Free Programs Raw PLing / BBing

Ah sorry I dont have excel. Give me a brief rundown of what you are looking for and I will post some screen shots. I have been meaning to do that anyways.

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I’m good. I copied it over to google docs without any problems.

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Infinity Yolo Program:
Truthfully not much different than my 531 Program BUUUT it goes about it differently (performance based rather than Percentage).

infinity%20YOLO

Volume (Sub Maximal) vs Max Effort for Power from an Anecdotal Perspective:

Personally I have never gotten a lot out of sub maximal volume work. If that volume work pushed me towards the higher RPEs then yes I think I got something out of it.

The best thing for my strength has been AMRAPs in the 5-12 Rep range where the last couple reps were slowing down but form was good. (I consider this RPE7-8).

There are some obvious draw backs. You need to stop sets before form breaks down (safety) and auto regulate your AMRAPs to not take them when you dont feel like you can (also safety).

Obviously this strategy will work much better the lighter you and the weights are because your recovery will be so much faster and easier.

I think the biggest issue I had last year was making the transition through that thresh hold where constant blunt force was no longer a practical option. Now I am using selective Blunt Force (auto regulating better).

But I also think any version of work is better than no work (frequency) and this is where Sub Maximal work comes in.

HYPERTROPHY GAINz

I also think taking these sets to near failure is a more efficient way to make muscle gains. I think it is important to increase the reps and sets though.

CONJUGATIONs aka MUSCLE CONFUSION

Why I think it is subtoptimal and when I think it is acceptable to program it:

Do you make the best gains learning to ride the bike or riding that bike up the mountain?

If you are trying to get good at riding a bike can running possibly increase your bike abilities? Will that time and effort be more effectively spent riding a bicycle or running?

But I have a Quad injury that doesnt allow me to Ride a bike but I can still run safely and pain free.

But I know that if I run I will prevent an injury from riding a bike.

But I am just super bored of riding a bike.

That was the Short Version…LONG VERSION:

Conjugation is Muscle Confusion but for PLing.

Muscles dont work differently. They do the same job they have evolved over millions of years to do each and every single time.

So doing something like a Board Press or Dips you arent working different muscles or getting the muscles to do anything but what they have evolved to do. The Chest is Still pressing, the Triceps is still extending the Elbow and the Delt is still getting injured (jk, hopefully…keep those elbows in people)

You may change what percentage of work each muscle is doing. Like in the Board Press that part of the ROM does use a higher percentage of Triceps than what a ful ROM would. But you know what works even more Triceps than a partial ROM? A longer ROM.

WHERE and HOW I implement Conjugations:

Basically I use it to adjust the workload for what can be recovered from.

Assistance: After the Comp work is done and if you are too exhausted or you wont be able to recover from more of the main lift but you can do some Partial ROM work. Lets say your shoulders are fried but you still want more volume. OK, add in that Board Press to take some stress off the shoulders.

Increasing Frequency: I will always baseline Squat, Bench, Pullups and Barbell Rows 2x a week and Deads 1x a week regardless of your goals.Lets say you want to Deadlift a 2nd day but you just cant recover from it. Then how about RDLs, Box Deadlifts, Trap bar Deadlifts or Pause Deadlifts. All of those will either be lighter in weight or a more favorable ROM to recover from. For a 3rd bench probably some variation of a dumbell press. For Squats, Pause Squats or Front Squats.

If you cant recover from that baseline then there is something wrong and in order: Injury, Form, Head (you think overtraining is a thing) or Program (8 bazillion sets)

Prehab/Rehab: Coming back from an injury maybe you cant Squat but you can Belt Squat. Maybe you find if you keep up on Front Squats your mobility is better and you stay healthier.

You are just FKN BORED OK, this happens even to me Mr. Boring All Day ERDAY himself. If you are in prep, suck it up. If not then do what you want.

