Back to work today. Focussing on controlling the weight rather than just moving as much as possible. Still got plenty of grip and rip style lifts in the programme but I’m trying to keep form tight on these machines. 🫡

Sunday: Man flu. Man down. Rest body. Eat chicken soup. Check depth. ✅✅✅

Both weekly leg days include RDLs for me. First is using a barbell and second is using this machine. The stability beats a barbell hands down and allows full focus to be given to the target muscle. But hoisting a heavy barbell is badass so it stays. 🫡

30 second static hold after deadlifts. Highly recommend adding these at the end of the set. Superb for grip strength, forearm pump and general back stability. 🫡

Biohacking 101: 30 mins before workout. Bite the head off a jelly baby, dunk into salt flakes, devour. Repeat 5-10 times. Enjoy juicy pumps.

Deadlift for reps. 4 and a bit plates x 12. “JuNK voLuME!” Sure. Whatever. Do your deadlifts.

“Your traps are activated if you go past 40° on lateral raises bro!” Better stop at 39° in future. God forbid I get bigger traps.

Lateral raises Not ‘optional’. Hit them hard. Hit them often. To failure and beyond…

Single arm high row / pulldown. A good reason to isolate each side is the ability to slightly turn the body into the rep on the concentric, shortening the lat a little bit more. I like to kill the momentum at the bottom and not just rebound into the next rep.

Hack squat cleanup. Feet lower on the plate and stopping short of full depth to keep constant tension on the quads. I used to think bottoming out fully was best but no, this hits the quads way harder.

I’ve never given this machine much time but it’s class. I won’t ever drop RDLs. But not balancing a barbell allows you to focus fully on form and hitting the target muscle 100%. Able to keep shins perfectly vertical with this, enabling a lovely stretch and explosive contraction.

If you genuinely struggle to eat a lot of carbs, watermelon is your friend. This one is 1kg / 2.2lb and has 80g. Takes 2 minutes to eat. Less moan, more melon.

Conventional Deadlifts. Today’s top set of 210kg / 462lbs with a 10 second static hold. Love your back. Do your deadlifts.

Seated inner chest press. Variation of the flat bench inner press that I posted the other day. Again working on slowing down the eccentric on these and building a more explosive contraction. Nasty.

Big post-lift bowl of beef teriyaki noodles. Winter is here so time to eat more. Pushing the food up towards 4k calories now. Less needle, more noodle.

Cable rows. Working on slowing down the eccentric on these and building a more explosive contraction. This is set 3 where I decided to use straps because my grip was giving out before my back on the previous set. Lit the lats up nicely. 🫡

Old fashioned energy drink and pre-workout snack going down.

Protein to carb ratio pretty good. Now to flood the plate with gravy and horseradish.

Sunday: Hit sauna. Eat brisket. Check depth. ✅✅✅

You shift thousands of pounds of iron around multiple times per week only to get injured getting out of bed. 40’s life.