SATIL log

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 174.6 fukking finally

Workouts: Hit legs. Tried squats.... don't have the energy. Just gonna keep loading up the hack squat machine. I'm still not 1:1 with the weight on that with squats but I'm doing enough I think. Quads are sore so I did something. Only got through 2 sets of deads as well. Rode for 70 minutes last night which looks like it got the lipolysis jumping.

Thoughts: Was expecting a drop after the ride but not this big. Didn't even sweat that much on the ride; it's been cool. Been a minute since I hit legs though so the DOMS was hitting. Hurt my speed a little bit. Got it done though.

Gonna see how well this weight sticks. Def feeling it. Abs have come up a good bit but I still wanna push further. I'm like 2lb away from my low last year. Strangely enough, I was expecting to look even freakier at this point, but I don't know if it's because I stayed somewhat lean in my bulk or I'm just softer... not seeing the big improvements I was expecting. Abs are better, arms are better, saw a hint of an Xmas tree out back, vascularity has its moments... but IDK. Then again right now I'm depleted and I'm looking at old pics after I carbed up, on a day where vascularity was crazy, etc. In that regard I'm definitely a lot fuller now. If I can drop another 10 by the end of July and stay this full shyt is gonna be crazy.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: back up to 175.6. "Celebrated" the new low

Workouts: Hit my incline bench upper body workout. Really enjoying the HS machine over barbells for incline bench and the T-bar row is right there so it's a good combo. Still miss the old T-bar row from before the renovation but it is what it is.

Thoughts: Legs are still DOMS'd out. In fact my whole body is pretty sore which is strange. But my hamstrings are on fire. I still want to come in under 175 consistently for the end of this month so I'm debating doing a ride tonight and tomorrow morning. Max I could do between the two days is 2.5 hours so I might as well rest up tonight... maybe take an Epsom salt bath... then have a big cup of coffee and try for 2 hours early tomorrow. If I can do that and stay on point diet wise I should be able to stay in the 174s.

Man if I am going to get deep into the 160s by the end of July I'm gonna really have to be on point. But assuming I don't stall out like last time 166-167 is realistic. Especially now with this cardio momentum I have going. The real biggie will be if I can keep it under 180 through the next bulk. I have absolutely no reason to go over that if I can help it, and then that positions me nicely for next spring, where I might start prepping for a show Not quite at the point where I want to quit and hopefully the "natural" refeeds are helping with that. But I'm watching for it. This cut should be about 1 month shorter than last year with the same amount of weight lost, so hopefully I don't stall out or lose my will. I'm used to this shyt now and I get a little better each time so it's just down to the grind.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176.2 Went to a bday party yesterday. Holding water and salt. Was softish all weekend though.

Workouts: hit my upper body shyt Saturday and regular leg shyt Sunday. Didn't get to ride as much as I wanted, but I think I got an hour Friday and half an hour Saturday.

Thoughts: time to clean up and turn up. 2 big things will be ditching candy at work and turning up the cardio a bit. Weekdays I'm gonna try for 80 minutes (~14 miles) and on weekends I'm either gonna do one 2 hour ride on Saturday or maybe do an 80 minute ride on both days. Going to up the protein a little bit on the diet as well. I lost 6-7lb last month really just fukking around.... I wanna see if buckling down can help me clear 10 through July. Probably going to be leaning more on caffeine as well because the hunger and performance drop will be a lot to manage without it. Thankfully I'm getting decent sleep though. Just one more big push and we'll be on the other side

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 175 flat 7/5, mid 175s all week

Workouts: Back up to full speed/load. Tuesday was a fukking mess. Tried to flat bench... wasn't feeling it. Switched to weighted dips.... forgot what weight I was supposed to use. I think I got as heavy as 20lb over what was supposed to be my working weight . Tried to find videos of workouts from the last block.... deleted them I remember now but that was a disaster. Rest of the workout went well though. Had to do legs at home for the holiday.... deadlifts are coming up no problem. Hit my incline bench workout today. Need to measure the HS incline bench machine to get a real picture of load.

Thoughts: So far so good with clean July. Went to a BBQ yesterday, didn't drink. Got home, just had a protein shake which held me down for bed time. Haven't had candy with my shakes this week (and believe me I really want to ). No snacks in the house either. Just want to see how much of a difference going "strict" makes. Happy with the 175 flat this morning because it was after that BBQ. I didn't drink but I did indulge a little, and more importantly I didn't ride yesterday. Gonna try for an 80 minute ride tonight, rest tomorrow, go for that 2 hour ride Saturday morning. Not setting any expectations but I'm hoping to see a big chunk gone Sunday morning. Nothing going on this weekend so I can stay clean.

