The Syla5 Files

^^ Cheers Ice, all works in progress but happy with the progress.

Today was the effective last day of my 4th strength cycle and deadlifts were fun.

This cycle has definetly been the most intense and the fatigue this week has been strong. ALso my wife and daughter have tonsilitus, i havent felt 100% but i am putting this down to fatigue and workout intensity unless an illness manifests it's self.

Deadlifts
bar x15
70x5
Sumo 70x3 just to try it, felt different, strong in places, and also highligted potential weakness in other areas. Nothing felt uncomfortable.
110x4
110x2 (belt)
140x1
150x1
157.5x3 PB :D
157.5x3
157.5x1....wtf hit by the fatigue bat
small breather, regroup and
157.5x2
straight in to angry drop set
100x10
set 2 of deads
Angry drop set :D

OHP
Bar x5
40x3
60x1
60sec rests only due to time running out
65x2+1pp
65x1+2pp
65x2+1pp
65x3pp

Dips
BWx8
30x9
30x9
30x9 :D

DB Row
36x8
36x8
36x8
really need to find something i can add more weight to and still get the awesome feel i get from these

GHR's (assited from the bottom)
8
8

another productive cycle

Bench PB
Deadlift rep's PB
Squat rep's PB

Still not sure what to do next week, my last week before holiday, either rm attempts, continue 3's or do a week of 5's we shall see.
 
Last edited:
no set cycle for this week. I am just heading in and doing some weights. After a carbiful weekend i weighed in this morning at 77kg or 12st 1lb!! what a whale :D doing a kind of CBL prep phase low carb week this week with the wife, plenty of protein to keep the recovery on track still.

Squats
Bar x10
60x5
100x3
100(b)x3
120x3
140x2
152.5x2 slow and wasnt gonna get the 3rd rep with out compromising my knees
crazy pyramid dropset of the following:
152.5x1 140x2 120x3 100x4 hnnngggg
I think a recent lack of sleep, and a weekend of binge eating and drinking had some impact today but still pleased with what i managed.

Pull ups
strict 60's rests only
BWx8
BWx8
BWx7

RDL's
Bar x5
70x8
70x8
70x8

Inclined BB bench, first time doing these, and a steeper incline then i have ever done DB on before, felt different but good.
Bar x8
50x5
60x8
60x7

Standing cable
45X10
45x10
45x10
 
Day 3 of ULC and down to 11st 12lb so far.

Bench
bar x20
40x10
60x5
80x1
90x1 felt awesome
100x2 woop woop rep PB felt awesome
105x1 PB :)
110xf checky attempt was a no go, straight in to DS
80x6 + 60x10

BOR's
50x10
55x10
55x10

Seated DB Press
26x8
26x8
26x8 yay finally i got the last rep!

Front Squats
Barx10
60x8 found the sweet spot for front grip again
60x8

CGBP
50x10
50x10

Face Pulls
45x10
50x10

really pleased with todays session :)
 
Possibly my last day training for a little over 2 weeks unless i can drag my ass out of bed on monday morning.
Morning 5 of mini CBL prep phase, and weighed in at 11st 11lb which is a nice drop of 4lb, being taken out for a meal tonight so a carb hiccup before another 3 days of ULC then holiday sexyness time :D

Todays session i really wanted to push for a new deadlift PB, in hindsight with no carbs in 4 days and a rubbish nights sleep that wasnt my best choice.

Deadlifts
Bar x10 sumo bar x5 RDL bar x5
70x5
110x3
110x2 (belt from here)
140x1
160x1
180xf
180xf
180xf
180xf not a single one of them moved, my weakness appears to be off the floor :(
160x1
140x3
110x10

OHP
Bar x5
50x3
60x1
65x2
70xf lol to much wasted energy on deadlifts to hit this, went half way up though
50x8

Dips
BWx10
30x8
30x7

DB Row
30x10
30x10

overall i am not unhappy with todays session, but i think i was still running on an ego high after wednesdays bench PB.

