Haha yeah man it’s an absolute ton of work! It’s a good thing I love it so much! It usually takes me an hour and a half per session and I’m absolutely wiped by the end!
and I bet you are moving quick too. Fkn good work brother.
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Huge time crunch today. So I wanted to be out of the gym in under an hour so had to cut out a few things today. Really just kept the heavy hitters in and I was out of the gym in about 58-59 minutes. The weight I picked for squats has just been brutal, basically rest pausing my way through the last 2 sets. I should probably lighten the load and get out of my head about The weight I “should be” using so I can actually hit the volume mentioned in the program with straight sets like it calls for. 4x10 is a lot of volume on squats! 275 probably would’ve worked better than 295 but I’m a warrior lol
Also that Bulgarian split squat of death is just so extremely deviously devastating to my quads, but I think that’s why I always get excited when I see it in a leg session!
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Nice work dude!
This one is sooooo much volume!
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When John said on his website “Welcome to volume town” he really wasn’t kidding! Week 1 I was like, “alright this isn’t too bad. Kind of nice to scale back a bit after Creeping Death II.” And now it absolutely is kicking the ass of Creeping Death II. I think this is a harder program and honestly a better one overall.
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Classic push day apocalyptic pump today! I love push days so much, it’s unreasonable! There was a ton of pressing today. Just so much. I definitely underestimated the level of fatigue I’d be feeling by the time the flat bench came up. Normally I could easily crush 275-280 for 5x5(maybe not with the 45 second breaks) but after all of that incline work, my pecs were smashed. I tried two plates and damn near couldn’t rack the bar on rep 5, so I dropped to 205, where I couldn’t rack the bar at all and just had to roll it off. Had to settle for 135 to finish the last 3 sets. It wasn’t scheduled as a drop set but it basically had to become one to get through it. Also, I loved the dumbbell 6 ways for delts! Very fun, very hard and just a crazy delt pump!
Finally got to check my weight again, and I’m sitting at 212! Feeling good about where I’m at and how I’m progressing! Here’s a quick Odin Force physique update
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Pump session today, which was perfect because I’ve been carrying some fatigue in my hips and lower back from last week. I can’t believe how full I’ve been looking the past week or so. Some combination of the training of training and diet here has been working magic for my physique. Things are just flowing perfectly right now in that regard. I hope to keep that ball rolling! Just praying for injuries or setbacks! Lowered the weight a bit on curls to try to focus more on having strict form since I’ve been feeling a bit of tendinitis in my forearms. Ended up with my best bicep pump in a while actually!
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Squeezed in the leg-pump workout before a meeting with a client and then Grappling! Back to full live rolls and the shoulder has been holding up perfectly! Actually started back with that on Sunday. It’s probably back to 95-97% percent, so no limitations! I really enjoyed the partials and isoholds today. It brought a lot of suffering, which I always need in a program to know it’s effective! Also got my first dip in a pool all summer today! So it was a busy but awesome day!
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Classic Mountain Dog push session! This program has been so amazing, I’m really surprised Odin Force don’t get more love online! It’s just great, old school, 90s-style Bodybuilding with lots of intensity techniques, exercise variety and escalating volume! Also the program name and cover are super cool!
Really pushed the Dumbbell Press pretty hard today. I was trying to keep about a rep in the tank every set, but set 3 saw me hit failure to get to 15 reps, and I really lost quite a few reps on that last set, but no complaints because training to the limit is my very intention! Incline was really moving smooth! My technique really felt dialed in today, Show negatives and getting a great stretch bringing the bar just about an inch above my clavicle. My “machine press” May have once again been the best feeling exercise of the day and it felt good adding 10 pounds to it today.
The shoulder section was a blast. I never know what to expect on a Mountain Dog Shoulder workout, so it’s always a fun surprise! The spider crawl/over and back combo is just so killer and gives such an amazing pump! It makes me so happy to no longer be limited in that area!
Triceps was fun as always and I did the seated Tricep Extension with a band since I don’t have a pulley from the floor. I probably should’ve picked a thicker band or doubled up because I had to a lot of extra reps and grab really low on the bands in order to get these sets to and beyond failure. Oh well. Lesson learned and the extra reps just gave me an even gnarlier pump, so I’m not complaining!
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To quote Lou Ferrigno’s dad, “Oh boy, what a workout!” I’ve been slightly underfed going into the last two workouts and I feel like it’s really shown in how exhausted I am before I get to the end. Well I’ve got two rest days in a row coming up and I think that’ll really help me get back on track, and I will definitely be eating well during this time! I’m continuing to beat prior workout performances and PR, which absolutely feels awesome! I think bringing Jiu Jitsu back into the fold while Volume continues to increase is what’s kind of worn me down this week. So I really need to crank up the fuel!
I feel like for the readers of my log, me being back into Bodybuilding training might be a little boring with the really long list of exercises and constant rotations, but I will say, as the guy performing the workouts, I’m having the time of my life! This Bodybuilding style of training just really suits my personality and the exercise rotations keep me interested and excited!
Ready for some heavy legs on Wednesday!!
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You’re doing an awesome job with it. It’s a lot for me, and I feel like most of John’s folks tended to be older, so maybe we just aren’t taking care of our recovery as well?
