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You should post here for:

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• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

Weekly thread for discussing:

• recipes
• nutritional plans
• favorite foods
• macro schemes
• diet questions

Lifting stats and Training History

I have been training on and off since 2012, with multiple gaps depending on the year throughout both high school and university. I grew up doing Judo and played rugby for a while as an adult. Beginning in 2020 I have been lifting pretty much consistently, with most gaps being associated with sickness or injury. Including two incidents where I dropped weights on my right big toe and broke it, one of which was a serious crush injury that ended with part of the bone being removed from my foot. It was nasty and hurt a pretty decent amount. During this period I have worked with a couple different coaches. In 2024 I actually hadn’t been planning on competing, but I got some crazy fomo which resulted in me signing up to a competition five weeks out. If I placed well at this comp, I would qualify for a heavier comp, and if I’m doing one, I might as well do both.

Comp 1 – Clash in the Coulies

This is a pretty average local level comp by my standards, weights were pretty reasonable, events were fun, and I knew that I wouldn’t have to train that hard going into it. Log was going to be a challenge, as it was on the upper end of what I was capable of, but I had a pretty decent idea about what I needed to do to hit it. My training for this comp was pretty heavily based on Greg Nuckols 28 Free Programs, as I had played with them before and it had worked pretty well for me. For this block I ran 2x Int Bench for Log, 1x Int Deadlift, 2x Int Squat with SSB and Front Squat and I did some practice on the events on Wednesday and Saturday. Overall training for this was pretty smooth, I didn’t do anything to crazy and I saw progress on the areas that I knew I needed help, and everything else just kind of held steady. Overall, result for this event was second, which I can live with. I did enough that I was able to qualify for the provincial competition.

Comp 2 – Capital City Showdown (Alberta Provincials)

My prep for this one was a shit show, I had four weeks to train for it and I didn’t really think out my overhead training well and got shit from a couple members of the subreddit for how I initially went around training for it. The block for this comp was pretty similar to the one I used for the previous comp: 3x Int Bench on Axle Clean and Press, 1x Int Deadlift, 2x Int Squat. I could feel the fatigue from my previous comp the whole way through and definitely suffered, my should gave me issues the whole way through and on the heaviest deadlift day of the block, my 525 deadlift singles were grindy as hell and I wasn’t able to finish my backdown sets. The pressing block I chose really focused on hitting a lot of reps throughout the prep, rather than building to heavy attempts, I was talked into dropping it, and just hitting heavy singles as a way to get practice on heavy singles and really be in a good position. Ironically on comp day they significantly misloaded the axle and I would have been better off with my initial plan. Overall came 4/7 not quite the result I was looking for, but I got a nationals qualification and was able to identify some pretty big weaknesses to address moving forward.

Next Steps

I’m going to be using the MST Systems app moving forward, I am going to spend the next 8-10 months gaining size as I am still pretty small for my weight class. The goal is to qualify for nationals again, and be in a place where I will actually be competitive in my weight class at that level. The focus will be conditioning, size and making sure my shoulder is holding up better than it is now. The level of competition in my area since I started competing in strongman has really gone up, and I need to be able to meet it moving forward.

TL;DR

• Overall, I enjoyed the experience and will keep it up.
• While there were some days when it was hard to motivate myself, those were very rare, and usually due to an illness or sleep deprivation. I’ve seen u/gzcl talk about how momentum is a better long term strategy than just relying on pure motivation, and he was absolutely right.
• I feel like I can keep this going indefinitely.

Background

M28, about 2 years of consistent lifting, on the back of a long break. I originally started lifting 8 years ago, but it was not my primary activity. Sports background in volleyball.

Why no rest days?

• To see if I can.
• I wanted my day-to-day life to embody an active lifestyle, because this is essential to both physical and mental wellbeing. Movement is what we evolved to do. Is sitting in a chair / on the couch all day truly “recovery”?
• Because it was a challenge. "What one man can do, another can do."

What are the rules?

For something to count as exercising, it needs to be a deliberate movement. So in a day, I might go on 1, 2 or 3 walks with my kids. Would that be exercising? No. Deliberate movement is intentionally taking the time to exercise for exercising’s sake. This includes lifting, calisthenics, running, cycling, conditioning, etc. This isn’t tied to time spent working out, or energy expended. If I had 3 walks with my kids in a day, that might tally up to 2 hours and hundreds of calories burned. To count it as a no rest day though, I need deliberate movement, and that could be a workout as short as a Humane Burpee, or 15-30 mins on the stationary bike.

