Average morning weight continues to slowly creep up, 89,55kg this week. One more week, then I’ll start reducing calories.
Just wanted to drop in and say I haven’t fallen off the bandwaggon, just haven’t logged in a while. Training hasn’t changed much in the last month. My weight peaked at about 90,5 kg and is now beginning to drop slowly. In the last few weeks, I’ve rediscovered unilateral machine rows to really target my lats and I’ve done arched-back good mornings for the first time and feel like they’re going to help a ton once I go back to powerlifting when this whole training for physique madness is over. 
Small update of where I’m at: Weight is at 83kg, so I’ve lost about 7,5kg since the beginning/middle of march. I’m now leaner than I’ve been in years, let’s see if I can get a bit mor lower ab visibility in the last week. I’m honestly not doing a lot of cardio, but calories are pretty low right now… I’m really looking forward to the finish line and being able to eat properly again.
Training hasn’t really changed during the whole five months, apart from exercise selection. From June onwards, the main focus will move back to strength.
So, the T-ransformation is over and I’m relatively satisfied with the result:
My training has not really changed over the five months. Now it’s finally time for a change of pace. For the rest of the year, the plan is to VERY slowly add bodyweight. Training is going to focus more on powerlifting again and is going to follow a conjugate approach. I’ve wanted to give conjugate type training a serious try for years and have read about it extensively. Several months ago I decided that this is what I would do after the T-ransformation. The plan is to stick with it for the rest of the year and then reevaluate.
General template right now will look as follows:
- ME Lower
A) ME Movement: Alternating squat and deadlift variations. Moving up using triples up to about an RPE 8, then singles, aiming for 3-4 reps in the general vicinity of 90% and above. No real grinders, breakdown in form means I stop moving up.
B) Squat variation: 3-5x5-8 reps. Preferably variations that focus on my weakness, losing stability in the hole, like pause squats and tempo squats.
C) Posterior chain/hamstring movement: 3-5x8-12 reps
D1/D2) Abs + higher rep, prehab style lower back work
- ME Upper
A) ME Movement, same parameters as on lower body day.
B1) Rowing variation, 4-6x6-10 reps
B2) Dumbell work, 3-5x8-12 reps
C1-3) Accessories for triceps, latteral and rear delts.
- DE Lower
A) DE Squats: different cycles, alternating between bands and straight weight.
B) DE Deadlifts
C) Posterior chain work: Good mornings, RDLs etc, 3-5x5-8 reps
D) Unilateral leg movement: 3-5x8-15 reps
E1/E2): Accessories for abs and low back.
- DE Upper
A) DE Bench: different cycles, alternating between bands and straight weight.
B1) OHP Variation: 3-5x5-10 reps
B2) Pull Ups, alternating cycles with and without additional weight
C1-3) Accessories for triceps, biceps and rear delts.
Friday: ME Lower
A) Front Squats: Bar x12; 40x5; 60x5; 80x3; 90x3; 100x1; 102,5x1; 105x1
→ Really noticed a loss of strength from the last few weeks of dieting. Used to be stronger at those and expected more. Moving forwards: Make smaller jumps/use more sets during triples.
B) Pause Squats: 60x6; four sets of 80x6
→ Started relatively light here, these should be a lot heavier some weeks from now.
C) RDLs: Bar x10, 60x10, three sets of 100kg 10
D1) 4x10 Ab wheel rollouts
D2) 3x12 45° Back Raises
Saturday: 21km / 13 miles of hiking through the hills overlooking the Rhine. Beautiful weather and scenery.
Sunday: ME Upper
A) Floor Press: Bar x12, 40x5, 60x5, 70x3, 80x3, 90x3, 100x1, 102,5 x1; 105x1, 107,5 x1; 110x1; 112,5 x1
B1) BB Row: 40x8, 60x8, five sets of 80kg x8
B2) Slight incline DB Press: 24kgx8, three sets of 34kg x8
C1) Latteral Raises, three sets of 14x12
C2) Triceps Pushdowns, 50x15, 55x12, 50x15
C3) Face Pulls: Three sets of 70x15
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Wednesday: DE Lower
A) DE Squats (+ approx. 20kg of band tension - purple bands): 10x2 @ 70kg, around 40 seconds rest.
B) DE Deadlifts: 10x1 @ 120kg, around 40 seconds rest.
C) Arched Back Good Mornings: Bar x8; 40x6; 60x6; three sets of 80kg x6
D) Rear-foot-elevated Split Squats: 3x12 holding a 18kg Kettlebell
E1) 4 sets of 10 Ab-Wheel rollouts
E2) 45° Back Raises: 3x12
Thursday: DE Upper
A) DE Bench (+ purple bands): 10x3 at 62,5kg
B1) Pull Ups 5 sets of 10 at bodyweight, neutral grip.
