Journey from lean (164 lbs 11%) to ripped (180 lbs 10%)

Wheels looking better, but that pancake arse ain't gonna cut it with the hoes. Do you even RDL and hip thrust?

quad looks vg. The lack of glutes is a concern but I’m hoping it’s just a bad angle?

Had to do a weird angle to cover the **** ya h0mos. Ass is solid but def not caked up. Loco next time add in no diddy man that b sus af.

Gonna have to add in some volume for glutes I think tbh I do RDLs but that’s about it. Hip thrust no go that’s a really bad movement for my low back pain.

Bulgarian split squats with your front foot out a little further hits glutes pretty hard.

I really hate that **** lol I already do a redic amount of lunges.. I normally do 60x45/40/35 avg 120 reps for 3 sets. 60 is the heaviest straight bars they got at PF so I just do a **** ton. I don’t know why but the BSS it feels weird as **** on my supporting foot on the bench, I can’t keep my foot straight. I’m about to do kickbacks that’s what the Brazilian chicks do and they got big beefy cakes.

It seems he managed to get banned rather quickly.

Duly deserved.. UP AND AWAY ON UR BIKE

Notes…. Warm ups, working sets, f is failure meaning failure of complete full range of motion, ff is complete failure drop the weight type of shttt. Everything else should be obv.

Quads were sore from the rip cause I trained legs 3 days ago. Gotta embrace the pain cause I used to do legs 2x/week and my body will adjust accordingly. LP I was doing 4 plates so doing 320 is pretty ghey but we getting in the volume all that matters, it will go up again. Trust the process as they say. I might be adjusting my leg workouts a tad I normally do the same exercises for legs twice a week.. prob not optimal but it’s been working.

Legs #1
LP- (150s rest)
Wu: 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6, 270x6
Ws: 320x15f/ 14f/ 13f
N: Hard to stand after lol

Lunges- (120s)
60x42f/ 40f/ 37f
N: Almost fell last set last few reps

PLC- (75-120s)
Wu: 90x12, 105x6
Ws: 120x13f/ 11ff/ 10ff

RDL- (75-120s)
Wu: 95x10
Ws: 115x15/ 15/ 15

LE- (90s)
Wu: 100x6, 115x6, 130x6, 160x6
Ws: 175x20/ 17ff/ 15ff

Single standing leg curls on LE- (75s)
Wu: 25x10
Ws: 40x10ff/9ff
N: Only did 2ws my hams fatigued

Ab wheel 60 reps
TM 1m

Wed did chest workout then boxing at night
Yesterday did boxing in AM followed by back workout and boxing got my body totally lit. Also my boxing coach is trying to get me to move better by stopping me from lifting LOL. Big hell naw. These guys are too extreme. I was like I get ur point of being stiff and getting bigger works against you but I just do it for self defense for my job. He calls gym fake muscles and guys who have muscle from calisthenics or boxing/ sports real muscle since he believes they can take off for weeks on end and that muscle doesn’t evaporate. Interesting point but regardless if he’s right or wrong the main purpose of my training with him is for self defense, case closed. I love lifting I don’t love fighting LOL.

Today I woke up my low back is a little stiff not that bad but my upper back on both sides is HORRIBLE. I’ve been doing 200 punches each arm every night as part of my training to work on form and it’s making my upper back redic sore. I’m sure my body will adjust but I need to take today off. Looks like I’ll go see avatar 3 wit my bois and I’m hoping I feel okay to at least finish the week with a leg workout.

Weight has been 167.2 x3 days and 167.6 x2 days at 3518 calories. My new update is going to be 3702 calories I’m going to add in pure honey into my oatmeal in the AM, another half a serving of oats, add in half a cup of rice with my chicken and 2 caramel rice cakes. My following update I’m going to delete a few snacks and make another big meal to make things more balanced. Prob another oatmeal bowl or something. The oats plus fruit/pb/honey is good af.

Legs #2
LP- (150s rest)
Wu: 90x10, 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6
Ws: 270x15, 300x13f, 300x12f
N: body still a bit sore all around as mentioned previously so I knew today wud be a weaker workout and that’s okay as long as I’m still workin hard and we did that.
300 felt like 360 today, yikes.

