Back

BB rows: 85kgx10x5 was so smooth I even forgot to wear a belt 2nd set. Lower back was ultra pumped after set 3 though.
Chest supported DB shrug+row: 20kgx10, 16kgx10x4 got the idea from Swede Burn's 5th set powerlifting book. ****ing fantastic exercise, real burner. Definitely going to be part of my back training henceforth. Good time under tension, great postural strength for scap retraction in the bench press. Awesome!
Row machine: 115x10x5
curls: barx5 sets failure, first was 31

Trained at a different branch of my gym. Really hot in there and they can't control the AC, but the equipment is fantastic. They even have bumpers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT4ElBEA...logan_franklin


Like this except with dbs instead of a trap bar. Hawly lawd.

My back has made some absolutely huge improvements despite never doing difficult pullups the last few months and not even really dling much either/occasionally rack pulling. I was mostly training rows/horizontal pulling because I thought it'd help me fix my scapular winging which kept causing bicep/pec tendinitis while doing horizontal pressing. Not only did it work, but I've put slabz of musccleeeezzzz on my back. Shocking revelation that getting really facking good at vertical pulling and neglecting horizontal and then coming back to focus on horizontal pulling for a few months could have this result, I know.

Real legit bb rows should be in everyone's (except EV b/c no heart) training program.

Chest+shoulder deload

Incline BB: up to 90kgx3
Flat db: 22kgx25,20,15
Cable side rasies: 5 sets failure each side

Went in not planning on deloading, but after how 60kg felt I decided it was going to be a deload. Been pressing hardish for several weeks in a row now and elbow is not 100% yet.

Arms
SS1
Curls: empty barx71,15,9,9,8
Single arm pushdowns: 14kg36,20,12,10,9 each side

SS2
DB hammer curls: 12kgx5 sets failure
V-pushdowns: 5 sets failure

SS3
EZ curls: ???x5 sets failure
CG pushups: bwx5 sets failure

Cardio: 26 min on 15 incline 4.6 speed
14 min stationary bike level 2


Alright I gotta be better about logging. I was still recovering from elbow tendinitis during last post but now it's *mostly* cleared up. Still I've lost a **** ton of pressing strength.

Basically I'm at a last push to do a bodybuilding show. 2 weeks ago a signed a 3 year contract for a relatively intense job with a real 50 hour workweek. Start mid-august. First legit hard job I'll have had since my first one out of grad school doing the mortgage derivatives. That hinges on me actually finding a show within reasonable which I have yet to do because they often fail to advertise them until 4 weeks before.

After that I'm unsure about my life plan. Getting less and less amped about phd in finance. Basically every week there's some sort of corruption scandal with regard to publication in empirical econ/finance. Theoretical econ/finance is far more "pure" and less subject to croneyism and publishing **** papers because a friend of the editor wrote it, but it's also far harder to publish and I frankly don't believe I have the talent to do well in it even if I could definitely make it in a more empirical subfield. Chinese academic job market is soft, but tenure requirement at any place that pays substantially more than a high school are as hard as some of the top American schools...

Instead I'm thinking about starting a steakhouse, an American BBQ restaurant, or a gym. Steakhouse would probably be the easiest. There's exactly 1 western style (titled Morton's, don't know if there's any relation) and they get away with charging about $160 for a 14 oz ribeye. The Chinese ones are absolute dog**** and will give you a ****iing 6oz top sirloin from an ancient cow that may have died of natural causes and some spaghetti noodles with broccoli for about $12. There is literally no American bbq restaurant in this city, and Chinese people love pork, it's ultra mega cheap and available, and the locals in this city here love sweet food.

Gym I have the most expertise in, but startup cost is so prohibitive and I'm less certain how to market that to the Chinese audience, who want something far different than what westerners want from their gym. a "hardcore" gym would certainly fail very fast. My strategy would seriously be to recruit the prettiest girls I can find from shady massage places who haven't lifted a weight in their life, dress them up in yoga pants and skimpy sports bras, give them rudimentary training, and make them my personal training staff. I think it'd probably work okay tbh.

oh yeah I said I'd do my squat challenge tomorrow but **** that I'm gonna stop at 6 sets and just work my way toward the 10x10 in may.

HBBS 102kgx10x7 24 minutes 1 more set than planned
Static lunge: 12kgx8x3 each side
20 mins stationary bike
hyperextensions bwx10x5

today+yesterday,

30 min fasted AM stairs

probably facked my no carb day yesterday and ended up just below maintenance or around there b/c I got some ribeyes on sale.

Tonight is my last hard workout before a week deload, then I will have my first scheduled refeed of the diet on April 2 before attempting an amrap hbbs with 140kg. Shooting for around 1000-1200g carbs from all you can eat sushi. Hoping to be around 93-94kg before that.

