Mr Brittas's Journal - ****NEW PICS on PG-32****

44 mins cardio this morning.  I ran the same route as Wednesday but obviously went a little quicker!  The day off did me the world of good, and although my legs were sore, I had tons of energy.  Its a shame my day off will be Friday's normally.  In fact, I enjoyed it a lot this morning.
 
Arms            WEEK 4
 
DB curls            3 x 10            18kg, 20kg, 22kg (8)
EZ preacher      3 x 12            10kg (not inc bar), 15kg, 20kg (8)
 
Dips                3 x 10                BW for all
Skulls              3 x 10              20kg (12), 30kg, 30kg (8)
 
Standing calf        4 x 8            70kg, 75kg, 80kg, 87.5kg
 
Good session.  Felt nice and pumped after working everything.  I actually feel bigger this week, although sadly not much leaner.
 
And my diet has been spot on so far.  Dreading the weekend!

Hi brittas just wondering when you did your cut, how much cardio were you doing? just curious as ive got 8 weeks untill my holiday and i am aiming to lose a stone. you seem to no your stuff about cutting so thought id get some advice? cheers

Hi mate,
 
The last 2 cuts I've done, I built upto 60 mins SSCV.  Fasted, first thing in the morning.  I aim for 5 mornings a week (workdays), but work commitments often cut that down to 4 most weeks.
 
I did an 8 week cut in April and stuck an extra 30 mins SSCV in on an evening when I could, for the last 2 weeks.  Not sure if it helped or not.
 
I'd recomend 45 mins minimum, 5 days a week for anyone, and build upto 60 if you need to. 

Yeah that sound like a gud plan, did you do any hiit running? i was thinking of doing this after ive done weights. Im gonna try and do cardio as much as i can. How was your strength on your lifts? did you manage to keep it and gain some new muscle?

When I cut, I general drop all carbs apart from a weekly refeed.  It's brutal but it works for me.  So strength does drop a bit as times goes by.
 
When I cut next year I'll keep some carbs in and see if that helps.
 
As for HIIT, I've never really used it.  I was advised against it when not eating carbs as it can burn some muscle.  Not many people seem to use it for cutting when you read through the journals.

was it a keto diet you followed? think i might try that half way through my cut if things arnt working. Ive tryed it before and it is brutal! lol.

Yeah mate a keto diet.  It has it's up's and down's.  Some of the food can be very nice, due to allowing lots of fat in your diet.  Cheese, peanut butter, mayonaise.... but living without carbs can be hard.  The weekley carb ups are heaven though.  In fact, I cheated like mad on my Sunday carbs up, eating a whole load of junk and still lost 2lb a week.
 
The down side is, as soon as you re-introduce carbs you gain some water back and ruin it a bit.  I did an 8 week cut for a holiday in April.  The weeks holiday was all inclusive and I went nuts!!!  Ruined my condition within days!
 
My plans for my cut next spring are to try and leave carbs in there, and drop them towards the end when things slow down.

Sounds like a good plan, thats what ill try and do when things slow down. Ive started a journal up myself to keep me motivated during this cut. Going to start doing them early morning cardio sesh's before work if i can! lol.

It's hard work first thing on a morning mate, but worth it.
 
I'm doing my cardio outdoors at the minute (brisk walk/light jog), but not sure how thats gonna work out as the weather gets worse.  I'm already out running running in the dark which is wierd!

Well the weekend diet wasn't great.  It could have been worse, but still not great.  I kept saturday carb free, but a lot crept in on Sunday.
 
45 mins of cardio this morning.
 
Back            WEEK 5
 
Lat PD                    3 x 10            72.5kg, 80kg (8), 80kg (7)
Cable rows             3 x 8             72.5kg, 72.5kg, 80kg
Hammer PD            3 x 10            60kg, 70kg, 70kg
BB shrugs               3 x 8             110kg for all
 
Felt good today, but I suppose thats all the carbs flooding back in my body.
 
I can tell if this diet has been worth doing or not, but for 2 weeks it won't hurt.  I certainly will a bit leaner and less bloated.  But I suppose that could all be undone within a week.

