6:05am Brain Candy
6:25am I3G, curcumin
7:30am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
9:30am FINiBAR
11:40am MAG-10; i3G
12:20pm chicken breast, rice, beans
1:00pm 2 FINiBARs
2:00pm Anaconda and start workout
Kayak Row @60 x4,4,4
Wide Pronated Lat-Pull (2s) @110 x4,4,4
Supinated Lat Pull @130 (2s) x4,4,4
Low Cable Wide Neutral Grip Row (2s/2s) @120 x4,4,4,4
Rope Hammer Curls - top double contract @100 x4,4,4: AR - Rope Tri-X @80 x10,10,10
Preacher Reverse Curls @85 x2 @75 x4,4,6: AR: DB OH Tri-X @55 x10,10,10
Cable Curls (3s up/3s down) - tendons won't do it still
4:00pm MAG-10
5:00pm MAG-10; I3G
8:30pm chicken tikka masala, white rice
9:30pm cup rice; scoop Metabolic Drive; tablespoon pb2

6:00am Brain Candy
6:10am Indigo-3G, Curcumin
6:50am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:30am FINiBAR
10:00am MAG-10 and Indigo-3G
11:00am start workout and Anaconda
Power Clean from Hang @155 x3,3,3
Push Press @135 x3,3,3
Front Squat @225 x3,3,3
Deadlift @295 x4,4,4
Power Clean @135 x4,4,4 - contrast set
Broad Jump w/ DB @35 x6,6,6
Kettlebell swings for speed @20 (30s) x20,20,21
Romanian Deadlift @225 x10,10,10
12:30pm MAG-10
1:00pm cobb salad
1:45pm 2 FINiBARs
5:20pm MAG-10 and Indigo-3G
7:30pm chicken piccata; potatoes; broccoli
9:30pm cup rice; scoop Metabolic Drive; tablespoon pb2

6:00am Brain Candy
6:15am i3G, curcumin
8:00am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
9:30am finibar
11:15am MAG-10

Workout:
Power Clean from Hang @155 x3,3,3
Push Press @135 x3,3,3
Front Squat @225 x3,3,3
Bench Press @205 x4 @195 x4,4
Speed Bench @135 x4,4,4
Speed Floor Press @135 x4,4,4
Alternating arm bench press 30s @45 x20,16 @40 x20
Incline Press @45 x10,10,10

Missed workout yesterday - cut my hand 2 days ago and also had a flare up of back problems. Will work T-Sat this week.

6:00am Brain Candy
6:15am I3G, Curcumin
8:00am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:15am finibar
10:30am MAG-10
11:20am I3G
12:00pm 2 FINiBARs
1:00pm Workout and Anaconda
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6,6
Push Press @125 x6,6,6,6,6 - a little sluggish
Front Squat @215 x4 @205x6,6,6,5,6 - not a good groove today
Jump Squat @75 x8,8,8
Vertical Jump x8,8,8 - contrast set
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6
Jump w/ DB from bench @15 x10,10,10
Depth Jump for height x6,6,6

Sluggish workout - not sure why
3:30 MAG-10
6:30pm MAG-10; i3G
7:00pm martial arts
8:45pm pork roast; sweet potatoes; mushroom sauce
9:30pm cup rice; scoop Metabolic Drive; tablespoon pb2
10:30pm MAG-10; elitepro

6:00am caffeine free Brain Candy
6:20am I3G; Curcumin
7:45am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
10:00am I3G; MAG-10
11:00am 2 FINiBARs
12:20pm start workout and Anaconda w/ creatine malate
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6,6 - sucky
Push Press @125 x6,6,6,6,6 - also sucky
Front Squat @205 x6,6,6,6,6 - good
Push Jerk @145 x5,5 @135 x6
Med Ball OH Throw @20 x6,6,8
Push Press @115 x6,6,6
DB Speed OH Press (20s) @30 x20 @25 x22,24
Plyo Push Up (hands on bench) x6,6,6
2:00pm MAG-10
4:30pm MAG-10
6:15pm i3G
7:15pm sushi and sashimi dinner
10:30pm MAG-10; elitepro

Got a really nasty headache just before and during dinner

6:00am Caffeine free brain candy
6:15am i3g; curcumin
7:00am cup rice cereal; cup kamut cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:15am finibar
10:40am MAG-10 and i3g
11:20am 2 finibars
12:00pm workout and anaconda + creatine malate
Kayak Rows @40 x6 @50 x6,6
Chins x3 - massive elbow pain - discontinued
Supinated Lat Pull @120 x6 @130 x6 @140 x6
Bent Rows (2s) @135 x6,6,6
Hammer Curls (Top double) @35 x6 @30 x6,6
Preacher DB Curls (3 up/3 down) @20 x6,6,6 - 25 next time
Barbell Curl @75 x6,6,6
2:00pm MAG-10
4:00pm MAG-10
6:00pm i3g
7:45pm chicken, rice, grilled vegetables
10:30pm MAG-10; elitepro

