Ruckin's "Pre-First Cycle" cutting log

[ruckin]

2/15 Sunday

I'm switching to a sunday-tuesday-thursday lifting schedule for the time being, due to other scheduling changes during the week.

So today was high-volume day

squat: 235x8x3
bench: 250x8x3 (form wasn't very good, I'll definitely be repeating this weight next time I do my high volume benching)
cleans: 205x3x3
chins: 256x6x3
paused incline bench: 185x7,8
rack pulls: 405x5x3

Calories: 3160
fat: 155g
protons: 154g

So I ended up giving myself a cheat day yesterday, instead of the usual "refeed". I don't regret it at all, it was very beneficial psychologically (by the evening time I was in such an amazing mood, it was so nice ), and surprisingly, I woke up this morning looking the leanest I've been so far on this cut. I didn't go too crazy. If I had to guess, I'd say I ate around 5000 calories. I also did an hour of cardio in the morning before I really started indulging.

As for today, I was expecting to perform a little better in the gym than I did, because of all the food yesterday and all. But whatever, I still had a solid workout. I ended up incorporating the rack pulls. I wanted to do more than 405 for 3 sets of 5, but the barbell I had to use SUCKED and my grip was giving out at the end there.

I'm super happy about my squats, they felt great, no hip issues. Oh how I missed my squats . I'm just slowly adding weight back onto the bar, and hopefully I'll be back up to where I was when I got hurt soon and finally nail that 405 that I've been chasing for so long!

 

[Docd187123]

Probably a stupid question but you use chalk right?

Nice job bouncing back and having a solid day. Keep 'em coming.

 

[ruckin]

Probably a stupid question but you use chalk right?

Nice job bouncing back and having a solid day. Keep 'em coming.

Not a stupid question at all, and I do not, actually. The reason is that:

I have 2 different gyms I can go to, a good one with shitty weekend hours, and a shitty one with good weekend hours. I haven't lifted at the shitty gym in a while, but the good gym was closed by the time I was ready to lift today, so I had to use my shitty gym, which has shitty barbells... And doesn't allow chalk (I know, I know), hence the reason for grip issues today.

Grip hasn't been an issue for me when I'm at the good gym, using their normal barbells that actually have some knurling, so therefor I have no need to have chalk. When I would need it, I'm not allowed to, and when I'm allowed to use it, I don't need it.

Ironic.

 

[ruckin]

Monday 2/16

Calories: 3200
fat: 112g
protons: 165g

Nothing too exciting to report today. I'm munching on some pretzels, the last of today's calories as I write this. I had a great workout tonight though, did my conditioning on my own since we didn't have practice today. Did my "~1/4 mile runs as fast I can go" with 60 secs between each set for 5 sets, and then did a 6th set after a 120 sec rest after set #5. It was weird, I was actually looking forward to this running today, I don't know why. I liked that I looked forward to it so much. Hopefully that becomes a trend

After that I did cardio on a bike, which I was planning to just go light on to burn extra calories, but I was feeling more aggressive than usual when it comes to conditioning/cardio so I ended up going pretty hard for 30 min on the bike, after I had already exhausted myself from the running.

So overall a solid day, which I'm about to wrap up with some Breaking Bad

 

[ruckin]

Tuesday 2/17

cals: 3200
fat: 113
protons: 175

A very boring day today. Most of the day was spent at my desk unfortunately, all I really was able to do was go to the gym for my light/recovery day.

press: 150x5x3
cleans: 165x3x3
chins: bodyweight x2x3

No time for any cardio today either. Overall nothing much to report, but I am determined to update this log every day (except maybe for my one off day each week) so the show must go on. Nevertheless, I'm still one day closer to the end result, so that's always exciting. I'm really looking forward to the weigh-in on Thursday, by the way. I'm expecting a significant drop in weight for this week despite my nice big cheat day on Saturday.

I hope anyone reading this had a great day!

 

[ruckin]

Wednesday 2/18

What a day today was. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and had so much to do and focus on all day long. I'm glad the day is over though; without posting too much personal detail, getting everything done today without it being significantly worse than it was turned out to be a huge blessing.

Cals: 3350
fat: 121g
protonz: 160g

Today I got my conditioning done at rugby practice. Coach pushed us pretty hard today, which is good, and I'm glad I got through it alright, considering I definitely hadn't properly prepared myself, physically (in terms of recovery), for a tough workout.

