Khaine's Road To 200... or How To Beat Your Genetics...

[.V.]

Cool, I misread and thought you were doing them behind the neck. Excellent work on these BTW - really nice numbers.

[Khaine]

Ahhh, what a mess...

So I wake up monday, after 2 hours of sleep... It's May 1st, which is like Labour Day here, so everything is closed... The gym is open, but any outlet that carry decent food are not... I say fukkit, decide to push my week a day forward and go home to get some sleep...

Today, I got up way too late and played football for 2 hours, so Squats were a no-go... A certain rearrangement of the week is called for then and I do BORs today instead, Squats Wednesday, Bench Thursday, Deads Friday and Military Press Saturday... Have to make somebody cover my shift on Saturday...

Not really feeling too strong today... Gym was packed... Seems evening time is when then big boys come out... Clientele after 8PM is decidedly larger than earlier in the day... Got the EZ Bar and got to my spot, the one wit the great light...


10-rep warm-up sets wit the bar and 90lbs then an acclimation set at 150... Did a 3 rep set at 160 too, but decided it was too light to count as an official set...

3x170 - No problem... Babycakes...

3x180 - Not as heavy as last time at all... Definitely ready to increase...

3x195 - Yeeep... Great set... Heavy, but I didn't compromise my form much... I wanna try passing 200...

2x205 - UHNNN!!! Gotta say I was satisifed wit this... A 3rd rep wasn't about to happen and the form on the second was hardly perfect, but I felt powerful when I moved this...

2x195 - Third rep was trash... Can't count it... Held it for 5 secs to make up for it tho...

3x180 - Good set... Full control, perfect form...

Finished off wit a 10 rep set at 90, just for kicks, which I also did 8 BB Curls wit...


Good workout today... Definitely better than last time... Gut feeling was off and I did better than I had expected... That 205 set felt great... If I can keep this progression up, the BORs could become a good exercise for me...

Squats tomorrow then... Should hurt... yay...

[Khaine]

Fukk...

Last week was trash... Everything went downhill from tuesday... Didn't get the day off work, ran out of food, ran out of protein, ran out of money... In short, DL and MP day were not completed... Exams and work has been piling up too, so I really haven't had time to get on here much...

Aaanyway, here are last week's lifts...

Wednesday May 3rd - Squat Day

3x260
3x270
3x280
3x280
3x270
2x270

Thursday May 4th - Bench Day

3x220
2x230
3x230
3x230
3x220
3x220

This week has been decent so far... Here's Monday through Wednesday...

Monday May 8th - Squat Day

2x280
2x290
1x300
2x290
2x280 (Pant split, woohoo)

Tuesday May 9th - BOR Day

2x200
2x210
2x220
2x210
2x210

Wednesday May 10th - Bench Day

2x220
2x230
2x240
2x230
2x230


A couple revelations this week...

- My BORs are increasing FAST... Yay...
- I'm not eating enough... I'm gonna try 3300 cals and up my protein somewhat...
- I'm just a lazy slob... I hate myself... I loathe myself, etc etc insert self-hatred here...
- I'ma do this OLAD stuff for 12 weeks total, then do one or two cycles of 24 Blitz, then 12 weeks of pure Max-OT... Should be enough diversity to really make me more aware of what works for me... If none of that works, I've always got the full-body workouts...

Blahhhhhhhhh...

[Khaine]

Deads today... Didn't do anything else today, so I could focus on restructuring my meals... Didn't have a point of reference for these lower reps as I didn't do DLs last week, so I had to take a chance... Wanted to try a new PR at 2x350 so...


2x330 - This went iight... No real problems...

2x340 - Last rep wasn't exactly perfect and I was bending my back somewhat, but it came up...

0x350 - FUKKK... 5 seconds of pulling and my ass was straight in the air wit the bar still on the ground... Legs did no the work and I didn't feel like doing a GM wit that weight...

2x340 - Heavy...

0x330 - Nothing left and I didn't really want it... damnit...


One word... Damn... I wanted to hit a new PR today, but it really wasn't happening... I think I need to review my technique as my legs do very little work right now...

MPs tomorrow, then off... A couple issues arise wit the upcoming off-week... Should I really do no lifting...? How should my calorie intake be...? Protein, carbs, fats...?

[MostMuscle]

Khaine, I think you are doing great considering the outside factors such as exams, lack of sleep, food, and cash. Rest up, heal up and get back into it. Don't cut your calories during the rest week too much, perhaps just avoid the fatty stuff and keep everything else high....you will need it.

