A solo push 2 session yesterday, interrupted by house selling obligations, but that’s my flat sold, so fingers crossed there’s zero stress until the move in day.

Greg has given me both an high incline SM press, and a small incline SM press, I’m noticing too much build up of tightness in my rotator cuff from doing so, so I’m going to swap all…

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The team have it spot on. Anything with calorific content prior I feel breaks the “fasted” state. Water + a coffee is ample. As it’s been mentioned, overall caloric expenditure is what matters most.

A very busy NTD yesterday, playing a bit of catch up with admin, both life and business. I’m currently in the middle of selling my flat, which needs to be almost forced through so that the sale can go through before the start of October – which is when I’m due to move into my new flat.

We’re only moving a 10 minute walk from where we are just…

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Legs was superb, even if my training partner was 1 hour and 15 minutes late, a new record. He’s incredibly busy with work, working an actual job, so I have to cut him some slack.

I feel fully refreshed after my “trip” to Krakov.

I have a solid 2 months of few social life interruptions before my brother’s wedding in October.

I’ve definitely…

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A great session with Chris today, and a session which i thought would be pretty lacklustre due to the antics across the weekend, but numbers were up across the board. I think this is primarily due to my shoulder being a lot looser than it was these past few weeks. Usually Ricky gives a full body run through, as I usually only have a few bits…

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A week of not being able to log into the forum, but nothing much to report really. With every given week, I’m feeling fresher, stronger and my sleep/recovery ticks up a couple of notches.

I’m still 6-7lbs lighter than when I was onstage at the Empro, but I’m holding onto a level of conditioning that is – in my opinion – bang on. When the time…

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Another back session yesterday, this time with Kieran.

The past 2-3 sessions, I’ve just really not felt the need to push for more volume. I feel the current volume level is effective and leaving me not only progressing with each set and lift, but adequately done in from the efforts.

Rope cable pullovers – 2 sets, 12-15

HS SA PL lat pulldowns – 1…

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Like Hilly said, you have to apply knowledge of your tolerability to certain drugs, and go off what your blood work says. I personally would continue to increase a compound until there was a need to add a 3rd from a compound load/progression perspective, or a blood work perspective.

You may be able to handle higher test: your blood work may…

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Wednesday is usually my rest day, however, I need to drive up to Aberdeen tomorrow for the annual family get together, and training first thing in the morning on my busiest check-in day, as well as 2 PT clients, it’s just not feasible, so I cancelled my massage and did my 2nd push day yesterday, which I also filmed for YT.

<b…

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On top of what Clare said, ice packs and a high quality freezer bag. Some bags aren’t that good and will cool very quickly.

Another leg day in the bag yesterday, but with slight adjustments to the exercise order.

Greg has slotted leg extensions in 2nd last to allocate focus to the hip press and pendulum. I’m trying to bring up my sweep this off season (who isn’t) and the way we’ve adjusted the setup on the hip press is at the top of our list to do that, so…

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A fantastic, and progressive push session went in today with Kieran.

I was a little distracted as my other half and I are trying to buy a house – we got it by the way.

Lying cuffed Y raises – 1x 12-15, 1x 8-12, 1x 15-20, 4s negative for all, no pause in the shortened on the 2nd back-off. Bringing arms just below parallel.

Seated d-handle cable…

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Nothing much to report just now, we met up with friends for a meal in Glasgow’s west end and then went to a bar. It’s obviously the end of July so we didn’t expect the bar we decided on to be wall to wall with students, so I felt about 57 by the time we left. It was a great night nonetheless.

I still boxed off all of my cardio, steps diet.

As…

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Checked in today for the first time since my show, so 5 weeks, and I was pretty happy with how I was looking to be fair. I’m sitting at 256.7, so almost 5lbs down from my show day weight. I know for a fact I’m not married to the scales as I couldn’t care less about that drop. It will mostly be the clearance of PEDS and thus I’ll be slightly…

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Hi mate, how long ago did you get this blood test done? It could be the case where your E2 hasn’t recovered yet. Prolactin, progesterone and blood pressure are also culprits for soft or lack lustre erections.

It could be the case of waiting slightly longer to allow for E2 to recover.

Investigate bloods again assuming the last test was a…

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The site has been down for a while so I’ll kick off by saying the break in Marbella was very much welcomed, and I couldn’t wait to come home and crack on with the reverse. The first 2 sessions weren’t the best to say the least, but that’s to be expected when I under ate, under drank (water), and generally just lazed around for 4 days.

