norswap

aka Nicolas Laurent

Weight Training 8: Gains

17 Nov 2020

Previously: One / Two / Three / Four / Five / Six / Seven

Lifting

I followed the powerlifting DUP protocol outlined in my previous post, except I lowered deadlift reps to 5x and 8x.

I ran the protocol for approximately 14 weeks, before I was forced to stop because the gym closed down for another coronavirus lockdown.

The timing wasn't too unfortunate, however. My TTP (time to peek) on the bench press and deadlift was approximately 8 weeks. I understand from the RTS litterature that's a pretty usual timeframe.

My squat however progressed more slowly. Might not have pushed myself enough, but I'm very careful with squat form as it's easier to fudge up. That was still going up as I was forced to stop.

Nevertheless, I've hit new personal records on all big lifts (sets * reps * weight in kg):

Cutting

I said last time I was doing all this while going on a slight cut. I'm not too sure how that went. I stopped tracking my calories (which I'd been doing for ~2 years at that point) to save a bit of time and hassle.

The worst-cast scenario was to cut ~200 calories on my three weekly workout days, and eat at maintenance the rest of the time. This comes to 600 kcal/week, or approximately one kilo over the duration of the program.

Since I expected body recomposition (fat loss, muscle gain), I also skipped out on weighting myself every day, but punctual measurements seem to indicate my weight was more or less maintained.

The progress on the lifts is mostly neural adaptation, but I think it's likely some amount of muscle gain occurred too, seemingly validating that body recomposition did indeed occur.

Forward

I've started re-running home workouts. I'm not giving specifics, the idea is the same as last time, but with a different exercise selection.

I'm interested in trying some bodyweight movements. I've experimented with handstands against a wall (not too sure of my balacing skills). Also with the dragon flag, but I don't have a good enough setup to accomodate it indoors.

I have some distance to go where I want to be with my cut, so I'm going to continue to cut moderately. I'll be tracking again and aiming for a ~1200 kcal/week deficit at first.