Blonde will make you STRONG

[EvilPie]

Everything's going reasonably for me albeit with no huge progress.

I'm still squatting really deep which means they're a lot lighter than before. I'm back up to 80kg for now which I'm pleased with. I'm going lower than I've ever managed before so the target now is to get back up to 100kg whilst maintaining form. I've not been doing them long but I can already see the difference in my legs so no plans to change these for a while.

Bench press is pretty stagnant at 100kg but I'm at 8 reps for that so pretty decent. The shoulder hurt last time I tried them but I've got another go tomorrow morning so will be nice to see a bit of improvement. If I can get an easy 100kg out without any shoulder pain I might try to bump these up a bit. Just going to play it by ear and see how I feel.

Press ups are going really well after my poor few weeks about a month ago. I got to a stage on day 62 where I was 921 behind target but now on day 87 I'm only 123 behind. My new press up routine of 5 sets of 25 then 1 set as many as possible works really well after all my stretching whilst I'm making my dinner in the evening. Final set is up to 35 now which is nice and gets 160 in for the day. Up to 5836 total for the year with a mere 19164 to go.......

Looks like great work from everybody else and the main thing as ever is that everybody's still there!!! Keep it up guys!!!

[iRaise]

Everything's going reasonably for me albeit with no huge progress.

I'm still squatting really deep which means they're a lot lighter than before. I'm back up to 80kg for now which I'm pleased with. I'm going lower than I've ever managed before so the target now is to get back up to 100kg whilst maintaining form. I've not been doing them long but I can already see the difference in my legs so no plans to change these for a while.

Bench press is pretty stagnant at 100kg but I'm at 8 reps for that so pretty decent. The shoulder hurt last time I tried them but I've got another go tomorrow morning so will be nice to see a bit of improvement. If I can get an easy 100kg out without any shoulder pain I might try to bump these up a bit. Just going to play it by ear and see how I feel.

Press ups are going really well after my poor few weeks about a month ago. I got to a stage on day 62 where I was 921 behind target but now on day 87 I'm only 123 behind. My new press up routine of 5 sets of 25 then 1 set as many as possible works really well after all my stretching whilst I'm making my dinner in the evening. Final set is up to 35 now which is nice and gets 160 in for the day. Up to 5836 total for the year with a mere 19164 to go.......

Looks like great work from everybody else and the main thing as ever is that everybody's still there!!! Keep it up guys!!!

Incred work with the press ups. Tried a few today, better you than me.

Progress going pretty good, look really lean in the right lighting, trololol. About as pasty as humanly possible too, so with a tan and all the tricks think I have done pretty well. Still haven't weighed myself but definitely will, just for my own interest. It has been really good to live the process, and it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought (don't get me wrong, I have been hungry" but I have been as flexible as I can whilst maintaining my KCAL allowance for 95%+ of the days.

Off to a 'yoga for strength training' seminar next weekend, can't wait. this years seminars has really opened my eyes to so many things that the country's best coaches seem as standard, and I am there like wow this is game changing. The more I learn the more frustrated I get at the standard/knowledge of most PT's/gym goers/fitness ambassadors etc etc.

Changed the program up for the next few weeks, excited for it, today saw an incline bench of 3x5 at 70kg. Pretty pleased with that considering it is the first 'heavy' things in a few weeks. Last 6-8 weeks has been all movement and control. Looking for a 3x5 back squat and 3x5 deadlift too with an over warm up on both. So will see where we get. Will be over the moon with 100kg squats, setting the sights a little low, but energy levels are not through the roof. Apparently halving your kcals does that. But still interested to see the progress, and any progress I make will give me so much more confidence when I am hammering back rice cakes again. 

[Eso Kral]

Great work Matt on catching back up!

I was having a good week both eating and training wise but have felt a twinge in the lower right part of my back since Saturday (second legs day of week) which is painful down through my right bollock and top of the groin

I'm not normally injury/illness prone so am going to have to monitor and it may be that legs day is brutal as we do a tri set of reverse lunges from a step > hip thrusters > double kettleball squat swings for 4x8 with a minutes rest after each tri set into Romanian DL 4x8 then BB Back Squat 4x8 and I wonder if it's 2x compression exercises that has tweaked something? It's unlikely to be the weight as I'm pretty shattered by the time I get to D/L and Squat so am doing 60kg and 70kg respectively so no world records obv.

Upper body has gone well and I am happy with improvements there but just dont want any med/long term injury scuppering what I have achieved so far.

Will have to see how I feel after upper body tomorrow.

[iRaise]

Rich, didn't notice that RDL and squat were supersetted. I think that is pretty tough, two big movements. Don't over do it SPESHLY on a deficit.

Going on a bit of a baking/cooking craze at the minute. Will update the thread if I find I have created anything incredibly tasty. Obv all around dieting and low kcal at the minute.

