Back Squat
5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 5x185, 5x225, 3x275, 3x315, 1x365, 1x395
1x420
1x440 (PR + 15)
Fx455
Bench Press
5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x185, 3x225, 1x255
1x280
1x300 (PR + 5)
Fx310
Deadlift (kg)
5x70, 5x120, 3x160, 1x200, 1x230
1x260
1x280 (PR + 5)
Fx290
My gym total is 440 + 300 + 616 = 1356, which +45 over my previous best. That puts me comfortably in CMS (Candidate for Master of Sport, 1328) territory, but I'm still quite a distance away from Elite (1396). I'm pretty sure I'll hit it within the next year.
For the next cycle, I'll stick pretty closely to the RTS template without futzing around with it too much, as I did this time around. The blocks will look something like this:
Volume 1: 5x5 @ 9 (77%)
Volume 2: 6x4 @ 9 (80%)
Volume 3: 6x3 @ 8 (80%)
Intensity 1: 3x3 @ 10 (90%)
Intensity 2: 4x2 @ 9 (90%)
Intensity 3: Singles @ 10 (100%+)
Deload
Note that Intensity 3 will be an actual full training week as opposed to the "test week" that I did this time around. This cycle's test week was mainly because I wanted to win $10 from Nate. I ended up losing anyway. Boo.
Percentages will be based off of the averages of Intensity 1 and Intensity 3 from this cycle, so my working maxes will be something like 455, 305, and 620 (and 205 for pressing). Based on those weights, all of the working sets seem very doable, maybe even too light, but I have a tendency to go too heavy anyway, so maybe the decrease in intensity will be good for me.
Each week will look something like this:
Tuesday, Squat: Squat, Deficit Deadlift, (Some Squat Assistance), Abs
Thursday, Bench: Bench, Press, Row, Dumbbell Bench
Saturday, Deadlift: Pause Squat, Deadlift, Front Squat, Abs
Sunday, Lockout: Reverse Band Bench, Close-Grip Bench, Pullups, Dips
Bolded exercises are cyclic (i.e. follow Volume/Intensity). Non-bolded exercises are assistance for 5x5 or 4x8.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Awesome job Frank. How long does each block last? A week?
ReplyDeleteGood job today, Frank.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that you drop the pause squats to work on an exercise to help your rebound. Maybe olympic squats or plan speed squats. Feel free to ignore if you think that pause squats are particularly helpful.
I don't feel strongly about this next one ... but have you considered some kind of board press instead of close-grip? Your lockout needs a lot of help. Alternately, you could replace presses, but that seems less sensible to me.
plan speed squats = plain speed squats
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the $10.
@JC: Thanks! There was a stray "s" there. The "block" I was referring to was the whole cycle (7 weeks). I'm actually not sure if I'm using the right terminology, but I think you get my point :).
ReplyDelete@Nate: I'm not particularly attached to pause squats. Oly squats would work well as squat assistance on Tuesdays. Speed squats actually seem like a pretty good idea for Saturdays though. I will consider it. What weight would you suggest for those? The RTS suggestion of 75% seems a bit heavy. I was thinking more 50-60%, followed by 2x90%.
I really dislike board presses because I can't seem to get the right bar path, and they always seem to destroy my elbows. I might give them a shot after my sleeves get here.
Yeah, and screw you. I'll get that $10 back soon enough.
Speed squats -- whatever feels fast, keep the speed up always.
ReplyDeleteBoard presses -- good point, I wouldn't push it even with elbow sleeves. Keep the elbows healthy.
@JC: Egads, I was just skimming through the RTS manual and realized that I was wrong about the blocks thing. A "cycle" (full 7 weeks) is made of a volume "block" and an intensity "block" (each 3 weeks). There we go. No need to be loosey goosey with terminology.
ReplyDeleteLol, thanks Frank!
ReplyDelete-- Congrats on the PRs on all lifts!!! I think that it's worth analyzing what happened on the failed attempts. These are a great opportunity to detect weak points, if there are any :)
ReplyDelete-- It's could be interesting to check with Nate if he is willing to take the same bet for the next training cycle.
-- Your plan looks very good (in my opinion). I slightly changed the intensity block structure in the last cycle and had reasonable success, but it's personal preferences more than anything.
-- I've also started working with %s instead of relying only on RPEs, mainly because:
(1) There is very little variability in my strength levels (great days and bad days are very rare).
(2) I'm not good at estimating RPEs.
Thanks Danny. I wasn't really paying attention to my own lifts, but Nate said that I need to work on my speed out of the hole for squats and my lockout for bench. We're going to do the same bet at some point, though maybe not this cycle. I also just realized that the best I can ever do is make back my $10 unless we change the bet targets.
ReplyDeleteFor much the same reasons as you, I've decided to use %s to determine weights, but RPEs to determine how well any particular workout did. Out of curiosity, what did you do to the intensity block for your last cycle?
Nice Frank!
ReplyDeleteThe last intensity block was more or less ...
ReplyDelete-- Went heavy only in the first lift of each workout, and in the second did volume (3x5).
-- Week 1: doubles @ 90% @ ~9-9.5
-- Week 2: max triples in SQ and DL, max single in BP.
-- Week 3: max singles in SQ and DL, max triple in BP.
The main reasons for this are ...
-- 3 weeks of maxing on everything was too much for me, so now the first week is easier.
-- For some reason, max triples in SQ and DL killed my ability to rep weights beyond 85%, but I still felt strong for singles.
-- In BP, I recover much faster from maximal lifts.
Thanks Aaron!
ReplyDelete@Danny: Interesting. I like your idea of doing volume for the non-core lifts. After all, I'm not competing in a pause squat/close-grip bench/deficit deadlift meet. I'll still stick with what I have for this cycle, but may try that the next time around.
Another version I tried was ...
ReplyDelete(1) two max effort workouts and two volume workouts per week.
(2) in max effort, intensity in two lifts.
You can think of this as TM split into upper and lower workouts, and without the recovery stuff because we're not pussies :) This didn't work very well for me, but the reason could be anecdotal. Anyway, these are not suggestions, just a couple of options to have in mind if you don't like (or won't like in the future) the current plan.