It's about that time - Marathon Prep Log

[TheOtherOne55]

It's been long enough. Time to get this shit into gear.
BUT...it isn't a sprint. It's a fuckin Marathon.

I spent the past month liiivin. Not like i was going crazy, but this was the "pre prep mode." Fixing my body, fixing my mind, mentally preparing to get into it for 6 months or so. And this after a full 17 months of offseason. I basically took all of 2024 off to come back a better BB. And that's what this is. This is the "did it work?" transition right now. If anyone read up a while back, i was fixing a fucked shoulder and taking it easy. Enjoying the last bit before I flip the switch.

And realistically, the goal isnt to flip the switch now. We are a little under 20 weeks out right now. I dont think its necessary nor a good idea to drop the fuckin hammer at 19 weeks out. This is slow switch. Take the junk out a bit. Make sure i'm hitting all my meals to a T...no added treats or being lazy on cardio. And honestly, just with that i've lost 4-5lbs of fluid this first week. Stuff will love.

But i've been holding 320ish and plus for over 8 months now and now its time to strip it off. It was a hell of a push and an experiment of an offseason. I got about 65ish pounds above my last show weight. That's a chuuunk. And i held that shit as best i could. It definitely changed on me though. At certain drug doses, i held 325-330 very well...and stayed lean. But i could not hold that type of look for a super long period of time. For health reasons and all the above. Toward the end, i was backed off on drugs and just trying best i could to hold that 325. NOW...we get it into gear.

Health wise, i did some bloodwork last week. I've mentioned before, but i'm fairly blessed and lucky in that territory to always have decently good bloods.
Never have bad BP, never have skewed kidney numbers, my lipids look immaculate on Ezetimibe and Crestor. Semi higher end RBC, highish potassium (blame telmisartan) A1c is high...i'm a fatty. The only thing ive everrr had wonky numbers on has been lipids but the Ezetimibe/Crestor literally resolved it completely. My ApoB is great.

19.5 WEEKS OUT
BW: 318.4
DRUGS: Sustanon + EQ + GH
I wanna stay in the 3gish territory here. For the past 4-6 weeks, ive been on less. Mostly just test and some masteron. I handle EQ really well and its always been one of my go-tos. Shout out to @Marathon always having amazing stuff. Shit is alllways top notch and legit fastest T/A on PM. It's also nice to have a litttle bit higher concentration stuff so i dont have to pin as much. Not tooo much that can lead to PIP, but just enough. The 300mg Sust and 300mg EQ are clutch. I'll post a pic because the packaging is fuckin dope as shit too.

LEGS
Seated leg curl - Top set + 2 backoff sets
Adductor machine - Top set + 2 backoff sets
Leg extension - 4x15
Donkey calf raises - 5x20
Leg Press - Pyramid up to 3x15, deep as possible controlled
Hack - 3x12 deep
Glute ham raise - 2x10

FOOD
Not bad right now. Justin's first cut was losing some high refeed days and going attt my medium day. I was actually hungry the past two days...which kinda made me nervous if day fuckin 1 im hungry LOL. But its nice. Just losing the bloat and water from last week feels and looks better. I was 324 end of last week.

THE LOOK
It's time to get un-fat right now lol I'll update as the weeks go by so we can see how everything is coming together. But i'm soft and watery and have been waiiiting for this for quite awhile. The goal was always to compete in 2024, but me and the fam went to multiple weddings, did a Greek vacation, etc. I dont get to just chilll and be a hermit like i'm paid to do this lol i'm not a pro. I'm a guy, with a normal 9 to 5, and wife and a 2 year old daughter, who is 320lbs and trying to compete as a SHW BBer. My work has nothing to do with fitness, i just make it work. So the year got away but the goal was to just extend the offseason, holdddd (albiet a bit too long) and get ready for this.

 

[bigzzz]

In, good luck dude

 

[traininsane11]

Following along for this, gonna be great!

 

[WeakFNG]

Definitely following! Your going to nail this, bro!

 

[USAman]

Following!!! Fuckifn beast

 

[D2]

subscribed !

 

[TheOtherOne55]

ARMS (everything supersetted)
SA cable curl - 4x15
Rope pushdowns - 4x15-20
SA Rope hammer curls - 4x15
SA overhead press - 3x12
SA behind body curl - 3x15 (mimics an DB incline curl)
Crossbody tricep ext - RP set
Straight bar cable curl - MR set
Seated dip machine - RP set

A notch lighter even with a HIGH DAY yesterday. High days have basically been an all you can eat carb days for me. Probably 200+ carbs every meal. The major change this week was 3 high days to 1 and capping the carbs at 150-175 per meal. STILLLL eating 1k carbs but i was probably consuming close to 1500+ before. Very low fat. Moderate to lower protein. Mostly rice based meals with either egg whites, chicken breast or protein powder.

