Adarq.org

This is some cool stuff I never would have thought could be a thing

also seems refreshing because i feel like i haven't come across any new beneficial sports science in so long

Sup guys

noticed the past couple of years i havent been able to do high volume workouts like i used to when i was younger. i get gassed after a simple 3 work sets of squats, back ext, calf raises, ab pulldowns. now when i say gassed, i dont mean i'm tired as though i've done a lot of cardio. I mean like i have no will to continue - perhaps its cortisol levels rising. you know the feeling!

 so i want to experiment with carb loading rather than lifting in a fasted state like usual

what's the proper way to do this? I tried clif bar + coffee cream and sugar about 30 minutes before lifting once, and had a great workout. but after replicating this a few times, didn't notice much. must have been a fluke that day.

some ideas (i usually have my last meal at 10pm):
 - fast until 5pm, eat high GI carbs (50g), then lift 5:30pm and eat another 50g while lifting
 - fast until 3pm, eat like 100g oats, then lift at 5pm
 - fast until 8am, eat 100g oats, then lift at 11am (weekends)

does it make sense to have some whey pre-workout mixed in there?


on second thought, will drastically improving my cardio (or maybe lactic acid work instead) help me power through hour-long weight sessions where i get plenty of rest times? Or wou

Alright I may be too lazy to update everything, so maybe just my daily weight and my workouts for now. i can track calories and protein on my phone

194lbs this morning

Tueday - 11/13/18
191.4lbs - Morning fasted after peeing.

-= Calorie Log =-

FOOD / ACTIVITY                CALORIES          PROTEIN
5g creatine
3 scoops protein                +360              72g
1 cup milk                      +150              8g
18 deglet noor dates            +400
4 cookies                       +280
Protein bar                     +150              10g
Protein bar                     +230              20g
4 cups greek yogurt             +880              88g
A ton of honey                  +600
Total in                        +3,050            198g

BMR                             -1,800
Walked 2 miles                  -200
Worked out                      -300
Thermic Effect of Food          -300
Total out                       -2,600    

Balance                         +450

-= Workout Log =-

Low Incline DB Bench Press
50's x 10
60's x 5
70's x 3
80's x 1
90's x 7  >> 3min rest.
90's x 5  >> 90sec rest.
70's x 10  >> 60sec rest.
70's x 4  >> 60sec rest.
70's x 4

Pull ups
BW x 5
+35lbs x 2
+60lbs x 5  >>3min rest.
+60lbs x 4  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 10  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 5  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 5  >> 60sec rest.

DB Lateral Raises
35's x 5
35's x 5
40's x 3
45's x 1
50's x 12  >> 60sec rest.
50's x 8  >> 60sec rest.
45's x 8

Seated Cable Rows
200 x 5
220 x 3
240 x 6  >> 3min rest.
240 x 5  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 10  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 6  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 5

DB W Rear Delt Flyes
30'x 8  >> 60sec rest.
30's x 8  >> 60sec rest.

DB Rear Delt Flyes
30'x 8  >> 60sec rest.
22.5's x 12  >> 60sec rest.

Lateral Raises
40's x 12

Lol i gained 6 pounds of water weight + glycogen storage from pigging out the last few days. Didn't even feel like updating my log.

But I think this is a good thing. I'd rather do a body recomp while my glycogen stores are full at ~190 rather than empty at ~185. I can literally feel the bloating in my face, fingers, toes lol. I will probably stabilize at 188lbs or so, which I'm good with. Hopefully having full glycogen stores will stop me from binge eating and also allow me to lift harder? I have a feeling it may. I was supposed to do upper body yesterday though.

Lifting upper body later. Didn't eat yet - the calories logged are planned ahead of time. Aiming for +500 surplus since it's a lifting day.

Edit; Gained strength in some lifts, dropped in others.

Nah don't worry about some hypothetical better way, it doesn't exist. Your experience is more valuable because you know what works for your body and training. 1 week cut/bulk cycles are a bad idea though because you never give your body a chance to 'adapt' to fat loss / reduced calories which is what you need to burn fat efficiently. Keeping a weekly deficit but eating more calories around training helps you recomp and recover from training, which makes sense and seems to work well in practice.

If 1 week cycles never give my body a chance to adapt to fat loss, then what about cycles even smaller than that like i’m currently doing?

Been out of the loop lately on any latest research.

Currently I’m trying to maintain bodyweight while getting back closer to my previous PRs. I lift 4x/week (upper/lower split). On lift days i aim for +500 caloric surplus and >200g protein. On off days i am for -500 caloric deficit and 150g protein. I weigh about 185lbs now and i would say im 11% bf. I also do IF.

Does it make sense to do this? Am i better off doing 1 week cut/bulk cycles for body recomp instead? 4 week cycles?

