I agree with Lisa. When I got Sherman, he was already 7 years old so we did not have to go through that training. But Sher is also 20lbs and a bit longer legged. Even at that he has problems keeping up. When I watch my daughter's yorkie she can barely keep up with me on the walks I take and I end up carrying the useless thing. Sophie may never ever be a "running" partner for you just 'cause she is so little....
there was a runner in the neighborhood who would run with a pug & a great dane - at the same time - it was pretty fun to see them all find a common pace -
Looking good, Karla. Loving the orange doggy vest.
You are so inspirational. I needed to come here and read about your cut and see those abs. Thanks for the kick in the pants.
__________________
Ginger
"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." ~ John Bingham
Today's workout done in two parts. The first part cardio done in the AM and then a re-feed followed by lifting in the PM (about 7 hours later). I did pecs/shoulders and tris today. SuperSet workout with weights low and reps high and full range of motion/perfect form.
AM workout: 1 hour walk/run: I ran for 40 min and walked for 20. It turned 90 degrees today so first summer like day and I got to be in the sunshine for a little while. Ahhhhhh...
PM workout:
Warmup (db arm circles)
SuperSet 1
alt shoulder flye db
3x10 (7.5)e
arnolds
3x10 (15)e
SuperSet 2
close grip bench push up
3x15 (bw)
Pec cable flye
3x15 (30)
SuperSet 3
db flat shoulder flye
3x15 (20)e
db flat close grip push press
3x15 (20)e
Wow can I feel the lack of food in these workouts. No more 3x20 dips it seems. Of course that time I did not do the dips as a Super Set. Still I was significantly weaker than I was in my bulk on everything. It was just harder. This makes me appreciate why guys always say that they love the bulk. It was fun to be so strong and feel so good in the gym all the time.
Eats for the week very clean with macros at the 44, 39 and 18 range (pro, carb and fat) Calorie intake was lower than planned at 1882kcals per day average. I am working still on bringing that up. So far I am not losing lbs so no serious harm done I think.
Today's topic is on "Dialing it in" and my lessons learned about the world of body shaping.
When I came to this area of study (about 7 months ago) my metabolism was stalled and my knowlege was weak. After much time and effort spent learning about how the body works and what works for my body I really feel as if I am "dialed in". I calculated over the past months that I was burning food at about a 2370 kcal a day rate. Today my numbers are again proving that this is so.
12 days ago I began my cut and the results are so far as follows...
what is significant here is that the scale numbers look pretty discouraging at first glance or if I did not track bf%. If you do the Math however you will see that I have dropped 2.89 lbs of weight total in the past 12 days. That is a rate of about 1.5 lbs a week which ties directly into my daily burn rate. I am going to throttle this back a little bit so that I am losing a bit slower and I can do this because I have things dialed in enough to know exactly what needs to happen.
This stuff is very cool. I think that "Dialing in" is one of the most significant things we can do for ourselves in this journey.
Okay enough of that.....
Today is a rest day. I will take a nice long 1 hour walk sometime during the daytime and try to get 8 or more hours tonight.
See this is where the bf trends become ultra important. BF% is down much more significantly than scale weight and it translates for my body to 1.3 lbs per % point dropped. The trend is downward and it is trending downward at a decent rate.
This is why I feel so strongly that we all need to find some way to get comfortable with our BF trends. The Ormon may not be 100% accurate but it is consistent in its measurements for me because I stay hydrated and because I measure at the same time of the day every day.
If I did not have this second view into what was going on in my body I would have to rely on my clothing fit, visual, etc. This gives me another data point and furthermore tells me that I can pull back a little bit. Without this number I would be panic about the scale number and would be decreasing my cals.
Oh wait Math error alert. That is a total of 2.05 lbs lost right now with 1.45 in bf and .6 in other. Still without the bf% knowledge I would be freak'n out right now as that is the majority of the results that I am seeing.
I am not overly concerned with the numbers right now to tell ya the truth. Usually it is a good several weeks before I drop anything on the scale at all so this is 100 times better than I have ever seen in the past when I wasn't really aware of bf% or dialing in. I know to wait it out and stay the course this time around.
I am keeping a close eye on the averages though to ensure that bf% loss stays higher than other loss on average since I do not have a lot to lose overall.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
NOTE: Late entry, should have been posted days ago.
Ahh, Karla! It was fantastic meeting you and Lisa and I would love to work out with you again. Although she is still complaining that her hammies still hurt! We have not gone back to the gym as of yet (possibly this morning?), but I was able to get a ride in. Friday was National Bike to Work day so I rode in to work. Yeah! Although riding home at 4pm in 90+ degree weather wasn't my highlight of the day.
And when you're ready to do the Sauvie Island ride, let me know!
__________________ “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Your cut is going really smoooothly now Karla. Am agreeing with Tom that a rolling average is more reliable, but it's good to see a trend going.
Bummer about the lesser energy, I know all about it.. cutting down on volume but keeping intensity high is the best thing to do, as well as good nutrient timing.
Hmmmm.... Apparently I got my second wind today and PR'd a few times.
