Grunt11's Training Log

Today’s workout:

Close Parallel Grip Lat Pulls 70 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Incline Bench Press 35 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Supported DB Row 35 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

DB Incline Shoulder Press 20 x 25 +5 +5 +5

BB Curls 25 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Bench Dips BW (163 lbs) x 23 +5 +4 +3

Ok before you fall on the ground laughing at the weights all I can say is “Holy Muscle Pump Batman!” Between doing my first “real,” 9 day, SD and doing an all Myo-reps workout my butt is kicked like I’d run intervals. The whole workout took about 35 minutes and I wasn’t rushing, but I feel like I’ve been in the gym for 2 hours. I’m half an hour out from finishing and my arms are still so strung out it’s hard to type. The pump is so intense I could barely reach my arms around to hold my shirt as I pulled it off.

I decided that since I really did an SD this time I would start out light and figured it was as good a time as any to try the Myo-rep template that starts at 50% of the 1RM. I shaved a bit more off, glad I did, figuring I was de-conditioned enough and I wanted to ease into it. As it turns out I pretty much guessed the exact weights I for each exercise perfectly except for the Lat Pulls which seemed just a tad easy.

This time I stuck more rigidly to the way Myo-reps are suppose to be done with an explosive concentric and slower controlled eccentric. Doing this made it feel much more intense than last cycle. For example my weight on the Incline Shoulder Press was a pathetic 40 lbs total 20/per but by the time I finished the activation set each rep after that felt more like 100 lbs despite still being able to push it up quickly.

One nice thing about this routine over all my previous ones is I don’t need a power rack which means I could do this workout at the gym at work if necessary, or even experiment with an AM/PM split.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll stick with the 2 weeks at each weight range or if my ego will get the best of me and I’ll shorten the light weights down to one week each. As of today I’m incline to stick with the 2 week/per plan since I think my ego is laying exhausted on the floor of my weight room right now.

After 3 days of eating at maintenance and starting to take creatine again my body weight jumped back up to 163 lbs from 158 which is more realistic based on my caloric deficit of about 7000 kCal over the previous 5 days when I started out at 166 lbs.
 
Today’s workout:

Sumo Dead Lifts (really touch-and-goes) 165 lbs x 20 +5 +5

BB Calf Raises 165 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Olympic Squats 135 lbs x 15 +5

BB Shrugs 165 lbs x 20 +4 +4

If yesterday felt like doing intervals then today feels like I did sprint intervals . . . up hill. I’m half an hour out from finishing an I still feel light headed, sure glad I didn’t have to drive home from the gym.

My whole workout only took about 20 minutes a full half of which was spent laying on the ground trying just to breath. After doing the Dead Lifts I went and got a bucket from the garage just in case. Didn’t need it but it was close.

I might have made 25 reps on the activation set of the Dead Lifts but my grip started failing since I’m not in the habit of using chalk for light weights.

The Calf Raises were just about right and felt much more productive than usual since I took the eccentric nice and slow with an explosive concentric.

I just flat died on the Olympic Squats. I didn’t get all the way down on the first couple of reps despite warming up but found the flexibility after that. By 15 reps I thought I was going to pass out. The next 5 were murder. I got under the bar for a second 5 and just said to hell with this for today.

I also took the eccentric nice and slow with an explosive concentric on the Shrugs. My Traps could have kept going to 25 buy my cardio failed as I was just not able to catch my breath anymore.
 
I know what you mean. It gets a little better after a couple weeks, or I keep telling myself that... but I've only been playing with myo-reps during some of my sessions. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you doing myoreps strictly the whole cycle.
 
Today’s workout:

Close Parallel Grip Lat Pulls 75 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Bench Press 37.5 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +4

Supported DB Row 37.5 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Incline DB Shoulder Press 25 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

BB Curls 30 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Bench Dips BW (164 lbs) x 23 +5 +5 +5

I arranged this cycle so I could either do an Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper or Upper/Lower/Off/Upper/Lower depending on if I feel I need an extra day off. Following with the suggestions I’ve read about Myo-reps I’m trying to do some extra at the beginning when the weights are “light” (light being a relative term).

I incremented all the exercises except Bench Dips and still hit the upper end of the 20-25 +5x target range on most lifts. I think I know why many people I’ve read about who’ve done Myo-reps skip the lights weights, besides ego, 25 reps + + + are murder when done properly, something I wasn’t doing last cycle.

