Pretty much, yeah
But now that I’m thinking about it, I have never used more than 30kg for rear laterals or more than 27.5kg for side laterals, so maybe I’ll just try to max those out.. 
I’ll come up with something, it’s probably going to be a hard variation for long sets
Edit:
For the record: those laterals were not done with exactly perfect form
The most iv done is 5kg on side raises for ten reps. Jeez man stop being so strong, how am i ever meant to catch up haha
Good luck @danteism!
Have fun with the army stuff. I’m sure it will test your body in many different ways and only having 40kg DB’s is soon going to be the least of your worries! Haha
Thanks man, i sure will!
Yeah, that’s probably true, and besides, I’m not going to army just to train, I’m going there for the experience, so missing a bit of chest growth is not really that big of a deal
Well in the meantime you have several months to catch up as I won’t be able to train and eat as well as I have up to this point, so get to work 
Sure il easily lateral raise a 40 kilo dumbell! By 7 months. Thats a peasant weight haha:wink:
Hey @danteism what would you think of me doing dc training, i wouldnt do the extreme stretching though. ?
Ever since yesterday with all the 5/3/1 talk and the big war in my log iv been reading alot of methods /programs and DC training just makes perfect sense to me on why it stimulates such gains. i also love the intensity but it says not for beginners. Once my nutrition is sorted i was thinking of doing it . Either that or i have another program in my mind but it doesnt jump out at me as much.
Of course you could do it, but that doesn’t mean you should. The way I see it, you would be better off sticking to a basic program that’ll make you strong for a while. Build a good amount if base strength and pinpoint your technique. The latter is essential for DC, you must have a great technique and you must be able to maintain it even when you are grinding through reps normal people wouldn’t even try to do.
Dante is a smart guy, so I would listen to him when he says to not do DC as a beginner. Use a year or two building muscle and strength and when you feel like you’ve mastered the technique and have a good amount of strength go and jump on DC.
By the way, if/when you start DC do the extreme stretching, it’s essential, oh, and spend a good deal of time on learning about the program to make sure you get it right. I can help you set it up when the time comes.
So in short:
Wait for some time, build up your strength and refine your technique
Out of curiosity, what is the other program you are contemplating?
Thankyou, i was thinking it would be a while before i can do it, but it definitely seems perfect for size and strength gains in the future.
The program i was considering is this:
That could work, but I’d throw in some calf, leg curl and rear delt work in addition to that (to avoid muscle imbalances and joint pain)
Would Facepulls be enough?
Lower Body #2
Leg curls seated or lying down 4×6 , exoloding the weight up on the eccentric and focusing on a slow negative feeling the stretch. (Leg curls before squats just make squats feel better) so this is where i could add leg curls, lower body 1 has stiff legged deadlifts which il be changing to romanian. For hammies.
A. Front Squat 85% x 1, 70% x AMAP, plus a 50% set
B. Leg Press 350 Method
C. Lunge (walking or in place) 5 sets of 10-20
Upper Body #1
A. Bench Press 85% x 1, 75% x AMAP, plus a 50% set
B. Incline Press 350 Method
C. Barbell Row 2 sets of 8 then 2 sets of 12, as heavy as possible
D. Pulldown (any grip or handle is fine) 350 Method
E. Barbell Curl 350 Method
Upper Body #2
A. Overhead Press 85% x 1, 75% x AMAP, plus a 50% set
B. plate loaded chest press machine. 350 Method
C. barbell row 350 Method
D. Chin (wide, narrow, or v-bar) 5 sets of AMAP
E. Dumbbell Curl 350 Method
Probably, try it - if it’s not enough start doing rear laterals as well (you could do face pulls in one of the sessions and laterals in the other)
Personally I would do rear delts in every upper body session
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Just be a bit careful about the stretch, don’t force your knees into hyperextension
If Romanian deadlifts feel better for you, go for it!
That’s what this should be about, making the program right for you instead of making you right for the program.
For calves, I would just do seated calf raises in one of the lower body sessions and standing calf raises in the other. Something like one set of 8-12 and after that a set of 10-15 works well. Be sure to get a good stretch and pause for a moment in the bottom and squeeze at the top
If I were you, I’d do calves last in the workout, just so they don’t give out when you are squatting - personally I do them first because it’s not just one time that I have forgotten to do them.
So in conclusion: you’ll add leg curls to lower body 2 as the first movement, change stiff-leg deadlifts to romanian ones, and add calf and rear delt work to every session, am I right?
Alright so il do rear delts every upper session.
Yep this looks good!
Sure il make sure to do them at the end.
Day 4 of army
Things are finally starting to slow down in here and we actually get some free time - up to this point it has been just straight up running from one place to another. (Really, most days I’ve only had time to go to the bathroom twice - in the morning and in the evening, both for way shorter time than complete defecation would require, or as you may call it, I haven’t had the time to take a shit)
But in the bright side, all the guys here are great and we are having a fun time - even when we are commanded to clean up the room once again even though we’ve already put an hour into it.
We are these jolly fellows, just like a family - in only four days.