Lunges- (120s)
60x42f/ 40f/ 38ff
N: solid sets

Single standing leg curls on LE- (75s)
Wu: 25x10
Ws: 40x15, 55x10f, 55x10f
N: new pr never did 55s

LE- (90s)
Wu: 100x8, 130x8, 145x6, 160x6
Ws: 175x20, 190x13ff, 190x12ff
N: New PR never did 190s

RDL- (75-120s)
Ws: 95x20/20/20
N: easy life

Ab wheel 70 reps
TM 0.75m

listen to ur coach and quit lifting and become the greatest boxer to ever put on the red gloves.

mma or boxing. which is better.

Lmao quit trollin my guy. After a few sessions my back started acting up, I’m getting too old for this stuff.

Gotta start tracking better in here. Took last 2 days off for the holiday and today sucked coming back in but I did it and got thru the long workout. I need to get back into it seriously, last 2 weeks been going thru the motions a bit w the exception for leg workouts. I need to start pushing the limit for my chest and back days too. The goal is lose the water weight meaning go from 170 lbs down to 168 lbs then increase the calories. Since it’s all an average I find it ridiculous to increase for the sake of increasing if you are technically in a surplus eating loose last few days. It’s easy to create bad habits when bulking and I am trying my best to keep up with pushing the limit while maintaining my cardiovascular health and ab routine. This is going to be a super long bulk but I’m okay with it. My calories rn are 3589 excluding 1-2 shots of liquor per night (no idea how much calories there are in 2 shots of Tito’s but it don’t matter).

For all my exercises excluding legs I was doing 12-15 rep range for progressive overload.. 12-13 reps was solid but once I hit 14-15+ reps I would go up in weight. This was all gud initially but now I’m noticing I am not doing gud progressive overload with this method due to fatigue of chest exercises. It seems I hit a wall easy now and my arms just give out and I’m speculating it’s due to fatigue and not due to lack of power. Basically I’m causing myself to burn out with the high reps and mediocre rest times whereas initially it was okay because i was changing up the rep scheme and building a new tolerance finding my new PRs for the new reps. So for upper body im using the 8-10 reps and legs 12-15 reps like Dorian suggests.

Anyways I got the next 2 weeks off of work and I’m gonna concentrate on my training and boxing. Not worried about the other noise right now.

Chest #1 / 170.6 lbs
Incline- (90s rest)
Wu: 95x8, 135x8, 155x5, 185x5
Ws: 195x8f, 195x7f, 195x5ff+3

Supine press- (90s rest)
Wu: 140x8, 180x8
Ws: 230x10f, 230x8ff, 230x7f+2

Skullcrushers- (60s rest)
60x23ff, 60x18ff, 60x16ff

Kneeling pushdowns- (75s rest)
Wu: 60x10
Ws: 70x12ff, 70x10ff, 70x8ff

Kneeling smith shoulder press- (90s rest)
Wu: 95x10
Ws: 115x8ff, 115x7ff, 115x5ff+3

Duel cable behind bk raises- (60s rest)
Wu: 15x10
Ws: 20x8f, 20x8f, 20x7ff

Shrugs- (60s rest)
Wu: 135x10, 185x10
Ws: 205x13f, 205x12f, 205x10ff

Pec deck- (60s rest)
120x18f, 120x16f, 120x15ff

Ab roller x63
TM 1.25m

Upper body pretty sore today but despite that decided to do easy on legs because I plan to work em out on Tues/Fri.

Quads & Back/ 169.4 lbs
LP- (150s rest)
Wu: 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6, 270x8
Ws: 320x15ff, 340x13ff, 340x11ff
N: since went up to 340s did 3 mins rest needed it today.. quads exhausted

Hack squat
95x15f, 95x14f, 95x13f
N: First time doing these in combo with other leg **** and it burns bad so that means it’s hella gud

LE- (90s)
Wu: 100x8, 130x8, 145x8, 160x8, 175x8
Ws: 190x16ff, 190x12ff, 190x12ff
N: last set was rough max failure lol

Lat pulldowns inverted grip
140x11/10/10

LP reg grip
140x10/10/9

Low rows
Too sore it was rough even doing the LP’s

Cable pulldowns
65x13f/11ff/10ff

Curls
35x10/10/10

Ab wheel 67 reps
TM 1.0m

Chest #1 / 168.8 lbs
Supine press- (120s rest)
Wu: 180x8, 230x6
Ws: 270x10, 280x7f, 280x6ff+2
N: second working set was gonna try to somehow do 8 but stopped at 7 cuz I almost **** myself I was like ooops better stop. Also NEW PR!!

