Blodg Updates, Anecdotes, and Fitness by the Numbers

[tblodg15]

If you're like me, this is really--I mean REALLY--huffing and puffing. I can occasionally get it to low 160's but it takes sustained pedal to the metal like climbing a long, steep hill with my bike.

Definitely not huffing and puffing, at least not while on the Elliptical (probably because it is a slow, steady rise). But I do get huffing and puffing with more of a burst of activity like when I have to man handle my 400 pound quad to walk it back down a steep hill after a failed hill climb. I even get more out of breath after a set of 10 rep squats or 15 rep bulgarian split squats than I do with 35 minutes on the elliptical even though my HR is not quite as high when lifting.

[tblodg15]

After my weight shot up to 175.0 on Monday it gradually dropped throughout the week and was back down to 171.2 by the end of the week. So my weekly average is only 0.2 less pounds than last week, but the skinfold measurements show I still lost some bodyfat. Those skinfolds and the mirror show that I am very close right now at 171 to being as lean as I was at 165 last fall. So the 6 month surplus and 12 pound gain was definitely successful in adding LBM.

[Payton1221]

Definitely not huffing and puffing, at least not while on the Elliptical (probably because it is a slow, steady rise). But I do get huffing and puffing with more of a burst of activity like when I have to man handle my 400 pound quad to walk it back down a steep hill after a failed hill climb. I even get more out of breath after a set of 10 rep squats or 15 rep bulgarian split squats than I do with 35 minutes on the elliptical even though my HR is not quite as high when lifting.

Wow. I'm impressed since we're essentially the same age. Many estimate your max heartrate as 220-AGE so ours would be approximately 170, and if true FOR YOU, 154 really should IMO be a huffing/puffing situation. Assuming 154 was accurate (chest strap or wrist monitor?), if you weren't huffing/puffing then maybe you're one of the few that has a higher max heartrate. A friend at work is an endurance athlete, and he's 50, and he regularly gets his heartrate into the 170's. For me, if it ever got above 164 then I'm probably having a stroke

I used to superset front squats with pull-ups and that could certainly get my heartrate up. Bulg Squats will get it up too, and if you've ever done ~high rep step-ups, that gets my heartrate up quickly too.

[tblodg15]

Wow. I'm impressed since we're essentially the same age. Many estimate your max heartrate as 220-AGE so ours would be approximately 170

I used to go into the low 180’s frequently with no issues before I got into shape even though my theoretical max was 170. I used to worry if that was too high because I was doing HIIT on the elliptical and even backed off and started doing slower, steady state for a short while. Then I met with our health coach at work and he asked how I felt in the 180’s and I felt fine, no chest pains, of course was breathing heavy but not close to passing out or anything. I told him the steady state cardio and keeping my HR in the 140’s felt too easy and he said because it is!

So anyways I went back to pumping the elliptical like a madman as I focused on weight loss that first year and my max heart rate gradually came down as I got into better shape. Now my max is usually in the 150’s and sometimes the 160’s but I also don’t go all out like I used to because I found it was interfering with my recovery from lifting once I increased my sets/volume.

[tblodg15]

Yesterday (Monday) I completed day one of week 6 for this current block with basically a repeat of last Mondays workout. The minor differences were:
- DB incline bench I failed on rep 12 of set #5 exactly the same as last week!
- Bent T-bar rows I got 2 more reps total over 5 sets than last week
- Squats I increased by 5 lbs and did the same reps as last week at about same RPE of 7
- DB curls I got 2 more reps on the 2nd and final set
- Tri push-downs I got 1 more rep than last week over 2 sets

I came into the workout feeling a little tired and since I pushed close to failure last week I wasn't sure if I would be able to match last week but I ended up beating it on all but the DB incline bench. Even though I am in a cut I always eat more calories over the weekend than I do through the rest of the week so I think that may help me with energy for Mondays heavier volume day. My performance was fine but even if I over reach a little this week that won't be a bad thing with going on vacation next week and taking the week off or maybe a few light hotel sessions if they have a fitness room. Actually my overall plan each block is to purposely over reach a little by ramping up volume and RPE before a deload so I will hit it hard on Wed and Fri.

