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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-11-01 13:00:34.

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MAKING A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT WITHOUT CREDENTIALS WILL EARN A 30-DAY BAN

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Welcome to the weekly installment of our Weakpoint Wednesday thread. This thread is a topic driven collective to fill the void that the more program oriented Tuesday thread has left. We will be covering a variety of topics that covers all of the strength and physique sports, as well as a few additional topics.

Today's topic of discussion: Chest (Aesthetics)

• What have you done to improve when you felt you were lagging?
• What worked?
• What not so much?
• Where are/were you stalling?
• What did you do to break the plateau?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

Notes

• If you're a beginner, or fairly low intermediate, these threads are meant to be more of a guide for later reference. While we value your involvement on the sub, we don't want to create a culture of the blind leading the blind. Use this as a place to ask questions of the more advanced lifters that post top-level comments.
• Any top level comment that does not provide credentials (preferably photos for these aesthetics WWs, but we'll also consider competition results, measurements, lifting numbers, achievements, etc.) will be removed and a temp ban issued.

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Index of ALL WWs from /u/PurpleSpengler's wiki.

---

WEAKPOINT WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE - Use this schedule to plan out your next contribution. :)

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/Assleanx on 2023-11-01 15:52:34.

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Very rare to see a Crossfit competition report here so I thought I'd throw my one in to the ring. I've written a much shorter reflection on my Instagram if you don't want to read through all this

Background and Training

I've been doing Crossfit for about 2.5 years now, with a view to eventually competing at the semi-finals level. To that end I'm currently 25 and going into this competition was weighing 94-ish kg which was much lower than what I wanted. I work as essentially a Crossfit coach in a sports resort in Spain which means I'm more active than I have been in the past so eating enough to support that can be a struggle! This isn't a complaint as my strength numbers have been increasing during the run up to this competition, I set a 10kg deadlift PR (with some left in the tank) and a 100kg power snatch, which I think is also a 10kg PR. Nutrition is variable, my salary is pretty low so it consists mostly of something quick and easy to eat in the morning such as porridge, the lunch that we get provided on days we work which is admittedly not too bad and there's lots of it, and then dinner in one of the restaurants we have on site. I wouldn't recommend it but the staff discount makes it hard to resist when my cooking facilities are pretty basic.

This was my first in-person Crossfit competition in 15 months due to various reasons, and my first individual Crossfit competition. But I spent over a decade as a swimmer, reaching some reasonably elite levels so this isn't my first time at any sort of competition like this

The programming I follow is set by my coach who follows an Opex methodology. This is, from what I understand, a lot more structured than more traditional Crossfit training programmes can be. It has a larger focus on building strict strength in movements then building them by progressing to non- antagonistic couplets to more and more antagonistic couplets. So as an example, strict handstand push ups with Concept2 bike, progressing through doing them with a SkiErg and eventually something like strict handstand push ups and thrusters. This is how my training should work in theory.

The Build-up

I struggled during the build up to this competition. This is due to a few reasons. One is that I only moved to this job in the middle of July and such a massive change is pretty mentally taxing. The other is my colleagues and friends, some of whom are just ridiculously good. And in the sort of unique environment I work and train in, it's very hard to not compare myself against them. My coach had to re-work my programming multiple times during my prep as I was nearing burn out and really struggling with motivation and discipline around training. In short, I just wasn't really enjoying it, and needed this competition to relight my fire. So my sessions were changed so that if any one of them were skipped it wouldn't matter so much. It wasn't an ideal prep but it was the one I had so it was the one I made use of.

In the immediate run up to the competition the flights from where I live aren't ideal at all, I think I was travelling for 12.5 hours only a few days before. This meant that nutrition and hydration were pretty cursory, and going to a country that is nearly 30 degrees colder than where you live isn't great on the lungs either. But on the bright side the hotel my and my friends stayed in had the best hotel breakfast I've ever seen and tasted. At least for a chain hotel, I've never stayed somewhere like the Ritz. But for the Norwegians among us, the breakfasts at Thon Hotel might be up there as one of your crowning achievements.

So my friends were coming out from the UK, some to compete and some to support. I flew on Wednesday and met them Thursday mid-morning to transfer to our hotel not far from the competition venue. Then we had a couple of days exploring Oslo with a final dialling in session at Crossfit Oslo which was amazing and surprisingly cheap to pay for drop-in.

Competition Day 1

So after registration and briefing on Friday night, Saturday dawned with a lot of cortisol running around my blood stream. This is fairly normal for me and as soon as the first event is out of the way I can calm down significantly and focus on what's more important.

Workout 1

4 rounds for time

15 wall balls with 9kg

15 chest to bar pull ups

5/10/15/20 burpee broad jumps

9 minute time cap

My score: 3 rounds, 15 wall balls, 7 chest to bar pull ups. 27th place

As a first workout this was ridiculous. Everyone was coughing afterwards, from the top, semi-finals level guys all the way down. I'm still coughing slightly now. The burpee broad jumps were a real killer. It was basically a bar-facing burpee but you had to jump over two lines spaced a full metre apart. After the wall balls, which by themselves are not a hard movement especially at 15 reps, this really blew up my hamstrings. Not a workout I specialise at and after that performance I'm going to see the doctor about some sort of bronchodilator.

Workout 2

100 Double unders

40 calorie ski

100 double unders

40 calorie row

100 double unders

40 calories bike

9 minute time cap My score: 16 cals on the bike, 23rd place

There's a famous competition workout called Acid Bath, and this is basically a worse version of that. On paper this should have been my best workout because I'm most conditioned on the machines, but the addition of the double unders just make it so much worse than it should have, and they were what really slowed me down.

Workout 3

3 seated legless rope climbs

1 snatch, 1 hang snatch, 1 overhead squat @80kg

2 seated legless rope climbs

2 snatch, 2 hang snatch, 2 overhead squat

1 seated legless rope climb

3 snatch, 3 hang snatch, 3 overhead squat

6 minute time cap

My score: 1 seated legless rope climb in the round of 2, 21st place

This was by far the most frustrating workout for me. I made it to the second legless rope climb (5th overall) and just didn't go anywhere. If I'd made it past that I could have done really well, but I was just sitting looking at that rope for like 4.5 minutes. I was not the happiest person upon walking off the competition floor. But it wasn't the end of the world.

Competition Day 2

Day 2 dawned with a lot of pain. I thought I was feeling ok and then tried to go downstairs to breakfast, when basically every part of my body felt on the verge of cramping. Tried to choke down as much food as I could, which wasn't a lot. Couldn't even really manage bread and nutella which is unheard of for me. Still, two more events to get through, and neither of them would be easy.

Workout 4 3 rounds for time:

21 toes to bar

15 strict handstand push ups

9 front squats @100kg (starting from the floor)

10 minute time cap

My score: 9 strict HSPU, 14th place

When these workouts were announced this was the one I was looking forward to the least. Toes to bar aren't exactly a strength and, while my strict HSPU are pretty good, they're still not my best movement. But this ended up being my best finish by a long way, even beating a couple of the guys in the top heat. The issue is basically shoulder endurance. This isn't surprising, but it was annoying as I thought going into this that I might be able to finish it. The boards we used for HSPU weren't exactly the best placed for a guy like me at 1m85.

Workout 5

10 hang dumbbell snatch @30kg

10 box step overs, 30kg dumbbell in goblet position, 51cm/20" box

20 hang DB snatch

20 weighted box step overs

30 hang DB snatch

30 weighted box step overs

10 minute time cap

My score: 8:25, 23rd place

This was the final workout for anyone outside the top 6. And it was hard. Basically just meant to see who is willing to suffer the most. And reader, I was not willing to suffer the most. It is utterly heartbreaking to finish the round of 20 and realise you're only halfway through the workout. Basically everything was in agony by the end, but I desperately wanted to finish one workout and did everything I could to get it done. I wanted to just stop and die at the end but went over and cheered on the last few people to finish.

