The Pastabilities Are Endless Spaghetti and Meatballs

Training Logs
101

Finances are… tight. I’m not quite paycheck to paycheck, but I have a busted window in the garage I’m getting fixed, the garage floods, and my barbell is bent, so it’s more all the other shit that’s making it expensive.

I work in a warehouse and I’m surrounded by uline books, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to use them to get one of those big ass fans. That’s my first option I think. Short of waking up at 4 am to lift, which is not my thing personally. Also I don’t think my roommate/gf would appreciate deadlift day.

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102

Early morning or late evening workouts.

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103

Late evening is an option. My biggest motivator to get my ass in there every day is I don’t stop after work. Work, come home, chug various supplements, jump in the garage, don’t sit down. So I’d have to get over that hurdle first.

104

When you want it, you will find a way.

Last year I got up at 4 drove to the gym got there at 5-5:15 to workout done by 6:45 and took a cold shower (no hot water available). Went to work at 7:30. I did that for 3 months. It sucked. But I wanted the results so I made the sacrifice.

Go get it killa.

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105

Check out Squirrel Cage Fans or Blower fans like this
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They can move a lot of air, and a small one may be cheaper than a big propeller style floor fan or AC unit.

Also holding something cold, like 2 ice packs on the sides of your neck (over your arteries maybe?) can help keep your brains from boiling. Maybe you could put something cold around your neck between sets?

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106

Hog: you’re absolutely right. I never dreamed I’d afford an effective garage gym, and here I am. A bit of a fun fact really quick, my girlfriend of 8 years is diagnosed with Narcolepsy, and she can sleep though -LITERALLY- anything. That is not an exaggeration. Which unfortunately I had to adapt to. So I have a clinically hard time waking up. However, I think I’ll try my luck at lifting late Thursday and see how it feels.

Flats: bingo bango, that’s awesome. I’ll flip through some books at work tomorrow and see what I come up with. The heat certainly isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Also I want to say I appreciate the few of you on here. I came here looking for an easier alternative, and you guys simply provided ideas to keep the workout just as hard while giving me ideas to make it work. It seems super simple looking at it now, but you stick with a pattern for so long, it’s hard to think outside the box.

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107

Once you get a hold of whatever fan you get, you could make it a little better by going the swamp cooler route. Basically, just put a bowl of water right under the air stream from the fan. The air blowing over the water surface increases evaporation, and then cools and moves those evaporated water molecules with the air stream. Can drop the temp a few degrees, from what I’ve been told. Only issue is it (obviously) increases humidity to some degree. Worth trying, but if you keep your garage closed up while you’re lifting, I’d open it and blow that humid air out the door after you’re done.

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108

Hold ice in your hands during your rest. For whatever reason, this will keep your core temperature down. My old high school cross country coach taught me this, he’d have ice for us on long runs in the summer and at the start of races early in the season when it was 90+ out.

Edit: even better idea could be a bucket of ice water to dunk your hands in. Distance running is a sport where ideal temps are somewhere around 50 degrees, cold enough to keep you cool and warm enough to where you don’t need to layer up. In elite marathoning, 70+ is considered hot. In my experience, long runs in 90 degree heat can slow you down by 30-45 seconds per mile. When you’re an experienced runner, 10-15 seconds per mile is a pretty big deal.

Just saying this to give a little context about how important temps are for running and how much the ice trick really helped

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109

I’m in NC too, so feel your pain! I usually lift in my garage as well (although do have a portable AC unit so not quite as rough) and with the heat everything’s feeling heavy as shit and I have no energy - havent puked yet though ; ).
There’s a gym here i can go to so I’m planning on doing that until it cools down a bit. But if that’s not an option for you ice packs/water should help you out some.

