Dodgin’ Dadbods: Fortitude Training

Training Training Logs
4694

@dresden yup, the Fortitude Training ebook is $20. Well worth it, IMO.

@petterson The zig-zagging is definitely something I’ll keep up on the loading sets, and you’re correct - he talks about it in the program outline. I may have missed where Scott talks directly about why he likes it, but it really depends on what zig-zag exercises I’m doing. If I’m zig zagging leg press, leg extensions, and leg curls, I’m accumulating fatigue for the leg press sets while being able to keep my rest times at a minimum. If I’m zig zagging chest and back exercises, it’s awesome for maintaining a pump in both sets of muscles, instead of fatiguing one and then having the pump all but gone by the time I’m done with the second group.

Also - it’s just a different way of doing things, and I’m a big believer in the ‘everything works’ (within reason) strategy.

5 Likes
4695

Week 2, Day 3:

Ass to Grass Hack Squats 230
6x4, rest 2 min, 5x4, 1x4 @180

Leg Extensions, 3 second eccentric
170 5x4, 130 1x4

Leg Curls, 4 second eccentric
110 6x4

Seated Calf Raise, 4 second eccentric, 2 second pause in stretch
2 plates 6x4

Tibialis Raises
70# 3xfailure

Machine preacher curls
2 plates 6x4

Reverse grip EZ bar curls
60# 6x4

Forearm work

Abs

Forgot that he says not to do 2 muscle rounds of the same exercise, but with those particular hack squats, it’s on a very cool new plate loaded machine and it was brutal, just what the doctor ordered, so no big deal.

7 Likes
4696

Week 2, Day 4:

Wide grip pullups +25lbs
6x4

Chest supported rows, slow eccentrics
2 plates 6x4

Rope pullovers
“8” 6x4

DB Incline Press
70’s 6x4

Pec Deck
110 6x4

Smith machine seated OHP
155 6x4

Lateral Raise machine, 1.5 reps (all the way up, half way down, back up to the top is 1 rep)
50 6x4

DB Tri extensions
30’s 6x4

3 sets of hanging leg raises to failure

Forgot to log stretches yesterday, but generally my leg stretches are a deadman quad stretch (kneeling on the floor and leaning back holding onto something but mostly letting the quads take the load while stretched), and a ham stretch on the hyperextension 45 degree thingy, stopping a couple inches short of a full strength, again to let the hams take the load while stretched.

Stretches today were a fully extended rope pullover stretch, holding the weight of my last set on the pec deck with the weight stack just barely suspended, and using a tricep rope to get an overhead stretch for the triceps. I generally don’t do much of a delt stretch but I did a short one today letting the weight on the lateral raise machine pull my arm behind me while the shoulder is internally rotating - kinda stretches the side delts and feels good, but I’m not too interested in going crazy with shoulder stretches.

And yeah. This volume is taxing. I can see why @pettersson didn’t jump to tier 3. I’m just upping my food, and I’m planning on hitting tier 3 at a nice surplus. Had Kodiak pancakes with sugar free syrup this morning, a 50g protein shake after the gym (1.5 scoops of protein and an enormous spoonful of natural PB with ice and water), and I’m gearing up to cook a few eggs with ridiculously thick cut bacon. I have ground Wagyu for a burger on a wheat bun later, and tonight will be mozzarella ravioli with meat sauce.

Muscle is coming back noticeably fast - that’s the main benefit of a long hiatus from consistent hypertrophy work, besides my vastly improved cardiovascular endurance.

8 Likes
4697

This is a cookbook I’d love to see.

3 Likes
4698

I’m genuinely interested in doing it. I’m currently in the process of writing a children’s book with my sister, who is an incredible illustrator, but when I’m done with that, or at least at a point where I can pause, I’m gonna go through with it.

4 Likes
4699

A great middle ground in that regard would be a “manchild cookbook”. Instructions on how to cook nutritious meals for dudes that only ever learned to work a microwave.

