Last few months as a teen, Baco_bacon's log of gainz and tonez

[DrakeTaylor]

Just wanted to say that I'm in the same place you are (with lifting, not school), so you are not alone my brother. Happy early birthday!

BTW, this is wannabeatank from old teen section, if you remember.

[baco_bacon]

Just wanted to say that I'm in the same place you are (with lifting, not school), so you are not alone my brother. Happy early birthday!

BTW, this is wannabeatank from old teen section, if you remember.

That is unfortunate that we're in the same boat, and taking a step back isn't very uncommon, just gives you more motivation when you break through a plateau. Thanks! Haha and I remember old teen section, good ol' days


BACK

Deadlift: 8x4 @ 82.5%
w/u
bar x 10
135 x 10
225 x 8
315 x 5
375 x 4
420 x 2 x 4
420 x 5 lost control on 3rd rep and leaned forward/dropped it, so I did 2 more to make up for it hence "5"
420 x 4 x 4
420 x 7 !

This was a funky deadlift today, but the drive was certainly there. As you can see I slipped on one of my sets and on another set I kept Kevin's 25 on one side when he was doing 455 which was another annoying screwup. Went in on a looot of caffeine and 3 hours of sleep so I dunno how I mustered up that energy, but the last set was awesome.

Strict 1 arm cable rows
Strict bentover db row

RTC/shoulder mobility exercises. Want this tendonitis gone asap.

[baco_bacon]

Update: tendonitis is feeling better. Been icing/resting. Kind of glad i'm deloading this week, been stressed as fuark with finals and work. Will be interesting to get all of my volume for the week in on thurs, fri, and saturday lol

[BipolarBrah]

Hey broha, happy belated birthday! I'm always surprised when you mention your age lol. You've always seemed older than you are - no doubt your advanced muscularity and admirable maturity factor into this.

Anyway, long time no talk huh? I feel we have some sort of parallelism between our lives. At the start of my sophomore year in college I had a tough break up with my then girlfriend putting me in a clouded mindset. I poured my energy into my job (also through the university), weightlifting (first time cutting weight), and academics(of which I eventually found solace). Being single can be great. It takes time adjusting but you soon learn to prioritize your time in a way that benefits you. Take pride in who you are, identify the values you uphold and become the man you want to be. I'm going to share some random thoughts I've had the past few years. You may or may not find them useful, but just consider the source - a guy three years older who sees a lot of himself in you.

-Eating 5k calories a day and hitting the gym hard is oh so sweet. There's comfort in routine and progression. It pulled us through the vagaries and tribulations of highschool's teen angst. It's made us better people. But can it be sustained? I'm not suggesting you quit weightlifting, but maybe a change in your approach? A shift to a higher rep range, cardio sessions three times a week, picking up a team sport. It's not too late to reverse the sore joints, muscle aches, and tendonitis. It's all about longevity.

-People develop a system of thinking in their early twenties. For a majority it often takes the form of religion, some a general sense of spirituality, others a philosophy. When this happens don't resist, embrace, and let it carry you to new heights. Don't forget others will have different beliefs that deserve respect. Remain open to changing your way of thinking.

-Never stop learning. Read as much as you can. Be intrinsically motivated in your academics. Strive to become better at thinking and reasoning. Find your passion and let yourself get carried away.

-Don't forget your family - they deserve unconditional love. Don't forget your friends - they've carved you into the person you are. Don't forget those you no longer know - cherish the memories.

If you wish to keep this log up you've got yourself at least one follower. Hope you are enjoying the summer.

edit; I also want to suggest a book. "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. It can be found at any school or public library and consists of short paragraphs of stoic philosophy and general wisdom. I read a few passages over my morning eggs, toast and coffee. Keeps me level headed and consistent throughout the day. Give it a look.

[baco_bacon]

Hey broha, happy belated birthday! I'm always surprised when you mention your age lol. You've always seemed older than you are - no doubt your advanced muscularity and admirable maturity factor into this.

Anyway, long time no talk huh? I feel we have some sort of parallelism between our lives. At the start of my sophomore year in college I had a tough break up with my then girlfriend putting me in a clouded mindset. I poured my energy into my job (also through the university), weightlifting (first time cutting weight), and academics(of which I eventually found solace). Being single can be great. It takes time adjusting but you soon learn to prioritize your time in a way that benefits you. Take pride in who you are, identify the values you uphold and become the man you want to be. I'm going to share some random thoughts I've had the past few years. You may or may not find them useful, but just consider the source - a guy three years older who sees a lot of himself in you.