6:00am Caffeine Free Brain Candy
6:30am Indigo-3G; Curcumin
8:15am 2 cups kamut; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:40am FINiBAR
10:40am Indigo-3G
11:20am 2 FINiBARs
12:00pm workout w/ Anaconda and creatine malate
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6,6 - not super snappy
Push Press @125 x6,6,6,6,6 - last set better than first
Front Squat @205 x6,6,6,6,6
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6 - better than HFSW sets
Broad Jump x8,8,8
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6 - snappy but tired
Broad Jump w/ DB on chest @15 x10,10,10 - felt awesome but grueling
Depth Jump for Distance x6,6,6
Left this workout feeling much better than when I started. Really activating.
1:30pm MAG-10
2:30pm MAG-10
4:00pm MAG-10
Drank 32oz of additional water to see if the headache i've been getting is dehydration
5:30pm i3g
6:30pm mixed green salad; steak w/ pommes frites
10:30pm MAG-10; elitepro

Did not get headache - either acclimated; more water worked or something else

Hi, Drew: Thanks a ton for checking in on my log and prompting for progress pictures/measurements, etc. I had taken pictures at 8 weeks, but have been sidetracked by life and hadn't been able to post them. I hadn't even been able to keep up with the log - even though I have been totally on schedule with workouts, supplements and nutrition.

I updated the log last night with a brief workout roll-up and progress pictures: http://tnation.T-Nation.com/...ageNo=2#5361822

9/10

6:00am Caffeine Free Brain Candy
6:30am Indigo-3G, Curcumin
7:10am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:05am FINiBAR
9:30am MAG-10
10:00am workout + Anaconda + CM
Power Clean from Hang @145 x4,4,4,4
Push Press @135 x4,4,4,4
Front Squat @215 x4,4,4,4
Jump Squat @85 x8,8,8,8
Vertical Jump x8,8,8,8 - contrast set
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6
Jump Squat from Bench w/ DB @20 x10,10,10,10
Depth Jump for Height x6,6,6,6
12:00pm MAG-10 and Indigo-3G
1:00pm MAG-10
2:00pm 2 FINiBARs
5:30pm i3g
6:30pm MAG-10
7:00pm martial arts
8:15pm pulled pork on gf bread; coleslaw
10:30pm MAG-10; elitepro

6:00am Caffeine-Free Brain Candy
6:15am Indigo-3G; Curcumin
7:10am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:00am FINiBAR
11:00am MAG-10
11:20am Indigo-3G
12:00pm 2 FINiBARs
1:00pm workout + Anaconda + creatine malate
Power Clean from Hang @145 x4,4,4,4
Push Press @135 x4,4,4,4
Front Squat @215 x4,4,4,4
Push Jerk @145 x6,6,6,6
Med Ball OH Throw @20 x8,8,8,8 - contrast set
Push Press @135 x6,5 @125 x6,5
DB OH Press (20s) @35 x22,24,26,24
Plyo Push Ups - did not complete - out of time
3:00pm MAG-10
4:00pm MAG-10
6:30pm Dinner - don't remember what
10:30pm MAG-10; Elitepro

6:05am Brain Candy
6:30am I3G; curcumin
7:30am 2 FINiBARs
11:00am I3G; MAG-10
11:45am indian buffet
2:45pm MAG-10; i3g
3:30pm 2 FINiBARs
4:30pm Workout and Anaconda w/ creatine malate
Kayak Row @50 x6,6,6,6
Chin - unable to do either chin grip or neutral grip chins due to elbow pain
Supinated Lat Pull @130 x6,6,6,6
Bent Row (2s) @135 x6,6,6,6
Hammer Curl (top double contraction) @30 x6,6,6,6; active rest rope tri-x
DB preacher (3-up/3-down) @20 x6,6,6,6; active rest db oh tri-x
Barbell Curl - same elbow problem
6:20pm MAG-10
7:00pm pork chop w/ corn salsa; salad
10:30pm elitepro; MAG-10

6:00am Caffeine-Free Brain Candy - becoming more sure that the daily dose of caffeine was part of what was making me so tired. Maybe I am more stimulant sensitive than I thought, or than I used to be?
6:15am i3g; curcumin
6:55am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:20am finibar
11:30pm MAG-10; i3g
12:10pm 2 finibars
1:00pm workout and anaconda and cm
Power Clean from Hang @145 x4,4,4,4
Push Press @135 x4,4,4,4
Front Squat @215 x4,4,4,4 - smooth and powerful today - felt great
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6
Broad Jump x8,8,8,8 - contrast set
Power Clean from Hang @135 x6,6,6,6
Broad Jump w/ DB @15 x10,10,10,10
Depth Jump for Distance x6,6,6,6
3:00pm MAG-10
4:00pm MAG-10
6:30pm i3g
9:00pm roasted brussels sprouts; steak, potatoes au gratin, squash; glass wine
11:00pm MAG-10 and elitepro

