Yeah, I actually switched it around quite a lot. At the moment I’m running a full body program that goes pretty much like this:
Main lift (so competition version of bench/deadlift/OHP/squat)
Variation of the main lift (Something a bit lighter for squat/bench/deadlift/OHP)
3&4 are “bodybuilding” movements for delts/quads/chest/hamstrings. One compound and one isolation exercise.
After that just some arms, abs and lats/upper back. It’s pretty fun
Not here, all of our stuff is in finnish so it wouldn’t really give anything to anyone
Just checked it out. Hopefully you get better soon! (I know you will)
I’ve been reading it to and fro, the content is excellent. Ditto for his piece “Be Your Own Bodybuilding Coach”. Have you read it?
The training style is appealing, I’ve been thinking about you/FT/DC ever since my PL friend and I trained together and he remarked that I pushed myself to as much failure as he’d ever seen and I couldn’t fathom hitting a rep-range/target rep any other way. And since that’s the intensity I bring to the table maybe volume/frequency has to be adjusted.
The only caveat is the exercise rotation, I don’t feel strong enough to have earned doing the main lifts so rarely as looking at absolute weight I still have more room to recover than a strong HW. But, I’ve also come to terms with that I don’t think practice is holding my lifts back, at some point you have to get heavier to improve leverages too. I think I’m at that point.
I could continue to get heavier while training like I’ve fallen into lately and continue to make progress for a while longer though I do believe.
Oh yeah, that’s a great book as well. Definitely something I’d recommend.
I’ve tried FT a couple of times but for some reason I find it hard to stick with. That being said, on paper it is great: high frequency, good stress management and an easy way to scale volume according to your needs. It just feels like you’re not really focused on one thing with so much going on in the program. But that’s just my take on it. Could give it yet another chance sometime in the future.
Yeah. Figure out what is your limit for weekly volume and split it up over however many sessions you want/according to how much productive work you can do per session. You could also think about either bringing the Intensity down just a notch or picking exercises with a great stimulus/fatigue ratio (think Hack squats vs 1/4 LB squats for quad hypertrophy. The former will give you a lot more bang for your buck) in order to control your total training stress.
You could either ditch the rotation on your main movements, modify it, or use variations that are close to each other. You could try what I did on my second DC run: I trained 4 days a week on the 2-way split. On days 1 and 2 I always did the same workout from week to week (apart from rotating when I stalled). On days 3 and 4 I rotated between two sessions for each.
So for example I could have squat on my day 2 session every week and rotate between Hack squat and front squat on my day 4 session.
The other option would be to rotate between very similar movements: just switch your stance/grip/tempo or add a pause/do it from pins/add bands etc. If you rotate between three exercises it could be, say, Squat to pins/Paused squat/Regular squat. All of the exercises are very spesific and relatively close to each other in terms of weight used. This should lead to better gains in squat strength compared to say, rotating between leg press, lunges and squats. If you go with a FT kind of setup you can pick stuff like leg curls and extensions as your assistance as to not miss out on any hypertrophy.
If it works, stick with it. Unless you’re bored out of your mind, of course.
I’d explore it but it fits poorly with both those even though you do make some suggestions that would at least serve to mitigate the concerns regarding item 2.
I think I would’ve to even on FT to do the continuous reps prescribed on loading sets.
DC also looks like “fun”. But again, item 1.
I was loving the stride I had found but I’ve recently come out of a two week stint of sick to the point of primarily bedridden and my hip problem resurfaced during that time and I know from experience I’d cause more problems if I hop straight back in to what I was doing.
And, to elaborate on point 1 I’ve come to realise I bring the same level of intensity to climbing so I’m stimulating my back (vertically) and bis twice already.
I’ve sketched out a more BB-esque type split earlier today that’s written more around sets to failure and only does back once.
Also, when projecting my lifts I noticed my bench was due to hit my goal about 6 months after all my other goals so I figure I could use this time to bring it up to snuff.
Something like,
Monday
Press
Shoulders
Tris
Calves
Tuesday
Top-rope and lead climbing (stamina)
Wednesday
Abs (functional weakness of mine)
Quads
Hams
Back Squat (doing this last to be as warm as possible)
Thursday
Bouldering
Friday
Bench
Chest
Delts
Saturday
Abs (functional weakness of mine)
Back (horizontal pulling)
Rear delts
Deadlift
Sunday
Off
Do about 6 exercises per session. Still sketching, but I can write it down in my log tomorrow if you are interested?
Feeling pretty great and upbeat all things considered. Gained some fat eating dirty while under the weather, so I’m doing a quick mini-cut that’ll end when I come back to my pre-binge waste measurement, or at 28 days. Or even earlier still if I’m comfortable with what looks back. I just need to add size and weight mainly.
And you?
