Above is my another week's progress in this offseason. I am back into the gym and therefore any type of posing for just shy of three months. I mention the posing because, between pictures some body parts look drastically different in my eyes dependent on posing choices. The only time I am posing is for these update pictures, that will change soon. I intend to work in an intensive minimum hour long posing session per week very soon.
I am pretty happy with this past week. I have gotten good feedback from my body in response to increase in calories. I will continue to reiterate, I was in a terrible metabolic and physical state to begin my initial recomp. I was most definitely at a higher body fat % as well as lacking muscle. I took things very slow in all regards, focusing on proper blood glucose control, recovery and the increase in muscle tissue, not fat. This is why I am continuing to add calories. Why? Because my body is utilizing the extra calories to put on tissue. Both my upper and lower body are still recovering and in the process of muscle memory but, what I think a lot of people brush over is the fact that you can be in that process and also put on new detail and tissue, I am doing so. Based on this past weeks comparison pictures, I am most happy as the areas I want the improve seem to be getting fuller. My arms, my chest and my legs. My back and shoulders can be vastly more developed at this point but I don't want that. This phase in my offseason is the beginning of a ramp up in training and the last of a period in which I leave certain muscle groups as mentioned to simply stay trained but to not eat away opportunity from my weak points. In late June I was weighing approx. 152 and I am now pushing 160, I'd say my condition is about the same, happy with that.
I will slowly be adding in a few vital compounds in which I know will change my physique fairly drastically.
First, In regard to my legs. Hack squats and hamstring curls (seated specifically) have been my two main movements. They both have been progressing well. I am posterior chain dominant when I barbell squat, I needed more quads as I am relatively wide up top. I also did not choose to begin my training utilizing barbell squats as it would tax my recovery greatly, while adding to more imbalance in my physique in which will not help my overall look. I will be adding in either a front of back squat this month, I think I will be dedicating a training day to those squats and will be looking to use this exercise as a true gauge for improvement. I have already began to add weight to my dips on my upper body day. I am only training shoulders about once every ten days and focusing on the upright row and front raises (not too intensely but higher rep, always at a challenging rpe.) I will keep my shoulder training that way as the dips will push them to grow naturally (I am very shoulder dominant and they grow very quickly.)
The one issue which is bound to present itself, is recovery. I am definitely recovering as my performance in the gym and progress is lineal but, I am becoming drastically more taxed outside of the gym. I have increased my sleep, my food has gone up (see my week's myfitnesspal stats below) but, naturally being on this specific routine and training hard for a month now is naturally going to demand more from my body.
I will post my updated training routine next week as not much has changed at all. I will be playing with days off and times that I train (training in the morning followed by training late in the day the following day, followed by a day off as an example.) I have now been trying to get a minimum of eight hours sleep and usually getting at least that in the past week. In October which will be about a year out from when I am planning to compete, I will be adding weighted pull ups and changing my routine overall, this will be the big offseason push followed by a cut to finally bring body fat down. BTW the show I am aiming for is the NPC Brooklyn Grand Prix, last I spoke to Matthew he was unsure if it would happen this year, if anybody is aware if they got a venue I'd be curious to know.