Boatguy's DH/BFB/Juggernaut/Smolov Jr-Road back to 405FS

Training Training Logs
101

I do the same thing. I use Wendler’s formula from 5/3/1 (the CEILING function) and have it round to the nearest 5 :smile:

I’m moving pretty quick. I set my timer for 45 sec and the last couple days I haven’t even done that. I move from one exercise to the next. Changing weights provides a little rest.

I do a short dynamic warm up on the indoor track that takes about 5-6 minutes. I set up my circuit and start the timer before the first set. I don’t stop it til I reach all the weights and clean up my mess. I’ve been around 25-35 minutes this week. I only do about one warm up set with weights (none today).

102

18 July 2018
BFBattle
Day 3

Trap Bar Deadlift - 3 x 275/275/315/ /5 x 365/4 x 385/3 x 415/2 x 435/1 x 465
Bench - 10 x 135/5 x 155/3 x 185/ /5 x 205/4 x 225/3 x 235/2 x 250/1 x 265
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/135/155/ /5 x 165/4 x 175/3 x 185/2 x 195/1 x 205
Weighted Pullup - 10 x BW/3 x BW/BW/ /5 x 40/4 x 50/3 x 60/2 x 70/1 x 80
OHP - 10 x 65/5 x 85/3 x 95/ /5 x 110/4 x 115/3 x 125/2 x 135/1 x 140
Warm Up - 10:30 Total - 44:06 (!!!)

Assistance Circuit

  1. 1 Hand Cable Row - 10 x 120/8 x 130/6 x 140
  2. Underhand Incline Cable Flye - 10 x 40/8 x 50/6 x 60
  3. Cable Goblet Squat - 10 x 72.5/8 x 87.5/10 x 97.5
  4. Hyper Back Raise - 10 x 50/8 x BW/10 x BW
    Today felt amazing. Not sure why, but I felt great when I got to the gym and managed to carry that energy pretty much all the way through the circuit (slowed down a bit once I finished the main circuit). Full disclosure: I took 300mg Alpha GPC about 30-45 minutes before hitting the gym, and this is known to have an effect on strength levels. However, I’ve used it in the past and I don’t recall EVER feeling like this. Not cranked up, gotta move, jittery or anything, just really motivated to move some fuckin weight and keep going.

Used the low handle on the trap bar, and after the first set almost flipped the bar over to use the high handles. Stuck with the low handles, and got into my groove. Oddly enough, I’m using basically the same weights on trap bar as I did on a straight bar week before last and it seemed heavier on the trap bar. Also haven’t used a trap bar in quite some time (at least for heavy weights), so it may just be the slight difference in technique/positioning.

Today is a lighter day, and bench felt lighter - hell, I hope I can feel a twenty pound drop in the weights (even doing it on back-to-back days). Nothing else to really say here.

Since today is a drop in weights from yesterday, I used the same weight for SGHP since yesterday should have been heavier. That totally makes sense, I swear.

Pullups are a little different here. I cannot stand doing pullups on the multi-handle arrangements most gym equipment has these days. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned, By-God American straight pullup bars? Starting to get rare in gyms for some reason. The cable stack at the gym here has a straight bar, but it has wide-set parallel handles (which I do like using, after using the straight bar) which are set right where my normal pullup grip would be. So I have to off-center to get my hands around them, meaning one of the handles is right where my shoulder comes up at the top (which shoulder depends on which way I off-set). Why am I telling you all of this? Because of this arrangement, I can’t do the dynamic pullup-to-chest move I have been doing as my warm up to pullups for the last couple months. So I did a set of 10, followed by two sets of 3. I did find that without pulling hard for elevation (like I do on the other), I can pull higher than I have in the past at ‘normal’ speed. Parallel handle was just about in my arm pit when I did this.

And, last but not least, OHP went fairly smooth, nothing much to talk about here.

