I just looked at supersquats and it looks like death! There is no overhead pressing though which is one of my primary goal in terms of strength is a beastly ohp.
I kinda wanted to start deadlifting because i couldnt all this time (crap gym with no barbell where i used to live) but i dont really need deadlifts that much i guess
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There is behind the neck press in there though, and that builds your OHP
In theory you could just do OHP in the place of BTN, but you’d be facing muscle imbalances if you did OHP and bench every other day (BTN hits your lateral and rear delts harder than OHP)
That being said, I’d do some extra rear delt work if I chose to follow that program
It’s really up to you which program you want to folllow and this is just one option
Deadlifts are a good exercise but they are taxing, so they need to be implemented in a smart way.
I’m quite sure you can find a program that fits your needs here on T-Nation (or somewhere online), and you can always come to me for constructive criticism about the program you’ve found
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There are just so many programs aha. Best advice for myself is pick one and follow it for a while. Soon i can get a gym membership hopefully in the next week of course but at the moment my aunties house is priority and once its up and running and the kitchens sorted i can get to eating alot and training, but il just have to make do with training and eating like anormal person for a bit. takeaway is what we are living off atm and im helping to refurbish up my aunties house (who im living with now) its being refurbished so Walls have been knocked down, kitchen taken out, Repainted inside and out, and lots more. Quite a long process but i have been enjoying it so far. Should be readyish in about a month , we are living on mattresses at the moment haha.
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Yeah, that’s pretty much it
My father has also been upgrading his house. It’s kinda funny that every time I come over there is something new and amazing to look at.
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So I gave the behind the back deads a go. Felt pretty decent. They did however snag my hamstrings on several occasions (the disadvantages of having massive hammies 
this in turn affected my grip.
I felt I had to cock my wrists back a bit to miss the back of my legs which is fine at the weights I was using but I can see it being problematic with higher weights and/or reps.
I can definitely see how you use more weight on this exercise than on conventional deads.
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Yeah, i had that problem too when I first tried the movement. Either my hamstrings have lost significant amount of mass since then or my technique has evolved to avoid this problem (I really hope it’s the latter)
That would definitely be a problem with higher weight, I’ve never heard of anyone who can do behind-the-back wrist curls with several hundred pounds. (But as said, as the technique refines, problems like this disappear - at least in most of the cases.
I feel that part of the reason for that is just the fact that deadlifting feels tremendously safer when done behind the back, at least for me.
So, is it a yay or a nay from you?
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Ok cool, this is promising.
It is a definite, 100% maybe from me! Haha I like them and I will definitely do them again but I just didn’t get the same wow as I did when I tried Zerchers. Perhaps because the movement is simultaneously easier and more awkward than sumo or conventional deads? I’m not sure.
They would really fit into a 4 day a week program that splits upper push, upper pull, lower hams/glutes, lower quads/Calves that I have been thinking about recently…
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That’s a great way of putting it
Jefferson deadlifts (also known as Jefferson squats) would be another one that is easy and awkward
Well maybe more like natural and awkward, easy is not really the best word to describe them
Be sure to write the layout on your log, I want to see how you’re going to implement them!
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So many awesome full body lifts with a barbell yet 80% of the guys you see in gyms are happy to curl and bench… I ain’t got time for that! Lol
I looked at the Jefferson Deadlift when I was checking for details on the behind the back deads and definitely thought I need to try it!
I definitely will! It will be more of a mass building routine that still is centred on compound lifts that emphasise certain areas of the body. I really just can’t get into isolation lifts at all. Off the top of my head there is not 1 isolation exercise that I can honestly say excites me.
This is down the track after I get into the air force though… Oh the patience to stick to 1 plan at a time can be challenging 
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Exactly! I never understood what is so exciting about training chest and arms, like, why wouldn’t you just use that time to deadlift instead?
Jefferson deadlifts are an exercise that really surprises you with the amount of weight you are able to lift, I started at around 80% of my conventional and I was up to 90% in just a couple of sessions (I’m quite sure I would have had over 100% in a couple more sessions but I slipped and hurt my hip, so I couldn’t carry on with it (or any deadlift apart from behind-the-back)
I feel the same way about this too. Only reason I’m doing any isolation is injury prevention and fixing weak points but I don’t really look forward to doing it.
