Y’all are too nice. I’m just repeating what I heard.
If you only listened to the same 4 bands for 20 years, you’d know all the lyrics too.
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8-22 Concentric Day
Bamboo Row
x 10 x 4 sets
Pushup On Barbell
x 10 x 4 sets
Bamboo RDL
x 10 x 4
Bamboo Squat
x 10 x 4
Bamboo Seated Press
x 10 x 4
52 minutes
One set of 10 reps with 40 pounds hanging to get going, then 4 sets of 10 with 60 pounds hanging for Bamboo stuff. Pushups on barbell around knee height x 10 for a warm up, then at the bottom of the rack for 4 work sets. Many words to describe something simple.
It was the same 5 sets of 10 in 5 lifts, with the same top weights as last week. But higher average weights and 9 minutes faster. I didn’t think much about the average weights but I was conscious of the pace. I’m usually not too excited about doing a workout faster than last time. Only this time I planned it like a week beforehand so it seemed cool.
Good workout.
3 Likes
8-24 Eccentric Day
Neutral Grip Pushup
handles 2 notches high x 5 reps with 9 count eccentric
handles at the bottom x 5 reps with 9 count eccentric x 4 sets
Eccentric Nordic Curl
knees low x 5 x 1 set
knees high x 5 x 4
Belt Squat
40 x 5 x 1
60 x 5 x 4
Seated Cable Row
80 x 5 x 1
100 x 5 x 4
I saw this the the other day and thought about my wrist during pressing. This poor dude couldn’t load up his tricep, shoulder or upper back because of the wrist. Anyway, I tried some of these banded wrist extensions before pushups. We’ll see where it goes.
Since I returned after that month off I’ve ben trying to hit the gym earlier. It really makes the rest of the day flow smoother for the rest of the family. Today was the earliest yet. I was kinda in a daze at first. I did like a set of leg curls and a set of pulldowns to get moving and somehow 15 minutes had passed.
Here is Matt Wenning taking one of his athletes through a “Wenning Potentiation” style warmup for deadlifting.
2 single joint isolation moves for weak muscle groups
1 move to warm up the movement pattern of the day
Some dudes were talking about how guys aren’t tough now and it made me think of some high Test music from '92.
Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power {Reissue} [Full Album] (HQ) - YouTube
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Nerd Stuff
Overhead tricep extensions are better than pushdowns. Seated hamstring curls are better than laying hamstring curls. The stretch position is good for hypertrophy. Science says different lifts Can build different parts of the muscle.
Scary science finding -Muscle growth plateaus after 3 months.
Happy ending - if you eat more, gradually add volume over time, cycle through different rep ranges or use different lifts you can get gains for longer.
Other stuff I didn’t see yet
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What happens if your progress runs out before you’re all muscley? Find another way to progress.
From Thibadeau’s Log
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8-26 Iso Day
Bench Press Iso
vs minibands x 45 count x 4 sets
45 Degree Hyper
hold a little bit above horizontal +25 x 45 count x 2 sets
On Glute/Ham
a little below horizontal x 45 count x 2 sets
2 KB Front Rack Squat Iso
the bottom + 15s x 45 count x 4 sets
Seated Cable Row
hold at sternum x 80 x 45 count x 4 sets
The quality of the iso stuff was better this week. But it took me the full 55 minutes, last week I had time for some extras. I smashed it Monday, but slowed down a little Wednesday and today. I also fell asleep when I put the baby to bed, and ended up sleeping like 9.5 hours last night. And the calendar says it’s been 3 weeks of straight progress. With 3 weeks of steadily increased appetite.
It’s already time for a deload. And after my month off I’m like hyper sensitive to all the cues. That’s neat.
So I need to come up with some way to back off a little next week.
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Push/Pull/Legs, three workouts over the week. 8 sets per workout.
1/3 frequency, 66% of the volume of what I’ve been doing. And it’s easier because its not full body.
OK!
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Those images could simplify so much for so many people. I find myself running through 8-10, 6-8, 4-6 at the moment. Usually about a month for each one.
Do you not schedule your deloads and go off feel then?
I don’t find myself being strict with them at the moment. If I feel one creeping up behind me I angle in 4 days off with my lifestyle, things like a weekend off when it’s a bank holiday so the gyms closed Monday. Maybe have 1-2 light/half weight days (which on EOD works out as 3-4 days anyway)…Or of course if i get ill. I find that during the first 2 rep ranges sometimes just one extra rest day can delay the deload for a bit longer.
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Thib’s slides are cool. I like to see the different methods for the same goal side by side. It makes it easier to see the Big Picture vs getting caught up in one method against another method.
I usually schedule the deloads for every 4th week, like the smart guys say. Only I’m always trying to talk myself out of it, or push for an extra week. So I try to remind myself a lot.
