Between the Barbell and Bon Jovi

I'd love to see more insight into your journey. Keep crushing it ! <3

whatsup everyone! just wanted to briefly give you guys an update. I just finished a quick minicut which went really well as usual but I want to stay away from dieting now as long as possible. I personally make the best gym progress when I am definetly not looking my best ;) but thats fine and when the time comes I will get in shape, but building muscle is the hard part so lets focus on that!

I will change up my split to PULL/PUSH/LEGS/DELTSnARMS/ REST and repeat so like an semi bro split because a) its fun and b) I really need the rest between my leg sessions.

The main principle of the training will be MAX Intensity every session. This will include some elements like Topsets and Beating the logbook such as going for a nasty pump but always with max intensity and perfect execution. I am sick of overthinking my training and I will just leave nothing on the floor which lets me live in peace and clears my mind ;)

Also I will put my head down for a while, get a bit off of instagram and invest some solid time till I can present some results and have improved as a bodybuilder. I love to share my path but I feel like now I need to spend some time in silence and just do the work. But I will stay active here so I really appreciate the handfull of peepz that still here in the forum <3

wow didn't expect this lol:p but yeah I agree, at one point you need to make your own experiences. and this imo is the fun part! experimenting with yourself (wisely, not program hopping, doing dumb shit, etc.; but I believe you know the fundamentals and have done them long enough to be able to seperate "stupid" stuff from the more logical stuff that might work) is something that I look forward to so much too. but I don't feel ready yet 🙂 keep us updated!

Jo guys just a quick update! Due to several reasons I am now coaching myself. Yeah it's a bit scary at first but I believe you have to make your own experiences at some point and I just have to go some new ways. I quite had the feeling of leaving progressions on the table and just followed principles that make sense in theory but in practice it is a whole other story.

So right now I am in a Mini Cut which I want to keep as short as possible. I dont weigh in I just stick to an quite aggressive deficit and I train fucking hard with reduced volume and thats it. I will stop till I am quite happy with my look in the mirror and get back to gaining ASAP!

So more then ever I am really thankful for the member site and the content from AJ =) cheers !

YO YO YO! Thx I will keep it updated more frequently =)

ATM things are going really well! Like I cant point out enough how much your environment breeds succes and progress! Moving into a more quiet city allows me to relax and focus way better and my routine is just on point. In addition to that I am now training at probably one of the best gyms in germany, like not kidding ALL oldshool gym 80 machines and a real Hardcore Vibe! the difference to a regular gym is just unbelieveble.

Training wise we take a slightly different approach. still mrv concept but I start a bit higher in terms of volume and only make very tiny additions week to week. Basicly I make shure to make every session count without "shitting the bed" as big steve would say LOL

2 weeks of massing left and then i enter a primer/minicut followed by massing again =)

One thing I am thinking about is doing a photoshoot at the end of the year. The goal to compete is 2020 so why not getting some little prep experience with a photshoot and then countinue to mass through 2019. Only concern is that its maybe Improvementtime wasted but at the other hand it would be a chance to try things out and learn. would love to hear your thoughts guys. CHEERS

Yo Krissi! -

- Just caught up on your thread - which is an EPIC thread btw!

How's things going? Any further thoughts on competing in 20....?!

ah okay haha:p yep I'm gonna try to be more active again 😁

Yeah I was following that approach but always ignoring the RPE/RIR and going near or to failure very often.. and now I learned that this is not sustainable for me. So I will keep it more under control now =) good to hear from you again celine ;)

wait now I am a little confused..:P so until now you never followed that training approach?

but I totally agree, doing what is best for your body will always result in better progress than doing what you like to do most!

Just focus on the big picture stuff mate! Solid training over years will get you way bigger than going all out for 3 months and then having to back off.. I know for myself training hard whilst training smart is not easy at all, but it will add up... all those pennies in the bank ;)

Have a great one buddy !

Hey everyone!! It's been a while I know but the past weeks were very fucking busy and taxing but right now I am on Holiday and just find some time to give a little update!

