Grassroots Strength Training - Bodybuilding, Power Lifting, Etc.

Sets of 3 reps are for 1RM strength and little more. If you're older and/or not competing in powerlifting competitions I would avoid sets of 3 completely. Sure it feels good, but that's wear on your joints and not really enough reps for hypertrophy; at that range it's affecting your central nervous system as much as your muscles. There isn't really any need to go below 5 reps (unless, again, you're a competitive powerlifter or are specifically working toward a 1RM, which is often kinda dangerous).

Tom Platz had enormous legs and a max squat of 765lbs, and regularly did extremely high rep workouts. He once squatted 225 pounds for 5 minutes straight until he passed out. Woke up, did it again. Also famously squatted 525 pounds for 23 reps and made it look easy. Granted, he was juiced to the gills, but still. 

As I get older (41) I avoid low reps/high weight like the plague. The lowest I go is 5-6 on bench sometimes, simply because I'm stubborn and refuse to go down in weight. But in reality I should drop 20 pounds off the bar and do 8 reps instead, I'd get better muscle growth. Other than bench press, again because I'm an idiot, it's rare I go below 10 reps. 12-20 are most common.

Dr. Mike goes over rep ranges on youtube in a pretty great video. Your rep ranges for maximum hypertrophy are (generally) 5-20 reps. Try some 20-rep sets of squats, they'll kill you.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

I've never heard of this dude- I'll give him a watch tonight, already I'm interested in this video for obvious reasons.

I can easily do drop sets that way instead, but I have to ask- earlier with my 10/8/5/5/3 split, I was partially using the higher rep lifts as warmups for the bigger stuff. If I launch directly into the heavy lift, how would my warmup look and what would my rest periods look like in between sets?

Either do a warm up set or a working set. Don't make it both. If those build up sets are warm ups, you're leaving work on the table. If they're working sets, you'll be too fatigued to do a heavy lift properly.

Instead, build up to your max lift with... warm ups. A few reps at progressively higher weights, but not enough to tire you. You should need little to no rest in between beyond the time it takes to load additional plates.

Let's say my goal is to squat 315 for 3 reps. I'd probably go: 45x(5-8), 135x(5-6), 225x4, 265x3, 295x2. Then rest for about 1 minute.

So your idea- and Mikes it seems- is more of a full-body style workout plan, where you're just putting the majority of your focus on a body part and not focusing on it alone? So if I just shuffle things around, not remove anything yet, would that then look like: ...

Effectively. The goal is to hit each area more times per week without ever overloading anything.

The biggest change I would make... I would do like about half as many exercises in a day as you have listed. Keep the same list, but mix up which exercises you are doing each week.

I'd probably do: 1 heavy lift, 2 mediums, and 2 supplemental.

I would always go in that order, too. Do the biggest, hardest things first, then keep getting progressively easier.

I'd switch up how I classified some of these lifts. My basic rule of thumb is: if it's a compound movement, it's heavy or medium. If it's focused on a single muscle or group of small muscles, it's supplementary.

So, pistol squats are Medium. Leg curls are supplemental.

...

I'm also 41. I like to lift heavy. I personally focus much more on maximal strength and less on bodybuilding bulk. I usually lift 2x/week and rock climb 2-3 times. My routine - I have one heavy day with our trainer where I do at least 3 of the big 4: Squat, Bench, Dead, Overhead. Our trainer has us doing a heavy single or double, followed by 2-3 drop set of usually 4-6 reps. Then a medium or medium-light day hitting all major groups. Then, if I have time and inclination, I'll throw in some fun, easier recovery stability/volume stuff: pull ups, pistol squats, ring push ups.

So, how are we avoiding massive chafing on the upper thighs? Now that the weather is getting swampy again, I was doing some work on cars and around the house and tore myself up and I am suffering.

I ordered some more Body Glide, which generally works for a price, but if there is a better/different way to prevent this, I'm all ears.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

Another key point for maximizing hypertrophy - as you approach the point of failure lifting, you get exponentially longer recovery times, but little to no increase in hypertrophy response. If the goal is hypertrophy, you are usually best stopping about 2 reps short of failure. You will see slightly less gains, but recover a lot faster and be able to get more effective working sets in over the course of the week.

