TCam's Log - The Road to Elite

Training Logs
1541

FORTITUDE

Week 6 - Day 3 - Deload

Incline Bench:
3x8x185

KB Side Bend:
2x10/10x80

Cable Skullcrusher:
15x125
13 + 5 + 3 x 125 - Myo-reps

Belt Squat:
Some light reps and a couple isometric holds

A couple of other things too.

This was very much just moving around. Low RPE on incline. Side bends were the hardest part. Knees felt pretty bad on the belt squat at the quad tendons. We’ll see how I feel going into this upcoming wave. My guess on the continued feeling bad despite deloading is primarily that negative effect of outside stressors that I spoke about in the previous post. But I do think waiting for the 6th week to deload was inappropriate for me at this time.

1542

FORTITUDE

Week 7 - Day 1 - RE Squat / DE Deadlift

Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes - Squat Bar:
3x8x375 - Felt all over the place and uncomfortable

Sumo w/ Belt - Stiff Bar:
6x2x495 - Relatively short rests (~2 mins)

Cable Low Row - Narrow Semi-Supinated Grip:
8x200
8x230
8x250 - Stack
12 + 5 + 3 x 200 - Myo-Reps

Hatfield Single-Leg Deep Squat:
3x8/8xBW - Described below

Hyper:
3x12xBW+45

Cable Ab Pulldown:
15x100
2x15x150

I’ve probably used a squat bar a dozen times total and I always hate it lol. Might be something to use because of that, since it seems to expose my bar placement being asymmetrical more than a normal power bar. But… work:reward balance may not really matter there. Anyway, squats were hard and it was hot in the gym, so it all felt off.

Then I deadlifted and it all felt great. Good positioning with the stiff bar and felt pretty strong, even off the floor.

For the Hatfield single-leg squats, these were basically high step ups with hand-assistance like in a Hatfield squat, but no touching down of the rear leg. Goal is full knee and hip ROM and then getting out of that without that initial pop from jumping off the rear leg, but enough assistance to balance and adjust to the strength curve. I’ll try to add weight to these, but I may just add reps first.

1543

FORTITUDE

Week 7 - Day 2 - CTRL Bench

Double Paused Bench:
2x6x295
2x6x275

A1 | Machine Dips - Plate Loaded:
3x15x180

A2 | DB Biceps Curl:
3x12-15x30s

Cable Fly:
20x35s - Low to high
15x50s - Low to high
10x50s - High to low

Cable Cross-Over Rear Delt Fly / Y Raise:
2x15x30s

Conditioning - Recumbent Bike:
122 cals / 3.47 miles in 12 minutes at Level 12 at 85-90 RPM on average

Double paused bench is hard. Solidly paused about 2" from the chest after a normal paced descent, followed by a quicker pause on the chest. These, along with dips and flys, have murdered my pecs, now a few days past. Definitely overshot on this first day of the wave and I’ll need to be cautious if deciding to progress this workout.

But I’m going to repeat these workouts to progress with purpose now that I’m getting into the groove of what feels best on scheme/exercise selection in this style. I’ve updated the exercise selection a bit, starting next week. I’m moving the horizontal row on Day 1 to Day 2, for instance.

1 Like
1544

FORTITUDE

Week 7 - Day 3 - CTRL Squat + RE Deadlift

SSB Paused Squat w/ Belt:
6x3x390

Conventional Deadlift w/ Stiff Bar:
6x405
6x455
10x455

Squat Press:
2x20x450

A1 | Seated Hamstring Curl:
3x12x120

A2 | Unilateral DB Deadlift:
2x12/12x65 - Normal DB deadlift stance, just with a DB on only one side, felt just as effective on glute max as any single leg or kickstand variety (that I didn’t want to do, so I thought I was just being lazy). Will continue assessing with this though

Cable Wood-Chopper:
15/15x50
15/15x75

Squats were hard, but solid. Deadlifts were very hard, and less solid. Could have done more sets at 405, but decided against over-shooting today.

That’s all for this week. Went out all day hiking and kayaking for Mother’s Day with the family instead of getting to the gym. Very sore from this workout and all of that.

