AdamWW's Retrospective 'Intuitive Eating' Test Log

[AdamWW]

Finally up to squatting 175x4 for my working sets

And, i finally tested 1PPS on bench... only got 4 reps... BUT... im glad I finally did it again.

Very surprised how well squats are going, they're up like 40lb in a few months.

[AdamWW]

Up to 225 by Christmas! Or I'm coming for your ice creams.

You leave my sweet dairy confections out of this!

[AdamWW]

Well Something weird happened this morning.

Yesterday's upper-body session sucked, except for OHP on which I did progress, but my back was fatigued for some reason so I actually cut the lift short.

Then this morning, woke up at 6am, and decided to train fasted. Had zero hunger and just felt like lifting.

Ended up adding an entire set on squats with the higher weight (175), did romanian DLs instead of hypers, and everything else increased, despite zero food.

Starting to think maybe my stomach issues can sometimes HURT my training... though I did, today, run out of steam after about 45min and things slowed down before finishing.

Either way, might need to start experimenting with liquids-only around/before training and doing it early AM. Perhaps waking up and just drinking coconut water during my workout is a better idea until I figure out my GI nonsense



Kind of cool either way... squats are feeling awesome now.

[AdamWW]

This morning... fasted workout... finally progressed on OHP

Now finally doing my 5x5 with 85lb. Hell yes!

[AdamWW]

Pull Session today was great.

630am, empty gym. Can't beat it!

Added a rep to all sets on rows, energy was awesome, even made 'curl gains', not that it matters much

Feelin stronger every time

[boo99]

Pull Session today was great.

630am, empty gym. Can't beat it!

Added a rep to all sets on rows, energy was awesome, even made 'curl gains', not that it matters much

Feelin stronger every time

Love the curl gains vernacular

Bolded= This is a good thing!

[AdamWW]

Love the curl gains vernacular

Bolded= This is a good thing!

You know it

If anything, when I make gains on accessories while also making primary movement gains, I take it as a sign of better recovery just as much as better strength and form on the primaries.

I think usually by the end of the workouts, my lesser movements lag behind because i'm just too gassed to execute with proper intensity. Now that I'm gaining weight, the energy persists through the whole workout... pretty great!

[boo99]

You know it

If anything, when I make gains on accessories while also making primary movement gains, I take it as a sign of better recovery just as much as better strength and form on the primaries.

I think usually by the end of the workouts, my lesser movements lag behind because i'm just too gassed to execute with proper intensity. Now that I'm gaining weight, the energy persists through the whole workout... pretty great!

This the most positive thing I have heard on this Monday and very happy to hear my friend

[Strawng]

This the most positive thing I have heard on this Monday and very happy to hear my friend

+1
So good to finally see you making such consistent, solid progress. Training in an underfed state vs a surplus is an ENTIRELY different feeling, even in terms of my cognitive state for the rest of the day. Training in a prolonged deficit always made me feel sick, discouraged, and mentally dumbed down for the entire the rest of the day. I find training in a caloric surplus, however, extremely empowering and energizing.

[AdamWW]

This the most positive thing I have heard on this Monday and very happy to hear my friend

Thanks brotha. My Mondays used to feel horrible... now... they're just another day to succeed

+1
So good to finally see you making such consistent, solid progress. Training in an underfed state vs a surplus is an ENTIRELY different feeling, even in terms of my cognitive state for the rest of the day. Training in a prolonged deficit always made me feel sick, discouraged, and mentally dumbed down for the entire the rest of the day. I find training in a caloric surplus, however, extremely empowering and energizing.

I'll add to this, i feel consistently 'happy' now about training, progress, etc. A difficult emotion to describe (perhaps 'happy' isn't the right word), but when I continuously experience these improvements, my outlook for the future look completely different. I'm eager for each session, confident before going in (because I have zero doubt I will improve), and the rest of my day feels that much more positive. When I was 'running on empty', i never felt I had enough gas in the tank to make it through the whole 60+ minutes. Now, in contrast, I'm energized, strong, and stable to the end. Hell, sometimes after all my sets are done I have so much left over energy I want to keep going and have to consciously hold back. THAT feels different for sure.

