re: Pen and Paper Strength App

Brace Yourself Day(s) 23-24

As expected day 23 was LONG. I did have a little longer warm-up than normal, but it clocked in at 1:55. Everything felt great overall. Even the heavy singles on squat and bench moved very well. I debated continuing the climb, but decided to just wait until 10/31 to see where I'm really at.

Day 24 was a little longer than I expected, but still one of the shortest days of the plan. The longest part of today was the 10x10 BB curls at the end. I felt like today's front squat scheme was lacking in sets and/or weight. Just guessing it was written this way to end on a slightly less intense squat day leading into Squatober.

Overall, I really liked this plan. It has a nice equal mix (8 days each) of front squats, back squats, and RFESS plus 12 days of bench press (not including the days with close grip BP) and 8 days with deadlifts. For me most days were between 1:30-1:55 (including a 10-15min warm-up). Generally speaking the front squat days were considerably shorter and clocked in at 1:00-1:15.

The shoulder SS on days 3,9,15, and 21 is absolute torture. The 'cardio' portion doesn't follow a typical PPSA pattern. It's limited to a handful of accessories, but it isn't predictable. It was nice to have a couple days end on simple bodyweight rev lunges.

I definitely plan on running this one again. It feels very balanced and everyday is a 'Total Body' day. My mistake with it was using too high of a TM the first 8 days. After I set a 1RM last Squatober, I generally followed the methodology of increasing TM by 5# upper and 10# lower per month. That was too aggressive and after 10-11 months straight it became too much. I need to reassess my 1RM after maybe 6 months and/or use a 2.5/5# increase each month. Even after dropping my TMs, they are still higher than this time last year by 25# bench and 50# squat/deadlift.

Most of all is I'm feeling great mentally after how the singles moved yesterday. Back is probably 90-95%. Left shoulder is still bothersome but tends to loosen up in the later sets. Tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday will be active recovery and stretching. Saturday I'm running one of the IG post 'Pods of STRENGTH'. It looks really interesting and I'm excited to attack it for one last full body workout before Squatober.

IG post 'Pods of STRENGTH'

Warm up: 3 round superset
-Jumping Jacks x20
-Push-ups x10
-KB Swings x10
-Bodyweight Reverse Lunges x5 (each leg)
-Empty Bar Squat x5 (I added these to loosen my shoulder)

Superset Pod 1 (2min rest)
-Back Squat 5@65%, 70%, 72%, 75%, 75%
-Slow Strict Chin-ups 2-5 reps (I subbed rev grip lat pulldowns)
-1 Arm Row x5 (each arm)

Superset Pod 2 (90s rest)
-Bench Press 8x8@60%
-Side Lat Raises x10
-KB Swings x12

Superset Pod 3 (90s rest)
-Deadlift 4x4@70%
-Skullcrushers x15
-Alt Curls x5 (each arm)
-Tricep Pushdowns x20

Cardio
1 additional round of the warm-up superset

This was a long workout. Took me 2:05 to complete everything. While the weights were relatively light, it was the total volume that took it's toll.

In the first pod squats moved pretty well (or as well as can be expected for 5am on Saturday). The pulldowns and rows were both heavy and clean. The lone negative note I had was my grip started to fade on the last couple reps of rows.

Pod 2 got better the deeper into the sets I got. It took until about the 3rd set of bench for my shoulder to finally start getting loose. After that, I was good to go; the sets got quicker and deeper. Worst of pod 2 was getting a little light-headed after all the KB swings.

Pod 3 is when the fatigue started hitting. At this point I was already 90min into the workout. Deadlifts stayed consistent in form and effort throughout all 4 sets. Form suffered during set 3 on skullcrushers so I had to drop weight for the 4th set. Pushdown were similar in that I dropped weight for sets 3 and 4. On sets 2-4, the first 10 reps were smooth. Those last 5-10 were TOUGH.

It was a relief knowing that cardio was just a single superset of the warm-up.

The walk back home (1.5 miles) my 20# weight vest definitely felt much heavier than usual.

I'm currently trying to decide between Filling Out The Hoodie or Arm Farm.

I'm not. I ran Grasshopper 2.5 times and am about to finish my first run-through of Superset.

Trying to decide what my next 4 weeks will be. I'm either going to choose a program or just run the second half of Grasshopper again. It's 4 days per week.

I have completely sold myself to strength training though. I can't get enough. I definitely like Squats and Deads way more than bench.

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You liked grasshopper? Seems like that’s the plan to start on to build a base for strength training before diving into other plans

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it is but its still a very well laid out program

dr jack remastered is a godo program too, more on the bodybuilding side and is one of the more advanced programs for sure.

than its a good one, same with arm farm, filling out the hoodie, pool season and a couple others

so big back billy is really focused on the back and you will do some type of rowing and deadlifting every day in the program. if back thickness is an issue for you, running big back billy for 12 weeks will fix that for sure. its 4 day a week program

oak tree is not a strict 4 day a week program and more go as you like. it is heavy on the shoulders. squats on day 1 & 3. deads on day 2, day 4 is big pump friday so lots of super setting.

if you need back focus, big back billy is really good for that. if you want something more balanced, oak tree would be better.



whats the goal?

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Something bodybuilding Esq that’s 4 days a week

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pump city which is a ppl and just daily program so no set number of days per week. run like this

Week 1-
Day 1,2,3 then repeat day 1

Week 2-
Day 4,5,6 then repeat day 5

this is essentially this

week 1- push, pull, legs, push
week 2- push, pull legs, pull


repeat that

most of the programs are bodybuilding style in some form but all depends what body part you want to focus on. each program has its own emphasis

like for arms...elbow meat, arm farm, 21 to party and even strongville all have some form of arms daily. meat wagon starts each day similar to strongville...each day starts with a squat and bench or a deadlift but ends each day with some form of arm work, quite a bit actually.

for back- bigback billy and hypertrophy will give you some form of deads or rows to hit the back hard


pool seasons has big pump friday, pool season 2 has turning heads on friday


but if you are looking to add size overall i would argue that the best 4 day programs for that are

periodic table of thickness
strongville
stacked and jacked
mullet 2
hypertrophy

would be the 5 best. they are not bodybuilding per se but with emphasis on the big lifts, they are prolly the best overall for adding mass and for some the heavy farmers walk found in some of them totally change the physique.



most people love pool season 1 & 2

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whats the goal?

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Foundational all around balanced strength and lean gains. I really enjoy squats and deads. I dont know if I am not doing benchpress correctly or i just need to work on it more, but i do not enjoy that lift. It doesnt hurt or anything, it just seems much less satisfying to me than squats and deadlifts.

It's not a training max issue either. On the higher end days i have to push to complete the last set, there's just something about them that dont fit me.

So i'd prefer programs that incorporate or lean heavily on squats and dead vs bench. That's why i was looking at Big Back Billy.