Let's say you are doing bench press and want the maximum hypertrophy response for chest and triceps. You pick a weight that you can do 10 reps. No matter what, you're not getting 11. If you add any weight, you're only getting 9. If you want to stimulate the muscle any more, you will need to do a substantially dropped set, or add a light supplemental exercise (burning yourself out on cable flies for pecs, and tricep extensions).

If you do 10 bench presses and burn out on supplemental exercises, that will elicit the greatest possible hypertrophy response for the day. Call it 100% of possible. But it will also give you the longest recovery time. Say 5 days for 90% recovery and 7 days for 100%. You are only doing that 1 time per week. Recovery is going to suck.

Let's say you do just the bench press and skip the supplementals. You will probably get 98% of the hypertrophy response. You will have 4 days to 90% recover and 5 days to 100%. Recovery will suck for at least 3 days. You're probably still only working that muscle group 1/week, but life sucks less. Your gains may be smaller, but not measurably so.

Now, you only do 9 reps of bench press and stop. You see 96% of your maximum response. You take 3 days to 90% recover and 4 days to 100%. You've got 1 day where DOMS suck, and a 2nd day of things being kinda sore. At 90% recovery, you can't go for your max again, but you can do a medium-weight set on that same muscle group. You add in a day of inclined press at 80% intensity. Then you give yourself another 3-4 days to recover fully to do it all again. You now hit that muscle group TWICE in one week. You'll see a lot more hypertrophy response than that extra 4% you left on the table initially. You'll be less sore throughout the week.

Finally, you only do 8 reps of bench and stop. You see 94% of max response. You take 2 days to recover 90% and 3 to recover 100%. You finish your workout with reserve energy in the tank. Recovery is a LOT easier. When 90% recovered, you add in that day of inclined press. You recover in 2 days, and you wrap the week up with some supplemental exercises to get a nice pump on your pecs and triceps at 40%-60% intensity. 2-3 days of recovery, and you're back up to 100% and able to repeat. You've now got 3 days in, and recovery just feels like a background thing. Your muscles aren't too sore to grapple at Jiu-Jitsu.

I have nothing useful to add, except I did 80lb suitcase carry on Saturday. Felt find at the time, my hip flexors have been killing me the last two days.

Pro tip: Don't ego lift in your 40s

infinitenexus said:

Tom Platz had enormous legs and a max squat of 765lbs, and regularly did extremely high rep workouts. He once squatted 225 pounds for 5 minutes straight until he passed out. Woke up, did it again. Also famously squatted 525 pounds for 23 reps and made it look easy. Granted, he was juiced to the gills, but still.

Recently saw that this record has been broken. It's pretty insane to see it happen:

In reply to infinitenexus :

I went back through this thread and re-read it from page one and, I think I'm going to try to emulate the diet you briefly mentioned on page 4. 

My diet has always been a struggle which is why my weight is always fluctuating. I am always ALWAYS hungry unless I focus on consuming only fat and protein. I can bulk up to 200+ with zero effort. It's been this way my entire life.

Is there any chance you could go into more detail on what you were eating when you made your 139 to 168 transformation? Daily macro goals, etc.

Protein, peanut butter, and banana shake for breakfast = 700 cal 30-40 grams protein

PB on Ezekiel bread of Mayo, Mustard, Tomato, Spinach, etc for lunch

2pm meal with similar macros to the breakfast shake

post-workout meal with similar macros

8pm meal with similar macros


Obviously, I wouldn't be following it to the letter since we have different goals; I want to maintain or slowly lose fat to get closer to 170 and you're aiming for 180 so, I would need to reduce the overall calories and increase the protein to try to control my appetite. 



I currently eat as close to zero carbs as possible Monday-Friday (kind of like a high-protein keto or Carnivore diet) then, on Saturday I have the oats, potatoes, tuna patties, rice, etc. that I've been craving throughout the week then on Sunday I focus on protein consumption before starting it all over again.

It's working but, I know all of that meat isn't healthy long-term and I'd like to try something different but, I'm afraid of ballooning up again. Aside from a few short stretches (like the one I'm currently in) I've always been that strong, pudgy guy. I like being strong but, I hate being fat. 

In reply to The_Jed :

Of course! I still eat pretty much the same way, but a bit more calories and I eat a little bit of chicken. I'm still mostly vegetarian but plant-based meat substitutes are just damn expensive and chicken breast is cheap. I also have IBS pretty bad so I have to be really careful with my food selection. And I'm kinda picky so I want it to taste good, but I don't want to eat any junk. Kinda narrows things down haha.

