A Place to NOT do Whichever-the-hell-you-want Program!

[Bliss]

Greetings!

This is not a log!

This is my spot!

And it will be easy to find at the end of the ends of the log sections, because I won't update it regularly, if at all, when there's nothing moving anywhere. Which is exactly the case.

I haven't kept an online log since ending my (NDTFP) SS log over on the other side.
By the end, I screwed and morphed and fucked with it so much that it was neither SS, nor HLM, nor 4-day Texas method run over 3 days/week. It was a mess that gradually moved and slopped along this progression up to around May 2017, so a little over a year since starting the first "A" workout. Then a further bout of something vaguely resembling 4-day Texas method whilst trying to remove extra gained fat until July 2017.

Since then, so around 2-3 months on, my productive gym time has been succesfully outsorced to: doing other stuff, being ill, going on holidays, perpetually trying to "LP back up" , approx. in this order.

As a result, I never summed it up and with the recent events happening over on the other side, it was a welcome discovery to find this place you made! Funny story, when I first saw the mention of ES, I was like oh, ok, just another big great board like bb.com or tnation or something where good strength training logs will be lost in the avalanche. Tried searching on Tapatalk....nothing! Went to google... Lots of bible stuff, then saw a small website with a very recently dated blog post....that didn't open! LOL, I thought, this is all bullshit and must be some joke I wasn't aware of.

Edit: here's the url, and it still doesn't open for me... https://exodusstrength.com/2017/09/07/first-blog-post/
Meanwhile, more and more people were leaving and/or getting nuked. Finally I ended up here (and having recently rewatched the Matrix trilogy, began to wonder, is this a bit like Zion? Please tell me it is, would be cool) and will at last summarise my progress during the LP and lack-of-progress ever since.

All stats are in kg (lbs specially for you), and meters.
Squat: high bar (FO!) with belt.
Bench: no belt, TnG
Deadlift: no belt or straps (yet!)
Press: belt and version 2.0
Chin-up: neutral grip and recording actual weight before the sets.

_____________________________________________________________
DOB: 1991
Height: 1.78 (5 foot 10)

Stats given for between March 2016 and July 2017:
Weight: from 81 to 92.7 to 88 (178 to 204 to 194)

Best lifts:

Squat: 150 x 5 (330x5); 152.5 x 3 (336x3)
Bench: 92 x 5 (202x5), 93.5 x 3 (206x3)
Deadlift: 165x5 (363x5)
Press: 67x5 (147x5); 71x3 (156x3)
Chin-up: max 11 BW (90 kg total), best weighted 112x3 (so with ~ +20 kg)

[Bliss]

Quick summary update...Because my page was literally the LAST in this log section

Stats given for between March 2016 and July 2017:
Weight: from 81 to 92.7 to 88 (178 to 204 to 194)

Best lifts:

Squat: 150 x 5 (330x5); 152.5 x 3 (336x3)
Bench: 92 x 5 (202x5), 93.5 x 3 (206x3)
Deadlift: 165x5 (363x5)
Press: 67x5 (147x5); 71x3 (156x3)
Chin-up: max 11 BW (90 kg total), best weighted 112x3 (so with ~ +20 kg)

After the summer holidays and travelling, came back weak and detrained.
From August to November 2017 I decided to take inspiration and use Tom Narvaez's method of LP using a (3-6) rep range.
Started with 3 sets each for bench and press (2x week and 1x week, respectively), 2 sets for squats (1x week) and 1 set for deadlifts (also 1x week).

After a short aggressive run up, took a deload and increased number of sets to 5,5(,2),2 (BN, OP, (SQ), DL) and carried on, microloading the presses.
Ran this up to:

Squat: 132.5 x 6 (292x6)
Bench: 89.5 x 6 (197x6), 91.5 x 4 (201x4)
Deadlift: 142.5 x 6 (314x6)
Press: 61.5x6 (135x6)
BW = 87 (191)

So, basically, a little lighter, and with worse lifts than before the little lay-off....great!

-------------------------------------

Jumped into Andy Baker inspired powerbuilding 8/5/2 program. Basically, bench 2x week, squat, deadlift and press relegated to 1x week and some isolation BB work on top.

After a short stint, moved to a rotating 4-day program over a 3x week schedule, one main lift per day + a decent amount of assistance and hypertrophy work thrown in.

Overall, this was taking place around November 2017 - February 2018.
I was also beginning to gain BW during this stint and saw some good progress on upper body strength and mass as a result. Even a bench PR on my birthday!

Squat: 147.5 x 2 (325x2)
Bench: 107.5 x 2 (237x2), 98 x 5 (216x5) - PR's
Deadlift: 160 x 2 (352x2)
Press: 69x2 (152x2)
Chin-up: max 12 BW (95 kg total), best weighted 118.5x2
BW = 91 (200)

From Feb 2018 until now I'm trying to limit the time spent trainig as I want to give time to the other projects I'd like to get done and cut a little fat weight away. As such, I opted for just twice a week setup utilising, again, Andy Baker's training without a plan principles.

So far, the best top singles were:

Squat: 155 (342)
Bench: 111 (245)
Deadlift: 165 (364)
Press: 73.5 (162x1)
Chin-up: 120.75 kg (total)

To summarise, with the exception of aesthetics, bench and, maybe, press, my best state to date was right at the end of SS. Who would've thought....

[Bliss]

Did "1RM" testing before the summer vacation in 2018, hope to do a write up sometime when I'm on the computer, here are just some videos:

(BW at 87.8 kg, 193 lbs)







Only successful attempts shown, failed 3rd bench, deadlift and press.

Squat and deadlift were PR's but only because i never tried for a max, still ways off of SS era e1RM's, have since set a bench PR of 111 kg (244 lbs), no press PR's yet.

[Wilhelm]

Nice work, @Bliss. \o/

Good winter to you, and good liftings.

[Bliss]

5 years have passed....probably time to update?

Around September 2018 - March 2019 i did a 2/week Montana method and PR'd my bench at 120 kg (265 lbs) at 92.6 kg (203 lbs) BW. (Which is 9 kg over August 2018 at +4.8 kg BW).

A caveat is that i heavily prioritised bench in the MM and put lower body on a back-seat then. And it was during this stint that i discovered my love for the SGDL, for which @Hanley is to be thankful to 100%!

After a work trip i did a 2nd stint of MM for about 2 months, this time prioritising incline benching, almost not worth mentioning though, until June 2019.

Then....a break of 3.5 years (!) due to building a house with a dedicated gym, which i have installed around New Year's and started an own version of LP in January 2023.

Starting up stupidly light and at a fatter BW (or, more correctly, at a detrained body composition) of around 93-94 kg (205 lbs).