Chili/bell peppers.
For you rest pause squats, how close to failure do you get each āsetā thatās not the widow maker?
Thereās no real set approach to it. The most important set is the very first one. After that, itās just filling in volume. Some days, that very first set goes smoothly and I have the ability to drive those follow on sets harder, other times that first set takes everything out of me and I end up having to take it a little easier on the follow ups.
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So go as hard as you can on the first one- then follow the rep scheme you outlined in an earlier post? Or am I misinterpreting what youāre saying
Negative: I set a PR on the first one. I go up by 1 rep each week and, in doing so, it adds volume to the follow on sets. If I always went as hard as possible, Iād make too big a jump and lose the ability to contiue progressing.
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Hereās my story about what Iād consider a successful bulk.
I was weighing in the low-mid 170s a couple years back when I decided I wanted to try competing in novice strongman shows. I wasnāt under any delusions of being some great strongman, but it looked like a fun time and I wanted to go do it.
I wound up switching fro 5/3/1 and submax training to something by Brian Alsruhe, so my training volume and intensity went way up. Generally my M-F of eating consisted of a decent sized breakfast, a post breakfast snack, early lunch, later lunch, pre-workout snack, post workout shake, and dinner. Weekends were more of a crapshoot but I tended to get enough calories in. I went away from āeating cleanā though I still ate fairly well. I just included a lot more liquid calories, cheeses, cream, etc. I also abided by a couple rules: 1) never turn down food if offered, even if itās just a few bites 2) no leftovers, so finish every meal
In about 4 months I stepped on the scale weighing an all time high of 192 and with PRs across the board. Had fun at the comp even though it was brutally hard, I managed to feel like I belonged in the scene. I did not enjoy eating like this a lot of the times. The food was tasty, but being grossly full all the time, dealing with heartburn, and the smells were exhausting.
I hung on to most of that weight for about a year, generally weighing in the high 180s but stopped forcing the food so hard and tried ārecompā at that weight. Recently dropped back to as low as 178 (moving and on-call work double teamed me) and now generally weigh in the 182-185 range depending on the day. I eat about the same as described before, just a touch cleaner, with slightly smaller portions and without the uncompromising consistency. I feel much more comfortable day to day and I could sustain this easily.
I think during that ~1.5 year period I added enough muscle that I raised my ācomfort pointā by about 10lbs. Looking at old pictures would suggest body comp is the same or better, and Iām just stronger than that old version of myself. When I was like 178 recently I felt emaciated, but I was still heavier than my comfort point of old.
This might be verging on the point of rambling now haha, but the big takeaways for me were: 1) Pwn is right that targeted goals will give you focus in training and eating, 2) eating is the hard part if youāre a natural weight loser. @flappinit has talked a lot about what a slog it is to push through the process, and 3) itās totally friggin worth it if you want to be bigger and stronger than the old version of yourself.
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Fantastic post dude! Thanks for sharing it. I particularly liked this
I think having a set of rules like that is big. Right now my current one is, no matter what, I end the day with a high fat meal. To the point that Iāve tasked my wife with bugging me to make sure I did it. I caught myself skipping the meal on days where I felt like Iād eaten enough, and sleep/life quality would suffer. Itās a āmust doā for now. Iāve also done it when I was trying to increase water intake where it was, before I drank ANYTHING else, I had to drink a gallon of water. Others might need to make rules like āmeat at every mealā or ābreakfast EVERY dayā. Structure and rules can be huge. And itās funny how, when one wants to gain, ācheatingā is about NOT eating enough food, haha.
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lol
As someone who is way better built for the press I see your press workouts and think to myself that those are tough or maybe just out of reach for me then I see the pulling and am completely astonished.
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I prefer routine over rules, but that may be just semantics.
That feels like a routine I could stick to.
@heretolog Well thanks man. Iām still building it all back to what it was, but in the hopes I can do it healthier this time.
@dagill2 I like rules simply because routines are things done simply because itās whatās done, whereas rules (ideally) have reasons behind them. An interesting analogy: my kid has some sort of camel bladder, and will wake up from a full nightās sleep and go HOURS without peeing. Thatāsā¦not good. You can get a UTI from that. For me, I wake up first thing in the morning and I pee, because thatās my routine. For my kid, they wake up first thing in the morning and they HAVE to pee, because the mom and I have made it a rule, haha.
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My routines start as rules and become routines. The aim is to make them so automatic that I make the correct decision without thought. Iāve proven myself very poor at making correct decisions with regards to nutrition if left to my own devices. I prepare my coffee the night before because if I didnāt, come 4:30, Iād find a reason why a Monster is a better choice.
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Ah. For me itās the opposite: Iām so robotic that breaking from routine is a challenge I force myself to undertake. Itās way too easy for me to settle into a pattern. Itās why Iāve tasked my wife with letting me know when weāve eaten the same food too many times in a row, haha.
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For me, that routine is effective. Although the evening meal has to change every 4 days or so otherwise boredom sets in.
No problem dude! I think that was the first time Iāve put the full experience in words.
I wound up inspired and made myself a lunch of leftover french fries, topped with homemade pulled pork, pepperjack cheese, and BBQ sauce baked in the oven then topped with over easy eggs with guac seasoning for lunch. #fitlife
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@dagill2 Super effective: just not socially accepted, haha.
@mr.v3lv3t You made BBQ carne asada fries!
Good carne asada fries are life changing. Your take on it sounds fantastic too.
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Haha here I am, being a heathen from NE that doesnāt know this food type has a name. I had some authentic carne asada fries when I visited San Diego last year. Iirc my GF had to roll me back to our AirBnB that night.
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San Diego has the best Mexican food in the United States, I have gone a few times in the last few years and the cuisine plays no small part in me going.
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Well, now I know what Iām making this weekend.
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@mr.v3lv3t I am glad you got to have that experience. The taste is damn near carnal.
@heretolog Hell yeah. My friends from Texas tend to like to have that argument, but I just let them be wrong and go about my day, haha.
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For some reason, the bench workout I did on Tuesday doesnāt seem to be logged anymore. Weird.
AM WORKOUT (0315 wake up)
SUPERSETS (chin-press)
Weighted angled underhand chin
5x50
3x90
1x140
1x145
1x150
DROPSET
1x140
4x95
6x50
7xBodyweight
Axle strict press
5xAxle
5x66
5x151
3x171
4+1+1x191 (rest pause)
Log clean and strict press away 150
1x11
Weighted dip stripset (no rest between sets)
6x130
4x105
4x80
5x55
5x30
7xBodyweight
Strongman Fran (100lb log, strict chins various angles)
21
15
9
5
Standing ab wheel
1x20
Bodyweight reverse hypers
1x40
Band pull aparts
1x50
Band pushdowns
1x25
Notes: Splitting the workout in half due to time constraints with the 12 hour shifts: will do the rest tomorrow. On the second rep of the topset of the press I felt that familiar feeling of something snatching in my trap/neck. Pushed hard, but not enough to murder myself, as I know that I can set myself back a bit whenever that happens. The follow up rest pause sets were a significant challenge for that. Have some numbness in my right side at present, so something to watch for. Realized my elbows are feeling beat up most likely as a result of shoveling snow earlier in the week, which sucks that it happened but itās nice there is a reason. Pain was present on topset of press and on the dip stripset. Happy I got the workout done, but also know there is room for improvement. Digestion is still all outta whack. Iām sure shift living isnāt helping.
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