Needs work.

Despite trying to underestimate the weights to use, I still was over the mark. When you have only 1 minute of rest, you really don’t recover much. 🙂

Plus, I found myself at times doing more than “3/fail” because the reps felt too low otherwise (for this mesocycle). Again, a symptom of too-heavy weights. I did adjust a couple things on the fly, but I will need some more tweaking as I go into week 2.

That said, I did still feel some tightness from Monday; nothing bad, not really sore. But between that and not really having the weights dialed in PLUS knowing next week the weights should increase, I’m actually going to rate today’s work at “0” so that there’s no increase in sets. I’m a bit torn on doing that, but I can see how things will get by week 4, and I’d rather keep to starting slower/lighter and let things ramp up so that week 4 can still be meaningful. Whereas if I overdo it now, week 4 will be a disaster.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 2, week 1

• Underhand Pulldown
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 9
• Normal Grip Pulldown
  • 100 x 12
  • 100 x 11
  • 100 x 10
  • 100x 9
• 2-Arm DB Row
  • 45e x 11
  • 45e x 9
• Cable Facepull (superset)
  • 60 x 17
  • 60 x 14
  • 60 x 13
  • 60 x 12
• Thumbs Down Lateral Raise (superset)
  • 15e x 12
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 7
  • 15e x 5
• Flat DB Bench Press
  • 30e x 10
  • 45e x 5
  • 65e x 15
  • 65e x 10
  • 65e x 8
• Incline Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 115 x 12
  • 105 x 11
  • 105 x 9
• Reaching Sit-up
  • bw x 15
  • bw x 10

Needs some adjustment, but not a bad start.

So mesocycle 2, week 1, first lower-body day. Weights weren’t where they should be, so I had to make some adjustments on the fly. Should be better going forward.

I do believe front squats need to become a staple for me. And resting only 1 minute between sets? Gah. That’s killer.

To vary the leg press, this time I’m putting my feet lower on the platform. I really felt the pain more in my quads, which is good. Since I am going to end up doing leg press 2x/week this cycle, I will get variation by foot placement.

Oh and speaking of killer, the pushdowns supserset with DB press is painful. Then going into a BB press? Pffft — my triceps and delts were fried; I had to really drop the weight down to get the reps in. Again, this meso is NOT good for the ego that likes to lift heavy weights. 🙂

On the rope pressdowns, I am not flaring my hands out. Again, trying to be kind to my elbows and just doing a basic extension. I did change one thing: I’m crush-gripping the rope. A lot of times I just have enough grip to hold on and do what I need to do. But today I crushed the rope. That made a big difference in what was transfered to my elbows. This is curious…

Finished off with 20 minutes on the elliptical. That will remain a staple to help with the fat loss. I won’t keep this forever, just for now. Like after this is over, I may drop cardio in general, or go back to other things like farmer’s walks.

Now that my vacation is officially over, things will tighten up again, especially with diet. I have maybe 6 weeks left and if I could drop 6+ pounds between now and then, that’d be awesome.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 2, week 1

• Front Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 12
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 7
  • 155 x 7
• Leg Press
  • 215 x 15
  • 215 x 12
  • 215 x 12
  • 215 x 10
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 14
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 8
• Calves on Leg Press
  • 75 x 23
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 11
  • 75 x 10
• Cable Rope Pushdown (superset)
  • 50 x 10
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 18
  • 90 x 13
  • 90 x 10
• Standing DB Shoulder Press
  • 35e x 15
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 8
• Standing BB Shoulder Press
  • 75 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 8

That was different.

Starting mesocycle 2. This mesocycle is about mTOR activation — basically, do like Arnold and chase the pump. It’s a different growth pathway. So weight drops, reps increase, interset rest drops, some intensity techniques are added (supersets), exercises favor more isolation but at least try to change them from last cycle. And since it’s a new cycle, everything goes back to 2-4 sets and “light” weight, stopping reps 3/fail. Of course, workload/volume and weight WILL increase over the coming weeks.

For sure I’m going to have to adjust weights. My estimations weren’t too far off, but because the pace of the session doesn’t allow for much interset recovery, you just don’t need that much weight. The ego of course hates it 🙂 But really, there’s just not much needed.