I was…

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I’d dial your carbs back and replace the calories with fat. Start with a 50g pull, and put fat back in at 20g and see how your body changes. I have push/offseason clients running trace fats, all the way up to 1 guy running 120g. This is all determined from experimentation.

Yeah Wednesday/Saturday is what I used to do when I put 2 in.

The Wednesday meal used to be something small, more so just to have something off plan than anything else. My Saturday meal would be out at a restaurant for a 2/3 course meal with my girlfriend.

Back to back not only messed up my stomach, but also messed with my head a bit.

Landed in Marbella for the yearly gym family shindig. The plan is not to go too mental food/drink wise. My other half and I are planning on training at M13 both tomorrow and Friday.

I found many moons ago that I need to have a subtle – or so – blow out per year. Go out with the boys (and this time girls too), have some drinks, eat lots of…

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No shakes just now. I wanted to see how my stomach responds to just whole foods, and I’ll be honest, my digestion has never been better so I will run just whole foods until I need to use whey and carb powders.

hi andy, im on around 4500 cals a day also, could i ask how your meals look?

Im a little higher in protein and lower carb / fats , but probably need to adjust slightly which would yield better performance etc.

Thanks bud/[/quote]
Hi Greg,

Nutrition is all relative, if your setup works for you then it works for you.

M1

100g – Beef fillet

2…

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Reverse is going well. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve dropped down a little more to 257.7, but this is just PED clearance. I am a little softer, but again, that’s just down to clearance. I have yet to take photos or check-in post show, but I feel I’m at a level of experience now that I don’t need accountability during this phase – I’m 15…

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I personally would increase your test, and add the EQ later. You don’t to climb to peak dosage from the get go. A slight increase in test for a few weeks, and then add the EQ according to the 4:1 ratio. Run blood work within the same timeframe you did in your last cycle and see if your E2 values are sitting at or near 50ng/L

We just came back from a wee staycation at Loch Lomond’s Cameron House. It’s only a 45 minute drive from the southside of Glasgow, but it never fails to be incredible. My other half is English, so 3-4 whiskey’s deep, trying to contain my new found love for Norway while watching the England game was a struggle. . .

I weighed in yesterday at…

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When you said that on that previous ratio, your E2 is right where you wanted it to be? What value did it sit at?

Back yesterday, and a few sets add here and there.

Rope cable pullovers – 2 sets, 12-15

HS SA PL lat pulldowns – 1 set, 8-12

Conventional T-bar rows – 2 sets, 8-12 – 1 set added

Megamass chest supported t-bar rows – 2 set, 8-12 – 1 set added

SA DB row – 2 set, 8-12 – 1 set added

SA cable high-to-low row – 2 sets, 8-12

I’m slowly getting back to fully…

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To shadow a few of the team, I’d be seriously questioning your intensity if you’re able to train without rest. I’m sure a few of the coaches will agree, if you get handed a consultation form that says they’re training every day, 9.9/10 you’re going to assume that intensity isn’t there.

Yes, some people can train intuitively and take a rest as…

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A pretty busy NTD yesterday, but not one where I was on my feet all day, so I did 4000 steps first thing in the morning walking around the local park which is dead at 5:45am. However, it wasn’t until I was chilling for the 5 minutes I get per day, that I realised that I hadn’t done my set cardio (30 minutes on my NTD). Instead, I’ve done…

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300mg of test E during the 8 weeks, tidy up, and then push up with other compounds in play.

200mcg fasted. If I scale that up then I put another 200mcg pre-workout. I ended up putting all 400mcg in fasted as I kept forgetting to have it with me to take pre-workout.

Energy is definitely on the rise, and yesterday’s leg session was evidence of that. Last week I felt like I was just going through the motions and not necessarily “in the session”, but yesterday was brilliant and I was able to push that little bit more, around 10-15%.

The setup hasn’t changed just yet as I want enjoyment to be at the top of…

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Agreed with the team, you absolutely should not be touching anything.

Great start to the week with the first push session of the week. I’m not hellbent on trying to progress numbers in the logbook, but I used a little bit more weight here, a few more reps there.

I’ve set a date with my videographer to film the new push setup, provided by Greg Taylor.

I took my first shot of GH last night. GH has been out for…

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More often than not, I add cardio when fat loss stalls, but I don’t want to further the deficit via my diet. There has been a few occasions where I/a client hasn’t stayed too far conditioning wise prior to a prep/fat loss phase, so instead of dropping food, I’ve added a sprinkling of cardio 3-4 times a week to get things moving.

