Gym had reopened so had started to push the heavier weights again thanks to having the safety bars. Been eating above maintenance as well in hoping that it'll help both physically and mentally for the strength goals. I am giving myself until the end of this year to hit the strength goals (mainly 140kg bench and maybe 150-160kg squat). Come 1 Jan, it'll be pretty strict cut to get back to at least sub 12% BF.

Unfortunately hitting some setbacks at the moment as the left shoulder and right elbow are now injured. Pretty sure it's impingement for the shoulder while the elbow is inflamed joints. Today's bench session the 120kg and 110kg were missing 1-2 reps per set. The final 3 sets at 100kg however still managed to rep a 10-9-9.

the squat can now do paused 3 plate and grew some balls to hit a second rep last Sunday. Will work on getting 5 reps before attempting a new PR at 150kg.

OHP seems to be the biggest winner now. for 3/4 range of motion reps, can easily bust out 15 reps at 60kg. strict form (shoulder to lock) can push for 12.


Plan for now, the bench weight will be capped at 100kg for either 3-4 sets for min 10 reps. ill also be incorporating paused sets to makeup for missing out the heavier sets (110 and 120kg). Here's hoping don't have to further reduce the weight.

Shoulders and elbows are slightly better now after being in pain for the past few weeks. Was struggling with the bench last Tuesday. 120kg only managed 1,2,2 reps. Missing a rep for 112.5kg dropset and 102.5 missing 2 reps (8'7'8).

One of the trainer saw the pathetic attempts and suggested to try the slingshot. So after completing the bench with the drop sets, slung in the sleeve and he told to attempt overload with the current 1rm (132.5kg). Holyshit totally underestimated the support that it gave and went up pretty easily. He then suggested 3pl8. Managed to get it as well. Felt pretty surreal unracking the 3pl8s since it was uncharted territory.

After the 2 overload sets, he suggested to try again 120kg and attempt 5 reps. Managed to get them pretty easily despite the struggle in the first 3 sets earlier.

Edit: this was with the slingshot, not raw. Id be on cloudnine if it was

Now heavily considering in investing for one as it really helps in correcting the benchform, particularly on making sure to explode at the bottom. I realize that ive been overthinking on how to execute the movement correctly, rather than doing it.

This post has been edited by axtray: Nov 11 2020, 10:45 PM

Both elbows are officially fked. Also this week is the worse in terms of performance. The cosntant sets 90% of 1rm had probably taken a toll on the cns (guessing).

Wasnt really a problem to reduce the weight for the pull workouts just now. The only problem is the ego kicks in hardd when benching, which make things worse. Still havent made the 100kg the bitxh yet. Eventho can get over 10 reps on a good day, but its still a maximum effort set. Most likely not sustainable once the cut starts.

Elbows felt alot better this week. Been benching for 3 days in a row. But with reduced vol.

The session last Tuesday felt good. Thanks to this injury had to tweak the bench workout to workaround the pain. At the moment cannot do continuous reps as they will start to hurt again. But paused and burst seems to be fine so long the elbows are not subjected to constant pressure/load.

Increased the reps for the warmup sets as well, which may have helped.

Reworked on the technique as well, especially the setup which made the bench session the last few days felt very consistent (feeling wise). Hopefully the form will maintain during this werkend

This post has been edited by axtray: Nov 19 2020, 11:05 PM

Decided to start the cut last week since i just realized that puasa will start mid April. So this means I will have 16 weeks to cut as opposed to 14 if I were to start next week in 2021 itself.

Annoyingly didn't get the 140kg bench goal and the elbows are still f*cked.

Calorie wise for the cut, now being abit more agressive with the reduction with more than 500 cals deficit. Thanks to that, the workouts were nightmare (lightheaded, tired etc).

Will probably increase the deficit once the body gets adjusted.



Workout wise, all workouts will start to focus more on volume instead of strength (10-15 reps). For the bench however, decided to try UFpowerlifter program to see if it'll work to increase the numbers.

This post has been edited by axtray: Dec 28 2020, 06:52 PM

Finally can do proper pullups at home 😎

The old rack i will either try to sell it for cheap or use it for possible home private pt sesh after getting cert

This post has been edited by axtray: Jan 15 2021, 02:30 PM


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Have lost about 10kgs so far since restarting back from the mco last year. Now at 93kg.

6kg for about 6 months from maintenance + slight deficit
4kg in about 2 1/2 months from actual cut

Can see the outline of the abs which is something that wasnt there when i was at 92kg in 2018. but still have tons of love handles. Itll probably take another 10kg to be at least close to where i was in terms of leanest from 2018 or even 2016.

Strength wise, still pretty much maintained for every lifts. Tho started taking easy on the heavy singles of the squat.