Breakfast: 2 cups of Silk almond/cashew protein blend milk (it's almond and cashew milk with added pea protein, almost no sugar, pretty tasty). 34 grams of peanut butter, I try to get one without hydrogenated oils. Palm oil isn't great either but it's a bit better. I would prefer a natural peanut butter, just peanuts and salt, but of course those cost twice as much. 1/2 scoop chocolate whey protein. A full scoop makes the shake too thick. 1 large banana or 2 smaller ones, depending on what I have. 45 grams of protein, roughly 730-780 calories depending on banana size and brand of whey protein. Taste good but I just slam it along with some vitamin D, a multivitamin, 1/4 finasteride so I keep some of my hair.

1st Lunch: 2 servings of sprouted rolled oats mixed with a serving of peanut butter, 1 serving of honey, 1 large banana mushed up (this is essential, it doesn't taste good without the banana), about 1/3 cup of that silk almond/cashew milk, 1 serving of chia seeds, 1/2 scoop of chocolate whey protein, all mixed together. About 42 grams of protein, roughly 800 calories depending on a few things. I used to do 3 servings of oats but it was just too much food. Sometimes I'll do this as overnight oats and just soak the 2 servings of rolled oats in a little more than a cup of that almond/cashew milk and that pretty much tastes like desert, but I have IBS pretty bad and sometimes that turns me into a fart factory.

2nd lunch: Sometimes this is leftovers from the night before, sometimes this will be 2 peanut butter and banana sandwiches on Ezekiel bread, lately I've been tired of making food so sometimes I'll hit McDonalds and get 2 McChickens. Not the best option, I know, but it hits the calories. I shoot for about 1000 calories at this meal. I ate a LOT of PB and banana sandwiches earlier when I was gaining. They're great, I'm just a little tired of them now.

Dinner: Lately, something with chicken breast. Sometimes I'll make some pasta from scratch and have that with some sauteed chicken breast, make some kind of parmesan sauce or something, maybe (plant-based) meatballs/red sauce/pasta, this varies a lot. If it's something that I know wasn't enough calories, I'll make a small shake later, around 8pm, or I'll have 2 cups of that almond/cashew milk with it (which is 260 calories and 20g protein).

I don't count macros. My recipes are decently high protein so pretty much no matter what I'm getting 120-150g protein/day. I focus mostly on my daily caloric intake. Calories in/calories out is the only proven way to alter your bodyweight, so honestly I wouldn't personally bother with a zero carb thing, unless you enjoy it, or unless going carb free during the week makes it easier to keep your calories in check.

Now, I have a crazy fast metabolism so right now as I'm trying to hit 180, I'm eating roughly 3500-3600 calories/day. If you're dieting down to around that weight and have a decent bit of muscle on you, you'll probably need somewhere closer to 3000 calories/day. Monitor them strictly for a month, add up everything you eat, and see where your weight goes. If you gain or maintain, drop 200 calories/day and increase some cardio.

Also I should mention that when I initially bulked up, I started with a 5X5 style workout, so I was doing lots of heavy deadlifts, which is why my traps looked awesome. Kinda dumb of me with a bad lower back, but I love deadlifts so I ego lifted for about 5 months. Finally wisened up after lifting 335 for 5 reps or something like that and said okay not doing that any longer, gotta save my back. Since then I've been doing variations of push/pull/legs. For a while I went to day 1 chest/back, day 2 shoulders/arms, day 3 legs, but found that it takes a bit too much time for my mornings. I'll go into more detail next post.

I decided to push myself a bit yesterday on bench press. I usually keep a rep or two in reserve as I don't use a spotter, so yesterday I asked a guy to spot me and promptly got 245 for 6 reps, so that's awesome. 

I've been trying to find the best balance of giving my muscles enough time to recover while hitting my muscles frequently for optimal growth. Right now I've settle on a 4 day split: Day 1 chest/triceps, day 2 back/biceps, day 3 shoulders and abs, day 4 legs. Calves are done every other day. So far I'm happy with this. 

