I did just read a couple of reviews that say it is 16 weeks. Man that’s a long one. Definitely different than most of his Forever templates.
It is. He says as such in the book too. It’s like 2 programs put together. It works, but I wasn’t all that jazzed with it. Liked SVR II more.
The Anchor looks awesome though. I read the 2 leaders part don’t see where he specifies the length of the leader. I’ll look again when I get home maybe that part didn’t register.
W10D4 BBB Challenge Squat. 260 for 3 topset. Deads 50 at 260 also. Hanging leg raises x 50. A little hungover and hot as hell in the garage made this way tougher. I feel great about my squats and deads though. Squats need some more work but its improving. I have a bad tendency to bend too much at the hips and getting my long legged and knee having ass parallel is tough but I get it done. Need to condition a bit more. Weight is going up though but so is the fat % I can tell.
Was able to get to my copy: page 108 is where he says it takes longer to get through a full cycle of God is a Beast, and page 110 is where he shows increasing the TM at the 6 week point vs the 3.
When I ran it, I honestly felt like it would have been better to have 2 TMs: one for the strength work and one for the BBS work. I ended up using tricks to make the BBS work harder, like using difficult strongman implements, employing pause reps, short rest times, lots of assistance work between sets, etc.
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Awesome, thank you sir I’ll keep that in mind. Definitely looking at SVR II as well. Really like Forever its really straight to the point for the most part.
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Time crunch this last week and probably will be that way for a while. So I think going forward it will be BtM (3 day a week ball buster). Then…I am going to have to change it up. I have gained about 11 lbs so far and after BtM who knows. I need to slow down a bit because I don’t want to have to buy any more work pants. My wife just got me these like 3 months ago.
I have been wanting to run a Meadow’s program for a long while just haven’t aligned with the goals recently. Here we are though. I think I’ll give Reactive Pump a run after BtM if I have the time. I’m not hard cutting during that either, unless we are at Defcon 5 on pants exploding. Playing with the carbs at first.
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Don’t forget the conditioning! It’s a 6 day a week ballbuster, haha.
What’s tough is when you are doing a weighted walk and carrying a kid. I don’t have an airdyne, but I have a elliptical trainer that should work. My least favorite lift is the squat so I’m already looking forward to the hurt from BtM. Honestly its the eating that scares me the most. Like you I have a horrid family history but I’ll do it up as best I can. Like I said the chickens better get to laying.
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W11D1 BBB Challenge. OHP top set 120. Seemed easy enough. Problem was a misloaded cookie…had to do it again. Still no problem. Chins…my nemesis. I suppose I could do some banded chins when I need to just hate to do that. When gaining weight that doesn’t really make the chins any easier. Anyway felt good today. Arm work was pjrs and poundstone curls. Fat man rows with wide grip and elbows back to focus on upper back and rear delts.
Measurements for my chest and hips have blown up. 44" chest and 43.5" hips. Chest is 2" bigger and hips 2.5" bigger. Arms only .25" but I don’t train them much. Thighs though not growing still 24". But BtM should beat the legs up pretty good.
Oh yeah waist is up an 1"…probably left that nugget out unconsciously.
W11D2 Deads BBB Challenge. 350 for the top set. 205 for the squats. Left knee has been hurting especially doing high rep work when squatting. So I threw a elite fts band around my knees and finished up with virtually no pain. From what I can see when I’m squatting I may have minor knee cave that could be the culprit. Ab Wheel…my nemesis. 50 of those bastards. I should probably do that more than once a week.
W11D3 BBB Challenge Bench 195 top set. 50 OHP at 90. Arm work. Did dips for tris but man…need to do them more. I was able to easily do banded or weighted dips a few months back. But its been a minute and I could tell. Deload or test week next week I’ll probably just do dips and chins after the supplemental to get ready for the onslaught.
W11D4 Squat BBB Challenge 275 top set. God the squats were easy. Strongest I’ve felt doing those. Moved fast and felt light. The 50 deads at 260 were excruciating after the 3rd set. HLR were pretty easy but I was pretty queezy after the deads so I took some time between sets there. Played poker last night had 3 beers all night but didn’t get much sleep. Felt fine just tired but thats nothing new. They keep saying a cold front is coming but they keep pushing back when…its humid and hot. I’m ready for winter as far as gym work goes.
Man 3 months in and I definitely feel stronger and gained some mass. Some of which is fat but definitely bigger and stronger. With BtM I want to push onwards towards 215 as long as the pants allow. I’ve hit prs all over here. Hope it continues.
