Nobody Cares And Neither Do I

[GeorgeC]

I'm 45 years old 6'7" and fluctuate between 245 and 255 pounds with a 40"waistline.

Did a modified SSLP about 5 years ago (no benching/deadlift no squat on Wed), hurt my shoulder, panicked and took a few months off. After that I got my strength back plus a little more. I had a good year or so with the shittiest sleep and insane stress levels where I managed not to progress, but didn't really regress either. Was trying TM and one lift a day during that time.

Since then I have tried a bunch of the stuff in PP without realizing that I was doing too much intensity and not enough volume/frequency to progress much (which is pretty much what is prescribed). This created a steady cycle of push too hard, do a shitty deload, and then make very little progress. The best progress I've had have been doing an upper/lower heavy/light split, but even with that greed has often got the best of me.

I've learned a bunch from following the BBM/SS debates, as well as some good stuff from Eric Helms' books and videos and some of the other usual suspects on the YT's and interwebz.

I think of my goals as being able to kick ass during a zombie apocalypse. Other than that, I might sign up for a Highlands Games this year. Hard to go wrong with getting to wear a skirt and drink beer at a competition.

Not sure what me real 1RMs are, but my I can lift this on 4 hours sleep baring getting aids or cancer numbers are Squat 375, Deadlift 425, Press 185, Bench 240.

Right now I am doing my own program based kinda on the ideas of DUP, the frequency thing with those Norwegian powerlifters that that knuckles guy wrote about, and some of Hepburn's ideas about not grinding, which I need to sink in.

Monday
Squat 5x2-4
Bench 5x2-4
Row 5x2-4

Tuesday
Press 5x2-4
Deadlift 5x2-4
Pull Up 5x2-4

Thursday
P Squat 3x5-7
SB Bench 3x5-7
SB Row 3x5-7

Friday
SB Press 3x5-7
DP Deadlift 3x5-7
Chin 3x5-7

Aim for beautiful reps.
Move all weights as quickly as possible during the concentric.
ALWAYS end a set after 1 grindy/bad form rep, only 1-2 rep in reserve or the top of rep range.
3 minute rest periods for Lower body lifts and 2 minutes for upper body lifts.

I did a week of pretty much this last week just to see if I'd die. Added some volume and stupid stuff on Monday and regretted it. Took yesterday off.

Decided to switch out a couple of lifts and change the rep ranges a bit, plus use a little lower intensity to start. Also decided to go with adding reps before weight to force me to slow down the greed of progression.

Basically doing the first 2 sessions with my 5RM and the second 2 with my 8RM. Going to take the Monday & Tuesday session weights for a test drive tomorrow and Friday and then follow the above pattern for there.

Any critique or questions are welcome.

[hector]

I have no useful suggestions for your programming. But you have the best log title here. Excited to follow your progress.

[Wilhelm]

I'm doing a really simple DUP scheme for bench and squat for the last couple of months.
I'm liking it.

Thanks for adding your log, @GeorgeC, and welcome to the site.

[torkins]

Welcome to the site! Lots of smart coaches (both real and armchair) upstairs in the Programming forum to ask for advice if you're looking for it.

[GeorgeC]

Welcome to the site! Lots of smart coaches (both real and armchair) upstairs in the Programming forum to ask for advice if you're looking for it.

Thanks for the warm welcomes, guys!

I've been lurking for a month or so and have found that to be true. I like the familiarity with the research balanced with realizing it's, often severe, limits being mixed with the practical experience of folks here without the appeals to orthodoxy at that forum that shall not be named.

[GeorgeC]

I'm doing a really simple DUP scheme for bench and squat for the last couple of months.
I'm liking it.

I'll check it out, Wilhelm.

Mine is DUP-ish in that two days are lower reps and two are higher, but not the "proper" version I've seen online.

My thinking is that frequency acts as a sort of hypertrophy boost by spiking MPS more often and the other two days are sort of the power and strength days. I kinda hate high reps. I can do them, but they don't seem to do anything for me beyond the immediate pump and fatigue.

[TwoFoursStrohm]

Best log name I've seen. Welcome aboard.

[Wilhelm]

I'm doing a really simple DUP scheme for bench and squat for the last couple of months.
I'm liking it.

I'll check it out, Wilhelm.

Mine is DUP-ish in that two days are lower reps and two are higher, but not the "proper" version I've seen online.

