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

Today again was an exercise in just being in the moment. Don’t worry about the next set, or even the next rep – just worry about the rep I’m doing now.

I’m learning that this level of volume is something I can do, but not for long. I couldn’t see doing this for weeks on end. But I think 1 week of some good overreach? It’s perfect.

I’m learning that high bar and front squats are something I should do more often. They are hitting things that don’t normally get hit, and I will benefit from them long term.

I really really love the seated leg curl machine – it works my hamstrings like never before.

On the pushdowns, my right elbow has been feeling irritated so I switched from the straight bar to ropes. This allowed my hands to be in a neutral position and put less stress on the elbow. Not going to sweat the details here too much.

This was a tough day tho. Pushing to 1/fail, upping the weights, the reps, everything. I’m beat. 🙂

I will say that’s something mighty important here: rest and recovery. Gotta be on-point on this.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, week 4

• High Bar Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 175 x 5
  • 210 x 13
  • 210 x 11
  • 210 x 10
  • 210 x 9
  • 210 x 9
  • 210 x 8
• Leg Press
  • 340 x 13 (145# one sie, 150# the other)
  • 340 x 12
  • 340 x 12
  • 340 x 12
  • 340 x 11
  • 340 x 11
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 85 x 18
  • 85 x 14
  • 85 x 13
  • 85 x 11
  • 85 x 10
  • 85 x 9
• Calves on Leg Press
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 17
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 14
• Cable Tricep Pushdown
  • 40 x 10
  • 60 x 5
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 14
  • 90 x 14
  • 90 x 11
• High Incline Dumbbell Press
  • 50e x 15
  • 50e x 12
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 9
  • 50e x 9
  • 50e x 8

Ho-lee-crap. Nothing like spending 2.5 hours in the gym.

I mean, on the one hand I love it – there’s worse places ohe could be. On the other, it’s a HUGE amount of work/volume that causes me to be at the gym that long. It’s unreal!

This week is the “peak” of the first mesocycle: the most work, the heaviest weights, working 1/fail, etc.. Next week is deload. Everything’s been going quite well so far, so it’s always been a “1” rating for the sessions, so the weight goes up and the sets do as well.

One thing I’m learning tho is that with properly graduated work, I can withstand a LOT more volume that I thought. But I do think I’m nearing my threshold. For example, as soon as I hit flat DB bench press? I couldn’t. I’ve been doing 90’s all this time but today? I could barely get 6 reps — the preceding 12 work sets of “to failure” just tapped me out hard. I dropped down to 80’s to still get some work in. But yeah, this is crazy. 🙂

I’ve started to jot some notes down about what I’ve learned so far from this different style of training. I’ll share them when I’m done with the whole program because well… my understanding is the next mesocycle is a complete ass-kicker.

In other news, weighed in this morning at 247, so technically that’s down 5# since I started. Not as fast as I want, but I’m seeing other body changes too, so all in all I’m good. I’m looking forward to where things will be when I get to the end of this all.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, week 4

• Incline Wide Grip Bench Press
  • bar x 45
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 180 x 12
  • 180 x 8
  • 180 x 7
  • 180 x 7
  • 180 x 7
  • 180 x 6
• Incline Dumbbell Flye
  • 35e x 20
  • 35e x 16
  • 35e x 13
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 11
  • 35e x 10
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press
  • 90e x 6
  • 80e x 6
  • 80e x 6
  • 80e x 6
  • 80e x 6
• Barbell Bent Over Row
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 115 x 5
  • 145 x 13
  • 145 x 10
  • 145 x 9
  • 145 x 8
  • 145 x 7
  • 145 x 7
• Normal Grip Pulldown
  • 110 x 16
  • 110 x 15
  • 110 x 13
  • 110 x 11
  • 110 x 10
  • 110 x 10
• Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise
  • 20e x 17
  • 20e x 13
  • 20e x 11
  • 20e x 9
  • 20e x 9
  • 20e x 9
• Slant Board Sit-up
  • 10 x 15
  • 10 x 10
  • 10 x 8
  • 10 x 7
  • 10 x 6

Today kinda sucked. 🙂

Again, sleep has been poor all week so recovery is not where it needs to be. Plus of course with the cutting diet I just don’t have the gas to go. I was so ready to quit when warming up for front squats, but you just keep going.

One interesting effect lifting has had on me is becoming very in-the-moment. I am a planner, so I think about the future a lot. Granted, my sessions are planned, but in the past I’d care about what I’m doing next: how many sets left? what’s the next exercise? etc. But the past some whiles? I just care about this set, this rep. The session is all there in RepCount, so I don’t need to really think about it — just do it.

And that’s how today went. Just keep doing it. Doesn’t matter what’s next, what matters is what’s right here right now. After you finish this set, you can see what to do next.

The volume is getting to be killer. Next week most everything is 6 sets and 1/fail — it’s going to be intensive.

