Go with the flow!

[Espi]

Thursday July 10
Undulating Reps 2-A2 (A = endurance, 12+ rep range)
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
Did all of them except the Russian twist as I was feeling queasy.
One of the reasons I did all stretching exercises was that I was looking for a strategy to do more pushups by increasing rest periods.

A1 push up
8-8-7-7
Succeeded in getting beyond last week’s piss-poor performance (8-6-4-2) with 10 more reps, but still wasn’t too happy.

B1 leg press (you’re also pressing up your own BW)
WU: 26x12
47x20-15-20-20-20
Used 2 more kg than last time.

B2a chin up
BWx3

B2b lat pull down
WU: 28x5
38,5 x15-15-15-15
2 more reps at same wt


C1 leg extension
35,5x15-15-14
4 more reps at same wt

C2 seated leg curl
40 x12-14-11
7 more reps at same wt

D1 pec deck
40x15-14
Used 2 kg more wt

D2 standing gluteus
47,5 x15/15-15/15
Used 2 kg more wt.

E1 preacher curl
22,5x15-15
Used 2,5 kg more wt

E2 standing db shoulder press
(2x9) x15 - 12
2 less reps

F1 wide cable seated seated row
31,3 x20-20
Used 2,5 kg more wt.

F2a triceps rope pushdown
16,3 x18
Used 2,5 kg more wt.

F2b triceps overhead cable press ????
8,75x18
2 more reps (PB)

F3 cable crunch
23,8x15
8 more reps

Opinion : I felt like a zombie going into the WO and decided to never really push for failure but just get to around 15 reps. Amazingly I still improved myself in comparison to the previous workout.. weird how this works. Or, perhaps not so weird, since I wasn’t rushing myself, since I know how that works out re appetite post-WO and I just had NO interest in making myself more fatigued than necessary.

Training statistics
Volume: 24538 (+1485)
# of sets: 38 (+5) # of reps: 520 (+34) - avg reps/set : 13,7 (-1,0) - kg/rep : 47,2 (-0,2)

OH, and this morning I took blood pressure once again when in bed. I assume it's normal to have way lower BP when horizontal? 92/63 @ 33bpm it was. Surprised me actually to see a RHR as low as when I was very much into the endurance cycling. Apparently once you have a low RHR it just stays that way?

ETA: after the workout when I walked home it was literally POURING down and i got all soaking wet.. at least my trousers and sandals got soaked. I literally had to tread carefully or jump over huge puddles of water even when walking over pavement. You'd never know how uneven regular pavement (tiles, stones, asphalt) is unless there's a downpour.

It's getting OLD by now to see this weather! Where's the SUN?

[UConnJulie]

Damn, that's lower volume?! You kill me!!

Yes, normal for BP to be lower in supine, since the heart doesn't have to work as hard to circulate the blood. And just like heart rate, it will also be lower upon waking in the morning.

Bummer on all the rain ... here's some sunshine for you ...



But, wear your sunscreen!!

[Espi]

It's raining again!

Frankly, I've only worn sunscreen once this year.. and I'm still really pale.

[kfisherx]

Been rainy or cool mostly here in Portland too. I don't mind it much though.

[stingo]

Where's your progress pics?

[Espi]

Errrrr... I think we just about do one set of pix a year

I've asked my SO to try & do them this weekend, since I'd like to see if the shoulder development isn't just in my head.

[Espi]

Saturday July 12
Undulating Reps 2-B2 (B = tension/hypertrophy, 7-12 rep range)

all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
The usual 10 exercises (including real pushups)

As (slow) superset w increasing rest periods

A1a chins
BWx4
Harder than last time, 1 rep less

A1b wide grip lat pull down (+1,5kg)
45,5x10-8-9

A2 hang clean (+2,5kg)
25x1 – 28x5 – 30x3 – 37,5x1
And then on the way back: 35x1-30x1-28x1-25x1
Hang cleans weren’t going as well as the last few times. Next time I’ll go for 36kg and doubles or triples (when well fed).
What’s worse, I shouldn’t have done them for putting the barbells back as I was too fatigued to do them properly and then somehow hurt my right shoulder cleaning the 30kg one.

