Published On: June 24th, 2013/Categories: Carl's Transformation/2.9 min read/

Day 44 – The Pump

Today marks the start of MicroCycle 5 and a shift to a slightly more aggressive style of training.

Day: 44 of 77
Date: 24/06/2013
Workout Day: 30
Weight (lb): 161.2 (10.6 lb loss)
Body Fat %: 13.8 (2.8% loss)
Health: Fine 10/10

Today’s workout was shoulders+back which has been somewhat troublesome for me recently, having caused my back injury with some poorly formed rack deadlifts. But with that injury behind me I was fully able to give this workout my all. This microcycle is all about enhancing blood flow to the muscles, with multiple back-to-back exercises for the same muscles, aimed at different angles and with short rest periods. And yes, this is pretty damn tough. You think you’ve given it your all, and then you have to do it again (but slightly differently), and then again, and then again. In all it’s only six sets but they are pretty big sets. I swapped the rack deadlifts for normal deadlifts since my rack doesn’t have low enough supports to have the barbell at knee level. Normal deadlifts should give me a fuller workout than just rack deadlifts, which is good in the respect of it being a more compound movement but it loses some of the focused back tension that is desired in this day of exercises.

I upped the weights across the board but had to reduce them back down in places to keep my form correct and the tension as desired. There’s no point going too heavy and losing tension by just jerking the weight up and dropping it down quickly. I have noticed that my strength is barely improving, but with the fairly low calorie and ultra-low carb diet this isn’t surprising. I definitely do still get “The Pump”, especially today which was designed to achieve this, which is a sign that glycogen depletion is hurting me too much yet. My plan is to wait till Sunday to see if I’m still getting leaner and if the extra calories are adding any more muscle. I’m not averse to bringing in the carbs but if the current diet is working then I’ll need a damn good reason to change it.

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About the Author: Carl Gottlieb
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