Now i need to understand how to bring my "off the floor" weakness up to speed.
 
well 180 was due to the fact i have moved it a couple of inches off the floor in the past, infact as long ago as december. So assuming fresh i would have hoped that it would have been achievable, however i think my carb depletion definitely didnt help matters.

I think 180 should be achieveable considering my progress all around its only 10kg more then my current done 6 months ago now :( i will see how things are after holidays :)
 
Low carb days are something like:

Protein: 210g
Fats: 125g
Carbs: 20g
Cals: 2250

Backloading days:

Protein: 210g
Fats: 90g
Carbs: 350g
Cals: 3300

The carbs on my ulc day are not chosen carbs they are accounting for carb content that just cannot be avoided in general, but it never totals more the 10g per meal.

Main guidelines I follow:
Coffee first thing
Break the fast between 12 and 14 hours (9pm pervious night to 11am following day)
No specific carbs on backloading days before 5pm

Rinse and repeat

The charts in the book confuse people, and even the author has admitted this so just stick to something like the above and you will be well away.
 
two weeks holiday has begun, most likely no training while i am away!!

Pre holiday weigh in 76.2kg, lets see if i can break the 80kg barrier :D
 
well my holiday was awesome! shockingly lost 1lb so still around the 76kg weight :D

planning on doing avgt from next week, so today was really just a welcome back to the gym workout after nothing for 2 1/2 weeks.

Squats
Plenty of strecthing and mobility work
Bar x15
60x10
80x5
100x5
120x5
120x5
120x5
DS 100x5

Bench
Bar x20
40x10
60x5
75x7
80x5
80x5
DS 60x6

Standing 1 arm rows
45x10
45x10
45x10

Leg Curls
32x5+39x5
39x10
45x10

done....

i was hoping for a little more on squats but overall it was a good session back, nothing felt outragiously heavy, but nothing felt light either.

It feels great to be back and lifting again.
 
So i am after a bit of a change with my training, goals still the same achieve strength. Having heard some posatives about submaximal training, and the fact i have spotted some weaknesses i would like to work on in some of my big movements, I am going to give AVGT a go.

Much thanks to FF for firstly bringing it to my attention, it looks awesome, and brutal, and full of feels, and also thanks to the OCUK choo choo as well here, jumping on board and hoping to smash it.

Seeing as i want to focus on key movements, there are not many changes in the 6 workouts for each session.

Session 1 workouts look as follows:

WO1:
Squat (low bar)
RDL's
Front Squats
DBSS

WO2:
Bench
BOR
DB Incline Press
CGBP

WO3:
Deadlifts
OHP
Standing Cable Rows
DB Shoulder Press

WO4:
Squats (low Bar)
RDL's
Front Squats
Walking Lunges

WO5:
Bench
BOR
Dips
Pull Ups

WO6:
Deadlifts
OHP
DB Row
DB Shoulder Press


I would love to fit in sumo deadlifts in there somewhere, as i feel that they would hit some weak areas, thoughts on doing them in place of one of the conventional deadlift blocks, or instead of something else would be great.
 
indeed they might, if they do thought i will just swap them around for their respective alternatives, except for bench, ive just got to smash that...

with deadlifts i would sub in sumo's, and squats i would sub in fronties, as i would be doing both at much less weight
 
hmmmmmmmmm all taken on board, maybe a rethink is in order.

I was of the understanding that althought AVGT is not strength focused, it is not as mass specific as GVT.

Do you think 1 cycle will be of benefit, considering i want to use the volume to focus on weaknesses? Or is there a better way i could go about fixing things?

Very open to sugguestions, as if i cannot find something by next week i will just start another cycle of what i have been doing.

Yeap powerlifting is still my goal, but i want my top end lifts, especially squat not to have as much weakness as it does. Overall lift total is good but knee collapse and right leg dominance is really promient at the top end.

Haha indeed me any my sumo's ;) not even low weight 3x8 as an assistance?! i gave them a little try and i really feel it on the insides of my legs, possible weak area?
 
Last edited:
yeap 60 days is one cycle, so if i was to start now it would take me up to september.

Narrow stance squatter? i am over shoulderwidth apart at the heels, does this really class as narrow stance or just normal?

