I used to post T-Nation wayyy back. I figured why not start a training log here primarily for me. Not just as a place for jotting my numbers, but as a journal of sorts.
I come from an endurance background. Distance running/marathon (70-100mpw running). I got repeatedly injured and decided to gain muscle…got hooked..made big gains from approx. Feb 2024 to March 2025. See transformation below (approx 135lbs to 185lbs):
In April I went on a ~6wk long mini-cut to scale body fat down a bit. The below pictures were essentially the end. I’ve since put on about 5lbs from that over the course of a month. A bit of a rebound there, but it is what it is.
I will post some leg or full body shot in the next few posts hopefully. I’m 37 years old at 5’8" 174lbs. I don’t know what my body fat % is, but it’s likely around 12-15%.
Goals
1.Successfully employ a long-term gaining phase to put on more muscle. I’d like this to be at least 6 months, preferably closer to 10-12 months if I can avoid too much fat gain.
2. Bring up particularly weak bodyparts: chest, abdominals, and calves are lagging big time. I need mass everywhere, but these areas are my weakest.
Current Training
I train high intensity, low volume, 1x/wk frequency. I follow more of the Dorian B&Gs approach as you will see.
Monday - Shoulders, Triceps, Abs
Tuesday - Back, Rear Delts
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Chest, Biceps, Abs
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Legs, Calves
Sunday - Rest
Typically 3-4 exercises per body part, with only one real work-set per exercise. I perform 1-2 warm-up sets for each movement and define the actual work-set as a set taken to absolute failure. Sometimes I will employ additional intensifiers to that work-set, such as rest-pause (cluster sets) and/or drop sets. Every session the goal is to be able to perform another rep or add weight to the lift. It doesn’t always happen, but as a natural trainee I feel there is a very strong correlation between strength progression in a moderate rep range and actual muscle growth. I will hang at a given weight if I feel I haven’t “mastered” it yet, if that makes sense.
I also perform DAILY 1hr of zone2 cycling w/ a road bike on my smart trainer. I will throw in a harder lactate threshold session sometimes 1x/wk instead of the typical zone2 work. My endurance/cardio is non-negotiable and I perform ~7hrs of cycling/wk during bulks and offseason.
In the coming posts I will backlog some of the prev. workouts from the last couple of weeks to get up to speed here, as I track all of my weights/reps in an app.
Nutrition
I am unconventional in my eating. I believe in principles and Calories and Macros and all that. I’ve done the food weighing, tracking…multiple meals/day…single meal/day. Nowadays follow an approach that most would think is sub-optimal, but I value self experimentation…and this works well for me.
I eat only fruit, juice, some sugar candy throughout the day and around my training (both weights and endurance/cycling). Almost no protein and no fat outside of trace. At night I eat a very large bolus of starch (white rice), with a very generous amount of various fibrous vegetables, and about 1lb of lean protein (e.g., 96/4 ground beef, chicken breast, 99% ground turkey, shrimp, egg whites etc). Then, before bed I consume about 16oz of fat free greek yogurt with frozen blueberries, dark chocolate chips, and honey.
At the end of the day it’s essentially high carb (650-700g), low fat (20-30g), moderate protein (150-175g).