The Time As Come! Phase 3 the last phase of PH3 is in the books! This last phase took my body to the limit but the program is planned that way for a reason. Today I'm going to go through my thoughts and review of Phase 3 of PH3. Hope you enjoy and be looking out for a full review of the program in the coming weeks. If you got something out of this review please feel free to share it with your friends and or family.
This Phase Is NO JOKE
In my other reviews you might have remembered me mentioning how this program you just get better and better at as you go through it and you grow more confident. Well Phase 3 sort of throws you for a loop. This phase will make you ask yourself "do you even lift bro" The last phase of this program is called the intensity and overreaching block and let me tell you- if you think you know what overreaching is i can almost guarantee you have no idea. I thought i had overreached in my training before but this last phase showed me that i never truly did a true overreaching cycle. Overreaching is not where you just feel a little tired and have some bad workouts no sir. During overreaching blocks you feel like CRAP. As I'm going to go over below in more detail the feelings you get during this last phase. But realize this last phase has certain days where the training is not even fun and you just have to push through for the time. Layne says in the program video that overreaching will do this too you and you just have to trust it.
"Do You Even Lift Bro?" - Thats what you will be constantly telling yourself
I'm so serious on this one. The interesting thing about this last phase is the majority of the workouts in this phase will feel terrible but every once in a while you will have a good routine out of nowhere and during that routine you will feel great and kill the weights. I really recommend getting the most out of these days because in the last phase i can count on one hand how many good days compared to bad training days there were and the number is not good. During those days that you are having a bad routine just stick with it and understand this phase is supposed to feel like this. Your going to have days where you will be lifting a weight that you have destroyed in the past phases and in this phase that same weight will crush you and your going to be confused and start questioning the program... But don't give up hope.... This is actually the plan.
Not Only In The Gym Will You Feel Like Crap But Out Of The Gym As Well
Training is supposed to make your life easier but this last phase actually really affects your life in many negative ways. I found the first week of phase 3 to be alright but as the weeks climbed and as you get into that last 12th week you really are not your normal self. Some interesting stuff that i noticed about myself was;
- You just want to be lazy and also you love it when it is time to sleep
- Waking up in the morning if you have a normal day job sucks 50 times more than usual
- Your Creative Thinking right side of the brain goes to crap and your left side takes over resulting in the ability to work with words, math, reading, everything thats not creative. (for me being a graphic designer this sucked big time, the last 3 weeks at work i could not design to save my life. and i actually did not even feel like being creative at all during the 3 weeks which was really difficult for me as i usually am very creative. The only work i wanted to do was typing that i did not have to think about and just let my left side of my brain go to work.) It's quite interesting why this happened to me and i would love to see research showing that overreaching your CNS and adrenal system can result in less activity of the right side of the brain.
More interesting stuff i noticed
- I was just down a lot compared to my upbeat self i usually am.
- I was craving more fats than i usually do.
- Training felt like a chore and not a hobby during the last couple weeks.
- Rest days were awesome and greatly wanted.
- I needed so much more caffeine to get through this last phase than i usually need.
- My muscles were almost always sore and i never had a day in the last 3 weeks where i felt completely recovered- something always hurt.
- Bench is the one and only lift that i hit failure on so many times during this last phase (one day a 5x5 with a weight i have done before turned into a 12x2 because thats all i had to give.
- My workouts increased from only 1 hour to maybe 1:30 to 2:00 and even some days 2:30. Way to long...
- Your accessory work needs to fade away a little unless you want 3-4 hour workouts.
- I learned this the hard way - Don’t do heavy compound accessory work on your accessory days, leave out or at least limit the bent over rows and overhead presses for now.
- You will notice that you need more mobility and dynamic stretching for before your workout than you usually do.
- Shoulders, Quads, Glutes, Hams, Triceps, Ankles and calfs and almost always sore.
- You will also find that you get irritated quickly at things.
Also some more stuff that happened to me ......
- I'm not one to forget where i put things but i can’t count how many times i was forgetting my keys and my wallet places, things i never do. and i even one day left the keys in my front lock of my house door for an entire night (thank goodness i wasn't robbed)
SO AS YOU CAN SEE THIS PHASE IS A LITTLE RIDICULOUS.