On my last meso shit really hit the fan!! I was training as hard as possible while having loads of in my job, moving places between berlin and my new home Potsdam AND dealing with severe tooth pain which really destroyed my sleep and it got to the point where I had to take some serious painkillers to just somehow function. And to be honest it was too much to handle but I know where my boundries are and I will take my lessons from that!

but enough moaning ;)

I am now finally comfy at our new home together with my girlfriend and I have a new gym which is just AMAZING!! like I now have acces to some superb kit like a Pit shark or a Vertikal Legpress and some dope Push n Pull Machines <3

trainingwise I am back to a bit more conservative approach and following the Dr. Mike MRV protocoll (talked with pascal about it also) I mean I really wish I could train on max Intensitys more often and really focus on beating the logbook because I love hard training!!!! but my body doesnt tolerate it... Had a really painfull backsnap during squatting two weeks ago which really woke me up to be more mindful and to accept that training and progressing through volume may just suits better for me... Like I am a young bodybuilder but I am not a young athlete. I have 18 years of soccer and 3 years of crossfit under my belt and I definetly feel that in that time there has been some damage done to my body so I just have to accept it and be very mindful when to go balls to the wall and really focus on RECOVERY!!!!

Really happy at my new place and with live in generell. I call it my little own Kuwait Lifestyle^^LOL

LOVE U GUYS AND MERRY XMAS!!

Jo guyz hope y'all good =)

Just entering my 2nd Gaining Meso and I am really really pumped and excited every time Im entering a new training block. We keep most things the same Just introduced a Machine Bench and some Shrugs because I want to give my traps the love they had from all the weightlifting back in the days.

One Change is that I wont do any cardio and really cap my steps at 8-10K per day. I really want to maximize Recovery and put everything into my training!

Nutrition wise We upped the Protein so macros are 240p/440ish Carbs/ 65ishFat. Really curios how this plays out. If my rate of gain is to slow I will leave the option to bring Carbs up the week before deloading and just take every penny i can get out of it!

one last note. This time I really only do small increases in intensity and focus way more on contractions even on things like squat and deadlift. I really think the impact of that is very much underrated and I will only focus on one rep at a time and mak em HIGH QUALITY. Hope I can give you guys some update pics at the end of it where I look like I somhow lift ^^ lol <3

Yeah thats my conclusion as well.. I mean if I step on stage in 2020 I still have at least 10 years + of competing in front of me so really focusing on the long run and make this years now count as much as possible thx mate ;)

I think it would be really mature to make the most out of these earlier stages of your career to make them as productive as possible. Patience, consistency and dedication mate !

HOWDIE PEEPZ!!

Today I just want to chat a little what was going on the past weeks. Reason for me being a bit quite was that Things got a lttle tough the past weeks in terms of stress. I am plamimg to move in with my Girlfriend and I will leave Berlin and you all know the stuff that revolves around moving #painintheass plus I had some really busy days at work for the last weeks and that meant getting up super early and just get shit done. My sequence of importance is 1. Family/Relationship 2. Work 3. Bodybuilding and there has to happen some serious shit that i let go on these things and I really was accountable for that past weeks. Just things like social media and stuff gets behind wich is ok but I am passionate about sharing my experiences =)

So just to give a short inside first Meso of Massing is done and was VERY productive (will touch onit later) and I am now going into a week of deload and have a consultation for the next meso with the Big Pascal Flor tomorrow. Will give u an update on that for shure!

On thing I would like to share is that I had some kind of a battle in my head past weeks if I should compete earlier than 2020. I often get this urge and feel like I should get my feet wet etc. but at the end I always feel like No you need the time and patience will result in something great. I mean a first Season will always be a first season and you can't expect much but today I feel like I will thank myself later that I really took the time to put in the work =) what you guys think and did you had similar struggles with when you should compete or not??

Cheers!

good to hear that your Mini Cut went so well! welcome to the gaining crew 💪

imo it is okay to cut rom IF it is for the right reasons and IF you stay consistent with that rom while progressing volume on the particular exercise.

regarding your question: personally, I don't like doing anything differently on weekends. I much more prefer doing the same things/ having the same routine that I also have on my weekdays. But I guess that is just personal preference and I know this is what works for me.

