2023 Collaborative Training Log and Discussion

[coachcalande]

Can relate... I can't tell you how many times I've asked my partner not to cook for me when I'm trying to lose weight. When she inevitably cooks for me anyway I smile, eat it, and say thank you.

If I need to choose between having a beach bod and being a jackass or having a dad bod and being a decent and supportive partner, I'll choose the latter every time.

Making up for it today best we can…it’s “Sammich night” and I’m having Tuna.

[EliKoehn]

I think if I had a woman I desired who I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt wouldn't leave me, I wouldn't care that much about being especially aesthetic anyway. I'm not sure about getting married at all though the way things are these days.

[SaviorSelfJT]

PL style squat
135x5
205x5
255x5

OHP
195x1
175x6

Reverse grip curls
85x12

——

Fuk yeah, 195 OHP went up without a grind. And I could only do 175x4 last time, got 6 today

Not going to call them “bad squats” anymore, powerlifter style instead. Complete with chuck taylors and questionable depth

[CW47]

Making up for it today best we can…it’s “Sammich night” and I’m having Tuna.

First thing I heard when I walked in the door today was "we're going out for dinner", lmao! And then doughnuts and bubble tea afterward.
I restrained myself about as much as I could - ate half my meal, half a doughnut, and no drink. Now I have leftover rice and pork for a meal tomorrow, so it didn't turn out too bad after all.

And yes, I really don't care about being aesthetic. But I DO want to stay healthy and active for many years to come, and weight certainly plays a factor in that. Trimming up is still very doable. I would probably just need to plan for a larger deficit than some other people, knowing there will be days where the deficit just goes out the window.

[SaviorSelfJT]

Bubble tea is what would have me moving there ^^^

As long as it has the boba pearls

[coachcalande]

I think if I had a woman I desired who I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt wouldn't leave me, I wouldn't care that much about being especially aesthetic anyway. I'm not sure about getting married at all though the way things are these days.

Right, We have been married for 25 years, she’s seen me at my best and my worst. She’s seen me cut, bulk, give up carbs, go low fat, count cals, run every single day…whatever, at this point I doubt she pays much attention to what I say I’m doing nutritionally because she has her own dietary needs, and kids too…we have a son who has certain allergies to soy or nuts, another who can’t tolerate milk, cheese, cream….and another child who can’t tolerate seafood…And another in braces that has food limits…so she worries about their needs not my silly old guy diets.

She’s a great cook but what was hilarious was when she first started cooking she would serve me like one chicken leg at a meal ha ha. Now, after years of me getting piles of food, that same food gets piled on my kids plates and I’m back to the measly servings ha ha.

In any case, I make breakfasts and many dinners for all of us…so I’m largely in control. I also started shopping more after retirement from football. She still has her chips, ice cream, microwave foods….but the basics for me are covered.

As far as marriage…I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[RapidFail]

Can relate... I can't tell you how many times I've asked my partner not to cook for me when I'm trying to lose weight. When she inevitably cooks for me anyway I smile, eat it, and say thank you.

If I need to choose between having a beach bod and being a jackass or having a dad bod and being a decent and supportive partner, I'll choose the latter every time.

I've made a rule for myself that I don't allow my diet to encroach on family time. I figure I average about 800 calories for dinner (usually cooked by me but often my wife) so I just enter that as a given and make sure I hit my calories and protein for the rest of the day.

That means when I'm bulking, I arrive home from work having already eaten up to 2800 calories for the day, so dinner rounds it up to 3600. When I'm cutting, I may go as low as 1200 calories, with dinner rounding it up to 2000. Has worked well for me so far.

[EliKoehn]

@SJT, awesome job on that OHP! 195 is very solid on its own but following that up with 175 x 6 is just insane.

--

Conventional Deadlift (Beltless, Raw Mixed Grip):
135 x 8, 225 x 4, 315 x 3, 405 x 1, 455 x 1

Just worked up to a 455 single with a few pullups between sets to stretch my back. Was going to stop at 405 and maybe do triples with it, but it shot up so much smoother and faster than I was expecting that I decided to go up to 455 to get a better idea of an unacclimated training max to work around for the near future. It was smooth and felt good. My grip was just about to give out after a brief pause at lockout, so that would have restricted me if I attempted to go up more, but my legs and back felt like they could handle more. This was without chalk so I'm extremely pleased to have been up to walk up and do that proficiently with no recent deadlifting at all (and nothing above 405 in nearly half a year)! I have given a decent amount of attention to squats lately so it's likely carryover from that, but my ability to hold the bar is surprising since my pulls lately have been minimal and so my grip hasn't been legitimately trained in a while.

