The Original Online BODYBUILDING SUPPLEMENTS FORUM. Advanced Techniques. Pro Tips & Insights. The Best Advice!

Good job man I hope you make some great progress throughout the feast!

Is the 5 workout bridge to more or less get me accommodated to everything I've put myself through? Or is to see where I'm at in terms of strength? Or a combination of both? Basically, is it necessary for me to progress? Were I to deviate from the program, would traction be impeded?

The 5 workout HIT phase accomplishes a few things:

1.) Get's your strength levels UP, pronto
2.) Stresses Intensity vs. Volume
3.) Establishes a new 1RM with which to work with in the GLP.

I'd highly recommend you do it as planned as it has a pretty strong track record. If pressed for time, yu might consider an abridged version. This would be 3 workout protocol as follows:

Wrkt 1: 8-10 reps format, + EDT blocks
Wrkt 2: 3-5 reps format, + EDT blocks
Wrkt 3: Establish new 1RM in the big barbell lifts, then finish with EDT blocks

Let me know your thoughts on that. Not optimal but it should work in a pinch..

That looks great Rob! I may still consider doing the 5 workout protocol, depending on how I'm feeling, I guess. My biggest concern is the length of time it would take (week-wise) to get through all 5 workouts. Each workout day consists of one of the big barbell lifts, right? The uncertainty of how long it would take for me to heal between each, given my conditioning and such, is what worries me. The abridged version looks excellent, but the idea of it not being optimal definitely irks me. How long does it usually take for people to get through all 5 workouts? Is it usually a one on one off kind of deal?

1 on 1 off gets it done in 10-12 days.

You can do it, provided you're young with good recovery. Go for it!

Feast - Days 4 & 5

The diet has been fairly clean and I am finally regaining steady energy levels, which is good. Waaaay less lethargic than I've been over the past month or so, although I am still kind of moody. That might just be a whole other issue though haha. I'm waiting on some MASS Pro right now, so I admittedly haven't implemented the intra-workout concoction yet. Nonetheless, my calories have been 3,000 or so in the past few days, pretty evenly spread.

Here are the totals for Day 4 (yesterday)

P: 270g/F: 108/C: 294
Calories: 1080+972+1176 = 3228

UPDATE

Totals for Day 5:
P: 326.4g/F: 98.2/C: 310.2
Calories: 1305.2+883.8+1240.8 = 3429.8

**Yeah, I should consume a little less protein and fat for sure. Gotta go cop some lean meats.

I'll post the total for today later. Anyway, am hoping to decrease my fat intake and the carbs. Mind you this is without the wazy maize + MASS Pro drink, so that should definitely help. Still, fat is still a little high, mainly because I have tons of ground beef and that's what I've been eating. I've been keen on the natural peanut butter too--I should probably chill out with that, but Famine made me accustomed to eating it daily and I kinda fell in love the stuff

I'm wondering what kind of protein intake I should be looking at too. I know 1.5g per lb of body weight is suggested, but considering I want to keep carbs fairly high, what would a suggested protein minimum be during the Feast. Once I figure out my macros, I should be set in terms of dieting. Right now, 3000 = maintenance.

Anyway, training has been pretty solid. Given how my weeks are organized, I've decided to split the first 5 Feast workouts into 10; one upper and one lower day. I am not sure if this is ideal/optimal. So this week will look like:

Monday: Bench
Tuesday: Squat
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Bench
Friday: Squat
Sat. & Sun.: Off, but may consider slipping in Bench on Sunday.

Of course I will perform EDT blocks during each workout as well, but I am just hoping that this approach is okay.

I feel solid in terms of strength. Yesterday, my bench work was weaker than usual (which is a given), but I'm kind of bummed because I hit 8 reps with a weight I could have done 10 with. I should have had a spotter, not necessarily to touch the bar or anything or even assist me physically, just somebody next to me just in case. The sense of security would have allowed me to crush those last 2 reps. That being the case, I could have done 8 reps with a heavier weight. So this little debacle pissed me off (I compete with myself and hate LOSING! ), but it has also amped me up for the next bench workout. Squats today went well. It's kind of funny how as I was warming up, everything felt so damn heavy. Even doing the weight I planned on hitting for 8-10, for 1 rep as a warm-up was discouraging. And yet, once I started my workset, it all felt light. It's a mental thing really. Anyway, I could have probably gone a little heavier on squats too, but I'm just going to let that be because I hit the 10 reps and felt great. Strangely, I don't think I lost much strength in my squat.

I'm psyched for the things to come!

Great feedback and great work...

Q. I'm wondering what a protein minimum would be during the Feast?

A. Minimum would be 1g per lb. Definately hit that and you'll be good to go!

Hope that helps..

Okay, time for a big update.

