Lazy lifter gets a kick up the arse.

[lunchbreak]

My space angles in the gent's mirror at work on Friday. Not good! A long way to go yet.

[fittofattofit]

You're looking lean enough there Doug, and you're sporting some great pecs, biceps and forearms. You'd still cut an impressive figure on the beach so don't worry

[raynerd]

Good to see you back in action Doug! Missed a few things in here. Sounds like you have a good plan of attack and already hitting it hard. Lol'd at the labels on the progress pic
You look really good, not much BF there at all.

[DocJekyll]

You look lean and primed to go Doug. I don't see much wrong in that pic; but regardless you'll be where you want to quickly for sure.

Glad to see you back at it!

[Flounderbout]

Damn, if you've got a long way to go then I've got longer to go than I dare think about!

[lunchbreak]

Good to see you back in action Doug! Missed a few things in here. Sounds like you have a good plan of attack and already hitting it hard. Lol'd at the labels on the progress pic
You look really good, not much BF there at all.

There's quite a bit missing from here. My gym schedule is being heavily disrupted by trying to manage the building works* while working long hours at my job and us living in an annex above a garage with no phone or internet. On the positive side the weather is good so the fact there is only a dribble of hot water isn't so bad and we can BBQ everything we eat. The alternative single burner camping stove is rather limiting but the pub down the road makes up for it. 2 weeks in and I'm shattered already. Not good for my cortisol levels.

On the positive side I managed 6 x 60Kg OHP again last night. Not as smooth as it used to be, the last 2 were a bit grindy but strength is coming back.

* Our cottage currently has no habitable rooms, no bathroom and a worried looking structural engineer staring at 300 year old timbers working out if we can take out a wall without having the roof fall in.

[lunchbreak]

Still no house to live in. This means more dinners out and the cessation of any calorie deficit. My body weight is stable, unless its beer and pizza night, at around 88Kg. I still look flat/fat most of the time.
Training is back to 5/3/1 on main lifts with a mixture of swapped BBB and hypertrophy work. My upper body strength has been coming back nicely where I've been aggressively ramping the weights. I've had to resort to some pre-workout to get me going through the lethargy inducing heat, still no air-con at the gym. Still re-treading old ground of course but a little more satisfied with where I am, especially with the OHP.

This week's main lifts 3+ sets were:
OHP: 6 x 67.5Kg
Deadlift: 7 x 180Kg

Bench tomorrow and squat on Friday,

[fittofattofit]

That's a nice steady bump on the OHPs in the past three weeks then and that's some pretty sick deadlifting .... maybe having to abandon the cal deficit has done you favours

[lunchbreak]

That's a nice steady bump on the OHPs in the past three weeks then and that's some pretty sick deadlifting .... maybe having to abandon the cal deficit has done you favours

I think you are right. I'm just going to hold at this weight as best I can until we are back in the house. My macros have been skewed a little higher carb than usual[1] and I think that has also helped get my performance back on track. My OHP best ever from the end of my dreamer bulk last year was 5 x 75Kg.

[1] Pub meals very often come with copious quantities of chips, pastry or both... and deserts

[fittofattofit]

When life is stressed enough why load it up with a diet
And if at 88kg you're as lean as you were in the pic then you've got nothing to worry about (other than having no house of course )

[lunchbreak]

Quick update on main lifts, still a bit disappointing:

105Kg (3+) Bench last Thursday: 6 reps
140Kg (3+) Squat last Saturday: 5 reps - this was at the end of a strongman session with farmers and yoke so probably lost a couple.
70Kg (1+) OHP Monday: 5 reps - last was a grinder. Not much of a 1RM improvement over last week, wanted 6.

Thinking about swapping squat to high bar and trying to work up to the same weight. Getting a bit of elbow pain while squatting low bar and its easier to avoid stress on them for a few weeks while it goes away.

[DocJekyll]

How's it going man? Any updates? House? Lifting? Beers? Pizza?