Estimate for AMRAP set?

Incline bb: 65kgx10x5
Flat db: 24kgx25,17,13
CG pushups: bwx8x2
Chest press machine: 3 sets failure 45 seconds rest
Cable side raises: 6 sets failure each side

Very tired today. Schedule is set up in an odd way where the deadlift+back day is "day 1" of the training week even thought I have 2 rest days right afterword. Really happy to be deloading now, motivation crashed. Joints feeling good though. I don't know if I'll go with the volume style for incline; I seem to make better progress just doing low volume but high rep AMRAPS.

Gosh I really don't know... never really trained with this kind of ultra volume low rest style and I don't know how it will translate into a single AMPAP set. A while back when I was doing a harder 100kgx10x5 in 20 min I was able to do a fairly casual 160kgx2 overwarm before doing 102kgx10x5 the next workout. I'm pushing a deficit fairly aggressively and doing a heft amount of cardio, so my expectations are low.

In any case, video would be cool. Good luck!

Yeah I need to buy a cheap digital camera. Transferring from counterfeit Samsung android phone to computer takes a looonnnnggg time. It uploads to Chinese media hosting sites quick and easy though.

Deload
DL: up to 180kgx1 felt like about the first rep of a 5rm, might feel more like an 8-9rm once I'm well rested
Pullups: bwx6x4
Rows: 60kgx10x2
Pulldowns: 115lbsx10x3
Prone rear delt T flies: 4kgx12x3
Curls: barx42,8,10

Cardio: 20 mins incline walking 4.7-5.0 speed.

After I get this hbbs 225x10x10 out of the way I think I'll just alternate between 10s and 5s every 5 weeks.

Is the first set of that 10set squat just incredibly easy? Whenever I do high set work it feels like only the last few sets are 'hard'

First 3 feel very easy and difficulty went up very little from set 1-2 and 2-3, then suddenly each set after that feels exponentially harder

Arms

Empty bar curls: x100, 4 more sets failing around 8-12th rep most of the time
Single arm pushdowns: 14kgx5 sets failure each side

SS2
Hammer curls: 10kgx5 sets failure
V-bar pushdowns: 5 sets failure

SS3
EZ curls: 15kgx12,10
CG pushups: bwx26, 15

Tired so I gave up here
Cardio: 40 mins incline 15 speed 4.

I finally completed Paul Carter's stupid 100 empty bar curls thing. It took me over 2 minutes on that single set, but I didn't put the bar down. Going to do something more normal like start around a 30rm and add weight when I can get it for 40 on the first set, 4 more sets to failure.

bw down to 95. Dieting is hard as **** without stimulants or thyroid meds jfc.

Legs deload
HBBS paused up to 140kgx1, then 100x7
Hyperextensions: bwx10x3

I had to warm up sooo much to even get started without pain. It's more like soreness at the top of the knee on both sides, so not patellar tendon. I'm already 100% sure it's from incline walking+stairs cardio, so I'm going to swap to bike only for cardio b/c no impact. Harder to get hr up though.

I definitely need to ease up on the diet. For a fella like me who's only taking the ordinary creatine most of the year and then adding the special creatine only during big cuts, my scale weight might simply not drop or stay around the same b/c my body is responding so well to the special creatine. This guy, for instance, 12 weeks stayed about the same bw.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfTrvfKH...=team3ccbostin

granted his creatine cycle (viewable on the same ig page) is ridiculous but I'm still going to assume I will function about the same way and not drop much bw during this diet. Client of Bostin Loyd. I wonder what he'd want to put me on if I asked him for coaching if he puts a 190lb twerp on 800mg/wk tren 800mg/wk mast 1g test winny anadrol blah blah blah. I would prob die of esophagus burned away on that much tren.

Feeling much less run down and had a dece deload this time

Incline bb: 70kgx8x3
Various machines not worth logging

I still plan to complete my 10x10 challenge, however after that I'm transitioning into a higher intensity/lower volume program. It'll basically be like Max-OT ironically. For chest 8 sets all to failure compound only 0 machines (thinking incline barbell, incline dumbbell, flat dumbbell only) 8-20 rep range, legs 6s and 8s not to failure about 6-8 sets of front and back squats and higher rep accessories for prehab, back 3 sets of 5 dl no failure, 12 sets for lats mostly to failure. Arms and delts still going to train high volume high reps isolation moves.

Will ride that out for a while then go back to higher volume submax work when I'm burned out. Also going to cut down on the cardio duration and raise the intensity a bit to see what happens.

First heavy workout after deload, it went great despite forgetting my belt. I may train beltless henceforth. I think for non-powerlifters it's basically just egolifting cope. But even lots of powerlifters implement beltless training. But I've always done egolifting cope so maybe I'll stick with it. I don't really know.

