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Old 11-06-2008, 01:50 PM
EricT EricT is offline
Rank: Heavyweight
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 6,314
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Sorry couldn't wait for permission.

My Training History
By Darkhorse

I had some pretty bad habits since joining the Marine Corps back in 1999. Most notably, I never really worked legs, and never deadlifted in favor of different rowing variations. I had two theories back then. One was that I didn’t want to work my legs since I was always running and hiking every day being in the infantry. Being a non commissioned officer, if I was to fall out of a hike, I didn’t think the excuse of doing squats the day before would fly lol. The second reason was what I’m sure 90% of trainees think in the back of their minds: Girls pay more attention to the guns than quads!

So what happens when you don’t focus very much on the squat and deadlift? Well, all my lifts hit a plateau. So did my weight gain. I’ve always had some good genetics, and weight gains for me would come in bunches. I’d have three pounds gained in one week, check the scales a few weeks after that and be five pounds heavier, which was always followed by a long dry spell before magically gaining again. Mind you, I’m talking about after I got back from Iraq weighing a very unnatural and undernourished 160 lbs, so the gains were almost entirely muscle.

Back then, it wasn’t unheard of to have my spotter pick up the heavy dumbbells and hand them to me to rest on my knees before a hardcore incline set. A lot of my lifts suffered because of my weak links. Most notably among my muscle groups was my back days. My lower chain couldn’t handle the weight my upper body could pull. Barbell rows, T-bar rows, ect. I’d have to continuously lower the weight in favor of dropping my upper body lower to the ground.

Here is a piece of my journal I found back in the beginning of 2005.

2005

Monday

-Legs
1.Squats: 225 x 6, 275 x 6, 275 x 6
2.Front Leg Extensions: Used the stack for 3 sets of 6
3.Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 225 x 6, 275 x 6, 275 x 6

Tuesday

-Chest/Abs
1.Flat Bench Press: 315 X 6, 335 X 5, 335 X 4
2.Incline Barbell: 275 X 5, 275 X 5, 275 X 5
3.Decline Barbell: 275 X 5, 275 X 5
4.Weighted Dips: 45 X 8

If you cannot see a major discrepancy between upper and lower, then you’re lost in the sauce LOL.

That’s the point when I really started reading the forums. I came in thinking I was the bomb benching 365 x 1 staying 100% natural when many others were struggling with 315 lbs mid cycle! However, I had a dark secret: My squatting sucks and deadlifting was almost non existent. First time I tried deadlifting, I was able to get 315 x 8 if I remember correctly. So I wasn’t in terrible shape, but knew that if I TRULY wanted that barrel chest and 20 inch arms, I’d have to seriously address those deficiencies.

Where to go from here? Well, I started doing some heavy reading. One article I remember more than most was from Brawn called, “Squatting for Big Arms”. I thought it was bullshit until I really thought about the MESSAGE it was trying to convey:

Big full body lifts = Big full body growth response!

I came to the ultimate conclusion that I needed a program that was completely modeled around the squat and deadlift. I chose the 5 x 5 which was a three times a week, full body workout program. The programs themselves were modeled by Bill Starr. To me it just made sense to invest some serious time into squatting three times a week to bring it up. Of course NOW I’d never hang with that, but back then it was perfect.

So, I remained on Bill Starr’s 5 x 5. My first full run through was a big success. I still have my old journal for that as well. Here’s the totals:

Week Four: Max 5x5, 1x5

Olympic squats: 245 (5x5), 275 (5x5 pyramid)
Deadlifts: 345 (5x5)

Week Eight: Max 3x3, 1x3

Olympic squats: 290 (3x3), 315 (1x3 pyramid)
Deadlifts: 440 (1x3)

Upon completion of the program, I continued addressing my weak points with an upper/lower setup. After that, I went back to the dual factor 5x5 and ran back to back volume phases which saw my A2G squat go up to 315 x 6 butt sitting on calves. From then on, I was in the zone. I had developed such a liking for squats and deadlifts that I spent the next year conjugate training. Shortly thereafter I’ve found my way to working with ironaddict trying to continue increasing my lifts while cutting down the fat.

All of which brings me to today. I have seen an incredible amount of carry-over to all my lifts. All my plateaus were shattered. I increased my muscle mass substantially, my old favorite bench pressing went from 365 x 1 to 405 x 1 no problem. My ass to the grass squatting hit an all time high of 440 lbs, and 530 lbs deadlifting raw (belted only). And remember me mentioning the “Squatting for Big Arms” article? Well, in my case I added another 1 ¾” to my arms bringing them a shade under 20”.

So where am I now?

My number one goals are STRENGTH and CONDITIONING. Dave Tate has said, "Get in shape to train, don't train to get in shape." There was plenty of times over the years where I'd have to lay down on a bench between sets because I was winded. Other times I'd need 3 minutes between sets which is fucking pathetic.

Problem has since been solved, bigtime. Nowadays, I drag my sled twice a week for conditioning on my off days. Training days I've incorpertated around 10-15 minutes of warmups before training. As detailed in elitefts's basic training manual, I'll do a circuit on upper body days consisting of gluteham raises or reverse hypers, pushups, rows, and abs. I started off with just one run through, but now I can do 3 run throughs with fairly heavy weight without it affecting anything other than increasing my PR's. Along with all that, I've really been watching my stop watch between every set and keep STRICT rest periods. Using an upper day as an example, I could start with bench press w/ 2-3 minutes rest, then as my day progresses, the rest drops because to me, only the bench matters. By the end, I'd be doing some high rep band pressdowns w/ 20 seconds rest.

Training: I've had great success with moderate volume 4 day routines with a decent amount of overlapping for pure muscle mass, and a lot of it. However, the best routine is usually the hardest unfortunately lol. IA's 5x5 was perhaps the very best routine I've ever done for strength AND mass. I think one of my pics w/ the grey wife beater was towards the end of that program. I've been doing Westside for the longest time since then.

Eventually though, as much as I love 4 day routines, I simply cannot continue on them in my predicament. I'm working upwards of 60+ hours a week on top of a family. So for the past few months I've been strength training THREE days a week max, and of course sled dragging in between. I'm only human lol, and I need my sleep. Still, I've been continuing to increase my strength bigtime with ONLY three days per week, and fairly low volume each day. That said, four exercises could take me almost an hour hauling ass because I have a great strength foundation.

So currently, it's only 3 days training in a gym, 1-2 days sled dragging per week. Dieting wise, I do very well with carbs in moderation. I'm using redpoint's cutting diet because I love the way they lay the carbs out. The beauty of that diet is that I use it consistantly even though I'm not even cutting lol. I just put the calories at 3,500 case closed.
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.
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