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I've had good experience with Bulk, but I use the vegan blend (I find the vanilla to be the best one of the 4 or 5 flavours I've tried). I have also in the past bought unflavoured protein powder and calorie free flavour drops so that I can vary the flavour regularly.

8/1 (started later bc holiday) - 120kg
30/1 - 116.2kg

Happy with progress, though had 4 days this week where the scale was exactly the same which gave me a bit of a mental wobble but just had to trust the process.

Having my first proper off diet day this coming week for my birthday, going to try not to think about it too much and also try not to go too off the handle and eat everything (I think my last birthday I ate 4 crosstown donuts, trying not to repeat that).

Ensuring you eat a good amount of protein (1.6-1.8g per kg of bodymass is enough for most people IMO) will help you feel more full and maintain strength and muscle mass, and doing low impact cardio to increase your deficit (walking, easy cycling if you ride a lot anyway) helps, as does ensuring your cut isn't too big - capping it at up to 20% of your maintenance calories is a good start. and in terms of lifting maintain intensity.

Easiest and most flexible way to cut (imo) is to track everything, but some people don't like living like that, you've just got to find a way that works for you.

I have a 7 day moving average in a spreadsheet for my weight tracking, and though weigh daily, predominantly refer to the average for tracking how progress is going. Gives a way to not get down if you end up with a surprisingly high weigh in one day.

definitely, the measure trending in the right direction very much makes it "well it's working, so keep doing it" for me.

I wouldn't say the amount of protein is unimportant, even if protein deficiency isn't a concern, protein massively aids recovery from exercise and muscle building / muscle retention if losing weight. Banana blossom, jackfruit etc are great in terms of taste when treated right, but there are legit reasons to want a higher protein diet and it's annoying to me when vegan options that replicate meat flavour wise don't replicate meat nutritionally (I say this as a frequent consumer of these products).

this is why the Linda sausage is almighty // hallowed be thy Linda.

according to the mcd website 19g protein

9/1: 120kg
16/1: 118.2kg

feeling ok, around 2250kcal on days I don't work out or cycle, then eat back riding calories at around 2500-2750 on days I train or ride somewhere. Got PRs on overhead press and deadlift this week while in a deficit (60kg and 200kg respectively). Finding putting maple syrup and salt in my water when I work out to be a lifesaver.

I just got a strengthshop lever belt to replace one I got for free than I'm not much of a fan of, yet to use it in anger but feels very good practicing bracing with it. also it's purple and thus matches my squat shoes so +1 for that.

if it's the same width all the way round and fits you properly it will generally be a good start, and make sure you get it to the right tightness and properly brace.

the 3 week holiday break of fried food and 8% beers did boost my weight up.

120kg on the scale yesterday morning, felt pretty bleak, but does motivate me to definitely take this stuff seriously now. just need to hit the sweet spot of a caloric deficit where I am losing the most I can without compromising on strength / joy.

sounds like you've got a good plan + the stuff @Ptown said is all legit.

if you want your 3*10 sets to keep progressing but not progress as quickly to keep them at around the same level of effort you could do them as a percentage of whatever your 5*5 weight is. That way they will steadily increase but not in a way that may end up being unmanageable. Around 60% of whatever you've done for you 5*5 should be a good place to start.

I'm around 115kg (3 holiday weeks of yolo eating in the USA may have increased that....) and looking to get to 105kg, while ideally increasing, or at least maintaining my lifting numbers. I'd like to do this alongside increasing my cycling fitness as I used to be vaguely competent on the bike (some 30kg ago) and have barely ridden past couple years.

Am considering getting a 1-1 nutrition coach but it's kind of spendy, wondering if that will help with accountability though.

Not trying to get into something with you over it dude, we all train in different ways towards our own goals, if we're getting where we want to go with what we're doing then it's all good. I'm glad what works for you works.

Idk if theres some confusion since you quoted my reply in response to konastab01, wasn't trying to pile in on you or owt.

Ye fair. I've also specifically trained my grip (well, finger strength, but hey) for climbing before, which may be a reason it's not limited me in deadlifting.

