Natty on Pennies

Training Training Logs
602

My hamstrings, quads and back are trashed from the overload+hard variation work, just as I expected. Tomorrow will be the last day of the first microcycle of the program that’s under construction. (So tomorrow will be volume day 2; pull focus, which is a fancy way of saying that I’ll isolate elbow flexors instead of triceps - note that I didn’t say biceps, this is about barchialis and brachioradialis too. Science. So yeah, biceps)

Tomorrow is going to be tough, but the day after will be the real time for suffering - doing army stuff while being sore as hell isn’t really even remotely as nice as it sounds.

But now, sleep. Lot’s of it. I’ve been awake for 30 hours straight.

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603

Just finished with training

If volume day 1 was tough, I don’t know what the hell I’d cal volume day 2. Maybe just hell.

Push portion of volume day 2 may be easier than that of volume day 1 (Close grip incline & pushups isn’t really too tough) but the leg and pull portions were killing me.

For legs I did dumbbell reverse lunges for a 6x6 with 60 second rest between sets (so 6 reps left, 6 reps right, 60 second rest, repeat. No rest between legs) and after that I did 3x12 on front box squats with 45 second rests.

Just think about how tough that’ll be when I’m lunging 10x10 per leg and doing 5x20 on front box squats with 45s rests. Jesus.

Pull portion was mixed grip pullups for 6x6 per side with 60 second rests. (So left arm supinated for 6 reps, right arm supinated for 6 reps, 60 second rest, repeat) and after that I did 3x12 on bent over rows with 45 second rests. Finished up with 3x12 on reverse curls with 30 second rests.

I was completely done with life after finishing this session.

Then I saw my girlfriend messing around with zercher squats from the floor (deadlift the bar onto your knees and then switch to zercher grip and pull it up) so I decided what the hell, I’ll one up her.

So I went onto performing zercher deadlifts from the floor. (Zercher grip for the whole time) I didn’t use a belt and I was wearing a T-shirt and I was completely exhausted from the work I did before that. Also, I’ve never pulled from the floor. (I may have written that I did zercher deads but those were from blocks)

I managed to pull 120kgs/264lbs. Light as a feather. Really, it felt like I had at least 30kgs/66lbs more in me. So I tried 130kgs/286lbs. I managed to get it to just under my knees FIVE TIMES. It was light, really light, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t get it past my knees. In hindsight I think that if I had pushed my knees to the sides more I could’ve gotten it up, but that means nothing.

So, a 120kg zercher deadlift. Really, it’s nothing to be proud of but considering the circumstances I feel like it’s something. (And hey, eric pulled 315 on his first try and a month later he got 525 up so I’m strong too, r-right? kidding But really, 525 is insane. 315 on the first try too, I wasn’t even too far from that, goddamn.)

Now I’m wondering what I could get to if I focused on zercher deads for a month or so but I’m going to resist the temptation. I’ve got a program to test and that’s the priority at the moment.

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604

Max effort work and migraines do not go well together

I like to pride myself as someone who is able to train regardless of circumstances, and most of the times that’s true. But training with a migraine while doing max effort fives? Can’t do that.

Not a big deal, I’ll just continue as per usual - GPP tomorrow and volume work the day after that.

Although there was some guy here who wanted to compete against me in the gym, maybe I’ll do something with him some day, but I didn’t promise anything as that would mess with my programming.

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605

Well, I was feeling good today so I decided - what the hell, yesterday was basically a rest day and I did my volume day today.

Basically what I did is the exact same session as I did a week ago, with the same weights and rest periods but instead of doing 6x6 on the main movements I did 8x6 and instead of 3x12 on assistance I did 4x12, as you see, simplicity is a thing I really like.

The session went really well, weights felt lighter than last time (less grinders - I didn’t start light) and I got through it without having to take extra rest or anything.

Today I had also been doing combat practice for seven hours before I got to the gym, last time I had just been awake for 16 hours doing guard stuff - so nothing as strenuous.

My lower back felt a bit tired but that’s not really surprising considering the practice and the fact that I did everything beltless. 8x6 box squats followed by 4x12 stiff-leg deads is pretty tough. Doing chin ups after that felt funny - my lower back was pretty darn pumped.

But yeah, good session, moving forward nicely.

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606

Man, how do you still train with no sleep, working super long hours and strenuous army life. I have no energy if i get less then 7 hours sleep!

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607

He’s mad!

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608

It’s a mindset!

Really, it’s pretty much that - I think to myself, I didn’t fail last time with a bit less work, why should I fail now?

If I feel tired I don’t really give it much of a thought. You don’t want to mope around the whole day thinking of how your training is going to suck because you didn’t get enough sleep or food or how your girlfriend was being an asshole to you. No. You must be energetic and enthusiastic. If you really want something you’ll get it done no matter what.

Exactly :wink:

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609

I’ve had some of my best sessions running on no sleep - especially squats. @danteism is right, it’s mindset.