Coming up on 2 months without a damn oven We managed though. Thank God for the gas grill. Oven is finally coming in next Friday. Holidays finna be lit cuz

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: low to mid 176s since Thursday

Workouts: Finally figured out my dip weights. Actually rode a shytload. I think I did an hour Thursday and 90 minutes yesterday.

Thoughts: I think it's time for a refeed. Been stalled for damn near 3 weeks following the protocol pretty reliably. Last year when I called the cut being over and turned up the calories I started losing weight again I think. Time for a release. Going to keep cardio up and maintain that momentum but go up to 2600-2700kcal/day for like 4-5 days. That should get my shyt back in order. Weird thing is I'm bigger but softer at this same weight vs last year. It's strange. Anyway hope this refeed will activate things. Maybe I'll even be able to barbell squat this week.

Tried to ride for 2 hours yesterday and I think my legs were with it.... but the seat was uncomfortable AF. Towards the end I was just managing the pain more than anything. Not sure what to do about that.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: mid 176-177s Mon-Wed and then 175.6 this morning

Workouts: been plugging. Regular shyt. Rode for an hour Monday and Wednesday. Hit legs Sunday and Wednesday. Upper body on Tuesday

Thoughts: I think the refeed went OK? Carrying it through for a full week to get the whole effect. Got family in town this weekend anyway so it works out. Definitely enjoying breakfast, though again I am just as hungry at 11 AM so it's still pointless.

Really feeling the Hammer Strength machines for my pressing motions and of course they are right by the HS pulling machines. I think I might rock with those for the time being. I don't know if it's my circulation or what but I just find pressing on those a lot easier, even with what I think is the same weight. Still need to figure out the leverage ratios.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 178.8 :udgoraw: Dat refeed life. That's over. Back to ~1900kcal + cardio today. Hoping to by back in the 175s by the weekend and dropping below that soon after. Definitely enjoying life again

Workouts: rode outside Saturday and really enjoyed it! Hit upper later Saturday and lower Sunday. Something weird happened Saturday though. Tweaked my left shoulder and now I have an impingement when I do upright rows. Arm feels kind of numb. Going to fukk with dumbbell or machine lateral raises until it passes. Feels like I pinched a nerve or something.

Thoughts: Man do I miss riding outside. Saw a 3DMJ podcast video called something like "Stop Copying Bodybuilders". I feel like I haven't been enjoying the process lately because I'm putting a lot of shyt I want to do to the side to lift. Yoga, swimming, biking, tennis.... might need to just focus on one other thing at a time. Riding outside definitely impacted my upper workout.... I almost think I should have done lower body after instead oddly. I'll try that next week. But I'm torn. On one hand I want to finish what I started with this lifting shyt.... get diced, get all my body parts to a satisfactory level. On the other hand I want to do other things.

Plus I'm starting to realize... I have small joints; I'm never gonna be a huge dude naturally. I can maybe eek a little more size out every year, but that's almost not worth it if I have to grind and not enjoy it. So I'm gonna try and go to the end of August or so with this cut and then see what I want to do. If I can stay leanish over the next gaining phase I think I'm gonna skip my cut next year. Also gonna cycle through a second fitness activity... over the winter I'm gonna do yoga, then for the spring/summer/fall I'm gonna swim and bike. We'll see how it goes

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176 flat. I knew I would drop back down quickly. Hoping a ride tonight will get me back in the 174-175s.

Workout: Did upper body yesterday,.... wasn't feeling it. Everything felt very heavy. Hit lower body today... had coffee and everything, but shyt just didn't feel 100%. Hack squat felt weird on my left knee, so I switched to leg press. Felt much better. I think I'm gonna switch to leg press for the rest of the cut. Same angle, pretty sure I get the same knee flexion, but I can def handle more load on it. Just have to watch my lower back.

Low key dreading tomorrow's workout... next week is the last of this block; deload can't come soon enough. August is going to be a grind; I can feel it. Hopefully I can take a big chunk out over the next deload weight wise and not have to go as hard in August.