Final results and thoughts

In the end I came 24th out of 32, of whom 5 didn't manage to finish the weekend. I'm reasonably happy with this result although I'm a bit disappointed as I think with a better prep I could have done much better. Basically I didn't do the stuff that would have conditioned me better to truly hurt. But that's fine. The main take aways from the weekend are that the things we were focusing on before are still the things we need to focus on after. This is pretty much building capacity at race pace as my initial paces are really fast, it's just building the ability to stay there. Also I'm amazed that, considering 18 months ago I could barely do 10 strict HSPU in 5 minutes, they're now a pretty decent strength of mine. In all, I'm very happy with my results and how the competition itself was run. For such a new competition it was very slick. I'll be back next year as one of my target events, as well as trying to go to French Throwdown and Liege Throwdown. But for now, just need to get my head down and get ready for some truly disgusting training.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/Frodozer on 2023-10-29 20:19:40.

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Hello everyone. I'd like to start off by saying that chaos was not the plan. In fact, I would say chaos was the opposite of the plan.

Several months prior I had the Static Monsters world championships and I decided that if I wanted to be dialed in for the competition maybe it was time for me to hire a coach who had more experience than me in the sport.

I contacted CJ Pierce, a world record holder in the axle press and one of the most impressive athletes in the sport of strongman that I've ever witnessed. The cool thing was most of his accolades were in my weight class. (U90/U200)

CJ took me on as a client and we started prepping for Static Monsters. I knew I didn't have a chance on the overall rankings or on the deadlift event, but had a good chance of winning the log press. Since they were giving away gold medals/world titles for both of the events and overall I decided to aim to bring home gold in pressing event. Long story short, I did. It was a brutal water cut that involved me losing about 12 pounds in one day. About 2-3 pounds out I wanted to give up and almost did multiple times. I couldn't handle anymore time in the tub sweating. But somehow I did. My spouse carried me (literally) to weigh ins, I stepped on the scale and made weight. The next. day I earned a gold medal on the log, took last in the deadlift (and overall) and had a little vacation in Europe/came home.

The entire time I felt super down on myself. I felt like I hadn't earned anything. I didn't want to compete at Nationals and even told CJ a few times that I was thinking about dropping out. I have a lot of anxiety around competitions and while I speak some tough macho strongman stuff on the internet every now and then, I actually hate lifting and training, I feel like I don't belong. Like I've just won some local stuff and gotten lucky on the bigger stages because I just happened to be one of the better ones to show up this time.

Either way, I stuck with it and went to Nationals. 25 in the field this year (23 showed up) compared to 15 last year (I believe) where I took 11th in 2022. Top 7 took home Arnold invites this year.

(Note, not being bothered looking at exact placings or times right now so I could be off by a little bit on some of these things. Also, all videos are posted on my Instagram, which is also linked on my reddit profile)

Event 1:

Sandbag over 15 foot. 30 pounds ---> 70 pounds. Last man standing. Heaviest bags win, no tie breakers.

Results: Tied with the majority of the field with 45 pounds. I actually got 50 to sit on top of the wall for a second or two. (If it gets stuck on top it counts) Sadly it feel slowly forward and I couldn't get the bag over the top with the remaining 30 seconds.

How I trained: I threw a 55 pound bag into the air for the majority of the training. Within the last few weeks I got the bag down to 45 pounds and built a structure to 15 feet using some old greenhouse parts we had stacked up on a bench and a bunch of other stuff. I got about 8/10 throws over it before a throw came down on top and crushed the structure. I was pretty confident that 45 pounds was there for the competition and it was.

Event 2:

Log Press: 275 or 225 log for reps in 60 seconds. Any amount of reps with the 275 trumped any amount of reps on the 225. (1 rep of 275 was better than 1,000 reps of 225 for example)

Results: 4th with 3 reps of 275. I was a little upset with this showing. I had done 3 reps in 60 seconds in training a month prior while I was sick with Covid and after I had recovered I hit 2 in 20 seconds with very low RPE. During the event rep 1 went up with very little effort. Rep 2 was more difficult, but still moved very quickly. Attempt at rep 3 was slow to clean and I failed the rep. I also shit myself a bit on this rep. I knew that I would only have one more rep in me, but only if I could time it perfectly with the maximum amount of rest. I asked the judge to please update me with 15 seconds left to go, they gave me the update, and I got one more rep of 275. I would have thought 4-5 reps would have been there, but it wasn't.

I cleaned myself up in the bathroom, put on the spare pair of underwear and shorts, and relaxed until event 3.

How I trained: A TON of clean and presses. I got so sick of log presses and how taxing they were on my back. The majority of the pressing was plenty below 275, but the last month I pressed 270-285 every week.

Event 3:

Stone medley: 255, 270, 290, 325 for reps with remaining time (60 seconds). NO TACKY ALLOWED. Each stone (minus the 325) was picked and carried a distance before loaded to a platform.

Results: To my surprise I beat the majority of the field getting the 3rd stone in a decent amount of time. Couldn't lift the 4th stone. I say suprisingly because I could barely pick a 220 stone in training. In fact, a 250 stone is the heaviest stone I ever picked in competition with a BUNCH of tacky on. So that meant all 3 stones were a PR for me. Even the 325 left the ground. My grip held tight, I simply wasn't strong enough to lift it to my lap.

How I trained: A few weeks of failing to pick up light stones over and over again before I developed bicep pain in my left arm. I basically stopped training all together minus two sets of pick and carries the week before.

End of day one, in 6th place.

I assumed I'd be much lower at this point because of the stone event, but I was in a really good position to keep my top 10 placing throughout the 2nd day and improve on the year before.

Day 2:

Event 4:

Max trap bar deadlift (last man standing, starting approximately 505sh pounds with 44 pound jumps)

Results: Tied with the majority of the field at 683 pounds (A 28 pound PR for me)

How I trained: I did lots of trap bar deadlifts lol. In fact, I didn't deadlift from the ground other than an off script day that I felt like seeing where my conventional deadlift was at without training it for about 6 months. (I got about 15 pounds stronger at it without training it over that course of time)

Event 5:

700 pound yoke walk x 50 feet, turn around and push yoke back using wheelbarrow attachment.

Results: 3rd place. A lot of the guys who went on into the 800's in the trap bar deadlift did very poorly at this event in comparison. I got an extra 45 minute rest time and a much less taxing deadlift workout than them! Being weak has some advantages! Most either struggled with the yoke walk or fell/had to repick the wheelbarrow multiple times. I was decently fast with the walk, faster than most with the transition, and had a flawless run with the wheelbarrow. I was pumped at this point in the competition. One more event to go!

Event 6: Power stairs, 3 steps and 3 implements. 290 pounds, 330 pounds, and 375 pounds.

Results: Somewhere in the middle of the pack. I honestly couldn't have moved any faster on the day of. It wasn't that I was tired or that the weights were too heavy, in fact, I think they were too light as almost all of us needed 26 seconds or less to finish 9 total steps. With no ability to practice more than one step at a time I was simply slow on the transitions. I believe if I had powerstairs to practice on I would have been maybe a second faster, but not much. A very easy event in my opinion. I don't remember any of this event. It just started and then all of a sudden it was over.

Overall results: 6th place out of the 23 who showed, earning my Arnold's World Championship invite and making a huge improvement over last year's 11th place showing.

The coolest thing was, if I would have gotten 1 more rep or knocked off 1 more second on any ONE single event I would have been 3rd overall. As some would use that as a "I COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE PODIUM" I used it as motivation for next year. If I'm just a little faster. Just a little stronger. I can be on the podium!

