Slicin' and Dicin'

Double DB rows
12 x 30s, 50s, 70s

BB rows - supinated
10 x 135, 185, 215
7 x 235
  • 10 x 185 dropset
  • 12 x 135 2nd dropset

Pronated
25 x 95

Seated cable rows
3 x 12
+ 15 dropset

Cable Lat pullovers
3 x 15

Lat pulldowns
3 x 15


Notes
A little ho hum today, but got the work in. Kinda another one of those days affirming that my higher volume goals are better left for solo lifting sessions rather than bro sesh.

edit: I will say, I was actually a bit shakey once I got to my recovery meal so maybe this session hit harder than I thought.
 
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My boy just texted me. He got his 375lb squat PR attempt today and went for 395. I don't have the details yet on his miss but holy $hit.

Screenshot_20250520-150205.webp
 
That’s awesome…..tell him your AM brothers congratulate him, and are extremely impressed.💪😎👍🏆
Today is his 16th so I'm stoked for him to close out age 15 with that PR!
if all goes well and the DOL doesn't take too long I am taking a half day from work to take him to get his drivers license, then we plan to have a mid day bro sesh, maybe hit dave and busters for some arcades afterwards and little birthday celebration and grandma and grandpas after. we have a pretty fun kid-approved day planned!
 
Today is his 16th so I'm stoked for him to close out age 15 with that PR!
if all goes well and the DOL doesn't take too long I am taking a half day from work to take him to get his drivers license, then we plan to have a mid day bro sesh, maybe hit dave and busters for some arcades afterwards and little birthday celebration and grandma and grandpas after. we have a pretty fun kid-approved day planned!
Happy Birthday to your young man….you almost can’t say boy when he’s bigger than you. Ha, but they are always our boys no matter what they think.😎👍
 
Happy Birthday to your young man….you almost can’t say boy when he’s bigger than you. Ha, but they are always our boys no matter what they think.😎👍
I know! makes it even harder sometimes to play "dad" both in the disciplinarian way (not that he needs much) and the loving way. I still give him giant bear hugs and tell him I love him because at the end of the day he is only a boy in his mind and I know he still needs what boys get from "dad". I don't think young men who outgrow their dads see themselves as bigger than their dads to be honest.
 
I know! makes it even harder sometimes to play "dad" both in the disciplinarian way (not that he needs much) and the loving way. I still give him giant bear hugs and tell him I love him because at the end of the day he is only a boy in his mind and I know he still needs what boys get from "dad". I don't think young men who outgrow their dads see themselves as bigger than their dads to be honest.
They don’t, my youngest son is 34, been in the army since he was 19, and is my height 6’1”, but weighs 250 lbs, has around 18”arms, and mainly just does lots of pushups, pull-ups, and runs like a deer. But he still tells his buddies that he would never challenge his Old Man in arm wrestling. Makes you feel good, but it’s also the respect most of all. Of course he remembers, all the arm wrestling I did back in the day, but still….respect.😎👍
 
But he still tells his buddies that he would never challenge his Old Man in arm wrestling. Makes you feel good, but it’s also the respect most of all

I think on top of the father > son dynamic, my boy knows that I can crush him on bench and pulls, and volume any day of the week so he hasn't realized how strong he actually is yet, if that makes sense. Its like a "well I can't do this or that, so I must not be great yet".

its getting closer, thought.

I can see a little tiny bit of ego building in him now because I think in his class he might have the highest squat now and he's starting to realize "hey, I might be good at this". We've tried a lot of sports waiting for something to click and I think we're seeing the eye of the tiger develop here.
 
I'm jealous, my son won't lift more then occasionally at school, he doesn't like any sports I like, isn't competitive unless it's school (which I know is a very good thing but still) he's gonna do well with $$ But unless we're going to get food we got very little in common.
 
I think on top of the father > son dynamic, my boy knows that I can crush him on bench and pulls, and volume any day of the week so he hasn't realized how strong he actually is yet, if that makes sense. Its like a "well I can't do this or that, so I must not be great yet".

its getting closer, thought.

