Good luck Dwayne!

Joe, if you cant I will.

Bring it on Dwayne - you are going to do great. Looking forward to watching and learning!!

"Deload" Part 1

I needed to deload because this weekend was a lot of traveling and bag carrying which leaves me stiff and unrecovered. Sleep sucked not being in my own bed. Also the last three workouts have been pushing me to the limit without an easy one in there. I made the executive decision to go easy tonight and also on Wednesday night...because I need to be ready for Friday's workout at GSBB. I also made the executive decision tonight that no matter how bad I felt, it had been too long since I deadlifted. So tonight I put the deadlifts in and now I can continue with the reset of that movement.

Squats: only warmups: bar/5 135/5 225/5 275/3 315/2 365/1
Bench: warms, 310/5* PR (was going to do all three sets but stuck with the decision to let shoulders and elbows rest a bit more)
Deadlifts: warms,(135/5, 225/5 315/3, 405/1), 465/5..next up 475 again but I will go to every other week deadlfting alternating with barbell rows or dare I say it, power cleans (need to get speed training back in here)

My hands were hurting a lot after the deadlifts. That's what happens when you don't do it often enough. The hands get "soft". Looking forward to hardening them back up.

I'll get another deload on Wednesday but a much lighter deload workout...so I should be ready by Friday to really put in work!



-- Edited by winflex on Tuesday 6th of April 2010 10:13:37 AM

Sure Chris....but you know you just opened a huge can of worms.

The method I used starting @ the end of November last year up till last Friday is called the "Novice Linear Progression". In this case, the definition of novice isn't related to the number of years training or age of the trainee or how much a the trainee can lift or anything that most people usually relate with the word "novice." This definition of "novice" is purely based upon speed of adaptation within the framework of the training structure of the progression.

The progression is based of off full body movements with barbells and the workout structre is simple---SQUAT, A PRESS, A PULL or accessory movement three times a week. Squats are trained with 3 sets of 5 on the worksets. Presses are trained with the same reps/sets. Deadlifts are trained with 1 set of 5...and accessories are trained as seen fit--usually higher reps with lighter weights.

Within this framework, a "novice" under proper nutritional fueling should be able to add at least 5 lbs to the bar on squats, 1-3 lbs to the bar on pressing exercises, and 10 lbs to the bar on deadlifts per workout. Deadlifts are usually trained once per week but can be trained less or more frequently depending on the recovery of the trainee.

The key to starting the progression is using a weight you know you will be able to complete and not to max out right from the get go. I started the squat progression with 185X5X3 and progressed all the way up to 400X4, 405X2, and 415X1X2. When I started I knew that 225X5X5 was really hard for me so I started with 185 because I knew I could do it and I knew it would get hard soon enough. My max at the time was 375 and I thought it would get hard around 315...but I surprised myself and it started getting hard at 365, where I got injured and had to step back a lot and let it heal. I tweaked the program so that I was doing only two jumps a week with a recovery day in the middle of the week and I was able to progress into the 400's.

I knew I was nearing the end of the progression when I would miss a weight in one workout and then get it the next and then it would just keep going like that.

I think all strength athletes (including bodybuilders) should go through a novice linear progression to maximize their strength and so they can progress at the fastest possible rate. A lot of people are still "novices" under this definition and would benefit from the fast gains that they have not yet capitalized on. Mine only lasted 4 months which means I was pretty close to done with novice stage when I started but some novice stages can last up to 9-10 months depending on factors such as age, nutritional status, genetics, etc.

The closer you are to your genetic potential the shorter your novice stage will be. At first I thought I would be done in 10 weeks but it kept going and in some ways it still is.

Once novice is over, you become intermediate. I think I'm still somewhere between the two because I can still progress like a novice but could also benefit from intermediate training at this point considering I have a meet coming up.

Intermediate means you cannot put more weight on the bar on a twice or thrice a week basis...but you can add weight to the bar once a week. Most people don't get past the intermediate stage unless they are hell bent on becoming the world's strongest man...and a lot of those guys are so genetically gifted and performance enhanced that they are either progressing as novices or intermediates still. Usually intermediates have figured out what they want to train for...a lot of people figure out what they want to train for in the novice stage even...but intermediates definitely know and they gear their training toward that.

Intermediate training can still be full body functional and doesn't need to go to bodybuilding split unless preferred. It is usually still more efficient to go full body functional to get the most hormonal response.

Overtraining is easier as an intermediate which is something that I've been dealing with. All of a sudden you are a lot stronger but your body needs time to get used to this. When you are stronger it is a whole lot easier to do too much work and that can hamper progression based schemes. When progression is the onus, the key is to do just enough work for progress to continue. When progression halts, that means overtraining occurred and a back off period is needed to get progression back on board. This is usually called a deload.

