@T3hPwnisher thanks man! I’m flattered you enjoyed the read. Before this, I never really understood a “competition PR” and how different competitions and training actually are. Im glad im finally starting to understand the build vs test concept.
@Koestrizer thank you! Thanks for being a stalwart in my corner. Im glad you liked the write-up man, and i know i said it in your log but once again, nice work bringing that log clean up.
Back from our trip, and back to 100+ degree weather lol.
DC week 2, pulling
Chin-ups (45° grip) - bw(about 180)x5, +25×5, +45x5, +70x 5,3,3
Timed hang - +45, 38 seconds
Levers - pulldowns x 10, heavier pull-downs x 10, front levers x 8,3,3 (no long pause at top, just long enough to know i have control)
Barbell rows - 45x8, 95x8, 135x8, 185x6, 135x12
Notes: perhaps i was just fatigued, but my bb row seems much weaker than my bench. I think working to bring these up will be good for all my other lifts.
Sprinkled some ab work in between sets, but i need more. MORE. Im liking this more bodybuilding approach to training so far; haven’t trained in this fashion in a long time. I think it will have good carryover to strongman, but also let the body heal up a bit. High frequency strongman movements beat me up somethin’ fierce.
DC week 3, legs
Warmed up with 30 min walk
Seated calf raise (15 second negative, hold at top) - 10 reps x 185lb
Good am - 8x45, 8x95, 8x135, 8,5,6 x 185
45° leg press - 1 plate (each side) x 8, 2 plates x 8, 3 plates x 8, 4 plates x 8, 5 plates x 8, 6 plates x 8 (10rpe), 4 plates x 20 (lots of hand-to-knee assistance).
About 100 ab wheels throughout the session.
Notes: had to drag myself off of the leg press. I may do the exercise risos a bit different than the rotating 3. Depending on the time of day or which gym i am at, the equipment available to me varies pretty substantially.
Ate 250g protien yesterday.
DC week 3, push
Lunch workout at home
Forward lean Dips, stretch & pause at the bottom - bw x 20, +45lb vest x 12, 8, 5
Bradford presses with a CO2 tank - didn’t even count, but it burned
Upright dips - +45lb vest x 8, 2, 1
Notes: Dips on top of dips was tough, but I worked with what I had. Ready to be in a real gym for my next pressing day.
DC week 3, pull
Arm-Over-Arm Drag “Curls” with the Sled (biceps-emphasis rope row) -
45/sled x100’, 135 x100’, 185 x100’, 225 x50’, 275 x 70’ish (rest-Pause)
Farmer’s Walk - (about 25lb handles), 115x2x50’. 165x2x50’, 185x 50’, 20-30’
Pause netural pull-ups (hard lat flex & shoulder blade retraction at top) - 8, 12? 6? 3? w/e
Front Rack Yoke Walks - yoke/150x2x50’, 240x2x50’, 330x6x50’, 380x1x10’(newp), 240x2x50’
Notes: Finally made this look like a strongman workout. I wanted to feel out DC a little bit before throwing-in strongman movements. This workout was yesterday, & my traps are smoked today. I’ve never really done front rack yoke walks before (I did them with a clean grip), and gotta say, I really liked them. When the yoke is on my back, it just slides everywhere; it was fixed in place with these. I definitely want to keep these in rotation for the back thickness workouts.
I think I may just switch to the regular 2-day DC template. I don’t like having to be in the gym 4-5 days/week. In theory, I also don’t see an issue doing the days back to back. I mean, doing Hardgainer I did yoke walks the day before squatting sometimes so I think I’ll be just fine.
Protien avg last two days was about 260g/day
DC Week 3, Legs
Standing Calf Raise Machine -180lbs, 10 reps, 15 second negative/stretch
Leg Curls, 8, 8, 8, (warm-ups) 12, 6, 6 (rest-pause)
Back Squats - 45x8, 95x8, 135x8, 185x8, 225x8, 275x1, 185x20
Notes: 225 felt like a ton on my back, and 275 wasn’t gonna do what I wanted. But I’ll chalk it up to under-recovery. I’ve been sleeping like shit, and it’s my 3rd day in a row to train. And that was AFTER failing a max yoke yesterday. Not making excuses, just giving perspective.
