676
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: acole14's journal - DUNK OR DIE
« on: February 13, 2013, 08:48:46 pm »
Looks fine. Some ankle flexibility or oly shoes would probably make it perfect and give you a bit more depth.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
677
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 13, 2013, 01:28:41 pm »
I guess after training hard for the last 12 months or so, this is the first week off i've had. and my knees are happy everything feels good and rested. It might even do me good. I hope I dont get too fat though from being inactive.
IMO this is the hardest part about dieting/maintaining leanness. Like I have been stressing, with proper tempo work and high-workout capacity you can become/maintain very lean without restricting calories much.
Additionally, it's not that hard to eat clean when you running quick times on the track, throwing up big weights, and looking great. If you run a couple season PR's in the morning and then get in the weight room and kill some squats that afternoon, when you go out with your girl that night it only makes sense to say "I'll take the grilled Salmon". Poor quality food doesn't even seem right for the well oiled machine you are.
The problem is when the activity falls off. Those little injuries/or life/work events where you don't/can't train for a week. You forget that you are the pinnacle of fitness and ice-cream doesn't sound horrible anymore. Without the positive feedback of training and improving/maintaining excellent body composition it becomes easier and easier to fall off the wagon... Then a two week injury gets accompanied by a few lbs of fat gain which causes some more injuries and your season goes...
Don't let this happen! The hardest thing is when your inactive you actually should eat CLEANER than when you are training heavily. If you can master this you will be healthy for the rest of your life. There will be times we can't train whether life or injury, and as you get older dealing with these times correctly is probably more important than your actual training.
678
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: Kingfush
« on: February 12, 2013, 02:44:59 pm »
* was only planning on using the 445x1 top set but IMO, 440-445 is the same thing. 450 is ugly with 2x10s and a 2-1/2. put the big 25lb in there and went for the 455x1. it went up like a smooth 440. no correcting of the lowerback or any max effort grunting.. just a routine top set. should have taken a vid but as this was a monday afternoon - gym was packed. i can lift this 455x1 again. the way it went up today, seems like a daily top set anyway.
Nice job. Big lift. LOL 455 is the first weight that "counts" as more than 405. Until your throwing 25lb plates on your just doing "X" amount of weight and change. Same feeling I got the first time I bench pressed 185 lbs when I was 15 years old. 180 lbs was just a plate and then some.... but 185 was real legit stronger than a plate. Luckily for you got two more big plates to throw on, 475 looks really nice, and 495 ridiculous.
679
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 12, 2013, 02:36:48 pm »What about people with no choice but to squat low bar, like me, that have knee issues? Even attempting 2 reps of high bar squats is a ticket to go home with knee pain (but I have whatever stuff moving in my right knee).
You have a loose body in your knee? This injury prohibits high bar squatting but doesn't affect low-bar squatting or playing basketball, or repeated vertical jumping?
Might want to invest in some Rehband Knee sleeves and some olympic lifting shoes and see exactly what you can and can't do. Can you front squat? Can you high-bar squat above parallel?
I'm not trying to make the case that low-bar squatting is useless, just that the diminishing gains to athleticism seem to kick at much lower poundages than back squatting. If I had an athlete who could do anything but high-bar squat there are things I would have him doing before low bar squatting, that's all.
680
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 12, 2013, 02:29:03 pm »
it was humid as shit in the warm up room. the walls were wet. got some vid of OH squat, which i did before starting my normal squat warm ups. ugly but just wanted to try it out. i'm mobility-deficient all over the place and i have some ideas about where specifically to work on based on this vid and how the squats felt, but input's appreciated as always.
Overhead squats good to incorporate into your workout. Try to spend more time at the bottom. Widen your feet and try and get your body between your legs more so than sticking your butt back. I'm not as mobile as this guy but I do a warmup that looks somewhat like this before I squat and you can really increase mobility by spending lots of time sorta playing around at the bottom of your squat (weight to one side, forward, 1 leg, etc):
(he starts the squat warmup about 15 secs into the video)
681
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 12, 2013, 02:25:45 pm »interesting points which require more thought when i am fed. initial thoughts: the kipping pull ups comparison has the tempting ring of verisimilitude but i'm not sure i buy it. again, will consider more later.
i had thought to bound on a bball court (it's hardwood, fwiw) but will stay away if you say so.