Started deadlift again. Tho pretty much abandoning the 200kg goal. Its more of a posterior chain supplement workout on top of the squat as the goal now is mainly aesthetic (big quads is not the goal) and decently strong in the gym. At least want to make sure that im above the average bicep curl gym goers.

At the rate of the cut, dont think ill be dipping below 90kg before ramadhan. But with the current diet i should be well in the mis 80s by June or July before bumping the cals to focus again on strength gain. The goal now is to see if can hit 140kg bench while looking aesthetic before turning 35 yo in October.

Update: typing this shit on PC with additional notes.

Finally somehow survived the 16 weeks cut. Tho this time it was not as agressive as last time.

At the end of the depletion day, the weight was at 88.8kg. Pretty surprised that i managed to get below 90 tbh. In overall the total weight lost is 8.2kg which pretty much at the ball park of.0.5kilos per week.

Abs are clearly becoming more and more visible and veins on the arms are starting to pop again.

Strength wise, bench press took the biggest hit annoyingly. just barely getting the 120kilos for 1 rep today.

OHP im still repping 5-6 consistently at 70kg. Tested 80kg and still barely got the rep. at below 90kg, ill consider that still a win.

Squat, not hitting the 3 plate anymore. capping it at 135 tops, but will usually just do 3 sets of 1 at 130 and then 5 sets of 3 at 120kg.

Deadlift, still capping at 3 plate. Tho slowly increasing the rep count. but not gonna exceed 5 for the set.

Included weighted back extension as well as per the trainer's recommendation in order to strenghthen the tailbone area (my glutes are weak af). Hip thrust is likely a better choice of workout for this, but it's easier to just perform back extension without having to set up for hip trust.


Puasa time will be a challenge since for the past few years i never failed to gain weight. The cut may have officially ended, but im still planning to at least try and be in a deficit, if not on maintenance throughout the fasting month. The plan is after raya, will do another round of depletion and see if I still maintain below 90kg and best case scenario lose some weight during the month.

This post has been edited by axtray: Apr 13 2021, 06:10 PM

finally made it through the fasting month

workout wise, watever i planned to do, not all were ticked off unfortunately.

Failed
1) maintaining the same split at home (with watever available eqs as per during the MCO in Jan. - did not happen. Workout volume significantly reduced, from 5 days, to 3-4 days. Workout consists of mainly bench press, pull ups, lightweight squat and press from rack. no accessories. I figured lifting in condo at midnight is not a good idea as may accidentally drop the weight due.

2) Did not perform any form of cardio at all. getting back to the usual routine after this not gonna be easy.


Successful
1) maintained the same diet model pre ramadhan. happy to say that managed to stick to it

2) was maintaining in the 89kg range throughout ramadhan. However suspected that may had lost some lean mass and gained some fat due to absence of cardio and volume from training. (still consider this a win since the past few years always gained weight like a muthafuka). the 2 pairs of abs are still faily visible so all is good

3) the only lift that i still put most effort into maintaining is the bench press. However at home didn't bother maxing out so the max weight hit is 110kg for 3 sets of 3 (was struggling for 2 reps the first 2 weeks and had to work up to this weight and set since was not used to working out at night). the last session managed to get 107.5kg for 5, 105 for 6, 102.5 for 7 and finally 100kg back to 8 reps on reverse pyramid.

the press also still managed to get 5 reps at 70 kg from the rack (instead of clean and press). pullups, were doing 3-5 sets of 12. squat heaviest set was 100kg for 5 reps for few sets.

As the bloody gym is back closed, will return to working out in the morning and resume back the normal routine during mco in january. The goal had not changed, to get as lean as possible (while retaining the strength, if not slight improvement) before the incoming bulk in July to prepare for the 140kg bench press PR goal before end of october.

Update after a long while.

Watever plan in the previous post, in the bin it went.

Original plan was to continue cutting until July then slight bulk. But was instead on maintenance (lost abit of motivation actually), or even slight bulk. Still tracking cals and macros so the bw didnt get out of hand. Weight scale tipped 92-93kg at heaviest, tho suspecting mainly water.

Around middle of July had decided missed the abs more than the 140kg bench goal so started to dial in the cals and macro for cutting again.

Took a month to finally break plateu and the weight scale showing sub 90kg again.

Not the best routine but now had to do the cardio early in the morning before weightlifting since can no longer jog in the basement (not gonna jog in the afternoon sun). But after 2 weeks getting used to it.

Will post progress pic once the second pair of abs are fully visible

Today the weight scale finally tipped sub 85 kg at 84.8kg. veins on the right bicep are starting to appear again which is promising.

