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Tot, I recall thinking that Louie Simmons was from another planet after reading this, but it's good food for thought:
http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/benchpress.html

...it's called "How to bench press 500lbs. easy"....yeh, right...
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Thanks for the link, Quad. I don't know if I'll actually try out that routine, but... we'll see where I'm at in a few months. I've been in the mood to experiment this year, and my last experiment with DC worked out real well, so... we'll see.

TR - I did check out the 3x3, and I'm considering giving it a shot. Maybe when I shift back to bulking mode after I do my cut, I'll start off with korte and see how it works for me.
 
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(Totentanz @ Jun. 27 2008,3:56)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Maybe when I shift back to bulking mode after I do my cut, I'll start off with korte and see how it works for me.</div>
I actually did Korte's 3x3 while I was cutting...
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Yeah, I know... I mean, I know that I'm a little bit younger and all, but... I don't think I could survive that routine while cutting. Hah.
 
Took me a while to get my head wrapped around that: cutting and doing the most massive, heavy, brutal workouts at that time. I found 2 things: one, I could get PR's for a little while despite lower cals. Two, the weight drops off and you just have to deal with it. You're still signalling the muscles that they're needed.
 
Honestly, my motivation with the weights is close to nothing when I'm cutting. It's a struggle just to maintain a two a week fullbody routine with weights in the 5-10RM range. I did do 5x5 once while cutting and it worked well, but I was a lot weaker back then.
This time around, I'll likely do IF again for the cut, so I'll be working out every other day and hopefully I'll actually do some cardio on my non-lifting days as a fast breaker on those days. If I do that, it will be a standard simplify and win HST starting from the 10s.

But watch out, I'm looking at the korte more and more for when I start bulking again...
 
I've read that some people have struggled with increasing their bench while doing the Korte and actually have lost some strength in that lift. I've not done the Korte so I really can't judge it , but thought it might be worth mentioning to you if your going to give it a whirl. Just something to be aware of I guess. I'll try and dig up the articles
 
I will keep that in mind. Stevejones, TR and sci muscle all did korte here, possibly someone else that I am missing. They all seemed to get real good results though I do recall steve being concerned about gains on his squat, which he was never able to properly test, I believe? I think he had good results with improving his deadlift and bench. TunnelRat has a log for his and I find his progress with that program to be promising for me as well. I don't remember what kind of results sci muscle got, I can't seem to find his log about it at the moment either, but I'm pretty sure I recall that he had great results as well. I remember him saying that the high volume for squats and deads had improved his leg strength a lot, or had caused a lot of growth in his legs, something like that.
I'm hoping for the best. Bench and squat are what I need to bring up most if I want to be a serious contender and have a good total.

In other new, I'm back to not being able to get much lifting in at all. I'm actually resting for a few minutes from cleaning out the garage and basement right now... Getting in some workouts may be difficult throughout the rest of this month, and I definitely still won't be able to eat adequately, so... it's possible I may lose some strength but I'm hoping not.
By midway through next month, my life should be back on track and I should be able to focus on things again.
 
So... I am back. The bad news is that overall, since all the crap started in my life, I've lost just over 30 lbs. I'm back up to 200 lbs at the moment. I also have scarcely touched a weight for nearly two months.

All that is going to change starting this week. I can't promise that my diet will always be adequate, as several months of hardly eating has killed my appetite, and I can't promise that my training will always be on the same days and done consistently each week... but I'm going to do my best to get back to a solid plan.
I did workout at the local high school last Monday and did some deadlifting, benching and squatting, but I wasn't doing any specific sets or reps. I managed to build up to a 455 lb single deadlift, which was harder than hell but I suppose not too bad for a two month lay off.

The only positive thing about all this is that somehow it seems that a large percentage of those 30 lbs I lost was fat. My abs are more visible and everything apart from my abdomen and thighs is looking very vascular. Strange. The only thing I can attribute this to is the fact that I was moving a lot of real heavy stuff around and hardly had any help with it, so... maybe that sufficed in the absence of real weight training.
Anyway, I'm sick of feeling like I'm withering away to nothing. I'm sick of my plans getting screwed up by life too, but now that things have changed a lot for me, I think I will be able to stick to things better. I won't go into what happened to me too much since I'm sure noone wants to hear all about it, but lets just say that the worst is behind me and things should be looking up from here. At least for the next year or so, anyway.

