Complete Power Look Program - Howie424

[howie424]

Micro Cycle 10/10: Rest Day 3/11/25

Waking time: 615am

• Sipping some coffee

Slept good. Shoulders and traps are sore. Tibs are sore AF from all the walking. Car is broke down and waiting on parts so I’ll just be chilling for a few days at the house with my son. A lot of Lego and horse-play in my near future.

Breakfast

• 1 quart of whole milk
• 1 serving of protein powder
• 5g creatine

Lunch

• 3 chicken thighs
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Snack

• 2 servings Greek yogurt with some honey & berries, but my son ate most of it.

Dinner

• son and I shared 2 huge chicken thighs and some chicken broth with butter, carrots & squash in it. I also had 2 servings of cottage cheese. This was after we both fell asleep super early without dinner and woke up around 930pm hungry.

[howie424]

Micro Cycle 10/10: Rest Day 3/12/25

After waking: 830am

• Shit, slept like 10 hours last night. Had 2 cups of coffee after I got up.

Breakfast

• Cooking up a pound of ground beef with some mixed veggies for son and I. He ate about a half pound and I had 4 ounces of liver.

Lunch

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Snack

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Dinner

• 3 chicken thighs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Some mixed veggies. Sweet peas go really good with this, all mixed together with hot sauce.

[howie424]

Micro Cycle 10/10: Rest Day 3/13/25

Up at 4am, felt totally rested. Woke up because I was thirsty though. Chilled by the fireplace for about 90 minutes before hopping on the computer to write. Had some caffeine about then.

Really eager to test and move forward.

Breakfast

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Lunch

• split a pound of 80/20 ground beef with my son, he probably ate half, I had 4 ounces of liver on the side

Snack

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Dinner

• 3 chicken thighs
• 2 servings olive oil
• some veggies

[howie424]

Test Week: Squat & Dip Day 3/14/25

Slammed a pint of water then had another with 1 serving C4 after waking.

Breakfast

• 90g oatmeal
• 28 oz skim milk, 4 oz whole milk
• 2 servings Ascent whey (this shit is terrible)
• 60g honey (kind of a lot)
• 5g creatine
• 1 Thermotab

Mid Morning

• cup of coffee
• 1 Thermotab

Snack

• 1 chocolate FiNIBARs
• 1 Thermotab

Pre WO

• 1 serving C4
• 1 Thermotab

Training

2-1/2 mile walk to the gym

Zercher squat

• warm up & ramp
• 325x1
• 335x0, had to dump it at the bottom

Dip

• warm up & ramp
• 150x1
• 160x0, nice eccentric
• 160x0, another tight eccentric
• 160x0, tight eccentric w/ a pause at the bottom, but no dice

Notes

• Bodyweight: 177
• Time: a long time
• Very clean 325 on the Zercher, but my back was too taxed to stay tight out of the bottom of 335. My goal was 315 so I’m good.
• Attempted 160 on the dip 3 times. Basically performed 3 really tight eccentrics, but just could not get out of the hole. Paused at the bottom of the third attempt just to see if I’d make it out, but I did not.
• 2-1/2 mile walk home.

Post Workout

• 2 servings of whey
• 1 quart of skim milk
• rice cereal, just shy of 6 servings
• Not the healthiest and probably not necessary. I became a carb fiend toward the end of this program for sure. I think I should have done it the other way around and started with higher carbs, tapering them off as the volume decreased.

Dinner

• No food, just a large cup of ginger tea. Bed early.
• Interesting that my bodyweight as of today is down 3 pounds from the very first training session of the program.

[howie424]

Test Week: Rest Day 3/15/25

Awake around 515am, had some caffeine about 45 min later.

Low back and shoulders are SORE AF; may have to put off testing Deadlift and Incline press until Tuesday. Plan on laying low and sleeping a lot this weekend though so maybe I’ll be fine. Might get some easy band pull-a-parts in today.

Breakfast

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Cup of coffee (or two).

Lunch

• 3 chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp butter

Snack

• 1 quart whole milk
• 5g creatine

Dinner

• 12 oz of lamb roast

[howie424]

Test Week: Rest Day 3/16/25

Quick write up.
Some caffeine.
Breakfast: whole milk & creatine
Couple cups of coffee
Lunch: chicken thighs with butter and hot sauce
Snack: whole milk & creatine
Dinner: leftover lamb roast, some rice, tortillas and yogurt
Bed early.

[howie424]

Test Week: Deadlift & Incline Press Day 3/17/25

Back and shoulders are still pretty sore, especially the low back; not sure how effective testing will be today.

Serving of C4 after waking at 5am.

Breakfast

• 1 quart skim milk
• 2 scoops whey
• 90g oats
• 30g honey

Cup of coffee.

