they normally sound like popping bubble wrap so they could prob use some fluid.

How's the knee/leg feeling now?

feels fine, not sure what was going on with it.
going to up my squat weight for these sets. Ive been doing the "just get 30 reps". I usually start with 3 reps sets then 5 rep sets once im good and warm.
235 is getting easier now so ill go 250 maybe for a few weeks.
Ive been doing the same on bench press. 185 used to feel real heavy off the rack just to hold it. Start with 135 work up to 185 then 205+ with the slingshot.
Feels really good and more importantly it feels lighter. Leg drive feels real good too.

Ive lost about 5% body fat based on that scan tool I have. I feel good and seem to be recovering well even though sleep hasnt been the greatest.

Ive been eyeballing a few sand bags. Have any suggestions on a decent one?
This one seems nice

Yeah the brute force stuff is nice. My lifting partner has a few of them now. One w/o straps(up to 200lbs) and one with(i forget what capacity that on is). Both are great quality. The loadable bags are awesome and haven't leaked a grain of sand yet.

That is great your lifts are going up and you are carrying less fat. Keep it up.

yeah im in the right vein so to speak. I actually feel like I am making real good strength gains right now.
That Tnation cutting article you gave me was legit.

Good to know that brute force stuff is gtg. I figure I can do farmers walks and a ton of other stuff with one and weight for one is $3 for 50 lbs.

upped my squat weight today. 245 for 30 reps (mixed sets).
Felt like I could have went heavier, very strange.
weight has kind of leveled off but I dont want to go much lower on calories. (2150).
Still need to get some sand for this 25lb sand bag Ive got and maybe work with that some.
Probably have blood work due soon too.

Overall feeling good, I really thought I would feel terrible dropping almost 1k calories but I dont.

So many reps.

its workin though :D

Awesome man, that's great work. Sounds like you found your groove. How much weight did you lose? You are still using that gizmo to keep track of your LBM? I wouldn't be surprised w/ you gaining some LBM while dropping fat since you changed stuff up and got on trt.

So this is that app, shows steady decline in BF then up. Kinda weird but then MFP shows a similar jump (below). I think its mostly water. I tried to drink a ton yesterday.
No huge weight loss, but I want it to go kinda slow. Also I dont need to lose a ton either another 5-10 lbs maybe. Im hoping the TRT will also help things along.
Attached File

Attached File

hhhmm took some measurements today...
waist +1"
hips +1"
chest +1"

shoulders, arms, neck, legs all stayed the same.
very odd.

weird day today. Crazy neck pain, like whiplash or something. Dunno what from.
Went at todays workout anyhow. Worked up through my ohp then some bench. felt good but not awesome. OHP is getting easier.
Weight wise im stuck at 166.2 I feel like I could gain real easy right now. I want to hold off and see what my cholesterol and T levels are and Id like to keep losing some of this waist line Ive got. Trying to think overall health right now I guess.
Going to omit a few things from diet and make a slight tweak. Dairy (milk) and grains are going out. Also going to eat smaller more frequent meals through the day.

So on a different note we will be moving sometime in the unknown future. They are putting a road through overtop this house (from what we can tell). We will probably move down the road to the trailer my sister had for a bit and save up some money for another house. While it doesnt have a basement it does have a garage with a very high ceiling. :D So in the back of my head im thinking I may be able to start some olympic lifts which I think will be good.

thats all for now. Going to eat Im hangry!

Dang man. Hopefully you get treated well and come out ahead $ wise with them eminent domaining you.

At least you don't seem too bummed. Oly lifts?! You trying to hurt yourself?!

We have one bathroom in this house, i live with 4 females.

Thats gotta be painful.

it sucks.
they going to be taking my house, my brothers house and my aunts (plus a bunch of others).

Wow. Must be an important road.

yep, new highway.

Added another 5lbs to bench today 1rm now 210.

Getting close to 2 plates.

That's awesome!

right around the corner.

Roadwork.




Congrats on the added weight!
Thanks for documenting and keeping up with this thread.  I'm two weeks into the SL 5x5 program and have a long, long way to go...

Thanks man.
Whats your body weight and all that right now?
I remember when 135 on squat was a big deal. I think I could do over 300 right now, Id test it today but I 300 is all I have .
Just stick with the program and dont eat crap food. Think about what your body needs over just calorie/protein goals.

