Oh mate I hear you. I never once spoke about this stuff with either of my parents. I laughed when I read about your Budweiser sign. I was a teenager in the UK in the 80’s in a time when the Sun news paper had topless pictures of women on page 3, which we just refereed to as ‘Page 3 girls’ . My introduction to girls came form my granddad who would keep the page 3 from his daily paper and give them to me at the end of the week when I went to visit. Not even sure if my mum approved or not but she never said a word.
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Haha yea this is always me, particularly with ab roll outs.
Haha only twice, fast learner!
Yup definitely a factor, and also a goal!
But I’ll still be giving ab training a decent shot this year.
Will do, haven’t got here yet!
Yea absolutely - looking forward to switching gears and spending some time gaining again! Looking forward to seeing the results of your abs experiment!
Tough!
Yup, I definitely identified myself in the beginning of the book as the type 4 father, present, committed, involved, but not intentional - that specific intention of raising my son to be a man with a clear plan of how to do that, that’s the next step but the calling is massive.
Exactly!
Mine turned 13 last month so I’m already feeling slightly behind the curve.
Solid idea, must confess I haven’t really dealt with this area properly yet, did have to have a conversation with my son about porn, but not really got any further than that.
Yup it’s what makes the book valuable, even if you don’t agree with the author on a lot of things, I’m on board with almost all of it and really want to buy the book for a few secular friends, but don’t feel like they’ll read it because of the strength of the faith based content, which is a shame but I do appreciate the book as a faith based resource, so I guess you can’t have it both ways!
Haha think you just missed this:
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Alright, I’m leaving Rhodes today, had a fantastic holiday, exactly what we all needed, a relaxing break with no schedule, no agenda (apart from relaxing) and no babies (apart from a few video calls).
Returning slightly more tanned and slightly less jacked. Those two things will probably reverse fairly quickly.
Diet wise over here I’ve lived on greek yogurt for breakfast, omelettes for lunch and beef stifado, lamb kleftico and gyro/BBQ, love the Greek cuisine. Pretty healthy overall, but as it was holidays I didn’t hold back on the desserts. On return the diet is going to be much stricter, with the simultaneous aims of bringing down my hba1c and gaining mass, probably ought to do some experiments with a continuous blood glucose monitor.
Training wise I’ve re-read linear progress and I’m really excited to get back to it, hoping to be back settled and in the gym by Friday!
Recovery wise, sleep will be somewhat dictated by babies and call outs, but I’ll need to be diligent about getting to bed earlier, easier said than done. Walking needs to be back on the agenda for recovery purposes, and blood glucose reasons, and health and mental health, really the list is pretty long for walking, there is no excuse not to.
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A little photo dump:
Snorkeling in paradise with the kids:
The acropolis overlooking the town we stayed in:
Final cigar of the holiday:
Big fan of Plasencia.
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My mum disapproved about a lot of things my grandad did, but as a kid you don’t see the signs. It was only as I got older after Grandad does that the stories came out and it all made sense. He was quite the rascal. 
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Nah, it’s never too late to get started! The idea of “13” is convenient, sensible, even—but somewhat arbitrary.
Likewise, starting small is better than not starting. Go for it!
I understand it’s not cheap, but my philosophy about this sort of thing: I try not to make the decision for them. I do what I can—in this case, buying them a copy—and the rest is up to them.
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That’s awesome, lovely to have those memories and I’m sure you’ll create similar memories when you become a grandad!
Yea totally agree, it’s definitely a good time to start and always better late than never, if I’d read it a year ago it would have been ideal, but who knows maybe I’d have forgotten too much by then. Getting my wife to read it now.
Definitely, and already something I do, I’ve bought many a book for others, often unsolicited and with the general expectation that it won’t get read, but ever the optimist!
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That looks like quite the vacation. I have not been to Rhodes. But I have been to Ayvalik (Turkey) and Lesbos. I think Rhodes would be quite a vacation!
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05/09/25
Morning weight 194 point something - literally no change from holiday (maybe a slight loss, since I ate 3 frozen pizzas and an ice-cream last night so probably holding a bit of water) not surprised I ate pretty well overall and did a lot of walking in some pretty intense heat!
Back to it today, will hit an acclimatisation session today, the fridge is stocked with mostly the same things I’ve eaten for the past few months to lose weight, but this time I can eat more of it and gain weight - healthy eating to gain and I’ll be strict here.
Bit of a set back before I even start though, my elbow, which had been better on holiday feels like someone has stabbed a screwdriver in the joint, it’s agony, even when not being used, which is unusual. I think this confirms my suspicion, holding babies is actually the primary cause. It’s only my left and I tend to hold them on that side locked into the position that most hurts. Not really much I can do here by maybe try and alternate sides I hold on and try and carry them a little less.
