Phase 2 Training Update

I've been slacking with updates the past couple of weeks.  No reason in particular other than  I kind of lost the desire to post numbers and exercises that don't mean a ton on paper.  I'm committed to complete postural and movement correction.  I've gone all in.  So, that's what I've been doing.

Squats
I feel great!  I'll post the basic template below, but I must say it feels amazing to actually front squat completely upright.  The other night I was talking to Gabe after I was done front squatting and I mentioned to him that "I haven't squatted upright like that with no stress on my hips since... well... ever."   That might not seem like a big deal, but for as long as I can remember my hip joint was the limiting factor in my squat.  Its not that it always hurt, its just that I was literally using the joint (bone on bone) as my stopping point at the bottom of the squat.  The way I did this also stress my knees.  Looking back, it was ridiculous.

On Friday I front squatted 185x3 frankstein style with my arms straight out.  They were deep, I was upright, and I just felt like I was squatting.  My core was the limiting factor.  I cannot wait to start fucking crushing front squats with decent weight.  My goal is of course to get back to heavy backsquats, but honestly, I'm at a point in my life right now where I would be completely fine just front squatting for a long ass time.  I have so much room to grow on this movement.

Conditioning
At the start of break I came up with the idea to conditioning almost everyday.  I've done about 5 sessions in 11 days, which is far off my mark, but I had a long 3-4 days of a final paper.  I'm going to try to do some sled work everyday that I can.  I'm going to make a post about how I approach conditioning now, but generally these are moderate sessions of 20-30 minutes. 

Program Thoughts
 I'm still working hard,  I still have a long way to go, but my body has adapted pretty well to bracing the glutes, abs, and quads at the appropriate times.   I've learned a few things a long the way that have changed the way I will think about training in the future.

When it comes to bracing/plank progress, a hard contraction is more valuable than a long contraction.  Take the regular plank or corrective pushup for instance.  What I found is that I cannot do much more than 10-12 corrective pushups  and I can't perform the plank much more than 15-20 seconds.  At first I was trying to increase up my reps and plank time, but then I realized this was the wrong way to measure progress for these exercises.  I can't go more than 15-20 seconds in the plank because each session I'm contracting harder.  A maximal contraction is a maximal contraction.  As I get better at activating and utilizing my chronically shutdown core during each session, I become more proficient at maximally contracting the musculature that was previously unavailable.  Muscle fiber recruitment, yo.  So, although my plank time hasn't increased in 6 weeks, I'm now able to recruit larger portions of my core as compared to 6 weeks ago.  In short, my plank is much more plank-like.  And thats really the point here.

This is strength training.  The next time I see someone doing a 5 minute plank, I'll be thinking "good core endurance."  I won't be thinking "good core strength."  The abdominals and glutes have slow and fast twitch muscle fiber just like everything else.  I know which ones I want to be training.  (As an aside, I can see value in high rep abdominal work, just like I see value in high rep work for other supportive musculature).

In the future, I see myself placing more emphasis on heavy abdominal work.  Take my shitty front squat described above.  Right now, my weak core is my limiting factor.   Given my training history, I'd wager I can get up to a 3 plate front squat within a few months using basic linear progression.  But once I hit that mark, things might become a little more complicated.  If my goal is to get  a bigger front squat, I essentially have two options: 1) front squat more frequently  get better at the lift 2) increase cross-sectional area of the primary movers of the lift.

I'd choose number one if getting my front squat number up was my primary concern. I'd lean towards number two, if,  like is usually case, the front squat is merely one of the main 5-6 movements in my general strength routine.  Gotta get shit bigger.  At this point, things can get a little circular because they best way to directly stimulate the musculature of the front squat is to... front squat.  And we know that in the gym, for adapation to occur, we need to lift with increasingly heavy weight for increasingly more reps.  But anyone with some programming experience knows this creates trade-offs. Maybe I do value the front squat, but not enough to hinder recovery in the deadlift and backsquat.  In this case, lift specificity does't meet the programming needs, so you go more general:  core work.

Heavy core work will support both the front squat and the other lifts and work to limit "CNS fatigue" or "systemic fatigue" or whatever you want to call it.  Whether that shit exists as an actual event in the central nervous system  or not is besides the point.  We do know that "fatigue" in general, whether it be psychological (fuuuuccck I can't believe I have to do this shit heavy again) or some other mechanism, is a somewhat measurable phenomenon.  See Mike T's work with fatigue percents.  That shit is real and he has the lifters (data) to back it up.

So, heavy stimulating core work might be a choice that generally works to drive the front squat up, helps the other big core heavy movements, and works to limit total fatigue within the program.  The next question is what kind of core work do I need?  Well, lets go back to my shitty front squat triple.  I sincerely doubt that a 5 minute plank will work to strengthen my ability to maintain an upright posture in a set that takes less than 10 seconds.  I'll need get better at the heavy plank-esque movements: a real plank, resisted deadbugs, ab-wheels, dragonflys, etc.  Thats not to say shit like heavy decline sit-ups are totally useless.  Though they don't necessarily mimic the type of core loading specific to strength movements, they can still isolate the abdominals (and the hip flexors, har-har).  8-12 reps of weighted decline situps can isolate the abs and create hypertrophy.  Bigger muscles are good for strength training

I'll note that everything I write is with the natural trainee in mind.  As is often the case, there are plenty of hugely strong guys that just do the big movements with reckless abandon.  They are also juiced to the tits and don't have the same recovery considerations as a natural trainee.  Thus, they could front squat their balls off and not worry about it impacting the deadlift or back squat in the same manner.  And so they will write shit about "only needing this or that" and "just shutup and train." And idiots such as myself end up listening to these guys because they move a  ton of weight and they are huge.  Even if I recognize we aren't the same, their must be something I can take away from what this insanely strong dude has to say.  And usually there is.  But after this shit I've been going through I think that by and large, listening to what these faggots have to say to their general audience can be really counterproductive.

Closing Thoughts
My huge problem with the internet nowadays is that it offers a wealth of information, but completely destroys the need for critical thought.  No one thinks critically.  I didn't think critically.  And critical thinking doesn't mean finding an even better guru than the last.  This is the fucking internet.  Anyone can post anything.  I'm no guru myself, but by and large the training information posted on the world wide web is complete and utter diarrhea - and that includes the big popular sites.

I write all that shit out for me to revisit at another time.  I'm not going to start compartmentalizing core training or  any of that right now.  As I said in the opening of this post, I'm completely committed to postural and movement correction.  Right now for me that means bird-dogs, pallof presses, and good old planks (real planks).

Current Routine
1a. rdl
1b. split stance cable push (standing)
2a. split squat (counterweight)
2b. split stance cable pull (standing)
3a. kneeling pallof press iso hold
3b. lying i, t, y's
3c. external rotations

1a. front squat
1b. pushup
2a. step up (counterweight)
2b. 1arm face pull
3a. l-lateral raise with external rotation
3b. ball rollouts
3c. bird dogs

Phase 2 Day 2

Chris' introduction

1a. Goblet Squat
30x5; 30x5; 30x5

1b. Pushups
BWx10; BWx10; BWx10

2a. Split Squat
BWx5; BWx5; BWx5

2b. Band Facepulls
10; 10; 10

3a. Plank
15 seconds; 15 seconds; 15 seconds

3b. Row to External Rotation
3x8; 3x8; 3x6

3c. Scap Wall Slides
3; 3; 3

4a.  Front Squat
95x5; 135x3; 135x1

Notes
I introduced my old training partner to my routine since he has severe upper body mobility issues.  I think he saw the value, but was of course worried about "muscle atrophy." What am I supposed to say?  If you want to fix things, you need to fix things.  If you have the drive to do hypertophy stuff on top of all this, then go for it, so long as its not putting you into counterproductive body positions.

I didn't do the second workout of Phase 2 as its laid out, but thats ok.  Front squats felt terrible.  Hard on my fingers/wrists and it felt terrible getting below terrible.  No pain at all, it just didn't feel natural.  I also had some pretty noticeable forward lean.

Phase 2 Day 1

1a. Romanian Deadlift
135x15; 135x12; 135x10

1b. Split Stance Cable Push (Standing)
75x10; 75x8; 75x8

2a. Split Squat
BWx8; BWx8; BWx8

2b. Split Stance Cable Pull (Standing)
60x8; 60x8; 60x8

3a. Kneeling Pallof Press Iso Hold
60x15 seconds; 60x15 seonds

3b. Lying ITY's
BWx6/6/6; BWx6/6/6

3c. External Rotations
7.5x6; 7.5x6

Notes
RDL's felt very decent.  Not perfect, but I felt I was legit hinging on each rep.  I really think the double KB stuff helped ingrain the movement more so than anything else.

Phase 1 Day 12

12/07/12

This was last Friday... I did a full normal workout but I don't remember exactly what.  The only thing I do remember is I hit a 96lb x 5 goblet squat.   I made the decision that after 4 weeks, phase 1 was over and I was moving on to front squats, etc.