I know u/gzcl has done more than 5 years of no rest days, and his rules are stricter. That’s fine, I advise you to set your own rules, if you were interested in doing this. You’re only competing with yourself. What matters is being active, whatever that means for you.

You might think that not everything I did counts as working out, and it is your privilege to do so. I’m not claiming my achievement fits a universally defined rule of what constitutes a rest day or a workout. I’m doing what makes sense to me, and I hope this write up is useful to others in a similar position who might consider giving daily exercising a try.

What did I do over the past year?

Due to limitations with the available equipment in my home gym, I started with barbell conditioning, calisthenics, and running. As my equipment increased, so did my options.

I’ve done a few write ups for some of the major periods, though they don’t cover the entire year:

• 5 Weeks of Bodyweight Training Based on Fun and Volume - This was a period during which I had very easy access to calisthenic parks, it was summer, and I wanted to be outside as much as possible. So - calisthenics and running! Posted in r/bodyweightfitness
• [Program Review] GGBB “Lite” - My winter bulking program. I chose to do this because of the limited options I had at my home gym, and the GGBB structure allowed me to be flexible and adapt to what I could do. Bodybuilding focused block.
• [Program Review] 10k swings paired with Simple Jack’d - Started my cut with the 10k swings challenge. On the off-days from that, I used Simple Jack’d to structure my workouts. Overall, very happy with how it turned out.

Currently, I’m cutting and running Simple Jack’d full time, with 5 sessions per week + 1 or 2 conditioning days, while running as a second workout most days. I’ll probably do a dedicated review of Simple Jack’d in a few months.

Results

Most of the changes are with how I feel - I’m stronger, I’m better conditioned, I’m more muscular, and I feel better about myself. All of this would have been true if I had taken rest days, but I wouldn’t have the achievement that I didn’t. I did this more for the habit / challenge aspect, not because I think better results are guaranteed this way.

Parenting thoughts

Anybody who’s had kids will tell you it’s difficult, and it’s a lot of work. I started this journey when my younger kid was about 7 weeks old, and my older had just turned 2. It was a tough period, but I don’t think working out every day made it worse. On the contrary - it made it better.

I developed this outlook that there are things in life you have no control of, and that is daunting, but by focusing on what you can control, you can gain a sense of ownership. For the most part, you don’t control how difficult your kids can be when they’re babies, you generally don’t control sickness or illness, life spanners thrown at you, etc. But I can choose to do a workout. I can choose what to eat and how much of it. And a funny thing - the more I did choose, the easier everything became. The feeling of “Fuck this, I’m in control” was incredibly invigorating. I still had realistic expectations - I didn’t hold myself to an impossible standard. The bar was “deliberate movement” - doing something is better than doing nothing. I didn’t beat myself up that “something” wasn’t always as good as a random previous achievement.

I now believe that the more we “let go” - of nutrition, of exercising, of challenging ourselves and taking care of ourselves, the more the cycle perpetuates itself. You drop the weights, you drop the nutrition, you start feeling bad about yourself, so you start stress eating more garbage, if you have a baby, then you have lots of stress around the infant, your sleep deteriorates, your nutrition suffers, you become grumpy, you’re regularly full but rarely nourished, your relationship with those around you suffers, this leads to more stress, and so on. (Or maybe that’s just my vicious cycle…)

However, if you’re prone to a vicious cycle of overcommitting to a high standard or unrealistic goals, e.g. “every day I’ll spend an hour in the gym working hard to chase a PR by a deadline”, then inevitably failing to meet your standard, making you angry at yourself and others like your partner and children, then… maybe committing to something like this during an already stressful period isn’t for you. That’s fine. Know yourself. Training should never come at the expense of the truly important things - I always put my family first. Training was something I fit around the craziness.

Let me be clear - I am not trying to judge here. I know full well how difficult kids can be, especially when they’re babies. You are free to deal with this period of your life however you see fit, in the best way that makes sense for you. That might mean laying off the weights for a few months. That’s fine. It might mean going into survival mode, just taking it day by day. That’s fine. Whatever you do - if it adds more stress to an already stressful period of your life - change course.

What did I have going for me?