I did like the quicker pace of the session. I’m working to stick to 1 minute interset rest, and truly that. Often other things affect true interset rest time, like I might take a moment when finishing to catch my breath, change weights, record the set in RepCount, THEN start the timer. Or when switching exercises, the time needed to set up the new one and tear down from the prior one. I’m trying to minimize that. As soon as the set is done, timer starts. If I have to set up or tear down, do it as I can, which might mean it trails into the rest periods a few sets before and a few sets after. Whatever it takes to really keep interset rest to 1 minute. The first week of the last mesocycle, sessions were 1-1.5 hours; last week, 2-2.5 hours! Today? 40 minutes (all times not including warm up). I like! Of course that time will increase over the weeks, but I still am happier to get the work in like that.

But then yeah, it was a rough session. Again, it’s hard to stop 3/fail, especially since the sensation here is different. Still, I was pretty floored at the pump I got. I expect some soreness tomorrow, which would be good.

Most things are just what they were, work wise. The one novel bit was the dumbbell skullcrushers. Never done those before, but I’m liking it. My elbows are complaining a bit, and these really helped because I could allow my hands to twist as needed to keep torque/pressure managable. I’m not sure if explicity twisting has any bearing here (may be good, may be bad). It’s not even that I’m doing that (e.g. like a supinating DB curl); it’s more just striving to keep palms up but allowing my hands to twist a bit if that helps manage the pressure. We’ll see how it pans out, but so far I’m thinking positively about it.

On the weight-loss front…

Weighed in this morning at 245 – down 7 lb since I started about 5 weeks ago. I held fairly steady the past 2 weeks I was on vacation, because I did allow myself some enjoyment during the holidays. But still, 7 lb in 5 weeks is acceptable. Things looking better in the mirror too.

I’m going to make 2 adjustments to help this. I’m staying on Cut 1 of the RP Diet template, but switching from “medium” to “light”. That alone drops my caloric intake on gym days by about 250 cals, which is will add up. I’m also adding about 20-ish minutes of elliptical work at the end of my gym sessions, which in theory ought to be burning me another 100-200-ish cals. Those should allow me to stretch out being on Cut 1 a bit longer and should still make an impact on the weight loss.

Anyways, looking forward to seeing how the rest of this first week goes!

RP Physique, Mesocycle 2, week 1

• Low Incline DB Press
  • 20e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 60e x 18
  • 60e x 12
  • 60e x 8
  • 60e x 8
• Dumbbell Skullcrusher (superset)
  • 30e x 10
  • 20e x 11
  • 20e x 11
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press (superset)
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 8
  • 40e x 8
• Close Grip Bench Press
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 7
• Cable Row
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 12
• Parallel Pulldown
  • 105 x 12
  • 105 x 9
  • 105 x 8
• Cable Upright Row
  • 60 x 18
  • 60 x 13
  • 60 x 11
• Slant Board Sit-up
  • bw x 13
  • bw x 9

Deload. Again, one of those times where it looks pointless, but it’s good for you.

This is where deloads can be useful: a great time to focus on technique.

One thing of note is squats. The past some whiles I’ve noticed on my first rep sometimes my knees don’t like it. It’s not pain, it’s just a bit of… well, I don’t know how to describe it, but it causes some instability when I descend. Every rep after is good. But first rep is so important. I’ve found that changing my setup to add a couple bodyweight squats before I get under the bar is all I need. That gets rid of the issue and the first rep moves well.

Interesting thing today as well was trying to get my elbows more under the bar BUT also not letting weight rest on them. That’s been a source of problems for me in the past, and I think ultimately what contributed to my arm pain — letting the arms hold some of the bar weight. So what I’m trying is not just keeping my upper back tight but also mimicking a pulldown of sorts so the lats engage and since I’m pulling down there isn’t going to be bar weight on my hands. We’ll see how this goes.