I've also been doing some Dorian Yates-style workouts for my legs, as he didn't do squats and I can't really do squats with my bad lower back. The days that I do squats (maybe once a month) I don't go over 95 pounds and I focus on high reps, like 20+. But mostly now I do leg extensions for 20 reps and on the final set to full failure, strip the weight and go to failure again, strip the weight and go to failure again, etc, until I can barely lift like 30 pounds. Let myself recover a bit then go to the leg press and do the same thing. After watching Dr. Mike's youtube channel a lot lately I've come to appreciate the leg press more. Instead of loading up weight and doing half reps like Ronnie Coleman, I put much lower weight and use a deep, full range of motion and slow, deliberate reps. My hip joints appreciate the lighter weight. I don't care about how much weight I'm lifting, I care about the mind-muscle connection and how much I'm taxing my quads. After that I'll do 3 hard sets of leg curls, then a strip-set to failure and beyond. I know I'll never have huge legs but I can improve them, and that's what's close.

Been trying to analyze figures that I like and where I want to be, and ultimately I'll probably be happiest closer to 200. That's gonna take a lot of food and it won't happen naturally at my age so we'll see. But this morning I was 170 so that's awesome.

Thanks!

I wish I could eat close to 3,000 calories per day. There are people like you with the wick cranked up and fast metabolisms, then there are people like me who would be the last to starve to death if there was some sort of famine. 


About 10 years ago my wife and I were hitting the gym religiously and jogging in the parks near our house. We were both planning to compete in an upcoming powerlifting competition. We followed the same basic diet on IIFYM or MyFitnessPal at around 2,500 calories. She followed Stronglifts 5 x 5 three days per week and I was running 5/3/1/ Triumvirate and lifting heavy four days per week. My plan was to slowly lose weight and go from 183 down to 181 so I could compete in that class. At the time I could easily do a clean touch and go single with 350 on the bench and I didn't want to lose that. 

She slowly lost weight and I wound up gaining a couple of pounds and re-injuring my shoulder so I had to pull out of the competition. 


Currently, a typical day of eating (Mon-Fri) for me looks like what I had yesterday:

Upon waking = cup of coffee with a teaspoon of coconut oil and a packet of stevia.

Four hours later = 12 ounces of cubed chicken breast with a diced-up onion, 1/2 of shredded parmesan cheese, and a LOT of baby spinach on a high-fiber tortilla. I plop it all on the tortilla and eat it with a fork until I can roll it up.

The rest of the day = a diet mt. dew or two and LOTS of water.

Well under 2,000 calories each day, probably somewhere between 1,500-1,800.




Saturday = potatoes, oats, cereal, maybe pizza, whatever low fat, high-carb things I've been craving throughout the week. Probably close to 3,000 calories.

Sunday = lots of whey, still low fat. Maybe a sandwich of some sort. Maybe a little over 2,000 calories.



It's kind of what Vince Gironda did back in the day and it has worked well for me in the past. That eating strategy has gotten me down to 178 from 193 in about three months, maybe a bit less since I've been 178 for a little while.



The high fat/protein is the only thing that enables me to fast with a normal level of hunger. I can fight off the much more intense hunger pangs for a while on a "standard" diet but the body always wins eventually when you're constantly starving and thinking about food.


That being said I am definitely ready to try something different. Hopefully, the reduced caloric density of a plant-based diet will enable me to consume more volume with fewer calories. 

How much cardio are you doing? Even 10-15 minutes at the end of your workouts will add up. Fill every non-lifting day with an hour of rigorous cardio and that can burn a thousand calories per week or more. One pound of fat has 3500 calories, so anything you can do to burn it will help.

Going plant-based made a big difference in the caloric density of my food, especially since I can't really eat beans, which are one of the more calorie dense plants. A vegetarian burrito bowl with some plant-based sausage or something of that nature can wind up being enormous and only 600 calories. That's one of the reasons I toss peanut butter in everything.

My metabolism is kind of annoying. Greg Doucette (coach greg on youtube, has some pretty good videos sometimes) is an inch shorter than me, does a crap ton of cardio, and outweighs me by 25 pounds. He and I eat the same daily calories. And we're both on TRT but I'm on a slightly higher dose. I really, really burn through calories. And since I'm strongly considering going, we'll call it "not natural" in the immediate future so I can get the physique I want, I'm really going to have to be creative to get enough calories in. 

It's a shame I don't have a bit more money and a Chipotle near my apartment!