If you do decide to lift, do something light and easy like circuit training on some machines etc. Whatever you do, don't do any of the movements in your OLAD program and keep your reps high and easy (12-15). Some light cardio or some outdoor activities would be a nice change of pace also.

[Khaine]

Word, thanks... Appreciate that... Good lookin out on the advice for next week too...

[Khaine]

Alright, cycle 2 commences in T minus 4 hours... I'll alter a couple things from the first one...

#1 - BBMP day is out... I realised I'd forgotten to write it up here... Just as good... It was crap, again... Spent 3 sets trying to get a clean rep at 150... But I can do 8 at 140... This is my DBMP nightmare all over again and I'm not doing it... So MPs are out, Chins are in... Should leave me in horrible, horrible pain for the weekend... I'll be doing some gymnastics static holds a couple days a week for shoulders instead...

#2 - I'm changing my sequencing... The up-down pyramid is out and a straight dropping weight as inclined style is in, starting very heavy and dropping as I slowly die... I'll move more weight total this way and also work closer to my max... Hopefully it won't get too intense... We'll find out soon enough, as squat day is today...

3# - I've found the reason I'm not gaining... Weekends and off-weeks are killing me... My calorie count drops fairly drastically every time, along wit my hydration, activity and motivation levels... I need to invest in a work ethic or something if I want to produce steady gains... Maybe they have one on eBay...

That about it... I'll report back when I die at the squat rack tonight...

[MostMuscle]

1. Good Decision.
2. Make sure you do a good warm-up prior to exercise.
3. Dig Deep and Good Luck!

[Khaine]

Allright... Time to revive this bitch...

I did eventually finish my second OLAD cycle... However, by the end of week two, the World Cup was on... Needless to say, assness ensued... From June till September, I did nothing... That's nothing in the most literal sense of the word... My existance was in doubt... There was talk of me being dead and at one point, a eulogy was written and a headstone purchased... Apparently, I was a loving son... Now, a loving son in debt... Marble is expensive...

Alright, not quite... But it gets my idea across...

So I was in pitiful condition when I started back up... probably down to 165... Just transparent and disgusted wit myself... Luckily, thanks to the wonders of muscle memory and a certain experience, I was able to put on a lot of that lost weight in a short amount of time... In other words, I'm back up to 175 now, after 4 weeks of general Full-Body work and 4 weeks of AoW...

Yes, that's right, I've reverted to my happy Full-Body days, when the world was a better place, the birds sang clearer, the sky was bluer and gains were to be had aplenty... Now, I'm not being completely fair to the OLAD program, which was kind to me, even if DOMS would have me believe otherwise, but no matter how I look at it, higher frequency seems to work better for me...

So I'm in my last week of AoW now... Wit Quattro Dynamo (QD from here on in) the next in line... Figured I'd post it here, as I can't remember anybody on this site, besides Ebon00, having made much of a fuss about High Frequency Training...

Hopefully, my writing will be to the reading pleasure and boundless inspiration of you all...

[Khaine]

As a general idea of where I'm at, here's my last workout...

A1 Back Squats
6x6@210

A2 Fat Grip Chins
6x6

B1 Board Presses (Safety Pin Presses really, I don't have a board)
6x6@230

B2 Power Cleans
6x6@130 (hey, I've just started these)

C1 Cable Crossovers
6x6@45 (I don't even know what that weight means on these things)

C2 Straight Arm Pulldowns
6x6@65 (Again, nothing)

The A1/A2 stuff indicates 'supersets', in that I'll do one set of A1, rest a minute, then a set of A2, rest a minute, A1, rest, etc... It condenses a lot of volume into a short period of time and allows me to work wit relatively heavy weights without sitting on my ass all day, resting...

I also cycle rep ranges throughout the week, play 2 hours of football 2 days a week, and do an hour or two of gymnastics, ring work and rope climbing on sundays... Oh, and grip training throughout the week; lever work, extensions, crushing grip, rope twists...

[Khaine]

Iight, finally, I wanna post this little joint I wrote back in early September... It was for T-nation originally, but hey, I never sent it to anyone, so I figured DF could get a chance to **** on my dull wit... Anyways, it worked for me...

-------------------------------------------------------------

- T-Man Worthy? -

Wow. I hate revelations. Other than changing my life, for better or worse, they always hurt. Physically or spiritually. For instance, discovering the difference between white and red jellyfish. Or realizing that 'study' can stand for '****ing the football team'. Or that anal sex doesn't necessarily leave YOUR pooper untouched.