Phase 1 Day 11

1a. KB RDL
61x15; 122x15; 122x15

1b. Half-Kneeling Cable Push
100x8; 80x8; 80x8

2a. 90/90 Split Squat
53x3; 61x5; 122x2

2b. Half-Kneeling Cable Pull
80x8; 60x8; 60x8

3a.  Side Plank
20 seconds; 15 seconds

3b. ITY's
5x5/5/5; 5x5/5/5

3c. External Rotation
5x8; 5x8

Notes
Discovered a number of new little things today.  Holding 2 kettlebells at my side for the RDL's is superior than holding it in front.  I lose my upper back positioning when holding shit in front of me right now.  Two kettlebells at the side really allowed me to repeat a solid hinge.  I'm going with this setup for a while.  I also like it because it will allow me to eventually load with heavy dumbbells. I'm not going get crazy with loading these corrective type exercises, but I do think I need increasingly heavy shit to progress on my realignment.

ITY's and External Rotation... So I always "squeezed at the top" on stuff like this how you are supposed to do.  But today I focused on actually performing the entire movement with my scapula from start to finish.  Much much more effective.  I really felt my "wings" moving how I want them to.  This was especially important with the external rotations, because I think most people probably just turn it into a little rotator cuff type movement.

Last thing...On shit like external rotations, I need to focus on actually improving the limiting point of the ROM.  I'm realizing that is kind of the entire point.  (I think for me anyways).  Maintain alignment, but then use the load to push yourself a little farther into new territory.

Phase 1 Day 10

1a. Goblet Squat
53x3; 53x3; 53x3; 53x3; 53x2

1b. Pushup
10; 8; 8; 8; 6

2a. 90/90 Split Squat
53x8/8; 70x5/5; 70x2/2

2b. Facepulls
100x10; 100x12; 100x12

3a.  External Rotation to Row
5x10; 5x10

Notes
Goblet squats sucked the soul out of me.  It is hard to describe how poor my hip stability is.  Those sets were like max effort.  They are getting better, but still a long road ahead before I'm back squatting.

Phase 1 Day 9

1a. KB RDL-Hinge
53x20; 53x20; 53x20

1b.  Half-Kneeling Cable Push
75x8; 75x8; 75x8

2a. 90/90 Split Squat
53x5; 53x5; 53x5

2b. Half-Kneeling Cable Pull
75x8; 75x8; 75x8

3a.  Plank
30 seconds; 20 seconds; 20 seconds

3b. Prone Row to External Rotation
5x8; 5x8; 5x8

3c.  Scap Wall Slides
4; 4; 4

Notes
Excellent session.  I discover subtle little things to improve the movements each session.  This is challenging training, but I'm really enjoying it.

Phase 1 Day 8 and Thanksgiving Break Wrap Up

Kettlebell Core Work/Conditioning

KB Windmill
53x5/5; 53x5/5; 70x5/5

Getup
53x1/1; 53x1/1; 70x1/1

Swings
53x5; 53x5; 53x5... stopped

KB RDL
53x10; 53x10; 53x10; 70x10


Woke up at 5am this morning to get on the road to drive from NH to DC.  Its supposed to be about 8 hours, but ended up taking 9.5 with traffic.  Amanda and I thought we were in store for another lunch of burger and fries on the road, but alas, hidden in between seven other fast food joints at a colossal New Jersey rest stop emerged a Baja Fresh.  Victory! We can officially start the last day of Thanksgiving break with a legit low carb lunch.  It was a long ass day, but we decided to go straight to the grocery when we got back in town.  Loaded up on meat and veges, dropped the food and our bags off at home, then headed over to the gym.

We were both tired but just wanted to do something after sitting in the car all day.  So, we decided to just mess around with the kettlebells, work on form, and get some core stimulation in.  I've heavily readjusted my windmill to not start in a position of anterior pelvic tilt.

The 70lb getup felt much easier than the first time I did it over the summer.  I haven't done  getup for months, but the attention to my core has really paid off.

Swings.... so I can't maintain a solid neutral position on swings yet. My hinge feels great for a about one rep, but it turns to mush as soon as I start really swinging.  So, I decided to just hold the kettlebell and work on the hinge without the explosive/dynamic hip drive.  Essentially it was a kttlebell RDL.  It felt awesome.  This was the first time I found something I could load and really repeat the hinge over and over again.  I experimented with two 70lber's held at my side.  Works great.  Now I know I can work up to a decent load.

I'm making the executive decision to drop pull-throughs and sub the KB RDL.  I can never get a comfortable solid hinge with the pull-throughs.  The cable pulls me back and kind of promotes a bad starting position, the cable is up in my nuts during the entire movement, and I find it exceedingly difficult to find the natural end point of the hinge ROM.  On the other hand, the KB RDL felt rock solid, and I know I was actually hinging.  I can stand up straight, and the ROM end point felt natural.  I plan on doing these ultra high rep.  Learning how to hinge after years and years of a distended spine/quazi squat is exceedingly challenging for me.  Its not a muscular thing, its a coordination thing.  I feel that I need something I can do over and over again with confidence.

--------------------------
All in all this Thanksgiving break was one of the best I can remember.  I was in Keene from Tuesday to Sunday and the entire time was filled with family, friends, food, drink, and tons of physical activity.  I was eating and drinking my ass off, but was also active as hell.  We worked out everyday including Thanksgiving.  (Except Friday - played golf).  Wednesday was a double header:  a.m. workout and p.m. mountain hike.  I feel very lucky to have been around people that were genuinely happy.

I'm in a really good place both mentally and physically right now.  I feel rested and relaxed, and I'm really happy with the progress I'm seeing in Phase 1.

I have 2 weeks left in DC and I plan to make the most of it.  Kill it in the gym, kill it at work, eat like a caveman, and see the sites.  My goal going into 2013 is be respectably lean, respectably conditioned, and at the point in my mobility training where I can actually start a linear loading progression with the front squat.  Tons of things need to happen in 5 weeks to legit barbell front squat, but I'm going full blast.  I'm going to finish 2012 at a high point so I can kick the fucking shit out of 2013.

Phase 1 Day 7

Warmups - 40 minutes

1a. Goblet Squat
45x5; 45x5; 45x5

1b. Pushup
12; 12; 10

2a.  90/90 Split Squat
45x5; 45x5; 45x5

2b. Facepulls
75x12; 75x12; 75x12

3a. Prone Row to External Rotation
10x8; 10x8; 10x8

3b. Plank
35 seconds; 35 seconds; 25 seconds

3c. Scap Wall Slides
3; 3; 3

Notes
I removed the box from the goblet squat after the first set.  Even in a few short sessions, I already became dependent on the box for depth.  I can see why a box for depth might be useful for someone totally new to squatting and in the context of corrective exercises, but I don't see a ton of value for myself.  I know the depth I need to be at. I also know I'm squatting high right now because I don't have the stability to get to depth with neutral spines/hips.  But that what this is all about.  Its getting better.

Thanksgiving Day Pump

Thursday 11/22/12

Incline Press
225x3
250x1
185x10
135x16

Close Grip Pulldowns
160x10
Stack x 8
160x16

Standing DB Press
40x8
45x8
45x6

BB Curls in Squat Rack
95x8
95x8
Bar x 55

Notes
The YMCA was open from 9-12 in the morning on Thanksgiving day if you brought in a canned good.  I got a bunch of family and friends to go in for a pre-thanksgiving workout.  Matt, Chris, Amanda, and I just went around and did fun stuff to blast our upper bodies and get a pump.  This made me feel slightly better about the gluttony later in the day.

I  reinforced the neutral body positions I've been working on, and felt pretty good I popped right into them on incline and standing DB.  I'm definitely not ready to move into these sort of movements yet because I still need to master the basics, but I did get a little taste of whats to come.

This workout was exactly what training is supposed to be about - hard work and fun with friends. It left me sore as hell though haha.

Phase 1 Day 6

Wednesday 11/21/12

A.M.

90/90 Split Squat
30 x 5/5; 30 x 5/5

Half Kneeling Cable Push
3 sets

Half Kneeling Cable Pull
3 sets

Side Plank
35 seconds per side

P.M.
Hiked Gap Mountain - 90 minutes total.


Notes
Had to cut a bunch of stuff out on Wednesday because family was coming over and we were planning on hiking in the afternoon.  Still got a lot of activity in overall for the day though.

Phase 1 Day 5

Monday 11/24/12

1a. Goblet Squat
44 x 5; 44 x 5; 44 x 5

1b. Pushup
12; 12; 12

2a. 90/90 Split Squat
35 x 5/5; 35 x 5/5; 35 x 5/5

2b. Facepulls
100x12; 100x12; 100x12

3a. Plank
35 seconds; 35 seconds; 35 seconds

3b. Row to External Rotation
5 x 8; 5 x 8; 5 x8

3c. Scap Wall Slides
2; 2; 2

Phase 1 Day 4

Strength-Conditioning Day

Low Bar Sled Push (30 yards)
90x1
90x1
135x1
135x1
180x1
180x1
225x1
270x1
315x1
353x1
378x1

5 rounds:
60 yards Farmers walks with 120s DB
and 10/10 sledge hammer to tire.