Other than that I’ll train the best I can and work around anything that causes and significant pain or escalates current pain levels. Good news is that Brian’s programs never have curls in them, and even with elbow pain I usually get away with carries, sandbag work, chins and rows. I’ll keep up the rehab side of things, very light high rep curls and banded tri pulldowns, and I might use straps a bit more as well.
Breakfast:
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Finished the day like this:
Roughly, I drained the fat off my mince (10%) and didn’t count (nor will I moving forward) any berries, salad or non-starchy veg, so the carbs a likely a bit higher and the fat a bit lower.
Didn’t push the carbs any harder today as I didn’t actually get training, my parents came round to drop the dog off from her holidays with them, and they ended up staying and catching up over 3 cups of coffee. Probably not a bad thing though, my elbow is so painful I’ve taken a naproxen, hoping it’ll bring me back down to normal pain. Normally it’s painful when I do stuff, (carry babies, do curls etc), I can cope with that, right now it’s painful constantly and unbearable even lifting a coffee cup.
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06/09/25 - 194.25
Brian Alsruhe’s - Linear Progress: Wave 1, Week 1, Day 1.
Giant set 1:
Sandbag over shoulder: 50kg x 4 x 4
Deadlift: 100, 110, 120, 130kg x 8
RKC plank: 4 sets
Giant set 2:
Deadlift row: 60, 70, 80kg x 8
RDL: 60, 70, 80kg x 8
RKC plank: 3 sets
Giant set 3:
DB farmers march in place: 40kg, 30kg, 25kg x 30 secs
DB shrugs: 40kg, 30kg, 25kg x 30 secs
Front elevated GHR: 30 secs x 3 sets
Was thinking of a week of re-acclimatsing, then I thought if I feel good when I get the gym, I’ll have run a re-acc session but will want to jump straight into LP, but I’ll be all out of sync, so decided to use the first week as a re-acclimatsing week, kept the weights lower and the form solid. Still destroyed me - sweating everywhere.
I did think forward that even starting low, if I use Brian’s progressions:
And modest weight jumps, probably 10kg per week for the 8s, then 5kg for the 5s and 2.5kg for the 3s, if I can keep that pace then I’ll be repping above my previous 1rm. Seems ambitious but I am confident I have been underperforming on my deadlifts and I’m hoping building reps will help me to get past the psychological blockers.
Haven’t thought this far ahead for any of the other sessions. Long story short today was an appropriate weight selection.
I really didn’t want to do this either, I’m keen to get back into another of Brian’s programs, but the reality of getting in the garage and getting it done held no appeal at all. I just want to be big, strong and fit, without any of the hard work, is that too much to ask?
The naproxen helped get the elbow to the usual crap state, down from the awful state it was yesterday. Every exercise that had weight in hand today had straps on, which in turn meant nothing particularly irritated my elbow, which is a win.
The deads were touch and go with a focus on keeping perfect, repeatable reps, felt pretty good.
The second giant set I opted to keep it to 3 rounds (says 3-4 to get to a top set - I definitely could have gone heavier but leaving room for the next two weeks), the deadlift rows didn’t really need the deadlift in there at this weight, but added to the hammy work, the rdls did leave me with a glute and hammy pump.
Good to get in and get it done. Homemade pizza tonight, will be using 50% fat reduced cheddar, some mozzarella, parmesan and chilli cheese, but the joy is with homemade you get to control what’s in it, not that I’ll be too precise.
I think it’ll end up somewhere around this for the day:
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Lies.
Low fat Pizza is a gateway drug, did the first one, but turns out low fat cheddar burns easy (under 120 secs of cooking here):
I ate it, but I had more dough leftover and it really didn’t hit the spot, so:
Which also had low fat cheese, just buried beneath full fat cheese.
I realised that a) this is a family meal so don’t need to go too crazy on trying to force my criteria on it, and b) I’m gaining, I don’t need to worry about an off plan meal once a week.
I didn’t eat and sweets/ice-cream or crisps (chips), though.
Scale also went down 2lbs the next morning, but bounced back up again today.
08/09/25 - 194.5
Started a new morning routine (straight out of Intentional father) did 30 min morning time with my son, made him the same breakfast as me (berries, banana, greek yogurt and protein), talked through the process we’ll go through over the next 5 years, asked him what he thought it meant to be a man (takes responsibility, is sensible, courageous - good answers for someone who had no pre-warning of the question at 630am!), what qualities he thought were bad in a man (addiction, and I discussed anger as well), and what he thought made men attractive to women (being buff - made me laugh but we discussed deeper things after that). Talked about skills we might want to develop over the next 5 years (basic carpentry and mechanics, martial arts, lifting etc). Then we read proverbs 1 and discussed it. Then I finished by telling him, the most important thing: “you are my son, I love you and I’m proud of you”.
He was very receptive to the whole thing, great start. Arranging his “initiation” - father and son wild camping. Also bought him a proper leather journal and a decent pen so he can take notes and develop himself.
Then went on a walk with around 20-25lbs strapped to my front - baby (who was too big for the carrier, need a rear one) and the dog. 30 mins.