[ElrondHubbard]

Yesterday (Monday) I completed day one of week 6 for this current block with basically a repeat of last Mondays workout. The minor differences were:
- DB incline bench I failed on rep 12 of set #5 exactly the same as last week!
- Bent T-bar rows I got 2 more reps total over 5 sets than last week
- Squats I increased by 5 lbs and did the same reps as last week at about same RPE of 7
- DB curls I got 2 more reps on the 2nd and final set
- Tri push-downs I got 1 more rep than last week over 2 sets

I came into the workout feeling a little tired and since I pushed close to failure last week I wasn't sure if I would be able to match last week but I ended up beating it on all but the DB incline bench. Even though I am in a cut I always eat more calories over the weekend than I do through the rest of the week so I think that may help me with energy for Mondays heavier volume day. My performance was fine but even if I over reach a little this week that won't be a bad thing with going on vacation next week and taking the week off or maybe a few light hotel sessions if they have a fitness room. Actually my overall plan each block is to purposely over reach a little by ramping up volume and RPE before a deload so I will hit it hard on Wed and Fri.

I agree, as far as it goes. If I know I’m about to take some time off, I try to hit that last workout extra hard. However, like a big meal, my eyes are often bigger than my muscles, and I end up doing less than I’d hoped.

Have a great vacation!

[tblodg15]

I agree, as far as it goes. If I know I’m about to take some time off, I try to hit that last workout extra hard. However, like a big meal, my eyes are often bigger than my muscles, and I end up doing less than I’d hoped.

Have a great vacation!

Thanks for the input Dave. And thanks, looking forward to learning some civil war history and walking the battlefields during a 5 day trip to Gettysburg.

[tblodg15]

I completed day two of week 6 tonight and it was a doozy! My first workout in my basement was July 9th 2018 so almost exactly one year and tonight was for sure one of the most grueling/better workouts of all. The combination of it being a little warmer in the basement, me pushing harder than normal before a deload, and the deficit had me breathing heavy throughout most of the workout. But even in the 6th week of this deficit I set PR’s on every exercise tonight. Now some of them are new this block so the pr is only for 6 weeks but I have been doing face-pulls, single calf raises, and concentration curls forever and did more reps than ever on those tonight!

After starting with landmine shoulder presses and then Bulgarian split squats I was breathing heavy. Then going to meadows rows superset with dips had me huffing and puffing even more after barely being recovered from the split squats. My Fitbit said that for 1 hour and 23 minutes my average heart rate tonight was 129 with a max of 154. It said my max on Monday was 164 during barbell squall but I was not breathing as hard with longer rest periods.

Morning weight was 172.6 and I hope to be down close to 170 before we leave for vacation Sunday after being 171.6 last Saturday.

[tblodg15]

Finished off week 6 with “medium” day on Friday and Saturday morning cardio and extras yesterday.

I pushed hard and added at least 1 rep on every exercise on both days. On deadlifts I have been going up 10 pounds each week but with the deload coming I went up 20 pounds this week since it has been fairly easy so far. Getting up near 300 pounds the set of 5 was definitely starting to feel heavy. Lots of progression left but it wasn’t easy this time.

The highlight of the week was front squats on Saturday morning. My program called for safety bar squats on Friday but my workout was shortened due to an appointment. So I did everything except for the squats and decided to just do front squats before cardio the next morning since I was going to the Y anyways (and they don’t have a SSB). I have not done front squats since I bought the safety squat bar 4 months ago. My journal says on Mar 1st I got 18 reps over 4 sets with an RPE of 10 failing on the last set. Yesterday with the exact same weight I did 30 reps over 5 sets with an rpe of 7.5. I felt so much stronger! I knew I had gained a lot on squats during my winter bulk but it was very obvious going back to an old exercise and that’s a good feeling.

I am typing this on my phone as my wife drives the first leg of our 6 1/2 hour drive to Gettysburg. Actually we are going to stop for a hike at Laurel Hill State Park about 4 1/2 hours in and then to see the Flight 93 Memorial on the way.

