Lol staying in China. Good luck with the job. Protect tsmc.

ohhhhkkkkayyyy the last few days have been a rollercoaster.
1. HK school said "we were busy and didn't have time to meet and decide who we want to hire, expect an answer Wednesday/Tursday next week."
2. Guangzhou completely scrapping covid controls/testing. Seems gov't is caving to protests, which is shocking and unexpected. Hopefully this doesn't embolden the ******s to protest even further. I mean lol@ XJP stepping down or constructing a representative democracy out of thin air. Might as well ask Santa for a space station. Scrapping zero covid is as good as it gets. Maybe less rapid unpredictable regulation like shutting down that ant group ipo.
2. Gyms re-open on the third. They are unlikely to ever close again after that. I'm sure I'll catch covid and be derailed for a month or so because of it at some point, but I'm cardiotarding hard and supplementing with vitamin d so hope for the best. Covid tests only required weekly and no longer need to show QR codes or covid test results to enter any neighborhood.


Looks like the endgame came much sooner than anticipated.

HBBS on competition stiff bar: 3s from 110 up to 165, 145

Holy **** stiff bar is gay as **** for hbbsing chads. Soooo uncomfortable.

I regret peaking for this meet. I am learning very quickly just to what extent powerlifting is not for me. I mean I already knew it wasn't since I cannot bench press, but jfc stiff bar is the worst thing ever. Let's make a bar that rewards lbbs ****** and punishes HBBS true atg squatters f'kn lol.

If I ever do a meet again, DL only for sure. My cardio is also trashed doing all this low volume peaking. All those 10s on squat and 20s on leg press are a very tough cardio workout. Now I have trouble going up five flights of stairs to my work. Just lol @ powerlifting. Worst sport ever and I'm not even on the 10 hour meet day filled with 30% bf delusional permabulkers. Enhanced PLers take way more PEDs than bbers and it's not even close.

I should be pleased I even got to workout at all today, but now I just feel angry at the whole sport of powerlifting.

Am I gonna get my booster vaccine? probably. 2nd shot facked me up pretty good but I'm gonna get covid at some point I may as well try to be as protected as possible.

excellent English language indepdent China journalism.

I passed on the third American booster, don't want to get myocarditis.

Be careful with those Chinese vaccines bro, if they were causing problems they would hide it for sure.

WAT? Myocarditis ain't gonna get you if you've got HEART.

I thought for sure you had it. Maybe I've got you mixed up with someone else.

The Chinese vaccines are made with older and presumably more well understood technology. I most definitely got side effects from shot #2. The day after had some swelling at the injection site and bed ridden sleeping 16 hours a day for like 3 days. Then after that weird discloured mucuous and an unshakeable cough for about 3 months. Shot #1 had the bedridden-ness for first 2 days then back to normal.

I wish our HF community had an autistic PHD vaccine expert. Especially one who does a lot of evolutionary psychology spam. What a shame...

We back, baby!

Delts+Arms
DB ohp seated: 25kgx10x4

SS1
Hammer curls//pushdowns: 15kgx10x4, 20kgx20,15, 10, 8

SS2
EZ curls//overhead pushdowns: 20kgx12,12,10,12, 17.5kgx4 sets failure

SS3
DB seated hammer curls//db skullcrushers: 7.5kgx10x4 both

I'll pour one out for you, homie.

hahaha. I mean it looks like I won't even have time to get the booster and they're just doing a "**** it, protestors. have what you ****ing want, we're not even going to try to get the vaccination campaign going first. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!?!?!" So all I can do now is get in as much cardio as I can without disrupting my powerlifting prep and eat+supplement smart for immunity. Good news is with gyms closing all the time I am back off cycle and on "bodybuilder trt" 250mg/wk test and 150mg/wk deca +ghrp6 so lower androgens should help with having any serious complications when I do get covid. I got some EQ raw materials coming in the mail so my offseason will be a classic test+deca+equipoise cycle with gh+insulin. I really love orals but they do not love me back... even 20mg/day of var killed my appetite. I plan on taking about 18 more months totally off orals including injectable orals and use them 6-8 weeks out from 2024 competition.

