Walks in pushing a HUGE grill, wearing executioners black, and hoisting a two headed axe over his shoulder. Stops, and unrolls a parchment scroll. HEAR YE! HEAR YE!! I whopper have declared, that this Friday is WEIGH IN DAY! All skinny bastartds on this thread MUST post their weights this, and EVERY FRIDAY henceforth! Furthermore…ANY SB who shows a WEIGHT LOSS from one week to the next will not only be BANNED from this thread…NEVER to have a question answered again on this thread, BUT he will also be GRILLED, and served up with a lovely Testosterone Mess-o-Greens Salad. Therefore, Timbo, Puppy, Nic and all you other skinny bastards, I EXPECT to see weights posted tomorrow…no if’s ands or buts…is this UNDERSTOOD?
whopper…I really like your approach tonite…your mood is really genuine…anyway, I think it’s all good to throw a curve every once in a while…something like the 100/100 routine or even one of them Poliquin One Day Cures are always in my deck of cards…last summer I worked with a former professional BBer and he took me thru a quick shoulder workout…seriously, it was one where I had trouble slickin’ my hair back the next day: up-the-rack and back down-the-rack lateral raises superset with Hammer Shoulder Press. Do 7 reps on the laterals and keep form relatively strict until you start to struggle then you can loosen up…immediately move on to the presses (you could do militaries or DBs instead) but don’t let your ego get in the way…it helps to have a spot but not necessary…do 3 of them and you’ll be fried…take a couple minutes in between series but stretch the hell outta your delts during the rest.
BTW, Gained 10 lbs in the last 2 weeks following you guys’ tips(I fattened nicely). Thanks a ton!(no pun intended) any similar occurances in the group? We should name this the “fat bastard diet.” Thanks again, I will keep you posted on further developments
allright, i didn’t get to read whoppers post about weigh in until after breakfast so this weeks weight was 173, so if i weigh 173 right when i wake up next friday it doesn’t mean i haven’t made progress. i will still try for 174 though. does anyone know how much flax is acceptable to take. last night i took 2 tablespoons with my advanced protein. is that too much or should i add even more. nate, are you doing your squats the way ian showed us at the seminar? i had been doing squats a few months ago with 225 ass to the ground for sets of 6. i wasn’t going at a slow tempo though and i was pushing out with my abs. i have been trying to do them the ian way though the last couple of weeks and i was dead after 3 sets of 12 with just the bar at a 311 tempo. i am now up to 95 pounds after the third week! sucking in with your stomach really makes a huge difference. makes me feel like a little girl. hopefully i can get back up there with the poundages and still keep the good form. well SBs i need to go eat some more food now. i will post back later.
Nic, I am not doing the back squats the Ian King way. Since I’m interested in strength, I’m doing them similar to how I always have. I have tried to incorporate his technique into my back squat, but it’s not exactly like he taught. Front squats are pretty straight forward. Keep the elbows and chest up, go down nice and deep and then back up. So I’m not worried about them. I do my back squats immediately following the front squats with only enough time to rack the bar and change position. It really kicks my ass. Keep up the mass gains my man! And I’ll keep working on getting stronger!
Soz if i’m late whopper but its 5 to midnight friday over here so i think i just made the weigh in curfew. Enough babble i weigh as of this morrning 163 lbs at 12 % so if i can lose another four % i’ll be happy and then do it big style. oh by the way decide to f*ck it and just bulk up to 200 lbs at no higher than 14% this way i’ll get the strength gains i want so bad and i’ve been this weight before and was still fast moving 100 m in 11.6 secs so iknow that aint a problame i’ll start bulking on the 1 st of next month by that time i should be at target weight and bf% for my final cutting phase.
Soz if i’m late whopper but its 5 to midnight friday over here so i think i just made the weigh in curfew. Enough babble i weigh as of this morrning 163 lbs at 12 % so if i can lose another four % i’ll be happy and then do it big style. oh by the way decide to f*ck it and just bulk up to 200 lbs at no higher than 14% this way i’ll get the strength gains i want so bad and i’ve been this weight before and was still fast moving 100 m in 11.6 secs so iknow that aint a problame i’ll start bulking on the 1 st of next month by that time i should be at target weight and bf% for my final cutting phase.
PROGRESS REPORT 5-18-01: I did all five sets of five with 165lbs with front squats followed by back squats. Benches were tough and managed 185x4,3,3,3,3. So I’ll be sticking with that next week. Not too bad though. It’s been more than a year since I’ve benched that much. And I had a six-month layoff and have only been benching for the past six weeks. As for dips and curls, I was wiped out by the time I got to them. Rather than lower intensity, I lowered my sets and did dips (bw+50lbsx5,5,5) and bb curls (70x5,4,4). I then got on the stairmaster for 20 grueling minutes before heading home and sucking down my Surge. I’m not going out late tonight so I can take advantage of all the sun this weekend. I’ll do some sprints tomorrow morning. Should be good!
