Hope the High Frequency set-up works well for you. Hitting things 3x or more a week is the only way I ever make significant progress, so good luck bud.
Spidey - Thanks brother, should be interesting if nothing else, huh? Im excited about it though, I’ll learn something new about myself, get to train a tiny bit more, and share an experience with some other lifters. No lose in my opinion, even if no muscle is gained.
Training for 3-17: Saint Paddy’s day massacre (because training is so hardcore)
Conditioning:
A1 - 10-to-1 Burpees
A2 - 10-to-1 Medball Slams
A3 - 10 Jump ropes each round
Main work: 3 Rounds, Hard 5’s style
A1 - Ring Rows, constant tension reps
A2 - Standing Ring flies, constant tension (up from half flies last week)
A3 - Power High Pulls, 95lbs, 105lbs, 115lbs
Notes:
-
G-Damn I hate burpees… But they were perfect for today. Really warmed up my chest and legs, got the lungs firing too. The med ball slams were just to get the back muscle in on the fun, and the jumping rope just rounded things out
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Finding ways to increase the work on the muscles on the rings. Angles/tensions/slower cadence. I like it.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Wow man, thanks. Sometimes I think it just me and a few others, but every now and then someone else shows up.
Any questions you have I’m happy to help.[/quote]
You’ll be surprised to know how many of us lurkers there are here lol.
3-19 … When you Don’t want to pull your groin
Conditioning: 5 rounds of
A1 - Pull ups x 5
A2 - Rings L-Sit for an 8 count
A3 - Jumping Jacks / Split Jacks (clap in front instead of hands over head) x 20
A4 - Bear Crawl
Main Work, 4 times through
A1 - 1 Arm Viking press x 12
A2 - 5 pull ups
A3 - Trap Bar Deadlift with Fat Gripz x 12
A4 - 5 pullups
Notes:
- Woke up with sore legs today, which has been very unusual lately. Then my left upper inner thigh/ groin almost pulled on my first rep of Bulgarian Split Squats with my left leg out front. Shut those down immediately, did a bunch of stretching, and did the TDBL super light, but used the Fat Gripz to make them someone useful… Freaking sucks. This is the one and only injury that ever comes back, seems to be every 6 months or so.
I caught up and stopped before it got really bad, hopefully its the same as last time and heals up within a few days. Seems to always happen after a particular hard squat day, as I go ass-to-grass on those and thats the muscle that really seems to get sore.
Friday
-Conditioning work
Strength work
A-1 bench 185x 5,5,5,5,6
A2 - 5-6 fat gripz trap bar rows, squeeze focus
B- deadlift 5x3@275
Notes
-Really happy with the bench, I was struggling to get all 5x5 initially and now I’m getting extra reps
-Deadlift same as last week but I didn’t want to aggravate my groin, which seems much better already
-one week of my Frequency Experiment in the books, did 80 side laterals on Saturday and am taking Sunday off from everything
-diet: I think I’m basically as lean as I want to get at this point. Will transition all cardio sessions to weight vest walks and add back in a touch of food. Pics coming this week, although I already posted a few in my other frequency thread, these should be even a little leaner though
Monday Funday 3-23
Conditioning: 5 Rounds
-Snatch The Bear, 5 reps each exercise per round
- Snatch Grip Stiff leg deads
- Snatch grip row
- Snatch
- Snatch grip BTN Press
- Squat
- 20 jump ropes
- 8 ab wheel rollout
Strength:
A1 - Overhead Press, 135x5,5,5,5,7
A2 - Pullups 5x10
B - Squats, 215x5,5,5,5,7
Notes:
-
Shoulders feeling super solid during this frequency experiment, and the pump I got today was much better than I usually get… Maybe I’m learning to recruit the muscles more with the daily stimulation.
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Got to rep 7 on each of the last sets today, really feeling solid at these weights now. 2 more weeks of this cycle before deload, then I’ll bump up the weight, gonna go for 10 reps on the last week (thats the plan in my head right now anyways)
Tuesday 3-24
Conditioning: 4 rounds
- 8 side bends with a 45lb plate, each side
- Reverse Fat Gripz Curls x 8 with bar
- “X Drill” with a burpee at each corner (see notes)
Weights: Hard 5’s Style
A1 - Ring Flies
A2 - Ring Rows with hammer grip
A3 - Power High Pulls (100, 110, 120 lbs)
Loaded Carry:
105lb farmers walk: 3 x 1minute walks. Obviously nothing to write home about, but Its a new addition so as always I’m starting at a bare minimum and will add more as time goes on. This will be my workout layout for the foreseeable future.