Got sucked into a conversation after I finished stripping all the plates and putting them away. Lost probably 10-15 minutes there. Got set up for the assistance circuit and cranked through that one as well, didn’t set a timer. You can see above that I used different moves than Thibs wrote in the program, basically picked moves that I prefer and have seen more progress from compared to what he recommends.

Cable Row - could have used more weight. Having said that, our cable stack maxes out at 150. Not sure if they have any add-on plates for that one. I do this one in an athletic position, about a half squat (give or take) and holding position as I ocncentrate on the row.

UH Incline Fly - got these from TN a while back, think it was Lee Boyce promoting them in an article. I get a bit more ‘feel’ from these than I do incline DB benching (regardless of angle).

Cable Goblet Squat - you may recall seeing these a few times during DH. These seemed to work best at high reps (20/set), so I’ll either bump those up to 3 sets of 20, or go back to the prescribed BSS (might even alternate them each week).

Hyper - Did the first set with a 50 pound pre-loaded barbell. Back didn’t like that, so I put it away and just did BW hypers. Still got a decent pump in my back (little painful and tight after the fact), but not as painful as the barbell set. Did these instead of RDLs, those really kick my ass when I do them following regular deadlifts.

Don’t know how long the assistance circuit took since I didn’t run the clock, but I moved through pretty quickly - skipped most of the prescribed rest times and went straight into the next movement.

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103

Holy shit dude, 25-35 minutes including tear down? That’s insane. I pretty much dropped the rest periods today, since I am still going back and forth between the three rooms (don’t see a way around it, so I’ll just live with it). Walking back and forth takes enough time, plus I’ve always felt like moving rest seems to refresh the ol’ batteries better than just standing there.

As you can see in my write up, I do 3-4 warm up sets. Which come to think of it, that makes up the difference between your time and mine. Warm up today ran about 10, with another couple minutes to get everything set for the first working set. So take 12-13 minutes off and I’m right there with you (today at least). (I aim for 30 seconds of rest though, seems to work best for me; when I’m doing Juggernaut I keep it as close to a minute as I can)

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104

I’ve always done 1 minute rest on my programs. My body is adapted to it and regardless of what I do my heart rate will recover in a minute.

If I didn’t do my dynamic warm up then I’d do several warm up sets. I do enough moving around during my warm up (including a build up Sprint) that my body is ready to go.

I think I spend half my time at the gym finding my equipment and setting up. I’m tempted to switch to machines for the assistance circuits just for the sake of simplicity.

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105

If doing it 4 days a week, is it an option to keep 5 day programming. Starting one monday with the 3RM lift, then the next week that 3RM would be tuesday? or is the fifth day a heavy day?

106

I suppose you could -
MON - 3RM
TUE - day 2
WED - off (assuming)
THU - day 3
FRI - day 4
SAT/SUN - off (again, assuming)
MON - day 5
TUE - 3RM
etc

Like I said, I suppose you could do it something like that. My plan for next week is to just drop the 3RM day and do the other days MON, TUE, THU, FRI

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107

20 July 2018
BFBattle
Day 4
(Overreaching day)

Front Squat - (10 x 135, 5 x 185) 3 x 225/275/315/ /5 x 330/4 x 345/3 x 365/385 x neg/xxx
Bench - 10 x 135/5 x 185/3 x 225/ /5 x 255/4 x 270/3 x 285/2 x 300/1 x 315
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/155/175/ /5 x 185/4 x 195/3 x 205/2 x 215/1 x 225
Weighted Pullup - (10 x BW) 3 x BW/40/50/ /5 x 60/4 x 70/3 x 80/2 x 90/1 x 100
OHP - (10 x 65) 5 x 85/3 x 105/120/ /5 x 135/4 x 140/2 x 150/xxx***
Warm up - 17:20
Total - 1:17:13
***150 x lockout hold (single)/partial ROM nose to almost lockout - 135 x 1, 3, 3