1545

FORTITUDE

Week 8 - Day 1 - DE Squat / RE Deadlift

Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes
8x3x385 - 60-75 sec rests from rack to unrack, done in 10:30

Conventional DL w/ Belt/Straps - Stiff Bar:
6x405
3x6x455

Hyper:
12 x 45, 90, 125

Cable Ab Pulldown:
15x100
20x150
15x150

Hatfield Single-Leg Deep Squat:
3x10/10xBW

Added 20 lbs to my squats over the last couple of times I did this scheme. Didn’t quite hit 60 sec on each rest, but still being done a little over 10 mins for 8 sets at 385 is pretty good. I won’t be pushing this scheme for weight much, just for better quality reps and more ability to continue producing force throughout.

Conventional continues to be very hard, but that’s fine. The point is to work hard and it should help with sumo as a result.

1546

FORTITUDE

Week 8 - Day 2 - ME Bench / DE Bench

Paused Bench:
3x3x345
4x5x225+Bands - 2 Monster Minis (+70)

Cable Low Row - Narrow Semi-Supinated Grip:
12x180
3x10x210

A1 | Machine Dips:
15x180
2x15x200

A2 | DB Curls:
15x30s
2x12-15x35s

B1 | High-Low Cable Fly:
25x50
20x70
15x70

B2 | Cable Cross-Over Rear Delt Fly / Y Raise:
2x10x40
10x30

Conditioning - Recumbent Bike:
4 min warm-up
Tabata at 20 sec sprint / 10 sec slow and resistance levels 13/11
HR at end 170, 2.29 miles at end, dead at end

Got a small cramp in my left pec before going to the gym and then in my right pec while warming up lol. So I didn’t push for anything big on bench. The 3x3x345 was easy enough. Then I added the banded bench because I didn’t get to do DE bench this past weekend.

I moved the horizontal row slot to this day from the lower body day, thinking it would save my low back a bit, but I think it’s probably better suited for where it was. Because by this point, my low back is now DOMS’d up instead of just part of the same workout after squat/deadlift.

1547

FORTITUDE

Week 8 - Day 3 - ME Squat / RE Deadlift

Squat w/ Belt:
3x2x455 - Felt very hard, looked okay

Sumo RDL w/ Belt:
8x405 - Didn’t feel good from 225 doing normal sumo, so I tried this set and it all just felt off and irritating physically. Moving on

Squat Press:
2x15x540 - Full depth, paused

Seated Hamstring Curl:
2x12x140
15x100

Low back and knees are getting too much fatigue now, I think. Happy that I’m able to squat 455 with good form and not horribly slow, despite feeling like I’m getting crushed. But the recovery isn’t happening at the rate that’s necessary to sustain this new scheme or how I’m deciding to implement it.

So time to make some alterations after this week and keep moving forward.

Week 8 - Day 4 - RE Bench

Watched some of the Crossfit semi-finals and saw them do “Linda”, a deadlift + DB bench + squat clean workout and decided to do something like that for my pressing and rowing today:

A1 | Feet Up DB Bench:
4x10x90s

A2 | DB Bent Over Row:
4x10x90s

A3 | Seated Barbell OHP:
10x115
2x8x115
7x115 - Failed last rep

Lat Pulldown:
2x8+5x160 - With Angles90 + Without - Semi-Supinated Close Grip Attachment

B1 | Cable Skullcrusher:
2x12x125
20x100

B2 | Mid-Range Lateral Raise + Slow Eccentric:
3x15x10s - About 25-125 degrees of shoulder abduction

Mow Lawn:
1 x Front Lawn + Back Lawn x 90 minutes

This was fun. Probably not the best weight selection on the OHP or I could have done fewer reps there. But it’s all good.

For the lateral raises, I’ll probably do more of these. If you’ve read my log for a while, I had slow-concentric + slow-eccentric lateral raises when I was focused a lot on bodybuilding. Doesn’t follow the research on the concentric effort, but there’s something to a shit load of time under tension by doing that, provided you’re also training a powerful concentric via other exercise variations. Whether it’s just an ischemic condition that’s created and then release (like BFR and myo-reps tend to do) or something else, I don’t know. But the actually mind-muscle connection and pump is significantly better than other variations for middle delts, for me. Doing them in the way of only the most “tension-active” ROM with DBs definitely feels the best to me too. Load these along with cable laterals that train the lengthened ROM and I bet they start looking a lot better.

