Haha I never did, been about 5 years and no problems yet…
Midweek update 6/23, Wednesday.
I could probably go back to 100% today, but I think the week off is a good idea. Can’t be totally idle,l; mowed the grass yesterday (push), walked a brisk 2.1 miles in 32 minutes today, have done a few pullups and a few single presses, but nothing taxing.
Plan for next week is to hit all the big lifts and get back in the groove. Then at least another 2-week run with @dagill2 - assuming you’re staying on your program? Are you committed to 12 weeks or 6 or ??
I need to do some goal setting. Then use the results to drive my programming.
@Bagsy you’re a Dan John fan, are you familiar with the goal setting course he’s promoting? Would love to hear if anyone has done it.
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I didn’t know he was promoting one, I’m definitely interested in that.
I’m committed to the 12 weeks of the legs program, barring injury etc. The rest will be played by ear as recovery and time allow. So far its going well, and I’m finding time and recovery to keep pushing some volume but I don’t know if that will last forever.
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I’ve not purchased any of his workshops. I believe he’s released a couple of these “courses” via his DJU website, the others covering programming.
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6/25/2021
First, an update: Exactly one week post vasectomy. I’ve been taking a nearly complete deload (Doctor’s orders) but have done a few little things, like pullups, pushups, yard work, and long brisk walks. Even pressed a few times; and did some shoulder rehab stuff this morning. But nothing at all heavy or taxing.
I am absolutely ready to move some Iron and eat lots of food, come Monday. Let’s get back to work!
Howevery, over the past couple weeks I felt my shoulders (particularly right) were cranky. Was sure the time off would cure it. Strangely my shoulder feels worse now, and “loose” in a weird way, and I struggled with my arm fully extended lifting a pitcher of tea out of the fridge. Very strange. So this morning I did a bunch of BPA/side raise/cuban stuff with 5lb pink DBs in the hopes of improving whatever the hell is going on.
Bodyweight fell to the low 170s during this week. No surprise: not lifting + long walks = not hungry = not eating = deflate. Intentionally ate more last night.
In case that’s not long enough, time now to think about goals!
A 135lb press was a great goal - acheivable with hard work and several months of focus. Now that that’s done, and I surprised myself by benching a 3x205, a 225 bench seems really achievable and a good target. And that goal makes me want to be super cool and get a 315 squat (much further from reality today - I can’t do much above 245) and a 405 DL (whereas I’m probably 335-345 right now) so I can get 1-2-3-4 plates on the big lifts.
Proposed goal: 1-2-3-4.
Upside: Would provide me with a clear objective to focus my lifting. Would make me stronger than the vast majority of people (though not strong by T-nation standards lol), and just represents a cool, though arbitrary, milestone in terms of big plates and big lifts.
Downside: Unlikely to lead to physique improvements. I’m close to the targets on upper body lifts as it is, so this isn’t going to require a great beach-bod improvement. In fact the lower body focus may incentivize me to add the wrong sort of mass.
I can counter the downsides by adding other goals, such as conditioning (1 or 2 mile time?), visible abs, a particular bodyweight, etc.
Or I could set an entirely different goal, like:
EMOM for 20 minutes; 135lb;
2 power cleans, 1 strict press, 3 front squats - or a version of it that is further from my reach, after an assessment. Such a goal would improve my physique and conditioning, and is pretty badass, and I could establish a progression system to reach it.
In this scenario max squat and deadlift numbers would be irrelevant. As they are irrelevant to daily life outside the gym. Honestly it seems like a more appropriate kind of goal for me…
And I need other goals, like specific number of hours per week engaging in athletics with my kids. I DO NOT currently invest enough time to cover bicycling, basic ball skills, and general outside fitness (jumping sprinting climbing) with my kids. And they do not seek out enough of this in their own play time, so I think my support would make a difference.
And finally (I’m out of time and haven’t completed introspecting yet) I’ll just touch on the fact that WHY DO I TRAIN is an unanswered question for me.
I feel like a badass warrior (sometimes) when I train
I like being strong
I like being healthy
I like looking good (And at 32 I currently look my best ever, arguably)
I like eating (Enough that if I didn’t train I’d get skinnyfat or have to be rigorous about diet)
Those are some pretty good reasons for training in general…
Then there’s the “being strong vs looking strong” issue and I gotta say, having awesome arms and traps, and pecs you can see through a dress shirt, would be pretty frickin cool. And that can be accomplished without squatting 315… that feels dishonest but should it?
