Natty on Pennies

Okay, this is what’s going to happen during the next six-ish months regarding my training

So, as you know, I have about five months of military service left, a bit over three months of that will be leadership training (I’ll refer to it by saying LST, otherwise this post will take centuries to write)

So, before LST begins, I’ll be doing phase one of my current program, so about 8-10 weeks from now on (in about 8 weeks there will be a three week block where I’ll be unable to train on the weekdays)

The goal for phase one (“building” phase) is to build storage strength, technique and muscle mass so we’ll be able to tap into that in phase three.

When LST begins I will advance into phase two, “intensification” phase. Practically the only thing tat changes is the amount of volume and the % of estimated max.

LST is a split in two parts, and as the later part begins I’ll continue onto the last phase of this program, the “blast” phase. Again, volume drops and % of estimated max rises.

After I get home I’ll take 1-2 days off and then I’ll test my lifts in a mock meet way, so I’ll just do Front squat, CGB and Deadlift for a 1RM and dead-hang chin ups for max reps in one session

During LST there will be 8-10 weeks when I won’t be able to train on the weekdays, but I have all of the weekends off from service, so I’ll be able to train twice per week on most weeks. Yeah, not optimal but it’s something. I’ll probably drop around 25-30lbs of weight during LST just because during those 8-10 weeks your average calorie intake is about 1500-2000. Well at least I should be decently lean afterwards.

Now, for those who don’t remember, the lifts I’m performing are Close-Grip Bench, Chin-up, Front squat and Deadlift as main movements and Reverse lunge, Pull Thought, Paused OHP and rear delt raises as first assistance movements (then there are some moves I’ll do if I feel like it)

As yu see, there’s no rowing in this program, for me it’s not a big deal as I have a decently strong back, but for a newer lifter I’d recommend doing rows in your squat/dead session @duketheslaya

During LST they test your Bench and Chin up strength + some sprinting and running oriented things, that’s one reason for why I chose those exact movements.

But I have fooled you all, the LST tests are merely a side goal for me, as my main goal takes place in time after military

This whole program was designed to build strength total bdy strength so I can get away with an unbalanced program in the future (read: neglecting the posterior chain and making up for it by doing a lot of deads now)

You see, I plan on doing an yet undetermined time of Bulgarian-style training when I get back from military. After my mock meet day il take one day off and then I’ll begin the following 2-day cycle (training every day)

A
Front squat
CGB/Paused OHP (I haven’t yet decided)
assistance If needed
B
Front squat
T-Bar row
assistance if needed

I’ll start with about a 3RM weight for front squats, a 6-8RM for pressing and 10+ reps for rowing

I’ll be alternating the upper body lifts so I don’t get injured.

For this phase my biggest goal is to hit a 9 plate T-Bar row for a set of 10

When I stall with the lifts I’ll rotate

The push will change into regular OHP

Front squat will change into Behind the back deadlift

T-Bar row will change into Dumbbell row

I’ll rotate the exercises individually, not all at the same time. But eventually the program will become:

A:
Behind the back deads
OHP
assistance
B:
DB Row
Behind the back deads

For this phase my biggest goal would be a 110kg/247lbs DB row for 15 reps (hopefully the handle is long enough)

As I stall on these lifts I’ll just switch into bodybuilding-oriented training for the bodypart. If I stall on BTBDL before the upper body lifts I’ll do legs after my upper body work, and I’ll split them into quads and hams.

When I’ve stalled on every lift I’ll take a light week and then I’ll begin training for bodybuilding. I still got that bet to win.

Jesus this was one long post. Oh well.

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Apparently there is a thing called “Strengthlifting” now, it’s quite interesting.

Basically it’s raw powerlifting with strict press instead of bench press and only conventional deadlift, everything is done raw, on the squat knee sleeves are allowed.

Now the only thing that needs to be done is to change the back squat to front squat and I’ll turn into a strength athlete.

As you may remember, about a year ago I laid out “My big 3” which was front squat, strict press and deadlift (any variation). For competition purposes stuff like behind-the-back deads and Jefferson deadlifts could be troublesome as they may be hard to judge, so I’d be fine with having only one way to pull. (I can’t pull sumo anyways so it’s cool with me)

But overall it’s a nice idea, just think of how many different types of lifting related competitions we have now

  • Powerlifting
  • Weightlifting
  • Strongman
  • Strengthlifting
  • Crossfit and crosslifting (not sure if the latter is that big of a deal)
  • Bodybuilding and physique sports

And if one of those doesn’t fit your needs, there is IAWA (International all-around weightlifting association), there are a ton of competition lifts there, most of them are old classics or oddlifts

Weird to think that if I went into an IAWA competition right now and pulled behind the back I’d become a world record holder, granted - the record in my class is only 190kgs/418lbs (it’s been standing for 20 years)

If I went after army I’d have to pull over 275kgs/610lbs in order to break the record, which is still a bit low if we consider the fact that this is the open division 95kg class we’re talking of. Not that it wouldn’t be challenging, per se. So what if the ultimate goal for this next year was to achieve 300kgs/660lbs behind the back…

Yeah, enough dreaming.

