From shit to fit (khazima's Log)

[Khazima]

Hey everybody, so I figured I'd start a log for a few reasons. 1. To keep a log and track progress. 2. Everybody else is doing it ^.^ and 3. Because I don't have much else to do with my time.

I've got to the peak of my first proper bulk, been bulking for about 8 months and being my first bulk having no clue about my body or my TDEE, I got pretty fat as you can imagine.

I've always been naturally lean, I started lifting at 110lb just over a year ago. I struggled to get past 12% bodyfat and lose my abs and feathered delts. Now I'm fluffy as can be and extremely happy with the progress made. I've put on roughly 6-7kg muscle in the last 8 months. With that came a lot of bodyfat.

So since summer is right around the corner (Australia) I decided to get down to a reasonable bodyfat and begin to lean bulk again.

My intentions have next to nothing to do with looking good for summer and going to the beach to show off my 6 pack. My goals are to get to a bodyfat where I feel better about myself, and don't feel like I'm carrying this unnecessary weight.

Supplements I'll be using:
Creatine
Multivitamin
Zinc
Fish oil

I'm also currently taking albuterol with ketotifen, not for a specific reason, not to bust a plateu, not to make up for a poor diet, but mostly through curiosity and wanting to dip my feet in.

I was going to wait for a lower BF% to use it, however something was planned for a little over a month from now, and that gave me the perfect window of time to use it.

3 weeks in I'll be adding:
800mcg Chromium
20mg synephrine
600mg EGCG

Stats:
19
5'8
160lb (73kg)
BF% 17-18%

Goal weight:
66-67kg (145-147lb)
At 12% Bodyfat

Macros:
170 protein
200 carbs
90 fats
2300 calories (TDEE 2600)

Looking forward to regularly logging, feel free to follow me on my journey.

~Kaz

[Khazima]

So I'm already actually a week in, and had my first weigh in yesterday. Down to 69kg already, I'd imagine due to a large fluctuation in water weight and some loss of glycogen. I still feel quite full and not any smaller.

Today:
Felt a bit shaky this morning, I'm on 12mg albuterol and 1mg ketotifen a day and i feel it quite active for a few hours after taking it, I'm due for my second 6mg dose now.

Hit upper body today, more of a deload workout before I start this linear program properly. Felt beast in the gym, great pumps and lots of energy, especially due to a preworkout I've concocted myself. But I was sweating like crazy, literally dripping sweat and having to wipe myself off after each set.

[uhit]

Subbed in

Good luck bro

[Khazima]

Subbed in

Good luck bro

Cheers man

[Khazima]

Did legs today, went quite well except for my left knee playing up a bit.

Only had two bananas this morning so it's so good to get home and have some butter chicken!

Wasn't very shaky today and thankfully I wasn't dripping sweat the whole session either haha, to be fair it was a lower intensity session with bigger rests between sets.

Fell asleep really early last night and missed 200 calories, and I was feeling it after my workout today, so hungry! But it was worth the 11 hours sleep.

[Mr. Small]

Make sure you drink plenty of water, as i have some golfers elbow in both arms with the last cut i did from not keeping myself hydrated enough.

[Khazima]

Make sure you drink plenty of water, as i have some golfers elbow in both arms with the last cut i did from not keeping myself hydrated enough.

Cheers for the tip bro, unfortunately I've already got some mild tendinitis in my elbows from benching 3x a week while bulking.

[Khazima]

Good day today, upper body again, sweating like a pig as expected doing supersets with everything. No shakes today, got a girl coming over soon so I'll be getting my cardio in for the day

My bench is starting to feel somewhat weaker, but it's the first proper day of the linear program so there's really no telling how much of an impact the cut has had so far, not feeling any smaller and I still feel full, plus is can get pumped pretty easy.

[Khazima]

Another great day so far, kicked off the morning with a pretty dense breakfast of 3 whole eggs and a packet of mi goreng, was feeling a little depleted this morning so I went for a high carb high fat meal and it filled me right up and gave me the energy to get through a quite gruelling session.

Cardio yesterday prolonged my DOMS from legs the day before, usually I'd rest but I decided today was one of those days where I'm just going to push myself and force myself to hit the numbers.

Squats went really well, I've had to go a notch down on my belt lmao, cut must go going well if thats the case after my breakfast left me a little bloated.

Sweating like a pig again today because it was higher intensity, and trying to perfect my sumo deadlift as I'm trying to switch! No shakes and feelin damn good after that session, just about ready for meal 2, some butter chicken after I do some foam rolling and stretching.

