Thread: Working Mass Hero

Originally Posted by ihateschoolmt

Whoa man at 218 pounds you NEED to eat more than 1000 calories a day. You are going to loose muscle doing that for sure, and a lot of it. That doesn't seem healthy to me, I'm not trying to hate on your idea but I am concerned for your overall health. That's less than 5 calories per pound of weight.

Yeah, the diet is fairly extreme imo, but a lot of members here have had great results (myself included about a year ago). It is only supposed to be followed for about 2 weeks max, before taking a diet break (eg, going back to eating at maintenance, etc...). And as a Category 2 dieter on RFL, I am supposed to have one cheat meal and one 5 hour refeed per week. The cheat meal, I imagine, would add around 300 cals to that day, while the refeed would add a pretty high number of cals (maybe @ 2k at least?).

But the notion behind RFL is that it will preserve as much muscle mass as possible, but not sparing protein (e.g, PSMF- protein spared modified fast), by its short duration, and by having refeeds/cheat meals (for a cat 2 dieter at least).

In any event, Im only doing it for 13 days (up until a weekend trip to Miami), and will try to follow its guidelines strictly. Also, Im adding another small meal to my original plan, since I think I should be getting at least 230g protein (1.25 grams x lean body mass). So my new totals are around 1200 cals, 230 grams protein, negligible carbs, and up to 20g fats (NOT counting cheat meals and refeeds).

After this short program is over, I will eat at maintenance for awhile, and then probably try out Lyle McDonald's UD2 diet to further lean out (ultimate goal is 10% BF, but I dont mind hitting the single digits!). UD2 is much less extreme, although is also a more complicated/regimented diet.

Oh ok, I've never cut or had any interest in learning about it so I just thought it sounded funny but if you know what your doing then that's more than I know haha. Good luck loosing weight.

Originally Posted by ihateschoolmt

Oh ok, I've never cut or had any interest in learning about it so I just thought it sounded funny but if you know what your doing then that's more than I know haha. Good luck loosing weight.

You are absolutely right that a traditional cut would just involve gradually lower cals, with perhaps a 40/40/20 split of your calories coming from protein/carbs/fats. The male low carb cutting plan thats a sticky in the diet forum is pretty solid.

But I frickin hate cutting in all forms! And I would probably have to stick to the low carb plan for about 2-3 months to see decent results, which would really suck. The RFL is kinda extreme, but there are many positive threads on it in the diet section of the forum. Theoretically you can keep (most of) your gains while dropping fat. But Id only do it for 2 weeks tops, and then transition to a more traditional cut (with much higher calories) or the UD2 diet.

Anyways, Ill keep you all posted on my progress! So far so good, but I am damn hungry. Celery and cucumbers are going to be my best friends

Ahhh, its so damn boring not going to the gym! I still want to use this injury as (another) week break, and so probably wont hit the gym again until next Thurs/Friday.

Hopefully the damn tendon in my armpit (between chest and bicep kinda) will have healed by then. It is feeling better, but is still noticeably sore. Im taking anti-inflammatories, some light stretcing, etc...

Im in Day 2 of the cut as well (RFL), and its going pretty well. Appetite and energy have been decent, and Im keeping my meals evenly spaced.

For some reason I weighed in at 215.5 right before starting the cut (on Friday morning), instead of the 218 I logged a week prior. Perhaps water weight fluctuations, etc...Anyways, this morning I came in at 213.4. Not sure if thats due to the diet so soon, probably just water weight again. Anways, since Im not hitting the gym yet, I wont update re gym/diet stuff till late next week.

Ya man I would expect you would loose at least 5 pounds of water weight pretty fast on that diet.

I had my first workout on this cut, and all and all it went pretty well. This is officially the middle of my 5th day on RFL - a PSMF type diet. I was motivated to cut since my BF and weight was getting up there, plus I have some tendinitis in my pectoralis tendon from doing the damn barbell bench press. I highly doubt there is a tear, just some minor pain that I dont want to make worse. There is still some pain, but from what I can gather Rest and anti-inflammatories are the best treatment. So no upper pushing movements for awhile (at least another week ).

The first three days of the RFL cut were pretty easy. Some hunger, but the EC stack did the trick. The fourth day was hell - no energy, lightheaded, irritable, etc... So I did a 5 hour refeed, as contemplated in RFL. Made a world of difference! So far Ive lost about 7 lbs, hopefully some of it fat (not all water).

Anyways, here was my pull workout today (which I kept heavy in weight and low in reps, per everyones advice):

Sumo Deadlifts: 3x4-8

225x7; 285x5; 315x4. These felt great! I might have even done a PR with 4 reps at 315 (maybe not), which is likely due to the lower volume, and taking the EC stack right before the gym.

Pull Ups

BWx4 stopped. Pullups didnt hurt my tendon injury, but I did feel the pectoralis tendon "activated" if that makes any sense. Probably wouldnt aggravate the injury, but to play it safe I just stopped doing any pullups after testing it out for a couple reps. Strength wise I felt great, tho.

DB Rows

70x7; 95x5; 95x5. These felt great, no problem at all. They didnt seem to activate or aggravate the pectoralis tendon, so hopefully these are still OK for me to do.

DB Bicep Curls

50x6; 50x5.

And thats it - short and sweet! Ill do a push workout probably Friday or Saturday, which since I cant do any chest movements, will probably just be squats and overhead shoulder DB presses (and tricep accessory work).

Still sticking to the diet until next tuesday, but Im taking one of my weekly "cheat" meals tomorrow night for sushi!

Glad your diet seems to be going well. I might try it when I do a short cut in the summer. Hitting PR's on a cut must feel great.

