Blonde will make you STRONG

[iRaise]

Well that was harder than expected......

Bit of a pain initially as I had to wait for a bench but I filled the time with some additional warm up movements.

Worked up to my working sets with 20 x 5, 40 x 5, 60 x 5 & 80 x 3. The last set actually felt quite tough so a slight panic before my first proper set at 90kg.

Anyway it turns out that as long as you take a bit of a breather it's not too bad and I managed all 4 sets of 6 plus the 3 x 3 at 95kg with loads left in the tank which is the whole idea of the programme. Leave you wanting more!!

Pauses definitely make a huge difference and I think they'll help when it comes to the main test in a few weeks. The initial push of the chest has always been my weakest point so it's good to work that. Overall a very positive start.

Joined you for an upper today

Big fan of the pause, and helps explosive strength so much too.

3x5 85/87.5 and felt good.

Kept everything else similar as I wanted to fine tune the movements a bit, felt like I was a bit heavy handed last week, and maybe even this week. Was meant to be legs today but I bit fatigued from Saturday still.

[EvilPie]

Loads of deadlifts this morning with very light weight (40kg) and trying to keep perfect form.

As my form improves I'm actually finding it difficult to lock in with such a light weight. May have to increase it a touch as the bar is now at the stage where it's off the floor before I even start to pull. I guess that's a good thing.....

[iRaise]

Loads of deadlifts this morning with very light weight (40kg) and trying to keep perfect form.

As my form improves I'm actually finding it difficult to lock in with such a light weight. May have to increase it a touch as the bar is now at the stage where it's off the floor before I even start to pull. I guess that's a good thing.....

That is a VERY good thing. The more tension you can create before you move the better. I think that's a good signal to move up too. If you can move the weight just from breathing/bracing/tension then it is pretty light. I would use that as a queue to nudge forward.

[iRaise]

Felt good with squats today

3x5 105/110. I think after a few weeks with the belt 100 for ten will be pretty easy. Pretty sure I could do one set of that now. Can't believe how helpful the belt is.

[EvilPie]

Loads of deadlifts this morning with very light weight (40kg) and trying to keep perfect form.

As my form improves I'm actually finding it difficult to lock in with such a light weight. May have to increase it a touch as the bar is now at the stage where it's off the floor before I even start to pull. I guess that's a good thing.....

That is a VERY good thing. The more tension you can create before you move the better. I think that's a good signal to move up too. If you can move the weight just from breathing/bracing/tension then it is pretty light. I would use that as a queue to nudge forward.

This was pretty much my thinking. I had to slacken off a bit in order not to fall backwards so definitely need a bit more counter balance.

Going by how my lower back, glutes and hamstrings are feeling right now I must've been doing something right. To say it was only 40kg I'm fucked

I've watched a few videos where they say that just creating tension for a DL should be workout in itself. I now see what they mean!!

[muckthenuts]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

[arbboy]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

Watch the eddie video and he does twice that a day with ease.

[EvilPie]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

I used to do about 5500 a day when I was training like a beast but that was just to maintain my body weight. I never 'bulked' just grew steadily over the years and then maintain a steady 16st 10lb or so.

You're quite small aren't you? 5000 seems ridiculous unless you're some kind of power lifter going in for competitions. Do you have aspirations to get huge and lift 3 times your body weight?

Dirty bulking makes no sense at all to me unless you want to be fat. Sure you'll get a bit stronger than you would on 2000 fewer 'clean' calories but until you've got the commitment to train a ridiculous amount with specific goals there's no point.

First thing you need to sort is your training programme. Decide what your goals are and then develop a programme to suit. Is it pure strength with zero regard for how you look? Do you just want to get jacked?

I'm currently weighing in at around 15st 10lb and I train hard 4 or 5 times per week. I maintain my body weight with a reasonably lean shape on about 3500 calories and I'm getting steadily stronger. I believe you're smaller than me and I don't think you train as much as I do. What do you think 5000 calories will do to you? I know what it's do to me and that's make me fat.

Where did your friend get 5000 from anyway? Sounds like a lovely round figure probably plucked out of thin air with no real reasoning behind it. Did he weigh you and also ask how much you want to weigh?

[EvilPie]

Also not too sure about this 5 seconds up 5 seconds down idea. It's a decent thing to throw in occasionally but if he means to do it all of the time it's not going to work.

All that'll happen is you won't be able to move much weight and your body will adapt to doing slow movements. You may even turn in to a sloth. Possibly a fat sloth but a sloth nevertheless.

Put it this way, if 5 seconds up 5 seconds down was a great way to build muscle or get strong then why doesn't any strong man or body builder do it?

Just stick to picking heavy things up off the floor, sticking them on your back and squatting down and also lying on your back and moving them up and down from your chest.

You'll get there eventually.

[iRaise]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

That sounds incredibly bro advice.

Tempo has an effect, but you are waaaaay off needing to worry about tempo. You can start talking tempo when you have trained consistently for 5-7 years. If you are bad at the movement, or haven't done enough of the movement to be good, keep practicing the movement.

Cod liver oil and eggs are a bit lol. You could go on a huge list the 'naturally boost testosterone'. If you want to boost testosterone to a game changing level, take testosterone. Test levels are about as minutia as you can get right now. Eat eggs for calorie density and health, take cod liver oil for health too.

