7/29 & 7/30 Recap

7/29 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, I had a difficult time falling asleep last night so I ended up sleeping pretty late this morning. Went and did some grocery shopping before coming home and cooking and playing some Warzone before going to work. Came home from work and did some rehab work and then went to bed. Pretty boring and uneventful day.

7/30 (Pull - Deload)

Third and final session of this Deload phase done and over with. Everything felt really great today except for the Chest Supported T Bar row which actually regressed by half a rep. I have been using this movement for the past year non-stop so I think it's safe to say I've probably ran it into the ground, I will more than likely replace it with an Incline DB Row going forward.

Taking a double-rest this weekend for Carissa and I's anniversary weekend and that should have me feeling ready to rock come Monday!

Full Session:

S/A Pulldown 1x13

S/A Low Row 1x14

Upper Back Pulldown 1x12

Chest Supported T Bar Row 1x12

Machine Shrug 1x15

S/A Cable Row 1x13

Machine Crunch 1x15

7/31 - 8/2 Recap

7/31 & 8/1 (Rest Days)

July 31 is Carissa and I's anniversary so we celebrated this weekend by going to St. Joseph, MI and going kayaking. We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon in downtown St. Joseph and then stayed the night in New Buffalo, MI. Woke up on Sunday and spent the morning in downtown New Buffalo and on the beach before heading home. Ate what I wanted, when I wanted it this weekend and don't feel bad about it at all. The only time(s) I ever do this is our anniversary and very special occasions (plus, I didn't even really eat that bad) so I know it has little to no effect on my progress. This double-rest also signifies the end of my Deload.

8/2 (Legs)

After last week's Deload sessions plus a double-rest this weekend, I was feeling pretty refreshed mentally and physically today. I could tell from the warmups and movement prep work that today was going to be a productive session and it absolutely was. Progressions taken across everything done today and will look to repeat that in the next Leg session in 3 days time. The Pivot Leg Press was fixed today, let's hope it stays fixed going forward (that seems to be a problem as of late with both my gyms).

I am going forward with the "removing the Glute/Ham move" thought process for Legs going forward. When food and PED's go back in I will potentially look to add another set of Leg Extension after the Hack as well as some additional Adductor work. Don't want to get too ahead of myself now, though.

Full Session:

Bilateral Cable Bicep Curl 1x15

Seated Calf Raise 1x15 (Shortened focus)

Standing Calf Raise 1x14 (Lengthened focus)

S/L Tibia Raise 1x14

Adductor 1x16

Lying Ham Curl 1x14

Leg Extension 1x14

Pivot Leg Press 1x12

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x9 w/ 3 count pauses each rep

8/3 (Push)

Got a really solid Push session in this morning. As I was going through my warm ups I could tell I wasn't 100% "there" mentally so I wasn't sure how the sessions performance would go, but I was pleasantly surprised by progressing every set of every exercise today. I think this is a testament to coming off last week's Deload where, even though I wasn't there 100% mentally today, I was refreshed physically to the point where it didn't matter as much.

This is definitely not the point as I get closer and closer to the point of needing a Deload, but when a Deload is executed properly, the athlete should feel really refreshed and be able to take easy PB's without necessarily needing to be 100% focused.

Full Session

Pec Dec (Shortened focus) 1x13+1

StarTrac Incline Press 1x7

StarTrac Flat Press 1x11

Neutral Grip OHP 1x10

BB Floor Press 1x11

Pec Dec (Lengthened focus) 1x13

Reverse Pec Dec Fly 2x15

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x12+1, 1x12, 1x11

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x11

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x13

Floor Crunch 1x15, 1x11

8/4 & 8/5 Recap

8/4 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Woke up and took pictures, took blood pressure and blood glucose (happy with both) and then ate Meal 1. Spent the morning working on content for the site and Instagram and then went to work. Got a lot done at work before coming home and playing some Warzone and ending the night by watching Dave. Legs tomorrow!

8/5 (Legs)

Perfect Leg session this morning! I spent some extra time stretching my calves before training and everything felt amazing, so that will continue to be a staple in the pre-session prep work.

As I'm entering the 4th week of this high-frequency Leg program I'm really starting to get a feel for what I can and what I can't recover from. I've realized some areas where I needed to pull back and have also noticed areas where I could add a little more work and probably still be okay. I'll be looking to add those sets to those areas once I finish up this Mini Cut, adding volume while in a deficit is a one-way ticket to overreaching and, eventually, overtraining.