I'm very happy with the results. CJ was is a great coach and since I have a world championship to prepare for I decided to keep him on. I'll probably try to find another local comp sometime before that to knock off any rust and to also try and knock out my next years nationals invite. Before this I had planned on getting chubby and retiring from strongman. Just training for fun and signing up if I found something local that seemed halfway decent. Looks like this old man has a few more years of fight in him though so I'll give it hell once again.

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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/PinkLegs on 2023-10-25 17:05:22.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-10-24 14:00:35.

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Welcome to Training Tuesdays, the weekly /r/weightroom training thread. We will feature discussions over training methodologies, program templates, and general weightlifting topics. (Questions not related to today's topic should be directed towards the daily thread.)

Check out the Training Tuesdays Google Sheet that includes upcoming topics, links to discussions dating back to mid-2013 (many of which aren't included in the FAQ). Please feel free to message any of the mods with topic suggestions, potential discussion points, and resources for upcoming topics!

This week we will be talking about:

Jaime Lewis Programming

• Describe your training history.
• What specific programming did you employ? Why?
• What were the results of your programming?
• What do you typically add to a program? Remove?
• What went right/wrong?
• Do you have any recommendations for someone starting out?
• What sort of trainee or individual would benefit from using the/this method/program style?
• How do manage recovery/fatigue/deloads while following the method/program style?
• Share any interesting facts or applications you have seen/done

Reminder

Top level comments are for answering the questions put forth in the OP and/or sharing your experiences with today's topic. If you are a beginner or low intermediate, we invite you to learn from the more experienced users but please refrain from posting a top level comment.

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/ducksa on 2023-10-27 16:33:41.

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PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Program was created by Brian Alsruhe.

Cost: $25 USD

Duration: 12 weeks total. 9 weeks of work; 1 week deload; 2 weeks testing.

PowerBuilder Lite is designed for new/detrained/older lifters, or someone with other things on the go like sports or BJJ. It’s a lighter, introductory version of Alsruhe’s normal stuff. His programs are as hard as you make them though, and this was still hard as shit. You’ll see a lot of typical Alsruhe programming with giant sets of main mover + antagonistic muscle + core, then conditioning and/or assistance. There’s lots of variety, and he offers alternatives to the main mover (like deadlifts OR block pulls; OHP OR Z-Press, etc.)

MY BACKGROUND

Variety of training over the years, most notably novice powerlifting, and Crossfit. Consistency has always been the struggle for me – I usually stop once I get bored. I started this program as a detrained lifter. I have decent technique and confidence under the bar, hence the quick strength gains.

Before starting this program, I was out of shape (fat) and weak. Now I'm just fat. I wanted to improve my conditioning, but this seems to be an afterthought in most strength programs. I knew Alsruhe is the king of conditioning, but his full programs scare the piss out of me. The thought of going from my couch to 4-Horsemen/PowerBuilder etc made me want to vomit.

PROGRAM PROS

• More interesting than typical strength SBDO programming
• Approachable, easier than his full programs
• Incorporates conditioning
• Progress is easily trackable as you do a very similar workout once each wave
• Giant sets rarely put me in awkward situations where I’m taking up a lot of equipment. I never needed more than one barbell. For instance: BB row into BB bench into dragon flags. One bench, one bar.
• Incorporates important functional movements (like farmer carries) that are typically ignored by most programs
• Time efficient. Workouts were nearly always <1hr, not much time wasted
• Brian responded to several of my questions via e-mail. His responses were fast and thorough
• Great strength gains proven during testing week
• This kind of training is character-building, in my opinion.

PROGRAM CONS

• A fair bit of emphasis on pushups and pullups. As a detrained lifter my pushups were awful and pullups were zero. I’d typically pushup from my knees, and I could only do the programming as prescribed by the end of the program. I don't think my pullups have improved much. It’d be nice to have more guidance on progressions.
• Some equipment requirements but nothing too drastic. Off top of my head: BB, DBs, KBs, med ball(s), space for carries, bands, pullup bar, mat. Nothing the typical gym wouldn’t have.

RESULTS

Conditioning: A tougher metric to gauge, but my work capacity definitely increased. My ability to adhere to the 90s rest between giant sets improved throughout the program. I was able to perform most reps during AMRAPs, my farmer carries improved tremendously, and my pushup capacity also went up a lot.

1RM: I didn’t have accurate initial 1RMs, presumably same as most who undertake this program, so the initial numbers below are a best guess. I also messed around a bit with squat technique, and cambered bar bench so my results could have been better there.

• Deadlift: 275# -> 405#
• Squat: 225# -> 285#
• BP: 165# -> 195#
• OHP: 115# -> 155#

CONCLUSION

PowerBuilder Lite is a fun, approachable, and effective program. Brian Alsruhe created a great all-in-one program that isn't as daunting as his typical stuff. I highly recommend this program to detrained lifters who cringe at the thought of typical strength training, or those that want a full solution in under an hour. Brian is one of the industry's gems and he's deserving of your hard-earned money.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-10-25 14:00:35.

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MAKING A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT WITHOUT CREDENTIALS WILL EARN A 30-DAY BAN

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Welcome to the weekly installment of our Weakpoint Wednesday thread. This thread is a topic driven collective to fill the void that the more program oriented Tuesday thread has left. We will be covering a variety of topics that covers all of the strength and physique sports, as well as a few additional topics.

Today's topic of discussion: Upper Back (Aesthetics)

• What have you done to improve when you felt you were lagging?
• What worked?
• What not so much?
• Where are/were you stalling?
• What did you do to break the plateau?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

Notes

• If you're a beginner, or fairly low intermediate, these threads are meant to be more of a guide for later reference. While we value your involvement on the sub, we don't want to create a culture of the blind leading the blind. Use this as a place to ask questions of the more advanced lifters that post top-level comments.
• Any top level comment that does not provide credentials (preferably photos for these aesthetics WWs, but we'll also consider competition results, measurements, lifting numbers, achievements, etc.) will be removed and a temp ban issued.

---

Index of ALL WWs from /u/PurpleSpengler's wiki.

---

WEAKPOINT WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE - Use this schedule to plan out your next contribution. :)

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-10-18 14:00:35.

---

MAKING A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT WITHOUT CREDENTIALS WILL EARN A 30-DAY BAN

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Welcome to the weekly installment of our Weakpoint Wednesday thread. This thread is a topic driven collective to fill the void that the more program oriented Tuesday thread has left. We will be covering a variety of topics that covers all of the strength and physique sports, as well as a few additional topics.

Today's topic of discussion: Lats (Aesthetics)

• What have you done to improve when you felt you were lagging?
• What worked?
• What not so much?
• Where are/were you stalling?
• What did you do to break the plateau?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

Notes

• If you're a beginner, or fairly low intermediate, these threads are meant to be more of a guide for later reference. While we value your involvement on the sub, we don't want to create a culture of the blind leading the blind. Use this as a place to ask questions of the more advanced lifters that post top-level comments.
• Any top level comment that does not provide credentials (preferably photos for these aesthetics WWs, but we'll also consider competition results, measurements, lifting numbers, achievements, etc.) will be removed and a temp ban issued.

---

Index of ALL WWs from /u/PurpleSpengler's wiki.

---

WEAKPOINT WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE - Use this schedule to plan out your next contribution. :)

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/Airsniper123 on 2023-10-17 09:38:03.

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I did have finished the 2nd 5 week block of this 10 week program and improved on my squat again. This time only +15 lbs.

335 to 385 in 12ish weeks at 195lbs 5'11

Here is my original post below this I'll continue sharing my experience with the 2nd half:

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I have completed Alex Bromleys 100lbs in 10 weeks squat program however I only did 5 weeks as it's the same 5 week program repeated twice.

He mentioned many times in his video that this program can be successfully ran in just 5 weeks so that was my plan from the get go.

