6/18-6/23 Recap

6/18 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, slept in a little bit longer and felt really refreshed upon wake. Went and ran errands since we were going to be gone for the weekend for Father's Day and then spent the rest of the day laying low aside from going to work.

6/19 (Pull)

Got in a good Pull session this morning before heading West to stay with my parents for the weekend. We have about a 1.5-2 hour drive (depending on traffic) so I wanted to get my session done with ASAP so I could spend the most amount of time with my parents as possible. I cooked and brought all my food with me for both Saturday and Sunday as missing a meal really isn't an option for me. On Saturday I ate 5 out of my 6 scheduled meals and then replaced one of the meals with fajitas and ice cream with my parents.

Full Session:

S/A Lat Pulldown 1x13, 1x10

Upper Back Pulldown 1x10

S/A Machine Low Row 1x12, 1x10

Chest Supported TBar Row 1x12, 1x8

BB RDL 1x10*

Machine Shrug 1x12, 1x9

Facing In Cable Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Hammer Curl 1x13

Machine Crunch 1x9, 1x13, 1x12

*Still working my way back up on these post injury, these felt really good today and I'm excited to continue to build on these as time goes on!

6/20 (Rest Day/Father's Day)

Today was Father's Day and we spent the day at my Grandparent's house. My grandma cooked burgers on the grill and Mac N Cheese, so we were definitely eating good! I ate 4 out of my 6 regular scheduled meals and then replaced both of the other meals with a burger and sides. No missed meals over here! Days like today make me really happy and feel blessed to have such a great family that loves me and cares about me 🙂

6/21 (Legs)

Another great Leg session today, and a huge confidence boost post injury. I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable with my Tendinopathies and I'm getting to the point where I'm adding load easily and still staying pain-free in the Leg compounds. The usual Pivot Leg Press I use during this session was broken (it seems like every fuckin machine I want to use lately in both gyms is broken) so I gave a different Leg Press a run and I ended up liking it quite a bit. Is it as good as the Pivot? No, but it will do until the Pivot gets fixed, which is hopefully soon.

Full Session:

Cuffed Lateral 1x13

Cable Bicep Curl 1x15

Adductor 1x17 w/ 2 RIR

Lying Ham Curl 1x15 w/ 2 RIR

Leg Extension 1x14

Leg Press 1x20

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x15

Glute Drive 1x12 w/ ~2 RIR

Standing Calf Raise 1x16 DoggCrapp Style

Hanging Leg Raise 1x10, 1x13, 1x12

6/22 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, slept in a little this morning and then ran to the Post Office before going on a walk with Carissa prior to heading to work. I had a very strange bout of depression today for some reason, one of those days where you're sad but you don't really know why. Oh well, these things happen every once in a while but as long as I don't let it negatively impact my bodybuilding or work performance I typically just push through. Carissa is always great about making me feel better when I'm in a funk like this so it's moments like this where I realize how blessed I am to have her by my side. *mushy*

6/23 (Push)

What a great Push session today! The Incline Machine Press is FINALLY FIXED (see previous Push logs for reference) so it felt awesome to get back on that today. Now hopefully it doesn't break again so I don't have to keep swapping exercises! I'm starting to get more and more comfortable with the concept of rooting my feet and bracing through my Presses and I feel so much more safe and assertive while I Press. I'm still getting the hang of it during Pull/Leg movements but being able to see improvement on Push sessions is a big mental "win" for me.

Full Session:

Incline Machine Press 1x6

Flat Machine Press 1x11

Neutral Grip Shoulder Press 1x9

BB Floor Press 1x11

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x13, 1x14, 1x11

Reverse Pec Dec 2x14

Pec Dec Fly 1x16, 1x13

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x16

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12

Rope Crunch 1x14, 1x10, 1x11

6/24 (Pull)

The streak of great training continued with this morning's Pull session. Progressions have been flying on my Lat movements in this session and today was no different. Made a fairly large weight jump on my first set of the Low Cable Row but managed to get fairly close to the reps from the previous rotation and took a weight and rep increase on the second set. I was also able to do some SLDL's out of the rack today with 2 plates vs. the 1 I used last week, PAIN FREE! Taking steps forward on that movement is a huge confidence boost 🙂

Full Session:

Donkey Calf Raise 1x13 DoggCrapp Style

Low Cable Row 1x12, 1x12.5

Hammer High Row 1x13, 1x12, 1x10

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x12, 1x11

Rack SLDL 1x10*

Machine Shrug 1x10, 1x13

DB Preacher Curl 1x11

S/A Cable Curl 1x15

Low Cable Curl 1x13

6/25-6/28 Update

6/25 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today which means catching up on sleep and running errands. Went and got some groceries this morning before coming home and doing some cleaning while Carissa was at work. Spent the rest of my morning prepping food and watching BB&B before heading to work. I had a busy night at work which made the night fly by then went home and watched the NBA playoffs before crashing.

