[Andy]

A so-so push session completed today. I saw so-so but there were still progressions, but as I approach week 7 of this training cycle, the usual fatigue markers are starting to make an appearance again. I’m away to Tenerife next week anyway, so I’ll get some down time then, but yeah, I’m feeling it.

I lost a few reps here and there on some movements, but nothing outrageous.

Seated cuffed cable flys – 2x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Incline DB press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

HS incline PL chest press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Standing cable flys – 1x 12-15

Prime rear peck deck – 3x 12-15

SA cable side raises – 3x 12-15

High incline EZ-bar cable curls – 3x 12-15

Standing cable curls – 3x 12-15

Shallow decline sit-ups – 3 working sets, AMRAP

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[Andy]

A very good weekend wrapped up, as well as a mad day today with work and training, but everything has still been nailed.

I usually get 7 hours of sleep per night, but recently, I’ve been struggling to find time to get everything done during the day, so I’m always chasing my tail Mon-Fri. When I start prep and the food starts coming down, I’ll be able to eat my meals closer together, and that will help save some time through the day and get me back to that 8 hour mark.

I had some great results with clients at the PCA Scottish with a overall, class win, a 2nd and 3rd, so a great day out up in Perth which I consider to be the best venue in Scotland for shows. Perth is a bit of trek for English based competitors, bbbuuuttt now you know how it feels. . . 🙂

Legs today was the usual carnage, along the lines of. . .

Prime PL lying leg curls – 1x 12-15 + a triple drop set

Prime PL leg extensions – 1x 12-15 + Tuor rest pause (I’ve outlined this in previous leg sessions)

HS horizontal leg press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Pendulum squat – 1x 8-12

Cybex seated leg curls – 1x 12-15, 1x 15-20

Seated calve raises – 3x 20

Decline sit-ups – 3x AMRAP

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[Andy]

A very busy and productive day today, with a few posing clients first thing, to coffee with the Mrs, and then the rest of the day spent checking over my 3 guys competing tomorrow at the PCA Scottish – as well as everyone who checks in on a Saturday.

The good thing is that the 3 guys I’ve got I’ve either worked with for a while, and have put them onstage numerous times, or, their prep’s have been so predictable that I could make decisions in my sleep.

I checked in with Nick today, and we’re seeing a drop in lantus from 20-15 IU/day due to pulling GH down, my BG runs lower (much lower) so there’s no need other have this in. Also, due to numerous hypos PWO I’ve also pulled my PWO humalog. I tend to taper insulin down through a health phase, and going into my prep mid-May, it’s unlikely there will be any need to have it in, unless I start rapidly escalating GH, which I don’t really do anyway.

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[Andy]

A great week of training completed! I hit a life time PB on my DB shoulder press, without even realising either, as I didn’t consult the logbook prior to the lift, maybe that’s the cheat code.

I’ve got a very exciting weekend with the PCA Scotland on Sunday, so that should be another great day out for the troops, and I’ll be checking in with Nick tomorrow to see how things are looking.

Lying Y raises – 2 working sets, 12-15

Cuffed cable rear delt raises – 3 working sets, 15-20

High incline DB shoulder press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Prime flat PL chest press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Rear peck deck – 3 working sets, 12-15 + double drop

Bent over rope triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

Overhead rope triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

Across the body cable triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

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[Andy]

Just wondered how much you drop the weight by for your back off’s and do you rest long between sets on the compound stuff?

Hi Graeme,

It depends on the lift, but for the most part I’m looking at a 10-15% drop on most lifts I’d say. In terms of rest periods, I’m usually around the 3 minute mark

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[Andy]

As I’ve mentioned, back and shoulders has been swapped out to allow for as much time between back and legs as possible. I didn’t notice any drastic difference in performance compared to if I trained back after a TD compared to a NTD, but there was still progression.

I also swapped out the HS row for the HS low row as I’ve been rinsing the same numbers for weeks on the former. The low row is something I’ve not done much of, so I feel I need to tweak the form a touch but leaning down into the side that’s working.

Neutral grip lat pulldowns – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

T-bar rows – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

HS SA PL low row – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

SA DB rows – 2x 8-12

Deadlifts – 1x 8-12

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[Andy]

A very busy NTD today, filled with PT, posing clients, physio/massage, and online work, I can’t believe how quickly the day has went.

I’ve got 3 guys competing this Sunday at the PCA Scotland, all in different classes so things are dead exciting just now getting all of them ready for their respective classes.

I’ve got a big back session tomorrow, and the thought of doing shoulders on a Friday and not being ruined for the weekend sound quite nice!

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[Andy]

I/We’ve decided to swap our splits around, so we’re now hitting;

Mon: Legs

Tues: Push (chest) + biceps

Wed/Sat/Sun: NTD

Thursday: Back

Friday: Push (shoulders)

Chris and I both agreed that we feel a little bit better rolling into a leg session off the back of 2 days off at the weekend.

Last night’s session was great as well, despite sitting in a car for 3+ hours.

