No Time to Waste - DJaRiHardstyle's Off Season Log

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Typical boring off day, with the exception of some heaven-sent Chipotle I had for lunch with Angelica. Really did nothing today except hang out with her, play pool, and watch Mad Men as per usual. Not looking too forward to tomorrow's slightly higher volume and definitely higher intensity in squats, but we gotta make it happen!!

[ErikTheElectric]

Chipotle = hngggggh
What did you get?


Looks like both of us have squats on the agenda tomorrow.

Take it easy man.

[psychodiver9]

innnn

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Chipotle = hngggggh
What did you get?


Looks like both of us have squats on the agenda tomorrow.

Take it easy man.

The usual, bro.. burrito w/white rice, black beans, double chicken, tomato salsa, and cheese.. and a sprite. I only change up my burrito every once in a blue moon.

And yeah, good luck man!

innnn

Good to finally have you lol

[psychodiver9]

The usual, bro.. burrito w/white rice, black beans, double chicken, tomato salsa, and cheese.. and a sprite. I only change up my burrito every once in a blue moon.

And yeah, good luck man!



Good to finally have you lol

don't come in this section much. starving bbers mostly

[Bnizzle163]

Chipotle is meh (sorry, guize ). Training, on the other hand, is looking good!

[DJaRiHardstyle]

don't come in this section much. starving bbers mostly

Lol that used to be me, so I can understand that. Since my focus switched to powerlifting, I've tried to start a log on the PL board, but no one followed. Besides, most of the people who follow this have been following since the beginning so they have a better sense of my progress than someone who started following a month ago, per se. Doesn't matter though cuz most of the people in here either have competed in PL, incorporate PL movements into their training, or are actually only interested in powerlifting.

Chipotle is meh (sorry, guize ). Training, on the other hand, is looking good!

Billy, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Naw but thanks man.. It's been a grind for sure. Read this update through, though, because I'm going to highlight some changes I need to make.


Squats today were not fun. I didn't get the reps I was supposed to on any of the sets. As pissed as I am about that, I need to remember that I will not always be 100%. I can only imagine how people feel running Smolov with 100% of their max. Things will definitely feel better once I get on the re-vamped Westside template, but I keep saying that lol.

Squat
45 x 5
135 x 4
185 x 4
245 x 3
280 x 3
320 x 4
340 x 4 w/belt
340 x 3 w/belt
(340 x 4) x 2 w/belt

Bench Press - medium-grip, paused, speed work
45 x 5
95 x 3
(165 x 3) x 8 w/Pro Short Mini Bands (looped around 6 times)

Chest-Supported Row
80 x 14
(100 x 10) x 2
100 x 9

BB Curl
(50 x 15) x 2
90 x 5 <-- lol thought it would feel lighter

Face Pull - sitting on floor
(70 x 14) x 2



Okay, so I'm not going to beat myself up over today. I absolutely gave it my all, so all that's left to concern myself with is what could've gone wrong outside of the gym. That's what I want to talk about here.

Throughout this log I constantly throw in little "I should do more...." and "Next week I need to be better about...." but I've never set a plan in motion to accomplish these things. If I truly want to push my limits in this sport and achieve great things, I can't just sit back and be lazy and hope that all those little details I ignore won't mean anything in the end.

So what exactly am I talking about? First and foremost, mobility work and stretching. I'm going to highlight a quickly thrown together plan to incorporate mobility work and stretching on my off days. Secondly, my diet. I've been getting roughly 600/80/200 a day, but I don't always hit that 600, mainly due to my inability to stomach anything, which only gets worse when I push it all off until night. On top of that, I've been having stomach problems and problems sleeping, more than likely due to stuffing myself with my biggest meal before bed every night. So I absolutely need to fix that. The final thing is my sleep schedule, which will tie into the diet changes.

So here are my plans of attack. I'm not going to put down anything super specific or anything too ridiculous to expect of myself, because the goal here is to stick with this. In the future, I may very well become more stringent about these two aspects and hopefully this will function as a stepping stone to that.

Diet/Meals

From now on I need to make absolutely sure I get in those 600g carbs, because that will affect my performance. Because I'm hardly ever hungry and end up stuffing myself beyond feeling full for every meal, I'm going to bump up the chocolate milks to at least one per meal, which is at least 140g carbs a day.

My last meal can be no later than 10 from now on, so I can be in bed by 12 every night. I need to make sure I get in adequate macros throughout my meals prior to that final meal, so I'm not stuffing myself either.