110

UPDATE

OHP DAY W2 D2

  • Conditioning
  • Push Press Giant Set
    -Pull Ups 8 Reps +25lbs x 4 sets
    -Push Press 5 Reps 95/115/135/155
    -R. Twists 15/15/20/20
    -Tire Flips 6x4
  • Push Press Volume
    • 10x125 8x125 8x125 4x125 (gassed)
  • Bench EMOM
    -10x3 190lbs

SQUAT DAY W2 D2

  • Conditioning
  • Paused Squat Giant Set (2sec pause)
    -Hip Thrust 4x10
    -Paused Squat 3rep 135/185/225/245/265
    -Leg Raise 10/10/15/15/15
    -Burpees 5x8
  • Paused Squat Volume (could only hold pauses on first set, devolved into regular squats)
    -205x12 205x8 205x8
  • Deadlift EMOM
    -10x3 205lbs

BENCH DAY W2 D2

  • Conditioning
  • Incline Press Giant Set
    -BB Rows 135x8 135x8 155x8 155x8 185x8
    -Incline Press 135x5 185x5 205x5 245x3 275x1
    -Hanging Leg Raise 5x10
    -Jumping Jacks 5x45s
  • Incline Press Volume
    -220x7 220x5 220x5
  • OHP EMOM
    -10x3 100lbs

DEADLIFT DAY W2 D3

  • Conditioning
  • Deficit Deadlift Giant Set (-3")
    -Leg Curls 4x8 50lbs
    -D. Deadlift 3rep 205/255/305/335
    -R. Twist 4x30
    -Battle Rope 30s 30s 40s 40s
  • Possibly Dying

Like I said, I’ve been swamped, but I should be back on board next week. That being said, I haven’t really had time to take any mental notes on anything. I will say my incline bench saw a dramatic increase just over 2 weeks, taking into consideration my body probably had no idea what the hell I was doing for the first week, but still.

Working out later starting Thursday. The heat can eat a dick.

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111

So, tragically, final(ish) update. (For now)

Basically, work is up 200%. I’m exhausted, have no energy, and haven’t had the drive to work out for almost a week (I still have) I just haven’t had my spirit in it. I know it’s all about the grind, yadda yadda, but I’m not training to compete, and its lost it’s fun. Not to mention work is suffering from being completely taxed, which is simply more important.

That being said, I want to do a quick recap of the 7ish weeks I actually completed.

It truly was the most difficult program I’ve ever attempted. However, I learned more about my own body, lifts, Que’s, limits, and general knowledge than I have in the last 8 years. It was fun, and maybe when it’s not the worst possible conditions, I might give it another honest try. (Thinking winter?)

I’m maxing this week for shits and giggles, and because I may have taken a good 4 day vacation for my birthday, so I’m pretty primed. And I’ll post those results just for anyone curious.

HUGE thanks to Brian, as I’ve mentioned, ive never gained so much knowledge from all the YouTube videos I’ve watched combined. I’ll be incorporating A LOT of these ideas in my future workouts.

Also thanks to the dudes following this, I had every intention of completing it, and I’m not exactly happy with my choice, but I simply need to back off a little.

Anyways, my next few posts will just be my maxes as I do them. First being bench, because I wanted to have a little fun:

Bench Press:
8×225
5x275
3x305
3x325
1x350

For what it’s worth, my all time PR was back in high school about 8 years ago at 345lbs. And my starting max for this was… 315 or 325? I can’t be bothered to backtrack. So this is already an insane improvement and I think it speaks volumes alone. Also my shoulder pain has all but vanished since this workout, I guess from all the giant sets with rows.

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112

Hey Chaos
Sorry to hear you have to end it.
It is a tough one I agree.
You did your shot and got hit by life. Things happens.
Looking forward to see the progress on the other lifts.

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113

Family and work should still be the #1 priority for everyone. Sad it’s cutting into the lifting, but that’s life. Looking forward to seeing your maxes, good luck with everything!

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114

Dude it was super fun watching you work through this. I’m glad you posted exactly what is going down with you instead of just disappearing or making some stuff up. I can’t wait to see how your numbers grew!

