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Hi everyone

I decided to continue my training journal over here. Yes I a former Hitter but my gains truly sucked ass so I switched .




About me

Im from Australia
Im 27 years old been lifting for 6 years (about 5 years of that was HIT)
Height -Im about 5'10 or 11 (I Forget!)
I weigh 87.5kgs currently
Bodyfat is unknown but Im a little chubby (No visible abs)

Goals I would really just like to be as big as possible! (like most of you here) I want to increase my strength and size.I want to lean up too but will work on that seriously in a couple months as summer aproaches.

Here is my current Routine which at the moment is delivering great results.
Mon
Bench 3x3
Chin 1x5
Bi/Tri work for 3x6 (1 exercise each)

Tues
Squat 3x3
Press 3x3
Deadlift 2x3 (currently working on form for these so rep range may change)

Thurs
Bench 5x5 static weight
Chin 5x5
Bi/Tri 3-4 sets of 7 -12 reps

Fri
Squat 5x5 static weight
Press 4x5 static weight
Dumbell Row 3-4x5 static weight

Current Maxes
Squat- 102.5kg x3 reps (last rep was a bit of a stinker so Ill probably call this a 2RM!) I also managed 100kg x4 on Monday.
Bench-80kg x3 (HUGE PR for me!!)
Deadlift-137.5kg x1
Chin BW+12.5kg x5 reps
Press-45 x2 (man I suck at these I wanted 3)

Diet

This is the area that I have to think about the most.I have always gained a little fat while bulking but now Im trying to add a bit slower becuase Im already a tad chubby so I dont want to turn into a lardass.I'm following IAs timed carb diet ATM ,My main problems have been too many carbs I think.I am splitting my diet into 2 phases so to speak.During the first part of the week my cals are very close to maintenence or slightly under, due to the low volume of work but come thursday i tend to crank the calories up as thats when my training volume is higher.Doing it this way I have not registered a waist increase in a couple months.I eat about 1.5grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (I simply cant afford 2grams!) and as mentioned my carbs are higher around my higher volume days.

Ill get a vid up when I can for deadlifts so you guys and gals can tear my form to pieces if need be

Cheers HIThopper

Ok guys so this week I reset my weights a few weeks back and did some 3x5s instead of 5x5.All went well but squats felt a bit heavy still, I might have to reduce them a tad more and work back up and hopefully over!

Still on the timed carbs thru sunday to thurs, friday and sat are carb days, man I am sick of tuna and I am getting drastically low on wpc! hope it arrives soon.

This weeks workload
Performance
Squat 3x3 95kg ( I reset these according to my 1x3 PR not my 3x3 PR DUH!!)
Bench 3x3 75kg
Chin 1x5 BW+12.5kg
Deadlift 2x3 115kg
Press 3x3 38.5kg

Stress
Squat 3x5 83.5kg awesome pump from these
Bench 3x5 70kg
Chin 3x5 BW+2.5
Press 3x5 32.5kg

So this week Ill move to 5x5 on my lifts I may add some very small weight to some exercises but the increase in volume should be enough to get things going again.Like I said squats were feeling heavy so I will make the needed adjustments.

Cheers HIThopper

Hey Hopper,

Good to see you're started a journal as well. I'll be checkin' in regularly mate!

Boy, looking at your PR's, you've come a long way since the dark ages. Good on ya.

Cheers,
Jeff

hey, HH!!! great to see you here, I think you'll like this place, lots of knowledgable blokes and folks!
i agre with Jeffo, your PR's show a remarkable amount of progress in a pretty short amount of time. once again i give you major props for your work ethic and dedication!

__________________

Keep up the good work

Thanx widdoes!! will do mate!!

Hi hopper hows it going mate!
Im glad to see your trainings still going in the right direction, good stuff!
My trainings going ok though the last few weeks ive only been doing lightish stuff, with it being summer (dont want to eat loads, and get fat) and having an extremely heavy workload hasn't helped either.
Ive just started back on a basic strength program working my way back up, ill probably go into more detail when I get into PR territory.
Keep up the good work and keep us informed!

Jonson

OK guys it appears Im hammered from fatigue here!! I need you big guys to put your training caps on!!