[Khazima]

Decided to hit arms today, my workout days were thrown off a bit and I was supposed to rest today but it works better with the program if I rest tomorrow. Took 5g arginine with my preworkout and albuterol before my workout. Had some crazy pumps in the gym and a lady friend came over for cardio after.

No shakes, diets going well, starting to get a bit hungry LOL got 1k calories left still I'll be fine. Thinking of running a new split and going back to 1 body part a week, I like the volume but I feel like higher frequency is more effective, I suppose there's only one way to find out what works best for me!

[Khazima]

I'm going to start taking another 3mg dose of albuterol 3-4 hours after my 3pm dose as I feel the effects are becoming less pronounced. So the protocol will be 6mg at 8-9am (preworkout on training days), 6mg at 3pm and 3mg at 7-8pm for a total of 15mg daily. I'll be seeing if it messes with my sleep at all tonight.

On another note my brothers just starting at the gym, and nearing the end of my personal training course it's (so far) been really great experience as he is completely inexperienced, overweight and uncoordinated. So it's really helping me to get a feel for how hard it can be for a beginner and how the way they need to train is so different to me.

[zempey]

keep it up, sounds like you are on the right track, I will be following your log.

[Khazima]

keep it up, sounds like you are on the right track, I will be following your log.

Cheers mate

[Khazima]

Rest day today, one of the two most dreaded days of my week. Went rather quick this time thankfully because me and my brother took the dogs out to a dog beach a half hour drive away.

Been hungry today, and the family plan on having pizza for dinner! No way I can handle that with the amount of calories I have left, I'd have to eat half a pizza to get full and go a thousand calories over.

I'm contemplating upping my keto dose to 1.5mg, as I feel the tolerance to albuterol is building and my receptors not being fully restored. If this is the case I'll be happy to go back to 12mg daily. However I'm going to figure out which is cheaper, upping my albuterol dose, or upping my keto dose.

Also thinking about doing a new split.. More or less decided to go back to a 3 on 1 off split doing chest/back, legs (including deadlifts) then shoulders/arms, rest, repeat. Should be fun

[Deal Me In]

Thanks for the log man. I will be following as I'm curios about a few things you are doing. I've been thinking about adding arginine in pre workout also and wondering if you take it everyday or just on days when you feel you need a boost?

Also, you said your calories are currently at 2300. What was your intake during your bulk? Thanks to some great articles by Times Roman I've revaluated my diet and have dropped a significant amount of calories. Just curious how big your drop was as I read the effects.

Otherwise, keep up the good work.

[Khazima]

Thanks for the log man. I will be following as I'm curios about a few things you are doing. I've been thinking about adding arginine in pre workout also and wondering if you take it everyday or just on days when you feel you need a boost?

Also, you said your calories are currently at 2300. What was your intake during your bulk? Thanks to some great articles by Times Roman I've revaluated my diet and have dropped a significant amount of calories. Just curious how big your drop was as I read the effects.

Otherwise, keep up the good work.

I'll only take arginine on days I want to chase the pump, it doesn't really give you a boost it just increases blood flow helping you get pumped. I'll usually just take it for arms but since my splits changing I'll be taking it for all upper body days.

I was bulking a little excessively, started at 3500 went down to 3100 and was comfortable with 3000, then I dropped 100 calories every 3-4 days to get to maintenance, maintained for a few weeks and dropped straight to 2300.

Cheers brother

[Khazima]

Woke up at 69.5 this morning! Gained about a pound, hardly impressed! I put it down to water fluctuation especially since I went 40g over in carbs yesterday. Since the first week I lost 3kg (about 6lb) i can imagine that was due to the big change in carbs and glycogen/water depleting, so some must've decided to restore itself still feel full and feel like the deficit is working so I'm not worried... Yet

Got some chest/back today, first day of the new split and I'm super excited.

Also took 1.5mg keto last night and my sleep was sensational! Woke up completely refreshed with 9 hours sleep. Now to see what effects it had on albuterol tolerance.

[Khazima]

Just got back from chest/back, great session but I might have to alternate between chest and back instead of doing chest then back. By the time I got to bent over rows I was fvcked. Definitely sweating a lot more today and started to feel a little more fatigued than I usually would. Session went as follows:

Flat bench 3x5

Incline DB bench 3-4x8-10

Cable fly 3x10-12

Dips (10-12) superset with wide-grip pull-ups (8-10) x3

Bent-over row 3x8-10

Dumbbell row 3x10-12

Lat pulldown 8-10

Quite an exhausting session but ALOT of fun, feel like an animal when I'm sweating like a pig rowing my bodyweight for reps.

