I think I'm now the first person to be on the Unofficial Elitefts Co-Opt Training Program.
It's no mystery my training motivation sucks right now and my diet is worse.
It doesn't take long for this to get around when you post on an online training log.
Anyhow I now get messages (a few a day some times) that say things like...
"Try this..."
or
"Here's something for you..."
While I don't really have a trainer writing programs, I have about five people sending training sessions to do. If they are body part related, I'll do them. If it's some circuit type thing - I send a quick thank you and delete it.
If I'm not motivated to train, then I'm sure as hell not motivated to train in a style I can't stand to do. I would rather beat my head against a wall.
Here is one such session from last week.
The first comes secondhand from Kiefer via Brian Carroll.
I got to select the movements.
10-06-10 Arms
Barbell Curls
- 2 warm up sets of 10
- Slow eccentric
- Fast eccentric
- 1 sec contraction
- < 10 sec rest
- 55 x 3
- 65 x 3
- 75 x 3
- 85 x 3
- 95 x 3
- 105 x 3
Machine Curls
- 2 warm up sets of 10
- Slow eccentric
- Fast eccentric
- < 10 sec rest
- 30 x 3
- 40 x 3
- 50 x 3
- 60 x 3
- 70 x 3
- 80 x 3
Dumbbell Curls
- 2 warm up sets of 10
- Slow eccentric
- Fast eccentric
- 1 sec contraction
- < 10 sec rest
- 20 x 3
- 25 x 3
- 30 x 3
- 35 x 3
- 45 x 3
- 55 x 3
- 65 x 3
** Some of these exceeded more than five sets because I started to light and didn't know what weight to use.
Ziz Zag Fat Bar JM Presses
- 2 warm up sets of 10
- Slow eccentric
- Fast eccentric
- < 10 sec rest
- 75 x 3
- 93 x 3
- 135 x 3
- 185 x 3
- 225 x 3
- 245 x 3
- 265 x 3
Chest Supported Fat Rope Pushdowns
- 2 warm up sets of 10
- Slow eccentric
- Fast eccentric
- < 10 sec rest
- 75 x 3
- 85 x 3
- 95 x 3
- 105 x 3
- 115 x 3
- 125 x 3
Battle Rope French Press
- This was not on the plan. I did two sets to failure. No idea how many seconds it was.
In case you were following my Facebook page or tweets Brian is the Masquerade Troll.
I'm looking forward to more co-opts from him. For an arm workout I really liked this one. It was different, fun and hard to do while at the same time, staying easy on the joints and providing a Matt K skin spitting pump!
(Matt, you are NEVER going to live that phrase down.)
Damn, that just sounded like a dinner review.
Here's the next one…
Last week I got an email from Shelby that read...
"Try this..."
I knew right away it was a second hand session from John Meadows. I also knew, as noted already - several times, I really don't want to put any thought into my own programing right now, so I'm up for anything. I knew of John from years ago and of his reputation in working with his clients. He's from the same town and word gets around, so I knew this would be a good test.
Before I started I sent a message out on Twitter and Facebook (YES, I'm a social media whore) that if I could make it through this, it would mean two or four (can't remember) weeks of crappy eating. If I couldn't then I had to begin to scale back and get back on plan.
I may not be very good at running sprints, hills, Prowler work and things like that, but there have been very few bodybuilding or powerlifting sessions I couldn't finish. When I made this statement I couldn't think of a single one I haven't been able to finish in the past 15 years - except when I got hurt.
I figured this was an easy way to stay on my Pop Tart diet for another four weeks.
So began the training...
I'm using the same text that was emailed to me with my own inline notes
Legs
Lying leg curls - 2 sets of 15 to warm up. 4 pyramid sets. Do a set of 14, 12, 10, and 8 reps. Add a little weight each time. Have someone gently push down on your lower back while doing these so you isolate hamstrings. At the end of every rep pause with your legs straight.
*** This wasn't so bad. I think my last set of 8 was a bit on the easy side as I think I had 3-4 reps in the tank so I added more weight and did one more set of 8. There was no way I would have gotten a ninth rep. I did notice my hamstrings were tight and began to cramp some, so I took some time to stretch them out.
Leg extension - 2 sets of 20 to warm up. Same thing here…a set of 14, 12, 10, and 8 reps. On each rep flex and hold for 1 second at the top. Also, I want you to dorsiflex your foot (keep your toes pointed back at you during the rep). This will make your rectus femoris work harder in the middle of your upper thigh…
***This was also not bad and I made sure this time that each set ended very close to failure.
Leg press and lunge superset - Do 2-3 sets of leg presses to get joints more warmed up. Start with the lunge, grab some medium weight dumbells and take 15 paces with each leg. Stop and walk over to the leg press, and then do a set of 10 reps. If the weight is too easy, go up. Keep the weight on the lunges the same every set. This should hurt like heck...it's hard. Four rounds of this!
***This is where things got interesting. To say my legs were tight would be an understatement. It took 4 warm up sets to get up to a weight I thought would be good to use on the leg press (900). When I did my first set of lunges I barely made all the reps, then I did my set of leg press and knew this was going to be hell. The tenth rep was very hard to do. I figured I would rest an extra couple minutes and the weight would be OK on the next set.
Once again I started with the lunges, but after 10 paces I couldn't get back up, so I did a rest pause thing, counted to 15 and finished the set. Wobbled back to the leg press and barely got ten reps.
At this point I wasn't going to take weight off the leg press so I rested another extra few - maybe 5 minutes.
This time with the lunges it took me three rest pause sets to do them and then after five reps on the leg press I had to hold the weight at the top and then do five more singles - having to hold between each rep. I can't lie, I also used my hands to help push my knees up.
Now my head was spinning and I felt like I wanted to puke. When I got to get up off the leg press my legs won't move. I spent a few minutes (maybe 5) waiting for my legs to work again. When I did get up, my quads started cramping and when I went to stretch them my hamstrings cramped.
One more set left...
As I stood waiting to start my lunges I felt like I did when I climbed up to the high diving board as a kid. I wanted to step out, but at the same time I didn't. I took a couple tiny test steps and then figured what the hell and stepped out only to discover I was NOT coming back up and crashed to the floor beaten! Legs cramped, and totally shot. 10 minutes later I got up and figured there is NO WAY IN HELL I will be able to leg press, let alone squat. At the time I couldn't walk or stand up out of a chair without using my arms.
I did think I could try and do reverse band bodyweight squats, but what would seriously be the point in that? I'm pretty sure I achieved my goal of training and stimulating my legs.
I was done!
I realized my Pop Tart diet wasn't working very well and was PISSED I couldn't even finish the session.
Squats - 4 sets of 10 reps - go just below parallel. Go down with a 3 second count and drive up hard. You should hit just below parallel. Continuous tension, right back down once you are 3/4 of the way up.
*** This DIDN'T happen
If you do this right - this will be brutal - make every set count..don't count the set if it's too easy, or if you made the weight too heavy and couldn’t get the reps. Do it
right.
Ya, I kinda figured this out!
What followed was this email exchange to Shelby....
Shelby,
Holy shit!
No way my Pop Tart diet is working!
When I went to start my fourth set of lunges it felt like diving off a cliff. I didn't want to go down at all. I even took a couple of small stutter steps and then went all in and ended up on the floor.
Stayed there 10 minutes and couldn't stand up.
No way I could do squats unless I did reverse band body weight squats.
It has been YEARS since I couldn't finish any workout PL or BB style!
My shitty diet ends now.
While this is kinda funny it was a much needed wake up call.
- Dave
Dave,
Hahaaa... my plan worked! 😉
- Shelby