Phamine's Journal: Start 6 month ICF 5x5

[phamine]

I used to be a trained athlete in HS and College. I started lifting my Junior year of HS periodically working out for a month or 2 every year. I was a New Year's resolution guy at the gym.
I made gains during that time and always lost it. At my peak I weighed 154 @ 13% BF. And finally I stopped working out for 2 years, became sedentary, and was unhappy with my health.

I found out that I had high cholesterol and my doctor mentioned that she'd put me on medication if I was older. That was the sign I that lead me to change my lifestyle.

I started working out again around the end of December 2013.
I used a body split of 3 x 8/10 reps.
Working sets were 8 reps and increased until I got 10. Once I got 10, I'd up the weight by 5-10 lbs and do a working set of 8 and repeat.

I started working out for 5 days a week. Found that I wasn't recovering and dropped it down to 4 days a week. On the rest days I'd do Yoga and spin cycle.

I didn't start logging what I ate until 3/2014. I found this to be the most useful as I didn't know how much I was eating. It allowed me to control my appetite better.

So why am I making a switching workouts?
1. My joints have started to bother me. I was doing a lot of isolation work.
2. I think I needed more rest between workouts. I didn't see as much growth as I did in the past.
3. I wanted to follow a proven workout that people have had success doing.

My physical progress so far which I feel are very slow gains for 6 months.

Jan 2014 166 @ 23 BF


June 2014 155 @ 16 BF


My strength gains were noob. I have to admit I don't think I've ever been this strong.

[phamine]

First day of ICF 5x5. I'm really on a 3x5 at the moment because I'm cutting. Work sets at 75% are very challenging. Work sets at 65% not so much. I guess my tune will change once I ramp up the weight.

[phamine]

Did some Spin on Saturday and Workout B on Sunday.
The workouts itself was not as hard as my previous program, but I am feeling a little more sore than usual.

[mirroroferised]

You look a lot leaner while maintaining muscle mass. Great job.

[phamine]

You look a lot leaner while maintaining muscle mass. Great job.

Thanks man!

Yoga on Monday and the instructor did a lot of hip stretches which helped with squats today. Third time around for squats so I increased the weight by 5. Felt light and easy and still able to deep squat.

BORs feel very light even though they are at my 75% of my 1 RM. I get to increase the weight next week. I decided to add wood chops to Workout A since I wanted more direct ab work.

[phamine]

So I increased the weights of my 5x3 and 3x8. Still feel like it's light weight. But I am tired and sore the day after more so than my previous routine of bro splits. So I guess it's working.
Maybe I should reduce the rest from 3 mins to 1.5-2 mins?

I added some more accessory work with calf raises. Although my calves are tired from yoga between sessions.
My strength is still up and increasing on my 300-400 deficient. I know it's slow - but I'm losing about 1lb every 2 weeks which is what I'm aiming for.

[phamine]

Another week passed, more weight added. I cheated and added more weight to the exercises that I felt they were like warmup sets for me.

Strength level are increasing still on my 300-400 cal cut.
First time I'm feeling small when I look in the mirror and I hit my college weight of 150 lbs for the first time in 8 years. I think I made it to 14-15% fat.
I don't want to get too lean - my goal stop once that roll above my navel is gone and flat with my navel.

Anyway - Here are the numbers.

[phamine]

So the past week I made some gains and I had a failure on the bench press. I hit the hooks a few times which I feel made me miss the 5th rep of my last set as I was able to do 215x5 the previous workout. Hopefully I can avoid a reset on Wednesday by competing it. I'm just 10lbs away of hitting my bench press goal.

A mistake I made was not decreasing the weight of the BOR on my deadlift day and I paid with a strained left lat. So I had to take chinups out of the program and replace them with incline curls. I'm using very light weight as I don't want to aggravate my tennis elbow which is still healing.

I hit a PR on the back squat hitting 250x5. Speed seems okay - I think I can go beltless for 15-20 lbs as I progress. Time will tell.

[phamine]

Update on the past couple of weeks.

1. I have hip bursitis on the left hip. It caused a stall on my squat so I reset at 260 and went down to 235. I found that wearing a belt helped a bit; it just may be in my head. Foam roller has been a friend once again.

