Boatguy's DH/BFB/Juggernaut/Smolov Jr-Road back to 405FS

10 June 2018
First Wave/Week 2/Day 1

Chasing that DeadBod

MetCon - 10, 8, 6, 4 reps of:
-1 Hand KB Swing (53#, each hand)
-Burpees
-skip rope x 4 - 8:30

30:00 ME - 1RM (275 x 5 before clock)
–deadlift 3 x 315/365/1 x 405/455/500(PR)
–70# KB swing x 5
–Pallof press x 8/side 40/50/50/50/65
–SGHP from hang 185 x 3

15:00 Volume - 3 x 5 @ 80% 1RM
–405 x 5, 5, 5

10:00 DE - 55% Front Squat

  • 210 x 3 EMOM

Conditioning: Ladder 1 - 5, 5 - 1
Double KB Clean(53#)
Burpee

MetCon went good, breathing and heart rate increased of course but never got to that point of anything feeling ‘dead’(got that from Karen the other day, but it didn’t seem to affect my bench workout). After I finished and was writing down the time, I realized I was supposed to do a set of 1 arm KB snatches after each set of swings in the sequence. Oh well, I’ll have to throw those in next time I do that metcon.

Felt pretty good going in, and the bar just kept gliding up with pretty good speed as I progressed. I knew going in I would get 500, but was still pretty pumped. Considered going for 520, but time was getting short and I wanted to end on a high note rather than miss - 500 is still a PR for me. It felt pretty solid, and I credit that to using proper bracing (as learned from one of Brian’s other videos). I’ll post video of my 500 single after this write up.

Volume was the dick dragger, but then it usually is. 405 x 5 just is not that fun, even after a PR single.

Dynamic effort felt alright, I expected 210 for speed triples to feel slow and heavy, but it didn’t feel any worse than 190 last week. I concentrate on driving up hard, but it’s hard to really ‘feel’ explosive when you’re squatting almost ATG (yes, I use squat shoes for this).

Didn’t really feel the need for any assistance, but my head was still in it so I cranked out a quick conditioning circuit. Forgot to write down the time, but it was under 10. Training felt pretty good overall, especially with the PR - most I’ve done before was 485 and my back was like ‘fuck you’ for a couple days after. We’ll see how it liked 500.

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Solid work man. Good to see you cranking out PRs on this plan too

https://youtu.be/0-5sxVBzL3I

Thanks man, after 445 x 5 last week I knew I had 500. If this gets me back to 405 (or better) on front squat, I’ll be real happy.

Not sure why the vid didn’t post straight in, rather than the link…

Nice lift man!

11 June 2018
First Wave/Week 2/Day 2

MetCon - 15, 12, 10 reps of:
-burpees
-95# thrusters (CF says your butt should hit a medball on the ground every rep - f that, mine are more like push presses)
8:00

30:00 ME - 5RM (10 BW pullups before the clock)
– weighted pull up 40/50/55/55/60
– OHP 85/95/105/115/125
– hanging leg raise x 10
– med ball slam 20# x 10

15:00 Volume - 3 x 10 @ 80% 5RM
–100 x 10, 10, 10

10:00 DE - 55% bench

  • 175 x 3 EMOM

15:00 Assistance - 5 rounds (actually took 12:00 total)
– BW pull up to chest x 3
– KB bottom up press 22 x 5/side
–lateral raise 25 x 10

MetCon smoked me again, was almost on autopilot through most of the strength work - on the second or third set, I actually forgot to complete the giant set after pull ups and OHP. Didn’t realize it until I had added weight and was moving on. Started feeling normal again on the last set or two.