It depends a lot on your joint health, but for sure grass/turf >> hardwood. You don't have access to any tracks? What is up with the DC metro area!?! On hardwood you can still get away with standing vertical jumps and can do low intensity single leg stuff if your body allows you.... but a soft surface is both 1) safer and 2) will give you better results because of the stiffness you will build up on the soft surface. Jamaicans train almost exclusively on grass for a part of the year and then move to mondo and run ridiculous times. You could do a low intensity day once on hardwood and then find a patch of grass somewhere and measure out distance and do 1 day where you put everything into your bounding. Full effort is really important, for both learning efficiency and making gains. Three of us in our training group got our triple depth-DL-bounding past 32 feet last year, unfortunately along the way things like this happen. It's funny on a soft surface but might not end well on hardwood.
682
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 11, 2013, 08:17:31 pm »
I say this with caution because I don't want to start this debate all over again. But KF's experience with his squat bringing up his vertical jump comes with a high-bar squat. You have increased your low-bar squat. I don't want to bring back age old arguments with Steven Miller (if I recall that guy had some ridiculously high squat numbers paired with a comparatively poor vertical leap...) or have someone start quoting Rippetoe.... but the lifts are not identical. IMO Greg Everetts book makes a good case for the better utility of high-bar squatting... but even if you are a low-bar disciple you have to realize the lifts are simply different and are one more reason you can't assume KF's experience will mirror yours.
KF increased his high-bar olympic squat without sacrificing much speed whilst putting in a lot of practice in the standing full-squat vertical jump, and coming out with a net weight loss. I don't believe he is the genetic outlier. Most people could get somewhat comparable improvements using the same method. However, you won't necessarily bring up your speed (something that's important for frisbee?) or increase your running DL vertical jump or SL vertical jump; All goals you seem to have.
I'm obviously a believer in the high-bar squat; in fact in some cases, I'd rather have athletes squat high-bar above parallel than low-bar squat. The form for which you can squeeze out the most poundage (see kipping pullups) is often the form which will translate the least other movements. While I am sure there are lifting coaches who know more than me who advocate the low-bar squat; all I know is I have seen a whole lot more people with big low-bar squats and poor vertical jumps, poor speed, poor pulls, poor dead lifts, poor front squats, etc than I have with the high-bar squat. I don't come across people too often who have added 100lbs to their high-bar squat and have stayed really stagnant in everything else. Just anecdotal, though!
My biases aside, you might consider switching up your squat form just to have a break from squatting. Some front squats or pause squats might be good to incorporate.
Additionally, you said you only had 15m to bound? I hope that doesn't mean you plan to do bounding on a basketball court or concrete. I strongly advise you to do maximal effort bounding on a basketball court for a long duration of time and will just flat out ask you to stay away from concrete. Bounding looks easy but it is hard.
KF increased his high-bar olympic squat without sacrificing much speed whilst putting in a lot of practice in the standing full-squat vertical jump, and coming out with a net weight loss. I don't believe he is the genetic outlier. Most people could get somewhat comparable improvements using the same method. However, you won't necessarily bring up your speed (something that's important for frisbee?) or increase your running DL vertical jump or SL vertical jump; All goals you seem to have.
I'm obviously a believer in the high-bar squat; in fact in some cases, I'd rather have athletes squat high-bar above parallel than low-bar squat. The form for which you can squeeze out the most poundage (see kipping pullups) is often the form which will translate the least other movements. While I am sure there are lifting coaches who know more than me who advocate the low-bar squat; all I know is I have seen a whole lot more people with big low-bar squats and poor vertical jumps, poor speed, poor pulls, poor dead lifts, poor front squats, etc than I have with the high-bar squat. I don't come across people too often who have added 100lbs to their high-bar squat and have stayed really stagnant in everything else. Just anecdotal, though!
My biases aside, you might consider switching up your squat form just to have a break from squatting. Some front squats or pause squats might be good to incorporate.