Snack

• 2 chocolate FiNIBARs

2.5 mile walk to gym.

Pre WO

• serving of C4

Training Session

Deadlift: test 1RM

• 405 went up really easy. I went deep internally for this and it paid.
• 425 went up without question, but I didn’t get as deep of a breath as I wanted nor did I get all the slack out of the bar.
• 445 attempt, broke the floor but decided to call it before I lost my back position.
• 445 second attempt, didn’t budge and I didn’t strain for it. Called it a day.

Incline press: test 1RM

• 225 went up easy.
• 235 went up with a little strain, but very solid.
• Decided to call it; very happy with the performance.

Notes

• Bodyweight: 180
• Time: 1:05
• Honestly wasn’t sure how the day would go since I am still recovering from Zercher/Dip test on Friday, but I actually came in pretty strong.
• Back being fatigued from Zerchers did cost me some though, but overall I’m happy with it.

Post WO

• 1 quart skim milk
• 2 scoops whey
• 5-6 servings rice cereal

Dinner

• sharing a couple baked pork chops with son
• cottage cheese on the side
• maybe some zuchinni

[howie424]

Here are the testing numbers pre- and post-program. All are 1RM.

Zercher Squat: 225 / 325 [~44% increase]

Dip: +110 / +150 [~13.7 increase if you include bodyweight in the calculation]

Deadlift: 365 / 425 [~16.4% increase]

Incline press: 205 / 235 [~14.6% increase]

I might retest Deadlifts this Friday. My back was pretty fried from Zerchers and I think I can get deeper breaths to move a little more weight. TBD.

My bodyweight was 181 after pre-test, and 180.2 first day of the program. Final testing day I weighed at 180.4. Basically zero change. No judgement, just observation. Totally fine with my bodyweight.

My physique definitely changed considerably. Based on comments collected from others, I appear visually to be around 190#, despite usually walking around below 180.

Some shoulder issues have mostly disappeared. Buggy left hip has mostly disappeared. Posterior chain has changed quite a lot. I don’t have any suitable pictures, but hope to upload a few videos once I figure out an editing program.

I am a little stiff, but the inclusion of Sprinting in the 915 program will alleviate that.

According to strengthlevel.com’s calculators and metrics, I am just below Advanced on all my numbers. I am not saying that I am Advanced or even close to it, but this gives me an internal yet tangible metric to strive for.

Final thought: I always do well on pre-written programs. I’ve followed and enjoyed CT’s work since about 2010, and this program delivered. It was also a lot of fun, and the results were frankly mind-blowing compared to the 18 months of HIT training coming into the program.

915 Program appears to be a logical entailment. I had considered adding in technique/explosive work to this program (Press on Squat day, Deadlift on Press day, etc) without even knowing that 915 existed, but having known CT’s work for sometime.

Anyways, I’ll update the log for a while, and will either create a new one for 915 or continue here. I’ll also try to find a way to get decent pictures.

[FlatsFarmer]

Great work!

[howie424]

Thank you sir!

[howie424]

Back & Bis - 3/21/35

Decided to work up to a heavy single again to see what I had in the tank. This is after a 2-1/2 mile walk to the gym.

Bodyweight: 181

Deadlift

• worked up to 425x1

Deadlift, 2" deficit

• 315x2x6
• 225x2x10
• These felt beastly.

Pulldown, V bar + a light band

• 80x2x8-10 (can’t remember the reps but did 2 sets)

Bicep curl

• empty barbell 45x something, 8-10 or so
• cable 45x8-10 or so

Going to be doing a 2-way Full Body split (A: Posterior/Back & Bis, B: Quads & Shoulders/Chest/Tri) for the next couple of weeks, along with a low-carb meat & dairy diet. After that I am going to switch over to a really low fat diet (never actually done it strictly, have always had a lot of fat, even when using carbs) and the 915 program. Looking forward to trying it all out.

[howie424]

3/26/25

Went into the gym to work my Quads, Shoulders & Triceps.

Leg ext & Machine press, 3x15 ea
BB Hack squat & Dips, 3x6-8 ea
Cable pushdowns & Incline tri ext, 2x6-10 ea
Rear delts 100 reps

Weighed in at 184.

Going to to test High Pulls Friday (probably not a max but more testing for fluidity), and then intend to commence with 915 Programming on the first of April. I’ll make a new thread for 915 and give a briefing on my plan and goals or whatever.

[howie424]

3/28/25

Worked on High/Low Pulls today. Started with a band, wooden dowel and then moved to a barbell. I ended up settled with more of a Clean-grip. Definitely not a Snatch-grip, but wider than my DL grip.

