Getting Jacked with (Almost) No Equipment

Since COVID-19 is cancelling everything, it's looking like more and more of us will be spending a lot of time shut in at home rather than packing into cramped, humid gyms. Well, that's no excuse to let yourself decline physically. Staying fit, whether it's for the mirror or for resilience, is doable with no equipment, and very doable with next to no equipment.

I want to be clear that I don't consider bodyweight-only training to be ideal by any means. In an ideal situation, there would be access to barbells, dumbbells, and machines as well. However, situations are rarely ideal, and sometimes it is necessary to adapt or lose your gains.

The exercises I'll be discussing won't be new to a majority of people. However, I still see these exercises butchered on a regular basis. Before scorning any of these tried-and-true basic exercises, make an honest analysis as to whether you're really performing them properly.

Whether you simply find it easier to work out at home after a long day of work, or are going on a full self-quarantine, here are some tips and exercises to focus on when you have nothing but a pullup bar available.

Push-ups: 

The pushup builds the chest, delts, and triceps while also allowing free motion of the scapula and challenging core stability. It is a highly efficient exercise which often gets overlooked by experienced lifters, and all it requires is a floor or the ground. However, even this ubiquitous exercise is often performed with shortened range of motion, flared elbows, and sagging or sky-high hips. 

The body should be straight from shoulder to heel with tightened core and glutes. The elbows should be at least somewhat tucked into your sides (how much so will vary by individual), and the chest should touch (or at least come within an inch or two of) the floor on every rep. 

Can't do a push-up?  There are at least 4 different regressions you can use to build up to the regular pushup, and all have their merit.

1: Elevate your hands on a couch or other surface

2: Perform push-ups on your knees

3: Perform negative push-ups (the lowering portion) with as much control as possible

4: Perform push-up position planks for time

Want to make them harder? 

1: Do higher reps. If you're not doing unbroken 100-perfect-rep sets, you can stand to be better at regular ol' pushups. You'd be surprised at how well this can build the chest/shoulders/tris.

2: Pause your reps at the bottom. This builds starting-position strength.

3: Elevate your feet. This will allow you to emphasize the shoulders and upper chest a bit more.

Pullups: 

The pullup may be the single greatest upper body exercise that one can do. It will develop nearly every muscle of the back, along with the biceps and delts. The abs will be challenged to stabilize the trunk while hanging. There may even be times that your chest or triceps get sore from a particularly insane pull-up workout. Yet this is probably the most poorly performed exercise I see in gyms, and the main reason is likely just that they are hard, and require a substantial amount of strength to perform properly. The main culprits are typically shortened range of motion (particularly in the bottom portion of the movement) and rolling of the shoulders at the top. 

The pullup should be performed from a dead hang, with the arms fully extended, and ends when the chin is over the bar. The shoulder blades should be pulled together at the top, and the shoulders should not be rolled forward, nor should leg momentum be used, to reach the top.

I would also recommend doing pull-ups with a variety of grips. Typically, a wide grip will be most difficult, while close supinated or neutral grips (typically called a chinup) will allow for higher reps. If you have never done a pullup before, your best chance at getting a successful rep will be to use one of those less difficult grips.

Can't do a pull-up? There are various ways to offload pullups, such as with the assisted pull-up machine or with bands. It is also beneficial to do a variety of pulldowns and rows when you have access to equipment, but without equipment here are your options:

1: Leg-assisted pullups: These would be done with the feet elevated on a box or something similar, allowing you to vary the amount of assistance you use throughout the rep.

2: Negative-only pullups: Use a step or jump up to the top of the pullup, and then bring yourself back down as slowly and as controlled as possible.

3: Inverted rows

4: Dead hangs for time

5: Partial pullups: Starting from the full hang, pull yourself as far up as you can.

Too strong for regular pullups? No you're not. But try sternup chinups for some variation.

Walking Lunges: 

Lunges are a near-total lower body exercise that will build your glutes, quads, adductors, and even hamstrings. They're straightforward to learn and can be done for hundreds of reps within a workout. Again, the execution is important. You should be lunging out far enough that the front knee is at just about a 90 degree angle.

