The Syla5 Files

Opps overslept this morning by 20 mins so training was a little rushed and i dropped my last set of squats and rest periods were kept short as well! not great but the session was still a good one.

Squats
barx10 60x5 100x3
120x4 (belt to lose)
tighten belt 100x2 retest feels good
120x4/4
Last set here:
Inclined DB bench
22.5x6
32.5x6/6/6
Pull Ups
10x6/6/6 couple of negs at the end of each set to really hammer the back.
RDL's
70x8/8/8 really firing the glutes on these
DB row (light, reps and weight per hand)
20x10/10/10

overall pleased with today, my knees were not coming in to the extent they normally do and the weight has gone up so that is progress. Doing a 4th set of squats would have been no problem and if time wasnt an issue i would have smashed them out without concern.
Oh and my weight this morning is at 11st 7.25lb which for 5 days of consistent back loading and the fact that i could more comfortably tighten my belt then i could on saturday definatly a posative thing :) I am pleased with how things are going on CBL so far, except for my recovery but not sure if this is to do with generally lifting heavy as apposed to diet, i will have to see.
 
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Chris1712 said:
Syla, would you mind posting up your diet at the moment (macros/meal timings aswell ;))?
I finally got around to reading the CBL ebook and it's interesting (though the guy can't write for toffee! Grammar & spelling mistakes all over the shop, constant reiteration of the same points etc. It could probably be half the size), but I'm not sure how I could fit it in with early morning training & I'm struggling to think what I could have for lunch, I can't cook at work.
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Training Days (off days as such) Mon, Wed, Fri
Wake up: Coffee (normally 1 spoon of instant added to a filter coffee) about 3/4 of a pint! this is my pre-workout
PWO Shake: 25g Whey 30g Dex 5g Leucine 5g Creatine
14:00 (or as late as i can go) 200g(pre cooked) chicken salad, 2+ tablespoons of good oil. This is my go to Ultra Low Carb meal
Snack 25g mixed nuts.
17:00 Shake Same as my PWO.
18:30 400g chicken portions (pre cooked, i have these as they are fattier and so easier to hit some decent cals) salad, or broccili, cabbage, coliflower veg. Butter melted on top for added fats
Alternative meats are 200g lean mince as a burger, 300g chicken breast, 300g fish.

thats about 1900-2000 cals and 60g carbs (30g of which is pwo shake and doesnt really count towards the daily total for an am trainer). Depending on how depleted my energy is feeling i will throw in a bowl of cornflakes, 50g with a healthy spoonful of sugar for taste, as i am wanting to add mass so i dont need to be mega strict on ULC all the time.

Backload days
Wake up: 10g Whey, 10g Coconut Oil, 3/4 Pint of coffee
14:00 (or as late as i can go) 200g(pre cooked) chicken salad, 2+ tablespoons of good oil. This is my go to Ultra Low Carb meal
Snack 25g mixed nuts.
17:00 25g whey 50g dex 5g leucine 5g creatine
17:30 150g(pre cooked weight) white rice, one of my meat choices
18:00-18:30 50g cornflakes, 25g Dextrose 200ml milk and topped off with water.
19:00 croissant with butter and a very ripe banana

this sees me at around 2900 cals and 300g of carbs

19:30 again depending on how i will i will add to this with a sandwich, normally PB or Choc spread, but the bread is the main part really.

I will generally be a little more generous with my dextrose portions or my cornflakes as it is important for an AM trainer to get in as high GI as possible.


One thing i would say is my recovery hasnt been great so i am going to see where i can make adjustments to the diet to improve this, but overall i am happy with how things are going so far.




mrthingyx said:
Control over your knees seems a lot better, IMHO!
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Thank you, box squats, lady exercises, and really thinking about it all seem to be helping. Now all i need is to rid myself of doms for full performance.
 
I tend to belt up from 100+, it allows me to brace my core more efficently. Except for my RM of 150kg i have lifted all weights unbelted as well as belted. The belt doesnt help me lift more, at least not that i have noticed, it just makes the bracing more effective.
I also dont get as fatigued as quickly while using my belt, so it means i can lift heavier for more reps/sets, which i feel in the long run will help my progress over not wearing a belt.
I dont see the belt as a tool to "add 10kg" i see it as a right you can do 4 sets of 120x4 instead of 3, or squeeze out that extra rep etc.
Getting used to your belt is also very important, if you get one dont just throw it on when you hit your first working set of 120. Put it on at 60kg see how it feels, get used to it through warm ups etc. Now i am used to mine i am happy not belting up till 100+ but i will belt up for my last warmup set always, just to refamilerise myself.