The principle you're communicating applies to all kinds of things too, like doing only the top part of a bench press when that limits you, rack pulls for deadlifts or 1.5 rep deadlifts etc, it's a legit concept and a good application for straps when grip limits you, the only reason I was saying anything is why I don't do it rather than saying it shouldn't be done. The bit I said about compound lifts should have had an additional "for me" in there to clarify that.

Main difference for me is that I've never had my grip limit a 1rm attempt, only higher rep sets, and I would like, at some point, to compete in a powerlifting meet, where I won't be allowed to use straps, so atm would prefer to train without.

I own straps from when I damaged one of my finger pulleys climbing and wanted to keep deadlifting without aggravating it, but haven't used them since it healed.

Also, one of the main benefits of the big compound movements is the amount of things trained all at once imo, so why remove a part of that.

I use mixed grip, want to swap to hook grip. I'm fine with it for up to 3 reps, but above that / amrap sets my pain tolerance just doesn't let me continue, think I just need to do it more / tape my thumbs. Saying that, I do use double overhand for everything I can, warm ups, cool downs, etc.

Trying to get to a 300 wilks score in 2022, which also means dropping down around 10kgs
to 105kg in bodyweight (maybe more after holiday eating...) which I'm not supremely looking forward to. Think I'll aim for 215dl, 180squat, 110bench which are a 20-30kg increase in each lift from my 1rms at the moment.

Worries about potential of gym closing again mean I think in Jan I'm gonna end up rounding out the gear I have at home with a rack, bench, more weight, and a gazebo so i can set it all up outside.

Last year power cleaning to front squat in the living room hoping to not put the bar through the TV was the kind of exhilaration I don't want to repeat.

Haven't listened to the podcast, and I'm not sure what they're doing a percentage by, but I doubt single leg squats would be on the legpress.

I would imagine either pistol squats, or some kind of bulgarian split squat type of thing. I believe this: https://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBSingleLegSplitSquat is the most common weighted single leg squat variant (though often using DBs to load).

ye i mostly write code in my role. used to be a bicycle mechanic teacher-ish person and general retail person, career change via a bootcamp around 4-5 years ago.

dropped out of a philosophy degree in the first year so no formal qualifications post a-level and definitely no formal qualifications related to STEM. I put how I took to programming largely down to being really into magic the gathering as a teenager.

Dark sphere in Waterloo is shut at the moment I think. You could go to bad moon cafe near borough station but I think they only stock citadel paints and I don't think there's a pearlescent white option.
Miniatures paints are usually 10-15ml and between 3 and 5 pound, so you might be best off just buying a few online (element games is a good online store) and having a go.

bit behind as I had family staying at the weekend. ended up skipping day 3 pt 2 as it all felt like a bit of a clusterfuck. just finished + quite happy with day4 tho, first time I actually needed to implement some parsing rather than just using editor commands the make the data the right shape. https://github.com/ZooeyMiller/advent-of-code-2021/blob/master/Day4.hs

Ahhh very nice. Thanks for the explanation!

decided to actually do it this year. doing it in haskell to brush up after 2 years of almost exclusively doing js/ts and python. posting results in https://github.com/ZooeyMiller/advent-of-code-2021

day1 code is messy as heck sadly...

Crack on with the program, failure is part of a program like stronglifts. As long as you're still hitting depth, not going as low is fine. I use the safeties for all my working squat sets. I know how to dump the bar without them, but it's nicer not to have to.

I will say that I think the ways to circumvent stalling in stronglifts/starting strength is one of the drawbacks. Comparatively a program like greyskull LP where you drop the weight, but do amrap sets still (so you are still pushing yourself even with a lighter weight), and increase faster if you get 10+ reps on the amrap, or GZCLP where you reduce reps + increase sets (with amrap still), but keep same / increasing weight, are better ways to deal with it IMO.

re: belt / shoes etc being necessary, it's about what you want to use. you never have to use them if you don't want to, but there's not some weight where they become an acceptable tool, they always are. I like using my belt on some lighter sets partly to practice bracing into it properly. If you've not use a belt before, give it a try and see how you like it.

After writing this I did see that you said you've been doing 3*12 for twenty years, if you have been lifting for a long time (even without doing 5*5) then the amount you will be able to reap from a program designed for beginnners is limited, as Bainbridge says it may be worth looking into intermediate programs if you repeatedly stall.