Growth Stimulus Training (GST)

[K-Krakrz]

Hey everyone, im just starting a workout thread later today with all my changes from my 1st macro . Feel free to drop by and make a comment.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=125225061

[ranthal]

Hey Ryan (or anyone else for that matter) got a question. On my weighted dips I've noticed that my first "rep" will normally be rather limited ROM to kind of get a stretch and get my body into better position for correct form (normally more forward lean) and depth. I stopped counting this rep because, well in my book there is only 0 or 1 rep and 1/2 ROM = 0. So have you ever seen trouble getting right into position for dips like this and how did you correct it?

So finished micro 2, macro 2 press today. My head hasn't felt as into this macro as the last one. First micro I felt like it was a bit of a deload anyway but gotta get my head into it now. I guess it didn't help that I was out until 3 last night at a concert but still got at least 7 hours of sleep. No excuses, next day is squats and I'll be hitting a nice 205 so I gotta get pumped for this. Anyone else hit this lull and got some words of inspiration for me?

edit: Oh yeah, I also hit the 4-6 rep range supp lifts today for the first time and I liked it a lot. I think it'll be a nice addition to helping me get comfortable with heavier weight and make my 8-10 rep range supps progress well too.

[2020Wellness]

Hey Ryan (or anyone else for that matter) got a question. On my weighted dips I've noticed that my first "rep" will normally be rather limited ROM to kind of get a stretch and get my body into better position for correct form (normally more forward lean) and depth. I stopped counting this rep because, well in my book there is only 0 or 1 rep and 1/2 ROM = 0. So have you ever seen trouble getting right into position for dips like this and how did you correct it?

So finished micro 2, macro 2 press today. My head hasn't felt as into this macro as the last one. First micro I felt like it was a bit of a deload anyway but gotta get my head into it now. I guess it didn't help that I was out until 3 last night at a concert but still got at least 7 hours of sleep. No excuses, next day is squats and I'll be hitting a nice 205 so I gotta get pumped for this. Anyone else hit this lull and got some words of inspiration for me?

edit: Oh yeah, I also hit the 4-6 rep range supp lifts today for the first time and I liked it a lot. I think it'll be a nice addition to helping me get comfortable with heavier weight and make my 8-10 rep range supps progress well too.

I always hit one or two warm up sets for a movement like dips. This way when I'm starting my work sets I'm primed, loose, and ready to go. If I didn't warm up, id be doing what you're describing. I have no problems doing it the way that I do it with a few warm-up sets first.

Also, I love the heavy days well. Ill typical ramp those sets a bit just to see what I can handle. I treat those days like fun days.

[p0fell0w]

I had to leave the gym during my 65% bench day. I finished the first 3 sets of my core lift and 2 sets of my first supplemental lift. Should I go back tomorrow and finish my workout considering u only do bench 1 time a week?

What should I do ryan?

[2020Wellness]

I had to leave the gym during my 65% bench day. I finished the first 3 sets of my core lift and 2 sets of my first supplemental lift. Should I go back tomorrow and finish my workout considering u only do bench 1 time a week?

I wouldn't really worry about it. Thats pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

[ranthal]

I always hit one or two warm up sets for a movement like dips. This way when I'm starting my work sets I'm primed, loose, and ready to go. If I didn't warm up, id be doing what you're describing. I have no problems doing it the way that I do it with a few warm-up sets first.

Also, I love the heavy days well. Ill typical ramp those sets a bit just to see what I can handle. I treat those days like fun days.

Makes perfect sense to warmup but since it wasn't my core lift I didn't bother so I'll give it a shot.

That's a great idea to ramp those sets up. I kind of did the opposite and started what I figured I could handle and ramped it down as I got more fatigued. I'll give this a shot on my next day and see what I think. It's the squat day which has fronts and bb lunges following good ol BB squat as the core so should be a hell of a workout.

[BYD]

hey ryan, ive been reading over the first 10 pages of the thread and really like the idea behind this program! im finishing up about 6 months worth of SS and looking to try something different, i like that this splits it up and allows for some higher rep ranges and different exercises. i know you said your helping a lot of people through this thread. just wanted to give you a heads up before Pming about how i have it laid out. thanks for this awesome program!

