[Maddy]

Heya Brey, very glad to hear you’re okay!
I agree with Nathaniel, take a couple days away from the gym to rest and recover and then ease back in to your routine.

If you feel you really must train, I would suggest training with some reps in reserve until properly recovered 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hello hello, rest day today and at a shoot from 9-5pm and then took me an hour to get home. Meals packed with me and then dinner at home. Steps hit, a LOT of standing and handheld camera and so my back is a little tight but we’ll see what tomorrow holds and how I feel 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hey Inx,

Ideally you’d hit your calories and the macro goals you have to make up those calories regardless of you being in a surplus or diet. If you’ve found yourself in a position where you’ve ended the day hitting your protein and not your other macros/kcals I suggest planning beforehand to avoid this happening again 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hello hello, busy day. Up and out for a walk, check ins, gym, more check ins and packing orders. Supermarket run dinner and now bed. I usually don’t train on a Thursday but I’m at a shoot all day tomorrow without a specific wrap time… so rather than be left disappointed and training late I opted to train today. All good! For the first time in a long long while I’m able to feel my right glute as well as my left. Since having this ongoing injury (pelvis and SI joints) I’ve lost the usual strong connection I had with both my glutes and found it took a LOT of focus to ‘click’ with my right glute. Things felt good today so hopefully I continue with progress 🙏🏼

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[Maddy]

Hi guys, busy day today. Up and out for a walk and then on the road to chiro. (Resting today no training) Really good appointment and so far recovery has been going really well. I’m now in a position where I can try some hip hinge movements with reduced load and honestly just see how it goes. I AM excited but I’m not going to be silly. Starting with a B stance RDL and I’ll take it from there. Then drove back and straight into a laptop work. Another day where I’m calling it here but can think of a bunch of things I haven’t managed to get done. There’s always tomorrow!

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[Maddy]

Hi guys. I have been absolutely slammed today. Up early for a walk, a little work and breakfast and then off to my grandmas and a long wait for a house visit. Then trained and back home to tackle check ins, client calls and team fade calls. Just finished my final meal and I can still think of a handful of things I’ve not managed to complete. I’d usually be training yesterday and then tomorrow however tomorrow I’m off to see my chiro again and usually I’m expected to rest so a shift in training had to be made. Hams glutes and delts was pretty fab today albeit a little rushed. No pain and I’m really enjoying DB press back in rotation. I’m about to finish my cup of tea and sleep 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hi guys! Great start to the week with training. In for quads and glutes. Zero pain, coming a lot closer to confidently training around failure and creeping closer to usual working weights for compounds. Chuffed. Touch some wood NOW. I have a few more steps to hit and one final meal for the day in an hour or two and then that’ll be me done.

I’m mainly commenting a lot about training in my logs because I’m very much in my offseason. Not many changes are made to food unless needed and weight has been trending up nicely. After a few weeks of dealing with injury (months really but a few weeks where training was such a challenge) I have put on a little more body fat than intended but I still find myself in a good enough position to keep bodyweight trending up. So that’s that!

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[Maddy]

Hiya Joseph, just chiming in here!

I’ve actually just seen that instagram post. You do have to be a little careful when scrolling through the gram because posts with titles like this are made honestly with the attempt to go viral and to spark conversation. To ‘do the rounds’. I am glad you brought it here to discuss because it’s interesting!

Overall, I’ve had a read and a listen through and I can empathise with where he’s coming from but I don’t think it’s optimal or ‘worth it’ when you’re looking to really make changes to your physique. Especially if anyone is a ‘super skinny guy’ as he mentions it’s not recommended for them… Ultimately, a lot of what he mentioned would just lead me to eat in a small surplus regardless!

Also this is me making assumptions but a lot of Americans (don’t kill me please) refer to the word ‘bulk’ as meaning to eat in a ridiculous surplus (it’s relative), eat a bunch of ‘junk’ food to gain size and ultimately put on a lot of bodyfat. If that’s what he means by ‘bulk’ then of course I’m pretty sure no one here agrees that that’s the way to go about putting on quality muscle.

I feel fairly safe to say that I still feel eating in a moderate surplus (again it’s relative) is the best way to put on quality tissue, so the post didn’t really change my mind much!

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[Maddy]

Hiya Rhyley,

Honestly in your position it sounds like the most important thing is finding a split you can recover from and adhere to around a very physically demanding job. Alison makes a really good point. While Full body, upper lower and PPL is often what we/I recommend, if you’re not recovering from any of those, a body part split on rotation (not just based on the week days) may be what you’re able to stick to and recover from. Ultimately, just being able to stick to it and get the training done is the most important thing you can do to make decent progress.

Keep in mind since you have a very demanding job, if you’re not on top of nutrition, sleep and stresses within your control, you’ll likely struggle to recover from anything!

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[Maddy]

Ello ello, rest day today! Short walk and a little client work followed by a day of chill 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hiya Gavin,

Pretty much here to echo what Jordan and Michaela mentioned! Sounds like you’re on it. No need to adjust carbs for more fats or vice versa. If you’re digesting foods well you can continue to trend both up if need be 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hiya Kian.

You have a nice long runway to continue your push phase. It’s great to do research around it but honestly it’s so person dependant in regard to time scale. It’s clear that your body fat is still in a good place, you have a LOT of room to continue the process.

Generally speaking, the people who make the most progress, naturally or not are the people who are not afraid to push and feel a little uncomfortable. People that tend to struggle to make progress with their physique are the ones that unnecessarily mini cut or jump into diet phases. Don’t fall into that trap. The bottom line is if you are someone that needs more muscle and you truly desperately want to put on more muscle, you can’t avoid this phase.

Commit to this phase for a LONG time and be open to the fact that you may feel uncomfortable. The worst thing you could do is look back at yourself in a year, and look exactly the same. Time to continue pushing yourself mentally and physically my friend! This is the only way.

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[Maddy]

hello hello. It’s been a while since I’ve completed my usual 4 sessions but today was the day. Very happy and most importantly I’m in no pain. Hams, glutes and delts today and I feel a little tight but nothing worrying. A little work , seen grandma and chilling for the rest of the day 👍🏼

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[Maddy]

Hello hello! Fairly chill day again today which has been absolutely lovely. Up and out for a walk and then in for a full leg session. It went really really well. No crazy PBs and not quite up to my usual working weight for some compounds but defo feel like I’m going in the right direction session by session. Work for the rest of the day, a food shop and then chill! In tomorrow for my final session of the week 👍🏼 hams glutes and delts

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[Maddy]

Heya Kian, Jordan has a point. Upper lower might be something that you recover from a little better and possibly find progression more achievable.

It sounds like you’re managing recovery to the best of your abilities and honestly if you’re finding yourself in this place, not enjoying training and feeling really deflated about it all, don’t force yourself to be training this way. Enjoying your training and feeling positive about your efforts will help keep your love for bodybuilding!

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