Notes
So a group of 10-12 guys and gals went to the roof today to do a "strongman" style session.  I threw up after the final sled push.  Not just gagged, actually threw up.  Haven't done that in years. All in all it was a ton of fun.  Going in I was a little wary going about somehow messing up or derailing the work I've been doing.  I think it was fine. I was cognizant of my ribs/abs/neck/shoulder blades on the carries.   Kept my neck packed on the pushes.  Even worked on not letting my spine get disconnected on the sledge hammers.  So long as I'm aware of the main shit, I don't need to act like I'm fragile.

After the session we were all hanging out messing with the slosh pipe.  People falling all over the place with it.  I got up, implemented my new "ab style" and was just zipped along like there was nothing to it.  There was a marked difference between my ability to control the pipe and everyone else.  Core baby, core.

Phase 1 Day 3

1a. Pull Through
75x10; 75x10; 75x10

1b. Cable Push
140x8; 120x8; 100x8

2a. 90/90 Split Squat
12kg x 4/4; 12kg x 4/4; 12kg x 4/4

2b.  Cable Pull
120x8; 120x8; 120x8

3a. Side Plank
25 seconds; 25 seconds

3b. YTI's
5x/6/6/6; 5x6/6/6

3c. Laying External Rotation
5x10; 5x10

Notes
Solid session.  Kept my pull-throughs limited by the ROM of my hinge.  Took a while but by the 3rd set I had a nice little groove going.

I tried to be a little more fluid with the split squats tonight. Went a little past 90, but I noticed by the 2nd set my form was perfect. (for me).  I definitely felt like I work into a better position.  By the third set though I got a little fatigued and it was more difficult to maintain the position.

Phase 1 Day 2

Warm-ups

1a. Goblet Squat to Box

16kg x 2; 16kg x 2

1b. Pushup

BWx10; BWx10; BWx10

2a. 90/90 Split Squat

16kg x 3/3; 16kg x3/3

2b. Facepulls

140x10; 140x10; 140x10

3a. Plank

30 seconds; 30 seconds

3b. Row to External rotation

10x8; 5x8

3c.  Scapular Wall Slides

2; 2

Notes

Hour and 20 minutes to get through the above plus a 35 minute warm-up.  I almost passed out during the goblet squats and split squats.  Very challenging to get my body into the right positions.

Phase 1 Day 1

Warm-up

Lacross Ball: feet, ankles, shoulder girdle, lats, pecs
Foam Roll: glutes, it band, hip flexors, quads, thoracic spine
Mobility: thoracic spine rotation, pushup plus, split squat thoracic rotation, spider wall crawls, wall ankle mobilities, lying leg raises, side leg raises, groiners, wall sprinter stances
Corrective/Activation: quad stretch, cable lateral walks, glute bridges


Training

1a. Pull through: 75x10; 75x10

1b. Split stance cable push:  50x12/12; 50x12/12

2a. split squat (counterweight): 12kg x 4/4; 12 kg x 3/3

2b. split stance cable pull:  80x12/12; 80x12/12

3a. side plank:  25 seconds per side; 25 seconds per side

3b. prone i, t, y's:  BWx8/6/6; BWx6/6/6

Notes
Exhausting as hell but felt great.  Good intensity.  My little "Getting Mobile" phase taught me a lot about body positioning and cues to give myself.  I also gather all of the written descriptions of each exercise written by Mike Robertson and reference it during the training.

Need to work on:
-Pull-throughs - Losing hip position at bottom of movement.  Per Gabe - reduce ROM to maintain hinge.

New Routine

My outlook on training has significantly changed in the past 3-4 weeks.  I was doing shit wrong for many years.  I thought I knew what I was doing, but I didn't. I can blame all of the people that I listened to for the wrong reasons, but at the end of the day it is my responsibility to understand each of my training decisions.  To be clear, all of this was precipitated by my hip, and my complete inability to squat without excruciating pain.  I'm also talking specifically about exercise form and exercise selection.  Poor form, coupled with supremely ignorant decisions on exercise selection left me in pain and a severely fucked posture.

"Just squat, bench,  dead and row your whole life bro, that's all you need."

That's not really too far off from how I thought before, and now I'm paying the price.  I still feel the big exercises are the best bang for you buck and should be the staple of most programs, but not at the expense of being able to move around like a normal person.

For too long I just assumed my form was "good enough" and that I didn't need to sweat the small stuff.  After all, I reached some other decent numbers. Looking back this had little to do with form and mostly to do with broadly understanding the spectrum of programming methodologies. In short, I didn't get stronger because of my form, I got stronger in spite of it.  An anterior pelvic tilt is still a relatively strong position.  You can still progress in that position and plenty of strong people have done it.    Hard work + heavy weight will get you quite a long way.  But ignore the warning signs at your own peril.

One warning sign was that my squat never progressed.  I hit a 500 pound squat multiple times in college, got 3 green lights at 512.5 in competition. . . and then it completely stagnated. I'd change my stance, switch up my hand placement, go low bar, go high bar, sit back, sit down, you name it.  Inevitably I'd decide my squat was sucking because I wasn't programming it right.  So, I learned a shitload about programming.  This is a good thing and will help me once I'm out of this stage.  But all the while my low back arch increased, my anterior pelvic tilt became more pronounced, and my posture became closer to caveman than a human being.

Though I'm disappointed in myself that it took so long to finally address the underlying structural issues, I think this whole process is a blessing in disguise.  I finally know how to get my squat strong again:  fix my posture.  Of course, this is a bit of a simplification of my issues, but that is really what it comes down to.  My posture sucks and it creates huge  mobility issues, movement issues, and muscle balance issues.  Like Dan John always says, its simple not easy.  I need to fix my posture. Simple.

Fixing my posture isn't easy though because it requires that I: rid myself of anterior pelvic tilt; rid myself of lordosis; strengthen the fuck out of my core the right way; relearn how to engage my core; relearn how to use my glutes; re-program the internal cues I have for all exercises; re-program my body position on all exercises; control my hips; control my ribs; improve  external rotation of my hips and shoulders; do a bunch of incredibly simple movements for months on end; accept that I'll be completely uncomfortable during most of these months, and; reinforce all of the work I do in the gym when walking and sitting the other 23 hours a day.  Plus a shitload of other stuff I'm not listing and that I'm not even aware of yet.

I have a new found respect for people that  bust their ass doing this stuff.  Its fucking hard and takes a monumental amount of effort.  There is no coasting.

With all of that said, I'm having a lot of fun!   This is an area of training I know nothing about, so I'm trying to soak in as much as possible.  There is so much to learn.  It really help to have a good friend like Gabe that can give me advice on all of this.   I've pasted in the program I will be doing for the next 3-6 weeks.  I'm not sure how fast/slow I will progress out of these movements but I'll just have to wait and see.  Also, I've decided I don't like the "Getting Mobile" name for this phase.   I'm not doing this to "get mobile" for the sake of getting mobile.  I'm doing this to get stronger.  I'm training.  So this is just going to be called Phase 1.

Without further ado, this is the program Gabe recommended and the same thing he started with:

WARM-UP
Lacross Ball: feet, ankles, shoulder girdle, lats, pecs
Foam Roll: glutes, it band, hip flexors, quads, thoracic spine
Mobility: thoracic spine rotation, pushup plus, split squat thoracic rotation, spider wall crawls, wall ankle mobilities, lying leg raises, side leg raises, groiners, wall sprinter stances
Corrective/Activation: quad stretch, cable lateral walks, glute bridges


ROUTINE 
Day 1
1a. pull through
1b. split stance cable push
2a. split squat (counterweight)
2b. split stance cable pull
3a. side plank
3b. prone i, t, y's
3c. lying external rotation

Day 2
1a. goblet squat to box
1b. pushup
2a. split squat (counterweight)
2b. face pulls
3a. plank
3b. prone external rotation to row
3c. scapular wall slides

Getting Mobile Day 11

Half-Kneeling KB Press:  44x10/10; 44x10/10; 44x10/10; 60x6/6

Cable Row:  140x10; 140x10; 100x10; 100x8

Close Grip Incline 135x10; 135x10; 135x10

Getting Mobile Day 10

Glute Bridge: 25; 25

X-Band Walks

90/90 Split Squats:  3; 3; 3; 3; 3

RDL: 135x5; 135x5; 135x5; 135x5

Notes
Needed a quick session last night.  RDL's were hard as hell to stay aligned.  Have some vids I'll post later.

Getting Mobile Day 9

Kneeling KB Press: 60x5

Bench: 225x1; 225x1; 225x1; 225x1; 275x1; 225x5

TRX Row: 12; 12; 12

supersetted w/

Close Grip Incline: 185x10; 185x10; 185x10

Curls: 95x10; 95x; 95x5

supersetted w/

Facepulls: 3 sets 12 reps

Single leg dead bug: 10/10

Double leg dead bug: 3; 3

Notes
Wanted to get some pump work in.  Per usual, warmups and mobility took 30-35 minutes prior to this workout.

Getting Mobile Day 8

Normal Warm-ups.