Injured right shoulder few months ago and now it is finally recovering (around 80%). 2 plate bench now at 5 reps per set, can probably push 6 but not going to stress it for the time being.

lesson learnt, never do cardio early in the morning first and then the heavy weight training after 30 minutes rest. not sure because of the fatigue, which caused the form to break and eventually relying on the stronger side (which is surprising my non dominant right side).

the abs are finally pretty visible. however love handles are still pretty obvious too. bf% estimated still 16-17% but as the scale tends to skew to higher bf% when the body has alot of water, ill probably reduce the carbs for the next 2 weeks and see if i can get it to show at least below 15%

Physique update taken just today.


Total weight loss is about 24 kilos from heaviest around May 2020.

Lowest weight, 83.5kg. Lost about 6 inch at the waist, and back to size s (douche fitting) clothes confidently.

Still maintaining decent numbers x reps for the workouts thankfully. Definitely the dirty bulk and 1 1/2 years super slow cut helped with retaining the strength.

Do I plan to get leaner, kinda, yes. But will continue doing it at a slow and steady pace.





This post has been edited by axtray: Dec 31 2021, 10:28 PM

And cardio fitness is getting there. Tho not pushing it too hard.

Capping the jog at 30 mins. Best time so far is 24:02 for 5km and 28:42 for 6km.

Right shoulder finally fully healed. The mobility warmup with resistance band now didn't feel any pain and able to move and rotate the same as left side.

Planning to focus back on heavy low rep bench press in the program. Probably 1.5x bodyweight attempt every once in 3 weeks. Aiming for 125kg bench while staying in this cutting phase. This will make it 1.497x bw bench press, based from the lowest weight recorded 83.5kg during this (ongoing) cut.

Cardio wise managed to hit 23:16 for 5km and 27:33 for 6km.

Easing off on the cut for abit (was on 4k-5k deficit weekly for several weeks before 2021 ended). Now maintaining 2.5k - 3k with and see how the body copes.

This post has been edited by axtray: Jan 8 2022, 06:11 PM

Did the body composition test for fun today and bf shows 13.3%. Body composition now at borderline between Athletic and muscular. Theres about 8 weeks before ramadhan starts so decided to be abit more aggressive with the cut. Itll be great to see a sub 11% at the end of the 8th week and prolly by then the physique will look closer to chris evans in captain america winter soldier.

5km run time had also improved significantly. Now down to best time of 21:21. Averaging below 22:30 on reduced Preworkout days. Strength wise the 2 pl8 bench can start pushing above 5 reps again.

Lower back had not been in great condition as of late. So haven't been doing barbell ohp. Sticking to heavy sitting db shoulder press 36-38kg for sets of 5-8 reps.

And actually included arm workouts too now lol for biceps aesthetics.

Cardio literally peaked at the last post. The past 2 weeks had to take a minute break around 3.5km before rushing to finish the 5km.

On the bright side, the scale had finally went down and now below 83kg. Bf% is also at 12%, down from 13.3% from 2 weeks ago at just 3 weeks into this more aggressive cut. Can prolly aim for a sub 10% bf before ramadhan starts.

Strength wise, still benching the same vol+weights. Now adding some drop sets on the isolations.

Need to remind not to rush things to avoid the same burnout that happened in 2019. Still pretty happy with the progress for now.

6th week into the cut and bw had dipped below 81kg at 80.8 today. Usually will test bf% on saturday after friday refeed for heavy push day, but was curious to see what kind of numbers I'd get at semi depleted state (not on low carb or anything, still iifym, but cleaner for the 8 weeks cut). Happily the machine shows at 11.2%, sub 12% for the first time in more than 3 years. But with about 2kg more muscle mass than 2018.

Initial aim was to see if can get in the 10%ish while maintaining above 82kg (while semi depleted), but seems like its pretty much wishful thinking for now. In the remaining 2 weeks+ of the cut, will reduce the calorie deficit to slow down the weight loss and increase the workout vol. Hopefully the bw wont dip below 80kg when the bf% hits below 11%.

Nevertheless still pretty happy with the progress. Took nearly 2 years, but this slow cut is definitely well worth it.

Weight just dipped below 80kg today. Thought on ending the cut this week (7th out of 8 weeks) but O well. Might as well continue soldier on for 1 last week since the bf% is @11%.

Mentally, not that great. Tired, some brain fog. But surprisingly most lifts are still good. Well maybe not the heavy bench session as now missing 1 rep at 110kg. Cardio however took the biggest hit where yesterday had to take 1 min break twice (at 3 and 4km) before finishing the usual 5km. Happily tho despite the break still managed to complete the run well under 25 mins.

Last week of cut and hit a setback. Injured the back, again during 1set of squat.

Will instead extend the cut until next Thursday as the next few days will try stay close to maintenance to hopefully recover better

Cut still going well since the veins on the quads are now popping. The last time they popped was way back in 2016.

2nd last day before cut "officially" ends (unofficial until next Thursday)

Back probably saw the biggest improvement from the cut. Pretty surprised with the result honestly.