Overall I added 35 lbs to my squat in these 5 weeks

Going into this I did not expect the advertised 100lbs due to some modifications I made to the program.

These modifications swapped out the upper days for a push and a pull day leaving me with less rest overall. I never focused on my diet just ate whatever. I also don't go out of my way to do any rest days pretty much go untoll I'm forced to take one on average I go 10 - 14 days untill I take one. I don't sleep great either only abt 6 hours a night

With this in mind I obviously am leaving a bunch on the table but I enjoy training for the sake of training so rest days just kinda leave me sad and antsy all day.

Week one: Easy asf I set a new pr the week prior of 335 but honestly I should have pushed for more as the weight was moving wayyyy to easy

Part of this was I had really intense high volume high weight workouts for months leading up so the drastic cut back was nice

Week 2: Was a little harder once again I should have added 10 - 20lbs to each back squat set.

Week 3: Tons of volume this week (8x8) front squats was killer. Week was hard but I could tell the supplemental work like good mornings front squats and back extensions where helping my back squats tremendously. Set new max 5 of 315 x 5

Week 4: Volume cut back weight increased again however I went for a new pr on a whim on day 4 new pr was 365. Weight moved nice and set over the like for the 1000lb club with only a 180lb bench.

Week 5:

I the percentage went up to 88% for max reps this week and I did that according to my new pr purring me at abt 325 I put this up for 4 reps Felt amazing to move that kinda weight for reps considering I could only do 315 for a rough.

Last day of week 5

Set new pr of 370. deadlifts where hard asf after and I didn't finish the workout.

Over all the program was a success especially for it being the first program I have ran. I'll be repeating it for the next 5 weeks with my new pr I expect it to be harder this time around because I belive the wight will be closer to what I should have been doing this time.

Final pr video

‐-----------------‐----

Now the 2nd block!

Week 1 and 2 went very smooth.

The weight was increased from the first block and I set new 3 rep and 5 rep maxes. 335 and 315 (for 6 actually) I modified the rdls for the first set of most the weeks. I ended up not doing the tempo work and just went heavy (315) for the desired rep count.

Week 3

I got sick and that ruined my groove so I decided to chill this week and start again at week 1...

So week 1 again. It was fine basically matching what I did week one the first time. Felt weak from recovering from being sick.

Week 2: ehhhh still not feeling great the squat day went fine bur the deadlifts really started to feel heavy

Week 3: day 1 I had to cut short after the rdls due to time so didn't get it all on. Day 2 only got 315 for 5 feeling really exhausted.

From now on every leg day sucked. I ended up walking almost 20k steps 4 days a week for the last couple weeks and it certainly impacted my performance. The steps where from just life I didn't go out of my way to do this I was just busy.

I was also having a hard time getting "hyped" for my bug lifts and working sets. I used to get chills running down my back and whole body as I was setting up for a big lift and I'd get unreasonably hyped. This made every set a grind compared to how it used to move.

Week 4: like I said shit sucked not getting enough sleep and stress from college classes made getting the full workouts in rough. However I went out of my way to really really push myself on Leg press this week as I felt I needed to "redeem myself" for the shitty sets.

Week 5 day 1: went better the 1x max reps at 88% went good and got 325 x 4.5. I was so extremely close to the 5th rep I'm noting it here. A better night's sleep or different food would have made the difference on that. Rest of the workout went fine mostly going through the motions.

Day 2 pr day baby!

Did a few mins on the stairmaster (like normal) and then stared stacking to a new pr. I was actually with a buddy today who's first time doing a pr so that was fun he did well and got 245 with solid form.

Anyways I got to 365 and it moved well enough but it certainly felt heavy.

I threw on another 20lbs and sent it after a few mins of rest and when a good song came on. (No video, too many people around and was already in the zone for the lift.) I hit 385 and kinds don't remember it besides having to grind at the sticking point for a while. Depth was perfect as I always squat ATG.

I would have pushed myself harder on front squats but my left arm is literally disabled and has a hard time keeping the weight in place no matter what grip and setup I try so basically stayed between 135 and 185 depending on rep range. If I run it again I might swap.out front squats with Smith machine squats and have my feet offset forward to try and mimic the loading on the Quads.

Anyways I'm happy with the results overall. I wanted more but life got in the way the last few weeks... oh well. I'd certainly run this program again but ill be taking a break from squat specific work and am gonna run a deadlift program now shooting for 505lbs.

Edit: also I know he said specifically the program isn't necessarily designed to peak and hit a new all time 1rm but for me being beginner/intermediate depending on your metrics I don't think it matters all that much as just feeling good that day is sometimes enough for me to throw up more weight than normal.

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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/Amplified_Training on 2023-10-14 20:10:03.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-10-10 14:00:36.

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Welcome to Training Tuesdays, the weekly /r/weightroom training thread. We will feature discussions over training methodologies, program templates, and general weightlifting topics. (Questions not related to today's topic should be directed towards the daily thread.)

Check out the Training Tuesdays Google Sheet that includes upcoming topics, links to discussions dating back to mid-2013 (many of which aren't included in the FAQ). Please feel free to message any of the mods with topic suggestions, potential discussion points, and resources for upcoming topics!

This week we will be talking about:

5/3/1 Part 1

• Describe your training history.
• What specific programming did you employ? Why?
• What were the results of your programming?
• What do you typically add to a program? Remove?
• What went right/wrong?
• Do you have any recommendations for someone starting out?
• What sort of trainee or individual would benefit from using the/this method/program style?
• How do manage recovery/fatigue/deloads while following the method/program style?
• Share any interesting facts or applications you have seen/done

Reminder

Top level comments are for answering the questions put forth in the OP and/or sharing your experiences with today's topic. If you are a beginner or low intermediate, we invite you to learn from the more experienced users but please refrain from posting a top level comment.

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/trebemot on 2023-10-11 17:44:05.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/atherapistthatlifts on 2023-10-10 20:08:15.

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Some background before the background: Alex Bromeley had released the concept of this program approximately 9 months ago, and released the full template for free, on his YouTube channel, alongside an e-book for purchase. I will disclose: I had purchased the book, as I generally enjoy his content overall and wanted to continue to support his work. You can find his videos here:

-first video, discusses the ideologies, and thought process behind the program.

• video two, the actual program with sets and reps laid out.

Training history and back ground:

I (M31, 5'11) started lifting around college. The term "lifting" could probably be used loosely as I had no idea what I was doing in the early days. At that time I had a woman I was dating write me a very simple exercise program, just to get myself in the gym and to be more active, as I was mostly sedentary well into my 20's. Following that time of my life, I got very much into pursuing more strength , over aesthetics, and that lead me to programs that aligned with more of that desire, some programs of honorable mention have been basic 5x5 progressions, a brief stint with 5/3/1 and its variants, Juggernaut and a highly bastardized version of conjugate leading into those dark times of covid shut down back in 2020.

Following the return the gym after nearly a full year hiatus, I got highly focused on the pursuit of strength numbers again. In the middle of 2022 I hit a major stall in progress with an approximately 220lb bench, 430lb deadlift, 350 lb. squat and a 135 lb. OHP. That stall lead me to hiring a coach, as well as seeking more information on my own, and after a year I had broken through the plateau as well as lost some body fat, but nothing that warranted keeping that coach further. So I moved on in approximately May of 2023. However this lead to my dilemma of figuring out what my next steps would be.

I was feeling pretty banged up from all the strength work/low reps, and my joint were begging for mercy, I definitely felt another stall on the horizon, and knew I needed to change up my approach if I wanted to continue to make something happen. At the time I had read base strength and peak strength and knew I wanted to follow something to that effect, but also knew I needed a longer reprieve in the base building territory, and needed more time away from the basic lifts I'd been grinding for almost a year. So I opted to follow Kong.