6:10am brain candy caffeine free
7:30am i3g; curcumin
8:30am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive

Workout
Power Clean from Hang @145 x4,4,4,4
Push Press @135 x4,4,4,4
Front Squat @215 x4,4,4,4 - hurts in regular shoes
Speed Bench @135 x6,6,6,6
45 degree plyo push up x8,8,8,8
Speed Floor Press @145 x6,6,6,6
DB Speed Bench (20s) x24,26,26,25
Plyo Push Up from Bench x6,6,6,6

Back feeling bad in bed this morning. Loosened up nicely after I got up.

6:00am Brain Candy CF
6:30am i3g; curcumin
7:10am 2 cups rice cereal; 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
8:10am finibar

Behind on log. Diet and workout have been consistent.

Low back/hip/glute complex has been extremely aggravated since Squat Pattern on Monday. Combination of all the jumping and a half-hour of kicking at martial arts seemed to create a setback.

Diet has been clean and consistent.

Allergens picking up in Austin following the rainy weekend. Feeling a little spacey as a result.

Logging this week has been tough. Work has been extremely busy and I've been back-to-back from 8:00am to 7:00pm most days.

Managed to complete all shock week workouts within a set or two. Had to break up the sessions in some cases to be able to meet work commits. I actually really liked the sessions that I did HFSW as one session and then the remainder as a different session later in the day. Also got lucky one day that I thought I would not be able to complete workout that a meeting was delayed by 30 minutes that gave me time to complete the whole session minus two sets of depth jumps for distance.

I have continued to find the Deadlift pattern session of Performance Phase 3 to be incredibly invigorating at the same time it is physically taxing. Don't get the same effect from any other session.

Body feels beaten after the week. Elbows are sore and burning - I really think it's the cleans and the load on the forearms and triceps from my catch position not being quite right. Left knee has also been angry since a session that I did in tennis shoes rather than my five fingers. My low back/hip complex is unhappy from the volume also. I'm looking forward to the lowered volume next week to heal up and grow. Definitely need to find a soft tissue specialist to accelerate my recovery.

I continue to make slow muscle gains while maintaining about the same body comp. Strength is also coming slowly with the exception of chest pressing strength which is below historical levels and continues to remain depressed.

I test for Brown belt this week - I'm looking forward to riding the surcompensation wave through that too.

Christian Thibaudeau: MAIN LIFT SPLIT 2: If someone is going for more frequency, training every basic pattern 3 times a week a 2-day split is used in which case the high pull is place on the same say as 2 pressing movements. If a 3 days split is used it can actually be done on any of the 3 days since it hits pressing, pulling and lower body muscles.

09-25-2012 15:46
Christian Thibaudeau: MAIN LIFT SPLIT: I have 7 money exercises on which I base my own training: 1)high pulls 2)15 deg. incline bnehc 3)30 deg.incline bench 4)-15deg. decline 5)-30 decline 6)trap bar deadlift 7)deadstart row and their variations. The way I split them up depends on several factors since I want to train each 2-3 times per week and can only do 3 main lifts per session.

DEADSTART ROW VARIATIONS: These variations are more related to the hand width and pulling line. I have 3 main ones: wide (snatch) grip pulled to the mid-abdomen (great to hit the lower traps and lower portion of lats); moderate width (between snatch and clean) pulled to sternum with elbows out (rear delts and rhomboids); clean grip pulled to hip crease with elbows tucked (more lats).

Christian Thibaudeau:  THE POWER OF HEAVY DENSITY SETS: A method that constitutes a huge part of my training is called heavy-density lifting.I have many advanced variations, the basic one is doing 4 to 6 micro sets of 2-4 reps with only 15 seconds of rest. The load used is a weight I can lift roughly for 6-8 reps an my goal is to double (or a bit more) the number of reps. It is the most powerful method for growth that I have experienced. I have more advanced variations and a specific way to layer it in the program.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY-DENSITY LIFTING ... WHY IT WORKS: Such sets are great for two reasons. The first one is pretty obvious: you have to perform twice the workload you normally could with a specific weight. Working on this capacity to sustain strength is one of the most powerful growth stimulus you can find. The second reason is a bit more complex, but might be the most important: supraphysiological pumping due to occlusion/relaxation contrast...