It’s kind of funny, it’s so boring to do curls or whatever, but hitting a most front double biceps is fun.
When are you going in?
Oh yeah, I have to explain to my girlfriend what I’m doing and for how long just so she makes me stick to it
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Ok so I have thought of some isolation exercises that I actually don’t mind.
- Seated OH Press
- Cable flies (just coz I look like a beast with chest striations in the mirror haha)
- Standing Calf Raises (never used to like these but I’m getting used to them)
Well I am going for my next interview in August… So it’s anyones guess. Our defence force isn’t known for recruiting quickly.
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Hey man, trying to get caught up on your log. At any point in this archive of greatness, do you discuss bed time/evening nutrition? Specifically the importance/sources of casein? If I’m meeting my macros and periworkout is on point, where in the priority rank is bed time nutrition? Should I not worry too much about it if the rest of my diet is good?
I ask because I often workout late at night, so the only time I have to eat my greek yogurt is ~45-60 mins after my postworkout shake before I get to bed. If you view bed time nutrition as that important, I could test it out and change up my whole schedule and try lift during my lunch break, but that’s obviously a big change and I can’t find any research on individuals who exercise at night that analyzes their periworkout/bedtime nutrition.
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I actually thought of one too (and it’s really ironic how spesific this is, considering how little isolation work I do):
Single arm reverse grip curls with your wrist cocked back performed in a pulley station
Big forearms are cool and if you look into the mirror while doing these you’ll look massive
I’m due to go in in less than two weeks, oh man
Man, I’m honoured
If I remember correctly I haven’t discussed evening nutrition as a separate subject in the log. I have, however mentioned what I personally do on a couple of occasions.
The importance of bedtime nutrition depends on what time of the day you train at. The earlier you train, the more important it is to have really solid bedtime nutrition. (But if your last meal of the day is also your post-workout meal it is pretty high on the priority list)
Regarding the importance of casein, that depends on how Mich protein you consume during the day. If you consume 400 grams of protein, there’s no need to worry about wether or not you are having casein with your last meal, because the amount of protein consumed through the day is more than enough to keep you from going catabolic.
If, however you consuming a low amount of protein you should have some casein in your last meal to make sure you don’t go catabolic during the night.
In my opinion the best casein sources are cottage cheese and quark (which can be pretty hard to find if you are not in a Nordic country). Greek yoghurt is decent too, but it cannot compare with quark or especially with cottage cheese when we talk about the amount of protein and the ratio between protein and other macronutrients. (Lactose is not exactly the best type of carbohydrates)
Another good thing about cottage cheese is that pretty much everyone can eat it. The problem with cottage cheese is that most people don’t really like it and it can be costly. Quark, however is easy to eat and it’s cheap. (And you can mix pretty much anything in, it’s basically thicker and more sour version of Greek yoghurt)
I like to have fish oil with my last meal of the day as it lowers t your cortisol levels and it’s really easy to get in there (if you only take it once a day) as you most likely are home and thus you don’t need to carry the oil bottle around.
What I personally do with my bedtime nutrition is this:
1 hour before this I take zinc and magnesium
500 grams of quark
50-100 grams of müesli (not when I’m dieting)
A tablespoon of fish oil
1 hour later I take zinc and magnesium again
That’s about 70-75 grams of protein, a lot of which is casein
25-50 grams of slow-acting, fiber-rich carbs
And ~10 grams of good fats
Eating this always fuels me up tremendously for the next day, but it is not engineered for someone who eats his post-workout meal as the last meal of the day. (And it’s really fast and cheap to make)
For someone who has his/her post-workout meal as the last meal of the day I’d suggest something like this
-A decent intra- and post- workout drink
An hour later:
-Meat (or some other protein source) so that you get 30-50 grams of protein from this alone
- 100-200 grams of cottage cheese
-An complex carb source, sweet potatoes are a great example. Get at least 30-60 grams of carbs here, depending on your total calories (you could go really high with this)
An hour later have zinc, magnesium and fish oil
You don’t want to have the zinc and magnesium with the meal because they won’t be absorbed properly, and you don’t want to have them before training to avoid tiredness (they relax your nervous system - that’s why you sleep well if you’re taking ZMA)
You want to take the fish oil separately from the meal to avoid blunting the insulin response, as it is also your post-workout meal.
