[Matthias]

Hi mate

You’ve got plenty of opportunity here to make like for like switches.

As Louis says, you can switch your high incline barbell for a high incline dumbbell, or you can switch the angle of press.

Pull down can become a pull up or a different handle attachment

Behind neck press can become a standard shoulder press – barbell or dumbbell.

Yates row to Pendlay row.

Then tricep and bicep are obviously very easy to interchange variations.

Lots of options mate

Thanks Rich !

[Matthias]

Hey buddy, you can vary your workouts by switching between using the dumbells and the barbell. For example one workout do flat barbell press, the next workout do flat dumbell press. This will give you different stimulus. You can also vary movements by changing angles. With inclines or declines. Not just for pressing. For chest supported rows I’ll adjust the incline of the bench to hit different areas of my back when rowing. Also changing the direction the weight is moving, flaring elbows or tucking elbows. There’s lots of small variations you can make on simple exercises.

Got it – thank you !

[Matthias]

Because you don’t get a choice when you get given a + 1 on the rep , it’s not that simple when you train hard . Surely you have felt that yourself where you don’t just get to go, ah ye I will have one more rep today ?

For us , that doesn’t happen , for us we will try and we may get it , we may not . Some of us micro load regardless , and then if you get the + 1 rep too, that’s a double bonus

Got it – thank you !

[Matthias]

Great work, really well done here. I agree a few more weeks to get as lean as you can would be ideal here. You can make these adjustments through TD and NTD food, daily steps for TD and NTD and direct cardio too.

Thank you Marc – I’ll keep on and feedback soon !

[Matthias]

I tried that approach with different calories for TD and NTD.
I ended up like the pics show. I’m satisfied with it, but need another 2 week period to cut successfully before to start the Push phase.

Any recommendations for that ?

[Matthias]

I finished successfully my diet and wanted to start a solid and slow push phase.

I stopped my routine for 1 month, when we got our son in decembre.

Now its time to continue but I see a drop in quality of my starting point (gained fat, lost muscle >> weight went up from 76 to 80 kg)

I planed a big calorie deficit from around 2600 cal, back to 2000, reintroduced AM cardio and work out again.

This should last for around 2 weeks and than I can hopefully start my push phase.

What do you think and recommend ?

[/quote]
Thank you very much Hilly, I’ll shoot for that and feddback soon !

[Matthias]

Hello mate, why a BIG calorie deficit

Don’t rush the process !

Reduce 200/300kcals et redo your routine, compo gonna improve from there

And imo, you need to be a tad leaner than the pictures you have posted in november before starting the growth/ so take your time

Don’t set “duration, timing” , set a “look” to achieve, slowly.

Don’t jump that much with calories up and down. Do things slow

Alright, thank you Allison !
Doing that and fight this impatience again…

You mentioned to get leaner. “How much leaner” or what weight do you recommend ?

[Matthias]

I finished successfully my diet and wanted to start a solid and slow push phase.
I stopped my routine for 1 month, when we got our son in decembre.
Now its time to continue but I see a drop in quality of my starting point (gained fat, lost muscle >> weight went up from 76 to 80 kg)
I planed a big calorie deficit from around 2600 cal, back to 2000, reintroduced AM cardio and work out again.
This should last for around 2 weeks and than I can hopefully start my push phase.

What do you think and recommend ?

[Matthias]

30 pounds over 24 weeks would be great yes

I do it slowly and start my gaining phase with 1500 cals.

Now I’m on 2400 cals and my weight didn’t go up.

I increased the food weekly for the last 4 weeks and my weight jumped&fell but didn’t increased constantly.

Is it that normal after a fat loss phase ?

I would go ahead with this approach and still increase my food every time my weight stalls, right ???[/quote]

It can be yes as the metabolism picks up speed.

I would keep increasing food if weight doesn’t increase for 2 weeks personally.

Sometimes it takes the body time to catch up and settle but it’s case depending. [/quote]
Thanks Hilly !

I had already feared that it would just take its time…

I’ll keep on and stay patient…

[Matthias]

30 pounds over 24 weeks would be great yes

I do it slowly and start my gaining phase with 1500 cals.
Now I’m on 2400 cals and my weight didn’t go up.

I increased the food weekly for the last 4 weeks and my weight jumped&fell but didn’t increased constantly.

Is it that normal after a fat loss phase ?
I would go ahead with this approach and still increase my food every time my weight stalls, right ???

[Matthias]

5pm

Thanks Captain !

[Matthias]

I would advice double station approach, pairing two antagonists together:
A1 Quad 1
A2 Hams 1
Optional:
A1.2 Quad 2
A2.2 Hams 2

B1 Chest
B2 Back width
C1 shoulders
C2 Back thickness
D1 Biceps
D2 Triceps
E1 Abs
E2 Calves

Doing 1 top set of A1, rest, top set of A2, rest, back off set of A1, rest, back off set of A2
Go on to the next exercise pairing and repeat…

I do the same with less lower body focus injury related and need around 60 mins in total

[Matthias]

For future reference, in my opinion I don’t think there’s usually a need to drop calories weekly. You want to do a “big” enough drop initially to get the ball rolling, and carry that out a few weeks until you see the progress stall and the need for further reduction is there, and continue that process.

I lost around 7,5 kg in 8 weeks and reduced the calories by 200 every 2 weeks.

Only the last 2 weeks were combined with weekly reduction down to 1500 cal.

Now I reduced the morning cardio down to 10 mins from Monday – Friday and feel good so far.

Workouts stay the same, 3/week full body (upper body focused).

I’m now in push week #2 and eat 1700 cal daily.

I chose the approach high carb on training days and low carb on rest days and will see how it works for me.

[/quote]

It’s pretty normal to have higher carbs for training day and lower carbs for rest day so this approach is fine bud [/quote]
Good to hear !

[Matthias]

High incline dumbell press is the absolute goat, I only stopped as I was doing the 85kg db and it was just annoying as fuck at that point . I would probably still do them if I trained at strength asylum though , they had the best db ever

Mostly my triceps fatigues first with DB presses – regardless of grip position
Any advice to fix that ?

[Matthias]

Hi Matthias,

Plenty of very very very good chests were built with predominantly free weights.

Don’t let a lack of Prime kit be a barrier.

Keep on pressing – thank you