Natural Al's DC training Journal

[thewickedtruth]

also..why not move up to say 275? or even 315? on the declines?  at 34 reps with 225 over 20 with 275 would be nice.

[natural al]

also..why not move up to say 275? or even 315? on the declines?  at 34 reps with 225 over 20 with 275 would be nice.

1st time in along time doing em, I just want to make sure I dont' have any "issues" with the movement.  When I flat bench my left bi feels really wierd almost like it's gonna tear, I don't understand why and I wanted to make sure I didn't have the same problem.  next workout which will be in my next blast I'll go up to 275 and see what happens...don't think I'll get 20 reps but who knows.  Whenever I add a new movement I do it light for reps to guage it, if I think it's gonna be a problem I'll drop it and move on.

[thewickedtruth]

is your 225 session all rp? If not...you'll be surprised. 275 on speed days for me goes about 20-25 reps depending on how well I carb loaded before hand. If you're hitting 34 reps with 225, not hitting 275 was just you midfucking yourself. 

[natural al]

is your 225 session all rp? If not...you'll be surprised. 275 on speed days for me goes about 20-25 reps depending on how well I carb loaded before hand. If you're hitting 34 reps with 225, not hitting 275 was just you midfucking yourself. 

I got like 22 rested 20 seconds got 7 or so rested and got a few more...I really dont' keep track of the breakdowns.  waaaaay back in the day I was pushing almost 300 on these but that was before my arm troubles started.  We'll see what happens next blast, first day back I'm thinking I'll do 275 and go from there..I'm just planning things out now so it could change, might start with 295 or even 305...we'll see, it's very early in the planning phase.

[thewickedtruth]

I got like 22 rested 20 seconds got 7 or so rested and got a few more...I really dont' keep track of the breakdowns.  waaaaay back in the day I was pushing almost 300 on these but that was before my arm troubles started.  We'll see what happens next blast, first day back I'm thinking I'll do 275 and go from there..I'm just planning things out now so it could change, might start with 295 or even 305...we'll see, it's very early in the planning phase.

you don't feel anything weird doing bicep or back work in your bicep..just on bench pressing? Odd 

[natural al]

you don't feel anything weird doing bicep or back work in your bicep..just on bench pressing? Odd 

just flat benching...I really don't get it but I remember reading that that's how vince taylor ripped his bicep back in the day.  That's why I'm trying to hook up with someone who's more experienced than me to look at what I'm doing, maybe there's something just wrong with my body mechanics when I'm doing chest, everything else is coming along fine but my chest is sooooo far behind it's not even funny.

[thewickedtruth]

just flat benching...I really don't get it but I remember reading that that's how vince taylor ripped his bicep back in the day.  That's why I'm trying to hook up with someone who's more experienced than me to look at what I'm doing, maybe there's something just wrong with my body mechanics when I'm doing chest, everything else is coming along fine but my chest is sooooo far behind it's not even funny.

I mean your bi's are involved but to the point of a tear? If you had a vid you could show me I could tell ya what you're doing wrong if you're even doing anything wrong.

[natural al]

I mean your bi's are involved but to the point of a tear? If you had a vid you could show me I could tell ya what you're doing wrong if you're even doing anything wrong.

just when lowering the weight, I dont' get it....I've got something set up already so hopefully I'll have a resolution soon.

[thewickedtruth]

width, I use Hammer High Pulldowns-or whatever they're called, underhand grip pulldowns and parrellel grip pulldowns-I've maxed out the machines with the parrellel grip stuff so I have to figure out how to pin additional plates on-stack goes to 250lbs, if it's an issue I'm gonna try a new movement that I read about on an IntenseMuscle thread.

Thickness I use Hammer Rows, barbell rows and rack deads.  BB rows and Rack deads are done 1 super heavy set-for me the weight is heavy-for 4-6 reps and then a "lighter set" for 12-18 reps.

I'm going to go with this for awhile and see how it works out! Day one for back do width exercises and day two do thickness exercises.

[natural al]

I'm going to go with this for awhile and see how it works out! Day one for back do width exercises and day two do thickness exercises.

that's not DC but hey give it a go.

I'm considering a bunch of changes for my next blast, one I'm really thinking of doing aong with a couple of smaller ones.  I want to really put some thought into it and make sure it's something I want to do before I commit to it.   

[thewickedtruth]

that's not DC but hey give it a go.

I'm considering a bunch of changes for my next blast, one I'm really thinking of doing aong with a couple of smaller ones.  I want to really put some thought into it and make sure it's something I want to do before I commit to it.   

thats' because I loathe DC but like that particular training "thought". 

[natural al]

calves-Calf Sled-365*12 done DC style and then 23 partials

Leg Curl, Lying-130*31RP (16-8-7), 20 second static and a 60 second stretch for each leg.  I'm going to experiment with a higher rep range for a couple of bodyparts for my next blast, Hamstrings, Chest and arms.  Rep range will be 20-30 with the heaviest weight possible for that rep range, figured I'd start today since this blast is pretty much over.

V-Squat-545*9 plus 20 partials.  This is the first time the weight actually felt really heavy right out of the box on these, I got 22 partials afterwards then went over to the precor legpress and got 16 with 385lbs.  Thought I was gonna puke afterwards.

[natural al]

underhand grip pulldowns-230*13RP with a 60 second stretch...I'm officailly under 200 now so just getting this thing into position was a big pain in the ass, I'm short so trust me it sucks.

BB rows-265*6 and 190*15

wide grip cable curls-65*34RP, I can't give the breakdown cause I just kept track of over all reps, this is part of my "higher rep" experiment, I did 18 partials and a 60 second stretch

hammer curls-45*28 with my left and 31 with my right

[BEAST 8692]

underhand grip pulldowns-230*13RP with a 60 second stretch...I'm officailly under 200 now so just getting this thing into position was a big pain in the ass, I'm short so trust me it sucks.

BB rows-265*6 and 190*15

wide grip cable curls-65*34RP, I can't give the breakdown cause I just kept track of over all reps, this is part of my "higher rep" experiment, I did 18 partials and a 60 second stretch

hammer curls-45*28 with my left and 31 with my right

just curious, but why don't you just perform weighted pullups instead of pulldowns?

[natural al]

just curious, but why don't you just perform weighted pullups instead of pulldowns?

I don't know....I might soon.  I'm gonna work in a pullup that DC talked about over at IM, it's hard to describe but he wants the rep range to be 20-30, you use the assisted pull up machine to start.  I'll probably start a little on the lighter side and go from there.  I've done weighted pullups in the past just not lately.

edit-I just remembered...one thing with DC is you pick your 3 favorite movements for a bodypart and begin to cycle them, once you've maxed out you replace that movement.  At the time I came up with this blast I was digging the 3 movements I picked, I have not maxed out on them...well, I've maxed out the machine on 1-parrellel grip pulldowns but that's it. 

[natural al]

chest-incline 230*31RP-I did a few partials and a static at the end, still experimenting witht he higher rep scheme, I like it alot but I'm so used to trying to use as heavy a weight as possible for 12 reps it's hard to adjust mentally.  I also did a 60 second stretch.

I did do a widowmaker 60lbs for 20 reps.

Shoulders-Military Press-285 for 12 shitty rest paused reps-form sucked , I think the higher reps on the incline fried my tri's and shoulders, I'll either have to increase my rest periods or go down in poundages on shoulders which I really don't want to do.  I did my partial range lateral raises but skipped the stretch cause I was disqusted with myself.

Tri's-Icarian Dip Machine-280*14RP with a 60 second stretch, I got about what I wanted to on this, pretty much maxed out the machine.

so I've got one more workout before I cruise, here's a summary of how I fell I've done:

blast started right after the first of the year, I had a few stutters along the way that's why it seemed to go on forever, I didn't really start going mentally until about the 3rd week in Feb. 

