The0Self

Explore it with n,n-DMT or miprocin.

Muscular balance is not a simple thing to achieve. The minimum 6 movements you need for complete development: a horizontal or incline press, a horizontal pull, a squat, a hinge, something for the external rotators (preferably facepulls, and optional dumbbell rotations), and some knee flexion (a leg curl; for the head of the hamstrings left out by the hinge, which can only be activated via knee flexion). Horizontal pulls work everything that vertical pulls do (but with slightly less intense lat involvement), PLUS other muscles that vertical pulls leave out -- and as it happens, these muscles left out by vertical pulling are particularly problematic to have as weaknesses, so always include horizontal pulling. What you have looks great, but there are some issues. You have resistance bands, right? You are certainly going to want to add facepulls... if you're not already doing them. You also MAY lack a horizontal pull (you didn't list your 6 upper body movements) -- pull ups are a vertical pull, which is great, but for shoulder spacing health you do need a horizontal pull (such as rows). Technically you are lacking in hip hinge, though the burpees can sort of count as one -- get creative to find some means of doing a more effective hip hinge movement: while the Good Morning w/ Safety Squat Bar is very likely the absolute best option for this slot, if you lack the equipment, you may have to improvise; Alternate Toe Touch is a good option for a hinge exercise that doesn't require a ton of weight... but good mornings of some type are best. And for the knee flexion, you're going to want to find a way to rig the bands up for hamstring curls. Direct abdominal training isn't absolutely necessary, but it is optimal to do. You have plenty of it. The best exercise for this is probably hanging leg raises though -- if you add that, in addition to your standard & side plank, your abs will be covered. And second best is probably standing band crunch. If that includes facepulls and a horizontal pull, then you're golden for the upper body. 20-35 rep sets are perfect for resistance bands, so nice job on that. For free weights though (and weighted pull ups; etc; most exercises), 5-30 rep sets is actually the optimal range. That includes push ups with bands. 20-35 reps/set is only optimal for exercises wherein the resistance is entirely mediated by the bands -- push ups are primarily a body weight exercise, so even if you make them harder with bands, the optimal rep range will be 5-30, not 20-35... though that's speaking very broadly, as band push ups in particular tend to lend themselves best to 10-20 reps per set. Also note: maximum adaptation rate always requires at least 10 (but not to exceed 20) weekly sets per muscle, not to exceed 10 sets in any 48-72 hour period for any one muscle. Apart from that? Perfect. And if you're a male and some portion of your goals involves being more attractive, the best bang for your buck by far is neck training, especially targeting the sternocleidomastoid, as this will contribute to that goal more rapidly and efficiently than anything else, besides maybe decreasing bodyfat toward 12% IF you're significantly above that.

What about low, moderate, and also moderate-high doses of T3-only? Zero T4, maximizing the T3/T4 ratio in the body. I'd be surprised if you haven't tried each of those, but if not, it could be worth a shot. If you're concerned about unintended and unforeseeable consequences of having no T4 (I'm not aware of any avenues for those but obviously can't know for sure), you could maybe take basically a micro-dose of T4 with a significant dose of T3.

Thyroid releases T4, which is later deiodinated to T3, the more active form. You have it backwards -- T3 is 3-4x more potent than T4, which is kind of like a storage mechanism for T3 (kind of like how DHEA-S acts as the hormonal storage mechanism for DHEA). I saw you mention you're a doctor, but it appears you just got those mixed up. The problem is not everyone converts T3 to T4 efficiently, it's just rare enough that it would seem to be a better idea to introduce the molecule further back in the hormonal chain -- T4 is the form the thyroid gland directly releases, not T3 -- it seems more prudent to use T4... But the reality is, using T4 can have unintended consequences, because (of course) the T3/T4 ratio decreases when T4 is introduced exogenously... and the T3/T4 ratio may actually be critically important for mood. So unbeknownst to many doctors, you pretty much never want to give a patient T4-only -- just to be safe, always give either T3 alone, or T3 and T4 combined... That's not commonly practiced, but it should be.

