Shew! okay that one was tougher.
5/3/1 dead then 50 squats.
going to try and eat a bunch today and tomorrow, breakfast was probably too big though or i should have eaten it earlier than I did.
my dad cleans his freezer out every month or two and he always buys a bunch of steaks and hamburger etc he never eats and gives it to me.
So ive got a bunch of stuff stocked up Im going to try and spread it out over the course of this.
anyhow... Still moving forward!
Thursday is bench press with OHPx50.

Finished up today and I have to wonder what the heck I was thinking with this.
I got to rep 48 on ohp and my shoulders were like


Honestly though, I really like it. Ive never ever felt the burn on OHP but I did today.
Ill take measurements sunday, I know ive gained already.

if it doesnt rain im gonna have steak

Don't let rain get in the way of your gains! Good job man, keep it up.

well got through today. I think 50 squats is harder than 50 deadlifts but its still surprisingly tough even at 50%.
Ive been eating pretty heavy, not stupid heavy but well past 210g protein, was close to 300g yesterday.
in fact weight has been really climbing, close to 5lbs in 2 weeks Id guess. Ill have to watch it I hate feeling bloated/miserable. Its very unmotivating for me.
It also seems to effect that hernia I have, dunno why. Anyhow. Good week. Lets eat and rest up some.

Measurements today:
Chest +2 inches
Shoulders +1 inch
Calves .25 inch

Dem calf gainz.

Ikr

OHP/Bench
Bench felt really easy this time around. Hoping its a good thing.
Weight is increasing a bit too fast I think though.
8/17-9/14 gained about 8lbs roughly 2lbs a week id guess.

What do your macros look like? I know you upped your protein. Kind of wondering if you adjust your carbs you can dial in weight gain to a more sustainable/cleaner level. When I say this I am assuming you are putting on more fat than you'd like.

my carbs have gone way up, ive noticed that.
Ive had over 300g sometimes close to 400g of carbs. I think I need to adjust that down for sure.
overall i adjusted my calories up to 2690 calories. doesnt seem like much but it makes a huge difference for me. I sat at 2750 for a long time with minimal weight gain.

Yeah, most people experience rapid fat gain when their carbs are that high while eating good amounts of protein and fat. Something has to give usually, but there are diets that really work with quite a lot of carbs. I think lawyerup is having really good results with high protein high carb lowish fat, training for strongman and getting cut. More of a bodybuilders diet. If you track him down in the 5/3/1 thread or his strongman thread I'm sure he'd give you the details.

I treat carbs as the variable to determine which way my weight goes. Fat and protein stay pretty consistent regardless of cutting or maintaining. For my personal philosophy carbs do nothing past replenishing glycogen and controlling how fat I am. You don't need a lot of carbs to replenish glycogen and excess protein can help with that anyway. That's why I'm always saying "eat more protein! Time your carbs!" lol.

I was also eating carbs heavy in morning, moderate after workout and minimal in the evening and that helped.
Ill have to reign them in. I figured more work from this program would balance it out but not until things get a bit heavier id guess.

Carbs in the morning?? Did you get the beetus? maybe just move those carbs later in the day. That way you don't spike your insulin early in the day. See how that goes for a week or two. If you are still gaining weight too quick then cut you carbs by 50-100 grams a day and try that. Just some thoughts.

youll have to explain your thought process there. if carbs are your energy why would you not eat them in the morning?
You have to also consider i workout at 11:15am typically.

Because they turn into fat in the morning instead of being used to replenish your energy after a workout.

reading that made me twitch.

I'll elaborate tomorrow on my computer if I don't have a stroke from rereading it when I get on. lol

hey its almost time for breakfast!!

lol. I just got done with some work. Eat a bunch of eggs and some bacon. More to follow...

that was my plan except ham instead of bacon.

Ok, so remember all the stuff we talked about in regards to insulin and timing nutrients? Insulin is a very powerful hormone. It can determine how much muscle you put on or how fat you get. Insulin does a few things. For muscle growth/development/recovery it can be used to rush nutrients into the muscles cells. To do this you need to know when to keep your insulin levels lowish and when to spike them. If they are high all day, you'll get fat. Because the main other thing insulin does is tell your body to store the quality nutrients and burn the cheap fuel(carbs, especially simple carbs like sugar).