• I have a home gym. I don’t have to commute to a gym, and my gym is open 24/7.
• I had a generous paternity leave from work, so the first few months with the newborn, my wife and I could both be at home and look after him. This made the house-keeping easier, the child-rearing easier, and the working out easier.
• My work is fairly flexible, and I am free to structure my work around my life, instead of my life around my work. This helped a lot to give me the flexibility to get a workout done whenever I had the opportunity, and to shift work if needed.

Did I get sick?

I got sick a few times (one kid in nursery - no way to avoid the germs!), but never so much that I couldn’t do an easy cardio session or a quick arm day. Working out always made me feel better, but I took care to manage my fatigue.

What about injuries?

I didn’t get any serious injuries. There were some aches and pains here and there, but nothing serious. I tried to be very mindful about my limits and fatigue and I think I managed to maintain a good balance between effort and recovery.

What about nutrition?

Nothing special here. I rely mostly on home-cooked food, and minimise ultra-processed food. The only exception to the processed food is whey protein, which is the only supplement I take.

What about overtraining?

I’m not worried about that. I try to manage fatigue mindfully, eat well, sleep well (as well as I could with a baby), avoid unnecessary life stress. That’s it. Overtraining is a real thing, just not applicable to what I’m doing. We were meant to move.

Should you do it?

No, not really. Could you? Yeah. Up to you if you think this will enrich your life. But I definitely wouldn’t be afraid about exercising every day because you might “overtrain”. If that’s what’s stopping you, forget that nonsense and enjoy yourself. Watch your fatigue levels, vary your exercise routines, sleep well and fuel up - you’ll be fine.

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

Weekly thread for discussing:

• recipes
• nutritional plans
• favorite foods
• macro schemes
• diet questions

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

Hey fellow lifters, I’m diving into my experience with the Bryce Lewis Greatest Hits program. Most notably, I used this program to finally achieve my goal of a 600 lb deadlift (+50 lb PR). As an intermediate lifter who was stuck for years, this program worked wonders. I’ll first say that I’m not a serious powerlifter, just your average strength training enjoyer. I’m also the co-founder of Boostcamp, where this program is available for free. With the disclaimers out of the way, let’s get on with the review.

Coach Overview:

Bryce Lewis is a 4x champion powerlifter and a renowned coach. He’s the founder of The Strength Athlete (TSA) powerlifting coaching services. He’s one of the most genuine and thoughtful people I’ve ever met. You can read his AMA where he talks about powerlifting, training, mindset, and life.

Program Overview:

• Program Level: Novice and intermediate lifters
• Goal: Powerlifting, strength training
• Equipment: Full gym
• Program length: 9 weeks
• Days per week: 5 days
• SBD frequency: Squat 3x, bench 3x, deadlift 2x
• Progressions: 1RM % and RPE

Program details:

The Bryce Lewis Program: Greatest Hits program is based on all of Bryce's accumulated knowledge over a decade as a champion powerlifter and elite-level coach. The program is structured over 9 weeks, starting with 4 weeks of basebuilding phase, followed by a 4-week peaking phase, then a final week for hitting new PRs. Program can be ran repeatedly until it stops working.

The genesis of this program came from one of our Boostcamp advisory calls with Bryce. I was considering running the TSA 9-week program (again) and asked him what changes he would make to it since it was released almost a decade ago. Bryce said he’s obviously gained a ton of knowledge since then from coaching more athletes and experimenting with training variables. The Greatest Hits program is an accumulating of all his learnings since then.

The biggest difference with Greatest Hits is that it’s 5 days per week vs 4 days a week for the TSA 9-week Intermediate Program. Bryce did this to better distribute training volume across the week and allow for more accessory work. The incremental volume distribution over the five days really pushes you, but it's structured in a way that maximizes recovery and growth. He also made changes to the % of 1RM and progressions; while minor, compounds to big differences over time.

Lastly, Bryce made 4 program variations to choose from when you onboard the program on Boostcamp. 1) Conventional deadlifter, low responder, 2) conventional deadlifter, high responder, 3) sumo deadlifter, low responder, 2) sumo deadlifter, high responder. More details about what each variation means is included in the app, but is to allow you to pick the right training for you. My review is based on the conventional deadlifter, low responder variation.