Thank you, Leo! It's gotta be difficult teaching such advanced stuff, knowing that not only will some understand it the wrong way, but others will be looking out for those people and, themselves misunderstanding, will try to get you to doubt whether you're doing the right thing teaching such advanced topics. Just comes with the territory though. Keep on keepin' on!

It's actually a very common talking point in the "people with diet or thyroid related mood disorders" space that switching to triiodothyronine (T3) works far better than levothyroxine (T4). There's some evidence pointing to the notion of T3/T4 ratio being somehow important for mood -- T3/T4 too high is associated with euphoria; the inverse (T4/T3) too high is associated with overstimulation, elevated heart rate, hot flashes, and depression -- well, directly introducing T4 into the system would seem to be a great way to wreck that ratio. What worries me is the number of people being prescribed T4, when so many people I've seen switch to T3 felt so much better on it. It forces me to intuit that maybe T3 should be more first-line. How did you feel on triiodothyronine/T3?

While much of the evidence is all over the place, I have repeatedly seen signs that you want EPA intake significantly higher than DHA to allay the potential negative effects of DHA, yet the bulk of both the negative and positive effects primarily come from the DHA intake. With that said, it seems you likely need at least 300mg DHA per day to get noticeable positive effects (cognitive and otherwise), but there can be negative cognitive (particularly mood/focus) issues if EPA intake doesn't sufficiently exceed that; preferably double the DHA; 600+ mg EPA if 300mg DHA... but if you don't like any of the formulations with those ratios, at least don't take more DHA than EPA. The brand matters too. Canadian supplement companies are probably some of the best quality, and certainly superior to USA, at least for fish oil. Two companies I can confirm are great choices: Nordic Naturals, ATP Labs.

@Leo Gura Yeah I hear he used to live fast / max credit cards out, etc

If you’re talking about JAL his game is mostly bar and club but what you’re talking about is the excuse (not just for plausible deniability of sex but also to take the pressure off the girl) to leave the club. The party, if there is one, which there often isn't, will be one of his friend’s or someone in his social circle or someone he met that night. After-party venue changes like that are available to to me too — and in fact to many people that go to bars and clubs in the same area a lot. The excuse is very often something like “let’s go rip shots and come right back” and sometimes the “after party” if it’s mentioned is just shots back at your place. The only significance of the party is plausible deniability of sex, so the girl doesn’t have to feel slutty (which is essential).

Fair enough. I’m not basing my evaluation of him on anything abstract like his purported lay count, his game (which of course includes far more than the approach, date, etc) merely checks-out in my mind based upon my own experience with game and relationships. “Best” is perhaps a poor choice of term — I’ll soften my position to: his game is both very simple and very effective. And yes I’ve watched his infields. Nothing special — that’s the point though.

Todd V (usually very good but sometimes kind of bad) John Anthony Lifestyle (the drama around him doesn't change the fact that he simply has the best game you can find -- on the internet, anyway) Playing With Fire (only older content; he sold out big time last I checked) Honest Signalz seems fine too, but I can only really vouch for those 3 at the moment because, while other sources might check out as legit too, I'm out of the loop and don't have time right now to research.

These are your results on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Your score is 10, out of 40. Higher scores indicate greater levels of narcissism. Rock-bottom exhibitionism and entitlement (which is weird because I'm rather entitled in some respects), but vanity is maxed out. What the fuck? Based on the (very black and white, as a previous poster said; and toss-up) questions, it's probably not a perfectly accurate test though.

