DC calves are like the most memorable part of the system! It’s an incredible amount of pain for something stupid… your calves. Just craziness.
The BBQ sponsorship is the best thing I’ve ever heard! Congrats! Ha!
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I have the same affinity for 135 on good mornings because of Bruce Lee. And that’s absolutely awesome about the free barbecue!
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@TrainForPain For sure man! It’s what I dig about it: if I’m gonna train calves, it better be just ridiculous. I need gimmicks: like getting a kid to eat their food by pretending it’s an airplane, haha. And glad you can rejoice in my BBQ tier unlocking. Happy belated birthday BTW!
@PowPowPunishment I KNEW you’d get it there, haha. Some numbers are just iconic that way. There’s always a slight amount of hesitation there. And man, if you ever find yourself in Omaha, hit me up, because I GOTTA treat you to some good BBQ. And we gotta go close down Texas De Brazil.
My HAMSTRINGS are actually sore now. To the touch and everything. It’s amazing what you can do with ONE quality workset. This program is great because it always breaks my brain: I keep thinking I need to do more and more, but I seem to be doing well with less.
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You didn’t and even if you did, it was earned!
Thanks I’ve had a little dig there but will spend more time digging deeper, I’m feeling like from my first few sessions that this could be my bodybuilding version of 531, something that I run for a long time, because it’ll yield solid consistent results and it fits with life, so want to make sure I really get it.
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It certainly has wings for that. The constant rotation alongside the “blast and cruise” approach really opens itself up for long term utilization. I only ever ran this for 2 months before: I’m curious how long I can take it at this point. But I’m also not above chasing something shiny when the mood strikes. I still am itching to do another Deep Water run and Mass Made Simple.
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I just downloaded this to my phone this morning to run again. Looking forward to trying it now that health is in order.
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Hell yeah dude! It’s so transformative. Gonna give the nutrition a go too?
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That’s the part I’m trying to sort out. I need to plan it well and have all the meat in freezer or I won’t be successful. Fortunately, being in Texas now it’s much easier to eat out. Just about every place has meat by pound haha.
I’m little nervous since I weigh 245 right now. Knowing me, I can blink and hit 275.
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I feel like, if you really emphasize the meat and keep the plant based fats on the low side, you won’t run into issues with gaining. Meat is VERY satiating and hard to overeat on it’s own. Although I would avoid seasonings in that regard. Don’t try to artificially enhance the palatability, as that will interfere with your satiety signals and trigger OVEReating. Let the meat taste like meat and the eggs taste like eggs, using salt because it’s an essential mineral. With this approach, I imagine you’ll recover well and look awesome.
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AM WORKOUT 1 (0520 wake up via spouse alarm)
DOGGCRAPP Week 1, Workout A2
DB flat bench
20x20lbs
20x40
10x70
13+4+5 (failed 6th)x90
90 second dip stretch 105lb
Behind the neck barbell press
10xBar
8x55
15+5+4x98
90 second shoulder stretch
Close grip axle bench lockouts
10xAxle
10x135
1x245 (ego)
5+3+3 (failed 4th)x205
BREAKFAST
AM WORKOUT 2 (0730)
NG chins
10xBW
5x1 set of chains
7+4+3 (failed 4th)x2 sets of chins
90 second 55lb hanging lat stretch
(6) Axle mat pulls
3x175+chans
1x315+chains
10+4+4x405+chains
60 second per side 115lb DB lat stretch
END OF REQUIRED WORK
3x10 standing ab wheel
50 band pull aparts
Notes:
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Again, weird schedule, but that’s why this is a pilot week. I went lighter on the dumbbell bench than I wanted, but it turned out to be the right call. Forgot that most of my plates were still in my vest, so couldn’t go up to 100, but 90s hit just right with the ramp up. Still like the dip stretch for easy set up and safety.
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Behind the neck press is always a crowd pleaser. Just old school.
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I liked getting in those heavy lockouts. Really trying to balance each training session. Since the dumbbells are light pressing, this allowed me to get in heavy pressing but still keep the focus on the focus. Also nice to be able to go to failure without worry. On future workouts, I’m going to make it a goal to hit failure on each section of the rest pause, but for now I’m endeavoring to at least hit it on the final.
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Broke things up after all the pressing, came back and finished the pulling. The chains allow for a different loading pattern, which is a nice variant if I’m going to be doing primarily chinning for my vertical pulls.
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Worked my ROM progression into this workout, and I think that may be a way forward: on weeks where A workouts end on Fridays, I can include this. Other weeks, hit it up on Saturday. Sure to make me grow.