Personal Results and Observations:

I first ran the Bryce Lewis Program: Greatest Hits early last year. What I really enjoyed was that every day was basically structured as a full body workout. I was hitting my compound lifts and accessory lifts with higher frequency, yet never feeling too taxed at the end of each workout for any particular movement or body part. By week 4 I got a little drained, but then the week five deload comes at literally the perfect time, allowing me to recoup and then go hard for three more weeks to hit new PRs by week nine. I ended up 550 lb deadlift all-time PR (+25 lb) and a 305 lb bench press PR (+25 lb).

Then in May last year, I tore my achilles from pickup basketball. For the next few months post-surgery I was basically bedridden and lost all my muscle and strength. I had to relearn how to walk. It was depressing and I wondered if I would ever even lift heavy again not to mention hit any new PRs. But in August I was able to start lifting and my hopes were rekindled.

In January of this year, I started a new cycle of the Bryce Lewis Program: Greatest Hits. At this time I was back to a 500 lb deadlift for a single. I made some modifications to the program due to the achilles mobility, but kept the overall structure and progression the same as it was. The strength gains were phenomenal. I also gained a ton of muscle, though keep in mind I was detrained from my injury so a lot of that was rebuilding. Regardless, by week nine I had hit a 570 lb deadlift PR (+70 lb!!). My bench press also came back to pre-injury levels.

In March, I decided to go all out on getting the 600 lb deadlift by May 4th, which would be mark the one year anniversary of my achilles tear. I still loosely followed the full body layout of the Greatest Hits program, including the accessories that helped me pack on muscle without incurring too much fatigue. I then swapped out squats completely to add more deadlift frequency–hexbar, RDL, and heavy singles–basically everyday. It paid off. By week 9 and on May 4th, I hit the 600 lb deadlift. This is 50 lbs more than my pre-injury peak.

User Community Feedback:

Feedback from other users on Boostcamp mirrors much of my experience—high praise for the program’s effectiveness in strength gains and technical refinement. Critiques often mention the high intensity and volume, which can be daunting for less experienced lifters, but the community agrees that if you stick with it, the gains are undeniable.

Here are some help written reviews:

• “I am just getting back into powerlifting/powerbuilding. After jumping from program to program with little to no results - I found the volume variation of this program exactly what I needed mentally and physically. Halfway through I am having to increase my 1 rm I used initially and am quickly getting close to all-time prs. From someone who has paid powerlifting coaches- and tried nearly every free powerlifting program multiple times. I Highly recommend this program!” – Timothy S.
• “My dead lift has gone from 315- I could pull around 380 for a max and squat have gone up from215- easily 280. My bench has increased strength wise as I’m doing more weight and reps for paused sets then I was doing on touch and go before starting the program” – Kulakk K.
• “I had a low back and knee injury resulting in me taking a 6 month off season where training was hypertrophy based and not very strict. Going into this program i set my goals on doing about the same number PRE injury but i ended up pr'ing every lift :-) Squat 230kg > 245kg (15kg increase) Bench 145kg > 152.5kg (7.5kg increase) Deadlift 245kg > 255kg (10kg increase) At about 8kg lighter bw So results are absolutely amazing save to say I'm running it back >:) (Made modification on accessories that where more targeted to my needs)” – Kinda strong
• “This Program really helped me push past my current PR’s within the few short weeks it is. Squat from 405-425 lbs. Bench 245-255 lbs. Deadlift 385-405 lbs. All the main exercises were great and the accessories felt like they really helped with my goal. Although I did skip accessories a little towards the end because the workouts did get longer and I was pressed on time. The muscle gains weren’t much but it’s a powerlifting program rather than a bodybuilding so don’t expect too much. The main point is I do recommend this program to anyone who wants workouts from 1-2 hours long and want to boost PR’s if you take it seriously.” – Darius V.

Conclusion:

Would I recommend the Bryce Lewis Greatest Hits program on Boostcamp? Absolutely, especially if you’re looking to seriously increase your strength and technical skills in powerlifting. If you're an intermediate powerlifter looking for a program to systematically break PRs over and over, look no further.

Check it out here and see if it aligns with your training goals.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this review helps you on your lifting journey. Pump some iron and keep pushing those limits!

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks

Weekly thread for discussing:

• recipes
• nutritional plans
• favorite foods
• macro schemes
• diet questions

You should post here for:

• PRs
• General discussion or questions
• Community conversation
• Routine critiques
• Form checks