The Program:

To sum up in a very short and condensed package, Kong is a 12 week program that is broken up into three blocks that follow a week to week progression scheme based on ascending RPE, and small tweaks in reps and sets. This also follows his pretty standard approach to volumizing as well often with sets being added the deeper into the blocks you get. Its a five day per week program, breaking up the body in different ways block to block. I could outline it here further for you, but if this sounds like your interest I'd just watch the video, after all these folks are more articulate than me anyway.

Diet:

I was tracking food an eating in a slight surplus i was shooting on average 250-400 calories above maintenance, and I typically opt for more carbs in general- I felt really good going into my evening work out times, and was definitely well fed. I am not a nutritionist I will not advise what you should do.

Results:

Given that the goal of the program is mass, and not strength numbers I will share I thought this was very successful for me I had started the program weighing in at 205lbs on average and ended with an average of around 212lbs, I will apologize I did not take progress pictures, as I was not planning on writing a review at the time. Areas that I personally grew: my shoulders REALLY blocked out and widened as did my lats, my triceps also got some additional growth that was noticeable from other reports. My quads also grew enough I needed to buy some new pants, so there is that...

Some thoughts for each block, and then overall thoughts and :

Block 1: This block was the hardest for me personally, this is also where the exercise selection feels the most broad. Reps are typically in the 15-20 rep range on week one, and taper down to sets of 10 and 12 at RPE 10. There were a lot of movements I was either very inexperienced in or very unfamiliar with i.e. JM presses and behind the neck presses to name a couple. I was also very unfamiliar with gauging RPE at this point, and throughout the program RPE never quite made sense logically in my head, so I was overreaching a lot in the RPE department, this will become a theme for each block ESPECIALLY on the leg days.

Block 2: This is where I think I personally hit my stride with the program as it was primarily movements I have done a lot of work with and had good ball park numbers to go off of. In this block it is a lot of disadvantaged movements, followed by similar movement pattern exercises and additional accessories in a pyramid fashion, still utilizing RPE as the primary metric. RPE was starting to click on upper body days really well, and I was pretty frequently on target , or just a slight undershoot, but always left feeling pretty solid. Lower body days were still hell and proceeded to give me a lot of grief. I was not being accustomed to the level of volume specifically around knee flexion due to a lot of squatting, leg extensions, and single leg exercises. My left knee started to become very irritated, with the familiar sting of tendonitis. This is also where I screwed up, instead of letting of the gas, and correcting my volume leading into block three, I maintained course and speed annnnnd that was a big big mistake on my end.

Block 3:

We now switch from disadvantaged movements, to very much overloaded types of movement, for top sets followed by back off work and I will say,,, bromely said in the book to let it fly, and I took that statement as a personal challenge. Some fun accomplishments was a push press at 185 for a top triple, a wide grip bench in which I three RM'd my old 1 rep max (240lbs), and a quite lovely 13inch deadlift that was 465 for 5. You will notice you will not see a squat here, that is because due to the patellar tendonitis issues and some degree of compensation for that, my hips and IT band decided to ignite on fire, resulting in some of the most painful lateral knee pain I have ever experienced , and continues to be an issue for me right now as I write this. This is most likely due to weeks and weeks of misgauging rpe and not knowing just how much effort I was putting into some of these work outs.

Overall :

despite injury during this program was a lot of fun to run, it had so much variety , and so much new movement that it felt like I was in newbie gains all over again! The volume feels manageable when you factor in eating and getting adequate rest. I think that if you have committed to strength for a long time, like I have this can be a nice and refreshing change of pace. I am currently finding it carrying over very nicely now that I am running bullmastiff at the current moment. I was very pleased with my results and continue to be pleased.

Some things I would have done differently, I would have probably wanted to touch some of the exercises that I have never done before for some top sets, prior to running the program to have a general idea of what weight I could handle. In the last few months I have come across, MIke Tuchscherer's RPE chart, and would probably want to use that as general tool to "be in the ball park" for weight selection, as I was generally basing most of my weigh choices of of variations that I did know. I think this is also what lead to me frequently over shooting my RPE.

Overall, I will run it again in the future, my intention will be to run it when/if I feel I need a more prolonged base phase and when I think I need more time to broaden out and get more variety.

If you have any more specific questions I would love to answer them! But I would strongly recommend his material on the program!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-10-03 14:00:34.

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Welcome to Training Tuesdays, the weekly /r/weightroom training thread. We will feature discussions over training methodologies, program templates, and general weightlifting topics. (Questions not related to today's topic should be directed towards the daily thread.)

Check out the Training Tuesdays Google Sheet that includes upcoming topics, links to discussions dating back to mid-2013 (many of which aren't included in the FAQ). Please feel free to message any of the mods with topic suggestions, potential discussion points, and resources for upcoming topics!

This week we will be talking about:

Off-Season Programming for Strength Athletes

• Describe your training history.
• What specific programming did you employ? Why?
• What were the results of your programming?
• What do you typically add to a program? Remove?
• What went right/wrong?
• Do you have any recommendations for someone starting out?
• What sort of trainee or individual would benefit from using the/this method/program style?
• How do manage recovery/fatigue/deloads while following the method/program style?
• Share any interesting facts or applications you have seen/done

Reminder

Top level comments are for answering the questions put forth in the OP and/or sharing your experiences with today's topic. If you are a beginner or low intermediate, we invite you to learn from the more experienced users but please refrain from posting a top level comment.

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/tdjm on 2023-10-05 20:22:52.

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Background:

I’m a 39-year-old male @ 5’9” and 173.0#

I’ve been lifting off and on, for the past 23+ years, and I was really BIG on muscle confusion… I think I read too many damn magazines about short tricks to get six pack abs and beach ready arms.

INCONSISTENT DIET LETTUCE BOY FTW.

But I did have a six pack years ago, and at some point along the way I set a lot of PR’s that I’ve since had the opportunity to smash (except for one bench rep PR set back in Jan. 2014). Anyway, I was never really consistent, until March of 2020 (thanks Covid). I started back-up with some bodyweight work (thanks /u/govschwarzenegger) which left me wrecked for a few too many days.

Eventually made my way back to the garage w/ actual weights and did some Muscle & Fitness dumbbell routines until the gyms opened back up and dove head first into 531 Forever’s SVR II.

Programming that I’ve run through the years includes, but isn’t limited to: The Waterbury Method, Starting Strength (because, of course), Starr’s 5x5, 25 for Strength, every. damn. thing from T-Nation and Men’s Health… those M&F d-bell routines… fast-forward to 531’s SVR II, BBB 3 Month Challenge, BBB, Beefcake; SBS (formerly A2S); PPSA’s Squatober, Deadcember, Let’s Pregame, Pool Season I & II, Benchamin Franklin, and Brickhouse.

What is Bomb the Fitness Industry, Bro?

It’s a Frankenstein’d 531 program, written by /u/TheMightyGullet, in which you incorporate the tenants of 531’s 5’s pro, Boring But Big, AND Boring But Strong. This program is great, if you’re a volume junkie. Here’s the direct link to TMG’s post from a few years back. I’d recommend reading his write-up to understand the plan fully. There’s only one other review of the program, by /u/hjprice14.

The leaders and anchors were set-up, as follows:

Leader:

• 531 & Jokers
• 50-100 reps, accessories
• BBB @ 50-60-70%, variation lift

Anchor:

• 531
• BBS - 10x5 @ FSL + 2.5% on 5+, 10x4 @ FSL + 5% on 3+, and 10x3 @ FSL + 10% on 1+
• 25-50 reps, accessories
• BBB @ 50-60-70%, variation lift

Things I liked:

I’d never done the 50+ accessory reps during the leader; they’re often, as you know, left for the anchor. TMG was right in-that you’re burnt out once you hit the anchor, and more often than not, I was also dropping the accessory work (especially towards the final week or so, if not sooner). This was a fun twist on the typical 531 accessory work.