After practice I went and did ~30 min of low intensity cardio on a bike with one of my buddies and that was about it for today. I'm looking forward to my weigh-in tomorrow morning, as well as lifting. Tomorrow is high intensity day and I'm really hoping to hit a couple of PRs in the gym.

 

[ruckin]

Thursday 2/19: weight this morning: 111.1 kg (244 lbs)

cals: 3200
fat: 100g
protons: 166g

High-intensity day

squat: 240x8x3
cleans: 205, 210, 215, failed 220 (all were singles)
bench: 275x6
DL: 365x5
decline weighted sit ups: 35x8x2

This was a good workout today. Squats are continuing to feel great, I'm just adding 5 lbs each time I squat (2x/week right now, I'll bump it back up to 3 when I feel that I'm completely readjusted to them again) and the weights I'm doing on those still feel easy, which is good. For my power cleans tonight, I decided to just add 5 lbs each set and work up to the heaviest single I could reach, which was 215 today. I know I could've gotten 220 no problem but for some reason I'm having trouble getting under the bar and getting my elbows up. The barbell was getting plenty high enough, up to my upper chest without even crouching down, but it just wasn't happening. I'm not worried though, just need to practice getting down once the bar is off my hips.

I'm really happy with the benching. I was hoping to get 275x5 and I ended up squeezing out an extra rep! That was a big PR for me. Now about the deads, I conservatively put my 5RM at 405 and dropped the weight 10% to 365 and I'm just planning on adding 10 lbs each week to ramp back up to where I was before, and hopefully past that.

Also I managed to fit in 2 peanut butter and banana sammichs tonight so I'm a happy guy right now! I was expecting a lower number on the scale this morning, but I'm seeing positive changes in the mirror all the time, so I'm just going by that for now, until the scale starts to reflect the progress I'm seeing visually.

 

[Docd187123]

I love squatting 3x a week and miss it dearly right now hahaha.

What's the reasoning for the high volume on intensity day? Anything in particular?

If you got the weight up to your chest on the clean I would think you failed on a technicality/form not strength or power.

Good luck and keep putting in that work.

 

[ruckin]

I love squatting 3x a week and miss it dearly right now hahaha.

What's the reasoning for the high volume on intensity day? Anything in particular?

If you got the weight up to your chest on the clean I would think you failed on a technicality/form not strength or power.

Good luck and keep putting in that work.

Thanks for the support my man!

If the high volume on squats is what you're referring to, it's because I'm just using linear progression to get my squat back up right now. there's no need to use this intermediate strategy that uses a high volume day followed by a high intensity day to make progress, when I can make progress on that particular movement just by adding weight each workout.

I'll be using the texas method for my squat once linear progression stops working, but I'm not expecting that to happen for a couple months or so.

 

[Docd187123]

Thanks for the support my man!

If the high volume on squats is what you're referring to, it's because I'm just using linear progression to get my squat back up right now. there's no need to use this intermediate strategy that uses a high volume day followed by a high intensity day to make progress, when I can make progress on that particular movement just by adding weight each workout.

I'll be using the texas method for my squat once linear progression stops working, but I'm not expecting that to happen for a couple months or so.

Roger that and that's exactly what I was asking about. Good call on sticking to LP whenever possible.

 

[ruckin]

Friday 2/20

cals: 3060 + a couple glasses of wine
fat: 117g
pro: 156g

I had a pretty intense conditioning session yesterday (I'm writing this on Saturday). My legs were the sorest they've been in a while from the workout on Thursday. Not that sore, but I normally don't get sore at all so it was a lot for my standards. I really was trying to justify in my head a reason to not do my conditioning, but I made myself do it anyway, and I'm so glad I did.

I did 20 "bike sprints" of 15 secs, with 45 secs of low speed between each sprint. 20 is more than I had ever done before, and I'm super happy that I got through it. I was dying afterwards haha. After that I did 40 min of light cardio.

Also, I weighed myself in the morning even though it wasn't my official weigh-in day, and I was over a pound lighter than I was Thursday morning, so that was nice to see.

...


