My Current Routine

Monday

Squat
5 x 5

Bench
3 x 5
2 x 6 (90% of the weight I used for the 3 x 5 sets)
1 x 8 (80% of the weight I used for the 3 x 5 sets)

Assistance work:

Barbell Row
5 x 5

DB Curls
Adductor Machine


Tuesday

Assistance work:

Power Cleans
singles, still need to nail the technique, I'm getting there

Dips
Three week cycle;
in week 1: work up to 3 x 8
in week 2: work up to a top set of 5
in week 3: work up to a top set of 3
The cycle is good because it allows me to get strong in different rep ranges. If you're just starting out with weighted dips better to stick to 3x5 first until that stops working. I'll explain the cycle in more detail at the end of the post.


Wednesday

Light Front Squat (80% of the 5x5 squat weight on Monday)
3 x 3

Incline Bench Press
Might be with a barbell or dumbbells, depends how I feel, the point is to keep it light

Pull-ups
Three week cycle;
in week 1: work up to 3 x 8
in week 2: work up to a top set of 5
in week 3: work up to a top set of 3
The cycle is good because it allows me to get strong in different rep ranges. If you're just starting out with weighted pull-ups better to stick to 3x5 first until that stops working.


Friday

Squat
1 x 3

Press
6 x 3

Deadlift
2 x 4
2 x 5 (90% of the weight I used on the 2 x 4 sets)
2 x 6 (80% of the weight I used on the 2 x 4 sets)


Saturday

Conditioning (not too intense, but enough to maintain a good level of conditioning for general health)


There isn't really a right or wrong when making a routine, however its the principles behind the program which make it effective.

• Are the staple movements the main compound lifts (squat, bench, press, deadlift)?
• Does it aim to make you stronger?
• Is there enough volume?
• Is the workload stressful enough? Can you recover from it?
• Will it help you achieve your goals?
• Is it easy to modify if an aspect of it does not work well for you?

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Why is Monday's squat 5x5, Wednesday's squat light and Friday's squat 1 x 3?

It's based on a template known as the Texas Method which is an intermediate program. Monday is your volume day (5x5), Wednesday is your light day and Friday is your Intensity day (you start out with 1 x 5 but I've exhausted that so I'm doing 1 x 3 now). The point is to handle a medium weight on Monday that is stressful enough (that you can still recover from it) and be able to handle heavy weights on Friday. For example last week I squatted 147.5kg for 5 x 5 on Monday and 185kg x 3 on Friday. The light day on Wednesday gives you a mental and physical break, and should leave you feeling refreshed and ready for Friday's Intensity day session. It's a good way of training if SL5x5 or Starting Strength doesn't work for you anymore, because you can no longer recover from squatting heavy every session (because the weights stress your body too much). You will need to experiment as to how much volume on Monday is enough however. A good way to treat Monday's session is to keep the weight the same for three weeks before increasing the weight. This ensures that volume day doesn't get too demanding too quickly.

Why do you only bench and press once a week?

If I followed the Texas method for the pressing movements also, it would go:

Week 1:

Monday
Bench 5 x 5

Wednesday
Light Press

Friday
Bench 1 x 5

Week 2:

Monday
Press 5 x 5

Wednesday
Light Bench

Friday Press 1 x 5

I don't like the idea of only benching or pressing heavy every 2 weeks since it alternates in the Texas Method. And I respond well to volume anyway so the way I've set it up should work well for me. Bare in mind I'm also doing dips and the light incline bench, so I'm really doing a press movement 4 times a week.

Why so many sets for the deadlift?

I've reached a stage where that's simply how much volume I need in order to make progress. 1 x 5 like in SL5x5 or Starting Strength just wasn't enough anymore. The higher volume is awesome, my back is dense as hell now and more muscular.

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The three week cycle:

Week 1:

25% x 8
45% x 8
55% 3 x 8

Week 2:

25% x 5
50% x 5
60% x 5
70% x 5
80% x 5

Week 3:

25% x 5
50% x 5
75% x 3
90% x 3
100% x 3

Basically you pick a weight you want to hit for 3 reps in the third week, then back-calculate all the other weights. You might aim too high the first time but after doing 1 cycle you'll know how to pick a suitable number. You should only train this way if you can do pullups with 40kg or do dips with 40kg strapped on, its a good way to keep making progress as well as get strong in different rep ranges.

