COMEBACK Ep. 3 - Programming for GAINZ

[@RedState420Esq]

It's very encouraging (and rare, I think) to get to follow on KZbin a professional pursuing powerlifting as a hobby. Thanks for sharing your info & advice. Once I decided to shift goals to fat loss running up to this year's 20th HS reunion, I lost a good amount of the little strength I had accumulated during the past 2.5 years. Now, working weights are cut way back and doing a Starting Strength style 3x5 for squat & deadlift, with higher volume for bench. Sat/Mon/Wed full body. Hard to complete in less than 2.25 hr, even with minimal accessories and 10 min cardio warmup. Disappointingly, had to abandon OHP 3-4 months ago. But now can prioritize bench which I neglected while prioritizing squat for a year, or so. Squat weight nose-dived hardest & fastest during this cut. Not that it was all that great anyway.

[@Fit4Life921]

glad to hear you're enjoying the channel. for your 2.25hr workouts how long are your rest intervals?

[@RedState420Esq]

Rest intervals are around 5 minutes between work sets

[@Fit4Life921]

thats part of the problem with 3x5, or even straight 5x5....when the weight gets heavy enough at that intensity you're stuck with longer rest intervals. my advice would be to see if you can cut down rest intervals by 30s-60s and go from there. for a lot of people, the difference between 3-5 minutes is more mental than anything. and a 20-40% reduction in rest interval throughout the course of your workout can save quite a bit of time

[@RedState420Esq]

The Strength Doc Thank you. Today I imposed some additional discipline with a timer. 1 min between warmup sets & 3 minutes between work sets. Shaved approx half an hour off the workout.

[@jasondavids3895]

Front rack lunges - never come across those, trying to bring up my front squat. So ill be sure to try them out, cheers for the tip

[@Fit4Life921]

Give it a shot! To get up your FS aside from regular FS, pause FS are awesome. I'd order it: FS, FS accessory like pause or tempo squat, then finish with FS lunges

[@jasonli8710]

Brace yourself long question incoming.. Opinion of combining beyond 5/3/1 and texas method for the upper body lifts running all '+' sets with joker sets and First Set Last to accrue more volume? All sets would be performed at normal 5/3/1 percentages. The rational would be to increase lift frequency to 2/3 times a week but keeping the volume high-ish. An example could be: Week1 Mon - OHP 5,5,5+ & 4x7 close grip bench & back assistance Wed - Bench 5,5,5 & Back assistance Fri - OHP 3,3,3+ & 4x7 close grip bench & back assistance Week2 Mon - Bench 5,5,5+ & 4x7 incline bench & back assistance Wed - OHP 5,5,5 & back assistance strengthening Fri - OHP 3,3,3+ & 4x7 incline bench & back assistance Then run either run a 5/3/1 week or repeat with increased training maxes before then doing a 5/3/1 week meaning volume is kept high? Alternatively run it the same way but more of a DUP style: Mon - 3,3,3+ Wed - 5,5,5 Fri - 5,3,1+ I'd just be concerned about having singles for a few weeks in a row. Cheers in advance man

[@Fit4Life921]

idk what joker sets are, i think they're an invention of jim wendler. ultimately it's going to depend on your goals but looking at it initially with 3 days per week upper body i would consider having a bit more differentiation between volume and intensity days aka sets of 3 vs 5 aren't going to change intensity by much more than 10%

[@jasonli8710]

Joker sets are just follow up sets done after the Amrap set if yourr feeling good, done heavier for the minimum rep count of the day, its just a way of getting more heavy work in. Good point, would it work if the Wednesdays were either 3x5 but light like on texas method or was done as something like a 3x10?

[@Fit4Life921]

probably 6-12 rep range

[@imd3rrtyd4n]

i'd be interested to hear exactly how you setup your sets x reps for volume and intensity days and if you ever change those. For instance, do you stick to 4x8 and just keep adding weight or do you start at 4x12 and when the weights start to feel like an rpe 9 you lower the reps per set to 4x10, then 4x8 eventually. I want to try your method because i want to rework my form on my lifts, so starting light and using a linear approach makes sense. thanks for the vids.

[@Fit4Life921]

no problem. the brief answer is i've basically kept sets x reps constant for the past 8ish weeks. rather than being quick to reduce volume, as I start approaching higher RPE I will either: repeat that wt next week or increase wt by smaller increment the following week ( i have 1.25lb plates for this purpose). yes, eventually something's got to give but IMO a lot of folks are too quick to make adjustments to total volume when intensity gets up without ever getting to learn what they're capable of. Regarding this mindset, I made a video about this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGKxi6WCbJd3aM0

[@imd3rrtyd4n]

good advice, much appreciated.

[@MuEnViFitness]

10s on front rack lunges, sure that is gonna be painfull. Paused ATG front SQs have always been the worst feeling in my abs haha.

[@Fit4Life921]

for sure! pause FS is another to add to the list that'll put some hair on your chest!

[@YoungSandwich10]

its so funny everyone talks about bro splits being ineffective because thats what like the majority of people my age do lol

[@Fit4Life921]

yeah, if u go to the gym consistently u'll make gains up to a point but bro splits are not optimal..