Go with the flow!

[Espi]

I'm hoping to get my pc back today or tomorrow. If not, I'll resume tracking in a Dutch website that does a similar thing. I'd loathe to do Fitday tracking since there's like 1001 foods that I'm often eating. Heck even for the pc-program I've got almost 300 custom entries (mostly junkfood, but also health food like quinoa).

Besides.. it's sometimes nice to not be tracking all the time and have a mini-break. Since this is exactly the period I'm eating at/over mtn anyway it's not a big deal. But I *do* want my computer back!!! It's already a PITA to write up everything instead of just keying it in.. I am tracking after the fact as I'm too curious what I've ended up with spontaneously.

[Espi]

No detailed report of my WO until I get my pc back (it's getting old I know) but just the high lights.
Gym was only open 9-12 and I only had some 75 minutes to spare upon starting, including the dynamic warm up.
Meant that once again I ditched some sets but still managed

4 sets of weighted chins with 7 kg added: did 2 sets with 2 reps (really good) but as I struggled for the 2nd set, went back to just 1 rep for the ensueing 2 sets.

5 sets of hang clean singles with the fixed wt barbells (25-28-30-35-40).
I'd grabbed 2x2 disks of 0.5 kg each and had hoped to get to 42 kg. But since I felt so 'relaxed' it wasn't going to happen.. I need to be angry-ish and focused all revved up etc. to get decent workouts. So after the 27-30-32-37 kg singles I only went to 40kg. Did get it up but it wasn't pretty. Will try for 42 kg in 4 days.. so who knows it may get prettier then.

and a series of slow supersets of
- front squat: 50x5 - 55x3 - 62,5x2 - 67,5x1 .. had hoped for 2 but it wasn't going to happen. Would have been a PR as I don't recall having done a double for that wt.

- db press 1 WU + 2 work sets of 23kg (4 reps)
- BB BOR : 1 WU + 2 work sets of 67,5 (3 reps)

Rest was
- MP : 32 kg & 31kg (2 sets) , which may be a PR at every single rep as once again, I don't recall having used 32kg before
- EZ curl: 25kg (2 sets)
- pull through : 1 set
- triceps push down: 1 set
- cable crunch: 1 set
- cable exo rotation: 1 set
Done & done.

[Espi]

Weird to be w/o a pc that tracks food, wt etc. for you as the only time I'm doing this is when I'm travelling.
In a way it is a very relaxed way to live as I hadn't realized how guilty i can feel when I eat more carbs/fats & less protein than planned for.
Also quite revealing how much influence hormones have on weight. Despite just knowing nearly 100% certain that I ate at or over my maintenance, BW is still dropping because the ovulation-gains (Julie talked about this) are gone.

Then a few days out from TOM the wt piles back on again. Nowadays TOM arrives just about 1 week after those O-gains so there's barely time to drop that wt. Especially not when overfeeding.

Someone almost lured me into planning for a 30% deficit for 1 of the dieting weeks in next cycle, but I don't think I'd like to do this as it would mean eating only 1100kcal/day on the rest days.

Trouble is: with those precious few calories nitrogen balance gets shifted and I'd need to eat more protein and have an even higher % of my calories from protein. E.g. while being able to get away with 100g P on 1300kcal days (30%) my requirement would go up to about 125-130g P at 1100 kcal to stay in positive nitrogen balance. That's at least 45% of calories from P. NO f*ing way am I going to do this.
Since I no longer tolerate VLC, that'd be like 1100-(125x4) - (75x4) = 300/9 or 33 grams of Fat. I'd DIE with so little fat and if I don't, my skin would crack all over.

So no no no & no . 1300 - (100Px4) - (100Cx4) = 500/9 = 55g of fat. Much easier to accomplish as it leaves room for a bit of nuts, avocado, fatty herring/sardines. Not much but enough to make life livable.