Glute Thrusts: 25

X-Bands: Average Band x 8

RDL: Bar x 30; 135x5; 135x5; 135x5

90/90 Split Squat: 2 x 15 second iso hold; 2 x 15 second iso hold

Cable Bird Dog: 100x10; 100x10

Dead Bug:  Single leg x 10/10; Single Leg x 10/10; Double x 3; Double x 3

RKC Side Plank: 25 seconds per side; 25 seconds per side

Goblet Squats:  16kg x 10

Notes
Solid session.  Starting to see some progress.  It was exceedingly difficult to keep my hip position neutral during  RDL's.  Big day for the split squats.  Really enjoying the progress on these.  The first day I did them I was gasping for air they were so painful.  The still hurt, but I'm slowly chipping away. Now I can actually get down in position (slowly), hold it, and then move up and then back down for another rep.  Progress!

Cable bird dog hits my glutes like none other. Love, love.

Goblet squats were meh.  Just testing out my hip more than anything, honestly I still need to improve mobility before I start squatting again.

Getting Mobile Day 7

30 minute warm-up of rolling, stretching, activation, dynamic movement.

Overhead Shrugs: Barx8; Barx6; Barx6

Lat Pull-down Retractions: 200x5; 200x5; 200x3

Overhead Press: Barx8; Barx8; Barx8; 95x5; 95x5; 95x5; 95x5; 95x5

1 Arm DB Press: 45x10; 45x10; 45x10

TRX Rows: BWx10; BWx10; BWx10 (PR's)

Jackknives: BWx14; BWx14; (PR); BWx12

Windmills: 61x3/3; 61x3/3

Side Planks: 25 seconds per side

Curls

65x40 (PR)

Notes

In a text convo with Gabe today he made a great point: "Its never going to be all perfect, but when you are trying to fix things, you might as well do it the right way."  (paraphrased)

I couldn't agree more.  

For example, the overall utility of the one-arm dumbbell press is generally fucking limited.  I have no doubt that I could walk into the gym on any given day and "one-arm dumbbell press" 100-130 pounds  with ease. And by "one-arm dumbbell press" I mean laying on a bench and simply  moving the weight up and down with one arm.  But would I be moving 100-130 pounds while maintaining a neutral spine, squeezing my glutes, keeping my ribs down and bracing my abs?   Nope.

For me, the one-arm dumbbell press is not used to gain massive chest, shoulder, and triceps size/strength.  The point is to legitimately reteach myself how to press while implementing all of the core positions I'm hammering on every exercise.  

There is a stark difference between what a guy like Gabe is saying about core work as compared to what a faggot squatting on a bosu ball is doing.  The point of doing a one arm dumbbell press is not to engage my core just for the sake of engaging my core.  The point is to get stronger. To fucking bench more.  

Getting Mobile Day 6

I'm going to stop listing every stretch and dynamic movement I do.  I'll just highlight the main stuff.

Glute Bridges: 20; 20; 20

X-Bands w/ Minis: 10/10; 10/10

Scap Shrugs:  Barx8; Barx8; Barx8

Cable Hip Extension: 45x12; 45x12; 45x12

Pallof Press w/ 5 Sec Iso Hold: 75x5; 75x5; 75x5

Plank:  25 seconds; 25 seconds

Side Plank: 20 seconds Per Side

90/90 Split Squat: a  couple reps per side

Notes
Core and glutes are blasted.  The cable hip Extension is the best glute movement I've found so far.  I'm still having trouble completely isolating my right glute.  Hamstring keeps wanting to take over.  But its getting a little better each workout.

Per Gabe's recommendation I read Dean Somersett's recent article on planks and hip mobility:  http://deansomerset.com/2012/10/25/planks-are-the-magic-bullet-for-hip-mobility/

This was interesting - especially the side plank stuff.  I tried it at the end of my workout last night and I was doing nice deep bodyweight squats with no pain. I do the side plank just like the regular plank: glutes contracted hard, abs braced.  Much tougher, but I feel stiff as a board.

Getting Mobile Day 5

Bench
275x1
290x1
305x1
315x1
275x5
225x10

Dips
10; 10; 10

Facepulls
75x20
75x20
75x20

Jackknives
12; 12; 12

Calves
270x33

Notes
I benched with my ribs down, glutes contracted and abs braced today.  This is going to be a game changer.  There is a  lot more to the position than I just listed, but essentially I benched in a manor  consistent with everything I've been doing the past couple weeks.   The power was immediately apparent.  Speed on 315 was crazy.  The limiting factor was my core/glutes.  I felt my "nether regions" (mid/low back, abs, glutes) contract/spasm like crazy during this lift.  I felt nothing in my arms. It was like my body pushed a button and my arms were levers.

I need a ton of reps under the bar to get comfortable with this, but I feel it is the right approach for me.  I don't give a flying fuck if everyone thinks a big arch and disconnected rib cage is the "right way" to bench.  I'm going to be compact and solid.

Getting Mobile Day 4

Rectus Femorus Stretch/Glute Bridges: 20, 20, 20

Piriformis/X-Band Walks w/ Mini: 6/6, 6/6, 6/6, 6/6, 5/5, 5/5, 5/5

Band Pull-Aparts/Wall Scap Slides
(progress: can actually get into position on wall slides now)

Bird-Dogs

RKC Plank: 30 secs; 30 seconds; 30 secs

90/90 Split Squat: 3 per side w/ 10 second iso hold at bottom
(this is already hugely better than my first time)

Scapular Depressions on Lat Pull-Down: 160x8; 160x8; 200x3
(awesome awesome movement... could literally feel my shoulders being pulled into alignment)

Wide Grip Pull-down: 120x8; 120x8; 120x8
Ribs down, focus on scap retraction

Scarecrows:  2.5x12-15 sets
Got into position for the first set and my body popped into what I believe to be a neutral back position for the first time.  I just kept doing sets over and over this to reinforce the position.

Curls: 120x16; 120x16; 120x16

Half-Kneeling Cable Lift: 60x8; 50x10; 50x8

Notes
Long-ass and exhausting workout.  I'm reteaching my body how to brace itself on literally every exercise. Its really not possible to just run through this shit.  Every rep of every exercise I'm making sure the right stuff is braced, contracted and that my body position is correct.  Very tiring but it feels awesome afterwords.  I'm already seeing positive changes in my alignment and posture.

I'm not worried about loading or any of that shit for the time being.  Right now I'm getting a ton of mileage out of doing everything correctly.  I will progress on everything as fast as possible while maintaining the integrity of each movement.

I threw in some upper body stuff because I'm not sure what the next couple of days will hold with the hurricane coming in.

Post work-out meal:  1/2 lb bacon; 6 eggs; 2 avacados.  Feeling good.

Getting Mobile Day 3

Warmup:
Foam rolling, rectus femorus stretch/glute bridges, piriformis stretch/clams

Windmills:
61x5/5
61x5/5

Single Leg Glute Bridge
BWx10
BWx10
BWx10

90/90 Squats
4 sets w/ 5 second iso hold

KB Suitcase Carry
70x60 yards
70x60 yards
70x60 yards (last one with 35lb kb in waiter position).

Notes
GF in town so I needed to do an abbreviated workout.  She has better kettlebell form than me on everything haha.  Anyways, just got loose and did some random stuff.  I'm feeling my glutes much more on stuff, though the right side seems to be lagging.

Last week I went back and forth with Gabe coming up with a master split.  I am hoping to start that next week.  (If the hurricane doesn't keep me out of the gym - which is a very real possibility.).  I've had 5 sessions in the gym learning how to effictvely stretch/activate and re-learning many core movements.  I'm already seeing improvement.

Getting Mobile Day 2

Lower Warmup:
Foam Rolling/Lacrosse Ball
Rectus Femoris/Glute Thrusts... starting to feel the glutes better on these
Piriformus/Clams ... a little better but left side is harder to "wake-up"
Butt Kicks
Knees to Chest
Walking Lunges

Upper Warmup
Dislocates
Upper Back/Chest w/ Lacrosse Ball
Pec/Lat Stretch
Facepulls
Scarecrows w/ 2.5 lb plates
Wallslides... Can't do these yet. Lower back comes off the wall.

Bench
225x5; 185x8; 185x8; 185x8; 185x8

In Between Bench Sets: 90/90 Split Squats
1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1.... last one I finally managed to keep my lead leg parallel.

Suspended Rows
BWx8; BWx7; BWx7

Push-ups.. the right way
BWx15; BWx15; BWx15

Jackknives
BWx10; BWx10; BWx10

Half-Kneeling Wood-Chops
55x10; 55x12; 55x12

Notes
Doing all this shit is taking a lot out of me.  Its not much on paper, but I'm trying to be ultra aware about my body positions on all movements.   Bracing/maintaining a tight core on everything is tiresome. The most exciting thing today was I did a split squat on my 6th try.  I was shaking and spasming with effort, but I looked in the mirror and shin was perpendicular to the ground w/ everything else in the right position.  It is amazing how much space split squats immediately create in my hips. Feels fucking amazing.

Getting Strong by Getting Mobile Day 1

Warm-up
Myofascial Release:
Mostly foam roller, some lacross ball

Stretch/Activate:
3 sets Hip Flexor/Rectus Femoris paired with Glute Bride x 10
3 sets Piriformis Stretch w/ Band paired with Side Clams/Fire Hydrants
X-Bands Walks

Core:
RKC Planks 2 x 30 seconds

Strength/Hypertrophy:
Hip Thrusts - BWx10;  BWx10;  BWx10
90/90 Split Squats - BWx2; BWx1; BWx1.  See http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/the-90-90-split-squat/

Notes
Very humbling night.  This took 1 hour and I was working my ass off the entire time.  This session looks like nothing - and it really is nothing, but I cannot overstate the effort I put into doing this shit right.  For the first time, I'm truly trying to tune into what is going on with these exercises.  Years of sitting at a desk, at the libary, at home, have royally fucked my posture.  This shit is painful to get through, and I'm no stranger to hard work or discomfort in the gym.

