Seems totally above board to me. And I’m with you: the stretches seem to be the most awful part, haha.
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DC w3 D1 - A1
First time of going for beating the log book, not ideal as my back is currently fairly poor, but no excuses, getting it done.
Warm-up: 15, 20, 25, 30kg x 10
Work: 35kg x 11, 5, 3 (19 - +5kg & +2 reps)
Chest stretch - timer 1 min, agony.
Wow, beat last time even with a 5kg bump, more again next time!
Warm-up: 20, 40kg x 10
Work: 50kg x 11, 3, 2 +3rd failed rep (16 +2 reps)
Shoulder stretch: 1 min timer
Good result given the back pain, my back didn’t love the OHP but no tweaks.
Warm-up: bw, 10, 15kg x 10
Work: 20kg X 15, 6, 3 (24 - + 5kg & +4 reps)
Stretch: 1 min
Warm-up: bw, 5kg x 5
Work: 10kg x 7/8, 3, 3 (13/14: +5kg -1/2 reps)
Stretch: dead hang 40kg x 1 min - did the full minute in a single stint (Neutral grip), I don’t mean this flippantly, it feels as though there is some very small, miniscule, glimpse of the pain of crucifixion here, it’s the agony of gravity slowly pulling your body away from your arms, very grateful I get to let go after 1 min.
The 7/8 is because I went very dizzy post the final rep, felt close to black out, and then realised I wasn’t sure if that was the 7th or 8th rep, I think 8 but not 100%
Seated cable row 20-30 RP
Warm-up: 50, 70kg x 10
Work: 90kg x 20, 15, 10
Replaced the rack pull for back reasons, went rest pause here the article said "For safety reasons, we don’t do it on quads, calves, or back-thickness exercises like deadlifts, rack pulls, or bent-over rows,” I assumed this was low risk enough to go RP on.
Back survived the session, which is a win. Felt like I really pushed it hard here, got to the dips and pull-ups and felt I had nothing left in me, my arms were shaking, mentally wanted to keep the weight the same and just go through the motions, but ignored that and pushed through.
Somehow caught this video this morning (I say somehow because I don’t really go on Instagram) but it’s very good and a really helpful reminder pre-session but also pre-day, my thoughts, decisions and actions today determine who I am becoming, being mindful of this will mean I am more intentional about setting (/continuing to set) the course to becoming the man I want to be.
Trained early today due to work commitments, had a protein flapjack and 25g of hbcd on board.
Morning weight hovering around 202/203, more focus needed on eating, had a couple of busy days that resulted in me mostly eating eggs, whey and nuts, ok in a pinch but far from everything I need.
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Sounds like a good session. We are around the same weight at the moment. I was 204 today.
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It was, absolutely floored me, even 30 mins later my chest was quivering/twitching. Worked hard for sure.
You’re in a gaining phase as well right?
Yer, I have added just under 4kg in 8 weeks. 1 more week to go and then I’ll switch to maintenance or even a slight deficit.
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Solid effort! I’ll probably be going for another 12-15 weeks, but I gain pretty slowly!
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DC w3 - B1
Warm up: 20, 30kg x 10
Work: 40kg x 17, 8, 4 (29)
Bi stretch: 30 secs x 2 - too intense to do in a single 1 min stretch
Elbow is painful, really annoying!
Warm up: 10, 12.5kg x 11
Work: 15kg x 17
Elbow even more angry.
Warm up: 60kg x 10 - not slow
Work: 100kg x 5, 80kg x 5 - 5 sec neg & 15 sec stretch hold
Yea, adding the 15 sec stretch per rep at the bottom made a really massive difference, I also raised the height to allow for greater stretch, but still, that was an education.
“According to SM, calves are one of the most intense and painful body parts to work.” No lie
Warm up: bw x 10
Work: 5kg x 8, 3, 3 (14)
Hammy stretch: 1 min
Forearm stretch: forgot to do it, added it here, tried a couple of different ones now, none of them seem to click for me.
Warm up: 60, 80, 100kg x 5
Work: 120kg x 1 x 2 sets
WM: 80kg x 25
My back was giving warnings during the warm up, put the 120kg on anyway and gave it a whirl, but my back was giving notice that it was going to go, racked, reset, moved belt, tried again, same result, took the sensible play and just pushed on to the WM, which my back didn’t love, it’s tight, but I’m hopeful I got away with it.
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Sorry your elbow is still giving you grief.
Maybe there’s a lifter-friendly physio out there who can help shift things in the right direction, rather than “stop lifting for 3 months and spend an hour a day doing PT exercises”
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There might be, and I should probably look into it, I always err on the side of - most injuries fix themselves over time and interventions are largely placebo (although a good massage helps if my back is locked up), so it’s painful and inconvenient but I’m mostly just doing what I hate (in other people, clearly it’s fine for me to do it) moaning without really intending to do anything about it.
DC w3 d3 A2:
Warm up: 60, 70kg x 10, 80, 90kg x 5
Work: 95kg x 8, 4, 3 (15 - up)
Pec stretch: 1 min
Warm up: 10, 15, 20kg X 10
Work: 22.5kg x 11, 4, 3 (18 - keep it)
Stretch: 90 secs
Warm up: 30, 40, 50kg x 15
Work: 60kg x 15, 6, 6 (27 - keep)
Tri stretch: 1 min
Got the stretch right this time, perversely agonisingly slightly enjoyable.
Warm up: bw, 5kg x 5
Work: 10kg x 7, 3, 2 + 0.5f (12)
40kg dead hang: 1 min
Really emphasising the negative made a huge difference to ability to crank the reps, right choice. Not sure it influenced the work set but dropped 10kg plate on my foot before main set.