So While that seemed like a ton of negatives lets talk about the positives as there is always a positive to a negative and vice versa.
- I got freaking strong! - Even on days where i felt like crap i was still stronger than i was at the beginning of the program and i always found a way to grind through the tough workouts even if it did take me 2.5 hours.
- I slept like a baby every night
- I Was able to eat like a king to fuel these sessions
- I learned just how much my body was actually capable of
- Not only did my physical strength grow in this phase but my mental strength went through the roof... If you give me a challenge you best believe i will complete it.
- I learned the value of only training 5 days a week and now i actually prefer it instead of 6 days
- I learned the importance of pre workout dynamic warming up instead of just jumping under a barbell.
- This phase also does exactly what it is supposed to do, it drives you down in all ways so that when you taper you rebound and experience a crazy amount of strength for your test day.
So as you can see its not all negative in this phase and there are quite a bit of positives that come out of it.
My Layout For This Phase
I realized in phase 2 that i really liked the split i was using so i decided to stick to something very similar except for those days that i just ran out of time from the main movements and just shifted things around but for the most part i used;
Monday - Squat, Bench, Dead
Tuesday - Upper Hypertrophy
Wednesday - Squat, Bench, Lower Accessories
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Deadlift, Bench, Chest/Back Hypertrophy
Saturday - Squat, Lower Accessories, Shoulders/Arms Hypertrophy
Sunday - Rest
Something else i want to mention in this section is some notes on accessory work during this last phase. This last phase your main movements really need to be the main focus so to do that you need to drop some accessory stuff to accommodate for all the intensity your giving the big lifts. Some things that i really dropped back on during this phase was;
- OHP
- Barbell Rows
- any other exercise that would compromise recovery for the big 3.
Keep accessory work in but this is the phase where you should really take advantage of cables, and other moves that don't cause you too much stress. For this phase on accessory stuff i preferred to keep reps in the 10-12 range and that seemed to work pretty good. I still think i did barbell rows to often but i just love doing those so i couldn't really help it. But i did at least drop back the intensity and volume on them. Pretty much if you think a certain exercise is going to affect one of your main lifts then i would back down on the volume and intensity you usually do or even eliminate it for the time being. After all this last phase is only 4 weeks long so its not like you will detrain that movement in that amount of time specially with all the other work being put in.
This Is The Phase To Prep For A Solid Performance
For all the other phases i did not really have to do any extra prep and could just show up and train. This phase is a little different. Your pre workout nutrition should be geared for solid performance, then your pre workout should be built for what you need that day as well, Then i would recommend having BCAA's for during your training, and last but not least eat enough post workout to help in recovery and prepare for the next days of training. This is not a phase to eat less on your rest days. You will regret it big time if you do. There was a lot of days where i even didn't even track macros and just ate whatever i wanted and I'm glad i did as i needed the extra fuel.
My Approach To Pre Workout
For me i have always preferred the majority of time to train with the lease amount of caffeine possible that way when i do have a session where i need the extra boost when i add some extra caffeine i feel unstoppable. If you always use caffeine your going to loose that effect over time and the more you use it so i try to keep caffeine for when i absolutely need it that way i get the full effect. So below is my preferred way i structured my pre workout depending on the day;
Monday - Carbon Prep, Monster Energy
Tuesday - Carbon Prep
Wednesday - Carbon Prep, Monster Energy
Thursday - Only coffee in the morning for rest day
Friday - Carbon Prep, Monster Energy, and if AMRAP or testing then i also added De Novo Nutrition's Utopian
Saturday - Carbon Prep, Monster Energy, and if AMRAP or testing then i also added De Novo Nutrition's Utopian
Sunday- Only Coffee in the morning for rest day
There you have it, thats my approach to what i use to get me through these sessions. I also have a nice giant meal about 3 hours before i take my pre workout.