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Yeah well youd have to have a decently strong back to dumbell row 100kg lol. Have you ever tried these rows?

You’re an animal

Honestly i think overhead press is a much better test of strength. Plus front squats are alot better because well who doesn’t love crushed clavicles and choking lol.

What are you on about? Who is this imposter? Danteism doesnt dream he achieves. Piece of cake for you man

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When I was sixteen I was really into deadlifting, back then I came up with similar exercise, only difference being that I would return the bar to the floor after every rep. My best set was with 150kgs/330lbs for like 6-8 reps, I didn’t do it for too long of a time as I didn’t really enjoy it.

Nowadays I T-Bar row in a similar fashion, it feels a lot better in my opinion

Thanks man

I really want to buy a longer adjustable handle so I could chase the 300 pound mark with dumbbell rows but those things are damn expensive

Yeah, it’s like the upper body Deadlift when performed correctly

For a anatomical monstrosity like myself front squats also feel a lot better and they are really good at exposing weaknesses

Oh shit, I’ve been caught!

Man, you’re right in that sense. Why wouldn’t I just put my head down and do the work?

Now of course there are a couple of things that make achieving that hard - I’ll just go over them real quick here

  1. Staying at such low weight
    For my height and build (and especially appetite) 95kg is pretty light so I’d have to either keep it intentionally down and lose on some recovery that way or I would need to compete as a 100kg lifter (and lift over 300kg) or a 105kg lifter (over 290kg, weird, I know).
    I guess keeping down to 95kg/cutting down there would be the best choice

  2. If I understood correctly, IAWA doesn’t hold competitions outside of US and UK, so I’d have to fly to the UK (ultimately this is what would stop me - spending a week or so in a hotel is not cheap but I am)
    Now of course you don’t have to compete but I would be cool

  3. To lift 275kg in competition I’d need to lift a hell of a lot more in the gym
    I don’t know the IAWA rules, but I’d imagine that you can’t use your own earphones let alone a bench to begin the lift, also I’d imagine that excessive hyping and yanking on the bar is not the best idea (are there rules that say your lift itself cannot last for half a minute and you can’t start by yanking the bar two inches to the air to psyche yourself up?)

  4. I’ve never competed in a lifting sport, not that competing would be a bad idea, not at all, but it could have an effect on performance

So realistically, I’d probably need to lift well over 300kgs in the gym

But as a gym lift 300 at 95 is a good goal

So it seems that I have a lot of lifting to do

Thanks man

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Why would you have to be in the 95kg class? You could just like eat heaps and get #RoadToSHW lol a.k.a more recover more food more strength. You’re very strong as it is and I know you can get way stronger than you are. I mean rowing a 100kg dumbell is insane and you’d probably be one of the only people on this site that could do that.

Damn

The only thing i dont like about T-bar rows is the short ROM

I could never learn how to squat properly and it would jack up my knees and back. So i stopped. Once i started doing front squats i experienced none of that, i have good mobility as well so front squats are awesome for me and form wise after one session i picked it up.

No worries man. Btw whats your best conventional deadlift?

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Good question, I wouldn’t really have to be in there, that was just the weight class I’d be in now if I cut water

True, back when I did the 100kg dumbbell rows I weighted about 96kgs myself, and as strength tends to come faster than mass I’d imagine that if I went up to 110-115kgs I’d be rowing some pretty sweet numbers

I must get to weight where we can be certain that I’m the only one on this site that can do it. @Alpha may be pretty tough to beat

When you do it in a Deadlift-row fashion you get a bit more rom. Also using smaller plates helps, personally I never liked them though.
But as one of my gym’s dinosaurs said: “T-Bars aren’t exactly about getting the longest ROM”

I’ve done 7.5 plate T-Bar rows for a set of 15 and after that I did one-plate dropsets until there was only one plate left on the bar, all to failure. And I’ll tell you, if those don’t grow back mass I don’t know what does.

I ad the squat form down to the T when I was 17

Then I got distracted and never really returned to squatting regularly. I can still squat with pretty much every imaginable stance and bar position but apart from narrow stance high bar squats (when speaking of back squat variations) I don’t feel efficient enough

A good choice, personally I begun front squatting when I realized how bad I was with them (it was when I got distracted with the back squats) honestly, my front squat strength was like 25% of my back squat strength. (It should be 85%)

I’ve got no idea, at the moment my estimated max is floating around the 270kg mark but I did fuck up a week ago which resulted in me doing a long ass set yesterday so the calculated max is not to be trusted

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if my max was only about 240kgs at the moment, I’m pretty bad at conventional deads - especially when compared to my rows

I was going to say you’re the only person, but then i thought of alpha lol.