I'm going to cut out a little bit of the overly processed crap I eat, as well, but not to a ridiculous amount. My diet, believe it or not, is already relatively healthy sans the binge meal I have every night. It's not that I think processed food is bad for body comp or is objectively unhealthy, but the fact that it's so high in sodium and sugar, void of micronutrients I'm probably not getting enough of, and expensive (srs) is the main reason. Besides, at this point I can stomach so little food, I hardly eat for pleasure anymore as depressing as that is (for me at least.. I normally love food).

I'm basically just going to eat a bunch of oats, pasta, rice, bagels, mashed potatoes, cream of rice, etc. May switch breakfast to just cream of rice or oats + protein powder and then a bagel because that's my least hungry time of the day.

Inb4 bro. There's nothing bro about me or my view on nutrition lol.

Stretching/Mobility Work just realized I did these out of order, oops.

Off Day stretching/mobility will look like this:

-Foam Roll: IT band, quads, groin, back
-Squat Test: BW squat into deepest position, push knees out with elbows, hold for 3 or 4 minutes
-Posterior Hip Self-Mobilization, Spiderman Stretch (just learned about these before writing this)
-Upper Body stretching TBD

Sleep the thing I should be doing now

Starting Saturday night, my goal will be to be in bed no later than midnight every night and up by 9:30am every morning. It's going to be tough, considering I've gotten myself into the habit of not even feeling tired until 3am, but it's going to be necessary and it's going to pay off.

Night guys

[IK9]

daaaamn.. 600g carbs.. jeebuz

I tried to eat 400g carbs in all sweet potatoes one day for a refeed.. took me 16 hours.. brb poptartsssss

[psychodiver9]

daaaamn.. 600g carbs.. jeebuz

I tried to eat 400g carbs in all sweet potatoes one day for a refeed.. took me 16 hours.. brb poptartsssss

Why? That's just silly

[ErikTheElectric]

Liking the CHO numbers bud. Many people shy away from them, just out of paranoia. But they affect our performance and mood so much.
I think once you hit 600 each and every day (maybe even a bit more?)

You'll really start noticing a difference.


Nice job with the squatting like usual. Hope you have a good weekend brother.

[Bnizzle163]

Sounds like a great plan, dude. Cream of rice (and white rice in general) is easy for me to eat a ton of and not fill up. It might have something to do with the lack of fiber. Bagels are also another great option. Are you taking any digestive enzymes or have you tried organic apple cider vinegar to aid in digestion? I know it works wonders for some!

[DJaRiHardstyle]

daaaamn.. 600g carbs.. jeebuz

I tried to eat 400g carbs in all sweet potatoes one day for a refeed.. took me 16 hours.. brb poptartsssss

Idk about pop tarts.. They're like the last thing I crave when I'm hungry. They're not bad, but they're not as good as they're made out to be.

Have you ever tried putting a chocolate candy bar in a baked sweet potato the second you take it out of the oven? Alberto Nunez and Marc Lobliner both swear it's the most delicious thing you'll ever taste.. I need to eventually give that a try.

Why? That's just silly

Yeah I'm a little confused too

Liking the CHO numbers bud. Many people shy away from them, just out of paranoia. But they affect our performance and mood so much.
I think once you hit 600 each and every day (maybe even a bit more?)

You'll really start noticing a difference.


Nice job with the squatting like usual. Hope you have a good weekend brother.

No doubt man. Only worry is putting on too much weight. I still need to keep in mind I want to compete in the 198 class and so far that's 10 lbs. to lose. Ten pounds isn't anything insane, but it's going to mean laying out a legit cut, instead of just cutting water.

And yeah, I know. As a society, we used to fear the hell out of fat, but we've gradually transitioned into a much more carb-fearing society. I understand the importance of EFA's and Omega 6:3 ratios, of course, but when it comes to muscle-sparing weight loss I'd have to say high-carb low-fat diets seem to be the best option out there.

Sounds like a great plan, dude. Cream of rice (and white rice in general) is easy for me to eat a ton of and not fill up. It might have something to do with the lack of fiber. Bagels are also another great option. Are you taking any digestive enzymes or have you tried organic apple cider vinegar to aid in digestion? I know it works wonders for some!

How did I not think to ask the king of stomach problems what to do, lol. What specific digestive enzymes did you take that you noticed the most improvement from, or any supplement/change in diet for that matter?

