The Maximus Pact

@Hyde is this a good strategy?

So since I’m new to front squats and they are a bit challenging to do I’m doing more sets with a lower intensity, none of them to my usual 0-1 reps in reserve.

Today I did:

185x3
185x3
195x2
195x2
185x3

I like to keep the reps low for strength and athleticism and so I spend the least time possible doing them since I don’t like them.
 
Shadowblaze said:
@Hyde is this a good strategy?

So since I’m new to front squats and they are a bit challenging to do I’m doing more sets with a lower intensity, none of them to my usual 0-1 reps in reserve.

Today I did:

185x3
185x3
195x2
195x2
185x3

I like to keep the reps low for strength and athleticism and so I spend the least time possible doing them since I don’t like them.
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It is usually a good idea to do more sets & keep effort submaximal/more modest RPE when learning a new movement. You need to learn to move well before you can really lift to your potential on a movement anyway, plus it lowers the risk of injury while you’re less coordinated with it.
 
Hyde said:
It is usually a good idea to do more sets & keep effort submaximal/more modest RPE when learning a new movement. You need to learn to move well before you can really lift to your potential on a movement anyway, plus it lowers the risk of injury while you’re less coordinated with it.
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Yeah I’m gonna keep doing this until I get that movement pattern and stability. Then I’m just gonna treat it like a normal exercise and do 2 sets.

The thing with front squats though is that it’s the one exercise for me it’s better to pyramid up on, I always pyramid my weight down on every exercise except front squats. It’s just more comfortable for me to do it that way.
 
are you running your front squats cross-armed or in a clean grip? most lifters I meet seem to only run the crossed arm grip but I had learned them originally with cleans so I've always really preferred the clean grip. Ironically, I feel like I have better stability and mobility in that position whereas a lot of big power lifters struggle to get into the clean grip and often say they can only hold it cross-armed.
 
Dustin07 said:
are you running your front squats cross-armed or in a clean grip? most lifters I meet seem to only run the crossed arm grip but I had learned them originally with cleans so I've always really preferred the clean grip. Ironically, I feel like I have better stability and mobility in that position whereas a lot of big power lifters struggle to get into the clean grip and often say they can only hold it cross-armed.
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I used to do the cross armed grip and I didn’t like it, I feel that with your arms crossed your biceps and shoulder come in too my to stabilize the bar and it’s uncomfortable. So I do the clean grip now and it feels better, but I keep my reps low so I spend the least time possible using a grip since it’s quite uncomfortable for me.
 
I have bias cause I love doing cleans so that grip eventually became really comfortable for me. Hook grip in the clean position gives me a mental cue that locks down everything else (core, etc) and just feels really good. the old cue when the core starts collapsing was to push the elbows towards the ceiling (when in the clean grip) and that has always been really helpful for me on heavy and near-failed reps.
 
Starting to bounce back with everything in life and the gym, this is my 4th lift since all that stuff that happened last week.

I’m still progressing quite a lot, my body is telling me it needs more days off for sure but when I take a day off I don’t have anything to do. I definitely need to limit myself to 4 or 5 days a week in the gym not 6 or 7.

My arms have blown up since I started doing my cable curl superset and switched up tricep training.

I’m still building back up all my healthy habits but it’s going well so far. I’m gonna hop on a natty mental health stack for 8 weeks soon and then after I’m gonna try pharmaceuticals so I can get a good comparison for effectiveness.
 

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My biceps have always been one of my best muscles in terms of development and this bicep superset is insane for growth. you only need to do it once aswell.

I start off with the single arm cable handle attachment and then take a knee on the floor facing the cable. And do a preacher curl but instead of the actual preacher platform I support my elbows on my knee (always go same elbow same knee) and just bang out about 8 reps until failure of preachers. Then I give myself a minute and flip around and do a behind the back curl with my elbows around 45 degrees behind my body and curling around 6 reps until failure. I do that on both sides and it blasts your biceps so good.


Today I went on a run for 30 mins and I’m gonna take a rest day since my body is telling me I need more of those. I have rugby later tonight aswell.
 
Man, Anderson squats are so hard. This is my first day squatting again and hit 325x6.

I can’t do regular squats as deep as I like so I do all the movements I can do without hurting my spine. Like deep leg press, deep lunges, shorter ROM squats, back extensions, deep front squats etc.
it is my goal to eventually do powerlifting and right now I’m just building a base for that and doing what I can to get stronger at what I can do so if the point comes where my disease is in remission and I can back squat to full depth and deadlift heavy I will have a strong base strength for the movement patterns. But for now I can’t compete in powerlifting because of my spine.
 
Day 62:

It was a great leg day today, I also did some core.

Front squats are already feeling a lot more stable.

