The Next Phase: Balanced, Consistent, and Sustained Progress

[red_cat]

Dude I hate retail lol

Man, no A/C... Inb4 hotter than satan's armpit

It was absolutely awful. Thankfully our new landlord is really on top of things and said he would have someone out ASAP. Really glad we found him.

[jaredmus]

I hated RETAIL, I worked at a Nike store 50 miles from manhattan and we had tour busses of people who spoke no english it was HELL on earth retail is rough!

[jpfaherty]

Sorry if I missed it, what are you doing after the retail gig is up?

[IK9]

I worked at Victoria's Secret for 2 years.. I liked it but hated it.. Nom saying? Hahahah

[phillysteak]

LOL Inna.

I did best buy right before college and on breaks. All like 18/19 year old kids just hanging together and shooting the **** between customers. Then management would hassle us about how many magazine subscriptions, warranties, etc we sold--it was all extra money on their paycheck but we didn't see a dime of it. Some kids got after it but I always put up a big goose egg each week. Also ate candy from the impulse rack pretty much the entire shift. Life was good.

[red_cat]

Going in for what is likely my last session as a member at my main gym. I've been there for quite a while and we've got a good group of friends that will be there tonight. I think it's only appropriate that I've got heavy deadlifts scheduled. I'll update tonight/tomorrow with the details.

I hated RETAIL, I worked at a Nike store 50 miles from manhattan and we had tour busses of people who spoke no english it was HELL on earth retail is rough!

Woof. Thankfully I never had to deal with busses of people but lots of people who don't know what they're looking for or have heard a TON of misinformation. After a while I realized it was pointless to try to educate a lot of them about proper diet and supplementation because they didn't really want to learn; they just wanted a quick fix.

Sorry if I missed it, what are you doing after the retail gig is up?

Teaching 5-12 band at a school about 1 1/2 hours from where we live right now. We are moving up there this Sunday! I went to college for music education so I'll actually get to use one of my degrees!

I worked at Victoria's Secret for 2 years.. I liked it but hated it.. Nom saying? Hahahah

Dude, I worked at Victoria's doing shipment during the summers for a couple of years. Those were fun times. The girls were hilarious and loved having a guy around to balance things out. I still keep in touch with a lot of them, actually!

LOL Inna.

I did best buy right before college and on breaks. All like 18/19 year old kids just hanging together and shooting the **** between customers. Then management would hassle us about how many magazine subscriptions, warranties, etc we sold--it was all extra money on their paycheck but we didn't see a dime of it. Some kids got after it but I always put up a big goose egg each week. Also ate candy from the impulse rack pretty much the entire shift. Life was good.

Don't get me wrong; I have met some dang cool people and gained a lot from them. I'll miss that part. And if I was going to go into retail management, it would be with a company like Vitamin Shoppe that seems to be genuinely trying to do the right thing for their customers most of the time...but I want to teach music. That's my passion and I'm over the moon that I get to pursue that.

[red_cat]

07/24/15

Morning Weight: 198.2 lbs (Prep Low: 189.6 lbs Fully Depleted)
Planned Macros: On - 230p/380c/35-40fib/83f
-------------------------
Thoughts:
What started out as a pretty rough workout ended up being solid all around. I spent the day packing for the move on Sunday and felt pretty sore/tired for most of it. I knew going in tonight that deads probably wouldn't be the strongest they've been but I powered through and did what I could without overdoing it. That last single was about all I could muster. After that, as you can see from all of the circles, I went up in weight or reps on nearly every lift. I'll take it!

I probably won't be on a ton for the next several days. We won't have internet at the new place until Thursday so I'll be relying on hotspots and WiFi at the school. I'll update with some exciting news when I get the chance! (Yeah...that's a cliffhanger... )


Heavy Back/Medium Rep & BFR Hams/Medium Rep Traps

[IK9]

Loving that volume.. nice pull ups too

I know what the exciting news is..... jk!

[happydude101]

Interested in the news, as well, and good luck with the move this weekend!

On the Incline DB Rows, what sort of incline are you at? I've tried these before and never seem to get the hang of them.

[phillysteak]

In for the news!

[wrkoutfrq]

In for the news!

This!!! Spill it Wade!

[jpfaherty]

[red_cat]

Interested in the news, as well, and good luck with the move this weekend!