Prime PL lying leg curls – 1x 12-15 + a triple drop set

Prime PL leg extensions – 1x 12-15 + Tuor rest pause (I’ve outlined this in previous leg sessions)

HS horizontal leg press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Pendulum squat – 1x 8-12

Cybex seated leg curls – 1x 12-15, 1x 15-20

Seated calve raises – 3x 20

Decline sit-ups – 3x AMRAP

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[Andy]

A fantastic day out at the Granite City Classic today! BB as a whole across the UK is a niche wee sport, but in Scotland it’s even niche(er), so everyone knows everyone and for the most part everyone is very positive. My social battery is definitely very depleted, but it was a great day out seeing everyone from Scottish BB.

My client Scott managed to bag a 3rd place in classic – should’ve been 2nd but hey ho.

The good thing is that your main goal was 2 Bros at the end of the month, as that’s the route he eventually wants to take in the future, so I’m hoping for an excellent showing then.

I’ve decided to compete 3 weeks earlier than planned at the French pro, meaning I’m now in my health phase;

Test E – 250mg – spread across 2 shots

GH – 2IU pre-bed

Telmisartan – 40mg

Metformin – 500mg

Lantus/Humalog – 20/20IU which I’ll taper down to nothing across the health phase

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[Andy]

Another week of training completed, and I’m not going to lie, I can’t wait for this push phase to be over. Is it the most food I’ve ever pushed? No, but I think I’ve just been pushing food for so long, across multiple years that I just get more and more sick of food as the years go on. Not to mention that I’m a human pin cushion

I’ll checking in with Nick tomorrow, but I’m probably going to bring up with him that I want to pull the PEDs back this week, but we’ll see what he says.

Neutral grip lat pulldowns – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

T-bar rows – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

HS SA PL row – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

SA DB rows – 2x 8-12

Deadlifts – 1x 8-12

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[Andy]

A pretty hectic NTD for me today, as I’ve spent the entire day in the car driving down to Manchester and back to take my Mrs to her check-up appointment. I still managed to get all of my cardio squared away this morning, but in order to get a good amount of sleep, I’ll need to ditch my last meal. It annoys the life of me, but I’d take a drop in meals to get more sleep in. I’ll need to get a bit earlier to get my work from today done, but it’s all good! Last training day tomorrow!

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[Andy]

Today was my 3rd session in a row, something which I never do. Anything more than 2 in a row and I really feel a drop in drive, and I notice a drop in pump/blood flow, the same kind of symptoms I’d see 7-8-9 down the line, just not as severe. Regardless, it was a superb session.

When I don’t have my training partner, I’ll do 2 sets of the same weight for 12-15 on DB shoulder press, rather than going to my heaviest, and not having him behind me making sure the DBs don’t go behind my shoulder.

Lying cuffed y raises – 2 working sets, 12-15

Cuffed cable rear delt raises – 3 working sets, 15-20

High incline DB shoulder press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Prime flat PL chest press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Rear peck deck – 3 working sets, 12-15 + double drop

Bent over rope triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

Overhead rope triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

Across the body cable triceps extensions – 3 working sets, 12-15

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[Andy]

A very very nice leg day completed today. My training partner was late, and I just wanted out of the fucking gym with it being that horrible stuffy heat that Glasgow gets, but it ended up being a superb session, and the pace didn’t take away the progression from the session, there was some nice improvement to numbers across the board.

Due to the horizontal leg press pins being wrecked, Gym Pins don’t fit in the end of the machine, so I have to balance plates on top of each other, so my training partner sometimes has to adjust the plates mid rep which is terrifying, but I still managed a 10kg increase.

I pushed the pendulum up by 5kg as well (110kg) and took 7 reps.

Prime PL lying leg curls – 1x 12-15 + a triple drop set

Prime PL leg extensions – 1x 12-15 + Tuor rest pause (I’ve outlined this in previous leg sessions)

HS horizontal leg press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Pendulum squat – 1x 8-12

Cybex seated leg curls – 1x 12-15, 1x 15-20

Seated calve raises – 3x 20

Decline sit-ups – 3x AMRAP

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[Andy]

It doesn’t sound like that was an assist, it sounds like your spotter done the set for you. . .

Any assisted/forced reps I take aren’t even that, it’s maybe the last 30% of the last rep, if that.

As the boys have mentioned, simply get strong within most agreed upon ranges (8-12) and then add techniques down the line, based physique progress and recovery capabilities.

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[Andy]

A great start to the week with a very productive push session. I’ve finally got off my arse and I’m looking to order more increments of DBs. They have to be cast iron though in order to match the rest of the gym. . .

Strength is at an all time best, and I’m finally really happy with how my upper body looks!

Seated cuffed cable flys – 2x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Incline DB press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

HS incline PL chest press – 1x 8-12, 1x 12-15

Standing cable flys – 1x 12-15

Prime rear peck deck – 3x 12-15

SA cable side raises – 3x 12-15

High incline EZ-bar cable curls – 1x 12-15 (pyramiding up to the failure/working set)

Standing cable curls – 1x 12-15 (pyramiding up to the failure/working set)

Standing iso-lateral bicep curls – 3x 12-15

Shallow decline sit-ups – 3 working sets, AMRAP

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