Can't do a walking lunge? Do stationary lunges, also known as split squats. If those are still too difficult, try bodyweight squats. If those aren't in the cards either, squat down to a chair. 

Lunges too easy? Again, do several hundred reps of lunges in one workout and tell me they're too easy. However, Bulgarian split squats (with the back leg elevated) can be done for extra variation.

Interval Sprints:

Most people lose athleticism as they get older, and don't do any kind of fast or explosive movements. Sprinting is a fundamental task that will always be useful, and challenges the entire body. If you haven't sprinted in some time, your first time back at it will leave your glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and even your lats, abs, and obliques sore. It also challenges the cardiovascular system in a completely unique way. While I'm calling these sprints, they don't need to be done at 100% (and sure as hell shouldn't be if you haven't been running/sprinting). 60% or so effort would be a good starting point. 

Neck work: 

Few people train neck, but many people deal with neck pain. Coincidence? I think not. Regardless, a strong neck is a necessary part of any complete physique, and can help support the head in our excessively sedentary desk-bound lives. Training the neck does not require weights, and in fact bodyweight-only neck work can be highly effective. Neck flexion, extension, and rotation (lying on the floor, or even better with your head off the edge of a bench) are often done by fighters for high reps and can develop a neck that looks as good as it performs.

There are many more bodyweight-only exercises that you can add to you repertoire. But making the above exercises the staple of your at-home program will give you excellent results on their own.

The Foundation Movement: Romanian Deadlift

There are no mandatory exercises. There is no rule that says you have to bench, squat, or deadlift. With that being said, there is one strength movement that I believe just about anyone can benefit from regardless of their training experience -- one that can improve strength, posture, muscle mass, motor patterning, and even flexibility. That movement is the Romanian Deadlift, or RDL.

The many benefits of the RDL make it an excellent foundational movement in any exercise program. This is well understood by high-level trainers such as Paul Carter, celebrities who want to look and perform to a high standard like Henry Cavill, and certified maniacs like WWE superstar/YouTube legend Eric Bugenhagen.

Strength, Muscle, Flexibility
While the RDL is typically thought of as a hamstring and glute exercise, it develops head-to-toe strength throughout the posterior chain and stimulates a huge amount of muscle mass. The upper back stabilizes the bar and the shoulder girdle itself, calling upon the rhomboids, traps, lats, and several smaller muscles. The lower back and abdominal musculature work isometrically to stabilize the spine. The glutes and hamstrings act as the primary movers, producing hip extension. The hamstrings in particular are put under a significant weighted stretch at the bottom of the movement, which is a potent stimulator of muscle hypertrophy, in addition to its flexibility benefits.

Motor patterning, Posture
Even the most sedentary person will have to bend over to pick something up at some point. The RDL closely resembles the movement pattern required to pick up an object from the floor: tight core, neutral spine, controlled extension of the hips. Training the RDL can teach an individual to use their glutes and hamstrings effectively, move with safer patterns in day-to-day life, and avoid the compromising positions that can easily lead to back injury. By strengthening the core, back, and glutes, the RDL also allows a person to maintain better posture throughout the day.


How to Implement the RDL:

Execution:
Do NOT round the lower back. This is a surefire way to get injured. However, there is no need to over-arch (over-extend) the back either. A neutral to slightly arched back, with braced abs should be used. When thinking about bracing the abs, imagine someone is about to punch you in the stomach.

Equipment:
The barbell RDL typically allows for the heaviest loads to be used, but the RDL can be performed effectively with a variety of implements, including dumbbells, kettlebells, the trap bar, the smith machine, and a variety of other machines. For the barbell variation, I'd recommend using straps as the weights get heavier if you find that your grip gives out prematurely.

Programming:
RDLs are most useful in the 4-10 rep range. Occasionally venturing above or below this rep range is fine, but will put you more at risk for breakdowns in form. This is not a movement that should be performed to failure, and it requires patience when it comes to increasing loads. Every rep should be performed perfectly.
When you first begin performing these, I would NOT recommend overdoing the volume. After warm-ups, I generally find that 1-2 hard sets are plenty to get the job done. The weighted stretch can cause a tremendous amount of muscle damage, and will make you incredibly sore.

