Stenson's log-o-gainz - BBM edition

[tdood]

Glad my experience could help!!

[Stenson]

Glad my experience could help!!

I'm only 4 lbs down, but I can see positive changes in body comp while still building strength. That other thread was immensely helpful.

Honestly the biggest thing was just letting go of the notion that "volume will ABSOLUTELY CRUSH you while in a deficit!!!". When I've done cuts in the past I've lost lots of strength and muscle mass....by doing the SS recommended way - dropping volume while maintaining intensity.

[Stenson]

Squat 325x5x6@7-8

Form was good today. Got a little fatigued towards the end, yesterday was a long day at the lake, not much of a rest day

Bench 250x5x9@7-7.5

I don't ever really build up much fatigue on bench

Face pull 90x15,14,12

[Stenson]

I was absolutely wiped out from 2 looooong days of diving in Lake Havasu yesterday and today, but I persevered and finished my workout this evening. #voluntaryhardship

Deadlift 365x5x4@7.5-8

Bench 275x3x6@7.5-8

No time for deets. Must......sleeeeeep...

[Stenson]

6/13/2018

Squat 355x4x4@8-8.5

Incline DB bench 85x8x3

Lte 100x12,12,10


I was feeling beat the eff up after squats. Three hard workouts in 4 days AND 2 full days of diving has me exhausted. I was gassed on the last set of lte, even after 3 mins of rest. Today is a much needed rest day. I can always tell when my fatigue is climbing too high - a pot of coffee has zero effect on me. When I'm well rested I'm jittery on half a pot

[hector]

#voluntaryhardship

I laugh every time I hear this.
And the hiking sounds awesome.

[Stenson]

#voluntaryhardship

I laugh every time I hear this.
And the hiking sounds awesome.

I've got a 4 day Yosemite camping/hiking trip next week. It'll be nice to get out of the heat (it was 113 today), and take a mini deload

#involuntaryeasyship

[Stenson]

Squat 335x5x5@8

Bench 260x5x6@8

Face pull 90x15,13,12,11

Squat felt really strong today, but I was really outta breath after each set. Conditioning has gone to crap.

Bench went up easy as well. All this benching is really helping to dial in form

[Stenson]

Deadlift 395x3x2@7
405x3x2@7.5

Overhead press 165x4x3@7.5-8

Mcgill big 3


Deadlifts were really strong today, so much so that I added 10 lbs to my planned worksets. Overhead press was strong as well.

Going on a camping trip tomorrow thru Wednesday, will resume training on Thursday.

[Stenson]

I'm officially starting my meet prep later today (about 13 weeks out)!

My programming will be straying from the PTW intermediate program (should probably change my log title...), and go to something I cooked up after reading LOTS of info. Somewhat MM inspired and somewhat RTS insprired. I decided to switch because tbh, I really don't like the layout of the PIP2 program....why am I doing sets of 8 in the weeks leading up to a meet? Also, too few DL reps per week IMO. I've been responding very well to more deadlift volume


I'll be doing three 4-week cycles:

Mon - Hypertrophy squat, hypertrophy bench, row variation

Wed - Deadlift, DB bench, LTE, light squat variation

Friday - Strength squat, strength bench, pulldowns or chins

Sat - Light DL variation, OHP, tricep exercise, face pull, abs


Weekly singles @8 for each comp lift. I'll start out using lower percentage work (65-72% for hypertrophy, 75-80 for strength) and gradually increase to higher percentages with a bit less volume as the block goes on.

I hit my goal weight this morning (225) so I have 6 lbs to gain in the next 13 weeks. I could gain even more if I want to water cut, but I'd rather not deal with that...

I plan on doing comp DL 2x a week and comp benching 3x a week (power bench on Wed, a la MM) in the last few weeks before the meet. If anyone sees this and wants to critique, please do!

[Bliss]

I was following your one of not too many PTW logs with interest, now though even more curious.

Would be great if you could reflect on the ptw stuff done so far and outline the detail of your coming plan.

[Stenson]

I was following your one of not too many PTW logs with interest, now though even more curious.

Would be great if you could reflect on the ptw stuff done so far and outline the detail of your coming plan.