DE for bench is interesting. Not sure how else to do it, so I give a brief pause at the bottom on each rep, then drive up as hard and fast as I can. Like I said earlier, no bands or chains (wonder if I could get one of the locals to make me a pair of weight releasers? hmmmmm…). Felt kinda worn out toward the end, but still had time left so I made sure to get the assistance work done. Kinda liking the bottoms-up KB press, it’s challenging in a good way. What sucks is, I found this 10kg/22lb KB today. Next heavier KB is 35, so way too much of a jump for this lift. I’ll stick with what I’ve got, till I get home. Gym at home has them in 5 pound increments so maybe I’ll be able to move up then.

Not much else to add for today. Like I have said, OHP has always been my weakest lift. With some of the other progress I’ve already seen, I’m hoping this program will help on that as well.

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12 June 2018
Recovery/Arms

30:00 treadmill walk, approx. 4mph/4 inc

A. (Screw Curl 30 x 10 warm up set) Incline Curl - 35 x 9, 9, 9, 9
B. Dip - (BW x 10 w/u), 50 x 8, 8, 8, 8
C. KB Stabilization - 35 x 8, 8 (flat to side), 8, 8 (half TGU)

Easy day again, seems to be helping with the rest of the program (or at least not hindering). Thought I did screw curls a few days ago, didn’t mean to repeat incline curls this close together. We just got a dip station for our Rogue cage, so I figured I’d throw some in - haven’t done dips in a while. Rounded the routine off with lying KB stabilizations since I’ve been having some nagging aches and pains in my right shoulder (slept on it wrong), though once I was done I think four sets was one too many. Both shoulders felt a little tight and pumped, which was not the point.

Tomorrow is front squat again, 3RM.

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Here for the log, and for ideas. (Self bought garage gym on a budget requires some innovation)

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13 June 2018
First Wave/Week 2/Day 3

MetCon - complex 3 rounds x 8 reps per move (95, 115, 115) just under 10:00
-bent over row
-deadlift
-power clean
-front squat
-push press
-back squat

30:00 ME - 3RM (135 x 5 before clock)
-front squat 5 x 185/3 x 225/255/285/315/335
-38" box jump x 3
-weighted decline sit up 10#MB x 10

Volume - 3 x 8 @ 80% 3RM
-265 x 8, 8, 8

10:00 DE - 55% SGHP from pins

  • 185 x 3 EMOM

Assistance
-cable goblet squat 140 x 20, 20, 20

I cheated a little on the second and third rounds of the MetCon complex - I did it right in front of a rack, so after the power cleans I racked it briefly to set the front squat, again to reset my hands for the push press (thumbless grip), and again to set a high bar squat. Doing this helped my form immensely from the first round - I’ve never had the mobility to transition a clean into a proper rack position (with elbows up), which then makes my front squat suffer.

That complex smoked me a little more than I expected, and legs still felt wobbly going into the ME phase. This worked itself out in the first set or two, and was able to increase weight with no issue.

Volume work (265 x 8) was a little tough, but not too bad. Got through it in around 5:00, that’s why I didn’t put ‘15:00’ above.

SGHP’s started flying up on the third or fourth set, then back to ‘normal’ on the last one or two. I’ve loved that move ever since I learned it - saw it years ago somewhere else, but never put much effort into it. Rediscovered it here a while back, trained it the way Thibs recommends, and my traps have exploded in a way shrugs never did for me. Also adds that ‘explosive’ element to my training, which always helps. Just started adding box jumps back in on this program. I used to pair them with squats when I was doing 531, but when I dropped those the box jumps went with them. Sucky thing is when I get home, the gym I train at doesn’t have a proper set of boxes - just one metal frame one around 24 or so high, not near high enough to challenge me. (I’m no Dr Jay, just saying. My best box jump was 42" IIRC, and I’m currently using 38")

For assistance (finally did some for legs), I did these guys (cable goblet squats) again. Had started doing a similar move while I was home this last time - holding a heavy DB (home gym stops at 120s) vertically similar to a sumo DL position, standing on blocks to give the ROM for deep squats. Gym here only has 70s (and we just got a pair of 100s), so I started using the cable stack and switched to a goblet squat grip instead. 20 reps sets of these smoke the quads, especially that last set. Wish I’d thought of using the cable at home, would have made set up a lot easier, as well as allowing me to have already increased the weight.

