Cephalic Carnage: How Do You Train?

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.[/quote]

x2

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.[/quote]

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
A German that doesnā€™t drink beer???

My world is shatteredā€¦[/quote]

He also wears dresses and touches hamsters.

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.[/quote]

x2

Thanks CC for all the tips, much appreciated

[quote]MeinHerzBrennt wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

x2

Thanks CC for all the tips, much appreciated[/quote]

x3

ā€¦And for the technical death metal recommendations. :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG[/quote]

Zak khan bro, heā€™s an animal.

[quote]300andabove wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
A German that doesnā€™t drink beer???

My world is shatteredā€¦

He also wears dresses and touches hamsters.
[/quote]

Inappropriately?

[quote]That One Guy wrote:
300andabove wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
A German that doesnā€™t drink beer???

My world is shatteredā€¦

He also wears dresses and touches hamsters.

Inappropriately? [/quote]

Which implies that you know of an appropriate way to touch themā€¦

Which is far, far worse for you, son.

C_C is bad ass. Gave me a great routine. I think heā€™s bigger than X but not sure.

Lay it on us, man.

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:

Which implies that you know of an appropriate way to touch themā€¦

Which is far, far worse for you, son.

C_C is bad ass. Gave me a great routine. I think heā€™s bigger than X but not sure.

Lay it on us, man.
[/quote]

Wow CC you really have em fooled huh ^^

Ich bin nur Messing mit Ihnen, sie verdienen alle Lob, fĆ¼r ihre harte Arbeit !

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG[/quote]

CC

[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
That One Guy wrote:
300andabove wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
A German that doesnā€™t drink beer???

My world is shatteredā€¦

He also wears dresses and touches hamsters.

Inappropriately?

Which implies that you know of an appropriate way to touch themā€¦

Which is far, far worse for you, son.

C_C is bad ass. Gave me a great routine. I think heā€™s bigger than X but not sure.

Lay it on us, man.
[/quote]

would you mind sharing said routine or is it super customized?

[quote]300andabove wrote:
PonceDeLeon wrote:

Which implies that you know of an appropriate way to touch themā€¦

Which is far, far worse for you, son.

C_C is bad ass. Gave me a great routine. I think heā€™s bigger than X but not sure.

Lay it on us, man.

Wow CC you really have em fooled huh ^^
[/quote] Dunno man, they still donā€™t send me money so I think my master-plan isnā€™t really workingā€¦ [quote]

Ich bin nur Messing mit Ihnen, sie verdienen alle Lob, fƃĀ¼r ihre harte Arbeit ![/quote] Messing = brass. :wink: [quote]

:wink:
[/quote]
Iā€™ve come down a tad over 20 lbs over the last half-year slowly (unfortunately lost more than just fatā€¦ My delts have taken a hit especially, due to the unavailability of a smith for high-inclines as well as lack of DBā€™s over 100 lbsā€¦ At least I have the right DBā€™s now).

X is atm heavier than Iā€™ve ever been, and Iā€™d say heā€™s carrying less fat than I was in the 290ā€™s.

Anyway, glad things are working for you, Ponce!

[quote]Trenchant wrote:
PonceDeLeon wrote:
That One Guy wrote:
300andabove wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
A German that doesnā€™t drink beer???

My world is shatteredā€¦

He also wears dresses and touches hamsters.

Inappropriately?

Which implies that you know of an appropriate way to touch themā€¦

Which is far, far worse for you, son.

C_C is bad ass. Gave me a great routine. I think heā€™s bigger than X but not sure.

Lay it on us, man.

would you mind sharing said routine or is it super customized?[/quote]

Itā€™s actually fairly basic, but it fits well with his overall-situation.
Nothing magic in there, though, pretty similar to what I was doing when I started out.

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
Dirty Gerdy wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG

CC[/quote]

Lol, I wish.
Wait, Iā€™ll take my face over his, but with his physiqueā€¦
Zack Khan sure is one thick mofo.

Zak is a beast,
Absolutely enormous in real life, the pictures donā€™t really do the bloke justice.

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
Dirty Gerdy wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG

CC

Lol, I wish.
Wait, Iā€™ll take my face over his, but with his physiqueā€¦
Zack Khan sure is one thick mofo.

[/quote]

[quote]Vegg wrote:
MeinHerzBrennt wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

x2

Thanks CC for all the tips, much appreciated

x3

ā€¦And for the technical death metal recommendations. :P[/quote]

You can send some back my way anytimeā€¦ Easy to miss some of the best stuff coming outā€¦

[quote]Iā€™ve come down a tad over 20 lbs over the last half-year slowly (unfortunately lost more than just fatā€¦ My delts have taken a hit especially, due to the unavailability of a smith for high-inclines as well as lack of DBā€™s over 100 lbsā€¦ At least I have the right DBā€™s now).
[/quote]

Would you mind sharing how much youā€™ve done for high-inclines before? :slight_smile: 600? lol

Itā€™d be cool to hear some of your numbers! Youā€™ve been a huge help to me as wellā€¦ the number one guy Iā€™d turn to for help on these forums. Thanks again man. If it werenā€™t for all those PMsā€¦ Iā€™d still be on my mindless routine making horrible progress!

