Natty on Pennies

Training Training Logs
1864

Oh yeah. It’s fun every single time. The worst thing is when you’re doing a new exercise and you’re already invested in the set. I may have gone over by ten or so reps in the past. That’s where your Mental strength is tested: you’ve already done everything you’re supposedly to do, and plenty of extra. Additionally, every rep you do will make the logbook harder to beat next time. Do you push through or give up? (tip. It’s the first one)

That’s a beautiful phrase. Is It growing? If not, are you really working your upper back or are the movements becoming more of a whole body effort via body english? Chest supported rowing is a good way to find your rhomboids and mid/lower traps. Focus on leading by pulling your shoulderblades back and slightly down. For a lot of people, using a semi-wide pronated grip (rowing to your lower chest/a bit under with elbows pointin out) helps to shift the tension from your lats onto your upper back.

That program looks good, at least to begin with, as you try it out you can tinker with stuff if there is something that isn’t to your liking. If your bench begins to stall there seems to be room for a DB bench/something like that in your D4 (it looks like that won’t be too long of a session). But that is a card you can keep up your sleeve for now and add in later.

Are you going to use a double progression model or a top set/backoff set kind of deal? You could begin with double progression and move onto top set/back off set - setup when progress stalls. That could work because you’ll have to do less really hard work, both mentally and physically, but you’ll still get in a good amount of training. But again, going with double progression first would most likely give the program a longer runtime.

A pull up /loaded carry superset is pretty brutal on your whole back, I’ve done it a couple of times.

1865

General life update:

My first year of physical therapy studies is nearing it’s end, so that’s kinda cool. The last thing for this semester will be our work place practice, so basically we’ll be at a hospital/clinic for 30 hour a week (6hr/day) for two weeks observing a professional physical therapist and their job. It sounds pretty neat, but it’ll also be a lot of work.

You see, my place of practice, my place of work, my gym and my home are actually all on different sides of the city - going from one place to another takes 45-60 minutes with a bus, as I don’t have a car. So what ends up happening is that I’ll leave home, go to practice, then straight to work and then to gym and home again. For most days I’ll wake up at 6 in the morning and be back home at 11 in night. Weekends will be a bit more chill, likely just 6 or so hours at work and then gym. Luckily it’s just for two weeks and after that I’ll have a three or so week vacation from school work altogether, and I can focus better on laying the foundation for switching over to doing PT work as an enterpreneuner.

1866

General life update:

Work practice is almost done, it hasn’t been half as bad as it sounded like. I’ve definitely gotten some insight on what this job is all about.

From here on reading will probably be not too fun because I’m just complaining for a bit

Apart from that, I’m tired. Or unmotivated really (work-wise). Now don’t get me wrong, I loven coaching, and actually doing that is the only thing (Apart from chatting with co-workers) about my current job that I really do enjoy.

What I don’t enjoy is that in general, when people come to a consultations with me there is a huge push from the company to sell stuff (naturally) and they are pretty adamant about how much you’ve sold/how many consultations you’ve had. A lot of people don’t even know that I’m supposed to sell something or that it would cost them, let alone how much. They just come in and want to chat, which is fine for me really, I like taking about training and nutrition.

Linked to that, I have a monthly amount of sales I need to get, which is not how I usually operate. Normally I may be in over drive for a month or two and do stuff amazingly (like my two first months where I sold seven months worth of services) and then down time. Like now, I’m under budget for this month and last month. Regardless that the total sun is twice what it’s supposed to be at this point, my boss is breathing down my neck.

Which brings me tl my last point. My boss that I’ve grown to really dislike. I don’t know about you, but if I’m asked why I do something differently than my boss does, and I explain and provided backup for my way of working I’m not really expecting them to respond “how dare you disrespect me like this. You have tl do it my way, I’m your boss”

So, as I mentioned on my last post, now I’m laying the foundation to build my own training business off of. My main concern is the customers I have now, because I want to make sure they get their money’s worth with minimal hassle like switching gyms and whatnot. Of course I’d like to bring them with me and continue coaching them but that may not be realistic with everybody. The fact that I can’t use the current gym I work at to train them after I leave is a big problem here.

