Ruckin's dbol/test/eq log

[ruckin]

I'm in the middle of a short deload workout right now, power cleans with 225 feel great. Very explosive.

I decided I'm going to conduct a small training experiment with myself. Not sure if I'll start it once I start cruising or when I blast again. I'm going to be cutting all my reps in half and doubling all my sets. So total volume and intensity will remain the same, but I'l be getting in twice as many "first reps". In theory I think this will improve my neural efficiency and proficiency at the movements while still keeping workload the same. I'm only gonna do this for squats and deads though. I don't care enough about my bench to devote that much more time to it. So for example my squat workout has been:

~80% for 4x6

And the new workout for next blast would be:

~80% for 8x3

I noticed from all of you guys running sheiko that he always keeps reps much lower than whatever your rep max should be at that intensity. For example he never has you guys do more than 3-4 reps with 80% or never more than 5 with 75%

What do you guys think?

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I like the leaving many reps in the tank approach. Besides my knee thing, which is unrelated, I have zero lingering aches and pains from this method. Can't really comment on strength since I cut weight. My concern with doing your own programming this way is to watch your progression so that you don't increase weight so much you're near 3RM territory. It'll be easy to do because the sets will feel so easy.

 

[ROB581211]

I'm in the middle of a short deload workout right now, power cleans with 225 feel great. Very explosive.

I decided I'm going to conduct a small training experiment with myself. Not sure if I'll start it once I start cruising or when I blast again. I'm going to be cutting all my reps in half and doubling all my sets. So total volume and intensity will remain the same, but I'l be getting in twice as many "first reps". In theory I think this will improve my neural efficiency and proficiency at the movements while still keeping workload the same. I'm only gonna do this for squats and deads though. I don't care enough about my bench to devote that much more time to it. So for example my squat workout has been:

~80% for 4x6

And the new workout for next blast would be:

~80% for 8x3

I noticed from all of you guys running sheiko that he always keeps reps much lower than whatever your rep max should be at that intensity. For example he never has you guys do more than 3-4 reps with 80% or never more than 5 with 75%

What do you guys think?

It'll definitely be a change for you. You'll have to take long enough breaks to get that many more 1st reps out. I think if you go through it too fast you may not notice a huge difference

 

[ruckin]

I like the leaving many reps in the tank approach. Besides my knee thing, which is unrelated, I have zero lingering aches and pains from this method. Can't really comment on strength since I cut weight. My concern with doing your own programming this way is to watch your progression so that you don't increase weight so much you're near 3RM territory. It'll be easy to do because the sets will feel so easy.

Yeah I thought about that too. I was thinking a way to control that might be to limit my rest periods, maybe 2 minutes max? It's definitely take some tinkering to make it work perfectly but I think it would benefit me long-term.

It'll definitely be a change for you. You'll have to take long enough breaks to get that many more 1st reps out. I think if you go through it too fast you may not notice a huge difference

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying to make sure I take longer breaks between sets? I feel like that would make it too easy to be effective. But I also have never trained this way before so I don't really know what I'm talking about lol

 

[ROB581211]

Yeah I thought about that too. I was thinking a way to control that might be to limit my rest periods, maybe 2 minutes max? It's definitely take some tinkering to make it work perfectly but I think it would benefit me long-term.


I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying to make sure I take longer breaks between sets? I feel like that would make it too easy to be effective. But I also have never trained this way before so I don't really know what I'm talking about lol

To me if your hitting set after set with minimal recovery times it's not a lot different than doing larger sets. I shortened my rest periods way down as the program progressed and I got stronger to make it more difficult. At the same time of doing that I felt like i was borderline turning it into a hypertrophy workout instead of working on a good first push. I guess I lost that first rep feel the shorter my breaks were. Not sure if that helps explain any better.