The goal of a diet is to keep muscle because, let's face it, you're probably not growing in a deficit unless you're juiced to the gills. The amount of work it takes to maintain muscle is much less than what's needed to grow muscle. Don't fall into the trap of adding more just for the sake of it.

Full Session:

Seated Cuffed Lateral 1x17

Standing Calf Raise (Shortened-focus) 1x15+1

Seated Calf Raise (Lengthened-focus) 1x16

S/L Tib Raise 1x15 (3 count pauses each rep)

Adductor 1x16

Seated Ham Curl 1x15 (3 count pauses each rep)

Leg Extension 1x20

Banded Leg Press 1x15

Hack Squat (no bands) 1x12

8/6 (Pull)

Perfect Pull session this morning! Things are really clicking post-Deload and I've had a great week of training this week.

I've been running 3 sets of Upper Back work this session and have been doing all 3 of them on the Hammer High Row. Today I decided to break those 3 sets up into 1 set of High Row and then 2 sets of Upper Back Pulldown. This is the complete opposite of the other Pull session, where I do 1 set of Upper Back Pulldown and then 2 sets of a Row.

I'm going to run my Pull sessions like this (flip-flops of each other) going forward. I run a similar set up with the Lat work between Pull sessions and it just makes sense to do it with the Upper Back work too.

Full Session:

Low Cable Row 1x13+1 (shortened focus), 1x10

S/A Pulldown 1x14, 1x11 (lengthened focus)

Hammer High Row 1x12 (shortened focus)

Upper Back Pulldown 1x13, 1x9 (lengthened focus)

Machine Shrug 1x11+1 (shortened focus), 1x12

Cybex Preacher Curl 1x13

S/A Cable Curl 1x12

Low Cable Curl 1x11 (lengthened focus)

Cross Body Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14

Decline Crunch 1x13, 1x9

8/7 & 8/8 Recap

8/7 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today and also an 11 hour shift at work. Pretty chill day overall, was at work all day and then came home and made a little content and watched some baseball before going to bed early.

8/8 (Legs)

Legs this morning and also my only day off work for the week. Had a really great Leg session this morning and then went out to lunch and did some shopping with Carissa. Spent the rest of the day at the apartment chilling out before another 6 day week of work next week 🙁

Training has been going great this week! Ever since I removed the Glute/Ham movement out of my Leg sessions my Glute Tendonitis has been non-noticeable and as long as I do my banded Ham Curls my Ham Tendonitis feels great too! Really excited for the future and for food to go back in so I can hopefully put some serious size on these wheels!

Full Session:

Bilateral Bicep Cable Curl 1x17

Seated Calf Raise (Shortened focus) 1x15+1

Standing Calf Raise (Lengthened focus) 1x13

S/L Tib Raise 1x10

Adductor 1x18

Lying Ham Curl 1x16

Leg Extension 1x15

Pivot Leg Press 1x13

Reverse Banded Hack 1x11 w/ 3 count pauses

8/9 (Push)

Got an excellent Push session in this morning and I'm absolutely destroyed from it 😴 Progressions taken across every set of every exercise which is a picture-perfect scenario right now.

I'm entering the 3rd week of this Mini Cut and am 4-5 pounds down from where I started. Going to probably stop when I get to the low 200's (I'm 206-208 right now) so I may get a little more aggressive within the next week or so. I'm going to run the diet where it is for this week and see what I'm weighing towards the end of the week and then adjust from there. I'm starting to get really antsy about putting food and PED's back in since my training has been going really smooth as of late. Food + PED's + training where it is right now = muscle haha.