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14 June 2018
First Wave/Week 2/Day 4

10:00 MetCon - EMOM (70# KB)
-1 - 1 pull up/2 burpees/3 KB Swings/4 jumping lunges
-2 - 2 pull up/3 burpees/4 KB Swings/5 jumping lunges
-3 - 3 pull up/4 burpees/5 KB swings/6 jumping lunges
-4 - 4 pull up/5 burpees/6 KB Swings/7 jumping lunges
-5 - 5 pull up/6 burpees/7 KB Swings/8 jumping lunges
-6 - rested (finished previous round right at the minute mark)
-7 - 4 pull up/5 burpees/6 KB swings/7 jumping lunges
-8 - rested (finished previous round right at the minute mark)
-9 - 3 pull up/4 burpees/5 KB Swings/6 jumping lunges
-10- 2 pull up/3 burpees/4 KB Swings/5 jumping lunges

30:00 ME - 1RM (135 x 10 before clock)
-cable row 8 x 130 (all sets)
-bench 5 x 185/3 x 225/1 x 245/265/295/315
-dragon flag x 8
3 foot butt walk (70#KB)

Volume - 3 x 5 @ 80% 1RM
-250 x 5, 5, 5

10:00 DE - 55% kneeling scrape the rack press

  • 80 x 3 EMOM

Assistance - 3 rounds
Incline DB Press - 45 x 10, 10, 10
Rear Delt Flye - 15 x 15, 15, 15

This MetCon sucked the big one. Haven’t felt that burning in my chest in a while, took a while to go away. Or maybe my conditioning sucks the big one - but then, bodyweight calisthenic type stuff has always wrecked me. Probably why I never do it. :slight_smile: Doesn’t help that I’m training outside, in 80 degrees and about 80% humidity.

ME work went decent, feel like I should have done the warm up set at 185 instead of 135. 315 felt alright, would have liked to have gotten more weight but that will do for now. I’ve never done much more than that anyway, I think 335 is my all time best (not counting 370 x 1 on a tren cycle once…that was insane). Might drop the butt walk, not sure what I’m getting out of it (even with 70#). Maybe throw in a short bout of skipping rope or something.

The volume work - this was one of those ‘interesting’ sections where the first set is a bit of a grinder, the second set is smooth as silk, and the third set damn near flies up on it’s own. Always love hitting that ‘zone’.

DE and assistance - same ol same ol. Nothing much to add.

15 June 2018
Conditioning/Arms

30:00 Treadmill incline walk - 4inc/4mph

A. Screw Curl - 30 x 10/45 x 8, 8, 8, 8
B. EOE - 35 x 10/45 x 8, 8, 8
1 Arm Pressdown ‘Infinity’ Singles - 35 x 5, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Easy cardio day again, just getting the HR up into cardiac output territory. Followed with arms, as usual. Starting to feel some minor elbow discomfort during this (as well as mid forearm), might have to drop direct arm training for a bit.

Cut the EOE one set short, since I had wanted to give the Infinity Single thing a try - it was just posted as a training Tip here on TN. Basically, choose a weight which will give you about 5 reps. Then do 5 on one arm, immediately switch to the other arm for another set of 5. Continue going back and forth, with each arm only getting as much rest as the time it takes for the opposite arm to work. You get down to singles pretty quickly, but then you end up doing a bunch of singles (as referenced above). While I don’t notice much pump with EOEs, this protocol pumped and burned the shit out of my tris. And just to defend my numbers a little - 35 doesn’t look like much, but the stack I used only had a pulley for redirection of pull, not one on top of the weight (and therefore no mechanical advantage - just 1:1).

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My elbows and middle forearms get cranky of I’m doing regular pull-ups without direct forearm work or am doing lots of upper arm work with no direct forearms. Screw curls seem to piss of my elbows after a few weeks, too.