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610

I always pull my biggest deadlift PRs when the circumstances are the worst (no sleep, no food, a lot of stress from the outside etc.) It’s probably because the stress makes you outperform yourself.

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611

A quick tip I’ve meant to write down for ages; What assistance exercises do to chin up performance

Hopefully you get what I’m trying to say, I’m dead tired and going to sleep in just a minute.

I’ve made the observation that once you can do, say 6 chin ups in a row with good technique there is no real need to perform lat pulldowns anymore. That’s if you have any sort of “mind-muscle connection” with your lats.

Why is that?

Well, I’ve noticed that every time I do chin ups/pull ups and lat pulldowns in the same program, my chin up progression slows down significantly. I’ve also noticed that after a certain point (which would be the point where you can do a few bodyweight chin ups in a row) lat pulldowns do not really carry over to chin ups. But chin ups do carry over to lat pulldowns. So if you put 15 pounds on your chin up 10RM, your lat pulldown 10RM will go up by at least 15 pounds. (More likely 30-45 pounds) But the opposite is not true.

Same goes for bicep movements - don’t go too crazy on them if you want to improve your chin up strength - too much bicep work doesn’t really do any good for your size or strength. But you shouldn’t abandon curls because of that. Do some of them just for joint health and isolation work.

Regarding rear delts and chin ups, I’ve never met a guy who overdid his rear delt work, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Frankly, for back thickness you can do quite a lot of work before it interferes with chin up performance (of course the amount depends on the person who’s doing the work)

Now, why is the chin up so important?

  1. You are.moving your body through space, which is always a positive thing. That’s why dips are great too. They teach you coordination and allow you to use big weights and tap into your “fight of flight” senses - or so it’s said.

  2. It’s one of the best back and biceps exercises because of the range of motion it offers and the amount of weight you can load on with it.

  3. It doesn’t tax the spine - it actually opens you up quite nicely.

That’s just a couple of reasons to do chin ups.

So, in short, how to get a big back and big biceps:

  1. Go nuts on chin ups

  2. Don’t go too nuts on the other stuff (but still work hard as hell)

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612

One of my past squat PRs was after an all-nighter. Followed up by me doing decent one on particularly hard Bio test.

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613

Today’s hard variation/overload session went well despite (or maybe thanks to) being pressed for time.

I had no time to do four sets of hard variations prior to overloads so I only did one balls to the wall set and then moved onto overload. It felt like coming home. I may start doing that more.

The session went as follows: (I did some modifications last time that I didn’t mention, don’t get confused)

For push:

Close grip incline spoto press for 1 set (Hard variation)

Close grip incline pin press for 1 set (Overload)

I don’t like regular grip incline pin presses, try feel unnatural, close grip, however, is great.

For legs:

Paused deep squat for 1 set (Hard variation)

High pin Anderson squat for 1 set (Overload)

For pull:

Rack pull above the knee for 1 set (Overload)

Dead hang chin ups for 16 reps

What happened with pull portion us that I had no time to set up for deficit pulls so I went straight into rack pulls and got the idea of dead hangs after the set. The chins felt great but I’ve really got to get better at them, I’m not proud of that number.

With rack pulls I ran into the problem of excessive bar bending as soon as I went over six plates (last time I had a better bar) so I’ll have to figure that out as well. I don’t want to destroy bars at a commercial gym.

I finished up with one set of sit ups continued straight into one set of crunches with a three count hold at the top. It felt good but I’ll probably be doing weighted sit ups next time.

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614

Today was volume day 2 (pull focus) of the second microcycle, so now I’m 40% through the first mesocycle. insert more smart sounding stuff here

What I’m trying to say is that I’ve now completed the first two weeks (well, eight days) of this five-week cycle.

Progression here went just like it did with the volume day 1. 6x6s became 8x6s, 3x12s became 4x12s. That’s all.

Push and leg portions of the session felt a lot lighter than last time, pull, however, was tough. - I still got it done, of course.

Next week I’ll be on a combat training camp, which basically means no lifting and very limited food and sleep for seven days. After I’m back I’ll just continue straight into microcycle 3 and hope for the best - things should begin to feel a bit more challenging at this point of the program.

I also won’t be posting here for a week, I never bring my phone with me into combat practice. So I guess I’ll see you guys in a week or so.

Try not to get killed while I’m gone, that wouldn’t be a nice surprise.

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615

Will do, but just because you said so.

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616

Yeah thanks for putting that pressure on us!

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617

Nah man, aint nobody killing conor mcgregor haha

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618

Not without a fight :wink:

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619

So, did you survive?

Got back a bit early just to make it easier for you

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620

Yes! But only because I sat in my bedroom wrapped in breathable cotton wool. I can finally go outside and be free!

How was the combat training?

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621

I’d still take the wool with me, just to be sure

Rather easy, at this point there isn’t really anything left to teach us (as almost any of us won’t become professional soldiers) so now we are just practicing the old things at a faster pace.

It’s weird to think that I’ve been here for 151 days already

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