Just to see how real the pump is I’m getting from this I measured my upper arm un-flexed before starting and then again just after finishing. They increased 1” or about 8%.

After yesterday’s Dead Lift session I was ready to throw in the towel on doing Myo-rep Dead Lifts and go to my original plan of doing Max-stim for the Dead Lift and Power Squat while still using Myo-reps for the assistance exercises, Olympic Squats and SLDL. Since after the workout the only thing I felt was that I’d had a killer HIIT session. Well by the time I got to bed my entire back chain hurt like hell from my ankles to my neck. I especially felt it in my Gluteus, and Lower part of my Traps. So I will keep doing them for now but one thing I’m changing is putting the Deads and Squats at the end of the session since I was so hammered after doing them I could barely do anything else.

Yesterday’s session left me totally wasted. I had slept 9 hours the night before got up had a pre-workout shake and an hour later hit the weights. An hour and a half after finishing I had to lay down and take a nap for about an hour and a half despite just having gotten up 2 hours earlier after a good night’s sleep.

I’m also increasing my post workout carbs since I’m pretty sure I’m burning a lot more doing this than I was previously. I’m not sure if this is going to result in any Hypertrophy or Strength gains but it sure is going to be an awesome HIIT workout. No need to do any cardio right now at least. I just hope I can survive 2 weeks at the 20-25 rep range. This is the first time in the 6 months since I started lifting again that I’m not looking forward to starting my workout. Really makes me miss M-Time, cause this is about as far from it as you can get.
 
Totentanz said:
I know what you mean. It gets a little better after a couple weeks, or I keep telling myself that... but I've only been playing with myo-reps during some of my sessions. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you doing myoreps strictly the whole cycle.
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I’m going to do my best to stick to the programe to get an accurate assessment of how well the work for me. One thing I can say for sure right now is that it’s not for the feint of heart.
 
Found your log - I couldn't bring myself to start on 25's. I find 15's is about the limit for me on higher reps. My 1st session on 15's my tricep spasmed and cramped for about 3 minutes and I couldn't straighten my arm for that time or it would set it off again. The DOMS I experienced for calfs was something I have never felt before - I could not straighten my legs for 4 days and it took constant stretching and massage to survive that time. These myo reps are a mental battle as much as physical for me, sometimes its hard pushing to that 1 rep shy of failure multiple times with that minimal rest, sometimes its harder to stop there because my ego wants more due to the light weight on the bar - can you relate or is it just me? Perhaps you are past this because you have had more experience with this style of training. Anyhow, I willl be following your log with interest.
 
Today’s workout:

BB Shrugs 170 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
BB Calf Raises 170 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Full Power Squats 135 lbs x 18 +4 +4
SLDL 135 lbs x 20 +2

Man this high rep range lower body work sucks. I’m going to stick with it but if I don’t see something coming out of it I’m sure as hell not doing this crap again.

Shrugs and Calf Raises went much smoother by front loading them. However, I may have detected one problem if I do that with the Dead Lifts. My grip may not hold out for them after these. I may have to suck it up and go get some straps after all because I’m sure not doing Dead Lifts first again.

Though my legs were still capable of a couple more reps on the Squats my form started to falter so I stopped at 18. After +4 x2 I was just done.

I haven’t done SLDL at all since I started lifting again 6 months ago so these were relatively new. Man were my Hamstrings screaming by the 15th rep. By 20 my legs were shaking so violently that when I restarted the next Myo-rep set I had to stop because my form was going to hell.

Total workout took about 25 minutes most of which was just catching my breath. At least this time most of that wasn’t spent lying on the ground since I didn’t front load a heavy lift this time.

I know that DOMS doesn’t necessarily equal hypertrophy but it sure does let you know what muscles you’ve worked, and right now about the only part of my body that Isn’t hurting are my eyelids.
 
Today’s workout:

Parallel Grip Lat Pulls 80 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Bench Press 40 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +3
Supported DB Row 40 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Shoulder Press 27.5 x 25 +5 +5 +4
BB Curls 35 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Bench Dips BW (164 lbs) x 25 +5 +5 +5

Week 1 of 14 done and I already feel pretty much like I was hit by a Southbound bullet train, thrown across the tracks and hit by another one headed Northbound. 13 more weeks makes me feel like I’m back in boot-camp again. But at least it’s only one more week of the 20-25 rep range, weeeee!

