sickness you're harboring. That's awesome you're done with your last piece of schoolwork. Must be nice!

I'm the same except "that" food for me is oats, I absolutely, MUST have it daily otherwise things just don't feel right. Hmm sweet potatoes, I think I'm gonna make me some fries tomorrow post-WO :D Thanks for the well-wishing, I'm feeling better by the minute :)

Having all the homework out of the way just makes the whole college experience so much easier/enjoyable. Just attend the classes (which I'm interested in so no biggie there) and do a bit of studying on the side. I take it you don't have the luxury of being done with all your assignments yet?

Decided to go for PHAT. Just started today with upper power - loved it! Maybe I'll do a log but no sure :D!

Everytime I look at your log, even if I've just eaten my dinner, it makes me hungry!

BTW, you've probably been asked this before, but how do you get your pics looking so awesome? is it a super duper fancy camera?

Ooh PHAT, sounds nice, I really want to give it a try one day, but I think next time I bulk it'll definitely be WSB or 5/3/1. But at some point I'll dedicate myself to something like PHAT for 8 weeks just to see the results.

Sorry for making you hungry, but good food looks good! :D

The key for good pictures is lighting. Some soft natural daylight at the right angles can make a poptart look like 3-star michelin cuisine. A steady hand is important but when you're snapping pictures in well lit environments shutter speed will >>>> any of your movements unless you're doing back flips. Yes I have an awesome camera but I still think composition is way more important than hardware. For example, I've taken some great pictures with my old Lumix (the point-and-shoot that many of the earlier pics in this log were taken with) that because of perfect natural light have been better than the one I'm currently using.

Unfortunately for those of us in the northern latitudes, taking pics with good daylight is almost impossible unless you eat all your meals between 8am-3pm (but I guess you Scots don't even see daylight in winter) :p That's also why most of my pics have a slightly yellowish tint to them, they are usually taken under my extractor light

Shazriki

11-22-2011, 02:46 PM

22 November 2011

Alriiiiight back into the routine finally, feelsgoodman. Getting back into my cardio groove now that I don't have as much work, and boy did it feel awesome today. Just whacked on some old Linkin' Park and I was gone. It was over before it started. Decided to give myself a good 15-20 mins of stretching and foam rolling since lower back was feeling a bit tight. Also I thought my glutes were doing fine until I decided to foam roll them. Oh boy, that one was sore afterwards. But they're feeling great now!

Looking forward to tomorrow's workout: going to max out my deadlift again (after getting front squats and OHP out of the way of course) ;) Going to do things a little to last time, however. Instead of doing that silly ascending pyramid I did, I'm going to instead warm up with some easy weights (but heavy enough to make sure form is good) and then jump right into PR attempts. I'm going to shoot for something in the region of 400-410.

Tomorrow I'm going to the gym with my game face.

http://www.metmuseum.org/content/interactives/knights/images/samurai_mask_250.jpg

Morning weight 192.8

Must have eaten something that didn't agree with me ^^

The workout

Crosstrainer 426 cals burned in 33:34

~The Eats~

Spaghetti Bolognese

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/Shazriki/20111122-IMGP0875.jpg

Macros 220P/225C/60F