Update on my progress, and breaking down my training program

Today I'm doing a (very close to real time) update on my muscle gain phase, including weight trends and a little yap about that!
and then we break down my exact training program at the moment 🏋🏽‍♀️ talking about exactly what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it, to progress towards my muscle gain goals!

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DISCLAIMER
The Eat Like Ruby podcast is not a substitute for professional medical or dietary advice.
The advice given in this episode is general in nature and should not be used to treat any medical conditions, health conditions, illnesses, injuries and/or any nutrition related conditions, deficiencies or similar.
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Please consult your health care professional before implementing any of the advice, information or protocols discussed in this episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello fam, welcome back to the pod. I am back today doing another episode about my own current nutrition training phase, etc. So if you do not know, I am currently in a 20-week muscle gain phase, and I'd say I'm in about week six or seven. First thing I always want to say with episodes like this is if you do not have a muscle gain goal, it can be common to hear that and just go, nope, no interest in this. I'm out of here. First of all, if that's what you want to do, go off, see ya. But I'm using these episodes to just break down a lot of info about obviously like nutrition and training, but then also mindset, scale weight, body image, diet culture, if you will. I'm just tapping into anything that pops up in my weeks with any of those things, and then just talking about it on the pod. So I think there's still so much juice in these episodes, if I do say so myself. Even if you're someone who doesn't have a goal to enter an actual muscle gain phase and a surplus, I know that's not incredibly common. Side note, I feel like it's becoming more common. I feel like we are getting through to people. I'm doing so many consults lately and working with so many clients on eating more. It's so good. I could do a whole episode about that, but I won't get into it today. But I just want to point out if you hear these convos or you see these titles and you think, meh, that's not for me. I feel like there's still so much chat in these that can be beneficial regardless of your goal if you have an interest in nutrition, training, body composition, performance, etc. The other little thing I want to say, I said this in the last episode. I have got these episodes as close to real time as possible. So recording and then dropping the episode as close to each other as I can. So I'm literally recording on Friday. We're gonna edit this, it's gonna go live on Monday. So it's like a three-day turnaround. So I'm gonna aim to keep them like that, just so it's like really relevant to where I'm currently at. For my sake, sometimes it gets confusing as to work out like what week I'm in and what week we're talking about. So convenient for me. But then also just cool because I feel like it's a really cool journey to follow along with. I'm actually stoked that we're talking about it so much, and I feel like there's a lot of cool shit coming out of this combo. So I definitely want to keep it going over the next few weeks and months and keep it as close to real time as I can. The other little thing I want to say before we get started is I have mentioned a few times on Instagram, especially that we're gonna do an episode with Shaq about his fat loss phase. So Shaq did lose 11 kilos in the first three months of this year, which is awesome. We spoke to him at the start of the year about intentionally doing that to get ready for all of his events. He did it, he nailed it. I really want to get him back on. I just updated all of the podcast gear and didn't buy him a microphone or didn't buy a second microphone. So I updated everything and then I was like, wow, I've only got one mic. And so I've done solos for the whole year for that reason. That's why I haven't had Shaq, GMOT, guests, nobody on the pod this year, because didn't have a microphone for them. I've just bought one. It took me ages to order one. Gonna get Shaq on next week, probably drop it the week after. So if you've been hanging for that episode, it is coming. We haven't forgotten. I just forgot to buy my mic. So I guess I did forget. But anyway, we're gonna get into today's combo. I'm going to predominantly look at training today. I'm gonna do a little bit of an update just on my like weight, mindset, progress, etc. But then I do want to look at training because I feel like we are six or seven weeks into this muscle gain phase and I haven't spoken about training, which is kind of a key factor when you're trying to gain muscle. So definitely gonna break that down today. But first thing I want to look at before we do that is just a little update, like I said, on my progress and particularly my scale weight. I am mindful that we're doing heaps of chat about scale weight on this topic, and I always tell people not to fixate on the scale too much, but that's kind of why I'm doing it, is because I am eating in an intentional calorie surplus. Like I am definitely consuming more calories than my body needs to actively intentionally gain weight, and it is happening pretty gradually. And I just think this is so cool to point out and to talk about because it can just provide so much context, I guess, or evidence. I think we have people in positions where they are like nailing nutrition. They literally go out for one meal and they think they're gonna put on two kilos. I have eaten, like I said, in an intentional calorie surplus for the last six to seven weeks. I