Haha that was fast. Thanks man
Oooook, after 5 weeks of the āalternate Mass Made Simpleā Im gonna take a light week, then switch gears for the much needed upcoming T-ransformation 2024
Ill have more of a write up and a results post tomorrow, but suffice to say I am beat, have an overall sense of dread about my workouts, and never want to squat more than 5 reps again haha
Hopefully a week off does me some good mentally, because boy I think I ran myself into the ground these last 12 weeks chasing 50 rep squat sets.
Dan John Mass Made Simple (Article Version) Write up:
Okay, after nearly 6 weeks I am wrapping up the article version of the Mass Made Simple program by Dan John
This review is tough to do without also comparing it to the Book Version, which I reviewed here
Overall I would say this was a more interesting approach to the squat-till-you-hate-it ethos of MMS. Where the book version has one meat and potatoes workout you keep trying to ratchet up until you ultimately squat your body weight for 50 reps, this version feels more like a ātraining programā in that you have 2 different ārealā workouts, one with a heavier squat emphasis and one with the volume approach, and then the 3rd bonus workout in the week you are adding all the filler in you miss with the big workouts.
I did enjoy that part a bit more than the singular focus on the book version. It gives a couple different things to shoot for, and doesnt have the daunting challenge of the āto-fiftyā set looming over every workout you do. If someone was to ask me for a mass program that wasnt a āliferā in the lifting game Iād probably give them this one as it seems a bit more user friendly in that you arent just asking someone to kill themselves every time they go to workout (although perhaps people like @T3hPwnisher enjoy that more so than the average gym goer haha), and it has the bonus of seeing lots of numbers move up over the weeks which can be motivating. You have the PR sets on the 5/3/1 movements, the complexes if you choose to increase those weights/reps, and then the squat numbers all moving up.
The numbers all went up for the most part (at least initially), and while there was a bit of sandbagging perhaps in the first week or so on some of the 5/3/1 PR sets, I was giving a genuine all out effort on the to-fifty style sets, which ultimately culminated as follows.
Squatting 205 with a regular straight bar now. Writing this out as Reps in first set/Total after 2 sets/Total after 3 sets
Week 1: 22/38/50
Week 2: 30/50 (only needed 2 sets from here on out to get it)
Week 3: 32/50
Week 4: 35/50
Week 5: 25/50
Soooo as you can see there was a big fall off there, although ultimately I resolved to still finish 50 in only 2 sets and I did manage that. I felt it in the gym too, motivation was super low, felt very sluggish even while things moved as they should. and while the weight didnt feel particularly heavy or anything in the beginning of the set my body just didnt have it in it to keep pushing like it normally does. I suppose
My bench numbers did something very similar. PR set went 9,10,10,8, 8 ā¦ So something seemed to catch up to me and was weighing my numbers down.
I took this as a sign that, for the time being, I have gotten what MMS can give me and Its time to move on to the next thing.
Pics and such coming tomorrow as I forgot to weigh myself and record my waist measurement today. Cant even remember if I recorded that at the beginning of all this, but thats generally the measurement I use the most these days. Subjectively I feel very sloppy but we will see what the objective stuff comes out as tomorrow
Lets calls this the āprogress reviewā of MMS being run twice in a row.
Heres the visual progression from both rounds of MMS
From my numbers at the start of the log: Waist is up from a start of 37" (which I already consider a tiny bit high) and a low of 36.25" after the 10,000 swing challenge to a hair under 39". So not greatā¦ Not a ton to blame there except good old fashioned holiday excess, and not a single person to blame except myself for getting a bit sloppy. I ate mostly clean for most of my meals, but if a pizza or cookie tray showed up at work I helped myself to a little bit. I have been doing this for so long that my āexcessā is probably someone elses ājust getting startedā but, for me, it was still a much more loose diet than I let myself have.
Weight is up from a start of 190 at the top of the log, down to 184 after the swings, back to 192 after easy strength and at the start of MMS and up to 202 as of today. So lets call it about 10-12 pounds in 12 weeks
First time Iāve been 200+ in a long while, and while I did it relatively quickly and my diet wasnt as clean as it could have been by any stretch, the results are probably about the same as any time Iāve gone over 200, which is that the fat:muscle gain ratio tips dramatically over into fat gain at these weights for me. Ive gone over 200 on super clean diets before and its always very similar results.
On that note, this will probably be the last time I execute a concentrated, goal oriented bulk or mass gain cycle, with the express goal of gaining weight consistently on a weekly or monthly basis. I feel like Iāve been training long enough and done it enough times that I have learned the lessons from it and what my limits are in terms of what Iām willing to give up to gain an extra few pounds/ounces of muscle.