Ok so, trainingā€¦

You guys should all be familiar with my pre-DC approach, itā€™s pretty much the same thing the prof did when he started out, including ramping all sets etc.

Only big difference was the way I worked around/through plateaus.

My split wasnā€™t a static entity, it started out as a 4-way but I changed stuff around a tad depending on schedule or what muscle-groups I wanted to bring up faster etcā€¦

I could give an example if you guys want, but if youā€™re even half-way familiar with modern bodybuilding (not Arnoldā€™s book lol) then nothing there should come as a surpriseā€¦

Anyway, the big X started splitting things up more and I went the opposite wayā€¦ I eventually went on a 3-way and started to use slightly higher overall-frequency (kind of like one of yatesā€™ splits) and mostly only 2 exercises per muscle-group (legs only got 3 total, should have done more hammie work thoughā€¦)

Split then went:

Day 1 - Chest, Biceps, Triceps (in that order so that tris get some rest after chest), pretty much 2 exercises per muscle-group.

One incline and one flat or decline for chest, alt. db curls or so and reverse or alt. hammer curls for bis, CGPā€™s(shoulder-wide grip, elbows tucked) and Scott Extensions (fairly easy on the elbows) or so for trisā€¦

Day 2 - Legsā€¦ Squats or Machine Hacks or whatever for quads, l. leg curls for hams and st. calf raises for calvesā€¦ Maybe some leg extensions before squats more as a warm-up than anything else.

Day 3 - off

Day 4 - Delts, Backā€¦
Meaning one overhead-press, lateral variation and then back training with pulldowns or pullups, some row variation and then rack pulls in the smith (hey, works quite well if you set up the right way). All deads/pulls done with a shrug-back motion after each lockout.
At some point I started alternating rows and pulls because doing both was just too much and that also allowed me to do SLDLā€™s or GMā€™s on leg day whenever it was row-week.

Mostly used 6-8 reps on top-sets, more reps on pulldowns/pull-ups and stuff like laterals and scott-extensions. Should have incorporated a 20-repper after a heavy set for quads, but I didnā€™t really know about the effectiveness of that stuff back thenā€¦

I used that split for a while and then read CFP for the first time (partially, at least)ā€¦ Didnā€™t start with DC right away though, my first gym didnā€™t have as much equipment as I would have liked for a good rotation.

Some time later my gym situation changed for the better (though I sure miss my first gym! Some of the vets there saved me from falling into the menā€™s health/internet-article -trap by pretty much talking to me from day one in the gym and giving me and my pals adviceā€¦)

So from then on I trained DC until about half a year ago or so.
I used the standard 2-way all the time, I have not tried the advanced/improve weak-points -split out yet.


Now, since my gym situation has gone down the drain pretty much, as I mentioned in some previous post, I had to change some major aspects of my training.

Obviously, DC is out due to severe lack of exercise-choices/equipment.
Now, even pre-DC Iā€™ve always relied on switching out stalled exercises instead of trying to bust through the plateau head-on.

I usually replaced the stalled one with something that worked the same muscle-group and was somewhat similar. If Smith-high-inclines/front presses stalled, then DB overheads or Smith BTN presses were used instead.
As soon as I stalled on the new movement (provided that additional calories/protein didnā€™t take care of the plateau, that is), I usually moved back onto the old one.

So right now I decided to use Wendler 5/3/1 (10 percent jumps on work-sets -version)
Itā€™s not that far removed from standard BB imo, just that you plan stuff out, weight-wise and do de-loads + cycle intensity, but overall it still feels fairly similar and you also work up to one top-set (where yo go for as many reps as you can get, unless you have a bad dayā€¦ Then you just try to get the rep-goal for that day and go home).

Current split (first time Iā€™ve ever used a 6-way/true bp split and I like it a lotā€¦ Started out with standard 5/3/1 but after seeing what Matt Kroc does I figured I could just try a more split-up approachā€¦ So much easier to get through than a 2-way or 3-way even and itā€™s really nice recovery-wiseā€¦)

Note: Standard 5/3/1 works in cycles of slightly over 5 weeks each, I use 4-week cycles and that works very well.

