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Message
re: Anybody done any of John Meadows Mountain Dog programs?
Posted on 9/5/25 at 7:11 am to cfish140
Posted on 9/5/25 at 7:11 am to cfish140
quote:
still have a headache this morning from the strain
Glad I'm not the only one doing gamba bomb right now
Glad I'm not the only one getting a massive ache in the back of my head from leg presses
1
Posted on 9/5/25 at 7:14 am to gizmoflak
lol im doing Scorpion but i know the feeling
Posted on 9/5/25 at 7:52 am to cfish140
man i told yall, MD aint for the weak 
especially the legs, he loved to kill legs and was a sucker for pain, especially the bulgarian(RFESS) drop set of death....frick those
especially the legs, he loved to kill legs and was a sucker for pain, especially the bulgarian(RFESS) drop set of death....frick those
Posted on 9/5/25 at 8:25 am to lsu777
I need to work up to the point where my head hurts LESS than my legs.
Posted on 9/5/25 at 8:49 am to lsu777
Thanks! I have those, but haven't done them yet. When I finish taskmaster I may try Gamma Bomb. How long do those workouts take?
Posted on 10/15/25 at 9:10 pm to scfan2001
On the last week of Scorpion. I've enjoyed it for the most part. It's been a very different program from anything else ive ran.
Pros:
-It's a back focused program, back is the only muscle thats worked 2x a week and one of those days is 95% straight LATS so due to this i got great results in my lats and this is by far the most ive ever punished them. Opened me up to some great new exercises
-Legs were only 1x a week but i like how it balanced each muscle of the lower body. Most leg days are straight quads with some hams and calves thrown in. In this program some of the leg days are straight Glutes and Hams. He focuses alot on hamstrings, glutes, and adductors. Ive never worked my adductors directly before and its a weird feeling once they start to develop, feel like i chafe more now. Also LOVE the hardcore hamstring work. Hams have always been an afterthought but after developing them i love how they feel. Also, theres 0 traditional squats all the quad work is leg press, hack squat, belt squat, and leg extensions with maybe 1 day of lunges. This works perfect for me due to knee pain when squatting free weight.
-loved incorporating 20 min of cardio at the start of each workout which is always something ive neglected. It's mostly treadmill walking with stationary bike some days but it was a good way to get warmed up and try to shed a little fat.
-i learned to like the 5 day split of taking off wednesday and sunday better than saturdays and sundays. With how my scheudle works, taking off wednesdays over saturdays helps me out alot.
Cons
-if you dont have access to a big commercial gym you're going to have trouble doing alot of the machine work. I go to a pretty big one that has a ton of stuff and i still had to sub a few things we dont have. One in particular that he LOVES to do is the decline hammer press rack for chest. We have the incline one but not decline so i had to sub decline dumbell press. Theres alot of specific exercises like this, i just personally hate having to find subs.
-other than back and legs i didnt get to noticeable of gains in the chest, shoulder, arm areas. He does state at the beginning you need to EAT on this program and i chose to cut calories instead to try to shed some belly fat before my wedding in february so this may be my fault. Chest has 0 barbell work and VERY little dumbell. Its all cables and machines which is fun and i understand is a staple of bodybuilding but it may not work best for me. Shoulders has 0 press work which i also found odd, he's big on lat raises and tons of rear delt cable work.
-this is the first time ive dedicated full days to arms. I didnt love it as much as i thought i would and it didnt seem to make any difference. Also, back day would sometimes be the day after arm day and my biceps would still be cooked enough to where it affected the "pull" on back day the next day.
-the workouts can get long especially with doing 20 minutes of cardio before every workout except leg day. This puts some of the workouts at 90 minutes.
All in all i enjoyed it and learned some things. I was going to go straight into "sub zero" right after this one which picks up where this one leaves off for another 8 weeks but im starting to think a PPL would be better for me. May take a week off then try gamma bomb. Not quite ready to go back to PPSA yet as im really enjoying doing full leg days again.
