100 cal assault bike 12:36
50 band pull aparts
Hamstrings still toast today
With regards to your self-expressed DYEL-… dilemma, I want to ask about your previous programming. I know you’ve done a lot of 531 but how much of that was size-oriented templates and when you ran them would you argue you ate enough to add some mass?
Over the years, I’ve done several rounds of BBB. In the second round of gaining weight that I mentioned, I did JNT 2.0, a high volume GZCL program. Must have been 8-9ish pounds gained. I completed BtM 2 years ago. A couple summers ago I did the full Krypteia program. A year ago I was doing some of Brian Alsruhe’s programs. Earlier this year I did 2-3 cycles of Jim’s Beefcake program and definitely added 4ish solid pounds.
Can’t remember entirely how much weight was gained for every program, would have to try to look it up. Either way, I don’t err toward programs with low workloads.
I’m absolutely ok with reading long texts from interesting people.
Those are some pretty decent changes. I’ve done similar changes repeatedly and am slowly accepting that I just don’t build muscle that quickly. It’s been a difficult truth for me to accept, honestly.
Ever considered running a classic bodybuilding split just to shake things up? Would definitely be a change from what you normally do. Or would you find the workload too low?
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@dagill2 That was a long time ago, to be fair. I haven’t changed my weight that drastically in recent years. I hadn’t done a formal weight loss phase in I think 2 years until just recently, and it tested me. 10 pounds either way is a lot for me. I don’t think I could get to 52 kg again unless I split it up and took a serious maintenance phase in between. In reality the past 2 years were spent mostly 55-57 kg.
I don’t like to think that I’m a special snowflake who can’t gain strength or muscle well… but maybe you’re right. Or maybe I need to take that more aggressive gaining approach like I did awhile back. I dunno. I thought my results were better then because I was even more of a novice then.
I’m also pretty boring anyway!
@tinkertailortanker I don’t feel it would be that different since I gravitate toward volume already. I’ve thought about trying one of the RP Physique programs, which is more “out there,” but it costs a pretty penny, and I maybe wouldn’t buy into it as much. I want to finish JM before I program hop though – I’ve barely started 
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Volume with barbells and volume with isolation work is not as comparable as one would think in my experience.
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This doesn’t seem like a smart approach for you, if I’m honest.
Care to expand on that?
When I focus on barbell movements and progressive overload I don’t observe physique changes nearly as rapidly as when I opt for a more machine heavy approach where I’m doing maybe one compound lift that day. As a corollary, I don’t improve strength-wise as much on the big four while I do make fairly rapid improvements on the machines. Bear in mind this is me and my body, and also why I wrote “in my experience”. YMMV.
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Yeah, I understand it can be pretty individual. But that said, I am pretty much a barbell slut, which probably explains much about my physique. Or lack of same.
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Eh, I haven’t used a machine for training since college. There’s nothing wrong with them: I just don’t have any. Minus a really janky lat pulldown, which doesn’t see much love.
I think the issue with barbells is one gets locked into lifting the bar vs training the muscle, at which point, yeah, you’re not going to see the same results you would see with machine “mind muscle” sorta training. But if you do like the old school guys did, you can make barbells a very solid physique builder.
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You are, however, also a mutant from some other plane.
But a good point nonetheless. My real issue is possibly that I dislike bodybuilding movements.
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Concur. The techniques aren’t terrible though when applied to primary movements. My “dips” are just me coming out of the hole until my chest stops working, unless I’m specifically trying to build dip strength, at which point they’re full ROM. My belt squats have no lockout and only work the middle ROM, etc. Maybe this is that “powerbuilding” people talk about, haha.
I was at a Bill Kazmaier seminar where he actually discussed this as “power bodybuilding”. Similar premises: he had movements that he took to full ROM and focused on building strength, and others where tension was kept on the muscle and reps were high to flush blood. And Kaz had a crazy physique. Hell, even in his 60s he’s jacked.
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Yeah, that sounds pretty familiar to me. I do the same thing on both pullups and dips, and often will change the ROM over the course of a set. Hell, I do it on lots of stuff. “Powerbulider” could be defined as someone who doesn’t care about either thing. That’s me.
And Kaz looked absolutely absurd back in the day. Crazy shoulders.
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@T3hPwnisher @Cyrrex I’m of the opinion that “powerbuilder” is a label that people who want to be big and strong give themselves because other people refuse to understand that there are more than 2 ways to lift weights.
I’m of the opinion that “powerbuilder” is really REALLY silly.
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It isn’t a theory I personally ascribe to, hence the quotes. But I do understand what it is intended to mean
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Nailed it. If I barbell row I want to beat my log book and can/will forget about loading the target muscle. If I go to a hammer strength rowing thingamajig I don’t even care enough to log the weight necessarily, I just go “did it suck to lift that for four reps”? and then do it for at least 4 more reps in the same set.
Another convenient aspect for me, with machines, is my ability isn’t defined by my weakest link. I’ve found an iso-linear hack squat machine in the gym I train at and I can load my quads so well with it. They can take more weight than my core can. So I can’t really simulate the same quad annihilation (with regards to mechanical load) with a free-weight squat variation.
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My back was a weakpoint until I broke out of that mindset. I had some solid hip and thigh strength from hulking the weights from A to B on all of my back work, but once I started building my back instead of building my lifts, it blew up and became a strong point.
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