Complete Power Look Review

Hi All,

So I just finished my 10th and last week of the Complete Power Look routine. I’ll break my review up so it’s easy to read:

Background:
30 year old -205 5’10 at the start of this. Most of my life I’ve done the Bill Starr 5x5 when it comes to routines. I still play sports fairly often so athletic prowess and size have always been goals of mine when training. I also had a bad Labrum tear years ago that required surgery and affected my ability to bench, which was too bad because at my peak I had a 355 bench. I was small in HS and think that always stuck with me, so when I saw this routine I had to try it.

Core of the plan (stuff he says to do):
No complaints here, my shoulder felt good (more on that below) and I really looked forward to each session. Front squats were fairly new to me, but I liked them. Although I gotta say, doing them and 1 1/4 front squats were absolutely brutal!

Optional stuff:
Well I went in a different direction here. I’m new to T-Nation and spent a ton of time reading. Consequently I added a few things off Nd on…Zercher holds,Zercher walk,Zercher shrugs, farmers walk,high pulls,defranco dB flies, CT’s one set for tricep growth semi skull crushed hold, lockouts from pins and skull crushers all got work throughout program…last few weeks I did 100 leg presses prior to workout as well as 100(daily) face pulls, band pull parts, tri pushdowns with purple-blue-red-iron woods bands, as well as working my forearms daily with rollers and hand grippers . When I run this again I might just run everything as is but I really liked Zercher a and farmers walks and highpulls (there lies the rub)I also broke protocol a few times as he final set in benching I’d rep out …most recently on my 4the set I got 265-8

Results:
Well I lost weight and look more toned (207-195. Hardcore diet started late and I took creatine and phentermine hcl throughout this… I know not ideal but summer beach parties played a role here… but I’m not dissatisfied. My shoulders are bigger and I have real traps. I also added something to my quads too and perhaps my chest. I can’t stress the back part enough- I’m now a traps guy. What was really cool during all of this was I met a former wife receiver who had some good size to him…he had some size to him and when we took a pic, he didn’t seem much bigger at all despite outweighing me by 25lbs!I thanks coach T!! I also purchased Vibram five fingers and I walked/ran in those quite often the last 5weeks of this… I think they really worked my calves and made them quite sore, they may have added a bit of size too. I wish my arms were a little bigger(my forearms are though) but that’s really it…
maxes: start-end
Dl -365-405
BP-285-335
Push Press-185-215
Front SQ-235-265

Hand grippers- I’m now doing 300lbs for 5x15 4 different ways per hand with 2 30 second punch grips per hand

Overall take:

This was absolutely a nice switch… again keep in mind that I’ve always done full body 3x per week compound movements (dips/pull-ups/cleans etc) and never really did stuff like this. That also makes for an interesting contrast with my perceived neurotype since I love Olympic stuff and low reps/sets yet am the life of many parties I walk into… I think I’m a type 2 btw…

What’s next?:

I’m actually open to doing this again… I’d like to add more size but I’m also debating 6 weeks to superhero-reducing body fat (17%now) sounds great to me! But as silly as this sounds, I have some shirts that were previously tailored and are now loose so I don’t know how much size I wanna lose!

Ideally I’m hoping to try and get something down where I Can plan my workouts 1 year out… so I’ve got quite a few to try. My main goal at this stage though is to look good/powerful/ have a toned stomach and bigger arms…

Thanks for the workouts and I’m Curious as to your opinion coach and everyone regarding what cosmetically I can improve. The before pics (black shorts)were taken immediately after workout early on…white tank top was with football player before I started the program… black tank top was this weekend right after I woke up… navy blue pants was a few minutes ago at work…I’ll have better pics after next workout cycle

I’m also curious regarding the daily triceps pushdowns… I know coach says pick one (pull aparts/pushdowns/facepulls) I was curious as to how long I do them on an everyday basis for before switching …4 weeks,4months,4ever?

2 Likes

Wait, you added 13 exercises to the program?

Hey Samul,

Sorry I should have been more clear on this…I kept his 3 main lifts and depending on the week and workout I’d add 2 of those to it vs the optional bonus work

It would actually be best to do more of a bodybuilding program, like a Meadows plan for 4 weeks or so before doing something neural again

Thanks for this review. Always nice to hear how people are experiencing these programs!

1 Like

Hi Coach,

Would your zombie workout, for 4 weeks prior to superhero, be sufficient?