It was back/lat/ab day today and quite honestly it is harder now to motivate myself to go to the gym as I am a bit lower in energy BUT today once I started into it I was a monster just like the good ol' bulking days. I had a nice rest day yesterday and ate fairly well so perhaps that is what fueled it. Today weight was at 133.2 and 18.1% bf.... Go baby go!
Anyway the workout was as follows (just scan it for the reds... He he he)
Warm up
Back extensions 3x15 (10lb)
Incline crunch 3x15 (25lb)
Ab Super Set
Swiss Russian Twist
4x15
Bosu ball crunch/reach
3x20
Cable Lat pull down
3x15 (30lb)
HIIT
Hill sprints for 35min HR Pegged at 180
Lots and lots and lots of amazing confirmations of my changes this week. Two of my coworkers asked me if I was losing weight again. Yesterday when I was running in the park I passed these two ladies who were walking and one of them says to the other "Just look at that ass" and then today someone saw me who hadn't seen me in a few weeks and was blown away by how muscled I was. It isn't that I wasn't as muscled a few weeks ago but that now you can actually begin to see that muscle as the bf% lowers. Last night two strangers complemented me on my body and looks. One a very forthright man and the other a clerk (lady) at a store.
Eats are still clean and macros staying good. Tomorrow I will do some sort of SS cardio and work in the yard all day. Life is good.
NOTE: Late entry, should have been posted days ago.
Ahh, Karla! It was fantastic meeting you and Lisa and I would love to work out with you again. Although she is still complaining that her hammies still hurt! We have not gone back to the gym as of yet (possibly this morning?), but I was able to get a ride in. Friday was National Bike to Work day so I rode in to work. Yeah! Although riding home at 4pm in 90+ degree weather wasn't my highlight of the day.
And when you're ready to do the Sauvie Island ride, let me know!
Dooooopp! Sorry to Lisa for the too hard workout. Of course hammies are slow twitch so they tend to get sore the day after and stay sore longer. Still she probably worked too hard.
I have to do yard work this weekend and possibly the next but after that I will be able to do a Sunday ride. When you are L are up for it on a Sunday or even Sat afternoon (after 2:30) I and Brent would go with you. Brent and I have a guitar lesson in SE every Sat morning and would love to ride after that anytime. In fact we could even meet you for some workout one day but a ride sounds more fun now that it is the weather for it. Anyway... We will def do another round of kicking ass in Portland!
So there I am in the gym and I glance over at the squat rack and wonder who the woman is with all the big plates on. It didn't take long to figure that out. Big red!
The sick thing is I think I could have gone much higher.... I just decided to stop based on the fact that it seemed like so much weight. I did 1 RM once at 225lb before and so this one shocked me. I figured if I got hurt doing this exercise my trainer would kill me. He is not a big fan of lifting too heavy so I knocked off at 5 reps and 255lbs... I still don't get where all that came from but I was reading on Leah Peele's website about how you don't have to get weak just because you are cutting and I thought about that when I was working out today. I think that sometimes "weak" is in the mind....
Sweeeet PRs
No, strength is very much a neural thing. That's why , if you want to get stronger more than getting muscular, doing the very same exercises over & over & over again, with small changes, you get stronger than when you change things up constantly. The latter is better for hypertrophy though.
I am not entirely sure though what approach is better in a cut = doing the same stuff and stay strong or mixing things up and perhaps risk getting weaker because of the excess stress.
We have less recovery ability but when nutrients are timed right, we can still get stronger.
Thanks guys. Today the scale says I am up in both weight and bf. Hmmmm... Perhaps that has something to do with my added strength too. Of course this is just a one day reading but I can't help but wonder if this plays a part somehow.
Epsi I am unfamiliar with the timed eating that you speak of. I do carb tapering right now whereby I do not eat carbs in the evening. I eat post a POW pre-mix as well as a good meal usually within an hour after (including carbs) I also eat cottage cheese at night. Other than that nothing specific. Does it get much more detailed?
Also thanks for the info RE exercise and mixing them up as opposed to staying the same. My trainer seems to largely keep the exercises the same for me these past months. He throws in some new ones but more same than not. I will ask him RE this since my goal ultimately is to get big versus strong. I am liking the strong though......
You should start tracking wt and bf% as a rolling average. Preferably a 14d or better yet 28 or 30d average. This will smoothen out daily fluctuations.
As a beginner , most are better served with keeping workouts more or less the same as there's already so much to get accustomed to. Beginners will grow more LBM on just about any routine you 'throw' at them.
When calories are at a surplus , it's not so bad to change routines. AFAIK, it's not even needed to change exercises at all. Mixing up rep ranges is what counts most when it comes to hypertrophy.
Linear progression of rep ranges from high to low will do most for increasing strength.
Non-linear progression will do most for increasing muscle size in a bulk.
The thing I don't really know is what would work best for muscle retention during a bulk.
I'm starting to think that simple is best, even a FBWO in linear progression with exact same exercises.
Karla........Great abs peeking at us in your pic! I was away and didn't get to post until now, but it looks like you are right on track with this cut!!! You are doing awesome!
__________________
"Become better than you used to be, not better than someone else." ~ Leigh Peele
cutting down on volume but keeping intensity high is the best thing to do, as well as good nutrient timing.
Linear Mode