Christian Thibaudeau:  OCCLUSION/RELAXATION CONTRAST: When a muscle contracts blood flow to the muscle is increased BUT entry in the muscle is decreased. And the more forcefully a muscle contracts, the less blood can enter in the muscle. The body's response to that (since the body wants to send more blood to the working muscles) is to increase cardiac output and direct more of the blood flow toward te working muscle. As a result, the blood pools around the working muscle. (more)

Christian Thibaudeau:  OCCLUSION... (CONT): When the muscle relaxes after a micro-set, the pooled blood rushes into the muscle (reactive hyperhemia) and since the rest is too short, it stays trapped in there during the next micro-set...and the body resumes sending more blood during the next micro-set. So with each micro-set the pump gets bigger and bigger, more blood, more nutrients and more growth factors.

Christian Thibaudeau:  OCCLUSION...(MORE): So you get a huge pump, send tons of nutrients into the muscle, build the capacity to sustain a high level of force production in a fatigued state, increase growth factors. And that is just with the basis version ;)

Christian Thibaudeau:  CLUSTER AND OCCLUSION: Regular clusters, no. In regular clusters you perform 1 rep, rest 7-10 sec, perform one rep, rest 7-10 sec, etc. I'm talking about doing a few reps, resting, a few reps, resting.... one rep is not enough to force the body to increase blood flow to an area.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY-DENSITY LIFTING: It is a very complete and powerful approach indeed. Especially the more advanced versions. It also builds the capacity to sustain a high level of strength even in a fatigued state. But it works best when layered properly into a program. You can potentiate it by doing the right work before it and you can add a few other things at the end to increase gains even more.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY-DENSITY LIFTING: It's not something I just began to experiment with. It has been one of the main portions of my workouts for a pretty long period of time, I just used another name for it which lead to confusion (when Corst is confused we know there is problem). HDL is all about becoming resilient when doing strength work. A muscle that can produce a high level of force over and over and over even in a fatigued state will be a much larger muscle.

Christian Thibaudeau:  WORKOUT TEMPO AND RESULTS: I believe that provided that performance is maintained, having a fast training pace is optimal. It gives you a sense of urgency , improves your focus and drive.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY DENSITY ROUNDS: I have several application of Heavy Density Lifting. After living the system, I believe that it is responsible for more size gains and body comp improvements than the strength section (but the strength section potentiate the HDL). I have 3 levels of emphasis. I train each movement pattern 3 times per week. Once the strength portion is emphasized, once the HDL section is emphasized and the other is of similar emphasis.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY DENSITY ROUNDS: So the number of micro-sets per round, number of rounds and and use of staggered methods will vary depending on the emphasis for that day.

Christian Thibaudeau:  ADDING BANDS: Added bands are a great tool. They help build explosiveness, they allow you to better ''feel'' and exercise (because of a more constant loading) and they help build muscle. BUT they also drastically increase recovery time because of the added eccentric stress. The bad thing is that they feel so good that they are addictive and it's really easy to overdo them which can halt your progress fast or even lead to injuries.

Christian Thibaudeau:  BANDS WITH HIGH FREQUENCY TRAINING: Hitting a muscle group more than once a week is fairly demanding if you train hard. Adding bands obviously further increase the training stress to recover from. That doesn't mean that they cannot be used. People with very good recovery capacities can use them once a week per lift, others would probably be best to stick to once every 3rd or 4th workout of a type.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY-DENSITY LIFTING: It is an amazingly effective way to build size. And yes it obviously build the capacity to sustain force and power production even in a fatigued state. How much of my own training is it? It started out at about 25% and when I realised how powerful it was I ramped it up to 50% and on some days it is even more than that.

Christian Thibaudeau:  HEAVY-DENSITY LIFTING: And it is not just doing micro sets of 2-4 reps with 15 sec. of rest. The actual application to a session is a bit more complex.

Haven't logged in a while but haven't been idle. The nagging elbow and back injuries that I was fighting previously were continuing and stopping me from doing the things I want to do, so I sought a path to fix them. After a variety of experiments, I found Dean Somerset - who specializes in injury rehab and a myofascial release practicioner in Austin who specializes in making me want to cry.

I am in my second month of working with both together. Low back problem is now primarily a hip/glute problem and seems to be improving. Elbows are somewhat better, but I am so focused on the low back that I'm not yet giving them the attention they need to heal completely.

I am in decent shape, relatively lean due to the wonder of MAG-10, and continuing to work toward my goals.

Excellent rehab. Tenacity and perseverance will bring you back to where you want to be. Keep up the excellent work.

Dean Somerset is a wizard. He's kind of an evil wizard who specializes in carefully crafted humiliation while making you better but his powers are mighty. If finishing my fourth cycle of exercise, mobility and soft tissue work crafted by him.

I am back pain free for the first time in as long as I can remember and starting to work back into heavier deadlifts and squats. I've definitely learned a lot about the importance of really good lifting position for me and the role of core tension in almost all my lifts.

Almost through my backlog of Anaconda and onto Plazma.

Floating just under 180 with sub-10 bodyfat without trying. Ready for summer.