2022 Week 39 Training Log

September 26 – October 2, 2022

Mark Brown

October 3, 2022

Monday
Scheduled Rest Day – Recovery

Tuesday
Scheduled Rest Day – Recovery

Wednesday
Bench Press, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 265 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 275 x 2, x 1
Flat Holds, Cambered Bar – 265 x 1:30, x 1:30, x 1:30, x 1:30
Floor Press = 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 255 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns, Straight Bar attachment – 70 x 10, x 10; 80 x 8, x 8

Thursday
Incline Tricep Press, EZ Curl Bar – 45 x 15, 65 x 12, 75 x 12, 85 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl BAr Wide Grip – 45 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 10, 85 x 10
Muscle Mace, Giant Set – 45 x 10(x 10)(x 10), x 10(x 10)(x 10); 50 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 10)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Wide Grip – 45 x 20, 65 x 15, 85 x 12, 95 x 12
Tricep Pushdowns, Pronated Grip – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Narrow Grip – 95 x 12, 85 x 12, 65 x 20, 45 x 20
Single Arm Tricep Pushdowns, Pronated Grip R then L – 10 x 20(x 20), 15 x 20(x 20), 20 x 15(x 15), 25 x 12( x 12); L only: 20 x 12, 15 x 15, 10 x 20, 5 x 25

Friday
Scheduled Rest Day – Recovery

Saturday
Free Squats, Straight Bar – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 315, x 3, x 3; 365 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1; 385 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1, 495 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Deadlift, From Floor – 365 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1; 385 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Barbell Rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Calf Raises, Straight Bar – 225 x 20, x 20, x 20, x 20
Leg Extensions – 110 x 8, 130 x 8, 150 x 8, 170 x 8

Sunday
Bench Press, Chains 45 lbs added to weight – 135 x 6 wide, x 6 inside, x 6 narrow; 225 x 6, 245 w/chain x 3, x 3; 255 w/ chain x 3, x 3
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Seated Overhead Press, American Cambered Bar – 128 x 6, 138 x 6, 148 x 3, x 3; 158 x 3, x 3; 168 x 3, x 2, x 1
Dumbbell Press – 100 x 12, 110 x 8, 115 x 5, 120 x 4
Tricep Pushdown, V Shape attachment – 45 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Rack Pushups – bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Steps/Miles
Monday – 28,938 steps, 12.9 miles. Tuesday – 25,452 steps, 11.5 miles. Wednesday – 26,198 steps. 11.8 miles. Thursday – 23,157 steps, 10.5 miles. Friday – 24,689 steps, 11.2 miles. Saturday – 6,722 steps, 3.1 miles. Sunday – 6,621 steps, 3.3 miles. Total – 141,777 steps, 64.,3 miles.

Notes

Changing the squat/deadlift action to Saturday from Tuesday didn’t change much from the previous week. That is probably due to the fact that I didn’t change much about prep for it. The reps got done and still felt a bit heavy. My legs feel like they need a day or so more recovery to do anything with them in the gym. The singles are easier to recover from than what I normally do. Doing singles work on squat and deadlift has shown me what I need to do in the garage before the inevitable switch to the gym in January for a few months.

I noticed my Evolution Athletics 3x sleeves are getting harder to pull off at the end of the session which means my biceps and triceps are showing progress in the muscular development area. I am feeling and seeing the signs of weight loss without getting on the scale. I am firmly back in the 5th hole on the hard powerlifting belt I use for lifting.

Value in the Gym, Part 2

Let’s get more specific!

Mark Brown

September 28, 2022

The last 8 months have really given me an opportunity learn from both experience and second hand sources and apply that information to my current program. Some of the lessons have become hard rules that I apply to planning sessions and the lifting that gets done during them. Others are more informal in nature, so they are just information I use to get the most out of my lifting sessions. These are all a little bit more specific so I felt they deserved their own section of this essay.

First, is a lesson I learned in gym this past winter. I had decided I was going to lift Monday through Friday and had to figure out a way to do that while getting everything I wanted in. That included a day at the gym for doing a session that was about isolating triceps, biceps, lats and perhaps some rear deltoid work. Any experienced lifter reading this knows that to get the most out of a session like that all the exercises have to be done at max effort or near max effort. Some of the days that I lifted during the week put isolation sessions the day before a press day. I noticed that my pressing sessions were definitely negatively impacted by the previous days lifting. After a few times, I determined it was because I was pushing my triceps too hard over a 2 day period. I just didn’t have the juice in my arms. When I got back to the garage in March to generate what my current lifting plan is, I made sure that I didn’t press a day after I did isolation.

My solution to never violating the rule is to use all 7 days of the week more effectively. I’ve typically lifted on weekdays the last few summers to keep my weekends free for unplanned events, but I committed to lifting on the weekends this year. Sometimes getting up for lifting sessions on Saturdays has been difficult. I do much prefer to lift after work when I am still warm. My job is very good at getting me ready for strength training. There have been a few times where changes to the lifting schedule for recovery or weather reasons during the week pushed me into a position to do arms on a Saturday, which is the day before my second chest session if anyone follows my training logs. In those cases, I just rested that Saturday. It’s not worth doing at that point.

Over the last couple weeks, I have begun to understand a bit more why it is important to follow the rule. I have felt better and smoother under the bar over the last 9 or so weeks, mostly because that’s when I really recommitted to increasing tricep strength. My lifting schedule has largely been Monday Rest, Legs/Pull on Tuesday, Pressing Wednesday, and Arms Isolation Thursday, Friday Rest, Saturday Legs/Pull, and Sunday Press since March. By keeping the isolation day firmly on Thursday, I have allowed the day I prioritize muscular development to be followed by 2 days of rest before another press day. I believe what I am doing now is the correct way to develop pressing strength and tricep muscular development. By putting the isolation day 24 hours ahead of a heavy press, I interrupted the recovery process midway through. That’s why my bench press, in whatever form it took, was less effective and I felt weaker. I was essentially doing it backwards earlier in the year. I understand the value of pre-fatiguing muscle groups to force another group to work harder, but I don’t see it here at all. Doing it just gets in the way of recovery.

Second, moving from a program where I did the same lifts in relatively the same way for months at a time to one that works main lifts in 3 week waves has shown me the value of an ever changing plan. More importantly, it has shown me that value needs to be at the center of every decision that is made during strength training. There needs to be a purpose to why changes to the program happen beyond fighting the boredom it can cause. This is a dominant theme especially when the focus is raw strength development. Each lift has something specific it brings to a program. It’s easy to get lost in the process of making one lift better. A lifter can develop a dangerously high level of pride in a specific exercise. The primary danger comes from only becoming good at one lift at the expense of the whole. A good analogy for the value here is that of a rising tide. I know I’ve used it in other essays. “The rising tide effects all boats.” The waves helps all of the lifts get stronger over time. It will eventually add up when talking about sport specific lifts.