How To Mentally Get Through This
You might sound like im really hypng this phase up and how hard it is but this phase will really take your body and mind to the limit. Your gonna have days where you just wanna quit or skip the workout, and your going to have days where your nervous as hell because of the weight your lifting and the fear of getting injured. You HAVE TO BE STRONGER THAN YOUR MIND IN THIS LAST PHASE. There is no way around it. This is the phase where you have to trust Layne and his programing and just go in each day and do what is on the program - treat it LIKE ITS YOUR JOB. The days that you just are struggling to get through it remember your WHY and WHY your doing this program. For me i always just kept telling myself that "i want to achieve that 300 squat, 200 bench, and 400 deadlift and i know its not just going to be given to me, i have too work for it". If i told myself that along with just taking my time and getting through one set and one rep at a time i found i was always able to push through no matter how hard it was.
The Volume is Crazy In This Phase
So if your familiar with the program you know that the phases are structured like;
Phase 1 - Accumulation of Volume
Phase 2 - Integration of Strength While Maintaining Volume
Phase 3 - Overreaching and Intensity Phase
So to overreach what happens is you not only increase your intensity (weight lifted) but you also build volume each week during the overreaching block. So For instance you might have a total of 20,000lbs of squat volume the first week of the last phase, well over the next week that is upped even more and you could end up with possibly double your volume if your AMRAP testing programmed you to do so. Just a little heads of that second week of overreaching on Monday has you doing 95 total working reps! and it is not light weight by any means even tho its your "light" day. Be prepared mentally to work on those days and just focus at one set and one rep at a time and you can make it through. Guess what after that second week it hits you hard that you have to repeat that week 2 more times with even more volume before tapering LOL - that sucks big time......
Be Very Cautious and Train Smart
That 12th week is a very interesting one. Your mind is pumped to train because you are so amped up about the end of the program, those last couple workouts you will just be so motivated to train. I caution you tho.... BE SMART. I learned this the hard way. On the last heavy deadlift and bench day i was feeling so good. I was so amped to train that day. Deadlifts in my warm up were just flying up so fast, i was able to pull 300lbs in my warm up the fastest i ever have. My working sets also flew and by the time i got to the AMRAP i was so fired up. I destroyed that AMRAP and got 6 reps with 315lbs which was a rep PR for me. I should have stopped at 4-5 reps tho because little did i know i had injured my lower back/ upper glute. I was so fired up tho i did not notice it at the time and just felt great! Well the next day i had my heavy squat day and on the 3rd set in i had to quit the workout because i was in so much pain.... That deadlift session was the last one i have done since i tested on the next week. During the taper week i could not deadlift 135 without pain so i just laid off deadlifts all week so hopefully i could recover before my test day that Saturday. The lesson i learned in this experience is that at the end of an overreaching block your body is so much more prime for injury than in other parts of your training block. While my mind was so doped up on pre workout from the stimulants and such my body was trying to tell me that "ok Shawn yes you feel great today but remember i am primed for injury more than normal because you have been overreaching for 3 weeks now so please Shawn be smart" sadly when that AMRAP came around though i had ignored my body. So I'm not saying here to be scared to push yourself. In order to make progress overtime you have to take risks thats all part of the sport. But i am saying that in those last final weeks pay attention to the signs your body is giving you. If i would have paid attention i would have stopped at 4 or 5 reps on that AMRAP and then i would have been able to taper deadlifts properly instead of just not being able to do them completely and i would have been able to have a complete test day as well too.
Time To Taper and DAMN it feels good!
After pushing yourself for 4 weeks in that last block finally at last it is time to taper and back off some. The taper week is really awesome, these are the things i went through when i finally tapered.
- My normal positive attitude toward life came back!
If you know me i am a very positive person and i always am laughing at pretty much everything and making jokes on everything. While in the overreaching period tho i was a totally changed person... I did not notice it that much myself but those around me noticed i was down a lot more than usual and i was asked many times "shawn your being quiet today- whats up?" overtime this just got annoying and i really then did not feel like going out or talking to many people. During the taper week tho the 3rd day in i felt so changed and back to normal again! I started cracking more jokes at work and my normal goofy self came back! That just shows how much stress an overreaching block can put on you.
- My Creativity Came Back!
