Natty on Pennies

Training Logs
21

Two moves for a great shoulder line (and overall powerful upper-body look)

Want big delts, traps and chest and a thick back?
Just focus on these two movements and get strong as f*ck on them.

  1. Incline bench

From what I have noticed, if I stop doing barbell incline presses, my shoulders seem to lose width and thickness (my upper chest? A little but not so much - yeah, it’s weird. My delts have always sucked while my chest has been decent, maybe that has to do with it)

Incline press is great for the front side of your upper body as it hits the delts, triceps and chest hard. When you are repping in the 300’s you will have a massive amount of muscle in those areas.

  1. Deadlift/Rack pull
    First off - do deadlifts if you know how to perform them without wrecking youself and you can recover from them. If not, rack pull is your best bet.

I noticed ~1.5 years ago that my traps and upper back seem to almost melt off if I don’t pull some heavy iron from the ground. Also my delts lost width (again)
Pulls from ground/rack are great for your entire backside, rear delts included.
they hit the whole posterior chain and are a surefire way to trigger muscle growth.
Also - if you pull without straps, you’ll get a great grip.

If you are a bodybuilder, you might want to throw in some bicep/side delt work and that is fine. Just make sure that the assistance exercises are not taxing so you won’t fry yourself.

I also recommend that you always do overhead presses at least once a week for mobility reasons.

So a training session could look like this:

Warm up:
your usual warm-up, I’ll write about mine in the future
Include light overhead presses, pull-ups and band pull-aparts in here

Training:
Incline bench 1x4-8
chest stretch
Deadlift 1x6-8, 1x9-12
back stretch
Weighted ab wheel rollout 1x9-12
Done.
you may do a set of 11-20 of hammer curls and/or lateral raises after that but that’s it

Enjoy your gains.

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22

I promised to write about my warmups, so here goes

I do this before every lower body workout

  1. I foam roll my entire lower body and back briefly

  2. I do alternating anterior reaches for 10 reps/side

  3. I do hanging leg raises for 10 reps

  4. I do reverse hyper for 10 reps

  5. I get into the ending position of a dumbbell pullover without the dumbbell and take 10 deep breaths there.

  6. I stretch my calves, hams, quads and glutes briefly

Then the training session may begin

Of course I warm up with the bar and lighter weights before each exercise, I take as many warm-up sets as I need.

Before upper-body sessions I do this:

  1. Over and backs with a broomstick for 10 reps

(Alternating anterior reach if the session includes deadlift)

  1. Rotator cuff warm-up: external and internal rotations for couple of sets

  2. Pullover for 10-12 reps

  3. Face pull for 10-12 reps

  4. Tricep extensions and hammer curls for 10-12 reps

  5. Horizontal shrugs for 10-12 reps

  6. Hanging leg raises, 10-12 reps

  7. The pullover stretch, 10 deep breaths

  8. I stretch my shoulders, back, chest, biceps, forearms and triceps shortly.

And then I begin my workout, again, I do a couple of warmup sets with lighter weights before doing my working sets.

As you may see, I actually use more movements in my warm-ups than my workouts, and I am an advocate of taking your time to warm up throughoutly

Note: If I feel like I need to do a spesific movement in the warm - ups I’ll do it. Usually I do some movements in the warm-ups that are not listed here but these are the ones I do every single time.

Another note: English is not my native language, so pardon me for any grammatical mistakes / unclear instructions. If you don’t understand something, feel free to ask.

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23

Consistency is key to getting big

Okay, you may have heard this a hundred times, but it is good to be reminded that success is about choosing a goal and getting a little closer to that goal every day.
Success is not about choosing a goal and changing it two days afterwards, no.

I’ll tell you my own story. The story about a guy who chose a goal and got there.

So, once upon a time there was this scrawny teen. A true skeleton, standing at 188cm (6’2"), 52kg (115lbs). He wanted to be big. Truly big. So, what did he do? He decided to get huge.

