What Worked Best in 2012?

Training
21

[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:

[quote]jy6537 wrote:
pimpbot5000 for the meadows standing pulldowns what attachment are you using? the close v-grip or the usual bar that most people use for lat pulldowns. tried looking for it but couldnt find a vid, can you give me a link?[/quote]

I use the close v-grip handle - take it right from the seated row machine.

Honestly I have no idea where to find it on the site. I believe Iron Dwarf posted a video of it before. I’m glad he did - it’s an amazing movement.[/quote]

22

For me, it was several things:

  1. Trying something new. CT’s training methods are not what I would normally do, but I made a good effort in attempting to train strictly within his philosophy for several months this year. End result: what a refreshing welcome break from the style of training I was doing before. I’m always learning. This being said, I am back to old school bodybuilding methods because it works just as well for me. But from here on out, I have yet another training method to include in my system.

  2. Going to strictly pulse feasting eating style.

  3. Doing “double pulses”…traditional pulse = 2 scoups of MAG-10 in 500 ml of water. Double pulse = 4 scoupls of MAG-10 in 1000 ml of water.

23

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:
3. Doing “double pulses”…traditional pulse = 2 scoups of MAG-10 in 500 ml of water. Double pulse = 4 scoupls of MAG-10 in 1000 ml of water.
[/quote]

Care to expound on this? I’m doing something similar, albeit not with MAG-10 but another similar product, and know you’re definitely a person to learn a thing or twenty from.

24
  1. Hitting everything 3x a week
  2. Finding ROM that works for me (not going all the way down on incline presses to keep shoulders out of it)
  3. Rotating and cycling volume/short rest periods with more intensity/longer rest
  4. Using ‘pump’ work almost exclusively for calves, abs, and delts
  5. Carb-Backloading (this is the biggest one)
  6. Realizing everything doens’t need to be ‘perfect’ to make gains (stopped over-analyzing)
25

Seriously: stopped reading the Nutrition forum on TNation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it seems like the people really making progress (whom I should be listening to) are on the BBing or PLing forum.

26
  1. Doing giant set style training for shoulders. Others have already mentioned this. You have several combinations, but in general one movement for front, one for side and one for rear in that order. Really works wonders.
  2. Focusing on building strength in hammies through GHR and reverse hyperextensions. I actually hit hammies and lower back on their own day. Result → stronger deadlift.
  3. Going heavy, low rep, not to failure on rotator cuff exercises. As result my shoulder health has never been better.
  4. Overhead work from CT. Overhead shrugs and holds are great.
27

[quote]eaboadar wrote:
Also, having periods where I didn’t follow a diet/eating plan and just ate instinctively. I actually ended up looking better than I have for a long while. In my case (and a lot of people’s in this site and in the strength training community) I believe that obsessing over nutrition has done more harm than good, leading to bulimic tendencies. Not to say that nutrition is not important, just that one should be careful not to damage one’s mental health while manipulating it.[/quote]

Your intuition is actually confirmed by research. You actually impair your abilities to recover by having constant mental stress over small stuff. Try to diminish the causes of stress from your life and you’ll be able to recover better.

Obsessing over minor things in nutrition probably do you more harm than not having a perfect diet.

28

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:
3. Doing “double pulses”…traditional pulse = 2 scoups of MAG-10 in 500 ml of water. Double pulse = 4 scoupls of MAG-10 in 1000 ml of water.
[/quote]

Care to expound on this? I’m doing something similar, albeit not with MAG-10 but another similar product, and know you’re definitely a person to learn a thing or twenty from.[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words, but I’m no different than you with respect to still learning and trying things out.

As indicated, my diet is strictly the pulse feast diet as specified in the article CT wrote a while back (you can use the search engine to find it). Reason for doing this: as I’m getting older, my old school 6 meals a day, 50 grams of protein each feeding was beginning to give me occasion gastric distress. TC also wrote an article with regards to one’s “resting” blood sugar levels and its correlation to health. Mine were indeed out of whack.

On Saturdays, my family and I and several close buddies of mine get together to have what I call “the BIG meal”. Every Saturdays, I would have one gigantic meal at the end of the day…basically fasting (somewhat) throughout the morning and afternoon. This was a welcome break from my 6 meals/day regimen. Every time I did this, my logs would indicate how awesome I would feel come Sunday morning for the football games and occasional training.