The wave has numerous other mental and physical effects. One thing I have learned recently is that the straight arm lat pulldown is more effective after doing my cambered bar press-cambered bar hold-straight bar floor press main-supplemental lift sequence. Hell, the floor press has gotten more effective since becoming more serious about pressing with the cambered bar. The straight arm lat pulldown is an example of a lift whose value increases when done after specific lifts or equipment being used. Equipment used for tricep pushdowns and pulldowns experiences similar value increase when paired with specific prior movements. A lot of this value comes from putting into practice the idea of fatiguing the muscle to force it to work harder. The lifter is just using a bigger, full body movement to do the fatiguing. With the case of the straight arm lat pulldown, the lifts done prior to it all place an emphasis on the lats, so that muscle group is quite fatigued by the time I get to the accessory movement. This is just one way thinking like a bodybuilder can be quite helpful for a lifter whose main goal is strength and power development.

It is also how lifters use a the physical part of training to help their intellectual and mental development. The wave forces lifters to constantly experiment to find out what combinations of lifts are most valuable together and how valuable variations of lifts they already do are in a general sense. The intellectual development achieved by getting the lifter to enact change consistently in this way promotes learning at a higher rate. If they do strength training long enough using this method, they will have a better understanding of programming as a whole so they can either self program or have a better understanding of programs being sold to them. Changing a lifting program out of boredom could get a lifter to that point of learning but it would take longer to get there. Every choice matters. Be thoughtful with decisions that don’t seemingly have connections with others. Becoming better at planning long term is the key point in a lifter’s trajectory.

Third, committing to a vision and an overall training structure makes a huge difference. What I just described above is an intentional act of change within a larger established structure. The vision created acts like a long term goal. It allows lifters to take sensibly sized steps towards it. That means both attaining short term goals and retaining the benefits that has been gained from them. The latter is incredibly important because they can be lost very quickly. The body doesn’t retain everything that has been gained in the gym without consistent effort to maintain it. This is true for both natural and enhanced lifters.

The main reason for commitment to a vision is that the results of any given plan won’t even begin to come into view for months, if not longer. It’s one of the things that makes strength training fulfilling and maddening at the same time. The feelings that come from a good muscle pump are easy to ride as long as the lifter knows that they are short term. Understanding that the greater goal can only be achieved by constantly successfully plowing through short term ones sometimes requires mental gymnastics to maintain discipline. Lifters may not see the results they expect to see for weeks and months on end. That isn’t easy to cope with.

This can also become a way for a lifter to become more sport specific. Powerlifters concentrate on single reps of bench press, squat and deadlift. Weightlifters do the same with clean and jerk and snatch. Strongman and CrossFit competitors work on both static power creation and conditioning. Bodybuilders seek to build a stage worthy physique. For non-competitors like myself, increasing raw strength provides a long term goal with benefits that can be felt in the short term. Committing to one of the things I listed here is extremely valuable to a lifter because it provides direction and focus. I can’t overstate that fact hard enough. To get the most out of the gym, a lifter has to pick a path and stay on it for a significant amount of time.

Fourth is something I mentioned in the main piece of the essay. Time and energy are two factors that don’t act in a lifter’s favor during lifting sessions. Lifts and movements that require more energy should be done first unless doing them in a fatigued state is part of the program’s design, which it could very well be. In 2020, I deliberately chose to do deadlifts from the floor last on squat days to really force my legs to work through them and a heavy bench press variant on pressing days. I also very intentionally put a hard bench press variation at the end of chest days. I very distinctly remember those sessions of banded bench press after I had done everything and being extremely hard. There is definitely value in this programming strategy.

Energy loss during a lifting session has a few domino effects. The first one is that each set and rep done on main and supplementary lifts should feel harder than the one prior. The second involves accessory strategy. Accessory lifts that mimic some of the movement patterns of main lifts have greater value than ones that don’t because of the technical value they have. Accessory movements are generally more effective for muscular development than anything else. The accessory movements that have technical development benefits will crazy greater value for the lifter if they are done before ones that don’t.

Fifth, I have noticed a lot of value in minimizing the amount of different exercises done in a given session. It allows for me to get more development of the lifts I am doing during a session than if I did more. Part of what allows me to do it this way is working in the 3 week waves. I could have put this section in up above but it deserves it’s own space to discuss. The main benefit of cutting down the number of exercises done during a lifting session is to get more time with the lifts for that day. The technical work done on them will pay dividends in the long run. However, a lifter needs to maintain work on all main, supplemental and variations of those lifts somehow to maintain skills on them all. This is of far greater importance to a lifter who competes than one who doesn’t. The beautiful thing about strength training is that all choices have consequences, and the lifter can never get away from that fact. So far, the best way I have learned to deal with skill acquisition and retaining is through working in waves.

Getting the most value from main and supplemental lifts requires patience. That’s the toughest thing to get through using the tactic for improvement. It’s extremely easy to do the same things every week for months at a time. The consequences of it can be felt mentally and physically. Doing it will lead the former not to develop as quickly as it could. Once again, this is more damaging to any lifter seeking a time sensitive goal, like a competition or a social gathering like a wedding or class reunion, than one who isn’t. Any delay in mental development needs to be avoided. The former can lead to a lifter becoming unintentionally sport specific or not doing what they thought they were. This also damages development by delaying progress. In time sensitive situations, this isn’t a minor error. It is something that needs to be corrected immediately. Under non-competitive circumstances, it’s just something to learn from so as to not repeat it.

Sixth is about warming up. I have always been the guy at the gym who never warms up before picking up the heavy dumbbells for a the flat press. I will do a bit of a warm up if I haven’t been at work, but I find it to be unnecessary if I have been working. My job allows me to stay pretty warm all day. As a result, I have never placed a large amount of value in warming up for any lengthy amount of time. I’m also 37 with no significant injuries. I understand why an extensive warm-up would be useful for a different lifter. I do agree with Dave Tate when he says that a lifter should be able to jump into their bench press routine without a warm up. My experience has taught me the best warm up is doing a lighter set of the lift to be done, even if that means just bodyweight, or a light accessory movement to get blood flowing to specific muscle groups. Think light tricep pushdowns or lat pulldowns. The major thing to remember about warming up is that everything being done to warm up is still an energy drain on the system. I don’t see any value in an extended warm up for that reason.

These are just 6 things that I have learned through experience have high value in the gym or wherever a lifter does their training. There are many others I’m sure I will run into in the future. The biggest takeaway from the first and second part of this essay on value in the gym is that everything is relative. Value is about finding what works best comparative to all the options that are available. It isn’t about finding what is the absolute best way of accomplishing training or lifts.