Okay, enough storytelling. As you may see, I was really just skin and bone. So I chose to bulk up.
I bulked for 2.5 years straight and got up to 110kg (247lbs). That is an increasement of 58kg (128lbs) in bodyweight.

That might sound like a lot (okay, it is a lot) but if we think about the time I took to do it, we can see that actually my bodyweight “only” increased 0.5kg (a pound) per week., but I was doing it very, very consistently. I never missed meals or training session and I kept my goal. I didn’t suddenly change it from “getting huge” to “being a fuckboy”. I wanted to be huge and that I did.

For those 2.5 years my daily meals looked like this:
Meal number 1. (consumed when I woke up in the middle of the night)
Whey
Fish oil
Olive oil

Meal number 2. (Breakfast)
Eggs
Broccoli

Meal number 3.
Chicken
Whole-grain pasta
Broccoli
Vitamins

Meal number 4. (During training session)
Maltodextrin
EAA+BCAA

Meal number 5. (Post workout)
Whey
Maltodextrin
Banana

Meal number 6.
Chicken
Whole-grain pasta
Broccoli

Meal number 7. (Pre-bed)
Quark
Muesli
Blueberries

I ate like this every. single. day.
(I did not list quantities of the foods here as the portion sizes got larger every week)
If I was invited to go for a pizza with friends I went there, ate my own food first and the pizza as a dessert. (Although that happened like twice a year)

One reason for me to do this was the fact that I was very, very weak.
I couldn’t even bench an empty barbell for a single rep.
My squat one rep max was the empty bar. (20kg/45lbs).
For a teenage guy that is truly brutal mentally.

But 2.5 years after that I was doing squat with 125kg (275lbs) for 20 reps.

So always remember to be consistent. Choose a goal and chase it like your life depended on it.

6 Likes
24

That’s actually like reading my lifting story.Plus you warm up in a similar fashion and believe in strength training for size.Maybe we’re relatives or sth

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25

Great minds think alike

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26

Let’s do another “essential movements for muscles”
this time with quads and hamstrings

First off, let me say that most people are either quad-dominant or glute-dominant when it comes to leg training.
Guess what, I’m actually hamstring-dominant. Seriously, it’s weird. For the first year and a half of my lifting, my quads and glutes got really little stimulation because every movement I did - let it be a leg press or a squat - I did with my hamstrings. (As hamstrings do not only bend your knee but also act when you extend your hips, this is possible)

Now that that has been said, let’s get to work.

First, the hamstrings. Depending on the type of squat you choose for the quad movement, I would go with either a lying leg curl or weighted glute-ham raises.

Hamstring curls/GHRs can help prevent knee injuries (or ease the pain if you already got one) and they make your squats feel much more stable. (When performed before squatting)

Tip: if you choose hamstring curls, point your feet away from you while performing the exercise. This takes gastrocnemius (a calf muscle that also bends the knee) out of the movement.

You want to keep the sets short as the part of hamstring you are targeting is mostly made up of fast-twitch muscle fibers.

For quads I would go with either back squats of front squats. (Choose the one you feel more comfortable with.)

For those of you that choose front squat:
When front squatting, you want to go deep. Really, deep.
Remember to control the negative and explode up.
And keep the sets pretty short, as your back and shoulders get tired fast.

If you choose the back squat:
No need to go ass-to grass, but go under parallel.
If you can’t hit depth, try front squatting. What I have found is that even those people who can’t get to parallel on back squat can go pretty much ass-to grass in front squat. (If they have good technique)
For back squats, I would go with a bit longer sets (unless you are a powerlifter)
Again, control the negative.

If you choose to do hamstring curls for hamstrings and front squats for quads, make sure you have deadlift in some of your training sessions.

Let’s put a training session together, shall we?
All sets (except reverse hyper) are performed to positive failure.

