HDHITman's Current Training program and Journal

Hi Daron, how are you?

I thought I'd give you some of my own feeble thoughts as you actually bother to post your training journals after each workout, and as it seems it's just you and I at the moment I offer my ideas upon briefly looking at your journals.

Obviously you've come to the conclusion that a lay off is needed, and I applaud this.
If I'm correct I believe you're training every three days?

If this is the case I would offer that to me that frequency schedule seems too great, especially considering the types of exercises you are dealing with (i.e, frequent use of the squat and deadlift).

Now everyone is not created equal when it comes to recovery ability. I certainly am on the lower rung of this physical and genetical trait. I have an overactive immune system and problems of the digestive tract that required surgery 14 years ago. Those problems are directly related to the immune system problems. All this means my recovery ability is a very fragile thing indeed. It's because of this weakness that I took up HIT, as I was not progressing, and was waking up ill every day. I knew I was overtraining.

As it stands today, I work to 3 cycles of training, chest and back, legs, shoulders and arms( I'm still in the air about what to do with the 4th week but I know that returning to chest and back again is not ideal as the overlap between the arms and shoulders, and even upper back between those two workouts is too great. I'm thinking of using the 4th week as an ab routine to ensure all the muscles of the limbs have recovered and the joints and tendons are rested.)

Now the point to me saying all this is at present I train once a week.
I train one body group and then exactly one week later I train the next body group. So one body group gets trained once a month. I'm training with as much intensity as I can muster, and am still always working with significantly heavier negatives at each workout.
This is the reason why I train but once a week. I absolutely do not have the recovery to train HIT anymore than once a week and this I know for a fact.
I trained in this fashion for I think approximately 15 weeks until the cumulative effects of the workouts hit me. And to be brutally honest I could feel it building and was probably ready for extra rest at least 3 weeks, maybe 4 before that. So on top of my usual week off between workouts I took another whole week off. I returned and have taken to 2 workouts( one a week) since then.
Already I feel like I need more rest. It's not because my strength has gone down or the workouts are poor. My strength continues to climb which is great. But it's an overall systemic feeling. All the responsibilities in my life are quite difficult at the moment, I'm tired a lot, my body is just starting to hurt more now which it really wasn't until the last 3 or weeks.
I know that the intensity of the workouts is so much now that one week still isn't adequate, and I should be taking more time off.
Now, I would have taken care of this already except I can only have my training partner once a week on that same day so I'm trying to see what I can come up with as I won't train without a partner, I just don't feel like I can generate as much intensity as I would wish by myself( i.e the heavier negatives).

I have gone into a little depth there to show how I train for your consideration. I'm training significantly less than you in regards to frequency and I all already feel I am not allowing sufficient recovery time.

I think it could maybe be a fair thing to consider that training every 3 days is perhaps too much for you, and maybe it's only truly forced you to take notice of it now. But if you were honest with yourself, and really pondered your workouts for say the last month I dare say you were already given signals by your body and were already contemplating a lay off weeks ago?

My opinion would be take at least 21 days off as opposed to 11.

Re structure your workouts.

Another opinion I have is that your forearms and fingers are being overworked. If I was training like you I would insert their work on the squat day and leave them alone on the other workouts. I mean, your grip and forearms get blitzed on the deadlift day, and still worked very hard on the dipping day( you have to clutch the handles and squeeze very hard to lower yourself slowly and then push back up to the top. Plus your doing bentover rows aswell which again will work the grip very hard. You should only need to work grip as a specific only once.

If it were me and getting to the gym isn't really a problem I would start training every 9 days. I would drop the barbell rows because your concentrating on deadlifting pretty hard. Keep the lat pulldowns as your alternate back exercise assuming you would prefer them to chins.



I would train like this.