6/26 (Legs)

Today's Leg session was pretty frustrating. The gym that I trained at has been having a LOT of issues with broken equipment, and the majority of it seems to be Leg equipment. The Cybex Adductor has been broken for almost two months now, the Arsenal Glute Drive just as long if not longer, and today, while I was warming up on it, the Cybex Seated Hamstring Curl broke. It's gotten to the point where I can't get an efficient Leg workout in this particular gym without having something be broken or break while I'm using it so I will not be doing Legs at this gym any longer. I'm creating another Leg rotation at my other gym which I will be using in place of this one. I can honestly get much better Leg sessions in at the other gym at the moment (except for the broken Leg Press there) so I'm not too frustrated about it but I'm growing increasingly frustrated with this gym's broken equipment. Anyways....

After training today Carissa and I drove to Michigan and ended up in a cute littel town named Galien and we ended up eating at a restaurant called "The Stray Dog". We have seen signs for this place for a while now and we decided to stop and check it out. It's in a cute little coastal town and it was a really relaxing time. I got a burger and potato chips and we got some buffalo wings as an appetizer. This has been the first time I've eaten off plan in this manner like in a while other than Father's Day and it was very much enjoyed.

Full Session:

Arsenal Lateral Raise 1x13

S/A DB Bicep Curl 1x11

Adductor [Broken]

Seated Ham Curl [Broken]

Leg Extension 1x16

Leg Press 1x15 (rebuilding work)

Hack Squat 1x15 (rebuilding work)

40* Glute-Focused Hyperextension 1x12

Standing Calf Raise11

Decline Crunch 2x12

6/27 (Off)

Rest Day today as well as a Sunday so I was in total relaxation mode haha. I slept in later than I've slept in in a while and Carissa and I went and got breakfast at our favorite cafe. From there we went shopping for some soil, pots, and other gardening things as Carissa got an Empress tree for our deck. It's going to grow pretty big (supposedly) so we had to get a pretty large pot for it but I'm excited to see how it turns out! Spent the rest of the day eating, relaxing, watching movies, playing video games, and watching the NBA playoffs before going to bed early. Push tomorrow!

6/28 (Push)

Really great Push session this morning. Something that I figure might be worth mentioning: I'm entering Week 7 of my cruise (150 mg Test/week) so it's safe to say that my Test levels are now back in a physiological range. One of the things that I was "worried about" coming off my first cycle would be whether or not I would lose strength as my Test levels drop back into normal ranges. It's pretty safe to say by now that I have not lost any strength and I don't see any strength loss happening at all as long as I manage volume appropriately. It's becoming clear to me that progress still happens during a cruise phase, it just happens at a lot slower pace. I am someone who LOVES having to scratch and claw though, so I'm enjoying training much more mentally at the moment by knowing that I have to scratch and claw for everything right now since it's not just "given" to me because of the PED's.

Full Session:

Seated Calf Raise 1x11 DoggCrapp Style

Flat Flex Press 1x12

Incline Machine Press 1x9.5

Machine Shoulder Press 1x10

Weighed Dips 1x9.5

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x19, 1x14, 1x10

Machine Fly 2x14

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x15, 1x11

Double Rope Tricep Extension 1x11

S/A Rope Overhead Tricep Extension 1x11

DB Hammer Curl 1x11*

*I don't typically do Bicep work on Push but I'm only going to be training 3 days this week, so I added this set today to avoid a long gap off Bicep training. I will more than likely do 1 set of Delt work on the upcoming Pull session as well for the same reason.

6/29 - 7/2 Recap

6/29 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, nothing much to write home about. Woke up and went to the gym to do some rehab work on my Hamstring and Adductor Tendinopathies. Came home and cooked food, did dishes, and relaxed until it was time to go to work. Had a relatively busy day at work and I came home and prepped the next day's food and called it a night.

6/30 (Pull)

Pull session this morning went excellent. Today was the first day I did some legit work on SLDL's in a while so I was absolutely thrilled about that! The rest of the session went very smoothly and it was one of the better sessions I've had in a while.

Full Session:

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x13, 1x10

Upper Back Pulldown 1x11

S/A Lat Low Row 1x14, 1x11

Chest Supported T Bar Row 1x12, 1x8.5

Smith SLDL 1x10

Machine Shrug 1x13, 1x11

Facing In Cable Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Hammer Curl 1x13

Seated Lateral Raise 1x16.5*

Machine Crunch 1x10, 1x10, 1x14

* Same reasoning for this as there was for Biceps in the previous Push session

7/1 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. We are going away to stay with my parents for the holiday weekend so today was my day to get shit done. Went to the grocery store and got our errands done for the upcoming week, then came home and cooked up a shitload of food for the weekend. I'm going to be bringing a solid portion of my meals with me for the weekend. I will be enjoying myself of course but it's important that I stay up with the food or my weight will drop (this is usually what happens when I go away from my structured routine) and I don't want that to happen this weekend. After that I went to work and then came home and did some Glute rehab work and then called it a night.

7/2 (Legs)

Last session before a 3 day break and it could not have gone better! This is without a doubt the BEST Leg workout I've had in over 2 months, which is a HUGE mental win for me. I was able to do the majority of my work in the ~1 RIR range where I've been working at higher RIR's prior. I am very happy with the progress I've made on this injury and I'm motivated to continue sticking with it to keep reaping the rewards. I am going to be altering my training split when I come home from my parent's (I'll talk about this in a future post) so I really needed this mental win today. I always get stressed out when I'm forced to take some time away from the gym so to have a really positive session like today has me ready to get back to the grind on these Legs!