That was longer than I meant it to be. That’s this week’s Lesson From The V̷̧̳̬̝̩͕̤͔̰̥̾̀̎̕ö̶̥̭͎͉́̀̐̃̊͗̏́̓́̾͆̚ͅį̷̮̻͔͑̊̈͆̔̐d̵͓͍͒͐̎̑̂̇̏̽̈̇̆̑̅̐̄̾. Get big delts with 10 lb DBs. The delts look cool and people look at you like, “psh, I can lift more than that big guy.” Meanwhile, they’re small.

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1548

FORTITUDE

Week 9 - Day 1 - DE Squat

SSB Paused Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
5x3x390

A1 | Cheat Pendlay Rows - Beltless/Straps:
3x6x315

A2 | Front Foot Elevated Split Squat:
3x12/12x50 - Unilateral front racked KB

Leg Extension:
2 hard sets of 1.5 reps with the bottom range loaded - Not sure of the rep count, something in the 15 range, just did it til it sucked and I did a drop set on the 2nd set

B1 | Lying Leg Curl:
2x12x40

B2 | Adductor Machine:
12x90
12x130

Decided to go with a normal rest period for DE squats and a harder variation instead. Felt pretty good that way.

Cheat Pendlay rows were there as both a heavy horizontal row and a deadlift supplement. I’d like to do these for 365-405 in this rep range with a belt.

1549

FORTITUDE

Week 9 - Day 2 - RE Bench

Paused Bench - Close(r) Grip:
3x8x275

Close Grip Decline JM Press w/ Bands:
8x95+Dbl Monster Mini
2x8x135+Dbl Monster Mini

DB Curl Circuit - Single-Arm Preacher Curl, Standing Curl, and Hammer Curl:
6+6+6 x 25+25+40
8+8+8 x 25+25+40

A1 | Cable Fly:
20x40s
20x50s
15x60s

A2 | Cable Standing Rear Delt Row:
20/20x95
15/15x115

Cable Crossover Y Raise:
2x15x25

Conditioning - Recumbent Bike:
15:30 total, 140 cal, 4.00 miles - 2 min warm-up + 3 cycles of 1 min fast at Lvl 14 / 30 seconds slow at Lvl 11, then steady at 10-11 until the 90 second cool-down

Felt good to just do some reps here. Probably need to do that with squatting too, since I love to avoid that. The decline JM press may or may not be something I do again. The bench is too declined for it to be comfortable and stable enough to focus on the movement.

1550

FORTITUDE

Week 9 - Day 3 - RE Squat / CTRL Deadlift

Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
4x10x315

Paused Sumo w/ Belt - Stiff Bar:
3x3x495

A1 | Unilateral DB Deadlift:
2x15/15x105

A2 | Bulgarian Split Squat:
2x15/15xBW

A3 | Copenhagen Adductor Plank:
2x10/10xBW

Like I said in the previous entry, I need to do some reps with squats too. So I did. It’s a good thing I wanted to do that, because strength was lacking for getting good use out of anything too much heavier than 315 today. Got a back pump from it instead of quad pump lol

Moving on!

1551

FORTITUDE

Week 9 - Day 4 - RE Bench

Smith Machine Incline Bench w/ Reverse Bands (1 Dbl Mini):
8x180-Band
5x230-Band
3x8x180-Band

DB Decline Bench:
2x15x60s - Slow eccentric and paused

DB Lateral Raise - Slow Eccentric - Mid-Range Tension-Active ROM Only:
15x10s
10x15s + 6x10s + 6x5s + 10x0 - Drop set to failure until just raising the arms

A1 | Chest-Supported Barbell Spider Curl:
2x15x45

A2 | Standing Barbell Curl:
2x10x45

Band Triceps Extension:
50 total reps on each arm with monster mini band

Also played around with some power snatching up to 95 lbs

Pretty basic day here!

1552

FORTITUDE
Restart

Week 1A - Day 1 - DE Squat / RE Deadlift

Paused SSB Squat w/ Belt/Flats:
8x2x340 - 60 sec rests

Snatch Grip Deadlift w/ Belt/Straps:
10x365
12x365

Supported DB Split Squat:
2x12/12x100

Single-Arm DB Row:
2x12/12x110

KB Goblet Squat w/ Band TKE - Heels Elevated:
2x15x80+Dbl Monster Mini

Side-Lying QL Lift:
2x12xBW

Alright I’ve restructured my training a bit to be smarter. Redefined the RE, DE, CTRL, and ME slots and which variations, rep ranges, and RPEs to use for them. The goal is to have an on-going program that is practically just a skeleton scheme to be followed indefinitely. It’s an 8-week cycle of 2 A/B 4-week micro cycles. Generally, the aim will be to have 16 week macro cycles where I have 2 of the 8-week cycles completed and with a vague effort towards increased intensity towards a test day or week, but only if it feels right.

