Conventional Beltless Deadlift - 2.25" Deficit
135 x 1
225 x 1
315 x 1
405 x 1
495 x 1
580 x 2
Barbell Row (Strict)
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 5 RIR 2
Block Pulls definently helped my top end. This felt easier than 565 did a week ago. I’m using them as a deadlift accessory and a way for me to deadlift more without smoking myself for days like this and combined with heavy squatting ( I know I’m psycho )
This upcoming week will be a bit lighter on mostly everything , need some time to recover. I’ll write up my notes for some organization.
I’ve been on a 500 Calorie Deficit for the last week, wanting to do a mini cut for a few weeks and drop some pounds.
This is slowly starting to creep in, no aches and pains to note though. But i’m feeling a little bit beat up in the mornings.
This kinda makes sense since i’ve been cutting calories down, if it gets to be too much, i’ll bump back up to maintenance. I’ll give it another week to see how I feel.
Training Everyday Observations
Some interesting notes about Training Everyday. I didn’t realize this would be coming up on almost 2 weeks straight of pretty heavy lifting. There’s a few observations:
The time it takes to warmup and get “into the groove” is extremely fast. What I mean by that is I don’t feel very stiff coming in. It takes maybe one or two warmup sets before my body feels like it’s loose. It takes one warmup set to get into my Technical Groove. This is a stark contrast to doing a 4x/WK Split where it’d take me easily 30 minutes to 45 minutes to actually get warmed up and feeling confident AND get into the Groove.
In terms of Aches and Pains, this is actually surprisingly low. 8/10 I’m coming in pretty fresh and not very achy. It feels like my body is adapting to the constant work load and it doesn’t bother me anymore. Even on days I do heavy pulling / back work, it doesn’t seem to affect any of my pressing movements. I only notice that it’s a little slower / less explosive, but the full body shakes that I’d get frequently don’t exist for me anymore.
In terms of Volume, I’m almost forced to do only a Single Topset with this training frequency. Instead of calculating the total sets and reps over a session and then having a couple days to recover, I essentially have to string workouts and my volume together on a Day by Day basis instead of having for example, 2 bench sessions a week. I need to prepare myself for the NEXT day by regulating my volume and accessory selection.
What I’m finding this is leading to is a pretty tight exercise selection. Pretty much a go big or go home mentality when it comes to accessories since essentially a “training week” doesn’t exist for me and recovery is a big issue. There’s alot of rotating in and out of alot of things.
What this also means is that I pretty much have to plug in my deload days when I feel like it. I never knew what they were called, but I have essentially been incorporating Heavy Deloads in already, (thanks @simo74 for putting it into words, forgot which thread I read it on), which actually works tremendously for someone like me, who really enjoys heavy lifting and is satisified with just feeling something heavy in my hands or on my back even if the reps are lower and RPE wise it feels easy.
Goals for the next 3-4 weeks
Still the same, i’ll adjust accordingly as time goes on. If I can overshoot my goals then i’ll go for it, if I undershoot, that’s fine too. I don’t know what my next training cycle will look like quite yet.
Other Notes
Sorry for that long winded post. Just wanted to share what i’ve found. Really, I don’t know how long i’ll be able to train like this (3 weeks? 4 weeks? 3 months?), but there’s only one way to find out and i’m not really the type to sit around and ask theoretical questions, so i’m just going to do it, haha.
It’s been extremely fun and I am absolutely loving it. Though I do also know that this is unsustainable in the long term and I could see this being more of a Peaking type of thing. My experiences with the Bench Everyday Routine showed me as much.
It’s unfortunate because I know its just about impossible to be able to lift heavy every single day for anyone for years on end, I sometimes wish we didn’t have those constraints because if I had to choice to be able to do that, I absolutely would in a heartbeat.
Beltless Block Pull - 5" Below Kneecap
315 x 1
405 x 1
495 x 1
2 x 595 x 2 RIR 5+
Paused Beltless Squat - Highbar / Midbar
225 x 2
315 x 2
2 x 405 x 1 RIR 5+
Another deload session, felt good. I’m noticing that setting the plates at my sticking point (mid shins) is teaching me how to “pop” at the start. I always wondered how Pete Rubish did it (in his training videos when he was nearing 24-25), and it’s teaching me how to explode.
Glad to also see grip is still not an issue, my form feels so flawless now that I ditched the straps. It feels so good to be able to pull each time.