I started with PNP3 and worked thru PIP1. I had planned on using 3 cycles of PIP2 for the 12 weeks leading up to my meet, but there are several things about the program that I'm not too fond of. First, 8 rep squat sets haven't translated to my 1RM all that well in the past, and in PIP2 most of the squat volume is via 8 rep sets. Also, there are only 13 weekly dl reps in the program. I've been doing very well with higher volume dl programming so I don't want to go down in volume so drastically. Lastly, PIP2 has front squats programmed for 3x3 on Wednesdays. I don't see the point of doing a hypertrophy movement for such low volume.

The program I cooked up has 3 four week cycles, the first is higher volume, hypertrophy oriented work, but with heavy singles as well. The 2nd cycle is a little higher intensite and lower volume, with slightly more similar variations to the comp movement. The 3rd cycle will be more moderate volume with higher intensities, and 2 weekly heavy singles for squat and bench. Exercise selection will also be ultra specific for the last block. For example my "light squat" will go from leg press in the first block, to front squat, to paused squats.

All that being said, my wife is seeing great progress from PNP. She's on pnp2 now and still going strong.


This is pretty much going to be an experiment. My goal is to get better at self-programming

[Stenson]

Quite a disappointing first day back....

Comp bench 295x1@8
225×9×5@8-9

Bench went fine. I'm not used to high rep sets so they wore me out fast

Squat 315x6x3@FML

Form was absolute shit today for some reason. Was supposed to do 4x7 but settled for 3x6. I think it was a mixture of benching first (racks were taken) and not having my knee sleeves. Oh, and drinking too much/not training for the last 4 days. It's crazy how dependant one can become on sleeves...

[Stenson]

Leg press 7 plates per side x8x3

Pull ups bw×6×4

Face pull 90x14,13


Just trying to get some work in before I officially start meet prep on Monday

[Stenson]

I figure I'd log the results of my mini-cut here as well...

Beginning date 5/7 --> End date 6/23

BW 229 --> 223.2

Waist 38" --> 37.5"

E1RM's
Squat 444 --> 440
Bench 331 --> 339
Deadlift 471 --> 495



Overall I'd consider this a very successful cut! Squat went down a few lbs, but well within the error bar of an E1RM. I wasn't terribly surprised that DL continued to progress, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see my bench go up throughout this cut. I think that can be attributed to better programming than I've used in the past.

My waist measurement also went down, as well as looking slightly more "jacked", so I think it's safe to say that most of the weight lost was fat. Very happy with that.

Now to bulk up close to 231 for my meet on Sept 22. My plan is to reverse diet slowly, so I don't gain it all back right away. Im trying to be a little more intelligent and patient with my weight than I have been in the past. I'd really like to hit 1400 at the meet.

[Stenson]

Snatch grip deadlift 315x6x3

Seated DB OHP. 70x8x3

Cable tricep ext. 120x12x3

McGill big 3

[Stenson]

Man....my upper back is SORE from those SGDL's yesterday. Tomorrow will probably be worse. Looking forward to the upper back gainzzz though! Between these and front squats, I'm hoping it will help with my thoracic rounding with heavy squats

[Stenson]

Squat 405x1@7
315x7x4@7-8

Bench 225x10,10,9,8@8-9

Seated cable row. 140x9,8,9

Felt strong AF for squats today. The weights went up easy and form was good. I used up all my mojo for bench though...I was supposed to do 10's across. I probably should have dropped weight after the 2nd set but my ego won't let me go below 2 plates lol. Oh well, mostly I just didn't want to go to failure because I have DB bench Wednesday

[Stenson]

Deadlift 455x1@8
365×5×5@7-8

DB bench 90x9x3

Cable tricep ext 120x14,13,12

Leg press 7 plates/sidex8x4

[Stenson]

100th log post!

Squat 345x5x2@8-8.5
335×5×3@8.8.5

Comp bench 300x1@8
245×5×8@7.5-8

Chin up bw×6×4

Began to overshoot RPE, so dropped 10 lbs for my last 3 sets of squats. Form was good, just had quite a bit of fatigue built up from the week. Gonna start adding more calories in, I'm still losing weight at 2900. Gonna titrate up 100 per week, then adjust as needed to gain 0.5 lbs per week