[Michaela Aycock]

I said Hams yesterday was the best I’ve felt in the gym so far since the show…
Must have gotten the best of me lol, today’s presses hit me like a ton of bricks!

Seated smith press
Set 1: “185” x 5 – these were a struggle bus from rep 1 and partner assisted top end of last 2
Set 2: “155” x 8, racked it like a rest pause, got 1 more, racked it again, tried for another and failed

Seated single arm DB press
Set 1: 60 x 6 (almost 7)

Plate loaded hammer press
Set 1: dead stop reps 2pps x 6
Set 2: 45 + 25 per side (unsure of reps but turned it into a single drop set)

Standing DB lateral raise
Set 1: 25s x 12 + strict side partials to extend
Set 2: 30s x9, 20s x 8, 10s x top partial reps then full reps, unsure of count

Super set
Standing cable upright row facing stack
Cable front raise back against stack
2 rounds 15-12 each

Super set
Standing cable rear delt fly from high pulley
Rope face pulls from lat pull down
2 rounds 20-15 each

[Michaela Aycock]

Joseph- I’m honestly still unsure of what you mean.
Each working set is listed in the written out programs I have posted thus far.

[Michaela Aycock]

Joseph, thank you. And I am u sure of what you mean by your question.

[Michaela Aycock]

Hey Lauren, the sets I list in each of these written out sessions are the only working sets I do.
1-2 true working sets per movement

[Michaela Aycock]

Today was the best I’ve felt in the gym so far since the show
May sound silly as it’s been almost 10 weeks now, but it’s true.

Hams 12/7/18

Lying leg curl
Sow controlled eccentric, dead stop at stretch, explosive concentric, hard contraction throughout
Set 1: “modified” rest pause drop set
120×7, 100×5, 80×5 + 3 partials
Set 2: 80x not sure how many reps, didn’t count or record but somewhere around 12+

High wide leg press
Deep as I can without butt and low back folding
Keep weight on heels, I aim to pull knees out through eccentric and feel a strong adductor stretch, pause at chest, drive hard through heels, contracting hams and adductors throughout until that fails
One set: 6pps x 18

DB RDL
Really slow and controlled reps, tension on hams throughout until that fails
130’s x 7 + an eccentric
105’s x 8 + an eccentric (aimed to push my hips through more on second set to contact glutes hard at top)

Did this as a 3 movement cluster
1. Adductor
2. Seated leg curl
3. Elevated DB Sumo squat/pull
2 rounds 15-12 each

Barbell long stride walking lunge
1 set as long as I could, dropped bar, body weight as long as I could

Great day for me
The leg press was a PR in reps and execution
I’ve been milking that weight past 3-4 weeks and failing better/with more reps each time and also wanted to improve execution with it before I increased weight, so looks like next week should be the time to go up!

DB rdls are not an all time pr for me, but they are as of late. It’s been a long road back with those the past year but they will be better than ever soon!

The cluster isn’t for me to throw unnecessary volume, those movements pair great together!
It also allows me a way to get the biggest bang for my buck out of the DB sumo pull/squat as 130 is the heaviest dB we have
And also not spend a ton of time warming up on each individual movement separately

[Michaela Aycock]

This morning along with cardio
3 tricep movements
3×12 each

Back 12/5/18

Back was the number one pick on a story question I posted this morning about what my first training video should be, so I believe I’ll be using today’s session for this weeks video

Warm ups: Just enough to get feel for movement and accumulate weight. Low reps.
It gets pumped quick so I don’t do much as I want to save my best for my work sets.

Execution: I fortunately am able to get a great connection with my back (when I’m not flat lol) so any movement I do, I can lock in and position myself in a way to target whatever area I want and keep constant tension there throughout until it fails
I aim to be as strict as possible, hard contractions, controlled eccentric best I can, and explosive concentric while keeping momentum as minimal as possible
The key is not just moving weight with your arms. As silly as it sounds, lock in with your mind where you’re targeting, connect and drive the weight with that.

