Anyone binge watching Leroy Colbert videos? To be honest I didn't even know he died in 2015 and even had youtube channel (oldest youtuber!), which I discovered just few days ago. He is like bodybuilding grandpa I never had, pleasure to listen to.
My normal MO is to put on death metal that makes me want to kill shit and do a HIIT style workout where I try to murder the weights with little rest in between. Takes 45 minutes to an hour.
Today I put on softer music and was real methodical taking long rests when needed. I ended up doing more reps overall. I'll have to mix some of these workouts into my routine.
Feeling that awesome post lifting high Arnold talks about in pumping iron when he's smoking a joint saying 'I cum all day."
I don't know my 1 rep max for anything. I feel like it would waste a workout.
Is there any value besides pride to getting these numbers? (I think they are probably super high for non-lifters, slightly above average for lifters, I've been on a massive cut since early last summer.)
^ The real question is what death metal are you listening to? It better not be anything other than brutal slam death metal or old school shit or I'm pulling your metal card.
(02-26-2019 12:55 AM)godfather dust Wrote: I just spent two hours lifting.
My normal MO is to put on death metal that makes me want to kill shit and do a HIIT style workout where I try to murder the weights with little rest in between. Takes 45 minutes to an hour.
Today I put on softer music and was real methodical taking long rests when needed. I ended up doing more reps overall. I'll have to mix some of these workouts into my routine.
Feeling that awesome post lifting high Arnold talks about in pumping iron when he's smoking a joint saying 'I cum all day."
Only for working out percentages for programmes that call for them (for example 5/3/1). Even then it's not really necessary as the calculators do a decent job using a rep max at a given weight.
(02-27-2019 10:09 PM)godfather dust Wrote: I don't know my 1 rep max for anything. I feel like it would waste a workout.
Is there any value besides pride to getting these numbers? (I think they are probably super high for non-lifters, slightly above average for lifters, I've been on a massive cut since early last summer.)
Any strength-building program that is not purely linear progression typically works off of percentages of your 1RM. It's also a great way to track progress.
1RM is not particularly useful if you are just a beginner, are purely a body builder, or doing other non-strength based or sports-specific training.
IMHO, it's ego. I love to track my progress and know I'm moving forward. From practical point of view it's only useful for calculating your 1RM for strength-oriented regimes. That said most people I know actually care about strength -- more than they like to admit. 1RM in the gym is kind of like lay count in the real life. Technically you, and other males, have no reason to care about it -- but you still do and value people that are stronger and been with higher number of girls.
(02-19-2019 08:46 AM)sterling_archer Wrote: Anyone binge watching Leroy Colbert videos? To be honest I didn't even know he died in 2015 and even had youtube channel (oldest youtuber!), which I discovered just few days ago. He is like bodybuilding grandpa I never had, pleasure to listen to.
I did a few years ago. He was a great source of information. Honestly, if you just listened to him and built a program off of what he said, you'd probably do fine. You could tell he was a bit of a player back in the day too.
(03-04-2019 12:10 AM)Truth Teller Wrote: I did a few years ago. He was a great source of information. Honestly, if you just listened to him and built a program off of what he said, you'd probably do fine. You could tell he was a bit of a player back in the day too.
He really hated steroids, too.
Definitely for the bolded part but no for the steroids. He didn't hate them at all and he said multiple times, literally, that he would have took them if they were more available to him and his friends.
Steroids were available in his time, but they weren't prevalent. Also, he said that his motorcycle accident that stopped his contesting career is what "saved" him and that he likely would have been steroid abuser and long dead by now.
Regarding programming, there are two articles online about his two programs. He employs principle that I rarely see nowadays. He used top down philosophy. That means he finished with squat and not started with it. He said that he would be fresher that way until end, whereas starting with squat would drain his performance. I like this idea but I don't use it purely of logistical reasons. When I get to gym, rack is empty so I like to train squat immediately and then I know it does't matter if I must wait for some other exercise or maybe change order for this day because of big crowd. But I still use his "mini push pull" principle whenever I can.
With the squat, one of the best pieces of advice I have had from a friend here on the forum was to give it its own day.