Case Studies in Gainz: The Training Routines of Eddie Hall, Captain Kirk, and Ed Coan

There are many effective routines for getting big and strong. When examining the training routines of some of the strongest men in history, though, there are often clear commonalities. Eddie Hall, "Captain" Kirk Karwoski, and Ed Coan are 3 of the strongest individuals to ever live, and their training methodologies, which are all similar in structure, have had a tremendous impact on my own understanding of strength training.

Generally, the training programs of these 3 monsters exhibit the following structure:

• 3 main heavy days per week: one for the squat, one for the bench press, and one for the deadlift
• Bodybuilding-style auxiliary work performed after the heavy lifts
• 1-2 additional days for training the chest, shoulders, and/or arms, typically with higher reps

This tried-and-true format can form the basis of a solid strength program for just about anyone. It allows for steady gains in strength and muscle size, while also allowing plenty of time for recovery. This is the very same program structure I followed leading up to my squat record. It is simple, but when sufficient effort is applied, highly effective.

Eddie Hall
Eddie Hall should need no introduction, but for the few people who haven't heard of him, he is a World's Strongest Man winner, and the first and only man to deadlift 500 kg (1102 lbs).

This lift put so much strain on Eddie's body that he temporarily lost his vision. 

An outline of Eddie's WSM routine can be found here.

There are several noteworthy aspects of Eddie's training:

• Heavy work on the compound barbell movements
• Use of both free weights and machines for bodybuilding movements
• Heavy, high-rep dumbbell pressing on shoulder day

70 kg (154 lb) dumbbells

Kirk Karwoski
Captain Kirk was one of the most dominant powerlifters of the '90s, and is one of the greatest squatters of all time. He is well-known for his maniacal intensity and his 1000x2 squat.

"I WANNA HOLD IT!"

His training routine can be found here. He is also the subject of one of my favorite training articles about intensity.

While the movement selection differs slightly from Eddie's routine, the two programs are quite similar. Notably, Kirk emphasizes arms on his second pressing day, rather than shoulders as Eddie did. Eddie competes in Strongman where the overhead press is a contested event, so this makes sense. For Kirk, who competes in powerlifting, emphasizing the triceps with the close-grip bench press is more specific to his sport.

Ed Coan
I have written about Ed Coan before; though he is perhaps best known for his 901-pound deadlift, he was an extraordinarily well-rounded powerlifter and is considered by many to be the greatest powerlifter of all time.

Ed's training program can be found here, where it is notably very heavy on bodybuilding-style auxiliary work. Ed devoted an entire day for extra shoulder work, and also had a second day to hit the chest and arms with lighter weight and higher reps.

When Ed trained a high school kid, as documented by this very interesting forum thread, he combined the extra chest, shoulder, and arm assistance into one day.

Ed was all-around strong, seen here pressing 400 lb behind the neck.

I believe that there are three main reasons that these routines are so effective:

1. Emphasis on recovery: Heavy squats and deadlifts, in particular, take a toll on the joints and the body in general. It's not necessary to perform them more than once per week in order to get stronger. By waiting a full week to train the legs and back (particularly the lower back), tissues are given time to rebuild, so that they can perform at a high intensity in the next workout. The chest, shoulders, and arms, on the other hand, typically recover more quickly, probably due in part to the lighter weights used in pressing movements as compared to squats and deadlifts. They can be trained for a second session each week, to stimulate extra muscle growth without significantly impeding recovery.
2. Emphasis on muscle-building with extra bodybuilding work: If only the big 3 barbell lifts were done, and always for low reps, training volumes would likely be too low to stimulate significant muscle growth. Eventually, without muscle gain, strength gains stall. This is where the bodybuilding assistance work comes in. It allows for extra volume of work with minimal additional joint stress, particularly in slower-to-recover areas like the lower back. Machines like a chest-supported row or leg press are particularly useful in this regard. The strength and muscle gained from this kind of higher-rep training is absolutely functional and can translate to lower-rep strength quite well. Pressing strength, in particular, seems to respond very well to higher-rep bodybuilding work. Eric Spoto, who bench pressed 722 raw, regularly performs high reps with "light" weight (such as 315 for 62 reps). This also explains the utility of Eddie Hall's insane dumbbell pressing. Personally, I brought myself back to a 300 bench without going above 225 for several weeks, and gained chest and arm size in the process.
3. The intensity, focus, and unwavering belief of each of these lifters. If you lift scared, your results will be mediocre.