Went into the gym with what I thought was some good energy, kind of turned out to be a crap day. Had form issues on front squat almost from the start (after warm up), upper back kept rolling forward (like I’ve been complaining about, only seemed worse today - couldn’t seem to keep it from happening). Barely got through my 3RM weight (365) without dropping the weight. I was going to drop front squats from the rotation then, but said fuck it and decided to try 385. Got tight, full chest to brace, started down, got near the bottom and just lost my legs - thank God I was at my normal gym and had set the safety bars. Good news is, I stayed tight and upright all the way down. So I guess you could say I did one negative at 105% of 3RM…

Bench felt good and solid all the way through. From the ‘3’ round on, my first eccentric would be slow, which caused the concentric to be slow as well. Each successive rep on those sets would be a little faster and smoother, it was just that first one each time.

SGHP’s - nice and smooth all the way through. Only ‘issue’ was a slight loss in pull height on the last set (225).

Weighted pullups went fine, I rarely have any issues here (aside from using too much weight, ha ha). 100 went up nice and smooth.

Overhead Press - shoulders just petered out during the 3RM set. Got two, went for the third and just couldn’t get it past my chin. Racked it, walked around for a few seconds and tried again - same result. Raised the hooks on the rack to where the bar was almost at lockout height for me, then did a lockout and held for about 5 seconds. Reset the hooks again to right about the chin, and dropped the weight to 135. Did a partial ROM single rep (from about eye level to almost lockout) on the final round, then came back after finishing and stripping all the bars to do two more sets of 3 partial reps.

I hate missing reps. Today’s performance was rather disconcerting, but shit happens.

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108

21 July 2018
BFBattle
Day 5 (lightest day)

Trap Bar Deadlift - 3 x 275/275/315/ /5 x 350/4 x 375/3 x 405/2 x 425/1 x 455
Bench - 10 x 135/5 x 155/3 x 185/ /5 x 205/4 x 215/3 x 230/2 x 245/1 x 255
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/135/135/ /5 x 155/4 x 165/3 x 175/2 x 185/1 x 195
Weighted Pullup - 10 x BW/3 x BW/BW/ /5 x 40/4 x 50/3 x 60/2 x 70/1 x 80
OHP - 10 x 65/3 x 85/95/ /5 x 105/4 x 115/3 x 120/2 x 130/1 x 135
Warm up - 11:00
Total - 48:04

Assistance Circuit 2 (3 rounds)

Screw Curl - 45 x 13 / 50 x 10 / 50 x 8
Decline Skull Crusher - 35 x 13 / 40 x 11 / 45 x 8
Lateral Raise - 25 x 15 / 30 x 12 / 35 x 10
Reverse EZ Curl - 70 x 12 / 75 x 10 / 80 x 8
20:02
Infinity Single Pressdown - 60 x 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Good day today, but then like I mentioned above, this is the lightest day of the week. Had a good set up today, helped me to move through quicker. Didn’t have the same energy as Wednesday, but still pretty good. I was a little surprised I was four minutes slower compared to that day, considering the weights were lighter (I did get cornered by an old guy for a minute or two, so that didn’t help).

Nothing much to talk about with today’s main circuit, everything felt good and moved quick and smooth. Moved into the assistance circuits and cranked through those. Based the weights off the last time I did that one, while I was out of town. That time, I was hitting the top of the rep range for each round because I was a little conservative. Went a little heavier this time, and was stopping just shy of failure (or a couple times, right at it). Finished the circuit pretty quickly (wasn’t taking full rest between sets on the first round), and then after stopping the timer I did a ‘set’ of infinity singles on pressdown - felt pretty good and didn’t bother my left elbow. Speaking of which, I seem to be developing lifter’s elbow (tendonitis) in the left elbow. Had the wife work it out a bit last night (she used to be a massage therapist), so very minimal discomfort today. It’s pretty minimal anyway, I’m just trying to be proactive and keep it from getting worse. Probably get her to work it again tonight, and then maybe do some contrast soaking tomorrow.