Workout 1: Deadlifts and dips rest 7 to 9 days depending on how many warm up sets of deadlifts you are going to perform.
In my opinion you should dead a weight for 12 reps, increase the weight appreciably and do 5 reps, then increase again and perform 2 reps, then keep putting the weight up at your own discretion and do just 1 rep till you hit your working weight.
You'll be sufficiently warm but you won't be too taxed that you're unable to truly go for broke on your work set.
If you are capable of dealifting straight from the floor I would recommend doing that instead of starting from a rack around the knees. Your missing out on getting strong through the most powerful range which is breaking the dead weight from the floor.
The other thing that helped me was lowering the weight very slowly without breaking form until it hits the floor. Reset your grip and stand straight up, lowering as slow as you can till it gets back to the floor.
My dealifting was deplorable. I had to leave it for 2 years to leave my hip joints alone, and to let my nervous system forget the pathways being used to perform the deadlift how i was( which was all wrong!!!!!).
Returning the bar to the floor each time made my form get better, and especially lowering it to the floor as slow as I can definitely improved my form out of sight allowing me to increase the weights and lift with no pain in the hip joints.
The other thing you'll find is picking it up from the ground each time with as much weight as you can handle will start to take care of your posterior chain.
Lifting from just under the knees as the starting position is cutting your posterior chain out I would wager.
From this move straight to the dips and don't warm up for those. You'll be sufficiently warmed up from the deadlifts so warming up with lighter weights is eating into your intensity levels.

Workout 2: Stiff Leg Deadlifts( because you mentioned your posterior chain was letting you down.) move from the stiff leg straight to squats, 1 set of both.
I think you should be doing both those exercises in the 12 to 20 rep range. Legs just don't do that well in the lower rep ranges I feel and that's probably one reason why you're finding it hard to put the weight up more than 5 pounds at a time.
Stay on 270 and aim to get to 20 reps next workout. If you can already do 7 I suggest that reaching 20 next workout is completely achievable providing you rest long enough before you start straining again, and that you really push through the cardio pain, and the lactic. If you can hit 20 reps and don't train legs again for at least 3 weeks you should be able to do 290 next time for at least 12.
You're a big guy at 230 and should have big legs and hip joints so you will for sure be able to get this if you push. I'm like 157 and went from squating 100kg(220) for 20 reps to 115(253) for 17 and a half reps 3 or 4 weeks later squating like this.
Almost the same reps and 33lb's higher in weight and significantly above my own bodyweight. That was probably the 4th leg workout I've done since resuming 4 months ago. I started at 83kg(182), pretty great increases I think. At the moment I'm chasing the squat set immediately with leg presses. If you were training legs once every 3 weeks you could do this also and would stand to benefit a lot I think because the intensity will be greater.
Have a very small rest and perform 1 set of straight arm pulldowns followed immediately by 1 set of close grip underhand pulldowns. If you can have someone assist with pulling down the bar, add 40 to 50 pounds and let the bar raise back to the top as slow as you can manage.

I reckon you'd do well taking 3 weeks off. You've been training hard in close proximity, having to go to work each day, and dealing with the disturbances to your sleep from your baby teething. This is a great stress to your nervous system when you add in HIT.

When you say the results were poor does that mean everything stayed the same, or did weights and or reps go down from last workout?

How is your body feeling joints and tendons e.t.c?


Finally, you mentioned having poor flexibility in your hip joints and lower back?
Try something for me.
Get into a squat position but without any load across your back. Maintain your squat posture and proceed to squat down slowly under control as low as you can until your back starts to round, or if you also have poor flexibility in the ankles, until your heels come off the floor.

Now after doing this, return to the top, reset your position to go again, only this time raise your elbows to touch your ears, now descend slowly and under control. This should be quite difficult if you have poor flexibility in the hips and lower back. You will likely not get down near as far as what you did performing a standard air squat, and this would confirm your flexibility suspicions.

The good news is if you perform air squats like this every day very slowly, treating it as a lower back stretching exercise your hip mobility and lower back function for the squat will improve a lot. It worked for me and didn't take very long at all. A handful of times in fact and I find myself not needing to do it anymore.

Just some impartial thoughts for you to consider which I hope don't offend, I'm not at all trying to tell you your lifting business. Just providing some feedback to what I was able to take from your training journals.


Rest up, and rest up good, then have at it hard.

Best,

Trent

Trent,

I am good and wow logical, rational and large response to my journal and to be honest thanks for the time. Now I will do my best to explain things from my point of view since you really took the time to analyze my journal when sometimes I neglect to. So lets get started and I will do my best to justify my work.

My opinion would be take at least 21 days off as opposed to 11.

This could be a possibility since my training partner has been having knee trouble that he has already seen the doctor about and when he took two weeks off I should have done the same but I am stubborn.

Re structure your workouts.

