Today's workout?

[pioneer]

I know those workouts man. You give so much on the first 7 exercises that the deadlift just isn't possible anymore. Very good means the intensity was very high! You are making good progress man. Nice to see that the presses are going up fast on the new rep ranges. If you wouldn't have lowered those you would still be doing 3-4 reps with the same weight. You're gonna be big! Bw gone up much yet?

Thanks alot man I owe you big time. I have never been this strong in squats before and I know thats really what matters. My BW has gone up 5 lbs from 165 to 170lbs which is good, but I would really like to be in the 190 range. I know that diet plays the biggest role here. Been reading a lot of ray peat lately and am going to utilize some of his philosophies during fall season to pack on 20 lbs.

Right now I am eating 1.5-2lbs raw beef a day, 1 quart of raw milk, a few pieces of fruit, and 4 oz of raw beef fat, I have remained the same weight for about a month so I know if I want to gain, Im gonna have to up something, and it wont be meat because of how expensive it is so Im thinking add some coconut oil and some more raw milk.

[sabertooth]

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[HIT_it_RAW]

Thanks alot man I owe you big time. I have never been this strong in squats before and I know thats really what matters. My BW has gone up 5 lbs from 165 to 170lbs which is good, but I would really like to be in the 190 range. I know that diet plays the biggest role here. Been reading a lot of ray peat lately and am going to utilize some of his philosophies during fall season to pack on 20 lbs.

Right now I am eating 1.5-2lbs raw beef a day, 1 quart of raw milk, a few pieces of fruit, and 4 oz of raw beef fat, I have remained the same weight for about a month so I know if I want to gain, Im gonna have to up something, and it wont be meat because of how expensive it is so Im thinking add some coconut oil and some more raw milk.

My pleasure man! Just keep making progress the way you do and you’ll be 190 soon. Yeah I know meat is f*****g expensive. More milk might work. Do you eat eggs? You can add a milkshake to your diet. I drink mostly 1 a day its 0,5 ltr milk, 4 egs, some butter, teaspoon honey. I’ve found that the milk egg honey combo is very anabolic you might want to try. Its also my post workout shake only than it has 1ltr milk, 6 egs, tablespoon honey.

You could also add leg presses after the squats. Makes your legs grow a bit faster than just squats. Fast growing legs will upp your BW very quickly since they are the largest muscles. Right now your doing 4 upper body and 3 lower body exercises maybe its time for those leg presses, balance things out a bit.

[pioneer]

Yeah true, but my gym doesnt have a leg press machine, is there a substitute? I was thinking lunges or something of that nature. I do eat eggs, but am trying to avoid too much because of the PUFA content, so I only eat about a couple a day. Honey could deff work. I am trying to be pro thyroid while putting on muscle. Dude you gotta read on some of Ray Peat. He claims that since coconut oil lowers cholesterol, it is a good thing. Reason why it is good is because its not that it lowers the production of cholesterol in the body, but it kicks the thyroid into gear so it whittles down cholesterol into hormones, so that means coconut oil increases pregnenolone, progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, DHT but not estrogen because estrogen is a thyroid antagonist and prevents thyroid function, and while the thyroid is in gear, estrogen is being suppressed. This makes sense because as we go through andro and menopause, our metabolisms get slower (hypo thyroid) and we begin to produce and accumulate more estrogen as out testosterone plummets. Supposedly if we can increase thyroid output and thereby increase hormonal output, we will stop this process from happening. Very interesting shit because I always thought of low serum cholesterol being a bad thing, but it really could mean that the cholesterol you do have is being put to use for hormones and bile.

[HIT_it_RAW]

a good substistute for leg presses are very heavy partial squats. Just do your regukar squats and than up the weigh 30-50percent. Than do partial squats. Dont go deep. Put a bench under your ass to prevent dropping to the floor when you go a bit too deep. Lunges are a bad exercise.

Milk and honey are very anabolic together. even more so with eggs. I eat lots of raw butter so i don't care about pufa in eggs. Its a very small part of my total fat intake.

I eat lots of coconut oil. Gives me energy so the thyroid thing might make sense. Taking cholesterol (such as butter) together with coconut oil should be a hormone booster if its true what you say about coconut oil and thyroids.

[pioneer]

Well, I dont really know and direct or indirect action of the coconut oil taking effect on thyroid, I have not read that far yet. I do know that it may have something to do with both the medium and short chain triglycerides providing direct thyroid energy and the fact that it is the highest source of saturated fat in nature being about 97%, therefore a PUFA/estrogen/inflammation antagonist. It is also being used in cancer clinics as an anti angiogenesis drug in the form of MCT's that prevent estrogen from causing angiogenesis of tumors.