The Future of the log:
I have run through most of what I wanted to do with the Dan John programs that had been kicking around in my head for years, and to that end the Dan John phase of my training and loggin is currently at an end in terms of running his named, outlined programs.
I have āenrolledā in the T-ransformation 2024 challenge, so I plan to execute some kind of plan towards that type of goal now, some kind of Waterbury inspired 3 day a week weights, and 2-3 days of cardio type deal is my current thinking, maybe with some DJ principles in mind as tweak the workouts throughout the next few months
To that end I will be possibly renaming this log (or just expanding the name to include āand beyondā or something), or maybe start a new one, but I dont want to have too many floating around on here to collect into a single one.
Officially entered in the T-ransformation 2024!
Lets get it in!
New year T-transformation going well. I actually started in the last week in December and Iām down to 198 and lost .75ā off the waist already. Pretty happy with those results so far
Body weight is so weird. After that initial huge drop Iām hovering around that same weight or slightly above it for the last 7-10 days.
I kind of remember back from my āgetting shreddedā days similar things would happenā¦ seeming stagnation or even regression followed by periods of movement. Iām not starting from a terrible position and i havent really done anything drastic to my intake (except eliminate peanut butter, which accounted for many hundreds of calories a day lol)
Iām entering the last week of my first phase on the new Getting Lean program so maybe Iāll do some kind of fast day at the end of it to ātrue upā my weight and get a real reading heading into the next phase
Alright about a month in to the T-ransformation and Im down about 10 pounds to 185 (from 204) and went from 39" waist to 38.25"
I know the first month always sees the most progress, but If I Stack a few months like that together and I should be in pretty good shape and end up pretty much where I want to be
I took some pics but looking at them I dont see much difference, if anyone wants me to Iāll put in the effort to crop and put them side by side but perhaps waiting for a more dramatic change is more exciting
From months back (was reading around over coffee this morning)ā¦did you ever figure out keeping track of numbers? I struggle with it, too. One of the reasons I like cardio so much. My mind can be free while my body works.
Doing my kettlebell swings this morning I was pleased to realize that I was keeping good track of the reps, but then realized I wasnāt sure how many sets Iād done. 3? 4? No one knows.
ADHD FTW
I am generally very big on listening to music or even podcasts when I workout, and I found for the KB Swings I had to shut that stuff off.
I have a very mild music background, and the combo of the music going plus me trying to count in my head sequentially was a harder task than I imagined. I had a certain speed I was swinging the bell at, and the music had its own rhythm my brain was trying to keep in sync with it felt like.
For a set of 10, no problem, but going up to 50 I would often lose track at 30 or 40. I think I remember doing sets of 10+15+20+25+30 which equals 100, so I never got up into those bigger numbers (although the rest in between was very minimal, the important part was just getting the right number of reps per set)
It was still a bit of an issue even with the music gone but it was a bit easier
Interesting you say that with swings; thatās where I run into problems too. I can usually remember how many I did, but canāt remember how many Iām supposed to do. 34? 38? 40?
ONE MILLION. Donāt be weak!
Imagine losing count at 999,957 and having to start over
Finally have a free morning to post an update here:
Basically still plugging away, My weight seems to be hitting these plateaus and then will drop suddenly, and Im currently down from a high scale weight of 206 down to 193, but have been āstuckā there for a few weeks. Admittedly a couple of non-diet things have snuck in but not much and I didnt think I was THAT close to the ālose weight or notā line, so a couple of weeks of belt tightening will hopefully lead to some belt tightening haha
If I can get it down to 190 Iāll post some progress pics, thatll give me a 15 pound drop which is usually enough to actually see something
lol and 1 day later Iām 189 on the scale. Iāll post some pics and updated measurements later this week
Did you do anything different or just wait it out?
Just kept plugging along. Iāve found weight loss to be like that, when youāre in the 200lb range sometimes youāll hold onto water weight, food weight, glycogen yadda yadda yadda and if any of that adds up to even 1 or 2 or 3% that can really add up to make it look like nothing is moving
Iāve always liked circumference measurements alongside the scale for that reason, to have a couple different markers of progress
My weight has been back up some ounces for several days now, and Iām trying really hard to stay cool and not react. Lift, cardio, diet. Lift, cardio, diet. Lift, cardio, diet. NO FREAKOUTS. No adding cardio so the whole house of cards collapses 8 weeks in because tired and hungry and resentful.
Lift, cardio, diet. Lift, cardio, diet. Lift, cardio, diet.