Classic Physique Offseason Log

[AverageGymRat]

alright 3 days already down 3kg of bloof. I guess I wasnt as fat as I thought and was carrying a ton more water and inflammation than I originally thought. yesterday was a disaster as we had a mandatory work dinner that went from 4pm to 1230am past midnight. Chinese food which is almost all dietary fat with some carbs and little protein and a very long stretch of not eating and didn't get my steps in but did do my cardio (straight to 1 hour fasted in the morning as 30 minutes fasted is already my baseline).

Sleep was a disaster. Today's workout was also a disaster but I kinda knew it was going to be and I ain't mad. Only if pull or glute+ham workouts are a disaster am I gonna get mad about it, push is kinda whatever my triceps+delts+chest aren't the problem rn.

This minicut might be on the shorter side like 6-8 weeks instead and then straight back into a nice surplus. Prep won't start for another 12 months from now and I just don't think taking off that extra bodyfat beyond what I need to restore sensitivity/digestion/insulin sensitivity is really helpful, and can even be counter-productive.


Paused incline barbell: 90lkgx10, 80kgx9, 7
flat machine press nautilus: 3 sets
cable flies: 3 sets
dual delt raises: 4 sets
tircep pushdowns: 3 sets
cross body single arm pushdowns: 3 sets new movement which I really like. I got it from watching the latest John Jewett x Anthony williams youtube video. Anthony is gonna do a lot better than people think at the Arnold classic.

 

[AverageGymRat]

today's workout not at all a disaster! got a good pump, felt right.

Hammer strength single arm pulldown: 2ppsx12, 9, 8
hammer strength dy rows single arm: 2ppx9, 1.5x10, 10
hammer strength upper back rows: 2.5ppsx10, 10, 2px10
pullovers: 3 sets
rear delts: 4 sets
lat pulldown preacher curls: 5 sets

bodyweight 102.7 AM, so lost literally 1kg per day so far. That's nice.

 

[AverageGymRat]

Glutes and hams
paused sldl: 130kgx10x2 very long pauses
lying ham curls: 46kgx12, 9, 39kgx10
rfess: 30kg dbx10x3
hip thrust: 2ppx10, 6 paused

Very productive 60 minute workout. Gonna be backing off lower body volume a bit and splitting out glutes+hams a bit more. RFESS and hip thrust still activate quads to some degree, but leg pressing twice per week wasn't really working. Glutes on both days obviously but one ham emphasis day and one quad emphasis day basically.

 

[AverageGymRat]

rest day today, 20k steps and 30 mins cardio on treadmill.

I'm having problems with hip pain on both sides and just realized it was from doing so much stair cardio. Like physical stairs up my building 33 floors 5 times in the morning fasted works out to about an hour. Too much stress on hips/glutes.

I get very bored walking on a treadmill and somehow I don't if I feel my body physically moving through space. I'll do a bit less cardio and higher steps for a few weeks before getting back to stairs.

Been watching a lot of John Jewett lately and he's finally convinced me i need to do a bit more unilateral work for lats. I think I may reduce leg volume and increase intensity but keep exercise selection approximately the same.

 

[AverageGymRat]

Had a great pull day today. My cousin and his gf came with me to a new gym that had some absolutely awesome equipment for back. So I went a lot slower because I had to explain each lift to them as they are both new to the gym.

Pull 02/10/2026
chins: bwx9x3
chest supported t-bar row: 2p+5kgx20, 13, 10
prime knockoff chest supported row: 140x12, 10, 8 one arm lat biased
cable pullovers: 3 sets
Rear delts: 3 sets
lat pulldown machine preacher curls: 10kg dbsx4 sets failure

second row exercise was this style of machine which I've never encountered before today. It felt awesome!




I'm not sure yet but I may stop doing the barbell incline ego-lifting and number chasing and moving toward a more machine based approach for my push workouts. This gym has no incline barbell setup and heaviest dbs only go to 45kg. I feel like if I did that I'd have to start training push twice per week (in my case I'd do p/p/l/off/repeat.

I'm not really sure. It's very gratifying to just hit big numbers on barbell/dumbbell pressing motions and I've managed to not get injured, but I also have to deload and follow a periodized programming and it's more like all overall pressing muscles and not isolating chest as much. It's been working really well as my tris/delts/chest are really developed, but on the other hand fewer and fewer bodybuilders are using free weights for pressing motions at the top level or only doing free weights as 2nd or 3rd exercise.

Anyway, if I do decide to go that path I'll sign up at this gym because it has great machines for everything except no lying ham curls. I wouldn't be able to do that at my current gyms because they mostly have hammer strength machines which have always felt really bad for me on pressing motions.

 

[AverageGymRat]

02/11/2026
Legs

hip thrust: 3ppsx12x2
leg extension: 67.5x15, 12, 10
seated ham curls: 72.5kgx11, 10
leg press: 5ppsx15, 4ppsx16

about an hour. Lowering my legs volume a bit because I was having problems with my hip joints (they were back to normal with just a few days off cardio)