Thank you sir! I was showing another guy at the gym who I had convinced to run BtM how to do Poundstone curls and he seemed amazed when I told him to shoot for 100 in row. So I had some extra motivation to go all out!
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Great lift tonight. I feel like I say that about every session, but I don’t think I could leave the gym thinking a session was bad. I would stay until it was good or I had some kind of victory. I changed up the Shoulder giant set a bit by doing Press, Lateral raise and bent over laterals. Insane Pump. Adding in Karbolyn pre workout has been huge for me.
Building the Monolith W4D3
Axle Press 95 12x5
Lateral Raise 25 10x10
Bent Over Lateral 25 10x10
Weighted Franco Pull-Ups 25 5x5
Squat 225x5,250x5,285x5, SSB 165x20
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Really had a fantastic session last night. I actually supersetted Fat Grip chins and dips with the squats which is a recipe for exhaustion. I was trying to not throw up my Karbolyn and Surge, but thankfully it never got to that point! Got the session finished a little faster than usual with the supersetting of the main work. May be out the window for 1’s week next Monday, but we’ll see.
I’m now in the second to last week of Building the Monolith, and I’ve really been leaning out at 230 while increasing strength and conditioning. My training max being lighter this go-around has made this whole experience much more manageable. Not sure what I’ll run next, but I’m going to enjoy these final two weeks.
Building the Monolith W5D1
Squat 205x5,235x5,270 5x5
Axle Press 110x5,120x5,135x5,110x30(PR)
Chin Up 6x10(w/Fat Gripz),3x10,1x20
Dips 3x17,6x18,1x20
Banded Face Pulls x100
*Edit: also, I’m back in the training logs category! Pretty cool!
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I’m running out of things to say, but… Awesome!
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Thanks man! I appreciate the words and checking in with me! I’m honestly still shocked at the number myself, I usually start gassing out after about 25 reps, but I felt extra ready and extra strong last night!
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Got the session done last night in 50 minutes, The quickest I’ve completed a session during this training cycle. Took a minimum number of warm ups before the working weights. Being 5’s week, the weights felt super light, although my grip was still shot from the Fat Grip Chins on Monday. Bench was flying and I continued my tradition of 10 reps per set on 5’s week for Bench. I have not slept that great this week and I know that I definitely need to clean that up. My food intake has been good, however. The high demand of the program along with the weight vest walking has led to some nice leaning out while keeping my weight high! I was 229 on the dot last night.
Building the Monolith W5D2
Deadlift 285x5, 325x5, 370 3x5
Bench 175x10, 205x10, 230 5x10
Db Row 125 5x10
Poundstone Curl x202(PR)
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Forgot to post Friday’s session, but it went really great! I mixed it up a little bit because I did 5 sets of 15 instead of 15 sets of 5 on the Press. This left me with the most insane delt Pump I’ve ever had in my life! No joke! Assistance all went as planned then I had to finish with squat. All the main sets felt really easy, but the SSB Widowmaker was brutal and my lower back was on fire! I’m Still Just not totally used to the SSB and the different form that goes with it. It’s only the 4th time I’ve used it. I try to picture my form being more how it is on a goblet squat, but I think the form inefficiency makes this more difficult than if I did it on a straight bar. I also don’t account for the weight difference between these two, because I’m not sure how much it weighs. I do with the axle, because I brought it onto the scale and weighed it at about 22.5 pounds. However, for the sake of making the math easier, I just round that down to 20.
Building the Monolith W5D3
Axle Press 110 5x15
Weighted Pull Up 25 5x5
Dumbbell Shrug 130 5x20
Banded Face Pull 5x20
Squat 205x5,235x5,270x5,205x20(on SSB)
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Me now at 230 Vs me from last June at 204. Some gains have been made in that time. It’s about the long game!
Arms and forearms are up from 16.75” and 12.5” to 18.25” and 14.5”
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Massive progress my dude.
Planning to lean out?
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I probably will. I’ve been bulking for two years straight and my mass gain has been slowing down. I’ve been in such a permabulk mindset, but at times I miss being crazy shredded and vascular lol and I think it could be helpful in the long run and allow me to continue the bulk train from a leaner place.
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I think there’s quite a bit of data to support exactly this. Reddit is often wrong, but they got the ‘cut until 10%, bulk until 15%’ right. At least for natties.
It helps with nutrient partitioning and makes the fat come off a bit easier… somehow or another related to insulin resistance.
Anyways, looking great dude - happy to be along for the ride.
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I think there are a lot of benefits to it, not the least of which being aesthetics lol! @TrainForPain I figured you might be interested to know, I plan on running John Meadows’ Creeping Death II during this time!
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I can’t wait to see how it goes for you! You are a massive dude - this will be awesome
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Thanks man I’m super excited about it. Which is always huge! Have you run Creeping Death II? If so, what can you tell me about your experience? I will note that I’ll have to make some adjustments, as I train in a pretty bare bones gym and a decently equipped garage gym, but I see myself not having an issue making good substitutions where necessary.
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I have, and @rugby_lifting has some experience as well.
I liked it, but I liked all John’s programs. That one is better than some of them about having actual planned progressions for some of your lifts. The early part is all paused squats, which was fun. It’s PPL, and some of his push days get pretty long and I’m bored by the time I get to the end; that was probably my only complaint. I would definitely say it’s a pretty bread and butter “Mountain Dog” style program.
Something I played with by the end was alternating the heavy/ light days to stay fresher (rather than running all the base days in a row). If you wanted to try that, you could go:
- Heavy Pull
- Light Push
- Heavy Legs
- Light Pull
- Heavy Push
- Light Legs (this is also the workout I’d personally drop if you’re cutting and doing a bunch of cardio)
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Thanks so much for that feedback! That’s definitely how I plan on running it! Thank you for the suggestion!
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No worries! I’m really looking forward to seeing how you get on with it. It’s by far my preferred training style, but it gets tough in a deficit
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I’d love to give you feedback but looking at you i’d ignore my advice as you look awesome dude and have much more mass than me!
I ran Creeping Death 2 though and loved it. Some of the sessions became very long though and personally i didn’t always finish them. It is very typical Meadows though whose training style i love so its a biased opinion but i really enjoyed the programme.
As far as schedule goes, I also mixed it up a bit and dropped the light legs and also combined the chest and back light days to have a light upper day (so a 4 day split) as that fit my week better. A lot of the meadows PPL programmes work well in a 4 day structure though but they also have long sessions with lots of volume and intensity.
Whatever you’ve been doing though as obviously been working though, have you done a review of your bulk progress anywhere on here i could read?
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Thank you so much for the info and the kind words! I will certainly consider consolidating the push pull light sessions. That sounds like a solid idea. I’m ready for volume and intensity, I’ve been throwing my body a lot of that lately!
And also I have not done a comprehensive review of my bulk before but I suppose now would be a good time. I’ll make a post in Bigger, Stronger, Leaner to share my experience. Thanks for the idea!
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Dave, you glorious jacked motherf*cker.
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