Alex_uk: 40 years in the making

Training Training Logs
1505

Planning for next training period:

531 for bench and squats, mag/ort for deads, a heavy arms day and a pump arm day on bench and squat day

Day 1: squat 531 (continuing to use TM from BtM)
G/s with kbs & abs
Deficit deads: 3 sets, medium weight/reps
Accessories g/s: unweighted chins, dips, cable curls and pulldowns. Probably 3-5 times through, will adjust that as necessary.

Day 2:
Bench 531 (continuing TM from BtM)
G/s rows with same rep scheme, RDLs using same weight as rows, Abs
Accessories: s/s: cgbp, BB curl, separate s/s weighted chins and dips, 3-5 times through each.

Day 3:
Mag/ort deadlift - no GS here just while I feel it out
G/s: Ohp: 531 (based on BtM TM), GHR, cable rows. Finish with some sort of mega back pump thing, thinking some awful drop set circuit like Wg chins, Ng chins, BB row, lat pull down, cable row. Just high volume back pump once through.

Thoughts, my focus here is driving up deadlifts and training arms. Volume on quads, chest and shoulders is taking a back seat. Bis, tris, Hams, back and abs are the focus. Ensuring the arm work is also going to benefit the deadlift indirectly by having a lot of chins in there. In the past what little success I’ve had with arms has been from heavier lower work, but conventional wisdom generally suggested more pump work, so… I’m doing both, at least for a while, see how that pans out.

Any thoughts? Feel free to share, plans aren’t fixed, but will looks something like the above come Friday, (big lifts will remains as is, and will probably still keep a heavy and light arm day, at least until I’ve given it a fair trial).

1506

Well no one said it was flat out stupid so…

W1 Friday:
Mag/Ort deads
Wu: 60, 100, 120, 140kg X 4
150kg X 4 X 4 sets
172.5kg X 2
150kg X 12

Gs:
OHP: bar, 40, 45, 52.5kg X 5, 57.5kg X 11
Ghr: 6 X 5 sets
Seated cable row: 80kg X 15 X 5 sets

Finisher giant set X 1:
Wg chins X 10, Ng chins X 4, BB row 60kg X 15, lat pulldown 80kg X 6, cable seated rows 80kg X 10, 60kg X 12, 40 kg X 10

Deadlifts were good, I realised that despite the fact I wanted nothing more to do with 5 sets of 5 I’ve essentially end up with an even worse variant of that 4 X 4, top set, them amrap with 4x4 weight. But I like this more, the top set makes the back off set feel light, probably because it is, I’ll wait and see how that holds up in a few weeks time!

Ohp was disappointing I wanted 15, but hit the joists twice, heavily throwing myself off then had to move feet to readjust and I lost it 11 was a RPS 3 (which is massive). Next week is 62.5kg, I’ll aim for 15 then!!!

Overall good session, feeling like a deload might have been a good idea but I got beasted at drill last night (test) and I slept poorly, have a cold and have eaten way too little over the last few days (and when I am eating it’s just sugar). All in all I think I can pull life back together again and avoid the deload.

Enjoyed that, refreshing change of pace - need to do conditioning again at some point, getting back to motivation on that is hard, I detest it.

6 Likes
1508

Good to see you getting straight after it man.

Are you open to constructive criticism here?

1509

That deadlift program looks like it sucks, I might just give it a shot.

1 Like
1510

Well I mean…I haven’t read it all yet, give me a chance.

2 Likes
1511

Absolutely, but I reserve the right to also ignore useful advice and continue being stupid!

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1512

On paper it definitely looks like I’ll enjoy it (I like my programs like I like my women, heavy demanding and simple).

It was ok today but ramps up quickly.

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1513

My immediate reaction is that that’s a buttload of heavy hip hinging. You’re doing fairly heavy, lower back intensive lifts 3 times a week. I don’t know the Mag/Ort program but the words used to describe it seem to be “brutal” and the like, so adding lots of extra strain on your lower back might be an issue.

1514

Excellent point, my defence would be that my RDLs on bench day won’t be overly taxing probably lighter and higher rep, but I have a history of minor back tweaks so definitely behooves me to be mindful of that.

I will keep a very close eye on it and drop certain things out if necessary.

On a related but different note I started my TM for ohp off lower than BtM, just felt like it would be good to hit higher AMRAP sets and have a lot longer to grow before stalling out.

1 Like
1515

Sounds smart. Could take that further and make smaller TM jumps every cycle. That’s likely what I’ll look to do next year.

And coupled with pretty heavy barbell rows which are also lower back intensive.

1516

You’re just trying to keep me well behind you now!

…not sure I can do smaller jumps smallest plates are 1.25kg so 2.5kg per jump.

1517

You change your TM, not necessarily weights on the bar. I assume you round to the nearest 2.5kg anyway. You still progress because, even with identical weights, you can get more reps.

1518

Ah yes, I’d forgotten that! Definitely something to keep an eye on, but it’s not dissimilar to level of heavy lower back work in Dark Horse and that seemed to work out ok. But I will take it to heart and smart if it starts getting too much (or carry on being stupid, regret it and remember your comments when it’s too late).

1 Like
1519

I can’t exactly criticise anyone for not taking advice. I’ve done far stupider stuff than an allegedly smart person should.

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1520

Don’t have too much fun :joy:

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1521

The story of my life …

2 Likes
1522

What other options do you have besides barbell row? Don’t be afraid to support your torso on a rowing movement.

1523

I have some squat depth related content here but I’m not wholly invested in the joke.

1524

Plenty of options, I have adjustable DBs, landmine attachment and a cable machine. It’s not the lack of options I just happen to love BB rows, but you and @dagill2 are right, I’ll make sure you to be flexible and switch it out if necessary for something a bit less lower back taxing.

On the body supported options I’ve done rows in an incline bench (chest supported?) never really loved them and rows where you lean on a flat bench, again never really loved them. The cable stuff is alright (pulldown, rows) but feel like I can go on forever, not tried 1 arm cable rows though and those are supposed to be great for achieving big ROM and stretch so might be on the cards.

2 Likes
1525

I’m sure it won’t be as bad as @Cyrrex jokes!

2 Likes