While during the overreaching block my right side of the brain just would not work properly, finally on the 2nd day of the taper week i started to notice i was thinking creatively again and i was finally able again to build some great graphics and was finally a guru graphic designer again ;)
- The Crazy Soreness Finally Went Away!
That last month of the program you will pretty much be sore all the time so get used to it for the time being. I thought since i had such a high frequency of the main lifts that overtime i would get less sore - well that is not the case as all, in fact there were some days that i just got out of bed and i had to stretch before i could even do anything for the day. The soreness is so deep in the muscle it is just painful. The funny thing tho is while training you don't notice the muscle soreness as much but when not training thats when you are just trashed and i must have told my self a million times during that phase "damn I'm trashed" Myofacial release and electric stim therapy became my best friends during this time. During the taper week about the 4th day in my muscle soreness pretty much was gone and i felt refreshed finally!
- My Normal Appetite Came Back!
So if you know me i eat a ton of food, i love food but at the same time I'm disciplined and i can track my macros and nutrition without problem.... That last month tho i did not care what my macros were tho i was so much more hungry than usual and even tho i ate more i was just always hungry. There were nights i was snacking on cold pizza while making dinner LOL Surprisingly tho my body fat did not go to much higher than normal tho so i succeeded there. The 2nd day of tapering tho my normal appetite came back and i was finally able to get back on my usual macros without problem. So don't be afraid to eat a little more than usual that last phase. I think eating more also helped me not get sick and stay healthy because in the past when overreaching i would find that i got sick very easily. So i think the more fatty foods helped me stay healthy.
- The 3rd Day In Muscle Fullness Really Was Showing Again!
So during that last overreaching week you will feel like crap, the weights will feel heavy, you will want to eat everything in sight, and also your body starts holding onto extra water as a stress response. You also have bad workouts a lot and your muscle fullness just feels flat. It really sucks and you start to think the program is no longer working. Have faith tho.... The taper week does exactly what it is supposed to do. The 3rd day in your body starts to relax and not hold onto so much water. Also that 3rd day your body starts getting its normal fullness back again and i noticed that 3rd night i was looking huge, leaner, and jacked! I woke up the next morning and the same thing then happened with my legs, my legs felt huge! It really showed me that you need a taper after overreaching to get things back in balance and actualize those gains.
THE FINAL TESTING
Squat at the start of the program 230lbs
Squat at the end of the program = 250lbs (up 20lbs)
Bench at the start of the program 160lbs
Bench at the end of the program = 170lbs (up 10lbs)
Deadlift at the start of the program 335lbs
Deadlift at the end of the program = Injured so i can't test right now
So if you watched the video you can see for what it is that i was real happy with how that went for the most part. Squats could not have felt better. After looking back at the video i had probably 20 more pounds in me. Very excited to see where my squat goes this next round since i changed to low bar and im loving it! Lets talk about bench... So as you can see bench did not go the greatest. my first attempt 160lbs went pretty good and it moved pretty fast. My second attemp was a screw up and you couldnt see why in the video but let me explain. During this test day i really noticed the importance of having a proper hand out on the bench. My 2nd attempt when i went to unrack it i could not get it off the rack and used a ton of strength to push it off. when i did get it off then i was out of position and felt weakened from my lift off and just couldn't get through it. The 3rd attemp i had to take 170lbs over again since i could not back down the weight so i took a 6 min rest then amped myself up so i had some extra adreniline and that time i got it off the rack with less effort but still too much effort and i had enough luckily in the longest grinder ever to lock that bitch out. I was so happy i hit that. Then it was time for deadlifts... OH WAIT im still injured and can't deadlift..... That was such a bummer because i was feeling so good that night and it sucked that after 12 weeks of intense training that i couldn't test but i made the decision after pulling 225lbs and agitating my pain in my lowerback/glute even more so i had to call it. Im glad i did call it because my issue came back then and it would have really been worse if i had continued to deadlift that night. Gonna just have to wait and see and keep trying to deadlift to try and slowly get it back.
