Blodg Updates, Anecdotes, and Fitness by the Numbers

[ectoBgone]

That's one unfortunate thing about bodybuilding you can't do a lot about and it also gets to me. I can see my collagen starting to thin out in my arms and I know my skin is only going to lose more elasticity over time from here. I am supplementing with collagen protein and using moisturizer, but I don't expect it will make a noticeable difference. I still think your skin should improve over time as you maintain a leaner physique from where you started. It hasn't been that long since you first dropped all that weight so I suspect things will tighten up, just don't let the bulks get out of hand.

It's almost bulk season, hurray! Though I have to say, I feel so good right now at this body fat it's going to be difficult to let go of it. Noting like workout pumps when everything is rippling. Enjoy what you've earned bro!

[ElrondHubbard]

It does take more time for skin to tighten up as we age, but as ectoBgone pointed out, your weight loss is recent, and a bit dramatic. Once you get to a maintenance weight or start your slow bulk, the enlarged muscle mass will take care of at least some of it. And what doesn’t disappear, that can become a badge of honor, a reminder of where you were and how far you’ve come.

[tblodg15]

Thanks for the insight Dave and Ecto!

Wednesday home full body session is in the books.

About a month away from taking some official end of cut pics and then I can compare to the end of my first cut ever last year and I think the loose skin has tightened up some since then.

[ElrondHubbard]

You look fantastic, Troy!

[ectoBgone]

Hard and muscular physique. Excellent!

[tblodg15]

Thanks guys!

About a month away from taking some official end of cut pics

I am starting to slowly ramp calories back up. I will go up a couple hundred each week which will bring me out of the deficit and into a surplus. It just makes sense to me to do it slowly instead of jumping out of the deficit all at once.

[Payton1221]

. . . and I know my skin is only going to lose more elasticity over time from here. I am supplementing with collagen protein and using moisturizer, but I don't expect it will make a noticeable difference.

My legs and hands look like I'm 15 years older than I am (srs!), but my stomach and lower chest look 15 years younger. I assume it's primarily a function of what parts have received more sun than others.

[tblodg15]

With high school football starting this Friday in Ohio I switched my workout days from Mon-Wed-Fri -Sat to Sun-Tue-Thu-Sat. So my first workout on the new schedule was this Sunday and I had lifted on Fri and did my Sat morning elliptical and accessories the two prior days. So Sunday was my 3rd day in a row and I met all my planned reps but felt a little more tired than usual and a couple RPE's were up a little. I thought maybe the deficit might also be catching up to me but after Mon off my workout last night felt great!

I have a son playing but we love watching HS football and even in the 6 years between my older son and now my younger son playing we have went to most home games. But now it is back to every game home and away!

[ElrondHubbard]

You're gonna be a busy man!

[tblodg15]

Taking a deload this week so I completed a light workout tonight.

I haven’t done any updates for a while, been pushing hard as I finished the cut and worked to peak for some official progress pics which I took on Sunday. I have been slowly raising calories and carbs over the last 5 weeks. I was still in a deficit but going up about 100 calories each week put me right at maintenance during the week before the pics. I think this helped me fill out while still trimming off some body fat and I am happy with how I look and very happy with how the pics turned out.

I am eating at maintenance for the 2nd week during the deload and next week or the week after I will start a modest surplus again over the fall and winter. My bf% estimates and pictures show that I gained about 4 lbs of LBM over the last year. My goal is to see if I can gain another 2 or 3 pounds of LBM over the next year. After that gaining 1 pound per year will probably be good.

I shared the progress pics already on the main O35 page but in case anyone didn’t see them here they are. I ended up at 164 pounds the morning of the pics which is lower than I had planned. My goal was to get to 166 but the weight was flying off the last few weeks when I increased my water intake.

[tblodg15]

You're gonna be a busy man!

Yes busy because we go to every Friday night football game, every Saturday morning JV game, and my daughter is a middle school cheerleader so we go to the MS games also on Thursday evenings. Not to mention trying to watch the OSU college games on Saturday’s and Chicago Bears on Sunday’s. Our family loves some football!

[Payton1221]

Well done Troy!!!