Pros:
-It's a back focused program, back is the only muscle thats worked 2x a week and one of those days is 95% straight LATS so due to this i got great results in my lats and this is by far the most ive ever punished them. Opened me up to some great new exercises
-Legs were only 1x a week but i like how it balanced each muscle of the lower body. Most leg days are straight quads with some hams and calves thrown in. In this program some of the leg days are straight Glutes and Hams. He focuses alot on hamstrings, glutes, and adductors. Ive never worked my adductors directly before and its a weird feeling once they start to develop, feel like i chafe more now
. Also LOVE the hardcore hamstring work. Hams have always been an afterthought but after developing them i love how they feel. Also, theres 0 traditional squats all the quad work is leg press, hack squat, belt squat, and leg extensions with maybe 1 day of lunges. This works perfect for me due to knee pain when squatting free weight. -loved incorporating 20 min of cardio at the start of each workout which is always something ive neglected. It's mostly treadmill walking with stationary bike some days but it was a good way to get warmed up and try to shed a little fat.
-i learned to like the 5 day split of taking off wednesday and sunday better than saturdays and sundays. With how my scheudle works, taking off wednesdays over saturdays helps me out alot.
Cons
-if you dont have access to a big commercial gym you're going to have trouble doing alot of the machine work. I go to a pretty big one that has a ton of stuff and i still had to sub a few things we dont have. One in particular that he LOVES to do is the decline hammer press rack for chest. We have the incline one but not decline so i had to sub decline dumbell press. Theres alot of specific exercises like this, i just personally hate having to find subs.
-other than back and legs i didnt get to noticeable of gains in the chest, shoulder, arm areas. He does state at the beginning you need to EAT on this program and i chose to cut calories instead to try to shed some belly fat before my wedding in february so this may be my fault. Chest has 0 barbell work and VERY little dumbell. Its all cables and machines which is fun and i understand is a staple of bodybuilding but it may not work best for me. Shoulders has 0 press work which i also found odd, he's big on lat raises and tons of rear delt cable work.
-this is the first time ive dedicated full days to arms. I didnt love it as much as i thought i would and it didnt seem to make any difference. Also, back day would sometimes be the day after arm day and my biceps would still be cooked enough to where it affected the "pull" on back day the next day.
-the workouts can get long especially with doing 20 minutes of cardio before every workout except leg day. This puts some of the workouts at 90 minutes.
All in all i enjoyed it and learned some things. I was going to go straight into "sub zero" right after this one which picks up where this one leaves off for another 8 weeks but im starting to think a PPL would be better for me. May take a week off then try gamma bomb. Not quite ready to go back to PPSA yet as im really enjoying doing full leg days again.
Posted on 10/16/25 at 7:57 am to cfish140
gamma bomb is a pretty freaking awesome, it was the first program he brought back the intensity that he was known for putting out early on. its 14 weeks with 2 deload weeks in the middle. so 6 week cycle, 2 deload weeks, then 6 weeks. They are completely different cycles. The first one is more upper focus as its pull, push, legs, arms, push & pull. lots of chest and shoulder work. the second is more legs focused as its legs, push, pull, legs, arms.
i will say for someone that has been lifting for a while and done an LP, the fastest ways to transform your body imo is through either DC training or Mountain Dog training depending on what way you have trained before.
also remember with scorpion and sub zero....those are written by Chris, not John. Chris is great but that is a distinction to keep in mind.
great review btw
i will say for someone that has been lifting for a while and done an LP, the fastest ways to transform your body imo is through either DC training or Mountain Dog training depending on what way you have trained before.
also remember with scorpion and sub zero....those are written by Chris, not John. Chris is great but that is a distinction to keep in mind.
great review btw
Posted on 10/25/25 at 4:56 pm to scfan2001
Each Gamma Bomb workout takes me about 70 mins, counting treadmill warmup/mobility.
