[Hym]

Entering week 16 of the diet. The last 4 weeks at 1900 kcals has been tough, really need to prioritise sleep more if I want to make it through prep ?
But work is busy right now so taking up a lot of my time.
The thought of coming in without Corinne condition is keeping me on track.
2 more weeks of home training and a little bit of my normal life can come back. As much as I can still train I do miss the ability to jump on a machine and not have to spend so long stripping the spinlock dumbells.
Did some posing post workout in some unnatural lighting the other day and I am very happy with the back progress. It’s been a long time coming but it’s starting to look a bit more like a back.
I know I still need a good few years and offseason for it to catch up to where I want it to be, but for the first time I feel like I am really on the right track with my back training and it’s just about rinsing and repeating and getting really strong again with the technique

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Nice work my man

Appreciate that buddy!

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Amazing mate , how long have you been dieting now ? What’s your macros now?

I’ve been dieting for 15 weeks now
Since early December
Gone from 2500kcals to 1900kcals
Macros currently are around 180 protein 212 carbs and 36 fats
M1 – 50g protein powder 70g oats 15g nut butter
M2 – 200g chicken, 150g cooked weight rice, 200g veg
M3 – 10g protein powder 300g Greek yog
M4 – 200g chicken ,280g cooked weight rice ,200g veg
Intra – I’ll take 5g creatine and 1scoop eaa which I don’t count

1x refeed each week at 2700kcals
Where I just add a bit more carbs on top of the diet

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Hitting a few lows of 79.6 but fluctuating between that and 80.5 ish.
With usually hit 1-2 lows each week and then refeed on Sunday will take me up.

Starting to feel a little bit of fatigue setting in. Nothing not manageable but definately know prep is here now.

Physique started to come to life a bit now that I’m around the 80 mark and the trajectory is to get down to 75 in the next 12 weeks or so. Then it’s game on from there. PS5 at the ready to help keep the mind occupied and less food focussed ?

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Entering week 15 of my contest prep season and things are starting to happen into the buisness end of prep and in my head I’ve broken it down into thirds.
The first third was going from 88-80kg.
Second third is now going from 80-75kg
And the final stretch will be 75-70kg
This next 5kg is what will really start to show in my physique and 75kg was actually my lowest stage weight ever. 2017 my prep with JP I was 77. Then 2019 – 75 and now this year I believe I have enough tissue on my frame to reach some legit Corinne condition and this is what I am aiming for.
Let’s see how it continues but the next 5 is what I’m looking at now. I’ve always struggled once I hit the 77-76 mark and that’s when food focus and hunger really comes in. I have to did real hard to get into condition and calories need to go low unfortunately, just how my body is. But this time round I am not doing as much activity which is a real plus. 2019 prep at this weight I was already doing 1hr a day. And as of this point my only activity is 12k steps which I’m happy about 🙂

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

I see you have taken courses from N1 education. Was their program design course really helpful? I am considering signing up to learn from them. Have you ever used the program from N1 before?

I did the biomechanics course. Program design course is different. I think its above me lol so I dont really know what to make of it.

I also did my first prep in 2019 under Adam from N1.

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

what’s your workout split ?

Currently its a bit messy due to training from home, trying to make things as efficient as possible.

Tues – Chest

Wed – Arms

Thurs – Back Delts

Fri – Legs

Sat – chest arms

Sun – Back delts

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Been a hot minute since I have used this log.

But life hasn’t been that interesting since October.

I am restarting this but will change the title as now its a transition into prep.

Ive been dieting for around 10 weeks or so now already (started Dec 7) looking to compete around fall time. So I still have about 25-30 weeks to diet down for the shows.

This initial 12 week phase is the diet before the diet, to get off the initial bodyfat to begin with.

Its been pretty easy so far, more or less just a clean up on things.

Started at around 87-88kg and now down to around high 81s. So about 6-7kgs dropped so far with no issues.

I will diet break around 12 week mark for a week and then look to go into the real start of prep.

