[Marc]

Agree with all the guys points above here, definitely a test e only cycle for your first one and get blood work done beforehand from a reliable company

[Marc]

Day 1 of going with a different routine today. Started my day with morning steps at the gym, followed by an abs circuit and also my usual mobility exercises. I have been doing my mobility work at home along with abs, but now my leg is getting better I’ve added in morning steps at the gym. The morning steps is really to help set my appetite up for the day which had taken a hit the last 10 days or so. My daily step target is 8k for now.

I trained pull today, had a few extra things to get done today so this meant training at 5pm and wow was the gym busy.

Todays workout was,
Single arm d handle pull down x3
T bar row x2
Rear delt seated row x2
Wide latpulldown (using gym pin bar) x2
Cable shrugs x3
Single arm cable bicep curl x2
Single arm preacher curl x2

Todays workout had more of a focus on mid/upper back. My pull workouts have been split up to help bring up my overall back and to reduce excessive volume within sessions. My next pull session will be Saturday.

Day 1 of reduced food and I definitely noticed it drop in calories. This is exactly what I need to help re-set appetite and put in a better position for when food starts to creep back up.

[Marc]

Hi guys new plan has been sent over today. Similar to what I said on Sunday I’ll update you as I go with the changes being made and the adjustments.

My appetite had taken a hit so my macros/ calories have been adjusted, shown below.

Previous calories:

TD – 300P 675C 100F

*NTD – 300P 450C 80F

*1 off plan meal this day

New calories

TD – 250P 450C 80F

NTD – 250P 350C 100F

Whilst my appetite is being reset for the next two weeks I won’t be having my usual off plan meal like I usually would on a NTD. We want to get out of this phase as smoothly as possible and keeping the structure over TD and NTD will really help here.

I’ll be keep you updated as to how I will work my meals also, starting from tomorrow!

[Marc]

Hello Marc,

i am sad to still hear from your knee issue – hopefully that heals fast & well 😓🙏 Do you plan to get more youtube videos out or only updates here?

Hi Laurenz

That’s ok, appreciate the message. My knee is improving and not need an operation is also a positive as I was told I would likely need one initially.

YouTube is something I do want to start again, but as for updates I won’t be putting much out on social media or on YouTube.

I’ll keep you guys updated here but, from the initial message I put out about my knee (and some negative feedback) I feel it’s best to do what I need to do in order to get back to full training and less talk.

[Marc]

Hi guys

Later than usual log for me today due to some family things I needed to get sorted.

Today I should have trained push, but with travelling back home yesterday the journey took a lot longer than expected I didn’t go home until close to midnight.

Chose to take today as a rest day, with the intention to have an early night to start my training week tomorrow. Unfortunately that didn’t have due to some family things that came up.

However, I do plan to start my training week tomorrow so I will keep you guys updated.

[Marc]

What is your competing goal? Do you want to be competitive or compete for fun?

If it’s to be competitive I always think it’s best to think long-term and look at the bigger picture. If there are areas to build on and you are aware of this, don’t waste time putting energy into cutting and competing for experience.

Build the physique that you will be proud of before entering into a competition prep.

So I would set some goals for competing in the future. Break these down month by month and monitor your progress.

Building your physique will add to the experience when you do compete, but I would never say to rush the process.

[Marc]

I agree with Peter. Generally I would say shoot for a minimum 20% of your overall calories. So for yourself given the macro breakdown you said, 56g would be 20% of your overall calories.

It’s almost important to know what works well for your body, which you have said you perform better on higher carbs / lower fat.

If you are going into a diet phase soon I’d be inclined to increase fats a little from now as when you start to pull calories fats could end up pretty low fairly soon

[Marc]

Agree with the guys response here. Something I had tried, but definitely messed with insulin resistance and made me feel lethargic. It’s not worth it in my opinion

[Marc]

I had a call today with Cal, to go over where I am at currently, the next steps and how we move forward progress wise.

I’ll break these down into areas;

Training – I have been doing 1 leg session a week since my knee injury. I’m still building strength back up here, but we are now going to add in a second leg session a week.

Food – because my appetite had taken a hit, for the next few weeks I will be pulling back on calories to help reset appetite.

Competing – when the next show will be down to how my knee progresses and what this allows in terms of what I can do exercise wise. The next few months will help determine when I will next compete. Health phase is complete so the push up will slowly begin.

Routine – I will be making some changes moving forwards with how I structure my day to give me the best runway for progression this off season (I will talk more on this as and when I update my daily logs.