Also... my sleep... I feel like I'm finally really sleeping for the first time in years. I've found proper rest more effective than almost ANYTHING else.

[AdamWW]

Interesting leg workout today.

My core felt very very solid, but my quads were still quite fatigued from my last session.

I ended up doing 3 sets of 5 with 175 on squats, then dropping to 165lb and it felt SUPER light... a weird point where I could manage like 8 reps with 165, but only 5 with 175.

Total volume still went up though so i'm really happy about that.

Overall, it was kind of a level-setting workout... focused a bit on form over most everything else and kept the weights the same. Not a deload obviously, but it felt really good.

Also now thinking of swapping out leg presses for hack squats... starting to like them a lot!!

[AdamWW]

Low body this morning, got the squats back up to 175 which is good. Form and speed were great.

Also added some reps on Romanians and switched from Leg Press to the pendulum hack squat.



Squats

5x5 with 175

Romanian DL (+1 rep per set)

3x9 with 145

Hack Squat (+20lb)

3x8 with 70

Lying Leg Curl (+2 reps on last set)

3x10 with 70

Seated Calf

90x15
90x14
90x13

Abs

3 sets of 15


New high weigh-in this morning, too... steadily gaining on the scale. Definitely some fat gain, but meh. Food is fun right now

Also... from Oct 11 - October 15 i'll be on vacation in Mexico... so... this will be the first day in... maybe 5 years i've had over 4 days straight from lifting.

Gunna be weird!

[boo99]

New high weigh-in this morning, too... steadily gaining on the scale. Definitely some fat gain, but meh. Food is fun right now

Also... from Oct 11 - October 15 i'll be on vacation in Mexico... so... this will be the first day in... maybe 5 years i've had over 4 days straight from lifting.

Nice to hear this! Food porn is fun lol


Had a question on your opinion of lying leg curls vs. seated leg curls

I saw Shawn (Rhoden) doing seated at Golds and asked about him about that; he seemed to think it was better isolation but was curious if you have done them and what you thought?


Will you still be posting to the Nutty Main cuando tu estas en Mexico?

[AdamWW]

Nice to hear this! Food porn is fun lol


Had a question on your opinion of lying leg curls vs. seated leg curls

I saw Shawn (Rhoden) doing seated at Golds and asked about him about that; he seemed to think it was better isolation but was curious if you have done them and what you thought?


Will you still be posting to the Nutty Main cuando tu estas en Mexico?

So I was big into the seated curls for a long time, but I noticed that when I did those, although I got a better contraction at the end of the motion, I never felt the stretch reflex like I do with lying curls when they fully extend. I actually only just switched back to the lying version and, now, although the weight dropped on them, I feel a huge benefit in the full stretch and then holding peek contraction for 1-2 seconds. I think for a long time, I just didn't like doing them because the position felt awkward, so I was doing them seated.

I'll probably cycle them back and forth maybe on a monthly basis... to me the ham curls are just a nice bit of easy added volume at the end of the session, so I'm fine with improvising a little.

But yeah, seated is way more comfortable, lying just feels more stressful on the lengthening of the hamstring.

Not sure if i'll be posting! I have an awesome room in a really cool waterfront place with a bunch of friends (it's my best friends wedding trip), so it'll have wi-fi, etc... i'll definitely be trying to take food pron picks... i can't wait to try all the local grub. It's actually a smaller town called Sayulita which is about 30mi northwest of puerto vallarta.

Super pumped for it! I'll probably come back looking like a bloated mess and crush PRs =o)

[boo99]

^^^
Good insight on lying vs seated, thank you

That lying one gives me back stress at weight that's needed unless someone is pushing down on my butt (no homo) so I usually stay on that seated one

Sounds like a great trip on the waterfront, friends and food porn!

I have penicillin for you if you meet a senorita who's not clean

[AdamWW]

^^^
Good insight on lying vs seated, thank you

That lying one gives me back stress at weight that's needed unless someone is pushing down on my butt (no homo) so I usually stay on that seated one

Sounds like a great trip on the waterfront, friends and food porn!