[K-Krakrz]

Hey Ryan (or anyone else for that matter) got a question. On my weighted dips I've noticed that my first "rep" will normally be rather limited ROM to kind of get a stretch and get my body into better position for correct form (normally more forward lean) and depth. I stopped counting this rep because, well in my book there is only 0 or 1 rep and 1/2 ROM = 0. So have you ever seen trouble getting right into position for dips like this and how did you correct it?

So finished micro 2, macro 2 press today. My head hasn't felt as into this macro as the last one. First micro I felt like it was a bit of a deload anyway but gotta get my head into it now. I guess it didn't help that I was out until 3 last night at a concert but still got at least 7 hours of sleep. No excuses, next day is squats and I'll be hitting a nice 205 so I gotta get pumped for this. Anyone else hit this lull and got some words of inspiration for me?

edit: Oh yeah, I also hit the 4-6 rep range supp lifts today for the first time and I liked it a lot. I think it'll be a nice addition to helping me get comfortable with heavier weight and make my 8-10 rep range supps progress well too.

i never count any reps unless i hit them clean and with good form. At the last set of a excercise i might do a few partials= cheat reps for the heck of it, but i never count those down.

[kilgoreklink]

Journal
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post503961531

Last lift day of this Macro.1 rep max kicked up from 305lbs to 320lbs. Getting ready for a two week deload while I camp and Fly Fish. Press day on Tuesday will finish up my 4th Macro. I think I am going to like my numbers on that movement also. I have to say I am looking forward to a couple of weeks off while I have fun at 8600 ft. in the Sierras. 12 days at that altitude will surely kick up my red blood cell count. I will be set to kick off my 5th Macro when I return.
To all you guys hitting a little motivational road block. Just keep at it, some days are better than others, some weeks are better than others. Making the next right choice will always sort things out eventually. Sometimes the next right choice is to go camping and eat Trout on a stick over a campfire. :-)

[damirk]

4th Press, 4th Macro

BB Push press (95%-110lb)

55-8x w/u light bar push press 6x
65-6x w/u light bar push press 6x
75-4x w/u light bar push press 4x
85-2x w/u light bar push press 2x
95-2x w/u light bar push press 2x
105-1x w/u light bar push press 4x
110-4x AMRAP
110-3x w/s
110-3x w/s

BB bench press

105-15x
105-15x
105-15x

Dips

B/W-10x
B/W-10x
B/W-9x

Skull crushers

35-15x
35-15x
35-15x

Wide hammer grip tricep pushdowns

75-20x
75-15x
75-15x

Flat bench leg trucks

3x40

Decline crunches (B/W+15lb)

2x20

Great press session. I felt pretty good running on 3 hours of sleep. Hit a PR on push press with the AMRAP set. The progress is coming slowly but surely, on all my lifts not just push press. Im going to wait to figure out my new 1RM's for all my lifts at once, but I did some number crunching and Im making about 5lb gains on all my lifts so far. Im content with that though. I figure 5lb/month=60lbs in a year, IMO thats pretty solid progress.

[m.c]

Did my 4th Micro of my 2nd Macro today - squats. HOLY SH-T was it hard.

I AMRAP'ed w/ 295 for 3 reps and then did two sets of 1. Had a great spotter who didn't over help but made me confident. Never got under that much weight before - was legitimately scared! But got hyped, focused and got after it.

One thing I realized after I left is that I never use the rack bars. In fact I'm not entirely sure how to use them - I go pretty deep into my squat. Do you guys use them? Any tips?

[sepulvd]

Well am gonna start this program on monday. i been reading on it for the last couple of weeks and am very intererested doing it. hopefully all my workouts go as planned. am gonna start pretty light on my supplemental excersices so i can have a pretty solid increase of weight for the first couple micros and kinda used that as a motavional tool for my core lifts. i might do a journal but i havent decided if i am nor not. will post my workout tomarrow

[2020Wellness]

Little vid from the other night:

[K-Krakrz]

Does anyone find that on their AMRAP set, you do your reps faster, just to try and get as many as you can? My form is still nearly, if not as good as my normal work sets, but just done as a higher tempo.

