Logging on! Looking forward to this.
Day 1 dry run in the books. REALLY looking forward to getting that surge and hitting it hard AF next week.
Initial thoughts:
- I picked DB weights I thought I could do, then backed off a notch. It was still hard lol. For the barbell lifts, I went down to 50%…still enough lol
- I took the full 4 Min rest. After back to back sets, I needed it lol.
- Asked my wife to borrow her DD bra afterwards BC I felt like I needed it!
- For the positional holds, breaking before you completely fail is the key. Break when you hit about 8 or 9 out of 10, take 15 s of deep breaths, then hit it again. I tried to aim for efforts I could repeat each time, rather than hang on for dear life until I failed, and then doing progressively shorter working sets. Highly recommend.
- Did a 5 minn rossover symmetry upper warmup, and this Took me 32 minutes to complete, love how concise this was. Proper intensity, without excessive volume.
Loving it so far!
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Very nice observations. It seems like work capacity and resistance are your weak points. This is good news because it means that you will improve rapidly and should be able to increase the weights throughout the program as your work capacity progresses.
Don’t hesitate to ask me questions so that I can help you. Tag me so that I’m sure to see your questions.
I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment. Also, in my defense, my DB weights are in kilos, because Im a cheapskate and bought the knock-off Nuobells from China on Amazon lol. But this is exactly why I wanted to do a dry run before next week. Really looking forward to having Surge onboard, I’m a “roll out of bed and workout in the garage at 6am guy”, so I’m sure I’ll see some dramatic adaptations the next few weeks
I’m not gonna lie, I have no problem investing for my home gym. But high end DBs are NOT one of the places I like to invest a lot of money.
Yea, I spent more elsewhere and bought high end, so the DBs were my savings spot. But just having the fancier ones with a few more weights and units in pounds would have been nice. They get the job done though.
I typically prefer to use imperial for strength, and metric for length. That way if anyone asks, I’m automatically twice as strong, and twice as long! Lol
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I used to prefer to train with Kg plates on the big lifts because I could look stronger… for example 4 “plates”/side on bench is 398lbs in Kg plates but 405lbs in pound plates. So I could use 4 plates and change instead of just 4 plates.
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Nice advice! I’ll remember that 405 advice next time I max deadlift lol.
Speaking of legs, do you have an acceptable leg day alternative to leg extensions and leg curls? I have a garage gym with KB, Barbell, DBs, Bands, trap bar, landmine attachment, pretty well stocked. I don’t want to make any adjustments or alterations to the program without your blessing and advice first. I plan on following it to the letter. Even found a gym for our family vacation later this month that even has a sled so I can get my 3 exact sessions in (I have a great wife lol).
For leg curls, I like band leg curls. For leg extension you can hold a DB between your feet (you can use a weight belt cinched around your ankles and put the weight through), sit on a bench or chair and do your leg extensions like that.
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Copy that, thanks Coach
One final question, and I should be done this week: I may have missed it, but do you have any specific Calorie/Macro recommendations for this program? I will be posting before pics and bodystats this weekend prior to starting the full program Monday. I plan on updating after each phase of the program.
It really depends on your goal.
If you want maximum fat loss, I really like the Velocity Diet. The combination of the V-Diet and the Metcon for Muscle can give a pretty drastic visual change due to rapid fat loss.
If you don’t want a fat loss that is as dramatic and wants to add some muscle, I would probably consume a maintenance-to-slight surplus in calories on the training days and go slight deficit on the off days.
If you want to focus on muscle gain and performance increase I would recommend a maintenance-to-slight surplus on the training days and a slight to moderate surplus on the off days.
As for macros. I would start with protein at around 1g per pound of body weight and have moderate carbs and fats and if possible, avoid having a lot of fats and a lot of carbs in the same meals.