Full Session:

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x14

Bilateral Bicep Cable Curl 1x16

Seated Calf Raise 1x12

Standing Calf Raise 1x15

S/L Tib. Raises 1x13

Adductor 1x21 w/ ~2 RIR

Lying Ham Curl 1x14 w/ ~1 RIR

Leg Extension 1x15

Leg Press 1x20 w/ ~3 RIR

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x11 w/ 1 RIR

Glute Drive 1x11

7/3 - 7/5 Recap

My girlfriend and I went home to visit my parents this past weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. My parents have hosted a party at their house for over 25 years so it's a family tradition for us to get together. We went tubing in Wisconsin on Saturday (3rd), had the family party on Sunday (4th), and then spent Monday (5th) with my parents, going out to eat at a very pretty restaurant in Iowa. All in all it was a great weekend!

I packed 8 meals to eat over the weekend and froze them and brought them with me. This was my first time attempting to keep prepped meals frozen for a long period of time, since Saturday I had to keep my food in a cooler all day frozen while we were on the river. One of the meals got water in it so I had to throw it out, but the rest survived! I'm glad I got the chance to do this this weekend since this was a good opportunity to "practice" traveling with prepped food and see how I can improve upon that process in the future.

Training Split Update

As I'm coming off the tail end of this injury, the time has come for me to make a necessary adjustment to my training split. I am not going to be moving away from a Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) split, but rather modifying my current PPL split in order to prioritize what needs to be prioritized at this point in the "journey" of my physique development.

I have been training for roughly 4 years and up until now I have trained every body part relatively equally. I have not had specific training programs dedicated to improving one specific body part, I have instead focused on training things equally and having a relatively "balanced" training split.

It's become very obvious to me over the past few months that despite the fact that I've been training everything equally, my lower body has not responded to the same degree as my upper body. My upper body is much better than my lower body in terms of competitive bodybuilding standards. Common sense would say that training everything equally would lead to equal growth, but this hasn't been the case for me.

I have wanted to change my training program to one that's heavily Leg focused for a while now, but the injuries I sustained made that an impossibility. As I'm finally at a point where I'm confident enough in my Leg training that I feel like I can implement this particular training program, I know this is the right choice to be making in terms of taking my stage physique to the next level. I'm at a point where I'm confident enough in my upper body to put it on a stage, but my lower half is preventing me from stepping on stage. I'm hoping that dedicating a solid 6 months or more to this particular training program will help "even out" my physique and give me a good shot at being competitive at the local level next year.

My old split was as follows:

Push

Pull

Rest

Legs

Rest

Repeat

My new split will be:

Legs

Push

Rest

Legs

Pull

Rest

Repeat

This will see me hitting my Legs every 3 calendar days and also doubles up on the frequency on my lower half compared to my upper. I will be following the same template for each session, substituting exercises between my A and B rotations to keep variation in tact and provide a variety of stimuli. The Leg session template will be as follows:

Bicep or Medial Delt Work - 1 Set

Seated/Standing Calf Raise - 1 Set

Seated/Standing Calf Raise - 1 Set (I'll use the opposite variation of the one I lead with)

Tibialis Raise - 1 Set (This is a new exercise to me entirely, should be interesting)

Adductor - 1 Set

Hamstring Curl - 1 Set

Leg Extension - 1 Set

Leg Press - 1 Set

Squat Variation - 1 Set

Glute/Ham Exercise - 1 Set

Volume will be titrated up and down depending on consistency of progressions as well as recovery. I do not want to get myself back into the volume trap, where I believe that more is better. My goal is to stick with lower volumes per session and focus on hitting each particular session more frequently to create the stimulus I'm looking for.

7/6 (Legs)

First day back in the gym after 3 days off and also the first day on the new program. Today was my first session of the B rotation, so today was all about setting base numbers and finding my groove with the exercise variations I chose to use. I was really happy with today's session, everything felt really great and pain free!

I am very excited to get rolling with this Leg-focused program, I'm eager to make big changes to my legs so I can finally get on stage and get my foot in the door competitively.

Full Session:

S/A DB Curl 1x11

Standing Calf Raise 1x12

Seated Calf Raise 1x9

S/L Tibialis Raise 1x12

Adductor 1x18

Seated Ham Curl 1x12

Leg Extension 1x13

Banded Leg Press 1x19

Hack Squat (no band) 1x13

Glute-focused Hyper 1x11

7/7/21 (Push)

Put in a good shift this morning for Push. I would have had a perfect Push session if it weren't for the Neutral OHP. The machine slid across the floor during a rep where I was driving my feet into the ground. This really pissed me off, and it made me lose focus slightly which (I believe) cost me a rep. I still ended up taking a progression, but only by a half-rep, and that could and should have easily been a full rep. Next time I will stack a few 45 pound plates or a heavy dumbbell behind the machine so it doesn't slide.

