| # | Lift | Goal | Why that ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lat pulldown | 145 × 8 | ≈ the load that means real pull-ups. The #1 V muscle. |
| 2 | Cable lateral raise | 25 × 15 | Heavier turns into an upright row → traps → you look narrower. |
| 3 | Cable row | 145 × 10 | Matched to the pulldown so width and thickness stay balanced. |
| 4 | Cable chest press | 40 × 10 | Chest fills the shirt but doesn't make the V. |
| 5 | Face pull | 70 × 15 | Rear delts + posture. Standing tall is free width. |
| 6 | Triceps pushdown | 70 × 12 | Fills a sleeve; past it, elbows complain. |
| 7 | DB curl | 30 × 10 | 30 lb strict is a good arm at 6'4". Past that you swing. |
| — | Pull-up | 8 strict | From the warm-up negatives + the pulldown climbing + your weight dropping. |
Creatine: 5 g every day, rest days included, any time. It adds +2–4 lb of water early on — not fat, don't react to it.
One workout, seven stations, Mon–Fri, ~32 min. Total weekly volume grows muscle — not how you slice it across days — so repeating one session costs nothing and buys no decisions, skill (same machine, same pin, 25× a month) and forgiveness (miss a day and it's 20% of the week). Lats and side delts lead because they are the V, and they now get hit 5× a week.
The catch is the one rule. Failure is what needs 48 hours to recover — the work doesn't. Grind to failure daily and you stall inside two weeks; leave 2 in the tank and you can repeat this forever.
Progress: on the pulldown and row, stay on a pin until every set hits the top of the range, then take the jump and expect to drop back — the coarse stack moves slowly, then all at once. Everything else goes up by the smallest step once you clear the top of the range.
Waist rules: you can't crunch fat off your waist (spot reduction is a myth), and loaded oblique work thickens it — weighted twists and woodchoppers stay banned.
Honest Halloween math: real new muscle in 6½ weeks is ~1–3 lb. What changes the look by Oct 31 is less waist, creatine fullness, side delts + lats 5×/week, and posture from the face pulls.
Sat + Sun are off, on purpose. Your job has you walking, standing and bending all day — that's your leg work and your steps. Stacking more on top of a physical job plus five lifts is how you get hurt or quit. Pool and sun if you want them, for fun. Still take your creatine.