Hilo has a confession… his squats suck. They always shocked his nervous system though a couple years ago he could knock out 225 naturally without training them. Today he admits to himself and the world he needs to start from scratch… At a minimum he will use 95lbs 3x5 and add 10lbs a day, three days a week Wed Fri Sun. Hilo read the training log of a gentlemen who was doing something like 20 rep 10 sets and just an abhorrent amount of squats. That maked Hilo want to jack up the volume to 5 sets of 8 reps, and work up from 95lb. His loathing of squats reminded Hilo of what Cus taught Tyson, “Do you what hate, but do it like you love it.” I guess if he loved squats he would do 5x8, but is that to much for recovery?
Hilo is finding there not enough time to do the full body circuit as he had planned. For instance today the squat rack was occupied so he started with supersets of 12 pullups and 12 dips, for three sets. The machine offset 110 lbs, and Hilo is about 220-225. The pullups are harder than the dips. The first set he completed with no breaks, but the second set took one break and the third set took three or four breaks. The dips only needed maybe one or two breaks total.
Actual 6/16/22
3x12 Machine Assisted Pullups (#20 plate = ~ -110lbs) \ superset w/ dips
3x12 Machine Assisted Dips (#20 plate - ~ -110 lbs) / superset w/ pullups
two warmups 10 reps w/ just the bar
3x5 Squats (95lbs) : (
That was all the time available over lunch. Had bad form at 135lb for one rep, disgusting…
So the first goal is to be able to squat 135 for 3x5 with perfect form. He’s going to stick with the 3x135 now for two reason, for the sake of time and consistency. Hilo would probably like to get up to 5x8 of 135 but for now, hes sticking with the boring linear progression an man jumping back in after a long layoff should do.
Because Hilo fucked around and went up in weight for no fucking reason and had shit form he is going to redo the 3x5 of 95lb.
Conceivable if he can stick to the 10lb jumps per w/o he should reach his goal by the end of the month.
Friday 3x5 95lb
Sunday 3x5 105lb
Wed 22 3x5 115lb
Fri 24 3x5 125lb
Sunday 26 3x5 135lb
Wednesday 29 3x5 last workout of the month
So if he plays by the rules, and only goes up if he has perfect form, that allows for one day of failing to get the 5 reps with perfect form and therefore not increasing the weight.
So at a minimum, every Wed, Fri, Sun… Hilo will
3x5 Squats
3x12 Machine Assisted Pullups
3x12 Machine Assisted Dips
Hilo needs to get his shit together. Once he does Hilo will probably implement OHP KB but at an angle not greater than 30 degrees of the sagittal plane. Bench. All kinds of fun stuff, but until he can squat 3x5 135lbs with perfect from and superset 3x12 m.a. Pullups/Dips in under an hour, its gonna be a boring but consistent workload.
Hilo doesn’t even think its the legs that the limiter, he thinks is mainly the nervous system fatiguing and then secondly atrophied stabilizer muscles.
Hilo will squat 225 again for reps with perfect form, and he will get there the right way this time.
This has been a transparent moment, a come to Jesus moment. This honest reflection is exactly what Hilo needed. Goals set, plan in motion, now to Do what you hate, but do it like you love it.