Full Session:

Incline StarTrac Press 1x8

Flat StarTrac Press 1x10

Neutral OHP 1x9.5

BB Floor Press 1x12

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x11, 1x15, 1x11

Reverse Pec Dec 1x16, 1x15

Pec Dec Fly 1x13, 1x10

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12

Rope Crunch 1x15, 1x13, 1x12

7/8 - 7/9 Update

7/8 (Rest Day)

Very productive Rest Day today! Woke up and immediately went to the gym for core work and Tendinopathy rehab. Came home, ate M1 and then went and got my hair cut and went and got our groceries for the upcoming week. Came home, ate M2 and then took a nap before waking up  and heading to work. Had a really productive day at work, got a lot of things crossed off my to-do list and then came home and knocked a few odd-and-end things off the to-do list and then Carissa and I played a few games of Fortnite before going to bed. All in all a really productive Rest Day, Legs tomorrow!

7/9 (Legs & Diet Update)

Today was the first "legit" Leg Day I've had in probably 2 months. I was able to do 0 RIR work on absolutely everything today and felt no pain while doing so. My usual Pivot Leg Press was fixed today as well as it's been broken for a week or two so I'm thrilled to get back on that and put some work in. I'm also pretty close to where I was weight-wise with my Leg compounds after today's performance so I am absolutely over the moon right now. Just in time for this new Leg-focused training split to start! Rest Day tomorrow because of a full day of work (blah) and then Pull on Sunday followed by another Leg session on Monday.

Full Session:

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x15

Bilateral Cable Bicep Curl 1x15

Seated Calf Raise 1x14

Standing Calf Raise 1x12

S/L Tib Raises 1x8 each

Adductor 1x16

Lying Ham Curl 1x13

Leg Extension 1x15

Pivot Leg Press 1x12*

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x12

Glute Drive 1x13

* I think I realistically had another rep here but I wasn't ready to go full "send it" mode on my first day back at 100%. I made a mental note that I have another potential rep here for the next go-around in 6 days.

Diet Update

Prior to leaving for Michigan on Memorial Day (end of May) weekend I was averaging anywhere from 9-10,000 steps per day, weekly. After returning from the wedding my steps have been between 6-7K each week. This is anywhere from a 30-35% decrease in total steps. During this time, I did not reduce my calories at all from my original diet post on the beginning page of this forum.

Not to my surprise, a reduction in expenditure and keeping calories the same has seen my body weight jump up fairly quickly over the past 4-5 weeks. I returned from the wedding weighing 205 and I'm currently weighing anywhere from 210-212. This is roughly a 5-6 pound gain over a 5 week period, so I'm currently averaging about a pound per week gain.

I would typically reserve an aggressive weight gain like this for when I'm on cycle, as I'm more confident pushing my body weight quicker because I know there's potential for muscle gain whilst on anabolics. But at the moment, I'm simply cruising and trying to set myself up for another successful cycle in 5-8 weeks, so I do not want to be gaining weight at this pace currently.

In order to try and "slow down" my recent weight gain, I've made a diet adjustment that sees me reducing calories by 363 on Training Days and 270 on Non-Training Days.

Effective 7/9/21 my new diet will be as follows:

Training Day Diet:

*All foods are measured raw unless stated otherwise*

Meal 1 (Pre-Training)

• 32 g Dymatize Iso-100
• 3 Rice Krispie Treats

Meal 2 (Intra Workout)

• 10 g Hydrolyzed Whey
• 15 g EAA
• 25 g HBCD

Meal 3 (Post Training)

• 32 g Dymatize Iso-100
• 275 g Rice Krispies Cereal

Meal 4

• 140 g 96% Lean Ground Beef
• 125 g Jasmine Rice (Reduced from 150 g)

Meal 5

• 140 g Wild Caught Pink Salmon
• 150 g Jasmine Rice (Reduced from 150 g)

Meal 6

• Same as Meal 4

Meal 7

• 2 Large Eggs
• 85 g 96% Lean Ground Beef
• 125 g Cream of Rice (Reduced from 150 g)

Total: 4,435 kcal - 760C, 45F, 248P

Rest Day Diet:

*All foods measured raw unless stated otherwise*

Meal 1

• 32 g Dymatize Iso-100
• 100 g Rice Krispies Cereal

Meal 2

• 168 g 96% Lean Ground Beef
• 112.5 g Jasmine Rice (Reduced from 125 g)

Meal 3

• Repeat Meal 2

Meal 4

• 168 g Wild Caught Pink Salmon
• 112.5 g Jasmine Rice (Reduced from 125 g)

Meal 5

• Repeat Meal 2/3

Meal 6

• 3 Large Eggs
• 85 g 96% Lean Ground Beef
• 125 g Cream of Rice (Reduced from 150 g)

Total: 3,818 kcal - 575C, 52F, 255P

7/10 - 7/12 Recap

7/10 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today as well as a full 11 hour shift at work 😕 I had a very busy day at work with lots to do so the day went pretty quickly. After work I came home and watched the Yankees game and relaxed. I woke up this morning and my right Glute was prettyyyyy sore thanks to yesterday's Leg session so I did some soft tissue body work while I relaxed and got to bed early to be up for Pull the next day.

