Exactly Josh…and you don’t want to finish on a crappy set so you’re that much harder on yourself. Also, we all know how psychological this game is and once you know the load is say 15 or 20% lighter you’ll be damned if you don’t get at least 4 more reps than the “heavy” set for example.
Sorry to hear about the set back DG…swings and roundabouts man, just think how happy you’ll be once you’re back to “normal”…
[quote]josh86 wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
i dont know, 2 working sets on a 4 day split id be out of the gym in 15 minutes. 2 sets of CGBP and 2 sets of pinwheels? idk, it doesnt seem like anywhere near enough.
especailly cause i wouldnt be hitting them again for another week. with DC you hit your muscles every 4 days or something, cant recall off the top of my head but its soon enough so that its possible to grow. with a 7 day gap i think its too far and inbetween to see anything.
i think im going to stick to training my back with only 2 EXERCISES (deadlifts and cybex row) but i do a total of like 9 working sets.
So not true man…ask Bug, JB, dre, etc how much progress I’ve made in the last 6 months and pretty much all of that time was spent doing either 1 top heavy set and then a lighter set both done all out or 1 triple RP set or something along those lines. In 6 months I’ve gone from about 182lbs at around 12% BF to 219 lbs around 16-18% bf.
Do the math that’s around 20-23lbs of muscle and it could have been done cleaner if I watched my carbs in the evening a bit more. I’m now doing like a small mini-cub type thing to get my waste in check again and will be continuing the mass gains…definitely don’t plan a real cut for a long time.
You can do what you want man, but you have said yourself you’re sick of not progressing as fast as you’d like. Do you have anything to lose by TRYING our suggestions? This sport is all about trial and error…give our ideas a try and if you don’t like it just switch back.
Your back idea doesn’t sound good either. That’s basically 2 thickness movements and no width. If you want to do just 2 why not do deadlift or rack pull or yates row and then a lat pulldown or rack chin or whatever you like for width.[/quote]
its not 2 back thickness movements, its 1 and 1 width. i set the chest pad all the way out and do it 1 arm at a time because the way i position myself is a little different so that i get a good lat stretch. in fact the only reason im confident in doing 2 back exercises is because thats the only thing that gives me a good lat pump and the deadlift has done amazing things for my back thickness.
i already mentioned i cant do rack pulls or i would do those instead.
i have nothing to lose essentially, im willng to try it out by the frequency just seems so low.
today was fucking lame. i trudged through a blizzard to hit the gym and was one of maybe 10 people in the whole gym.
i get up to my working sets on the H.S. leg press and something just wasnt right
the last time i used it i hit 4 plates x10 this time i got to 4. i was so fucking pissed. i was going to walk out of the gym but i said ok, so maybe my legs are still beat up from deadlifting or maybe its just cause i have a little cold, whatever, ill do something smaller. so i went to do shoulders and got in the same rep ranges i got last time i did the H.S. shoulder press so i was like hmmm thats weird.
then went to do squats just for shits and felt weak just using 135 so i said fuck it, ill come back tomorrow and went home getting pelted in the face with snow.
Ok last day of this 4th week cycle
Squat
Worked up to 295x3x6
Bench
worked up to 225x3x2
245x2x2
225x3x2
DB flies, Good mornings, and goblet squats followed.
Got a video on my phone of my last (6th) set of squats. Never attached a video, and its not great quality and the angle is a little bad, but this is the first time I’ve seen myself squat.
edit: first edit didnt go through…ok
i see my knees go forward, but is it enough to worry about? and I know I’m close to low enough, but not quite there. I’m gonna blame fatigue, as I know my first few sets were much lower then the last couple.
Looks like you’re falling forward a bit. I’m no squat pro but I think some things that help with that are trying to actively push your elbows forward, like trying to push them forward so they are under the bar (they wont get all the way under). This is supposed to help keep your chest up which helps prevent the falling forward.
If you search this site for falling forward in the squat you will find plenty of info on how to help it over in the Strength Sports forum.
Edit: I don’t think you have anything to worry about with the knees. If you look at Olympic Lifters their knees come past their feet and they are litterally like sitting on their heels. Again I’m no squat pro but I don’t think there’s really a big issue with the knees coming forward a bit unless you are going so far forward that you end up driving through your toes instead of your heels.
Also I’ve found that I can actually target my quads with squats if I use more of a shoulder width Oly stance and point my toes out slightly and let me knees move out over my feet (and pushing them outward as well) while sitting down between my legs rather than sitting back as much if that makes sense…kind of hard to describe lol.
Agree with Josh’s advice on squats.
Amusing thing that happened yesterday while squatting that I meant to mention; so I warm up with 135, take it off the pins in the squat rack, first rep, on my way up I decide I didn’t go as deep as I could’ve (even though it WAS a bit below parallel). Second rep I go a bit deeper, and CLANG the bar stopped on the rack. I realize that at 5’7" I’m no tall dude, but come on!?
So apparently if I want to get decent depth I can’t use certain squat racks…remaining sets I had to walk it out of the rack, annoying to walk 325 back multiple steps, yknow? Anyone else have this happen to them?
/rant
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Agree with Josh’s advice on squats.