I still want to attain the new goals I set for myself back in June. Right now, I want to focus primarily on getting my bench up. So I am going to try an experiment. It is a sort of 5x5/korte hybrid. I really want to give korte a shot, but I think I need to get back into things first. So... I'm going to do a regular 5x5 but replace the bench with korte style bench. I am also swapping out rows on Mon and Fri with rack pulls. So I guess it actually isn't much of a 5x5 except for the fact that I'll be working up to a top set of 5s and etc etc like in regular 5x5.
Hopefully this will be easy enough for me with how much conditioning I probably lost, but also challenging enough.

I'm heading over to my friend's house to use his equipment and I'll report back on it after I return.
 
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(Totentanz @ Aug. 26 2008,8:30)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">So...  I am back. ... I've lost just over 30 lbs. ... I also have scarcely touched a weight for nearly two months .... I did workout at the local high school last Monday and did some deadlifting, ... managed to build up to a 455 lb single deadlift, which was harder than hell but I suppose not too bad for a two month lay off.</div>
Say what?! Man, you will be stormin' in a few months.

I'm going to try my darndest to beat you to a 300lb bench so if it looks like you are getting ahead, my cutting days are going to be over. I'd better get my skates on and shift these last few pounds of fat to get to 196lb.
 
On the bright side, two months should be a great SD, right? Haha.

I wouldn't worry about me getting too far ahead in the bench. I think I've lost a fair amount of strength in bench despite how well my deadlift numbers were maintained. But you'd better hurry up, because what if this korte thing works?

Here is what tonight looked like:

Flat Bench
155 lbs x 8 x 6

Yes, 8 sets of 6. This was actually easy, but I'm sure by week 4 it will start to get difficult.

Squat
135 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 5
295 x 3
295 x 3

Squats were HARD. What happened to my legs??

Rack Pulls
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 5
495 x 5
545 x 5
595 x 2

595 x 2 wasn't supposed to be part of the routine, but I just felt like trying it out. Rack pulls were easy but something has happened to my grip strength because it started to fail on the 545 x 5 set. I finished the set, but I couldn't have done more than 5 reps without resetting my grip. Weird because I've rack pulled 605 and held it for a while without any problem in past. Hopefully it's just from the long lay off and doesn't become a problem.
The only concern I have is that it was my left hand that was losing grip, and my left forearm is the one that was hurting back before my layoff started. One good thing is that my forearm does feel good as new once again. So at least those 2 months without lifting accomplished something good.

After all that, I did some curls, lateral raises and bodyweight pullups just for fun. My strength levels appear to be all over the place, which I'm guessing isn't all down to actual muscle lost but probably some neural coordination. Squats are a complicated movement, I guess, whereas rack pulls/deadlifts are a simple movement to remember, so it would make sense that my squat would suffer much more than my deadlift. Hopefully the squats come back quickly enough, since I used my old maxes to plot out this cycle...
 
Glad to see you back! You don't think just 1 week of higher reps to get re-accustomed to the exercises might be wise? I sure as hell couldn't jump right into 5's ever after 1 month, plus the 15's are getting me sore as hell right now so I don't think 5's or 10's for that matter would even be necessary right now. Remember, don't lift more than you have to right now to get a grwoth response...the basics of HST as I'm sure you know. Good luck.
 
Yeah, you are right that higher reps would probably be a good idea. However, I really need to keep motivated right now and higher reps just don't do it for me. That's my only reason for jumping right into low reps. I know that I would definitely advise someone else in my situation to start out with 15s or even 10s if they were really impatient.
But I'm also not counting calories yet and probably not actually eating enough to get much growth anyway. That's fine. I just want to gain my strength back (and hopefully more) at the moment.


In other news, nobody has ever been as sore as I am today. Haha.
 
I'm doing korte now. I've still been struggling with maintaining my weight over the past couple months, but things are getting a lot better for me now. I'm still at 200 lbs and going to start increasing calories (hopefully) while I do this routine.
I've got a girl working out with me who is also doing korte. She is a beast, with a max deadlift of 305 lbs and she has also squatted 305 as well. These are all maxes that I personally observed while testing her. And with the deadlift, she almost hit a double but couldn't quite lock out. It is absolutely infuriating to work with her as she is just insanely strong and hasn't trained since when she was in high school. She is currently cutting (like most women) but is still experiencing some good strength gains.