Notes:
-Here is the X Drill, its a way to get some “running” in while avoiding many of the pitfalls of standard forward-only running: Cardio: X Drill www.chadwaterbury.com - YouTube
- Did complete ring flies today, meaning I didnt do any pressing style motion, it was super high tension the entire rep, felt good. Also lowered the rings about 2 inches to make it a tad harder.
Thursday 3-26
Conditioning: 5 rounds
- 10 med ball slams
- 5 explosive jumps
- 5 pull ups
- 5 snatches at 65lbs
Weights: 4 rounds
A1 - 1 Arm Viking press x 12
A2 - 5 pull ups
B1 - “Tension Lunge” x 12 each leg holding a 25lb plate at chest
B2 - 5 Pull ups
Loaded Carry:
55lb weight vest + Bear Hug a 45lb bumper plate, did three 1 minute walks.
Then took a ~25 minute walk with just the weight vest… It sucked, my traps/shoulders/low back hated me but I should adapt.
Notes:
-
Tension Lunge is when you do a lunge but actively try and pull the legs together. They wont move of course, but it creates a huge amount of force through the hamstrings of both legs, and really activates the quads of the forward leg. I took it easy on weight here because my groin had that could-pop-any-minute feeling again… Might be working too close to failure on Mondays squats, or need some other recovery methods between then and the Thursday session to get the groin on track better.
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Also took it a bit easy on the viking press since I’m getting so much damn volume for shoulders during my Frequency experiment (will do over 500 lateral raises this) and I hit them hard on monday anyway.
^ Following.
Just caught up with your other thread. Lonnie, I’m glad you’re doing delts first. I’m very interested to see how this goes. I’ve done 200 lateral raises in a week many times - training delts twice a week, with sets of 20-25 reps - but never anywhere near the volume you’re looking at. My delts are the body part I’d most like to see progress. Already tempted to jump in and start adding volume.
powerpuff- join on in! I’m two weeks in nearly and liking it, delts haven’t blown up but unless I’m fooling myself they seem a little more capped. Start with a weight you can do for about 20-25, do a total of 75 and add a rep every day for 4 weeks. Every seventh day off. Or you can wait for me to post my results to see if it’s worth your time investment.
Friday 3-28
Conditioning: 5 rounds
- explosive push up x5
- jump rope x 30
- pull-ups x 5
- L sit x 8 count, 8 band ab push downs each side
Strength:
A1 - bench 185x 5,5,5,5,6
A2- fat grips row 5x5 @ 145
B - deads, 5x3@275
B2- hammer curl 2x25
Carry:
Farmers walk, 125lbs, 3x1minute
Notes:
-Tired today, had to wake up early for a pre work meeting, such is life.
-Loaded carry actually after my shift with my frequency delt work too. I need more time in my days!
- bench was good but would like to get 185x10 eventually
Saturday - Dat Frequency Tho
AM: Arms superset with brutal contractions. Did my HFT Delt exercise in the morning for 86 reps.
PM:
-6x3 Squat-to-press and Pull ups superset. This was super light and I only did it because I felt good today and had the urge the train like crazy. I wanted to do Something, but didnt want to interfere with my schedule, so I followed some Waterbury wisdom and added a session, but kept the parameters FAR away from anything else I was doing during the week. Did 6x3 with a ~15RM I’d say, maybe even 18-20RM. Very explosive and it felt great, helped work my squat form too.
-Also did my usual Weight Vest walk
Sunday…3-29: 2015 Diet officially over!
In 14 weeks, Went from a weight of 184 to 171, and a waist measurement of 36.25 to 33.00.
Because my situation is a bit different than it was 3 years ago during my prep, My goal for this diet was to get 6-pack lean while limiting the amount of cardio I did to a max of 5 sessions a week, to not incorporate MAG-10 fasts, and not impact my wifes life in any detrimental manner. I believe I succeeded in all these areas.
Food Thoughts: For that prep I ended up utilizing MAG-10 Pulse Fasts once a week for a month, then 2 a week leading up to the show… So I had 2 days of under 500 calories. My goal this diet was to NOT do any of those as they really arent sustainable and I didnt want to be lean because of “tricks”.
Cardio Thoughts: Started at 3 “easy” cardio sessions, basically just peddling on the bike leisurely for 16 minutes, and increased it to 5 24 minute sessions over the course of the 14 weeks. In my show prep 3 years ago I was doing TOOONS of “cardio” (It was all prowler based), upwards of 12-13 sessions a week.
