I've had a few new ideas that I've been wanting to try out so now things have settled down at home and training has stabilised it's a good time to kick things off.

The basic idea is to train in a different way each week to keep things fresh but to still retain continuity so that I can still access progress as opposed to making sessions so different that progress can be difficult to access and as such be hard to judge whether the changes have a positive or negative effect.

I'll still use my current Upper/Lower routine as the basis and will retain it in current form every other week while the inbetween weeks will retain elements but the approach will be differ. The theory is that this variation and shock session will help promote added growth potential but equally it may not. The choice to retain my current Upper/Lower routine should help to access progress.

So this year's plan is a little different from last year where a slow lean out phase and maintaining strength was the name of the game given the hectic circumstances that were goiing to hit. So now it's all about adding on mass while at least retaining current BF levels and cetainly not increasing and looking for a target of around 85kg at 8% max.

I think heavier is possible but I don't want to be over ambitious and I'm looking to hit this by September as I'll be hoping to play a few games of Rugby again and this will allow for a few months of intense cardio and time for BF and LBM to adjust to the metabolic changes this brings. Certainly, I've been heavier but I have felt I didn't carry the weight so well over 85kg but then I wouldn't have been as lean so perhaps getting into the relms of 87kg at 8% may work for me better but one step at a time.

This week will be the standard routine to get over the fallout of Xmas, New Year and Birthday.

On with the show...

Monday 10th January - Upper

Movements

A1 - Seated DB Press - Demi Bench (Tempo 4-1-x-1, Rest 90): 10x24kg, 10x34kg, 9x38kg, 9x38kg, 8x38kg
A2 - Isolever Lat Pull Down - Wide Grip (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 90): 8x60kg, 8x70kg, 8x80kg, 8x85kg, 8x85kg

B1 - Low Incline DB Fly - Stretch Sets (Tempo 3-3-x-1, Rest 90): 10x24kg, 10x30kg, 10x34kg, 10x34kg
B2 - BOR (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 0): 12x60kg, 12x80kg, 12x80kg, 12x80kg
B2 - Reverse Machine Pec Deck - Rear Delt (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 90): 12x120lbs, 12x130lbs, 12x130lbs, 12x130lbs

C1 - Floor Press - EZ Bar (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 60): 10x50kg, 10x70kg, 10x75kg, 10x75kg
C2 - Seated Palms Out DB Curl - Demi Bench (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 60): 6x16kg, 6x20kg, 6x22kg, 7x20kg

Comments

Solid session showing good strength overall.

Noticed angle on EZ Bar was good for CGBP at the work gym so gave Floor Press a go and this hit Triceps very well so will carry this while it continues to work for me. Have noticed good Tricep development is recent weeks having used EZ Bar for CGBP work to the point where my arms look well balanced where as before my Biceps always used to dominate. I've laid off pushing Biceps in recent months partly due to the inbalance and partly due to finding them boring to train but with Triceps coming right up it'll soon be time to push on a little with them.

Tuesday 11th January - Lower Anterior Focus

Movements

A1 - Dynamic Clean Pull (Rest 90): 3x60kg, 3x80kg, 3x90kg, 3x100kg, 3x110kg, 3x120kg, 3x130kg, 3x130kg, 3x130kg

B1 - Squat - Narrow Stance (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 120): 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x100kg, 5x120kg, 10x140kg

C1 - Standing Single Leg Curl (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 30): 10x20kg, 10x30kg, 10x35kg, 10x35kg
C2 - Hanging Leg Raise (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 30): 10, 10, 10, 10

Comments

Knees were feeling good enough to Squat but I restricted the weight to 140kg and went for reps rather than push on upwards. This will be the plan for now and just continue to try and increase reps at a constant tempo so 10 was the stopping point today before this started to slow.

Kept away from Step Up as this does make my knees hurt when they're not 100% so put Leg Curl in. I may well do some low Petterson Steps (TKE) on a Friday session where I have more time available to help things but with the above in place I may not need to do this.

Clean Pull felt great and although the weight did feel heavy the movement was still powerful and quick.

A power lifter mate in the uni did a similar sort of training to this. He kept squat, bench and deadlift the same as the starting exercise in each session but changed the reps he did. All his assistance exercises he just planned week per week. He said it kept him motivated and saw some good improvements especially for the early season.

Do you take anything for your joints mate? I'm finding MSM and glucosamine are helping enormously

I was using MSM for a while with little or no joint pain so stopped any everything was ok for a while. As a result I am planning to start again as it would seem that it may have been helping more than I gave it credit for.

