Adarq.org

The high bar experiment comes to an end

I was seduced by the arguments by Pendlay et al that HBBS is superior and better for athletes. I still find the arguments convincing and believe them to be correct. But i've tried HBBS out for a few months now and it's not worked out as well as I hoped. I still hold that an upright squat is a better squat, and if my backsquat were very upright I would be happy, but it's not going to happen with either back squat variant. My HBBS is more upright it's true but it has several drawbacks which I describe below. I also believe that HBBS in general is more upright and closer to the FS. And for some people their HBBS would be a great lift to use to drive up their FS. They should definitely use HBBS heavily. I'm not one of them. I also don't believe the other camp in thinking that LBBS carries over to FS either. So far i'm with Glen. But then trying it out, it just didn't work out for me.

HBBS and FS together beat up my knees, HBBS is harder to get right and more risky and the real kicker, it's not much stronger than my FS. So I never experienced the holy grail of doing 1 squat (HBBS) and seeing my FS go up with it. PC dominant squat wont help my FS go up, I know that and don't expect it to. Only my FS will help my FS go up so the idea of carry-over loses it's appeal in practice for me. And since the HBBS gives me no benefit but has drawbacks (knee beatup) then it's a no-brainer to pick LBBS which does provide benefits which FS does not.

I wish I could do a pretty HBBS that is upright, deep, heavy and carries over to FS. The reality is my HBBS sucks, it's lower than my FS, it is dangerous when form breaks down (i will invariably snap some shit up when the loads are much heavier and form deteroriates due to fatigue or what have you). I already had a scare from last friday when my last set of HBBS which were light but done while fatigued tweaked my back bringing back sciatica symptoms. No thank you.

I don't like keeping my hips in because it makes it harder to set a flat back which will come back and bite me at some point if I keep up with HBBS.

To sum it up HBBS doesn't give me anything that FS does not, but it gives me far less (except the back bruise!). So it's settled. I went back to PC dominant backsquats and it's time to rebuild PC strength and get back to squatting over 120kg for reps asap. I do a nicer, safer PC dominant squat and it's better on my knees since sitting back is much gentler on them. FWIW my hamstrings were shaking badly just using 97.5kg which should be a light warmup for me. I have regressed but it's ok, newbie gains for the reaping.

FS is still my main squat and I will be driving it up towards the lofty goal of 1.75*BW. Anyway things are lot simpler now, HBBS was no panacea for me i'm sad to say. i'm done experimenting, just going to stick to the familiar basics which have served me well so far: FS and using the PC dom squat as assistance. The End.

THE BEST LAID SCHEMES O' MICE AN' MEN
GANG AFT A-GLEY

robert burns. that poem is awesome, the opening lines are just awesome:

wee sleekit, cowrin' tim'rous beastie,
oh what a-panics in thy breastie?
thou need na start awa sae hasty,
wi' bickerin' brattle!
i wid be laith t'rin an' chase thee
wi' murd'rin' prattle!

Just going by trial and error but this is what im thinking of in terms of changes

0. Mondays stay the same
1. Tuesday off
2. First upper body workout on Weds. Make it hardcore. Shoulders (heavy ohp) and upper back (heavy weighted chins) in AM; chest (high vol bp) and arms (curls) PM
3. Thursdays off
4. Friday keep the same
5. Saturdays off
6. Sundays 2nd upper workout, make it a lighter one, tricep assistance (medium close grip bp, the skull crusher like lift lance suggested a while back), shoulders (medium ohp) and arms (curls). This shouldn't affect mondays workouts hopefully. 

The benefits are I get a bit more frequency for ohp which i'm told the lift loves. and Arms get hit 2x a week which should give me better growth than i've seen so far (close to nil).

So in pictorial form it looks like:



disclaimer: Management reserve the right to modify or withdraw program at any time whenever deemed necessary etc

cheers seifullaah73



dinner which is my 2nd meal of the day. Today it is rice w/ snow peas, potato & caulliflower and chicken, banana protein shake in lowfat milk. 

