Week 5 DAY 2
Db clean and press 18 x 5,5,5, 20 x 5, 5
Squat 92,97 x 10
Chin up +8 kg x 6, 6, 4
Cable row 75 x 6,6,6
Incline db press 30 x 6, 32 x 5, 4, 5, 34 x 4
Bb curl 35 x 6, 7, 25 x 10,10,10
Farmer walk 42 x 2
Week 5 DAY 3
Db clean and press 20 x 5, 5, 5
Squat 87,92,97,102,107 x 10
Chin up +6 kg x 6 + 2 bw
Cable row 80 x 6, 90 x 5
Incline db press 26,28,30 x 5
This morning I was in a hurry and had to run home without doing curls and farmer walks. Still managed to get in most of the workout.
Starting to feel fatigue setting in as weights are increasing. I’m planning to go one more week then deload.
Today I hit 235 lbs (107 kg) x 10 on the squat which is a pr and I’m happy with it.
Here’s the video
I just wanted to hear how some of you guys think my form looks when doing a set with near maximum effort
@flipcollar @EyeDentist and others I’d be happy if you took a look at the video, thank you. (I wanted to tag a few more people but today the phone doesn’t seem to be willing to cooperate lol)
you’ve got really good ankle and hip mobility. Depth is no issue for you, that looks very good. Doing a lot of work in the 10-rep range (I’m a fan of 4-5 sets of 10 on squats) can really pack on muscle fast. Does everything feel fine on your squat? If so, then I wouldn’t change anything.
If you want more feedback, I’d suggest a front view of the squat so I can see how stable your core looks and if you’re having any lateral knee travel. Can’t see that from the side angle.
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Your squats are fine. Front squat looked good too from what I remember.
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Thank you for the feedback.
As you can see from my log, the program I’m following is indeed based on high volume, high rep squats. Dan John seems to firmly believe it to be the best exercise for mass. On Monday I do 3x10, Wednesday 2x10, and Friday 5x10 and I’ve been seeing my quads grow big time in the last weeks (more than anything else probably).
By the way, do you like this program? Dan John said it’s based on an old principle of doing the same exercises each day varying the sets per exercise to focus on a body part each workout, while still using a full body template. I’ve come to like this style of training more than anything else I did so far.
I’ll take a back off week after the sixth one, then I’m thinking I might change the exercises a bit but keep the template like that. For example, I feel like db clean and presses aren’t doing a whole lot for my shoulders so I’m thinking of replacing them with Seated presses.
Another idea I had is to add a smaller movement for the muscle being focused on in addition to doing more sets for that group. Like 3 sets of lateral raises on shoulder-chest focus day, face pulls on back focus day and Romanian Deadlift on squat focus day.
Thoughts?
Absolutely. Dan John is one of my favorite coaches, I’ve run a few of his programs. I get much of my overall training philosophy from his articles. I also think his programs can serve a variety of purposes. They’re solid for both strength athletes and bodybuilders, particularly at lower levels. A highly competitive bodybuilder would benefit less than guys like us who are still building a foundation. But for our purposes, his programs are fantastic.
Totally agree. Even bodybuilders who rely heavily on machines still squat. Squats are probably the most universally agreed on mass-building exercise.
Week 6 DAY 1
Db clean and press 20 x 5, 5, 22 x 4
Squat 97,102,107 x 10
Chin up +8 kg x 7,6,4 + 8 at bw
Cable row 80 x5,5,5, 85 x 5,6
Incline db press 32 x 5, 34 x 4,5
Bb curl 40 x 4,5,5
Farmer walk 38 x 1
So I’m halfway through my back off week and I’m already itching to get back into the gym. Good, because during last training week I was pretty much mentally exhaust and didn’t feel like training much.
@flipcollar so I’d like to get your input here as we were talking about my training program.