Hopefully this helped, if you got Amy questions I’ll be glad to help and clear things up!
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Sounds a lot like labneh
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I haven’t heard of that before, but I checked it out and it seems to have quite similar macros
Per 100 grams quark has 12 grams of protein and 4.5 grams of carbs and labneh has 10 grams of protein and 3.6 grams of carbs (both are around 0.1-0.2 grams of fat)
So I guess I could add labneh to the list of great casein sources, thanks man!
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Any time! I love labneh, but it does bloat me a fair bit so I rarely eat it just for comfort reasons.
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I came across an old t-nation piece about DC training. It sounds awesome, and something I may try at a (much) later date. What struck me was the number of similarities I saw in what I understand to be it’s core principles to those of the best strength systems (Westside, 5/3/1, etc)
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If you have too much free time I would suggest you check out Dogg Pound on intensemuscle.com, there’s a lot of great information regarding DC training and training in general. (That’s Dante’s section of the forum, so you can find stuff that has been written by the man himself)
Well, DC is, in fact, a powerbuilding program rather than a pure bodybuilding program. (But it just so happens to be one of the best ways to pack on muscle for a lot of guys) The fun thing about DC is that it’s pretty much impossible not to gain strength while doing it, even on a really limited diet you can progress almost every time. Of course, that is the case with pretty much all of the good strength programs.
There’s actually an article by JW that combines DC and 5/3/1, it may not be the best program out there but I think it’s a fun idea. I believe it was called “5/3/1 rest-pause: a 6-week challenge”
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26/6/17
A DB row day again, this time a few days later than normally, because I was abroad for three days and I didn’t really do a lot there - for me it was more about spending time with my girlfriend while I still can. (Even though the hotel gym was actually better equipped than the gym I usually go to, it was really great)
So during those three days I only did one quick session of back extension and pullover to press, just to get some blood flowing.
In hindsight I probably should’ve done something a bit more demanding - I’ve been quite sore from training normally again (but it’ll get better in a few days)
Today I went to the gym earlier than usually, because it’s my girlfriend’s rest day and I want to spend time with her.
So, I only had breakfast before training - a small one because I forgot to buy more vegetables yesterday, so it was just eggs, tomato and a bit of bell pepper. (Usually if I go to the gym after having only breakfast I’ll eat my second meal of the day - ground beef and vegetables - as breakfast, because after eating that meal I usually start getting ready for gym, so eating it just puts me in the mindset of “I’m gonna train soon” (yeah, it’s weird). Eating eggs doesn’t have the same effect for me. Psychology is just weird, really.
Okay, I get to the gym. I was feeling a bit light-headed for some reason and I was only doing the bare minimum to progress - I wasn’t pushing it as hard as usually, I was just doing a rep more or using a couple pounds more than last time. (That’s not normal for me)
When I got to the DB row I just thought to myself: “I still have one DB row session before going to the army, I don’t need to push it now. I’ll just do it next time.”
At that point I realized I was just being a bitch.
Really.
It’s not “I still have one session, I’ll push it next time”
It’s “I ONLY have one session, I MUST push it now AND next time”
So, I give you 26/6/17
-Lousy upper body stuff-
DB Row 15x91.5kg/202lbs
It’s over. I’ll probably continue with using the DB row, but my race with @MarkKO is over. It was a fun thing and it definitely helped me to train harder and do stuff I wouldn’t normally do. (Like taking 7.5kg jumps in an unilateral movement)
Moral of the story? Challenge others - and yourself. Do things you normally wouldn’t, but be smart about it.
In addition to that, realize that every workout you do is one workout closer to the last one you’ll ever do. Really, any workout could be the last one, so you have to push yourself, or do you want your last session to be a lousy one?
I know I don’t.
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