2022 Week 38 Training Log

September 19 – 25, 2022

Mark Brown

September 26,2022

Monday
Scheduled Rest Day – Recovery

Tuesday
Free Squat, Straight Bar – 135 x 3, x 3; 225 x 3, x 3; 315 x 3, x 3; 365 x 1, x 1; 405 x 1, x 1, x 1; 385 x 1, x 1, x 1
Deadlift, from Floor – 365 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1; 385 x 1, x 1, x 1, x 1
Calf Raises, R then L – Bodyweight holding handles – x 25(x 25), x 25(x 25), x 25(x 25), x 25(x 25)
Barbell Rows – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Leg Extensions – 110 x 8, 130 x 8, 150 x 8, 170 x 8

Wednesday
Bench Press, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 225 x 3, x 3, x 3 , x 3; 265 x 3, x 3, x3, x 3; 275 x 3, x 2, x 2, x 2
Holds, Cambered Bar – 265 x 1:30, x 1:30, x 1:30
Floor Press – 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 255 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 265 x 3
Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns – 70 x 8, x 8; 80 x 8, x 8; 90 x 6, x 6
Tricep Pushdowns, V shape attachment – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Thursday
Incline Tricep Overhead Press, EZ Curl bar – 45 x 15, 65 x 12, 75 x 12, 85 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar, Wide Grip then Narrow – 45 x 12(x 12), 65 x 12(x 12), 75 x 12(x 12), 85 x 10(x 12)
Muscle Mace, Gian Set – 45 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 8); 50 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 10)(x 10)
Preacher Curls, Wide Grip – 45 x 20, 65 x 15, 85 x 15, 95 x 12
Tricep Pushdowns – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12
Preacher Curls. Narrow Grip – 45 x 20, 95 x 12, 85 x 12, 65 x 15
Tricep Pushdowns, Single Arm R then L – 10 x 15(x 15), 15 x 15(x 15), 20 x 12(x 12), 25 x 12(x 12); L only – 20 x 12, 15 x 12, 10 x 20

Friday
Scheduled Off Day – Recovery

Saturday
Scheduled Off Day – Recovery

Sunday
Bench Press, Chains 45 extra pounds at the top Ring finger on the mark Grip – 135 x 6, 225 x 6, 225 w/chain x 6, 245 w/chain x 3, x 3; 255 w/chain x 3, x 3; 265 w/chain x 2 (failed on 3rd rep)
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Seated Overhead Press, American Cambered Bar – 128 x 6, 138 x 6, 148 x 3, x 3; 158 x 3, x 3; 168 x 3
Flat Dumbbell Press – 100 x 10, 110 x 6, 115 x 4
Tricep Pushdowns, V Attachment – 45 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Rack Pushups – Bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Steps/Miles
Monday – 26,465 steps, 12.1 miles. Tuesday – 26,146 steps, 11.8 miles. Wednesday – 25,231 steps, 11.4 miles. Thursday – 22,785 steps, 10.3 miles. Friday – 28,298 steps, 13.1 miles. Saturday – 4,218 steps, 2.1 miles. Sunday – 5,733 steps, 2.6 miles. Total – 138,906 steps, 63.4 miles.

Notes

The first week of heavy singles on squat and deadlifts felt heavier than I expected. I believe it had to do with the fact that I hadn’t eaten much during the day. That isn’t anything new. For the last 4 weeks, I haven’t been eating much at work. Just enough to get through the day at work. Week 39 will be different because of this.

Wednesday’s pressing session went very well. I can definitely feel a big difference from 3 weeks ago when I was doing the same lifts. The floor press definitely felt a big step in the right direction. The cambered bar holds are still difficult. I don’t see them ever getting easy.

2022 Week 37 Training Log

September 12 – 18, 2022

Mark Brown

September 19, 2022

Monday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Tuesday
Free Squats, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 265 x 6, 355 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 375 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Banded Pin Pulls, Weight Plus 70 lb bands – 245 x 6, 275 x 6, 295 x 6, 315 x 6, 325 x 3, x 3
Calf Raises, Cambered Bar – 225 x 25, x 25, x 25, x 25
Good Mornings, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 195 x 6, 215 x 6, 225 x 6

Wednesday
Tricep Pushdown, V attachment 45 x 12. x 12. x 12 x 12
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown, V attachment – 45 x 8, x 8, 8
Bench Press, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 225 x 6, 265 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 275 x 2
Holds, Cambered Bar – 265 x 1:30, x 1:30, x 1:30
Floor Press – 235 x 3, x 3, x 6; 245 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 255 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown, Shoulder Width – 70 x 8, x 8; 80 x 8, x 8

Thursday
Skullcrushers, EZ Curl Bar – 45 x 15, 65 x 15, 75 x 15, 85 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar Outer then Inner grip superset – 45 x 12(x 12), 65 x 12(x 12), 75 x 10(x 12), 85 x 8(x 10)
Muscle Mace Giant Set – 45 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 10); 50 x 10(x 8)(x 10), x 10(x 8)(x 10)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl BAr Outer grip – 45 x 15, 65 x 15, 85 x 15, 95 x 12
Tricep Pushdown, Pronated Grip – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Friday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Saturday
Scheduled Day Off- Recovery

Sunday
Bench Press, Chains 45 lbs added at top – 135 x 6 Wide, x 6 Inside, x 6 Narrow superset no chains, 225 x 6 No chains, 225 w/chain x 6, 245 w/chain x 3, x 3; 255 w/chain x 3, x 3; 265 w/chain x 3
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 185 x 6, 225 x 3, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3
Seated Overhead Press, American Cambered Bar – 128 x 6, 138 x 6, 148 x 6, 158 x 3, x 3; 168 x 3, x 3
Flat Dumbbell Press – 100 x 12, 110 x 7, 115 x 5
Rack Pushups – Bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Single Arm Tricep Pushdown, R then L – 15 x 10(x 10), x 10(x 10), x 10(x 10)

Steps/Miles
Monday – 27,363 steps, 12.5 miles. Tuesday – 26,455 steps, 12.0 miles Wednesday – 23,784 steps, 10.7 miles. Thursday – 24,730 steps, 11.1 miles. Friday – 24,827 steps, 11.3 miles. Saturday – 5,024 steps, 2.6 miles. Sunday – 7,015 steps, 3.3 miles.

Notes

Chained bench press on Sunday was encouraging. I can definitely feel some improvement from the last time I did it 9-12 weeks ago. The presses at the upper end were much smoother and more powerful. The 265 pounds bare weight with the chain equals about 310 at the time and 300-305 at the bottom so clear progress has been made. I still think I can get 315 by the end of the year if I keep lifting as I am.

The 3 week wave on the lower body and back ended well. I was quite content with my free squats with the cambered bar. I felt it was important to get in some of them into the program with doing heavily only box squats lately. The banded pin pulls surprised me with how much I could lift in terms of weight. I stayed with the 70 pound band (the green one) for all the sets because I wanted to make the most out of the lift and I know the 100 pound ones rip the bar out of my hand too easily.

Value in the Gym, Part 1

Approaching Lifting Through the Lens of Value

Mark Brown

September 15, 2022

The concept of value is essential to understanding why and how stuff gets done. This goes foes the gym, work, home, everywhere. For some areas of life, such as business, the discussion of value is inherently in everyone’s face overtly. Others it gets buried like the lead in a magazine essay. So this idea of value at the gym really is about understanding what one’s long term fitness and strength training goals are. From there, a lifter is able to plot the path to success with far greater accuracy. All of the concepts I outlined in The Road to Disciple help get to the point where what is actually valuable to the overall stated goal and what isn’t. Some chapters of it are more pertinent to it than others. I have learned quite a few lessons regarding value in the gym over the last 8 months that have become very clear lately. Today’s essay is about the idea of value, the lessons of 2022 and how they became clearer.