need to work out how many weeks this is, but the last six to seven weeks, I've also had a meal out, one to two meals out every week in that time that would have been even more calories. And I'm sitting here right now, pretty much bang on two kilos up. So I just think that's so valuable to point out and to show because, like I said, people think that's gonna happen to them after one meal out. And obviously, we've spoken so much on this podcast about temporary scale fluctuations and weight spikes, etc. But if we're looking at actual body composition progress and overall progress and overall trends and averages and all these things I've spoken about, this is such cool shit to look at. It's like, yeah, you might go out for one meal and have a little bit of a spike because of things that have nothing to do with actual body fat, muscle gain, body composition change, none of those things. It's a literally a temporary spike and it goes down pretty quickly and you keep progressing with whatever goal or phase you're doing. Come over to me, like I said, who is literally eating. So a quick little catch-up if you haven't listened to the other episodes. If you haven't, I would definitely listen. I think this could be our third episode about me navigating this muscle gain phase. And like I keep saying, I just think the combo is very cool. There's a lot of cool shit to learn. So I would definitely go back and listen to those other two. But just a quick little summary, I'm doing 20 weeks, like I said, my maintenance intake is around 2,400, maybe 2,500. So I'm eating up around the 2,800 calorie mark every single day. I said in that last episode, I'm giving myself a little bit of wiggle room with that. Kind of eating from about like 2,400 up to 3,000 each day. I'm just letting it fall in that range. But my overall average intake is coming in around 2,800, just over 2,800 calz. So that is awesome, in my opinion, considering the fact that my maintenance is two and a half, because that means I'm definitely eating in a surplus. I'm definitely consuming more calories than my body needs so that it stores the excess calories and it uses those excess calories to gain weight, to gain muscle, to build shape, because that is my goal. So that is what I'm currently doing. I started this phase in the middle of March at 65.8 kilos. I then spoke in those last few episodes about how my weight kind of peaks and troughs and ebbs and flows, whatever we want to call it, at different times of the month. So I'm watching that play out, but then I'm watching that overall trend as well. So I did see a few drops into the low 65s, I came up into the 66s, I spiked up into the 67s, and I said in that last episode that I was coming into the time in my cycle where where I expect my weight to drop. So I think in that last episode, which was two weeks ago, I had come up into the 67s, but then I was coming into that time in my cycle where I expect my weight to drop. It did drop back into the 66s, mid-66s. So then I was in a position where I was like, okay, cool, I'm a month in and pretty much one kilo up, which again is just a cool thing for people to think about. Is like Ruby is definitely actively in a calorie surplus, like overconsuming calories. And doing that for a month has led to one kilo because I'm doing it in a structured, controlled way. I'm not just eating as much as I want, whatever I want. I'm in that controlled surplus to have that gradual weight gain that I want. So it's just really cool to see that happening in the gradual way that I want it to be happening. And then fast forward a little bit, I went through the next few weeks, actually got my period, which is a time of the month where I feel like my weight just kind of levels out and comes back to normal. Like I always say, I have times where it clearly drops and then times where it clearly spikes. I feel like when I actually have my cycle, that's almost like what I view as like baseline. Like there's no big spike, there's no big dip. This is kind of just like my normal. And then I go into another like four-week cycle and I see those peaks and trusts again. But a cool thing I pointed out in the last episode, and I just feel like it's worth pointing out here, if you have a goal like this, or even if you have the goal of maintenance, or even if you hold have the goal of fat loss, if you know your body does different things at different times of your cycle, you can almost start to compare those times in the cycle to each other. So if I look at like last time I had my period, like last time I actually had my period, it was, I'm just trying to go back in my spreadsheet. My weight was kind of hanging around those low 66s. And then I go through a cycle where it comes up, comes down different times of the month, come back to the next time I get my period, and it's kind of hanging in those high 66s, maybe low 67s. So that's a really cool thing to look at, is like I always say, look at those overall trends. And if you know that you clearly have different things that happen at different times of the month, it's cool to be aware of that, and then you can almost just compare those times and go, well, what was it last time and what is it this time? And detect how it's moving in that way. So I hope that made sense. I don't want to spend too much time on the wait today because we've spent so long on that in the other episodes. But basically, like I said, fast forward through these last few weeks, it did the big dip like I expect, got my period, pretty much came back up into the 67s, and then I've just come through the last week, pretty much sitting in those mid 67s. So if I look at the last few days, 67.4, 67.5, 67.6, 67.5. So pretty much just hanging there, which is really cool because thinking about the fact that I'm coming up to being