Things I changed/Did differently:

I messed up my right knee doing front squats, and as a result had a difficult time walking for several weeks, in late-April. So, I needed something that I could do a whole bunch of “bro” work for 4-6 days a week. I lift at home, early, so it’s not an issue to get out to the pole barn for me. I thought to myself, “bro’s don’t squat, so I guess I’m a ‘bro.” I pulled all squats from the program, and only added deadlifts after the first three week cycle. My goal here was to set two new pressing PR’s, in bench and strict/military press. Once I was able to start deadlift again, I just wanted to pull 315#, for a PR.

I did no joker work, here. More often than not, I was trying to get in-and-out (are those burgers really that good?). Also, I wanted to hold back on the ego lifting, which has gotten the better of me, through the years.

To add some extra “fun” into the program, I also took a tenet from BBB’s 3 Month Challenge, in which you increase the % of the BBB supplemental work each week from 50>60>70. I am not a smart man. Would I do this again? Absolutely.

I also added in my own thing, because TRAINING ADHD! I began doing “100 Days of Summer” to grow my arms (I blame you, Starting Strength from checks calendar 200… okay, that’s a decade-plus…). Each day, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I did 100 reps of bi’s and tri’s. No write-up on that one, as I wasn’t consistent enough, and didn’t do proper documentation on it. I’ll try it again next summer.

I’m also a big fan of the 351 set-up, versus the 531 set-up. It’s personal preference, and more than likely won’t impact/affect performance.

My general week looked like this:

D1

• Deads 351 @ 5’s PRO
• CG Bench BBB 5x10 @ 50/60/70%

D2

• Bench 351 @ 5’s PRO
• Press BBS 10x5 @ FSL

D3

• Deads BBS
• Seated Press BBB 5x10 @ 50/60/70

D4

• Press 351 @ 5’s PRO
• Deficit Deads BBB 5x10 @ 50/60/70%

D5

• Bench BBS 10x5 @ FSL

What worked?

Pressing volume. Turn the speaker up to 11, and press. My shoulders, chest, and tri’s BLEW UP during this run, all without injury/issue.

My body responds well to volume. But… no sets went to 11.

I ate at maintenance. I didn’t want to get above 170# until Labor Day weekend (which is the official start of bulk szn for me). Breakfast was more often than not 4-6 eggs, 2 slices of toast, large bowl of oatmeal w/ pb and jelly, and a banana/fruit. Lunch was dinner leftovers, and dinner was generally meat and carbs w/ some fat (I have an issue getting enough fat into my diet). Really, by the 4th of July I was holding steady over 170#. I ultimately went from 166# > 173#.

What didn’t work?

Doing 100 lats and abs every workout, on top of the 50+ accessory reps, and all the 531/BBB/BBS work. It just didn’t happen.

The other issue I ran into was conditioning. Not being able to walk also meant no running. Which also meant rowing was pretty tough. I’m not quite sure when my knee finally healed, but safe to say my only conditioning during this program was to lift weights faster. See, it’s not just a meme, it’s a whey of life.

Well, let’s see it!

Okay, calm down you little minx.

Here’s my failed bench PR attempt @ 200#. As one member said, I probably had too many warm-up sets going into the top set. But, I’d just tied my 195# PR. 200# is there, just need to be smarter about the approach, next time.

Here’s my deadlift PR @ 335#. So long, 315#.

Here’s my press PR @ 145#. And yes, there are dogs in the video.

You’ve scrolled this far, so here’s a vanity pic I’d taken when I started 100 Days of Summer. I don’t have a post-BTFIB pic. Sorry.

Weight - 166 > 173

All-time PR’s

Bench - 195 > 195

Deadlift - 310 > 335

Press- 135 > 145

What’s next?

Currently running Squatober for the 3rd straight year. Then, I’ll run PPSA’s “Benchamin Franklin” w/ deads added (the program doesn’t include deadlifts), hence the name: Benchamin Franklin is Dead, or BFD. Then, it’s Deadcember, and FINALLY, I’ll run BTM in January.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/MythicalStrength on 2023-10-02 16:00:40.

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Howdy redditors,

I’ve competed in another strongman competition, this time my first time as a Lightweight Male in the 181lb class. I’ll cut to the chase and say I came in dead last and zero’d more events than I’d ever done before. I’ve dropped 35lbs since March, and I’m still adjusting to my new body in that regard, which helped make this one of the most challenging competitions of my life. I’m pretty excited in that regard, and thought I’d share the experience.

If you want to read about the training/nutrition leading up to it, check here

And for video of the full comp, check here

PRE-COMP

I ate the same breakfast I’ve been having every training day: 150g of egg whites mixed with 150g of beef bone broth with 1.5 scoops of Metabolic Drive and some powdered electrolytes. A wild departure from my days of eating…nothing, so I could make weight, followed by some sort of sugary/fast food blitz. I drove an uneventful 2.25 hours to the site and weighed in at 173.0 while wearing full sweats, shoes, and my strongman compression gear underneath.

I set-up camp and actually dug into one of my meals before the first event: 4 hardboiled whole pasture raised organic eggs mashed into a paste with a serving of grassfed sour cream and 4oz (cooked) of ground venison, personally hunted and butchered by my wife’s Uncle. Another departure from my glory days, which I’ll address next, but it was also weird being so hungry when I hadn’t done anything yet.

GOALS

Since I knew I was super behind the 8-ball on this due to my bodyweight, this was going to be a different kind of comp for me: this was about personal growth. My goals were to not eat any junk OR carbs and keep it as carnivore as possible. Not because I felt like this was more noble, but more to simply see if I could, and how it would go. The Metabolic Drive was the closest “exception” and I packed an emergency Finibar in case I found myself crashing, but otherwise it was just going to be that mashed egg/venison mixture, green tea and water.

I also was going to go limited caffeine: only the stuff in the green tea. I have a 3 week streak without energy drinks of coffee going, and I wanna see how long I can keep it going. Again: no particular reason, just to see if I could. In the past, I’d be about 2-3 energy drinks deep by the end of the day. Did I “need” that?

The third goal was to not re-tear whatever it was I tore in my right knee on week 2 of “Juggeryoke”. The first event was where I was most worried about that, since I did it on the log, but I was going to keep my eye on it all competition.

And final goal was to leave it all out there and have fun. It’s the whole reason I signed up.

EVENT 1: 200lb Log Clean and Press Each Rep

I was excited about this event, since cleaning each rep is awesome and gasses competitors. Then I got to actually handle the log we were going to use and realized this was going to be a “ WHO can get a rep” contest for the lightweights. The log handles were STUPID far apart, like the Rogue 10”.

First guy got the clean but no rep. Second guy got in 2 of the grandest reps of all time with a jerk and a JPS-esque “press the log off the head” technique.

I got set, got my head right, grabbed the log, went to clean it, felt it feel like a jillion pounds, got stuck midway, somehow through sheer force of will get it all the way to my chest…and knew that there was absolutely no way I was going to press it. I let it crash, thinking that, if I could do better on another clean and not be so exhausted, I might be able to set up for a stronger press. Well, that didn’t happen, and I didn’t want to re-tear my left bicep on an errant log clean, so after a few more attempts, I hung it up. The guy after me got a jillion reps and was the clear candidate for first that day.

EVENT 2: Max Trap Bar in 3 attempts

I had been doing a ROM progression cycle on trap bar with 405lbs, so I knew I was good for that. We were allowed to pick the starting weight in the rules meeting, so I asked for 400, knowing we’d go 20lb jumps from there.

The guy who also zero’d the log ended up asking for us to start with 380, and he missed that, so I knew if I got 400 I at least had a win there. 400 was grindy, but made it. We were apparently pulling on the Eleiko Oppen bar, which was cool since it had knurl marks on the center of the handle, which made strapping in easy. I had an issue with strapping in too far forward or backward in training and having the bar tilt.

