thank you but all good. I'm fine now (I think) and tbh, while last year was a huge grind and losing over half my money (as well as the amount she stole) and the financial security that went with it was a total bitch, I'm happy I went through it because I'm far happier now. As long as my kids come out of it ok (and I think they're doing well, but there will of course be medium and long term effects), then I will look back with gratitude on my ex wife proving to be the lying, thieving, cheating, selfish c unt she turned into. Maybe this is temporarily wishful thinking on my part because I'm 2 months into a new relationship with a Brazilian smokeshow who has so far proved to be a very nice woman....but for now at least, it's a big thumbs up from the Aussie.
it's interesting re the gym part. I've always trained and am very lucky to really enjoy it and want to do it....I've never ever resented training or the gym. But the weight loss and abstinence part that I've really benefitted from the past 15 months didn't come from the cliche 'I've got to get in better shape to attract new women' but was legitimately a self care thing to help control my body and mind while everything else was going mad. Losing 20lbs and looking more muscular etc has definitely had the benefit of attracting better looking women and is now definitely a part of the motivator. But it didn't start out that way
Ya, while your situation was what prompted the discussion, I didn't mean to suggest that you went to the gym for that reason, although I can see how it came off that way. Given your history here, it's pretty clear that there is almost nothing that will prevent you from staying is great shape (compared to the gen pop). Honestly, if you had shut it down for a while because of the divorce (which is also a common response from people), I'd have been a bit surprised, but it would have been a legit excuse, imo (Guy may have different thoughts on that matter).
Incline bb paused: 90kgx9, 80kgx11, 10 longer pauses. Backoff work felt difficult, top set did not.
Plate loaded pulldown machine: 3ppsx16, 12, 9
deficit pushups on blocks: bwx25, 20, 17
plate loaded hammer rows: 2.5ppsx20, 13, 10
Delt raise and pullover combo
Going to do 3 sets of incline on both days but keep intensity relatively lower and submax. Next session I want to go even lighter and do something like 40kgx12, 10, 8 maybe which should be very easy. The deficit pushups feel great tbh, good replacement for a machine press b/c all of our machine presses suck. I can do crossovers or flies on the db day and pushups on the bb day.
The last luxurious ribeye meal tonight, bros. Monday will mark day 1 of contest prep and 21 weeks+5 days out. I'm sure the fancy home made cheat meals will make a return as I get leaner and actually get depleted, but for these first 2 weeks I'm gonna stay clean. April 4, 5, 6 I will travel to BKK, SHanghai, or Chengdu to have a social life and then it's nose to the grindstone, baby. No ladies, no distractions, just locked in and focused. Then another break first week of may where I will travel again but will still be eating only bodybuilding contest prep foods. Realistically I could keep bulking adn just do a normal 16 week prep, but i just want to be absolutely 100% sure and leave myself no opportunity to drop the ball or feel stressed balancing work and contest prep and with 22 weeks I can probably just straight up take a 2 week break from dieting at some point in the middle if the progress is sufficient.
i mean.. i would have to travel bc there are so few here, so yeah we going volcel for a bit. i can do the last 6 weeks of prep in Thailand if i want but given how horrible my sleep apnea got with the pollution, i may choose not to.
What's up guys, did I miss anything while I was out sick?
We all became immensely curious about the political opinions of your upper middle class white urban monoculture friends and to what degree they would find uncomfortable scientific facts "offensive". In particular the cucks, virtue signallers, and luxury belief holders among your wife's (female) friend group were a topic of interest. But then I came to my senses and realized how utterly irrelevant this is beyond just a novel curiosity to mock. Feel free to fill us in if you want to indulge anyone interested.
Leg extensions: 48.75kgx26, 13, 10
Seated ham curls: 78.75kgx15, 10
Paused SLDL: 125x15, 12 looked and felt a million times better than last time I did this.
lying ham curl: 39kgx15
hovering around 99.5-100.5 lately as I haven't been taking gh or insulin.