I can see a little tiny bit of ego building in him now because I think in his class he might have the highest squat now and he's starting to realize "hey, I might be good at this". We've tried a lot of sports waiting for something to click and I think we're seeing the eye of the tiger develop here.
Oh yeah with a squat that good at his young age he is probably going to shatter school records before he graduates, and whether he chooses college or working with you in your family business, it sounds like lifting and competing is in his blood. And hey even if he goes on to become a world class champion, you can always say “That’s my Boy”.
 
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I'm jealous, my son won't lift more then occasionally at school, he doesn't like any sports I like, isn't competitive unless it's school (which I know is a very good thing but still) he's gonna do well with $$ But unless we're going to get food we got very little in common.
Then you gotta go eat with that boy every chance you get!
 
Birthday bro sesh with my son

Bench
30 x 95
5 x 135, 185
1 x 205, 225, 245, 265, 280

Slingshot
1 x 295, 315, 315 again

Bench blokz
2 x 275
5 x 245

Raw + Green bands
5 x 95, 135, 155

Raw no bands
15 x 185

Banded squats
(I didn't do any but I set it up for my boy with greenbads from bottom who went up to 185 x 5

Deads
5 x 135, 185, 225, 315

Rack pulls
5 x 315

Hang power cleans
A million x 95lbs

Notes

Took half day from work to rob my boy from school, take him to get his driver's license on his 16th bday, then we hit a bro sesh so I could just introduce him to all the toys, bands, block, everything. Pretty chill.
 
Birthday bro sesh with my son

Bench
30 x 95
5 x 135, 185
1 x 205, 225, 245, 265, 280

Slingshot
1 x 295, 315, 315 again

Bench blokz
2 x 275
5 x 245

Raw + Green bands
5 x 95, 135, 155

Raw no bands
15 x 185

Banded squats
(I didn't do any but I set it up for my boy with greenbads from bottom who went up to 185 x 5

Deads
5 x 135, 185, 225, 315

Rack pulls
5 x 315

Hang power cleans
A million x 95lbs

Notes

Took half day from work to rob my boy from school, take him to get his driver's license on his 16th bday, then we hit a bro sesh so I could just introduce him to all the toys, bands, block, everything. Pretty chill.
Looked like a fun session with the boy…..you sure that million power cleans isn’t a PR?😂
 
Looked like a fun session with the boy…..you sure that million power cleans isn’t a PR?😂

ha, well cleans and pulls are 2 things I don't really get to work on with him that he's doing in his lifting class/group so I wanted to hit a bunch of reps with him to drive form. Cleans are one thing that I'm pretty good at so while I'm constantly studying and needing a lot of work on every other lift I'm sure, that was one thing where I felt confident of repping out all afternoon with him to hit some key improvements on-

Sounds like a great bonding day!

we had a great time! dept of licensing wasn't too bad, like 45 minutes. then about hour and a half at the gym, hit the arcade for around an hour on the way to dinner. he's pretty stoked to have his license. I turned 16 on a sunday and my mom took me to get my license the next day when they opened so I felt it was a tradition to make it an important urgency.

He also PR'd deads at 315, and benched 255 with slingshot which is another PR.
 
Awesome stuff, Happy Birthday to the boy!!!
 
Squats
15 x 95
6 x 135
3 x 185, 225
1 x 265, 285, 305, 325
5 x 275
10 x 225

V squats
3 x 10 to 3 plates
+ 20 rep dropset

Leg press
4 x 10 to 5 plates
+ 20 rep 2 plates dropset

Calf ext
2 x 20

Leg ext
15, 10, 5, 5, 3
  • 10 dropset
  • 10 more second dropset


Notes
My boy definitely has me beat on squats but the cut is going well. Third hole on my lifting belt is fitting looser and looser.

Weighed 192 this morning despite gut shrinking some. But I had a large IPA yesterday and beer always causes a little retention on me which is why I rarely drink beer

I never train leg ext heavy so today I wanted to see if I could run the whole stack (I can't, it hits 250, I topped out at 220).
 
Boulder building.

