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Cube Method Discussion

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  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    I hope you feel better man. Strength comes and goes with sickness and weight loss.
    My allergies were in full force this week and triples, on bench, with 185 felt heavy. When I've tripled 215 in the past.

    Keep your head up, you're going to make progress as soon as you get over the allergy issue.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    I hope you feel better man. Strength comes and goes with sickness and weight loss.
    My allergies were in full force this week and triples, on bench, with 185 felt heavy. When I've tripled 215 in the past.

    Keep your head up, you're going to make progress as soon as you get over the allergy issue.
    That sucks, sorry to hear you're having the same issue. Although I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda' glad to hear that I'm not the only one that has this issue. I see people come and go from the gym all the time like clockwork and they never seem to be effected by anything, though many don't progress much either. I'm glad today I get my testosterone panel done to see if anything is going on there too.

    I'm feeling a little bit better today and I have my speed squat session tomorrow, looking forward to it.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    inb4 TRT and lifts through the roof hahah

    lemme know how it goes man.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    inb4 TRT and lifts through the roof hahah

    lemme know how it goes man.

    Ha, yes TRT has literally been a life-saver for me.

    Saturday was my speed squat session and it was really good actually. I must finally be coming out of my funk and feeling better. I actually threw in some extra hamstring work as well, I'm actually a little sore today from it. I'm glad I did the extra hamstring work because I obviously needed it if I'm sore from it.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    My training is starting to pick back up as well. I only hit 2-3 things yesterday but I did a boring but big setup for my assistance. Those high rep squats about killed me.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    My training is starting to pick back up as well. I only hit 2-3 things yesterday but I did a boring but big setup for my assistance. Those high rep squats about killed me.

    Yeah, I'm looking forward to yet not looking forward to the last squat session including 50 consecutive squats at 135lbs. Not a lot of weight by any means but that's still a lot of reps. LOL
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 2: Day 1 DE Deadlift Day

    Alright let's keep this train rollin'. My allergies are much better and I was able to keep going. Today was DE (explosive, sorry I prefer WS lingo) deadlift day and it was great. These sessions are truly the most exhausting I think. Today was the first time I've ever done snatch-grip deadlifts and I did them from the lowest pin on the rack. It was still too high in my opinion, so the next time I have to do those I'm probably just going to do them from the floor instead. Plus, I can take a wider grip and not worry about crushing my fingers. LOL!. I'm really starting to like the narrow stance squats but I doubt I would ever use that stance for heavy squatting, definitely maintain some width there.

    Since my brief stint in Boot Camp, I am focusing on working my ab's better and use a couple things I learned in BC. Today I did these sprinter sit-ups things and scissors, each exercise for 50 reps. Once I can do each exercise for 50 reps without having to take a break I'm going to incorporate some resistance.

    For conditioning I ran a mile for time, finished in 7.40 min's, which is my best mile time in quite a while. A long way off from my PR of 6.30 but considerably better than the 8's and 9's I had been running. My goal is to get it under 7 and then start doing it at an incline.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 2 - RE Bench Day

    Today's workout was so-so, I attribute part of it to only having an apple and some amino's prior to the workout. The incline bench work was challenging but I hit my reps. I had to use lighter DB's than I normally would on the DB Inc Press for 2 x 20. I don't have bands for the 100 band tricep pressdowns so I just used a lighter weight and it wasn't really challenging. The next go around I will bump the way up or perhaps just use a heavier weight and do 4 sets of 25 instead. We'll see, don't have a feel for that yet and will just do it as is for now. I was wiped-out after this session for some reason, managed to get a good ab workout in but skipped the conditioning today.