The compromise I’ve found works for me is to superset behind the back standing wrist curls* with EZ curl bar reverse curls, which I initiate with a reverse wrist curl then curl the bar up. I generally do 3 sets of 20-25 behind back wrist curls and sets of 10-12 reverse curls, with 30 seconds’ rest between sets. They. Burn. I follow with 3x12-15 of single arm triceps cable pressdowns, using the ball stopper on the cable as my grip instead of an attachment bar.

At 40 years old, I’m finally learning which exercise combos make my elbows feel good and function well, too.

*standing with a barbell behind the back, palms facing away from the body, let the barbell roll down to the fingertips then roll it up with my fingers then curl up with my wrists in one smooth motion

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My elbows don’t usually give me any grief, but in addition to my lifting days (4x/week) I’ve been doing two direct arm days as well as hitting tris after main lifting sessions on those days as well. I’ve been focusing on bringing my arms back up where they used to be, it’s been paying off but recently I’ll feel some elbow discomfort when doing arm work. I’ve dropped the extra tri days already, and due to my current lifting routine I’ve cut the volume about in half on arm days. We’ll see how that works for me.

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16 June 2018
First Wave/Week 3/Day 1

Deadonmyfeetlift

MetCon - 10, 8, 6, 4 reps of (12:30 total)

  • 1 arm KB swing (each hand)
  • 1 arm KB snatch (each hand)
  • burpees
  • skip rope x 4

30:00 ME - 3RM (275 x 5 before clock)

  • deadlift 3 x 315/365/405/455/475
  • KB Swing (2x53KB x 5 reps)
  • Pallof press x 8/side 65#
  • SGHP from hang 195 x 3

Volume - 3 x 8 @ 80% 1RM

  • 380 x 8, 8, 8

10:00 DE - 60% front squat

  • 225 x 3 EMOM

Deadlift days seem to just crush me. I felt worn out for most of this workout, and wasted a lot of time as a result. I did the same metcon last week, but I made sure and did the snatches (like I was supposed to last week but forgot). Holy shit. That added four minutes, and kicked my ass. That put my metcon time over ten minutes - not sure if the ten minute thing was a ‘guideline’, or a hard and fast rule. Either way, I missed that mark.

Took about as long between metcon and ME as the metcon took on it’s own. Finally got started on Me work, and cranked through it as well as I could. Once I got the ball rolling, the drive and motivation was there. The issue was every ‘in-between’ period, that was where I was adding a bunch of time. After doing 445 x 5 the first week, I set a goal of blowing that away for a 3RM today. It was a hell of a grinder, but I was fairly happy after 475 x 3 - if for no other reason than I was done deadlifting. Then I remembered the volume sets, and I wasn’t happy anymore. Dug through those, and then set up for front squats. 225 is ‘about’ 60% for me right now, but it didn’t feel like dynamic work. Wasn’t necessarily slow, just didn’t feel explosive like you would think dynamic work should be. Debating on keeping DE work between 50 and 55% for front squat - we’ll see how this week goes.

After DE work, I was well past the 1:30 mark and didn’t have the energy to care about doing any more work. Funny, looking back it felt like today’s workout sucked, but the numbers are good. Guess that just shows how little energy I had.

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Time is a guideline not hard and fast man. Just trim it down next time!

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That’s a lot of work for your elbows to be doing, so it’s not surprising they’re feeling it. Decreasing the volume may be all your elbows need.

