Oh man, so many! Compound, closed chain lift (like moving your body through space vs waving your arms around) so it’s good for “strength.” Super tricep dominant, really lock-out focused which works towards my goal of big arms and my specific weakness of missing benches and presses right near the very top.
In other moves like tricep extensions, JM press or even close Grip Bench it’s pretty easy to subconsciously alter the lift, and take pressure of the triceps to get more poundages. Can’t do that with these.
They are a less boring move that’s similar to “scap dips” or other rehabby scapular stability exercises + I get some triceps. They don’t hurt, and they’re going up!
A lot of those benefits apply to regular old dips too. I’m just too fat and not strong enough to do full dips correctly enough to get something out of them. The partials can be special work for the advanced or regressed work for the beginner. Lifting is cool that way.
Light sled drag. 150 feet x down and back x 6 trips
3-17 Legs
Get loose
Clamshell x 6
Opposite side Adductor x 6
McGill Curl Up x 6
Psoas Eccentric Leg Drop x 6
Clamshell motion with leg straight + internal hip rotation x 6
Hip Abduction with internal rotation x 6
2 times through
45 Degree Back Raise with Foam roller between knees
x 8 x 3 sets
Single Leg RDL
x 5 x 4 sets
Person Step Up
x 6, 7, 8
Standing Calf
x 12 x 4 tough ones
Seated Calf
x 15 x 2 sets wide and 2 sets narrow
Neck Harness
x 15 x 4 sets plus one set x 25
Same stuff as last week, only last week was just right over the edge of what my hip/back could take so I just did 80% of that today.
I kept the food intake pretty strict and went from 233 to 230 in about a week. Then Saturday I increased calories by eating some pizza.
Dr Hatfield called this the “Zig Zag” diet. When loosing weight he says to keep calories below maintenance for 5 or so days so you loose fat and bodyweight goes down. Then increase for a day or two to prevent any muscle loss and any drop in your Base Metabolic Rate. As a result your bodyweight increases slightly.
Once you’re topped off and running strong you drop calories again and loose weight for 5 more days.
So I ate the pizza at 230 on Saturday and woke up at 232 Sunday feeling good. By Wednesday I was down to 228.8. I was able to move in 2 belt holes since Christmas time. To celebrate I bought a couple pairs of pants.
Band Uppercut x 15 x 2
Band 1 Arm Pullover x 15 x 2
Band Hammer Curl x 25 x 2
Bicep rehab. Moved up from micro mini to regular mini band. Arm/shoulder feels way better.
Smith Overhead Press
work up in 7s
40 x 8
42.5 x 8
45 x 8
1 Arm Kettlebell Press
30 x 10
35 x 8
40 x 8, 8
DB Upright Row
20 x 10
25 x 10
30 x 8, 8
drop to 20 x 8
Partial Dips
x 12
+17 x 10, 10, 10, 8
Close Spoto Bench
115 x 10
135 x 8
145 x 8
150 x 8
drop to 125 x 8
Reverse Pec Deck Rear Delt x 15
Band Pushdowns x 25 Band Overhead Extension x 20+
2 times
Early morning workout, Dad-style. Pretty good one. Left arm is feeling good enough that I forgot about it until it was curl time. Maybe one more bicep day with bands to be safe.
Bonus Sled Drag. 150 feet x down and back x 6 trips
Sled workout goes
Drag forward, powerwalk style x 150 “down” then backwards drag x 150 x “back”
Walk 150 down and back with no sled to recover
Repeat
Drag doing rowing or pullover type lat motion x 150, pressing chest motion x 150
Walk 150/150 to recover
Repeat
Drag with rear delt flying motion, Y-Raise, or cuban rotation x 150, overhead tri extension x 150
Walk it out
Repeat
In just a few workouts my pace has improved and I’m already walking faster during the “rest” walks. I could picture myself jogging or running the “rests” to progress the workout at some later time. The images were so vivid I think I got placebo-cardio gains.
3-20
Bonus Sled Drag
Power walk/ backwards drag, into
Row drag/ chest press drag, into
Rear delt drag/ overhead extension drag
No rest
Half the work on the “regular” session, straight thru. Just a little variety to make the process slightly less boring. And maybe train some different energy systems or something.
Average loading for PL is 70%. Lighter and lifters don’t make good gains, heavier and lifters overtrain in 2 weeks. Squat loadings and deadlift loadings should be “opposite,” like deadlifts are light when squat is heavy and vice-versa.