My approach for the next round
Squat - Seriously this is my best lift right now for the most part and ever since i switched to low bar i have had so much more confidence and pretty much a total re-haul to squats. I am so amped to continue to get better and stronger at squats since this is the one lift that i always seem to make no matter the circumstances. My approach here is nothing really new, just trying to improve my overall set up, and execution of the lift over time. Bracing harder i guess would be a good goal to improve on this next round. One other thing is just get better at sets that are more than 5 reps. My old medium / higher bar position allowed me really well to execute higher rep sets but for low bar im struggling with anything past 5 reps so thats a goal to improve on. I'm gonna give it a month but if i cant get down higher reps in a low bar position then for my days where i have more than 5 reps i will do my old bar position but for 5 and lower i will switch to low bar but like i said the first thing i want to try is just focus on low bar as much as possible to see if i can improve higher rep sets with it as my body is a lot more prime for heavier weights with low bar. I just have to get used to higher reps tho while still staying in position through the sets and with my hip issues it makes it difficult but i will work on it.
Bench - Oh wow where do i begin here. Bench is no doubt my worst life even when i can't deadlift heavy its still my worst lift lol. Honestly i don't have any idea besides the obvious set up and execution of the lift for what to try and improve on. I have seriously tried everything with that lift and it still is so far behind my other lifts. I have tried upping frequency, volume, intensity, Practice form, set up and execution. In 12 weeks i was able to hit a 10lb pr so at least it is slowly going up. I might by a SlingShot from HowMuchYaBench.com and see if i can add that in the program somehow but right as of now I'm just going to continue to work on it and hopefully i can overtime get closer and closer to that goal of a 200lb bench.
Deadlift - Yea not even sure where to begin here. Before i was injured this was my best and most confident lift. My form on my deadlift is very good and I'm very happy with how they felt before i had injured myself. The plan as of now is to just put in the program calculator the same max as i had last round (335lbs) and just try to keep up with the program until I'm fully healed. Then my plan is to test during one of the mini de-load weeks and then put in my new max for the remainder of the program. Hoping i can sort this out within the first 4 weeks of the next round. If i cant stick with the weights that the program says I'm just going to equate for volume by using a lighter weight but for higher reps but still hit the same overall volume.
For example if the program called for
245lbs 2x7 that is 3,430lbs of volume
so if i could only deadlift 135lbs without getting pain then i could do
135lbs for 3x9 which gets me close with 3,645lbs of volume
obviously you won't gain the same amount of strength as working with a higher intensity but you can at least get the overall volume in for hypertrophy reasons. You could also even work up to 245lbs first for one rep then just back down to 135lbs and do the 3x9, that way you can get your body used to the intensity but not push it. Actually that seems like a great idea! (adding this in after i typed this - i was not even able to deadlift 245lbs and was just able to get 225lbs and that was painful but the 135 for 3x9 felt good so its gonna be a slow re-hab back to 300lbs.)
Hopefully tho i can get back to the regular program as fast as possible though.
One Thing i want to add in the program
- Conservative Maxing on the mini taper weeks (the weeks following the AMRAP tests)
This is one that i really want to incorporate. I learned on my test day that testing is a skill and to get better at a skill you need to practice it more often. Now I'm not a fan of testing all the time but it was a true wake up call when i tested this last weekend and i just was not used to handling that heavy of loads. Squat for example felt so heavy but after watching video i had way more in me. I want to practice working up with those heavy weights more often so i can get better at that so when i do test i actually have a better idea of what i actually am capable of. The problem tho is when to insert these conservative maxes in the program. After thinking hard about this i have decided the mini taper weeks (the weeks following the AMRAP test) are perfect and placing them on the heaviest days of the week would be most ideal. I would not recommend placing them on AMRAP days or days that consist of an AMRAP because conservative maxing will no doubt take away what you could have done if you didn't work up to that conservative max first. So i think if i do this then at the end when i have to test i will be so much more confident because i will have built that specific skill up rather than waiting a whole 12 weeks to practice that skill again and make the same mistakes again.
So for example i think weeks 5, 9, and then the 13th week all out test.
So during the program i will have hit those heavy loads at least 3 times. The conservative maxes will not be all out but only conservative, i just want to have heavy enough a weight that really puts me under that same stress that a test day would so it does not feel so foreign to me at the end of the program.
