@aholding88 You should absolutely be proud of what you did my dude: this is a significant challenge no matter HOW it’s taken on. From these challenges we grow. In turn, now that 800 is done, I’m curious where the bottom is for this: I may have to find out some day. And thanks for the kind words!
@Panopticum Thanks man! I know @SvenG Is having some success with Hardgainer, and @unicornsandrainbows Had tackled it as well. So far, so good.
My abs definitely came back out to play. My whole body honestly lit up. And my myoclonic jerk at night became a glute contraction, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0327 Natural Wake up) SEMI-FASTED: Half a serving of Surge before training, half during
5/3/1 FOR HARDGAINERS Week 1, Workout 1
MAIN WORK
Box Jumps
2x3
1x4
Buffalo Bar Squat
5xBar
5x195
5x245
5x315
5x365
8x405
ASSISTANCE WORK
Superset of:
T-bar row: 100lbs
Kettlebell clean each rep and strict press: 24kg
14 rounds, 90 seconds per round
Sets of 7 for the first 8 rounds, sets of 5 for the remaining 6
SUPPLEMENTAL
Buffalo Bar Squat
20x315
Straight into
Belt squat stripset (no rest/lockout)
28x200
Sets of 175,150,125,100,75,50,25,Axle
30 GHRs
POST WORKOUT SHAKE
CONDITIONING
Constant movement of cleaning up plates while accomplishing
40x360 Reverse hypers
50 dips
20 standing ab wheels
40 burpee chins in 5 minutes
Notes:
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I’ll address the immediate elephant in the room: an 8x405 topset on squats after having done 5x10x405 is definitely something that gets in your head, but I’m aware of the insanity I’ve put myself through to be able to appreciate what it means. Coming into this particular workout about 13 hours after hitting my 10000th kettlebell swing in 7 days is going to mean some stuff. But I see the positives here: I am in a FANTASTIC “softened up” state to really make the most of hardgainers. It’s why I dropped the TMs so far: I’m going to GROW. And I take solace in knowing that 8x405 is always the number I hit when 500 for a single is within striking distance.
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Came into this workout swollen, which makes sense with all the trauma I’ve put my body through PLUS a victory ham dinner. And that’s going to keep up this week, because I made enough leftovers for ham to be my meal prep. Just another thing to factor in, as my belt was feeling real solid.
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In that regard, I felt strong on the warm-ups today AND this is the first time in months I’ve done a true “5s progression” workout. I took Jim liberally on the main work of BBB Beefcake, but there’s no escaping those 5s here, and they keep you VERY honest on the main work.
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I have a non-STEM degree yet I seem to really love math, because that’s how I came up with the assistance work circuit. I’m stealing from Beefcake because I love the idea of a time limit for assistance work (Jim does that in other programs too, and it’s great there as well). 20 minutes of assistance work. Sold. But I also came into Hardgainers wanting to steal from Dan John’s “Mass Made Simple” and basically throw a complex in the middle of the workout to fire up the metabolic processes and make the ending supplemental work suck. Solution? Brian Alsruhe-esque timed giant sets. Man, so many influences coming together. EMOM seemed unrealistic to get 3 movements in for any decent volume, so I extended it to 90 seconds and that shook out to 14 rounds. 7 reps per round is 98 reps, hitting the top end of Hardgainers “50-100 reps”, so there we have it. Running through it, I was completing each circuit in about 60 seconds, but by the 8th circuit I had to set the bells down after the 6th press, which was a sign to me to reduce reps from there out. Now I have a goal for the program: complete 7 reps per round for the full 14. I’m going to come up with circuits for each day, based primarily on equipment accessibility/logistics, but I REALLY want to keep some sort of floor to overhead, as that is a gamechanger.
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In that regard: I can clean kettlebells again! The arm is mending well. ABCs may make a return, but I’m going to rotate daily insanity to keep from getting too adapted. I’m counting that clean as a swing, in order to stick with the RXs for assistance work Jim laid out.
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Hitting that squat widowmaker after all that work is definitely a different animal. I DID have a bit more in me, but with this being week 1, I’m happy to ease into it again.
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Chasing the squat with the belt squat AND the GHR thoroughly nuked my legs. Conditioning was kept on the light side after all that, as the assistance work was honestly a solid gasser.
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On the nutrition front, I’m going to play around a bit here. Surge is potent, and I’m feeling like I don’t need it for EVERY workout on this program. I also noticed that, when I doubled the dosage, I didn’t notice a performance improvement, but I felt heavier in the gut than I liked. So I’m back to a single serving, which I’m going to use on my squat and deadlift days. Bench and press days will be back to a higher fat pre-training meal. Conditioning day will be fasted. Since prowlers factor into training now, I’m thinking my conditioning day will be a “hard, heavy and fast set + weighted vest walk” workout.