44 mins cardio this morning.  I'm starting to run a bit quicker which is good for fitness but I don't want to burn any muscle.
 
Diet's spot on.  I maybe over ate a little last night.  I made a chicken curry and the wife barely touched the meat so I had tons of chicken!  I've had a consultant working with me in the office today, so rather then stinking the place out with my tuna (it seems to smell more when its not in a pitta), I've just brought my quark and a shake for later on.  I think I'll regret this as I'm starving already!!
 
Chest            WEEK 5
 
Flat DB press            3 x 8            38kg, 42kg, 46kg (4)        bad!  strength is dropping here!
Incline Smith             3 x 8            70kg, 75kg, 80kg
Cable x overs           3 x 10          25kg, 30kg, 35kg
Seated calf                3 x 25         35kg, 37.5kg, 40kg
 
Not sure what is going on with my DB pressing.  I know I'm cutting but that was crap!  In 2 weeks my new chest routine will consist of heavy incline pressing followed by decline pressing.  I'll leave the flat along for 6 weeks then come back and try and hit some PBs again.
 
 
I'm soooo tempted to go out and get a double cheese burger from McDonalds........ minus the bun of course!

43 minutes cardio this morning.  Seem to be getting slightly quicker!
 
Diet slipped a bit last night.  No carbs but I had a kebab!  I meant to just have chicken but I ate a load of donner meat.  I'm guessing I blew my calorie deficit for the day!
 
Legs            WEEK 5
 
Squats            3 x 8            60kg, 60kg (7), 60kg (7)            Felt soooo heavy!
SLDL               3 x 10          50kg, 55kg, 60kg
Leg ext            3 x 10         80kg, 87.5kg, 95kg (8)
 
 
I just can't budge on the squats.  I was lifting 10kg more 2 weeks ago!  I can only blame all the running combined with no carbs.  I'm praying it starts to go up once I eat normal again next week.
 
I'm also seriously considering making my morning cardio a brisk walk all the way.  The running is tiring my legs out, I'm potentially burning muscle as I do get out of breath a bit, and my knees and shins are starting to suffer.  I know I'll burn less calories.... thats not a big issue though.  But I do worry about all the downhill parts being too easy.  I can force myself to walk fast on the flat and up hills are easy, but downhills will be hard to get the heart rate up.

No cardio this morning.  I've said this before I think, but my wife only works Thurs + Fri.  She gets up about 6am and I need to be around incase the little one wakes up early while she's getting ready, then help to get him ready.  So I can't really do cardio on these days.  I did plan on getting up at 5am this morning to go for a run before she got up.......... the alarm went off at 5am and I realised how silly this was!!!!
 
I will no doubt have to switch to indoor cardio on the exercise bike at some point during the winter, so at this stage I may be able to do cardio while she's getting ready, and I can jump off the bike and see to the little one if he wakes up.  So for now...... it's only 3 a week.  Work trips could screw this up, but I'm bulking so it's not the end of the world.
 
Shoulders            WEEK 5
 
Front smith press            3 x 8            60kg, 65kg, 70kg (5) + drop
BB BNP                            3 x 10           30kg for all
Side raise                        3 x 12           8kg, 10kg, 12kg
Rear cables                     3 x 10           10kg, 10kg, 12.5kg
 
 
Good session.  The reason I love 5 day splits is because I can really focus on the shoulders.
 
Diet is good again.  I went to Asda last night and they had no Quark at all!!!  Now this is annoying, because it means I have to nip to my local Tesco tonight to try and find some.  Tesco's quark isn't nice anyway, plus they're re-doing the store and it's some little temporary shop thing so I doubt they'll have any there either!  I'll have to find an alternative..... cottage cheese or something.  I eat 2 tubs a day at the minute, so this is bad!
 
With only 1.5 real days left of this 2 week diet I'm trying to work out if it's been worth it.  I'm not going to weigh myself til Saturday, so weight loss remains to be seen.  But I'm definitely looking leaner as this week progresses.  Nothing amazing, just better than I looked before.  I just hope it doesn't all come back when I eat carbs again!
 