My thinking is that frequency acts as a sort of hypertrophy boost by spiking MPS more often and the other two days are sort of the power and strength days. I kinda hate high reps. I can do them, but they don't seem to do anything for me beyond the immediate pump and fatigue.

I'm not recommending this per se, but just sharing what @mgil offered when i said i wanted something super simple.
I didn't want to do the RPE thing every session to set my weight.

The idea on this is to bump everything 1% a week, and i did at first, but i charted it out well in advance, and i eventually cut squats to .5% bumps, and bench to .75%
I'm planning on doing a really long run of this, and 1% a week would just have been hubris.
I squat twice a week, so i just roll the days over into the next week.
Bench i do 3X week, so that is the same week to week.

1 @ 80%
6 sets x 4 reps @ 70%

1 @ 85%
6 sets x 3 reps @ 75%

1 @ 90%
4 sets x 3 reps @ 80%

And like i said, i'm just sharing.
You very well may want to check out what @Hanley is doing with people.
He is having great success, and is much smarter than me in this (and probably most other) regards.

I'm just stubborn, and like a set it and forget approach.

[GeorgeC]

Sounds interesting.

I'm always interested in the guiding principles people are using. They seem to have more universal application even if we need to adjust for individual differences.

[GeorgeC]

So after some further consideration and reading through the threads on Haney's Montana Method, I've decided to switch a couple of things up. I am not advanced enough to need 4 full body sessions a week and I want to get in some heavy bag and conditioning work, which will work better on the two off days than any other time. Weekends are kinda out of the question for structured anything. I also realized that adding a rep requires a pretty decent increase in strength, so ust adding .5-2%, depending on how things are going seems to be a better idea.

I'm going to just go with a simple three day MWF HPS template that rotates through these as A & B:

A
Squat/Pause Squat
Bench/SB Bench
Row/SB Row

B
Press/SB Press
Deadlift/Double Pause Deadlift
Pull Up/Chin Up

The first version of the lift is for Strength and Power days and the second is for hypertrophy days.

Going to start with this set up, doing as many sets as needed to get the total reps:

Hypertrophy 75/70/65% For Sets of 5's & 4's for 30 Total Reps
Power 90/85/80% For Sets of 2's & 1's for 10 Total Reps
Strength 85/80/75/% For Sets of 3's & 2's for 20 Total Reps

Upper Lifts/Squat/Deadlift

I may have to adjust the intensities a bit to keep the number of sets in the 5-8 range, but this is the starting place.

Did some light conditioning today:

Heavy Bag 5 Rounds @ 1:1
Step Ups (to bench) 5 Rounds @ 1:1

Easy.

I'll probably alternate them next time or something. Haven't really done any conditioning per se since quitting Krav Maga classes.

[GeorgeC]

Took the whole mixed reps thing for a test drive today.

80 Minutes or so.

Press 1650x3, 150x3, 145x3x2, 145x2x4
Deadlift 315x3x3, 315x2x3
Pull Ups BWx3x4, BWx2x4

[GeorgeC]

Monday 75 minutes

Squat 290x3x4
Bench190x3x5
SB Row 190x3x5

Decided to stick with the 4 day full body and just lower the % a bit to get used to it. I'll keep the daily walking, but wait a couple of weeks to add conditioning. Basically, I'll pretended I am programming for someone else and imagine that I am looking over the shoulder of someone that is a bit smarter about it than I am.

[GeorgeC]

So yesterday was a Strength Day.

Tuesday 65 Minutes
Hypertrophy
Press 125x5x5
Deadlift 285x5x5
Chin BWx4x5

My right shoulder has been feeling a bit odd in the morning. probably ust sleeping on it funny.

I think I am going to do Thursday and Friday and then ust switch to 3x per week next week to manage fatigue better.

One week will be Squat/Bench/Row twice and Press/Deadlift/Chin or Pull Up once and the reverse the following week. This will be less frequency than the 4 day schedule, but I think that once a week is enough to maintain the previous week's adaptations as the other lifts progress. We'll see.

[GeorgeC]

The last two days were easy days in anticipation of starting the new cycle on Monday.

