Blonde will make you STRONG

[the sicilian]

Had an over eager gym’er this morning he saw me put the belt and wraps on while on the rack and he came over and said
 “Can I just show you something” continued stand in the rack and show me the motion of squatting and then said “try it without the wrist wraps and chalk next time” so I told him I would next time I was squatting and I continued to press the weight over my head. I think he was embarrassed for giving me unsolicited advice on an exercise I wasn’t doing.

Love this

Your OHP is light years ahead of mine. I've been stuck at 80kg for as long as I can remember and every extra kilo I try seems like I've added an elephant to the bar, 100kg+ over head is huge.

I think my problem is my core strength, I have the pressing strength there to do more but overall I can't put it together. I'd imagine with your dead lift and squat you can brace really well and form a nice base to press off.

Hahahahahaha... helpful weakling shuffles away in silence

Lol you literally can’t make it up, I was already tilted when he walked in carrying a carton of coconut water

Loool story gets better.. only the presence of sweat headband and leg warmers could improve it

[EvilPie]

That’s some great work Matt.. 120kg for 8 is super strong. Are you going for 140 or 150?

Thanks mate. My PR is 145 and I'd be happy to consolidate that as I've only done it twice in my life. If I feel good on the day I think I have 150 in me so hopefully I'll get to give it a go. I've tried it once and got about half way so not too much further to go......

My real goal is to be able to press 140 confidently for a few reps. There's something about 3 plates that just looks good when you do it for a few reps.

My training partner hit 147.5 for his 8 which was really impressive. He's got a 170 PR as well so really pushing to hit 4 plates this time round although a 10kg jump is massive when you're so close to your limit as I'm sure you know.

3 plates for reps is a good target, it’s light work though. If you’re at 120 for 8 reps I’m sure 145-150 for 3 reps in a month is sound target.

OHP is overrated, I’m 5’9 with broad shoulders so will always find it easier then people that are taller with longer levers. Plus I do headstands as part of my meditation

Official weigh in this morning 14 stone 11lbs - Damn

I should be in the ball park but I'm 45 having trained on and off (mostly on) for 25+ years so I'm pretty much at my limit and the gains are hard to come by. I'm not particularly strong genetically so it's been a long road to get where I am but I reckon there's a few more kgs there in the next year or so if I stay focussed.

I definitely had a mental block at 3 plates which disappeared just before lockdown when I hit it several times. I've got a great bench programme now which has seen improvements every time I've run through it so definitely feel like I could beat the 145 this time round.

I'm 6' 4" with long arms so yeah the bar has a long way to go on my OHP.

It's mainly injuries that hold me back though to be honest. I have more tweaks and twinges than you could imagine which comes from years of body building 'bro' type training and just being generally stupid.

If I could have a decent run at bench without an injury break I reckon 150 would be attainable but I can't remember last time I went more than a few weeks with literally nothing wrong. Dodgy shoulder and dodgy hips are the main ones for me with the added bonus of all kinds of tendon issues in the wrist, elbow, forearm, triceps area..... Fun times

Not complaining, I just have to live with it and accept that every now and then I'm going to have to slow down or even take a complete break.

Thankfully I seem to have found a programme that is keeping me injury free. I still get tweaks but nothing that has kept me away completely. Everything now is based around hypertrophy and I've completely gone away from strength or anything that has hurt me in the past. OHP, squats and dead lift have all gone and it's paying dividends. I've kept heavy bench work in because I love it but other than that everything is in the 10 to 15 rep range now.

[BangBang]

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel 1 scoop of oats bag spinach
Supplements - Creatine - caffeine preworkout (blood & guts)
Post workout - 4 scrambled eggs, broccoli 2 scoops of rice and a double espresso
Timed rest between sets - 1 minute

Had a weird morning was on the phone to Japan for an hour so didn’t have time to do my pull ups. It got to 5am and I knocked through my push ups quickly did 4 sets of 25 the last 10 were half reps so I rested for a minute and did 10 pause reps.

Gym - 6:30

My brother showed up so my split was out the window again. We trained back and chest.

Really struggling with pull ups at the moment, it’s because I’m carrying some extra weight but doing multiple sets of 10 seems difficult.

We did supersets of pull ups and flat bench working on volume and form. I got 10 reps of 130 which felt great, my brother got 6 reps of 4 plates.