Seated OHP - Close Grip
135 x 5
135 x 5
165 x 2
180 x 2
210 x 13 RPE holy fuck
Paused Bench Press - Larsen Spoto
135 x 5
225 x 5
2 x 250 x 3
5lb PR on a 500 Calorie Deficit for the OHP, unexpected. I absolutely could not have gotten another rep. It was like a 8 second grind
I’m thinking next week I’ll cap out with reps, and move to Incline Benching as my next accessory, not sure yet. Think my gains here are all used up, I may try to attempt 225x12 with wraps.
Paused Beltless Squat - Highbar
225 x 1
315 x 1
2 x 405 x 1 RIR 5+
Weighted Pullups
BW + 25 x 5
BW + 45 x 5
BW + 75 x 5 RIR 3-4
Beltless Rack Pull - Stiff Bar , Mid Shins
235 x 2
315 x 2
405 x 2
495 x 2
2 x 595 x 2 RIR 0
Kneeling Cable Crunch
2 x 260 x 20 RIR 5+
Another easier session. The Rack Pulls felt impossibly hard. I didn’t realize how much of my technique relies on pulling the slack out and a dynamic start. I don’t get any of that with a stiff bar and in a rack. These bars also had terrible knurling.
I’m going to be doing one more session this week with block Pulls and Light Squats. PRs on my weighted pull ups still have alot of gains here.
We’ll be moving out of Michigan to Colorado by March. The only real issue we have right now is the cars, I’ll probably just ship mine out.
We’re super excited to be back in that beautiful state. I’m definitely excited to go back to my old gym, it’ll be surreal to be able to see my mentors again and the old community.
Paused Bench Press - Larsen Spoto
135 x 5
225 x 3
260 x 2
290 x 1
320 x 7 RIR 0
Paused Incline Bench Press - Mid Grip
135 x 5
225 x 3
245 x 3
260 x 3 RIR 5-6
5lb PR on my Larsen Spoto Press, last rep felt very grindy. Looks like I’m running out of room to progress, going to figure out what to do here later.
First time I’ve incline benched heavy in years. The last time I inclined bench it was for like 4x10 with 170 or something.
260 felt very easy but awkward. I really wanted to go higher but because it’s such a foreign movement to me I didn’t want to tear some shit. I’m confident my strength will EXPLODE on this in the next 3 weeks as I make some CNS improvements.
Also on another note, a gym guy was basically bashing me and telling me to “slow down the reps” and basically critiquing how I did things, I just smiled and listened to him.
I was taking him seriously until he said a Spoto Bench Press wasn’t a real bench (he didn’t know what it even was) and that I wasn’t pausing on my chest, AND that he didn’t do bench variations… Yeah.
Paused Beltless Squat - Highbar
135 x 4
225 x 2
315 x 2
405 x 1
480 x 1
540 x 2 RIR 1
Weighted Pullups
BW + 25 x 5
BW + 45 x 5
BW + 85 x 5
One Arm KB Swings into Full KB Swings (One whole superset)
2 x 40 x 15 RIR 5+
Kneeling Cable Crunch
2 x 260 x 23 RIR 5+
Really good day. Had reps left on my paused squat, this leaves me a bit stumped because I was planning to end my training block here … but since I have room to grow… I’m gonna keep going till I can’t. Next week I’ll attempt 555 x 2 if everything goes well recovery wise. I’d love to be able to work up to a beltless 585x1 pause squat.
Weighted Pullups were extremely hard, don’t know if I was gassed or what, going to scale back here and work on reps OR switch to Barbell Rows.
First time doing KB Swings, they are hard AF. Lots of endurance involved that I don’t have , lol. I love the pump I get in my back , these will be a staple in my training.
Paused Incline Bench Press - Mid Grip
2 x 135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
245 x 2
265 x 2
280 x 3 RIR 3
Skullcrusher Barbell
95 x 8
2 x 115 x 8 RIR 5+
Shitty session today. No food and fasted for 17 hours coming in, I’ve been doing Intermittent Fasting during this cut, helped me alot when I was still in HS and dropped my 90lbs. But holy shit I am starving lol. I’m finding i can hit 16 comfortably but im aiming for 18ish, I’m slowly getting adjusted.