Hopefully I have this love for cooking when I am back up to a strength focus so I can ram the kcals in there.

[EvilPie]

Great work Matt on catching back up!

I was having a good week both eating and training wise but have felt a twinge in the lower right part of my back since Saturday (second legs day of week) which is painful down through my right bollock and top of the groin

I'm not normally injury/illness prone so am going to have to monitor and it may be that legs day is brutal as we do a tri set of reverse lunges from a step > hip thrusters > double kettleball squat swings for 4x8 with a minutes rest after each tri set into Romanian DL 4x8 then BB Back Squat 4x8 and I wonder if it's 2x compression exercises that has tweaked something? It's unlikely to be the weight as I'm pretty shattered by the time I get to D/L and Squat so am doing 60kg and 70kg respectively so no world records obv.

Upper body has gone well and I am happy with improvements there but just dont want any med/long term injury scuppering what I have achieved so far.

Will have to see how I feel after upper body tomorrow.

Do you stretch after this leg workout? You should be doing at least ten minutes stretching after something this tough.

The pain you describe sounds like tight glute or hip flexor to me. If you press your thumb in about three to four inches back from your hip bone just over the glute you might feel it ease off a bit. If you do then it's hip flexor and you need to get a hard ball and start rolling round on it in that spot. Also get rolling around on your glute because that's almost definitely tight anyway.

[Eso Kral]

Great work Matt on catching back up!

I was having a good week both eating and training wise but have felt a twinge in the lower right part of my back since Saturday (second legs day of week) which is painful down through my right bollock and top of the groin

I'm not normally injury/illness prone so am going to have to monitor and it may be that legs day is brutal as we do a tri set of reverse lunges from a step > hip thrusters > double kettleball squat swings for 4x8 with a minutes rest after each tri set into Romanian DL 4x8 then BB Back Squat 4x8 and I wonder if it's 2x compression exercises that has tweaked something? It's unlikely to be the weight as I'm pretty shattered by the time I get to D/L and Squat so am doing 60kg and 70kg respectively so no world records obv.

Upper body has gone well and I am happy with improvements there but just dont want any med/long term injury scuppering what I have achieved so far.

Will have to see how I feel after upper body tomorrow.

Do you stretch after this leg workout? You should be doing at least ten minutes stretching after something this tough.

The pain you describe sounds like tight glute or hip flexor to me. If you press your thumb in about three to four inches back from your hip bone just over the glute you might feel it ease off a bit. If you do then it's hip flexor and you need to get a hard ball and start rolling round on it in that spot. Also get rolling around on your glute because that's almost definitely tight anyway.

I do a 5 min maintenance stretch of the major muscle groups I have worked after each session to relax those groups as have always been brought up with stretching through football and training.

I think you have my pain about right and will it felt a bit easier this morning but I decided to give it one more day and miss today's session so will do Weds/Thurs Sat/Sun and have found a ball as you say and so will use it during the day to try and break it down.  Thanks for the diagnosis Dr Evil

[iRaise]

Legs today, recently I have just been doing eccentric and dropping the weight. So last 6 weeks has been relatively low weight part from deadlifts.

Little bit rushed today so numbers not as high as I wanted to start with but,

1x2 100kg
1x1 120kg
3x5 Squats 90kg

Looking to put a heavier leg press in for next week too, 90 was pretty comfortable so fancy that for 100 soon. But the 120 was meant to be for two and was tough, so feels like I just need to get used to having some heavier weight through my legs.

Tales of the low kcal cheesecake go on, 2 efforts, both not even worthy of a report.

[iRaise]

Good training session today, upper body some decent 1 arm rows.

Slowly ticking away. Have 4 more weeks before I reassess if I wanna carry on dieting or move back to some strength work. I hope I can find the motivation to carry on dieting as want to maintain a presentable physique for the summer, and august-dec works so well for me with birthdays/reunions to ease off the focus.

[Eso Kral]

So this week has been a bit wank tbh, I was in pain with movement such as getting out of bed or standing up off a chair etc so booked to see a physio and just rested up as much as I could but didnt get down and stuff my face

Last night I saw the physio and she told me i had tweaked my glute and boy could I see where as she forced her elbow into the area to break down the tissue and also as I had probably done this whilst doing deep squats my adductor had taken over and also was tight as it compensated for the glute weakness which explained the dull ache I had constantly in my right groin.

She was really good tbh and well worth the £45 and having analysed me she noticed my hips were ool so worked on that as well although as she has now "fixed" that part she said I will be weaker in the legs exercises as I will lift through a different range of motion.

Luckily she said to get back on the horse and told me I can go back to upper body today as I would be doing normally and then can do the same session for legs that I would normally do but need to miss out any single leg exercises so have to skip reverse platform lunges as part of the starting tri set until I see her next week.