Its best to deload within the same rep/set scheme used in training because of the specifity of rep ranges and the adaptations they produce. Basically if you've been training with 5's, then a 20 reps set is not going to cause recovery. It also helps to stay relatively close to the weight you were using previously. This keeps the strength up. So usually I stay within 10% of the heaviest weight completed on the progression during a deload and 20% on a recovery day. If you squat 400 and want to squat 500, it doesn't help to squat 225 except for on a warm up. So a deload could be anywhere from 315 to 365...which is what I did yesterday and will do tomorrow. I also kept my reps at or below the normal 3 sets of 5. Yesterday I did just 1 rep. Wednesday I'll do 2 sets of 5. How do I decide what I'm doing? Instinct...but I do know that the next step is to get 400X5X3 and then 405X5X3 and so on...but just instead of doing it in the same week, it may take two weeks instead since I'm quasi intermediate.

Speed work...Ever wonder how Olympic lifters are able to fling such heavy weights over their heads. Its speed. They are also very jacked too. They are very strong but strength alone doesn't get the bar up. Inertia..a bar in motion stays in motion---if its moving fast enough. When it comes to squatting speed work with chains and bands helps a lot because it trains your body to push more at the end because the weight gets heavier as you reach lockout. Friday I'm going to do speed work this week at GSBB. It will help up my max quite a bit since I'm a slow squatter right now. Speed work is definitely for intermediate level training and not novice training because novice training is all about getting closer to your genetic potential as fast as possible, becoming efficient with lifting, and growing. Intermediate level training inches you closer and closer to it by investigating the attributes that need more work.  This is not just limited to weak bodyparts.  Attributes that need more work could be speed of movement, consistency of movement, endurance of movement, flexibility in the movement, etc.  Thinking in terms of how the body is moving will do more for a movement, than thinking in terms of the bodyparts involved.  In a nutshell, they take care of themselves in the end.

Right now, I'm slow.  I gotta get fast!
Fast and strong always looks better than slow and strong.

the2ndoak wrote:

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Good luck Dwayne!

Joe, if you cant I will.

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I'd like to go....if I can get to a bus or train station or something can you pick me up?

Here's a pic of me taking 365 to the basement in my warmups last Friday at GSBB:

-- Edited by winflex on Wednesday 7th of April 2010 11:45:26 PM

-- Edited by winflex on Wednesday 7th of April 2010 11:46:38 PM

-- Edited by winflex on Monday 12th of April 2010 05:00:31 PM

Thanks Dave...big squats tomorrow!

Dwayne- 

It is awesome reading the type of planning, and the execution of your plan - you are truly motivating and it is so cool to watch you get to where you want to be. All I have to do to get myself motivated is to look at someone's journal like yours - great job and your gonna kill the powerlifting meet.

On a side note, I used to own a gym and we had a group of 6 or so that were serious powerlifters and competed. We had a female that had a world record - she deadlifted I think 517 or so at the weight of 165??  Anyway, her and her husband were the previous owners of the gym and they stayed and worked out for a year or two until they moved and unfortunately, we had to close the gym due to competition in the area. Powerlifters are CRAZY people - LOL!!

winflex wrote:

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Mike, I can only imagine what her posterior chain looked like with that crazy deadlift! Probably was a primal thing of beauty.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Mike. I just have to put in the work and HOPEFULLY reap the benefits.

The nice thing is this. Its my first meet so the my self-pressure is really low. I'm only squatting, I'm not cutting weight, and I have nothing to compare it too; so, it will be my baseline. All I can shoot for are PR's and things should go that way as long as I don't make some serious mistakes which having a coach can help me avoid.

In Supertraining, it says that competition maxes usually exceed training maxes due to the heightened excitatory state of the nervous system. So, I'm pretty confident I'll hit a PR since I'm not doing anything crazy.

Most of all, I just want to have fun....which i think will be taken care of since I'll be with the GSBB crew!

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"Most of all, I just want to have fun" - GREAT LINE! It is something that I had forgotten about bb and one of the main reasons that I am not going to compete as a pro. I ended up putting so much pressure on myself thinking about a pro show that I think I took all the fun out of it. Once I came back, I decided that I simply wanted to compete at the amateur level and I think my attitude is completely changing and I am having fun with it again.

Regardless of what happens, put in your best effort and have fun with it!

Great stuff and great motivation! 

Nice squats Dwayne! Hey.....since you train late a really relaxing thing to do for you may be to take a bath, it will help to calm you down. :)

winflex wrote:

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Volume Squats
Feeling might creaky today and didn't sleep well last night. So I decided to do the soft tissue stuff first today.


405X1 (failed on second rep...and decided that 5 sets of 3 wasn't going to happen tonight)
315X7 (to make up for the ~2000 lb load that was supposed to be done with the remaining 5 reps scheduled on the 5X3 with 405)

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this....looks like a job for....ALL IN 1!!!!!!

Nice squat numbers Dwayne. There's always tomorrow.

 

Chris, I definitely have All in One in my PWO arsenal.

Thanks Dave.

Press PR day (Strict standing overhead press)

Warm ups:
barX5X2 sets
95X5
135X2
155X1
185X1
205X1
Work set:
215X3-PR (would have probably gotten more had I not taken the 205 warm up set)
drop 

-- Edited by winflex on Thursday 15th of April 2010 09:30:44 PM

Dwayne - sounds like fun!! Great numbers - sounds like a tough routine!!