[Christos]

One more point on triceps, Calum’s opinion is that to get huge arms, you need to have healthy elbows, for this reason alignment and bracing is of paramount importance in his programming since once your elbows start to ache, then the potential for growth diminishes. I really fancy dip machine variations, but equally I see the point that Calum wants to make for my triceps development and I trust him. JP said in one of his videos that if you have a coach let him to worry about nutrition and training and just give 100% in implementing what is requested by him. This is what I do. But do not get me wrong I want to learn from this process and see what works best for me.

[Christos]

JDH, yes it is Calum’s decision to program isolation exercises for triceps I always do 2 exercises of triceps at the end of the workout for atotal of 5 sets 1st 3sets and second 2 sets. We try to train through different angles, starting with overloading shorten range and then lengthen

[Christos]

Morning weight was 84.7kg and fasted blood glucose 4.7mmol/l this morning. Again, metabolism speeds up with calorie increase, I will take that as positive. Push today was:

A. 30deg incline db bench press 36kgx5, 30kgx10
B. Incline chest press machine two sets
C. 80deg smith shoulder press 50×7, 40×9
D. Flat bench cable flye 2 sets
E. Standing db lateral raise 16kgx12, 14kgx16
F. Cross body cable laterals muscle rounds
G. Crossbody cable tricep extension 3sets
H. Seated tricepoverhead db extension 12kgx7, 10kgx10

As you can see there are no compound exercises for triceps. The reason is that because shoulder joint is higly unstable and mobile, so we can fully extend and contract muscle fibers if we manage to isolate them and perfect bracing, and this is the reason of a lot isolation work. Also, some stimulus is achieved from heavy press at the beginning of the workout. Anyhow I missed my dip variations haha Side delts are trained for metabolic work as well with muscle rounds. I totally recommend metabolic work for side delts as no one ever became too wide from straight sets only

[Christos]

Progress pic post push session. As mentioned earlier, the physique is getting fuller and leaner each time. Hopefully I will get into a position to push up to 95-97kg next year.

[Christos]

Last check in response was again positive and more calorie increase on both training and non training days. I am now 1920 calories on non-training days;180p 120c 80f and 2610 calories on training days;200p 295c 70f. Calories do not include trace macros. For example 100g oats is counted as 60g only, protein and fats are not taken into consideration. Calories will be increased by about 100 each day up to Christmas. Every week I look leaner and fuller which is the goal to be honest in this first phase of body recomp. I will then post a progress pic to see how I look like at the moment compared to previous weeks.

[Christos]

Hi JDH, I think he works with both natural and assisted clients. You can text him at any time if you are interested.

[Christos]

Hi JDH, it is now the eighth week working with Calum. He is amazing in every aspect. He has great knowledge about training and programming as well as nutrition and supplementation. To be honest is the first time to be coached and I cannot compare, but we communicate anytime and any day I need him, it is not just on check ins days. Also, he is very big on execution and asks for videos to analyse specific exercises. Even though I thought I was lifting properly, with Calum I understood that exercises can become harder. Finally it is same principles as JP so I can have benefits from both JP’s and Corinne’s site and my coach, Calum

[Christos]

Guys, I was busy recently and this is the reason for no posts. So weight is steady 85.3kg. Yesterday I trained lower body with biceps first and today will be push. I changed my training times to first thing in the morning to see what changes will this have to my sleep and FBG. Today FBG was 4.5mmol/l with my baseline to 4.4. Also, all ofmy lifts from yesterday’s lower session progressed. So I will keep this timing and see how it goes. Check ins today, I am pretty sure I will have another calorie increase from Calum.

[Christos]

Corinne, it depends. A combination of both will be optimal in my opinion. For exampld if I want to fully shorten my lats I go for unilateral, in contrast if mid range is the aim I go with bilateral move. Also , I favour training arms unilaterally especially biceps to take elbows out of the equation.

[Christos]

Response from check in is positive again, we have visual difference from previous week so we have a 20g carbs increase on post post workout meal. Calum’s decision is to slowly increase calories up until Christmas and this will leave me in a place where I will be lean enough for the muscle mass phase to initiate. Slight calorie increase when in deficit usually helps with recomp as metabolism speeds up.Morning weight is 86.0kg now, my scales always flactuate +-1kg so it is extremely important to weigh myself everyday to get an average of the week. Yesterday I trained legs and biceps:
A. Incline banch db curl:20kgx7, 16×11
B. Ez bb curl muscle rounds 35kg
C.unilateral lying leg curl 2sets
D. Heels elevated bb squat: 135×6, 120×8, 110×10
E. Banded leg press miscle rounds 250kg
F. Unilateral leg extensions 2sets
G. Adductors 2sets
H. Hip extensions 2sets

[Christos]

So non-training day nutrition is:
Meal 1:4 boiled eggs with peas 10g olive oil
Meal2: 150g salmon eith veggies
Meal3: 150g chicken or tirkey with 50g almond butter and veggies
Meal4: 1tuna can half avocado 10g almond butter and veggies
Meal5: 200g white fish 80g rice
Meal6: 30g whey and 100g oats

Two last meals of the day contain carbs to increase serotonin levels for better sleep quality. It does not really matter if carbs are placed at the end of the day as long as total calories of the day are reduced due to the decreased energy demand. Health supplements remain unchanged on both training and non-training days. Today is a check ins day so we will see Calum’s decisiont about any changes. I will let you know.

[Christos]

Also JP, how do you achieve more arms and delts frequency if Corinne’s split is chest biceps, legs, back, delts and triceps repeat. It is 4day split and each bodypart is trained once.

[Christos]

Pull rotation B:

Activation work: long rope cable pulldown 2 sets
Unilateral neutral grip iso row(one step back):50kgx8,40×11
Chest supported T bar row machine:40×8, 35×12
Assisted neitral grip pull ups 2 sets
Bilateral low iso row:50×8, 40×11
One arm prone cable rear fly2sets
High cable rear fly: muscle rounds
Standing calf raise 3 sets
Long rope hummer curls 2sets

So conventional t bar row was swapped with machine t-bar row. Calum said that close V-grip does not provide good range of motion so swapped for the machine which offers greater range. Today is a rest day, themission is to get those 11000steps. I will post my non training day nutrition later today.

[Christos]

Hi JP, great stuff added recently. So I got a question about your recent article on nutrition for bulking. If you start your bulking face at lets say 3000 calories and having 6 meals with 30g of animal protein . After 12 weeks into that phase you might reach 4000+ calories due to increase of mainly carbs and fats, this means that 180g from animal protein will be less than 20% of overall calories. So do you suggest to slightly increase protein? Or extra calories will facilitate the process of getting new tissue?

[Christos]

85.2kg today and FBG 4.6mmol/l. Morning supplementations is Glutamine 20g, digestive enzymes, omega 3 2g and b-complex. Calum suggested to take curcumin 400mg and apple cider vinegar but due to haemorrhoids issues I cannot take them. This might be helpful for other people having similar issues. So I increased omega 3 to 4g per day, I take more digestive enzymes and drink lemon drops first thing in the morning. Also, glutamine helps with bowel movement which is not very regular for me. Pull session will be posted later today.