Post: #1

OK gentlemen, with the demands of work and school, I have hit upon a system that works great for me to keep going pretty hard in the gym around my schedule. This is partially adapted from Pavel's "Power to the People" routine.

It's very simple. I have a few quick rules.


Works great. I don't break a sweat, I leave the gym fresh, and I do it right after morning classes, so I'm sharp all day and get to eat lunch right afterwards.

On Monday when I did my quick routine at the gym, I did nonstop supersets of my two heavy lifts and was out of there in 11 minutes. Some folks spend more time than that jerking off every day.


Here is a detailed example of my routine.


9 step routine every day through Friday. Serious 1.5 hour workout Saturdays. Sundays optional shotgun/peripherals workout.

The core concepts of the routine are to have one exercise where you pull and one exercise where you press. I can't stress enough that the best barbell pulling exercise, ever, is the deadlift, but the pressing exercise is one where there is variability.

Instead of the side press, you can do dumbbell bench press, the bent press, standard bench press, any pushup variation, handstand pushups, or regular dumbbell shoulder press.

Post: #2

what have you gained with this system?

how many lbs of weight?
how many lbs of strength?

Post: #3

(05-17-2012 10:57 AM)Walnuts Wrote:  what have you gained with this system?

how many lbs of weight?
how many lbs of strength?

In about a month I went from 300# - 275# deadlift with mixed grip to just deadlifting about 340# (with no reduction for the second set of five reps) and no longer using the mixed grip.

Side press went from a 50 pound max to about a 60 pound max. I cycle shoulder workouts aggressively to avoid injury. Have notice development in the shoulders.

Body weight went from 217# to about 215#. I haven't been eating well lately due to school.
I think I could be deadlifting 380# by now if I ate a ton, though I'd probably get much fatter.
Still well below intermediate threshold, on an average man the "novice effect" for deadlift generally holds true well into 400 pounds.

I would be interested to see somebody doing an all-out "Starting Strength" type program with nothing but deadlift and maybe incline bench press and military press. A gallon of milk a day, eating yourself sick, the whole nine yards.
I have always believed that the barbell squat, while a fine compound exercise, could be replaced solely by the deadlift. Never enjoyed the squat since it adds too much mass to the inner thigh, which can cause serious injuries to the nads.

Post: #4

So the general idea is "work out quick, often and not to failure" ?

Post: #5

(05-17-2012 11:25 AM)Walnuts Wrote:  So the general idea is "work out quick, often and not to failure" ?

Yeah, that's the general rule of thumb.
"Work out quick" though is an effect of having only a few lifts. You should lift in a controlled manner and pause between each lift. You don't just rip through your lifts like some plyo-training maniac. This is maximal strength training.

2 sets of 5 reps (of anything) is an ideal for maximal strength. 1 set of 3 reps will still yield gains.

The smartest move I ever did in the gym was specialize in one big lift. This summer I plan to do one set, five reps of deadlift six days a week. I'm going to deadlift until I plateau or hit 550#, whichever comes first.

Post: #6

haha yh i didn't mean lift fast, i meant less time spent in the gym.

The thing about the 2 sets is; for me it's not enough.

When i hit the gym i usually do 3 different exercises per session. For each exercise i pretty much follow this routine below:

This is my bench press routine.

Stretch.
for instance on the bench press i'll use the 40lb bar with nothing on it to do a few quick reps to stretch out and warm up my joints.

Warm Up.
i'll put around 60% of my max on the bar and do a set of 6-8 reps. this is usually done with 60Kg.

Heavy Set 1: i'll put up 80Kg (180lbs) and do 6 reps. (my max is 200, call me weak but whatever, i try)
Heavy Set 2: Another set of 180 for 6 reps.

Drop Set 1: Drop 10kg down to 70kg and do another set of 6.
Drop set 2: Drop another 10kg down to 60kg and do another set of 6

Warm Down: drop all the plates and do 15 fast reps with the 40lb Barbell.

So i take a long time in the gym. each exercise takes me about 20-30 minutes depending on how long i'm resting between sets.

i'm just afraid that if i don't warm up i'll injure myself.

When you do your lifts how heavy do you go?