B2) Overhead Press: Bar x8, 30x8, 3 sets of 45kg x8.
C1) Bent-over latterals: 3 sets of 16kg x12
C2) Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 20kg x10
C3) EZ-Bar Triceps Extensions: 32x12; 12; 11
Wow, it’s been almost a year since I last posted in this log. Time flies, but I just can’t be bothered posting individual workouts on here on a regular basis.
But: It may be time for a bit of a general update since some major changes are coming up.
What I’ve been doing since I last posted:
From June '18 to December '18 I followed the Conjugate template outlined above. Got marginally stronger and had fun training in this style for a while, but overall I don’t think I know my own body well enough to use the intricacies of Conjugate to their full potential.
Since the beginning of this year I’ve been following the Juggernaut Method and have enjoyed the change of pace. Moving away from stressing about 1-rep-maxes felt like a good thing and I’ve been setting a few rep-PRs, which I’ve enjoyed. First complete cycle is almost done, I’m halfway through the 3’s phase. I used a 3 day/week schedule for the most part because work has been a major pain in the ass.
What’s going to change:
Wife and I are moving from an appartment to a small house. Thing is: it has a walled yard with a solid little hut the landlord used to store bikes and stuff. We’re going to transform it into a home gym, which I’m absolutely fucking ecstatic about. Also, this is going to give me a chance to incorporate strongman implements into my training, which I’ve dreamt about for quite some time.
I already have a bit of kit here but will invest a good bit of cash to start things off.
What I already have:
- Flat bench (can be adjusted to a slight incline or decline)
- Pair of loadable dumbells (up to 37,5 kg / 82 lbs each)
- A 24 kg / 52 lbs kettlebell
- A pull up bar
- A sandbag (currently at around 75kg / 165 lbs)
- Various bands
- An Ab Wheel
What I’m going to get in two weeks’ time:
- Yoke, also to be used as rack
- Barbell
- Axle
- Bunch of weight
- Farmer’s handles
- Some cheap rubber mats for elevated height deadlifts.
- Propably another sandbag.
Plan is to do another cycle of Juggernaut, based on Chad Wesley Smith’s recommendations for Strongman and Juggernaut. Part of that plan is transitioning from sort of a narrow sumo to conventional deadlifts, which is going to require an absurdly low TM at the beginning but that’s okay, one thing I like a lot about Juggernaut is the concept of changing the TMs based on actual performance.
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Congrats man, it is awesome having a home gym. You will spend way too much money on it and it will never be perfect.
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The move is done and my first week of training at home is in the books. Training at home is very cool. I’m feeling good about the move to conventional deadlifting, my leverages aren’t perfect for it but I guess my lower back will propably get a good bit stronger. I use the Axle (it’s called Axle Rose) for overhead work and have had to drop my Overhead TM down a bit because a) Axle instead of barbell and b) I ramp up to a heavyish set of axle clean and press before my regular Juggernaut Method work, moving in three week waves from sets of five to threes and then singles. After three weeks of clean & press each rep I’ll do three weeks of clean once & press away, then move on to continental clean & press each rep and then continental clean once & then press away. Once I’m done with that I’ll propably get a log.
The shed I use as a home gym is not the biggest, so when it rains it all gets kind of crammed and I have to go outside for overhead work anyway. Good thing summer’s coming, I might finally manage to get a bit of a tan. Also, the yard is a bit shorter than I’d like for moving events, but I guess I’ll just get good at turns and picks.
Having a home gym is the best. Second week of 10s phase of this run of the Juggernaut Method is 3/4 in the books and I feel good. Few more things to note:
- There’s no place/door frame in the new house that fits our pull up bar, so I’m having to improvise by hanging a barbell in the highest possible position in the Yoke/rack and using that for pull ups. Works.
- I have dreaded axle cleans, but they actually feel pretty good. We’ll see, that’s propably going to change when I get to some heavier continentals in a few weeks. Right now, there’s only one strongman contest in Germany for complete novices a year and it always has an axle clean & press event, so I had better get good at those.
- The only piece of equipment that’s not here yet from the list I posted above are the farmer’s handles, so I do some mixture of sandbag runs, sandbag over bar and -to shoulder on three of the four training days right now.
- I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I’m doing the “undulating” variation of Juggernaut, where the four phases are in order of 10s - 5s - 8s and then 3s. Since I’m not peaking for anything right now I’d rather handle somewhat heavyish weights a bit more regularly than the classic setup would allow for.
The home gym sounds cool, be sure to post some pictures once it is set up.
Also it reads like you are transitioning into strongman. Give me a heads up if you plan to compete, we might run into each other.