Either this:

  1. Weighted GHR 2x4-8

hamstring stretch

  1. Front squat 1x3-6, 1x6-8

quad stretch

  1. Reverse hypers (just to open up the back) 1x11-15

  2. Calves (I wrote about them a couple of days back, check earlier replies)

Or this:

  1. Lying leg curls 2x4-6

hamstring stretch

  1. Squat 1x6-10, 1x20 (a widowmaker set)

quad stretch

  1. Reverse hypers 1x11-15

  2. Calves

A widowmaker set is a set where you take a weight you would normally use for a 10 rep set, and you do 20 reps with it without racking the bar.
(If you did, let’s say 10x100kg for your first set, drop the weight to 75-80kg for the second one. If you can do both sets with the same weight you are acting like a bitch on the first one)

Note: if your calves suck and they are a priority to you, feel free to do them before anything else.

Note 2. As you see, I’m asking you to do two sets for hamstrings, but personally I do only one. If you are a hamstring dominant lifter, you’ll do just fine with one set. If not, do two. (You probably are not)

27

Don’t get fat as hell while bulking.

Before we dive into the subject, let me say that if you are a heavyweight powerlifter/weightlifter (or don’t care too much about aesthetics in general) this may not be for you.

If you, however are a bodybuilder/fitness competitor/just train to look good you need to hear this.

A general guideline:
There is no reason to go far over 15% (20% for women) bf when bulking.
This may sound a little harsh but it us just so you don’t have to diet for 6 months straight.

Now, this is just a guideline. What I actually want you to do is this: find your bodyfat setpoint. Your bodyfat setpoint determines the range where your bf% must be so your hormones and whole body will work as well as possible.
(I must say, sorry for bad english)

Easiest way to find out what your bf setpoint is is to:

  1. Diet down to a low bf (you may actually want to go so low that you start to feel bad)
  2. Start gaining weight. Once you feel good again, measure you bodyfat. That is your setpoint’s low end.
  3. Your setpoint’s high end may be 3-5% higher.

So, if you start feeling good again at 11%, your bf setpoint range may be 11-14%

Once you find your perfect bodyfat range you’ll gain more muscle and less fat than ever before - given that you stay within that range.

My strategy to stay in my setpoint range is implementing 10 days long diet phases every six weeks.

I’ll write it out:

-Starting bf: 8% (my range is 8-11%)
-Weeks 1-6 eat a lot, gain 8-10 pounds (let’s say I eat 4500 calories/day here)
-bf after 6 weeks 9-10%
-Do a 10 day “mini cut”, lose the excess fat (3200 calories/day)
-bf after the cut: 8%
-after the mini cut I train hard for 4 more days. (8 weeks of hard training in a row)

  • after those 4 days I take a light week. (During the 4 days and the light week I would eat 4200 calories/day)
    -Then the next block of heavy training begins. Now with ~4650 calories

So the calories are driven up with each new block of training.

Note: I’m not telling you to eat 4500 calories every day.
And if you eat 3000 calories now, don’t drop it to 1700 fir the cut. Use common sense with this.

The mini-cut is great for insulin sensitivity as well, but that’s a whole another story.

To sum it up:

  • Find you bf setpoint range
  • gain weight within that range
  • implement mini-cuts to stay lean in the off-season.
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28

Update on the squat dude

This guy

So the goal was to get him to 140kg (315lbs) in his first 12 weeks of lifting.

Did he get it?
Did he squat 140kg after 12 weeks?

Hell yes he did.

So, I haven’t been able to lift with him after the 132.5kg single two weeks ago (of course I trained with him today) so I just told him what to do during the three squat sessions he had during that time.

And today, after two weeks (3 squat sessions) he shattered his goals with a 160kg (352lbs) squat.
That’s right. An increasement of 27.5kg (60lbs) in his 1RM in just 2 weeks via “online training”.

So, in 12 total weeks he went from an 5RM of 80kg to an 1RM of 160kg (Without getting fat as hell, he is actually leaner now than before)

Next goal?