B1 front squat (+2,5kg)
45x8-10

B2 db press
(2x16)x5
(2x18)x10-10

B3 db row (same wt)
16x8-9
Same amt of reps as last week when I did chest supported rows, but this was just the well known db row while resting knee on bench. I’d also tried the ones where you put the feet up the post of the LPD station, but that felt too awkward.

C1 leg curl
47x11
Had wanted to do a Smith lunge, but it was occupied, so did a leg curl instead.

C2 military press (+1kg)
23x8 - 2
When preparing for 2nd set, I felt a sudden sharp pain in right shoulder and then stopped at 2 reps

C3 pull through (same wt)
23,8x16
1 more rep = another PR

D1 biceps curl (EZ-bar) (+2,5kg)
20x10-9

D2a triceps rope pushdown (+2,5kg)
21,3 x7

D2b OH triceps extension (same wt)
11,3x16
3 more reps

D3 kneeling cable crunch
Skipped this one because of pain in shoulder from reaching overhead.

Opinion : despite being well fed from the refeed carbs of last night as well as having had 10hrs of sleep, it wasn’t a stellar workout.. still dragging my feet from 4-5 days of low calories while recovering from a too strenuous Power WO (maxing on rackpulls first time doing them) on Monday. Am planning another refeed on Sunday night so hope to have been recovered by Monday.

Training statistics
Volume: 9911 (-2905)
# of sets: 33 (-3) , # of reps: 247 (-70) - avg reps/set : 7,5 (-1,3) - kg/rep : 40,2 (-0,2)

[Espi]

Reporting in my last workout.. am using a different lay out.

Monday July 7/14
Undulating Reps 2-C (C = power/strength , 1-6/7 rep range)

all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
The usual 10 exercises

As (VERY slow) supersets!

A1 weighted chins
Week 1: (BW+6)x2-2-2
Week 2: (BW+6)x2-2-2-1

A2 hang clean
Week 1: 25x1 – 28x3 – 30x3 – 35x3-35x1-30x1-28x2-25x1
Week 2: 26x1- 29x1 – 31x1 – 36x1 – 41x1, PR +1 kg! – 35x1 – 31x1-1

B1 front squat
Week 1: 42,5x5 - 62,5x2-2
Week 2: 50x7 – 55x5 – 60x3 – 65x2 (started a 3rd rep but decided to stay ‘safe’)

B2 db press
Week 1: (2x16)x5 - (2x22)x4-4
Week 2: (2x18)x5 – (2x23)x4-5

B3 rack pull
Week 1: 50x5 - 70x5 - 90x5 - 120x1, PR +10kg?
Week 2-4: won’t be doing it anymore.. too much strain on lower back.

B3 BB BOR (Yates style)
Week 2: 50x6 - 62,5x5-5


C1 military press
Week 1: 30 x5
Week 2: 31x5-3

D1 EZ-bar biceps curl
Week 1: 25x6
Week 2: 25x5 – 22,5x7

E1 pull through
Week 1: 36,3x7
Week 2: 36,3x10-10, PR +1 rep!

F1 triceps rope pushdown
Week 1: 23,8x2
Week 2: 23,8x5

G1 OH triceps extension
Week 1: 13,8x12
Week 2: 13,8x11

H1 kneeling cable crunch
Week 1: 26,3x20
Week 2: 26,3x18

I1 cable exo rotation (mobility/rehab)
Week 1: 3,8 x14
Week 2: 3,8x15


Training statistics
Week 1: volume: 7754 - sets: 35 - reps: 180 - avg reps/set : 5,1- kg/rep : 43,1
Week 2: volume: 9474 (+1720)– sets: 38 (+3)– reps: 213 (+33)– avg reps/set: 5,1 (+0,4) – kg/rep: 44,5 (+1,4)

Opinion: replaced last week’s rack pull with BORs that felt very easy. Barely went to failure on any lift and deliberately kept back from doing a 3rd rep (would’ve been tie w PB) for front squats. Felt smug about decision to just go for singles with the hang cleans so as not to wipe myself out again..

[stingo]

That's a lot of exercises... how long did all that take you to do?

[Espi]

Ooo... almost an hour and a half. Very long rest periods so that HR would go back down to normal levels.

[Espi]

Back from training but the report will have to wait till I get my own pc back that was brought to the pc doctor today since it keeps starting up again. So I'm writing this on my business pc
It's too much trouble to write everything out from scratch. Never mind making calculations or comparisons.