Firstly heres my best relative efforts so far

Squats 3x3 static weight 97.5kg
Squats 5x5 90kg static weight

Bench 3x3 78.5kg static weight
Bench 5x5 72.5kg static weight

In the past 2 weeks I've done a Taper week where I just did 1 set on each exercise for a new RM and then the next week I reset my weights fractionally and did just 3 sets on the 5x5 days to ease my way into things.I've been going like this for a good 9 months now and not hit a plateau really at all.Doing the lower vol higher intensity week has always been enough to let me keep progressing for longer, until now, I did the same as usual and still everything feels heavy as shit (squats and benches have been the worst affected) and I know if I keep going Ill stall out and regress, my question is what do ya think I should do next?

I was thinking of backing the weights off further and staying with the reduced volume for a week longer, then seeing how I feel next week and starting from a nice easy 5x5 on my core exercises.Also what do you think I should reset the weights to? eg squats 5x5 @80kg? more ,less?

Hers my routine for your reference


Mon
Bench 3x3 static
Chin 1x5
Bi/Tri work for 3x6 (1 exercise each)

Tues
Squat 3x3 static
Press 3x3 static
Deadlift 2x3

Thurs
Bench 5x5 static weight
Chin 5x5 static
Bi/Tri 3-4 sets of 7 -12 reps

Fri
Squat 5x5 static weight
Press 4x5 static weight
Dumbell Row 3-4x5 static weight

The other thing I was thinking of is changing the 3x3 static weight days (mon and tues) to a 3x3 ramping to a top set of 3.Your thoughts ladies and gentlemen would be great.Thanks in advance to anyone who helps!!

Cheers HIThopper

Hey Hops,

I have to say first off, that you've kicked some serious arse in the last 9 months. Your strength gains have definately been worth writing home about.

That said, all that progress over 9 months probably means it's time to change things a bit. Here's some stuff to consider.


I'd suggest following the example of your chins. Remember when you just couldn't add any weight to your chins? Well, instead of doing the 30 reps spread out (3x5 two days a week), you started doing them on a stress - performance set-up like the Texas Method (5x5 on stress day and 1x5 on performance day). You're still doing 30 reps, but it's organized differently. Follow that example with the rest of your lifts like you've suggested already. Ramp to a top triple, a top 5, or a few singles at the beginning of the week, and let the larger workload at the end of the week be the stress that drives progress. Till now, both your squat and bench days have always been pretty stressful.

Over the last 9 months you've always loaded then tapered. Normally you start off and increase the training load over a 4-6 week period, setting PR's in the process, get tired and then do a week or two taper, set some more PR's and then start loading again. This format works very well for a lower intermediate, as you've proven yourself, but you're probably starting to get beyond this now.

It's probably a decent idea to start including easy periods, and that includes decreasing the intensity as well, not just the volume; "pure deloads" so to speak. If you start using something like a 4 Day "Texas" style thing described above, take an easy week or two every 6 weeks or so. After the two easy weeks, back off a couple of weeks, perhaps change the perameters (from 5x5 to 8x3 for example), and build back up again. Four to six weeks of PR's might be about all you can handle at one run before fatigue starts becoming a problem. If you want to taper before going into the easy periods, you can give that a try as well. The main point is that the balancing act gets tougher as you go and you need to pay more attention to the easy periods to keep that ballance from getting too out of wack.

Just looking through my records on the Squat when I started training more Texas-like, I was able to progress fine on 1x5 on stress day for a while before fatigue became a problem. I then needed a 2 week easy period and a 3 week build up on 1x3 before I got to the equivalent of my 1x5 PR. After that, I was able to do 5 weeks of PR's at 3RM before I needed to deload again. I also needed to push the sets on stress day to get the last two weeks of PR's.

Anyways, that's a lot of junk to consider. I'm sure others will have other ideas about how to keep things going. Maybe I'll think of something else later.

Take 'er easy mate,
Jeff

Ooops, I made a mistake. There's no edit function, so I'll have to re-write part of it.

" Normally you start off and increase the training load over a 4-6 week period, setting PR's in the process, get tired and then do a week or two taper, set some more PR's and then start loading again. "


Should read:

" Normally you start off and increase the training load over a 4-6 week period, setting PR's in the process, get tired and then do a week or two taper, SETTING some more PR's in the process, then start loading again straight away. "


My grammar mistake made the meaning incorrect. Sorry.

Jeff