So if you are eating a bunch of carbs in the morning along with some protein and fat. Your insulin gets spiked and tells your body to be lazy, burn the easy fuel(carbs) and store the other stuff for survival later on. Since you aren't an idiot and have lunch planned, you never need to use those reserves unless you specifically say "I need to cut." Now you get fat since you are meeting your caloric(not nutritional) needs and are storing everything else for later.

Insulin is anabolic. So instead of eating carbs right off the bat and spiking your insulin, you eat a breakfast of lots of protein and fat. Your body burns this fuel like a beautiful furnace, protein synthesis is chugging along full steam ahead. Life is good. Now it is time to lift and you want sweet sweet performance and you have awesome intra-workout nutrition like BCAAs, beta alinine, creatine, etc. etc. etc. Want to make the most of them? INSULIN! Drink that stuff up with some sugar(not a huge amount, just enough maybe 20-30 grams.) Creatine is pulsing through your veins and you just spiked your insulin as your muscles start demanding more oxygen.  Blood is pumping, the insulin that would trigger fat response doesn't because your muscles are prioritizing your needs and instead what does it do???? BAM insulin opens up your cells and jams those high quality nutrients into your muscles. Glorious! You are now anabolic! Going ham all over your weights.

Now you are done lifting, some residual insulin is in your system. You smash a big ol protein shake. Protein is rushed and jammed into your muscles for recovery and you grow.

Then get the rest of your food throughout the day with your mind on growing muscles, lots of protein, lots of good nutrition.

While that all sounds brosciencey, there is actual science too. But It's early and I am not going to pull up and link a bunch more article right now.

makes sense bro.
I hadnt been keeping anabolic windows on my mind. I was just thinking "eat to recover" I suppose.

not a bad workout today. went ahead and did double plates on deadlift, no problem.
50 sqwats no problem.

feel stronger, thought the 35 plate was a 25.

Alright so how about carb intake on off days?

Depends on your goals. I'd still avoid them or keep them low in the am. And as clean as possible until as late in the day as possible. You are gaining, so don't over think it. Still get your calories.

I would make the adjustment and track your weight/how you look/how you feel/how you perform. Then adjust as necessary. I think that t nation article I posted on carb cycling a few pages back hits some good detail on all of this.

well here is some crap news...
I am very dizzy today. I woke up this way just very light headed and this is how I felt when I had heart issues.

after my heart surgery I had really bad pvc's, dizziness and chest pain. Ive had several instances of chest pain, dizziness and light pvc's again.
They told me the valve would last 8 years but then another dr kinda told us "it will be 5 if you are lucky..." I just turned the 4 year mark. So I dont know.
I dont know if I will even be able to workout today.
My wife and I both feel its probably time to have a checkup and see if things are good or not. Im really hoping if the valve is wore out that they can replace it without open heart again because that really sucks.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. That sucks. Sounds like it is time for that checkup. Keep your spirits high. Taking a little time off won't break you.

yeah we're going to make an appointment asap. I can tell somethings up. Very unusual but this is exactly how I felt before.

That sucks.

well whatever happens ill just get it fixed and get going again.
they should have listened to me when I told them to put one of these (iron man's heart) in...

If you are going to be laid up for awhile, you might want to ask your dr if it is safe to use a TENS/EMS unit to prevent/reduce atrophy. But getting your heart healthy should be prioritized above gains.

Damn dude

Im going to go hit the weights. Its just bench and 50 OHP day. Sitting on my ass aint going to help so maybe getting some blood flow will. If I have to stop, fine.

Still alive.
busted that out. I have to have gotten stronger, everything felt really light.

I have said it before and ill say it again, I love hypertrophy type stuff.
next monday when its 50 bench im going to widen the grip a bit and get some chest in there. Im not feeling it enough and my triceps are dominating my bench.

Awesome. Feeling better or the same?

I like the variation of working for strength and for size. Different challenges to push through. To me it doesn't make sense to only stimulate type 2 or type 1 muscle fibers. I think you are much more likely to stall out if you neglect one or the other.

Feeling good.
I agree, I always tried to rotate things like different chin up variations or bicep curls etc. Alot of muscles can get hit at different angles from different things. If I can get chest and upper back built more Ill be real happy.

squat and 50 deads, banged them out today. not bad.

Got on it today and had a good workout.
I think im going to skip deload next week though.
Id like to keep at it and make some gains. The rest is nice but not sure I need it at least this week.

