Yup definitely thinking that change of focus will help.
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Plus big guns!
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Absolutely, that’s the real reason, but don’t tell anyone, can’t admit to that!
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I am walking proof of this 
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Yesterday my back was not good, took a naproxen which allowed me to get a load of garden jobs done and by the end of the day I was still pretty good, fortunately that’s continued today.
Decided to call the last DH session off and just have a good weekend of eating and getting stuff done with the family.
I’ve also decided I’m not going to deload, using my standard principal of life giving me a deload often enough to not need to schedule one, I’ve got a holiday in 4 weeks time where I’ll have no gym, so that’ll do, plus bodybuilding switch will be deload enough.
On that note I’ve picked the next program, Tried and True by Clay Hyght (tried it years ago, seemed like a solid program but I wasn’t committed(, going 4 days it’s bro split and bodybuilding enough for me without needing a tonne of machines which I don’t have access to, going to commit to a minimum of 8 weeks and see how I feel at the end of it.
Also added in creatine again 3 days ago, gained back some weight already! Starting this all weighing 210 tried taking a photo, I suck at photos, lighting was crap and I can’t flex at all, but hey I’ll post it up so that I’ve got a record of it.
Unpumped first thing in the morning.
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Looking good.
I like the logic of a BB cycle.
Ive never done it but often considered it.
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T&T w1 D1
Bench: 60, 80, 90, 95 X 5 X 5 sets
S/s
Ez curls: 28, 38, 43kg X 5 X 4 sets
Rest 2 mins
Inc BB: 60kg X 10 X 3 sets
S/s
Standing alt DB curls: 15kg X 12, 10, 8
90 secs rest
Dips: 15, 15, 12, 12
S/s
Ez Preachers: 18kg X 15, 12, 10
45 sec rest.
Forgotten how much I hate BBing style work, I realised thought it’s because it’s stupidly hard work, on paper not a single one of those exercises, reps or weights is hard for me and yet the cumulative effect just grinds you down.
How much I hate it solidifies the fact this was the right decision, this will build some mental fortitude, I imagine in 2 weeks time I’ll contemplate quitting this style of training, calling my weak self out on that now.
Also my back hurt during bench, reminding me that a) it’s still not happy and b) I can make the flat bench a more Bbing choice by walking back from a powerlifting bench for season (not that I’ve got any arch or back mobility).
Only change to the program is supersetting because life is too short to spend more time than necessary in the gym.
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Random ramble, I took a couple of photos of my legs yesterday I’ve lost mass on them, which would normally make me a little sad, but my body weight is pretty high and my body fat isn’t overly high, which I think must mean I’m holding some more upper body mass, which I’m not sad about, don’t get me wrong I’m wanting bigger legs again but they’re not awful at present, so not all bad!
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T&T w1 d2
0430 wake up call provided the opportunity to train at 0510…yay.
Wide grip pull ups: 10, 10, 8, 8 - 2 mins rest
Dead hang slow controlled tempo, with pause in between for first two sets, that got hard quickly, assuming arms are more fatigued than usual from yesterday, and that form is also just humbling me.
BB rows: 70kg X 8 x 4 - 2 mins rest
DB rows (bent over bench): 25kg X 12 X 3 - 90 secs rest
S/s
Lying leg raises: 8 x 3 sets
Seated cable row: 80kg X 15 X 3 - 45 secs rest
S/s
Cable crunch: 80kg X 10 X 4
Doesn’t look like much but the focus on muscle instead of movement made it a solid session.
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T&T w1 d3
Ohp- 40, 50kg X 5, 60kg X 5 X 4 sets
2 mins rest
Spot on weight wise
Lat raises: 10kg X 10 X 4 set
90 secs rest
Also spot on weight
Arnold press: 15kg X 12, 10, 10
45 secs rest
Thought this might be a bit light, but nope spot on as well, short rest and just intense focus on a single muscle group is so different from my normal training paradigm.
Dips: 10 X 3 sets
90 secs rest
Though I’d added weight to these, but my “warm up” set almost had me fall off, my shoulders couldn’t contribute anything by this point, DOMs in my chest and tris weren’t exactly fresh, just kept them unweighted and kept tempo pretty slow, focusing purely on tris
Cgbp: 60kg X 10 X 3 sets
90 sec rest
No real experience with this, ring finger on the smooth, no locking out smooth reps, but felt it mostly in my chest, which is weird I don’t feel regular bench in my chest! Might switch this out.
