Micro Cycle 5/10: Press Day 2/2/25
Wake + 30 min: 530am
- 1 serving C4
- 2 Thermo tabs
Breakfast: 600am
- 2 servings cottage cheese
- 2 servings oatmeal
- 20g honey
Snack: 900am
- 2 chocolate FiNIBARs
- The first one was okay, the second one was yuck! I cannot express enough how much I prefer the peanut butter.
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
- 1 serving C4
- 3/4 serving Surge (41g)
Training Session: 1000am
Bodyweight: 178#
Powell Raise
Seated external rotation
Incline press
- 45x10
- 115/125/135/145/155 triples
- 165 feeler
- 175x3x3
- Fat Gripz on first two work sets @ 175.
- Third work set felt the strongest, probably start warming up w/ Fat Gripz.
Incline press, 1-1/2 reps @ bottom
- thick DB 30x6
- thick DB 40x6
- thick DB 40x6
- wide grip BB 85x6
- wide grip BB 85x6
*Push up w/ chains, feet elevated
*Incline bench rear delts
- pump 12x2x20
- swing w/ straps 55x25
*This combo will be moved to a warm-up. My shoulders felt open and strong and the next set (top 1/2 bench) was the tightest set up of the whole session. I chased that set up all morning and didn’t get it until the end.
Incline press, top 1/2
- 135x6
- Testing this out for next week. Holy chest contraction.
Mini band bent over row
DB/Plate holds
- suitcase 2 sets @ 55 db, 20 count
- farmer 1 set @ 55 db, 20 count
- suitcase 1 set @ 35 plate
- suitcase 1 set @ 45 plate
- Kind of fucking around here.
Notes
- Time: 1:30
- Was bullshitting with a fellow meat head for a while so first couple warm up exercises ended up being about 10 minutes. Then ended up fucking around a little toward the end.
- Had a shit load of energy going through me. All in all a decent session. Bench press is always my most unpredictable lift.
Notes (cont)
- I am considering something like the following for Pressing days, since my best pressing consistently comes towards the end of my accessory work; this is what next week would look like:
- Warm-up: Push ups / Rear Delts (3x6-8 / 3x20)
- Accessory: Incline press, wide grip 1-1/2 reps (2x6, 2x4)
- Primary: Incline press (using thick grip during ramp, 5x3 @ 85%)
- Accessory: Incline press, top 1/2 (2x6, 2x4)
- Bonus: Powell raise & Seated external rot (3x6-8 ea)
- Everything here appears to logically follow.
Lunch: 100pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 servings rice
- 2 servings steamed veggies
Snack: 500pm
Dinner: 800pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 serving cottage cheese
- 2 servings steamed veggies
1 Like
Micro Cycle 6/10: Squat Day 2/4/25
Wake + 30 min: 530am
- 1 serving of C4
- 2 Thermo tabs
- 1 quart of water
Breakfast: 615am
- 2 servings cottage cheese
- 2 servings oatmeal
- 20g honey
- 5g creatine
Son woke up pretty early. Read a Chapter out of Tarzan and he fell back asleep. I ended up falling asleep for about 40 minutes. Nice nap.
Snack: 900am
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
- 69g Surge (1-1/4 servings)
- 1 serving C4
Training Session: 1000am
Powell raise
Shoulder horn
- 2x8, 15/15
- Seated external rotation. Somebody calls them a Shoulder horn (Poliquin maybe?), although I am aware that a “shoulder horn” also refers to some other type of gimmick.
Zercher squat
- 45x10
- 115/135/155/175 triples
- 185 feeler
- 195x5x3, 2-3 min rest periods
Zercher squat, 1-1/2 reps @ bottom
Zercher squat, top 1/2 reps
Hip sled squat (reverse facing Hack)
- 2pps x2x8
- 3pps x2x8
- Should have been doing these years ago.
Thick reverse EZ bar curl
Thick BB curl
- 65x7.5, last 1.5 reps were cheaters
- 45x8
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178.8
- Time: 1:30
- Strong session.
- Son has been lifting medicine balls (8#, 9# and 12#) onto a bench for a few months now. Started having him place the balls on the padding of a back ext/Roman chair unit. It’s about twice the height of a bench. The 12 is hard but he can get it up there 3 times or throughout the hour. Hitting pull ups of course and a few other odds & ends. Basically tries to mimic whatever I’m doing with his 3 & 5 pounds DB’s.
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 100pm
- 10 oz salmon
- 2 servings of rice
- 2 servings of steamed veggies
- Son really loves fish. Salmon, black cod, trout, sardines.
- Going to cut back on rice again after today.
Napped for an hour with the kiddo.
Snack: 430pm
- 1 quart 2% milk
- Probably switch back over to whole again soon.
Youth Wrestling Practice: 600pm
- Ordered up a huge DVD set from Coach Dave Mills for teaching youth practices. We already have Deadly Weapons I, but I went ahead and purchased his Youth Championship Series and he sent me Deadly Weapons II and said he’d throw in an extra. Great guy.
