SATIL log

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: hovering in the low 182s all weekend.

Workouts: regular lifting shyt for the weekend (dips upper + leg press lower) and a shyt load of riding. Rode 14 miles Saturday morning and 11 miles this morning. Not far off from what I was doing at the end of the last cut. Calorie burn per mile is higher cause the garage is hotter so I don't need to go crazy. I think 35 miles a week should do it.

Thoughts: Not stressing too much. I did goof last night... killed probably 1000kcal of Honey Bunches of Oats on a whim. But with the ride today I'm like net neutral. Had a little BBQ with some friends so that was some extra, so we'll just see where we land tomorrow. I get the feeling I'm not dipping under 180 this month.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 182.2

Workouts: dips upper Tuesday, legs Wednesday. Tweaked my lower back on squats so I switched to the hack squat machine. I feel like that will be my wave on this cut... 315 on squats is fukking heavy in a deficit. My leverage isn't there and my focus isn't there. No substitute for deadlifts though so I will do those first and then bang out leg press. Other good thing about leg press is I can def handle more volume... however the weights don't translate 1:1 because I don't have that bounce reflex or posterior chain help. So once you account for geometry the load is just about what a front squat would be. 315 on BB squat is like 445 on the hack squat, and I figure my front squat would be about 245-255 now which is about 360 on the hack squat. Felt about right, will probably add more load once I get used to it.

Rode for 50 minutes last night.... we will see what tomorrow's weigh in is for a true look at where I am. I'll be a little pissed if I'm above 183

Thoughts: adherence is an issue. Lot of shyt going on. Stress has calmed down a bit. I feel like I haven't had one solid week of eating yet. Thankfully cardio has ramped up quickly so hopefully that combined with better eating will get the ball rolling. I wanna end June in or below the 175s which is about 8lbs. Aggressive but realistic if I stay on point and up my mileage just a tad. If I hit my 90 minutes Saturday I should get the 34-35 I wanted... then Sunday we can see what a decent week does. Have to get my head back in the fukking game

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 180.8

Workouts: I think I rode for an hour Thursday and 30 minutes Friday. Hit dips upper Saturday but started to feel a little tired. Sunday I really started to feel gassed, something wasn't right. Didn't feel like hitting legs and I only got 2 sets of deadlifts off before I ended it. By Sunday night I had a 101 fever. Took Monday and Tuesday off work to recover, back in today. I did do my upper dips workout yesterday... didn't feel 100% but I got it all done.

Thoughts: This is the cut from hell Last year was a fukking cakewalk by comparison. But I'm gonna keep pushing. Hopefully my cardio isn't completely blown to shyt. Only been like 4 days I guess.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 180.4

Workouts: Hit legs and rode. I have been using the hack squat machine. Still nowhere near 100% health wise but I at least got 2 sets of deads off which went OK. Only rode for 30 minutes and could have kept going, but I'm not gonna push it till I feel better. Condition is def improving day by day.

Thoughts: bought some snacks while I was sick because I didn't feel like eating anything else.... going to have to work through that. Thankfully my appetite is still shyt so I can stay on target

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 179.6

Workouts: Regular shmegular Saturday/Sunday shyt (dips upper + single leg press lower). Rode Friday and Sunday night for like 30 minutes a pop. Going to try for an hour tonight. Also closing the training block this week. Halving the speed of progression was definitely the right move. Things moved up slowly but steadily.

Thoughts: Crossing under 180 is a big psychological threshold. Really it doesn't mean much, it's all arbitrary. But it's still a nice boost. I think I am in a bit of a groove so I'll keep pushing. Just about over this cold though my cardio has fallen off just a tad. Need to get back to hour plus rides. Target is still end of July to put it to bed... getting under 165 is prob a pipe dream in 7 or so weeks but I think under 170 should be doable.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 180 flat

Workouts: same shyt. Dips upper Tuesday, legs today. Last week of this 8 week block and I'm fried. Never moved this much weight for this many reps at this body weight. And I've been battling a cold, so all the medicine has been fukking with me. Finally got past the cough so I 'd Robitussin, and that made a huge difference. That shyt puts you to sleep, doesn't matter if its night or day time formula. I think I rode for 30 minutes Monday.

