Thread: MonStar's Journal: Absolute Dedication

Monolith- LOL, that's what I thought at first too.

SF- Feel free to share them man, I am always looking for that extra edge. Anytime you read something applicable in Supertraining feel free to post it here in my journal. This low rep/high set thing is something that I consider an edge, considering the fact that NO ONE I know does it.

I posted a small bit in the Training forum on a way to cheat your CNS into getting a new PR on bench. But that's more of a "when I'm stuck in a rut" type of technique.

Originally posted by Saturday Fever
I posted a small bit in the Training forum on a way to cheat your CNS into getting a new PR on bench. But that's more of a "when I'm stuck in a rut" type of technique.

You gettin all this stuff from Supertraining, or just experience? I'm gonna have to start trying some of it.

Oh and btw Mon, i would kill to press 275lbx4, dont be so hard on yourself.

A bit of both Mono. I'll read something in Supertraining, and then an idea will hit about how to apply it, and I'll try. Sometimes I just pass the idea on to someone (my brother, forum friends, etc.) and they usually come back with good reviews.

I'm hoping to maybe post mini-articles in the Training forum every week or so.

SF- Thanks for the ideas as usual man. Yeah I definitely think that posting articles in the training forum would be a great idea. Read Supertraining and then in English you can explain it to all of us, lol. I have a copy of the book but I honestly have absolutely no clue how to apply all of the knowledge that's in the book. Oh well.

Monolith- I am pretty sure that he reads things in Supertraining and applies them to his training. But I could be wrong.

New journal already damn LOL!

Ok, here is some criticism... If you are going to be using PH's or PS's you NEED to stop fucking drinking! You want to drink your gains down the toilet? I know you already said you need to get serious, but saying something, and actually doing it are 2 totally different things. I hope you make a sound decision...

PreMier- I know exactly what you're saying man, thanks for chiming in. I completely agree. I currently have about 3 weeks or so left of S1+, which is 1-test and 4-AD. So hopefully my gains will continue to be pretty good. So far I have no complaints. Every single workout on S1+ has been excellent. Not a bad workout yet, which is definitely a good thing. Alcohol though I really need to stay away from, that's definitely important. Thanks for the post.

No problem bro. I am here to support I know its hard, but its something you have to do. At the very most, drink a day on the weekend. Im sure you'll catch shit from your friends, but just tell them to look at you, and then look at themselves. haha

PreMier- Yeah I am definitely going to try and do that. Maybe drink one night a week. I would honestly like to drink even less than that, but whatever. Yeah I do that man trust me, I always joke around with my friends about them being skinny or fat, and not muscular, lol.

Tuesday, 4-13-2004

Diet:
- breaded chicken fingers, apple
- Gatorade during workout, whey protein postworkout
- 1/2 ham & cheese sandwich
- 1/2 peanut butter sandwich
- 1/2 Metrx bar, Pure Protein bar, mixed fruit
- breaded chicken fingers
- MRP + 1% milk
- tuna + mayo

Breakfast today was pretty bad. Nothing in the house so I made these frozen breaded chicken breast things. Came out to 400 calories, 32g protein, 20g carbs, 18g fat. Not THAT bad if you ask me.

Overall today I ended up taking in lets see, right around 3,500-3,600 calories today I think. Something along those lines.

Sleep: 8.5 hours.

Weight: 222 lbs.

Weight has been steady above 220 lately, I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Legs

Leg Presses
770x12, 860x10, 950x8, 1040x6!, 770x12

SLDL
405x2, 405x2, 405x2, 405x2, 405x2, 405x2, 405x2, 405x2

Seated Calf Raises
180x25, 180x25, 270x15, 270x15, 180x50

Overall workout was absolutely awesome. Little dissapointed in my physical shape though today, but whatever. Started off with leg presses, holy f*ck were those sets intense. Worked all the way up to a 1/2 ton for 6. And damn my quads were completely drained after all 5 sets. I mean completely. They had absolutely nothing left.