Dinner: 830pm
- 3 chicken thighs
- 2 servings cottage cheese
1 Like
Micro Cycle 6/10: Dip Day 2/6/25
I plan on scaling back the carbohydrates on Rest Days moving forward, and weaning back on the caffeine as well (down to 100mg on Rest Days anyways). I may remove the early 6am feeding on Rest Days as well. I need to resume having a waking period with no food in me.
Wake + 30 min: 530am
- 1 serving of C4
- 2 Thermo tabs
Breakfast: 630am
- 2 servings cottage cheese
- 2 servings oatmeal
- 20g honey
- 5g creatine
Snack: 900am
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
- 1 serving C4
- 41g Surge (3/4 serving)
Training Session: 1000am
Powell raise
Seated external rotation
Dip
- BW x10
- 25/35/45/55 triples
- throughout ramp: band chest fly 3x8, bent over band rows 5x10
- 65x5x3, 2 min rest
Dip, bottoms up from low box
Dip, top half reps
- 90x2x6
- 100x4
- 454
- Not gonna lie, this felt like a waste of time.
**Incline overhead tricep ext w DB
**Obliques
- cable chop low to high 30x8
- cable chop high to low 30x8
- cable chop low to high 30x8
- Pallof press low cable 50x8
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178
- Time: 1:30
- Decent session. Primary and Secondary work sets were good. Half rep dips felt pointless, won’t be continuing those.
- Going to back off on the extra Shoulder/Rotator cuff work. Maybe stick to one exercise and alternate them workout to workout. They do seem to be helping to pull this right shoulder out of internal rotation though.
- 60 more band pulls/rows PWO to get me well past 100.
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 1230
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 serving of rice
- steamed squash & carrots
Snack: 430pm
Youth Wrestling Practice: 600pm
- Playing with some drills to teach positional awareness.
Dinner: 830pm
- 13 oz bottom round steak
- 1 serving of butter
- 2 servings cottage cheese
1 Like
Micro Cycle 6/10: Deadlift Day 2/8/25
Starting to get a little sick. Probably going to back the volume down on Accessory work Cycle 7. I don’t feel that it’s a result of training, just something contagious going around.
Pretty much reached for the caffeine right away today. I try not to do that but I wanted to get going this morning and my brain did not feel like it was going to go online anytime soon.
Wake: 530am
- 1 serving of C4
- 2 Thermo tabs
Breakfast: 610am
- 2 servings of cottage cheese
- 100g oats
- 30g honey
- 5g creatine
Snack: 900am
- 2 peanut butter FiNIBARs
- Damn, these hit just right. Chocolate sucks!!
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
- 69g Surge
- 1 serving of C4
Training Session: 1000am
Seated external rotation
Deadlift
- 135x10
- 225/245/265 triples
- 285 feeler
- 305x5x3
Deadlift, 2" deficit
Deadlift, rack pull below knee w/ straps
Chin up
- BW x6
- 25x6
- 35x4
- 45x3
- BW x6 w/ Fat Gripz
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178.4
- Time: 1:20
- Strong session. Strong pace. Maintained 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 minute rest periods.
- Wanted to keep going on Chins; didn’t really need that last set though so I packed it up and called it a day.
- Was in a bit of a mood before training but after about the 2nd set of deficits I was feeling like a monster, but one under control.
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 100pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 servings of rice
- some steamed squash & carrots
Afternoon nap, must have slept for over an hour.
Snack: 430pm
Dinner: 730pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 servings of cottage cheese
1 Like
Micro Cycle 6/10: Rest Day 2/9/25
Going to start moving most of my caloric intake to the first part of the day.
After waking + 30 min: 530am
- 1 serving C4
- 1 Thermo tab
Breakfast: 630am
- 1 quart of whole milk
- 5g creatine
Snack: 1000am
- 150 mL heavy cream
- 1 scoop protein powder
Lunch: 130pm
- 1 center cut bone-in pork chop
- 1 serving of olive oil
Dinner: 700pm
- 1 center cut bone-in pork chop
- 2 servings cottage cheese
1 Like
Micro Cycle 6/10: Press Day 2/10/25
Wake: 430am
- Had some tension in my neck that woke me with a headache.
- 1 serving of C4 and some acetaminophen to knock it out
- 2 Thermo tabs
Breakfast: 545am
- 1 serving protein powder
- 3 servings heavy cream
- 80g oats
- 20g honey
- 5g creatine
Snack: 900am
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
Training Session: 1000am
External rotations
- 10x10 seated
- 10x10 standing (elbow resting on a barbell at shoulder height)
**Push-ups, feet elevated
- BW x12
- 1 chain x10
- 2 chains x8
**Incline posterior deltoids
- pump 10x25
- pump 15x25
- swing 55x25
Incline press
- 115/125/135/145/155 triples ramp
- 165 feeler, Fat Gripz
- 175x5x3, 10 bent over band rows after each set
Incline press, wide grip 1-1/2 reps @ bottom
Incline press, top 1/2
Incline chest fly
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178.6 pre workout
- Time: 1:10 before chest fly
- 100 total band pulls
- Going to get out of the incline press rack and move to a free bench in a squat rack. The bench on the incline unit is too narrow and I feel that it is the reason for all the trouble setting my shoulders. The free bench feels so much better when I lie on it.