Preparing every night for a 6 meal/day extravaganza also was time consuming, though it really didn’t bother me that much. The problem wasn’t the preparation…the problem I was beginning to experience was having the time to actually eat the food. My work life is busy, and I found myself inhaling my meals which I believe also led to some of my gastric distress.

Enter MAG-10, especially the newest version. Enter the concept of high amino levels then lower baseline throughout the day to encourage anabolism. This single product and the pulsing concept:

  1. Totally eliminated my gastric issues.
  2. Allowed me to have a BIG meal EVERY day.
  3. Allowed me to get nutrients in no matter how busy I got.

In comparison with my old 6 meal a day regimen, the pulse feast method allowed me to get leaner than I had ever been without losing the strength. Size went down, but the size that remained is rounder, shapely, and tight. I much prefer this look and feel.

I went to double pulses because I was finding a single pulses were not enough (in the beginning) to maintain my weight and strength. Going to double pulses more than succeeded (for me) in helping me to maintain or gain strength and weight. I became fuller again after initial loses from the single pulse method. This might not work for everyone, but I strongly believe everyone needs to find their own “sweet spot” with any nutritional protocol. Heck, this applies to training as well.

29

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:
3. Doing “double pulses”…traditional pulse = 2 scoups of MAG-10 in 500 ml of water. Double pulse = 4 scoupls of MAG-10 in 1000 ml of water.
[/quote]

Care to expound on this? I’m doing something similar, albeit not with MAG-10 but another similar product, and know you’re definitely a person to learn a thing or twenty from.[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words, but I’m no different than you with respect to still learning and trying things out.

As indicated, my diet is strictly the pulse feast diet as specified in the article CT wrote a while back (you can use the search engine to find it). Reason for doing this: as I’m getting older, my old school 6 meals a day, 50 grams of protein each feeding was beginning to give me occasion gastric distress. TC also wrote an article with regards to one’s “resting” blood sugar levels and its correlation to health. Mine were indeed out of whack.

On Saturdays, my family and I and several close buddies of mine get together to have what I call “the BIG meal”. Every Saturdays, I would have one gigantic meal at the end of the day…basically fasting (somewhat) throughout the morning and afternoon. This was a welcome break from my 6 meals/day regimen. Every time I did this, my logs would indicate how awesome I would feel come Sunday morning for the football games and occasional training.

Preparing every night for a 6 meal/day extravaganza also was time consuming, though it really didn’t bother me that much. The problem wasn’t the preparation…the problem I was beginning to experience was having the time to actually eat the food. My work life is busy, and I found myself inhaling my meals which I believe also led to some of my gastric distress.

Enter MAG-10, especially the newest version. Enter the concept of high amino levels then lower baseline throughout the day to encourage anabolism. This single product and the pulsing concept:

  1. Totally eliminated my gastric issues.
  2. Allowed me to have a BIG meal EVERY day.
  3. Allowed me to get nutrients in no matter how busy I got.

In comparison with my old 6 meal a day regimen, the pulse feast method allowed me to get leaner than I had ever been without losing the strength. Size went down, but the size that remained is rounder, shapely, and tight. I much prefer this look and feel.

I went to double pulses because I was finding a single pulses were not enough (in the beginning) to maintain my weight and strength. Going to double pulses more than succeeded (for me) in helping me to maintain or gain strength and weight. I became fuller again after initial loses from the single pulse method. This might not work for everyone, but I strongly believe everyone needs to find their own “sweet spot” with any nutritional protocol. Heck, this applies to training as well.

[/quote]

ill admit i havent tried pulse fasting, but ive been doing the 6 meals aday with 45-50 grams of protein and its been working well! before when i was bullking i was over eating my protien and having tons of stomach issues–now that i eat less protein and evenly space it out- im never hungry and never full and feel great!!!

30

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]buffd_samurai wrote:
3. Doing “double pulses”…traditional pulse = 2 scoups of MAG-10 in 500 ml of water. Double pulse = 4 scoupls of MAG-10 in 1000 ml of water.
[/quote]

Care to expound on this? I’m doing something similar, albeit not with MAG-10 but another similar product, and know you’re definitely a person to learn a thing or twenty from.[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words, but I’m no different than you with respect to still learning and trying things out.