Something i will say is that Belts dont fix poor form, and will not prevent injury, and in some cases if used incorrectly will actually cause injury. There is no right or wrong answer to when/if you should start using a belt, but there is a right or wrong reason, I never got the belt to fix form or prevent injury, and no one ever should.

Sorry a bit wordy, but belts are not a straight forward topic :)
 
week 3 is going well for my new strength routine :) i didnt oversleep this morning so made it to the gym for 6:30 and didnt have to rush my workout.
Weight this morning post backload was 72.8kg, +1kg on yesterday morning and i expect this to settle back down again. Visably looking leaner in the mirror :), might have to start eating more as well as i want to put on mass still.

Bench
widegrip bar x10 normal bar x5
60x3 paused
80x1
85x4/4/4/4 really pleased as my inital target for this week was 80kg
Heavy DB Rows (reps and weight per arm)
wu 22.5x5
35x6/6/6 Dialled it back a little from last week and felt it much more in my back which was good.
OHP
wu 20x5 40x3
52.5x4/4/4/3 damn you last rep!
DB Bulgarian split squats (weight per hand, reps per leg)
15x10/10/10

Box Squats
wu Bar x 8
60x10/10/10
vid of my last set here trying to get on to the box faster and focusing on keeping knees out and driving out of the hole. I am possibly a little to upright when i am seated as i notice the bar is behind my ankles so might need to work on this.
 
Deadlift day today, and my back is still tight/achey like it has been since my first deads session on 04/01/13. No sharp pains, no hinderance in strength, just fatiguing faster and making lifting a little uncomfortable :(

Deadlifts bar 8 70x5 100x5 120x4 this set belted, tigher hole to pre diet feels very comfortable now but my strain reminded me it was there very slightly on the last rep of the 120 set so i went one hole loose for my first working set and ditched the belt for the second to get a clear vid of what my back was doing.
140x4/4. I made the decision here not to push two extra sets, strength and energy wise i could do it, but the pump was already present so i decided to leave it.
Pleased with the form, things could have been a little quicker.
I have made the decision with my deadlifts to dial it back a lot and focusing on power/explosiveness and lighter weights for a few weeks so that my back can catch up and my strain can full recovery and GTFO!!

Dips Bwx5
25x6/6/6

As Delvis says i got told off for using the assited dipping station right next to the weights room to do my weighted dips, but i was having to use a weight to keep the assited platform out of the way...I made the sugguestion that they should move the normal dipping station over to the weights room to stop people dragging weights over to the other side of the gym. I will keep making it until they move the damn thing.

Standing cable rows, new gym, new cables, completely different weight lol
40.8kgx12/12 50x12... last week i was using 12.5kg lol i think the gym brought ego enhancing cable machines....

Seated DB press
18kgx10/10/10

Face pulls, same as standing cable rows
58.8kgx10/10/10

Overall a two sided session. Really disappointed with my back and strain as i really wanted to motor along with my DL progress this year. I was due a deload the week after next anyway, so only missing the 3's week for DL's i hope wont set me back to far. I really shouldnt have just jumped back in after christmas at 130kg working sets as i had done no lifting on my strain since i had seen the doc, foolish mistake and my own fault, but i am catching it early this time. As for the lower back doms/ache/general pump i think this is to do with CBL and the fact i deadlift on a friday morning, and then have pretty low carbs right through to sunday evening, so i am doing the biggest compound and not giving my body any decent fuel to recover, noobie mistake, hopefully to be fixed by an extra backload on friday evenings :)
 
MoNkeE said:
Surely all the carbs etc for the other 5 days should restore you? I'm pretty sure recovery doesn't take place only in the immediate day or two after training a muscle group? Or am I completely misunderstanding you here?
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I dont backload every night, i backload Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday currently (giong with an extra BL on fridays to help). My lower back isnt getting back to 100% before its being hit by another exercise, seeing as i do full body i am hitting my back with some kind of exercise every day so this compounds the problem.

Delvis said:
Syla5, in the vid, it actually looks like the bar travels towards your shin when it leave the ground? Not sure if that will do anything negative, might need to shuffle your shins forward maybe?
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good spot, possibly due to getting used to round plates and the bar rolling about a little pre-lift.
 
its just a new Pure Gym. It was hardly a telling off, more a case of "we have been told by our manager that we are to stop this if we see it happening" they are only doing there job really.
If they act on my sugguestion of swapping the dip stations over then no problem.
 
