Lots of new info, programs and members on the site lately! I thought it might be fun to see what folks are up to these days.
I’ll go: I came off a couple (dozen?) Meadows programs, culminating with a conjugate/ bodybuilding hybrid. For the last few months, I’ve been doing a pretty loose PPL, with 12ish sets per bodypart, and a ton of cardio. I’m starting to ramp back up into a full-on bodypart split again.
My reasoning/ goals:
It’s joint-friendly (I’m 40)
I like pushing hard, and splits minimize carryover fatigue
For the same reason, I can do whatever cardio I feel like
I’m busy, and this requires no mental work from me because I’ve been doing it a long time
How about everyone else? Let’s learn from each other.
I am in the process of transitioning to more a “functional strength” approach. I use that in quotes because people tend to associate that with more “squats on bosu ball” type stuff.
Getting more into kettlebells and looking to get a hydrocore bag and some maces before purchasing a rack for my home gym.
For much the same reasoning, I’m back on CT’s Layers System.
It’s my favorite fall-back program. I enjoy it. It doesn’t take a lot of time or mental effort, and it allows me to play hockey/ride bikes without beating me into the ground.
I will say, I was very much enjoying the handful of weeks I was running Metcon for Muscle. I will definitely revisit this soon.
I love this concept of default. We don’t learn if we don’t try new things, but it can’t be overstated how beneficial it is to have this baseline to fall on so we don’t waste time trying to get to “optimal”.
Ive been taking the last week off after running Metcon for Muscle (a much needed break)… not sure if I want to extend that break out another week or not yet, will know soon.
When I decide to get back at it, I want to run a 5/3/1 PPL+Gap type plan like this
Obviously I love it. I think you can basically double your volume for BFR sets.
So if I wanted to specialize on arms, and felt like 12 sets (each) topped me out, I could:
Add 6 regular sets for bis/ tris on my pull/ push day
Add 4 BFR sets each of my other days (12 total, but we count them as 6)
So I’m maxing volume and frequency for the specialization group, but I’m only doing my elbow-aggravating stuff on the days it was to happen anyway (main days).
Please don’t take this like I asked what you were doing and then wanted to tell you what to do; I thought what you showed was cool and am playing it out as a thought experiment.
I’ve had issues in the past adding too much volume alongside my arm routine while running PPL - it’s effectively 4 training sessions per week hammering the elbows. This isn’t that much better, but at least it’s lightweight because BFR.
I did years of high volume work, and although I did quite well with that - I got some pretty serious gains by switching up to HIT techniques (DoggCrapp, Fortitude, New Muscle Pump a la Darden). Would consider going back to the old high volume stuff, but I think I’m going to give myself more time on the current plan and then consider adding more volume.
BTW I took no offense to your thought experiment =)
The mental reprieve was very much needed. Been going hard at the gym for about 11 months with no planned breaks and it was wearing on me. Mentally I’m feeling better, but without the gym - I start lagging in all other places in life.. will need to get back at it soon.
I lift to stand out.
Standing out allows more good things to gravitate my way.
Time spent away from training was supplemented with a surplus of late night cardio so sleep quantity was probably a little worse. Mild improvement IMO (at least the data supports this).
Yeah, full time work, school, gym and family do a number on it, but Ive pretty much always had shit sleep really. Military probably had the worst effect on it, but near-unfixable sleep issues are common with those who have ADHD too so
Simple gym life for me at the moment. Just hammering away 4x a week with my own Upper/Lower type programming, triple progression on the main lifts for the time being.
Considering a quick cut but making such good progress at the moment. At home I feel fat, but in the gym I feel lean and small. I keep telling myself “it’s gonna get real cold real soon, winter is for bulkinggggg”. I dunno.
Also focusing on football coaching which I am seriously under conditioned for.