I have done this as well by reducing alot of volume from many of the original routines in this log and have done some work to lower my rep ranges. After reading much of the writings of Brooks Kubik I am more reaffirmed in the idea of Jones, Mentzer, and Kubik are right that strength=mass. Two of the principles of HIT are the regulation of volume and frequency and I think they have a inverse relationship more volume=less frequency and vise versa I have trained and have gotten awesome results with training twice per week and 3x the volume I have now. I have also made gains training the Ideal Principled Routine 3x per week minus the 2nd leg day and gained 20lbs of LBM and lost 4.5lbs of FM in one month. I think Bill Sahli puts it best that you have to do your best just manage the stress of your workouts, I do this by now incorporating more carbs into my diet post workout on training days and trying to at least keep more active on non training with low intensity style activities to keep blood moving so they can remove toxins. Also through my current training I have found I recover better using the lower reps of 5-8 (upper body) 6-10 (lower body) and changing the deadlift to the 3-5 rep range for top sets. To be honest when I trained on the Ideal Principled Routine training every four days the soreness I would get was very painful, but found it was almost non existent when I starting training on it 3x per week. Plus I think my journal speaks for itself when training with the low volume allowed for many weeks of continued progress.

When you say the results were poor does that mean everything stayed the same, or did weights and or reps go down from last workout?

That means I made progress but not to what I expected. Training is very important to me and when I go balls to the wall and train with this kind of intensity I expect to make great progress everytime and I understand this wont happen to the extent I expect but that is what drives to be better than the time before.

How is your body feeling joints and tendons e.t.c?

Great, the best thing I have every done for myself was to return to heavy squatting and help strengthen my knees back up. Plus with the low volume I am using I can incorporate things for continued building of the strength in the joints, tendons, ligaments, and wrist/ankles even though the heavy training has done some of that for me. I have also incorporated foam roller into my weekly regime to help with recovery and tightness in the muscles of the low back this help me to deal with a low back muscle spasm caused by using a rep range that was to high for deadlifts and holding my son that is developing at an advanced rate and holding him is a low back killer. So may deadlift every other cycle instead of every cycle. I believe out of all exercises the deadlift is the most demanding of whole body that training to often can cause overtraining even elite powerlifters dont train the deadlift as often as I was.

Finally, you mentioned having poor flexibility in your hip joints and lower back?

A little stretching and foam rolling is going to help this and to answer your other question I can squat below parallel but usually dont go below the 70 degree knee angle. Also this was the case because I was tight in these areas so because before the foam roller, stretching was not in my program ever just full ROM work.

Also much of my problem with the squat and deadlift come from having a week core from not training it directly for a long time because I fell into the trap of believing that if you contracted the abs and low back on all your exercises that is all that you need and they will strengthen. That may be true for a pure bodybuilding routine but I am a powerbuilder using low reps and heavy weights and trying to stabilize those kinds of weight without core strength makes things difficult. So I have started training directly the abs and low back every session so I do a superset of an ab exercise and low back exercise to strengthen the area.

Also by no way did you offend me and I hope I did not offend you. So here is my explanation so feel free to comment, question or critique.

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

It sounds like you've got your plan. Good stuff.

It's worth doing that elbows to the ears thing to see how much your back tightens up as you try to squat down.

Here's what I think the key to taking a lay off is. Feel great about it. It's gonna reset your system. Don't despair that it's time missed training or it defeats the purpose of the lay off. That's stress. Mental anxiety caused by not being able to train and you'll carry it with you to the first workout back.

I'm with you on the deadlifting comments. 3 to 5 is the rep range I like to use for them too. Squats I definitely like to perform heavy in the 15 to 20 range.

The other thing on progress. You can't move a mountain every time. For me I count even 1/2 a rep increase as progress because it is. Most everything I do progresses far beyond 1/2 a rep at the same weight. But there are maybe 2 exercises where only a half rep increase is not uncommon. It just takes a few more workouts for those ones for the weight to increase. And the reason why they only increase half a rep is always because the weight on the isolation exercise before them increased significantly.
But progress is still progress and it means nothing has yet gone wrong with the programme. If a weight goes down then that's a cause for worry.

Enjoy your lay off, don't sweat it, and good luck for your return.

Trent

I'll join you on a 3 week vacation buddy. Hit a wall at training yesterday. I injured my sternum doing weighted chest dips. I was dipping with 32.5kg and rep'd out 5 really well and felt like I'd be good for 6. As I lowered myself on the 6th something went pop bad right in the centre of my upper chest. Right between both pecs.