[coachcalande]

I've made a rule for myself that I don't allow my diet to encroach on family time. I figure I average about 800 calories for dinner (usually cooked by me but often my wife) so I just enter that as a given and make sure I hit my calories and protein for the rest of the day.

That means when I'm bulking, I arrive home from work having already eaten up to 2800 calories for the day, so dinner rounds it up to 3600. When I'm cutting, I may go as low as 1200 calories, with dinner rounding it up to 2000. Has worked well for me so far.

I’m trying where I can…last night the bride made pasta with Italian sauce and sausage of some kind. I replaced the sausage with a chicken breast but no idea how many cals I really took in.

It’s legs and arms day so those carbs and cals will be used.

[CW47]

I've made a rule for myself that I don't allow my diet to encroach on family time. I figure I average about 800 calories for dinner (usually cooked by me but often my wife) so I just enter that as a given and make sure I hit my calories and protein for the rest of the day.

That means when I'm bulking, I arrive home from work having already eaten up to 2800 calories for the day, so dinner rounds it up to 3600. When I'm cutting, I may go as low as 1200 calories, with dinner rounding it up to 2000. Has worked well for me so far.

Yeah, this is a great approach.

[SaviorSelfJT]

Great workout, finally hit 3 bills on bench again

——-

Bench
warmups
295x1
305x1
265x5

PL squat
135x5
225x5
260x5

(Lower back pump)

Deadlift:
360x5

Bad rows:
135x5
185x5
235x5

Rev grip curls
45x5
65x5
95x5

[EliKoehn]

^^ Nice! Feelsgoodman

--

A.S.
Flat Bench (T&G):
225 x 10, 10, 8, 7, 8
Pendlay Row:
4 x 8 at 225

Finally did Pendlays again for the first time in several months. Form held up pretty well, but one or two of the final reps had a noticeable small hip involvement, though in good conscience I don't think it was especially much. Not displeased for having almost completely neglected concentric back movements all year so far aside from occasional low volume pullups here and there. What was more noticeable than the actual lifts with these was just how taxing they are. I have gotten to being able to jog a modest distance at a modest pace without losing my breath, but these completely winded me. It is a difficult, full-body lift though and I remember they tended to be pretty energy-sucking even when I was doing them regularly and in good trim.

Originally wanted to see how many sets of 10 I could get with two plates touch and go on the bench. The first set might have had another rep or two in the tank, but all the rest were AMRAPs. Twice is what I got last time, and then I wasn't able to get a double 8 after that (which I think would match the volume of last time). For the sake of progressive overload, I added another set and managed to get 8 again after resting longer.

[SaviorSelfJT]

Thanks, before in months past the best I got was 285 for a really slow rep, then 305 came out of nowhere and it wasn’t even that hard either

—-

I think I’ve dialed in the perfect pre-workout meal. Serious

- Boil up some ramen noodles (the brand I’m using is a little over 500 cals per package)
- Fry up some kind of processed meat to put in the noodles, my favorite is turkey bacon
- add some soy sauce to the noodles for even more sodium
- and an energy drink for caffeine


Full of simple carbs, tons of sodium, and caffeine. The carbs and sodium are hot liquid form so they digest really easily. So doesn’t leave you bloated

If there’s anything I would change it would be even more carbs, but using 2 packs of noodles seems like too much. Maybe 2 packs of a brand with smaller packages

[jademonkey]

Last night, started with squats:
Worked up to 325x1 / 335x1 / 345x1 most since before the Baja trip and 92% of my all time max.
Backed off to 315x3 / 295x5

Bench press, just wanted to work fairly heavy but not singles heavy. Get used to 225 again. So did 225x3 for 3 sets, then drop set 225x3+215x2+205x2+195x3+185x3

Added in some BB rows, Arnold press, and lying hamstring curls because I so rarely do hamstring curls and figure I should add this in for a while. Supersetted ham curls w/ some arms and shoulder isolations.

Squats felt good, bench felt a bit weak. I didn't eat all day until an hour before the gym so probably just ran out of fuel. Only did 2 sets of hamstring curls cuz i didn't wanna be crazy sore, but today it's mostly my quads that are sore. hamstrings feel fine. So next time I'll up the weight and do a 3rd set.