Great start to the day. Hoping that work goes well enough to squeeze in LP D2 (OHP day, should be a quicker day).
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I can’t like this post enough!
Way to get after it, mate.
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Massive thanks to you for the book recommendation, looking forward to the journeying with my son.
05/09/25
LP W1 W1 D2
Gs1:
Weight chins: 10kg x 5 x 3 sets
Overhead press: 50, 52.5, 55kg x 8
Plate halos: 10kg x 8 x 3 sets
Gs2:
Chins: 10, 10, 15
Push press: 55, 57.5, 60kg x 8
Plate halos: 8 x 3 sets
Gs3:
Lat raises: 5kg x 12
Head supported Rear delt raise: 5kg x 12
Tri pull-down: 40kg x 15
X 3 rounds.
The first GS I absolutely overestimated my pressing strength, 55kg was enough, I wouldn’t have had a good clean 57.5kg strict. Which meant I was 1 working set down, but I’m sure in the grand scheme it will be insignificant.
I suspect I overestimated because I haven’t done a standard OHP for a while, so need to regain the pattern, that plus I’ve lost a fair bit of weight and I’m still carrying a lot of fatigue from Saturday. My upper back is absolutely on fire, the weighted chins lit up my lats like nothing I’ve felt before (because of the DOMs, I’ve done weighted chins before with no major lit up feeling!), and my shoulders are completely smoked.
Mission accomplished.
The second GS I kept conservative and I’m glad I did, I’m absolutely smoked, but wait there’s another GS to go! Left this super light and just really focused on making sure the target muscles were doing all of the work.
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My diet has been stellar, but eating to bulk whilst trying to improve health outcomes nearly lost me my lunch when training (constantly high food volume meant training when I was still fairly full).
I consulted chatgpt, I’m curious as to it’s accuracy, this feels like the sort of thing it should be good at, but then again it’s got the most basic of food calculations wrong before (telling me there’s 10g fat per 100g of 5% fat mince).
@QuadQueen I asked about the GI/GL impact of 3 different things that I could have had for dinner with my chilli:
Hopefully that’s uploaded in the right order, basically from a glucose management perspective it recommend white flour tortillas over rice or jacket potatoes. (Also said that protein tortillas are basically negligible in terms of BG management).
Ultimately I’ll be getting a CBGM and running some experiments, but always nice to see what the resident subject matter expert thinks on the topic.
In other news I took a way more time than any full grown man ought to, trying to photograph my back…before realising that taking a video and grabbing a still would make more sense.
That’s post training, but the starting point for my back progress, let’s see how much growth can happen on linear progression.
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Good lean starting point, in a great position to grow. Lets go mate
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Cheers Simo, definitely a good launch point, long runway for growth!
09/09/25 - 194 small fluctuations, but not yet trending upwards, that’s fine for this week whilst I settle back in and get the routines right, but it does need to start moving upwards!
Started the morning the same as yesterday, early morning intentional time with my son, hit up conversations around puberty, lust pornography (probably went a bit off on the deep end about dopamine and addiction), discussed my previous issues and the reasons why God instructs us not to do certain things - because he designed us and knows what’s best for us, not as an arbitrary rule setting. Applied this also to screen usage (his is unhealthy). When we talked yesterday about skills and things he’d like to do more of, I left it to him to think of things he’d like to do, he came back today, with cycling, wouldn’t have been my choice, but that’s good - I’ve got to dig the bikes out of the shed now!
We read proverbs 2 this morning, covered the promiscuous woman, which knitted in neatly with the prior conversation. We talked about how that kind of thing might not be directly relevant to a 13 year old boy - women generally aren’t trying to seduce you at that age, but with pornography finding that sort of thing is only a click a way.
The intention is to go through the whole of proverbs, then move on to something else, we’ll keep scripture and prayer as a discipline, but we will venture into other books and areas. To that end I ordered 7 habits of highly effective teenagers, as well as the hobbit and Narnia, so we’ll probably alternate through lighter, moralistic/allegorical fiction and some more practical books.
We ate bacon eggs and beans for breakfast, which will revert to berries banana and greek yoghurt tomorrow (cooking took a while and squeezed the time slightly).
When the kids had gone to school I then took the dog for the walk (sans weighted vest/baby) and went via the shop:
Apparently I’m now someone who eats salad.
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So, yeah, the GI/GL things above are correct from an “in the lab” perspective, but in our bodies it’s not that simple. The effect on blood glucose levels different foods have varies highly from person to person. The CGM will tell you everything.
I do want to speak to the potato vs tortilla vs rice thing. I generally lean toward potatoes over highly-refined tortillas or rice. Eating the potato skin/peel with the white insides will bring down the GI/GL some because - FIBER. Also, the potato is less processed and will provide more overall nutrients than the tortilla or rice will, so for those reasons I am firmly on team potato. Definitely run some experiments with the CGM and report back. I’m super interested to see how things go!
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