Then I moved onto SLDL, using the low-rep/high-set technique that SF was talking about. WOW, I probably spent 25-30 minutes just on these 8 sets of doubles with 405. Extremely intense, completely exhausting, drained my entire friggin' body. I am just not used to high sets and low reps, with very heavy weight. Basically all those sets were one huge PR, but oh well. Wore a belt, which I think help put more strain on my hamstrings which was good. Even the first set I was just thinking, F*CK, 7 more of these? LOL.

I was planning on doing some leg extensions after the SLDL but I was just too friggin' drained. Moved onto some seated calf raises. Nothing exciting there at all. Whatever. Overall workout like I said was good, but I couldn't get over how bad the low-rep/high-sets killed my energy. Since I am going to continue doing these I am really going to have to adjust the volume of the rest of the workout.

S1+ everything is going pretty well I guess, weight is up a few pounds which is good. But honestly, my abs are not looking all that great today. Midsection really honestly feels very soft. I am sure what I think. Need to continue cleaning up my diet. I really don't think that little things such as grilled chicken vs. breaded chicken make THAT much of a difference, but then again that's extremely controversial. Need to keep my water intake up today, as well.

The reviews on S1+ said to give it 2 weeks before looking for noticable effects.

The SLDL looks solid. I'd like to see you follow that kind of rep work with more lifts that utilize the same muscle groups, but I understand the feeling. Especially on a legs day, going heavy is 100 times more exhausting.

Hey Mon - I take Saturdays to drink, like a day off really. I even get a treat if I want it (althought drinking is a treat now ). It's hard....but worth it!

nice leg presses!!!!!!!!! those must have felt good!
the SL deads look great too.

drink up lotsa water today!

damn man that looks awesome, Keep up the good work, i'll be following along

And STAY AWAY FROM THE BOOZE

Workout looks really good, nice job on the leg presses 1040 for 6 is beast. Have you been doing anything for your abs? I dont recall anything really specific in your journal(s). Despite not being as lean as you'd like you really dont have a ton of BF, so if your abs dont feel hard it could be something to do with lack of stimulation??? As far as grilled vs. breaded, theres not a huge difference, but its the principal of it, why have the extra fat/carbs/cals from the breaded chicken when grilled is fine? Wouldnt worry about it much though. Keep up the good work.

SF- Yeah man, I completely understand what you're saying about legs being much more exhausting than regular upper body training. I mean there is absolutely no comparison, for me at least. When you say this, what do you mean:

I'd like to see you follow that kind of rep work with more lifts that utilize the same muscle groups, but I understand the feeling.

I kind of lost you there, sorry man. I really think that I am just going to have to adjust the rest of my volume in my workout, that's all. For example for my pull session tomorrow maybe something along these lines:

Support Rows: normal (pyramid up, down)
CG Cable Pulldowns: low-rep/high-set
DB Shrugs: normal
Curls: normal

Something along these lines maybe?

Cate- Yeah I definitely know exactly what you're saying. I should really pick a day of the week that I am going to drink on. But I don't like the idea of taking a day off, just because I'll let my diet go completely as well. Thanks for the advice.

Jen- Thanks for the support, appreciate it. Yeah the leg presses killed me, and so did the SLDL, holy sh*t.

X Ring- Haha, thanks for the post man. Yeah I am going to try hard to stay away from the booze. We'll see what happens.

GRIFF- I am going to be hitting my abs now on my 4th day, when I do long distance cardio. I know that long distance cardio sounds like a strange idea but honestly, my endurance blows, and it's just something I have always wanted to improve. Plus I really like the idea of being in overall great shape, endurance, strength, etc. Why have the extra fat/carbs with breaded? LOL, because breaded chicken tastes 1000x better than grilled IMO.

405 SLDL's...

Those leg presses are damn impressive too.

What do your quads measure?