1867

Hey, sorry, I forgot to get back to you. Here we go!

No…

I don’t think body english has been the problem, but that it’s been exposed to too much work which has left it stagnant. As strength has been improving I haven’t payed it much mind, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens now as I expose my back to less overall volume.

I’ll report back after two cycles! First impression is that wednesday is rough. Everyone felt like taking a nap shortly after the session. Hopefully, we’ll adapt.

Double-progression, but straight sets aren’t mandatory. Beating the logbook is the aim. 5-9 is quite a wide range, and as it is the season of the sniffles sometimes doing a 9 will be worse than just upping the weight and doing a five.

This superset did not make it into this edition!

Have you considered getting a car?

From what little I know of you and your psyche this must be absolutely a horrendous work environment for you.

While your concern is admirable, I assure you that not a single one of your clients expect you to solve this for them. The onus ultimately falls on them to follow you, or not. If they ask why you are leaving, I think it’s okay to tell them. If they don’t, then let them continue enjoying the gym. If they don’t know the issues it won’t have a negative impact on their enjoyment of the place.

If you get another position lined up mention that you have a preexisting clientèle and that you’d like to know if the new place can extend these individuals a discount when signing up. This should appeal to whatever new place you go.

In particular, these are the individuals that shouldn’t be made aware of the negatives that there are which motivate the switch. It’ll just negatively impact their enjoyment of the place where they are stuck, for whatever reason (convenience, money, …)

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1868

I have a tremendously singular mind, as my brain has just been writing programs non-stop since I started. Here’s a few ideas that arose yesterday after measuring limb lengths.

Day 1 v1 (other variant further down):
A. Front Squat 5x3-5
B. Paused Front Squat 4x6-8
C. Split Squat 4x6-8
D. Leg press 6-12-25 reps (drop set)

Day 2:
A. Bench 5x3-5
B. DB Bench 4x6-8
C. Close-grip Floor Press 4x6-8
D: Rope Triceps Extension, 3x8-10
E. Dumbbell Tricep Extension, 3x8-10

Day 3:
A. Deadlift 5x3-5
B. Snatch-grip or deficit deadlift 4x4-6
C. Seal row 4x6-8
D. Shrugs 3x8-10

Optional: pull-ups/chin-ups 3x8-10 (I’d do these on a climbing day instead, and my partners can do them whenever). I haven’t figured out what yet, but for my structure I should slot in another unilateral leg exercise here.

Day 4:
A. Push press 5x3-5
B. Military Press 4x6-8
C. Incline Dumbbell Press 4x6-8
D. Curl 3x8-10

Optional: another tricep exercise or dips 3x8-10. Or both.

Here’s the other variant of Day 1,

Day 1 v2:
A. Front Squat 5x3-5
B. Paused front squat 4x6-8
C. Back Squat 3x4-6
D. Split Squat 2x6-8

And here is another layout, if my group ends up enamored by full-body workouts (so, akin to the hybrid split (and now the labelling of the Day 1 variants make sense))

Monday: Day 1 v1
Wednesday: Day 4 + back squat 3x6-8
Friday: Day 3
Saturday: Day 2

Edit: all waist work would be performed outside of the training sessions.

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1869

It’ll sure be interesting to see. Could be that because you’ve been doing too much volume for you the fatigue has resulted in the sets being less effective, and with less work you can put more into each set and get more out of it. But we’ll see.

Looking forward to that!

Oh yeah, but you’ll get used to it

This is all that matters

Maybe next time

I’ll eventually have to, because I plan on creating kind of a web of gyms I can coach at over the city. That way I could get more customers and when it’s starting to be too much either become a “coaching house” aka. Hire someone and give them part of the clients or start reducing the gyms I coach at and try to focus the clients onto a smaller area. We’ll see.

Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by this?