As far as my body is concerned, i FEEL much better than what i was feeling a month ago. I was traveling all X-mas and came back just beat up. Baddd shoulder pain manifesting itself in numb hands and trigger points in my back. Fuckin brutal to sleep with. So for basically 6 weeks ive been seeing a PT who has been a godsend. He is not doing body work or massage for my whole body. He is basically just trying to fix a shoulder that if i dont take care of it, will end my lifting career and all of this shit i have lived for 20 years. Once a week we do some insane stretching, deep tissue work, weird exercises and it has been night and day. I dont wanna get into the long explanation of my shoulder, but the reason i will never be insanely competitive as a BBer is because of some football injuries. Will i always compete? Yeah, because i love the whole life and process of it all. But it caps whatever potential i have severly. I lost all my external rotation in my left shoulder and its caused me to be unable moved my scapula and lat correctly. This makes it damn near impossible to hit certain poses. Is this fixing it? No, it will never be fixed. But its making it manageable and prolonging my career which im happy about.

Just dropped my daughter off at school. I'll crank out some work and go back to the gym later this afternoon to do some cardio i was unable to do this morning after arms. Nothing crazy at all. HIIT at 3-4x a week right now.

 

[danieltx]

Can't wait to see the finished product man. You know I'm living vicariously through this as I too am sick of the crazy amount of food every day, waking up in the middle of the night with numb arms, lower back tightness, getting that headrush when you bend down to put your shoes on - all the fun things you endure as a superheavyweight!

 

[TheOtherOne55]

BACK
Lat activation exercises
Straight arm pulldown - top set, RP set (i've really started low weight with these and shortened the ROM to reallly kick in the lat)
CG pulldown - Top set back off
Seated high row - 4x10
BO T-bar row - 3x12
DB Shrugs - 4x15-20

318.3 today. Felt strong so moved some heavyish weight today.
Becausse of the shoulder, i really spend the first 10 mins doing lots of activation work. Lat stuff, internal/external rotation stuff, deep stretching.
IF i stay up on this shit, it really helps. I refuse to let this shoulder ruin me lol Saw a buddy at the gym who juust went under the knife for his 2nd big shoulder surgery and he's beat the fuck up. Can't do that again. Other than that, its all good.

Diet has been nice. Just overall less carbs in all days. And even with that change, i feel semi hypo a couple times a day. Every couple hours i basically neeed to eat something. I basically eat the same shit all year, so its just LESS RICE and thats about it. Please excuse me as I go eat my next PWO meal (Rice crispies + whey iso mix).

 

[copypastemuscle]

Following! Let's fucking gooooooooooooo

 

[TheOtherOne55]

GLUTES/HAMS
Lying leg curl - 3x12
Seated leg curl - 4x10-15
Glute ham raise - 3x10
Abductor machine - 5x10-20 building up
Barbell glute bridge - RP set

CHEST/SHOULDERS
LOTS of shoulder/rotation warmups
Fly machine - 3x15
Incline Hammer - 3x12
Decline Hammer - 3x10
Cable flies - 3x20
Rear cable flies - 4x20
Cuffed cable side raise - 4x15
Side raise machine - 3x20
BO rear delt swings - 3x20

19 weeks out
Weight: 318.2
About 5+ lbs lost this week. Nice whoosh of just water and bloat that are off.
The biggest thing im trying to do now is to NOT step on the gas. 19 weeks is not that long of a time...but also a long fuckin time.
It is in my best interest that i easseee into this and not stomp on the gas because im overly excited and want to get the weight off.
So i'm dialed in but not to a detriment. Personally, i think i can achieve a killer 12 week out look and then coast on in. But we'll see.
This past week was no fat burners (probably wont go in for awhile) and no increase in cardio. Should get this week's plan from Justin today at some point.

As far as training, i'm gonna play around with my split. For the entire offseason I basically rotated between a split leg day and a split back day.
Those were two areas that i felt i needed a bit more volume and needed to catch up a bit. And i doo think that i gotta "stick to the one who brung ya" as Scott Stevenson would say. Dont change everything. You got big on it, roll with it. And i agree with it. But i also dont want to fatigue my legs too much (which happened toward the end of my last prep) and i'm noticing some atrophy/nerve stuff on my L shoulder/pec. The fullness is not there. And its not a drug thing or a food thing. It's a "this muscle is not firing" thing. All tied to my shoulder. So ill play around. Maybe losing the split leg week and instead doing a full chest day and a full shoulder day by themselves might be interesting.

