Bodybuilding Classic Physique Division Offseason log

I've been adding bw hangs from pullup bar and stretching in a cable fly position every day in the morning in addition to my normal internal rotaion mobs. No soreness in proximal bicep tendon. Hard to say if it helped or just reduced load and intensity the last upper session.

Terrence Ruffin, another classic mr olympia runner up, on upper lower making his cumback this year.

Upper Lower is the new trendy science based lifter thing. Upper lower is the new ppl. PPL if you can do 6x per week microsessions and truly limit volume and intensity while putting an extra bicep session on either the leg days or the push days to hit them four days per week I think is the 100% most optimal training split for somebody doing bodybuilding for their career who can be perfect with recovery variables. For the person working a job or with family/kids/non fitness romantic partner, 3-4x per week upper lower.

Consistency>Optimality and somebdy doing a bro split but never getting injured will still do great.

Last few days of vacation and I actually wanna go home and get back to my normal working routine and the peace and quiet of The Island away from the Bangkok chaos and pollution.

Oh, I guess I do remember that. No offense but I completely glaze over when Thremp says stuff like that. I don't completely understand where it's coming from. Like, you're involved in a bunch of discussions that go nowhere, but it kind of takes two for that. I don't really mind your posting overall tbh.

This is basically true for almost everything. Optimization paralysis is perhaps the least optimal thing to do and yet so hard not to do.

totally agree

my size gainz haven't been incredible given age (53) and Manorexia meaning I'm not eating enough, but this last 12 months of just getting into the gym 6x per week and doing 45-50min bro split sessions...with prolly 33% of them being 'harder and more intense' and the rest being 7-8/10 intensity has had me happy and injury free and enjoying/looking forward to my training and feeling great in everyday life

I am so much happier doing this than the 5-6 years a decade ago when I was doing intense squatting and o lifting programs, hurting myself every 6 months and being fatter and depressed because strength and 'size' were such a focus. My life is no better leg pressing 340kg than 260kg or whatever, but it's way worse when I'm hobbling around injured or feeling stiff and sore with DOMS and fatter because of the mountains of food I felt I had to eat

Hopping on supraphysiological testosterone and getting a coach (me) to bring you from dad 2 chad transformation would be a good post-divorce devastation arc just sayin. I mean strictly from a narrative standpoint, but also for getting your dick wet. I mean losing a ton of money in a divorce to a real c-word and then getting jacked+strong+leaner and banging some young women (plural) barely older than your children would be a pretty good movie. It might even get Montecore back on the fainting couch with its machismo and salaciousness.

I just keep stringing together awesome sessions that feel just right in terms of difficulty and smashing through PRs. Can't stop #winning

Upper
Low incline db press: 40kgx16, 12 (last time was 15, 11)
cable fly with externally rotated grip: 3 sets failure
V-bar pulldowns: 130kgx17, 12, 11
Chest supported row machine: 2px12, 9, 10
Single arm pulldown: 1px10, 8 each side
pullover//delt raise superset: 3 rounds

I've been letting myself eat a bit more and I'm up to 101.4kg with clothes+shoes in the gym well hydrated. So still sub 100 AM fasted I'm sure. I just need to stay under around 103-104 by the end of march and we're in a good spot for a 20 week contest prep diet.

The classic physique pro who owns this place and has competed 5x as pro asked if I was already a pro <3

****, given that I tend to look much worse offseason than precontest compared to other bodybuilders, maybe I actually have more of a shot than I think at actually winning the pro qualifier in August. It really depends on who else shows up. If not, I'll have a very high probability in 2026 if I can keep progressing the way I have the last 12 months.

Executive decision:

Cancel/seriously lighten tomorrow's lower workout and do the real lower workout on Sunday. I need to get into my Sat/Sun/We/Thu lifting schedule worth work starting back up next week. I'll do Mo/Tu/Thu/Fri later but RN I have boarding house duty on Tuesdays and after-work meeting on Monday.

