Brickhead: 'Ramp to 1-2 All-Out Sets'?

Training
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I have been using advice from Thib while utilizing the main concepts of Brickhead’s advice. “Ramp to 1-2 all-out blast sets” is pretty much what it is in one sentence. Do you still stand by that advice or has it changed? Lately, while sustaining injuries, I’ve been making slow progress, 1-2 reps every few days.

I’ve been training full-body 3x a week utilizing the concept to take take advantage of frequency like Thib suggests(He did not give the suggestion to me but he has said frequency is king for gains). Was wondering if you might have any advice, Brickhead.

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I say slow progress because at 130 lat pulldown, 55 incline, and 25 lb Dumbbell curl, I should be able to progress rapidly in weight before facing adversity in gaining strength.

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Hi, thanks for the post. I will be back on later to comment.

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[quote]bendthebar wrote:
I have been using advice from Thib while utilizing the main concepts of Brickhead’s advice. “Ramp to 1-2 all-out blast sets” is pretty much what it is in one sentence. Do you still stand by that advice or has it changed? Lately, while sustaining injuries, I’ve been making slow progress, 1-2 reps every few days.

I’ve been training full-body 3x a week utilizing the concept to take take advantage of frequency like Thib suggests(He did not give the suggestion to me but he has said frequency is king for gains). Was wondering if you might have any advice, Brickhead. [/quote]

Again, thanks for the post. Keep in mind I don’t know everything and I only consider myself good at this, not great. I just love this stuff.

I stand by it for those who have decent strength levels because once someone becomes decently strong, it is hard or impossible to replicate the same weight for the same reps for more than two sets if those sets are pretty good efforts, not the sort of death sets in which one is convulsing and turning purple, but decent sets near or to failure on the big lifts. One can make progress with more straight sets while holding back, but for me, it’s a boring way to train. I get more satisfaction from adding more reps and weight on those two sets. This applies mostly to the compound, very difficult exercises like weighted chinups, bent over row, overhead press, bench press, deadlift, and squat.

One or two reps added to exercises every few days is actually FAST PROGRESS, so I am unsure what you are referring to as slow progress.

I see that bodypart splits with low frequency have the highest failure rate for ordinary people, and that frequency is important and that most ordinary people do better with upper-lower splits or full body routines. Many will disagree with me, but some of the greatest physiques of all time were built this way and at your stage of strength, I believe you should stick to a full body routine for some time and concern yourself foremost with the exercises I mentioned and not fret that you can’t add 2.5# to your bicep curl. Someone at your stage can handle several straight sets too.

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Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?

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[quote]BrickHead wrote:

[quote]bendthebar wrote:
I have been using advice from Thib while utilizing the main concepts of Brickhead’s advice. “Ramp to 1-2 all-out blast sets” is pretty much what it is in one sentence. Do you still stand by that advice or has it changed? Lately, while sustaining injuries, I’ve been making slow progress, 1-2 reps every few days.

I’ve been training full-body 3x a week utilizing the concept to take take advantage of frequency like Thib suggests(He did not give the suggestion to me but he has said frequency is king for gains). Was wondering if you might have any advice, Brickhead. [/quote]

Again, thanks for the post. Keep in mind I don’t know everything and I only consider myself good at this, not great. I just love this stuff.

I stand by it for those who have decent strength levels because once someone becomes decently strong, it is hard or impossible to replicate the same weight for the same reps for more than two sets if those sets are pretty good efforts, not the sort of death sets in which one is convulsing and turning purple, but decent sets near or to failure on the big lifts. One can make progress with more straight sets while holding back, but for me, it’s a boring way to train. I get more satisfaction from adding more reps and weight on those two sets. This applies mostly to the compound, very difficult exercises like weighted chinups, bent over row, overhead press, bench press, deadlift, and squat.

One or two reps added to exercises every few days is actually FAST PROGRESS, so I am unsure what you are referring to as slow progress.

I see that bodypart splits with low frequency have the highest failure rate for ordinary people, and that frequency is important and that most ordinary people do better with upper-lower splits or full body routines. Many will disagree with me, but some of the greatest physiques of all time were built this way and at your stage of strength, I believe you should stick to a full body routine for some time and concern yourself foremost with the exercises I mentioned and not fret that you can’t add 2.5# to your bicep curl. Someone at your stage can handle several straight sets too.