So thus ends my first week of Built For Battle. Next week (as I’ve mentioned before), I will skip the 3RM day on Monday, and go straight to ‘Day 2’. Training schedule will be MON-TUE, THU-FRI. Since I had no issues on bench or pull ups, I will add five pounds to my 3RM number on bench, and slightly increase my pull up weights as well.

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109

I’m sorry to say it, but I’m abandoning Built for Battle. My shoulder and hip are screwing things up. I’m also missing workouts due to my work schedule. I’m going back to CT’s Guaranteed Simple Strength & Size program. I can structure it so that I can get all of the sessions done in a week. The biggest change is that it’s upper/lower. I can knock out the upper body workout during my 30 minute lunch break at work on Saturdays. Anything more than an upper body session on Saturday and I can’t seem to make it work.

I’ll continue following along here to see how you do.

110

Dude you’re a beast! Does PEDs make that much a difference in recovery?

111

That’s the main benefit of them, enhanced nitrogen retention, protein synthesis, etc. All the things a growing boy needs :wink:

I said above I was a week post tbol, it’s more like two - I stopped basically the last day of BFBattle the first (actual) week I did them, while I was still at work. I’ve never noticed this much of a drop-off when I’ve come off, but I also don’t think I’ve ever used it while I was doing BFB.

I’m still going on the assumption it was just one of those random shit days that pop up occasionally.

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112

Sucks you have to drop it, it’s hard work but I dig it. Doing this (and BFB in the past) is some of the most enjoyment I get out of the gym - the sheer volume of work you are able to accomplish in such a compressed time line is mind boggling. Granted, you aren’t hitting ‘every’ part of your body like a body builder, but you are hitting almost every one of the main strength movements.

I’m planning on dropping it when I start school next month, won’t be able to hit the gym during the dead time early afternoon.

113

23 July 2018
BFBattle
Week 2

Front Squat(365) - (10 x 135) 5 x 185/3 x 225/275/ /5 x 295/4 x 310/3 x 330/2 x 345/1 x 365
Bench(290) - 10 x 135/5 x 185/3 x 205/ /5 x 235/4 x 245/3 x 260/2 x 275/1 x 290
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/155/165/ /5 x 175/4 x 185/3 x 195/2 x 205/1 x 215
Weighted Pullup - 10 x BW/3 x BW/40/ /5 x 50/4 x 60/3 x 75/2 x 85/1 x 95
OHP(150) - 10 x 65/3 x 85/105/ /5 x 120/4 x 125/3 x 135/2 x 140/1 x 150
Warm Up - 20:03
Total - 1:03:18

Yes, you read that right, one hour and three minutes to finish today. Slow. As. Shit. Actually, I felt really good and was moving along pretty well (aside from the warm up, that was a little slow), but I had two big interruptions. I was set up with SGHP and front squat in one rack, and bench in a separate rack in another room. Around the end of the warm up I decided to move bench in with SGHP and do front squats in the other room instead, since that would put me in front of a mirror and I could (try to, at least) watch my form. So that added a few minutes, and then somewhere in the middle of the circuits I had to piss like a racehorse so that obviously added a few minutes as well (walking basically to the other end of the building to the men’s room). Still, even without those, I wasn’t exactly burning down time records.

Still having issues with my front squat, even in the earlier sets. Part of the issue is a warped bar that tries to roll off my delts as soon as I unrack (I rerack and reset, and that takes care of most of that), I’ve never been able to tell the warped ones from the straight until I have them on my shoulders. I also concentrated more on keeping my elbows as high as possible and dropping my ass as close to straight down as possible while punching my knees forward more (to some extent), this set me up for closer to a vertical rise rather than my head and shoulders coming forward as I come out of the hole - which then causes the bar to roll, shoulders to collapse forward, etc. Forget if it was 5 or 4, but it was a pretty ugly set - collapsing forward, bar trying to roll off, the works. By concentrating on what I was trying to accomplish (rather than thinking, ‘it shouldn’t feel this heavy!’), the later sets looked and felt much better.