[pioneer]

Wow!!! all I can say is thanks a lot HIT IT RAW. My strength has skyrocketed in my lifts and I am stronger than ever. Even stronger than I was when I was a chubby 200lbs. Now Im lean and 170lbs, trying to gain some lean muscle mass.

Wednesday:
Full ATG squat:       295lb x 10 reps
partial squat:          315lb x  5 reps
1 leg calf raise:         70lb x  8 reps each leg
Chins:                      80lb x  7 reps (almost
Overhead Press:      115lb x 8 reps
Bent row:               145lb x 8 reps
Real Ring Dips:        45lb   x 8 reps
Deadlift:                325lb  x 3 reps


Notes: my quads are either weak compared to my glutes/hamstrings or I am just not used to partial squats. I could only do a little more than my full squat weight and only got 5 reps. The whole motion seems weird stopping half way down, but I suppose I'll get used to it. I do see the benefit of them though, as I really feel the stress on the quads as opposed to the hips, glutes, and hams in regular full squats. Maybe this lack of quad strength and more ham/glute strength explains why I used to deadlift 405 while squatting only 350 at the time for singles.

My overhead press has gone up considerably, HIT IT RAW, you were exactly right, lowered the weight and now Im almost back to the weight I was struggling to get 3-4 reps with.

Just a couple questions, doing rowing movements just feel wrong to me. When I do all other lifts, I feel my muscles contract and work really hard, but I feel with bent rows, it is way too easy to cheat and not get the full benefit. I was wondering how you do bent rows. I lowered the weight 45lbs today and did bent rows more strict with 145lbs but didnt really feel much different. My goal is to put my maximum effort in this lift without cheating and it seems hard to achieve both. Do you pause for a second or more at the top of the row? Do you do slow negatives? This is confusing the shit out of me.

Also, I am getting stronger in my calf raises, but it seems that 1 leg calf raises are hard to control without cheating, is there an alternative calf raise you use. I suppose if I had a leg press machine, it would place the best stress on the calves, but I dont so IDK what to do. I could maybe try standing calf raises with a barbell in a squat rack with a 4 inch box to stand on. Thanks for all the help.

[HIT_it_RAW]

Good workout man. Nice to hear you’re stronger than ever. Judging by the rapid progress your making you are gonna be much stronger than this! Your quads may be weak(ish) but don’t forget that you did the partials direct after the regular squats. You’ll get stronger on them fast. Yeah I know it’s a weird exercise. I would prefer leg presses but since you don’t have one the partial squats are the best substitute.

Bent over rows are tricky to do right. I hardly ever do BOR’s nowadays since I have a pullover machine available. The pullover combined wit chinning movements is all I need for my back. You could substitute the bor’r with dumbbell pullover on a decline bench(head lower than feet). You could do a pullover-chins superset. The pullover pre exhaust the lats. In the chin you normally fail when the weakest muscle, the biceps, fails. With pre exhausted lats you will come very close to failing on the lats on your chins. Zero rest between the 2 exercises. If you do you would have to change the order or you workout a bit since dips after overhead presses doesn’t work. Like this.

Full ATG squat
partial squat
1 leg calf raise
Overhead Press
Dumbbell pullover
Chins
Real Ring Dips
Deadlift

Two legged calf raises like you describe are a good calf exercise. But also hard to control especisially if you do them after your squats. See what work for you man.

[pioneer]

You are right about bent over rows but the problem is, it is a great multi joint compound lift and it is a very natural movement. Do you know Brooks Kubic? He's an intelligent powerlifter and strength trainer. I listened to a whole lecture by him on the importance of the back because it is the strongest muscle other than legs. He claims that any exercise with the feet on the ground while using the back, like rows is the most natural of movements and allows one to generate the most force and work many muscle groups.

My problem is I just dont know how to row without momentum. I saw that some people let the bar touch the ground with every rep, making it harder to use momentum. I may try this with my next workout. You are right on target with switching up the order of my exercises man. I am now stagnant on chins, getting only 7 reps each workout and its been about 3 weeks straight of this with very little progress. Do you think that cycling rows/pullovers before and after chins is a good way to make my chins/ back stronger. In other words, if I did either rows or pullovers before chins for a while, then switched back to chins before pullovers, wouldnt I get stronger this way. I used to do stuff like this in the past. I would place squats at the end of my workout if I wanted to get stronger in them. I would prefatigue my legs, then squat at the end. After a month or two I would go back to squatting first in my workout and I would gain a significant amount of strength.

I feel that this program works, but when there are plateaus, one may need to just change the order of the exercises to get results again. My squats are getting stronger every week with ease so I would not put them at the end of my workout til I started to plateau in them. Any thoughts???