Incline- (120s rest)
Wu: 95x8, 135x8, 185x5, 195x5
Ws: 205x5ff, 205x4ff, 205x3 (dropped weight on 4th) + 1 rep after 30s rest. I’m not gonna lie that last rep after 30 seconds rest FELT LIKE I lifted a TORTA UP jfc.
N: Sheeeshhhh heavy but that’s what I wanted to hit my 5rm higher reps for initial exercise and secondary do 5-8 cause I’m a bit fatigued I think works better bc I used to do the same reps for each around 10-15 but I think it limits growth due to fatigue.

Skullcrushers- (90s rest)
60x23ff, 60x19ff, 60x17ff

Kneeling pushdowns- (75s rest)
Wu: 60x10
Ws: 70x15ff, 85x10ff, 85x9ff, 70x10f

Kneeling smith shoulder press- (90s rest)
Wu: 95x6, 105x6
Ws: 115x8f, 115x7ff, 115x7ff
N: killer last set was shaking as bad as loco when he doubles down on the bj tables

Duel cable behind bk raises- (60s rest)
Wu: 15x8
Ws: 20x10ff, 20x9ff, 20x8ff
N: PR did 8-7-6 last sesh

Pec deck on incline bench wtv dats called
20x16/15
25x13f/12f/11f

Ab roller x63
TM 1m

Legs #1 / 168.8 lbs
LP- (240s rest) training with somebody so more rest time
Wu: 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6, 270x6, 320x15
Ws: 360x13f, 360x12ff, 360x11ff
N: Big improvement. Last sesh did 320x13/12/11 or something like that. Also more rest time helped with fatigue.

Lunges- (120s)
60x42f/ 40f/ 38ff
N: Quads super tight

Prone leg curls (90s)
120x13f/12ff/10ff
N: Hams killed last 2 sets sheeeesh. Good sets.

RDL- (75s)
Wu: 95x10
Ws: 115x15, 135x15, 135x15, 135x15
N: NEW PR

LE- (90s)
Wu: 100x6, 130x6, 145x6, 160x6
Ws: 175x13ff, 175x12ff, 175x10ff
N: Super fatigued. Last week I did 175x20 followed by 190x but it’s all gud end of the workout just means I went super hard today and I’m aight wit dat.

Ab wheel x75
TM 0.75m

Updated pics
Todays weight 170.2 lbs
Avg weight 168.8 lbs
Avg calories 3589
Avg steps 10127
6x followed program
1x with cheat meal/ off day

Pic 1 - Tension on upper body
Pic 2 - Tension on lower body

Pics taken in AM
No food/drinks etc

Spoiler

Show

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Chest #2 / 170.2 lbs
Supine press- (120s rest)
Wu: 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6
Ws: 270x9f, 270x8f (dropped on 9th), 270x6ff+3ff
N: Sore today so that was a big W. Last set I normally burn out but that was pretty solid. First chest day this week I did 280x8/7 total failure so that was solid. I should be able to surpass that next week. Try to hit 280x10 soon. Let’s get it.

Incline- (120s rest)
Wu: 95x8, 135x8, 185x5
Ws: 205x5f, 205x5f, 205x4ff+2ff
N: Solid

Skullcrushers- (90s rest)
60x23ff, 60x20ff, 60x18ff

Kneeling smith shoulder press- (90s rest)
Wu: 95x6, 105x6
Ws: 115x8f, 115x8f, 125x5ff, 95x12ff
N: fuxk 125 is BRICK CITY HEAVY AF. Didn’t except that LOL.

Kneeling pushdowns- (75s rest)
Wu: 60x10
Ws: 70x13f, 70x12f, 70x11f

Duel cable behind bk raises- (60s rest)
Wu: 15x10
Ws: 20x10f, 20x10f, 20x9ff

Pec deck
Wu: 120x10
Ws: 140x13f, 140x12f, 140x11f

Ab roller x65
TM 1m

I want to write some random thoughts about bulking/lifting to start off my 2026 journal..