So first and foremost, I think this Mini Cut will turn into an actual 3 month cut. It’s going pretty good and I’ve noticed my mindset is starting to shift towards this direction, which is good. If I want something i’m going to go after it. I don’t want to get peeled or shredded (for one that’s definently going to take longer than 2-3 months). But i’d like to trim some noticeable fat off.
This gets me prepped for a really awesome bulk and will give me room to really grow for strength and size. I will be using chemical assistance for this. I did get a bit of Superdrol from a buddy of mine. He tore his quad trying to front squat 480 a few weeks ago, going to be saving that for when i’m out there.
This would follow the trajectory of our move out in Colorado. Having my old community back and my mentors there coaching me along the way will 100% drive my numbers up, and if not, the sheer boost of ambition and motivation in having them push me to the limit will.
I have no issues with holding onto the current strength I have, it doesn’t seem like anything is dipping but progress has slowed down significantly.
Training Everyday
I am putting the brakes on this today. This is starting to become redundant. It was a fun experiment but I realize the risk for injury is just going to be way too damn high to be doing this. I’m not wanting to tear something on my cut a few months before we do a major move.
Future Programming
Not sure what i’m going to be doing here. I will be keeping Bench at 3x/wk that’s for sure. I’ll be doing Block Pulls at a minimum 1x/wk. And i’d still like to squat 2x/wk.
Another fairly easy week is in order, at least. I’m starting to get a little beat up. This’ll give me some good self reflection and I can figure shit out.
Goals
Bench goals are done. I’m happy with my last set of 7.
Squat goals aren’t done yet. 560 for a double is what I want.
Deadlift goals aren’t done yet. 610 for a double is what I want.
I’m pretty close to the last two, give it another 2-3 weeks and I should be good to go.
Random Thoughts
Training is still going to remain 100% Raw. I haven’t really had any urge to compete in powerlifting yet but I was mainly always afraid of my grip giving out since I always trained with straps. I’m still really happy I was nervous for nothing.
Training strictly with a pause on my Bench Press has given me confidence here as well.
The only thing I feel I do have to shore up is my squat depth. I’ll be honest and say like 65% of the time I cut depth by about an inch, maybe two if my mobility is really shit that day. Also squatting without a mirror.
Overall though, just a few more fixes to shore up and i’d be fine.
One of my mentor’s still does USPA judging and I found out the other day that my other mentor also became a USPA judge, so that’s awesome.
Conventional Block Pulls - 5" Below Kneecap , Beltless
225 x 1
315 x 1
405 x 1
495 x 1
595 x 2 RIR 5+
Weighted Pullups
BW + 25 x 5
BW + 45 x 5
BW + 90 x 5
Kneeling Cable Crunch
2 x 260 x 25
One Arm KB Swings / KB Swings (Superset)
2 x 55 x 15 RIR 5+
Unexpected PR on the Weighted Pullups. Block Pulls felt even easier this time around, should be able to smash these on deficits.
For some reason I’m actually really falling in love with core work lol, I’m not sure why. I’ve got to find ways to progressively overload here. My gym does have a weird back extension (it’s not 45 degrees) but I’m gonna try to see if I can do Barbell Hyperextensions off them.
My wife told me she could already tell I’m dropping the weight really fast and I can notice too. Going to be doing carb loading days once a week and keep up the intermittent fasting.
Never have been the greatest with posting videos , this was more of a technique check thing.
Still have a tendency to start tipped over. Though I really do love that I can see my sticking point in real time, it’s so grindy right at the start and then I explode into my lockout.
Paused Incline Bench Press - Mid Grip
3 x 135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 2
250 x 2
275 x 5 RIR 2-3
Seated OHP - Bench Grip
135 x 5
160 x 2
180 x 2
195 x 15 RIR 0
Pete Rubish Barbell Hyperextensions
3 x 135 x 10
Good session. 5lb 15 Rep PR on my Seated OHP. PR on my Incline with reps left. I think I’m going to make 315x5 my goal here.
The hyperextension my gym has is completely parallel to the floor, I don’t know what my working weights is gonna be here yet, but used today as a primer and feeling the movement out
Dropped another lb, I’m averaging a 1000 calorie deficit at the moment and 15-16 hours fasting. Feeling pretty good still.
I’m actually really getting addicted to the results on the scale and the mirror, it’s going to be slow because of the fat I’ve got, but I’m loving it. Wife commented on it again a couple days later, been melting off like butter.
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