[SpacecityPaula]

Making life liveable is a good thing

[Espi]

Paula, when you're only wanting to lose fat , not muscle a very sloooooow cut makes more sense. And also, it sometimes just gets old to be pushing the protein. By setting 100g of protein/day (still 2.2g per kg of LBM!!!) I will feel less pressure. And quite often I'll end up eating 120g spontaneously on those low-calorie days.
For now I want to enjoy the fruits of the season and eat a few more nuts/olives/avocado/fatty meats/fish than I'd done in the past few months. There's a TON of yummy food out there that I just can't ever eat if I am just pounding the protein and try to keep calories low. This gets SOOOOO OLD!
BTW, yesterday I ate something I'd never tasted before. (at least don't remember): flat white peaches. Found a pic and a blog describing them




Weekend In Normandy
13 comments - 08.14.2005

These are pêche plat, or 'flat peaches'...for obvious reasons!
They're white-fleshed little peaches with tiny pits and are grown in the US as well, where they're often called Donut® or Saturn peaches.
Last week in Paris I saw flat nectarines. Is this a trend?
What's next...flat watermelons? Flat blueberries?

[Espi]

Reporting in yet another (tension) workout without having access to my pc
Upped a few weights for the major movements and kept things the same for some others plus tried out 2 new exercises. One I'd not done in ages and another really new exercise.

Wednesday July 23

A1 chinsx4
A1 lat pulldowns: 49x8-7-7
A2 hang cleans: 27x5 - 28x1 - 30x4 32,5x3 37,5x3 (could be a PR?)

B1 front squats: 45x5 - 50x8-8 (could also be a PR.. again not sure)
B2 db press: (2x16)x5 - (2x20)x8-8
B3 db row: 18x10/10 - 9/9

C1 MP : 25x10
D1: pull through 28,8x15
E1: biceps (EZ-)curl 20x12
F1 : skull crusher (w EZ-bar) : 20x6 (not really a full ROM , too heavy) - 17,5x12

It's been eons since I've ever done skull crushers and had hoped to use the same wt as for the biceps curl.. but the wt scared me so much I didn't dare to go really close to my head for fear of knocking myself out cold.

G1: db lateral throws : 8x10/10
This exercise I've never done before but was inspired by seeing a ton of people doing explosive exercises so they turn an exercise that used to be an isolation exercise into a FB experience. Like cheater curls and really throwing the weight up or .. like this, lateral raises that are turned into a lateral throw.
Used 8kg as a try-out weight as I wasn't sure how to exactly do them.. have seen a couple of videos but that's a few days ago and actually hadn't planned to do them but decided on the spur of the moment to try them out.
I'm being reallllly careful here since shoulders are my weakest point. Anyone who can say if I should put those in my program or do you say SKIP those potential trouble makers?

H1: cable kneeling crunches: 26,3 x 15

Was feeling good.. but did notice that 25g of (slow) carbs during the WO was probably not enough.. OR I had too many (fast) carbs pre-WO.. should have been the reverse: more slow (fruit!) carbs pre-WO and the fast ones during the WO. Perhaps I'm going to mix the slower (palatinose in the IsoSpark = very slow) with some pure dextrose

[missjane]

Oh yeah, donut peaches!

[kfisherx]

Espi I am carefully following you during these cyclings and am realizing for myself now that I am at an ideal weight that I need to do more cycling as well. I am not going to CULK but rather do bulks and cuts in natural time periods. I am noticing on my last round of bulk and cut that at about 12 weeks things change. In my bulk I no longer gained cleanly (or rather it was harder). In the cut I too felt a bit of a slowdown though the BF seems to be still coming off nicely. So now I am faced with a decision. I either cut cals and increase the work to drop the last of the last of it or I go with a bulk and drive the metabolism back up again.

I am not really sure which to do at this point but I am pretty sure that doing really long term either way is probably not the best thing for me. (My previous plan was to do a year long bulk)

[Espi]

For you, my first idea is to really eat at maintenance again, and actually aim a bit higher. A 1 or 2 week mini-bulk so to say and then decide what you want more badly: going really low in bf% or getting your strength back and bulking up a bit more.

For me.. I'm just too darn fat to do any decent bulk. Even on the maintenance that turned into a mini-bulk after all (mid-Nov thru mid-Feb) I gained precious little LBM.
If you haven't seen it yet: Lyle McDonald - Initial Bodyfat and Body Composition Changes

3. Only try to add mass/bulk until you hit the top end body fat percentage listed in #1 above.
So that’s about 15% body fat for men and 24-27% body fat for women.
What this would mean in practice is that you diet to 10-12% body fat for men (22-24% for women),
eat at maintenance for two weeks to try and normalize things, and
then add mass until you hit 15% body fat for men (24-27% for women)
and then diet back down.