Deadlift 100kg for reps with incline dumbbells 40kgs which seemed pretty taxing.
20 x incline 10 x DL.
Other auxiliary work
Weighted dips - 3 sets of 15 with 40kg weighted

Depth push ups with a pause - this was the hardest exercise super-setted with peck deck I failed on the last set of 10 only got out 6 which was embarrassing because my brother did an extra 10 while looking me straight in the eyes.

All my meetings have been cancelled today so will get an extra 20 minutes of stretching tonight.

Had a general check up yesterday and have been told that an op I had planned for January maybe pushed forward, not sure yet but if so I will be taking a break next month to recover.

What recovery regimes do you all follow?

[BangBang]

That’s some great work Matt.. 120kg for 8 is super strong. Are you going for 140 or 150?

Thanks mate. My PR is 145 and I'd be happy to consolidate that as I've only done it twice in my life. If I feel good on the day I think I have 150 in me so hopefully I'll get to give it a go. I've tried it once and got about half way so not too much further to go......

My real goal is to be able to press 140 confidently for a few reps. There's something about 3 plates that just looks good when you do it for a few reps.

My training partner hit 147.5 for his 8 which was really impressive. He's got a 170 PR as well so really pushing to hit 4 plates this time round although a 10kg jump is massive when you're so close to your limit as I'm sure you know.

3 plates for reps is a good target, it’s light work though. If you’re at 120 for 8 reps I’m sure 145-150 for 3 reps in a month is sound target.

OHP is overrated, I’m 5’9 with broad shoulders so will always find it easier then people that are taller with longer levers. Plus I do headstands as part of my meditation

Official weigh in this morning 14 stone 11lbs - Damn

I should be in the ball park but I'm 45 having trained on and off (mostly on) for 25+ years so I'm pretty much at my limit and the gains are hard to come by. I'm not particularly strong genetically so it's been a long road to get where I am but I reckon there's a few more kgs there in the next year or so if I stay focussed.

I definitely had a mental block at 3 plates which disappeared just before lockdown when I hit it several times. I've got a great bench programme now which has seen improvements every time I've run through it so definitely feel like I could beat the 145 this time round.

I'm 6' 4" with long arms so yeah the bar has a long way to go on my OHP.

It's mainly injuries that hold me back though to be honest. I have more tweaks and twinges than you could imagine which comes from years of body building 'bro' type training and just being generally stupid.

If I could have a decent run at bench without an injury break I reckon 150 would be attainable but I can't remember last time I went more than a few weeks with literally nothing wrong. Dodgy shoulder and dodgy hips are the main ones for me with the added bonus of all kinds of tendon issues in the wrist, elbow, forearm, triceps area..... Fun times

Not complaining, I just have to live with it and accept that every now and then I'm going to have to slow down or even take a complete break.

Thankfully I seem to have found a programme that is keeping me injury free. I still get tweaks but nothing that has kept me away completely. Everything now is based around hypertrophy and I've completely gone away from strength or anything that has hurt me in the past. OHP, squats and dead lift have all gone and it's paying dividends. I've kept heavy bench work in because I love it but other than that everything is in the 10 to 15 rep range now.

Understandable, I’m 40 and already feeling the burn. Tendon issues? My father suffered with tendon issues from Yoga, which also relieved the inflammation. Crazy how old age catches up to you.

I’m sure 150 for reps is still attainable though 😎

[BangBang]

@BangBang

Whats been your history of training over the years? Has it always been casual or every competitive?

Sorry for the late reply just seen this.

Very casual, more lifestyle. I’m fortunate though as a lot of my friends are/were competitive athletes and I’ve always trained with them. I did Kick boxing and wrestling from the age of 4 and boxing from the age of 10 all the way to my 20’s so I’ve always kept a decent level of fitness and strength

Did some power lifting with my brother around 20 years ago too.

Overall my level of fitness is probably at the lowest it’s ever been.

On the weekend I’ll trifle through my garage and find my old lifting numbers and post. They weren’t as high as they were in my 30s when I formed my “old man strength” but were impressive to say I was in my late teens early 20s and weighed a lot less too.

What’s your history with training? Being the deadlift man I’m assuming some sort of athletics or flexibility based sport like kick boxing or Thai boxing?

[EvilPie]

Understandable, I’m 40 and already feeling the burn. Tendon issues? My father suffered with tendon issues from Yoga, which also relieved the inflammation. Crazy how old age catches up to you.

