The Long Journey to Becoming a "Raw Master"

[DJaRiHardstyle]

I owe you guys an apology. I haven't gone this long without logging in forever. I promise you, after tomorrow, I'm going to have infinitely more time on my hands. I will get a mega log out tomorrow night (awesome wording there).

Stay strong

[ErikTheElectric]

lol, it's not that big of a deal Ari. Take care of your main priorities in life, there are far more important things to be worrying about.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

lol, it's not that big of a deal Ari. Take care of your main priorities in life, there are far more important things to be worrying about.

merci beaucoup, Erik.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

MEGA UPDATE

Wow that looked really epic.. I highly enjoyed that. Anyways, gonna crank out all the updates I owe you guys and then get a general overview afterwards.

Thursday, December 11, 2014 - Lower 1-5

Training

Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 2
315 x 2
365 x 1
*add belt*
395 x 6 @ 9
**6% F Load Drop**
370 x 5 @ 8
370 x 5 @ 8.5
370 x 5 @ 8.5
370 x 5 @ 9

Front Squat
45 x 8
135 x 5
*add belt*
225 x 2
255 x 3 @ 9
**9% F Load Drop**
235 x 3 @ 8
235 x 3 @ 8.5
*At this point, calf pain stopped me from continuing.. Hopefully the doctor's appointment will help me figure things out and move on from this*

Elevated Plank
(1:00) x 2
(1:20) x 2



Friday, December 12, 2014 - Off Day




Saturday, December 13, 2014 - Upper 6-10

Training

Bench Press - paused
45 x 10
95 x 6
135 x 5
185 x 3
210 x 10 @ 8.5 <-- should've just gone for one or two more reps
**6% F Load Drop**
205 x 8 @ 8.5
205 x 8 @ 9

Straight-Bar Cable Curl
78 x 10
90 x 10
(105 x 10) x 2

Lat Pulldown - wide-grip
(138 x 10) x 2
(125 x 10) x 3

Pec Deck
135 x 10
150 x 10
158 x 10

BB Laying "Skullcrusher"
70 x 10
(80 x 10) x 2

DB Lateral Raises - single-arm
30 x 10
(30 x 8) x 2

Face Pulls
(98 x 8) x 2
105 x 10



Sunday, December 14, 2014 - Off Day



Monday, December 15, 2014 - Off Day

Overview

So the past few days have been hectic. Sleep has been way off, I've been studying a lot (and because my study habits aren't great, when I do study a lot, I feel it), diet has been off (not as bad as you'd think though, thanks to based protein shakes), things have just been crazy.

Well, today I took my Government exam in the morning and Human Anatomy and Physiology I exam at night. The government exam was surprisingly straight-forward, considering how little work I put into studying for it, compared to how much I should've. The anatomy exam, on the other hand, was insane. Just a really tough exam and there was a lot of stuff on there I know I didn't study adequately for, despite spending a hefty amount of time studying for it the days leading up to it.

Sciatica is still very apparent and very annoying/painful. Just can't wait to finally see the doctor and make that first step. Just sitting and walking are becoming tough.

That's really it. I wasn't able to make it to the gym tonight because it closes in an hour. By the time I get ready and get over there, I'd have like no time. Good thing is, I have three full days of nothing to train and eat all I want. We'll see how it goes.

[Gett01]

Yeah I agree the A&P final was tough, but at least its over and at this point it is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it anymore. Lifting looks solid, and good luck with the sciatica, hope you find a solution to it soon

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Yeah I agree the A&P final was tough, but at least its over and at this point it is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it anymore. Lifting looks solid, and good luck with the sciatica, hope you find a solution to it soon

Yeah we'll see.... Back problems can be tricky lol

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Double update again.... I know I know.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - Lower 6-10

Training

Things haven't been going spectacular these last few sessions. Stress over finals + dietary choices due to finals + sleep patterns due to finals plus the aforementioned things.... and obviously I could have planned things out so I could make better dietary choices, get better sleep, and stress less, but that's a huge WIP right now. Anyways, that's why these two sessions went so badly and I actually cut out exercises on this day.

