Well somehow I managed to make it through 9 weeks of training pretty much injured. My left VMO is a bit tight, and that's concerning because that's the one that I suffered a tear in a few years ago....at this meet. Wait, I feel like I'm going jinx myself. Nevermind that.
I feel like training went well, though honestly I feel like I could have programmed lighter (yes lighter) and kept more bar speed intact. I personally feel like at this point, grinding reps or singles is pretty much the kiss of death for training progress. I know some people will argue with that, but I'm just at the point where I don't care. I've had too much personal progress and too many guys now writing in that have destroyed previous plateaus by simply backing WAY off and not beating the shit out of themselves.
My heaviest squat for this cycle was 595 and a triple at 550, but I feel like I could have kept it at 565 and been fine. I guess we'll see come meet time. My heaviest pull was just 605 for 2 sets of doubles from a deficit. I was set to pull 630 the next week however I was very crispy at that point, and decided to forgo pulls. Again, we'll see how that goes.
Bench went really well. I hit everything I needed to hit the whole cycle fairly easy, although by the end my elbows and pec tendons were very inflamed.
It all still comes down to making weight (242 in case the 9,000th person asks me "what weight class?") and of course, how I feel on the day of the meet but overall I'd giving training a B+.
I have some ideas about how to program better next time, and that happens with both successful and unsuccessful cycles.
I'll be going over more stuff about this when I return from Chicago. I have begun writing on the Base Building book and NO I DO NOT HAVE A TIMETABLE FOR IT. Expect it to be quite large.
I'll try to post updates once I arrive in chi-town.
Go get'em big fella!!!!
ReplyDeletePaul, I know the Strong 15 is used to peak your strength, how long do you think that peak sticks around?
ReplyDeleteYou had mentioned you hit everything you needed to it, and it seems to be about 2 weeks out or so you mentioned that.
You should PEAK at the meet AFTER supercompensation sets in. In other words you sort of get crispy there at the end, then take the 10 days off more or less, then you compete.
DeleteIn terms of programming light, lets say i have 400lbs programmed for my next workout but when i start warming up everything feels heavy and it's probably going to end up a -10% day, or at least on the low end of 80%.
ReplyDeleteEven though i could definitely get my prescribed reps for the day with 400lbs (because i've programmed light all the way through), would it still be better to back it off to get a little bit more speed, or just do the workout as written and ride it out even though the reps will be slower and more "grindy"?
Basically i guess i'm asking whether you should kinda do the opposite of the strike the iron days and scale it back when you feel like ass, even though you could lift what you're supposed to.
If you can still hit everything you have programmed for and it's a bad day, then you programmed correctly. You should still be able to get in all of your prescribed sets and reps and weight even on bad days. However I do have a solution for that in hte base building book.
DeleteOkay, awesome. Still got the sets and reps i planned but was nowhere near as confident as the last time i should have been. Combination of bad sleep and not enough food prior to workout i think, ha.
DeleteBase building book sounds like it's going to be a big project if all the posts you've done on it are anything to go by. Lots of info to cover!
Paul, good luck on your competition day, may it be a +10% session
ReplyDeleteBest of luck.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. The work is done, now time for rest so you can kill it in competition! May you hit your goals.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteHave you ever documented your weight cutting procedure? Is there a guide as to how much water weight you can drop without affecting performance given I'd have to compete 2-3 hours after weighing in?
Steve.
this is my first time doing it. If you search on google for jamie's procedure it's pretty much the same.
ReplyDeleteGlad I looked that up at home and not in the office! Semi-naked chicks is one thing but there's no way I could have justified reading web pages featuring three on one hardcore action.
ReplyDelete