7/11 (Pull)

Today was a really great day overall! It was Sunday and I had the day off of work. I woke up at normal time and trained Pull, which was an excellent session! After training I came home and ate, did some laundry, and then Carissa and I went out to eat for a late lunch (I got steak and rice). After that we went to the grocery store because I had a craving for some steak and mac n cheese, so I bought a box of Annie's Gluten Free Mac n Cheese and a Sirloin Steak and ate that for my next meal. I had some Cream of Rice with Whey and Peanut Butter pre bed. Pretty much spent the majority of the day on the couch watching movies and unwinding from the long work week. Ended the night with some body work and then got to bed early for Legs tomorrow morning.

Full Session:

Low Cable Row 1x13, 1x10

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x11, 1x10

Hammer High Row 1x13, 1x11, 1x10

Plate Loaded Shrug 1x11, 1x14

DB Preacher Curl 1x10

S/A Cable Curl 1x10

Low Cable Curl 1x10

Cross Body Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x11

Decline Crunches 2x13

7/12 (Legs)

Got in a fairly decent Leg session this morning. My right Glute is still pretty tender but it cooperated with me during the session on everything except for Hack Squats, which I had to skip because of the pain. I tried to replace it with a different Squat variation but no matter which variation I used I was getting pain in the Glute so I just skipped it altogether. I was able to get Leg Press in so at least I was able to get some sort of loading in. I will be interested to see how my Glute feels tomorrow.

Went to work this afternoon and then came home, cooked food for tomorrow, and then did some body work before bed. Rest Day tomorrow!

Full Session:

Seated Cuffed Lateral Raise 1x21.5

Standing Calf Raise 1x14

Seated Calf Raise 1x14

S/L Tib Raise 1x14

Adductor 1x19

Seated Ham Curl 1x13

Leg Extension 1x14.5

Banded Leg Press 1x16

Hack Squat - SKIP

Glute-focused Hyper Extension 1x12

7/13 - 7/17 Recap

7/13 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Woke up and my Glute wasn't sore after yesterday's Leg Day which is a big relief. Spent the morning doing things around the apartment (cleaning, dishes, etc), prepped some food and played some Warzone. Went to work in the afternoon, which was a fairly busy day, then came home and relaxed before going to bed.

7/14 (Push)

Got a really solid Push session in this morning! I will be training EoD this week because of a full day of work this coming Saturday, so today's Push session included 1 set of Bicep work at the end so I wasn't leaving an extended period of time away from training Biceps. Progressions were taken on everything except for my Incline Press, which was a tie. I credit this to the fact that my seat height was on a different setting than last rotation, this current setting feels a little better on my elbow which has been bothering me somewhat.

Full Session

Flat Flex Press 1x10

LifeFitness Incline Press 1x9.5

LifeFitness OHP 1x10

Weighted Dips 1x9.5

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x15, 1x14, 1x11

Pec Dec Fly 1x16, 1x11

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x11, 1x9

Dual Rope Tricep Extension 1x12*

S/A OH Rope Tricep Extension 1x12

DB Hammer Curl 1x12

Hanging Leg Raise 1x11, 1x14

*I will be replacing the Dual Rope Variation of this exercise with the Single Arm variation going forward. I have been running this particular exercise for over a year straight and it has been regressing lately so it's time to replace it with something more productive.

7/15 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Got groceries this morning, prepped some food, and played a little Warzone before work. Came home from work and did some body work and then relaxed before going to bed. (You're probably learning by now that rest days are very boring days for me)

7/16 (Legs)

Another Leg session this morning, it's taken me a week or two to really grasp the concept that Leg Days come veryyyy quickly now with this new program. I feel like just as I'm recovering from one Leg session I'm right on to the next, which is probably exactly what I need right now to bring these Legs up. I have been maintaining the body work on my Glute which is keeping me ready to go lately.

Today's session was awesome, progressions taken on everything. The Pivot Leg Press I usually use is broken AGAIN, so I did the Icarian Leg Press instead. On my other Leg rotation I do the Icarian LP with accomodating resistance bands added, so on this rotation I use the machine as-is with no bands just for some variation.

Full Session:

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x13

Dual Bicep Cable Curl 1x13

Seated Calf Raise 1x14

Standing Calf Raise 1x12

S/L Tib Raise 1x11

Adductor 1x15

Lying Ham Curl 1x16

Leg Extension 1x15

Icarian Leg Press 1x12

Reverse-Banded Hack Squat 1x11

Nautilus Glute Drive 1x13

7/17 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today plus an 11 hour shift at work 🤢 I had a poor night of sleep last night: took me a while to fall asleep and then I woke up around 6 to go to the bathroom and couldn't fall back asleep, so I am pretty tired today. My plan is to go to bed early so I can try and "make up" some of the sleep I lost and be able to have a good Pull session tomorrow. I have been feeling a bit beat up lately, so a Deload may be in the horizon.

