Looks good man and you look big in the video too, its easier to tell how big someone is in a vid then in a pic unless they are very very lean, good stuff man really cool log
[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
Looks good man and you look big in the video too, its easier to tell how big someone is in a vid then in a pic unless they are very very lean, good stuff man really cool log[/quote]
Thanks dude. Not feeling big yet, but I do at least feel like I’m on the right track so that’s something haha
This is just a cold/relaxed shot of me this morning. I’m looking flat as shit, but actually starting to show abz without flexing, which is kinda cool. Scale weight was 203 yesterday around workout time.
BRB going to put on like 10lbs of muscle around my arms/shoulder girdle real quick so my upper body matches my stupid thick waist.
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
This is just a cold/relaxed shot of me this morning. I’m looking flat as shit, but actually starting to show abz without flexing, which is kinda cool. Scale weight was 203 yesterday around workout time.
BRB going to put on like 10lbs of muscle around my arms/shoulder girdle real quick so my upper body matches my stupid thick waist. [/quote]
how many calories are you on right now? and have you thought of doing a shoulder/ trap specialization? some mass there would really help you out, you could gain 10lbs there and make it look like you gained 20-30 lol. your wheels i remember from the other thread look good, chest, back, arms all good, if you could get an almost exagerrated look on the shoulders traps youd look ridic. I can help you put one together if your interested
[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
This is just a cold/relaxed shot of me this morning. I’m looking flat as shit, but actually starting to show abz without flexing, which is kinda cool. Scale weight was 203 yesterday around workout time.
BRB going to put on like 10lbs of muscle around my arms/shoulder girdle real quick so my upper body matches my stupid thick waist. [/quote]
how many calories are you on right now? and have you thought of doing a shoulder/ trap specialization? some mass there would really help you out, you could gain 10lbs there and make it look like you gained 20-30 lol. your wheels i remember from the other thread look good, chest, back, arms all good, if you could get an almost exagerrated look on the shoulders traps youd look ridic. I can help you put one together if your interested[/quote]
x2 I was thinking about doing that myself
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
This is just a cold/relaxed shot of me this morning. I’m looking flat as shit, but actually starting to show abz without flexing, which is kinda cool. Scale weight was 203 yesterday around workout time.
BRB going to put on like 10lbs of muscle around my arms/shoulder girdle real quick so my upper body matches my stupid thick waist. [/quote]
how many calories are you on right now? and have you thought of doing a shoulder/ trap specialization? some mass there would really help you out, you could gain 10lbs there and make it look like you gained 20-30 lol. your wheels i remember from the other thread look good, chest, back, arms all good, if you could get an almost exagerrated look on the shoulders traps youd look ridic. I can help you put one together if your interested[/quote]
x2 I was thinking about doing that myself[/quote]
I have an idea that would work if repeated more then 1x, its 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, 2 weeks on etc. on the weeks off you go back to normal training and on the 2 weeks on its go time
@aggar I don’t know where I’m at with calories, don’t really count those. As far as what I’m eating, it’s the same thing every day: 1 rotisserie chicken, 8 brazil nuts, 2 cups rice, 4-6oz unsweetened cranberry juice. As far as macros go, that’s about 350g carbs/220g protein/115g fat. I’m still working on cutting down a bit for the next few weeks, and this seems to be about as high as I can go while fueling good workouts AND still seeing an increase in leanness. I’ll check out some nutrition info and see if I can get a calorie count tonight.
I’m interested in your 2 week on/2 week of trap/shoulder spec idea- how many times are you thinking I’d hit shoulders/traps with that? Every day or 2-3x with the spec weeks? And I’m planning to hit quads tomorrow but I’ll go heavy on shoulders/traps on Friday. If you want to critique my workout then and let me know if you can think of anything else I should be doing, that would be sick.
