Yes, a long while ago actually. And even after accepting I was still courting some schools in Shenzhen.

I legit should get a videographer and blow up on Chinese social media and get a coaching business going, but I'm too scared. Forgot if I posted about it but my cousin is closing in on 1 million Chinese tiktok followers. He quit his job a while ago and is doing live streaming sales of various imported health supplements and often asks me to be part of the business. Being in the spotlight as a foreigner in China is a bit different and has drawbacks unique to this place.

180cm but obviously the more muscular and lean you are the heavier you look.

Last night training was kinda ****ing around. I was with a female friend who works as some sort of automotive engineer training late at night at a hotel gym she's been sneaking into and not paying for. That actually have some truly amazing equipment and I'll probably go there for some of my workouts henceforth. They have a godly setup for posing and after 8:30 there's no-one but her there most nights.

Push
Internal Rotation mob
Flat db press: 42kgx8, 34kgx14, 8 short rests, humbling lol
Cable crossovers: ??x3 sets failure
DB side raises/SS tricep pushdowns 4 sets each


It was great training in a gym with just two people and actually being able to do cable crossovers for once. It's probably my favorite chest exercise but can't do it at my normal gym because it's infested with ****ing zergling insectoid hive mind creatures who monopolize the single cable machine we have doing dogshit ultra FPS exercises that maybe a super advanced bodybuilder with very specific weak points they're trying to work on *might* benefit from as their last exercise of a session. That gym has a bunch of that modern new age equipment that is actually ****ing terribly designed and has almost no eccentric loading on my normal incline cable flies.

And of course the 38 year old 40% bodyfat overweight 2.5/10 mom is nowhere near the basic barbell, dumbbell, and bodyweight exercises. Gotta do unilateral bench supported cable rows with the trainer constantly critiquing tiny micro-details in your movement to subtly change some bullshit angle to work on whatever. Do that for 26 minutes, wrap up with a few pullovers also on the cable machine, and that's the workout you just paid 400 RMB for the trainer to teach you how to do! And then she goes home and slams down 800 calories worth of sweet bread with 0 protein and a latte with 52g sugar, 300mg caffeine, and soy milk for healthy at 9:00pm and gotta take a picture of your fancylad "western food" to share on wechat moments to impress your middle aged yenta friends with how sophisticated you are. God trainers tilt tf out of me

Trainers giving 0 dietary recommendations, macros, or even outright meal plans is child abuse.

Personal training is such a racket. Trainers at my gym run their clients through gimmicky nonsense like seated bosu ball cable curls and other silliness on a daily basis. They can get away with it because 90+% of the general population is completely lost the second they step foot in a gym, so anyone giving them any form of direction or guidance is very comforting.

I'm convinced that the only thing you need to succeed as a personal trainer in most commercial gyms is confidence. You can know ****all about training, but if you are likeable, a good salesman, and can convince your clueless clients you're giving them a good workout, you'll be busy.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, incompetent CEOs failing upwards or fund managers who can't beat SP500 earing 7-8 figure salaries is a much worse racket. Oh well.

Had a most excellent pull session. I'm gonna put barbell rows third so that stabilization is very easy since my lats are so fatigued already. I think hip thrust, ham curl, and SLDL is basically enough hamstring/lower back loadinng for a week. PLus leg press a bit.

Strapped ring chins: bwx21, 16, 13
Pulldowns: 55x15, switch to mag grip, 45kgx14, 10
BB rows strapped: 50kgx12, 9
ez curls: 20kgx28, 2 myo rep matching sets
Bayesian curls on the real cable machine b/c it was open; 5kgx16, 12, 10


Pump was crazy and I am looking so tight and vascular. Unfortunately i'm feeling a little tingle in the back of my throat and two of my colleagues are sick. That'd be a shame.. I have so much momentum right now.

I'd get a tik tok account for watching this.

* you need to look good too. People choose trainers who have the body they aspire to (or want to ****), despite the fact that plenty of them look that way mainly because of genetics.

Perhaps because I am now an old guy, I would always recommend that people looking to learn how to lift properly/get fitter go for the oldest trainer in the gym rather than the best looking one but...it's always the friendly & outgoing young good looking lean guy who gets the most clients

I'd recommend not getting any trainer at any regular commercial gym tbh. Find a smaller family/non chain gym and find the girl or gal who has competed in some physique or strength sport. They'll likely advertise it.

This.

I had a rather insightful conversation with a bro on Salt Bae restaurants blowing ass. And he pointed out that no one was there to eat a great meal since a better steak can be had for half the price and I can get out of my local 2* for the same prices he's charging.

You need to evaluate whether these people are good on the basis of what their stakeholders think is good, not whether they're good based on what you've deemed the criteria. Implementing a DEI program that ultimately tanks the company culture and bankrupts it could literally be an excellent CEO who was masterful at implementing plans people forced on them. The dude that tracks the SP500 (less his fees) is basically a personal trainer for rich dumb people who wanna pay 2/20 for being able to have a phone call and share weird economic conspiracy theories.

Think I learned a lot about myself and what I value vs what society values by thinking about why people who by my definition are mediocre or incompetent are "successful". Obviously the end result is becoming more misanthropic than I was previously. (Seriously who the **** pays 2x for a slightly shittier steak to take a video to look cool on the internet? And why do other people give a rat's ass what you're eating for dinner? Would anyone be interested in how they seat based on attractiveness at Waterside Inn, the other 3* in Bray, and I got to sit in the middle? Whew great. I'm rich and my wife is hot.)