Feels like upping my ketotifen dose worked better than adding in another 3mg albuterol dose, but I may try doing 2, 9mg doses of albuterol, yet to do the maths on it! I get an extra $100 with my next pay so that pretty much covers albuterol, ketotifen and a few weeks of TB500 haha, or my food for the fortnight

[Khazima]

So after a little thought I've decided that instead of spending another chunk of money on more albut and keto (shipping kills me in aus) I'm going to stop running what I've got, and use austinites fat loss protocol to get to atleast 15% BF then run the last 2 weeks of albuterol. So from now on my protocol will be:

20mg synephrine
600mg ECGC
800mg chromium picolinate

Every morning.

On another note, off to train my brother in an hour or so, and it's time to see if he can deadlift! He can hardly coordinate a bench press but his squat form is strangely good for a newb.

[zempey]

Careful on the deads with the newb, especially if he is tall. I would like to try the fat loss protocol as well in the future, but only to get from 10%-12% to 7-8%. I am lucky, I can lose fat quite quickly to about 10%, then it really comes down to how strict I can be. Gaining lean mass is where I struggle, no matter how strict I am the gains come real slow.

[Khazima]

Careful on the deads with the newb, especially if he is tall. I would like to try the fat loss protocol as well in the future, but only to get from 10%-12% to 7-8%. I am lucky, I can lose fat quite quickly to about 10%, then it really comes down to how strict I can be. Gaining lean mass is where I struggle, no matter how strict I am the gains come real slow.

He's really short haha he did quite well considering it was his first time Deadlifting, kept the weight really light and just did a few sets to plant the seed. I think I'll be sticking with squatting and planks, maybe some hyperextensions to strengthen his lower back abit more before we go back to them.

I used to be crazy lean all the time and unable to gain weight, until I started counting macros properly lol. I still find it quite hard to put on mass though, I don't grow easily. It'll be interesting to see how well I can grow once I'm lower BF and can actually see the progress I'll be making.

[Khazima]

Figured I'd post some pics.

Today.


Training 12 months, started at roughly 50kg (110lb) to my heaviest above 73kg (160lb)

[Times Roman]

I can see the work you've put in............

[Khazima]

I can see the work you've put in............

Cheers brother

[Khazima]

Today was my first proper leg day back since deloading and starting to cut, and I'm sad to say I'm losing a decent amount of strength it's just part of it though and I'm sure I'll get back to the same strength at a lower bodyweight quite quickly now that I've got my training a lot more dialled in. Today I did:

High bar back squat 5x3 - my previous would have been 250lb, today it was 225 and decently hard. I'm confident I'll get 235 pretty easily next time though. First week back from a deload is always a struggle.
Sumo deadlift 6x3 - mostly technique sets trying to open up my hips and getting used to getting tight in the sumo position, got 250 for 6 sets of 3 easily.
Front squat - 2 quick sets of 135 for 6 then a set of 155 for 6 to finish off the quads.
Calf raise - pyramid up to 4 plates on the leg press, 2 sets of 8 reps and pyramid back down max reps each set.

Today was also the first day off albuterol and using austinites fat loss protocol, didn't notice much of an energy boost but I take preworkout anyway, sweating excessively again not sure whether to contribute it to the stack or not.

Definitely looking leaner, got home to take a shower and can see a lot nicer shape in my pecs and the outline of my abs starting to show. Can't wait to see some separation in my quads!

Pretty happy with the day so far, got a lady friend coming over for the night so that should be fun.

[Khazima]

Weight in at 69kg today, that's .5 less than Friday, I decided to weigh again today because I didn't go over on carbs yesterday and knew it'd be a lot more accurate.

Another good day, was a bit worried having a lady friend over was gonna mess with my sleep, ended out getting an extra 2 hours!

Gym went well, starting to feel leaner every day, strength has gone down slightly losing about 2 reps on my shoulder pressing. Did shoulders and arms which consisted of:
Sets/reps
Seated DB press 4-5x6-8
Lateral raises 5x12-15
Facepulls 4x12-15

Incline dumbbell curls to failure, then stand and go to failure again x3
Repeat with hammer curls.

Cable curl 3-4x8-12
Superset with rope pushdowns 15-20

Close grip bench 4x6-8
Skullkrushers super set with single arm overhead extension 10-12/8-10

'Twas a great session, had good pumps going and starting to get a little vascularity. Rest day tomorrow training my brother again though which will be fun.