It’s my first time doing back squats again aswell and it feels great
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This is such a good song to hit a set to. It’s by far my favourite Linkin park song.
 

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Underhand barbell rows are so good for that turtle shell back. Ever since I started hammering them my back thickness has gotten so much better.

I originally started doing them after I got an injury from overhand rows. The underhand grip doesn’t put my mid back under as much stress and it feels a lot better.
 
Day 63:

It was a great lift today, and rugby practice got cancelled so I’m gonna go to a church prayer night instead.
 

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Day 64:

I’m not gonna lift today, I’m just gonna train for rugby and then smash legs tmrw.

My legs are still pretty sore and my rugby practice was canceled yesterday anyway so I gotta get some practice in.
 
Shadowblaze said:
Do any of you ever train your neck? I just started training it hard to prevent concussions
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If someone plays contact sports or martial arts, they should train their neck for injury prevention just like you said.

As soon as you are done with those, stop. That’s the fastest way to give yourself obstructive sleep apnea. Unless, you get a CPAP, then sky’s the limit. I already have a CPAP and have never trained my neck, but it’s already 18” from years of heavy training & gear, so I’m not worried about growing it. I already can’t buy dress shirts that fit it at a regular department store.
 
Day 64:

I smashed legs today, but I was at a different gym so the lift looks a bit different and didn’t wanna push it too hard on equipment I haven’t used before.

I also smashed sprints today. I feel much better, but I developed some Achilles tendinitis.
 

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Day 65:

I’m gonna smash upper today but I may not record it in the app.

I’m super tired, but not a bad kind of tired lol a good kind. I was out with my friends until late at church Friday night, so I didn’t get great sleep going into Saturday and then last night I was up with my buddies playing fifa all night and chilling, it was a great night but now I have church and woke up early so I’m half dead lmao.
This is the good kind of tired when you had so much fun you didn’t get good sleep.
I’m going to church again tonight for the 2nd time today with all my buddies too.
This new church I started going to in September is amazing, I have so many friends and it feels like home.
 
Shadowblaze said:
Day 65:

I’m gonna smash upper today but I may not record it in the app.

I’m super tired, but not a bad kind of tired lol a good kind. I was out with my friends until late at church Friday night, so I didn’t get great sleep going into Saturday and then last night I was up with my buddies playing fifa all night and chilling, it was a great night but now I have church and woke up early so I’m half dead lmao.
This is the good kind of tired when you had so much fun you didn’t get good sleep.
I’m going to church again tonight for the 2nd time today with all my buddies too.
This new church I started going to in September is amazing, I have so many friends and it feels like home.
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Good deal man sounds like you have something that is a good deal, have fun!
 
Day 66:

I went to a bodybuilding and powerlifting gym that’s far away with one of my buddies today. The plates were so old so I think they were considerably heavier than 45lbs, also I squatted to more depth than usual so that’s why I only hit 315x5.

I may have overdid it slightly with the training today. My back is hurting. It doesn’t help that I’ve never used most of the equipment there.

Otherwise stuff has been good.

My hands were stained brown from all the rust on the older equipment.
 

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In the past 2 years I’ve shrunk about an inch or maybe even more. Not actual height loss but from a few different reasons, like:

-problems with my sacrum because of my spine disease
-bad posture because of chronic inflammation putting stress on my spine in certain places
-bad posture because of tight or strained muscles because of my disease
-height loss because of possible spinal fusion or scar tissue build up

It’s not true shrinking but related to my spine inflammation making my posture worse which is very normal to lose some height.

So I’ve began a lot of stretching specifically for my spine and I hope to get that inch of height back.

These are the stretches
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I lost about 3/4" in my 20s as well with that burst disc. for a while I would use an inversion table to help relieve back pain until I discovered a cure for my particular injury (RDLs). people are 50/50 on them overall though. usually felt good in the moment and right after getting off of it.
 
Dustin07 said:
I lost about 3/4" in my 20s as well with that burst disc. for a while I would use an inversion table to help relieve back pain until I discovered a cure for my particular injury (RDLs). people are 50/50 on them overall though. usually felt good in the moment and right after getting off of it.
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I’ve never heard of an inversion table, I’ll look into it. Thanks
 
Day 68:

Forgot to post this yesterday. I’m getting considerably stronger
 

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Day 69:

Today was a great lift too. I’m off to church again in a sec.

I’m progressing hard on front squats, I actually enjoy them a lot
 

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Last edited:
it ebbs and flows, minimize the downswings, maximize the upswings. you have many decades of this game ahead of you and what you do today you'll appreciate even more in 20 and 40 years.
 
Day 70:

I’m gonna go to that far away gym again today and smash upper. Since they have all cool equipment I have never used I will try a lot of it. However since my weight tracking app only has some exercises I won’t track it in the app.
 