Not cool. I'm having trouble with my left side contracting against the weight when I'm doing pressing aswell which is hindering all pressing exercises.

It's bound to catch up with you at some point. Feeling a bit bummed out

T Knuckles,

It may or may not I just try to be safe with every exercise I do and for chest dips I have found that if you do you best to warm up the rotator cuff with some external rotations and only descend into the bottom until you feel a stretch in your pecs before return to the top is the best and safest way to do them. On the other had if something like this happens I have back up exercises that I can go to mainly Incline and Decline Presses.

My suggestion after your lay-off while it heals is to switch to decline presses (this exercise almost has the exact same movement pattern to the chest dip) and add in one set of alternating cable crossovers starting with the weak side and either doing reps or a static hold in the contracted position to help the left side learn what is a proper contraction. The only thing it to make sure that when the left side fails on reps or time that the right side does the same reps or time not more. If you think about it your are trying to build the left side and if you take the right side past the left in the alternating crossovers you will continue to make the imbalance worse or in other words you are trying to strengthen the left side but maintain the right.

Hope this helps

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Hey Daron, thanks for your suggestions.

I'll give the declines a go when I return. I've really messed up the cartelidge and soft tissue in the centre of my chest.

Cable cross overs won't do because I can't bring my arms across my body. This squeezes the pecs together and hurts like blazers.

I don't like cross overs anyway. I prefer free weight movements.

I don't have a problem with the the pectorals contracting anyway.

I've had problems in my left scapula area for around ten years now. It's this problem in the back that's completely short circuiting the contraction of my left triceps, which is effecting all pressing movements, even triceps press downs.

I'm hoping I can find someone to help with this problem.

I see a lady who works on my body and she's offered some opinions that make sense. It's going to be an ongoing thing to try and get it better. It it may mean substituting exercises which is a pain. I felt very strong on those chest dips. I'm still surprised it happened at the top of the movement. But I realised I'd been getting crippled with hay fever that who week and must have sneezed 1000 times. I've had it so bad before I had a chest injury and it was in the same spot that I hurt doing the dips. I think all the sneezing that week stressed out the cartlidge, soft tissue, tendons e.t.c and it didn't appreciate the 32.5kg hanging from my hips.

Here's hoping I heal up ok.

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm going to give declines a try. And i'm going to do bench dips for triceps instead of bar dips.

Best,

Trent

T Knuckles

I am glad I could help.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

First off let me start by saying this is my first workout back from my 11 lay-off and I also tried Turpin's 3x3 warm-up protocol especially on Chest Dips.

Chest Dips:
Warm-ups
BWx5 to get blood flowing
BW+45x3
BW+55x3
BW+65x3 almost could not complete the 3 reps so I probably over did it.
Workset:
BW+55x5 down 1 rep but I believe that is do to over doing the 3rd warm-up (heavy)

Pendlay Rows:
Warm-Ups:
135x5
155x3
165x3
Workset:
180x8 increase weight next workout

Underhand Pulldowns
Warm-Ups:
140x3
150x3
160x3
Workset:
170x6

Pinch Gripping:
25x35sx25s

Abs
Cable Crunch w/resistance band BWx10x10x10
superset with
Hyperextensions w/resistance band BWx10x10x10

Overall a good workout but I think that I will return to my previous warm-up protocol that was working well for me based on the 5x5 method. Unless Turpin could shed some light on why I did so poorly or can the innervation of the CNS be possible by doing a 3x1 in the same fashion as his 3x3 warm-up.




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com

Deadlift
Warm-Ups:
135x5x2
380x1
390x1
400x1
Work Set:
390x3

Military Press
Warm-Ups:
95x5x2
145x1
150x1
155x1
Work Set:
150x5

DB Rows
Warm-Ups:
40x1
60x1
Work Set:
80x12

Grip-Forearm Work
Reverse Curls (on preacher bench) 40x6

Ab work
Hanging Leg Raises BWx10x10
superset with
Good Mornings 80x10x10

Overall a good workout still a few glitches to get worked out with my warm-up sequence but I am making progress and that is what counts in my book. Also starting on the next cycle of workouts I hope to try out a few things and see how they go but that will come only after I work out the glitches I had mentioned above.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome,



