TLDR: Firing on All Cylinders

Too Long Dad Recap

Things are lining up. Consistency is leading to results.

Good habits are building on themselves.

Why did I wait until I was in my late 30s to figure all this out?

Can’t change the past, but we can enjoy the rewards of the work we’ve put in.

Those rewards include buying a pair of shorter shorts and showing off some leg!

Things I Read and Listened to This Week: Books

My streak of daily reading of 10 pages of a physical book is at 15 days, and this weekend I finished the book I started a while back.
- Going to keep it going and see if I can build this into a real lifestyle change
I did sneak in some fitness related podcasts, including the latest one from Morning Lifter, featuring New Jersey-based founder of Fusion Sports Performance, Marat Shikhris.
- Marat started a supplement company last year and hearing how he did that and his story as an immigrant from Eastern Europe was inspiring.
- I ordered a shirt and some supplements, so I’ll be repping his brand in the garage soon.

Things I Watched This Week: Candito PRs

Really not many YouTube videos caught my eye this week. The genre that was so vibrant a few years ago seems less interesting to me these days.
I did watch a couple of Jonnie Candito videos he put out this week talking about his very advanced training and some lifetime PR attempts he was working on.
- He is still adding weight to his total after 21 powerlifting meets in his career, and he is so knowledgeable about the sport.

Things I Ate This Week: Same Stuff, Different Week

I baked and ate more “anabolic” recipes, including:
- Pizookie
- Vanilla Cake
- Big brownie
- Vanilla muffins
- Chocolate muffins

I hit my calories and macros every day until I reached a new low on Friday.
- then I slipped up and crammed a bunch of cookie dough balls into my mouth along with some ice cream. I knew I was slipping in the moment, but I gave myself a cutoff time of like 10 minutes after I acknowledged I was in binge mode. Then when the time was up, I stopped.
- My weight the next day went up a bit, but it most definitely could have been worse
My fat loss phase is in its final stages, but I am really excited with how close I am to 160lbs, a level well below what I thought I could achieve when I started.
- I don’t know how long I can keep this cut going, but for now we push forward into previously uncharted territory!

Progress is off the chart, except the above chart…

The bodyfat analyzer I have is reading in the steady 9.0-9.4% range this week, down from 15-16% back in February
- Solidly in single digits would be amazing if I could maintain that 8-10% area

Things I Lifted This Week: Deadlift Volume PR

My current program is a mix of two programs: one for deadlifts and one for everything else
The deadlift program ended its high volume phase that precedes the peaking block. The end of that volume phase is a 10 rep max test.
- Last week after 5 sets of 5 reps at 320lbs, I thought 10 reps of 350lbs might be possible for 10 reps
- That might have been possible if the deadlift test was my only focus, but I accumulated some fatigue throughout the week from other things (like 15,000 steps and 400 lunges a day with a calorie deficit)
- I was feeling decent in warm ups, and I did a 335lbs set of 3 to gauge what weight to shoot for on the 10 rep set
So, I decided to try 340lbs, and although it was a struggle, I got all 10 reps
- I was happy with how it went.
- On strength calculators, that 340lbs at 10 reps translates into 460lbs as a estimated 1 rep max, which is 30 pounds heavier than I have ever lifted.
- This bodes very well for my upcoming peaking block.

The goal is to hit my all-time PR of 430lbs at a body weight that’s 25 pounds lighter than last time
- If that happens, this whole bulking and cutting cycle will have been worth it
Outside of barbell stuff, I am currently on a 17-day streak of getting at least 15,000 steps each day!
- Average over last 7 days: 18,256 steps
I am also currently on an 87-day streak of doing 400 walking lunges daily
Still just 1 long run and 1 short run each week.
- I’m relying on the lunges and steps daily rather than daily cardio. This has been the plan, and it is working.

Dad Report:

My kids are doing school online, but the school district is bringing kids back this week. We are sticking with online, more because of the hassle of taking one kid for 2 hours a day and the other two kids every other day. We all feel more productive in the current work and school from home environment, so we are opting to stay home.

Outside of school, my kids have had friends over, played sports with other kids and made new friends this summer. The online school through our public school system may be the best of both worlds. I am not ever going to go full home school, but this situation where we can go to our local school with all the other kids but from the comfort of our home, I am all-in on that.

It may be the new suburban dream, if you are lucky or successful enough to have a house that can accommodate everyone having their own space.

Because kids return to school this week, my children had Friday off to give administrators time to prep everything. I took a day off too and took the kids to a local rock climbing facility. We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed an hour of climbing with a professional belay.

My daughter was able to apply the pull-up strength she’s been developing and do some of the harder climbs with relative ease. We may have found her sport.