 

[ruckin]

To me if your hitting set after set with minimal recovery times it's not a lot different than doing larger sets. I shortened my rest periods way down as the program progressed and I got stronger to make it more difficult. At the same time of doing that I felt like i was borderline turning it into a hypertrophy workout instead of working on a good first push. I guess I lost that first rep feel the shorter my breaks were. Not sure if that helps explain any better.

Yeah I get what you mean now. Good point. Since I'm training for strength and power my reps should all be as fast as possible. If doing this adds 30 minutes to my workouts I can live with that.

 

[ruckin]

Push press: 260x5x4
Parallel Squat: 385x5x4
Bench: 295x8,8,10!!!
Deadlift: -
(Rows 3x8 since no deads)
Chin ups: 278x7,0 (rp)
Face pulls: 190x16,4,2 (rp)
Shrugs: 275x15x3 (1 min rest); 275x23 w straps


Woohoo first good workout in a while. Push presses and squats felt relatively easy, definitely could have gotten a few more reps on my last sets, especially on squats but I figure I'll just be happy with it and add weight next time instead of pushing too hard today. I couldn't resist the temptation to max out on bench though, but damn am I happy with 295x10 on my last set.

Lower lat still feels a little dinged up so I decided not to test my luck on deads, and I just did some rows instead to try and keep that back muscle maintained til i can deadlift again.

 

[Seven]

Push press: 260x5x4
Parallel Squat: 385x5x4
Bench: 295x8,8,10!!!
Deadlift: -
(Rows 3x8 since no deads)
Chin ups: 278x7,0 (rp)
Face pulls: 190x16,4,2 (rp)
Shrugs: 275x15x3 (1 min rest); 275x23 w straps


Woohoo first good workout in a while. Push presses and squats felt relatively easy, definitely could have gotten a few more reps on my last sets, especially on squats but I figure I'll just be happy with it and add weight next time instead of pushing too hard today. I couldn't resist the temptation to max out on bench though, but damn am I happy with 295x10 on my last set.

Lower lat still feels a little dinged up so I decided not to test my luck on deads, and I just did some rows instead to try and keep that back muscle maintained til i can deadlift again.

Yeah hell...glad to hear ya had a good workout. [emoji2]

It was about time [emoji353] though...jeez. Lol

 

[ruckin]

Yeah hell...glad to hear ya had a good workout. [emoji2]

It was about time [emoji353] though...jeez. Lol

tell me about it. I spent the whole last month making zero gains

I'm tempted to extend my blast now that things are going in the right direction again, but I'm gonna hold off and cruise as planned so I can start cutting fat.

 

[ruckin]

I like the leaving many reps in the tank approach. Besides my knee thing, which is unrelated, I have zero lingering aches and pains from this method. Can't really comment on strength since I cut weight. My concern with doing your own programming this way is to watch your progression so that you don't increase weight so much you're near 3RM territory. It'll be easy to do because the sets will feel so easy.

@Perrin Aybara I was rereading this last page and I'm thinking about what you said here again. Do you think a good solution would be to make the last (8th) triple of this squat workout an amrap set, and add weight/progress based on that set? maybe holding it to RPE 8-9? Or do you think that would be counterproductive to the power training?

 

[Perrin Aybara]

@Perrin Aybara I was rereading this last page and I'm thinking about what you said here again. Do you think a good solution would be to make the last (8th) triple of this squat workout an amrap set, and add weight/progress based on that set? maybe holding it to RPE 8-9? Or do you think that would be counterproductive to the power training?

I wouldn't think so if you still treated the other sets as power training, one AMRAP shouldn't make or break it. I think it's a good alternative to RPE, as long as you're getting two or more reps on your AMRAP you'll know you're about where you need to be. Tons more means increase weight, less stay the same or decrease. I think it's a good solution.

I think I'd still want to rotate in another rep scheme at least once every few weeks though. Maybe a couple weeks of 8x3 and then one week of 3x8 just for a little relief and change. I'm not a fan of pounding away at the same reps week after week.