As indicated, my diet is strictly the pulse feast diet as specified in the article CT wrote a while back (you can use the search engine to find it). Reason for doing this: as I’m getting older, my old school 6 meals a day, 50 grams of protein each feeding was beginning to give me occasion gastric distress. TC also wrote an article with regards to one’s “resting” blood sugar levels and its correlation to health. Mine were indeed out of whack.

On Saturdays, my family and I and several close buddies of mine get together to have what I call “the BIG meal”. Every Saturdays, I would have one gigantic meal at the end of the day…basically fasting (somewhat) throughout the morning and afternoon. This was a welcome break from my 6 meals/day regimen. Every time I did this, my logs would indicate how awesome I would feel come Sunday morning for the football games and occasional training.

Preparing every night for a 6 meal/day extravaganza also was time consuming, though it really didn’t bother me that much. The problem wasn’t the preparation…the problem I was beginning to experience was having the time to actually eat the food. My work life is busy, and I found myself inhaling my meals which I believe also led to some of my gastric distress.

Enter MAG-10, especially the newest version. Enter the concept of high amino levels then lower baseline throughout the day to encourage anabolism. This single product and the pulsing concept:

  1. Totally eliminated my gastric issues.
  2. Allowed me to have a BIG meal EVERY day.
  3. Allowed me to get nutrients in no matter how busy I got.

In comparison with my old 6 meal a day regimen, the pulse feast method allowed me to get leaner than I had ever been without losing the strength. Size went down, but the size that remained is rounder, shapely, and tight. I much prefer this look and feel.

I went to double pulses because I was finding a single pulses were not enough (in the beginning) to maintain my weight and strength. Going to double pulses more than succeeded (for me) in helping me to maintain or gain strength and weight. I became fuller again after initial loses from the single pulse method. This might not work for everyone, but I strongly believe everyone needs to find their own “sweet spot” with any nutritional protocol. Heck, this applies to training as well.

[/quote]

When switching to the double pulsing feast, were you specifically trying to lose fat? Or did it just kind of happen. Do you think the pulse dosage could be linked with your size? If so could you list your height and bodyweight. I’m about to start something similar fast/feast strategy because I’m fine physically with energy and focus if I don’t eat throughout the day then after training I’m always ravenous anyway. Plus like you my work schedule is busy and oftentimes I don’t know what my hours will be. Sorry if this seemed like alot of questions.

31

2012 was a pretty crazy year for me. Some of the best things and worst things in my life. Haha I’ll keep this training related though.

  1. Bought myself some voodoo bands, goodbye tendonitis you miserable bastard

  2. Got on a set system of progression for main lifts (5/3/1)

  3. Fucked up a lot, seriously though I’ve learned some of my best lessons about lifting from what doesn’t work

BTW great idea for a thread

32

[quote]Rush88 wrote:

When switching to the double pulsing feast, were you specifically trying to lose fat? Or did it just kind of happen. Do you think the pulse dosage could be linked with your size? If so could you list your height and bodyweight. I’m about to start something similar fast/feast strategy because I’m fine physically with energy and focus if I don’t eat throughout the day then after training I’m always ravenous anyway. Plus like you my work schedule is busy and oftentimes I don’t know what my hours will be. Sorry if this seemed like alot of questions.[/quote]

I switched over to the pulse feast primarily because of my mentioned gastric problems with my old eating protocol and because of lack of time these days as indicated. I never try to really “cut” as my metabolism is a fast one already…putting on weight was a real struggle for me all these years. When I started the pulse feast, my goal was simply to maintain at first as I got used to my ramped up work (and life!) schedule, and when that was “sort” of in control, I began experimenting with ways to see if I could start gaining again.

My stats can be found in the I-3G logs or via my hub, but you won’t find any pics. That is sort of a running joke on this site…I prefer to be like John Conner from the Terminator…off the grid as much as possible. I DO have different stats now due to pulse fasting and trying different training (CT style). For full disclosure, I used to be an avid steroid user in the past; I’ve been off for several years now.

