Hey guys, so this is the beginning of my 2020 Prep Log, it’s starting a little into the process, I have been dieting for a total of 5 weeks. Coming down from 196 lbs to 188.6 lbs so far.
I will document the rest from here on out as I finally have a ‘potential’ confirmed show, which is the UKDFBA British Finals, where I will aim to compete for the chance to both win a Natural Pro Card with the WNBF, and fly to LA to compete in WNBF Worlds.
For those that don’t know myself, my last season was in 2017, where I won the WNBF Worlds & UKDFBA British Titles in the Junior Class (Under 24). I was 21 at the time, and have taken 2018 and 2019 totally off competing with the goal of stepping up to the Men’s Classes.
TRAINING SET UP
Push
Pull
Arms
Legs
Off
Repeat
I have been following this set up, with the exception of the arm day, for over 5 months. Prior to this, I trained with slightly higher frequencies on a similar body part split.
My rationale behind the change to LOWER total frequencies was that strength got to a point where I couldn’t recover (Both CNS & Acute Muscle Soreness recovery), so more rest days simply had to be added in.
The arm day…. Something that I have never ever done in my entire training career, and something I still I am on edge about, but my arms still suck, execution is fixed, volume has been adequate, but they still aren’t where they need to be, so a day where I can neurologically apply everything to this single body part, is rationalised in my opinion, also, since I’m dieting, holding fullness and muscularity in this area with a concentrated day, I feel will show in the end product.
Thoughts accepted of course!
DIET SET UP
I’m very simplistic with my diet, I set numbers where I know I will lose just under 1% of my total bodyweight per week, and I monitor my weekly average to ensure I do not surpass 1% loss, this will ensure maximum muscle retention.
Training Day
M1 - 250G Berries 40g Whey Iso 330ml Almond Milk 20G 90% Dark Chocolate (Made into a thick edible shake style thing)
M2 - 100G Rice 120G Chicken 150G Mixed Veg
M3 (Pre) - 100G Rice 120G Chicken 150G Mixed Veg 15G 90% Dark Chocolate
M4 / INTRA - 50G Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin, 20G EAA’s, 5G Electrolytes, 2G Taurine
M5 / POST - 2 Bagels - 31G Whey Iso
M6 - 100G Oats 31G Whey Iso, 20G Almond Butter, 20G 90% Dark Chocolate
Rest Day -
(Literally just remove my intra, that’s all I need to do to influence energy balance enough to continue to lose fat)
M1 - 250G Berries 40g Whey Iso 330ml Almond Milk 20G 90% Dark Chocolate (Made into a thick edible shake style thing)
M2 - 100G Rice 120G Chicken 150G Mixed Veg
M3 - 100G Rice 120G Chicken 150G Mixed Veg 15G 90% Dark Chocolate
M4 - 2 Bagels - 250ml Egg Whites or 31G Whey Iso
M5 - 100G Oats 31G Whey Iso, 20G Almond Butter, 20G 90% Dark Chocolate
I also supplement with 3x Omega from Jarrow and 2x Krill Oil from Jarrow in the AM and PM, I track these too.
Please find a couple of my shots from last check in, that’s it for the first intro, I will continue to give mini updates daily, I won’t log full sessions, just what I trained and how it went, as sessions are a little different at the mo with lock-down!
Thanks for following :)
Upper starting to come in. Next few weeks should be interesting as the lower starts to get more lines Good work so far AJ!
Got a questions in terms of an intra at the moment I use pepto pro & hbcd is better to switch pepto pro to a EAA?
12 Weeks Out – Checked in today – 170.8 lbs
Weight
Will attach my trend – A bit of a mid week ‘woosh’ as I dropped into the 160’s, I felt this straight away, sitting down I felt my glutes were leaner ( even though they are still fat..) & I just felt lighter all over. This morning it levelled out a bit , which it always does after a rest day
Training
Up until Thursday we trained as normal, and from then we have de-loaded. Me and Kuba chose to de-volume our sessions & we simply just followed Jordan’s orders on the session structure & volume drop. I feel like it was needed at SOME point and this is probably the right time for us both to pull back a tad, especially for Kuba as he’s been super busy sorting everything for the gym re-opening.
Nutrition
No changes here this week, I have not had any high days yet since the last one I told you guys about, as said before these are auto-regulated.
Push Pull Arms – 325c 50f 230p Legs – 400c 50f 230p Rest – 285c 50f 230p
No hunger really, still ery easy at this stage.
Sleep
Still a bit crap. I can’t lie in these updates, so it’s not where it needs to be, I want 7hrs+ and at the moment I’m getting 6-6:30hrs. I will fix this.
Next Steps
Keep going as we are, attached trend and a couple of pics
Any thoughts appreciated as per!
Do you still hit triceps and biceps on push and pull days now you have added an arm day?
Be good to see a log of your sessions now your back in the gym.
13 Weeks Out – Checked in today – 171.8 lbs
Weight
Will attach my trend – I dropped hard at the beginning of the week but flattened the curve a bit towards the end which resulted in a decent look this morning. Don’t want to lose anymore than 1.7 on average now, and I lost 1.8 this week, so making sure I pull my steps down a bit now.
Training
Very solid week this week besides the slightly off Leg session, I honestly think this was induced by the massage I had the day prior so I will avoid any heavy massage work before lower body days for the foreseeable.
I have maintained or progressed all log book numbers, no regressions this week. I didn’t hit arms this week as I’m starting to need the total rest. As a result, I’m touching bi’s and tri’s with 2 sets a piece at the beginning of Legs, and I’m adding additional volume for them at the end of Pull & Push. For now at least.
Nutrition
No changes here this week, I have not had any high days yet since the last one I told you guys about, as said before these are auto-regulated.
Push Pull Arms – 325c 50f 230p Legs – 400c 50f 230p Rest – 285c 50f 230p
No hunger really, very easy at this stage.
Sleep
Hmmmm… still not the best, but when I do actually fall asleep, I get great sleep, I just need to work on my routine, but that will come in time.
Next Steps
Keep going as we are. Stress is low now & I’m happy with everything
Update on this week so far!
Mon - 171.8
Tues - 170.6
Wed - 171.4
Attached are some rear shots from a few days back.
Happy with how well I'm dropping week to week at the moment, and even at 13 weeks out this weekend, I'm seeing daily visual changes, which is exciting and creates good promise that I will be able to reverse diet into the show.
Thoughts are in my head about whether we'll be able to get out into the States provided I qualify for Worlds in November, but it's not something I can control, so I have no business worrying about it. No changes to food so far.
Legs today!
Check in yesterday – 175.8 lbs, which is over a pound down from last week but the average ( I take 7 day averages) is down 2.2 lbs even with refeeding.
My training days are now
350c 50f 230p (+25c / +10f)
Rest days the same at
275c 50f 210p
No changes to steps / expenditure
10k Steps TD 12.5k Steps NTD No cardio
Weighed in at 174 lbs this morning