__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Squat:
Warm-Ups
135x5x2
185x5
225x1
250x1
Work Set:
275x6

Good Mornings:
Warm-Ups:
95x5x2
135x1
165x1
Work Set:
200x8

Dips (Triceps):
Warm-Ups:
BWx5x2
Work Set:
BW+30x10

EZ Bar Curls:
Warm-Ups:
20x5x2
40x5
Work Set:
70x7

Grip-Forearm Work:
Shrugs 70x15 (substituted for Farmer's Walks)

Ab Work:
Side Bends 40x10x10
superset with
Reverse Hypers BWx10x10

Overall a good workout and pleased with the numbers but the one thing I see is that I might possibly be a DB guy when it comes to biceps because I have always made better progress when employing them over BBs. Also starting Friday with the start of another cycle it will consist of a 2 to 1 pull to press ratio and a 2 to 1 hip/hamstring/glute/low back dominant to quad dominant ratio. Another change I will make is how often I train the deadlift since I believe it to be the most demanding of all exercise even more so then the squat and that means a quicker route to overtraining so below is my plan of attack for said lift. FYI: I change the sequence of workouts to also to help train the deadlift less often.

First will lay off the deadlift for this new cycle of workouts that starts Friday the will resume as follows:

Cycle 1:
Deadlift from the Floor

Cycle 2:
The Good Mornings (single joint movement that is similar to the top 2/3 to lockout) performed as part of my Squat workout should help maintain my deadlift(high carry over to the squat and deadlift)
will substitute shrugs in place of deadlift during workou 3

Cycle 3:
Perform Partial Deads with the bar resting 1 in below the knee as Bill recommends in HIPowerbuilding.

Cycle 4:
No deadlift(variation) or substitution at all. This week my deadlift numbers should be maintain by the squat and good mornings but will give the CNS a much needed break from the rigors of the deadlift Low back and core stability will be maintained throught the core work performed at the end of workouts

Cycle 5:
Repeat the above protocol

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome,




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Chest Dips
Warm-Ups:
BWx5
BW+25x5
Work Set (Heavy):
BW+55x6
Work Set (Light):
BW+25x5

BB Rows:
Warm-Ups:
135x5
155x3
Work Set (Heavy):
180x8
Work Set (Light):
155x8

Underhand Pulldown
Warm-Ups:
140x5
150x3
Work Set (Heavy):
170x6
Work Set (Light)
140x6


Grip-Forearm Work:
Pinch Gripping
Ab work
Cable Crunch
superset with
Hyperextensions

Overall a good workout still a few things I need to work out and tweak before I finalize the workouts. I could also be working toward a MFW schedule exactly as prescribed in HIPowerbuilding. That would give me more recovery and allow for a little bit of conditioning work to help with fat loss and aid even more with recovery. As you can see there is still some work to be done before I become completely satisfied with my workouts.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome,




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Squat:
Warm-Ups
135x5
185x5
Work Set(s)
250x6 NTF
250x6 NTF
250x6 TF (Heavy Set)
185x8 TF (Light Set)

Dips (Triceps):
Warm-Ups
BWx5
BW+20x5
Work Set(s)
BW+35x5 NTF
BW+35x5 NTF
BW+35x8 TF (Heavy) Increase weight next workout.
BWx6 TF (Light)

DB Hammer Curls:
Warm-Ups:
25x5
35x5
Work Set(s)
45x5 NTF
45x5 NTF
45x8 TF (Heavy) Increase weight next workout
25x15 TF (LIght) Increase weight next workout.

Grip-Forearm
Static DB Hold

Abs Work
Sit-ups on Decline Board 1x10
superset with
Hanging Leg Raises 1x10
superset with
Hyperextensions 1x10

Overall a good workout and pleased with the numbers that I posted. I am using a modified 5x5(upper body) or 5x6(Lower body) and Heavy/Light system(if you have questions on this I can explain in a separate post if people show an interest). This method should help with extra skill ability for each lift, help with myofibril and sacroplasmic hypertrophy, and help just to get extra reps on that lift. Also gives me reassurance that I own that weight by doing it this way and I hope to get some micro loads to help further progress faster without the drop in reps when you are only able to load in 5-10 increments. Just some of my thoughts and tweeks to my workouts.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome,


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

I did not perform deadlifts as this workout but did make up for it will extra back work after Military Presses.

