So back in September I shared my workout with you guys. I've just finished up the Barbaric Rites portion amd I'm headed into the Westside split. I looked back into my old training logs and realized that I hated WS4SB because I strained my chest on a Max Effort incline bench and my 'tism really keeps me from rerunning it. Anyways this is my review and new block.
• 5/3/1
It was very meh. I've ran 5/3/1 so many times in the past and it's just the I got bored, I won't lie to you. Percentage based training has never really been my thing. BBB was good like always, 50 reps at 50% is a good deal of volume. 5's pro was like smashing my twig and berries with a big rock, I hated it. I may have lost some absolute strength (hitting singles) but I was better conditioned and could hit higher weights for more reps. All in all it was pretty good, and I'd recommend it for dudes moving out of an LP program.
• Bro Split
This was hands down my favorite section. This program was the premise of the mass section of The Pillarman Effect. Got some good pumps, cool variations, and an arm day. Who I was more sore, I felt like my recovery was better. I also felt like I was able to push harder on certain lifts than I was on a full body program. It was here I realized split training is the light and the way.
Finally a comic I might read if I could read.
• Bastardized Barbaric Rites
I should have ran this the way it was prescribed. End of story. BR is a great program, Paul did a great job building this thing. I fucked it all up by making it a full body program. It took a hellacious long time to finish even though it was only 4 lifts and I often caught myself bitching out and skipping the auxiliary giant sets because of time constraints. The real BR is a great program that I've ran before and I highly recommend; but my Frankenstein BR full body program is trash, don't do it.
• Westside
I said fuck it and slapped that bad boy into the new block I programmed. That being said, I really like concurrent/conjugate periodization. I like doing my Dynamic effort work EMOM style (Do reps at the top of every minute and rest the remainder) for 10-12 minutes, the tends to work good. I don't use bands of chains all the time (I will if I have access) if not I'll use a little higher weight and just use CAT (compensory acceleration training or whatever: moving the bar really fast). Maximum effort is always great, just hard work. The Repetition effort with the accessories is simple and effective. I ended up not running this because I wanted to plug it into my new program.
• New Program
So here's the thing: I'm a little (a lot) retarded. I read training logs of dudes who are vastly better than me and try to divine their splits from them. This never works. I get mad and hopeless then resort to laughing at the morons on Reddit talking about their weenie splits or trainwreck schedules that will never be followed. This gives me a little joy and I sit down and brood till 2 am trying to write a program. Somewhere at the 3 am PB&J mark I catch a wind of enlightenment and it all comes together. My enlightening moment actually occured to me in the shower, while I was scrubbing my ass this time, royally fucking my Hunter S. Thompson-esque ritual. So I decided on a Upper Lower Push Pull Legs 5 day split. I think the kids call that PHAT or some shit? I guess Layne Norton (what a dumb fucking name) made this split up, since there is nothing new under the sun.
Dr. Layne "cheating on my wife, getting kicked out of my own business and squatting like a mongoloid" Norton
Anyways it let's me hit all my muscles even if I can only get to the gym 3 days a week. 2 strength focused days and 3 strength/hypertrophy focused days, lots of back and shoulders, and even some extra shit tossed in for home based stuff (mostly to justify the 7+ kettlebells I have acquired over the years). So this is what I'm running. Like I said with BJJ and Kickboxing and Judo I probably won't be lifting 5 days a week, but on days I miss training I can always plug in a lifting session or drag a kettlebell to the calisthenics park down the road and chin/swing till my arms and ass falls off. Call it the Big PHAT Goon split or some goofy shit like that.
Also some absolute madman is running around with these stickers and its hilarious.
Havent been on here in a while, glad to see you all are sticking with it!
I'd never heard of PHAT. Gonna give it a look.