I am 45, 5'6", 160 lb (down from 175 via diet).
While I'm not terribly overweight, I could stand to lose a good 20+ pounds of fat.
The real problem is I am seriously out of shape.  15 years behind a desk and an inactive lifestyle will do that to ya  

This doesn't compute to me. You only weigh 160 and you are 20 lbs over weight?

I could see it. he and are about the same body type.
I have a very small frame and 10 lbs +/- on me is very noticeable. Especially if you carry that weight just in one spot.
you have to keep things in scale/perspective.
If I weight 165 and my bf% is 24% that is 39.6 lbs of my body weight is fat, right?
If so you could see how he could say he needs to lost 20 lbs.

just start kicking ass man. Like I said eat to help your body. Focus on recovery.
Get your T checked.

Yeah, that's exactly how I see it.  An online calculator put me at 26%, but I have no real data to back that up.
My height hasn't changed since high school, but my weight sure has (and it's certainly not muscle I've added).  

Ive got a tool that measures and I was about 23% @ 165lbs today. I don't plan on losing all 23% but 10% would be great.

YES I CHANGED MY AVATAR
Need to vent, figure this is just a better place than GD.
A good friend of mine passed away yesterday. Its really rocked me. Back when I was dealing with all the heart stuff he had his own health issues as well. We went to school together as kids but had went separate ways a but until the whole facebook thing helped us reconnect. He and I liked to fish. We got to go together once before he starting with his own health issues. I dont know what all exactly he had wrong with him. He was a diabetic, lost both kidneys, was in a motorized chair but still had a good attitude and his wife took great care of him. Like I said we both had health issues around the same time. Mine we alot more "fixable" I think than his but we both just kind of encouraged one another in passing. I had really hoped he would get better and we could go fishing one more time. I saw him out maybe a month or two ago at the store.
"They'll let anyone in this place." I told him.
"yeah i guess so." We both had a laugh and he told me he was going to let his beard catch up to mine.
"No no. Not gonna happen."
I just cant believe he is gone. He fought hard as anyone could have asked. His dialysis port got clogged and infected and he went septic. He was in critical condition for several days and in and out of sedation. He got to tell his wife he loved her and his family one last time at least. His blood pressure kept bottoming out and he would code, they would get him back and next day same thing.
I always felt a little crappy that my health had returned and not his. It always felt like he and I were in this race in life and could at least encourage one another even indirectly. But it didnt work out that way I guess. Then I start thinking that could have easily been me.
Its just alot to soak in.

as far as workout stuff. I got nothing done last friday. My youngest keeps waking up screaming crying. She cant talk to tell me what is wrong and I go through the checklist that you go through. Its not teeth, its not a night terror. Something is bothering her though. I got almost done with OHP and had to quit. Went to finish up 4 times and she woke up 4 times crying.
Ill have to finish things tonight maybe. I already feel way behind. Weight was stuck at 165.x for days. I hit that 210 bench and said heck with it had some ice cream. Lost some weight since already. So weird how that works.

Sorry about your buddy. It's a good reminder of all of the hard work you have done to get healthy/strong.

When do you go back for follow up lab work for your cholesterol? My father in law has had high cholesterol for decades. 2-3 months on the diet from the book Plant Paradox and his numbers are now great. His HDL went up and his LDL is down etc.

Keep on hacking away at it. Even just trying to finish your workout that many times show dedication. Most people would have quit.

I really wish he had gotten better. I dont know what his poor wife is going to do, she took care of him day and night for years. we were the same age.

I should be going here soon for bloodwork. I think high chol runs in the family, my mom eats like a cracker with cellary and is on cholesterol medicine. Wife needs hers checked. Should be getting some money through a program my wifes employer does. Basically if you track food and workouts for a year and few other things they give you cash. All in all about $300.
Hopefully my cholesterol is lower and in a decent range. Ill finish up tonight, Got to get those pin presses in. Im looking to expand things a bit especially at the new place. Like a heavy sand bag and some stuff like that. Always like to keep things fresh and always expand. Some endurance stuff probably wouldnt hurt my cardiovascular health either. Been on my wife like crazy to start doing something to lose weight. she keeps saying she going to and she wants to but puts forth zero effort.