Gabe was right - "its not just WHAT you do, but HOW you it."  Every warm-up/lower body exercise I post I am studying intently before performing it in the gym.  Side Clams for instance.  Easiest the gayest/most pussy "exercise" known to man.  They are simple to do, but are you really feeling your gluteus medius being activated?  I certainly wasn't.  I don't even know what the fuck my gluteus medius is. So, I kept taking the lacrosse ball to my piriformis and stretching that shit until I could start to feel the glute medius activated during the clam.  And this actually excited me.  By the time I got to Planks my glutes were already so fried I was shaking uncontrollably.

The finale of the night was the 90/90 split squats.  Essentially, this exercise entails putting one foot in front of the other and touching your knee to the ground (see the video for the actual cues).  Guy pulls 495x2 one month ago.  Guess what?  He can't do a split squat correctly.  Its not a strength issue, its that my body literally can't get into that position.  It took every ounce of effort I had to do those 4 total reps, and my front knee was still traveling a little bit.

With that said, I left the gym feeling invigorated.  The muscle fascia around my hips felt like it was pummeled with a meat pulverizor.  But it felt good.  Tons of open space in my hips.  I have a long way to go, but I love having a firm direction in my training right now.  This is Day One. I cannot fucking wait to truly fix some of these issues,no matter how long it takes.  I never lose sight of why I'm truly doing this: a raw, natural, elite powerlifting total.  Here I come mother fucker!

ALL GLUTES ALL THE TIME

SUNDAY GLUTE WORKOUT

Myofascial Release:
GLUTES, IT Bands, Rectus Femoris, Low Back, and crushed the shit out of my Hip Flexors

Stretch/Activate:
Hip Flexor/Rectus Femoris paired with Glute Bridges
Piriformis paired with Side clams/Fire Hydrants

More GLUTE Activation:
Hip Thrusts
Single Leg Hip Thrusts

Hypertrophy:
Single Leg Hip HyperExtension on Low Band
Single Leg Hip HyperExtension on Low Cable (better than bands)

Core:
Split Stance Low Cable Lifts w/ Rope - 50x6/6; 50x6/6
RKC Plank: 30 seconds?  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TKktamzq4o&feature=plcp

Notes
Actually starting to feel my glutes work on some of the exercises.  I'm not moving up to heavy glute work until I can actually feel my glutes working when I squeeze the fuck out of them doing this easy stuff.

Core work is fun - there are a ton of cool exercises I'm going to start doing.  Gabe and I were talking and he said something like - "you're basically going to be doing glutes, abs and arms."  Pretty much.

But for real - glutes and some sort of core work WILL be done everytime I train.  Which is like 5-6 days a week usually.  I'm of the opinion that if you have a weakness, you hit that shit hard and you hit that shit frequently.  If you suck at something you certainly shouldn't do it less.

Still Here - Ready to Kick Ass

Like clockwork, Tuesday I woke up sick as hell.  This was after many weeks of not enough sleep and a long weekend of traveling/drinking.  So anyways, my hip was fucked and I was sick as hell all week.  Also, I read somewhere that if you get sick and have inflammation unrelated to the sickness, the inflamation will not go down.  Apparently the immune system goes into overdrive to fight bacterial/viral infection and ignores other shit.  I found that to be true.

Being out of commission at least gave me the chance to do plenty of reading on correcting postural imbalances.  I'm happy to report that I still don't know shit about movement or anatomy.  But I know a little more than I did before.  This is what I did this afternoon:

Foam Rolling/Myofascial Release:  Back, quads, IT Bands, Piriformis, Hip Flexor.

Stretching/Activation:
3 sets Psoas/Rectus Femorus stretch paired with Glute Bridges
3 sets Piriformis stretch (with band) paired with Side Lying Clam
2 sets lateral xbands

Mobility/Dynamic Movement:
Knee Hugs
Pull-back Butt Kicks
Overhead Reverse Lunge

Strength:
RDL: 135x8; 185x6; 185x6; 185x6
Band Pull Through: 8; 8

Conditioning:
Side-stepped corrective sled dragging

Core Work:
Band Resisted Dead Bugs
70lb KB 1 Sided Farmer Walks:  30/30 yards x 3 trips

Notes
No pain leaving the gym. My lower body felt warm - fatigued in new places, but it felt really nice in a strange way.

All of the glute activation exercises got my legs shaky as hell.  In fact, by the time I was done with activation I felt like I had a decent leg workout lol. I've done RDL's over 400lbs before, but actually doing them correctly with 185 today was a challenge.  Again, lots of lower body shaking once I actually used my glutes.  I felt like cable pull-throughs sucked.  Bands on the other hand were perfect. The tension is highest when  you have to lockout and squeeze the glutes.  Definitely keeping these in the rotation.

So this will be my lower body template moving forward.  As time goes on, I can imagine I will need to spend less time with activation and more time with strength stuff.  But for the time being, I need lots of activation.  It seriously took me a while to actually feel my glutes firing on all of these exercises.  The basic lower template will be:

Foam Rolling/Myofascial Release
Stretching/Activation
Mobility/Dynamic Movement
Strength/Hypertrophy
Conditioning
Core Work

Update

I have a hip impingement caused by a pretty severe anterior pelvic tilt. My posture has limited my training for a long time.  5 years ago, I  regularly squatted 500 lbs. I can't do this anymore because: 1)  I have  postural imbalances that create hip/knee issues and 2) life gets in the way of programming.  Because of the mobility/postural issues, I never can string enough good weeks or months in a row to make squat progress.  I can't get up to speed quickly enough before something in life gets in the way.

The thing is, physique-wise I'm much more developed than 5 years ago.  Much more.  The potential for strength is there, which makes this so frustrating.   As I've gained more experience, I I've figured out ways to work in enough mobility stuff to get me by. But instead of fixing the underlying structural issues, my thought process was always "What do I need to do right now so that I can train hard tonight."

I've read a lot of Mike Robertson's stuff tonight trying to formulate a plan.  He had great quote in his Hips Don't Lie article:  "I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say, "I've trained like this for years and never had an issue, so I don't know what happened." You've constantly reinforced bad posture and poor movement patterns, and at some point your body is going to break down. It's the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."  This happened to me 8 weeks ago when I squatted 185 and the hip impingement first reared its head. Finally showed up after (more or less) ignoring my anterior pelvic tilt for so long.

There are ebbs and flows to training. Sometimes you're getting bigger, sometimes you're getting stronger, sometimes you're conditioning and leaning out, and sometimes you're doing God knows what.  In the end however, you're always trying to make progress towards a more bad-ass version of yourself.  At least thats how I look at it.

So, I have to fix this shit. I'm not entirely sure how to do it yet, but I do know its going to take a long time and its going to fucking suck.  Essentially, I have to turn the photo on the right into the photo on the left:

Obviously this will be no easy task.  The first major obstacle is I don't really know shit about anatomy. Before correcting an imbalance, you must assess.  That isn't easy when you've got a shitload of issues going on.  My imbalances have been built through years of strength training. And I do all the "right"stuff. My problem is ignoring little issues over time that have finally grew into more complex problems.

The Plan

I am immediately dropping squatting.  I have no choice - its the only thing that actually makes my hip hurt.  I put it through unnecessary trauma tonight that I need to recover from. Next, I need to figure out how fucked up I really am.  Generally, I understand that from the front, my hip flexors are pulling my pelvis down because they are short and tight. From the back, my erectors are pulling the back side of the pelvis to produce anterior tilt as well.

This means I need to potentially strengthen: Rectus Abdominus, External Obliques, Gluteals, Hamstrings.  And this means I need to potentially stretch:  Psoas,  Iliacus, Rectus Femoris, TFL, Spinal Erectors.

My high level approach is this.  Over the next 2 months I will do the general shit that is prescribed to fix an anterior pelvic tilt.  In December when I am home, as long as it isn't $1000, I'll stop by Cressey Performance in Boston to get some more individualized/professional assessments. I run with that. In January, I'll have the option of driving down to iFast to get more individual work from Robertson/Hartman.  Again, as long as an assessment and all that stuff isn't $1000.  I need people that know what the fuck they are doing.  I can figure out the major shit, but I would love to have someone experienced actually take a look.

10/15/12 - Strength Training

Squat
365x2
405x1
315x4... hip hurt
315x1... hip hurt

Good Morning
135x8
135x8
135x8
135x8

Leg Press
270x20
270x20
270x33 (PR)

Calves on Leg Press
270x25
270x20
270x20
270x20

Notes
Frustrating session due to hip pain.  I'm going to talk about it in detail in my next post.  I had no pain warming up to an easy 405, but randomly on my 4th rep at 315 it starting throbbing.   Squats feel easy as fuck right now, but I can't squat any longer because I'm on the brink of a labrum tear. . . if I haven't done it already.  I know I frequently change my training styles and routine. Another one is about to begin.  This is out of necessity though.  I can't work around my mobility issues any longer.