No other MLWs went for 400, the next time one jumped in was at 460, so I went for that to match too. 460 felt WAY too damn heavy, but I pulled it. Since we were doing “Rising Bar”, I decided to pass on 480 to allow me some recovery time, and asked for 500. I really liked Rising bar for the strategic element of it, and it made a last man standing event tolerable. I actually felt 500 ever so slightly start to break off the floor, but not enough to be worth chasing after. My knee was holding up strong so far, and this was keeping it in place.

EVENT 3: Sandbag and sled drag

This and the 4th event are why I signed up: medleys in a competition. I missed these so much. Unlike previous comps, I did ZERO sandbag training to prep for this, which was for the best, because I usually end up tearing the hell out of my arms when I do that.

I used some strongman cheating and put the sandbag on top of my feet as part of my set-up. This gives a little bit of daylight between the floor and the bag, which allows for handholds. I also ditched my competition shirt at this point and decided I was going to go for the Mariusz Pudzianowski/Jon Andersen Award for “Most Jacked Person at the Competition”, because if can’t be the strongest at least I can look pretty while I lose. You can actually hear some folks making commentary about it during this event.

The sandbag pick actually went pretty well, and the carry moved about as fast as I would expect with so minimal training. The sled drag caught me off guard: about the only clue it was going to be so awful was watching the other competitors attempting the sled and being caught off guard. So I went for the initial pull, realized it was going to be heavy as hell, and just leaned into it and pulled like hell, knowing that, if I ever stopped, I’d be dead. Just like a shark.

I was surprised when I ran out of time. I felt like I was moving at a good pace. I had a slight technical error getting set up on the straps, and I lost a little bit of time on the bag, but ultimately I imagine I needed to move faster on the sled.

But I think this was the first time I had a sled in a comp where I didn’t fall backwards on my butt, so that’s a win. This got me a last place finish.

EVENT 4: Duckwalk and powerstairs

Event was supposed to be duck walk 25’, do 3 reps of power stairs, then duckwalk it back.

Lotta dudes were struggling with those stairs, and I figured out where: those WIDE 100lb plates pretty much give you no opportunity to hinge. I’m only 5’9, so I’m already sawed off as it is, but now that I have to take a sumo stance I was totally hosed.

But also, you might be able to tell in the video: I about blacked out on the initial pick, and was basically jump zombie-ing forward until I went night-night. I managed to fall forward, have the stars clear, do a quick pick and repeat. I fell into the platform, corrected myself, and struggled futilely to get it to the platform. But I gave it some solid effort, and loading my frame down with 100lbs over bodyweight was awesome for making every muscle in my body pop, so I got a cool facebook photo. This, once again, got me last place.

EVENT 5: Stone Medley

I won’t bother listing weights and heights here, because as you saw on the video, it was a big goose egg. This is the only event I have a bitter taste in my mouth about. You might be able to see it in the video, but I was literally GLUED to the stone. I applied a moderate amount of tack to myself, but the stone ITSELF was COATED in tacky from previous competitors, to the point that it was stuck to the platform. So it didn’t matter about being strong enough to pick up the stone: I had to be strong enough to BREAK the tacky off the stone first and THEN pick it up, and then, once I got it lapped, it wasn’t going anywhere else. With how high the platform was, my plan was to try to shoulder it, but I could never even get the momentum necessary, because it was like trying to walk through mud: each movement was about getting unstuck and then stuck again.

I realized at that point I’m a dinosaur in the sport: everyone else is using tacky shirts and stone sleeves and, in turn, has material that can help by pass the tacky issue, while I’m just applying sticky stuff to my body. I the future, I think I’m just going to avoid tackying myself and just rely on what’s on the stone. Zero’d here.

I will say that I got another great strongman win here: as I was standing there, bare chested and covered in tacky, another dude who was going that route was standing next to me. He was definitely more “strongman built”. He looked at me, there was a pause, and then he “Dude..are you, like, bodybuilding?”

I replied with “Nope: just not eating enough”.

He appreciated that. Told me I was definitely the leanest dude there, and I said “Well at least I won that”.

LESSONS LEARNED

I...

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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/MythicalStrength on 2023-09-28 16:56:33.

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JUGGERYOKE REVIEW

INTRO AND BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

• These tend to run stupidly long whenever I write them and I’m going to try to not let that happen, since I also am already in the middle of writing up my competition report (writing the pre-stuff before the comp and will detail the comp when it happens) wherein I ALREADY speak about this program…but already I’m writing too much.
• But allow me to start with the conclusion: this program is awesome, like most of Jamie Lewis’ programs. It looks daunting until you finally do it, and then you realize the genius built into it. It has my approval, and I highly recommend people pick it up alongside the “Feast/Famine/Ferocity” bundle here.

WHAT IS JUGGERYOKE

• Jamie sums it up as “the traptastic YuggerYoke Protocol V 3.0, a 3 page pdf of a super trap-heavy full-body training program that will appeal to strongmen, powerlifters, and anyone trying to look like a Marvel superhero.” I assumed this was a 6 week program, since Jamie says in the document “After 6 weeks of this, you should be ready for the beach, looking like a lost member of the X-Men.”, but in the actual Juggeryoke link it says “This product is not a book- it’s a 3 page PDF specialization program designed to be used for 8 weeks to quickly bring up your yoke area (traps and shoulders).” Whelp, I’m finishing the 6th week right now and writing my review but I DO intend to carry it forward for the next 2 weeks as I prep for a follow on comp on 14 Oct…so maybe I’ll write about that too. Chaos is the plan.
• Jamie has a 5-6 day and a 3-4 day variant of the program in the book, similar to what he did with “Feast, Famine and Ferocity”, which turned out to a positive for me while I ran it.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• I won’t give away the full programs, although I DID take video of every single workout and you could most likely piece it together from that, but still: please buy the program and support Jamie.
• I primarily ran the 5-6 day variant, which is effectively 3 full body workouts with an arm day in between each day for a total of 5 directed workouts and a 6th one wherein you can do whatever you want (similar to the “Dealer’s Choice” from Feast/Famine/Ferocity). The 3-4 day variant takes those 2 arm workouts and merges them into the 3 full body days, along with a bit more exercise shuffling, and gives a bit more guidance on what to do on the 4th day as a gap filler.
• The program requires training without a belt and a daily 1.5 mile walk, both of which are awesome. It includes front squatting and squatting, push pressing and strict pressing, touch and go benching and pause benching, high pulls and HEAVY shrugs, ab wheel and hanging leg raises with lat shrugs, squat singles, triples and squatting for time. That final bit was definitely my “favorite” part of the program. 1-2 sets of 2-3 minutes of squatting with 135lbs on your back. I, of course, opted for 2 sets of 3 minutes and used 1 minute of rest between, and made it a goal to hit a new rep PR each week. That was a fantastic challenge.

