Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

Training Training Logs
6158

I’ve done tabata KB swings and I agree, unless you concentrate on forcibly moving the KB from A to B, it’s easy to let momentum take over while you put just enough effort in to keep that momentum going.

My theory with a barbell and high pulls (or power cleans/snatches), specifically from the hang, is you need to slow the bar down somewhat on the eccentric to properly catch it, thus adding a bit more difficulty. That eccentric catch is one of the reasons hang lifts are recommended for those looking to utilize O-lifts for muscle building purposes.

All that to say, I’ll test it out and let ya know.

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6159

Fair point: I used it from the hang as well and found it pretty ball busting. Good to know there’s some science behind it. I’m sure it’ll not be fun no matter how you apply it, haha.

6160

Oh I’m fully expecting to hate my life for those few minutes.

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6161

Just popping in to say that I still come back to check out this log every few days. I feel like the activity in here is higher than it used to be and there’s always something for me to jot down or pay attention to. Awesome stuff going on, keep it up. Great resource for someone like myself to learn from.

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6162

@jshaving Glad to still have you along. It’s definitely higher traffic these days: I’m manically updating as it corresponds to my manic training and conversations are more frequent as I do more experimenting. Glad to have it happening: helps pass the time.

Got my daily training knocked out.

50 rest pause chins with various grips

40 band pull aparts

30 band pushdowns

20 standing ab wheels

50 bodyweight reverse hypers

30 GHRs

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6163

0400 Wake Up (Dog was being a total rascal. I was actually ready to sleep more, but with it being Saturday, I took the dog so the wife could get some more sleep)

Longest walk yet with the 45lb vest. Did it fasted. Really proud of how well my oldest dog is doing.

Then

50 Rest Pause chins

40 pull aparts

25 pushdowns

50 bodyweight reverse hypers

Breakfast

20 Standing ab wheel

30 GHRs

PM WORKOUT (1330)

Max Effort Lower

(1) Elevated High Handle Trap Bar pulls
5x135
5x225
3x315
1x405
1x495
1x585
1x635 (shut it down here: right hip was being angry)

GIANT SETS (pull-row-chin-neck)-90 second rests between sets

Touch and go high handle trap bar lift 460
5x9

T-bar rows 3 plates
2x13
2x12
1x10

Chins (various grips)
4x8
1x5

Neck harness 55
11,10,9,8,8

90 second rest

T-bar row stripset
10x3 plates
10x2 plates
13x1 plate

D-handle lat pulldown (resting long enough between sets to put away a plate per side off the deadlift bar)
10x130
8x130
7x130

STRIPSET
10x130
6x120
6x120
7x110
10x90

1 minute rest

Tabata high handle trap bar lifts w/135lbs

Notes: Had to call an audible on the workout. The hip is mostly healed, but I could feel it tweaking under the load, and knew that pushing it would result in the same thing as last week: blowing it all out on the first set and having nothing for the rest of the workout. Wanted a decent workout today, so went heavy-ish, shut it down, and did extra rounds of the giant set. Happy with that trade off. The pain is interesting: it’s not the lifting that triggers it: it’s the setting down/racking the weight that does. Something about relieving the load from my body puts the body through something. It meant I had to take the eccentric VERY slow on the trap bar lifts, and even the t-bar rows I needed to be ginger on.

Man, if you think those tabata pulls suck when you’re fresh, try hitting them at the END of a workout. Great finisher.

Turned out I most likely DID tear a muscle the other day with that bench workout: the bruising is finally started to show through. Similar to my hamstring: there was a delay. I’ve already got a million great ideas on what to do with my bench workout for now, so no concerns there. The shoulder feels great as is, but I can track some performance degrade in it.

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6164

Another 0400 wake up with the dog, but it meant I got 7 hours of sleep, which is the most I’ve had in a LONG time. The high fat meals before bed seem to be helping. I’m still waking up hungry, but I’m not waking up FROM hunger.

