[Andy]

A great shoulder session in the bag, everything is just feeling so secure and solid. The pumps I’m getting just now are fucking ridiculous, like 3 months into training type pumps! I’m still taking 40mg of superdrol with my shoulder session, so that adds to that.

I’ve never been able to press the 70s for double digits, and I managed to hit 9 today, so we’re almost there.

The direct shoulder work on my shoulder day is still relatively low volume, as it only equates to 7 working sets, but I can tell that they’re growing at a nice pace. I must mention I do 6 sets with chest as well.

It took me a long time to find my rhythm with shoulder training, but I think in the past 5 years I’ve finally managed to find my stride with them!

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[Andy]

A pretty tame NTD today. My physio forgot to book me in this week, so no travelling over to the other side of Glasgow, and I’ve had a few PT clients off, so it’s been nice and quiet. Other than trying to stuff a tonne of rubbish from the kitchen renovations into the back of a E class, that was not fun. It’s moments like that where I realise how I’m just not built for anything else.

Speaking of which, I did have a session with my mobility coach Charlene, which I’m doing every 2 weeks. I’m now really balanced mobility wise across both shoulders, and I can see/feel it when I’m lifting. I’m not sure how popular mobility coaches are, I suppose you could hire a 1-2-1 yoga instructor if you can’t find one. The good thing about Charlene is that she makes the movement patterns very sports’ specific.

A big shoulder session tomorrow, so after that hour with Charlene, I’m hoping for some big numbers.

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[Andy]

I tore my labrum at the end of 2022, and after 3-4 weeks of my physio not being able to release the shoulder, he done a SLAP (Superior Labrum Anterior and Posterior) tear test which involves externally rotating the shoulder with the forearm parallel to the floor.

I wouldn’t be in constant pain, but the worst pain was when I was lowering a weight in presses or lateral work. It wouldn’t hurt in the concentric.

As Jordan said, avoid movements that cause pain, but also have a look at SLAP related injuries and see if the symptoms coincide, as slap tears are the most common form of tendon related tears.

A lot of the time a SLAP tear just needs rehabbed.

Hope this helps

p.s I’m not a doctor haa.

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[Andy]

An outstanding leg session today, after almost a 6 weeks of them being very lacklustre due to my torn hip playing up, and them just not being able to recover quickly.

I’m putting the recovery down to the fact that I’ve managed to bump my strength up significantly in the early portions of my reverse, however, my food was still relatively low, and PEDs were next to zero, so it seems as if it’s been a compounding effect over the past few months.

I’ve pulled out the heavy leg extension, it just hurts my hip, and to be honest, I don’t like that setup for it – squatting/leg pressing 100%, the 1 working and 1 back-off works well, but for leg ex, I used a rest pause set I learned while training under Patrick Tuor. It is NEVER pleasant and you never get used to it, so be sure to try it and let me know how you get on. . .

Leg extension (rest pause set) – Pick a weight you can get a comfortable 15 reps, pause for 45s rep to failure, pause for 30s, rep to failure, pause for 15s, rep to failure, pause for 5s lean forward and perform 15 partials (I let my training partner decide how many to do here).

BB squats – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off, 30 (the back-off should be done continuously for as long as possible.

Pendulum squat – 1 working set, 8-12

Prime PL lying leg curls – 1 working set, 12-15 plus forced reps and negatives

Seated PL calve raises – 3 working sets, 20

Decline bench crunches

I would’ve done walking lunges, but my lower back was done which doesn’t happen often for me, but again, I think this is down to my strength climbing very quickly.

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[Andy]

Just depends on your recovery capabilities. I used to have my SL or hinge in with legs, but I found my lower back was able to recover and tolerate the weekly work by keeping my hinge movements in with back/pull. For me, squatting and hinging in the same session just leaves me broken after 2-3 weeks.

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[Andy]

Here we go, another week!

I feel like I’ve finally fallen into the groove of this offseason, so I’m excepting big things this week (touches a lot of wood). My strength hasn’t been sky rocketing like it usually does, but then again, I’m not been this lean going into an offseason.

Even after 16 years of training, there’s always something new to learn.

Chest today, it will be an interesting one as I trained shoulders yesterday and chest on Thursday, but I feel fresh so we’ll see. That’s another thing, is that going forward I shouldn’t have these diary interruptions either.

October is another exciting month, with the TBJP 2 Bros British on the 19th.