You seem serious about this, and seem to be at a stage that I remember and was not fun, so I will say what I probably don’t say often enough, but I don’t say it because it cheapens how firmly rooted it should already be if you’re practicing game and don’t want it to be a shit show. Also / Yet / Not to mention, there’s an element of not wanting it too well known, not because of potentially “increased competition” (we’re talking about no-agenda fun-having and spontaneous life-loving; competition doesn’t have to be a factor) but just an intuitive feeling that it doesn’t need to be talked about at this time. Take a deep breath. Forget about everything you’ve ever heard about game/pickup. This is what “game enlightenment” is: Always assuming… 1. The interaction is going well. And 2. That you are super awesome. ( disclaimer: …until the interaction ends, of course, as it often will, and btw sex to phone number ratio is only 1:10 at the highest peak level of game, so don’t get too excited. Yes you can actually do this and yes it can feel weird at times — the male mind can’t imagine what it’s like to be female, so when a particularly total egoless connection of them is about to happen, the male just might feel extremely disillusioned, and disoriented, but you can just keep on doing it anyway — not just assuming attraction, but also raising energy to rise to the level of “value” you can feel comfortable enough with, simply to be able to assume the aforementioned two points — you don’t even need that if you assume already even with a life in ruins or in whatever condition, though there’d be a limit, of course… homeless / etc, but that’d still work and it’d be god-tier mental gymnastics and obviously not in a good way so I don’t recommend it. ) Verbatim. It means exactly what it says. Good luck ? And then you have to move things forward without putting any pressure on the girl whatsoever, as if she could be POOF gone at any time and it wouldn’t matter and you’d hold nothing against her. It’s like a gravity well of the shared-orgasm, pulling two people toward itself by way of this particular vibe. You also need actual experience and know-how in dealing with logistics, cockblocks, etc… so the above isn’t sufficient, but with it, the 90% is done, and without it, you’re missing the 90%… for the 10%…

Okay by Bulgarian Lite I thought you meant something else. I am familiar with the Bulgarian method, which I've always known to mean ramping to a training max at >90%1rm every day with no days off... I assumed Bulgarian Lite meant basically the same but specifically on 1-2 upper lifts, and then doing the same with 1-2 lower lifts the next day, and then repeating, with up to 1 day off per week... instead of using only Olympic lifts like Bulgarian was designed for. I was under the impression that Bulgarian only refers to maxing -- that's all I've ever heard it referred to as.

From what I understand it’s just like the opening set of ME day on Conjugate (<5% of the Conjugate program’s total volume), but that’s all you do, and you do it every day (or almost every day) instead of twice a week. Not super balanced, but it definitely works very well in phases brief enough (7 days to 14 days max) to circumvent the immense detraining that will ensue after 3-5 weeks or so. It can break plateaus, but on conjugate that’s a moot point because plateaus technically aren’t possible on that program, since any time a stall happens, you swap that exercise for a detrained exercise so that the focus becomes the low hanging fruit of detrained muscle fibers, while the overworked fibers recover. That is, unless you’re cutting fat so quickly that a plateau/stall is guaranteed — though even then you can still make progress or maintain on exercises, since they’re never allowed to get too far from detrained status, but if cutting quickly enough, the best you can hope for on any program is controlled reversal of progressive overload on exercises positively affected mechanically by bodyfat itself (mainly pressing), and maintenance on exercises that aren’t negatively affected by bodyfat loss itself (particularly hip hinges). But a calorie deficit wouldn’t be the time to do Bulgarian lite anyway. So I would strongly recommend against doing Bulgarian lite for more than 14 days.

Energy is infinite but it’s also zero. Even in physics you can see they’ve figured out that the energy of a billion suns is cancelled out by negative energy in the form of gravity. So the degree of energy you’re talking about is really the degree of polarization or a differential of energy. There may be infinite energy but there is also infinite potential energy and therefore also zero net energy.

“Watching it go by forever” already assumes time.