I took my time today, making the workout last about 45 minutes, most of which was just catching my breath and getting ready for the next exercise. I think this helped improve my whole workout making it less of a test of my cardio and more focused on the muscle groups being worked.

Since my Lat Station is not frictionless I found that it adds about 40 lbs to the initial pull just from friction. I tested this when I first bought it by seeing how much weight I could put on it and pull up fast before it lifted me off the bench. Turned out it was BW-40 so when I get to BW-40 on the Lat Pulls I will transition to Chin Ups.

Similarly I don’t have any good way to assisted Dips so at some point I will transition from Bench Dips to regular Dips but I have to look up the crossover point I figured out earlier.

I may also have to transition my DB Bench to BB Bench since I could eventually run out of weight on the Dumbbells but not likely.
 
I generally only do 5 exercises per session and this can take me 35-45 mins. I would rather rest a little more between exercises than sacrifice performance. I bet you are looking forward to seeing the end of those 25 rep sets - nasty...
 
Yep I’m really looking forward to the end of 25s. They were not at all pleasant this week, especially coming off a 9 day SD. However, I’m now even more determined to stick with the full 14 week cycle to see how it works. At least I have two days off now so hopefully I won’t still be sore from head to toe on Sunday.
 
Week 2: Workout #1: Yesterday:

Lat Pulls 65 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Bench Press 45 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +2
Supported DB Row 45 lbs x 21 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Shoulder Press 30 lbs x 20 +5 +4 +3
BB Curls 40 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +3
Bench Dips BW(164 lbs) +15 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +3

The Lat Pulls felt way to easy and when I put away the weights I realized I’d grabbed the 25s instead of the 35s so instead of doing 85 lbs I did 65 lbs.
On everything else I upped the weights. I’m still in the target range of 20-25 reps but now I’m getting to the point of needing to auto-regulate the reps since doing 25 +5x3 isn’t automatic anymore. I’m going to play around with how to do this to get a better feel for it. I’m not sure if I should just stop after 3 Myo-rep clusters, keep going until I’m down to 1 or 2 reps or shoot for a certain number of target reps.

Week 2: Workout #2: Today:

Sumo Dead Lift 175 lbs x 22 +5 +5 +5
BB Calf Raises 175 lbs x 21 +5 +5 +5
BB Shrugs 175 lbs x 16 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5
Olympic Squats 135 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

The very first thing I noticed today was that this whole workout wasn’t nearly as taxing as it was last week coming off a 9 day SD. Not to say the Dead Lifts were easy or fun but at least this go around the only time I ended up on the floor gasping for air was after the Squats. I was able to walk off the other exercises this time.

I kept the Dead Lifts at the beginning since I figured grip would become a factor if I did the Calf Raises and Shrugs first. Good call because it was a factor on the Shrugs. So to make up for it I did more Myo-rep clusters to get the rep count up on the Shrugs.
 
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As far as the auto regulation goes, I personally am not planning on sticking to any hard and fast rep range, or even target number of clusters - I will go by feel.
 
grunt11 said:
Week 2: Workout #1: Yesterday:

Lat Pulls 65 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Bench Press 45 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +2
Supported DB Row 45 lbs x 21 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Shoulder Press 30 lbs x 20 +5 +4 +3
BB Curls 40 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +3
Bench Dips BW(164 lbs) +15 lbs x 20 +5 +3 +3

The Lat Pulls felt way to easy and when I put away the weights I realized I’d grabbed the 25s instead of the 35s so instead of doing 85 lbs I did 65 lbs.
On everything else I upped the weights. I’m still in the target range of 20-25 reps but now I’m getting to the point of needing to auto-regulate the reps since doing 25 +5x3 isn’t automatic anymore. I’m going to play around with how to do this to get a better feel for it. I’m not sure if I should just stop after 3 Myo-rep clusters, keep going until I’m down to 1 or 2 reps or shoot for a certain number of target reps.

