No Off Season: BodyComp Blitz

Training Training Logs
21

Those workouts look brutal…all that volume sounds incredibly tough. 6 weeks of that will no doubt produce results.

As far as the obliques…nothing bombs them for me like reverse crunches. I saw them in an article a few months back by Eric Cressey and gave them a go. They look so tame, but they get tough quickly. Those and Pallof Presses both hit the obliques really hard. Cressey has a bunch of videos on YouTube showing both if you’re curious.

Keep up the good work, both in the gym and the kitchen.

22

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I’ve always been a fan of Pallof Presses and other anti-rotation movements, but I can never seem to give them a steady place in my routine. Have to work on that.

Anyway, last night was an off day. Today’s workout is going to be absolutely brutal. Huge volume/heavy day. I’ll post the workout tomorrow during the day with some candid reactions to it.

23

What a workout.

A1) High-Incline DB Bench 8x3 worked up to 100lbs but had to back down to 95 on the last set
A2) Weighted Pullups 8x3-5 I’ve never been great at weighed pullups, but I worked up to 3 reps with 35lbs

Complex (A) was performed pretty quickly,resting about 30s between each exercise in the complex, giving about a minute between sets of A1, for example. Immediately after the last set of pullups, Roman has you perform 500 jumping jacks. I felt like a huge tool and was absolutely sweating my ass off.

B) Barbell Hack Squat 5x5

120s of jump squats

B) Barbell Hack Squat 5x5

It was my first time doing these in about a year, so my first two sets were only 185lbs. I eventually worked up to 255, though. The 120s of jump squats right in the middle of 10 sets of hacks were absolutely brutal, though. Every BW squat felt like I had 400lbs on my back. By the end, my feet were barely leaving the ground. For the hack squats, we tried to keep the rest periods between 60-90s, but by the end that was almost impossible.

C1) Incline Bench 2x25
C2) Inverted Row with 1s pause at top 2x MaxReps

Ouch. These were also performed with minimal rest between the two complexes.

I will say, though, that as far as heavy strength training goes, I haven’t had a day that felt that good in a few months. So I’ll say it again: What an awesome workout.

24

Good luck with the program, man! Lemme know if you have any questions!

Love that you’re logging them here.

25

Thanks, Roman!

Had a long Friday of job interviews but still managed to get to the gym on time. The workout consisted of 4 “descending pyramid” complexes, but it went really quickly (as usual) because of the minimal rest periods.

Complex A: Blugarian Split Squats (performed twice)

  • Perform 6 with each leg, then 5, then 4… all the way to 1 rep per leg, not resting. I did these with 40lb dumbbells. I’ve actually noticed a huge increase in grip endurance (which I do think is different from grip strength). These complexes turn every workout into a day of loaded carries!

Complex B: Performed once
B1) Hand Walkouts
B2) Jump Squats
-Do 8 hand walkouts, then 8 jump squats, then 7, then 6… No rest between. I was absolutely soaked by the end of this. These were performed immediately after the last bulgarian split squat of Complex A, too, so the legs were absolutely on fire.

Complex C: Pushup/Row (Performed three times)
C1) Pushup
C2) Dumbbell “Renegade” Row
4 reps of pushups, then 4 right hand rows, then 4 more pushups, then 4 left hand rows, then 3, then 2, then 1

  • For my first set of these, I started with 40lb dumbbells. I found, though, that my core was far too exhausted to yank the rows up, and I totally underestimated how tired my chest would be doing 20 pushups per set and never leaving the pushup position. These were extremely hard. I don’t think I’d even try doing it with 30lb dumbbells next time.

Complex D: Squat-to-press/Plank (performed twice)
D1) Squat-to-press
D2) Pushup Position Plank
4 squat/presses, then 25s plank, then 3 squat/presses, then 20s plank, etc etc

  • The floor was absolutely covered with sweat by the time I was done with these. I did them with 35lb dumbbells, which sounds incredibly light, but consider how taxing the pushup position plank was on top of the presses. SO MUCH PAIN.
26

Saturday was an off day, and I sort-of collapsed with the diet. In addition to hearing positively about the job interview on Friday (Harvard U. has a new project manager!), my girlfriend’s college graduation was this weekend. I found that it was time to celebrate. Got back on the horse Sunday, though.

