Eden does things and stuff.

So I've been back at the gym now and I thought I would start posting again. I'm going to log in shaa Allah my diet, training, and notes in the hopes that it helps other people and shows things that work that might not be usual for people to do or gives some people ideas.

Basic run down of where things have been going.

April last year my daughter was born, stopped all gear cold, didn't go to the gym and took care of wife and daughter, during this time I went from about 195lbs down to around 165lbs, I'm 5'6" according to bmi like my high end weight should be around 155lbs. I don't know how anyone could get their except that I was anorexic and so that's the only way I can see someone at least with my build running around at 125-155.

Anyway daughter got old enough now so I'm back in the gym. In two months went from 165lbs back up to about 206lbs with bf on calipers showing 16%-18%bf. Now I lose bodyfat really quickly and so I try to keep my bodyfat higher because if I don't I've found it makes me feel kinda sick and light headed. Anyway I've stopped gaining weight and I've been in a holding pattern around 203lbs-206lbs.

The freaky thing here is without gear I'm bigger than I was on gear last time. My arms when I was eating a ton were up to 17", chest was like 46", quad around 27". If anyone remembers I struggled with my arms and the biggest before was 16.25". I think the size is from training three days a week, and doing a few sets of arms throughout the week and not being stressed about my growth.

Anyway to finish up that long story. I'm wondering what you guys think.

Should I keep around my weight and let my body fat come down while I keep training.

Bulk up some more to around 225lbs.

Or some other idea.


I'm inclined to bulk some more and then cut down around June in shaa Allah.


My diet is basically:

Sun, Tues, wed, fri, sat:

300g protein
800-1000g carbs
100-150g fat

Mon, thurs:

230g protein
250g carbs
75-90g fat

I supplement with:

Workout days:
(1.6g orthinine
2.6g arginine
10.5 creatine
3.2g lysine
2.6g glycine
11g bcaa
120g maltodextrin
9g fish oil)

Off days:
10g creatine

Workouts are every mon, wed, fri.
Workout plan is a custom plan from Neil Hill and Y3T style.

All the best guys I'll try to keep this updated if you have any questions let me know.

glad to see you over here! subbed!

Following along, good luck brother

In for this as well!!
Do you have pics of you at 205 ish? Then I can give you my opinion whether to bulk or cut

Weight: 204.6lbs

Workout yesterday:

Cable low row, with close grip handle:

45lbs x 25

100 x 21
85 x 17

115 x 20
100 x 13

145 x 13
135 x 10

Straight arm pulldown

85 x 23
65 x 20

110 x 20
100 x 15

Wide grip pulldown

125 x 17
100 x 18

145 x 20
125 x 10

Seated machine row

75 x 20
65 x 23

85 x 18
75 x 15

100 x 15
85 x 12

Standing barbell curl

45 x 21 x 3

Seated db curl

15 x 18
10 x 15

15 x 17
10 x 15

10 x 20
5 x 18

All groupings of numbers mean drop set.

After I did 30 minutes of cardio walking outside.

I've been doing my usual huge split with food and I've found I can't pack in food on the low days after I start eating and end up getting around 2000 calories or 3000. But it's helping my waist stay smaller and I feel like the rebound is pretty good on the days I go back up but my waist stays smaller at the same time.

Imgur pics of front clothes and rear lat spread at around 206lbs. The first picture I'm watery because of all the food and stuff I take throughout the day builds up most during gym time.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

So here's what I've been doing

Mon and thurs: I dry fast from dawn to dusk and then around 8pm I eat 1,600 calories before bed around 11pm

The other days: I eat my usual 5,000-6,500 calories.

What I've noticed is a pretty dramatic and I mean dramatic reduction in my gut bloat, and my waist stays way smaller even on the high food days, I appear to be gaining weight. Over the weekend I was eating not normal and not drinking enough water so for four days it looked like: fast, 2.5k, 3k, 3k. I weighed myself that last day and was 206lbs which usually takes me eating right and drinking right which is way more than I was doing but I was keeping the same weight. I also know I didn't have nearly the same bloat or amount of water retention.

So I'm interested to see what happens and how my body reacts to this eating style longer term. So I posted links to two pictures. One is my dinner and the other is two days of prepped solid meals. These don't include my snacks, shakes, ice cream or workout shakes.

Totally taking notes from scope on these food pictures. Also Vaynes check out those pictures and tell me if I'm fat or not. Lol.


http://imgur.com/osqfPWg
http://imgur.com/7MWOTkK

Nice to see some of the old members back around here. I am interested in your 2 days of light eating and 5 of bulk eating. How long has that been successful for you? I think I might try it. I am lean but can easily out eat my metabolism if I don't pay attention. Is there a name for that type of diet?