Another thing? I’ve been reading in the RP Male Physique Templates Facebook group about some suggested alternative ways to run the MPT while running RP Diet as well. Something along the lines of running the meso 1 twice, then meso 2, and maybe meso 3 during diet maintenance. When you run meso 1 the first time, you’d use like a 8RM for calculations. Then meso 2 “starts over” (back to 3-sets) and using 10RM. The meso 2 per template, tho perhaps dropping 1 week to help sync with the Diet.

I’m still gathering information on why this switch (which seemed to be endorsed by both Dr. Mike and Jared). Not sure if I’ll do it. I find merit in doing something “as written/prescribed” at least the first time around so you can know what it’s about. From there, you can modify. I do want to understand why they suggest a different approach, so I’m asking questions to the group. But I do think I’ll stick with the MPT as-written to see how it goes. Who knows… it might be the death of me (comments seem to allude that way, that meso 2 is hell), but that’s still good information.

Oh and weight. So yesterday being Christmas, I did have some fun. I enjoyed good food, not going overboard tho. Just didn’t sweat things too much. Woke up this morning at 246#, which is great. Christmas morning I woke up at 245#, which could be true loss or maybe just down some water-weight. But my point is, I don’t feel bad/guilty at all; in fact, I feel pretty darn good. I’m probably 90% strict to the diet, not killing myself, but doing what matters where it matters. Progress is slow and steady, and again I stress that the scale is only one metric. I look in the mirror, I see how my clothing fits, I also look at some tape measurements, and progress is happening. Again it’s slower than maybe I want, but I think this is going to be more beneficial in the end.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, week 4, deload

• High Bar Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 190 x 4
• Leg Press
  • 310 x 7
  • 310 x 7
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 6
• Calves on Leg Press
  • 70 x 6
  • 70 x 6
• Cable Tricep Pushdown
  • 40 x 10
  • 60 x 5
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
• High Incline Dumbbell Press
  • 45e x 8
  • 45e x 7

That was painful. 🙂

See, typical structure for me is to put the big movement first, then work down to isolation movements. That makes good sense for strength work, but this is pure hypertrophy work. So starting with lunges, then hyperextensions, THEN squatting — well, it just makes the squats all the worse. 🙂

Actually I find it pretty cool. I mean, this is 1/fail week so every set is like 9-9.5 RPE. Start with lunges and just get everything exhausted. Then the hypers work out the lower back and hamstrings. THEN when I get to front squats, I actually feel like I’m getting more out of it in terms of exhausting the lower-body muscles, compared to starting with front squats. But again, this is about context. From a pure strength perspective, this is not the way to do it. But trying to build muscle? This is great!

Of course, the weight you wind up lifting is far below what you might be capable of, but it is what you are capable of after that amount of preceding work. Gotta ignore the #’s here, because that’s not the goal.

Truly this hurt, and I am trashed.

It’s just a lot of volume per session and over the week. I am glad next week is deload because I need it. I am feeling a bit beat-up, but that’s just where it should be.

In terms of diet tho, I need to see how I’m going to work it with the deload. The deload protocol here is extremely light and non-taxing, especially the latter 2 workouts. It’s almost like “why bother going to the gym” sort of thing. I’m thinking I’ll straddle somewhat between a “light” day and an “off” day in terms of diet. Hopefully a little over a week on “off-ish” eating 1. won’t drain me too much, 2. will show some positive results!

I’m keeping a running log of things that running this RP Physique template has taught me. I’ll share at the end of running the whole cycle. There’ve been a lot of good insights.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, week 4

• Dumbell Walking Lunge
  • bw x 5e
  • 20 x 20e
  • 20 x 19e
  • 20 x 15e
  • 20 x 15e
  • 20 x 10e
  • 20 x 10e
• 45º Back Raise
  • 20 x 14
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
• Front Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 7
  • 180 x 7
  • 180 x 6
  • 180 x 6
• Hammer Curl
  • 20e x 10
  • 40e x 11
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 9
  • 40e x 8
  • 40e x 8
  • 40e x 7
• Dumbbell Shrug
  • 50e x 10
  • 75e x 5
  • 95e x 20
  • 95e x 20
  • 95e x 16
  • 95e x 16
  • 95e x 15
  • 95e x 14
• Stair Calves
  • 20 x 20
  • 20 x 16
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 11