Deficit Deadlift - off 35 lb. bumper
135 x 5
225 x 4
315 x 3
*add belt*
365 x 8 @ 9
**6% F Load Drop**
345 x 8 @ 9 <-- out of breath.. conditioning SUCKS (weekend cardio needs to start this weekend)

Pause Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 1
*add belt*
255 x 6 @ 9
**9% F Load Drop**
235 x 6 @ 9

Standing Cable Crunch
78 x 18
18 x 16
(98 x 8) x 2

Calf Raise
275 x 8
(275 x 10) x 2



By the time I got to the pause squats, I was out of breath because my conditioning is awful. I also had taken a break to go #2 in the bathroom and THEN once I got all set up to squat, put my shoes on, set up the rack, etc., I did the one thing I try never to do at the gym, which is I pulled my phone out. Saw some texts and, naturally, sat down and responded. By that point, I was so mentally unfocused, the squats barely happened.

Need to make a mental note of never doing that again.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 - Upper 15-20

Training

Incline Bench Press - TnG
45 x 15
95 x 12
135 x 6
175 x 14
160 x 10
*didn't even manage to go over 15 on my actual sets.. very disappointed*

DB Curls - seated
(20 x 15) x 2
25 x 17
25 x 25 <-- I surprise myself sometimes

Lat Pulldown - wide-grip
(118 x 15) x 2
(110 x 15) x 2

Pec Deck
135 x 15
(143 x 15) x 2

Straight-Bar Pressdown
(70 x 15) x 2
70 x 12



Pretty disappointed about how today went. But I can either spend time typing about it or I can actually get sleep and actively fix the problem. Gonna have to choose the latter.... night guys.

[hostelmaniac]

only learned two thing about the sciatic nerve in A&P


Tibial and Common Fibular nerves
it's in the Sacral plexus

much info
many wows

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Thursday, December 18, 2014 - Lower 15-20

Overview

Wow, look, an actual log with an actual overview! Lol, still a day late, but give me my little victories.... Woke up at like 11:15 to turn some stuff in that was due at 11:30 (counted as our final), which means I got a good amount of sleep. Didn't eat amazingly throughout the day, but session went.. well, you'll see.

Training

Training went surprisingly well. I felt lethargic all day, especially after like 3 hours of studying for my Anthro final, but I took a Monster and half a scoop of C4 and was good to go.

Sumo Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 5
(275 x 15) x 3 w/straps

Low-Bar Squat
45 x 10
135 x 6
205 x 15
(205 x 10) x 2

Ab Wheel - from knees
(12) x 4

Seated Leg Curl
(143 x 15) x 2
158 x 15
*KILLED my hams lol*

Calf Raise
(175 x 17) x 2
175 x 20



Conditioning is so awful lol. Honestly could've gotten 3 sets of 205 x 15 easily on the squat with better conditioning. I know I have the strength to be getting way more reps out of these weights, it just takes more cardio on the weekends. Plan is to start that this weekend.

That's about it..

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Friday, December 19, 2014 - Off Day

Overview

Doing a double update tonight. Friday was fun.... finished up my last exam, for Anthro, which I think went well, and then just hung out with people for the rest of the day. It was a nice way to spend the last day of the semester. Didn't end up training because I thought I would train on Saturday buuuut.. well, you'll see in that log.

Saturday, December 20, 2014 - Off Day

Overview

My dad picked me up at like 9am and we headed back home. Always feels strange to be back home, because considering I live at college 70% of the year, home doesn't feel like home anymore. That said, I've obviously lived in two different dorms in college, and will live in at least one more (the fraternity house) during my stay, so even college doesn't feel like a static home.

Anyways, I planned on training today, but some weird queasiness + lethargy took over my body for a good 5 hours or so. It was awful, and there was just no way I'd be able to train. It sucks, but I'm planning on going Sunday now.