As for today.

Lunges I continue to hate, but I continue to do because unilateral leg work has been the best thing for my knee health improvement.

Back raises are to be done with an arched back so it’s all about the hamstrings — but it continues to show me how I really need to work on that posterior chain flexibility. I work on it, but it’s just going to take a lot of time.

Front squats I continue to hate, but I continue to accept that down the line I need to make these more a part of my programming because I know getting better here is going to help me all around.

Curls, shrugs, calves – just basic work. Nothing big to report.

Weighed in at 248 this morning — hopefully that’s solid progression and not just a fluke of one measurement. 🙂

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, Week 3

• Dumbell Walking Lunge
  • bw x 5e
  • 20 x 20e
  • 20 x 15e
  • 20 x 10e
  • 20 x 8e
  • 20 x 8e
• 45º Back Raise
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 11
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
• Front Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 7
  • 175 x 6
• Hammer Curl
  • 20e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 9
  • 40e x 8
  • 40e x 7
  • 40e x 7
• Dumbbell Shrug
  • 45e x 10
  • 70e x 5
  • 90e x 20
  • 90e x 19
  • 90e x 16
  • 90e x 15
  • 90e x 15
• Stair Calves
  • 20 x 17
  • 20 x 14
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10

Sleep has been a little off this week — some stressful things (work, etc.) causing me to wake up early. Sigh. I know that’s affecting my recovery. But I’ll be taking some time off work for holiday vacationing, and napping will be in order. 🙂

That said, today was good. Everything continues to go up: weight, reps, sets — thus volume. A little sore at this point, but I attribute it to the sleep loss. It’s been some pretty good work and I’m enjoying this approach. Every time I drive home from the gym I keep thinking about how this affects and will influence my future training programs.

On the weight-loss front, the scale is finally reflecting some change but it’s minor and hard to tell at this point if it’s really progress or just a particular reading on the scale. But I have to remind myself there are other markers of progress — bodyweight is only one. This morning, when I bent over to put my shoes on, it was much easier — my gut is reducing. That’s a great marker! My guess on bodyweight? Given the gym work, the diet supporting it, etc., I may actually have put on a tiny bit of muscle mass, like half a pound? That’s actually possible, and could explain why I’m seeing body transformations but it’s not reflecting on the scale. I just have to remember to trust the process and keep pushing through for more weeks.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, Week 3

• Wide-Grip Pulldown
  • 80 x 10
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 14
  • 130 x 11
  • 130 x 9
  • 130 x 9
  • 130 x 8
• Underhand Pulldown
  • 110 x 14
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 12
  • 110 x 11
• Row To Chest
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 9
  • 125 x 9
  • 125 x 8
• Barbell Upright Row
  • 75 x 15
  • 75 x 11
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 9
  • 75 x 8
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 12
  • 190 x 9
  • 190 x 7
  • 190 x 6
  • 190 x 6
• Incline Dumbbell Press
  • 60e x 14
  • 60e x 11
  • 60e x 11
  • 60e x 10
  • 60e x 10
• Reaching Sit-up
  • 5 x 20
  • 5 x 15
  • 5 x 10
  • 5 x 8

My head is elsewhere this morning (all good, just weighty). So today was just doing the work. RepCount app tells me it’s time for another set? Do the set and be in that moment doing it. Then rest and my mind can wander if it has to. Just do the work as laid out.

And the session actually went pretty well. Weights are up, reps are up (2/fail), volume is WAY up. So things chugged along pretty nicely and productively. I opted to drop a few warm-up sets where I really didn’t need them. Like I originally did warm-ups on the leg press, but it’s only because I hadn’t used the leg press at the new gym and needed to get a feel for it (the sled is kinda light compared to the old gym, some slightly different mechanics, but it’s a leg press is a leg press is a leg press). So I really don’t need them any more — pretty warm from squats.

Fun thing about calf raises? Really focusing on the stretch at the bottom, and I can tell my calves are improving in flexibility, which is carrying over to some improved relaxness and comfort in the sole of my foot. This is a good thing. Calf work is kinda boring, but this makes me feel like I should work in at least a few sets always just for this benefit.

Anyways… onwards.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1, Week 3

• High Bar Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 175 x 5
  • 205 x 10
  • 205 x 9
  • 205 x 9
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 7
• Leg Press
  • 335 x 15 (really 145# each side of the sled)
  • 335 x 13
  • 335 x 13
  • 335 x 12
  • 335 x 12
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 80 x 15
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
• Calves on Leg Press
  • 75 x 18
  • 75 x 14
  • 75 x 14
  • 75 x 12
  • 75 x 13
  • 75 x 12
• Cable Tricep Pushdown
  • 40 x 10
  • 60 x 5
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 20
  • 85 x 14
  • 85 x 13
• High Incline Dumbbell Press
  • 50e x 16
  • 50e x 12
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 9
  • 50e x 9