[tblodg15]

Well it has been about a month since I took my progress pics and I have backed off some in that month. Up to the pics I went two full years without missing a single planned workout (I may have swapped days around but always got them in). Well I can no longer say that because in the last month I have missed 2 or 3 workouts LOL.

I wasn’t feeling burnt out or anything but there are a few reasons I decided to back off a little. One is because I made improvements over the last year but they are minor at this point. I realized that I can probably give 60 or 70% of the effort and still realize 90% of the results. I am still working out hard but if I miss a day here or there I truly don’t think it will make a difference, especially in the grand scheme of just being healthy and fit.

Another reason is that I started back up with an old hobby. I used to really be into bow hunting for deer and I stopped 10+ years ago. Well I don’t miss hunting at all but I did miss shooting my bow. In my mid 20’s I competed in mostly local and a few national archery competitions and I kind of have the bug again. Especially when I realized I can shoot in the 50+ age class LOL and so far my practice scores look like I can be very competitive in the local tournaments.

I am not going to stop lifting by any means but this winter I plan to cut it from 4 days a week down to 3 days per week and also going to cut out most of the isolation accessories. I have always focused on the compound lifts and did a few sets of accessories so I am going to go a few months with just the compound lifts and see if I can tell a difference in the mirror. My guess is that I will at least maintain and if I don’t like it I can always add them back in.

I did lose some strength right at the end of the cut and more so over the last month. So this winter I will still focus on getting stronger on the bench and squat and am going to follow The Bridge program by Barbell Medicine. That is if my shoulder can take it because pulling my bow hurts my shoulder a little and I think that might be part of the reason I have lost some strength in bench press because it hurts a little until the last set or two when completely warmed up.

edit - I also meant to say that part of backing off is with nutrition as well. My diet has been spot on for the last year and I am still eating the same foods but have not tracked any macros in the last month and don't plan on it.

Here is a pic of my new (old) hobby that I took to check form. When I first looked at the pic I though man, I look skinny in clothes LOL. But I am 166 lbs right now, up from 164 a month ago at the end of the cut so that isn't very big!

[Payton1221]

Troy,

I get it completely. I think you'd be surprised at what just two workouts per week with three hard sets of a push, a pull, and a leg (compound) exercise will do at maintaining your fitness. Any loss would likely be regained with a 6-8 week return to any of your past and more rigorous programs. My comments assume decent nutrition, i.e., mostly maintenance-ish calories with sufficient protein.

[tblodg15]

Still Plugging Away

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to reduce my workout frequency while I spend time on another hobby (archery). I thought I would come on here and let you guys know that even though I am putting a little less emphasis on lifting I am still at it.

I have been lifting 2 days per week for the last 2 ½ months. I have dropped the isolation lifts for bi’s, tri’s and calves but the volume for the compound lifts is the same as when I was lifting 3 or 4 days per week. I am just splitting the volume into two sessions where my sessions used to take 60 to 70 min they are now taking 90 to 100 minutes.

I am currently in a high stress (high volume) phase of my strength programming (week 9 of 13 week block) and here is my workouts I completed this week:
Thursday 11/28/19 heavy day
Bench Press
Warm-ups
200 x 5 rpe 6.5
200 x 5 @7
200 x 5 @7.5
200 x 5 @8
200 x 5 @8
200 x 5 @8.5

Bent-over-Rows
Warm-ups
175 x 8 rpe 6.5
175 x 8 @7
175 x 8 @7
175 x 8 @7
175 x 8 @7.5
175 x 8 @8

Squats (Buffalo bar)
Warm-ups
260 x 5 rpe 6
260 x 5 @6.5
260 x 5 @6.5
260 x 5 @6.5
260 x 6 @7.5 (did 1 extra rep to hit rpe target)

Overall session RPE - 8.5

Notes: 6 sets across is a lot! It is only like that for a few weeks as I started with just 3 sets and then slowly ramped up and will then ramp sets back down as the weight goes up. I am shooting for an rpe of 8 on the last few sets of bench and rows but am purposely keeping the rpe a little lower on squats and also doing 1 or 2 less sets because I have found I am able to progress on squats with less volume and intensity than I can on upper body.

