This is the last day of my current phase. I will still do sets of 8 for upper body but I will be resetting the weights. I will be switching two sets of 5 for lower body. These will be my higher rep phases and dropping to 5s and 3s respectively will be my heavier phases.
TRAP BAR ROW
160 x 8 x 5 sets superset with DB INCLINE
50 x 8 x 5 sets
CABLE Y RAISE
20 x 10 x 5 sets
30 x 20 partial lat raises after 5th set superset with HAMMER PULL DOWN
200 x 8 x 5 sets
DB BENCH
60 x 8 x 5 sets superset with HAMMER ROW
180 x 8 x 5 sets
CABLE PRESS DOWN 21s
100 x 10F/10B/10T x 2 sets superset with EZ BAR CURL
80 x 13 drop to 60 x 10
70 x 12 drop to 50 x 10
49 minutes of work. I had to rest a bit after doing each round of each superset but it never exceeded 1 minute.
I don’t have anything to do the rest of the day so I’m going to pick up my son from daycare early and go meet my dad for lunch. I used to do a better job of meeting up with my parents on my days off. It’s time to get off my rear and actually do something with my time.
Lunch was the Pizza Hut buffet. I had 10 slices and six tiny pieces of the cinnasticks. The slices were small - I probably ate a medium pizza and seven slices were thin crust.
That’s two pizza buffets in one week… On a different note, I thought my chest and shoulders looked good today. Perhaps I’m starting to bounce back from surgery.
I’m close enough that I no longer consider myself a one armed man. There are only three things missing from my training - power cleans, overhead press, and pull ups. I’m getting very close. Hopefully I can do at least one of those in the next few weeks. My PT is planning to kick me out after my next eval which will be Nov 4th.
Glad to hear! Out of the three, I’m a little worried about the pull ups. The other two you can get a feel for with just the bar alone and see how your shoulder responds. Pull ups you go straight BW
I can actually do pull ups but I’m not satisfied with my shoulder function. My right shoulder (the repaired one) elevates while the left one stays depressed like it’s supposed to. I’m just waiting because I don’t want to practice a bad movement pattern. I know it can improve with PT because early on I couldn’t do a lateral raise with just my arm without elevating first. As soon as my arm moved from my side, my trap kicked in and shrugged. Now I can do the whole movement with weight and keep my shoulder depressed the whole time.
This is the current approach and I’m okay with it. I really like the Hammer Strength Iso Lateral Pull Down and it allows me to load each arm separately. I can do single arm pull downs but I get tired of doing double the sets.
Of course, I was completely unaware of this, but I like it. I decided to play around with some photo editing and thought “Why not put my favorite Punisher skull over my face instead of a sun sticker?”
SQUAT
215 x 5 x 3 sets Starting 10 lbs heavier than last time. It’s going to take awhile to build this up, but I’m not interested in grinding or missing reps.
DEADLIFT
295 x 5 x 3 sets Now we’re starting to work.
After I picked it, I realized it was similar to a program I’d seen floating around, but it wasn’t my intention. My goal is to achieve that swole look someday and I need to stick with my program and just keep doing it over and over for a long time. No start or end date; just simple training.
Trying SGSS after an injury might be the best thing that ever happened to me. I started way lighter than i thought I should to play it safe. And guess what happened - I had the best results of my life.
I’m trying to stay in that zone of working but not failing. I could probably grind out 255 for 5 on squats but there’s no reason to do that. I’d hit a wall in a week or two. Instead, I’ll hit 265 for 5x3 in six weeks (after three weeks of 5s and two weeks of 3s) and then I’ll reset back to 5s. If I can continue to follow that progression then I might be doing 315 for triples by next July. That’d be cool.
@Frank_C what are your thoughts on doing a double progression where you go from 5-8 on upper body and from 3-5 on lower body? Looking at SGSS it seems geared more towards an intermediate, but I like encouraging the upper body to grow more muscle than the lower body (and also, high rep squats suck)
My program had me start so light, but guess what - I think I’m going to have great results too. If not it’s been the best 10 weeks of training, I’m sleeping much better looking much better.
For the pull ups, do “scapula settings”: hang from the bar and just pull the shoulder blades down and hold it there for a 3 second count, will teach the repaired one to retract or protract? the right way.
That’s what I’m doing but it’s different than your program. Each phase is three weeks. I like sets of 8 and 5 for upper body and 5s and 3s for lower.
Lighter Phase:
Wk 1, Workout 1: 3x8 (3x5 for lower)
Wk 1, Workout 2: 5x8 (5x5 for lower)
Add 5-10 lbs, repeat for week 2. Add 5-10 lbs, repeat for week 3. Add 10-20 lbs, switch to sets of 5 for upper and 3 for lower. Do three weeks of 5s and 3s, and then go back to 8s and 5s.
and like you basically twice this week.
Of course, I was completely unaware of this, but I like it. I decided to play around with some photo editing and thought “Why not put my favorite Punisher skull over my face instead of a sun sticker?”