27

Battling a really sore throat, a terrible cough, and some head pain so I miss this morning’s sprint workout :frowning:

Here’s yesterday’s dynamic leg workout. Absolutely brutal.

A1) Alternating Forward Lunges - 15 reps each leg
A2) Standing Overhead Press â?? 10 reps
A3) DB Squat (both dumbbells) â?? 10-15 reps
A4) Single Arm DB Row â?? 10 reps each arm
A5) Alternating Reverse Lunges â?? 10 each leg
A6) Single DB Squat â?? 12 reps

Complex A was performed with the same dumbbells on every exercise, done twice through with 2 minutes between. F*** Lunges.

B1) Standing Overhead Press â?? 8 reps
B2) Alternating Forward Lunges â?? 8 reps each leg
B3) DB Step-Ups onto Bench â?? 6 reps each leg
B4) DB Flat Bench Press â?? 6 reps
B5) Single DB Squat â?? 12 reps

For the description of this circuit, Roman wrote, “Perform this circuit 3 times, resting 2 minutes between each. After your second circuit, rest 3 minutes, and proceed to circuit C”
Obviously this was a little contradictory. We performed it 3 times. I’ll also note that the bench press was way too light for the weight I was using (only 35lbs), so for the first set, I did 12 reps. For the second and third, I did 8 reps with REALLY slow eccentrics.

C1) Right Leg Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squat â?? 20 reps
C2) Right Leg Bodyweight Step-Up â?? 15 reps
C3) Right Leg Bodyweight Single Leg Squat to Bench â?? 5-10 reps
C4) Left Leg Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squat â?? 20 reps
C5) Left Leg Bodyweight Step-Up â?? 15 reps
C6) Left Leg Bodyweight Single Leg Squat to Bench â?? 5-10 reps

There were 15 seconds of rest between each exercise here, but it’s not like that helped. Brutal. Done once.

D1) Barbell Stiff Legged Deadlift â?? 10 reps
D2) Barbell Stationary Lunge â?? 10 reps
D3) Barbell Stiff Legged Deadlift â?? 8 reps per leg
D4) Barbell Stationary Lunge â?? 8 reps per leg

After D1 and D2, we loaded another 15% onto the bar and repeated for D3 and D4. This was done once.

Finished the workout off with some more oblique work. The lunges in this program are absolutely insane, I’ve never done so many before. Roman writes, “my belief is this: if your goal is decreased fat or increased fitness, you are doing yourself a grave disservice if you are performing even 20% of your exercises with your feet rooted to the ground, you are probably getting 50% of the results you could be.” It’s an idea that I’ve really bought into, and the movements are drastically increasing my strength-endurance. I was terrible at lunges when I started this program, and yesterday the sets actually started to feel more comfortable, and I’ll increase the weight by a solid amount the next time we do this workout.

Right now, I just need to get healthy. Had an awesome 8.5 hours of sleep last night, and I hope to continue that tonight.

28

So as I wrote in my first post, the program has 7 workouts that repeat. Yesterday was the first time we repeated Workout 1.

A1) Push Press 6x6 (135, 145, 155, 155, 155, 155) - Up 10 from Week 1
A2) Deadlift 6x4 (295, 295, 315, 325, 335, 345) - Up 50 from Week 1
(about 90s rest between exercises (and sets))

B1) Barbell Bent Over Row 5x5x165
B2) Front Squat 5x5 (175, 185, 195, 195, 205)
B3) 45s Pushup Position Plank
(1 minute rest between all exercises)

C1) Alternate Reverse Lunge 2x25 (20lb dumbbells)
C2) Explosive Pushups (2x max reps (15, 12))
(30s rest between exercises (and sets))

The deadlifts were a big improvement from last week, but I’m sore as a motherf***er right now. Tough workout, for sure.