So luckily I’m back on my feet to start off 2026 on the right foot cause I ended 2025 breaking the mirror in my room with a 1-2. Just had one of the worst days in a while and crashed out. Note to self never ever use tren, I’d be a maniac. Anywaysss the only positive is when I’m annoyed I have the best fkn workouts imaginable like Tom platz type of sht like ppl prob say to themselves.. is this dude okay?? Lmao.

I really wish I could pay a gym like $200/month and workout by myself so I can be as loud as I want and so nobody is in my way. I’d legit pay that. These people and they are cool but they fkn bring me down. They are a disease. They can turn my workouts into talking sessions and that **** makes me wild. I know I’m extreme but you need to be to grow. The good life is the beta life, comfort sets mean maintaining and it’s so easy to get caught in that mainstream rec lifting mind frame. It’s an infection and I must stay clear of it if I want to ascend.

Now I’m trying my best to think about my bulk objectively and I would say thus far it’s been a solid 7.5/10. It’s been roughly 20 weeks and I went from avg wt 163 to 168.8 so that’s approx 6 lbs meaning 0.3 lbs/week or 1.2 lbs/month. Pretty solid but I’d like the avg to be 0.50/week. Since I’ve been keeping up with my steps and 5-6 miles of cardio per week I probably wasn’t truly on a surplus until week 9. The numbers tell a story but the true distinguishing points of a successful bulk are simply compliance and overload progression. It’s short, sweet to the point but it’s much more complex than that. Many bulks end up being dirty bulks with fake overload progression. What I consider overload progression is getting STRONGER within the same weight class. Going up slowly in bodyweight and only increasing cals when you plateau is going to drastically increase your size by retaining the most lean body mass. Also there is something that happens to the body when you have a certain size/ leanness for a prolong period of time. It’s almost like the body moves its set point. When I took off for like 10-12 days for my tattoo I did not lose that much which baffled me. I believe it’s due to these reasons.

I don’t bb bench, squat, or deadlift. Most of my lifts are using machines and majority of my lifts are using the smith bar. Been doing the same routine/ exercise selection for close to half a year. I will maybe add or subtract one exercise from each body group for once a month based on my progression and overall feel. I am a big advocate of finding ways to battle muscle fatigue such as forcing another few reps out waiting 30 seconds or pause at the top and do a partial rep then a negative on the descend. i have corrected my breathing for the lifts which has helped with the grinder reps immensely. Additionally I have corrected my crazy valsalva maneuver which obv ties directly to correct breathing but not totally the same subject.

For my diet obv I’m an advocate of iifym but more specifically over the past decade I’ve found the best diet technique for me is to fast first half of the day (snacks/ meals I hate only during fasting period) then the rest of the day being 6-8 hours I jam all my meals into. Once I hit 3000+ calories this technique changes though. On roughly 3600 calories I have 6 meals excluding snacks but 8 meals including snacks. From 11pm-1am I have a total of 1935 calories which is over 50% of my total intake. I’ve done this my whole bulk just about. I’m at the point where 3600 is super easy and I’m excited to go up.

What’d I like to change moving forward is focusing more on strength and getting this surplus moving along. I feel I upped my motivation recently and last month I was in no man land where I felt a mental block and I could not get stronger. Sometimes I feel being organized and knowing exactly how many reps you can do, potentially can work against you. It puts this pressure on you to perform more and it becomes a mindfk where you physically and mentally psych yourself out of the grinder reps. What I mean is sometimes having a spotter or friend working out with you it’s better on your last set of an exercise to go balls to the wall and have your buddy count ur reps. No pressure, no expectation just focus on ur breathing and focusing on pushing past the pain.

I know this drives deep into the rabbit hole but thought it would be cool to write some of this down.

Yesterday lift - AM
Back Glutes / 170.8 lbs

Seated Rows (75s)
Wu: 140x10, 160x10
Ws: 180x10, 180x13ff, 180x10f
N: WTF last session I did 140x10 only. But I did gain 2-3 lbs in the past 3 days lmao. After my first 180 set I felt like puking like something comin up but clenched myself to such a degree as if I saw diddy himself. Was gud after that. Weird.