    I'm already thinking ahead to the next 3-week cycle. This cycle my main bench workout are:
    ME Day = Floor Press
    RE Day = Incline Press
    DE Day = Floor Press

    Any recommendations for how that could change? Should it change? It's hard for me to get a feel for it right now, especially as I'm not doing any flat BB benching really. I don't have access to boards or a training partner so board-presses are out for sure. I'm half tempted to replace incline press with low-pin dead-stop bench presses so I can train from off the chest and not just from lockout (floor press).
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    Another idea, that I've seen Brandon use and speak highly of, is essentially board pressing without the boards.
    Pause the bar 1-2" off your chest then reverse it. He said it helps you focus on using your lats and keeping them tight.

    I think the basic floor press, flat bench, and one other variant works pretty well. I havent gone too crazy with a lot of other lifts.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Another idea, that I've seen Brandon use and speak highly of, is essentially board pressing without the boards.
    Pause the bar 1-2" off your chest then reverse it. He said it helps you focus on using your lats and keeping them tight.

    I think the basic floor press, flat bench, and one other variant works pretty well. I havent gone too crazy with a lot of other lifts.

    That's interesting, I'll have to try that. The next ME Bench day I'll structure it again as he has it in the book and get a sense of how I feel on that high-rep flat bench set. If it still feels crappy I'm going to rotate Flat Bench on ME or DE day, not sure. Still have plenty of time.

    On a side-note, I got my Testosterone panel back and my total T dropped about 400 points since last test. They bumped me up to 220mg's a week. :)
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 2 - ME Squat Day

    Hell yeah is all I got to say here. The heavy squat session felt great! I did my 5 sets of 2 with no problem and I felt so good that I added 40lbs and did a single that went up with no problem, probably could've done at least 5 reps to be honest. The GM's felt great, hadn't really done them in a while and finishing with DB Swings was perfect. The 2 sets of 50 on the leg curl SSUUUUCCKED but I still finished them, man did those suck.

    I like to do some chin-ups at the end of every session so I took a rope attachment and swung that over the bar and did 50 total pull-ups on the rope. I never felt my lat's flare like that doing pull-ups before, I will continue to use those for a while because it felt great.

    I was pretty beat after my workout but I did some cardio anyway, still just running a mile for time. Ran it for 4 minutes before my legs felt like jello and just couldn't push myself any further. Walked for 2 minutes and then got a second wind and almost sprinted the last quarter mile to finish in 8:32 min's. Not the 7:40 I had the other day but I'll take it considering that I was running on willpower at that point.

    I'm loving this pre-workout shake.

    1 cup of ground oats
    1 serving of whey
    1 tbsp of honey
    5 grams of creatine

    It's pretty bomb for sure.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    that shake sounds pretty good. I've been eating some honey just about every day, soooo good.


    I like making protein sludge and freezing it for a post workout snack.

    I typically do:
    1 scoop chocolate or chocolate peanut butter whey
    1 TBS natural peanut butter
    1/2-1 cup of greek yogurt
    some oats
    a bit of milk if it's not mixing up well

    blend together and throw in freezer for 10-20 minutes.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    that shake sounds pretty good. I've been eating some honey just about every day, soooo good.


    I like making protein sludge and freezing it for a post workout snack.

    I typically do:
    1 scoop chocolate or chocolate peanut butter whey
    1 TBS natural peanut butter
    1/2-1 cup of greek yogurt
    some oats
    a bit of milk if it's not mixing up well

    blend together and throw in freezer for 10-20 minutes.

    That sounds really good too. How's your training going? Are you on your 2nd meso-cycle right now?
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 3 - ME Deadlift Day

    Alright, so it's been a ****ed-up week with my sleep and lower back pain, and today was the first day I was able to lift. I plan on finishing the week on Sat / Sun and probably won't get a 4th workout in but will start week 4 on Tue.

    Anyway, this session wasn't bad, the first two sets of the deadlift felt heavy but sets 3, 4, 5 we're good and I handled the weight with some good speed I felt. I really don't have blocks so I just did the snatch-grip DL from the floor and that was frickin' challenging, but I got it. Between that exercise and the 50 DB swings I actually felt like I got a fair amount of conditioning in today as well, so I didn't do any true cardio. I didn't hold-back on the weight for the DB Swings either, I pushed it pretty hard which is probably why I felt dead afterwards.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member


    That sounds really good too. How's your training going? Are you on your 2nd meso-cycle right now?