Only other thing worth mentioning was I bumped my ‘3RM’ on bench up 5 pounds. I also meant to add 5 pounds to each set of pullups, but I forgot on the first two working rounds. That’s why I jump from 60 to 75, I was using the wrong (lighter) weights.

All in all, felt good today. I felt like I was cranking through pretty well - I was surprised when I finished and stopped my timer, I definitely didn’t expect it to be over an hour.

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114

24 July 2018
BFBattle
Week 2 Day 2 (2-2)

Trap Bar Deadlift(505) - 5 x 275/3 x 275/315/ /5 x 365/4 x 390/3 x 415/2 x 440/1 x 470
Bench(290) - 10 x 135/5 x 155/3 x 185/ /5 x 205/4 x 225/3 x 235/2 x 250/1 x 265
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/135/155/ /5 x 165/4 x 175/3 x 185/2 x 195/1 x 205
Weighted Pullup - 10 x BW/3 x BW/BW/ /5 x 40/4 x 50/3 x 60/2 x 70/1 x 80
OHP - 10 x 65/5 x 85/3 x 95/ /5 x 110/4 x 115/3 x 125/2 x 130/1 x 140
Warm Up - 13:25
Total - 46:39

Assistance Circuit 1 (3 rounds, 10-8-6)
Cable Row - 10 x 130/8 x 140/6 x 150
Underhand Incline Cable Flye - 10 x 50/8 x 60/6 x 70
Cable Goblet - 15 x 150/15 x 150/15 x 150
Total - 20somethingish

Deadlift day, so pretty good day overall (deadlift days are lighter days, so there you go). Weights are lower, so even if I say ‘everything felt solid’, it doesn’t seem to mean much (as we saw last week on the ‘overreaching’ day). Moved through pretty quickly, but not as fast as day two of last week.

Went into the assistance circuit, which was originally RDLs and I switched to back extensions (because I just got done deadlifting) and now have dropped that from the rotation (for the same reason). At this point I’ve replaced all of Thibs’ recommended movements for ones that I have had better success with. Cranked through it pretty quickly, really wasn’t taking the prescribed rest periods. Total time was twenty minutes and some odd seconds, I thought I wrote it down but I’m not seeing it.

Again, good solid day even if it was lighter weights.

3 Likes
115

25 July 2018

Since I dropped the 3RM test day from my training week, today is my mid-week day off from lifting. I would have liked to have done some cardio of some sort, but my mom came through town and we (the fam) spent the afternoon and evening with her, so no cardio today. I plan to make this a thing starting next week.

2 Likes
116

26 July 2018
BFBattle
2-3

Front Squat - (10 x 135/5 x 185) 3 x 225/275/315/ /5 x 330/4(2) x 345/XXX
Bench - 10 x 135/5 x 185/3 x 225/ /5 x 260/4 x 275/3 x 290/2 x 305/1 x 320
Rack SGHP - 3 x 135/155/175/ /5 x 195/4 x 205/3 x 215/2 x 225/1 x 235
Weighted Pullup - (10 x BW) 3 x 40/50/60/ /5 x 70/4 x 80/3 x 90/2 x 100/1 x 110
OHP - (10 x 65) 3 x 85/105/115/ /5 x 135/4 x 140/3(2) x 150/2 x 140/3 x 140
Total - 1:02:57

Body Saw - 10, 10, 10

More issues with front squat - now it’s happening earlier than before. I got 2 reps at 345 (should have been 4), and folded on the third. Dumped the bar on the safety pins and called it there - rest of the day was basically an upper body circuit.

Bench went good, though there were a few grinder reps today. Got 320, heaviest single I’ve benched in a while. After failing front squats, by the time I completed the third (3 rep) round the bar was feeling pretty wobbly in my hands - couldn’t decide if my wrists and arms were getting fatigued or what. For the last two rounds, I put on my wrist wraps right before benching, then took them off for the rest.