Thoughts: Just keeping my head above water. Still holding water and not as sharp as last year. Hoping to get there and beyond with the next push.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Damn, long overdue for an update

Weight: 174.6

Workouts: Regular routine. One big change- started riding outside again. Last Saturday or whenever I fukked up my shoulder (which is healing BTW) I rode in the morning and lifted at lunch. Bad business. Now I know I need something like a night's sleep after riding before I lift. The big test is whether or not I can hit legs the day after a ride... maybe once I get some calories back in.

Riding outside is so much more enjoyable. Yea it dings my recovery a little bit but I definitely enjoy the process more. Even better, I've improved a little on my pace from the end of last year after like 3 rides.

Thoughts: August is gonna be the tighten up month. Cut has been stressful as fukk but I also sabotaged myself a bit. Obviously gotta tighten up the diet, especially during the week... though I have got into a cleaner rhythm on weekends now that we have an oven again (2 fukking months ). Main thing though is doing all my riding outside. If I can do 50 miles a week, which is what I think I initially said I would do indoors, I'll be happy. I looked at some of my ride logs last year and I was definitely riding outside through the cut. I'm not sure where I got the idea that I had to ride indoors to protect my legs. That probably fukked up my progress the most. ~16-20 miles lost a week = 1/2 to 3/4 a lb I missed out on. So I probably would have been balls deep in the 160s by now. Oh well, you live and you learn.

Definitely going to try to have more fun with this and diversify my activity once this cut is over. Where I'm at now, I'm pretty much happy with my size all over. Just need to unlock the secret to nail my conditioning for the summer. I want to get back into swimming and start fukking with yoga. I still want to clear 4 plates for 3x5 on squats.... once I can do that comfortably I might drop back to a maintenance mode; cut some volume and put lifting on the backburner a little bit. Main thing I care about really is getting and staying lean.... don't really care about getting bigger or stronger. If I can crack that nut I'll be good..... swimming indoors in the cold months will help that a lot

So we will see what happens in August. I'm just rethinking my whole approach. shyt got too strict and not fun. Forgot why I got into this shyt....

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 173.4

Workout: Upper body stuff. I think I need to go back to free weights or dips for push movements during the week. The HS machines are too easy and I'm def not moving the weight I used to.

Thoughts: Good to see that weight drop with no cardio. Was gonna ride last night but the weather has been wonky. Looks like it's gonna rain tonight too. Diet adherence has been decent... I think that refeed really helped. Just gonna keep plugging

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 173.6

Workout: Hit legs yesterday. Supersetted deadlifts and leg press, then rode for 14 miles outside last night. Needless to say my legs are fried.

Thoughts: Was expecting some kind of weight drop. I think my metabolism is sleeping. Avoided coffee this week so I think I can use a jump start today.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 173.4, 27.75" waist

Workouts: incline upper bench Thursday, outside bike ride Friday, regular upper body stuff Saturday. Regular s***. Bike ride Friday was a little rough, 3 outside rides in a week is a bit much. I might drop back to two. But otherwise it was fine.

Thoughts: productive week. This 173.4 is after a little micro refeed. So I'm pretty happy with that. I should probably touch the 172s next week after I do my ride Monday. Just hope I'm not taxing my legs too much.

bummed that this progress is coming so late in the summer, but it is what it is. At least I know what to do going forward. Still debating whether or not to cut next year, especially if I can keep my weight under control. I think I'd be happy if I could stay at or under 180, but that might hinder making gains. So I'll just play it by ear. But if I do cut next year, I would definitely shoot for the mid to low 160s. Definitely push further, and start thinking about prepping for a show in 2020.

For now though, just going to focus on trying to get into the mid 160s. Hopefully I can make that happen by the end of August. Then it's back to luxurious macros again

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 175.6 yesterday, 173.6 today. Went out for sushi with wifey Sunday. Was actually disappointed. The sashimi was incredible but the rolls were no good. I wanted something crunchy and fried. Should have had something else.

Workouts: Rode yesterday. Pace wasn't on like last week but I wasn't completely gassed. Learning how to pace myself.

Thoughts: Made chicken and pasta for lunch this week. Never liked to make pasta as it doesn't seem to keep well but we will see what happens this week. Need a break from rice, but didn't want to fukk around with quinoa or anything. Spent the whole damn weekend cooking

We'll see what we can touch this week but if the weather cooperates I'm optimistic for what we can touch this week weight wise. I think that diet break week really helped reset me. I have a full head of steam for August.

 

[-G$-]

how tall are you breh?

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

5' 9"