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115

I appreciate it guys, thanks!

Today was actually mildly underwhelming to me. I “maxed” my deadlift (when I started I hit 375 with a belt for 5, which was all the weight i had). I still only have 375, but I did hit 375 beltless for 8 reps. I don’t know what I was expecting, it’s definitely improvement, but I have no idea what that actually shows.

Also, update, I’ve been kind of fumbling through workout ideas, and I’m really liking… I guess you could call it an economy Dark Horse program. Something a little less intense.

My favorite part of this program was the variety. I get extremely bored when workouts get more… advanced? I loved the simple upper body/lower body with an accessory lift workouts we did in high school. But you just can’t maintain that. After a certain strength level, or you know… injury level, it just has to advance… so I’m incorporating a lot of that variety moving forward.

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116

I’m in (or will be in) a similar boat. Coming home from this trip, I will be staying home for the fall semester to knock out some science courses locally. I plan on continuing this program through the end of my trip, but after that I intend to go back to Juggernaut (most likely). I’ve actually been kicking around the idea of doing Built For Bad when I get home up until I start school, and then going back to Juggernaut. While I have historically been able to hit lifting programs pretty hard and recover with no issue, Dark Horse has been another animal entirely (I mentioned on my log how I had to adjust the training days to continue it). Some form of maxing out on every single lifting day is just wearing me out, and I hate leaving the gym feeling like a bag of hammered assholes. Juggernaut fatigues me, but by the time I leave the gym and drive the (literally) five minutes back to my house, I’m feeling much better (usually). Dark Horse is kicking my ass in such a way that I still feel worn out a couple hours later - I’m thinking that won’t be conducive to my return to college, especially taking three sciences (BIO I, CHEM I, A&P I) which I need to crush grade-wise. It’s been an interesting run, but unless I hit some ‘groove’ or something in the near future, I’m gonna chalk this program up as ‘not for me’.

Long story short, I feel your pain brother.

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117

@loganator @boatguy

So I’ve been forward thinking to what program next? I’ll probably go back to 531 simply strength and mix up the secondary exercises every three weeks. The one thing I’m glad I have done this darkhorse program for is teaching variation and getting an idea of what each of those exercises do and don’t do.

Learning to switch things up every three weeks or so is a huge plus. I may run building the monolith. After football I may run deathbench.

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118

CT just announced built for battle

Looks very interesting and not as demanding as built for bad.

119

Yeah, I had skimmed it and moved on, and then went back and read the whole thing before I went to bed this morning. Will update on my log.

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120

Figure I’ll just piggyback off my Darkhorse log.

So I’ve been battling shoulder pain for a while. Well, right about the time I felt like I was overcoming my front delt pain, my rear felt went to complete shit. Fortunately feels like a strain, opposed to rotator cuff direct.

For the first part of this, I have questions and ideas, the second part will be a simple log holding myself accountable for actually doing it.

My goal is to take time to rebuild my shoulders and get them healthy again. I’m battling pain in the rear delt with anything overhead. I’m sick of ignoring it, so here we go.

My starting plan is:

Getting my feet wet with 5/3/1, thinking about incorporating 2 shoulder days due to the light load.

  1. OHP: 5x15 empty barbell, to “grease the groove” so to say. Get my body used to the movement.

  2. Landmine (or) dumbbell press: 3x10. This will be my bread and butter, hopefully regaining some strength with a more natural movement.

  3. Lateral raise/lying dumbbell ext rotation superset 3x12: for getting some work on my rear delts, and general size. Superset because these are boring as hell, and I dont want to spend too long on them.

  4. Use spare time to nail in some core and conditioning.

GENERAL: an absolute overload of band pull aparts from all angles, face pulls, and chest/lat stretching. Daily? Every other day?

So… what can be cut due to uselessness, or has a more productive alternative? What is practical progression from this point? Is my logic completely flawed? Thanks in advance!

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