Full Session:

Seated Cable Fly (Shortened-focus) 1x14

Incline LifeFitness Press 1x10.5

Flex Leverage Flat Press 1x10

LifeFitness OHP 1x11

Weighted Dip 1x10

Pec Dec Fly (Lengthened-focus) 1x13

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x13 (shortened), 1x11

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x15 (shortened), 1x16, 1x11 (lengthened)

S/A Rope Tricep Extension 1x12 (shortened)

S/A Overhead Rope Tricep Extension 1x12 (lengthened)

Hanging Leg Raise 1x16, 1x11

8/10 & 8/11 Recap

It has been an interesting few days haha. One of my best friends has been staying at our house since Monday night because his flights keep getting cancelled to Atlanta. We're getting some crazy thunderstorms and tornado-like weather in the suburban Chicago area so there have been no flights at all this week. My buddy was supposed to fly out on Monday and his flight got cancelled, so I drove to O'Hare after work to pick him up and he stayed with us Monday night. He took an Uber to the airport on Tuesday just for his flight to get cancelled again and for me to come to O'Hare again after work on Tuesday for him to stay with us another night. As I'm typing this he's at the airport waiting to board his flight but it's been delayed twice already today and the weather isn't looking super promising so it's possible I'll have to go to O'Hare again for a 3rd consecutive night. What makes it worse is that his bag is in Atlanta already waiting for him so he has his phone, wallet, and a pair of headphones and the clothes on his back and that's it.  So needless to say the past few days have been eventful. With that in mind, let's get into the X's and O's:

8/10 (Rest Day)

I stayed up a little later than normal Monday night talking to my buddy since I hadn't seen him in a while. I woke up a little later than normal on Tuesday morning because of that. Went and got my first shot of the COVID vaccine and then my buddy, Carissa and I went and got breakfast. From there we came home and I prepped some food and chilled a little bit before I went to work. After work I obviously ended up going to O'Hare to get him again haha.

8/11 (Legs)

Got in an absolute killer of a Leg session this morning plus hit a new low of this mini cut. My schedule is altered slightly this week because of having to work on Saturday (again) so today I did both Delt and Bicep work prior to Legs because I rested yesterday post-Push and will be resting again tomorrow pre-Pull.

Going with the theme of this week's training today was almost perfect. I believe that I may or may not have been able to get another rep on the Hack Squat set, but I'm upset at myself for not trying it regardless. I'm making a pact with myself today going forward that ALL Hack Squat sets MUST end in the hole or I bitched out.

I could feel my left knee twinging a little bit during Leg Extensions and Leg Press, which is a sensation I haven't felt before in that knee so I'll keep an eye on it going forward.

Full Session:

Seated Cuffed Lateral 1x15.5

S/A DB Bicep Curl 1x11(L)/12(R)

Standing Calf Raise (shortened focus) 1x14

Seated Calf Raise (lengthened focus) 1x15+1

S/L Tibia Raise 1x12+1 (L)/13(R) (3 count squeeze each rep)

Adductor 1x18

Seated Hamstring Curl 1x15 (shortened focus)

Leg Extension 1x17

Banded Leg Press 1x15

Hack Squat 1x12 (~1 RIR)

8/12 & 8/13 Recap

8/12 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Had a fairly lazy morning of sleeping in and then taking some progress pictures, cooking food and then playing a little Warzone. I recorded a video for the site/YouTube which I'm excited to release!

My buddy finally got on his flight yesterday so I didn't have to go get him again haha. Glad that's over!

8/13 (Pull)

I had a difficult time falling asleep last night and then I woke up multiple times throughout the night. If I had to guess I'd say I got 4-5 hours of sleep. So today was a difficult session. I took 250 mg of caffeine pre training, which is the first caffeine I've taken in in 3 weeks. I felt pretty decent from that but could still tell between sets that I wasn't 100% physically. I still ended up progressing everything, but I had to really dig in and work for it.

Every time I have one of these sessions I say this, but these workouts really are my favorite ones. Your progress is there for you to take but you have to really work for it since you're at a disadvantage physically. Finishing these sessions and looking back to see you progressed everything while fighting an uphill battle to do it is an incredibyl rewarding feeling.

Hoping that I'm able to sleep decent tonight. No training tomorrow, another 11 hour day at work 😣 Should give me a decent amount of time to edit this video, though!

Full Session:

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x10 (shortened focus), 1x11.5

S/A FreeMotion Low Row 1x12, 1x9 (lengthened focus)

Upper Back Pulldown 1x12 (short)

Incline DB Row 1x13, 1x11 (lengthened)

Plate Loaded Shrug 1x12+1 (short), 1x13

Inwards Facing Cable Curl 1x13+1 (short)

S/A Cable Curl 1x13(L)/14(R)

S/A Rope Hammer Curl 1x10 (lengthened)

D Handle'd Cambered Bar Tricep Extension 1x14

Machine Crunch - SKIP*

*I'm going to be replacing this exercise going forward. I've been running it for a long time and it creates a lot of fatigue in my upper body from the way I have to brace to get into it, specifically in my Upper Back. Doing this crunch after a full Pull session is pretty difficult, so I want to swap it with something that's a little less effort.