What I have now isn't extremely serious, but if I revert back to eating huge meals, especially before bed, this could definitely get worse.



Today was a nice laid back off day, as usual. Didn't do any stretching or mobility work half because I forgot (even though I made a point of reminding myself throughout the day) and half because I don't have a foam roller here.

I need to pick a time on my off days when I'll do it. I think 1pm sounds good, because that's usual right before I make lunch. Also, because I have like 3 foam rollers at my dad's house, I should bring one to my mom's and keep it there.

I was much better about my diet today, despite being just short of 600g carbs, but then again I woke up at 11:30am and finished eating at 11pm, so that still wasn't a terrible job on my part. I had the CoR + scoop of chocolate whey this morning and it was bearable. Wasn't amazing, but it didn't fill me up while still giving me like 36g carbs and 30g protein.

Hung out with Angelica today and watched some Mad Men. Also I watched Wolf of Wallstreet tonight and it was really good. I wouldn't say amazing, but definitely a good movie. I visibly reacted to scenes, and if a movie can do that to me, I consider it pretty damn good. Still, it's a little overrated lol.

Okay I'm off now. It's not even 12:30am, so I'm doing alright. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be doing way more than I was supposed to be doing on Friday (and if you'll recall I couldn't even do that), so this should be interesting.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

So today was the first day of the 3rd week of the intense meso. If you're not friends with me on FB, here's what happened:

Despite coming in pretty pumped up and ready to lift, the session just went awful. My first set I only got 4 reps, although I filmed it and it definitely looks like I could've gotten more. Second set, I only got 3. I was extremely pissed off afterwards (and I get really pissed off). Nothing angers me more than when I put my all into something, especially training, and I can't do what I'm supposed to. So I made a rash decision and decided to quit Smolov. I was just infuriated and I hated myself for giving up, but when I'm physically unable to get anywhere near what the program wants and I'm doing everything I can to do so, I feel like there's no other option.

Well, someone who follows me on Twitter basically kept trying to convince me not to give up on the program. I've only got 6 sessions left until test day. He convinced me that with proper stretching and mobility work and the right mindset, this is an attainable goal and I'd be doing myself a huge disservice to just give up now.

This is a theme in life as well. I've never tried to pretend my life was more difficult than others at all, but I can still relate to hitting obstacles and getting that lump in your stomach because you just don't know whether this one's going to be too big to get around. It can be so easy to just tell ourselves the task in front of us is impossible and so it's not worth trying. I generally think about people who view life like that as lazy and not willing to work for what they want out of life. But then something like this happens and I realize we're all human, we're all faulty, no one goes through life without hitting those obstacles. And I'm just as faulty as the next guy. But what defines us, not only in this sport, but also as people just chasing success, is our ability to overcome that diversity, find a way over or around that obstacle.

So I'm not going to let this defeat me, mark my words. When I started Smolov, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy task, but I promised myself I'd persevere no matter what it threw at me. I was definitely tested today and was willing to give up, but I just can't do that. I'm going to stay the course and make a man out of myself (or just a better squatter, I'll take that lol).

Well, here are the numbers. After that second set of 340, I just gave up. I definitely should've stuck to it, but I was beyond pissed off and my lower back was acting up because I started throwing form to the winds.

Squat
45 x 5
135 x 4
185 x 4
245 x 4
280 x 3
300 x 3
*I forgot what I was supposed to do, so I ended up going too heavy.. was supposed to be 225 x 3, 265 x 3, 300 x 3*
340 x 4 w/belt <-- video
340 x 3 w/belt
*starting to think the belt isn't helping as much as it could.. judging by the video, it's probably not on tight enough, but the next setting is legit a corset*

Lying Leg Curl - hoist
(100 x 12) x 5

Seated Calf Raise
(120 x 15) x 2
160 x 10

Standing Cable Crunch
90 x 14
(90 x 12) x 2



And here's a video of my dad and me squatting. He did the exact same weights I did for the same reps and found it almost as difficult (dat feel when neck and neck with my dad in terms of squat strength)



Also, I just bought some chocolate Myofusion cuz the Ansi CnC whey tastes like crap and tastes even worse in my CoR.

[Gett01]

Good luck! Sounds like a rough session, but good to see you're sticking with the program. It's that never-give-up mindset that separates those who get what they want and those that don't. Also nice squatting, I'm jealous of your form, it looks textbook.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Relaxed off day today as per usual. Didn't get my stretching/mobility in cuz I'm an idiot and told myself I'd do it later but then was too busy to do it.