2. I also have a left lat strain which forced me to drop chin ups and begin doing seated incline curls and barbell curls. It's been a month and it has been healing very very slowly. I really want to get chins back in since I'm really concerned that I might aggravate my tennis elbow again.

3. Took a deload - This routine is just taxing on me. I can't imagine how'd I feel doing the full 5x5 on a bulk. But on a 3x5 on a cut - it just beats your ass.

4. Progress update day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

[phamine]

So I lost a total of 7 lbs and 3% bf since I started this program 2 months ago. Overall, my measurements shrunk since I'm cutting. But my strength has been increasing however.
I hope to get down to 10% - which by my estimate 2 more months of cutting at the rate I'm going (2-3 lbs a month).

I can't wait to start bulking - Always hungry.

I look thicker even though I'm smaller. Looks like the compounds in this program is working.

Before:


After:

[phamine]

Lifts are still improving. But I think I'l going to have to reset on the OHP soon. I reset on the seated incline curls today which doesn't bother me as I'm still nursing tennis elbow on my right side.

Reached my first goal on the barbell bench for 225x5. I really think the paused CGBP and the OHP is really helping me with my bench. I don't think I would have thought to do either to help my bench.
Now if the other lifts are just as easy.

[phamine]

It's been 2 months since I've posted. I'm still progressing on my lifts. I've reset a few of the main lifts. I've noticed that my form and control of the weight is better at the same weight on my resets so that's progress to me.

Bench - 230x5
Squat - 265x5 = I really think I could have hit 275 before resetting but wanted to save my hip.
OHP - 130x4 = This is a terribly difficult lift for me. My goal was to hit 155 by the end of the year.
BOR - 190x5 = My form looks terrible - Will have to reset
Deadlift - 265x5 = Horrible form - Injured my back so I gave up the lift for a month and did barbell glute bridges instead.

I'm currently at 148 @ 11.5% BF. I don't think I could hit my goal of 10% by the end of October. It's been over 4 months of slow cutting. Should I stop and begin slow bulking?

[Marius_Ursus]

Great job on the transformation!

In.

[phamine]

So I'm stopping my cut/recomp. My lifts stalled, and the fat that I've lost doesn't look like it's changing my physique as much as I wanted. I think I need to add more muscle to be more defined.

Jun 2014 - 155lbs 16% BF
Waist 32"
Chest 38.25"
Shoulders 48"


Nov 2014 - 150lbs 10.5% BF
Waist 30"
Chest 39"
Shoulders 45"


Jun 2014 Max Training Lifts
Bench 5x195 (x3)
Squat 5x210 (x3)
Dead 5x240 (x1)
Bent Over Row 5x115 (x3)
Standing Over Head Press 5x90 (x3)

Nov 2014 Max Training Lifts
Bench 5x230 (x3)
Squat 5x265 (x3)
Dead 5x265 (x1)
Bent Over Row 5x187.5 (x3)
Standing Over Head Press 4x135 (x3)

Calories
IIFYM - 1964 cals 133P, 47F, 250C

BF Caliper Measurements
Abdominal 18mm
Thigh 7mm
Tricep 7mm
Suprailiac 8mm
Neck 14.5"
Waist 30"

[yaaar]

Pretty manly numbers for your weight, nice going over here!

[mikemodjeski7]

Something you might try for the tennis elbow that works for me. It takes a few weeks of doing it regular for it to start working, but keep doing it and it should help. I don't have any problems with it now that I do the stretching regularly.

[phamine]

Something you might try for the tennis elbow that works for me. It takes a few weeks of doing it regular for it to start working, but keep doing it and it should help. I don't have any problems with it now that I do the stretching regularly.

Thanks Mike.

My elbow has finally healed. Took about 4-5 months. I stopped overloading my elbows with volume from curls and extensions and it helped.

I stopped doing barbell skull crushers with a supinated grip and it helped my elbows tremendously!
I use a pronated grip now with dumbbells and I have no elbow pain.

I was also dealing with an issue with my right AC joint. My AC joint has been healing and I'm starting to move weight again. One stretch that helped my AC joint is the video linked below

[phamine]

So it's been awhile since I posted.

So I'm slowly switching the ICF cut routine and transitioning into the bulking routine (5x5)
I'm currently doing 5x5 on yates rows and 4x5 on bench and OHP.