Kickbacks
RL- 7.5x20, 7.5x20, 7.5x16ff
LL- 7.5x20, 7.5x20, 7.5x18f
N: First time working out my glutes lol feels weird af. Ahhhh stupid question.. does kickbacks workout ur glutes? I feel it a lot around my hamstrings..

BB Rows (90s)
Wu: 95x10
Ws: 135x13f, 135x12f, 135x11ff

Cable pullovers (75s)
Wu: 50x8
Ws: 65x14f, 72.5x9ff, 72.5x

Reverse grip PD’s (75s)
Wu: 120x8, 140x8
Ws: 160x10f, 160x9f, 160x8ff

Pulldown machine pause 2s (75s)
Wu: 130x8
Ws: 145x8f, 145x8f, 145x8ff

Curl machine
125x12ff, 120x11f, 120x10f

Ab roller x65
TM 1m

Yesterday boxing - PM
60 min 1on1 training

At the end of my session I felt like I ran 6 miles it’s been a LONG time since I felt that exhausted. Yesterday was the first time my coach wanted me to put everything together and started to peg me in the face with his damn mitts bc he said lifters are too stiff. He said we are going to pretend an inmate just got in your face and started throwing hands. Protect yourself. Mofo caught me rite in the eye then he said forget ur eye dodge the hook. Then I got mad stepped to him and started to react in the pocket then he yelled THERE you go! I was sweating bullets drippin off the chin then he said go again. He laughed and said how u feel? I responded dead tired.. he said too much lifting and no cardio my friend now let’s go. Last round then the session was over. He goes you a bigger guy for your weight first you learn to dance and second you use your size for power. He wants me to spar against his boxing team in the future. Dude really wants me to get chin checked lmao.

After my lift + boxing I met with the Latina and she was like what’s wrong you seem tired. I told her I need a coffee + 4 shots and I’ll b gud and that did the trick. She even said you better have energy for me. All of these things are getting my ass in good ass shape lmao. I had a double cheeseburger with fries and had a wrap end of the night. Woke up today 2 lbs lighter (168.4).

For this week I’m going to change my routine to keep up with my new boxing routine since I want to progress in both boxing as well as lifting. Need to be a bit creative so I don’t do too much cardio but still challenge myself. I’m taking out all my 6 miles of cardio on the treadmill and replacing it with 2 sessions of jumprope per day (1x pre lift and 1x night after work). Also if I have any extra steps that I need to hit 10k with I’ll shadow box the difference every night post jumprope. I’m going to decrease calories by 60 meaning total will be 3521 calories and see how the weight will avg too end of the week and take it from there.

Legs #2 / 168.4 lbs
LP- (180s rest)
Wu: 90x10, 140x10, 180x6, 230x6, 270x6
Ws: 320x13ff, 320x13 go up not that bad first set was hella hard not sure wat the deal is what whatever, 330x5 go up, 360x12ff, 360x11ff
N: That was the weirdest transfer of latic acid/ strength baring sets ever. My legs are pretty sore I mean my hamstrings in particular from boxing so the goal was 320x13/12/11 or 320 until close to failure. 320x13 was complete failure then after resting 3 mins I came back with more strength out of nowhere but we ran with it.

Glute machine (75s)
55x13f/12f/12f

LE- (75s)
Wu: 100x6, 130x6, 145x6, 160x6, 175x8
Ws: 190x15f, 190x13ff, 190x12ff
N: Much less volume today.. right ham is tight af due to jump rope all on right leg for 5+ mins yesterday.

Stationary plate lunges (90s)
50x13f/12f/11f

RDL- (75s)
Wu: 95x10
Ws: 135x15, 135x15, 135x15ff
N: Finally done dam rough today. Sleeping over got me all messed up.

Ab wheel x75
YAY NO CARDIO feelsgudmane

Boxing PM - 3,300 steps (30 mins)

Went on a sick bender last night. Played $5 satty won that for a $55 ticket to play in the 30k mystery bounty on Wsop and took that whole bish down. The last hand dude flopped FD+SD and somehow we faded it. About $2k in equity. Sheeeeeeeeshhhhhh

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