I was tired as hell today. Kind of slept like crap but was so happy to get the lifting session in. I was so sore today and I’m very relieved for a rest day tomorrow. I am feeling pretty ready to pivot my training right about now. The high frequency, high volume has been kicking my butt! It’s awesome for a short period, but being 6 weeks in, I’m starting to burn myself out a bit. Curious if I’ve got some input from the readers on this. This high frequency stuff has me dying for a bro split at this point! @TrainForPain I’m contemplating High Evolutionary or Grand Master (which I don’t own yet), and I know you’ve ran both. Which did you like better?
Depending on how recovery is on the other side of this rest day, will determine if I finish the week out as written or if I finish it with John Meadows Build Your Own Program and do a Leg, a Pull and a push day.
Hey man! Love to see you considering doing some more MD!
I slightly preferred Grandmaster to High Evolutionary, but they are very, very similar. HE had a couple movements I found more awkward, if I remember right - like this weird standing DB row.
I did really like the splits. Frequency was just about perfect for me.
Yeah I’m feeling the same way, the overuse type stuff is starting to pop up 6 weeks into this ultra high frequency, high volume routine. It was great for a 6 week training push, but it’s starting to overstay its welcome. I was recovering great first few weeks but the cracks started to show last week, particularly in my left elbow/Tricep. The traditional Bodybuilding split is a perfect frequency for me at this point as well.
I’m glad to have asked you, because I ran a ton of Mountain Dog programs from 2023-2024 and High Evolutionary was probably my favorite. To hear that Grand Master is maybe even better is music to my ears!
Deff hard to stay super focused with this sort of training but its not really a bad thing. Do your work and then move on and repeat.
Be interesting when you have time to hear your thoughts overall on how the program went, what you think worked or didn’t worked and what you liked or disliked or what you might change if you run it again.
My thoughts overall on Big Beyond Belief. First of all, the book is very well-written and the idea behind the program is extremely well explained and well thought out. The charts do a good job of illustrating their points. I think the ideas behind the ramping phases fit very well with modern programming ideas and seem pretty ahead of their time for the mid 90s.
As for the program itself, I like the layout a lot. I enjoy high frequency training, I like the freedom of choice with exercise selection and the Emphasis on doing mostly compound free weight exercises with isolations sprinkled in. I appreciate the variability they allow for in terms of training frequency; with 4 day a week, 6 day a week and 6 day a week, twice a day training options available. I do enjoy the ramping strategy in terms of adding volume, to get to the point of a functional overreach and then pulling back to let overcompensation occur. It creates a challenge aspect, which I find fun. Speaking of challenges, I shot to progressively overload from session to session, which I was able to do pretty effectively.
Now for the drawbacks/things I would change. Starting out with 3 Failure sets per exercise is too high of a volume floor for me at this point in my training life. You work your way up to 5 and then back off back to 3. The problem for me was that, basically the deload or cruise portion of the program using 3 sets kept things way too hard on recovery to be considered a proper deload. If I were to adjust this to fit my own recovery better, I would probably start at 1 set and work up to 3 or 4 sets then cruise at 1 set. I also think if I were less advanced, I could handle the prescribed volume a little better. Fortitude uses some similar principles but relies more on instinctive training, which makes it a better fit for advanced trainees. I actually think this program and book is a great primer for Fortitude.
Wow didn’t expect you do turn that around so quickly. Excellent well thought out summary. Even though I have not run this I can definitely understand you point regrading the failure sets being too much especially for a more advanced trainer who is using much higher loads. I like how a program written in the 90’s and probably drawn from training experience from the 70’s ad 80’s still stack up pretty well today. Another example of where bro science is ahead of research and another example of where hard work and consistency no matter what the program and really the key.
Thank you! I’m with you on that. It’s very impressive to me how well this program has held up. Hard, Progressive Training will always be an effective stimulus for muscle growth and strength. DoggCrapp is another program from the 90s that’s certainly stood the test of time as well. The Bros will always be a step or two ahead of the lab coats! We are basically executing experiments on ourselves every week, every day!
That’s what I love about John’s 6 week programs. They’re the perfect length for my attention span and keeps me motivated and excited. They tend to branch really well together too.
After taking an extra rest day, I’m back at it today! Really had a fantastic workout. Felt very good to get a nice, focused push session in. All of the exercises flowed really well together although it took a little getting used to, having more than one exercise per body part. I felt a pretty big strength drop-off going from decline dumbbell press to incline barbell. Got the classic “decline, incline, flat” Thing going for chest here. The delt pump from the two lateral raise variations was insane as well. Dips and Overhead Cable extensions is a tremendous combo! I put this workout together using John Meadows’ Build Your Own workout series!