I weighed 171.0 this morning which is a new low but not my goal of 170. Weight loss has slowed down the last few weeks but the skinfolds are still going down so I am ok with it. I won’t be on a scale or a strict diet for the next 5 days. I may do a few days of cardio assuming the hotel has a fitness room and other than that I am going to enjoy the break.

[Payton1221]

I may do a few days of cardio assuming the hotel has a fitness room and other than that I am going to enjoy the break.

I think that you've scheduled a deload around this vacation which is a fine idea. But having worked out exclusively in a home gym since the late 90's, I enjoyed going to a public gym for a couple of days when I was on vacation. Of course, I now get a fair amount of public gym since my wife joined PF and I go to her gym, but built like you are and lifting the weights you do, you'll get a few stares and probably a few 'atta boys from the locals which is always a nice feeling.

If you care to share any experiences or photos of Gettysburg, I'm sure those who frequent your journal wouldn't mind

[ElrondHubbard]

If you care to share any experiences or photos of Gettysburg, I'm sure those who frequent your journal wouldn't mind

Ditto that!

[tblodg15]

If you care to share any experiences or photos of Gettysburg, I'm sure those who frequent your journal wouldn't mind

OK Mark and Dave, I was planning to share some pics but really it won't do it justice. You can google pics of Gettysburg that are probably better than what we took but I will share some thoughts for anyone else thinking of making the trip.

I would suggest going to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum first. At the museum there is a visitors center and a must see short film and cyclorama painting. The Cyclorama is a 360 degree painting that is 42 feet high and 377 feet in circumference and includes sounds and lights behind the painting to mimic explosions. It was painted in 1863 and was AMAZING! No way words or pictures can come close to describing what this looks like in person but here are a couple pics we took.



This thing goes all the way around you and we probably spent 30 minutes walking around trying to take in all the details. That is one of my twin daughters in the glasses on the right.

Of course the museum also included an extensive display of information and artifacts but really the cyclorama was the highlight of the museum for all of us.

To see the battlegrounds at the National Military Park we paid for a 3 hour tour with a certified guide. I would recommend this as he was extremely knowledgeable and drove us to various key points during the 3 day battle where over 7,000 men were killed in only 3 days along with over 50,000 casualties when they include wounded and missing. I kept telling my kids that I can't imagine how tough it would have been to do all the hiking these soldiers had to do just to get to the battlefield with limited food, limited sleep, no showers, etc... and then to have to engage in such intense fire fights. These guys still lined up shoulder to shoulder and marched ahead which seems almost like suicide by modern standards but they didn't know any better.

We also went to see Spanglers Farm which was a local farm that was used as one of the many field hospitals. The stories of crude medical tactics and hundreds of guys laying in the barn moaning with various injuries with hundreds more laying in the field outside the barn waiting to be "treated" is another situation where I can't imagine actually being there. If any injuries were to the head or abdomen they didn't bother treating them at all and if a bullet had broken a bone in the arm or leg they just amputated it and had piles of limbs stacked up in the barn taller than a person. They also knew nothing of disease or germs and would use the same saw and knives on soldier after soldier only dipping it in water when it became too slippery from all the blood. Actually over half of the death toll ended up being due to disease and not the actual injury. Again it seems so crude but they truly didn't know any better.

We walked around the National Cemetery where over 5,000 of the Gettysburg battle victims are buried and where Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg address. They had a program where we followed a park ranger around the cemetery at no cost to hear various stories and the highlight of the cemetery visit was seeing a retired officer play taps.

Those were the highlights, my son and I went to a few other museums while my wife and twin 13 year-old daughters went to the outlet mall. The girls had enough "history" and got bored by the 3rd day and I don't blame them. My 16 year-old son and I enjoyed it all but I don't think more than 3 days would be necessary (unless you are a huge civil war buff).

[tblodg15]

I think that you've scheduled a deload around this vacation which is a fine idea.