Thoughts: Thank God this block is over. Worst block ever exogenously. Totalled my car, got slapped with a cold, just one thing after another. But I plugged away and got shyt done. Cleaned up the diet. Got my cardio base in order. So next week I will deload and recover. Probably dig a little deeper with cardio and not hit legs at all. Just do some upper body pump work.

Def dialed in on the diet side so that + cardio should get me right. Other thing I'm thinking about is going back to 2 4 week blocks instead of one long 8 week block. I can take that time off to recover and dig deeper into cardio. Been doing "intuitive" refeeds so there's no need to really plan them ahead of time. The deloads are more important. Hmm I may even go for a ride or two outside for a change since I don't have to save my legs that week. Just hope that's not too much.

I am curious to see where my legs will be once this is over. Not super lean yet so the veins aren't consistent. But I'm wondering if I put on a good bit more mass. Quads almost look a little smaller. But the damn hack squat machine is the real deal. Quads are fried right now.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 179.4

Workouts: Hit legs at the gym and then rode for 55 minutes last night. Just couldn't push to the full hour but w/e. Getting off those damn cold meds has been the wave, 315 on deads came up very nicely. Still only hit 2 sets though, then hit the hack squat

Thoughts: I do feel like my outer quad heads are trailing. Going to take a narrower stance on hack squat and see if that changes anything. I hear that's how to hit the outer head. Was a little disappointed with the weigh in but 0.6lb after a ride is not bad. Pool party Saturday... trying to think through how to plan my rides. I will ride tonight, debating whether to ride again Friday or coffee up and do a long ride Saturday morning. I guess I'll play it by ear.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 179.4

Workouts: Bullshytted my way through my incline bench workout, rode for 85 minutes today. Incline bench is too much damn work in this deficit... again I think it's just the amount of weight I'm doing. Last year I was only throwing up 160; this block I was supposed to do 190. I was just fukking gassed. Same story with squats. So I am doing the Hammer Strength machine with an equivalent weight. The ROM is a little less vs coming down to my chest with the barbell, but I figure it's good enough if it feels heavy enough. Also hit the HS high row machine because it was right there and I miss it. Again as long as the equivalent load is equal it doesn't matter. Load is load.

Thoughts: Just watched my training block video from last July, trying to see where I've improved or fallen back. I still think my chest is up... looks like my triceps came up too. Hard to see my legs in shorts. I do feel like I was freakier at this weight on the way back up last year but we'll see. Hopefully June and July will be more productive than May. So far June is off to a good start.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 177.4 (6/16), 178.8 (6/17) Taking advantage of the deload big time for fat loss... see below

Workouts: Hit my last upper body workout for this block; breezed through it mostly. Rode for 90 minutes today (60 + 30) after a big father's day breakfast and some coffee.

Thoughts: Not doing any leg work this week since it's deload week; just gonna do a shyt load of riding. Like I found out before, I can't ride more than once every 2 days... so I'm shooting for a ride Tuesday, Thursday and then the big one on Saturday. That + good adherence should take some big chunks of fat off, though I'm debating whether or not to ease off to help recovery. But now that I seem to be over that cold, I feel like I have a lot more in the tank, so I'm gonna take advantage.

Looking at my physique now, I think I'm at the point where I have to start prioritizing lagging body parts. Surprisingly I think I brought my chest and arms up nicely. I think my legs are up with all the gains I made, but I'm wondering if ditching squats has melted my quads a little bit over this training block. They have decent size but they don't have the freakiness they did last year. Abs are definitely up a good bit too though they also don't have the 3D ravioli look I was hoping for. Maybe with more fat loss. Shoulders and back seem to have lagged. I think my arms outpaced my shoulders and I just didn't take back training seriously. For this next 4 week block I might throw an extra set in for back and shoulders. I need to figure out the best horizontal pulling exercise as well; I feel like I use too much lower back on cable rows. Probably need to go back to the T-bar like I did last year. Might try and go back to BB squats as well, at least once a week. Though I was noticing my depth is not 100% at the weight I'm doing. Might scale back the weight to make sure I stay in the groove, then turn it back up once I have calories. I'm thinking I will go back to like 295 and just stay at 3x10; that should hopefully be enough to get the job done.