SGHP - again, only thing of note was losing a little altitude on each rep as I got near the end of the workout. Since I was attempting 235 (first time), I threw on the Versa Grips for that last round (1 x 235) - got it just below the nipple line (225 was right around the same height, maybe a little higher).

Pullups - this is where I shine. Pullups were nice and solid all the way through. Barely got the chin over on the last rep, haven’t tried pulling 110 in quite a while (did one last summer with a Sea Cadet hanging on me, he claimed to weight around 110).

OHP was about the way it has been. Got to 150 for 3 reps (what is supposed to be my 3RM), and after the second rep I could barely get the bar past my head. So, rather than waste time struggling with a weight I wasn’t going to be able to move again I dropped 10 pounds and did more reps (as noted above). Figure there’s more value in that than just dropping the weight. The reason I didn’t do that with front squats was efficiency - I would have had to strip the bar almost completely in order to get it back on the hooks, and then load it back up with whatever weight to do a few more sets.

So, since this is becoming a trend of sorts, I am reaching some conclusions. Looking back, I completed the first week of the heaviest wave in Juggernaut (3’s) and then jumped straight into Dark Horse. Stacked those days and tried to push through until I was hating life and dreading going to the gym (to some extent). Made some adjustments schedule wise, pushed through a little more and then dropped it and went straight into Built For Battle. Got one training week done and then was traveling for the better part of a week (so I just took the remainder of the week off and started back up the next). So, here I am approaching the end of the second week home and I think I am getting into an overreaching state - I don’t have all of the symptoms of overtraining/overreaching, but I am obviously experiencing decreased performance (FS and OHP being my big indicators), and I have seen a bit of a decrease in sex drive recently as well (with no other explanations I can think of).

So, I am making some adjustments again. I will finish out this training week - after all, tomorrow is the lightest day of the week, and then next week I have some ideas for next week (and the future). I would appreciate some input on those from y’all that are reading this.

Regardless of option, I am dropping the 110% day - whether I am actually experiencing an overtraining type of thing or not, I think I am developing some form of a mental block with regards to this training day. Previously my form wouldn’t break down till I was at or around my 3RM weight, today it was already failing at 315 (50 pounds early).

So, I was going to write up a couple options and realized I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to do.

I am going to write up a ‘deload’ version of BFBattle using lower percentages. I like the circuit style and would like to continue with it for now (while I still have a schedule that permits it).

Having dropped the 3RM day, and now the 110% day, I will either:
a) have two 100 % days along with the 90 and 92.5% days, or

b) create a 95% day instead and mix the days up so intensity (percentages) undulates up and down throughout the week.

Or I may skip the deload and go into whichever new schedule I come up with.

Thoughts? Ideas? Snide comments?

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117

How did you feel when you set your 3RM? Were those average days, bad days? Were you peaking coming off your previous program?

I pushed my deadlift 3RM and wasn’t able to do anything the rest of the week. I held back on squat and it worked out well. Perhaps 3RM should be more like 5RM?

118

Might try and use a 4RM weight or a weight that’s about 5 lbs lighter than the 3RM, keep with me for a while I’ll explain.

workout 1: work up to a single at 4RMish
workout 2: work up to a single at 92,5% of that 4RMish weight
workout 3: work up to a double with that 4RMish weight should be doable, here comes my version you now decide what to do on the final round either do the same weight for a single (bad day), go for a conservative 1RM one you know you can do (average day) or that day where that double was like butter you go for tie on you previous 1RM or a new 1RM
Workout 4: work up to a single at 90% or that 4RMish weight.

This gives you 3 workouts where everything is geared towards technique and speed and one workout working up to a for the day very heavy single.
One week OHP is good you go for a PR here, next it could be front squat, some weeks all lifts, some weeks well we all know it’s the bad week, but you still get that heavy single in.
And for the progression, easy, when you set a new PR you’re allowed to put on 5 lbs on that lift for the next circuit.

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119

Take. Few days off asshole. Is that snide enough?

120

There it is.
Knew I could count on you, hog.

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