Thursday 13th January - Upper

Movements

A1 - Medium Chin Grip - Racked Barbell (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 90): 8xBW, 8xBW+15kg, 8xBW+30kg, 8xBW+40kg, 8xBW+40kg
A2 - Flat Bench Press - Wide Grip (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 90): 8x80kg, 8x100kg, 8x120kg, 8x130kg, 8x130kg

B1 - Seated Cable Row (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 0): 10x195lbs, 10x240lbs, 10x255lbs
B2 - Straight Arm Pull Down - Rope (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 90): 10x120lbs, 10x150lbs, 10x160lbs
B3 - Military Barbell Press (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 0): 8x70kg, 8x75kg, 8x75kg
B4 - Upright Row - EZ Bar (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 90): 8x50kg, 8x55kg, 8x55kg

C1 - EZ Bar Curl (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 60): 8x45kg, 8x55kg, 8x60kg/5x45kg
C2 - Laying French Press - EZ Bar (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 60): 12x44kg, 12x55kg, 12x60kg/6x45kg

Comments

Session went well enough this afternoon with a few alterations made.

Pull Up station is on the end of one of the Squat Racks being used to resorted to racking a Barbell high on the other Squat Rack and doing Chins with this instead. The fact that the Barbell wasn't fixed and could roll made them more difficult and forced a really smooth movement to be executed.

Messed around slight with my grip width on Bench Press going a bit wider and hitting Chest differently so was happy enough to match 130kg.

Hit working weights sooner on the Back and Shoulder movements which in turn is helping to creep the working weights up.

Increased weight back up on Arms too now left Tricep is 100% and Biceps need to be pushed a little.

That bench is seriously beastly Alex. How long have you been training now and would you say you're a naturally strong on bench?

roadz wrote:That bench is seriously beastly Alex. How long have you been training now and would you say you're a naturally strong on bench?

Got to be 10 years from when I first started training at a proper weights gym rather than a fitness gym and before that I dabbled a bit at home or at a sports centre.

My Chest and Biceps were always reasonable well developed and repsonded the most to any form of training or resistance so partly genetic. My upper arms are probably quite short which would help.

Serious strength !
Nice one pal

That bench is seriously beastly Alex

x2

I hope I can achieve those kind of numbers one day. I can't ever see me stopping training so I think it's possible. Can I ask if you use any AAS or peptides? If you'd rather not discuss, that's fine.

roadz wrote:I hope I can achieve those kind of numbers one day. I can't ever see me stopping training so I think it's possible. Can I ask if you use any AAS or peptides? If you'd rather not discuss, that's fine.

At the moment I'm using a low dose of Exemestane to keep water retention low and natural test levels up mainly to counter act the reduced amount of sleep I've had to go through recently with the baby as, for me at least, lack of sleep results in holding more water.

Wouldn't mind giving GH/Peptides a run at some point but storage is a bit of an issue here with a little one growing up and keeping things hidden and out of reach. An AAS drop in centre would be ideal! Plus I'm not sure I'm old enough yet to really reap the benefits of a therapeutic low dose approach so this may be something to hold off for another 5 years or so as my health, recovery, metabolism and fat burning capacities are still very good.

I ran a couple of pulse cycles of Epistane a few years back when it first came on the scene along with a few others and I've run D-bol for 4 weeks not long after that. I'm not sure what people see in Pro Hormones like Epistane anyway as the likes of D-bol are cheaper, more effective and on the whole safer as it's a known quantity while the shorter period of time that PH's have been available could mean unknown sides. It's no doubt a moral issue with many PH's being classed as OTC but lets face it just because it's not on a banned list (yet) it doesn't make the use of PH's morally any better than using D-bol or other oral AAS as the desired net result is pretty much the same.

The other thing to bare in mind is that even with AAS usage you still need to put in the effort to get results so it still goes back to the old addage of train hard, eat well, rest plenty. You could cruise on AAS, train lazy, eat lazy and probably not lose size or gain much BF but what's the point? What I'm getting at is that AAS improves the environment and capacity for the body to increase it's LBM BUT it still requires the stimulus of training to break down muscle fibres, the nutrition to aid repair and rebuilding and the rest for recovery so the forma 2 processes can occur.

Very nice upper body strength mate! what were your results off dbol like?

Karlos wrote:Very nice upper body strength mate! what were your results off dbol like?

