Met this girlie who’s pushing herself at the gym today 💪🏻💪🏻 even if we are the “noon” crew per Daniel (really 7:15AM mmmkkk) @Hana Maysonet

Active recovery days are honestly underrated, especially in a 4-day hypertrophy split. We run an upper/lower A, then an active recovery day, then upper/lower B. That middle day is what keeps everything moving. After two hard sessions, your body’s carrying fatigue through your muscles and joints, so instead of doing nothing, you come in and just get good movement in. 30 minutes of incline walking at around 10% and 3 mph is kind of the gold standard. It’s low impact, gets blood flowing, and helps you recover without adding more stress. You’re also getting a bit of VO2 work in, which just supports everything else you’re doing. Then 10–20 minutes of full body stretching. Open things up, reduce stiffness, reset a bit. And if you want, finish with a quick “gun show.” Light rope curls, rope pushdowns, and some cross-body rope pulls for rear delts. Nothing heavy, just controlled reps, getting a pump, helping those smaller muscles recover. So when you roll into upper/lower B, you actually feel ready to train again. And if you’re feeling good, you can layer in an optional VO2-style session later in the week, or just keep it similar to this. It all comes down to how well you’re recovering. That’s the whole point. Keep the system moving without beating it up.

Not going to lie… this kicked my arse!!!

On certain machines that we stack weights on, do we include a weight of the bar or just the stack? Thanks

Simple. Cheap. Effective. One of the biggest mistakes high performers make when they start focusing on body composition is overcomplicating nutrition. They think every meal needs to be perfect, exotic, or expensive. It does not. What matters is consistency around protein. Muscle is the engine of your metabolism. If you want to lose fat, stay strong, and keep your energy high while running a demanding career, protein has to become automatic. Today’s example is about as simple as it gets. 1 lb 99 percent lean ground turkey ½ onion 1 bell pepper 1 teaspoon olive oil Salt, pepper, hot sauce That entire pan gives you roughly: Protein: 104 g Fat: 9 g Carbs: 12 g Calories: about 585 Split it into two meals and you get: About 52 g of protein per meal for under 300 calories. No powders. No complicated recipes. No expensive ingredients. Just structure. This is exactly how we approach nutrition inside Ascend. Build meals around protein anchors so muscle is protected even when calories drop. Most people, especially those using GLP medications or pushing fat loss aggressively, accidentally under eat protein. That is when muscle disappears, metabolism slows, and rebound begins. High performers do not guess. They build systems. A pan like this takes ten minutes to cook, costs very little, and gives you one of the most powerful tools for protecting your metabolism. Not complicated. Just disciplined. Welcome to the Ascend way.