[leedsjack93]

Hello guys, how are we?

Had dead lift day yesterday, went the latest I've been to the gym so far, and had a little less time as result. Didnt affect my lifts, but I did chop down the rests a bit and dropped the intra-set cardio.

My abs were still in agony... which is why I decided to do another 3 sets of weighted crunches, with the same weight. But I'm no sucker, and figured its all about progression; I did 5 more reps per set. I think its fair to say the pain while doing it was fairly excruciating.

But I'm glad I did it. Deadlifts went great, did some RDL's too as my supp, and did another 3 sets of shrugs as trap weak point training, instead of doing stiff legs. There's only so many deadlifts I can manage at once, heh.

I'll put it up in my journal a bit later, once I find the paper journal.

[K-Krakrz]

finished ur 1st macro yet brah?

Just started 2nd one today, feels good

[leedsjack93]

Got my last press day tomorrow, then its macro 1 over.

Feelin good to be this close to finishing a whole macro. I'm proud of myself.

[pezking7p]

One thing I realized after I left is that I never use the rack bars. In fact I'm not entirely sure how to use them - I go pretty deep into my squat. Do you guys use them? Any tips?

You mean the safety bars in the power rack? I can't imagine not using them, but I guess that's one way to motivate yourself to get that last rep out, lol!

They all move differently, at my gym there are two steel bar things that hook over the j-hooks in the rack, you just hang the bars at whatever height you want. Some bars have a spring loaded pin that you have to pull or squeeze a trigger to move the bars around.

I set mine by eyeballing the height, setting the bars, then squatting as deep as I could (with good form) with just a bar to see if the height was correct. Make any necessary adjustments and repeat until you have the setting correct. It shouldn't interfere with your squat, but it shouldn't be much lower than your lowest point in your squat. It's also really helpful as a visual queue for squat depth. This is still really helpful for me as I'm constantly trying to improve the consistency of my squat depth.

Anyways, this way if you fail on a squat, you have something close to set the bar on...come to think of it I'm not really sure of the proper way to get the bar off your back. Either squat down until it rests on the bar, or squat down as low as you can and then drop the bar, or maybe fall backwards a little? I hadn't considered it. I actually almost failed once on my last squat day...I looked down at the safety bars, had a instantaneous thought about bailing, and before the thought had even finished going through my head I said "**** THAT" and powered it out.

I actually really really wish I had a home gym. I would practice bail-outs if I had a home gym. Not to mention the other awesome things that come along with having a gym in your home. Alas, I have no room for a gym. Maybe one day. It would certainly be cheaper than my gym membership ($45/mo).

Hope this helps and you start using the bars. Cheers!

[kilgoreklink]

Did my 4th Micro of my 2nd Macro today - squats. HOLY SH-T was it hard.

I AMRAP'ed w/ 295 for 3 reps and then did two sets of 1. Had a great spotter who didn't over help but made me confident. Never got under that much weight before - was legitimately scared! But got hyped, focused and got after it.

One thing I realized after I left is that I never use the rack bars. In fact I'm not entirely sure how to use them - I go pretty deep into my squat. Do you guys use them? Any tips?

I have a power rack in my garage. I got it because of the safety pins. Nothing builds your confidence better than dumping the bar and continuing to live. You will have to set the pins and do trial and error with an empty bar. Set it low enough not to impede ROM but no lower. Using it with the bench press you set it low enough to keep off your stomach but high enough to touch the bar to you chest. My chest is a couple of inches higher than my stomach. There is not a lot of wiggle room there. It was scary until I had to dump the bar the first time. I just gave it a push towards my feel and the pins worked as advertised. I love that power rack. It replaced all the other crappy equipment I had collected over the years. PowerTec sells theirs for about $400.00 bucks I believe. Not a bad deal at all.

[claricSTi]

Power racks are the only way to go. I have only gone down twice since starting this program but it definitely made me feel more safe knowing that if I did have a failed attempt, everything would be fine.