If you want to add more work or save time, you can SS the bench press with the rows. I would recommend doing strict (Pendlay) rows though — back still; scapulae apart at bottom (don’t maintain scapula retraction at bottom); as explosive as possible; for 10-15 reps, not 5. You can easily do 5 sets of 10-15 with strict row because of its very good stimulus to fatigue ratio. The advent of the stimulus to fatigue ratio has revolutionized training. Adaptation is stimulus minus fatigue. Every exercise or training modality provides some amount of stimulus and some amount of fatigue. So it stands to reason you want as much stimulus and as little fatigue as possible. Examples of exercises with bad s/f: deadlifts, wide grip bench press. Examples of exercises with good (high) s/f, which I therefore highly recommend: close-grip bench press, strict row, inverted row, good morning, facepull, reverse hyper, isolateral leg press, Bulgarian split squat, 45° back extension, hamstring curl, glute ham raise. Until you get very strong, the fatigue doesn’t really matter — certainly not as much as the stimulus. So even though standard barbell back squats have a pretty bad stimulus/fatigue ratio, the stimulus is so high it doesn’t really matter. However, the deadlift has such a poor ratio that even novices should be wary of using it more than once a week. A novice can get away with squats twice or sometimes even thrice a week for a while, but that’s not so for deadlifts. The supersets you listed all look fine except the lat pull-down and bicep curl — my suggestion for better options: lat pull-down SS w/ lateral, and tricep machine ss w/ bicep curl. And I would do the hamstring curl on both lower body days. And you really want to spread each lower and upper 72h from themselves, respectively — which could be accomplished by moving your Wed & Thu, to Thu & Fri, respectively. And don’t begin a session with abs — do them at the end. You don’t want fatigued abs on squats. That’s the most glaring issue I see. And you might want to restrict deadlift to 1x/wk, and you might want to do 1-3” deficit deadlifts, as the deadlift is only a partial ROM for all the muscles involved and it has a really…quite bad stimulus to fatigue ratio. I only use deadlifts for max work and speed work, and even then it’s almost always deficit or snatch grip, so as to be less of a partial movement. I would omit the 1x12 deadlift and do both 3 sets of good mornings and 3 sets of hamstring curls that day. And instead of one top set of 1x5 on the DL, I’d do 6x2 (6 doubles) as explosively as possible with 30 seconds rest between sets, with 65%1rm or 50%1rm + 75lb of chains or even band tension if your gym has hooks for bands at the deadlift station. Bands are super cheap and very useful. Make sure you rotate grip-width, stance, exercise substitutions, etc occasionally on everything, to avoid overuse and increase the range of muscle fibers being trained maximally. Though most pressing should be close grip and most squatting should be wide stance. Also, all benching and no OHP has long been thought to be a bit of a no-no… but really the reason why that often causes problems is the fact that benching works internal rotators while OHP works external rotators… You don’t want internal rotators to overpower external rotators — it’s very bad for the shoulders. However, the OHP doesn’t even work the external rotators that well anyway, so you don’t need them, but you DO need to find a way to work the external rotators somehow! I recommend both facepulls (necessary; 3-5 sets of 20+ reps, preferably twice a week), and also lying dumbell internal-external rotations (optional; with about 10%1rm BP, for 2-3 sets of 8-16 reps, perhaps with some external-only reps tacked on at the end). Otherwise, not bad at all. Good job! ?

Yeah that’s probably the best subreddit for this topic.

This definitely happens. It goes away for a man when said man just pays attention.

I’ll just add: It’s not impossible. It can, however, be just about the hardest thing ever. Looking back, it’s nothing, but yeah, like anything else, it’s something you really just have to get honest about how badly you want. Go figure. I’ll add again: For me it was so bad, for the first girl I approached sober (already had dozens of approaches with alcohol assistance), I was so nervous I asked her her name but even after she told me hers I forgot to tell her mine… visibly shaking… and blushing. About 7 approaches later, it wasn’t too bad. That was after years of just working on general/social anxiety. Years prior to that I was so anxious I couldn’t even give presentations in class (it’s not that I had difficulty; I couldn’t do them because I’d physically be shaking too hard for my words to be heard). It wasn’t an easy road. To some, death would be preferable to the work required to get good at cold approach. I would certainly NOT say that was true for me, but I DO believe I was far closer to that than the vast majority of men. I did it, it was worth it, I’m still not “done improving,” and now I can’t imagine living without this skill and I’m very glad I took the plunge. Be prepared to be humiliated. If you’re afraid of that, honestly consider whether suffering some humiliation is worth it for getting good at understanding non-platonic interactions with women via personal experience. It was for me and it probably is for you, you’re just afraid to come to terms with it and stop fucking around. As the suffering from loneliness/etc increasingly gets worse, the scale will tip further and further until your decision will happen automatically. You already know this; you’re masturbating and victimizing yourself otherwise. Oh and btw, do you have excessive blushing? If you don’t, then I don’t want to hear a single peep out of you, because you don’t even have a clue how much harder cold approach could be for you, and just how lucky you are to be so well-poised for getting good at this skill… just by virtue of not having that “disability.” And even if you do have it, it very much can still be done. Luckily mine went away to a large degree with meditation practice, but I still had to roll with it when it still occasionally happened, and eventually realized it didn’t really matter… but tell that to someone with excessive blushing. So forgive me if I don’t have much compassion for these matters at this point. fwiw

They probably don’t know what you’re talking about. Cold approach literally means meeting a human of the opposite sex for the first time with the intention of getting to know them and possibly starting a relationship of however short or long. How could such a broad topic have any negative associations without held-biases or confusion over what’s actually being referred to being a large contributor? It can’t. They’re biased and/or confused over what it means. Good game doesn’t look like game, it looks accidental, because it basically is.