The older dog flat out refused to walk today. Put himself in the kennel and wouldn’t come out. It was for the best: it was 34 degrees and sleeting. It meant me and the younger dog went on the most active walk since this whole thing kicked off. Went slightly further than before with minimal stopping: think the weather was motivating the pooch. Still had the vest, but wore a sweatshirt over it to keep it from getting saturated with water.

From there

50 rest pause chins

40 band pull aparts

25 pushdowns

50 unloaded reverse hypers (feet in the straps, no weight)

30 GHRs

Breakfast

20 standing ab wheel

Tabata high handle trap bar pulls w/135. Focused on locking out on this one vs starting the pull. More emphasis in the glutes vs the quads

That’s most likely going to be it for training for today, unless the kiddo wants to get something done.

3 Likes
6165

I was reading through @Frank_C s log where you wrote his programming was too advanced for you to understand, and @flappinit treated every single reader to a laugh (surely) when outlining your training but to be perfectly frank I haven’t really picked up on the scaffolding that guides your training.

I know you apply the “old way” of adjusting TMs, I see maximum effort here and there but I don’t see all the puzzle pieces.

Granted it seems like you are in a exploratory phase so maybe the question should be "what about before now? " or “what framework are you operating under/in?” (guiding principles). Care to share what thought process results in the workouts we see? And how the rest pause chins in the morning fits into that, etcetera. I’m sorry if I’m having you repeat yourself.

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6166

@Voxel I actually had a similar question. To my pea brain it just looks like a ton of back work and some pressing and trap bar deads, but we all know there has got to be a reason behind it all.

Pwn, a couple of questions for you- I see you do daily training with your chins and pushdowns and everything, is that just something to add volume to the day solely for the fact you don’t want to do it later?

Also, my very limited understanding of lifting is going to show through, but it seems like you’re doing a ton of work every session. Is that something that you have found you need in order to continue progressing? To assist in fat loss and muscle retention? Or is your work capacity such that it doesn’t seem like it’s something that would make a normal human bedridden for a couple days?

6167

You should try pwns challenge workout from the challenge thread. I’m a normal human that survived it.

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6168

Always happy to discuss dude.

The thing to keep in mind is that I’m not following 1 program for all 4 lifts: each lift has it’s own programming. Over time, I’ve found what each lift tends to respond to, and rather than try to force the square peg into the round hole and use programming that doesn’t suit the lift just because it’s “THE program”, I do what the lift responds to. In turn, the two lifts I care most about are pressing overhead and pulling from the floor. Benching and squatting are ultimately supplemental to those goals. In turn, when you look at the programming, pressing and deadlifting get more heavy work, while benching and squatting are more rep driven.

Regarding max effort: deads are about the best choice for that style of training I’ve found. Or anything that starts with the concentric rather than the eccentric. If the goal truly is “maximal strain”, you don’t want a stretch reflex clouding up the mix. In addition, I appreciate the auto-regulation aspect that max effort allows, because I have good days and bad days when it comes to pulling, ESPECIALLY with my weight in flux. As much as ROM progression was my most successful approach to pulling, it required me to stay current in bodyweight to make the growth I needed.

Pressing is 5/3/1, because it’s always worked for my press. Supplemental work is my own doing, which has shown a lot of success.

Benching is an evolving program from Deep Water. I really liked what that bench program did for me, but again, with bodyweight fluctations, things needed to change to keep progress driven.

Squats is something of my own creation which just always seems to work magic when I need it to. My squat programming changes the most out of everything because, quite frankly, I hate squats the most out of all the lifts and I have to change things up to keep me doing them.

The daily work is something I’ve done during weight gain cycles in the past that seems to pay off. Just creating a lot of demand on the body and then feeding it to recover and grow. If I get in 50 chins a day, that’s 350 in a week. In addition, doing the daily stuff means I can take stuff out of the main workouts to make them shorter. I no longer need to do abs on my press day, for example, nor do I need to do GHRs on my squat or dead day, pressdowns on my bench day, etc.