Excited for how this season unfolds as I feel I have taken some huge strides forward since this log began.

Pictures are from start of prep to last week.

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Not really, Initially yes, I did consider it roughly.

But Trial and error process and over the weeks auto regulating sets according to strength progressions and recovery

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Deload this week so not much to update
Been a good run of around 7-8weeks of very hard training around my best lifting all time.
So deload has needed to come quite fast this time.
Struggling to move the 65kg DB on the chest press for the last 4 weeks. Its been 8reps,7,7,8
and also I can feel a few small niggles creep up,so deload to get fresh, rest up the joints then get after it again.

Looking forward to training again next week

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Nice work my man

appreciate it man

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Been a hot minute since I have updated my log
Caught up with a few bits outside of the gym so this has taken a hit

Bodyweight has been sitting around 87.4kg and food has been taken up
Current food is 4 meals.

80g Oats, 50g Vegan JP powder, 30g Dark Choc, 30g Nut butter
200g Beef, 300g cooked rice, veg
200g chicken breast, 300g cooked rice, veg
200g chicken thigh, 300g cooked rice, veg, 1x orange

Nothing major, but this has been keeping me going for some time now, No struggle to eat or hunger. Strength is increasing all the time so no reason to keep pushing weight up.
I have around 7 weeks before prep starts for next years season
It will be a long prep so I believe that I can continue this run of gaining muscle for a while even once prep begins.
Strength is at all time high now, so new muscle is being built.

Hack is at 6 plates x 10 and 1.5 years ago it was only 4 reps
Im DB pressing 65s for 7-8reps and last years off season was 2 reps at best with some shady form.
Im on a great run right now so actually really want to keep riding this for longer, but redemption next year has always been the goal since I stepped off stage last Oct.
After that I may take a longer investment phase 2-3 years.

Pics are start of offseason and 2 weeks ago.

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Bodyweight has been dropping for the last few weeks now, which I am not 100% sure why. Yesterday took a big dip, despite bringing carbs up 50-80g.
But regardless, I am going to increase calories a little bit more every day now to drive weight back up.
Still not had a mini cut in 45 weeks and strength, digestion, sleep, hunger all at a very good place, so its been an extremely productive offseason, I now need to push food up to maintain the weight and hopefully some extra strength may come with it, although its been coming up quite rapidly regardless.

Leg day Wednesday was a huge success. Managed to hit the Cybex Hack for 6 plates each side for 1 set of 10 and a second set for 8.
Deadlifts the day before is now really tapping into lower back recovery and I am quite sore for legs still, so I am going to have to drop RDLs on the leg day and replace it for a 45-degree hyper.
Deadlifts starting to get into flow and strength has come back really fast hitting 220kg for 10. I think I remember doing 222×8-10 reps in the past and being able to do 320kg for a single. So I believe if I can do 230-240kg for 8-10, my 1rm might be more.

IG - @gymwithhym

[Hym]

Training has been going really well lately and now 45 weeks post show I am only just at all time PB territory
The main thing here is not to get injured. And I am already feeling a tiny bit of a niggle/tightness on the soleus when I do hacks.

But I really want to try the 6plate hack. The last time I did it was 3years ago and only got 3reps. Yesterday I hit 10reps on 5plates+15 so I should be able to do 6 for 8reps then I’ll likely swap it out for the cybex pivot leg press. I don’t particularly like leg presses but It’s mainly to allow me to stop hammering away at the soleus let the tightness drop a bit.

Banded Pendulum squat on the Watson one is getting close too. I think around 10 weeks post show I was doing 105 with bands so now with the band if I can get to that weight I know I’ve made progress.

I likely won’t bump up weight too fast however and try to get to the upper range of the rep scheme to allow for form to clean up before adding more load.
62.5kg Db press I did last week for 8. And I probably could load more but I’ll try for 10 first before bumping it to 65kg. Get used to handling above the 60kg dumbells in my hands is important to not hurting myself.

IG - @gymwithhym