I have penicillin for you if you meet a senorita who's not clean

\

hahaha! If needed, i'll make a pit stop on the way pack ;o)

[AdamWW]

Did my last workout pre-vacation (no gym for 5 days) today, which is the first time on a single cycle of my new routine.

Switching to Legs / Push / Pull to see how it goes.

So far really liking it... it allows me to push primaries harder because im really focusing on one dominant movement instead of two with the Upper/Lower setup.

On Leg day, main focus is Squats and Romanian DL, and then Push days are almost identical but I alternate OHP and Bench, then on Pull day, I do 2 peak sets of 2 reps on Sumo DL before getting into Rows and Chin... so I actually hit quads a little just from the those deads.

Basically a 3 day on, 1 day off setup, unless I feel like I need 2 days (which I usually dont).

One things is for sure, when you haven't deadlifted in like 6 months, you feel WRECKED after heavy doubles... ouch!



But, overall good workout... can't wait for 5 days in the sun and eating like a boss!

Here's the Schema:

Legs

Squats 5x5
Romanian DL 3x8
Hack Squat 3x10
Lying Ham Curl 3x10
Calfs 3x15
Abs 3x15

Push

OHP or Bench 5x5
Inclined BB Bench or Inclined Hammer Press 3x8
DB Fly 3x10
Skullcrushers 4x10
DB Pullovers 2x12

Pull

Sumo Deadlift 2x2
BB Row 4x8
Weighted Chin 3x6
BB Curl 3x10
Lateral Raise 3x10
Abs 3x15

[AdamWW]

Man, what a crazy good workout today.

New all-time favorite pre/intra-workout routine:

1 Scoop Greens Powder + 3g creatine
During workout: 1.5 scoops PES AA/BCAA powder + 16oz coconut water + Water to top it off.



Literally the perfect amount of carbs, etc, for a 60min session... and I'm actually hungry when I get home for a big post-lift feast.

Made some progress on legs today (NOICE!)... plus, just generally full of energy, despite the lame ass weather in Seattle


Haven't weighed in for a few days, but don't really care to I guess... feeling very full (muscle wise). Cannot wait for upper-push tomorrow.

[AdamWW]

Is your greens powder the myprotein green superfood blend?

MTS Machine Greens... apple cinnamon flavor.

[AdamWW]

Going for a 10lb squat increase today... the extra rest felt amazing and sleep was on point. Going for 185 x 5... most I've squatted in 2+ years.

[AdamWW]

Good luck, Snoopy.

Thanks guy

[AdamWW]

After adjusting my volume (lowered it) and getting a nice full on rest day... FINALLY increased on squats today.

I hit:

175x6 (1 rep PR)
175x5
180x5 (+5lb PR)
175x5

it was definitely heavy feeling, but it felt smooth and controlled, no issues hitting depth.

Between all the calories and the better sleep, I think changing my volume also was a huge help (doing 4 sets and not 5).

Celebrating with some of the Thanksgiving Salt & Straw Ice Cream tonight

[boo99]

After adjusting my volume (lowered it) and getting a nice full on rest day... FINALLY increased on squats today.

I hit:

175x6 (1 rep PR)
175x5
180x5 (+5lb PR)
175x5

it was definitely heavy feeling, but it felt smooth and controlled, no issues hitting depth.

Between all the calories and the better sleep, I think changing my volume also was a huge help (doing 4 sets and not 5).

Celebrating with some of the Thanksgiving Salt & Straw Ice Cream tonight

Good to hear! Congrats on PRs.

Dat lower volume + full rest definitely needed sometimes to increase lifts. I should follow that some time! Lol

[AdamWW]

Good to hear! Congrats on PRs.

Dat lower volume + full rest definitely needed sometimes to increase lifts. I should follow that some time! Lol

Yeah man, I still do other lifts but just dropping one set of squats somehow ramped up my recovery a lot... just damn happy to finally move it up again. Can’t wait to get up over the 200 mark

I mean I’ve squatted over 200 before of course, just not for this long bulk ;-)

[boo99]

Yeah man, I still do other lifts but just dropping one set of squats somehow ramped up my recovery a lot... just damn happy to finally move it up again. Can’t wait to get up over the 200 mark

I mean I’ve squatted over 200 before of course, just not for this long bulk ;-)

If only we could know if we do too much and if it's actually detrimental to recovery, etc.