Arse to grass pause squats, given their own training day, has been a revolution in my training. I have not suffered in anyway, either aesthetically or in terms of strength, for not doing all the other exercises I used to do on squat day.
I will squat hard, then maybe do a couple of high rep body weight hyper extensions just to pump some blood through my lower back, and maybe do an exercise or two for my grip. But often I will literally just squat and leave.
I was already a relatively strong squatter, but this has been significant for me. Training less has delivered more, unquestionably.
Lately I am training with old school bodybuilding methods. I may go for a 4 day upper lower and 5 day old school split in the future, but for now full body 3 times a week is enough for me. Regarding old school, I have been convinced after a lengthy research that they are the way to go for most natural lifters. But something still bothers me a bit. Question about recovery.
These old routines are very simple in design and don't even have any variation throughout the week so that means that progression on lifts is very aggressive, as you are doing each exercise every time you go to gym. Coupled with the fact that bodybuilders of late 40s, 50s and early 60s mostly didn't use steroids, how did they recover? Is really eating and sleeping just enough?
Recovery for bodybuilding is different than power lifting. Now bear with me there is some anecdotal broscience here, but your body can handle/recover from hypertrophy far easier than intensity/effort. You can do a shit load of "low effort" sets of 15-20 of isolation exercises, but hit some heavy triples and singles on a full body compound movement and your body is going be more stressed. This is also why top-level bodybuilders typically work out twice a day, and top-level powerlifters will train once every other day, and may only hit heavy movements once in while (for example, some elite-level powerlifters only deadlift a couple times a month).
Here are in my opinion two very different old school full body routines. First one is by Leroy Colbert and second one is by Reg Park. I think one will have much harder time recovering from Reg Park workout, since the weights used there are 5 reps, which is basically 80% of 1RM. Routine I am using now was used by Larry Scott and has 8 exercises.
These kinds of thinks are fine if you are very young, or genetically well set up to lift heavy weights.
For lifters who are no longer very young - late twenties or older - or who have a lighter bone structure, these routines would be real overkill.
3-5 sets of 8-12 squats with perfect form, to rock bottom, is enough by itself to make for a good training day.
A lot of these routines come about because people find it very hard to believe that you can do a remarkably small amount of very high quality work, and reap 90% of the rewards of far more intensive programs, while avoiding in large part the risks of injury, joint degradation, burn out, and straightforward fatigue bleeding over and affecting your everyday life. 90%, consistently, over years and decades, will keep you healthy, energised, and physically attractive, while avoiding chronic injury, and fatigue.
This is a lesson I have taken 11 years of training to accept. It has taken me this long to appreciate just how far you can go on how little work, providing one focuses on doing high quality work.
I am a fan of a few movements, done with immaculate form, for a full range of motion.
I am persuaded that a training week structured roughly as below, and coupled with a healthy, nutritious diet full of good fats, and moderate protein is the best thing possible for hormone production, strength, physical health, good aesthetics, and longevity. I had already scaled back my training significantly from its peak, but this is the routine I've been following for a while now:
Day 1:
Squat - 3-5 x 8-12 pause squats, arse to grass.
If inclined:
2x20 hyper extensions
Grip work
Day 2 and 3, spaced at least 2 days apart:
Chinups - weighted or unweighted, 3-5 sets of 8-15
Overhead press - 3-4 sets of 8-12
Rows/dumbell deadlift (if DL, do first) - 3-4 sets of 10+
Dumbell bench, flat or incline - 3-5 sets of 10-20
2x10-20 hypers/weighted hypers
Then if inclined:
Rear delt machine flies - 2-3 sets of 15-20
Tricep extensions - 3 sets of 10+
Barbell curls - 3x20+
Grip work for high reps.
Throw in 1 day of high intensity conditioning work, and make an effort to walk a mile or two each day, and I think you have a tremendous program for long term health, fitness, and libido.
I would personally keep weights lighter for as long as possible. These days I'm of the view that adding weight to the bar is the last variable to adjust. Once you've really exacted everything you can out of a weight, that's when I would add weight to the bar.
