Been quiet a bit. Everything good, flats?
3 Likes
Calling Mr. Flats… Mr. @FlatsFarmer !
4 Likes
Hey! You’re finally back! @FlatsFarmer
2 Likes
Alright! I missed a few updates.
Omni Contraction
I finished the 4 week (plus 1 BS break in week) block of Thib’s stuff with the eccentric and isometric days. It was cool, everyone talks about slow eccentrics to fix your squat. That shit is for real, after a couple weeks I could goblet squat ass to grass and my hips/knees/quads felt pretty good. Isometric RDLs, just holding the weight at my knees for 45 seconds really got my glutes kicking for hinging. So that felt good too.
Thibadeau programmed like a reverse linear scheme, where you started with high reps or long, long holds then dropped the reps/time as the weights went up. I hadn’t ever really used this progression scheme before. It was pretty cool, really felt like Building Up Capacity over the course of the month. Like week 1, 45 second Squat Isometric Hold, I resembled a shaky-leg dog taking a shit. By week four I was Solid down in the pause, with heavier weights. Only it was a shorter time so my position didn’t break down like before.
I’m looking forward to messing with this stuff again.
Breakdowns
After the full body stuff I switched to a body part split. 3 sets (one heavy/medium/light) of 3 lifts per body part. Good old meat head stuff! After the more general full body work it felt good to hit the individual parts and get swole again.
I got about 5 weeks in before my right bicep and shoulder got pissed off and I couldn’t hit my reps.
Heart Rate Variability
Before the Omni Contraction routine I did some circuit training for 3-4 weeks. By the end of the Breakdowns routine I had been pushing pretty hard for 14 weeks, in a caloric deficit. I was feeling kind of beat up, appetite was diminished and sleeping was starting to get irregular. Then I got drunk, overheated and dehydrated one weekend, lost like 5 pounds and was feeling all-to-hell.
Just for fun I put on my heart rate monitor watch after it had been sitting in a drawer for a couple months. It said I was “Stressed.” And that my heart rate was like 65 beats per minute at rest. So my watch confirmed that I felt like shit! Technology!
But was I chilled out and pounded food for a week or two my stress meter decreased and my resting heart rate lowered little by little.
When it got down to 45 I felt great and slept fine. My watch said no stress.
After a workout it might get to 48 or with no issues.
After a tough workout, maybe I wouldn’t sleep so good and resting heart rate would be like 51. Stress meter would be like 50%. So I’d take a day or two off and things would return to normal.
A couple months ago we were talking about how to know when you’re ready to workout, and is there any 1 signal or indicator? We came up with hand dyna-meters, measuring morning heart rate and keeping notes, or just learning by experience. For $65 a Samsung fitness watch will give you a nice stress meter to indicate readiness. Pretty neat!
Return to Circuit Training
Using my cool meter I was able to set up my weekly Full Body Routine in a super optimal and totally customized way, individually tailored to me.
It turns out Mon/Wed/Fri with a day off between workouts and 2 days after the third workout works Perfect. Just like Big Reg said 70+ years ago.
And it turns out that a slight less intense Wednesday session between the two harder Mon/Friday workouts really helps me stay on track. Just like Bill Star said 50+ years ago.
Anyway, the circuit looks like this
Squat
Hanging Leg Raise
Pushup
Good morning
Row
Sidebend
Then sometimes I’ll go 1 arm, 1 leg
Lunge
1 Leg Raise
1 Arm Incline Bench
1 Leg RDL
1 Arm Snatch
Sidebend
or mix it up with
Bamboo Bar Front Squat
Leg Raise off Bench
Bamboo Bar Bench
Bamboo Bar Stiff Leg Dead
Bamboo Bar Row
Band Sidebend Pushdown Action
I do 10ish reps, avoiding failure with light weights, with rests just over a minute to keep my heart rate in the 120- 140 range. Keeping track of my heart rate is the most fun/exciting/challenging part of these boring workouts! But it’s cool, I’m giving my body a rest, getting full ROM and 1 sided action for restoration and building cardio capacity for the future.