Today’s Workout: Chest Focus
RGBP from pins 285x3 (technically a PR but this is my firs time pressing from the sticking point, so it’s more of a baseline):
Top set of bench press- 315x2:
Activation:
A1. DB Power Snatch from hang
3x35sx6
A2. Push Press
3x135x6
Ring Work:
B1. Maltese Fly
3xBWx3
B2. Push-up
3xBWx3
C. Bulgarian Dip (worked on rotating my hands outward at the top for lat activation)
3xBWx3
HFSW:
Warm-up- Front Squats
135x5
185x5
205x5
D. Anderson Front Squats
205x3
225x3
245x3
255x3
265x3 (PR)
E. RGBP from Pins
135x3
185x3
225x3
245x3
265x3
285x3 (PR, vid)
Strength Work:
F. Bench Press
225x3
245x3
275x3
295x3
315x2 (vid, had at least 3 but they would have been grinders after 2 so I cut out at 2)
Recruitment Work:
Tri-set G (No rest between exercises, about 30 sec between sets)
G1. Plate Squeeze Press
3xPlatex10
G2. Incline Neck Press
3xweightx8-10
G3. Incline DB Fly
3xweightx8-10
Continuous Superset H (had to get some unilateral work in lol):
H1. Cross-Body One-Arm Machine Press (right, 2 sec hold at peak)
3xweightx6
H2. Cross-Body One-Arm Machine Press (light, 2 sec hold at peak)
3xweightx6
Conditioning (10 sec between exercises):
I1. DB Speed OHP x 12-15
I2. Jump Squats x 10
I3. Hollow Body V-ups x 12
I4. Mountain climbers x 20 sec
[Repeat I1-I4]
Notes:
This was a great workout, but pretty standard overall. It was my first time trying the RGBP with the pins set at my sticking point, and that went pretty well. Today was also my first time hitting plain 'ol flat bench in about a month. I felt pretty strong as far as raw ability to move weight, but I need to lock my form back in and rebuild neural efficiency for sure lol. I’d like to get my top set up to at least 315x3 for next week. I ended up throwing in a bit more iso work than I initially intended because I couldn’t think of any way to get unilateral work in on the incline bench (gym is too much of a clusterfuck with the new year’s resolution bullshit going on, so I can’t use multiple stations).
[quote]bigmac73nh wrote:
@aggar I don’t know where I’m at with calories, don’t really count those. As far as what I’m eating, it’s the same thing every day: 1 rotisserie chicken, 8 brazil nuts, 2 cups rice, 4-6oz unsweetened cranberry juice. As far as macros go, that’s about 350g carbs/220g protein/115g fat. I’m still working on cutting down a bit for the next few weeks, and this seems to be about as high as I can go while fueling good workouts AND still seeing an increase in leanness. I’ll check out some nutrition info and see if I can get a calorie count tonight.
I’m interested in your 2 week on/2 week of trap/shoulder spec idea- how many times are you thinking I’d hit shoulders/traps with that? Every day or 2-3x with the spec weeks? And I’m planning to hit quads tomorrow but I’ll go heavy on shoulders/traps on Friday. If you want to critique my workout then and let me know if you can think of anything else I should be doing, that would be sick.[/quote]
if those are your macros then your calories are approximately 3315 which should still be enough for growth
and the spec workout would look different for you then it would for say myself or spartee because your body with the way you train is used to a higher volume so id work with that, ill just post what i would do give me a min
Day 1 and day 2 must be done back to back, from what ive seen with people ive gotten to use something similar is that shoulders/traps should be 2 specialized workouts where as things like legs chest etc you can go with 3, its easier to injure shoulders then those
day 1 - heavy loading shoulders, and traps
Seated wide grip military press, ramping sets of 5
Standing military press with clean grip - ramping sets of 4
standing push press - ramping sets of 3
Top half seated military press from pins - ramping sets of 5
Barbel shrugs ramping sets of 5
high pulls ramping sets of 4
wide grip upright rows - heavy straight sets of 6
500g carb, 220g protein, 50g fat
Day 2
Dumbbel rear delt flys - 4x12
cable rope front raises 4x12
dumbbel lateral raises bottom end partials then full ROM with lighter weight right after 4x10, 4x10
face pulls with rope on lat pulldown machine 4x12
cable side laterals 4x12
dumbbell shrugs 4x15-20
voyer shrugs - 4x12-15
smith machine/barbell shrugs 4x8
500 carb, 220g protein, 50g fat
*on day 1 go to failure on the heaviest set of each exercise
*on day 2 go to failure on last set of each exercise and stay 1 rep away from failure on the ones before that
day 3 - off from training
150g carb, 220g protein, 70g fat
day 4- chest and back
barbell bench press 3x8
Pullups/lat pulldowns 3x12
Incline bench press 3x8
seated cable rows 3x8
300g carbs, 220g protein, 100g fat
day 5- legs
back squats 3x5
dumbbel lunges 3x5 per leg
leg extensions 3x10
leg curls 3x10
300g carbs, 220g protein, 100g fat
day 6 - off
100g carb, 220g protein, 70g fat
day 7 -
200g carb, 220g protein, 70g fat
day 8 repeat
then ofcourse as things start to stall fat loss wise take more off.