Overall Thoughts: During my show prep 3 years ago I got to 158 I think on show day, maybe even 156 at my absolute lowest for a day, and my waist I think got to 32 so I’m not quite as lean, but I’m as lean as I want to be. I did it with minimal dietary shenanigans and some of my lifts are still going up, so I cant call this last 14 weeks anything but a success.
Photo attached is a bit grainy (not my physique… the quality of the image) but I think it shows what I want it to show.
Plan going forward is to not screw the pooch like I did last time and SLOWLY, perhaps painstakingly, increase calories, transition from cardio done on machines to weight vest walks 3-5x a week to Keep the calorie burn up but perhaps make the cardio trigger some useful adaptations instead of risk muscle loss.
Will be sticking with the same lifting protocols . AKA stuff inspired by Alpha, Waterbury, and Chaos and Pain with an attempt to increase my frequency from 4 to 6x a week over the coming months by adding in “feeder days” (2x12, and 1x24 parameters) and “explosive days” (12x2, 8x3 using a light 16-18RM). Seems to be working so I’m going to keep it up.
Nice six pack and obliques!
I enjoyed your write up and thoughts on this phase.
Long time lurker here.
Great job trimming up…nice starting point to start packing it on.
Thanks for the time you put into your log. Very interesting and fun to follow along.
Thanks Guy, I appreciate that.
Tim, where are you are these days weight wise? Any notable lifts? Any plans to shred down again? I know its a big undertaking, but I like the focus and drive it gives me.
Monday: Dat Waterbury Cherry is Busted
Conditioning: 5 rounds
- Medball slams x 8
- Snatch-to-Overhead Squat x 5
- Supinated ring pull ups x 5
- Ab Wheel x 8
Strength: 9 rounds
A1 - Overhead Press 140lbs x 3
Rest 60 seconds
A2 - Squat 220 x 3
A3 - Pullups x 6
Rest 60 seconds and repeat
Notes:
-
My first real “10x3” workout style today, I only did 9 so I could progress next week by doing 10, but it felt really good. I was doing 27 reps total last week so this is a 5lb increase with the same total volume, and next week I’ll add the 10th set before I go into my deload week. Really got my confidence up for when I takcle it with 225 which has always been my “make or break” weight with the squat it seems.
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If its not clear, I would do the Press, rest 60 seconds, then back-to-back do the Squats then pullups, then rest 60 seconds and start over. It gives about 2.5-3 minutes rest before each repeat of the same movement, but only 1 minute rest in between different movements. Lots of density, but since the movements are so different very little site specific fatigue.
Sitting around 194 in the morning. Hoping to drive it up to 200 or so before cutting back during the summer…
…although I am a bit behind schedule to actually be lean for summer since it would take me until mid May just to get up to 200. Wouldn’t be visibly much leaner until early July at that rate.
But no hard or fast plans at this point.
Notable? Not so much, but here are my recent highlights:
Bench 280x3
Squat 360x5, 4 sets
Deadlift 485x1
Congratulations on your progress and the end of a successful cut!
Sounds like you took a more careful/ sane approach this time around with regards to both cardio and diet. Well done!
Day 1 of the Waterbury high frequently Delt/Glute plan starts April 1 for me. I will keep you posted about what I think about it in about a month. I appreciate your help.
Tim: Still looking strong man, I wish my numbers were up there :-/ Keep me posted when you shed down, I’ll be interested to see the improvements you’ve made over the years.
PowerPuff: Yes! Keep me posted, either here or in the Frequency thread over in the BB section. It will be nice to have all the results of his protocols in one place for future forum browsers.
Tuesday 3-31
Conditioning: 4 rounds
- SLDL x 8
- Supinated grip rows x 8
- Curls x 8
- Front Squats x 8
- Explosive Pushups x 8
- 45lb side bends x 8 each side
Weights: 4x15
A1 - Ring Push ups, feet elevated
A2 - Ring Rows
A3 - High Pulls
Loaded Carry: 145lb farmer x 3 rounds
Notes:
- Upped the volume of this session from 45 to 60 reps per exercise heading into my deload.
- Loaded carry was heavier than anticipated for the length, had to set it down once on the 2nd set, and twice on the 3rd set. Will stick here until its “easy”
Saw your high frequency thread and just wanted to drop in and wish you luck! And I apologize if you addressed this earlier in the thread, but is there a reason that you’re still doing a significant amount of conditioning now that your cut is over? Seems a bit counter to the goal of putting on mass, but you’ve obviously been at this for a while and know your body, just curious as to why.