Monday was chest and back at iron nation.
Hammer strength incline (converging) hit 3 plates for a couple top sets, and then 2 plates and a quarter and 2 plates respectively for a couple lighter sets
Dips 4 sets, 12/12/9/8
Flat machine press little better than half the stack, wide grip, 3 sets.
Plate loaded one arm row, top weight was 5 plates per hand. 3 sets at that top weight and then a set at 4 plates
Single arm lat pulldowns for 4 sets
Underhand rows for 3 sets
Machine pullovers and pec deck for 2 sets to finish off lats and chest
So that was Monday…and then on Tuesday there was a note on the door from the city…iron nation is shut down at the moment for supposedly not paying the rent. I’ve already been thinking about switching to legacy…the grand opening is on Friday, so maybe this is a sign. From what I’ve heard the future of iron nation here is uncertain so yeah…interesting lol.
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Iron nation is officially done here so this afternoon I stopped by legacy for the grand opening and signed up. It’s a super sick gym and I’ll say more about it later. Tomorrow all us ambassadors will be there for a team lift so that should be fun and I already got invited to do a leg day on Sunday by one of the other members…so this weekend will be great!
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Here’s my befores for the 2026 t-transformation challenge @TrainForPain The living room pics aren’t great lighting and so on lol 
but hey it is what it is.
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Saturday - team lift at legacy. Shoulders/traps/cardio
I started off with single arm rear delt cable crosses and then moved over to my press. There’s this older machine there…converging, humbling and straight up nasty. Even just one plate a side was plenty for last night but the movement path felt great. I moved on to side laterals, used both of the machines they have for it…standing and seated. Both are good, but the seated one slightly edges out the standing for me. Between both there was a whole bunch of sets done. If I remember right reverse pec deck was next and I finished with shrugs. I also did 20 min of cardio too at the very end.
Overall it was a solid lift and a good time…team lifts are always fun. Next month our team is gonna do a boxing class and I put it out there that I’d 100% be down to spar if anyone else wants to.
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Sunday legs at legacy - first leg day of 2026
started with leg press. 3 plates, then 4 and then 5 all the way up to 7 plates for a couple top sets, and then back down to 6 for an amrap. Moved into leg extension right after…not normally what I would do but I was training with someone else and they were on a time crunch so it was a little different. We used to different leg extensions. The first one forces you to have a huge stretch at the bottom and we did that for a good three sets and then over to the other machine. There we did some single leg work including assisted reps with slow negatives…one hell of a quad pump was achieved very quickly. Then over to dumbbell rdls, worked our way up the rack ending on the 120’s for a set of 12. Adductors and calves after that. My training buddy left at this point because he was out of time…I stayed to hit the hams a little more and so I did some work on the laying hamstring curl. The pace and time that this workout was shoved into was crazy…but it was a damn good workout. My quads hams and calves all got wrecked…not a bad leg day to kick off 2026 even if it was a tad different than normal lol.
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Ok….so I picked up my son back on Tuesday, and I have him until the 20th. So most of my training is at ForgeHouse during this time but I did manage to arrange things in general so I could go hit legs at legacy yesterday
Saturday - legs at legacy
Laying hams started things off and I did 4 sets here. The last set included a double drop and partials. The I went into pendulum squats and after hitting my top set for 6 reps (it was a grinder) I did a back off set and hit 22 reps…sinking all of them ass to ankles. Then moved over to the hip press, close foot placement for another 3 or 4 sets, heavy and hard. Rdls after this and then seated hamstring curls for a couple finisher sets. Then 2 sets of leg extension (both legs individually immediately followed by double leg reps) to finish it off along with seated calf raises for a few sets. Decent amount of overall volume yes but i definitely tried to push some good weight along with some finishers and intensifiers. Good overall leg day.
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Monday…the start of another work week. Last week was crazy at work and it kicked my ass mentally and physically. One of the tougher weeks I’ve had in a while. Generally it’s not like drywall is a super stressful job…but…dealing with deadlines and a ton of footage and a lot of hours of overhead work can wear on a guy. I’m determined to make this week my bitch…I am not gonna let myself feel so worn down like I did last week.
So with a fresh start of a Monday…my mindset is in a good spot, my grocery haul yesterday set me up well for this week, and I’m ready to crush my workout split again as well. Let’s get after it!
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Saturday - ForgeHouse
This was just a different kind of workout. I’ve been a lot of bodybuilding type workouts which has been cool, but I just needed a change for a day.
Started with landmine rotations, then moved into banded Hyperextentions. The hypers definitely got some good blood flow and the band gave me some fun resistance. After those two movements I went to box squats. I worked up to the mid 300’s for 6 sets of 4, then did a back off set to the upper 200’s for an amrap set of 15. After that I very simply finished off doing bike sprints…between each sprint I didn’t get off my bike, but rather slowed down the pace and let my heart rate come back.
Not even fully flexed or really doing much of a lat spread here. Partially posed yes, but not full on posing. Getting there.
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@T3hPwnisher i noticed you helped out Frank I believe with the transformation 2026 tag…I also haven’t been able to figure out how to add it on to my log here either.
Tuesday night back/chest at legacy
Started off with a superset of straight arm lat pulldowns and face pulls. Moved on to an old an very unique cybex lat pulldowns. Worked up to about 3/4 of the stack for sets of 8-10. Then onto a chest supported row, and then what is becoming a favorite of mine, and iso lateral row. It’s a very interesting line of pull…yes it hits the lats and such but more so it smokes the traps like crazy. Single arm this time and I think that’s the way to go for sure. Then I moved to chest for a bit before finishing off the back. Hammer strength decline first…worked up to 3 plates and a quarter here. Then onto a hammer strength incline. I do incline bench sometimes, but mostly at my home gym. I don’t really do much barbell benching at all anymore and I think my shoulders are happier as a result. The hammer strength incline is pretty great…deep stretch and it also converges. Between those two my chest was already pumped really good. Went to my back finisher which was simply a single arm lat pull down and really trying to emphasize the stretch at the top. And then I went and finished chest with cable flys.