Right now I’m really trying to line up my feelings with the calendar. This time it worked out perfectly. I was feeling the effect, and it had been 3 weeks.
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8-29 Push/Deload
Neutral Chins
1 strand of Strong Band across power rack hooks at hole #8 x 8 reps
x 3 sets
1 Arm Rows with KB
30 x 8
40 x 8 x 2 sets
Wide Pulldowns
120 x 8
140 x 8 x 2 sets
Seated Hammer Curl
10 x 15 reps
15 x 15 reps
20 x 15 reps
Standing EZ Bar Curl
35 x 12
55 x 12
45 x 12
Arnold Curl with KB
20 x 15 x 2 sets
Loosely inspired by Kaz back day.
Chins with a band helping suck, only not as bad as no chins. Setting that shit horizontal was better than trying to step in and out of a hanging band. Strong band, average band, light band, no band seems like it could work.
Some old guy wanted to chat. I talked to this dude for like 30 minutes about how he got diabetes at 68 and had to give up his carb shakes and lost 30 pounds. Dude was still lifting and weighed about 195 at 73 years old, so I was a little interested.
Then he got onto Vietnam, the US supporting France when they */were fighting the war, and the influence of big business and corporations on US involvement in the war. And his involvement in the war, from the Delta, up river to the Cambodian border. I had just watched “Apocalypse Now” and what dude described was just like the movie.
Somehow we got onto the Revolutionary War, and how British loyalists working in the early US government fucked with the development of our country. Dude even claimed Andrew Jackson was some kind of British sympathizer.
And how John McCain and John Wayne were cowards, LBJ wanted to create some communist dystopia, and how big business runs our country through Administrative Law.
I knew just enough history and key words to keep him going with cues and prompts, so it was kinda interesting. Anyway, I’ve got a couple few new books to check out.
Pretty solid little deload workout. Although after like 8 weeks with no direct work, my biceps were like WTF today?
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Everybody knows about Westside Speed Benching for “power.” What about building muscle and a “base”?
Volume Benching
" First, let’s look at a program that was shared with me from Bill Seno, a Chicago power lifter and high-caliber body builder who won many “Best Chest” awards. It called for using a very wide illegal grip. You start with six sets of six reps and a weight that is fairly easy so as to jump five or 10 pounds each week for three to five weeks until it is almost impossible to complete. At this point, reduce weight and start over with eight sets of eight reps. Again, add five or 10 pounds a week until you find it almost impossible to complete. Again, reduce weight and start over with 10 sets of 10 reps. Work up for a few weeks until you again cannot add weight. Now it is time to return to six sets of six reps. You will find that your plateau is now much higher. Repeat the sequence."
Dumbbell Benching
“The second workout calls for a high volume dumbbell workout using at least two angles. After warming up with lighter dumbbells, choose three weights to test yourself for three sets of eight to 10 reps of pressing from two angles. Two examples are flat/incline or seated/decline. Your goal is to set a single set rep record and a three-set record for total reps.”
Bill Seno
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8-31 Push/Deload
Converging Incline Machine
60 x 8
70 x 8
80 x 8
Slight Decline Chain Fly, stretch at bottom, squeeze at top
little chain, 1 strand x 15
little chain and medium chain, 1 strand each x 12
little chain 1 strand, medium chain doubled up x 12 x 2 sets
Rear Delts on Reverse Pec Dec x 15
3 way DB Delt Raise x 15
3 rounds
a few band triceps to get elbows ready
PJR Pullover
40 x 15
45 x 15
50 x 15
Band Triceps
Neutral Pushdown x 25
right into Overhead Extension x try for 25
3 times around
A bunch of my favorite moves, all on one day. I can see why people get down on these “Push” days.
2 Likes
9-2 Deload/Legs
Pigeon stretch action
Box Band Monster Walk
Turn toes is and Wobble in a Square vs Band
Legit
Seated Band Hamstring Curl
mini band x 20ish x 2 sets. Some reverse lunges with overhead lat stretch between sets.
Belt Squat
35 x 12
50 x 12
60 x 30 seconds x 2 sets
Decline Situp x 20
Leg Extension vs band x 20
2 pairs
Nordic Hinge
BW x8 x 3 sets
Reverse Hyper
70 x 20
90 x 20 x 2 sets
Good one. All leg days should be deload. University of Tennessee won their football season opener last night and everyone is in high spirits.
Next week the NFL kicks off with Bills/Rams at the coolest stadium in the league. I’m thinking about freezing myself so I don’t have to experience the wait.
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Nice post from Thibadeau!
