I’m gonna start putting some mass on my frame for the next 6-9 weeks. I’ll use Paul Carters Big-15 for that. For those that don’t know, it’s centered around breaking rep maxes in the big lifts with what he calls 50% sets, which is basically one all-out set, rest one minute, try to get half the reps from the first set. Before that, a 5,4,3,2,1 rep ramp (“over warm-up”) is used to work up to a moderately heavy single to prime the 50% set.
I’ll use Paul Carters 3 Big/3 Small split, which is a rotational Upper Lower split, so it’s gonna be upper body twice, lower body once the first week, lower body twice, upper body once, the second week. That makes for three Big sessions per week, in addition to that, there will be 3 Small sessions dedicated to arms, abs, neck, rotator cuff, vag etc.
First week:
Monday, 1905
Bench Press:
[paused]
50 kg x 5
65 kg x 4
80 kg x 3
90 kg x 2
105 kg x 1
[first rep paused]
90 kg x 20 + 10 (50% set)
/14 min
Chin-ups:
BW x 5
+5 kg x 4
+10 kg x 3
+15 kg x 2
+20 kg x 1
+10 kg x 15 + 5 (50% set)
/10 min
Ring Dips 5x10
/8 min
One-arm DB Row w/ Fat Gripz 32 kg:
1x15, 2x10, 1x5 / side
/11 min
Tuesday, 2005
Ab Wheel Rollout 3x20
/9 min
Sit-ups 2x20
/3 min
Super set:
EZ Curl 25 kg x 20, 15 kg 4x20
Cable Pushdown 50 kg 5x20
/15 min
Wednesday, 2105
Squat:
70 kg x 5
85 kg x 4
100 kg x 3
130 kg x 2
145 kg x 1
125 kg x 12 + 6 (50% set)
/16 min
Leg Press:
80 kg x 30, 120 kg x 30, 150 kg x 20, 180 kg x 20, 200 kg x 10, 220 kg x 10
/25 min
Prone Cable Leg Curl 10 kg 3x20
/10 min
Calf Raise [in Leg Press] 120 kg 3x20
/7 min
Thursday, 2205
A1 Face Pull 30 kg 2x20, 20 kg 3x20
A2 Lateral Raise 2x4 kg 2x20, 2x3 kg 3x20
/15 min
B1 COC Trainer [no set] 5x20 / side
B2 Sit-ups 5x20 / side
/10 min
Friday, 2305
Overhead Press:
[first rep cleaned]
30 kg x 5
40 kg x 4
50 kg x 3
60 kg x 2
70 kg x 1
60 kg x 12 + 6 (50% set)
/10 min
Seated Cable Row 50 kg 5x12
/11 min
Incline DB Press 2x30 kg:
350 method 20, 15, 7
*basically, with the 350 method you try to get 50 reps over three sets with exactly 2 minutes rest in between. So, for me to get to the goal of 50 reps, I’ll have to do eight more reps over the course of the three sets.
Saturday, 2405
A1 DB Hammer Curl w/ Fat Gripz 2x10 kg 5x15
A2 Cable Pushdown 30 kg 5x15
/16 min
B Seated Calf Raise 20 kg 5x15
NOTES:
First week of Big-15 went pretty well. Bodyweight is up to 80 kg. Gonna up the weight on the Bench Press. I’m gonna have to set some nice little goals on what I want to do rep wise on the main lifts for this Hypertrophy phase. I have no doubt that this will lead to bigger one rep maxes in the future. Another think I’ll start doing is grading sessions like Paul Carter does. Basically, there are 80% sessions, +10% sessions and -10% sessions. The goal is to have as many “solid” 80% sessions as possible, with a few +10% sessions and as little -10% sessions as possible. Very similar to something Dan John wrote about a couple of years ago.