JurisSquatter's Training Log

[JurisSquatter]

3/7/18
Morning Weight: 246 lbs.
Calories: 2860 (311C, 108P, 129F) It is clear that my diet is a weak point. I need to find better healthy options that I actually want to eat. I am tired of chicken breasts and the same ole microwave meals.

1. Deadlifts [email protected], [email protected], *[email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (8700lbs, 18:20)
2. Beltless Squat 135x4, 185x3, [email protected]

*may need to change second movement to just a simple light movement because I’m beat after the deadlifts and not enough time to do a full second movement during lunch. Or I could just workout after work and take longer but I'm usually pretty tired after work and the gym gets more crowded. I'll have to experiment.

[JurisSquatter]

3/8/18
Morning Weight: 246.9 lbs.
Calories: 2700 (267C, 206P, 88F)

GPP: HIIT for 14 minutes, Pulldowns for 7 minutes (10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1x205), planks for 3 minutes (I hate training abs).

[JurisSquatter]

Morning Weight: 245.1 lbs.
Calories: 2800 (257C, 187P, 112F)

[JurisSquatter]

3/10/18
Morning Weight: 243.5 lbs.
Calories: 2856 (247C, 231P, 104F)

1. OHP [email protected], [email protected] [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
2. Paused Bench Press (high rep) [email protected], [email protected]
3. Bench Press (TNG) [email protected]

Losing weight which is good but my OHP was weaker which sucks --- I used RPE to adjust. 190 was supposed to be an @8 but it was clearly an @10 ( I could not get another rep) so I just used that as my base for getting to [email protected] Being in my 40's with a 44 inch waist is something that has to change for health reasons so if I lose strength so be it (at least that's what I keep telling myself). I fear that I may never reach a 405 squat (got 390) or 500 deadlift (got 430) because I'm fat now and still haven't done it and I don't want to be this fat again. I know my body structure isn't optimal for this stuff (long legs, short torso and arms) but I was hoping to reach those basic strength benchmarks.

[JurisSquatter]

3/11/18
Morning Weight: 244.8 lbs. (lost 0.3 lbs. from last Sunday)
Calories: 2572 (255C, 181P, 85F)

1. Squat [email protected]?, [email protected], [email protected]'s
2. Pendlay Rows [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Sort of floundering. 315 used to be light for me, but it felt heavy today. I couldn't believe it was my new @8 and I didn't want to start taking it too easy so I did 340x1.That felt heavy too and I knew that another rep or two with 340 would be a total grind and probably involve some form breakdown so I stuck with 315 as my [email protected] -20% and did 250x5x5 which felt pretty light, but that's the thing now right? 250 is 73% of 340 so that's supposedly within the good intensity range? Whatever.

Total weekly calories: 20459 (last week was 20389)
Daily avg calories: 2922 (last week was 2912)
So I ate more this week and lost some weight? Even the results of my food tracking don't make sense. Getting tired of this stuff. I've busted my ass for since 2013 and in 2018 I'm pretty much just a fat guy that is still weak for his size. That's why I'm focused now on my calories and protein. If the choices are being kinda/sorta strong and fat OR average strength and lean, I'll take average strength and lean.

[JurisSquatter]

3/12/18
Morning Weight: 245.8 lbs.
Calories: 2780 (260C, 204P, 100F)

[FredM]

Judging RPE on a cut is almost impossible from my experience. Everything FEELS much harder. When I pull heavy on a cut literally every rep of my working set "feels" like RPE 8.5. So you're not alone there.

I think you're being a little hard on yourself with your "numbers." You're 30% bf, which means you have 170ish lbs of LBM. Serious lifters tend to be 12-22% bf (the ones that aren't giants). So you're closer to a 200-210 lb dude in terms of the muscles you have to work with. Your numbers seem pretty great to me thinking like that

[JurisSquatter]

Judging RPE on a cut is almost impossible from my experience. Everything FEELS much harder. When I pull heavy on a cut literally every rep of my working set "feels" like RPE 8.5. So you're not alone there.

I think you're being a little hard on yourself with your "numbers." You're 30% bf, which means you have 170ish lbs of LBM. Serious lifters tend to be 12-22% bf (the ones that aren't giants). So you're closer to a 200-210 lb dude in terms of the muscles you have to work with. Your numbers seem pretty great to me thinking like that

Thanks for the kind words. I know I can be my own worst critic. I've finally embraced cutting 100% so I'm mentally prepared for whatever that means in terms of my strength. I'll keep training the same and let RPE determine what's on the bar.