I am feeling the sore pretty strong today. Last night was squats, I had a friend come along that hadn't done squats in a long time. He was aiming to keep up with me on my 60% day and happened to puke later on, this is the second person that has gotten sick from a hard GST squat day. I feel like my front squats are really coming up and I was doing sets of 8 with 185 last night pretty comfortably.

Sorry Ryan I have been swamped lately but I will write up a testimonial for ya

[m.c]

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm going to put the rails in next squat day and experience with getting out from under the load.

Thanks again.

[Twmtwm]

Will probably be spamming the thread next few posts. Haven't had a chance to post due to the World Cup basically taking over my life and work.

One thing I will say though is that GST definitely seems to be working. Have been getting a lot of compliments on how big I've got. To the point where I have been accused of steroids (I'm not) haha. My diet has gone from pretty good to even better and that has certainly helped but I do think GST is behind the success.

[Twmtwm]

Did my 2nd micro pull day Friday.

BB bent row, I warmed up by slowly moving the weights up and got 11reps in my as many as possible for 55kg.

On my lat pull downs hit 5x5 on level 14 of the machine.

My one armrow I managed a 65lb dumbbell and again hit 5x5.

[Twmtwm]

My 2nd micro lift day was today.

Was really happy with my lift day today. Thought my sets were good and managed to get the pull throughs almost right.

Warmed up to my deadlift working set weight of 90kg. Also mixed in some explosive jump squats in between each one to help with the explosive movement of the lift. Got 10 on my amrap.

Moved on to good mornings then. Practiced the movement with an empty barbell and then 20kg each side. Did 5x5 of my working set then for 80kg.

Then onto the pullthroughs. The video you gave last week Ryan was excellent so aimed to mimick that as best I could. Did 5 for 30kg, another 5 for 40kg and then 3 sets of 5 for 50kg.

To finish off I did my ab work and some weak point training.

Really happy with my life day today and can't wait to get my press on tommorrow.

[Reid456]

Got a job today. Working 40 hour weeks for the next 3 weeks probably. It's a sweet job that involves a lot of standing around. I'm moving things from one hospital to another. This is relevant because now I will have money to buy the eBook. Also, time to go hit the gym for Micro 3 Press day. Already got my sweat worked up.

[2020Wellness]

Great comment. This is the kind of downward spiral that sneaks up on you. Constant hard work is the only way to prevent it.

This is something I'm gonna disagree with. Constant hard work leads people to believe that they should always try to work through those hard days. But, what do you do if you are having more and more hard days? Do you keep working through them, suffering, losing strength, and loosing motivation? No, that is when you need to realize that working hard can come in many forms. It can come in the form of training smart and taking some time away from the gym. When the hard days start becoming the norm, you get out of the gym for a solid 7-14 days. Some people would get the wrong idea from that statement, so I had to clear that up, as the deload is a major training concept.

hey ryan, ive been reading over the first 10 pages of the thread and really like the idea behind this program! im finishing up about 6 months worth of SS and looking to try something different, i like that this splits it up and allows for some higher rep ranges and different exercises. i know you said your helping a lot of people through this thread. just wanted to give you a heads up before Pming about how i have it laid out. thanks for this awesome program!

Thanks for the heads up and glad to have another guy on the train!

To all you guys hitting a little motivational road block. Just keep at it, some days are better than others, some weeks are better than others. Making the next right choice will always sort things out eventually. Sometimes the next right choice is to go camping and eat Trout on a stick over a campfire. :-)

This is a solid post. This correlates to my post above. Sometimes the right choice is to get out. Making that right choice is what separates the people who continue to move forward from the ones that try so hard to force their progress that they end up burning out.

Did my 4th Micro of my 2nd Macro today - squats. HOLY SH-T was it hard.

I AMRAP'ed w/ 295 for 3 reps and then did two sets of 1. Had a great spotter who didn't over help but made me confident. Never got under that much weight before - was legitimately scared! But got hyped, focused and got after it.

One thing I realized after I left is that I never use the rack bars. In fact I'm not entirely sure how to use them - I go pretty deep into my squat. Do you guys use them? Any tips?

Glad to hear about your great heavy weight experience! Definitely use the safety pins man! Looks like the reasoning has been explained by others in this thread, so I'm not going to go into it. My main point: USE THEM.

