Well today was the day. The last “hard” workout of the program. It’s gone by so quick, I can’t believe it! Today was definitely the hardest workout of the entire program, 9 exercises and most of them are basically a pre-exhaust for the following exercise, so each muscle was really spent by the end. I also replaced dumbbell squats with barbell squats to really challenge myself this session. Next week is basically a deload week featuring two easier sessions. I supersetted this workout with a nice big breakfast at Jimmy’s Egg featuring: blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and coffee. Then went home for a 2 hour nap! Great start to the weekend!
Metabolic Challenge 12
Reverse Curl 55x30-10-30
Barbell Curl 65x30-10-30
Bench Press 115x30-10-30
Bent Over Barbell Row 95x30-10-30
Lateral Raise 15x30-10-30
Overhead Press 65x30-10-30
Leg Extension 180x30-10-30
Barbell squat 135x30-10-30
Calf Raise 220x30-10-30
First workout of the final week! I felt super sleep deprived today, but I got the session knocked out like a champ regardless. Really felt great with the exception of my knees and hamstrings being kind of sore and tight, starting with hamstring curls. This was a pretty easy workout, especially compared to Friday, but this is “Gains Week”, so something of a light week emphasizing recovery. Lately I’ve really been putting down a lot of food, carbs in particular, but I seem to wake up leaner than the day before. Pretty cool phenomenon. I guess we’ll see if it remains that way with the lighter training this week.
Metabolic Challenge 13
Leg Curl 120x10-30
Overhead Press 85x10-30
Bent Over Barbell Row 105x10-30
Lateral Raise 15x10-30
Bench 135x10-30
Barbell Curl 75x10-30
Dumbbell Tricep Extension 50x10-30
Leg Extension 195x10-30
Today was my final workout of Extreme HIT 30-10-30! I was able to go a good bit heavier today because it was just 10 straight reps. Every set was a solid 5-6 reps from failure. It’s almost shocking to me returning to more normal weights and seeing the difference in how much heavier I’m able to go vs when those 30 second negative are in place. It felt good going heavy but having kind of an easy workout.
Metabolic Challenge 14(FINAL)
Reverse Curl 65x10
Bench 205x10
Bent Over Barbell Row 135x10
Lateral Raise 20x10
Overhead Press 95x10
Overhead Barbell Triceps Ext 95x10
Leg Extension 210x10
Sit Ups x10
Great!
What are you on to next? Would it make sense to just run it again?
Maybe take some time to do high-rep front squats with us old guys eh @dagill2 ?
I saw your post on that, looks like a good idea. My back squat is weak and I don’t train it. If I want to change those two facts, your program is probably a great approach!
I do recommend you check out Brian Johnston (not the vocalist in AC/DC) and his books on Zone Training. I have a slight feeling you might like it. Hypertrophy based training.
Will you present any before/after measurements and pictures?
So here are my results from 30-10-30
My starting weight: 169
Ending Weight: 175
Starting biceps: L 15.25”, R 15.5”
Ending Biceps: L 15.5”, R 15.5”
Starting waist: 28.5”
Ending Waist: 29”
Starting thigh: 23.5”
Ending thing: 23”
Starting chest: 43.5”
Ending chest: 43”
As you can see, I’m pretty much exactly the same. All weights and pictures were taken cold and in the morning before eating or drinking anything. Overall, I believe the program was good for maintenance and kind of a nice relaxing break, but I’m used to training a lot harder, so this didn’t really push me hard enough to stimulate any new growth. I think I’ll post a more detailed review in Darden’s coaching section. I did enjoy the program, but it’s probably too easy and too short to produce a whole lot of new growth for an advanced lifter that’s been training continuously and uninterrupted for a long time. It’s hard to say, I wasn’t in a huge surplus, but The demands on my recovery weren’t such that I felt the need to push food any harder than I did. I think this program would be an excellent option if you’re stuck somewhere with limited weights and/or limited time, and it could also be a good deload type program to run, but it’s not my first choice for putting on size. I had fun and I do recommend it, but if you’ve been lifting for a while, don’t expect this program to push your muscles hard enough to push a lot of new growth. Use it more as a “cruise” type workout or a vacation workout.
I appreciate the honest reviews like this. It doesn’t seem like a total failure by any stretch though, adding any measurable size to biceps in such a relatively short span of time seems like a win for a start.