I'd like to see you follow that kind of rep work with more lifts that utilize the same muscle groups, but I understand the feeling.

Like following SLDL with Hamstring Curls or even Hypers. This is where you'll really notice the CNS trickery coming into play, despite how exhausted you feel.

Monolith- Thanks for the support man! I am honestly not sure at all what my quads measure. I used to have a measuring tape that I could track my progress on, but I am not sure what happened to it, sorry. I am thinking maybe 26-28" but I really am not sure.

SF- Oh okay I see what you're saying now. So maybe tomorrow for back something like this would be more efficient:

Support Rows: normal
CG Pulldowns: low-rep/high-set
Cable Rows: normal

Is that more along the lines of what you're talking about? Placing the low-rep/high-set exercise in the middle of my accessory work?

Here's how I'd do it.

Support Rows: normal (pyramid up, down)
CG Cable Pulldowns: low-rep/high-set
Cable Rows: normal
DB Shrugs: normal
Curls: normal

After thrashing your back with the pulldowns, your lats will get GREAT work following that up with the cable rows. And similar to what I mentioned yesterday, the weight should feel lighter than usual for the rows after the low/heavy pulldowns.

Haha, I hear ya buddy, but at this point I've learned to follow the motto. "If it tastes good, spit it right out, ASAP!"

SF- Okay, that's what I will try then. For some reason I feel like after the low-rep/high-set rep scheme I am going to be friggin' exhausted. But we'll see what happens. I am going to try and employ this principle though completely. Do a regular normal rep scheme with an exercise, then the high-set/low-rep with an exercise, and then finish up with a normal rep scheme with a final exercise. For my next push workout maybe something like this:

Flat BB Bench: normal
Incline DB Presses: 10 sets of 1
Flat DB Flyes: normal

Or maybe 6 sets of 3, or 8 sets of 2. Something along those lines. Like you said a total of 18-24 reps.

GRIFF- Exactly. That's exactly how I feel, lol. If it doesn't taste good, it's not coming near me.

Looking good- and I'm sure your abs are looking fine too!

About the drinking, I feel ya there. I *try* to just have a few drinks on Fridays, but a few turn into a few more and Friday turns into Saturday and so on. But, I don't drink at all through the week so that's all good.

Andrea- Eh, my abs are looking okay I guess. I can always see my abs no problem it's just a question of how soft they feel, etc. Yeah I am going to try and really take it easy on the drinking for the next few weeks. At least until I finish up my PH cycle, because I really want to make the most of it, it being my first one and all. Thanks for the post.

I just noticed in the members pics forum you posted a video at the end of January, deadlifting 605 and people wanted to say the form was bad.

OK, here's the deal. Find ANYONE who pulls sumo and DOESN'T pull it stiff-legged.

Secondly, the thing to keep in mind with deads is that you want to push hips forward and pull back.

All said, I wouldn't sweat the form, plenty of elite PL'ers use the same.

SF- Damn, did I get a ton of sh*t for my deadlift form, lol. Even though I knew it was coming from people who were obviously inexperienced with deadlifts it still really pissed me off that everyone tried to say that my form sucked, etc. Yeah everyone at my gym who I see pull sumo always have their hips come up first, I think its just a natural movement that happens that way. Even when I try and concentrate on NOT letting my hips come up first they always do anyway. Thanks for chiming in though, man, appreciate it.

I havent seen the video but being a guy who enjoys deadlifts i know that if you are only 220ish and you pulled 600+ and you arent broken in half that you are alright. Obviously you wanna keep enough good form so you dont get injured though

X Ring- Thanks man, lol, and no I am not broken in half. Here is the link to a few of my training videos. Some dips, and then a few deadlift videos. A few d*cks on this site decided to give me a bunch of sh*t about my form, it was ridiculous. Like SF said, most Elite powerlifters deadlift with the exact same form. Here is the link:

http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/temp/Monstar/

Thanks for the post man.