To give a few examples:
I can walk into the gym and strict press 190lbs any day of the week, but I don't train with anything heavier than a 70lb dumbell, usually less.
I can squat 405lbs past parallel any day of the week, but I haven't trained with more than 245lbs in over a year.
Range of motion, focus on form and control of the weight, reducing rest periods, reducing training volume. These are the things that have kept me progressing over the last 12 months - particularly the last 6 or so since I received the advice I mentioned. Using comparatively light weights spares my joints a great deal of discomfort, especially as I am not built for moving especially large weights.
I do a few big movements that I think are key for strength and hormone production: Squat, Chin, OHP, Deadlifts
Everything else is structural integrity, muscular balance and aesthetics. These other movements help support the main lifts, build a little muscle, and keep my muscles and tendons healthy. I am a big fan of doing them for higher reps, and just pumping blood through the muscles and tendons. High rep barbell curls are a favourite for bicep health, and they still make your arms grow nicely.
You train 3 times per week with day 2 and 3 being the same workout and day 1 being just squat and hypers/grip work? Is there a reason for it instead of lets say Wednesday being squat day?
The squat is pretty taxing on the whole body, done correctly. In my view It is best done fresh for this reason, and because it is the most important movement for your entire body.
After the linear progression becomes too hard, does it make sense to make this into heavy light medium program with each monday increasing lifts by just a little?
I find it hard to believe that Leroy Colbert and his contemporaries trained years and years by using only one routine and doing less or more per workout depending on "how they fell this day".
a.) ...are a total newbie, which does not lift that much weight
b.) ...are on gear - Reg was on tren, if I remember correctly.
c.) ...have a thick wallet. You'll need MASSIVE amounts of calories[/b], in order to keep up. Especially when you increase the amounts that you can lift. And what will grant you massive amount of calories? High quality food. And that costs a lot.
d.) ...have time - if you do all those (+ mandatory cardio), you'll spend a LOT of time in the gym. For a professional like Park, that was not a problem, for obvious reasons. Now...for a guy who has a full time 9-5 job...it will be an issue.
After a month and a half (or something like that), I switched to a heavily modded version of SL5x5 (which is, as you probably know, a variant of Park's program). Why? For 3 weeks, I could not complete a workout because I was too tired - good luck lifting a DL of 150kg AFTER you did both squats, bench press, and rows! If I was on TRT, Tren or something, I probably could.
Makes complete sense and I dare to say that even on gear, that routine is probably very hard to do.
I like full body routines and am always researching for methods, not necessarily to do try them, but out of curiosity and this one you quoted from me is so called Phase 3. Park had very different views on exercise selection and RM percentages than his collegues. I think for example what George Eiferman did (11 exercises, 3x10 each, much lower intensity) is much more sustainable than this one.
I would break that routine up into like 2-3 different days. Doing all those in a single day would be hard, but doing 1 set of full body exercises and then another later in the week and rotating them makes sense.
The thing guys need to remember is that we aren't Reg Park or those other guys. You have to know your body and experience level.
I MIGHT be able to do that routine 2-3 times a week but I'd need to nail my sleep and diet.
I'd rather just rotate 4 workouts over 8 days and give myself ample recovery time between. Gotta treat yourself well.
I had a grueling work out a few days ago:
this was all done DC (doggcrapp) style as pioneered by Dante Trudel.
heavy weighted dips
rack pulls
heavy front raises (using some English)
weighted Chins
The exercise selection looks thin but goddamn if you pick the right weights and go for broke you will be murdered. I failed to hit at least 8 on 2 exercises so I'm going to rotate them out for a bit and replace them.
You gotta keep meticulous records when you're training this way or you start pussyfooting.
Honestly, I don't see how I can truly sustain this style of heavy training without a dedicated trainer or gym partner.
I see why he says you should do this shit for 4-6 weeks and then do 2-3 weeks of maintenance work before hammering yourself again.
I had a shake and then did 30 minutes of low-intensity cardio afterward.
Lately I've been doing 30 minutes of cardio after EVERY session. I'm in the gym 1.5-2 hours a day but I feel great. My appetite is off the charts and I sleep like a brick.