When I got down on the Hatfield inspired, hypertrophy inspired stuff I had 6 “days.” It was Push/Pull/Legs, with one push day for chest, then 3 work outs later, push day for shoulders. One pull day for lats, then 3 workouts later pull day for traps. One leg day for hams, then 3 workouts later leg day for quads.
It was pretty cool at first, then it was too long between hitting body parts again. Like 5 sessions before a repeat. And if I was only lifting 3 times a week, it was like 2 weeks before a repeat.
This is just like that, with most of my favorite moves, much smoother. It’s like Christian wrote it Especially for me. Like he just looked at my sloppy shit and fixed it. Thanks Coach! I hope he won’t mind if I sub in Chain Flies and Band Triceps.
Anyway, observe.
"Day 1 - Push 1 (Quads, pecs, delts, triceps): On this day, more focus is placed on pectorals and less on deltoids
Day 2 - Pull 1 (Hams, rear delts, upper back, lats, biceps): On this day, more focus is placed on upper back than lats
Day 3 - Push 2 (Quads, pecs, delts, triceps): With more emphasis on delts and less on pectorals
Day 4 - Pull 2 (Glutes, rear delts, upper back, lats, biceps): With more emphasis on lats than upper back
Day 5 - Gap: This includes work either for muscles that I felt were not trained properly, stuff I might have skipped due to time limitation or fatigue or muscles I want to emphasize more
Here are my number of exercises per muscle group.
Pectorals: 1 on non-emphasis days, 2-3 on emphasis days
Deltoids: 1 on non-emphasis days, 3 on emphasis days
Triceps: 2 or 3. Typically depending on how many pressing exercises I have that day. If I have more pressing movements for pecs/delts, I do 2 triceps exercises, if I don’t have many pressing movements I go to 3 triceps movements
Quads: 1 or 2. I’ll admit that I’m not doing much quads work versus other muscles. For several reasons: (1) I’m quads dominant and I could grow then as much as I want with only squats (2) my adductors are still not A1 so I’m limiting my volume (3) I don’t want my quads to get much bigger than they are now
Rear delts: 3. This may seem like a lot for such a small muscle. And it is. But it is probably my biggest weakness so I need the volume. I also need to rely on “small” targeted movements that cause very little systemic fatigue so I can tolerate the volume.
Lats: 1 on non-emphasis days and 2 on emphasis days
Upper back: 1 on non-emphasis days and 2 on emphasis days
Traps: 1 (traps ARE very important to me. But at the moment, rear-delts have the priority here)
Biceps/arm flexors: 2 or 3 (typically 2 when lats are emphasized and 3 with upper back is emphasized as vertical pulling hit the biceps more than horizontal pulling)
Glutes: 1
Hamstrings 1 or 2 (going by feel)
Most of the time I do 3-4 sets per exercise.
At the moment, I’m doing lots of volume so I’m using a lot of machines.
Although I’m more of a big-basics kinda guy. In this phase, I’m actually using mostly machines and pulleys. The reason is that these are a lot less demanding systemically and allow me to accumulate more volume, which is my goal at the moment.
I’ve also grown to believe that strictly for hypertrophy purposes, machines might be superior to free-weights in many regards. Mostly because they allow to have a less “divided” neural drive, allowing to a stronger signal to the muscle you want to target and thus an easier fast-twitch fibers recruitment.
At the moment my favorite exercises are:
Pectorais: Hammer strength decline chest press, hammer strength incline chest press, pec deck
Deltoids: Lateral raises machine (I use full or partial reps depending on my goal), DB lateral raises in scapular plane, EZ bar front raise
Triceps: EZ bar cable triceps pressdown, Atlantis triceps extension machine (I do it with a position different than the one you typically use on the machine to make pretty much like a skullcrusher), Atlantis overhead triceps extension machine
Quads: Bells of Steel hip belt squat machine, Leg extension
Rear delts: Reverse pec dec, archer row (I’ll make a video in the future), dual pulley rear delts
Lats: Hammer strength lat pulldown (single arm), Atlantis lat pulldown machine, straight-arms pulldown
Upper back: Bent over row in Smith machine, Atlantis seated row machine
Traps: Trap bar shrugs
Biceps/arm flexors: EZ bar curl, preacher curl machine, rope hammer curl
Glutes: Hip thrust machine
Hamstrings: Lying leg curls, seated leg curls"
4 Likes
9-6 Pull
Rip Shoulder Fix x 3
Shrug Bent Over x 15
4 pairs. Shrugs got less bent over each set
Neutral Pull Up, Average Band at Hole 8 helping
both strands x 8
1 strand x 8 x 3 sets
Incline Bench DB Shrug x 20
Rear Delt DB Swing x 25
3 pairs
Barbell Bent Row
vs double mini bands anchored near floor x 8, 10, 12, 12
Band Hammer Curl
Mini Band x 20, 30, 30
Barbell Curl
55 x 12
75 x 12, 12
DB Concentration Curl with Fat Gripz
15 x 12
20 x 12, 10
Any other day I would have been pretty pleased with this. Today it seemed whack. I was counting the minutes before I could leave. Weird.