Anyway, we changed the chest volume slightly last week;

Seated cuffed chest flys – 1 working set, 12-15, 1 back-off set, 15-20 (adding in a 10s stretch once failure has been reached)

Incline DB press – 1 working set, 8-12

Prime PL chest press (narrow handles) – 1 working set, 8-12, + 1 cluster set (4×4 10s rest)

Standing cable flys – 2 working sets, 20

SA cable side raises – 3 working sets, 15-20

SA cable rear raise – 3 working sets, 15-20

Iso-lateral cable curls – 3 working sets, 15-20

Standing EZ-bar cable curls – 3 working sets, 15-20

Have a great week guys!

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[Andy]

That’s a week worth of training ticked off with an excellent shoulder session.

For the next 2 week (6 weeks in total) I’m running 40mg of superdrol with my shoulder session. Just to get an enhanced pump, nothing overly scientific on that one. I do get a bit of strength from superdrol, but it’s more just the pump I’m going for. Superdrol doesn’t impact my appetite like anadrol does. Like I said, I’ll only do this for 6 weeks.

On top of training I had to lug a 134kg fridge up 3 flights of stairs so that was fun, and did nothing for my recovery, but the kitchen is looking banging now!

I’m very excited for this week coming, as I’ve got quite a few clients on holiday, so I can have a bit more time in my training session.

I’d say I’m back in full flow! (touch wood)

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[Andy]

Checked in this morning at 271 on the button, just a subtle weight increase, nothing too over the top which is what Nick and I want as our goal is to not blow up but rather add tissue staying in “relatively” good shape

We have gone with a food and gear increase this week;

– An extra salmon fillet with M6 (2 in total)

– An increase in lantus to 15IU

– An increase to test E to 750mg/week

That’s the first change of the offseason, after 3 weeks.

I’ll post my full check-in tomorrow

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[Andy]

Another week signed off, and going back to Monday’s blog it wasn’t the best start with having to take a full day off everything on Monday, but my diet from Sunday onward has been perfect, and the 3 training sessions have also been excellent. I’ve still got shoulders to do on Sunday, but that’s not a problem – it’s after the session I’m worried about having to lug a 120kg fridge up 3 flights of stairs. . . and a cooker, I had to buy a new one as 4 out of 5 rings are goosed, and meal prep is taking fucking ages!

I’ve got another wedding tomorrow, the last of the year, but it will be a sober affair and I’ve already planned to be the taxi for the day so there’s no chance I can even squeeze in a cheeky one.

I’m fully locked in my offseason now, it took a few weeks to find my feet, but it didn’t help that September has been a insanely busy month.

October is too, but for some reason I’m not worried about it.

Back today was excellent, nothing has changed with that session, it’s exactly the same. . .

Close grip lat pulldowns – 1 working set, 8-12 + forced and negative reps

Conventional t-bar row – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Chest supported t-bar row (upper back bias) – 1 working set, 8-12 + forced and negative reps

SA DB rows – 2 working sets, 8-12

Deadlifts – 1 working set, 6-10

Perfect! Have a great weekend guys!

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[Andy]

Feeling very fresh today, and it’s chest/biceps today.

For the bicep work last week we slotted in more in the way of sets/volume than what we were doing prior which was essentially 2x sub-maximal sets, and then a working set. The problem is that as much as many proclaim that “feeling the muscle” isn’t needed, I’d argue it is, and when I get so strong in a bicep curl I don’t feel the bicep working, it feels like everything else is.

My biceps grew from lighter weight, and higher sets, so that’s where I’ll now be taking my bicep work now that I’ve built up to said level of strength.

Seated cuffed chest flys – 1 working set, 12-15, 1 back-off set, 15-20 (adding in a 10s stretch once failure has been reached)

Incline DB press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back off set, 12-5 (NEW)

Prime PL chest press (narrow handles) – 1 working set, 8-12

SA cable side raises – 3 working sets, 15-20

SA cable rear raise – 3 working sets, 15-20

Iso-lateral cable curls – 3 working sets, 15-20

Standing EZ-bar cable curls – 3 working sets, 15-20

At peak offseason I was doing 4 exercises for chest, so there’s the option to add another once visual progress starts to slow. . .

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[Andy]

That’s another rest day done and dusted, and it was very much needed. These past 3 weeks I’ve been quite out of sorts with my routine, and even though it’s still been productive, it’s not been as productive as I’d like it to be.