Warm up: 30, 40, 50kg x 8
Work: 55kg x 12 (up)
Another session done, I like this particular session, gives a good pump and all the exercises seem to flow well. The stretches are like cold showers, it doesn’t get more pleasant or easier, but you gain the ability to endure the suck better.
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W3 d2 - B2
Warm up: 7.5, 10, 12.5kg x 10
Work: 15kg x 13, 6, 6 (25)
Stretch: 60 secs
The curls were surprisingly hard, think I’d put more into the warm up sets and built some fatigue, the bicep stretch is one of the worst, mind you they all feel like the worst in the immediate aftermath.
Given this was elbow tendon death last time, decided to switch this up, keep the movement, drop the weight right back and do timed negatives, 5 sec negs:
7.5kg x 16
Still slightly painful in the elbow.
60kg x 11 - done with the 5 sec neg & 15 sec pause at the bottom, yea my calves felt that. Didn’t warm up because it takes forever and I’m limited on time (plus calves are my lowest possible priority).
Warm up: 30, 50, 60kg x 10
Work: 65kg 7, 2 - err what the heck?!
Dropped it back after that and had another go
55kg x 15, 10,
Stretch: 1.15m unweighted to avoid and back irritation.
Not sure what happened there, physically couldn’t move it after rep 7 or 2, my back is horrifically tight still, and it wasn’t great just lying down into this, so not sure if that inhibited me? That or what I think was some nasty indigestion, that only came on when lying down (or a heart attack, time will tell!).
Warm up: 60, 80kg x 5 100kg X f - got to the bottom and my back didn’t feel good enough.
Somersault squats with KB: 24kg x 20, 15, 10 (35 RP)
Stretch: 90 secs
Wasn’t the squats I wanted, but I gave my all to some leg work and could barely crawl out of the gym and didn’t do any further damage to my back (hopefully). I’ll call that a win. In fact the fact I’m actually getting almost all of my training done in the intended format and not missing sessions despite a having back, hip and elbow pain is a major win for me.
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To think that people consider bodybuilding easy! Sucks to hear you’re dealing with so many maladies, but good on you to find work arounds.
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Definitely not, I’d take a short heavy set over the pain of grinding through to actual failure, then there’s DOMs and just general fatigue, that’s to say nothing of the unique torture that is DC stretches! This is definitely choosing my suffering.
Yup, not ideal, but I’m viewing it as overall an ok thing, none of this is dealing with torn muscles, blown discs, or surgery (well not that I know of), just another opportunity to get creative in order to stay consistent and put the work in!
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DC w3, D3 - A3
Wu: BW, 10, 15kg x 10 20, 25kg X 5
Work: 30kg x 13, 7, 4
Stretch: 90 sec
Nice to beat reps even moving up weight, pec stretch agony as always.
BtN is the replacement here:
Wu: 20, 40kg x 10
Work: 50kg x 10, 4, 2 & F, (16)
Shoulder stretch: 60 secs
Wu: 50, 70, 80kg x 5
Work: 90kg x 7, 3, 1 + F (11)
Tri stretch: 1 min
Perfect weight.
Wu: 60, 80, 90kg x 10
Work: 100kg x 15, 8, 6
Lat stretch: 40kg dead hang - 1 min
Used straps for the pulldowns, definitely increased the lat activation - exquisite, the stretch - less so.
Wu: 60kg x 10, 80kg x 5
Work: 90kg X 11
Felt ropey and form was poor, but I figured out a way to rig up a seal row so next time this should be switched to that will help remove the lower back issues and sort the form.
I had intended to do this session Wednesday but felt tired and off mentally thought I’d push it to Thursday - life had other ideas, mental busy spell with the fire service including a large all night incident that was back to back with another incident - 4 actual fires within the 48 hours (uncommon). Still nice to do the actual job I’ve trained for and be part of saving life and property - the lesson for me here though is get it done the moment you have time, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
With all the chaos and busyness my eatings been subpar and I’ve dropped a couple of lbs, no big deal but need to keep up on the protein and cals!
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DC W4 D3 - B3
Wu: 20, 30, 40kg x 10
Work: 55kg x 17, 8, 8
Stretch: 30 sec x 2
Absolutely killed that, gave it everything (actually smashed myself in the nose with the bar once as well, fortunately not too hard). Not sure if getting the bicep work to absolute failure made the stretch worse, or whether I’d just got the right position today, but it was so agonisingly painful that I had to break it up.
Went pinwheels again (after trying reverse curls, definitely nope!)
Wu: 10, 12.5kg x 10
Work: 15kg x 12 - 5 sec negatives
Stretch: 1 min
Wu: 90kg x 10 regular tempo
Work: 110kg x 10 - 5/15 tempo
I actually don’t want to risk standing up…
Wu: 40, 60, 80, 100kg X some
Work: 110kg x 10 x 2, 90kg x 20
Quad stretch: 60 secs
GHR: bw X 10 x 2 sets
In an attempt to further appease my glass back I switched to GHR, even BW was irritating my back today, so kept it bw and played it safe, solid session though, between the belt squats and calf raises I can barely stand.
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Good to see you still finding ways to get it done. No hamstring stretch for today? I’ve been not great about including that.
Oh crap, I was so mentally done by the end - I completely forgot about the hammy stretch! Thanks for keeping me honest there!
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Random DC observation - I don’t really get DOMs in the traditional sense on DC, but I get a real deep muscular fatigue - like a heaviness in the muscles, I’d guess this might be due to the stretches? Not sure how this compares with others experiences on DC?
I got some DOMS in my hamstrings after good mornings, but otherwise don’t ever tend to get them in general. My legs will feel fatigued after the squat days, and I get lower body cramps, but I honestly don’t know how to get DOMS these days, haha.
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Haha definitely not surprised by that from you - not sure you’ve got any novel stimulus left!
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