It’s cool to have these here, right?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbFuWBAB_SZ/
A pretty straightforward workout, nothing too intense, but Lord it took a hot minute, I actually had to skip the accessories because I had been at the gym for like 2 hours. Didn’t beat myself up about it though, I figure heavy block pulls and DLs already hit my lats and abs pretty solidly, but still added on the lat work to my next workout. I bench 3x/week, gotta keep the rotator cuffs happy.
Absolutely!!! I was just going to create my own ‘log’ of other sorts in the Watercooler. But training logs should definitely go here. If there’s a ton of them we can create a separate subcategory, but for now no need for too many.
So with this training, is every day the same style of progression? How do you decide what’s 50% to 75% vs. something like 55% to 90%?
Do you ever re-test maxes?
I personally do not, Boris Sheiko does, haha. But yeah, it’s pretty typical, start out around 50%, work your way up to ~80% give or take, do several sets of low-reps so that mid-set fatigue doesn’t start fuckin up your form, cause it’s just as much about practicing the movement perfectly as it is about gaining actual strength.
As for maxes, it’s a 12-week program. In week 6, you climb with singles all the way up to 105%. If you hit the 105% single, cool, adjust your maxes, if not, no big deal, because you’re super fatigued, there’s been no “peaking,” the volume is still high.
Weeks 11 and 12 start dialing back the volume, however, so that you’re properly recovered and ready to crush some maxes at the end of week 12, where the last workout of the week is either a competition, or just a day to test new maxes.
I like it. This kind of training – Hypertrophy-Specific (HST) – has worked for me in the past. Got a link to where you found this stuff?
That’s his website, but for his program spreadsheets, they’re ah, not publicly available as far as I know, they’re behind a small paywall via his app, but I have them nonetheless, y’know…? There are several basic ones (for beginners, intermediates, and advanced lifters, then for each of those there are light loads [for superheavies], medium loads [for average joes], and heavy loads [for hardgainer spooky skeletons]), and then some more complicated ones blah blah.
If you know which one you want–I’m personally running Intermediate Light Load, not because I’m a SHW, but because I’m short on free time and can’t fit in more volume than what I’m doing–I can post the Google Doc spreadsheet for you!
That’s a cool type of program! Looking forward to seeing your progress man! I think I’ll start a training log soon still debating if I should! Good luck!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbGTUIZhJWE/
Sweet mercy, the bench volume. Subbed out the Good Mornings, even though I love them so much, for the lat work I missed on the 11/2 workout. Squats were the easiest and smoothest they’ve been in a while. Still working out some bench technique tweaks to keep my left bicep tendon from bitching at me every time I go above 70%.
Did OHP instead of incline because the incline benches were taken and I was too hungry to wait around, ended up not mattering anyway because I was too fried after all that benching to go even remotely heavy.
Tomorrow: arms.
I trained arms. A lot. It’s not very captivating to talk about or watch.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbOVkizlSSx/
Lot of stress over the past 2 days, a long-ass training session like this is exactly what I needed. Squats were so crisp, I actually went up to 295 (94%) for that third single, and it still flew up.
Did 15-20 facepulls or band pullaparts between every set of bench. Got to keep those rotator cuffs healthy.
Still working on keeping my left shoulder happy during bench. Less arch seems to help a lot, actually, which is weird and kind of counter-intuitive and makes me feel like I’m somehow arching wrong.
Ab work was 4xf of supramaximal front rack holds. I’m gonna hate myself for that tomorrow.
Smart man. I need to do what you’re doin. Keep at it bro!
Took a week off to recover from my cold (and avoid infecting others, because unlike SOME of my classmates, KRISTIN, I know being sick sucks and actually care about others’ well-being!!!), today was my first day back. Will give a full update later, but I wanted to say that, while no longer contagious, I’m still very congested…so I put ephedrine to double-duty today, to great effect. Clearest I’ve breathed since last Thursday, and a real kick in the pants when taken alongside a Rockstar. 
Where/how do you get ephedrine? I’ve never personally tried it, but I’m rather curious!
If you’re in the US, basically any pharmacy will carry it. CVS, Wal-Greens, Rite-Aid, etc. Usually under the brand name “Bronk-Aid,” there are other brands though. It’s behind the counter, and a controlled substance, so you have to pick up one of the OTC cards and hand it over along with your driver’s license, they put you in The System as having bought it, so that if you buy 30 boxes in a month to make drugs, it alerts The Man.
An ephedrine tab + 200mg of caffeine is honestly one of the best possible preworkouts, but I…like when they taste good…
Also, be responsible.
Yeah I’d heard of bronkaid, but I looked a while back and couldn’t find any. Thought I had read it went to prescription only. Anyway, you just walk up and say you’re having trouble breathing for, say, allergies and they’ll get you some? I’ll have to try sometime. How much does it usually cost?
Literally don’t even bother making up a reason, they don’t care why you want it, just say you want some and they’ll point you to the little cards. They’re not gonna hide it just because you don’t immediately come off as asthmatic, lol
I think ~$17 for a pack of 60 is pretty standard.
Cool man! I appreciate it! And $17 isn’t bad at all. When looking around at ephedrine, I found some place online, I think a 30 pack of 25mg was $60 or so. I didn’t buy it!
I didn’t record any of my training on Tuesday, so no IG link.