I've only been eating this way for a few weeks. Like three weeks, the reason was because I was having to eat a huge amount of food to keep gaining and it also made me bloat really bad.

So I think it helps by keeping the body effecient and kinda lowering the metabolism, but since you keep randomly going to so low the body doesn't want to sacrifice muscle incase you need it for working out and so I think it makes it more apt to burn fat.

Most places call the way I eat a 5/2 intermittent fasting. This works for me right now, but I'll have more insight once I have done it longer.

Nice. I have done intermittent fasting before with good success but never played around with it. Will be following along to see how it treats you.

Hey guys. So it's been about two weeks of the fasting and I decided to cut down on food a little so I'm not doing ice cream, or my pizza cheat meals. My weight has gone down about 5lbs-6lbs over the last three weeks. My carbs are around 400-550 a day now. Still around 230g-275g protein a day and I've been eating the eggs my chickens lay.

As far as weights I've been going higher on weight than I usually do, getting around 195lbs on close grip low rows, been doing lots of dips and I'm around 30 reps over 4 sets after chest days so they're going up. I've also been doing stepmill as much as I can and it makes me sweat like I'm dying so I'm hoping it's helping.

Here's a new picture of my rear lat spread and I think it can be seen that the stuff is working.

How's the training going?

BTW: I accidentally mistook your imgur link as spam and removed the link..sorry! a lot of posts with spam links in them and was doing some bulk cleaning.

6-20-17

Deadlift:

230lbs X 10
205lbs X 9
165lbs X 12

Military Press:

125lbs X 7
115lbs X 8
95lbs X 9

Pullup:

Body Weight + 20lbs X 9
Body Weight X 9
Body Weight - 30lbs X 9

Weight: 158lbs
BF%: 13?


Diet:

134G Protein
54G Carbs (20g Fiber, 34 Net)
160G Fat

So, after deluding myself long enough, I've been cutting for a while, I figured I would cut down, and try to not restart but truthfully take a look at where I was, and where I wanted to go. Needless to say I'm down quite a bit of weight, if this has been effective at increasing my health I can only hope. My parents have been having some pretty serious health issues, and due to that I've started to consider more my long term health, not abusing myself with weight, or going to excess with food. Anyway, the reason for Keto is that my wife is on keto to prevent seizures, it's a hard diet, and I wanted to support her with her condition.

The workout yesterday, went well, I wasn't feeling like hitting the weight, but I ended up feeling pretty ready to go around eight pm when I usually go to workout before Maghreb (Evening Islamic prayer, currently when fast is broken since it's Ramadan). Deadlifts shocked me that I was able to get ten reps, I felt like I could have hit twelve or thirteen, but since the schedule only called for eight, I figured best not to go too over board. When I started last month my max was two-hundred twenty-five for three, so that's quite an improvement over one month considering the fasting. I have been looking at a few other supplements to add in, I currently run:

Beta-alanine - 3G-5G post workout
Creatine Monohydrate - 5G post workout
Animal Pak - 1 Pack post workout
Resveratrol - 250mg post workout
COq10 - 200mg post workout

The only really interesting supplement I can find is Clear Muscle by Muscletech which I guess is some kind of anti-catabolic supplement alleged to help tip more toward anabolism by preventing or decreasing catabolism. Anyway the stuff is like thirty-five dollars for a months worth, so I might try it and see what's up. I had thought about a test booster, but most of my findings were that they were either, not very effective, or that if effective the body's natural production is kind of low anyway and slight increases in the amount wouldn't amount to much increase in gains worth the cost.

I am able to workout now in a shed in the back yard, that I have a power rack in, and a bench that can do flat, slight decline, and incline. I only really use it for flat as my workout routine only calls for: Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Pullup, Military Press and Bent over Row. I would say I'm pretty motivated and have a long term goal of a few years to hit around one-hundred seventy-five pounds at a decent body fat of ten percent. My lift goals right now are pretty low at 345lbs Squat, 225lbs Bench, and 400lbs Deadlift. I will update the goals if I reach the current ones in shaa allah (god willing). Other than that the workouts have been going really well, I'm not overreaching a ton now, so I am actually recovering, and that helps make the workouts a lot more enjoyable unlike how they have been in the past.

Edit: I also was looking at Targeted keto diet, where you supplement around 30g-50g sugar and some protein before the workouts in the hopes that it creates a more anabolic effect, and all the carbs are burned off during the workout anyway which may not affect ketosis. I have the Phinney, and volek book on Keto for performance and they say the affect of carbs is negligible to a hindrance of proper ketosis and glycogen production since ketosis stops during the time it would usually ramp up due to the work load.