Additionally, you said you only had 15m to bound? I hope that doesn't mean you plan to do bounding on a basketball court or concrete. I strongly advise you to do maximal effort bounding on a basketball court for a long duration of time and will just flat out ask you to stay away from concrete. Bounding looks easy but it is hard.
683
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 11, 2013, 11:23:27 am »
^Why I don't bench more than 2 months out of the year. Pec tears are terrible and crop up at weird times once you get them.
The best way to rid yourself of the endurance issues you have during the 100m is by doing 100m's. Everyone has endurance issues during 100m. It's part of running 100m
I didn't realize you were training in a park, I thought you were on a track training the competitive sprints. 30m sprints will largely test your reaction and initial part of your acceleration. But since reacting to your watch doesn't translate too well to the track then they really only test the initial part of your acceleration phase. I don't favor them because athletes tend to develop bad habits when training only for the 40 yard. They were popularized from American football, but if you watch american football you would see the guys who kept track up in college (Jacoby Jones and Trindon Holiday) outrunning everyone else in the playoffs and DeAnthony (who trained with our club in LA!) flying by everyone at Oregon.
Track will get you faster to 20m, 30m, 40m.... Whatever meters. Running only 30m is like only doing squat singles. The shorter you test yourself in the more you will be training your ability to cheat slightly and less your ability to actually get faster.
Since you have body composition goals I would strongly suggest you run longer tempo. Running 30m or even 60m isn't going to lean you out much. But running 150m+ repeatedly will get rid of all the fat on your body.
The best way to rid yourself of the endurance issues you have during the 100m is by doing 100m's. Everyone has endurance issues during 100m. It's part of running 100m
I didn't realize you were training in a park, I thought you were on a track training the competitive sprints. 30m sprints will largely test your reaction and initial part of your acceleration. But since reacting to your watch doesn't translate too well to the track then they really only test the initial part of your acceleration phase. I don't favor them because athletes tend to develop bad habits when training only for the 40 yard. They were popularized from American football, but if you watch american football you would see the guys who kept track up in college (Jacoby Jones and Trindon Holiday) outrunning everyone else in the playoffs and DeAnthony (who trained with our club in LA!) flying by everyone at Oregon.
Track will get you faster to 20m, 30m, 40m.... Whatever meters. Running only 30m is like only doing squat singles. The shorter you test yourself in the more you will be training your ability to cheat slightly and less your ability to actually get faster.
Since you have body composition goals I would strongly suggest you run longer tempo. Running 30m or even 60m isn't going to lean you out much. But running 150m+ repeatedly will get rid of all the fat on your body.
684
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 11, 2013, 11:05:57 am »
Agree somewhat with what the other guys say. Often best gains come when squat is in maintenance which probably further proves their point of repeatable strength being important.
As far as my template goes rest between workouts depends on you. Basically, bound before weights, weights can be before SVJ. You want rest from high-intensity bounding and top speed/accels. Weights depends on your work capacity, if you currently squat 2x a week you don't want to increase it on this program obviously.
A good split would be:
Monday: Warmup, Shot Throws, Intense Bounding (go for PRs), 4x60m sprints, 1x100m, weight room: Psnatch/clean, front squat, push press.
Tuesday: Warmup/Bounding Warmup, work on trail leg cycle and go a fixed distance, shot throws, tempo track (3x3 200m (30sec recovery between reps,3 min between sets) - easy pace (PR+ ~10sec, dont fall off). Weight room.
Repeat Thurs/Friday.
Basically, tempo is viewed almost as recovery. This might seem weird because as you start out tempo runs will probably make you more sore and they will hurt much more than speed work. BUT, as you get into shape you will recover well from tempo work. Recovery from multiple hi-intensity sprints will actually get worse as you get faster. That's why you stick with a program like this for awhile. Will transform you. One thing we like to add in season is putting that full squat or front squat on maintenance and adding in some dynamic band work. A bit easier to recover from with the lighter pounds but keeps squat volume high enough to make maintenance easy. Will try and get a demo for you.
As far as my template goes rest between workouts depends on you. Basically, bound before weights, weights can be before SVJ. You want rest from high-intensity bounding and top speed/accels. Weights depends on your work capacity, if you currently squat 2x a week you don't want to increase it on this program obviously.