Hang power snatch
10 x bar, 65
5 x 95, 115
3 x 135

OHP
5 x 95, 115, 135
1 x 155, 175

Pushpress
5 x 185
+ 10 x 135 dropset

Strict
20 x 95 AMRAP finisher

DB laterals
15 x 32.5s, 40s
8 x 45s
  • 10 x 32.5s dropset
  • 15 x 25s immediate second dropset

Seated DB press
15 x 35s, 45s
10 x 65s
+ 10 x 40s dropset

Superset with DB forward raises
2 x 12 x 25s
15 x 35s
+ 15 x 25s dropset

Final finisher, unbroken
5 x Arnolds
5 x laterals
5 x Arnolds
5 x laterals
25lbs


Older gal telling me I'm looking pretty strong today as I'm repping 25s

Weight 191.8 this morning
 
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@MrKleen73 in regards to our talk in @GreenMachineX 's thread, these are the balls out go to failure sets in reality. so while I might be pushing for X number of sets per session, these are the ones that really count to me right now. these are the ones where I might take a knee and a breathe afterwards.

1748026595864.webp
 
Boulder building.

Hang power snatch
10 x bar, 65
5 x 95, 115
3 x 135

OHP
5 x 95, 115, 135
1 x 155, 175

Pushpress
5 x 185
+ 10 x 135 dropset

Strict
20 x 95 AMRAP finisher

DB laterals
15 x 32.5s, 40s
8 x 45s
  • 10 x 32.5s dropset
  • 15 x 25s immediate second dropset

Seated DB press
15 x 35s, 45s
10 x 65s
+ 10 x 40s dropset

Superset with DB forward raises
2 x 12 x 25s
15 x 35s
+ 15 x 25s dropset

Final finisher, unbroken
5 x Arnolds
5 x laterals
5 x Arnolds
5 x laterals
25lbs


Older gal telling me I'm looking pretty strong today as I'm repping 25s

Weight 191.8 this morning
I haven’t done standing bb press in a while…maybe time to do it again.
 
@MrKleen73 in regards to our talk in @GreenMachineX 's thread, these are the balls out go to failure sets in reality. so while I might be pushing for X number of sets per session, these are the ones that really count to me right now. these are the ones where I might take a knee and a breathe afterwards.

View attachment 252294
I responded to this in Green's post just a bit ago.
 
Oh man I've done nothing this week. Woke up Saturday at 3am to let the puppy out. Felt fine. Went back to bed, rolled over and fire down my back from the upper neck across the shoulders. Flew down to Arizona a few hours later. Took until about Tuesday for it to go away. Hard to know if it's something I did in training, or just twisted it funny in bed.

We've had 5 days of 98F+. Today we hit Saguaro Lake for a little wine cruise, played in the pool every day, and generally just got a lot of R&R on the cheap. I had every intention of dropping into the local gym but decided rest was a better course of action at this point.

Tomorrow we wake early to fly home and I'm hoping to get a Thursday afternoon session in before going back to the grind on Friday.

Weeks like this definitely remind me of why I'm saving to retire someday though!

PXL_20250528_235435933.webp
 
Oh man I've done nothing this week. Woke up Saturday at 3am to let the puppy out. Felt fine. Went back to bed, rolled over and fire down my back from the upper neck across the shoulders. Flew down to Arizona a few hours later. Took until about Tuesday for it to go away. Hard to know if it's something I did in training, or just twisted it funny in bed.

We've had 5 days of 98F+. Today we hit Saguaro Lake for a little wine cruise, played in the pool every day, and generally just got a lot of R&R on the cheap. I had every intention of dropping into the local gym but decided rest was a better course of action at this point.

Tomorrow we wake early to fly home and I'm hoping to get a Thursday afternoon session in before going back to the grind on Friday.

Weeks like this definitely remind me of why I'm saving to retire someday though!

View attachment 252408
Man sounds like you might have had an issue with one of the cervical vertebrae in the neck. I have a slightly bulging disk at C5-C6 that when it flares up it can cause shoulder blade and rear shoulder pain as well as in the neck. I’ve pretty much gave up squats because I have such a hard time positioning the bar without causing issues. Just sleeping wrong can get your neck out of alignment and create issues. I have an excellent chiropractor that does great adjustments including my neck. It freaked my wife out when she was with me one time and heard him crack my neck. A lot of times though it will work itself out after a few days, so hopefully yours will straighten out if that’s it.
Glad you guys were still able to get in some R&R. The lake is one of the best places to get it.😎👍
 
Definitely sounds like a nerve getting pinched in the neck somehow when you moved.

Glad the trip was relaxing & enjoyable!
 
I hope that clears up quickly these neck / nerve issues are a real bitch!!! I don't wish it on anyone.
 