Yes I did push back my deload to this week. I ended up skipping Monday's lifting session altogether and I kind of like just doing 3 of the 4 normal sessions during a deload week. On Wed I did do a light full body workout with 3 sets per exercise using all dumbells. The fitness room at the hotel only had dumbells and only up to 50 pounds but that worked for a deload so I just did incline bench and bent rows using the 50's. Also did bulgarian split squats, db curls, and lying db tri extensions. So I skipped Mon, did Wed, and now back home I will do Fridays taper workout today and Saturday I will go to the Y for cardio and a taper version of Saturdays lifts.

One thing I did do while at the hotel that I wasn't originally planning was I did go to the fitness room every morning for cardio on the elliptical while the rest of the family was still asleep. So I did 30 minutes of cardio 4 days in a row and will also do 35 minutes at the Y tomorrow and I normally only do one day of cardio. But I ate really well and ate more deserts/ice cream in those 4 days than I normally do in months. I enjoyed our meals and the daily cardio felt good and helped with the extra calories since I am still cutting from the winter bulk. This morning I weighed exactly 1 pound more than last Friday and even if I gain a pound or two I will take it with eating out every single meal 4 days in a row with no fruits and vegetables like normal. I did bring protein powder and had a shake in the morning and most evenings although a couple days I was just too stuffed for the shake in the evening LOL.

My number of sets per muscle group the last two weeks before the taper/deload were some of the highest I have had since I started 2 1/2 years ago:

Work Sets, Week of 6/24/19
Chest - 12 sets
Lats - 11 sets
Quads - 12 sets
Glutes/hams - 11 sets
Delts - 7 sets
Biceps - 7 sets
Triceps - 6 sets
Rear delts - 6 sets
Calves - 10 sets
Abs - 3 sets

My normal is 9-10 sets per week for the large muscle groups but I increased it a little the last few weeks knowing the deload was coming. In the coming months I am going to experiment with raising the set volumes until I stop seeing results or until I feel like I might be over training. Although with time constraints I can't see going over 15 sets per week even if I found it was more productive.

[Payton1221]

Very impressive. My wife and I have been talking about a trip like Gettysburg, Boston, or DC, but we have yet to go.

And you got a sense of the weather they may have fought in, because the battle occurred in early July.

[tblodg15]

I got all my workouts in last week on Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat. Felt good coming off the deload with this week being moderate volume and intensity and I will ramp it up over the next 5 or 6 weeks until the next deload.

Of course I didn’t weigh myself during the 4 days away from home on vacation so I don’t know exactly how much I gained but it looks like about 1 pound so not bad at all for how I ate. I dropped weight each day this week with a new low on Saturday of 170.8 but because I was up early in the week my weekly average was exactly the same as the few prior weeks. My plan is to get to an average of 169 and was only averaging about a half pound per week before vacation so 4 to 5 weeks left in the deficit and then on to maintenance for the last 3 or 4 weeks of summer.

[tblodg15]

Last week my weekly average weight was 171.0, down from 172.6 the week before. So that is a loss of 1.6 pounds but with vacation and some stalls that is still an average of less than a half pound per week over the last 4 or 5 weeks. I am still thinking a weekly average of 169.0 will be low enough to be my leanest ever but will still be carrying a little flab around the lower waist.

Last week I got all my planned sets in except for 2 sets of bulgarian split squats on Wed because I cut my workout a little short to mow the yard.

Work sets last week of 7/15/19
Chest - 11 sets
Lats - 10 sets
Quads - 6 sets
Glutes/hams - 6 sets
Delts - 6 sets
Biceps - 7 sets
Triceps - 6 sets
Rear delts - 6 sets
Calves - 10 sets
Abs - 3 sets

Oh, just remembered I did make a change to my routine as I was experimenting with doing regular deadlifts and I decided to drop them. I did them for 8 weeks in a row and I just don't feel the muscle activation in them like I do the alternatives but I do feel the fatigue. I am going to finish the last 4 or 5 weeks of this block doing good mornings for my hip-hinge and then probably go back to romanian deadlifts. They are not pure strength builders like the deadlift but I can feel my glutes and hamstrings working MUCH better doing good mornings and RDL's without the excess fatigue. I will go back to deadlifts at some point but for now will focus on squats as my main strength lift for the lower body.