For the last 4-5 days I've been stretching and foam rolling for atleast half an hour at any point during the day and the benefits have been paramount. I've struggled for a whole to make a habit of it but my hips are too tight for sumo, so I've forced it into my every day routine.
I've also been using a tennis ball to get deep into the adductors and also using it on my pec minor/teres major to open up my shoulders a little more. Definitely noticing a big difference in both areas, especially how wide I can stand with sumo now.

[Khazima]

Managed to have a grand ole' time even though it was a rest day today. Public holiday here and the family and myself went to an indoor skydiving facility, it was ALOT of fun and now I want to jump out of a plane lol.

Not much else to log being a rest day, got paid so I got to order my supps, a new belt, and did a tonne of grocery shopping so I'm basically sorted for the next two weeks.

Wanted to get some squat shoes but it looks like they'll have to wait with my current funding.

Chest and back tomorrow, I'm already fresh and damn keen.. Can't wait to kill it.

[Khazima]

Today was hard.. I felt alright getting to the gym but within a few sets times I felt exhausted and pretty much spent the whole workout hauling arse.. I increased my numbers slightly on all my lifts but I'd left the weight lower than I could have last chest/back day. I felt absolutely exhausted, I had only had one large banana pre workout, usually I'd have some oats and some eggs but I woke up late and was meeting someone there.

Legs tomorrow, and I'm definitely eating a lot more before I go.. Today was really hard to push through and my intensity suffered, although I'm glad my numbers didn't.

I was struggling last night with food as well, I really felt like something sweet and didn't have many calories left, about to go to bed hungry and ended out having a chocolate biscuit lol, putting me at a 200 not 300 deficit that day, which I'm fine with.

Time to do some meal prep for the next couple days.. Did a bucketload of shopping yesterday so I've got plenty of awsome meals to cook this week.

[Khazima]

Legs went a lot better today, still felt a little depleted but I had a much bigger breakfast and got through the workout with adequate intensity no problems.

I'm keeping my strength somewhat and my sumo deadlift is still making great linear progress, last week I did 6 sets of 3 with 110kg, this week I did pyramid sets from 110-115-120-125-130 all for 3 except for 130 which I got for 2.

Still having a lot of trouble with my hips and have slacked off on the stretching and foam rolling the last two days, my sumo being only 20kg lighter than my conventional already is very encouraging and I have no doubt I'll hit 3 plates even on a cut.

Today I did:

Squats 5 sets of 3 with 110kg
Sumo Deadlifts 6 sets of 3 pyramid from 110-130kg 2-3 reps.

That was all for today as I needed to get home and start an assignment that's due tomorrow.. And now I'm on the forum -.-

New powerlifting belt arrived this morning and it feels great, can't wait for it to break in and be less stiff but it has a lot better wall at the front to push in so I can generate a lot of intra abdominal pressure.

Maintaining my strength is one of my biggest focuses on this cut and in turn it should maintain a lot of muscle mass also. I'm going as hard and as heavy I can every day and haven't had any noticeable loss in size, and quite minimal loss of strength. However I'm only 3 (I think) weeks into the cut and there's a while left to go..

I'm starting to notice myself getting a lot leaner especially around the lower abdomen area, starting to see that v that make the ladies wanna squeeze. It's a great feeling not being bloated all the time, I blew up like a puffer fish during the bulk, and felt horrible about myself at the peak.. I already feel a lot better.

Here's a pic from last night.

Now for this assignment...

[Joco71]

Good work KZ definitely can see clear changes.

[Khazima]

Good work KZ definitely can see clear changes.

Thanks man

[Khazima]

Shoulders and arms today, decided to get up early and do my session before TAFE, didn't end out getting my assignment done in time but it should be fine.

Starting to feel a bit depleted regularly, a bit lower energy than usual. I'm probably going to switch to high carbs on training days. Im not sure if i fully grasp the concept of carb cycling, whether it'd be better to have high carbs the day before training days and low carbs the day before rest days, as in this case my glycogen would be fully restored from the day before. Or i may just have a refeed day once every 5-6 days when im feeling depleted, eat at or slightly over maintenance with low fat that day, then lower my other daily deficits to make up for the refeed day.

I'm probably over analysing a bit, and just need to keep on the grind, but its fun to play around with options

Not feeling too hungry today, had 2 decent sized meals already and have plenty of calories left.

[Khazima]

Woke up at about 68.7 today, however I've changed scales as that one wasn't digital and too hard to get an accurate reading.