Seated DB curls
3 x 12 x 30s

Cable tri pushdowns, rope
3 x 15 x 80lbs

Ez bar curls
15 x 60lbs, 70lbs
8 x 100lbs, 100lbs
10 x 80lbs
  • 12 x 60lbs dropset
  • 12 x 50lbs 2nd dropset

Cable pull downs single arm
3 sets roughly to failure.
+ 1 dropset

DB preacher curls
12 x 25
10 x 30, 35, 30
+ 10 x 25 dropset

Dip machine
15 x +180, +230 (runners high)
12 x +270
10 x +300
  • 15 x +180 dropset
  • 20 x +90 dropset seated reverse

Single arm cable curls
3 sets

Oh cable ext - rope attachment
4 x 10-20
+ 1 x 20 dropset

Started slow, figured an arms day was a safe way to test the neck which seems 90% so I'm pretty happy with that! Feels a little tight like a muscle pump but I can turn my neck to see my blindspot and no real soreness, lol.

This smaller dude was running dips at 50lbs when I thought he was done so I asked if I could jump in, I throw my 180 on to start then he asks to work back in, which of course is a yes. He peels a plate off and runs +90lbs. I go up to 270, he goes up to 180. I go up to 300 and he taps out. But regardless I sorta feel like I got him to try way harder just by jumping in with me and I thought that was awesome. When I left and came back he had worked up to 200lbs.

I'm sorta at this point as much as I absolutely love the iron, I get adrenaline rushes from watching other dudes push themselves in the gym.
 
Man sounds like you might have had an issue with one of the cervical vertebrae in the neck. I have a slightly bulging disk at C5-C6 that when it flares up it can cause shoulder blade and rear shoulder pain as well as in the neck. I’ve pretty much gave up squats because I have such a hard time positioning the bar without causing issues. Just sleeping wrong can get your neck out of alignment and create issues. I have an excellent chiropractor that does great adjustments including my neck. It freaked my wife out when she was with me one time and heard him crack my neck. A lot of times though it will work itself out after a few days, so hopefully yours will straighten out if that’s it.
Glad you guys were still able to get in some R&R. The lake is one of the best places to get it.😎👍

Definitely sounds like a nerve getting pinched in the neck somehow when you moved.

Glad the trip was relaxing & enjoyable!

I hope that clears up quickly these neck / nerve issues are a real bitch!!! I don't wish it on anyone.

It's feeling much better, @gphagan1 's mention of the C5 area is about right. the guest bed that we stayed in was honestly horrible, I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but it was nice to be in my own bed last night with my own pillows. I'd say i'm at 95% today, almost zero twinge when looking to blind spots when driving etc. I wouldn't be surprised if adding in some snatch work last Friday was the culprit so I'll probably do that again, but work on taking it slower/lighter for a few weeks and ease my way into it.

it threw me off because I felt fine Saturday morning at 3am when I let the dog out, but when I climbed back into bed it lit on fire so I want to blame it on a bad twist or something, but there was never a pop or that twinge feeling you get when you twist your neck badly. Plus over the next few days I could feel the fire work down the delt into the upper biceps which all seemed relevant to the work I did last week. I think running laterals at 45s was probably PR territory so I was very careful with them, buy my concern at the time was more shoulder/deltoid injury than a neck sprain or pinched nerve...

either way.. I'm not concerned yet. generally it just felt like a really bad stiff neck like you get from sleeping wrong that lasted a few days.

The R&R was really great, one of the first times my wife and I mostly just sat around and did NOTHING for a few days. That's a lifetime PR for her! haha




“I’m just bloated”
196 is the weigh in this morning, so +4. Not too shabby 😂
Going to run PSMF today/tomorrow and probably throw down a couple 30hr+ fasts in the next few weeks to reset things a bit.
 
oh funny twist of events, I'm pulling eggs from my diet for a little while. I've been getting a little rosy cheeked and nosed. I thought maybe it was bourbon so I cut that but it didn't improve. my wife and i started looking at my diet and she's like you do eat a lot of eggs... so I had very few on our trip and my face started clearing up...

since I want to cut calories a bit next week this is a good time to give it a try but many I do love my eggs! Crazy easy meal prep and always nice to have a dozen hard boiled eggs waiting in the fridge.
 
oh funny twist of events, I'm pulling eggs from my diet for a little while. I've been getting a little rosy cheeked and nosed. I thought maybe it was bourbon so I cut that but it didn't improve. my wife and i started looking at my diet and she's like you do eat a lot of eggs... so I had very few on our trip and my face started clearing up...

since I want to cut calories a bit next week this is a good time to give it a try but many I do love my eggs! Crazy easy meal prep and always nice to have a dozen hard boiled eggs waiting in the fridge.
What about eggs would give you red cheeks/nose? Just genuinely curious; never heard of that.
 