Copy that. I like option B, will plan on maintenance for training days, and deficit for off days. Just plan on walking at least 7-10k steps for the off days as well for a solid active recovery. I’m OK with a slightly slower transformation, and personally I know I do better and stay more disciplined when I have some Macro/Calorie flexibility, versus going all in on a prolonged or drastic deficit. The battle is all mental, but I’d really like to keep performing at a high level, get strong, have sick pumps, and I’ve found I burnout quickly when metconning and staying in a steady deficit for more than a couple weeks. It works for a transformative look, but I’m just not a fan. For me performance>appearance at this stage in my life. Im currently at 18% BF which is where I can live comfortably without tracking my diet, but my goal is to drop down closer to 10-13% (roughly 10-15#), so I’m not quite ready to go extreme cut, yet. Who knows, maybe the program goes so well I change my plan and go full shredder lol. I may save Velocity for the end if needed. Thanks again for the advice.
Day 2 trial run in the books. Starting with a 2min sled push on leg day was brutal lol, the pump never stopped the whole workout lol. Personally, the complexes took me slightly longer, but it was a logistical problem. It took me some time to get in/out of my garage gym banded leg ext/curl setup, and took some time to jog out the driveway to my yard for sled pushes. Felt really good today, kept the weights slightly lower just to get a feel for the workout…at this point working out early morning, I’m really looking forward to getting surge on board, instead of just using preworkout. I feel like actual fuel would be better for my performance, rather than an artificial caffiene based energy.
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This program is going to ramp up your heart rate to the extreme, IDK if pre-workout is helping you any here. Surge will definitely help, but it is very much not like typical pre-workouts - no stims, but helps you keep going FYI.
I’ve had this issue as well, but was able to reduce it’s impact by using my rest periods to set up for next exercises.
Good work in here, I respect the time-tracking.
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I think tracking your time is underrated for training. Especially with Metcons, where the focus is on training density. Doing even the same work faster and faster is improvement. Shortening rest periods, is progress. Doing both of those things, and increasing resistance is the holy trinity lol.
My problem was mostly just climbing in and out of the resistance bands lmao, I’m thinking I may try a few different setups over the weekend just to see what works best, but I usually setup all the equipment prior to start, then use rest periods to clean up some lol.
Agree on the pre, it helps me feel awake, but I don’t think it’s too beneficial overall. Looking forward to better periworkout nutrition through Surge
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Ok, got everything measured and planned out for the week. I went back and reread christian_thibaudeau diet plan for natural lifters to get my macros right, meal timing/distribution, and staple foods list. Using the Carbon Diet app which I’ve enjoyed for about a year.
Spending yesterday and today as “cheat” days to get it all out before buckling down for the program lol. Actually added 3# of bloat in the process, really looking forward to getting in high gear now!
Starting Stats:
5’ 10"
201#
Neck 15.5"
Chest 43"
Arms: 15.5"
Waist: 36.5"
Hips: 42"
Thighs: 25"
Calves: don’t ask, don’t tell
Bench: 285#
Squat: 355#
Deadlift: 405#
Power Clean: 245#
Pull-ups: 15
3/4 mile time (easily measurable distance in my neighborhood): 5:30
2 mile time: nonexistent
Echo Bike 25 cal: 1:20
Rower 1k: 3:30
My “before” pics looked trule pasty and pathetic lol. Someone pass me some Surge! STAT
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Very good information, thank you. And don’t forget to ask me any questions you may have, even if they are only small doubts
Day one in the books. I was beyond excited to get off a horrible 12hr shift, and find that my Surge had been delivered last night. I took a rest yesterday and had the cut in calories, already down 1.9# bw this morning lol. Drank a dose of surge last night, and then followed the program today. Good stuff, taste reminds me of pedialyte. Overall I felt really good today.
Compared to my dry run: weights increased, rest times decreased, total time decreased, and I got right up to the edge of complete muscle failure in the targeted muscles. RPE I would say was 9/10, lungs were OK overall, but the working muscles were shot. Especially my delts and triceps were fried and insanely pumped. I think I may order a dip matador to attach to my rack, the ring dip holds are a whole new level of difficult lol. I would have just been chasing failure instead of chasing performance had I continued or tried to push the volume higher on a workout like this.
I have done a lot of Metcons over the years, but I have to say, adding slow eccentrics to them is a devilish design Christian_Thibaudeau lol! I’m too used to clanging and banging, I like the changeup. In the FBB programming I was doing, the slow eccentrics are usually just supersets or EMOM , so this is a beast!
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That would be a smart move. I love ring dips and ring dip holds. But in the context of this program it is not the best option. I don’t really like unstable work in a state of fatigue.
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