Dude likes to separate “heavy” squats from “volume” squats. Like do your 80-85% squat work. Then do bench/upper body stuff. Then do some more lighter squats for more reps after that. Sheiko says the little break allows you to squat more weight during the volume stuff.
The coach should micro adjust the training. If the lifter is stressed out, tired or hungry the weights will be extra heavy, so the coach might take a little off the bar. If the lifter feels good and the bar is flying the coach might put a little extra on the bar to take advantage.
But you can’t leave these decisions to the lifter! If you let them “autoregulate” and pick their own lifts they’ll usually puss out and go too easy.
Clamshell
Laying Adduction
Curl Up
Psoas Eccentric
Clam with straight leg + internal rotation
Straight leg abduction + internal rotation
all x 7 for 2 rounds
Standing Leg Curl
x 10 x 2 sets
45 Back Raise, Squeeze Foam Roller between knees
x 9 x 3 sets
Single Leg RDL
x 5, 5, 4, 4, 5
Peterson Step Up
x 7, 8, 10
Leg Extensions vs Band + Weight
x 15 x 2 sets
Standing Calves
work up in 8s
x 12+ x 4 work sets
Seated Calf
x 15+ x 2 sets wide feet
x 12+ x 2 sets narrow feet
90% of the volume of the problematic leg day, plus 2 sets of leg curls and 2 sets of leg extensions. Just tryin’ to keep it Optimal. Not minimal, not maximal.
The woman turned 30 yesterday and some of her family is coming in today to celebrate. Hopefully the baby and basketball will entertain them and I can avoid BS small talk about everyone’s job they hate.
Or the other way around for an insane person like me. I’m trying to puss out more often. Managed to restrain my loads for a few weeks and it paid off, but now doing crazy shit again and systemic fatigue is like as always too high.
I totally agree about being the opposite, and having to back things down and restrain myself more often than pushing more. And other people who’s opinion I respect have lifted Sheiko style and said that it was too light and too easy. Russian dudes must be a bunch of Pusses!
The best way for me to learn about fatigue was to handle my girlfriend’s training. I didn’t “coach” her, but I suggested programs and then we’re in the gym together while she followed the programs. So I’d see everything that went on at home, how she ate, how she slept, if she worked her job a lot, etc, etc. Then I’d get to watch the effects on the next couple workouts. It taught me a lot.
Did these for the first time a few weeks ago, they are nice.
Happy birthday to her and have a good time!
Thanks for the feedback. yeah that’s why I like having a coach, even though I have no money for one. I am too competitve, and I want to do too much. Especially right now that I have a training partner. But I have faith I’ll manage to restrain myself more and more with time. For the first time in many years I broke through plateaus, and I think I like more progressing rather than thrashing myself up
Bamboo Bar Shuffle
Standing Leg Curl x 8
Peterson Step Up x 8
3 rounds
Bamboo Bar Shuffle
Goblet Squat to Above Parallel Box x 3
5 times
Bamboo Bar Shuffle
45 Back Raise x 7
3 times
Standing Calf
5 x 5, heavier than normal
Strip Some Weight
x10 strict, dead-stop, heels on floor then loose reps till failure
x 2 strip sets
For Bamboo Bar shuffles I had the fiberglass bar in the rack like I was squatting or something, with only the right side loaded with some hanging weight. Then I took it out of the rack and shuffled backward a few steps and forward a few steps for “spinal awareness.” I got it from this video.
Band Pushdown, Hands Looped in Band, Push down and out at Bottom
x 25, 25, 25
Band Pushdown, Grab band like V Handle
x 25, 25, 25
I did some z presses with only one side of the bamboo Bar loaded between sets of some of the shoulders stuff.
My neck drown into my tricep on the left side is irritated. I can’t tell if it’s a tight trap/neck or lat/pec, or if it’s a nerve issue but it hurts. I’ve got daddy duty the next few days or I would have stayed home.
Whatever is going on, it’s a neck problem. And I think I was shrugging my shoulders all day and night to take tension off my neck and that made my traps tight. Anyway, my neck was so tight I could do any kind of neck circles or stretches or McKenzies cause it hurt.
Finally I just massaged my neck and found two painfully tight “lumps” at the tippy top of my neck/bottom of my skull. Even with the tops of my ears. That shit felt swollen. I took some Ibu, kneaded those lumps and out some Icy Hot back there. I’m already less pissed off.