This whole offseason the name of the game was basically "eat enough to recover and be making strength gains each week, don't worry about the scale going up or not".I did that and didn't force feed and I feel like I'm in the best possible place to be starting a prep
regarding opinions of cucks, gays, trans, "shitlibs", non-autistic women, and even magatards, a lot of it can be explained as such
Rob's story is a much more extreme version of my own and he lifemogs me in every way (except getting bitches but I'm sure if he'd oriented his life around this instead of actual intellectual pursuits trying to understand society and how to optimize it I'm sure he would have). This concept of luxury beliefs is a good lense for viewing so much of shitlibbery. "Defund the police" LOL.
Client and close friend competing in a pl meet today. 5'7 100kg looking at a 815 total, ehanced obv. Trying to get him to switch to bb because bb is chad sport and pl is incel or near incel sport. God do I hate watching pl meets jfc they are boring. I do not ****ing care about a 5'8 90kg guy with no muscle, 25% bodyfat, on test+deca+dbol, and glasses sumo pulling 220kg. Even a novice undermuscled bodybuilder who achieves true stage lean is still incredibly impressive to see, but a novice or intermediate powerlifter is kinda wgaf unless they are beltless hbbs and beltless conv dl. But guess how often that happens in chinese meets? like yeah the same 25% 5'8 90kg guy hbbsing atg 185kg is legit impressive, but it's always a wide stance barely parallel gross bent over lbbs. I'd litearlly rather watch monte run a marathon.
There was a sense of finality after this morning's workout. A "vibe shift" as one phase ends and a new begins.
From the end of last cut last June to the beginning of this cut in March I've made the most progress in body composition and numbers in any bodybuilding offseason I've ever had. I took things very seriously; my bulks were meticulous and not filled with junk (until the last 4 weeks lolz), I took around 10 weeks to reset down and resensitize when my bodyfat started getting high, and if I were to compare my current lfits to numbers i was doing around a year ago the progress has been pretty evident. I trained differently and on different equipment so direct comparisons aren't always possible, but one snapshot would be Paused SLDL from 100kgx15 to 125kgx15. I used to do machine press->incline db press and I could do 30s for around 16-18. I don't have an equivalently challenging machine press, but even if I did I'm sure that'd be more like 37 or 40kgx15-17 after a hard 3 sets of machine pressing. 2.5-3ppsx20 was hard on this leg press apparatus when I first got to zhuhai, but 4pps is pretty easy now. i don't do barbell rows or chins/pullups anymore, so no comparisons there unfortunately.
I'm really glad I found this upper lower training and tried it out. I think it's unlikely I'll ever go back. The 3 day/wk bro split was working "okay' but it was still just too much volume for chest in one session and I was getting pain. The PPL could have been good but i was misapplying it by doing too difficult of exercises like pullups/barbell rows that are badass full body strength but actually stimulate the lats less than easier lifts. The push sessions were also too much in general, though I did like the equilibrium I found with leg sessions using the ppl 3 on 1 off approach. With either the 5 or 6 day a week it didn't quite work and 3 on 1 off just doesn't work great with a normal mo thru fri work schedule and a desire for some social life.
If I went back to ppl, it'd be 6/wk but approximately the same volume and exercise selection as I use now and just shorter more frequent sessions. I'd need to live walking distance from a gym again to do that.
For my current work, lifestyle, and location the upper/lower was a huge game changer that's allowed me to make the best and most consistent gains of my career pretty mcuh since beginner phase in 2008-2010. I also just enjoy it a lot and don't see myself switching any time soon just because I like it and I think it's very cool and feels good. I could easily run the same training approach but go down to 3 days per week, however. There's a good chance I do exactly that during contest prep if fatigue starts to get high and performance starts to dip a significant amount.
Dr. Mike is wrong on frequency+volume being the key; the key is frequency+intensity and low volume. Jordan Peters style but smarter exercise selection and bigger rep ranges/less RPE10.
Today is the final day of offseason; tomorrow the caffeine and yohimbine starts along with step targets. I'm gonna try to get on a set schedule with posing as well just running through mandatories. It's good cardio/conditioning and obv practice for what you do on show day. I'll prob just start with 10-15 minutes of going through mandatories per day, but try to work up to something like 30 minutes on training days and 60 minutes on non training days. It actually burns a ton of calories. Retatrutide is still in transit and i may not use it from the start. Clen I'll start somewhere between 16 and 12 weeks out, probably 16 because I enjoy the feeling of being on it in general.
