I think strength can go a long ways for BBing. I can only get so big doing high reps with little weight. Just overall strength. A guy with a big deadlift isn’t limited by his low back doing rows for example. He is limited by the muscles that are supposed to be the primary movers.
Also, getting to a hypertrophy phase with a higher strength allows more weight to be used in the higher rep ranges once that is practiced a bit. Going from doing sets of 10 with 185 on bench to 275 is going to build some muscle. Takes time, but it has worked for many.
I am not necessarily against junk volume, as long as progression is present in the program for some movements. I will burn out if I try to go hard and progress on all my lifts. Some get put to maintenance. Kinda where chins are right now. Haven’t really progressed, but they are staying consistent (maybe improving as BW goes up a bit), but my other earlier movements in the session are progressing.
Well I’m already fat, but I still want the scale to go up. I’m trying to gain muscle and the fat that goes along with it. It’s definitely not a dreamer bulk, I’m still just as lean in the mornings as I was when I started. I bloat your quick though with all the food during the day. I can still see a 6 pack if I cough (lol) and have a “4 pack” just walking around. Probably a legit 15%bf.
Heavy dead’s are hard for me to recover from. They fry my soul. I also think that just because big guys are doing it I should do it is lame. I deadlifted for like 7/8 months and haven’t noticed any negatives from stopping. I do plan at some point to run a strength focused training block and work on dead’s during.
Yea something about the torso angle gets me bad. Idk why. On the hack squat my torso stays more up right. My leg days could be much more intense and my legs would be even bigger. I kinda believe that just like everything doesn’t progress at once, everything doesn’t grow at once either. So I’ve been kinda taking it easy on legs in hopes some other body parts soak up the gains.
My back and bicep day is obviously back centered, and I feel like it’s decently rounded and hits everything it needs to hit. I might not have tons of reps and sets (junk volume), but I keep the intensity high and make my working sets count. My back has always been a good responder to the things I’ve done so I’ve stuck with it.
As for biceps.. on back and bi day I literally do EZbar curls, hitting the shortened position hard, seated cable curls which because of the set up hits the lengthened position hard, and hammer curls for the brancialis (idk how to spell it). To me that is literally the definition of well rounded and no junk exercises or volume. I chose all 3 of those because I can perform those the best with my limited mobility and I feel they do the best of targeting the muscle I’m trying to work.
Do my arm days have a lot of over lap? Well yea. It’s a fucking arm day .
As to the barbell rows. They were a staple for every back day for a long time. Same with pull ups. Last time I did rows my top work set was 275 and the form was pretty damn strict, more strict than I ever see anybody at the gym doing lol. I quit doing them for one main reason that’s work related but it’s too much to type, but mostly because I wanted to try something new. The prime rowing machine destroys my back and I am not limited by things like balance or lower back issues.
I’ve never run a program. I’m doing my own thing. It doesn’t change very often, Atleast it doesn’t feel that way. Outside of maybe one or two exercises being swapped for something better or less painful, I’ve been pretty consistent with my current workout for a bit.
I want to run a program but I haven’t found anything I can physically run and still follow 80% or more of lol but I am gonna check out @davemccright recomendation!!
Edit: I would also like to add I’m defending WHY I do things. By no means am I saying it’s right. My log title is last year of DYEL for a reason. I still have no idea wtf I’m doing and haven’t made an astounding amount of progress.
I think you’ll love it. Gives a nice combination of heavy work, Pump work, and a solid progression scheme. The muscle rounds are very fun! If you have any kind of “Bodybuilding OCD” where you feel you need to do a bit of everything, this program is great for you because it really covers all your bases and has a lot of variety so you don’t get bored.
Also, I was logging every session back when I did Fortitude, so it can give you an idea of what a session looks like on paper. It’s kind of far back at this point though.
I remember some of your workouts. Flap started it too if I remember right. It’s definitely different from what I’ve been doing but it certainly worked for you. I’ve known for a while I needed a change, just didn’t know what. Maybe this week off from the rona is a good time to look at that and decide.
I was doing biceps like you, hitting the 3 “areas” or whatever you want to call them, each workout. It was a little much for my biceps to recover from. The I heard a science-bro say you don’t need to do all “areas” in the same session as long as you hit them sometime.
So I went from peak contraction x 3 sets, stretched position x 3 sets, brachialus x 3 sets. For 9 sets in one workout to
Bicep Workout 1
Peak Contraction x 3 sets
Stretch Position x 3 sets
Bicep Workout 2
Peak contraction x 3 sets
Brachialus x 3 sets
For 6 sets each workout with a little less wear and tear my elbows/bicep tendons.
I know this sounds a little over analytical, but Drew-Buddy and I talked about this just a few weeks ago.
Yea my current back and bi day has 8 sets of biceps. I usually only do 6/7 though. Usually that last set of hammer curls gets skipped as it’s rough on my elbows from pushing the first set.
I’m doing back and Bi’s once a week and then a dedicated arm day once a week. Idk if it’s too much or not enough or what. I’ve yet to find anything to makes my arms grow.
Had my first workout in a week. Chose back as that what was supposed to be next anyways (@Andrewgen_Receptors).
BOR’s - 2 top sets at 225 then 2 drop sets
Seated cable lat rows 4 sets each side with a heavy top set
Wide grip pull ups - 3 sets
Rear delt dumbbell flys - 4 sets
Ez curl bar curls
Dumbbell alt curls
Band curlzzzz
Also took a video to see what the fawk was going on with my cable rows (too much elbow flair) and I’ll be dern if I didn’t look a little joozy in the lighting with a pump.
At first glance I thought the black lines were a hat, sitting very low on your brow. I was like “what kind of douche” but then realized I was just an idiot lol
Arm day at home. Still feeling a little bleh. Took a couple hour nap today which is super unheard of for me.
Everything got 3 sets to failure
Ezcurl bar push downs
Ezcurl cable curls
Skull crushers - with 105lbs which I was happy about
Incline seated dumbbell curls (spider man curls?)
Rope push downs
Got told to pack for 10 days and we’re headed to Texas first thing in the morning . Really sucks mane.
I went and spent $200 on protein shakes and bars and energy drinks so there’s that. Maybe I can find some gyms that are open and I won’t lose 10lbs
I don’t even know if I’m gonna work out today. Feels so pointless and I have zero motivation
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).
. Really sucks mane.