I am also someone who is really bad at having huge macro ranges. I work way better on strict and small ranges, it gives me a feeling of control, which I love to have.

Mornin guys!!!

Today I just give you an update how training is going. Its wicked! bye.... LOL^^

Now for real. Split is still UPPER/LOWER/PUSH/PULL/LEGS but I changed My first day to Monday so I have some room for error on the weekends and if needed I get my sessions in during the week. I often find that my Routine gets thrown off on the weekends so this will be no big deal anymore.

No really big changes only that we cutted the Barbell Bench and I will stick to DB and OHP as my main pushmovements. In addition to that I decreased (you hear me right yeah) the ROM on my Pushmovements. Because of my long arms I was really not doing my shoulders any favor and I have way better contractions now. So this is a real intresting topic IMO mybe something worth a video AJ??

Intenitys will be not super high in this meso because we increased volume and I will focus more on contractions and timeless form. Need to get this Number chasing mindset out of my head =)

Hope you have a good week and as Niclas just said it... Common guys put some more life to the MBM forum and not just count on AJ to keep the ball rollin!

Hey guys! Wanted to quick check in with ya!

Holidays are over and I had a real good time. Escaping from Berlin is always so chill and relaxing and I really feel that I don't really like this noisy busy city at all, I am a true village kid ;)

One thing I want to be open about is that I really struggle with a loose structure in my diet. Pascal gave me a wide Macro range for the week of vacation ( basicly protein and calories with a wide range) wich makes sense. But reality is that it takes more willpower of me to NOT care so much than to be on the dot. So I had an evening where I over ate ( to me a binge is like 4k calories cause I have the appitite of a lil girl) and I had the feeling to counter with cardio on sunday just to be at point zero if you can call it that. So I know that I just go with being more rigid and it just what suits me best. But now we enter a gaining phase and with that goal in mind I will be able to get the job done and the food in ;)

I start with 3100 kcal (180p/450c/70f +- 5-10g) and will cruise on that for a week or two and then "autoregulate" a bit on the weekends if neccesary. On workdays I really struggle to get the food in just for logistic reasons so I leave the option to push calories a bit on weekends.

What you guys think about such an approach to gaining? Hope you have a great week and next time I'll cover training ;) CHEERS

excited to follow the massing phase, have a fun holiday !

This sounds so awesome krissi ! I can smell a productive gaining phase for you ;) enjoy your time on vacation ! :)

LAST WEEK OF MINICUT DONE!!!

Yo peepz! The Minicut is over and man I am one happy Boy =) It just could not have gone any better! Lost another 2 lbs on average in the last week and could still really turn it up in the gym and put up a really YOLO like theres no tomorrow Overreaching week. I pushed it really hard and ended up with a huge Deadlift PR today with 160kg 8/8/7 (Double BW for reps ... nice=))

Surprisingly te only things that made the last week hard came from the symptoms of functional Overreaching and not from the Minicut. Could honestly go longer but I reached a point now that I don't want to go below till I start a real Contest prep. But we earned weeks and weeks of gaining now which I will enjoy and make as productive as possible!

So this week I go on a vacation with my lady and I will take a break from training and fitness life for a couple of days. Will still be very active but I guess a lil mental break from "the grind" will pay off in the long run. Pascal gave me a large macro range and also recomended to switch my head off and enjoy some good times. I will definetly not go overboard eating wise cause right now it's a behaviour that sounds really strange to me so we be stayin moderate and behave like an adult ;)

After that I will switch into an Offseason Coaching with Pascal and am really exciting how this will work and I will definetly be more self depended from there but I am confident to make good progress and I know I have support here and on the grams wich is WICKED!

I REALLY LOVE YOU GUYS <3

so till next week and alwys keep the light weight spirit =)

very good progress! chest striations and bicep vein coming in💪

Yes personally I was also not feeling well that much in my body at the end of gaining and that should at least be a little indicator of what is happening. I just take away that when I am more structured and strict during my gaining phase, the progress will be much more productive and comprehensibly. Thanks AJ and Niclas for your feedback <3

Hmmmmm! These pics are v honest but I'm in TWO minds! I think you COULD have continued gaining potentially... but I think it was also wise to pull back a little bit, I'm certainly more of a fan of the LONGER gaining phase approach :) I think it just allows for greater momentum to be built up over time!

