EMCD Fitness

The Weekly Dump - Another Unbelievable Week In The Bag ✅

Feeling incredibly grateful lately to be in the position I am in right now with my physique, the way my coaching has grown, the calibre of clients that are coming to me & to be able to live the lifestyle younger me could have only dreamed of 💭

It’s crazy what can happens when you do hard s**t, you stay the course (even when you feel things aren’t going your way) & you keep chipping away day by day 🔨

The more relentless I’ve become, the more luck I’ve created for myself & the more I’ve been rewarded!

Don’t shy away from doing hard things. On the other side of discomfort is where you make the MOST amount of progress 👊🏽🎯

How you do one thing, is how you do everything 📌

If you’re slacking on tracking your calories…

Skipping your steps…

Cutting cardio short…

Not prioritising your sleep…

Letting your routine become inconsistent…

You can’t expect it to have no impact on your physique.

Because it’s never just one thing.

Those little compromises start to compound and eventually they show up in your physique, your results and your mindset.

You become less disciplined with one thing, then another, and before you know it, you’re wondering why you’re not progressing like you should be 🤔

The opposite is true too.

When you start taking pride in the small things like hitting your calories, getting your steps in, completing your cardio, sleeping properly, sticking to your routine, you build momentum.

You start trusting yourself.

And that consistency doesn’t just change your physique…

It changes the way you think.

How you do one thing, is how you do everything. Don’t forget that 🫡

What actually matters for muscle retention during a cut? 🧠

There’s a few things I think are really important, but it’s honestly not as complicated as people make it out to be.

First, nail your protein intake. You’re dieting, so you want to make sure you’re giving your body enough protein to support muscle retention and recovery.

Then, do as much training volume as you can actually recover from. That might be a certain amount when you start your diet, but as calories come down and fatigue builds, your recoverable volume may change.

I also wouldn’t be constantly changing your training plan just because you’re cutting. What built the muscle in the first place is generally what’s going to help you retain it. Keep your exercises, effort and structure consistent where possible.

One of the biggest things I look at is performance. If you’re able to maintain your strength and reps on your key movements, that’s generally a very good sign that you’re doing a good job of retaining muscle.

And this is where recovery becomes even more important. Sleep, rest days, managing fatigue are all important to nail down when dieting.

Finally, don’t try to rush the process. If you cut calories too aggressively and your bodyweight is dropping too quickly, performance and recovery are going to suffer, and that’s when muscle retention becomes much harder.

The goal of a dieting phase isn’t just to lose weight…

It’s to lose as much fat as possible while keeping as much muscle and performance as possible. Remember that 👊🏽

You don’t need a new plan. You just need to execute the current one better 🧩

One of the biggest reasons people struggle to make progress isn’t because their training programme is bad…

It’s because they never stick to one long enough to find out.

New programme every 4 weeks.
New diet every time the scale stalls.
New supplements because progress has slowed down.
New exercises because someone on Instagram said they’re “more optimal”.

But the reality is guys that you probably don’t need a new plan.

You just need to execute the basics consistently enough for them to actually work 🎯

You need to hit your calories when you said you would.
You need to train hard when you don’t feel like it.
You need to get your steps in.
You need to sleep properly.
You need to progressively overload instead of constantly changing exercises.

And most importantly…

You need to stop judging the effectiveness of a plan based on a few DAYS of results.

A good plan executed at 90% will usually outperform a perfect plan executed at 50%.

Stop looking for the next thing.
Master what you’re already doing 📌

Because sometimes the answer isn’t another adjustment.
It’s better ex*****on. 🫡

Some raw training footage from today’s lower body session 🎥

This session absolutely killed me off, I won’t lie…

It was definitely one of those sessions where the focus was on retaining numbers rather than forcing progressions.

I’m at the point in prep now where every action needs to be intentional. There are so many trade-offs and consequences if I go in and train like a dick just for the sake of saying “oh yeah, I progressed the logbook”…

On previous preps, I’d be taking forced reps, attempting 50/50 reps, grinding through reps with poor ex*****on… and what I’ve come to realise is that 👇🏼

We can only do what the body can recover from.

In prep 2024, my joints were fu**ed, my recovering capacity was non existent, my numbers were regressing week after week, and I was slowly fading away.

This time around, we’re still training hard. We’re still pushing ourselves. But we’re also being smart with it.

At this stage of prep, the goal isn’t to prove how hard I can train. I think ye already know I don’t train like a p***y hahaha!

It’s now about getting the most amount of stimulus out of every session without compromising the bigger picture.