This idea of working out everyday but not too intensively seems like it has some merit. I might give it a shot over the summer.

Post: #7

(05-17-2012 01:38 PM)Walnuts Wrote:  haha yh i didn't mean lift fast, i meant less time spent in the gym.

The thing about the 2 sets is; for me it's not enough.

When i hit the gym i usually do 3 different exercises per session. For each exercise i pretty much follow this routine below:

This is my bench press routine.

Stretch.
for instance on the bench press i'll use the 40lb bar with nothing on it to do a few quick reps to stretch out and warm up my joints.

Warm Up.
i'll put around 60% of my max on the bar and do a set of 6-8 reps. this is usually done with 60Kg.

Heavy Set 1: i'll put up 80Kg (180lbs) and do 6 reps. (my max is 200, call me weak but whatever, i try)
Heavy Set 2: Another set of 180 for 6 reps.

Drop Set 1: Drop 10kg down to 70kg and do another set of 6.
Drop set 2: Drop another 10kg down to 60kg and do another set of 6

Warm Down: drop all the plates and do 15 fast reps with the 40lb Barbell.

So i take a long time in the gym. each exercise takes me about 20-30 minutes depending on how long i'm resting between sets.

i'm just afraid that if i don't warm up i'll injure myself.

When you do your lifts how heavy do you go?

This idea of working out everyday but not too intensively seems like it has some merit. I might give it a shot over the summer.

I've never been a fan of warmup exercises. I'll throw down maybe ten or fifteen jumping jacks, a couple of squats, and some deep breathing to get loose but that's generally it.

When I do my two sets of lifts I go pretty close to my max for the first set (about 90-93% I would guess), then deload maybe 10 percent for the second set. If I'm fresh, I won't deload at all.

edit: Since I'm back home on the farm I have been coming up with brutal strength conditioning techniques. Have no weight set.
I have built a set of gymnastics rings and am getting tow straps in the mail soon. Also building a sandbag once I can get some sand. Going to walk/jog/run up and down hills while carrying a sandbag on my shoulder. That's how you get big.
When I used to do roofing, shouldering bales of shingles up and down ladders two at a time will build a bulging physique. My traps were huge then compared to now.

Post: #8

This is basically what I've been doing since getting out of college football.

My routine looks like:
M - Deadlift, OHP, T-Bar Row
W - Squat, Bench, Chins
F - Rack Pull, Incline, DB Row

1x5 on the lower lifts and up to 5x5 on the upper lifts depending on how much time I have. The low reps prevent burnouts so I can run or play bball every day.

It is a fantastic strength workout, but there isn't enough volume if you are looking to build size.

Post: #9

This is legit.

I suspect you get some hate about it not being "optimal."

But when I have 80-100 hour weeks, I do about the same thing.

Throw in some Tabatas (1 minute warm up, then 4 minutes of Tabata hell) when I am going home and breaking a sweat is ok.

Post: #10

SLTmatic, I'm still a 'novice' athlete by lifting standards, so I am building some mass though it is slow.

(05-24-2012 04:51 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  This is legit.

I suspect you get some hate about it not being "optimal."

But when I have 80-100 hour weeks, I do about the same thing.

Throw in some Tabatas (1 minute warm up, then 4 minutes of Tabata hell) when I am going home and breaking a sweat is ok.

Yeah, I get funny looks at the gym when I go, lift quickly, and leave inside of fifteen minutes or so. I don't envy most of these weirdos their 35 minute ab-blasting routines though. Unweighted Russian twists are basically jerking off as far as I'm concerned.

I suppose that if you've been lifting a long time, something like this would be just enough to keep in the habit and not gain necessarily. How the heck can you work 100 hours a week?

Ever since I got home and have no gym to go to I've been doing Crossfit stuff. Like Tabata intervals on sandbag stuff.
I built an enormous sandbag, a suspension trainer and rings, found a tractor tire, and started to do hill sprints. I also quit smoking cold turkey. This is going to be a great summer. My plan is to get jacked as hell in preparation for Europe this fall.

Post: #11

Jump rope is good stuff too...On my busy days, Ill watch TV to unwind and jump rope.