While I was 95% confident that I suffered only a mild strain of the pectoral tendon on my right side, I decided to follow up with an orthopedic doctor just to be sure. Turns out I was right - I do have a pec strain at the tendon - and the treatment was also what one would expect - rest, ice, anti-inflammatories (he did give me a script for naproxen, which is a bump from the aleve I was taking).

So now I need to wait two-three more weeks to ensure that it heals properly, before doing any movements that aggravate it. This is a pretty sucky set back, but Id rather take some time from the game rather than have a complete tear down the line. That said, I dont think I have to be completely absent from the gym during this downtime.

Training

So Im wondering what would be the best training during the next couple weeks? I cant do any chest exercises, probably also cant do pull ups (they seemed to bother the tendon when I tried), and possible also cant do shoulder presses (havent tried yet with working weight, though light shoulder DB presses seemed fine).

Which leaves the legs (deads, squats, etc...), probably can still do rows, and probably can do isolation accessory movements (tris, maybe bis).

So I guess Im thinking of going with a short and quick push/pull type deal: squats, tris, mayyyybee shoulder presses if its feeling better on Push day; deads, bis, maybe rows on pull day.

Diet

Other big news was me ending the RFL diet yesterday. I did it for a week, and had decent results considering I only was on the diet for such a short time. Lost about 5-7lbs after the water weight came back, so Im coming in at @ 210lbs. PRetty good for a week I think!

But I decided to stop RFL short, out of (perhaps misplaced) fear that such a caloric deficit would have a negative effect on my recovery from the injury. So Ive transitioned to essentially a slow cut/low carbs/maintenance diet. Nothing crazy, just a healthy diet perhaps a bit below maintenance, and if I lose a couple more pounds over the next couple weeks, cool!

Ill probably go in for my squats (all I have left!) today or tomorrow.

Glad that diet seemed to work so well. I think I'll try it myself one day. Injuries suck, but at least you can still do squats and deads.

@Ihate- no need to try something that extreme until/unless you start getting too chubby (above 15%bf) like I did! You are making great progress, so I doubt youll have to do any sort of cut for awhile.

Anyways, Im still pretty bummed about not being able to do chest or other pressing movements. While I am a believer in having a balanced workout, I admit that the vein part of (like many others) wants my chest to grow moreso than other areas. So to potentially suffer some muscle loss in my favorite (obviously not strongest) area is a blow! Im hoping I wont lose a lot of muscle with this 3 week injury break.

But I am trying to use this as a positive, to integrate better warmup exercises into my routine, and to really focus on other areas like squats, deads, core and even accessory exercises.

Here was todays workout, sans pressing movements:

Squats

[135x8] 185x6; 185x8; 185x8. Really tried to super focus on form, going down as low as possible (ATF/ATG) in a slow, controlled manner. Even had a few pause squats here and there to verify that I was going down as low as my body would allow. Felt good. Kept the reps lowish since Im still in a slight caloric deficit.

Front Squats

95x8; 95x10. Again, really really focused on form, going down slow to the bottom, pausing for a second, and then blasting up. Felt great.

Tricep Rope Push Downs

40x10; 60x10; 85x5; 70x8. Didnt want to risk doing french presses, and certainly cant do CG bench presses for triceps, given teh injury. Guess Ill stick to this and kickbacks

Core

Planks - 2 min; 1 min

HIIT

bike - 15 mins


Probably going to start playing more basketball during this injury break - I dont "think" it will aggravate the chest, as long as I dont play super competively.

Diet was crap yesterday- the missus and I were dead tired from work and baby wrangling, and split a deep dish pizza and bourbon. Good thing is it made me feel like crap, so Im back to my healthy ways today!

I just wanted to do that diet for like a week and loose 2% body fat. I guess I will figure all that out whenever I am actually ready to cut. Good job focusing on form. I hate 1/2 squatters.

Its been a long time...
I shouldnt have left you...
without a dope beat to step to...

Im back!!! Damn, its been a long time since Ive posted. Cliff notes: I went on a business trip at the end of March/beginning of April, and came back with a cold (damn airplanes). The cold lingered on for a couple of weeks, and combined with my still torn pectoral muscle and new dad duties, I simply stopped going to the gym for the last few weeks.

I kept hoping that my pec muscle would fully heal, allowing me to go back with a fury. But alas, my pec is still strained, although greatly improved. It feels mostly fine, but I can still feel a bit of soreness where the injury occurred. I dont want to do any pressing movements (even light) until I am completely pain free. Im really hoping it will only be a couple more weeks!

Anyways, I got sick of using my injury as an excuse to be lazy, so today I went back to the gym. It was really great doing squats, etc... again, and really bumped my energy levels up!

In terms of program, I guess Im just biding my time until Im fully healed. Doing a sort of FB workout, minus the horizontal pressing movements. Im also going to start playing basketball, and just strive to get back into decent cardio shape while keeping whatever muscle I have left! I know I lost some muscle by not being in the gym the last 3 or so weeks. .

Anyways, here was todays first workout back:

Squats: 135x10; 185x10; 185x8
Standing Alternative DB Shoulder Press: 25x12; 35x10; 35x8
Tricep Pushdowns: 60x12; 70x10; 60x10
Planks
Some prehab/stretching work
HIIT Bike- 10 mins

Current weight- 206lbs. It would be cool if I dropped a bit more BF (and fat pounds) over the next couple of months. For now, Im just doing a basic high protein, lower carb, eating a bit under maintenance diet.

Welcome back!

Glad your feeling a bit better even if your chest isnt, and going off your squat numbers you havnt lost any strength from before the break.