I’m 3 weeks in today, with 1 or maybe 2 weeks more to go.
4 Likes
@ChickenLittle 9 months!
6 Likes
OMG! She is so precious! Look at that smile 
1 Like
funny how these big strong guys seem to know how to do this stuff.
1 Like
I like how the advice is consistent for years and years. Like 3 full body days a week, with a nice weekend. And maybe once in a generation someone improves or builds on what came before. Like working in the Heavy/Light /Medium days, Starr style. Or rotating in different lifts more frequently like Waterbury.
1 Like
Book Report
Nutrient Timing by John Ivy and Robert Portman, 2004.
“Using cutting-edge research studies from leading sports science laboratories, Nutrient Timing shatters myths and misconceptions about how to provide optimum nutrition to working muscles. It shows that when the right combination of nutrients is delivered at the right time, one can activate his/her body’s muscle machinery to increase muscle strength, improve endurance and increase lean muscle mass.”
I read this book, it was pretty cool. It was all about getting 6 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbs and some vitamins in, during your workout. Then getting some more carbs, protein and vitamins in right after your workout.
They showed lots of cool graphs and study results about how you’re messing up protein synthesis, hiring performance and maximizing muscle breakdown if you don’t get your nutrients at the right time.
They also mentioned the role that B Vitamins play in metabolism and processing glycogen into ATP and energy. And how important potassium and magnesium are. That was pretty neat.
And they mentioned how some muscle damage, post exercise was caused by loose oxygen free radicals. Like during exercise you’re muscles bring in 5x more oxygen than normal,and some of that stuff lingers in your muscle, damaging your cells for hours post workout. A little vitamin C and some vitamin E will get that under control.
Before reading this book is already been messing around with some BCAAs during workouts to try to not get so messed up by training. Or other times drinking Gatorade during workouts to keep hydration and potassium up when it’s hot.
It turns out my BCAAs have B Vitamins and C and E already added. Add a scoop of Gatorade powered has like 25 grams of carbs. So now I just mix those two together and drink it during workouts.
3 Likes
A couple good ones.
This lady says that if you hurt your ankle, limping around for awhile can jack up your hips. So make sure your ankles are working right. She also talked about tight Proneals ( lateral/outside shin muscles) leading to leg length discrepancy.
So roll out your Proneals. And do some calf raises, moving in a circular motion to build full ankle ROM and stable feet. So your hips don’t hurt.
This Ewe-Tube guy went to Ohio and met up with some notable Ohio guys. I saw him with Matt Wenning last week, and now with Elite. Anyway, he over arches his back when he trains hamstrings. Taking the work off his hams and putting it on his back. So they get a neutral spine and try to lock in the lats.
Part 2 for later.
3 Likes
cutieeee
1 Like
Oh, that’s one of my favorites with the rolling pin.
It really does invigorate your whole chain of ankles, knees, hips & back. Like fresh new legs.
1 Like
Yeah, hitting that outer shin did feel pretty nice after it felt pretty bad. I’m going have have to keep this in the rotation for awhile.
Some therapist guy wrote a book called “Anatomy Trains” about strips of ropey fascia that connect the lower and upper body and how everything is all connected. It’s cool to “feel” what dude was talking about.
1 Like
I’m pretty sure that’s the one my buddy worked his way through that using me as the test subject/fascia dummy.
That stuff feels so good sometimes. The effects of overly tight fascia can be subtle and pernicious and screw up entire fundamental movement patterns.
1 Like
Thibadeau responding to a guys who’s diet/fat loss had slowed down after 6 months of following a specific diet plan.
"You mention that you have been in a caloric deficit since February. So you essentially have been in a deficit for 5-6 months. Even if the deficit is not huge, that is WAY too long to be in a deficit. I normally recommend 12 weeks AT THE MOST. Because even if the diet is smart and the deficit conservative, past that point metabolic adaptations will catch up to you, making it really hard to keep losing fat.