How's the ticker?

no issues since. just those two episodes.
Still going to follow up on it.

Well that's good.

Things have gotten easier. No issues on OHP today.
I think the program calls for 4 weeks @ 50% load, ive done 2. Should I bump it up to 65% next week? (skipping deload week)

Percent of what load?

I'd officially(lol) recommend sticking to the program especially for your first run through it. Take notes on how you feel. Like how much progress, how much you felt you had left in the tank, if the percentage felt meaningless at a point, etc. Then on your next run through it all you can tailor it a bit more. Remember, the first word in the program's name is "boring." I think the point is to milk every little bit out of each percentage to reduce long term stress, improve recovery, and maximize the adaption potential at that weight range.

But, if you are going to skip your deload, it will kind of throw off the weeks for the BBB. So yeah, you'll probably want to go to the next percentage when you start the next phase of 5/3/1.

How's the weight coming along? Make any changes?

it said "work load".
I just went back through the 5/3/1 app and found my 50% of x workout and started there.

The only reason I felt like skipping deload is because I feel really good and I feel like recovery is fine. I was sore maybe 2 days after 50 bench press.
Not sore at all after 50 squats etc. If you think it will mess the whole thing up ill do deload.  
today I felt like I had alot more in the tank for OHP. In fact I had to double take and make sure I did 5 sets. No stumbles etc and I even super set my one arm rows in there with OHP. So thats good.
Weight has stabalized Im around 151 which is good (up from say 147 or so). I have a device that measures muscle and body fat and it has been steady as far as bf% goes (staying right at 20%) I think my issues is my digestion is sooo slow. So when I really up my calories and time between meals is short I just cant get the food on through. Either way Im going to try and maintain a balance between surplus and just going overboard. Carbs im trying to watch at least when I eat them and keeping protein high and upping the fats a bit in place of carbs. I dont have workout energy loss and I feel fine as far as that goes.

If you feel awesome and everything is going really easy, maybe skip this deload but make sure to hit the next one. Maybe some of the other guys have some input on it. I deload(not doing 5/3/1) when my body tells me to. And that is usually only when I go nuts on all 3 big lifts the same week or if I feel my tendinitis popping up.

Sounds like your weight is behaving well. Once every few weeks I like to get some psyllium husk(metamucil or generic equivalent) in me to kind of move things through. It is important to keep up with your digestive health when you cram as much food as we do.

Ive always had terrible digestive "speed". my daughters are the same way. They are constantly stopped up or something.
This week was the heavy week of 5/3/1 and I havent had any issues keeping up.
If I skip deload then next week I can start a new week of 5/3/1 with a new month of 65% BBB. I may go ahead and do that.
Im getting some hypertrophy effects but not each workout, today was not that much but 50 bench/chinups tuesday was something I felt the next day.
I think it just comes down to some muscle groups are further along than others really.

I'm not following.

Your 5x10 accessories on BBB should be 50-60% of your training max. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but the goal is to get 5x10 after hitting the workout. As such, this weight increases as you increase your training max each cycle. As you get more time under the bar, this percentage can increase.

If you are getting 5+ on your 5/3/1 day AMRAP, your TM might be low which will make the 5x10 low.

I follow the program on 5/3/1 but will modify BBB.
On bench, I'll change me grip to narrower or wider than standard for some sets.
Deads, I'll incorporate shrugs as well on the lighter weight
Squats I pause more
For press, I switch to dumbells versus bar

Im doing the normal 5/3/1, ignoring going for AMRAP sets and doing my 5x10 sets after 5/3/1.
You are saying the 5x10 set weight should be determined based on the 5/3/1 set you did for the day?

example Day 1 OHP normal 5/3/1 routine
then 5x10 on bench @ 50% of what my OHP 1RM is. Since I have never tested my OHP 1RM I have to base this number of projections/calculation.
50 chinups and 30 barbell curls.

On Bench Press day normal 5/3/1 routine
then 5x10 on OHP @ 50% of my 1RM.
3x10 dumbell one arm rows
3x10 skullcrushers

There was a link posted before from a Tnation article Wendler wrote and I literally just copied it and went to work.
edit: I thought we agreed for me not to even push the AMRAP stuff. In the article he wrote he said just to do min AMRAP set work so that was what I have been doing.