Recent Lifting 11/5/12 and Other Thoughts

Felt like crap going into the gym today, good thing I didn't listen to my body.

Squat 185kg x 3



Deadlift 210kg x 1



Deadlift 220kg x 1




No PRs on the bench press or overhead press at the moment since I'm coming out of a deload for both lifts.

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Its frustrating how misguided people are about training these days. To people getting stronger and getting bigger seem to be like two totally different things nowadays. Before steroids, bodybuilders were strong. To get bigger you had to get stronger, and to get stronger you had to get bigger. They come hand in hand, they're not as mutually exclusive as people these days seem to think. The legendary Reg Park (Arnold's mentor) was very strong, with a 500lb bench press; 600lb squat; 700lb deadlift and a 315-pound behind neck press.

Reg Park was strong and certainly looked strong too

He may not look as impressive as modern day bodybuilders and that's because of steroids. Steroids push the capabilities of man. These days that's what it takes to be the best. That being said, even the best modern bodybuilders like Ronnie Coleman were strong.

If like me you don't plan to take steroids, then if you want to build muscle you gotta get stronger. Even if you're training in a different rep range say 8-10 reps, you're still aiming to increase the weight you can handle for that many reps so in that sense you're still getting stronger. I think I've written about it enough times in my previous posts about why lower reps are better for newer lifters though so I won't talk about it here. As you get more experienced you can train in the higher rep range for your assistance exercises, but you should still focus on getting stronger on the main lifts.

If you think its possible to get huge naturally without getting stronger and eating more, you're living in a dream world I'm afraid, and no one can help you. Doesn't matter what supplements you take.

On an unrelated note, some people try to relate to how I train, talking to me about protein supplements and shit. I should clarify that I do not train for bodybuilding. Aesthetics is not the only goal, I simply train to be awesome and look awesome while doing it. I don't think I'll ever think I'm awesome though which is good because it means I'll always be pushing myself. Like Bruce Lee says, 'be happy, but never satisfied'.

My Recent Experience on Linear Progression

Here's a brief write-up about my recent experience on linear progression (bench press alternating with the press every session, and increasing the weight each time you bench or press the next session). I switched to a weekly routine too early for my bench press and press and they didn't make significant progress. After a while of messing around trying to figure out what was wrong, I realised the answer was simple, to go back to linear progression and milk out those gains properly. My bench press and press were going nowhere with the training methods I was using at the time so going back to basics worked out pretty well for me. If you're not following, basically I did Starting Strength for the bench press and press, using 3x5 (3 sets of 5 reps) for the bench and 5x3 (5 sets of 3 reps) for the press.

When did I start LP: 28/11/12

Stats before:
Bodyweight: 77kg (28/10/12)
Bench press: 90kg x 4
Press:60kg x 3
Dips: B.W + 43.75kg x 1 (not as deep as possible, just below parallel)

Stats after:
Bodyweight: 80-81kg (15/4/12)
Bench press: 96kg 5,5,4 (14/3/12), with one deload. 110kg x 1 (actually tested this)
Press: 70kg 5 x 3 (13/4/12) with one deload. 77.5kg x 1 (actually tested this)
Dips: B.W + 45kg x 3 (as deep as possible) (21/4/12), doing more volume on dips too

So I did 3x5 for bench press, with a grip wide enough where my forearms were perpendicular to the floor. I did 5x3 for the press, with a grip just outside the shoulders. I originally started out using touch-n-go for the press. The reason for this was it helped to teach me to press in a vertical path. My technique sucked before because my grip was too wide, and the bar would travel in too curved of a path.

My bench press stalled at around 92.5kg, deloaded and worked my way back up to 96kg for 5,5,4 before stalling again.

My press eventually stalled at 67.5kg. The reps got really hard because I couldn't get decent breaths in when I held the bar at the top, so when I deloaded I switched to dead stop. It worked out to be better for me (much easier to breathe), and I got my press to 70kg 5 x 3, I stalled at 71kg 5 x 2.

My bench press and press also started interfering with each other. When I benched on Monday, my press on Wednesday sucked, and by the time it came to press next Monday it went a lot better.