My squats are the heaviest they have ever been but bench press strength is lower than it was at the end of last winter. I am making progress bringing it back up from the cut and also taking almost a month off after the cut. But shooting my bow aggravates my shoulder and that makes my bench press weaker so will see if I can increase my bench from last winter.

Monday 12/2/19 Medium day
Narrow-grip Bench Press
warm-ups
185 x 5 rpe 6
185 x 5 @6.5
185 x 5 @6.5
185 x 5 @7
185 x 5 @7.5

Pin Squats with SSB, narrow stance, no belt
Warm-ups
205 x 5 rpe 6
205 x 5 @6
205 x 5 @6.5
205 x 5 @6.5

SSB Good Mornings
135 x 12 rpe 5.5
135 x 12 @5.5
135 x 12 @5.5

Chin-ups
BW x 10 rpe 6.5
BW x 10 @7.5
BW x 10 @8

Landmine Press
45 x 10 rpe 6
45 x 10 @6.5
45 x 10 @7
-superset with-
Seated Cable Rows
130 x 10 rpe 6
130 x 10 @6.5
130 x 10 @7.5

Face Pulls
55 x 15 rpe 7
55 x 15 @8
55 x 15 @8

Overall session RPE - 8.5

Notes: Narrow grip bench is narrower than normal bench by about 3 inches on each side so it is not a close-grip tricep exercise. Good mornings is a new exercise so starting weight is light.

Body weight is 169 with a heaviest of 171 day after Thanksgiving. No tracking of calories/macros since end of cut and have been meeting my goal of 1.5 - 2.0 lbs gain per month (gained faster than that over Thanksgiving break but hey I am fine with that). Also no cardio sessions lately.

Keeping with the spirit of "fitness by the numbers" I attached a graph of my weekly average weight over the last year versus my target.

[Payton1221]

Glad to see that you're still at it (but I knew that you would ). The programming looks interesting. Is it somewhat linear where subsequent workouts will have greater intensity with higher RPEs? [EDIT: I just reread that you answered that in your "notes" section]

Regarding the dropping of your isolation exercises, I'm guessing that this hasn't negatively affected your muscle mass. The volume of benching and pull-ups, IMO, is enough to adequately work your bis and tris.

[tblodg15]

Glad to see that you're still at it (but I knew that you would ). The programming looks interesting. Is it somewhat linear where subsequent workouts will have greater intensity with higher RPEs? [EDIT: I just reread that you answered that in your "notes" section]

I already had this reply typed up before I saw your edit so I will post it anyways:

The programming is following The Bridge by Barbell Medicine with some minor tweaks.  The target RPE stays at 8 from week 1 up until the last two weeks of the block where it goes to 9.  So RPE is not rising with greater intensity but the number of sets increases to add productive volume and the rep range goes down to increase intensity over the last 3 or 4 weeks.  The last 3 weeks call for singles at an RPE of 8 and those are fun and the heaviest I will ever lift because I won't ever do a true max single.

The Bridge is meant to be an intermediate strength program after guys stall with linear progression in programs like 5-3-1.  What I found for myself was when I went to a lower RPE and more sets my progress took off after stalling for a while trying to increase weight with just 3 sets of 5.  No matter how much weight I tried to stack on the bar I could not make progress until I backed off a little and added more sets.  

The volume for the Bridge actually calls for 7 sets of bench on their high stress days/weeks and I lowered it to 6 sets.  A lot of guys in their 50's say they can't recover from higher volumes but I have no problem with the volume I shared which ends up being about 12 hard sets per week for chest, back, and legs.  But like I said the number of sets tapers up and then back down so starts with only 6 sets per week to a peak of 12 per week and then back down to 8 per week by the end of the block.

I do know if I was following a 5-3-1 or starting strength type of program and going to failure with only 3 sets or using a pyramid scheme with really only 1 hard set I would be spinning my wheels.  In my opinion those programs work great for a new lifter or an older lifter in their 60's and 70's who truly can't recover from more.  I don't think they work well for the rest of us who have been lifting for years (unless truly in maintenance mode).

[Payton1221]

. . . because I won't ever do a true max single.