A good split would be:
Monday: Warmup, Shot Throws, Intense Bounding (go for PRs), 4x60m sprints, 1x100m, weight room: Psnatch/clean, front squat, push press.
Tuesday: Warmup/Bounding Warmup, work on trail leg cycle and go a fixed distance, shot throws, tempo track (3x3 200m (30sec recovery between reps,3 min between sets) - easy pace (PR+ ~10sec, dont fall off). Weight room.
Repeat Thurs/Friday.
Basically, tempo is viewed almost as recovery. This might seem weird because as you start out tempo runs will probably make you more sore and they will hurt much more than speed work. BUT, as you get into shape you will recover well from tempo work. Recovery from multiple hi-intensity sprints will actually get worse as you get faster. That's why you stick with a program like this for awhile. Will transform you. One thing we like to add in season is putting that full squat or front squat on maintenance and adding in some dynamic band work. A bit easier to recover from with the lighter pounds but keeps squat volume high enough to make maintenance easy. Will try and get a demo for you.
685
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: a fast and explosive donkey!
« on: February 09, 2013, 12:09:11 pm »revisiting the "stole acole14's template" thread, here is what t0ddday originally prescribed. goal is to get two of each type in per week. avishek, where you at? you want to do these track workouts when it gets warm? banneker high school? or cardozo? t0ddday, how much rest between each workout? 4 a week means at least one day with no rest. unless i do 2-a-days.
on that note, i also got in touch with my buddy who has the old gym booked for bball in the mornings. that would lend itself to 2-a-days.
either way, will not shift gears until indoor ultimate season is over, at which point i'll be in better shape and also once again have rest days in the middle of the week.Quote*** Track Workout ***
1) Dynamic Warmup, Leg swings, Fast leg, Skips, Strides
2) 10 Measured overhead backward shot tosses (16lbs, aim to get better at these every workout, do these on a field where you can measure your throw, more than 13 yards is required, getting close to 15 yards is good, close to 17 is very very good).
- Bounding/ Jumping ( choose about 3 of them and also include the running SL vertical jump and REALLY focus on improvement) -
1) 3-6 standing broad jumps
2) 3-6 Depth broad jumps (should go a lot farther on these)
3) 2-3 4 double leg bounds, 8 DL leg bounds (again measure these, hopefully you 4 DL bound is better than 4X standing broad jump)
4) Measured Single leg bounds** (ie LLLL or RRRR)
5) Measured Standing Triple jumps**
6) Running SL vertical jump (3 step, 6 step)
- Running -
1) 3-4 Full effort measured 60m sprints (Hand time will suffice as long as you have a buddy who can provide somewhat repeatable times)
2) Tempo Work (If necessary for fat loss, skip if you do weights following track work)
** Either do these full intensity and try to progress OR if you don't feel like you have the hang of it (ie you go less than 10 yards, or you don't get a full cycle in each leg or can't coordinate the arm swing... Then include them as part of the warmup and drill the form until you have it)
**** Weights/Gym Workout ****
1) Warmup
2) Powerclean or Powersnatch -> work up to a challenging weight for a couple triples
3) Squat. Work up to a challenging but not max single. Do 2-3 sets of 3-5 with 80% of this.
4) Standing Push Press
5) Deadlifts (Optional)
6) Circuit (Here is where you can do RDLs, Calves, Pullups, etc. This stuff is important but your mindset when you come into the gym should be in order of preference: Squat more, Snatch\clean more, push press more/deadlift more. Thinking about much more than this will cause you to lose focus. )
7) Standing vertical jumps/Running vertical jumps [10 each]
IMO, whatever you do, you need to have a change from your current training approach which seems to be something like 3x gym a week doing squats and tucks/SVJs/depth jumps together in the same session. I heard a great quote from some S&C podcast I listened to lately that made me think of your current problem:
"Everything works, but nothing works forever".
