[Ross]

What are your goals? Why are you staying at maintenance?
As above, if you’re going to put calories up only on certain days rather than go into a gaining phase, maybe do it on days where you’ve maybe got a heavier session like legs or a hip hinge movement or for whatever reason your energy expenditure is higher.

[Ross]

Decent second push session today, staying up later tonight to get into the nightshift mode for tomorrow night, already looking forward to the long lie in the morning ?
Other than training it’s been a very, very chilled day!

Session;
3 sets upper chest cuffed fly
3 sets high incline db press
3 sets flat plate loaded press
3 sets cable D handle press
3 sets lying cuffed lat raises
3 sets seated smith shoulder press
3 sets tricep extensions
3 sets D handle push downs

[Ross]

What does a current day of eating look like for you mate?

Fasted Weight – 194.8lbs (-1.4lbs)

TRAINING DAY DIET:

(on rest day remove the pwo meal 4)

Cardio – 25 Mins Walk (Road Walk) 2/3 x Weekly

Meal 1 – 125g Chicken, 50g Pork Bacon Medallions, 2 x Bread (30g Carb), 60g Cream Of Rice

Meal 2 – 175g Chicken, 150g Rice Cooked weight, Veg

Meal 3 – 40g Whey Iso, 80g Oats, 100g Blueberries, 15g Peanut Butter

Meal 4 (Post) – 40g Whey Iso, 3 Squares Bars (60 Carb), 30g honey

Meal 5 – 175g Chicken, 100g Rice, Veg

[/quote]
You missed out “chewing up noobs in verdansk” ?

[Ross]

Last night I had a posterior session, probably the session I get nervous/excited about the most as this is when I RDL and hip thrust. I absolutely love a hip thrust ?
Yesterday was pretty chill, once I’d cleaned up my son’s sick we just sat and watched YouTube all day, I did a bit of studying before Alice came home then we went and trained;
3 sets of single arm pull downs
3 sets of GHRs
2 sets of RDLs
2 sets of hip thrusts
3 sets of cable row
2 sets of single arm cable row
3 sets of upper back row

Digestion has been feeling a bit off today and yesterday, tummy feels a bit weird, wondering if it’s something going around, especially after Rio was sick. Going to wait a couple of days longer to see if it passes before I look at swapping foods out etc.

Off to train my second push session of the week now so will be back later with an update!

[Ross]

You’ve got a great starting point for growing, no need to diet down or anything like that so you can crack on straight away with a gaining phase!

A bit of fat gain is always going to happen during a growing phase, maybe even more so for natural lifters, so try not to worry too much about that, get comfortable with being slightly ‘fluffier’ as you get stupid strong before moving to a push pull legs further down the line and when it’s right, pull back for some tidy up phases along the way. But as the others have said, an upper lower split would work well I think!

[Ross]

Weight was at 88kg today, bit annoying but the weekly average was down 0.5kg so it’s not all bad!
First push session of the week in the bag!
Started the day at 0530, got up, took check in photos for Ally, revised some study notes, drank a litre of water then ate before hitting the gym, training in the morning is my favourite!
The rest of the day will involve a little bit of house work, studying, food, the school run and as much chilling as I can manage until bedtime ??
The session went something like this;
3 sets of cuffed crucifix lat raises
3 sets of cuffed upper chest fly
3 sets of high incline smith press
2 sets of low incline dumbbell press
2 sets of pec dec
3 sets of tricep cable crossovers
3 sets of overhead tricep extensions with a rest pause in the 3 set
3 sets of cable cuffed lat raises
No massive improvements in numbers but I’m deep in the diet so I’m not expecting any miracles!

[Ross]

Morning all, rest day today, weighing in at 87.4kg and grateful for the rest day ? as I get leaner it becomes clear just how little tissue I have.

Completed and passed the final assessment for my level 2 gym instructor qualification yesterday then trained legs. Due to the day being a bit all over the place my food wasn’t where I wanted it to be but still had a hard session! Got to bed around the usual time of 9.30, woke up today about 6.30 feeling good but sore. A day of stretching, studying and some Warzone is in order.
Last nights legs looked like this;
2 sets adductor
3 sets lying legs curl
3 sets of quad extensions
2 sets smith squats
3 sets leg press
2 sets single leg ham curls
3 sets calves
The equipment at the gym is very basic so smith squats are about as advanced as leg days get ?

Have a good day everyone!

[Ross]

Morning all!
Weight today is the same as yesterday, 87.8kg bringing my average down by 0.5kg since last check in.
Updating my log for yesterday as both Alice and I were shattered after last nights session. I had a successful pull session after being at work for a couple of hours.
I’d prepped my food for the week in the morning before going to work which is, in my opinion, the most important thing you can do if you know you’ll maybe not have the time during the week.
Last part of my level 2 gym instructor course this week, already booked my level 3, the sky’s the limit!

