Ludlum3k’s BodyBlog

Starting today, my Blogs will look a little different. This is because it’s cutting season, and I need to keep track of everything I do and eat.
I hit the bike in the morning before breakfast, so my muscle glycogen stores would be low and burn more fat. At the gym, there were a couple changes, mainly for my triceps. Started with EZ curls, then proceeded to triceps dips. Next came incline curls, which I found more difficult today, possibly because of the dips thrashing my arms so hard. Next, I did 1-arm overhead DB extensions, felt nice. Proceeded to the high-cable curls + rope pressdown superset. Finally, I switched things up for my forearms. Instead of doing heavy wrist curls, followed by light reverse wrist curls, I switched to heavy reverse wrist curls and light wrist curls. This was done since I have lots of development in the ball of my forearms, but not much on the top of the forearms. Anyways, heres my log:

8:15 am: woke up + took 2 ephedrine and 2 ThinRG + drank 500 ml of water
8:45 am: got out of bed and proceeded to basement to stretch before bike
9:00-9:30 am: BIKE
9:30 am: 1.5 scoops whey + 0.5 bagel
9:45 am: shower
10:00 am: Breakfast (3 egg whites + 1 whole egg + 2 slices fat-free cheese + 1 cup oatmeal)
12:30 pm: 3 White Blood
12:50 pm: 1 scoop whey + 10 strawberries
1:00 pm: WORKOUT

EZ Curls
15×50
2×10x70
2×10x60
Triceps Dips
12xBW
10xBW
8xBW
6xBW
Inlcine DB curls
12×30s
6×30s - 6×20s
6×30s - 4×20s - 4×15s
10×20s - 4×15s
1-arm overhead DB extension
15×25
12×25
10×25
12×20
Superset
High cable curls
3×15x30s
Rope pressdown
3×15x70
Superset
Reverse wrist curls
15×30
2×12x30
Wrist curls
25×50
20×50
15×50

2:00 pm: Storm
2:20 pm: 2 scoops whey + 0.5 bagel
3:30 pm: 1 salmon fillet + 0.5 peanut butter & jam on whole wheat bread + broccolli

Today was DAY 1 of my cutting phase. I think it went great, I got to try out new supplements, changing up my diet, start doing cardio, less rest between sets. Gonna be F’ing sick…. But it’s neccessary.

I woke up this morning and first thing I did was take 1 Ephedrine and 2 ThinRG pills. Had a shower, made breakfast; 3 egg whites + 1 whole egg + 2 slices fat-free cheese and 1/2 cup oatmeal. Went to school and after my first class, it was time to hit the gym. Right when class ended, I popped 3 White Blood pills and made my way across campus to the gym, downed my pre-workout shake when I got there.

Now that it’s cutting time, like I said, rest periods are shorter, weights may get lighter, reps may get higher blah blah. But for my first exercises, they’re still the heavy mass builders, so they still get longer rests. Like today, where I started with Incline bench followed by flat DB press (both of which I felt stronger this week actually), they still were heavy with decent rest periods. I followed up with DB pullovers, which had only 45 sec rest between sets, with a low-high rep scheme. Followed by cable crossover (from lower angles to hit upper chest) which had 45 sec rests. I then moved on to do abs, but because the decline bench was in use over at the smith machines, I just settled for incline reverse crunches, followed by DB crunches and I then threw in standing DB oblique crunches (all with 45 sec rest periods). The numbers are at the end of this blog.

Post-workout, I had my usual Storm, shake, but only half a white bagel (instead of a whole one). Then proceeded to next class, where someone running for some student elections gave everyone in class a sucker, hell, I took it since it was at the time i need my simple carbs and an insulin spike lol. Later got home and had chicken breast with a small sweet potato. An hour later, I took 1 ephedrine and 2 ThinRG, which was around 4:30, and at 5:00 I did a half hour on my old excersise bike, followed by a protein shake and the second half of my bagel. Which takes me pretty much up until now. I guess I’ll have two more small meals today.

Incline Bench press
12×135
10×155
6×185
5×205
Flat DB press
8×95s
6×95s
10×70s
7×70s
DB pullover
2×8x70
12×60
15×50
Low Cable crossover
15×40s
2×15x30s (lower)
Incline reverse crunches
3×10
DB crunches
3 x (10×20 -> 10xBW)
Standing Obliques
2×12x50

BIKE @ home
30 minutes

Well, the time has arrived, not looking forward to it. This will be my first real attempt at cutting, hopefully, I can get rid of my belly once and for all. I’ve been planning for quite some time now, and I think that I can do it right. The main concern I have is that I don’t want to lose too much strength, because let’s face it, when cutting, some strength and muscle mass gets lost. But hopefully, with carefull planning and if I do everything according to plan, my strength losses will be minimal. But the fat has to go! My body is pretty well shaped, with the exception of my gut, which I’ve had since I was young. Another thing I’m worried about is that after losing the fat, I’ll have a lot of excess skin that will need to tighten up, plus, after my friend lost a whole lot of weight, a lot of stretch marks appeared that weren’t visible when the skin was filled with fat. I’ve already got a couple of those from years ago when I lost quite a bit of weight, but I hope I don’t get too many.