10 week update. After consistently working 9 weeks without missing a session my body felt absolutely destroyed. I'm glad I started those first two weeks light and slow so I didn't have any doms to work through. One thing I have been doing that I have never done before is drinking 60 grams a day of protein shake in addition to my regular nutritive meals. I needed a week off to recover so I skipped 4 workouts (so all of them) from the 16th to the 23rd and started again Monday. So far Monday and yesterday done complete with no issues. I'm looking forward to the next 10 weeks. I'm having to modify the workouts a bit because my shoulder injury from crossfit popped back up during shoulder presses a couple weeks back so I'm figuring that out now but I feel better, like much much better and thats what I'm after so I'm very happy to get that back.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Currently, during the hypertrophy phase for my kid, my warm-up consists of one mile or 20 minutes on a treadmill (whichever comes first) at max incline, then stretching, 100 crunches, KB halos and rotator cuff work. Then we go through the workout which usually takes about an hour. After that, we go on a pretty intense bike ride.

I'm also fairly active at home fixing the cars, the house, etc., and my job can be quite physically demanding at times. I haven't done any boxing since we began this hypertrophy program but, when I do it's 60-90 seconds on at a decent level of intensity then 60 seconds of rest, usually for 10 rounds. 

When I go back to my adaptation of The Bioneer's "I am Vengeance" program I'll be boxing three days per week, on top of lifting, bike rides, and work... 

In reply to The_Jed :

That's great! I really need to do more cardio. I'm trying to get my weight/body where I'm happy with it, then I'll start gradually increasing the cardio to maintain weight and keep my ticker healthy. I finished today's leg workout with 10 minutes fast walking on an incline, which I try to do pretty often. I have trouble even walking long distances due to my lower back—the other day I walked 30 minutes and my back was killing me the rest of the day. So I think my best plan for cardio is going to be something like 10 minutes walking, 10 minutes stair machine, 10 minutes bike, etc.

After my Dr. Mike Chipotle comment yesterday, I actually went to Chipotle and grabbed a burrito for second lunch. According to Chipotle's nutrition calculator, I had 1365 calories, 60g fat, 88g protein, and 122g carbs. So of course when dinner rolled around, I was still full. Made some chili/lime chicken skewers and asparagus for dinner, ate about 3/4 of it, then grabbed 2 cups of my cashew/almond milk to try to make up for the calories. I can't even imagine eating that every day, I would explode. For the record it was a double chicken burrito with guac and sour cream.

Leg day today. I've been steadily lowering my weight on the leg press and focusing on actually building muscle instead of just slinging around max weight, due to my hip/lower back issues. A month ago I was doing 4-5 plates and I'd hurt the rest of the morning, this morning I did 2 plates on each side nice and slow (about 3 second negative), let it come down good and deep, pushed it up fast, and did it for 20 reps, waited a few seconds, pushed out a few more, waited a few seconds, pushed out a few more. This is after hitting failure on leg extensions and doing a strip set until I could barely walk. To be honest it's a much more thorough leg workout than lifting twice as much weight regularly. I need to work on my hamstrings some though. From using the leg press regularly, I've also noticed that my left leg is a touch longer than my right.

I'm definitely guilty of just moving the maximum amount of weight instead of feeling the muscle doing the work.

Me - "Hey look, somebody was doing deadlifts and left the bar loaded..."

Inner Yeti - "Pick it up."

Me - "I haven't even warmed up yet... that's several hundred pounds and..."

Inner Yeti - "Pick it up!"

Me - "There's one of those jack levers right over there, I can use that to lift it so I can unload..."

Inner Yeti - "Stop being a pansy and PICK IT UP!"

Me - *resigned sigh*  *picks up weight*



I'm anxious to get back on that Bioneer program and start punching things again. It's cathartic for me. Lifting specifically for hypertrophy is neat for a change of pace but, it's not my bag. 


I jotted down that program I piggy-backed on Beer Baron to cobble together and it will definitely be brought into the rotation. I like total body programs since I'm quite busy and it allows me to dedicate one day to strength, speed, and endurance then do cardio and boxing the next. I feel like I have a lot more options and freedom with a total body layout as well.

The_Jed said:

I'm definitely guilty of just moving the maximum amount of weight instead of feeling the muscle doing the work.

Me - "Hey look, somebody was doing deadlifts and left the bar loaded..."

Inner Yeti - "Pick it up."

Me - "I haven't even warmed up yet... that's several hundred pounds and..."

Inner Yeti - "Pick it up!"

Me - "There's one of those jack levers right over there, I can use that to lift it so I can unload..."

