If you're at all interested in fitness, you've at least pondered the question of how to get lean. Jeff Cavaliere has tips on how to get lean and stay lean in the video above. And he should know - the guy has the body fat of a frickin' corpse. I've written before about how important Jeff and his Athlean-X program has been to my personal fitness journey, and this video is a good example of why. It's full of actionable tips, light on BS, and devoid of the bro-y crap in so much fitness content. It's good stuff. Watch it today or bookmark it for later.

There's a new Athlean-X video out today (embedded above) about the two dumbbell exercises you need to build your chest. As I've mentioned before, Jeff Cavaliere and his Athlean-X workouts were absolutely critical in my personal fitness journey. One of few t-shirts I own that's not a band shirt is an Athlean-X shirt, which I bought because the company literally changed my life for the better. 

It's also because of Athlean-X I learned a fitness truth about myself: I freakin' love dumbbells. 

​I'll be leaving for a long weekend tomorrow, so I won't get to a weekly music recap in tomorrow. But I still want to share a few miscellaneous thoughts as the week draws to an end.

• The video above from Jeff Nippard has some great exercises to consider adding into your routine. 
• Miracle Blood, one of the first bands I covered for my concert recap series, has a new live EP coming out on November 6th. It will be fun! The first live track dropped on YouTube a couple months back. 
• The first wave of lineup announcements for Prepare the Ground and Roadburn 2026 have dropped. Prepare the Ground scored a rare North American set from Oranssi Pazuzu and the only Svalbard North American set ever. Roadburn has an even bigger score - an Oathbreaker reunion. I'd given up any hope on ever seeing them live. I still probably won't! But a guy can dream.
• It's October, so you are required by law to listen to The Evil One by Roky Erickson, the most perfect Halloween album of all time.

I'm pretty well back into my fitness groove - tomorrow will mark the end of four weeks of lifting five days a week, and I've added in several cardio sessions the last couple of days. When I get into my fitness grooves, it makes me want to keep adding more and more into my routine, and the new Athlean-X video has some good tips for exercises that can help fill out the rear end. Now, I'm not at full Hank Hill pancake ass level, but ya know, I could use some more filling out there. The video above has a lot of tips for targeting the Glute Medius, a part of the booty that's a little harder to train than the Glute Maximus. I plan on adding some of these moves into my routine ASAP, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who could benefit from these tips. 

Today is the start of week 3 of my current workout plan, Jeff Nippard's Bodybuilding Transformation System. Actually, it's week 3 to the 3rd power, since it will be my third time making it to this point in the program. After the first time reaching this point, I messed up my back by being a big dummy. I made it back to this point again, and once again derailed from a combination of vacation and an especially busy time at work. 

This week, my goal is to make it to the gym all five days, complete week 3, and push on to week 4. Then week 5, week 6, and so on. This is it, the third time's a charm. I'll be making it through the program this time with no further breaks. 

I may have stumbled twice before, but I haven't given up. That's what counts. 

My header image says "Metal. Fitness. Miscellaneous Nonsense." I've delivered posts on both of the first two, and have yet to write anything that falls into the third category. Until now!

The Fitness Fail streak has been broken. 

My last post on fitness was about how I wasn't actually doing much on that front. I'm happy to say that those days are over for now, and I intend to write more about that later this week. I'm also trying to write more about fitness in general, as my original intention was for this site to be about two things, and thus far it's been pretty one-sided. Hence, a few thoughts on one of the most classic exercises of all time: the pushup. 

When I decided to start writing a blog, I immediately decided that I'd write about the two hobbies that consume the most of my time, music and fitness. Unfortunately for me, I've forced myself to, you know, write about fitness. 

This is essentially my level-setting post, wherein I lay out the current state of my fitness journey, which I think I can fairly call "aspirational." I have been working out regularly (five days a week on average) since developing the habit during the height of COVID-19. I tried a few self-guided programs and a couple workout journals before discovering Athlean-X. I went on to run through many A-X programs and have recommend their routines to many friends. I still have my "All-Axcess Pass" to their library of workouts, although I am not currently running any of their programs. 

While I have absolutely gained strength and built muscle since starting this journey, I didn't really get serious about changing my diet until recently. It remains a challenge, but I'm doing better than ever by using the MacroFactor app, which is hands-down the best macro/food tracking app I've ever used. MacroFactor is partially owned by science-based Canadian bodybuilder Jeff Nippard, whose programming I'm currently using for my workouts. I am on week 3 of The Ultimate Bodybuilding Transformation Program (Intermediate/Advanced). While I'm not expecting that I'll ever look anything like Mr. Nippard, I'm enjoying these workouts and looking forward to seeing what results I can achieve.

Note: None of the links I posted are affiliate links. I won't make a cent if you click through and decide you're interested in these products. They're simply options I recommend as a healthy-ish 47-year-old man with a blog that no one reads.