MY DEVIATIONS

• When I run a program the first time, I like to stick with it pretty close, BUT I also picked Juggeryoke in particular because it would allow me to include some movements that would benefit me for my upcoming competition. So in that regard: I used a strongman log for my push pressing work, an axle for all my other pressing (bench, incline and strict), same axle for most of my skull crushers and reverse curls, grenade balls with chains for more of my arm work, and a trap bar for my high pulls and my shrugs. Also, on the day where I was to do 15x1 squats, I often would lower the bar weight and use chains instead. This was primarily due to sustaining a slight knee injury in the second week of the program during log clean and push press. I moved a bit too quickly and possibly tore a meniscus. By the end of the program it was feeling better, but it still seemed to work well to limit loading at the bottom of the rep and increase it toward the top. Besides: Dan John said that, if he had to do it all over again, he’d always squat with chains, so good enough.
• I took to adding a set of Poundstone curls at the end of one of the arm days, just for even more pump, and would throw in band pull aparts and lateral raises where I could find space for it.
• For my 6th day, I ran through a ROM progression cycle of trap bar mat pulls, since I had a max trap bar lift coming up in my competition. This was ultimately a 5 minute workout that I would frequently do without a warm-up. After lifting was finished on each day, if I had any extra time, I’d do some short intense conditioning work. I’d also do some sort of strongman training on Sundays: some sort of carry and load of some variety.
• On the 3rd week of the program, my schedule got compromised, so I ran the 3 day variant, and on the 6th week (current) my competition was at the end of the week, so I dropped my lifts back to their starting point and made it a point to move these (now) lighter weights fast and with short reps, as something of a mini-deload. I actually think these might be good intentional decisions in the future. They’re tools in the toolbox if nothing else.

WHAT I LIKED

• As much as I genuinely didn’t care for the arm days (I get up at the crack of dawn to train, and its hard to get motivated to do that when it’s JUST arms…), they are honestly a brilliant touch in the program overall, because they effectively give you an active recovery day between the BRUTALLY hard full body workouts. I would be incredibly sore from the previous day, but wake up knowing I “just gotta do arms”, and then, by the next day, I was ready to train again. And one of those arm days includes 20 minutes of non-stop bodyweight work, which I used as an opportunity to do burpee chins, which did a great job of getting some restorative bloodflow to the sore muscles and a touch of conditioning.
• The timed squats are just plain awesome. The weight is light and it encourages PR chasing, to say nothing of the lactic acid threshold benefit and the sheer anabolism that comes with it. It’s also another great break between one day of heavy front squat triples and one day of heavy squat singles.
• On that, the variety of rep ranges and movements in general is just intelligent and awesome. This is typical Jamie Lewis “Chaos and Pain” training: a great break if you’ve been doing the same thing for a while. And since I was coming off of “Easy Strength”, that’s exactly what was happening.
• HANGING LAT SHRUGS. Oh my god that makes SO much sense. You do 10 lat shrugs at the end of every set of hanging leg raises you do, and lat shrugs from a hang are so much more intuitive than trying to do them with dumbbells/barbells. This is giving Paul Kelso his proper due. And they’re very restorative. Jamie does a great job of forcing me to do the things I SHOULD be doing, and that includes these lat shrugs, alongside all the direct arm and ab work.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

• Jamie has an arm day where you are to do skull crushers and reverse curls as a superset, using the same weight. Jamie either has the strongest biceps ever or the weakest triceps, but for me, a weight I can reverse curl is too light for skull crushers, and trying to make this work was just square peg/round hole for me. I came up with a bunch of tricks, but ultimately, when I run this again, I give myself permission to just use 2 different set ups.
• My next run, I’ll probably bring the Safety Squat Bar in for that day of heavy squat singles. I feel like the SSB better fits the “Yoke” portion of Juggeryoke, given how much it hammers the upper back. I’ll most likely do SSB front squats too, just because my front rack is jacked up after 6 shoulder dislocations and toward the end of the program I had to deal with bar slippage issues.

RESULTS

• You can see my physique in all the training videos. In general, I’m more filled out in the areas I was lacking, which is awesome.
• This program was GREAT for my horizontal pressing, as funny as that seems. I went from 225 to 255 on my pause benching, and my dips went from 105 to 120. I also went from 77 squats to 90 with 135. My burpee chins each week tended to climb up, front squats went from 185 to 220 for the 10x3, etc etc. All of my lifts went up: the program worked.

NUTRITION

• Nothing specifically prescribed by the program, but during this time I was using the nutrition protocol I laid out here, which included a 5 day “mini-famine” in the 5th week, which allowed me to eat VERY big in the 6th week…which might also just be a good approach.

CONCLUSION

• This program is awesome. Please buy and run it.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-09-27 14:00:35.

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MAKING A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT WITHOUT CREDENTIALS WILL EARN A 30-DAY BAN

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Welcome to the weekly installment of our Weakpoint Wednesday thread. This thread is a topic driven collective to fill the void that the more program oriented Tuesday thread has left. We will be covering a variety of topics that covers all of the strength and physique sports, as well as a few additional topics.

Today's topic of discussion: Neutral Grip Deadlifts

• What have you done to improve when you felt you were lagging?
• What worked?
• What not so much?
• Where are/were you stalling?
• What did you do to break the plateau?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

Notes

• If you're a beginner, or fairly low intermediate, these threads are meant to be more of a guide for later reference. While we value your involvement on the sub, we don't want to create a culture of the blind leading the blind. Use this as a place to ask questions of the more advanced lifters that post top-level comments.
• Any top level comment that does not provide credentials (preferably photos for these aesthetics WWs, but we'll also consider competition results, measurements, lifting numbers, achievements, etc.) will be removed and a temp ban issued.

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Index of ALL WWs from /u/PurpleSpengler's wiki.

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WEAKPOINT WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE - Use this schedule to plan out your next contribution. :)

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-09-26 14:00:35.

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Welcome to Training Tuesdays, the weekly /r/weightroom training thread. We will feature discussions over training methodologies, program templates, and general weightlifting topics. (Questions not related to today's topic should be directed towards the daily thread.)

Check out the Training Tuesdays Google Sheet that includes upcoming topics, links to discussions dating back to mid-2013 (many of which aren't included in the FAQ). Please feel free to message any of the mods with topic suggestions, potential discussion points, and resources for upcoming topics!

This week we will be talking about:

Beginner Programs

• Describe your training history.
• What specific programming did you employ? Why?
• What were the results of your programming?
• What do you typically add to a program? Remove?
• What went right/wrong?
• Do you have any recommendations for someone starting out?
• What sort of trainee or individual would benefit from using the/this method/program style?
• How do manage recovery/fatigue/deloads while following the method/program style?
• Share any interesting facts or applications you have seen/done

Reminder

Top level comments are for answering the questions put forth in the OP and/or sharing your experiences with today's topic. If you are a beginner or low intermediate, we invite you to learn from the more experienced users but please refrain from posting a top level comment.

RoboCheers!

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/AutoModerator on 2023-09-22 11:01:10.

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Weekly thread for discussing:

• recipes
• nutritional plans
• favorite foods
• macro schemes
• diet questions

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/AutoModerator on 2023-09-22 06:01:36.

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You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/AutoModerator on 2023-09-23 06:01:25.

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You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/AutoModerator on 2023-09-17 06:01:24.

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You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/AutoModerator on 2023-09-21 06:01:27.

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You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/WeightroomBot on 2023-09-20 14:00:37.

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MAKING A TOP-LEVEL COMMENT WITHOUT CREDENTIALS WILL EARN A 30-DAY BAN

---

Welcome to the weekly installment of our Weakpoint Wednesday thread. This thread is a topic driven collective to fill the void that the more program oriented Tuesday thread has left. We will be covering a variety of topics that covers all of the strength and physique sports, as well as a few additional topics.

Today's topic of discussion: Back Squat

• What have you done to improve when you felt you were lagging?
• What worked?
• What not so much?
• Where are/were you stalling?
• What did you do to break the plateau?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

Notes

• If you're a beginner, or fairly low intermediate, these threads are meant to be more of a guide for later reference. While we value your involvement on the sub, we don't want to create a culture of the blind leading the blind. Use this as a place to ask questions of the more advanced lifters that post top-level comments.
• Any top level comment that does not provide credentials (preferably photos for these aesthetics WWs, but we'll also consider competition results, measurements, lifting numbers, achievements, etc.) will be removed and a temp ban issued.

---

Index of ALL WWs from /u/PurpleSpengler's wiki.

---

WEAKPOINT WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE - Use this schedule to plan out your next contribution. :)

RoboCheers!