Friday, pre-workout: 161 lbs. I am still in the progress of bumping up my cals, so I won’t make big mass gains for a few weeks yet. Great idea for the weekly weigh-ins Whopper. You can bet I won’t end up in a Whopper salad.
The Original SB halts the drama and alleviates doubt from skeptics that think he’s pussed out…a buck sixty-one.
FFB, Hoser, Nic and Timbo…well each of you know where the other is at weight wise right now, and it looks pretty close guys. Seems to me it will be interesting to see which of you has got more “guts” when it comes to putting on the pounds. I think these next few weeks will tell each of you! Best of luck to all 4 of you…lets see which of you packs it on best!! As far as me, 254 as of this morning…let the game begin!
Current weight - 165lbs on the dot
i make it simple i intake 16-20 times my bodyweight in cals. for example i wiegh 175 so i would eat somewhere around 3500cals a day. and whatever you pee or crap out immmediatly eat or drink the weight you think it weighed
The Original SB unrolls a crumpled piece of parchment complete with whopper slobber, fragments of cheese and milk stains and a picture of a little, scrawny mofo on a skewer being placed in the big man’s mouth…HEAR YE! HEAR YE! In my best non-Scrawny Bastard voice. Just wanted you guys to check out my PLAN to get massive IN the gym. I’d appreciate if I could get a little feedback from my doggs Nate, Dre and Whopper as well as some of my fellow SBs. I will either begin this phase on Thursday or next Monday, depending on my state of being. I just finished up with some rather high volume training and am in the process of completing a week of reduced volume training. Here goes: D1>Chest and Triceps: BB Bench 4x5-7, DB Inclines 4x5-7, Kneeling Cable Crossovers 2x10-12, SkullCrushers (Behind the Head) 4x5-7, Overhead Rope Ext 2x10-12; D2>Back and Biceps: DLs 4x5-7, Chins 4x5-7, TBar or One Arm Rows 2x10-12, BB Curls 4x5-7, EZ Bar Concentration Curls 2x10-12; D3>Recovery (Cardio); D4>Thighs and Calves: Squats 4x5-7, Leg Press 4x5-7, Leg Ext 2x10-12, Leg Curl 2x10-12, Leg Press Toe Raise 2x10-15, Seated Calf 2x15-20; D5>Shoulders: Behind the Neck Press 4x5-7, Alternate DB Press 4x5-7, Rear Delt Rows (Incline Bench) 2x10-12, Pullups 4x5-7, Shrugs 2x10-12; D6>Recovery (Cardio); D7>Repeat or Recovery…That’s the story, morning glory. Thanks for any input guys. I’m a scrawny bastard dying to join the ranks of the top doggs! I’m hungry–in the kitchen and in the gym…time to grub.
Timbo, looks like a plan my man! Just wondering about a few things though. On shoulders day you’re doing pullups, but on back day you’re doing chins. Are you doing pullups on shoulder day to take advantage of the vertical push/pull interactions? Also, I’ve always hated overhead rope extensions for tris. I don’t feel I’m working my tris as much as I am in an exercise like overhead dbell extensions. But hey, if it works for you than do it. On a side note, my bulkup gets more intense this week as I just spent a few hours at the grocery store and the kitchen. Cooked up 7 lbs. of ground beef, 21 eggs, cracked open 7 cans of tuna, cooked up a pot of brown rice. It’s on boys!
Hoser…thanks for the input, bro! Sounds like you’re well on your way to Massiveness, my man…I imagine that the food you’ve prepared will last a day or two, eh?
LOL! As far as the pullups and chins…I had an opening on shoulder day and being an SB, I really think I can the lats again in an attempt to widen the ol’ back. In addition, you’re correct about the vertical push/pull system, as the pullups balance things out. I haven’t done the overhead rope extensions for some time, but I was looking to hit the long head pretty hard…any other suggestions?
Your routine looks pretty good to me Timbo. The only thing I would consider is doing deadlifts once every 2 cycles instead of doing them every cycle. I dont know how strong you are, but if you’re pretty strong on deadlifts (at 160 lbs deadlifting over 375) and squats then doing both of them on different days in a 6 day cycle will probably lead to chronic fatigue of the lower back and your poundages probably won’t improve much. Of course if you’re only going to be doing this routine for a few weeks I wouldn’t worry about it.
On sat I gave the arnold press a shot (I like the ROM). I ended up doing 5x50s. WHOPPER, these seem like good mass builders after, or alternated with, behind the neck press (but at least 100pd for me). I also did lateral raises for some slow 30x12 and more intense 10x40 and dont expect to see ANY more shoulder gains until I up each or those by 5-10 pounds. STILL … MY BAD … still feeling the effects of the strange ab thing I mentioned did last wed. (especially after the half drunk midnight grappling, bodyblow dumpster match with my workout partner saturday night 
) - took sunday off, saw a doc and did a post here cause its getting to me … Thrilled about the weekly weigh in - plus everyone seems to be making gains and more importantly, seem to be pretty focussed on results which is awesome - I know that sometimes without that you end up going through the motions with no results which is a waste of time.