So, we'll see if I manage to stick with things this time.

On another note, I've been collecting weight sets off of ebay lately and just scrapping or selling the benches that come with the weight sets. I know have somewhere over 1000 lbs in weights. I have twelve 45 lb plates total, so that should make deadlifting and rack pulling a little easier...
 
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(Totentanz @ Oct. 19 2008,10:05)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'm doing korte now.  I've still been struggling with maintaining my weight over the past couple months, but things are getting a lot better for me now.  I'm still at 200 lbs and going to start increasing calories (hopefully) while I do this routine.
I've got a girl working out with me who is also doing korte.</div>
I would think having a partner doing Korte with you would be a big help, especially during the high volume phase. I remember dragging myself home from the gym and hanging myself out to dry...

I had good results with Korte and do not doubt that you will, too.
 
Just an update...

What I've been doing recently I guess would seem like an HST/DC hybrid, but there are some important differences. I have four different workouts that I rotate between. The target reps number of reps for every lift is 20 reps. I use rest pause for everything.
I know, I know. Dante says never to use rest pause for lifts like deadlifting or similar because it is too dangerous.

Whatever.

With squats and front squats, rather than rack it and take 15 deep breaths, I just pause at the top when I need a rest, take some deep breaths and then continue the set. So far, I haven't died.

*denotes a lift that I do when I feel like it, but is not required to be done that day

Routine A:
Flat Bench
90 degree (pendlay) Row
Back Squat
*skullcrushers
*db curls

Routine B:
Dips
Lat Row
Deadlift
*bb curl
*db press

Routine C:
Front Squat
Incline Bench
Tbar Row
*pushdown

Routine D:
Rack Deadlift
Flies
Pulldown
*db tricep extension

That's it. Rotating between these four routines might seem like I'm doing too much but with the way I am going to 20 reps and incorporating rest pause, I've found that rotating through this many routines is the only way it will work. If I do flat bench one day and then do it again next workout, I'm a lot weaker. If I wait until next time it comes up in the rotation, I find that I am almost always stronger than I was before.
I increase the weight by 5 to 10 in the smaller lifts and 10 to 20 in the bigger lifts each time UNLESS it takes more than 3 rest pause 'sets' to hit my rep target. For instance, if I do flat bench and I end up only hitting 6 reps first second and third time and have to do 2 reps to finish it off, I don't increase that one next time.

I think my success with this has largely been due to the fact that I've been on an extended bulk and have gone from 200 lbs to 235 lbs... getting fat but things are growing too, so I'm happy. Ever since hitting 230 lbs, it's been a struggle to get every additional pound but I'm going to persevere until I hit at least 240 lbs.

I've got two other people on the same thing right now though I limit them to only 15 reps on everything and so far it's working great for them too.
 
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(Totentanz @ May 12 2009,1:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I think my success with this has largely been due to the fact that I've been on an extended bulk and have gone from 200 lbs to 235 lbs... getting fat but things are growing too, so I'm happy.  Ever since hitting 230 lbs, it's been a struggle to get every additional pound but I'm going to persevere until I hit at least 240 lbs.</div>
I'm really glad to hear you are still hard at it.

He he! 235 eh?! Darn, you're definitely going to beat me to top lifts of 200, 300, 400, 500 in the main compounds (and you already have the heaviest one). I have a feeling that a 200lb press has got to be most difficult to achieve unless you are blessed in the delt department. I think I'd get a 300 bench way before that.

Like your set up btw.

Oh, how is the trouser (ie. pants) collection coming along?  
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Another rest-pause devotee! I love it, Tot - looks like a perfect way to garner new gains. Good luck!
 
Yeah, the 200 lb press is probably way off for me... I have my setup in the basement right now and though my rack is 80 inches tall, it's right on the ceiling, so I can't do overhead work right now.

I have no jeans that fit anymore and it's not the waist that troubles me but the thighs and the butt. So I wear a lot of shorts, my workout pants and this pair of real loose cargos that I have. I'm waiting til the end of the cut that will eventually follow this bulk before I invest in more pants.
 
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