two months in, really, if we're looking at two kilos in a month and a half, let's say, that's awesome because I think we'll kind of want to put on roughly six to seven kilos. Let's say, like I don't have an exact goal on it, but I feel like that would be a sweet spot of like, yes, I've clearly gained, but I haven't gained an unnecessarily high amount. So I'll obviously just watch that as the weeks and months go by. But right now I just feel like I'm very on track with the rate of gain that I want overall. So that's awesome. I love it. I'm stoked and I'm literally just going to keep doing what I'm doing. This is a perfect example of what I say to people when they have either fat loss, muscle gain, or maintenance goal is just like literally, we have to implement something. We have to collect a bit of data, watch how the body responds if we have a body composition goal. If that data is showing us that we're getting the response that we want, awesome, keep doing what we're doing. If it shows us that it's not, then we can adjust. So right now I'm not going to adjust because I'm stoked with the way things are going. And so, quick little recap of some other things before we hone in on the training. My average intake, like I said, has been around the 2800 calz. I am giving myself that wiggle room to go a bit lower or a bit higher. So even if I look at, say, like the last week on this spreadsheet, I was 2600, 270, 3000, 28, 28, 28, 25, 28. So those are my last sort of seven days of my calorie intake. And like I said, that's leaving my average up around that two eight mark, which is awesome. Stoked. If I look at my steps, my steps are a little bit random. 7,000, 14,000, 8,000, 8,000, 7,000, 6,000, 6,000, 6,000. The last few days, side note, G Mot and I have been building a wicked thing in Eat Lac Ruby, and I feel like I have been strapped to my laptop. So I'm looking at those steps and just going, like, ooh, last few days, probably a little bit lower than I would like. I don't want to become just a laptop potato, like a couch potato, but on the laptop. Um, I want to make sure those steps are probably more so up around like seven or eight marks. So I'll give those a little nudge over the next few days. But again, I do want them to just sit in a sweet spot. My step average is still actually sitting at 8,000. So that's awesome. I don't want them to be unnecessarily high because they don't need to be. If I was pumping out super high steps, I'd kind of be offsetting the surplus. So they're in a sweet spot, but I'll obviously just watch those and make sure I don't get too lazy on the laptop. But now we are gonna look at training. This is cool. I don't feel like we've looked at my training in a long time. We spoke about it a little bit, I think maybe start of the year or end of last year, but um, super cool to look at it now. I'm just gonna get my app open on my phone so we can just go through my program. So I spoke a little bit, I think at the start of the muscle gain phase, just about my actual goals. So break that down for a second here because this is where training will come in. I don't have a goal to really build much size or much shape in my upper body. My upper body's always been naturally huge from like years of surfing, swimming, surf life saving, etc. I feel like I just built this massive lat spread when I was like 10 years old and it's never gone away. Um so I don't have a goal to build much size in that. And then alongside that, I have naturally quite small, narrow hips and then therefore quite small glutes and just small in that whole area. So that is obviously my big goal. If you know, you know, is to build that and almost like balance it with that big upper body that I've got. So I'm looking at my training, and obviously I'll break this down, but I'm looking at my training as lower body is very much hypertrophy, muscle gain, like trying to build size and shape in my lower body. And then with my upper body training, it's a lot lower volume. When I read it out, you'll see how much I'm doing on the lower compared to the upper. And my upper is more so just focused around getting like being able to do certain skills or certain movements and have certain strengths in my upper body. Side note, I've said these heaps, but I did have that shoulder injury last year, and then that's kind of took away my ability to do like push-ups and pull-ups and stuff, as well as I've I've always been able to just rep them out with my big upper body. So I've lost some of that last year and I've just been building that back up. So I'd say my upper body is more like skill focused and movement focused, and then my lower body is muscle gain central. So at the moment I'm doing two sessions on each every week, two upper and abs, and then two lower body. But if we look at the upper for a second, because they're quite small, I'm literally doing one chin up variation or one pull-up variation. So one day I do assisted chins, and then on the other day I do lap pull downs. I literally do four sets of those. I do one set that's kind of like a little bit lighter warm-up set after I've done my actual warm-up. And then I just go into three heavy sets. So I aim for about six to ten reps on the assisted chins and on the lap pull, and pretty much just trying to get as heavy as I can on those with good technique, with good control, good tempo. And my whole point with that is eventually by the end of the year, I want to be able to get back on the chin up bar and just belt out the reps like I used to. So I'm just trying to rebuild the strength in that movement. That's pretty much all I'm thinking about because then I just go straight into push-ups. So that's all of my pulling work done. One warm-up set, three working sets done. And then I go into push-ups, which again, exactly the same