[~6 months of Progress] M/33/6'0" 205lbs to 192lbs x-post /r/fitness

[romrulida]

In hindsight I thought that this post might prove more relevant here rather than in /r/fitness

Background
Since my late teens, early twenties, I have always been fairly athletic. I started training in martial arts at the age of 20 and have been doing so ever since. During my hey-day I was in great shape. My workouts during that time consisted of mainly conditioning, flexibility, and body-weight fitness (plus a bro-split). Fast-forward about 10-12 years; marriage, first kid, grad school, and less actual hard training and more teaching resulted in me gaining about 20-25lbs.

I still taught MMA 2-3x a week but I was off my game. My conditioning was crap and I was struggling with guys that were 10 years younger than I was. This resulted in me actually sparring less and focusing on solely on technique and drills with my students (something I said I would never do). This was pretty much me (the guy on the right). I felt like a paper-tiger, I was depressed.

Crossfit-Football
Prior to my fall from grace. I had done some "crossfit" style type workouts with a group of friends that were into parkour. We trained about 5 days week and it consisted mostly of tabatas, metcons, and bodyweight with a smattering of free weights (no compounds). It complimented martial arts and my conditioning was awesome.
Once I decided to get back in shape I was considering crossfit once again, however, I was unsure about actually joining a "box" By chance I stumbled upon CF-football. After some more research I realized that I no longer wanted to have the most stamina on the mat but rather the most power. CF-football seemed to make sense. I started my first class this past June.

Routine
The gym I go to is great. $100/month gives you unlimited CF-football classes plus full access to the "traditional" weight room. The owner is a older guy who focuses heavily on technique and mobility . We don't train in order to get scoliosis for time. The workouts consists of three parts; a metcon, strength, and skill (or mobility), after class is reserved for accessories for those who want to. We deadlift, BP, SQ, and press at least once a week. During the summer we sprinted, sled pull/pushed and used the prowler at least 2x week. We also played touch football in a park across the street for active recovery days. I train about 6 days week which includes an active recovery day.

In addition to CF-football (about 3 months into it) I ran 5/3/1. No accessory work and it was a two-day split that revolved around my primary training. At times it was difficult to incorporate but I have yet to miss a workout (although I can tell I am about to stall on it so I may take a break). As far as cardio I really only do HIIT and metcon, about once every couple of weeks I will go for a 5k.

Diet
During the first couple of months I cleaned up my diet but didn't really track anything. During this time I was definitely getting stronger but not loosing weight. Starting in August I decided to track my calories and eat at a 15% deficit (2200kcal). Since I started tracking it has been slow coming off but consistent.
I was considering lean gains or IF but I soon realized I HATE fasting. One trick that worked for me was a variation of the modified warrior diet (MWD). Basically, I eat a small breakfast (about 300kcal w/ 30g of pro), a larger lunch (~500kcal 30g of pro), and then after my workout once I get home I have about ~1000-1200kcal to do with what I please (IIFMM style).

Lifts
Even though I started in the beginning of June I only really started tracking my lifts in August.

All are 1RM

Back squat 233 -> 285

Bench 150 -> 225

Deadlift 205 -> 365

Press 117 -> 150

Power clean ?? -> 210

5K ~30:00 -> 23:40

Progress pics

August 2014, 205lbs

November 2014, 192lbs

Future Goals
I would like to cut another 10lbs and then really focus on bringing my lifts up. They have really stalled since I started mindfully cutting in August. My Birthday is in March (I'll be 34) by that time I would like to join the 1000lbs club. I am considering scaling back the CF-football classes and running a strength program during the winter, i.e., Madcow or TM, etc

In closing, once I started teaching martial arts again this past semester my students were shocked. At 33 I am stronger than I ever was at 23. I have definitely loss some stamina but have gained strength, power, and explosiveness. A good trade IMO

 

[gbhar]

@romrulida How do you integrate 5/3/1 into cf-football? Do you just do 5/3/1 during your strength work? Or are your running two separate programs at the same time?

 

[romrulida]

@gbhar Depending on the SWOD I would sometimes head in early or stay later and do 5/3/1. Other times (again depending on the programming for that day) I would skip the class and just workout in the gym. More often than not it was the former.

The reason I started 5/3/1 was because during the Summer months we really focused on conditioning, power, and skills, i.e., agility. Now that it is getting colder out we're hitting the iron a lot more.

 

[upbuild]

@romrulida You increased lifts while in a deficit? Damn it, everyone does this except me, there's must be something wrong with me lol. And I'm not intermediate.

 

[tinekarobinson]

@upbuild I've been following a -10%/-30% intermittent fasting deficit for a few months now (used 1percentedge.com/ifcalc to set it up and mfp to track it), have lost over 10 lbs and been steadily increasing on all my lifts with Madcow. Switched over to Madcow almost 2 months ago exactly, increased my 5 rep max about 20 lbs on each lift:

Squat x5 325-350
Bench x5 240-260
Row x5 175-190
Press x5 150-170
Deadlift x5 325-350

As far as diet is concerned, I try to get 1.1 gram protein per lb of body weight (@15%bf) keep carbs and fat within about 5% of each other and focus on eating clean and getting good rest other than that.

I do occasionally add in some accessories, but if I stall on the main lifts I drop accessories for a week, and I'm back on track like clockwork!