Split goes as follows (appropriate DC extreme stretch after each muscle-group is finished):

Day 1 - Chest (no 5/3/1 here, just incline DB and flat DB for higher reps rest-pausedā€¦ DC RP is imo far less effective when used without a rotation and pretty much the rest of the DC program, but I figured Iā€™d use it here anywayā€¦
My chest lags behind somewhat even though itā€™s one of my faster-growing muscle-groupsā€¦ But whenever I do skip a day, itā€™s bound to be chest day and I just never cared too much about my chest as opposed to my triceps etc. Gotta bring my pecs up some dayā€¦ but duh :wink:

Day 2 - Legs (used to be back, but due to my new gym I was able to re-introduce heavy rack pulls with that shrug-back motion after lockout and since I havenā€™t done these for a while my midback was uber-sore after going all-out on these the first dayā€¦ That made military-pressing the next day impossible, so I switched back with leg day)
I havenā€™t decided whether to use 5/3/1 on squats here yet, I might give it a try and see if I canā€™t get a respectable PL squat goingā€¦ Might do a meet sometime.

Day 3 - Delts, 5/3/1 on standing Military Presses. I donā€™t like SMPā€™s all that much as a delt exercise, but I have no smith for seated high-inclines with a wide-gripā€¦


Day 4 - Biceps (read: Rest-day). I often skip this one and train bis at the end of tricep day though. But I definitely have an easier time making progress here when theyā€™re on their own day as I put a whole lot into my tricep exercises (triceps being my favorite muscle-group).

What am I doing here? Standard stuff, Alt. Offset-grip DB Curls (if you use a regular grip and want to try those out instead, lower the weight quite a bit and work back upā€¦), Pinwheel curls, and some higher rep concentration curls (never really done these before).
The first two exercises are rest-paused for 15-25.

Day 5 - Tricepsā€¦ 5/3/1 on Close-Grip Bench (shoulder width or so with elbows tucked), this is working really well and itā€™s the first exercise I tried 5/3/1 on.

Followed up by either PJR pull-overs for 15-30 RP or EZ extensions laying on the flatbench (not the narrow grip-position but the one youā€™d use for standard EZ curlsā€¦ Narrow feels very awkward, shoulder-wise) on the benchā€¦
Ass off the bench so that only low-back and upper back/rear delts are on the bench, bringing the bar down just behind my head.
I used to rest the bar on the bench to take the momentum out and then press back up, but the weights got too heavy on that variation and my elbows told me so :wink:
Now I do the movement rest-paused for 18-30 reps total (i.e. 12+7+3 or 12+8+4 or whatever I get) and touch&go. Gotta warm up real nice for that stillā€¦

I alternate PJRā€™s and EZā€™s (PJRā€™s being easy on the elbows but with my fairly short fingers/smaller hands they are a bit awkward for me to do with one DB). Helps to keep me from stalling as wellā€¦

Not much need for another exercise after that, to be honest.

Day 6 - Back day (second favorite day after triceps). 5/3/1 on Rack Pulls with shrug-back, followed by rack chins and thatā€™s really all my back needsā€¦ Some lighter DB rows (not really Krocā€™s, those proved to be too much after the other stuff) for higher reps but no rest-pauseā€¦ Just to get some more blood flowing.

Day 7 - FULL BODY 10*3!
Nah, just kidding.
Obviously an off-day, but bicep day isnā€™t really all that taxing either so I kind of have 2 off-days.

Hm. I think thatā€™s pretty much it. I have serious trouble keeping my posts short and to the point it seemsā€¦

Abs are trained whenever I feel especially bored (not that often, but training my abs directly with some of the stuff you see powerlifters do has helped me quite a bit with getting rid of back-pain when squatting/pulling and in generalā€¦ So itā€™s pulldown-abs done properly mostly and maybe some other move if I have the time).

Diet was posted in BOI, but there are better examples for what a proper bb diet should look like. Donā€™t try mine at homeā€¦
I apparently have no taste-buds either :wink:

1 Like

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Vegg wrote:
MeinHerzBrennt wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

x2

Thanks CC for all the tips, much appreciated

x3

ā€¦And for the technical death metal recommendations. :stuck_out_tongue:

You can send some back my way anytimeā€¦ Easy to miss some of the best stuff coming outā€¦
[/quote]

Will do. Did you give Ne Obliviscaris a listen?

Also, post some numbers.

:wink:

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Dirty Gerdy wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
Deffinately one of my favorite guys here on T-Nation, and deffinately the number one person who I turn to when I need some training advice.

C_C has a wealth of information and I think everyone could benefit from his knowledge. You the man brother.

austin who is that in your avatar?

DG

Zak khan bro, heā€™s an animal.[/quote]

yea he is.

he might have been in attendance at the excalibur.

There was a dood there in off season shape but still in great condition who looked like he was pushing 300lbs and measured his arms on site at 25 3/4 inches!!! I didnā€™t know who he was but he definitely got a lot of attention.

DG