thing, just trying to get back to being able to do really good push-ups. My goal for the end of the year, I'll talk about these obviously as time goes on, but want to get back to doing really good dead stop push-ups on my toes. I want to be able to rep out, I think like 40 is gonna be my goal, like unbroken 40 dead stop push-ups on my toes. So we'll see. And then I also want to be able to do some good weighted push-ups on my toes, like literally probably, I don't know if I want to say 20 kilo plate, but maybe 20 kilo plate. We'll see how she's going. But my push-ups didn't cop as big of a hit as my pull-ups when I had that shoulder injury. I could not pull weight for a really long time. So that needs a lot more work than my push-ups. Right now, after I do my pulling work, so either the chins or the lap pull down, then I go into tempo push-ups on my toes. So with my tempo, I go down for two, hold for three, up for one. Like I said, I do these on my toes, and at the moment, I'm doing three sets of seven reps. So it's literally just like down for two, hold, hold, hold, just off the floor, push up fast for that one count. And that's one rep. Do that seven times, have a big rest, do another seven, big rest, another seven. That is my pushing work done. So I literally do one pulling movement, one pushing movement, and then I go into my ab work. So that is all of my upper body. That is all of my upper body for the whole week. In one sesh, it's the lap pulls and then the tempo push-ups. In the other sesh, it's the assisted chins and then the tempo push-ups, and then I go into my core work. And then even with my core work, I'm trying to get back to certain movements because I used to be able to do like toes to bar and similar things. And then obviously, when I have a shoulder injury, I wasn't able to like hang off the bar, definitely wasn't able to do like toes to bar. So I'm just building that back up. At the moment, I'm just doing things like it's not very exciting, hollow hangs, um, scap retractions. This is boring stuff. And then just progressing with like different dead bugs and leg raises and stuff on the ground. And then my eventual goal with that is obviously if I can hang off the bar well again through things like the hollow hangs, and I'm getting my like leg raises, dead bugs, all that good on the ground. Then eventually I will slap them together and I'll be able to toast a bar again. So that is my whole upper and abs. It's pretty small volume, there's very minimal upper in there, but it's just like pretty much training. I'd pretty much say I'm training till failure on those assisted chins and the lap pulldowns and on the tempo push-ups. Like I couldn't do much more. And that's pretty much my point is like go in, do these two movements as hard as I can, like work myself as hard as I can just with those movements, go away, rest, let that rest happen, let that recovery happen, let that adaptation happen. We speak about this so much, and then go back and push it again. And then we get to lower bod, which isn't so chill. So I'm doing two lower body sessions a week, but there is one thing I want to talk about here really quickly before I break down those sessions. I am giving these sessions everything I've got. Like I am training hard, I'm training well, I'm really utilizing the rest. I'm not effing around on my phone between sets, I'm not faffing around, I'm not rushing, I'm not doing extra shit. Like I am going in so focused, doing these movements very hard, very well, literally sitting and just breathing for three minutes between them all, pretty much have a three-minute rest between every set, and then go again. And as a result, like I am able to give these lifts everything. And as a result, I am getting some gnarly DOMs. And I've said on the podcast before, I am just so insanely prone to hamstring DOMs. It's not even funny. I've got them right now. I'm sitting here right now. Perfect example of this. If you're someone who's following all of this really closely, I said in that last episode that I trained legs on Saturday. And then again on Tuesday, I'm sitting here right now on Friday. I trained them last Saturday. Literally, I would say had the best glute DOMs I've ever had in my life. And on Tuesday, I was like, no way, no way can I go again. So I had to push that back to Wednesday. I've done a sesh on Wednesday, and sitting here right now, it's always that second day for my hamstrings. So right now I'm pretty much 48 hours away from that sesh. And my hamstrings are like, good luck tomorrow, Rubes. No way, no way am I going tomorrow. I'm gonna have to push that one back and I'm just gonna have to keep pushing them back and we'll see how we go. But that's what I want to point out. I will happily push it back. And if that means on average, I do three sessions for the week and I've literally only done legs once for that week, I don't care. Like that's such a win to me because my goal is to not train legs twice a week. My goal is to train legs hard enough that they grow. If I've trained them so hard that I feel like they've got the DOMS and they're right in the thick of that recovery process, no way am I intercepting that process with going again. And this is just my opinion. Like other people will have different opinions, but to me, I'm like, the point of training is to push hard, to push hard enough to the point that the body needs to adapt. I want my body to adapt because I want it to change. Adaptation is change, right? I want my body to change. If I'm getting signs that my body is literally going through that adaptation process, why would I interrupt that? And I think this is just really relative to people's goals and where you're at with your training because there's people that might hear that and then go, oh, well, Rube said I can just