Duration: 12 weeks, 3x weekly, MWF
Training Goals: FS 5x120-125kg/135-140kg max @ BW of 75kg
BP 6x90kg / 105kg max
OHP 5x65kg.
Front squats120kg for 5 at the minimum. My best fiver is 110kg but i've done 4x116kg. So that's a big ask but may be doable with smarter training. Perhaps it's possible to go as far as 5x125kg. Very ambitious yes but there are a few differences from what i've done in the past. I've usually split up squatting half-half FS:BS training whereas now i'm FS only, at least until my right hip flexor is fully healed. The other thing is i'm not training for basketball this time. So that frees up recovery that will go towards progressing front squat. I have to believe that when I had a 6x117.5kg/140kg max HBBS that I was much stronger than I am now that i'm not backsquatting. Still. Specialising on FS might make up for that. It remains to be seen how far I can go with just FS alone though.
The problem i've had in the past is when I did a lot of volume with FS, my knees didn't enjoy that too much. With mediumish volume my knees are happy and never complain. So i'll have to watch that the volume isn't too much but I can't progress without sufficient volume either so i'll have to get the balance just right.
While not backsquatting, i might try doing GMs for assistance. Not saying I need them. But it's worth a shot, if it doesn't help then i'll drop them. Also thinking I should give RDLs another shot, if for no other reason than to keep a pull in my training so when I eventually incorporate Olympic lifting for athleticism i wont be too weak at pulling.
I'll freestyle and experiment the first 2 weeks. And then based on the feedback I receive from my body and performance i'll go with that for the remaining 10wks. I have a good idea how i'll structure it though.
I want to rep 115kg for 5 first w/ stimulants and also without. So i'll rep it for 4 first. Which i've done already in the past w/ stimulants but I need to get back there again. So i'll only do it say Mondays or fridays. But I need regular PRs too and they're all sweet, whether 1-5 reps. So on fridays I will probably attempt a 2nd one for 1-4 reps after attempting the 5. And then wednesdays workouts, I haven't decided what I need to do there. I think in the past I have erred there thinking more when I should have been thinking less is better. That will be an important change.
That's the rough plan for now, will make it concrete after seeing how it goes after the first 2 wks.
Summary Mondays: No stimulants, at most 1 heavy PR set w/o stimulants (w/ milestone weight 3-5x115kg/120kg/125kg etc), followed by mid-high volume (25-30 reps @ 80-85%)
Weds: No stimulants, low-mid volume (15-20 reps), low intensity (80%), no heavy PRs.
Fridays: Stimulants, upto 2 sets heavy PRs (1-5 reps per set, 90+%) and then mid volume (total of 15-20 reps @ 80-85%)
BP & OHP6x90kg /105kg max would be amazing. I think if I keep up the pressing i'll def get there, esp with recent technique improvements. Really excited about this more than anything else. Bench PRs are so sparse for me, i can't even remember the last time I got one.
OHP was going really well before pec injury. I had reached 3x65kg and 5x60.5kg. Not sure where I am at right now. But will rebuild back and strive for 5x65kg. That should put be awfully close to having a BW press which will be sick.
Other areas I feel as though I should be sprinting at least 1x a week. Not too crazy but just enough to keep my body familar with the movement. Same with jumping and basketball. I have often neglected maintaining skills while focusing on strength training, this time around i'll avoid that. Maybe 1-2x go down to shoot hoops and practice moves. Even if it's only 10 mins or so.
Assistance exercises: As much as I can without intefering with BP progrss, i should look to add back chinups for some ab work. Also try the wheel. It's a shit exercise i know but better than nothing. Maybe crunches as well. Wednesday might be a good day for these exotic exercises.Assistance exercises for arms, legs, back and core go on wednesday and fridays. Basketball drills (pick 3 good ones and get practice them hard) + and skill work 1-2x a week, after workouts.
Also read this post of gary's recently.
2013-04-16
You're probably doing it wrong.
That's the impression I'm left with after each corrective session. There are so many things that I've done wrong over the years that have led to weaknesses, compensation and injury that I can't imagine that anyone consistently gets it right.