Timbo my man. You sure you want my advice? I have a few problems with your plan. 1) Why are you doing chest and tris first in the week? Haven’t you always done chest first? You are on your way to some muscle imbalances. So you need to reevaluate that one. But your workout for chest and tris seems okay. 2) Why are you doing deadlifts on back day? If done properly, deadlifts are really a leg exercise and target the hams, glutes and lower back. So I think you need to rearrange them as well. As for back day, you don’t have enough rowing to go with the pulling. You’re doing four sets of chins, yet only two sets of rowing. Again, you are headed toward imbalances. As for back day, I’d suggest doing the rowing first, followed by chins if you are going to put them together in one day. Yes, you will be weaker on chins, but I bet you’ve always done chins before rows. 3) You have a major imbalance between quads and hams. You do squats, leg press and extensions for quads and only leg curls for hams? You’re asking for an injury and major imbalance. 4) As for shoulders, why are you doing two pressing exercises (military and db press)? Why not do one of those movements, and then do lateral raises? Also the shrugs could be done on shoulder day or deadlift day.
So there it is kid. I think your plan is not very well-balanced at all. I know you are a Poliquin disciple, and I can see that you are still set on his type of training, but I think you should “see the light” and use Ian King’s method of dividing the body into horizontal pushing/pulling, vertical pushing/pulling, quad and hip dominant, arms, traps and abs. I truly believe this is the best way to divide your training to correct imbalances. It wasn’t until I used his idea that I was able to correct my imbalances and make good gains. So my suggestion for your training plan would be as follows.
DAY 1: Hip dominant (deadlifts), leg curls, shrugs, vertical pushing (military or db press), lateral raises. DAY 2: Horizontal pulling (rows), vertical pulling (chins), biceps. DAY 3: OFF. DAY 4: Quad dominant (deep squats - front or back), lunges or extensions. DAY 5: Horizontal pushing (benches), crossovers, triceps.
Remember, you don’t need a bunch of exercises for each bodypart. If you are truly trying to gain pure muscle size and strength, you should stick to a few basic exercises. You could keep it real simple and do only squats for quads, deadlifts and leg curls for hamstrings, benches and crossovers for chest, presses and laterals for shoulders, rows and chins for back, curls and dips/close-grips or extensions for tris and shrugs for traps. What are your goals? Do you want to gain mass? Or keep following a “bodybuilding” routine? Remember that you should have something to shape before you start using a bodybuilding routine. And in order to gain some massive size, you need basic exercises and heavy weights.
Now there are a few variations of the above that you can do as well. So if you want to know other possible combinations, let me know. I think you have some good ideas in your new plan, but you seem to not be addressing your imbalances or keeping balance between muscle groups. So like it or not, you got my advice. Read it over and let me know what you think.
Kelly, thanks for the thumbs up and the heads up on the DLs and Squats…not even close to the 375er though, so that shouldn’t be a real concern:-)
Nate Dogg…yeah, baby! Thanks for the honest and in-depth critique. I really appreciate your effort and let’s see if I can’t address some of the comments made and make a change or two. First off, yes, I realize that there’s no need to shape if there’s nothing to shape:-) That’s become a reality to me, bro. That’s why I approached things the way I did, with more big movements in lower rep ranges to use big (well, puny for some) weights. As far as the horizontal imbalance…actually, I tended to do back first before chest recently, but I see your point. I actually was considering back and biceps on day one, rather than chest and tris, and that’s still open to change. DLs on back day? Well, my back takes a beating as well on them, and I think of them as a pulling exercise. I definitely want them in the program but have found that DLs and Squats on the same day just make my lower back cry bloody murder. As far as the imbalances you mentioned between the quads and hammies, I’ve actually been doing more volume for hammies than quads recently, so this is a change, not something that’s chronic. The rowing was an issue with me as well, I considered 4 sets of TBar/Barbell Rows and 2 sets of One Arm Rows but wasn’t sure about the DLs. I also have the Rear Delt Rows on Shoulder Day, which done the way I plan on is more of a rowing than a lateral movement. Two pressing exercises for Shoulders? Good question. The alternate presses should hit the front delts harder than the militaries and also provide a fuller range of motion–again, sticking with the big guns and throwing in something different. I considered upright rows but they have been in the program for a while. I like your prototype split/program that you set up for me there too, buddy. I think some tweaking can be done and that’s why I posted and I’m glad you critiqued, bro. That’s some high-quality stuff. I’ll see what I can do with it:-) Nothing’s set in stone yet.