I’m focused almost entirely on just feeling strong and athletic while bodybuilding, not attempting to compete in powerlifting. I’ve made my best “recent” strength gains while focused on bodybuilding, so I may even make this more like bodybuilding as I go. I’d rather have fun lifting than worry about specific numbers. Things usually go better that way for my strength anyway.

1553

FORTITUDE
Restart

Week 1A - Day 2 - ME Bench

3 Ct Paused Bench:
4x275
4x315
4x325 @ RPE 8.5
3x5x275 - Close grip

Chest-Supported T-Bar Row:
2x15x90 - With thoracic flexion/extension

A1 | Machine Dip (Selectorized):
12x200
10x220

A2 | Cable Curl:
20x50
15x50

Seated DB Curl:
2x12x20s

B1 | Single Arm Cable Tate Press:
2x12/12x50

B2 | Lu Raise:
2x20x10s

Conditioning - Stationary Bike:
15 mins - 4.27 miles - 158 cal - Mixed effort at levels 11 and 14

Weight felt heavy from 135 today, but I’m happy with the top set I ended up with. Did self hand-offs for all of them too. Goal for my ME days is going to be mostly in the RPE 8-9 range for a top set and try to improve the numbers with that same effort level. RPE 10 shouldn’t be happening more than 1x/wave for upper and lower body, maybe even once per 8-week cycle. This well-performed and still hard set today will do more for me than an uncontrolled but heavier set.

1554

FORTITUDE
Restart

Week 1A - Day 3 - ME Squat / CTRL Deadlift

Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
2x405
4x425 @ RPE 8
2x2x425
2x5x315 - Paused

TnG Sumo w/ Belt:
3x7x463 @ RPE 6

A1 | Unilateral DB RDL:
2x15/15x110

A2 | Bulgarian Split Squat - Paused:
2x10/10xBW

Lying Leg Curl:
2x15x50

90/90 Weighted Crunch:
3x8x25

Felt okay warming up to 405, but then before my first set at 425, my quad was a little painful. I think that threw off my focus and form and made 425 harder than it should have been. I was thinking about 455+ on a 4 rep set at RPE 8, so this was way off. Knees still being iffy too, so no need to push for numbers for no reason at the moment.

Sumo felt good and controlled.

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1555

FORTITUDE
Restart

Week 1A - Day 4 - StrengthCon

A1 | DB Push Press:
4x12x55s

A2 | Bent Over DB Row:
4x12x55s

A3 | Push Up:
4x12

A4 | Mountain Climber:
4x12/12

B1 | Rowing:
3x500m

B2 | Band Single Arm Triceps Extension:
3x12/12xMonster Minis

B3 | Alternating DB Curl:
3x12/12x30

B4 | KB Lateral Raise:
3x12x15s

Needed to get in and out in about 45 minutes and this was the result. It was definitely hard, but not too bad. The hardest of these was the DB push press, which was the only thing I couldn’t complete without stopping mid-set.

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1556

FORTITUDE

Week 2B - Day 1 - RE Squat / DE Deadlift

SSB Squat w/ Oly Shoes:
4x8x300 - RPE 6 on average

Sumo Deadlift w/ Belt:
8x2x405 - 60 sec rests

Single Leg Extension:
5x10/10x50 - Alternating sides, no rest between legs other than the time it took to do 10 reps on the other leg

Smith Machine Good Morning:
3x10x90 - The best hip extension hamstring feeling I’ve ever gotten

Side-Lying QL Lift:
2x12xBW

This ended up being a decent workout, despite not feeling like being there at first. Staying submaximal for everything probably helped that. This whole scheme is a work in progress and I’m not sure I’ll have “true” 2x/week squats and deadlifts. I was making some excellent progress at 1x/week on each for at least a few months, so the recovery aspect for the main lifts may just be a limiter for me at this point. But a day like this with very submax deadlifts for mostly form practice won’t cause much of a recovery deficit.

Not to mention, keeping the workouts time-efficient is going to be more and more important over time. Having 2 main lifts doesn’t allow for a ton of focus on accessories. Gotta think about it as hitting what’s necessary to progress on the main lift, not doing as much as possible on the main lift.