8/14 & 8/15 Recap

8/14 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today plus an 11 hour shift at work. Not much to note here, I got a ton of content done for IG/TikTok and the site so I spent the day well. Came home, ate, and went to bed. Very uneventful day.

8/15 (Legs)

Sunday Leg Day this morning! Had an amazing session, progress on everything. I'm still on a great run of training despite being in a pretty moderate deficit. I hit a new low of the Mini Cut this morning so I'll be having a cheat meal tonight with Carissa. My weight was pretty stagnant for a while there but within the past few days I've made a lot of progress and am looking and feeling quite a bit tighter.

I'd like to get another 4-6 lbs off in the next 2-3 weeks and then it's time to go back up again. I'm really excited to push back up but also just as excited to see where I can end this Mini Cut at!

Full Session:

Bilateral Bicep Cable Curl 1x17

Seated Calf Raise 1x (shortened focus)

Standing Calf Raise 1x (lengthened focus)

S/L Tibia Raise 1x10

Adductor 1x22

Lying Ham Curl 1x16

Leg Extension 1x16

Pivot Leg Press 1x14

Reverse Banded Hack Squat 1x11 (3 count pauses)

8/16 (Push)

Had a great day off of work yesterday. Came home from Legs and we did laundry and then did a little grocery shopping and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We cooked some burgers and fries at home and watched a movie. Pretty relaxing day off so I knew I'd be mentally fresh today.

Push today was really solid. I progressed everything except for my Floor Press and my Overhead Tricep Extensions. I think I failed on the Floor Press because I was fatigued from the grinder reps on the Incline and OHP sets, so by the time I got to the Floor Press I was just *that* much more fatigued, causing me to miss. I took a slightly bigger than normal jump on the Overhead Extensions which is entirely my fault; that shit felt heavyyyyy.

Full Session:

Magnum Pec Dec 1x15 (shortened focus)

StarTrac Incline Press 1x8

StarTrac Flat Press 1x10

Neutral Grip OHP 1x10

BB Floor Press 1x9

Magnum Pec Dec 1x15 (lengthened focus)

Reverse Pec Dec Fly 1x12 (short), 1x14

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x13 (short), 1x13, 1x13 (lengthened)

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14 (short)

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x8(L)/7(R) (lengthened)

Floor Crunch 1x14, 1x11

8/17 & 8/18 Recap

8/17 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today. Woke up and got groceries, then got my hair cut, then played a little Warzone before going to work. Had a decent day at work and made a good amount of content. Came home from work and played Warzone again before getting annoyed with the game and getting off lol. It seems like every time I go to play Warzone to relax I end up getting railed on and it does the complete opposite of relaxing me haha.

8/18 (Legs)

Really solid Leg session this morning. I decided to try using Fats (all natural Peanut Butter) pre training instead of my usual fast carbs (Rice Krispie Treats) to see if it would impact energy and blood sugar levels during training. I can't say that I noticed too much of a difference today but I'm going to keep using Fats for a few days before switching back to Carbs to see if I notice a difference then. It wouldn't be fair for me to discredit Fats pre training without giving them a run for a little bit.

The session itself was really great, progressions across everything. My Tib Raises on both sessions seem to be slowing down progress-wise; I'll keep an eye on these going forward and will adjust as needed. I was mentally dreading the Banded Leg Press today, that shit just gets so heavy at lockout and it takes everything you have to finish that last rep.

Full Session:

Seated Cuffed Lateral 1x16

Standing Calf Raise (shortened focus) 1x14

Seated Calf Raise (lengthened focus) 1x16+1

S/L Tib Raises 1x9(L)/10(R) (3 count hold each rep)

Adductor 1x22.5

Seated Hamstring Curl 1x17 (3 count hold each rep)

Leg Extension 1x21

Banded Leg Press 1x15

Hack Squat (no bands, no pause) 1x12

8/19 (Pull)

Really didn't feel like training today. I felt fine physically, but mentally I just wasn't feeling it. On days like this I find it's best to just "turn my brain off" and go into robot mode and get it done. I spent the majority of today's session thinking "I can't wait for this to be over so I can go home" but got everything done anyways. I had a perfect session, taking progressions on every set of every exercise despite not mentally feeling like I wanted to be there.