I wrote up a “Bachelor Bulking” series on reddit in a similar regard, and John Berardi’s “Scrawny to Brawny” had a similar part to it, but it’s such a real problem that needs addressing

2 Likes
4700

I’ve done a “Chicken and rice 20 ways” document for a friend before because he was such a poor cook, he couldn’t do more than microwave some rice and put some precooked chicken on the side.

2 Likes
4701

I made it to Turbo Volume Tier III for the final 3 weeks of my first blast, but I felt pretty much run ragged by the end, which was perfect, because that was how I wanted to be. I wanted to “earn” that cruise phase. My second blast, I just stayed at Turbo II the whole time with a few Tier III workouts sprinkled in which worked perfectly. The auto regulation helped leave it open for me to choose the day of if I wanted Tier II or III just based on how I felt and how I was recovering or my soreness level. I think it’s something you’re able to feel it out better as you go through it. I hope you’re still having fun with it!!

2 Likes
4702

My mind was all over the place today, haha.

Today was supposed to be cardio day, which I normally do fasted. Then I realized tomorrow is day 1 of tier 3 and is a lot of volume, and not only do I have to give blood that morning, but I need to get my flu vaccine and tetanus shot for nursing school this afternoon, meaning I could be run down from the flu vaccine, sore from the tetanus shot, and drained from giving blood, and THEN try to do the workout. Seems like a bad idea, haha.

So on my way out the door I decided to switch and do day 1 of week 3 today, which works out fine cause it’s a monday, and do cardio/conditioning tomorrow. Only problem was, one, I could definitely have used that extra rest day, and two, I do my cardio fasted, so it was 11 am and I hadn’t eaten yet and halfway through the workout I realized what I’d done and was like “FUCK”, but I powered through. A good preworkout meal an hour before the gym, or just ANY food before the gym makes a huge difference in high volume workouts.

Anyways…

Week 3, Day 1, Tier 3:

LOADING SETS

Leg Press 500x12
Leg Extension 170x12
Leg Press 500x12
Single Leg Ham Curl 70x12 each leg
Leg Press 500x10

Adductor Triple Rest Pause 110x13, 8, 4

Standing Calf Raise 120 5x12

PUMP SETS

Cable Crossovers "10"x25
Lat Pulldowns "10"x25
Cable Crossovers "10"x25
Lat Pulldowns "10"x25

Lateral Raise Machine 30x25
Med Ball Crunch x25
Lateral Raise Machine 30x25
Med Ball Crunch x25
Lateral Raise Machine 30x25
Med Ball Crunch x25

Cable Curl "7"x25
Diamond Pushups x25
Rope Curl "6"x25
OH Tri Ext "6"x25

Basic stretches, nothing crazy this time.

Came home starving and it was time to get my kid off the bus so I gulped down a spoonful of natural PB and chugged some milk, got the youngest and finally choked down a bunch of baked chicken and slow cooked beans/tomatoes. Feel much better now that I’ve eaten. Gotta get my oldest off the bus now, flu/tetanus shots at 4 and then will try to squeeze in a playground visit before the day’s over.

9 Likes
4703

Yesterday was some fasted cardio at 530 am. After bloodwork and a 10 hour day at work, I felt really run down in the evening - the flu shot the day before probably didn’t help.

Anyways, back at it and about to head to the gym for day 2.

1 Like
4704

Week 3 day 2, Tier 3

Close grip MAG pulldowns“16”x12
Weighted dips +25x12
Close grip MAG pulldowns“15”x10
Weighted dips +25x12
Hammer strength row 185x12
Incline Bench 185x12
Hammer strength row 185x13
Incline Bench 185x6 big drop off, stripped the 25s and finished with 6 slow reps with 135

Freemotion cable shoulder press “12”x12
Freemotion cable shoulder press “11”x12
Seated BB OHP 135x8 wow, fried
Seated BB OHP 95x14

SSB Squats, heels on a bumper plate and 100% ass to grass 150 2x25, not heavy but jesus, ouch.
Leg Extensions 150x25
Lying leg curls 90x25
Seated Calf Raise 90x25
Seated Calf Raise 90x25

Post workout nutrition: 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder, half a banana, large scoop of natural peanut butter, ice, milk, and I cooked my boys a bunch of top sirloin steak and ate a seriously healthy amount of it while cutting it up, haha. About to start cooking up 2 large ribeyes I bought and eating them with some spinach and couscous.