If any of you have any advice you would like the add, I would really appreciate it. If you have thoughts on clear muscle, or knowledge of test boosters or supplements you think I could try, discount codes stuff like that, I would appreciate anything you have. I hope that you are all well, I will try to keep this log up so that it may help someone, and it may help myself.

Very glad to have you back here, bud!

have you done any research about the impact of Keto in Cortisol? I'm curious if something like Iron Legion Invictus would be beneficial for you. It's also available at SoCal, but the link above goes to the IL site.

Stay tuned for the 4th Of July Savings :)

I haven't specifically looked at it. I know cortisol is a stress hormone and I would imagine that it gets elevated during the adaptation phase while carbohydrates are low, but ketone production hasn't fully engaged. I will definitely give it a look tomorrow in shaa Allah. Thanks for the advice :).

Weight is down a little bit which I sort of figured would happen, going from 1500 calories to 2200 I would think it would cause gain but I expect for a week maybe it won't cause much weight increase since metabolism will be up as well? I'm playing around with a little more food at first meal.

Yesterday I did:

624 calories
37g protein
8g carb
49g fat

Today:

827 calories
49g protein
8g carbs
65g fat

I would like to have a bit more carbs, I like to have berries at breakfast but I ran out yesterday. Big recently on diet manipulation since that's one of the important factors in growth for me. My major concern is seeing how far through the fast I can stay full and not lethargic I got to around 12pm or 1pm before I started losing energy bad, maybe with a few extra calories I can make it in shaa Allah till I leave work. Once I am home being lethargic isn't really an issue.

I've been looking for new protein powder because I'm almost out of muscle pharm combat whey, I've always been of the mind that whey is whey, but I've seen stuff say that as a person ages a little higher whey than casein at least for post workout which is the only time I take protein powder is better.

Doing hip and mobility in the morning, not a ton but I find if I do it first thing it makes moving the rest of the day feel more recuperative than if I don't.

Still early, I'll update later in shaa Allah with how it goes.

I was going to post food pictures but they don't want to post. Anyway, Everything I make I try to maximize how much nutrition and nutrients I get from everything. So I have some fat cupcakes I made. The cupcakes are more like Reese's peanut butter cups, they're coconut oil, peanuts, peanut butter, chia seeds and cacao nibs, this provides a pretty good amount of nutrients and fiber plus they're tasty.



Dinner was general tso's chicken with veggies that I used flax seed in for omegas also more fiber lol. This is all more interesting with pictures though.

Totals for the day:

2,164 calories.
134g protein
53g carbs (27g of them fiber)
164g fat

must post the recipe for those cupcakes :cool:

32g peanut butter
14g peanuts
28g coconut oil
14g chia seeds
28g cacao nibs
4 drops sucrolose sweetener (equivalent to 20g sugar)

Mix ingredients, divide into silicone cupcake cups, freeze.

Thanks bud

A word on pre-hab and other ramblings.

I usually do quite a varied amount of stretching, foam rolling and general physical preparedness stuff in the mornings when I first get up. I became aware of this after reading a fair amount of articles and watching a lot of videos by Dave Tate on the subject. One of the benefits I have found is that my right knee no longer hurts when I squat as well touching my hamstrings to my calfs is much easier in squats. There's a huge amount of benefit in keeping the body versatile and ready for anything. I've heard a lot of big strength guys say similar things that they found increases in there lifts from weird things like doing something unusual and that strengthened something that was missing beforehand.

I think there's a disconnect sometimes between weight lifters, people who workout ect and doing things outside moving weight around. A lot of the focus goes to moving the weight, how much you're moving, when, how many times and supplements to make that effective. But I am totally guilty of not taking care of things like gpp, cardio and being limber. What I've noticed is that working out, as well as how I feel have improved quite a lot since I've begun doing these things.

I also notice better workouts, more predictable strength increases. I am able not to move around in a random way and not have to worry about some muscle being too tight or pulling something because my body is only accustom to moving in very specific like I do in workouts, but not varied ways when I'm playing with my daughter or just day to day activities.

I've also been trying to work on not making myself too comfortable without going overboard, my house is currently set to heat if it drops below 65 and cool only if it goes over 80, this changes after 10pm to cool to 74. My logic is out in the world we didn't have temperature controlled environments and I'm not sure being so comfortable is a good thing for the body if it had become used to dealing with these extremes.

I've seen doctors covering studies saying similar things, also in reference to cold exposure, heat exposure ect. Doing these things within reason on healthy individuals seems to improve hormone control, metabolism and other things as well as help develop mental fortitude. I take contrast showers regularly now if I take a fully hot shower I feel over heated or inflamed if that makes any sense and the showers help wake me up and make me feel good.