I didn’t check-in this weekend with Nick, truth be told, 1. I don’t need accountability or for someone to agree/disagree with the decisions I’m making just now, and 2. I want a break from worrying about photos and judging things. I will eventually get back to that after my 4 nights in Marbella, but for now, I’m happy coasting, enjoying being…

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I’m training back today at PG Irvine, so I had to do my arm session yesterday – nothing nicer than Friday afternoon arm session, not to mention Friday being my busiest check-in day, it was nice not being right done in from training trying to tick of 15 check-ins.

Standing EZ-bar curls – 3 sets, 15

Overhead rope cable extensions – 3 sets, 15

DB…

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A pretty simple NTD yesterday. As I mentioned, I pushed legs a little bit harder this week, just to slowly reintroduce myself to my standard of leg training. It’s been 7 weeks since my last 100% leg session, and I know if I try to replicate those numbers, I will be in the bin for a good few weeks.

Usual massage early afternoon.

Everything…

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The first semi-proper leg session done and dusted today. I’m not quite there yet to go up to 100% leg training output, but this was still a good one, and good to crack off a good level of intensity whereas the past 7 weeks have just been there to preserve my legs, and I’ve found that I don’t need a lot to do so.

I pyramided up to the working…

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I agree with Allison, I think you need to drop any idea of continuing your deficit and focus on replenishing calories. I ended up in a binge cycle in 2014 4 weeks out from my show, it wasn’t until 4 weeks post show that I got things under control, 1 of the reasons was I pushed my carbs up quite a bit to remove food noise. If you were to…

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Push 1 ticked off for the week. Another productive one, I’m still adjusting movements, and tweaking tempos here and there, but the push sessions are coming together now. I am tracking everything, but I’m not obsessed with making numbers move.

PUSH 1

Lying cuffed Y raises – 1x 12-15, 1x 8-12, 1x 15-20, 4s negative for all, no pause in the shortened…

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I didn’t check-in with Nick yesterday, I wanted to give myself – and Nick – a break from looking at my physique in that way. I did check my weight however, and I was 261. The same weight I was last Sunday the morning of Empro so a successful week navigating food post show. I have found that when I tick off the first week, it’s relatively…

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1. I personally would use 1 compound assuming you’re controlling E2. 250mg is relatively well tolerated though.

2. To look good for your wedding, this is plenty.

3. I always ask clients to get a thyroid panel done to determine if thyroid supplementation is needed, assuming your timeframe, and less of a “peaking” consideration, I’d consider…

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Everyone has nailed the nail on the head here. Don’t overthink, a textbook “optimal” is not always a real life optimal.

Arm day Saturdays are back! They’re back – for now – for a few reasons;

1. They’re fun, and I just want to have a bit of fun when I come into the gym, I’m always like this post show.

2. I thought I had good arms until I saw some of the monsters from this season, I’d like to see a lot more separation and thickness in them.

Standing EZ-bar curls -…

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BB’ing and fitness will always be impacted by trends, it only takes 1 or 2 people to do a certain exercise, use a certain drug, eat a certain food for many to sit and copy it. See if a trend is up to scratch and research these “trends” for yourself.

A decent back session today. Not much has changed with it compared to the one I was doing prior. The volume is still low, I’m not ready to put it up just yet.

Back

Vulcan grip cable pullovers – 2 sets, 12-15

HS iso SA pulldowns – 1 set, 8-12

High-to-low cable pulldowns – 2 sets, 8-12

– Leaning into the working side a lot, in order to pinch the…

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Agreed with everyone here mate, I hope you get it sorted!

Push 2 squared away today, and it was really good one at that. It’s not that much different from push 1, other than a few exercise tweaks.

PUSH 2

Seated cuffed cable flys – 1x 12-15, 1x 8-12, 1x 15-20, 4s negative for all, 1s pause in the lengthened, no pause in the shortened on the 2nd back-off.

Standing iso-lateral cuffed Y raises – 1x 12-15,…

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Agree with the guys above. If a doctor said the joint is pristine, it’s not drugs you need, it’s physio/massage work, mobility work and stretching. Shoulders are a minefield due to the amount of directions/planes you can work them in.

What specific pain do you feel in presses? Is it a pinching sensation in the lock out? Is it pain through…

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Well that’s the season over, and what a season it’s been!

When I started my offseason in September 2024 I set the goal of competing in 3 shows and making the top 10 in 1 of them. Luckily for me, I made top 10 in all 3. The 10th at the Empro is the one I’m most proud of as I turned pro on that stage in 2024, so it meant a lot to be up there…

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