I always had this on my mind going out the gym doors in my first 5 years of training.

Did I too much?
Did I too little?

Nowadays I don't count sets, reps, etc on any particular exercise. I'll just go on till I'm no longer feeling that muscle contracting then I stop and move on.

That 200 squat is knocking on your door bro!

[AdamWW]

If only we could know if we do too much and if it's actually detrimental to recovery, etc.

I always had this on my mind going out the gym doors in my first 5 years of training.

Did I too much?
Did I too little?

Nowadays I don't count sets, reps, etc on any particular exercise. I'll just go on till I'm no longer feeling that muscle contracting then I stop and move on.

That 200 squat is knocking on your door bro!

I have a similar approach for everything except my primary lifts.

Basically when I go in, I know i'm either doing OHP, Bench, Squat or Rows as my heavy lift. I have a target 4x5 weight for that which I try to hit, and EVERYTHING else is just based on hypertrophy ranges pretty much. I've found that that allows me to mentally give 100% to a single lift, and the rest can be more about metabolic fatigue, etc, which for is way way easier to recover from.

So I'll do a single movement for 4 sets of 5, then everything is basically in the 8-12 range, except for abs and calfs which go up to about 15 sometimes.

But even my accessories move around depending on how I feel. I might do leg press or hack squat, or lunges.... then I might do seated or lying ham curls...

Or on Back day if my main movement is BB Rows, my accessories could be pull ups or lat pull downs, or it might be a machine, or a weird cable motion... purely depends on how I feel.

It seems to keep me fresh and motivated while still hitting a benchmark... I really like it so far!

[boo99]

I have a similar approach for everything except my primary lifts.

Basically when I go in, I know i'm either doing OHP, Bench, Squat or Rows as my heavy lift. I have a target 4x5 weight for that which I try to hit, and EVERYTHING else is just based on hypertrophy ranges pretty much. I've found that that allows me to mentally give 100% to a single lift, and the rest can be more about metabolic fatigue, etc, which for is way way easier to recover from.

So I'll do a single movement for 4 sets of 5, then everything is basically in the 8-12 range, except for abs and calfs which go up to about 15 sometimes.

But even my accessories move around depending on how I feel. I might do leg press or hack squat, or lunges.... then I might do seated or lying ham curls...

Or on Back day if my main movement is BB Rows, my accessories could be pull ups or lat pull downs, or it might be a machine, or a weird cable motion... purely depends on how I feel.

It seems to keep me fresh and motivated while still hitting a benchmark... I really like it so far!

I like how you have the strength rep range with the main compounds then do the hypertrophy rep range

A good mix to hopefully shock the body to create an adaptation plus the 4x5 is needed to progress up slowly which is why I start all the noobs on a 5x5

Im all basically hypertrophy based these days, my PR days are mainly done, except for squats, which I did use a kind of 5x5 for progression

[AdamWW]

I like how you have the strength rep range with the main compounds then do the hypertrophy rep range

A good mix to hopefully shock the body to create an adaptation plus the 4x5 is needed to progress up slowly which is why I start all the noobs on a 5x5

Im all basically hypertrophy based these days, my PR days are mainly done, except for squats, which I did use a kind of 5x5 for progression

Yup! I use the 5 rep sets purely to rebuild my 'base strength' which I lost from losing weight for so long, and the rest it simply to spark any added muscle growth, plus it actually 'feels good', whereas the 5 rep sets are brutal on my CNS.

Really I'm just aiming for steady progress... not worrying too much about numbers so long as some small element gets better on a regular basis

[Heisman2]

Props to you for the steady progress Adam. Great to see.

[AdamWW]

Props to you for the steady progress Adam. Great to see.

Thanks for coming in and commenting. Weight restoration is certainly starting to show the benefits.

I have blood panels schedule for about 7 weeks out... hoping for good news on my test and WBC/RBC levels