Posted on 10/28/25 at 11:03 am to cfish140
RIP to a great man. I love his programs but do find them to be borderline to much volume, was great when I was in my mid 20's
Last few months ive been doing more Mentzer type training high intensity and more rest and I will say I feel so much better than I was doing high volume. Rest days are key :)
Last few months ive been doing more Mentzer type training high intensity and more rest and I will say I feel so much better than I was doing high volume. Rest days are key :)
Posted on 10/28/25 at 11:27 am to lsu777
How long on average does it take to get thru each day?
Posted on 10/28/25 at 11:59 am to SETH6180
gamma bomb? depends on amount of rest you take and which day. I would say 75-90 min most days but the saturday lift is 24 total sets between chest, back, shoulders so prolly 90-120.
Posted on 10/28/25 at 1:51 pm to lsu777
Welp I had an emergency appendectomy the week before I was going to start Sub Zero. No lifting for 6 weeks, brutal 
Posted on 10/28/25 at 1:53 pm to cfish140
that sucks, hope you feel better.
Posted on 11/30/25 at 3:40 am to lsu777
Back in action today for the first time. Plan on diving head first into Gamma Bomb this evening. 3 months until my wedding in Mexico so hoping this plan dosent disappoint.
I pretty much ate like a slob the whole 5-6 weeks I’ve been out so it’s back to square 1. Excited to get to work though.
For anybody interested Mountain Dog Plans are on sale. I got Gamma Bomb for $131 when it’s normally $219. Great deal
I pretty much ate like a slob the whole 5-6 weeks I’ve been out so it’s back to square 1. Excited to get to work though.
For anybody interested Mountain Dog Plans are on sale. I got Gamma Bomb for $131 when it’s normally $219. Great deal
Posted on 11/30/25 at 11:46 am to cfish140
I gained a lot on Gamma Bomb. Good luck!
Posted on 1/1/26 at 6:36 am to The Dudes Rug
I'm going to run these programs for most of 2026, I may sprinkle in a PPSA for a change of pace. Starting off with High Evolutionary.
Posted on 1/1/26 at 3:43 pm to scfan2001
Nice
Posted on 2/24/26 at 9:53 am to scfan2001
Last week of Gamma Bomb this week. Finished all 14 weeks just before my wedding this weekend. Amazing and fun program.
Will start off by admitting I tweaked the middle part when it got to the 2 weeks deload. I had my bachelor party the week before the deload so I took a week off of lifting and just considered that my deload and jumped right into the 2nd half which was week 9. I think it worked out well
Pros:
-mixes it up really well with no 2 workouts being exactly the same. Keeps it fresh and fun
-it’s intense but doable for nattys like myself. I see a lot of people say his programs are too intense for nattys which may be true for some of them but I think this one is just right
-if you want to take your legs to the next level this is for you. My legs have never looked so insane and been so conditioned. Weeks 9-14 switched to legs twice a week which is a game changer if you don’t puss out. I’ll admit I couldn’t complete most of the legs days on scorpion they were just to much but I gutted every single one of these out and it shows. The last leg day of the plan was 2 hours long yesterday and I did it no problem. I think I’ve acclimated to the pain
-working in some tough core work twice a week was nice and I actually see at least an outline of some muscle under there now it’s easy to skip this as it comes at the end of an intense back day and arm day but I made sure I did them and glad I did
-weeks 1-5 really shaped my chest well as it does a full chest day then an upper body pump day on satirdays. If I were to re do the program I may consider just running weeks 1-5 on loop because my chest needs the most work
Cons:
-this is kinda a give and take from a couple pros stated above: the 2nd half when swapping to legs twice a week really gave me a sick lower body but it was at a slight sacrifice of my upper, mainly chest. My body style needs chest twice a week no matter how tough the 1 workout is. Not complaining much tho because of how happy I am with my legs
-the band work can get annoying/tedious. I’m an idiot when it comes to setting some of these up to where I eventually say frick and just don’t do it. Some that I did I didn’t really feel a difference (leg press) however some did feel really good (barbell RDL)
