[B]

How long are you giving yourself between sets mate?

If rest periods are reasonable, it sounds like a conditioning issue – unless you are ungodly strong!

I am not that strong. I lifted 175kgs for 8 Reps @ 87kg bodyweight. But after that I am fried. After that I am not able to focus on another set at high intensity of Rdl. But this was the case my whole training career. One explanation was that I would have higher amounts of type 2 in the muscles, but that even occurred when my conditioning was very high. Rests are at least 4 Minutes.

A Drop to 140kg leaves me with 9 – 10 reps. So there is a massive Decline. But the First set still goes up. So 4 plates ahead.

[B]

Hey everyone,

Training is fine, but one thing bothers me:

After my top set RDL there is no energy left for a good second set. Just substitute with maybe one set leg curls to stay on the volume?

Still U/L 3 times a week.

[B]

Do they are called like this now? Then yes. My Lats grew a bit since doing them progressively.

[B]

Yesterday I tried incline pressing on lever arms. It was good although not converging. The Pump was kind of strange and the feeling in the chest also. Not bad, but different.

Interestingly after that my high incline barbell presses worked way better. And even the Dips as third exercise could get an extra rep on both sets.

But the questions remain:

1. Are you guys think I am too fat to push further?

2. And would an addition of a bit of push volume even not make sense if looked at the fact I only do U/L 3 times a week? (with switching from FB to U/L following oscars advice I added back volume and the back progresses like nothing other; was from about 6 Sets a week on FB to 9 Sets a week)

Maybe an important aspect to know: As body fat levels and general goal I would be happy with a composition of Henry Cavill in justice league. For a guy that would stand about 60kg at 185cm this would be a good result I think. So aim is not too deep down with body fat.

[B]

As I had have a similar problem I want to add in something. Firstly I do not argue against the pros here. Never would.

But what did a good job for me was unilateral Lat pulls along the line of pull. They teached me how to use the lats instead of only teres and biceps. Of course at some level of strength this can’t be stabilized anymore I think. But for me that worked better than lat pull downs or pull-ups.

Oscars videos teached me how to do this.

[B]

Also I think it’s important to state I only do U/L three times a week. So volume and frequency and volume is a bit less. But that seems to only be a problem for chest.

[B]

I’d be tempted to put a machine press in there instead of a free weight moving exercise. Do you have any decent machines in your gym ?

Hello Haider,

i have two lever armes in my homegym that I could modify to an incline angle but they would not converge. Here I would have the options of either tucking the arms a bit in (mostly like Oscar does on his incline machine press) or spread them out.

As you were the one who asked for the body fat, what’s your suggestion?

[B]

So maybe in addition to the pictures I thought about switching the dumbbell incline press to maybe a barbell incline press. So I would have one dumbbell and one barbell exercises. Maybe that would speed up the progress a bit as the incline dumbbell press is a staple for about a year now and switching to a barbell would give some freshness and chance to progress.

[B]

So here are some pictures. Not the best but I just have no better spot to take them. Tbh I am not that interested in the ultra lean look because I think I then will be to small for my height.

[B]

If your not soft , push your calories a bit harder and keep your weight going up and see if you can get more from your push sessions from it , as at some point , all push work stalls and then it’s just about micro loading and then letting the body weight pushes see the muscle go on

Well I think that I am about 17% Bodyfat. Legs are not soft. Upper back is not soft. Lower abs and hips are definitely soft. Upper abs and serious are visible.

I was afraid to waste gains in Back and Legs as they are progressing very good. Rate of gain is About 0,8-1% of Bodyweight per month as is tend to store excess fat on hips and belly (age or just genetic, don’t know).

[B]

How far are you into a push up phase and how much so far have you taken your body weight up in that phase ?

Hey Jordan,

i am pushing up since now 11 months. Got 6 weeks of no training due to illness and vacation but this was more or less not an issue.

My Bodyweight went up 9kg or 21 pounds. Gains are quite noticeable. think at least 4kg of this is muscle. All in all the best pushup I ever did so far. <font face=”inherit”>As i am not the youngest anymore (36) I kept the pushup a bit slower (you suggested this months ago on IG if memory serves well) but consistent. I think I got at least 5 pounds to go up. </font>Especially<font face=”inherit”> Lats (back) and quads are progressing good at them moment. </font>

<font face=”inherit”>I have very long armes, what makes pushing a bit more technically difficult. But as </font>I<font face=”inherit”> </font>can’t<font face=”inherit”> change this </font>I<font face=”inherit”> must figure out a way to push </font>through<font face=”inherit”>. </font>

[B]

Hi Guys me again.

So a small update on how it works:

Lats: Progression is fine. Can get progression every time. One or two or three more reps or add 5kg and loose 2 reps which get back up soon. Also really connect to my lats. Seems like much progression ahead. Back also improved.