Feast - Day 19

Got through the first 5 Feast workouts and fortunately there wasn't really much change in my 1RMs. I only ran the workouts for bench and squat; my 1RM for bench was 365lb, and 495lb for squat. I felt really good performing these and could/should have probably tacked on more weight for both, but honestly I want to get things rolling.

My eating has been up and down, and I have admittedly cheated a couple times, that is I ate kind of dirty (e.g. pizza, calzones, etc.), but for the most part I've kept the diet clean. I am going to start alternating my caloric intake, since I've been feeling kind of bloated for the last couple of weeks and would like to cut some body fat. I will more or less be carb cycling. I will provide more details soon. My diet for today will be posted later on tonight as well. Any who, I really wish I knew how much I weigh right now. None of the scales at my school gym work--it's pretty ridiculous actually.

Starting this week, I am also going to be upping my conditioning and position specific work for football. There are 8 weeks left until training camp and I'm going to take advantage of every second I have before then to improve.

Today was GLP workout #1 for bench and it went pretty smoothly. I wasn't able to do all of the accessory I had planned out because I was pressed for time, but having gotten through bench was good enough for me. I won't let that happen again though, I'm not a fan of incomplete workouts.

Bench:
Fat Gripz + 45lb bar: x10
Fat Gripz + 180lbs x10
Fat Gripz + 195lbs x8
Fat Gripz + 220lbs x8
240lbs x8
265lbs x8
285lbs x5

I thought I'd be able to hit all of these reps man, but that last set demolished me. If you count assisted reps, I did 6, but I am not a big fan of those unless of course hypertrophy is the primary goal. Strength is more of a priority for me so I opted to stop at 6 since anything more would have definitely fried the crap out of my CNS. What befuddles me is how heavy 285 felt, especially since I hit 315 for 5 reps when establishing my 1RM. I guess it would be fair to assume that the combination of the Fat Gripz and higher volume (compared to the last couple weeks) took its toll. Anyway, I am pretty excited about squatting tomorrow and especially excited about GLP workout #2 for bench.

Sorry for the late update by the way, but I've been pretty busy with class and well despite my best efforts, I have been pretty damn social the past few weeks haha. And I'll be honest... I drank twice, but that's it, I'm done! Once was for my birthday and the other was this past weekend, but I never went overboard on either occasions. In fact, I think I have mastered the art of social drinking

Great lifts!

Keep it going man. Following along... One piece of advice: focus on quality of work vs. quantity. Just take care to observe that rule and DON'T sacrifice intensity/quality for volume.

In fact, I'd feel free to cut volume in half if it gets particularly onerous..

Feast - Day 20 through 26

So far everything has been going pretty well. I've been feeling stronger and I can't really remember the last time that I was noticeably sore. I've been going up and down with my calories, but I have been eating rather clean since my last update; in terms of my diet, I feel pretty good. Mood wise, well I am not sure if it is the Bio Forge Pro Max or the fact that I don't have AC in this summer heat, but I am certainly aggressive and irritable.

In terms of workouts, I have gone through 4 since my last update. The sets went like this for each:

GLP#1
Squats:
Set 1 (w/u) : 10
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 8
Set 5: 8
Set 6: 6 (instead of 8 )
Set 7: 4 (instead of 8 )


GLP#2
Bench:
Set 1 (w/u) : 10
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 6
Set 5: 6
Set 6: 5 (instead of 6)
Set 7: 2 (instead of 6; ended up being cluster reps too… felt terrible)

Squats:
Set 1 (w/u) : 10
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 6
Set 5: 6
Set 6: 6
Set 7: 6 (felt good about this, hit all my reps here, although I didn’t go quite as low as I would have liked for this last set)


GLP#3
Bench:
Set 1 (w/u) : 10
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 6
Set 5: 4
Set 6: 2 (instead of 4)
Set 7: 1 (instead of 4; felt like shit about this, I wonder what is up)

*w/u = warmup, which for bench is just the bar and for squats is 135lb
**I meant to put the numbers in, but really didn't feel like recalculating. 1RM for bench was 365lb and for bench was 495lb; you can do the math if you like.

I am not sure what is up with my bench. I have missed reps, but I feel as if I am missing more than the acceptable "few here and there." I made sure to take 3 days rest between GLP#2 and 3, just in case I was overworked or something, but it's as if once I get past the 300 mark, I can't quite push as much. I also take pretty long rests between sets as well. This is rather annoying; 285 vs 300 feels so different and I am not sure why. I should note that I have been using Fat Gripz, still, with the first few sets--maybe I should ditch em for now. Otherwise, I can't see what else it could be.

Anyway, other than that all is well. Conditioning is going well. People have been telling me that I look leaner, which certainly tickles my fancy but I still have a ways to go.

Geez that is odd, especially starting that early and continuing on like that. The only thing I can think of is that you're loaded with so many fast twitch fibers there aren't many slow twitch that are recruited when the going gets past 2-3 reps?

