My IF plan part 1

So you'll hear in the podcast that I'm going to try the LeanGains IF (intermittent fasting) diet for a while (I don't know what a while is, either).

Reasons?

I haven't done it, and I like to be able to talk about something through first hand experience rather than regurgitating what other people have written or said. With the meet off the books, this gives me something to sink my teeth in to (pun intended) for a while.

My training will change a bit. I will scale training back to 3 times a week, still using the ideas behind the new big-15 template. However here is what I will be doing based on the diet and the fact that I still can't squat heavy, which is making me crazy.

1 heavy upper body session (push pull) a week -
1 press - bench, incline, standing PBN
1 pull - chins, rows
2nd press - standing press, seated db press, floor press (maybe)

My pec minor is barking at me a little bit so I will see how it responds to the floor press tonight. As you can see I am emphasizing more overhead work again.

1 heavy lower body session a week -
Deadlift cycle - This is a little cycle I have written up that I am going to run while my leg is "healing?".....
week 1 - rack pulls below the knee - to top single
week 2 - 4" block pulls - to top single
week 3 - high rep light squats (if possible, no deads) - something brutal like 225xmax or if 315 doesn't hurt, as many sets of 10-20 as possible
week 4 - deadlifts from floor for reps (if possible)
week 5 - high rep light squat (if possible, no deads)
repeat cycle

After the staple movement for the day......
Lunges and Glutes or Hamstrings

I will also keep in 2 of the small workout days, however I will only eat big on one of those days.

Small workouts - 1 heavy and 1 light
upright rows
curls
rear delts/triceps

On the heavy small session I will eat afterwards but not on the light one.

I can't really do my lower body 50% work, and can't squat heavy so a lot of this is going to be trial and error. I'll make notations about it as I go along. Right now, tons of lunges seem to be ok and so does all the glute work I can handle. While I can't squat I will focus on lunges, glutes, and trying to pull big from the blocks and rack. If I can pull for reps from the floor I without too much pain I will rotate that in via the cycle. If not, I'll just stay in the rack and on the blocks for a while.

We'll see bro.....

If I get a few weeks into this and fucking hate it, I will drop it and write about why I hated it. But I like to try things and give them a fair chance so I'm going to try and run this at least a few months to see what kind of changes I notice and how it effects my body composition and training.

I've read (and am still reading) a ton on it, but continuing to learn how to implement it correctly. I think the macros and calories for me personally, according to the calculators, are off a bit. I tend to maintain my 245 pounds or so at around 3200 calories a day. So on training days I'm only going to bump that to around 3500. On non training days I will take that down to 2600-2800 a day. I know a lot of guys shake their head at that, but I really don't have to eat a lot to maintain my weight. My guess is just 20+ years of training and eating has cemented my current foundation of muscle mass and bodyweight.

Goals?

I would like to drop 10 pounds of bodyfat if possible. I'm sitting somewhere between 10-12% right now give or take, and 10 pounds would drop me squarely into that 8% or so range at 234 pounds or so. I shouldn't see a huge drop off in strength with just a 10 pound loss, and many guys have reported after the initial 10-14 day break in period that strength rebounds very well. So I will at LEAST make it through the first two weeks. I do have my wife doing it with me, and she can REALLY complain about diet changes so please bear with me.