CK's Journal - The Road To Achieving a 1-Star Rating

7am - the earliest I've been up in about a year

The cut begins...

Back to business. Returned to the gym today after exactly a 3 week hiatus and my god I have gotten weak. The numbers speak for themselves:

Bench
20kg x 8 x 2
40kg x 5
60kg x 5

90kg x 4 (-1)
87.5kg x 5 (-2.5kg)
87.5kg x 5
87.5kg x 5
87.5kg x 4 (-1)

Incline Bench
60kg x 8
60kg x 6 (-2)
60kg x 4 (-4) !!!

Dips
BW x 8
BW x 7 (-1)
BW x 5 (-3)

Skull Crushers
27.5kg x 8
27.5kg x 8
27.5kg x 5 (-3)

FST-7 Cable Crossovers
14kg x 12
14kg x 12
14kg x 12
14kg x 10
14kg x 10
14kg x 9
14kg x 9
Just about the only enjoyable part of the session!

In a way it's unfortunate that I am starting to cut now because ideally I'd like to have been at least back to my strength before I took this time off before I started trying to lose weight. But what can ya do, the belly has to go, there's no two ways about it. Having said that my diet was appalling for the last 3 weeks, so perhaps once I get back to eating a respectable amount of protein the strength will return shortly. Deadlifting and squatting should be interesting this week.

Started a new diet today as well. Basically high protein, high fat and just cutting out carbs except for pre and post-workout, and even then I'll only be eating oats probably. So sort of a TKD sort of affair I suppose? I am sitting at around 100kg but I have realised more of that is probably fat than I thought, so currently the plan is to be eating around 2600-2800 kcals a day.

It's gone well so far I must say, just had my third meal and it was just a chicken breast and a big pile o' broccoli and cauliflower, covered in olive oil. It was delish and filled me right up despite the lack of carbs. Plus my pre-workout meal was 6 eggs, followed by a big pile of oats with a banana chopped up mixed in a bowl with water and a tiny dash of sugar free cordial and it was bloody gorgeous. I know it's early days but I can see myself enjoying this low carb thing. God knows how my strength will fare though.

Decided to keep using creatine though to help with the strength, and gonna order some BCAAs and Glutamine later on as well.

Picking up an exercise bike off my mate tomorrow so AM unfuelled SSCV will begin the following day I guess.

Bring it on!

Sorry if you have already said in previous posts

But what cut diet(low carbs) did you go for in the end?

how'd the exams go?

good luck with the diet

Ballbag AKA onefatidiot


Sorry if you have already said in previous posts

But what cut diet(low carbs) did you go for in the end?

Nothing specific really, just cut down carbs until I'm in a 500kcal or so deficit, leaving only carbs before and after training. Plus loads of protein and loads of fat. I'll monitor and adjust and see how I get on.

AWG


how'd the exams go?

good luck with the diet

Cheers man.

Exams went ok, criminal law yesterday was a bit dodgy though, hard to say how I got on, but I couldn't have worked any harder so we'll see!

Hope they turn out good.

When does training re-commence at 100%?

CitizenKane




Nothing specific really, just cut down carbs until I'm in a 500kcal or so deficit, leaving only carbs before and after training. Plus loads of protein and loads of fat. I'll monitor and adjust and see how I get on.

Ive got a few lyle mcdonald ebooks if you want to have a look? Just send over a PM...well worth a read mate.

iaink


Hope they turn out good.

When does training re-commence at 100%?

Now! What do you mean exactly? Like, not being in a deficit? The cut will last 12-14 weeks depending on how I get on, but I'm still gonna try and increase all my lifts during the cut as well, if I find I'm struggling to do that I'll add in a bit more carbs perhaps. But yeah, back training 100% now, exams are finito until September!

Ballbag AKA onefatidiot

CitizenKane




Nothing specific really, just cut down carbs until I'm in a 500kcal or so deficit, leaving only carbs before and after training. Plus loads of protein and loads of fat. I'll monitor and adjust and see how I get on.

Ive got a few lyle mcdonald ebooks if you want to have a look? Just send over a PM...well worth a read mate.

PMed!

Sent

Enjoy!

Mate im starting my cut on Monday (post excessive easter egg consumption!) too!

I'm doing it a bit diff, will be having a small amount of carbs breakfast/lunch/pre/post but just protein/veg/fat for dinner. Did it before and works well.

Good luck to both us chubbers!!

Red_Alert


Mate im starting my cut on Monday (post excessive easter egg consumption!) too!

I'm doing it a bit diff, will be having a small amount of carbs breakfast/lunch/pre/post but just protein/veg/fat for dinner. Did it before and works well.

Good luck to both us chubbers!!

Good luck pal! Although to be fair judging by your last pics I think I am in a different league of chub to you!

personally dont think you need a drastic cut mate, clean up the diet and add in some cardio and you will be able to put some size on and drop bf% aswell.
i dont rate excercise bikes for cardio as its too easy to "potter" along lol, a brisk walk for 30-40 mins is much more effective as its load bearing. 
 
