[Rdm1984]

Since your training upper 3x/wk I would remove at least one of the presses on your upper day. You can replace it with a flye variant if you want.

Removing the shoulder press is likely the move since you’re getting front delt stimulus from the other presses and side delt stimulus from the laterals. Can also potentially reduce your back volume a touch since your hitting 3x frequency and just alternate between rows and pulldowns to allow for extra recovery.

Pulling down on your lower volume will also help with Recovery too.

I would take compounds down to a single set and just add in additional sets if they start progressing again.

If that does not work you likely need to pull back to 4-5x/ wk frequency (as the others have mentioned) to allow that fatigue to dissipate so you can see your lifts progress.

Could do something like

Flat Press

Incline Flye

Dip

Lat Pulldown

Upper back Row

Laterals

Bicep Curl

Tricep Pushdown

[Rdm1984]

Cruising at 150mg/wk?

[Rdm1984]

Hey big Dawg,

What does you arms and delts day look like?

Also curious if you feel you’ll regain all your previous size once you reintroduce anabolics at their former dosing? I’m sure a good amount of the loss during this time frame is just fullness from glycogen, etc…

[Rdm1984]

Thank you for updating us all on this log. Logging your journey, as you have for years is beyond helpful for everyone, especially since you provide your logic behind changes you make and aren’t set in stone on any one methodology. You do as you preach and manipulate variables to determine what you progress best on, your progress is helpful as a framework for others to do the same. This site is by far the best value out there for educating yourself on how to become very large and lean (I’ve subscribed to others and nothing even remotely compares, especially given the wide variety of athletes you have and the differing methodologies they all employ).

Excited to see your final form

[Rdm1984]

Hopefully it heals quickly bro, bpc and tb500

I had something similar happen one time when I had a dumbbell fall off the back off a rack as I was putting it back and my finger got jammed, pulling my leg straight with tension and felt a pop (same thing, previously injured hammy), think it was the scar tissue letting go. It was tight for a bit and then gone like it never happened

Keep up the solid work bro, excited to see your progress in the pro ranks.

[Rdm1984]

Hearing you mention someone that trains his chest through isolations solely and grows on it is really interesting. I think there might be a place for it if someone has strong delts and tris and can’t stop them from doing all the work in your presses. Its currently a trending ideology on Tik Tok (the platform in generally is annoying) but it does make you take a step back and think that maybe in a scenario like this there might be a place for it.

Most of us think as isolations as an after thought in general for a pump and top up stimulus after presses and rows but for side delts, hamstrings and rear delts we rely on them heavily and they do allow maximum motor unit recruitment of the muscle we want to use.

[Rdm1984]

When you compare growth/muscle retention from 1x/wk frequency to 2 do you notice any difference?

Obviously recovery during this phase isn’t optimal but during a supra physiological phase?

Physique still looks killer even as a “natty” bro

[Rdm1984]

Hey man, huge congrats on the Pro Card, you deserve it, grinding so hard for so long and the look was awesome.

Would you mind posting your sessions as you go through them? (Til they’re all up of course)

Love following along for the journey and seeing how you’ll progress throught the pro ranks

[Rdm1984]

It will be difficult for anyone to help you troubleshoot without an outline of your overall programming (looking at whether volume was too high and a simple deload week isn’t enough to bring you back around).

It’s also difficult without knowing what your exercise execution looks like and whether you’ve altered your form in any way (previously perhaps pushing as a tricep dominant presser and now your setup is forcing the shoulders and chest to be the prime movers but they haven’t got the stimulus they should of through the training course to move those loads).

Provide enough detail and I’m sure someone can provide some assistance brother.

[Rdm1984]

You defo can get efficient at moving weight and it will absolutely not create internal stimulus proportional to the added load . Kuba and I talked about on the first podcast on here that progressive overload doesn’t mean progressive stimulus just by default

Thanks Jordan, that was more what I was looking for, I’ll give that podcast a listen.

I was looking at these videos not for advice, but more observing and viewing it as what not to do when you take things out of context. On paper they’re doing some of the principles correctly, but the application of what they’re doing is not yielding the results they are necessarily looking for.

Using it to more or less deduce what things to look for when programming for ourselves or our clients when it comes to strength increases (alongside our other parameters we look at in terms of progress). I understand that there are neurological/skill adaptations that occur and past that point it should be muscle size increase that would yield strength progressions in the gym. When viewing this sort of thing it becomes very apparent that ensuring that our form is standardized is so paramount to assessing our progressions in the gym.

[Rdm1984]

Definitely not looking there for advice, lol, more than enough resources here from people who have walked the walk and properly educated themselves on the matter.

Was merely an observation and demonstration that getting strong without context won’t necessarily add muscle

[Rdm1984]

Hey Hilly,

I see Bob Waterhouse has been tagging you in his posts on Insta, are you helping him with his nutrition/training or just supplements. He’s been making some very impressive progress and staying very lean while doing so. He mentioned in his podcasts he’s followed “low protein” (1g/lb lean bodyweight) previously, just curious if he’s changed things since working with you.

Love following along with your journal, so much helpful content my man

[Rdm1984]

What do your PED protocol look like for your physique prep?

Very impressive work and look brother

[Rdm1984]

What do you chest/shoulders and shoulders/chest session look like? Slight touch up volume on the non priority session or half/half

Thanks

[Rdm1984]

Hey Hilly,
Been following along for some time and always enjoy reading your insights.
I was curious about your training philosophy. When you document your hard sets vs working sets are they with the same weight and the hard set just leaving a few reps in the tank or are you bumping up the weight slightly on the failure set?
If you had the option to train 5-6-7 days per week would you spread this volume differently across the week, i.e. how many sessions would you do if your schedule allowed it?