Hey CT. Question first: How long should each HPMASS workout be that you prescribed in your original “Look Like a Bodybuilder, Perform like an Athlete”? Specifically the ‘Pressing’ days.
So recently, my friend decided to get a membership at the gym that I go to. Because of this, I decided to stop doing the Built for Bad: Strength Circuit, because of the amount of setup just for me. There is a pretty big strength gap between us, so trying to rack and unrack all of the weights would’ve been quite the ordeal in itself.
I thought about what I’d done in the past. I decided to link him to your “Look Like a Bodybuilder, Perform like an Athlete” article, and he liked the whole concept just as much as I did. We are both really fascinated with the idea that every muscle is different and shouldn’t necessarily be trained the same way. We have been going through the program now for almost a full week and we both love it. I personally am actually calculating the percentages this time so… go me.
We did an upper body pressing workout this morning with one lower body pressing movement. Then we did 2 circuits of max reps for assistance work. Then we did sled work for legs… This whole session took 80 minutes! Both the upper and lower ‘Strength’ portions took a total of 50 minutes. The two circuits took about 10. The sled work took about 20 minutes.
Is this normal? Is it supposed to be this long? After coming off of a week of the crazy quick strength circuit, these are quite long sessions (except the neural charge days. The lat/biceps day takes about 60 minutes.).
I read somewhere in the forum that you wrote in a livespill that these took you about 2 hours! We are only high school students and still have homework, among other extra-curricular activities. Also, I watched an older video of you discussing about cluster training. You brought up a point about how you should try to make your workouts last less than an hour to keep the testosterone to cortisol ratio in balance.
If these sessions are supposed to be this long, do you have any recommendations on how to shorten them? Maybe less ramps? Maybe less sled work? Maybe make it a 10 day cycle so lats/biceps are worked one of the days, but we add more pressing sessions so that we get in more volume per training cycle?
Another question: I was thinking that maybe as long as the main strength portion was about 40 minutes, maybe, just maybe, the T to C ratio wouldn’t have the tendency to shift for the worse - as long as any assistance and sled work done for the rest of the hour doesn’t take any motivation to do (we just do the work).
Should we just stop the program all together? Should we just stop lifting weights altogether? Go take the 5:30 Spin class at the gym instead?! Play on our phones while we sluggishly ride the stationary bike?! I just can’t take it!
Jokes aside, thanks coach.
Colby