I don't think everyone should do these things, or go crazy but I'm saying maybe stepping outside the comfort zone is good but not only in working out but in life, relationships, and anywhere else it can be found.

Today is a light workout day I think in shaa Allah so I intend to update later on that if I have time.

Squat:

(Warmups)

175lbs X 5
160lbs X 10 (3 more in reserve)
135lbs X 13 (3 more in reserve

Bench:

(Warmups)

145lbs X 6
135lbs X 12 (3 more in reserve)
105lbs X 16 (3 more in reserve)

Bent row:

(Warmups)

155lbs X 5
140lbs X 12 (3 more in reserve)
115lbs X 18 (3 more in reserve)

Warmups on there are their own things I didn't list their weights but it follows a 5, 5, 5, 3, 2 rep scheme. The list weights with sets are the actual working sets.


Alright alhamdulilah (praise god), that's the last workout for Ramadan and the first time I've made it through the whole month of Ramadan working out. Ramadan is the month of fasting, no food, water, sex, bad manners from sun up to sun down, I usually workout right before the time to break fast.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the app is doing as those reps were low, the weight was low as well. I think the app got confused because it told me to change phases from heavier weight for 8-12 reps but only one set, to slightly less weight for three sets of fifteen or more. So I failed pretty good and so now it probably thinks I'm all gimpy and need a break.

Food for the day is as follows for those interested:

2,087 calories
135g protein
46g carbs (18 of which are fiber)
161g fat

Supplements:

5g creatine
5g beta-alanine
250mg resveratrol
1 animal pak

Going up to maintenance calories from a deficit has given me more energy, helped with muscle recovery but I haven't seen any weight change, it's only been a few days so I'll see what's up later in shaa Allah, I hope to gain about 1lb or around there per week. I plan to average the week out to give me how much I'm gaining and I'll probably adjust at two weeks or a month in shaa Allah.

Today was Eid-ul-fitr which is the celebration of the end of Ramadan, there's a huge group prayer, sermon and celebration. I have off the next three days from work. I think they said one thousand people showed up to the prayer so I got so see a lot of the new people I've met. We also went to a sushi place that my dad, brother and I used to go to, my dad really loved the place which was kinda hard with his condition now, we have been going there over twenty years now so I had a sort of cheat meal. I ordered two sushi rolls, some miso soup, crab cheese dip and tempura cheesecake.

My wife had been there once before but didn't get to eat much that time, my daughter was pretty interested in the whole affair as it was the first time she has been to a sit down restaurant like that.

So the workout.

Deadlifts:

(Warmups)

230lbs X 12 (2 reps in reserve)
205lbs X 8 (4 reps in reserve)
165lbs X 18 (3 reps in reserve)

Military Press:

(Warmups)

110lbs X 11 (2 reps in reserve)
100lbs X 7 (no reps)
80lbs X 10 (no reps)

Pull-ups:

BW + 15lbs X 8 (no reps)
BW X 12 (2 reps in reserve)
BW - 30lbs X 12 (2 reps in reserve)

The deadlifts and stuff were killing me, rest times were 90 seconds and I count time lowering the weight against the rest period so if it takes me a minute to take off weight, then usually I'll start setting up to lift again so that by the time I get set up it's time to go again.

I was pretty happy with 230lbs X 12 on deadlifts, wanted more but can only do what I can do lol.

Diet is interesting today as I'm not fasting for Ramadan, and also not intermittent fasting because during eid-up-fitr which lasts usually three days, it's not recommended to do anything that might be seen as fasting during eid. So I usually intermittent fast 20hrs - 22hrs a day anyway so I haven't been doing that.

Carbs made me feel kinda lethargic while my body was digesting all the stuff I ate and I feel like it was kinda messing with my lifting but it should pass in shaa Allah. I plan to finish out another meal and my macros should be about:

2,612 calories
128g protein
169g carbohydrate
163g fat

I read a little more about dosing Beta-alanine, from what I gathered it's more effective if you dose it a few times a day, than if you are dosing it all at once. I had been dosing it 3g-5g post workout with 5g-7g creatine, Vitamins, Resveratrol and all that. Today I dosed 1g Beta-alanine, with about 2g-3g creatine thirty or so minutes before my workout, then I did about the same again after my workout, and I plan to do that much again probably before breakfast tomorrow, in shaa allah. Creatine, and Beta-alanine are so inexpensive that I'm not too worried about using small amounts more than I intend to, I could pull out my gram scale, but I only did that today to get a rough estimate of how much was 1g on my scoop.