Final Thoughts
For me PH3 has shown me that this is the program you do when you don't have a lot of other time commitments and its the perfect program for when your in a surplus. So for me i have more goals of getting stronger and pursuing the journey to more strength so I'm doing this program again. PH3 is a program you can do as much as you want, all you do is just plug in your new numbers and it creates a brand new program for you with your new numbers and that will also up your volume because you will have put in higher numbers than before so you don't have to worry about calculating volume either! Its great! Some goals i have for this next 12 weeks are;
- Build more confidence with the low bar squat
- Completely transfer to a low bar squat
- Be able to set up faster on bench
- Focus on keeping feet still during the bench
- Improve my bracing on each lift
- Get my deadlift back
- Activate my glutes more in the sumo deadlift
- Activate my glutes more in the squat
My Strength Goals For The Next 12 Weeks Are
Squat - 285 - 295lbs
Bench - 180 - 185lbs
Deadlift - First Get it back to 330lbs within the first or second month then try and get it up to 365 - 375lbs by the end. I know i have it in me. If i was not injured i had the confidence of puling 365-375lbs on that last test day so those are not unrealistic goals for me... Thats if i can get it back to 300lbs pain free.....
The Final Phase Rating
So with all that said and factored in this last phase is getting a 7 out of 10 for me. Now remember this rating takes in everything from how fun the training is, how the routines flow, how your feeling, a little bit of body composition, and strength and overall programming. This phase got a lower rating because im going to be honest some days this last phase i wanted nothing to do with the gym because i was so burnt out. My social life suffered some. I was just not myself during that phase. I always felt beat up. But at the same time the taper week makes it all worth it. During the taper everything resets itself and you come back and slingshot back into feeling good again which is exacly whay Layne says will happen so thats why it then got pushed up into a 7 out of 10.
The Overall Program Rating
I haven't decided if I'm going to do a blog yet summarizing the whole program but in the mean time i will rate it so you have something to go off of. I'm giving this complete program a 9.5 out of 10. Yea you heard that right. I seriously loved this program and loved every aspect about it. Even as hard as the overreaching block was the overall program made up for the sucky periods with its other great times. I can see me using this program and my own SHDUPA program a lot in the near future. For me i see PH3 as the ultimate Strength Gaining System while still building plenty of muscle as well. and i see SHDUPA as my overall muscle gain hypertrophy stages while also having a good strength gain system or the program i could use for while cutting. SHDUPA can be used for both but with the progress i have seen from PH3 i really enjoy it and its nice only having to train 5 days a week. SHDUPA is originally programed for 6 days but can be modified to 4 or 5 days but SHDUPA is better in its original format. PH3 only has you training 5 days so its nice to not always be in the gym. Both Programs have there pros and cons and both are useful. I defiantly will never use PH3 to cut weight tho because i think i would die if i attempted that program in a deficit, hats off to anyone that has done that....... PH3 is great tho and its one of my favorite programs i have ever run. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!
Thats It Folks
So Hopefully with these 3 blogs i have covered the program in as much detail as i can. If you need to read my other phase reviews they are right here;
I recommend if you want to get strong and build muscle / confidence and overall skill to use this program. This is not a beginner program tho so if your only squatting once a week still, i would recommend doing Layne Nortons PHAT, or even my SHDUPA program before jumping into PH3. You need to be accustomed to first hitting the main lifts at least 2 times a week before jumping into PH3. If you have done PH3 please comment below what you thought of the program and what you got out of it. I want to hear from as many people as possible. PH3 is a game changer and its all free and can be found here. If you haven't tried this program yet and read all my phase reviews then what are you waiting for! This program is something everyone should go through as it teaches you so much. Huge shout out to Layne Norton and Bodybuilding.com for creating this amazing program. Till Next Time Guys...
Stay Strong,
Shawn Fausey
- Shawn Fausey is the Founder and CEO of Fausey's Fitness. With Over 6 years experience in Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Nutrition. Shawn offers services of online fitness coaching, programing and consulting. Shawn is also a Graphic Designer and can be reached for graphic services on www.rev-graphics.com
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