[/quote]

Thanks for the reply, brick. For starters, I can no longer squat, deadlift, or squat. I also can’t do tricep extension exercises that aren’t cables, and I just recently cannot do leg press without feeling pain later. I moreso meant that I should be making more rapid progress considering my weights are piss-poor such as 55 lb db incline for 20 reps, 150 lat pulldown for 13-15 depending on the day, and 25 lb db bicep curl.

I too agree with the high frequency now seeing I am definitely making better progress compared to a year ago but I’ve been stagnant dealing with injuries or near-injuries for a few years. I asked Thib for some advice but fear he skipped because it was too long to read lol. What would be your advice given new details of my situation?

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[quote]BrickHead wrote:
Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?[/quote]

I honestly didn’t know it was. I just typed in big biceps and he popped up in google search so I set him as my avatar haha.

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[quote]bendthebar wrote:

[quote]BrickHead wrote:
Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?[/quote]

I honestly didn’t know it was. I just typed in big biceps and he popped up in google search so I set him as my avatar haha. [/quote]

lol, you can’t post a pic of anyone even remotely associated with bodybuilding without Brick knowing who it is. The guy’s a computer with this stuff.

S

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[quote]bendthebar wrote:

[quote]BrickHead wrote:
Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?[/quote]

I honestly didn’t know it was. I just typed in big biceps and he popped up in google search so I set him as my avatar haha. [/quote]

I will be back on.

Zeb is a bisexual pornstar by the way. :slight_smile:

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[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]bendthebar wrote:

[quote]BrickHead wrote:
Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?[/quote]

I honestly didn’t know it was. I just typed in big biceps and he popped up in google search so I set him as my avatar haha. [/quote]

lol, you can’t post a pic of anyone even remotely associated with bodybuilding without Brick knowing who it is. The guy’s a computer with this stuff.

S[/quote]

Hello, Stu. Glad to see you posting in my thread. I was extremely surprised. Now that I know, I might just post some bodybuilder no-names I’ve found just to see if he knows haha.

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[quote]BrickHead wrote:

[quote]bendthebar wrote:

[quote]BrickHead wrote:
Uh, is that Zeb Atlas in your avatar?[/quote]

I honestly didn’t know it was. I just typed in big biceps and he popped up in google search so I set him as my avatar haha. [/quote]

I will be back on.

Zeb is a bisexual pornstar by the way. :slight_smile: [/quote]

I might just change my avatar knowing this…Na. I posted him as someone with huge biceps. Only those that know will know his identity. The rest will just see the reason why I posted him: gigantic biceps.

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You might not like this advice. However, I believe that if you can’t squat, or deadlift, or leg press, or do any variations of them, and can’t do compound exercises like dips and close grip bench presses for your triceps, something is wrong, especially considering you are this debilitated with such novice strength.

Figure out what is wrong and solve that first and likely with a corrective exercise program you can get back to doing some important exercises. And I don’t mean you must do back squats and conventional deadlifts or that you must do flat and close grip bench presses. But at least you can correct your body so that you can do things that will get you further in the beginning.

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Why are you unable to squat, DL, bench, leg press, tricep extension, etc? You said you can’t do them without pain later… what kind of pain? DOMS? Joint pain?

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[quote]Steve-O-68 wrote:
Why are you unable to squat, DL, bench, leg press, tricep extension, etc? You said you can’t do them without pain later… what kind of pain? DOMS? Joint pain?[/quote]

I wanna know too cause that’s a lot of exercises to not be able to do. It’s like… all of them.

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[quote]BrickHead wrote:
You might not like this advice. However, I believe that if you can’t squat, or deadlift, or leg press, or do any variations of them, and can’t do compound exercises like dips and close grip bench presses for your triceps, something is wrong, especially considering you are this debilitated with such novice strength.

Figure out what is wrong and solve that first and likely with a corrective exercise program you can get back to doing some important exercises. And I don’t mean you must do back squats and conventional deadlifts or that you must do flat and close grip bench presses. But at least you can correct your body so that you can do things that will get you further in the beginning. [/quote]

This answer is something I will definitely heed. I have been training actually for almost 7 years now. This answer was given to me back when I was midway through 22. I was told to back off if I felt any slight impingements during lifting. OF course, being those people like Dave Tate said, I ignored him and him and him, etc probably about 20 encounters that told me a similar idea and ignored them because I didn’t want to lose what I had or lose time that would be opportunity to grow. That won’t be me, I’ll be ok.

