So why the hell not? My training notes have to go somewhere and new structure can invigorate a routine. The Lords of Iron do work in mysterious ways…
Brief recap of the last forty seasons:
Super skinny dude, mostly doing martial arts and GPP stuff finds T-Nation after some training research in the pre facebook era.
Hey, this lifting might not be as idiotic as I thought!
Weight training was never a passion in itself. Lacking talent, I also had to work harder and longer then pretty much any training partner I ever worked out with. So after successfully leaving the realm of Skeletoria for good and loving the new found respect (men) and attention (women), I mostly did what I had to do to maintain a somewhat athletic build around 83-85kg. I could press my bodyweight overhead, DL twice my weight, I was happy.
I’ve sampled most lifting philosophies from Arnold’s 6/week ABABAB to Thibaudeau’s layer system to Milo’s calf-carrying method. Not only because I’m a slow responder, but testing out new exercises or methods in order to understand my body is weirdly satisfying.
This year, a naughty Chinese vixen passionately took command over my hormones.
Corona Chan cut me off from all cardio related exercise and I… decided to roll with the germ-infested punches.
Fuck it, here’s the last bulk of my life
I thought it would be a good idea to fill out some missing spots through a bodybuilder-style approach with more isolation. Like a good bro, I also did very little for my legs because the traitorous wheels have always been protein hogs, taking the lion’s share of my meagre gains into their disproportionate, quasimodo-like myocytes.
To my surprise, it worked far better than anticipated. At least the bulking part.
I’m now sitting at a doughy 100 kilos but hey - it worked.
I guess I’ll keep on pumping while ditching the chocolate, slowly holding onto the muscle while trimming down.
My outline for the next month is as follows
- establishing new routine
- slimming down slowly (the easy part)
- reintroducing boxing, kicking, stretching. Basically, the cardio component. Running with this bulk should be outlawed on aesthetic grounds alone.
- finding the right balance
- later, find a good spot and try to maintain, maybe at 90kg?
- in about 4-6 months (march-may): forge functional components to sprint faster, kick & punch harder.
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First workout:
Lower Body/Legs , which I’m probably gonna do once or twice per week
Since I don’t have a squat rack at home and made good progress with a simple volume approach a la “Hungarian Oak Leg Blast” in such a situation, I’ll repeat just that.
Bulgarian Split Squads never clicked with me before but I’ve decided to give them one more try.
So it’s
- warmup - couple rounds shadowboxing. Just aweful.
some squatting, lunging
- BSS
warmup
sets with 20reps each @ 10,20,30
I feel it mostly in my ass which I have to fix
Zero idea how high I’ll shoot. 50, 60, 100kilos?
Then it’s
- squatting time.
3 minutes continuously for three minutes.
I was going way too fast and had to make three mini breaks after rep 100. After finding a better rhythm, it went smoothly, albeit very painfully. I probably came close to 200? Maybe I should just do 200 and increase weight?
I probably did too many reps on the BSS and should focus on strength there to not lose energy for the volume set.
Finally a circle with some isolation:
nothing special, just getting into it again.
Upper Pushpull
- custom Floor Press supersetted with
- Bent Over Rows
I took the inspiration from Brian Alsruhe aka Alpha after YT insisted I watch some vids of him. Very nice stuff indeed.
warmup, 80, 90, then
3 worksets a 6reps@100
Zero motivation - Praise the Gods for Heavy Metal!
forced myself to do
Pushpull - vertical
It seems clear that now I get far too little sleep. While this session felt better than the crappy first two, it’s fairly obvious that it’ll take at least a week or two of disciplined, timely visits to slumberland before my energy levels are adequate. In a sense I’m thankful for those sessions for making me realise my fatigue.
warmup ramp, then
- Clean & Military Press supersetted with
- SG High Pull
for 5x5 @ 60
Shoulders are still not 100%. Need specific warmup next time.
- Dips supersetted with
- Pullups & Chins
fairly easy sets to force a pump, not even counting; last set to benign failure with mechanical weight drop
Midnight was approaching fast and there’s still chores afterwards, so one last superset
- Power Curl supersetted with
- Shrugs
for 3 sets @ 50, 10 reps for the Curls, 30 for the Shrugs
All things considered I managed to achieve a good pump. With the deltoids back in line, I can hopefully add some isolation there, too.
Still not sure how to put the split together but this setup is actually quite fun. I didn’t do the SGHP for years and the Dip setup (on fists) is interesting.
Not much time but managed to squeeze in another short
Upper Push-Pull
(let’s try to train legs tonight)
The setup is supersimple but its the best bang for buck workout I’ve ever tried out.
You pair antagonistic supersets together for only two sets, then head to the next pairing. So, for instance, you go (after warmup) : Overhead Press-weighted Pullup - DB Overhead Press - weighted Pullup with just a little rest in between sets. The first two sets are conservative 5 -10 rep range affiars. The second pairing is to total failure with forced/drop set reps.
Afterwards, you head to the next pairing.
I did four angles of attack:
Pullups & Ring Dips
Ring Rows & incline Ring Pushups
DB curl & Arnold Press (with 17,5 because I still can find my other plates dammit!)
DB Clean & Press (neutral grip)
Shoulder warmup took a while. It was a good decision to do the dips first which needed three warmup sets on their own. From there it was mostly two straight sets as prescribed.
Great pump.
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Finally a second training session for the day. Been a while!
Legs & Kicks
I did a decent amount of antagonistic leg movements, too, which aren’t exactly kicks but look rather queer. These are useful however and I should’ve included this 20 years ago. Some are simply for joint health and feel darn good, some are for general dexterity but some movements are acutally useful, ie to counter caught kicks and slip away.
- Calf Raises
3 sets a 50 with deep strech at the bottom
I like the title and username. Cool writing style as well. Will be following along. Do you or did you compete in any kind of martial arts or just doing it for fun?
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Years ago, mainly standup diciplines. Light competitions only, nothing approaching pro level although I have sparred with good people and am still obsessed with technique to this day. I’ll probably enroll in some class next summer if family life allows for that.
Need to give ring dips a go at some point
One of those exercises I always fear will take me to snap city however deep down, I know it will most likely take me on a detour to Gainesville, Arizona
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Yes, Dips are already hard on some shoulders as there’s this big, natural range of akromions. Nothing that can be realistically done about that. The wobbliness on Rings can feel worse if you have a bigger hookbone up there. On the other hand, this protrusion should probably give you more stablity for other exercises?
My guess is that if you can do Dips, Rings are probably good to go.
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Ridiculously late, again. As I’m eating the kids’ leftovers, it’s past 1:00 AM.
This ends now, starting today training shall be finished at 23:00.
mini push
- DB Floor Press, unilateral.
ramp to a clean double
max was 40 with the right arm although 42,5 would’ve been in the cards easily
but the left arm didn’t really get it and cheated a wobbly single
Didn’t do this exercise in a loong time.
One armed means a nice core tension. En passant ab training. It’s also acceptably functional for punching mechanics, which most pressing exercises simply aren’t.
Training Goal for 2021: 50kg!
-
some bilateral bonus sets Floor Press (one?two?)
-
highrep superset Rühl Eagle (bent over with headrest) & Flyes @ 22,5
worked way better than anticipated!
Three sets, sloo-ow on the flies and “dynamic” on the reverse Flyes, for obvious reasons.
I did one additional murderset where I immediately went unilateral, again, followed by just lifting small plates alone until musculocide.
Not only do one armed Flyes work, you can wriggle your chest a bit to hit a specific angle.
-
Plain ol’ Pushups to failure (60)
Nighty night.
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