This week I am planning on working out tonight and follow my normal Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat. I plan to add an extra set on some of the core lifts and an extra rep on a few of the isolation lifts. Calories were high on the weekend with a small pool party on Sat and going to a baseball game with a catered meal for my wife's work function on Sunday. So I am looking at 1500 to 1600 calories per day the rest of the week to continue the cut so will see if that affects my lifting.

[tblodg15]

Morning weight - 170.2, had a low weigh-in this cut of 169.0 on Saturday.

I am down 6 lbs for weekly average which is only 0.6 lbs per week. That is slower than I had planned but the good news is that I am still progressing on my lifts 10 weeks into my cut. I am thinking 3 more weeks and about 2 more lbs and then maintain around 168 for a month.

Monday 7/29/19 Heavy/volume day

DB Incline Bench Press
warm-ups
67.5 x 9 rpe 7
67.5 x 9 @7.5
67.5 x 9 @7.5
67.5 x 9 @ 8
67.5 x 9 @9
Up 2 1/2 lbs from last 5 week block

T-bar Rows
warm-ups
185 x 9 rpe 7.5
185 x 9 @7.5
185 x 9 @8
185 x 8 @8.5
185 x 8 @8.5
Up 5 lbs from last 5 week block

Buffalo Bar Squats
warm-ups
230 x 8 rpe 6.5
230 x 8 @6.5
230 x 8 @7
230 x 8 @7.5
Up 5 lbs from last 5 week block

DB curls
40 x 9 rpe 9
40 x 8 @9
--Superset with--
Rope push-downs
37.5 x 16 rpe 8
37.5 x 15 @ 9
Both up 2.5 lbs from last 5 week block

Good workout! I was definitely drained after the squats where my heart rate went up to 161.

Next week I will add 1 more rep to each set of each exercise which will bring the last set real close to failure which is the plan for the 5th and last week of this block before another deload.

[ectoBgone]

I like that you record rpe along with your weight and reps. I have it in my head what my targets are for each exercise but never actually write down the result. Hungry season is almost over!

[tblodg15]

I like that you record rpe along with your weight and reps. I have it in my head what my targets are for each exercise but never actually write down the result. Hungry season is almost over!

Thanks man, I started recording rpe for each set in my actual journal a year or so ago. Besides helping with fatigue management it also helps with judging progress when looking back a few months.

[tblodg15]

I completed my mid-week “light” workout tonight but tried something new this evening. I decided to do my normal programmed exercises but do all of them in the 20-30 rep range. So I did 2 to 3 sets of landmine press, meadows rows, dips, face-pulls, calf raises, Bulgarian split squats, and concentration curls all with 20 - 30 reps.

And holy cow it was fcking brutal! On this lighter day I usually do most sets in the 10-15 rep range anyways so I didn’t expect it to be so tough but it kicked my arse. Muscles pumped and burning, breathing heavy, it was kind of like torture but in a good way haha. I mean I always get a pump but they were on fire at the same time.

I was tentatively planning on doing it again next week but I now wonder if I should just pick certain exercises to do it on instead of all of them.

[tblodg15]

8/6/19 morning weight 168.8, a new low for a Tuesday so far during this cut. From the start I am only averaging 0.6 lbs per week but since the initial drop after a diet break over vacation I have been averaging 1 lb per week the last 4 weeks. 2 1/2 more weeks in a deficit I think.

And still progressing in the gym! Yesterday I completed my Monday “heavy day” to start the 5th and final week of this mesocycle. I have been adding reps each week and was able to match the same reps at a heavier weight and same rpe as the end of the previous meso. So in other words I was successful in adding weight on every lift while in the calorie deficit.
T-bar rows and squats are up 5 lbs and essentially so are DB incline bench press and DB curls with them being up 2 1/2 pounds on each dumbbell. Tricep rope push downs are up 2 1/2 pounds.

Next week is a taper/deload and then I think I am going to keep all the same exercises and see if I can get keep progressing with another 5 lbs over the next five weeks. So go up in weight, down a few reps and add reps each week to see if I can match this week’s reps once again.