I’ll one of the guys who was told I would have to quit the sport and ends up becoming an inspirational success story. I won’t quit when I’m injured, in fact I’ll push even harder! Man, was I dumb. If Dave Tate was reading this, he’d nod his head and say, “Yep, they never learn just like I didn’t.” I’ve definitely been doing some mobility work and stretches and anything else, but as far as a rehabilitative/ corrective exercise program, I wouldn’t what to research into to make one or even if there is one that can be recommended to me without paying for physical therapy or going to an orthopedic surgeon.

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[quote]Steve-O-68 wrote:
Why are you unable to squat, DL, bench, leg press, tricep extension, etc? You said you can’t do them without pain later… what kind of pain? DOMS? Joint pain?[/quote]

Yes, joint pain. Each time after I squat, deadlift, bench press, tricep extension, etc, it’s some kind of pain even days after. My legs feel like they’re going to snap at any moment, like I literally feel like my legs are sticks that can’t support anything. With my shoulders, they just start aching about a half an hour into a bench press session. Triceps with tricep extension, even now I don’t know how to explain it but every single lifter knows the feeling, “there’s something wrong,” when they move a bodypart and the movement just feels weird or off when they’re doing any everyday task, stretching, etc.

I even showed my friend a cracking noise through the phone and he was appalled to hear the cracking sound was my knees. His exact words: “Threads, your legs are literally hanging by threads.” It’s not that bad anymore, and I can leg press again, but I could go into another session that will leave me in pain the next few days. Even now that I think about it, I don’t plan on stopping the leg press session if my knees feel off. But being smarter, I’m going to have to make the right call when it comes.

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[quote]Aopocetx wrote:

[quote]Steve-O-68 wrote:
Why are you unable to squat, DL, bench, leg press, tricep extension, etc? You said you can’t do them without pain later… what kind of pain? DOMS? Joint pain?[/quote]

I wanna know too cause that’s a lot of exercises to not be able to do. It’s like… all of them. [/quote]

This is exactly what happens to stubborn lifters. Don’t stretch, don’t foam roll, don’t take the time to warm-up, think you’re invincible? Think again. Heavy feelings of nostalgia right now. I wish I took the time to do my sets as safe as possible, not like a form nazi but at least do them to make my joints and bones stronger instead of with the intent of destroying my body, to make it bigger, to contract harder, etc. I wish I took my time, realized that the more time I took, the better it would be. Anyone who ends up getting a certain weight really fast with no care, no caution will always end up behind the tortoise. I wish I could turn back time. But no use in whining to change the past.

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Sorry for late replies. Long work days, disappointing workout sessions, and the feelings of nostalgia have had me away from anything on the internet considered lifting for awhile.

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[quote]bendthebar wrote:
This is exactly what happens to stubborn lifters. Don’t stretch, don’t foam roll, don’t take the time to warm-up, think you’re invincible? Think again. Heavy feelings of nostalgia right now. I wish I took the time to do my sets as safe as possible, not like a form nazi but at least do them to make my joints and bones stronger instead of with the intent of destroying my body, to make it bigger, to contract harder, etc. I wish I took my time, realized that the more time I took, the better it would be. Anyone who ends up getting a certain weight really fast with no care, no caution will always end up behind the tortoise. I wish I could turn back time. But no use in whining to change the past. [/quote]

Dang bro. I know what you mean although personally I cut that shit out early on because I knew I was going for longevity.

Having said that, I don’t think you’re fucked. I think you can make a serious effort to work on your posture, mobility, and muscle imbalances (very important IMO, like not having your chest way stronger than your back), and drop down a good amount of weight and re-learn each exercise with proper form…

Everything you said just reeks of improper form or possibly no form at all.

But again, dropping the weight you use and focusing on body control, keeping tension in the right places, etc. will help you a lot more than using leg press instead of squats your whole life (and not using the exercises you mentioned). I think that’s what you should focus on.

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Here is something that Chris C. posted in another thread that I thought looked interesting:

https://www.T-Nation.com/workouts/neanderthal-no-more-4