Wide grip lat pull down
Accumulating weight warm ups until I reached a heavy weight and felt good to go
1 all out rest pause set 3 attempts
-staying as upright as possible, driving with upper lats, squeezing low lats at contraction, good stretch with slight pause

T bar row
I aim to get my upper body as parallel to the floor as I can
Pulling “up” to belly button
This keeps me strict and not incorporating traps like I would if I stood more upright and became a shrug
7 25lb plates x 6
6 25lb plates x 7

Reverse grip EZ bar row
I’m able to stand slightly more upright in these because of the position of my hands and the direction I will drive my elbows
Here I am driving “back” to my waistline
8 25lb plates x 8
8 25lb plates x 6

Single arm DB row
I stop the weight at stretch for a slight hang, then drive back as explosive as I can through lats and erectors
120’s x 9

DB pullover
Good stretch with lats, hard contraction through mid back on concentric
1 “rest pause” set
80lb x 8,2,1

Rack pull on smith
May not be considered a hardcore movement, but it is hard and smokes my mid back
Just like with everything else I keep the tension locked in and back contracted the entire ROM and go until the contraction fails
Below knee
Dead stop on rack no bounce
“315” x 9

Good day today
Finals week for school has me shot lol but it’s coming to a close!
Good session, no complaints!

[Michaela Aycock]

Chest 12/4/18

Warm ups for chest
I like to prime each movement best I can, but chest is one thing that fatigues quick for me so low rep warm ups ascending in weight just to reach my working weight is how I approach them
First movement would be most amount of warm ups and then they descend with each movement from there

Execution:
I have great connection and activation with my chest.
Main things I focus on are maintain a slight arch, never caving shoulders, controlled eccentrics, pause at chest on presses, pause at stretch on flys, and HARD contractions keeping tension on chest throughout until it fails.

Slight incline smith press
“205”x 8
had a perfect spot here and assisted 7th rep by a touch at peak contraction, then a nudge the final 1/3 of the 8th rep

Stayed there: Increased incline, reduced weight, and slowed eccentric
“185”x 8 spot assisted finish of final rep

Floor press mimic with two benches
I honestly can’t set up the dumbbells by myself on the floor to give the effort I want to a press, plus the air is thin down there lol

85’s x 6

Incline DB fly
50’s x 8

Flat DB Fly
50’s x failed mid way through 7th rep

One cluster set
Pin loaded dip X 11
Into
Seated cable fly x 11
Reps not intended to match like that lol

Chest stretch on the seated cable fly by getting in the position you would to fly, but lean forward letting chest get out in front of your arms

Overall really good day
One of the better chest days I’ve had the past few weeks
To be honest my endurance can still use some improving during training after my first two movements, but no complaints!

[Michaela Aycock]

Lauren, thanks so much for that. I think it’s so cool when people have had enough interest to actually follow for years. And now we actually have a platform to explain rather than just show!

[Michaela Aycock]

Hey Michael, thank you for that!

I actually list that above where I wrote out my nutrition.

Pre/start of training
Vitargo/Raging full
Creatine monohydrate
AD Nitrox
EAA

Intra:
EAA

Amounts will be person dependent

[Michaela Aycock]

Quads 12/3/18

All sets to muscular failure
Main goal for execution being to control weight best I can and put myself in the position to make each rep as hard as I can.

Warm up leg ext and abductor machine

Hack squat
Driving more so through toes, focusing on keeping knees from caving, and making sure it stays on quads and not glutes

6 plates one side 5 plates other side
(Even distribution)
11 reps
Wasn’t pleased with this set so did a slight back down by 1 plate as second set
5pps x 9 reps

Smith front squat
heels elevated
Pausing in hole, fire concentric, hard contraction
2pps x 9
Failed on the way up of 10th rep
I’ve done 2 plates and a quarter per side on this, but unable to get the depth and execution as I was with this today. Yet anyways.

Plate loaded hammer strength upright single leg press
Banded resistance
I put a pad under my butt to elevate me slightly and foot placed on the bottom of the platform and pressing through my toes and it is all quad this way
4pps x 9
Backdown set w/ constant tension
3pps x 14

Leg ext
Hard pause at contraction, controlled eccentric, slight pause, fire concentric
1 hard heavy set for ~ 12 and turned into a single drop set until full contraction stopped followed by as many bottom partials as I could move

Front loaded short stride walking lunges
To be honest I’m unsure on reps, just went until I couldn’t and then dropped the bar and did body weight pulse style to failure

Pulse style just meaning down and up twice before lunging with next leg

Stretch

The past few weeks I’ve made huge jumps of improvement week to week in my quad training
Today happened to be just a so so day
I didn’t regress, but didn’t hit anything ground breaking either
Went in feeling normal and my mental fortitude is the same day to day, so no reason other than physically body just didn’t do it today
I still always train to what my physical failure is that day and never ever let up.
I’m very critical of myself and my training
To most it would have been a great session, but to me if the feel is off then I’m not satisfied.
That’s what makes me, me.
And of course leave just as smoked as always.