Regardless, you’re right. In that moment I felt it was really funny to push my boss over the edge and I just annoyed them by going further into detail and showing them why their way isn’t that good. It was a dick move, yes, and it almost got me fired, but I enjoyed every minute of it

I guess so, but they have bought the training with me for 3-6 months so if I leave they’re either going to be directed to another PT or another gym and PT if the first option is not viable. Switching trainers always causes some hassle if their coaching philosophy is largely different from mine. Our company won’t be returning money to them by any means, so they wouldn’t get what they paid for. In my mind, the best option would be to have the sessions more closely to each other and give them x amount of free sessions if they want to come with me. If not, just business as usual and they will get a new trainer.

I won’t be disclosing my reasons of quitting unless people ask, I don’t need the feel to do that.

If I ever work for a single gym again I’ll be very picky about it. At least for now I’m just going to do this as a free man

That’s a very Thib approach to programming. Could, and probably would, work very well, Ideas are always a good thing. A lot of programming is just about what is enjoyable for you, as your buy-in into the program is one of the, if not the main drivers of effort you put in at gym. I like to write a lot of programs and just let them sit aside while I follow my current training. When I’m nearing the end of a program I take A look at them with fresh eyes, modify stuff, discard stuff and so on, until I have my next plan up.

1870

Have you given any thought to maybe landing a coaching job at say a high-school with a penchant for sports?

Well, I don’t want to mention neurotyping… but I know your type!

Oh, I see. To be fair though, unless it’s explicitly stated in the contract that they signed what happens in the event that a trainer resigns/quits or is fired I think that if consumer laws in Finland are similarly friendly to the ones that reign here they might be “entitled” to a refund.

I’m forever the CT-fanboy v_v. I’ve looked at some Meadows-programs, Fortitude Strength, and DC-style workouts and I’m just not… there. It feels like I want to reach some type of upper intermediate/advanced status and I’m more a beginner/novice still.

It’s more or less The Power Look with double progression and no ACC/INT/REA-phases. I’ve come to realise that percentages turn me off, and don’t mesh well with my current state of development. I don’t need ten weeks to improve my 1RM. What I need to improve my 1RM is remember to brace.

The only thing I’ve read recently, that I felt that I could run without any modifications whatsoever were a couple of high-rep squat programs and full-body routines. All Paul Kelso.

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1871

Not really, but now that you mention it, it could be something worth looking into. I’m not sure about the regulations and need for that kind of work but one can always try

Fair enough. Using “I’m your boss” as a way to back up your claims is a surefire way to make sure we won’t get along

There is a “the client can be directed to another PT” statement in the contract, so getting your money back would be pretty hard. That’s also why, at the moment I avoid signing very long contracts with clients as I won’t be here for more than a month or two

I think Thibs has some good ideas, and I do enjoy borrowing some stuff from him. Personally, I’ve strayed away from religiously following something to taking something that works in a system and just implementing that when it’s appropriate.

Yeah, it’s very similar

Never really liked them as a standalone way of programming. Finding fitting percentages for some one is a lot of work and even if you do find them, their mood, time of day, nutrition and all that will alter the performance. When combined with RPE/another way of autoregulation percentages can be a good tool

How so?

1872

I think you might need a certification to be a PE-teacher but that’s… different.

How were you with orders in the military? Seems like a hierarchy founded on this very style of “management”.

Cheeky!

Success leaves clues as it were.

awkward grin

RPE doesn’t work for me. RIR, sure, but for me, an RPE 10 is what I do when I’m trying to save myself from a bad fall while climbing and it’s more acceptable to tear a muscle than die. I know it’s supposed to mean that there isn’t a single technically sound rep left in you but I can’t make my mind accept that mapping. Too focused on the actual words “Rate of Perceived Exertion”.

Good question. Can’t answer it anything that I know for a fact to be true. But, I have noticed since starting TRT that the part of me that responds to challenges have been more pronounced.

For instance, my last session I’d done two worksets of nine and eight reps respectively, so I go under the bar and I say “Okay. At least 7” and my training partner says jokingly “10” and that’s what I end up doing.