Inner Yeti - "Stop being a pansy and PICK IT UP!"

 

So, I did this in my mid-20s when I was first learning to deadlift and wrecked my back. 

I started working out with these old school powerlifters and gained a lot of strength super quickly. In no time I was deadlifting mid-300s, and doing 335 for 6-7 reps. Some douchey guy was deadlifting and grunting super loud and slamming the weights and looking around, seeing who was watching him. The bar was loaded with 315, so I walked up when he finished a set and said "Hey, mind if I warm up real quick?" and banged out like 8 reps no problem. It wasn't too heavy, but I didn't warm up beforehand, I didn't stretch or anything after, and looking back I hadn't been taught yet to drag the bar up my shins, so the bar was probably several inches in front. I felt fine until the next morning. When I woke up, I couldn't get out of bed. It took about two months for my lower back to heal enough for me to just bend over. Of course I was in the army at the time, so they just gave me some painkillers and told me to go back to work. Fast forward almost 20 years and I told my doctor about it and he said it sounded like a bad strain. He then explained that the word "strain" could mean anything from tweaking the muscle slightly to ripping it halfway off the bone. I still don't know exactly what happened but I do know that my back has never been the same. The rest of me got strong, years later when I started lifting again, but the muscles in my lower back never fully recovered. Even now if I bend over I have to support myself with my hand. I deadlifted about a year ago and was able to get up to 315 for a few reps to satisfy my ego, but it didn't feel right. Since then I only deadlift about once a month, and I usually stick with just 135lbs, just enough to make sure I'm working all my muscles.

More toward your first sentence, Dr. Mike Israetel on youtube has some good videos where he goes over how to train the muscle instead of just slinging around max weights. Slow negative, pause in the deepest part of the motion, explosive lift. So far it's been good to my legs and everything else I've tried it on.

He definitely has some interesting programs. His hard blinking takes some getting used to. LOL

The_Jed said:

He definitely has some interesting programs. His hard blinking takes some getting used to. LOL

That is a common Tic in slightly neurodivergent people - ADHD, Autism, Tourettes, etc. It would not surprise me at all if someone who has devoted their life to exercise has ADHD.

 I've begun watch Dr. Mike, but I won't lie it's pretty difficult for me to follow when he goes on a tangent.

The_Jed said:

I REALLY like the program outline that Beer Baron laid out but, for me (and it's just me, you and Beer Baron and many other people for that matter may be different) since I'm well into my 40's and not on any PEDs or supplemental hormonal regimen I would have to pick my exercises very carefully since I wouldn't be able to hit everything from every angle. I would focus on compound movements as much as possible. 
[snip]

So I tried your example out in the interim while I still put ideas towards making my own plan (slowed because I have boards this week) and I have some thoughts:

• Lu Raises are interesting but hard to find a good guide on how to do them properly. Feel "nice" tho.
• Deadlifts to EMOM is weird and I might have gone too hard- doesn't help that I misread instructions. I did as many as I could in 1 minute, rested 1 minute, then did 3 every minute for the next 6 minutes once I confirmed I had done it inappropriately. Thankfully I only did 50% my working sets, 175lbs, but in sleeping tonight I could feel the strain on my mid-back when trying to sleep flat. I should be just fine next week.
• Definitely feel the pump from dips supersetted with push ups for Friday as well. Frankly I've been working out routinely for 10 years and I'm shocked at how all my weight levels for my past workout have to be cut down so much to be able to finish them.
• I've got a bad habit of going to the gym at ~7pm thanks to work (I dont get off shift until 7pm) and what might finally make me change is how busy my gym is then.
• I've noticed that I feel the pump afterwards more than I did with my last plan.
• Trying prone leg curls supersetted with calf raises might be a little aggressive, and hard to do since they're practically on opposite sides of the gym.
• I would rather not do 5x5 Squats like that on monday; I feel like a 3x8 for it and deads would be more my speed.

So i'm wondering idly- maybe do Deadlifts 3x8 at 60% my max? I was doing 355x5, so 185-215 shouldn't be too aggressive for 8 reps?

I also still haven't come up with a good idea on warmups other than "Do the exercise you're gonna start with, but less" after a 5 minute progressive ramp up on the treadmills. An old coworker/trainer of mine advocated for jump rope before boxing but I don't know how good that is for lifting.