Kairee did stairmaster, DB bench, DB rows, and Arnold press.

[coachcalande]

Did legs and calves this am.

Squats 4x5 @315
Leg press 13 plates-12 rep PR
Leg ext, leg curls, calf raises.

The squats were free weights and heels elevated. My low back (QL) felt ok, was nervous though!

[coachcalande]

85 min torso session.

Bench 4x 275 x5-6 reps
Incline 4x 235 x5-8 reps
Flys 4x 50x 8-10 reps

Narrow pds 210x 4x6-10 reps
Wide pds 210x4x6-8 reps
Seated rows 250x4x5-8 reps

Seated press 4x 170x5-8 reps
Upright rows 4x105x6-8 reps
Shrugs 200x around 8-12 reps x4 sets
Side laterals supersets with rear delt flex 4

Earned another day off and another 300 G protein

[jademonkey]

Got to the gym 2 days in a row.

Saturday was upper:
Bench press, top single 245, then (200x6)x5
Alternated Arnold press and pull ups.
Alternated incline dumbbell curls and single arm overhead tricep extension with cable.
Alternated lateral raises and cross body hammer curl.
Alternated chest fly and reverse fly on the machine.

Yesterday did legs.
Started with squats, but they were sore still from a few days ago. Not sore but can still hit the weight, like horribly sore could barely lift 315 for a single. Gave up after a few lighter sets.

Did romanian deadlift while my wife did normal deadlifts. Works well with one bar, cuz she works around 185-205 and I can just add some 25s and 10s to get to whatever weight I need.

Oddly, leg presses felt fine. Sore, but fine. Wife did sets with 4 plates. A bit light for her but she struggle with hyperextension on her right knee so just kept it medium weight and focused on the knee. I like working up on the weight - 5p x10, 6p x10, 7p x10, 8p x6. Wife is really short so it was tough, starting from a really cramped leg position.

Alternated lying leg curls and hip abduction.
Finished by walking around and supersetting various core stuff and upper body isolations.

[SaviorSelfJT]

Two days ago:
First thing in the morning I did a couple sets of push ups, have done these in years. 20 first set, 25 second set

I read that Julius Maddox did a lot of push-ups to help his bench. Maybe he was into something

Today:
PL Squat
135x5
185x5
225x5
265x5

OHP:
Up to 195x1
185x4
175x7
155x6

Cheat rows:
135x5
185x5
225x10

Pull-ups
5
5
5

——-

I recorded the squats, I think they actually look really good even though they feel ugly. Very little knee travel, at the bottom my knees are maybe an inch before crossing my toes. My hips are basically moving around my knees in a circle and my back is flattening just enough for me to keep my balance

Fuk yeah on the OHP, 175x7 is +1 more rep than last time

Pic of squat at bottom:

[CW47]

Seated Overhead Press
70 pounds - 3 sets x 10 reps

Lat Pulldown - Close Grip
85 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

Banded Triceps Pushdown Burnouts x2

Banded Biceps Curl Burnouts x2

Situps - 2 sets x 35 reps

Both of the Banded Burnouts were done starting out with 2 bands and doing as many reps as possible and then continuing on with 1 band doing as many as I can. I think I got close to 80 total reps each time. Arms are still shaking because I'm not used to doing anywhere near that many reps.

[coachcalande]

Some fairly easy pause squats 345x3 at the end of a pyramid
https://youtube.com/shorts/sT1NgHap6Ds

[CW47]

Stiff Legged Deadlift
255 pounds - 3 sets x 8 reps

Leg Curl
100 pounds - 3 sets x 9 reps

Glute Bridge
Bodyweight - 2 sets x 20 reps

Donkey Calf Raise
45 pounds - 2 sets x 20 reps

Dead Bugs
Bodyweight - 2 sets x 10 reps

Deads were great today. All reps were well controlled. Feels like there's still a lot in the tank here, but I'll continue with 10 pound jumps.
I'll likely replace the glute bridges and dead bugs next time through. I don't feel like I'm getting as much out of them as I had hoped.

[EliKoehn]

More continued small, measured progression on bench. Pants felt a bit looser today too and I had to pull them up a bit while walking which is a good sign.