Ayyy I hit 300 on bench with good form, 95s on incline for 5, max lat pulldown for 4, 50x11 on hammer curls and 205x10 on underhand rows
 
My foreman just told me I start at 6am on Monday😭
At least I’ll be done work at 2 and be able to lift while beating traffic.
 
Shadowblaze said:
My foreman just told me I start at 6am on Monday😭
At least I’ll be done work at 2 and be able to lift while beating traffic.
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Always a good day when you’re starting a new job! Hopefully you enjoy it decently, but at least you’re securing income & starting a resume.
 
Hyde said:
Always a good day when you’re starting a new job! Hopefully you enjoy it decently, but at least you’re securing income & starting a resume.
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Yeah I’m stoked, it might be nice to get up early when the sun isn’t even up, start work and the sun isn’t even up and then get off early af too. I’ll have plenty of time to hit the gym
 
I’m gonna take a rest day today. Normally I would be so locked in that I would train practically every day but I realized during my workouts I’d get fatigued easily like that so now I take 2 days a week and don’t train anything at all. No sprinting, no rugby, no weightlifting. I feel a lot better during my workouts and am getting stronger from better recovery.

I realized the importance of rest as you get much stronger. Your nervous system can’t adapt as well to stress as your muscles can so taking days off completely can really help not only your muscles but also your nervous system to push more weight. I used to be able to train 7 days a week but now that I’m getting stronger I need that rest.
 
6-2 is a great shift, I love earlier shifts like that.

Shadowblaze said:
so now I take 2 days a week and don’t train anything at all. No sprinting, no rugby, no weightlifting. I feel a lot better during my workouts and am getting stronger from better recovery.
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I've been adopting that a lot with my fasting days. no eat, no lifting. I could lift, but putting the two together is a nice setup.
 
Day 71:

The first day of work was great and so was my lift.

My arms are blowing up man it’s crazy.

I also believe my insurance will cover my meal replacement shakes for my malabsorption so that should help me gain weight tremendously.
 

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Day 72:

I don’t know what’s been going on but I feel amazing. Even though I’m only sleeping 5h a night I have so much energy (focus xt definitely helps) and clearheadedness too. My diet has been great, physique is good and I’m finally getting that groove back where discipline and hard work feels good and rewarding.

I’ve been keeping up my stretches too for my spine and injuries.

I had an amazing lift today. Idk how but everything was moving so light and I felt so strong, like I could keep going set after set after set. I contribute that partly because I made sure to get a ton of electrolytes today. Especially now that I have a physical job I need to get more electrolytes.

My cardio has been lacking heavily too so I was doing cardio for half an hour at the end of my lift. I did a few cardio machines. My gym has a sprinting machine (not a treadmill), a wind assault bike and a regular stationary bike and I did all of them. I was absolutely gassed at the end though.
 

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Shadowblaze said:
Day 72:

I don’t know what’s been going on but I feel amazing. Even though I’m only sleeping 5h a night I have so much energy (focus xt definitely helps) and clearheadedness too. My diet has been great, physique is good and I’m finally getting that groove back where discipline and hard work feels good and rewarding.

I’ve been keeping up my stretches too for my spine and injuries.

I had an amazing lift today. Idk how but everything was moving so light and I felt so strong, like I could keep going set after set after set. I contribute that partly because I made sure to get a ton of electrolytes today. Especially now that I have a physical job I need to get more electrolytes.

My cardio has been lacking heavily too so I was doing cardio for half an hour at the end of my lift. I did a few cardio machines. My gym has a sprinting machine (not a treadmill), a wind assault bike and a regular stationary bike and I did all of them. I was absolutely gassed at the end though.
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That’s great to hear, That sleep time is rough though!
 
Shadowblaze said:
I had an amazing lift today. Idk how but everything was moving so light and I felt so strong, like I could keep going set after set after set. I contribute that partly because I made sure to get a ton of electrolytes today. Especially now that I have a physical job I need to get more electrolytes.
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sounds like you had a great "strike while the iron is hot" session, all those rough days and uninspired sessions you have where you trudge through the trenches, the unplanned deloads, the forced rest days, eventually bring you back into these awesome ones that remind you why you love it and work so hard 🔥 🔥
 
Day 73:

I SMASHED upper today. My gym that I went to for the past 5 years is shutting down and rebuilding so I’m going to a different gym now, the cable stacks and all the weight is much different so that’s why I got so much stronger on paper on some of the lifts. But I’m progressively overloading well and workouts are going amazing.

I feel so good. Tomorrow will be my last day of lifting heavy before I give my body a rest day, gotta stay on top of that.

I technically hit 275x5 on bench today but my spotter touched the bar so I just put it as 4.
 

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I think I’m starting to see some results from my spinal decompression and stretching routine, I may have gained half a centimeter or slightly more in height.
 
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