Calves-they got bigger, I'm still gonna pound em but overall I'm happy with the progress they've made.

Hamstrings-another BP I'm really happy with, still not up to snuff but there's pretty constant improvements so I can't complain to much.  This is one of the BP's I'm gonna try a higher rep range with just to see what happens.

Quads-my goal was to improve my sweep and the "tear drop" area of the thigh, my teardrop got alot better, not massive or anything but there was improvement.  The sweep of my quads can still come up alot.  I started doing hack squats for the first time in this blast and I'm happy with my progress, I should start pushing some good weight next time so it'll be interesting to see how my thighs react.

abs-first time I've really targeted these in years.  My waist is smaller so that's great, upper abs seem thicker but I have a hard time training lower abs cause of all my back problems. 

Chest- still sucks.  That's all I'm gonna say.

Shoulders/Traps-always been good, probably will always be good no matter what I do..I have no issues or worries with them.

arms-I need more peak to my bi's, more more inner tri's and I need my forearms to improve alot.  I've got short arms so they always "look" big but they really need alot of work to finish them off.

Back-thickness is good. width is good, I'd like to make it look like they attached a little lower but that's it.

I'm still working on my conditioning, I really decided to bear down so I should see some pretty steady improvements.  I got my BW up to almost an alltime high while keeping my waist in check.  I moved some wieght I didn't honestly think I could and trained about as hard as I could.

Hopefully I'll have a plan in place for my next blast next week and post it.

I hope everyone who's reading this is enjoying it, next blast I'm gonna really buckle down and blow some minds with what I'm gonna be doing.  Hell, I might even post some pics...who knows?

[natural al]

didn't feel real well, I screwed up and ate something I shoulldn't have too soon to training and it kinda upset my stomach.  I did:

Donkey Calf Raise-435*12SS plus partials

seated leg curl-130*34 with a 25 second static-no stretch

Hack Squats-I was not happy to be looking at 20 reps with 265 so I threw 315 on just to see if I could do it, got 6 reps, not bad..I might have stopped short but like I said I didn't feel good, reps were ass to the grass though so I'm gonna start with 320 on my next blast.

Then I just tried a few movements out that I'm going to be doing on my next blast.  I'm gonna type something up explaining what I'm gonna do and what my thought processs is in laying things out this way.  I welcome opinions and suggestions after people read it.

[natural al]

here's a few things I'll be doing next blast:

chest-my 3 movements will be Hammer incline, incline press and declines.  Big difference and I've talked about this already is I'm going from heavy as hell for 12 reps RP to heavy as I can handle for 20-30 reps.  I've already noticed my chest looks fuller.  I've also worked out a widowmaker that I think will help out alot.

Back-I'll keep my thickness movements the same-no issues there for me.  2 new width movements will be used.  One is a special pull-up variation tha DC talked about over on IM, I"ll copy and past the description next week. the other is this old pulldown machine that no one in my gym uses.  It kind of mimics the old nautilus pulldown and I love those.

shoulders-no change.

bi's-3 brand spanking new movements, 2 of which I've been experimenting with for a week or so, one I just tried.  I've been training off and on for years and I'm sick of the standard barbell, DB curls..boring.  These are variations.  Like I said earlier my arms are short so they always "look" big no matter what.  I've got room to play around witht hem.

Tri's-no decisions yet but I have some things in mind.

legs-calves will be the same.  Higher rep range for hamstrings.  Quads will be the same but I'm gonna start to pile the weight on the hacksquat machine.  I never did them before last blast so I was tentative with the weight.  First workout next blast I'll be starting with 3 45's a side plus a 5lber and going from there...ass to the grass.  I'm also gonna keep going on my widowmaker but be more organized with it.

for the next week it's just cardio and I'm restricting calories.  My goal is to be done with this "getting cut" shit in the next 7 weeks.

