Bodybuilding Classic Physique Division Offseason log
You know you who it is already. Can't recall my old password or even what email I used so here we are. I promised I'd start logging if legend n1h did. So that's why I'm logging.
Short term goal:
Successfully formulate a relatively optimized and easy to adhere to offseason diet model. In terms of food selection, I am more or less following Chris Tuttle's recommendations. Our very own BGP has been getting some free diet stuff from Chris since he has a full client load but will send a handful of emails to people for free if you ask nicely and want help. If you don't know who that is, go on youtube/instagram and see the man's work.
Remain injury free, which is easy with my new exercise selection which loco would describe as "leg press and lat pulldown 4 lyfe"
Adjust to a more strictly bodybuilding programming style as opposed to a "powerbuilding" style.
Here is the medium term goal:
2024 summer on stage in classic physique division at a level that would be competitive for winning a pro card. Winning the card itself is immaterial for the medium term, it'll happen when it happens and I will be patient.
Possible obstacles to this goal are gym closers due to continued zero covid policy, possibly moving countries and being unable to focus on prep in the interim, or international political disaster. All of which are legitimate risks.
Ostensibly we will start competition prep late winter 2024 and do a very long slow 20-24 week prep where I never need to bring carbs lower than 200g/day.
Long term goal:
Compete in one professional level show in the classic physique divison in the next 10 years. Don't really give a **** about placings.
Natty: No. Test, deca, mk677, humalog, cjc with 1295 with DAC, berberine (although the last one is both a PED and a general health supplement). Low doses. high dose AAS are massively overrated for hypertrophy, the real magic is the insulin and gh (or gh secretagogues in my case). less than 1g of injectables with PEDs that work on the IGF pathway is much better than 3g of injectables, for example. I'd advise anyone who wants to go down the PED route to incorpoate gh or gh secretagogue peptides along with insulin while they are still taking 1cc of test per week before you ever add any other AAS or increase test dose. You can keep your AAS doses much lower if you actually address this very critical muscle building pathway rather than solely relying on AAS, which are harsh... man...
No prep drugs or harsh AAS until the aforementioned 2024 late winter date.
Diet: High carbohydrates with carbohydrate cycling (2 high days the day before my 2 leg days, 1 low day on the day off, 4 medium days per week offseason), moderate protein around 1.125g/lb of bw, low to moderate fats. I tried a high fat Palbumo approach in both offseason and precontest this academic year. It was a ****ing disaster; this is a terrible way to diet for bodybuilding. Although if somebody is not trying to look lean/dry/hard on stage and maintain athletic performance in the gym, it'd be a great diet to follow because antecdotally it can lead to very high compliance for some individuals because it just destroys so much of your physiological cravings and lowers appetite considerably. Somebody like the apple-pied obese woman who's username I don't even remember might do well on this because she could probably eat 80/20 ground beef bunless bacon cheeseburgers twice a day for an emotional high, not feel hungry the rest of the day, and have only consumed like 1800~ calories daily.
More detailed post with training program and food log to follow. I'm a busy man.
facial hair very negative EV everywhere in asia in all contexts except the miniscule amount of interactions you might have with western or eastern european women.
It’s a particularly North American thing. Women seem to actually like beards and goatees there. They don’t fly in the land of the kangaroo and it’s basically fat or ugly men with facial hair to distract from their core features
It’s a particularly North American thing. Women seem to actually like beards and goatees there. They don’t fly in the land of the kangaroo and it’s basically fat or ugly men with facial hair to distract from their core features
A large part of my personal decision is that Mme Melkerson dislikes it intensely. Not just on me, but on virtually all dudes. But I'm pretty sure she is in the minority on that one (at least over here).
Incline db: 40kgx11, 9, 7
flat db: 30kgx14, 10, 9
machine flies: 40kgx12, 9, 7
cuff side raises: 4 sets failure
db prone raises: 4 sets failure
Pushdowns: 28.75kgx25, 3 more sets failure
skullcrushers: 7.5kgx14, 3 more sets failure
Push
Incline db: 40kgx12, 9, 8 was really not expecting this
flat db: 30kgx14, 9
machine incline press: 2 sets, don't like it will scrap
cable flies: 8.75kgx15, 12
cable hip height side raises: 6.25x4 sets failure
db prone raises: 7.5kgx4 sets failure
triceps pushdown: 28.75x15 too heavy, 21.75x12, 8, 9
db skulls: 7.5kgx15, 12, 7, 10
Weight felt very heavy and awkward when I got into the gym. It's b/c the dbs are much thicker handles and I stupidly tried to do only 3 warmup sets at 15, 25, 35. Stupid, 15, 25, 30, 35 and just hit the 30s and 35s for 2-3 each
Looked at pics from 3-4 weeks ago. The scale weight staying the same isn't always bad (been around 96) but the progress on visuals have been quite disappointing. My fats/calories are too high. Too much flank steak. I'm having it like 3x/day minimum. Back to chicken breast after I finish off all the flank I've made recently. I'm thinking probably 3x 220-250g chicken breast+potato meals/day, then one oatmeal meal with whey per day. about 12g of butter added to each chicken meal and 17g almond butter with the oatmeal. Fruit at every meal. (apples and frozen blueberries)
I'm becoming an apple fancylad. A student's dad donated a bunch of super premium apples and I was hooked.. ordered 3 boxes of it and then another box of some other random expensive premium kind from Japan.
I learned grannysmiths lose all of their tartness as they ripen and start to taste kinda watery and lifeless.
Fat loss/visual improvements aren't great, but god damn are my workouts going extremely well
Leg extensions: 3 sets failure forgot weights tbh
Seated ham curls: 2 sets of 15 both failure
paused toes elevated SLDL: 110kgx15, 12
lying ham curls: 39x13, 7
Leg press: 3ppsx23, 15, 12 all paused
Felt very good and didn't feel super tired at the end like last week.
3 plates toes elevated paused SLDL for 15 in Q1 2024? I wonder what conventional deadlift I could put up if I got that strong... I think my best so far was 120kgx20 and 125kgx14
Pull
NG pulldowns: 80kgx17 or 18 I forgot, 11, 9
underhand rows: 70kgx12, 9, 7
underhand high row machine: 40kgx10, 30kgx10x2 weird selectorized machine with much more load in the stretched position
hammer rows: 2ppsx12, 10
cable pullovers: 2 sets
cable facing away dual handle curls: 8.75kgx22, 3 more set
Pull
NG pulldowns: 80kgx20, 10, 8
underhand rows: 70kgx14, 7, 8
hammer rows: 2ppsx13, 10, 8
pullovers: 3xfail
New bicep exercise 1 set failure
cable facing away: 6.75kgx20, 2 more sets
straight bar curls; 20kgx12, 15kgx12,9,8
20 minutes posing
Minor pain in proximal bicep tendon about 2.5/10. I know that doing a full workout on monday is an easy way to give myself 3-6 weeks of impaired or off training. So monday I'll deload chest and just do 30kgx10x2 incline or something and then my normal delt+tri stuff.
I took video and I think I actually have been leaning out visually, just the spot where I take pics in my house makes me look like absolute dogshit.
Gotta work tomorrow until 1pm. One thing I love about this job is that we only work 3 saturdays per year and one of those is just a half day of no classes watching rich kids do rowing competition. At a normal Chinese school literally every holiday you end up doing makeup days on weekends and its typically normal teaching schedule, plus you come in for some saturday/sunday 1/2 days to interview prospective students. Posh British school doesn't do either of those; instead we show up to "work" by going to a scenic river to watch various rowing competitions for both students and for professional athletes.
Switching to upper/lower/upper next monday. Here was yesterday's deload workout. I am switching because I think this will help with the pec/bicep tie-in pains I have been getting. Working on internal rotation mobility has helped a lot, but I still needed to go light today and give it more time to recover and I'd like to be able to train uninterrupted in the future
Push:
Incline db: 15kgx12x3, 20kgx10, 25kgx10, 30kgx10x2
machine press: 3 sets effing around reverse grip
OHP machine: 3 sets failure but shorter rests this one actually feels great
Cable side delts: 4 sets
DB prone delt raises: 7.5kgx23, 3 more sets failure
Pushdowns: 28.75x23, 3 more sets failure with lighter weights from 17.5kg to 21kg
DB skullcrushers: 7.5kgx20, 3 more sets failure
numbers on tricep moves way inflated because of less fatigue from pressing
Here's a rough draft of new program
Upper 1
Low incline db: 2 sets failure
Machine fly: 2 sets
Pulldowns: 3 sets
Underhand bb rows: 2 sets
cable facing away dual handle curls: 3 sets
ez curls: 3 sets
Pushdowns: 3 sets
Skullcrushers: 3 sets
Lower+ delts
Cable side raises: 4 sets
prone delt raises: 4 sets
Leg extensions: 3 sets
Seated hamstring curls: 2 sets failure
Paused toes elevated SLDL: 2 sets
Lying hamstring curls: 2-3 sets
Leg press: 3 sets
(basically same as before)
Upper 2
Flat db: 2 sets
Machine press of choice: 2 sets
Single arm plate loaded pulldowns: 3 sets
Hammer machine rows: 3 sets
same biceps and triceps as upper 1 but maybe play around with different curl variations here and there
Very slight reduction in volume for back+chest, moderate increase in volume for arms. SAme volume for delts and legs.
I like 3 days a week. If I ever went to four, all I would do is split the lower into hams vs quads. Do leg extensions+ham curl+sldl on one day, then the other day do leg extensions+other ham curl+leg press. Right now lower body volume is manageable for one day.
JK lol literally a day later I've changed my mind. Sticking with 3x/wk ppl and gonna take out bis+tris and possibly delts and put them on a 4th day later. Too worried session length is gonna be too long if I do the upper/lower program above.
"It seems like most bestselling books on success and greatness focus on the idea that talent is overrated, that anyone who puts in a particular amount of practice and dedication can reach the same heights of greatness. These books downplay the role of genes and play up the importance of luck, opportunity, and the drive to reach high levels of expertise. These books make greatness accessible to everyone: If you just put in the work, you can be the best in the world."
Based and blackpilled. Figure out what you're genetically good at early in life. I certainly failed to do so. But it's aight because I figured it out late in life and the things I happen to be good at (foreign language acquisition, bbing, speaking in general) tend to be forgiving to older people and aren't things you need to do when you're young before its too late (oly, bball, massive cumshots)
I guess that's why parents intuitively know to give their kid a wide variety of experiences with sports/hobbies/academics because kids will probably naturally gravitate toward what they are genetically predisposed to be better than other people at. If you push something on your kids and they're acquiring it at a slower rate than their peers and not getting the dopamine hits and social status of being perceived as superior to peers, they are gonna quit really fast.
You need to do massive cumshots when you're young before it's too late? I'm hesitant to ask for details, yet I find myself unable not to. Also, giving or receiving?
what about when you're old? is it too late for me?
You need to do massive cumshots when you're young before it's too late? I'm hesitant to ask for details, yet I find myself unable not to. Also, giving or receiving?
idk where I was going with that tbh. Porn star or something I guess.
Legs
Leg extensions: 3 sets failure didn't really track reps/weight
Seated ham curl: 41.25x25, 16
Paused toes elevated SLDL: 115kgx15, 12 second set sorta hard
lying ham curl: 32x17, 12
Leg press: 3ppsx24, 12, 13
Everything paused except lying ham curl
Now that I'm fairly deep into cut the nocturia is getting bad again. 4-5x/night. Ordering some more mirabegron. Apparently its good for fat loss and acts on beta 3 fat cell receptors similar to clen without any stim effect. fat loss is going fine I just pee too much at night.
Hunger is still easy to manage. I'm taking a different approach with much lower protein and much more carbohydrates; still low fats though. Yesterday
Meal 1
200g chicken breast
270g white potato
70g guac
Meal 2
200g chicken breast
250g sweet potato
green beans
large apple
Meal 3
80g cream of rice
200ml skim milk
1 medium banana
2 scoops whey
14g almond butter
Post workout
500g green mango+chili salt
Meal 4
200g chicken breast
270g white potato
70g guac
1 large apple
~100g dates
12k steps
about 60g protein 4 meals. If I calculated this up it'd probably come out to around 240 protein 400 carb 50-60g fat.
Since I switched to all fibrous carbs I can't eat green beans too often without getting excess fiber symptoms. I think my micronutrition and minerals will be fine without any vegetables b/c I still got a lot of fruit in there and the potatoes have a lot better micronutrition than rice.
60mcg clen, 20mg yohimbine, 450-500ish caffeine. no thyroid stuff, probably never going to use it anymore.
His cutting calories are higher than your bulking calories.
My bicep/shoulder thing has been bugging me but seeing gradually daily improvement. I'm going to do horizontal pulling only on Friday: Hammer row machine, then barbell underhand row, then plate loaded low row, then selectorized machine row.
Next monday I have to work 7 to 7 so not gonna try and train that late. I'll just move push to Tuesday, which is perfect because it will let my shoulder/bicep thing heal 1 more day. I'll reduce volume of chest workout to maybe 3 sets incline, 2 sets flat, 2 sets machine fly from now and and pray that's enough to prevent and further issues with it. It hurts a lot less than the last time I overworked it. I think the seated supinated curls might have been the culprit, but cutting down on volume/frequency/overall work seems to keep yielding positive results anyway so cut chest from 9 sets to just 7 per week.