I am also tossing around the idea of doing a mini cut and pulling 10 pounds or so off before I push back up with the re-introduction of PED's, I will sit on that thought for a day or two and try and make a decision by tomorrow at the latest. If I'm going to do a mini cut, I belive the best time would be sooner rather than later so I can just get it done and over with and get back to gaining ASAP.

7/18 - 7/19 Recap + Start of Mini Cut

7/18 (Pull)

Today was Sunday and my only day off work for the previous week. I woke up with some serious sinus congestion and allergies, which I started to feel flare up Saturday night after work. Carissa has been dealing with an allergy flare up for the past few days so I knew it was only a matter of time until I got the bug. The symptoms were from the neck up only, which gives me a green light to train (if any symptoms are felt below the neck I generally advise people skip the session). A few puffs of some nasal spray and I was good to go 😆 

Having my breathing effected by the congestion definitely made the workout harder than it needed to be. I was having a hard time breathing my way through the hard reps and it was taking me an extra long time between sets to catch my breath, but I ended up taking progressions on everything so it was a very successful session, just a mentally challenging one. 

Full Session:

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x12 w/ 3 count hold, 1x11

S/A Lat Low Row 1x11, 1x8 w/ 5 count stretches

Upper Back Focused Pulldown 1x12+1 w/ 3 count hold

Chest Supported T Bar Row 1x12.5, 1x9 w/ 5 count stretches

Plate Loaded Shrug Machine 1x10 w/ 3 count hold, 1x13

Inward Facing Cable Bicep Curl 1x13+1 w/ 3 count hold

S/A Cable Curl 1x12

S/A Cable Hammer Curl 1x9 w/ 5 count stretches

Cross Body Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12

Machine Crunch 1x11 w/ 3 count holds, 1x13

Mini Cut & Diet Update

I have been tossing around the idea of doing a short mini cut over the past week or so and after waking up on Sunday I decided to give myself the green light. There are two main things I'd like to address on this particular post: the reasoning as to why I'm doing a mini cut and how I go about implementing a mini cut nutritionally and within training.

Reasons for Mini Cutting:

• I have been in a caloric surplus since end of August/beginning of September of 2020, which is roughly 10 months. Over the course of that 10 months, I pushed my bodyweight from a low of 183 to a high of 213. This is a 30 pound push over 10 months, equating for roughly a 3 pound per month gain.
• As I currently sit at ~ 212, I would say with definite certainty that I'm starting to reach the upper limit of my "ideal" body fat range.
• I am currently entering the 10th week of my cruise. My goal is to have a substantial body weight push that coincides with the beginning of my second PED cycle (which is still undetermined). The ideal scenario for this second cycle would be a 12-16 week course that also sees a 12-16 pound body weight increase. This obviously means that calories have to increase for this to happen.
• Since I'm currently approaching the upper limit of my ideal body fat percentage, I am anticipating that if I were to add another 12-16 pounds of body weight onto my current physique, the end-product of that second cycle would be something that I may not be too happy with and have to spend a long period of time dieting off.
• Since I have anywhere from 4-6 weeks left of cruising, it makes sense for me to use this 4-6 week period of time to get some unnecessary body fat off, which gives me "more room" to push my food and weight up while on cycle which will maximize the effectiveness of the cycle. Food + drugs = muscle, drugs alone will not get you the same results as having both.

From here, I'd like to show you how I adjust my current diet into the diet I will be using for the mini cut. If you've been paying attention up until this point, you'll notice that every time I made a diet change, the food source rarely changes. The only difference between my "bulking" diet and my "cutting" diet is the quantity of food that I'm eating. That's it. Don't think any harder than that.

Below is the diet I will be using for the beginning of this mini cut. Changes made to the offseason plan will be bolded.

Training Day Diet:

*All foods are measured raw unless stated otherwise*

 Meal 1 (Pre-Training)

• 37 g Dymatize Iso-100 (increased from 32 g)
• 2 Rice Krispie Treats (reduced from 3)

Meal 2 (Intra Workout)

• 10 g Hydrolyzed Whey
• 15 g EAA
• 25 g HBCD

Meal 3 (Post Training)

• 37 g Dymatize Iso-100 (increased from 32 g)
• 150 g Rice Krispies Cereal (reduced from 275 g)

Meal 4

• 168 g 96% Lean Ground Beef (increased from 140 g)
• 100 g Jasmine Rice (reduced from 125 g)

Meal 5

• 168 g Wild Caught Pink Salmon (increased from 140 g)
• 100 g Jasmine Rice (reduced from 125 g)

Meal 6

• Same as Meal 4

Meal 7

• 2 Large Eggs
• 112 g 96% Lean Ground Beef (increased from 85 g)
• 100 g Cream of Rice (reduced from 125 g)

Total: 547/46/265/3665 (Reduced from 760/45/248/4435)

Rest Day Diet:

*All foods measured raw unless stated otherwise*

 Meal 1

• 37 g Dymatize Iso-100 (increased from 32 g)
• 75 g Rice Krispies Cereal (reduced from 100 g)

Meal 2

• 196 g 96% Lean Ground Beef (increased from 168 g)
• 75 g Jasmine Rice (decreased from 112.5 g)

Meal 3

• Repeat Meal 2

Meal 4

• 196 g Wild Caught Pink Salmon (increased from 168 g)
• 75 g Jasmine Rice (decreased from 112.5 g)

Meal 5

• Repeat Meal 2/3

Meal 6

• 3 Large Eggs
• 112 g 96% Lean Ground Beef (increased from 85 g)
• 100 g Cream of Rice (decreased from 125 g)

Total: 416/56/273/3282 (Reduced from 575/52/255/3818)

7/19 (Legs)

Mini Cut Day 1. Starting weight 211.0. Woke up feeling a lot better than y'day allergy-wise as well, which is awesome!