WTF

The routines of these strength legends could be used directly to great success, but one can just as readily develop a personalized routine founded upon the same principles: simplicity, recovery, intensity.

Stop Setting Yourself Up for Failure

When people begin a workout or diet plan, they often treat it as an all-or-nothing matter.

“I’m going to stop eating carbs.”
“I’m going to get up at 4AM to work out, 6 days per week.”

When you’re used to eating eating donuts for breakfast, Doritos for lunch, and occasionally taking the stairs at work as your only form of exercise, you’re probably not going to find this to be sustainable. It’s much better to begin with something you can realistically commit to than to quit completely after 2 weeks of agony. This may sound familiar, but consistency is, in fact, key. Losing 50 pounds in 6 months is essentially worthless if you revert to old habits and regain it all over the next year.

Similarly, someone who finds themselves with newly imposed limits on time due to changes in work or life circumstances will have to make modifications as necessary. If you used to train 6 days per week, get 9 hours of sleep, and eat pre-prepared healthy foods at the dining hall while in college, you’re probably not going to be able to maintain the same schedule while working full-time and raising a kid as an adult.

Here is my approach to such predicaments:

1. Train efficiently. Driving to the gym when you're absolutely beat from a long day at work just to halfheartedly run in place and then go home is a lot of time invested for very little reward. Doing some cardio right before your lifting may tire you out slightly (you’ll find that you can adapt to this quickly), but it will also warm you up effectively and save you a trip to the gym later in the week. Likewise, absentmindedly doing 5 different chest exercises will be less effective than performing 3 sets of bench presses with maximum mental focus on each set and progressive overload from week to week. To borrow a term from Alex Viada, eliminate “junk miles” from your training — in both cardiovascular and resistance training.

2. Realize that time-constricted training will not be ideal — but it can be damn effective. In an ideal situation, you would run and lift on separate days, or at separate times of the day. You’d be able to train 6-7 days per week, often twice per day, with a perfect diet and 9 hours of sleep per night. For a person with a full-time job, family commitments, and no desire to be a professional athlete, this won’t typically be realistic. Training 3-4 days per week can get you very far, and even twice per week training can allow you to progress or at least maintain a solid level of fitness. Doing something is most definitely better than nothing.

3. Find the right time of day for you to train. You don’t get bonus points for working out at 5 in the morning. Though morning training certainly might be best for some people, actually training is far more important than when you train. If you find that you can’t consistently stick to morning workouts, consider going to the gym right from work (my preference) or at night.

4.  Invest in some degree of a home gym. This will allow you to get in more workouts per week without having to make extra trips to the gym. Even a pair of dumbbells can give you a solid workout, especially when coupled with bodyweight exercises.

5. Prioritize sleep. There is nothing glamorous about sleep deprivation. It messes you up big time. To paraphrase Stan Efferding, you don't build muscle in the gym, you build it when you're recovering from the gym.

6. Keep your diet simple. Figure out something you can stick to. Eat protein at every meal. Don’t snack. It’s not necessary for an adult to eat 7 times per day. Eat mostly single-ingredient “whole” foods — meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, non-sweetened dairy, nuts, whole grains. Be wary of any diet that tells you to cut out an entire macronutrient class or requires you to buy their specific brand of foods/supplements.


Here are some of my favorite articles about time-constricted training:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/30-minutes-to-mass

https://www.t-nation.com/training/effective-training-for-busy-men

http://besmartbestrong.blogspot.com/2017/07/adjusting-to-lifestyle-ebb-and-flow.html (shameless self-plug)

Awaken Thyself From Disuse

225 lb (2 plates per side) bench press (flat or incline)
315 lb (3 plates per side) squat (to full depth)
405 lb (4 plates per side) deadlift (conventional or sumo)

If you are a healthy male who has never performed these lifts, you have some serious work to do.