    It's going decent. i've cut a lot of the volume out as I've been short on time with the kids. But I'm still training.
    Yeah I'm on week 4 or 5. I forget. I didn't print out my workouts for this week so I was just winging it.
    Squats tonight with some snatch grip deads.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member


    That sounds really good too. How's your training going? Are you on your 2nd meso-cycle right now?

    It's going decent. i've cut a lot of the volume out as I've been short on time with the kids. But I'm still training.
    Yeah I'm on week 4 or 5. I forget. I didn't print out my workouts for this week so I was just winging it.
    Squats tonight with some snatch grip deads.

    Cool. Those snatch grip deads are no joke. I am still surprised at how much they work the upper back. Between those and the 3 sets of DB rows today, my upper back is feeling like it got a decent workout and it's not even upper body day.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 3 - DE Bench Day

    I am determined to get my workouts in this week even though I missed the first half of the week.

    Today's DE work was pretty darn good. After the 8 sets of Floor Presses I did a heavy single on the Floor Press, felt good. I did change-up the tricep work. Instead of doing 100 tricep pressdowns I did 5 sets of 10 dips and then did 2 sets of 25 pressdowns. I just feel like I'm missing something when I take dips out of my programming, definitely feel weaker.

    All-in-all a good workout. Also ran a mile in 7:22 today which is about 20-seconds better than the last one I ran.

    I'm gonna try and get my RE squat day in tomorrow. I'm looking forward to but not looking forward to the 50 consecutive reps at 135. It's not a lot of weight but I have a feeling it's going to be a real gut-check.
  • run2jeepn
    run2jeepn Posts: 183 Member
    I'm gonna try and get my RE squat day in tomorrow. I'm looking forward to but not looking forward to the 50 consecutive reps at 135. It's not a lot of weight but I have a feeling it's going to be a real gut-check.

    I had my Squat Rep day this week. The 135 for 50 isn't fun at all..... With that said... Have fun...
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member


    I had my Squat Rep day this week. The 135 for 50 isn't fun at all..... With that said... Have fun...

    I ended up in the floor for about 5 minutes with a splitting headache.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    I had my Squat Rep day this week. The 135 for 50 isn't fun at all..... With that said... Have fun...

    I had my Squat Rep day this week. The 135 for 50 isn't fun at all..... With that said... Have fun...

    I ended up in the floor for about 5 minutes with a splitting headache.

    Okay, so I did get my workout on Sunday and yes the 50 reps ****ing sucks! OMG that sucks. The first 20 weren't bad but then it quickly got bad. LOL! It might not have been as bad if it wasn't for the high-rep exercise prior to that as well, but who knows. This set actually reminded me of the Boot Camp classes I did with the ridiculously high-rep sets. I'm glad you only have to do that once a cycle.

    Anyway, 3 workouts in 3 days my body felt pretty beat-up yesterday but I'm glad I got them in. I'm going to eat like crazy today (yesterday too) to recover and start a normal exercise week. Hopefully I continue to sleep better and have a normal schedule.

    I wrote out my plan for this week (week 4) which I basically am just following what he laid-out in the book but I added 5 to 10 lbs on some of the lifts depending on what they were. At the same time I've been doing this I've been focusing on dropping a few pounds for the summer, so I've been doing more of a paleo diet with my GF. I've actually dropped 6lbs, down to 199 so I'm really close to where I think I should be (~195). I'll start chugging gallons of chocolate milk in the fall. LOL
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
    ive been borderline paleo i suppose.
    lower carb, no processed foods (except I do eat some pasta and a bit of dairy) and it's been great for dropping some pounds without killing my total.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 4 - RE Deadlift Day