Back to bad things - I’ve had absolutely no time to train. But I guess now that we will be having some free time I can fit gym in there as well. (So far I’ve only done some pull ups from the pull up bar in our room.)
All in all, I think this’ll be a great time for me. I like it here, even if I have to always be on the move or force down food to be on time - the people here who are great, and that’s what makes it all worth it.
Day 7 of army
Finally had time to go to the gym - not a lot of time but I got something done.
I really like the gym, it’s really old and gritty, just like my main gym - so I feel really comfortable training there. (Actually some of the equipment is better than what my usual gym has, but then again - I’ve seen hotel gyms that are better equipped than my regular gym)
The dumbbells only go up to 48kgs/~106lbs so you can do something with them but definitely not rows or anything like that. The problem with the dumbbells is that the set is not complete. What I mean by that is that there are like 12 pairs of dumbbells with uneven jumps and the biggest ones are 48kgs - so progressing with dumbbell movements may be difficult.
One thing I was really happy to find there was a hack squat machine - I like those things but my gym doesn’t have one. Using the hack squat must be planned really carefully in my situation as it does cause me to get massive doms, and that’s not something you want to have if you’re commanded to hike 10 kilometers or run a 5k or whatever - you get the picture.
Really, I now have to plan my training very carefully so I don’t negatively affect my scores on the push-up, sit-up and 12 minute run tests. Not that it would make a significant difference but even a rep or 50 meters may make or break you here.
I’m planning to check out the second gym we have here as soon as I have time, it’s supposed to be bigger and better equipped than the one visited today (and you can get extra holidays by training there, unlike when you train in today’s gym)
Apart from training, pretty much everything is going great. Now we know each other better in our room and the atmosphere is even better than it was - we are having a lot of fun and everybody is getting involved in the group, nobody is left out and if someone needs help, he will get it.
I’m writing this from my bed and I’m pretty exhausted so pardon me for the poor storytelling. Welp, I’m going to check some of the logs and then I’ll get some rest.
1 arm barbell rows and meadows are always a solution,especially if you have straps.Other than that some bands maybe?
I brought my own straps with me, so yeah, I have them
I haven’t actually tried one arm barbell rows as far as I remember, I’ll have to think this through. In the meantime I’ll just go for more and more reps with the 48kg dumbbell with no straps and perfect form - mainly to increase grip endurance.
One cool thing this gym has is a neck harness. I’ve seen maybe one of those in a gym before, so I’m definitely going to give it a try, and if it’s good I may even buy one for myself.
The gym has a great collection of bands, the stiffest one adds 100 or 120kg of resistance (I’ve got no memory if what it was, I’ll check)
I haven’t tried bands on rows so that’s one thing that could work - if it’s programmed correctly
Day 8 of army
So, I’m back in the gym, finally, there’s only one little problem…
I rolled my ankle pretty badly today, and the pain and swelling is increasing as we speak - I can’t dorsiflex my foot at all without pain, let alone squat.
So what does this mean? Well, it means that if we have to run I’m in deep shit. And it means that I can’t do any heavy work for legs - mainly quads and calves in a while (which sucks because those are not exactly my strong points)
But in a more positive note, my pressing strength is already back - I did overhead press yesterday, and it didn’t feel as bad as I anticipated - actually it may have felt even a bit better than before. Today I did incline bench as a press (I don’t usually press this often but my ankle is cocked up so what can I do?)
The incline bench felt great too, I think I took a 21 rep PR there - but that’s probably because I haven’t done such long sets in a while.
Nutrition here hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be, but I’ve got to say, this is the first time ever skim milk and rye bread are staples for me. Honestly, I’ve drank AT LEAST a gallon of skim milk every day here and I’ve eaten at least 12 pieces of rye bread every day. The only things here I’m actually avoiding are margarine (yes, my bread slices are completely plain) and all that cheap, very processed “meat” and “cheese” - with real meat and cheese I have no problem.
The food here is, of course very high in carbs, moderate in fat and low in protein, so it’s the complete opposite of what I’m used to - but I’m not looking at it as if it was a bad thing. What I think is this; this is an unique opportunity to see how my body reacts when it is forced to do very submaximal work for ~8 hours per day and 1 - 2 hours of higher intensity work (gym) AND it is put on higher carb - lower fat diet. (I’m going to bring whey and stuff here as soon as possible to take care of the protein intake)
I don’t have anything apart from nutrition and training to report today, as it has only been one day since my last update, but I’ll get back to it when something comes up.
Shit mate look after your ankles! Especially in a low protein diet, it will take longer to heal. Don’t aggravate it in the gym trying to maintain your quad sweep…
Yeah, I’ve got to be careful with it. I was carrying this humongous bag and I didn’t see where I was going, long story short, I stepped in a bad spot and came crashing down.
I’d rather spend a week waiting for it to heal up than spend a month or two with no ability to walk just because I wanted to squat - so anything that makes it feel worse is off the table for now.
The fact that there is a lot of walking and running around here doesnot make me happy with the current situation - it might get worse. Luckily we have quite decent shoes that offer a great amount of ankle support, which helps a bit with the pain.