Take a hiatus from Season 6 of the Big Corporation Original Series Tortured Souls Do/Sell Drugs and go to the gym in the evening instead.

"But, Eric, these numbers are arbitrary. Do you have a peer-reviewed journal article to support these numbers as standards to strive for?"

No. But see some peer-reviewed articles linked down below, related to strength and its connection to health. I do know that if you can perform the above barbell lifts with form that is not cringe-worthy, you will receive a precursory level of respect from other men in the gym. If you cannot, your strength is sub-par at best, and should be improved.

Being light is not an excuse.

I surpassed these numbers at the age of 18, weighing less than 155 pounds. I am quite confident that every healthy adult male can achieve these numbers with a few years of focused work.

"But I've been working hard in the gym for years, and haven't hit these numbers yet!"

No you haven't.

If this is you, your consistency, effort, and/or self-belief needs to be improved.

These should be your absolute minimum standards. You should be striving to move well past these numbers.

Note that older men will likely have a harder time reaching these numbers, and probably don't quite need to, but even then, it can be done.


Likewise:

50 push-ups without rest (full range-of motion)
15 pull-ups without rest (full range-of-motion, from dead hang to chest/chin to bar)
25 dips without rest (full range-of motion)
<8 minute mile

If you are a healthy male who cannot exert the requisite control over his own body to perform these feats, you have some serious work to do.

Again, these should be absolute minimum standards that you impose upon yourself.

Lunges, various bridges, and other bodyweight exercises are great too. So is simply walking.

Just as you should be able to exert control over external weights, you should have control of your own bodyweight as well. If you can hit the barbell strength numbers above but can't perform these bodyweight exercises competently, you know what you need to work on.

"But, I'm a big man and can't do pull-up--"

RIP to this 275 lb., 939-beltless-deadlifting, monster of a man. These may not be the strictest pull-ups, 

but I'd like to see any naysayer replicate this feat.

But, why?

Pressing competently requires:
-Strong, stable shoulders and scapular control.
-Strong arms. Looks good. Is functional.
-A thick chest. Don't be chest-less, man.

Squatting competently requires:
-Strong legs, which correlate with decreased mortality in elder years.
-Strong glutes - part of what makes us human.
-A strong core musculature, which stabilizes the spine to prevent all-too-common back injuries.

Deadlifting competently requires:
-A strong back - the foundation of whole-body strength.
-A strong grip - also associated with decreased mortality.
-Strong glutes and hamstrings, which not only protect the spine but also the knees.
-A strong core musculature.

In general:
-Upper and lower body strength is strongly associated with lower all-cause mortality in healthy men and women.
-The ability to move your own body through space = mobility = strength = important.
-Cardiovascular fitness decreases all-cause mortality, big time.



But, how?

Achieve a healthy and athletic bodyweight through control of diet, focusing on primarily whole foods such as meat and vegetables in appropriate quantities. Note that root vegetables are tremendously underrated.

Strength train. The barbell lifts discussed above are some of the most efficient uses of one's time when it comes to building strength. Strength can also be built in other ways, such as with dumbbells, machines, manual labor, bodyweight exercise, etc. Strength is strength.

One way to build strength is to perform each of the barbell lifts once per week on separate days, for 2-6 sets (after warm-ups) of 3-10 reps. Then, bodyweight and supplemental exercises can be performed after. One could also perform bodyweight exercises every day. Example: wake up, immediately do 100 push-ups and run a mile.

Train endurance. Personally, I prefer trail running to all other modalities, but there are many ways to achieve cardiovascular competence.


Modern life may not require much physical strength or fitness to survive, but that doesn't mean you should allow yourself to become soft and feeble. Awaken your dormant musculature, and your body and mind will thank you for it.