Should your current training approach give you consistent vertical jump gains? Yes. But is it working at the moment? Seemingly not. I think you could possibly benefit from a change of mindset from a strength-based approach to an speed/explosiveness-based approach for awhile. You could probably do any of the following:
- Todday's program which has more of a track slant;
- Joel Smith's 1-legged jump program (mix of strength work different to your current lifting, and bounding sessions);
- Mini-periodisation setup where you alternate between short explosiveness/speed blocks and have a deload/rest week every few cycles to go for PRs;
- Train with Avishek (I REALLY like this idea as he's basically your polar opposite, would be very interesting).
Up to you, I know in the past you've gotten gains when your squat numbers have been near PR levels so you might not want to decrease the strength emphasis. I guess my thinking lately is that leg strength measures are very important for vertical jump up until a certain relative level (each individual's number is probably different depending on style, structure etc., but let's say say 2xBW for squat or 2.5xBW for DL). Beyond this point though, unless you are really committed to gaining freakish relative strength like Kingfish or those Broz lifters (fairly long-term effort/impossible for some), then eventually I think you'll have to incorporate more speed/strength expression work if you wanna get higher.
Just my $0.02, whatever you do I'm really hoping you get some good results. I know it can be fucking demoralising when you start plateau-ing.
You ask some great Q's. Got a track meet and a bunch of work but I will get back more in depth when I have the time. Have what I think is some good advice for both you and Entropy but don't want to write it twice...
For now I will just say that I agree with acole about the need to switch up your training. Switching to more speed/strength expression in general might be more important than which template you choose (though I favor mine over the pure 1 legged one because your videos pegged you as someone whose best ability is as a reactive DL jumper). And, also I STRONGLY agree with idea of Avishek. He's benefited extremely from the board (came in with zany off the wall wrong ideas that didn't work and now has zany off the wall ideas that seem to work), has low limit strength but is more reactive especially off 1 leg, and could probably push you pretty well. Additionally track work is absolutely horrible without a training partner, almost impossible to do. I'll get you some more detailed stuff soon, until then hope the weather on your coast actually allows outdoors (it's sunny every day here and I have access to world class facilities... I know everyone isn't so lucky).
PS I will be in Baltimore in a few months for a couple weeks. Will be looking for some track/workout facilities. Is that near you? Any recommendations?
686
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: Kingfush
« on: February 09, 2013, 12:01:36 pm »
^ You have a squat rack in your home? Ridiculous that 315lbs is a warmup for you. I still grind 315 if I don't prepare properly and I got 20lbs+ on you at similar height. What's staggered sleep, 4+2? Sleep for 4, lift, sleep for 2?
687
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: Kingfush
« on: February 08, 2013, 07:10:33 pm »^ generic claritin aka like one of those walmart costco brands work much better than benadryl. it's half the price of regular prescription grade claritin, exact same content though. i've got those stashed for the spring time when i get allergies.
Exact the same content but works much better? I have heard of people who mistakenly believe in the power of the brand-name but this is new; someone who believes in the power of the generic...
^ I don't understand the rationale between sick-days and annual leave. My ladys always checking how many of each she has left. Seems like it should all be the same really. Luckily I don't work in an industry where I have to allot my days one way or another.
688
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism -- Day #11/60
« on: February 08, 2013, 07:07:04 pm »Training (Lower)
FS 2x90, 1x100, 3x104.5, 3Fx105.5
BS 3x90, 1x100, 5x95, 5x90
SVJx5, RVJx2
5x30m sprints (~4s per 30)
And that was it. Then 8 hours later when i'm driving home, I realised I had this weird thing going on in my right pec. It's a kind of searing pain. It scares me because last time I had this was when I tore my intercostals and I had to stop training completely for weeks before it healed. Back then I made it worse by training thru it. Hope this is nothing and it goes away but i'm going to be cautious. Bother.
Anyway the sprints were good. I've never been this close to breaking 4s. Which is remarkable because I haven't been sprinting for months and this was the first time. So hopefully once i'm done cutting and I work my sprinting harder i'll be under 4s.
Just wondering, what do you run 30m sprints? That distance is almost immeasurable as far as hand-timing goes and thus really hard to gauge improvement. It doesn't even let you hit top speed. I doubt Usain Bolt could hit 4s for 5 reps without spikes.