On the bright side, a gym buddy commented that my calves were “blowing-up” which was awesome to hear since I feel like aesthetically, calves have always been my weakest link!
Aslo, I disliked the leg curls. Super awkward on my knees
6-26-17 - DC Week 4, Pressing
DC/Strongman work:
165# Keg Press - 4, 1 (PR!)
Log Incline Bench - 85x5, 135x5, 175x 10, 5, 4 (PR)
Circus DB - 95 x 2 (right side)
DB Press - 60 x 6 or 9, 4, 3
Axle Close-Grip Floor Press - 125x5, 175x5, 215x 9, 3, 1 (pr on first set, not total reps)
Conditioning:
2-3 (can’t remember) rounds of 100’ over-the-shoulder keg carries w/ the 165# keg.
Notes: First time coming back around, and the numbers show I’ve gotten stronger. 2 rep Log Incline PR after a keg press PR is nice; a 10lb estimated max increase from week 1. I guess it’s time to up the weight since I totaled 19 reps, 4 over the max range.
6-28-17 - DC Week 4, Pulling
Axle Curls - 25x8, 75x5, 115x 2, 3, 1
3" wrist roller - Lots of times with 25lbs
Machine Single arm lat pull-down - 8, 8, then rest-pause with the 205
Axle Tire Deads - 115x8, 205x8, 295x8, 385x5
Cable low row drop-set - 10, 10, 10
Notes: Lackluster day. Went waay too heavy on the curls just for the sake of putting the tire on. Also, I overestimated my ability to hold on to the axle for high reps, even with straps.
How has DC felt like? Could you give something like a pro/con list about it if we look at it from the perspective of your goals and life situation etc?
Hey man thanks for stopping by, yeah my pleasure.
Starting with my goals & about me -
I need more muscle, and way more static strength to be a better strongman competitor. The best guys in my class are walking around in the 190s or even low 200s, so getting my weight & muscle mass up is a priority!
I work full-time and then some when you count traveling for work, have a wedding coming up, and a fairly active social life.
Pros:
Variety & adaptability - Strongman has a ton of different movements. Even in an overhead event, you could be pressing a log, an axle, a keg, a circus bell, etc, and often for reps. It’s nice to have the freedom to rotate events within a structured format where you can push each one. Also, if a contest pops-up it would be very simple to swap out movements for the contested events and their close variations.
Recovery - This is probably pretty specific to the 3-day version, but I actually feel pretty recovered from a muscular standpoint each time a muscle group comes around (so far 1-2x/week). This allows me to really push for PRs the day of without having to save myself for the next workout.
Schedule
Like pretty much everyone else on this planet, I’ve got a lot going on with work, travel, family, etc. In particular, I travel pretty short notice for work and it’s nice to be able to get in a workout with the most bare bones of equipment.
I feel sore again
Now, I wouldn’t tell a beginner that they would need to feel sore to have a good workout. But let’s be honest, being a little sore in the targeted area a few days later lets you know that you did what you needed too; the muscles were likely sufficiently stimulated.
Cons:
More about muscles than movements - It’s sort of difficult to incorporate the body part breakdown shown in DC; you have to shift away from a “movement,” like overhead pressing, toward a “muscle,” like shoulders, mentality. It’s fine for things like front squats or presses, but for full-body like a sandbag to shoulder, or the yoke it’s not quite so simple; movements like that hammer everything from triceps to back to calves, they just simply are not a “back” or a “legs” exercise.
PRs on multiple movements; makes it hard to gauge progress
Now, I’ve only just come back around to my initial exercises, but it’s sort of hard to determine progress on the later exercises. Hit biceps, forearms, & last harder, heavier, & for higher reps, it’s hard to determine if a sub par performance on back thickness would be from stalling or fatigue. (for example).
PRs every movement, every time
Now, this is great for intensity and progress I think, it’s just a bit draining neurologically. This isn;t a program to phone in the work so-to-speak, even on days where you aren’t 100%. The only way to remedy I think is to go for a PR in something totally different than what you were supposed to do that day
Thoughts
I’m liking it so far. I played around for a while to see which movements I’d like to keep around. I go to two different gyms with totally different equipment, and go to either depending on how much time I have, whom I am going with, where I am in the city, etc, so I’m allowing myself more options than having to stick to three movements & be locked into a set schedule. Sometimes it’s a home or hotel workout or nothing at all, so it’s nice to know that I have my options open.