Also any lumbar control issues i have were not a consideration for considering adding in sumo.
(if i am being honest i didnt realise there was an issue there over and above general form breakage the closer one gets to there RM, which i dont ignore and i try to work on all the time)

With my deadlift, progress has always been slower then most people on here, for example i squat better then many people here who can pull 200kg no problem, but i cant shift more then 170 (180 being optimistic) and i am wondering if it is my odd proportions that are the limiting factor, being all torso and no legs.

As for working on weakness, i thought it was much harder to work on something the closer you are to your RM? My training has been very much focused on the higher end of my strength range recently. I thought movement reporgramming and form corrections were better dealt with at lower weight ranges and higher reps??

75% of RM is hardly light weight either...
 
icecold said:
As for working with less weight to fix movement patterns, absolutely yes. But that doesn't mean you have to do AGVT.
Click to expand...

It just looked interesting :) plenty of volume at still reasonable weights, and keeping it simple, I thought that may be worth a shot.

As I would like to do something different I am open to suggestions.

My main areas I want to focus on are:

Squat movement correction
Squat knee collapse correction
Overall deadlifting tightness improvement
Chest volume, while still working decent weight

If not Avgt I still need something that is high enough weight to still keep pushing the strength gains, while being light enough for me to focus on fixing movement patterns, and being able to focus on the weakness in the lift, rather then focusing on the weight being shifted.

I don't feel my current setup gives me enough volume for correcting things which is one of the reasons for changing, as well as hoping a change in stimulus will encourage some extra growth :cool:
 
I see :) so give it a bash and it is to much volume then do 5x5 instead? I may end up having to do that anyway dependant on time as I have to get to work after training so time might be a factor.

Yeah skills, I would start next week on Monday and my last session would be on the 30th August. The next time I would train after that would be September.
 
Doms, ive not missed you at all........


Deadlifts
Bar x15 haha could barely move
70x10
100x5
120x3
130x5
130x5
130x4 fatigued to hell, so left the last rep rather then try it.

OHP
Bar x5
40x5
50x5
50x5
55x5

Front Squats
40x5
50x5
60x5
60x5
very pleased with these considering i didnt do any ankle stretching today these went very well

Dips and Curls SS
bw x10+20x10
bw x10+20x10
bw x10+20x10

Still not sure what to do next weekend, I want to do something that will help add some mass while i can work on weak areas of my current lifts, so more volume and slightly less weight, but i want to be progressive still.
 
Considering a planned routine change, I am going to take the oppurtunity to break away from my current 3 days a week full body routines that i do and go back to a 3 day split. Hoping that a different stiumulus might encourage some good growth.

Goals for my next training block are as follows:

Squat movement correction
Squat knee collapse correction
Overall deadlifting tightness improvement
Chest development.

for the main part i am aiming to add in more working volume. I want to give the following a try and will test it out next week to see how it fits.

Legs:
Squats 5x5
RDL 5x5
Band Squats 3x8 (to work on my knee issues)
DBSS 3x8
Front squats 3x8

Back/Shoulders

Deadlifts 5x5
OHP 5x5
BOR’s 3x8
Pull Ups 3x8
DB Rows 3x8

Chest/Back:

Bench Press 5x5

CGBP 5x5
Dips 3x8
Standing Cable Rows 3x8
Flat DB Bench ss Inclined DB Bench 3x8

Forseable issues being to much work on leg days, and potetially the DB SS on the end of chest days might not work.

I plan on starting the compounds at 70% of my current 1RM, and go with what feels good on the assistance stuff. 1 week trail to see how it goes and if it doesnt feel right some changes will be made.

All compounds i will work on a progressive loading plan adding 2.5kg-5kg per session to each lift until stalling. Starting out at 70% will hopefully allow me a few weeks to beat on my weaknesses, and from there on out progress to heavier weights again hopefully with improved movement and form.
 
Low bar back will be a staple and won't change, I may have to drop one of the squat variants, if I was it would rotate the dropped one with one of the others. Most likely will be Dbss and fronties on alternating weeks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom