AthleanX Monster Maker Completed

I really enjoyed this program and see myself completing it again at some point in the future.  If I didn’t have a 50 miler goal I wanted to start working towards, I could see myself having a productive year on the strength side by repeating this program 2 more times with the chest and leg focus after my current run with the back focus. The program definitely met my goal of further strengthening the muscles in my posterior chain and both my barbell row and weighted pull ups went up when I tested at the end of the program.  I also experienced no tiredness or soreness in any back muscles during some of the long rucks I did in recent weeks.  More importantly, however, I leaned out even more while managing to maintain strength in all my other big lifts. I credit some of this success to Macrofactor, which I have been using in conjunction with my training since July.  Despite being leaner, my recent trail marathon attempt still showed me to be slow at the longer distances, but I did recently set 5K records on two different trails I run with some regularity so leaning out a bit has had a positive impact.  My strength to bodyweight ratio has definitely improved over the course of this program. It’s now time, however, to take that improved ratio and put it to good use. I will be kicking off an extensive aerobic base building phase.