Deadlifts were really heavy and I couldn’t figure out why until I remembered I was at 90%. The week off did me really well though, bench FLEW up. At one point I unracked, did a rep, decided I didn’t like my setup, adjusted my back and reset my shoulders without reracking the bar, did my second rep, and reracked. With 85% in my hands.
A fella next to me tried benching 315 for a triple, the third rep hit one of the J-hooks on the way down and misgrooved, had to save his life.
Did some lightweight OHP/Klokov presses instead of dips, dips make my shoulders angry, Klokov presses make my shoulders very happy. Happy shoulder capsules, happy…life. That doesn’t rhyme, but it’s true.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbpiBdqBPzy/
This workout fueled by a year-old Total War sample I found at the bottom of my gym bag. The best effects I’ve ever gotten out of Total War if I’m honest.
Squats were a LOT shakier than the 11/7 training, there’s definitely a movement practice element that the 10-day gap disrupted.
That said, bench is still super easy. I’d inflate my maxes because clearly I’ve gotten stronger, but I’m only 3 weeks out from the next max test, so I’ll be patient.
It’s been a hot minute since I updated this, the reasons for that being that 1.) I’m crushed for time to write more than quick 10-word responses to stuff while I pee, as it’s Finals Month, and 2.) When I’m in the gym I’m rushing through it and not worrying about recording stuff. But I guess the recordings aren’t that important anyway
QUICK RECAPS OF RECENT TRAINING, THEN PICTURES.
I dropped Sheiko, because frequent gaps in training due to illness, or cramming for exams, or trips to see family, etc etc were really fucking up the concept of cumulative fatigue. What I mean by that is that that Sheiko template’s volume is low because the idea is that you haven’t truly recovered from the last session, it builds onto the stress from the last time you lifted. The fact that I was routinely getting 4 and 5 days between sessions really ruined that concept, so life conditions made it a fairly inappropriate program for me.
Given that I was quite extremely de-conditioned from a few sets of doubles and Not Much Else a few times per week, I decided to take advantage of that and move into something REALLY high volume. Also, due to some quite lacking areas from PL-specific training, I decided to go for more all-around programming, and to incorporate explosive warmups again, which had always done me well. The natural choice for this, IMO, was the Juggernaut Method, of which I’m using the “Reverse Juggernaut” template (10x5 instead of 5x10, etc)
Currently, my training sessions consist of explosive warmups (explosive/box pushups on upper days, box jumps on squat days, and maximal full cleans on DL days), then the Jugg-designated rep scheme for my main lift with only 60 seconds rest between sets to improve conditioning, then some accessory work usually done in a circuit with no real rest. The accessory work is more or less what CWS recommends. Lastly, while I haven’t started this yet, because again, incredibly deconditioned and my actual lifting is leaving me dead on my feet, I’d like to end each session with some cardio (rowing, likely) and addressing some tight muscles. Not “mobility” work, I’m not trying to be limber. I find that anecdotally, people who are “limber” and lift heavy get injured much more frequently–the correlation I’ve experienced between “powerlifters who see a chiropractor every week” and “powerlifters who herniate a disk sooner rather than later” is absurd. But nonetheless, I have some inhibitively tight areas that I’d like to slowly work on.
ONTO TRAINING ENTRIES
Given that this was my first day of trying this volume on for size, I was barely cognitive by the end of the session. I did a bit of decline chest press machine and got the fuck outta there.
Each of these was done with a full pause, slow eccentric, and varied grip widths (my usual is index-on-rings, which I opened with 2 sets of, then 2 sets of middles-on-rings, 2 sets of rings-on-rings, 2 sets of pinkies-on-rings, and finally 2 sets back at max grip). The first 5 were easy. The last five had me wheezing. 60 second rest periods are hard.
Oh, and I also did a set of 10-15 band pullaparts or disclocates or facepulls between every set. HEALTHY SHOULDERSSSS
The BB-style circuit done at the end of upper body days is pretty straightforward. I pick a bicep exercise (which are always Mountain Dog Meadows’ cross-body hammer curls, love them), a tricep exercise, and a delt exercise (I alternate between lateral raises and front raises), pick a weight for each that I can reasonably hit for a strict 12, and do as many as possible for each, then start back over, 3 total giant sets. There’s no rest in between sets, and they usually go something like 16 > 12 > 8.
I haven’t done cleans in over a year, and was never really taught to do them properly to begin with, my technique is really bad. Nonetheless, it gets me explosively extending my hips, so it serves its purpose.
Called it off at that awkward cutoff in my Good Mornings, not from fatigue, but because my sacral spine started feeling Weird. Given the fatigue that I knew my low back was experiencing from 10 working sets of DLs, I wasn’t about to play around and see what would happen, I re-racked mid set and walked outta there.
My rows earlier in the week were nice, strict bilateral Hammer Strength rows. Not this day. This day I did heavy DB Kroc rows. I let my form get sloppy. I used body english. I was wearing figure-8 straps so that when my grip gave out (around rep#12 if you’re curious) I couldn’t actually let go, I had to keep repping it out until I couldn’t move my arm any more.
My lats are still absolutely fried.
HURGGGHH too much caffeine before lifting today, threw off my squat rep PR attempt in a big way 
300mg = fine, smooth, no jitters, a bit of energy
400mg = trembling, heart racing, short of breath
APPARENTLY