I think it's important to highlight that even people who are incredibly dedicated to their goal(s) have days where they "don't feel like" doing anything, and those days come around more often than some would expect. But just because you don't feel like doing something doesn't give you permission to quit or skip it.

Your emotions and feelings will lie to you; turn them off, and get it done regardless.

Full Session:

Low Cable Row 1x11 (shortened focus), 1x13

S/A Pulldown 1x13, 1x11 (lengthened focus)

Hammer High Row 1x12 (short)

Upper Back Pulldown 1x11.5, 1x11 (length)

Shrug 1x12 (short), 1x15

Cybex Preacher Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Curl 1x12(L)/13(R)

Low Cable Curl 1x12 (length)

Cross Body Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14

Decline Crunch 1x12, 1x10

8/20 & 8/21 Recap

8/20 (Rest Day)

Rest day today. Stayed home all morning cooking, cleaning, and making some content before going to work in the afternoon. Friday is our order day at work so I did the order and then came home and relaxed the rest of the night. I bought a new game for the Switch called Road 96 (Warzone was pissing me off) and played that for a few hours. Pretty solid game! It's a story based game where the decisions you make determine the outcome of the game, and I've always liked games like that.

8/21 (Legs)

Legs today was a learning experience.

I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night; I had a hard time falling asleep and then once I finally did fall asleep, I woke up at 4 am and wasn't able to go back to bed. I knew I'd be at a big disadvantage trying to train with such a big sleep deficit but I decided to take a hefty dose (for me) of caffeine and try to get it done anyways.

I wouldn't say it was a bad session, but it definitely wasn't good. In hindsight, the smart thing to do would have been to skip the session. But I'm fairly proud of myself for giving it a shot anyways.

So the plan for today is to spend the rest of the day relaxing and maybe take a nap and catch up on some sleep. I am scheduled to train Push tomorrow but I'm going to completely auto-regulate whether or not that session actually happens. If I wake up tomorrow morning feeling good and refreshed, it's on. If I have another poor night of sleep or don't feel decent tomorrow morning, I'll probably take an impromptu Rest Day and come back Monday for Push. I have obviously "dug myself into a hole" by getting a poor night's sleep and continuing to push through that will only dig that hole deeper, which is counter-productive to making progress.

There's something to be said about trying to "tough out" a less-than-ideal situation, but there's also something to be said about being smart and not being the typical meathead who tries to fight every uphill battle that comes his way. Live & learn!

Full Session:

Bilateral Cable Bicep Curl 1x16

Seated Calf Raise (shortened focus) 1x15

Standing Calf Raise (lengthened focus) 1x11

S/L Tib Raise 1x8

Adductor 1x14

Lying Ham Curl 1x17

Leg Extension 1x14

Pivot Leg Press 1x14

Reverse Band Hack - SKIP*

*By this point I was pretty exhausted and my last two sets of Quad work had either regressed slightly or maintained from the previous rotation. Doing the Hack would have only pushed me further into overreaching, so skipping it was a smart move today.

8/22 (Push)

Slept like a rock last night so I gave myself the green light to train Push today. The session was solid, but could have been a little better: I busted my ass on the first compound set of the day and basically spent all my energy on that set, which made the following sets harder than they should have been.

I call this "blowing your load". You basically spend all your energy at the beginning because you're fresh and ready to go and that sees the rest of the session take a performance hit. I need to remind myself that I'm in a deficit now, and the goal is to maintain muscle. Blowing my load at the beginning of the session has more negative consequences when recovery isn't as good.

Today was, yet again, another learning experience. All part of the game!

Full Session:

FreeMotion Cable Fly (shortened focus) 1x12

LifeFitness Incline Press 1x10

Flex Leverage Flat Press 1x9

LifeFitness OHP 1x10

Weighted Dips 1x10

LifeFitness Pec Dec (lengthened focus) 1x15

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x13 (short), 1x12

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x15 (short), 1x15, 1x12 (length)

S/A Rope Tricep Extension 1x13 (short)

S/A Overhead Rope Tricep Extension 1x6 (length)

Hanging Leg Raise 1x15, 1x10