10/09/12 - Training

Bench
275x2
300x1
250x12
250x5 (50% set)

Bent Row
135x15
135x15
135x15
135x15
135x15
135x10

Dips
45x8
45x8
BWx10

Curls
65x20
65x15
65x20

Pull Aparts
40; 20

Notes
Intensity was off the charts tonight.  I have a new training partner that loves to train balls to the wall.  I've been lucky to awesome training partners in the past.  Chris in NH, Connor in STL, and now Steve in DC.

Steve is running 5/3/1 right now.  He hit 230x13 on bench tonight and 330x10ish on squat last night.  I like training with people that work their ass off. All three listed above train hard as fuck.  This keeps you honest on the days you might otherwise slack off a little bit.  It also makes my good days that much better.  Of course I want everyone to do well, but i sure as hell don't want to be surpassed by anyone haha.

I think training with Steve will be a positive venture over the next couple of months.  The only possible detriment is going too hard.  This is where higher reps really help.  You can only get so beat down doing sets of 10-20.  Next post I'll detail my training plans an dgoals for the remainder of the year.

10/08/12 - Training

Squat
330x2
365x1
315x10
315x1 (50% set cut pulled)

RDL
135x15
135x15
135x15

Calves supersetted w/ ab work
4-5 sets each

Conditioning: Low bar Prowler Pushes
135 lbs x 60 yards x 11 runs
235 lbs x 60 yards x 1 run

Notes
Worked out with another bro at the gym.  It was a lot of fun until I paused my last rep on the 315x10 set, came out of the hole, and my hip was killing me.  Fuck.  Tried to ignore it and do a 50% set, but no go.  Completely frustrating.

A 50% set is you do one big higher rep set, and then wait 60 seconds and try to complete 50% of the reps you achieved from the first set.  It would have been nice to actually have tried it.  Anyways, my buddy said my bar speed at 315 looked exactly the same as at 135.  It felt easy. That is what frustrates me - I can tell my body is strong right now, but I'm unable to fucking squat.  I took a barbell to my hip flexor for like 20 minutes after our session. Seemed to help a little but then again I really can't tell if its my hip flexor or my actual hip joint.

Conditioning was intense.  We only rested long enough for the other person to go down and back.

Down Week Day 4

10 Minutes Agility Ladders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbSh5gHyFi8

15 Minutes Sled Pulling/Pushing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMRJTWl_Tp4

5 Minutes Jungle Gym fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHJpu4OJM8A

Notes
This was on Saturday afternoon.  I took a video of the agility ladders so I can compare in a month or so once I build up some speed. Yes, they are slow. I'm not posting it because I think they are impressive haha.

The rope climb is fun. I have confirmed that if my life ever depended on climbing a rope and doing pullups at the top, I'd be alright.

Overall though fun little session

Down Week - Day 3

Squat
225x5
255x4
275x3
295x2
315x1
315x1
315x1

Continuous Circuit 1 (Bench, calf raise, t-bar row)

135x15
135x15
135x15

270x20
270x20
270x20

90x10
90x10
90x10

Continuous Circuit 2 (Curl, Tibialis Anterior DB Raise, DB Rear Lateral)

45x10
45x10

50x20
50x20

30x10
15x30

Notes
Didn't get into the gym until 9pm last night.  I was out straight with work, class, and a paper from 8-8.  Did this session and then continued on the paper from 10 to midnight.  I got a lot accomplished though so good day overall.  This is my "down week" but I needed to squat light tonight in preparation for Monday's session.  On Monday I'm squatting with another bro at the gym.  The primary purpose of last night's session was to reduce soreness that will come from Monday's session.  I'm a huge believer in higher frequency (but low intensity) when returning to the squat after time off.

My hip felt fine.  315 felt a little weird on my back, but I took videos and the bar speed was smooth and fast.

Down Week - Day 2

KB Swing
70x15; 70x15; 70x25

Goblet Squat
70x8; 70x8; 97x8

Chins
8; 8

Pushups
30; 30

Band Pull Aparts
25; 25

Curls
bar x 50

Notes
Moved quickly and got a nice sweat going.  I was doing supersetts, etc.  I actually felt my abs worksing on the 97lb goblet squats... Maybe that tells me something haha.

Down Week - Day 1

10/2/12

10 mins KB work

15 mins sled pushing/pulling

Notes
I'm going to ramp up the conditioning over the next 1-2 weeks to get me back in fighting shape for another 6-8 week hypertrophy run.   This cycle however I'll limit the lifting to 3-4 days per week to make time for more conditioning work.  Once I get going, I enjoy interval style conditioning just as much as lifting.

I've been thinking about what worked and didn't work during Big Beyond Belief.  The standard template is 6 days per week.  I don't think it was necessarily the high frequency that facilitated mass gains.  I think it was the reps.  4-5 sets of 15 reps with 60-90 reps will give you an incredible pump.  I now believe that people who casually dismiss "the pump" have never really trained for a pump.  Do some high rep shit, 15-30 reps with low rest and tell me that shit isn't getting you bigger.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 6, Day 30

Squat
225x5
225x5
275x3
275x3
275x3

Bench
275x3
285x3
135x20

RDL
135x20

Curl
65x20
65x15

Band Pullaparts
20
20

Notes
Primarily went in to squat tonight.  My hip flexor felt fine.  That makes me happy.  I'm still going to move slowly into heavier weight over the next few weeks.  Nothing felt hard tonight, but 3 months off back squatting has left me feeling cautious.

Just did some random other stuff since I am backloading with pizza and beer tonight.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 6, Day 29

Bench
225x18 (PR)
135x30 (PR)

Curl
135x5 (PR)
Bar x100 (PR)

Notes
This is my last day of the "Big Beyond Belief."  I'm not quitting, I'm pulling the plug.   I'll write more about the routine later, but I feel it has run its course for now.  During warmups I decided I have had enough.  I also decided that I was not leaving the gym without PR's.  So I would like to give a big FUCK YOU to the little grasshopper on my shoulder telling me  got weaker on this routine.  These are high rep PR's, but I still got better.  I'm also bigger, as evidenced by my most muscular down below.

Bench and curls baby, bench and curls.  Exactly one month ago on 8/25 I wrote in reference to curling:

To put things in perspective, I would have been very hard pressed to get more than 7-8 reps with 95 pounds before starting this program (yes pathetic).  I've always wanted to work up to the point where I'm curling 135 on the straight bar for reps.  That just looks fucking awesome.  I never put the time/effort into curling, but I'm going to do it now.

Today I reached my goal of "repping" 135 on curls.  It was actually decently strict, save for the last rep.  I heaved the last one like a mother fucker.  I finally understand why huge guys do heavy cheat curls.  Super strict reps has their place with some of the more technical compounds, but at some just moving more weight for more reps week in week out is what matters on isolation type stuff.

I almost started crying during poundstone curls it hurt so bad haha.  I did poundstone curls for the first time on July 17th of this year.  I hit 40 reps, and I remember thinking how hard it was, and how it would be a year before I hit 100 reps.  As Paul Carter has noted, I've also come to realize poundstone curls more an exercise in pain tolerance than anything else, but I can also say pretty confidently I've added at least an inch to my arms in the past 10 weeks.  I post pics and all that, but walking past the mirror in the morning I've noticed my build has started to take on another look.  Thick.  Powerful.  And I actually feel more powerful too.

Bench was cool - I was shooting for 20 but hit failure at 18.  I believe my previous PR was 225x16, which still sucks, but I'll take what I can get.  Doing higher reps on bench has really improved my form and made my pecs rock fucking hard.  Feels good man, feels good.

I'm going to stay with a hypertrophy/mass emphasis for a while.  I've looked at all the meet possibilities before Christmas and nothing really lines up.  That kind of sucks, but also I just need to accept that when I'm moving every 3-4 months its tough to get shit in order to do a meet.  In the mean time however, I can still

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing next.  I don't even know what I'm doing for the rest of the week.  I do know it won't be Big Beyond Belief!

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 6, Day 28

Squat
135x5
185x5
225x5

Deadlift
405x1
405x1
455x1
455x1
475x1
495x2
405x2
405x2
405x2
405x2

Leg Press Calves (Change toe angle each time)
270x20
270x20
270x10
270x18
270x16

Seated DB Tibialis Anterior
55x16
55x16
55x12

Notes
Positives:  225 squat with no pain.  I'm still really weary.  I'll go up another 20-30 pounds next session.  In hindsight, I had more deadlift volume than I thought.  My calves are noticably thicker with more shape as compared to 6 weeks ago.  I easily have the worst calve genetics of all time.  Its like they aren't even there.  It takes a ton of burn to see any difference.

Negative: It was a good session until I doubled 495, which I really didn't need to do tonight.  I forced it.  It felt ok - not a max or anything.  So I'm not really getting sore anymore, but I need to keep in mind that I'm lifting 6x a week and thus fatigued even if I can feel it. As such there is no need to be doing heavy doubles, etc.