Agreed!!! I'll occasionally use a 1RM calculator just to compare to previous times in my life.

What I found for myself was when I went to a lower RPE and more sets my progress took off

How did you determine this? Did you compare rep maxes, e.g., today's 5RM to yesteryear's 5RM?

How's the archery going? Has there been any positive carryover from being stronger?

[tblodg15]

It has been about 6 weeks since I posted so time for an update as some things have changed.

Last update I talked about how I was following a strength program from Barbell Medicine. I made it through 11 of 12 weeks for my first block but did not finish and test bench and squat like I had planned. The reason why - several of us have talked about having shoulder issues and mine is not getting any better so I just deal with it. Well my wife made a Dr appointment for me to have my shoulder looked at. After some X-rays and very minimal examination the Dr said he thought I was just dealing with tendinitis and he wanted to administer a shot of cortisone. Of course I am not a Dr but I disagree with his diagnosis. Yes I am lifting weights and also shooting archery and both are stressful on my shoulder BUT my shoulder hurt for years before I touched a weight or started shooting a bow again. I have not been able to sleep on that side for years so I still think I have some form of rotator cuff injury and the potential overuse from lifting and shooting a bow and arrow is probably not helping but that is not the cause. Anyways I asked if the cortisone shot was just temporary and he said it could last a while so I told him if that is what he recommends then go ahead.

After the shot my shoulder did start feeling better over the next couple days. By no means has the pain went away as it still hurts bad if I try to reach my left arm behind my back but it is much better than it has been. So since it was feeling better I decided to adjust my lifting routine to avoid exercises that are stressful to my shoulder and see if I can keep it feeling better. Shooting the bow and arrow is still stressful but I am going to keep doing that for a while so figured I would try to not stress it any further through lifting. Long story short (too late) I dropped barbell bench press and am only using DB’s for both incline and flat bench. I also upped my reps to 8-12 so no more sets of 5 like I was doing when working on strength. I have tried various exercises and even though I have done all of these in the past they bother the shoulder a little so I also dropped:
- Pull-ups and even pull-downs hurt a little so no vertical pulls at all right now
- No dips
- No lateral raises
- DB incline bench press feels good so I tried DB overhead press and nope it hurt
- No barbell squats - getting my hands on the bar even for high bar squats hurts my shoulder pretty bad so just doing safety bar squats for now
- I even felt a little shoulder pain from incline DB curls and those are not a staple but I thought of adding them in for something different but nope
- Landmine presses hurt just a tad when warming up but I am keeping those in because it is the only overhead pressing movement that I can do without real pain

I will say that after 4 weeks on this new program that my shoulder actually feels BETTER the day after lifting than worse which is new. I have always been able to get through a workout even with heavy BB benching without much pain but later that night and the next few days my shoulder would ache. I did try close grip flat barbell bench press and with the narrow grip it should be less stressful on the shoulder but I could feel some grinding in the shoulder joint that I just want to avoid for now.

One other change - I added cardio back in! I had not done a single session of cardio in 3 months since my last progress pics. I was in a surplus and working on strength so wanted to try going without. Well I figured out that I need it because at that Dr appointment for my shoulder the nurse asked if I have high blood pressure. I said it is normally below 120/80 but they had used a finger monitor that I thought was maybe off. We have a machine at home so I dug it out and sure enough my BP had risen some so I decided right then to add the cardio back in. I am up to 170-171 but during my bulk last winter going all the way to 176-177 my BP never rose but I was always doing one day of cardio.

We have a new Planet Fitness that just opened up that is much cheaper than the YMCA. So over the Xmas break my wife and I joined and the very first session on the elliptical in 3 months my heart rate went all the way to 185 doing the same program I have always done! Since I was off work I went for cardio 3 times the first week and by the end of the first week by max heart rate was back in the 150’s to 160 which is back to normal and my blood pressure came right back down. I have noticed in the past my cardiovascular conditioning seems to come and go much quicker than any form of resistance training. I went 2X per week for the next few weeks and am now back to 1 day per week which appears to be enough to maintain my heart health. During those 3 months when I did zero cardio I was also training for strength and the long rest periods necessary to push maximum weights didn’t help either.