Well here’s how to do that: Be very still for a very long time, in mind and body (really just mind but generally body stillness helps with mind stillness). To spell it out though / In other words : Inquiry. Find the I; the source/base of the false I, to reveal the true Self, to itself — It’s the only thing that is completely still and already present before any thought, and thus, to focus on it merely requires: the non-focus on everything that isn’t always already now… so that, via process-of-elimination (neti-neti), there is a sort of “focus” on a “special object,” the subject; that which is prior to any experience or object. This requires first becoming aware of the whole field, so that every object of experience can be relegated to awareness, without intentional focus on any object. If you try to inquire without first becoming aware of the whole field, then that which you have yet to become aware of will masquerade as the false I, producing a situation wherein you think you’re abiding as the witness but really you’ve just surrendered quite a bit of focus on most of the objects yet for some of the (objects in the) field, you will be attending to it without realizing it; meaning: identified as it. Once you’ve become aware of the whole field, via meditation practice, starting up the inquiry should not feel like a complicated thought move — it should be like one snap of a finger and you’re already doing it fully. Because the focus is the most essential aspect of your experience; that which is always already present, and prior to everything else. If it feels bumpy or jumpy getting it started, like the focus turns on and off repeatedly, just notice how what you’re actually looking for is equally prior to both of those two (on & off) conditions, and retract your focus from those supposed conditions and just be the witness that requires no object (including an object such as one of those conditions). Don’t look for what is already the case but you just aren’t noticing. Look for what is already the case and the only thing you always notice.

Mike Mentzer took 2g of nandrolone a week. His methods aren’t particularly scientific. I’m not saying don’t use them… but definitely research the science so you can fill in the gaps. Look at standard routines used by intermediate lifters. Conjugate and 5/3/1 are probably the most science-based. You see maximum adaptation (growth) with 10-20 hard sets (“hard” meaning <4RIR; within 3 reps from failure) per week per muscle, or 25 effective reps per session 2x/wk (spaced at least 72h apart) per muscle (the last 5 before hitting failure are effective reps) — and that has been shown in studies over and over. He’s not even close to doing too much. Of course the 5x5 squat is a TON, at least for connective tissue and the spine, yes — but not necessarily too much… but besides the 5x5 squat? There’s not even that much. (Check out my routine above… if you want — it’s a very typical Conjugate template.) Certainly nothing that would qualify as “too much.” Scientifically, “too much”, in the context of optimized training, pretty much refers to more than 20 sets a week for a muscle, sometimes more than 10, because not all sets are created equal — 10 hard sets (per week) of back squats would probably almost be too much for most trainees, but 10 sets of belt squats, and certainly 10 sets (even 15-20) of reverse hyper, would almost certainly not be, because there’s no axial loading on those (in fact the reverse hyper has a powerful recovery component because it pulls the spine apart and reverses compression stress — which is why even 15-20 hard sets a week might not be too much). You can stimulate max growth only once every 72 hours, but when you produce growth it only lasts for up to 48 hours post workout (the vast majority of the growth, anyway). But you don’t have to stimulate max growth to grow — for instance, you could stimulate max growth twice a week with 5-6 sets 2x/wk, but the weekly growth would be the same as that provided by 3 sets 4x/wk or 4 sets 3x/wk… stimulating a bit less than max growth but doing it more often… great for beginners since they’ll get nearly the same growth from 3-4 sets as they will from 5-6 in one session… But eventually as one gets more advanced they might need 5+ sets per session to grow at all. A lot factors into it. TL/DR: The more work you do, the more you adapt, right up to the point where you can no longer recover from more work, at which point extra work results in less gains (however it’s not necessarily all for nothing, as doing tons of work does increase your work capacity, giving you more headroom in the future) — this point almost always occurs at 5-12 hard sets per session and 12-26 hard sets per week, per muscle… (though it depends on the muscle — delts, glutes, and triceps can handle more towards the top end of that range; biceps and lats more towards the lower end; quads can handle a bit more too, but there’s an issue with that as hamstrings need to be kept in lockstep ahead of quad strength, for knee health) — that’s just the recovery limit; you’re almost maxed out on gains by the time you’re at 10x limit-1RIR sets per week, or 12-16x 2-3RIR sets per week, and you’re past the point of diminishing returns even by 5-6 limit sets, or 10 sets at 2-3 reps in reserve, per week — and technically per muscle fiber, and not all exercises even hit the same exact fibers directly enough to fatigue them, so this complicates things a bit further, yet it’s relatively insignificant unless you’re chasing the last 2% of gains. Training without injury or imbalance is a very complicated thing that requires dedicating your life to it to truly understand and apply — check out professionals like Matt Wenning, who has powerlifting world records and has never been injured (except for in a car accident that broke his legs before even starting to lift), and see what they have to say about training and you’ll be all set though, after a few hours. I’ll assume you perhaps haven’t heard of the importance of keeping external rotators stronger than internal rotators, and hamstrings stronger than quadriceps, to decrease mileage on the knee and shoulder joint — that is a dire thing to fix if you’re not aware of that already. A lot of people neglect the tibialis anterior, hand extensors, and calf soleus too — other dangerous weaknesses… though the most concerning (and common, coincidentally) weaknesses are probably hamstrings, upper back (includes external rotators), and spinal erectors.