At this point, I'm not sure what the deadlift is good for other than being a fun lift to perform.  I can't wait to squat again with decent weight and volume.  The squat is so much fucking better at building lower body strength.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 5, Day 27

Bench
185x14
185x14
185x14
135x25

Bent Row
135x23
135x15
125x15

DB Press
70x8
50x15
50x10

BB Curls (rotate medium, wide, narrow)
Bar x 40
Bar x 30
Bar x 25

Band Pull Aparts
100 Reps

Pump Circuit

BB Incline: 135x10
Neutral Grip Pull-down: 100x40
Rope Push-down: 100x40
Cable Curl: 100x20
Pec Deck: 40 reps

Notes

I was slightly hungover yesterday.  I performed this workout completely fasted around 3:30 p.m. (coffee/coconut oil, fish oil, and multi).  It took about 90 minutes.  Warming up, my wrists and shoulders hurt.  So this is actually week 6.  Last week I redid week 4 because my original week 4 got fucked up from the move and new job.  Anyways, I had zero desire to do anything heavy.  As will happen in the later weeks of an intense routine, my joints are feeling a little beat up.

So I decided to just get some solid reps in.  Before I knew it I was chasing after a total upper body pump haha.  It felt great.  The high reps are working.  My upper body is noticeably thicker.  I also just feel more powerful. I really should have focused on arm work a long time ago.  Heavy presses and rows are a lot easier when you have pistons for arms.  I don't know why I never really thought about it like that.

I took a couple of pics post workout. I'm bloated as fuck in these and the light washes out my pasty ass body.  I think I would look considerably more jacked if I were black.

These pics also tell me I'm on the precipice of actually being lean.  I'd guess I'm around 12-13% BF here.  The number one problem with my diet is I drink too much.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 5, Day 26

Light Upper

Chins:  6; 6; 6

supersetted with

Dips: 12; 12; 12

Pushups: 30

Band Pull-aparts: 35

Notes

Work, left early for meeting with Professor, hit the gym up on my way home, worked out for 15 minutes, shower, triple protein shake, walk back across city for talk with George Moose, former ambassador to Benin and Senegal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Moose  It might not seem like a big deal, but this guy has been a career diplomat for over 40 years.  His experience and knowledge was incredible.  DC has been cool as fuck lately.  Last week I went to a small talk with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  She is old as shit but still sharp as hell.

Anyways, doing what I can in the gym.  Hitting it 6x a week.  Feeling good.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 5, Day 25

9/19/12

Lower Body Recovery Day

Windmills:  60x5/5
Getups: 60x1/1
Chins: 3; 3
Swings: 70x15; 70x15
Double KB Clean: 70x8; 70x8

15 minute continuous sled drag with 180 pounds

Notes
Nice little recovery session.  I used the harness again for the sled dragging.  I could do the sled drag non stop for a very long time.  I'm guessing my heart rate tops out around ~140 with 180 total pounds.  If I wasn't doing other shit 6 workouts a week, I'd dedicate two days a week to dragging this thing for 30 minutes.  It is great for your legs, back, and lungs.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 5, Day 24

9/18/12

180 seconds rest, 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Bench

275x2

250x10

225x10

135x22

Bent Row

135x20

135x20

Supersetted with

Strict Press

135x8

135x8

Poundstone Curls

Bar x 75 (PR)

Notes

Pretty sore throughout this workout.  Just tried to get some decent work in.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 5, Day 23

Extensive warm-ups: foam rolling, extra long couch stretch,  dynamic hip work, other static stretches, KB swings, chins, KB Cleans, Windmills, Goblet Squats.


Squat
135x3
135x5
135x8
185x5

Deadlift
365x2
365x2
405x12 (PR?)
315x10

Calves
270x25
270x25
270x25

Band pull aparts
3x15

Notes
Squats felt fine.  I'm going to be extremely conservative moving up in weight for a couple of weeks.

Deadlift is likely a PR.  I don't keep track of high reps like this, but I don't think I've gone over 10 for 405.  Doesn't necessarily mean I'm super strong right now - I've just never tried it.

Hypertophy Phase - Week 4, Day 22

180 seconds rest, 3 sets, 5-7 reps

Bench
275x1
295x1
315x1
275x6
275x5
245x6

Bent Row
225x5
225x5
225x5

DB Seated Shoulder Press
65x5
75x8 (PR)
75x6
65x5

Curls
115x6 (PR)
115x8 (PR... woot)
115x5

Band Pull Aparts
150 total reps, many different angles

Calves
450x10-15, 5 sets, different angles

Seated Tibialis Anterior
55x15, 3 sets

Notes
Bench felt decent.  Honestly, day 6 of a long week is kind of tough to feel powerful.  315 was semi-smooth.  Not as smooth as Tuesday.

PR's on seated shoulder press and curls.  I don't care much about the DB shoulder press.  Its a PR because I've never done them and I'm pathetically weak with them.  The curls, however, I feel great about.  I'm finally starting to feel some power behind these guys. I should have been doing them all along.  They make my arms look and feel great.  I can't wait until I'm repping 135 like a fuckin boss.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 4, Day 21

9/14/12

Speed Pulls
275x2
275x2
315x2
315x2
315x2
315x2

275 from front: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1jk90GiTzw
315 from front: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TebDZzGbULw
315 from side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3SeSF_4F4w
315 from side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYZguvsu7Os


Notes
Felt beat up and I had zero desire to do "hypertrophy" work on my legs.  I thought my speed looked pretty good.  Form looks good to me too.  I wish my back was a little flatter at the bottom.  This is something I'll have to think about in the future.  Also, my right arm looks like its bent at 45 degree angle lol.  Must be dem biceps getting bigger.  Nah but really I guess its because the weight is light?  I don't know. It does look weird though.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 4, Day 20

Light Upper Day

Chins
BWx10
BWx6

supersetted w/ Dips
BWx20
BWx12


Blast Strap Rows
8
4

supersetted w/ Pushups
20
12

DB Rear Lateral
15x15
15x15

Notes
Light day, kind of tired.  Used a little more pop on chins.  Not sure what my dip PR is, but 20 felt good.  My back is really sore from the sled drags and the sloshing pillar of pain yesterday.  Feel good though.  I'm sitting at 235 but really putting some mass on my upper body.  Sucks I can't be squatting alot because squats are the king mass builder in my opinion.  Also, I forgot to mention I dropped leg press because it hurts my knees.  That sucks because I actually really like leg press.

Hypertophy Phase - Week 4, Day 19

Light Recovery Day

KB Swings

70 x 20

70 x 20

70 x 20

Dual Harness Sled Drag - Continuous for ~16 minutes

No rest between rounds

4 minutes x 180

4 minutes x 225

4 minutes x 270

4 minutes x 315

Sloshing Pillar of Pain

5 minutes

Notes

So my gym got 2 new implements.  First one is a heavy duty sled strap that comfortably wraps around both shoulders.  The second one is the Sloshing Pillar of Pain, popularized of course by Mr. Dan John:  http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_sloshing_pillar_of_pain  I don't do hyperlinks because I'm too lazy and I hate blogger.

Anyways, it felt great just working my ass off with the sled.  If there was an olympic competition for sled dragging, I'd train for it.  Besides the obvious shit that was getting worked - quads, hams, calves - I actually felt a ton of strain in my back after a while.  Not only my lower back, but my upper and mid back.  I never do sled work long enough to feel that.  This confirms that once again, BACK IS KING.  It is integral to fucking everything.

The pillar of pain was hard. Much harder than it would look.  I did three variations: on my back, cradled in front of me with high elbows, and above my head.  Back was easiest, in front was challenging, and overhead was ridiclous.  There is a lot of "core stuff" going on with the pillar of pain.  I think I'll do it to change up some of the waiter walk stuff that I've been doing.

Hypertophy Phase - Week 4, Day 18

180 seconds rest, 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Bench

275x1

295x1

315x1

250x8

250x8

225x10

Bent Row (flared elbows for rear delt emphasis)

135x12

135x12

135x12

Seated DB Press

60x10

60x10

60x10

BB Curl

80x12

80x12

80x8

Notes

The bar felt light as hell warming up.  I instantly knew I was pretty strong today so I decided to work up to a decent single.  I've always said: if you feel strong, lift some fucking weight.  There is way too much shit that comes up in life to forego the opportunity for a great session.  Patience and consistency is key, but a program doesn't lift the weights for you.  Lately it seems anything I try in the gym is bound to be interrupted.  So tonight was refreshing.

315 felt as light as its ever felt.  Didn't even really feel like 90%.  The guy spotting me has done a couple meets and said the bar speed was really good.  It felt good.  There was a time when I would have been like 'SLAP ON THE FUCKING WEIGHT." But fuck it.  I honestly felt like I had a good 20-30 pounds left in me, but I haven't lifting anything over 300 for months and months.  Seemed kind of stupid to go any heavier.  I'm just going to keep pounding out the higher reps as planned.  Maybe I'll hit a PR in a couple of weeks.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 4, Day 17

9/10/12

180 seconds rest, 3 sets, 8-10 reps

Squat
Bar x 5; Bar x 5; Bar x 5; Bar x 5; Bar x 5; Bar x 5

RDL
225x10
225x10
225x8

Barbell Bulgarian Split Squat
Bar x 5/5
95 x 5/5
95 x 5/5

Glute Ham Raise
BW x 10 (PR)

Leg Press Calves
270x16; 270x24; 270x24

Notes
Hip felt ok on squats.  Felt a very slight twinge.  I'm going to keep doing the bar for another couple of weeks.