Also, my mini-cut starts tomorrow. Here's the plan:

1. Stay on calculated "maintenance" kcals and see if I can drop any weight after a week. If not, I'll immediately pull off 500 kcals, or 125g carbs.

2. Macros on "maintenance" (in quotes b/c if I'm losing weight, it's obviously not my real maintenance): 335c/80f/230p

3. Remember that whole weekend cardio thing I kept saying I'd start.. It starts next off day. I'll just get in a basic 20-30 min bike HIIT session on Sat and Sun.

4. Also, I will be back to weighing myself each week for this.

Remember, this is only 4 weeks long, b/c that's all the time I have back home. I'll just do what I can. Wish I had longer to cut, but it is what it is. I just HATE not being lean and having a fat face lol.... I store too much fat in my face to truly enjoy bulking #cursed.

That's about it. I'm stoked to see how this goes. If I can drop 3 lbs. over break, that'll be successful. I'll weigh myself tomorrow morning and maybe even get progress pictures for reference.

[ErikTheElectric]

in4 mini cut. Although I'm not a fan of "mini cuts" and think they're close to pointless, It'll be interesting to see how you do!

Hope everything else is going well Ari.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

in4 mini cut. Although I'm not a fan of "mini cuts" and think they're close to pointless, It'll be interesting to see how you do!

Hope everything else is going well Ari.

lol wut. They're not any more "pointless" than what we consider a traditional cut. If you can afford to lose a couple pounds and not lose strength and you have the time to do it, why not? Assuming you aren't going crazy with your bulk, it'll cut that additional 3 or 4 weeks off the next time you cut, because you will have already lost the weight.

[ErikTheElectric]

lol wut. They're not any more "pointless" than what we consider a traditional cut. If you can afford to lose a couple pounds and not lose strength and you have the time to do it, why not? Assuming you aren't going crazy with your bulk, it'll cut that additional 3 or 4 weeks off the next time you cut, because you will have already lost the weight.

Wow.


Well, I was going to offer up an explanation and my personal reasoning behind why I believe what I do. But it seems you've already formulated quite an opinion.

Later!

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Wow.


Well, I was going to offer up an explanation and my personal reasoning behind why I believe what I do. But it seems you've already formulated quite an opinion.

Later!

Not 100% sure what I said that upset you to be honest.

You said you find mini cuts to be "close to pointless", so I offered a rebuttal. What is the problem?

[hostelmaniac]

Wow.
Well, I was going to offer up an explanation and my personal reasoning behind why I believe what I do. But it seems you've already formulated quite an opinion.
Later!

[connorpat1995]

Working on BA in Health Sciences.. Future Registered Dietitian.

I think he's got it down pretty well lol

[hostelmaniac]

I think he's got it down pretty well lol

explain

[DJaRiHardstyle]

explain

Yeah, I was a little confused by that too

[connorpat1995]

A soon-to-be dietician probly knows how to eat

[hostelmaniac]

A soon-to-be dietician probly knows how to eat

but i mean like what were you replying to??

the erik vs ari discussion about mini cuts or???

but idk, ari is gonna be a dietician but 3/4 of his diet is alcohol lmaoooo no negs pls bb only joking...


semi srs


not srs

[DJaRiHardstyle]

A soon-to-be dietician probly knows how to eat

OH. I appreciate it, man, but honestly I know so little compared to what there is to know out there. On spread btw.

[hostelmaniac]

so how did the grades finish up ari?

[DJaRiHardstyle]

so how did the grades finish up ari?

B+ in Creative Writing, C+ in Gov, C in Anatomy, haven't gotten my Anthro grade yet.... Definitely not the grades I was shooting for, but I'm literally going to type and print out my goals for next semester and tape them on my phucking door in my dorm room. I NEED a 3.0 or higher.

