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My first DC Training blast review

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Get Shredded!
I’ve just finished my first run of DoggCrapp, and wanted to give my 2 cents on the style, because it’s a highly controversial program due to the low volume.

I’ll preface by saying, to that point, the low volume was my biggest reason for hesitating so long to actually give it a real shot. I tried adding “DC-similar” exercises to my normal program, such as one all out rest-paused set to failure in addition to my other sets. I threw in Dusty’s Trifuckta to my delt day. But I’ve always been a 4-6 day per week kind of guy, and I’ve always preferred that. I’ve followed John Meadows style for nearly a decade now, and I always fell into the mindset that “more is better”, training everything with multiple sets and exercises in each workout.
I was worried DC wouldn’t be enough volume/difficulty to really give me a challenge that I needed. I was dead wrong.

I finally decided to give DC a try, a REAL try, after speaking with a few guys on here, as well as a brief conversation with Dante himself. I checked out the old IntenseMuscle forums, and managed to find an 11pg PDF form of Dante’s “DC TRAINING CLIFF NOTES” online. This packet was a godsend for all my questions and I can honestly say not a single day the last 6 weeks has gone by I didn’t refer to it.

On to the training -
I followed the standard 2-way split
Day 1: Chest, shoulders, triceps, back width, back thickness

Day 2: biceps, forearms, calves, hamstrings, quads

Selected 3 exercises per body part, and rotated each one per workout.

I wanted to put more emphasis on my delts than anything as they lag severely, and Dante addresses this in the cliff notes by adding one isolation higher rep set for that muscle to those days. A good example is Dusty’s trifuckta - One high rep set of side laterals taken to failure every upper body day after your heavy shoulder movement.

Example workouts:
Day 1:
Incline Smith Press(RP 11-15)

Hammer strength shoulder press(11-15)

Laying cable side lateral- trifuckta style - around 20-30 full reps, partials to failure, static hold

Skull crushers from the floor (RP 15-30)

Lat Pulldowns (RP 15-20)

Smith machine rows - 2 Straight sets, 6-9, 9-12

Day 2:
Machine Preacher Curl (RP 15-30)
Hammer DB Curls (St. Set, 15-20)
Calves Dc style (4 second negative, 10-15 second stretch, explode up, 10 reps)
Seated hamstring curls(RP 11-15, partials)
Hack squat (2 st. Sets, 4-8, then a widowmaker set of 20)

I started using a log book for the first time since I was a teenager, and I will never go another day without it. Regardless of how long I will be using DoggCrapp, it is the most valuable tool I have had in years.
The most basic concept you can really imagine for progressive overload; this is what made me really fall in love with this program.

Each exercise has a specific rest-paused or straight set rep range target. Every week you don’t hit the top end of that rep range, you must exceed those reps the following time you repeat that workout. Every time you hit the top end of that target, you add weight, even if it’s 1-5 lbs.

I. E. If you fail a rest pause set of pressing with a total of 11, and your goal is 11-15, the next time you hit that same workout, you must beat 11 reps, and follow that until you hit 15 reps. Once you hit the rep limit, it’s time to add weight.

A few lift progressions -
Incline Smith Bench
Week 1 - 225, total RP of 11
Week 6 - 245, total RP of 14

Lat Pulldowns -
Week 1 - 140, total RP of 16
Week 6 - 210, total of 18

Smith Rows -
Week 1 - 225x11
Week 6 - 295x7

Hack Squats -
Week 1 - 4 plates per side, top heavy set of 9

Week 6 - 6plates+ 25lbs per side - 8 reps

Leg Press
Week 1 - 7 plates a side- x10
Week 6 - 10 plates-x6
Widowmakers went from 6 plates per side to 8


*the only exercise I did not take to absolute failure was Rack Pulls and stiff legged deadlifts. I have a recurring low back injury that likes to show itself when I pull heavy, but I still followed the guidelines. I aimed for a heavy 4-8 reps on one set, and a lighter set of 9-12. Every week I added weight or reps, but sets were taken within 1-2 reps of failure for safety.

Every body part is followed with an extreme stretch for about 60 seconds. The only issue I ran into with this was being so ready to move on, I occasionally totally forgot the stretch until halfway through my next body part.

Mentality:

It honesty took me until around week 4 before I can I really knew the levels I would need to go to. The first time it hit me was when doing widow-maker’s in the hack-squat with 5 plates a side. I really felt as though the weight was going to crush me after my heavy set but I still knew I had to hit 20 reps, no matter what. There’s no racking it early.
This program demands all sets be taken to failure. For some people that may be something you are familiar with, and some may not be. I’ve trained to “failure” most of my life, but this demands a whole new level. You only have ONE chance per workout to exhaust the muscle, unlike most programs. If you don’t put every ounce of effort into the set, you’re cheating yourself.

If you decide to give this program a shot, be sure you understand what it means to only have a single shot at a muscle each workout. Remind yourself you only have 1-2 sets, or chances, a week to train that muscle. So you have to give it your all. It takes a lot of mental fortitude and you have to have your head right before every set.

Blast/Cruise:
Typical blasts run from 6-8 weeks. Being my first run, I felt 6 was perfect as that’s when I started to feel my progress slowing. I’ll be taking the next 10-14 days to train very light, pump style training, then diving back in at 90% of my previous max weights to start.
The biggest controversy to this program is its low volume approach. 3 training days a week, nowadays, is uncommon. Many of the great pros of the golden age and before trained like this, as I’m sure many of you are aware of Dorian Yates and Mike Mentzer. But 90% of guys, including myself before this, typically train 1-2 muscles a day, 4-5x a week on average. I do not feel any different about training than I did, and honestly if there was a way I could still train every day with this program, I would. But the simple fact is, it’s just not doable, unless you have god-tier recovery abilities. If you train with the intensity you need for this program, you will covet every rest day.

Food:
It was very quickly noticeable I would need to increase food on this program. I had just finished a small recomp/cut when I began, and bumped my food a little already. I have a poor appetite to begin with, so I was pretty satiated around 2800 calories at the end of my cut. Around week 2-3, I was noticing I wanted to eat my next meals far sooner than I normally would have. Even with the reduced volume my body was hungry.
My pre and post training meals each ended up being around 150g carbs along with 50g carbs intra.

Gear:
I run 250mg of test E weekly, I decided against adding anything to keep variables to a minimum on my first run to better judge progress.

Weight :
I gained around 3lbs in 6 weeks, which I consider pretty decent considering my bf% seems to have gone down. I haven’t had any actual measurements so I may be speaking out my ass here, but based on my photos each week, I would argue I’m fuller and leaner than two months ago.

Conclusion;
I can say wholeheartedly I have enjoyed this training, and will stick to it for at least the foreseeable future. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try something challenging and needs to improve their overall strength and size, as well as people who have busy schedules and need to maximize their time in the gym. I do miss being in the gym more often, but it comes to the point where I needed something new. I’ve always chased “good workouts” and the pump, which kept me from really getting stronger, and therefore bigger. This routine has helped me more with strength than
 
I enjoyed your review. Thank you for sharing your experience for others to learn from.
 
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