Glute ham raise is a PR since  I started doing them "right."   So I guess high rep deadlifts are good for adding a couple reps to your glute ham raise.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 4, Day 16

Bench
295x1
275x5
225x8
225x10

Cable Row
180x10
180x10
180x8

BB Curl supersetted w/ DB Rear Delt
Bar x 30; Bar x 30; Bar x 30

20x10; 20x10; 20x8

Notes
So much going on right now I almost feel guilty about working out.  Anyways, I'm just clocking some shit in right now. I'm not really getting after it in the way I wanted too on this program.

I started off with a 275x5 set because I thought I might be good for 8 reps.  I could have probly grinded 6-7, but I saw no point.  275x5 is my general baseline for bench.  I feel this is my 85% range.  It doesn't mean I'm really strong, but it means I'm sitting in a place where I could potentially start turning the heat up.

I'm going to see how everything turns out, but I can say that low rest/high rep deads 2x a week is probably an awful idea.  It might not be bad if you really paid attention to load.  But reverse pyramid style 10-15 rep deadlifts is just too much.  I feel broken down.  Tonight I wanted to do 100 pound curls, and something on my forearm felt like it was detaching.  I've never had that sensation before, but the only thing I could think about was that static hold for higher rep deadlifts fucking something up.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 4, Day 15

120 seconds rest, 8-10 reps, 3 sets

Deadlift
405x8
405x3
315x8

Calves
360x8
360x10
360x23

Notes
Gym closed at 2 today and I couldn't get my ass moving and  make it in with enough time to train.  This routine has basically devolved into "Am I capable of high rep deadlifts today?" lol, fuck. Personally, I'm in an extremely tough spot right now.  I have a tendency to try to do everything and never give myself time to rest or relax.  I'm constantly stressed and constantly tired as fuck.  I'm tired because I just don't sleep enough.  Now I'm into this routine where I go to sleep exhausted, but wakeup in the middle of the night stressed out like a huge pussy.  This is no way to go through life, and it makes training pretty damn hard.

With that said, I know I am lucky and I have a great life.  I need to keep things in perspective.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 3, Day 14

60 Seconds rest, 4-5 sets, 8-10 reps

Friday Night

Deadlift
405x8
365x8
315x8

Bench
225x8
185x8
135x8

Notes
Best I could do given my time/life constraints.  I'm typing this post from a hotel in Cleveland.  Week 3 sucked.  I couldn't really follow the program at all.  It is what it is.  Not a lot of volume on Friday night, but with 60 seconds rest, the deadlifts were very challenging.  It felt like I was sprinting for 5 minutes straight.

I'll have to check the BIG BEYOND BELIEF (haha) ebook, but next week I go into lower reps.  8-10 reps the first half of the week, and 5-8 the second half of the week.  The biggest change, however, is that the  rest periods move to 3 minutes for all 3 weeks.  I'm honestly looking forward to actually lifting.  I do see value in the low rest periods for a lot of people, but  I came into this program fresh off a conditioning phase.  I didn't really need super low rest periods to get into lifting shape.  Also, I can officially say now, high rep deadlifts with low rest periods is fucking awful and stupid. Again, I'm looking forward to actually lifting next week.  Hopefully "life" won't get in the way too much, but I have a move, etc that might impact my routine.

Hypertophy Phase - Week 3, Day 13

60 seconds rest, 5 sets, 13-15 reps

Bench
235x14
225x8
185x10
135x15
135x13

Curl
65x20
65x15
65x14
65x13
65x21

Band Pull-Aparts
40
20
20
21

Notes
Skipped the gym last night because I had to go look at new apartments.  I have a wedding this week so everything is going to be compressed into the next 3 days. As such I'm dropping a lot of accessory work and I'm not going to worry about the weights I use for anything.  Just use the big lifts to get a decent workout in.

As I was walking home tonight, I reflected on the fact that I have literally come full circle and now believe that the bench/curl workout is fucking awesome.  But it is only awesome if you actually work hard and blast everything.  Jim Wendler has often talked about how you should only really expect to do 1-2 lifts really well every workout.  I think it drops down to one when you've been working out 6 days a week.  Either way, bench/curl is fucking awesome for the following reasons.

First, your upper body gets pumped to shit and you look and feel fucking awesome.  High rep bench + high rep curls = teh pump is teh cumming.  Second, it makes sense from a strength perspective.  We all know the antagonist, push/pull type approach is great for strength workouts.  In this case, you get to really hit your big lift hard for the day, but you still have enough juice left to hit the curls as hard as you can.  Curls aren't like rows or chins or other heavy compounds that are easily impacted from shit like heavy bench.  Though bench is an antagonist to the row, we are still talking about fucking strength training. If you are doing it right, you are using your whole body.   Benching heavy effects my row.  Not so with the curl.  Which brings me to my third and final point.  Heavy barbell curls are probably most "legit" isolation exercise I can think of.  They really aren't akin to shit like triceps pushdowns.  You can go fucking heavy in curls and use body momentum to heave that shit up.  That is how brutally strong guys power curl with barbells.  They don't sit there and squeeze their biceps constantly while getting buttfucked by their partner. Brutally strong guys go hard and heavy in the barbell curl and treat it like a fucking lift.

When I think of heavy barbell curls, I think of my old training partner, Chris Moore.  Chris could bang out 135x10 on the curl at will.  Was he strick?  Not even fucking close.  Are his arms huge?  I'd liken them to that of a silver back gorilla.  I would never, ever consider arm wrestling him because I have no doubt he would tear my shoulder out of its socket with little effort.  Point is, I'm really going to go hard and heavy in the barbell curl.  I think thats the way its supposed to be done.

Edit:  One final comment.  I think super high rep pull-aparts or facepulls make this workout perfectly balanced.  One heavy compound.  One heavy isolation.  One super high rep blood pumping/shoulder balancing isolation.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 3, Day 12

60 seconds rest, 5 sets, 13-15 reps

Deadlifts
335x12
225x12
225x10
225x10
225x10

Notes
I was unable to perform the workout as prescribed tonight.  Just didn't have it in me.  The next 10 days includes: finishing my current job, starting a new job, moving across town, driving to wedding 8 hours away.  I'm trying to balance a ton of shit right now. Deadlifts at 9pm tonight, running on a 500 calorie noon lunch kinda sucked.

Anyways, over the next 5 days I'm going to try to get as much volume in as possible.  I'll probably drop most of the assistance work, and use the main lifts to keep the fatigue piled on going into next week.  That is all I'm doing right now - purposefully overreaching. With pussy ass weights haha.

I need to remember what I'm doing here.  Hypertophy.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 2, Day 11

90 seconds rest, 4 sets, 8-10 reps

Bench
245x10
225x8
225x8
185x8

Cable Row
150x8
150x8
150x8
150x8

Seated DB Press
70x8
65x8
55x8

BB Curl
95x15 (pr)

Notes
Day 6 of week 2.  Felt a little beat-up and non-motivated this afternoon.  The fatigue I'm feeling right now is mostly muscular.  Just a dull feeling.  Its harder to get tight and to feel "poppy" on the bench.

Today the objective was to get a solid bench session in.  I subb'd cable rows for bent rows because I had no desire to pound my entire back yet again today.

BB curl was a mini highlight.  To put things in perspective, I would have been very hard pressed to get more than 7-8 reps with 95 pounds before starting this program (yes pathetic).  I've always wanted to work up to the point where I'm curling 135 on the straight bar for reps.  That just looks fucking awesome.  I never put the time/effort into curling, but I'm going to do it now.

Hypertrophy Phase - Week 2, Day 10

90 seconds rest, 4 sets, 8-10 reps

Deadlift
365x8
315x8
315x8
315x8

Leg Press
360x8
360x8
360x8
360x8

Split Squat
BWx8/8
BWx8/8
BWx8/8

Calves
5-6 sets of very high reps

Steep decline Abs
35x8
35x8

Band Pull Aparts
30
30
30

Notes
I was very close to calling it after deadlifts.  The short rest periods are really killing me with deads right now.  My upper back is constantly sore.  A lot of my body is constantly sore.  The key to this program is not giving a fuck if you are sore.  High volume with increasingly heavy weights and shortened rest periods is going to leave you sore.  You can't worry about the bar weight, or if this or that isn't fully recovered.   You are never fully recovered on a routine anyways.  If you are, it is doubtful you are consistently getting stronger.

It is worth mentioning, as this is a muscle building routine, that I am visibly building muscle already.  I'm definitely getting bigger.  Diet is decently clean.  I'm getting plenty of protein.  The only thing I need to improve on is wine.  I'm in a wine drinking phase... about a bottle a night haha.  I'll cut it out this weekend, but I just like wine.  I like to drink 4 glasses over a 3-4 hour period.  Its so fucking enjoyable as I read strength blogs, books, etc.  Anyways, I believe this 6 day a week routine is winning the war against the wine, because I'm definitely leaning out.

Tonight, pasty as hell, after legs.