Basically, my plan is to incorporate quite a bit of cardio into my days, change my diet so I have fewer carbs (mainly less as the day goes by) and I’ve had my thermogenics waiting for quite some time, but they’ve been brought out now. I have Ephedrine and ThinRG. I know that ephedrine has been banned, and has been deemed dangerous, but the fact is that it’s only dangerous if not used right. It’s not like I’m gonna take a large dose of it before I go to work in the summer time (where I work on construction sites in the blazing heat), I’m going to use it in a controlled manner with not-so-high doses. It is only here to complement the ThinRG to give an extra kick. And BY NO MEANS am I using these as the heart of my cutting strategy, in fact they are just the added extras. I know they are not magical super pills that just go straight to work burning fat.

I plan to use the same training split throughout the week, but also, hopefully every day, I’ll manage to get in some cardio. Some days, when I can, I will do some morning cardio, before breakfast, as that is usually the best time to burn fat when muscle glycogen stores are lower. But on days where that’s not possible, I’ll do afternoon cardio. Also on weekends, I’ll get in some cardio. But my greatest fear is weekends, because that’s when I’m with my friends, who want to do nothing but eat.

Another weapon in my fat burning arsenal is that during training, I’m going to have shorter rest periods, and a few more higher-rep exercises. I’ll still have my lower rep mass builders at the beginning of the workout, where I normally do about 6 reps, but I’m gonna try to modify things so with those exercises I’ll be doing about 8 reps, and my following exercises will be probably around 12 reps, where my last burnout exercises will stay around 15 reps. I’ll also try to use more techniques such as drop-sets and supersets, to burn more total calories.

Also, my usual pre-workout supplement is Universal Nutrition’s Shock Therapy, but since I’ll have lots of caffeine and energy boosters already from the thermos, I’m going to try Controlled Labs’ White Blood for the arginine. Hopefully, this product will work with me, since certain NO products are not as effective with my body, but this one theoretically should be nice for me. We’ll see.

Anyways, I’ll need all the support I can get. Luckily, I have a couple friends who understand what I’m doing because they are also gym rats, and my girlfriend will be happy to know that I’m trying to lose the fat, so I know I have all her support (even though I had her support before, but she was always afraid to see me when I’m doing big lifts like any careing gf would) My family, especially my mom, provides support, because she is happy that I’m always trying to be more in shape, and I’m the only in my family concerned about health and nutrition. And of course, I have the support of BB.com, where I get all my info from, hopefully some of you guys (and gals) will lend support.

Today I tried to do rack pulls, to help bring up my deadlift, as the hardest part usually is the top half with the lock out. I must say they felt great, and being able to use 4 plates for 4 reps made me feel good. Of course, it hurts the quads as the bar slides up and down the quads with such heavy weight. I started with the safety bars 4 notches down, but then I thought that was too high so the range of mothion was too small. When I moved up to 405 lbs, I put them 5 notches down, which felt about right. I switched barbell shrugs with DB shrugs. And the rest of the workout was about the same (with some increased reps!) So here it is

Deadlifts (warmup)
10×135
Rack pull
10×315
8×365
4×405
2×405
Reverse grip BB row
10×135
8×155
6×185
10×135
DB shrugs
3×15x125s
40×65
Cable rows
2×10x145
12×115
10×115
Straight-arm pulldown
2×12x50
15×40

Shoulder day is getting more intense every week. Not necessarilly because of heavy weights, but because the burn I get at the end gets crazier every week. This week, I substituted Arnold press with machine shoulder press (front neutral grip) to blast my front delts. My following exercises were just changed in terms of the weights and reps. Man did it work, after the workout in the locker room, I needed both hands to drink my post workout supps, and I could barely take my shirt off. I find the shoulder pump is the one that seems to get more intense after you’re done exercise…. Don’t know why, so by the time I get to the locker room, the pump is at its worse. Anyways, this is what was done

DB shoulder press
15×30s
3×10x65s
9×65s
Machine shoulder press
12×130
10×145
10×160
12×130
Incline rear delt
2 x (10×20s -> 10×15s)
15×15s
DB front raise
10×20s -> 10×15s
8×20s -> 8×15s
12×15s
Upright row
12×75
15×65
20×45
DB lateral raise
2 x (10×20s -> 10×10s)
15×15s

Today I experienced for the first time being pinned while doing squats. It was my last set and as usual, my last rep I go rock bottom, I had a spotter, but he thought I could do it, and by the time he tried to spot, I was already stuck at half way and gravity won that battle lol. Rest of the workout was the same, except I did two heavy sets of stiff-legged deadlifts. I wanted to do a light cool down on the bike after, but I was so dead that I just couldn’t, so I left. Here’s the numbers

Squats
10×135
8×225
2×4x275
Hack squats
2×6x180
8×140
12×90
Standing calf raises
10×300
-> 10×200
-> 10×100
8×300
-> 8×200
-> 8×100
10×200
-> 10×100
Stiff-legged deadlifts
10×135
2×6x185
Leg extensions
2×15x130
15×100

Nothing much to say about today’s arm workout, it was the same layout as last week’s, except I managed to pull out some more reps. The pump at the end was crazy as usual, so this is how it went.