[flexingtonsteele]

great improvements bro, i really enjoy reading your thread!

chest-incline 230*31RP-I did a few partials and a static at the end, still experimenting witht he higher rep scheme, I like it alot but I'm so used to trying to use as heavy a weight as possible for 12 reps it's hard to adjust mentally.  I also did a 60 second stretch.

I did do a widowmaker 60lbs for 20 reps.

Shoulders-Military Press-285 for 12 shitty rest paused reps-form sucked , I think the higher reps on the incline fried my tri's and shoulders, I'll either have to increase my rest periods or go down in poundages on shoulders which I really don't want to do.  I did my partial range lateral raises but skipped the stretch cause I was disqusted with myself.

Tri's-Icarian Dip Machine-280*14RP with a 60 second stretch, I got about what I wanted to on this, pretty much maxed out the machine.

so I've got one more workout before I cruise, here's a summary of how I fell I've done:

blast started right after the first of the year, I had a few stutters along the way that's why it seemed to go on forever, I didn't really start going mentally until about the 3rd week in Feb. 

Calves-they got bigger, I'm still gonna pound em but overall I'm happy with the progress they've made.

Hamstrings-another BP I'm really happy with, still not up to snuff but there's pretty constant improvements so I can't complain to much.  This is one of the BP's I'm gonna try a higher rep range with just to see what happens.

Quads-my goal was to improve my sweep and the "tear drop" area of the thigh, my teardrop got alot better, not massive or anything but there was improvement.  The sweep of my quads can still come up alot.  I started doing hack squats for the first time in this blast and I'm happy with my progress, I should start pushing some good weight next time so it'll be interesting to see how my thighs react.

abs-first time I've really targeted these in years.  My waist is smaller so that's great, upper abs seem thicker but I have a hard time training lower abs cause of all my back problems. 

Chest- still sucks.  That's all I'm gonna say.

Shoulders/Traps-always been good, probably will always be good no matter what I do..I have no issues or worries with them.

arms-I need more peak to my bi's, more more inner tri's and I need my forearms to improve alot.  I've got short arms so they always "look" big but they really need alot of work to finish them off.

Back-thickness is good. width is good, I'd like to make it look like they attached a little lower but that's it.

I'm still working on my conditioning, I really decided to bear down so I should see some pretty steady improvements.  I got my BW up to almost an alltime high while keeping my waist in check.  I moved some wieght I didn't honestly think I could and trained about as hard as I could.

Hopefully I'll have a plan in place for my next blast next week and post it.

I hope everyone who's reading this is enjoying it, next blast I'm gonna really buckle down and blow some minds with what I'm gonna be doing.  Hell, I might even post some pics...who knows?

[flexingtonsteele]

I just started doin hacks for pretty much the first time ever, and i really enjoy them, they are really saving my back from a beating.

Good luck w/them

here's a few things I'll be doing next blast:

chest-my 3 movements will be Hammer incline, incline press and declines.  Big difference and I've talked about this already is I'm going from heavy as hell for 12 reps RP to heavy as I can handle for 20-30 reps.  I've already noticed my chest looks fuller.  I've also worked out a widowmaker that I think will help out alot.

Back-I'll keep my thickness movements the same-no issues there for me.  2 new width movements will be used.  One is a special pull-up variation tha DC talked about over on IM, I"ll copy and past the description next week. the other is this old pulldown machine that no one in my gym uses.  It kind of mimics the old nautilus pulldown and I love those.

shoulders-no change.

bi's-3 brand spanking new movements, 2 of which I've been experimenting with for a week or so, one I just tried.  I've been training off and on for years and I'm sick of the standard barbell, DB curls..boring.  These are variations.  Like I said earlier my arms are short so they always "look" big no matter what.  I've got room to play around witht hem.