[hostelmaniac]

B+ in Creative Writing, C+ in Gov, C in Anatomy, haven't gotten my Anthro grade yet.... Definitely not the grades I was shooting for, but I'm literally going to type and print out my goals for next semester and tape them on my phucking door in my dorm room. I NEED a 3.0 or higher.

How about a 3.5 or better? "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars"

There is always next semester man

[Gett01]

Sounds like a solid plan, I'm hoping to lose a little bit of weight over break too. You'll be fine with the grades, all it takes is hard work and studying smart. And now that we've been through a semester of Anatomy we have a good feel of how the grading is spread out and what we need to focus on (AKA: lab practicals/quizzes = easy grade boosters if we study), so I'm sure this next semester'll be better

[DJaRiHardstyle]

How about a 3.5 or better? "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars"

There is always next semester man

I've found that setting a bunch of small-term goals tends to help me more in life. For example, my goal in lifting right now isn't to hit a 600 squat, 400 bench, and 650 dead, but rather something more immediate.... doesn't mean I don't think I'll eventually hit those in the long long term. Just means I want something more immediate, something I can almost taste, not to be corny.

That's how I feel about my grades. Right now, we're probably looking at a 2.7 or 2.75.. Shooting for a 3.0 next semester strikes me as more realistic and tangible. On the other hand, that's just a mental mark, doesn't mean much else. Cuz if you think about it, obviously my goals are going to be something like this: take more complete notes, maybe allot so and so days to studying and taking notes, re-take notes after class, things like that. None of my goals will be to "take great notes, but not amazing ones". My point is, in shooting for whatever grade I choose to shoot for, my plan of attack will be the same because its basic premise is that I'm going to do the best I can do.

Whew. Long winded answer for a short question.. sorry lol.

Sounds like a solid plan, I'm hoping to lose a little bit of weight over break too. You'll be fine with the grades, all it takes is hard work and studying smart. And now that we've been through a semester of Anatomy we have a good feel of how the grading is spread out and what we need to focus on (AKA: lab practicals/quizzes = easy grade boosters if we study), so I'm sure this next semester'll be better

Yeah, I weighed in at 197 (fed, but still) this morning, which is only 1 pound under the top of the class.... Not a condition I want to be in, but hopefully this will motivate me to actually get back to counting macros in college, something I'm terrible at doing.

And yeah one thing I really regret was not taking lab as seriously as I took lecture. If you factor everything from lab in, it can easily be make or break. Even though we have different professors next semester, we should study like we did for that final, for all the exams. It sucks that I put in all that studying just to get a 62, but there was definitely subject matter I just flat out didn't study (i.e. adrenergic and cholinergic receptors), which ended up being the death of me.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Sunday, December 21, 2014 - Upper 1-5

Overview

So I went to sleep at 4am and woke up at 1pm today, meaning my sleep schedule is still off. It's been like this for a week.... I haven't been even a little tired before bed until like 3 or 4 in the morning and then I wake up really late. I'm just going to try scaling it back. Tonight I'll try 2am, with all electronics off at 1:30? Idk, we'll see.

Anyways, I weighed in at 197 this "morning".. it was actually like 2:30pm and I had just eaten my "breakfast", which, for everyone else, was lunch, which was a chicken club and a coffee from this Italian sandwich and pizza place we have in northern VA. It was really good, but kinda screwed up my fats for the day.

Other than that, I've been tracking today and so far I'm finding it's very hard to hit that 230 protein without a bunch of carbs so I can get trace proteins. May have to do some weird stuff tonight to hit it, like a 3 scoop protein shake (ugh, the horrors..)

Training

Training went AWESOME. Like, one of the best training sessions I've had in months, maybe even this year. I literally PR'd on every single exercise but one (and the only reason I leave that one out is because I don't normally do pronated medium grip pull-ups, so idk if that was PR strength). So, normally I don't point out all my PRs, but just to drive home the point, I'm going to point to every PR in bold. Granted, this was at a different gym, one that I don't train at too often at home (our regular gym is closed until January), but still.. In fact, normally I perform worse at this gym than any other.