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Man my pressing sucks but…its progressing finally. Just got a single at 135. Its a PR that i hate to admit. Its just one wheel but I did it with no leg drive. My lower back may be a little sore after that one…which means my form still blows. Just good to know the work is paying off. Hope it continues.
Rest of the workout was dips and chins and thats it. Smoking a brisket flat today. Should be awesome.
W12D2 Deload Deads 275 5s. Easy stuff. Then chins and dips. Then for conditioning did 2 min all out eliptical, I about broke the cheap thing, then 20 kb swings 5 dips and 5 chins for 5 rounds. More dips and chins…because. I did some pec minor dips too. I think when my dip game was at its best I was super setting those in their with banded dips. That…and they give a wicked upper pec pump.
Got costs back on building my “shop” cough gym cough. Concrete costs…dayum. All steel building is about what I thought but dirt and concrete work are freaking crazy.
W12D3 BBB Challenge. Bench. I hit 205 thought I had enough to go for 225. Nope. Not quite there. Man I hate pressing. But it needs brought up. Really glad that BtM looks like it focuses on the press which should help my bench. So for missing that rep I busted out 100 dips and 50 regular chins and 20 chin negatives. Then to finish off the lats some straight arm pulldowns. But that was it. Stupid bench…
W12D4 BBB Challenge Squats. 315 for 1. Here is the deal. Depth. I good morning squat just about everything even an unloaded bar. But I can force my hips lower with less weight obviously. With heavier weights my ass is above parallel nowhere near close to below my knees. I feel extreme tightness in my hip flexor towards the bottom of the squat. I tried runners stretches. I incremented up in weight slowly. But even warm up squats are hard for me to bottom out. Did some 90 90 stretches. I always thought I was quad dominant…but… really just feel like hip flexor mobility is the problem. They just don’t want to loosen up and give me that 3 or 4 inch drop at the bottom. Also wondering if I’m just not too far forward if thats part of the problem…hate thinking about shit when im under the bar. Just want to be in the moment and hit it. Chins and Dips and goblet squats also.
Just did heavier goblet squats and that seems to almost get depth but unloaded air squats I don’t hit depth. Wth, are the hip flexors or…what is holding me up. It feels like from my groin to the top of my femur that something needs to pop to allow me to get that depth. @FlatsFarmer hey man do you have any hip mobility drills. This hasn’t always been an issue at least I don’t think. Just feels like my build or something isn’t letting the squat hit proper depth. I usually squat with the band around the knees just seems to help with knee pain in higher reps. Not sure if that matters.
This stuff is no fun. It’s like a vicious cycle, you’ve got the build where you need to lean forward at the bottom of the squat to get to parallel. The forward lean makes your hip flexors tight. Then tight hip flexors make you lean forward more. And if you keep squatting this way it gets tighter and tighter and worse and worse.
You mentioned the 90/90 stretch, that shit is so torturous it makes my hip flexors tighter.
90/90 breathing, where you lay on the floor, feet on the wall and engage your glutes and hamstrings to posteriorly tilt your pelvis or “buttwink” to relax your hip flexors works better for me.
Here’s the first crappy video that came up. I didn’t want to link a super long boring one with all the details if you’re pretty familiar with this stuff.
Anyway, try getting in the 90/90 hip lift, breathing position. Pull your heels towards your butt to engage hamstrings, then squeeze your glutes. Then pull with abs and release and relax your hip flexors and allow your hips to turn under and your spine to get neutral. Get comfortable with everything but your hip flexors tight. Like you’re properly braced.
Once you get a feel for that position, try some goblet squats, with the band around your knees. Start at the top, engage your brace with everything tight, except your hip flexors. Go down like 4 inches and pause. Make sure your bracing, your hips and back are neutral and you’re not flexing your hip flexors. Feel your hamstrings and glutes and abs and quads all tight and all taking the pressure Off your groin.
When you’ve got it right, go down 4 more inches and repeat the process. Get everything tight to take pressure off groin and hip flexors. Feel your glutes and hams. Make sure your hip are tilted correctly. Then lower down a few more inches and pause.
Then do this for awhile, until you train yourself to keep the tension off your hip flexors throughout the whole ROM, without the pauses.
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Awesome I’m going to run out and give this a go. I was thinking maybe in the bottom of the goblet squat flossing the hip joint side to side for a few seconds may also help? Going to try and foam roll the flexors tonight too.
Thank you sir.
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