My mom, grandpa, sister, and dad all managed to not get it in the past 3 years and I'm the most physically active and attentive with diet of that whole bunch. My ex-gf who I'm still close with in the UK who I am also still coaching got it and said it was basically body aches+fever for 48 hours, no respiratory symptoms followed, and back to normal training within 4 days of onset of symptoms.

Deadlifted today and set an all time pr. Obviously it's all neuorological gains from peaking strategy and not actual "everyday strength" gains from having more contractile tissue. I have probably much less contractile tissue than this time last year, but just planning one's training around fatigue can make a huge difference in #s.

Deadlift: up to 220x4, then 3 singles at 200.

Tomorrow off, Tuesday some chest+back, Thursday hit S+B+D openers at the competition venue, then do basically nothing more than 65-70% singles and take 5 full days off training before meet day. Bench idk what I'm gonna do. Anything from 60-120 depending on how my shoulder feels. I'm okay with just throwing in a first warmup set bench press to say I did full power.


I'm still trying to figure out how I will do my training after the meet. I do want to keep deadlifting, but barbell squatting is out for sure. Problem is it's really hard for me to fit DLs anywhere and stay at 4 days per week, so they might just have their own day and I have to exercise the discipline to hit a 5x5 or 10x4 deadlift, some hamstring curls, and gtfo of the jym to not build up too much CNS fatigue. I do want to experiment with doing DLs as second lift after pulllups on back day; if doing pullups first doesn't deduct much from my deadlift I can do this and just deadlift on back day. If it takes off a full 20kg to do 5 sets to failure of pullups pre deadlift though, then yeah I gotta give them their own day.

I've also thought about doing a modified DC training thing where I do arms+legs+delt and then chest+back A/B/A/B 3 days per week. Delts would just be raises, arms high volume, but legs, back, and chest do basically as written in DC. I guess first thing I'll try is the pullups before deadlift thing on back day and if it doesn't feel good after 2 weeks, go to a 5 day split and have deadlifts on their own day.

Went in hoping to hit openers today, but ended up 10kg lighter than I'd planned on sq and 20kg lighter than on dl. Had a lot of hip flexor pain squatting. Hit a little higher than I was planning to open on bench and I might move it up slightly.

SQ: up to 160
BP: up to 110
DL: up to 200 (opening at 220 or 225)

I am really excited to be finished with this ****ing powerlifting meet. I greatly regret signing up for it. I really do not enjoy this style of sq/bp/dl low rep centric training. I really do not care about my 1rms on some barbell lifts literally nobody cares about. I really like higher rep cardio feeling training, getting a pump, looking good, and being fairly lean year round.

Some new routine I'm considering:

Monday
Back+bi
Pullups, 5 sets failure
underhand rows: 4 sets of 10-12
unilateral pulldowns: 4x10
Machine row variation: 7x12
Other machine row variation: 7x12
EZ curls: 4 sets failure

Tuesday
Chest+tri
machine press: 3 sets to absolute failure.
Incline db: 4x10-12
flat db: 4x10-12
Fly variation: 3x10-20

Thursday
Leg press: 4x20
Split squat (rfess or static lunge, doesn't matter): 4x10 right, 2x10 left
Hamstring curl: 3 sets failure
SLDL: 3x10
Glute kickback machine: 3x10

Friday
Arms+Delts

DB ohp: 4x10-15

3 supersets 4 sets each exercise
pushdowns//hammer curls
dual rope pushdowns//ez curls
db skullcrushers//db hammer curls

Another rear delt+side delt db superset with 5-7.5kg dbs

On alternating weeks, 2nd back workout variation:

DL：5x5 with last set being no more than RPE 7.5... something I could probably get 8-10 reps with gun to my head.
Overhand strapped up rows: 2 sets failure high high high reps like 15 at least on first set.
Pullups: 3 sets failure
Unilateral downs: 4x10
Row machine: 4x10
Ez curls: 4 sets failure

and if this is just too hard/takes too long, I'll absolutely drop the DLs and just let my SLDL progress do the work.

I just got a bad feeling about 5x/wk. My recovery is so ****ing bad. Everyone was screaming at me about how "bro steroids let you train harder bro" but so far that isn't panning out and I trained like a maniac while natty but now I gotta really pull tf back. Maybe it's just being nearly 34 years old now. Either way, prioritize recovery and eating more meat+rice over being in the gym more. Also I think every other week conventional deadlifts is basically enough to get the unique glute+hamstring+lower back benefits I get from the lift that I don't think you can get elsewhere.

