Comrade Yuri tells Cohen that her knees come in, her lower back rounds and her chest falls a little at the start of her dead lift. He says her adductors are behind and her body is moving that way to take stress off of them.
He recommends a 2nd squat workout during the week, using a close stance with the feet and knees turned out to bring the adductors up. Almost like a Tom Platz kinda motion. At first she assumes wide stance for the adductors, like the standard North American way, but he corrects her. Yuri’s got a huge deadlift and Platz had huge crotch muscles.
Belkin is like the perfect deadlifter. The accessory work is already done. He’s got the right mass for his height, all the little muscles are developed to a level where they contribute and are trained in the “big” lift.
Some stretching for periformis/ql and hip flexors.
Leg Extensions + Average Band
4 x 10ish reps
Bulgarian Split Action
3 x 10 reps
Belt Squats
4 x 10 reps
Standing Calf
x 20 strict then try for 20 loose x 3 sets
Donkey Calf
x 25 x 2 sets wide feet
x 20 x 2 sets narrow feet
3 sets of leg raises and 3 sets of psoas marches worked in.
Another great workout. The streak continues! That 20/20 calf stuff came from Darden’s forum. That shit is ruthless! Maybe those HIT dudes aren’t 100% crazy.
Neck Harness Extensions x 20
Rear Delts on Reverse Peck Deck x 15
Seated DB Press x 12
3 rounds
Close Grip Incline Bench
x 8 x 2 good ones
Pushups down to 3 boards -3 count down, 3 count pause, 3 count up x 5 reps
Band Tomahawk x 25
3 pairs
DB Side Raise x 15
Long Rope Pushdown, roll knuckles in x 15
3 pairs
Good tension, good metabolic stress.
I’m awesome at Mass now, I’m hitting 110 kg on the scale pretty regularly. I’m also out of shape from long rests in the gym and doing very little outside cardio/conditioning work.
EMOMs or clusters with big lifts, circuits of body weight moves and sled drags are super effective and I like training that way, so maybe I’ll do some of that stuff.
A cool rugby coach makes his fat rugby players to Complexes (6 moves x 6 reps) followed by the rowing machine or something awful for a minute, then repeated 6 times. That sounds really miserable too.
A few years ago I was unhappy with how skinny I was around 98kg/215 pounds. I’ve been Cultivating Mass for like 30 months now, so who knows what’s really under there? I’m hoping I managed to gain some muscles and I’d love to be 102/225 with the conditioning and slight shadow abs I had at 215.
Band Tomahawk x 25
Chest Supported Shrug/Row for low/mid traps x 20
DB Bench Press (flat, slight decline, slight incline) x 20
3 rounds
Bench Press + Big Chains
Up to 205 x 1
Fat Man Chinup x 12+
Incline Machine x 12+
3 pairs
Rear Delts x 15
Seated DB Press x 10+
3 pairs
Band Pushdowns x 20/Band Overhead Extensions x 20
Alt DB Curl x 15/Incline Hammer Curl x 15
2 pairs
Some abs
I finally got some Triceps. Bench slowed in the middle, so I just kept pushing and thought about squeezing my elbows together. Instead of stalling near lockout it felt like someone was talking the bar from me near the top.
Now I get to work on inclines and overheads to build that mid range.
Internal/External Rotations, upper arm parallel to floor x 4
Facepull x 20
Tricep x 20
Dumbbell Press x 20
4 rounds, different angles each round
Bench Press x 3 x 9 sets. three each, narrow, medium, medium widish
Neck Harness Extensions x 12
Chinese Row x 10
3 pairs
2 Board Pushups, 2 count lower, 2 count pause, 2 count up x failure
Kettlebell Tricep Extensions on Decline x 15
3 pairs
Barbell Front Raise x 15
Side DB Raise/Rear DB Raise x 12/12
2 of each was enough
First week down. I’ll take it slightly less easy this week. There was only 1 issue, the days lined up so I was doing benchings on Monday, and so was everyone else. Only 5 guys in the whole gym, all crammed into the same corner. It was stupid. Maybe I wouldn’t have noticed if I was benching the biggest weights and not 145.
This is actually the beginning of the Losing phase.
“Bodybuilding” work with long rests was making me too tired to do much else outside of the gym. Being heavier with worse cardio was becoming a problem. I put on my gf’s FitBit for a couple days and my heart rate was Disturbingly high.
I’m hoping more moving and less resting will help get me back into shape. Or build up “work capacity” and “conditioning.” It’s finally Autumn so the heat, bugs and prickly undergrowth are diminished and I want to do more stuff outside too.
Theoretically training for strength should help retain some muscle through the process.