When I found that the improvement of my bench press after deloading was not significant, I decided LP was finished for it. I decided I would focus on my press for the time being, and switch from regular bench press to close grip bench press for the time being. My press stalled at 71kg, and similarly to the bench press, the improvement was not significant after deloading, so I decided that LP was finished for the press too.





I plan to now begin weekly programming for the bench press and press (increasing the weight on a weekly basis to give my body more time to recover), since LP no longer works for me now (which is good).

In terms of my physique, my shoulders, arms and chest got bigger. My back and traps also got bigger due to deadlifts, heavy pull-ups and rowing. My legs (and probably glutes) got bigger from squats. Bodyfat levels stayed pretty constant. During this time my diet and sleeping patterns were also very consistent (today diet is still consistent, sleep slightly less consistent due to university and work).

http://img152.images...omparisondr.jpg

What did I learn:

• fix up technique first before experimenting with assistance exercises. My bench press grip width was too wide, when I narrowed it slightly I was able to recruit my triceps more effectively. Same for my press.
• Keep your programming as simple as possible for as long as you can. People have been training for decades, no need to reinvent the wheel and do weird rep ranges. Keep everything in perspective. If you're bench is 100kg, you are not advanced. No point doing advanced routines if you're not ready for it. You're a novice for longer than you think.
• Dynamic effort is pointless for beginners. If you can't even bench like 150kg don't bother with dynamic effort.
• Volume is important. Gotta get in enough work to stress your body to adapt. Madcow for the presses is shit if you're naturally a bad presser, the ramped sets are not enough volume.
• If you're naturally a bad presser, get your triceps as strong as possible. Do heavy ass weighted dips. If you can't do that other options include lying tricep extensions, push press or incline bench. Just make sure you're hammering your triceps and forcing them to grow.
• You're a beginner for longer than you think. Let your ability to recover from your training sessions dictate your programming. If you can bench heavy and then bench with a heavier weight again 4 days later, you're a novice. Don't listen to strength standards that might say your bench is intermediate or whatever. Listen to your body.

To those intensity junkies who work up to 1 top set, the top set only feels 'tiring' because you had to get mentally prepared for the set. Don't interpret stalling from training this way as overtraining, interpret it as undertraining. You cannot overtrain if you're benching 100kg and pressing 70kg. I stuck with 1x5 for my deadlift for 2 years, eventually I plateaued (stalled then deloaded and worked my way back up to pretty much the same weight, no improvement). Once I added in more sets my deadlift got moving again. Volume is important.

Recent Lifting 27/4/12

Squat 180kg x 3



Took me a while to nail this. The first three attempts I only got 2 reps during the past weeks, then I deloaded to give myself a mental break which seemed to do the trick, finally got three reps today.

Deadlift 205kg x 4



I did a second set but only got 3 reps the second time :( Will try again


I trained at PTC Sydney today, best gym I've ever been to. Has everything you could possibly need, plus a friendly environment, supportive of heavy lifting. Definitely recommend this gym to anyone serious about their training.

Recent Lifting

Squat 177.5kg x 3



Deadlift 202.5kg  2 x 4 (only one set shown in the video)



Press 70kg 5 x 3 (only one set shown in the video), done on another day

Females Should Train Too

Women are entitled to staying healthy just as much as men. Just because you have breasts and a vagina doesn't mean you need to train differently. Don't use your gender as an excuse to do jack-all in the gym, spending an hour on machines whilst checking in to Facebook to show off to your friends where you are.

Women who train are hot. Observe:



Pretty sure most women would be happy to have a physique comparable to her's. And that kind of physique is definitely possible to achieve through training hard. Sorry but you're going to have to ditch the stair master. Only through training hard will you get results. If you haven't read some of my previous posts, I said getting massive and bulky is impossible for women unless they take steroids because their body does not produce enough testosterone naturally.

By the way her technique was a bit flawed because she failed to set her lower back at the start, making it really hard to lock the weight out on the top.

If your other half is strongly opposed to you training and being awesome, he's probably afraid that you'll make him look bad. Half the guys I see at the gym can't even deadlift as much as this girl which is sad:



I'll be honest, females are at a slight disadvantage when they first start training. Their upper bodies tend to be weaker. It is common for many to not even be able to overhead press or bench press using the empty 20kg barbell.