As for today, Saturday 2/21, I'm just resting today and enjoying some nice time with my friends and family. I'm also giving myself a controlled cheat day again, like a did last week. My first meal today was likely around 2000 cals, and I'm going out to dinner in a little bit which will probably be in the 2000 range as well, followed by some beers tonight. So really nothing crazy, it'll probably wind up being a little above my maintenance calories for the day. I'm looking forward to a solid workout tomorrow. I'm gonna be using a guest pass to try out a new gym so that should be interesting.

 

[ruckin]

Sunday 2/22

Cals: around 3500, I wasn't able to weight and count my food today unfortunately.

High-volume day:
squat: 245x8x3
press: 165x7,6, 155x7,7
cleans: 210x2, 205x3,3
chins: 258x6,6,5
rack pulls: 405x8x2

I was very disappointed with this workout, especially the presses... I don't have much of an explanation, but I did learn something important from this workout. I realized that I've been working with the same volume that I was using when I was bulking with this program previously. Big mistake, I don't know why I didn't remember to cut the volume slightly going into this cut. This might explain my less-than-stellar lifting sessions the last couple of weeks though. I hope so anyway...

Going forward I'll be decreasing the volume on my presses to 3 sets of 8, chins will be limited to 3 sets, rack pulls will be just 2 sets, and I think I'll keep everything else the same. Also, I realized that I've been too aggressive with my attempted strength increases. Now I'll be attempting weight increases on the big lifts every two weeks, instead of every week like I had been trying (largely unsuccessfully) up to this point. I'm pretty confident that this readjusted plan will yield much better results for me, especially from a psychological standpoint.

On the bright side, I had a great weekend

 

[ruckin]

Monday 2/23

cals: ~3000
protons: ~170

I did my conditioning today. I was short on time so went for the bike and did 20 minutes at 22+ mph. My average speed was probably 24 mph but I just record it as 22+ to be sure. What a grind that was, definitely tougher than I was expecting but I got through it successfully, and it ended up being a great workout, both physically and mentally.

Sadly, tomorrow I'll literally have zero free time for anything exercise-related, so I likely won't update again until Wednesday. I'm also bumping all my workouts back 1 day this week because of my schedule tomorrow, so light/recovery day will be Wednesday, and high-intensity day will be Friday. I'm hoping that the extra day to recover will help when Friday comes along. I'm thinking I wanna go for 185x5 on my press. Hopefully I can get 225 on my cleans too.

 

[ruckin]

Wednesday 2/25

cals: 3200
fat: 89g
protonz: 144g

Light day

bench: 235x5x2
PCs: 165x3x3
chins: BWx2x3

Solid lifting today, it was light though so nothing exciting. I had practice after I finished lifting which went well. Conditioning wasn't very hard which was very surprising to me, we did a ton of push ups though, which sucked.

My left tricep, which has been giving me problems for months now (I think it's tendinitis, right where it attaches to my elbow) started bothering me a tiny little bit again today during practice, so I went home afterwards and put a heating pad on it for 30 minutes and then stretched it a little. I'm really hoping this doesn't become a big problem again.

I'm excited to weigh in tomorrow. I have a feeling I might be under 240 lbs but we'll see.

 

[ruckin]

I've been super busy the last few days, so this post is gonna be pretty long for me to catch up.

Thursday 2/26: Zero training. I literally had zero free time, it sucked. I was so glad when I finally went to bed that night. Calories stayed under 3200.

Friday 2/27: 3060 cals, 145g fat, 183g protein.

squat: 250x8x3
PCs: (all singles) 205, 210, failed 215
press: 185x4
deads: 375x5
sit ups: 35x9x2

This workout was pretty meh... Squats felt great, they were the highlight. I adjusted my form slightly to keep my back more upright and I loved the adjustment, they just felt more right done this way. Cleans were going decent until I hurt something in my left bicep when I did 205. It started hurting a little more on the 210, and then by 215 it kept me from getting the rep. I would've tried it again but I didn't want to risk any serious injury to my bicep so I stopped there. I think it was the smart decision. It felt like a slight strain in the muscle, but I'm no doctor. It feels all better today though (Saturday), thankfully.

I was disappointed with the press. I was realistically expecting 5 reps, I don't know why I couldn't get it. The deads felt heavier than 375 should have felt too, which was a little discouraging. I think I'm gonna drop the rack pulls on the volume workouts for now because of this.