I’ll try to get him to squat 180kg (405lbs) in the next two months or so.
One ultimate goal would be getting him to squat 200kg (450lbs) with under 6 months of training.

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29

This seems too good to be true. Is he natural?

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30

Yes, completely. It’s worth to mention that he is also one of the hardest workers that I have come across in the gym.

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31

Stop lifting at a commercial gym

This will be a short one as it is very simple. If possible, do not lift at your local trend gym. Find a shitty powerlifting gym that plays metal instead of pop. (Preferably so loud that you go deaf)

If I lift at a popular commercial gym my strength seems to stall, it’s amazing how much the atmosphere matters.

There is this huge commercial gym just outside my apartment (it is literally on the other side of the road) but I choose to walk half an hour to a powerlifting gym just because I can get a better training session in there. (No, I don’t have a car).

The powerlifting gym is also a tad cheaper, which is nice.

When you are surrounded by people who are stronger than you, you are bound to make progress. A week ago the owner of my gym squatted 210kg (475lbs) without a belt and after that he deadlifted 300kg (675lbs) without a belt or straps. And there are even stronger guys in the gym. Five plate benches and seven plate squats are a common thing.

I’m just saying. Switch to a powerlifting gym for three months and see how your lifts blow up. Then there is no going back.

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32

Cut out the fluff movements

I’m just going to give you something to think about:

Which one of these would build a bigger chest?

A: Doing 5x12 cable crossovers with 30 pounds every Monday for two years

Or

B: Doing incline bench press twice a week and going from 8x135 to 8x335 in the same time frame?

This brings me to my point.

For muscle growth you need these things:

  1. Progression
  2. Frequency
  3. Intensity

Yeah, you can do crossovers frequently, but they sure as hell won’t be as intense as pressing movements and they don’t have as much room for progression.

So what I want to say is this: Cut out the bullshit and focus on a couple of good compound exercises. Get strong at those lifts and you will grow.

33

What are your thoughts on 5x5 for beginners?
Personally,I have 2 points against it
1.The way progression is set it’s very easy for someone to stall
2.It’s pretty boring,I think a more flexible routine,that allows for some pump and fluff work too, is better to keep someone consistant at the beginning.That point can be disgarded though if we’re talking about a more determined individual

34

I wouldn’t recommend 5x5 to a beginner for pretty much the same reasons as you.
I’d add this: when the weight gets heavy and you need to grind out the 5x5 your technique will be bad. (In most cases)

So in this situation a beginner might do a total of 4 good reps (lets say 3 on the first set and 1 on the second) and 21 bad reps because they just want to get the 5x5.

Another thing I’d like to add is this: 5x5 is very exhausting. At least for me (as I am very explosive individual) I tried doing 5x5 once, just squatting took me almost 90 minutes and I would have burned out quickly.

So what would I do instead?

If you just want a set/rep scheme to follow, I would rather use 5x3 for strength (as shorter sets make sure you use good form (or at least you should))
5x3 may get boring after a while, but it works, it really does.
When you start feeling fatigued with 5x3, you could drop the amount of sets to 3 or you can introduce a speed day with 6x2 with lighter weights.

But if you want weekly programming, here are a couple of options:

Let’s say we want to be able to squat a lot of weight for a lot of reps. (This works best for squats but can also be used with other exercises) Here we can actually use the 5x5 , but it must be used carefully. (This is not a program for a complete beginner.)

After this I’ll write one for strength.

Do this:

Weeks 1&2

Monday &Wednesday

GHR, 2-3 sets
Squat 5x5
Ab work

Friday:

GHR 2-3 sets
Squat 3x10
Ab work

Week 3

Monday

Same as Monday on week 1&2

Wednesday&Friday

Same as Friday on weeks 1&2

Week 4&5

Monday:

Same as Monday on weeks 1&2

Wednesday
Same as Wednesday on week 3

Friday
GHR 2-3 sets
Squat 1x20

Week 6

Monday
Same as Wednesday on weeks 4&5

Wednesday and Friday

Same as Friday on weeks 4&5

From here you can just move to squatting 1x20 each other day.