-this isn’t an issue for me as I love programs that aren’t the same thing over and over but I’ve noticed people on reddits main complaint of this program is he switches it up TOO much not allowing you to really learn an exercise and your muscle to build from it, even only doing some things one time (deadlifts). This dosent bother me but figured I’d include it
-not a huge fan of the single arm barbell rows, they’re awkward as hell and John seems to love them. Doing them on a smith machine does help though if you can get it low enough
-this is just a me thing but my right shoulder did start bothering me towards the end. This could be from the chest-shoulder combo he uses on tuesdays or it could be from his absolute love of barbell incline which is every week. Or it could just be a freak thing
Summary:
Awesome program if you can stick with the 14 weeks. Especially if you want to build that lower body. Would definitely recommend. For sure need a full gym and bands to get the full effect
I may switch back to PPSA next and try summer stacked. I’ve been missing PPSA. I don’t want to lose all my leg gains tho so we’ll see
Will start off by admitting I tweaked the middle part when it got to the 2 weeks deload. I had my bachelor party the week before the deload so I took a week off of lifting and just considered that my deload and jumped right into the 2nd half which was week 9. I think it worked out well
Pros:
-mixes it up really well with no 2 workouts being exactly the same. Keeps it fresh and fun
-it’s intense but doable for nattys like myself. I see a lot of people say his programs are too intense for nattys which may be true for some of them but I think this one is just right
-if you want to take your legs to the next level this is for you. My legs have never looked so insane and been so conditioned. Weeks 9-14 switched to legs twice a week which is a game changer if you don’t puss out. I’ll admit I couldn’t complete most of the legs days on scorpion they were just to much but I gutted every single one of these out and it shows. The last leg day of the plan was 2 hours long yesterday and I did it no problem. I think I’ve acclimated to the pain
-working in some tough core work twice a week was nice and I actually see at least an outline of some muscle under there now
it’s easy to skip this as it comes at the end of an intense back day and arm day but I made sure I did them and glad I did -weeks 1-5 really shaped my chest well as it does a full chest day then an upper body pump day on satirdays. If I were to re do the program I may consider just running weeks 1-5 on loop because my chest needs the most work
Cons:
-this is kinda a give and take from a couple pros stated above: the 2nd half when swapping to legs twice a week really gave me a sick lower body but it was at a slight sacrifice of my upper, mainly chest. My body style needs chest twice a week no matter how tough the 1 workout is. Not complaining much tho because of how happy I am with my legs
-the band work can get annoying/tedious. I’m an idiot when it comes to setting some of these up to where I eventually say frick and just don’t do it. Some that I did I didn’t really feel a difference (leg press) however some did feel really good (barbell RDL)
-this isn’t an issue for me as I love programs that aren’t the same thing over and over but I’ve noticed people on reddits main complaint of this program is he switches it up TOO much not allowing you to really learn an exercise and your muscle to build from it, even only doing some things one time (deadlifts). This dosent bother me but figured I’d include it
-not a huge fan of the single arm barbell rows, they’re awkward as hell and John seems to love them. Doing them on a smith machine does help though if you can get it low enough
-this is just a me thing but my right shoulder did start bothering me towards the end. This could be from the chest-shoulder combo he uses on tuesdays or it could be from his absolute love of barbell incline which is every week. Or it could just be a freak thing
Summary:
Awesome program if you can stick with the 14 weeks. Especially if you want to build that lower body. Would definitely recommend. For sure need a full gym and bands to get the full effect
I may switch back to PPSA next and try summer stacked. I’ve been missing PPSA. I don’t want to lose all my leg gains tho so we’ll see
Posted on 2/24/26 at 10:42 am to cfish140
Nice review. I have a garage gym so I'm sure there will be a few exercises I'd have to substitute but it should be doable.
Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Posted on 2/25/26 at 8:40 am to cfish140
nice review man
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