Just dawned on me that I forgot to log the standing ab wheel between sets. 6 for the first set, sets of 5 for the rest.
Got a question for you, not sure how much youāll have to add, but oh well.
My girlfriendās brother is 16. Heās been lifting for about a year, mostly just doing what I tell him to. We donāt train together, but I just met with him for a couple weeks when he started to show him how to the main big lifts, and have just given him general guidelines since then, that he does on his own. For the most part, heās just done some pretty simple versions of the OG 5/3/1, with a lot of bodyweight assistance, and some front squats, cleans, and BTN presses.
Heās in XC and track, so heās basically running several miles 5-6 days a week for 8 months straight out of the year. I donāt believe you canāt run AND get bigger/stronger, but I do think thereās a limit. He also sucks at recovery - doesnāt sleep a ton, and has the appetite of a 2 year old child. No breakfast, tiny lunch, and some crappy snacks after school instead of a big dinner. Heās slowly gotten stronger, which Iām completely fine with the slow progress since heās made it without getting hurt, and I donāt see the rush - heās got his whole life to lift. But it could be faster if he put some of the energy from his sports into his lifting and ate more. But thatās not my concern - thatās up to him.
Anyway, heās getting frustrated. Got kinda ballsy the other day and said he didnāt really feel like I know what Iām doing. I said no, I donāt, haha, but Jim Wendler and others do. I tried explaining the concept of slow, long term progression, and how he should be happy with his strength and his running ability (heās not very fast at long distances, never places in races, but his endurance is awesome) combined. Anyway, he basically said he doesnāt want to do āmyā program anymore. Whatever, his choice. He then still wanted my help with his lifting! Thinking of just telling him to figure it out on his own, but also considered just giving him a hard program. Not like a long term thing, just like a 6 week thing that he wonāt put the proper amount of effort into his eating and recovery for. (Heās also not in season right now, so it shouldnāt affect that.)
I donāt knowā¦probably should just leave it alone, but I was thinking of giving him BtM and just seeing how it turns out. What do you think?
I know this training others isnāt really your area but thought Iād hear your opinion.
This and BtM donāt mix well. Deliberately setting someone up for a failure feels like a bad idea to me. Iām not @T3hPwnisher, but thatās my 2c
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Yeah, I totally agree with you.
In the best way possible, I donāt want him to fail, I want him to realize it takes time and patience to get bigger and stronger. I donāt think anything would happen but that heād be tired. Iād just say here, do this, or do your own thing. Whether or not he does it, afterwards Iām leaving it up to him anyways, and I know heād gravitate to some high volume, āextremeā program.
I figure Iāll just let him do his own thing.
@jshaving 2 COAs I see here.
1: Give him Deep Water and tell him to enjoy it. This most recent video from Jon could even help (warning: incredibly vulgar)
Alternatively, ask him how fast he feels he SHOULD be progressing. Donāt relent until he gives you an actual number and a timeline. This is a fantastic exercise for ANY complaint in life about ānot getting mineā. Once you force someone to actually lay down some numbers, they start getting sheepish, as theyāll realize that their expectations are unreasonable. If he does not come to that realization, HELP him.
āIām only benching 135. I should be benching at LEAST 225. I should be doing that by Halloween, since I wanna go as Brad Pitt in Fight Clubā
āOk, so youāre saying that, in 2 months, you should be benching 90 more pounds. That breaks down to 45lbs on the bench every month. This means that, each week, youāre adding 11lbs to how much you bench. Does that seem like something you can do?ā
āUhā¦ā
However, I will say @dagill2 is a better person than me, because I set people up to fail a LOT when it comes to this stuff, haha. For the most part, my low faith in them to commit compels me to not put much effort into helping. I tell them go do Deep Water or Building the Monolith and hear nothing back, which means it never happened.
PM WORKOUT
MAX EFFORT LOWER
Deficit axle deadlift against bands
5x136+bands
5x226+bands
1x316+bands
1x366+bands
1x406+bands
1x426+bands
GIANT SETS (deadlift-hyper-squat)
(3) Axle deficit deadlifts 316
3x10
Reverse hyper 320
3x10
SSB front squat (flat soled shoes) 135
3x10 (+5 reps of SSB squats on the final set)
Notes: 3:45 between heavy pulls, 2:00 between giant sets. Iām pretty proud of the set-up I came up with for the pulls against bands. Allow me to brag
So what youāre seeing there is that I first laid down my Rogue axle. Then, I put 3 rubber patio pavers per wide per side so I could lay one more across the tops to have a platform to put the plates on. I then looped the minibands around the rogue axle and threaded them over the Ironmind one.
Once that was done, I took my mini pavers (the ones cut in half) and put 3 of those per side where I would stand, then put 100lb plates on top of that to form a platform
Using the plates creates a small deficit to pull from, but the real reason for doing so is that, with my weight on top of that, Iāve got 400lbs opposing the bands now. This is slightly more complicated than just standing on the bands ala the traditional set-up, but it makes me feel more secured when I pull, and itās honestly not too tricky to set up. And pulling from a deficit will only make me stronger.
That said, I used the Figure 8 straps, and they were good until that final pull, at which point the bar started to slip and I had to abandon lockout or risk slingshotting it to the floor. Next week, Iāll use the Why Our Way straps and be locked in. This was still just about the right weight though. Steep learning curve pulling against the bands, but I was starting to get the hang of it at the end. Definite value added from them.