push it back. And then it's like, yeah, but if you're doing that because you're just being lazy, well, that's a whole different thing, right? So I'm always mindful of anything we talk about on the podcast. I feel like there's a handful of people that need to hear it, and then there's a handful of people that's like, don't you listen to that because you need to get your shit together and train more consistently, right? So it's not right or wrong, it's not like everyone needs to approach it in a certain way, but I just feel like that's a cool thing to point out. My mindset in this phase isn't like I need to train X amount of times every week. My mindset is I need to train well and train consistently to get the results that I want to get. And I feel like I am definitely doing that, even if it means I think I'm gonna try and remember this off the top of my head because it was really gnarly over the last few weeks. From memory, I trained legs on Good Friday, and then I could not do a thing with those legs until the next Thursday. So I went and did that, and then even in that Thursday session, I was like, I can't do any hammy stuff. Like I've got a session, and we'll look at this in a second. Got a session that has a fair bit of hammy work in it, and the other one doesn't have much hammi work at all. For this reason, if I was hitting my hammies twice a week, I'm done. No way, no way could I hit my hammies twice a week. So anyway, did the session on the Friday with the hammi stuff. Literally could was like, I can't do anything with these legs until the Thursday came around. And even then I was like, yep, I can go and do shit, but I can't do hammy stuff. They're not ready, right? So went and did my other sesh on the Thursday. That wasn't too bad. Like that sesh usually takes about two to three days, and then I'm good. So went back on the Sunday, did the hammy stuff again, and then again, I was like, no, I'm done now. Till Friday, went back on the Friday. So if we look at that, I've done legs like Friday, then nothing on them till the Thursday. Then I did the Sunday, then nothing till the next Friday. So to me, it's not about having to do them on a certain day. How often can I do them every week? I have to go to GMX amount of times a week. It's literally just about can I do them well? Can I let them recover from that session? And then I go back. To me, that's consistency. That's the consistency I want right now is like training hard, training well, letting them recover. And then as soon as I think they're ready to go again, I'll go again. And then I go through that process again and then I go again and I go again. And to me, that is consistency. It doesn't have to be, oh, I'm consistent because I train them every Tuesday and Saturday. It's like, no, I'm consistent because I train them hard, I train them well. And when I think they're ready to go again, I go again. And I'm just gonna say in the most humble way possible, if you know you know, if you've seen my legs, enough said. There could be something to this, guys. There could be something to training hard and then letting them rest, as opposed to just going and going and going. It's working well for me. Let's just say that. Moving on to the actual sessions. So, like I said, got two leg sessions. I structure them like I use a pretty similar structure for all leg sessions for myself and for my clients, but then I do little tweaks depending on what that individual wants to work on, or obviously looking at myself, looking at things like this. How often am I hitting the hammies? What is my actual goals, etc.? So when I look at planning a lower body sesh, I always look at pushing weight, pulling weight, thrusting weight, and abducting. And then we can look at does this person want to then actually include an isolated hammy movement or an isolated quad movement? Do we want some calves? Like there's little extras we can put in. But if we're looking at the glutes especially, push, pull, thrust, abduct always. Like I always want them in there. I want my girls to do one variation, at least one variation of those things a week. If they've got a goal to like really grow the glutes and that's a big focus for them, we're pretty much doing those movements in every session. Occasionally we might just take one out or, you know, tweak it that little bit, but that's the real foundation that I look at and I build the sessions off of that. So that's exactly what I use for myself. And if we have a little look at my sessions right now, let's look at the first one, which is the Hami sesh. So I aim to do this on the Tuesday. I aim to do this on the Tuesday because then I aim to do the next one on the sat day. And in my mind, I'm like, surely, Rubs, like you do this Tuesday morning, then you rest Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Surely you can go again Saturday. But not always, guys. Not always, as we just heard. So that is the goal. That's the plan. But then I'm obviously open to tweaking that plan when I feel like I can't even bend down and pick something up off the floor. So this is my sesh. I do single leg press to start. I absolutely love single leg press. I feel like this is one of the most beneficial exercises for my glutes, just working the individual glute. I focus on very good control, very good depth. A big focus I have with these is coming down with control and pushing out of the bottom of it with control, never bouncing out of the bottom. That is the number one thing I catch on myself and on my clients is if you let that come down, and we can apply this to pretty much every exercise, but if you let that single leg press come down and then you quickly bounce it out of the bottom, to me, that's where we lose the real juice of the work. I like to bring it down and then from that lowest