That’s my attempt at a little journal of honesty that you don’t get on Instagram lol

[Michaela Aycock]

Delts 12/1/18

Seated Smith Machine Press
(This one provides zero assistance)
Top set: 185×5
Goal was more reps than that so followed with a back down set
155x 8

Seated single arm DB press
New movement for me
50×9 per arm

Plate loaded hammer strength press
The old heavy version
Dead stop reps
2pps x 7
When I reached my last rep and knew if I came down with an eccentric I wouldn’t be able to drive back up, I did top end partials to failure

Standing DB lateral raise
30s x 9 full ROM
25’s x 11 purposely stopping 3/4 of the way down and driving back up

Lying cable upright row
Into
Cable front raise
Into
Strict standing cable rear delt fly
2 rounds 15-12ish each

[Michaela Aycock]

I look to go over a lot of this in a video, but just to put in writing, a typical week for me looks like this

AM gym routine
Cardio 20 min on recumbent bike 4-5x/week
Abs following cardio
Calves the morning after each leg session
Stretching
Wednesday mornings (back day) I do 3 movements for triceps 3×12 each
Leg days off AM gym session completely

Training 5-6x/ week
Sunday – Arms or Off
Monday – Quads
Tuesday – Chest w/ bi’s
Wednesday – Back
Thursday – Off training (typically have body work/chiro etc scheduled here)
Friday – Hams
Saturday – Delts (w/ triceps if not training on Sunday)

Matt and I’s approach combined
He gives me some ground rules, but we’ve been together long enough I have adapted all of his principles and he trusts me and my judgment enough to follow and also listen to myself in there/make judgement calls within it

Current training approach is 4-6 movements body part dependent
Working up to one max effort top set and moving on
I go by feel and if I feel the urge to do a second working set I will
This is dependent on what rep range I hit on my first set, the volume of warm ups, if I feel the need to get a different feel to the set than the first (I.e. slower tempo, pause in the hole etc)
If for my first working set I fail at 6 reps
Typically my warm up sets would not have been much added volume at all, (loads jump quick relative to body weight and I do not want to expend myself before working set. Just enough to prime and accumulate weight) so that is where I would do a reduced weight set if I felt the need volume wise

This is still the least amount of volume I have ever done and I get everything I need out of each set and have nothing left for more.

Every working set I do is performed to muscular failure.

Again, I plan on covering a lot of this in a video, but just to give the gist here before writing out daily training sessions!

[Michaela Aycock]

Off Season Starting Nutrition – October 6, 2018

Off training days: Remove banana from pre meal, remove pre/intra powders

Replace meal 5 or 6 with cheat meal on both off days the night prior to legs

Morning Shake: greens supplement, glutamine, endefen, natural calm, ACV, lemon

 

Sea Salt all meals

Chicken, beef, rice, potato measured cooked weight

 

Meal one:

1 english muffin

12g PB2

50g Banana

80g chicken

150g egg whites

pepper/onion mix

 

Meal two: (pre training)

50g carbs from cereal or cream of rice

50g banana

35g whey isolate

 

Meal three: (post training)

140g jasmine rice

112g extra lean beef or steak

 

Meal four:

112g chicken

140g jasmine rice

green beans

 

Meal five:

112g chicken

1 food for life tortilla

pepper/onion mix

 

Meal six:

200g organic non fat plain greek yogurt

12g PB2

20g whey isolate

100g any fruit

 

Diet update: Oct 25

Leg days only

Pre training meal: add 25g carbs

Post training meal: change rice to 210g grams

 

Diet update:  Nov 20

Daily base

Meal one: Add one whole egg and one extra English muffin (45g carbs from bread total)

Post training meal: change rice to 180g

Meal six: Add 16g almond butter and 50g more of fruit

 

I’ve recently stopped having the cheat meals be a main stay on off days prior to legs, as I have just felt its not needed, but there if I want it.

[Michaela Aycock]

The first video explaining what our goal is with this is now posted in the video section!

[Michaela Aycock]

Thank you both, Wanner and Brett!
Should have the first introduction video up within this next week!

[Author]

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