It was my birthday yesterday. Saturday went to a dinner and movie. Dinner was a small square of a plain baked potato and a NY strip, butter free. Worked it into my macros a bit. I hate celebrating my own day. Just feels weird. Its one of those, "i dont want the attention" feelings. And on to the next week lol

 

[TheOtherOne55]

BACK
Lots of activation stuff for lat/shoulder area
Straight arm pulldowns - 4x15
SA seated rows - 3x10
Seated row with Prime rotating grip - 3x12
CG Pulldown - top set back off
Up Row - RP set + drop
^^ saw Jordan Peters doing these. Basically a kinda upright 45 degree upward row from the bottle pulley position, reallly hits upper back/traps
Chest supp t-bar - Rp set
DB shrugs - 3x20

317.8 today. Lat felt off. I basically do these isometric lat exercises to try and kick this sucker ONNN before my workout. And usually i feel it immediately. Had a hard time "feeling" anything there today. Felt everything more in my teres minor/major than my actual lat. This is just another kind of annoying thing i have to do because of my shoulder problem. I doo have a PT apt later this week though.

Overall, weight is kinda falling off me and im still eating a ton. Force-feeding every 2 hours. Toward the end of the day im cramming food every 2 hours just to get my meals in. I need to do a better job of eating in the morning. I have a tendancy to be working and look up and its been 3+ hours. If that happens, my end of the day is basically alll eating and just not fun. I guess its good though. The worst thing i can do at this point is to UNDER EAT. If i under eat, im just setting myself up for some pretty fuckin starving days when im much closer to show day. Dudes have a tendancy to diet and do TOO MUCH at the beginning rather than taking small steps. If you slash cals too hard, that initial weight loss might be good. But youll stall harder later on. Small tweaks can keep your metabolism running for longer. So as "stuffed" as im feeling, i NEED to keep up the force feeding. I'm still doing about 3 meals of alll meat and 3 meals where i split it 50% egg whites / 50% team skip protein powder. As i get hungrier and hungrier, that will obviously switch to 6 meals of all meat. But right now this works.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

LEGS
SL standing leg curl - 3x12
Adduction machine - build up to 2 top sets of 15
Leg extensions - 4x15 squeeze at the top
Linear Hack Press - 2 top sets
Cybex Hack - 3x20
SS
Leg Press - 2x12
Lots of calves

316 today and a high day. This is a good day and i need to eat big. I'm basically at that weird unsure moment where i'm a bit flat, but i'm also fat lol so its not a good look. Its gross. A big high day today should fill me out a bit more so thatll help but im probably stuck with this look for weeks. Just part of the process with going from huge to shredded. It'll pass.

Overall good workout today in limited time. My little girl has been waking up extraaa early which means i haaave to be in my first couple sets by like 5am. Honestly, my work and workout schedule has been kinda all over the place because i'm the "morning one" with her. Get up with her, make her breakfast, eat together, watch 15 mins of a show, get her dressed, make her lunch and drop her off at this little pre-pre-pre school. She's 2 and mom is juust about to take another job after not working for the first couple years. But because im this early guy, my workout and work time are crammed. GOOD THING that BBing make you a regimened monster. It'll be interesting to see how prep and my time is when cardio gets up there. I wont be able to fit my WO + long cardio in the morning so ill have to split it up. Itll be intense but whatever.

Still at well over 1000g of carbs on a high day today so lots of rice, some OJ, some rice chex and maybe some fruit. We'll see what that does to the scale tomorrow morning too. Last week i lost a pound after the big refeed. But remember, i was doing 3 of these days for the past 18 months and now im at 1, so a big drop down.

 

[danieltx]

How's the ankle doing?

 

[juggy38]

@TheOtherOne55 if you figure out how to fix the nerve thing let me know. My whole right side is a little smaller than my left, and I’m right side dominant. Less pumps on most movements, and I’ve even went months doing db/unilateral work with minimal catchup.

 

[skydude1996]

Following!

 

[TheOtherOne55]

@danieltx dude, that hard run of BPC i did early fall reallly took care of it. Its the ultimate case study lol.
That shit was bothering me for like 3-6 months, limping around. I had sprained my ankle, therefore my big ass was limping and kinda walking on it different. And becauuuse i was walking on it different, i got achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. Just like the biggest fuck up ever. I basically shot 1mg per day into the painful area on top of taking another gram orally. Did that for 30-40 days straight and pain free. I think the only way that wouldve calmed down on its own woudlve been full "off my feet" rest....and none of us are fuckin doing that, be real.

