SATIL log

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Been slacking on my blog a bit..... up at around 180 now Gotta see where my waist is. On block 3 of this bulk, just starting the 2nd week of 4. Lower body gains are so crazy... it's not a 100% 1:1 comparison since I dropped 2 sets on volume squats but last November I was doing 5x10x235, and Gaia willing at the end of this November I will be at 3x10x285. Heavy squats haven't moved up too much, again not 1:1 but a year ago I was doing 3x5x325; I just cleared 3x7x325. I do want to get up to 405 but everything over like 330 feels heavy AF. I'm supposed to go for 3x5-7x330 but I think I might try 3x3-5x345? So this week I would do 3,4,4x345. I might bump up my sumos too just for the hell of it. Bench is still bytch made though, skruggling with 235 on the heavy shyt

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

New gym equipment has me changing shyt up and thinking about my exercises. Biggies that I'm looking at switching is all my tricep shyt. Thinking for a strategy for each of the 3 heads. Each head works the most at different shoulder angles... so the long head works best overhead; medial head works best with your elbows out in front of you; lateral head works best with your elbow behind you.

For the long head I just don't like the dumbbells, especially as I add more weight. The new dumbbells are slippery as fukk, and I can only use them on the short bench. I tried an EZ curl bar yesterday and liked it. Good thing is I can use that with a regular adjustable bench... gym is getting more crowded with the renovations

Medial head gets enough action with pressing... not really stressing that at the moment, though I dunno. Something to keep in mind.

Lateral head is tricky because it comes into play the further your elbow goes behind your centerline. But my form with my chain extensions is garbage. Way too much elbow swinging. So last night I tried something.... I took a light bar and put it between my elbows and my back, so my arms physically could not come ahead of my back. It was a little awkward but it mostly worked! I will probably have to drop the weight a ton as I am certain I won't be able to move as much weight.... but that's fine. I'll try and get some footage of it in my next video. Hopefully that will kick my tris up to the next level All this direct arm work has definitely been working though. Just gonna keep plugging.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Fell off with the vids and blogs... just been too fukking busy mayne, plus with the new equipment at the gym it's a little more crowded and I'm still getting my bearings

Next block is going to be rough Lower body should be no problem but my arms are starting to feel worn out. Might have to stretch the next deload for two weeks

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Still at it, just accumulating these gains before the baby comes. Still grateful to be able to do push moves... even 10-14lb up from my cut low the chest is looking nuts

Also validated my heavy squat at one of my old gyms on Iron Grip plates. 350 for 3-4 felt fine

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Just have not had the time for blogging or vlogging so a quick update

Bulk seems to be going well.... I just watched a workout vid from the summer and I'm 100% softer for sure, but at the same time somehow my abs and chest look better. I feel like weight wise I have fallen off with my back. I gotta stop doing chin ups and get back to lat pulldowns. Leg wise things are great, just gotta get more focused on heavy leg days. Damn near died last week

On a deload week now; really gotta get my damn cardio in. Gonna shoot for an hour tonight. Just haven't been sleeping well, lot of shyt going on, our first child is due in 2 weeks

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I gotta keep better track of what the fukk I'm doing when I change up the routine. Starting a new block tomorrow, light dip day. No clue what I'm doing for weight on dips or tricep extensions; kinda shaky on what I'm doing for curls and back too

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Ha, update

Baby girl was born 12/16. Been a real roller coaster but I'm OK. Today is my first day back at work. Feeling OK, just a little sleepy but mostly on point.

Plan for now is to keep bulking until baby girl can sleep enough that I can go to bed later than 8PM ... once she's good then I can start the cut and do my night cardio. Currently building a plate loaded squat thing to hopefully make home squatting easier and take the load off my posterior chain. It's really for wifey but I'd like to build it to be strong enough for my use. Hack squat rack takes up too much fukking room, as brilliant as it was.

