Anyone interested in a group fitness challenge?

[Luigi]

Did a successful Hepburn bench session at 235, mostly sets of 3 reps. Tendons slightly strained but not much. The main strain was in my right shoulder which is slightly tweaked. Technically I will have done all the Hepburn sessions I set out for myself after this Friday's session, but I might keep going just because the progress is constant and I seem to be slowly healing my tendons despite that.

[Vutulaki]

Instead of running a program why cant we just trrain what is recovered annd ready? Im thinking we are putting the cart before the horse sometimes

Ill run my 4 day split then wait 3 days cause thats a week then start over , if my shoulders need another hit why not throw them in on the 5th day "randomly"?

Im not explaining this very well but I want to try having a bunch of pre determined movements then excercises to strengthen them IE bench for horizonal push then group by said pre determined movements and base frequency purely on recovery which I dont finnd is nearly predictible enough to have set in stone per training cycle.

Does this make any sense or STFU?

[Luigi]

Okay I had 2 more sessions since last time. First was a squat session that went well because I went up in weight and got sets of 5, but my bonus goal was to get sets of 6 and I couldnt. So, the conclusion is now it is fully certain I have to not increase the weight until I can get back to sets of 6. I know from my experience last year that this is the model which will rapidly grow my strength without straining my tendons much. So next session the weight stays the same. Also I probably dont even have enough plates to get to my 1rm at this point, and Im probably only a few months away from being able to do 6 reps with all the plates, so I will have to buy some more 45s.

Then on Friday I had a bench session which was also a bit of a mixed bag. I mispositioned the bench and went a bit too fast in my warm ups, which resulted in my right tendon getting roughed up. Last session I realized I could jump right from 1 plate to 2 plates in my warm ups without any issue, but, doing so with the bench a bit off centre was no bueno so probably I will go back to doing a middle set to be safe. The good news is though, I won! I got all the lifts and even some bonus reps at the next weight up. Now, going to this new weight felt really heavy, unlike when I went up last time and it felt easy. I think this was most likely caused by the tendon issue.

This was the last Hepburn session I had to do, but I have decided to keep doing it because to hit my target of putting 50 lbs on my bench press since starting my log I will need to do 5x3 reps at the weight I just reached doing Hepburn by the end of April. So I think I will do another week or two just because I think its a very safe way of guaranteeing I hit that goal in time. These sessions take too damn long though so once I hit the goal I will switch to Hepburn program B and see if that one is better.

[Luigi]

Instead of running a program why cant we just trrain what is recovered annd ready? Im thinking we are putting the cart before the horse sometimes

Ill run my 4 day split then wait 3 days cause thats a week then start over , if my shoulders need another hit why not throw them in on the 5th day "randomly"?

Im not explaining this very well but I want to try having a bunch of pre determined movements then excercises to strengthen them IE bench for horizonal push then group by said pre determined movements and base frequency purely on recovery which I dont finnd is nearly predictible enough to have set in stone per training cycle.

Does this make any sense or STFU?

You dont have to fit things around the days of the week. When I was injured I was benching once every 5 days regardless of what day that is. Programs are generally good because if you do the same thing for too long you stop progressing, or go stale as Hepburn put it.

[Vutulaki]

breakdown hepburn for me, iis it purely a PL/strength protocal?

[Anastasios]

Instead of running a program why cant we just trrain what is recovered annd ready? Im thinking we are putting the cart before the horse sometimes

Ill run my 4 day split then wait 3 days cause thats a week then start over , if my shoulders need another hit why not throw them in on the 5th day "randomly"?

Im not explaining this very well but I want to try having a bunch of pre determined movements then excercises to strengthen them IE bench for horizonal push then group by said pre determined movements and base frequency purely on recovery which I dont finnd is nearly predictible enough to have set in stone per training cycle.

Does this make any sense or STFU?

I don't run a program, I train what I can train which is ready as quickly as possible so I spend as little time possible since last session. Eventually with enough data and adjustments it turns into a program and when something unforeseen happens I can adjust for more or less recovery.

My split is
1: Deadlift OR squat alternating
2: Vertical press, vertical pull, arms
3: Lower body assistance
4: Horizontal press, horizontal pull

Right now I am training every other day so it is an 8 day split. You can do 2 days on 1 off, Mon Tues Thurs Fri on and wed fri sun off or any other variation that fits your needs.

[Luigi]

breakdown hepburn for me, iis it purely a PL/strength protocal?

Very very strength oriented. There is a "pump" phase that you can do to follow it which focuses on volume but as Hepburn got older he started advising against the pump phase.

The gist of it is you pick a compound lift and do 8 sets at low volume and every session you slightly increase the volume until you eventually move up the weight and reset the volume. It seems like the progress is slow but its also very steady and its rare to fail a session.

[Anastasios]

Have been busy lately, missed posting. Last Monday hit squats 160kg x 8, no feeling in the injury area. Later in the week hit some rows, bench, pullups, with a bit less volume for a small deload.

Did some bloodwork at the end of the week in advance of the cycle that started yesterday, 150mg test enanthate per day, 1g per week.

Screenshot 2024-02-28 181059.png (129.65 KiB) Viewed 508 times

Bloods look terrific, the liver enzymes are a bit higher due to training the night before bloodwork. If you guys ever consider doing steroids, this is what things have to look like before cycles, no excuses! If you can't, then you're not ready.

Yesterdays training
Deadlift 180kg x 10, felt some tightness in left glute injury, no soreness today and definitely no pinch sensation, but it feels stiff.

Upcoming weeks should be really fun. There are two possible scenarios with the glute injury now. Either I get back to old weights and only feel some more stiffness and tenderness in left vs right, so the injury is not bothering my progress, or it gets a bit worse and I go for another round of PRP and hyaluronic acid. It is doing much, much better than before PRP, I would say at least 70-80% of the scar tissue must be gone with fresh new connective tissue there, otherwise I would feel much different.

Shoulder is doing fantastic, I am now doing overhead presses with quite good intensity and weight with only a little stiffness and discomfort following after. So now I will be pressing twice each microcycle. I am doing shoulder rehab every freaking time I am in the gym since 6 months now and will probably continue with this for life, so that I can progress in bench without constant setbacks due to shoulders.

[Anastasios]

Tonights session

Pullups 3x16

Stock press worked up to 75kg x 4

Seated EZbar tricep extensions 60kg x 10 drop 50kg x 6 drop 40kg x 6

concentration curls 16kg x 16 RP 8 RP 6

[Vutulaki]

Tonights session

Pullups 3x16

Stock press worked up to 75kg x 4

Seated EZbar tricep extensions 60kg x 10 drop 50kg x 6 drop 40kg x 6

concentration curls 16kg x 16 RP 8 RP 6

ischyrós thirío