Pump sesh yesterday

Machine press: 40kgx12x3
Incline paused db press: 20kgx10x3
Pullups: bwx4x3 didn't feelt right
Pulldowns: 1.5ppsx10x3 paused
Row machine: 3x12
EZ curls: 20kgx20x3
Pushdowns: 3 sets

I didn't get the hong kong job. I ain't mad tho. It's looking like SG is probably both less competitive and a higher salary and a better life-fit. With China opening up, I'm not even sure I'd take a job in Thailand at this point, surprisingly. Money is just becoming too important to me at this stage of my life. I'm turning 34 next month and I'll feel pretty bad if I'm not fairly close to 7 fig portfolio by 44. Obviously that'd be a lot easier in SG/HK than mainland china. I guess that's part of maturing... experiences and athletic accomplishements take the back seat and $ becomes a bigger driving force. I imagine it is even more this way if you are a dad. Sydr0m told me to gtfo of teaching and get into the crypto industry; i turned down one job earlier this year because it represented a paycut and i actually mentally freaked out hard at the idea of a distance job and not having a lot of face to face social interaction at work. Maybe... I don't know, prob stay in teaching because I ultimately do enjoy most parts of the career even if other parts drive me totally nuts.

Although I guess Jay Powell and Vitalyk probably have as much control over my net worth as I do lololol.

Got covid I think. Hard to tell because tests are sold out lol. But my class and school had a ton of people who turned up positive on home tests so overwhelmingly likely I have it. Feels like a cold but more mild respiratory symptoms and more severe fevere/body aches. I'd say it's about a 4/10 lol. I remember in the lc thread like 3 years ago somebody said if you're a bber on roids and get corona you're definitely going to die. Nah... so far so good. I would have gone to work today if I was allowed to but they're saying everyone who has a fever needs to stay home from work. If I just have a cold/flu and not covid right now I'm gonna be really pissed. I was going out of my way to get infected ASAP to get this over with. Looks like most people are dropping outta the meet or not going to lift hard at the meet. I'm def dropping out. Even though my symptoms aren't severe, it always takes me a long time to recover from this stuff in terms of performance.

I ain't mad. This is my chance to start that big full on bodybuilding offseason finally. Test+eq+deca+gh+insulin 4.5k calories per day 300g protein sub 70g fats rest carbs training 4x/wk cardio on stairs 3x/wk 25-35 minutes for health and performance. And I'll be doing it for 3.5 weeks in Thailand with excellent gyms/equipment and a lotta sunshine.

Might have a 2p2 meetup with me, BGP, and Syndr0m.

Man, who knew the 2p2 hot spot would be China?

I certainly didn't have that on my bingo card.

Yugo,

It is in Thailand. I may actually be there as well, if BGP wants to organize his hit squad.

I got a buddy heading to Thailand also. Must be the food. Or the ladyboys.

I will be passing, need to get to Australia before any Thai adventures.

Lol going to Australia

Hmm, well that's not on my bingo card but certainly on someone's bingo card.

Btw, how is the new house coming? Iirc you were building a new house. Sounds pretty cool.

After around 6mon of one regulatory process (which should have taken 2-3m), I am now pushed into a ~1y process. So basically it is just a more overgrown pile of dirt than it was previously. Maybe 2024?

Damn. That's kinda dumb. Well, maybe it will be worth it once it's done?

At least no one's successfully scamming you through a crypto honeypot.

I've crawled back into the gym. God did it feel good. Got legit depressed not lifting weights or exercising for such a long time. No more forced layoffs for ya boy now.

Back+Biceps
Pullups: bwx12,7,5,6,6
Underhand rows: 50kgx10x3 all paused
Close pulldowns bc a ****** was using the other machine: 30x10x3, 35x10 all paused
Row machine seat all the way down: 35x10x4
Deadlift: 100kgx10x3 tng
EZ curls: 20kgx15,12,10,8

Gonna do sum stairs cardio now. I want to be doing kind of a lot of cardio for offseason this time. Last year I did a lot in the form of cycling just exploring the new city and I felt in benefitted my training in the gym hugely, especially my leg training. This year less cycling and more stairs because the cycling is a bit too low of intensity and was too high of a duration to carryover well to training. Not looking for fat loss here. Hoping for 4-5x20 minutes every week and hr fairly high around the 140-155 range.

