Programs For All Goals

[markos]

A few of the threads are getting cluttered with talk about programming, and information can be hard to find if you dont recall which thread it was posted in.

With this being a car forum, there is no typical member (in regards to training). Obviously on my ProRawForum, all the talk centres around powerlifting.

I have hundreds of clients in my gym, around 30 compete in powerlifting, the rest have different goals. Over the past 34 years, I have written many programs for many lifters, from 12yo to 75yo, footballers, fighters, mums, powerlifters, body builders, guys wanting to get fitter, or bigger, or leaner, or stronger.

My gym PTC started in 2008, and for the first 2 1/2 years simply concentrated on making everyone stronger and leaner. For the past 3 1/2 years the focus has been on powerlifting as we have a powerlifting team.

The biggest difference is programming, with powerlifters needing to peak for a meet, something that a regular gym goer doesnt need, its also one of the reasons I feel powerlifters progress quicker. I'll go into that a little later.

Anyway, I'll start this thread with a stoty about Alex, he started with us around 9 weeks, start of June. He has been lifting for a few years, best lifts of 180kg squat, 140kg bench and 200kg dead.

Last night he squatted 190kg x 10

He has been on PTC Method from the day he started, he does 6 sessions a week at PTC.

[-FIGJAM-]

so the point of this thread is to throw up the current program and goals in mind and get advice?

big effort there from Alex, i reckon I could do it, lower as well whilst sleeping...........

[markos]

I'm happy to go over programs, give out new ones, discuss plateaus, generally help as best I can over the internet

[L33SH]

advice for bench press plateau?

[bozodos]

do you still stand by your beginner program of issue #39 , and is it overdoing it if I do pullups/chinups, pushups/lunges/squat press on the cardio days? (no room for farmers walk in my gym, nor does it have kettlebells).

Edited August 7, 2013 by bozodos

[rev210]

advice for bench press plateau?

My 2c is sort out shoulder imbalances if they are there , some have this from long term training (completely stop benching while doing so), and this will also help fix legacy injury. Then do a strength program as opposed to a volume one, prescribed by perhaps this thread?

[markos]

advice for bench press plateau?

Post up what youre currently doing

I need reps,sets,exercises,frequency, weight

[markos]

do you still stand by your beginner program of issue #39 , and is it overdoing it if I do pullups/chinups, pushups/lunges/squat press on the cardio days? (no room for farmers walk in my gym, nor does it have kettlebells).

I need goals. That would be bad advice if you want to do synchronised swimming

[-FIGJAM-]

Alright I am always up for advice,

body stats:

Height 5ft 11 roughly

weight 67-69kg

measurements: skinny as fark, skinny arms, skinny legs, no real chest, no arse (literally goes straight down), shoulders arent to bad for someone as skinny as me but I wouldnt say I have broad shoulders

Ectomorph as they say

health issues:

possible heart condition, I have a device in my chest as a precautionary. Doctors recommend staying away from anything that elevates my heart BPM past 180 (might just get zapped) and stay away from sprint type training. also back goes out of alignment every now and then and chrio fixes it. Lastly acid reflux, this isnt as bad as it was a few months ago but still gives me grief.

current routine:

Wide grip chin ups 3 sets to failure

Squats 3 x 10

Bench 3 x 8

Cable seated row 3 x 10

Military Press 3 x 8

SLDL 3 x 8

Close grip pull up 3 sets to failure (more concentration on biceps rather then back)

dips 3 sets to failure

90 seconds rest in between sets, except for squats and deadlifts they get 2 minutes

goals:

Increased strength 140kg squat / 100kg bench / 180kg dead

Fitness

increase in muscle mass (i know diet)

health

looks

overall weight 75-80kg @ about 10% bf so nothing overally special

Can only really give myself 3 days at the gym per week due to work and university commitments. Also being a shit gym, it doesn't have full power racks or proper squat racks (i actually have to take 3-5 steps back to be able to squat as low as I can without hitting bars).

Diet (worst imaginable):

No supplements

3-4 meals a day

no breakfast due to reflux

very little milk due to reflux

no supplements

dont count macros as I honestly dont think it matters at this point in time

Cheers,

Edited August 7, 2013 by -FIGJAM-

[L33SH]

Post up what youre currently doing

I need reps,sets,exercises,frequency, weight

I have a build thread

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/428501-project-anything-is-possible/page-5

[bozodos]

I need goals. That would be bad advice if you want to do synchronised swimming

I'm fat, attempting to build strength, lose fat, muscular endurance, and muscle size in that order of priority.

[markos]

Alright I am always up for advice,

body stats:

Height 5ft 11 roughly

weight 67-69kg

measurements: skinny as fark, skinny arms, skinny legs, no real chest, no arse (literally goes straight down), shoulders arent to bad for someone as skinny as me but I wouldnt say I have broad shoulders

Ectomorph as they say

health issues:

possible heart condition, I have a device in my chest as a precautionary. Doctors recommend staying away from anything that elevates my heart BPM past 180 (might just get zapped) and stay away from sprint type training. also back goes out of alignment every now and then and chrio fixes it. Lastly acid reflux, this isnt as bad as it was a few months ago but still gives me grief.

current routine:

Wide grip chin ups 3 sets to failure

Squats 3 x 10

Bench 3 x 8

Cable seated row 3 x 10

Military Press 3 x 8

SLDL 3 x 8

Close grip pull up 3 sets to failure (more concentration on biceps rather then back)

dips 3 sets to failure

90 seconds rest in between sets, except for squats and deadlifts they get 2 minutes

goals:

Increased strength 140kg squat / 100kg bench / 180kg dead

Fitness

increase in muscle mass (i know diet)

health

looks

overall weight 75-80kg @ about 10% bf so nothing overally special

Can only really give myself 3 days at the gym per week due to work and university commitments. Also being a shit gym, it doesn't have full power racks or proper squat racks (i actually have to take 3-5 steps back to be able to squat as low as I can without hitting bars).

