Easily benched 345x3, which is a lifetime PR. Glad to get that after a poor training week. Afterwards did some banded decline pressing super-set with T-bar rows up to 6 plates and a whole cornocupia of impulsive isolation exercises.

Been exploring some Middle-Eastern black metal and ended up listening to this same album on repeat over 2 hours of lifting. So kickass and heavy.

Barely strict presses 227.5. Tried 4 times, completely failed two of those. Then it dawned on me that my triceps are still hurting from those skullcrushers. Makes sense, this somehow felt different from when I usually fall short of my press. Sticking point was at a weird spot and the decline is way too drastic to be anything else.

 Well shit, I'm experiencing my first bad sessions in months now that I'm further into my diet. To be expected I guess. Felt extremely bad on squats last night, just felt like my form was not clicking and I was coming into each set half-asleep and getting awoken by the weight. Got up to 440 and my left knee hurt coming up from the first rep. Thought it over a second and then called it a night there. Live to fight another day.

Gonna make an admission and note that I was extremely distracted perusing job opportunities and personal training outreach to make some side income the whole time. Just been on a really productive tear the last few weeks but I need to focus.

Another thing, I weighed 216 this morning, which would be crazy because it's the heaviest I've been this year despite reducing my calories. However, my scale needs new batteries and it's giving me an error message after stepping on it, so I'll take care of that and reevaluate.

Crazy fun weekend in the East Bay, got to go to another beach yesterday with calm shallow water so we could wade really far out with drinks in hand and only be stomach-deep. Also saw two fish jump next to us. Thought I slept alright but when I came home I was exhausted and slept for 9.5 hours before work today.

Money situation is very bad right now, can't wait to leave this job after they slashed my hours when I've been here so long. I'm budgeting well when it comes to food and not spending any leisure money outside when with friends.

 Went on a 45 minute jog last night. Started feeling my blood sugar levels crash mid-run (feeling shaky and sweating profusely). This will happen if I drink a sugary PWO shake and then don't eat anything shortly thereafter, but this was after I'd had oatmeal and berries. Guess it wasn't enough. Came back and pigged out on ramen, salami, a salad, and a protein shake. Not proud of eating the ramen so late at night but oh well.

Weighing 212 in the morning now, so I've lost 3 lbs in a month. The first month is the slowest, too, as I ease into things. Cutting it a little close but I should be good by meet time. 

Back randomly started hurting for some reason on pull day. Might have been from bench pressing. Got up to mat pulling 500 but couldn't budge 575 once. Going to table it until next week and come back today after work to do belt squats, good mornings, and abs. 

After not getting anything from that session I went on a 30 minute jog last night. Am now at the point where I have cut out carbs at night besides minimal ones in vegetables.

Bench press
265 x 5
302.5 x 5
322.5 x 5
-
Last set super-set with dumbbell rows
100s x 8

Dips
Bw x 30
45 x 12
90 x 10, 10
-
Super-set with dumbbell rows
115s x 4 x 10

Skullcrushers, chest-flyes, curls, Band pull-aparts

 Squatted an easy 465x5 on Saturday. Not feeling any diminishment in performance from the reduced calories yet. I'm basically leaving peri-workout nutrition exactly the same as before and I intend to keep it that way as long as I lose weight. I pig-out before and after lifting.

Quads have a familiar knife-stab sensation when I squat ATG even without weight. It goes away when I give them a break for awhile. Left hamstring also has been feeling tender when I deadlift or squat. For these reasons I opted not to do my drop-down sets and instead did SSB box squats up to 330x8, followed by good mornings.

Did 15 minutes of a fasted cardio circuit Sunday morning before meeting up with George to go to the shooting range. Diet was fast food and ramen all day. As long as I get protein and don't lose strength that's fine. 

Axle strict press
160 x 5
190 x 5
215 x 4
So damn close! Couldn't break past the middle. First time falling short on strict press in a long time. This was a 5 lb jump from last month and I don't consider it a bad performance at all.
-
Sw with band lat pulldowns and last set super-set with pull-ups x 9

EDIT
Well that was wrong! Rested a long time after writing that and then CRUSHED 215x5.
-
super-set with pull-ups x 10

Axle strict press against bands
145 x 10 + 3 overhead shrugs at top of final rep
Super-set with pull-ups x 10

Incline bench press
220 x 2 x 8
x 7
- super-set with pull-ups x 10

Curls, band press downs, chest flyes

Well, I take that back. Came back yesterday evening and hit the mat pulls. Didn't quite get what I wanted but it was better than 0. Pulled 570x2 fairly easily, then just didn't have a third. Finished with belt squats and lunges with 115 dumbbells.