So instead I'll just try and get that done on days before a training day, which would mean stretching/mobility 4x a week instead of 3x.

Tomorrow is a heavy bench and incline bench rep work day. Let's get at it.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Good luck! Sounds like a rough session, but good to see you're sticking with the program. It's that never-give-up mindset that separates those who get what they want and those that don't. Also nice squatting, I'm jealous of your form, it looks textbook.

Lol you literally replied the second I posted my update. And yeah I completely agree, I've come too far to just give up and not reap the rewards.

Thanks, but your form is pretty damn good considering how long you've been training.

[ErikTheElectric]

in4 bench day tomorrow.

Sorry for not posting lately, been moving and lots of homework. Read yesterday's post, and I've probably already told you this but I strongly admire your perseverence and determination.. you've got a hell of head on your shoulders man. Keep it up.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

in4 bench day tomorrow.

Sorry for not posting lately, been moving and lots of homework. Read yesterday's post, and I've probably already told you this but I strongly admire your perseverence and determination.. you've got a hell of head on your shoulders man. Keep it up.

Don't even worry about it man, I understand. Congrats btw (but let the records state I already said that ) this is a huge moment in your life, make sure to enjoy it!

Also, that's really appreciated. But I have to make it clear that I'm not just some kid with amazing will power. I happen to just have a really obsessive personality, in fact I'm clinically diagnosed with OCD, and so it's easy for me to focus in on something and perfect things to make sure I'm progressing. I just don't want it to sound like I have amazing will power or perseverance compared to people like you or anyone else in this sport. I'm not saying that for the sake of being modest either, I really mean it. But it still means a lot to me.



Okay, so a quick update before my log tonight. I got a huge PR on the bench today (I'll go into more detail on the actual log update). I'm also strongly considering not going into this Conjugate Method system, too. I know it seems strange that I just hit a huge PR on this system and I'm now throwing it in the trash, but I'm concerned that my return on the work I put in is just nowhere near what it should be. I expect a lot of the people reading this will shake their heads and say "Geez, this kid's only 18. He's overcomplicating the hell out of this." And maybe I am, but I seriously want all my chips on the table for this upcoming meet.

I was in the PL Discussion FB group and I was asking for people to look over my plan for the Westside routine as well as my progression. The consensus I got was that Westside is a great routine for geared lifters looking to tweak different aspects of the geared lift (i.e. tons of lockout work because they're in shirts), but it's mediocre at best for raw lifters, especially lifters who aren't quite advanced enough to spend time working on minute parts of the lift. The speed work is also very sub-par for raw lifters apparently and rep work is more important (raw lifters gain more from volume work than speed work).

I don't just listen to what people say on the internet, though, or I'd be changing programs every week. So I researched RTS, which was the more popular program design in their opinion, and it's certainly more popular amongst raw lifters. I definitely like how it takes into account days where you're not feeling 100% by incorporating the RPE system. I've read up on it before and I understand fatigue percents and all that, but I still have some learning to do if I hope to utilize this.

If I were to start this, and I very well may, I would probably continue to train with the conjugate method and this Westside routine I've created, for upper body until I finish Smolov. I would begin with the "Generalized Intermediate Program" they laid out and then begin customizing things after that cycle. I'm definitely going to spend more time reading up on doing my own programming as well, because from what I've read and what I understand, cookie cutter programs do not give you an efficient return on your investment, intensity-wise and volume-wise.

I guess I'll talk more about it in my log tonight.

[jpfaherty]

I agree, RTS > WS

[DJaRiHardstyle]

I agree, RTS > WS

Ok yeah that seems to be the consensus I'm getting. Have you ever tried RTS?



So I actually got in over 600g carbs two days in a row, cut most of the junk out of my diet, got my stretching done today, although I rushed it like crazy. Can't say I feel much better yet, but we'll have to see. In fact I got an awful stomach pain for like an hour tonight. Legit felt like contractions hahaha I was constantly wincing.

Anyways, training went really well. Broke my 2-rep PR on the paused bench. Here it is.