Really nice improvements there Krissi ! And yes imo there would have been some room for continuing gaining..

YO guys! Just a Lil Wrap up of my Week 4 MINI CUT! including progress pics

Had a new maybe all time (at least since 1year) low weigh in this morning with 79,9kg (176,1lbs) so in this 4 weeks I dropped about 4,5 kg (9,9lbs) total. Of course I feel flat and skinny fat but I am very happy with the progress and physique is looking good to me.

Hunger is still good to handle and food focus is quite low ( i only catch myself fancy about different nut butters I want to try for my pre bed oats^^lol ) also Energy is till there and I am not at all diet fatigued, still nodding my head and tapping my feet to music and such.

Training is till going strong. Still beating the logbook on my big compounds for back and lower body and able to retain on push movements. Only time my performance takes a hit is when I had bad or less sleep so I really see how key good sleep is.

For energy expenditure aka Cardio I only relay on steps. Hitting 15 k average for the week and it really doesnt interfere with my training. Was hittin 12 k yesterday in the morning and my performance at my Lower Session in the afternoon was just fine!!

So guys I leave you with my Progress Images (LEFT end of Mass vs. RIGHT currently)

Plz. some honest feedback is appriciated =)

My Consideration is: Have I may started the mini cut a bit early and could I give myself a bit more room for growing in the future? As I now know I am quite good with some fatloss I concider to extend my massing phases and go with a long slow gaining approach just like Valentin Tambosi mentioned on the Natty scene.

Cheers my friends

so true krissi ! consistency, routine and control are very important to ensure awesome performance. especially sleep and pre workout routine are very important to me..

haha I do exactly the same and walk during rest periods. everyone looks at me like I am some kind of hyperactive idiot lol.

but to me that is the exciting thing! if you can progress sooo much when in a deficit with routine, just imagine how f*cking huge your progress can be when in a gaining phase when applying the same routinge, structure etc.!

Good Morning Guys! Quick check in after my first half of Mini Cut Week 4.

Man we're still rollin =D I had true 10/10 Upper and Lower Sessions both days!! Improvements accross almost all Excercises. Was hitting 110kg High bar for solid 8/8/8 with true RIR 2 wich is a huge PR given that I cleaned up my high bar technique big time!!

Although this is very exciting, I get a lil pissed of myself because now I see HOW MUCH I have to improve my gaining phases!! All the structure and the focus and that drive to become fucking great needs to get carried into Massing. That means having MEal structure and sticking to training times consistent, nailing sleep and keeping stress levels low.. maan i have a lot to clean up to finally make some real ass gainz :)

Thats it for today, if you like share your thoughts on that and I hope you're all doing great!

PS

lil Pro tip for Gettin steps in. Walk around your gym during your Rest Periods of your Upper body sessions! I get at least 3 - 4K each session... and wired looks lol

@Krissi yeah you totally right, I forgot about pics:)

@celine maybe takin images in concideration would also help! Like if we were making progress in our gaining phase we may look better on a higher BW so we don't need to drop that much in some cases ;)

for mini cuts I prefer going by BW. If my goal was for example to lose 5kg, I stop my Mini cut as soon as I hit this number, no matter if it lasts 4,5,6,... weeks.

@krissi really nice to see that everything is going so well ! keep it on mate !!!

I think as long as you're not getting really lean (above 10% bf) or lifts tend to suffer really hard there's no reason to cut it shorter than intended.. you're probably even better off bc of increased inulin and general nutrient sensitivity. But I'd also be interested in different opinions on this topic !