EZ curls
15×55
2×10x75
2×10x65
Overhead DB extension
2×10x85
2×15x70
Incline DB curls
12×30s
8×30s
-> 5×20s
6×30s
-> 4×20s
-> 4×15s
10×20s
-> 4×15s
Superset
    Skull crushers
    2×10x75
    12×65
    Close grip Bench
    2×10x75
    12×65
Superset
    High cable curls
    3×15x30s
    Rope pressdown
    3×15x70
Superset
    BB wrist curls
    2×12x75
    15×55
    Rubber bar reverse wrist curls
    40
    30
    25

Today was a killer chest and ab workout. I decided to change my chest routine around, so that I could focus on my lower chest, and help bring my bench press back up, because I have found that my incline bench has been increasing alot, but my flat bench hasn’t had much improvement. I usually would do flat bench then incline DB press, followed by decline and/or dips. Today I flipped it to do flat bench, dips, decline bench, then incline db. This was done in hopes that my lower chest would become more thoroughly worked before the upper chest. I would like to do declines before dips, however, because dips are so hard, i can’t be too fatigued before them. My flat bench felt better today, even though I’ve been doing more negative focus and having a spotter help on the positive, today I felt I did better overall and didn’t need as much of a spot. Dips, I did as many full reps as I could, but as the set goes on, I quickly lose the ability to fully lock out, therefore, I gradually make more partial reps, until I can no longer move my bodyweight at all (the rep numbers below are the number of fuller reps, and partials are not included, but most sets reached a total of about 10-12 reps including partials) Decline was hard because I so fatigued already, but I was able to do more than I had expected. When it came time for incline DB press, I was basically dead, and I could barely use even 55 lb dumbells. Even though it looked funny when a guy with such a developed chest is having a hard time doing 6 reps with 55s, oh well, ego had to be put aside :p it’s for a greater good. Cable crossovers burned more than usual. And finally I finished with abs as usual. These are the numbers

Bench press
15×135
8×225
2×5x245
Dips
8xBW
3×6xBW (partials not included)
Decline bench
2×10x155
2×8x135
Incline DB press
5×70s
8×55s
6×55s
Cable crossover
10×50s
2×15x40s
Decline Crunches
3×15
DB crunches
3 x (10×20 lbs -> 10xBW)

On friday I decided to do a few things different with my back workout. First of all, I started with reverse grip barbell rows, which I felt a lot more comfortable with than the regular BB rows. I never did barbell rows much in the past because I didn’t like the feel of them, but when I tried them with a reverse grip, it worked very nicely. Next change was that I then proceeded to do my barbell shrugs, which I normally do closer to the end of my workout. I think this worked a lot better, because I was more fresh and was able to do them better than normal. Next was close grip cable rows. I tried giving a good stretch at the bottom by giving a bit more movement at the waist (of course keeping proper back posture) instead of just moving at the arms. This had a good feel to it as it felt like it worked my back more thoroughly. Finally I did one-arm dumbbell rows and straight-arm pulldown.

Reverse grip BB row
15×95
10×135
10×155
6×185
6×185
-> 6×135
BB shrugs
2×10x315 (F -> R)
2×15x225 (F -> R)
Cable row
2×10x145
8×145
10×115
1-arm DB row
6×100
8×85
10×70
12×60
Straight-arm pulldown
2×10x50
15×40

When I was at the rack doing barbell rows, I thought to myself that I might want to look into tryin rack pulls, in order to bring up my deadlift, which I might start doing this friday coming up.

Today I went with dumbell shoulder press instead of barbell ones, and I think they worked better, because I don’t have to worry about the bar being in front or behind me, they stay in line with my body. Plus they gave a better burn. Today’s burn was insane, probably the best shoulder pump i’ve ever had. One thing I did different, is when doing incline rear laterals, I turned the dumbells so i had an overhand grip instead of neutral, this allowed my elbows to go more straight up, and it worked well. At the end I had some time to kill so I did some stretching and light bike for 20 minutes.

DB shoulders press
3×10x65s
9×65s
Arnold press
2×10x40s
8×40s
-> 8×25s
Incline Rear Lateral raises
8×25s
-> 8×20s
-> 8×15s
8×20s
-> 8×15s
15×15s
DB Front raises
6×25s
-> 6×20s
-> 6×15s
8×20s
-> 6×15s
12×15s
Upright row
2×15x65
20×45
DB Laterals
2 x (10×20s -> 10×10s)
15×15s
BIKE light 20 minutes