The Muscle Confusion Phenomenon:

People who frequently change exercise selection always note the great gains they are getting. Simply put they are learning to ride a bike over and over again.

The mind is adding new wiring to more efficiently execute the movement. I believe the technical term is Learning Motor Patterns.

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Ahhh a favorite of mine.

Reps. So Max 8s would be get 8 reps at a weight and add weigh next workout.

Hypothetically if you do max 8s you should start at your 10-15 rep max (65-75% of 1RM) and in that situation you have a couple options.

You could do 1 huge AMRAP (i do this on my uninspired days) OR you could do 8 rep sets until you fail to get 8 reps (when I want some extra puishment). For a 12-15 rep max that is probably around 3-4 sets of 8.

If you have any other questions I am here. Also I posted this in the other thread because I think it will be a common question.

@planetcybertron

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This one might need some critiquing (more than the rest). I never use RPE because honestly I can not auto regulate myself. I always go to RPE8+ so I also never program with it.

Today I gave it a try and tbh it is a lot easier than any other form of periodization from programmer’s perspective…or maybe I butchered it so have at it:

I also just realized RPE is an awesome solution to fluctuating strength levels say if some one were using “supplementation”. I am probably going to try to run RPE for my offseason BBing phase.

RPE%20is%20EZ

EDIT: Adjusted day 2 to be a heavier day.

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I just noticed this. Very cool of you. I saw how @littlesleeper progressed and he was already very strong. Thanks!

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Thank you!!! Just trying to help. And Little Sleeper helped me way more than I helped him.

I am going over that (and some other preps) and seeing some places where my prep needs to be better…mainly Bench. So stay tuned and I should have a Taper Video coming out soon…ish.

RPE UPDATE: This is also coming soon. I keep tinkering trying to get a better feel of heavy and light days and how to incorporate them into a prep using RPE.

In the end I think I like 1 RPE day and the other day as a Linear Progression.

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I need to dig into these. My goals are always simple: less fat and more muscle, so I’m always up for experimenting.

Really thoughtful of you to share out work

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Oh man ! Pretty nice stuff! Thank you very much for that.

Most of the routines are about 6 or 7 days, do you have any workouts for 3 or 4 days a week? Your exercise selection that what I am searching for - to get stronger in the mainlifts and build muscle :slight_smile:

Most programs are universal in what kind of splits you use as long as it is 4, 5 or 6 days.

I added some extra notes on the “Intro Tab” and the Yellow Tabbed programs are the easiest to adjust to a 4, 5 or 6 Day Split.

I started making them yellow because I knew the early ones were universal but the later were not but after going through it looks like I had more universal then I thought.

Admittedly I did not program with 3 Day splits in mind. I just added a new tab and I will think about it and tinker with it the next few days.

I did start the split for the program and I think that it will line up pretty well as is. I am still going to make a program directly for that program.

Check out “Intro” Tab:

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Thank you so much man! I do a break for one week anyway !
The 3 Day split looks pretty solid, how do you set up your assistance work BOTSLAYER? Do you add secondary mainlifts like Military Press or Frontsquats?

At the moment I read the Cowboy Method which seems also pretty cool.

Investigating.

Basically I consider Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Barbell Row and Pullups the “Mandatories” to hit twice a week minimum (substitutions have there place but that is another topic). After that I do what ever assistance work I want or think is going to help with my current goals.

I kind of put the assistance work in tiers. The higher the Tier the more stimulus it will provide so the more important I think it is. As such I fill it in from the top down as I can handle it. The only other consideration is to make sure I do more Pulling Volume than Pushing Volume.

Tier 1: More Compounds such as Squat Variations, Deadlift Variations, T-Bar and other Row Variations, Over Head Press Variations, Lunges etc.