@TheOtherOne55 if you figure out how to fix the nerve thing let me know. My whole right side is a little smaller than my left, and I’m right side dominant. Less pumps on most movements, and I’ve even went months doing db/unilateral work with minimal catchup.

ugh that worst. Its frustrating. Even training chest today, things where i need a hard flex like fly movements, i cant HARD contract anymore. Its like i lost that extra 20%. Its more like 60% in my L tricep. Luckily right now I dont think its super noticeable...(the tricep is and itll be interesting to see what happens when my weight realllly starts falling). Im not a paranoid guy but its hard not to second guess all of this work lol

This is a real thought i have - i do not have pro BBer genetics. How much longer is it worth it to keep doing this?
In terms of health and bloodwork, im good. I do need to get echocardiogram after these shows but i have good genetics in terms of handling high dosed gear. But this year made me kinda doubt my body. IS it gonna hold up long enough for me to justify this shit? I think this year will answer a lot of questions.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

BACK
Straight arm pulldown - 3x12
CG pulldown - 3x12
High row -RP set
SA low row - MR
Cable neutral upright now - 3x20

CHEST/SHOULDERS
Incline hammer - 3x10
Machine press - MR set
Fly machine -3x15
Decline hammer - top set back off
SA side raises -4x15
Cable rear delts -3x20
dB side raises - 4x12
Rear delt wings - 3x20

311.9.
Weight falling off of me. Only 1 change of the diet the scale is just moving. That fluff weight has left and upper body is a bit leaner. Right around 300lbs is gonna be a really good look. Nothing contest like, will still be way too big, but I’m a much more impressive gym BBer than I am a contest one. That’s the truth lol im fine with it.

For my work, I make commercials/campaigns/all the above, and right at this moment we are pitching to work on one of those new non-diabetic CGMs that will be the new oura rings/whoops. So because I’m creating all the work/messaging, they love having a fitness guy/BBer on the creative side. They gave me one to wear for 2 weeks. I have a patch on the back of my arm and get constant glucose reading as I input my own data meals/wornouts. Very interesting shit and they love hearing about my own knowledge and experiments. Once in awhile I work on something I personally like, this being one of them. Haven’t use it while using slin on a high day tho, that’ll be interesting.

 

[Dr Claw]

Holy shit cant believe you guys have a log section with this kind of info this is fucking cool

 

[TheOtherOne55]

LEGS
Seated leg curls - 3x10
Adductor machine - 4x20
Leg extensions - 4x15
Hack squat - 2x12, 1x25
Leg press - 3x15
Abductor machine - 3x12

Bread and butter leg day today. Lots of super sets, short rest periods, all the good stuff.
Weight is still falling. I was 310 today. Its coming off fast but im not hungry, still force feeding, no drop in strength. Just shows me that this is fluff and water and finally getting into some body fat. My wife made a comment yesterday as we were getting ready for bed that my upper body looked smaller...soul crushing lol but it just means im flat. Today is a high day so 1000+ of carbs. Other days are around 600g when i lift. 400-500g protein. Alot i know. But its going. We'll probably ride this until it stops. As a reminder to people, you dont need weekly changes when shit is working. Let the change run its course....then, when it slowws do a small adjustment. Cardio is 3x a week HIIT, easy.

One interesting piece of data that ive been watching, my insulin timing has been way off using insulin R. I DID use log for a good amount this offseason, but i would run out of it so quick and R is cheap and a 10 min drive away at walmart. So i had been using that and kinda just using it to cover 2 meals. But as i mentioned above, im doing some work for a well known CGM company and have been using a monitor for a week now and seeing my readings. Today, a high day and the only day i use insulin, showed me howww off i was. Its either that or im just shooting not quite enough. What i HAD Been doing was about 18iu premeal to cover 2 meals of say 150g of carbs each. I haddd noticed that my biggest spike is PWO because i am not eating any fat in that meal. Just rice crispies with whey. But man...today my glucose was 180mg/dL about 30 mins post meal....wayyy high. Personally, i wouldve assumed my shot of R would've covered that and brought that shit down quickly but nope. Although it seems to have no impact on my fat loss or tissue gain, just interesting data to look at. Everything else is good. Usually about 80-100 an hour or so post meal (non high days) and 80-90 in the morning.

Nothing new as far as gear or drug wise. No fat burners yet or anything, but im sure thatll change ina bit. As its a high day, majority of food will be rice, maybe some pasta and potatoes later. Very low fat. And probably a big free meal at the end of the night. For right now, free meal consistency doesnt matter to me. I'm losing weight relatively quick and im flat even eating 600g of carbs on all other workout days. As i get leaner and closer to the show, i try to shift into a specific free meal...maybe making my own burger and fries or tacos. Something like that. But at this far out, no reason to be a strict hard ass.