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Wimped out on the final stretch for my left lat. Only 40 seconds. These workouts are still running a little longer than I care for, but there’s room to pick up some slack.
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Travel day. Gonna try to get in a walk at some point.
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On those mat pulls, I switched to my traditional ironmind straps and they worked SO much better than either of my dedicated axle straps. Really feel like a chump for not just doing that sooner. They’re not long enough to do my typical strap set up, but they’re just high enough quality it doesn’t matter. This is really going to open up a lot of doors with axle pulls for the future.
On that note, my plan for mat pull progression is to really play the long game now. I did 405 with the axle, then 405 with the deadlift bar, and now I’m doing 405+chains with the axle, and will then do the same with the deadlift bar, and THEN I’ll up the bar weight finally and do something like 425 without chains. I feel like, in the past, I rushed this. The axle is brutal and paves the way for me to REALLY stretch my legs with the deadlift bar.
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Try holding the lengthened/stretch position on EVERY rep of every rest pause set. Doesn’t have to ge long. I’ve seen Dante making people hold a full 6 seconds on cambered bar presses but that seems unique. 
. I prefer a 2-3 sec hold. Keeps you honest, mitigates the stretch reflex, and gets you a little more stimulus in that desirable loaded stretch position but its every rep.
I’ve now come to view doing this as mandatory for hypertrophy focus. It’s hard to let ego make you go heavier if you are firm on hitting goal reps WITH the pause. Every rep. Injury prevention +hypertrophy for me.
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Safe and happy travels, @T3hPwnisher! Have the best time ever!
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@sirdanoman Thats a hot tip: much appreciated! I remember seeing that idea for the final rep before.
@EmilyQ thanks so much! Loved hearing about and seeing your photos from you own.
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Folks, I am back on US Soil. I have a lot to share and will do so when I have a keyboard, but my kid lovingly documented my steak and egg consumption over 7 days
That’s 102 eggs and 54 steaks. Here is what some of those breakfasts looked like
Keeping in mind those are “round 1” plates. I always went back for seconds.
And I had far more than JUST steak and eggs: that was just what we wanted to log. But I still kept it carnivore, not out of sacrifice but because its goddamn awesome, and by day 6 I was looking the best I had in quite a while
It just works.
For the actual cruise, I explored Mayan Ruins in Cozumel, went Ziplining in Jamaica and parasailing on Disney’s private island. Also did some open ocean swimming and had an absolute blast. So many other cool things to share. Can’t wait to get it all down.
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Every part of this post is absolutely awesome. Just winning at life my man, I love to see it.
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Agreed, looking phenomenal dude, almost like hard work and consistency are magic!
The holiday sounds like an absolute blast, plus an amazing amount of food!
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100% Fittest dad on vacation. You had to of been the “Alpha Dad”
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Just freaking jacked bro
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Gawd damn dude
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@atlas13 Hey thanks so much man! Always a joy to have you swing by.
@alex_uk Thanks dude! Very much on point in all regards: a total blast, gluttony galore, and a chance to stretch my legs and see what I can do. 38 is looking good on me, haha.
@taylortooswift Hah! You nailed my motivatons there for sure. I always want to by my kid’s own personal super hero. One of my favorite moments when they were a kid: we were at a clothing store, and they had a super hero shirt lineup. My wife was quizzing my kid, and pointed to the Superman logo and my kid goes “Superman”, she pointed to the Spiderman logo and they go “Spiderman”, Capt American “Cap-tan 'merica”, then she points to the Punisher and my kid says “Daddy”. Too precious
@davemccright Super high praise from you dude! Your growth since you arrived here, physically and otherwise, has been incredibly inspirational. I learn a lot from you.
@whiplash1 Thanks man!
Alright, first, the boilerplate stuff: I trained today
(5) Axle Mat Pulls
10+5+4x405+chains
My abdominal circumference certainly grew a little, as my belt was tight, but that meant MORE strength on the pull, so that’s cool. Felt my right glute twinge just a little on the second set of pulls, but I think that was primarily ring rust. Tomorrow we get back to DoggCrapp for earnest.
