Data's Hunt for Constant Progression

[Curt James]

Thanks brother! Squats are a stronger lift for me. I hit 455x8 this week too.

Holy cow. I just left Granite-Dawg's journal and his 100lb overhead DB triceps extensions. Rx is full to overflowing with incredible motivation.

[data4]

Holy cow. I just left Granite-Dawg's journal and his 100lb overhead DB triceps extensions. Rx is full to overflowing with incredible motivation.

Love it! Its nice to see some good journals going.


Still sitting at about 210 (210.4) today so I made a couple of increases to things. My bodyfat seems to be holding pretty well so I want to keep pushing this if I can. If I am in this condition or possible a bit higher BF I will probably prep for about 16-18 weeks. I was ready a couple weeks out last time and had to suck down to make weight but that will not be an issue this time around. Hopefully I am able to increase things going into the show.

[data4]

A new training phase started this week and its been great so far. My previous phase was primarily straight heavy sets working up to all out failure with forced reps, forced negatives, dropsets etc. The current phase puts more focus on getting as much blood in the muscle as possible while hopefully backing off the CNS demand a bit. It has been very tough in its own right.

Legs from today:

Tri Set:
-Reverse Hack Squat with Hamstring Focus: 10 reps with 2 sec eccentric
-Single Leg Leg Press: 8/each
-Walking Lunges: Length of the gym and back utilizing long strides
*4 total rounds of this

-Smith Machine High Bar Squats: 3 sets of 20 reps
On these I was aiming to really find a groove and make it through all 20 with little to no pause. This was tough!

-Barbell Squat:
On these I did sets of 5 with a 3:1:1:1 tempo up until I hit a weight that was failure. I started at 25lbs per side and kept moving up with only about 90 secs or so between sets. I added about 25lbs per side each set and I think I got though about 7 sets
-Seated Leg Curl: 3 sets of 10

-Tear Drop Leg Ext: 3 sets of 10 reps
Some quick stretching to round it out.

[data4]

1-22-15

Things are moving right along now. I am up to 212.8 this morning out of bed. Im keeping an eye on bodyfat levels and they seem to be holding pretty steady so all good so far. Right now I am rotating calories/carbs in a low (off day) medium and high day which seems to be working well.

Ever since my last massage, I have had some issue with my hip. There is definitely a trapped nerve since I get a shooting pain if I turn the wrong way. Luckily it seems to be improving as I work to keep inflammation down and did not squat the last two weeks. I changed up my leg routine quite a bit and it seemed to help while still allowing me to train as hard as I want.

[The Solution]

Damn man, Cant stay 100% injury free!!

[Hoss06]

Damn man, Cant stay 100% injury free!!

Nature of the beast in this sport.

[Sunnyday]

Damn man, Cant stay 100% injury free!!

Nature of the beast in this sport.

This.

[data4]

This was partially an error on the part of my massage therapist. I talked to her about it and she feels maybe she over corrected the leg. When she works on my glutes, my right seems to be tighter since my right leg is shorter (probably due to knee surgery). She always loosens that side up and frees up my hip but I think she took it out too far this time. Literally almost bringing my hip out of socket lol I didnt have any issue with training that caused it. It was right after the last massage. Its definitely getting better now.

[lilbigman1]

1-22-15

Things are moving right along now. I am up to 212.8 this morning out of bed. Im keeping an eye on bodyfat levels and they seem to be holding pretty steady so all good so far. Right now I am rotating calories/carbs in a low (off day) medium and high day which seems to be working well.

Ever since my last massage, I have had some issue with my hip. There is definitely a trapped nerve since I get a shooting pain if I turn the wrong way. Luckily it seems to be improving as I work to keep inflammation down and did not squat the last two weeks. I changed up my leg routine quite a bit and it seemed to help while still allowing me to train as hard as I want.

While rotating your calories/carbs, are you still carb back-loading? If so, will you continue to back-load when you begin your contest prep?

[data4]

While rotating your calories/carbs, are you still carb back-loading? If so, will you continue to back-load when you begin your contest prep?

I mainly back load carbs regardless of the day yes. For about 4-6 weeks I tried having carbs pre training, intra, post and before bed but I am still not a fan of having them pre workout. I simply feel better if I start them intra workout then have two more big carb meals post and before bed. If I train in the mornings I will have them intra, post then wait till my last meal to finish them usually.

I will definitely do this in contest prep. I see no reason to do it any other way. Its allowed me to keep my insulin sensitivity in a better place, gain longer without getting fat etc. I have monitored my fasting BG levels periodically and they were still pretty good when I was as high as 560 carbs.



I was 213 even upon waking this morning so still creeping up although I did bump the food very slightly. We had a meet up this past weekend for anyone interested in coming out to train and it went really well. I had a client come in from Indiana and even someone come down from Canada as well as a few others. We got a few pics too while everyone was hear!

Winter 15 meet up.jpg

[The Solution]

can only imagine the atmosphere there buddy, have a good time?

[data4]

can only imagine the atmosphere there buddy, have a good time?

Of course, it was killer. Im pretty sure even my femurs were sore

[lilbigman1]

I've listened to a few of John Kiefer's podcasts and he's stated that he has gotten people into really good shape with carb backloading, but never stage ready. He said that most of his clients use a combo/hybrid of carb backloading and carb nite to get in competition shape. Do you foresee any hurdles using backloading for your entire prep? If so, how will you handle making adjustments? What are your current macros and how often do you refeed? Sorry for all the questions.

[data4]

I've listened to a few of John Kiefer's podcasts and he's stated that he has gotten people into really good shape with carb backloading, but never stage ready. He said that most of his clients use a combo/hybrid of carb backloading and carb nite to get in competition shape. Do you foresee any hurdles using backloading for your entire prep? If so, how will you handle making adjustments? What are your current macros and how often do you refeed? Sorry for all the questions.

The general idea is to utilize carbs when I am most insulin sensitive. I dont always adhere to strict CBL. He may have said that because he does not track macros closely or get very picky about food selection from what I understand. This is the same way I have been setting up my nutrition for a couple years including my last show and was peeled then. I dont see why there would be any hurdles this time around. Like I said, I do not follow his version of CBL because I am much more particular about macro set up and food selection where as he is using CBL with a lot of general clients.

I do not refeed right now because there is really no sense in refeeding while in a surplus. I do rotate carbs to some extent during the week but that is more so to increase intake for larger muscle group days. During contest prep I will utilize refeeds as intake get lower but the amount and frequency varies all the time depending on what my body is giving me.

Currently my macros are:

305p/225c/115f non training days
305p/420c/100f medium days
300p/465c/100f high days

I do cardio 3x per week as well.

[data4]

Trying to get better everyday.

Finished off leg training with Smith machine lunges supersetted with smith front squats. Legs were already beat up going into this so the weight was nothing ground breaking. 185 for lunges and 235 for fronts (counting the bar as 45). I really focused on constant tension during the lunges and went to failure on fronts.