@Sigil
With the max muscle layers - how long does a workout take ? Did you wait the first few weeks before adding assistance exercises?
Did your hamstrings feel neglected at all ?
How many days per week did you train. I see there’s a 4/5/6 day per week option. I’m going to try these in the new year!! I would actually prefer staying on a station for an entire workout than stop start swap haha. In HFBB I take the squat rack for 80% of the wo.
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I’m doing full body training right now so a day could look like this:
Squat 5/3/1
Pull-ups 2 x 10, 1 double rest/pause set
Bench 3 x 10, 1 set of 10 full reps/10 top half/10 bottom half (this feels very similar to constant tension reps from Layers)
Rows same reps as bench
Lateral Raises or Reverse Fly 2 x 10, 1 x 10F/10T/10B
My take on The Best Damn Workout is that you do a couple working sets and then fatigue the muscle with an intensification technique. It’s pretty simple to do with something like 5/3/1. Take any template and do the 5/3/1 main lift and prescribed reps. Then do the reps for The Best Damn Workout for the assistance work.
Think about it… What is 5/3/1? Two sub max sets followed by one all out set to failure. Doesn’t that sound a lot like Best Damn? They both even advocate the use of double rest/pause sets.
That looks awesome!!! So many good ideas!
I’m not big on the time under tension reps like drop sets etc. I much prefer rest pause. But ill do what’s gotta be done. This would be good as a break from layers. I’m pumped for the new year!
Rest/pause counts. Try different methods and you’ll probably find that you like different techniques on different exercises.
Partials or slow eccentrics on squats? No, thanks! But I could probably handle some rest/pause sets.
around 1 hour, maybe 1.5 if i’m more generous with rest periods, assistance work or ring/activation stuff.
well i do dumbell romandian deadlifts. leg curls never did much for me, esp the current machine @ gym which makes my tendons (the two main ones behind the knee) feel like tearing every rep!
can also do you bulgarian squat, split squat, bodyweight ham raises etc as asssitance, so not at all!
at least 4, up to 6 days a week. the pleasure of the layers is that you can pick one big exercise, whichever it may be and just go heavy/hard/explosive & get all contraction types. it provides extreme focus, really targeted body pump (you can feel the area growing making gains during the workout) & also can just park yourself at a powerrack/station and not move lol!
Has anyone of you did the layer conplexes ? I always wanted to do them but in the end never tried them. I am talking about the ramp + complexes. (For example the „Russian bear“)
Yep, I love the park myself set up haha.
Sounds so good, have you ever tried Deadlift layers ?
Overcoming ISO would work.
Ramp up would work only doing 2 reps.
Clusters would work.
Slow eccentric do as Romanian.
Constant tension do as upper back deadlift ?
I have only tried SGHP a couple of times. Doesn’t feel right for me. I would probably try sub that one out. 
I would try 5 days per week. 5 gets my fix and I can recover better.
Did you do Biceps after SGHP ? Not to fatigued?
If the biceps are fatigued after high pulls you are not doing high pulls properly
Deadlift layers for me usually just devolve into 5x5 anyways. I don’t want to push myself to “failure” on a deadlift cluster. Thus it’s not layers techincally but the spirit of the ramp → back off work → pump sets is maintained (esp with romanian as you suggested).
Yeah the only downside of parking oneself at a station is boredom. Sometimes I find myself losing pump/agression just sitting on a bench, you can actually feel your motivation/CNS “go cold”…so I like to do some bodyweight work in between clusters (chins, rows, scare crows) or just moving around. It helps my performance + get good postural work in.
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HP Mass for me. Was doing it about 5-6 years ago and was in a great training routine. Lived with my buddy for a while and we used to train almost everyday, taking it in turns cooking, the results were great. Almost like our own little Indigo experiment!
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*also wanted to add activatoin & pump prior to layers workout is very important (for me at least). CT’s thib army article got me thinking.
being 2a now i see why it felt so good to star teach work with some rings and calisthenics…gets adrenalin going and also great upper body pump…hitting the neural activation + bro-up muscle. if i go into layers “cold”, no pump…the initial ramp feels bad and i just get overall less “Muscle” stimulation/feel.
so i think someting like 25-50 pushups on bench days, lunges on lower body days, and some rounds of chins & handstands gets everything nice & pumped. plus do higher reps with the bar and a few 8 reps with 135 before going into the ramp proper…
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I was referring to having the energy to do train Biceps after SGHP. I watched your old t nation vids on the SGHP, I’ll have to start practicing! I’m guessing you prefer the SGHP over Deadlifts for layers seeing its in the template?
@tye_89 trap bar deadlift is in the Layer program
Where are you supposed to feel SGHP? Only place I felt was lower back(during workout), now dreading how much DOMS traps will have tomorrow (already feel traps “dead”).
Grip- any way to keep hold of the bar except straps?
Index fingers- kinda felt like my index fingers were getting pinched/crushed slightly. Any fix? Or just get used to it like back squats
Overall good workout. Didn’t have time for any assistance
I tend to feel my lower back during a SGHP workout from the hang - from blocks or pins I can usually just feel myself starting to slow down. The DOMS is for sure going to hit the traps hard, the rest of the posterior chain may feel like it got a workout but not necessarily sore. So if folks that have done the lift more than me echo that you’re probably okay.
Grip-wise, it’s just a pretty uncomfortable thing but you get used to it. How many reps are you doing? The wide grip certainly makes it harder to hold the bar so anything greater than 3-4 reps, especially from the hang, is going to be difficult.
Re lower back, index fingers: good to know & thanks
Re reps: highest reps I’ll go is 5
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Either learn too hook grip or use straps… I always used straps when doing high pulls… and pretty much every olympic lifter use straps when doing high pulls
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Yes, straps. For any lift that you perform there should be a purpose. Once you’ve determined why you’re doing it then focus on that. If something like grip limits your ability to do SGHP, deadlifts, Olympic lifts, etc then use straps to remove that from the equation. Are you training your grip or your traps and upper back with SGHP?
Once you view things in this manner you’ll find that things are more simple than you’ve been making them.
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upper back
I don’t have straps or I’d use them
Straps are cheap man, they probably average out to a few dollars a year if you buy them on sale.
If you are in the states and honestly can’t afford a pair I’ll send you one
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