Biggest Guy in Class: How to Rebuild a Monolith

Thanks for the plan! Really appreciate you taking the time to write it out.

The anaerobic/aerobic discussion sounds familiar from biology class haha. I always say that bio is a bodybuilder’s subject through and through. It’s honestly surprising how often it comes in handy.

I will be sure to make use of this program. Far better than continuing to run around like the proverbial headless chicken!

A little bit of knowledge about the biological systems is a prerequisite to being a successful lifter. 100%

Also that’s a pretty aggressive cardio programme. At some point you could find it’s not quiet as restorative as detrimental to your lifting . At that point decide what more important. That’s a tenant of 531. You cant improve all things all of the time.

Fyi the run times and intensities are there for a reason. Sprints at 95%+ even short duration long rest had a detrimental effect on lifting VERY early on. Even at low level fitness. All in sprints are hard in the CNS. So never push the limits. The goal is every sprint is the same speed. If you go 100% on sprint 1 - sprints 2-16 will be much slower.
Lower intensity = longer runs.
Also shorter rests had the same effect. I’m not sure this is due to CNS or what.
Acceleration / deceleration - take 5m to get to full speed and 10m to slow down. 90% of injuries happen in the first 4 steps or in the deceleration phase.

1 Like

Appreciate the tips! I’ll keep that all in mind.

02/10/20
Decided to use some HIT stuff today too, just for fun. Will go back to straight sets later, just shaking things up.

Squat
Warmup: 20kgx10, 40x5
Set 1: 56.5x3 (3 @70%)
Set 2: 65x3 (3 @80%)
Set 3: 73x9 (3+ @90%) (needed 8, wanted 9, got 9 reps. Not an extravagantly pretty set, but it’ll do.)
FSL: 56.5x5x5 (5x5 FSL @70%)

Assistance -
Superset: Dips 7, 6, 30-sec negative dip, with chins 5, 4, 30-sec negative chin.
(Forgot to do my rack pull-ups… lol)
Pullovers 2 sets
BB curl 30-10-30
50 reps situps (interspersed with a few reps of some other ab exercises), rest-pausing my way to the target rep number.

2 Likes

03/10/20
Back to straight sets on dips and chins, but decided to keep the 30-10-30 curls for a bit longer, since I quite like them. Definitely getting the hang of these - last time I did them I had to pause between reps, but this time I made sure to push harder and keep pumping them out.

However, dips and chins aren’t really improving the way that I want them to, not sure quite what to do. I’ll see if they improve as I lose a bit of fat, but a new method of progression may be necessary.

Bench
20kgx15
Set 1: 44x3 (3 @70%)
Set 2: 50.5x3 (3 @80%)
Set 3: 56.5x8 (3+ @90%) (needed 7, wanted 8, got 8. However, I need to get 60x8 on the 5/3/1 week to beat my last 1+ record of 60x7… not sure where I’m going to find 8 reps at 60 if I just got 56.5x8, but I’ll have to find a way.)
FSL: 44x5x5 (5x5 FSL @70%)

Assistance:
Superset: dips 8, 5, 5 with chins 6, 4, 3
Rack pull-ups 2 sets
Pullovers 2 sets
BB curl 30-10-30
Weighted situps 3 sets

2 Likes

Set a rep total goal and try to get it in fewer sets.

1 Like

I had a feeling you might suggest that! Yes I think this is the way to go.

1 Like

Also was planning to do some cardio this morning but for some reason I just couldn’t wake up, which is unusual for me. I think I went to bed too late, or perhaps I was just too tired to wake up. Or maybe my alarm didn’t go off? Anyway will try fit it in at some point today.

Tabata burpees. Only takes 4 minutes.

2 Likes

Cardio this evening. Was originally planning to do 4 minutes of Tabata burpees as suggested by Pwn but I had some free time this evening so I ended up going outside to do some sprints. Didn’t go beyond the end of the driveway because it was sort of late, and it would look a bit weird running up and down the street at that hour… there is a slight gradient on the driveway though, so perhaps not the best choice. I ended up sprinting uphill and jogging back downhill, which may have screwed around with my performance.

I did this workout provided by Carl, i.e:

4 “90 second” rounds of: Sprint 40m, jog back, sprint 40m, jog back, sprint 40m, jog back, sprint 40m, jog back. 3 minute rest between rounds. Sprints were uphill and jogs downhill.

(Do I have the right understanding of the plan @carlbm? Or was I meant to start the timer, do the sprint, jog back, rest until the timer hits 90 seconds, and then go again, doing that 4 times before taking a 3 minute break?)

When I say “90 second”, I mean that it really took closer to 120 seconds for each round… whether this was due to the fact that I was running uphill, or due to the fact that I’m out of shape, I don’t know. I certainly feel a little bit out of shape. I can accept being weak at the lifts because I’m new. But there’s no excuse for getting this out of shape considering that this time last year I was pretty much at army standards (I could meet the beep test score for entry - definitely nothing spectacular, but I was definitely better than I am now, at a body comp not drastically different to where I’m at today). Really need to get at least back to that standard.

Yes this. And up hill?
No wonder you found it hard. 100% for effort.

All that running so close together will really drain you. There would have been lots of rapid acceleration and deceleration. Which will effect you.

