Thanks for the feedback on the bar. Yeah it bent in the middle, not much of one but enough that it only fits on my back that one way now. I suspected it wasn’t great quality since both this and the other one I bought at the same place had bad collars holding on one sleeve so I had to cannibalize the good collar from one and put it on the other to make one good bar for heavy lifts.
I’ve done a lot of reading on conjugate training and specifically the Westside Barbell template for powerlifting. I have no doubt that HST is the best hypertrophy program I’ve seen however I realized that while focusing exclusively on hypertrophy got me some great gains in a short time especially for my age I was neglecting other aspects of my training. I looked at several training methods including just adding in other work to my HST workouts but Westside seemed to be the one I could learn the most from about what works for me in the least amount of time which is important to me getting back into this so late in the game. And I’ve already learned a lot in a short amount of time.
I improved my Squat form greatly going from 300 lbs. to 350 lbs. in just a few weeks. I wasn’t warming up enough on my 1RM attempts which hurt the max I could lift. I realized I can do cardio while lifting by doing things like hill sprints rather than steady state. I’ve learned how to do dynamic lifts properly, where before I was just sort of going through the motions. I discovered that my Hamstrings aren’t nearly as strong as I thought they were. I’m learning how to identify my weaknesses and target them rather than just try to lift more (this is the heart of the Westside method).
There are also other things I’m hoping to learn more about. I’m still trying to get my mind out of the “hardgainer” mentality so doing more Active Recovery work is something I hope helps me. Also, adding in more accessory work on “off” days. Basic Westside recommendations have you doing up to 12 light Accessory lifts on the days you’re not doing Max or Dynamic Effort lifts. I’m only going to add these in slowly so I don’t suddenly kill myself with too much volume to fast.
I’m also trying to do something sneaky in that even though I’m doing 4 workouts a week 2 x Max Effort (ME) and 2 x Dynamic Effort (DE) I’ve combined both DE days into one using an AM/PM split plus I’m doing my ME days back-to-back. So my schedule looks like this:
Fri: ME Upper Body or Lower Body (alternated so each one gets the first workout every other week) (bulking diet)
Sat: ME Upper Body or Lower Body (alternated) (bulking diet)
Sun: Light Accessory Work (moderate bulking diet)
Mon: GPP (hill sprints etc. . .) (cutting diet)
Tue: DE Upper and Lower Body AM/PM split (bulking diet)
Wed: Light Accessory Work (moderate bulking diet)
Thu: GPP (hill sprints etc. . .) (cutting diet)
In theory I’m only going to be eating excess calories when my body needs them to build muscle, 48 hours out from heavy workouts and 24-36 hours out from light workouts. It has me eating the most on weekends when I just can diet due to lack of willpower. I’m only drastically cutting calories, and may even try intermittent fasting, on the cutting days which are twice a week followed by a bulking day. I already tried this diet scheme on my last 7 week cycle and lost about ½ lb. of BF/week while maintaining my body weight (measured by scale, calipers, tape measurer and mirror). Some of my muscle measurements went up especially my thighs. Now that could just be a fluke since I’ve discovered my Hamstrings are much less developed than I realized but a recomp is looking promising if I can just keep the diet under control.
Well I could keep rambling but it’s time to hit a light Accessory workout.
Cheers