Here's a simple routine females can do:

Session A:

Barbell Squat 5x5

Dumbell Incline Bench Press 5x5

Barbell Deadlift 1 x 5

Lat Pull-Downs 3 x 8

Session B:

Barbell Squat 5x5

Dumbell Incline Bench Press 5x5

Dumbell Rows 5 x 5

Push Ups 3 x 10

*Note* The work sets are listed, the warm-up sets are not included but yes you should warm up.

The program is simple as hell, which is why it will work. Better to get good on a few exercises than be average on a million exercises. Now I will explain it. First you have the squat. Any serious training routine has the squat in it, it's the best exercise for you hands down. It'll build a nice ass on you which should be enough incentive for females to do it.


Note the dumbell incline bench press. This exercise trains the same muscle groups as the flat bench press and the overhead press (pecs, shoulders and triceps), it's the exercise in between these two. This is just to keep things simple for female beginners since learning the squat is enough of a handful at the start. It can be harder to motivate female beginners so it's better to keep things as simple as possible at the start. The idea for the incline bench press for female beginners comes from Paul Carter of Lift-Run-Bang so he gets the credit for this. Increase the weight when you can get all the reps. Once you can do 10kg in each hand, try switching to an empty 20kg barbell. You will need a spotter to help you with unracking/racking the bar, but make sure they don't touch the bar during your set unless you get stuck.

Deadlifts are in there because they're great for strengthening your back. People don't stress enough how important it is to have a strong back.

You want a strong back so you don't end up like this when you're old

The lat pull-downs and push ups are extra assistance exercises, but you should still aim to get them done. I don't see too many girls who are able to do push ups. Do them on your knees if you have to but try to gradually transition into doing them on your feet. Make sure you don't flare your elbows out to the sides, keep them tucked in. This video shows the push up being demonstrated pretty well.

The above program caters for females who have a lack in upper body strength. Once this is no longer an issue, they should go on to follow the standard routines which have harder upper body exercises such as the overhead press, bench press and pull-ups. When following the above program, every now and then you should try to do a pull-up just to see where you're at.

Now to conclude this post with photos of women training:

Might take some time but you'll eventually be able to press weight overhead if you keep at it.

Deadlifts are awesome

Stop Deadlifting Like An Idiot

The deadlift is surprisingly a commonly misunderstood exercise in most commercial gyms, despite being one of the most simple exercises to learn. I've seen more people perform the deadlift incorrectly than those who actually do it right.

Here are a few ways I've seen people deadlift incorrectly (the bold text in the next paragraphs are what people are doing wrong):

Deadlifting the first rep as normal (with the bar starting from the floor), but for the subsequent reps not lowering the bar to the ground. Your body only gets good at what you subject it to, so if you're just doing partial reps like that, you're going to be weak off the floor. How to correct this? Start each rep from the floor.

Why do people deadlift this way? My guess is they want to do Romanian Deadlifts, which are a variant of the standard deadlift so that they can target their posterior chain more. The difference with RDLs and standard deadlifts is that the legs are more extended (but the knees are still slightly bent) and not everyone can bring the bar back down to the ground.

Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) were actually invented by an Olympic weightlifter, Nicu Vlad. Guess how Olympic weightlifters train? They do the clean and jerk, and the snatch which both involve pulling the bar from the ground. So even if they use the RDL, they're still doing other lifts which involve starting from the floor. The RDL is just an assistance exercise and should not replace actual pulling from the floor.

Are Romanian Deadlifts for you? Probably not. Stick to the basic lifts and after a while if you see weaknesses in your hamstrings then you can make a judgement call whether or not to use RDLs, but leave that for when the time comes (and that will be a long time away).

Deadlifting for high reps, say in the 12-20 rep range. You're never going to get strong on the deadlift if you do such high reps. Your back and hamstrings will stay puny and weak. Who do you think is going to have a stronger back? The guy deadlifting 100kg for 20 reps or the guy deadlifting 200kg for 5 reps? If you have to think about that, you really don't know anything about training I'm afraid. I've seen guys in the gym with impressive upper bodies but pathetic stick legs because they don't squat or deadlift properly.