point, gradually push it up with control. So it's like, I'm not using momentum, I'm not using a bounce, I'm not using anything. I'm literally just using my glute and my leg. I love these. So I aim for three sets of eight to 12 with those. Then I go into RDLs with the trap bar. This is what buckles my hamstrings. And I have been doing these for so long. But any search that has these in them, I'm like, yep, goodbye, hammies. See you next week. So I do three sets, six to ten reps of these. I'm just aiming for good reps, good control, good tech. Obviously, RDL's probably the number one exercise that I do technique checks on for my girls. It's the number one thing that most people need to do a bit of work on. So technique's a huge one with these. Just focusing on that good tech and then obviously heavy. Like I'm trying to push these to a nice heavy weight. Then I go into the hip thrust machine. So I've been doing all my hip thrusts on a hip thrust machine. My gym has the most elite hip thrust machine. It's next level. People would be jealous if I showed you this. But on this, I do four sets of six to 12 reps. I like to do the first set lighter on this. So I do that on purpose because I don't have the best hip thrust technique. And this is where I know my glutes can get a little bit lazy. And I'm like, yeah, technically I could probably hip thrust like 120, but then I'm like, how much would my glutes really be doing that? So I like to use the first set to just start light and be like getting that mind muscle connection with my glutes, getting that text sorted. And then I go into three heavier sets. So my heavier sets at the moment are around 80 to 85. And like I said, I know I could technically put more on it and get it done, but I don't feel like I would do it that well with my glutes. So I'm just really mindful of like where's the limit, where's the heavy weight, still using my glutes and actually getting what I want to get out of the exercise. So if we look at that right there, we had a push on the single leg press, a pull on the trap bar RDL, and then a thrust on the hip thrust, obviously. I've then chucked an extra exercise in here. So my gym has, again, probably the most elite kickback machine you've ever seen. It's called a pendulum kickback. It is a game changer for the glutes. And this is, if we think about a kickback, it's kind of like another variation of like hip extension. So hip thrust is also hip extension. So there'd be an argument of like, do you need to do both of these in the same session? No, you definitely don't. I'm in a position right now where I'm like, I'd rather do a slightly longer session and include things that I want instead of like keeping the session shorter. I've definitely had times in my life where I'm like, nah, I'm not adding anything extra. I want these to be short, just not in the headspace for long ones or just don't want to do long ones, whatever it is. Right now, I'm definitely in the headspace where I'm like, nah, we can put that in. And like I said, the machine in my gym is elite. I definitely want it in there. And I'm also thinking about the fact that, long story short, I've talked about this on the podcast before, but I have had that glute injury back in the day. And I feel like hip extension is probably the one movement that I lacked when I was going through that injury. So I was still pulling a bit of weight, still pushing a bit of weight. And this is where I feel like my glutes just got left that little bit behind compared to things like my hammies and my quads. If we think about pulling weight like an IDL, yes, we work the glutes, but we also work the hammies. If we think about pushing weight like the single leg press, yes, we work the glutes, but we also work the quads with most pushing movements. So then when we come to something like hip extension with our hip thrust, kickbacks, et cetera, we don't get too much hammi work. We don't get too much quad work there. They're pretty much just honing in on the glutes. And that's just something that I want to think about. Like I want the ratio of that work to be a little bit higher just because it was lower for so long. So I've got three sets, 10 to 12 reps each side on that kickback machine. Then I go into my seated hip abductions. Again, the hip abduction machine at my gym is next level. I would say this is one of the key things that is changing my shape is this hip abduction machine. It's unreal. So three sets of 10 to 15 reps on those. And then I've been finishing this day with literally two sets on each leg on the single leg laying hammi curl. And again, this is what's buckling my hammies. So if we look at that right there, what is literally buckling my hammies for six days is three sets of six to ten reps trap bar RDLs, two sets of eight to twelve reps single leg hammi curls. That's it. I swear to god, I have like a genetic thing in my hammies where they just don't recover that well. But I'm pushing through it, I'm getting it done. So that is my first sesh. If we now have a look at my second sesh, I feel like the only people left listening to this episode right now will be people that really care about training. This would be so boring if you didn't care about training. But if you're still here, slay. We love it. Okay, looking at the second lower body sesh, I start with Smith Machine Bulgarian split squats. So I was doing dumbbell Bulgarians, but I got to a point where I was like, I am capped by my grip. So this isn't always a bad thing. There are definitely exercises out there where we're gonna get capped by our grip. We see this a lot with dumbbell RDLs as well, but I think this can be beneficial at times because sometimes if there is a factor like the grip capping us, then we are forced to keep it that little bit lighter and focus on things like