Tue — Upper Speed DB rotations with 10%1rm BP — 2x16+8external-only SS-circuit Band FP-PD-Row WU 2x25 Speed BP 9x3 3wide-med-close 1min (as fast and explosive as possible) { Optimal for all speed work: 32-39%1rm + 15-33%1rm (pref 25%) CHAINS (75 lb chain works with 225 all the way up to 500lb max, but the sweet spot is 25%1rm) /alternate in 3 week blocks with/ 50%1rm + 15-33%1rm (pref 25%) BANDS That is all but 100% optimized, on many levels. The accommodating resistance (AR; band/chain) works against your acceleration allowing you to actually force the bar up without throwing it or injuring yourself — don’t do speed work without AR. } CGBP 5x10 (SS w/ SR) Strict Row Axle Bar 5x10 162.5 max speed (rotste e3w w/ Inverted Row) Chin 3x10 (SS w/ Lateral) (SS) Lateral 3x12-20 seated Tri Long head extension 3x10-20 SS Band Curl 1o Band FP-PD (facepull-pressdown superset) 3x20-35 2red (or doubled orange; elite fts) Wed — Lower Speed Leg swings & bw SQ WU. SQ & GM 45x5 bw 45° back ext 15 or 25 rep sets Chaotic SQ WU 25’s,35’s 2x10 Speed Box 13” 10x2 1min 55%+25%chain (violent) 2,2,2,2,2, 2,2,2,2,2. Speed DL 2” deficit 6x2 :30 40%1rm + 25% chain 2,2, L-underhand 2,2, R 2,2. GM 4x10-20 SS isolateral Calf 2x45+s or 2x10-25 2-1-2 tempo 25lb SS Tibialis Anterior 2x15-35 double o loop, ecc Hamstring Curl 3x10-20 tempo/ratcheted SS Quad Extension same reps & tempo (very slow eccentric at top; toes out) (vary toe positioning on both leg curl & ext) Calf treadmill WU Calf 2x20+ (can SS w/ HLR) HLR 3x2RIR (never skip; need traction since no Rev Hyper — try Belt SQ after BSS stall) Some kettlebell forearm work GPP/restoration Neck stretching/WU and 10 rep bw all 4 sides *** Full reps only, for neck! For now. *** Neck Curl 4x25 SS Neck Extension 4x15 *** GS Forearm Curl (thumbless pronated EZ) or PPC 4x20 Neck Side 2x25 SS-last Neck Oblique 1x25 Vacuums 2x60s Hand Openers 1w 1x150-200, 2w 2-4x50+ 1w 150, 2w 76,76,76. Thur — Off completely (Mon and Sat are light off-day sessions) Fri — Max (ME) Upper Rotator WU (BP 45x5, BP band/chain-only 1x5, then Rotator WU 10 lb 1x10, then…) 21 2x16+8ext-only SS Band FP-PD-Row WU o-o-r 2x25 Max BP pointer + reverse-green band (every single in ramp: max speed) — alternate 12 BP variations, chin, pull-up, and OHP. CGBP middle 4x10 Sometimes use 70% bar wt of the max’s (65-70 if chain; 75-80 if band; 75-85 if rev band), keep the AR on, use same grip, go 2-3RIR for set 1, then do 4-5 sets across (ME-day-only) Maybe legs out (can SS with…) SR Axle 4x10 162.5 max-speed elbow/scap-out OR IR Axle (alt e3w w/ Ring/Bar, and sometimes 3Barbell/Heavy/Cheat Row) 4x2RIR ** soon 5 sets CGBP & RowVar, for 24 total ER’s w/ other 3 set exercises, 2RIR, + 1 max ** (of course that’s assuming the first set dictates the RIR, but it very well may be true that for sets across, set 1 at 2RIR & set 4 at 0RIR may yield >12 ER’s… 2/2/1/0 may yield 15 — 6+ quality sets would be plenty) DB 30° Inc Press 3x10-20 (SS w/ Pull-up) Pull-up medium-wide bw 3x2RIR or 3x10 wt (3wk alt; before Dip and not SS’d if weighted — prob SS w/ SGHP, and then SS Dip w/ Curl) Incline Curl 60-90° & Out & emphasis on midrange 4x8-15 30 (can SS w/ Lateral) Lateral 4x12-20 seated (later 35lb partial, or a little heavier than the curls, prob 4 sets, but for now, starting next week or so, replace with heavy strapped trap builder; SGHP — can do the 3 SGHP SS’d after wt’d Pull-up, or maybe even just after GM on DE Lower **45° Back Ext 2x25 bw (can SS w/ HLR) HLR 2-3x2RIR (actually get 2RIR set 1, but only use perfect form, so it‘ll be much simpler than switching to half rep frog style!) (get ankle weights when exceeding 20 reps) Some kettlebell forearm work (include wrist curl/flexion and extension) FP-PD 3x20-35 (later prob 4x25) (wide FP) 2r high to low wrapped (start w/ doubled o’s) GPP/restoration — for now just 2 sets ea of: ***chaotic SQ 35’s or 45’s+PVC, band rev hyper, maybe band ham curl (moderate), band leg ext (light; tendons; 2x50+). Calf 3 sets standing (on Fri & Mon/[or maybe Tue]; 3-5 sets + 2 sets LP Calf both Lower’s; slow tempo) 25lb SS Tibialis Anterior Neck stretching/WU and 10 rep bw for all neck Neck Curl 4x25 SS Neck Extension 4x25 ***GS Forearm Curl or PPC 4x20 Neck Side 2x25 Neck Oblique 1x25 Some elbows-back curl / slide curl 1-2x8-25 Vacuums 2x45-60sec Hand Openers (180 is prob max reps of any use if 2-3/s) Sun — Max Lower WU: SQ, GM, & optional: 45° BE bw 15 reps, and (if cap ham at 3) ham curl 150x15 tempo Max Back SQ (Rotate 6+ DL and 6+ SQ variations, never maxing more than once every 12wk with any one var) BSS (split squat) left-front-first (alternate every week which leg goes in front first) 3x10-15 SS last w/ 5 GM WU reps at same weight GM (good morning) 4x10-20 SS Calf 2x15+,+1-3x, 2-1-2-1 tempo (a good variation of this is a 4-position ratchet) (pause at top not needed; time at least 1 set) 25lb plate in bag in backpack, use both hands to balance GS SS Tibialis anterior 2x30+,+1-3x, slow eccentric SR 5x10+ 155lb (don’t increase until past 600 DL) max explosive 10 reps 2min (occasional cable rows instead) Hamstring Curl 3x10-20 (cap: 4 sets; 3 if did a set as WU) — very slow tempo/ratcheted SS Leg Extension (not always, but definitely today since only 3 BSS) (match wt/tempo/rep) (Extensions with toes out mostly, but use all 3 positions on both leg curl and ext) *** 45° BE (back extension) 2x15-25+ SS-> *** FP-PD orange 2x50+ (at least 3x/wk) Calf WU: push treadmill with as much heal contact as possible 100 steps Incline Curl 60-90° & Out & emphasis on midrange! 4-5x8-15 30 slow/tempo (pref 3 Inc + 2 high cable or elbow-back db or even machine curl — for contracted position max stim inclusion) (SS w/ calf & hlr) Calf 2x10-20+ slow (2-1-2 tempo; probably same for ham curl; sometimes do ratcheted) HLR 3x2RIR Some kettlebell forearm work Neck (Fri/Sun/Tue, later MonORTue/Fri) (for now: Wed/Fri/SunOrMon) * Neck stretching/WU and 10 rep bw for all neck Neck Curl 4x25 SS Neck Extension 4x15 ***GS Forearm Curl or PPC 4x20 Neck Side 2x25 Neck Oblique 1x25 * GPP/restoration *** o band quad ext if haven’t already — do at end of every session except for the day-prior’s to each main Lower