Our Physical Fitness

[Scribe]

Legs, a bit of core (not nearly meaningful) and some Curls while j waited for a machine.

Good enough.

Once the extra curricular stresses in my life are gone, I need to dial in the diet, and some real core and arms work, figure out my upper back/traps and...bulk a bit for 3 months before I begin a real cut.

Oh, and reno my house...lol

 

[Mannahnin]

Saturday I did four sets of inclined Smith barbell bench with drop sets after the first, three sets of hack squats, three of machine triceps extensions with drop sets, and just two hard sets of machine biceps curls, though I got a nice pump.

I'm also slowly losing weight again, down around 166-167 now. Apparently my body/eating habits are just naturally leaning toward cut, so I may go ahead and lean down a bit more, then try adding more weight/strength again later.

 

[Scribe]

Still able to type this, so I.didnt have an aneurysm or stroke. Heads killingme, but I pushed through everything I wanted.

How do you stretch an elbow tendon? lol

 

[Evaniel]

With the coming holidays, I'm starting to waffle on cutting (pun only kinda intended). Part of me wonders if I should just lean into "bear mode" and just practice counting calories while staying at maintenance or a small surplus. Then, in like...February, I can start a meaningful cut without worrying about having to eat at the in-laws for days at a time.

I've done the four flex-day approach this week (upper lower x2) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Keeping everything to 2 intense sets and dropped the reps and upped the weights. I'm noticing my burnout has dropped a lot already.

 

[Mannahnin]

Monday night: All the Smith machines were occupied, so three circuits of dumbbell bench with drop sets, dumbbell inclined curls with drop sets, and dumbbell seated lateral raises with partials at the end (dumbbells were also in high demand). Followed by three sets of machine overhead press with drop sets on the latter two, and three sets of leg extensions with a drop set on the third.

Tuesday I was off work and had good energy, so went in again. Three sets of Smith inclined barbell bench with drop sets on the latter two, three sets of narrow grip lat pulldowns with drop set on the last, three sets of alternating hip abductors and adductors, and two sets of machine rear delt flies with a drop set on the second.

Given that my (small) chest recovered as well as it did in ~12 hours, it definitely seems like I can/should be adding more volume/frequency there.

With the coming holidays, I'm starting to waffle on cutting (pun only kinda intended). Part of me wonders if I should just lean into "bear mode" and just practice counting calories while staying at maintenance or a small surplus. Then, in like...February, I can start a meaningful cut without worrying about having to eat at the in-laws for days at a time.

I've done the four flex-day approach this week (upper lower x2) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Keeping everything to 2 intense sets and dropped the reps and upped the weights. I'm noticing my burnout has dropped a lot already.

That's probably a smart adaptation to make. Go ahead and lean into a bulk so you're not putting your fitness and family holiday fun in direct conflict. You can still keep up your cut until then right?

 

[Evaniel]

Monday night: All the Smith machines were occupied, so three circuits of dumbbell bench with drop sets, dumbbell inclined curls with drop sets, and dumbbell seated lateral raises with partials at the end (dumbbells were also in high demand). Followed by three sets of machine overhead press with drop sets on the latter two, and three sets of leg extensions with a drop set on the third.

Tuesday I was off work and had good energy, so went in again. Three sets of Smith inclined barbell bench with drop sets on the latter two, three sets of narrow grip lat pulldowns with drop set on the last, three sets of alternating hip abductors and adductors, and two sets of machine rear delt flies with a drop set on the second.

Given that my (small) chest recovered as well as it did in ~12 hours, it definitely seems like I can/should be adding more volume/frequency there.

I'm curious to see how you felt after two days in a row of the same part. Are you able to progressively overload at all?

 

[Mannahnin]

I'm curious to see how you felt after two days in a row of the same part. Are you able to progressively overload at all?

Hard to gauge progressive overload when I'm switching movements (dumbbell flat bench vs. smith barbell inclined). That being said, comparing against the last times I did each of those same exercises, it's about the same. While losing a little body weight, so I'll take it?

I do want to make Smith inclined bench my new mainstay chest movement, though, so I can focus on getting some progressive overload, using the 2.5s as needed like we talked about.

 

[Evaniel]

...it's about the same. While losing a little body weight, so I'll take it?

Nice! I have a hard time even maintaining strength deep into a cut. The last few weeks I generally have to resign myself to losing reps & weight.

Keep it up!

 

[Mannahnin]

Oh, I've lost a bit of strength, for sure, on some movements. Others I'm holding basically steady. A couple of less-frequent movements that I'm still learning I've been able to add a little weight.

Thanks!

 

[Mannahnin]

Had the energy and time so went back again last night (Wednesday).

As an experiment (and in the hopes of inducing some actual chest soreness, which I virtually never get), I hit Smith barbell inclined bench again and did the same weights for the same sets (three, drop setting on the latter two) as Tuesday. This time I lost 2-4 reps on every set, so definitely not fully recovered. A useful experiment, though, reinforcing that my previous pattern of leaving at least one full rest day between chest sessions is about right. I think I just need to dial in a little tighter on consistency once I'm ready to eat a little heavier to support growth, stick with this one movement for chest for at least a couple of months, and use those smaller plates to progressively overload. Maybe add one more set to each session to bump up the volume a bit as well.

Also did four sets of dumbbell inclined curls with drop sets, and three of machine triceps extensions with drop sets on the latter two.