Updates: Records, Exams, Stuff I've Learned

It's been a while, and I have several other posts in the works, but I wanted to get an update post out in the meantime. The past few months have been pretty damn busy. My second year of medical school ended in late April, and from there my class was given 8 weeks "off" to prepare for and take the USMLE Step 1, which is the first of 3 exams needed to become board certified as a physician. Scoring competitively on Step 1 is a key factor in securing a good residency after medical school. For most medical students, Step 1 looms ominously for the first 2 years of medical school and is a constant source of dread. It is a beast of an exam that vastly overshadows even the most intimidating exams that come before it. At 8 hours long, it tests all of the material from the first two years of medical school. The sheer volume of information is immense, and even two years of medical school curriculum doesn't cover absolutely everything that can be tested. Pretty much every student will encounter at least a few questions on topics they've never seen before.

I frankly didn't think about the exam much until the end of 2017, when I had to begin the registration process. I took the exam 6 weeks into the dedicated prep period (which medical students just call "dedicated" #dedicated), slightly earlier than the majority of my classmates. I figured, correctly, that I would be nearly insane with cabin fever by the end of 6 weeks of studying 8+ hours per day, and wanted some time to vacation and relax, since these two weeks after the exam are essentially the last "summer" off I'll ever have. I still don't know how I did on the exam, and will find out in about 3 weeks. I would have done some things differently, namely more practice problems and less reading, had I known what I do now (Step 1 prep materials, by the way, are a huge business and end up costing most students several hundred dollars), but you live and learn. I studied hard, did reasonably well in practice exams, and will adapt to whatever my result may be. 

Before entering dedicated period, I had decided that I would do a powerlifting meet in close proximity to Step 1. I figured that adhering to a rigid training schedule would help me to adhere to a rigid studying schedule, while also providing forced breaks from studying. I do believe this strategy worked, and my training went well going into this meet. I essentially did Ed Coan's program (Ed is probably the most dominant powerlifter of all time), which is simply but intelligently designed. You have a heavy squat, bench, and deadlift day each week, and a fourth day of pump and recovery work for chest, shoulders, and arms. On squat day, you do bodybuilding-style leg exercises after squats. You do chest and tricep work after benching, and back work after deadlifting. You pick a weight goal for the meet in each lift, and work backwards from that goal weight in 10-20 pound increments to determine the weight used in training for each week leading up to the meet. As the weeks go on, the weight increases and the number of reps decrease.

This spreadsheet lays it out pretty well (I used slightly different assistance exercises), but his training program can also be found in "Coan: The Man, The Myth, The Method," which is a very cool book by Marty Gallagher about Ed's competition history, mindset, and training methods.

About 2 weeks out from the meet, I came down with strep throat, which actually didn't affect my training much, although I did see a slight dip in my bench performance in the last 2 weeks. My top lifts in training right before the meet ended up being a 430x2 squat, 280x3 bench (and 290x2, where I received a little help from my spotter on the second rep), and 475x2 deadlift (this would be the first time I pulled Sumo, or wide stance, in a meet). The week before the meet, I randomly decided to look at the records in Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate (the powerlifting federation I would be competing in), and realized that the current RPS NJ state record in the squat for my age and weight class was 430, which I had just hit for 2 reps. I decided that I would be breaking that record. 

http://www.revolutionpowerlifting.com/records/index.php

And so I did. I now have the RPS State squat record with no knee wraps in the Junior (20-23) Amateur (drug-free) 165 lb weight class. The deadlift also went well, but benching was horrendous, especially considering the numbers I hit in training, and the fact that I've previously benched 290 in competition and 300 in the gym. Sad!

My attempts for the 3 lifts were: 

Squat: 405 (good lift), 435 (good lift, state record), 450 (miss)

Bench: 270 (good lift), 300 (miss), 300 (miss)

Deadlift: 460 (I think... good lift), 500 (good lift), 520 (good lift)

I was the only guy in my class, since I signed up late and was placed into the second day of the meet with the 220+ lb. guys. I am, however, currently ranked 7th overall in the total (squat + bench + deadlift combined), 9th in the squat, and 12th in the deadlift in all of RPS, which holds meets in a large portion of the U.S. and even in a few other countries. Despite having no one at this meet to compete against, lifting with the big boys was great. I witnessed a few deadlifts that were just under 800, and a 730 multi-ply bench attempt.