As for today, Saturday 2/28, I'm taking an off day, but I went to my gym this morning anyway to practice the Olympic lifts with light weights. Today I did my first ever full squat clean, front squat, and overhead squat (to prepare to learn the snatch in the future). I think @romaleos would be proud! Wow the overhead squats were hard haha. I loved them though. I'll definitely try to practice them frequently.

 

[romaleos]

Good work!

Hard to tell how you hurt your bicep on cleans. It's either 1. You are bending your arms too soon and rowing the weight up or 2. You are catching in the front rack wrong.

The power of the lifts come from the hips not the arms. The arms are just what connects the bar to your body. As for the front rack, you have to get your elbows as high as possible. Also warm-up your shoulder mobility before you do OLY work.

Keep it up!

 

[ruckin]

Good work!

Hard to tell how you hurt your bicep on cleans. It's either 1. You are bending your arms too soon and rowing the weight up or 2. You are catching in the front rack wrong.

The power of the lifts come from the hips not the arms. The arms are just what connects the bar to your body. As for the front rack, you have to get your elbows as high as possible. Also warm-up your shoulder mobility before you do OLY work.

Keep it up!

Thanks for the tips!

I normally don't row the bar up with my arms, but I guess I must have been on accident when I hurt my bicep yesterday. I just need to work more on technique. Interesting point about shoulder warm ups before oly lifting, I'll start doing that.

 

[romaleos]

Form starts to decline when you are starting to fatigue or the weight gets serious. 200+ clean is a legit weight.

Try to film yourself with your smart phone, download coach's eye app. Watch a lot of YouTube videos especially from Hookgrip. Outside of getting a legit OLY coach, this is the only way to be self taught.

 

[ruckin]

I've been so busy that I completely forgot to post yesterday, so this post will be for Sunday and Monday (today).

Sunday 3/1

Calories and macros were same as normal, I erased the numbers last night for today though so no exact numbers.

High-volume day

squat: 255x8x3
bench: 250x8x3
PCs: 205x3x3
paused incline bench: 185x8x2
chins: 252x6x3
shrugs:365x8x3

This workout felt awesome, first time in a weeks I've had a really good lifting session. Squats are still feeling great, bench was same weight/reps as last time, but my form was waaaaaaay better this time, so that's a significant improvement. Power cleans felt very good also, my technique is steadily improving there; I'm getting better with catching the bar lower in the front squat position and getting my elbows up. As for the shrugs, I subbed them back in for the rack pulls this workout. I just wasn't liking the rack pulls "experiment".



Monday 3/2

cals: 3200
fat: 152g
protonz: 170g

Conditioning: 1/4 mile runs; I did 5 sets, followed by a 2 min rest, then another set and one last shorter set; 60 seconds rest between each set except for the 2 min rest.

The running felt great tonight. I definitely feel the fittest I've been in months, at least since the fall season anyway. I notice a very strong correlation between my squat strength and my speed/running capacity, and considering that my squat still has a little ways to go to get back where I was in the fall, and that my fitness is about where it was at my best in the fall, I'm very confident that once my squat gets back up I'll be in considerably better rugby shape than I was in the fall. That's pretty exciting since this fall was by far my the best I've ever performed, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what I can do on the field in a few weeks.

Tomorrow is light/recovery day. I'm looking forward to practicing some more overhead squats after my regular workout.

 

[ruckin]

Tuesday 3/4

Cals: 2930
fat: 151g
protons: 162g

Light recovery day

press: 150x5x2
PCs: 165x3x3
chins: BW x2x3
overhead squats: worked up to 85x4

Another solid day. I was so busy all day that I pretty much had no time to eat, I had only eaten 1200 calories by midnight tonight, so I got to enjoy almost 2000 calories tonight after my workout in the form of 8 eggs and cheese, toast, and a pb&j sammich. I'm so full and happy right now haha.

The workout was very good. Everything felt very light, as it should have. The overhead squats are so hard lol. I always thought I had great shoulder mobility until I started doing these the other day.I can hold the bar above my head just fine, but towards the bottom of the squat, my shoulder mobility starts to become an issue. So, I started doing a few sets of one of the shoulder mobility exercises in this video, the one with the band.



I'll start doing those sotts presses too, before and maybe after the overhead squats.