ExRx.net

You seem so particular about my typing. 290 will have to do for the moment. Post has been edited!

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

it's just moral outrage at a respected member of the forum LYING about his lifts.

It shows a weakness of character that, frankly, I find repugnant.

That should read "formerly respected" member....

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

you shall be stripped of your title of moderator, and cast out amongst the noobs!

strip and cast

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

So, here's the deal. I've been doing my current routine with only a little variation for the past 3 months or so. Time for some changes. Here's basically what I've been doing:

Day 1
Deadlifts - SDT
Bulgarian Split Squats
Static Holds - Grip Training

Day 2
Bench - 1/2/3
Chin-ups - Volume
Rows—seated cable

Day 3
Squats, 1/2/3
DB Swings
Core

Day 4
Bench Press—volume
Chin-ups: Weighted
Rows, DB
Press, Maintenance

So, I'm feeling burned out on what I've been doing.

I still care a lot about DL, but I'm tired. Maybe it's time to emphasize it less, at least for a cycle or 2. I don't want to lose the progress I've made.

Squat is still dear to my heart. It's a lot of hard work, and I'll keep it high on the priority list for now, but some variation would be good.

Bench may be what I want to hit harder for a while.

Chins should always be in my routine somewhere. I also want to stick with Bulgarians. Otherwise, I'm up to shake things up. I need for my workouts to be a bit shorter--they've been stretching over 2 house at times. I need 2-3 lifts total, and the third will be optional, at least for now. I'm open to suggestions.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I would suggest you to have one squat variation (or two), and then two more hip hinge exercises that work the glutes, hammies or both. Try more unilateral exercises. Not all in one day, but two leg days like you have now. Maybe farmers walk or more row variations for the grip. That should easily maintain your DL, if not increase it. I just created a list for myself, since I'm about to take this kind of approach too. (My approach just is that I do Squats and Deadlifts, assisted with one UL hip hinge exercise).

Bulgarians, Split squats, lunges (reverse too), Good mornings, Step-ups, Glute bridges, RDL, Hip thrust, All UL and BL squats(Front, Back, Goblet, Zecher, Box,) Hamstring curl/Glute bridge variations, even Deadlift variations (grip, depth).

I can't really say any of these exercises would be bad. I will most likely use almost all of them during the cycles to come.

Take 2-3 exercises per workout day and do each exercise for 3-5 sets only. That should get you out of the gym in no time. If not, check your rest times or superset stuff up.

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Prove the impossible!

This is a copy and paste of progression tables that I keep on the GUS site. Their software provides for tables, way better than we have here (that's one of the few things that is better, however. This is a bit hard to read as pasted here, but for some odd reason I wanted to post it.

Abbreviations: BV=base volume; SP=single progression; DP=double progression; TP=triple progression; W=weight; R=reps; S=sets; BP=base progression (return to base volume but at a new weight); NBV=new base volume (starting with a different base rep and set combination); PR=personal record;

SDT progression involves starting with a planned "base volume", a set-rep combination, then increasing either the weight, the reps, the number of sets or combinations of 2 of those, or, occasionally, all three.

"1s2s3s" involves doing ramping singles to a relative max, then getting several more singles withing 90% of that weight, then next workout doing 5x2 with about that 90%, then then next 4x3 with the same weight.

"Singles Scene" is a brief, intense progression involving near-max singles. I didn't chart the lifts as they are sort of outside of the normal progressions.


