As always I am only showing some of the movements from Stage III so as not to give the program away.
Stage III was short and sweet like Stage II. Two workouts, each done 4 times for a total of 8. Train 3 times a week and you are done Stage III in just 2 1/2 weeks!
I really enjoyed this stage even though I am GREATLY missing the Deadlifts and Squats from Stage I. My two faves from this stage were YTWL (more about it below) and the Dumbbell Single Leg Romanian Deadlift because I felt them the most. I talked about Quad Dominance in my Stage II wrap up. This is the Stage where I really, finally!!!, felt things in my glutes and hammies (posterior chain). I am really looking forward to doing Deadlifts and Squats again, though it’s 8 weeks away in Stage 7, to see if I will now feel them in my entire lower body and not just my quads. I might have to sneak some in before that.
The funnest was the One-Armed Dumbbell Snatch. I so wanted to try heavier weight but kept imagining the horror of a more than 30lb dumbbell flying through the air should I fail! Somehow failure with a barbell does scare me as much?!
| STAGE III WRAP UP | |||||
| WO 1 | WO 2 | WO 3 | WO 4 | ||
| All 3 sets of 6 with 105 sec rest | |||||
| Barbell Romanian Deadlift / Bent-Over Row | |||||
| 50 | 60 | 60 | 60 | ||
| Dumbbell Incline Bench Press | |||||
| 2×25=50 | 55 | 60 | 60 | ||
| Dumbbell Single-Arm Overhead Squat | |||||
| 12 ~ 15 | 15 ~ 27.5 | 15 ~ 30 | 15 ~ 30 | ||
| First # is DB held above and 2nd # is DB held below (between legs) | |||||
| Dumbbell Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift (2 DB’s) | |||||
| 2×25=50 | 55 | 60 | 60 | ||
| This version is with a DB in each hand. I’ve seen others using just 1. | |||||
| One-Armed Dumbell Snatch | |||||
| 25 | 27.5 | 30 | 30 | ||
| Wide Grip Lat Pulldown | |||||
| 75 | 75 | 80 | 80 | ||
| YTWL | |||||
| 2×5lb=10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | ||
| It took 3 times doing it to be able to do the full range | |||||
| of motion, especially the T which is the hardest for me. | |||||
R E S T P E R I O D S
These long rest periods were a challenge. Not because the workout wasn’t hard. The recovery was needed and the rests were generally spent feeling the sweat bead up on my head and then run downwards. It’s just hard to wait almost 2 whole minutes. Knowing why helps AND I just keep reminding myself that if I want top notch results I will follow the program written by the top notch coach as closely as I possibly can!
These longer rest periods mean the goal is strength improvement and they allow for fuller recovery of the central nervous system (among other things). In other words, the longer rest period allows more recovery which then allows you to go heavier each time and therefore gain more strength.
Coach Christian Thibaudeau has written a series of articles that are about understanding how to put together a program. Reps, frequency, rest periods, etc. are all covered. The one I’m linking to is the one that covers rest periods (on page 2).
TESTOSTERONE NATION – The Thib System: Training Frequency and Rest Periods
Y T W L
Thanks to another article on T-Nation by a guy name Chris Bartyl who got to train with Alwyn for a day, I learned a little more about YTWL than what was in the book. Below is a link to the article and here is what Alwyn said in the discussion afterwards about YTWL. The pictures in the article are not of YTWL which is done prone (face down) on an incline bench. If Alwyn gives a man 7.5 and 5 lb dumbbells for these then I feel pretty good that I could do 5lbs.
Alwyn Cosgrove said:
It’s a PRE-hab exercise. So you don’t need a lot of volume.
The line of thinking with this stuff is : “how many people do you know that have ever had a shoulder injury?”
Whenever I ask that at seminars, 90% of the room raise their hands. (The other 10% usually have shoulder injuries so bad that they can’t raise their hands 
)
So let’s start addressing that from the beginning by adding some of these exercises.
————————end quote
Pain & Pleasure: 1 Hour with Alwyn by Chris Bartl
Kudos to Courtney (from the article) for surviving (finishing) Alwyn’s EVIL LEG MATRIX!!!! In NROL4W you do it once. Rest for double the time it took you to complete it. Then do it again. He told Courtney she had 120 seconds to complete it and she did! He said the gym record was twice through in under 3 minutes.
Here is a link to Alwyn’s Blog which describes the Leg Matrix. It also links to a video a very determined man doing the Leg Matrix. Pretty much what I looked like the first time I tried it. Got half way through, did the first jump lunge and my legs turned to mush. Laughed and went home. : ) He kept going.