[Sam King]

Good morning. So that’s the first training week completed and I’ve gathered lots of valuable data already, really enjoying this. Brief updates on sessions: Push on Thursday was fab. As I had only trained push 3 days prior, admittedly was a smidge nervous but everything progressed.

Friday was the granddaddy hip hinge day with pull and leg top or as it’s lovingly referred to as most, ‘density’ day. Now, I actually tweaked the session as I went along and added some exercises + pulled some. This was definitely the hardest session to program as it can quickly become a cluttered mess of fatigue. It’s not about stringing together one or two great sessions, it’s eking it out over the weeks. Which will lead to more progress – burying yourself in the ground with too much volume or stimulating the muscle for weeks on end with less volume? I’m viewing it as a petrol tank. My sessions drain the petrol and my food/recovery tops it up. Ideally I should be breaking even by the time the next session rolls around. In reality it will likely be you take more than you put in, even just gradually but keeping that deficit minimal over time.

Big moves were double paused SLDL, banded hack, rows and high stance leg press. Looks like a lot but volume is rock bottom and the movements spread out over the session to not cluster fatigue into one bit of the session. 16 sets total broken down as follows:

Lats: 3 sets
Hinge: 2 sets
Quads: 2 sets
Upper back: 2 sets
Hams: 2 sets
Glutes: 2 sets
Adductors: 1 set
Rear delts: 1 set
Abs: BW circuit

As this session is on a Friday and the next day is a rest day as well as Saturday, it’s perfect.

Anywho, time to go and train push today. Low incline Smith, high incline dB press and dips on the agenda today ?

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[Sam King]

Agree with all of the above. Is it really necessary the night before a show when you might not know how it may affect you? Personally, I’d stick with familiar foods and have one of the options you were given post show. It’s only one more day out of months of dieting.

Unfortunately we can’t all be Nathan De Asha the night before a show.

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[Sam King]

Good morning. First rest day of the new split after three days on and it is needed. Still woke up at 3am mind but quickly fell back to sleep thankfully.

Legs yesterday was a corker. This session was the real test to program myself. Being as I’ll be hitting legs on Friday within the density session, needed to errr on the side of caution. Some DOMs today as a new movement or two, along with a focus on re-establishing a strong connection.

One of the big daddy movements was the banded Cybex leg press. Been doing it for a while, but have dropped from 3 to 2 sets and earlier in the session. Other big change is the re-introduction of the barbell squat. Yep, that exercise that nobody does anymore. I’ve done decades of squats and it’s a movement that has never clicked. However, I never made the effort to squat properly. Just a case of loading up, squat down, stand up and repeat right? No. Really focused on the execution and staying upright to maximise the stress on the quads.

In the past, like many, it would be a powerlifting squat with the lower back ‘contributing’ to the lift which leads to more weight lifted. However, that’s not the only goal and is third on my list – execution, intensity and then load. Will see what happens and monitor the impact on other movements, especially the hip hinge on Friday.

Just one set of 15-20 is the goal. Let’s me really hone in on the exercise and not get carried away with overloading the bar too soon. Plus, it is an absolute killer on the body. Time will tell if it’s a good fit for my current setup.

Rest up today and push day tomorrow

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[Sam King]

Morning. First pull workout without a hinge yesterday and not gonna lie, didn’t feel right. Last time I didn’t hip hinge in a pull session was in the last few weeks of my 2019 prep as the risk versus reward wasn’t worth it at the time.

The session itself was great. As it takes a while to get the deadlifts setup (gathering plates, warming up, dying from the sets) and the fact they amass so much fatigue, I felt fresher and more efficient on my movements.

Double paused SLDLs will be in every Friday. That’s one of the benefits of my new split – that each day is fixed so I know every Sunday will be push and every Friday will be the hinge/leg top up session… or ‘density’ as people like to refer to it.