Military Press
Warm-Ups:
95x5
115x5
Work Set(s):
135x5 NTF
135x5 NTF
135x5 to failure
95x7 to failure

V-Handle Pulldown
Warm-Ups:
120x5
140x5
Work Set(s):
160x5 NTF
160x5 NTF
160x6 to failure
120x8 to failure increase weight next workout

DB Rows
Warm-Ups:
40x5
50x5
Work Set:
70x8 to failure increase weight next workout
40x12 to failure increase weight next workout

DB Shrugs
Warm-Ups:
50x5
70x5
Work Set(s)
90x5 to failure
70x12 to failure

Ab work
Sit-ups on Decline Board 1x11
superset with
Hanging Leg Raises 1x11
superset with
Good Mornings
100x11

Overall a good workout and I am pleased with my numbers I think the extra back work really made up as a substitution for deadlifts in this workout. So far I am liking the modified Heavy/Light System that I am using to further my development and it helps to add some sacroplasmic hypertrophy to my already heavy myofibril hypertrophy program.

Comments, Questions and Critiques Welcome,


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Chest Dips (all weights are assumed to have BW included)
Warm-Ups:
BWx5
25x5
Work Set(s):
40x5 NTF
40x5 NTF
40x4 TF (Heavy)
20x5 TF (Light)

Bent-over Rows
Warm-Ups:
135x5
155x5
Work Set(s)
185x5 NTF
185x5 NTF
185x9 TF (Heavy) increase weight next workout
155x9 TF (Light) increase weight next workout

Underhand Pulldowns
Warm-Ups:
100x5
120x5
Work Set(s)
150x5 NTF
150x5 NTF
150x8 TF (Heavy) increase weight next workout
130x8 TF (Light) increase weight next workout

Overall a good workout with progression in poundages but dips are getting harder and harder to progress in poundage because I jumped up the poundage to high to fast possibly to going to lower the weight further and progress more slowly on all my exercises. Going to rely on 2.5lb, 5lbs, and small incriments by purchasing link of chain that are half and one lb sizes to progress slower.

Any advice would be appreciated but I do think my modified 5x5 and Heavy/Light is working out well so far on many exercises except current poundages were to heavy to start.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Squat
Warm-Ups:
135x6
165x6
195x6
225x6
Work Set(s)
250x7 Heavy
185x12 Light increase weight next workout

Tricep Dip
Warm-Ups:
BWx5
10x5
20x5
30x5
Work Set(s):
37.5x7 Heavy
BWx7 Light

Hammer Curls
Warm-Ups:
20x5
25x5
30x5
35x5
Work Set(s):
50x5 Heavy
35x8 Light increase weight next workout

Overall a decent workout and progress is progress currently spent Sunday night in the emergency room is a very disgusting rash or infection of some type on my right leg. I am thinking between this infection and the cold I am suffering is why this workout felt heavier then it should have been so hopefully I am going to take it easy the next workout and possibly increase the days between workouts to 4 instead of my current 3. So instead of Tuesday and Friday every week it would increase to Monday and Friday the first week and Wednesday the next week this is exactly from High Intensity Powerbuilding. Hopefully this will only help my problem with my recovery until these things heal or with the antibotics and such it could bring my recovery ability back to normal.

Comments, Questions, Critiques Welcome,




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Well everyone decided that I would skip the workout that I pushed to Wednesday so that I could take a week off before starting on my new workout split and training days.

I will start back my workouts on Monday, November 14th and will train on a MFW schedule has posted in the High Intensity Powerbuilding.

WO1:

Chest Dips
BB Rows
Military Press
Pulldowns (Underhand or V-Handle)

WO2:

Squat
Good Mornings
Seated or Standing Calf Raises

WO3:

Deadlift
Dips (Triceps)
Curls

This way I can add some extra Back, Leg, Ab and grip-forearm work when energy is at peak output. Also would give me extra recovery so that I can do some cardio for bodyfat loss.

I say extra back and leg work because those are the muscles that build a huge foundation and add muscle all over the body just by doing these exercises.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques are Welcome,

__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Chest Dips
Warm-Ups:
BWx5 20x5
Work Set(s):
40x5 NTF
40x5 NTF
40x5 TF (Heavy)
BWx5 TF (Light)

BB Rows
Warm-Ups:
Bar(45)x5
135x5
Work Set(s):
155x5 NTF
155x5 NTF
155x12 TF (Heavy) Increase weight next workout.
135x13 TF (Light) Increase weight next workout.