technique, range, control, etc. You can't let yourself let your ego take over. You're like, oh no, I can't really go heavier. So I'm gonna focus on the other things. I do this intentionally with my clients at times. And side note, like, don't get me wrong, obviously, we need to have phases of definitely pushing heavy weight and not getting capped by our grip. But I think it can be beneficial to do this at times to just intercept shitty technique that can come in when we're only thinking about heavy weights. So big side note there, but just a cool thing to look at. I had those dumbbell Bulgarians in there for ages and I was like capped by the grip. I was doing like 30 kilo dumbbells, but I got to a point where I was like, yeah, I definitely can't hold a heavier dumbbell than that. But I stayed there for a while to make sure I just had that good technique. I was working well, glutes were working well, and they are working so well on these right now. So I moved them over to the Smith machine so that I can keep building them from there and not get capped by the grip. I'm doing four sets of eight to 12 reps of these, and I do the first set at body weight. So I don't do any weight, I literally just do body weight. And this is similar to what I was saying on the hip thrust. I know that if I just went in really hard, there's a possibility that like my quads would take these over hugely. My technique just wouldn't be that good. So I like to use that first set to just get the mind muscle connection going, just make sure I'm using the right muscles, doing the right positioning, right technique, etc. Get that sorted in that first body weight set, and then go into three heavy sets from there. And again, just want to reiterate, I do this after doing an actual warm-up as well. Also, anyone who listened to that last episode and I said my neighbor loves to blow his leaves every time I'm recording, he's blowing his leaves and it's 6.53 a.m. So big slay from him. We love it. And then after the Bulgarians, I go back into hip thrust. So I had these in the other day. Exact same machine, same rep frame, same weight, same everything. Literally just doing it twice a week because again, this is something that I know I want to have in there a lot to really catch up on that movement pattern and really focus on it. So literally just repeat that the same way I did it the other day. Then we go into a leg press. So in that last session, we had the single leg press. And then in this one, we've got normal, like double leg leg press. This is a cool thing to look at because this is a specific tweak I've made in this session. If we think about the fact that we got Bulgarians and then hip thrusts, and then we go back into another push. So we're pushing weight with the Bulgarians and we're pushing weight again on the leg press. I do not have a pulling movement in this session. This is because of my hamstrings. Like I've always done for my own sessions for as long as I can remember, push, pull, thrust, abduct every session. And then in these last few weeks, as I've been planning out these sessions, I was just like, I am going to be capped by those hamstrings. And my, like I do have a goal to grow my hamstrings, but I have a bigger goal to grow my glutes. And I had to sit there and look at that and go, if both sessions have that hummy work in them, I there's no way I'm getting them both done every week. And people will probably think like I'm getting dramatic at this point. Like, ropes, get over it. It's Hammy DOMs, which yes, it is, first world problems. But just looking at my actual goals and the biggest point to me implementing this muscle game phase and this surplus was to grow my glutes specifically. Like, yes, I want to grow a bit of everything and just build my overall shape, but definitely want to grow my glutes more than anything to catch them up to the rest of my body after those injuries that I've spoken about. So then when I was sitting there mapping out these sessions, I was like, if you put another pulling movement in here, like if I had another RDL variation in here, think about the fact that I'm saying when I do that session that has the hammy work in it, I literally need like five to six days to recover. Then when I do this session, this is when I need probably like two, maybe three days. So it's a lot more doable to get those sessions done often enough. If I had hammy work in both these sessions, I'd pretty much just have to do one session this week and then the other session next week, and then go back to the first session the week after, and I'd literally be doing legs once a week, which would be fine. I've had phases in my training where I've done legs once a week and it's just been like a big, hard, heavy leg session, and then I've rested for a week and gone again. So there's nothing wrong with that. But I was more so looking at the fact of my glutes are ready to go two to three days later, but they can't because my hammies feel like I'm gonna snap if I do anything. So then I was sitting there going, well, if my number one goal is to grow my glutes, why am I letting them sit there and chill for days on end when they could be lifting again to prioritize the hammi work when the hammi work isn't a priority? So again, you've probably left if this shit's boring to you, but just cool shit to look at, I think personally, because I love this stuff. So then coming back to the sesh, this was a real conscious choice I made for this program. And ideally, I'd love to get back to pulling weight twice a week at some point. But for now, my number one focus is training my glutes hard and consistently enough. And I don't want something else getting in the way of that. So took out the pulling movement, bought in the leg press. I am loving this sesh. This is the sesh that I did on