 

[ruckin]

I wouldn't think so if you still treated the other sets as power training, one AMRAP shouldn't make or break. I think it's a good alternative to RPE, as long as you're getting two or more reps on your AMRAP you'll know you're about where you need to be. Tons more means increase weight, less stay the same or decrease. I think it's a good solution.

I think I'd still want to rotate in another rep scheme at least once every few weeks though. Maybe a couple weeks of 8x3 and then one week of 3x8 just for a little relief and change. I'm not a fan of pounding away at the same reps week after week.

Good idea, I like that suggestion. ~2 weeks 8x3, 1 week higher reps.

Thank you!

 

[Perrin Aybara]

No problem.

When are you starting this again?

 

[ruckin]

No problem.

When are you starting this again?

when I start my next blast so maybe 13ish weeks from now

 

[Perrin Aybara]

when I start my next blast so maybe 13ish weeks from now

Nice, I'll still be in the beginning of mine. I start around the end of next month.

 

[ruckin]

fuck yeah another great workout.

power clean: 250x1x6 (all 6 felt very good)
push press: 225x5x2 (intentionally light)
parallel squat: 395x5x4
incline bench: 250x8x3
chins: 277x5x5
GHR: BWx8x3
bb shrugs: 315x10x3 (~1 min rest between each); 315x15 w/ straps


Squats felt great, I could have gotten 7 on my last set. Incline bench felt great too. I'm excited to flat bench 300 for 3x8 on Thursday.

Also, I committed in @RodgerThat 's food challenge thread to attempt 10k calories on Friday. Gonna be lots of chinese buffet, cereal, wendy's burgers, and burritos. Gotta finish this bulk strong.

 

[RodgerThat]

fuck yeah another great workout.

power clean: 250x1x6 (all 6 felt very good)
push press: 225x5x2 (intentionally light)
parallel squat: 395x5x4
incline bench: 250x8x3
chins: 277x5x5
GHR: BWx8x3
bb shrugs: 315x10x3 (~1 min rest between each); 315x15 w/ straps


Squats felt great, I could have gotten 7 on my last set. Incline bench felt great too. I'm excited to flat bench 300 for 3x8 on Thursday.

Also, I committed in @RodgerThat 's food challenge thread to attempt 10k calories on Friday. Gonna be lots of chinese buffet, cereal, wendy's burgers, and burritos. Gotta finish this bulk strong.

Some seriously good numbers there bud! Hopefully you got a killer workout Friday too with all those cals!

 

[ruckin]

So I may or may not have a friend irl who happens to have a ton of pharma hgh (genotropin) that he's never going to use. I would never do anything illegal, but if it wasn't against the law where I live, I'd plan to buy some off him in a few months or so when I'm better off financially (hopefully). If it were legal he'd want 200$ per kit (they're 36 iu per kit), but I'd try to get him down to around 180$ each. Idk when I'd start using it but I'd love to have that on hand for when I do decide to go that route in the future.

 

[ROB581211]

So I may or may not have a friend irl who happens to have a ton of pharma hgh (genotropin) that he's never going to use. I would never do anything illegal, but if it wasn't against the law where I live, I'd plan to buy some off him in a few months or so when I'm better off financially (hopefully). If it were legal he'd want 200$ per kit (they're 36 iu per kit), but I'd try to get him down to around 180$ each. Idk when I'd start using it but I'd love to have that on hand for when I do decide to go that route in the future.

That is quite the theoretical situation there[emoji848].

 

[RodgerThat]

I don't know ruck I think hgh is for the older folk in my opinion we are young and still got that good growth hormone in us. I'm kinda cheap that's why I say this lol cause even at 180 per 36iu and if you did just a wellness dose of 2iu that's 10 bucks a day or performing enhancement dose of 4iu is like 20 smackers a day! If you can finically afford it then I guess it's better then buying a pack of ciggerettes but don't scrape the bottom of the barrel for that