Sidebar, plan of action to get wifey back on track is gonna be Squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts... 6 sets of each a week, hopefully adding 10lb to each lift a month. I was looking at pics before she got pregnant, that ass was serious Gonna document it all and use her as "client 0" for coaching shyt hopefully.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Damn, weight is up to 187 But yesterday I hit 3x8x300 on squats and 2x8x300 on deads. IDK, shyt is crazy brehs. A year ago I was squatting 250 in that rep range. And even though I'm I weigh less than I did then. Real progress

I need to consolidate all my training/cutting logs into one file. shyt is all over the place

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Upper body workout went well today. The pump is crazy

Just gonna type out and think through the cutting plan this year. Right now gaining phase momentum is strong. Barring catastrophe I'm like 3 months away from squatting 315 on volume lower day which is a big milestone for me. High key that might be the top end of my volume squats. Legs are juicy as is and were pretty good after the cut last year with ~40lb less weight on the bar.

But yall know I love my math. I have 3 more weeks in this cycle, and then my cycles are 5 weeks long (4 weeks + deload). Summer is ~5 cycles away and I'll probably need 3 cycles or 15 weeks of cutting to get right. Just thinking on paper here. If I finish this cycle and do another one that will start my cut around March and have me diced by June. But I feel like I'll be a little soft by August which is still very warm. Last year I started around mid March but missed 2 weeks due to a trip, and finished around late July. There were a lot of learnings on that cut as well so it wasn't as efficient as I'd like. This go round I have a protocol already in my head, so once I pick a date we are off to the races from the word go.

So long story short I'm gonna start the cut towards the end of April after 2 more complete gaining blocks.... 15 weeks of cutting would put me right at mid July which is about perfect. Aesthetically I should be where I want to be by mid June; those extra weeks are just for the challenge and further shreds. Last year the target was to settle at 170 but I fell a little short. Still a new low and my best physique. This year I'm just going to apply the protocol and see what happens. No targets, just take things as they come and see how far I can go. Especially since I know I've made significant gains, especially in my abs and legs.

Of course this is all contingent on me finding the time to do cardio. With the baby I've lost 3 hours out of my day for our sleep program. By the end of April she will be 5 months old so hopefully we can claw back an hour or so which is all I need. I've become very efficient.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Hit my heavy dip upper body workout today

Tried something with my lat pulldowns... 2 hands is too heavy, I am at like 95% body weight so I have to use a bench and brace myself and shyt. It was a hassle. So I tried just doing them one handed. Much better. I had to drop the weight to less than half, but the form feels a lot better and I know eventually I'll be able to go a lot heavier. It also just feels better. Plus without the bracing (I just get on my knees) it takes the same amount of time. Good adjustment

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Man, had a good night of sleep last night. Been thinking my weight's been a little high so I was gonna start doing some cardio. Like mid 187 range. Woke up this morning, weighed in at 185.2 fukk cardio, we are playing Forza this morning. I was getting too loose with the snacks at home. Hopefully tightening that up will keep me in check... I don't want to start this next cut over 190 and I was up as much as 3lbs this month

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Good/bad news

Bad news: I weighed in at 188.6 the last 2 days
Good news: Waist is just a hair over 30"

Def soft but manageable. Leg game is right now.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight back down in the 186s... but I just got 2 boxes of Tagalongs so we'll see how long that lasts Overall weight is under control though even with indulgences.

Had to cut my damn leg day short yesterday. Both knees are acting up. It's deload week but I'm gonna see how I feel in the middle of this week. Gonna do some light upper body stuff but I would like to cap off 3x10x300 for squats/deads before I move up. I still want to get to 310 before I start cutting but I have to stay healthy. I think I didn't sit back/use my posterior chain enough. We'll see what happens.

Tried to jump in weight with the one hand pull downs... no dice. I was doing 65; tried 80, way too much. 70 was OK but still a bit much. I settled for 67.5. Gonna do 70 in the next cycle. Really hoping these grow my slabs. My back is OK but I would like some more width.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight in the 187s... I think I will stop reporting unless it moves in a big way one way or another. Seems to be under control

Broke deload protocol and hit 3x10 legs today. Cleared 300. I think my home plates are heavier than my gym plates because it all went up pretty damn easy And that was with knees that were singing "this is probably not the time breh". We got it done though

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

This weekend was not bad.... filmed some workout footage, but then saw how soft I was and deleted it

I hit 3x5x+90 on dips and 3x8x305 on squats and deads though