Bench Press - competition pause
45 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 3
255 x 2
285 x 2 <-- PR
265 x 3
*decided to cut out that 2nd back off set because it's just a waste of time.. I do more pressing afterwards anyway*

Incline DB Press - because BB was taken.. haven't done DB press in months though
60 x 10
65 x 12
70 x 11
*was just messing around here to see what I can do.. 70 x 10 for 3 sets would've been easy*

Lat Pulldown - wide-grip
(150 x 10) x 3
150 x 11

DB Hammer Curl - seated
(35 x 12) x 2

Face Pull - sitting on floor
(60 x 14) x 2



Near the end of the session I was just exhausted for some reason, felt like a bad crash or something. Very weird.

That's about it. The majority of what I wanted to say was in that last post. Now we wait and crush tomorrow's Smolov session.

[ErikTheElectric]

285 for a double? Motherofgod.jpeg

[OrcaLifter]

Congrats on the bench PR. That's a serious lift!

[Reid456]

The hardest thing about stretching/mobility is that you have to be consistent with it for a while to reap the benefits. That's what makes it hard for me, anyway.

[psychodiver9]

Nice pressing man

[DJaRiHardstyle]

285 for a double? Motherofgod.jpeg

Haha thanks man I'm proud.

Congrats on the bench PR. That's a serious lift!

Orca you're still here!

The hardest thing about stretching/mobility is that you have to be consistent with it for a while to reap the benefits. That's what makes it hard for me, anyway.

Yeah I'd assume so.. Once I've done this consistently for a month, it should be more habitual.

Nice pressing man

Much appreciated. Our bench press strength is damn close.. gonna make it my goal to get to a paused 315 before you

[NaturalPursuit]

Subbed to your youtube bro!! SOLID benching too!

[jpfaherty]

I haven't tried RTS but know many that have. The problem with WS is the speed portion. It's def more for geared lifters.

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Subbed to your youtube bro!! SOLID benching too!

Haha thanks, I'm getting my little bro to make me an animated title sequence cuz he's good at that stuff. I'm still subscribed to you too Alex.. watch your videos all the time. You've got a good personality for YT. When you talk about training/diet/etc I can actually bear to watch it, which is more than I can say about most youtubers.. zzzzzzzzZZZ

I haven't tried RTS but know many that have. The problem with WS is the speed portion. It's def more for geared lifters.

I'm excited, and yeah I can see why that would be. I've read about the difference between lifting in gear and raw. Especially with bench, one of the major differences is control. Raw, you can afford to just drop the bar through the eccentric, but in a shirt, it's all triceps and so you have to keep it balanced and controlled on the way down. Makes sense.



Ok, so lemme run through this log so I can get in my final meal without ripping my stomach to pieces.. also need to talk about that in here. Great session today. Missed one rep, but it was only because I thought I'd be macho and squat my first top set w/o a belt. I didn't fail on the 3rd rep, just didn't go for it.

Squat
45 x 10
135 x 4
185 x 3
225 x 3
265 x 3
300 x 3
355 x 2
355 x 3 w/belt <-- could've gotten a 4th even

Lying Leg Curl - hoist
(130 x 10) x 3
*stopped because my stomach was killing me and if I had to push my belly up against the pad for another set, I'd puke*

Standing Calf Raise - plates per side
(8 + 1 in the middle x 12) x 2
9 x 12
*calf strength is getting stupid strong lol*



Skipped ab work because, you guessed it, stomach was killing me. I'm getting pretty concerned about this stomach thing, because although I've spread out my food more, stopped eating so much before bed, and cleaned up my diet, it feels like it's getting worse. It just feels acidic and painful a lot. So much so that it makes lifting harder than it needs to be, especially squatting.

Besides for that, I have some big news, but I need to finalize it first and then I'll get back to you guys immediately.

Other than that, I'm just happy I can still push through with this program. Also, I have an appointment with a massage therapist a week from tomorrow. I've never had professional massage done and I think I'm getting deep tissue work, so this should be interesting. My hips, quads, lower back, and my adductors (a little bit) are all extremely tight and foam rolling, mobility work, etc. doesn't seem to do the trick, so those will be the important areas. Also, I let my front delts take over a little bit yesterday during my bench PR and they're both really sore now. That's strange because I just recently discovered that's the weakest muscle during the bench.. hm, maybe the incline pressing and OHP work helped??

[DJaRiHardstyle]

Oh also



Enjoy lol, I was bored today. This is hnnnnnnng though

[ErikTheElectric]

^ stealing my anabolic caramel sweet potato idea? NEGGED!




Not srs, but I would love to try that with a quest bar. (if I liked them). Nice job with the squats today brother, 355 x 3 is no joke.