Saturday and said I probably had the best glute DOMs I've ever had in my life. So Smith Machine Bulgarians into hip thrust, into leg press. On the leg press, I do three sets, six to twelve, three minute rest between those. So it's just like pretty much how heavy can you go? For most of these things, I'm hitting about seven reps. And I think that's so cool because it's like if I could do 12, I'd argue it's like ribs chuck a bit more on and go for like six to eight, right? If you want to do heavy, if you want to do hard. So there's definitely exercises where I push to 12 reps for sure. But then there are certain things where it's like I want to push as heavy as I can. So the fact that it's like I can't really get past seven reps, I just think that's a good sign personally. Then I'm going back into those pendulum kickbacks. So again, just repeating those in both sessions because I feel like they're so beneficial, so good for me. Back into seated hip abductions, again, literally repeating it exactly the same as I am in the other day. And then on this day, I do a little bit of calves as well. So just like literally two sets of a standing calf machine. I am umming and Ring so much about whether to have the leg extensions in here. I've actually got them in here, and I have days where I'm like, yep, let's go. We'll leg extension on this day. And then I have days where I look at my quads and I'm like, Ruby, step away from the leg extension. So, so again, the biggest first world problem, but I'm very undecided because my quads are huge, and in one way I just go, just keep making them even more huge, roops. But then I kind of intercept that and go, your goal is to catch your glutes up to the rest of your body. If you keep pushing other shit further, you're never gonna catch up. So I'm in two minds of like, do I just get the biggest quads in the world or do I chill the F out and let my glutes catch up to my current quads? So watch this space. We'll see what we decide. But that is both of my leg sessions, um, both of my upper sessions, and that's pretty much it. Like I'm doing two lower, two upper. If the two lower don't fit in because of the DOMs, I push them back a little bit. Sometimes that means I'm like chasing my tail a little bit, but I don't overthink it too much. I don't stress about it too much. Like I said, I literally just roll with the mindset of like do the session hard, do the session well, go into the rest and recovery, take it day by day when you think you're ready to go again, go again. Obviously, I do want to point out that I have a fair bit of freedom in that sense. I work for myself, so I don't have a boss, I don't have kids, my husband trains 24-7. Like, there's no huge limiting factors on what days I can get to gym and what days I can't. So I fully understand for some people, it's just like Monday has to be this, Tuesday has to be this, etc. I respect that so much. So many of my girls, like so many of my girls are workers, students, business owners, mums, all of the above. And they are just so insanely routine. It's so impressive. I think about myself, like if I ever have a day where I'm like, oh, I don't think I can get to gym, I'm like, Rubes, pull your head in. Because every one of your clients has more commitments than you and gets to gym consistently. So I've either got clients like that, or I've got clients that are like young, they don't have so many responsibilities, but they train so much. I have so many clients that train two, if not three times a day for events. Like we're more looking at triathletes and high rocks girls and stuff here, and they get so much done. And again, I just go, Rubs, you got so many clients out there that get it done. Look me in the eye and tell me you can't get it done. So I always get it done. I'm always motivated by my clients, but I obviously do have that freedom and flexibility to wiggle it around and maneuver it a little bit. So that is what I'm doing. I am coming up towards the end of this current program. So I'm doing like 10 weeks in this program and then I'll do 10 weeks in the next one. I'm gonna run with pretty much the same leg sessions. So I might do another training update in like a month's time and talk about any changes that I make, but I'm very much in the mentality with those leg sessions of like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They are working so well. Obviously, those DOMs are a great sign. I feel like I am definitely training the best I've ever trained in my life. Like I am just in such a good mindset. I am training at the best gym that I've ever trained in my life, and it is a game changer. Every single thing is stacked in my favor right now to just optimize my training. And so I am. Again, I'm just looking at being like, roops, you'd be a freaking idiot if you weren't sending it right now. So I'm sending it right now. I think I'm gonna deload probably next week. I've got some physio booked for next week just to like keep on top of any little niggles or injuries. So I might line that up with a D load and then I'll be starting to come into my next training block. We can talk about any changes I'm gonna do with that one. That will be around the halfway point of my muscle gain phase. It goes so friggin' fast. Like so fast. So I'll definitely do an update on that. I want to do an episode maybe next week, maybe the week after, about some other cool mindset stuff that I've been experiencing with the muscle gain phase. I've got so many notes in my phone that just pop up throughout the week. So plenty more chat on this stuff to come. If you've stayed to the end of this episode, big yes. Good on you. I know it was a lot of technical chat and a lot of rambling from me, but hope you got something out of it. I will be back very soon. Thank you so much, like always.