His lifts as stated are approaching in some cases the kind of stuff Les Grills is doing (pressing and bench especially). He’s a similar height and weight and is one of the top two or three sub 200 lbs PLers in Australia. He’s also a pretty high level strongman, having competed internationally.
The squat, claimed as beltless and wrapless, are likewise at a similar level. Let’s say 500x3 beltless, that’s going to be closer to 520x3 with a belt. At least. 550 lbs beltless squat anyone? My fucking coach doesn’t do that kind of shit often, if ever. I don’t think I’ve seen a higher level sub 200 lbs PLer do that often at all.
Just in context, those are the kind of numbers Flipcollar would be pretty happy with. That’s a guy who is in the top what, 10 per cent of sub 220 lbs strongmen in the world?
Let’s not even start on the 275 lbs snatch and 335 lbs C&J done just to see how his Olympic lifting was without being trained in a while.
You want to add 45 or so pounds each to your top end squat, bench and deadlift in two years or so? If you’re me, you need to add around 65 lbs of mass. I’m a pretty average guy, so I would think that something similar applies across the board. If you were carrying a significant amount of muscle to start with, maybe you won’t need to add as much mass and you’ll get similar improvement from better technique and training. You’ll still probably want to add some mass though.
Bottom line, a dude at five foot seven and around 185 CAN have the squat, bench, deadlift and press he claims. He will need to he around 10 per cent bodyfat and most probably enhanced, and he will be sat well in the upper echelons of powerlifting and/or strongman.
Not a problem dude. I invited it. I am going to say we should probably move on, just since my log is usually pretty positive and I wanna keep it that way. But I don’t regret having a place where a few of us can voice concerns, because if this all went down in HIS log it would probably just be ugly and unproductive. That, and it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one scratching my head.
But yeah, we’ll cut the topic off now, back to training (with occasional proof!)
Leg Press, leg extensions, leg curls, DB RDLs, calves
Sunday:
Shoulders
Got 150x11 last time, shooting for 150x12 and hit a wall at 150x9. Did some accessory work and shut it down. It’s reload time. I haven’t taken a deload in god knows how long, just program hopped a few different times and I noticed it yesterday. Seriously weak, no motivation, even today I’m just hating the idea of lifting. I suck at deloads, but I’m going to do my best to back off for a week. Restorative cardio, stretching, etc.
I’ve always just gone by ‘feel’, although I get the feeling that sometimes when my body is signaling that I could back off a bit, I ignore it and push it harder, and just because the strength is there, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for me to go all out that day. So yeah, I think programming for stuff like this is the best way to go.
Agreed. I dont think we know when we ‘really’ need to deload. A really strong day, feeling good, is a peak probably, and by that point We may have already over reached too far.
I just know I miserably fail at it, so I will implement a fail safe procedure. Programming.
I had an awesome arm and shoulders day today. Just taking it fairly easy, still pushing but nothing heavy or super taxing.
Superset skulls and bench dips
Superset rope extensions and overhead dB extensions
Superset weighted pull-ups up to +70x5 with BB curls
One arm cable preachers for 3 sets with a dropset on the last set
Superset hammer curls and diamond pushups
Once this deload is over I’m pretty sure I’m gonna run Paul Carter’s superhero program. I’m honestly not particularly enamored with it, but it’s barebones, low volume, 3x a week, and would work really well with the triathlon prep. Gonna run 30 mins Mondays, swim Wednesdays, bike fridays, and do brick runs Saturdays, training on tuesdays thursdays and Sunday’s.
Did the first day of Paul Carter’s superhero muscle program yesterday.
Smith incline bench 225 2x6
Low to High Crossovers 2x10
Superset Cable Y raises and Cable Lateral raises 2x10 each
Seated BB OHP 135 1x9
Lying DB Tri ext 35s 4x6 as a cluster, set every 30 seconds
It’s just a chest/shoulders/tris, back/traps/bis, legs routine. I really did get a good strong pump and a great workout out of it. I think it’s hilarious that a 3x/week low volume routine is honestly what he’s trying to say that actors are using to get jacked for their roles. Pretty sure if I had unlimited money and resources and my only job was to eat sleep and train for a movie role I would be doing more than this. But for my purposes right now, I think it’s gonna work great. Paul knows how to get people to build muscle for sure, he’s just uncompromising and stubborn that there are many ways to do so.
I didn’t get the impression that this is what he’s trying to say. I read the article as saying essentially:
“Superhero actors aren’t that huge; they’re just lean and focus on upper chest/traps/delts. This is a routine that you, the average schlub who isn’t getting jacked as a full-time job, can do to emulate this.”
@mattjp’s point also helps answer @jackolee’s question about the mix of lifts - Paul wants to emphasize the upper chest, traps, and shoulders. Same as ‘the power look’ that CT talks about, but with markedly different exercises, since he’s taken shots at SGHP and Zercher variations. It’s going to mesh very well with my tri training, I think.
Let me know how you like this, I was debating bastardising this program myself.
When I was reading up on it, the article included links to the American Sniper workout ie. The routine that an actor actually used to get ready for a film and it doesn’t look remotely similar.