Over a number of cycles, you should be able to increase your muscle mass while keeping body fat under control.

There was a mistake in the female upper end at the last paragraph so fixed that one. And asked Lyle to fix it too.

This means for you that you've already reached your lower end and should be ready to go on another bulk.

For me, at the cusp of 26% I'm almost too fat to do it. Though yes, at first I wasn't gaining a lot of fat. But before I'd go on a real bulk I'd rather go down to the goal I've set myself, viz. 23.5% on the Omron. That's still a ways to go.

BTW, got the pc back. Weird: it was not acting up there. It just took so long since there was a long queue of other computers waiting. Felt embarassed.
Not sure if I will resume the detailed tracking again tomorrow. I may do this when I stay at home. Or take an entire free day off (could undereat as well and do an IF) when I'd go to the Esperanto Congress that 's happening in our country. I've not been to an Esperanto event since I got sick early 2004 and had only been to one 2 weeks before getting ill.

[Espi]

Summary of the strength endurance workouts

Thursday July 3/10/17
Undulating Reps 2-A (A = endurance, 12+ rep range)
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING

A1 push up
Week 1: 8-6-4-2 (w/o rest)
Week 2: 8-8-7-7 (w rest)
Week 3: 8-8-8 (w rest)

B1 leg press (including BW)
Week 1: 26x10 – 45x20-22-25-23
Week 2: 26x12 – 47x20-15-20-20
Week 3: 26x10 – 49,5x20-20-22


B2a chin up
Week 1: none
Week 2: BWx3
Week 3: none

B2b lat pull down
Week 1: 28x10 – 38,5x15-15-15-13
Week 2: 28x5 - 38,5 x15-15-15-15
Week 3: 28x10 – 42x15-14-13

C1 leg extension
Week 1: 35,5x13-13-14
Week 2: 35,5x15-15-14
Week 3: 38x12-12

C2 seated leg curl
Week 1: 40x12-14-11
Week 2: 40 x15-15-14
Week 3: 42,5x14-12

D1 pec deck
Week 1: 38x16-15
Week 2: 40x15-14
Week 3: 42,5x13-12

D2 standing gluteus
Week 1: 45x22/22-20/20
Week 2: 47,5 x15/15-15/15
Week 3: 50x18-18

E1 preacher curl
Week 1: 20x19-16
Week 2: 22,5x15-15
Week 3: 25x13-10

E2 standing db shoulder press
Week 1: (2x9) x16 - 13
Week 2: (2x9) x15 - 12
Week 3: (2x9)x17 – 11


F1 wide cable seated seated row
Week 1: 28,8x25-18
Week 2: 31,3 x20-20
Week 3: 33,8x16-18

F2a triceps rope pushdown
Week 1: 13,8 x18
Week 2: 16,3 x18
Week 3: 16,3x17

F2b OH triceps cable extension
Week 1: 8,8x16
Week 2: 8,8x18
Week 3: 11,3x21

F3 cable crunch
Week 1: 23,8x7
Week 2: 23,8x15
Week 3: none

Training statistics
Week 1: volume: 23053 – sets: 33 – reps: 486 – avg reps/set : 14,7 – kg/rep : 47,4
Week 2 : volume: 24538 (+1485) - sets: 38 (+5) - reps: 520 (+34) - avg reps/set : 13,7 (-1,0) - kg/rep : 47,2 (-0,2)
Week 3: volume 20546 (-3992) – sets: 32 (-6) – reps: 423 (-97) – avg reps/set : 13,2 (-0,5) – kg/rep : 48,6 (+1,4)

Opinion : it’s probably the last time I’m doing discrete high rep sets.. they tend to make me feel very wired & excited. Great actually but when the effect wears off I’m left being hungry and exhausted. Hence why I’m ditching them.

[Espi]

Summary of tension workouts

Saturday July 5/12/19 ; Wednesday 23
Undulating Reps 2-B (B = tension/hypertrophy, 7-12 rep range)

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
About 10 exercises.