Hopefully that shines some light.

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6169

I read that a week or so ago and it’s something I’d absolutely love (or hate?) to try. I definitely want to do it, I’d have to find a way to sub in something for leg press/landmine squats… Zercher squat maybe?

6170

I just wrote up a reply to @voxel that should help with the first question. For the second one: fat loss is no longer my goal, it’s muscular gain. Keep in mind: when I’m losing fat, I train LESS, not more. When I’m losing fat, calories are down, which means recovery is down, which means I can’t train as much. I’m training like a madman now BECAUSE my calories are up and I can recover from it.

The big guiding principle for me is that you have to place a demand on the body to grow and then feed it so that it will do so. If the demand isn’t there, feeding it just makes it fat. If the demand is there and the food isn’t, you run it into the ground.

So what you’re seeing is: I wake up, go for a long walk fasted, do a bunch of fasted training, cap it off with some high intensity conditioning, and have now created an environment in my body where it REALLY wants some nutrition. And then I spend the day feeding it. I’m eating SO much more than I was during fat loss and still very slowly putting on bodyweight, which is about ideal for me.

WAAAAY too different. The point is to blow up the quads. Could try light weight front squats or even bodyweight squats, just don’t lockout any of the reps.

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6171

Thanks for the explanation man, makes a lot more sense to me now. I wasn’t aware you’re trying to gain again. I’m excited to see how that turns out.

Damn… I love zercher squats.

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6172

This is always a sign that a movement is the wrong choice, haha. Once you find yourself saying “F**k me I’d rather be doing ANYTHING other than this right now”, you made the right choice.

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6173

This is me every squat day

Lol, well love is a term I use loosely. I love zercher squats because I feel badass when I’m doing them, but when I’m done I don’t feel badass at all…

I may take a look at purchasing a landmine attachment, I was thinking about it anyway since I don’t get a while lot of quad work.

6174

Absolutely worth having for a home gym. Opens up a TON of options

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6175

This log is like a treasure trove for any trainees that have gotten through the various dogmas and are ready to bust ass haha.

@boilerman Titan makes a landmine post that sits in the ID of olympic style plates. I picked that one up a while ago and it’s a great tool for the home gym, lets you put the landmine set up anywhere that’s convenient rather than being tied to a rack or room corner.

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6176

It does, truly the least formulaic bits have been your squat days.

This makes sense to me, but for some reason I find that I’m having so much less energy eating in a surplus than I do when I eat in a deficit or at maintenance. Maybe I just need to look past that. A real-life friend, that’s stronger and more experienced than I am, shares my experience. Maybe it’s a “we’re all different thing” or me and him are just eating shittily but more calories. Will try to clean up some food choices and see what happens.

So you are not one for touch and go deadlifts?

Doing what works for you, respect. Makes me think of @Frank_C. I wonder who else on here has settled into just doing things that work, for them.

What supplemental work do you do for your pressing? If you prefer I can scroll back and just learn by looking at explicit examples.

6177

Yeah, those have a very basic structure of “do more reps or more weight for the very top set than the previous week”, but after that it’s just going to the pain. My recovery is to ridiculous really: those workouts used to make my limp for days, now, not so much.

Same. I’m far more energetic when I’m hungry vs when I’m satiated. I imagine most humans are. It makes sense: your body wants you to go hunting and get some food. I’m not training more because I have more ENERGY but because I have greater ability to recover.

Not for max effort work, no. For building strength and size? Absolutely in favor of it: it’s what the majority of my deadlift training revolves around. I find the touch and go superior to dead stop in the majority of cases.

Check my blog mythicalstrength and look for the post "A PRESSING MATTER: BUILDING A STRONG (OVERHEAD) PRESS WITH A “BAD SHOULDER” It lays out my current press training supplemental work. Specifically the part that says “SUPPLEMENTAL WORK STRATEGY” It will save me the work of re-writing it.

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