I now need to get my mind into gear for putting on muscle. I feel that I had a very good attempt at cutting and now I need to make a plan of how I am going to try to build muscle. The easiest way I can think of monitoring my progress, is to keep track of every time I go to the gym. Exercises, weights, sets, mood, reps and so on.

Today was an excellent day in the gym. After all the low carb leg days, I can finally get back into pushing harder and be more focused. The spreadsheet I have quickly done is just a basic idea of what I hope to do starting from Monday. Once I have a layout of my workout, I can work on beating my previous weekly best. If I beat very exercise by 1 rep or 1lb, I know I am going in the right direction. The first month will be getting an average baseline down. After a few months, I will have a good diary of how I’m progressing in the gym and how my bodyfat:weight ratio is changing too. (I know months sound like a long time, but they really are not)

I have absolutely no idea what 7lb of muscle looks like, but this is my aim for the next year. This time next year I want to be cut and weight 11.8 stone. Again, I have no idea is 7lb is too much to expect or if i should set out to be 15lb heavier. As it’s all about experimenting with my body, I ain’t in a rush to get fast results. The main reason I do all this is because I enjoy it. I have no need to rush anything. Slow progression and a better understanding of my body may help me understand how to help others in the future, this is what I really want.

(Pic for video above)

Training to failure

I guess we all have different opinions on training to failure. I used to think that the pump was failure. I then thought doing a last rep on my own was failure. After training with Dorian Yates, I then learnt a new way of training failure. When I train to failure now, I carry on doing reps the best I can with the help of my wife giving more effort as needed. The idea is to hit my failure, so if I’m doing a bench press I will lower the bar down and basically have it stuck across my chest. The wife will then assist me in getting the bar back up to the top and I will do it again until the wife can’t lift the bar any more. Obviously there is a limit to the level of safety for both of us.

If I do a bench press of 100kg on my final sets, I will put 20kg + 5kg + 10kg + 5kg on the bar. As soon as I hit fatigue the wife will help me get the bar bar up and then quickly remove the 5kg and maybe the 10kg too, leaving just the 20kg + 5kg on the bar. This drop set way makes it safer for both of us as I can hold this weight on my chest without getting crushed and so can the wife lift this off me if need be.

I will train like this till my body needs a rest. After a few hard sessions I will know my body is struggling to keep it going and so I will adapt my training accordingly.

It all starts Monday…