So I was planning for my next training cycle and stumbled across this article
The author seems to believe that the optimal amount of training time before a deload is three weeks. So every fourth week, you don’t train or take it very easy. What do you think of this concept?
I’m thinking I may try and apply it for the rest of this summer as a test, as I’ve always trained for months at a time before even thinking about a deload. When it comes to my training program, I really liked Dan John’s concept of doing the same exercises each day with different sets to focus on different body parts, so I went ahead and tried to make a program using his principles.
Here it is:
Monday
Seated Db OHP 3x8
Squat 3x5
Chin up 5x10
Seated Cable Row 5x8
Incline db press 3x5
Shoulder superset*
Biceps**
Wednesday
Ohp 4x5, 1x15
Squat 2x5
Chin up 3x6-8
Row 3x10
Incline db press 12-10-8-6-4
Shoulder superset*
Biceps**
Friday
Ohp 3x8
Squat 5x5
Chin up 3x10
Row 2x5
Incline db press 3x8
Shoulder superset*
Biceps**
*I’ll choose a different superset from CT’s each workout and do 3 sets of it for the first week, 4 sets for the second and third week.
**the first week I intend on doing this for biceps
https://www.t-nation.com/training/7-day-biceps-cure
to see if this high frequency training thing really works. I’ll have to go to the gym 7 days a week the first week just for this, so I’ll squeeze in some ab work, as well as external rotation and rear delts (just a bit). The second week I’m thinking no direct biceps training to allow recovery from the first week. On the third week, I might do as week one or use this superset from Paul Carter:
A1. Spider curl
A2. Incline curl
A3. Standing db curl
For four sets.
My thoughts about this program:
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I tried to include all the major movements, although I would’ve liked to include some Deadlifts and Dips. However, Deadlifting three times per week would probably make it too hard to recover, even if it’s just for three weeks.
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I want to take a break from 10-rep squats. I am very happy with my legs size, and especially after doing this program they are definitely my strongest point as far as size and strength. I’ll do sets of five to keep up my gains but I find that ten rep sets are too impacting on the rest of the workout.
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I varied a bit the rep schemes from Dan John’s standard 5 or 10. I feel my back very well with the Seated Cable Row when going heavy, but the back can definitely benefit from doing higher rep work so I threw it in. For the 5x10 Chin-ups I’ll probably not need any added weight, at least at first.
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I want to bring up my delts and really work on my biceps. These are my priorities. That’s why I included specific work for those muscles.
Finally, here’s a pic of what I currently look like, so kind of an after pic for this prgram:
The angle is kinda weird and the lighting couldn’t be worse, but that’s about the only mirror where I can take a shot of my legs too.
I’d love other guys to chime in as well, especially those like @robstein who themselves did this workout.
So how does this plan look now?
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well, first off I can’t judge much in terms of your proportions in the picture you posted. That angle just doesn’t work for that. But not a big deal, you should be building your body to the proportions you like. If you like your legs the way they are, cool. As long as competing is not on your radar, the only judge that matters is you. That being said, if you want a better shot of yourself, stand on a box or a chair or something to take a picture if that’s the only mirror you have. It will help with angle.
Deloading is not necessary for everyone, it’s one of those things that you should try and see if it works for you. I don’t really plan deloads, outside of how they fit into my training for competitions. So for me, I only deload if I suffer an injury, I’m 1 week away from competing, if I’m traveling and don’t have gym access, or if I’m just absolutely burned out. Those things come up enough for me that planned deloads would be excessive.
If you are not having those things come up in your own training… like if you don’t compete, you don’t take time off from the gym for other reasons, etc… then a planned deload after every 3-4 week training block could probably work well for you. I say give it a try for at least 6 months and see how you feel.
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I’ll try and get a better angle on legs tonight so you can judge.
Alright so I’ll try. I’ll have to get used to it at first as I’m used to working out continuously without many breaks in between.
