Didn't do any deadlifts last week. No issues with lower back.

Yep, looks like gonna ditch deadlift for now. Maybe start doing sumo after the cut.

1 more month of slight surplus and then gonna cut, real hard. Hopefully can look pretty shredded at 78 kg at least hopefully can retain as much of the strength gains, especially the bench and press.

Had one of the worst OHP day today. Everything felt off. from the power clean to the pressing.

Still managed to push the same weight, 72.5kg, singles instead of usual double or triple for few sets. Decided to then focus on the front squats and heavy neutral grip lat pull down.

still on maintenance or slight surplus at the moment. really not looking forward when the cut starts the week after next.

question now is to either chill down abit (reduce workout days from 5 to 3 next week and deload) or just keep pushing on since next week is the last week of bulking. Too bad didn't manage to hit 80 kg OHP. Didn't have the guts to try 75 kg again as well since cleaning it off the floor was a pain last time.

For the diet, so far at least the weekend is very well under control (almost at the same level of discipline like in 2015).

both OHP and powerclean felt good today. still doing singles but at least everything felt better.

decided to include pushpress variation to the OHP. not as easy as it looks. 60 kg felt pretty heavy. not to mention having to immediately balance the upper body after the leg drive. need some work on this. but happy to say it compliments the strict press pretty well.

getting better with the high bar squat too. the lower back's also not prompting any issues after changing to high bar and ditching deadlift. things are looking pretty good before starting the cut next week.

Just bought a pair of inov 8 shoes. Can't wait to test them out

Adidas's adipower weightlifting still in to buy list. Probably during next trip to uk or something.

Started the cut yesterday. Reduced cals by 500. Planned the cut for 12 weeks. Weekend intake is still very well under control for the past few weeks. Weight currently at 86kg (weigh on weekend)

Workout protocol, decided to change it up abit, following closely on 2015 routine but with more volume, adding finisher at 80% of working weight with more than 10 reps.

On the inov shoes, probably the best investment made so far (the only other gym investment other than the straps, which decided to ditch in order to train grip strength). The heel raise was abit deceiving when first looked at it, compared to when actually wearing the shoes. But nevertheless, it is substantial enough for support. Stability during the power clean and press greatly improved as well as compared to wearing chucks. And they're actually great for conventional deadlift.

had a weigh in just now and do a body composition check with the inbody. currently at 82.6kg, lost about 3.4 kg of water in 4 days.

bodyfat showing at about 17%. not sure how accurate this is. but the goal now is to get to sub 12% by the end of 12 weeks cut. that's about 0.42% per week. should be doable, hopefully.

Diet is very well under control. Averaging 2.5k per day. The lifts did suffer because of this though. Have to take longer rest time and recovery kinda sucked. Now remembered again how brutal it felt like in 2015.

Need to start coming to the gym 1/2 hour earlier too since the rest times are longer for the heavier sets. I'll be happy if can at least maintain more than 90% of the strength by the 12th week.

Finishing 3rd out of the 12 weeks cut. Weight went down to 81.7kg (weighing every Thursday for consistency).

Still maintaining strength, but endurance had really suffered. Was able to get 3x 5 92.5kg bench. Now struggling for even 3 reps. Had to increase the sets in order to maintain the same volume. Db incline also had to reduce the weight from 40 to 36kg for the same 5 reps set.

Even the most consistent workout also had suffered, endurance wise. Ohp at 65kg getting 5 reps only on the 1st 2 sets. Decided to ditch the 65kg 5 reps for 70kg singles.

Surprisingly managed to increase the squat, rows and weighted pullups. Though not sure how long it'll last until the the endurance starts declining.

The remaining 9 weeks gonna be tough.

This post has been edited by axtray: Nov 11 2017, 10:23 PM

It's sure been a while since the last update.

Quite a lot of things happened, with the major one getting married. Decided to ease off the diet for few months after the marriage and did gain quite abit of weight (fat lol) thanks to that. the only consolation was that still hitting the gym consistently (would've been worse if not for that) and was still on 20+ hours fasting (yea 1 big ass meal), so that had kept the damage minimum.

Early March finally decided to give the cut another shot. This time, actually analyzed all attempts for 2016 (after meeting the missus) and 2017 on why the cut had failed, or at least did not manage to get as lean as 2015.

Came to conclusion that

1) was expecting the result to come by within 4-6 weeks. Realized that in 2015, it took more than half a year of consistent dieting for the body to really start to shed the fats off. Or maybe everything was still new so things were easier. Not gonna disregard body and metabolic adaptation but at the very least, am currently lifting at least 10-20% heavier. so that should make up for it hopefully.

2) For 2017 especially, the diet always got sidetracked simply because was too worried about strength loss. At one point decided to do a mini bulk just because was not able to bench 2 plates anymore. So for this time, going complete 180 by not caring too much on the strength, but instead focusing more on the intensity. No more 3-5 minutes rest time (sometimes even more).

3) back to tracking the bodyweight this time too. though this only started 2 weeks ago. currently weight at 81.7kg.

Status: Week 5 of cut completed. So far so good at least. wasn't easy to let the ego go. especially with the bench and OHP. didn't really care much with the squat or deadlift tho.

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This post has been edited by DeAct: Apr 9 2024, 11:43 PM

Hey, thanks for dropping by.

Well to be honest, when I got my shit correct in 2015, the fat loss was a lot more rapid than now (still on the same diet protocol, well almost). Maybe at that time since the goal was purely to just see the abs, I wasn't really paying attention to how long I was dieting since was practically on a cut for the whole year itself.

Progress so far is ook. could've been better if I can follow the exact same diet routine I did in 2015. But no way in hell able to stomach grilled chicken 5 times a week on weekdays anymore. The goal is just to get as lean as possible. last time was pretty lean, but still had some love handles at the back on the side. hopefully this time with the additional muscle mass, can get rid of them.

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This post has been edited by DeAct: Apr 9 2024, 11:42 PM

thanks man.

the bulk in early 2016 was going very well until I met my wife. Lol. and it was still somehow on track until fasting month started and that totally threw everything off. lol

All the best to you too.

Have a 10lbs whey protein Isolate from Rule 1 to sell. Anyone interested let me know.

Item is new and sealed.

this is da whey

Yep. Shit happened..

Could be worse. Seems like you still have some lean muscle under there.

losing the abs is considered worse already. lol. gained over 10 kilos in the span of mere 2 months (about four kilos probably water, but still..).

Restarted the cut at the end of June and aiming for 16-17 weeks. Thankfully so far has been on track .

When was the picture taken? Congrats on the wedding btw.

thanks man.

the after picture was taken at the end of June (30th to be exact). was taking progress pics the first 4 weeks then got lazy. Currently in week 15 of the cut. Based from my log, been consistently about -200 to -300 deficit.

Now Into 16th week of the slow cut. Started @92kg and now close to 80kg. Almost 12kilos off. Gonna aim for 78kg before doing a recomp around +-100 cals of tdee.

And with the new workout regime, I am much leaner and much stronger than when I was at 80kg 5 months ago (the size s clothes are now tight at the chest and loose at the stomach as compared to last time, especially tight at the stomach)