 

[upbuild]

@tinekarobinson I'm losing weight a little faster, around 20 lbs in little over 2 months, my lifts have decreased around 5-10% and this makes me worried, cause I'm always below average in straight gain and maintenance. What's your feeding and working out schedule, do you do any extra activities?
I decided to cut cause I wasn't increasing my lifts even while bulking (no macro counting), and I added around 200 calories to my diet to maybe slow down weight loss.
Is it that bad genetics? I'm considering using drugs cause it's being annoying.

 

[tinekarobinson]

@upbuild M 41 5'7" 185lbs
Basically, as per the guidelines at stronglifts.com, I stick to the 3x per week, day on day off schedule as recommended. Also, given the time, I try to go for a 30-60 minute brisk walk with my dog on rest days, but usually only manage about 1 per week. If I've met my lifting goals for the day, feel good, and have time I'll do some ring dips, reverse curls, overhead dumbell pulls, leg lifts, random ab work or maybe a 7-10 minute HIIT.

I work out in the evening, have a desk job by day. I will usually have a small bowl of oatmeal with seeds, nuts, berries, some greek yogurt and low fat cottage cheese, and whey on a rest day. Lunch usually consists of a can of water packed albacore, an apple or pear, and maybe some sort of deli salad if it isn't too unhealthy looking.

When I get home on workout days I'll toss a salad (bag of spinach or baby kale, cup of cherry tomatoes, cup or so of various mushrooms) into the blender with a scoop of whey protein, and (lately have been experimenting with beta-alanine pre-workout as well as ec stacks). Post workout, depending on how my macros look and what my dinner plans are, I might have another blender mix of whey with some oatmeal.

Dinner usually consists of chicken, brown/wild rice, sweet potato, steamed veggies.

Besides meticulously weighing and logging everything I eat to achieve the macro balance I have set as my goal- I think what I am doing that is important (as far as maintaining lean muscle/strength gains) is making sure to get my complex carbs after I workout, as well as getting the maximum (slightly more) of recommended protein.

Lately my weight loss has stopped, and I stalled on my lifts (which is a bit of a relief as I don't have a rack and am also will run out of plates next week if my gainz continue to gain) but I think this is due to wavering on my diet, or could be time to shake things up.

I'm pretty close to my goal, but given the recent stall and also the large amount of carbs (sweets) I'm expected to eat this time of year by family members, I might switch over to more of a hypertrophy/HIIT routine for the next couple of months. Switching things up to keep the body guessing is important if you want to continue making solid progress, keeps you interested and keeps your body engaged.

Here's a couple thoughts I have for you:

Keeping your macros balanced, with an emphasis of ensuring you are getting the appropriate amount of protein is something you might want to check on.

Making strength gains while on a caloric deficit is understandably doing things the hard way. I think we'd be making much more definite strength gains if we were eating a clean and balanced caloric surplus, which is my plan once I get down to 10% bf. Getting from 15% to 10% has proven tough in the past, however I was not armed with the dietary knowledge that I have now (mfp helps too).

Sorry about the book, but I'm just learning all of this and I think it helps if I give a background so that you know where I'm coming from. You say you added 200 calories, but of carbs, protein, or fat? Also, what is that in relation to your TDEE? From what I've read, just keeping at a steady deficit isn't as effective as varying your intake based on workout vs rest days, ie intermittent fasting. Also, if you've been honestly at it for this long, you should consider changing things up to get at that stubborn remaining bodyfat.

 

[upbuild]

@tinekarobinson Well, i do around 2k calories on rest days and 3k cals on workout days
180/80/115 protein/carb/fat and 210/250/115 respetively, this amounts to 2.4k cal daily on a weekly basis. 200 calories more than i was doing a little over one month now.
My goal is to get to around 10%bf as well, i dont have as much lean mass to show underneath, but i want to start a steady controlled weight gain goal from a decently looking shape.
My TDEE is around 2800, using the 6'4 and 200lbs 2 wkts per week setup.
I used to work out fasted at this cut, early morning, then in the 3-4h window later id have all the food of the day. But now i changed to a pre workout of rice milk + whey protein (30g carb+20g protein) and 7g of BCAA (scivation xtend) and same eating window.
The issue is not the stubborn BF, its the strengh loss, people seem to gain strengh while cutting, but that aint happening to me.

About this part

Switching things up to keep the body guessing is important if you want to continue making solid progress, keeps you interested and keeps your body engaged.

Isnt it considered broscience? Or should i actually change my program? Been doing SS, SL and madcows for as long as i can remember, with 1-2 accessories.

 

[tinekarobinson]

@upbuild Yeah maybe so. But then again, if what you are doing isn't working then obviously some sort of change is necessary.

SS, SL, Madcow all say that at some point you're going to stall, at which point deloading and continuing with the workout to workout progression is recommended (if not changing up to an intermediate or advanced program).

It sounds like you have stalled, and instead of deloading are just continuing to struggle against that weight, or not deloading enough.

 

[1975dad]

@romrulida I watched that 'what is crossfit football' video on their website. He said the program ''is used in 300+ countries'', but there's only ~196 countries in the world....just more crossfit self importance bull shit.

 

[pollysorry]

@romrulida Wow. I dont think any c.f. gyms in my area have c.f. football classes. Great find.