Tri's-no decisions yet but I have some things in mind.

legs-calves will be the same.  Higher rep range for hamstrings.  Quads will be the same but I'm gonna start to pile the weight on the hacksquat machine.  I never did them before last blast so I was tentative with the weight.  First workout next blast I'll be starting with 3 45's a side plus a 5lber and going from there...ass to the grass.  I'm also gonna keep going on my widowmaker but be more organized with it.

for the next week it's just cardio and I'm restricting calories.  My goal is to be done with this "getting cut" shit in the next 7 weeks.

[natural al]

I just started doin hacks for pretty much the first time ever, and i really enjoy them, they are really saving my back from a beating.

Good luck w/them

I'm doing them with legs in front of my body, knees only a few inches apart.  This is how guys did it back in the old gym I started at, it's supposed to focus on the teardrop and the sweep.  I always try to push with my heels and flex at the top for a sec.

Once I feel my lower back "round" at all I stop the set. 

[natural al]

I went in today and experimented with higher reps on the hammer incline.  I dropped the weight to 180lbs-2 45's a side and got 34 reps rest paused.  I'll probably start the next blast with the same weight.  I'm also going to start extending my chest stretch to 90 seconds, I dropped the weight and went really deep.  I also did the widowmaker I came up with.  In a perfect world I could do the push press on the old style pec deck like DC recommends but even though I bitched to the owner my gym isn't about to get one-they think I'm the only one who would use it

so as of now it's higher rep range, deeper-longer stretch and incorperating my version of the widowmaker for chest.

[natural al]

1st day back and it went great.

DC pullups-I named them this, I'll copy and paste the description when I can, I started off with 120lbs of assistance cause I want to get used to them, they're a bitch.  I got 35 reps rest paused and my lower lats were screaming.

Rack Deads-315*4
                 225-12

2 handed hammer curls-another DC speciality movement, I got 38 reps with 35lbs DB's rest paused, again when I get a chance I'll copy and paste the description.  I did modify one thing on them so I'll have to go into a little bit of detail when I post it.

wrist curls-65*41Rp

[Saxon]

Good work, NA.  Log has been interesting to follow so far!

[natural al]

today was kinda a defining moment for me in the gym.  I looked at what I was doing on certain things at the end of my last blast and decided what I felt wasn't working and decided to overhaul alot of things.  I belive DC training is by far the best system I've used but I think I wasn't really using it in a way that was most effective for what I want to accomplish.  I'm a pretty strong guy when I want to be and along the way I got sidetracked into believing that to get the most out of this program I had to train like an animal moving as much as I possibly could for 12 reps in a rest paused fashion.  That's great but and it did work for alot of my bodyparts but with my chest it just didn't work out for some reason.  This is the main reason I decided to take my rep range up from 12-15 rest paused and bump it up to 30ish.  For some reason with my chest everything goes great up until a point then once the poundages get to a point my body mechanics change and I subconciously make some adjustments that take the stress off my pecs and shift it to my shoulders or my tri's.  So basically I'm trying to reprogram my body into keeping my form no matter what.  Today I did:

Hammer Incline-140*36RP, then I did a 10 second static and 12 partials.  I did my widowmaker movement 70*22 and did a 90 count stretch with the 35's.  I focused on lowering the weight really slow on the presses, shoulders down and back, sternum high and tried not to roll my shoulders forward.  I think I did pretty good.

Hammer Shoulder Press-135*18 with my right and 16 with my left, bot rest paused (10*4*4/2 if you want the breakdown).  I do these unilaterally 135lbs a side.  I usually can't get the weight up for a static or partials so I grabbed a 35lbs dumbbell and did full range lateral raises to failure, I got about 17 reps each arm.  60 second stretch afterwards.

reverse grip bench-225*19 straight set on a smith, then I did a 60 second stretch with each arm using the 25lbs DB, I really tried to get as deep as I could with the stretch.