Starting week 2 of the metabolite mesocycle. And well… it feels odd.

When I’m in there doing the work, it’s pretty difficult. You push hard, you don’t rest much, and it sure gets tiring. I mean, the weights look silly on that superset of the skullcrushers and DB bench, but when you do set after set of it? Oye! However, shortly after all that work is done, it doesn’t feel like I did a ton of work. I just don’t “feel it”. It feels like “did I actually work today? Did I get enough work?” Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I don’t know — it’s part of learning this approach.

I do feel like this session went better than last week, but that’s because things are more dialed in in terms of weights and what I’m doing. While I originally didn’t rate the prior session at “1”, I went ahead and modified that this morning and did up the sets today. I’m feeling good and figure it’s good to just keep upping the volume right now to try to get the most of out this.

It’s still 3/fail this time, and I think I held better to that this time, but I really do want to push it. 🙂 Still 1-minute interset rest too.

One side thing I’m trying to work on is ensuring I crush-grip all the things. This seems to take stress off my elbows, which is a good thing. Plus my grip will be happier too.

On the weight-loss front, weighed in at 243 this morning. So that’s down 9 lb in 6 weeks. I’ll take it.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 2, week 2

• Low Incline DB Press
  • 20e x 10
  • 40e x 5
  • 65e x 16
  • 65e x 12
  • 65e x 8
  • 65e x 7
  • 65e x 6
• Dumbbell Skullcrusher (superset)
  • 20e x 15
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 10
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press (superset)
  • 35e x 13
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
• Close Grip Bench Press
  • 115 x 12
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 8
• Cable Row
  • 115 x 18
  • 115 x 12
  • 115 x 11
  • 115 x 10
• Parallel Pulldown
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 9
  • 105 x 8
  • 105 x 8
• Cable Upright Row
  • 65 x 15
  • 65 x 15
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 10
• Slant Board Sit-up
  • bw x 14
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 9

Week 1 of the metabolite-focus mesocycle comes to a close.

It’s a different approach for sure. Still too early to make a call on it, but I am starting to see why perhaps some of the suggested modifications have been spoken about – and these are mods coming from the RP folks themselves (Dr. Mike, Jared Feather). For example, that instead of running the template as-written, you do meso 1 focusing in the 7-10 rep range, then do meso 1 again but in the 8-12 rep range, then meso 2 in the 8-12 rep range with intensity techniques (like supersets), then a brief meso 3. I’ve also heard other suggestions to not run meso 2 as long as suggested, because for some people you just can’t get much out of it running it that long.

But, when I follow a recipe, I like to do it as-written the first time around. This allows me to understand and know what the author was going for, and I’ll likely learn a bunch as well. From there, I can then adjust and tweak to suit my needs and tastes.

That all said… today.

I have never done hex bar deadlifts before today. They are kinda cool! I won’t say they’re a substitute for traditional deadlifts, but I can see their place. Certainly felt it a lot more in my quads than my posterior chain, and that’s a good thing for me. Doing these plus front squats are likely to serve me well in the future. I used the “lower” handles so I’d get more range of motion. I also used bumper plates so I could lift on the platform itself. I also don’t know how much the bar weighs, tho it felt “normal” (so probably 45’ish). Point all being, bumpers were in kilos and not knowing the bar weight, but I went with basic plate math meaning 230# is 2 “big wheels” on each side, plus the 2.5#.

Since I’m doing leg press twice-a-week this cycle, I’m varying it. Tuesday will be feet lower on the plate, and today will be feet higher. That should hit things a little different.

The curls. Oye. That was actually pretty killer. Very light weight, lots of reps at the start. But it quickly went downhill! 🙂 Supersetting 2 biceps exercises with so little interset rest and man, killed me in no time. This is one where I’m not sure if I should adjust the weight down — but probably not since the first couple sets did hit the proper thresholds.

It’s kinda a weird day, but hey… it is what it is. We’ll see how this pans out over time.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 2, week 1

• Hex Bar Deadlift
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 185 x 5
  • 230 x 12
  • 230 x 10
  • 230 x 9
  • 230 x 8
• 45º Back Raise
  • bw x 12
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 18
• Leg Press
  • 215 x 22
  • 215 x 13
  • 215 x 12
  • 215 x 12
• EZ Bar Curl (superset)
  • 50 x 17
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 7
• Alternating DB Curl (superset)
  • 20e x 15
  • 20e x 8
  • 20e x 5
• BB Shrug
  • 205 x 22
  • 205 x 15
  • 205 x 12
• Stair Calves
  • 20 x 15
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 11
  • 20 x 11
  • 20 x 10

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

Every time I have a session with this RP template, I think of something new, something to continue evolving my perspective.

Today was pretty simple. Already it’s evident the general approach is a full-body upper/lower split with A/B days. The A days tend to be harder, heavier, more compound; the B days are harder but in a different way with maybe more isolation. Some could argue it’s a heavy day then a light day, but it’s not quite that simple.

What I really felt today isn’t a breakthrough, just acknowledgement, of how of the 2 upper days, today is actually more back/pull and the other day is more chest/push. Both days have some of each, but there is a little more stress/focus flip-flop. So it’s not really heavy/light per se, but yet it is in a way.

I’m really looking forward to how things come out in the end — is all of this going to be good.

I’ve also been thinking about the level of volume and what would actually be sustainable for me. Because all this 6-set stuff is for sure too much, but good for a short bit of over-reach. Which then makes me think about deloads and that whole debate. Like I said at the start, evolving perspective.

Anyways, as for the session itself, it was fine. I did skip the ab work today because I had to get out of there to make a meeting. I am so hoping the next mesocycle will allow me to get in and out of the gym faster. 🙂

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, week 4

• Wide-Grip Pulldown
  • 80 x 10
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 16
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 10
  • 130 x 9
  • 130 x 8
  • 130 x 8
• Underhand Pulldown
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 14
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 12
• Row To Chest
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 9
  • 125 x 9
  • 125 x 9
• Barbell Upright Row
  • 75 x 16
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 11
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 10
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 12
  • 195 x 9
  • 195 x 7
  • 195 x 6
  • 195 x 6
• Incline Dumbbell Press
  • 60e x 15
  • 60e x 12
  • 60e x 11
  • 60e x 10
  • 60e x 9
  • 60e x 9