You seem to be getting plenty of recovery in between sessions too. Never seen anything like it.

I would drop the fat gripz and identify where you are failing on the later sets. If it stalls on the bottom, incorporate more wide grip work on the lighter sets. If it stalls at the top, close grips. Somewhere in the middle, medium grip.

We'll figure this out, but admittedly first time I've seen it. Otherwise, you're doing some damn fine work. I'd tell you to start over-feeding and that would get those reps up but probably to bf as well..

Keep plugging away and we'll see what happens. You are one strong Padre..

Thanks for the input Rob. I'm definitely ditching the Fat Gripz next workout; hopefully it'll make all the difference.

Today was GLP#3 for Squats and it went relatively well. The reps were:

Squat:
Set 1 (w/u): 5
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 6
Set 5: 4
Set 6: 4
Set 7: 2 (with 425 as opposed to the calculated 445)

I kind of feel like I bitched out on the last set of 4, especially considering that I only hit 2 reps with lesser weight than I "should" have used. But, I was feeling kind of funky. I loaded the weight initially, but when I get under the bar, I pretty much psyched myself out. My lower back wasn't really hurting, but it felt a little weird and I wasn't looking to strain myself physically and mentally today, considering I had speed training immediately after my workout. I could have hit the 4 reps with 425, but opted not to since I simply wasn't going as low as I wanted. It's really mental with depth for me, because I was hitting below parallel on all of my other sets, with the exception of set 6. It's as if anything above 405 psyches me out haha. But yeah, after not hitting my desired depth on set 6, the minute I saw myself pulling the same crap during set 7, I decided to stop. Overall, felt good though. Felt well rested before the workout as well. I'm hoping things start to come together a little better (overall) as the volume starts to steadily decrease.

Diet wise, still good. I have been going up and down, as I've said in previous posts, with my calories. I'm also eating a little less on non-training days, eating primarily fats and protein. On training days, I eat the majority of my carbohydrates after my workout. Pre-workout, I am not really consuming many carbs, more protein and fat if anything, and then directly pre-workout I start consuming my peri-workout drink. In terms of energy, it's been great! Who knows though, maybe that could be the reason my body isn't responding the way I'd like; then again, my bench is the only thing I'm really struggling with, since my squat seems okay for the most part. I may have to start taking all things into consideration when it comes to how and what I work out on a given day. The workout before my GLP#3 bench day, for example, which was a few days before mind you, I shrugged quite a bit despite not having shrugged in a while. My traps are still sore at this very moment (I shrugged on Sunday). Maybe my sore traps could have hindered my bench a little? Just a thought.

Starting next week, I'm going to be doing some intense conditioning work at this power lifting gym near me with one of my teammates who is probably the only kid stronger than me on the team--can't friggen wait! We're gonna be pushing some prowlers, doing positional work, dragging sleds, lifting tires and sandbags... I just have to make sure to incorporate it in such a way that it doesn't kill me--overtraining much? Thankfully, next week is my last week on the 1st GLP, after which I may look into the 10% solution, simply because I plan on switching up my schedule to a M-W-F setup anyway. Any thoughts/suggestions?

I like the move to the 10% solution.

One tip though... do give yourself at least 2 weeks after finishing up the GLP. Recall more than 3 weeks in the 90th percentile and you burn out. Use that time to build your work capacity/conditioning and get the diet down.

Other than that, I have a good feeling about that move. And working out with the new guy... will push you Good stuff.

Will do Rob. Today is GLP workout #4 for bench, so hopefully things make a turn for the better. I'm feeling great right now, but that doesn't really mean anything since I've felt pretty good before all of my bench GLP workouts thus far.

Quick question though: If mid-way through the workout I find myself not hitting my reps, do I continue to attempt the calculated numbers for the following sets or would you advise I drop the weight a little. I've dropped the weight once with squats, which I felt was fine since my legs were going to get a good workout nonetheless given it was a speed/positional work day--I have yet to do it withe bench though. Would it be better to at least attempt the calculated weight (even if I foresee myself not being able to complete the set) so that I can at least "feel" the weight, or would it be better to go lighter? I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. I was also considering leaving some gas in the tank during the early sets, that is perhaps stopping 1-2 reps short of what I am "supposed" to do so that I have energy left for the heavier sets. Your thoughts?

Thanks again for the timely responses and helpful feedback. You're really making everything a lot more manageable.

Sure man, no problem.

I definately wouldn't drop the weights and for sure wouldn't short change reps on the lighter sets. Let's just see what today brings.

Clues are usually found in your past: How did you do on the one set to failure workouts 1-5? Strength go up on those??

EDIT: I THINK I might know what the issue is... lack of rest days/recovery in between. Are you feeling fresh/recovered going into these upper body workouts?

Either way give today and go and report back. Squats seems to be going well so I'm still a bit perplexed.