More initial strength gain than lasting weight gain. I put on maybe 1-2kg fairly quickly but then this dropped off within a couple of days into PCT so more likely water weight. Main thing I noticed was weight feeling lighter than it was when initially handling it. So for Squats unracking felt like the weight was maybe 20kg lighter than on the bar but when you start hitting the reps you can feel the weight there. Strange one to explain really but I think that sensation definately gives more confidence to push more weight.

Alex wrote:

Karlos wrote:Very nice upper body strength mate! what were your results off dbol like?

More initial strength gain than lasting weight gain. I put on maybe 1-2kg fairly quickly but then this dropped off within a couple of days into PCT so more likely water weight. Main thing I noticed was weight feeling lighter than it was when initially handling it. So for Squats unracking felt like the weight was maybe 20kg lighter than on the bar but when you start hitting the reps you can feel the weight there. Strange one to explain really but I think that sensation definately gives more confidence to push more weight.

Well put Alex

AAS gives you more alphaness. Yu remore confident and willing to tackle big weights although it does obviously also make you stronger too

I think ASS gives you a more direct condition to your muslce and a pumped feeling, so you just know you can call on your strength. Alphaness, is for wimps!

Interesting to know. I definitely don't see AAS as an easy way out and I know diet, training, etc must be in place to see results. I train hard every session and diet has always been decent, but is now becoming more consistent, so AAS is something I may consider in the future. TBH, I think it's the natural path for anyone who's serious about training.

Rab wrote:AAS gives you more alphaness. Yu remore confident and willing to tackle big weights although it does obviously also make you stronger too

Because the Rilla is the true ESN alpha - he's the only one that doesn't need to add artificial alpha.

Rilla wrote:

Rab wrote:AAS gives you more alphaness. Yu remore confident and willing to tackle big weights although it does obviously also make you stronger too

Because the Rilla is the true ESN alpha - he's the only one that doesn't need to add artificial alpha.

Because Epistane doesn't count

Good sentiments Alex. Glad your training is well. Exemestane is really a great drug isn't it, have you considered a low dose of proviron also? Would work rather well for you I think.

Friday 14th January - Lower Posterior Focus

Movements

A1 - Dynamic RDL (Rest 90):3x60kg, 3x70kg, 3x80kg, 3x90kg, 3x100kg, 3x110kg, 3x115kg, 3x115kg

B1 - Zercher Squat (Tempo 3-1-x-1, Rest 120): 5x60kg, 5x70kg, 5x80kg, 5x90kg, 5x100kg, 5x110kg

C1 - DB Swing (Rest 45): 10x27.5kg, 10x35kg, 10x40kg, 10x45kg
C2 - Hanging Leg Raise (Tempo 2-1-x-1, Rest 45): 10, 10, 10, 10

Comments

Good session to finish off the week with.

Dynamic RDL is really coming along well and the bar is gradually getting lower to the floor.

Swapped out Box Squat for Zercher to keep weight down for my knees and simply worked on keeping upper body completely upright and getting drive from the back of my legs rather than loading onto Quads. Forgot a towel to wrap the bar so had to reply on sleeves on my hoodie and stopped when form started to go and I wanted to lean forwards.

Max wrote:Good sentiments Alex. Glad your training is well. Exemestane is really a great drug isn't it, have you considered a low dose of proviron also? Would work rather well for you I think.

To be honest Proviron is one I know nothing about, so no, but certainly keen to gain knowledge.

to be honest the biggest positive change has been to my diet which on the face of it hasn't altered hugely but enough to make a fair difference to my training and how I look. I feel as though I've really got to know myself and can really hear what nutrition my body needs and is after so very much in tune with things right now.

Alex wrote:

Rilla wrote:

Rab wrote:AAS gives you more alphaness. Yu remore confident and willing to tackle big weights although it does obviously also make you stronger too

Because the Rilla is the true ESN alpha - he's the only one that doesn't need to add artificial alpha.

Because Epistane doesn't count

Hah lol. I actually forgot about that.

Alex wrote:

Max wrote:Good sentiments Alex. Glad your training is well. Exemestane is really a great drug isn't it, have you considered a low dose of proviron also? Would work rather well for you I think.

To be honest Proviron is one I know nothing about, so no, but certainly keen to gain knowledge.

to be honest the biggest positive change has been to my diet which on the face of it hasn't altered hugely but enough to make a fair difference to my training and how I look. I feel as though I've really got to know myself and can really hear what nutrition my body needs and is after so very much in tune with things right now.

Proviron is a very weak androgen, but binds to shbg same way mast and win do. Thus upping amount of free test to bound ratios. Combined with exemestane would work synergistically.

That's great to hear, I'm in the same place at the moment its so good to know how you react to things. Good stuff