Your body responds to stress, whatever stresses your body more will cause more of an adaptation in your body. Sticking to sets of 5 reps is plenty of work for a beginner. As you adapt to a higher workload (after say a year or more of training) you can add in some backoff sets (sets of higher reps done at a lighter load) for extra volume.

Using straps. Grip strength is important, because if your hands are weak, you won't even be able to grip the bar hard enough to deadlift it off the ground. Straps should only be used on exercises where you are handling much heavier loads than the deadlift, such as in exercises like shrugs and rack pulls, but these are for more advanced lifters so don't worry about it for now.

Grip the bar as hard as you can so that you can see your knuckles; do this for every exercise. Stick to the double overhand grip for as long as possible on the deadlift, and once that grip starts failing switch to using mixed grip (for the top sets only). Once that fails start using chalk.

If you have a weak grip, hold the bar at the top at the end of each set and count to 10 seconds. Your deadlift might take a slight hit for a while because of this, but if you have weak hands you need to work on that for now.

Shrugging the bar at the top. This one isn't as common but I still see people do it. The traps already get enough stress from being involved isometrically in the deadlift. And if you don't have any traps, that's probably because your deadlift is pathetic. Get strong on the deadlift and your traps will grow. If you want more trap work do some power cleans and snatches too.

Lowering the bar slowly during the eccentric phase. This is the area which annoys the hell out of me like nothing else. I don't care what the personal trainers say about lowering the bar slowly. How many personal trainers have you seen deadlifting heavy anyway? Don't forget the bro's as well. They will undermine your deadlift because 'you're dropping the bar'.

Firstly, fuck you I'm not dropping the bar I'm lowering it. Secondly, you cannot lower a heavy weight slowly. There is absolutely no point. It will do more harm than good. An exercise where you might lower the weight more slowly would be RDLs but the weight you're using would be lighter.

The point of the deadlift is the concentric phase, the portion of the lift where you lift the bar off the ground. There is no stretch reflex in the deadlift, which is why the eccentric phase of the lift is not important, and also the reason why deadlifts are tough. You're just pulling the weight from the floor using brute strength.

When lowering the bar, it's just the reverse of lifting the deadlift. Shoot the hips back so the bar clears the knees before landing on the ground. If the bar has to literally go around your knees when you lower the bar, you're doing it wrong, shoot the hips back more.

Here's me deadlifting 200kg for 4 reps, you don't see me lowering the bar slowly. It sounds loud because the plates I'm using aren't bumper plates. The sound of the bar landing on the ground is not nearly as loud when using bumper plates. The loud sound is probably the reason why people think you're dropping the bar. Or maybe they just don't like being reminded that they're weak.



If you're still skeptical, watch some other badasses deadlifting heavy ass weights way heavier than me:






Abusing the use of touch and go. First off this is what a touch and go deadlift looks like. Basically you perform the first rep as normal, then afterwards you lower the bar in a controlled manner (but not too slow) to get a stretch reflex and 'bounce' the bar off the floor. I know I said there's no stretch reflex in the deadlift but if you do it this way there is. I'm guessing this makes the subsequent reps easier due to the stretch reflex. I don't have much experience with this technique.

Now what I mean by abusing the use of touch and go is when people don't lower the bar in a controlled manner, but let the bar drop quickly so that the bar literally bounces off the floor, and they use this to their advantage to lift the next rep. This is bad because it becomes more likely for the lifter to lose tightness in their back, and they can end up pulling with a rounded back this way. Also, the bouncing is cheating. This is why I prefer doing each rep from a dead stop because you can't cheat that way.

Deadlift with bent arms. You risk the chance of tearing a bicep if you deadlift with bent arms. The tear occurs when the heavy weight forces your arms to straighten out. Despite the deadlift being a pull from the ground, you should not actually be using your arms to pull. Visualise your arms as simply being hooks which support the weight. Make sure your arms are fully extended before initiating the deadlift.

Not engaging the legs properly. Here's an extreme example. The legs extend too early in the lift which means the back has to do all the work. This puts more strain on your back and also limits how much weight you can handle. You can prevent this mistake from happening by not attempting to yank the bar off the ground. Think about pushing your feet into the ground when you start the lift. Don't think about pulling with your back at all.


I hope this post was enlightening and useful, now go out there and deadlift some heavy ass weights (properly)!

Badass. 'nuff said.