So plans for coming off the diet and going forward........... well I'll slowly add some carbs back in on Saturday and eat pretty normal on Sunday.  Then it's back to my old bulking diet on Monday.  Slightly less carbs, I'm going to try for more protein.  The main thing is, no junk til the weekends!  I need some kind of disapline to keep me away from the crap.

The last real day of my diet and I go and have a piece of cheesecake!  Ah well, I suppose it won't hurt.
 
Arms            WEEK 5
 
DB curls            3 x 10            18kg, 20kg, 20kg
EZ preacher      3 x 10            15kg (not inc bar), 20kg, 20kg
Dips                  3 x 10             BW for all
Skulls                3 x 10            20kg (12), 25kg (12), 30kg
Standing calf    4 x 10            75kg, 80kg, 87.5kg (8), 95kg (7)
 
 
I stood in my favourite spot in the gym changing rooms, where the light shows every muscle up!  And I looked good.  I'm very happy with this 2 week cut.  My abs were showing, chest looked big again.... everything looked good.  I know this condition will have gone by Sunday, but it inspires a lot of confidence in my dieting techniques to know I can change that much in 2 weeks.  It's almost tempting to carry on dieting, but I need more mass and as I know it was only a short diet.... the food has been killing me.
 
I'll eat pretty normal over the weekend now and hopefully not binge on anything stupid. 
 
What I will say is this....... I'll be very tempted to drop another 2 week cut in after xmas.  It works wonders for the mind set and just helps me pull back in the stomach that was getting too big.  I'm guessing it'll be much easier if I do this in the middle of training when cardio is already being done.  This time I'd had a week off and not been doing much cardio.  It's worth thinking about anyway.

I weighed in at 13st 4lbs on Saturday morning.  So I lost about 6lbs which is great.  I could actually see my abs on Saturday morning.  Mission accomplished!
 
So I started eating carbs again from Saturday onwards.  I just ate pretty normal over the weekend and had a few beers saturday night.  A bit of junk was in there, but nothing crazy.  Obviously I don't look as good now but I feel much better than I did 2 weeks ago.  I might do this again after xmas.
 
I did 43 minutes cardio this morning.  It was freezing at 6am today, and I didn't have to take my hooded top off like I usually do!
 
Oh and eating toast with my omlette was heaven!
 
Back            WEEK 6
 
Lat PD            3 x 8            72.5kg, 80kg, 80kg
Cable row      3 x 8            72.5kg, 80kg, 80kg
Hammer PD    3 x 8            70kg for all
BB shrugs       3 x 8            110kg for all
 
I felt a bit weak despite eating carbs again.  I blame the lack of sleep and drinking on saturday night!  Back to bulking!

I was only out running for 32 mins this morning.  I set off and 10 mins in it started raining.  Now I don't mind the rain...... it was quite nice infact, but I'd got my new phone in my pocket (playing music and logging the run) and I was paranoid it was getting wet through my tracksuit.  So I cut the run short as it was doing my head in that I could be damaging it.  The phone was ok and I was only 10 mins or so short of my normal run.  In future, if it looks like rain I'll leave it at home.  Either that or find a way of putting in something waterproof!
 
It's a shame because I was enjoying it and felt really fit this morning.  It's very spooky running at 6am now it's pitch black.  There's no one around and it feels like the middle of the night still!
 
I've got a bloke working with me on Thursday and I might not get out to the gym, so I thought I'd cater for a 4 day split this week.
 
Chest + Tri's            WEEK 6
 
Flat DB bench            3 x 8            38kg, 42kg, 46kg (6)
Inc Smith                   3 x 8            70kg, 75kg, 80kg
Cable X overs            3 x 10          27.5kg, 30kg, 32.5kg
Dips                           3 x 10          BW for all
Skulls                        2 x 12           20kg for both
 
 
A really good session.  I felt strong again.  Nice to get some decent reps with the 46's again.  I hate training biceps with my back, but I don't mind chest + tri's.  In a way, I feel like they get worked more when I've used them to press and stuff. 