Tier 2: Cables, Machines, Isolation Work

Tier 3: Yoga, Mobility Work, Core Work…this tier should be higher

Right now it is mostly tier 3 with a sprinkle of Tier 2 as I am in a Powerlifting Prep so if it isnt the mandatories I consider it Prehab or expendable. I think iso/pump work is about as good as it gets for helping a PLer to stay healthy (aside from mobility/yoga stuff).

In the offseason I will switch to a lot more variety and Tier 1 Stuff as everything will be lighter I should be able to handle more of it.

I thought I made a tab for this…and I did it just isnt even close to started LOL so added to the todo list.

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NEW PROGRAM: OPTIMAL AF for RAW POWERLIFTING

Also a video explaining my Specificity Block (Taper and Peak):

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Great stuff. Thanks for sharing!

The “BBer AF” template piqued my interest, but I can only train 3 days a week. Could I expect decent results with something like this?

Monday
heavy press
light back

Wednesday
heavy legs
light press

Friday
heavy back
light legs

Still hitting each twice a week. Might have to do fewer sets per exercise and/or reduce the total number of exercises though.

And, what you do recommend for rest periods between the heavy and light sets.

Thanks!

Sorry it took me so long to see this, I was on a hiatus.

Over all I think that program would work, I see how you staggered everything personally I would rather begin the week with heavy legs to be the most recovered for them OR finish with them so that heavy workout didnt affect the rest of the week but that is just personal preference and it depends on what exercise selection you use for each workout (like if Deads are on Back etc).

As long as it takes but if fat burning or conditioning are goals I would lessen rest times.

I have been playing around with Offseason Plans.

After the Comp I am planning on 1-2 Weeks of Light Non Barbell Related work then I want to try this:

Biggest reason is to relearn Front Squat and this program is a perfect program to attempt a 3x a week Press Frequency.

(tab is in sheets, didnt link for redundancy)

OFFSEASON POWERBUILDING:

This is most likely what I will be doing more long term. It is my preferred Split and Frequencies.

GOALS: Maintain Strength in “Off” Season while building muscle Quality and Conditioning.

Also Conjugating a lot more than i usually do to maintain some mental and physical wear and tear of the constant big 3.

NOTES ON RPE I am going to make a strong effort to switch to RPE and I realized RPE’s biggest strength is probably for the enhanced athlete LOL. All the programming I have done for natty’s is honestly kind of easy, Their strength doesnt fluctuate much and it is usually pretty easy to find the culprit (sleep/diet/injury). With myself as enhanced even on cycle strength fluctuations can be frequent in both directions and the list of culprits gets a lot longer.

Enter the cure all: RPE

No worries. You’re sharing what you’ve learned for free. I have no expectation of “customer service” :slight_smile:

I may be overthinking this, but another way set this up could look like this.

Monday
heavy bench
light (shoulder) press
heavy rows
light pull-ups

Wednesday
heavy press
light bench
heavy squat
light deadlift

Friday
heavy deadlift
light squat
heavy pull-ups
light rows

So, instead of doing a heavy day and light day for each press/pull/push, I would do 1 heavy (4-6x4-6) and 1 light (3x10-12) movement for each press/pull/push. Which setup do you think would be more effective?

LOL its the same thing but yes.

The truth is you are going to just have to try and see what works. If you get achy here or there then back off the intensity and/or volume.

The biggest tip I can give is go slow.

Really what I looked at was just that you were doing a LOT and cramming it into 3 days. I think you can get away with almost anything with 2x per week frequency, but with 3x per week I think you need to be a lot more reserved and add in slowly.

I did reorganize how I would do your workouts and then I made what I would prescribe to somebody looking to do a 3x per week program.

Check out “3 Day Split” for a couple notes and then this…

Biggest notes are I take a much more minimalist approach with pressing and that is from my personal issues with my shoulders and the general idea that people are generally impinged from poor postures and too much pressing and I add pull to every day.

KJM%20SPread%20Out

3%20Day%20Mine

You could easily halve the Pull work to just Barbell Rows with Bench and Pullups with Press.