Workout:

Squat:

(warm-ups)

180lbs X 14 (3 Reps in Reserve)
160lbs X 16 (3RIR)
130lbs X 12 (0 RIR)

by the third set my legs were pretty tired, the rest time was ninety seconds, and so I would tell my legs to do things, and not much happened. It's a mental game for the most part of keeping myself focused while doing these types of days.

Bench:

(warm-ups)

150lbs X 13 (2 RIR)
135lbs X 14 (2 RIR)
110lbs X 15 (2 RIR)

Bent over rows:

(warm-ups)

160lbs X 15 (3 RIR)
145lbs X 18 (2 RIR)
115lbs X 20 (3 RIR)


Workout went pretty well, felt a lot of exhaustion after about halfway through, ended up being able to pull through, I think the Beta-alanine and creatine pre-workout helped, but I need more times to see if that's true or not.

Diet, is still not my usual, I'm back to eating keto, but I am having meals throughout the day which is unusual for me, and I don't like it. I have a slight headache most the day, and feel lethargic from the food I've eaten. I plan to keep eating around maintenance for another week, then I think I will probably bump to 250-500 calories surplus and see what happens with that. Strength is still going up slowly so I can't complain there.

Weight 156.8lbs

Diet:

Cals: 2,109
138g Protein
49g Carbohydrate (21 of which are fiber, 28g net carb)
162g Fat

Workout:

Deadlift:

(Warmups)

235lbs x 5 (3 rir)
210lbs x 6 (5 rir)
170lbs x 8 (3 rir)

Military Press:

(Warmups)

110lbs x 5 (2 rir)
100lbs x 8 (3 rir)
80lbs x 11 (3 rir)

Pull-ups

Bw + 35lbs x 5 (3 rir)
Bw + 15lbs x 8 (3 rir)
Bw - 15lbs x 11 (3 rir)

I switched to working out every other day because I feel pretty well recovered by then so wanted to give it a go to see if I can get more in. So far feel pretty good, need a little foam rolling maybe an epsom salt bath every other week but load feels good and it feels like I'm progressing. Weight is staying pretty steady at 157lbs-158lbs. I think 2,100cals-2,200cals is a pretty good maintenance for me. My calculator is still saying I'm around 13.5% body fat but I'm seeing more veins recently so things may be leveling out. I'm undecided if I want to maintain till Tuesday then add in 250cals - 500cals to add muscle or cut about the same amount to get down a few percent body fat.


Diet:

2,167 calories
135g protein
43g carbohydrate (22g being fiber)
166g fat

Workout:

Squat:

(warmups)

185lbs x 3 (5 rir)
165lbs x 12 (5 rir)
135lbs x 16 (3 rir)

Bench Press:

(warmups)

155lbs x 3 (5 rir)
140lbs x 13 (3 rir)
115lbs x 20 (3 rir)

Bent over Row:

(warmups)

165lbs x 3 (3 rir)
150lbs x 13 (3 rir)
120lbs x 18 (2 rir)

The rows were making my lower back feel a little off, but nothing that was too out of the ordinary, or that would have been unsafe. I'm still working out every other day, my app hasn't yelled at me, it's actually able to track and predict my recovery, which currently says is way faster than I would have expected. I guess at the weights I'm dealing with there's not a huge amount of muscle breakdown going on.

Body weight has been staying right around 157lbs, excluding weird variations that go away within a day which I assume is from weird water intake, or a really stressful day. Lifting and eating have been going well, I still feel like I'm getting slightly leaner day by day, but not much, so I will probably up calorie intake a small amount and see what happens with my muscle gain, I would like to get better increases in strength, with some muscle gains, but who knows how well the muscle gains will go with as long as I have been working out, but since weights have been low I'm optimistic.

Diet:

Diet is still usual keto, I've been watching my carbs a little closer, usually keeping under 40g total, removing fiber it's usually around 20g-30g per day, I don't feel like I need more than that, and my cravings for non-keto foods hasn't really been there.

Cals: 2,070
Protein: 139g
Carbohydrates: 36g (16 fiber, 20 net)
Fat: 159g

Moving into other things, recovery work is going well, foam rolling most days, stretching stuff like that. Low back is still tight and I think I'm going to use some kind of accessory work on it, to try to strengthen it up, as well as stretch it to see if I can get it to loosen up, otherwise it's going to keep giving my just tiny issues.