Week 2: Workout #2: Today:

Sumo Dead Lift 175 lbs x 22 +5 +5 +5
BB Calf Raises 175 lbs x 21 +5 +5 +5
BB Shrugs 175 lbs x 16 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5
Olympic Squats 135 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5

The very first thing I noticed today was that this whole workout wasn’t nearly as taxing as it was last week coming off a 9 day SD. Not to say the Dead Lifts were easy or fun but at least this go around the only time I ended up on the floor gasping for air was after the Squats. I was able to walk off the other exercises this time.

I kept the Dead Lifts at the beginning since I figured grip would become a factor if I did the Calf Raises and Shrugs first. Good call because it was a factor on the Shrugs. So to make up for it I did more Myo-rep clusters to get the rep count up on the Shrugs.
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I always enjoy reading your log, but right now I'm paying particular attention because I too have played around with myo-reps, and liked them a lot, but I plan to do a real myo-reps cycle as prescribed by Blade. All the detail you are providing is giving me lots to chew on - I assume I'm not just speaking for myself when I thank you for taking the time to share all of this.
 
Thanks, both Dan and Dix.

I’m trying to follow the Myo-rep plan as best I could derive it from various sources. Here is the one I picked up my rep scheme from:

http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9363

Week 1-2: 50-55%, 20-25 +15 (20-25 +5+5+5)
Week 3-4: 60-65%, 15-20 +16 (15-20 +4+4+4+4)
Week 5-6: 70%, 12-15 +15 (12-15 +3+3+3+3+3)
Week 7-9: 75%, 10-12 +15 (10-12 +3+3+3+2+2+2)
Week 10-12: 80%, 8-10 +14 (8-10 +2+2+2+2+2+2+2)
Week 13-14: 80-85%, 6-8 +4, reduce load by 10-20% and continue 5-10 +6 (6-8 +2+2 # 5-10 +3+3)

This is just an example, it will obviously depend on how fast you increase the weights, and how quickly your strength increases. And remember to deload at some point, maybe with regular sets and longer rest periods.

Recommended volume is 20-30 total reps for a muscle group, up to 40-50 total reps when overlapping or prioritizing, 2-3 times a week. The simple version has a more or less static approach of 25-30 total reps (activation + Myo-reps series) so e.g. 15 +10 or 10 +15, or with heavier loads 8 +5 and a lighter dropset 10 +5. In the beginning of the training phase it's a good idea to use a full body routine 3-4 times a week, until you get to a little heavier loads and about 12-15 rep range in the activation set, when you might want to switch to a 2-split routine with about 4 weekly workouts.
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I knew going in I wouldn’t be able to handle Myo-reps for a full body workout doing the exercises I wanted which is why I settled on a 5 day split, Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper. With 2 possible variations, Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower, when things are very light or Upper/Lower/Off/Upper/Lower when very heavy.

Also at the end of the Myo-rep cycle at 85% of 1RM perhaps lower with some exercises I planned to switch to Max-Stim and push to see if I made any strength gains. My main goal in this cycle is hypertrophy but strength wouldn’t suck either.

If anyone has a question about trying something they’ve read about let me know. With a cycle of 14+ weeks x 5 workouts each I have some room to experiment a bit w/o loosing anything.
 
Week 2: Workout #3: Today:

Lat Pulls 90 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Bench Press 45 lbs x 22 +5 +5 +4
Supported DB Row 45 lbs x 23 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Shoulder Press 30 lbs x 23 +5 +5 +3
BB Curls 40 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
Bench Dips BW(165 lbs) +15 x 22 +5 +5 +5

I kept the same weights as last time except for Lat Pulls, which I gave a double increment because of last sessions screw up, and went for more reps. Got more reps on everything so I will try incrementing most of the exercises on Thursday since it will thankfully be the last of the 20-25 rep range unless I throw in an extra lower body workout on Friday.

I’ve noticed that a good warm up is just as if not more important doing high Myo-rep sets as with low rep heavy weights. Since each Myo-rep set is all out from start to finish it’s not like normal high rep sets where the first set can sort of serve as a warm up. Definitely helps squeeze out a couple extra reps in the working set.

I’ve gotten much better at maintaining slow deep breaths during the eccentric part of the lift to keep the time up. At first I caught myself rushing sometimes to speed it up so I could make my total rep count rather than make each rep the best possible. It’s much easier to focus on the quality of each rep using M-Time, but this is good experience.