8 Likes
4705

Man that is a lot dude! How long did that take

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4706

About an hour, I’d say. The program has specified rest times - usually 1 or 2 minutes depending on the rep range - but for one, I ballpark the time and it’s probably less than what’s prescribed, and two, about half of the week I go during a really busy time at the gym. If you expect to be zig-zagging 3 exercises at that time, you’re crazy. I go back and forth on chest and back and then do 4 straight sets of shoulders, and even with 2 pieces of equipment, you’ve gotta show some pretty constant movement between the two.

Even then, an hour feels like a long time because most of the conditioning workouts I did over the past year make you feel like you’re going to die in 10 minutes, and they could be up to 3x that long.

2 Likes
4707

That’s bookin it man. Awesome work!

2 Likes
4708

Thanks, dude. It’s not a sustainable volume, nor is it meant to be. This particular template is going to have me backing off a bit on total volume for the next couple weeks while very slightly increasing frequency, and then I’ll be back to doing one top set for most exercises for a couple weeks.

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4709

Awesome! Did you manage any stretches on top of that?

If I’d skip the stretches I would come closer to tier 3, but I happen to really like them extreme/loaded stretches.

1 Like
4710

Yeah, I did them. Just tamped down on the intensity a bit. The third tier is made for overreaching either way, so I embrace the fatigue and just eat more.

2 Likes
4711

20 mile ride after work, drenched in sweat. Got a bit of weird medial ankle pain during it, that’s still occasionally throbbing even while sitting. Might just be a combination of my flat-footedness and getting back into more leg work at the gym. I guess we’ll see how it holds up tomorrow, which is muscle rounds (primarily for legs).

1 Like
4712

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A bit over a 1.5lb ribeye, cream spinach and couscous.
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The cap just melted in my mouth, I couldn’t eat that part with either of the sides.

The cream spinach is bomb too.

7 Likes
4713

Fortitude Training Week 3, Day 3, Tier 3: Muscle rounds

SSB Squats, heels on a 2x4, 3 second eccentric, ass touching ankles at bottom
200 6x4

Leg Press
490 6x4

Leg Extensions
170 6x4

Lying Leg Curls
120 6x4

Donkey Calf Raise Machine
200 6x4

Standing Calf Raise Machine
100 6x4

Seated Calf Raise
90 6x4

Hammer Curls
40s 6x4 (alternating arms like 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4)

Kneeling Ab Wheel, 5 second eccentric
6x4, resting with planks

All sets with ~5 deep breaths in between. Sometimes I definitely hit 7 or 8 before going back in. Also, fucking squats, man. I can squat so much more weight with a moderately wide stance and going to parallel, being ham dominant, but they only grow my ass and hams and hurt my hips. On the other hand, heel-elevated ultra knee flexion deep squats have helped my knees and hips, and ballooned my quads, but they just suck so much, especially on my last reps when I’m getting closer to 5 second negatives and pausing at the bottom.

Stretches were very standard - nothing extreme really, but all moderately loaded stretches for ~20 seconds. Still enough to suck a bit. Chomping at the bit for tomorrow already, which features 4 muscle rounds for back, 3 for chest, and 3 for delts. For anyone who missed it, all those "6x4"s are 6 sets of 4 with 5 deep breaths in between, so they’re more like one extended set, but they’re miserable. Still, the pump is mind-blowing and the mind-muscle connection is just absolutely on point, especially towards the end.

Little protein shake after the gym with just protein and water, and now it’s time for a LOT of sushi - all raw fish, no fried stuff or sweet sauces with it, just big slabs of fish, rice, and soy sauce (wasabi too) - and this restaurant has the freshest fish.

6 Likes