Military Press
Warm-Ups:
Bar(45)x5
95x5
Work Set(s):
120x5 NTF
120x5 NTF
120x6 TF (Heavy)
95x5 (Light)

Underhand Pulldown
Warm-Ups:
100x5
120x5
Work Set(s):
145x5 NTF
145x5 NTF
145x7 TF (Heavy)
120x8 TF (Light)

Overall a good workout and the first one back since my lay-off so that is the reason for the deload of weights on these upcoming workouts to build back up past previous bests. I am going to tweek a few things basically the warm-up protocol and the number of to failure set(s)(TF).

So my idea is to switch more to this:

1. 3 progressively heavier warm-ups
2. 1 set of 5-8 or 5-10 reps to failure with top weight
3. Rest long enough to reduce poundage
4. 1 additional set of 5-8 or 5-10 reps to failure

The above protocol will help to fix many of my issues with certain exercises that tend to be quick fatiguing and decrease in power output mainly chest dips and military presses. Also this is about the middle way of the very first protocol and I used and the current one I was using so it should work in theory very well.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Performed my normal workout but shortly after started I was feeling nauseas due to some food eaten at a company party that is not normally in my diet. So if basically drained my too much to even put very much effort into the workout. I did do the workout but numbers were not even worth recording.

Will be training Wednesday and guaranteeing a good workout not only for me but for this site and its members that follow my journal.
__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Deadlifts (Trap Bar)
Warm-Ups:
135x5
185x5
225x5
Work Set(s):
365x6 (Heavy) To Failure increase weight next workout
225x10 (Light) To Failure increase weight next workout

Tricep Dips
Warm-Ups: (BW is assumed included)
BWx5
10x5
20x5
Work Set(s):
37.5x8 (Heavy) To Failure increase weight next workout
BWx8 (Light) To Failure increase weight next workout

Hammer Curls
Warm-Ups:
25x5
30x5
35x5
Work Set(s)
50x6 (Heavy) To Failure
30x20 (Light) To Failure increase weight next workout

Overall very happy with this workout. I will say in my experience in this workout with the trap bar deadlift that it is superior IMO to the conventional deadlift. It was able to focus more on my leg, hips, and glutes for indirect leg training. It was also able to bring the weight more in line with my body allowing focused overload to the lats, midback, and lower back for a more well rounded stimulation of the back musculature. I have also decided to try in implement small weight jumps to keep reps somewhat constant workout to workout but keeping the resistance moving upward. My weight increased for upper body will be of 1-3 lbs once I exceed the top end of my rep range and for lower body including deadlifts will be of a 5-10 lbs increases as long as I can at which point may have to switch over to even smaller increases as the weights get more formidable .

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Chest Dips
Warm-Ups:
BWx5
15x5
30x5
Work Set(s):
40x7 (Heavy) TF
BWx7 (Light) TF

BB Rows
Warm-Ups:
Bar(45)x5
95x5
135x5
Work Set(s):
165x9 (Heavy) TF increase weight next workout
145x10 (Light) TF increase weight next workout

Press-Behind Neck
Warm-Ups:
Bar(45)x5
75x5
95x5
Work Set(s):
120x5 (Heavy) TF
95x5 (Light) TF

Underhand Pulldowns
Warm-Ups:
110x5
120x5
130x5
Work Set(s):
145x9 (Heavy) TF increase weight next workout
125x7 (Light) TF

Overall a good workout and please with my numbers. I have got tweaks the the program in place and my warm-up protocol down and just ready to make progress week to week. Also have decided on a loading parameter for how to increase weight on the upper and lower body exercises once my rep range is exceeded. That information is contained within my last post from yesterday detailing Wednesday's workout before Thanksgiving. Overall I have made a few more changes to my workouts but will detail them in later post after said workouts have been completed.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Squat
Warm-Ups:
Bar(45)X5
135x5
185x5
Work Set(s):
225x10 (Heavy, to failure) 225x10 increase weight next workout
135x20 (Light to failure) increase weight next workout

DB Shrugs (Trying to increase the area know as the shelf or yoke)
Warm-Ups:
70x5
80x5
90x5
Work Set(s):
100x8 (Heavy, to failure)
70x10 (Light, to failure)

Seated Calf Raises
Warm-Ups:
25x5
50x5
75x5
Work Set(s);
100x7 (Heavy, to failure)
55x10 (Light, to failure)

Overall a decent performance but still looking to perfect my squat in all aspects from foot positions, stance, and etc so will be doing tons of research before the next workout. All in all I am making progress and dialing things in so that goals are reached.