But I regress. My last epiphany came to me as I was brushing my teeth. Or rather, as I was applying assumed toothpaste to my brush. You see, this particular moment of self-realization was of the toilsome sort. The kind that makes me frown, scrunge and writhe my mug, as I transform into Popcorn Face, my alter ego, who traditionally appears post-binge drinking and on those days when I just pour loads of salt on my face. During these revelations, my body tends to work on auto-pilot, as brain and soul lock horns in a tremendous battle for a truthful answer to whatever question rotates, alone, bouncing off the walls like a Microsoft screensaver, in the vast, dark space that is my noggin. So I applied Davidoff deo-stick to my brush and went to work.

Seconds later, reading the fine print at the very bottom of the toilet bowl, right next to those odd, brownish trails, I returned to my brainstorm. All cognizance bent away from dirty water, dry heaves, aching knees and a sensationally swollen tongue. A reevaluation was necessary, the ensuing aftermath determining rebirth or demise.

I had to examine my manhood. The metaphysical one. Well, my other one could probably use a check-up too, but she said she was unspoiled, a virgin, so I probably needn't worry. I'm sure those pulsating boils are common. Ahh, crap. Killed the dramatic effect.

I had to examine my masculinity...

You see, I lie. I do. I tell blatant lies without it really being necessary. Little white type ****, of the 'I can't take extra shifts cus I have to... study...' or 'I can't study now, gotta shave the turtle' or 'I can't shave the turtle today, I have fish to feed' sort. In other words, nothing that's going to kill anybody, but lies nonetheless, and by the dozen.

I'm sarcastic as well. All that separates me from a stereotypical hoodrat is the snapping of fingers. Surely, it's related to the fact that the last serious conversation I had with any of my friends was during the Reagan era, and most of our yack now revolves around snappy retorts and mocking people who aren't present, but still, I can really only blame myself. In fact, if I'm the average of the 5 people I spend the most time with, by rights, I shouldn't even be on this site, much less enjoy it so.

Oh, and I simmer. I used to do this when I was a 60lb kid; I'd pout and frown and think about the **** I wish I'd done or said in a given situation. It was a bad habit I shed when I befriended the iron, but it appears to be creeping back on me.

The reason I now own up to this, not just to you, but to myself, is because I feel unfit to call myself a T-Man. I just can't justify it anymore. The past 3 months, I've been lazy with lifting, meals, school, work, waking, ****, I'm taking breaths up for consideration of whether I should even bother. Of course, this isn't a potential online suicide note, and I don't actually plan to stop breathing, I'm merely underlining my apathetic mindstate. I've noted all the excuses I've used for my descent into mindnumbing lethargy, from the World Cup to pussy to beer to work to previous diseases and they're all pitiful. Well, obviously, they are; excuses tend to be. But yeah, I feel like Bob, you know? Every night I go to bed with plans to rock the gym and kitchen the following day, and every morning I annihilate my alarm clock and snooze till the PM hours, hating myself all the while. In place of the confident gait is a slouched plod; where used to be boundless energy from timed carbs is the crashing insulin of sugary beverages on an empty stomach; compensating for the piledriver in doorways is drunken masturbation; the glint in my eye is now from crust.

Of course, if I had always been Bob, my current plight would have been mere routine, and blissful ignorance would reign, my mind perfectly oblivious to what could have been. Alas, it is not to be, as I had built myself from a transparent 135 to an acceptable 175 in a little over 2 years. As such, I am all too aware of the path I'm on, the symptoms are flashing red lights, their consequences clear as day. Solutions are abound and available, and my subsequent inaction all the more relentlessly frustrating.

In short, I'm in a rut, and you know what they say about those. So I must either climb the **** out, or I will keep digging my wheels, until it gets sufficiently deep for semi-bearded, tobacco chewing men in overalls to shovel dirt on me. But what will be my stepping stone? What will deliver me to the path of velvet ropes parting, Testosterone excess, confidence, infinite power, lusty women and that elusive 200lb-mark? Is it Spike with every meal for that added 'edge'? Alpha Male by the handfuls, till my self-esteem, following my immense physical prowess, escalates to a shrieking megalomaniacal crescendo and I attempt to invade Russia in winter, in briefs no less (gotta show off those Vastus Medialis, as well as the by now gargantuan package)? Whatever is the new Creatine in October? The Tyra Banks Show?

Probably not. Tell you what; it's 4AM, it's raining, nay, pouring the hell down outside, and I'm about to rise from the comfort of my bed and blankets, cook me some oatmeal and run down to the track. Some pull-ups, work on my flag, some handstand push-ups, do some lever work. Then I'll get back home, have my shake and my banana, perform some completely different lever work in the shower and enjoy my refreshing, albeit much too early morning, to the fullest.

