Thorongil’s Strength/Lifting/Weight Loss Log

[Thorongil]

2/27/25 Rest Day

Solid recovery day today. Stayed under my calorie limit, had a good walk in the afternoon and hit 30 minutes of incline treadmill walk at night. Kept the incline at 6 but bumped the speed to 3.0 mph. Shoulder is feeling good

 

[Thorongil]

2/28/25 Lower (Deload) and 3/1-2/25 Rest/Recovery Days

Horizontal Leg Press: 450 x 20 x 3 sets
Belt Squat RDLs: 180 x 10 x 3 sets
Lying Leg Curl: 155 x 15 x 2 sets
Leg Extension: 190 x 15 x 2 sets

Videos:

Nothing special this weekend

Pics:

Nothing yet but will take a few gym pics this week

Cardio:

On Friday at the gym did 30 minutes of incline treadmill walking total, 6.0 speed and 3.0 mph. I'm going to keep this as the standard for now and eventually I'll bump the incline up a little more. On Saturday it was all just walking out doors, and tonight did another 30 minute incline treadmill walk.

I averaged over 10k steps a day this week which was awesome that's the goal. Going to stay diligent on this from now on


Diet:

Friday was 2700 calories 275g protein. Saturday was my fiance's birthday dinner so I was a little worse on this day, around 3000 calories and only 220g protein. Today though back to normal 2700 275g. No more events or anything coming up in the next few weeks. I did also meal prep today for the first time in probably 10 years so I am all set and ready to go for this upcoming week

Notes:

This was a great end to the first week. I'm hitting the diet pretty well, I think I have room to improve on it this week, and I'm happy with my cardio. I am down about 6 pounds this week, which I know is mostly water weight, but it feels good and I'm excited to keep going

Starting the 4 day split tomorrow after some advice in this thread. It'll be Monday - Upper Strength, Wednesday - Lower Strength, Friday - Upper Hypertrophy, Saturday - Lower Hypertrophy. Shoulder has been feeling MUCH better to where I really didn't feel anything at all today. I'm taking my weights down 15-20% too and I'm going to lower my rest times a bit this week. Excited to keep killing it in the gym, I'll pay attention to how I feel with the lower calories and increased cardio and make sure I don't push it

 

[Thorongil]

3/3/25 Upper 1 (Strength Focus) Week 1

Pause Bench Press: 225 x 20, 17, 15
Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown: 180 x 15, 14, 12
Smith Seated Shoulder Press: 185 x 12, 12, 11
V-Bar Tricep Pressdown: 200 x 17, 16, 13
DB Lateral Raise: 35s x 18, 17
Reverse Pec Deck: 160 x 18, 16, 15
Seated Machine Curl: 110 x 15, 13, 12

Videos:

Pics:

I'll try to remember to snap some today

Cardio:

Long walk after lunch
30 minutes total of incline treadmill walk at the gym
~10.5k total step count

Diet:

~2700 total calories, 275g protein

Notes:

Busy week so far but this was Monday's workout (Getting ready for a leg day tonight right now). Felt pretty solid overall, shoulder was feeling better with the lighter weight. Kept my rest periods really short, got some really good pumps in

Cardio and diet have been holding up really well. Going for a second week of cardio every day and 10k steps a day average. Scale has been a bit stagnant the past couple days after dropping 6 pounds pretty quickly but I know I'm just stabilizing

 

[eazy]

225 x 20

 

[Thorongil]

3/5/25 Lower 1 (Strength Focus) Week 1

Box Squat: 335 x 12, 11, 10
Speed Deadlift: 315+mini band tension x 3 x 8 sets (90 sec rest)
Leg Extension: 190 x 18, 17, 15
Single Leg Kneeling Leg Curl: 75/side x 20, 18, 15
Hip Abductor/Adductor Machine: 220 x 20/20, 18/18 (Superset)
Hanging Knee Raise: BW x 15 x 2 sets

Videos:

Cardio:

30 minutes incline treadmill walk, about 10k steps overall

Diet:

~2700 total calories, 275g protein

Notes:

Good workout last night. It was hard, legs/squats are definitely my weakest lift right now. But I was happy to get a good amount of volume in. Posterior chain is fried

I'm going to be alternating a heavier squat with a heavier deadlift each week on this day and then a lighter speed version of the other. This should hopefully help with recovery, not squatting and deadlifting heavy each week

I may need to use a slightly bigger band for the speed deadlifts. I didn't really feel too much with the red mini band. May try the black mini monster bands next time

 

[Yano]

EliteFTS band chart bands and their tension at length

 

[Thorongil]

EliteFTS band chart bands and their tension at length

View attachment 56862

Awesome thank you! I think I’ll bump up to the next band

 

[Yano]

Awesome thank you! I think I’ll bump up to the next band

I don't think you would have any problem with the Average bands , grey .. thats what I use for my DLs and squats mostly and I add monsters or red minis to that and chains

Bands are great for the way the tension brings the weight up so fast and they fight you like hand fishing sharks , after a couple of months you will notice a change in tension , unfortunately for the price of them , they dont last forever.

 

[Thorongil]

I don't think you would have any problem with the Average bands , grey .. thats what I use for my DLs and squats mostly and I add monsters or red minis to that and chains

Bands are great for the way the tension brings the weight up so fast and they fight you like hand fishing sharks , after a couple of months you will notice a change in tension , unfortunately for the price of them , they dont last forever.