I have written many times about my movement to a session structure that is more in line with powerlifting than bodybuilding for the vast majority of my strength training so I won’t repeat all of it here. What I will do is to put into the specific context of what this essay is about. Different strength sports prioritize certain areas of strength gain over others. That’s just another way of saying that different sports have different stated goals. A lot of times lifts, rep ranges, sets, etc will overlap in term of presence but differ in importance. Understanding what the long term goal actually is becomes the the most important step in many ways. I have heard Dave Tate and many guests on his podcast Table Talk speak about strength and fitness goals that are 2 or more years in the future. It’s particularly interesting to hear accomplished powerlifters talk about goals in this way because good discipline can promote a very narrow snapshot of the moment if not carefully guarded against. Official competitions help tether longer term goals to daily improvement with the allure of an external reward for success. Depending on the person, that may or may not help someone’s motivation. Success in these events definitely helps mindset stay positive. It reinforces the thought that improvement, whatever the specifics of it become, is possible and well within reach if discipline is maintained. A positive mindset is a must if improvement is to be made and goals are to be met.

Value is best seen through the actions people take. Sometimes what people talk about valuing lines up with actions they take, but it’s hardly a given. The world presents us with an ever changing set of circumstances that challenge everybody’s individual core values. I like the way Colin Cowherd puts it best. Loyal readers know this phrase by now. “People tell you who they are all the time, you just have to listen.” He’s not referring to the words that come out of people’s mouths, but to the actions they take. Often times, life circumstances cause situations that put a gap in between what we say we value and what we actually value. Finances, relationships, and business all put us in positions that outright require lying to either someone’s face or behind their back to just get to the next situation in our lives. Our actions become the best and easiest way to identify what we and others value as a result of that. People are best off accepting the truth of the value they get from the actions they take rather than do mental gymnastics it takes to deny it. This is where truth can become harsh, unwanted and harder to accept as a result. That leads to progress never being made on the stated goals and self-evaluation never gets to where it needs to be for it to become useful to anyone.

Strength training and the various strength sports adhere to the principle that values are best seen through actions thoroughly. What makes the former challenging is that the latter is all over the place with what lifts competitors are judged on during official competitions. This is an exceedingly important thing that lifters need to understand when approaching work in the gym. Competitions act as goals to be met. As such, everything that is done must be completed with them in mind. Powerlifters must complete single reps of bench press, squat and deadlift at competitions. Weightlifters are judged on the snatch and clean and jerk. Strongman and CrossFit athletes need to be prepared for just about anything, especially the former. Bodybuilders are literally judged on their physical appearance. What differentiates strength sports from sports that employ strength training as general physical preparedness, shortened down to gpp in a lot of texts and chats, is the overlap of exercises that occurs in every day training. Any discussion of value in training must start with the understanding of the goal(s) in mind because the overlap I just mentioned can lead to a lot of mistakes and time lost very easily. Competitions create artificial time limits that give a sense of urgency to lifters to get everything right the first time.

Once the specific long term goals have been understood, the planning phase can begin to make them happen. One of the biggest obstacles any lifter will have to deal with when developing a lifting plan is how to deal with energy and time. These 2 factors limit what lifters are capable of accomplishing in any given training session. This means that individual sessions have to be focused and efficient if the long term goals will be accomplished when they are planned to be. Daily gym work can feel like it doesn’t matter because it is repetitive. Understanding the value of the daily gym work for succeeding in long term goals is essential. It really is easy to forget just how important consistency is when goals seem so far away. There are ways to make training sessions feel fresher than they really are. I’ve gone over a few recently but I will re-iterate that working in 3 week long waves helps the body bring up weaker lifts and forces lifters to keep thinking about future strategy. Quickening the pace by altering rest periods is another. That typically means less focus will be on the weights lifted and more put on the effort level given. Muscular development isn’t ideal for some lifts that are done with regularity, like bench press, but it will have other physical and mental benefits. There are lots of other tricks lifters can do to freshen up lifting sessions without doing any harm.

“Value” doesn’t always mean “best.” It can only be gauged in terms of “better comparative to what is available.” The “best” option doesn’t mean any one alternative is objectively better than another in every situational. So understanding that “value” is situational at best needs to be learned very quickly if consistent progress is to be made. Improvement is made in the margins, especially for seasoned lifters. The bench press is a great example of a lift that requires high levels of both strength and technique to really max out its potential. While someone can add significant weight to the bar relatively quickly by pressing with more precise technique, they will inevitably hit a wall if they don’t continuously strengthen their triceps, lats and deltoids. Doing bench press every week will help improve the technique if they doing it correctly but doesn’t develop the muscles that are doing the pressing effectively. That makes the bench press a lift that is better at telling the lifter where they need to get stronger and bad at developing that strength. The improvement of the bench press for any lifter whose goal is a better 1RM, 3RM or just more raw strength overall must be made by increasing the strength of the muscle groups that do the movement. That’s where the margins are for any main movement lift. If a lifter doesn’t choose supplemental/accessory lifts well or does them in a rep and set scheme that doesn’t take full advantage of what the lift does, then plateau purgatory is likely in their future.

What makes the process of improvement in the margins particularly hard for any lifter is the timer I mentioned above. They also get so many cracks at it during the session to get it right. If they stay at it long enough, learning through failure will happen until it finally sinks in. This process helps the lifter understand alternatives to whatever lift they are doing, which are nigh infinite given access to enough equipment. Then it comes down to choosing the best one of the situation the lifter is in on the given day. Working in 3 week waves complicates this a bit because “best” in this case doesn’t always mean the same lift. It could be the lift one is strongest or weakest in. Remember, the rising tide effects all boats. The last few weeks have been instructive in teaching situational choices. I have found that certain accessory lifts I do regularly deliver better results after using specific specialized bars than other bars. I’ve always known it to be a possibility, but to actually feel the difference was illuminating. Accessory lifts almost always focus on muscular development and don’t deal require the same amount of total body energy that main or supplemental lifts do. The latter is really where a lifter needs to get the most value of the lift they choose to do.

Supplemental lifts are done to help improve 1 more aspects of the main lift and are usually done in the 3-6 rep range in my experience. That means a lifter puts enough weight on the bar or dumbbell in their hand for no less than 3 reps and no more than 6. Given enough weight, that’s plenty of volume depending on the number of sets a lifter does. A lot of time and energy are going to be expended in this phase of a session. Getting this right consistently will keep paying dividends for weeks and months to come. Specialized equipment can become extremely useful for a lifter in this situation. It can bring alternatives into play that wouldn’t exist otherwise to their benefit. Certain lifts are physically demanding in ways that isn’t helpful under any circumstance but are well worth doing once those demands can be passed. I will use a specific example of a lift that I stopped doing about 6 weeks ago because I wasn’t finding much value in to illustrate this point.