Today's session was absolutely excellent, I could tell right from my mobility/prep work that I felt good today. I have been working on my execution of the Shin Box Get Up (popularized by Chris Duffin) and today was the best they've ever felt. When I'm moving well in my prep work I know that my body is going to cooperate with me and that's exactly what happened today.

My left Hamstring has been bothering me out of the blue since Saturday so I made a note to be cautious of that today. I'm actually considering removing my Glute/Ham exercise in both Leg sessions as I feel my injuries could be caused from overuse of the Glutes. I'm doing 2 Leg compound sets plus 1 direct isolation set every 3 days and that could potentially be aggravating my Glute/Ham tie-ins. I will assess how my body feels over the course of the next few days and make an adjustment based off that. I'm still in the beginning phases of this new Leg-focused program so it's going to take me some time to "feel out" what I can and can't recover from.

Full Session:

Seated Cuffed Lateral Raise 1x17

Standing Calf Raise 1x14+1 w/ 3 count holds

Seated Calf Raise 1x15 w/ 5 count stretches

S/L Tib Raise 1x12+1 w/ 3 count holds

Adductor 1x20.5

Seated Ham Curl 1x14 w/ 3 count holds

Leg Extension 1x15

Banded Leg Press (accommodating resistance) 1x15

Hack Squat 1x10

Glute-focused Hyperextension 1x10+1 w/ 3 count holds*

*This was a regression from my previous session, which is another reason why I'm considering removing my Glute/Ham move going forward.

7/20 & 7/21 Recap

7/20 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Woke up, took pictures, ate Meal 1 and then went and got groceries. Came home and prepped some food and did a little cleaning around the house before working on editing a video for the site. Came to work and had a pretty busy afternoon, and then came home and played some Warzone and watched the NBA Finals before calling it a night. I'd say that's a well-spent rest day!

7/21 (Push)

I had a really great Push session this morning after yesterday's Rest! I would describe this session as a 9/10 overall, the only thing I'm upset with is a regression on my Neutral OHP set. There are two things that happened here: I felt that I rushed the set and started before I was mentally ready, which is a huge no-no, and I also had the seat at a stupid position. After I did the working set I adjusted the seat, did a few reps that immediately felt a ton better, and called myself a dumbass and moved on.

I have adjusted the programming of both Push sessions to split the work on the Pec Dec across the session in a way that better stimulates the Pecs. Instead of doing both sets back-to-back, one focused on the shortened and the other the lengthened, I will be doing the shortened-focused set at the beginning of the session and the lengthened-focused set after the compound work. This allows me to spend more time and effort on the Pec in the fully-shortened position by training it there while it's fresh. This decreased my strength on my pressing some-what but I don't consider that regression since I believe a higher total number of muscle fibers are stimulated by the same amount of sets if the muscle is trained through the various stages of the ROM appropriately.

It will be interesting to see how training performance changes with this new Push set up and I will continue to monitor it in the coming weeks!

Full Session:

Magnum Pec Dec 1x13 w/ 3 count holds

StarTrac Incline Press 1x6

StarTrac Flat Press 1x11

Neutral Shoulder Press 1x7

BB Floor Press 1x10

Magnum Pec Dec 1x12 w/ 5 count stretches

Reverse Pec Dec 1x13 w/ 3 count holds, 1x13

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x12 w/ 3 count holds, 1x15, 1x12 w/ 5 count stretches

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12 w/ 3 count holds

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12 w/ 5 count stretches

Floor Crunch 1x14, 1x10

7/22 (Legs)

Woke up this morning feeling tired as hell but still ended up having a great Leg session. I can tell that I'm getting close to the point of needing a Deload soon, I'm starting to feel really tired and beat-up most mornings and I'm starting to get some aches and pains accumulating. Both Hamstring tendons feel a little tender right now due to the higher frequency of Leg training, this is something I expected and have been doing some very high rep banded Ham Curls daily to try and improve the Tendon integrity.

After today's session I'm more than likely going to be going forward with removing my Glute/Ham exercise (I touched on this in the last Leg post). I'm still going to pay attention to how recovery feels by the next Leg session, but it's looking like a good idea as of late.

