TPower81’s BodyBlog

This weekend I took two days off work and moved.  During this time I postponed my workouts.  Its not that moving was all that difficult, living boxes and furniture, its just that after days on your feet moving things around, tearing down stuff the previous owners had up that you don’t like, painting, changing out lights, switches, receptacles, …on and on, it was just tiring and I didn’t feel up to going to the gym.

Today is the start of another workweek.  I got my sleep last night, and was ready to go in the gym this morning.  My workout went well and now I’m just waiting for the soreness to set in.   My diet was bad over the past 4 days.  It was very difficult to make meals when everything is spread all over the place in boxes!  I weighed in at a loss this morning of 3 more lbs.  Some of this can be attributed to the fact that I came off creatine for almost a week.  Even still though, now I’m even farther away from my goal of 210!

Not to be discouraged though, just keep lifting now steady and keep eating like a horse!

Today was my first GVT session.  I already changed it from what I was supposed to be doing too, heh.  I started out on Decline DB presses…never done those so didn’t really know what weight to use.  I ended up using 70’s and it was about the right pick.  The program calls for a grip with palms facing in but doing that felt very awkward, almost like I should be doing fly’s but not.  I ended up just using a normal grip this first time around.  In the later 3 sets I missed the last 1 or 2 reps of the sets.  I hate to not increase next workout but I’m unsure whether or not I could get 75s up that long.

I did bent over rows instead of chin-ups because I don’t think there is any way I can do 10×10 unassisted chin-ups.  I started out with 185lbs but only made 5 sets of 10 at that weight.  I lowered it to 155 and finished out the next 5 sets.  My lower back was really on fire after doing these.

I also did a set of flys at the end of my chest sets.  The time I have in the morning is just not enough to get this high of volume in.  I’m thinking of splitting off back day and doing it seperate.  That way i can focus on chest for one workout, back for another, legs for another, then arms day and just make it all a 4 day split.  My other option would be going back in on lunch break and doing the back workout.  So I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do but I just didn’t have enough time today.

Todays chest volume: 13,700lbs lifted on decline

Back volume: 17,000lbs back with bent rows.

Like I thought, I weighed in today at 194, down 4 lbs since Monday.  Yesterday I did a no carb day (actually got carbs from almonds but not that many) and I feel a lot more tighter like normal.  I still have a few days to go before the bloat subsides but man…I really feel like I need to tighten the bolts down a bit for a few weeks here.  Too much drinking over weekends.

Tonight I have a happy hour to attend but I’m going to just drink diet coke and make sure I get home at a decent hour.  I was a little excited to be at 198, pushing the 200 barrier for the first time in a while, however, it looks like I’m still a month out from that goal.  Tri-phase is almost over and I’m looking forward to doing another round of german volume training and get some serious hypertrophy going.

Today I really noticed my strength gains.  I was trying to figure out the weight I was going to push on inclined db press and I knew I wanted to get 10 reps.  I started out with 90’s and didn’t have too much problems.  Next set I did 95’s x 10.  Last rep was hard but I got it.  I remember though, when I couldn’t even get 80’s up in the air for the first rep, now I can do 95’s like its a walk in the park.  That made me feel really good!

Likewise, on bent over rows…I used to max out at 205lbs for only 6 reps.  The other day I threw 225 on there and got 10 reps easy.  For six reps I am now in the 245, 255 range.  I used to really lag on this exercise compared to my bench press, but now I’m finally seeing numbers that are evening out!

Some days you really start getting down and thinking you’ve not made much progress.  Its good to sit back, look at your training logs and see that infact you have come quite a long way!

I had three weeks stuck at 191.  Following two weekends where I had probably a 12 pack of beer over the course of the weekend and now I’m up to 198lbs.  I’ve also increased my carb intake, which has led to a little more bloating, fuller muscles as the carbs hold more water, etc.  So while 7 lbs in two weeks is definitely a lot, I’m hoping after the end of the week as the diet kicks back in I will weigh in more at around 195lbs and call the last two weekends a refeed. :p

To be honest though, I’m not too concerned with how fast I’m gaining.  I’m swinging macros all around, trying to time my insulin spikes, creatine loading/unloading, sodium loading/unloading and allowing myself to eat in excess on weekends to get my calories in for growth.  The pounds are definitely going to be swinging all over the place.  I’m only concerned with the steady, easy trend upwards towards 210 lb range.  I’ll post some nice soft bloated pics soon lol.