What about eggs would give you red cheeks/nose? Just genuinely curious; never heard of that.
I had never heard of it before myself, and it could very well be something else but after only a couple days its cleared up big time. I did a little research on it and apparently its common if you have an egg allergy. Less common would be developing an egg alergy as an adult. The only other thing I can think of is I've been eating pretty much 100% homegrown eggs and we did change their feed to what is supposed to be a healthier feed but these things do sorta concide with when it started.
 
Squats
10 x 95
5 x 135, 185
1 x 225, 255, 275
3 x 5 x 275
12 x 185

Leg press
10 x 180, 270,
5 x 360, 450, 540
20 x 270


Limited on time but squats felt today. Grabbed wrong shoes so that sucked and I could feel it but I gotta step up my game a bit if I'm gonna keep pressure on the 16yr old

Weight up to 196 today
 
Goblet squats
3 sets

DB rows
2 sets

Bicep curls
3 sets

DB RDLs
2 sets

Deads
10 x 135
3 x 225, 275, 315, 365
1 x 405

Lat pull downs
3 sets
+ 1 dropset

Seated cable rows
2 sets

H/S high rows
2 sets



Little Saturday session with my boy. Took forever to get a platform and barbell so we tried to use the time effectively with some RDLs, rows, goblets etc
 
Bench
20 x 95
4 x 135, 175
1 x 205, 235, 265, 285, 295

Slingshot
1 x 315, 320
2 x 300
13 x 225

Bench blockz
2 x 275
5 x 245

Raw
10 x 185
20 x 135

Incline DB
10 x 50s, 70s, 80s
+ 8 x 60s dropset

Incline DB flies
10 x 40s, 50s
+ 15 x 30s dropset

Star trac incline machine
4 very hard sets

Nitro vertical chest press
3 sets


My boy kept pushing the weight up on the Star trac so we took it probably 50lbs higher than I would have but he went to 255 which blew my mind for a kid with a 235 bench.


I'm sorta shocked how easily I hit 295 today with 305 being my best and me not having directly trained for a strong bench in months. At that point I thought maybe I'd go after a slingshot PR (330lbs) but 320 was hard enough that I opted to drop weight rather than fail a rep.

I really didn't think this session was THAT intense but 20 minutes later I was SMOKED.
 
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Holy hell dude, 405 on the deadlift and 295 on the bench? Feel like I haven't seen you posting numbers like that recently. What's your DL PR?
 
Nice session!
 
Holy hell dude, 405 on the deadlift and 295 on the bench? Feel like I haven't seen you posting numbers like that recently. What's your DL PR?
thanks man, previous PRs for both were

Deads 485, 500 rack pull
Bench 305, 325 slingshot-

Nice session!

Thanks dude! Learning, watching, adjusting, adapting. I may end up sticking with the fasting method (or I should say, bring back) for a while since it in all honesty allows for a lot more day to day flexibility. Gonna run at least 30hrs today if not further. Gym sessions have really been fantastic lately.
 
I had posted my "in the mail" update but current stack looks like this:

anabolic xt
m-test
atp elite
prime xt
xpg carnitine

tbh that's a lot of caps to be taking. I still have my alpha gel, a lifetime supply of epiandro, xpg dhea, left over var, liver assist, tudca, and a few others. I'm out of creatine so I need to restock there. But this current stack as I've mentioned before often feels like PED's tbh. I'm not sure what I'll do down the road with the epi or var, whether I'll eventually go down the TRT road or occasionally pop one preWO but right now things are moving pretty good. strength numbers are all looking pretty good for me at the moment so tossing in occasional 30+ hour fasts on rest days seems like a safe approach right now. Just started the ATP Elite and Prime XT for the firs time ever last Thursday or Friday so its hard for me to give them credit for great weekend workouts, but maybe?


