531PL Cycle 3, Press 1

Press: 45, 75
97.5x5
110x3
122.5x4
110x5
Felt weaker today. Let the last 110 rep down a bit funny and may have done bad things to my shoulder. Oh dear.

Left early due to the room closing for circuit training and my having stuff I needed to do afterwards.

Updates to Diet and Program

The 5/3/1 components of the program aren't changing. What's changing is that from now on I'm training 7 days per week with the spare 3 functioning as rehab days with:

Banded GMs (which I may add back into my regular warmup) to stretch out hamstrings
Shoulder warmup, but done with more reps (currently I do; I'm thinking up it to 5) and for 3 sets. Also possibly longer holds.
Light barbell rows to work on form and scapular stabilization (both overhand and underhand grips)
Light lat pullsdown for sets of 10, focusing on form (we're talking like 60lbs here)
Face pulls, supersetted with scap push-ups
Competition lifts done with light weights (45lb bench, 95-135lb squat, 135-185lb deadlift) focusing on form, ideally to the tune of 100 good reps per workout. These will be with low rest.
Stomach vacuum for many sets and reps

Ideally I'll figure out a way to cut all of that down into a single hour of training.

For dietary changes...there actually aren't any hugely significant ones, but I'm branching out with the types of stew I can make so hopefully I'll have something new in the near future. The basic outline stays the same - low-carb, high-fat, high-protein, high-fiber until training and high-carb, low-fat, high-protein, low-fiber afterwards. I may start adding an actual breakfast in; I want to try the hazelnut roast + coconut oil + heavy cream idea first though.

A Brief Discussion on Nutrition

This should remain brief partly by design and partly because I doubt I have that much content I can put in it. That aside, here goes:

People who've gone to the earlier reaches of this log will find some references to Jamie Lewis's predator diet and to my dietary history in general. I've tried various (fairly faddy) approaches, and at this point resigned myself to a few relatively simple things:

1) Whatever the current model of obesity predicts would be effective for weight loss is probably the best evidence-based method of losing weight. Currently that appears to be limiting palatability of your food to reduce overconsumption, because it seems fairly laid-in-stone nowadays that the actual amount of weight lost or gained depends primarily on caloric deficit/surplus (respectively).

Fortunately, palatability on the level that's (presumably) caused the recent dramatic increase in American calorie intake is fairly easy to avoid by simply cooking the vast majority of your food yourself. This is where it gets stickier, because making decisions past that point requires some kind of framework that will probably be health-based, and there are numerous conflicting positions on what constitutes a healthy diet.

That being said, there are a few things that seem fairly universal:

1) Refined sugar and anything containing it is generally bad.

2) Hydrogenated oils and anything containing them are bad.

More controversially:

1) Fructose (and by extension sucrose) is problematic because it can't be stored as muscle glycogen (or, as far as I'm aware, even removed from the blood by muscle cells) and should be limited due to the liver's small glycogen capacity (~100g, apparently). This doesn't mean avoid all fruit, but it does suggest that avoiding large quantities of fruit and sucrose will be beneficial, and that starches should be prioritized over fruits for any method of carbohydrate loading.

2) Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids should generally be avoided in the context of Western diets, as a bias of w-6 over w-3 appears to lead to chronic inflammation and generally damage health. w-3 biased over w-6 is also a problem, but it's a lot harder to reach that stage because Western diets tend to be very high in w-6 as a result of our animal feedstocks and habit of using seed oils in most of our foods. Saturated and monounsaturated cooking fats are probably best, and grassfed/pastured meats may be preferable for this reason.

More selectively and controversially:

1) Glutenous grains (N.B. - the family of celiac-associated plant proteins is quite large and does not, as far as I know, actually feature a specific protein named "gluten") may be contraindicated for a large percentage of the population due to various levels of intolerance and allergy. Avoiding these goes (somewhat) hand-in-hand with reducing omega-6 intake, since the two seem to be found together quite frequently.

I'm currently experimenting with carb backloading (as with my APD experience, this is more for convenience than anything else - the APD didn't really work out, though it did at least teach me a few things about how effectively I can eat some things). That said, I'm taking a modified approach based on what I've said above, partly for health reasons and partly because while some of the science has merit (primarily his notes about post-exercise changes in muscular utilization of glucose), a lot of it appears to be bullshit (of the traditional "doesn't say what he says it says" variety). This basically turns it into "

Currently unsure of how I'm going to handle breakfast; Keifer presents some argument for coffee with fat and very little protein or carb (I suspect that if I go this route it'll be hazelnut roast with cream and coconut oil).

Later in the day (a few hours before training), I'm thinking a fairly conservative meat and greens meal; half-rack of ribs, steak, pork chops, etc.. There are plenty of good protein and fat meals and easy vegetable sides.

For non-training days, that'll get followed by something larger (or multiples thereof), say a full rack of ribs or a whole roast chicken. I may allow myself some wiggle room with respect to carb content in the evenings, but ideally these will essentially be "keto" days.

On training days, post-workout meals will consist of some manner of protein (ideally with lower fat content) with a fairly large amount of starch, generally from rice or potatoes. Braised meat with rice, curry, Shephard's Pie, etc. (and cheat meals) go here.

531PL Cycle 3, Bench 5

Didn't warm my shoulders up

For some reason this warrants mention

Bench: 45, 95
120x5
137.5x5
157.5x5
Second two sets were very strong. I suspect this was because there was a cute girl on the next rack who actually knew what she was doing. The fact that this may have made a difference horrifies me.

DB Bench:
45s - 5x10
Upping to 50s next week. I've been here too long.

DB Row:
45x - 4x10, 1x29
Also upping to 50.

531PL Cycle 3, Squat 5

Squat - 45, 95, 135
200x5
230x5
260x5
Surprisingly unpleasant, but I've been feeling fairly shitty all week so it's not too surprising. Expecting a positive change next week.

Pistol:
5x6ea
The side-to-side imbalance is really coming out here. I've been starting with the right but I think I may try starting left next time to see if it gets any better. Sticking with six until I can do both sides with good balance - right now I can actually hit them continuously on the right, and that seems like a fairly good milestone.

GHR:
5x10
Hands by sides.
Stretching and massaging left calf to help loosen it up.

And today's experiment was...

A roast chicken that I'd left to air-dry in the oven overnight.

I'm going to do this with every bird I eat from now on. The skin was amazing.

Put the onions and celery in the oven with some duck fat and butter as well; in future I'll probably wait a while before doing that, or just not toss them around at all so the onions never contact the sides of the pan and burn.

531PL Cycle 3, Press 5

Press - 45, 65
85x5
95x5
110x5
Easy enough. Keep forgetting the bloody microplates, though.

Blast Strap Push-Ups:
10, 8, 7, 6, 6
Trying to keep my shoulder healthy while doing these. Got a PT referral; going to set up an MRI for the near future.

Barbell Row:
100lbs - 5x10
Upping to 105lbs next week. I'm thinking I'll up this twice per cycle for a bit until it starts to get vaguely hard.