-Eating 5k calories a day and hitting the gym hard is oh so sweet. There's comfort in routine and progression. It pulled us through the vagaries and tribulations of highschool's teen angst. It's made us better people. But can it be sustained? I'm not suggesting you quit weightlifting, but maybe a change in your approach? A shift to a higher rep range, cardio sessions three times a week, picking up a team sport. It's not too late to reverse the sore joints, muscle aches, and tendonitis. It's all about longevity.

-People develop a system of thinking in their early twenties. For a majority it often takes the form of religion, some a general sense of spirituality, others a philosophy. When this happens don't resist, embrace, and let it carry you to new heights. Don't forget others will have different beliefs that deserve respect. Remain open to changing your way of thinking.

-Never stop learning. Read as much as you can. Be intrinsically motivated in your academics. Strive to become better at thinking and reasoning. Find your passion and let yourself get carried away.

-Don't forget your family - they deserve unconditional love. Don't forget your friends - they've carved you into the person you are. Don't forget those you no longer know - cherish the memories.

If you wish to keep this log up you've got yourself at least one follower. Hope you are enjoying the summer.

edit; I also want to suggest a book. "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. It can be found at any school or public library and consists of short paragraphs of stoic philosophy and general wisdom. I read a few passages over my morning eggs, toast and coffee. Keeps me level headed and consistent throughout the day. Give it a look.

Wow - it is great to see you in here! Thank you so much for investing your time and energy into this post, it was actually something I needed to read.
Oh, and a belated thanks for the birthday wish!

It has been a long time. Kevin, ye? I always think back to when we met that one time and worked out at my Golds gym. Chest and back if I'm not mistaken haha. That was a phenomenal session/time.


Like I said, I'm so happy you replied to this. I haven't checked my log in a while. I'll post tomorrow about how my summer has been going.

I agree, I want some more variety in my life when it comes to exercise. I've been getting more into yoga and am actually taking a class in it fall quarter. My plan is to also start going to the OLY lifting club at my rec center.
In terms of how my body is 'physically doing' (aches and pains), everything has been doing much better. Training slowed down a looot near the beginning of summer after going on vacations/starting work and gave me time to just relax my body/mind. Not taking classes helped especially. So regarding lifting, I've changed a few things in my 'routine' and have been focusing on stretching/band work every day and tracking everything I eat. Eating a lot and not having much to stress about helps as well. I think I honestly just got burnt out this past year and it effected my mindset drastically.

I've noticed that a lot, as with many friends as well. I thought I changed the most between junior high ---> high school; but I was definitely wrong. I notice changes in myself almost every day now, and now is the time for me to shape into exactly who I want to become. It's really nice to read all this as nearly everything you're saying I know I need to be putting my energy towards and focusing on, as its nice hearing it from an outside source.

I'll check it out for sure (going to download it now...). I've been reading a lot recently (GoT, really ) but reading/learning is high on my priority list. Do you know the author, Khalil Gibran? My brother mentioned him to me and told me to read "the Prophet." If you haven't you should look it up.


Hope you're having an excellent summer as well. Working a ton right now, but i've definitely had a lot of fun.



Post/updates tomorrow

[BipolarBrah]

The workout we had was epic. I was sore the rest of my vacation lol!

Good call on the training. Performance in the gym is dependent on so much. If we acknowledge this and keep it in balance with other areas in life nothing in the gym should be off limits!

I've downloaded The Prophet PDF. It's a little poetic for my taste, but it's good abstraction.

[baco_bacon]

The workout we had was epic. I was sore the rest of my vacation lol!

Good call on the training. Performance in the gym is dependent on so much. If we acknowledge this and keep it in balance with other areas in life nothing in the gym should be off limits!

I've downloaded The Prophet PDF. It's a little poetic for my taste, but it's good abstraction.

I agree completely.



Was planning on writing an enormous novel on how my summer has been, but I'll try to use cliffs instead...