On the Incline DB Rows, what sort of incline are you at? I've tried these before and never seem to get the hang of them.

Roughly 45-degree. I just try to make sure that I'm high enough on the bench that my (stupid long) arms have clearance at the bottom of the movement.

Loving that volume.. nice pull ups too

I know what the exciting news is..... jk!

In for the news!

This!!! Spill it Wade!

BOOM!!!



I'm officially a rep doing demos for MAN Sports!! Some of you guys probably saw this on my IG the other day but this has been in the works for a little while and I'm excited to get started representing a company that I've been a fan of for a while now! First demo is in Omaha on 8/15 and we'll see where it goes after that (probably 1-2 per month on weekends so a small commitment time-wise).

I'll post a training update later today/tonight!

[jaredmus]

Good stuff with Man sports, I see the online coach use all man stuff. NOO pump looks good and Peptest has a decent profile lots of stims, I have heard from multiple sources the aminos taste great

[NaturalPursuit]

BIG gratz on the rep position dude! I was always a fan of MAN sports. Great work!

[IK9]

Grats on the rep!

[red_cat]

Good stuff with Man sports, I see the online coach use all man stuff. NOO pump looks good and Peptest has a decent profile lots of stims, I have heard from multiple sources the aminos taste great

Love the Pep Test and Game Day. I've only had the Dorks flavor of Iso-Amino so far but it's nice to have a product that tastes awesome and is JUST BCAAs. A lot of formulas are getting kinda of "kitchen sink" in my opinion.

BIG gratz on the rep position dude! I was always a fan of MAN sports. Great work!

Grats on the rep!

Thanks you, gents!!

08/01/15

Morning Weight: 195.8 lbs (Waaaaay down here)
Planned Macros: On - 230p/380c/35-40fib/83f
-------------------------
Thoughts:

Nice to be back! All kinds of updates here. We're fully moved to our new place and have almost everything unpacked. It has been nice to be able to make this place look a little more like home by putting up more decorations, painting, and making decisions with the thought that we'll be here for at least 3-4 years. The actual moving was an absolute bear as the heat index was 105+ on the day that we moved and 100+ on the day that we went back to clean the old place. That being the case, I took almost a full week off from lifting and did not do any cardio this week.

Getting back to it was nice! I'm getting my sessions in at the school gym for now and it has a majority of what I really need to get meaningful sessions in. In order to get more things done during the day I've been getting my sessions in at roughly 6 AM. This will probably continue into the school year as I'm going to have to embrace early AM workouts if I want to keep progressing, stay on top of everything at my new job, and still have time to spend with my family. Nutrition-wise I've been doing BCAAs and a mix of malto/dextrose about 30 minutes pre, BCAAs and dextrose intra, and a normal meal post. I seems to be working pretty well and I haven't really seen any drop in performance so that's going to remain the formula for the time being.

This session was just great. I started up a DAA/Nolvadren XT stack a few days ago and decided to try out Pep Test to get my dose of DAA in for the day. GREAT energy and, for having 425mg of caffeine, it really didn't feel like I was stimmed out. I was sweating buckets but I was also keeping the pace pretty fast (got done in 1.5 hours where it normally takes 2) and there isn't a ton of ventilation in the gym. I had to alter quite a few of the lifts that I had been doing but that wasn't really a bad thing. Having a BB shoulder press again is going to be very nice and I haven't maxed out the DBs on my chest movements quite yet...at least of medium and high rep days.

Like I said, GREAT to be back!!!!


Medium Rep Chest/Heavy Delts/High Rep Biceps/Abs & Obs

[happydude101]

Congrats on the rep position, my friend!

Great news!

[Bnizzle163]

Just catching up in here. Super excited for you. Way to go, teach .

[red_cat]

Congrats on the rep position, my friend!

Great news!

Thanks, bud! I'm glad I can still keep my foot in the fitness/supplement industry for now, and represent a company that I know a lot about and have trusted for quite a while.

Just catching up in here. Super excited for you. Way to go, teach .

Thanks, Billy. There was quite a bit to catch up on in those two posts. lol

08/02/15

Morning Weight: 195.4 lbs (Hovering here...VERY dehydrated when I woke...?)
Planned Macros: Off - 230p/330c/35-40fib/105f
-------------------------
Thoughts:

Off from the gym after three straight days back. I'll be out of town all day for a rehearsal/gig and just won't have time. It'll be another early AM session tomorrow with the start of band camp. Deadlifts on tap at 5:30 AM just sounds like......fun?