Full Session

Bilateral Bicep Cable Curl 1x15

Seated Calf Raise 1x15

Standing Calf Raise 1x15

S/L Tib Raises 1x13

Adductor 1x15

Lying Ham Curl 1x13

Leg Extension 1x13

Leg Press 1x13

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x13

Nautilus Glute Drive 1x13+1

7/23 & 7/24 Recap

7/23 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Woke up and ran some errands before coming home and cleaning then took a little nap. Had a somewhat busy day at work and then I headed to Carissa's mom's house for a while. Carissa has family in town from Florida this week so almost every night this week we have been doing something with them. It has thrown my sleep schedule off by about an hour which is taking some getting used to. I'm not letting it frustrate me too much because it's a rare occasion that we get to see them, but I've definitely been using more caffeine than normal in order to try and feel "normal".

7/24 (Pull)

I had a really difficult time falling asleep last night and woke up this morning feeling tired. I truly did not want to train this morning but I knew I needed to get it done so I took some caffeine and went. I ended up having a much better session than I thought I would. I was prepared to have to have an impromptu-Deload session but from Set 1 things were moving so I trained at normal volume.

I have been feeling progressively more and more tired over the past few days and I'm not sure if I can attribute it to my thrown-off sleep schedule or accumulated training fatigue (the correct answer is probably a mixture of both). As of now I am scheduled to train Legs tomorrow but depending how I feel the rest of the day tonight and how I feel tomorrow morning I may end up entering a Deload phase. It has been a while since I've taken a proper Deload and I'm starting to get some of the red flags/warning signs that one is due.

Full Session:

Low Cable Row 1x14, 1x12

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x13, 1x11

Hammer High Row 1x13, 1x12, 1x11

Machine Shrug 1x13, 1x11

Cybex Preacher Curl 1x11

S/A Cable Curl 1x11

Low Cable Curl 1x12

Cross Body Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14

Decline Crunches 1x14, 1x8

7/25 & 7/26 Recap

7/25 (Rest Day)

Today was not originally scheduled to be a Rest Day but it ended up becoming one for a variety of factors. On Saturday (7/24) night I went to a family party at Carissa's Aunt's house, was there until midnight and then didn't go to bed until around 1/1:30 or so. This is the latest I've stayed up in a while and I would normally never do this but it was a very rare occasion for Carissa to have so many of her family members together that it wasn't something I wanted to miss. I already had a feeling in my gut that I was going to take Sunday off due to the fatigue I've been experiencing so I wasn't too upset about this decision. I also woke up to a text from my Mom asking if her and my Dad could come up and go out to lunch with us. My parents live over a hour and a half away so I don't get to spend time with them as frequently as I'd like to. We ended up going to a great restaurant and then spent some time together back at our apartment. All in all it was a great day and one that I'm glad I took training off for. I originally thought I'd be upset about taking an improvised day off but I know it was the right decision to make.

Today's Rest Day will also mark the start of a Deload Phase. Plan is to train M, W, F this week only with reduced volume and then take Sat/Sun off before resuming training at full volume next Monday. This weekend is Carissa and I's 5 year anniversary so I wanted to free up the weekend anyways so we could do something fun, combined with the fact that my body has been beat up and I mentally have not been wanting to train, means that this is an appropriate time to Deload.

7/26 (Legs - Deload)

Woke up this morning at 206.8, last monday I was 211. Productive first week of mini cut! As I mentioned in the previous post I am currently in a Deload Phase, so today's Leg session was done at Deload volume. On both the Hamstring Curl and Leg Press I potentially had another rep, but part of the Deload process is not to attempt any 50/50 reps so I didn't attempt them.

Progressions taken across the board on everything performed, so a really productive session. I felt pretty good throughout the session despite the recent decision to Deload so if this is a prediction of things to come, this Deload should be easy-peasy. *knocks on wood* 😆

Full Session:

S/A DB Curl 1x11 L, 12 R

Standing Calf Raise 1x13

Seated Calf Raise 1x15

S/L Tibia Raise 1x13

Adductor 1x20

Seated Ham Curl 1x15 w/ ~ 1 RIR

Leg Extension 1x17

Banded Leg Press 1x16 w/ ~ 1 RIR

7/27 & 7/28 Recap

7/27 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, woke up and did some cooking and cleaning before going over to Carissa's brothers house to change my oil (we're not allowed to do it in the apartment parking lot 🙄). Went to work and had a decent day there before coming home and cooking again and doing some body work/rehab stuff.

7/28 (Push - Deload)

Deload Push session today went very well, everything felt great and I can tell that I'm already starting to feel much more "fresh" than I was at this point last week. Really looking forward to my double-rest this weekend (Sat & Sun off) and then coming back on Monday feeling truly fresh.

I'm going to be making an adjustment to this Push rotation going forward and that's going to be switching my Incline and Flat Press movements. I think the Incline set is truly more important to the development of my physique than the Flat Press so I need to prioritize it by hitting it first. I'll also be doing 1 set of a Fly before I do any pressing focusing on the shortened phase of the ROM, but I mentioned that in my last Push post. Thought it was worth mentioning though.

Full Session:

FreeMotion Cable Fly 1x15 (shortened focus)

LifeFitness Incline Press 1x9.5

LifeFitness OHP 1x10 w/ ~1 RIR

Weighted Dips 1x10

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x17

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x14

S/A Overhead Rope Tricep Extension 1x12

Hanging Leg Raise 1x14