The Danish Viking: back to 531: Road to 2-3-4 Plates

I tried finding the entire Darkhorse program in a written form but I’ve only been able to find the video posted on YouTube. To be fair, this was just some quick googling on my part.

Is the program laid out in your log somewhere or would I have to piece it together from several posts?

I will do a writeup after testing. There I’ll do summary of the program. If you can wait that long. As far as I know it’s only in his video

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I can, it’s not on the docket for me yet. Have some other programs that I’ll probably run first, at the very least I’m locked in for the next 16 weeks. Beyond that, it’s mostly thoughts and ideas, where nothing is set in stone. Trying to plan an abroad visit to a friend in the spring, so where exactly that falls calender-wise will have repercussions into my programming.

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The other option is to go to Brian’s Neversate website and pay for him to write you customised program. That after all is what keeps food on his table.

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Maybe someday, I’m trying to restrain myself to necessary purchases only for a while. As much as I’d like to do my share to give back to the many individuals that make these forums and T-nation great, I’d rather postpone this expense investment until I can draw more benefit from it.

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Totally understand that

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woke at 82,4 kg - 181,7 lb
didn’t count yesterday but there where enough :slight_smile:

Todays training

Ergorower: 1500 m in 5 min 48 seconds + 500 m cooldown.

First test day tomorrow: OHP

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Woke at 82,5 kg - 181,9 lb
Didn’t count working 12-15 hours shift with lots of shitty food :slight_smile:


Todays training

The Danish Vikings Darkhorse

W11D1: OHP Test.

Warmup: Ropeskipping, yoga stuff, stretches

Dynamic warmup: 3 rounds

  • Plyo push ups x 3

  • Bear crawl 20-25 seconds

  • BPA x 12 focus on MMC

  • kneeling bottom up KB press x 5 each arm

  • Rope skipping x 30 sec

Complex:

  • bar x 8, 8: DL, row, Hang clean, fr Squat, press, squat, GM, push press

main Giant set:

  • pull up 8 x 5 @ BW

  • OHP 5 x 30, 3 x 37.5, 1 x 45, 52.5, 60 KG (1 plate) PR failed 62.5 kg
    Volume 2 x 5 @ 45 kg

  • situps 8 x 10 each side

Super set

  • Bench 5 x 50, 3 x 60, 70, 1 x 80, 85 kg

  • Speed sets 2 x 3 @ 60 kg

  • Band face pull 7 x 10

No assistance

Done in 45 minutes + 15 minutes warmup.

Wasn’t in the groove today… managed a grindy 1 plate PR for OHP, first goal accomplished.

Video coming up tomorrow or Saturday.

Tried 62,5 kg no way, and a 67,5 push press no way.

Happy to make a PR, BUT a bit disappointed I am. Late this spring I did 5 reps with 55 kg. So I think there should have been more.

Rest tomorrow Squat Saturday.

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Nice work mate, any PR is a good PR but I know how you feel about wanting more. Just feel really good about making progress and keep on grinding.

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Awesome job. Congrats!

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Happy for you mort! Well done

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That’s some awesome work man

Well done man! You broke one of your lifetime goals! Enjoy it, but I’m glad you’re not satisfied. Press is the hardest to make gains on…but you know that.

First up, well done worth a PR!

Secondly, I think various energy and strength draining circumstances may have decreased your strength - you worked a LONG shift, you ate crappy food, you did a lengthy warm-up that taxed your shoulders, AND you supersetted the max lift with pullups.

When I max, if I superset even with an antagonist muscle group, it still drains my energy for the main lift. I’d be willing to bet that if you were to try the OH again next week, youd have a higher PR, if you did it after a day off work and a bunch of good food while reducing the warm-up volume and only doing the OH press (no pullups), taking 2-3 minutes between heavy presses.

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Hey, man, a PR is a PR, and something to celebrate! I understand the frustration of knowing you have more in you but not hitting it in the moment, but you’ll keep getting stronger. I’ll also echo what @TriednTrue said. If you really want to test a PR, don’t throw it into the middle of a workout supersetted with something else. Do just enough work-up to be fully warmed up, and leave it at that. Once you’ve hit the PR, go ahead and knock yourself out for the rest of the work-out. I know you do it as part of the Darkhorse protocol, but your whole Warmup/Dynamic Warmup/Complex for 15 minutes is way more than I would do prior to trying to hit a PR. Of course, my warm-up is fairly minimalist, so that may be what works for you…

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Congrats on the 1 plate OHP!

I agree with @TriednTrue. Your circumstances weren’t great leading up to this so don’t beat yourself up. If I’m going to the gym to test my max then I pretty much only do that. I’ll do my warm up and only focus on my max.

I know it’s Dark Horse but do you have to do an antagonist and ab movement between warm up sets? I suggest focusing on the main lift. Rest 3-5 minutes before your max attempts to let the CNS fully recover.

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Good work. Everything @TriednTrue said is bang on. I don’t understand why you’d do that to test, so managing any kind of PR under those circumstances is damn good.

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Congrats on the PR! Really happy to see that your dedication and hard work is paying off. Keep it up man!

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Woke at 83 kg - 183 lb
Yet again another long day yesterday 13 hours. Lots of junk, chokolate and soft drinks :slight_smile:


Thanks for the support guys. I have seen the video and it’s not one to be used to show how to do a perfect OHP, maybe more like don’t do that :slight_smile:

@TriednTrue, @OTHSteve, @Frank_C, @MarkKO I hear what you guys say.
I’ll try to justify my choice a bit.
The warmup: about 6 minutes to get the body warm and heart pumping breaking a bit of sweat.
Followed by a little complex with just the bar isn’t very taxing either.
You guys should try this next time it really prepares the body.

What might be the issue is the giant set. I’ll break it up in 5 bw pull ups that I do not struggle with at all. They could be a bit taxing I’ll admit it. Then I took a bit longer break before my OHP.
OHP I took some bigger jumps than I have done before 7,5 kg (15 lb). Should be okay I only did 1 rep for the 2 lifts before the PR lift.
And 10 situps is really not an issue.
The DH protocol calls for a strongman or cardio exercise after this, which I did not do.
I took a bit longer pause than during the build up.

Next time and on Bench I’ll do a bit more sets and reps. I feel like I was not really warm when I did the heavy sets.
I have felt it like that before, when I tried to test.

But I’ll listen to you guys and tomorrow during squats I’ll do 1 or 2 jumps do the squat and rest.
I’ll take one or two more sets/reps to warm up.

And the video:

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My strict press sucks donkey butt, however, it looks like you might have ended up in a slightly unfavourable position there at what was almost a sticking point as your wrists ended up far behind your elbows.

I guess you’ve seen Brian’s OHP cheat sheet video?