29

Roman gracefully offered two days off for the third weekend. I, however, missed a run last week because I was sick and made it up on the beach for Memorial Day. Here’s Friday’s workout (a repeat of Workout 2 with improvements)

A) Reverse Lunges (6 right, 6 left, 5 right, 5 left,…, 1) 55lb dumbbells. Done twice

NO REST BETWEEN A/B

B1) Plank (30s, 25s, 20s, 15s, 10s)
B2) Pushups (20, 15, 10, 5, max reps)

Circuit B is performed once, with no rest between any of the exercises/reps. Got real sweaty.

C1) Db Curl (6,5,4,3,2,1)
C2) Db Top Squat (6,5,4,3,2,1)
C3) Db Shoulder Press (6,5,4,3,2,1)

These are all performed in succession. Done with 25lb dumbbells. It’s weird, but the shoulder press is definitely the limiting factor here. After the previous plank/pushup complex, my shoulders were barely able to get the 25’s up for 6 reps. I had to stop to rest for a couple seconds during the second complex. This was performed twice, with a minute of rest between.

D1) Bulgarian Split Squat Right leg (4,3,2,1)
D2) Bulgarian Split Squat Left Leg (4,3,2,1)
D3) Front Raise (4,3,2,1)

Done with 20lb dumbbells, 3 times, with 30 seconds of rest between.

Ended with 7 minutes of jump rope work and some machine lateral raises to bring up my shoulders.

Again, this workout moves extremely quickly. I did a ton of reps and was out of the gym within 40 minutes. The first time this was performed, a couple of weeks ago, I literally thought I wasn’t going to make it through, but just over the course of the last couple of weeks, I gotten a tremendous amount of strength-endurance work in that makes these types of workouts a little less shocking. They’re still terrible, but it’s fun to see the difference a couple of weeks makes in terms of how much you can really challenge yourself with the weights. I remember trying (A) with 55’s during week 1 and I almost puked, cursing myself for starting with too much weight. This week, I was prepared and actually breezed through these. Done again, I’d probably opt to start with 65’s. Again, the legs were certainly on fire, but I wasn’t losing the battle with holding the weights through the set.

Performing a body-weight workout today. Also, I’ve gotta start training for the tough mudder coming up in July, so I’ll probably start running a bit more during the weeks. This will probably necessitate some additional calories so I don’t start dropping lbs (I never run). I’ll be monitoring what goes in and the scale, but I’ll also be doing a fair amount of mirror monitoring as well.

Big ups,
Tareila

30

5/30/12
Workout 3
BCB

Tons of body-weight work. I described the workout above. Shoulders are feeling pretty hot today, but for the most part, the body’s holding up. Had a splitting headache by the end of the workout, though, which wasn’t fun. I thought I was gonna puke and got really dizzy towards the end. Thank God Roman didn’t have yesterday ending with some jump rope work.

Woke up early this morning to do the HIIT workout in the BCB program. Kicked my ass, but it felt good to get out on the track. I run around this gigantic reservoir with a gravel track in Boston, which is nice early in the morning. Had to get the workout done before work because I’m heading to the Sox game tonight. Hopefully they perform better than I did yesterday (though that’s unlikely).

31

5/31/12 Repeated Workout 4

A1) Incline DB Chest Press
A2) DB Row on Incline Bench
A3) DB Squat
A4) DB Reverse Lunges
A5) Incline DB Chest Press
A6) Single-arm DB Row
A7) DB Squat (goblet)
A8) Single-arm DB Row

All exercises are 10 reps. Complex performed twice. I did it with 55lb dbs, up 5 from the last time this workout was performed. I still am confident saying that my hands and grip strength are a limiting factor, though it’s definitely getting much better, e.g. the last set of single-arm DB rows, in the second complex, was really, really tough on the back.