TLDR - I have adjusted my winter workout routine from strength based to more general fitness while avoiding any exercise that is stressful to my shoulder. So currently lifting 2 days per week and also added cardio back in for a 3rd workout of the week. I have also relaxed my diet a little with no tracking and am just going to hang out in the low 170's for the rest of the winter (at 171 right now).

[tblodg15]

How's the archery going? Has there been any positive carryover from being stronger?

It is going well! I am shooting in a league once per week and also entered my first indoor tournament a few weeks ago. This was my first archery competition in 27 years and I was a little nervous which is not good for trying to hold steady but I got the nerves under control and ended up in 2nd place in my 50+ class. This Ohio Archers Association has a series of 7 tournaments with about one per month and each being a different format. I plan to shoot at least 6 of the 7 events and see if I can win the Senior Bowhunter class for the whole year. Then next year I will move up to the Senior Freestyle class which has no restrictions on equipment and is more competitive than the Bowhunter class. The first 4 tournaments are indoors over the winter and then the last 3 are outdoors over the summer.

Mark, as far as being stronger helping with Archery I can't really compare because the last time I shot seriously was when I was in my mid 20's. But I do think being in shape does help because my shooting ability now seems to be real close to what it was in my mid 20's and most guys in their 50's start dropping off. Part of that drop-off is due to eye sight but I am guessing it probably has to do with muscle tone also. I am shooting a fairly low 53 lbs of draw weight because it helps with my shoulder but I could easily shoot more than that with my strength level. But really even many of the young guys only shoot in the 50's or low 60's draw weight for indoors.

Here are the results from my first tournament:

Note - the X count is a very small circle in the middle of the bullseye that only counts for a tie breaker. I had more x's than first place which means I hit the very center of the target more than he did but I had a few more misses than him. I will get him the next round!

[Payton1221]

. . . I also dropped:
- Pull-ups and even pull-downs hurt a little so no vertical pulls at all right now
- No dips
- No lateral raises
- DB incline bench press feels good so I tried DB overhead press and nope it hurt
- No barbell squats - getting my hands on the bar even for high bar squats hurts my shoulder pretty bad so just doing safety bar squats for now
- I even felt a little shoulder pain from incline DB curls and those are not a staple but I thought of adding them in for something different but nope
- Landmine presses hurt just a tad when warming up but I am keeping those in because it is the only overhead pressing movement that I can do without real pain

That sucks. You may even have more "no can do" exercises than I do. Of all of those exercises, I think that I miss weighted dips the most. Back in the day I could hang a 45 pound plate and bang out more than 10 reps. Now, a single bodyweight dip leaves me with a significant amount of pain.

I did try close grip flat barbell bench press and with the narrow grip it should be less stressful on the shoulder but I could feel some grinding in the shoulder joint that I just want to avoid for now.

A football barbell MIGHT be a solution but I would never buy something so special as this without first having an opportunity to try one first.

We have a new Planet Fitness that just opened up that is much cheaper than the YMCA. So over the Xmas break my wife and I joined

I bit the bullet and joined too instead of always going as my wife's guest. The hammer strength machines have been very shoulder-friendly to me.
I've posted before how the "average" PF gymgoer is a nice boost to my ego. In fact, two 20 year olds were doing assisted pull-ups as my son and I were finishing up on one of the hammer strength machines and heading to that pull-up station when I whispered to Mark (Jr) "come on son, let's go show those guys how it's done."

I have noticed in the past my cardiovascular conditioning seems to come and go much quicker than any form of resistance training.

Mine too. I remarked to my boss (a real endurance athlete) how my fitness falls off so fast after dropping bike rides to just weekends after the time change in early November. For Christmas my wife bought me a powerful light for my bike and I've made several "night" rides since then. These and the weekend rides have improved my fitness level immensely since then. Note that I typically see just 2-4 cars for my 50 minute ride since I live in the country.

It is going well! . . . Here are the results from my first tournament:
Note - the X count is a very small circle in the middle of the bullseye that only counts for a tie breaker. I had more x's than first place which means I hit the very center of the target more than he did but I had a few more misses than him. I will get him the next round!