Yeah. Clearly find the person that can help you achieve your goals. You wouldn't go to swim class at the YMCA and expect to find a guy to put you in the Olympics? They teach non-white people and children how to swim so they don't drown. They aren't gonna fine tune your breast stroke economy and map out your 8k cal a day mealplan.

Another really great workout

Legs
Cable unilateral bicep curls: 4 sets to failure each side
Hip thrust: 2px20, 13, 11
Leg press: 4ppsx27, 20, 15
Leg extensions: 5 sets failure, no myo rep stuff

Figured out a good way to do cable single arm bicep curls on the right side that doesn't bug my proximal bicep tendon. I can do them the normal "Bayesian' way on the left side though.

Now I know not to freak out when I wake up 2.5kg heavier and bloated tomorrow morning.

I am considering implementing a refeed/high carb day on Monday. If I do, no shenanigans or cheat foods. Just a lot more rice, maybe 1.5kg of diced pineapple, blended yogurt+frozen cherries, 500g mangos, maybe some sort of bread or bagels with jam. Gummie worms. Those sorts of carbs, not donuts/pizza/ice cream and bullshiet with tons of dietary fat.

Push
Incline db: 35kgx13, 7, 10
Machine press: 45x17, 10, 11
DB prone delt raises:4 sets
Pushdowns: stackx25, 2 sets myo rep matching then dropped down to 17.5kg for the last set myo rep match

20 minutes posing

60 minutes AM fasted cardio 14k steps

Food:

Meal 1
2 apples, 6 whole eggs, sum blueberries

Meal 2
300g salmon, 140g rice, 150g green beans

Meal 3
75g oats, 300ml skim, 2 scoops protein, blueberries

Meal 4
200g chicken breast, 200g rice, 1 banana, 20g honey (mixed all together with cinnamon and stevia)

Meal 5
300g chicken breast, 150g rice, 70g avocado pulp

I didn't realize I forgot to log FRiday's pull session

Pullups with straps NG: bwx21, 16, 13
Hamstring curls/Extensions: 47.5kgx21, forgot the rest but 2 more sets. 4 sets leg extensions to failure
Paused toes elevated SLDL: 100kgx20, 15
Machine rows: 60kgx3x fail forgot reps tbh
Gave up on curls because my lower forearms hurt a bit. Feels fine now (Tuesday)

Last night's push:
Internal Rotation stuff
Incline machine press: 52.5kgx25, 62.5kgx12, 11
Flat db press: 35kgx12, 8, 30kgx9 having trouble connecting with this movement. No pump despite super slow controlled eccentrics and paused at the bottom
Prone delt raises: 4 sets
Pushdowns: stackx21, 3 more sets myorep match
Leaning away db curls: 10kgx20, 15, 12 each side

Getting to a level of leanness where water retention makes a big difference in how I look day to day.

Gonna go back to the regular push/pull/legs/repeat rotation weekdays on weekends off.

Pull

Lat prayers: 20kgx17, 14
Barbell rows: 90kgx9, 80kgx12, 10
Mag bar pulldowns: 50kgx15, 11, 9
Machine rows: 52.5kgx16, 13, 11
EZ curls: 20kgx25, 3 more sets myorep match

Cardio was 28 minutes AM and 15k steps.

Lat prayers reduced how much I could do on barbell rows by a lot more than I expected. I'm going to take a break from doing pullups first for a while to let my elbows/forearms heal. I'll still do them after rows on half of my pull days, however.

I'm gonna hold back a bit tonight on legs so that I can actually sleep and don't get so much water retention and inflammation going. Maybe do 4px22-24 when I did 27 last time. No cardio today either, just gonna take it easy and get around 12-13k steps.

Are lat prayers a new addition to pull day? I've started to incorporate the rope variety for the past few months and have grown to like them quite a bit.

Yes, also doing rope variation. Remember a few months back I said I was throwing straps away and gripping everything to get siqq forearms? Yeah that just gave me medial epichonilytis (sp?) and overtrained those muscles. I need some more back training that doesn't involve those muscles and it has the extra advantage of reducing the amount of axial loading/systematic fatigue I would need to accrue from rows if I had to do them first because I'd need heavier weight/more reps. Generally my width is slightly lacking compared to back thickness despite being a pullup god.

Lat prayers and DB pullovers seem like good candidates to give your elbows a break. I like both but prefer lat prayers. Pullovers are good for getting that maximal tension in the stretched position though.

I had never heard of these before the last few days, but now I'm thinking I may need to add them in somewhere, as I've added in dumbbell pullovers in the last year and enjoy them quite a bit.

Legs
Leaning away db curls: 10kgx27, 3 more sets to failure each side
Hip thrust: 2ppx20, 15, 12
Leg press: 4ppsx22, 17, 14
Leg extensions: 4 sets failure, was too gassed to do myo rep matching.

did 0 cardio, 13k steps.

Today started with 1hr on stairs, hoping to get to around 15k steps by the end of the day along with a push workout.

Leg press I might do a Rippetoe style ~10% reset and keep a bunch of reps in reserve and build my way back up for a while. I'll restart around 3.5ppsx20, 15, 12 and add about 3-6 total reps across the 3 sets per workout.

Biceps every day is working totally fine tbh. I thought it was going to interfere with back/pull workouts but nah, 3-5 sets to failure with no intensifiers and I'm basically fine and never have sore biceps except after pull days.

I'd suggest swapping out pullovers one workout with lat prayers and see how you like them.