I figure this is arguably as important as logging the actual workout: I’ve been lightly creeping on here, but I’ve had to take a total hiatus from lifting for about 5 weeks now (which is fucking killing me) but getting flooded without flood insurance in a non floodzone is a son of a bitch. Just bought a camper and dropped the bitch right in my driveway. So there will be great progression in the restoration efforts from here. 1st order of business is cleaning the garage and weights (highly contaminated water) and hopefully will be back in the gym by the end of next week. I’m not gone, but life always finds a way to be a dick.
1 Like
Well, that sucks a big fat one. Sorry to hear that. If you burn your flooded house down then would the fire damage be covered?
Insurance companies are snakes.
1 Like
Lol unfortunately we want to stay there, we like the house and location, now we know to have flood insurance.
Long story short we were renting from my girlfriends mom, who didnt have flood insurance. We were already talking about buying it, so now it’s a combination of trying to save money, while also upgrading the house and getting it back up to the current era (the 90s were just… just awful) After we can get AARP Insurance who have been godsends on our rental and vehicle insurance.
2 Likes
Well it doesn’t sound like a total loss. My hometown flooded in 1998 and they ended up leveling entire neighborhoods. No one thought it could flood but the dyke broke and half the town went under.
My family lives in the country so my experience was filling sandbags as it happened and helping clean up afterwards.
Got up at 5am today determined to get a lift in, did a 5/3/1 Triumverate chest workout, and completed it. Developed a splitting migraine, not sure what that’s about. Squats tomorrow. I’ll start keeping an active log of the lifts once I’m fully invested into the morning lifting.
2 Likes
Early lift day 2.
Full set of squats, lunges, calf raises, and assistance BS. 45mins in and out. Definitely less stable, due to how long it’s been or maybe the early lifting, cant tell, but it went well. Followed by 11 hour day at work moving a warehouse, if I didnt have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
1 Like
Day 3, it was an off day, but got up early and did some BS assistance exercises to ingrain the routine. Plus I’ve learned I like being up earlier than 10 minutes before work. Surprise.
Also, unconditioned legs make me remember just how fucking painful squatting can be. This is definitely why so many people just dont do it. Got funny looks at work all day. Good stuff.
Building program around current circumstances. Willing to listen to anyone giving advice. Here’s my plan for now: basically, I’m removing OHP day. My shoulders are just not holding up. So I’m thinking of running a Deadlift/squat/bench split, and incorporating light shoulder work throughout the week. An example of what I’m looking at:
S
M deadlift
T bench
W
T squat
F deadlift
S
S
M bench
T squat
W
T deadlift
F bench
S
S
M squat
T deadlift
W
T bench
F squat
S
…and so on. I’ll be getting into the garage at 5:45am. Give myself about 15 minutes to warm up, and a solid 45 minutes of lifting. I work at 7:30, but I like to be there around 7:15 or so. This gives me time to lift in the morning, and allows me to work on my house until dark, or shortly after, with an hour or so of decompression time. The weekends will be for meal prep.
My thoughts are, whatever lift doubles up that week (Monday and Friday) will be an assistance day. Chains, paused, EMOM, etc. As well as shoulder work. Also Wednesday will be light and quick shoulders I think. This would give me three days of light but consistent shoulder movement.
My main goal is strength, as well as a bit of athleticism. So I guess conditioning two of these days or so? I’m about to hit the sack tonight, and I’ll add more as I come up with ideas, but I’m looking for more experienced input here, and a cookie cutter program just isnt going to cut it here, (at least I dont think)
Thanks for any input guys!
1 Like
The rotation on the lifts looks solid. Do the shoulders on squat day…
2 Likes
What kind of progression do you plan to follow to improve your strength? I think you could use the same progression I used in Simple Guaranteed Strength & Size. Your first week would be 3 x 8 for each lift. The next time you hit that movement you do 5 x 8. The next time that lift comes up it’s back to 3 x 8 but with more weight. It’s a simple double progression - 3 x 8, 5 x 8, add weight, 3 x 8, 5 x 8, repeat. The SGSS program has you do it for three weeks and then it drops to 3 x 5 and 5 x 5. It would take you longer to get through everything but it’s a solid progression and feels pretty good to run.