 Bailed out of a 570 mat pull off 2 mats. Just lost tightness and felt my form breakdown. Going to strip back down to 500 and then go for 570 again after work but that rarely pans out, my brain has failure too fresh in its mind typically. Golgi tendon organ might have some relevance there. In any case, I'll see what happens with that and whatever the case go to belt squats, good mornings, and ab work.

Went on a short 10 min jog last night.

I'm back at work right now after 4 days off. Can't wait to find a new gig.

Back from a crazy fun birthday weekend extending into Monday. Time to get down to business again.

Bench press
285 x 5
320 x 3
370 x 1
* Smooth. Have been feeling depleted after the weekend but I think I did a pretty good job eating. Didn't have any protein late at night Sunday because we were staying a day later than I expected but my inconsistencies for outweighed by the rest of my efforts.

Dips
18
45 x 10
90 x 10, 10

All presses super-set with T-bar rows

 Squatted 520 yesterday. Felt nauseous all day and came into training a little hungry but it was stupidly easy. I'm finding the walkout at this weight harder than the squat.

Going to be gone this weekend for Azzy's birthday in Santa Cruz. Just me, him, and George. Meal-prepping after work to take good food to the hotel along with whatever I eat outside.

Haven't mentioned this yet but an anonymous reader of my blog, one of many thousands, gifted me a 90 lb Thai bag, which is amazing. Problem (and I consider it a good problem) is it's too tall for my punching bag stand. Tried hanging it from a tree and it broke the branch. I have a solution though, going to hang it from the balcony next week.

Yikes, that last entry was near incomprehensible. Did the entire thing with text-to-speech.

Been feeling really nauseous the past few months but it's been worse lately. Just been ignoring it and powering through since my strength kept going up, but I'm hoping now that I'm cutting weight the elimination diet will fix it. Really hard to eat today and I slept like crap last night. 

Strict pressed 240 yesterday and going to force myself to squat today.

Startee the day by making half of my weightgainer, as an example of gradually ramping the calories down. Only other difference right now is not being as junk food like ice cream, especially late at night. Did eat a free Whopper offered to me by one of the plumbers at work though.

Did three hills sprints on Heart Attack Hill and then went on a jog. Haven't done that in a while, mostly been going on jogs. Definitely felt the increased difficulty at this weight.

One thing I should note is that my weight standards are different from before. I'm weighing myself first thing in the morning without clothes currently whereas before in this log it'd be midday at the gym. If I was doing that I'd be around 220 now, so I'm not as light compared to the past as it may seem. (Usually ended bulks at 230)

Ending weight gain phase. Wasn't too epic at just under 4 months of it but I've gotta get going with making weight for November if I don't want to feel rushed.

Start weight: 192
Press: 220x2
Bench press: 350
Squat: 500
Deadlift: ?

End weight: 215
Press: 225x3
Bench press: 370
Squat: 520
Deadlift: ?

These are just confirmed lifts but I can definitely do more than that on bench and squat. Deadlift is too much of an unknown for me to accurately quantify it, since I've been mat pulling and the performance for that has been allll over the place. As of late it's improved a ton, that I know.

Man, despite the extra chest work I think my chest still doesn't look great.

Bench pressed 340x3, which is a lifetime PR. 

Haven't been writing logs during workouts lately so I've only been recapping the powerlifts and strict pressing. Gonna change that. Honestly didn't even realize I'd stopped until I thought about it just now.

Squats
375x3
435x3
485x3

Drop-down to 405x5
315x10
225x10
135x10
45x10

Good mornings
150x13, 13

As of today I am ramping down my caloric intake slowly. Weighed in at 215. To be honest, this is more than I should be for my November 15th meet (198 class). I got addicted to the gains as douchey as that sounds and held off until now. 

Had a long friend weekend extending into the beginning of the week. Had a really good week though. Mat pulled 470x4 off 3 mats, bench pressed 320x5, and strict pressed 225x3. The press was when I hosted my friend and I had to force myself to pull away and go do my thing. Was feeling tired and didn't want to, which was all the more reason to do it. Also drank both coffee and a Red Bull, plus was munching non-stop while we hung-out so that was a lot of good fuel to let go to waste. Didn't have the usual pep that makes for a strong press attempt; usually if the bar rests on my chest for longer than a second I'm going to fail the next rep but this time I was able to keep it going. Ended up being a good session when everything felt heavy.