If strength is what you seek, try this one instead: (with any exercise)
I’m just writing the sets and reps here, increase weight slightly every time

In this example your starting weight is 100lbs

Week one

Monday:
4x8x100

Thursday
2x8x105
2x6x110

Week 2
Monday
4x7x110

Thursday
2x7x115
2x5x120

Week 3
Monday
4x6x120

Thursday
2x6x125
2x4x130

Week 4
Monday
4x5x130

Thursday
2x5x135
2x3x140

Week 5
Monday
4x4x140

Thursday
2x4x145
2x2x150

Week 6
Monday
4x3x150

Thursday
2x3x155

After this you would take a light week and start again with 10-20lbs more weight

But to answer your question, no, I wouldn’t recommend 5x5 to a complete beginner.

1 Like
35

Glad we agree.Thanks for the great detailed answer man

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36

No problem, I enjoy writing these things down and sharing them, so feel free to ask and I’ll answer as well as I can

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37

When should you take a light week?

I’ve found a couple of indicators of overreaching for myself. These are the things that tell me personally that I need a light week.

This is not an in-depth look at these things, I’m just listing them and saying a few words. If you want more information, google is your friend.

During my years of training, I’ve noticed that these signs appear around my 7th or 8th week of hard training, so I have a light week there. Sometimes I might push it back a bit if I feel good, and sometimes I might take it in advance if I feel like I need it.

Here are the indicators:

  • I’m not as explosive as usually.

This shows especially in overhead press and the big three. If you find that you are constantly grinding out reps on squats or bench presses, it might be a good idea to take a light week.

  • Grip strength goes down and your forearms feel fatigued all the time.

After 6 or 7 weeks of hard training I start feeling fatigue in my forearms/lower biceps accompanied by loss of grip strength around week 8.

  • My hips start giving me shit

This is a new thing for me as it has appeared only twice now. (So it might have something to do with my training, I need to analyze this with time.)

  • Overall lack of motivation

If you feel kind of depressed going to the gym and don’t really get hyped up about lifting more weight and setting PRs a week off might be good for you.

I set PRs almost every week, but after 6 or 7 weeks I just don’t feel like it anymore. My motivation usually comes back after 5 or 6 days into my light week.

  • Trouble sleeping

If you often have trouble sleeping, take some time off, now. Only time I’ve had trouble sleeping was when I was severely overtrained years ago.

  • You are getting sick all the time

Time off might help with being sick all the time, but I’m not promising anything. Being sick often might have roots elsewhere.

Keep an eye on these things and when they start appearing, consider taking a light week.

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38

My take on eating

As you may see, I like eating. (I think gaining almost 60 kilos gives that away)
Now I would like to open my nutrition philosophy up a bit.
Just the basics, nothing fancy. (Feel free to ask questions)

This is for gaining mass, I’ll probably make another one for dieting later.

Let’s start with this: how much to eat?

A lot. Your body can probably handle more than you think.

I don’t believe in some fancy calculations, I’d rather find it out the “hard way”

Let’s say you weight 100kg (220lbs) and eat 4200 calories/day. 250g protein, 575 carbs, 100g fat or something like that. Your weight has stalled here. No ups or downs for a few weeks.

What do we do?

First, we take a look at your macro distribution. It’s not horrible, but it could be better (in my opinion)

I want you to eat 2g/lb (about 4.5g/kg) of protein every day. That is 440g for a 220lbs guy.

Next, I want you to eat 20% of your calories from fat. That is 0.2*4200=840kcal, which is 93g of fat.

The rest comes from carbs.
So 4200kcal/day-440g of protein (1760kcal) and 93g of fat (840kcal) equals 1800kcal which would be 450 grams of carbs.

So your new macros are 440p/450c/93f

After you start eating like this you will notice that you are burning fat, so what do we do? We increase calories.

