Fitness and Diet Updates – July 2023
Fitness/Weightlifting
I’ve completed a cycle of my new program, which I detailed out last month. I ended up making a few modifications, notably around strict pressing work. My right shoulder is just having too much issue with that right now. So my focus is on push pressing and bench related pressing to take some of the most direct stress off of it.
The program is kind of dead simple. It incorporates a nice bit of volume by simply adding an extra rep onto each set in a 5x5 (so, a 5x6) plus an opening set that lets me feel some heavier weight in the 3+ rep range between 80-85% 1RM. Assuming I’m completing the work and pushing over 3 reps, I increase the starting load for the next cycle. I did end up taking a week off for a deload entirely, which has been nice for the joints and everything quite frankly. So, we’ll see how this cycle pans out and if this program keeps holding up.
Overall most things have been feeling good. The deadlifts have never felt so good before, which is really nice. The bench pressing has been feeling good, and I’ve clearly underestimated my ability there. On some of my plus sets, I’ve been slapping on 3-5 extra reps in some cases. So that’s been good. My overhead pressing has been suffering because of the shoulder issue a bit. For this next cycle I’ve dropped the weight a notch from 75% 1RM to 71% 1RM to make the sessions more achievable, which so far is looking better.
Only real thing I’m still feeling like I’m lacking is a bit of a more dedicated cardio time. I do plenty of walking with my kid and the dog, but it would be nice to have a more intense focused session. Ideally it’d be a few times a week, but even once a week would be good. Just need an extra hour in the week and the energy to get to it!
Diet/Health
Not a whole lot to report here. I’ve made some progress on weight loss. My last weigh-in I was down about 9lbs from a starting weight of 265lbs, so 256lbs or 116kg. I’m happy with that progress since I’ve been hoping for only 1lbs per week. I certainly had a set back with a few weekends of vacation-like conditions and not being on top of the food situation carefully enough, but I’m not terribly worried about it. I just won’t weigh myself this week, lol.
My end goal weight wise I’m thinking is about 235lbs, give or take a few pounds. That feels like a level I can be pretty comfortable with personally, fits into my weight lifting goals just fine, and should be a generally good improvement health wise. I’ll have to make it there and retest the numbers to be sure, but for now that’s my target!
And on we go!