Being on vacation seeing other people (bodybuilders and fitness professionals) on the grind makes me realize how absurdly easy my job is. Comparing to the sitaution last year where my job was very demanding has the same effect. I get paid a good bit more, have way more holiday time, way less busy with actual hard academic teaching and exam prep, and spend a lot of time at work doing fack all nonsense and 'pastoral care' which is not even real work just kinda babysitting and socializing with kids or watching them do utterly pointless activities like sign language bees or singing competitions. And then of course I've got the Chinese retirement, (almost) global health insurance, free housing, free education in the unlikely even I actually end up with kids of my own, 0 pollution, visually beautiful environment. But the extremely large tradeoff is very few viable members of the opposite sex in my proximity.

Met some Australian bloke who's just moved out here (Bangkok, not my city in China). He's about to do his first competition; my physique mogs TF out of his. He's on that online coaching grind producing what is from my perspective, very high quality content with lots of fancy editting, training people in person, marketing himself for both online and in person training, and probably just barely getting by financially working well over 60 hours a week. Still only in the 3 digit subscriber count on instagram. I reallllyyy hope this guy is successful because I can tell he's got the passion and mindset to make it happen, but the physique isn't quite there yet b/c his bodyfat is too high. He's doing a prep but only giving himself 18 weeks and he needs 24-28. Shirtless/posing trunks/underwear posts get far more engagement than lifting posts or education/information posts (even for powerlifters, surprisingly), especially when lean. So hopefully his prep allows him to farm more instagram followers even if he ends up not being quite ready on show day.

If I were 24 and a miserable near-incel in a western country it'd be easy to make the tradeoff to make like ~20k usd/yr in Thailand but actually be able to have romantic interactions with women and do something entrepreneurial I'm passionate about. But now my opportunity cost for coming here and pursuing a coaching dream is extremely high to where it's just not gonna happen unless I manage to already be making a ton of money on coaching before I ever even come. Getting my second client on stage in August just before my own show and he's set to do really well. He also powerlifts but converted to bench only due to back injuries and I think a 200kg bench is happening in 2025. 200kg bench with visible abs and <120/80 blood pressure.

Yeah. Turns out that wasn't really optimal in the first place for most of us anyway.

I always loved putting 234234234 plates on for leg press but couldn't b/c of barbell squats or something.

leg press>squats of any form for actual leg development. Maybe squats do a slightly better job on glutes. But squats are mostly ab, core, and lower back training while legs are secondary once you're past like 2.5 plates for 5rm. Even the dwarves will get more out of leg pressing than squatting, but the gap wont be as severe.

This forums fixation on squatting was embarassing.

Except rfess and ffess, these were slept on. Absolutely fantastic lifts for balanced leg development that hits hams glutes and quads way more equally than anything else and great for building healthy resilient knees.

noobs get up to around 225x5x3 then move on with your life

4 months. Before you shout “steroids！” he had already been enhanced 7 years and benched 172.5kg at 100 before we started.

Still coaching for free. Other coaches will get you less shredded with more needless suffering. Pivoting more toward the hardcore crowd, not the first 3 years of training crowd.

I mean, I wasn’t on this forum then but I was Rippetoe-ing on my own post my CrossFit days and to this day, despite what I posted a day or two back. I still have a slight embarrassment that I’ve given up squatting and have an occasional hankering to start again

That’s interesting and good to know Re the leg press. I certainly feel that might be the case with me. I’ve noticed my quads look bigger and feel stronger.

I have thought about this a few times tbh and if I was going to reach out to someone for help, it would be you because you very clearly care about both the craft but also about making a difference and helping.
I’m actually pretty happy with where I’m at/what I look like. Of course there is a lot more I could do to get better nutritionally and probably training wise, but it’s whether I have the drive and desire or not to do what’s needed to make those improvements. I know I’m at least a 9.5/10 ‘for my age’ and probably for guys 10 years younger. But again, it would be awesome to look like a total weapon

Tbh the women thing is going very well. Albeit I’m chasing women in the early 40s and up age group. I’m really not interested in messing around with women that have any interest in wanting kids and even really women with young kids. And having 18 and 17yo daughters….I’ve just trained myself not to lust after the sib 25 ones

haha, trained myself not to lust under 25 that's a good one.