    This session wasn't bad and I hit my 8 reps pretty well at a 10lb increase from week 1. I also increased the two sets of heavy triples by 10lbs from week 1 and it went up fine, though it felt heavy on the first rep. I'm not sure if that's just because I was a little tired after the 8 reps or not. All around good session, threw in some sumo RDL's and got some good posterior chain work in as well. No cardio today, didn't have the willpower to do it. LOL
    ive been borderline paleo i suppose.
    lower carb, no processed foods (except I do eat some pasta and a bit of dairy) and it's been great for dropping some pounds without killing my total.

    Yeah, I was kind of doing this just to support my GF while she does it and I wouldn't mind getting down to 10% BF or possibly lower which should be about 195lbs for me. If I don't grow my totals too much over May and June that's fine. My GF and her friends like to do the pools here in Vegas so I gotta look good. LOL. Come Aug / Sep I'm totally going to start drinking a gallon of chocolate milk every day and focus on really pushing it during the fall. I made good progress last fall and I want to do it again.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 4 - ME Bench Day

    Today's session was pretty good even though the first set at 80% felt heavy. After the first two sets being so-so, I finally got three good sets in and then did a heavy single. The heavy single actually felt better than the 80% for some reason, weird. I was really curious to see how my flat bench was going to come along and the flat bench rep sets when up really well, pretty happy overall.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 5 - DE Deadlift Day

    I didn't increase the weight on my speed pulls for this cycle, figured I'll keep it the same this time and maybe add 10lbs in week 8's DE Deadlift Day.

    The pulls were great as my speed off the floor felt great. Did a heavy set of 3 afterwards which felt pretty good. I'm thinking that in week 8 I might do like 1 set of two at 80% of 1RM as a Sumo Deadlift. Basically I'm thinking about throwing that in there to help in building strength to get the weight off the floor. Overall great workout, legs were shot afterwards and I couldn't run for too long afterwards unfortunately. I got 1/2 mile in 3:31 and I just couldn't hang in there and had to walk it off. Oh well...
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 5 - RE Bench Day

    Not a bad workout at all, still a little weak on the ole' Incline Press. I never really did train the incline much prior to The Cube so I guess it stands to reason that it should be weak. I felt pretty good at the end of my workout and threw-in a bunch of bicep work which is definitely not typical for me either but I just felt like doing it for some reason. But I ran out of time for some conditioning, oh well. LOL
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 5 ME Squat Day

    This was a really good workout. I did a couple heavier singles afterwards and it felt great. Not much to say about this session other than the squats felt good.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 6 - ME Deadlift Day

    This is pretty much my favorite session I think. The sets of 5x2 were great and I really pushed some heavier work after those. Worked up to a set of 3 reps @ 385lbs and it felt good, which also beats my previous PR of 385 @ 1-rep. So I finally had a session where I broke a PR, very happy.
  • mideon_696
    mideon_696 Posts: 770 Member
    going well mate! great to see, congrats on the 3rm PR too man.

    i'm running this method from July. Looking forward to the change of pace... currently running Sheiko...for the 4 consecutive cycle. :P
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    going well mate! great to see, congrats on the 3rm PR too man.

    i'm running this method from July. Looking forward to the change of pace... currently running Sheiko...for the 4 consecutive cycle. :P

    Thanks!

    I really like it so far and I feel like I'm finally starting to see some progress.

    You'll have to post here and let us know how it's going for you when you start. I'm surprised you don't need a break after running Sheiko for that long.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    Week 6 - DE Bench Day

    Good session all-around. I went to do a heavy single on the Floor Press after the dynamic work and ended-up hitting a double instead of a single, so I was happy with that. Slight increase in strength there I guess. After a ridiculous calf cramp I ended-up getting a good mile in at 7:35. Not my best time but considering I've slacked on cardio lately and my calf felt like crap, I was happy with it.

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