4 weeks out. Locked in. 🫡

Lower Body Day Below ⬇️
(2) Sets Of Adductor
(3) Sets Of Lying Hamstring Curl
(1) Sets Of Barbell RDL
(2) Sets Of Leg Extension
(2) Sets Of Hack Squat
(2) Sets Of Booty-builder Machine
(2) Sets Of Seated Calf Raises

Bodybuilding Prep - Week #14. Average Bodyweight Is Sitting At 73.0KG 📊 (4 Weeks Out From Show #1).

Another very solid week put down. Very happy with how we’re currently looking. Physique has definitely sharpened up considerably over the last 2-3 weeks & I know for sure we can get some more detail etched out over these next few weeks before stepping on stage!

I’ve been pleasantly surprised this prep by how well I’ve managed everything. As of yet nothing really has taken a hit. Sleep is great, strength and performance is solid, energy is good for the most part & hunger is still super reasonable!

So far it’s been a fairly smooth sailing journey. It’s now the 7th week in a row where we have NOT made a single adjustment. Which honestly guys I won’t complain about…

Weight has just continued to trend downwards at a decent rate. Over the last seven days I’m down 0.9kg again. So we ain’t rushing into aggressive adjustments just yet. As Darragh Mac Namara | Online Coach 🇮🇪 says “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” 🎯

The plan of attack this week is real simple. Just rinse & repeat exactly what we have been doing & stay as stress free as possible 🤟🏽

Time for another productive week!

The Weekly Round Up 📸

Another very solid week in the books.

Probably one of my favourite weeks of prep yet!

New lows on the scales, new lines showing through in my physique, plenty new faces onboard the team & plenty of new experiences ticked off the list ✅

One thing I told myself when starting this bodybuilding prep is that I don’t want it to completely consume my social life & suck every bit of enjoyment out of me…

Although plenty of sacrifices have been made this week like not getting popcorn in the cinema, meal prepping for travel days & saying “no” to endless pastry’s… I feel like I’m striking a nice balance beautifully 🤌🏽

(4) more weeks till stage & I’m feeling like I could dig for another (4) months!

Time for another big week LFG 🎯

The hardest part about getting in shape isn’t knowing what to do…

It’s doing the same things long enough for them to work 🧩

Anyone can diet for a week.
Anyone can train hard when they’re motivated.
Anyone can be disciplined when progress is obvious.

The real test is when the novelty wears off! 🫡

When the scale hasn’t moved.
When you’re tired.
When your mates are going out / going abroad.
When you’ve got every excuse in the world to skip the session, eat the off plan meal, slack on steps or push it off until tomorrow.

That’s where your physique & progress is actually made.

It’s not in the moments where you feel motivated. It’s actually in the moments where you DON’T but you do it anyway 🎯

Eventually, all those boring, repetitive decisions compound!

The meals.
The training.
The steps.
The cardio.
The early nights.
The missed nights out.
The weeks where nothing seems to change.

The result was never ONE big decision.

It was thousands of small ones that nobody saw.

Remember that 👊🏽

Bodybuilding Prep 33 Days Out From Show #1 - Current Bodyweight 73.6KG 📍

S**t is starting to get real now. We’re officially counting down in days rather than weeks which is super exciting!

Not exactly in love with these shots. Legs felt mad heavy this AM after legs yesterday. Spray tan is still hanging on in there which is not ideal & my Bluetooth clicker broke so i was running back & forth from the camera trying to get poses nailed down with a 10 second timer hahaha 🤣

The last (7) days or so have been great though. We actually pulled in for a quick little refresh Thursday to Sunday last week and ran some high days, lower expenditure and time off training!

Me & Darragh Mac Namara | Online Coach 🇮🇪 also trialled a few bits for the group photoshoot to collect some data so we have a better understanding of what’s going to be required to peak properly for show #1.

The pull back over the last week or so was definitely earned. It’s funny, when you’re working towards a goal like this you sometimes don’t realise how f*cked your body is until you have a few rest / high days…

But that will likely be the last of them for a while because I’m still not fully satisfied with conditioning. I definitely think we can push the boat a hell of a lot further so that’s the plan over these next few weeks 🫡

- Body feels good for the most part.
- Strength is holding perfectly fine.
- Hunger is definitely present but that’s an indicator that the deficit is doing its thing.

Overall we’re in a good place & bang on track now which is a big relief.

Plan of attack is to run this same setup into the ground and hopefully crack the 72kg’s by the time Monday rolls around! 🎯

Current Set-Up is as follows 👇🏼

Training Day Calories: 1990
Protein: 214g
Fats: 42g
Carbohydrates: 189g

Rest Day Calories: 1631
Protein: 206g
Fats: 43g
Carbohydrates: 105g

Steps: 15,000 per day
Cardio: (5) 40-minute sessions per week
Gym: (5) sessions per week

Time to get back to work & continue digging. Let’s go 🔪