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I will. Right now you can’t really say it’s “set up”. All the stuff is stored in our shed and when I train I take it out into the yard since the weather is okay right now. Hopefully we’ll be able to get rid of some of the other stuff that’s in there over the coming weeks, then it’ll actually be possible to train inside.
And yes, I do want to transition to strongman. I’ve followed the sport for some years and I’ve actually competed in a non-sanctioned “strongman-ish” competition in 2017 at a yearly summer party at a gym (primarily a bodybuilding gym) in Dortmund. That was back when I trained at a powerlifting club in Essen and we went there with a few guys. It consisted of farmer’s walk (80kg per hand for max distance), crucifix hold (2 very light dumbells), keg clean and press (ridiculously light, max reps in two minutes. I got 40 reps and was not really close to the winner), a loading medley (tractor tire, anchor chain and a metal block if I remember correctly) and bavarian stonelifting. Was great fun, so now that I’m no longer bound by the restrictions of a commercial gym (moved away from Essen to around Frankfurt shortly afterwards) I thought I’d use strongman to have something to work towards.
But if nothing comes up before that I propably won’t compete before Hanover next year, provided I even manage to get a spot in that.
Sound really cool! Congrats on the house. I’ll follow along for your transition into strongman.
Really tough to get into that one. It is a fun competition and organization is top notch.
I might be able to help with that though as I know Anett a bit. Message me in time.
I also know the owner or the “KB gym” in Hamburg who will host a newcomer cup later this year. Fun dude and the events Look awesome. Maybe he’ll host that comp next year again
Thanks a lot, I’ll do that.
The events for Hamburg really do look good, pulling a truck is one of those things I would definitely like to do some time. The overhead medley also sonds doable.
250kg Conan’s wheel on the other hand sounds like an absolutely terrible time.
I have no idea, never done that but I’d definitely like to. I am not sure if 250 kg is the weight you have in your arms though or if it is total weight and feels lighter?
Training update: I’m halfway through the last week of my 5’s phase. Training has been going well even though work has been pretty stressful. I’m a teacher and the weeks before the end of the school year are always pretty crammed, but this year it’s been particularly bad, lots of very long evenings at the desk, so I’m glad that training hasn’t suffered too much.
Overall, Axle OHP and Deadlifts are progressing well, I’ve just finished this week’s Deadlift session and got ten reps, so twice what was required at minimum. Squats and Bench don’t seem to move quite as well, might have to adjust TMs at some point, but we’ll see.
I’m SO looking forward to summer holidays and being able to sleep as long as I want to for some time.
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Boy, was I right! Continentals suck. Can’t help but think they would work better if I had a belly, at this point I don’t really think I could continental clean more than I could power clean. I guess if I want to compete in strongman I can’t ignore them, so I’ll do them for the coming six weeks as planned to get a feel for the movement, then reintroduce them if I have a contest coming up where I’ll need them.
@Koestrizer, do I remember correctly that you had the strengthshop log and weren’t too happy with it? Thinking about getting one sometime later this year.
Yes I’d argue that having a belly helps to a degree. Currently GFSA sanctioned competitions allow resting the bar on the belt though, that makes things easier.
Yes. Definitely get a different one! The cut outs for the handles are all wrong. I dislike it although I know people way stronger than me that use it without much complaint.
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Just wrapped up the intensification week of 8’s Phase today with a squat session. Came back late last night from a KISS concert, which is cool, the concert was stopped halfway through because of thunderstorms though (open air venue), which was not so cool. Slept late today, ate, then watched the Giants Live Wembley show from yesterday evening, then trained.
This week, I got 9 reps on the strict Axle OHP, 13 on the deadlift, only the required 8 on bench and 9 on squats today. I’m very happy with how my deadlift is coming along. As I’ve said, it’s been years since I’ve pulled conventionally and to be honest, I think my training has been lacking in intensity the last few months before the move to train at home, and particularly when it came to deadlifting.
Also, I did my heaviest Yoke run yet at 200kg. Moved decently well, not super fast, but also no swaying from side to side or anything like that.
I thought I’d lay out how I’ve been training these last ten weeks in a bit more detail as I’m currently thinking about what to change after this run of the Juggernaut Method is done, so this is it right now. Supplemental and assistance movements have been kept for at least 3 weeks at a time, some for 6 weeks, a handful haven’t changed at all.
Day 1: Overhead
A: Axle Clean and Press (with leg drive), working up to a five, three and one rep (training) max before switching up the modalities of the lift: Weeks 1-3 Clean each rep, weeks 4-6 Clean once & press away, weeks 7-9 Continental clean each rep, now moving to continental clean once & press away. This has worked well so far and has allowed me to slowly handle more and more weight.