What’s going on with the shoulders? You don’t have to do OHP to build the muscles. Lateral raises can do the trick. I’ve also seen articles that say to hit your weakness or priority muscle group after squats. Doing a good squat workout stimulates the body’s building/repair mechanisms and hitting delts afterwards would help you get the most bang for your buck.
2 Likes
I was going ask Hog about the squat day gig, but you answered it pretty concisely, thanks!
As for the shoulder, it used to be… chewed up? I know that’s overused, but it just felt like there was ground beef in the front delt. That went away just in time for the “button” (acromion process or whatever the hell its called) to start hurting, much more acute. Which has subsided greatly, but now my rear delt aches like a son of a bitch, even during OHP which isnt great. theres also a lot of instability in my right arm. My pullups arent bad, my bench is solid, and my rows are strong, but for some reason overhead movement kill.
As for the lifting, I’m in a bit if a lifting funk, I still want to lift, but I’m finding myself getting bored easy, proabably mainly from the strength I’ve lost over this last month and a half, the catch up is just… miserable.
I’m looking for, variety, something that changes frequently, but is rigid and scheduled well. Also under 45 minutes.
That’s a tall order. You could program movement patterns but variety is tough to progress and evaluate. It can feel like you’re spinning your wheels.
Absolutely, so my logic here is:
Every week the day of the exercise changes, but it is still done every week, however it will also allow me a secondary day for a lift, which I can hit a variation, that also changes weekly. So I’ll have a rigid schedule to follow on the day, but I wont be stuck dreading a Monday squat day every Monday morning (just for example) but I’ll also be getting a moderate boost in frequency.
I guess my next question would be, would I be better off just sticking to say… 2 deadlift days a week, (for example) for several weeks, then switching to say 2 squat days for several weeks?
1 Like
OR am I just horribly flawed in my logic?
No, I like your setup. We’re all conditioned to view training in a calendar week time frame but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I think a bonus day for variety is a good idea if it satisfies your mental health.
1 Like
True, my only problem is, I hate listening to myself. I may have stumbled upon the best possible routine for me, but if I created it, i see countless flaws after a few weeks and like abandon it. Hell, I created this log originally for Brian’s Darkhorse, and I stuck to (my interpretation of) it to a tee, until I couldn’t keep up, and saw significant progress as a result. I’m tempted to jump on the 5/3/1 train just because there is so much variety involved, but I just wanted to start with trying to build from the ground up if possible.
It takes a while to learn that you don’t have to do what someone else is doing. CT is right with his neurotyping stuff. We all respond differently to training. The best program is the one to which you’re committed.
My program might be good for me but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Try your own stuff. It just might work.
Okay, so here is the program. It draws heavily from Darkhorse, just because I had so much fun, and saw so much progress. However is heavily altered to what I feel like my needs are.
-
Warm Up
-self explanatory, relative to the days lift -
Strength Superset
-core lift with accessory. Ie. Deadlift/Hip Thrusts
-weeks rotate reps conversely between core lifts. 3 x 5, 3, or 1. -
Variation/Volume
-a variation of the main lift, but focused on volume. Ie. Chained deadlift
-rotate reps conversely. 3 or 4 x 10, 8, or 5 -
Assistance/Core/Conditioning superset
-ill have a constant lift I always do on this day, ie. On deadlift day I will always do farmer holds, then I will either superset it with a core lift, or conditioning cycle, depending on how the morning went.
Percentages arent dialed in, but I’m thinking this will allow for some variety, as well as constant regulation with how unpredictable my real life is right now. Let me know what you guys think!
1 Like
I should also mention, I mixed in shoulders with squat day, and I’m going to treat Wednesday as a light shoulder/core/pull up bastard day, mainly to keep me in the schedule throughout the week.
You could have a look at Brians new program The 4 horsemen.
Main lift of the day work up to a heavy single just over the days volume work.
Then back of and do 3 volume sets.
Assistance like you’ve planned above.
Do it your way with 3 lifts and then on the fourth lift you do a variation of a lift.
Something like,
squat, bench, DL, Front squat,
bench, DL, squat, floor press,
DL, squat, bench, SGDL
Then be smart with the assistance lifts.
Then there’s the possibility to do the fourth day as a shoulder/core/pull up day.
But I like the way you’ve laid it out.
1 Like