[neandrewthal]

Be prepared to give 100% of what you have to give in your cutting state, but that doesn't have to mean resigning yourself to a loss of strength. Remember that with your diet and training in check the vast majority of what you are losing is useless fat. Remember that this isn't SS with its cutting horror stories, probably due to doing stupid things like restricting carbs and doing TM. Also remember that this is just a short time in the grand scheme of things it will be well worth it after you have given yourself room to confidently train at caloric maintenance or even an intelligently managed surplus.

Those are the things that kept me from going crazy on my cut. That and refeed weeks every 5 weeks or so.

[JurisSquatter]

Thanks for the encouragement, it is helpful and much appreciated guys.

[Hugh Jass]

Thanks for the kind words. I know I can be my own worst critic. I've finally embraced cutting 100% so I'm mentally prepared for whatever that means in terms of my strength. I'll keep training the same and let RPE determine what's on the bar.

let bar speed determine your rpe. you may find it helpful to video all your lifts for a few weeks and learn what your bar speed looks like. rpe is intended to be a measure of performance. basing it on how the weight ~feels~will be misleading. bar speed doesn't lie!

in my case, I usually underestimate because it ~feels~ better than it looks and I end up mortgaging future workouts from too much stress in today's session.

hopefully you don't mind that bit of rpe mansplaining. don't stress too much. if you keep up your diligence on smart programming all will go well

[JurisSquatter]

let bar speed determine your rpe. you may find it helpful to video all your lifts for a few weeks and learn what your bar speed looks like. rpe is intended to be a measure of performance. basing it on how the weight ~feels~will be misleading. bar speed doesn't lie!

in my case, I usually underestimate because it ~feels~ better than it looks and I end up mortgaging future workouts from too much stress in today's session.

hopefully you don't mind that bit of rpe mansplaining. don't stress too much. if you keep up your diligence on smart programming all will go well

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the positivity here. Much appreciated.

[neandrewthal]

I had the opposite problem. When I was deep in my cut I would complete sets of squats that feel like @11 but looking at the video they were all lightning fast. That's when I know I need a refeed week

[JurisSquatter]

3/13/18
Morning Weight: 244.8 lbs
Calories: 2575 (203C, 183P, 109F)

1. Bench Press [email protected], -20%, 230x5x5 (26 reps)
2. OHP High-Rep [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (30 reps)

Have to say that the bench press is definitely my lift. I paused the 285 on my chest for a good three seconds before pushing it back up and it felt like 7 or 8 RPE. I definitely had more reps in the tank. I still have some right elbow pain but it felt good to hit a decent number again. I hit my goal on bench (315) a long time ago now and even though I don't have a huge desire to go above 315, it always has been a lift that moved pretty quickly for me. It's the one lift that I am built for with my short arms and fairly thick chest. I wish I was better built for squats, with my long ass legs every squat rep feels heavy. Oh well, such is life.

[JurisSquatter]

3/14/18
Morning Weight: 245.1 lbs.
Calories: 2439 (193C, 216P, 82F)

1. Deadlifts [email protected] (should have stayed here), [email protected] (too heavy), -20%, 300x5 (woops! should have been 305), 305x5x4
2. High Rep Beltless Squat [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (30 reps)

I wanted to get 415 for [email protected] in the deadlift based on e1rm but adjusted using RPE, that's what it's for right? I did this after work, and I think I'll keep doing that, felt good not to rush

[JurisSquatter]

3/15/18
Morning Weight: 243.4 lbs.
Calories: 2491 (211C, 208P, 91F)

25 minutes LISS cardio on elliptical
5 minutes of pulldowns
2 minutes of leg raises (training abs still bores me to the point of not really caring)

[JurisSquatter]

3/16/18
Morning Weight: 242.5 lbs. (going in the right direction, lowered max daily calories to 2500)
Calories: 2508 (205C, 226P, 84F)

Excited to announce that I was able to cook some eggs in my kitchen today without my smoke alarm going off. I have to aim a fan at the smoke detector while cooking but still, it worked . . . so far.