B1: Strict Axle Press: Juggernaut Method sets & reps
B2: Pull Ups
C1: Horizontal pressing variation, currently slight incline close grip bench, three sets.
C2: Row variation, currently dumbell rows, three sets.
D: Sandbag runs + loading over the Yoke’s crossbar
E1-3: Lighter assistance stuff, currently push ups, barbell curls and bent over latteral raises. Two sets each.
Day 2: Deadlift
A: Deadlift: Juggernaut Method sets & reps
B: Squat variation: currently Front Squats, for three sets.
C: Farmer’s walk: rotation between speed runs (adding weight until I get over 13 seconds), volume work (as many trips as possible with a medium weight for 2:30 minutes) and heavy weeks (work up until I beat my previous heaviest run by 10 kg or fail)
D1: Ab work, currently weighted planks, for three sets.
D2: Unilatteral leg work, currently reverse lunges, for three sets.
Day 3: Bench
A1: Bench press, Juggernaut Method sets & reps.
A2: Barbell Row, mostly same weight, same sets.
B1: Vertical pushing assistance. Currently Behind-the-Nack-Press, three sets.
B2: A back exercize that puts the lats in a stretched position, currently DB pullovers. Three sets.
C: Sandbag runs + sandbag to shoulder.
D1-4: Lighter assistance stuff, currently barbell skullcrushers, latteral raises, hammer curls and band face pulls. Two sets each.
Day 4: Squat
A: Squat. Juggernaut Method sets & reps.
B: Deadlift variation. Currently RDLs, three sets.
C: Yoke walks, same protocol as Farmer’s.
D1: Unilateral leg work, currently Bulgarian Split Squats. Three sets.
D2: Ab work, currently Ab Wheel rollouts, three sets.
I’ve definately gotten stronger using this format and I enjoy training in this style, so those are good argunments to just keep going in a similar manner when this cycle of the program is done. Since I won’t be competing this year the only drawback of the Juggernaut Method, which is in my view that you don’t get to handle near-maximal weigths quite often enough, won’t really be a problem either. We’ll see. I’d like to try ROM-progression for deadlifts at some point, incorporating that is an option as well.
I’ve also been eating a lot since the move and have gained a bit of weight, about three kg, so still less than a pound a week. I seem to be gaining muscle in my legs for the first time in a good long while which makes me happy and confirms my suspicion that I just haven’t been pushing hard enough in the past.
PS: It was absolutely great to see Magnus Ver Magnusson’s performance in the Hercules Hold against Kaz, would have liked to see what he can do at the weight the other competitors did. I did not expect him to blow Kaz out of the water so completely.
Got the first training session of 3’s phase in.
A: Axle continental clean and press:
40kg x 5
45 x 5
50 x 5
55 x 5
60 x 5
65 x 5
B 1 & 2: Axle OHP and Pull Ups
Six rounds of 55kg x 3 on the press and sets of ten pull ups, then a final round of 55kg for 8 or 9 reps on the press and 9 pull ups.
C 1 & 2
Close grip incline Bench
Bar x 12
60 x 5
75 x 8
75 x 8
75 x 12
Supersetted with DB Rows:
17,5 x 12
37,5 x 11
37,5 x 10
37,5 x 12
D: Sandbag carries + over bar.
Three sets of 4, 4 and 5 runs.
Assistance work: Three rounds of Push Ups (40; 33; 28 reps), Barbell Curls (25kg x 23; 20; 18) and Bent over Latteral Raises (22,5kg x 18; 18; 18)
Notes:
- Could have gone a bit heavier on the Clean & Press, but I’m increasing weights gradually on this, which will lead me to 75kg x 1 in two weeks. Right wrist hurt a little on the cleans, not the first time I’ve thought I might have to invest in some wrist wraps sooner or later.
- Couldn’t remember the exact number of reps for the final set of Axle OHP ~3 seconds after the set. 69 pull ups made for a solid pump.
- I usually try to move pretty quickly between sets. Was interrupted by a phone call before the final set of incline Bench, which made for more reps than expected.
- I don’t know if I’ve gotten better at them or if it’s just because it’s not as hot as it used to be the last few weeks, but the sandbag carries gassed me a lot less then they usually do.
- Treated myself to a scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam post-workout. Love it. I made some scones for the wife’s birthday on saturday and they’re still good. We both love them but clotted cream is hard to find and expensive in Germany. Looking very much forward to ten days in Cornwall in a few weeks.
- Had a chance to go through my training log (not this one, the paper one) today and really noticed how my work capacity has improved lately. Good to see.
- Just to put some goals out there I’ve set for myself: I want to deadlift 200kg and put my bodyweight overhead before the year is over.
Where are you roughly at currently?