if your using it whilst gaining which imo would be best then from where your at do
day 1 and 2 as listed but throw in a cheat meal if you want
on day 3 push carbs up to 250 keep everything else the same
on day 4 and 5 push carbs up to 400
on day 6 push carbs to 200
on day 7 go nuts, have a cheat day
oh and on days 4 and 5 stay 2 reps shy of failure on everything
@aggar Wow thanks man that looks awesome. I was thinking of keeping up the high volume thing I’m doing right now for the next 3-5 weeks, then dropping volume and resting more to change things up and hopefully see some good gains. I think I’ll just transition into your spec program at that point. I’m hoping to have the fat trimmed away by then, so I’ll be able to eat more on the spec program and really fuel some solid gains. Thanks again for posting that.
And just for shits and giggles, here’s how I was looking yesterday at my driest. Kinda funny how hard my water retention fluctuates lol.
Today’s Workout: Upper Back Focus/Quad Isolation Work
Activation
A1. DB Power Snatch
3x35sx6
A2. Push Press
3x135x6
HFSW:
B. Front Squats
135x5
185x5
205x5
Ring Work:
C1. Bulgarian Dips
2xBWx5
C2. Skin the Cat (1 leg out)
2xBWxMax
Strength Work: Pulling
D. Shrugs:
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5 (straps)
365x5
405x5
E. Clean High Pulls
225x5
205x5
185x5
155x5
F. Clean Grip Upright Rows
135x6
115x6
95x6
65x6
45x15
G. Chins:
Overhand Grip x Max
Underhand Grip x Max
Neutral Grip x Max
H. Curls: (short rest, hard squeeze at peak)
20x6
30x6
40x6
50x6
60x6
70x6
80x6
90x6
40x15
Isolation Work:
Delt Giant Set I: Fucking painful
I1. Rope Face Pulls to Above Head 3x12
I2. Rope Face Pulls to Eyes 3x12
I3. Unilateral Bent Over Cable Lateral Raise (Right) 3x12
I4. Unilateral Bent Over Cable Lateral Raise (Left) 3x12
I5. Unilateral Cable Lateral Raise (Right) 3x12
I6. Unilateral Cable Lateral Raise (Left) 3x12
J. EZ Bar WG Cable Curl (2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
K. Kayak Row (hard squeeze at peak) 2x8-8-8-8
Quad Tri-set L:
L1. Unilateral Leg Extension (Right, 2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
L2. Unilateral Leg Extension (Left, 2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
L3. Leg Extensions (2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
Superset M:
M1. Unilateral Leg Press (Right, 2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
M2. Unilateral Leg Press (Left, 2 sec hold at peak) 3x12
N. Leg Press
5ppsx30
O. Goblet Squats
50x20
60x20
70x20
Notes:
Looking back on this, I kinda went a little shithouse today lol. I went in planning to give the upper back and biceps some love, but I decided to throw in some quad iso work since I didn’t hit that yesterday. I actually had to cut myself off because I felt ready to do more upper body work after the leg press- had to just tell myself to hit some conditioning or a finisher and GTFO. I opted to end on the high rep goblet squats because I really like the feel on those.
I tried to work on some more advanced form for Skin the Cats today, but I clearly wasn’t ready. I got one rep of them and then I couldn’t even do anymore STC with knees tucked. Great lat pump, but I clearly ended up going to hard- popped some blood vessels around my eyes on that, so it was pretty obvious that I went too hard. I’m going to try and progress on the knees-tucked variation for now by doing the following:
-Work up to 5 reps
-Work up to 5 sec holds at each side
Also, to manage fatigue, I’ve decided that I’ll take two days off per week from ring work and 2 days off from the Anderson front squats. They don’t have to be the same days necessarily, but I just want to be careful and not completely destroy myself. On off days from the Anderson front squats, I’ll still hit my warm-up front squats.