This is the third day on the trot I’ll be training and it’s legs, so very interested to see what we have in the tank. As I’m hitting some legs again on Friday and still adjusting to increased frequency, won’t be getting carried away with intensifiers for now I.e. drop sets, RPs etc I may auto-regulate and sporadically introduce, but straight sets are the primary focus for now and making sure I can recover from that + the volume I have set myself.

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[Sam King]

A great weekend – nice and relaxed, just what was needed. Back to training yesterday after a few days off and felt refreshed, ready to attack with a new vigour.

Push session was on the agenda and was very good, 10/10. Big daddy movements as follows:

Low incline Smith: 104kg x 8
High incline dB press: 40kg x 15
Low incline Smith: 111kg x 4
High incline dB press: 47.5 x 3.5
Weighted dip: 72.5kg x 3, 50kg x 11

Main takeaways is to get the reps up. Primary goal was to have a few sessions of handling these heavier loads for fewer reps, just to get over that apprehension especially with the overhead press. Quite stubborn in the fact I like to get the dumbbells in place myself and back down. Sure, I might lose a rep or two swinging the dumbbells into place but it was allllll me bra. Also because I train so early, there isn’t always someone on hand. Besides, it’s so faffy to hold one in place and someone awkwardly try to place the other into your hand while you’re still balancing the other one.

Pull today but no hinges ? rows and pulldown movements are the go to today.

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[Sam King]

Impressive physique mate ??

Cheers bud, much appreciated

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[Sam King]

First post of November – worth the wait I’m sure… probs not. Anyway, have been extremely busy with life and work so updating my log is not a priority in that respect. However, I am determined to make it a daily non-negotiable in line with my others. It’s just identifying a dead pocket of time such as scrolling the gram or aimlessly just sitting there. Speaking of the gram, I’m capping my daily usage again. If I said to you, what were you scrolling and interacting with on the gram yesterday most people would not be able to roll off much of what they looked at. Almost mindlessly and passively interacting with most of it detracting from the fundamentals in life. True, there are some who make their living from these platforms and therefore spend a large part of their day on there. Ultimately no right or wrong, each to their own and suited to their own circumstances but personally for me spending a disproportionate amount of time in the digital world aimlessly doesn’t enhance my mental or physical well being.

Enough serious non bodybuilding stuff, let’s talk. Training has been going extremely well but fatigue has made itself known. In an uncharacteristic move, I decided on a 3 day break. Noticed my usual warning signs creeping in, primarily falling asleep on the sofa. Was meant to train legs today but the last session was so so. Not to say if I have one bad session, it’s deload or rest time. It happens but when other variables crop up and you’re in tune enough with your body to nip them in the bud, then listen. Another warning sign is gym sessions taking longer than usual which is a catch 22. Technically still doing the same volume of work but eked out subconsciously over a longer timeframe. Like to use the analogy of your body is a sandbag and as soon as you lift your first weight, a tear in the bag occurs and that sand leaking out are your energy reserves. After that workout is done, you slap a plaster over the hole and look to refill the bag for next time. However, if you lose 500g of sand and can only replenish 450g, then this adds up over time and before you know it the bag is empty.

Another reason for a few days off is I am going to temporarily increase my training frequency. It could be great, it could be a bust but I’ll never know unless I trial it. It definitely wouldn’t be manageable long term but even a short period may help substantially. So, the plan is to work every body part every few days. I’ve read a lot of literature over the years that increased frequency with the same amount of volume can be very beneficial. This is especially true for a lil natty. Training being the primary catalyst for sparking growth and by upping frequency, there should be a steady stream of progress.

Now with increased frequency comes several factors to address – risk of overreaching sooner, volume management, intensifiers, adequate recovery, movement choice and so on. I’ll be spending this weekend working on my split and piecing it together from the data I have gathered over the years. Looking forward to trialling this out and whether it’s a win or a bust, it’s valuable data and something I took a risk on.

Back to the gym on Sunday so until then, reeeelllllaaaxxx.

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[Sam King]

Good morning

Feeling good after yesterday’s rest day and ready to tackle legs today. Didn’t have the greatest night’s sleep and woke up at 01:30, so 2 hours before my alarm. Not ideal but made the best of it. 2kg of chicken, 1kg of mince and 800g potatoes cooked up, along with utility bills/accounts set up at our new house. Such an old man morning. Still waiting around an hour to train mind ?

May be weird but sometimes cope with a little bit less sleep, even when training. Might be a different story altogether later mind. It’s all in the mind mostly and as soon as I walk through those gym doors, we’re golden.

Loving my new routine at the mo. I haven’t moved far from where I used to live, but it’s a different walk. It takes slightly longer but I felt my old walk was too quick at only 10 mins. It’s now around 25 mins one way, which may sound a lot however it’s the perfect amount of time. It gives my body a decent warm-up, plenty of time to think, listen to a fair whack of music and prep my mind/body.

Similarly on the way back it acts as a cool-down and a breather before I have to interact with anyone. I used to always say to my wife ‘give me a bit of time to come down’. Well now, I get it without coming off as a dick. One other plus is the walk there and back is around 5,500-6,000 steps. This means a big chunk of my daily steps are boxed off as part of the process and almost subconsciously. I’d do them regardless, but feels like an efficient use of time to do as much as possible before I need to be present and accountable to others e.g friends, family, work.

Enough waffle… for now

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[Sam King]

Good morning. Just like that, another weekend committed to the archives and November inching closer. Spent a good chunk of the weekend sorting out our house and it’s slowly coming together nicely. Becoming very proud lil homeowners ?

Training wise – couple of amazing sessions with push on Sat and pull yesterday. Will focus on pull in this entry as some slight tweaks. So, conventional deads have been in for around 8 weeks and that’s about as much as I’m getting from them at this stage in my development. I could continue to push, but I know how my body ticks and 8-12 weeks is optimal. The fatigue and stress accumulated eventually far outweighs the positives. I used to be stubborn and push through, as I can run movements for months or even a year and still progress.

Yesterday saw the re-introduction of the double paused SLDL. I really enjoyed the movement when programmed in earlier this year and know how effective it was. This time I’ve decided to hold each pause for a count of 2. The execution would be pull the bar to shin level, hold for 2, lockout, lower to shin level, hold for 2 and return to the floor – that’s one rep. Not for the faint of heart or anyone with any posterior niggles. For me, I view it as a good opportunity to continue to thicken the posterior chain and really elicit some hypertrophy. Like the deadlift, I’m not sure how long it will stay in but I’m hoping to get back to around my old weight by the end of its run. 180kg with 2 sec pauses for 6-8 sounds scary as fook, but within my realms.

Yesterday’s first session saw 170kg for 6, followed by 150kg for 8. Felt very good and everything was burning – lats, glutes, hams, traps. Another movement I’ve re-introduced is the dual dB row. The Gym Shop supported row was ok and I see the merit of being supported, however I also see the benefit of stabilising your own physique and doing a movement. If anything, it’ll carry over nicely to my deads. I also found the fixed position of the handles on the chest row niggled my right bicep. Similar to what happens with barbell bent over rows.

Guess the take home is obvious- find a pool of movements you enjoy and that works for you, milk them dry, rotate out when done, rinse and repeat. Just be 100% honest with yourself and just do things you want, but also what you need and likely dislike as they’re weak points. Anywho, have a cracking day if anyone’s reading.

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[Sam King]

Good morning. Checked in with myself the other day and weight was 82.15kg, waist 72.5cm. Visual feedback is good as well so increased food by a smidge. On training days carbs upped in pre, intra and post. On rest days, tiny increase in fats M1 and minute carb increase M4,5,6. Will see how this affects the body by next Thursday and re-assess.

Great leg session the other, despite losing a rep on my heaviest set of hacks I gained a rep on my first rep and final set was up by 2.5kg, one rep down. Very easy to look at one set and think ‘aww man, no progression- fail.’ Always look at your other sets as well. Using the above, my first set was bladdy hard and that last rep was a screamer. Going into my next set, I’m carrying the fatigue of that all out set prior. It’s going to have a knock on effect and it’s naive to think otherwise.

Started the session with a top up set of side and rear delts – nothing taxing, just an isolation movement. Few sets of biceps after and then legs as follows:

Seated single leg curl: 2 sets
Adductor: stack + 75kg x 10 – 2 sec peak hold. Same weight, no hold x 12
Double thick green Banded hack: 102.5kg x 10, 110kg x 5, 92.5kg x 15
Gym shop leg press: 230kg x 27 – 2 sec pause each rep in the hole.
Leg extension: 1 x drop set
Glute drive: 2 sets
Back extension: 2 x 45kg dbs x 10
Abductor: 1 x RP
Walking lunge: 2 x 40kg dbs x 20 steps
Standing calve raise: 1 x DC set
Hanging leg raise: 1 x DC

Push session on the agenda shortly. Looking forward to it as nobody trains early on a Saturday. Gym is pretty much my own space for the majority of my session, pure bliss

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[Sam King]

For whatever reason my body loves dips and pull-up variations. Best dip was earlier this week with 80kg x 1 at a bodyweight of 81.65kg.. so close to dipping myself haha.

Best pull-up was 50kg for 5, bodyweight around 80kg mark again.

When I was younger (18ish), did 10×10 deadlifts with 140kg with a min rest between sets. Safe to say rest of that day was written off ?

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[Sam King]

Morning morning

Rest day on the agenda today and it is thoroughly needed. Due to the nature of my split, there is is always one calendar week where I’m training five days compared to the usual four. It’s still the same volume ( each body part worked every five days) but psychologically it feels more as your working week days are the same.

Yesterday’s pull session wasn’t too shabby at. I used to start with my big pull but noticed while initially it was fine, it became more awkward and didn’t feel 100%. Now I start with a cable pullover, followed by a couple of sets of a pull-up or pulldown depending on rotation. Much better connection and feel more primed for deads. Big pull yesterday was paused RDLs, count of two in the stretch each rep. First set was 191kg for 5 and that was bladdy hard. Second set was 170kg for 9 which felt much better. Rest of the workout was on point as well.

Current diet is as follows

Training Day

(4.20am) Meal 1 Pre gym meal, – 40g protein from whey, 80g COR, 50g blueberries, half a cookie
(Train 5.30-7.30am) Intra mixed in 1-2litres of water, drink steadily throughout – 40g EAAs, 5g creatine, 50g Cyclic Dextrin – 60g for leg day
(8.30am) Pwo – 225g chicken/turkey breast, 1 wrap/pitta bread, 150g white potato, AND, 70g cocopops/rice crispies/frosties with almond milk – 85g cereal leg day
(11am) Meal – 200g chicken/turkey, 10g fat from pesto, 400g white potato
(2pm) Meal – 200g 5 fat beef, 50g rice or pasta, 1 apple
(5pm) Meal – 3 whole eggs, 100g white fish, 100g pineapple
(7.30/8pm) Pre bed – 20g pro from whey, 300g fat free Greek yoghurt, 50g nut butter

Non training day

(6am) Meal 1 – 3 whole egg, 5 egg whites, 20g walnuts, 10g pumpkin seeds
(8.30am) Meal 2 – 200g 5% fat beef, 8g evoo, 5 rice cakes, 80g butternut squash
(11am) Meal 3 – 200g chicken/turkey, 1 normal bagel, 15g fat from pesto/cream cheese, 2 easy peelers
(2pm) Meal 4 – 240g white fish, 30g sunflower seeds, 240g white potato
(5pm) Meal 5 – 200g 5% fat beef, 5g evoo, 50g rice or pasta 100g pineapple
(7.30/8pm) Pre bed – 40g pro from whey, 85g oats, 65g banana, 20g jam, 20g nut butter

Current health supps
Multivitamin- 2 a day
Calcium – 1 a day
Vitamin D3 & K2 – 2 a day
Omega oils – 2 Oh-Mega V and 2 standard Omega 3
Curcumin- 1 a day
Join-In – 1 serving a day

Will continue to do my check ins on a Thursday with myself and re-assess from there.