This is pretty much how I eat most days, so i'm not starving myself, I just avoid the junk and let the caloric deficit do its work. Maybe when i'm closer to 10% i might have to eat like a bodybuilder w/ steamed veges and chicken breasts, but so far I haven't needed to thankfully. I owe most of my success to getting my breakfast right 100% and sticking to it day in day out without fail.

damn looks good..

im absolutely starving right now, that didn't help any.

hah sorry!

entropy, did the new forum mess up your sig? i remember you had a picture in your sig.. or did you just take it out?
peace man

Nope my sig was getting a bit long but it still works w/ images, i just checked.

Also have you watched dexter ep1? spoiler: omg so crazy. you almost feel sorry for deb. they have done an amazing job with the start of the season.

spoilers: when they were running thru the last season recap, i couldn't help but notice how weak that season really was. the other serial killer villians were boring, there was no suspense or mystery it was just a bad season except for the ending which was different. And from the first minute of this season you can tell it will be completely different. I found it more unsettling than enjoyable, engrossing for sure. I miss the old dexter story line of dexter almost gets caught but then he somehow manages to finnese his way to freedom at the last second. But now with deb knowing everything as dexter goes thru the motions at the crime scenes, you lose that sense of secrecy and escaping in plain sight. Still. I'll def be watching it!

I saved homeland ep1 for tonight, will tell you how I find it tomorrow 

Fell off the diet wagon after 10 days of strict compliance. I had about 600 calories worth of chocolate and probably 1000 of icecream and a greasy lamb kebab (500-1000kcal). I do so well during the week but it seems whenever my brother comes over, I end up binging on stuff he brings home. It's my fault though. I was experimenting with this thing I read from Lyle where you don't let cravings built up, and if you feel like having a piece of chocolate, just have one, and end the craving swiftly right there and then before it builds up into a ravenous eat-everything-in-sight monster. Well it kind of worked, I only had two caramello koalas. But then a few hours later i came back for the 3rd to reward my discpline and breakthru in self control. And then a little later I had another one, just because I felt like it, and it was just one, right? The icecream came later when I gave up and decided I had fucked up so badly that I might as well go full cheater mode. Which is exactly what I had been instructed to avoid in the first place by eliminating cravings lol.


The following day weigh-in

I'm getting disillusioned with cutting and being so far from my desired bodyfat levels. Feels like i've been cutting forever and yet i'm still so far from 10% bodyfat. Realistically I can't even get there by the end of the year. I will probably finish at just under 80kg mid oct. And after the break, on 1st nov,  if i have managed to maintain my weight (big if, that will be challenging) over the break, i'll have to lose another 5kg, probably. 5kg in 6 weeks is impossible, esp since i have a 2 week diet break at the end of Dec, at which point i'll have to maintain my weight during the holidays!

So realistically we're looking at maybe finishing the cut sometime february? anyway we'll see what happens but fuck getting so fat that it takes forever to get lean. i'll never go above 15% again. I should have been starting my cut under 80kg, not 87kg or whatever it was I started at. Anyway i'm not going to stress about this stuff anymore, I have so far to go that it doesn't pay to be obsessive this far out.

Not much to report otherwise as it was a rest day. I woke up with really sore lats and chest for a change, which was nice. I am really digging my new program.

Sets Reps Weight
6 6 85
7 5 90
8 4 95
10 3 102.5

6 6 90
7 5 95
8 4 100
10 3 107.5

6 6 95
7 5 100
8 4 105
10 3 112.5
This is based on adding 5kg per cycle. Obviously it would take me a lot longer since i'm doing it over 2 sessions per week and it will take 2 weeks to do one cycle. I might have to take smaller jumps in the last two workouts but that's okay, we'll see what happens.  Also I might jump in at 8x4x95, which should make Lance happy since that is ~80% and I don't drop below 80% for the duration of the program.