[Liam]

You hit a pb on your first exercise and got 10 reps with a weight you’ve never done before… so your muscles are clearly now going to be more fatigued. You then attempted the heavier dumbbells.. taxing the muscles even more, which is why you only got a few reps after dropping back down again. This makes perfect sense.

Had you have warmed up and then hit the next dumbbells up first, chances are they would have gone up. Don’t stress over this, just set up your next session up to hit the heavier dumbbells for your top set next time around. However, when you drop back to your back off set, remember what you’ve just done prior, so you may not get as many reps as you expect. This is how progressive overload works.. You increase load, get less reps, but then stick with it until those reps climb to the top end of your range.

Hi Clare,

The thing is that last session I got 9 with the dumbbells I used for the first set, and the next set I went up to the next dumbbells and got 5. Took a third set and got 15 with lighter DBs.

Today I got 10, followed by 0 with what I got 5 with last week, and then 6 with the DBs I got 15 with.

Should provide more context, the rest of the session was full of regressions as well.

Is this just the result of building up too much fatigue? What would you do in this situation. Deload, devolume, time off, or just suck it up and try again next week haha.

Thanks! :))

[Liam]

Hey guys so yesterday I wake up and book another pound has dropped. I’m tighter again. Fasted Blood glucose has improved. I look better. So what do we do. We run the same protocol again. A 3rd day at 450g c and it was also leg day. Which may I add was absolutely brutal. Did adductor, seated ham and lying ham for 2 sets each which really did me in. Usually only do 1 ham curl exercise then leg extensions for 3 then pendulum for 2 sets then leg press for 1 then calves. Sounds like nothing but me and cal took it to the death all session. I’m screwed my knees are in bits haha. But anyway good day. So I’ll get up soon weigh and sort my bg etc then decide what to do. It’s more than likely gonna be a baseline day but now we’ve established my energy balance has improved I’m dropping on over 3k calories as opposed to 1.5k I can now lower carbs but keep calories high which is one big relief. We’ve managed to save my prep and really get my body working with me and not against me which really makes me happy

Hi Haider, just a quick one, is Hyacine still prepping you for the upcoming shows? Cal helping you out now or are you just training with him? Cheers

[Liam]

Hi Jordan, what does banding the RDL at the hips help you achieve?

Thanks!

[Liam]

Defo yes , just try to get a decent one that has no fructose glucose syrup in

Hi Jordan, thanks for the reply!

The one I’m looking at has “Glucose Syrup (from Maise)” and doesnt have “fructose glucose syrup” as you specified. Is this what you are talking about?

Hope that doesn’t come across as a silly question haha

[Liam]

Very , but load isn’t the only novel stimulus

Increase reps
Increase eccentric
Increase pause in the stretch
Increase exposure to effective reps through rest pause sets

( None of the above means light lifting , it just literally means the absolute max weight you can lift still, don’t start stretching and squeezing truing to ” feel” the weight , that isn’t novel, it just shit )

Thanks Jordan, completely agree with you!

Once I am a few weeks into lockdown training these techniques are 100% applicable and I will definitely use them, however, this week of training compared to last week of training will see a large dip in load/volume as I move from a fully equipped gym to a set of DBs that go up to 40KG, a weighted vest, bench, dip + pullup station… Leg and back training especially will differ greatly

My approach for this week is just to find failure with my equipment and progress from there and try my best to forget that the and volume load is much lower, and try to remember that its only temporary hahah!

Would you approach it any differently if you were in my situation?

[Liam]

Really looking forward to following this log, and learning more about strongman!

[Liam]

Hi AJ,

Is the WNBF pro card still the aim? Given UKDFBA have changed their alliance to PNBA/INBA and you already have a PNBA pro card, does that mean that you will be competing in another federation?

You mentioned on instagram a few weeks ago that you would be competing as an amateur so was just curious, given you have a PNBA pro card. Sorry if you already answered this somewhere!

[Liam]

Just following this one up

First session back after the rest and it was a cracker. Big thanks to you guys for the advice, absolutely bang on.

In past would have just chalked it down to a bad session and pushed on, definitely better taking rest when needed!

[Liam]

Gonna take 3/4 days off as you have all recommended, thanks for your input!

Gonna run rest day food, would you say thats the right thing to do, or should I run somewhere between TD and NTD?

Thanks! 🙂

[Liam]

Do you think I missed my opportunity to deload/devolume? Funny all the warning signs mustve passed me by or i subconsciously ignored them…

thanks for your input 🙂

[Liam]

Hey Corinne, hope you are well!

I know you are very busy with everything day to day, but I just wanted to say, I cannot wait to see you on Ron and Dusty Hanshaw’s podcast when you do eventually make an appearance!

[Liam]

Thanks very much for the input, agreed that warmups can be completed prior, fantastic input that Jack ty v much. Thanks Hilly for the specifics, and to all for other thoughts!

[Liam]

197 – Legs Feeling 100% back to normal now after last week being a bit up and down with feeling unwell, good timing as we’re coming into the last week of the off season! Feeling ready to prep, both physically and mentally & I am also super clear on my goals and how my actions need to match them this year. Can’t wait to get stuck into it, but for now , legs ?

Do you typically recover from preps this quickly? You always hear about nattys needing longer offseason phases to recover from the prep and to make meaningful improvements.

What do you attribute the success of this short offseason to, with regards to prep recovery and how much stage weight do you think you’ve gained over the past 6 month offseason?

Thanks :)))

[/quote]
Hey Liam so I’ll definitely make a full post on this soon but I really put it down to a very well managed prep. The prep didn’t beat me up barely at all. So I was able to get out of it super efficiently, my food was already fairly high and cardio was zero. I think people try and use too many tools to get the job done in some circumstances

I think there is at least 5 lb of new muscle but I imagine I’ll be at the same stage weight because I’ll be aiming to get even leaner[/quote]

Thats fantastic if you net yourself 5lbs of tissue in a 6 month offseason. Setting the example for us all AJ, love to see it

[Liam]

Thanks for your thoughts, was considering adding 10g of fat from butter to my potatoes and mashing them up, or adding it to the bagels with Jam.

Appreciate it!

[Liam]

197 – Legs

Feeling 100% back to normal now after last week being a bit up and down with feeling unwell, good timing as we’re coming into the last week of the off season!

Feeling ready to prep, both physically and mentally & I am also super clear on my goals and how my actions need to match them this year.

Can’t wait to get stuck into it, but for now , legs ?

Do you typically recover from preps this quickly? You always hear about nattys needing longer offseason phases to recover from the prep and to make meaningful improvements.

What do you attribute the success of this short offseason to, with regards to prep recovery and how much stage weight do you think you’ve gained over the past 6 month offseason?

Thanks :)))