Training was OK, but I tanked quickly and even got nauseous.
The former is probably because my calories & carbs were lowish for 2 days in a row, while I had more NEAT than usual = cycled approx., 20-25K. The latter might be either because I ate too close to lifting or because I used twice the amount of coconut I'm normally using since a larger chunk fell out of the box when weighing it out.
Whenever I eat too many fast fatty acids (coconut has lots of fast MCTs that don't require bile to get processed and hence it works almost like pure glucose = hits the blood stream immediately upon being absorbed from the gut) , I get nauseous esp when combined with caffein (took a 200mg dose pre-WO). Happened so often that I recognize the symptoms immediately.

Ah well... next time I'll spoon it out so I won't go over the allotted wt as quickly.

Re the workout: I think I got 1 rep more than my previous best with the db shoulder presses. Generally I used heavier weights all around.

[stingo]

Wow, I think that's the first workout post of yours I've understood from beginning to end.

[Espi]

Dang... do I do all this trouble to report my workouts meticulously and nobody can understand it ?

That's the trouble when you're a number cruncher.. getting obsessive over them and making your own 'lingo' and then expect others to understand everything!

I'm trying to become more time-efficient as of late.. and since I'm of the 'everything-but the-kitchen sink' type can need some coaching here

Oh.. on a related note.. am thinking to switch up my routines again after this cycle gets finished. It's all related with the 'buckle down when you want to lose' and train hard when you want to bulk. Currently i'm on a watered down Ultimate Diet 2.0 approach and do 3 workouts/week with discrete functions:
1 for endurance/depletion that has high reps and leaves most ravenously hungry afterwards (which is why I cut waaaaaaay back on volume as I overate big time after the first trial).
1 for tension/hypertrophy that is followed by a TON of carbs so as to lead to yep, hypertrophy
1 for power/strength where you are actually using all that extra glycogen to be as strong as when you're on a true bulk.. since effectively , you just were bulking for 2 days
Then 1 day later, rinse & repeat with very low calories etc..

That approach is extremely hard on your system and requires extreme dedication and very good insulin sensitivity. For that.. my bf% is not yet low enough. Also, my health is not as swell as that of others. Going too low in calories and busting my ass = getting sick!

So... it looks like it that I will do something really radical. That is: let the diet do the cutting for me and just lift heavy twice/week with the tension & power routine.
And then.. for the bulking phase, lift 3x/wk again and eat more.

Watch this space . The only thing I'm not yet comfortable with is the thought of eating just 1300 kcal 3 days in a row

[SpacecityPaula]

YUCK!!! I don't envy you on that.

I think 1350 2 days a week is bad enough.

[Espi]

I just did the math w/o the spread sheet so I might be off. But the idea is:
eat 20% below mtn for 2 weeks
eat at mtn for 2 weeks or rather slightly above for 1 week and slightly below for the other

Maintenance is now close to 2000-2100 kcal. The most I can sustain is a 20% deficit or 1600-1700kcal/day .
For 7 days: 7x1600 - 1700 = 11 200 - 11 900 kcal
When I want to eat 2500kcal on 2 lifting days, that's 5000 kcal lopped off.
Remainder: 6200 -6900 / 5 = 1240-1380 kcal/day. Nope no mistake about it.. that's 1300 kcal on the low kcal days.

For the first 2 weeks of this cycle (that I just passed), I ate approx. 1100kcal on the 4 lower calorie days and then something like 1800-2500-2500 kcal on the depletion-tension-power WO days. That's 1600 kcal/day on average right there.. and then on the actual UD2.0 I'm supposed to eat 50% of mtn (1000-1100kcal for me) even on the endurance day that I now allotted 1800 kcals

[Espi]

Back from training. Wasn't aware of the fact the gym was already changing to the more limited opening hours of the vacation, so upon starting close to noon, I only had 1 hr to spare NOT 2 hours.
Upon seeing I'd not be able to get everything done, I lopped off 1 set for almost all exercises instead of ditching a few exercises.

Not too bad actually as this made me feel good at the end rather than exhausted. It's a learning process to NOT go to exhaustion all the time but leave something in the tank. Result = faster recovery and less appetite. It is a difficult mindset though to adjust to as it always made me feel good to go to failure. Now I have to feel good about being so fresh upon finishing a workout that I could do it again the same evening if I had to.