For the first 6 months of 2022, I continued to do seated overhead dumbbell press in the 8-12 rep range as my main shoulder lift on Wednesdays following my sets of chest pressing as I have in the past. I start about 55 pounds and work my way to 70 or 75. That rep range puts it more in line with an accessory but it’s still a significant lift. What prompted me to stop was the progress I was seeing from doing one heavy supplemental lift on Sunday after pressing. I know from experience that getting the dumbbells up into position gets progressively harder each dumbbell up the ladder. When I get to the 75 pound dumbbells I can barely get them into the front rack position even with that odd cheater curl-half jerk thing I do to get it there. I have failed to get them there more times than I would like to admit. I just decided it wasn’t worth the effort of fighting the dumbbell into position when I have the equipment to do somewhat the same lift but be able to put the bar a position that was ready to be lifted or could be cleaned into position. For those wondering, those lifts are the seated overhead press with the American Cambered Bar or a clean and press variation I do with a log or viking press. What made the seated overhead dumbbell press even less valuable was that by the time I get to the 70-75 pound dumbbells I can really do 6-8 reps with them. The fight wasn’t worth the reps I was getting out of it. This is not to say overhead dumbbell pressing is gone forever from my planning, because it’s very much my primary for when I go to the gym. There’s not a lot of alternatives at the gym I am a member of. In my current situation, it’s not worth my time or energy.

That’s just one example of times I have thought of value in the gym. I have a second part of this essay planned talking about specific points of value to illustrate what I am trying to say here. The last 6 months have been pretty eye opening on this subject for me. Having spent almost all of my lifting sessions in the garage this summer has made me very cognizant of the concept of value. The improvement I have made in strength, muscular and technical development has really shown me a clearer picture of how to stay on this path. I’m hoping to pass that along in this essay and the ones that follow.

2022 Week 36 Training Log

September 5 – 11, 2022

Mark Brown

September 12, 2022

Monday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Tuesday
Free Squat, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 265 x 6, 335 x 3, x 3, x 3; 355 x 3, x 3, x 3; 375 x 3, x 3; 385 x 3, x 3
Banded Pin Pulls – 245 w/ 70 lb bands x 6, 275 w/70s x 6, 295 w/70s x 6, 315 w/70s x 3, x 3; 325 w/70s x 3, x 3
Calf Raises, Cambered Bar – 225 x 25, x 25, x 25, x 25
Good Mornings, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 185 x 6, 195 x 6, 205 x 6

Wednesday
American Cambered Bar Press, Inner Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3
ACB, 2nd grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3
ACB, 3rd grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3; 228 x 3, x 3; 238 x 3, x 3
ACB, Outer Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3; 228 x 3, x 3; 238 x 3, x 3; 248 x 3, x 3
Flat dumbbell Press – 100 x 9, 110 x 6, 115 x 4
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown – 70 x 8, x 8; 80 x 8, x 8
Flat Tricep Press, Dumbbells- 15 x 10, 25 x 10, 30 x 10, 35 x 10
Side Lateral Raises – 10 x 10, 25 (EZ curl bar) x 8, x 8, x 8

Thursday
Seated Overhead Tricep Press, EZ Curl Bar – 45 x 15, 55 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar Wide Grip – 45 x 15, 55 x 12, 65 x 12, 75 x 12
Muscle Mace Giant Set – 45 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 8); 50 x 8(x 8)(x 8), x 8(x 8)(x 8)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Bar Wide Grip – 45 x 20, 65 x 20, 85 x 15, 95 x 12
Tricep Pushdowns, Pronated Grip – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 10
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Narrow Grip – 95 x 15, 85 x 15, 65 x 20, 45 x 20
Tricep Pushdown, Single Arm R then L – 10 x 12(x 12), 15 x 12(x 12), 20 x 12(x 12), 25 x 12(x 12); L only 25 x 12, 20 x 12, 10 x 15

Friday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Saturday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Sunday
Bench Press, Wide Grip – 135 x 8 wide, x 6 normal, x 6 narrow superset; 225 x 6, 275 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 285 x 2, x 2
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 185 x 6, 225 x 3, x 3; 230 x 3, x 3
Pin Press – 225 x 4, x 2, 3, x 3; 235 x 3 x 3, x 3, x 3
Viking Press – 160 x 12, 185 x 12, 185 w/chain x 12, 185 w/2 chains x 10
Tricep Pushdowns, V attachment – 70 x 12, x 10, x 12, x 12
Rack Push-ups – Bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Steps/Miles
Monday – 25,889 steps, 11.8 miles. Tuesday – 27,782 steps, 12.4 miles. Wednesday – 24,093 steps, 10.8 miles. Thursday – 23,447 steps 10.6 miles. Friday – 25,138 steps, 11.4 miles. Saturday – 4,910 steps, 2.5 miles. Sunday – 5,265 steps, 2.4 miles. Total – 136,524 steps, 61.9 miles.

A Look Forward

Same Goal but a Slightly Different Goal in Year 2 of the Blog

Mark Brown

September 8, 2022

I’m going to be direct to the point with this entry. No essay. Just a “state of the blog” post. I took this week off a bit from writing. I got a bit done, but not enough to get an essay worth posting. I have a couple of different pieces in the works. Year 2 for the blog will look quite a bit like the first, but there will be some experimenting with the process part of the bigger essays.

The biggest piece I did was was The Road to Discipline by a mile. I looked at my blog ideas and saw everything they had in common and went after what is what is easily the most ambitious writing I’ve done since college. I released that in multiple parts the way I did because I didn’t have it entirely written. The shift for year 2 is for me to get a that kind of writing effort all done before releasing the individual chapters. It will definitely test my ability to organize my existing lifting, working and writing schedule but I think it will be worth it to produce superior content for the blog. My aim is to write essays that help readers understand something new or from a different angle. That hasn’t changed, nor will it.

The first big writing project I will be working on behind the scenes will be about the importance of culture to organizations and individuals. I know I’m not the only one out there with that content but I have been thinking about it lately. I need to put pen to paper. It may not end up being the length of what The Road to Discipline was but might not be far off. Road ended up being about 45 pages in the program Page total. There are a few other bigger concept ideas I will be working on as well.

I am also running out of equipment to review. I’ve run through most of the equipment that I bought over the space of 2020 and 2021, so don’t expect to see a lot more equipment reviews for the foreseeable future. There could be some pieces of equipment I see at the gym I review at some point. I’m not there enough to really give a fair opinion of for the bulk of the year though.

Food will make its way into the blog some more, especially as cooking is a skill that I consider important to maintain in the same way that strength training is. Cooking is one of those activities that humans do that brings uniqueness to individuals of the species. It makes me a bit sad that cooking has been made to look like a waste of time that needs to be shortened down to fit in our lives.