Weight trended down this week even with a macro increase two weeks ago and several days of VERY loose tracking. With the move I made a lot of guesses as to what I was eating (also drank a lot of beer ) and it looks like I overshot on most of them. That's absolutely fine! BF% hasn't budged at all, my calories are about +400 from where I ended prep, and I'm doing very minimal cardio right now (maybe one session of 5 intervals). I'll be bumping carbs +20 to 400 and fats +2 to 85 on training days. Off days will continue to follow the "-50c and +20f" model that seems to be working for me.

[jaredmus]

sometimes nice to take that time off away from the gym, you come back ready to go

[TGreggors]

Beast. congrats on the rep position

[NaturalPursuit]

How do you feel the higher fat on your off days helps? More hormonally? Mentally? Joint wise?

Always love learning how higher fat on off days effects various people

[phillysteak]

Awesome on you man! And glad to hear you're settling in. One thing I really hate moving, even one day when we can get a home...is the actual process of moving lol. But then once things are in place and you can start making it comfy it's all worth it right?

[wrkoutfrq]

I'm about to go through the same thing with the moving, except I'm moving my GF to Texas ( ). Glad everything is calming down a bit, and congrats on the rep position!

[red_cat]

sometimes nice to take that time off away from the gym, you come back ready to go

I honestly don't know when the last time I took nearly a full week off was. It had been forever. I was dang sore for the first week and a half but I've adapted pretty well and I'm recovering MUCH better now even with a little less sleep than I was getting before.

Beast. congrats on the rep position

Thank ya, sir!

How do you feel the higher fat on your off days helps? More hormonally? Mentally? Joint wise?

Always love learning how higher fat on off days effects various people

For me it's a little bit mental and a little bit joint. I get to change up the foods I'm eating and I feel like it really does make a difference as far as my joints not creaking quite as badly. Funny enough I feel like it has also helped my skin from drying out quite so much. I have always seemed to fight dry skin, even in the summer, but I'm not having any issues right now!

Awesome on you man! And glad to hear you're settling in. One thing I really hate moving, even one day when we can get a home...is the actual process of moving lol. But then once things are in place and you can start making it comfy it's all worth it right?

Yep. The actual moving is awful. It's always the worst part but thankfully we won't have to do that again for a few years...and then it will be to an actual house.

I'm about to go through the same thing with the moving, except I'm moving my GF to Texas ( ). Glad everything is calming down a bit, and congrats on the rep position!

Thank ya, sir! Best of luck moving her. Hopefully she doesn't have ten dressers full of clothes in addition to a huge vanity and bed set.

[red_cat]

08/08/15

Morning Weight: 196.4 lbs (+.3 to last week...maintaining macros for next week)
Planned Macros: On - 230p/400c/35-40fib/85f
-------------------------
Thoughts:

First week of student contact is in the books! Lots of learning on BOTH ends at marching band camp and it was great to get my hands dirty, find my rhythm, and show the students what they can expect from me. Next week we've got a couple of professional development days but I'll have a good bit of time to work in my room and take care of some things before we get rolling for the year.

Lifting-wise it was hit and miss. Started out with a great back/triceps day, a not-so-great heavy squats day (see: high bar takes about 10% off of my top end), and finished with a couple of really solid workouts. Everything was around 5:30 AM this week and I've started to find a groove with my sleep schedule. I kept almost every session right at 90 minutes and that's absolutely perfect going forward. No cardio now...I was plenty active with the students and I'm at the point reverse-wise that I can just drop it completely.

Going out tonight to celebrate the wife's birthday! Steak and potatoes on the menu...plus whatever else I feel like. I just left a bunch of calories open and we'll see what I end up having!

High Rep Back/BFR Hams/Heavy Traps

[NaturalPursuit]

SOLID workout! I've been loving BFR training as of late

[red_cat]

SOLID workout! I've been loving BFR training as of late

I'm a big fan of BFR. Once a week for biceps and hamstrings has done wonders over the past year or so.

[IK9]

The circles & arrows made me think of a football playbook hahah

Enjoy the steak + potato etc

What do you put on yours?