Howdy y'all.
Anyways, summer time is just about here. So, that means Mike has to turn it up a notch so he can appear shirtless on a beach without being dumped by his girlfriend.
Leading up to this summer, I've been following a powerlifting routine while slowly modifying my diet and introducing some cardio to lean out a bit, which has worked fairly well, leaving me ~173 lbs and already halfway lean.
However, I'm in the process of 9 days of deconditioning in preparation for ~8 weeks of a project I call "sufr."
Last summer, I created a variation of an HST routine that incorporated the following concepts:
* Unusually high protein intake and CKD style refeeds on weekends
* Lots of HIIT
* Every ~36 hours frequency per muscle group]
* Use of negatives in chins/dips at that frequency at not super high volume
* Use of weighted stretches ala DC style training (particularly for chest/lats)
The end result was a program that barely had me ahead of the overtraining curve. However, it worked so well to preserve mass that I'm going to give it another go, using the same principles. In fact, I actually seemed more muscular after this routine last summer than before, and in the least held onto all my muscle and maintained more while dieting than I've ever managed to before.
Couple of pics of end-result of that:
So, my idea this time around is to keep some of the heavy powerlifting-y stuff, introduces negatives, and maintain the frequency. Doing that without overtraining or killing myself is obviously a concern, but I settled on something like this (note: where you see a "/" I am doing one part of the routine early, one late).
Monday - A / B
Tuesday - HIIT / A
Wednesday - B / HIIT
Thursday - A / B
Friday - HIIT / A
Saturday - B
Sunday - off
Routine A:
Squats (alternated with rack pulls)
2 x 3
Quad Stretch (still need to find a good one - DC's is kind of confusing)
Cable Rows (avoid lower back fatigue)
2 x 5
Biceps Stretch (no direct arm work, this may help a little)
Military Press
2 x 3
Abs
whatever
Routine B:
Negative Chins
2 x 3
Weighted Lat Stretch ~30-60 secs
Negative Dips
2 x 3
Floor Press
1 x 3 (maybe 2 x 3? Trying to keep it low)
Weighted Chest Stretch ~30-60 secs
Calf Raises
whatever - use deep stretches and slow eccentrics for each rep
This is on the very low side of volume. I'll try this at first, and consider introducing a set for certain exercises. Weekly volume won't be too bad as stuff is getting hit 4 times per week even with low volume per session, and the working tension will be VERY high. Note: no direct arm work as of yet. I ended up not needing anything for arms last summer, and I suspect I won't need much now either.
Load progression will be played by ear, but I'm not going to push maxes right off the bat - very clean reps on everything, and I'll try to work up to maxes over a couple/few weeks, always stay shy of failure, then slowly increment the weights for the remainder of the time.
Style on negative reps is fairly slow (3-4 secs per rep, LOTS of control per rep, aim for killer stretch).
So, my two primary concerns are 1) don't kill myself or overtrain and 2) still get enough volume per session to instantiate growth.
Anyways, that's my proposed routine a nutshell. As to the name 'sufr?'
Well, I usually come up with goofy acronyms for my training variations. Last year I came up with the "ultimate f***ing routine" as a variation of westside that helped me gain a lot of strength. This one I dubbed the "super ultimate f***ing routine." And the acronym made me laugh, as it's quite appropriate, and should describe how I'll be feeling for 8 weeks
Anyways, summer time is just about here. So, that means Mike has to turn it up a notch so he can appear shirtless on a beach without being dumped by his girlfriend.
Leading up to this summer, I've been following a powerlifting routine while slowly modifying my diet and introducing some cardio to lean out a bit, which has worked fairly well, leaving me ~173 lbs and already halfway lean.
However, I'm in the process of 9 days of deconditioning in preparation for ~8 weeks of a project I call "sufr."
Last summer, I created a variation of an HST routine that incorporated the following concepts:
* Unusually high protein intake and CKD style refeeds on weekends
* Lots of HIIT
* Every ~36 hours frequency per muscle group]
* Use of negatives in chins/dips at that frequency at not super high volume
* Use of weighted stretches ala DC style training (particularly for chest/lats)
The end result was a program that barely had me ahead of the overtraining curve. However, it worked so well to preserve mass that I'm going to give it another go, using the same principles. In fact, I actually seemed more muscular after this routine last summer than before, and in the least held onto all my muscle and maintained more while dieting than I've ever managed to before.
Couple of pics of end-result of that:
So, my idea this time around is to keep some of the heavy powerlifting-y stuff, introduces negatives, and maintain the frequency. Doing that without overtraining or killing myself is obviously a concern, but I settled on something like this (note: where you see a "/" I am doing one part of the routine early, one late).
Monday - A / B
Tuesday - HIIT / A
Wednesday - B / HIIT
Thursday - A / B
Friday - HIIT / A
Saturday - B
Sunday - off
Routine A:
Squats (alternated with rack pulls)
2 x 3
Quad Stretch (still need to find a good one - DC's is kind of confusing)
Cable Rows (avoid lower back fatigue)
2 x 5
Biceps Stretch (no direct arm work, this may help a little)
Military Press
2 x 3
Abs
whatever
Routine B:
Negative Chins
2 x 3
Weighted Lat Stretch ~30-60 secs
Negative Dips
2 x 3
Floor Press
1 x 3 (maybe 2 x 3? Trying to keep it low)
Weighted Chest Stretch ~30-60 secs
Calf Raises
whatever - use deep stretches and slow eccentrics for each rep
This is on the very low side of volume. I'll try this at first, and consider introducing a set for certain exercises. Weekly volume won't be too bad as stuff is getting hit 4 times per week even with low volume per session, and the working tension will be VERY high. Note: no direct arm work as of yet. I ended up not needing anything for arms last summer, and I suspect I won't need much now either.
Load progression will be played by ear, but I'm not going to push maxes right off the bat - very clean reps on everything, and I'll try to work up to maxes over a couple/few weeks, always stay shy of failure, then slowly increment the weights for the remainder of the time.
Style on negative reps is fairly slow (3-4 secs per rep, LOTS of control per rep, aim for killer stretch).
So, my two primary concerns are 1) don't kill myself or overtrain and 2) still get enough volume per session to instantiate growth.
Anyways, that's my proposed routine a nutshell. As to the name 'sufr?'
Well, I usually come up with goofy acronyms for my training variations. Last year I came up with the "ultimate f***ing routine" as a variation of westside that helped me gain a lot of strength. This one I dubbed the "super ultimate f***ing routine." And the acronym made me laugh, as it's quite appropriate, and should describe how I'll be feeling for 8 weeks
Maybe I'll call it Lazy A$$ Summer Routine: LASR 