[Payton1221]

8/6/19 morning weight 168.8, a new low for a Tuesday so far during this cut. From the start I am only averaging 0.6 lbs per week but since the initial drop after a diet break over vacation I have been averaging 1 lb per week the last 4 weeks. 2 1/2 more weeks in a deficit I think.

And still progressing in the gym! Yesterday I completed my Monday “heavy day” to start the 5th and final week of this mesocycle. I have been adding reps each week and was able to match the same reps at a heavier weight and same rpe as the end of the previous meso. So in other words I was successful in adding weight on every lift while in the calorie deficit.
T-bar rows and squats are up 5 lbs and essentially so are DB incline bench press and DB curls with them being up 2 1/2 pounds on each dumbbell. Tricep rope push downs are up 2 1/2 pounds.

Next week is a taper/deload and then I think I am going to keep all the same exercises and see if I can get keep progressing with another 5 lbs over the next five weeks. So go up in weight, down a few reps and add reps each week to see if I can match this week’s reps once again.

Ultimately, I think we all want to keep as much muscle as possible while we diet, so one could argue that MAYBE 0.6 lbs per week is ultimately "faster" than 1.0 lbs per week where a larger percentage of lean tissue is lost.

I'm tempted to tease you regarding you timing as it seems you're reaching your leanest physique just in time for summer to be OVER

[tblodg15]

I'm tempted to tease you regarding you timing as it seems you're reaching your leanest physique just in time for summer to be OVER

Tempted? Too late LOL.

Yes that’s true but I thought I would be done with the cut a month ago. I have been happy with my body comp since I got to 170. But I want to lose some more fat and end around 167 to a max of 168 only because I plan on running a surplus again this fall/winter and being a little leaner at the start will allow me to stay in the surplus longer. Ok, and maybe to see the abs a little more since they are showing better than they ever have haha.

And I am still ahead of last year when I didn’t end my cut until the end of October!

[ElrondHubbard]

Tempted? Too late LOL.

Yes that’s true but I thought I would be done with the cut a month ago. I have been happy with my body comp since I got to 170. But I want to lose some more fat and end around 167 to a max of 168 only because I plan on running a surplus again this fall/winter and being a little leaner at the start will allow me to stay in the surplus longer. Ok, and maybe to see the abs a little more since they are showing better than they ever have haha.

And I am still ahead of last year when I didn’t end my cut until the end of October!

Pretty much the same here! I'll keep working on my beach bod for the summer even though the beach is 250 miles away! It's taking a little longer than I planned, but hey -- I like to eat!



You really do have a lot to be proud of, and it's always a pleasure catching up on your progress.

[tblodg15]

Last night Wed 8/7/19 I completed my “light” workout by performing 20-30 rep metabolite training again. I beat last week by 1 or 2 reps on every exercise and I will say it wasn’t as brutal as last week. I can see now that it is probably one of those things that your body adjusts to fairly quickly. But I also skipped the Bulgarian split squats as my glutes and hams were a little sore from squats on Monday.

Speaking of those squats on Monday I know I mentioned that I was still progressing in the deficit but those were a PR for me for 4 sets of 8 reps. Actually every exercise Monday was a PR for those sets and reps. But DB incline bench and t-bar rows are relatively new movements for me as I have only been doing them for a couple months. The PR on squats and DB curls are significant however because I have been doing those two lifts for a long time.

[Payton1221]

Last night Wed 8/7/19 I completed my “light” workout by performing 20-30 rep metabolite training again. I beat last week by 1 or 2 reps on every exercise and I will say it wasn’t as brutal as last week. I can see now that it is probably one of those things that your body adjusts to fairly quickly. But I also skipped the Bulgarian split squats as my glutes and hams were a little sore from squats on Monday.

I'll do high rep training sometimes out of convenience. My typical Incline DB bench is done with 75's and these are normally done a few minutes after two quick warm-up sets with 40's and 60's. If I'm pressed for time, I make the 60's my first workset IMMEDIATELY after using the 40's to just loosen up. I'll do the 60's x 20, 20, 20 and it's definitely sufficient to keep me from becoming "detrained," because when I lift the 75's again in ~6 days (with one OHP workout in the interim), I always find that I'm still able to get the same number of reps as usual.