A chins
week 1: BWx5
week 2: BWx4
week 3: none
week 4: BWx4

B1 wide grip lat pull down
week 1: 44x11-9-10
week 2: 45,5x10-8-9
week 3: 45,5x10-7-8
week 4: 49x8-7-7

B2 hang clean
week 1: 25x3-28x4-30x4-35x3-35x1-28x1-25x1
week 2: 25x1-28x5-30x3-37,5x1-35x1-30x1-28x1-25x1
week 3: 26x5-29x4- 31x3 – 36x2
week 4: 27x5 – 28x1 –30x4 – 32,5x3 – 37,5x3

C1 front squat
week 1: 42,5x12-10
week 2: 45x8-10
week 3: 47,5x10-10
week 4: 50x8-8

C2 db press
week 1: (2x16)x17-13
week 2: (2x16)x5 - (2x18)x10-10
week 3: (2x16)x5 – (2x19)x10-7
week 4: (2x16)x5 – (2x20)x8-8

C3 chest supported db rows
week 1: 16x9-9
C3 regular (bench supported) db rows
week 2: 16x8-10
week 3: 17x12-11
week 4: 18x10-9

...........

D1 military press
week 1: 22x13-11
week 2: 23x8-2 (shoulder pain prevented doing more reps)
week 3: 24x10
week 4: 25x10

D2 Smith lunge
week 1: 40x8-8 for each leg

D2 leg curl
week 2: 47x11

D3 pull through
week 1 : 23,8x15-12
week 2: 23,8x16
week 3: 26,3x15
week 4: 28,8x15

E1 biceps curl (EZ-bar)
week 1: 17,5x15-13
week 2: 20x10-9
week 3: 20x11
week 4: 20x12

E2a triceps rope pushdown
week 1: 18,8x11
week 2: 21,3x7
week 3: 21,3x5
week 4 : none

E2b OH triceps extension
week 1: 11,3x13
week 2: 11,3x16
week 3: 13,8x12

but did
E2 skull crushers
Week 4: 20x12 (not full ROM) – 17,5x12 (strict)

E3 kneeling cable crunch
week 1: 26,3x10
week 2: shoulders hurt too much to pull the rope down into position.
Week 3: none
Week 4: 26,3x15

New
F1 db lateral throw (instead of lateral raise)
8x10/10


Training statistics
week 1: volume: 12816 - sets: 36 – reps : 317 - avg reps/set: 8,8 - kg/rep: 40,4
week 2: volume: 9911 - sets: 33 (-3) - reps: 247 (-70) - avg reps/set : 7,5 (-1,3) - kg/rep : 40,2 (-0,2)
week 3: volume:9064 – sets 26 (-7) – reps 215 (-32) – avg reps/set : 8,3 (+0,8) – kg/rep: 42,2 (+2,0)
week 4: 9943 – sets: 28 (+2) – reps 241 (+26) – avg reps/set: 8,6 (+0,3) – kg/rep: 41,3 (-0,9)

[mel]

Hey Espi, sorry about the computer troubles, but I'm glad you were reminded of the importance of taking a mini break here and there. I know that was a really important lesson for me as well.

mel

[Espi]

It was indeed nice. But now.. back to the 'grind' but then with a bit more lightheartedness when it comes to balancing the macros (viz. somewhat less P and more fun C/Fs )

[Espi]

When playing with the macros and switching to a slightly lower P intake, I was a bit disgruntled. Why?
Lower P-intake at the amt of calories I'd planned to eat (1200-1300kcal) meant that I was going to dip into negative nitrogen balance which largely depends on calorie intake.

So... upon some deliberation, decided to stick to the lower P intake, but to up the calories on diet days to 1300-1400 kcal. This means that calorie intake on training days have to come down, which I did by lopping off calories everywhere and instead just have 2 huge overfeeding days a month.. one right before the probable ovulation (day 15 for me) and one on the most likely overfeeding day of the cycle (day 22 for me).

Gives around 8% overall deficit. Not a whole lot, but I hope it's enough to retain LBM.

[stingo]

And negative nitrogen balance is bad because...?