- That’s all for today. Okay session, but I either got to find a solution to my set up or drop the exercise. Pressing is consistently my poorest performing exercise. Hopefully getting on a wider padded bench will be a sufficient solution.
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 100pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 serving of rice
- some steamed veggies
Dinner: 700pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 servings cottage cheese
- stir fry veggies
1 Like
Micro Cycle 7/10: Squat Day 2/12/25
Chuggin’ along. I have found CT recommending his 915 program after this, so I’m reading up on that. 915 is very close to this program, and similar to something I was considering early on during CPLP.
I will most likely sub Bottoms-up Dips as my primary pressing exercise; throughout the past couple of months this has been the safest and strongest upper body exercise I have done; a very solid exercise to set up as well. I can rotate various bench pressing and dip variations as Accessories based on what is feeling right. I’d also like to back off the volume a bit, maybe 2 sets per Accessory with a little more intensity.
Anyways, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Got 4 more Cycles of this program followed by a test week.
Waking + 30 min: 515am
- 1/2 serving of C4, will finish the rest later
- 2 Thermo tabs
- 1000mg acetaminophen, neck is sore as shit this morning
Breakfast: 600am
- 1 serving ON whey
- 100g oatmeal
- 30g honey
- 3 servings of heavy cream
- 5g creatine
Snack: 900am
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
Training Session: 1000am
Zercher Squat
- 45x10
- 115/135/155/175 triples ramp
- 195 feeler
- 205x3x3
- Felt really strong here today.
Zercher Squat, 1-1/2 @ bottom
- 185x2x4
- Also really strong.
30 minute mark
Zercher Squat, top 1/2 reps
**Hip sled Squat (Reverse Hack)
- 3 & 1/4 per side, 2x8
- This bottoms out @ about 105-110 degrees, but gym owner made a block that fits in the unit so I’ll start using that, should get me to parallel.
**Thick curls
- EZ bar reverse grip 30x6
- barbell 55x8
***Leg ext
***DB curls
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178
- Time: just shy of an hour
- Favorite animal: Bos Taurus, prized for its delectable red meat. Also, Dragons. But only because of the glory gained from slaying them.
- Strong session. Cut volume down on Secondary and Tertiary exercises but took a higher weight jump. Plan to do this all week.
- Next week begins the final phase; I plan on dropping extra accessory work across the board. This session will simply be as follows:
- Zercher 215x3x2, after a doubles ramp
- Back squat 315x4x2 (I actually have no idea if I can squat this lol)
- Hip sled squat on a block (maybe) 3 pps x 3x8
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 1230pm
- 12 oz bottom round steak
- 2 servings of rice
- steamed yellow squash & carrots
Power nap with the kiddo.
Lateral x walks with a mini band, 100 each direction.
Snack
- put together a big bowl of blueberries & banana for my son and I and turned on some Dragonball Z.
Dinner: 700pm
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 servings cottage cheese
- stir fry veggies
Early bed time tonight.
3 Likes
Micro Cycle 7/10: Rest Day 2/13/25
Got some tightness in my left hip/low back since squatting yesterday. Was hoping the lateral band walks would help, but they did not. May try doing some glute bridges today and see if that loosens things up.
Wake + 45: 600am
- 1 serving C4
- 1 Thermo tab
Breakfast: 700am
- 1 quart whole milk
- 2 servings heavy cream
- 5g creatine
Snack: 1000am
- 1 quart whole milk
- 2 servings cream
Lunch: 100pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 serving of rice w/ stir fry veggies
Youth Wrestling Practice: 600pm
- Lots of running, rope climbing and practicing the double leg.
Dinner: 830pm
- 12 oz lean beef
- 1 avocado
- finished off a tub of cottage cheese, probably a serving and a half
1 Like
Micro Cycle 7/10: Dip Day 2/14/25
After Waking + 1 hour: 430am
- 1 packet of C4
- 1 Thermo tab
Breakfast: 600am
- 100g oatmeal
- 1 serving protein powder
- 30g honey
- 3 servings of heavy cream
- 5g creatine
Snack: 900am
Pre / Intra WO: 945am
Training: 1000am
Dip
- BW x10
- 30/40/50/60 triples
- 70 feeler
- 5x10 mini band bent over rows, between ramp sets
- 80x3x3
Dip, 4/4 cadence
Dip, bottoms up low box
*Incline tricep press
- 65x8
- 70 or 75 x8, can’t remember which
*Cable chops, low to high
**Incline Tate press
**Pallof press
- 25x8, low cable
- 25x8, high cable
Notes
- Bodyweight: 178
- Time: 1:24
- Strong dips today. The external rotations, extra rear delt work and band rows have proved quite useful.
- Having some pain in the left SI area after oblique work. This is a problem area for me. QL or something maybe? Don’t know exactly what, and don’t know exactly how to fix it.
- 50 more bent over band rows at the end, for 100 total.
Post WO: 1130am
Lunch: 100pm
- 3 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 serving of rice
- some stir fry veggies
Dinner: 700pm
- 1 bone-in pork chop
- 1 avocado
- 2 servings of cottage cheese
1 Like