Well am gonna start this program on monday. i been reading on it for the last couple of weeks and am very intererested doing it. hopefully all my workouts go as planned. am gonna start pretty light on my supplemental excersices so i can have a pretty solid increase of weight for the first couple micros and kinda used that as a motavional tool for my core lifts. i might do a journal but i havent decided if i am nor not. will post my workout tomarrow

That sounds like an excellent and mature approach to your supplement lifts. I like your thinking and should tell you that your mindset sounds like it'll get you far in the long run. Thanks for the GST support!

Does anyone find that on their AMRAP set, you do your reps faster, just to try and get as many as you can? My form is still nearly, if not as good as my normal work sets, but just done as a higher tempo.

You can speed up your tempo a bit, as its always fun to really go nuts and crank reps out. Just remember, when you go nuts, just control it a bit You should stay pretty consistent with your tempos throughout the entire program, but a little variation isn't going to hurt anything. Don't get too wrapped up in little details. Just move that weight for AMRAP!

I am feeling the sore pretty strong today. Last night was squats, I had a friend come along that hadn't done squats in a long time. He was aiming to keep up with me on my 60% day and happened to puke later on, this is the second person that has gotten sick from a hard GST squat day. I feel like my front squats are really coming up and I was doing sets of 8 with 185 last night pretty comfortably.

Sorry Ryan I have been swamped lately but I will write up a testimonial for ya

Its always fun to be the top guy cranking out reps within your group of friends. You can bet those guys look up to you a bit and will try to topple you, haha. I love the feeling of strong, comfortable front squats.

Haha, guys puking over GST squat day, I love it. I ran a kid hard one day with my weight sled during a training session. He had to pull over on his way home and hang out the side of his car. Blake, if you're reading this, that was a good workout, son!

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm going to put the rails in next squat day and experience with getting out from under the load.

Thanks again.

This sounds like an excellent and smart idea. Practice for the good and the bad.

Will probably be spamming the thread next few posts. Haven't had a chance to post due to the World Cup basically taking over my life and work.

One thing I will say though is that GST definitely seems to be working. Have been getting a lot of compliments on how big I've got. To the point where I have been accused of steroids (I'm not) haha. My diet has gone from pretty good to even better and that has certainly helped but I do think GST is behind the success.

Diet is huge, but diet alone isn't gonna make that muscle. A solid training program is also key, which you've got access to now. Run with it bud. You'll like the outcome.

Got a job today. Working 40 hour weeks for the next 3 weeks probably. It's a sweet job that involves a lot of standing around. I'm moving things from one hospital to another. This is relevant because now I will have money to buy the eBook. Also, time to go hit the gym for Micro 3 Press day. Already got my sweat worked up.

Great news about the job! There are alot of people searching, so glad you found one. Sounds like you'll like it too. Glad you've got some money rolling in, after all, the GST eBook is the most important purchase you'll ever make.

[pezking7p]

This is something I'm gonna disagree with. Constant hard work leads people to believe that they should always try to work through those hard days. But, what do you do if you are having more and more hard days? Do you keep working through them, suffering, losing strength, and loosing motivation? No, that is when you need to realize that working hard can come in many forms. It can come in the form of training smart and taking some time away from the gym. When the hard days start becoming the norm, you get out of the gym for a solid 7-14 days. Some people would get the wrong idea from that statement, so I had to clear that up, as the deload is a major training concept.

So apparently you can't shrug off a bad workout because that leads to complacency, and you also can't strive to work hard every day because that leads to burnout. ...Mediocrity wins again? :P

I kid.

[2020Wellness]

So apparently you can't shrug off a bad workout because that leads to complacency, and you also can't strive to work hard every day because that leads to burnout. ...Mediocrity wins again? :P

I kid.