B1) Seated Overhead Press
B2) Alternating Forward Lunges
B3) Low Incline DB Chest Press
B4) DB Rows on Incline Bench
B5) DB RDLs
B6) DB Push Press

Did this complex three times, using 60 lb dumbbells. The reps varied for each exercise, (between 6 and 10). By far the hardest transition in this entire program is going from 10 reps of RDL’s to 6 reps of DB push presses without putting the db down. I haven’t been able to do it smoothly yet.

C1) Wide Grip Pull-Ups
C2) Wide-Spaced Pushups
C3) Narrow Grip Pull-Ups
C4) Narrow-Spaced Pushups
C5) Wide Grip Pull-Ups

Performed only once.

Great workout, but I was still battling some dizziness after doing the pushups in the last complex. I think it might be due to the higher amount of caffeine I’ve been taking in pre-workout. I’ll cut that out for the weekend/next week and see if anything changes.

32

Repeated this one last Saturday (6/2/12). Workout 5.

A1) High-Incline DB Bench 8x3x90
A2) Weighted Pullups 8x3x30

Dynamic Interrupt - 500 Jumping Jacks

B) Barbell Hack Squat 5x5

120s of jump squats

B) Barbell Hack Squat 2x5

The workout calls for three more sets of hacks, but I had to cut it short and rush to the North Shore for a graduation party. I felt pretty strong, too, so that absolutely sucked. I’d planned for enough time to finish the workout, but anyone with any familiarity whatsoever with the Boston MBTA system knows how unpredictable it can be. Took me 50 minutes to get to a gym like 4 miles away.

33

Workout 6: Descending Pyramid Complexes: 6/4/12

Complex A: Bulgarian Split Squats
Sets: 2
Reps: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Weight: 40lb Db’s

Complex B: Performed once
B1) Hand Walkouts
B2) Jump Squats
Sets: 1
Reps: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bodyweight

Complex C: Pushup/Row (Performed three times)
C1) Pushup
C2) Dumbbell “Renegade” Row
Sets: 3
Reps: 4, 3, 2, 1
Weight: 20lb db’s**

Complex D: Squat-to-press/Plank (performed twice)
D1) Squat-to-press
D2) Pushup Position Plank
Sets: 2
Reps: 6/30s, 5/25s, 4/20s, 3/15s, 2/10s, 1/5s

I love this workout. When done with the right weight (the pushup-row complex is the hardest for me to get right), it’s incredibly tough on the delts, lats, and chest. The bulgarian splits in the beginning keep your quads absolutely throbbing til mid-way through the workout as well.

At the end, I did about 8 minutes of jumprope work (which is getting a hell of a lot better) and some sidebends and other oblique work.

I’m noticing much more vascularity in my arms, neck, and lower abs, which is fantastic. I haven’t seen veins in my lower abs since my junior year in college. My forearms are noticably leaner and harder, and I’ve lost some man-boob fat as well. Definitely going strong with the program. I’m running today and will be back in the gym Thursday (off day Wednesday). Next week will start the final run-through of all 7 workouts.

Roman is awesome for giving this program out and allowing me to log the workouts here. I hope I’ve convinced at least one person to look into this great body re-comp program.

34

Oh, pics will come at the end of the 6 weeks, not a day earlier.

35

Performed Roman’s sprint workout a couple nights ago after work. It’s amazing how that gets easier every time. It’s still an extremely hard run, especially because he starts with 30s sprint, 10s rest, 20s sprint, 10s rest, 20s sprint… That’s 1:10 sprinting in 1:40.

Still, I’m finally able to do a light jog between sprint intervals, whereas the first week that jog was more like a stationary dry-heave, and the second week was more like a crawl than even a walk.

Soon (e.g. maybe next week) I’ll have to switch exclusively to longer runs. That 10 mile tough mudder is looming right around the corner (mid-July) and I can barely run 4 miles.

36

6/7/12

A1) Alternating Forward Lunges - 15 reps each leg
A2) Standing Overhead Press - 10 reps
A3) DB Squat (both dumbbells) - 10-15 reps
A4) Single Arm DB Row - 10 reps each arm
A5) Alternating Reverse Lunges - 10 each leg
A6) Single DB Squat - 12 reps

Complex A : performed twice with 35 lb dumbbells (5 more per hand than last time) This really is like doing a really long loaded carry with 35’s, which are obviously light under normal circumstances, but this takes like 2.5 minutes.