Using less band than last time went smooth. I’ll use even less next time. From there, maybe lower the band from hole 8 in the rack to hole 7.
I looked up one of the books the crazy old guy from last week was talking about. He said it would be hard to find or very expensive. I quickly checked with Bezos and called bullshit on old dude when the book popped right up. There was even a kindle edition for $9.99.
But then when I clicked on it to add it to the cart, the link was broken and the book couldn’t be purchased. !!! Illuminati Shit!
5 Likes
Some Stuff
When I eat less, I really do move less. I took 4 weeks off from the weights last month, I was doing less Work, I wasn’t as hungry, and I didn’t eat as much. I still walked the dogs and the baby and during that month my daily steps leveled off. 15k no matter what I did. Some days we were energetic and took like 4 walks, and some days it was too hot and we just shuffled around the yard, but it was always 15 steps.
Then, back to the weights, and post workout protein shakes and 2nd lunch. Suddenly steps are up 10-15%, occasionally as high as 20 out of nowhere. It was kind of a shock at first. Like I just do the same stuff we did before, and without thinking, we just go a little further/longer.
I was a little skeptical of the idea that eating less makes you burn less calories because you fidget around less. But I observed it in real life. Neat!
Last Wednesday I did a few BS suitcase walks, decline situps and some QL sidebends between pressing lifts. Sunday I was leaning over. licking up some shit in the garage and I had a little back spasm, or some kind of cramp in my lower back. I was a little stiff, and it’s the reason I didn’t jump back into the full body lifting routine this week.
Anyway, I feel way better today. I guess it was just a muscle thing and not a bulgey disc thing. So that’s good. The bad news is that Suitcase Walks have fucked my back up 3 (or is it 4) separate times since I did bulge a disc this time last year. I can totally live without doing that move in the gym, but carrying something beside you with 1 hand is a pretty common move in real life. So, shit.
I got ready to lift with a few of these yesterday. It really got my scap muscles going.
Then I did band assisted chinups, like this. With the band helping in the bottom it was really easy to iniate the pullup by depressing the scaps, then pulling with lats, not arms.
Today my back is Real sore and my elbow is totally un effected. Legit.
3 Likes
I’m already behind and here’s another one.
9-8 Push
Some stuff to get going
Seated DB Press
15 x 9
30 x 9
40 x 9
45 x 9, 8
Pec Deck, Lean Forward for Upper Pecs x 15ish
Barbell Pushups x 15
3 pairs
Bamboo Bar, Skull Crusher into Dick’s Press into Close Bench
30 x a bunch
40 x still a bunch
50 x less
Cable Side Raise x 12
DB Front Raise x 15
DB Side Raise x 12
Cross Body 1 Arm Cable Tricep x 20
3 rounds
Good one. I like the bamboo bar extension/hybrid press/press long ass sets for triceps.
Bills/Rams from Cali to kick off the NFL tonight. Friend’s wedding in Knoxville tomorrow. I’ve got the same tingle used to get before an F-in’ Bender. Like hammered for days and down big to the bookies, looking to get it back on the Monday Night double header.
But I’m an old douche now so I’ll probably be asleep before half time tonight.
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A high powered Mercenary has joined our ranks! 2 sacks?! Welcome Von Miller!
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More stuff from Matt.
Off Season, work on Iso lateral, or single leg stuff. Matt shows a Bulgarian Split Squat in the Belt Squat machine. That’s pretty neat. Then a single leg RDL with weight in opposite hand. Look Close! Toe of working foot is elevated to help keep weight on the hamstring. And a side plank with a leg raise.
Main work is Sumo deadlifts on a deficit.
Some other stuff I that’s not in this video. Wenning likes 4 sets of 25 on a few moves to get ready for the main work of the session. If you’re doing 1 sided stuff, 4 sets of 12 per leg is cool. Otherwise you’d be there all day.
5 sets of 8 reps in the Sumo Deadlift with 30-40% is a common Conjugate “base building” cycle that they talk about but never write about. Because the weights are light they often progress the ROM by adding a deficit. In this vid Wenning talks about moving the feet out then standing on plates, set to set. Louie talked about making the deficit bigger week to week. Louie went extreme, to the point of using a cambered bar so your hands were lower than your feet.
I THINK that you back way off on squats, or maybe don’t squat at all during this phase of training. But don’t quote me on that. These bros haven’t exactly spell out the compete details, that I’ve seen.
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