This is why its bro advice (unless you didn't tell him 3.3 was a struggle) I cant remember your BW but I am sure you said its like 65kg so I will go off that assumption. Something like 3,000 Calories will be absolutely fine. You just have to BE CONSISTENT. If you ate 3000 KCALs for a year, trained 3-4 times a week for a year, progressively increased your training over a year you cannot not make progress.

I don't know if its cos its January and the world has just lost its head, but KEEP IT SIMPLE, and do it a lot.

If you are 110kg, then you probably should be using 5-6k KCAL to gain weight, maybe even more. If you have been lifting consistently for 5 years, then maybe you should look at tempo, and if you are a 50 year old guy maybe you should look at hormone replacement therapy. But if you are a mid twenties, 70kg relative newbie... JUST KEEP IT SIMPLE/BE CONSISTENT.

[iRaise]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

Watch the eddie video and he does twice that a day with ease.

He drinks like 4000-5000 of them no? IF anyone physically ate 10,000 worth a day that would be unreal.

[iRaise]

Had a chat today with a sort of friend who gave me a bit of advice. Suggested trying 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down in my movements to build muscle and adding cod liver + whole eggs into my diet as a natural testosterone booster. These I can do.

However, he also m reckoned I should be on 5k calories a day. Not what I wanted to hear given 3.3k is hard enough to do let alone without doing a dirty bulk. 5k seems ridiculous to me. How on earth does anyone get through that much food on a daily basis

I used to do about 5500 a day when I was training like a beast but that was just to maintain my body weight. I never 'bulked' just grew steadily over the years and then maintain a steady 16st 10lb or so.

You're quite small aren't you? 5000 seems ridiculous unless you're some kind of power lifter going in for competitions. Do you have aspirations to get huge and lift 3 times your body weight?

Dirty bulking makes no sense at all to me unless you want to be fat. Sure you'll get a bit stronger than you would on 2000 fewer 'clean' calories but until you've got the commitment to train a ridiculous amount with specific goals there's no point.

First thing you need to sort is your training programme. Decide what your goals are and then develop a programme to suit. Is it pure strength with zero regard for how you look? Do you just want to get jacked?

I'm currently weighing in at around 15st 10lb and I train hard 4 or 5 times per week. I maintain my body weight with a reasonably lean shape on about 3500 calories and I'm getting steadily stronger. I believe you're smaller than me and I don't think you train as much as I do. What do you think 5000 calories will do to you? I know what it's do to me and that's make me fat.

Where did your friend get 5000 from anyway? Sounds like a lovely round figure probably plucked out of thin air with no real reasoning behind it. Did he weigh you and also ask how much you want to weigh?

16stone is around 105KG right?

Me and Matt mostly agree there

[iRaise]

Also not too sure about this 5 seconds up 5 seconds down idea. It's a decent thing to throw in occasionally but if he means to do it all of the time it's not going to work.

All that'll happen is you won't be able to move much weight and your body will adapt to doing slow movements. You may even turn in to a sloth. Possibly a fat sloth but a sloth nevertheless.

Put it this way, if 5 seconds up 5 seconds down was a great way to build muscle or get strong then why doesn't any strong man or body builder do it?

Just stick to picking heavy things up off the floor, sticking them on your back and squatting down and also lying on your back and moving them up and down from your chest.

You'll get there eventually.

I know some BB that do throw it in occasionally. I think its more of an alpha/psychology thing. The current trend in BB is starting to become more heavy weight and cluster sets. So doing a 3x5 in as short a time as possible. But it doesnt even matter. For hypertrophy you just have to keep increasing volume over time and you cannot go wrong.

Agree with Matt again. It is a time/execution/patience issue, not a knowledge issue.

[muckthenuts]

I think i'm about 75kg now roughly.

Thanks for the great advice everyone, Matt managed to make me laugh with his. Keeping it simple seems about right it is great to share this info in the thread and get your opinions, so thanks for that.

I'm intending on training strength at the moment doing 5x5 on 5 compound movements with some pull ups and dips at the end. I plan to do that until about May time. Then i mean i really, really, really want to try and strip some body fat off after that. Since coming back from travelling i have become beyond skinny fat and i just hate it so much right now. Makes less sense to do it now perhaps, but i'm hoping if i work consistently hard until May time cutting will be more justifiable.

[iRaise]

I think i'm about 75kg now roughly.

Thanks for the great advice everyone, Matt managed to make me laugh with his. Keeping it simple seems about right it is great to share this info in the thread and get your opinions, so thanks for that.

I'm intending on training strength at the moment doing 5x5 on 5 compound movements with some pull ups and dips at the end. I plan to do that until about May time. Then i mean i really, really, really want to try and strip some body fat off after that. Since coming back from travelling i have become beyond skinny fat and i just hate it so much right now. Makes less sense to do it now perhaps, but i'm hoping if i work consistently hard until May time cutting will be more justifiable.

When your 75kg tho, you will look significantly better by adding muscle mass. So from an illusion point of view, if you add 5kg of muscle but keep fat the same, you look so much better. If you are 110kg and add 5kg muscle it might not change your shape at all.

So I honestly wouldn't worry about BF right now. Just focus on muscle mass and let it all happen. Your training plans seem really legit, you just have to keep doing it.