Another example was, I made the declaration that after our next deload I’d be using 120 for squats. Well, the deload came quicker than anticipated, so I had to go from 105 to 120 kilos for squats. And so I did. And it worked.

Hence, when I read “Pick a weight that you can do 12-15 reps with. Now do 20” my mind goes: “Where is a barbell? I need to do this now!”

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1873

First off, my problems with work are over. Got fired today for “not being energetic enough”. They can do that during the first six months of a contract. Got two weeks of contract left.

Oh well

In the military it was different, as there is a certain objective, things must be managed and being cocky just gets you killed. Also, as I was a squad leader and second leader of the team (No clue of the correct term. Three squads together anyways) it wasn’t like I was just bossed around

You don’t say

I actually used to argue about this very subject with a friend of mine. Because I can do a heavy single with a weight I can’t do more reps with but still, it may not be maximal effort. That way RIR makes a lot more sense. But I’ve just accepted it as it is

That sounds like a good problem. Just don’t do something stupid as hell.

Being competitibe is the best natural performance boost. I may tell my training partner that I need 15 reps and they tell me to get 20. 32 reps later…

Especially high rep, heavy weight work on squatting movements works for satisfying that competitibe thirst

1874

On a related note: are you affiliated with a union? Do you have insurance? Are you a member of an “a-kassa”?

To a point, watching Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1) - #4187 by T3hPwnisher did not make me want to attempt a 50-rep set.

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1875

I got nothing that would get me paid really I think, apart from goverment support. I should be more into making sure I get along if stuff like this happens but never got around to doing it. Positives about that? Gotta succeed with whatever I do as the only thing to fall back on to is my savings.

I’m not really up to speed with that log, but knowing how pwn lives life I can imagine

1876

I don’t know what it’s like in Finland, but I’d surmise that it is very similar to here. Government support is good, but rarely adequate on its own if say you’d have to be on sick-leave for an extended period. The reasons for joining an A-kassa and a union is solidarity (misfortune might not strike you yourself but rather someone else) and being covered in a worst-case scenario.

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1877

What exactly is this program Natty. I found nothing on the subject of a particular program. I only saw a few articles that talk about principles.

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1878

I’ll have to dig into these things to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Today is the last day at practice, and then it’ll just be getting my old clients in check and all good and setting up my own business

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1879

Could you elaborate? My log has quite a lot of thoughts and programming principles/ideas I’ve used over the years so it can be a bit hard to find something stuff at times. Mostly I just put out either concepts, ideas or templates because people are different and what works for me may not work for you

If you mean my current program, it’s a 1+2+2 way split that is quite lenghty if written out, but I can do that tomorrow if you’re interested.

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1880

Are you maybe looking for “Nutty’s Program”?

1881

@danteism Don’t have to write in detail for me, I’il read the diary what you wrote so far. I just got interested. Thanks

@Voxel What this one. The Best Damn Workout Plan for Natural Lifter ? If it is this program, I know it well. I’m actually training on it right now. Or do you mean The Best Damn High Volume Workout Plan for Natties.
I’m already starting to mess up because of the similar names and abbreviations.

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1882

If any questions about my log arise, just post them here and I’ll try answer you. (Please quote the post you’re asking about, makes navigating a whole lot easier)

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1883

@danteism brain-picking time again.

What are your thoughts on non-linear periodization?

Lately, we’ve been talking about traditional block periodization (ACC/INT/REA), and double-progression, but what about something like,

Week 1: Ramp to 8RM
Week 2: Ramp to 6RM
Week 3: Ramp to 5RM
Week 4: Ramp to 3RM

Followed by back-off sets at max-weight -10% for 4 sets of five. Add one lift to target weakness for four sets of eight. Two full-body workouts (sq & bp / dl & press), and then one UB/LB-day more oriented towards hypertrophy.

when compared against (double progression, each day dedicated to one of the main lifts),

Main lift: 5x3-5
Accessory targetting weakness in main-lift: 4x4-6
Accessory targetting weakness in main-lift: 4x6-8
Optional bodybuilding isolation exercise(s)

For beginners/early-intermediates chasing strength & size.

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