I'm pretty happy that it's nothing worse than that and that I can resume one week behind and I'm not beating myself up as it's the first week of missed sessions this year so hopefully wont lose too much of the Big Mo.....

[Eso Kral]

Was still a bit sore yesterday which I suppose is understandable after manipulation but felt a lot better today so went and did upper body day and thankfully got through it with no pain during or after and maintained the weight I was at previously too.

I will do a slightly lighter version of legs day tomorrow and as above have been advised to leave out the single leg stuff for a week so will leave the reverse lunges off a platform for 10days.

If tomorrow goes well then I will be straight back into the programme next Tuesday.

[zerofive]

Last night I saw the physio and she told me i had tweaked my glute and boy could I see where as she forced her elbow into the area to break down the tissue and also as I had probably done this whilst doing deep squats my adductor had taken over and also was tight as it compensated for the glute weakness which explained the dull ache I had constantly in my right groin.

She was really good tbh and well worth the £45 and having analysed me she noticed my hips were ool so worked on that as well although as she has now "fixed" that part she said I will be weaker in the legs exercises as I will lift through a different range of motion.

I'm talking to everyone who is reading this, not just you Eso.

Get a foam roller and a cricket ball. Net cost will be £15~ Learn how to massage yourself with these things. Take 10-15 minutes out of every day to target your problem areas. You can do it before your dynamic warmup stretches and/or after your cooldown stretches, or first thing in the morning (trust me, nothing will wake you up like myofascial release of your tight gluteal muscles!) It will be the best money you ever spent.

[iRaise]

So failed the 1rm deadlift again, at 180kg. Very annoying. But then got 155 for 3x5 which is EVEN more annoying.

Training going amazing though. So will not complain. Gonna drop my fats and up my carbs for the last 4 weeks and see where we get too. And knock the cardio now and focus on pushing harder in the gym.

[the sicilian]

Last night I saw the physio and she told me i had tweaked my glute and boy could I see where as she forced her elbow into the area to break down the tissue and also as I had probably done this whilst doing deep squats my adductor had taken over and also was tight as it compensated for the glute weakness which explained the dull ache I had constantly in my right groin.

She was really good tbh and well worth the £45 and having analysed me she noticed my hips were ool so worked on that as well although as she has now "fixed" that part she said I will be weaker in the legs exercises as I will lift through a different range of motion.

I'm talking to everyone who is reading this, not just you Eso.

Get a foam roller and a cricket ball. Net cost will be £15~ Learn how to massage yourself with these things. Take 10-15 minutes out of every day to target your problem areas. You can do it before your dynamic warmup stretches and/or after your cooldown stretches, or first thing in the morning (trust me, nothing will wake you up like myofascial release of your tight gluteal muscles!) It will be the best money you ever spent.

Used those foam rollers.. good but can be a little painful

[EvilPie]

Had a steady week last week because I was slightly under the weather. Only managed one gym session as I just felt tired and achy when I woke up so really didn't feel like it. I managed three press up session so a slight fall back but not any kind of concern. I got 5 x 25 and 1 x 40 last night so really pleased with that. Good to finally start seeing a bit of progress again.

Decent upper session this morning. Went up to 105kg on the bench for 5 reps which was decent and even managed a few chin ups without too much forearm agony. I had a really good physio session on Thursday which I think has helped with that a lot. Need to keep working on the stretches I've been given so that I can get properly in to the chin ups over the next few months. I really want to get back to double figures. I know my back can cope but the forearm pain just takes over and I have to stop. Fingers crossed that it keeps improving....

Good to see that Rich doesn't appear to have a major issue. Can only echo what Sean has said about the cricket ball / foam roller combo. I don't use a roller but I have a very tough rubber ball that I use and although painful it definitely works in ironing out those tight muscles. I use it on my triceps quite a lot as they get a bit of a hammering with all the press ups I've been doing. I'm sure that's part of what's helping to alleviate my forearm pain somewhat.

Keep up the good work gents!!

[Eso Kral]

Thanks for the advice guys with the foam rollers and cricket ball which are being ordered today.

I woke up well this morning and although a bit cold/snotty went for my upper body day and whether it is down to a 9.30pm boost of porridge which I read was good for restocking muscles with glycogen and meaning you wake up feeling fresh or just in my head I'm not sure but on the mornings I am due to train I have been having it for a week and wake up feeling strong and ready to go.

Today which is week 2 having had a disjointed week last week I moved up weights on 2 of the excercises (Barbell BP and Bent over BB row) and also added another dip to the numbers so am now at 4x6 so am confident I will be at 4 x 8 minimum by the end of the next 3 weeks injury prevailing.

I'm having a spot check on my food today as am in a pretty consistent routine so will post later what I eat and the numbers involved for perusal/assessment.