Here’s how my session went;
3 sets of lat pulls
3 sets of single arm machine rows
2 sets of single Db row
3 sets of cable row
3 sets of rear delt
2 sets of upper back row
3 sets of cable curls
2 sets of hammer curls

Legs later, there’s absolutely no way I’ll be fit to post about that before bed so it’ll be another morning update. Have a good day everyone!

[Ross]

There’s just something nice about having a Sunday off isn’t there?
All we’ve done today is the standard weekly food shop and then messy science experiments with my son, kicked about in the garden and chilled out.
Got my food planned out for the week and have started writing out anything that i need to pay close attention to this week, will start doing this to ensure organisation is on point. Already excited for tomorrow’s pull session, happy Sunday everyine

[Ross]

Yeah like Clare says, if it works for you then run with it. Especially during a dieting phase, if you can find something that is optimal for you then that’s amazing

[Ross]

I’ve got a Garmin, tracks my sleep, steps, heart rate and all that good stuff, it seems a bit temperamental at times, had a couple of instances now where it’s not tracked stuff but overall it’s not terrible and not too expensive

[Ross]

Another training week in the bag!
The last session of the week is my second push workout and boy is it a good one, thoroughly enjoyable session!
Got out of bed about 1230 today after nightshift, felt pretty good too! Ate my usual pre workout meal of oats, frozen cherries and whey, scooped one scoop of MVPre, my favourite pre at the minute, and hit the gym with Alice. A couple of exercises in my 8 year old came in and hung about until we were done, making sure we got those last reps in and even did a few of his own bicep curls ? absolute lad.
So the session went like this:
3 sets of cuffed upper chest cable fly
3 sets of high incline db press
3 sets of flat plate loaded machine press
3 sets of cable chest press
3 sets of lying lat raises
3 sets of seated smith machine shoulder press
3 sets of long rope tricep extensions
3 sets of single D handle pull downs

Feel like I’m training harder than ever as my body weight keeps dropping, feel like I’m earning my rest days! Looking forward to doing a great deal of not much tomorrow

[Ross]

Today’s session has absolutely wiped me out, that and the turn around from dayshift to nightshift.
Stayed up to about 1am last night and got out of bed at 11am today, I’ve not quite mastered not feeling wrecked around nightshifts but I feel a lot better now with some sort of routine than I did when winging it!
Posterior day;
3 sets single are pull downs
3 sets of glute ham raises
2 sets of paused RDLs
2 sets of hip thrusts
3 sets of seated row
2 sets of single arm machine row
3 sets of an upper back row
I’m absolutely done ?. Already looking forward to bed in the morning!
Checked in with my coach Ally today who thinks 2022 might be a push for getting on stage and thinks that 2023 might be more achievable. I kind of thought it might happen given how much I need to grow and being natural, bit bummed about it but it’s understandable I think.

Hey have you tried to take rest on the days where you come night shift to day ? It would help you a lot from a recovery standpoint [/quote]
Hey Meg thanks for popping in to my log, looking forward to following yours and Kuba’s progress this year.

So I work 2 day shifts then 2 nightshifts followed by 4 days off and have a 5 day training split so at some point I’m going to have to train after or before a nightshift. It’s far from ideal and some times I just have to suck it up but I just try to make sure that the rest of my recovery is on point like making sure my sleep quality is good, keep stress low etc etc ☺️

[Ross]

Today’s session has absolutely wiped me out, that and the turn around from dayshift to nightshift.

Stayed up to about 1am last night and got out of bed at 11am today, I’ve not quite mastered not feeling wrecked around nightshifts but I feel a lot better now with some sort of routine than I did when winging it!

Posterior day;

3 sets single are pull downs

3 sets of glute ham raises

2 sets of paused RDLs

2 sets of hip thrusts

3 sets of seated row

2 sets of single arm machine row

3 sets of an upper back row

I’m absolutely done ?. Already looking forward to bed in the morning!
Checked in with my coach Ally today who thinks 2022 might be a push for getting on stage and thinks that 2023 might be more achievable. I kind of thought it might happen given how much I need to grow and being natural, bit bummed about it but it’s understandable I think.

[Ross]

Hey dude, it could be to do with how the leg press moves in relation to your foot position, flexibility and range of motion. I know that if I have my feet too low that my Achilles and hips will start screaming so I compensate by slightly lifting my bum up. I have to leg press with a slightly higher foot position because that’s what suits me and my ability, and then I need to make sure I really brace down hard, pulling down on the handles almost as hard as I’m pushing up with my feet.
Maybe just play around with your positioning and see what works for you?