(I should point out if I have physique goals, let’s be real here, it makes more sense for me to look good in a dress shirt than with my shirt off. Skinny 6-pack doesn’t make a damn in the board room.)
OK enough ranting I’m gonna go for now. If anyone read this whole thing, my apologies! @boilerman lol.
More on all this later, maybe.
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I spend a lot of time with this.
Dude, you are STRONG AF and you look STRONG AF!
So where do you personally come down on this? What are your goals, and why did you choose those goals?
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I’d argue you can be strong without looking strong (some young girl in China is warming up with my max as we speak), but if you look strong you probably are.
I want to look big and aesthetic. Less rectangle shape and more Dorito shape.
Nobody cares how strong I am in real life. The numbers don’t mean anything to them, they don’t lift.
My goal is to look like Mike Rashid by 2023.
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This is where I would slightly disagree with the downside portion of your thoughts. Having a goal for lower body doesn’t necessarily mean you give up on upper body progress. Why not just continue pushing as hard as possible on EVERYTHING and let those chips fall where they may? One of my goals was to get to a 225 bench and I still added 140ish lbs to my squat in the past year and a half, just let the progression happen naturally.
And this is something you’d have to answer for yourself.
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I did! I enjoy a good training log stream of consciousness. I think that aiming for 1/2/3/4 is a great goal and I think you’ll be surprised to see some significant changes to your physique along the way, as long as you are also doing smart accessory work.
Most of my training life has just been 5/3/1, with basic accessories trying to hit similar goals and bulking (necessary for me as a skinny kid) and whilst I probably could look different with a bit more BBing focus (I can’t get on with that style of training) I get fairly regular comments on size/look from people who never see me shirtless (definitely better than abs, I’m aiming for both though haha).
Edit you mention squat being farthest goal, for me I just did 5/3/1 but started off way far behind where I could squat (like 120 when I could squat 160/165) then hit 10 reps (capped it at that) for every top set regardless of week. It’s steady progress - think it took me to get up to 165 before not being able to hit 10, when that was a previous single - 180/4 plates was easy then.
Also now I think about it I should probably start pushing myself toward 2/3/4/5 - I’ve got squat, bench is 10kg off, deads are 20kg off (40kg if conventional)…ohp is 25kg off!!!
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I like all of these goals. Race ya.
By the way, this is the exact thought process I’ve had with myself several times a week for the last year or so. I’ll share my “conclusions” such as they are, hopefully they’ll help.
I lift for the same host of reasons you do: I want to look good, be able to perform well, have goals I can achieve in life that are completely within my control, maintain health and role model good habit for my kids. Which of these are actually, in real life, important? The last ones: mental health, physical health and being a good role model. Which are not in any way important but are exciting? Looking good and performing well. The way I currently look at it, I aim to look good and perform well because they are far more likely to get me in the gym and accept that the health and role modeling are byproducts that will likely end up being far more important.
On the subject of looks vs. performance; I don’t tend to separate them out in my head much. The only compromise being that I’ll no longer consider getting grossly overweight just to move more iron.
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@boilerman @alex_uk @dagill2
1-2-3-4 it is! Thanks, guys, for talking about goals and what they’re for and how you arrive at them.
I need some other hard-and-fast rules (or goals) so I don’t go single-mindedly in pursuit of mass (fat), but I’ll clarify those later.
Going this week without training didn’t feel good at all. I did some pressing last night just to be sane; shoulder is hurting but I think pressing is good for it. I need to seek solace in the iron because there’s too much in my life that will stress me out if I don’t.
135 press already there, couldn’t hit it today though with my nagging shoulder
225 bench 3x205 last time I checked
315 squat 3x235, 2x245 I think
405 deadlift 335 recently
By July 1 2022
The first focus will be on squat, chasing weight not volume, for 12 weeks. 5/3/1 Bench and some pressing will be in there as well. Details not finalized. I’m thinking to use power cleans and barbell rows and not deadlift for that time.
Bench should reach 225 soon enough without specialization. With squat I need to train heavy and low rep because I don’t currently know how to do squat heavy.
After I do 2 more weeks of Dagill2’s program, here’s my squat plan so far:
Monday: 3,2,1 or maybe 3,2,2 attempting to beat the previous top set by 5lb each week. Then 20 reps (ideally in 1 set) at 50% of the top set.
Friday: 5x5@70% of that Monday’s top set.
That’s subject to change but I feel like that, or something similar, would fit me well.
Wednesday could be Bench 5/3/1 and then 20 minute EMOM of power cleans and rows.
I have a couple more weeks to sort out the details but, after 12 weeks, I should be close to the goal on squat, and depending on how it went maybe shift to deadlift or maybe change to a squat-volume focus.