Going to sleep now so I’ll reply tomorrow if you’ve written
It’s been a while since I’ve read FT. Was this the idea of doing the whole set without letting the tension off the muscle? If so, it’ll be a good tool in the beginning at least.
It’s a good thing you see these limitations and are willing to work with them. What are your goals regarding climbing?
Do you have a plan?
Sure thing! It’ll be interesting to see how you’ll write this out, and I’d be happy to write some thoughts on it.
Sounds great! And your plan sounds good as well, you’ll be back on the gaintrain in no time!
To be honest, I’ve been better. The current situation is really making my business suffer (luckily I do other stuff as well and have saved up some money). Not getting too much done as of now, and my ability to fall asleep is worse than ever. It’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m still up. Jeez. But all in all, I could be doing worse.
I’m not ready to give it up. It’s more or less my social life (climbers are really sociable). But I cannot turn off the competitiveness in me and thus have to adjust my training to consider that I do climb at a RPE of 9-10 twice weekly.
I do. It’s basically to run this program I’ve sketched out that I’ll share with you shortly (I’ll @ you). With this hip-thing the biofeedback is really tangible, I can feel it now just sitting at my computer for instance. And when doing day to day stuff (hopping onto a bike). Once that subsides I’ll be physically ready to return to the powerbuilding-esque style training I was doing previously. If after several weeks of running what I’ll run that sensation hasn’t subsided I’ll either attempt something new or be happy with this way of trainining
Can you file for unemployment as a gig worker? You are quite young, so being up late isn’t necessarily the worst indicator, but I trust that you have strategies to amend that if you feel it is becoming a genuine problem? I mean, it’s perfectly fine to not be perfect during a global pandemic.
It seems like between this and your description of your last roundabout on DC that both maybe prioritizes solely working muscle over also progressing movements so it takes longer to observe progress in a lift and given my impression of you I could see how that would be a poor fit. Another caveat with FT is zig-zagging really places a lot of demands on gym layout and it not being too crowded. Maybe that was something that killed it for you?
Yeah, I can imagine it would stir the pot, so to say. You mentioned that it isn’t your first time with the hip problem. Is it something that appears when you don’t do much of anything?
Yeah, and I’ll be receiving quite good financial support from the goverment for the next couple of months.
That’s true, and yes, I do have a plan of action if I were to, say, get more workshifts in the early morning.
That sounds about right. I’m definitely more into driving my numbers up than doing everything in order to stimulate muscle growth. I feel that the happy medium is somewhere between pure powerlifting and bodybuilding
Seemingly, and also if I squat more than twice weekly. At the moment I do not need to “test” it as I know it is there, but a cossack squat with the knee pointing either forward or to the side will illicit a immense discomfort if the issue is prevalent particularily when leaving the position.
Front/side knee-travel
In the past it has gotten increasingly agitated from loaded squats (back/front) and occasionally deadlifts. Increasing ab-strength and performing high rep sets of abduction (preferably machine) seems to make it go away.
Glad to hear that my friend!
Perfect. Carbs, melatonin, and glycine?
Maybe you could try something akin to what you did with DC. Keep your main-lift the same, but alternate the quad/ham iso zig-zags. Just as you suggested to me.
Does this feel like a restriction in terms of programming? Because if tit does, you could try to tackle it by doing squats with a bit lower volume and Intensity while building up to three or four days of squatting a week, and then upping the intensity bit by bit. After that just start bringing the volume to where you want it
Iteresting, glad that you’ve got it figured out!
Those and managing my sleeping schedule (so having set times when I wake up) and my training/caffeine timing.
That’s actually a great idea. I’ll have to test it out.
I think it is interesting because it is co-authored with Scott and while there are similarities they’re almost chiral in nature to one another. Scott prefers starting with loading sets, and interleaving pump-exercises meanwhile Meadows has you do pre-pump first. Which fits more gyms obviously, it might not be that John considers it to be inherently better but it’s probably more convenient. Scott does not have the same emphasis on going beyond failure as far as I can recall and with regards to carbohydrate timing they certainly differ.
I’m a long vacation away from Excel spreedsheeting DogCrapp/FT/Meadows.
Another thing I’ve always enjoyed with Meadows is he’ll write “high volume” but it certainly isn’t. He just groups things in a way that make it appear as if they are (i.e., rather than looking at how many sets of quads/hams, he just adds the two together into “legs”). What they are however is high frequency, just the right amount of volume, and really intense.
And Meadows is the only fellow I’ve seen put into text whether or not you are ready for his workouts with a tangible benchmark. DC does not seem to make any such omission. OT seemingly welcomes beginners. When Thibs/PC wrote about HIT in Maximum Muscle Mass PC discouraged HIT for anyone not advanced which is a way higher bar than what was set by Meadows and certainly OT.