Bert already mentionned the reduced conversion of T4 into T3 due to the chronically elevated cortisol level that comes from being in a deficit.
But there are others like reduced testosterone, peripheral insulin resistance (your muscles become resistant to insulin, making it harder to send nutrients there… which affects both muscle gain and fat loss). Peripheral insulin resistance is a protective mechanism that occurs when blood sugar is low due to low calories and carbs. The body wants to do everything possible to maintain a stable blood sugar level, so it makes the muscles resistant to insulin so that less carbs will be taken out of the bloodstream to go to the muscles. But it also reduces the capacty of the muscle to pull in amino acids.
Leptin is also reduced when in a caloric restriction for a long time, which greatly affects your capacity to lose fat.
The point is, 12 weeks is the longest you should be in a caloric deficit (and I personally perfer 8 to 10 weeks) after which you need a diet brak where you eat slightly above maintenance to reverse the metabolic adaptations. How long? Well, it depends on the severity and duration of the deficit. For 12 weeks of dieting I normally recommend at least a 3 weeks diet break. You were in. deficit for twice that long so you will deficintly need more than 3 weeks."
2 Likes
8-18 Upper
Pre Pre Pre-Hab
Stretch lat, trap,pec, bicep
Pre Pre-Hab
Band Face Pull
Band Tomahawk
DB Shoulder Extension
Scap Pushup
Pre-Hab
DB Row on Incline Bench
DB Rear Delt Raise on Incline Bench
1 Arm Cross Body Tricep Extension
Band Serratus Push
Low Incline DB Bench Press with Fat Gripz
7s up to 55s
DB Side Raise/DB Rear Raise
x 10-15 x 3 pairs
Band No Money x 25
Band Elbows Out Pushdowns x 25
Band Face Pull x 25
Band Overhead Tricep Extension x 25
2 rounds
Great workout! Really nice return to Upper/Lower after the other splits I’ve been using. I wasn’t very strong and I forgot to do biceps. It’s cool, I’m a worker, my lifts rise fast.
3 Likes
8-19 Lower
Pre Pre-Hab
Stretch hamstring, glute, hip flexor, crotch
Pre-Hab
Hip airplane, standing leg curl, psoas eccentric
KB Squat
7s up to 55
Close Grip, Semi Supinated Pulldown
x 10 x 3 sets
45 Back Raise x 10 with pause at top
Leg Raise off Bench x 13 with slow eccentric
3 pairs
Tib Raise x 15
Single Leg Calf Raise x 15
4 pairs
Great workout. Severe inroad!
I watched The Departed straight thru for the first time in awhile last night. I didn’t realize that Costigan was the baby’s father! Years ago I picked up on Sullivan not being able to perform that first time, but I’d didn’t notice how it kept happening to him. I guess in my mid 20s the idea of repeatedly failing at humpin’ was like, inconceivable.
Also, Marky Marky was like a long time Costello spy/informer, right? He killed Sullivan to cover his own ass, not as revenge for Queenan, right?
3 Likes
Circuit Training Part 2
I did a month or 13 workouts of circuits. 6 moves x 10ish un-fatiguing reps x 3 rounds with 1-2 minutes rest between moves and 6-8 minutes between rounds. Aim to keep heart rate between 120-140 bpm.
Getting through each workout was pretty easy. Some days I would barely sweat. Even so this shit was hard on me. I was drinking intra workout drinks, pounding food, taking high calorie days with pizza, and I still only gained about a pound. Most nights I crashed early and fell asleep at like 8 pm. I got an exertion sore throat, like I might get after 8 weeks of regular training, during the second week.
Next time I do this I’m really gonna take it serious and really eat and see if I can really stay well fed enough to gain some muscles.
Also next time I need to do some kind of before/after measurement to see if my “Cardio” actually improves.
1 Like
Have you tried Thibs 6 weeks to superhero?
2 Likes
No I haven’t. I’ve seen people mention it and talk about liking it. I loved the Thib program I ran in June. I’ll check it out!
1 Like