Deadlift
Date Lifts Progression
5/3/12 4x255, 4x255, 4x255 BV
14/3/12 4x255, 5x255, 4x255 SP-R
24/3/12 5x255, 5x265, 5x255 DP-R, W
2/4/12 5x265, 5x265, 6x270 DP-R, W
11/4/12 5x265, 5x265, 6x265 Oops, accidental regression
21/4/12 5x270, 6x275, 6x275 DP-R, W (compared to 2/4/13)
1/5/12 4x285, 4x285, 4x285 BP
10/5/12 5x285, 5x285, 5x285 SP, R
20/5/12 5x285, 6x285, 6x285 SP, R
7/6/12 1x335 New PR
14/6/12 6x285, 6x285, 6x285 SP, R
23/6/12 4x290, 4x290, 4x290 BP
7/7/12 4x295, 4x295, 4x295 SP, W
17/7/12 5x300, 4x300, 5x300 DP, W, R
27/7/12 5x300, 5x305, 5x300 DP, W, R
4/8/12 5x305, 5x305, 5x300 SP, W
27/8/12 2x310, 2x310 New BV
Bench Press
Date Lifts Progression
17/12/11 4x155 ,3x155 BV
27/12/11 4x140, 4x140 NBV :)
5/3/12 5x140, 5x140 SP-R
13/1/12 5x140, 5x145, 6x140 DP-R, S
21/1/12 3x6x145 SP-R
28/1/12 6x145, 6x150, 7x145 DP-R, W
8/2/12 2x155, 6x150, 6x150, 7x150 DP-R, W
18/2/12 6x155, 7x155, 6x155 SP-W
7/3/12 4x155, 4x155 BP
17/3/12 4x155, 4x155, 5x155 DP-R, S
26/3/12 5x155, 6x155, 6x155 SP-R
4/4/12 5x155, 6x155, 6x160 SP-W
4 weeks of singles scene
23/5/12 2x180, 2x180, 2x180, 2x175, 3x175 1s2s3s
7/6/12 1x195 New PR
16/6/12 3x165, 3x165, 3x165, 4x165 1s2s3s
27/6/12 1x165, 1x175, 1x185, 1x175, 1x175, 1x170, 1x170, 1x170 1s2s3s
9/7/12 2x175, 2x175, 2x175, 2x175, 2x175 1s2s3s
19/7/12 2/0x175, 3x165, 3x165, 3x165, 3x165 1s2s3s
29/7/12 1x175, 1x185, 1x175, 1x175, 1x175, 2x175 1s2s3s
6/8/12 2x175, 2x175, 2x175, 2x175, 2x175, 3x175 1s2s3s
29/8/12 3x175, 3x175, 3x175, 4x175 1s2s3s
Squat
Date Lifts Progression
17/12/11 4x195, 4x195 BV
27/12/11 5x195, 4x195 SP-R
5/1/12 5x195, 6x195, 1x200 TP
13/1/12 6x195, 6x195, 2x200 SP-R
21/1/12 2x2x195,1x205 deload
30/1/12 6x197, 6x197, 3x202 DP-R, W
8/2/12 1x210, 3x205, 6x195, 9x197.5 DP-R, W
18/2/12 1x195/205/115/125 Not SDT
9/3/12 2x205/2x205/2x205/2x205/2x205 2s&3s
19/3/12 3x205/3x205/3x205/3x205 2s&3s
28/3/12 2x205/2x210/2x210/2x210/2x205 2s&3s
6/4/12 3x205/3x210/3x210/4x210 2s&3s
16/4/12 2x210, 2x210, 2x210, 2x210, 4x210 2s&3s
25/4/12 3x212, 3x212, 3x212, 4x212 2s&3s
5/5/12 2x215, 2x215, 2x215, 2x215, 2x215 2s&3s
16/5/12 3x214, 3x215, 3x215, 4x215 2s&3s
25/5/12 2x220, 2x220, 2x220, 2x220, 2x220 2s&3s
11/6/12 1x250 New PR
18/6/12 2x220, 3x220, 3x220, 4x220 2s&3s
30/6/12 1x215, 1x225, 1x225, 1x225, 1x235, 1x235, 1x235, 1x225 1s,2s,3s
11/7/12 2x225, 2x225, 2x225, 2x225, 2x225 1s,2s,3s
21/7/12 3x225, 3x225, 3x225, 3x225 1s2s3s
31/7/12 1x215, 1x225, 1x235, 1x235, 1x235, 1x215, 1x215, 1x215 1s,2s,3s
9/8/12 2x230, 2x230, 1x230, 1x215, 2x205, 2x205 consolidation

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

Andy, your dedication and consistency continue to astound me and it's showing in your results.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

They astound me too, but thanks!

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I'm glad to see the GUS cult is working out okay! ;)

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Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

Well, yeah. GUS has been very helpful to me. They aren't offering as much direct advice these days (actually, not as much as I'd like), but I still post over there, and run changes in my template by them, and they still give very useful advice. The biggest thing that I've learned there is how to push hard and still manage fatigue, and not to over-react when I do start to fatigue. I'm now convinced that most of what gets called "overtraining" is just fatigue, and can be managed as such. Control volume, plan rest, a little extra rest when needed, strategic brief deloads, but no big "resets", no long deloads.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I agree, which leads to some confusion. What overtraining isn't fatigue? Isn't overtraining just applying more stress than your body can recover from? And chronic overtraining that situation done over and over again?

I wonder what you thought overtraining was before, if so.

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Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

Yeah, I agree with you. It's not what I thought it was, but what I think many people think it is.

My complaint is that the term "overtraining" is discussed as a mysterious something that can overtake you unawares, ruin your progress, set you back, or cause injury, end your training career. I think people have the idea that it is something that your body can't possibly recover from. It is to be feared. People over-react to it, like stopping training altogether for weeks, or dropping important exercises from their training.

I would rather use simple terms like "tired". If you pay attention to it, try to figure out what is making you tired (assuming that you aren't usually so tired), and make adjustments, then it's your friend.

My recent example is my DL. I was doing an "SDT" progression, and my volume had increased to 3 sets of 5. After one workout, I thought that I wouldn't be able to sustain that much longer, but there was a small goal that I wanted to hit (3x5x305). So I allowed one more session, before dropping the volume to 2x3, which allowed me to go higher on the weight, and left me feeling fresh as a proverbial daisy. A couple of years ago I would have done a "reset", probably keeping the relatively high volume, but dropping the weight 20%. Then it would have taken me months to get back to where I was, never mind making any real progress.

Maybe it's just semantics, but I think putting a big word on something simple tends to make people think that it's something that it's not.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

That makes a lot of sense, Doc.

I still like strategic, big deloads after a long layoff. After all, if you're dropping your training weights to 85-90% of what you were doing, it's still heavy enough for a strength adaptation, but it's light enough to mean you aren't scraping at the limits of your recovery. It's hard to sell to clients, though - I did manage to convince one friend that dropping his deadlift training weights 50 pounds (less than 10% of his 1RM) was okay, but it took asking him "Are you lifting to lift over 500, or lifting to get stronger? Does it matter how heavy the bar is if you're stronger?" Heh.

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Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com