Tuesday: Squat, Reverse Band Deadlift, Oly Squat, Ab Rollout
Thursday: Bench, Military Press, Barbell Row, Dumbbell Incline Bench
Saturday: Speed Squat, Deadlift, Squat, Ab Pulldown
Sunday: Reverse Band Bench, Close-Grip Bench, Pullups, Dips
Exercises in plain text are cyclic according to the progression below. Exercises in italics are assistance and will be done 4x8.
Volume 1: 5x5 (77%)
Volume 2: 6x4 (80%)
Volume 3: 6x3 (80%)
Intensity 1: 3x3 (90%)
Intensity 2: 4x2 (90%)
Intensity 3: Singles
Explanation of the few changes I made:
- Reverse band deadlifts instead of power cleans: I need to work my weakness. I may also consider replacing this with pulls from mid-shin/slightly below the knee. I'll probably still do some power cleans as deadlift warmup.
- More regular squats instead of front squats: Front squats did nothing for me, and I could use the slot to get in more work on plain old squatting.
I think exercise selection looks fine.
ReplyDeleteDo you still feel like you are significantly under-performing your 1RM estimates (based on 5RM/volume) with your actual 1RM? It seems like this is so.
In that case, I would change the format of the volume block to give you some heavy-ish work. I would work in some speed sets in the second week, followed by working up to 90% as RTS proscribes, or alternately 6x2 @9. You also seem to be low-balling the intensity estimates for the volume block. (See my RTS notes.)
You might also consider switching from a volume-ish 3x3 to start your intensity block to a 5x1 @9 protocol, and have the third volume block be quite stressful, doing 6x4 @10 or something.
ReplyDeleteYou would need to experiment with it, but this kind of thing can help you peak appropriately in the final intensity week.
I wonder what would happen if you did 8x8, 6x6, and 6x3 in weeks 1-3?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in regard to your program, you are doing alot of pressing. Why so much?
ReplyDelete@Nathan: Yes, that's a big problem I have. All of my rep work predicts maxes that are above my actual maxes (except for my deadlift). I also have to admit that I still don't really know how to properly peak. For my prior meets, I've usually just taken it up to the second week of intensity and rested the last week.
ReplyDeleteI'm low-balling most of my percentages because I guess I'm overcompensating for high-balling (so to speak) them from before. You make a good point that I could incorporate more 95% reps in my training, since I never go above 90% unless I'm actually maxing.
I'm not sure if additional speed work will help though since I'm already doing speed squats and reverse band lifts. I'm been toying with the idea of replacing speed squats with reverse band squatting, but my problem is coming out of the hole, so I'm not sure if it'll help much.
In light of this, I'm thinking of trying the following:
Volume 1 (M): 5x5 @ 80%
Volume 2 (M): 6x4 @ ~82%
Volume 3 (M): 6x3 @ 85%
Intensity 1 (M): Singles @ 95%
Intensity 2 (H): 4x2 @ 95%
Intensity 3 (H): Max
Thoughts?
@Garrett: 8x8/6x6 might be a bit much, and I've never seen such high volume in any legit powerlifting program, though I'm less well read than some others on this blog, so I could be wrong. 8x8/6x6 would be good for hypertrophy, though, but that's what assistance @ 4x8 is for.
As for pressing, it's actually pretty balanced if you consider that squatting and deadlifting use a lot of the same muscles, so I'm really splitting my time about half and half between upper and lower body movements. Plus, my pressing sucks, and I need to work on it.
Are you strict with those percentages, or do you actually adjust weights according to RPE, as RTS instructs? (I'm a newbie so I'm trying to learn more from someone who's actually been using the program.)
ReplyDeleteI'll probably be pretty strict with the percentages. I'm not really doing RTS as such, since I haven't moved past the first two chapters. I've taken tidbits from later chapters like monitoring weekly intensity, but that's about it. This is mainly because I dislike thinking too much during lifting. I'd much rather know what I intend to do when going into the gym and do it.
ReplyDeleteWhich means that "RTS" might not be the best program for me. Still, even the first two chapters make for a pretty decent program, IMO.
That seems like an improvement, but what I was going for was having two waves of "stress" through the block. Essentially (in terms of stress):
ReplyDelete1 - medium
2 - light (speed with intensity, but low volume)
3 - heavy
4 - light (again, high intensity)
5 - medium
6 - heavy
This way you stagger the stress through the training block, and it *could* help with peaking.
It seemed like your original plan was very linear with increasing the stress, which doesn't usually produce optimal results. I would still favor finishing the volume week with some fairly high-stress lifts, before starting relatively easy with singles in the intensity week. (First week of intensity should NOT be maxing!! Make sure you aren't going to fail these!!)
The idea for speed work was some way to incorporate some high-intensity lifts during the volume phase, because I think you need more work adapting yourself to them. What I suggested would get you lifting 95%-ish every two weeks. Doing these with speed work is a good way to not to overdo the volume. This part is less important in my mind, so do what you want.
Overall, I think the stress in your program is still a little to linear. I would look for some way to break it into two waves of three weeks.
Hm. Right now, the stress levels from 11/10 post are probably more M+/M-/M+/H-/H/H+, intensity levels are fairly linear straight up, and volume levels are fairly linear straight down (except for a further down-blip at week 4), so I see what you mean. Still, I think I'm going to stick with this for now (don't want to change too many variables) and maybe further increase the differences between "waves" in one of my next cycles.
ReplyDelete