Same thing for my OHP workout. I'll immediately do 75 x 25 (IIRC) and this is my warm-up and work set (if that makes sense) and my next work sets are 95 x __ (high reps again and I think I get these 18 reps or so +/-) and then my final work set is 110 x 11-12.

[tblodg15]

I'll do the 60's x 20, 20, 20 and it's definitely sufficient to keep me from becoming "detrained," because when I lift the 75's again in ~6 days (with one OHP workout in the interim), I always find that I'm still able to get the same number of reps as usual.

Mark, your work capacity for higher reps is impressive, no way I could get 3 sets of 20 reps on incline bench with 60’s. I doubt I could get 20 reps on just one set!

[tblodg15]

Monday 8/12/19 morning weight 167.6. Late last week I had a “whoosh” where dropped a lot in a few days to a low of 166.6 this past Saturday. After eating out Saturday evening I am up to 167.6 this morning but that is still a whopping 2.6 pounds less than last Monday which was a Monday low at the time. I didn’t change anything with diet or workouts but I am not complaining because now I could be at my goal of an average of 167 by the end of this week. At my previous pace it was going to take two more weeks. My waist measurement dropped 3/4” (I was averaging a loss of 1/4” per week) and now today my smallest belt loop is loose where it had been snug. I will take it and even better I felt strong on Saturday morning sets after cardio and beat all my previous rep records for those exercises.

This week is a taper which for me means the same exercises with 2 less reps and 1-2 less sets, and 5-10 less pounds than the previous weeks. So I will be bench pressing with only 5 pounds less than last week and squatting with only 10 less pounds than last week. But by leaving a few extra reps in reserve and doing 2 or 3 work sets instead of 4 or 5 it is dropping some fatigue without losing any strength like I might with a pure deload using light weights at 50-60% of normal. After the taper this week I plan to run another 5 weeks progressing these same exercises which will bring me to the start of my surplus for fall/winter.

At that point I will have been doing the same routine for 18 weeks so then I will take a true deload and will switch up many of the exercises. I will gradually increase weights and lower rep ranges from the 8-12 I have been doing down to sets of 4-6 reps for the main compound lifts as I work more on strength over the winter. I have goals to do sets of bench with 250 pounds and sets of squats with 315 pounds so it is going to be fun seeing if I can get there by the end of winter!

[Payton1221]

Keep on, keepin' on! Great job Troy.

A goal of benching with 250 is great, but IMO there's nothing wrong with being able to bang out several reps with 225 either

At my strongest ~25 years ago (I weighed 15 lbs more too), I was able to do sets of 10+ with 225 on a decline bench. I felt like Superman

[tblodg15]

8/21/19 morning weight- 166.6, weekly average- 167.0. Last weekend the family and I went on a camping trip, sleeping in a tent and cooking on the fire plus eating out so I was up a couple pounds on Monday from a low of 165.6 on Saturday. But dropping back down by today Wednesday.

As I lean out and have dropped back into the 165’s and 166’s I think I see something in the mirror that I don’t really like. As I lose fat it looks like I can see more loose skin. I almost think I might look better with a little more body fat because the skin isn’t hanging as much on my waist and chest. It’s not terribly bad and I even wonder if it’s in my head a little but it is something I have thought. The back and legs definitely look better as I lean out.

After a deload last week I started a new mesocycle on Monday. I plan to run this one for 5 weeks which will take me through the end of this summer cut and a maintenance phase before I start a surplus in September.

This meso same exercises and going up in weight on DB incline bench, t-bar rows, tri push-downs, face-pulls, dips, meadows rows, and narrow grip bench press. Staying with the same weight on barbell squats, landmine presses, pull-ups, split squats, good mornings, curls, and safety bar squats. All the exercises with the same weight I plan to add a rep or two from the last meso but didn’t feel ready to bump the weight.

I have been a little hungry on occasion but really the calorie deficit has been pretty easy. I am not really looking forward to eating more because by the end of my 6 month surplus last time I was more uncomfortable being stuffed all the time than I am now being a little hungry occasionally. But I am looking forward to gradually ramping the weights back up and working on strength over the winter!