Back from the land of the dead.
Graduated yesterday morning, got home, re-weighed myself. I lost 14 pounds, but looking at my body composition it was almost all muscle. The OCS environment is terribly conducive to ridiculous amounts of catabolism... oh well. I'm not going to be in the gym for another few days to give my body some time to heal, but will start back up sometime perhaps monday or tuesday. I know that I should just start bulking again, but honestly I'm just sick of having the amount of bodyfat that I do right now (not that it's that bad, but I'd rather be lower and just bulk longer- breaks up the length of the cutting cycle, which I traditionally don't do too well with). I'm probably at about 13% right now. Monday will begin a cutting period, which will likely last until school starts back up again (late August). I'm debating whether to put myself back on Rippetoes for a bit longer since I've been off for 7.5 weeks or to just find a better cutting workout. We'll see. As of right now... I'm just happy to never have to go back to that Godforsaken place ever again!

Welcome Back MC

You could still do Rips workout just add a light day midweek as things get going again especially if you are low on cals.

welcome back dude.

7/14 a
 

First time back in the gym after 8 1/2 weeks yesterday... today hurts. I took guesses as to what weights I'd need for each of the lifts, turns out I was pretty much spot on. All of these weights were enough that I would say I'd keep them if I'd been lifting consistently, but after 2 months I'm going to try an increase and hope for noob gains to return for a short time. You want to depress yourself? Take a few weeks off of lifting and see how much strength and size you've lost :)

Squat: 190 up 5
Bench: 155 up 5
DL: 295 up 5
Bi/Tri/Ab/Pullups: done

it blows :)

Update, since I've been slacking:

Sat 7/19 B

Couldn't squat since my calf hurt like a mother (took a nasty kick at a concert), so I added the bench and some leg extensions and ham curls.
Bench: 160 up 5
Overhead: 95 up 5
Rows: 165 keep
Bi/tri/ab: done

Mon 7/21 A

Squat: 200 up 5
Bench: 165 keep
DL: 300 up 5, need straps. Grip is fine, tears the skin something terrible though
Bi/Tri/Ab/Pulls: done

It's nice to be back. Frustrating, but nice.

Welcome back!

So are all these 3x5 sets or 5x5?

In any case, welcome back.

IronWorker

Right now I've gone back to straight 3x5s again. I'm hoping that the SS program will help me gain back a bit of what I lost over the past 2 months, but for the most part I'm probably mostly finished with the program. I'll switch it out soon, but as long as I'm still making decent gains here I'll keep with it. I anticipate those will stop soon, though. Bottom line right now is I need to get my diet back in check. I let myself take it a bit too easy after getting home and gained some weight (nice to be able to eat again though!), and not of the good kind. Nice to do, but now it's gotta come back off. Add in the fat I already had and I'll probably be cutting for 10 weeks or so. I don't need to lose 20 pounds, but to be honest, I traditionally do extremely poorly with losing weight. Might include diet/weight loss as part of my journal as a way of keeping myself accountable. Protein will increase, calories will decrease, and maybe I'll shape up a bit :)

SS is a good place to start, but feel free to change up some things after awhile because it is a guide and not necessarily set in stone. Don't feel bad about having a hard time losing weight (bodyfat) cause you are far from the only one with that issue. Good luck.