Hey, look at my baby quads. I’m more than excited they are popping out slowly. It baffles me because it has been 6.5 weeks sheltering-in-place due to the coronavirus, and my quads are making an appearance.

I am thankful I decided to take this pandemic and shelter-in-place order not to continue cutting/dieting. Choosing to maintain my weight has helped me to build and keep my muscle more than I could ever imagine.
Of course, some days, I feel flabby and chunky. More so than ever with garlic and buttercream, but whatever – I love my gains. My mental health has improved tenfold too.

One other factor is expanding progressive overload beyond adding more weight. With my workout plan, I add more reps, focus on the eccentric and concentric movements, and focus on isometrics. Weight lifting has become limited due to our home gym equipment. Therefore I had to pivot and make a decision on how to achieve the same physique goal with limited weight.

Focusing on different movements to improve our lifts has worked out like a gem paired with proper nutrition of getting all my necessary macros in.

Below is a post from Bret Contreras of the various progressive overload techniques that have helped me along the way.

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There are many ways to set a PR (personal record) and achieve progressive overload. Progressive overload means doing more than you've ever done before, which places greater tension on the muscles over time and causes them to grow. I decided to create a list of the 10 most common methods of progressive overload and create names for them in hopes that more people will use this terminology. LOAD PR: Going from bench pressing 105 lbs for 6 reps to 110 lbs for 6 reps REPS PR: Going from back extensions with 60 lbs for 10 reps to 60 lbs for 11 reps VOLUME PR: Going from rowing 80 lbs for 3 sets of 10 reps to 80 lbs for 4 sets of 10 reps ROM (range of motion) PR: Going from squatting 205 lbs for 5 reps to parallel to 205 lbs for 5 reps 2" below parallel FORM PR: Going from deadlifting 225 lbs for 3 reps to 225 lbs for 3 reps without rounding the back at all EFFORT PR: Going from bodyweight chin ups for 3 sets of 6 reps to 3 sets of 6 reps without having to work as hard MMC (mind-muscle connection) PR: Going from hip thrusting 245 lbs for 12 reps to 245 lbs for 12 reps while feeling it more in the glutes TIME PR: Going from military pressing 85 lbs for 3 sets of 8 reps with 3 minutes of rest in between sets to 85 lbs for 8 reps with 2 minutes of rest time in between sets BODYWEIGHT PR: Going from doing 16 push ups while weighing 130 lbs to doing 16 reps while weighing 135 lbs (weighing more with BW exercises), or going from lunging 70 lbs for 8 reps while weighing 125 lbs to doing 70 lbs for 8 reps while weighing 120 lbs (weighing less with free weight exercises) ADVANCED PR: Going from curling 40 lbs for 8 reps to curling 40 lbs for 8 reps and then employing an advanced technique such as a dropset, forced reps, negatives, partials, or cheat reps, or by positively altering tempo by going from glute bridging 275 lbs for 8 reps to 275 lbs for 8 reps with a 1-sec pause at the top of each rep or using a slightly slower lowering phase (but not a slower rising phase) I hope this helps you with your training. On a side note, I believe that this is the most important post I've ever made for the S&C industry. #gluteguy #glutelab

A post shared by Bret "Glute Guy" Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1) on Apr 20, 2020 at 9:05am PDT

Lastly, above all, I thought to share what I take or do daily in case you are interested.

Workout program (New Program/Focus every 4 weeks):
Booty By Bret, by Bret Contreras; $29.99 a month

Protein Powder:
MusclePharm Combat Protein Powder; $26.99 2lbs, 130Kcal per scoop

Creatine:
MusclePharm Creatine: $9.99

Favorite Protein Bar:
Quest Nutrition Chocolate Sprinkled Donut: $24.99 12pack, ~200 calories, GF

Hydration:
Nuun Sport: $6.99 Tube of 10 tablets, 15 calories