*bad at deadlifting but has an estimated max of 270kg lol.

Well compared to your rows your deadlift is bad perhaps…

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I wonder how much he could DBRow

Pretty much I’d guess

I’d like to try deadlifting with an actual Deadlift bar, up until now I’ve only used stiff bars. Only once I’ve had the opportunity to Deadlift with a Deadlift bar, it added 10kgs to my Jefferson pull (and it screwed up my whole thing as I was trying to go progress even further with a stiff bar)

For what I know, my rowing strength is pretty good matching it would require a Deadlift that’s well into the 300s

With deadlifts my biggest problem is breaking the bar off of the floor and keeping my back from rounding too much. Really, I don’t even need to worry about back rounding that much as I did round-back deads for several years. First by accident, then I tried to lift with a straight back and it felt real bad. (No, it’s not scared cat level round)

Because of that I have very strong spinal erectors and lower traps (they actually pop out, my lower back has like an inch deep valley in the middle). Combined with proper bracing there’s no real danger, but I’d still like to keep a ore neutral spine just in case.

My problem with the deadlift stems from a couple of things:

  1. My back is hell of a lot stronger than my lower body
  2. Years of imperfect lifting
  3. Leverages

All of these could be avoided.
I’m building up my lower body strength all the time, so that’s taken care of.
Numbers 2 and 3 go hand in hand, conventional is not really the best thing for me, but around here guys don’t teach you sumo and they’ve never heard of oddlifts so conventional is the only way to go. Given my leverages I was, as a beginner, inclined to lifting with a rounded back.

Because that’s where my body would set when I didn’t know better, and as I used to wrestle the round-back stance felt natural. So yeah, that’s that.

Now I just don’t want to learn sumo, I’ve tried a couple of times but it doesn’t feel like it would suit me. (I’d probably round-back taut too)

And that’s why I’d much rather do behind the backs and Jeffersons

I remember ages ago you posting about your big three and how big someone would be if they had a 1600 total. Alpha deadlifts 720, front squats 560 and strict presses 315 lol definitely a massive row.

Have you ever trap bar deadlifted? I think you’d like it.

I tried sumo on my last training day, it was really weird.

Well its good it doesnt cause any damage i suppose.

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Oh yeah, the 1600 caused quite a bit of conversation - it’s a bit unreasonable

But alpha is only 5 pounds from achieving that 1600, that’s crazy.

I haven’t, I’ve once seen a trap bar, but it was in use and I forgot about it

Have you decided on your Deadlift variation yet?

Not thus far, apart from last week I’ve never had any back problems.

Could i use Romanian deadlifts?

You could, I’d probably do them for a bit higher reps to avoid injury, say 5 instead of 3 and 8 instead of 5, I’d also consider using linear progression (so when you hit all your reps in every set and at least that 5 or 8 in your PR/Plus set you up the weight) instead of percentage based but that’s your call

For a hard variation - Romanians with a pause at the bottom? (Given you can keep your spine neutral)

What is it about them that causes injury compared to a regular deadlift when performed heavy and using low reps?

I’ve never understood that. Il probably do snatch grip deads or try learn sumo. Or maybe change up my form a bit on conventional because it jacks me up a little. Think i was using too much back.

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They put your hamstrings into an extremely stretched position, which raises the risk of injury when performed for low reps with high weight

From those options, I’d say go with snatch grip, it’s the least stressful variation and it has great carryover to other variations (plus sets of snatch grip deads with a pause one inch off the floor will be hell, but it really makes you grow)

Thanks man.

Alright cool, il do snatch grip deads then.

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You know the feeling when you just get hyped up for no apparent reason when you’re not even in the gym?

When you get that irresistible urge to flex your chest and traps (basically you’re just hitting most muscular all the time)

I’ve got it right now. I won’t be at the gym for three more hours but I know this’ll be a good one. I’m also going to train with the guy I trained with last week. Yeah, he’s going to get a whole new meaning for the word “intensity” today. Sadly it’s a bench-chin-bench day for him, but I’m quite certain he’ll be seeing stars anyway.

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I feel sorry for the dude! He’ll sleep well tonight at least.

I know what you mean! Also funny thing i used to do at school was bounce my pecs. People loved it :joy:

Man, i havent been able to lift for almost a month now. Hyped to a whole new level lol.

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I’m gonna blast Dope’s Die MF Die as he’s doing his PR sets
I certainly hope he sleeps well, tomorrow is Dead-Squat-Dead, that’s objectively the hardest session on this program

Of course you were doing this to improve your mind-muscle connection, right?

Jesus dude, at that point I’d probably tear someone’s arm off.

You’re going to be Taking his DEADlifts to a whole new meaning lol.

Of course! And definitely not to impress chicks. #TheGrindNeverStops

Yeah man im close to it haha

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I’d be lying if I said that I hate to see a grown man crying

That’s my man!

If you made this pun on purpose I’ll give you props

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