Tonight will be shoulders so I’ll be getting some sort of overhead press in for sure before moving into other things.
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So life has sort of given me a little bit of a deload of sorts….last week I started on a job that was out of town, and then last Thursday I also picked up my son and I have him until tomorrow morning. Long days and 2 hrs of driving every day…plus dad duties…it’s been tough getting training in. I’ve had a couple sessions, mostly from the weekend…so it’s a bit of something at least. Tomorrow morning my son will go back to his moms and then I’ll go back to legacy again vs training at home. On my work days it’ll still be a little rough with work being what it is at the moment, but such is life. I’ll be done this job in the early part of next week and then my schedule as a whole will be back to normal with working in town again.
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Thursday late night chest and back
Started with the decline hammer strength press, hit three plates on it for a few sets, back it off to 2 and a quarter and then a final set at 2. Atlantis converging press next, set for incline, got some good work in there before going to cable flys. Cable flys weren’t what I had in mind for that part of the workout, but it’s what happened…4 sets of 10-12 on it. Then I moved into back…starting with pull-ups. It’s been a while since I’ve had pull-ups in the rotation so getting 12 reps on the first set was good. Heavy t bar row next, and then lat pulldowns finished off the main work I wanted to do. I finished off with a few failure sets of reverse pec Dec and regular pec Dec after that to round it out.
I have a big day of texturing today, then legs tonight. Tomorrow morning I figure I’ll go in and do some cardio and abs, then around 11 I have a tattoo appointment. Sunday will also be cardio and abs because of the tattoo lol.
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Ok so last night was arms at legacy and it was really good. I started with good old cable push downs using the v bar and worked up to almost the whole stack for my top sets. Then I went over to the Atlantis overhead machine. It’s a sick set up honestly…and I did the reverse of the pushdowns. With the pushdowns I ramped up in weight but with the extensions I started heavy and worked my way down in weight. Then I finished with machine dips, the last set being a drop set. For biceps and forearms I did the whole thing on cables because the dumbbells were all occupied by teenagers lol. So I started with straight bar cable curls, then rope curls after. And then I wrapped it up with wrist curls for 5x20.
All in all it was a really good arm day, and then tonight will be shoulders and that will be the last session at legacy before switching back to ForgeHouse for the next training week. My plan is to start cutting on march 15, and where I land by the time this transformation challenge is done will determine what direction I take after that. So until the 15th, which is something like 4.5-5 weeks-ish I’m gonna keep pushing food and weights. I’m looking forward to my cut for sure.
Ok so tomorrow on the docket is legs and it’ll be my return to heavy barbell lunges when it comes to my home gym at least. It’s been a minute since I’ve done them…I’ve been doing a lot of box squats at my home gym the past bit. My previous pr on them was 215 for reps, where I’ll land tomorrow remains to be seen.
Also, I’ve been thinking about picking up a free standing punching bag. In my old house I had a hanging heavy bag and I loved working that but in my apartment i couldn’t have that obviously. Noise is absolutely a consideration here with a bag regardless of what type it is…but if I can figure a practical way of having one at my home gym I’d love to bring that back into my training.
For legs As I had mentioned, I started off with Hyperextentions for my first movement. Some hams and a lot of lower back obviously and i got a total of 100 reps. Then I got into my lunges…it’s been a minute since I’ve done them, and 165 seemed to be enough for that particular session although I’m sure my numbers will go up again soon enough. 3 working sets there. Then I moved into heels elevated barbell squats, and then good mornings, and then finally i finished with sissy squats. Very simple session, but effective for sure.
I also got in a core and cardio workout a day or two after that…basically was trying to give my shoulder a break…I got that reaper tattoo and then the following Saturday, so just last Saturday, I got another piece not too far from it. It might not be 100% healed yet but I think I should be clear to hit upper body stuff again here. So tonight, at my home gym I’ll hit arms I think.
I’m starting my cut march 15, and I’ll run that to the end of may. See where we’re at and then decide the direction after that.
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Last night was chest and back, back at legacy.
Face pull 4x10
Decline hammer strength - worked up to 3 plates and a set of 10’s for my top couple sets, did a back off at 2 plates and a quarter.
Atlantis converging incline - worked my way up the stack, finishing with a heavy 6 (failure)
Dips x 3 sets
Plate loaded single arm row - 5 sets
Isolateral high row - 4 sets top working weight being 3 plates and a quarter
Straight arm pullover x 3 sets
finished with a little reverse pec dec and regular pec dec.
Overall it was good. Pushed to failure where I could, and moved some decent weight around. Can’t complain
Legs last night.
Started on the laying ham curl, only a few plates away from full stacking it. Got in some good work here and then I moved to the pendulum squat. On my second last set I had to do a little assistance on my last few reps to get out of the hole, and on my final set with my working weight I wound up getting buried. I did a back off set for 20 reps after that. Then I went to the leg press, worked up in weight to a heavy set of 8. Another back off here as well and I did 25 reps with three plates on either side. Then I went to adductor machine, seated hams and then finally calf raises on the vertical leg press. That one was fun…I did the routine of the owner. 120 reps for it lol. Good times.
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