Overall though things are moving OK and I think I'm over this cold. Time to dig deep, take advantage, finish June strong. We'll see what my weight is tomorrow but <175 by July seems within reach

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176.6

Workouts: Did a little pump deload upper body for lunch and an hour long ride for dinner. Turned up the wick on speed over the last.... 10 minutes? Def in my cardio bag. Looking forward to just chilling today though.

Thoughts: I'm fukking HUNGRY man Metabolism seems activated. This weight dip is cool but we'll see if it sticks tomorrow. If I lock this <177 in I'll feel a lot better about finishing the month under 175. Riding every other day definitely is the wave, I cannot forget that.

One weird unexpected thing... I'm not far off from where I finished the cut last year, but I'm not as lean. Then again I dipped down to 172 and carbed back up to 176-177, whereas now I'm at a depleted 176-177. So as always just the weight doesn't tell the whole story. I do feel and look a little fuller on the way down of this one than I did last year.... it will be interesting to see how I look after the carb up. But I want to hover in the 169s before shutting it down.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176.4?

Workout: Just ran in and did a little incline bench pump workout. Just finished an hour ride.

Thoughts: Starting to feel it. I think I'm having trouble holding a pump. Very hungry. Feeling tired. Gonna take it easy this weekend... no lifting, just a ride. Hopefully I will be refreshed for this next block. Gonna see what the next block holds. Might drop weight on incline bench and I'm def dropping weight on squats. Still way up on what I was doing last year so it's OK. Damn I'm fukking hungry I better see some big weight drops. Abs are starting to show but shoulders are not looking as pumpkiny. I think upright rows are not as effective for hitting my shoulders as lateral raises. But going up 5lbs per arm on lateral raises is not wavy. Might have to bite the bullet and get some microplates

fukking hungry man

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 175.6

Workout: Rode for an hour last night. Had to pause at 30 minutes but we got through to the end.

Thoughts: 3.8lbs in a week 5.2lbs in 2 I know I said we'd be rewarding success with more success, but I think I've had enough for 1 week. Going to do a refeed this weekend. Need to recharge to start this next block. Glad this deload week was productive, just hope I didn't scrape my glycogen stores. Def leaner but also flatter. We will see

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 175.8- waist: 28.25"

Workouts: Not a damn thing

Thoughts: Felt nice to take a day off everything. Def needed it. Like I said def going back to 4 weeks on 1 week off instead of this 8 week shyt I just did. Gorged a little bit yesterday... had a work lunch; Greek food. Also oversnacked. Count it as a refeed day. Thankfully doesn't look like it did damage.

Figured out why my energy might have been down the last few days. Haven't been diligent with my vitamins In particular B12 has been shown to boost energy. Took it last night and I'm feeling normalish. I think I'm going to start taking my vitamins in the morning since that's when I need B12 and that is really the best time for me to take it. I'll start tomorrow.

Just getting my head back in the game to move through this next block. Might go back to my regular progression scheme, but just stay flat on squats/deads/incline bench at lower weights. Just realized I have to add 10lb back to weighted dips since I lost that.... damn body weight exercises.

Very curious to see how this next block goes in various aspects. Hoping to perform well and lose a good bit of weight. This deload dash was key for making up lost ground on the weight loss front. Also my cardio ramping up has been key too. All in all things look good for this next block. Hopefully nothing happens.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176.2

Workouts: Actually rode another hour on Sunday because Saturday was indulgent. Wanted to mitigate the damage.

Thoughts: Forgot I dipped into the 175s last week Overall trend looks good though. Feeling a little refreshed but honestly still very hungry and not 100%.

I think I'm going to see where my flat bench is tomorrow

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Weight: 176.2 every day

Workout: Hit an upper body workout at the local Gold's. Man that place is wack. Anyway benched. Still bytch made, only hit 225 for 5, 5, 4. Hitting legs today. Feeling good enough to BB squat again so I'm gonna go for it. Then a ride tonight.

Thoughts: Really need to re-activate the fat loss. Hoping this ride tonight jumpstarts it. 4 days to get under 175