__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Starting Monday 12/12/11 I will be switching to the following routine and will continue with the Monday, Friday, and Wednesday training schedule.

WO1:
Chest Dips
BB Rows
Triceps Ext

WO2:
Squat
Seated Calf Raise
DB Hammer Curls

WO3:
Deadlift (Trap Bar)
Military Press or Press-Behind Neck
Underhand Pulldown

Warm-Up and Set Performance:
1st set of 10 reps with 50% of Estimated 1RM as warm-up #1
2nd set of 5 reps with 75% of Estimated 1RM as warm-up #2
3rd set of max reps with 90% of Estimated 1RM and heavy work set (Power)
4th set of max reps with 75% of Estimated 1RM and light work set (Hypertrophy)

Will be using increments of weight progression for upper body movement of 1-3lbs whenever I exceed the rep range of either the Power or Hypertrophy set.

Will be using increments of weight progression for lower body and deadlift of 5lbs whenever I exceed the rep range of either the Power or Hypertrophy set.

Will try to increase reps, weight, or both on the power and/or hypertrophy set every time a workout is repeated and everything will be logged in my training journal and posted here upon completion.

Will post my last workout of this cycle tomorrow before the above changes take effect on Monday's workout.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome

__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Trap Bar Deadlift
Warm-Ups
135x10
260x5
Work Set(s):
370x5 (Heavy) TF
260x12 (Light) TF increase weight next workout

Triceps Ext (Decline variation is heavy) (OH variation is light)
Warm-Ups:
20x10
40x5
Work Set(s):
90x5 (Heavy) TF Decline
40x15 (Light) TF Standing OH increase weight next workout

DB Hammer Curls
Warm-Ups:
25x10
35x5
Workset(s):
50x10 (Heavy) TF increase weight next workout
35x11 (Light) TF increase weight next workout

Overall a good workout and please with the progress and I hope the new workouts will give me even more than these have given me.

Also I had forgotten to mention new Estimated 1RMs with be refigured once the light (hypertrophy) set weight matches that of the original 90% Est 1RM of the heavy (power) set.

For example:

Here is what I figured my numbers to be for my set-up on Trap Bar Deadlifts

Estimated 1RM=432
90% of 1RM=390
75% of 1RM=325 When this number matches the number above it and I exceeded the rep range new Estimated 1RM with be figured. This way I can seriously own a weight because if I continue to make progress eventually I will be about to do many more reps with my previous PRs.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Chest Dips
Warm-Ups:
BW-70x10
BW+15x5
Work Set(s)
BW+55x5 (Weight here was off 10lbs to work out to 90% so will adjust next workout) (Heavy TF)
BW+15X6 (Light TF)

BB Rows
Warm-Ups:
105x10
160x5
Work Set(s):
195x10 (Heavy TF) increase weight next workout
160x14 (Light TF) increase weight next workout

Triceps Decline Ext
Warm-ups:
50x10
80x5
Work Set(s)
95x2 (Heavy TF)
80x4 (Light TF)

Overall I was very pleased with this workout the only caveat would be I should have dropped the direct arm work this week as I only did them only 4 days ago when I finish my previous split and cycle. Other than that I think I have found the proper volume and frequency for me to make gains in both size and strength. Now though it is time to get nutrition in check to lose this extra body fat with hopefully still being able to make the gains stated above. So I am on the right track to get big and strong in a short amount of time.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome


__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101

Squats
Warm-Ups:
150x10
225x5
Work Sets:
270x5 (Heavy, TF)
225x8 (Light, TF)

Seated Calf Raises
Warm-Ups:
60x10
90x5
Work Sets:
112.5x6 (Heavy, TF)
95x5 (Light, TF)

DB Hammer Curls
Warm-Ups:
35x10
50x5
Work Sets:
60x9 (Heavy,TF) increase weight next workout
50x12 (Light,TF) increase weight next workout

Overall a good workout and I have really starting to find my groove for squats for proper positioning, but have realized a bit of conditioning is in order to progress properly since I am a bit out of shape cardiovasculary. Once I get through this cycle of workouts after Wednesday's workout I will be including some neck, grip/forearm work, and ab work to my workouts to further my overall development.

Comments, Questions, and Critiques Welcome

__________________
Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman
www.superhumanradio.com
www.robbwolf.com - Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution
www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101