Busted out some of those pin presses did some slow slow wide grip sets. Maybe I'll sleep tonight.

Nope. You'll be too sore to sleep.

That sucks.

Do you put your kid down for a nap during the day. When mine is overly tired we have issues.

yeah nap time = my workout time.

OK.

So yesterday saw a distant cousin at the mall, he was like "you look like you have been hitting the gym, you are getting big. What are you doing? Have you been to the gym?"
Then today, saw a guy I used to work with been 10 years maybe. He was like "you been working out or something?" (he is a power lifter of some kind).
So Im happy about that. Just going to stick with the groove Im in and try and make some gains.

Hard work is paying off. Next thing you know you'll start getting offers for gay-for-pay gigs.

a new milestone.

pretty good workout today.

Ive really been letting my body dictate the weight a bit lately. I picked a weight range that gave me 3-4 reps and put in alot of sets with it. Over time I find that 3 reps become 4 and 4 become 5. Before you know it you are doing 5x5 again. When I can complete a 5x5 of that weight I know to move it up a bit next time and just repeat everything.
Its very strange because it feels like "noob" gains all over again.
I remember 135 was a good warm up weight for bench for a long time. Its nothing now 165 is the new warm up weight. Everything feels REAL stable on bench now too. The bench I use isnt the most stable and the floor is actually pretty uneven so none of that helps but suddenly I can feel like I can hold weight past my body weight pretty stable at the top.
Ive been focusing on when I am eating what. Before workout ill eat some kind of carbs and let it be digesting and I should be fairly into the workout by the time that food is in the bloodstream. I found some 'energy bars' at kroger and basically they are designed to replenish muscles after a workout. They are 10/$10 and they seem to be okay honestly. They taste kinda awful, but they seem to work.

Been thinking alot about realistic long term goals. I may switch things up next year spring/summer to at least maintain as much strength as I can but also move over to some stuff that is more "real world" type work. I dont mean that dumb "farm strength" crap that GD always gets into but more of having to pick stuff up and carry it, having to move that heavy thing from a to b, carry this up the hill. I guess its more strong man type things. Just want to be well rounded I guess. Sadly I should probably put some running cardio stuff in there at some point just because its my BIGGEST weakness. I dont want to forget the big 4 during this time, so dont worry.
Incorporating Strongman w/ Brian Alsruhe

tl;dr - letting reps dictate the weight on big lifts seems to be paying off, trying to time my food right and replenish properly. Thinking of putting some strongman type work in my routine next year.

took some measurements today
I dunno wtf is going on...

Chest +2.5" since the 11th...
Shoulders- +.5"
Hips- -1.75"
Arms- +0
neck +.5"
Thighs- -.75"

I heard gay porn pays twice as much from a friend.

upped the weight today and went hard.
those pin presses, man they killing me. But I like'em.


New favorite:
EVL Stacked Protein Powder

I think the "T" is starting to have an effect. usually 2-3pm I crash hard. Havent had much of that lately. We've been working hard at that trailer we bought. the garage there is FULL of junk and my daughter helped me clean alot of it out. Kind of excited, cant want to move some stuff out there and have some ceiling height for a change. Only concern is trying to get a workout in during the winter. Have to use some kind of heater for sure. It stays pretty cool out there during the heat of the day though.

im pretty sure you can make 6 figures by doing livestreams...

looking for opinions on these meals. Good or bad macro/nutrient wise?



Servings per Container 2
Servings Size 1 1/2 Cup (208g) Frozen, 1 Cup Cooked

Amount per Serving
Calories 260.0 | Calories From Fat 35

% Daily Value *
Total Fat 4g 6%
Saturated Fat 1.5g 8%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 5mg 2%
Sodium 500.0mg 21%
Total Carbohydrates 46g 15%
Dietary Fiber 12g 48%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 11g
Vitamin A 2%
Vitamin C 15%
Calcium 10%
Iron 15%

If you are currently trying to combat your cholesterol levels I would cut out things like lentils, grains, corn, etc.

My father-in-law is following the diet in that book I mentioned(Plant Paradox) and his cholesterol levels after 2-3 months are now awesome after having high cholesterol for decades. His LDL is down and HDL is up, lipids are great etc.

hadnt even thought about it from that pov.