Now the fun stuff
CRUISE WRITE UP
I left on Friday, 8 Mar with WAY too many flight delays and didn’t arrive in Orlando until 0130, and didn’t get to my hotel until 0240. Slept until about 0800, we walked to a nearby Denny’s where I did a “build your own grandslam” of 6 softboiled eggs and 4 sunny side up, to kickstart the egg count at 10. Boarded the Disney Fantasy at around noon, debauched myself at lunch with 6 lambchops, copious steak and all sorts of other meaty goodness. I went through a 3 week famine phase before this and intended to rebound/recomp as hard as possible for the week I’d be on the ship. Thus began my process of “eat until food sounds like a bad idea, walk around with a 8 month food baby until it goes away, repeat”. I was QUITE a site walking around the pooldeck with a bloated/distended gut and set of abs at the same time. Suddenly the look of those pro-bodybuilders was making sense to me: to eat THAT much food to be that big is gonna mean having QUITE the gut.
The Mrs and I had a special brunch together the next day (day at sea), which was something like 5 courses wherein I ordered 2 of just about everything there. Because the meal stretched out to over 2 hours, I actually reached fullness early on compared to when I just sit and eat and eat and eat, and at the end I had to leave a few bites of steak behind, but everything there was delicious.
I won’t go on too much more about food, as it’s all about the same, but I’ll stress just how much food I was taking in at every meal of every day, to include the copious amount of butter I was using with each meal. It was taking a page from the Saxon trio. But along with that, the dinning staff were absolute ballers, and they got concerned when I would order dessert. When I explained to them that I preferred meat to dessert, they started brining me out TRIPLE portions of the meat on the menu. So I got 3 servings of prime rib one night, 3 servings of strip loin, 3 servings of rack of lamb, etc. Keeping in mind: I was ALREADY ordering two to three entrees each dinner, alongside double appetizers and occasionally a soup. And, often, the servers would just bring me out something I didn’t order, saying “we thought you might still enjoy this”.
Fun aside: I was eating a LOT of salmon on this cruise, and I one point said “I must have bear in my DNA, because I LOVE salmon”, and my amazing Valkyrie of a wife said “Weren’t berserkers supposed to have channeled bear spirits? That would explain things”. I married up gets.
On the cruise itself, I got to explore Mayan ruins in Cozumel, wherein I learned that the Cozumel Mayans did NOT engage in human sacrifice: their population was so small that agriculture was non-viable, so they survived off hunting and honey from a local stingless bee (which I ended up purchasing…the honey, not the bee). OG carnivores: I wanna learn more about them. We also toured a Mayan chocolate company, that made chocolate in the traditional style. That was fascinating to watch.
After that, we went to Grand Cayman, and basically just got off the boat so my kid could check another country off their list. Walked around a little, did some shopping, went back.
We went to Jamaica and did some ziplining. That was a blast. Also tried some jerk pork and chicken and found out I still have a decent spice tolerance.
Disney’s Private Island was an absolute blast. We started the day running the Castaway Cay 5k, which was the first time I’d run…in a year? Maybe. Speaking of, I have to run 10 miles in about 2 weeks, so that’s cool. After the run, we went parasailing, which is something I did once when I was 16. All 3 of us got to go up at the same time, which was amazing. I then did some open ocean swimming, which I no joke don’t think I’ve swam since college, and I’ve become significantly less buoyant, so it was an AMAZING challenge. My heart was going like a jackhammer. I honestly got hooked on that: it was an absolute blast, so much so that, I did a bunch of it BEFORE we went to the on beach BBQ buffet and I ate almost an entire rotisserie chicken alongside 3 burger patties, a hot dog, some ribs (had to towel the sauce off it) and some brisket, then went right back into the ocean to try to swim off the food baby, since I felt like a beached whale. That beach photo is of me in the wonderful afterglow.
We had some incredible shows on the ship as well: Aladdin, Frozen, Disney’s “Believe”, and some other great performances. My kid had a blast, the whole experience as magical.
I DID manage to get in some workouts too. I’d start each morning with a killer tabata workout: 15 prisoner squats on the 20s and 10 push ups on the 10s. When I first did it, I’d peter out around round 5, but by the end of the cruise, I could get all the way through. We also ONLY took the stairs, never the elevators, wand frequently got around 15-20k steps a day that way, with our beach day being about 26k steps. I snuck to the ship gym a few times, when we had downtime, and did 1 “GI JANE” WOD in about 17 minutes (had to legit jump to get the pull up bar this time), one bro pump workout of DB seated overhead press down to DB flat bench (taking the bench down an incline notch each set) and a bunch of lat pulldowns, and one legit DC Day B workout using machines and dumbbells, culminating in me doing the entire stack of the machine leg press for 10 reps, then knocking off 100lbs and doing a 27 rep widowmaker. Otherwise, lots of walking on the pooldeck to get in some sun.
I honestly could write more and more, but it was just a great time all around.
Oh yeah, forgot: I bought the PERFECT shirt on the cruise as well
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