Thursday - 11/09/18
185.6lbs - morning post pee but gotta poop. sweats and t shirt

-= Calorie Log =-

FOOD / ACTIVITY                CALORIES          PROTEIN
10g creatine
3 scoops protein                +360              72g
2 cups milk                     +315              8g
1 tblsp honey                   +60
3 deglet noor dates             +60
Lots of greek yogurt            +650              70g
8 Kebabs                        +540              48g
Half a fat pleskavica           +400              45g
2 cups drinkable yogurt         +300              16g
Sour cream                      +100 
Ajvar                           +150
Pita bread                      +300
8 mantija                       +500              25g
1 tres leches                   +300
2 baklavas                      +500
Shopska salad                   +150
Total in                        +4,685            284g

BMR                             -1,800
Walked 2 miles                  -200
Worked Out                      -400
Thermic Effect of Food          -400
Total out                       -2,800    

Balance                         +1,885

-= Workout Log =-

Low Incline DB Bench Press
50's x 10  >> Improved by 1 rep on my two heavy sets. Lowered the rest time to 60sec after the second heavy set. Makes it really tough.
60's x 5
70's x 3
80's x 1
90's x 6  >> 3min rest.
90's x 4  >> 60sec rest.
75's x 8  >> 60sec rest.
75's x 4  >> 60sec rest.
75's x 4

Seated Cable Rows
200 x 5
220 x 3
240 x 8  >> 3min rest.
240 x 6  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 12  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 8  >> 60sec rest.
200 x 8

DB Lateral Raises
35's x 5
35's x 5
40's x 3
45's x 1
50's x 12  >> 60sec rest.
50's x 8  >> 60sec rest.
45's x 8

Pull ups
BW x 5
+35lbs x 2
+60lbs x 6  >>3min rest.
+60lbs x 5  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 8  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 5  >> 60sec rest.
BW x 5  >> 60sec rest.

DB W Rear Delt Flyes
30'x 12  >> 60sec rest.
30's x 8  >> 60sec rest.

DB Rear Delt Flyes
30'x 8  >> 60sec rest.
22.5's x 8  >> 60sec rest.

Lateral Raises
40's x 15

Ate a bunch of food that I don't even know how to count the calories for. There's a ton of estimates in there. I found a realllllly tasty balkan cuisine spot and I just had to go. I had the best pleskavica of my life, couldn't believe it. Better than even any I've had back home overseas. Couldn't stop eating lol. I ate about 1.2k calories more than I should have. I guess the next 2 bulk days I'll break even instead of being at +500 and that should balance it out. Cut days remain -500 as usual.

Already noticing a difference with small strength increases since i've started really upping my protein intake and adding more volume to my workouts (I was only doing 2 work sets for a while). In fact, I even look cutter in my arms somehow. Probably from the higher calorie intake so my glygocen and sarco fluids are up.

Hey, nice ##'s! I want my pullup strength to be around yours at the end of my strength cycle, are those dead hang? Definitely think those higher intensity weighted pullup 3's and 5's are great, any more assistance you do for them? Notice you did your rows and pullups on the same day, i usually split mine up on different days but tried your scheme today. Worked decent but since i'm supersetting stuff the rest intervals didn't really work out.

Yes the pull ups are dead hang. Pause at the bottom. Maybe I'm just kind of built for them, but what always worked for me was 5 sets, 2-3 of them weighted low reps, 2-3 of them BW for max reps. And I hit them twice a week. Mixing the rep ranges in the same workout works wonders for me, along with minimum 2x a week frequency. Back in the day, this kind of stuff made my squat explode 90lbs in 8 weeks or something crazy like that lol. It's in one of my older logs on here. But I was squatting 3x a week (2 days heavy/light mixed reps, and 1 back-off day low reps at like 70% max).

I do an upper/lower split, so i put pull ups and rows on the same day. I alternate which ones I do first.

Table is perfectly lined up here too, Windows 10 + firefox FWIW.
Getting enough protein in a normal grown up daily life is the biggest pain in the ass IMHO. One solution is cook massively when you find the time and frost it, microwave the portions you need when you need them. Other is find the junk foods stores/dishes that suit you well and are the least... damaging. Final solution, always have easy/fast sources in your house, to complement the normal lunch/dinner when needed. Boiled eggs (in 12s), peanuts, 1kg low fat yogurt pack, low fat chocolate milk, tuna cans, whole grain rusks. I guess you know already but sometimes its useful to share our... secret weapons haha!

Yeah having the food ready is a huge plus! I didn't think of the boiled eggs idea, thank you! I usually just drink more protein but food > supps. Greek yogurt is an easy think to stock up on too. I wish they sold gallon buckets of that stuff. Just drizzle honey on it, or some jam, and I'm good to go.

My friend gave me the idea of storing protein sludge (protein powder + peanut butter + little bit of water/milk) in the freezer as ice cream. Going to have to give that a shot...