Workout:

Deadlift:

(warmups)

240lbs x 12 (1 rir)
215lbs x 8 (2 rir)
175lbs x 12 (3 rir)

The deadlifts went well, and the app I use said I was well recovered, only trouble I really had was that my bar is cheap, and so the knurling on it doesn't dig into my hands much because it's not sharp. I would like to get a new bar, but those are pricey, and I made a deal with myself that I'm not going to get random expensive stuff unless I'm going to stick to this for the long term. I've been working out for a long time but there's a certain level of dedication I want to keep up. Anyway, due to one of my other deals, I now get a fan out in the shed I train in, so that's pretty rad since it's usually in the 90'sF/32C out when I workout. I have some portable ac units that I could use but I would need to fix the windows.

Military Press:

(warmups)

120lbs x 7 (0 rir)
110lbs x 8 (0 rir)
95lbs x 8 (0 rir)

These didn't go as well as I wanted, shoulders were just giving out. I think this was from the deadlift effort. I was going for sets of ten or more.

Pullups:

BW + 20lbs x 9 (0 rir)
BW x 8 (0 rir)
BW -30lbs x 8 (0 rir)

Diet:

Calories: 2,185
Protein: 140g
Carbohydrates: 41g (18 of which were fiber, 23g net)
Fat: 172g

I've been looking into whole food substitutes for my supplements, like getting rid of the multivitamin, possibly replacing it with specific foods, as well as Beef liver powder, liver powder actually has a decent bit of protein per weight, 7g protein per 10g of powder, for comparison, my whey protein is about 7.5g protein per 10g, I would guess the macro, and micro nutrient profile of liver powder to be better than Whey protein powder considering liver is a whole food sort of, while whey is less so, but I'm still looking into it. I also plan to get ricotta for whey protein, but if the absorption rate is that much better with liver powder, and other food items, that alone may make a difference as a lot of multivitamins don't use the full spectrum of vitamins, or minerals, or use inferior quality versions that the body doesn't a readily absorb. At any rate, it's something that I'm mulling over, and will work on adding in if it seems worthwhile.

Workout:

Squats:

190lbs x 13 (3 rir)
170lbs x 15 (2 rir)
140lbs x 11 (5+ rir)

Didn't get more reps on last set because my quads were pumped like crazy and it was getting painful, I was pretty intrigued that I got such a pump being on keto.

Bench:

160lbs x 10 (1 rir)
145lbs x 10 (3 rir)
115lbs x 14 (3 rir)

Same thing here set two and three could have been more but my chest was pumped to the point of being painful. I'll have to focus more because it's a mental game with working through it.

Bent row:

170lbs x 12 (3 rir)
155lbs x 15 (2 rir)
125lbs x 18 (2 rir)

These felt good, first set got a little sloppy toward the end, but tempo was good, I could really feel the muscles working which was nice.

I switched over to working out in the morning for my major workout and have been sort of toying with super high rep pump stuff for lagging body parts at night (biceps, triceps, middle and rear delts), I also foam roll and stretch before bed. The morning works well for me for the major workout because I'm fresh, have energy, and I feel like working out then spending the day moving will help stretch things back out. Whereas with a night workout I workout then lay in a bed asleep, which makes my muscles tighter I think.

Diet:

I happened upon Vince Gironda with his steak and egg diets, stuff like that, so I've been experimenting with lots of eggs, meat, beef liver ect. I found instinctively eating these things puts me around 2,500 calories which is a slight bulking amount for me so I'm going to give that a go for a week or two and see how it feels. I keep track of my calories, try not to get direct carbs, or sweeten anything. Also I eat a large salad at night, with kale, veggies I want some spinach, also homemade dressing. Also to clarify I'm not eating just steak and eggs I took away eating meats, eggs, cream or half and half, real pasture butter, nuts, veggies ect. So I usually have eggs, chicken, butter, and some nuts. Another meal was a large salad with herring, more eggs and some cream.

Diet:

2,544

Protein:184g
Carbohydrates:49g (16g fiber, 33g net)
Fat:170g

Bw: 156.2lbs
Bf%: 13.2 or something.

Workout:

Deadlift:

245lbs x 4 (4 rir)
220lbs x 9 (3 rir)
180lbs x 12 (5 rir)

Military Press:

120lbs x 3 (2 rir)
110lbs x 7 (3 rir)
95lbs x 11 (3 rir)

Pullups:

BW + 65lbs x 2 Failure
BW + 45lbs X 4 (2 rir)
BW x 12 (4 rir)

Workout went good, felt a lot stronger on all of these, and considering about a month and a half ago my max for deadlift was 225lbs for a struggling 3 reps, 245lbs for a easy 4, and a few weeks ago 12-14 reps with 240lbs, I'm happy with that progress. My pullup has gotten a lot better, even the two/three I did today with 65lbs weighted was way better than usual, and the body weight pull ups I did I could have done more, but I still just have muscle pump going on.