I wouldn’t worry about it at all. If you are squatting / deadlifting any time soon you might notice it. So dont freak out.

Try it again like this:
00:00 - run 40m jog the retun
01.30 - run 40m jog the return
03.00 - run 40m jog the return
04.30 - run 40m jog the return
07.30 - start again.

1 Like

Ah right. It only occurred to me that I might be doing it wrong when it was too late lol.

Yes, there may be a small deadlift session planned for today. But hopefully I’ll be ok haha.

05/10/20

Felt pretty strong today. Not a bad session. For deadlifts, I’m still having problems with bleeding shins, so I cannibalised a clear plastic folder and slid the pieces under my tracksuit pants. Seemed to work but they did end up shifting around bit by the end. Yeah I sound like a big girl’s blouse but bleeding shins aren’t fun and I keep having to get the blood out of my pants which is a bloody pain (pun not intended) - God knows chalk is messy enough as it is.

Deadlift
Warmup: 60kgx5
Set 1: 85x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 96x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 107.5x7 (1+ @95%) (needed 7, wanted 8, got 7. Bit disappointed but hey it’s a PR.)
FSL: 85x5x5 (5x5 FSL @75%)

Assistance:
Superset: dips with chins, using Pwn’s suggested system of setting a rep goal and trying to do them in as few sets as possible. Rep goals was 24 reps for each, but on the last set I still pushed as far as I could and didn’t stop just because I had hit the rep goal. Dips: 8, 7, 6, 4 (25 reps, 4 sets), with chins 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2 (25 reps, 7 sets). Once I hit the rep goal for dips I just kept doing straight sets of chins to hit the rep goal for chins.
Rack pull-ups, feet elevated on bench, 2 sets - probably a better way of doing it.
Pullovers 2 sets
BB curls 30-10-30. Decided to make these a regular feature of the program.
Weighted situps 3 sets

3 Likes

Unfortunately somewhat unavoidable. I’m assuming your wearing pants instead of shorts already. I have some synthetic fabric style long johns I wear under my shorts when I deadlift and they help quite a bit, almost like yoga pants but more slippery.

They also make deadlift socks with a padded shin, I have a pair but am not a fan of them. Pwn and Carl may be able to recommend you a good pair though.

1 Like

Not me; I think they are silly, haha.

2 Likes

Yep I always use long pants for deadlifting. I might experiment with your idea of wearing some sort of legging underneath them, it sounds like a good plan.

Lol. Yeah I’ve never liked them either. I might keep an eye out for something like that regardless, so if anyone else has suggestions feel free to recommend some.

1 Like

I just gave up the pants because I would bleed through and wear them. When you start to put 3 plates anyway, a pants didn’t made no difference to me. I have accepted my fate ahahah

Well you still did a PR!

1 Like

07/10/20

Yesterday night’s workout report…

Weird workout… not bad, just weird. It’ll become clear what I mean when I show the numbers. It was also a late night workout, so I was low on time. So I had to curtail the session by making some adjustments.

Press
Warmup: 20kgx7
Set 1: 38.5x5 (5 @75%)
Set 2: 44x3 (3 @85%)
Set 3: 49x7 (1+ @95%) (needed 7). Got to rep 6, felt it getting tough, but knew I needed 7. Probably turned my entire lumbar spine into a fine dust in the process… I kid, I kid. It was a grind, yes, but I lived to tell the tale.
Superset - FSL: 38.5x5x5 (5x5 FSL @75%) (decided to clean the bar from the floor for each set), with chins 7 (just), 5, 4, 4, 4. Surprisingly, and weirdly, good performance on these chins. But my hands were bloody tired by the end of this superset. 24 reps chins, 5 sets.
Dips: 6, 6, 5, 7. (24 reps dips, 4 sets), Weird rep counts, I thought I was pushing each set pretty hard. Apparently not, perhaps, since I improved as I progressed, despite taking relatively short rests (60-70 sec instead of 90-100 sec as usual.)
Pullovers 2 sets

As I mentioned, not much time for accessory stuff today, so had to cut some stuff out.

1 Like

Also some cardio to report this morning. Used Carl’s second workout:

Not sure if it was exactly 100m but I think close enough. Didn’t find this ridiculously hard to be honest, perhaps should have pushed it harder. Then again my other cardio workouts felt approximately like hell on earth so it’s all relative.

On the cardio front, my swimming is starting again next week after a layoff due to covid. 2 sessions a week, 1 hour each. May begin to interfere with recovery, so I will need to keep a close eye on that.

It’s easy now because it is meant to be easy.

I use the same philosophy for CV work as I do weights. Start low and slow.

Otherwise you could jump in - do 10 x 150m sprints in 20 mins and then run your next weeks training.
You need to find your goldilocks zone.

Just enough work so that your seeing result; but not so much you cant recover.

It might take 3-4 weeks to get it right. But if you get it wrong and push too hard you end up burnt out.

If it really is too easy make bigger jumps in difficulty. But be mind full. It’s not just the on the day preform you need to manage. It’s how you respond over all.

It’s always best when adding to your training to do so slowly. Especially as you are in calorie deficit. You are already restricting your bodies ability to recover. You don’t want to fuel onto that fire.

2 Likes