I’d say these are the main points that we covered today. Over the next few weeks I will be able to explain more about how things are being implemented based on the above.

For me I know there’s room for improvement to be a better athlete. I never want to compete to make up numbers, so it was important me and a cal had this call today so we could both map out what the next steps will be and how we go about making these improvements.

[Marc]

Chilled day today with Kerry down south. Nipped over to Brighton for the day, went to a really nice Brazilian restaurant, lots of different meats and buffet food.

Saw some of Kerry’s family today also which was good as we both haven’t seen them for a while. It’s been good now we’re not on prep to do a few extra things (like travel 4 hours down south) to see family that we wouldn’t have done when on prep. Trying to get a balance this off season where possible, without compromising our routine

[Marc]

What you are able to recover from will come down to different factors such as your volume, how much sleep you are getting, structured food and so on.

If you haven’t already, like some of the team have mentioned give the workout split a try you have mentioned and see how you fair.
From what you have said with chest being an area you want to bring up, I would place a direct chest exercise in Friday delt dominant session. You have got two high incline presses (slight different in angles). I would take one out and do a direct incline chest movement. However, be mindful incline chest press will workout your front delt too. With the high incline chest press exercise in a Friday session you could go with a different exercise to Monday, perhaps using a narrow cable stack with D-handles for you incline press which will allow you to converge (bringing the handles in)at the top of the movement.

Work in different rep ranges for the two incline chest press movements over the Monday and Friday session and get stronger over different rep targets.
If you start to feel like your recovery is slower, think about whether the intensifiers from dropsets on the Friday session is needed.

Let us know how you get on.

[Marc]

Another additional point is that around the time of a females monthly cycle might dictate how programming is set up. For example my girlfriend can’t train the same as she would in terms of intensity and weight the week leading up to her cycle, so programme design needs to be mindful of this factor too.

However, as the team has said above this is person dependent but an extra point I wanted to add in here

[Marc]

Back session today down at south coast gym. This is where I would say it’s my home gym (away from home) when I’m down here with Kerry.

Happy with how the session went, I was able to do my usual exercises for pull (I didn’t do any biceps because I trained arms a few days ago). The gym didn’t have a chest supported tbar row so I did free standing. This actually went better than I imagined because I was able to load a decent amount of weight (6plates) and I didn’t feel any pressure on my knee which is a bonus considering I haven’t done and exercises which might put extra load or strain on it.

Got a call with Cal tomorrow, where we will map out the plan moving forward from next week so I am pleased about this. I’ll keep you posted.

[Marc]

Wash it with some white vinegar and rub lemon on it before you season and cook it. Usually does the trick, this is what I personally do when I buy raw meat

Thank you mr. Marc for the suggestion, I will give it a try. A question if you will, can apple cider vinegar be applied instead of white vinegar or does white vinegar work better ?

[/quote]
Hi Ousam

I’ve never used apple cider vinegar before. Growing up with my parents being from the Caribbean it’s pretty much the norm using white vinegar and lemon to clean raw meat, then seasoning it and then putting in the fridge until it’s to be cooked (unless needed there and then) is what I am used too.

White vinegar is super cheap to buy though

[Marc]

Hey Marc. Sorry to hear about your knee issues. I’m a physician from the US and sports medicine falls under the umbrella of my specialty. Thought I’d chime in here. From what you’ve described, it does sound like meniscus tear or irritation (since the imaging hasn’t shown gross abnormalities). In the absence of hemarthrosis and gross instability, the initial management of a meniscal tear is usually conservative with gradual progression back into activities. So what you’re doing is spot on. Conservative management tends to be successful in someone your age and the history you describe (no trauma like severe twisting injury) as long as the knee isn’t locked or severely restricted (your locking seemed more intermittent). Hope this gives you some reassurance.

Hi Steve

Thanks for your message and taking the time to give your input. The initial opinion was that I had either a meniscus tear of partial quad tendon rupture.

I had two mri scans done (one mri scan was through the National health system, but they would have took months for me to get my results back. The private scan showed major inflammation to be the main cause of my symptoms. I was deep into prep, with steps and cardio both being high so this could have had an impact. I’m still building back up with my leg training as strength has definitely decreased and I’m making sure I’m doubling up on my tbjp supplements to help the inflammation (join-in, fish oils, cure-coming, osteo-pro).

The locking I had the consultant described it as pseudo locking. This has stopped now. For now building back up without rushing the process.

Thanks again