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1557

FORTITUDE

Week 2B - Day 2 - CTRL Bench

3 Ct Pause Bench:
3x275
3x315
3x335 @ RPE 7.5
2x5x295 - 3 Ct Eccentric / 3 Ct Pause

A1 | Chest-Supported T-Bar
15, 15, 12 x 90

A2 | Machine Dips - Plate Loaded:
3x12x180

Cable Tate Press:
12, 11, 9 x 50

Cable Curl:
8x60 + 5x5x40 myo-reps with 30 sec rests

Seated DB Curl:
3x12x20s

Lu Raise:
2x15x15s

Conditioning - Recumbent Bike
15:30 - 4.25 miles - 156 cal
2 min x 14 / 1 min x 11 intervals

Felt strong warming up for bench, so I nearly switched to another ME day by going for 3x355 to match my PR on 3 count paused reps, but decided against it and went with the backdown 295 sets. Those were hard enough to fill that effort desire lol.

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1558

FORTITUDE

Week 2B - Day 3 - ME Deadlift

Sumo w/ Belt/Straps:
1x463
1x507
1x551
6x584 - +1 rep PR (counting this as the same thing as 585)

Squat Press:
2x20x360

A1 | Lying Hamstring Curl:
2x20x50

A2 | Hyper:
2x15xBW

This was not the planned workout, but we had a bunch of people in the gym for one of those powerlifter get-together-and-take-everything-overs and I wanted to do some deadlifts. I wasn’t sure what would be there, but I was warming up as if I was going to go for a single. 551 wasn’t incredibly easy, so I figured 584 would be an appropriate stopping point. I’m just not trained for more than probably 625 right now, even if this set put me at (I think my highest ever) e1RM of 695.

Lesson for the week: e1RM doesn’t mean anything if you’re not trained for a 1RM. Guaranteed 695 would be fully stapled to the floor if I tried it yesterday. But, it is a good way to compare PRs across rep ranges to ensure you’re still progressing, without needing to actually max out for no reason. The point here is that I could likely run a peak for deadlift and get 695 within 8-12 weeks because the potential is there.

Other thought: I’ll probably do that in the next year to finally break 700. May consider that breaking a lifetime goal by then lol.

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1559

FORTITUDE

Week 2B - Day 4 - DE Bench

A1 | Close Grip Incline Bench w/ Bands:
4x5x185+2 Dbl Minis - Didn’t measure, but probably similar to the +70 lbs setup on a normal bench with doubled monster minis

A2 | Lat Pulldown - Semi-Supinated MAG Grip - Controlled Eccentric:
12x160
2x12x180
10x180

B1 | Cable Lateral Raise:
15/15x35
12/12x40

B2 | DB Lateral Raise - Tension Active ROM Only:
2x8x25s

Cable Upright Row / Low Angle Facepull:
2x12x70

Knee Rehab - Incline BW Squat:
5 x 1 rep with 5 pauses on the eccentric at 5 sec each

I don’t know if I’ve ever done bands on incline, but it was an interesting way to work the dynamic effort side outside of normal flat bench. Pretty normal day otherwise. Putting some efforts towards making the knees feel better, because I’m getting bilateral quad tendinopathy and need to clear that up before making it worse.

2 Likes
1560

FORTITUDE

Week 3A - Day 1 - RE Squat

Wide Stance Squat w/ Belt/Flats:
2x10x315

Front Squat:
3x6x225

DB RDL:
3x12x115s

Band TKE:
3x20xDbl Light Band

Shin Box Get Up - Supported:
3x10/10xBW

Primarily focusing on keeping the knees rolling towards recovery rather than pushing for anything special. Both squat variations felt okay at the low load. Wide stance squats felt all over the place at the hips and low back though. Going to focus some efforts towards getting my hips in order, I think I’ve been avoiding that through stance and exercise selection.

Early weekly lesson: We have blind spots in training that are best recognized by outside viewpoints. A coach could have told me that I was avoiding these things months ago, but I didn’t recognize it myself because my biases put me in the box of doing things that felt the best. Rather than choosing things that expose my weaknesses and trying to get better at those things. So, either consider getting a coach that knows a lot about how to fix other people and make them strong (i.e. me and my head strength coach, Les Keyes) or make sure you’re always looking for weaknesses and recognizing them.

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