   When I do Lu raises I use a VERY light weight and shoot for 15-20 slow, controlled repetitions. It feels least awkward to start with the dumbells on the front of my legs and my palms either facing each other or supinated. Then, as I slowly raise the weights I rotate my hands to point my knuckles at each other. The movement looks like I'm holding a hula hoop in front of me and sliding my hands around it from the bottom to the top.


   With the EMOM deadlifts I slowly pyramid up in weight as if it's a normal workout; empty bar x 10, 135 x 10, 185 x 10, 225 x 5, 275 x 5, then when I reach 315 I start doing singles. If it's an average day I'll stay at that weight (if I'm feeling froggy I'll go heavier, if I'm using a hex bar I definitely go heavier) and watch the clock. Every time the second hand rolls around to 12 I do a single rep for 15 or so minutes. For me, this 15-minute session is a good time to play with different grips; double overhand (no hook), left supinated and right pronated, right supinated and left pronated, etc.


   For the calf raises I would put the ball of one of my feet on some part of the leg curl/extension machine and use it like a step. I'd grab the machine for balance, lift your other leg off the ground and do a bunch of single-leg, bodyweight calf raises; maybe take the number of reps you did on the leg curls/extensions and double the number for the calf raises. 

Yeah Dr. Mike goes on some crazy tangents. I often skip through half of his videos but he has some good stuff in there. 

Today was chest/triceps, so like usual I started with flat bench press, working up to 4 sets of 225lbs. I think I need to reduce the weight and increase the reps for a while, or avoid flat bench altogether for a month. My right shoulder hurt like an SOB after my workout today, I was going to do some dips but my shoulder said no. Nothing wrong with mixing things up. Time to start my push workouts with incline, I guess. I think I'm going to avoid standing overhead press for a bit as well, last time I did that my shoulder wasn't too happy. Gotta listen to my body. 

I'm really giving some thought to my leg workouts. Now, I've been a skinny little guy my whole life, to include chicken legs. I've built some respectable muscle in my lower body but it still lags behind my upper, and I believe a large part of that is because of my injury-imposed physical limitations. Time to mix things up there as well. I've also noticed from doing leg press that my left leg is slightly longer than my right. Weird. I think next leg workout I'll start with leg extensions to failure and beyond, and then go right into lightweight squats for high reps. Then a bunch of leg curls. I wish I could do stiff leg deadlifts, but my lower back hurts just thinking about it.

Also measured my arms today, 15.5". I could definitely use a bit of size there to help them match the rest of my upper body.

Been struggling to get 3500cal/day in lately. It's not a small amount of food. Weight gain has stalled.

   I rarely ever use a bar for flat bench, I'm gun shy from too many shoulder injuries. Decline is much easier on my joints than flat bench and dumbells are easier still on my joints than decline with a bar. The last time I did a 1rm on the bench it was at the behest of my kid and I was scared to death. I probably had another 20 lbs or so left but, after that single I said, "I'm good." I like pushups, dips, and dumbells for chest work.

   I'd rather make slow progress than have a big setback while trying to shoot for the moon. 

   Also with dumbells I can get a bigger stretch at the bottom and a bigger squeeze at the top.  

The_Jed said:

   I rarely ever use a bar for flat bench, I'm gun shy from too many shoulder injuries.

Powerlifter arches seem silly, but they make flat bench feel a WORLD different for me. Not going for major "competition" level arch. Just enough arch to get my scapulae close to flat on the bench changes the angle my shoulders move substantially.

Currently staying away from flat bench though. But that is due to the way I brace with leg drive causing irritation to my vasectomy site. Mild incline and angled seat holds me in place to avoid that issue.

@ GIRTHQUAKE:


   I just went through day 1 of that program I cobbled together using Beer Baron's template and yeah, it's a good one! It's much more skewed toward performance rather than hypertrophy but, unless you're on as much gear as Gordon Ryan, that's how I would train since you'll be grappling as well as lifting. It's tough to "serve multiple masters", i.e., wanting to achieve a certain physique, and wanting to train in Jiu Jitsu. (I'm guilty of that myself) With the level of growth, progress, and recovery afforded him by all of the PEDs, he can get away with a "bodybuilding-type" program and still dominate in Jiu Jitsu.


   I'm not bashing him at all, apparently, it's allowed in his sport. Also, he doesn't lie about it so, I actually applaud him for his honesty.