Sprained knee during Saturday’s BJJ training so calling big-time audible on this one.
9/30 - 12/20
HSS-100 Chest/Back Specializations / Get Ripped on the Rower Beginner & Intermediate
Edit: CT recommends no more than four weeks on a specialization program. Since I’ve got about nine actual full training weeks between 9/30 - 12/20 (due to major travel for work this fall), I’ll do both his HSS-100 Chest/Back programs for four-ish weeks each.
Isdatnuttys beginner barbell only program. Going to try to put on some weight.
Agonist-Antagonist Style Training
Olympic cycle. 1 preparatory week, 10 weeks CT’s Olympic developmental program, 4 weeks Supertotal template. Starting next week
Program: WTF am I even doing?
Goal: Bump the weight back up closer to 195 (clocking in around 185 today), improve my cardio, improve my climbing.
Weight gain and climbing performance are to me inversely related.
Wouldn’t be the wrong conclusion to jump to haha. My bigger problems with climbing is lack of frequency and diminished grip strength, which kind of go hand-in-hand. Should be fine carrying the extra weight as long as my relative strength continues to increase.
One day in and I like it.
Like I said, I get pretty Hamlet-esque when the end of a program nears and it’s time to decide the next …
A five-day a week program like HSS-100 is a bad idea given my work/travel schedule this fall. So assuming my knee is good to go by September 30th, I’m going back to the originally called play of two, back to back 5/3/1 Rest Pause Challenges - one to finish off 2019; one to start 2020…
I’ll start lighter with the squats if need be. If that doesn’t work and I’ve still got knee issues then I’ll figure something else out.
Are there other leg exercises that you can do that don’t bother the knee? Rear foot elevated split squats (aka Bulgarians) are a tough but good substitute for leg work. I could do those when my hip was hurting.
I definitely wouldn’t want to do rest pause on those, though. Maybe rest/pause on everything else and 5s PRO for the single leg movement?
So are you saying do the RFESS’s with a barbell? Just curious - I’ve actually never done any type of single leg movement with anything but DB’s, and doubted you meant use 5/3/1 for DB work.
I prefer to put a barbell on my back because it’s easier for me up balance. I worked up to 225 lbs for a single last fall. I was running SGSS and subbed RFESS for squats.
That was also the last phase of my intentional weight gain. My legs grew. None of my pants fit after that phase.
I’ll have to give it a shot sometime. I think I have RFESS’s as part of my program…yeah day 3. Although if the first workout taught me anything it’s that my conditioning is worse than I imagined and I doubt I’ll need anything other than my bodyweight for a little while, haha.
Less than a week in and I’m cutting out swiss bar bench, front squats, and high bar squats…
The general structure remains the same though so I’m not considering it a program hop
How come? Don’t like it?
The gym that has the swiss bar has stupid wide benches so I bump the safety bar/hooks almost every rep.
I guess I could slide down the bench but then unracking would be a challenge with anything moderately heavy. Still keeping the swiss bar overhead presses in, big fan of neutral grip stuff
The hard leg work in the Rest Pause challenge would be in the widowmaker squats and deadlifts - as well as the PR sets in both. RP sets would be BB curls, dips, and chins (which I do instead of triceps pressdowns). I think the Kroc rows are just one all out set.
If I’m not 100% - or close to it - by month’s end, then 5s PRO may be the way to go. And I’ve heard great things about split squats.
That said, I’m optimistic that I’ll be back in the gym squatting before I’m back on the mat doing jiu-jitsu since it’s twisting and any unexpected movement (especially laterally) that is the big challenge right now.
If you’re not ready to go and you still want to suffer then you can do the Drop Set From Hell on split squats.
8 reps, 8 sec iso hold in bottom position, drop weight
8 reps, 8 sec iso hold, drop weight
8 reps, 8 sec iso hold, drop weight
8 reps, 8 sec iso hold, die, repeat with other leg
You won’t feel like squatting after that. 
Out of curiosity, anyone used Dave Yates’ Blood and Guts routine before?
How’s everyone doing???
I’m struggling but I’m still a one armed man on most stuff. I’m hoping that I’ll be back to normal training by the end of this little challenge.
I’m tweaking this program as I go. I’m mostly just simplifying things. I don’t need a bunch of different movements. I’ve also changed my rep schemes (mostly due to my shoulder). It seemed silly to try to do heavy sets of four reps on left arm only DB OHP.
My goals remain the same. Get healthy, then get bigger by getting stronger. I’ve also reduced my leg training volume a bit. If I can manage to add any size to myself in the future then I want it to be my beach muscles (upper body, no speedo for this guy). For most of my training life, I’ve been proud to not train the beach muscles like the average gym bro. But now I want them, and I’m not ashamed.
Another change of plans is that @cdmac24 is on the DL. He was jealous of my one armed training program so he thought he’d go and mess up his biceps tendon to make me feel better.