Thanks for the response! I have one of each band except for the heavy one I got them off Amazon. I may try the light band next time and maybe the average band for squats if I can set them up well enough

 

[Thorongil]

3/7/25 Upper 2 (Hypertrophy Focus) Week 1

Smith Incline Bench Press: "225" x 20, 17, 14
Wide-grip Machine Lat Pulldown: 3 plates/side x 18, 17
Machine Dips: 6 plates x 15, 14
Single Arm Seated Cable Low Row: 100/side x 15 x 3 sets
Cable Overhead Tricep Extension: 140 x 20, 15
DB Hammer Curl: 40/side x 15, 14, 12 then 30/side x 8 (Drop set)
Face Pull: 140 x 15 x 3 sets

Cardio:

30 minutes incline treadmill walk, about 10k steps overall

Diet:

~2700 total calories, 275g protein yesterday. I did slip up on diet Thursday and ate just over 3k calories. Had a stressful day and didn't eat my meal prep. I'm happy though that this is the only slip up this week

Notes:

This was a solid workout last night and good week so far overall. My shoulder feels so much better already so the lowering in volume and weight was a good call. I didn't feel any pain doing the incline bench, I used a slightly narrow grip which I also think helped. This feels like a solid day to just stack volume to complement Monday's workout where I'll try to keep my strength high

 

[Yano]

Thanks for the response! I have one of each band except for the heavy one I got them off Amazon. I may try the light band next time and maybe the average band for squats if I can set them up well enough

Anytime man , I enjoy helping folks when I can.

If you dont have a rack with pins you can always loop the band through a few plates to anchor it.

Trickiest thing when setting up bands is your bar travel , bands anchored too close pull you forward , too far back , they want to pull you over.

With a mono its easy just squat but if your walking it out it can feel odd until your used to it.

 

[Thorongil]

Anytime man , I enjoy helping folks when I can.

If you dont have a rack with pins you can always loop the band through a few plates to anchor it.

Trickiest thing when setting up bands is your bar travel , bands anchored too close pull you forward , too far back , they want to pull you over.

With a mono its easy just squat but if your walking it out it can feel odd until your used to it.

Yeah I was thinking about this yesterday. My gym has a few monos but also some racks and then just some squat stands. The racks I believe have hooks to anchor the bands so that would be ideal. The monolift does also but I do legs solo (my fiance plays volleyball that night) so when I have to use the monolift I just walk them out so that wouldn't work. I'm just hoping I can get access to a rack or may have to wait for one to be available

 

[Yano]

Yeah I was thinking about this yesterday. My gym has a few monos but also some racks and then just some squat stands. The racks I believe have hooks to anchor the bands so that would be ideal. The monolift does also but I do legs solo (my fiance plays volleyball that night) so when I have to use the monolift I just walk them out so that wouldn't work. I'm just hoping I can get access to a rack or may have to wait for one to be available

I lift down in the bunker just me and the dogs ,, Earls a rack hog , loves to sleep in it.

 

[Thorongil]

I lift down in the bunker just me and the dogs ,, Earls a rack hog , loves to sleep in it.

Haha, yeah you have a great setup. One day I'm going to join the home gym crew

 

[Yano]

Haha, yeah you have a great setup. One day I'm going to join the home gym crew

The bench is from titan , trump bought me the squat rack from rogue when he sent those checks out last time and some plates, the DL platform I built following a thing I found on youtube. We live in Maine and my son in law works in the woods so the chains Ive got were old stretched or snapped stuff i got for free.

I'm cheap as I can be LOL my gym tech is some where around circa 1935

 

[Thorongil]

3/8/25 Lower 2 (Hypertrophy Focus) Week 1

Horizontal Leg Press: 6 plates/side x 20 x 3 sets
Calf Raise on Leg Press: 3 plates/side x 25 x 3 sets
Belt Squat RDL: 2.5 plates/side x 12, 11
Walking KB Lunge: 44/side x 8/side x 2 sets
Back Extensions: BW+45 x 15 x 2 sets
Ab Wheel: BW x 12 x 2 sets
KB Side Bend: 70 x 10/side x 2 sets

Cardio:

30 minutes incline treadmill walk, 10k steps overall last couple days

Diet:

~2700 total calories, 275g protein

Notes:

Great end to the week this past weekend. Weight stabilized so I anticipate I start going down slowly this week. Shoulder feeling a lot better. I'm feeling leaner already, my belt is fitting one loop tighter. Looking forward to getting after it this week

 

[Thorongil]

3/10/25 Upper 1 (Strength Focus) Week 2

Pause Bench Press: 245 x 18, 15, 15
Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown: 190 x 15, 14, 13
Viking Press: 90/side x 14, 13
V-Bar Tricep Pressdown: 200 x 20, 18, 14
DB Lateral Raise: 40s x 17, 15, 30s x 10 (Drop set)
Reverse Pec Deck: 160 x 20, 20, 18
Seated Machine Curl: 110 x 20, 18, 15

Videos:

Cardio:

30 minutes total of incline treadmill walk at the gym
~10k total step count

Diet:

~2700 total calories, 270g protein

Notes:

Good start to the week. Strict with the diet, good cardio, good lifting session. Still keeping the reps fairly high. I think this is about the most volume I can handle right now but was able to get through everything without too much trouble

 

[Berserker_D]

Holy Shit paragraphs I like this guy already.

Howdy !

RIGHT!

 

[Trenbolonely]

Solid lifts bro! Keep up the good work, you’re on the right track! Remember to be patient with it, and good luck. This is one of the few weight loss logs where someone is not neglecting any of the main aspects and is responding well to advice. You are gonna knock it out of the park bro