Built like a Badass

rparker wrote: »

Not very impressed by it sorry.... sounds too good to be true

What doesn't impress you exactly?

Any exercises labeled 4a 4b are to be preformed as a superset

For example on Week 1 Session 1:

3a. Seated Overhand Grip Cable Rows: 4x15
3b. Cable Triceps Pushdowns (straight bar): 4x15

You perform 15 seated rows immediately followed by 15 tricep pushdowns. Repeat 4 times.


also... for the lower body day you select either squat or deadlift for the program. So if you do squat on week 1 you do it for the 12 weeks and dont do deadlift

nilster wrote: »

MW, I'm glad you're running the program again. I hope you keep us informed, as I haven't seen anyone run it more than once. I myself am expecting to run it again next year so I'd love to see feedback from someone else that's been through it more than once.

thought id give quick update now that i finally finished it the second time around. continued to see strength gains during my second running of the programme.
bench went from struggling to get 1r @100kg to a clean 110kg 1r
squat from 100kg to 115kg
pushups went from 53 uninterrupted to 60
havent tested by pullups/deadlift yet but will be this weekend
was really happy with the results. i think one of the major things behind my increases was my diet though. the first time i ran the programme i was watching what i was eating and kept my weight down but this time around i most definitely didnt. put on a bit over half a stone during the period (not the good kind) which definitely contributed.

i would recommend the programme to someone like me who needs structure when working out. i really enjoyed it.

I'm in the middle of week 9 now, I think this is the longest I have stuck to a program ever.

It's enjoyable and I am noticing gains already. When I finish week 12 I think I will run through it again, and maybe again after that

nilster wrote: »

Hank, any particular reason to use DB's instead of a barbell for the bench? There's a lot of DB benching already built into this program, and most folks can't move as much weight with DB's as they do with a bar.

A few....first of all there's only 3 barbells in my gym so sometimes I have to wait a bit to get on. This waiting around would be doubled because of the need to use the barbell for the complex at the end. I thought a lot of the premise behind the program was to doing it sharp and quick? Also, my left arm is weaker than my right and I find benching the dbs helps lessen this. Thoughts?

Cheers

nilster wrote: »

Hank, I think with all the DB work that's already in the program, your inbalance will get addressed.

If you're committed to this gym, I think you're just going to have to wait for a barbell for your main bench variation.

However, for the complexes, I think you could probably get away with using two DB's to do the movements in the BB complexes.

Will it not nullify the intended effects of the workout if I spend longer between exercises than the recommended few minutes?
I would much rather do the complex with the barbell than dbs as it takes a lot of getting used to to do some of those exercises with dbs rather than the barbell.

Cheers.

nilster wrote: »

Sorry, Hank, I must have been confused. I thought you were saying that the Barbell's are in high demand and you didn't want to have to wait around to use them for both the bench and the complexes. In that case, I was advising waiting around for your turn on the barbell bench as it is the focus of the day, and finding some other way to get in the work of the complexes, i.e. with dumbells.

No you were right. I was just enquiring if the waiting around would nullify some of the intended effects of the workout?

nilster wrote: »

Since Bench will usually be your first lift of the day, I think you should be fine. Also, if you're worried about losing time with work-ins, for what it's worth,when I ran this I took 2-5 minute rests between top sets of the main lift on the first Upper Body day, and Lower Body day. Then 45-90 second rests for all the assistance stuff unless otherwise indicated. So if you have to share your bench time with the whole gym, just think of it as recuperation time to make sure you can give it your all on your top set. Make sense?

Perfect. Cheers lad.

So I finished week 1 of this program and I found it very enjoyable. Workout 1 is definitely the hardest. The barbell complex is a killer. I had some very shaky pushes in the 2nd set. I have a few queries though.....
Is it acceptable to do the 45 Degree Back Raises on a gym ball because my gym doesn't have the required incline bench? I find them far tougher and so I can't lift as much weight doing them. My hammys are wrecked after them.
My max chin ups was 16 so for the workout I did 4 sets of 6 reps no bother especially with the 3-5mins break. Should I have done 3x8 or does it make much of a difference?
My 100 push ups was disgraceful. I tried to do 25x4 with 45s break but I faile on the 3rd set and couldn't recover. Anybody got any other tips?

Cheers

Rossin wrote: »

16 chin ups! Good work, do you weigh five stone :-)

5 plus around 8.75.

nilster wrote: »

Hank, if you can do 16 chins, then what the program calls for on Day 3 of Week 1 is for you to do Max plus 50%, so a set of 16 followed by a set of 8.

For the back raises, whatever way you can find is fine. My gym doesn't have a 45-degree either, so I used the GHR.

Keep doing push-ups. That's the only thing I've found to improve them.

This is what I read in the FAQ
"Let’s say that you can perform 12 max chin-ups. 50% of 12 is 6. So you would add your chin-up max (12) + 6. This means that you are required to perform 18 total chins. It doesn’t matter what set/rep scheme you decide to use; you just need to complete 18 reps before moving onto the next exercise.
We don’t recommend going to failure on your first set because this tends to fry you out. In the above example, a guy that needs To complete 18 total reps may do this: 1st set = 9 reps, 2nd set = 4 reps, 3rd set = 3 reps, 4th set = 2 reps. Also, there are no required rest periods for the chin-ups on this program. Rest as long or as little as you need to complete all your reps!"

So I decided that 4x6 was the best way around it as I didn't want to go to failure on any of the sets.

nilster wrote: »

Nice one, Hank. I probably ignored that because back when I started the program I could only do a handful of chins and it didn't make sense to spread them out.

No worries. So would you recommend staying with the 4x6 or going to 3x8 or does it make much of a difference for increasing your max?

Cheers