Deadlift: up to 160kgx12 very pleased with this, exceeded expectations
Pullups: bwx10, 6, 4 too wiped from dls
BB rows: 80kgx4, 70x8, 60x10
Pulldowns: 2ppsx9,5,3+4 unilaterals each side rest pause 35 sec between sets
Machine rows: 115lbsx11,7,9 Rest pause
Curls: 30kgx12,6,4 rest pause

Bike:15mins avg hr about 145.

For sq/dl I'm going to follow the progression of wk 1 3x5, wk 2 4x5+5lbs, wk 3 5x5+ another 5lbs, wk 4 deload, wk 5 single amrap set around wk 3+5-20lbs

So we're going 160kgx5x3, 162.5x5x4, 165x5x5, deload, 170kgxamrap for deadlift. First week about RPE 6.5, wk 2 about 7.5, wk 3 about 8.5, wk 4 deload, wk 5 RPE 10.

I may idiosyncratically do 6s for squats because I believe that's a magic number for building muscle and doing 5s will turn you into a fat zach gomad whale.

ARMS

SS1
DB curls: 16kgx18 each side one side at a time, 12. Switched to barbell curls: 3 sets of 12,10,9
V-pushdowns: 40lbsx50,20,16,??,??

SS2
Hammer curls: 10kgx5 sets failure
Single arm pushdowns: 5 sets failure each side

SS3
EZ curls: 15kgx5 sets failure
CG pushups: bwx36,15, 3 more sets to failure

Bike: 16 mins level 3 whatever


Bleh... I don't know if a show is happening. I was 94.5kg. I didn't really feel bad or particularly hungry so I elected not to cheat. Down about 2.5kg in ~3 weeks now. I think I'm on a barely acceptable fat loss rate, but I imagine it's going to become far harder as I get leaner. Still going to continue cutting of course. That's fine; being every day people shredded and then focusing on strength is alright. If I turn out shredded enough I guess I'll still go for it.

Disappointing showing today. Had some left VMO pain. Kinda knew from the moment I did my first warmup set with the empty bar I wasn't going to be able to give a balls deep effort today as I did on the deadlift day.
HBBS: 140kgx10
Static lunge: 24kgx8x4 each side
Leg extension: lightx20x4
Hyperextensions: bwx10x4

Bike cardio 24 mins

On the bright side, my knees both feel great and assuming this vmo pain goes away I think I'm in a very good spot to start hitting some higher intensity work after I complete my 102kgx10x10 sub 30 mins silliness. Even after this fairly challenging RPE 8.5 or so set I only needed a few minutes to feel recovered.

I'm thinking something like 3 sets of 6 AHAP followed by 3 sets of 20 mostly as HIIT/conditioning with ~1.5-2 mins rest. Follow that with hypers and static lunges and I think it's a solid leg workout. Maybe just use the same progression as I'm using for deadlift. Or good ole 5,5,5+ then do like 3 sets of 8 paused hbbs. I'm open to suggestions.

Don't think my hbbs has ever looked as sharp. I hope so after doing 50+ working reps every single workout and being fairly deliberate with every single one for the past ~6 weeks or whatever.

gymshark tank looks pretty bad with a belt LOL.

Weak tanktop. Shorts too long. Sweet squats though.

Pretty squats

Those squats are gorgeous. You may have shown me the light.

Unfortunately you cant join the 11 inch dong short femur master race, gotta be born into it

Thanks brahs. Big breakthrough was after watching the max and chad squat videos. Consciously keeping the knee forward coming out of the hole worked wonders. Yeah, I don't move as much weight as before, but it's far more concentrated on my quads and less on glutes+lower back in an unsafe way.

Trash workout today

Incline db: 40kgx12, 32kgx15
Flat bb: 90kgx10, 80kgx10
Incline BB: 60x10x2
V-bar pushdowns: 4 sets failuree
Side raises: 4 sets failure

Skipped cardio

I am returning to the DC training 4 days per week push/pull/legs split. Everything gets hit on average once every 5 days. Intensity up and volume down and going to hit a lot more AMRAPs. Obv gotta do my 10x10 first, but I'll transition the other stuff asap.

After a few years of lifting my conclusion is this: Volume based programs are great for developing technical proficiency, avoiding, training around, or rehabbing injury, and building work capacity. I don't mean EV's kind of RPE 2.5 volume program with terrible ROM and tons of different easy fluff exercises, but something like Juggernaut method is what I'd classify as a "volume" program or for a bodybuilding analogue, something like FST-7.

But if you want to build as much muscle and strength as possible, you need to do big AMRAPs and frequency works better. Obv doesn't apply to everyone, just my experience.