B1) Standing Overhead Press - 8 reps
B2) Alternating Forward Lunges - 8 reps each leg
B3) DB Step-Ups onto Bench - 6 reps each leg
B4) DB Flat Bench Press - 12 reps
B5) Single DB Squat - 12 reps

Complex B - performed 3 times with 40lb dumbbells. Again, up 5 from last time.

C1) Right Leg Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squat - 20 reps
C2) Right Leg Bodyweight Step-Up - 15 reps
C3) Right Leg Bodyweight Single Leg Squat to Bench - 7 reps
C4) Left Leg Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squat - 20 reps
C5) Left Leg Bodyweight Step-Up - 15 reps
C6) Left Leg Bodyweight Single Leg Squat to Bench - 7 reps

Done once.

D1) Barbell Stiff Legged Deadlift - 10 reps
D2) Barbell Stationary Lunge - 10 reps
D3) Barbell Stiff Legged Deadlift - 8 reps per leg
D4) Barbell Stationary Lunge - 8 reps per leg

Did 115 for D1 and D2 and 125 for D3 and D4.

Finished the workout off with some more oblique work and cable crunches. Great, sweaty workout.

37

Got a nice run in during my “lunch” break. 2.5 miles in 20:27. SO hot in Boston today.

38

Plantar Fasciitis: a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue on the sole (bottom surface) of the foot. It is often caused by overuse of the plantar fascia or arch tendon of the foot.

Damnit. Walking more than 100 yards at a time is incredibly painful, so it looks like I’ll be resting the feet for a bit. I can still manage to work the upper body out, but I’ll be unable to finish the final week of the BCB because there’s no way I can do all of the lunges, jumprope, running, etc.

I can use a stationary bike (the balls of my feet aren’t too sore), but I’ll be looking for replacement leg work to prevent any major muscle loss. I’m absolutely furious that this is happening right now, too, because I have to train for that tough mudder in mid-july!

39

Monday’s workout: Horizontal Push-Pull

Warmup, calf stretches for foot, some foam rolling

A1) Flat DB Press: 4x8-12x 95-105 lb db’s
A2) Single-Arm Bent Over Row: 4x10-15x 95-105

B1) Incline DB Press: 3x8x75
B2) TBar Row 3x15x 90

C1) Close-Grip (FatGripz) Bench: 3x10x145-165
C2) Barbell Curl (FatGripz): 3x8-10x44-65

D) Light arm pump work, just feeling it out.
At this point, my foot was killing me just from walking the damn dumbbells around.

This was the first true moderate-rep, kinda heavy workout I’d done in about 6 weeks, so I was incredibly sore all this week. I’ll post yesterday’s workout next.

40

Thursday 6-15: Vertical Push/Pull

Pullups to warm-up (I started at 10 reps on 5/31 and have been adding a rep each day since then. I’m up to 22, now. I’m doing the same thing with pushups and won’t stop until I get to 60 reps)

A1) Strict Military Press: 7/5/3 wave loading (first wave: 135, 155, 175; 2nd: 145, 165, fail)
A2) Hanging Leg Raise (5x8-15

B1) Lat Pull Down: CT’s Pump Scheme (5-10-5) (5 bottom half, 10 mid-range, 5 full reps) - 3 sets
B2) Dips from dead start: 15, 12, 10

C1) Lat Raise Partials (upper half)
C2) Front Raise Partials (upper half, focus on reaching out form to avoid trap recruitment)
C3) Pullovers

D1) Arms work: behind head, seated tricep press (3x10x75-85)
D2) Concentration curls (3x12x35)

Pretty solid workout, all-in-all, but I wish I’d gotten more vertical pulling in. The pump work felt awesome–I think next time I’ll do more pullups after that, focusing on a full stretch at the bottom.