Flat Bench (T&G):
2 x 8 at 245, 2 x 8 at 225 @9, 10, 10, ~8

A.S.
DB Hammer Curl:
1 x 3 w/ 65s, 2 x 6 w/ 55s
DB Lateral Raise:
3 x 8 w/ 30s

Last time I spread a 4 x 8, I did 235 on the first two sets and got it, so a 10 pound linear jump is nice to see. I alternated the bench sets with an individual neutral-grip pullup (due to available equipment) just to keep the back tight, and each of those were quite easy. I could probably get 6-8 in working sets, which I will likely do soon. In addition to that, I thought it was time for some heavier curls since bicep work has been lacking lately. Decent showing there.

I don't know what it was this morning because I ate relatively heartily over the weekend and didn't train, but I was massively hungry this morning, which is really weird since my appetite is normally quite tame when I haven't lifted in the last 48 hours or so, and I often skip breakfast. Today I couldn't even focus on my job though and I ate two meals at lunch - one of which was a shrimp cocktail tub with like 25 pieces of plump shrimp! Good bodybuilding food. I am generally walking around a lot more and am taking the stairs on a 3 story building every day, so maybe it's just that small bump of activity making the difference? That honestly seems too slight to matter though.

[coachcalande]

Heavy pushes and pull today:
bench 5x6 @ 275
incline 5x6-8 @ 225
wide pds 4x8-10 @ 200
narrow pds 4x6-8 @ 200
seated rows 4x6-8 @ 260
seated press 4x 6-8 @ 175
upright rows 4 x 8-10 @ 105

Side lateral n shrugs on deck

[jademonkey]

Very strange, somehow my dumbbell bench press was oddly strong yesterday.

Didn't do any barbell work yesterday. Was gonna do dumbbells with my wife, who said just before falling asleep the night before, "do you ever think I'll bench press 35s?" Lol. She's been stuck at 30s x10 for a while. So she walked in, after a difficult work day and in a bad mood, no warm up, no nothing, grabbed the 35s, completely failed of course, and left for the stairmaster. I decided to stick with dumbbells anyway.

Alternate sets, D bench, D row:
Rows were straight sets (100x10each)x5
Bench:
65s x8 warm up set felt a bit bad in the shoulder
65s x15 tucked the elbows more and it felt better
(75s x12) x2
85s x8 - this was gonna be my last set, but then the guy next to me grabbed the 85s and did 10 (half rep but flared shoulders).
90s x10
I had to one up the guy next to me. I have no idea where those 10 reps came from. Last time I did 80s for 8 I think and it was very hard, they felt wobbly swinging into position (I start at the top of the rep). This time, the 90s felt perfectly stable and somehow lighter. And I had barely eaten all day. I had a few crackers, a slice of cheese, and 4 slices of turkey cold cuts.

What's even stranger, is that my bench press is currently still pretty weak, around 250-255 estimated max. Using the "estimated one rep max" and the 80% rule for dumbbell to barbell (which has held approximately accurate for me in the past), that would put my barbell bench max at an estimated 300.

Moved on the Arnold press and wide grip pull downs:
60s x6, 140x10
60s x6, 160x8
60s x5, 160x8
50s x10, 160x8

Finished with an isolation circuit:
cross body hammer curls, incline curls, tricep press downs, lateral raises, machine fly/reverse fly, machine crunches.

Oh and my wife came back over after the stairmaster for some push and pull. She did 35s x5 for her last set of dumbbell bench.

[SaviorSelfJT]

^ Sounds like the lifting gods were with you today

-----


About 3 miles of brisk walking, slight incline

A little bit later lifting:

PL Squat:
135x5
185x5
225x5
270x5

Push ups:
20
25

Deadlift:
370x5



I gave away my fitbit watch some time ago, now I'm borrowing an apple watch. I wore it to bed last night and it says my resting heart rate is about 50 BPM. Feelsgoodman

[jademonkey]

Lifting gods lol.
Best explanation I can think of.
Feels good though.
We are traveling to Austin for a week and the Portugal for a couple months, hope I can find a good gym there and keep the lifting gods happy!

[CW47]

Larsen Press
120 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

Inverted Row
Bodyweight + Mini Band - 3 sets x 10 reps

Spoon Press
37.5 pounds - 2 sets x 15 reps

Hammer Curl
32.5 pounds - 2 sets x 12 reps

Hanging Leg Raise
Bodyweight - 2 sets x 10 reps

Really good workout. All of these exercises are now in a weight range that's pretty challenging, and everything got fairly close to failure today.
I probably need to recheck proper form for the Spoon Press because I'm finding that it's working my front delts more than anything and I programmed it as a triceps exercise. I suppose just bringing the touch point of the db's up higher should put more emphasis on the triceps...