Diet:

Nothing.

Currently dry fasting, so I'll keep things updated there, I've been checking my ketones, and blood sugar sorta regularly over the last day or so, because I wanted to see what was going on. My average blood sugar is 85, and my ketones are around .6mmol - .7mmol. I noticed that right after my workout my blood sugar had gone from 84, up to 124, so I went grocery shopping with my daughter, came back and it was down again to 84. I was pretty happy with .7mmol ketones yesterday considering I'm eating 3 meals a day, and around 175g protein. I also supplement in a few grams of protein every two hours or so from liver powder, and that doesn't seem to be messing with my ketones, or blood sugar in any real way.

Workout:

Squat:

195lbs x 8 (5+ rir)
175lbs x 12 (3 rir)
140lbs x 16 (4 rir)

Bench:

165lbs x 8 (2 rir)
150lbs x 11 (2 rir)
135lbs x 15 (3 rir)

Bent row:

175lbs x 8 (5 rir)
160lbs x 12 (5 rir)
135lbs x 20 (3 rir)

Workout was great felt strong and want to load more on squat but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself.

I had finished a dry fast experiment, went three days with no food or water and had started rehydrating and eating last night, worked out this morning. I don't know the accuracy but a few places put my bodyfat around 8%-10% I don't know if I just have terrible ab genetics or what but I can see my top abs but not lowers, however I have slight feathering in my teardrops and intercostals are pretty pronounced when flexing and quite a bit of arm veins.

Body weight is around 150.6lbs. Lowest it got was 149lbs. Highest ketones I saw was 4.1mmol and lowest blood sugar was 67.

Workout:

Deadlift:

215lbs x 15 failure
195lbs x 13 failure
160lbs x 18 failure

Military Press:

100lbs x 13 failure
95lbs x 9 failure
75lbs x 12 failure

Pull-ups:

Bw -15lbs x 15 failure
Bw -30lbs x 13 failure
Bw -30lbs x 14 failure

I did these pulling my chest to the bar since I read that it's more effective so I tried to touch or get my chest as close to the bar as I could.

Front squat:

95lbs x 8 (1 rir) x 4

I logged one rep left, but could have done a lot more, this is the first time adding in secondary work so I didn't want the program to overload me.

Incline dumbbell Press:

70lbs x 8 (1 rir) x 2
30lbs x 10 (2 rir)

These are combined weight for the dumbells. So first two sets were with 35lbs dumbells, third set with 15lbs dumbells because I only have a set of 15lbs, 20lbs and 35lbs. I have some handles but I need more plates.

Ab wheel:

15 reps x 4

I had to do these on my knees instead of on my toes because my core is too weak to extend my arms like that, but I'm excited to see how these improve things with the stretch and angles.

Tempo on these killed me today at one minute between sets so I did the whole workout in thirty six minutes. I was also in a hurry because I needed to shower, eat and shop before work this morning at seven.


Diet:

I'm doing a carb up today since I talked to my buddy and I'm flat which I'm horrible at telling when I'm flat but at 20g carbs per day for about a month I expected it. I plan in shaa Allah to have about a 200g carb up low fat meal as my second meal today. I had my post workout shake, then worked out and I'm going to do the carb up in a few hours.

Going to eat a few bananas, sweet and sour chicken and rice and some haribo gummi bears, if that doesn't fill me up when I check tomorrow in shaa Allah next time I'll probably do a cheat day because I tend to get too flat and then need longer than one meal to carb up but we will see.

Weight is around 155lbs - 156lbs
My workout app says I'm 12.7% body fat but measurements say 8.2%

At any rate my waist is 29 inches lol.

https://i.imgur.com/HfnII2l.png

Alright guys here's a sort of photo. I ate 2 bananas, some sweet and sour chicken, and gummi bears to carb load. Starting small with carb loads to see how I react I'm back to keto after that one meal. If you guys could help me out and tell me if it looks like it worked I would appreciate it. I'm bad at telling small changes because I see myself every day.

Workout for 7/15/17

Squat:

170lbs x 15 (2 Rir)
155lbs x 18 (1 rir)
125lbs x 16 (1 rir)

These has my legs so pumped I was rushing to bench to try and get blood moved to another muscle group.

Bench:

145lbs x 15 failure
130lbs x 12 failure
105lbs x 11 failure

Bench just wasn't doing it today, don't know why, I have a slight soreness in my left shoulder which I think is from rowing that is making my bench not right. Another problem I'm encountering is just the pump is so strong now that I'm carb loading from time to time that inhibits my ability to move the weight.