I've said before that the best athletes are those whose bodies have a knack for doing things more right than the rest of us do. So they survive the longest and can go the furthest in terms of strength, speed and skill. The rest of us...I wonder if we should ever do anything physically challenging (barbells, running, jumping, etc) without the close eye of an expert staff.
This may seem extreme, but blame modern life. Seems that it makes us extremely dysfunctional. Shoes too early in childhood can lead to weak feet that will lead to ankle, knee and back problems later if one runs or lifts hard. Never squatting beyond early childhood, not even to defecate, will lead to weaknesses and compensations and injury should one decide to squat later. If I'd spent my entire life from early childhood running and jumping and climbing, I wouldn't have to be doing this corrective treatment now.
But how many of us decide to become badasses only later in life, after a childhood and adolescence and early adulthood getting weaker in crucial areas? And then start to load aggressively and get stronger in the faulty patterns established by a lifetime of letting key muscles get weaker? Then we start to compensate and continue to load so that we get very, very strong in the wrong pattern. Then we get plateau and keep getting injured.
My knees just keep on getting better rapidly. The treatment is erasing the old contraction patterns so that my joints aren't getting beat up by everything I do. So they can finally heal. And they are healing very rapidly. I have a range of motion and ease of movement in my knees that I haven't seen in years. All that persistent inflammation is being flushed out.
The sessions, however, are getting brutally hard...and not a little demoralizing. Basically I do a few sets of five sits with increasing amounts of current. And in each session the last set or two pushes me to new heights. The idea is that when I'm "fixed", I'll have no problem doing the movement properly even under the highest current. But I'm not "fixed" yet. I get able to handle more current with each session, but that is only because Chad takes me to my limits each session. This is way harder and more intimidating than going for new maxes in the squat.
Higher levels bring pain in the "hot spots", especially as one approaches key joint angles. I get to the point where just standing still causes a lot of discomfort and bending the knees feels like I'm bending them while they are being crushed by cars while someone is trying to hammer an icepick through my kneecaps. Yes, it really hurts that much. I have to approach new levels by bending just an inch or two at first. It does get easier immediately because the body immediately starts to adapt because of the current causing so many hundreds of contractions with the new recruitment patterns. The hot spots literally start to melt away with the first rep or two. But overcoming the initial pain of the first rep at higher levels takes a lot of psyching up for me. Over time, levels of current that used to be painful become a breeze to move through. That's a sign that progress is occurring.
It's very interesting. As I get better at moving correctly under the load of the current, my muscles act on my joint better and allow the healing to occur, like I mentioned above. So to get through the pain, I tell myself that I am resolving all the pain and frustration my knee problems have been causing me for years. I have to go to my "happy place" because relaxation is vital. Breath-holding and tension are also compensations that mask a lack of strength in the proper places.
So, progress continues. But there is so much to fix and so much to keep in mind to prevent relapse that the thought of squatting or jumping or running or lifting seems pointless. The current is just a tool to enhance the speed of recovery caused by engaging the right patterns. Other movements include wall sits, iso lunges and one-legged deadlifts and squats...but these have to be done precisely, engaging the proper muscles at the proper times. It is very frustrating and very exhausting. Like I mentioned before, the owner of my gym is a very buff, athletic looking guy who is spending all his time just correcting stuff with this protocol, so much that he doesn't even lift anymore. I think I'm getting to that point too.
Some of us just weren't meant to be athletes, especially those of us who spent crucial years not keeping the body free of dysfunction.
http://www.pendlayforum.com/showthread.php?p=76291#post76291
This is so me. But right now i can't put all my goals aside to focus on corrective training. I should eventually. I promise to start at least though. I started with a 22" standing vertical and i've come a long way since then pushing it into the 30"s. I want to believe I will push that up over 36" for no reason other than thinking my best is yet to come and i've only scratched the surface of my potential.
Injury status Interestingly since ceasing backsquatting, paused squatting, aconsciously avoiding failure and front squatting out of the rack instead of into it, my R hip flexor is now magically fine. As in 99.99% good. Amazing how quickly that's happened. My pec is also now fully healed, I benched heavy friday painfree and im fine today on sunday. So i'm very close to full recovery. Awesome!!
So i've taken all the feedback into consideration. Only using stimulants + heavy weights 1x a week. Only. The rest of the time i'm going to live on a diet of volume with 80-85% without significant CNS stress.