Thursday 55 minutes
Bench 185x5x2
Squat 275x5x2
SB Row 185x5x2
DB LTE 20'sx10
DB Curl 20'sx10

Friday 45 minutes
Press 135x5x2
Deadlift 315x5x2
Chin BWx5x2
Latereals 5'sx1r
Calf Raises BWx15

[GeorgeC]

Monday 100 Minutes

Bench 185x5x5
Squat275x5x4
SB Row 163x5x5 Totally forgot to add the extra 22lbs to compensate for the lighter bar. I am much less impressed with myself after realizing it.
2 minutes rest between sets on these (Not counting belting up, set up, ect.).
A-DB LTE 20'sx12x3
B-DB Curl 20'sx12x3

Slept poorly Sunday night, so I am feeling bit more fatigued afterwards than expected.

I really like the shorter rest periods. I never let myself do the 8 minute thing, but stuck at 4 minutes for upper and 5 minutes for lower for a while, which is possibly necessary for high intensities at medium reps, but I am obviously trying lower on both right now.

[GeorgeC]

Slept like crap most of this week. Bad headspace, but the kids are going back to school on Monday so I should be able to get back on track with actually accomplishing some shtuff.

Bailed on Wednesday's session and just did about 20 minutes of Step ups, TGU's, halos with a 25, and burpees instead for stress relief.

Finally slept ok on Thursday night, so was still pretty fatigued just from feeling stressed, so I decided to just do my previous singles@8 and a circuit of Burpees and TRX rows. Decided last minute to see what doubles with those weights was like. They were still in the @8-8.5 range, which made me happy considering how tired I felt.

Feel pretty good today and looking forward to getting back at it next week.

Bench 225x2
Squat350x2
Press 175x2
Deadlift 400x2

3 rounds of:
1 Burpee + 1 TRX Row + 2 Burpee + 2 TRX Row + 3 Burpee + 3 TRX Row
Did them as explosively as possible with perfect-ish form. No Crossfit slop.

[GeorgeC]

Monday 70 minutes
Bench 185x5, 195x5x2
Squat 275x5x3
Row 185x5x3

Tuesday 55 minutes
SB Press 120x5x2
P Deadlift 275x5x2
Chin BWx5x2

Thursday 20 minutes
2 Rounds of:
Push Up
Squat
TRX Row
Reverse Lunge
with 60ish seconds between exercises and 120 seconds between circuits.

Sleeping like crap again this week. Too much screen time + too much caffeine + to little time outdoors.

Going to repeat today's circuit again tomorrow and then switch back to 3x a week full body H-M-L rotating the above A & B sessions.

Fuck dedicated conditioning for now. Gonna get back to daily walking and weekend hikes instead.

[GeorgeC]

This week's deload "training": Tried Myo-Reps with a 4 cluster cap.

Monday 8/27
SB Bench 150x14+3+3+3+3
P Squat 250x8+2+2+2+2
SB Row 150x12+3+3+3+3
Neck Ext x20
DB LTE 20'sx18
Neck Curl x20
Calf Raise x20
DB Curl 20'sx15
Tucks x10

Wednesday 8/29
SB Press 125x6+2+2+2+2
P Squat 200x10+3+3+3+3
NG Chin x6+2+2+1+1
Neck Ext x15
DB LTE 25'sx10
Neck Curl x15
Calf Raise x20
DB Curl 25'sx10
Tucks x10

Friday 8/31
Turkish Get Ups 25x4L+4R in 5 minutes
Burpee+TRX Row x10 in 5 minutes

[GeorgeC]

Monday 9/3/18 65 minutes

SB Bench 175x8+2+3+2+2
Squat 225x8+2+2+2+2
SB Row 175x8+2+2+2+2
DB LTE 25'sx10Tuck x10
DB Curl 25'sx10
Neck Extx10
Calf raise +40x10

Tuesday 9/4/19 22 minutes
TGU 5 Minutes = 32.5x4L+4R
5 Minutes Break
Burpee + TRX Row 5 Minutes + 9BP+9TRX

[GeorgeC]

Wednesday 9/5/18 50 minutes

SB Press 125x8+2+2+2+2
RDL 185x8+3+3+3+3
NG Chin BWx6+2+2+1+1
Neck Extx10
Calf Raise +40x15
DB LTE 25'sx10
Neck Curlx10
Tuck x10
DB Curl 25'sx10


Friday 9/7/18 60 minutes

SB Bench 175x8+2+3+2+2
Squat 225x8+2+2+2+2
SB Row 175x8+2+2+2+2
Neck Extx10
Calf Raise +40x10
DB LTE 25'sx10
Neck Curlx10
Tuck x10
DB Curl 25'sx10