If you're not familiar with this training program, there are a few exercises that don't get the rest-pause treatment. Most of those exercises are on the "B" days. Reps for calves are done with a negative and stretch at the bottom of 5 seconds each. Anything that would compromise your lower back, or put you in danger of hurting yourself also get the straight set to failure treament. And as much as I've come to like this one set to failure style of training, at my age I'm erring on the side of caution with things like squats, deadlifts, and their variations. I'd rather stop one rep short of failure than have a technical breakdown, or a muscular-skeletal breakdown. With that said, here's how it went on my first lower body day on Doggcrapp.
Sunday, November 17, 2019 - Workout B1: biceps, forearms, calves, hamstrings, quadriceps
note: exercises numbered 1a/1b mean that I alternated sets of each exercise.
1a. Standing E-Z Bar Curl (bar is 20 lbs)
bar/7-8 x 2 sets
50/10
Rest-pause set: 70/14 + 6 + 4
1b. Total Gym Ab Machine - upper body is in a fixed position, legs are on a sled pad, and you draw your knees into your chest
5 sets of 20
2. Standing E-Z Bar Reverse Curl
bar/10+
50/18
Biceps stretch: 60 seconds, hanging from barbell at shoulder height in the rack
3a. Bent-leg Calf Press - did these on a leg press, in an effort to mimic seated calf raises. Not sure if it worked or not.
90/12 - normal, deliberate pace
180/10 - normal, deliberate pace
270/13 - DC style w/slow negatives and long stretches.
3b. Seated Leg Curl
50/20
110/12
Rest-pause set: 140/16 + 7 + 8 - only got 8 on the last round because the ROM was much shorter than on the previous rounds.
4. Squat
bar/8, 8 - flat shoes and naked knees on first set. Switched to Oly shoes and put on knee sleeves before the 2nd one.
135/6
205/5
275/4
335/4
375/3 - added wrist wraps on this set
405/6 - added belt on this set
315/12
One of the hallmarks of the DC system is the "widowmaker" backoff set for quads, which is supposed to be 20 reps. I did 315 x 20 a few years ago, and I didn't expect to get it here. But I didn't think I'd get 405 for 6 either, so I figured I'd just try it out. Not sure if I'm going to drop the weight to 275 next time to make sure I get 20, or see if I can beat 12 with 315.