Hey folks! MINICUT UPDATE after Week 3. Seriously I am questioning how smooth and productive a Minicut can go^^ Training was Superb, Had some Redemption on my Upper Body Sessions and could crack out 1 rep more on each main lift with even more solid form! I contribute that to just better structure and routine during my week (and maybe that 20g more carbs lol) and on LOWER yesterday I hit 155 kg DEADLIFTS for 8/7/7 wich is definetly a overall Volume PR. BW went down solid 0.8kg and the most important thing: I AM FEELING GOOD. Energy levels, Mood is stable and Hunger is also very managable. It only gets tough if I get late with a Meal but then I mostly compensate with a Black coffe yeah =) My sleep is also 7 hrs on average so well.. I could not ask for more. Mentally I honestly think the last 2 weeks of the cut will be a peace of cake I just want to retain my current numbers and drop maybe another kilo during the two weeks ;)

Question for AJ (if he reads this) or anyone else: Is there a scenario where you would end a Mini Cut early? I committed to 5 weeks but could there be a case of to much weightloss in that given time ??

Best regards and YEAH BUDDY

@celine totally understand you! I only do this if the movement is beneficial for my main lift. Like Frontsquats are very upright so it helps my highbar squat. doing a low bar to warm up for high bar would not make sence so it always depends ;)

@niclas mostly through food. Only thing different to my offseason is that I keep an eye on my steps keeping them over 10 k. But I am always around 8 to 10k steps without tracking. Thats one good thing about living in a big city ;)

Do you do any CV on your mini cut or is the deficit only via food?

personally I never play around with variations purely because I am just too afraid that for the following exercises I could potentially "lose" strength/ feel more fatigued as a result. I try to ALWAYS keep everything the same

@niclas I'll have 2 weeks left and want to make the most out of it so I can buy a lot of weeks of massing =) can't wait to show you guys some results at the end=) And luckily I did crossfit and a lot of weightlifting before BB where I learned the Frontsquat BEFORE the regular squat. Even an Overheadsquat is no problem .. funny if you consider I did ZERO aka 0.000000000 mobility work in the last year^^

yes I also play around with movement variations to find what i feel the best contraction in and can keep form the tightest in

Good to see that it's going so well for you :) how many weeks of mini cut left?

I was also considering changing my back squats for front squats. But I'm not confident enough about my technique to be good enought as a basis to be able to progressively overload them.. however I'm really looking forward to my new gym which will have some really nice machines (high rows, chest presses, hack squats, etc.) !

Yeah Buddy! quick check in with you guys! Had 2 very good sessions (UPPER/LOWER) both last days wich gave me very much confidence for the rest of my mini cut =) Could hit Numbers of my last Gaining Meso on Bench and the Squat so very happy with that and all other movements retained or even improved just fine!

Main Difference I feel was a) better sleep the nights before and b) taking my time for every set and not rushing through the sessions. Kept my focus through the whole workout and that alone made a HUGE difference. If I keep that in check I will put a Kilo on the bar here and there WHILE putting some Kilos off my skinny hipster body =D

Question: Do you guys play around with some Movement Variations that you may wanna try out in the future? For example I was Frontsquatting up to my working set weight of Backsquats and it felt so good that I concider them for my main Squat movement of my next meso. Any one else like that??

Have a strong week friends!

SO good to see your MINI going so well mate, lot's of people tend to weirdly see slow progress in the initial phases. Glad it's going efficiently for you :)

What a great time to get ready so many don't give themselves long enough to get the size they need to do well enjoy the process along the why

Sleep is so important man... keep crushin' it! Deadlifts looked superb on IG ;)

MINI CUT WEEK 2 Wrap up

Hey guys, just checkin in after a good and challenging week of training! Unfortanetly I had some performance drops in my upper body especially during push =/ During lowerbody luckly everything went well and I could retain numbers.I guess some performance decreases are due to life stress cause I have to travel a lot between two cities during the week because me and my girlfriend life an hour apart from each other and so I had to rush some sessions and sacrifice some sleep some days but thats life. In the areas I can controll I give it 100% and I just deal with everything else as good as I can.

But also my rate of weightloss was quite fast so I droped over 4lbs in 2 weeks. so Pascal decided to give me 20g more carbs ( uuuuuuuuuuuh yeah strong^^) so

190P 260C 50F

hunger is not an issue so far and I love that my physique changes in a good direction. so we cruise the next 3 weeks hopefully just as fine =)

LESSON: on low calories every step out of the routine is causing an effect on your mood or training.. so be as strict as you can and plan ahead

Lightweight my friends!

following!! :D

Excited to follow your journey! ;)

lool love the energy man ! following