How are you finding DC training?

Cheers for the input J. Are you basing that opinion on the pic I put up on the previous page? If so, bear in mind I am considerably fatter now! I haven't gotten any more tired or lethargic than I normally am by cutting out the carbs so far, so I'm just gonna see how I get on. I'm still eating sh1t loads of food!

Nah mate I never went for DC in the end, I was thinking about it for ages a while ago but then I decided to stick with a more traditional strength and mass routine. DC is something that I will hope to do some time soon though, perhaps some time this year, I really like the look of it and by all accounts it is great for strength as well as mass!

CitizenKane

Cheers for the input J. Are you basing that opinion on the pic I put up on the previous page? If so, bear in mind I am considerably fatter now! I haven't gotten any more tired or lethargic than I normally am by cutting out the carbs so far, so I'm just gonna see how I get on. I'm still eating sh1t loads of food!
Nah mate I never went for DC in the end, I was thinking about it for ages a while ago but then I decided to stick with a more traditional strength and mass routine. DC is something that I will hope to do some time soon though, perhaps some time this year, I really like the look of it and by all accounts it is great for strength as well as mass!

Based on the pic, the cardio will bump up metabolism quite a bit and if youre diet is controlled then you will add some lean mass and drop BF too... the holy grail...
argh no carbs - me no likey lol, thankfully i have a fast metabolism and am dieting on 300g a day pmsl, keep an eye on youre strength so that you dont lose muscle.
 
DC is great - i really rate it, made some awesome natural gains with it and really enjoyed doing it, biggest strenght increases ive ever had came from it too... i still follow a similar protocal but have adapted it to include slightly more volume - so 2-3 excercises instead of just the one and split into 3 days instead of 2.
 
 
 
 

anabolicjay

CitizenKane

Cheers for the input J. Are you basing that opinion on the pic I put up on the previous page? If so, bear in mind I am considerably fatter now! I haven't gotten any more tired or lethargic than I normally am by cutting out the carbs so far, so I'm just gonna see how I get on. I'm still eating sh1t loads of food!
Nah mate I never went for DC in the end, I was thinking about it for ages a while ago but then I decided to stick with a more traditional strength and mass routine. DC is something that I will hope to do some time soon though, perhaps some time this year, I really like the look of it and by all accounts it is great for strength as well as mass!

Based on the pic, the cardio will bump up metabolism quite a bit and if youre diet is controlled then you will add some lean mass and drop BF too... the holy grail...
argh no carbs - me no likey lol, thankfully i have a fast metabolism and am dieting on 300g a day pmsl, keep an eye on youre strength so that you dont lose muscle.
 
DC is great - i really rate it, made some awesome natural gains with it and really enjoyed doing it, biggest strenght increases ive ever had came from it too... i still follow a similar protocal but have adapted it to include slightly more volume - so 2-3 excercises instead of just the one and split into 3 days instead of 2.
 
 
 
 

Yep this is what I keep hearing! Dunno if you've read this far back in my journal but I said that I have intentions of possibly competing in powerlifting someday, but to be honest I think I have sort of jumped the gun a bit with that. I am still for all intents and purposes a beginner and getting into good shape is still a priority (obviously, hence why I'm cutting!), and I think for the time being the best thing to do would be to just build up a solid base of mass and strength, before ever thinking about powerlifting per se. DC sounds like so much fun but yeah like you said apparently you can get bloody strong on it too, so definitely going to try it out sooner rather than later!

Just picked up the exercise bike and did 30mins SSCV. Prob gonna do 30-40mins 4-5 mornings a week. Not very fun but what can you do!

Oh dear...

1/4/10

Deadlift
20kg x 8 x 2
60kg x 8
100kg x 5

140kg x 5
140kg x 5
140kg x 3 (-2)
Simply couldn't do any more after this. WTF

DB Rows
45kg x 8
45kg x 8
45kg x 8

Lat Pulldowns
90kg x 7 (-1)
90kg x 7 (-1)
80kg x 8

Cable Rows
60kg x 10
60kg x 10
60kg x 9

EZ Curls
30kg x 10
30kg x 9
30kg x 9

FST-7 Cable Curls
20kg x 12
20kg x 12
20kg x 12
20kg x 12
20kg x 10
20kg x 10
20kg x 9

40 mins on Crosstrainer

So yeah, basically a terrible session. I'll put it down to the 3 weeks I took off.

Thinking of doing a bit more direct volume for bi's as well. For basically a year I've just been doing 3-4 sets of curls at the end of my back workout, and my bi's seem to be the part of me that have grown the least since I started! So will prob add in another exercise or two. That FST-7 thing is bloody awesome but I doubt I'll do it every session, just seems like a bit of an overkill!

Im sure your lifts will come back up mate