I’ve never used one so I’m not too sure but if they do it still isn’t something I need. I think my shoulder hurts because I slightly irritated it then a few days later got a bit sloppy with a heavy bench press and tried doing a dip a bit after.
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Fair enough.
Yes, they do.
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5/01/18
W2D2
Warm up (2 rounds):
Band pull aparts, shoulder dislocations, walking lunges, bird dogs
Close grip bench press (TM-70):
2x10x20, 5x45, 5x50, 10x60
Superset with dumbell rows: 10x20, 8x30, 3x8x25
Pause squat (TM-80):
2x5x20, 3x5x50
Superset with band pull aparts
Pause deadlift (TM-100):
3x3x60
Superset with kettlebell suitcase carries: 3x1x16
Missed a day last week so had to do two workouts back to back this week, felt pretty bad but it needed doing. Shoulder isn’t feeling any better so I capped my bench top set at 10 before it started getting too hard. I’m considering not benching at all next week just to give it more chance to fix itself.
1 Like
8/1/18
W2D3ish
Superset
Overhead press (TM-40):
2x5x20, 2x5x30, 15x35 (PR)
Double overhand axle deadlift:
2x5xaxle, 5x+20, 5x+40, 20x+50
Giant set
Front rack holds: 10s x40, 60, 70, 30s x80
BW hangs: 4x20-30s
Axle curls: 4x15
Carry medley (3 rounds w/ 2.5 mins rest):
Kettlebell farmers walk: 2x32
Slam ball carry: 2x18
Sled push and drag back: 1x+20
Stretching and mobility: 10 mins
Really fun day. I decided to make the most of this gym while I could and did things a bit differently. Top sets of the overhead press and deadlift were both good efforts. Surprisingly my glutes were going before my grip on the deadlifts and I had to take a couple of 5 second pauses between reps. First I was aiming for 10 then 15 then decided I may as well do 20 but the last five I had to dig deep for. Could hardly bend my wrists afterwards and my glutes kept spasming for about 15 minutes.
Swapped squats for front rack holds and worked up to a moderately hard set on those. Assistance was good and again hit my grip hard. The carry medley at the end was a nice was to finish myself off. It wasn’t too bad weight wise but I pushed the pace so I was pretty beat by the end. I didn’t think I needed the stretching at the end, I just did it to kill time waiting for a lift, but I feel a lot better after.
3 Likes
Just watched one of Alpha’s videos and realised I completely forgot to mention last week but someone in my gym had a suffer beautifully t-shirt on. I meant to go say hi to him but he left shortly after I noticed and I didn’t get chance.
I thought this was really cool that out of a relatively small gym in a fairly small town in the north of England at least two people were fans of Brian’s. Just thought I’d share this and hopefully @Alpha can see this too.
3 Likes
What are these for? Wrist flexibility? Core work?
For core and upper back work. Just something I thought I’d try after reading a few good things about them.
4 Likes
Don’t be afraid to push it, you should be able to handle anywhere from 150 to 200% of your front squat 1RM with these
Of course if you don’t have a power rack and need to walk it out you shouldn’t do them too heavy because of the safety risk
I think they are something I will try again and go heavier. With today being my first time doing them and putting a lot into the rest of my workout I didn’t take them too far but I think I would’ve been OK adding another 10kg at least. The worst part was the discomfort from the bar on my shoulders but that’s something that just needs getting used to. It was only the last 15s of the last set that I started shaking.
Yeah, that’s bad for a couple of weeks but you’ll get used to it really quickly
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I’ll be front squatting weekly starting in a fortnight and I’ve considered doing a couple of holds afterwards if I feel good.
Sounds good, just ma ke sure to work hard and good things will come
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Another change of plan: 2/4/18-28/05/18
So I was going to follow the tried and true bodybuilding template but with exams around this time I don’t really want to be at the gym more than three times a week. I’ve not had much to do recently so I’ve read a few articles and looked at a fair bit of Waterbury’s stuff. Using that I’ve come up with a three day full body plan, mainly based around his 25 method article.
Day 1:
Bench press - 8x3
Barbell row - 4x6
Front squat - 3x8
Lateral raises, ab wheel, reverse curls - 2 sets to failure
Day 2:
Dumbell row - 3x8
Incline dumbell bench - 3x8
Deadlift - 8x3
Face pulls, side bends, skull crushers - 2 sets to failure
Day 3:
Chin up - 8x3
Overhead press - 4x6
Back squat - 5x5
Press ups, back extensions, lunges - 2 sets to failure
If I’m in a hurry then I can just do the main stuff and be out fast which is ideal- a lot of it I will be able to superset too. In terms of weight I’ll just go by feel so that the last sets are around RPE 9 and progress when I need to. Variations of the lifts might change slightly but I think that’s the basic template I’ll stick with. I am very very excited to do this.
5 Likes
10/1/18
W3D1
Pause overhead press (TM-40) ss with pull aparts:
2x8x20, 5x30, 3x5x35
Squat (TM-80) ss with pull aparts:
2x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 3x65, 8x75
Double overhand axle deadlift:
3x+20, 3x+40, 1x+60, 1x+70, 1x+75, 1x+40 (40s hold)
Mobility/stretching: 5 mins
Felt a bit rubbish today, especially squats. I had more than eight reps in me on that plus set though so I’m annoyed I stopped. Overhead press and deadlift still felt OK. I worked up to where my grip was about to fail with deadlifts which was fun.
3 Likes
You should weigh that axle or just ask the staff, mate 
. It would drive me crazy to not know how much that thing is
1 Like
I will do eventually haha, at a guess I’d say it’s 5-10kg.
That program actually looks pretty cool, hope it works well!
Yeah I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I like the different rep schemes and the variation in exercises.
1 Like
11/12/18
Extra workout
My membership for the gym at home ran out yesterday and I’m going back to uni tomorrow so rather than getting a day pass I’ll go Sunday and Monday at uni. Since I’d planned to go to the gym anyway I thought I’d do a quick workout at home.
I did:
-
Lateral raises- 1 warm up set then 1 set to failure followed by partials to failure, ~5 slow eccentrics and ~10 bottom half dumbell overhead presses
-
Reverse curls- 1 warm up, 1 set to failure
-
Band pull aparts- 100 rep dropset
-
Glutes bridges ss side leg raises- 2 sets to near failure
-
Fat bar BW hang- 1 hang till I fell
Basically just burnt out lots of muscles I don’t always hit too much and got a pump. The ache in my shoulders by the end of the pull aparts was almost unbearable.
2 Likes