As for squats and deadlifts, I noticed that doing heavy squats takes away from my deadlift which is something I'd like to improve upon.
As a result, I'm increasing volume on squats to 7-9 @ 225 while maintaining ATG form. And surprisingly I've noticed I'm still able to squat heavy and feel "strong" with it. The consistent focus on form I think helped. My deadlift has been going up from 240 - 305 now. Having stronger erectors has improved my squat as I notice I'm not leaning over as much.



Here are 2 pictures of me around the same BF %.

First pic 12% 150 lbs
Second pic 12% 153 lbs

I think I grew. Though, from the pics it looks like I'm not as lean at the same BF.

[phamine]

Lifts have continued to go up on the bulk.

BB - 235x5x4 from 230x5x3
OHP - 140x5x4 from 130x5x3
BOR - 190x5x5 from 185x5x3
DL - 305x5 from 265x5

Joints have been feeling a lot better than they were on my cut. However, I've been having discomfort when I curl with palms up on my Ulnar. So I switched to Neutral grip on dumbbells and EZ bar.

3 months of bulking and I've gained about 7 lbs and about 2% in BF. So net maybe 3 lbs in LBM.
I'm going to continue until I reach 14-15% BF and plan to cut back down to 10%

The bad news: I sprained my MCL skiing in the last week of Jan. So I've cut out deadlifts and squats until it's healed.

A lot better form then 2 months ago.

[phamine]

So it's been awhile since I've updated my progress.

So what has happened since February?

I ended my bulk in May. In 5 months I gained 10 lbs and 3-4% BF. Strength on all the main lifts increased. I'm not sure if it's considered a successful bulk other than my lifts going up.
I think I've exhausted all the gains I can make on this program. The progress on my DL stalled probably from the fact that I stopped squatting so my knee can recover.

BB - 245x5x4 / 240x5x5 from 235x5x4
OHP - 140x5x5 / 142.5x5x4 from 140x5x4
BOR - 212.5x5x5 from 190x5x5
DL - 310x5 / 315x2 from 305x5






On my current cut, I was able to shed off 12lbs in 2.5 months. I found that quite surprising as the first time cutting, it took me a long time to lose weight. I'm on a 300 cal deficit so my calorie intake is around 1800-1900 cals a day.

In terms of me recovering my MCL/PCL tear, it's going as planned. I recovered most of my mobility and started incorporation goblet squats and leg curls into my program. I'm looking to start back squatting again in a couple of weeks.

My strength is down as well as my volume. But it seems like it's working so far.

@151

[phamine]

After spending a year and a half on this program bulking and cutting, I'm going to close out this journal as I'm going to be moving to a Fierce 5 four day Upper/Lower program.

Here's my final review of this program.

Positives
1. Very fast progression. I found I was able to gain strength very quickly.
2. Built in resets. I found after a reset I was able to break a plateau a few weeks later.
3. Different rep ranges. From 5 to 8 to 12, the program was fun.
4. I enjoyed a full body; 3 days a week in the gym. It allowed me to focus on my Yoga practice on the off days.
5. Tricep dominate program. From OHP, Bench, CGBP, Skullcrushers, Tricep pushdowns - Triceps just grew.

Negatives
1. Fatigue accumulated quickly. Full body at this type of intensity and volume wore me out. Those 2 extra days of rest were always looked forward to.
2. Duration of program. The workout took me about 2 hrs to finish.
3. Having to squat every time is grueling. And adding deadlifts into one of the squatting days just pummeled me. In the beginning it was fine, once you started moving weight it was just hard to recover.
4. Again, recovery was difficult even on a bulk. I found I had to take a day off every 6 weeks or a deload every 8 weeks.
5. Bicep growth lagged. One accessory for bicep in addition to BORs.

Results
Bulk: 160 lbs
Cut: 140 lbs

Bench: 247.5x5x4 (bulk) / 235x5x3 (cut)
Squat: 275x5x3 (bulk) / 235x5x3 (cut)
DL: 315x4x1 (bulk) / 295x5x1 (cut)

Final picture : 140 lbs @ 6.5% BF

[dency45]

This is cool man. A good motivation when I go serious cut next year. What is your diet looks like? (macros etc,)