Pull w/ straps, 1 from the floor + 2 from the hang

• worked up to 275 low pull; 205 being about the top set of high pulls
• was still pulling fairly high from 215-235, but
• will based my percentages for the 915 Program on 205#, would rather err on the lighter side

Did a bunch more work with various weights working my way back down. 135 will be a great working weight for higher rep accessory, also tested Kirk shrugs to the bellybutton.

Weighed 179.5 pre workout, worked pretty hard for about an hour. Pretty surprised with performance today. No crashed feeling post-workout either. Looking really lean today.

[howie424]

4/2/25

Some delay in beginning 915 program. Will be doing HFSW sessions (5/4/3/2/1 mostly, as it’s my favorite) and a lot of walking over the next week (or maybe even 2 to be honest) to bring my nervous system up to speed and reconvene next Wednesday.

Going to be moderate macros across the board (as far as ratios go).

Taking care of the car, kid and overall schedule. I will check back here with updates, but when 915 is ready to go full blast, I’ll start a new thread.

[howie424]

4/3/25

Late night spar with the little man at the wrestling gym last night.

Weighed 183 last night and 180 today.

Hit the weights today to test the body and nervous system.

Zercher squat

• 45x10
• 135x10
• 185x5
• 205x5
• 225x4
• 245x3
• 185x10

Incline press

• 45x10
• 95x10
• 135x5
• 155x5
• 165x4
• 175x3
• 135x10

Delt medley, 5 or 7 sets of 15-20 reps, didn’t really track anything here, just spamming contractions into the delt/tricep/lat area.

Intended to do 5/4/3/2/1, but RPE on Zerchers got HIGH; Incline was fine. Should have been more conservative and stuck with sets of 10, got a quick pump & sweat and headed home. Despite the failure to audible, I got very necessary feedback.

I won’t be using my 1RM for Zerchers for the 915 program. I tested at 325 post- CPLP, which has 80% at 265. After today, I can confidently say I won’t be doing that for sets 4-6 or for dynamic work. Instead I will impute a more conservative increase of approx. 25% from my pre- CPLP test. I’ll use 285 for 100% and 225 for 80%.

Tomorrow I’m going to get that “pump & sweat” with sets of 10 on Deadlifts, probably 3-5x10 and call it a day, then over the next few days get another Zercher/Incline session sticking with light sets of 10, a High pull session, and look to start 915 middle of next week.

[howie424]

4/4/25

After some reflection, I’ve decided to drop Zerchers for 915 and use Back Squats. Tested a few weights today.

Back squat

• ramp
• 345x1; hit a wall coming out of the hole, but stayed tight, regained momentum and powered it out of there; finished strong after I got it moving again.
• 355x0; probably could’ve got it out of the hole if I hadn’t done Zerchers yesterday; excuses, excuses.
• 275x4; this will be my 80% for 915 program, so wanted to see how a set of 4 felt; last rep was tough, but these were deep and I am confident that it will make a good 80%, considering all the work done prior to this set.
• 135x5

Deadlift

• a few feeler sets
• 345x4; this is 80% for 915 program, so feeling out a set of 4.
• 175x2x5

Leg curls, 1 set
Back ext, 1 set
Reverse grip cable curl, 1 set
Wide grip cable curl, 1 set
Close grip cable curl, 1 set
Incline straight arm delt fly, 1 set w/ isos

• 8-10 reps per set

Notes:

• Bodyweight: 178 before warm ups
• Will have to move from the squat rack to a power cage. The setting that allows for the best set-up is about a 1/4" too high to walk out of. A few wonky walk outs probably cost me some poundage today.
• Also testing a mix of orange juice, water, table sugar and caffeine as a workout drink. Am considering adding some leucine to it, and possibly electrolytes and/or a small amount of cyclic dextrin. Altogether I can make about a $2 drink that will suffice.
• All morning prior to training I ate 1-1/2 bananas, a cup of OJ, and a couple dates.
• Post training I ate a Red Baron pizza and that really hit. Will have a little leftover pork loin (maybe 3-4 oz) for dinner with cottage cheese.
• Kid went to his moms for the weekend, and I’ve got a weekend (mostly) off, so I may just be doing some reflecting and decluttering…

[howie424]

4/10/25

Going to update this log for probably the last time before switching over to a new one for 915.

Been a little inconsistent in both nutrition and training lately. It is interesting how things fragment when I’m not super focused on something. Since completing the CPL Program, I’ve just sort of lost a sense of solidarity. I respond well to pre-written programs, especially psychologically, as they cause me to condense and focus other areas of my life as well.

Today I am going to start a training week pre-915 to start bringing back some unity of nutrition and training and routine. I’ll kick off by performing a training week similar to the first week of Complete Power Look, and use that as a runway into Phase 1 of 915.