17 June 2018
First Wave/Week 3/Day 2

To OHP or not to OHP…

MetCon - 1-5- pyramid (7:50 total)

  • burpee pullups
  • 95# thrusters

30:00 ME - 1RM (65 x 5 OHP before clock)

  • weighted pull up 3 x 40/50/60/1 x 70/70
  • OHP 3 x 95/115/1 x 135/155/155*/missed at 165
  • 20#MB reverse crunch x 10
  • 20# MB slam x 10

Volume - 3 x 5 @ 80% 1RM

  • pullup - 55 x 5, 5, 5
  • OHP - 125 x 5, 5, 5

10:00 DE - explosive pushup to plate stacks (2x 45# bumper plates each side)

  • BW x 3 EMOM

Assistance - 3 rounds

  • BW pull up to chest x 3
  • half kneeling KB bottom up press x 5/side (1 - 20#, 2 - 2.5# plate on top, 3 - 5# plate on top)
  • lateral raise 25 x 10

Felt pretty good going in, seriously thought I was going to get more weight than I did. Did two singles at 155 because I forgot to add weight between giant sets. Went back for another at 165, and could barely get it past my chin. Was pissed about that, cause 155 was a bit of a grind but went up pretty smooth, so it didn’t occur to me to try again at 160 (literally thought of it just now writing this, smh). Ah, well, shouldn’t be surprised, I’ve said multiple times that OHP is my weakest lift - always has been.

Moved into volume, that went pretty smooth. Did weighted pull ups along with OHP, since I didn’t do much volume of pull ups.

Moved from that into DE, had planned to do flat bench again, but figured I’d try something different. Stacked two 45# bumper plates on either side of me, popped off the ground with each rep kind of like clapping push ups but just planted my hands on the plates instead. Walked hands back down to reset and go again, no hopping on the hands for this guy (these aren’t depth jumps).

Did the same assistance as last week again, except tried the half-kneeling position and tried balancing plates on the KB this time. Lost the 5 midway through the last set, had to reset to continue - wishing our KB’s made proper incremental jumps (5-10-15-etc) rather than a big hole between 20 and 35. Thinking next week I’ll grab some duct tape and strap that bitch up, as well as trying these as an ‘activation’ lift before OHP, as has been recommended on TN before. Couldn’t hurt, since my press already sucks.

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18 June 2018
Cardio/Conditioning

500m Row - 1:45ish
3 rounds (2:00 on/1:00 off) heavy bag
500m Row - 1:40ish
20:00 tempo intervals

Took a few minutes between the first row and starting the heavy bag, forgot to set a couple things up (like a round timer). Jumped rope for a minute to get the HR back up, then started the bag rounds. Wasn’t going balls to the wall, but kept a good pace up. Was using borrowed gloves, my employer paid for them and keeps them in the gym so when I took my hands out they smelled like feet. Grabbed my can of Lotrimin foot spray and gave the gloves a good coating on the inside - hopefully helps. Then I went and washed the funk off my hands. Did the second row, then immediately went in the cardio room to do the tempo intervals on the treadmill(s). Set one treadmill at 12 inc and 12 kph (about 7.5 give or take) and the other flat at 4.5 kph (just realized that’s not even 3mph…whatever). About 15 seconds on the fast one, followed by 35 on the slow one. With transitioning back and forth, that puts each round right at 1:00. Did that for 20:00, checked my heart rate toward the end and it was about 150. So, not a super strenuous day, but enough to get something out of it.

So, I was going to keep rolling on a 6-day training week (2 days lifting, 1 day cardio, 2 days lifting, 1 day cardio, and start over), but I think that is part of the reason I’ve felt so crushed from this. I’ve done the 6-day thing in the past with Juggernaut with no issues, but this is admittedly quite a bit more intense of a program. From here till I head home, I’m going to do a 1-on/1-off (lift/cardio) schedule and see if that helps with recovery for the next lifting session. Once I’m home I’ll adjust the schedule again (MWFSa), as well as making some shifts in lifting days. Front squat is my ‘favorite’ lift, so I’ll move that to day 1 and slide deadlift back.

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I’ve done GVT sessions that lasted 2+hrs that were killer, while eating keto, but this darkhorse is by far the most demanding on my recovery I’ve ever tackled.

Pffft. I’ve never completed a GVT session. I usually quit around the 7th or 8th set of the first workout and go back to whatever program I was on before.