What I’m thinking of and have been doing somewhat is going for indicator workouts; sort of a conjugate flare. By this, I mean, as long as my incline log press is going up, I won’t worry too terribly much about my db bench press or floor press or what every. This way, I can throw in movements I think are beneficial to my goals, while still gauging progress.
6-29-17 - DC Week 4, Legz
Machine Calf raise - 10 reps, 15 second negative/eccentric
GHR - bwx8, +25x8, +35x 9,5,3
Front squat - 45x8, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x6
Back squat - 185x20 deep reps
Sit-ups - like 50
Woah, that was detailed, thanks!
Normally the 2-day split allows for good amount of recovery as well even if you train two days in a row (that was actually the first way DC was written), but done with strongman movements (and more than one day in a row) there is no being sure of the recovery.
But I’ll go out on a limb here and say that the 2-day split can be used for with strongman movements and more than one day in a row if you eat a lot and listen to your body carefully - rest days and cruises (and knowing which one you need) become very important here.
As a guy whose gym’s most advanced piece of equipment is a chest press machine, I feel you
Well, DC is originally a bodybuilding program, so here we should probably think more about the exercise order and structure of the workout, and you seem to be doing good job with that
On a highly advanced level I would say if you can maintain the strength level of your back thickness movement while having done more work before it than last time, that’s progress. But I agree, and I’d much rather see the numbers go up on all of the exercises
DC is great in that regard, even if you start light you have to get more and more intense each session because you have to beat your numbers from last time. So there is no escape from intensity.
Yeah, it’s a bit draining, but that’s what diet (and cruises) are for
That’s definitely something worth a try
Thanks again for the detailed response!
I’ve been thinking about moving over to the two day version for a little more frequency; I see it working well too. But at the moment I don’t think I have too much more buffer in terms of recovery capacity, due to this new style of training & the fact that I need to learn more about how to work in certain movements; I’ll probably give myself a little more time to adapt & gain some experience with this style of training before moving to the 2-day. Strongman movements really beat me up, so the more I can recover from them the better, hell 2 carries so close together (Keg + Yoke walks) inflamed my Achilles for a couple of days - I really need to get all that under control before I’d feel good about upping frequency.
Thanks for the assurance. The fact that it was more geared toward bodybuilding was actually one of the reasons I decided to move DC. I wanted to build-up some girth in key areas, and had been flirting with the idea of a bodybuilding program for a while, but couldn’t seem to find one that really fit my goals & schedule; until of course I remembered DC. & in all honesty, there are mostly just two types of lifters, those who want to look good and liars.
True statement, same performance during greater fatigue means something is going up. I’ll just keep pushing, but if a PR doesn’t com I’ll just have to be cogniscent about how the prior lifts went.
Well so far it’s going well, though I’m looking forward to my first cruise lol.
My pleasure!
This tells me that you are knowledgeable about your body and how it works - a newer trainee would probably just jump right into what he/she thinks is the “be all - end all program”, even if they are not ready for it and they would do better with a toned down version for a while
One of the reasons DC is so great is the unlimited amount of ways to implement it: after all it’s only a training template to which you plug in movements depending on your needs. And as there are a lot of different splits (even aside from the 2- and 3-way splits) it can really fit anyone’s needs.
DC was a great influence for me, and nowadays whenever I write a new program for me or someone else (I like experimenting with stuff), I start by creating a template - such as doing a movement of vertical pressing and doing a movement that targets a weak point of that movement pattern instead of saying that you have to do military press and push press. It just gives more room for variety, and when something doesn’t work it’s easy to just switch out.
Whoops, accidental hijack seems to be in progress
Oh yeah, that’s true.
That’s a good idea - but even so I would probably change something if a lift was not increasing in weight for really long time, no matter how much ore fatigued you were before it. (Because you Mau need to compete in that lift while you are fresh or relatively fresh, and only training when fatigued won’t be the optimal way for that)
Just wait until you get to the last couple of weeks (or days) before cruising
Lol, man I’ve gotten overzealous way to many times in my training career, 1/10 times it’s cool that I passed some often self-crafted arbitrary test, the rest of the times I get disappointed, burnt out, or hurt. I’m scratching at 30, so I figure the more I can keep things under control now I can milk out some longevity.