43 minute run this morning.  Thats it for another week.
 
Legs            WEEK 6
 
Squats            4 x 8            50kg, 55kg, 60kg, 65kg (5)
SLDL               3 x 12          50kg, 55kg, 60kg (10)
Leg ext            3 x 10         80kg, 87.5kg, 95kg
Standing calf    3 x 25         35kg for all (25, 20, 20 reps)
 
 
Well it was a great session and my legs feel shot.  Problem is, this running is definitely hindering the squats.  I dropped the weight down a bit today and built back up but I'm still 10kg off my PB from a few weeks ago.  I'm considering moving legs to the end of the week.  As I don't run on Thurs and Fri, they might feel a bit fresher.  Only problem with that is, it means training all my upper body without a break.  I might try it next week.  Standing calf with high reps felt good (the seated machine was busy).  I'll be doing these from now and doing seated ones heavy.

Just a note to say I'm fat and lazy!!  I had fish and chips last night and I've not trained today!
 
I wasn't supposed to be training today and I've only got shoulders + bi's left, but the guy I was working with today cancelled on me so I could've gone and trained if I really wanted to.  I was a bit busy at work so I just worked through my lunch.  Won't hurt I suppose!

I'm dead this week.  Glad it's over after today anyway!
 
Shoulders + Bi's            WEEK 6
 
Smith front press            3 x 8            60kg, 60kg, 65kg
BB BNP                            2 x 10          30kg, 35kg (8)
Side raises                    2 x 12            10kg, 12kg
Rear cable flies               2 x 12           10kg, 12.5kg
 
DB curls                        3 x 10            18kg for all
EZ preacher                  3 x 10            10kg (not inc bar), 15kg, 15kg
 
Not the best session.  I feel a bit weak today like I'm coming down with something.  Hopefully I'll get some rest at the weekend.  All lifts were down a bit, but so was motivation today.  I'm kinda glad to see the back of this 6 week routine and ready for a new one next week.  Which will look a bit like this....
 
Chest - Inc smith, Decline BB, DB flies (varying angles)
 
Back - Wide grip chins (making them count this time!), close grip LatPD, BB row, some kind of shrugs
 
Legs - not sure.... maybe some higher rep squats seen as I'm getting no where with the weight, leg press, leg curl.... and maybe stick leg ext in
 
Shoulders - reckon I'll go back on the hammer strength machine seen as I progressed so much last time, standing military press, cable raises, DB rear flies
 
Arms - EZ curls (or maybe BB), then some DB work.... maybe seated, Dips for tri's still as I'm loving these, and skulls or pushdowns.
 
Calves will be high rep standing as a priority, low rep heavy seated if I can train them twice in the week.
 
I might move the legs to friday seen as the running is killing them at the minute.  I'm looking forward to it already!
 

43 minutes cardio this morning.  I felt quite fit today.  For the first time, I'm actually appreciating how the cardio is affecting my fitness.  All I usually care about is fatloss.
 
New routine today
 
Chest + Tri's            WEEK 1
 
Incline smith            3 x 8            75kg, 80kg, 85kg (6)
Decline BB                3 x 8           70kg, 75kg, 80kg
Incline flies              4 x 12          10kg, 12kg, 14kg, 16kg (10)
Dips                        3 x 10            BW for all
Pushdowns            3 x 12            55kg (15), 65kg, 65kg
 
 
Great session.  I fear i might have started too heavy on the incline smith, but I'll stick to that weight next week to try and grow a bit before I push myself any further.  Decline felt great again and I enjoyed the flies.  I'm hoping that even though decline is my 2nd press, my strength goes up and I get somewhere near my decline PB of 100kg.  Baring in mind 100kg has only ever been done fresh.  We'll see.
 
I've done my chest today so I can do shoulders on Weds and leave the legs til Friday.  See if they feel any better after a bit of rest from 2 none cardio days.
 
I'm determined to get things growing again!  Lets hope I can get somewhere this winter.