Just did a lazy arm workout today 9 sets bis and tris each relaxed pace.

I'm not coming back for an extended trip here for a while. At most 1 week. It's going to derail my contest prep too much with the process of flying/hotels/eating different food even if it's actually fairly easy to eat healthy. But more than that, opportunity cost of spending money on Thailand travel is high with BTC developments going at a breakneck pace as far as institutional/nation state adoption.

I'm going to try test+ment solo. I have run ment before, but I was running ment+tren+test. Let's see what happens with just 2 compounds. If I don't like it, just swap back to test+primo+mast.

GH is coming back in and also starting lantus at 20iu/day and humalog at 6-8 iu pre/post from Sunday. about 7 weeks left of eating in a surplus before contest prep. It will be the most important contest prep of my life so far and one where I'm in a position to really lock in. Deserted island living, no girls, low job stress, no super delicious restaurants with delivery, super high quality gym, adequate meal prepping facilities... this is it, let's see what happens if I go 100% allin for once.

If my wife ever lets me get a divorce count me in.

Also, I have trained all women under 25 to not lust after me. I feel like I really dodged a bullet by not being wealthy, attractive or charismatic enough to deal with all the problems of dating young women.

lmaoooo love it.

Thanks for dropping in, made my day.

It was. I'm not sure if he is dishonest as a learned skill or a heritable skill. Being brown puts him at an obvious heritable IQ disadvantage (lol science). But is being a liar something that is heritable? Hard to know.

If you want a quick summary:

1) Allegedly read 1984 but apparently didn't know what the capital letters indicated proper nouns.
2) Repeatedly lied about addressing a post in LC. Think it took him 6 posts to quasi-admit he was dodging? Clearly spinless shitskin behavior.
3) Blatantly doesn't understand science. Including a comical misrepresentation of the current state of skin color/IQ research. (Some part is obviously heritable even by our current comically biased research.)

I'm sure he'll write a wall of lies. It is in the blood.... or learned... or both.

looool thanks for stopping by Big PapaMontecore. or MontePapa. If something goes tits up in your marriage (extremely unlikely) obv my offer is on the table for you as well.

Arms+lower

EZ curl bar went missing like lol wtf I am the one who bought it and brought it scuse me?

Cable curls: 21.75x21, 12, 9
pushdowns: 28.75kgx22, 20, 14
db seated curls: 10kgx15, 2 more sets
db skullcrushers: 10kgx16, 2 more sets

Triceps not recovered as I got over 20 reps 2 days ago on db skulls with 10kg

And lower
Single leg extensions: 30kgx15, 12, 10 each side
seated ham curls: 55kgx17, 12
Paused SLDL (no toe elevation): 125kgx14, 10
Lying ham curls: 32kgx9, 25kgx10

My leg extension machine in my China gym mogs TF out of both of them in Bangkok gym. Actually in general this China gym mogs my Thailand gym. I just got super lucky this was built so close to me as it's probably like the 2nd or 3rd best equipment I've ever used. It leaves a bit to be desired on pressing machines and hip thrusts, but in literally every other department its just unrivalled. Especially having the 2nd cable machine (very rare in China) and the huge selection of back/lats equipment. And the benches are nice and wide and stable too.

I feel so happy being home. I can't believe I actually started disliking being in Thailand. It sucks there are so few ladies around here where i live but in every other aspect my quality of life is so much higher. 0 pollution and no noise/crowds, pleasant natural visual environment, "servicable" restaurants but not great, kinda shitty grocery stores but I've got taobao... I could be here a long time. Getting p*ssy is g4y anyway. Maybe I need to try huahin or Phuket. The BKK pollution was giving me severe sleep apnea and breathing problems throughout the day and I felt so physically crappy. Pattaya/jomtien is just a no go for me. Too filthy, both metaphorically and literally. Montecore wouldn't be on the fainting couch, he'd be on a stretcher with simultaneous heart attack and stroke. I've heard Chiang Mai is great and more laid back but has even worse pollution.