I’m sure 150 for reps is still attainable though 😎

I had quite a bad injury when I was late 30s which really didn't help. I ended up with nerve damage down my right side and it took well over a year to get anywhere near to recovery.

The tendon thing is tricky, for many months my right wrist was at a point I couldn't do any biceps work and also any pressing was painful. Thankfully that's now gone but I still get a lot through my elbow although it's nowhere near as debilitating as the wrist pain was.

I'm not sure why but I can't do pull ups at all without hurting my shoulder. Pull ups used to be my favourite exercise when I was late 20s and I got to the point of doing double figure reps, perfect form, with 20kg+ added. I miss those so much

The shoulder seems to be improving slowly so maybe I'll get to try pull ups again in the future but for now it's very much avoid anything that's likely to cause injury.

[iRaise]

@BangBang

Whats been your history of training over the years? Has it always been casual or every competitive?

Sorry for the late reply just seen this.

Very casual, more lifestyle. I’m fortunate though as a lot of my friends are/were competitive athletes and I’ve always trained with them. I did Kick boxing and wrestling from the age of 4 and boxing from the age of 10 all the way to my 20’s so I’ve always kept a decent level of fitness and strength

Did some power lifting with my brother around 20 years ago too.

Overall my level of fitness is probably at the lowest it’s ever been.

On the weekend I’ll trifle through my garage and find my old lifting numbers and post. They weren’t as high as they were in my 30s when I formed my “old man strength” but were impressive to say I was in my late teens early 20s and weighed a lot less too.

What’s your history with training? Being the deadlift man I’m assuming some sort of athletics or flexibility based sport like kick boxing or Thai boxing?

Some huge numbers being put up by your and those you train with for sure.

I lived with 5 sports scientists at Uni that got laid substantially more than I did. Luckily for me I found some really good teachers when I was 23 that helped me understand that principles behind it, up until that point my reasoning for doing it and understanding of how to do it was wobbly at best!. I was fairly sporty in my teens annoyingly I wish I knew what I knew now strength wise, maybe I could have pushed a route. My main reasoning now is just enjoyment and health.

[EvilPie]

Started my little incline bench challenge yesterday and it went better than expected.

Target was 90kg for 10 reps but I felt awesome on my 80kg warm up so went straight to 100kg and got the 10

Did one more set at 100 for another 8 then 80kg for 14 to finish.

Really happy with that for my first week. I'll stick to my plan now just adding 2.5kg per week and see how it goes. Hit the 10 go up again the following week......

[BangBang]

@iraise 5 sports scientists? Love it. So when I was younger most of the gyms were spit and sawdust and knowledge was based around Personal experience. Very different from what  I’m used to now, they were friendly places filled with tons of ego,  skewed knowledge and conversations that started with “When I’m on the gear” again I was fortunate that when I started lifting seriously I was surrounded by pros.

@Matt are you training chest twice a week on this plan? What’s the challenge? Is it a rep challenge or max lift?

I’m really struggling with wide arm pull ups at the moment fellas. Yesterday I couldn’t get more then 4 out per superset and this morning the max I did per set was 7 (Day off today just did my push ups and pull ups)

I’m going to do my first 5k timed today on Strava plus it’s raining and I just love running in the rain. I’m sure my time is going to closer to 30 then 24 where I need to be for the challenge but knowing that I’m going to take an hour out to run in the rain is keeping me going.

[EvilPie]

@Matt are you training chest twice a week on this plan? What’s the challenge? Is it a rep challenge or max lift?

Each body part gets trained twice per week on this programme training 5x per week.

Monday - Legs & shoulders
Tuesday - Chest & back
Wednesday - Shoulders and arms
Friday - Legs & back
Saturday - Chest and arms

I do three exercises for each body part with three working sets at one of which will be to absolute failure.

Seems to be working really well at the moment and most importantly I really enjoy it.

I'm focussed on hypertrophy at the moment with most of what I do in the 10 to 15 rep range. With that in mind I'm aiming for max weight for 10 reps so it fits in to my programme. It's not so much a challenge just something to keep it interesting and monitor progression. I did similar starting in August with flat dumbbell press so switching to incline bench is a nice variation.

I've never pushed incline so it'll be interesting to see how far I can go. I might try something heavy / low rep in the future but for now it's a 10 rep target.

[iRaise]

@iraise 5 sports scientists? Love it. So when I was younger most of the gyms were spit and sawdust and knowledge was based around Personal experience. Very different from what  I’m used to now, they were friendly places filled with tons of ego,  skewed knowledge and conversations that started with “When I’m on the gear” again I was fortunate that when I started lifting seriously I was surrounded by pros.