33

[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:

ill admit i havent tried pulse fasting, but ive been doing the 6 meals aday with 45-50 grams of protein and its been working well! before when i was bullking i was over eating my protien and having tons of stomach issues–now that i eat less protein and evenly space it out- im never hungry and never full and feel great!!!
[/quote]

6 meals/day worked for me as well for a long long time. Especially since I’m always on a gaining weight mode. But alas, that style of eating seemed to catch up with me, be it age or whatever. Pulse FEASTING (as opposed to pulse FASTING…they are totally different beasts) saved me I think!

As long as things are working for you, I would stay the course if I were you. It doesn’t hurt to experiment though. If you are worried about cost, I’d say my nutrition intake with MAG-10 instead of whole foods in the morning and afternoon costs about the same as when I was doing 6 meals/day.

34

I’m a “foodie” so 6 meals per day is extremely welcome… except now I’m going clean which presents a major problem with food prep time. I have gone hermit on many occasions because “i dont have enough food on the go”.

I’ve got MAG-10 coming in the mail so this thread has inspired its use. I only hope it can suppress appetite as well because even 4 hours without food I get major headaches.

P.S Great thread

35

What worked awesome for me is learning proper deadlift form and doing them!

36

[quote]giograves wrote:
I’m a “foodie” so 6 meals per day is extremely welcome… except now I’m going clean which presents a major problem with food prep time. I have gone hermit on many occasions because “i dont have enough food on the go”.

I’ve got MAG-10 coming in the mail so this thread has inspired its use. I only hope it can suppress appetite as well because even 4 hours without food I get major headaches.

P.S Great thread[/quote]

I was a “foodie” as well…heck, I believe I “trained” myself to be like this after eating this way for DECADES. And for the most part, it really works, if your goal is to put on weight. How “good” that weight is I think depends on the type of foods chosen and your own genetic metabolic rate.

When I started out with the pulse feast, I wasn’t craving food on the 1st day. But the NEXT day, I was dying for sold food, even though I was gorging myself the night before. MAG-10 can squelch the craving somewhat, but I believe psychologically it took a longer time to retrain.

If one’s goal is to gain alot of weight, I don’t believe the pulse fast is the way to go unless you do double pulses like what I’m doing. Even then, it depends on your metabolism. Single pulses simply won’t do it in my opinion.

37

I discovered RDL’s. OMG, the pain.

38

Front squats into reverse banded front squat ramp. Seriously, meat on my back and quads from the increased lockout weight, increased ability to feel “comfortable” unracking heavy weights because I’ve gotten used to the bands, and my front squat strength has gone up. Win win win.

Ramp is basically this: (I wrote something small about it in the PL forum a bit back)

Front squat ramp up to about 90% of my 1RM

attach bands, ramp up to another 3 RM or 1RM training weight.

I did this with strength in mind, but still reaped great size benefits on my back. Not sure that a much lighter weight would work as well with the reverse band ramp though. You could probably ramp to something like 3x3 or 3x5 on regular front squats, then attach the bands and ramp to a 3 or 1 RM (training RM, not Westside style all-out PR), but I believe the overload is the key so anything too light on the bottom of the squat with the bands takes away from your squat and leg development. Also it doesn’t allow as much overload for your back, which was the best part for me.

I started it after trying the top-half front squats from CT, which worked great but gave me knee pain because I wasn’t going all the way down. Doing this = best of both worlds an no knee pain because of the full hamstring stretch at the bottom!

39

I’ll also say MAG-10. Not pulsing but using for recovery with Surge Workout Fuel. Seriously notice a much bigger difference than I thought. If I had the budget of buffd I would most definitely be Uber pulsing because this stuff is fucking fantastic…but I don’t, so I stick with the peri-workout and one after pulse.

40

[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
2012 was a pretty crazy year for me. Some of the best things and worst things in my life. Haha I’ll keep this training related though.

  1. Bought myself some voodoo bands, goodbye tendonitis you miserable bastard

  2. Got on a set system of progression for main lifts (5/3/1)

  3. Fucked up a lot, seriously though I’ve learned some of my best lessons about lifting from what doesn’t work

BTW great idea for a thread [/quote]

how did you use the voodoo bands, and how often etc…