Close-Grip Bench Press - paused
45 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 2 @ 9 <-- PR
**6% F Load Drop**
260 x 2 @ 8
260 x 3 @ 9

Overhead Press
45 x 5
95 x 3
145 x 4 @ 9 <-- PR
**9% F Load Drop**
135 x 4 @ 8
135 x 4 @ 9

Weighted Pull-Ups - pronated, medium grip
(25 x 3) x 3
(25 x 4) x 2

BB Curl
(90 x 4) x 2
100 x 5 <-- PR

BB Laying "Skullcrusher"
90 x 5
(100 x 5) x 2 <-- PR

Face Pulls - sitting on floor
70 x 5 <-- not sure why I started so light
110 x 8
130 x 5 <-- PR

DB Shrugs
100 x 20 w/straps <-- PR
100 x 15 w/straps <-- PR



And to think all this was after waking up at 1pm, dealing with this nagging sciatica, and a night of drinking on Friday.. I amaze myself sometimes.

Also, worth noting I tried benching with my Adipowers on today. Since I'm now doing flat footed benching (which I like a lot more, as far as back comfort), the Adipowers increase plantar flexion (anatomy terminology comes in handy), so that I can bring my feet back further and thereby increase leg drive strength. Also, the design of the shoes helps with leg drive tremendously + prevents lateral movement of my feet. Not gonna bench without them anymore, at least not competition bench.

That's about it.. time to find a way to finish off these weird macros (I've got no fats left, so nothing too wild).

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Monday, December 22, 2014 - Lower 1-5

Overview

Day late. It's definitely been nice getting to sleep as late as I want, but I'm still actively trying to push back what time I go to bed, because I ruined that schedule with finals. Also, hitting macros has been funky. The only reason I was even able to get close to the protein I'm supposed to hit is because I got a double chicken bowl at Chipotle for dinner. That means I'm going to have to find some other protein source to get in daily, which my dad probably won't be a huge fan of, as he hates when I get new things from the grocery store.

Training

Training went well.. not nearly as well as Sunday, but things were moving right, my mental intensity was there, etc. Funny thing is, I actually forgot to take my pre-workout before training on Sunday and had one of the best, most intense training sessions I've had in a while. Also, I forgot to take my creatine home, so I haven't had that for a while. I'll just treat this as a creatine "deload", which is something I've done before, just as precaution to make sure my body doesn't think it needs to produce creatine on its own.

High-Bar Squat
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 2
*add belt*
315 x 1 @ 7.5
335 x 2 @ 9
**6% F Load Drop**
315 x 2 @ 8
315 x 2 @ 8.5
315 x 1 @ 9

Romanian Deadlift
45 x 5
225 x 5
*add belt*
315 x 5 @ 9 <-- only because of grip, so I threw on straps after
**9% F Load Drop**
285 x 7 w/straps @ 8
285 x 8 w/straps @ 9

Bench Plank
1:20
*realized I could be more horizontal; made the exercise drastically harder*
1:00
(0:40) x 2

Lying Leg Curl
(100 x 7) x 2
*machine was really awkward)

Seated Calf Raise - plate-loaded
2 x 7
2+25 x 7
2+25 x 8
2+25 x 12



That's about it. Also, I may switch to only 2 variants for every exercise sooner than January.

[connorpat1995]

Never seen belted RDLs before

Nice curl PR ....bro
Actually srs 100lb is a strong ass curl

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Never seen belted RDLs before

Yeah, honestly if it wasn't for my sciatica and APT, I probably wouldn't bother, as the effect would be pretty minimal during an exercise where you're not trying to stay upright. But I'm just too scared to rely on my unassisted core strength alone when it comes to heavy closed chain movements right now.

Never seen belted RDLs before

Nice curl PR ....bro
Actually srs 100lb is a strong ass curl[/QUOTE]

Lol thanks. Not quite on CT's level though. Btw following your log