@Matt are you training chest twice a week on this plan? What’s the challenge? Is it a rep challenge or max lift?

I’m really struggling with wide arm pull ups at the moment fellas. Yesterday I couldn’t get more then 4 out per superset and this morning the max I did per set was 7 (Day off today just did my push ups and pull ups)

I’m going to do my first 5k timed today on Strava plus it’s raining and I just love running in the rain. I’m sure my time is going to closer to 30 then 24 where I need to be for the challenge but knowing that I’m going to take an hour out to run in the rain is keeping me going.

Sports science kinda changed everything for me as silly as it sounds. I never really understood or appreciated the reasons why. So learning that there are actual mechanisms behind these things. Funny how a lot of the 'bro' based stuff makes sense and is backed by evidence but just not in the way they think. So they almost get to the right result by accident. Problem is with that is when it goes wrong, injury etc.

Me and Matt have been talking about steroids for a few years now, I am fascinated by the effect they have. It really is insane, someone with average genetics, work rate, skill level, adherence can look unreal after a few months just from assistance. So when you have good genetics, great work rate, top skill etc you just look like your carved.

[BangBang]

@harvey - Sounds good, so you’re the man to ask about plateaus? I’ve never tried any form of steroids yet but may look at trt in a few years at the moment I think I’m ok. Although some of the Preworkouts I took a few years ago had substances that are now banned in the UK and considered illegal.

Any info regarding Sarms? One of my old employees was on some form of Sarms and saw results very quickly.

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel, bag spinach, one banana
Supps - Creatine
Preworkout - Nuts, cranberry juice & a double espresso in a a shot (Tea cup size)

Completed my pull ups in of 10 sets of 5 sets and push ups in 4 sets of 25

Leg day, went for a walk in Gedling park with the family then ran round also - had to walk the last mile

Did lots of stretching and accessory work

Squats & box jumps - super sets
60kg 10 x squat - 10 box jump (x2)
80kg 10 x 10
100kg 5x 5
110kg 5x 5
120kg 5x 5
140kg 5x 5 (x3)

Heavy leg press super sets with Bulgarian lunges x 5 not sure how heavy I went but was shaking
Walking lunges with shrugs

Had trouble walking down the stairs after, the Preworkout gave me a huge boast today.

Weighed in today 14st 9lbs so feeling good, I’m really enjoying the convenience of Huel....

@Matt tagged you in the story today, 😎

[the sicilian]

Heres a great story...

Didnt feel great monday small cough... took temp.. thing bleeps red..oh oh.. go and get tested.. get home told daughter..she tells me thermometer went red because of a low battery....took temp again all good... loooooled thought i had covid

Just got test back..

errrr..Positive

[BangBang]

Heres a great story...

Didnt feel great monday small cough... took temp.. thing bleeps red..oh oh.. go and get tested.. get home told daughter..she tells me thermometer went red because of a low battery....took temp again all good... loooooled thought i had covid

Just got test back..

errrr..Positive

Oh man, get well soon.... I’m sure your CrossFit workouts have boosted your immune system though.

You’ll like this one. Mr “I drink £4 coconut water while working out” is actually a PT he came over to me today and started telling me about how he was used to hardcore gyms, not health clubs like Nuffield blah blah... I entertained him for a while until he asked me if I needed spotting on anything 😂

[the sicilian]

Heres a great story...

Didnt feel great monday small cough... took temp.. thing bleeps red..oh oh.. go and get tested.. get home told daughter..she tells me thermometer went red because of a low battery....took temp again all good... loooooled thought i had covid

Just got test back..

errrr..Positive

Oh man, get well soon.... I’m sure your CrossFit workouts have boosted your immune system though.

You’ll like this one. Mr “I drink £4 coconut water while working out” is actually a PT he came over to me today and started telling me about how he was used to hardcore gyms, not health clubs like Nuffield blah blah... I entertained him for a while until he asked me if I needed spotting on anything 😂

Loool .. Cheers... feel absolutely fine.. was a bit rough Monday night but been right as rain since..gym bag was all packed for the morning as soon as i got the all clear lol.... slight delay on that trip then..

It was always going to be like this as ive been a strong advocate about our hiding under the bed culture.. You hit the nail on the head with immune system... was never worried about getting it..even less worried now... give me those anti bodies  ...