Diet (worst imaginable):

No supplements

3-4 meals a day

no breakfast due to reflux

very little milk due to reflux

no supplements

dont count macros as I honestly dont think it matters at this point in time

Cheers,

I'm not comfortable giving advice over the internet to someone with so many ailments.

First off, fix your diet, I'm not going to cover diet in any detail here, but you'll never progress eating like that. Protein and complex carbs each meal, get some EFA's in you, eat breakfast. If you fix that, add weight every week to your exercises, do it consistently for year, you'll be much closer to your goals. The exercises youre doing are fine, nothing else is.

[markos]

Leesh.

Do everything but pressing 2 x week, squats, reads etc

Twice a week I want you to do this

Bench press 5 x 5

DB incline press 3 x 10 (45 degrees)

DB Flat bench 3 x 10

BB close grip bench 3 x 5

Dips or bench dips 3 x max

Now with the 5 x 5, I want you to start with 30kg and each session add 2.5kg total, so week 1 is 30kg x 5 x 5, next session if your successful go to 32.5kg x 5 x 5 and so on. I'm starting you out low so you dont fail by your second session. When you fail, lets say 40kg x 5,4,4,3 3, thats 19 reps. Next session you MUST do at least 20 reps, even if you add another set

With the assistance work, the reps is the ceiling. If you only get 8, thats fine, I just dont want you going over 10, when you make 3 x 10, add weight.

In regards to warm ups, just do 20kg x 5 then straight to 30kg. As you get stronger we'll add another warm up

On your other day, add lots of rowing or pulldowns, the stronger your upper back the better your bench press

[L33SH]

Markos. thanks.

For how long do I do this? Until I get the 45kg back on bench?

[markos]

Till it stops working

45kg is a very low target, I was thinking 55kg

[-FIGJAM-]

fair enough Markos

to be honest I have always felt diet has been the thing holding me back the most.

[markos]

I'm fat, attempting to build strength, lose fat, muscular endurance, and muscle size in that order of priority.

Your biggest issue is focus, you forgot to add a Gold Toilet to that list

I suggest you join a church and pray, coz you need a miracle

If you want to build strength, train very heavy often on a few exercises, but eat heaps to recover

If you want to lose fat, cut your calories down and train often

If you want muscular endurance use light weights with lots of variety

If you want muscle size train very hard with moderate weights and eat plenty of calories

Do all that for the next 12 months and you'll be exactly where you are now

[bozodos]

I realise that I can't have it all at once - but you did ask what my goals were!

I'm doing your beginners workout, with what I've mentioned above at lighter weights on the cardio days, so 5 days a week I train, I was eating at ~1000cal defecit, I've dropped that to ~500 or so and increased protein intake, low carb, whilst eating more than what I was, especially post workout.

Are you saying that I'm going the wrong way about it for cardio?

I'm currently focused on cutting fat and building strength, I did not think the two were mutually exclusive for me. Unfortunately I'm still too fat to eat at a surplus just yet, I'll reassess the situation once I'm down to around 100kg or so. Obviously I won't be unrealistic about strength gains until I'm eating enough to suit.

Edited August 7, 2013 by bozodos

[markos]

If you walked into PTC and said you wanted to get stronger while cutting fat, I'd have you on a 2000 calorie a day and training 5 x week

Day 1.

Squats 5 x 10

Leg Press 5 x 10

Leg extension 5 x 10

BB Lunges 5 x 10 each leg

Thrusters 3 x 15

Day 2.

Bench press 5 x 5

DB Incline press 5 x 10

DB flat bench 5 x 10

Military press 3 x 5

Plate raises 3 x 10

Skull crushers 3 x 8

Day 3

KB circuits

Day 4

Deadlifts 3 x 3

Prone row 3 x 10

Lat pulldown 3 x 10

SLDL 2 x 15

Cannonballs 3 x 15

BB curl 3 x 8

Day 5

Bench press 3 x 8

Bent rows 3 x 8

Military press 3 x 8

Upright rows 3 x 8

Squats 1 x 20

BB Curl 3 x 8

Tricep pressdown 3 x 8

Saturday and Sunday off

[bozodos]

Is that a joke routine? You mention numerous times in your newsletters what a wank excercises like tricep pressdowns and leg press are, and the folly of a very low calorie diet - I'm totally confused here.

My BMR is 2300 calories alone.That goes totally against what you've put in your newsletters, so I'm assuming this is your very dry sense of humour having a go at me. If you're being sincere, fair enough.

I'm seriously asking for advice on what cardio I can do minus kettlebells to at least mimic the stuff you do there - the thrusters look like a good addition for my routine.

If I lived anywhere near a PTC, I'd go to one, trust me.

Edited August 7, 2013 by bozodos