Why not just run 60m and 100m sprints. They will allow you to measure your improvement with much less noise, allow you to work on accelerating to much faster speed, and have measurably good benefits for body competition, which you are concerned with... I would be afraid an athlete training his self timed 30m is training moreso his ability to reflexively react to his stop-watch press than actually training his legs to get stronger...
689
Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: A Journey to Running Fast and Jumping High
« on: February 08, 2013, 12:52:22 pm »
Thursday is also track meets, which i can't go because the lecture has just been placed from 5-6pm and track starts around that time 6:30 and its about 30mins away. I can't go straight away as after class i have to get changed all the stuff, to get mind of uni so i decided to do my own speed program which i told toddayy or acole don't remember about short endurance and long endurance and there is all this nice 7 floors of stairs which i can run up non stop till the top and i am dead after so i might add that as a finisher.
Do the track meets. Wear your tights under your clothes at lecture and leave as early as possible. The first events at a track meet are: 4x1,1600m, hurdles then the 400m. These events will probably last at least till 7:30, giving you more than enough time to get to the track get a little warm (you don't need/want to get super stretched out before competing anyway) and get in at least the 100m and 200m and possibly the 400m if your fit enough to do it before the 1.
If you want to run fast stop making excuses ("I have to get changed all that stuff") and go get in the blocks and race some people. I know your probably afraid of competing but trust me the sooner you do it the better. "Doing my own speed program" is simply a recipe for failure. The best advice you will ever hear is to man up and go compete. You will get butterflys, be nervous, and find that it's actually really fun. You get faster running with speed. Go do it man. I don't want to see a post again from you unless it's your time from a meet.
690
Strength, Power, Reactivity, & Speed Discussion / Re: how early to bulk after a cut?
« on: February 07, 2013, 08:58:37 pm »I lost 10lbs without losing any net strength. That is good progress in terms of relative strength, which is what I want. Kingfish and frank yang also cycle(d) their bodyweight a lot. I simply won't get much stronger by not gaining any weight anymore, so I just want to gain weight SLOWLY so I can still gain strength and not have to cut fat for a long time.
Yes, it's easier to get stronger while your bw goes up... but if you get stronger while your bodyweight goes up and then lose strength when you cut weight you are also spinning your wheels, albeit not in place.
I was at maintenance for a while (over a month) and literally did not have a single increase in strength
[/quote]
I don't know the specifics of what these two did (not that two people having success with one strategy makes it optimal...) but I am pretty sure KF cycled body-weight down for much longer than a month. I am not arguing that bodyweight needs to always be constant, just that the majority of the time should be in maintenance. Gaining strength without gaining weight is hard. However, seriously.. 1 Month? Unless you are a total beginner you can't expect every single month to accompany measurable gains, especially the first month back to maintenance after a cutting weight. Don't give up so quickly. Gaining weight makes gaining strength very easy but it's a crutch you should not be relying on quite so often. No offense but I don't believe you are at your maximum peak strength for your bodyweight. Everyone has to cycle weight to some extent; I cut to high 5% bf and high 180's in October 2011 and stayed within 10lbs of that until the summer 2012 when I decided to focus earnestly on gaining strength.
Initially, it's hard to gain strength after dieting... there are some slow weeks and you learn to measure your strength more precisely; gains in strength might come in the form of being able to do 3 reps 4x a week without grinding rather than having a couple of grinded reps on two of the days. You certainly don't get to add 5 lbs a week when you are already at decent strength levels and maintaining low bodyfat. But eventually you adapt to the weight and make small increases in strength. THEN, when you finally add some carbs to your diet and decide to gain a few pounds the strength increase is ridiculously fast. It's like a built in reward for challenging your body to build/maintain strength levels at a low bodyweight... Speaking of KF I believe he dieted to something like 170 and hung out there for a year making minor increases before gaining a few lbs and a lot of strength. I think that's a good example, and it mirrors the seasonal schedule we use to get most sprint athletes in shape. You might feel that you are spinning your wheels when you don't gain weight... but in reality cutting --- bulking --- cutting --- bulking is a recipe to spin your relative strength wheels. Think of weight gain as a boost which needs to be used sparingly for risk of dependence and try to get yearly workout patterns that look like this: ----cutting------------------------------------------ bulking ---------------------------------- cutting --------------------------------------------------------------------.