Only the lazy shall succeed

[damirk]

Cardio/abs+Complexes

To start out, just wanted to mention that today was one of the WORST days I've had in the gym in quite some time. I binged out last night and ended up eating a whole bunch of crap (at almost half a jar of peanut butter!!!!!) which beat up my stomach pretty good. We had family from out of town so i ended up eating a lot of sweets like ice cream, a couple of cookies and some cake. Aside from those, the binge was of mostly "clean" foods, if there is such a thing as binge of clean foods. This was the rundown of what i ate, wanted to get some feedback and some helpful tips for posibly avoiding something like this in the future:

-1 banana
-1/2 apple
-im guessing 6-7 tbsps of peanut butter
-1/2 apple
-3/4 organic brownie
-2 cookies (some imported German cookies filled with icing)
-1-2 pieces of cake (mostly the icing, didnt really like the chocolate or vanilla part of the cake)
-1 vanilla ice cream bar coated with chocolate
-1 drumstick ice cream cone (w/o the cone, just ate the ice cream and chocolate nut coating)
-1/2 cup of cottage cheese with walden farms syrup

I guess the problem is i consumed a large quantity of it in short amount of time. Nonetheless, i felt like crap during the workout. I only did 3 sets of complexes before i finally decided i was doing my self no good working out feeling like crap so I stretched out really good for about 10-15 minutes and got out of there. It kind of took a toll on me mentally, but im looking to rebound by eating a little less today and hitting Squats HARDCORE tomorrow. Anyways sorry for the ramble and here is the rundown before i threw in the towel.

35 minutes of HIITcardio on treadmill

Cardio actually went pretty good. kicked the intensity up a notch and took shorter periods of lower intensity parts of the HIIT compared to what i usually do during a HIIT session.

Abs+complexes

Cable crunches (157.5lb resistance) 3x20
(felt like i was gonna poop my pants during these lol)

Push-ups (hands wide apart, feet elevated) 3x10

SLDL 3x10

Bent over rows 2x10

Cleans 2x10, 1x5

[pezking7p]

Cardio/abs+Complexes

To start out, just wanted to mention that today was one of the WORST days I've had in the gym in quite some time. I binged out last night and ended up eating a whole bunch of crap (at almost half a jar of peanut butter!!!!!) which beat up my stomach pretty good. We had family from out of town so i ended up eating a lot of sweets like ice cream, a couple of cookies and some cake. Aside from those, the binge was of mostly "clean" foods, if there is such a thing as binge of clean foods. This was the rundown of what i ate, wanted to get some feedback and some helpful tips for posibly avoiding something like this in the future:

-1 banana
-1/2 apple
-im guessing 6-7 tbsps of peanut butter
-1/2 apple
-3/4 organic brownie
-2 cookies (some imported German cookies filled with icing)
-1-2 pieces of cake (mostly the icing, didnt really like the chocolate or vanilla part of the cake)
-1 vanilla ice cream bar coated with chocolate
-1 drumstick ice cream cone (w/o the cone, just ate the ice cream and chocolate nut coating)
-1/2 cup of cottage cheese with walden farms syrup

I guess the problem is i consumed a large quantity of it in short amount of time. Nonetheless, i felt like crap during the workout. I only did 3 sets of complexes before i finally decided i was doing my self no good working out feeling like crap so I stretched out really good for about 10-15 minutes and got out of there. It kind of took a toll on me mentally, but im looking to rebound by eating a little less today and hitting Squats HARDCORE tomorrow. Anyways sorry for the ramble and here is the rundown before i threw in the towel.

35 minutes of HIITcardio on treadmill

Cardio actually went pretty good. kicked the intensity up a notch and took shorter periods of lower intensity parts of the HIIT compared to what i usually do during a HIIT session.

Abs+complexes

Cable crunches (157.5lb resistance) 3x20
(felt like i was gonna poop my pants during these lol)

Push-ups (hands wide apart, feet elevated) 3x10

SLDL 3x10

Bent over rows 2x10

Cleans 2x10, 1x5

mmmmeehh. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Sucks that you felt like crap afterward though. Probably just bloated/overfull gut from the extra food.

In the future, I would recommend trying to stick to the things that fill you up with less calories (was there a veggie tray?), or if possible move to a room away from the food and away from people eating food. Out of sight out of mind works for me on food.

If you see that kind of thing coming in advance, you can always make yourself a big meal before hand that will fill you up with good stuff so you won't have any more room.