I got a great story about the Chinese speaking French guy and his wife in BKK. I'm not even sure if I told part 1 in here. Let me just jot a note down here to remind myself when I've got some time to tell all this. He was interesting to be sure, but she had an even more fascinating come up story that really well illustrates how the Chinese dating and marriage markets work.... it's so radically different from the west and much closer to somewhere like India than it might first appear. TLDR she worked at a startup dating app and became a USD millionaire before age 30. Full story later.

oh right SLDLs.

Cliffs:

Without toe elevation=more glutes but also more lower back
With toe elevation: more hamstrings, but less glutes and lower back

My glutes are overall worse than my hams. Prob because I never recruited them much in my years of squatting, whether high or low bar. It was all quads+lower back. I can definitely move heavier weights and get a satisfying glute pump at the end. I can just do both seated+lying ham curls on this session to compensate for less ham activation on this day. I can also just keep it in the rack and that makes loading and unloading so much faster and easier which i always like.

Next session on wedesday: High incline db or bb, machine fly+v pulldown superset, hammer rows, high rows, pullover+delt raise+bicep superset.

was cruisin the ggo thread for nostalgia/lols and came across this from Doug Funnie II

f'kn lol. No girl has ever been remotely impressed or aroused by some dweeb olympic lifter with 23% bodyfat and no upper body musculature cleaning 140kg. This was such wishful thinking.

But alas, 2009 me read this post and probably nodded along in agreement.

6 chest exercises guy probably end up a super lean and muscular jacked 5'10 165lbs with nice abs and muscles poppin out of his shirt slammin the sorority sisters. God forbid he takes up incel-lifting and high bodyfat as a young man.

On the other hand, I'm still over here fantasizing about taking a 4 month break from bbing and re-igniting the oly flame knowing what I know now. What'd probably happen is that even with perfectly reasonable 3x/wk programming my knees still end up exploding. I can barely tolerate 3 sets of FFESS and 6 sets of leg extensions per week without having sore knees. I didn't get it too bad when I did that 8 weeks of squatting earlier this academic year and worked up to 140kgx12 which I guess is pretty good.

I miss DFII, def a all timer.

So many guys quit h+f. And a lot of them even quit lifting. Or they took up cardiotarding but still strength train. So few hardcore lifters left.

Saw. Jaysick. Cobrastatus. DFII. RealBusto (still active on instagram but doesn't really lift much). FakeB (transitioned). Anklebreaker. Assani Fischer. bididdy. ParlaySlow. KPC.

RIP.

Fast forward to 2032 and I've won my pro card doing 1-2 pro shows every year tryna qualify for the olympia and working as a high school principal. Still posing rants and logs on 2p2 to an audience of just ghosts. like an old madman refusing to give up the state of the world as it was before the smartphone era. Some mix of sad and inspiring.

it seems like 2p2 had a disproportionate amount of very active weightlifters back in the day

Yeah that makes sense though. We all came in through pro gambling or at least viewing gambling in a mathematical way. Oly lifting is nuanced and was really not mainstream at that point, so ofc a lot of aspies who would think mathematically about poker would also be attracted to something like Oly.

Midwits and tards love bbing because it isn't very nuanced!

so i basically just go to the gym, have a general theme of what area i'm going to target but that'll change on the fly ie i get there and see all the squat racks are occupied so i pivot and focus on another general area - if my current location/lifestyle makes that difficult then i don't go (ie i'm currently 30 min away from nearest planet fitness and otherwise occupied with things i could be doing so haven't done very much since that began last 2 months but will resume again next week)

it's much more for mental health and just resetting - allowing my brain to turn off and spend 1-3 hours casually working machines, maybe mixing in some cardio and lots of massage chair time (again primary focus here is mental reset which is achieved gloriously) and catching up on audio books

i have gains but nothing really massive nor am i trying to get them necessarily - you can definitely tell by my appearance whether i've spent the last 3 months working out regularly or not and it''s a pretty substantial improvement - it's especially noticeable in my face

but just how much am i leaving on the table not following a structured program?

knowing that i'll never put in gonzo efforts in organizing and executing the program, would i be significantly better served at least having a set list of machines i'll do in a specific rotation?

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