I’ve spent too many months fannying around before bed on my phone, or telling myself, “it’s cool, you only need 6 hours sleep anyway”. It’s finally caught up with me though.

Yesterday while warming up on the leg extension, I felt like I had just trained my legs a few days ago, that never happens to me, I’m never that under-recovered. That was a bit of a wake up call to be honest along with my training partner telling me to get a grip – which he’s 100% right by way.

I knew September was going to be a very busy month both with BB and with social occasions, and with 1 more wedding this weekend that will be the busiest month of the year done. After which there’s a few things on, but not on consecutive weekends. I’m also restructuring my working week as well where I’m not doing any PT on a Saturday anymore as I’m usually in doing 3-4 sessions first thing. I still love PT’ing, and I also hate sitting at a laptop all day, but I trying to structure things almost like a 9-5 to prioritise sleep and recovery.

Anyway, a bit of a rant there. Chest tomorrow!

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[Andy]

I’m feeling refreshed today after having had 8 hours of sleep. My cold is almost gone, and the eye infection has died down a touch as well.

This is the first training day of the week, and it’s legs due to the reshuffle of my week.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve removed the direct glute work as I feel it was making my hip worse. Since removing it, my hip has felt so much better. I might add in some abductor work though that they’re being at least bit hit a touch.

Last week’s leg session was a strong one, so I’m excited to see how today goes;

Leg extensions – 1 working set, 12-15

BB squats – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set 30 (I’ll use 3/4 reps during this set until I need to take a break)

Pendulum squats – 1 working set, 8-12

Prime PL lying leg curl – 1 working set, 12-15, plus forced reps and negatives

EZ-bar walking lunges – 1 (maybe 2) working sets of the longest distance in the gym

Seated PL calve raises – 3 working sets, 20

The fear is kicking in a bit more now!

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[Andy]

One thing I’ve learned from this past week is don’t travel to Birmingham across a 24 hour period. Driving from Glasgow is a 6.5 hour journey minimum – with stops – and then coming straight back after my client came offstage. You English based guys really have it good when it comes to shows. . .

Not only that, I’ve still got this cold, and now an eye infection. The good thing is that I’m up another 4lbs this week, and Nick and I haven’t even scratched the surface with the tools we have to play in the off season.

Be sure to check-out my most recent check-in on Instagram!

I think a food increase will be used once we see stagnation in the gym or the visuals, but everything looks like it’s growing at a nice rate. That’s the great thing about having kept it so lean post show is that I can – for once – see the difference in my physique every week/day now.

My routine has been slightly shot these past 2 weeks, and that’s making me feel like I haven’t been following the plan, but I have. If my days are even an hour off, I feel like I’ve fucked it. I know for a fact I’d tell a client they’re being ridiculous.

I’ve taken today off to catch up with work and to try and get rest to get rid of this cold.

Legs tomorrow which I’m so excited for as the hip feels brilliant!

Have a great week guys!

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[Andy]

Another excellent week of training under my belt, it’s been brilliant. A hectic week though with social occasions and things that have knocked me off my stride nutritionally, but in reality, I’ve still been on my game.

I’m down in Birmingham for the PCA first timers, and probably the 2nd last competition of the year for me client wise.

Luckily all training has been ticked off.

Stay tuned on Instagram for my check-in tomorrow.

Have a great weekend guys!

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[Andy]

Shoulder day today, but also a very busy one work wise, so fingers crossed I can get everything done and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

So long as I have the bare minimum of 6 hours, I’m usually good, and I can function. My sleep times range from 6-8 hours depending on what day it is. I think I’ve mentioned it before but I’m changing my work/PT around so that I don’t need to work a weekend and so that I’m doing far less during the week.

I’m currently in the middle of kitchen renovations and I’m waiting on a new cooker, as the current one only has 1 hob working out of 5, and it’s dying a death too, so meal prep is taking an age.

Today’s session;

Y raises – 2 working sets, 15-20

Read delt cable cuffed raises – 2 working sets, 15-20

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

Small incline SM close grip press – 1 working set, 8-12, 1 back-off set, 12-15

Straight-bar tricep extensions – 1 working set, 12-15

Standing rope extensions – 3 working sets, 15-20

I’m very happy with what I’m seeing in the mirror being 2 weeks into this push phase.

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