I have no idea if I should do a full cut/reset phase this spring/summer. My gut tells me the answer is "no, not if you want to win your show in summer 2024", but my heart tells me "yes because you want to look shredded for attention, especially peasants in THailand on your summer vacation!" A happy compromise would be just a six week mini cut to experiment with new habits, restore gastric emptying rate, and reset insulin sensitivity but not to get to the full stage shredded level this year. Unless they put a show right in my home city then I basically have to do it.

I'll probably hire a coach by then and ask "wat do?" because I really really wanna win this competition summer 2024. Got back on a meal prep service. I'm making my own chicken+rice to eat twice a day, then eating meal prepped beef+potato+vegetable meals twice a day, then meal 5 will be either a shake or a cheat meal. 6 meals a day doesn't work for me. I believe Greg Doucette was 5x/day as well, Swiper (google "swiper bodybuilding" if you are unaware) was 4x/day, and then there's some other 280lb 8% dexa monster on profesisonalmuscle forums who only eats 4x/day. You can probably even get away with 3/day in offseason for bbing, but not less than 4 in contest prep for sure and with my working schedule and sleep schedule 5x just seems to work the best.

Chest+delts+tri


All chest and tricep, but not delt, movements are done paused henceforth. I don't do touch-n-go because paused is more effective for putting tension on the muscle and preserving joints/tendons.
Incline db: 30kgx15, 25kgx10x3
Flat db: 20kgx10x3, x6
Machine incline cable flies: 10kgx10x4

Rear delt+side delt raise supersets: 5kg 4 rounds

Tricep pushdowns: various lol

Maintained pressing strength very well during this time off, mysteriously. Was planning to do an FST7 machine press set but said nah first week back that's enough volume lol

Got a new beef+potato dish from my meal prep guy that is just fantastic. Bulking szn boys. It's basically a beef stew and rice common in Chinese food, but most restaurants make it with **** tons of oil and added fats with relatively little beef. This guy is a ripped Chinese crossfitter and has actual knowledge of nutrition and will customize things for you a bit if you do larger orders (14 meals per week for me, then I prep the rest on my own) so he makes the "fitness version" of the normal Chinese dish.

So my meal plan is this:
M1 Beef+potato+veggies+rice

M2 Chicken+rice+grass fed butter and sum fruit, no vegetables

M3 Beef+potato+veggies+rice

Training (gatorade and a big thing of 85% dark chocolate b/c I like it lol. whatever junk food/snacks/bullshit I wanna eat like cereal/poptarts can go here as well

M4 Chicken+rice+grass fed butter and fruit

M5 2 scoops whey ~300-500ml skim milk frozen banana and almond butter

About 1-1.5L of orange juice spread throughout the day. Carbs are the most important nurtient for the bodybuild, boyos. And orange juice is delicious source of carbs that is super low volume and easy to get a ****ton of carbs/calories without getting full.

Not the cleanest diet but when your wrists are literally the same size as your 53kg 160cm powerlifter ex gf's you are an ectomorph who's gonna need a lot more food both offseason and pre-contest to be a good bodybuild.

If I wanna have a cheat meal/burger/pizza/turkish food/chinese food, swap out one of the chicken+rice meals or the shake. Or just add it on if particularly hungry that day from higher load at work or cardio. Beef meals stay in every day. Some of my other favorite cheat meals are this omelette with bacon+mushroom+cheese from a western tex-mex restaurant, salmon and tuna sushi, and this bomb ass Calzone from the Sheraton hotel that delivers.

Diet seems to strict. Liver King eats 200g of sugar per day and look he is shredded.

I got heat from g4s because I think rice is shiet and you can replace it with lemonade and still look the same (if you dosing bigly).

He cracked that all the bodybuilders must be wrong then.

I don't know bro. Sure seems suspect after seeing Liver King's diet.

If I were to go full BBingtard, how would I go about it. 5-6 day split. 3 on 1 off push/pull/legs?