High Bar Belted Squat: 305lbs x5 reps x3 sets
Thick Bar Pendlay Rows: 205lbs (minus thickbar weight) x5 reps x3 sets
45 degree hyper: 20lbs x8 reps x2 sets, 20lbs x13reps
Plate Pinches: 4 5kg plates x5sec, x8ish sec x2 sets
Pull-ups w/thumbless grip: bdw x8 reps x3 sets
cable rotator cuff work
Insight from bench day, keep your head off the bench or your neck will hurt because its tendency to push against the bench.
Squat was hard. The first sets were easy, the last two were deadly. It might be because I went for a 90 min walk the night before, but I had eaten a good 1000kcal of pasta to make up for it. It turns out (thanks to my training partner) that I have really bad squat form. I was going as deep as I could go, which is like an oly squat but without oly shoes, but was tail tucking like crazy as well as GMing the weight up. I lifted four times in seven days, and I think that was a bit of a mistake. I'm going to deload this week or at least for four or five days. I'm going up to 310lbs to see if the 305lbs was a bad session, but I will focus on my form, mainly keeping a tight upper and lower back as well as keeping my chest up.
The rows were great, nice and easy. I found that here too my form was lacking in that my back was not arched. I admit I had gotten lazy arching, a big no no. So I arched hard (which turned out to be a barely acceptable arch) during the rest of the sets. Grip was barely taxed by the thick bar, definitely going up weight next time.
I usually do the oly lifts as a 'screw it its fun' assistance, but this time I did real assistance in the form of the hypers. They were alright. Don't know what else to say.
Pull ups were actually hard. I do +50lbs on chin-ups and I can barely do a 3x8 on pull-ups. I'm glad I've started doing these again because I felt a pain in my right forearm which I'm concluding means I'm weak in that area.
Plate pinches were great. Next time I'll focus on adding more time, I added in a back off set of 3 5kg plates for 30sec. Lots of chalk used.
I keep thinking of doing a four day split instead, because I'm not really doing extra work outs or anything, but I think I'll stay with the 3 day. I might have to start increasing the resting time on squats to 5min and see how that goes, we'll see after the 310lbs.
I had remarked how maybe my deload would be going to the gym for neural purposes (keep the skill of squatting and pressing). Well, I've come up with a counterargument. Its somewhat broscience but here it is: the type IIa (or maybe IIb?) fibers are the ones that change to either fast or slow twitch, and during strength training they convert to slow twitch because you are spending time training (or some other reason). The point is a do nothing deload week turns these back to the fight or flight response of fast twitch because of detraining. So if you do nothing, you get a little more fast twitch, but you sacrifice motor patterns during your deload. Which one is better? I don't know, we'll see over time.
Monday, September 6, 2010
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ok, here's the jackass version of my response (which I'll be honest was my initial reaction, completely independent of the fact that Aaron is a very cool guy): broscience = horsecrap.
ReplyDeleteHere's the slightly more mature version, powerlifting motor patterns are much less susceptible to change than things like swinging a baseball bat or olympic lifts. Taking a week off will make no difference whatsoever in the long run. Maybe you're rusty the first week back, maybe not. There's no science (however made up it may be) behind it, its purely personal preference. Try a do nothing deload, if you don't like it, next time try something different.
As for type IIa or type XXVIIIe type muscle fibers, who cares as long as you get stronger?
leave that kind of theorizing to the frat guy doing 720 lb 3 inch lockout squats.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm willing to bet that I know less about the scientific basis of training than most of you guys, but I really don't think it's necessary when considering whether or not to deload. If you think you need to deload, which should be determined by your overall fatigue and motivation levels as well as your performance, then deload. Fiber types have nothing to do with it unless you have some way of measuring your own.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to get into the science, I'd suggest reading this e-book: http://www.ampedtraining.com/products, then hunting around its bibiography. Ignore the bros and do it right...
Oh, and if you haven't read Starting Strength or Practical Programming yet, read them.
ReplyDeleteI think, Frank, Aaron is more concerned with HOW he should deload, rather than whether he should.
ReplyDeleteMuscle fiber type (I, IIa or IIb) is irrelevant, as training dictates how/which are formed and where, NOT the other way around.
I'm also 99% sure that measuring how much of each one possesses is impossible, certainly impossible to someone without access to state of the art body composition testing equipment.
Actually, I'm not really concerned at all. These are just notes to think about. My conclusion was that I'd try both and see what works. Lowering the weight or not lifting at all.
ReplyDeleteShanker, what I was trying to say was that training actually makes the IIa turn slow twitch, and during a do nothing week, it turns back to fast twitch which is why some people can lift more. I'm not saying its true, I forgot where I read it, I'm just saying it might be true and there might be a difference. I fully agree that it doesn't matter one bit, but if I write it down I can get it off my mind and I can think about stuff other than training.
Hey, then do what works. Just know that we're gonna call you on it if it doesn't seem right. I expect the same thing for my posts, it's why we have this thing.
ReplyDelete