Rope pull downs: 30kg X 15 X 3
45 secs rest
Last set was a brief rep pause set tris were just fried!
Dec crunches: 10 X 4 sets
90 secs rest
Can’t say I love that exercise, felt it in my still grumpy lower back. Legs tomorrow, not feeling confident about my knee and lower back holding out, but I’ll see how it goes, keep weight light and focus on muscles taking that burden.
This is such a foreign way to train for me, on one hand it’s a pleasure, I don’t spend 70+ mins and about 3 hours after sweating profusely, and gasping for air like a fish on land, on the other hand it’s disgusting when your muscles scream at you relentlessly to stop what you’re doing and start swelling up. This does remind me though I need to slot more conditioning in, probably a couple of LISSish sessions and a couple of the 10 min blast outs. Cannot slack here.
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I’m back in action. Anything I missed?
Awesome news, nothing much missed finished another cycle of dark horse, didn’t do the testing but bigger stronger and sexier but quite beat up so I’ve gone full 180 and gone down the path of posing thongs and fake tans, running a bodybuilding programme for min 8 weeks to give the joints a break whilst still getting a training effect. That and I loathe this style of training and I’m trying to build my mind as much as my body and forcing it to do hard stuff I hate is part of that!
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That sounds very exciting (especially the thong and tanning!) and now I’m gonna follow along closely again!
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T&T w1 d4
Today made me apprehensive in more than one way (knee & back issues and you know high rep leg stuff!)
Reversed order of first the exercises just to warm up and guage my knees reaction to flexion(?).
Belt squat (barbell in rack set up): 20, 40kg X 12, 50kg X 12 X 4 sets - 90 secs rest
Played around with positions and found something that felt reasonable, good movement, particularly for this season of knee pain.
Front squat to bench: 60kg X 12, 80kg X 10 X 5 sets - 2 mins rest
Chose to use my bench to limit ROM, my knee can tolerate that depth, that’ll keep me squatting with a barbell in some guise until it’s recovered.
SLDL: 80kg X 10 X 4 sets - 90 secs rest
Slow and focused on stretch
Purple band pull through: 15 X 4 sets - 45 sec rest
Not sure how I feel about these, but my hammies are ruined from the two exercises.
Standing calf raise: 60kg X 12 X 4 sets - 90 secs rest
Using SSB and steadying myself a la Hatfield, toes raised on 2 plates, slow stretch focus fatigue and stretch definitely caught up by the end.
Seated calf raise: 60kg X 15 X 3 sets - 45 secs rest
Toes elevated again, not sure but I’m thinking I did 4 sets not 3 but RX was 3, and I lost count so 
Think the knee sleeves were giving me some occlusion on those seated calf raises:
I also take back the comment about not getting horribly sweaty and out of breath, I just hadn’t done the leg session yet. Wasn’t super hard but had a good training effect, still feeling weight out on most of this stuff but actually when I’m focusing on just the muscle I’m finding the weight sufficient.
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Thong & Tan, week 1 day 3
Leg stuff looked fun. How long did it take you? That’s a lot of sets.
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Haha brilliant, not sure I’ll ever be able to abbreviate it again!
Don’t quite know time wise, but I’d guess less than an hour, everything was done on the the clock, only the front squats had 2 min breaks, everything else was 90 secs or less, I time in-between sets and usually manage to keep to the time even changing equipment, after running giant sets for a few months straight sets feel like cheating!
Your log is full of words I don’t understand. So it must be super effictive.
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Really?! I thought I kept things stupid simple? I may be guilty of using stupid acronyms.
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I exaggerate, perhaps. I do like 2 or 3 things when I work, you are the type that does a million different weird little things. Not what I would call simple, but I suppose I over-simplify.
Ah if you’re catching up on last few months, dark horse is giant set so starts with an antagonist movement for upper body lifts and lower body has something explosive, then main movement, then ab movement and then something to raise your heart rate up, so there is quite a lot in there it’s just an efficient way to train. 4 movements per giant set, 10 mins of hard conditioning to start and a dynamic effort (opposite to the main movement) to end, yea it’s quite a bit, still usually done in 65-70 mins, look like you’ve walked through a shower fully clothed every session (sweat).
Current sessions are straight up body building bro split (with super setting where possible to save time).
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