Bent row:

155lbs x 15 failure
140lbs x 16 failure
115lbs x 18 failure

Recently too I've been dialing in the focus on the movement, keeping things strict and connecting to the muscle I'm trying to build. I think these small changes are having a positive effect on my body but make the workouts harder.

Tricep dips:

Bw + 20lbs x 8 x 2

Lying leg curls:

90lbs x 8 x 4

Reverse hyper:

Bw + 45lbs x 8 x 4

The addition of secondaries is also making my body react a lot, considering I'm moving 25% - 50% more weight per workout I'm impressed with the results.


Diet:

Calories: 2,609

Protein: 197g
Carbohydrates: 49g (4g fiber 45g net)
Fat: 183g

Bw: 156.2lbs

Today

Workout

Deadlift:

220lbs x 9 (2 rir)
200lbs x 16 (2 rir)
160lbs x 23 (1 rir)

Military Press:

100lbs x 11 (2 rir)
90lbs x 13 (1 rir)
75lbs x 14 (0 rir)

Pullups:

BW x 8 (3 rir)
BW - 15lbs x 10 (1 rir)
BW - 30lbs x 9 (1 rir)

I perform these pulling to my mid chest, not until my chin is near the bar.

Front Squat:

95 x 8 (3 rir) x 4

Incline Dumbbell Press:

70lbs (35lbs set of dumbbells) x 8 (2 rir) x 4

Ab wheel x 15 x 3

The workouts are really effective and I feel good after them, the pump I'm getting is really strong.

Diet

Calories 3,838
Protein: 221g
Carbohydrates: 271g
Fat: 204g

BW: 156.6lbs

Workout:

Bent barbell row:

125lbs x 5 (2 rir)
150lbs x 5 (3 rir)
155lbs x 10 (3 rir)
165lbs x 10 (2 rir)
190lbs x 6 (1 rir)
160lbs x 10 (3 rir)
170lbs x 8 failure
195lbs x 5 (1 rir)

Barbell bench press:

110lbs x 6 (3 rir)
135lbs x 5 (5 rir)
135lbs x 10 (3 rir)
145lbs x 10 (2 rir)
165lbs x 3 failure
140lbs x 9 failure
150lbs x 5 (1 rir)
170lbs x 4 failure

These were supposed to be decline but my arms are too short to reach the bar at the lowest bar setting. If I can find a stable way to raise the bench I'll do that.

Dumbbell lateral raise: weights are dumbbells combined weight.

40lbs x 5 x 2
70lbs x 10 x 2
40lbs x 6
40lbs x 10
30lbs x 8
40lbs x 5

Standing calf raise:

60lbs x 5
70lbs x 5
70lbs x 10
75lbs x 10
90lbs x 6
75lbs x 10
80lbs x 8
90lbs x 5

Knee raise crunch:

20 x 3

Table crunch:

12 x 3

Double up:

10 x 3

This workout is essentially the beginner workout from. Vince Gironda's book with modifications since I don't have pulleys. My plan is to do this for three weeks with increasing intensity as possible, then take a week off and then test my maxes for bench, deadlift and squat. Going to do a two day on, one day off, two day on two day off schedule.

Diet:

Diet is really low carb usually around 30g - 40g, protein usually in the 200's with fat around the 170's unless I'm doing a carb load which is usually on Sunday. I tried two carb loads in one week and it felt like too much.

Calories: 2,778
Protein: 226g
Carbohydrates: 35g (4 fiber, 31 net)
Fat: 191g

Weight: 157.4lbs

Weight according to logging right now is going up around .8lbs a week which is good for me, I want a real slow gain and don't want to gain a ton of fat.

Additionally. The workout is running a hypertrophy wave the first two days which consists of a full body workout just split over two days because all in one day would be way too much time. The second set of workouts are hypertrophy strength wave, then the weights go up and back to hypertrophy only.

I've been doing a lot of postural correction trying to retrain rounded forward shoulders from years of playing video games and what not as well as slight anterior pelvic tilt. The correction for shoulders consists of wearing a band around my shoulders from time to time that manually pulls my shoulders back. I usually wear this a little in the evening and while working out. Band pull aparts are also another way I help to strengthen and retrain the area. This has helped to alleviate sore shoulders and seems to have helped increase blood flow to my arms. While my hips are an issue I've been stretching them and working to correct the improper tilt which seems best helped by suspending yourself upside down with a large band but I don't have one large enough so I hope to get one soon. In shaa Allah.

that workout has some awesome volume...looks good!

I've got a little bit of a back log going but I've decided to take the week off. Turns out I was supposed to be taking a week off every three and it has been almost three months and I haven't taken a break lol.

That's great to hear! What kind of things and stuff does Eden do?