That's awesome. Great job!!!

[tblodg15]

Thought I would give an update. Still lifting full body 2 days per week at home with a 3rd day going to Planet Fitness for cardio on the elliptical and a few accessories like abs/curls/lateral raises etc… I am at least maintaining or maybe a slight improvement. I guess I could take some pictures to compare to this weight last year but really I am not worried about it anymore. When I look in the mirror I think I might see some improvement but I am also up in weight right now and filled out more. I only have an outline of abs but think I look more normal in clothes instead of looking thin like I do at the end of a diet.

I just received the results from my annual blood screening through work. I have now been exercising for over 3 years and my total cholesterol has been relatively the same the last 3 years after dropping like a rock from 280 eight years ago to the low 200’s now. With the recent test being 211 my wife is still concerned that it is over 200 even with my healthy eating and exercise. But I am not worried about the total because my ratio’s have continued to improve over the last 3 years even though the total number has been 207, 209, and now 211. What is driving that is that my HDL good cholesterol continues to go up from 37, 45, 55, 61, and now 63 over the last 5 years. As Mark pointed out last year if my HDL had remained in the high 30’s to low 40’s like it was before I started exercising then my total would be below 200 now but I would not necessarily be more healthy. At least that is how I am interpreting it.
Total - 211
HDL - 63
LDL - 134
Triglycerides - 70
Total/HDL - 3.3
LDL/HDL - 2.1
Trig/HDL - 1.1
I wish the LDL would drop some more, it has improved but only by 6% from my average unhealthy days while my HDL and Triglycerides have improved 60% and 80% respectively!

I stopped doing cardio for 3 months and noticed that my blood pressure and resting HR were starting to climb back up. Not to an unhealthy level but definitely trending up so I hit cardio hard for 2 days a week for a month or two and now back to 1 day per week. My blood pressure went back down and at my screening was 118/74 and my resting heart rate is now back down in the mid 50’s after rising into the low 60’s with no cardio according to my fitbit.

Since adjusting my routine to avoid exercises that hurt my shoulder it continues to feel better. Still not even close to 100% but it is better and I have added a few exercises back in like lateral raises and pull-downs that were bothering it before. I may, however, never add barbell bench press back in because I think that one bothers the shoulder more than anything.

My weight is currently 173 and I have been maintaining 172-173 for about 5 weeks after slowly gaining. I think I will start a thread in the main O35 section to talk about controlling my weight without tracking calories versus when I was tracking.

[Payton1221]

Troy,

Good to hear that you're still getting after it! I hope (and suspect) that you're now a "lifer," and that you'll be doing some type of exercise with some monitoring of your weight/lipids/BP/etc for the rest of your life. I believe that it'll add years to your life, and even if it doesn't, it'll add "life" to your years with the ability for you to move like most people our age can not!

[Payton1221]

You mentioned in my journal how we compared numbers last year. FWIW, here's your numbers against my October numbers

Total - 211 (243 )
HDL - 63 (68)
LDL - 134 (160)
Triglycerides - 70 (53)
Total/HDL - 3.3 (3.6)
LDL/HDL - 2.1 (2.35 . . . this is not metric that I normally track but perhaps there's some value in it, IDK)
Trig/HDL - 1.1 (0.78)

Since having my bloodwork in October, I replaced one historically "protein based" meal with oatmeal and a 1/2 scoop of whey. I've also increased my consumption of beans (sparingly ), and I'm hoping that these two changes will result in a lower LDL value in April (or is it May) when I have to have bloodwork conducted using the finger stick method due to a new fiscal year for my health insurance at work.

The two metrics that I consider are the total/HDL and the Trig/HDL. The first I understand a 5 is "average" risk with lower being better. The second I understand a 2 to be average risk with lower being better. Regarding the Trig/HDL, SMOKERS(!!!) with a value similar to ours (i.e., ~1) had no more cardio vascular events than non-smokers! It doesn't change their likelihood for cancer, but for CVEs, that's amazing.

Given the modest fluctuations between our numbers, I'd say we'd have to flip a coin to see who will live longer with you getting a slight nod since I turned 53 in December