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I feel like the programs I hear held in the highest regard usually are Gamma Bomb, Project Colossus, High Evolutionary, Avalanche, The Unity and to a lesser extent, Creeping Death I and II. What are your very favorites and least favorites of his and why if you don’t mind me asking?
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For sure! I would say, keep in mind, everything is a snapshot in time. Whether or not I loved a program was based on when I did it, what was going on in life, etc.
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Gamma Bomb: simply outstanding. I far prefer the base split, because I don’t like lifting weights for 90 minutes, so it was a win there. It was a medium mix of both volume and intensity, so I felt like it matched up perfectly for me. The “extra” days were either upper body or lower body, so you didn’t have to pick what you were focusing on, and they were a lot of giant sets and really fast-paced work that I thought capped the week off well and didn’t dig into my recovery. I actually ran this one twice, which I can’t say for most his programs.
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Project Colossus: this one was “ok” for me. It went very high-intensity, which is cool, but I didn’t feel like I had enough “chances” at something. There’s something to be said for some volume, and I just felt like this wasn’t all the way DC but was too far from Flex Magazine, if that makes sense. I also tend to get annoyed with PPL, but the days were short enough here that didn’t matter. I realize I’m in the minority on this program.
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High Evolutionary: baller program! Back to base split, which is awesome, and is a terrific blend of intensity and volume. He also tended to do a couple sets at the heavy weights with the main compound lifts for each day; I always preferred working up to a heavy set and then doing a backoff, so this just spoke to me. It’s also only 6 weeks, which has become my attention span.
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Avalanche: I don’t know. I never did it. He died right after and I got sad and just didn’t run it.
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The Unity: I actually did a whole writeup on this one. The TLDR is it was really freaking hard and I was just surviving the last block. It’s super fun, though. If you want a Meadows conjugate program, I actually think Program X was much better - I was a big fan of that one.
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Creeping Death 1: Never did it
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Creeping Death 2: I only did the first 6 weeks. I don’t remember what took me off it (ADHD?), but I actually really liked it. I liked the pause squats and I felt like the frequency was bang-on. It was probably right about my sweet spot for volume. Odin Force is a little too much for me, but I’m also busier at work than I have been in like 5 years so that’s a real factor.
I love talking Meadows programs!
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Thank you so much for the write-up! This is amazing info for me because I’m really enjoying Mountain Dog training and I definitely want to continue to dig deeper! It’s good to know that the programs I’ve got coming up next: Gamma Bomb and High Evolutionary seem to be amongst your favorites! If there are any others from him that you’ve run and have feedback on, I’d love to hear it!
PS: Program X is definitely on my radar thanks to you! Also 12 Weeks of Pain and Suffering has been re-released which seems pretty cool since it was his first program! Also Grand Master is apparently similar to High Evolutionary so that could be worth looking into
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I really liked Honey Badger - it’s a base split full of challenge sets and occlusion training (which I like).
I would try programs with really different mechanisms. Two that I have, but haven’t run are Thanos (rotates techniques every two weeks) and Taskmaster (specialization blocks). I think going broad with the types of programs gives you more to draw from and you don’t get burnt out on any one thing.
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Thanks for that info! I saw that they finally released Thanos and I was definitely intrigued but I don’t have anything to do occlusion Training with, although I guess I could rectify that with a Google search lol
I definitely like that it cycles techniques similar to Odin Force. That definitely keeps things interesting!
Thanks to your feedback I think I’ll look into Program X and Thanos as my next two program purchases because they’re very different provide a wide spectrum of training styles as you mentioned and Program X being Conjugate style sounds fun as I’ve never run a Conjugate program
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My forearms, chest, arms and Back are still incredibly sore. Those reverse curls really murdered my forearms like I’ve never experienced before. And my chest is maybe the most sore it’s been since I was a teenager. I’m really taking myself to new levels here!
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I would absolutely make Program X the next one on your list. It’s a great experience and it’s a different way of programming. Thinking about it now, my legs grew the best from that and even Unity - they both rely more heavily on DE squats than max effort. Maybe there’s a lesson in there that I need to reduce some of my training weights. That would probably help me tolerate the volume, too!
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Thank you so much for the feedback! So would you then suggest my order go: High Evolutionary, Gamma Bomb, Program X or Program X, High Evolutionary, Gamma Bomb? I’m just trying to find the best way to periodize here and you’re the expert!
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Ooh. Good question. You give me far too much credit by the way.
You don’t have Program X today, and I hate to tell you to go buy something new. That said, it is pretty fun and it’s the most different from what you’re currently doing.
You’ve just done pretty high frequency and very high volume for two blocks. It would be kind of cool to build strength for awhile with Program X, especially because we’re headed into bulking season. Then take that newfound strength to High Evolutionary because it’s really high intensity. That takes you to Christmas. Then you give your body a break with the reasonable volume of Gamma Bomb in Q1 next year, which sets you up perfectly for a cut going into summer.
Without X, though, you’ve still got an awesome list of programs.
Damn it! Every time I talk to you I get pumped for these. Just when I think I’m out, you keep pulling me back in!
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