Hopefully, it will be enough to summon my T. I will rediscover the pleasures of holding doors for women while, in imagined dicretion, checking out their posteriors. Once again, I shall scratch my sack wantonly in public, blind to the disgust of onlookers. My enemies will shrivel and their women will swoon. I will call myself a T-Man, or rather, a T-Man in training, and I will do so while in a 'holding up the world' pose, my voice adamant, as perspiration trickles down the striations of my barely constrained Glutes.

At least, I'll get back in the gym.

------------------------------------------------------------------

[Khaine]

Last week's workouts, the final one of AoW...

Monday

A1 Push Presses
10x3 @ 170

A2 Weighted Pull-Ups
10x3 @ BW + 35

B1 VMO Squats
10x3 @ 55

B2 Good Mornings
10x3 @ 170

C1 Decline DB Presses
10x3 @ 90

C2 Jaster Shrugs
10x3 @ 200

Wednesday

Front Squats
3x15 @ 140

Calf Raises
3x15 @ 220

Incline Bench
3x15 @ 160

BORs
3x15 @ 120

Skullcrushers
3x15 @ 70

Upright Rows
3x15 @ 90

These high-rep days have been killing me... Hadn't done anything over 8 reps in like 18 months, so I was absolutely tanked at the end of these, despite the pitiful weight...

Friday

A1 Back Squats
7x6 @ 210

A2 Fat Grip Chins
7x6

B1 Board Presses
7x6 @ 230

B2 Power Cleans
7x6 @ 130

C1 Cable Crossovers
7x6 @ 45

C2 Straight Arm Pulldowns
7x6 @ 65

[Khaine]

Then today was the first day of QD... This program consists of 4 full-body days, all utilising WIDELY different rep/set parameters, even moreso than AoW... No 10x3 days tho, which is great news for me, cus they tend to drag on way too long...

Anyway...

Monday (Strength Day)

A1 Rack Pulls
5x3 @ 330

A2 Ham Raises
5x3 @ BW (I'm still terrible at these, lots of partials to be honest; I consider ditching the exercise pairing on this particular set and just do straight sets at the Leg Curl joint instead)

B1 Bench Press
5x3 @ 200 (My Bench has deteriorated indeed, but it's not as bad as it appears, as I've reverted to BB style, elbows out pressing)

B2 DB Rows
5x3 @ 90

C1 Cable Curls
5x3 @ 65

C2 Cable Pressdowns
5x3 @ 65


I much prefer 5x3 to 10x3, although I don't know if I can expect the same results in terms of strength, as the volume is in fact, cut in half... However, it also cuts my time in the gym in half, which is great...

Tomorrow is Endurance Day... Nausea, here I come...

[Khaine]

Ahhh, yes... Endurance day... 25-rep sets... I've never even warmed up wit that many reps... Only exercise I ever did reps like that wit was Push-ups for army purposes... So yea, I knew this would be some embarassing stuff... Also, I was soooooooore in my traps, rear delts, lower back and forearms... Rack Pulls YEAH!!! And my Hammies too...

A1 Seated DB Military Presses
2x25 @ 30

A2 Rope Cable Rows
2x25 @ 70

B1 Back Squats (Heels Elevated)
2x25 @ 110

B2 Calf Raises (on 45s)
2x25 @ 160

Cable Crossovers (Butterfly Style)
2x25 @ 25


In and out in like 16 minutes... Not really heavy, but intense... Chea... I did a couple 2-3 sec rests to get all the reps in... The Squat set was murder on my Quads, heels elevated probably to blame... Good stuff... I also loved the Rope Cable Rows and the ROM it gave me, although I'm sure it will limit the weight I can use, which again was why I chose to do it on this day... I've never seen anybody perform or mention this exercise before, and I think I've stumbled onto some gold here... Knocked the stuffing outta my lower traps and hit my lats decently...

Football tomorrow, then Hypertrophy Day on Thursday...

[Khaine]

Wednesday was football (proper football to you yanks)... 90 minutes, relatively low intensity... Nothing that should mess with my recovery too much...

So today was 'Hypertrophy Day'... 3x8...

A1 Good Mornings
3x8 @ 150

A2 Hanging Leg Raises
3x8 (I'll add a little weight to these next time)

B1 45° Incline DB Presses
3x8 @ 80

B2 Weighted Chins
3x8 @ BW+10

C1 Decline Skullcrushers
3x8 @ 65 (Light)

C2 Reverse Curls
3x8 @ 55 (Also, much too light)

Good, intense workout... Decent volume for 40 minutes... My general conditioning is terrible, and these exercise pairings are a fantastic asset to keep my activity level high and time spent on my ass short...

Football again tomorrow, then Speed Day on saturday...