Got profanely shithammered last night lol. I just made today a light conditioning day and did three rounds of the following:
A1. DB Swings 40x20
A2. Lunge Hold (right leg forward) x 20 sec
A3. DB Swings 40x20
A4. Lunge Hold (left leg forward) x 20 sec
Today’s Workout: Delts Focus
Activation:
A1. Power Snatch from Hang
3x95x6
A2. Push Press
3x135x6
HFSW:
Warm-up: Front Squat
135x5
185x5
205x5
B. Anderson Front Squat
225x3
245x3
255x3
265x3
275x3
C. Military Press from Pins (set at eye level)
135x3
145x3
155x3
175x3
165x3 (tried 175 to see if I was good for a top set of 185… wasn’t feeling it so back down)
Strength Work:
D. Seated OHP from Pins (just under eye level)
135x3
155x3
175x3
185x3
E. Military Press (aiming for speed/explosiveness)
3x135x3
Isolation Work:
Delt Circuit F:
F1. Unilateral Lean-away Cable Lateral (right arm) x 12
F2. Unilateral Cable Lateral (right arm, adding weight) x 12
F3. Unilateral Lean-away Cable Lateral (left arm) x 12
F4. Unilateral Cable Lateral (left arm, adding weight) x 12
F5. Rope Upright Row (2 sec hold at peak) x 12
Posterior Delt/Trap Circuit G:
G1. Unilateral Machine Shrug (right arm) x 12
G2. Unilateral Bent-over Lateral (right arm) x 12
G3. Unilateral Machine Shrug (left arm) x 12
G4. Unilateral Bent-over Lateral (left arm) x 12
G5. Bent-over Lateral (heavier) x 12
Conditioning: (2 rounds… didn’t feel like waiting for a treadmill so I just pulled this out of my ass)
H1. Goblet Squats 50x20
H2. Chins (WG/OH) x10
Notes:
Man do I suck at overhead pressing. I like the feel with the false grip, but I still have a LONG way to go on this stuff. My anterior delts are way ahead of my medial/posterior delts, so I am avoiding high rep overhead pressing and anterior delt iso work. I’m focusing on hitting lots of triples from pins to hopefully build strength without gaining to much size as the other heads of the delts catch up. I rely pretty heavily on stretch reflex, so I’m hoping this stuff will help me get my weight up on the MP. I may try widening my grip out a bit too… I use my clean grip width for pressing and I think I’d be a bit stronger if I widened it out a couple of inches.
On another note, I think I’m starting to look sexy or freaky in the gym, which is cool. Or maybe I’m just ugly. I don’t know. People are looking at me a lot for one reason or another. Kinda awkward but hopefully I can scare the New Year’s resolution crowd away from the power racks anyway lol.
How lean are you trying to get?
Lol @ water retention. Wait till you get pretty lean, then you REALLY see big fluctuations that are lol-worthy.
You are one thick fucking manlet dude. I’m jel. Especially for your age. You are gonna be yoked.
[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
How lean are you trying to get?
Lol @ water retention. Wait till you get pretty lean, then you REALLY see big fluctuations that are lol-worthy.
You are one thick fucking manlet dude. I’m jel. Especially for your age. You are gonna be yoked.[/quote]
Thanks man. Lulz at “manlet”
I don’t have any specific goals for leanness. This is already the leanest I’ve ever gotten, so I’m fairly happy with that. I’m not trying to do anything crazy and cut down to competition condition, but my current nutrition plan is pretty easy to maintain so I’ll keep going with it for now. Mainly just trying to stay lean enough to actually see my weak points so I can fix them and look ok nekkid lol.