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[Sam King]

Absolute cracker of a push session yesterday! Connection to the movements is fab and actually feel strong-ish. In my eyes I have always been held back as my left shoulder was always my crux. In March last year it was operated on to free up an impingement and shave down some bone spurs. Even after that, it still was not 100% so introduced mobility and bodyweight work to supplement my training. Rather than hammer away and wonder why it still wasn’t 100%, I took some accountability and the time to look into it.

Big movements yesterday as follows

Low incline Smith: 102.5kg x 8, 110kg x 4
High incline dB press: 40kg x 13, 45kg x 6
Weighted dip: 70kg x 4, 80kg x 1, 50kg x 12

Absolutely made up! The Smith is unforgiving. So many people just whack 3 or 4 plates on as they do at other gyms, then get a rude awakening. Tbf if you warmed up properly, you’d notice this as you go warm up that it feels different. Never understand going into a new gym and whacking on your usual weights. Nothing ever feels the same between gyms. 20kg is never just 20kg.

Pull session this morning and paused RDLs. Looking forward to it ?

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[Sam King]

Well then, that was an action packed weekend… and by action packed, I mean doing lots of adult things that I didn’t want to do but had to ? actually, spent some quality time with the nephew so not all jobs. Hope everyone is well rested and raring to go.

Thought I’d give a brief background on the last 3-4 months. Firstly, personal life – started a new job in August, got married in September and exchanged on our house in October. Safe to say I’ve been fairly busy. Hoping November is a smidge more low-key. The most stressful year of our lives, but the cumulative stress is positive (as odd as that sounds) and I appreciate there are worse problems to have. Plus, there are plenty of people who would love to be in that position so always kept that at the forefront.

As I’m sure everyone is aware, Corinne has ceased her coaching and I have managed to survive all of the previous cullings. Unfortunately you can’t survive when the number is dropped to 0. From being one of her first to one of her last, it has been an incredible 5 years. I’ve put a proper post on IG and broken it down if anyone were interested. For now, I’m just going to see the year out myself. Shows will hopefully be on the cards next year so will be doing my research prior. I’m very conscious that this is a two way street and though I’m paying for a service, I like to give back in other ways to my coach. No need to elaborate, some will just understand. Once I have an idea of who I’d like to work, I’ll seek to promote myself to some coaches, determine their expectations, what their service delivers and anything else that’s on my mind.

Training will remain as PPL with top up work sprinkled sparingly through sessions where required. The exercises and set up I currently have are still progressing nicely, so no need to change. Pretty much the same split since April.

Running out of time this morning but will look to update next with my diet and supps. Until the next one, have a cracking day

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[Sam King]

Right then, a good morning (or good evening) dependent on how you view the time ?. It has been a long ol’ while since I have updated this log, not because I’ve thrown the towel in or anything like that. I can’t quite explain why but I guess I fell out of love with the process. I saw it as tedious and just detracting time from my day, rather than viewing it as an additional tool to document progress, vent and ultimately process the thoughts that are circling my mind.

I’ll post a proper update later in terms of where I’m at, goals, diet, supps and all the other good stuff. Just to reiterate my original intentions of this log – this is to document my process and am more than happy for people to contribute or ask questions if they decide to read along. Still blows my mind that people still read the waffle I churn out (yes, that’s you reading this right now ?).

Anyway, getting ready for legs so will update again later today. Feels good to pick up the pen again, errr keyboard ☺️

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