I may be repeating myself here but I upped both my pre and post workout creatine intake because of this high rep scheme. I’ve also added an extra ¼ cup of oatmeal to my post workout “Salmon Gruel.” I use to make salmon patties but realized I was wasting a lot of time making them so switched to just making salmon loaf (like meat loaf). I figured I was still wasting a lot of time doing that so I now just throw the ingredients in a bowl add water and nuke it. Looks positively disgusting but tastes fine with the curry, hot sauce and other things I add. My only regret is I now eat it at home rather than at work so I don’t get to gross out some of my weak stomached coworkers.
 
Week 2: Workout #4: Today:

Power Squats (ATG) 145 lbs x 18 +3 +3 +3 +3 +2 (failed on 3)
SLDL 140 lbs x 23 +5 +5 +5
BB Calf Raises 180 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5
BB Shrug 180 lbs x 25 +5 +5 +5

Thank God that’s over! That was the last of the 20-25 rep lower body workouts. Not that 15-20 is going to be any picnic, especially considering I never even got my Power Squats up to 20 reps but it always seemed like the last few of the activation set were the worst.

I failed “gracefully” on the last rep of the Squats. I had no idea my legs were going to fail based on the previous rep but as I reached about parallel I just started coming back down and I realized that there was no point in trying to stop it, so I just controlled the eccentric until the BB rested on the safety bars.

The SLDLs were murder. This time my legs didn’t shake so violently so I was able to hit all the reps but between each set of Myo-reps I just sat there leaning against the wall trying to breath. By the time I finished it took me about 5 minutes to get completely off the floor moving from laying down to sitting to finally pulling myself up.

I took plenty of time between sets so that my cardio wouldn’t be the limiting factor. So even though this session is only 4 exercises it took 55 minutes from warm-up to completion.

It’s very interesting trying to control the eccentric part of the lift on exercises that have such a difference in ROM. I’ve found that holding the peak contraction for a second during the Calf Raises and the Shrugs really squeezes the most out of each rep.

I think I need to increase my pre-workout carbs a little more. As I was finishing my workout I caught a whiff of ammonia, which means my body was burning protein for fuel. Hopefully it was some of the pre-workout protein. First time I’ve noticed that happen ever when I was lifting so I’m not taking any chances from now on when working in these higher rep ranges.
 
Week 2: Workout 5: Today:

Lat Pulls 100 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Bench Press 47.5 lbs x 19 +4 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2
Supported DB Row 47.5 lbs x 20 +5 +5 +5
Incline DB Shoulder Press 35 lbs x 15 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2
BB Curls 45 lbs x 22 +5 +5 +5
Bench Dips BW (166 lbs) +20 x 20 +5 +5 +5

That was the last of the 20-25 rep workouts. So here are my impressions after 2 weeks of the high rep Myo-rep workout.

The Bad:
Because of the 2 lbs cut I did during my SD my bodyweight after 2 weeks is back at 166 exactly where it was at the end of last cycle. All body measurements show no noticeable change except waist which is still .75 inches smaller from the end of last cycle but up .25 from the end of the mini-cut. Oddly I think that I look bigger and a few people have commented on it but the tape measure doesn’t lie.

20-25 reps +15 Myo-reps are brutal, especially coming off a SD. Much worse DOMS than any of the other HST workouts I’ve tried.

The Good:
Felt like a great HIIT workout. However, I can’t see any real benefit to doing HIIT every 14 weeks since cardio fitness drops off very quickly and needs to be done regularly to maintain it. Awesome pump after doing the workout, which is probably good for connective tissues and giving joints a break, but I don’t see the need to go this high in reps to accomplish that.

The Unknown:
There may have been some non-observable that will show up down the road but without redoing the same routine and dropping the high rep stuff there’s no real way to tell, and even then with all the other variables that could come into play it might still be impossible to tell without a very large sample size.

Conclusion:

I can’t recommend doing the 20-25 range for Myo-reps. There may be some benefit in doing them that I’m just not aware of but if it is that subtle I’d rather stick with something that I know works.

Originally I planned to stick with the program I saw laid out but based on these last two week I’m going to be reconsidering that over the weekend, and may drop straight down into a lower rep range or more likely accelerate the increments to move to the 10-12 rep range over the course of a few workouts.
 
I personally think the benefits of the 20-25 rep range may be outweighed by the negatives. There must always come a point of diminishing returns.
 
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