Yesterday I did the ME squat day. The variation this block is high bar with a medium-narrow stance.
W/U Circuit
Seated Leg Curls
3 sets of 10
Squat
Worked up to 365 x 3. It was definitely not a maximum effort, but my hip shift was getting bad enough I felt really wonky, so I ended there. I had another injection in my knee the day before, so maybe that was driving it. I’m going to try some PT again and see if that does anything.
Then 2 sets of 5 with 285
Speed Deads
Whatever warmups were
Then 255/1 for 15 reps with 10s between
Then I did a bunch of abductor stuff to try to mess with my hip. Didn’t realize the gym closed at 6 and got booted before doing the rest.
Incline
This block’s variation is incline with a relatively narrow grip
45/6 x 2
135/4
185/3
225/3
195/2 x 2
Slow negative and holds at the top for the two back-off sets
DE Squat
To a box still. I am really focusing on driving straight up. I find if I think about the center of my hips more than where my knees are going, that seems to help. We’ll see Friday when we go heavier again.
45/8
135/8
185/6
225/2 x 15 (30s between)
Leg Press
Low and narrow
2pps/4
4pps/4
5pps/10 x 2
BB Hyper
100/8 x 3
Decline Leg Raise
BW/6 x 3
Calf Machine
130/8
210/10 x 3… reps got a little incomplete by the end
The new routine looks pretty cool. I love Tate’s style and I have so many questions!
How do you like the low rep, dynamic stuff. Does it feel useful and challenging or just dumb? How do you think this workload and these session “feel” compared to the regular, muscle mass focused Meadow’s routine? Did you mess around with “Dark Horse” and how does this compare to that?
Feel free to not answer these questions for a few more weeks, until you have more info.
Yeah Unity looks pretty cool from their videos. Conjugated Powerbuilding seems like this should have been done by now, but I don’t think it really has like this anyway.
Back on its own day instead of mixed into all the other workouts seems cool. Maybe a little easier to get comfortable with for guys more used to a body part split.
Splitting up DE squats and deads seems smart too. Doing them together, plus some assistance work makes for a long day. And speed deadlifts after ME are probably good so you can do something kind hard after the heavy move. It’s kind of a let down to hit one heavy rep or set, then just move on to leg curls and abs.
Let’s do this - I’ll circle back in about two weeks!
I’ll go ahead and jot some early notes, though:
The DE stuff is not incredibly challenging, but I do get a good sweat because I go as fast as I can and the rest breaks are short. Next time around I would definitely add accommodating resistance. I do think it’s been beneficial for me just in getting twice as much practice on those lifts, because I don’t train them as hard as a lot of folks on here and I’m just not “good” at them. That said, I’ve tried DE stuff in the past and really didn’t see increases in my lifts.
I did do Dark Horse. I think I did 6 weeks or so. It beat me the hell up. This, so far (only two weeks in) is not taking nearly the toll on my joints. It is still Meadows-sequenced, which definitely reduces your max weights on your main lifts while ensuring you’re warmed up. For Dark Horse, I definitely felt like a badass athlete during the sessions. For this, I can actually pull it off in a regular gym without being the biggest douche in the world.
In terms of workload, it’s a little lower volume and definitely lower intensity (in bodybuilding terms) than his normal stuff - at least in this phase. There’s so many bodyparts worked in a day, though, that the sessions take a bit longer. I think the frequency is about where I want to be, so that part is great. I probably have a similar pump/ fatigue when I leave the gym most days. The main difference is, obviously, doing actual percentage-based work; that’s typically not my favorite, but it’s a small enough piece of this program it’s tolerable.
Overall, so far, I’m really enjoying it. It’s close enough to his regular stuff I know what I’m doing and how I should feel, but enough of a departure to be novel. I do tend to get fragile with lower reps, though, so we’ll see how I go over the next few weeks.
CT did this with his old HP Mass and 6 weeks to superhero programs, and I really liked it. I’m liking it here too. It’s an easier day without being a rest day.
What is a bit mentally daunting is doing BSS of Death after the heavy squats and speed deads! It’s totally doable once I set up and do it, but telling myself to walk over there is a bit of an internal dialogue