I started working out six months ago, and today I reached my 69th session. I’m currently cutting because I want to get leaner. My progress is slow, but I’m definitely moving forward, and losing weight too.
It’s incredibly important to track the weights I lift; otherwise, I’d have no idea whether I’m making progress. It’s not always steady, I go back and forth with my working weights since there are good and bad days. As long as I record everything and see overall improvement, I think that’s perfectly fine.
I do wonder if I could lift more, and progress faster, if I weren’t cutting. I eat about 1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, following a vegan diet, which means lots of tofu and seitan.
I focus on the big compound lifts and add isolation work whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I do certain exercises, sometimes I skip them. it’s roughly a full-body workout with a touch of fuckarounditis.
Today, I confidently pressed 8×27.5 kg, 8×32.5 kg, and 8×32.5 kg per dumbbell on the incline bench, which made me really happy. My goal is to bench 100 kg within a year. Let’s see if I can make it happen!
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Noice!
Congratulations. Get on that shit and give me 1 more.
Nice work!
I do wonder if I could lift more, and progress faster, if I weren’t cutting
Yes, but you get to choose one conflicting goal at a time. Achieve one goal, and then get to the next (but don’t focus on a specific number on the scales, aim for a body fat % instead ). If you work some body weight stuff in you’ll appreciate it later, I think. The formerly fat guys at my gym always were irritatingly fast on burpees.
great reminder!
It sounds good to aim for a body fat percentage instead of weight! I hope my body weight scale is ready for the task
The Navy method is a reasonable estimate, just remember it’s an estimate. Body impedance machines can be easily fooled with fluctuations in hydration.
If you’re doing 32.5 x 8 reps x 2 sets on incline, you can easily do 100kg bench dude…
Congrats on the progress! Let’s get this community more active!
I cycled from barbell bench to barbell incline bench to dumbbell incline bench in the past months.
Sounds like it’s time to get back to the flat bench and check if I can press 100 kg. Thank you for giving me the heads up and confidence! I knew that I am getting there, but I didn’t know when.
It’s incredibly important to track the weights I lift
This is the enlightened way. Fitness is a physical and mental endeavor, requiring the methodical approach of science alongside the cerebral conditioning to strive for continual improvement.
today I reached my 69th session
Nice!
Lifting the zen way!
Hell yeah! Good going, well done. What’s the rest of your diet like? I’m working on my fitness too, but am finding myself weirdly unsure about whether my diet is healthy, despite tracking everything and making sure I’m getting all the vitamins and nutrients and macros that I need. I’ve already mostly transferred over to vegetarian but I’m wondering if going further towards vegan would help with costs/feeling.
I eat very little processed food and primarily track my protein intake. I believe tracking every micro-nutrient is unnecessary as long as I eat a wide variety of whole foods. I place virtually no limit on vegetable consumption and only a light limit on fruit. Eating an extra banana isn’t as detrimental as eating a bag of chips. It’s easier to drop an additional banana a day than chocolate.
In the beginning, it was helpful to learn which vitamins specific foods contain, but now that I eat a high volume of diverse greens, I don’t feel the need to track them closely.
being vegan is cheap because tofu is around €6/kg, while meat is at least €8/kg. Seitan (self made) is often even cheaper, and soy chunks are incredibly cost-effective at €10 per dry kilogram. Going vegan does narrow your food selection. There are simply things you can’t eat, and there’s no room for bargaining. However, the industry is developing rapidly, and more vegan options appear every year. Avoiding cheese also removes a massive source of calories. We aren’t quite at the point where vegan cheese can replace dairy one-to-one in terms of variety, but we likely will be in 10 to 20 years which will make it more difficult to stick to a healthy diet based on vegan.
Ultimately, eating unprocessed food is the best choice for both my budget and my well-being. I’m glad I’m not contributing to the suffering of animals, though I believe that choice is a personal one.