Morning session, i was supposed to start 3's week but i have deceided to deload, and do some rehab type work for my lower back.

Over the weekend I did plenty of rolling, ball work, and band work and it has helped. Plenty of sledging hasnt really been benefial, overall i think my back is healing up, it feels more tender but less painful if that makes sense.

Foam roller and ball work for 5 mins before doing anything.
Good Mornings
Bar x 20 40x10/10/10

Comments on form appreciated as i know GM's are an easy exercise to get wrong.

Squats
Bar x 20 40x20/10 60x10

Inclined DB bench
22x10/10/10

Pull ups
bw x 10/10/6

RDL's
Bar x 10/10

DB Rows
16x10
20x10/10

Oblique Twists 5ft bar (added for abdominal rehab)
bar x 10
bar x 20

More rolling/soft tissue/lacrosse ball/stretching work 15 mins

Weight this morning 11st 6.25lb after last nights backload. Happy with how i am looking, and how easy the diet is to manage.
 
Physio visit today for my back and I am very pleased with the outcome.

Positive sides no underlying issues, just need to dial it back and work on the movement of the lifts and the muscles will recover, no serious knots or sticking points which is good.

My hamstrings are coming along nicely, there is some additional flexibility that I can aim for but compared to the majority of the populous I am in a very good place already, so another posative.(that's to all the mobility advocates here :))

Showed a few of my form videos so that she could see how I am moving under load, again posative. I have good form and only a couple of points to focus on to reduce any undue strain on my back (will go over these in a sec)

In general I have a stiff pelvis and lower back, not a concern more a point that I could work on this to loosen it up.
My erectus spinaee are very developed compared to the rest of my back. This is a postural abnormality that has come from years of me putting my right leg under my left when I sit down, this also appears in the form of a very pronounced hump in my lower back as I bend forwards. Thankfully this is nothing to be concerned about, as long as I sit with good posture this will be corrected with continued training.
I have very tight ankles, especially my left ankle so gonna give them some love!

My pelvis is anterioraly tilted (butt out) which apparently is a lot more common in women, so there you go I have a girly pelvis.

Things to work on:
Actively working against my anterior pelvic twist.
Ankle mobility/flexibility gotta smash these mothers in to shape.
Seating posture, no more sticking that right foot under my left leg

Course of action in the gym, as per my plan to Deload and focus on the movement and just relearn the movements taking in to account what the physio has said.

No need for a revisit to the physio so all is good :)
 
MK Therapy, bradwell common.

She advised that the tilt is postural, not caused by anything tight, and I just need to be mindful of countering it until it becomes second nature.

I apparently don't have tight hamstrings, at least nothing that would cause any knock on effects which is a sign that my mob work is doing its thing.

I have noticed that you hyperextend a fair bit at the top of your deads, she spotted that I do this a little in mine also saying how it becomes more extreme when I fatigue. This hyper extension and anterior tilt compounds the effect on the lower back curving in and causes extra tension.
It would do you no harm to counter the tilt, and stop hyper extending :)
 
Not nhs no, I self referred as they call it and paid for the session. £38 for 35 mins and we talked for the first 5 then she was hands on for the rest. No anti lifting comments made, and actually quite supportive of if.

Would be nice to see someone who specialises in weight training physio though.
 
Haha yeap got to work loosening up my lower back, worked quite nicely. Might have to swap the chest waxes for some sports massages.
 
Back still recovering and so took it a little easier today

Some mobility to warm up

Bench
Bar x 20 wg x 15
40x5 60x2 70x2 80x1
90x3 90x2+1(finger spot)
87.5x2+1(finger spot damn it)
feeling a little tight in my back so called it there.

Heavy DB Rows
34x8/8/8/8 extra set and 2 extra reps per set for good measure, felt good, focused on PPT doing these to help.

No more lifting now so more mobility/rolling, did my legs and hips/pelvis with the roller, got the ball in to my lower back/glutes/hips. Threw in some Posterior Pelvic Planks (blank but full focus on glute squeeze and PPT) Then spent 5 mins per ankle doing so green band ankle stretches, damn these are hard solo.
 
Deception said:
Should try the ankle ones pre-squat, see how they feel too :)
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I am going to be doing them and some more work that dom has sugguested most evenings. I will also do the ankle, and some dynamic hip openers before squatting as well as they will help with my lower back posture as well :)
 
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