1748877281572.webp
 
ATP Elite has a full 3g Creatine HCL in every daily serving, so if you take as directed you really don’t need any extra creatine, not for a 200lb man.

The Star Trac machines usually have good contractions even at lower weights, but can really be loaded up if you’re pushing for progressive overload - don’t let the numbers scare you! We used to put 3-4 plates/side on the seated OHP. My little wife could seated row 100+lbs/side for heavy sets.
 
ATP Elite has a full 3g Creatine HCL in every daily serving, so if you take as directed you really don’t need any extra creatine, not for a 200lb man.
Totally forgot about that! one less thing for me to worry about.


The Star Trac machines usually have good contractions even at lower weights, but can really be loaded up if you’re pushing for progressive overload - don’t let the numbers scare you! We used to put 3-4 plates/side on the seated OHP. My little wife could seated row 100+lbs/side for heavy sets.

ours wasn't plate loaded, it was cable driven like this one below. generally for a novel movement like that I'll just add weight as I can and let my body (shoulders in this case) tell me when I'm risking something. I could see getting myself into trouble because the shoulder movement here was foreign and felt risky like when I first brought incline bench back into my rotation.

but absolutely agree that there was a solid contraction.

1748879086775.webp



the nitro vertical chest press looked like the below picture. in many ways seemed like a fairly useless training tool, but had a fantastic titty squeeze at the end. aside from hitting the middle pec a lot more than I expected, it had a sensation similar to decline press:

1748879178637.webp
 
Totally forgot about that! one less thing for me to worry about.




ours wasn't plate loaded, it was cable driven like this one below. generally for a novel movement like that I'll just add weight as I can and let my body (shoulders in this case) tell me when I'm risking something. I could see getting myself into trouble because the shoulder movement here was foreign and felt risky like when I first brought incline bench back into my rotation.

but absolutely agree that there was a solid contraction.

View attachment 252512


the nitro vertical chest press looked like the below picture. in many ways seemed like a fairly useless training tool, but had a fantastic titty squeeze at the end. aside from hitting the middle pec a lot more than I expected, it had a sensation similar to decline press:

View attachment 252513
Some of those chest machines can have fire contractions - you really have to just try them and see. Sometimes they were seemingly designed by real muscle wizards, and some are engineered by guys who failed geometry AND PE class lol
 
Some of those chest machines can have fire contractions - you really have to just try them and see. Sometimes they were seemingly designed by real muscle wizards, and some are engineered by guys who failed geometry AND PE class lol

😂 😂 😂 its true lol

also if I'm lifting with my boy we always start in the dungeon and if I can tell he's petering out, we'll cycle into some novel machine work to pique his interest and introduce him to something new. I have met a lot of people who tell me they're intimadated by machines they don't understand so at this point he's likely never going to have that issue now. I mean, if some new machine we've never used is safe and stimulates some random new piece of muscle tissue thats not getting attention then it's not time wasted I figure. Might not be something to use daily for a big bench or (insert focus du jour here), but novel is novel.
 
Sitting at 34hrs fasted right now, some of the best sleep I've had last night. Woke up before the alarm, feeling good and rested. body feels good. fasted weight currently at 192lbs. probably going to push through until dinner.
 
I had posted my "in the mail" update but current stack looks like this:

anabolic xt
m-test
atp elite
prime xt
xpg carnitine

tbh that's a lot of caps to be taking. I still have my alpha gel, a lifetime supply of epiandro, xpg dhea, left over var, liver assist, tudca, and a few others. I'm out of creatine so I need to restock there. But this current stack as I've mentioned before often feels like PED's tbh. I'm not sure what I'll do down the road with the epi or var, whether I'll eventually go down the TRT road or occasionally pop one preWO but right now things are moving pretty good. strength numbers are all looking pretty good for me at the moment so tossing in occasional 30+ hour fasts on rest days seems like a safe approach right now. Just started the ATP Elite and Prime XT for the firs time ever last Thursday or Friday so its hard for me to give them credit for great weekend workouts, but maybe?


View attachment 252510
Looks like a terrific stack. Let me know how ATP Elite treats you!
And I noticed ATP Elite very quickly too, FWIW
This is probably the next of Steve's products I'm most interested in, after BASIS.
 
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