Today’s Workout: Posterior Chain Focus
Activation:
A1. Power Snatch from Hang
3x95x6
A2. Military Press
3x95x6
Ring Work:
B. Fat Man L-sit Chins
3xBWx3
C. Skin The Cat (knees tucked)
3xBWx4
HFSW:
D. Front Squats
135x5
185x5
205x5
Pulling Superset E:
E1. Sumo Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
E2. Shrug
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
Strength Work:
F. Deadlift (straps for all, belt from 405 on)
335x3
365x3
385x3
405x3
455x2
Isolation Giant Set G: (30 sec at most between rounds… FUUUCCKKK)
G1. Unilateral Lying Leg Curl (left, 2 sec hold at peak) x 12, 10, 8
G2. Unilateral Lying Leg Curl (right, 2 sec hold at peak) x 12, 10, 8
G3. Lying Leg Curl (2 sec hold at peak) x 12, 10, 8
G4. DB SLDL (constant tension) x 12, 10, 8
Conditioning H (2 rounds)
H1. DB Swings 60x12
H2. Lunge Hold (right leg forward) x 20 sec
H3. DB Swings 60x12
H4. Lunge Hold (left leg forward) x 20 sec
Notes:
I made some changes to how I’ll be hitting posterior chain for the near future. I decided to cut the Anderson front squats and just hit a lot of lighter sets of raw sumo deads to warm up for heavier conventional deads while working form and grip. I decided that it isn’t worth shorting my posterior chain/back development by limiting those muscle groups to my baby hand grip strength, so I just strapped for the strength work and hit a lot of triples/doubles in the mid 300’s-mid 400’s range. I figure that the back-to-back sets of sumo pulling/shrugs will be sufficient for grip work, then I can just work on crushing as much weight as I can take with straps afterward.
Not too much of note other than that. Hams/glutes iso work fucking sucks really hard because it’s all the pain with no real pump for me. Great stretch and feel, but still unpleasant as hell lolz.
Also, today is day 21 of working out without taking a true rest day. Based on the volume I’m hitting on most days, cutting down to conditioning only really feels like an off day, so I guess I’ve had some recovery days anyway.
EDIT:
Forgot this before but I’m trying a slightly different approach to the ring work. I’m going to try hitting one easy warm-up ring exercise, then really working one more difficult move. I’m going to do this each day rather than only 4-5 days per week. I think I can recover sufficiently to do ring work daily as long as I don’t get weird with supersets of difficult moves. Realistically, I’ll probably just end up alternating STC and Bulgarian dips because those seem to be the money-makers as far as developing muscle where I need it to work on the v-taper. Maybe one day of ab fallouts on a leg day, since those still feel great in the lower abs.
Nutrition/General Lyfe Update:
Wake Up: 2 HOT-ROX
Wake Up +15 min: 2 Neurostim, 2 Flameout, 2 fish oil (conserving resources)
Workout -15 min: 2.5g creatine monohydrate, 24oz French Vanilla Wawa coffee (addicted lol)
Workout (typically 3 hours after waking up): 5g BCAA structured peptides
Postworkout: 2.5g creatine monohydrate, 1 Power Drive, 2 fish oil, 390mg DMAE
Wake Up +6 hours: 2 HOT-ROX
Meal -60 min: 4 Indigo
Meal: 1 rotisserie chicken (w/ ketchup/BBQ sauce/hot sauce/etc), 8 Brazil nuts, 8000 IU vit D, 5 psyllium fiber, the cocktail, up to 2 cups rice (I cook 2 cups, then eat until I can’t anymore over about 2 hours or so)
Before Bed: 3 ZMA (sometimes I’ll take this before my meal if it’s particularly late)
As needed Moar coffeez
Now the odd part here is that the day’s meal just comes whenever I get home. Sometimes that’s 5PM, sometimes it’s not till 7PM or later. Yesterday I was fasted for about 22 hours, with around 8 of those hours coming postworkout. I used to be VERY meticulous about nutrient timing, but as of late I’ve become a big believer in the idea that what really matters is just your nutrient intake on the day. So I’ve more or less just transitioned to a mentality of training hard, getting enough rest, and making sure I get a good amount of nutrients ON THE DAY rather than sweating the minutia.
With that said, I felt like shit last night after not eating for 22 hours. That was the longest fast I’ve pulled yet, and I do think it was a bit much. I still felt great this morning and put in a solid workout, so I don’t think I did any damage. I just don’t really want to completely hate myself by the time I get to eat lol. I’m going to order a tub of MD low carb and just have a few shakes on my particularly long days (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) along with my Brazil nuts to hold me over until the big meal.
For the next phase of training I plan to taper the volume down a bit by adding a rest day per week until I get down to only four training days per week. At that point, I’ll be specializing medial/posterior delts and upper back for the next 4-8 weeks because I think that will help me get a solid V-taper. At that point, I’ll switch to a truer CBL approach on my training days, but keeping with the extended fasts on off days.
For the next 1.5-2.5 weeks, I’m going to keep pushing the volume. I’m currently specializing my quads to a fairly serious extent because they didn’t get nearly enough love over my winter break. Quads seem to be very happy with the volume, so I’ll keep it coming until I start to feel bad or something.