Amusing thing that happened yesterday while squatting that I meant to mention; so I warm up with 135, take it off the pins in the squat rack, first rep, on my way up I decide I didn’t go as deep as I could’ve (even though it WAS a bit below parallel). Second rep I go a bit deeper, and CLANG the bar stopped on the rack. I realize that at 5’7" I’m no tall dude, but come on!?
So apparently if I want to get decent depth I can’t use certain squat racks…remaining sets I had to walk it out of the rack, annoying to walk 325 back multiple steps, yknow? Anyone else have this happen to them?
/rant[/quote]
I’m 5’10" man and I’ve had that happen to me too if I use a normal Rack, so I use the Cages.
I was going to make some smart ass comment about never having that problem, but I can’t front squat in certain squats racks at my highschool gym because they are too high.
Ok because I’d never heard that problem mentioned before, so it made me wonder. That’s really sad when they mass-produce squat racks that can’t accommodate people who squat properly.
Workout A2
DB Incline press
25²x16
50²x8
75²x4
90²x10+4+2=16
Seated IM2000 Military press
36x15
86x8
106x4
136x6+4+3=13
Floor E-Z bar triceps extension
40x10
70x5
100x8+5+3=16
V-bar Lat pulldown
106x10
156x8
176x7+4+3=14
One-arm DB row
90xL=10+5+5=20, R=10+6+6=22
what do all you guys think of cable crossovers, are they a good excersise that you cna progress on or are they just good for a pump whats your take?
Got in a decent arm workout today…not going to log it since I had to use lots of machines and other shit I normally don’t do due to my shoulder. Also today is the first day that my shoulder really felt a lot better, I think its gunna be ready by Tuesday for chest day.
[quote]crod266 wrote:
what do all you guys think of cable crossovers, are they a good excersise that you cna progress on or are they just good for a pump whats your take?[/quote]
i just use them for a pump. i suppose you could still progress but why choose that when you could bench? its like taking leg exts over leg pressing imo.
[quote]crod266 wrote:
what do all you guys think of cable crossovers, are they a good excersise that you cna progress on or are they just good for a pump whats your take?[/quote]
The start and end my chest workout.
I think they are great and if performed correctly can hit all areas of the chest.
I do 2 warm up sets regular…then 2 in front of my face and focus on squeezing the upper pecs. To do this you must stand vertical and push your pecs forward. Then perform the motion in front of your face.
I then meander around pressing heavy stuff and finish with a 2x12 with a squeeze and some stretching as soon as I’m done.
I don’t think it’s something were you focus too much on the weight…but what exercise is worth doing if your not trying to increase the weight? You should still be getting stronger.
I do think it is awesome for bringing out definition in the chest as well as warm up the pecs before heavy pressing.
I also believe that these helped cure my small pec strain/or whatever I had a while back. For about 2.5-3 weeks I was doing nothing but crossovers and this one pussy machine. lol
my take on it…it’s definitely a tool. But only useful if doing heavy heavy pressing with it.
DG
Arms
Felt weak today, and my shoulder hurt too much for close grip bench, so I skipped it.
PJR pullovers
50lbsx10
65lbsx8
80lbsx8
100lbsx7 Gah, almost had 8…
Tricep pressdowns
100lbsx10
125lbsx8
Stack+35lbsx13- decided to go heavier
Stack+45lbsx8
*Going to need to do these with one arm from now on, hah.
DB Preacher Curls
20lbsx10
25lbsx8
35lbsx10
35lbsx6
*Very weak at these, but I feel like I’ll progress fast.
Pinwheel Curls
50lbsx8
60lbsx8
75lbsx5- Hurt my shoulder even more, so I stopped.
The shoulder issue isn’t that big of a deal- It’s just some mild tendonitis of the AC joint and usually goes away in 2-3 days.
Edit: Btw, I tried some seated bb shoulder press just for kicks at the end(doesn’t hurt my shoulder), and 135 felt like an empty bar… I wonder why my standing press is so weak.
Are pickles bad to eat at night when dieting? I had a craving tonight and ate like 3. Yummy.
And about the 1-2 working sets thing, I’m definitely a fan. My strength and size has been increasing steadily while using this method… I don’t know why you think you’re out of the gym so fast… because I know for me, I’m usually doing 2-3 warm up sets (depends on the lift) and I take plenty of time before my all out set or 2. So you are still doing up to 5 sets total… so it still takes time.
Anyways, to each their own. Josh will let us know if it’s working when he’s curling the 200’s. 
live and gerdy, o ya well overcourse i would do them with pressing i wa just asing for in additon to
[quote]crod266 wrote:
live and gerdy, o ya well overcourse i would do them with pressing i wa just asing for in additon to[/quote]
I’m a big fan…I actually prefer them over Flyes. Not really worth going below 8 reps with tho…imo…
DG
Yeah flies obviously aren’t the type of exercise you’ll get much benefit from going for 1RM’s, not enough muscles involved/weight used.
Funny how with some stuff if you can do it for one rep, you can always get a couple more as well.
Hey guys wanted to brag about my girl a bit. Today in the gym she hit the 50 lb. dumbbell for 15 reps per side on DB rows.