[HIT_it_RAW]

if you decide to do pullovers than you should change the program to the above mentioned order. pullover are an isolation movement for the lats. If you do them prior to chins you get an pre exhaust cyle. very effective. if you do rows than the exercise order should not change because doing 2 compound movements for the same muscles directly after each other is counter productive. it ruins performance on the second exercise. in that case it is better to leave the order as it was to alter muscle groups. like pull(chins) push(standing press) pull(rows) push(dips). Id say stick with the program as it was or change to the above. no need to change it for other reasons. your doing great on it!

you could do your original program one week and the above described one the other that gives you a bit of variation. though i dont think it is neccecary to prevent plataus. a good desinged well rounded full body workout may serve you a lifetime!

[SkinnyDevil]

Monday:

3 rounds Total Gym
light weight
tabata:
   stair sprints
   sit-ups
   squats
one round heavy bag

Exactly 30 minutes!

[SkinnyDevil]

Tuesday...quickie:

50 pull-ups
50 chin-ups
200 squats
400 calf raises

[SkinnyDevil]

Thurssday:

TG warm-up
light weight (total body)
tabata:
   stair sprints
   calf raises
   stair sprints

Friday:

TG warm-up
150 push-ups
200 squats
400 sit-ups
3 rounds heavy bag

[SkinnyDevil]

Monday:

TG warm-up
light weight (full body)
150 push-ups
300 sit-ups
400 calf raises

[SkinnyDevil]

Tuesday:

50 pull-ups
50 chin-ups
200 squats
300 sit-ups
tabata:
   stair sprints
   sit-ups
   stair sprints
3 rounds heavy bag

[pioneer]

Wednesday:

Squat ATG:      305lbs x 9
Partial Squat:   315lbs x 4
calf raises:       70 lbs x  8
Chin ups:         80 lbs x  6
Press:              120lbs x 8
Strict row:        165lbs x 8
ring dips:           45lbs x 8
Deadlift:           325lbs x 3


Another killer workout. Went up on squats, and the overhead press. HIT IT RAW, you were soooo right about the overhead press. I pressed 120 for 8 no problem. Back to 125 next week, hopefully get 8 or close. I am so happy for this cuz Ive never been this strong in the press.

Ring dips and chin ups are stagnant. Maybe need to lower the weight and work up, or just keep trying for a couple more weeks.

Workout duration= 37 minutes. Way too long, but I was talking too much.

[HIT_it_RAW]

strong workout! yeah just keep trying. if you dont get stronger on the chins next workout you could take it down to 75 see what happens. you only just started doing real ring dips so give it a few workouts.

[SkinnyDevil]

Thursday:

50 pull-ups
50 chin-ups
200 squats
500 calf raises
light weight tabata stair sprints

[blimpie]

Thursday:

500 calf raises

If you were a farmer, I'd be so impressed right now. 

[wodgina]

Smashed the dead lift this week, I would say my form was bad ha!

I'm starting squats now to improve my deadlift. I'm rapidly chasing down 2.5 BW in the deadlift.

Went for a hard run and paddle this morning. I could feel the extra muscle weight around my hips/butt it's weird to run with a different body.

[p0wer]

Upper body today:

Code: [Select]

                     time rest
pullover         27kg 68s 21s
pulldown         60kg 66s 31s
flyes            30kg 78s 18s
chest press      45kg 60s 27s
side rises       20kg 66s 20s
seated row       50kg 70s 150s (had to wait for another guy for the press)
overhead press   25kg 75s 24s
deadlift         70kg 48s      (bodyweight, 3x)
All to complete failure, except the deadlift, I was doing it pretty much for the first time and didn't want to push it (and was already very close to throwing up ).
Pullover I'm kinda simulating on a triceps machine, turned with the back towards the machine. Besides the lats it especially hits the abs too.
Total time 14'10''

[SkinnyDevil]

If you were a farmer, I'd be so impressed right now. 

Hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

[blimpie]

Upper body today:

Code: [Select]

                     time rest
pullover         27kg 68s 21s
pulldown         60kg 66s 31s
flyes            30kg 78s 18s
chest press      45kg 60s 27s
side rises       20kg 66s 20s
seated row       50kg 70s 150s (had to wait for another guy for the press)
overhead press   25kg 75s 24s
deadlift         70kg 48s      (bodyweight, 3x)
All to complete failure, except the deadlift, I was doing it pretty much for the first time and didn't want to push it (and was already very close to throwing up ).
Pullover I'm kinda simulating on a triceps machine, turned with the back towards the machine. Besides the lats it especially hits the abs too.
Total time 14'10''

There's no quicker way to not impress an American then to list your weight lifting stats in metrics.   

[HIT_it_RAW]

There's no quicker way to not impress an American then to list your weight lifting stats in metrics.   

no but the rest of the world will get it...

[blimpie]

When being American stinks..... We can screw up the rest of the world with ease, but we can't read your measurements.