Well today I just started Fortitude Training and that workout really pushed me crazy hard, harder than I’ve ever trained before. I’ve also written out a few programs in my notebook just based off personal experience that work great, just focusing on progressive overload and focusing on either more weight on the bar or more reps every workout based around compounds with some isolation thrown in to make sure every body part gets adequate stimulation, 1-2 working sets, and each muscle group getting hit 2-3 times a week. Something that covers that stuff I think is a bit more effective for putting in size. Fortitude certainly does, so I’m excited to be adding that to my log. I’ll add today’s workout to my log tomorrow once everyone has had a chance to see my 30-10-30 review. Also, I agree about the arms, but I was hoping to get them back over 16”, where they were before my starvation mode cut lol
Was your routine prior to the Extreme 30-10-30 in any way similar (especially in terms of “metabolic conditioning”)?
It seems the positive effect on GH with this type of high intensity training (limited rest between sets) only lasts about 4 weeks, according to a study I saw (which probably is why Dr Darden has limited this protocol to 4 weeks only). This means a probability of less gains if you already were on a type of conditioning regime.
Another question is your intake of calories? Since your waist got a fraction greater, I would assume enough calories - but I’m not that convinced Plazma or Mag-10 is more than a good supplement (as some people seem to believe). I have replaced my usual medium calorie post-workout drink with pre-per- and sometimes post- intake of Cyclic dextrin/Peptopro - and guess what - I am getting smaller/harder and am curious whether I’m losing weight? Will soon make another bioimpedance control.
I believe you are spot on in your interpretation of more advanced trainees maybe not as receptible to this as beginners or comebackers. That being said, we all have different demands for development - depending on what kind of excercise we’ve done before.
Again, a matter of doing something differently, in order to get a different result (in order to resist adaptation).
I really like your curiosity and wish you the best of luck with fortitude training! Keep me/us posted!
Thank you so much pettersson! I do want to state, I don’t feel that the program was a failure. I really enjoyed the training. To answer your question about what I was doing before this, I was doing Darden’s “Chin-Dip-Sprint” routine with sprints sometimes substituted with dumbbell squats, so yes, I was already on a very conditioning focused program before this.
My caloric intake was about 1800-3000. Plazma training days gave me an extra 800 calories, and sometimes my appetite was pretty high, other days it was pretty low. I was basically just eating according to hunger and aiming for at least 2000 calories a day. Plazma and Mag-10 did help me feel like my muscles were extra full and definitely kept me saturated during and after my workouts as I trained in the mornings with no real food in me otherwise.
I did stop talking Plazma and Mag-10 last Thursday, so I may have lost some of that intra muscular fullness by the time I took my pictures Sunday morning, but primarily I felt like they were great for helping my recovery. I often felt ready to go by the next day after a session. I started Plazma again today pre and intra workout and I’ll be adding in creatine again too, as of tonight.
Here’s yesterday’s workout. Day 1 of Fortitude Training-Lower Load/Upper Pump. Took me about an hour, so about 45 minutes longer than what I’ve gotten used to doing and the gym was extremely humid so trying to get my breath back really sucked haha! The session was tremendous. I really pushed myself to the limit on my working sets. As you’ll note in the Log, I should’ve done more warmups for squats. I really don’t feel like 225 for 4 was the best I’m capable of, so I added a 135 for 12 back off set. One thing I forgot to note was the Extreme stretch I did for a body part after an exercise, like holding dumbbells in the bent Over “touch your toes” position for hamstrings. It bright so much blood to the muscles it felt incredible!
Good job Dave ! I have 1 observation on it. I think you made a major mistake on the calories while doing this. I think you’re way low if your intent was to gain on it. Hear me out. I did the program when the book first came out, so i finished maybe 6 weeks ago? I went into it looking to use it to lose a few lbs and tighten up. I started about 209(im 5’7”). I followed Darden’s diet plan, starting calories around 1850, and taking it down to around 1500 for a cpl weeks. I lost about 12lbs while not losing any muscle(even gained some ). If i was to do it to gain, my calories wouldve been much higher. I really think that is where you made a mistake. Is 1800 even a maintaining amount of calories for 170lb man?? I know its below maintenance for me