2022 Week 35 Training Log

August 29 – September 4, 2022

Mark Brown

September 5, 2022

Monday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Tuesday
Free Squat, Cambered BAr – 175 x 6, 265 x 6, 315, x 3, x3; 335 x 3, x 3; 355 x 3, x 3; 375 x 3, x 3
Banded Pin Pulls – 245 w/70 lb bands x 6, 265 w/70s x 6, 285 w/70s x 3, x 3; 305 w/70s x 3, x 3
Good Mornings, Cambered Bar – 175 x 6, 195 x 6, x 6, x 6
Calf Raises, Cambered Bar – 195 x 25, 225 x 25, x 25, x 25

Wednesday
Tricep Pulldowns – 25 x 8, x 8, x 8, x 8
American Cambered Bar Press, Inner Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3
ACB, 2nd Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3, 218 x 3, x 3
ACB, 3rd Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3; 228 x 3, x 3
ABC, 4h Grip – 138 x 6, 198 x 3, x 3; 218 x 3, x 3; 228 x 3, x 3
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown – 70 x 10, x 8, x 8, x 8
Flat Dumbbell Press – 100 x 7

Thursday
Skullcrushers – 45 x 12, 65 x 15, 75 x 12, 85 x 12
Standing Curls, EZ Curl Bar superset Wide then narrow Grip – 45 x 12(x 12), 65 x 12(x 12), 75 x 12(x 12), 85 x 10(x 10)
Muscle Mace, Giant Set – 45 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 8); 50 x 10(x 8)(x 8), x 10(x 8)(x 8)
Preacher Curls, EZ Curl Wide Grip – 45 x 12, 65 x 12, 85 x 12
Tricep Pushdowns, Pronated Grip = 70 x 10, x 10, x 10

Friday
Scheduled Day Off – Recovery

Saturday
Unscheduled Day Off – Recovery
Golfed

Sunday
Bench Press, To Chest Wide Grip – 135 x 6 Wide, 135 x 6 Inside Line, 135 x Narrow, 225 x 6, 275 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 285 x 2, x 2; 225 x 6
Narrow Grip Incline Press – 185 x 6, 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Pin Press – 225 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3; 235 x 3, x 3, x 3, x 3
Viking Press – 160 x 12, 185 x 12, 205 x 10, 235 (weight and chain) x 8
Tricep Pushdown, Pyramids – 70 x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12
Rack Pushups – bodyweight x 12, x 12, x 12, x 12

Steps/Miles
Monday – 27,209 steps, 12.4 miles. Tuesday – 27,470 steps, 12.4 miles. Wednesday – 27,807 steps, 12.6 steps. Thursday – 23,358 steps, 10.7 miles. Friday – 26,977 steps, 12.3 miles. Saturday – 8,513 steps, 4.1 miles, Sunday – 8,578 steps, 4.1 miles. Total – 149,912 steps, 68.6 miles.

Summer Training Update and Notes

Mark Brown

September 1, 2022

It’s been awhile since I’ve made a post about what’s been going on in the gym lately. Quite a bit of time has passed since I put the last one up so here goes. Some of these might not be full thoughts and be disjointed as a result. As such, these are as much for my future self as well as those reading this.

The most progress has been made in the 3 rep max range on bench press. I was able to get 305 down to the chest and back up about a month or so ago with my standard grip, which is my ring finger on the mark on the bar. Since then I haven’t tried that weight with that grip. The 3 week waves of some variant of the press has both instructive and productive for overall raw strength. So, so many reps have been done between 275 pounds and 295 in that time. If I had been more focused on the 1RM, I suspect it would be higher than 305. The trade off has been that I have greater endurance during lifting sessions than before. I have repeatedly hit 225 for 12-15 as an opening real set either to see how much I had or because I could. The latter reason isn’t a good reason to do a set like that often. I’ve been more disciplined in the last few weeks. It just shows me I am ready to make a move if I want to focus on single reps instead of sets of 2 or 3.

I have noticed that increased strength on the bench press is more across the board. The inner grip on the American Cambered Bar has become easier over the last few months. I remember that lift killing me at 158 pounds in 2020-21. Now I’m able to get a set of 3 at 218 as part of the giant set. I suspect the emphasis on tricep strength has played a significant role in overall pressing strength. It has more visible while using the ACB than anything else. The bar is pretty much designed to do that. It’s only now I am fully able to take advantage of everything it has to offer. The addition of the Rogue Cambered Bar to the pressing program has helped with overall strength by showing me the importance of lat work. It’s nothing I didn’t know before, but hadn’t really focused on. I see how I can push my 1RM up when I do eventually focus on it.

Overhead press has gotten better in all of its variations in both lift quality and strength development. I have removed the lighter sets of shoulder on Wednesday’s pressing session in exchange for working on triceps and lats. The result has been the shoulder pressing I do on Sundays has improved overall. I still do waves of seated overhead press with the American Cambered Bar, log press and the Viking Press. I have done a push press on Saturday sessions after cleans for some extra work on the shoulders. The tricep work that I referenced above on bench press has definitely helped overhead press. Perhaps the lack of volume is helping the shoulders recover better than before when I was doing those lifts on Sunday and dumbbell shoulder press on Wednesday. It might be a lesson for my legs.

The straight bar squat got a week cut from it during the summer because of the lingering issue I have with the positioning under it. It’s still super uncomfortable for my left shoulder and bicep to do any volume with the lift. I have leaned on the SS Yoke Bar and cambered bar for squats in any kind of volume. The box squat helps the volume work tremendously. I have found the last couple weeks (weeks 32-34) that my legs haven’t recovered in enough time for a Saturday session, which is where non-squat volume gets done, so I will have to address that in the future. I suspect it has to do with my lack of foot intake during the day right now due to work conditions. The straight bar squat will likely end up being a heavy single type of training session. I’m confident my shoulder and bicep would do fine with 1 rep.

I have a better grasp of session planning now thanks to the constant 3 week waves. It’s helped me think through what lifts would help the lift I just did better, including accessories. The switch to opening up to all variations of lifts I do has helped level up just about every press and bring my squat with even the Yoke bar within eyesight of the cambered or straight bar. That’s not something I’d ever think I’d say because that bar is so challenging. This summer has been very instructive in how to train for raw strength . The next step is to take all of that and build higher 1RM from it. That may happen sooner rather than later. There will be a powerlifting phase here where I lift in more singles. I’m not sure when it will go down. By winter for sure.

Equipment Review: CB-1 Rogue Cambered Bar

Performance Review and Programming Thoughts

Mark Brown

August 30, 2022

The Rogue Fitness CB-1 Cambered Bar has produced a unique experience for me in the garage gym since I bought it last year in July. It has helped me gain more raw strength in a variety of ways during that time. Today’s essay will be a performance review of the bar, how it has impacted my training, and how it can be brought into a strength training program.