If anyone is ever interested in doing a powerlifting meet, I highly recommend RPS. There is no membership fee, no extraneous rules, and the meets are run well and filled with good people.

A few training insights I picked up along the way are:

• Lifting weights is not complicated. My leg routine for this meet was nothing earth-shattering:
• Squat to 2 top sets, as the Coan program indicated
• Pause (at the bottom) squat (usually) or leg press (rarely) for 2 sets, same or similar reps as for squat
• Leg curl, 2 hard sets of 10-20
• Leg extension, 2 hard sets of 10-20
• Calf raises on machine, 1 hard set of 6-20
• Building my calves and hamstrings helped my squat strength by essentially giving me more "rebound" out of the bottom.
• Machines are useful, and if you're of the "machines r 4 gurlz" mindset, you should reconsider. See the above leg routine. 
• Food is one of the most important drivers of strength gains. I ate as much as I could during this meet cycle, and put on about 10 pounds over 8 weeks (then had to cut about 5 to make weight before the meet). I ate plenty of protein, but also didn't skimp on fats or carbs. Note that very low fat diets and very low carb diets are both rather bad for testosterone levels,^1,2,3 and I wasn't concerned with fat loss at this time. I stayed lean and maintained pretty decent abs. Hard training allows you to, and requires you to, eat more.
• Far too many people neglect barbell rows or don't take them seriously enough. These were part of every back day, and I eventually reached 315x5 and 225x20 with reasonable form. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone row over 225, and 225 is not particularly impressive. Nothing will build back size and strength like rowing hard and heavy. 

As a final note, I want to express my gratitude to my friends, girlfriend, and family for their support throughout my prep for Step 1, and to Nick for always having my back and spotting impeccably at the meet.


References:

1. Wang C, Catlin DH, Starcevic B, et al. Low-Fat High-Fiber Diet Decreased Serum and Urine Androgens in Men. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2005;90(6):3550-3559. doi:10.1210/jc.2004-1530.

2. Lane AR, Duke JW, Hackney AC. Influence of dietary carbohydrate intake on the free testosterone: cortisol ratio responses to short-term intensive exercise training. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2009;108(6):1125-1131. doi:10.1007/s00421-009-1220-5.

3. Anderson KE, Rosner W, Khan M, et al. Diet-hormone interactions: Protein/carbohydrate ratio alters reciprocally the plasma levels of testosterone and cortisol and their respective binding globulins in man. Life Sciences. 1987;40(18):1761-1768. doi:10.1016/0024-3205(87)90086-5.

One WEIRD Trick to Build Maximum Strength

This will be short and sweet. By maximum strength, I mean one-rep max strength: the kind that allows you answer the question "how much ya bench?" without excuses or embarrassment.

The "weird" trick is to do lots of heavy sets of low reps. This means at LEAST 5 sets of 1-6 reps. Usually, when I'm using this method I'll do something like 10-12 sets of 2-3 reps after warm-ups. This isn't my original idea; I first picked up this idea from powerlifting record breaker Jamie Lewis's Chaos and Pain blog, and have also seen the idea promoted by Josh Bryant.

This method worked well for me as a novice, and every time I get back to it I make solid gains. It builds confidence and efficiency with heavy weights. Sets of 7-12+ are great for building a muscular base, but when doing a hard set of 12 you'll likely (consciously or subconsciously) modify your form for energy efficiency rather than maximum power output per rep. To become maximally strong, you have to practice with a form that allows for the expression of maximal strength. For me, alternating phases of higher-rep, muscle-building training with periods of training for maximal strength seems to keep things moving. If I spend too long in either phase, I start to stagnate. The idea is to build muscle tissue with one phase, and to improve the maximum strength of that new tissue with the next phase.

It's generally a good idea to avoid failure when training like this, and to make sure each rep moves as quickly as possible while maintaining good form. Weight selection will vary from person to person based on training experience and other factors. One person may be able to do 10 sets of 2 with 90% of his or her 1-rep max, while another can only do that same 10 sets of 2 with 85%. I'll usually keep the weight the same, or about the same, for all of the sets.