Upper Back / Traps: Also noticeable but not that fast as lats. But was also quite ahead in that compartment compared to the rest of my body. Very early I fell in love with deadlifting. Thickness never was an issue.

Chest / Push: Problem Child #1. Progression is very hard. Can get up maybe 0.25kg every 10 days on a dumbbell. Reevaluated and improved technique. But I don’t know why progression here is so hard. Have very long arms (naturally a good swimmer and thrower without much effort).

Maybe (Chest) Volume too low or too high. Don’t know. <font face=”inherit”>My exercises selection I think is quite good. The more push volume in the new split takes </font>its<font face=”inherit”> toll at the later push exercises but that is normal. For example my high incline </font>dropped<font face=”inherit”> from 70 x 7 to 65 x 7 but a have to hard sets of incline </font>before instead of one. Same for Dips at position 3. Maybe adding one Set of isolation?

Hams: Are good. Although SLDL is a bit stuck. Had a hard time the last week and it completely sucked (rest was good). But as back thickness they are compared to the rest more a stronger part.

Quads: Had a good progression load wise. Mass I can’t really say, but maybe it needs more time. Also my quads are strangely sore. Sitting for a while gives me cramplike sensations. I modified my beltsquat solution, so that I do lengthened partials or 1.5 reps to train around this issue. I hit my quads very good.

Adductors: They suck. I quite the barbell squat and they now don’t get much love. Best exercises were sumo pulls.

Arms: Long and thin. But as I get them stronger they slowly get up.

Best Regards

[B]

Hello everyone,

so I just finished two rotations.

It is quite refreshing to got the body split like that. Soreness increased (due to muscle volume per workout). Bodyweight bumped up about 2 pounds. That means in about 11 months I got up circa 20 pounds. Got a bit fatter but I don’t think pulling the breaks now. Maybe 5 – 6 additional solid pounds before cutting back. Something like this:

78kg to 90kg (now 87,5), than cutting back to hopefully 83-84. Would be the best pushup in my life.

Workouts feel great, only the split squats steal my soul everytime. I hate this ones and struggle to find a good solid setup allowing me to push to failure. Failure is quite hard on these. when quads are done my glutes and hams continue …

I saw this micro loading strategy at Jordans post where he put on just a bit and then strips it down and gets couple more reps. Just a biscuit here and there whilst working the rep range up. Would you guys advise this to me to?

Like that:

40kg x 6 –> 40.25kg x 7 –> 40.5 x 8 … –> back to 40kg x 10 …

Great to read it worked well for you. Just a note when you reach your peak weight I’d then hold at maintenance calories for a period say 6 weeks let that new muscle tissue stick around before pulling back. With regards to adding a biscuit, those biscuits add up and it’s progress. So I’d definitely gives this a go! [/quote]
Thanks,

How should this maintain Phase get set up?

Just eating at maintenance but striving for progression in the lifts? In the last that resulted in a bit better body comp (with far inferior training approach), so I would expect to loose a bit fat because of progression while at maintenance.

Another thing:

SLDL fries me. I like this exercise very much. Reps over 8 smash my cvs.

Last week I hit 150kg x 9. A 20% reduction to 120kg just left me gassed with 10 reps. High reps here are very taxing. More so than lower. For example doing 160 x 5-6 and than the backoff I would get 140 10 for sure. Are some exercises not suited well for high reps? Quads were no problem.

What are your thoughts?

[B]

Thank you!

Yes it seems to be a “better” way to bully the reps up. Sometimes I am not able to progress by a rep (mostly pressing) – which can be frustrating. But I always manage to progress at least 250g on a dumbbell press.

And sometimes I manage both. For example yesterday I got up from 37,5kg x 6 to 37,75 x 7. But even if there would have been only 37,75 x 6 it would have been a progress.

Back and legs are just always progressing. No need to think here about this stuff. By the way, lats grew a good amount the last year. Unfortunately not enough to fill the gap between lats and lateral abs (pelvis).

[B]

Hello everyone,

so I just finished two rotations.

It is quite refreshing to got the body split like that. Soreness increased (due to muscle volume per workout). Bodyweight bumped up about 2 pounds. That means in about 11 months I got up circa 20 pounds. Got a bit fatter but I don’t think pulling the breaks now. Maybe 5 – 6 additional solid pounds before cutting back. Something like this:

78kg to 90kg (now 87,5), than cutting back to hopefully 83-84. Would be the best pushup in my life.

Workouts feel great, only the split squats steal my soul everytime. I hate this ones and struggle to find a good solid setup allowing me to push to failure. Failure is quite hard on these. when quads are done my glutes and hams continue …

I saw this micro loading strategy at Jordans post where he put on just a bit and then strips it down and gets couple more reps. Just a biscuit here and there whilst working the rep range up. Would you guys advise this to me to?

Like that:

40kg x 6 –> 40.25kg x 7 –> 40.5 x 8 … –> back to 40kg x 10 …