There are a couple physical attributes of the cambered bar that a lifter will immediately notice and have to adjust to. First, the shape of it is an indication of how the weight of it will feel in the hands when lifting. The offset weight is jarring for people unaccustomed to weight offset by such a distance. It really tests a lifter’s strength to just keep the bar still. This isn’t the kind of bar that someone buys without doing some level of research on it, so that the offset weight being different shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, words can’t describe that feeling effectively. I’ll do my best, but that signature cambered bar sway is nearly indescribable. The shape has different effect on both presses and squats individually so I will get to those later more in-depth in this review. Second, is the heft of it. This bar weighs 85 pounds. This is a certified monster bar. When doing the lifts, that weight will blend in with the plates. The lifts that would feel the bar weight of it would be tricep extensions, presses or bicep curls and such other lifts. It’s more of a mental game when a lifter knows its a cambered bar day. Getting the bar up onto the J hooks for a squat or press requires a well done curl or clean, not a less precise lift.

A lifter only gets a bar like this for 2 reasons: Necessity or vanity. The first will keep the the lifter engaged with it and try to really use it tin a variety of ways. The second will ensure it is only used for squats and not very often. My initial desire for the bar came from having a different squat experience. I incorporated it into my lifting program a couple months after I got it. I didn’t want to throw it into what I was doing without having a better understanding of it. In that time, squatting with a straight bar at my normal levels of volume has become progressively more difficult because of the muscular development in my upper back. My left shoulder and bicep have bothered me while squatting for years now. Squats with the yoke bar and other upper back development has exacerbated that feeling upon getting properly under a straight bar.

The cambered bar eliminates that discomfort by literally placing the hands in a lower position. The weight’s location, which is almost waist level, causes the sleeves sway back and forth unless the lifter physically prevents it from happening in exchange for that preferred hand position. That is usually done through properly bracing the core. The swaying of the weight forces the body to focus more energy into that braced position. That is a major point of difference between a cambered bar squat and a straight bar squat. Another is the weight of the load is actually held in front of the lifter throughout the lift, from standing to the hole. That contrasts a straight bar keeping the weight in line with the lifter. The difference in the weight’s starting position produces a different squat and a higher impact on the quads, even on a low bar movement. I have learned through my use of the cambered bar that the lifter needs to lean more forward to get the best balance and stability on a squat movement. I have done reps with the cambered bar that were set too far back. I wasn’t in danger of falling backwards but there was definitely instability. That forward lean on a straight bar squat is quite dangerous. It’s not hard to find gym fail videos of people leaning too far forward on squat reps. Outside of those 2 points of difference, which are significant to be fair, a cambered bar squat and a straight bar squat aren’t separated by much.

For all of 2021, the cambered bar was only a squat bar. I did some messing around with it as a bench press bar just to get a glimpse of how it would feel in the hands. It was eye opening when I first tried it. The sway I described above is magnified many times when used as a press bar. It has to do with the fact that my arms are much weaker than my legs are, which kind of goes without saying why. When I first tried it, the sway was much more pronounced that it is now. That is because I have put more focus on increasing triceps strength in that time, the swaying effect itself forcing me to really put my upper body stabilizer muscles to use during a cambered bar press and increased upper back strength. I have made it a much bigger part of my chest strength and muscular development program in 2022. It really produces dynamic results. There are few other bars on the market that produce the same kind of wobble and sway that this bar does but they are much more expensive. I have seen Earthquake and Band-Bell bars well into the $400s and above on the market. It’s an expensive niche part of training if a lifter wants to go there. Like with the squat, the swaying doesn’t change anything about the bench press movement itself so it’s not that different than a straight bar press. The selling point for the cambered bar as a piece of flat press equipment is that it makes the lift harder without adding more weight, which is how straight bar presses are conventionally made more difficult. A cambered bar is a very viable option for lifters looking to increase strength without reaching into the danger zone for more difficulty. Anytime an opportunity arises to train harder without training heavier, lifters should take it. More reps means more strength and technical acquisition This bar gives that in spades.

Starting to use the cambered bar to supplement regular bench press more seriously changed my perspective on it in general. Home gym lifters need to get the most of all the equipment they have in them, even specialty bars that are designed to 1 particular thing exceedingly well. Having a lot of bars around without much competition for use can make programming a challenge, especially when they all do a really good job. What’s made it possible for me to use my full arsenal of equipment is a full rotation of main lifts and supplemental lifts every 3 weeks. I have learned quite a bit about how to bring the cambered bar into my program in the time that it has become my dominant “straight bar” squat and straight bar alternative for bench press.

The first is that the cambered bar loves a box for squatting. If a lifter owns a cambered bar, they should own a box to squat on. I bought an adjustable box mainly to squat in December of 2021 and it got immediate use upon getting back to the garage for lifting in March. Box squats are good regardless of bar, but what really makes this pairing work is the necessary forward lean on the squat. It really allows the lifter to get down to the box in a balanced and stable way. The weight in front of the body and at the waist puts it closer to bottom position of the lift than a straight or yoke bar. I am able to put 80-90% straight bar 1RM max on a cambered bar box squat for as much volume as I want to. It all gets back to the idea of training harder with less weight and staying out of the danger zone. That’s where a lot of my progress has been made.

The second is something I have already mentioned but will expand on now. The cambered bar and a straight bar squat really aren’t too different outside of what I mentioned above. It has been very worthwhile to rotate back and forth from the yoke bar and the cambered bar. They are very different beasts as squat bars go and help each other out appropriately. The yoke bar specializes in challenging a lifter’s upper back strength by focusing the weight of the bar right down the middle of the back. A yoke bar squat is a very challenging movement, especially at near max intensity. The cambered bar puts the focus lower in the bar. That’s not to say there isn’t upper back work in there, but the yoke bar is designed to do that better. There is value in both squat varieties. The cambered bar transfers much better over to the straight bar. The same can be said for good mornings, a main supplemental lift for the squat. The yoke bar does them exceptionally well. There’s just so much more weight concentrated on the upper back area when doing the lift compared to the cambered bar. If a lifter can only afford a safety squat yoke/yoke bar or a cambered bar, the former offers a far more challenging squat than the latter. It’s just a matter of prioritizing development. I got the yoke bar nearly a full year before the cambered bar and I’m glad I did it the way I did.

Third, the cambered bar plays better to a low bar squat than a high bar. The hand positioning, either on the curved vertical support or the horizontal right beside the sleeve, allows me to really set that bar right on my rear delt and across the upper back, aka the shelf. As a result, the cambered bar squat will be my low bar squat movement for the week. The second leg day would see a different squat variation. Lately, I have taken to a goblet squat with heavy dumbbells to remove some spinal loading from my programming. If a lifter only squats once a a week, then rotating lifts needs to be more thoughtful because there’s only one chance to get it right all week.

The fourth has come very recently. I just wrapped up a 3 week wave of cambered bar press last week (2022 Week 34) and made some significant findings. On the bench press, the plates being in line with the lifter in the starting position emphasizes lat and possibly rear deltoid development over all other muscles used in the lift primarily. When the lifter touches their chest with the bar, the weight is 14 inches below them. The pressing movement with this bar is more dependent on the lats than triceps. This motion can be felt when doing pec flies with the arms starting from the furthest back position on the machine. Main difference from the fly to the press is much more weight on the latter than the former. That weight means the lats are going to fatigue at a greater rate than they would with a straight bar. It’s the biggest note that has stuck out to me over the last 3 weeks. It adds a bit of strength and muscular development to what is more of a technical movement. I have gotten more out of my straight arm lat pulldowns over the last 3 weeks at lower weights than I have anytime prior with higher weights. The biggest lesson learned there is the best time to do the volume on muscular development on lats is after doing a cambered bar press.

