Increasing Strength

[BendtheBar]

Changes coming. Some notes:

--Rack Pulls. I am doing heavy low rack deadlifts 2 days before heavy floor pulls. On heavy floor pull day I feel completely destroyed. The rack deads are very heavy but doing a lot of good. I just need more rest after before pulling @ 90%.

I need to do racks on Monday, lighter doubles work on Wednesday and heavy 90% singles on Friday.

--OHPs. Time to drop rep work about 2-3 per set. I was sore and weak on close grip day and it hindered my efforts. I am going to try and keep OHPs to doubles or triples.

--Close Grip Inclines. Simply too hard for me to unrack. I believe I might simply work up to a heavy single based on how I feel that day and then drop back down for doubles and triples.

[BendtheBar]

6 Day Approach V2.0

• Day 1 – Bench (A Workout)
• Day 2 – Squat/Dead (A Workout)
• Day 3 – OHP/Bench (B Workout)
• Day 4 – Squat/Dead (B Workout)
• Day 5 – Bench (C Workout)
• Day 6 - Squat/Dead (C Workout)

Bench Workouts

Bench A Workout
Week 1

--Heavy Singles x 5 reps, same weight.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of triples.

Week 2

--Heavy Singles x 3 reps, same weight as week one, then 3 ramping singles with last rep as possible PR attempt.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of triples.

Bench B Workout
--Military Press 5 x 2 reps.
--One Arm Dumbbell Press…TBD

Bench C Workout

Week 1

--Close Grip Bench Press, 5 x 1
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of triples.

Week 2

--Close Grip Heavy Singles x 3 reps, same weight as week one, then 3 ramping singles with last rep as possible PR attempt.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.
--Drop weight, 3 sets of triples.

Squat/Deadlift Workouts

Squat/Deadlift A Workout
--Squat Singles x 5 reps, same weight.
--Rack Pulls, 5 x 1

Squat/Deadlift B Workout
--High Box Squats, 5 x 3
--Deadlift 5 x 2 - Moderate weight.

Squat/Deadlift A Workout
--Deadlifts x 5 reps, same weight.
--Squats with chains TBD

*Each bench/OHP session also includes a few sets of weighted situps and side bends.

[Pull14]

Some further readings on high frequency. Not so much Enderton's article but rather the links he provides below it. Obviously all on Bulgarian type training, had a collection of russian stuff to but lost the links... will post when I find.

Muscle Dog

[Fazc]

Reading through these links now, very interesting.

[Off Road]

It looks interesting BtB. I am not brave enough to try something like that. I'm glad their are pioneers in this world.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Off Road

It looks interesting BtB. I am not brave enough to try something like that. I'm glad their are pioneers in this world.

So far so good. After about rep 2 on most days I question my sanity.

[Fazc]

A minor change to my routine:

6 Day Approach V2.0

• Day 1 – Bench (A Workout)
• Day 2 – Squat/Dead (A Workout)
• Day 3 – Bench (B Workout)
• Day 4 – Squat/Dead (B Workout)
• Day 5 – Bench (C Workout)
• Day 6 - Squat/Dead (C Workout)

Bench Workouts

Bench A Workout

Shirted Bench Press
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Bench B Workout

CGBP with Bands
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Bench C Workout

Bench Press
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Squat/Deadlift Workouts

Squat/Deadlift A Workout

Squat
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Partial Deadlift
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Squat/Deadlift B Workout

High Box Squat
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Trap Bar Deadlift
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Squat/Deadlift C Workout

Sumo Deadlift
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

Partial Squat
--Work upto a max single, aiming for a PR
--Drop weight, 3 sets of doubles.

1 Week Heavy, 1 Week Light - This will emphasise my own way of training, it's very difficult for me to moderate my training. I will generally go for and get PRs whenever I lift heavy, daily maxes don't work well for me. However I do need to moderate that so 1 week where I go all out seems to work. I also don't feel I get as much from the second week, it seems to be more about surviving than anything else.

The Light week will entail working upto 70% and no back offs. For sessions A and C and not B, so I'll only train 4 days per week then. Probably a slightly lower calorie intake as well.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Fazc

I also don't feel I get as much from the second week, it seems to be more about surviving than anything else.

This is how I am starting to feel. By week 2 my lats are so fatigued that deadlift workouts are nearly a wash.

My squats seem better capable of handling the volume but I have been wasting time on box squats when I feel a light squat day would be more beneficial.

One note I would mention to anyone considering this method...start slow. You will learn a lot during the first 6 weeks. I feel I may have been better off first adding a second deadlift day for a while and slowly building it from a lighter day to a moderate day.

Going real heavy has really paid off, but I moved from square A to square C in some aspects, skipping an intermediary stage. This sounds worse than it is, of course. I could continue to run the program as is, but I simply don't feel my deadlift workouts during week 2 are giving me much.

I welcome all thoughts, of course.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

This is how I am starting to feel. By week 2 my lats are so fatigued that deadlift workouts are nearly a wash.

Right, I was the same way during the last block. My last session was a wash. It was actually the reason I switched to the max single + back offs in an attempt to lessen the workload. Didn't work!

My squats seem better capable of handling the volume but I have been wasting time on box squats when I feel a light squat day would be more beneficial.

Right, well if you're doing just a 1 week cycle, then you do have the option of squatting twice in that period rather than just once with one other variation. For example:

Day 1: Squat

Day 2: Chain Squat

Day 3: (Light perhaps) Squat, Partial Squat

One note I would mention to anyone considering this method...start slow. You will learn a lot during the first 6 weeks. I feel I may have been better off first adding a second deadlift day for a while and slowly building it from a lighter day to a moderate day.

Yes indeed, the last time I was doing this 2 week On, 1 week Off schedule I was doing a 4 way split as I detailed in the Raw Powerlifting thread. This is considerably less stressful than what we are attempting.

Going real heavy has really paid off, but I moved from square A to square C in some aspects, skipping an intermediary stage. This sounds worse than it is, of course. I could continue to run the program as is, but I simply don't feel my deadlift workouts during week 2 are giving me much.

Yes absolutely it certainly is working we can be happy about that. But there's nothing to stop us refining the process for what we're currently doing.

[Pull14]

I like Fazc's heavy week - light week approach with ya guys going balls outs as opposed to working with daily max type stuff. Fazc, will some kind of deload follow week 2 as previously done or will you restart the short cycle? Just taking a guess... 70% with no back offs may be good enough?

Steve, as always, I second your suggestion of starting conservatively. Start with 3-4 heavy session, slowly add light sessions and build up from there. Body is capable of performing great amounts of work... just gotta give it time to adjust.