I've now got a digital bio impedance scale but it doesn't have an athlete setting so the body fat calculator sucks.. won't be going of that lol. So my bodyweight this morning on that was 69.9kg which is the number I'll be going off from now on.

Decided to refeed today as my whole last training block I felt quite depleted especially yesterday. I'm aiming for 2800 calories (200 above maintenance) and around 350-400 carbs.

I fell asleep early last night and missed 250 calories, so that fell together quite nicely.

[Khazima]

Didn't have time to eat much this morning and had to head straight to TAFE, only had 1 large banana and took a bunch of food to eat when I got there. By the time it got to the end of class and I had time to eat I was getting incredibly agitated very easily. Supposed to get a lift home with some mates but I was so agitated with them that I just caught the train home.

Got home and had a tub of ice cream and I feel much better lol. I think i timed this refeed really well because I've been slowly getting more and more easily agitated and feeling less and less energised. After only 1 full meal I feel much better, and I'll be roaring and ready to go tomorrow.

[Khazima]

Felt much better today, forgot to log until just now!

Ended up having 3100 calories yesterday, around 430 carbs, went a little overboard by about 300 calories but hey.. I needed it. Have adjusted my calories accordingly this week by 50 less per day (to 2250) to make up for the 300, more than likely I'll go back to 2300 next week.

Woke up at 70.5kg which is a good feeling because it was incredibly hard to get to 70, now I'm at 70 relatively lean (by society's standards, not mine). So for me this is an achievement.

Chest/back today, went quite well but I lowered the volume a little to save some glycogen, but still went hard on the stuff I did.

I did:
Bench 5x3
Bent over row 3x8
Incline bench (3x10) superset with pull-ups (3x8-10)
Dips 3x12-15
Dumbbell row 4x10
Neutral close grip lat pulldowns 2x8-10

'Twas a great day and felt nice to get a solid pump in my back again, ran into a mate at the gym and ended out going to the beach for the day to have a good perv and a swim. Got a little burnt but my pasty ass needs it.

Keeeeeen for legs in the morning.

[Khazima]

Legs was quite the success!

Hit a double bodyweight PR in sumo after doing it for less than a month, now its only 10kg (22lb) from my conventional max. That's after a month of cutting.

The went on to hit a 1.5x bodyweight PR on the front squat.

My back squat has maintained strength in the last 2 weeks as well, I had an extra 2.5kg on the bar for the first 2 of 5 sets, but my form started to break down so I went back down 2.5k (5lb) to last weeks sets for the remaining 3 sets.

Knees weren't giving me too much hassle today which is a relief.

I think I'm definitely going to utilise carb cycling, so far it has worked wonders. That refeed was much needed and numbers have been great since. I plan on having high carbs on rest day, then for the first two days of my split, use my carb cycled glycogen on my last training day, then start again with high carbs on the rest day (3 on 1 off split) ready for the first day of the split again.

Protein will stay 170g throughout. On high carb days ill aim for around 60 fat, 250-280 carbs, then low carb days will be 80-90 fat, 190-200 carbs. I've noticed massive differences in training by only increasing carbs 20-50g, the next day training has gone well each time.

Woke up at 70.4 again this morning, which I would expect from still being full of glycogen.

[zempey]

Doubt I will ever do double my weight on squats again, getting too old for that shite. Last time I was squatting over 500lbs my shoulders and knees started to give me grief.

[Khazima]

Doubt I will ever do double my weight on squats again, getting too old for that shite. Last time I was squatting over 500lbs my shoulders and knees started to give me grief.

Haha luckily for me double bodyweight is only 310lb at the moment. Highly doubt I'll continue to do it after 30, I plan on being pretty big by then too and with my already dodgy joints it seems like an unlikely situation.

[Khazima]

Tried the new preworkout 'Frenzy' from the makers of craze today, and it was damn good to workout with, I was incredibly focused and pumped my whole workout, able to push through every goal I had for the day.

However now it's many hours later and I realise after getting clean from stimulants and having a horrible run with them, that a preworkout like this definitely isn't for me.

I got home still focused, did some of my assignment then ended out passing out for 2 and a half hours (not too out of the norm) but now that everyone is home I'm starting to get the same anxious feelings I'd get coming down from speed, not as intense, but still uncomfortable.

It's pretty likely they've 'forgot' to put something on the label, as there isn't really anything on there to warrant this.

[lovbyts]

I think I read another similar post not very long ago about someone else having similar experience, speed rush and then crash. Yeah not a good feeling if you are battling demons.
Keep up the good work.