The fifth was a bit of a revelation and has never eased up on the hard factor. Each main movement with specialized equipment comes with its ideal assistance supplemental lift. In the case of a cambered bar press, it is a hold above the body in the flat position. I have seen this done with hand-bell and earthquake bars in videos and applied it to the cambered bar when I was done with my pressing sets earlier this year. The lift barely qualifies as a movement because there’s none. The idea is to hold the weight in the top position for a set amount of time and let the bar do its thing, which is sway and wobble. Over the span of that time the aforementioned movements of the bar will cause strain on all the muscles down the chain, especially the stabilizers in the arms. I felt how much strain it also put on the lats with a minute and half hold with 265 pounds. Over the time of the hold, it got progressively harder to hold still. The effect is that it feels like a a very slow negative rep. I typically do 3 or 4 of these single hold reps when I do them. The lift also requires the lats to remain strained the entire time. That’s when I discovered the value the combination of cambered bar press main lift and a hold supplemental lift had for helping lat pulls be more effective, which helps muscular development in that area. The entire chain was worked in all of its phases. It’s not a concept that wasn’t new to me prior to 3 weeks ago, but experiencing the feeling more fully has helped open my eyes a bit more to it.

Sixth, these past 3 weeks have helped me put the cambered bar press where it needs to be in the program. I lift on Sundays with Pete and his son. They bench press with a straight bar only currently. His son is either new to training or hasn’t done it for awhile. It’s not my place to ask which is accurate. About 4 months ago I laid out a plan for transitioning my 3 week phases from bench press variation to variation. Getting to the cambered bar was part of my plan up till about 3 weeks ago because there’s no reason to make everyone get under my bar I’m pressing with to get to the other one. That just feels like a dick move for me to make when I press twice a week anyways. That realization has also allowed me better focus on the technical improvement on the straight bar press. Wednesday is the first pressing day I do during the training week (Sunday is a weekend day!) and it is usually done by myself so I’m a bit freer to get done what I’m after. Sometimes I’m in the gym using dumbbells as a main. When I’m in the garage I’m using the EliteFTS American Cambered Bar(ACB). It’s a multigrain press bar with a 2 inch camber in the middle portion. It’s really a good bar for muscular and press development. It gives me the option to volume the hell out of myself with a giant set, which I take every time. It’s another bar that follows the principle of using less weight to work harder. I thought the cambered bar belonged with the straight bar variation group on Sunday because of the similarities in the lift, but the last 3 weeks have shown me that doing it in rotation with the ACB helps me hit all 3 phases of development (technical, strength, muscular) much more thoroughly through the week. Wednesday is where this bar belongs in my training. It’s unique enough from a straight bar press that it’s not duplicating the lift later in the week, and it’s completely different from pressing with the ACB. The lift being different is what the other press day is there for.

I have yet to test the bar beyond squat and bench press seriously but I can see where it could potentially be used when I am able to take better advantage of it. I thought a narrow grip flat press would be utter tricep torment. I may try that in 3 weeks. The bar is probably too heavy for a tricep press currently. Last week I gave a half hearted attempt to see how a zercher squat, which is technically a deadlift, at 175 pounds would feel after getting done with my sets of presses and holds and put it back down immediately. I’m not a fan of zerchers to begin with because I don’t enjoy feeling like my biceps are about to explode when I lift. I imagine the bar sway has to add difficulty to the zercher squat but I’m not quite there yet with the lift. I’m more than capable of doing curls at the weight the bare bar is and above. I can see the swaying motion being a benefit to the curl but I just haven’t done it yet. I see possibilities for lifts I do with other bars so there’s real room for the bar in a strength training program beyond squats and presses.

This wouldn’t be a proper review without going over some the specifics about the bar itself. The combination of the bar’s weight and signature sway during lifts could be a real mental impediment for some lifters. The reason to get the bar in the first place is to help correct some of those weaknesses, but getting around the first turn, to so speak, might be difficult for someone who thought they were getting out out of necessity but turned out to be vanity. The bar’s weight comes from the fact that entirety of the bar is one solid piece of steel that is significantly wider than standard barbells. It’s 1.5” in diameter. That wider diameter actually plays into to the cambered bar holds I mentioned earlier. It will test grip strength and endurance. When I made up my mind to get a cambered bar in July 2021, I looked at the EliteFTS Cambered Bar and seriously considered it because it is lighter than than this one. It weights 65 pounds because it uses hollow bar construction instead of being one solid piece of steel. I got the Rogue Fitness version because it was significantly cheaper. That shipping and handling, maaaan. Also worth noting is the sleeves on this bar do not rotate. That is a positive in this case. Some may disagree.

The bar is awkward to both store and get into proper position. That is because of the heft and the shape. If a lifter has enough free wall space at knee level, that’s the best place for it when not in use. Saving that or proper bar storage, setting it vertically against a wall in the corner is the best option. It’s more awkward to move while in the vertical position than a log, which is saying something. It’s a pain in the ass to get the bar racked, but that just comes with the territory. There’s no getting around this. The easiest way to get the bar to squat position is to do a proper power or continental clean. At 85 pounds, it’s not that hard. It’s a much more difficult curl, though. Merely a slight annoyance, all told.

The bar has the a powder coating that is also on other Rogue Fitness products that don’t have knurling on them. I’ve experienced a similar power coating on the EliteFTS American Cambered Bar I mentioned earlier. This bar doesn’t need any knurling. The coating is enough of a gripping aid for pressing or squatting. unless someone is a heavy sweater. Even then, all a lifter needs chalk, which is cheaper than a knurling on a bar. Lifters will need a specialty collar for the sleeves. I use the Rogue HG 2.0 Axel Collars to keep the plates in place. They work absolutely perfectly for it.

In closing, the CB-1 Rogue Cambered Bar is definitely worth buying if a lifter is looking to add a new level of difficulty to their lifts or needs to make a switch to a squat bar that won’t make them feel like their shoulder and bicep aren’t about to explode. I do not recommend it to new lifters, though. The offset weight does offer a level of increased resistance that doesn’t exist on a straight bar or dumbbells. New lifters don’t need to increase the very nuanced difficulty and resistance that a cambered bar delivers. They would be much better off focusing effort on the technical, strength and muscular development the can get from straight bars, dumbbells, and machines before getting this. Do not expect to be able to lift inside of a rack with the safety pins or straps on. It’s too wide. When I got the bar in July 2021, it was $300 before shipping costs. At the time of this review, that cost has gone up to $335. That price wouldn’t dissuade me from getting it if I was after it. This bar is a big part of my program now. I give it a big thumbs up.