What do you think of my specific workout plan? Exercises, rep and sets…
There’s pretty much nothing in your programming that works your posterior chain as a whole, which is something I think is important to overall development, and quite frankly, a healthy body. If you don’t like deadlifts, maybe Romanian or stiff leg deads with a relatively light weight? Or even with dumbbells? Just something to work your hamstrings and lower back through a hip hinge motion.
The other thing I don’t particular like is that you never go above 5 rep sets with your squats. If you’re going heavy enough for the 5 rep sets to be challenging, and you’re doing them 3x a week, that’s a lot of weight to move. I’d want to program maybe 3 sets of 10 squats on at least one of the days to lighten the load a bit.
As I mentioned I would like to Deadlift but I’m unsure how I could include it following the spirit of this program i.e. Doing it three times a week. That’d probably be too much. Do you have any suggestions?
Also as far as the squat I might substitute the 2x5 with 2x10 to make it a light/active recovery day.
Upper body work looks okay?
I didn’t find anything suitable but I believe this pic might give a better angle (I took it like two weeks ago)
And this one was taken right after my last workout before the deload. It doesn’t fully show the leg but you can kinda see the proportions and thickness of the legs compared to upper body
those are much better progress pictures.
Yes, I think your upper body work is pretty much fine.
I wouldn’t treat the 2x10 squats as an active recovery day, if you’re also including a deload week every few weeks. You’d basically be turning that day into a deload as well, not something I’d be interested in. 2 sets of 10 is just really very minimal volume, so you’re going to want both sets to be difficult. Not necessarily a true 10 rep max weight, but something that is very taxing. By the 10th rep, you should have a couple or 3 reps left in the tank, but no more than that.
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Thank you for the tips. I’ll report back in a couple of months.
Meanwhile…
Solid beach workout today lol
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Ahh to be young. Nicely done.
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Update
so for anyone interested, i have been overhauling my diet in the last days. the reason being that i wasn’t satisfied with my results and i felt like i could be giving more.
for the past two years, i was following an IIFYM approach, still not eating any crap and focusing on wholesome food. but, i realized i wasn’t consuming enough fruit, veggies, and different kinds of fat.
so i decided to migrate towards a more “traditional” approach, the one commonly used in bodybuilding that is based around “clean eating.” i do think the concept of clean eating is silly per se, but there is some value to following some of the rules of the diet-nazis imo. so for me, i set some goals:
- eat fruit and veggies at every main meal and at least some fruit at every snack
- get in plenty of different fats (i have always had cheese, olive oil, fish oil, salmon, and meat, but i rarely had almonds and nuts for example)
- get in some basic health supplements (i have had fish oil for a while, but i made it a point to start consuming a teaspoon of cinnamon each day)
- this isn’t really diet related but some people swear by it so: do ab vacuums every day throughout the day
- start consuming some of the foods that i know are good for me but i was skipping on for a while (oatmeal being one)
so far so good, these are some of the “new” meals i’ve had in the last days
egg whites with honey, with side of granola and almonds (i read something from paul carter mentioning egg whites with syrup so i had to try that)
yogurt with frozen berries, honey, and granola (maybe even a banana, i don’t quite remember)
thanks @kd13 for that one
red and green peppers with tomatoes browned in olive oil and onion, with chicken and rice. this one tasted oh-so-damn-good.
i’m also having almonds when i drink a glass of milk, banana if i have froot loops cereal, berries and honey with morning oatmeal with whey protein, etc.
i like cooking and i am having a good time with this new meals. i don’t like almonds a lot so i’m forcing myself a bit with these, i’ll buy nuts since i can tolerate them better.
so let’s see how this goes. i am set on making these habits last.
i’ll update the log with training too when i have time.
Good stuff, learning to cook and actually enjoying cooking should make a big difference.
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@samul thanks so much for the tag. I apologize for my delay in response, recently got back from some travels and playing catch up.
I actually have not done that bicep program, did you do it already? What do you think? What are you current goals?
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