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Try clusters here. You don’t need to commit to a whole 24 week cycle, but try it for one session and see how you like it. When I come back to squatting heavy again, they will probably make an appearance.
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Honestly I’m pretty sure it will lead to physique changes. At least prepare yourself for the next round of gains.
I’ll always advocate for more frequency there so I’ll just throw my 2 cents of doing more than 1x a week if you feel you need to practice your technique or your confidence under a heavy bar (which is most likely on squats at least)
It might be that if you try to beat records every week in that rep range your CNS will fry, unless your technique is poor/you have blatant weakness, or you eat like a pig
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I was thinking poor technique was one of my flaws. And expecting to eat… a lot. Good point though. I’ll think about it. What would a fried CNS look/feel like? Total loss of motivation, reducing performance week-over-week? I could give it a try, then change course if such issues arise?
6/27/2021 Training update. Last night, worked up in Press to a single at 125.
This morning,
-1.1 mile walk with baby in stroller
-1.1 mile jog/walk with 5yo on bicycle
-1 mile walk with family
-0.5 mile walk with 4yo on bicycle
-1.1 mile jog/walk with 7yo on bicycle
And it’s very, very hot and very, very humid. I’m proud to say this didn’t at all wipe me out, so I take that to mean I’m in good shape.
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Cool. A quick search on T-nation showed TONS of articles about this. Any particular application of clusters in mind here? I assume you’re referring to a specific 24-week program?
I’m absolutely not, no, I just made the number 24 up.
I’ve used 2 approaches but the one I like most for squats is 3 clusters of 5 singles with 20s rest between each single in a cluster. Progress by adding weight. I’ve used this successfully with Squat and Press and usually set starting weight at about 90% 1RM. 15 singles a week probably isn’t enough to keep your size, so some form of squatting with more volume later in the week is probably useful here.
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Love it all @jdm135
Sounds like a good plan to me. Widowmakers are always a great way to push squats. I also found a lot of progress happened for me with GMM. Working up to a single and then a couple of back off sets, but it seems like you have a lot of great ideas floating around already from a lot of smart people. You’re gonna crush it man!
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6/28/2021
I don’t do well with taking a week off. This week I’ll be back in the gym M/W/Th but not on a program, just doing some things I need to do.
Today’s work:
SQUAT
BARx10
135x10
185x5
225x2
245x2 - Video
245x1 - Video
125x20
Weighted Pullups:
+0x Several
+25x2
+45x2
+70x2
BENCH
BARx10
135x5
185x3
200x1,1,1
185x1,1
ROWER
500M for time: Around 1:50
SQUAT:
Watching my video, I’m very good-morning-y on the heavier squats. Which makes me think trying to force more weight weekly is not a good idea, but that rather I need to practice more volume at less than 245. Like triples at 225 until I die or something. Or just stay on @Dagill2’s program for longer, though I think that’s more size-focused than strength (If that’s a meaningful distinction at this point)
If I can I’ll get the videos up later. I repeated 245 for the last single, rather than going higher, because I realized if my form was bad at 245 it wasn’t going to magically be better at 255.But hopefully it was better on the second attempt.
Weighted Pullups:
I haven’t done these in a LONG TIME. Years? IDK. But it felt really, really good to be able to do these. I didn’t have a benchmark for where my limits are on these, now I have a baseline.
BENCH:
Something wasn’t right here. Felt the bar was gonna slip out of my sweaty hands and kill me. I normally use suicide grip but I tried full grip because of this. Also my elbows were going straight out to the sides, whereas I think they should be closer to 45d to my torso. 200 felt heavy; I planned to try a “Cluster” of 5 at 200, and ended up doing 200,200,200,185,185.
ROWER:
@alexUK here’s my first attempt, couldn’t stop the timer but around 1:50. It isn’t a Concept 2, but I must assume it’s similar enough. Is there a technique to this badboy? Felt like I was going 100% but just could not get the pace any faster! Great opportunity for practice and improvement.
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Yes exactly, mainly loss of performance (you can see it as grip, speed and power work decreases first)
Then the rest if you keep going…
You could try what I just did, the “Best building” giant clusters:
• Week 1: 20 mins of max sets of 3 with good form at 80%
• Week 2: 20 mins of max sets of 2 with good form at 85%
• Week 3: 20 mins of max sets of 1 with good form at 90%
• Week 4: half the number of sets you did last week, still with 90%. You can wait a bit more between sets.
Guaranteed technique and size gains.
Use some chalk 
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