All good man. This format does have a lot of options. I particularly dislike lots of sets & long rest periods, which is why I never really gravitated to BB style workouts with things like 5 sets of 10 or whatever, it’s just so monotonous. Even while doing 531, I often did the assistance work rest-paused style (which if I recall correctly, CT at one point was doing 531 with his own version of rest-pause).
I think you’re right. If I can’t beat it, I’ll drop it (unless it was a bad day all around).
Haha. I already have it planned.
DC week 4 - Push
Axle Bench - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225 x8,4,3
Bradford Press - 45x5, 65x5, 95x 6,3,3
Chained Close-Grip Bench - 45+60 x5, 95+60 x5, 135+60 x5, 185+60 x4,2, 135+60 x8
Slege Hammer tire strikes - 3 people, rotating every 30 seconds for 15 minutes
SSB fun -
Never before have I had the chance to use an SSB, so I ditched the plan to do DC pull & hit it. I did:
SSB squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x5, 225x10
I would have done more but had to leave the gym early
Notes: SSB is probably the greatest lift ever. I always clean-grip front squats, so I didn’t feel a bunch more back recruitment or anything, but this lift just felt so comfortable. I could get super deep on each rep, & really felt like I had the stability to fight through reps. Honestly, if I had dependable access to an SSB, I would pretty much never back squat again, & only front squat for mobility & implement carry over.
7-6-17 - DC Pull
Chins - bwx5, +25x5, +45x5, +70x6,2,2
Timed hang - BW for 1:00
Levers - 9,4,3
BB rows (a little body English) - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x11, 135x20
Rower - like 10 minutes?
Notes: Chins were shoddy, may need to replace them if I can’t get a decent pr with them next time around. I should have added +45lbs for the hang but forgot.
Levers went well but could be a little more controlled.
7-7-17 - DC 1/2 pull, legs
Get-ups and jumps
Hammer curl - 20x8, 30x8, 40x8,6,3
Kroc rows - 100x20 (pr)
Standing calf machine - 6 plates x 10 reps
Back raises - BWx8, +25x8, +45x11,8,6
Leg press - 1 plate (each side) x8, 2x8, 3x8, 4x8, 5x8, 6x9 (pr), 3x20
Notes: really wanted to hit the front yoke walks on sunday, so im doing the A/B to account for it.
Got rather busy this weekend & training fell by the wayside. Oh well.
7-10-17 - DC Week 6, Push
BB Push Press - 45x3, 95x3, 135x3, 185x3, 225x1 (lifetime overhead PR!), 185x5/6,3,1
Axle Incline Bench - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5,3,3
Dips+ like 60lbs - 8,5,3
DB Bench - 70x15,5, 55x10
7-11-17 - DC, 2/2 Pull
Bilateral pull-down machine - 10, 6, 6
Front Rack Yoke Walks - 150x50’, 240x50’. 330x50’, 380x50’ (PR), 330x2-4x50’
Random Strongman stuff:
-165lb atlas stone-to-shouler - 3x3
-165lb keg press
Other assistance:
-Face-pull drop set
-Hanging leg raises
Notes: Low back & neck is a little sore. If there was ever a gym-based reason to do neck work, it’s that damn stone-to-shoulder since you literally have to hold it with your neck (one hand has to be removed for it to count)
7-14-17 - DC Week 6, Legs
Seated calf machine (not the plate loaded variety) - 10 painfully slow reps
RDLs - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x5, 315x5, 365x5, 405x5, 315x10
Plate-loaded Single-Leg kickback contraption - 1 plate x 8, 2x8, 3x8, 1.5x20
Notes: Lower back is touchy from the strongman stuff plus the RDLs. I think 405 was too heavy, since the load shifted just enough to shift the strain away from the hamstrings.
I think for the remainder of time before my wedding, I’m going to shift away from DC to a 10 week program. Not that I have a problem with DC, but psychologically I want that feeling of “completing” something before I get hitched & venture away to our honeymoon.
It will either be the Power Look Program, or the 531 3 day Oly template (using strongman obviously)