session. Also: Knee joint traction with band! Crushing — use a tennis ball, etc — every Sun; 2-5 sets; make/get a crush grip device soon *** Chaotic Axle BP! (Protein synthesis elevation valley is mitigated by this as well as chaotic SQ on upper day) (muscles only grow up to 48h pwo so you have to hit them every 48h for optimal progress but most only get hit HARD 2x/wk) Vacuums 2x45-60sec (4x/wk) Hand Openers 3-5 sets (4x/wk) Basically, maximum growth requires at least 5 sets, but you can only stimulate max growth every 72h, but unless you’re advanced you can stimulate near-max growth with 3 sets and do it more often like 4x/wk. All muscles should be hit 3x/wk at least but only 2 times should be hard… but neck, biceps, and lats do best with 3 hard sessions (4 direct sets per session each), and forearms, hands, abs, & calves do best with 4x/wk. Need at least 12 sets/wk of horizontal pulling (primarily inverted row and strict row), which leaves up to 8 sets a week of vertical pulling, so as not to exceed 20/wk for rhomboids; lats; etc. Not all sets are created equal though. The strongest training stimulus that can be recovered from is 5x20 on the back squat — both the recovery cost and muscle gain of this will likely eclipse even 10x10 GVT on a low-compressive implement such as the belt squat, and in fact WR holder Matt Wenning uses precisely that (10x10 belt sq) as a mini-deload the week after doing 5x20 back squat. It took me over a decade (of basically doing Starting Strength for 2-4 months, stalling, quitting, and trying again within a year…) to find out what works best. My two best pieces of advice: Don’t be dogmatic Modify, don’t miss Don’t do Starting Strength as written — it NEEDS more hamstring work (hamstring curls OR GHR, AND Good Morning), and external rotation (i.e. facepulls and db rotations). And when you graduate to intermediate, go to 5/3/1 or most-preferably Conjugate (the method I use and have illustrated here), not the Texas Method. And calves take a bit of special work to get them to grow: train them on back to back days, and use very slow tempo to take the stretch reflex out — this is required for calves to grow as they’re the hardest muscle to get stronger (due primarily to their tendency to not be very detrained, since you walk with them all day) other than the spinal erectors (due primarily to their low vascularity). The easiest growing muscles are those of the neck since they’re so detrained in most people. Quads are also relatively easy since almost anything that works the glutes effectively also hits the quads effectively but you have to temper the volume on them because the stronger your hamstrings are relative to quads, the healthier your knees are. Make sure you have structural balance — e.g. if you’re gripping bars all the time, you need to do some kind of rubber-band hand-opener exercise to train the extensors. This is to mitigate “the governor” — the body shuts off growth somewhat when an opposing muscle group is relatively weak, but also for overall structural integrity and joint and CT health; it’s important.