Commanding My Body

[Commander]

I've been pushing superhard for the last 5 weeks. Time to cut volume a bit and supercompensate.

I am used to training often and with a pretty decent amount of volume. Cutting back volome roughly 50% will be mentally challenging. But I hope it will pay dividends since I've been putting in work.

Maybe my body will creep up over 200 as I supercompensate/recover.

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64 days to get as massive as I can

Monday - cut out 4 sets of DB Press and 3 sets of Suspended Pushups, reduced volume on OH press

Flat Bench
202.5x10, 5 sets

Seated, Standing, Push OH Press (as weight increased)
95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 130, 140x6
120x6

Active Rest:
Lat Pulldown
115x15, 10, 10, 10

Band Underhand Row - really focusing on lower lats

1 Arm Rope OH Press

[Commander]

63 days - time's running out

Tuesday - 60% volume for deload (sets of 3 instead of 5), skipped leg extensions as well, did some light walking lunges instead

Squat
220 (plus 10) 290x3
300x7
235x12

As I mentioned a few posts ago, one of the keys to my program is dominating the weight. As such, the weight I can use is typically one where I can do continuous reps.

But occasionally, it's fun to strain, and do sets where you need to take a breath or two between reps. And since the volume is lower during deloads, I like to go a bit heavier. 300x7 is the best squatting I've done in awhile! Each rep was still dominated, just had to take a little break in between a few reps.

DB Walking Lunges
20 each hand x 12 each leg, 3 sets

superset with

Suspended Bridge Leg Curl
BWx8, 3 sets

Active Rest:
Tricep Pushdown
Band Rows

[Airelpaso]

Awesome journal! So is it safe to assume your no longer doing the IF? What does a daily diet look like to get in 6k calories?

[Commander]

Originally Posted by Airelpaso

Awesome journal! So is it safe to assume your no longer doing the IF? What does a daily diet look like to get in 6k calories?

Thanks for the kind words!

Actually I still use IF. I don't eat until after my first workout. Lately, that's been at 11:00 am.

Periworkout 11am - 600 calories
Feast after workout 12:30pm - 3200
Dinner 5pm - 1000
Late Snack 9pm - 600

Total 5400 (for 1 workout)

If I workout twice, then I don't really use IF because I like to eat afterward, for example:

Periworkout 6am - 600 calories
1/2 Feast after workout 7:30am - 1600
Periworkout 11am - 600 calories
1/2 Feast after workout 12:30pm - 1600
Dinner 5pm - 1000
Late Snack 9pm - 600

Total 6000

Now I am actually at more like 5700 right now, I did push it up to 6000+ for a few days to get the weight moving since I was stalled.

[Commander]

62 DAYS

Wednesday - reps of 3 and 5 instead of 5 and 8, 60% volume roughly

Flat Bench
215x3, 4 sets
225, 235, 245x3
255x5 - in PR range
192.5x5, 4 sets

superset with

Chinups - 1 second hold at top
BW+60x3, 12 sets

OH Press
100x6, 3 sets

1 Arm OH Rope Press

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I hoped bodyweight would increase as volume decreased and food intake remained the same (supercompensation). But I woke up at 196 today.

[Commander]

61 days...and weight is not budging....who else can eat this much and not gain weight....even while deloading?

Thursday - continue deload, coming off midnight shift

HFSW - High Frequency Strength Work

If any of you are T-Nation readers, you are familiar with this. Basically, it is taking a weight you can dominate (i.e. use compensatory acceleration training), on several big lifts and doing them at the beginning of the workout. Dominating it helps 1) create a hypertrophic response even with lighter weights 2) trains you to be explosive with heavier weights and 3) primes you for the rest of the workout.

However, in this case, I didn't care about #3 because I wasn't doing anything else. Just the minimum to get a stimulus since I was spent from the midnight shift.

3 sets of 8 for each:

Bench
175
Squat
205
OH Press
105
Deadlift
291

Added 2 bonus sets of deadlifts since it was my normal deadlift day. So I actually did 5 sets of 8 for deadlift.

[Commander]

60 days left to put on size!

Friday - final day of DELOAD, 2 and 4 reps instead of 3 and 6, plus cut some sets

Lunch

Flat Bench
237.5x2, 4 sets
247.5, 257.5, 267.5x2
272.5x4 - PR!
202.5x3, 4 sets

DB Bench
76x12, 1 set

Active Rest During Bench:
a) Bicep Barbell Curl
60x8 - hold peak contraction

b) Lat Pulldown
115x10 - 1 second hold at peak contraction

OH Press - followed by 1 arm rope press
98.5x12, 2 sets

[Commander]

Capitalism Works!

From National Review:

(Steve) Jobs was sometimes criticized for not being a philanthropist along the lines of Bill Gates. Take this article, for example:

Last year the founder of the Stanford Social Innovation Review called Apple one of “America’s Least Philanthropic Companies.” Jobs had terminated all of Apple’s long-standing corporate philanthropy programs within weeks after returning to Apple in 1997, citing the need to cut costs until profitability rebounded. But the programs have never been restored.

CNN, being CNN, misses the point. Mr. Jobs’s contribution to the world is Apple and its products, along with Pixar and his other enterprises, his 338 patented inventions — his work — not some Steve Jobs Memorial Foundation for Giving Stuff to Poor People in Exotic Lands and Making Me Feel Good About Myself. Because he already did that: He gave them better computers, better telephones, better music players, etc. In a lot of cases, he gave them better jobs, too. Did he do it because he was a nice guy, or because he was greedy, or because he was a maniacally single-minded competitor who got up every morning possessed by an unspeakable rage to strangle his rivals? The beauty of capitalism — the beauty of the iPhone world as opposed to the world of politics — is that that question does not matter one little bit. Whatever drove Jobs, it drove him to create superior products, better stuff at better prices. Profits are not deductions from the sum of the public good, but the real measure of the social value a firm creates. Those who talk about the horror of putting profits over people make no sense at all. The phrase is without intellectual content. Perhaps you do not think that Apple, or Goldman Sachs, or a professional sports enterprise, or an Internet pornographer actually creates much social value; but markets are very democratic — everybody gets to decide for himself what he values. That is not the final answer to every question, because economic answers can satisfy only economic questions. But the range of questions requiring economic answers is very broad.

[Commander]

Saturday

Early Afternoon - leg focus

3 sets of the following:

Bench
177.5x8

Squat
210x8

OH Press
107.5x8

Deadlift
291x8

Squat
170 (plus 20) 250x6
230x6
230x10, 5, 5 - rest pause

Later Afternoon (1 hour after completion of first workout) - arm focus

3 sets of the following:

Bench
177.7x5

Squat
210x5

OH Press
107.5x5

Deadlift
291x5

Meadow's Crazy 8 Arms: 3 rounds of the following, 9 reps each
Barbell Curl, 60
Hammer DB Curl, 22
Band Curl
Tricep Rope Pushdown, 45
Tricep DB Kickback, 12
Suspended OH Extension

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Weighed in at a plump 201 Sunday morning. Fasting most of today, so I'll definitely be a bit lighter tomorrow, but it was nice to see 200+ on the scale.

[HardCory]

There's something about the #200 that makes a man feel good.