Our first increasement may be 200ish calories.
The 200 calories will be 80% carbs and 20% fat, so 160kcal of carbs = 40g and 40g of fat=4.5g=5g

So now your macros are 440p/490c/98f (if you have ocd, just round the fat up to 100g)

And I want you to make an increasement like this every time your weight stalls.

And I want you to hit your macros every day.

So how to hit them? Eat a lot. And eat clean. I don’t want you to consume horrendous amounts of sugar in order to hit your macros. I want you to eat clean foods, meats, potatoes and such. And I want you to count everything.

Sound hard? Well, maybe you are not meant to ever get huge and strong.

If you have made it this far, I tip my hat to you. Now is the time to reveal the last things I want you to do.

  • want you to eat your bodyweight/100 of vegetables every day. So for a 220lbs guy it would be 2.2 pounds of veggies. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach and so on. Potatoes don’t count.

  • I want you to avoid eating carbs and fat at the same time. If you are having a protein+carb meal you can have max. 5g if fat in it (10g for guys who eat over 3500 calories, otherwise you would kill me)

And if you are eating a protein+fat meal you can have max. 10g of carbs in it (15g for guys over 3500)

Meals go as follows:

  1. Pro+Fat
  2. Pro+Fat
  3. Pro+Carb (small meal just before training, whey and bananas/other fruits are good)
  4. Amino+simple carbs (intra-workout drink)
  5. Pro+Carb (after workout, another shake along with simple carbs)
  6. Pro+Carb (1 hour after training)
    From this point on, have pro+carb meals every 2-3 hours)

I want you to have 2-3 no less than 2 and no more than 3.
After meal 2 have at least 2.5 hour break, I personally go with 3 hours. (No more than 3 here either)

Vegetables should be eaten with every meal except 3,4 and 5 (as that is the peri-workout zone)

Meal 4 should have 0.2-0.3g of protein/kg of bodyweight (in bcaa+eaa form)
So for a 100kg guy it would be 20-30 grams. (If you can’t afford this, you can go with less, that is understandable.) And 0.8g/kg of simple carbs (maltodextrine etc) so 80g for 100kg guy.

Meal five (post-workout shake) should have 0.5g/kg of protein from whey (as most whey proteins have 80g of protein/100g of powder our guy would need ~60g if whey) and 0.8g/kg of simple carbs so 80g here too.

(If you are carb intolerant, scale the simple carb numbers down to 0.5-0.6g/kg)

I believe this is all, feel free to ask questions.

4 Likes
39

Another progression story

About a year ago, a 16-year old guy came up to me and asked me about how he could increase his bench press, as he had been training for almost two years and was stuck.
I asked him what his max was and told him to show me his technique.

His max was 65kg (145lbs) (dude weighted about 140-145lbs) but what I noticed was that his left side wouldn’t lock out as fast as the right one did. (He also bounced the bar from his chest.)
Otherwise, his technique was good, the setup and hand placement were nice and so on.

So, what I told him to do was this: (for presses, of course he trained back and legs etc. too)

Monday:
Overhead press with a pause at the bottom 2x6-8
Dumbbell bench press 2x6-10

Thursday:
Alternating low incline dumbbell press 2x6-10 (leave one in the tank)
Close-grip bench with a pause 2x6-8

Nothing else for presses.
No, he did not actually do any bench during the 10 weeks I trained him.
But at the end of those 10 weeks he did 90kg (200lbs) for a double touch-and go, and it looked like he had three more in him.

Moral of the story?
You don’t need to perform a spesific lift to get good at it, you just need to assess the weak points.

Now I don’t recommend you to copy this training program as it isn’t made for you.

2 Likes
40

Although I liked the moral of this one,let me specify that imo unless you are a beginner or very weak at a variation(like ohp for bench),I think focusing on movements that puts your joints in a similar position,for example if you want to improve your bench flat bench variations,is your best bet

Just curious,what are your thoughts on westside style programs?

1 Like