I’m a first year medical student in the UK. Time is tight, but I’m still aiming to train as often as possible in a bodybuliding manner.
I’ve been training on and off for a couple of years. I got sucked into the whole TBT thing for a while, but I’ve seen the light ;). My training has been shite for these years, so I’m trying to learn what I can from the forums; I’m reading a lot of T-Cell threads.
Please feel free to criticize in a constructive manner or offer advice.
HOLIDAY TRAINING
I on’t have regular access to a gym at home, so training will go to pieces in the next four weeks. I’m going to try out a few new things and just try to stay active. I’m dog tired from my last semester, so I’m recuperating and getting back my mental strength.
Today was Chest/Shoulders/Triceps. I was training at a new gym, as I’ve just come home from university for the Easter break. I tried out the “Perfect Rep” for some of the exercises. I didn’t try the rapid eccentric, as I’m not comfortable enough with my form to try this yet. Focussed on an explosive concentric.
I know these lifts are weak, but I’m trying to progress each week.
Warmup
DeFranco Agile 8 and Simple 6. Felt much better after this. Very stiff in back, shoulders, neck this morning.
Primary Chest Exercise
* Flat barbell bench press
* Perfect rep style:
o Explosive concentric
o Sets of 3 reps until max force point
* Reached 60Kg x 3 (max force point)
* Felt so energised. Weights flew up. Felt like a massive caffeine rush. Nervous system amped!!!
Primary Shoulder Exercise
* Military Press
* Perfect rep style:
*
o Explosive concentric
o Sets of 3 reps until max force point
* Reached 60Kg x 1 (max force point). Weights felt too heavy at 60Kg. Got 50Kg x 3.
Primary Tricep Exercise
* Bodyweight close grip dip
* Avoided failure. Focussing on rep quality. Explosive concentric to full lockout on each rep.
* Clavicles felt a little pain, but not crippling.
* Shoulders fine - lower volume before dips helped this?
* 4 sets of 3, followed by 2 sets 2.
Medial delts accessory
* Delt raise machine
* 4 sets of 10 at setting 30.
* Good pump. Felt nice.
Chest Acessory
* Hammer Strength Decline Bench.
* Absolutely love this machine!!! Best chest contraction of any exercise I've done.
* About 6 sets of 3-6 reps. Working weight was 60Kg.
Today was leg day. Decided to try out the front squat after looking at Marauder Meat’s incredible Youtube movies.
Warmed up by jumping rope.
Worked up to 6 sets of 3 with 60kg. Feels like my core strength is holding me back, so this needs work
Ordered Eric Cressey’s Maximum Strength last night. Can’t wait for this to arrive.
I’ve spent the last few days reading the threads about Prof X and C_C’s training and I have realised that I’ve been doing everything wrong. When I get back to university next week, I will be starting a new training split.
C_C mentioned some interesting splits for those with little time in the So MANY Complicated Training Systems thread:
"Hmmm. Whenever work, family or whatever interferes (i.e. whenever the slaves get it into their heads that they should have rights too… Fools! Who earns the money here, huh? :), or when I’m just kind of fed up with more complex stuff or whatever, I tend to fall back to a 3-way split and train whenever I want (can be 3 times a week if I have little time, or up to 6 times if I feel like it… Can even go twice a day if I really feel great, but that usually doesn’t happen… Basically, it’s a very flexible routine)…
Fav variants would be
(most recent incarnation)
-Chest, Tris, Quads (no back squats in that case, would go with front or hack or zercher)
-Back, Hams, Abs
-Delts, Traps, Bis
(trusty yates-split that many of my trainees and guys I’m helping out have fallen in love with)
-Chest, Bis, Tris
-Legs, Abs
-Delts, Back
(yates modified for several reasons)
-Chest, Back
-Legs, Abs
-Delts, Arms
Any of these will do… 2 and sometimes 3 exercises per muscle-group (back, perhaps delts), only one for traps in my case, all ramped (often the first exercise being heavy, CT-ish ramp in fives or threes… Second being done in eights or tens or in a regular, old-school BB ramp… And what people now call auto-regulation is done on all exercises, though that’s 3 syllables too many for such a simple thing).
As I said, I train whenever I feel like it and have the time, can vary a lot from week to week, made some great progress that way and when the ramping is done right, you leave the gym feeling fresher than when you entered it 
Even the progression sort of takes care of itself. "
By the way, Maximum Strength is a fantastic book. The mobility and recovery stuff is particularly noteworthy, and the section on nutrition is based on Berardi’s stuff, which is a definite plus. I didn’t like the fact that the intro made the case for strength training by making derogatory and unfounded statements about bodybuilding. But overall, it’s a great read from a very capable coach.
Well, I feel I’ve been neglecting this log. I did my first proper body part split this last week, and I’m loving it. I can hit all my body parts with sufficient volume. A year or so of TBT has left me with some severe weaknesses (relatively speaking ;)). My rear delts are ridiculously weak. Hopefully, my split will help undo the damage.
I’m doing a five way split. I did Chest and Triceps, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Biceps and Abs. I suck at isolation movements. Bloody TBT. I didn’t know you could feel so much pain (the good kind) in a muscle.
Currently using a body part split. Hitting all the muscles at least once a week. Trained back and shoulders together for the first time a couple of days back; really liked it.
Trained legs today. Was very stressed today, so killed it on front squats. Didn’t have much time 'til gym closed, so I chucked in some hamstring curls (lower back dead after front squats, so GMs/Dls not a good idea) and some hanging leg raises for abs.