I just remembered the cool (and only real useful) trick with fat gripz of putting them on a barbell where they connect with the bands so that the knurling doesnāt chew them up, so I can do that next time I want some band work in the rotation. As it stands, I picked 2 axles because theyāre both smooth and will give the bands some life.
The pull definitely gets tough quick with the bands. With how I have them set up, thereās already some tension at the start, and it gets super tight as it goes on. These are elitefts short bands, and I think these ones are the ālightā bands based off their diameter.
Giant set was awful, per usual. Was pleased to get in that extra 5 reps at the end. Building up more tolerance.
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Iāve just started pulling against bands over the past few months and have really enjoyed it. Iāve never been a fast puller, but banded pulls seemed to have helped train me to pull more explosively to try and keep the weight moving fast before the bands can bring it to a stop.
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As a grindy lifter, Iām really digging it. It penalizing me in an interesting way. A fast puller can just race to the lockout, but my speed runs out and I feel my engine start overclocking and my gears slipping. I really wanna see what I can do with a good strap set-up where I"m just locked in, because I think itād be fascinating.
Good to hear itās had some benefit on your end. Something Iāve always wanted to try but couldnāt set-up well.
Was my first thought (or BtM), which I am still on the fence about.
Haha that was great. I think either way I definitely will send it his way.
Iāll have him do that exercise. Heās not the type to voice his opinion well, if heās intimidated by you and it goes against what you think (which is common), so Iāll need to push it until
Iāll do that. If he gives me answer, we discuss it, and he sees the errors in his thinking, Iāll continue helping him. If not, I think I will just give him a hard program and say have fun. Again, I donāt want him to fail necessarily, just to realize that this is a lifelong pursuit.
Thanks!
Iām sure youāve said but you do normally wear weightlifting shoes or something?
I typically fail off of the floor, so Iāve never had much experience with grinding the deadlift. With bands, however, Iāve had some pulls that really tested my ability to grind which has been a sick sort of āfunā.
I like the creative setup for banded deads you have there!
Iāll be giving your ROM progression for deadlift a go over the next several weeks. Iām looking forward to giving this method a trial run.
@jshaving Hopefully you find success with the dude. If not, 16 is an age of learning, haha. And yeah, typically for squats I wear weightlifting shoes, because theyāre what I wear for presses and the squats transfer over to leg drive, but since Iām deadlifting as part of the giant set, Iād rather squat in flat soled shoes than deadlift in weightlifting shoes. I squatted in flat soled shoes for about 6 years before switching the weightlifting shoes (to include all 3 of my powerlifting meets), so itās not too foreign of territory for me.
@littlesleeper Hope the ROM progression pans out well. The first cycle tends to be the best one.
PM WORKOUT
SUPERSETS (press-pulldown)
5xAxle
5x66
3x151
3x181
8x201
9x201 (push press)
Lat pulldowns 100
6x12
GIANT SETS (press-dip-raise-pull apart. Strict press on odd sets, Behind the neck barbell press on evens)
Axle strict press 146
3x10
Behind the neck barbell press 105
3x10
Lateral raise 20
6x12
Band pull aparts
6x12
Run the rack DB curls (no rest between sets)
35x10lbs
30x15
25x20
15x25
5x30
Notes: 3:45 between heavy presses, 2:00 between giant sets. Ran out of gas on the topset of strict presses, but made up for it with the follow up push press. Most likely had 1 more in me on that set. Technique is coming back. Felt my heels come off the floor towards the end.
Giant sets went well. Behind the neck presses are still feeling solid.
Finally reached a point in the curls where I had to get a little more creative. Once the left elbow starts to hurt, I shut it down.
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Any tips to prevent this?
It tends to be a goal of mine to achieve that. I suppose youād prevent it by being bad at push pressing, haha.
Ah crap, misread that and thought your heels were coming off in the strict press which happens to me sometimes. Lol
No worries dude. For strict press, sounds like the weight might be getting forward on you. A little leanback could probably solve it, but that will also change the emphasis a bit.
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I see. Yeah, I feel the bar go in front of me when I initiate the lift sometimes. Will try to lean back a little more. Thanks!
@whang No problem man. Hope it works.
PM WORKOUT
GIANT SETS (squat-stone-hyper)
SSB squats
6xBar
6x155
6x245
6x335
6x435 (PRā¦I think)
6x335
Stone Of Steel extensions (w/25lb plate and spacers)
6x3
Reverse Hypers 430
6x13
Notes: 3:45 between sets. Along with the hip still nagging me, my right hamstring decided to be stupid out of nowhere early in the warm-ups. Just tight and painful. No idea why. Had a big breakthrough on the stone extensions and figured out timing on rolling the stone up my body AND arching/leaning back to get it way up high on my upperback. Really appreciating the time Iāve been able to practice it. Reverse hypers were crazy heavy, and soon Iām going to run out of space on the loading pins. May need to change technique when that happens.
Another ridiculously hot day in the garage. Laid down on my bedroom floor with the fan blowing on me for like 10 minutes after it was done, and still was pretty flushed in the face. Good to have these opportunities.
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Got a large fan in the garage gym? If not I recommend Home Depotās choices.
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Thanks man. Seen a lot of large fan distributors around here. However, that would end up making the garage cooler, which would mean reduced opportunities to overcome misery, haha.
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There is that. Think of winter in there.
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