-beginning of summer was hectic: tendonitis forced me to take a week off, then i went on two vacations (hawaii w/ family and Paradiso music festival) back to back, so practically took 2.5 weeks off
-began working my summer job on a blueberry farm 60 hours a week. I was the receiving end, meaning my crew and I just waited for the farmers to come in and we would take their berries. Suuuuper chill job, literally just hung out with my cool coworkers and used a forklift all day- no manual labor.
-went to Pemberton music festival, so had to take 5 days off. Wouldn't have been bad if I didn't get strep throat the day after and couldn't move/eat for 3 days, went from 197-198 to 185 in that period of time...
-lost a LOT of strength from not eating and from taking that time off, still trying to rebuild 2 weeks later. Bodyweight is just about back
-moved from my old house to a townhouse with my brother and 2 friends. This new place will be MUCH better for motivation/school. Some of my old roomies weren't the best influences, truth be told
-been lifting hard with my buddy Dylan and we've been killing it. It's been hard since we were both working 50-60 hours a week, so sometimes as early as 6am or as late as 10pm right after work. We're both planning on starting up a youtube channel together, so expect some videos being posted very soon he also convinced ME to compete in bodybuilding come may/june next year together... so i'll be posting more details on that. I've been lifting for too long to not take it a step further, so i'm nervous even a year out, but ecstatic at the same time.
-got laid off my farm job because the season is coming to a close, so i'll go back to working at my dining hall... going from 60 hours >>minimum wage to 25-30 hrs a week at minimum will suck haha.

In other words, personally just didn't feel the need to continue updating when training slowed down, but we're back at it now.

Still running Ogus' 7/5/3 for bench, deadlift, and press, and Madcows intermediate for Squat. Numbers are below the maxes I was working with before still, but they'll be back up there in no time. Bench is probably the most infuriating. I had my 1RM at 310, but had to drop my percentages down to 275. Friggin' presses go down so quickly. 315 WILL be mine.

[baco_bacon]

Things are looking ^^^ for squats. Legs are also the biggest they've ever been at 26.5", reallllly want them to hit 27"s soon.

Today was madcows week 3 day 2 (top set of 3):

Squat
135x10
185x5
230x5
280x5
320x5
380x3 pause last rep (surprisingly very easy set, 5 shouldn't be too bad)
280x10 pause last 3

Front Squat
135x10
195x2x10
195x13

Leg ext:
3 sets 20
3 sets 15 right leg only

superset

Calf Raise:
3 sets
last set dropset


Biceps last 10 minutes. Been slacking on arms since our workouts have been having to be cut short, really need to begin hammering them.



Notes:
Hitting legs twice a week. First day is madcows day 1 (top set of 5) and then hamstrings. Second day is top set of 3 and then 8 and then quads. Legs are feelin' juicy right now - i'll take progress pictures once i'm over 200. Weighed in at 199 tonight. Hitting 4000 calories a day (around 200p,500c,125f~ roughly). Right now i'm more focused on hitting 200g pro and 4k calories than being anal about carbs and fats, but tracking everything is helping tremendously.

Tomorrow off, back on thursday.

[baco_bacon]

Couple updates:

Weight: hovering around 205-207 gym weight and surprisingly really lean. Way better this time around at 207 than 2 years ago i'll put up pics when I hit 210!


Excuse the grunt/drop. I was reaaallly stoked to hit this haha


Here's what i'm doing right now: running smolov jr for bench (currently halfway through the 3rd week) and what i've written up for my other lifts.



Things are looking great and bench is on FIRE right now. 225 7x5 was cake. 240 8x4 tomorrow. Going to hit that 315 next week. No doubt

[baco_bacon]

Finished Smolov Jr today. Was supposed to do 255 10x3, but since it was my last day I wanted to see how much volume/how heavy I could go. 267.5 is 85% of 315 so I was happy to hit the majority of my sets at 265.

Bench:
135 x 8
185 x 5
215 x 3
255 x 3 x 3
265 x 6 x 3
275 x 3 tie PR

Going to rest 3 days, eat up, and max out on Tuesday. I'll rest 2 more days and attempt maxing out again.


Biceps:
16 sets of 12-20, supersetted 2 exercises.

[baco_bacon]

Finally moving up in this world..

[baco_bacon]

Figure now would be a good time to update my stats and profile pic



5'9, 210

Really pleased with my muscle gains this past year, when I finally discovered the magic behind volume and actual strength gains.. looking forward for the rest of this year, going to continue bulking (no higher than 215) until mid February and begin a strict cut. Hoping to compete in a bbing show around june or so. I'll definitely keep this updated.


Different lighting/pose, but this really shows how much better my bulk went this time around... this was taking just under two years ago when my previous heaviest was 207. Goes to show what losing a few lbs of fat and gaining a few lbs of muscle looks like

[baco_bacon]

Just kinda a fun video I made today after the workout. Haven't been posting much of anything except really on my IG but videos are fun so i'll be trying to record more. This is especially exciting because it will be interesting to visually see the changes deeper into my cut. Btw instagram is baco_bacon for whoever is interested. Just a normal life ig page with mainly lifting haha

BTW, if anyone hasn't checked out Eric Helms' pyramid for training/nutrition book, you should asap. It's actually really good and well worth the money if you split with a couple friends haha